iPhone devs are creative: shake to exchange numbers, Tweet with the locals, and more
By Danny Mendez
The deadline for iPhone developers to turn in their apps for the App Store’s launch day on Friday passed earlier this week, so what kind of apps do we expect? The idea of an Apple-run app store sounded boring at first, but if the rest of the merchandise is anything like what Tapulous has to offer, there are many good things coming are way.
Tapulous is an iPhone dev company based in Palo Alto, CA, and they’re responsible for bringing Friendbook, Twinkle, and Tap Tap Revenge to the new App Store.
The company’s best known title is based on the ol’ jailbroken 1.X firmware game called Tap Tap Revolution, which has been reworked and renamed Tap Tap Revenge. Similar to the older version, players must tap glowing orbs on the iPhone’s screen to the rhythm/beat of a song. It’s a lot like Guitar Hero and Rockband except much more portable. It even features a two-player mode, diagonally cutting the screen so that both players may comfortably play at the same time. Check it out below:
Up next is Twinkle, which we previewed back in April. The app adds some major Twitter functionality — including location awareness — to Apple’s handsets. It allows tweeters to do their usual Twitter activities on-the-go in a GUI-friendly and mobile fashion, bit it also connects local Twinklers together, adding a geographical twist to Twitter, the iPhone, and social networking in general. Though it may not be the most functional angle of its geo-features, the thought of vacationing far away and Tweeting with the locals is interesting, no doubt.
Finally, there’s FriendBook, a contacts App for the iPhone. Sounds boring, right? Well, it’s not. It’s ctually pretty awesome. You can browse your contacts via the Face Dialer, 9 contacts on visual speed dial. In other words, pull up the Face Dialer, and you’ll see nine pictures. Tapping on any of them calls the person, but that’s hardly the coolest aspect of the app. Want to know what is?
It’s called "Handshake", and it allows two iPhone wielders to exchange numbers by shaking their phones next to each other. Simple, right? It’s one of those things in life that gets you saying, "Why didn’t I think of that first?" But that doesn’t matter anymore. It’s cool, and I can’t wait to try it out.
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