Brodie Beta

Let’s take a look at some free apps that have been released / updated the last two weeks.   After digging through lots of free-app rubbish at the app store I was able to find a few that I thought might be useful… and did I mention the cost is a sweet $0?

BlogWriter Lite 3.2.3

The lite version of BlogWriter allows you to post text from your iPhone or iPod touch to your blog.
Blog types supported are Google Blogger ( Blogger.com/ Blogsport.com) , Wordpress , Wordpress Self-hosted and  there is also an option for MetaWeblog enabled blogs.  In addition to the creation of text blog posts, BlogWriter Lite has a built-in RSS reader but only supports a maximum of two feed subscriptions in the lite version.
The lite free version is a good option to try first before purchasing the full version if you’re unsure whether your blog is compatible.

The full version will allow you to:
Upload photo’s, geotag, edit published posts and gives you unlimited feeds subscriptions in the built-in RSS reader.
The full version also works with MSN Live Spaces.

Get it
iPhone 2.1+and iPod touch
Free

iBanter  1.0

Cobra Beer brings you iBanter, a “joke assistance” app that will help you tell a joke without using much any effort.  The iBanter app contains video joke packs that will tell a joke for you. Just hold up your iPhone over your mouth, press play and let the comedian do all the work.
The app gives you a welcome pack of 2 jokes and there are currently 4 downloadable jokes packs available.

Sure to get a laugh but I’m hoping we’ll see a female (moustache-free) joke pack come out in the new update.
It’s just creepy when I use it.
Get it
iPhone2.1+ and iPod touch
Free

iFighter Lite 1.0

Have a taste of the full version game iFighters with iFighter Lite.
The game is set during WWII and your mission is to destroy Nazi enemy planes, tanks and trucks before they
blow you up.  Game play is straight forward but by no means easy. iFighter Lite uses the iPhones accelerometer so you’re able to move around by tilting.

While auto-fire is on, line up your plane with the enemy to eliminate them while dodging enemy bullets.   After successfully taking down an enemy you will be left with a token which you can collect for new weapons, health, points and assistance fighter jets.  In the settings you’re able to turn auto fire on and off, change calibration, sensitivity and more.
The game has a lot of action and is highly addictive.
Sadly I haven’t been able to complete the first mission yet.  Luckily our friend @theu4life219 on Twitter finished the mission to let us in on the fact that the lite version doesn’t let you proceed past the first mission.

Get it
iPhone 2.0+ iPod touch
Free

Stick Wars Siege

Your castle is under attack by barbarian stick people. Fight them off before they tear down your
castle walls. Fail to defend your castle,  you lose.

Tap invaders, drag and toss them to sudden death by gravity.  I find it effective to drag the stick people straight up and off the screen as opposed to flinging them to the right. Earn money to repair the castle, take prisoners and kill stick people.
Oddly the app is not presently available at iTunes.  The developer believes Apple has pulled it while they approve the new version.

Free

PhotoFeedd: Like Twitter for Photo’s 1.20

PhotoFeedd is a social network for photos.  Browse through lists of topics with public photos in the Main stream or
create topics for your own photo’s by selecting MyFeedd.  Photo’s can be tagged and added in albums by topic.
You’re able to upload photos from your iPhones photo library as well as take snapshots from the cam.

The social networking element of the app is limited to flagging, commenting and voting so you’re not able to send messages to users on the network aside from commenting on the pic.
If you find a pic you want to share it allows the user to email the photo link, entire topic, add to favorites or save the album.
Neat idea, unfortunately you’re not given a user specific url to integrate your PhotoFeedd photos and shares with other networks. When posting photos I’d rather use an app that works with a service like flickr which will post my updates to friendfeed and not be isolated to one network.

Get it
iPhone 2.0+ iPod Touch
Free

Flickit 1.1

Upload photos to your flickr account using your iPhone or iPod touch.
The app gives you the ability to edit photos the same as in your flickr account. Metadata such as photo name, description, titles,
tags and geolocation coordinates all included.

I would get more use from this app if it also had the feature of an app like flickr searchr which browses public flickr images.  Additionally I like the ability to add my flickr friends to a live stream like the free app Ziibii.
None the less a free way to upload your photo’s to flickr.

Get it
iPhone 2.2+ iPod
Free

iSmart Dialer 2.2

Stylish and quick way to find contacts and send communications.
iSmart dialer provides a search bar above the dialer keypad which displays up to 3 contact searches at a time. The search entry is used by typing the first letter or two of the contacts name or company.

Tap on the contact in the search results to highlight then choose Email (press* ), SMS (press 2)  or the Call key, all directly on the dialer keypad.
To turn off the search function shake or tilt your iPhone or hold down on the # key for a few seconds.
Assign favorite contacts a speed dial key from 1- 9 and access favorites, and recent dialed from the apps dock.

For .99 you can get yourself the full featured contact management app called Faces Visual Dialer that is very slick with mucho features.

Get it
iPhone 2.2+
Free

Will be down at the Red Bull Air Race tomorrow in Windsor, Ontario. Doing a live Qik stream from my iPhone. I was at the trials today testing it out. I think I’ve worked out the glitches.
I won’t be able to stream the entire race but I’ll get as much action as I can from 1pm on.

Ps- I’ll be shooting BetaCast from the race and hope to have the first episode out by Tuesday.

Check it out Sunday, June 14th 1pm EST Vrooom

If you’re a wine lover and are open to trying new pairings there is an excellent iPhone app to compliment your vino experience.
Vino for Dinner Mobile Wine Pairing app will give you wine recommendations based on your meal or cheese choices.
I was impressed to see the suggestions were specific to not only the type of meat but for also specified flavours and cooking methods.

To begin your first wine selection choose from; Meat, Seafood, Poultry, Pasta or Cheese.
If we take a look at the Seafood selection you will be offered 7 different types of seafood from salmon to shrimp. Following your fish selection you can choose from 5 flavours; grilled, butter, seared, lemon or hot & spicy.

As an example I chose grilled salmon and was suggested Chardonnay as the top choice and Sauvignon Blanc as a secondary choice.
Tapping the top choice Chardonnay, 3 different brands of Chardonnay are displayed with price, rating, year.
Each brand also links to a written description of the taste and experience.

Vino for Dinner is like having a wine connessieur in your pocket which would be very useful to have while dining out or your next trip to your local wine retailer as you’re able to make a wine recommendation in under a minute.

Cost : $2.99
Compatiblity: iPhone 2.2.1+/iPod touch (2nd gen)
Get it

Just downloaded and have been glued to the newly launched app for the iPhone and iPod touch called Binary Game. Don’t be scared off by the name,  you’re not going to require any knowledge of binary code to understand or kick butt at this.  Gameplay is very straight forward and habit forming for competitive people like myself as you can upload and view high scores online on the global list. If you’re a Twitter user enter your username when uploading high scores as the board will link to your Twitter account.

I had the pleasure of interviewing lead developer John Kassimatis earlier today and he told me the original idea for the game was based upon a binary game he played over a decade ago that had a similar concept. He had lots of fun playing the earlier version and has translated his excitement to this re-imagining and platform.  Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV is also involved in the concept and marketing of the game.  John currently works at the Wine Library with fellow developers Erik F Kastner and Brian Woolley.

Gameplay
From the game menu I’d recommend you choose practice mode before you start competing in Challenge or Speed Mode.  When you begin playing you are given a numerical goal with your accumulative amount directly underneath. Your goal is always between 1 and 255 and there’s only one solution. Your given 8 binary switches that each have a numerical value, the switches are turned on and off by tapping on them.  When a switch is turned on the value of the switch is added to the total.  Continue tapping those switches until your goal number is reached conversely turning a switch off deducts the switches value. As an example if your goal number was 140, you would need to turn on switches 128, 4 and 8. The rounds are played against a time clock to determine scores / rockstar status.

When you think your ready to rawk you can move into Challenge or Speed mode.

Challenge Mode- Earn points by completing 5 rounds. You level up by completing the 5 rounds and receive less time as you progress through the levels. Points are higher the faster you complete each round.

Speed Mode -Speed through 15 rounds as fast as possible then use the scores to shame your friends.

High Scores- Scores can be uploaded by viewing high scores then selecting Sync Score

Support- Integrated email.

TIPS- I asked John if he had any tips to dominate the high scores list aside from knowing basic math.  He said most people seem to hold the phone with two hands and use their thumbs hitting the numbers, however using one hand to hold the iphone and using your index finger to hit the numbers seems to work faster for him. @uurayan and @lupka seem to be dominating the high scores, perhaps you can hit them up for some tips.

Overall, a very fun quick thinking- puzzle game. Worth the 1.99 !

Here’s the interview with Lead Developer John Kassimatis.

Cost : $1.99 Compatiblity: iPhone 2.1+/iPod touch Get it Binary Game Site

Interview with iPhone Developer John Kassimatis

Had a short talk with iPhone developer John K. who has recently launched the Binary Game for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Edited version

Brodie Beta- So you started the development in late December. Can you take me through the genesis of the whole project ?

John K- Sure.  The original idea is based off of a small game I used to play about 10+ yrs ago, that was similar in concept.  So in late December I finally started reading an iPhone Development book I had bought a few weeks before.  After the first few chapters I wanted to try out some of the examples, but I wanted to try them out on a project of my own, instead of blindly following the book.  So the first idea for an app that popped into my head was this game, because I had so much fun playing that earlier version so long ago.

Brodie Beta- Is Objective C your first programming language?

John K- No, I’ve been a web developer for 10 years.  This however was my very first time playing with Objective-C.

Brodie Beta- What  languages do you use in web development?

John K-Currently it’s mostly PHP, Rails and ASP from time to time.

Brodie Beta-Talk to me about the team you worked with on this project.

John K-I actually work at the Wine Library, for Gary V (Gary Vaynerchuk)

Brodie Beta- Aha!

John K- I did all the development for the project.  I had a few friends help with graphics.  Gary was involved with the concept, and of course marketing.  It was his idea to include the global high scores in the initial version - which is what has made the game so competitive.

Brodie Beta- Who are Erik Kastner and Brian Woolley?

John K- They’re both really close friends, and they also work at Wine Library with me.  They had a huge part in the graphics.  Erik also created the kick ass WordPress plugin that currently is used to display high scores on the game’s website.

Brodie Beta-You mention the book “Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK”, was it helpful? Would you recommend it? Another resource you mention on your blog is the site iPhone Dev SDK. Were they helpful?

John K- I would highly recommend the book.  It doesn’t waste too much time, and gets you coding really fast.  The iPhone development community is pretty damn amazing.  I mainly used http://iphonedevsdk.com which is an awesome resource full of great people . It would have taken me many more weeks without that resource, for sure.  Another place i’d like to mention is http://icodeblog.com which has great tutorials - Excellent for people just starting.

Brodie Beta- Are you happy with the development process and the SDK provided by Apple?

Johk K- Mostly happy.  The provisioning and submitting of the final binary to Apple can be a bit intimidating. Then of course you have the wait for Apple to approve (or reject).

Brodie Beta-How was the app submission process? They seem to have approved your app rather quickly.

John K-It took 7 days for Binary Game to be approved, I think 7 days is about average right now -  But it seemed to take ages.

Brodie Beta- Aside from the resources you have provided..what other tips could you give prospective iPhone devs?

John K- Don’t give up.  It might be scary at first, specially if you never used Objective-C, but it’s really not bad.  When you get stuck go to forums and search.  Ask for help, most people are super friendly and always willing to help.  In the end you’ll be glad you stuck it out.

Brodie Beta-Do you have any other iPhone projects in the pipeline?

John K- I have a few ideas for two or three updates to Binary Game.  Hoping the first one makes it out there in the next 2-3 weeks.   I am also working on a second game which is about 40% completed.  Many ideas, so little time!!

Brodie Beta- Can you give me any tips to dominate the high score boards for the Binary game?

John K- Yes, Most people seem to hold the phone with two hands and use their thumbs  hitting the numbers.  I would say that use one hand to hold the iphone and use your index finger to hit the numbers.
At least for me and a few people i’ve spoken with, it’s much faster.

John K’s site- sayeight John K’s twitter

I wish this were a regular Saturday morning cartoon!