Top iPhone Apps for Christmas

I use my iPhone a lot.  And I mean A LOT.  I’m a big gamer and app-user.  Besides playing games with my wife and friends, my 8-year-old is also uses it to play games… and he just may get an iTouch for Christmas.  Anyway, here are some great games and apps for you and/or your family!

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Fun Games

• Labyrinth 2 – This game has nothing to do with that awful movie with David Bowie from the 80’s. It is a very fun game for all ages where you have one of those little balls that you have to move through a wooden maze by balancing the iPhone. It’s very creative and there are tons of levels for all difficulties.
• Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor – A beautiful game in which you play a little spider that weaves webs to catch bugs. There is a lot of fun strategy to figuring out the best way to make bugs to catch the bugs… it’s very original and fun for all ages.
• iBlast Moki – A fun physics-based game for all ages. You have to get these little guys into a portal by placing bombs around the level. There is a lot of clever strategy to proper placement… and just nice physics fun!
• I Dig it Expeditions – This is a very fun and addictive game for all ages.  I played the first one to death and the new one is even better.  It’s easy to understand, you dig up treasure, upgrade your treasure-findin’ craft, have fun in bite-sized amounts, great for collectors, and an amazing source of entertainment…  I’d find myself thinking about it while driving around!
• Words with Friends – This is basically a slicker version of Scrabble that you can play with all your friends, barely-known-facebook-friends, or strangers. What is cool is that you can take your turn whenever you want, and then you send your triple-letter-score word off into the cloud. Your friend will have a little red 1 on their app letting them know there is a turn waiting for them!
• Drop 7 – A very simple to learn but addicting puzzle game. It’s better than Bejeweled by a mile — and you will just love it. Facebook friend me in the game and see if you can beat my score!
• GeoDefense – Do you like Tower Defense games? This one is the best, by far. I think I have played 20 of these types of games, and this one is the sharpest. If you like this, also go GeoDefense Swarm
• Rogue Planet – Do you like turn-based strategy war games? This is a great one!
• Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid – A fun platform game where you are a little ball-guy and you roll around creative levels with fun goals. It’s impressive in every way… fun for all ages!
• Knights Onrush – Very fun action game where you are keeping legions of knights from storming your castle. It starts out simple with throwing knights around then more strategy comes around once you start buying new things to help you fend off the hordes!
• Tornado Mania! – A fun game where you get points for using a tornado to destroy a city. It sounds simple, but there is a nice game to it… you can either touch the screen or tilt it around to move the tornado.

Great Apps and More Fun

• Tweetie 2 – The best Twitter app in the iPhone
• Best Camera – This is a cool app by the photographer Chase Jarvis. I’ve yet to meet the guy, but I think we’d really get along. Anyway, it’s a simple app that lets you put nice filters on your photos. Better yet, you can quickly share that photo in email, Twitter, Facebook, and more. It’s smart, cheap, and fun. It’s amazing what a little filter will do to a crappy iPhone shot! See one I took in Carmel here.
• Pano – A fun camera app that lets you take several photos that partially overlap — then it builds them into a huge panorama! As you have probably figured out, you can’t fit a whole scene into the default zoom of that lens.
• Pandora – You know Pandora, right? It’s a great free music service that will play you songs based on what you like! I use it on my computer too and am a subscriber.
• RedLaser – I use this to scan barcodes everywhere to find the cheapest prices. I rarely buy anything in stores any more because the prices are too high – RedLaser will tell you the cost on Amazon and a ton of other places, and even let you order. If you don’t have to have it immediately, it’s nice just to get it shipped to your place!
• SmackTalk! – I don’t even know how to describe this. You talk into the phone and then a hamster, cute cat, cute dog, or something else will repeat what you said in a funny voice. There is nothing better with family or at a party where people don’t mind being silly.
• GoWalla – The BEST geo-location game. Walk or drive around your city collecting stamps, finding cool virtual geocached goodies, and compare your virtual passport stamps with friends. I think it’s so much better than Four Square.

Why not more Photography apps? Frankly, I’ve tried a lot and most are little gadgets that I only use once or twice then never use again. I don’t want to waste your time with useless stuff you’ll just use once then throw away.

I’ll stop there for now – that’s a lot! What are some of your favorites?

Trey’s Book List!

I figure as long as I am listing out great iPhone Apps, maybe some people also got a Kindle or some Amazon gift cards. I have a FULL “Trey’s Book List” here on the site. Here are a few:

	The Pleasure of Finding Things Out Richard Feynman, 1981 A Nobel-winning physicist, inveterate prankster and gifted teacher, Feynman (1918-1988) charmed plenty of contemporary and future scientists with accounts of his misadventures in the bestselling Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! more…
	Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks Mark Buchanan, reprint Jan. 2000 Will a network science emerge that helps us understand a variety of complex organizational systems by describing the puzzles of human behavior and connections in mathematical terms? So argues Buchanan, former editor of Nature and New Scientist. Buchanan, who holds a Ph.D. in physics…. more…
	Aztec – Gary Jennings A great historical fiction novel about an unconventional hero. Garry Jennings is one of those guys that you just know was born to write…

Live Random Q&A!

I popped into Twitter tonight and took two hours of random questions and answers — sounds like the HDR Book is finally starting to arrive! Cool! I’ll continue to be on Twitter a lot to help you guys out… if I have a spare few hours to dedicate to Q&A, I will do so at random times… but, as always, feel free to ask questions and I’ll attend to them if humanly possible.

Daily Photo – Green Man in Chicago

This is the famous “Bean” sculpture in Millennium Park in downtown Chicago.  It was an extremely busy day around there, so there was no hope of getting the bean sans tourists… generally, I don’t like people around in my photos, but if there are going to be people, I want them to be interesting!  Well I was lucky that Green Man was there…  Now, I’m sure MOST of you don’t know who Green Man is… you sort of have to be a mindless disciple of a rather edgy TV show called “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”  Like the apps above, I do recommend it… although, it can be a little offensive, to say the least!