Hijinks Inc.

As I’m still waiting to hear back from Square about getting into their beta, and still waiting for Mophie to announce pricing for marketplace (which might not ship, as it’s disappeared from their website since posting this originally), I’ve decided to give Swipe from AppNinja’s a try.

Keep in mind that I’ve only been using it for a couple days now, so I’ll probably have more to add at a later date.

[ The Good ]
Super clean interface that makes manually entering a transactions a breeze, it also makes good use of your existing contact lists to quickly populate additional receipt fields.

Surprising good signature capture, made even better by using a Pogo Sketch from TenOneDesign. Which is nice to see, as a lot of the other apps for the iPhone don’t support signature capturing.

It also features Authorize.net support, which doesn’t limit you to only being able to process credit cards on your iPhone, and has a reasonable transaction rates (unlike Square, which I believe sports close to 5%).

[ The Bad ]
Really, the only drawback at this point is the customizable receipts feature needs to offer more robust options, there’s no way to change the layout of it, you can only control what’s displayed in the header and footer.  However, to their credit the app features a web controlled back end for customizable receipts, which means no waiting for Apple to approve changes if they update the receipt options.

If anyone is interested, I have two copies of Trend Micro: AntiVirus plus AntiSpyware 2010 to hand out to any interested parties.

Hit me up in the comments with your email address if you’re interested.

I have a problem: I’m addicted to podcasts. From Diggnation and 1UP Yours, to Car Talk and A Prairie Home Companion, my subscription list covers a wide range of interests, and an even wider space on my hard drive. I have an 80 gig hard drive on my Macbook, and as of an hour ago I had 987MB free. That’s not good folks, that’s not good at all.

I talked to fellow blogger Aaron about it, and he suggested a few applications that would clear up some space without forcing me to delete any programs or media.

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Heck. Freakin’. Yes.

VLC is one of the greatest pieces of media playing software around and it has been successfully ported to the iPhone!

Currently vlc4iphone is only been released to a select group of beta testers (ie. people who’ve given this guy money), but hopefully there will be a more public beta release soon.

Codec support is limited to MPEG / MPG, AVI, MP3. However, the developer (zodttd) is planning on adding support for FLAC, OGG, and is also looking into supporting VCD, DivX, WMA, WMV.

Pros: Practical application with an easy to use interface.

Cons: Lacking in the features department right now. We’re looking forward to 1.1.

Developer: Catamount Software (www.catamount.com)

Version Reviewed: 1.0.3

Platform: iPhone and iPod Touch

If you have a drivers license, you’re probably painfully aware of the price you pay every time you fill up your tank. Catamount Software can’t solve the world’s energy crisis, but they at least offer a way to keep track of it all. MPG is an app that allows you to keep track of your fuel and service expense for multiple vehicles. True to its name it keeps track of your miles per gallon and updates the number every time you fill up. More after the jump. Read More…

Pros: Touch screen controls actually improve this game. Closest to a perfect Tetris port if we ever saw one.

Cons: While easy to use, at the very high levels the touch controls aren’t quite as fast as the old D-pad.

Developer: Noah Witherspoon (Two Finger Play)

Version Reviewed: 0.6

Platform: iPhone and iPod Touch

Ever since the days of playing Tetris on my old black and white Gameboy I’ve held a special place in my heart for blocks falling from the sky. And interestedly enough, I haven’t seen anyone make improvements to that D-Pad and A and B buttons I used all those years ago. I can honestly say that I didn’t expect to see a good Tetris port on the iPhone/Touch. Not that I didn’t expect to see Tetris, but I thought they would try to overlay buttons on the screen (a’la Yeti3D) and things would just get awkward. Thankfully, they didn’t. Full review after the jump. Read More…

Pros: Fresh approach to RSS. Clean interface. Finally makes Google Reader relevant and useful.
Cons: The lack of a Mark All Feeds as Read option.

Platform: iPod Touch and iPhone

Developed by: Boris Bluntschli (424f.com/feeds)

Version Reviewed: 0.2

Feeds is the third RSS app I’ve ever used for the iPhone, and easily the best so far. It may not have the fancy effects that smartRSS has, but it makes up for it with a much better cleaner layout. Perhaps one of it’s greatest advantages is also a sizable drawback, it’s based on the Google Reader API, meaning if you don’t use Google Reader you’re out of luck.

[ continued after the jump ]
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Yay, another weekly feature! Since the dev scene on the iPhone and Touch is constantly updating their projects (that is to say, evolving), we’d be remiss if we didn’t continue to cover the games and applications we review. Since we only have a few reviews up right now, this week is going to be pretty short (but memorable!).

iDope (v0.3.3)

In an obvious response to our less then stellar review, a new version of iDope was released this week. Offering at least two new features, this update is sure to make the game last at least 5 minutes longer.

All uncalled for harshness aside, here’s the changes we noticed:

Limit on carrying capacity.
Where as before you could carry any number of drugs in your jacket (737928 units of LSD? That’s a freakin’ huge jacket!), 0.3.3 imposes a 100 unit limit on the drugs you can carry. This is a great idea, but there’s one small problem. It doesn’t work. Sure, when you press the “Buy All” button the dialog box tells you you’re buying 100 units, but when you go back to your Jacket you will have bought the maximum amount that your money could buy. One has to wonder if any of these things are actually tested before they’re put up for download.

Jacket Store.
With the attempted limit on carrying capacity, you can now buy expanded bag space at the Jacket Shop. Choose from Pockets (+50), Minimal (+100), Bulk (+250), and Professional (+500). Once you start buying more slots the prices of the additions scale up. Of course, none of that matters since you can still buy unlimited units of drugs. Nice try.

Subways are dangerous!
To add to the authentic atmosphere of New York, you can now be mugged in the subway. I’m not sure why I’m in the subway when I’m traveling everywhere via airport, but that obviously doesn’t matter. Mugging amounts to a small amount of cash and a medium to large amount of health being taken away from you.

Hospital and health regen.
The local hospital as taken lessons from the new jacket store, and healing yourself scales up every time you buy their services. To offset the rising healthcare prices, you’ll now automatically regain 5 health every time you travel to a new location.

That’s all for this Week in Updates. Stayed tuned for more (and hopefully better) updates next week!

Pros: Good concept, one of the first true 3D games for the platform.
Cons: May ruin your childhood memories of Pac-Man. Also, the onscreen control interface is less than reliable.

Platform: iPod Touch and iPhone

Developed by: Marco Giorgini (MarcoGiorgini.com)

Joining the masses as yet another Pac-Man clone, comes iPac3D. Based off the Yeti3D engine by Derek John Evans, this latest reincarnation barely resembles the Pac-Man you grew up with. It is however a fairly polished and stable game, it does have a few quirks of course, but it is free after all.

More after the jump.

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As my fellow blogger Fred has recently pointed out, we have a new reviews section and rating system for mobile applications for the iPhone/iPod touch. In honor of that, I decided I’d post a quick top ten list of the best apps in my opinion for the iPhone (this list only includes apps that I currently have installed).

1. Installer.app – I know it’s a cop out, but without it installing apps is rather frustrating.
2. Fring – Support for VoIP, GoogleTalk, Twitter, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, and ICQ.
3. Touchpad – Awesome app for controlling your computer from across the room.
4. iPhysics – Countless hours of fun
5. Tris – The most polished version of Tetris available for the iPhone.
6. MxTube – Easy to use application for downloading and saving YouTube videos.
7. NES – Super Mario Bros on the iPhone, ’nuff said.
8. Millionaire – Without Regis Philbin it’s a much better game.
9. Pool – Excellent use of the touch screen for controls.
10. AFPd – Makes copying files to and from your iPhone a breeze (assuming you’re on a Mac).

What’s your top ten list of apps look like?