Web Sites Sell Phone Apps Online

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Zynga’s “Scramble Live” on iPhone & iPod Touch

Zynga (www.zynga.com), the largest social gaming company, announced today the launch of “Scramble Live”– the mobile version of its wildly popular word game – exclusively for the iPhone and iPod Touch. “Scramble Live,” a fast-paced casual game that challenges players to quickly find words in a grid, marks the first word game on the iPhone that allows players to compete live with other users on Facebook, the iPhone, and iPod Touch in real time. Scramble is currently one of Facebook’s Top 25 games with more than 1 million monthly active users and its popularity continues to grow.

“Scramble Live” takes full advantage of multi-touch technology through gameplay and uses the iPhone and iPod Touch’s accelerometer and multi-touch to rotate the board. At the end of each round, players are shown how missed words are formed on the board. The game includes three modes of play:

• Solo – Play in ladder mode to beat your friends’ scores
• Live – Play against other users in real time
• Play & Pass – Play with up to three other people sitting next to you on the same device

“Scramble Live” is available for all first and second-generation iPhones, as well as all first and second-generation iPod Touches. “Scramble Live” is available for $4.99, with a $2.99 limited-time launch special. The game is offered in the iTunes store at: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=305904527&mt=8.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=5909404&lang=en.

More Sales with E-Commerce iPhone Apps

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iPhone Fart App 'Pull My Finger' Still In Dispute

The producer of a farting iPhone app is making a legal stink over another flatulence app in a looming trademark battle over the phrase, "pull my finger."

The brouhaha concerns Air-O-Matic of Florida, the maker of the popular "Pull My Finger" app, which claims the maker of rival "iFart Mobile" is misappropriating the phrase "pull my finger" in its advertisements. Such an assertion, according to iFart Mobile maker InfoMedia of Colorado, reeks of an misunderstanding of American fart culture.

Kevin Houchin, InfoMedia's lawyer, explains:

The phrase "pull my finger," and derivations thereof, are generally known and widely understood in American society to be a joke or prank regarding flatulence. The prank begins when the prankster senses the deep stirrings of flatulence. The prankster then requests that an unsuspecting person pull [his or her] finger. The prankster extends his index finger to the victim. As the victim pulls the prankster's finger, his flatulence erupts so as to suggest a causal relationship between the pulling of the finger and the subsequent expulsion of gas. In other words, the phrase "pull my finger" is understood to be a description of the act of passing gas.

"InfoMedia's efforts have been directed at merging 'Pull My Finger' and 'iFart' in the consumers' minds, so that searches for 'Pull My Finger' pull up the iFart application," AOM attorney Karen Koster Burr wrote (.pdf) InfoMedia in a letter demanding $50,000 payment.

Adult Industry Has SomeTech Ideas

If the desperation at the XBIZ Conference this week is any indication, the adult industry is now in a frantic struggle to adapt to the digital era and find a profitable business model that will work on the web.

That is leading to all kinds of innovation. A device called RealTouch relies on ‘haptic’ technology to allow viewers to literally ‘feel’ what is going on on-screen. Here’s how it works: the user plugs an egg-shaped device into a computer, inserts his penis, and then can simulates the sex acts occurring in a porno film, aided by heat or lubricants.

At the end of the conference on Wednesday evening, one new idea was attracting notice: a gyrating, woman on an iPhone who stripped progressively.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

Top 10 iPhone Games - MORE!

10. JellyCar (Free)

You said: "You guide your car through various courses trying to complete in the best time. The game uses 'Jelly Physics,' where your car bends, stretches and even breaks. It seems silly at first but after a few minutes, you're hooked!"

Our take: Based on the Xbox Community Game of the same name, JellyCar has clever crayonlike graphics and a unique gameplay gimmick where your gelatin-based vehicle rolls and smooshes its way toward the goal. Figuring out the physics can be challenging, and playing with the iPhone can be a bit of a pain. You have to press the left and right areas of the screen to get the car accelerating, then tilt the iPhone to add rotation to the vehicle. A few minutes of this and it's carpal tunnel time.

9. WordWarp ($1)

You said: "Take six given letters and make as many words as possible in the time limit."

Our take: Do you enjoy playing Jumble in the daily paper? Just like the well-known pen-and-paper puzzle, WordWarp gives you a scrambled six-letter word. You're tasked with unscrambling it, but also with coming up with as many smaller words as can be made from its letters in a two-minute time window. The "warp" feature lets you randomize the letters, which helps when forming words. Unfortunately (and aggravatingly), the word list isn't complete -- we found a lot of words it didn't accept.

8. Cube Runner (Free)

You said: "Free and highly addictive."

Our take: Looking very much like an early prototype of Star Fox, Cube Runner is a very simple exercise in not screwing up. Pilot your ship by tilting the iPhone left and right. Don't hit any of the cubes. For each second you stay alive, you get points; crash and it's game over. No checkpoints, no goal other than a high score. Cube Runner makes great use of subtle and responsive tilt controls, but it's less a test of your gamer aptitude than an exercise in seeing how long you can be exposed to the same repeating stimulus until you inevitably get distracted and crash.

7. Tap Defense (Free)

You said: "Set up turrets, then let the demons attack. It's great for playing in short bursts."

Our take: You're lucky we even let this one on the list, considering we covered its genre to death with Crystal Defenders and Field Runners in our previous Top 10. Tap Defense is nearly identical to those games -- waves of enemies approach your position, and you have to set up increasingly powerful sets of weaponized defense towers to hold them off. Once you buy and place your towers and the enemies flood in, there's nothing you can do except wait to see if your automatic defense system works.

6. Topple (Free)

You said: "Fun, casual stacking game from the folks that made Rolando. Bought Rolando but seem to end up playing this free game more. It's fast and fun and makes great use of the iPhone interface."

Our take: Blocks fall from the sky. But instead of just rotating them by 90-degree increments and placing them in neat piles, you have to drag and rotate them with your fingers, then gently build a stack that doesn't fall over. At first it's easy, but then you get more-challenging oddly shaped platforms (above) and things like eggs that don't stack perfectly. It's charming, addictive, works very well with the iPhone -- and you can't beat the price.

5. iShoot ($3)

You said: "Seriously? How could this not be at the top?"

Our take: Hey, it's Scorched Earth! We used to play this in high school on the computers in the library. This classic DOS game pitted four tanks against each other in turn-based, 2-D battle. Each tank takes its turn firing off a round of ammo, which destroys other tanks as well as the environment. Last tank standing wins, and you can buy more weapons between rounds. In iShoot, you can aim with the touch screen. Otherwise, it's pretty much identical to the classic, down to the taunting battle cries from your opponents.

4. Trism ($3)

You said: "Bejeweled-like but better, with tilt controls and more complex movement/combo possibilities. Very addictive. You can save games too (they can last quite a while). I would pick Trism over Bejeweled every time."

Our take: I'll agree with this -- Trism is much more complex than Bejeweled. So much so that it seems to be out of my league. Matching three like-colored gems by sliding the diagonal rows of pieces is one thing. But going beyond that initial match to set up combos isn't something my brain can process. Especially since you can alter the way the blocks fall by reorienting the iPhone so "down" is a different direction. Clever. But I just started sliding the rows in all different directions and racked up crazy combos by tilting the iPhone around randomly. Trism might be great for puzzle nuts, but I wouldn't call it casual.

3. Wurdle ($2)

You said: "Wurdle is similar to the board game Boggle, but even more addictive. Wurdle is the only game which has the privilege of living on my home screen."

Our take: One of many Boggle clones in the App Store, Wurdle's gameplay will be immediately apparent to you if you've ever played the famous word-creation game. Join up contiguous letters from the randomly generated 5x5 grid to make as many words as you can in 12 minutes. The word lists are far more complete than WordWrap's, so it'll recognize just about anything. But you won't even make a dent in the list of possibilities. If a 5x5 grid is too much for you, competing game Quordy ($3) is almost identical to Wurdle, but with a 4x4 grid instead.

2. Galcon ($5)

You said: "So easy, yet so challenging."

Our take: This is my favorite of the iPhone games recommended by Wired.com readers. It's a lightning-fast game where you and your opponent start out with a planet, and quickly start dragging your ships to nearby planets to take them over. The number on each planet is the number of your ships it'll take to conquer it. Each time you take over a planet, it starts generating more ships depending on how large it is. So the optimal strategy is to drag your ships to large planets with small numbers. Games take a minute or two at most -- you don't have time to plan a huge strategy, just to think on your feet.

1. Lux Touch (Free, deluxe version is $8)

You said: "A casual, Risk-like game that is thoroughly addictive. Can't save, but hey, it's free. And you can finish most games in 10 to 15 minutes."

Our take: Similar to Galcon, Lux World is about taking over territory and building your armies in a short span of time. But this game is turn-based instead of real-time, and hard instead of easy. In each turn, you can attack neighboring territories, place more armies on the map and shuffle their positions around. But it takes a careful balance of offense and defense to secure more land without leaving yourself vulnerable.

Casinos FREAK over iPhone Card Counting App

An iPhonecard-counting system recently turned up in a California Indian casino. This new application is causing a lot of fuss, and Nevada gaming regulators have issued a general alert about it, warning Las Vegas casinos about its potential use in gameplay.

That's not the case across the country. In New Jersey, the case of Uston v. Resorts Internation Hotel Inc was decided in the gambler's favor, as the state Supreme Court ultimately ruled that Atlantic City casinos could not bar skilled players. It's different in Las Vegas—they can bully, harass, and back off customers so long as they stay within certain legal boundaries.

So when it comes to Las Vegas, while thinking isn't technically illegal, casinos can and will choose to kick you out when you think too much or too well. But using assistive devices? That is definitely illegal pretty much everywhere, whether you're gaming in NJ, Nevada, or California. In Nevada, you can count in your head all you want, but the second you start using technological assistance, you've crossed a line and are committing a felony.

In Nevada, each casino makes its own rules regarding the policing of electronic devices at gaming tables. Obviously not all devices are used to give players advantages. I'm sure it's nice when you can call the wife on your cell phone and say you'll be a little late returning to the hotel room, for example.

Casinos are well aware of the hazards though. Harrah's Entertainment banned the iPhone at the World Series of Poker shortly after the iPhone debuted. With this latest system exposed and the flexibility and programability of smart-phones on the rise, you can expect more crackdowns on electronic device use near the gaming tables.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

Games for Jailbroken iPhones

Steve Jobs’ worst-case scenario is about to come true.

Comes now Variah, with a brand new mobile “gaming” app exclusively for jailbroken iPhones and iPod Touch that lets users interactively touch, strip and stroke beautiful models to climax.

Apple’s mobile devices are soon enough going to be definitely NSFW, and we’re not talking anything near as tame as iBoobs, either, let me tell ya.

A brave new world is coming for iPhone and iPod Touch users and some of it will be clothing optional.

Jesse Jane talks Porn and iPhone

There’s always new stuff going on. Just in toys, they’re always coming up with these inventions like Sybians and crazy machines to have sex with or get tied up with.

Now we’re shooting on the Red [digital HD] cameras — I think Digital Playground is the only one — and we have all the Blu-ray coming out. I’m learning with my little camera and my website, where I’m able to upload daily diary videos, which is fun. Technology is getting a lot easier to make things more personal with your fans. They like the daily clips.

Now we can watch porn with our iPhones, and in the next month or two, with Digital Playground we’re going to be able to stream, Twitter and live iChat on our website from our iPhones.”

Jane also hearted her iPhone, which she calls a lifesaver during downtime.

“I love my iPhone because I can sit there and check my e-mail and update my website from my phone while I’m sitting there waiting at the airport.”

Touchgrind - iPhone Skateboard Game

In a world first, Illusion Labs has created a multitouch skate game for the iPhone: Touchgrind. The game is unique in that finger gestures are used for control, similar to the motion of the legs and feet on a real skateboard.

TouchGrind is a skateboarding game for the iPhone, and it's probably the most addictive game I have played since Desktop Tower Defense. Don't expect some crazy, Tony Hawk style jump-fest -- Touchgrind has a physics engine so real it can be just as frustrating as riding a real board. It's also controlled in much the same way as a real skateboard, with two fingers replacing the usual two feet.

In fact, anyone used to fingerboards -- those miniature finger controlled skateboards -- will feel immediately at home. I used to have one years ago and the learned muscle memory works great with the iPhone version.

Success in the competition mode, which involves scoring points against the clock, unlocks more courses and better boards, although noobs will be happy (and stuck) on the lower levels for some time. As a quick, pick up and blast game, it can't be beat. I prefer it to Monkeyball, my previous favorite time waster. And best of all, it's only $5.

Product page [Touchgrind]

Crackulous: App Store Piracy

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Porn Clip Penetrates Super Bowl Broadcast

"One minute it was Kurt Warner going deep ... the next , it was some porn star!? "

Super Bowl fans in Tucson, Ariz. were subjected to 30 seconds of hard core porn -- wang and all -- when somehow, the game feed was suddenly interrupted by a clip from an adult television channel.

iPorn

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iPhone first responder at US Airways crash into Hudson River

VentureBeat posted the story about Janis Krums, one of the first responders at the site of a US Airways plane crash into the Hudson River today. The plane crashed this afternoon shortly after takeoff from New York’s LaGuardia Airport.

Krums was arriving in a rescue boat and took the picture at right on his iPhone and uploaded it via TwitPic, presumably from one of the numerous Twitter clients available from the iPhone.

Krums tweeted:

http://twitpic.com/135xa - There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.

Less than a month ago (20 Dec 08) that plane crash in Denver was first reported on Twitter. Double Crazy.

YouTube Full Of Creepy, Soundless Music Videos

YouTube has been testing a new way of combating copyright violations on the site - removing the audio, leaving the video. The result is a wasteland of music videos that are creepily silent.

But now YouTube seems to be just stripping out the audio. Examples: here, here, here. This user-created one is just sad now.

Update: YouTube's blog post on the subject.

Corpus Clock

Installed at Corpus Cristi College in Cambridge, England -- the time piece
blends 18th-century tech with a hypermodern aesthetic.

"A book no more holds reality than a clock holds time"* they are mere tools,means to an end or beginning, as it were, a coda."
*Tom Robbins

Armegedon Squadron on iPhone

Get it for FREE at http://new-g35.com/squad

Make your own iPhone

Stuff.tv, the gadget videocast from the world's best-selling gadget mag, shows you how to make your own iPhone from paper. And then compares it with the Nokia N95 smartphone.

Poker on iPhone 3G

Fullpower's Director of Technology on MotionX Technology.

Tether your iPhone 3G in Windows

This video will show you how to tether an iPhone 3G in Windows Vista so that you can use its internet connection on your own computer!