Poker Pals supports AI two player, local pass and play but ultimately online multiplayer with a friend or a random person. There seems to be no issues with online and it generally works very well. Myself and a few friends had an issue with the game not notifying on iOS5 but I found the fix for this was to go the the device settings – settings ->notifications -> Pals HD – and change the alert type from a banner to alert box.

Sadly, the game is missing online chat which is a great shame, many good iOS board games have online chat now and it is something that should be added to give a better feel of a social game.

Now onto the real issue I have. After having purchased the game for iPad, I found it was quite addicted so purchased it for iPhone too. The problem is that the second device will not accept my username and gives an error that username is already taken – yes it has been taken, by me!! But it seems that I cannot purchase it for two devices and play it with the same username. This is far from the usual behaviour for iOS games and it is something Chillingo must fix as soon as possible, it seems when they made this fun game they forgot that some people may have multiple devices. I am sure they will fix it, but in the meantime do not buy it again for a second device.

So all in all, a fun game, very addictive but has a few issues and tweaks that they need to resolve. I would like to reiterate though apart from the issue above and the tweaks I would like added, I have found no problems with the gameplay itself. Oh and as a BTW, there is an achievement for beating Difficult Davey, I did it after about 10 tries but I swear he cheats. And speaking of achievements, there seems to be a bit of a bug – I magically unlocked a load of achievements I never actually earned! 

The game is not huge by means of time of completion but there is some replay value to go back and get the gems you missed and aim for gold medals and there is a promise of more levels to come in a future update.  I recommend this game as a short blast of fun which you may prove difficult to put down.  At the moment it is also only £1.49 in the AppStore too, so grab it while it is cheap. Also available for iPhone.

There are many variations in the hidden object game genre, some are simply find a list of objects and complete a scene, but the better ones have a proper story attached to them and brain exploding puzzles to really give your mind some exercise. Some of the puzzles may be easy and others are so evil you may find yourself looking for help online.  Hidden object games are always suitable for all ages but some of the ones with hard puzzles in may naturally be too difficult for younger children.  They are also very accessible and can be found on all formats from mobile phones to ipads and PCs and there are even a few on the gaming consoles. And they are great to play if you have only a few minutes or many hours.

Here is a little rundown of my favourite hidden object games on iphone or ipad, which with the touch screens are perfect for hidden objects. Be wary when choosing though, some are really short about an hour or so long and others are 4-5 hours or more.  The selection below are all fairly lengthy games except for Nick Chase Detective HD which I felt was a great story anyway so deserved to be on the list.

Antrim Escape 2 HD

Awakening: The Dreamless Castle

Awakening: Moonfell Wood

Drawn: The Painted Tower

Flux Family Secrets

Mushroom Age

Nick Chase A Detective Story HD

Treasure Seekers 1

Treasure Seekers 2

Most of the games are of a decent length and took me at least 4 hours to
finish. They also have a good mix of hidden object finding and brain bending
puzzles to vary the action. Antrim Escape 2 is extremely hard so if you are
new to these games this one is best avoided but may I suggest starting with
Flux Family Secrets, it is not too easy but has a good balance between not
too difficult and giving your brain cells some action.

The printer itself is excellent with a large array of features which you would not usually see on printers.  It is web app enabled so with a touch of a button you can print out graphs, calendars, soduko puzzles, colouring pads and much more.  The printer also has it’s own email address so people can send emails to it and it will by itself print out the emails and any attachments.  If you choose to use this feature though be sure to register the email on the HP website and lock out unauthorised email printing otherwise you may come home to a pile of printed porn. It is easy to lock out unauthorised users via the website.

I don’t want to harp on about the features much as a better review is posted up on the TECHRADAR website here.

Moving onto Airprint.  The printing is extremely easy to use on iOS devices.  Printing is supported in Safari, Mail and Camera Roll, so go into the item you want to print, click the arrow (normally used for reply/forward/etc and select print. Choose your printer from the list and print, it is that simple. It is extremely quick and printing signal from phone/ipad to printer was only a second. The printing functionality does lack a few features, the only option is to select how many copies you wish to print. There are no other basic options like selecting the orientation of the print. I had my ipad in landscape mode and a Google page printed in portrait mode so it seems it is portrait only for now.  One thing useful (or not) is that it formats web pages quite well.  As a test I printed a page from the BBC News website. As you know BBC is full of links, images and everything they can cram in but it printed only the story with no photos or extra rubbish so ink and paper waste is reduced.  I note that this is a good thing but in some circumstances you may want everything printed including photos so for some it may be an annoyance.  I am sure future updates will bring extra printing features but for now, it is one tiny step closer to making the ipad a laptop replacement, well for me it is anyway.

A list of apps which feature Airprint so far can be found HERE CLICKY HERE

So I thought I would test my iPhone 3GS model loaded with OS4 and voila I could replicate the problem. Within 20 seconds of holding the phone, my signal went from 5 bars down to one. I did this process 3 more times to rule out a fluke and the same happened. Some people have shown videos to show calls dropping on the iPhone 4 but as Gareth states, if the phone thinks it has a low signal it will drop the call. Now I am no scientist or a technical buff, I leave that to the experts, I can only tell you that this happens on the 3GS too on OS4 so it is highly likely to be a software issue. I await a patch from Apple to fix it.

So in no particular order:

Sky+

The Sky+ app is your sky guide in your hand.  Link your mobile phone number to your sky account and you will have the ability to send a remote record request to your sky+/HD box when you are away from home and you have forgotten to record something. If the programme has already started you cannot record it though. Sky+ app has recently had an update and now it is faster, easier to use and has a better navigation layout. The Sky+ App is free to download and use from the app store.  UK only.

TV Catchup

TV Catchup is not an app but a service you can use directly through the browser. The name TV Catchup gives the impression that you can catch repeats online but actually this service is LIVE television as it is aired.  It is not some cheap crap service showing weird Japanese or minor US channels, these are top UK channels being aired live. Channels include BBC1, BBC2, BBC 3+4, ITV1+2+3+4, Channel 4, Channel 5, Five USA, Fiver, E4, More4, Film 4, BBC News 24, CBBC and a few others, plus the +1 hour versions of the above channels.

It is a fairly substantial service and it is entirely free, no catches and is 100% legal (you need a TV license of course).

This is a great package on the iPhone, but if you want more channels (50+) then you can alternatively watch it on a proper computer.

The iPhone version uses wifi or your 3g connection. On 3g the streaming is excellent and in my experience no buffering issues at all with an excellent picture.Although this is dependent on your local mobile network.

To view on iphone point your browser to iphone.tvcatchup.com and to make it easy to access you can set a shortcut link on your home screen.

To view on home computer point your browser to www.tvcatchup.com

Both services require a signup login, but they do not ask for email address or other details, just chosen name and password. How this service manages to be free I do not know, maybe they plan to charge in the future but for now, enjoy your free TV.

BBC iPlayer

The original TV catchup service. Again, not an app but a direct service, really the iplayer needs no explanation other than it works extremely well on the iphone through 3g or wifi.  Point your browser and make a direct link to http://www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/iplayer

TuneIn Radio

Tune In Radio is a new live radio app from the app store. It costs only £1.19 and is the best radio app I have found on the web so far.  There are many live radio apps on the app store but two things make this app stand out from the crowd.

1) The ability to browse the web while the radio is on.  They have included a web button on the radio interface which brings up a new web page for you to carry on browsing while radio is playing, whether this is a first or not I do not know but it is something all radio apps should have due to the inability to have radio playing in the background.

2) The ability to record live radio, pause rewind and forward. Yes its dab in your pocket.  The record works very well and you can record as long as you have space on the iphone, there is no restriction. This is great but a point to remember, do not forget you are recording something as you may find you run out of space if you leave it recording for a few days.  I did a test record and a 2 minute record took up about 2mb space, so this gives you an idea of what to expect from recordings.  Recordings can also be played without a connection in airplane mode, this is useful if you wish to record a bunch of programmes to take away on holiday with you.

There are hundreds of radio channels and you can browse by location, language and genre.

Now the problem is that I am finding most of these apps I buy I never use more than once.  I have over 75 apps which sit there doing nothing but taking up screen space.  When I remove them I want them back ‘just in case’ I may want to use them.  This is a silly situation. Not only is it a waste of money but it is a waste of my time downloading, uninstalling and so on.

Take word games for example. I have about 10 or so word games on my iphone. I play two of them regularly and the others I do not bother with because normally something else is slightly better. Other games I just buy because the screenshots look pretty but I end up not playing them

I want a GTD (getting things done) application but most of these are around about £5 or more each and it would be expensive to buy them all. Granted, some of them have lite versions, but the very features I want to try out (like push notifications) are disabled in the lites so I do not get to try them at all.

I have a number of apps I use regularly, most notably…

Sky News, ITN News, Reuters

Tweetie, My O2

Accuweather, Weather Pro

Bejewelled 2, Boggle, Moxie

The rest I have are just sitting there winking at me wondering when they will be pressed.  I think I need to stop buying.

So here is a plea to everyone, if you have a recommendation for a game or useful app then please post about it here or even if you have a recommendation for good website listing decent apps it would be helpful.  There is so much out there it is hard seperating the wheat from the chaff and I am sure there are loads of excellent apps out there which get forgotten about.

1) Still cannot delete texts in bulk

2) You can view your itunes account information now (and redeem vouchers) except that viewing account does not work. It is stuck in a loop asking for my password.

3) SMS now called “Messages” – what was wrong with SMS?

4) It has deleted all my calendar entries !!!

5) Voice memos – Handy, but you need to speak really close to the phone to be able to hear it. You couldn’t leave it on a table and speak ala the speakerphone.

6) It has screwed up my app pages – the second page has only one app and the rest of the screen is blank yet 3rd and 4th pages are full. This is least annoying though as I only had to move the one to get it back together.

7) Voice memo app keeps opening from phone sleep despite me closing it.

As for the new features apart from the MMS, copy and paste & the ability to redeem an itunes voucher via the phone, I don’t see much that is exciting here.
My biggest hope of course is that it may fix the 3G calling problem I have per my previous blog post.

Actually it is two problems but I think they are all connected to 3G calling.

1) Sometimes when making or receiving calls instead of the person I get a very loud shrieking down the phone like a fax machine on drugs.

2) Last two weeks I have had problems receiving calls – swiping the finger on the accept call does not accept the call and it keeps ringing. Sometimes it does swipe but does not accept the call and other times it is not swiping at all like the swipe is stuck. Yet if I hold the power off button, it successfully swipes to switch off – and that is the only way I can get the phone to stop ringing.

3) Third problem is linked to number 2 and actually is the most bizarre problem of them all. Last night someone called me and it got stuck not being able to receive the call. So I shut it down and the person called me on my house phone. Whilst I was speaking to them on their house phone, their same number was ringing me on my iPhone. It was like a delayed reaction and when I switched the iPhone back on it decided to carry on trying to accept the previous call – which was actually by then non-existant as the phone was being used in this other call. Sound confusing? Well yes it is hard to explain but basically my phone was ringing for a call that was made 2 minutes prior to that.

I am pretty sure that it does not exhibit these problems when 3G is switched off, but really I do not want to keep having to switch it on and off when I want a faster net connection.

I have spoken to Apple just now who have heard of random calling problems, but never ghost calls like described in problem 3. They want to take it in for surgery but I need my phone. Nearest Apple Care store is in London which is a bit too far for me. Or I can pay £29 and have a new phone sent to me at the same time they collect the other. I don’t see why I have to pay to not be without a phone.

I will try the firmware upgrade tonight when it is available and see if that helps to fix it but I really think the phone is actually faulty.
Has anyone else heard of these sort of problems before – especially interested in anyone who has had a similar problem as number 3.