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Filed under: Gaming, Software, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

The first full year of the App Store is coming to a close, and so let's take a look back at our favorite games of 2009. Note that these aren't best-selling, most important, or even the best games of the year -- we'll leave those lists to other sites. But these are our favorite games -- the games we played this year that we feel stand out as our favorite experiences on the App Store.

The list begins after the read more link below, and be sure to agree, disagree, or share your own favorite games as usual in the comments.

Continue reading Our favorite iPhone games of 2009

Our favorite iPhone games of 2009 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Our favorite iPhone games of 2009 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yet another game has ditched the once-standard $0.99 price to switch to a model of a free app with paid in-app purchases for revenue. This time it's Cyber Circuit [App Store, Free] from Complex Games, a shooter claiming to be inspired by the multi-level concept of Dante's Inferno. Instead of paying $0.99 for the entire app, you can now get the first six levels of the game for free, with the option to pay another $1.99 later on to get the other 24 levels. Video after the break.

Filed under: Hardware, iPhone, App Store

Coming this CES (which is actually next week): a complete credit card transaction accessory and service for your iPhone. If this thing works as expected, you might actually see it in more than a few places (think: street vendors that will take credit card payments). A company called Mophie is planning to show off an add-on that works with an app to deliver credit card payments through Square, a payment service recently started up by Jack Dorsey, a Twitter alumni. This is one of a couple such systems that will be vying to fulfill the function (and probably take a few cents from each transaction for their troubles), but so far all we've really got is demos, no actual releases planned.

But maybe we'll hear more at CES. There's all kinds of applications here -- a solid, working implementation of a service like this could end up being extremely popular for anybody that regularly needs to conduct transactions out in the field.

iPhone credit card reader to be demoed at CES originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iPhone credit card reader to be demoed at CES originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LEGO Systems, Inc. has just released an official LEGO application for the iPhone. Self-described as the official LEGO app for the iPhone, LEGO Photo [App Store, Free] lets you take portraits with the camera and transform them into LEGO masterpieces with the tap of a shiny, well-designed button. The overall app is very simple, pretty and well-made so it's a must-have for any true LEGO fan.

Customers of the controversial unlocking service iPhoneUnlockUK.com received unexpected emails earlier today informing them that the company was guilty of using unlicensed software and that their personal details, including numerous email and physical addresses had been compromised. The hackers were discovered to have broken in to iPhoneUnlockUK's web servers back in February, where they gained access to the personal information of several users who had illegally unlocked their iPhones.

Filed under: Odds and ends, iPhone, iPod touch, App Review

If you're like me, you find it impossible to keep up with the constant stream of apps being written for the iPhone and iPod touch. As a result, you wind up missing some useful or fun apps that you would buy if you just knew that they were in the App Store.

Searching the App Store using iTunes doesn't work very well, and there are plenty of sites that review apps (including TUAW), but there are so many apps out there that finding what you want can be a matter of luck rather than skill.

That problem has largely been solved with Appsaurus [iTunes link], a U.S. $0.99 app that can quickly focus on what kinds of apps you like and make decent suggestions for new apps to try or buy.

Here's how Appsaurus works. When you launch the app for the first time, it presents you with an explore mode. It displays a list of apps, and you tap the ones that are of interest to you. You may have some of the apps, but you probably won't have all of them. When you select a favorite you'll get a new list that includes apps that match the general description of the app you clicked on. Run through a few iterations of this process, and the app begins to learn your preferences.

Continue reading Can't find the apps you need? Of course there's an app for that.

Can't find the apps you need? Of course there's an app for that. originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Can't find the apps you need? Of course there's an app for that. originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Software developer Mophie announced its intention to enter the mobile payment market on Thursday by unveiling details of a credit card reader peripheral for the iPhone. When released, the device will allow users "complete financial transactions on the go."

The device will ship with a companion iPhone application to handle the payment and, unlike some current peripherals, is designed to remain attached to the iPhone for long periods of time, resting flush with the iPhone's casing.

Filed under: Developer, iPhone, App Store

Gizmodo has an interesting story from David Quinlan, a coder who decided to sit down over a weekend with a few friends to crank out an iPhone app. It's an excellent read, not only for the little quirks and tips about organizing a collaborative project very quickly (they sketch out features and then prioritize them, and use Dropbox to keep all the files in the right places), but for the sheer push of how you actually go from idea to concept to code and finally to released iPhone app.

I won't say it sounds easy -- these guys had a good amount of experience at development and releasing software even before they started work on this app, and if you sit down with Erica's book [Amazon link to the 2nd edition, PDF downloadable version] and hope to release your very first piece of code after just a weekend of solo work, it's not going to happen. But it definitely sounds possible -- the iPhone's development platform is relatively easy to pick up (especially if you're already experienced with coding in other languages), and Apple's release process is open to anyone willing to spend the $100 to become an official developer.

The 12-hour iPhone app originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The 12-hour iPhone app originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: iLife, iPhone, Mac 101, Snow Leopard

More Mac 101, tips and tricks for novice Mac users.

I love iPhoto. I use it for most of my photo editing. The thing I don't like about iPhoto is how it opens each and every time I connect my iPhone to my Mac. What strikes my as plain silly is that, since the introduction of the iPhone two and a half years ago, Apple has not built in an option in the iTunes iPhone status window to disable the automatic iPhoto launch every time you plug in your iPhone.

If you want to take control of this behavior, and you'd prefer to stick with Apple's built-in tools (rather than take advantage of the free and easy Cameras prefpane) there is good news: there's a simple way to disable this 'feature' and it doesn't involve command line stuff. Even better, it isn't an "all or nothing" solution - eg: you can still have iPhoto automatically open when you connect your camera, but not have it open when you connect your iPhone. Aron mentioned this approach a few months ago but I thought it would be helpful to walk through it in detail.

It should be noted that this solution only works on Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. If you are running 10.5 or earlier, you'll have to use one of the solutions noted above; we recommend the free Cameras preference pane as a quick fix.

You'll see the image above is of iPhoto's preferences. You may think the option of disabling iPhone auto-open is in there, but it's not. To stop the iPhone from opening iPhoto you actually need to launch the Image Capture application.

Step 1: Launch Image Capture (Applications>Image Capture). If your iPhone isn't plugged in already, plug it in to the USB port on your Mac. It should then show up in the devices source list.

Step 2: Make sure you have the iPhone selected in the source list. When you do, you should see any photos you have on the iPhone appear in the right-hand column of the Image Capture application.
Step 3: At the bottom of the source list, you'll see your iPhone's name then, below that, you'll see the words "Connecting this iPhone opens:" and a drop-down menu. Select "No application." Now close the Image Capture app and you're done. No more iPhone opening up iPhoto, but your other cameras will still auto-launch iPhoto when they are connected!

Mac 101: Stop the iPhone from opening iPhoto originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Mac 101: Stop the iPhone from opening iPhoto originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone accessory maker and recession antidote regular Mophie is about to make the most buzzworthy move of its short history by offering a credit card reader and accompanying transaction app for the Apple handset. Positioned as a direct competitor to Jack Dorsey's Square iPhone Payment System, Mophie's solution looks to be integrated into an iPhone case -- making it possible to keep the reader on permanently, albeit at a slight cost to your device's aesthetics. The decidedly cube-shaped Square system has a less ergonomic design, but we suspect that the winner (if either of these two succeeds) will be primarily determined by the usability of the app and affordability of the service. Look out for more info to emerge at some point during the maelstrom that will be CES 2010.

Mophie iPhone credit card reader coming to a CES near you originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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