Upcoming iPhone Games to Watch
The AppStore is known for a lot of things, but easy navigation isn’t one of them. With tens of thousands of games on the service, knowing when a real gem comes out can be more of a challenge than it should be. Big games may get featured on the What’s Hot or What’s New pages, and they may sit at the top of the sale numbers for a few weeks, but unless you’re actively checking to see what’s new on a regular basis it’s almost inevitable you’re going to miss a golden gaming experience.
Today we’re taking a look at 5 upcoming game worth keeping an eye out for. Why miss out on the big names if we can give you the heads up before they happen?
Rock Band coming to iPhone
It’s long been rumored, but today EA Mobile has officially confirmed that Rock Band will indeed be coming to the iPhone. Featuring 15 songs (plus an additional 5 that can be unlocked through play), Rock Band for the iPhone is attempting to recreate the living room rock experience as faithfully as it possibly can while still living in your pocket. Bluetooth multiplayer, World Tour mode, and the ability to expand your Rock Band library through dowwnloadable content will form the basis of what EA hopes will become the de facto music experience on the iPhone.
Apple Lives on Sesame Street
“Lives on” might be a strong term, but there’s definitely some pop culture respect being paid in the latest Sesame short D is for Dance. I know I’ve raised my kids right when my four year old daughter calls me into the room and says, “Daddy! Big Bird has an iPod!”
Jim Whitelaw vs. Apple Canada
Jim Whitelaw is a man with a problem. Jim bought his 10 year old daughter an iPod Touch so that she could play some games without having to break the bank on her allowance. He set her up with an iTunes account, gave her an iTunes gift card, and told her to go at it. Only, she couldn’t. Apple Canada doesn’t allow iTunes gift cards to be used for App Store purchases.
Price Disparities Favor iPhone Users
Software exclusivity is quickly becoming a thing of the past. What once was a killer app for one system or another has now turned into the consumer connundrum of which software to buy for which device and why. Determining a winner based on techincal differences and personal preferences takes time and research, yet one thing has become readily apparent: the iPhone is home to some tremendous bargains on some amazing software. What you may spend $20 on elsewhere could only cost you $2 in the App Store, and it’s entirely possible you’ll end up with a better experience too! Don’t believe us? Take a look at these 5 examples of spectacular AppStore savings;
GPush Review: Bringing Gmail Notification to the iPhone
E-mail addiction is a hard habit to shake. I get more than a hundred emails every day. We’re not talking spam here — we’re talking legitimate e-mails that demand my attention. My inbox is so full, it has it’s own inbox. Given the circumstances, it’s fairly easy to see how I’ve become a compulsive email checker. Watching TV. Writing. Sitting at a red light. No matter what the activity, I couldn’t go more than five minutes without checking my inbox. …and then there was GPush.
Impressions: App Store Genius
As part of the recent OS 3.1 upgrade for the iPhone, Apple introduced a new feature intended to suggest apps based on your previous purchases. Like the similar function introduced to music listeners in iTunes 8.0, this handy little feature goes by the name “Genius.” But does the App Store Genius live up to it’s name like it’s big brother, or is this genius just a C student in disguise?
News: iPhone OS 3.1 now available
Announced at today’s Apple event, the latest iteration of the iPhone operating system is already available on iTunes. OS 3.1 is a free upgrade to OS 3.0 users that offers an improved shopping experience, better sync functionality, and a host of other options and tweaks.
News: Plants Vs. Zombies Coming to iPhone
Earlier this year, PopCap Games once again proved their pedigree as the premiere publisher in the casual games space when it released Plants vs. Zombies to PC and Mac owners the world over. A unique spin on the tower defense genre, Plants vs. Zombies once again proved PopCap’s ability to re-invent the wheel. It quickly earned widespread critical acclaim and commercial success, selling “more briskly in its first 90 days of online availability than any previous game we’ve published,” according to PopCap’s VP of Marketing Ben Rotholtz.
Given PopCap’s track record it only stood to reason that PvZ would be ported to every console known to man. That’s why it comes as no surprise when PopCap Games announced this morning that, in addition to an upcoming port to Xbox Live Arcade and a recent retail box release, Plants vs Zombies will be arriving in the AppStore for iPhone users in late 2009.
News: iTunes now accounts for 25% of all music sales in US
A recent study by the market research group NPD showed that digital music purchases continued their steady rise to market dominance during the first half of 2009. While that fact in and of itself isn’t all that surprising, what share of the overall music market iTunes now makes up is enough to knock the socks off even the most passionate Apple devotee: 25%.
That’s not 25% of the digital market — that’s 25% of the total market. This makes them the largest music seller in the US, beating out their closest competitor Wal-Mart, currently sitting at 14% of total music sales, by a whopping 11 points.
