One the common caveats of all external iPhone batteries is that one way or another they prevent you from being able to keep your iPhone upright on a flat surface. So it was probably just a matter of time before someone came up with an iPhone battery that’s also an upright dock, and that turns out to be Dexim with its P-Flip. The concept is cleverly simple: it’s a bottom snap-on battery that swivels backward just below the dock connector to create a flat surface for the iPhone to stand on. A plastic grip runs a third of the way up the iPhone’s rear surface and grips both the iPhone’s sides to keep the whole thing steady.

I wouldn’t be able to recommend this battery to someone who plans to keep it swiveled vertical the whole time for in-hand use, as the swivel mechanism makes it significantly larger than simpler batteries that are permanently vertical, but that’s not P-Flip’s intended use anyway. The idea here is that you can use it as a dock on your desk during the day, move it to your bedside nightstand at night, and realistically only have to keep the P-Flip connected to a power source (via mini-USB) in one location or the other. And if you do need to take the P-Flip with you, while it is on the large side for that, it’ll work in that capacity as well.

The question for you, then, is whether such a product enhances your usage patterns. If you keep your iPhone connected to a power source at both your desk and your nightstand, and never have the desire to take a battery with you when you go out, then you could get away with a plain old stand which would less and not involve any electronics. But for those who, for instance, don’t have an electrical outlet handy on their nightstand, this could solve the long running problem of how to keep your iPhone fully charged overnight without having to leave it sitting on your desk in the next room.

The only thing I can knock the P-Flip for with certainty is that on both my desk and nightstand surfaces, any multitouch gestures beyond lightly tapping on an icon required placing the rest of my hand around the back of the iPhone just to keep the P-Flip from sliding backwards as a result of me pressing against the screen with my fingertip. This means that the single rubber foot at the back of the bottom of the P-Flip isn’t enough. But it’s the only place they could put it, as the design of the P-Flip is such that most of its bottom surface doesn’t actually come into contact with the desk. Change that design, and I’d like this product a whole lot more.

But in the end, what keep the P-Flip in the “recommendable” instead of the “should have been recommendable” category is a topic that we ironically perhaps don’t talk about enough when it comes to iPhone batteries: battery life. At 2000 mAh, the P-Flip can be mathematically expected to slightly more than double the iPhone’s battery life, which is pretty much what my tests showed (these things are always difficult to gauge, as different actions on the iPhone will use up significantly different amounts of battery life). But the 2000 mAh means the $54 P-Flip has twice as much juice as the standard $39 snap-on batteries that don’t swivel (although again, they’re not as large), and in fact it gives the P-Flip about fifty percent more battery life than the typical iPhone battery case (some of the bulkier iPhone cradles do go all the way up to 3300 mAh).

Point being, there’s a lot of juice in the P-Flip, particularly in comparison to the competing bottom snap-on batteries. As I said at the top, this is only recommendable to those of you who are actually going to swivel it back and use it as a dock at various points in your usage pattern, but I know that some users are going to see this product as a godsend – in fact it’s become my new iPhone nightstand of choice.

As a side note, although I’ve seen more sophisticated ones from competing vendors, Dexim does offer a free PFlip Clock app which displays the time in large colorful numbers and rounds out the iPhone alarm experience (the app is free and functional whether you’ve bought the P-Flip itself or not).

Learn more about Dexim P-Flip for iPhone at Dexim.net

It’s not easy being a bird. You’re just sitting around, minding your own business, when a bunch of greedy pigs sneak up on your nest and turn your precious eggs into the wildlife version of a Grand Slam Breakfast.  Now, some birds might just move on, but then you wouldn’t have an iPhone game, now, would you?  No, your job is to help this group of now-angry birds get revenge, the only way they know how: By launching themselves from a giant slingshot at the pigs’ houses, and bring it crashing down around them.

That’s the premise of Angry Birds, a physics-based puzzle game by Clickgamer, published by prolific iPhone publisher Chillingo.  Each stage presents the pigs ensconced in some sort of precariously (or sometimes not so precariously) assembled stronghold, and your job is to fling the birds from the slingshot at the weak points of the building to cause it to collapse on top of all the pigs inside.

This would be entertaining enough if that was it, but there are also several different species of birds, some of which have special abilities activated by tapping the screen mid-flight.  Blue birds can split themselves into three, yellow birds can get an extra burst of speed, back birds can blow themselves up like bombs, and white birds can drop exploding eggs from above.  So part of the challenge is just figuring out the right angle, and part of it is knowing exactly when to activate these abilities for maximum damage.  It’s all a lot of fun, and there are generally several different ways to go about each level.  As far as content is concerned, a recent update added 42 levels, bringing the total over 100, so there’s plenty to do.

The art style is like something straight out of the Saturday morning cartoons, which is very appropriate for this type of game. Defeated pigs simply disappear in a puff of smoke, as do the used up birds. Everything runs very smoothly on my iPod Touch 2G.  The sound leaves a bit to be desired, though, with no background music to speak of and just angry squawks for sound effects.

While Angry Birds is a lot of fun, there are a couple of issues I have with the game. First of all, the only way to unlock a level is to complete the level before it, so if you get stuck on a particular puzzle, you can’t do much else with the game until you get past that, which can be extremely frustrating.  Similarly, while there is a lot of content, there’s not to a ton of replay value; once you’ve beaten a level, while you can go back and try to get a perfect star rating, you typically won’t want to.  There’s also a certain amount of imprecision built into the game that’s a bit atypical for a physics puzzle game, so it’s hard to tell if you’re just missing your targets or if your strategy is fundamentally flawed.  (It’s worth noting that the game does show you the trajectory of your last bird, but even that sometimes isn’t enough to guide you where you’re supposed to be aiming.)  Finally, the order in which the birds you have at your disposal is fixed, which limits your strategy somewhat.

All in all, though, if you like any sort of physics puzzle game, you’re going to get a lot of enjoyment out of Angry Birds.  Even if you don’t typically like these types of games, the gameplay is interesting enough to keep you engaged; even being stuck on a particular level is still fun in its own way, and the early levels are easy enough that you won’t get stuck for a while anyway.  Angry Birds is quirky, easy to pick up, and difficult to master, and it’s loads of fun all the way through.  Angry Birds is an easy recommendation at its regular $2 price, and a complete no brainer at its current sale price (as of this writing) of $1. Unless, of course, you’re a pig; then you may want to stay away.

Learn more about Angry Birds for iPhone and iPod touch in the App Store

I admit I wasn’t expecting much from DGA’s Livespeakr. It wasn’t so much the unit’s tiny size or even the fact that it’s a fold-up product, but the mere mention of its $79 price tag. For years now, $99 has been the “Mendoza line” for iPhone and iPod speaker systems – you can find some pretty decent-sounding and even semi-feature-laden systems at $99, but once you venture down into the $70-80 range, you’re almost automatically dealing with significantly compromised audio quality (a fact that’s as true with major stereo makers known for their high end products as it is with budget-priced indie vendors). But every once in awhile a product turns out to be a whole different ballgame than you were expecting, and that’s the case here: aside from one perturbing flaw which I’ll get to later, the Livespeakr is a surprisingly versatile, handy and even decent-sounding product.

The Livespeakr is essentially a hard plastic case for iPhone (also works with iPod touch and iPod classic) with a pair of speakers attached to the back. By default, the two speakers tweet just above and below the iPhone’s top and bottom, respectively. But the fun comes when you rotate your iPhone ninety degrees and suddenly you’ve got speakers to the left and right which can then slide out a couple inches each for a degree of stereo separation. And a kick-out stand on the back allows you to prop the whole thing up at an angle. And as a hugely pleasant and rare surprise at this price point, there’s no need for the usual parade of AA batteries, as there’s a built in battery that claims to offer up to sixteen hours of playback (turned out to be within spec), and can be recharged either via your computer with the included mini-USB cable or via a wall outlet with the included charging brick.

I mentioned that there’s one significant flaw to the whole thing: instead of pulling the audio out the iPhone’s bottom dock connector port like more expensive systems do, the Livespeakr pulls the audio out of the iPhone’s headphone port. The trouble is that the port is only designed to push audio out to earbuds, which output audio at much lower volumes than stereo systems (and only sound as loud because they’re millimeters from your ear). What does this mean? Well, what you immediately notice is that you can’t turn the iPhone’s volume up to more than about fifty percent before the quality of the audio coming out of the Livespeakr starts to degrade. This is okay, because even at fifty percent, it’s loud enough to fill a small room, and this system is clearly designed for personal listening and not party-pumping.

As it turns out, the bigger problem with connecting to the iPhone through its headphone port instead of its docking port is that none of Livespeakr’s sixteen hours of battery life can be used to keep the iPhone itself charged up. In other words, by the time the Livespeakr’s battery is depleted, your iPhone’s battery going to be just about gone as well. This might not be such a big deal if you’re using the Livespeakr with an iPod, but iPhone users can’t afford to put themselves in the position of grabbing their iPhone out of the stereo system to throw it into their pocket and take it with them, only to realize that they’ve just used up most of their iPhone’s battery on music playback and now have no cellphone available to them as they head out the door. If you’ve got the iPhone in horizontal mode (for watching video) you can plug a dock connector cable into the iPhone and connect it to an external power source, but at that point the product ceases being portable. And if you’ve got the iPhone set vertically (for music playback), the dock connector port isn’t even physically accessible. Sure, you can minimize the impact on battery life by making sure you turn your iPhone’s screen off during playback, but the last thing most iPhone users want to hear about is yet another way in which they can prematurely burn through their battery life, which many if not most iPhone users consider to be too meager already.

And it’s too bad, because it puts a major dent in the practicality of the product, and it really does put out impressive audio for its tiny size. In fact that whole unit is well designed. The pair of tiny metal legs on the kickstand don’t look like they’re much thicker than that of a paperclip, and yet they’re stable – and they can even be set at one of three different reclining angles.

This is one of those products that you want to give a higher rating to, but simply can’t because its one flaw compromises the overall usefulness of the product for nearly anyone who buys it. If DGA can figure out how to get a docking port into the Livespeakr and keep the price point the same (or even raise it slightly if necessary), this would easily be a four, maybe four and a half star product.

Learn more about DGA Livespeakr for iPhone, iPod touch and iPod classic at Livespeakr.com

From the makers of Tap Tap Revenge comes the hit new iPhone/iPod Touch game, Riddim Ribbon! it’s like Tap Tap Revenge and your favorite race car game all rolled into one! Riddim Ribbon is a fast and upbeat game that any music lover would enjoy.

So let’s get this party started! You’re the DJ and the controls for the music mix are right in your hands! Tilt your device left, right, and up to the tunes of Black Eyed Peas, Tiësto, Benny Benassi, (and many more artists to be added soon) as you race down a curvy ribbon, gathering pebbles and hoops for points. When you reach a fork in your track, make a decision to go left or right for a different mix of the song. Jump over ramps to the effects level and give your song a more unique sound. Glide along the track, but be sure to stay away from obstacles that can slow you down!

Don’t be too intimidated playing this game the first few times. The game is easy to learn, but difficult to master at first. Once you get the hang of when to tilt the device during the curvy turns and jumps, it’s a lot of fun. Plus, the narrator is quite encouraging!

Each game is about 4-5 minutes, depending on what song you pick. The game comes with 3 great Black Eyed Peas tracks, including mixes of Boom Boom Pow, I Gotta Feeling, and Meet Me Halfway. For a limited time only, you can also get the mashup of “Imma Be/Rock That Body” for free with purchase. For each song, there are 2-3 mixes that can be played in your race to the finish line. At the end of the game, you can view your total points, your achievements, your top scores and dates of when you played, and how you compare to the global leaderboard. You can also share your score via email with your friends.

In-app purchases for 99 cents include various mixes of:

• Tiësto’s Louder Than Boom and Escape Me

• Benny Benassi’s Satisfaction

The game comes in three levels of difficulty – Easy, Medium, and Hard. You must mix up the previous level with an accuracy of 75% or better to unlock the next level. Harder levels include more twists, turns, jumps, and obstacles, both on and off the track.
One option I’d like added to the game is the ability to view the world-wide leaderboard at any time. Currently, you can only view it after you play the game. I personally like to see the scores I need to beat before playing the game. It’s just makes me more competitive.

Overall, the game is a lot of fun, especially if you love The Black Eyed Peas and racing games. The graphics and animation are great and makes you feel as if you are mixing the song. One note, your right hand may sometimes cover the speakers on your iPhone when playing. That’s not good since this game is music-based. I suggest picking up a game wheel accessory or a gamer’s case to enhance your gaming experience with Riddim Ribbon. Have fun, and happy dj-ing!

Learn more about the Riddim Ribbon app for iPhone and iPod touch in the App Store

Slug wars is all about winning, right in the lane of fire. Armed with indomitable army snails and slugs, the basic objective of this game is to wipe out the enemy coming from the other lane. Played out on the garden battlefield divided into 3 lanes, at your disposal are 8 different kinds of soldiers, with different strengths, speeds and ranges of attack.

Slug Wars follows the basic tenets of the tower defense/real time strategy genre – there are fast and easy units to create and mobilize, medium-range types that do a little more damage and the super weapons that do maximum damage. The occasional flower blooming on the field is the currency of unit deployment and survival. Since the game plays out on three lanes only, your focus will be on managing your queue of soldiers, making sure they are equal or superior to, the enemy’s.

The control scheme is fairly simple. You use the slider to select which unit you want to deploy and tapping on the lane of your choice to send units. At the same time, you can view what the opponent is likewise sending out to meet you since the other side of the field is a mirror image of your own. From here, you can anticipate which units to use and when.

There are three basic modes: Campaign, Skirmish and Slug it Out. Skirmish is all out war with the AI player while Slug It Out allows two human players to fight it out. The tricky part in Slug Wars is managing the queues. This game has a strong offensive component – one of its plus points and you need to gain ground as you not only push back the enemy, you have to dominate the lane in order to capture his side. There are only three chances to survive the onslaught, and after a while it gets harder to keep track of all the activities happening in each lane.

Graphics and sounds play a pivotal role and making Slug Wars stand out not among only similar games, but even as against the seminal Plants vs Zombies which arrived recently. The slugs are cute, funny and feisty creatures – armed with salt shakers, lobbing pellets and attacking with gusto. Voice acting makes a huge difference here, as the distinct and funny battle cry of each slug makes the game a friendly and hilarious assault on the senses – “Yamler?” will find its way into your head for the rest of the day after playing the game. I enjoy the sound effects very much, but some in-game music or the option to play my own music would also be a good option to have.

While Slug Wars is a rip roaring experience the first few times you play it, it still needs some depth and variety in order to effectively compete against an ever growing TD/RTS genre. Even with different levels of difficulty, it’s not that difficult to play in part owing to the lack of variety in the gameplay. It needs to up the ante in terms of challenge – for example, it deviates from most TD/RTS games in the sense that there’s no recharging time for each unit: a simple, yet effective stumbling block in the deployment of units. More lanes in the higher levels would also be a good addition. The slider controls need some minor tweaking so it’s easier to monitor unit deployment – highlighting the unit deployed to confirm that the slug has been sent out to the queue will minimize confusion and make queue management a lot easier.

There’s no option yet to upgrade units and weapons, as well as power ups, more obstacles and additional twists to the gameplay. The developers have promised to incorporate user feedback and I am looking forward to a massive update. In this update, I hope to see Open Feint and social media integration, as well as achievements to be unlocked.

Overall, Slug Wars has a huge potential to become a breakout TD/RTS game with some enhancements and updates. As it is, it’s definitely a game worth having and the continuous updates worth waiting for.

Learn more about Slug Wars for iPhone and iPod touch in the App Store

You’ve got to give credit to Zagg for taking chances with its iPhone earbud designs and for continuing to refine the vision. The first Z.buds iteration was over the top ambitious “throw in the kitchen sink” effort which included so many features (volume control, a multiple of cable sliders, even a shirt button attachment) but that the result was too bulky, but it was worthy effort nonetheless. The second round of Z.buds refined those features to where they were more practical. Now, with the ZAGGsmartbuds, the concept is refined again, although this time it’s not necessarily for the better.

First things first: the audio quality of the new ZAGGsmartbuds is on par with the earlier Z.buds, which is to say that it’s near (but not at) the top of the pack when it comes to iPhone earbuds at the $79 price point – hence why the first Z.buds received four stars out of five and the second, better-designed version received four and a half.

So what of the new ZAGGsmartbuds design? It’s not “bulky” in the sense of being too large or too heavy. The rubber cables are fairly thin, after all. But where it falls down a bit is that the Y-connecter is about two-thirds of the way down the cabling, much lower than is typical with earbuds, leaving the cables split into two for the majority of their length. Sliders allow you to keep the split cables coupled together, but in this case the sliders feel like more of an attempt at compensation for an unfortunate design, as the split cables ended up repeatedly getting tangled during use (this is not a problem that I’ve generally had when testing almost any other earbuds). And while the volume slider is appreciated, I found it to be a step back from previous versions; you slide it down to a certain point with no noticeable reduction in volume at all, and then suddenly the volume drops off a cliff.

Those two design deficiencies aside, these are not a bad pair of earbuds (particularly considering that the majority of its similarly priced competitors don’t offer volume control at all, although this will have largely changed by the end of the year). In fact some of the other features are for the positive. The earbud mechanisms are angled so as to fit more comfortably in your ear, an easy trick that not enough earbud manufacturers take advantage of – straight-in buds have never bothered me, but some of our readers have reported specifically hunting down the few angled-bud products on the market because they find them to be more comfortable.

In the end, I’ve got the ZAGGsmartbuds audio quality pegged at four and a half stars: well worth the price, near the top of the food chain at the price point, and only missing the top by a fraction. In terms of design, while I appreciate the continued ambition on the part of the designers, I can’t go any higher than three and a half stars: cables getting tangled while you’re wearing them is not a common problem and seems an odd problem so suddenly creep into the third iteration of a product that didn’t have any trace of the problem the first two times around. But it wasn’t a continual problem, just a repeated one. So we average the two and come up with an overall four star rating.

As far as the volume controls, a little advice for all earbud manufacturers: it’s 2010, and earbuds made for iPhone and iPod should all come with the three-button volume and playback controls that Apple’s own bundled earbuds now come with. It was the prevailing trend among new earbuds previewed at Macworld 2010 and CES 2010, and vendors should be aware that if they don’t offer said controls, they’ll be in the minority before too long; a one-button control for iPhone users won’t cut it for much longer. Readers may also want to consider this when deciding whether to buy a new set of earbuds now or wait for what’s coming down the pike.

Learn more about ZAGGsmartbuds for iPhone at Zagg.com