Reviews written by Lincoln

Now that BoxOffice, now known as "Now Playing" is back up on the AppStore, it's become my favorite app for keeping track of movies. The amount of features it has, along with simple, easily navigable interface, makes it a great app.

You can either manually enter your Zip Code, or have Now Playing use Location Services or GPS to locate you. You can then specify the radius (in miles) in which you want theaters to show up. You can also select where to receive movie rating from.

The about pages for movies provide lots of information. You can read reviews, see the movie's poster, read the Plot Summary, watch the movie trailer, view showing times, and even buy tickets for it.

If you want to go see a move but you're not sure what to go to, or you need more info on a movie, Now playing is the app to have.

When I first saw this one, I thought that as it was a free clone of another well known game, it wouldn't be all that great. But it turns out that Tris is highly playable, beautiful, and very addicting.

The objective is simple, the same as that of Tetris; arrange the falling blocks into a pattern to get as many on the screen as possible before the reach the top. The blocks come in many different arrangements and colors, making it easy to identify one form another. The can also be rotated by tapping the sides, making it easier to slide them in between other blocks.

Once the blocks have reached the top of the screen, you are presented with your score. Then, you are taken to a screen showing you all of your top local scores (ones make on your device) and one showing top global scores (ones made by everybody). The top scores for global users are insanely high, raising into the ten thousands. I can't manage to get above 2000, but you do get better at it as you play and begin to grasp the skill.

Tap Tap Revenge, a version of the similar "Tap Tap Revolution" for jailbroken iPhones, is an amazing application that provides great entertainment. The fact that it's free make it even better.

You can play in either single user mode or double player mode. In each mode, a song is played and you must either tap dots or shake the iPhone accordingly depending on what shape is coming down the lines. Tap Tap has difficulty levels ranging from Beginner to Expert, making it playable for anyone.

You can also add new songs to the app; by tapping 'Add New Tracks' in the main menu, you get a selection of several songs to download and play. Tapulous, the app's developer, recently held a contest in which peple could submit their own work, which then became available to play.

However, the app uses songs that are not those you would find on iTunes; instead, it's all homemade stuff, which does not provide for the greatest music in the world. Tap Tap Revolution, however, provides access to the user's music library. Unfortunately, Apple's SDK agreement prevents developers from access a user' music library.

Apache Lander looks promising at first glance - a game in which one steers a helicopter through the skies to safely land on a base. However, after a few seconds of playing the game, I realized that if it wants a place on my iPhone, it needs serious improvement.

First, it lacks gameplay. There needs to be more of a point to the game, and more levels to navigate through, each with a different course and look. It would also be nice to be able to use the app in landscape mode - this would give it a better look and make it more fun.

Similar to Super Monkey Ball, Apache Lander is extremely hard to control. There needs to be a setting in which the user can adjust the sensitivity of the accelerometer - making the game much more entertaining. Also, in order to land on the base, the helicopter must go down perfectly - if it's even slightly titled, the helicopter exploded and you must start over.

If you've ever jailbroken your iPhone, you have likely heard of the app called "iPhysics." Many people want iPhysics to be brought to the App Store, but they don't realize it already has. Enigmo makes use your brain to play; it involves strategy and skill, and it's fun.

In each level, there are either one, two, or three substances (these being water, oil, and lava) that you must guide form Point A to Point B. You do this using a variety of tools provided to you, which change in each level.

Enigmo has enough levels and a great enough challenge to entertain a person for hours. For $9.99 in the App Store, Enigmo is must-have app.

First off, you should know that Evernote is not only for iPhone. It also offers a web-based service, and a desktop application for Mac and PC.

Evernote on iPhone allows you to take notes in four four forms: Text Note, Snapshot Note, Saved Photo Note, and Audio Note. Once you have composed a note, it is synced with your Evernote account, and the note will immediately appear in your online account and on your Mac or PC. You can also use a very nice feature to search for text not only in your Text Notes, but in your Photo Notes as well. Once a photo has been synced with Evernote's servers, text inside photos can be recognized.

The app is very simple and straightforward. Once you have logged in, you see four tabs at the bottom of the screen; New Note, Notes, Pending, and Account. Using only these four tabs, you can organized, and easily.

There are, as always, a few downsides. First, the text recognition feature doesn't always work. For instance, when I took a picture of the word "iPhone" on my iPhone, the text was not recognized when I typed "iPhone," but it was when I searched for "ob." Also, if you make a note with a photo that was taken in landscape mode on the iPhone, that photo will then appear upside down everywhere.

Despite the above mentioned problems - which can easily be fixed via updates - Evernote is a great and productive application. In fact, it has replaced the stock Notes app on my iPhone.

Since Super Monkey Ball was demoed at the WWDC conference, it has received almost as much hype of the iPhone 3G itself. People were stunned by the graphics of the game, and the gameplay looked very promising.

However, once users had a chance to buy it, some were rather disappointed. They reported that the controls of the game (titling the iPhone, using it's accelerometer) were extremely hard to use and took the fun out of the game. However, I found that with patience and practice, the game can be very fun.

When first playing, you get the impression that by tilting your device. you are moving the Monkey Ball - this is not the case. You are actually tilting the course the ball is on, which in turn moves the ball. This knowledge alone makes playing the game much more enjoyable. After you've had a few days of practice with the game, it becomes much easier to play.

As was expected, the graphics of the game are amazing - it looks as if you're playing on a gaming console. The UI is clean and very responsive with movements and sounds. The controls are tough, but don't make the game unplayable. All in all, Super Monkey Ball is a very good game, especially considering that you're playing it on a cellphone.

WeatherBug is an application that gives more location-based weather information that the standard weather app found on iPhones and iPod touches. To get weather for your current location, you can either enter your zip code or have WeatherBug use the GPS or Triangulation features to locate you.

Once you have set the location, WeatherBug displays lots of information, including the current temperature, wind >speed, weather alerts, and High and Low temperatures for three days (these can be tapped for even more information). There is also a tab at the bottom of the screen that shows radar for your area, using Google Maps as the background. You can also browse through pictures that were taken in or near your selected area.

There are a few improvements to the app that could be made with future updates, such as displaying information for more days than three. Also, the photo browser could include more photos, as well as ones that were taken closer to your location; some of the ones that I was shown in were in Virginia and Ohio, and I live in West Virginia. Also, the radar doesn't seem to work very well - even after a very large storm yesterday afternoon, the radar still looks the same as it did when I downloaded WeatherBug. One more downside is that the app has a tendency to reboot the iPhone when it is launched; when the icon is tapped, the Apple logo immediately appears.

The iPhone is amazing - a phone, email, internet, iPod, and other applications. You can't avoid the fact that it is the best cell phone on the market. From it's sleek design to the simplicity of the UI, it really is a revolutionary product. With most cell phones, a little plastic button crammed into a corner of the keypad can mean back in one screen, cancel in another, and clear in yet another. Not so with the iPhone - just a few buttons in each app that are self-explanatory. The only button on the face, the Home button, takes you right to the home screen, which has every application, right there. Tap Phone, bam your in the phone. Press the home button - back to the home screen. Tap iPod, there's the iPod.

However, there are a few things everyone would like to see:

Some new applications, A phone-wide search, Full Flash Player support, Multiple Text Messaging, Video Recording, New Ringtones, (Fixed on Sept 5), Multiple Email Deletion, the list goes on.

However, I could live without any of these things if there was just one change made: at&t. I know it's not the case for everyone, but for me, at&t service is simply awful. Bad volume, bad customer service, our bills are completely wrong, and once again, the list goes on.

But all in all, the iPhone is an amazing device fit to be called "Revolutionary."