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.

Over 6 months ago I reviewed Co-Pilot Live for iPhone and was more than impressed with the product. It was a beta build which had some features not available until quite recently and so I decided to upgrade to the latest version with the Live Traffic service: total cost £47.98.

Navigation is important to me because I drive more than 20,000 miles a year for work and it is one area where I have to have the best available. Living in the UK means that traffic is a constant problem, especially because the M25 is my gateway to everywhere, and thus traffic tracking is also a facility I rely on every week.

I wasn’t expecting anything remarkable in the new Co-Pilot except the loss of the messages I kept receiving when enabling the traffic feature because it had run out of time, but I have been more than surprised at how it has changed in the short period of time since the original release. The first change I noticed was how much smoother it is now and it really does feel like a dedicated GPS system in use; button taps are immediately recognised and the animation while navigating is now spot on. I used to see the occasional lag when leaving roundabouts, but after 4 long trips I have not noticed this once.

There are some more subtle changes such as the way speed cameras are notified and the onscreen setup works very well indeed; you are presented with the distance to the camera, your current speed and the actual speed limit you should be attaining. A ‘ding’ noise then sounds when you are clear to break the speed limit again (did I actually write what was in my head there?). Besides the speed camera display, the interface in general is one of the best I have seen on any GPS system- it strikes the perfect balance between simplicity and complexity yet cleverly offers all of the information you need to see in an easy to view system.

The core of any navigation system is of course the routes it takes you on and I have learnt to trust Co-Pilot, most of the time. Over the past few months I have been presented with many quicker routes than I knew about previously yet at times it can take me down roads which I know are slower than the shortcuts I have learnt over time. This tends to happen in busy towns and to be fair a TomTom with the much touted IQ Routes does exactly the same. No GPS software will ever be perfect, but I live in hope.

The traffic service has also added a sense of security to long trips and to date it has not failed me once. It diverted me off the M27 when a friend of mine got stuck for over an hour and did the same with the M25 travelling from Gatwick to Birmingham. The most poignant example was later in the Birmingham to Gatwick return trip when a sign on the side of the motorway declared the M23 to be closed. This sign kept popping up for 10 miles, but Co-Pilot showed no problems. As I reached the M23 turn off I put my full faith in Co-Pilot and merrily travelled along a fully open M23. When roadside warning signs get it wrong, you start to lose trust in any system.

To date Co-Pilot Live has performed flawlessly for me and finally broken the stranglehold TomTom had on my navigation needs. On the App Store there are conflicting views about Co-Pilot, as there are with all apps and games, but in my experience it has been just about perfect so far and extremely good value at the current price point.
Available from the iTunes App Store for £26.99

Clarity: PDA-247 has no commercial relationship with ALK.

To stand out in the iTunes App Store, especially in the gaming category, is far from easy. To get almost perfect reviews from every user is even more difficult, but Space Miner: Space Ore Bust has achieved both quite easily. John Moore emailed me and asked if I had tried it to which I replied that I hadn’t even heard of it. I get lots of recommendations for iPhone games and so had a quick look on the App Store and was surprised at all of the rave reviews so £1.19 later it was installed on my iPhone, took a while, and I ready to play.

Needless to say that 4 days later my son and I are both completely and utterly hooked on Space Miner. It is a cut scene adventure game which marries action and strategy well to form a deep and long experience which builds up at the perfect pace. There is a sense of achievement throughout and the humour keeps things sane when you have been staring at the screen for far too long. I would love to go into every detail of the game, but that would serve little purpose. What I can say is that this is not one to miss and that it is worth every last penny.

I have not played an iPhone game so far that has kept me going for so long to reach one goal and I am struggling to find fault anywhere. The only slight annoyance is that the ship is not always easy to control, but the frantic pace on some levels could be responsible for this rather than a design issue.

What I can do is thoroughly recommend this game as one of the very best in the App Store and would say to buy this if you have a spare pound or a couple of dollars. The first ten minutes feel a little slow, but after that it is fun all the way. Simply superb!

Check out the trailer below to start to understand what it is all about.

I am a big fan of diary apps, but until recently it has been hard to find any that are worth even downloading let alone buying. The best I had used to date from DayNotez from Natara on Palm OS which allowed the inclusion of photos with each daily entry for that special personal touch, but on the other platforms it is very hit and miss. I searched for a decent BlackBerry diary app and there was nothing of note and under Windows Mobile the situation is the same, but Momento for the iPhone / iPod Touch is a completely different story.

Momento is about as good as it gets in terms of ease of use, design and value for money and immediately struck me as being a well crafted piece of programming that succeeds in every aim that it has. It manages to bring together the quickness required when adding a daily entry and also the ability to import up to 8 photos per day to truly remember the moment. The interface feels like a diary, acts like a diary and in essence is a diary, but the killer feature is the integration with social networking sites which will automatically keep a history of your Tweets, Facebook updates, Flickr additions and even your Last.fm loved tracks. The simplicity of setting up each feed is as you would want it and you just let the app do the rest for you.

Twitter and Facebook can be a pain to scroll through, but with Momento you get an automated history of what you have shared with the world sensitively added to each day’s events. This is a short review because there is not much else I can say. It takes a couple of minutes to setup, but will potentially be with you for months to come. A simply superb mobile app.

Every now and then a game comes along which is not very interesting at first, but which quickly becomes a daily event as you try to beat your previous score… over and over again.

Flick Cricket is a free game which basically involves you having to hit the ball by flicking your finger; the direction and power are determined by how you flick and it is a rarity in that you genuinely do get better bit by bit over time. I am now at the point where I can regularly get over 100 from only 5 overs, but I am still coming back for more.

One alternative aspect is the ability to play Facebook games, but from what I can see this merely tells other Facebook users that you have completed a game and includes your friends in the line ups for both sides. However, it is a nice touch and I can’t complain too much because it is free and it has given me much enjoyment over the past few weeks, enjoyment that I did not expect and still in some ways don’t understand.

Anyway, all I can say is to give it a try and see what you think. You may well be playing it a lot more than you expect over the next few weeks.

Accessing online information on a smartphone is a dominating process these days and it effectively brings a world of information into the palm of your hand whenever you require it. However, it is not always as convenient as we would wish for and dependencies such as network coverage and speed play a part alongside the quality of the mobile browser you are using.

WikiPock takes the issues above out of the equation by bringing over 3 million Wikipedia articles to the device itself. You will need a big expansion card to cope with the data (over 4GB for the English version), but once it is loaded this is a smart way to have all of this data with you all of the time.

Once you have purchased the app you have to install the app on your smartphone and then download the data from the developer’s website which will take some time. I have a very fast Broadband connection and it took over 3 hours from start to finish, but at least this is a one off process which you do not need to repeat. The next step is to move the data to your expansion card which unusually you can put it anywhere on the card.

Now the fun bit- open up the very basic looking app and start typing. A list of results will pop up and you can then choose which one you want to read. The entire process is very quick and compares very well to a standard 3G connection. You will not get images because the size of the database would be prohibitive if they were included. However, clicking ‘Go to web definition’ in the menu will take you straight to the online Wikipedia version of the article.

I noticed that clicking hyperlinks in articles results in a small delay of a couple of seconds, but again the comparison to online viewing is impressive. The articles themselves are well presented and only look a little strange if there are a lot of hyperlinks included at the top of the article. Formatting is included such as italics, bullet points and bold and as a source of information WikiPock works very well indeed.

There are two purchasing options for WikiPock with one including updates for the next 12 months and I would suggest you go for this one. I went for the basic version and am already pondering an upgrade so that the information available is as relevant as possible. One other feature I should mention is the Random Page option which when clicked will obviously present a page from the database- I played around with this the other night and an hour later I had to stop because I was just wandering around picking up snippets of information I never knew before.

It is available for Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Mobile, in 18 languages (English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Dutch, Russian, Swedish, Norwegian, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Catalan, Turkish, Finnish and Czech) and even pre-loaded onto an SD card direct from www.wikipock.com.

WikiPock is an excellent solution for bringing a massive amount of information onto your smartphone which is easily accessible whenever you need it. It is the kind of application you will re-visit time and time again and has proved invaluable and a source of fascination to me over the past few days. I like the idea of having over 3 million articles stored directly on my phone and not having to rely on a mobile internet connection. Maybe it is sentimentality, but it works for me and is extremely good value.

You can purchase WikiPock from the following links- Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows Mobile.

I don’t play games on my BlackBerry. There has never been much point in spending a few minutes trying to play BrickBreaker or any of the other games available because they do not provide the rich graphical experience we are used to seeing in mobile games in 2009. More importantly, the majority have almost zero longevity and no free trials which is a testament to how much faith the developers have in their products.

For the first time in a couple of years of BlackBerry ownership I have found a game which is graphically rich, immersive and one which has kept me playing for hours on end. It is called Addictive Tower Defense and is similar to the raft of similar titles hitting the iPhone platform, but to bring this genre successfully to BlackBerry is an impressive effort.

The game is built to take full advantage of the BlackBerry interface and works equally as well with trackballs and the new trackpads on the Curve 8520 and Bold 9700. There are some letter shortcuts, only 8, which take care of sending the next wave of soldiers or vehicles, upgrade towers, selecting towers, displaying the handy wave bar, toggling the tower selection screen, hiding the game, pausing and fast forwarding. That sounds like a confusing list if you have not played the game, but it quickly becomes second nature once you have played a few rounds.

There is a lot to the game and you do have to consider where you place your towers and what type of enemy they can kill. For example, you need cannon towers, lightning towers or flak towers to destroy planes and even the most powerful of missile launchers will have no effect on planes. However, missile launchers work very well on all other enemies. You can also choose frost towers which slow down the enemies and thus you will want to place these adjacent to heavily upgraded towers for maximum effect. The more you play, the more your logic will kick in and the more you will get out of the game.

You need to manage your money, the placement of towers and plan ahead for the type of enemy which is coming next, and with 100 waves in each map type to take care of each game takes a healthy amount of time to complete. Extra maps are freely downloadable and at the last count there are 8 available, each with 4 levels of difficult so you have a good amount of variety built in. I found myself grasping the easy levels fairly quickly, but soon came unstuck when I moved the difficulty up and after a few hours play so far I will definitely be coming back for more.

There is one obvious omission from the feature set and that is sound. It sounds odd to hear of an arcade game which has no sound, and at first it is, but it strangely does not take away from the enjoyment of the game play. Having said that, it would be advantageous to include sound because it is kind of odd without it. I would also like to see the ability for users to make their own maps and share them with others, but as long as a good selection of new maps appears over time I won’t be grumbling.

Addictive Tower Defense is indeed hugely addictive and manages the perfect balance between stress and giving you the time to learn how to play it effectively. The fact that it is on the BlackBerry platform is its main advantage and I for one look forward to many more games of this quality on the platform in the future. Addictive Tower Defense has shown what can be done and it is a HUGE bargain for under $5.

Available here for $4.99. Take 20% off- see interview below for details.

DOOM was originally released 16 years ago which is a lifetime in the digital age and it went on to become one of the most iconic games in the history of computer gaming. The graphics were clunky and the monsters far from realistic, but that did not detract from the scary sensations the game could instil in the player and I remember well being scared out of my wits in dark tunnels with just the noises of monsters for company.

Over a decade later I now have the chance to be scared all over again with the release of DOOM Classic on the iPhone. The game has been available in various forms on most of the major smartphone platforms, but none came close to recreating the terror and longevity of the original. DOOM Classic for iPhone is better than close- it is bang on the money in terms of bringing the full DOOM sensation to the mobile world and manages to still send a shiver or two up my spine.

It is the perfect PC to iPhone port and not one aspect of the original has been missed or changed. The march of time has been ignored and id Software has stayed true to the original in every step. The dreadful music is here, the control system works as well as could have been wished for and you also get the full 36 levels to explore which should keep you going for some time to come. Throw on cooperative play over the internet and we have a clone which is as perfect as can be. The word ‘perfect’ should never really be used in a review, but DOOM Classic is indeed perfect in my eyes and by far the best iPhone port to date.

Available from the App Store.

Email is at the heart of many people’s BlackBerry use, but it can be tiresome when you constantly pick up your device to find spam or emails that you don’t need to read yet. There is no way around this issue, or at least there wasn’t until now.

MailTones from Electric Pocket is a simple app which gets around the problem by allowing you to specify sounds dependant on who is emailing you. For example, you can set a spooky Halloween sound if your boss is emailing you or a romantic sound if your partner is trying to get in touch, or maybe you will reverse those sounds depending on how strange you relationships are?:)

The way MailTones is interfaced is simple and logical and you should be up and running within minutes. There is quite a long list of tones included which range from ‘You have mail’ spoken tones to more off the wall effects which are sure to grab your attention wherever you are. Add to this the ability to download extra tones, such as timely Halloween noises, direct from the developer’s site and the options are plentiful enough to cover a large database of contacts.

I receive lots of email every day, but only need to read some of them and the complexity of handling multiple contacts can be a real pain. For example, I will receive an email every time someone joins PDA-247 as a new member, but I don’t need to read the email. I do, however, need to still receive these emails so they are now set as silent in MailTones. Messages from freelance editors and contacts are set with a loud tone so that I do not miss them and others such as friends have already been allocated MP3 files on my Curve. Myself and Tom Munch email a lot so his version of Stardust is now the tone when he emails me which adds a nice personal touch.

There is also a ‘Do Not Disturb’ feature which you can set when you need a break from the constant communication and an extra touch which makes the whole process even easier. In the standard Blackberry messaging app you can highlight an email and then choose the new menu option to quickly select a tone for it without leaving the app- very clever.

MailTones does not proclaim to change the world, but it will make your mobile communicating easier and more fun. It works on all levels; those who only have a few contacts can take the time to really personalise their communications and for those who are bombarded with emails like I am you can use it in a more inclusive way by picking out the contacts you ‘need’ to hear from and making sure that the relevant tones will alert you immediately.

Put simply, every BlackBerry on the planet should have MailTones installed.

Available here for only $2.99.

Part two of this two month look at the HTC Hero and Android is here. Today I am going to look at the best Android apps

I have over too many games installed, but below are some of my favourites:-

Abduction World Attack – great game using the Hero’s tilt controls.
Alphamixr Full – similar to Text Twist, and therefore a lovely word game.
Astraware Sudoku – Need I say anymore. Astraware have ported Solitaire and Boardgames to Android. Hopefully more titles will come across too.
Block Breaker Deluxe – similar to Meteor and Droid Breakout. All 3 of these games are superb on Android.
Farm Frenzy – so addictive and one of the better games on Android.
Build-a-lot – Sim type game, but as a property developer. I have spent hours so far.
Sims 3 – similar to the iPhone version, and very addictive.
Hyperspace – a must have Android game, using the accelerometer and your fingers later on. Very addictive.
Jewellust – better than Bejeweled. Don’t play unless you have time to spare!
Bejeweled – Not as good as the iPhone or Windows Mobile version. Hasn’t ported across as well. This Android version is not by Astraware.
Night at the Museum – Great fun.
Pac-Man – Say no more, works great using the Hero’s trackball.
Pinball – a brilliant free Pinball game.
Mystique – Great atmospheric puzzle type solving game. Part 1 is free. I tried it and got Part 2!
Radiant – a great mix of invaders, asteroids. Very addictive.
Simcity Metropol – another good sim game
Superyatzy – one of my favourite Yahtzee games.
Tiger Woods Golf – if you like golfing games, then this is a reasonable golf game.
Tightrope Hero – superb fun and a clever idea using the accelerometer.
Towerblox – a wonderful tower based game.
Trism – similar concept to Bejweled but slightly harder and very addictive
Wixel – a superb word game. If you like word games, you will love this.
XGalaga 2 – another great space invaders type shoot em up game.

Other games which I enjoyed playing include:- Aevum Obscruru, Air Hockey, Amazed 2, Android Invaders, Asphalt 3, Assassins Creed, Baseball Superstars, Battle for Mars, Beatdown Boxing, Bonsai Blast, Bubble Bash, Bubble Burst Pro, Bust a Move, Chessmaster, Colorix, de Blob, Deal or no Deal US, Labyrinth, Light Racer, Mahjongg Pro, Prince of Persia, RDC Blackjack and Roulette, Shot, Spiderman, Spot the Difference, Tank Ace 1944, Tetris, Totemo, Trap, Uno and Wordup.

As you can see there are tons of great titles. Most of these games are available on the Android Market, Handmark, Gameloft or via the dreaded Handango. Where possible, using the Market is the best option, since if you don’t like the app or game you can get a refund if you request it within the first 24 hours.

If anyone has any further questions, please let me know.

Review by Gavin Fabiani-Laymond

Part one of this two month look at the HTC Hero and Android is here. Today I am going to look at the best Android apps.

Below are the apps I use, that I think are worthy to be mentioned and are valuable assets to my Hero:-

Copilot 8 – One word. Brilliant must have if you want a proper satnav solution. Regular updates too and free speed camera updates.

3D Compass – This app is an augmented reality compass. 3D compass with augmented reality view, shows heading and degrees in big font, shows current location and address.

Aldiko Book Reader – a great ereader with various options. Personally I would like my ereaderpro ported to Android, with the book geographical restrictions removed !

Advanced Task Manager – This app is a must in my book. End applications, speed up phone, and save battery. Auto-End Service is excellent. Terminate and switch to apps and processes, Shows Memory info, Bulk select and exclusion, Widget form for one-click end all, Quick Uninstall. Also provides an optional icon in notifications top bar to quick open app.

App2sd – This is a magical application that allows you to run and store apps from your memory card. I have not included the url, as it is best to use this when part of a custom rom. More info on request. Again a totally must have app.

Album Art Grabber – syncing music across to the Hero and I was missing album art. Using this program it fetched all the album art. For one compilation I downloaded the art cover to my memory card and asked the program to use this. Brilliant app.

Androzip – I use this app to unzip zip and rar files.

Apps Organizer – A must have app. On my main homescreen I have 2 icons, one labelled main and the other games. Tap Main, I get 20 of my favourite apps in a pop up box and tap Games and I get a pop up box with all my games. Simple and brilliant. Apps organizer allow you to organize installed applications using labels. With apps organizer you can associate one or more labels to each android application or create a label shortcut.

Astro File Manager – The best file manager IMO.

Bar Control – one of my favourite tools. Bar Control allows you to put links to apps in the notification bar (status bar). This allows you to switch to your most used apps quicker without going to the home screen.

Beebplayer – Unofficial player of BBC iPlayer TV programmes, live TV channels and live radio.

Bizcardreader – Uses camera to take picture of business card and save info. Download on post 428.

Car Mode – Sometimes the simplest apps are the best. Activated, incoming calls are directed to the Hero’s loudspeakers. Saves using Bluetooth.

Concise English Dictionary – Contains over 240,000 words, useful if you need one. Dictionary can be downloaded to memory card too.

Feedr – My favourite RSS reader – There is a demo app, so you can test first, but does everything I want with many options reliably and quickly. Another good RSS reader is Newsrob but the sync times are slower and therefore drains battery. However, Newrob has a lovely touch interface for moving between stories.

Google Services – Google Maps, Google Sky Map ( view the sky using camera and GPS) , Google Talk, Listen (Podcasts), Places Directory, Voice Search. All brilliant and available on the Android Market.

gTraffic - gTraffic displays live traffic information by region for the whole of the UK. Incidents are displayed in both list and map form. The list view uses a unique time-bar visualisation to show duration or time remaining. The data is supplied from the BBC.

Handycalc - A great free scientific calculator with unit conversions and currency convertor.

Reality Browser – Provides real time information through camera. Just try it. It is so cool.

London City – Free London Underground planner and map. There is a paid version with more functionality too.

Lottery Shaker – uses accelerometer for producing random lottery numbers

Magic 8 Ball – no surprises here, but works well, but don’t believe everything it says!

Marketenabler – Sadly, dependant on where you live, certain apps will only appear in your region’s Market app. This app allows you to fake a different region and buy a wider range of apps.

Metal Dectector -Yep, its true, your Hero can be made to hunt for metal. Sorry iPhone users dream on!! Blackbery users like Shaun, wishful thinking lol.

Picsay Pro – A must have quality app IMO. Color correct, sharpen, distort, insert other pictures, crop & straighten, paint, vignette, make color splash out of black-and-white pictures, add effects like cross process, add text, word balloons, props, and much more.

Pkt Auctions eBay – Android current ebay app, not an official one, but still fairly robust. The iPhone ebay app is better.

Root Explorer – The ultimate file explorer but only for rooted phones. Use with care!

Shazam - Great app for indentifying music. Allows use to view music info and then buy track.

Shopsavvy - Uses camera (or text entry) to scan barcode and check for best web price or local store price. I have found this works best for electrical items and multimedia. Very useful. Never pay too much.

Television - Watch TV from about 25 channels. Need wifi really to get the best quality. Not Live TV.

Traffic4england - Real time traffic info. Limited free use, then purchase required. Handy app though.

TVGuide – I use this app daily, and its has just been updated again to include even more channels. Also has 2 additional screens showing movies and sports. See below.

Review by Gavin Fabiani-Laymond

Date Wheel was a success on the Palm OS platform when it was released and has now been transitioned to the iPhone. At first glance it looks like a simple time calculator, and that is in essence what it is, but there is rarely anything simple about time and date calculations. You may have seen those funny plastic wheels where you work which people use to calculate dates and they are quite simply a pain to use. Date Wheel is an alternative which is readily available on your iPhone whenever you need it.

The idea is simple- input two dates and have the period in between automatically calculated for you- you can choose months, weeks, days and business days which is most useful in the corporate world. You can save these calculations and go back to them with the click of an icon at the bottom and this effectively turns it into one of those countdown style apps which you see dotted around the place. The fact that Date Wheel can calculate types of days gives it an advantage over the competition and thus it is slightly more effective than most others.

The interface contains a selection of arrows which you use to choose a date- you can use the >> arrow to move a week and the > arrow to move one day. A nice touch is the ability to alter the calculated duration which is handy if you are in a business which has, for example, a 28 day lead time. This makes it a lot easier to offer accurate dates to customers.

It really is difficult to write a long review of Date Wheel because it has one purpose, split into a few parts, which it performs admirably. If you need a date calculator, and one which works extremely fast this is the one to go for.

Availale from the App Store for £1.19 / $1.99.

Available from the App Store for £0.59 / $0.99.

Few games suit the modern mobile smartphone better than Chess. Few games have been ported as much as Chess to mobile platforms. Few games have been as badly ported to the mobile world as Chess. Chess is one of the most complex games in the world and to this day human beings are still, on the whole, better at the game than computers are. However, any computer in the world can beat me at Chess on most levels and so I need something that will teach me to get better in the time I have available. This means that I can only review a Chess app from the point of view of an amateur so I drafted in the help of a colleague at work called Gavin.

Gavin translates Russian Chess books in his spare time and has also played in the British Chess Championship a number of times. I first played Gavin a few years ago on a train heading to a meeting in London. I had a Chess game loaded up on my Palm T3 and cheated by using the top computer level for my moves- he beat me within 5 minutes. We then had another game, but did not have time to finish it- 6 months later we were travelling to another meeting and I mentioned that I wish I had saved the game we did not finish. He remembered where every piece was and set up the game accordingly! I guess that is something very good Chess players can do, but he still proceeded to beat me quickly again despite my still proceeding to cheat again.

A week ago I lent him my iPhone for a couple of hours and asked for his opinion of Mastersoft Chess. Three hours passed and I went to find my iPhone- with his head bowed down he was staring intently at the screen with the force of Emperor Ming in Flash Gordon and was completely oblivious to my presence. I asked him what he thought of the game and without removing his gaze from the screen, he simply said ‘Awesome.”

Gavin had not beaten the game and had apparently only played the one game in all of that time. He said afterwards that he never plays computer Chess games because they are not challenging enough, and now he is buying an iPod Touch. That says more than I ever could about the power of this game.

From my lowly perspective I find the interface of Mastersoft Chess to be appealing because it does away with all of the fancy 3D Chess boards that often make the current position harder to view than it need be. It still offers the customisation of the pieces and boards and this is more than enough to satisfy my need for a personal look, but to still have a playing area which is as clear as it could be. At no point could I not comprehend the entire situation I was in and this matters a lot to the novice player.

You can save and load games and also set up the board in specific positions if you wish to try to solve a classic situation from some of the great players. The difficulty levels range from novice to infinite with thinking times from 1 second to 1 minute per move in between. There is a coach who can warn you when you make an error and this helped me to learn more than anything else- I have definitely seen an improvement in the short time I have been playing this game. Also, the sound effects are strangely realistic and add a small touch of realism to the game play.

A game history option is built in if you understand the notational side of Chess with information, comments and lines all included for complete reference. There are over 23,000 opening moves and full chess rules built in (enpassant, castling and the like) plus all of this is managed in a small amount of memory. It is highly efficient and super smooth to play which only adds to the enjoyment.

One thing I would like to see is some stats for the player so that I can track my progress over time. Maybe I have missed them, but if I have they need to be shown a bit more clearly. That is the only minor issue I can find with Mastersoft Chess.

It would be easy to say that this game reaches its full potential in the hands of a player who is capable enough to challenge it, but that would be missing the point. It seems to me that Mastersoft Chess reaches its full potential whether you are a skilled Chess player, an amateur or a complete numpty like me. It truly is close to flawless and is by far the best mobile Chess game I have played on any platform.

BlackBerry smartphones are not best known for their ability to play streaming TV and even half-decent games, but Spb is attempting to redress the balance with the release of Spb TV. It is slightly different to other viewers in that switching between channels is quicker than you would normally expect and much more information is provided so that you can make an informed viewing choice.

In my tests most channels came up first time and the high quality setting is perfectly viewable. The low quality setting is good for news and I suspect for using a 3G connection. I have been testing it on a BlackBerry Curve 8900 and thus have no 3G so Wi-Fi was my only method of testing. There are a huge number of channels included of which some will certainly appeal, but as with any range aimed at the majority you may well skip a lot of them. You can edit which order the channels are displayed in and keep your favourites at the front which speeds things up somewhat.

A TV guide is included so you can check what you want to watch and an especially nice touch is the ability to set calendar alarms for particular shows. I found this highly useful and quickly got into the idea of watching TV on my BlackBerry when I wanted to. The reliability made a difference to me and on the occasions I could not connect it felt unusual rather than standard which I have experienced with some other solutions.

All in all I like Spb TV a lot and the fact that it can run smoothly on a BlackBerry is a testament to the programming involved. It adds a use to my Curve which I did not expect to see for a long time and that is hard to ignore. Well done to Spb.

Available from Spb for $9.95.

When it comes to writing on the iPhone, quick and dirty solutions always work best for me rather than fully fledged document editors such as Docs to Go and QuickOffice, so I was pleased to see that independent Mac developer Jesse Grosjean had revamped his version of WriteRoom for the iPhone.

I’ve been a long time fan of WriteRoom on the Mac, an application which aims to provide a distraction-free writing environment by mimicking the green on black computer monitors of the past. WriteRoom for the iPhone does the same thing.

Although Jesse clearly intends for the app to be a complete replacement for the built-in Notes, I still prefer the latter for quick note taking; mainly because it lists notes with the most recent first rather than alphabetically (which is more suited to how I work) and it takes full advantage of the iPhone’s built-in data detectors.

But for writing extended pieces, WriteRoom is now my weapon of choice.
It offers several advantages over the iPhone’s Notes app as a pure writing tool:

• Full screen viewing and editing – a quick reverse pinch of fingers or thumbs hides all buttons and controls, leaving you free from distractions and with more viewable text.

• Choice of font and colors – I’ve set mine up to mimic the green and black of the desktop app. It’s calming and soothing on the eyes. Font:
Helvetica 17.

• Tether-free syncing to WriteRoom.ws, a Google-hosted version of the app. This is the killer: a quick tap of the sync button and I’m ready to start working immediately at my laptop/desktop, or any Internet connected computer. The web version also maintains a complete history of each document and has conflict resolution built in.

• Document sharing via wifi – handy when you have no internet avaialable; just open up the file in your web browser for editing.

There are a couple of minor rough edges which need to be ironed out.
Firstly, although cut and paste is fully functional, selected text does not show up as highlighted when working with a dark background; secondly, lack of a confirmation dialogue when tapping on “delete”
makes accidental document loss something to watch out for.

Other than that, this is a great app written by a wonderfully supportive independent developer. I highly recommend it.

by Trevor (aka lazyboy)