During the WWDC 2010 keynote, Activision announced and released Guitar Hero on the iPhone. This game is well made and provides a lot of enjoyment for players as they strum, tap, slide and whammy to the beat of popular rock songs.

The gameplay of Guitar Hero is fun, unique and includes much more than tapping notes. An arrow pointing left or right indicates that you need to tap the note where the arrow begins and slide your finger to where the arrow ends. This action needs to happen fairly quickly. If two or more notes are connected by lines, then you must tap the first note and slide your finger to the next notes. Your finger needs to reach each note connected in the line at the appropriate time that corresponds to the beat of the song. A vertical line means that you must hold down the note until the line ends. Sometimes these appear at the end of an arrow which mean you must slide and hold. The last thing that comes up is an orange bar that is the length of all four notes. This bar simply needs to be tapped at any location.

Some notes have stars on them. Successfully hitting all these notes in a sequence adds to your star power. There is blue bar on the right of the screen which indicates how much star power you have. Once it reaches half-way, a blue bar will appear above the note catchers. Tapping this activates your star power and doubles your score multiplier. The more star power you have, the longer it lasts.

Guitar Hero also offers character customization, leaderboards, Faecbook sharing, and in-app purchases. If you want more than the 6 songs included with Guitar Hero, then you must purchase songs in bundles of three. Each song pack costs $1.99. There are no free songs available for download.

Guitar Hero includes the following 6 tracks:

• Queen – "We Are The Champions"
• Rise Against – "Savior"
• The Rolling Stones – "Paint It Black"
• Vampire Weekend – "Cousins"
• Weezer – "Say It Ain't So"
• The White Stripes – "Seven Nation Army"

The downloadable song packs via in-app purchase are grouped by the following artists:

• The Faint, Minus the Bear and Silversun Pickups
• Band of Skulls, Obits and The White Stripes
• Darkest Hour, The Dillinger Escape Plan and Protest the Hero
• A Day to Remember, AFI and Breaking Benjamin
• Vampire Weekend
• Queen

I have thoroughly enjoyed the short time I’ve spent playing Guitar Hero and don’t plan to stop playing anytime soon. The game runs great, looks great, and is very well designed. It’s only a matter of time before I become a famous rock star!

Videos and screenshots after the break!

Pros

• More than just tapping and holding involved in game play
• Character customization
• Leaderboards and Facebook sharing
• In-app song pack purchases
• Looks and runs great

Cons

• Cannot purchase individual songs
• Photo Booth photos are poor quality
• No downloadable free songs

[$2.99 - iTunes link]

Guitar Hero for iPhone – app review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

AT&T had posted a of YouTube video to help customers transition to Apple’s new iPhone 4 titled AT&T data plans and upgrades for iPhone customers.

It’s fairly straight forward so check it out after the break and let us know if they answered all your questions, and if not, what questions you have left?

YouTube link

AT&T posts data plans and upgrades video for iPhone 4 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Just like RadioShack announced a few days ago, CNET is reporting WalMart has now added their name to the list of retailers gearing up to sell Apple’s iPhone 4 on the June 24th launch date.

“Walmart said Friday that it will be one of several retail outlets who will have the iPhone 4 on June 24, its first day of availability anywhere. While Walmart has carried previous versions of the iPhone, this is a first that it will be for sale in its stores on the device’s official launch day.”

This is really not that shocking considering this very company was the first to slash the price on the 16 GB iPhone 3GS. So who is going to head to their local WalMart come June 24th? Sound off in the comments below!

[Mac Rumors]

WalMart to carry iPhone 4 on June 24th launch day is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

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iPad live podcast #7: WWDC wrap-up is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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It should come as no surprise that both Palm webOS and Google Android want iPhone developers on their platform. Mac developers have long been as passionate about their platform and incredibly talented in the apps they’ve delivered, and a lot of that has transferred over to iOS devices like the iPhone and now iPad.

Whether or not Apple is engaged in a platform war with Palm and Google it’s inarguable that the current generation of users want apps and right now Apple has an advantage in that area. Part of getting people to switch to another platform is making sure the apps they love are on that platform, and that means big name apps and fan favorites alike.

If Google is moving around behind the scenes, approaching core iPhone developers (the ones who make the most iPhone-like apps and enjoy high mind share) and trying to sneak them over to Android, Palm has gone one step further — openly courting them.

In the middle of Apple’s iOS-centric WWDC 2010 no less, Palm held a shindig of their own, a PDK (Plugin Developer Kit) soiree to wine and dine iPhone developers, point out the Pre has pretty much the same guts as the iPhone 3GS, and that a lot of applications can be ported over — especially games. And they made certain to highlight their openness, especially to emulators and cross-compilers. And they offered $1 million dollars in incentives.

Obviously users go where the apps are and developers make apps for where the users are, so the cycle can be vicious or virtuous, and just as obviously Google and Palm would much rather the latter.

Competition is good, different approaches are good, and options for developers are great, but whether or not Google and Palm can convince iPhone developers (and now iOS 4 developers) to become mobile developers is the question.

Palm webOS and Google Android after iPhone developers is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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You heard right, TiPb is giving away an iPhone 4 and all you have to do to enter is make us a video telling us why you should be the one to get it. Best video — which should involve some sort of song, dance, puppetry, dramatic reading, free running, jello wrestling, heart warming story, or similar level of awesome — gets the iPhone.

Based on videos we’re getting so far, the TiPb nation is doing us proud. Heck, in my not-so-humble opinion you’re getting off to a faster start than BlackBerry and Palm entrants past! Keep it up, do us proud. This is going to be the best phone on the planet come June 24 — and TiPb wants to give it to you.

And this week we also want to give you a Griffin PowerJolt AND Griffen PowerDuo charging combo so that when you get your new iPhone 4, you’ll have more than enough to keep it going and going and… you get the idea.

This give away is even easier to get, just tweet the following on Twitter:

• Hey, @TiPb is giving away an iPhone 4, and more! http://www.tipb.com/contest/

Enter up to once a day for the next week, we’ll pick one tweet at random and give-away the power combo.

(Obviously we have no way of knowing if Apple changed something about the iPhone 4 that would make either or both products have some compatibility problem, but they work just fine on existing iPhones and iPod touches so we don’t anticipate anything — either way you should get a lot of use out of them!)

Now get tweeting!

Who wants to win a Griffin PowerDuo and PowerJolt? – Give-away is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

The 2010 World Cup is kicking off (ha!) and I’m curious — how are you following along on your iPhone or iPad? Now, like Nokia, many generational North Americans aren’t as familiar with the biggest soccer/football event on the planet, but I’m sure there are tons of fans incredibly invested in just which team brings home the gold from South Africa this year.

• Are you using Safari and staying up to date over the web? If so, what site brings you the fastest updates with the information you want most? FIFA’s official site? Your local team site? Sports station? Fan site?

• Are you using an app or multiple apps to get the game on? Which ones do the job best for you? What features make them key? Push notifications for goooooooooaaaaaaaals?

• And, hey, if you have a top soccer/football game and use that to play along with the pros, throw your favorite in as well.

I just got off a plane people, I need my iOS-based World Cup fix, help me (and each other) out!

How are you following the World Cup on your iPhone and iPad? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Apple restricting third-party advertisers from collecting personal data if they are owned by another platform vendor could be a way of preventing Google’s AdMob from competing directly on the iPhone with Apple’s iAd, but it could also be a sign that Apple, cranky after leaked iPhone prototypes and iPad analytics, is determined to take back control of user data.

Steve Jobs was nothing if not heated at the D8 conference about the leaked iPhone prototype, and perhaps even more so about in-app analytics taking user data, including device and location, and using that to reveal details about the iPad long before it was announced. Imagining Apple’s subsequent reaction to the thought of now-rival Google having early access to such detailed information not only about unreleased Apple devices, but about which devices iOS users have, at what location, and their app usage patterns probably sent a chill down their collective spines.

App Cubby’s David Barnard put together an excellent post about it earlier today:

When you use Google search and other Google products, they collect a tremendous amount of information and use that information to customize and better serve the ads that are the core of their business. Many users don't even realize this is happening, others are comfortable with it and have some level of trust for Google's intent in using that data.

Well, Apple doesn't trust the benevolence of Google, developers, and other third parties involved in the iOS platform. Apple wants to control the flow of user information.

Barnard also points out Apple primarily makes their money off hardware sales, not the brokering of user information the way Google or Facebook do. He also suggests part of AdMob’s $700 million value to Google was exactly the type of data they could pull off iOS devices:

[David Barnard / App Cubby]

Apple, Google, AdMob, mobile advertising, privacy, and competition is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Apple has sent out a notice to developers advising them that the iTunes App Store has begun accepting iOS 4 binaries for submission and review:

Submit your iOS 4 apps for review so they can be ready for sale when iOS 4 is available to iPhone and iPod touch users. Make sure you have built and tested your applications using iOS 4 and iPhone SDK 4 GM seed, which you can download from the iPhone Dev Center.

Log in to iTunes Connect and upload your iOS 4 applications today.

iOS 4 is scheduled for release on June 21, once again developers aren’t likely to get much sleep, especially if trying to once again implement new features for a device they don’t have and can’t yet test.

(The effort is much appreciated.)

iTunes App Store begins accepting iOS 4-compatible apps for review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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MathBoard for iPad is an educational application designed to help you or your child excel in arithmetic operations. The level of difficulty is customizable, making MathBoard a great learning tool for children in kindergarten through elementary school as well as adults who wish to brush up on their basic math skills.

MathBoard is simply a multiple choice quiz generator. You can customize which topics you wish to be quizzed on, how many questions are in the quiz, and what range of numbers you want in the problems. Topics include addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, squares, cubes, and square roots.

While taking a quiz, there is a small area at the bottom of the screen where you can use your finger (or stylus, if you prefer) to work on the problem as if you were using a pencil and paper. This is an excellent feature of MathBoard, however, the area is too small. For example, when working out a multiplication problem of two numbers with two or more digits, you quickly run out of space to complete all the calculations in the traditional manner. Instead, you must continue your work next to the work you already did. This can be very confusing for a child who is new to the procedure. I would like to either see a pop-up to do scratch work on or landscape support. Most of these problems require vertical space to work out and rotating to landscape may solve the lack of space issue.

After completing the quiz, MathBoard displays your score and gives an option to save the quiz. If you do, you can come back to it later and retake the entire quiz or just the questions you got wrong.

Despite the small scratch work space, MathBoard is an excellent application for learning arithmetic. The interface is very beautiful and much more enjoyable than taking printed quizzes with pencil and paper!

Video and screenshots after the break!

Pros

• Excellent problem generator
• Includes addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, squares, cubes, and square roots
• Option to allow negative numbers
• Quizzes can have 10-250 problems
• Select number ranges from 0 to 1000
• Option to time quiz
• Space to do “scratch work”

Cons

• Scratch work space is too small
• No landscape support

[$2.99 - iTunes link]

MathBoard for iPad – app review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog