Befruited for the iPhone and iPod Touch Video Review

(Disclosure: The developers of Befruited have also been advertiser on TDL.)

A confession: I never really understood Bejeweled. Sure, I could change gems and some would vanish, but the strategy ended there. Befruited is a similar type of game, but there's something about the sliding of the rows and columns in Befruited that makes it easier, at least for me, to play the game.

It's a straightforward match-three game. And as a bonus, for some odd reason, if you look at the fruits long enough, they take on a strange 3-D quality. If you like Bejeweled (even while secretly not knowing what you're doing) you'll like Befruited as well.

(iTunes link)

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Planet 51 Racer for the iPhone and iPod Touch Video Review

As longtime readers may know, I have yet to find the "perfect" racing game for the iPhone / iPod Touch. I have to tell you, today's reviewed app comes much closer than I expected.

Created as a tie-in with the movie of the same name, Planet 51 Racer offers fast-paced racing, varied, fun indoor/ outdoor locations, and simple, get started racing action. However, with the connection to a children's movie, it seems the difficulty of the racing is dumbed down to a level that's too easy for those of us who've spent anytime with racing apps before. 

In short, with more difficulty settings, and a few more tracks, Planet 51 could be a great, quick racing game, and it probably already is for super-young racing novices. That said, it's disappointing that it's a paid app, and plays the movie trailer at the beginning. Make it a serious app and charge, or use it for promotion and distribute it free; either one would be preferable.

(iTunes link)

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Merck Manual Home Edition for the iPhone and iPod Touch Video Review

The Merck Manual Home Edition does a solid job of bringing a wealth of health / ailment information to your iPhone and iPod Touch. But if you're being frugal, there's something you should know upfront: That same information is available from Merck right on your iPhone for free via Safari here.

Granted the information is optimized for the iPhone in the app, and it allows you to access it without an internet connection, but does that qualify it as a $9.99 app? That's up to you, dear readers...

(iTunes link)

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Freq Finder for the iPhone and iPod Touch Video Review

Today's app review is strictly for the amateur radio operators in our audience. Freq Finder allows hams to find repeaters based upon their current location. While pocket-sized repeater directories have been available for years, the added convenience and functionality of the location services of the iPhone make this app quite handy.

But at $29.99 currently in the App Store, it's probably too expensive for all but the most mobile of hams. The app is definitely solid, and offers just what it says it does, so I'll let the market decide whether the price is excessive.

(iTunes Link)

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The developer of this app supplied a promo copy for review.

Shotgun Pro for the iPhone and iPod Touch Video Review

Remember, what I said yesterday about the difficulty of reviewing novelty apps? Today we're looking at Shotgun Pro. Essentially this app presents five shotguns on screen, and you then move the phone to load and shoot the gun. As you'll see in the video, loading the guns seems to be easier than shooting them. You can also try pulling the phone back fast to shoot (the method in the video below is more in keeping with the way it's shown in the instructions) as that method seems to have slightly better success. At any rate, you can try Shotgun Free first, and see how it works for you before moving to Shotgun Pro.

(iTunes Link)

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