Street Fighter IV has received its long awaited debut on the iPhone and looks ‘quite’ good. By all accounts the controls could be better, but it is a faithful port of the original.

Street Fighter 4 delivers the first true fighting game on iPhone. This uncompromising fighter features all the visceral thrills, fantastic graphics and brilliant gameplay that are hallmarks of the series.

Long time Street Fighter fans can jump into the action and have an instant familiarity with the controls. For more casual players Street Fighter 4 features numerous settings and tutorials that put you on the path to world warrior.

Oh, and did we mention MULTIPLAYER. Street Fighter 4 supports head-to-head arcade play over Bluetooth.

Ice Hockey Nations is expected to arrive very soon on the iPhone and I for one will be stumping up some cash for this one. It looks superb!

Sheffield UK, 8^th February 2010. Distinctive follows up their Rugby Nations game with the first full Ice Hockey Simulation game to appear on iPhone, ‘Ice Hockey Nations 2010’.

Ice Hockey has, so far, been under represented on iPhone & iPod Touch and Distinctive have used their extensive sports game development experience to bring this dynamic sport to the App Store.

Working with motion capture specialists ‘Centroid 3D’ and players from Sheffield Scimitars, the game features realistic, silky smooth, animation so you feel part of the action – without the risk of broken bones or concussion.

Ice Hockey Nations 2010 is a fast-paced and fun game that recreates the excitement and strategy of the sport on the small screen.

Ice Hockey Nations 2010 will be launched in March 2010 at price of $4.99

Features include:

• The first full 6 on 6 Ice Hockey simulation game on iPhone/iPod Touch.
• Take control using touchscreen d-pad and control buttons.
• Make line changes at the touch of a button.
• Sin-bin and powerplays
• Real player movement animation using motion capture.
• 14 National teams to choose from.
• Quick play, practice, tournament and league game modes.
• No waiting for the Zamboni in between periods.

I have a problem with ToDo Lists and despite multiple attempts I have never been able to get my head around a list of things that I need to do. Something in my head just can’t comprehend this way of working and so my ToDos tend to fill up my calendar and be pushed backed time and time again. Maybe ToDo Map for the iPhone is what I need? It is highly visual and works by highlighting the most important items in brighter colours and crucially using bigger boxes. It is immediately apparent that this will work for some people and I will be giving it a try over the next few days.

You keep writing paper notes, post-it notes, filling your agenda, browse miscellaneous files…
so many little things you can’t afford to forget.
But there’s too many, so easy to loose track in all this!!
So many tasks at the same time, so many files of different kinds, so many priorities.

Asteroid Shooter has been released for the iPhone and the graphics appear to bring a new edge to a classic format. “Asteroid shooter is classic arcade game, where the goal is to shoot all asteroids in the playfield.

The game is simple with focus just on the gaming experience and the player is not bothered with any quests and complicated user interface. The game is fast with immediate changes between the levels. The difficulty is increased when advancing to a new level. With each level the speed of asteroids or the number of asteroids increases.”

The iPhone app store is full of overly complex games, impressive apps and all manner of silly and serious software, but now and again something comes along that stops the world for a 6 year old girl. That girl is my daughter Alice and every night for the past few days she has been transfixed by the The Boy Giant.

The Boy Giant is an animated story which plays itself out on the iPhone, and one which has all the ingredients that a child’s book needs; humour, an engrossing story, beautiful illustrations and above all the right pace and length. The giant boy in the story is called Hujo and he is ironically born to Mr and Mrs Small which sets the tale off in the manner in which it delightfully continues.

The animations are sensitively implemented and the humour made my 9 year old son and I laugh out loud the first time we played it to Alice. You can choose to read it yourself or have it read to you which I personally prefer because the narrator has a much better story telling voice than I have. She just sits there transfixed as the story plays out and it is a joy to behold for a proud Father.

I now have a new weapon in my battle to make her behave (being naughty means no Boy Giant) and this is a simple app which is fun for the whole family. Even my 9 year old happily sits there listening to the story, although he doesn’t like to admit it, and I have to say that I have been more than impressed by the releases from Wotsamaflip for the iPhone so far and look forward to many more in the future, as does my daughter.

Available now on the App Store for a mere £0.59 / $0.99.

It looks as though TomTom for the iPhone is about to get real time traffic updates and Google local search. No word yet on price for the extras, but all of the main players are starting to compare nicely on features alone.

From TUAW- “The makers of the TomTom app for the iPhone have let us know that they’ve submitted an updated version that adds real-time traffic information, Google local search, and even some secret features the company isn’t talking about yet.

The TomTom app was eagerly sought out last year, but of late has fallen a bit behind market leader Navigon. This new release, with real-time info and Google local, will give both apps rough feature parity.

The current TomTom app is on sale for U.S. $49.99 at the app store (U.S. maps only) and it includes a “free update to the new version as soon as its available.” That would indicate that some or all of the new features will be an extra charge for current owners…”

The iPad will be available in the US from 3rd April (Wi-Fi edition) and you can pre-order from 12th March. Will you be putting an order in? Thanks to Trevor.

“CUPERTINO, California—March 5, 2010—Apple® today announced that its magical and revolutionary iPad will be available in the US on Saturday, April 3, for Wi-Fi models and in late April for Wi-Fi + 3G models. In addition, all models of iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April.

Beginning a week from today, on March 12, US customers can pre-order both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models from Apple’s online store (www.apple.com) or reserve a Wi-Fi model to pick up on Saturday, April 3, at an Apple retail store.

“iPad is something completely new,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re excited for customers to get their hands on this magical and revolutionary product and connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”

Starting at just $499, iPad lets users browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more. iPad is just 0.5 inches thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds—thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook—and delivers battery life of up to 10 hours.*

iPad’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ interface makes surfing the web an entirely new experience, dramatically more interactive and intimate than on a computer. You can read and send email on iPad’s large screen and almost full-size “soft” keyboard or import photos from a Mac®, PC or digital camera, see them organized as albums, and enjoy and share them using iPad’s elegant slideshows. iPad makes it easy to watch movies, TV shows and YouTube, all in HD, or flip through the pages of an ebook you downloaded from Apple’s new iBookstore while listening to your music collection.”

Deliverance will soon be available on both the iPhone and Android platforms and looks incredible. I have always been a fan of top down racing games, but this one ups the bar a lot. Check out the video below.

“Deliverace is a classic top-down racing game that will be released on iPhone and Android soon. It features the prettiest graphics, coolest physics and dirtiest powerslides ever seen on a handheld device.”

WeeMee is hugely popular and now you can buy an app for the iPhone to create a mini avatar all of your own. That’s supposed to be me in the image…

The WeeMee® avatar creator for iPhone & iPod touch. With over 30 million WeeMees created, this app brings the world’s most popular avatar to the iPhone.

☆ Make WeeMees for yourself and for friends

☆ Over 250 items included – thousands of creative options

☆ Choose from more than 35 hairstyles, 80 clothing items, 60 accessories, interest and food items, 20 eyewear styles, 12 themed backgrounds and more from other categories

☆ Use the Gallery feature to view, export and edit a saved WeeMee at any time

☆ Use the built-in Address Book feature to make WeeMees appear on the screen when friends call you

☆ Send WeeMees by email, Facebook, Twitter, MMS, blogs or anywhere else you can share photos

☆ Buy today and get upgraded automatically to version 1.1 coming soon, with more great features and accessories. Follow us on twitter.com/WeeMeeApp for updates.

If you think that books will not form a major part of Apple’s iPad strategy take a look at How Penguin Will Reinvent Books With iPad over at paidContent and the video below. Super impressive. Thanks to Trevor.

Smart Box Design is laying bare the development process of WordPop! for iPad and it should make for an interesting build up to the eventual release. This is reason alone to buy the iPad for me- all those bigger tiles and bigger words… Can’t wait!

“The iPad is designed without a specific orientation. Applications will mostly be viewed in portrait or landscape mode, however for games it can be put on a table and viewed from above (such as playing checkers).

One of the first steps in redesigning WordPop! for the iPad was to create some simple layouts for each orientation. At first we were not sure if we had to support both landscape and portrait, as this was not required for the iPhone. There was much debate in chat rooms but it was soon put to rest with this simple quote from The iPad Human Interface Guidelines “Although you might not have supported all orientations in your iPhone application, you must do so in your iPad application.” With that now settled we created a wire frame layout for each orientation. This gave us an idea on much room to reserve for the WordPop! machine and how much space remained for new features…”

OddBlob has been released by Handmark for the iPhone and looks like great fun, especially as clay is involved… “INTRODUCTORY PRICE! Meet OddBlob: the groovy clay dude who loves to bounce! Help OddBlob bound across the squishy maze to grab bonuses, chomp fruit, and win points as quickly as he can as the chasing tiles disappear behind. Watch out for bounce and double bounce tiles that can help you reach your goal or throw you through the gaps to impending peril below! Cake slices earn you a try at the cake or doom mini-puzzle, the more bounces you make to get the cake, the bigger the bonus!

Features:

• 2 fun game modes: Panic – make your way across the level as the disappearing tiles chase you across the board, and Strategy – select the best route collecting as many points as you can along the way!
• OddBlob has been lovingly created entirely of clay – each colorful tile, fruit, planet, and cake was created by hand!
• Animated clay backgrounds with planets and shooting stars, fluffy clouds, and gloopy swamps
• 4 levels of difficulty
• Groovy music soundtrack or create your own music playlist in-game using the My iPod Music feature
• Includes OpenFeint online high scores and fun awards and achievements.
• Suitable for kids and adults too!”

Apple has stepped up the mobile lawsuits and popped one on HTC for supposedly infrnging 20 Apple patents. When will it ever end? Thanks to Trevor.

From NYT- “Apple said on Tuesday that it had filed lawsuits against HTC, the Taiwan-based phone maker, accusing it of infringing on 20 Apple patents tied to the iPhone.

The suits, filed with the office of the United States International Trade Commission and the United States District Court in Delaware, say HTC violated patents covering the phone’s user interface, internal architecture and hardware.

HTC makes the Nexus One, a phone designed and sold by Google that runs Google’s Android operating system. Google was not mentioned in the suit, but the lawsuits are likely to worsen the already strained relations between Apple and Google.
Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, said in a news release: “We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it.” Mr. Jobs added: “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

How’s times change…

Assassin’s Creed II: Multiplayer for the iPhone is now free for 2 days only. Obviously worth picking up- “Welcome to Assassin’s Creed II: Multiplayer, an exclusive game for iPhone & iPod touch and the first game in the series that allows you to compete against your friends. Features: LIVE MULTIPLAYER ACTION Assassin’s Creed II: Multiplayer is a REAL-TIME ONLINE multiplayer game using a WI-FI connection letting you compete against up to 3 other player- controlled assassins. KILL OR GET KILLED The ultimate goal of the game is to hunt down other players and assassinate them before they kill you. BLEND IN THE CROWD Escape other players taking advantage of your environments & blending into the crowd of citizens. MULTIPLE ENVIRONMENTS Play in 3 different environments from Assassin’s Creed II inspired by Italian cities from the Renaissance. LETHAL POWER-UPS Use up to 6 different power-ups to get an edge over your opponents. BECOME THE MASTER ASSASSIN Increase your notoriety by defeating other players, and fight your way up to the top to become the Master Assassin. The notoriety system uses a dynamic ranking system to position you on the leaderboards. ACHIEVEMENTS Collect up to 24 achievements and post your records on Facebook. CHALLENGE YOUR FRIENDS Manage your list of friends and send them live invitations to join your game sessions and find out who amongst you is THE best assassin.”

BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express is now available for free from the RIM website. If you have the right server, this could be perfect for your small business. “Connect two people via BlackBerry® smartphones and ideas get bigger. Progress happens faster. Answers get smarter. So imagine what happens when you give a business the freedom to connect all its employees.

BlackBerry® Enterprise Server Express enables businesses of any size to quickly and easily get started with the BlackBerry solution. It provides advanced BlackBerry smartphone features with no additional software or user license fees, and works with any Internet-enabled BlackBerry data plan or a BlackBerry enterprise data plan.”

Vodafone UK has priced the HTC Legend at a respectable £1.99 on a 24 month contract at £25/month which also gives you unlimited texts and 300 minutes. I am presuming that data is extra and the unusual pricing continues with the Legend costing only £12.99 on a 18 month £30/month contract. More at Pocket-lint.

It looks as though no current Windows Mobile phones will be upgradeable to Windows Phone 7. apcmag has the scoop and the following says it all really- ““Because we have very specific requirements for Windows Phone 7 Series the current phones we have right now will not be upgradable”, Kwan explained.”

pocket story – The Boy Giant has been released for the iPhone by Wotsamaflip and is as good as the excellent The Smelly Sprout from the same developer. Anything that keeps my 6 year old daughter transfixed must be good.