Chain Link Pro for the iPhone and iPod Touch Video Review

Let's start the weekend off with a fun, simple, addictive game, shall we? Chain Link Pro has an easy premise: link the same shapes together as they come on screen, then send them to oblivion on the vortex in the middle of the screen for big points. The game has three different modes, with the first bringing the game to a halt as soon as two different shapes collide. The second (and personal favorite) timed version requires you to reach certain point thresholds within given times, and the last version, static, simply requires you to create the chains with static shapes already on the game board. This mode seems too easy to me. Much like Goldilocks, you can probably find a type of game play that's just right for you.

(iTunes link)

Here's a look:

Pluto Pluto for the iPhone and iPod Touch Video Review

Pluto Pluto is a sound game/toy allowing you to create different beats by moving two (or three) balls on screen. As the balls bounce off of each other and the edges of the screen they create beats that can be saved into one of four presets. You can then play back those beats while creating more. Unfortunately, there's no way to export your creations, and frankly you might not even want to as you don't have as much control over the music in Pluto Pluto as in say something like Bebot.

Add some more options, and make it more of a full-fledged music creation tool and we'd be more interested. For now, you can probably pass on Pluto Pluto.

(iTunes link)

Here's a look:

iWeather Lookup for the iPhone and iPod Touch Video Review

I can't wait to tell the grandkids I once lived in an age before The Weather Channel: that there was a time when knowing the current weather was near impossible (beyond going outside) and knowing what the future held involved a woefully outdated newspaper forecast, or a forecast on the radio sandwiched between ads and an annoying DJ (I used to be one, so I can say that). My, how times have changed. The weather app sector is probably one of the ten most competitive areas of the app store. Today we look at one of the top contenders: iWeather Lookup.

While other apps give you the same basic info you can find in other forms, iWeather Lookup goes beyond that, giving you moonphases, sunrises & sunsets, dewpoints, and average temps along with the three-day forecast, all on one cluttered screen. Additionally, another screen will give you radar, infrared, and even webcam info for that city. (See our bad webcam example in the video review.)

The cluttered, information-overload layout of the app won't be attractive to all, but to the weather afficionados who want the most information in one glance, iWeather Lookup delivers.

(iTunes link)

Here's a look:

Copy & Send for the iPhone and iPod Touch Video Review

While the app Copy & Send looks like it has many advanced features, the wordy and at times technical help file left us scratching our heads. So let's focus on the one key feature of the app we were able to use: the persistent, on-board clipboard. Essentially Copy & Send gives you a place to copy things you need to use multiple times on your phone. For example, you might have text for an email you have to send out periodically to multiple people, or an image to email to more than one person at more than one time. 

As you would assume from the name, you can send copied items via email, or paste them back into other apps any place you'd normally use the built-in clipboard. Again, for the more advanced user, there are what look like handy, cross-device options that we'd like to see laid out more clearly.

(iTunes link)

Here's a look:

Castle Crunch For the iPhone and iPod Touch Video Review

Castle Crunch takes the traditional Bowman-style game in which you hurl objects at an opponent, using trajectory and strength settings, and wraps it up in a shiny Medieval-era quest story.

And with that, I think I've summed up the app in one sentence.

(iTunes link)

Here's a look: