iPhone applications and games range from mildly amusing the outright mandatory for anyone with an iPhone.  Here are mini reviews for a game that makes you manage a lawn, one that helps you give a stay of execution for a stick figure, and one that gives you a world of music at your fingertips. Sunday Lawn In gaming it seems that almost every concept has already been co-opted, which has sent developers reaching.   Over the last few years it has seemed that activities normally seen as chores have become the source of gaming premises.   Donut Games’ Sunday Lawn is a, ahem, lawn mowing game.   The basic framework is to mow a lawn in the most efficient way possible.   To do this you set the direction for where you little animated worker will go with his lawnmower, and to get the largest number of points you want to plan for the largest strips of mowing at a time.   This means that you want to get the biggest patches of sod covered in the fewest number of moves. This is a basic principle behind a number of classic puzzle games, which Sunday Lawn is with a more colorful palette.   There is a lot of depth in Sunday Lawn as the gameplay options are numerous.   Even amongst these different gameplay types you have a graduated level system that will actually keep you playing for quite a while.   You can complete the level adequately enough to progress on, and then you can also go back to try and complete it according to even more rigorous standards.   These all add to the overall package with Sunday Lawn, but if the basic premise does not work for you it will not matter much in the end.   The gameplay is fun, to a point, but there is not really enough here to legitimize enough gameplay time to get through all the features.

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Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad , iPhone , iPod touch , iDevice Apps , Originals The most romantic day of the year is just a week away. If you want to express your love in the digital style, these applications will help you to be the romantic that you should be. Let’s walk you through your enhanced romance. Valentines Countdown Seller: Energize Compatibility: iPhone or iPod Touch Requirements: OS 1.3 or Later File Size: 9.8 MB Price: Free Age Rating: 4+ Holidays can be easy to forget, but if you forget this one, you may be up the creek. If you are not good with dates, this application will help you to stay on track. Just be aware that it comes with all of the cutesy bells and whistles you would expect from a Valentines day application. Expect to see cute teddy bears and deep red backgrounds, and hear sappy music. On the bright side, you can turn a lot of that off in the options menu. Be warned, though, that this app will not be able to do anything for you if you leave the shopping to the last second. Buy Valentines Countdown Love Songs – The 100 Greatest of All Time Seller: Meleodo Compatibility: iPhone and iPod Touch Requirements: OS 2.1 or Higher File Size: .5 MB Price: 1.99 Age Rating: 12+ What is a romantic day without a romantic soundtrack? If you want to have the perfect mood music, or make your intended an amazing mix, this application will help you to find the exact songs that you need. The songs can be streamed through your phone for free if you have access to wi-fi or a 3G connection. You can use this application to jump right to the iTunes page to make the songs a part of your collection forever. Buy Love Songs – The 100 Greatest of All Time Valentines Day Recipes Seller: Aimfre Ltd

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Filed under: Hardware , Apple , iPhone Apple has reportedly signed up with a new manufacturer in China to help produce the next generation of the iPhone — Pegatron will be joining Foxconn in putting together parts for Apple’s next handheld unit, we hear courtesy of the always talkative “industry sources.” The company has been rumored to be working with Apple before, when it was suggested that they’d be working on a smaller version of the iPhone designed to work on Verizon’s CDMA network. Officially, Pegatron hasn’t confirmed any agreement with Apple, but they have said that they plan to substantially increase their output in 2010. And this might just be part of a good 2010 for Pegatron — the company is also working on parts for Microsoft’s Natal controller, rumored to be releasing this coming holiday season. As for what they’ll be making for Apple, we’ll have to wait and see what gets announced. It’s almost a certainty that we’ll see a new iPhone model sometime this year, but as to what that model will do (and whether it’ll be CDMA enabled or otherwise), it’s all just rumors so far. [via Apple Insider ] Report: Apple signs new iPhone manufacturer, rumored to work on CDMA iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Report: Apple signs new iPhone manufacturer, rumored to work on CDMA iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Google’s self -sold Nexus One only managed to sell approximately 20,000 units in its first week, coming in far behind the iPhone and Android-based handsets, according to AppleInsider . Flurry, a mobile research firm, estimated that Nexus One did not come in strong.  The 20,000 sales were far behind the 1.6 million that the iPhone 3GS debuted with last June.  Of course though, the iPhone 3GS was a third-generation product that was released in eight countries, and the Nexus One was first generation, only on sale in the U.S. On the flip side though, the Anroid-based myTouch 3G and Motorola Droid were also first generation, but both had stronger sales numbers.  The myTouch 3G sold approximately 60,000 units and the Droid, 250,000 units. Could the difference have been marketing campaigns?  Flurry noted that the Droid had a $100 million marketing campaign, and the myTouch 3G was also promoted often on television by T-Mobile.  The Nexus One was released after the holidays and is only being sold and marketed through Google’s site. "While Google, in an effort to avoid channel conflict with T-Mobile, appears to have set the direct-to-consumer price for the handset at over $500 dollars, the high price point combined with the fact that the handset is only considered an ‘evolutionary’ improvement over previous Android devices, indicates that Google did not take the steps to maximize first week sales," Flurry’s analysis noted. Image courtesy of Gomonews.com  

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Image courtesy of BusinessWeek They’re only 10 miles apart from each other in Silicon Valley and have spent almost a decade as best buddies, but Apple and Google may be gearing up for the mother of all battles, with the mobile computing crown as the ultimate prize. BusinessWeek has an extensive look this week at the friction brewing between Apple and Google. Both companies have enjoyed a healthy, loving business relationship for almost a decade — after all, Google was the only company to make a contribution to the original iPhone with the Maps application at a time where it was walled off to everyone else. But things began to unravel in late 2007, when Google announced their own open-source Android OS for mobile devices. It came less than six months after Apple started selling the first iPhone, which ultimately led to Google CEO Eric Schmidt giving up his seat on the Apple board as the two companies’ interests started to intertwine more and more. “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said at the time, “Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings.” The heat got turned up last summer with Apple’s very public rejection of two Google apps for the iPhone, including one for Google Voice, which also had the side effect of having already-existing third-party developer apps with the feature removed from the App Store. But with this month’s introduction of Google’s Nexus One “superphone,” there is no doubt that the two companies will now move from simple saber-rattling to a possible all-out war. “Apple and Google both want more,” says Chris Cunningham of New York mobile advertising firm Appssavvy. “They’re gearing up for the ultimate fight.” As usual, Apple had no comment for the BusinessWeek story, but Google did provide a statement from Vic Gundotra, their vice-president of engineering: “Apple is a valued partner of ours and we continue to work closely with them to help move the entire mobile ecosystem forward.” The exhaustive BusinessWeek piece by Peter Burrows is well worth a read in its entirety, especially since the skirmish between the two companies could ultimately do more harm to the mobile business in the long run if it continues…

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Section: Software + Apps , Miscellaneous , Third-Party , iPod + iTunes , iPod touch , iPhone , iPhone , iPhone SDK & Apps , Mac + Computers , Software Macintosh and iPhone/iPod updates and announcements for December 31, 2009: Macintosh Indie software developer Patrick Stein has introduced JollysFastVNC 1.0 , his powerful new ARD and VNC client for Mac OS X. Perfect for IT managers, web developers and casual users alike, JollysFastVNC was developed from the ground up utilizing the latest Cocoa technologies. It organizes the most useful features within an elegant user-interface that is powerful, intuitive and quick to work with. JollysFastVNC is very fast, and aims to be the best and most secure VNC client on the Mac platform. iPhone/iPod Surprise family and friends this holiday season by sending a colorful greeting card—personalized with your own voice—right from the iPhone. Greet , the iPhone Greeting app has been developed by Texas-based Impiger Technologies, who specialize in Mobile Applications for the global market. Users can choose from a colorful range of 63 cards for different occasions. Be it for Christmas, New Year, Birthdays, Anniversaries or Valentine’s Day. iPhone users can scribble personal messages on the ecards, record wishes in their own voice, and mail them out. One can even respond to emails with a ‘thank you” ecard. Giovannini Simone has announced Enigmo! 1.0 for iPhone and iPod touch. Enigmo! is a new iphone application in where you can test your intelligence. Solve the many riddles divided in the 3 categories: logic, mathematic and various. Train your mind or challenge your friends and show them who’s the smartest

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Section: iPod + iTunes , iPod touch , iPhone , iPhone , iPhone SDK & Apps We’re still well within the 12 days of Christmas, so for all concerned, it’s still a time of giving. Well, maybe the majority of giving has already happened, but it’s not over just yet. A group of indie iPhone app developers have teamed together to offer some great discounts on their software over the next 48 hours as a New Year’s celebration. There are 25 apps in total, with most knocking off at least $1 from their original price. These aren’t the EA Sports of developers, either—they’re the smaller creatives that bring the gems to the store. What’s more, you may not have seen many of these applications kicking around in the featured spots on the iTunes App Store, but that doesn’t mean they’re not great titles. Go on, treat yourself. Head over to the website to check out the deals, and pass the message on, too; they’re only here through January 1st, 2010.

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Section: Software + Apps , Miscellaneous , Third-Party , iPod + iTunes , iPod touch , iPhone , iPhone , iPhone SDK & Apps , Mac + Computers , Software Macintosh and iPhone/iPod updates and announcements for December 30, 2009: Macintosh Ambrosia Software has announced the release of Soundboard 1.0.5 . Like cart machines in broadcast radio studios, Soundboard lets users map sound effects, audio clips, or musical accompaniment to keys on the Mac keyboard, easily triggered with a single tap. Soundboard answers the needs of podcasters and broadcasters everywhere looking for an elegant way to instantly incorporate sound clips into their live performances, or to quickly and efficiently use onboard audio to create custom musical mashups. Zevrix Solutions has announced the release of ArtOptimizer 2.3.1 , an update to its workflow automation solution for Adobe Illustrator. ArtOptimizer allows to reduce Illustrator job size and speed up processing by eliminating excess image data and performing essential image adjustments. The software lets users save gigabytes of disk space, accelerate file output and cut costs through faster processing. The new version addresses a critical issue related to image processing. Uniea has put together a New Year’s promotion at the last minute. The code is “newyear” and it is good for 20% off on any purchase in the online Uniea store

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I hope you’ll never have to use these tips, but in the freak moments when you just can’t go back and pick up your iPhone because you have a plane to catch and you just realized you left your iPhone at home while parking your car in Lot B at LAX these steps might come

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With four overindulged kids ages nine through 13, it’s hard to find presents to keep them entertained for more than ten minutes. UCreate Music, made by Mattel, is a battery-powered, music-making system that allows kids to mix their own music. The little plastic box rips samples from your iPod or Mac and was on several hot Holiday toy

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