Shadowrun fans will be happy to hear that a new game in the classic cyberpunk setting is well on its way thanks to Kickstarter, and that we’ll be seeing it on iOS and Android tablets. Funding wraps up this Sunday, and they’re already blown past their $400,000 goal with over $1.4 million from fans.

Much like Tim Schafer’s upcoming Kickstarted title, Shadowrun Returns promises to be a throwback to an old-school game style that hasn’t been supported by publishers for awhile.  In this case, it will be a turn-based 2D game, which is consistent with its tabletop role-playing game roots. Missions take place on physical, digital, mystical, and astral planes simultaneously, which should offer a breadth of tactical possibilities. Though that might not be particularly exciting for folks looking for bleeding-edge 3D shoot-em-ups on iPad, the game takes place in a a well-established high-tech dystopian world where magic and technology coexist. You can expect a ton of replay value, as the developer will also be making the level editor available for players to create and share their own adventures online. Unfortunately, there won’t be any multiplayer this go-around; for that kind of thing you might be interested in Roll20, which is also wrapping up its funding soon.

As great as it is to see Shadowrun getting a proper do-over, it’s sad to see new and innovative titles like République falling well behind their goals. In any case, here’s the trailer, and here’s the Kickstarter page if you want to pledge. $15 gets you a copy of the game, $60 gets you a shirt on top of that, and $125 gets you some really sweet dogtags loaded with the game soundtrack.

The Minecraft port for iOS has had plenty of mining in it since its launch late last year, and now it’s getting infinitely more crafty with the latest update. The building sim/monster survival sandbox game with an 8-bit twist now lets you create a whole bunch of blocks to reassemble in your world as you see fit, just like the PC version. When you first drop into your Minecraft world, it’s more or less a blank slate, but after gathering basic resources (and now combining them to make new types of blocks), you can build some pretty incredible things. You can even invite friends to build with you if they’re in the same Wi-Fi network. Here’s a full changelog for today’s update:

• Crafting added
• New mobs: Cows, Chickens
• New sounds
• New inventory
• All items need to be gathered, except Shears, Bricks & Glass.
• New blocks and items: Crafting Table, Brick Slabs, Brick Stairs, Cobblestone Slab, Snow, Stick, Wooden Slab, Dandelion Yellow, Wooden Axe, Shovel, Pickaxe, Sword, Bowl, Sugar, Book, Paper & Coal
• Added bookshelves to Survival Mode (you need to craft)

Minecraft made its big debut on Android, in particular on the Sony Xperia Play with a creepy and awesome contest involving Kristen Schaal, detailed in the video below. The Android version of Minecraft: Pocket Edition is also getting updated today with crafting, which is good news for iPhone users because servers are cross-platform. Hopefully the cross-platform goodness will extend to the thriving PC community at some point too, but for now, Minecraft is still a great pick for folks who are more interested in building something in video games rather than destroying.

I’ve been keeping tabs on Minecraft since it had its closed beta for PC, and it’s definitely the sort of thing I could spend an unhealthy amount of time being lost in. Any heavy-duty Minecraft players out there? What’s the most impressive thing you’ve built in the game? Bonus points for pictures.

Source: Facebook

What do you get when you combine a prototype hover vehicle similar to the Parrot AR Drone which can be flown with an iPad and sub-machinegun? Trigger-happy YouTuber FPS Russia recently posted a video showing us just exactly what –”Sharlene”. Sharlene can fly through tight spaces, and even blow itself up on command. The quad-rotor prototype includes a 100 round magazine, can fly 30 MPH, reach altitudes of over 1000 feet, and self-destruct with a 15-foot blast radius. Or that’s the premise, anyway. It’s more than likely that this is all fancy CG work, since the video was sponsored by the fine folks at Call of Duty, who have a game being announced on May 1 likely called Tacitus.

Even if it’s fake, the U.S. Military is knee-deep into significant iOS usage. Not too long ago, the Army launched a web app store for iOS and Android, and even two years ago snipers were using iPhone apps to calculate trajectories. Even if the military has their own proprietary flying gun drones available, I imagine it would be a lot cheaper to have troops on the ground kitted out with iPhones than expensive custom-built consoles. FPS Russia says that because it’s a prototype, we wouldn’t see this thing for another decade; even if it’s all smoke and mirrors, do you think we’ll see gadgets like this on the battlefield within the next ten years?

As for Call of Duty renting out a hugely-popular YouTube channel so that they can sneakily promote a new game, that’s just smart marketing. They really couldn’t have picked a better web personality to team up with. Any Call of Duty fans eager to give this drone a try in the upcoming game? It sure would be interesting if the game used an iPad too…

Source: Cult of Mac

The best iOS podcast in the ‘verse returns tonight to talk all the latest iPhone and iPad news, how-tos, and app and accessory reviews. We’ll be talking Apple Q1 2010 results, and WWDC 2012. Join us!

Want to go full screen? Head to iMore.com/live. Want to watch via iPhone or iPad? Grab the Ustream app and search for “mobilenations”!

Sprint has confirmed that it will still offer an unlimited data plan for the next generation iPhone. There was some doubt that the unlimited data would remain, especially if the iPhone 5,1 has the expected LTE radio. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has stated that Sprint will continue to offer a no-strings unlimited plan.

“I’m not anticipating the unlimited plan would change by that point,” he said. “That’s our distinctive differentiator.” “Frankly, it’s a marriage made in heaven,” he said about the combination of unlimited and the iPhone. “We’re clearly attracting customers from our competitors.”

The decision by Sprint to offer unlimited data when all the other carriers are cutting back on their allowances has been very beneficial for Sprint. Hesse believes that many new customers have joined Sprint purely for the unlimited data. He was also keen to point out that he had no inside knowledge as to when the next iPhone would be released or if it definitely would be LTE capable.

Source: CNET

Apple Retail Stores have replaced the iMacs that traditional served as their “kid’s table” with iPads. The tables, which had previously been decked out with a quartet of iMacs, now sport 4 iPads instead.

Like the previous iMacs, which were set up with educational and game programs, the iPads had a variety of child-friendly apps. I’m not sure exactly when this happened, but I noticed it for the first time today when I visited my local store to pick up a repaired Mac. My 3 years godson, who was with me, took only a couple of moments to adjust and then launched a book app and got to playing, just as he does at home. It was much easier for him to find an app and use the iPad then it had ever been to handle the iMac and mouse, so that was a huge win.

I’ll miss seeing those big screens around the kids table, but iPads are clearly Apple’s future, and nothing makes that clearer than how they’re deploying them for future generations of Apple customers.

Apple previously replaced in-store display cards with interactive iPads, and replaced the MacBook Pro computers at the Genius bar with iPads. Apple Store concierges also use iPads to handle Genius Bar and other appointments.

There’s no sign yet that they’ll start replacing the actual Geniuses (or other staff) with iPads… but it can’t be long now, can it?

iMore's authoritative guide to the very best, absolutely free games for your iPhone and iPod touch

Looking for even more free games for your iPhone or iPod touch? It goes without saying that the iPhone and iPod touch are a massively popular gaming platform — and you told us they deserve more than a small mention in our top free iPhone apps post. So, we dove back into the App Store and found the very best free strategy games, free shooter games, free sports games, free casual games, free physics games, free action games, free role-playing games, and free racing games for iPhone and iPod touch!

Keep in mind that most titles listed here thrive on in-app purchases. You can absolutely play them for free, but you may get annoyed by “freemium” up-sells. Others are “lite” versions with limited content, and while they’re also completely free, you’ll be limited in what you can do. Still, they’re a great way to test the waters and have some fun before deciding to buy (or unlock) full versions.

Without further ado, here are our favorite free games for iPhone. Expect regular updates and fresh category additions down the road. Here’s a table of contents to help you jump around.

• Best free strategy games for iPhone
• Best free shooter games for iPhone
• Best free sports games for iPhone
• Best free casual games for iPhone
• Best free physics games for iPhone
• Best free action games for iPhone
• Best free role-playing games for iPhone
• Best free racing games for iPhone

Best free strategy games for iPhone

Hero Academy

Hero Academy is a turn-based, multiplayer-only tactical combat game that pits cartoony armies against one another. Each side gets five actions points every turn to move their troops, kit them out with gear, cast spells and otherwise attack opposing units on the board. Each player (online, either random or a designated buddy) has one or more crystals they must defend while trying to destroy the other side’s. You can also win by running your opponent out of reinforcements, as each side only gets so many of each type every game.

Hero Academy includes The Council army (humans) for free, but charges for the others, such as Dwarves, Dark Elves and The Tribe (orcs). You can also pay for fancy army-themed avatars as well as taunts to make your soldiers jeer after a turn.

• Download now

Spice Bandits

Spice Bandits is probably the best tower defense game I’ve ever played. You take on the of an adorable little space pirate, plundering various locations on Earth to gather up as much spice as possible. Of course, pesky humans aren’t interested in letting you get away with that, and attack your various strongholds in waves, while you have to defend with various kinds of towers. Maps have a variety of themes and terrain qualities, making every round a new experience. Over time, you gather spice which can be spent on new kinds of turrets (provided you’re a high enough level and have the prerequisite turrets purchased). Spice can also be used to deck out your alien avatar in some swanky threads.

As you level up, you get upgrade points (which can also be bought with spice) to customize your play style as you see fit – cheaper turrets, faster rate of fire or more mesmerizing disco music are just a few options. Spice Bandits lets you buy spice through in-app purchases, which also eliminates ads between levels.

• Download now

Triple Town

Triple Town is a simple puzzle game where you place various kinds of greenery on a small grid so that you can line up three of a kind and have them merge into another object. For example, three patches of grass make a shrub, three shrubs make a tree, three trees make a house, and so on. Occasionally, you’ll have to put down bears, which block building on squares until you’re able to corral them into a confined area. You keep building until you run out of squares to build on, which actually takes awhile since the board is continually shifting with sets merging together and opening up space.

Triple Town is monetized by providing only a limited number of placements. Your move count regenerates over time, but you can pay for more turns, or simply buy unlimited turns for $3.99. The coins you earn through gameplay can also be spent on buying particular items, like bots, which can eliminate pesky bears with a single tap.

• Download now

Best free shooter games for iPhone

Gun Bros

Gun Bros is a run-and-gun dual-stick shoot-em-up where you and your bro (either AI or through online multiplayer) blast through waves of incoming enemies. Each level you earn coins to spend on guns and gear to change your damage output, speed, health, and other characteristics. You also gather up a mineral called Xplodium, which can be refined into coins; higher grades of refineries can provide a higher coin output. A recent update added the ability to turn on your bro and go head-to-head in deathmatch mode, if you’re feeling less than friendly.

Warbucks are a separate type of currency used to buy particularly high-end gear. You can earn them through in-app purchases, watching video ads, or converting a ton of the regular coins at the bank.

• Download now

MetalStorm: Wingman

MetalStorm: Wingman is a flight combat game with full multiplayer support, AirPlay compatibility and accelerometer and swipe controls.  As you play through the campaign mode, head-to-head multiplayer dogfight mode, or endless survival mode, you earn credits which can be used to buy various types of missiles, cannons, and new jets focusing on defense, agility, or firepower. Don’t get too trigger-happy, since your ammunition is limited. If you’re not into shooting down your buddies, you can also invite Game Center wingmen to play through the campaign levels co-operatively.

A lot of the hardware upgrades require you to use premium coins, which are sold in batches for $0.99 and up or earned through regular gameplay.

• Download now

Frontline Commando

Frontline Commando is an on-rails third-person shooter about a gung-ho military man left behind enemy lines. You dodge behind cover with single taps, and pop out to take aim and eliminate nonspecific middle eastern insurgents. Don’t get too attached to that wall you’re hiding behind though, since it can be destroyed as a firefight drags on, and grenades can quickly flush you out into the open. When you level up, new weapons are unlocked for purchase, plus you get a few bars of gold, which can be used to buy premium items. Weapon upgrades span assault weapons, sniper rifles, shotguns, and grenade launchers, each with their own set of damage, clip size, reload speed, and accuracy attributes.

You can also increase survivability with medkit purchases and body armor upgrades. When things get too hot, you can buy airstrikes to clear out the immediate area. Both “war cash” and gold can be bought through in-app purchases.

• Download now

Best free sports games for iPhone

Baseball Superstars 2012

Baseball Superstars 2012 is a whimsically exaggerated baseball game with Japanese-style characters and dialog. While the game keeps tabs on minute details, such as batting averages, running speed, stamina, and confidence levels, there are some more cartoony encounters with “super players”, with ridiculous anime costumes and powers. As a batter, you can control where you swing by tilting the iPhone, but don’t worry, you won’t actually have to swing it like a bat – just tap the screen at the right moment. Pitching is done through a series of swipes within a box. You’ll encounter plenty of challenges, including injuries which require recuperation in a hospital, managing your team roster, and playing against friends online. Personally, I found this game impossibly hard when set on normal difficulty, but I’m not a sports guy. Baseball fans will love it, though. For more baseball-themed apps, check out our ballgame roundup over here.

Through in-app purchases, you can get G points, which are spent on character items, training sessions to improve your stats, or even buy levels for your batter or pitcher.

• Download now

NFL Pro 2012

NFL Pro 2012 is a full-fledged football game complete with leagues, playbooks, and extensive rosters based on real players and teams. Your players gain experience and level up as you go, letting you improve their stats in a number of areas, like run blocking, catching, awareness, and agility. Every down, you pick a play available (either offensive or defensive), and while you manually control one player, the AI handles the rest. Controls during play are dead simple, but most of your time will be spent flipping through and picking plays. Unfortunately, your selection is really limited to start, and it takes an obscene number of credits to permanently keep playbooks.

Every game you play uses up energy, which you can replenish or time or through in-app purchases. Experience points to level up your players can also be bought, along with credits to buy new playbooks, stadiums, gain access to new teams, divisions, and conferences, and extend quarter lengths.

• Download now

Real Soccer 2012

Real Soccer 2012 offers a wide variety of gameplay types in a fast-paced, realstic package. The core controls are laid out with a standard virtual joystick and sprint, pass and shoot buttons, but progresses in complexity with fancy gesture-based maneuvers. You can unlock a variety of different cups, starting with International, and working your way to Asian, African, American, and European cups, plus there’s regional league play unlocked as you play and level up. Just remember that you’re limited by how many matches you can play by a stamina rating, which recovers over time. Loading screens have bits of trivia, and occasionally test your own football, err, soccer knowledge with a multiple choice quiz.

Playing Real Soccer 2012 earns you coins which can be used to purchase new soccer balls that provide a variety of different bonuses, like extra XP per match. ”Cash” is Real Soccer 2012′s premium currency, which can be traded in for international teams, additional stamina, team stat boosts, access a few select stadiums, and even the ability to clear all yellow cards.

• Download now

Best free casual games for iPhone

Tiny Tower

Tiny Tower is a really simple social management game with 8-bit-style graphics. Your job is to populate a tower with bitizens, assign them jobs relevent to their skills, keep their respective businesses stocked, and build more floors on top of your building. Over time, your bitizens earn you money which can be spent on purchasing new stock for various types of stores, or for putting the next storey onto your tower. You’ll need to ferry bitizens from the ground floor with the elevator if you’ll ever want to move new people in, plus once in awhile VIPs will provide you extra bonuses, like knocking off a few hours from your restocking time.

Tiny Tower occasionally gives you Towerbucks for handling the elevator, which can be used to hurry restocking, construction, or elevator upgrades. Towerbucks can also be bought through in-app purchases.

• Download now

Draw Something

Draw Something is a hugely popular Pictionary-style game. You pair up with a friend, and one gets a word which they have to draw out, while the other tries to guess what it is. The one doing the drawing gets to pick one of three words offered to them, each with a different difficulty rating. The higher the difficulty, the more stars both players earn when successfully guessed. The guessing player has a limited number of letters to play with, which actually makes a Draw Something a bit of a word game, too. The funnest part is that you get to watch the replay of the other side struggling to guess or draw. Recently the game’s been updated with the option to undo brushstrokes and the ability to share your painstakingly-drawn creations.

As is, Draw Something provides only a limited palette of colors, but you can buy more through in-app purchases. You can also buy bombs, which are used to offer a fresh selection of words if you’re drawing, or eliminate letters to chose from if you’re guessing.

• Download now

GodFinger All-Stars

GodFinger is a fun little world control game where you tend to a little planet full of villagers. By spinning around a cross-section view, you make sure they’re happy and productive, and check in on them time to time to collect the gold they generate. That gold goes to upgrading their homes which can house more people, who then, in turn, produce more money. Of course, you have to tend to their needs, like providing rain and sun for the farms, as well as altars to worship you from. To accomplish all of this, you do these gesture-based miracles, but they burn up Awe points, which regenerate over time, or can be bought through the app store.

Over time, you complete missions, gain experience points, and expand the surface area of your planet. You can have a lot of fun around your world by raising and lowering the ground, decorating the planet with appropriate and flinging your hapless devotees beyond the horizon.

• Download now

Best free physics games for iPhone

Cut the Rope Free

Cut the Rope is a popular game that involves dropping a piece of candy into a hungry green creature’s mouth by slicing rope with swipe gestures. While the candy’s dangling and swinging, you use nearby tools such as magic hats and air puffers to avoid obstacles, like candy-devouring spiders and destructive spikes. If you can get the candy to pass through any of the three stars on the level, you gain bonus points and bragging rights, but they’re strictly optional.

Though you only get 18 levels in the free version, the full version with 250 levels is only $0.99.

• Download Now

Fruit Ninja Lite

Fruit Ninja is a well-known slice-and-dice game where you swipe through various kinds of fruit as they sail through the air. You get bonus points for chopping through four or more fruit at once, but you have to make sure to avoid the bombs that get tossed in every now and then. Different kinds of bonus fruit can really help out, such as the freeze banana, which slows the movement of everything the screen, making for easy targets.

In the free version, you get Classic mode in which you only get to let three fruit hit the ground, but the paid version, available for $0.99, includes a Zen mode where you cut up as much fruit as you can within a limited time frame, among other game modes.

• Download now

Angry Birds Free

Angry Birds is the quintessential physics game for iPhone, wherein a group a birds suicidally fling themselves into rickety buildings so that the pigs inside that stole their eggs can suffer a terrible, terrible demise. Every level you get a selection of birds that you slingshot towards structures at varying angles and velocities. The birds available each level can have different properties – for example, the yellow one dive-bombs when you tap the screen while it’s in mid-flight, while the blue one splits into three. You’re scored based on how few birds you use to clear the level, as well as how much destruction you cause in the process.

The free version of Angry Birds gives you a total of 24 levels, but you’ll need to drop $0.99 in order to get tons more. Keep mind that there are a lot of different free versions of Angry Birds available, including a seasonal one, a space-themed game, and one based on the Disney movie Rio. Try ‘em all if you’re looking for variety.

• Download now

Best free action games for iPhone

Jetpack Joyride

Jetpack Joyride is a side-scrolling evasion game with simple one-button controls and a great sense of style. You play as a rebellious bureaucrat named Barry who’s tired of the work at his top-secret military lab, and decides to snag the company’s experimental jetpack for a jaunt through the facilities. Holding your finger on the screen puts the gas on the jetpack, letting you elevate over obstacles such as laser security systems and incoming missiles. Along the way, you’ll also be able to snag other experimental vehicles, including the Crazy Freaking Teleporter, and the Profit Bird which is powered by concentrated satire.

You earn coins based on how far you make it through, but can also pick up loose coins through the level. You even earn more through completing missions, like high-fiving the scrambling scientists on the ground floor. Those coins are spent on new jetpacks, outfits, and soon gadgets, all available through in-app purchases stored in The Stash. Of course, you can buy more coins through in-app purchases, too.

• Download now

Temple Run

Temple Run is a dead-simple platform game where you sprint through ancient ruins while being chased by displeased spirits. You turn corners, duck under obstacles, and leap over pits with swipe gestures while collecting coins along the way. There’s a bit of accelerometer control, so you can snag coins in the middle or to the left or right side of corridors by tilting the iPhone, but for the most part, you’re just relying on twitch reflexes. Gameplay can be extremely bite-sized, but still amply rewarding.

The coins you collect while temple-running (or in-app purchasing) can earn you power-ups like speed boosts, new unlockable characters, and even exclusive wallpapers.

• Download now

Cordy Sky

Cordy Sky is a jumping game where you’re an adorable little robot trying to get from the ground of an alien planet to a docked spaceship so you can continue on your intergalactic mission. Small bouncy platforms aid your ascension, but be careful, otherwise you drop down to the bottom and have to start all over. Luckily, you have a fellow robot called Volt that can grab you if you drop too far, but only if you’ve collected the appropriate token while climbing skyward. Your trip is split up into five sections, the end of each being marked by a fuel cell you need to get the spaceship running again. Controls are are either through virtual buttons, tilt, or swiping.

As you go, you collect gears, which can buy one-time boosts, permanent power-ups, or vanity costumes. Of course, you can always just buy gears through in-app purchases, but you can get by perfectly well on your own. Despite the kiddy graphics, the game is actually pretty challenging at points.

• Download now

Best free role-playing games for iPhone

Six-Guns

Six-Guns is an open-world multiplayer western. You embark on missions for beleaguered commonfolk, handling the likes of bandits and supernatural nasties to bring some iotum of peace to the wild west. Combat is straightforward revolver shooting with a virtual joystick and a few buttons. You’re rewarded for your deeds, of course, and can use the coin you earn to equip new weapons, fresh threads, and buy new horses to expedite your trips between towns.

In addition to being able to buy in-game currency through in-app purchases, you can also get Sheriff Stars, which access high-end gear and auto-complete missions, though you can also earn them through watching ads. You’re even able to buy experience points and health boosts, if you’re having trouble getting through a particular quest.

• Download now

Star Legends

Star Legends is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online sci-fi game where you partner up with fellow intergalactic travelers to take on a variety of space menaces. You build an avatar with a few basic options, like hair style and face type, then embark on quests to earn experience points, level up, gain new abilities, and earn equipment. The social element is very rich, with full support for guilds, and plenty of common spaces. Every mission you play is automatically instanced, so others people freely spawn in to help you out. Daily missions, implant crafting, and a ton of people to chat with insure you’ll always have a reason to come back for more.

Platinum is the premium in-game currency, and is shared across accounts if you happen to play Pocket Legends as well. You can spend it on vanity items, like fancy jetpacks and robot pets, but you can also spend the the coins you earn through regular gameplay to keep your equipment in good repair and up-to-date.

• Download now

Zenonia 4

Zenonia 4 is a classic role-playing game with an ongoing over-arching plot from previous titles, top-down 2D perspective, and sharp anime-style graphics. Although it’s missing the tried-and-true turn-based fighting you see in a lot of RPGs, the real-time combat keeps the pace fast and furious – especially in player versus player situations. There are plenty of quests to grind through, progressively earning you more experience points, cash, and gear, though dying reduces equipment durability and experience points, which pushes players into preventative in-app purchases.

Zen and gold can both be bought with real cash. Zen points are used to purchase expanded inventory space and special power-boosting gems (among other things), while gold buys more mundane gear. Some kinds of armor can only be acquired through player versus player battles, but it’s entirely possible to stick solely with the single-player campaign.

• Download now

Best free racing games for iPhone

Forever Drive

Forever Drive is a sharp, polygonal top-down racing game with a cool abstract art style. The controls are simple and fluid, with options for tilt, tap, or d-pad. You’re scored based on how many stars you pick up and how tightly you hug highlighted shoulders, but don’t get too wild; you have a limited amount of time to get through as many tracks as possible. That means you need to drive smart and avoid the civilian traffic that explode in a Tron-esque display if you so much as nudge them.

One of the core elements of Forever Drive is the track builder. It’s pretty simple – you draw a line from one end of a square to the other, pepper some scenery along the sides, and the highlighted turns, varied elevation, stars, and extra traffic are added in automatically. You then have the option to share these tracks online, which then randomly compose the arcade mode of other players. When you play, you get fed a series of user-built tracks which you can rate up or down after you’re done driving them.

There are also weekly leagues where you have a chance to win in-game currency, with which you can buy a few unlocks, but the vast majority of car bodies, variations, and paint jobs are earned by gaining experience points throughout gameplay. I was really happy with Forever Drive, and I’d go so far as to say it’s one of the better games I found when hunting for the best free iPhone games out there. Definitely check it out.

• Download now

Snuggle Truck

Snuggle Truck is a simple side-scrolling racing game where you’re trying to drive a bunch of stuffed animals to the zoo in a pick-up truck without having them bounce out of the back along the way. It sounds like it’s for kids, but the game was originally called Smuggle Truck, where the premise was to get Mexicans to America where a better life awaited them. Obviously Apple wasn’t a fan, so the developer changed it up, though the core gameplay remained the same. You tap left or right to put your foot on the gas or back up, and tilt your iPhone to make sure your truck lands evenly when sailing through the air. Like Forever Drive, there’s a treasure trove of user-generated courses, all ripe for the downloading and rating. You can build your own courses, complete with power-ups, obstacles, and waypoints where new fuzzy animals are tossed at you to catch in mid-transit.

Through in-app purchases, you can drive flashier pick-up trucks, but the vast majority of content is thankfully available for free.

• Download now

GT Racing: Motor Academy Free+

Motor Academy Free is a more down-to-earth, mostly-realistic racing game. You earn coins by completing tours, special invitation events, and completing contracts. Starting off, there are a bunch of levels where you earn various licenses, which help you learn how to drive different classes of cars. Coins let you buy a variety of recognized brand-name cars, like Bugatti, BMW, Bentley, Jaguar, Ford, Chevrolet, and Audi. They even kindly give you the option to rent the car for a round if you don’t have enough to buy it outright. Even this racing game has some RPG mechanics in it, including quests which you complete, and leveling up to unlock new cars and courses.

Coins are earned through regular gameplay, while in-game cash is mostly bought through in-app purchases, which you can trade in for new cars.

• Download now

Your favorite free iPhone games?

Of course, there’s an insane number of free iPhone games out there, and we’re always looking for more. Feel free to leave a comment with your favorites, as we’ll be updating this list regularly. We’ll be including some of our top free real-time strategy, rhythm, word, simulation, location, and drawing games down the line.

Rene Ritchie and Leanna Lofte contributed photos for this post

Rogers reported their financial results for the first quarter of 2012 this morning, and cited an increase of 35% in iPhone sales compared to Q1 2011, which is a marked step up from the 20% average growth among all of their smartphones. Of course, the raw number of sales aren’t even as exciting as Sprint’s financials; Rogers sold a grand total of 642,000 smartphones in the quarter and saw a 7% shrink in net wireless income compared to last year. Here are the highlights.

• First Quarter Revenue of $2,954 Million, Adjusted Operating Profit of $1,091 Million, Adjusted EPS $0.68, and Pre-Tax Free Cash Flow of $485 Million
• Postpaid Wireless Net Subscriber Additions of 47,000 Driven by Second Highest Quarter of Smartphone Activations Ever, Including a 35% Increase in iPhone Activations and a Stabilizing Trend in Postpaid Churn, Wireless Network Margins Remain Strong at 46%
• Cable Total Service Units Down 7,000 in Seasonally Slow and Highly Competitive Quarter, While Margins of 46% Reflect Ongoing Realization of Cost Efficiencies
• Media Revenue Growth of 4% Reflects Seasonally Slow Quarter Combined With Continued Softness in the Ad Market Offset by Strong Subscriber Growth, While Programming Investments and New Initiatives Incrementally Dilute Margins

Rogers said that the ongoing demand for the iPhone 4S is partly because inventory was shy during the Q4 2011 launch. Even though the smaller carriers, like WIND and Mobilicity, don’t have an AWS-capable iPhone to sell, Rogers reported a decrease in prepaid subscribers due to “heightened competitive intensity”. Rogers enjoyed a 16% increase in data revenue, and even with a decline in voice revenue, the average revenue per smartphone user was about twice that of anyone with voice only.

LTE expansion is continuing, and Rogers intends to blanket 60% of Canadians by the end of the year. Right now 12 million people are in Rogers LTE coverage, which is 35% of our population up here. Right now, that’s only an issue for the LTE iPad and can make things tricky when trying to pick which carrier to go with, but seeing as most new iPad usage is on Wi-Fi, it’s not a problem everyone will have.

Finally, if you happen to be a shareholder, Rogers announced that they’d be dishing out a dividend of 39.5 cents per share. Woo.

We have yet to hear from Bell or TELUS about their first quarter of the new year; anyone taking bets on how well the other big two are doing for Q1?

Source: Rogers, pic

For today only, the iMore iPhone Case Store has the Incipio EDGE PRO Hard Shell Slider Case for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 on sale for only $15.95! Get them before they’re gone!

Get the Incipio EDGE PRO Hard Shell Slider Case for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 now!

Focusing on accessibility and innovation, the Incipio EDGE PRO Hard Shell Slider Case features a convenient two-part sliding design. Simply remove the bottom cap to dock your iPhone 4S, AT&T iPhone 4, or Verizon iPhone 4 in most any docking station for quick and easy charging.

A rugged polycarbonate material provides excellent protection around the back, sides, and front rim of the iPhone 4S, AT&T iPhone 4, or Verizon iPhone 4. With full access to your screen, this case makes the perfect choice for protection and functionality.

The EDGE PRO features an upgrades camera hole ring that diffuses your camera’s flash for high-quality photos without case interference. A large cutout on the side of the case allows you to control the volume with ease.

Features:

• Rigid polycarbonate frame
• Upgraded camera ring diffuses flash
• Complete access to all ports and controls
• Slim, form-fitting design
• Lightweight, 0.8 oz.

Kevin, Phil, Derek, Simon, Jay, and Rene talk BlackBerry 10, HTC One, Nokia Lumia 900, the new iPad, something something webOS, and Google Drive. This is Mobile Nations!

• Our podcast feed: Audio | Video
• Download directly: Audio | Video
• Subscribe in iTunes: Audio | Video
• Subscribe in Zune

Agenda

• BlackBerry World 2012
• BlackBerry 10
• HTC One X
• Google Drive cloud storage service launches, 5GB free space for all
• Nokia Lumia 900
• The new iPad

Hosts

Phil Nickinson (@philnickinson) of Android Central

Kevin Michaluk (@crackberrykevin) of CrackBerry.com

Derek Kessler (@dkdsgn) of PreCentral.net

Simon Sage (@simonsage of WPCentral

Jay Bennett (@JayTBennett) of Girls Gone Gadgets

Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) of TiPb.com

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don’t just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
• Twitter: @mobilenations
• Web: www.mobilenations.com

Credits

Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj. Introduction by Joseph Holder.

Thanks to the Mobile Nations network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Apple’s annual World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) was announced earlier this morning, at 5:30am PDT, with a ticket price of $1600… and it sold out in less than 2 hours.

It took Apple 10 hours to sell out last year, so this is five times faster. Though it’s an apples-to-oranges comparison, it took only 28 minutes to sell out Google IO 2012.

For paid developers, a ticket gives entry to the keynote, the non-disclosure covered lectures, and most importantly, the labs where Apple engineers can help with problems and get and give feedback on issues.

However, there’s so much going on at WWDC that many, many people go without a ticket just to meet up with other developers and members of the Apple community.

WWDC 2012 takes place from June 11 to 15. Jump into our Developer and Designer Forum and let us know if you’ll be there, ticket or not!

Sprint announced their first quarter results today, seeing an operating loss of $255 million, and a net loss of $863 million, but enjoyed 1.5 million iPhone sales, 44% of which were new customers. Last quarter, Sprint sold 1.8 million iPhones with a similar proportion of new additions. Seeing as Sprint added a net of 1 million new subscribers total in Q1 2012, 44% is a pretty significant portion. By comparison, AT&T enjoyed 4.3 million iPhone sales, while Verizon sold 3.2 million. That brings U.S. iPhone sales for the first quarter of 2012 to roughly 9 million. Here are Sprint’s financial highlights.

• Best ever Sprint platform postpaid ARPU increase of $4.03, or 6.9 percent, year-over-year drives Sprint platform wireless service revenue growth of 16 percent year-over-year
• Operating loss of $255 million; Adjusted OIBDA* of $1.2 billion, which includes $104 million in Network Vision related operating expense
• 263,000 postpaid net additions on the Sprint platform in the quarter – eighth consecutive quarter of postpaid subscriber growth on the Sprint platform
• Total company net additions of more than 1 million for the sixth consecutive quarter
• Strong iPhone sales of more than 1.5 million – 44 percent to new customers
• Network Vision deployment continues on track
  • Continue to expect six major cities to launch 4G LTE by mid-year
  • Continue to expect 12,000 sites on air by end of 2012
  • To date work has begun on 25 percent of planned 2012 sites; 5 percent are on air
  • Nearly 1,300 iDEN sites taken off air to date; expect 9,600 total by the end of the third quarter

Sprint says that despite the customers the iPhone is bringing in, hardware subsidies are hitting them hard.

Sales expenses increased year-over-year primarily due to iPhone point-of- sale discounts (subsidy) for devices directly sold by the manufacturer to indirect dealers in which Sprint does not take device title, as well as higher postpaid gross additions. The impact from the iPhone was partially offset by improvements in sales channel mix with a larger portion of activations coming from direct retail channels.

Even though this quarter’s loss was steeper than the $439 million Sprint lost in the first quarter of last year, it’s not as bad as many analysts expected. Sprint launching their 4G network will be interesting, and set the stage for their support of an LTE-enabled iPhone 5 in the fall, assuming of course that they’ll be able to afford it.

Any Sprint iPhone customers in the house? Is the unlimited data keeping you happy, or are you thinking of switching?

Source: Sprint

Apple’s annual developer conference is once again set for June — we probably won’t see an iPhone 5 but could iOS 6 could make an appearance?

Apple has announced that it’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) will take place this year from June 11 – 15, 2012. As usual, WWDC will be held at Moscone West in San Francisco, CA. Tickets are $1599 and will likely go FAST. (They sold out in 10 hours last year.)

In order to attend, you have to be a paid member of the iOS Developer Program, iOS Developer Enterprise Program, or Mac Developer Program, and you have to be 13 years of age or older.

WWDC is highlighted by a keynote presentation that in years past included the introduction of the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 4. Last year’s WWDC 2011 keynote didn’t include any hardware announcements, but did include the unveiling of iOS 5 and iCloud, and the release of the iOS 5 beta. It was also Steve Jobs’ last Apple keynote appearance.

We don’t expect a new iPhone at this year’s WWDC either, but we’ll hopefully see a developer preview of iOS 6, and perhaps more on iCloud and associated services as well.

Jump into our Developer and Designer Forum and let us know if you’ll be there!

Source: WWDC 2012

Apple’S Q2 2012 results weren’t quite as strong as last quarter's (the holiday period), but year-over-year it was another set of records for Apple.

Apple Q2 2012 Highlights

• Revenue was $39.2 billion, profit was $11.6 billion and EPS was $12.30. Wall Street analysts had been expecting EPS of $10.06, so this is a substantial beat.
• Apple shipped 35.1 million iPhones, only slightly below the 37 million shipped last quarter (the holiday quarter). Impressive! This represents 88% year over year growth in unit shipments. However, over 2 million of the phones shipped were to help build up channel inventory.
• iPad shipments were 11.8 million units. This is down from 15.4 million last quarter, but is still 151% unit growth compared to last year's March quarter.
• Mac sales grew 7% year over year, while industry analyst data shows that the entire PC market only grew 2%. So while Apple's Mac business isn't the sexy growth engine of the company, this product division is still kicking some Redmond butt.
• As expected, the iPod business is shrinking. Apple sold 7.7 million units compared to 9 million last year. They still control over 70% of the US MP3 player market, but obviously the strength of the iPhone is displacing the need for stand alone MP3 players.

Overall, these strong numbers have set the stock back up to $600, after cratering to about $560 over the last 11 trading days. Is it enough to help the company reach a new high? Perhaps not this week. But I think Apple will get there.

Wall Street's only criticism is Q3 financial guidance. But that's typical with Apple. The company notoriously plays down its earnings potential for the next quarter. Then, almost like clockwork, they beat their own forecast.

Apple currently says it will earn only about $8.68 in EPS next quarter. Wall Street had been modeling $9.93. It's likely that analysts will pull in forecasts for Q3, but I don't see this as a cause for alarm. Apple is in fine shape. It's just that they had huge demand for the iPhone 4S last quarter and channel inventory (carrier shelves) were bare. Apple needed to stock them up. So they did. They shipped about 2.6 million extra iPhones to accommodate this inventory build.

Gross margin was also incredibly strong for Apple this quarter. In fact, they reported margin of 47.4%, a whopping 540 basis points above expectations. They say half of this strength was due to commodity pricing. When you're as big as Apple I guess you're bound to get better pricing on components. The rest of the margin beat comes down to unexplained one time items, and revenue mix. I find it amazing that Apple's revenue mix helped margins considering that the more expensive "new iPad" is now selling. It has a more expensive screen, batter, radio, processor and a bunch of other upgrades so it surely has a higher BOM (bill of materials) cost. And they STILL delivered such stellar margins? Wow.

Tim Cook recently unveiled Apple's big dividend plan. Will this put much of a dent in cash? It sure doesn't look that way. Apple's cash balance is now over $110 billion, up from $97.6 billion last quarter. They've certainly left themselves room to raise the $2.65 quarterly dividend.

During the Q&A session, Cook took a question on the highly visible topic of iPhone subsidies. He answered by saying that the subsidy is low in proportion to the net revenues carriers generate over the 24 month contract period. But he also said something else that I found surprising. Cook said,

"Our engineering teams work extremely hard to be efficient with data and differently than some others. And we believe as a result of this iPhone has far better date efficiently compared to other smartphone that are using sort of an app rich ecosystem. Finally, and this is most important, iPhone is the best smartphone on the planet to entice a customer who is currently using a traditional mobile phone to upgrade to a smartphone. This is by far the largest opportunity for Apple, for our carrier partners and its a great fantastic experience for customers. So its a win win win there"

So, Cook is saying that the iPhone is far more data efficient versus Android (not BlackBerry, notice the careful wording). But more important, customers who upgrade to their first smartphone still want the best phone … hence Cook's huge confidence in Apple's upside.

On China: "There's a lot of headroom here in our view"

In response to a question asking for more details on China, Cook said revenue was over $7.9 billion in the quarter. That's up more than 3x over last year. If China was only 10% of Apple's business, this wouldn't be so darn impressive. But $7.9 billion is one fifth (20%) of total revenue. That fifth is up over 3x? Holy cow. Cook described the results as "mind boggling". Pent up demand for iPhone 4S was a big part of the growth. But iPad 2 growth is strong and the new iPad isn't even shipping in mainland China yet. Mac sales in China were also up 60% versus 6% for the overall market. So the halo effect is alive and well in China.

iPad Growth Opportunity Still Huge

Apple emphasized a few times that the supply of new iPads is constrained right now. They are selling them as fast as they can make them. They haven't launched it in mainland China yet. The opportunity for iPad growth still seems insanely huge. The education (K-12) market is buying 2 times as many iPads as Macs. The lower pricing on iPad 2 has created a spur of demand in several countries. Cook points out that many industry analyts are forecasting the tablet market to be as big as the PC market by 2015.

Conclusion: The stock is a keeper

I'm hanging on for the ride on this one. I've been a very happy shareholder ever since the first iPhone came out. I like how Apple sticks to its view of the world and just executes with precision. There are a lot of mobile phone users who don't have smartphones. Apple will capture its fair share of them. There are a lot of laptop / desktop users who don't own tablets yet. Apple will capture a good chunk of those. And there are still tons of people who aren't using Macs. Apple continues to gain traction there.

The stock may be trading at $600 again, but they have over $116 per share in cash. They're piling on cash at an incredible rate. I don't feel like we need to rehash the price to earnings multiple here, but it isn't high. Given Apple's growth, it seems to me this is a must own tech stock. But that's just my opinion.

Snapseed is a photo editing app for iPhone and iPad that not only offers tons of features, but is extremely easy to use. Not familiar with RGB Curves, histograms, and other professional editing tools? Not a problem! What makes Snapseed so great, is that anyone can pick it up and produce amazing results even if they aren’t familiar with professional editing techniques.

Snapseed is a universal app for iPhone and iPad, but I will be sharing screenshots from the iPad version in this review. The iPhone version has the exact same features.

General layout

The layout of Snapseed is very straightforward and easy to navigate. In landscape orientation, you’ll see a two-column sidebar of editing tools on the left and your photo on the right. In portrait orientation, the photos is on the top and a scrollable toolbar with your tools is on the bottom.

The editing tools are displayed as simple thumbnails with their names clearly labeled and an image that’s related to the adjustment type. This is a refreshing approach as many photo editing apps use a bunch of icons who’s meanings you have to memorize.

There are 13 different adjustment tools. With all of them, swiping up and down lets you chose the enhancement that you’re editing and swiping left and right adjusts that chosen enhancement. This gives Snapseed a very clean UI that’s free of sliders and other distractions.

Another feature of each tool’s screen is the Compare button. Holding this down will show what your image looked like before applying the tool you’re using. To compare with the original image, hold down the Compare button on the main screen.

Auto Correct

The first and most basic available tool in Snapseed is called Auto Correct. It consists of two enhancements: contrast correction and color correction.

Selective Adjust

Selective Adjust is a fantastic tool that lets you focus your adjustments to a specific area, called a control point, of the photo. You can add as many control points as you wish. Pinching and zooming will adjust the size of the control point and while you do so, Snapseed will show a red mask over your image so you can see exactly where the adjustments will take place.

If you look closely, you’ll see that this mask is actually bigger than the circle. This is because the circle designates where the photo will receive the adjustments at full strength and where the fading will begin. Without a good fade, the images would look terrible with a focused editing region. Snapseed does a fantastic job of fading so that your image looks good.

The adjustments you can apply to each focus point are brightness, contrast, and saturation.

Tune Image

Snapseed’s Tune Image tool lets you adjust the brightness, ambiance, contrast, saturation, and white balance of your photo.

Straighten & Rotate

The Straighten & Rotate editing tool let’s you, well, straighten and rotate your image. You simply swipe up and down or left and right to straighten. The new cropped region will be kept straight and your image will tilt behind it. Unfortunately, you cannot fine tune the final crop by moving the image around. Sometimes there’s room to shift the crop left or right, but you can’t.

Crop

Snapseed comes with 7 different crop ratios — 14 if you count landscape and portrait orientation of each ratio separately like many apps do. You can also constrain the crop to the original ratio or use free transform.

Detail

The Detail tool is where you go to adjust sharpening and structure of your photo. What’s extra special about this tool, however, is that it comes with a loupe that lets you zoom in on a section of the photo so that you can get a good look at the pixels and how sharp they are.

Black & White

As expected, the Black & White section of Snapseed lets you convert your photo to a black and white image. It has six different presets: neutral, contrast, bright, dar, film, and darken sky, and five different color filters: neutral, red, orange, yellow, and green. You can also make adjustments to the brightness, contrast, and grain.

Vintage Films

The Vintage Films tool in Snapseed is basically 9 different vintage filters that you can apply to your photo as well as 5 different textures. The adjustments that can be made are brightness, saturation, texture strength, center size, and style strength. The center size adjustment is Snapseed’s way of referring to the strength of the vignette.

Drama

Drama is yet another set of filters: two each for drama, bright, and dark. The adjustments that can be made are saturation and filter strength.

Grunge

The last set of filters is Grunge — and grunge is the perfect description for them. Instead of a popup of filter options like the previous filter packs, the Grunge tool actually uses a slider to change the style. This lets you fine tune it to the exact color that you want. It also comes with 5 different grungy textures that make your photo looks like it’s been through quite a beating. The other adjustments you can make are to brightness, contrast, texture strength, and saturation.

Center Focus

The Center Focus tool is similar to Selective Adjust in that you have a center point with an adjustable radius around it. The difference is that the things are you are adjust about this point are blur strength and outer and inner brightness. Snapseed also includes 6 different presets if you don’t want to spend time find the perfect combination of adjustments: portrait 1, portait 2, vignette, blur, old lens, and foggy.

Organic Frames

In the Organic Frames section of Snapseed, you’ll find 8 different frame styles with the ability to adjust their width and offset.

Tilt-shift

The final tool in Snapseed is Tilt-Shift. People love adding fake blur to their photos and Snapseed definitely does not disappoint in this department. In fact, since this section includes a radial (circular) blur, there is a lot of similarities between this and blurring effects you can do with the Center Focus tool. The linear tilt-shift is different though. With both types, you can adjust the transition, blur strength, brightness, saturation, and contrast.

The Good

• 13 different editing tools, most of which include many different adjustment options
• Share to email, Flickr, Facebook Twitter, printer, or “Open In” another photography app
• Compare button lets you quickly and easily see how your edits compare with the original photo
• Universal for iPhone and iPad
• Supports the new iPad’s Retina display

The Bad

• Can’t move the cropping region when straightening
• Blurring with Center Focus and Tilt-Shift are very similar

The Conclusion

Snapseed is a fantastic photo editor that’s powerful, yet easy to use. Snapseed is best for users who want to play around with adjustments, but who don’t understand (nor care to understand) how to use more advanced and professional tools. Snapseed makes it easy for anyone to beautifully and artistically edit their photos on their iPhone or iPad.

$4.99 – Download Now

OneReceipt is an iPhone app that gives you a very organized way of keeping track of and saving receipts. It will automatically grab emailed receipts (from, say, Amazon or iTunes) from your Gmail account and add them to your OneReciept account or you can take a photo of a physical receipt.

When you sign up for a free OneReceipt account, you get to store your receipts in the cloud and access them from the web on the OneReceipt app. This service is technically still in beta, but it’s off to a great start. You will also be given an @onereceipt.com email address for you to forward receipts that were sent to a different email account than your Gmail. OneReceipt will then automatically add them to your collection of receipts. Unfortunately, Gmail is the only email service that can be synced with OnceReceipt.

The personal @onereceipt.com account is a great idea, but it still needs some work. I forwarded an iTunes receipt from my iCloud email to my personal OneReceipt account, but it’s showing up in the receipt list as being “unparsed”. This is strange, because the iTunes receipts that were already in my Gmail account when I performed the initial sync were parsed perfectly. So it seems that OneReceipt is just not correctly handling the quote syntax that is commonly associated with email forwards. I imagine this is something that OneReceipt can easily fix. Even though these receipts are unparsed, I can still view the forwarded email receipt with OneReceipt.

For in-person shopping, you can take a photo of your receipt and send it to OneReceipt and they’ll process it for you. I tested this out with a two different receipts, but they are currently still processing. The strange thing is that even though I did this only a few hours ago, the date on my iPhone that is being shown is “yesterday”, but on the web, it’s “today”. Just another little bug that needs to be worked out. (I’ll update once the receipts finish processing).

If taking a photo of a receipt isn’t an option, or you just don’t like that option, you can also manually enter a receipt. The disadvantage to this method is that you are not able to add each item on your receipt. If all you care about is the total, then a manual entry works just fine, but sometimes you also need to save the prices of each individual item on the receipt. Those are the times that photos are the superior option.

After a receipt has been added to OneReceipt, you can categorize and tag it so that it’s easily searchable. OneReceipt will also create spending summaries that you can view on the web that breaks down your monthly spending amounts by totals and category.

The Good

• Automatically retrieves receipts from your Gmail
• Receipts stored in the cloud and accessible from the web
• Personalized @onereceipt.com email address to forward receipts to
• Spending summaries
• Take photos of receipts and OneReceipt adds it automatically
• Manually add receipts

The Bad

• Only supports Gmail
• Not all forwarded receipts are recognized by OneReceipt
• Can’t force a sync to look at past emails again

The Conclusion

Even though OneReceipt has a few kinks to work out, I’m still impressed with it. The app and service is completely free, so it’s not like you’ve got anything to lose. Keeping track of receipts is something I’m terrible at, yet need to do for many of my jobs, but I expect to be much more organized with them now that I have OneReceipt.

Free – Download Now