There are lots of really great iphone games out there, but sometime you want a game that does not take too much investment to learn or long term focus. These are simple additive games that you can call up and play while waiting in line or on the subway or wherever you have a quick 10-15 min to kill. So, in typical top ten format, my choices for the best simple additive iphone games out there.  I know there are no images posted.  I’ll get to it. Remember, this blog is written first, edited later.

10. Monster truck TN

This is a fun monster truck game where you have to navigate a monster truck through a 2d course trying to keep it level with the track while beating the preset time to get gold silver or bronze .Through out the game you will unlock two new trucks, a school bus and an indie 500 car. This game is a very simple racing game but still really fun.

9. Paper Toss

This is a pretty popular game that I played for a while that’s addictive. The goal of this game is to throw a ball of paper into a trash can and keep the longest streak you can going. You also have to watch out for the fan because the faster the fan speed the farther your paper ball will go off course.  The graphics are pretty good for this.

8. Icopter

This helicopter game is a game that I always played on the computer and was pretty excited when they brought it to itouch. First you set the speed and gravity and then navigate throught the course lifting your finger off and on the screen trying to last as long as possible.

7. Trace

I haven’t gotten to into this game yet but it is still really fun. There are over a hundred different levels to chose from. There is a little guy who you can make go left and right and jump, but the part of the game is that you draw your own map from point A to B trying to get around all of the obstacles of the map.

6. Blooms TD

This is your classic tower defense game except with the bloons twist. You can buy things such as monkeys, boomerangs, cannons, and supermonkey’s to try and pop all of the bloons before they navigate through the map. Although simple it is one of the most addictive games I have ever played but not enough to make number 1.. yet.

5. Touchgrind

This is a touch skateboarding game a lot like other skateboarding games you have played except in this one you have an arial view and your middle and index finger to all the work of riding ollieing and grinding while on the board.

4. Cube Runner

This is another game that came from the internet and is very simple. All you have to do is guide your arrow through the levels without hitting the blocks by tilting your itouch or iphone. The best part of this game is how smooth the graphics are. I have the feeling this was originally created to test out displaying graphics and working with the tilt, and turned into a game.  This game has been around since the 2.0 days of the iphone. Perhaps before that.

3. Bloons

Bloons is another tower defence type of game and I am really surprised if someone hasn’t heard of this game as it was really popular on the web about a year ago, thus I’m sure that it will become popular on the iphone.  There are fifty levels with different bloon configurations and your monkey is allotted a certain amount of darts to pop as many of the of bloons to pass through the path.

2. Line Rider

This used to be my favorite game of all time. What you do it draw a course using the touch screen making jumps and loopty loops. When your down designing your course, you click ‘play’ and your little line rider on his sled will go and follow your course using the physics of gravity, friction and collision. Pretty impressive really. They even made a McDonalds commercial from the nonIphone version. Pretty crazy really. There is a link at the bottom of this post.

1. DoodleJump

This game definitely has to be my all time favorite game ever. A lot like the game papi jump except you are a weird elephant thing and you get items such as springs, spring shoes,trampolines, and jet packs along the way. You can also change the scheme of the game by changing the highscore name to ooga and snow.

And thus my list.  I’ll update it now and again.  Have better suggestions? Let me know and I’ll give it a try.

McDonalds Line Rider commercial

As a social media consultant it’s always important for me to be “connected” not just to clients or friends, but to information on the web.   Of course, not all of the apps I use are necessarily for business, but many of the ones I have listed here are.  A lot of these apps don’t even have much to do with social media consulting, but that’s what I am and these are the apps I use (not jailbroken, at which Chris shakes his head)

Twittelator

Twitter has been a tremendous resource and valuable networking tool, so naturally I try to stay connected even when I am not around my PC.  Twittelator is my favorite free way to stay connected to the various conversations on twitter.

Google

Google has a great app available that allows you to access things such as your RSS feed, Goog 411, News, etc.  Part of being a consultant means you have to know what’s going on in the social media space…all the time.  I’ll be honest, the thing I use the most from the Google app is the RSS feed, this allows me to stay up to date on the latest social media news and technologies.  If you need a free portable way to access your RSS feeds, the Google app is for you.

IM+Lite

This application is pretty much an all around chat app.  I use it to connect with people on aim and gchat when I’m traveling around.  Fring is another one you can check out, I haven’t used it but have heard good things.

Facebook

Truth be told I use facebook mainly as an event management tool.  I use facebook to find out about new events in my area and as a calendar.  While I do like the facebook app one shortcoming I have noticed is that it doesn’t let me view various events.  Still, it’s a good app for connecting with people on the go.

News Apps, i,e. NY Times, USA Today

The various news apps out there are great, I can stay up do date on everything from economic news to tech news.  The apps are easy to navigate and read which is a huge plus.  I can scan an article in about a minute on iphone, so it’s a huge time saver and an efficient way to read the news.

Chess

Eh what can I say I’m a huge chess nerd, by far my most favorite app is called chess with friends.  Chess with friends is an app that lets me play games against contacts or random folks on the network.  I usually have at least 5 games going at a time and I can make a move at my leisure.  If you like chess then this is a must have app!

Pandora

Do I really need to explain this one?  Free streaming music on the go anywhere?  Ya, it’s amazing

There are plenty of other apps I use out there, the list can go on and on.  I’m also a big fan of apps such as linkedin, yelp, urbanspoon, around me, etc.  But the ones I listed above are my favorites…for now.  That is until I jailbreak my phone and will have the ability to tether my iphone to my laptop, when that day comes, then you might see a different favorite app post from me

In the meantime connect with me on twitter

First new entry: Clippy

Clippy was first sold as a ‘kinda’ cut and paste system.  And ‘kinda’ is about as accurate as  you can get, which given the absolute FAIL on Apple’s part for not having cut and paste, is still pretty good.  But where Clippy shines, and why it’s a ‘must have’ is the ability to store a list of words/phrases for pasting. Kinda like the clipboard stack in windows. I also like that it does ‘cut’ from SMS messages. Very useful for addresses.

Next new entry: clearCam

As we all know, and I have said many times, the camera on the iphone is about as weak as it gets. Well this app does something about it. Now understand this is only useful for still images, but the results cannot be argued.  Have a look at this..

Original Shot

Enhanced Shot

Crazy right? I’m guessing I slightly moved the phone at the time of the first shot, and the other 5 shots corrected my movement! I will NEVER take another still shot with the normal camera again.  Also, this takes the normal 2m shot and bumps it up to 4m providing cleaner details.  Sweeettt.

So, what fell off the list?

5. QuickUnlock (now removed)

4. QuickGold (now removed)

As much as I liked these two apps, ‘something’ has to give. And in this case, its these two.

Now the question is, does the order change at all?   Yup.  Here is the old and new list..

I left the numbers to make it easier to see where things were. The big jumps were PdaNet, IntelliScreen and Qik.  I’m not sure how long Qik will hold this position though, its been hit and miss for me mostly because of limitations of the situation, poor light or poor connection, or the fact I keep forgetting to take the macro lens off.

..and here is a link to my static top 10 list.  I’ll update this later today.

Lets start with the non jailbreak apps:

Wifi, Files lite or Air sharing:  These apps allows you to share your iphone like a usb drive via wifi. So load up some of your key docs and keep them on hand ready to share at any time.  Looking for work? Put your CV on there.  The user simply types in a URL on their web browser and downloads the file. I like Wifi most because it allows the visitor to download images from my device as well. Now what will happen when more then 1 person has this running at the same time? I’m going to guess the port numbers will change. This will be interesting.

Handshake, SnapDat, beamME: One of the most annoying things about the iphone is the inability to easily exchange contact info. I loved how on the palm/treo you simply press and hold the address button and your contact  is beamed across. Perfect!   I’ve used SnapDat and beamME and its kludgy, it works, but kludgy. So, load all 3, you never know who has what. You can dump them later.

Fring: This is a great app.  If you need to watch your minutes, fring is a great VoIP. Something to keep on hand.

Doodles: This may surprise a few people, but you never know when you want to sketch up a diagram really quick. You can save your sketch as a picture, and then share that sketch Wifi.

Urbanspoon, Yelp:  Not from around these parts?  Needs a place to get your grub on? Either of these apps will help you find something to fill your grill.

Stitcher radio: Since you will be in various meetings, you may not have the time to read the various blogs you would normally check out throughout the day. Stitcher has many blogs, like slashdot and techcrunch as well as podcasts like digital planet and cybershake.

iEasyCamera:  I’ve been to enough shows to see people struggle trying to take a pic with the iPhone at an odd angle, typically of themselves with friends. With this app, you can press anywhere on the screen to take your shot.

vlingo: I like this better then google’s voice search. Since you can select map vs. web vs. address book, I found that my results are much better.

Now lets look at jailbroken apps:

SBSetting: This is my MUST have jailbreak app. Esp. given the likely dodgy nature of wifi and 3G that always seem to occur at these events, the ability to turn wifi, 3g on and off quickly is a must. More here..

Cycoder, Qik: Sure the iphone camera is not that great, and as such the videos are not that great, but they are good enough to capture the moment. With Qik, you can do a live broadcast. More on Cycoder and Qik here.

PdaNet: So the wifi at that cafe is not working eh?  and you already set up and bought your coffee? Never fear, you have PdaNet.  Tether your laptop to your iphone.  More here..

So this is my list.  Have other apps that your think are a MacWorld must have?  Let me know and I’ll add it to the list.

See you at the show!

Latest news on jailbreaking the iphone.  Check it here.

And as always, if anyone thinks they know of something better then what I have here, I’m open to input.

Number 10 …. (drum roll)

10. WinterBoard iPhone pimping made easy. The is normally the first thing people install and spend HOURS playing with. As for me, with exception to a few small changes, I do not bother with it since many of the changes can slow the phone down a touch.
9. 3G Unrestrictor 3G Unrestrictor allows you to go around the iPhone’s limitations and restrictions of not being able to use some applications like FaceTime, iCloud Backup, Photo Stream or high quality YouTube videos while on a mobile internet connection like 3G or EDGE as well as many other things. It allows those things by tricking applications into believing they are on WiFi, even though they are on 3G or EDGE.
8. DriveSave.ly This is a cool little app that you can get on all other phones, just not the iphone, without jailbreak. This app will listen for new SMS messages and convert those messages to voice.  Great when driving or REALLY great when motorcycling. I’ve been messing with PHP code to extend this to support email. I’ll update when I get it done. More on drivesafe.ly here.
7. VoiceActivatorJust as it sounds.  Near full command of your iphone through voice commands.  That includes ipod control, dialing people, opening web pages, even getting the time. I have not messed with this that much, but I’m trying to get map search to work.	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrVgvTgyUs8&feature=player_embedded
6. CyntactThis is pretty useful, at least for me. A simple hack, you get images of people next to their name.  Really I cannot understand why this is not part of the OS
5. Backgrounder Backgrounder is nothing but coolness.  In fact, the only reason I do not have this lower then 5 is that I do not use it THAT much.. But LOVE it when I do.  Multithreading is something that is new and only for iOS4 users.  Yea right?  Nope. its not true multithreading AND its only for those apps that implemented it.  So what about that cool game you have been playing?  Nope, unless its been updated recently, most likely multithreading on iOS4 will not work. You can read more on iOS4 and backgrounder here. Bollocks to that.  With Backgrounder you can use for any app , and I do.

4. IntelliScreenX 6 As much as I like this app, I’m still not 100% sure I’m going to keep it. It seems to have issues now and again.. Interfering with screen init(), slowing the iphone down, not working at times.. We’ll see. I still need to update to 6.
3. PdaNet If you are ever in need of interwebs access for your laptop and there is no free wifi is site, well, use the iPhone! Its not fast, but handy when you need it.I also have this selected over MiWi because MiWi does not work on the latest iOS builds.  PDANet, works great.  Great for connecting my ipad.More here..
2. Categories A must have if you have lots if junk on your iPhone. Basically its folders for your icons! Clear and simple.yea, I know, iphone4 has this… too little to late pal.
1. SBSetting I could not go one day without this. (this is a older pic, its even better) This perfect little app provides a short cut to your most used settings and aps. I turn 3G on and off quite often, and going through all the menus within settings is a royal pain. With SBSetting, I simply swipe across the top of the screen and there they are.. ready for toggles. Sweeeettt.. More here..

Now, the following did not make the top 10, but I thought I would mention them anyway..

Quake. Yup ID’s Quake from the old days.  I do not play it much, just glad that its there.

VideoRecorder. If this worked properly I would place it over CyCorder because I love the fact you can change setting on both voice and sound.  More here.

Retro Phone Dialer.. What can I say??  Is just plain cool.

Revisions:

Dec ’08

10. Qik

9. Unix Tools

8. WinterBoard

7. IntelliScreen

6. PdaNet

5. QuickUnlock

4. QuickGold

3. Cycoder

2. Categories

1. SBSetting

http://www.3gunrestrictor.com/depiction/

1) Unix tools (esp. SSH and Terminal) .  If you have to ask, you do not need it

2) Videorecoder – The only bummer is this app does not work on 2.1 right now. I use QIK for now. Its curious to me that apple has not put video in the phone. I still have the feeling they are going to partner with someone to release it thought the store for 9.99.   Even 1/2 a million downloads is $5m.  You KNOW they are not going to leave that kind of money on the table. 

3) Categories – This is a new application that allows you to put icons into folders. The moment I saw this, I knew it would be a most have. My iphone is much cleaner now. 

4) BossPrefs – This app also has minor issues in 2.1.  When you turn 3G on or off it will sometimes turn wifi off.  I’m sure they will fix this soon.

5) Customize – Although you can change almost anything about the graphics and sounds through this app, for me, I use it for one thing.  Change the alarm to something that will actually wake me up.

How do I sync this thing?

You need to have itunes. Sorry, no way around this.. and i have been looking. However, I would recommend getting this application. TouchCopy. Be careful though, do not go around deleting things you are not sure about.

I have a bunch of mp3s. Can I load them on the phone?

Yes you can. I would recommend you do everything in mp3 if you can. Load them through itunes. For my windows friends who do not have ipods (yes they exist), do not think about things in folders anymore, get used to categories.

What is this I hear about 3G not being very good?

It’s not. Sorry to tell you. They are working on it and they may be able to improve it through firmware, but get used to keeping the 3G off unless you are using it for web browsing or downloading files. More here.

How can I extend battery life?

• Keep the brightness only as bright as you need it. A great feature is the iphone will auto adjust from your setting. Great.
• Keep 3G off unless you need it. Same with the WIFI.
  
• Have the email check ‘push’ off and only check email every 30 min. I however do not do that. NEED that blackberry email rush. :p
• Keep your iphone plugged in as often as possible. Try to only let it drain to empty once every few month. Apple says once a month, but I don’t agree. 2-3 months unless you tend not to run on battery that much.
• Keep the phone out of the sun. Heat is bad for the phone all around.
  
• More info here directly from Apple.
  

I keep dropping calls, what can I do?

If you are dropping calls, try to keep your phone OS updated till its stops. Keep 3G off. Every now and again, do a full reboot of the phone. If you are on the edge of service, the position of your phone will have an affect on reception. Totally trial and error to figure that out. For me, pointing the top of the phone toward where I know where the tower is does help a bit… only a bit.

Should I buy a case?

Yes, Now, do it now.

Should I get the 8 gig or 16 gig version?

If you only plan on having some music, 8 gig should be enough. If you plan on putting video on, then you may want to think about the 16 gig. Between apps, music and photos, it does get full fast.

What is jailbreak? What is pwned? Should I do it?

Basically, its a rewrite of the of the firmware that allows people to install programs without going through the apple store. The plus side is the applications have more access to functions then going through the normal SDK. The downside is its a hack, so no promises as to what will happen. Odds are 95% that you will be fine, but don’t count on Apple to help you. Here is a link.

Also, click on ‘jailbreak‘ under Categories on the right. I blog about it quite a bit.

Can I get hacked version of programs and load them on the iphone?

Not really. This isn’t like windows mobile or Palm. If you want to go that way, check into jailbreak or pwned.

Why does my car power adaptor from my first iphone not work on the 3G iphone?

The 3G does not use the firewire pin for power anymore. Many older (cheaper) power adapters used that pin because it allowed more power, thus faster charge. More here and here.

What programs should I load on my iphone?

I have a few free ones I like. Here is an older list. I will update it tomorrow.

Where can I get a list of of new iphone apps when they come out?

• {update} Just came across this site from Pinch Media.  Looks like they keep up to date and they include an RSS feed.
• There are a few sites but they all seem like they are a few days behind, but this one looks good although there are things I do not like about it.
• There are also Web based apps. Apple has a list here.
  
• I have a list here that comes from twitter. Its just plain text, but I may add functions to it later. However, this seems to have the latest apps. I tend to go here once a day and find thats good enough.

Any Other tips?

Sure. Check this out.

What about linux?

Nothing yet, but I’m looking.

I’ll add more as more Q and A comes in.

If you have never been to a dev camp, (whatever the technology) it basically works this way… (video walkthrough). You show up on Friday. Some people will have project ideas and can code, others are just looking to learn a few new tricks and others are fully new to the technology but eager to dive in. The projects are normally simple things to prove out ideas, but occasionally you will see something with a bit more polish to it. The general idea though is to exchange solutions to problems, the creation of the projects are simply a means to an end. As for myself, I do not know how to program in objectiveC (the platform for iphone apps) so i missed a great opportunity to dive in and learn. Ah well. The next one.

Before I get into some of the cools apps that came out, I have to compliment the company that sponsored the beer. Great choice!

beer served at iphonebarcamp

I should also compliment the swag. A pretty nice iphone case, mic/headset adapter (useful given you cannot drive and talk on the phone anymore in California, more here at the end of this blog) and a container for your iphone chord.

Ok, to the applications: The listed application are the ones that I thought either has a clear market or I thought they solved or demonstrated a very cool technology. This is part one though, after this list is the stuff that was demo’ed, so be sure to hit the link to my friends blog for that.

Life Record EMR full blown medical records in the palm of your hand on the iPhone! support@liferecord.com A pretty cool app. I’m not sure how well this will do with HIPPA, but it had a nice feel and flow when I saw it.

Appleopolis.com has a comprehensive listing of iPhone apps with both an iPhone and desktop compatible version of the site. They also have free online iPhone accounts that people can use to add, store and manage all their web apps. For more info contact infoATappleopolisDOTcom. I will use this. I was thinking of writing something like this but with less features…. I still might write it though.

MyMetar iPhone Edition is an elegant aviation weather application for iPhone carrying pilots that is fully integrated with MyMetar.com, by Tyson Weihs and Jason Miller. I was really mad that I missed this one. I checked it out on my iphone and it shows promise. They need to really work in the GPS. The other reason I wanted to see this and chat to the guys who wrote it is because a long long long time ago, on a p1 PC far far away, I worked on something like this but WITH GPS and navigation and other useful bits of information for the small craft pilot. I may send them an email.

Spry Data and Widgets for iPhone by Spry Team Although still a bit buggy by Sunday, this shows promise. What I love is the simplicity. Basically it’s a game platform with no logic. Love it. I wrote a card game for Vyew and took the same approach, no rules, just a bunch of cards. We humans have been playing games for years without computers, so why do computers have to have rules? Mock up an XML with the location of the images involved, and ‘boom’ you have a game! Ok, there is a touch more to it, but not much more.

App Marks is web desktop for the iPhone that organizes your favorite web applications, widgets, and sites. – by App Marks team, info at appmarks dot com. At first I thought this was just ok, but after playing with it, this could be pretty useful.

Mojits (mobile widgets) is a launcher for iPhone widgets that can be customized from phone or desktop. It includes ratings, comments, tags, and a fully phonified interface. I will be using this.

iDictate.org iDictate has turned the Apple iPhone into an awesome go-anywhere dictation device with the finished documents promptly emailed back to the user for final editing. Transcription fees start at slightly more than a penny per word, with no monthly charges. Man, I really wanted this to work because I could really use it. I will check back. Once they get this right, I will reblog it.

iSleuth is an internet frame grabber application which transmits near realtime iSight or built-in camera images from your MacBook or Mac to your iPhone on-demand. iSleuth can be used for any monitoring application, including baby, vacation home, pet, elder-care, entry doorway, outdoor weather, and more. By Srini Raja, Jacob Balthazor, and Brian Balthazor

gOffice for iPhone First working word processor for the iPhone. Create Microsoft Word docs with built in graphics, header and ‘fake’ but real looking signature. Save results by emailing them to yourself or others. The gOffice for iPhone site is being launched today, 7/7/07. This is a cool app, but until the keyboard is sorted out, I can only see this for limited editing. But thats worth it.

Telekinesis: Remotely access your Mac through a collection of mini web apps on your phone.

heysan! AIM, MSN, ICQ is a free mobile IM service with support for AIM, MSN and ICQ. Visit http://m.heysan.com in your iphone or mobile phone to sign in. Will soon include support for Google Talk and Yahoo. I didnt try it, but it looks good.

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Now, many of the things we saw on Sunday did not make it to the site, and I looked. However, Mager, being the good chap he is, photographed and wrote on each one. Some of these are very cool! So for more information, picture and some video, check out his blog. And check this out….

iMusicMash – Web app. Basically your iTunes library super-charged with a mashup. Uses Yahoo’s boss API to return photos. Uses LyricsWiki.org to get lyrics. Pings the YouTube API to return a bunch of videos of your favorite artists. And finally, it uses the Last.fm API to help you find similar artists to the artists you select. I will be playing with this too.

ok, assuming you already jailbroke your phone, and have the app installer in place, let get some kewl stuff.

• IntelliScreen. I wrote about this app before. Its sweet.
• SMBPref. MUST have. Get this first in fact. Althoght I use the blueprint theme, the hello kitty theme rocks!
• address book search by polarbearfarm. A must have if you have a large address book.
• voicenotes. More useful then you think. I use it during brainstorming session that sometimes happen at random times.
• sketches. Not great pressure recognition, but useful at times, and shaking the screen clear is fun.
• snapture. I like the detail control you have over the camera. Can be useful in low light situations
• Customize. Does not seem to work past v1.1.2
• ebook reader. There are many. You would be surprised, but its quite readable if you do not read for more then say an hour.
• there are a number of twitter clinets out there. I use mobile twitter because its the fastest I’ve seen. Although twitxr looks kinda cool
• Chess. Nuff said
• guitarist. if you play guitar, this will be fun.
• Band. This is quite an impressive effort. Its not ready yet, but you can download many instruments. Once they have it where you can record multitrack style and punch in and out, then we will have something here.
• BossPrefs. I use the basic one to quickly turn services on and off when I need to save power, I also keep ssh off, and bossprefs makes it easy to turn back on when I need it.
• RagingThunder. The coolest racing game for the iphone. period. Get it!
• VideoRecorder. VERY impressive. Lots of controls for light, sound, compression
• VNsea. I use this to VNC to my linux box late at night when I have long jobs running. Great!
• Pool. Nuff said.
• ssh support. If you know what I’m talking about, then odds are you will figure this out yourself.

so this is a quick list. There are other things I run on my iphone, like a 3D Quake like game that is not ready for prime time, a piano, replacement controller for ipod player, and other stuff.

the VNC app though. How cool is it to remote into your desktop (they have it for win and mac too) and contol it with your iphone?

Christopher