Ridge Racer Accelerated for the iPhone and iPod Touch

We briefly mentioned it a few weeks ago on DoubleTap, but here's a fuller look at Ridge Racer: Accelerated for the iPhone and iPod Touch. As mentioned in the video review, if you're looking for a racing game, you can't help but be seduced by the graphics from the screenshots, and even the intro movie for the game promises heart-pounding entertainment.

Most of that disappears shortly after your car leaves the start line. Up until the second corner, I thought "this is the best racing game yet" for the iPhone. Well, once you get to that corner, it becomes apparent that the game is hobbled either by graphics code that's not efficient enough, or graphics that are beyond the capability of the iPhone processor. Bear in mind this game was reviewed on an iPhone 3GS. Customers have also complained about the frame rate being significantly worse on older models, particularly the iPod Touch. A recent update seems to have helped many people with that issue, but our iPhone 3GS performance lagged.

The game also comes with a limited number of cars and tracks, with more tracks available for in-app purchase. Perhaps these intro tracks should be free if additional tracks will cost you more.

Still, with a few tweaks to make the graphics fly by, and some changes to the revenue model, this could be a solid racing game for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

(iTunes Link)

Here's a look:

GoodGuide 2.0 for the iPhone Video Review

Awhile back, we looked at GoodGuide. For whatever reason it appears that review as disappeared. It was good timing though as GoodGuide 2.0 is now out. The app is intended to help you make shopping decisions based on the environmental and social impact of the products and their manufacturers. Using a ten-point scale, you get ratings on things like environmental friendliness and social responsibility. While the database of products is nice, it's the the ability to scan barcodes and instantly see the ratings that makes the app fun.

We became obsessed with scanning everything in the house (GoodGuide works best with food and health/beauty products), and were mildly disappointed to see most products had about a six to seven rating. I'm not sure if that's indicative of the products we purchase, or more of a lack of real delineation within the GoodGuide app.

At any rate, it's free.

(iTunes link)

Here's a look:

Mark The Spot App Video Review

How do you review an app that shouldn't even need to exist? Below is our look at AT&T's Mark The Spot app for reporting coverage issues. (Of course if the issue is you currently don't have any coverage, the app won't do a ton of good.)

Still, for what it is, the app is simply designed, and if anyone is listening on the other end, should help AT&T make its network better. That's a big if, though...

(iTunes link)

Here's a look:

Color Curious for the iPhone and iPod Touch Video Review

It's the weekend, which means a quick and easy app review for us. Color Curious is the kind of straight-forward, does what it says app we like so much. The app presents a crosshair on screen and gives a textual description of the color under that mark. Designed to help those with color blindness, the app is good for anyone wanting to doublecheck a color in the photo library, or with a quick snapshot (on the iPhone.) 

(iTunes Link)

Here's a look:

Business Card Reader for the iPhone Video Review

The business card may soon be the thing of the past. Then again, they've (who is this "they?") been saying that about books for quite some time as well. Even if the business card disappeared tomorrow, many of us would still have piles of the cards hanging around.

For me, the prospect of scanning the cards on my full-size scanner, then using some sort of OCR software, then getting the data into my Address Book, just seems like too much work. Enter Business Card Reader for the iPhone. The app uses the camera on your iPhone to take a picture of the card, then processes the information, adding an entry in the address book on the phone. With the different styles of business cards, the lighting conditions when you take the picture, and cameras focus as factors, the accuracy of the information varies. It might seem silly to scan a card, then manually edit details, but I found this was still preferable to the process of adding business cards via the computer/scanner. Plus, the app saves an image of the business card, making it easier to get the right information if you missed correcting an item the first time.

I'm finally scanning and throwing out a sizable metal box of business cards thanks to Business Card Pro. Think of it as more of an "offline" solution, than something you'll want to use when someone first hands you a business card, and I think you'll be happy with the results. As the app and iPhone camera improve over time, the accuracy of the scanned info should only increase.

(iTunes link)

Here's a look: