Recently in Apps & Games Category

Those who want to try Nokia Maps for free can now do so as the mobile phone giant is giving away a week’s worth of free navigation services. By default, most new Nokia phones that have Maps come with a free trial period, but if for whatever reason you were never able take it for a spin, here is Nokia’s New Year’s present to all you folks out there. Simple select your country, enter your mobile phone number and wait for an activation codeto be sent to you via SMS . Similarly, you will also be notified via SMS when your free trial is over. Do note, however, that this works with the latest Nokia Maps version and GPS-enabled phones only. If you know you have both, head on over here so that you can get yourself a free one week pass now to play around with Nokia Maps.

It seems that the prayers of all those who are hoping for Flash support to become available for the iPhone/iPod Touch may have just been finally answered, and no, it’s not coming from Apple. It’s courtesy of the iMobileCinema app which is designed for the jailbroken iPhone and iPod Touch. Even though it promises to provide Flash support on the Safari browser, it’s not a completely perfect solution as users have reported that some Flash-based sites still don’t work. Nevertheless, this is probably as close as you’re going to get to having Flash work on the iPhone/iPod Touch at the moment. If you want to try it out, just add d.mobilecinema.com to the sources in Cyda and install the iMobileCinema app. While you're at it, tell us what you think about it in the comments section below as we certainly want to hear your take on this ambitious application.

Those who have been waiting for a serious game to become available for the iPod Touch/iPhone will be delighted to know that Konami is all set to release a couple of games this month and next year.

Frogger is already out which costs $5.99 with Dance Dance Revolution S Lite and Silent Hill: TheEscape likewise set to debut later this month. Meanwhile, Metal Gear Solid Touch will be available in Spring of 2009. The release of these games will surely heat up the gaming scene as far as the iPod Touch and iPhone are concerned. I am a bit worried, though, that while the graphics will undoubtedly be splendid on the said devices, the touchscreen interface might prove to be more of a liability during gameplay especially for such fast paced engaging games such as Metal Gear Solid. Anyway, we’ll just leave it at that for the time being. We'll know more about its performance once it has been released and if it's indeed a worthy game to purchase and download.

The iPod Touch may look like the iPhone and provide a similar user experience, but it obviously lacks mobile phone functionality. That was before the TruPhone app hit the scene.

This nifty little application allows iPod Touch users to make phone calls through the internet not only to other TruPhone users (free), but also to other mobile phones and landline numbers as well with a corresponding fee. It also allows you to send SMS and make free calls to Google Talk PC users as well. Of course, this is only possible if you’re connected to a WiFi network and have a headset attached to it, but nevertheless, the availability of such an application definitely adds some added functionality to the iPod Touch that others have yet to offer. Unfortunately, this only works with 2G iPod Touch models so the greater majority of us who are still clinging on to their 1G iPod Touch are left out on all the fun. The TruPhone app is completely free of charge and is now available at the App Store. Downloading and installing the app is the easy part. Finding a compatible headset for your iPod Touch, however, is more of a challenge. There are also versions of the TruPhone app for Nokia and BlackBerry phones available as well as for the iPhone so you can get in touch with more friends without spending a single cent.

  Taking advantage of the Nintendo DS’s touch screen interface, the Colors app turns your Dual-Screen game console into a Digital Sketchbook for your closet-artists out there. You will need an R4 Revolution Flash cartridge to make this little app work, but I’m pretty sure, most of you already have this as part of your gaming arsenal at home. The lower screen acts as your canvas, while the upper screen is the preview screen of your finished masterpiece. Just look at these marvelous renditions all done through this little wonder from Nintendo and the Colors program. Full instructions on how to install it can be found at Wired’s How-To Wiki. The software is still in a development phase so look for further innovations down the road. It's not as powerful and feature-filled as Photoshop, but it, nevertheless, is a pretty entertaining and useful program that let’s you enjoy your DS to the hilt.

Yeah, Apple announced that they will allow developers to make VoIP applications for the iPhone, but they quick to apply the Wi-Fi only clause to it.  Thank God for the guys at Fring who have been known to make VoIP available on almost every mobile/smart phone out now. This works with jail-broken iPhones only and is still considered as a preview of the final version so you might hit a few snags along the way. The good thing about Fring’s iPhone VoIP is that it won’t limit you to Wi-Fi connections, but will also work via EDGE. Once a 3G iPhone comes out this year, I’m pretty sure that a new version from Fring will be released as well which will support 3G connectivity for faster data transmissions. Best of all, it’s free. Installation instructions are likewise available for those who are still clueless on how to install apps on their iPhone. I’ve used Fring on a variety of S60 and Windows Mobile-running smartphones, and I have to admit, it's a nifty application to have so you’ll always be connected to your IM buddies.

The possibilities are indeed endless. Some dudes have managed to run the popular first-person shooter game Quake 3 on the iPod Touch which allows for on-the-go gaming madness. Thanks to the Touch's built-in Wi-fi feature, you can likewise play two players on it (provided of course you can find someone with a Quake-running iPod Touch which I highly doubt). Navigation through the game makes us of the accelerometer of the Touch  and shooting is done by tapping on the screen. It'll be a bit tricky at first, but I pretty sure, once you get the hang of things, it'll surely be addictive. I don't expect this to become available through legal channels anytime soon, but with this proof of concept, maybe Apple would want to tie-up with id Software in the near future as this could be a lucrative partnership in the long run.

Finally, the N-Gage platform has gotten the green signal to go live. While compatibility is still limited to a select few S60-running handsets namely the N81/8GB, N82, and N95/8GB models;it is however the final version already unlike the previews that come preinstalled on new phones or the previously released beta version. Support for additional handsets will arrive in the coming months so expect most of the S60 devices to be compatible at later date. For those who downloaded the preview/beta version, you'll need to replace it with the latest version and you might need to create a new profile. So for the Nokia-loving game fanatics out there who have compatible phones, let the games begin and start downloading. This is perfect for the summer season so you’re almost guaranteed not to have a dull moment during your vacation.

In the spirit of the Easter season, LifeHacker gives us the top ten software Easter Eggs for your enjoyment. For the uninitiated, Easter Eggs are those little hidden built-in features that programmers slyly sneak into your favorite applications. Think of it as cheat codes for your most played game, but this time around, it’s for the software you use on your desktop computer.    Ranging from internet browsers to office applications, there’s an Easter Egg hidden in almost every type of software available today. If not for anything else, these hidden features are truly entertaining that veers away from the common purpose of the said application. The average user will most likely go tired of the program without even becoming aware of the existence of such an Easter Egg hidden within its very core. So let this short rundown of Easter Eggs guide you into enjoying the applications on your computer on a completely whole new level. On that note, Happy Easter everyone!

As reported on Gizmodo, thanks to Core, a hardcore iPhone hacker, native P2P is now possible on the iPhone.  Based on the torrent app Transmission for the Mac, P2P file sharing can now be done using the premiere mobile phone from Apple. Unfortunately, while the prospects of having a portable P2P client are indeed exciting, this is not yet the promised land for mobile file sharing. For starters, installation isn’t as simple as running installer.app and it uses a command-line interface. Data communication is also limited to Wifi which, in a way, makes sense since its faster and more stable but the option to go EDGE would have been nice. The whole process also takes its toll on the battery life of the iPhone so it won’t be advisable to make it your no. 1 device for torrent downloading. Nevertheless, this is a welcome development and is sign of the many good things to come.