App Showcase

After I began learning guitar last year, I grabbed a copy of Agile Partners' guitar companion app, GuitarToolkit [App Store, $9.99] to help me learn chords and keep my guitar in tune. But after a while, I wanted a way to store tabs and music to look at while I was away from my computer. TabToolkit [App Store, $9.99], which was released in late September, is exactly what I needed. It allows you to store tablature and music notation in various forms and play them back in landscape or portrait mode. It even comes with a synthesizer that'll play the parts back to you and a metronome to keep you on time.

The bottom of the screen can display a fretboard (guitar or bass) or keyboard for finger positions while the top shows musical notation and chords. If you play guitar or piano, you should definitely check this app out!

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and that means cooking a turkey. But how long do you cook your turkey? I honestly don't know, but now there's an app for that too. TurkeyTimer [App Store, $2.99] was designed to help you figure out just how long to cook your turkey based on your turkey's weight, whether its stuffed, and by its desired internal temperature. As time passes, TurkeyTimer will show you how brown your turkey should be and even when it's time to baste!

We haven't tried this app ourselves, but it looks solid based on the reviews and the app's description. Thanks to reader freshjive for the tip!

We just spent the last half-hour running around the iPhone Alley offices, swinging our iPhones like tennis rackets, having a blast! What were we doing? Playing Air Tennis, of course! This awesome game from Unit9 [App Store, $0.99] lets you and a friend play rounds of virtual tennis, using your iPhones' as rackets. Linked via Bluetooth, one person serves while the other must hit the ball correctly to send it back. As you go back and forth, you can hear the ball whizzing towards you as a voice tells you which swing to use.

After playing Air Tennis and really getting into it, I just have to recommend that everyone goes out and gets it. It's that fun. Don't believe me? Check out the gameplay video below!

MoneyBook [App Store, $2.99] is a brand new finance app from noidentity and it's absolutely gorgeous. MoneyBook allows you to easily manage your budget using an interface that looks so good, you'll be excited to budget! Simply specify your monthly budget, enter expenses as they come in, and MoneyBook will tell you how much you have left to spend! It supports recurring expenses, spending categories, and can even show you progress over previous months.

If you've found that apps like Cha-Ching were just a tiny bit too complicated for your tastes, MoneyBook might be exactly what you're looking for. I've had a chance to briefly play with it and I'm very impressed. Jump down to check out a video and some screenshots!

Orb Games has just released what may become my new game obsession for the iPhone. It's called Kamikaze Race [App Store, $0.99] and it puts you in the seat of an extremely fast car on a busy highway. But there's a catch: your brakes have stopped working and your accelerator is jammed! The goal is to simply survive as long as you can, unlocking achievements as you go.

I've had some time to play with Kamikaze and I have to say that it's addictive, fun, and totally intense. A trifecta of fun that makes it a winner, especially at just $0.99. If you're still not convinced, check out the gameplay video below!

Canabalt [App Store, $2.99] is one of those game concepts that was done 100% right. The objective is to run across rooftops, gaining enough speed to jump from building to building. Along the way there's tons of stuff to slow you down such as crates, birds, and even giant bombs that drop out of the sky to vaporize you. The truly epic soundtrack combined with the fast paced, simple gameplay makes Canabalt one heck of an addicting game. It's available for $2.99 in the App Store, but you can get a taste at canabalt.com.

Your time = gone. You're welcome.

Boost 3D [App Store, $1.99] is a cool new tunnel racing game that puts you zooming down a tunnel, dodging colorful cubic obstacles attached to the walls. Every so often is a boost pad that speeds you up and even let you crash through an obstacle unharmed if you build up enough momentum. You can check out a video after the break.

Ever since friend of the site David Barnard (App Cubby) posted this screenshot from Ramp Champ [App Store, $1.99] I haven't been able to put it down. For those who don't know, Ramp Champ is a new twist on the classic carnival skee-ball game. Play consists of flicking one of nine balls up a ramp in order to hit the targets. Sounds easy, but it's not!

So being a fan of @chockenberry, the person who the purple character is meant to resemble, I grabbed the recently released Halloween ramp pack ($0.99 in-app) to see if I could find him. All I can say is that I'm totally hooked. I haven't been able to find Chockenberry yet, but I do know that you need to knock down the three tombstones that reveal skeleton hands, hit the hands, then kill off the caskets.

Earlier this month the geniuses at Smule (same guys who brought you Ocarina) released their latest app, I Am T-Pain [App Store, $2.99]. In case you haven't heard, the app turns you into "musical genius" T-Pain, complete with Auto-Tune goodness along with original T-Pain tracks to sing along with.

But rather than reading about it, you honestly need to see incredibly fun app in action. Jump down to see I Am T-Pain in all its Auto Tune glory.

i.TV version 2.0 [App Store, Free] was released this week with some incredibly compelling new features. For those unfamiliar with the app, i.TV allows you to browse TV listings and new movie releases. In this latest release, i.TV now sports a significantly updated user interface along with a nice performance increase. Likely the most talked about feature will be its new remote capability which allows it to control any network-based device with the proper integration. TiVo is the first to introduce a soft remote for i.TV, although other manufacturers are welcome to add support for their devices.

Jump down for a quick 2.0 intro video and screenshots!