Long Nguyen

Applications and Games on iPhone

The App Store is the greatest improvement on the iPhone. Nobody can argue that point, because that is the gate through which the best improvements will be found, jailbreaking aside. Since it’s opening, the App Store keeps growing with many more applications, or “apps”, everyday, most of them are $10 or less and 25% of them are completely free. Some people even say that the iPhone is better than the Nintendo DS and the PSP. There are also those who show more modesty by only claiming that the iPhone isn’t better yet, but will be.

The App Store is very simple to use, but as the number of applications increases, it will become rather difficult to browse through them. That problem can already be felt in categories like Entertainment an Games where there are 328 and 213 apps, respectively. All these apps are also the reason why Apple will have to greatly improve on the battery life, which I believe should be the first priority.

This is simply short list of some great apps and games.

Bomberman Touch
I am a big fan of Bomberman, so naturally, I had to buy this game. It uses the touchscreen to move and control some special items. Otherwises, it’s pretty straighfoward just like the games on the consoles.

Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D
This driving game reminds me of Mario Kart, except this is for the iPhone and the device is the steering wheel. It’s a lot of fun.

Cro-Mag Rally
This is another racing game very much like the previous one, that brings a lot of fun. The game also make the phone vibrate, although I don’t know why.

Enigmo
I am addicted to this puzzle game in which the goal is simply to fill some jars of water. There are various objects available and you have to use them to direct the liquid.

Facebook
This application is a simple as it can get. In fact, it’s so simple that you can’t even write on somebody’s wall. However, you can very easily post photos, view profiles, see your inbox and chat with your friends.

iMaze
This is simply a maze like what you would find on paper, except you have to use the accelerometer to solve the maze.

JirboBreak
Known as many names, this is the game in which you have a paddle and a ball, and the goal is to break all the blocks above. It’s a classic.

midomi
Sing, hum, grab or type a song and this application will find it. I sung ‘A la la la la long’ for only 6 seconds and it found the correct song, Sweat by Inner Circle.

Remote
Remote has become the remote for my TV and my computer. It lets me control Apple TV and iTunes in the same fashion I would if I was clicking with a mouse.

RotaryDialer
This one is quite useless, but I only got for kicks. People find it amusing.

RubyRepeat
This memory is incredibly boring in the beginning, but as it goes on, it gets frustrating, because you start to forget the sequence that must be repeated at every turn.

Shazam
This one is like midomi, but I have never been to get results out of it.

ShoZu
This application lets you view feeds from dozens of websites including Flickr, Twitter and Facebook among many others. You can even update those websites such sending photos to Flickr and Facebook, and updating your status on Twitter. A little exploration showed me that it’s also possible to comment on photos on Flickr.

These applications and games are available through the App Store and I am sure there are many more to come that will take advantage of the iPhone features.

One of the complaints about the iPhone has been the unability to use it like a flash drive to store files easily. FileMagnet is an application that can solve that, but you have to use Mac Leopard and a desktop application is required in addition to the iPhone app. At the end of the month, there will be another solution which seems more elegant, because it allows the iPhone to be mounted as if it were an external hard drive.

Other improvements to the App Store is likely to be an application that will make use of the GPS to give turn by turn navigation.

There are many things to look forward to on the iPhone.