This week we look at Foxtel's official remote scheduling and recording app and the iPhone edition of the popular Marble Blast series.
Foxtel
Foxtel subscribers have long wished for an iPhone app that would allow them to set up recordings on their iQ/iQ2, as the Flash-based FOXTEL website has been able to do with the 'Remote Record' feature. It's taken Foxtel's iPhone developers a while, but the wait is almost certainly worth it. Instead of just creating a half-baked, all-encompassing 'mobile' web interface, Foxtel has taken the much more optimal route of creating a native application exclusively for the iPhone and iPod touch. The result of that decision is a much quicker, more efficient and more useful app.
Upon first entering the app, you're presented with a full TV guide (including, by the way, currently available Freeview channels) in either portrait or landscape, and the options to add a certain channel to the in-app favourites list or simply browse through the next few days of programming. After selecting a show, you're given a description of that show and 'Record' and 'Set Reminder' options. You'll need to visit the Settings menu (in-app) to log in to Foxtel before you start remote recording to your iQ/iQ2.
The interface is clean and easy to use. With a built-in search feature, you don't have to scroll through dozens of menus to get to the show you want to record, and 'favourites' is great for filtering out the crap that seems to increasingly occupy most of the full TV Guide. There's even Push Notifications that alert you to the start of a show fifteen minutes before it begins. What you can't do yet is manage your "Planner" (that is, the recordings you've already made) to free up some more space on your set top box, but this will come once it's added to the web interface first.
Foxtel's official iPhone app isn't exactly Earth-shattering, but it is better than I expected it to be. Taking aside the issues with Pinch Media and device tracking (as originally reported here), it is wonderful to finally have a proper way to set up remote recordings on the iPhone & iPod touch, and natively too. If you've got an iPhone and you subscribe to Foxtel, you should be downloading the Foxtel app to your iPhone right away.
Version reviewed: 1.0.0
Price: Free
Developer: FOXTEL Management Pty Ltd
App Store
Marble Blast Mobile
Marble Blast is generally considered today to be one of the most addictive games released for Mac OS X to date. After "Marble Blast Gold" in 2003, the series became so popular that it was even pre-installed on some iBooks and iMacs straight out of Cupertino, and quickly spawned several sequels (including an edition for Microsoft's Xbox 360). Considering the success of the App Store, of course Marble Blast is available in mobile form on the iPhone and iPod touch.
It's got twenty levels (ten of which are playable in a multiplayer mode), sixteen marble designs to choose from and all the power-ups and gold medals that were present in the original game. If you've played Marble Blast before, there isn't much of a 'learning curve' to the game, except the keyboard-based forward/backward/left/right controls have been replaced in favour of accelerometer-based gameplay. As you can see in the screenshot above, the camera angle buttons have been placed on-screen.
Unfortunately, Marble Blast's controls just feel slightly awkward, and even a little jerky at times. They certainly don't match the sophistication of controls on the Mac OS X game. Granted, the iPhone doesn't have a physical keyboard (nor would it benefit at all from an on-screen keyboard, obviously) but there are plenty of iPhone games out there that have been taken across from another platform, and feel just as effortless on the iPhone's multi-touch screen as on a computer or console. While the game maintains the same fun and addictive concept as the original, the controls are certainly a little disappointing.
It's hard not to compare Marble Blast (on any platform) to SEGA's Super Monkey Ball, but on the iPhone, Super Monkey Ball is, in my opinion, superior to Marble Blast Mobile. Players looking for a quick and addictive ball-rolling game, should try Super Monkey Ball before moving into Marble Blast territory. It's just got more depth and smoother controls at the moment. I look forward to updates to the Marble Blast Mobile game that will hopefully bring new levels and better controls.
Version reviewed: 1.2
Price: $4.99
Developer: GarageGames
App Store
iPhone App Reviews - Foxtel, Marble Blast Mobile