The Appcast #49: January 17, 2010 – RedEye Remote Control System

This week’s show: Take the RedEye. We take a look at the RedEye Remote Control hardware and software app from ThinkFlood.

Episodes can be downloaded by clicking the Episodes tab above. Intro Music: Borderline D.U. Mix from Mixter Two – I Don’t Know What I’m Doing by Brad Sucks.

Show Outline:

1. Introductions
2. News: Crunchyroll App returns to the App Store
3. News: Flood of Apps from AppMakr.com
4. News: $450 Million lost to App Piracy?
5. New Apps for the Week
6. Core Topic: Review of ThinkFlood’s RedEye Remote System

New Apps Discussed on January 17th, 2010:

1. Doodle Bomb – $1.99 – Another sketch-stylized game in which you throw bombs to try and hit different switches and open doors. It’s quite simple and there’s a bit of physics in the way you throw the bombs. In the end, it’s a big puzzle about timing, evasion, planning, and having diabolical fun. It starts quite easy, but soon enough I was having a hard time trying to figure out everything. Really the right kind of choice for fans of simple puzzle games.
2. Real Estate Search – Free – A gateway app for Realtor.com. Check out new listings, save searches, and even rate the different listings based on what you like. The interface is quick and easy and works like a very well-balanced compact version of the site.
3. ReBounce – $0.99 – Fans of Peggle will want to check this out. You control and toss around a puck in a screen full of marbles and it’s up to you to hit and destroy the marbles, all while chaining and stylizing your tosses. It’s easy to understand how to play right away and the tutorial levels even give you a better sense of what you need to do to excel in the game. Initially I thought it would be too simple and eventually become boring, but the different modes presented in the campaign of levels always kept the game fresh and the progress always felt like I was doing something different each time.
4. Anime Network Mobile – $6.99 – Check out anime videos on demand. For $6.99 every 30 days, you get access to a selection of shows from the Anime Network. You can check out the videos on 3G and the video quality is based on HTTP streaming, which allows for varying quality depending on the strength of your signal. There’s a decent selection, but given that the CrunchyRoll app is around, it’s hard to justify the subscription pricing.
5. Battle Blasters – $2.99 – What a unique fighter game. You pick from a selection of original characters and duke it out with the rest of the fighters in a basic campaign mode. It’s like a regular Fighting genre game, but you fight across the phone screen by shooting, dodging, and deflecting in hopes of winding down your opponent’s health. With quick and heavy shooting, special abilities, and the need to keep moving and deflecting, there’s a lot of complexity built into this game. Not only does the gameplay feel unique, you also get all-original characters, illustrated very beautifully in 2D, different character maps, and even multiplayer mode that two players can play on the same screen. I also liked that this game could work for both types of gamers: the casuals will like the quick and fun action while the hardcore will try to learn different strategies based on special abilities and the combo system. If this is the direction that iPhone games are headed in 2010, then this year will be phenomenal.
6. OPlayer - $2.99 – A video player that can handle nearly any format given to it. You use FTP to transfer files (with instructions built in for Mac and Windows) or you can stream through HTTP. Playback on high-resolution files is a bit poor, but the 320×240 resolution works pretty well. Some of the older files like MPEG-1 stream on the fly much better than newer codecs like Matroska. Subtitle files with Matroska were not supported. Please note that we used this app with an iPhone 3GS.

Apps of the Week:

Pastefire – (Bob) – Free – The ultimate in pasting power. Pastefire allows you to quickly use your copied text to quickly make a call, check a URL in Safari, SMS, Email, or Search for anything you’ve copied. It’s a great launchpad that requires little setup or complex navigation.

The Horrible Vikings - (Kevin) – $1.99 – Imagine a catapult game (like Hot Dog Down a Hallway, Throw Me, A Christmas Santa, etc.) with a storyline. The Horrible Vikings introduces a cartoony world where you control vikings trying to plunder a world defended by ninjas. You catapult a viking from your ship and hope to steal as much as you can while hoping to capture the princess and avoid ninjas at the same time. It sounds complex, but it’s really a step beyond the usual catapult games, which are simple to begin with. You’ve also got upgrades, different levels to catapult into, and I must say that the graphics and animation are also quite good.

Silly App of the Week:

Younicorn - (Kevin) – $0.99 – Ever want to see you and you friends as unicorns? Just use this silly app that not only allows you to place a unicorn horn on the face of anyone in your iPhone pictures, but also to apply hot pink and rainbow-inspired unicorn backgrounds to turn any picture into an instant cover for your Trapper-Keeper (remember the 80s?).

Fat-a-pult - (Bob) – $1.99 Premium version or Free Lite version – Launch skinny men into the air and guide him into more food to make him fatter while trying to eat beans to build up gas that will help you propel even higher. It’s quick, surprisingly fun, and somewhat gross.

Core Topic: The RedEye Hardware and App

RedEye - Free App and $188 Hardware Unit – We take a look at the RedEye hardware and the app that accompanies it. This hardware and software combination is meant to turn your iPhone or iPod Touch into a universal remote.

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