A couple of months ago we were notified that Booyah , a start-up company founded by three former Blizzard Entertainment veterans, was given $4.5 million in Series A financing from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) iFund.  This $100 million iFund was set up in March 2008 by KPCB to be invested in companies with “market-changing ideas” for the iPhone and iPod touch.  The thing is, no one really knew what market-changing idea Booyah had come up with to deserve the $4.5 million in funding, because even the initial press release was intentionally vague.  Well, today everyone was let in on this little secret. Booyah Society is a brand new iPhone and iPod touch app that basically allows you to obtain achievements for real-life activities. “ Booyah Society will be intuitive to the generation surrounded by social networking and social games,” said Keith Lee, CEO, Booyah. “Booyah’s goal is to motivate people to pursue their real-life passions while positively impacting themselves and the community around them. It’s the first achievement system for life.” The app is actually pretty simple, just launch it and create your own fully customizable Avatar.  Once you have done that you can start posting.   Booyah Society is standalone social networking app, but it also allows you to log into your Facebook and/or your Twitter account to post updates to those feeds from Booyah Society itself.   Booyah Society will keep track of your social stats, including how many posts you have made, comments, and Booyah moments that you have shared with friends.  You are then rewarded with achievements based on all of these activities.  Since you need to choose a category for your posts, like fitness, entertainment, shopping, etc., you are basically being rewarded for doing real-life tasks.  You are also able to view what your friends or just random strangers around the world have shared, including Booyah moments. If you aren’t that into social networking, Booyah Society may be just the thing to get you hooked.  It is silly, simple, and will be updated regularly with new features and capabilities to keep you coming back for more. Booyah Society is available in the App Store for free. This is a new approach to social networking, so just in case you are still a little confused about what exactly the app does, I have included a preview video for Booyah Society straight from the developers. Related Posts Chillingo’s Touch KO Released, Update Already In The Works New Dexter Trailer And Screenshots From Comic-Con 2009 Survival Horror Classic Resident Evil 4 Now Available For iPhone Out Of Cash? Try Some Of These Lite Versions Of Popular Games LucasArts Releases First iPhone Game: The Secret Of Monkey Island: Special Edition

Once again an App Store story that no one wants to hear. According to the details that I have seen so far, GV Mobile (the Google Voice app) is going to be removed from the App Store because it is duplicating features that are already on the iPhone. “Richard Chipman from Apple just called - he

Apple just released iPhone OS 3.1 Beta 3 for developers along with an updated SDK . The official notes for this release mainly detail changes and additions to the SDK itself while not directly indicating what has been added or removed from Beta 2. Interestingly though, the release notes do say that “iPhone OS 3.1 Beta 2 will expire on Tuesday, July 28 at 12:00 am based on the local time of your device. You will need to install iPhone OS 3.1 Beta 3 in order to continue testing on your devices dedicated to iPhone OS 3.1 development.” Since today is July 27th, people running Beta 2 have until midnight to update their devices. There is no information detailing what will happen once the clock strikes 12:01 am, but something along the lines of being forced to update to Beta 3 before access to the device and or SDK is likely. An expiration date with this short of notice is quite rare and did not happen during the iPhone OS 3.0 beta release cycle. It will be interesting to find out what caused Apple to quickly pull the plug on Beta 2. If you’re a developer, head on over to the iPhone Dev Center and download your required updates. If you notice anything new, feel free to leave everyone a comment below. Related Posts Change Is On The Way For The App Store Apple Reports Q3 Results, Biggest Non-Holiday Quarter Ever Over 1.5 Billion Apps Downloaded From App Store Popular iPhone App Updates for July 3rd 2009 Unofficial iPhone SDK Feedback Project Begins

Developer Carla White had a pretty great start to her iPhone app developing career with her very first app  Gratitude Journal .  The app has been enjoyed by many, and was intended to help improve people’s lives by making them aware of the things they are most thankful for.  Carla has also written an ebook to help first time iPhone app developers get the ball rolling.  Apparently inspiration is her thing, because she has now gone on to release her second life improving iPhone app titled Vision Board Delux . Vision Board Delux is your first step to turn your dreams and desires into reality.  The app allows you to create your own vision board, which is basically a visual reminder of things you would like to obtain and achieve in life.   Vision Board Delux allows you to choose images from a gallery to add to your board or you can add your own images along with an inspirational note.  The app contains a variety of notes and boards to choose from to get you started.  You can also create separate vision boards for each area of your life. An update to Vision Board Delux is already in the works that will add the ability to email or tweet images from your board, and it will also add a gallery of inspirational quotes to choose from. Carla’s apps may not be for everyone, but she has definitely garnered quite a following from those who are looking for a little inspiration.  If you would like to learn more about Carla’s first app, Gratitude Journal , or her adventures in iPhone app development, check out my App Store Insider article , which was published a few months ago but is still relevant today. Vision Board Delux is available in the App Store for $1.99.  It’s also worth noting that 10 percent of the profits from both of Carla’s apps and ebook go to charity. Related Posts Booyah Society Hits The App Store, Now You Can Level Up In Life Chillingo’s Touch KO Released, Update Already In The Works New Dexter Trailer And Screenshots From Comic-Con 2009 Survival Horror Classic Resident Evil 4 Now Available For iPhone Out Of Cash? Try Some Of These Lite Versions Of Popular Games

Games Make the App Store With a week gone by since the AppAwards it has given me time to reflect on the winners of all the game categories . Games truly make the App Store since they’re the most populous category, and the area we spend most of our money. Over the past year thousands of developers have flocked to the amazingly unique platform that is the iPhone. It was only obvious that a game is the App of the Year, it was just a question of which one. Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid is the best game I’ve played on the iPhone. When voting for it, it was like voting for the Rolando series which is the golden standard in iPhone gaming. Rolando 2 is the only game to have amazing graphics and sounds, engaging gameplay, great online connectivity, and to spend a considerable amount of time. Rolando exemplifies iPhone gaming, and sets it apart from every other device on the market. Honorable Mentions So many games have been released in just a year, so it was very difficult to determine the final six nominees in each category. I’m happy with our final selections, but a few games fell through the cracks, and should be highlighted here. The biggest miss was not having a whole new category for best free game. Trace , TapTapRevenge 2 , Jelly Car , Aurora Feint (free for a long period) , Papi games , and Cube Runner were all more than deserving. Another game we missed was Puzzle Quest ($7.99 ) which somehow wasn’t even nominated for best puzzle game, even though it had a realistic chance of winning. Gaia ($2.99) , a relatively unknown game, missed out as well, but is one of the best puzzle games and worth checking out. Topple 2 ($0.99) added a whole bunch of gameplay elements to the first installment, but sadly missed out on best puzzle and most innovative controls. Oregon Trail ($4.99) definitely deserved to be nominated somewhere, it’s a great game, but it was tough to find a place to put it. More honorable mentions for two of inxile entertainment’s games Line Rider ($2.99) and Fantastic Contraption ($2.99) that faced the same fate as Oregon Trail. Two games missed out on best to play over and over: Sneezies ($0.99) and Doodle Jump ($0.99) , both are a bunch of fun, and highly addictive. Finally honorable mentions go to Blimp: The Flying Adventures ($0.99) , Marple ($1.99) , and Cubes ($2.99) . All of which are not so well known games that are amazing, but couldn’t quite crack the final six in their respective categories. These were the Winners? Really? Looking at all the winners it seems that the best selling games won, and maybe not the best games. It’s understandable that the best selling games would win, since people aren’t going to vote for a game they’ve never played before. The winner I question the most is Flight Control. It is occasionally fun, and has a huge following, but the best overall game, please. Flight Control isn’t even the best strategy game, with its spinoff Harbor Master already a better game. Habor Master has five rather than three maps, all of which are more fun and challenging. Another one I question is Peggle. I may be one of the biggest Peggle fans, but it was just a port to the iPhone lacking the awesome soundtrack. There are outstanding unique iPhone puzzlers that were worthy of winning, namely Trism or Smiles. Frogger is another question mark that may have simply won on tradition rather than being the best arcade game. Monopoly may have been another that won on namesake alone since the iPhone port isn’t anything special. Best Action game was a real head scratcher with Zombieville USA, Zenonia, F.A.S.T., Knights Onrush, and idracula more worthy than Assassin’s Creed port to the iPhone. Deserving Winners, and Next Year? There may be little questions with the winners, but for the most part the nearly 60,000 votes were spot on. I have to give a special shout out to Edge the best brain teasing game that sadly has been in and out of the App Store, and currently banished. Another absolute worthy winner is Pocket God for most creative game, and is also worth considering for best paid app. Real Racing is absolutely the best racing game. Also Fieldrunners is the game that started it all for Tower Defense on the iPhone. Going Forward it looks like next year’s AppAwards will be much more highly contested with better and better games entering the App Store everyday. It looks like there will be plenty of fun to have in year two of the App Store. Let us know what you think of the games nominated, and the eventual winners. Do you agree with the honorable mentions? Are there other games I didn’t cover that were worthy of being nominated. It’s your turn, what do you think? Related Posts AppAwards Winner Of Most Creative Game: Giveaway AppAwards Winner Of Most Innovative User Interface: Giveaway “A Next Metal Gear” Mystery Solved! Booyah Society Hits The App Store, Now You Can Level Up In Life Review: Zombies vs. Sheep

I don’t have a problem with imitations. In fact, imitations force developers to add more features, more levels and more reasons to come back. I’ve got both Flight Control and Harbor Master on my phone and love both of them. So take a look at Chillingo’s upcoming Inkvaders and Zombieville USA: The eagle-eyed readers out there may notice there are some significant differences between the two games. For example, money is on the left in Inkvaders and on the right in Zombieville. I kid. Inkvaders puts you in control of a guy by the name of Generic Marine (G for short) as he explodes the invading Martian horde. There are 15 weapons and 30 levels. From the description: Features: Stunning graphics with comedy visceral deaths Story mode, 30 levels over 3 unique locations Endurance mode, play as long as you can! Easy, normal, hard play modes. Bespoke sound track, designed to kick butt too! Listen to your iPod music while you play We haven’t had a chance to get our hands on Inkvaders yet to see how it plays but it’s going to have some tough competition - Zombieville has 389 five star reviews out of 508 total. Inkvaders is about two weeks from being ready for submission to Apple, according to Touch Arcade . Here’s some more screenshots to hold you over until the game hits the App Store: Related Posts Chillingo’s Touch KO Released, Update Already In The Works Hidden Gems: Which Apps Got Shafted In The AppAwards? Two Quality Games On Sale This Weekend: Clue And Defender Chronicles Hidden Gems: Peer To Peer Apps To Download While Mourning The Death Of The Early Adopter Chillingo Announces Crystal - A Social Gaming Network

Overview Zombies vs. Sheep is a tap to destroy object game, where you tap to shoot, and the objects are zombies. Zombies and other enemies drop from the top of the screen on strings, and hang there a couple seconds. You tap to shoot them, and also control a sheep at the bottom of the screen to avoid falling obstacles and collect coins. There is a shooting gallery theme with a Mexican tilt. To kill a zombie you have to hit them in the head, which is worth one coin. Once a zombie is killed, faded pieces fall from it, and you can shoot any of the pieces for more coins. Your sheep has hearts to indicate its health meter, and loses one every time it’s hit by an enemy. Features Zombies vs. Sheep has only survival gameplay mode with 10 levels, and about 50 enemies to kill per level. The enemies include obviously zombies, plus bats, spiders, and there are three boss battles. Your main weapon is a pistol, and then as you progress you can unlock an assault rifle, or even dynamite. There is also a shop to upgrade either your sheep’s health, number of bullets before reloading, speed of the sheep, and radius of dynamite explosion. You buy upgrades with coins collected from killing the various enemies. Zombies vs. Sheep uses Open Feint 2.0 to keep track of online high scores and achievements. The controls are as simple as can be, you tap to shoot, shake to reload, and tilt to control the sheep. You have an unlimited number of bullets, you only have to reload every few bullets fired. The Good The graphics are great and reminiscent of Little Big Planet. The zombies, sheep, and the background look like cardboard cut outs. The animations work nicely as seen by hitting a zombie in the head and it explodes into different parts. When you miss, the cardboard background gets all shot up with varying blast sizes. Western music plays in the background the whole game, but becomes more hectic with more and stronger enemies on screen. The bullet fire sounds authentic, and there are varying zombie moans, and sheep baas. When you kill a zombie there is a wonderful bone crunching smash. The gameplay itself is as fun as can be for a tap to destroy object game. As you progress you’re tapping frantically on screen and shaking your idevice to blast all the enemies and reload your gun for more. Controlling the sheep adds even more difficulty as you try to collect the numerous falling coins, but at the same time avoid fireballs and flaming skulls. The online achievements and high scores work nicely, and add reason to continue playing. The controls are as simple as can be, and get out of the way to simply enjoy it. The game also saves your progress so it picks up in the exact part of the level you were on. The Bad There aren’t many problems with what the game sets out to be. The main problem is there is only survival mode which gets somewhat repetitive when you have to play the same beginning levels over and over. It’s fun and quite addictive, though, and the online high scores and achievements help. Another problem is the shake to reload feature. It‘s finicky, and doesn’t pick up your motion every time which can become quite frustrating with a bunch of enemies on screen. The best way to get around it, is to just tap the upper left corner, instead of shaking to reload. The Verdict Zombies vs. Sheep is a fun experience, and excels at what it sets out to do. It’s the best tap to destroy object game yet on the iPhone. A shooting gallery theme switches up the typical zombie game, and sheep survival makes it even more unique. The polished cardboard cut-out graphics are awesome, and the varying western music is top notch. Zombies vs. Sheep is a fun experience, and there’s no doubt you’ll have a good time. You should buy a new way to blast away zombies. Related Posts Review: Moon Drop Review: GloBall Review: Warpack Grunts Review: Ragdoll Blaster Review: Flick NBA Basketball

Chillingo’s highly anticipated Fight Night inspired iPhone boxing game, Touch KO , was finally released in the App Store over the weekend, so if you are a fan of fighting games, it’s time to pay close attention. Touch KO isn’t your usual over-the-top arcade-style boxing game.  The developers wanted to bring a realistic Fight Night -like experience to the iPhone and iPod touch, and apparently they were able to do just that. In Touch KO , you are in control of creating your own boxing legacy.  You start by working out in a run-down gym, hopefully working your way up through the ranks by using your pure talent and dedication.  The game allows create and customize your character with all kinds of body, tattoo, and equipment options.  From there you will be utilizing the intuitive control system to effortlessly execute your attacks.  Your stats will be tracked throughout the career mode, and you will be able to upgrade your fighter’s stats with different training routines.  The game also features online leader boards, achievements, some great looking graphics, and the ability to create your own custom playlists thanks to iPhone OS 3.0. Early user reviews have revealed that the game is obviously easy on the eyes and elegant enough to control, but apparently it is rather easy to defeat the enemy AI.  However, don’t let this be the reason for not giving Touch KO a second look.  The developers have already stated that they are working on an update that will add an expert mode, which will speed up the gameplay and make it even more difficult to knock out your opponent. Touch KO is available for the introductory price of $2.99.  The regular price is $4.99. Embedded below is a gameplay trailer for Touch KO . Related Posts New Gameplay Video And Screenshots For Touch KO Two Quality Games On Sale This Weekend: Clue And Defender Chronicles Chillingo Announces Crystal - A Social Gaming Network Toki Tori Now On Sale For $.99 Knights Onrush On Sale For $.99

Dexter fans have a lot to be excited for.  The season four premiere episode is only about two months away, and the Dexter iPhone game is still set for release “later this summer.”  To hold you over until then, we have a brand new gameplay trailer and screenshots straight from Comic-Con 2009 . Dexter for the iPhone is based on the very first season of Showtime’s hit series, Dexter.  You will be playing as Dexter Morgan, a blood splatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department who is leading a double life.  You must serve justice in your own unique way while also protecting your identity.  In the game you will be required to use stealth tactics, analyze crime scenes, and uncover evidence to ensure that the guilty are punished either by the courts or by Dexter himself. The game will feature accelerometer controls and an on-screen virtual joystick, interactive characters, a variety of forensic-style mini games, a script by one of the show’s writers, episodic gameplay, and of course some amazing graphics. The price and exact release date for Dexter have yet to be determined.  The game will be a series of four episodes, with the first being released “later this summer.” Embedded below is a brand spanking new gameplay Dexter trailer straight from Comic-Con 2009. Related Posts Freeverse’s Upcoming Warpgate Gameplay Preview Trailer Dexter For iPhone Shaping Up To Be A Killer Game The Sims 3 Preview Trailer Ngmoco Releases New Rolando 2 Gameplay Trailer Booyah Society Hits The App Store, Now You Can Level Up In Life

After a Foxconn employee allegedly committed suicide when an iPhone prototype vanished, an official with the Chinese manufacturing company said the former employee had demonstrated a pattern of suspiciously losing products. Speaking with The New York Times, James Lee, general manager of China operations, said the employee’s explanation for the missing phone did not seem credible. “Several