The ad begins with showing a classroom with “Make a film with iPad” written on a blackboard and then goes on to show students preparing and shooting their video projects. Apple’s latest ad features voiceover by Martin Scorsese. Mr. Scorsese is regarded as one of the most significant and influential filmmakers in cinema history.

“Make a film with iPad” features excerpts from Martin Scorsese’s commencement speech to the NYU Tisch School of the Arts Class of 2014.

In addition to posting the new tv ad Apple has also posted videos of students of Los Angeles County High School, featured in the ad, sharing their inspiration and concept behind their video project.

As a disclosure Apple shared that the company provided iPads to the students for the purpose of creating their movies. The students used the iPad to write, produce, shoot, score, and edit their films.

The ad also highlights the apps and accessories the students used during the making of the video. The apps shown in the video include: Final Draft Writer, FiLMiC Pro, GarageBand, and VideoGrade. The students also used the Apogee MiC (available from Apple’s online store) to record high-fidelity dialogues.

Apple’s iOS tv ads have almost always focused on what you can accomplish with the devices rather than talking about the hardware specifications. This contrasts with its competitors ad campaigns that boast about camera megapixels, RAM and processors.

What do you think about Apple’s new iPad tv ad? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Apple’s App Store is about to hit yet another milestone as the company has updated its website with a countdown to 50 billion downloads. Apple will also be giving away US$ 10,000 App Store Gift Card to the user who downloads the 50 billionth app. The next 50 users who download apps from the App Store could win $500 App Store Gift Cards.

No purchase is necessary in order to be a part of this giveaway. All users in supported countries are automatically entered as they download free or paid apps. Additionally, you can also visit the official promotion page here to fill out a form (limited to 25 entries per person per day) and enter the giveaway.

In January this year Apple announced the App Store had crossed 40 billion downloads and has added another 10 billion in just under 5 months.

The App Store today offers some of the best apps and games created for smartphones and tablets. It changed the way people thought about apps on a mobile device and continues to revolutionise what we can accomplish with them.

Even as the App Store is about to hit 50 billion downloads it’s worth remembering that Steve Jobs was opposed to the idea of having third party apps on the App Store as he was concerned “his team did not have the bandwidth to figure out all the complexities that would be involved in policing third-party app developers.”

Today Apple continues to dominate the mobile app market with high quality of apps available in the App Store and the amount of revenue developers generate from it.

Apple has launched new TV ad campaigns, focusing on the App Store and the range of apps offered for iOS devices. On Sunday, Apple aired two new TV ads for its iPad and iPad mini, called ‘Alive’ and ‘Together’, highlighting the over 300,000 apps available for the device. The ads, both of which had a similar theme, showed a number of words flashing across the screen, stopping at a few to describe the device.

At the same time, applications from the App Store were in use on the iPad including AmpliTube, Style.com, GarageBand, TED, iMovie, iBooks, Dinosaur Zoo, Toca Hair Salon, Vimeo, Rockmate, Glow Hockey 2 HD, and FaceTime.The ads arrive after Apple launched a billboard campaign with a similar theme, and seem to accompany the billboards posted along many highways and train stations in major metropolitan areas.

Apple’s latest ad campaign appears to show a range of applications from gaming and reading, to built in features such as FaceTime. In a 9to5Mac report about the new Apple ad, the site posted a tweet from one of its users, which noted that the hands using the device in the new ads change depending on the type of app. At one point, a baby appears to be using one of the word identification applications in the ad, “Together”.

Apple’s ad campaigns have been highly successful in the past, particularly those introduced for the iPad mini following its release. Apple has always been focused on the usability of a device instead of the device’s technology since the introduction of the original iPad in 2010. However, the company appears to be refocusing its ads on the applications available for the device, which has also played a large part in the iPad’s success.

{Via MacRumors}

Instapaper creator, Marco Arment posted on his site that his own app crashed after installing, which led him to believe that there was another issue.

Twitter was the first place that many users went to complain and within hours, it became apparent that it wasn’t an issue with a specific app but with the App Store as a whole.

Arment’s post also mentioned that he believed that the corrupt update was being distributed across many regions and as a result, was affecting a number of apps and users. Some users also took to Twitter to complain that other apps such as Angry Birds Space were crashing as well. Marco Arment pinpointed some of the issues that the App Store was presenting with the corrupt downloads, and formed the following list:

• The app crashes immediately on launch, every time, even after a delete and reinstall as long as the corrupt file is being served by the App Store.
• It doesn’t even show the Default.png before crashing. Just a split-second of a partial fade to black, then back to Springboard.
• It may only affect customers in some regions.
• If updating from iTunes, some customers might get a dialog citing error 8324 or 8326.
• Mac apps might show this dialog:
• “[App] is damaged and can’t be opened. Delete [App] and download it again from the App Store.”
• The console might show:AppleFairplayTextCrypterSession::fairplayOpen() failed, error -42110

Hundreds of others apps were affected, including, but not all, MeetUp, Threadnote, RedShift, as well as a number of Mac Apps. Apple has not yet commented on what caused the issue, or issued a fix for the corrupted app downloads.

Apple was quick to respond to users complaint on its support forums and after identifying the issue fixed the bug causing the crash. The company also deleted all reviews of the “current version” since the error was caused due to Apple’s server.

{via Marco.org}

Apple now has over 300,000 apps in the iOS App Store and over 100,000 in the Mac App Store. It’s almost impossible to fathom just how successful both App Stores have been and how much more potential it has, to become even a bigger part of our everyday lives.

Late last week, Apple introduced a new promotion in both the Mac App Store and the iOS App Store, called Free App of the Week as well as Editor’s Choice. The Free App of the Week is self explanatory based on the name and builds on Apple’s past app giveaways via retail outlets such as Starbucks which began to offer select apps and even iBooks every week via promotional codes.

This week’s Free App of the Week is the normally priced 99 cents, Cut The Rope: Experiments app which is currently posted on the front page of the iTunes App Store. Apple has also added Editor’s Choice, with certain apps gettting a separate distinction than others in the App Store and posted to the front page alongside the Free App of the Week. These apps are likely judged on their usability, development, and popularity.

For this past week, the chosen apps were Deus X Human Revolution and Cobook in the Mac App Store. The iOS App Store’s Editor’s Choice apps were Extreme Skater and as expected, Facebook Camera. Apple continues to build on its App Store for both iOS products and the Mac and gives developers all of the spotlight.

This latest promotional addition will give app developers a chance to showcase the hard work and effort that they put into developing credible and fun apps for Apple’s App Store.

{via: TUAW — Image Credit: Arstechnica}

Apple purchased San-Francisco start-up, Chomp, in February in order to utilize its App Search service for their own App Store. However, Chomp retained its app search service for Android users, until late last week. Apple likely decided to pull support for Android in order to minimize the usage of the website and focus it on iOS applications. Chomp also has the possibility of being integrated into iTunes, so that the service can access the data directly from the application, as opposed to users going to the Chomp website.

Apple has surpassed 25 billion app downloads from the App Store, making it one of the most successful applications stores out there. Chomp would allow Apple to organize all of its applications, and let users find them more easily and efficiently. Searching for apps in the iTunes App Store can be quite the task, with limitations on sections of apps, and type of apps.

Chomp was purchased by Apple for $50 million, a substantial amount of money, when considering that Chomp would be integrated into Apple’s ecosystem and would become one of the many features in its operations.

As of right now, Apple has not released any plans as to what they intend to do with Chomp, but the Cupertino company has made it clear that they are no longer supporting Android.

{Image Credit – TUAW}

The holiday season sends iOS Developers scrambling each year in order to finish up their apps for submission before Apple stops accepting new submissions for the year. However, over the last three years, its become obvious that during this time, app developers experience much higher sales. This could be due to one of two things, either people are downloading more of the old apps because there is less to choose from during this time or because of Apple’s App Gifting service, accessible directly through the App Store.

During this time, popular game devlopers such as Gameloft and EA push out as many apps as they can to flood the market, in order to increase the number of downloads. EA and Gameloft apps often show up under the featured list, claiming #1 and #2 spots, and even App of the Week on many occasions.

Camera+[App Store] developer’s TapTapTap revealed their download numbers with MacRumors early Thursday, describing a significant increase in sales. Camera+ moved up and down the list between 4-8 and settled at position #8 in the Top 200 list during the holiday freeze. Camera+ typically experiences about 18,000 downloads on any given day, but jumped to over 73,808 sales on Christmas day.

Camera+ sells for $0.99 in the App Store, which means that after Apple’s 30% cut, TapTapTap received $51,665 in revenue only for the day of Christmas. That’s a significant increase, but not surprising considering the number of iPod Touches, iPhones, and iTunes gift cards being activated and given as presents on Christmas. The App Store is the basis for numerous success stories, about small developers making a hit with their apps and becoming millionaires overnight, some making anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 dollars in one day.

The new update, bringing the IMDB app up to version 2.1, adds a new ‘Watchlist’ feature which allows movie fans to keep tabs on movies they might want to go and see as well as TV shows. The magic comes in the form of trailers, which thanks to the magic of iOS 4.3 and the Apple TV 2, users can now watch on their big screen TV.

Video quality on my 40-inch LCD was more than satisfactory though unfortunately not in high definition. Audio was stereo only.

Other improvements to the app include the ability to purchase cinema tickets and and improved show time listings.

The IMDB app is free and available from the Apple App Store.

Market research form IHS has been taking a look at the way the mobile software market is shaping up, and Apple is the clear leader with nearly 83% of the market share. What does 83% get you? A whopping $1.78 billion! That’s a lot of apps!

Second in the chart is BlackBerry’s App World, with just 7.7 and of the market with a worth of $165 million. As AppleInsider reports, while RIM’s store is home to a much smaller library of apps the prices are considerably higher, which obviously means less apps need to be sold to make the big bucks.

By contrast, Google’s Android finds itself all the way down in fourth with only 4.7% of the market share. It’s no secret that the Android Market is dominated by free apps, with users of the OS tending to be much less likely to buy apps than their iOS counterparts.

Considering the number of Android devices out in the wild these days it’s no surprise Google is unhappy about the low number of paid apps users are downloading.

]]> https://touchreviews.net/ios-dominates-mobile-software-market-sales/feed/ 2 https://touchreviews.net/jawbone-icon-iphone-best-bluetooth-headset/ https://touchreviews.net/jawbone-icon-iphone-best-bluetooth-headset/#comments Sat, 05 Feb 2011 20:35:40 +0000 https://touchreviews.net/?p=14130 Read More]]>

Jawbone Icon (Hero) [rating: 5/5]

I used to laugh along with the comedians as they would make jokes at the men and women who would walk the streets, shops and even around their own homes with bluetooth headsets permanently poking out from their ear. I could never be like that, or so I thought…

The first thing that impressed me with the Jawbone Icon was it’s great packaging, just like Apple, Jawbone have pushed out all the stops in ensuring that not only does the bluetooth headset look great on display in it’s plastic case atop the packaging but that all the accessories including multiple ear pieces, charger, sync cable and manuals are all beautifully encased in the box below.

I was falling in love with this device even before I’d started using it!

The bluetooth headset itself is compact, sleek and perfectly formed and the multiple ear pieces ensure that you get the best fit possible straight out of the box, in fact it’s the most secure and comfortable blue-tooth device I’ve ever worn.

There are two physical buttons, an on/off switch on the rear of the device and a multi-purpose button on the top that is used for handling calls, volume control and other actions depending on which app you install on your blue-tooth device.

Pairing the device was easy too, although before that I did something that I’d never done with a blue-tooth headset before and that was to connect it to my computer with the sync cable so that not only could I charge it but also make sure it had the latest version of the software installed.

The apps that you get to install via the online synchronization include the simple choice of the voice used that talks to you, to the more complex apps that will read sms, email and other app information to you as you use Jawbone Icon. These more complex apps usually cost you although most come with free trials.

Even without the additional apps though the device works flawlessly. I’ve been using mine with my iPhone 4, a phone not known for it’s great blue-tooth functionality, and yet jumping from a voice call to listening to a podcast has been great.

Another nice touch on the iPhone is the addition of an on screen icon that displays the battery life of the Jawbone Icon which is a very nice. Not that battery life has been of any concern at the moment even when listening to hours of podcasts on my headset as I do.

The Jawbone Icon comes in a range of 6 designs and is available in the Touch Reviews Accessories Store for $79.95 which is $20 cheaper than Apple’s own online store and if you are on the lookout for your first, or a new bluetooth device you can’t go wrong with the Jawbone Icon for iPhone.

Pros

• Sleek & Stylish Looks
• Easy to setup and use
• Multiple voices and apps

Cons

• A new permanent fixture to my ear!

Gallery (Click image to enlarge)

July 10th 2008 saw the launch of the iOS App Store and the sales numbers have been stellar ever since. The next milestone to arrive will be the 10 billionth download, and Apple will be celebrating by giving the lucky downloader a $10,000 App Store gift card.

Let’s just think about that 10 billion number for a minute. It’s taken the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch just 2 and a half years to reach that incredible number, but now there’s a new kid on the block in the guise of the Mac App Store. If Apple choose to combine the sales numbers for both stores, one can only imagine how quickly we’ll be seeing the 20 billionth app be downloaded!

Now, I’m off to download some apps – I want that gift card!

The Holy Grail of App marketing is still getting featured on Apple’s own App Store. All new products get a few days in the marketing sunshine that is the “New and Noteworthy” section of iTunes. And once that period is over your app’s sales can sink like a rather heavy stone in a deep dark pool, no matter how good or bad your product is. And that is primarily because you are then lost in a rather archaic search engine with another 250,000+ products all competing for attention.

On the other hand you can be deemed by Apple (or Android, or Ovi) to have put enough polish and “technical excellence” into your product that they may ask you to spruce up a few things and get ready to be featured in the App Store.

Waze has today released some figures for their cross platform traffic related social networking app which shows the relative effect that being featured in the Android, Apple or Ovi stores has had on their number of users. Waze describes itself as providing “Real-time maps and traffic information based on the wisdom of the crowd”. So it’s kind of like Foursquare for drivers!

There are a few things that we can glean from Waze’s figures:

Firstly their app is free, which has a massive bearing on the number of downloads they will receive. It’s also well presented and in vogue as its a social networking product.

Being featured on any of the App Stores results in a marked increase in app sales, or user registrations. We are talking about increases in the thousands of users, or unit sales.

Being featured on Apple’s App Store results in a larger percentage increase in sales than any other App Store. Not that surprising when you consider how many more customers Apple’s App Store attracts on a daily basis. And how many devices they sell each and every day globally. But an increase of over 200% when compared to just over 100% for the Android or Ovi App Stores is still a big difference.

There are of course other ways to succeed with your app. Like great marketing, or producing a product which simply captures enough people’s imagination to make it a break out success in its own right. Or you can receive great reviews from sites like Touch Reviews. But being featured by Apple is certainly still one of the most rewarding and potentially lucrative avenues for developers.

Whilst being featured in one of the other App Stores is not as potentially rewarding as being on Apple’s featured list, it is certainly not to be sniffed at. And right now may be a slightly more attainable target for some developers.

In some ways being featured in any App Store is a little bit of a chicken and egg situation. You are only likely to get featured if you are considered to have a quality product and you are already experiencing good sales.

So putting the figures, as interesting as they are, to one side for a moment the moral of this story is still, and always will be, to produce the best product, presented as professionally as you possibly can, and market the hell out of it!

Do you buy Apps based on recommendations from Apple, Ovi or Android Stores? Or rely on other methods to make your purchasing decisions? Like our reviews? Let us know in the comments…

In another surprise move today Apple has published what it calls a “living document” which attempts to clarify the current App Store Approval guidelines.

The document is available for all registered developers to read and is written in a chatty human friendly way. The majority of the guidelines are common sense, and most developers should really find that they probably knew these rules already. But is nice to have them clarified.

In essence : Apps need to be bug free, not crash, porn is not allowed, scams are not allowed and so on and so forth. And Apple are very aware that a lot of kids use the App Store, and they aim to protect them. Pointing out that often parental controls are not enabled on devices unless the kids parents do so. So Apple will be going the extra mile to police things its end. Fair enough.

There are some slightly open guidelines where Apple state that they may reject an app even if they consider there are simply too many apps of that kind in the App Store. This is a little too open to abuse, or misinterpretation by overzealous App Store Gnomes, in my opinion. But hopefully Apple will apply these rules reasonably, or review them moving forward. It would be hell to be the last guy in line with a new iPhone 4 LED Flashlight app and be rejected for that reason alone!

The following guideline we found particularly ironic, give the recent news we reported on of Apple’s head App Store Gnome (Mr. Shoemaker) having his own apps in the App Store which are all about questionable bodily functions..

“We have over 250,000 apps in the App Store. We don’t need any more Fart apps. If your app doesn’t do something useful or provide some form of lasting entertainment, it may not be accepted.”

Shoemaker undoubtedly had a hand in writing this document. I wonder if he is imaginative enough to see the irony in that clause. I do hope so, for all developers sakes.

Overall the document is friendly and also provides a good baseline so that developers starting a new project can at least steer clear of some of the major App Store “No No”s forearmed with this clear info.

The guidelines are subject to change though, as Apple makes clear with its “living document” explanation.

Ultimately if a developer is not happy with an App Store rejection Apple suggest that they don’t “run to the press” and mouth off. But rather, they suggest appeal to the App Store Review Board. Means for appealing are provided as a portal for developers on Apple’s Developer web site.

Is this face of a new Apple App Store? Or just more PR? Have your say in the comments…

Meanwhile Apple’s own iTunes App Store now boasts close to 250,000 Apps currently in its storefront, and has had some 300,000 different Apps pass through it during its lifetime. The 50,000 differential is for Apps that have either been pulled by their own authors, or removed by Apple.

Is 250,000 Apps and 100 Million users impressive to you? Or is it simply too many apps and too many people? Are you one of the millions that uses Facebook on your iPhone? Let us know your views in the comments…

Check out the new ad:

The app, called Vonage Mobile for Facebook, connects with facebook using Facebook Connect and then displays a list of all of your friends. The friend list is grouped into two groups, those who have the app installed on their iPhone and those who do not. For the users who do not have the app installed, you are able to chat with them using a SMS like user interface. The real power of this app, however, is for friends who do have the app installed.

Friends who have the app installed on their iPhone can be called without using their airtime minutes or incurring additional charges (data charges not withstanding). To call, simply choose the friend to call and the app will make the call. If your friend does not have the app running, they will get a notification that they have a call waiting for them and when they view the notification, the app will start and ring. The App emulates the iPhone’s phone app user interface and even supports bluetooth audio.

In my initial testing of the app, the call quality was very good (if not perfect at times). I was able to hold lengthy conversations without experiencing any drop offs. It remains to be seen whether or not this app will be able to survive against the likes of Skype, Fring, and the several other providers of VOIP calling including Vonage’s other apps themselves which provide some of the same functionalities. When Vonage will be releasing the same type of app for the Android, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile platforms, this app will allow for easy, VOIP communication using a social platform that many are already using as a contact list.

Vonage has hinted that there is going to be an iPad app coming soon (the name of the current app has the words iPhone and iPod in the title.) Hopefully, the app will also be updated to support background running (such as Skype) which would make it more user friendly and streamlined.

Overall, this is a great solution for those who do not want to maintain yet another contact list and require yet another set of invites and acceptances. For those who have never used the likes of Skype and Fring, but are active Facebook users, this app will be a welcomed option. To make this app infrastructure complete, Vonage should release a facebook app that can accept calls via a browser. Only time will tell how far Vonage will take this app and its infrastructure.

Vonage Mobile for Facebook – iPhone and iPod touch [App Store] ]]> https://touchreviews.net/vonage-lets-call-facebook-friends-free/feed/ 0 https://touchreviews.net/meet-people-barcards-iphone-game-review/ https://touchreviews.net/meet-people-barcards-iphone-game-review/#comments Sun, 23 May 2010 14:34:33 +0000 https://touchreviews.net/?p=6785 Read More]]> BarCards [rating: 1.5/5]

BarCards claim is that playing this with friends in a bar will help you meet new people and even make the break through and get that telephone number from the boy or girl that your interested in.

Now I’ve heard many tall claims from iPhone/iPod touch apps before but this one is pretty impressive, so how does it work?

Well firstly you need a group of people so if, like me, you aren’t going out to bars on the pull then this app isn’t for you, however, if you are then lets say you have a group of four. So you can enter you and your 3 friends name into the player list.

Once you’ve entered in everyone’s named you get to set some overall settings for the game. Each round can consist of a maximum of 3 cards spilt between either easy or medium difficulty. You also need to set the time limit for how long you’ll get to perform any given task.

Once the settings have been completed you are ready to start the game and each player will be randomly matched up with another player who will be the person buying them a drink should they win the game.

So now the game begins. Flip the card and you’ll be given a task such as ‘Get someone to do the “Running Man” dance’ and the clock will start ticking. At this point you should be working your way through the bar, or where ever you are, to find someone to complete the task for you.

It’s up to you and your team to decide on how you decide on the success or failure of the task but which ever you achieve you can click success or failure on your iDevice to get it recorded.

At this point the iDevice is handed to the next person and the process is repeated.

That’s as simple as the game gets and the app is that simple to. There’s no history tracking of players successes and failures, there’s no ability to take pictures or video’s to record players attempts in fact all the app offers in real terms is a pack of cards with random tasks on them.

If you are the sort of person that finds going up to people in bars easy you probably don’t need this app to help you and if you don’t like doing it then getting you to get someone to sing a Brittany Spears song is going to help.

It’s not a particularly great looking app either and if you are pulling your iPhone/iPod Touch out in a bar the last thing you want to do is be using an app that doesn’t look cool either.

I’ll be the first to admit that I am not this apps target audience but even so 1.5 out of 5 is still erring on the generous side!

Pros

• At 99c what have you got to lose?

Cons

• Doesn’t add anything to existing bar game
• No history tracking
• No multi-media options

Price: $0.99 (iTunes Store)
Category: Games
Released: May 07, 2010
Reviewed Version: 1.0
Size: 3.8 MB
Language: English
Seller: Garrett Heath
© Garrett Heath
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later.

The strong demand in US for Apple’s iPad might have delayed its launch internationally but that sure didn’t keep hardcore Apple fans from buying one of the hottest selling devices. A recent report published on MacRumors quoted results reported by Yahoo! which highlighted some interesting information about iPad users.

During the measurement period, the iPad has only been available for purchase in the U.S. market; however, we observe approximately 10% of IP traffic coming from Europe and Asia Pacific. Specifically, the U.K., France, and Germany are the top countries in Europe, and Taiwan and Hong Kong make up the most traffic in Asia Pacific.

If you are not in US and have an iPad then there is some good news for you! Apple has launched international iPad App Stores ahead of its availability in UK, Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Italy, Germany, Spain and Switzerland. It has also has been reported that iPad App Store is now accessible even in countries where the launch has not been announced yet.

Earlier this month Apple confirmed that iPad will roll out in 9 more countries. The iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK on Friday, May 28.

From their discussions with top grossing iPad developers, and some obsessive watching of the App Store placings of the three apps that make up the iWork suite (Pages, Numbers and Keynote). Business Insider has managed to work out some rough daily sales figures, and extrapolate from there.

The figures make interesting reading for those interested in where they should be aiming for stellar sales, regardless of your interest in Apple’s fortunes.

Basically a top ten app for the iPad, in the iTunes App Store should get about 7,500 downloads on each day of the weekend. And 2,500 downloads each week day. Or thereabouts. Those figures in themselves are interesting. It seems that online sales of apps follow the ingrained habit we have for hitting the Mall, virtual or otherwise, on days off.

In total, for the whole week, that makes around 27,500 downloads.

Even with one app, at $1.99 that would be a healthy sum. But for Apple that’s for three apps, each priced at a premium of $10. Which subsequently makes $825,000 per week in revenue for them.

Business Insider have made a few assumptions about all apps in the top ten selling at the same volume, but at that level of sales what’s a thousand here or there anyway, right?

Spread that out over a year, and not even allowing for a potential explosion of iPad sales globally, that puts Apple on track for over $40 Million in sales for iWork on the iPad alone.

Do you think Apple will make more or less from iWork this year? Do spreadsheets still sound boring to you? Let us know in the comments.

Twitterena+ Pro [rating: 4/5]

If you haven’t heard of Twitter you must be living under a rock or somewhere even more desolate, isolated and cut off from the modern world! But presuming that you have heard of Twitter and that you have an iPhone or iPod Touch then you have probably noticed that there are an avalanche of Twitter apps for you to choose from. A lot of these apps are free while some ask for your hard earned cash in exchange for there wares and one of those is Twitterena+ Professional Edition, the older brother of its 99c version Twitterena. So what does the extra $3 get you?

twitterena+ professional edition unique features

✔ Facebook integration
✔ multiple account support
✔ custom tweeting background
✔ quick watch users
✔ easy profile location update
✔ priority customer support

Over and above the $1 version you’ll also get to customize your background, the ability to update your profile location and priority customer support (which I’ve never needed) but to be honest the big additional features are Facebook integration and multiple account support which are both integrated very well.

At any point when you are Tweeting you can sign in to your Facebook account and choose either to Tweet and update your Facebook status one Tweet at a time or fix your Facebook settings so that every update will go to both Twitter and Facebook. As a user of both platforms having the ability to update both at the same time is worth the money alone.

Multiple accounts by adding and then switching between them, so if you are expecting to be able to tweet from multiple accounts at the same time or see a stream of multiple accounts you won’t get what you’re looking for.

The basics are all covered well. If you want to send a quick Tweet that is easily accessed via Tweet button in the top left corner of the screen. From the Tweet page you can add any of your saved photo’s via TwitPic, and a location via GPS or you can easily access your ‘Tweeps’, (a list of all your Twitter friends), to include them in your Tweet.

Across the bottom of the screen are quick access links to your Tweets, Mentions, Messages, Favorites and Search. All are handled in the standard way with the ability to drill through to links and other included Twitterers at the tap of a button. The full Twitter experience is completed by the ability to Search both by keyword and location and the ability to see the current Twitter trends too.

There is a lot to unwrap in this Twitter app and you clearly get a lot of bang for your buck including themes and customizations which is always a good addition to any app. You can also control how you are alerted to new Tweets, the size of the text, background image and the frequency of refreshes. One of the nicest things however though is the ability to use Twitterena+ Pro Edition either vertically or horizontally making Tweeting even simpler thanks to the larger keyboard.

If you’re not a power user of Twitter, one of the less fully featured apps will probably suffice, but if you are looking for the full Twitter experience then you should definitely give Twitterena+ Pro Edition a look.

Price $3.99

The Good

• Facebook Integration
• Horizontal Keyboard Support
• Customization Options

The Not So Good

• In app badges don’t update until you switch screens.
• No Push support
  
• No support for video uploading for iPhone 3GS
  

Reviewed By: Craig Willis

Win Free Apps

Retweet this post and leave a comment to win twitterena+ Pro Edition Promo Codes.

Twitterena+ Pro Edition Screenshots

Hottest Girls was recently pulled from the App Store for serving questionable content from a server though the app when approved was Rated 17+ for “frequent/intense sexual content or nudity” and “frequent/intense mature/suggestive theme.”

Latest app to serve Porn on App Store (currently available) is .folder – saved photos at secret folder developed by Ryota Namiki. This simple little application gives you a private space on your device to keep photos away from prying eyes should you happen to leave your iPod touch unattended or let someone play with your iPhone.

The app features a “Recommend” option which takes you to a photo viewing User Interface with a refresh option on the top right. According to the app description it pulls images from various websites but as far as I can tell it pulls 5 images with every refresh from 4u.straightline.jp

After refreshing a few times our reviewer reported some highly questionable content. To to say the least, featuring pictures of Japanese women and girls in various situations and stages of undress. You will also find pictures of girls topless or in suggestible poses such as up skirt or naked, covered in as little as possible.

According to Apple, iPhone OS 3.0 gives more control to parents and let them decide what music, videos, and apps their kids can access. But with apps like .folder – saved photos at secret folder serving Topless images being Rated 4+ on App Store, Apple’s review process is seriously concerning.

This app is still available on App Store ($.99) and was updated yesterday, it will be interesting to see how Apple will react to this!

We will update this post as soon as we get any reactions.

.folder – saved photos at secret folder Screenshots (censored)

Photos removed due to violation of adsense policies.

Posted by: TylerDurdan

Touch Reviews compared the loading screens of 6 Popular/Best Twitter Apps to find out which one is the fastest!

Twitter Apps Compared: Tweetie, TwitterFon Pro, SimplyTweet, Twittelator Pro, Twitterrific, TweetDeck

Watch this Video and find out which one is the fastest!

App Description

Do you have what it takes to be the best penalty kicker in the league? Well then put on your cleats, grab your soccer ball, and get ready for GOAAAL!™ from Skyworks®, creators of the best quality and most fun sports games on the iPhone/iPod touch!

In GOAAAL!, you’ll use all your kicking skills to score as many shots as you can from the penalty spot against a progressively more difficult goalie opponent. As you get better at kicking, the goalie reacts faster and protects the goal more aggressively.

To kick, “flick” the ball with your finger. Fling from the side of the ball to add spin to it. Hold your finger on the ball for a second to reposition it prior to kicking, then lift your finger to return to kick mode.

In Arcade Shootout Mode, you get 10 shots to get as many goals and points as you can. In Progressive Shootout Mode, you’ll start with just 10 chances to score. With every target hit and badge earned, you’ll earn another penalty kick. Catch “on fire” by scoring on 5 shots in a row. As your skill level increases you will be rewarded with badges and bonus points. Whether you call it soccer or football, GOAAL! will quickly become your favorite kicking game!

KEY FEATURES:

– ARCADE SHOOTOUT MODE – Shoot multiple goals!
– PROGRESSIVE SHOOTOUT MODE – Hit bonus targets for extra kicks!
– EARN BONUS BADGES – Earn badges with special moves!
– SOUND AND MUSIC VOLUME CONTROLS
– LOCAL HIGH SCORE BOARDS
– GLOBAL HIGH SCORE BOARDS – Compete against players around the world!

After you play GOAAAL!, try X’S AND O’S FOOTBALL® and other hit titles from Skyworks, including 3 POINT HOOPS®, ARCADE BOWLING™, ARCADE HOOPS BASKETBALL™, WORLD CUP AIR HOCKEY™, and WORLD CUP PING PONG™. Just search for “Skyworks” in the App Store search bar, find your favorite games, and have fun!!!

Look for more new games from Skyworks COMING SOON!

www.Skyworks.com

Price $1.99

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Goaaal!™ Screenshots

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An Inca themed Sokoban game with 3D-esk graphics

Exercise Your Brain with the #1 Sokoban Style game!

Keep your mind agile, while having fun solving the 40 puzzles of Ankagua.
Help our friend to escape from the lost ruins, putting the green stone blocks over the marked positions, but be careful, because one false move can be fatal, and leave him trapped forever!

This is one pretty slick game with good graphics, which could be argued as more isometric than 3D. Gameplay generally is pretty solid and challenging however some of the later levels tend to pitter out into “move the blocks into something accessible then put them in the Goal” making the level one third challenge, 2 thirds chore but before you get to that stage you’ve gone through a lot of fun levels. While on the subject of gameplay this game does have a habit of being unstable, crashing, occasionally jerky framerate and for some reason you can walk through the moveable pieces after you stop pushing them around, while not sure if it’s a bug but it’s pretty handy sometimes. All that aside this is a challenging and fun puzzle game for you Vulcans logical people but could do with some tweaking, for example when the blocks are in place why not have the game character walk out the door as opposed to just raising his arms and letting out a cheer, he is after all trying to escape from an Inca ruin. Levels could always be made more interesting with things like falling floor blocks, cave in and other traps because all ruins have security devices to them

Moving on to controls, here you have two options, swipe and a slightly rotated D pad (to suit the isometric perspective). Now the problem with the D pad option is that it releases the character from moving in straight lines which doesn’t really suit the nature of this interface. It would be better locking the character to straight lines ala traditional Sokoban and having a third option with a virtual analogue stick in the form of two circles, as for swipe I find it too slow for my liking but again that’s in it’s nature as an interface.

Price $0.99 (sale price until 1.2)

The Good

• Challenging and fun
• Good Graphics
• 40 Levels and more promised

The Not So Good

• Unstable at times
• Level arenas pretty similar
• Controls somewhat annoying

Touch Reviewer: TylerDurdan

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