Hottest iPhone Apps

Who else played Battleship when they were a kid? If so, then iBattleships needs no explanation. For those who never crossed paths with the classic two-player board game, I’ll explain. Two players secretly place five ships of varying sizes on a grid. They then take turns guessing at where their opponent’s ships might be. First to sink all of their opponents ships wins.

You can choose to play against the iPhone or against another person over wifi. Unfortunately there is no option to pass-and-play, which would be nice in cases where wifi isn’t present or the other person doesn’t have an iPhone.

The interface is simple enough. Placement of ships and choosing where to attack is accomplished by use of a “trackball” control on the screen. The control works well enough and I had no difficulties with it. There aren’t any options in the app beyond audio and vibration toggles. There is also no way to save your game, in case you have to stop and would like to come back to it later.

There were a couple of problems I ran into in the course of testing the app. The app froze on me three times, which required me to close it and start all over. Also, it seemed that the iPhone had no trouble finding even the smallest of my ships, while I was still hunting for his. I hate to be one who claims the iPhone “cheated”, but it seemed that it knew right where my ships were. I couldn’t help but wonder if I was being toyed with. Then again, maybe I just suck at this game.

I have to say that the price seems a little steep for what you are getting. There are plenty of apps that are much more complex than this one selling for less. I think the creators might want to reconsider their asking price if they hope to make a lot of sales with this app. It is worth noting that of the top 25 apps in the app store the top 12 are all just $0.99.

Feeling the need for some mindless release?  Stress of the day getting you down?  Can’t promise iPsychedelic (from Ubik) will set you right but it’s such a passive experience you just might feel a boost in your personal chi afterward.  This is a purely visual app and stripped down to the absolute bare bones.  There are no options of any kind and no user interface.  In fact, apart from a simple splash screen, once the app loads you literally see nothing but a blank screen.  When proper balance has been achieved in your synapses, you begin tracing 1 or more fingers around the screen.  A brilliant orb follows each finger, leaving a ‘wake’ in the liquidy plasma field along with a few stars that follow the flow.  Smooth color transitions occur periodically to keep your ocular-centric medtiation moving, changing and rotating.

There is no BGM at all but as expected iTunes music is fully supported.  Truth be told, most folks will be bored with this app within minutes but there are those out there who simply enjoy this type of experience far more than others and would find the dollar price worthwhile.  If I were to make suggestions it would be to include an airy, ambient backing loop, include the accelerometer function somehow, maybe to induce more color changes or change viscosity in the ‘liquid’ and definitely would be cool to have an ‘attract mode’ where you just sit back in conscious reflection and watch as it does its own thing randomly.

Download iPsychedelic now…

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=327720703&mt=8