Now, I’m not exactly the most creative person when it comes to design elements and color schemes. I can’t design anything my mom would want to put up on the refrigerator, and I struggled to comprehend the wonders of MS Paint as a kid growing up. Thankfully, there are a litany of apps out there that help me overcome my creative shortcomings by allowing me to easily customize my iPhone’s home and lock screen with gorgeous photos, drawings, and designs.

Pimp Your Screen might be one of the best. This app offers a broad selection of well-designed wall papers for iOS devices of all sizes, making it easy to customize your new look.

First of all, take a gander through Pimp Your Screen’s arsenal of gorgeous retina display ready wallpapers and find which one suits you best. There are plenty of themes for all kind of occasions, including updated ones for whatever current holiday season you are celebrating. Once you’ve found the one you like best, simply tap SAVE, and the photo will be saved to your device’s camera roll. From there, hop on over to your camera roll, select said photo, then save it as either a wall paper or lock screen item, and you’re good to go. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

If you want more customization, you can customize the wall paper even further by using the Lock Screen and Home Screen Maker feature. This feature allows you to select your preferred wall paper, but also add on overlay shelves, icon skins, and other images over the original. It’s actually very easy to do and gives you even more options to customize your specific look.

Personally, being the OCD freak that I am, I rather enjoy the shelves feature. This theme will give an organized look to your screen by placing a shelf underneath all of the apps, thus making them appear to be resting upon a mantle of some sort. The shelving options are numerous, ranging from mahogany style to a futuristic industrial look. It’s also fun to try and see which shelves couple nicely with certain wall papers, and your customization options are virtually endless.

One thing I particularly liked about the app was that it gave me a preview feature. This feature overlays a set of app icons, or the lock screen, over the wall paper of your choosing so you can take a look at what the proposed job would look like when finished. This saves you the time and effort of going through all of the work yourself, only to get back to your home screen to find out that you don’t really like the look all that much anyway.

The images and previews load rather quickly, so you it doesn’t take a lot of time to get the look you want; that is if you’ve already found the perfect wall paper for whatever your tastes are in that moment, which I’ll talk more about below.

It’s great to have such a huge selection of wall papers, but this ultimately can prove to be a little bit of a problem. There really isn’t a simple, organized way to browse through all of your options. You’re basically left to just peruse through every picture, one by one, until you have found the one you like. But if you want to keep going to see more, you’ll have to keep searching through them in a linear manner, one by one, and do the same if you want to regress back to a previous photo. This disorganization is a minor problem, really, but it would certainly make things much easier if you could browse through via category and themes.

As far as home and lock screen customization apps go, Pimp Your Screen does its job quite nicely. There are already a healthy number of wall paper choices, with more being added on a frequent basis; so if you haven’t found many you’re particularly fond of right off the bat, you’re sure to stumble across one eventually. It’s simple, easy to use, and does its job nicely. What more can you ask for?

And at the price of a cheeseburger ($.99), it’s a more than justified purchase. Besides, we could all use one less cheeseburger.

Our Score: 4.5 Out of 5

Pimp Your Screen Review: It enables you to do just that… is a post by App Chronicles

For those of you for whom the movie might not have been enough, though, today we offer you The Adventures of Tin Tin game for iOS devices. The game is based on the 2011 film, though with a few tweaks here and there. As promotional game tie-ins go, they’re typically pretty disappointing. Fortunately for Tin Tin, that’s not at all the case; but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Just in case you aren’t aware of what The Adventures of Tin Tin is all about, here’s the scoop, via IMDB:

“Intrepid reporter Tintin and Captain Haddock set off on a treasure hunt for a sunken ship commanded by Haddock’s ancestor.”

So, a basic treasure hunting story. What more could an adventurous person want?

The launching point of the game begins with Tintin looking through a market place, whereupon he finds an ornate sailing ship model. Immediately after making the purchase, our protagonist encounters a rude man named Ivan, who offers to buy the ship off of Tintin. After being refused, Ivan stomps away in a huff, leaving Tintin rather perplexed. Not long after, Tintin is assaulted and has his ship stolen. Using his natural detective inclinations, he is able to surmise who he thinks is behind the robbery, and sets out to get back his stolen ship.

The Adventures of Tintin – The Game is an amalgamation of many different genres. One minute players will be using third-person stealth to sneak into a mansion, the next they will be on-rails, running away from an angry dog, solving puzzles, and competing in quick time events to escape. It’s a really impressive mix of ideas, and will keep the player interested throughout.

The controls are generally responsive, although sometimes the game didn’t correctly recognize swipes. Moving the character feels really smooth, with the on-screen virtual d-pad reacting well. At the start of the game the player is asked if they wish to turn on motion controls, and it’s something worth doing as there is some clever implementation further in. There’s also some nice interaction in cutscenes, where the player can tap the screen to collect coins as the camera pans around.

One thing that really stands out to me is the quality of the graphics. The game comes in at a hefty 846 MB, and the developers at Gameloft used every bit of that space to give the player a wonderfully thought out and imaginative experience. All character models look fantastic, especially Tintin, and the environments are superb.

As superb as the graphics are, the same can’t really be said about the voice acting, which is weak at best. Also, unfortunately my game seemed to suffer from a high number of crashes, and every time one happened it would take about ten minutes and multiple reloads for the game to work again. Obviously this was incredibly frustrating, and whole areas would have to be repeated.

Overall, I found this game to be fantastically entertaining, even with the periodic crash problems. Like I said before, most promotional tie-in games are incredibly subpar and have a rushed feel to them, but not Tintin. The game stands alone pretty well, even if you’ve never seen the movie. It’s easy to follow, but still gives a little bit of a challenge and mystery to keep you occupied, and it has a very clean nature to it, so it’s perfect for kids and grown ups alike.

The Adventures of Tintin comes with a $4.99 price tag, but for an immersive game like this, the price is well worth it.

The Adventures of Tintin Review: Reliving the Days of Your Childhood is a post by App Chronicles

In Amazing Breaker, you launch glowing, exploding baubles at colorful sculptures of ice. The goal is to blow up as much of the sculpture as possible; the more you blow up, the better your ranking, and if you don’t hit a destructive minimum you fail and have to start over. Helping you along the way are various kinds of bombs — chaining bombs, ghost bombs, bombs that split into threes — and you also have the ability to earn more bombs as you destroy (and figuring out how to get those extra bombs is necessary to defeat some levels).

In general, the game is very fun to play. Any game that roots itself in explosive destruction is a good one. Firing off bombs is fun, and creating chains of six, seven, even eight bombs to all explode in a row is both challenging and rewarding. Like any good puzzle game, this one offers that “one more try” element — if you fail, you want to do it just *one more time*, and if you succeed, there’s just *one more level* to play before you’re done.

The game’s interesting visuals help, too. Instead of bright, clean colors or a cartoony look, this game almost feels Victorian, with a steampunk flavoring to it. The “ice sculptures” that you destroy look great, generally, with some interesting color use and a sheen that almost feels like glass.

That’s not to say the game doesn’t suffer from some problems. Principal amongst these is that there’s simply not enough room at the bottom of the screen to aim and align your shot. The catapult is too close to the scoring bar, and so when you pull all the way back you can easily slip into the scoring zone and launch before you’re ready. This can get really frustrating!

There’s also some issues with difficulty. First, it’s one of those games that only awards you a full 3 stars with 100% destruction; so even if there’s a sliver of ice left, a handful of pixels so small you can barely see it … that’s 99% and you’re out one star. These kinds of games can definitely irritate.

Second, the game sometimes suffers from a bumpy difficulty progression. One board can seem ridiculously easy; but it can be followed by a board that makes you want to spit in frustration. Granted, all puzzle games suffer this to some degree. But the problem seemed especially acute at times in Amazing Breaker. I hope future levels even things out a bit.

While I don’t foresee Amazing Breaking joining the ranks of an Angry Birds or a Cut the Rope in the annals of all-time great puzzle games, it is a very solid title. With some update tweaks and some better managed update levels, it can certainly become one of those games you keep on your iPhone for a long time.

Our Score: 4 out of 5.

Amazing Breaker Review: Explosive Fun! is a post by App Chronicles

The Sonic CD port was done using the Retro Engine, a system developed independently by Christian Whitehead. Apparently, the process was a difficult one — for technical reasons, Sonic CD couldn’t be ported as easily as the other Sonic games.  But Whitehead’s achieved something nice here. The whole game is impressively ported. It looks good, it plays well, and it’s as complete as copyright will allow. It even includes the awesome opening animation!

In addition, the game comes with some neat extras, such as the option to use the Japanese or American soundtrack (it defaults to Japanese) and the original or Genesis spin dash. There are also Game Center achievements (a welcome nod to modern gaming),leader boards, and unlockable extras. All in all, there is a lot of Sonic gameplay here. It’s the most robust Sonic port we’ve seen, apart from Sonic Racing.

The one thing about the port I’m not particularly fond of is the limited d-pad. It’s trying to imitate a Sega controller, but it’s just … not good. This sort of thing doesn’t work well without the tactile feel of the d-pad. Personally, I’d prefer a floating virtual pad, as has become the standard in iOS gaming, or even the looser virtual stick from Sonic 4.

The game itself is more difficult to review, as we’re talking a classic of a bygone era. Sonic CD is generally well-loved by fans of the series. It takes it’s cues from the other Sonic 2D titles, so anyone who’s played the other iOS ports will recognize the green grass level, the water level, the casino level, etc.  Sonic CD did not forge new territory when it released.

Where the game got innovative was in its time travel mechanism. Sonic CD was one of the first games to use the “same level in past, present, and future” trick that we’ve seen many times since. This is both a blessing and a curse for the game. It can be very confusing for more casual players, like those who have only been introduced to Sonic via the iOS ports. For hardcore players willing to invest the time, though, figuring out when to go into the past, what future to use (Good or Bad futures exist in the game), and how to achieve maximum success can be a blast. If you’re a speed player, though, Sonic CD can get a little frustrating.

So, bottom line: Christian Whitehead did a phenomenal job porting this. If you like the Sonic franchise and have enjoyed Sega’s previous iOS ports, this is a no-brainer. Buy the game. If you’re new to the Sonic franchise, I’d say start somewhere else and work your way up to this one. Sonic CD is a great game, but it’s neither the purest nor the easiest entry into the franchise.

Our score: 4.5 out of 5.

Sonic CD Review: Powerful Port of a Classic Sequel is a post by App Chronicles

So what puts GTA miles ahead of the competition? Where to start… From top to bottom, Rockstar has brought the whole Liberty City atmosphere to the iPhone. That means the characters, the music, the dialogue, and the compelling missions are all represented—and with surprising execution. It’s interesting to notice how much these creative touches make a difference, because when you turn to the controls, we find that GTA III is not without it’s flaws.

For the most part, you can navigate around the city without much trouble. Walking, running, and driving are pleasurable experiences by and large. It’s when things get dicey that the mobile version of GTA starts to feel a little less polished. Gunplay in particular can be frustratingly inaccurate, relying on an auto-target system that can leave you shooting multiple pedestrians rather than the fleeing villain who owes your boss money. This troublesome shooting system can be lumped in with the turn arrows that dictate your vehicle’s direction. These elements are definite workarounds when compared to the precision that existed on the console version of GTA III, and they serve to make the mobile version much harder (which can be a turnoff at times). When working with a screen full of digital “buttons,” it’s all too easy for things to descend into frustration in a hurry.

But enough about the game’s flaws, because there are precious few others to mention… I’ve got to admit that some of the things making this a standout title in the App Store are intangibles. It’s far more possible to lose yourself in Liberty City than it is in any other open-world game available for iPhone. While Gameloft’s efforts might LOOK similar, they’re not as tightly-scripted and nowhere near as compelling. In GTA III, you’ll often find yourself replaying a mission until your eyes get tired of staring at the screen—never giving a second thought to the fact that you’re gunning down a bad guy while in a full-on police pursuit, and it’s all on your iPhone in full 3D… The quality of what goes on in Liberty City is good enough to make you forget this incredible feat and just focus on the downright good times to be had.

So whether you’re a veteran returning to your old haunts 10 years after the fact, or if this is your first time stepping foot in Liberty City, get ready for a wild ride. As was always the case, one of the great things about GTA III is that it can be played however you’d like. Just get behind the wheel of a sports car and cruise around if you feel like it, or get busy taking jobs if you want to pull in cash and purchase some nasty weapons. We’re glad to see this departure from Chinatown Wars (or this return to traditional gameplay), and we can only hope that the community response to this 10th anniversary edition of GTA will encourage Rockstar to get busy bringing something completely original to the App Store. This port is more than enough to ensure that iOS gamers all over would highly anticipate such a release.

Our Score: 4 Out of 5

Grand Theft Auto III Review: An Amazing Rendition of the Console Classic on the iOS is a post by App Chronicles

Enter Snapseed, from the folks at Nik Software.

Snapseed is a powerful photo editor for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, packaged in a dead simple way that minimizes the confusion and intimidation many amateur photographers experience.

In a lot of ways, Snapseed for iPhone and iPad is comparable to iPhoto, in that you are given easy to use tools to adjust your photos, including color, exposure, cropping, straightening, and tuning, as well as adjusting saturation, contrast, and white balance.

If these features are too much for you or a little intimidating and you’re not sure what to do with them, you can also add some vintage over-lays to your photos, á la Instagram. While there aren’t as many options as Instagram, these work just fine, in my opinion.

Here’s a great run down of Snapseed’s features:

Basic Adjustments

• Take Photos – Open photos from the Camera Roll or take new photos.

•Auto Correct – Automatically analyzes your photo and adjusts color and exposure to perfection.

• Selective Adjust – Make precise selections and enhancements to specific areas of your photos in seconds with Nik Software’s revolutionary U Point technology.

• Tune Image – Use Ambience to create depth and vibrancy that uniquely adapts to colors and textures. Adjust White Balance, Saturation, Contrast, more.

• Straighten & Rotate – Rotate 90° and/or straighten photos with simple gesture controls.

• Crop – Easily crop images to remove distracting parts of your photo, now with standard aspect ratios.

Enhancements

• Black & White – Get that classic Black and White look with this darkroom-inspired filter.

• Vintage Films – Make any photo look like a vintage color film photo from the 50’s, 60’s or 70’s.

• Drama – Add style with a custom effect specifically tailored to your photos, ranging from subtle textures to wildly artistic effects.

• Grunge – Give your photos a totally unique, hip, and dingy look.

• Tilt-Shift – Create a narrow in-focus area designed to simulate depth of field, common in a Miniature Scene look.

• Details – Enhance details with traditional sharpening or the unique Structure control found in the Nik Software professional products.

• Center Focus – Draw attention to the subject of your photo by blurring the surrounding background.

• Organic Frames – Add stylized borders to photos for the perfect finishing touch.

Sharing

• Email – Send images at original resolution.

• Social – Share on Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter (using iOS5).

• Print – Print wirelessly using Apple’s AirPrint technology

Now I consider myself to be a novice when it comes to photography, so the Auto Correct feature is a life saver in my book. It allows me to easily adjust the photo’s color and contrast setting without having to worry about what effects this might have on other aspects of my photo.

With Selective adjustment, you have the ability to do exactly what its name implies: select an area (or areas) of a photo and adjust them manually. For instance, if I have a photo of myself and three of my friends, it’s quite possible that I can adjust the saturation, contrast, and brightness of all of our faces to varying degrees. This gives the user even more control over what they want to do with the photo, and that can never be a bad thing.

Most of the other features are straightforward and highly simple to use. All you have to do is swipe up/down to select the enhancement of your choosing, and then swipe left/right to adjust said enhancement. This provides an intuitive feel to the app’s capabilities, and allows you to see your adjustments in real time.

As for the enhancements, they’re just as simple to use. Want to apply a tilt-shift effect? Just tap the icon and adjust with two fingers how big you want the effect to be, where you want it on the photo, and voilá, you’re good to go.

One feature that is incredibly useful is the ability to dump RAW images from a camera via Apple’s Camera Connection Kit. The drawback to this, though, is that you need an iPad 2 or an iPhone 4/4S.

Nik also says that the app will work with images up to 16 megapixels on these devices, so you have the opportunity for some serious photo editing right on your mobile device. If you don’t have these most current devices, you are relegated to 6.25 megapixels or lower and RAW image processing will not be available to you.

While experimenting with it on my iPhone, it quickly became apparent to me that I was utilizing one of the most powerful photo editing apps on the market. The ease of use with which I was afforded by Snapseed made it a fun and worthwhile experience.

It comes with a fairly hefty price tag at $4.99, but there’s a reason why Apple labeled the Snapseed as its Rewind iPad App of the Year. You get an amazing amount of capability out of that 5 bucks, while on the flip side you might pay 6x’s that amount for other comparable editing software programs for the Mac. For all that you get for that kind of price, I’d be hard pressed to find another photo editing app as good as Snapseed.

Snapseed Review: Most powerful Photo editing app in the App Store? is a post by App Chronicles

I only feel comfortable nitpicking that great game because of what Chair Entertainment Group has done with the sequel. Infinity Blade 2 is everything you might have hoped. All the things we loved about the original have been expanded and most of the rough spots smoothed over. There’s simply not a better looking game in the App Store. Maybe I’ll regret saying it later, but with Infinity Blade 2, Chair has used the Unreal Engine to slash its way to near perfection.

You’ll get the sense that this is a serious sequel right from the beginning, when you’re met with a beautifully crafted prologue that walks you through some fights and sets up the story. It’s clear right away that the narrative is going deeper this time, as it gets more meta and allows itself to gain complexity over time. For all the atmospheric, creepy moods found in the original, its great fun to see that competent writers are behind Infinity Blade, and they’ll definitely keep you interested in between the swiping battles.

The gameplay tweaks don’t change the formula that made the first Infinity Blade so awesome, but they do serve to improve the experience. For example, the parry action is far more precise and usable—which is a good thing, because you can’t endlessly dodge anymore without getting fatigued and taking damage. Other factors that change the experience (for the better) include things like dual weapons and weapon gems (for bonus effects). None of these things overhaul the sort of fights return gamers rightfully expect, but they definitely take them to the next level.

Since Infinity Blade offers fights that are exclusively one-on-one, it’s worth noting the obvious effort that has been put into mixing up the strategies of your opponents. Their attacks come at you from a slew of new angles, requiring quick reactions and a sense of timing that sometimes takes a while to grasp… The size of these monsters, their weapons, their armor—everything offers something new to look at and a more difficult challenge to be faced on the battle floor.

Infinity Blade continues to be the franchise to track for any self-respecting iOS gamer. Unfortunately, it’s understandable if certain players didn’t feel that way after their first experiences with this sequel. Some widely-publicized bugs and glitches kept it from performing at its peak on slightly older devices like the iPhone 4, and this led some to assume that Chair had dropped the ball. But after a few short days the developer was back in the App Store with an update to address some of these issues, and while not everything might be worked out just yet, we feel confident that Chair isn’t going to leave anyone behind, and you can bet that you’ll definitely get $6.99 worth of entertainment out of Infinity Blade 2.

In all the coverage of this game since it’s release, not once have I seen anyone refer to it as a letdown compared to the original. That question won’t even be on your mind from the moment you launch the app and get swept into its world.

Our Score: 5 Out of 5

Infinity Blade 2 Review: Yes, it gets even Better! is a post by App Chronicles

Out of nowhere last week, Batman: Arkham City Lockdown appeared in the App Store. And it turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. Built with the Unreal Engine — the graphically gorgeous engine that’s given us such games as Infinity Blade, Dark Meadow, and Epoch — Batman: Arkham City Lockdown is a combat-heavy brawling game that delivers a gritty, fun bit of superhero action.

There’s good and bad at the heart of B:ACL. On the one hand, you’re going to be like, “OMG! I’m playing a totally awesome Batman game on my iPad!” And that’s very cool, especially as this one is tied to the recent Batman Arkham-themed console game. And yes, the thing looks gorgeous. The Unreal engine is quickly becoming the graphical king of iOS, and here it allows for a gritty, shadowy, urban decay look that definitely fits the Dark Knight. This game doesn’t quite reach the levels of beautiful that Infinity Blade 2 does, but it stands toe-to-toe graphically with apps like Dead Space.

On the other hand, the Unreal engine also brings with it that certain lack of open gameplay that all Unreal games have. You don’t get a world to navigate, can’t move freely or attack what you wish. Movement happens in cinematics and combat is a timed-swipe affair. Recently, the Unreal-fueled Dark Meadow successfully tied some real navigation and storytelling into things, but B:ACL strictly goes the Infinity Blade route: defeat an enemy, move forward, defeat the next enemy. It’s more Street Fighter than Batman: Arkham City.

As a result, the game can feel repetitive. Defeating enemies is generally a matter of blocking to daze, then punching repeatedly, then dodging rage-fueled attacks, then repeating the cycle. The game is also what you might call “grind-y”, something it shares with other Unreal games. It’s also somewhat short, with only four areas and four boss fights.

Still, the game is fun to play. While typical enemy fights get repetitive (you’ll get sick of hearing  ”I’m gonna kill you, Bat-freak!”), the boss fights do require more nuance, and even regular fights are sometimes broken up by tap-combo special finishing moves.  In addition, there are promised “Coming Soon!” bosses that virtually guarantee future updates and added gameplay, hopefully with a little opening up of the combat system.

One Unreal Engine element the game employs to good effect is a leveling system. By earning WayneTech points, you can improve Batman’s combat speed, health, armor, and other attributes, or buy gadgets like Smoke Bombs and a Bat Swarm.  These elements encourage you to keep playing, as you build up Batman’s prowess and bag of tricks. Honestly, if you want a quick shortcut to the first boss, purchase a dollar’s worth of WayneTech points (5000 of them) and upgrade each of your key abilities at least once, then purchase a gadget. Once you start leveling, the WayneTech points come fast enough that you’ll probably not want to purchase again.

This game has a good offering of extras. First and foremost are IAP skins that make Batman look like either the Animated Series version, the Dark Knight Returns version, or the Batman Beyond version. [Given the dark nature of the game, I couldn't resist old, fat Dark Knight Returns Batman.] There are also some free comic books to read, character biographies, wallpapers,  and Game Center integration with achievements (yay!).

In the end, I can forgive this game its flaws, because it’s just so much fun to pound thug face as Batman. Would I have enjoyed a little more story, a little more pacing? Sure, but I’m down with a brawler. If you enjoy Infinity Blade and the Unreal Engine experience, then you’ll want to play this, too.  While it’s a bit of a one-note play experience, but it’s a pretty good note, and at a fair price, too.

Our Score: 4 out of 5.

Batman Arkham City Lockdown Review: Dark, Gritty Fighting Game is a post by App Chronicles

Tiny Tower puts you in charge of a city high-rise, one that will get much higher under your care. As you play the game, you build a variety of retail and service oriented businesses, as well as private aprtments where “Bitizens” can live (and you need those Bitizens to run your stores). Your job is to assign the right Bitizens to the right jobs, to keep the stores stocked, and to keep building more and more spaces. You also get to tend to various visitors and tasks. As your stores grow, they make more money; which is good, since the building keeps getting more and more expensive to maintain and expand.

 Tiny Towers works as well as it does in part by balancing the demands of tending your tower with the realities of casual gaming. This isn’t like Farmville — evil, evil Farmville! — that requires constant attention to avoid spoilage and wasted resources. The game is built more on the concept of setting things in motion, then coming back when it’s convenient; if things “wind down” while you’re away, you’ll stop earning money, but you won’t be penalized for it. Thus, regular tending is rewarded, while inattention is not penalized; instead, if you leave the game alone for long enough, all of the stores will run out of stock and close, and you’ll just have to spend time restocking them all the next time you play.

Of course, as the game goes longer and the demand for resources increases, you can always buy your way to success.   The goal of the game is to generate both money and “bux,” the buyable currency of the game. Bux get you … well, everything. It costs bux to speed things up; it costs bux to move things; it costs bux to buy extra money. Luckily, you can buy bux in packages ranging from $0.99 to $29.99. Don’t worry, though; Tiny Tower is not one of those freemium games where you practically NEED to buy to play. The more you play actively, the more you’ll earn bux just through the course of play. It’s slower, but it works. For more hints and tips on getting more free bux in game, visit our Tiny Tower Walkthrough page.

One place where Tiny Tower falls flat, for me, is the graphics. The game is presented in a retro 8-bit style, and while I don’t mind retro at all, here it just comes off as flat and uninspired. Especially annoying are the Bitizens, who all look like Domos in costumes, and who have these flappy fish mouthes that make them look like brainless mouthbreathers. I just don’t get the look. The background music is likewise dismissible (and I quickly did).

Did Tiny Tower deserve to be App of the Year? That’s a discussion for a different column. But in terms of providing balanced freemium play that keeps you coming back, Tiny Tower is pretty good. If these sorts of games are a draw for you, and if you’re looking for a new way to waste five minutes on the bus, or in line at the theatre, or just before dinner, than try it out.

Our Score: 4 out of 5.

Tiny Tower Review: Freemium Fun that Made it Apple’s Top iPhone Game of 2011 is a post by App Chronicles

We here at App Chronicles understand that most of you probably already indulge in this app, but for those who might be unaware of the wonders it brings, we thought we’d give it a thorough run-down.

All you need to enjoy Instagram is an iPhone, an email address, and a password.

As photo editing/sharing apps go, this one makes the process dead simple. You can take a photo from within the app, or choose from your iPhone’s library. Once you’ve found the not-so-perfect shot, you can then move on to the editing process, wherein that photo can come a little closer to perfection.

It’s the editing process that sets Instagram apart, really. You can apply a number of effects to your photo, ranging from simple black and white (Inkwell) to plenty of other hipster-ish vintage overlays. You also have the ability to apply a tilt-shift effect to your photo, which has quickly become one of the most popular on the app.

Applying the filters is as easy as the push of a button, either in post or in real-time as you’re taking the picture, which gives you a nice preview of what your photo might look like before you take it.

Once you’ve found the look that’s perfect for your particular photo, you have a couple of choices: keep it for yourself, or share it with the rest of the world.

And when I say share, I mean it. Instagram supports pretty much any social network out there you can think of, and makes uploading almost as dead simple as editing.

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Flickr
• Tumblr
• Posterous
• Foursquare

As of right now, these are the supported networks you can share your photos to, so sharing your masterpiece with the world isn’t difficult by any means. In case you are a little shy or private about a certain photo, you can easily choose which network, if any, you want to load that specific photo to. So if you only want your friends on Instagram, or maybe just Facebook (or perhaps all of the other networks), to see what you just created, you are given that capability. It’s this ease of sharing that separates Instagram from other vintage photo-editing apps, like Hipstamatic. For me, I’m especially fond of Instagram’s integration with Foursquare, as it gives me the opportunity to not only check-in at a certain site, but document what I was doing there as well.

Something else that’s really great about this app that I touched on briefly before is that Instagram is in itself a social network. You can follow friends or various other artists/celebrities (á la Twitter), and see what kind of photos they’ve taken in your “Feed” tab. You’re also given the ability to comment and/or “heart” (similar to Facebook’s “like” function) the photos of your friends or people you follow. By participating in this sort of communal environment, every photographer can collaborate and take pointers from each other, creating a unique learning and sharing experience.

If you’re not sure who to follow, you can always jump to the “Popular” tab, and you’ll be given a rundown of which photos on Instagram are currently the most…well…popular. I’ve spent many hours of my life perusing through this list, finding random people who I think have a particularly wonderful or unique photographic eye, and started following them. Now I by no means consider myself an even competent photographer, but because of this interaction with the other users of the app, I have learned countless lessons on lighting, angles, and effect layering. I’d like to think that it has at least helped me to grow as an amateur photography hobbyist.

If I there were any sort of “cons” to Instagram, it would be that after applying your desired filter, you lose a little bit of image quality to said photo. It’s not a major degradation, but it’s necessary to allow the filter to be placed on the photo in the first place. Also, if you’re uploading a previously taken photo from your iPhone library, you’ll have to scale it down to fit into Instagram’s size restrictions. Aside from these nitpicky things though, I can’t find anything else wrong with it.

Instagram is perhaps the most simple and easy to comprehend photo editing app on the iTunes market. And it’s free! You can’t really beat that combination.

Instagram Review: This App is 2011′s #1 iPhone app for a reason… is a post by App Chronicles

It’s called Momento, a neat little journaling app (I refuse to use the word diary; I’m a man) that lets you record a litany of “moments” in your life. It works just as you would imagine a journaling app to work by allowing you to select a time and date and input whatever is on your mind. Each entry is called a “moment”, and the more you use it, the more you quickly begin to realize this is so much more than just a journal.

In addition to recording your thoughts, Momento actually gives you the ability to curate pretty much anything you would have done on a number of social media services, and access them by date. With access to a number of social media services, you can take a gander at what you were up to on say, Twitter, a year ago. This is where the real fun begins, as it takes the journaling concept to a whole new level and allows you to exhaustively record your everyday happenings and thoughts.

The services Momento supports include:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Flickr
• Instagram
• Last.fm
• Foursquare
• Gowalla
• Digg
• YouTube
• Vimeo
• Web Feeds (Rss/Atom feeds)

So now it’s no longer a bother to go back and see what that photo of that one burger I made all the way back in the Spring of ’09 looks like, thanks to Momento. This is made easier by allowing the user to access specific dates by calendar view, which enables you to quickly jump to any moment in the past. The only services I have synced to the app as of right now are Twitter, Instagram, and Foursquare, so I can’t say how deep the integration with all of the others goes. Based on the integration I see with my services (all of my tweets, pictures, and check-ins are there), though, it’s safe to say it probably goes a long way and will make any journaling nerd quite happy.

The other great thing about all of this is that you have the option to search any of your imported and locally inputted moments. So if you were wondering what you had to say about the last election, search a few keywords and you’re good to go. Accessing your data is made incredibly easy by all of these features, and really enhances the overall experience for the user.

In case you’re worried about information overload, you have the option to limit what Momento imports. For instance, if you don’t want any tweet containing the hashtag #bigbutts (hey, some people have their weird interests), Momento won’t import that tweet. But if you ONLY want tweets with #bigbutts, it can import just those for you as well. So basically, you have a large amount of control over what goes into the app.

So, what’s good?

Read all of the above. In my opinion, Momento does a near perfect job of what so many journaling apps strive for, and that’s giving you, the user, complete control over your data and allowing you to access it in an incredibly easy manner.

In terms of aesthetics and design, I have zero complaints. The interface is intuitive and easy to navigate; and not to mention, gorgeous. d3i really blew this one out of the park, and I for one love it.

So, what’s not so good?

Ummm…you’ve probably already figured out that I’m an unabashed Momento fan, so I’m going to have to find something really obscure and nitpicky, but here goes: it’s not the same as pen and paper. There just isn’t much that compares with physically writing your thoughts down on paper and looking over what was more than likely a laborious effort. But given the added features and capabilities that you’re given with this app, it’s a more than fair trade off.

For those worried about losing all of their data should their device crash, don’t. Momento has a great way to backup all of your data via iTunes File Sharing, so you can rest assured that your “moments” won’t become just a memory.

By now it’s quite obvious that I give this app my full stamp of approval and therefore award it the first ever 5 out of 5 star review of my (very) young tech blogging career. The $2.99  tag is really a small price to pay when compared to sentimental value.

Momento: One Diary/Journaling app to Rule them All… is a post by App Chronicles

That would appear to be so in the case of their latest release, Gangstar Rio: City of Saints.

In the 3rd edition of the Gangstar series, players are this time taken to the exotic location of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The story line is very simple: you will have the opportunity to go on your own crime spree as you exact revenge for the murder of your naggy, useless girlfriend and subsequent need for facial reconstructive surgery via a car bomb. Just your typical day in the neighborhood, really.

Other than that, the rest is really up to you as the user.

All throughout the experience, you can customize your character (look, clothes, etc.), choose (read: steal) different rides, and interact with a variety of objects and “people”.

So, what’s good about City of Saints?

Well, for starters, it impresses fairly well in terms of graphics for a sandbox game on the iPhone. On my iPhone 4, I was able to clearly see the hard work and sweat the developers put into this game, as there were all sorts of little surprises and nice touches to be found in the most inconspicuous of places. Very rarely did gameplay lag for me, and when it did, it was barely noticeable. This, though, might be more attributable to the power of the iPhone 4 more than anything; but needless to say, Gameloft has taken full advantage of the graphics capabilities at their disposal.

My favorite thing to do was explore the maps at my own leisure, as the missions themselves weren’t really all that attention-grabbing. The tasks set before you will mostly consist of run-of-the-mill objectives, mostly wherein you must evade police, kill a few people, and steal as much of whatever you can.

If you’re like me and you enjoy the freedom to do as you please and see how far you can push the envelope in games like this, you’ll find City of Saints to be a perfect opportunity to do just that. I had free reign to go anywhere the maps physically allowed and interact with the characters and scenery there in a wide range of ways. This is where the game really shines, as pretty much anyone who plays a sandbox game is looking for this kind of experience, to be able to see how far they can take certain things.

A nice touch is the “Respect Levels”, which enable you to earn “respect” (obviously) for various tasks completed, destruction doled out, and whatever other type of thuggery you can imagine. As you increase your level of respect, you can improve your character’s health, unlock new weapons, style yourself a little better with more clothing choices, and improve your character’s fighting, driving, and shooting abilities.

What’s not so good about City of Saints?

If you’re a fan of excellent writing and plot development, you’re going to be severely disappointed. I rarely found a moment of dialogue that was half-way believable, as the voice actors were clearly phoning it in. Gameloft obviously didn’t think of it as a priority to invest in quality voice acting, seeing as how none of the accents have any flow or sense about them. If it weren’t for the subtitles on display, I would rarely have known what the heck anyone was saying. Although, that could probably be largely on account of my hearing disability, but I digress.

While it goes without saying that GTA-styled games like this come with their obligatory amount of crass and vulgarity, this game easily earns its 12+ rating. Nudity, random acts of extreme violence, and seemingly pointless, copious amounts of cussing can be found at nearly every turn of the wheel. If you’re someone who can handle that sort of thing, then this won’t bother you. But I doubt many mothers would approve of such an app on their teenager’s iPhone if they were aware of what was on the screen.

All in all, I’d say that Gangstar Rio: City of Saints is a moderately entertaining sandbox game that makes the most use of its massive download size, clocking in at a heavy 818 MB. It’ll keep you busy and entertained for quite awhile, as long as the terrible voice acting doesn’t melt your ability to stay tuned in.

If this seems like a game for you, it’ll set you back $6.99 in the app store.

Gangstar Rio: City of Saints Review: Freedom to Do as you Please is a post by App Chronicles

So what should you expect if you choose to rise to the challenge of using two thumbs and a touchscreen for some campaign/multiplayer action? True to the game it is imitating, Modern Combat brings you conflict on a global level, as America is the “Fallen Nation” and its attackers are countries such as Russia and Pakistan. It’s notable that entertaining cutscenes and dialogue that is average, at worst, have allowed MC3 to get a passing grade in the story department. That’s saying a lot for Gameloft, and it’s really good news for those as easily-annoyed with terrible voice-acting/characters/scripts as myself.

With the story making steady advances, it’s time we turn to the action… The experience of wielding a weapon and sprinting through the intense campaign is similar to the previous installments, except with a lot of graphical improvements and a higher level of variety. Not only do you get more weapons and more different ways to use them, but everything thing looks pretty stunning as you do so. Gameloft thinks big when it comes to designing these missions, and the visuals of Fallen Nation are good enough to keep you engaged in the chaotic frenzy of action taking place on all sides.

Gameloft didn’t try to break any new ground with the controls. MC3 still comes with all the inherent difficulties of playing a dual-stick shooter on a touchscreen. You can try all three different control options that are available, but in the end, somewhat-clumsy controls are still the bane of shooters like this—and MC3 is no exception.

After playing through all 13 missions you might need a short break, but then it’s on to the multiplayer, where many might spend the most time. Gameloft knows that they hit gold with this mode previously, and the multiplayer has been properly serviced this time around. It’s now possible to do with battle with 12 players at a time, either online or using local WiFi. There are six maps and a total of seven different multiplayer modes, ranging from the classic Battle to more creative variations like Manhunt and Zone control. The experience is rounded out by the inclusion of things like specialized weapons skills and kill signatures… Really, those who scoff at getting involved with this kind of multiplayer game on a mobile phone have got some re-examining to do.

… And that’s the point that MC3 manages to drive home throughout all the hours of gameplay present here. This is the full package. And for $6.99 it’s nothing short of a bargain when you consider all the cinematic moments and epic multiplayer matches that are promised within this app. Yes, some will find it difficult to connect with the control scheme, but it’s nothing you can’t get used to, and Fallen Nation makes it abundantly obvious that its time we all start practicing. There’s far too much going on here to miss.

Our Score: 4.5 Out of 5