Are you ready to party? B-Boy Beats is a unique, all action, hip hop rhythm game set in 1980’s New York City. As the lead member of a new break-dance crew looking to gain respect, you’ll need to learn the latest moves and battle other crews to claim new turf across various city locations.

Game-play

Place your fingers on the screen and get ready to move! Simply tapping isn’t enough to succeed in B-Boy Beats. Players must hold their fingers on the screen – giving the feel of virtual legs moving across a virtual dance floor!!

Learn the latest dance moves in the fully interactive tutorial before heading out onto the city streets. There are 10 break-dance moves to learn with each one requiring ever greater skill, timing and confidence to pull off. You knew the city was a dangerous place when you left the safety of the suburbs but are you ready to be tested to the limit? There are 7 hardcore crews each breaking on their home turf to take on and ultimately beat down in your quest to be the best in the city.

Underground Hip Hop ft MC Frontalot

B-Boy Beats features 17 dope tracks from the rising stars of underground Hip Hop. Led by Nerdcore and Penny Arcade favourite MC Frontalot the game also includes awesome tracks from Optimus Rhyme, Id Obelus, Ultraklystron, Rai and Magitek.

Features

1. The most original music game on iPhone today
2. Face off against 7 NYC crews each with their own turf
3. Awesome music talent from the hip hop underground
4. Rhythm action game-play where your fingers become legs!
5. 10 authentic break-dance moves to learn
6. Easy and Hard difficulty levels for extra replay value
7. Open Feint social network integration

Pros

1. Extremely Catchy Music, all these musics are great even for just listening only!
2. Very challenging game
3. Very Addictive!
4. New moves pattern in every new unlocked level!

Cons

1. It’s frustrating to have the next steps partially covered by your own finger
2. Need lot’s of practice!
3. The Boos & Cheers got repetitive after a while, add more variety Yo!

B-Boy Beats Support

Tag Games Limited is about to launch a upcoming AAA iPhone title “Astro Ranch”, plus first look at the game-play trailer for the game.

Best described (or at least the best attempt we can come up with) as a mixture of Farmville, Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon and Futurama,

Astro Ranch is perhaps the most unique and interesting game to hit the iPhone since the launch of the App Store!

The game takes place in the far reaches of the galaxy as the player attempts to build a ranching empire from scratch having crash landed on a strange alien planet.

The player may choose to play as either one of the Starlight twins, Sindy or Max as the action blends resource management (farming crops/raising livestock) with RPG elements (mini-quests) and action (fishing and panning for gold mini-games)

Touch Down in this stunning 3D world, meet weird alien characters, enjoy some awesome 16 bit inspired music and communicate, compete and collaborate with your friends using social features (powered by Scoreloop and Facebook).

Here’s the game-play trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3zaAyvXcYQ
If you missed it here’s the intro story trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy-xmkragYE

Features

1. A unique game experience – exclusive to iPhone
2. Farming game-play mashed up with RPG and mini-games
3. Awesome 3D world to explore, with beautiful animation
4. Lots of strange alien characters to befriend
5. Go fishing, pan for gold, steal fruit from trees and visit aliens!
6. Large range of crops, livestock and upgrades to buy
7. Message friends, send them gifts and credits and many more social features powered by Scoreloop
8. Lots of downloadable content available from the online shop

Launch Details
* Date – week of the 21st February
* Price – initially discounted to £1.79 / $2.99 / Euro 2.39
* Exclusive golden statue of the mayor available from the shopkeeper for the first 50,000 downloads

Editor: This is a launch notice of a new game and I have yet review it hence I can’t give you additional details other than it’s going to be as addictive as most farming games in facebook & probably the females will rejoice with the choice of graphics & animations.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Many people love the complexity of the game with unique turrets such as Cannon, Flamethrower, Pulsewave, Rifle, Chopps, Quakemaker and Decoy!

There are also plenty of different types of zombies that react differently with different turrets & situations!

Beheaded zombies don’t see the HERO but it also don’t see the DECOY turret rendering it useless hence Turrets that decapitate zombies such as Chopps & Rifle are best left at the REAR Near the Base.

In this game play video, I did not use Chopps & Quakemaker as they does have smaller Range than the rest of the turrets.

Legend

There are several tips within the video that you can follow to achieve higher success in this game and I bet you have more ideas on how to achieve greater points then me!! Do share you ideas in the comments below!

The full specification will be at Apple.com website.

The most important details are below

Display

1. 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
2. 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)
3. Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
4. Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously

Wireless and Cellular
Wi-Fi model

1. Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n)
2. Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology

Wi-Fi + 3G model

1. UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
2. GSM/EDGE (850, 900,1800, 1900 MHz)
3. Data only2
4. Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n)
5. Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology

Battery and Power

1. Built-in 25Whr rechargeable lithium-polymer battery
2. Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music
3. Charging via power adapter or USB to computer system

Looks like a up sized iPhone!

The pricing starts at USD $499 for the lowest end model!! Full Pricing List here!

Pros

1. It’s super thin
2. Long battery lifespan – depends on what you do with it
3. Cheap
4. Large screen
5. Same sensitive multi-touch screen as iPhone or iPod Touch
6. User friendly

Cons

1. No Camera at all – no way of video conferencing so it should be a up sized of iPodTouch instead
2. No news on the multi-tasking – can update in the future
3. Too big to fit into the pants but who cares…hehe.

Do you want to run multiple applications on your iPhone? Envy other smart phones that can switch between applications seamlessly?

Now you CAN!!

However, these are two free application for the jailbroken iPhones or iPod touch hence do proceed with your own risk.

(Warning: Remember to change your OpenSSH password if you ever have OpenSSH installed.)

1. Download Kirikae & Backgrounder from cydia store
2. Set both controls to “Press Home and hold” to activate or toggle
3. Set your favorite applications in Kirikae so that you can select them quickly
4. Press & Hold your Home Button To activate the Kirikae App Switcher
5. Go to your favorite tab and run your app to your hearts content
6. Repeat for your other apps.

The backgrounder toggle enable or disable the application from running in the background hence a bit tricky when trying to access Kirikae as it will toggle disabling of the backgrounder for that particular application. However, you can re-able the backgrounder easily and quickly as shown in the video.

Pros

1. Able to switch between your favorite applications quickly and efficiently without too much delay. (My usual apps are camera, photogene, tweetie 2, iPod, MobileRss)
2. Reduce the loading time for opening applications that are already running at the background by at least 3 seconds, for example the camera app and further time saved without the need to search for your favorite applications in your springboard.
3. Good for time sensitive actions such as reporting events/news/blogs that requires fast application switching such as Qik/Ustream video streaming will open much faster if it’s already running in the background.
4. Excellent for iPhone 3Gs
5. It’s completely FREE from cydia!

Cons

1. For older generation iPhone  may not have sufficient memory and can potentially crash the applications all at once suddenly if you load too many applications in the background.
2. The battery may drain much faster for internet radio or anything that uses the internet or GPS constantly, it will heat up the iPhone or iPodtouch to a hand boiling or pocket warming heat.
3. Favorite apps not arrangeable
4. Only Jailbroken iPhone can use these free application.

Overall, I totally recommend this application for anyone with jailbroken iPhone!

Ever wonder how some messages you got from your friends from twitter or msn via your iPhone have emotion icons?

Those icons look very very very nice! This video shows you how to get emoji icons free for your iPhone or iPod Touch!

You can install Emoji Application call “XEmoji Free – Emoji Keyboard Reference” and set your settings as below

1. Install XEmoji Free – Keyboard Reference
2. Open the app
3. click on “Get This Cool Icons!”
4. Click on the top right button “XEmoji Me!”
5. Press the Home button to exit the application
6. Click on Settings in the home screen
7. Click General
8. Click Keyboard
9. Click International Keyboard
10. Click Japanese
11. Toggle the On to Turn on Emoji
12. Exit and you can now go to any app to test your Emoji Icons!
13. click the globe button beside the spacebar of your keyboard
14. Enjoy!

After setting it up, you should be able to see a globe beside the spacebar in your typing keyboard interface and by clicking that toggles your international keyboard and you shall find the Japanese Emoji Icons easily.

Click here to view the embedded video.

VENICE BEACH, CA – Everyone knows that people everywhere are making fortunes from developing iPhone apps and games.

But how long does it actually take to build a successful application and how much does it cost?

4 boys from Venice are saying they can do it in 72 hours from scratch without any preparation. They call it Project 72.

“We know it’s easy to spend a lot of time on a game or app but we wanted to show the world that it doesn’t have to take that long to build a quality game or app. We got the idea for Project 72 on Tuesday evening Jan 5 and went to work right away. The first thing we did was to setup a place online where people could actually see us doing what we’re doing.

Next, we had to come up with a game concept. This is something we usually spend months doing, but since we’re now on a deadline we gave ourself 1 hour to make the decisions over dinner.

We are now working day and night to finish the game concept, code, graphic design, music, sound effects, testing and bug fixing so we can publish the application on Friday January 8 at 10.00PM.

Dogtown Studios is run from a garage in Venice Beach California where the boys are working day and night to finish the game. They have setup a Website where you can watch the progress with all bells and whistles… Live video feed, Blog, Twitters, comments, Facebook.

“People from all over the world are sending us ideas for the game and are really helping out in the process. One guy even told us he would help us to setup a better Web-site that would allow for more user interaction.

Can they finish the game in 72 hours, and will it be good enough? We will find out soon enough!

You can follow their work at the following Website: http://www.dogtownstudios.com
——–

This is not exactly a review but a news update however basing on the video posted by them in the youtube I can tell that they already have what it takes to make that particular game but just need more tweaking and finding the key killer feature that can get people’s attention and have the impulse on buying their app.

Probably by creating this 72 hours challenge allow more publicity to their development & eventually allow followers to buy their app when it’s released.

I can see that they have the right talents from composing original music, programming, graphics design and a guy that do the marketing such as filming demo videos and contact web owners like me to post their news to give it a wider coverage.

I will be happy to test out their game after the 72 hours crash development if given the opportunity of course without bias.

In the mean time, I will wish them best of luck in their application and hopefully get some recognition and be successful…rock on!!

Do you know Chinese language and need to communicate with older folks using Chinese texting via your iPhone to friends or parents that don’t know English?

This video is to teach you how to set up a Chinese character keyboard entry on your iPhone or iPodTouch.

There are a lot more other international keyboards available for the world to use as you can see from the video!

Simply do the following to set this up

1. Click settings
2. Click General
3. Scroll down & Click Keyboard
4. Click International Keyboard
5. Scroll all the way down & click either simplified Chinese or traditional Chinese
6. Select either Handwriting Recognition or Pinyin

After this you can go to any application and type Chinese by pressing the small new globe icon beside the “space” and select either handwriting recognition or pinyin to write Chinese.

Yes! Now it’s out in the cydia store pricing at US$5 to show off to your friends that you can finally use your iPhone 3G/3Gs and 2nd Generation iPod Touch or later as a portable computer!!

This is one of the most wonderful application that arrived in the world of iPhone geeks & jailbroken community, I do hope it will becomes a legalize app in the appstore one day.

In the mean time I don’t mind paying US$5 for a functional application with (hopefully more functionality coming in the future).

BTstack Keyboard only works on jailbroken iPhone 3G(S) and all iPod touch devices with Bluetooth support. It does not work on the iPhone 2G yet, but is not impossible to make it run on this device as well. It is available via the Cydia Store.

According to the developer site,currently It works with all Bluetooth HID keyboards. So far, we have positive feedback for:

1. Apple Bluetooth Keyboard
2. Dell Axim Executive Keyboard
3. Freedom mini keyboard
4. Freedom Universal2 (make sure you are in HID mode)
5. Frogpad
6. KeySonic 340BT
7. Logitech diNovo Edge
8. Logitech diNovo Media Desktop
9. Logitech MX5000
10. Matias Folding Bluetooth Keyboard
11. Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000
12. Nokia SU-8W
13. Palm Wireless keyboard 3245WW
14. Think Outside Stowaway Universal

Do check out the developer site for future updates on more compatible bluetooth keyboards.

What’s working

1. All alphabetical keys (A to Z)
2. All shift-enable symbols (e.g. #$%^&* etc.)
3. Shift keys
4. Enter
5. Numeric keys (1234..)
6. Arrow keys
7. Backspace
8. Esc (exit out of text editing page)

What’s lacking at the moment

1. Tab
2. Caplock
3. Copy & Paste
4. Function keys (F1 to F12)
5. Delete Keys
6. Arrow keys to move websites scroll bars

Pros

1. Able to use your iPhone 3G/3Gs and 2nd gen iPod Touch as a portable computer
2. No more Net Books!!
3. Able to combine extra battery solutions for your iPhone & keyboard to complete a dream of mobile warriors
4. First few hundreds in the world to use bluetooth keyboard to type on your iPhone be very proud

Cons

1. Still lot’s of functionality can be added so hopefully the developer can add in soon!
2. If you did not load cydia fully you get to pay fake $0.99 instead & get an error but works after paying another $5
3. Costly bluetooth keyboard
4. Only able to use it sitting down for now until someone thinks of a way to type standing up LOL
5. Currently only available in the jailbroken iPhones 3G/3Gs and iPodTouch leaving most people unable to get this cool app immediately

Also featured in TUAW

Click here to view the embedded video.

This video shows 2 options that you can buy to extend your battery life by using portable battery!!

This is two of my favorite iPhone or iPod Touch portable battery pack that can charge anytime you want to your heart’s content!

This freed me from the Cinderella effect to make me go home earlier just to charge up my iPhone even thou I want to go out longer to see movies or to shop a little more.

If you have the same feeling give this two nifty device a try!

Mobile Power Station
Pros

1. Small in size (Height=5.5cm Width=1cm Length=6cm)
2. Extend battery life to about 2 hours gaming time & 3 to 4 hours standby time
3. Capacity Indicator to see how much “juice” is available
4. Durable as it managed to survive a spin in the washing machine

Cons

1. It’s pricey which cost about $30 to $50 depending on the brands
2. Require to charge up before use hence if you forget to charge it’s no not much use
3. Pretty loose when use with external iPhone / iPod touch casing hence loose charge easily

Emergency USB Battery Charger using ‘AA’ batteries
Pros

1. Small & Portable (Height=8.2cm Width=3.5cm Thickness=2cm)
2. Uses ‘AA’ Battery hence no charging required if using off the shelf batteries
3. Easy to connect using the USB charging cables
4. Double as a emergency LED torch
5. Clear red LED to signify charging status
6. Very Affordable about $14 to $15 but depending on locations
7. Multipurpose USB female port hence you can charge ANY device that have USB cable connection (other phones etc.)
8. Able to use rechargeable batteries to save on battery cost but need to charge before using

Cons

1. The switch sometimes can be easily turn on accidentally by external means such as the inside of your bag or pocket causing it to waste electricity before it’s used (to counter that, take out the ‘AA’ batteries out before using.)
2. The LED is not bright enough for any emergency situation
3. It might not be durable since the plastic casing feels “cheap” or weak but if handled properly it can last you a few years (but it’s cheap get a few anyway)
4. Pricey cost of ‘AA’ batteries in the 7/11 stores after midnight (if it’s an emergency…at least you got the option)
5. Looks like a terrorist with a cable sticking out of your pants (makes sure you don’t use it in airport!! haha)