The iPhone is the greatest device I’ve purchased in a long time. But, I only had the money to buy a 4GB and I have about 10GB of music. This is a problem. When I stumbled upon Simply Media (Free), I wondered how well it would work. For those who don’t know, Simplify Media is an app that streams music from a computer to your iPhone/iPod touch or another computer. The concept is simple, but is using it simple?

Yes! This app lives up to its name very well.

The Application(s)

To use Simplify Media, you have to install the client on to your computer. Good news is that it is cross platform so both Mac and Windows users can partake. Installation is simple and painless. Once you get the application on your computer installed, it will ask you to setup an account. This is a quick and easy 3 step process. Next, it will ask you to locate the media you want Simplify Media to use. You can choose your music folder from iTunes, or other places if your music is stored somewhere else. Once that is done, it will gather info and log you in to Simplify Media. 

Simplify Media allows you to not only share your music but share other peoples’ music. It allows you to invite people to share your music. This is great for that friend we all have that has like 200GB of music.

The Application on the iPhone is very simple. Simply give it your login information we made earlier and you’re good to go. It will list all the music you have access to (yours or otherwise). The application for iPhone/iPod touch is great in that when you play music, it gives you three tabs: a Now Playing tab similar to the built in iPod, an Artist tab that gives you a summary of the artist, and Lyrics so you can sing along also. The interface is easy to use and familiar. For those audiophiles wondering about the quality of the music, it is very good. Almost equal to the original. The music loads very quick over Wi-Fi but is a little sluggish over 3G and deathly slow over Edge. But, that is kinda normal for all apps.  

Pros

- Easy To Use

- Setup is a breeze

- Fast Streaming with good quality over Wifi

- Interface is easy

- Offers Artist info and Lyrics

- Free

- Cross Platform

- Able to run in background of computer

Cons

- Slower over 3G. Sometimes playback gets choppy

- Program and Computer have to be open on host computer to run (Duh)

- Computer program can sometimes be a little processor intensive

Simplify Media is an awesome application that can bring 200GB of music right to your iPhone. I look forward to seeing this app grow in the future. Overall, HawtApps gives Simplify Media a simply stellar 9/10!

Oh gone are the days of PacMan and Tetris. Games these days are complex and sometimes over done. When the app store opened, we got a rush of these kind of games that made some peoples’ head hurt. When I stumbled upon Trism ($2.99, Demiforce Games), I was intrigued by the concept. The basic concept of Trism is to slide lines of colored triangles (or trisms as their called) and try to make matches of 3 or more. You also use the accelerometer to decide which way the Trisms will fall down through the puzzle. 

Trisms Layout is Colorful and Simple

The Game Play 

Trism offers you a really cool tutorial to tell you all you need to know about how to play. Basically, there are three games built into one. Infinism: The classic game that allows you to play the game through the levels. Terminism: The more fast paced version that requires you to be quick and complete your move before the clock runs out and Syllogism: this is a cool third option that utilizes the Accelerometer of the iPhone. The challenge is to make matches of the trisms only by tilting your phone.

In the game of Trism, the game gets harder by adding obstacles to the game. Sometimes a Trism will become locked, and will keep you from moving any row that Trism is in, also Trisms sometimes turn into bombs, and to diffuse them you must make a match with that trism within a certain amount of moves. 

Trism allows you to register your score online and compare it to other people. It also ha a heirarchy of Achievments you can strive for, like if you are quick at diffusing bombs etc….

The Low-Down

Trism is probably one of the best games I have seen on the iPhone. It combines a simple concept, hours of gameplay that is always changing, and is implemented flawlessly having never crashed on me once. Trism is definitely worth the $2.99 you’ll spend on it. This game is bound to be a classic and I would not be suprised if we see it on different platforms in the future. Kudos, Demiforce. You have created a great Game! Overall, HawtApps gives Trism a impressive 9/10.

If you’ve ever wondered if you could play guitar with your iPhone, it just became possible.  Enter PocketGuitar.

Shinya Kastani’s PocketGuitar lets you play acoustic, classical, electric, muted electric, bass, and ukulele from its very intuitive interface.  The app also boasts distortion, delay, and chorus effects that you can apply to the instrument to create all sorts of sonic landscapes.  There is an accelerometer effect which acts like a virtual “whammy bar” to change the pitch.  The app also has the ability to place the instrument in alternate tunings such as:

• Drop D
• Open G
• DADGAD
• Octave Higher

If your virtual guitar gig requires a tuning not listed by the default, you can create your own custom tuning by selecting the “custom” tuning option.

It seems this application has just about everything to simulate a fairly realistic guitar playing experience on the iPhone.  About the only thing I found to be lacking was the ability to play Barre chords as the application did not recognize my finger as I laid it across all the strings of the same fret.  Since the application is already so thorough, I suspect the developer had intended to include this feature, but that the iPhone’s software or hardware might not have made it possible.

If you aren’t a guitarist, it might not be a good buy for you since PocketGuitar’s behavior mimics actual guitar playing.  Being a guitarist myself, I still have a little trouble producing chords out of it, but I do find this application quite entertaining. PocketGuitar is available for purchase in the App Store for a measly $0.99. And it is totally worth it, in my opinion. Overall, HawtApps has rated PocketGuitar a great 9/10!

iFish 

It’s been a long day at work and you just wanna kick back to the sound of something relaxing… like water (no idea how water is relaxing, but I needed something to put there). Well, with John Moffett’s iFish application you can do just that… plus fish! iFish’s images are amazing and come from Flickr. I’ve compiled a list of pros and cons that you can view below.

Pros:

• You can fish
• Beautiful scenery 
• Realistic sounds
• Keeps track of all your catches 
• Many different kinds of fish
• Accelerometer for casting
• Touch screen for reeling in
• Has a bucket where you can put the fish and view how many pounds it is

Cons:

• Not good fishing pole animation 
• Needs to include information about the fish you caught, such as: where it comes from and just information like that
• Only 10 locations to fish

iFish’s User Interface is very simple to use. iFish makes perfect use of the iPhone / iPod Touch’s accelerometer and beautiful 3.5 inch touch screen. Below is a list of the 10 locations you can fish at:

• Australia 
• England
• Germany
• Greece
• Ireland 
• Michigan
• Oklahoma
• Ontario
• Pennsylvania 
• Sweden

All of the images of those locations are gorgeous. And below this sentence is a list of only a few fish that you can catch:

• Tilapia
• Yellow Perch
• White Perch
• Rainbow Trout
• Catfish
• Brook Trout
• Alewife
• Carp
• Brown Trout
• Striped Bass
• Sunfish
• Bluefish

I’m sure there’s a ton more. Those are just the ones that I have caught so far. All in all, John Moffett did a pretty good job. iFish can be purchased in the App Store for $0.99, which is an okay price for what you get. Overall, HawtApps has rated John Moffett’s iFish application a good 6/10.

Koi Pond

Wow. Just wow. Koi Pond has been in the top 5 most paid for application list for over a month now, most of that time holding the number 1 spot! Koi Pond is really just an unbelievable, entertaining, cool little application. Koi Pond really helps relax and calm the mind. 

Pros:

• Virtual fish
• Touch reactive
• Realistic water simulation
• Realistic environmental sounds
• Finger nibbling
• Fish feeding
• Movable lily pads
• Realistic 3D graphics
• Multi-touch water ripples 

Cons:

• Not a ton of fish
• No turtle 

Koi Pond makes full use of the iPhone / iPod Touch’s gorgeous 3.5 inch touch screen. Koi Pond’s 3D graphics are unbelievable, too. They’re just… outstandingly good and polished. The Blimp Pilots did an outstanding job on their Koi Pond application. Koi Pond can be purchased in the App Store for $0.99, and it is totally worth at least $3 in my opinion. Overall, HawtApps has rated The Blimp Pilots’ Koi Pond an outstanding 9/10.

Movies

So, you want some good movie theatre popcorn, but you have no idea what movies are showing today. Fear not! You can just pull out your handy iPhone / iPod Touch and use your awesome Movies application! Movies is a very well polished iPhone / iPod Touch application. The User Interface is very nicely done. You can search by: Box Office, Theaters, Upcoming and DVD all from the bottom toolbar! You can also toggle with the Settings from the toolbar. With Movies you can organize the showings by popularity, title or rating. Movies has a DVD catalog of over 50,000 films, more than 10,00 high quality video clips and trailers, and a very easy to use design. Jeffrey Grossman did an amazing job. You can download Jeffrey Grossman’s Movies application in the App Store for a low price of free! Overall, HawtApps has rated Movies a nice 8/10.