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[Apps] iphone, ipod, ipad - Lets talk about Apps!

LucascraftLucascraft Registered User regular
I'm fairly new to the whole iphone thing, but I've got a few apps that I downloaded and have been enjoying. I did a search and saw a few "recommend on" style threads, but I didn't find any sort of a dedicated App thread, so I decided to start one. Lets talk about Apps, people!

The very first app I bought for my iphone was Popcap's Plants vs Zombies. Because tower defense games are fun as hell, and I love me some PvZ. (On a side-note, I'm always on the lookout for other good tower defense games, so if anyone has any other tower defense apps to recommend, please feel free to share.)

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Right after I got PvZ, I also grabbed Bejeweled 2, also by Popcap Games.

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Well, I don't only use my iphone for playing games. I also found an app that pulls up a handy iphone ready version of IMDB.com.

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One of the guys I work with told me about this little app. Its called "Shop Savvy" and basically what it does is uses the camera as a bar-code reader. You can scan a product, and it will pull up any information that might exist in the database for that item, including standard pricing, sale prices at retailers close to your location (via the GPS), and customer reviews of the item. I've had mixed success with it, but when it works its pretty cool.

mzl.uuqppwmr.175x175-75.jpg

Other apps I've downloaded include a Dictionary App which pulls from Dictionary.com. I got a Gamespot app that lets me pull up reviews and other game info. I got the Facebook app, and I got a Wikipedia app.


However, still being fairly new to the game, I'm always on the lookout for new apps to try, either free or paid.

One particular type of app that I'm looking for right now is some sort of random number generator, or more preferably a dice simulator. I'm looking for a program that will let me pick a type of dice, whether its a standard d6, or perhaps I need a d4 or a d20.

So anyway, feel free to use this thread to talk about your favorite apps, make recommendations, or whatever.

Lucascraft on
«13

Posts

  • Apothe0sisApothe0sis Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality? Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I got an iPhone about 3 weeks ago. Paying for personal software remains anathema to me. Paying money for what is the software equivalent of cantrips a lot of the time is anathema to me.

    On the other hand, paying for games makes sense to me.

    The Angry Birds is a pretty good game. I deem it worth the $1.20

    Apothe0sis on
  • LucascraftLucascraft Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I guess I should have stated: all the apps in my OP are free except for the 2 Popcap games.

    Lucascraft on
  • ಠ_ರೃಠ_ರೃ __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2010
    That would be 50% of your OP.

    ಠ_ರೃ on
  • JasconiusJasconius sword criminal mad onlineRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    My favorite app right now is Lux.. for quick 5-10 minute brain relief... sort of a low-grade version of Risk. Can't argue with free.

    Jasconius on
  • Jubal77Jubal77 Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Zombie Attack... I still play this game tons.

    Jubal77 on
  • ಠ_ರೃಠ_ರೃ __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2010
    Any RPGs?

    JRPGish?

    ಠ_ರೃ on
  • Captain VashCaptain Vash Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    TALKING CARL.


    EVERYONE NEEDS TALKING CARL.

    HE IS .99

    SEND A SELF ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE TO ME AT:

    2005 wetmore ave
    everett wa 98201 usa

    AND I WILL MAIL YOU A DOLLAR TO GET TALKING CARL.


    [/excitement]

    Captain Vash on
    twitterforweb.Stuckens.1,1,500,f4f4f4,0,c4c4c4,000000.png
  • RothgarrRothgarr Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Jasconius wrote: »
    My favorite app right now is Lux.. for quick 5-10 minute brain relief... sort of a low-grade version of Risk. Can't argue with free.

    If you like Lux (I really like it too) you might want to give Speck Pioneers a try:

    http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speck-pioneers/id364737164?mt=8

    It's also got that Risk/Lux feel to it but with a circuit board metaphor. The maps start small (3x3 grid) and get bigger and change shape with each new map you unlock (you also unlock new characters). Your "troops" can also experience fatigue. It's not perfect (the larger maps can slow down a bit), but certainly fun enough for 99 cents (and one single app is optimized for both iPhone and iPad which I applaud as opposed to having to re-buy...).

    Rothgarr on
  • Jubal77Jubal77 Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    ಠ_ರೃ wrote: »
    Any RPGs?

    JRPGish?

    Final Fantasy 1 & 2
    Vay
    ...

    I am sure there is more that is what I have on my Touch

    Jubal77 on
  • projectmayhemprojectmayhem Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Talking Carl is fucking terrifying.

    projectmayhem on
  • Captain VashCaptain Vash Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Talking Carl is fucking terrifying.

    terrifingly awesome?

    I'm serious about the talking carl incentive.
    If you take the time to mail me the sase I will give you the $1.08

    Captain Vash on
    twitterforweb.Stuckens.1,1,500,f4f4f4,0,c4c4c4,000000.png
  • lionheart_mlionheart_m Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I've been looking for Comic Book Readers; any suggestions?

    lionheart_m on
    3DS: 5069-4122-2826 / WiiU: Lionheart-m / PSN: lionheart_m / Steam: lionheart_jg
  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Apothe0sis wrote: »
    The Angry Birds is a pretty good game. I deem it worth the $1.20

    Angry Birds is glorious. Others will tell you that Crush the Castle is better. These people are filthy geese.

    Someone was asking for JRPGs, and yea, Vay and the Final Fantasies are about it. However, if you don't mind branching a bit into the ARPG area, the two Zenonia titles are absolutely excellent.

    As for other games:

    Space Miner is a great little Diablo/Asteroids crossbreed.
    Archon is Archon (i.e. awesome).
    Space Invaders: Infinity Gene is a shmup using the classing Space Invaders designs and making the gameplay 100x more awesome.
    Swords & Poker is a cool mix of poker and an RPG, kinda like a Puzzle Quest lite.
    Speaking of which, Puzzle Quest is available.
    iBlast Moki is another fun puzzler.
    Tiki Towers is another fun puzzler, very similar to Tower of Goo.
    More puzzlers? Bookworm and Peggle are amazing timekillers.
    Top Gun is a great Afterburner-clone.
    Let's Golf is essentially Hot Shots Golf on iPhone.

    I need to stop with the games... I still have more. D:

    Non game apps:
    The Weather Channel is far better than the shitty app that comes on the phone.
    World Factbook is a great little .99 app that is an encyclopedia of the nations of the world. It updates every month or so to keep up with changes.
    Pandora deserves a spot in the OP. Its absence is noted. *angry fist shake*
    NPR's news app is pretty decent.
    NASA's app is also pretty fun to play around with.
    Al Lowe's Cyberjoke 3000 is cheap and fun. And it's made by Al Lowe. Support the guy!

    Shadowfire on
    WiiU: Windrunner ; Guild Wars 2: Shadowfire.3940 ; PSN: Bradcopter
  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Lucascraft: I forgot to mention, but you wanted a dice rolling app. I haven't used any of the pay-for ones, but I downloaded one just called Dice Bag. It has;
    d4
    d6
    d8
    d10
    d12
    d20
    Also, it has percentile, 3d6, and 4d6-lowest.

    Good enough?

    Shadowfire on
    WiiU: Windrunner ; Guild Wars 2: Shadowfire.3940 ; PSN: Bradcopter
  • LucascraftLucascraft Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Shadowfire wrote: »
    Lucascraft: I forgot to mention, but you wanted a dice rolling app. I haven't used any of the pay-for ones, but I downloaded one just called Dice Bag. It has;
    d4
    d6
    d8
    d10
    d12
    d20
    Also, it has percentile, 3d6, and 4d6-lowest.

    Good enough?

    Yeah, I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the find.

    Lucascraft on
  • SomethingorotherSomethingorother Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    iComic is a nice app for reading manga and any other comic. It reads .zip and .cbz, but does not support .rar or .cbr, however you can convert to .zip very easily using 7zip on your own. If you jailbreak your device reading comics is a breeze, otherwise you can set up an FTP server, as the app has such support. This app is meant for people who want to read from a direct source rather than a downloaded one, and I personally love it for the $2 it costs.

    Somethingorother on
  • IdolisideIdoliside Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Anyone who wants a decent ereader should check out Stanza. Can import ANY ebook file you have on your computer via your wireless conneciton, plus has access to online stores which contain thousands of free ebooks. I love it. Oh and it's free...

    Idoliside on
    Proud member of Noah's Wangship Steam Group
    iusb_760x100.8161697.jpgBunting, Owls and Cushions! Feecloud Designs
  • jeddy leejeddy lee Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Anyone now how the final fantasy 1 app looks on the iPad? Its still the iphone version, didn't want to shell the cash if it looks terribad.

    jeddy lee on
    Backlog Challenge: 0%
    0/8

    PS2
    FF X replay

    PS3
    God of War 1&2 HD
    Rachet and Clank Future
    MGS 4
    Prince of Persia

    360
    Bayonetta
    Fable 3

    DS
    FF: 4 heroes of light
  • HallowedFaithHallowedFaith Call me Cloud. Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Blizzard needs to hurry up and release the damn WoW Armory for the iPad already.

    iPad Recomendations:

    Minigore: Fun. Controls are super easy on the iPad, and it's kinda odd having that size of a screen playing that close to your face.

    Let's Golf: The game mechanic will not be anything you've never played with before if you've ever played "any-golf-game-evaar" - however you might find that this set of mechanics is not forgiving AT ALL. You make a slight overdraw on the power scale with bad timing, and it's done. It adds for more challange.

    Controlling zoomed in maps seemed a bit odd. It should be "drag-n-drop" for the sake of the purpose, but instead it's an on-screen directional mechanic where you touch the side of the screen you want this map section to move, except that it randomly zooms the fuck all over the place. Annoying when you're trying to line up for the next shot.


    Sidenote:
    The Simpsons games for the iPhone works so much better on the iPad. The controls just.. work better. The downside is they weren't made for the iPad so they are kinda huge, but damn... it works well. Best Joystick button control in any game i've ever played.

    Angry Birds is awesome. The HD version is fantastic, but... I had already beaten the ever living shit out of the iphone version, but a bigger prettier version is awesome. Plays well on the iPad.

    Additional Sidenote: I fucking hate that assholes are charging 400% more for games that they simply re-scaled to fit the ipad. Those games were probably built off a larger scale anyway and then shrunk for the iphone.

    Final Thought: WHERE THE FUCK IS MY PROF LAYTON GAME ALREADY?

    HallowedFaith on
    I'm making video games. DesignBy.Cloud
  • Captain VashCaptain Vash Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Does the ipad have talking carl?

    this might be a deal breaker.

    Captain Vash on
    twitterforweb.Stuckens.1,1,500,f4f4f4,0,c4c4c4,000000.png
  • HallowedFaithHallowedFaith Call me Cloud. Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    All the other iPhone apps work on the iPad. They are simply scaled to fit or original size.

    Talking Carl should work without any issues at all.

    HallowedFaith on
    I'm making video games. DesignBy.Cloud
  • takyristakyris Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    This is an iPad-specific question -- apologies if there's a better thread.

    Does the iPad have a good enough onscreen keyboard to use it for writing something longer than the twitter notes you can jot out on an iPhone? If the iPad had a keyboard close to something like a netbook in size, I could quite happily use it as an away-from-home word processor.

    takyris on
  • StarfuckStarfuck Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited April 2010
    Maybe I'm doing something wrong (iPhone), but is there an app that will dowload a pdf from a link and let me email it. I could not for the life of me figure this out the other day and thought maybe it was because I'm using gmail. Do I need to get a PDF specific app to do this?

    Starfuck on
    jackfaces
    "If you're going to play tiddly winks, play it with man hole covers."
    - John McCallum
  • HallowedFaithHallowedFaith Call me Cloud. Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    the iPad keyboard is decent. For long term typing, you just have to get familiar with it, but yes, totally.

    HallowedFaith on
    I'm making video games. DesignBy.Cloud
  • elevatureelevature Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Instapaper should be mandatory for all iPhone and iPad owners. You add a bookmarklet to your browser and when you find a long article that you want to read, but not right now, click the bookmarklet and it will save the article to your Instapaper account in a very readable format, with no ads or other crap, just the text and images of the actual article. Load it up on your iPhone/iPad and it does a quick sync and then you can read everything offline. There are free and paid versions that have essentially the same functionality, but the pro version has a few extra features that are not necessary but are nice to have. I bought it mostly because I loved the free version so much that I wanted to support the developer.

    Simplenote is an awesome free note app for the iPhone, much nicer than the built in Notes app. Syncs with Notational Velocity on the Mac too, so you can access/edit your notes on your computer.

    Reeder is my favourite RSS app for the iPhone. Looks great and has perfect syncing with Google Reader.

    If you like picross, and you should, CrossLogic is fantastic.

    And about Talking Carl...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-7mQhSZRgM

    elevature on
  • Apothe0sisApothe0sis Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality? Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Oh my god.

    Talking Carl!

    TALKING CARL!

    For 1.29 you can't go wrong.

    Apothe0sis on
  • LunkerLunker Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I've been thinking about refreshing the iPhone games thread we have in G&T to include iPad games and such. So far, the only iPad games i have are:

    - Flight Control HD: Awesome all over again. This was the first iPhone game I loved, and the iPad version is still killer. Still essentially the same thing, but it uses the huge new screen well and things get frantic a lot quicker.

    - Geometry Wars touch: it's ... adequate. I really love Geo Wars 2 on XBLA, and this is an admirable port but the controls aren't 100 percent there. The smart bomb is in a dumb place (tap the middle of the screen) and the whole virtual analog stick thing takes a while to get used to. I might be a little harsh on it because I already have access to the original.

    - Sam & Max Ep 1: the Penal Zone: I've literally only put in about 10 minutes. Some stuttering in the intro cutscenes, but it seems pretty solid. I love point-and-clicks on iPhone, so this seemed like a natural fit.

    I've also heard that the newly released and fucking awesome Espgaluda II on iPhone is so pixel-dense that it handles the transition to and 2x of iPad quite well. Any fans of shmups in general or Space invaders Infinity Gene in specific definitely need to grab it, as it's mindblowingly good.

    EDIT: Holy shit, that Talking Carl video is going to haunt me all day now.

    Lunker on
    Tweet my Face: @heyitslunker | Save money at CheapAssGamer (not an affiliate link)
  • WulfWulf Disciple of Tzeentch The Void... (New Jersey)Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Okay, that video up there... had me laughing so hard my co-worker thought I was choking to death. Sold!

    Wulf on
    Everyone needs a little Chaos!
  • RothgarrRothgarr Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I gotta wonder, though, if Talking Carl gets old after 1 minute... but I guess it is only 99 cents...

    Rothgarr on
  • Apothe0sisApothe0sis Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality? Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Rothgarr wrote: »
    I gotta wonder, though, if Talking Carl gets old after 1 minute... but I guess it is only 99 cents...

    It doesn't.

    I laughed so hard I had tears running down my face.

    Also, you have to keep the start of the thread in mind. When the first guy was offering to pay for talking carl for those who sent him SASEs.

    It reveals a whole new level of hilarity.

    Apothe0sis on
  • projectmayhemprojectmayhem Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Espgaluda II is indeed awesome. The controls are rock solid as well. I highly recommend picking it up as its on sale for 5$ as of now.

    projectmayhem on
  • WulfWulf Disciple of Tzeentch The Void... (New Jersey)Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Espgaluda II is indeed awesome. The controls are rock solid as well. I highly recommend picking it up as its on sale for 5$ as of now.

    Gesundheit :lol:

    Wulf on
    Everyone needs a little Chaos!
  • Captain VashCaptain Vash Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Apothe0sis wrote: »
    Rothgarr wrote: »
    I gotta wonder, though, if Talking Carl gets old after 1 minute... but I guess it is only 99 cents...

    It doesn't.

    I laughed so hard I had tears running down my face.

    Also, you have to keep the start of the thread in mind. When the first guy was offering to pay for talking carl for those who sent him SASEs.

    It reveals a whole new level of hilarity.

    When I'm bored on long car trips, I plug carl into my iphone-radio adaptor so he can speak using my car speakers, and we just sing scat back and forth.

    me: Boopidy boopidy bop bop bop

    Carl: beepidy beepidy bip bip bip

    Captain Vash on
    twitterforweb.Stuckens.1,1,500,f4f4f4,0,c4c4c4,000000.png
  • projectmayhemprojectmayhem Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Talking Carl on loop is what hell sounds like.

    projectmayhem on
  • DratatooDratatoo Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Talking Carl on loop is what hell sounds like.

    "MY VOICE IS HIGHER THAN YOUR VOICE!" :lol::) o_O D:

    Dratatoo on
  • LanzLanz ...Za?Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    So hey, Opera Mini got approved and should be available in 24 hours.

    http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/12/opera-mini-for-iphone-approved-will-be-available-for-free/

    oh yes, and for free.

    reports have it that apparently it's already up in the UK and Australia stores

    Lanz on
    waNkm4k.jpg?1
  • MetallikatMetallikat Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Lanz wrote: »
    So hey, Opera Mini got approved and should be available in 24 hours.

    http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/12/opera-mini-for-iphone-approved-will-be-available-for-free/

    oh yes, and for free.

    reports have it that apparently it's already up in the UK and Australia stores

    I imagine the situation being some poor bastard falling asleep and accidentally hitting the "Accept App" button, then snapping awake screaming incoherently at the visions of the inevitable beatings he will receive for this. But I could be wrong.

    Metallikat on
  • RothgarrRothgarr Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Any word if it's also optimized for iPad?

    Rothgarr on
  • chrpnkchrpnk Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Rothgarr wrote: »
    Any word if it's also optimized for iPad?

    It won't be. The iPhone version was submitted a few weeks ago.

    chrpnk on
  • MonoxideMonoxide Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited April 2010
    I'd expect an iPad version to be released in the future though.

    I still don't see it on the US AppStore...

    Monoxide on
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