Found an interesting article you want to share with iMore? Have a burning question about that feature you just can't figure out? There is ALWAYS more happening just a click away in the forums. You can always head over and join in the conversation, search for answers, or lend your expertise to other members of our community. You check out some of the threads below:

• Absinthe 2.0 is out!!!
• Restore from backup problem
• Siri on 4S - How to manually add relationship data to Contacts
• Anyone thinking of switching from Spotify to Sony's Music Unlimited?
• New iOS 6 & Old Lion?
• What features do you want to see in iOS 6?

If you're not already a member of the iMore Forums, register now!

The Google Search app for iPhone app was recently updated with a complete redesign that makes searching on Google a rather pleasant experience. It features a very stylish and snappy UI that's bound to impress anyone who uses it.

The home page of Google is very clean and Google-esque with barely off-white background and the Google search field directly in the center. Along the top of the screen you'll see what account you're logged into and find access to settings.

On the bottom of the screen you'll see icons for Apps, Voice, and Goggles. The apps section lets you access all the Google Apps on the web: Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Google+, News, Reeder, Photos, YouTube, Translate, Offers, Tasks, and Blogger. You can also find a list of other apps that Google has available in the App Store with direct links to download.

The Voice icon lets you perform a voice search. Just speak what you'd like to search for, and Google Search will type it into the search field for you! It's been extremely accurate in my experience.

Google Goggles is a neat feature that performs a search based on a photo you took. For example, if you want to look up a book, just take a photo of the cover with Goggles and Google will find it for you.

As you type into the search field, Google will automatically display popular search terms. If you see the one you want, just tap it instead of typing it completely out -- it's a huge time saver. When you perform the search, the results will be displayed in a similar fashion as on the web and Mobile Safari. Along the bottom of the screen you choose what kind of search you'd like to perform (web, images, places, news, etc…), but as you scroll down, the controls disappear. Google refers to this as auto full screen. As you scroll up, the controls will reappear. It's very cool.

When you tap on a result, the webpage will open in a tab on top of your results and a very thing blue line will progress underneath the tab while the page loads. Auto full screen works on web pages as well.

When the controls are displayed, you can navigate between pages, refresh the page, open in Safari, share via email, or perform a word search on the page. When doing a search, each appearance of the word will be placed in a yellow box. You can either scroll through the webpage to find each instance of the word, or tap the arrows next to your search to jump to the next/previous time it appears.

Search for images with Google Search is absolutely gorgeous. The photos are displayed as a collage. The collage is separated into distinct rows, but not all the rows are the same height. Each row will contain anywhere between 1 and 3 images in their original crop ratio. I think this is much more interesting than showing each photo cropped as a square.

The good

• Beatuiful design
• Extremely fast
• Voice search is very accurate
• Image searches are stunning
• Web access to all Google Apps
• Universal for iPhone and iPad

The bad

• Can't have more than one tab

The conclusion

I never used to use Google Search for iPhone, but now I find myself using it quite often. The experience is much better than Safari -- and it's super fast!

Free - Download Now

If you've been waiting for a iOS 5.1.1 jailbreak you're in luck. Greepois0n Absinthe 2.0 was just released with version 2.0.1 released soon after to address some bugs. You can now enjoy an untethered jailbreak on your iPhone 4S, new iPad, and several other iOS devices. If you've never used Greenpois0n before, that's okay. Hit the jump for a walkthrough!

Back up your data

Before running any jailbreak tool you should always back up your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch just in case something goes wrong. So make sure you have either a recent iCloud backup or iTunes backup before proceeding to the actual jailbreak process. If you aren't sure how to perform a backup, you can check out our guides:

• How to perform an iCloud backup on iOS 5 or higher
• How to perform a backup via iTunes

Update to iOS 5.1.1

You can either update your software via an OTA software update or via iTunes if you haven't already updated to iOS 5.1.1.

• How to update your iOS software over the air (requires iOS 5 or higher)
• How to update your iOS software via iTunes

Jailbreak your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

1. First download Greenpois0n Absinthe 2.0 2.0.1 to your computer from our downloads section. It is available for Mac, PC, and Linux.
2. Next, install the program and open Absinthe with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch plugged into your computer.

3. Click the Jailbreak button to begin the process.

4. This process may take a while to complete so you'll have to be a little patient. Mine took about 6 minutes total. Your device may say Restore in Progress, that's okay.
5. When you see the message Done, enjoy! on your computer you can go ahead and unplug your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
6. You're done! Cydia will be on your Home screen and you're good to go!

If you've never jailbroken before, this is a super easy tool to start with. If you have jailbroken before, you'll appreciate how easy this one is compared to previous tools. If you do happen to run into problems or need help, check out our jailbreak help and discussion forums via the link below.

Additional Resources

• Best jailbreak apps for new iPhone users
• IntelliscreenX vs LockInfo: which should you get?
• Messages+ vs BiteSMS:which should you use?
• iMore jailbreak help & discussion forums

Because We May is an initiative that launched recently to celebrate indie developers' ability to change their own pricing whenever they like. What better way to do that then to have a gigantic sale? From now until June 1, you can pick up around 140 top-notch iPhone and iPad games at a significant discount, and in some cases free.

Although changing a pricetag might seem like a weird thing to make a lot of noise about, the Amazon Appstore apparently doesn't let developers change pricing on a whim. Sure, that's only directly related to Android, since iPhone app developers only have the One True App Store to deal with (and maybe Cydia if they can't deal with the restrictions), but it does send a message to Amazon that these devs will take their business elsewhere if they don't have the flexibility they need to stay in operation. The issue also monkeys the whole agency model kerfuffle we've been hearing about e-books on iOS and competing with Amazon's monopoly.

But enough politics, let's get to the games. I've covered a ton of free games lately for both iPhone and iPad, but here are just a few of my favorite paid apps being featured through Because We May.

• World of Goo - $4.99 $1.99 (Universal, $0.99 on iPhone - also, the dev that organized Because We May)
• Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP - $4.99 $2.99 (Universal, $0.99 on iPhone)
• Trainyard - $2.99 $0.99 (Universal)
• EDGE Extended - $2.99 $0.99 (Universal)
• Canabalt - $2.99 $0.99
• League of Evil 2 - $1.99 $0.99

There are tons more, so be sure to check out the full list here, plus there are sales going on Steam and Mac if you're into that kind of thing. If you're looking for more freebies than the couple included in this promotion, I noticed that Cut the Rope: Experiments and Mini Motor both went free today, but that's independent of Because We May. I'm digging the Message Because We May is delivering almost as much as the Indie Bundles for Android, but really, I'm mostly just interested in getting some awesome games on the cheap. Any indie devs out there care to chime in on the importance of promotional pricing and their experience across platforms?

We're keeping this one really simple, iMore Nation -- Absinthe 2.0 was released this morning and it lets you untethered jailbreak most iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads running iOS 5.1.1... So are you going to do it?

If you're already jailbroken on iOS 5 (like I am) is there anything that makes it super compelling for you to upgrade to iOS 5.1.1 and re-jailbreak? Any new features you've been lusting after for a while? Any security updates you're really concerned about?

And if you've never jailbroken before, does Absinthe's ease of use tempt you to give it a try? Have you been frustrated by anything you couldn't do in stock iOS that's making you want to pull the trigger on jailbreak?

Vote in the poll above and give me your reasons in the comments below! If you need extra help, head on over to our fabulous jailbreak forums!

I'm still undecided. I'm leaning towards my current jailbreak not being broke, so why fix it? Let me know what you're doing while I decide what I'm going to do...

Apple has recently removed Airfoil Speakers Touch by Rogue Amoeba and AirFloat by The Famous Software Company from the iTunes App Store for using AirPlay APIs in a way Apple did not intend them to be used. These apps basically let you use another iOS device as an AirPlay speaker. So, for example, you could beam your audio from your iPhone to an iPod touch or iPad. Though these API's are public, it looks like some reverse engineering was needed to get them to work in this way, and that's what Apple has taken exception to. Airfoil was just taken down this week, while AirFloat was yanked last week.

Apple may just be sour that these devs have found a way to crack into AirPlay without going through the usual "Made for iPhone" accessory certification process, and allowed users to have AirPlay speaker setups without buying additional AirPlay certified audio gear.

There's obviously a big business in that kind of thing, but also a lot more quality control; there's no way of making sure these apps don't provide a sub-par experience, since there's no documented iOS API to test against. If the AirPlay is glitchy or inconsistent, then buyers might get the idea that AirPlay sucks, and will refrain from spending more on, say, an Apple TV.

There was a certain amount of noise made since these types of apps have been in the App Store for years in some cases, and have been approved over and over again during that time, including when they submitted versions with the AirPlay features.

Again, it shows that frustration doesn't only exist in Apple's curation, but in the sometimes arbitrary and sometimes delayed ways in which they enforce it.

Well, I guess the Cydia store exists for a reason... Is Apple right to shut these guys down and protect private APIs, or should they go ahead and let developers make cool apps that leverage the technology that's already there, stability and testing be damned?

Source: Rogue Amoeba, Daring Fireball, The Verge

Not too long ago, Apple announced that they would be dishing out $2.65 per share to regular Apple stockholders, but even those within Apple that own restricted stock units will be getting a little something. By way of a securities filing, Apple has announced that those with RSUs (which aren't normally eligible for dividends) will get dividend equivalents, though with all of the same vesting periods, taxes, and other restrictions as usual. Interestingly enough, Apple CEO Tim Cook has declined to participate in the dividend equivalents, which would have netted him around $75 million.

The idea here is that Apple wants to make sure that employees remain properly incentivized by stock options, and have just as much of a vested interest in Apple's success as any other shareholder. As for Tim Cook turning down $75 million (before taxes, mind you), the gut reaction is to slather on praise, but considering he just cashed in a whole bunch of stock, money probably isn't a top concern right now, and the good will towards his employees is invaluable.

Source: MacRumors

Absinthe 2.0 has launched and it provides support for a fully unthethered jailbreak under iOS 5.1.1 (and only iOS 5.1.1) for the following devices:

• iPad, iPad 2, new iPad (except the 2012 iPad 2, which will come later)
• iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S
• iPod touch 3, iPod touch 4

Developed by a collaborative "Dream Team" between Chronic-Dev Team and iPhone Dev Team, Absinthe 2.0 and promises to be so easy, your "grandma could do it." Here are the steps:

1. Make a backup of your device in iTunes by right clicking on your device name under the 'Devices' menu and click 'Back Up'.

2. Once your backup is complete return to your device and go to Settings – General – Reset – Erase all Content and Settings. This will make the jailbreak process much faster.

3. Open Absinthe and be sure you are still connected via USB cable to your computer.

4. Click 'Jailbreak' and wait…. just be patient and do not disconnect your device.

5. Once jailbroken return to iTunes and restore your backup from earlier. Right click on your device name under the 'Devices' menu in the left panel of iTunes and click 'Restore from Back Up…' then select the latest backup you created before. (restoring this backup will return all the content previously on your device ie, apps, photos, etc.)

You can grab the download via the source link below, and if you need any help, jump right into our Jailbreak Forum.

Source: greenpois0n.com

IOS JAILBREAK DREAM TEAM RELEASES ABSINTHE 2.0 – IOS 5.1.1 JAILBREAK AT #HITB2012AMS

AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS – 25th May 2012 – Today @pod2g and the @ChronicDevTeam announced the highly anticipated release of Absinthe 2.0 at #HITB2012AMS held at the Okura Hotel in Amsterdam.

Known as the "iOS Jailbreak Dream Team", @p0sixninja, @pod2g, @planetbeing, @pimskeks released the untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.1.1 on the final day of the week-long conference. Echoing Steve Jobs' trademark WWDC encore of '… and one more thing', the team announced the release of Absinthe 2.0 during the closing minutes of their 2 hours talk at the conference.

Absinthe 2.0 will affect the majority of Apple devices running iOS 5.1.1 including iPad 1,1 – 2,1 – 2,2 – 2,3 – 3,1 – 3,2 – 3,3, the iPhone 2,1 – 3,1 – 3,3 – 4,1 and iPod 3,1 – 4,1. The jailbreak does not support the third generation Apple TV and support for iPad 2,4 will be added at a later date.

The team announced that the new Absinthe 2.0 will be available immediately for download from the official ChronicDevTeam website: http://greenpois0n.com The release announcement came after recent rife speculation spreading through online social networks on the actual release date and scope of Absinthe 2.0. The jailbreak community's interest was first piqued when the team announced they were scheduled to appear at HITBSecConf2012 – Amsterdam to deliver not one but two talks covering both the Corona (A4) and Absinthe (A5) jailbreaks for Apple devices. On the 20th of May, a tweet from team member @pod2g stating the release of Absinthe 2.0 was 'in a matter of days' led to further speculation that the final release would be made at HITBSecConf which ran from 21 – 25 May.

"We want to take this opportunity to thank Hack in the Box for giving us the chance to all get together for the first time, especially in the beautiful city of Amsterdam, it has been a great delight for us to announce our next release at this event. Thank you to all our supporters and keep jailbreaking!! "

"This was certainly one of the most highly anticipated talks we've EVER had at one of our HITB conferences, and we've done quite a few of these. The excitement from the Dream Team followers and overall Twitter and online buzz has been terrific!", said Dhillon Andrew Kannabhiran, Founder and CEO of Hack In The Box.

"It was truly an honor to host the Dream Team in their first ever 'real world' meet up and we would like to thank them for taking the time and effort to make the trip over to not only join us at our third European outing, but to help kick-start our celebration of '10 years of HITB awesomeness' with the release of Absinthe 2.0!", he added.

HITBSecConf2012 – Malaysia (#HITB2012KUL) marks our 10th annual event in Asia and runs from October 8th till 11th at the Intercontinental Kuala Lumpur featuring 42 of HITB's best speakers of the decade in one massive event. Registration is already open: http://conference.hitb.org/hitbsecconf2012kul/

About iOS Jailbreak Dream Team: The group is made up of members from the Chronic-Dev Team and the iPhone Dev Team and consists of @MuscleNerd @pod2g @planetbeing @p0sixninja @pimskeks.

About iOS jailbreaking: iOS jailbreaking, or simply jailbreaking, is the process of removing the limitations imposed by Apple on devices running the iOS operating system through use of custom security exploits. Jailbreaking allows users to gain elevated access to the operating system. Consequently it also allows users to download additional applications, extensions and themes that are unavailable through the official Apple App Store.

Apple has made some minor changes to the layout of the App Store within iTunes; the same changes are reflected on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. With such a huge number of apps now available in the App Store finding what you are looking has gone from hit and miss to downright daunting. Apple has been rumored to be completely revamping its iTunes software but in the meantime, they're still tweaking what we have now.

When you visit the App Store you will now see two new features -- Editor's Choice and App of the Week. Editor's choice looks to have taken the place of the previous iPhone and iPad App of the Week. This week's editor's choices for the UK are The Thames, Air Mail, and Extreme Skater. In the U.S. different apps have been chosen and they are Facebook Camera (fairly fast, given it was only released yesterday...), Sketchbook and again Chillingo's Air Mail.

The App of the Week for this week is Cut the Rope: Experiments. Apple's App Store twitter account tweeted the information and included a new hashtag "#FreeAppoftheWeek". We don't know if the App of the Week will always be a free app, if it will be a paid app on temporary sale for free, or if -- as we assume -- it won't always be free and that it will still be any app, paid or free.

These new changes may make things slightly easier to find apps that maybe of  interest to you but the App Store still has a long way to go before it becomes a great experience. Hopefully the rumors of an iTunes redesign will turn out to be true and Apple will use the acquisition of Chomp to offer a better version of the App Store; until then, we will take any improvements we can get.

Source: Touch Arcade

The Memorial Day weekend is here and the iMore Store wants to celebrate with you, and offer a very special 15% off all iPhone and iPad accessories!

Simply enter the Coupon Code mem12 at checkout, under billing info, to have the 15% discount applied to your entire cart of accessories!

• If you're going to be hiking, visiting the lake, or going to the beech, you can save on a weather resistant or waterproof case to keep your iPhone or iPad safe from the rain, and even in the pool!

• If you want to sit outside in the sun and sketch or paint, at home or on vacation, you can save on a stylus pen to make your iPhone or iPad art more natural and detailed than ever.

• If you want to take even more amazing photographs with your iPhone, be it in your backyard or halfway around the world, you can save on fisheye, wide-angle, and macro photography accessories.

• If you're going on a trip by plane, train, or automobile, you can save on all car kits, Bluetooth, chargers, and battery cases to make sure you get there safely and with power to spare.

This offer is not valid with any other coupon and expires at Midnight PST Monday 5/28/2012.

The iMore Store offers Fast Free Shipping on U.S. orders of $50.00 and higher. Don't forget to share this great coupon code with your friends and family! Enjoy this special sale while it last! Have a Happy Holiday!

Apple may or may not have decided to go to a 4-inch screen in the iPhone 5 (or whatever they end up calling it), and they may or may not have decided to do it by going to a 1136 x 640 pixel, 16:9 aspect ratio, but let's just assume for the sake of this poll that they have and they will -- how do you want them to get there?

Do you want Apple to simply add the extra 117 pixels to the display and let developers and apps have their way with it -- wider, bigger, fatter, longer?

Or would you want Apple to keep those extra 117 pixels for iOS 6 and introduce some fancy new widget/notification/gesture space?

Rather than repeat it all here, you can go and read Rene's monumental 4-inch iPhone breakdown, and his phenomenal 16:9 aspect ratio iPhone follow up to see what all the options look like.

Then come back here and vote up top, and tell me why you voted the way you did in the comments!

If you watched the new iPhone 4S commercials that Apple released last night, the ones that feature John Malkovich asking Siri for jokes and about the meaning of life, you might have noticed the way in which he was asking. In short, it was short. David Chartier certainly noticed:

Joke features him speaking a series of one-word commands to Siri that practically feel like verbal equivalents of tapping on a particular app to get a particular piece of information. "Weather." "Evening." "Linguica." "Joke." Apple seems to want to remind us that, underneath the clever responses and artificial personality, Siri is a tool meant to help us get more done with less.

Talking to Siri like it's a Pixar character certainly makes it more endearing, and makes the virtual relationship seem more real. The commercial shows, however, that if you don't have time or simply aren't in the mood for pleasantries, you can get to the point with machine-like brevity.

Unfortunately, for all of Siri's context awareness, it doesn't seem to notice when your communications are rushed and respond in kind. As the commercial also shows, even one short word like "life" can return a paragraph-long reply.

For more tips, check out our latest Siri how-to series, or jump on over to our Siri forum and tell us how you prefer talking to Apple's adorable little digital assistant!

Source: David Chartier

Apple's Apple's Senior Vice President of Design, Jonathan Ive deservedly became Sir Jonathan Ive on Wednesday when he received a knighthood for services to design and enterprise. The Princess Royal was on hand to perform the ceremony which hit news channels around the world. After the knighthood ceremony Sir Jonathan Ive attended another high profile function, the Royal Academy of the Arts alongside the Queen. Ive gave a short interview before going inside, telling of his delight at receiving the honor.

"I have always felt that I am extremely fortunate to have found what I love to do, and that's essentially to be able to draw and make stuff."  "So to actually be able to spend all of my time doing that, just that alone is fantastic but to then get some recognition for that is a wonderful affirmation of the craft and profession of design."

Ive later spoke at the Royal Academy of the Arts with the Queen standing close by, he spoke about his British education and paid tribute to his British roots. Ive learned a lot of his design philosophy from studying at Newcastle Polytechnic, now Northumbria University. He often returns there to give guest lectures. You can watch the knighthood and interviews in the video below, it starts around 23 seconds in.

Source: YouTube

It's time to announce this week's photo contest -- and the winner of last week's water photography contest. Before I do, I want to congratulate everyone on their awesome entries. We've got some talented iPhoneographer readers here at iMore and it wasn't an easy decision!

And the winning entry is...

...this abstract photo by rajkumr! What made this photo stand out to me is that it's very unique. There were a lot (gorgeous) entries of bodies of water and water droplets on plant life and windows, but this photo was different. In a good way. The colors are gorgeous and I'm constantly trying to stare behind the glass and determine what's behind it. I'm very intrigued. Great work rajkumr!

rajkumr edited this photo with Camera+.

• $0.99 - Download Now

This week's contest: Portraits!

With the end of one photo contest, comes the beginning of new one, and this week's focus in on portraits! This can be a portrait of your significant other, friend, or family member, a self portrait, a group portrait, or even a pet portrait! Heck, we'll even even accept a portrait of your favorite action figure! Be creative. Be original.

The prize: Glif tripod and Snapheal for Mac

We've got a treat for you this week and are giving away two prizes to the winning entry. The first is a Glif tripod case and stand and the second is courtesy of MacPhun -- Snapheal for Mac! Snapheal is a photo editing app for Mac that lets you erase unwanted objects in few clicks, remove spots on skin, delete text, scratches and perform pro image edits in a matter of minutes.

• $14.00 - Download Now

The rules

The rules of entry are very simple. The photo must have been taken with an iPhone or iPad (we'll check the EXIF data of the original file to verify) and any edits must have been done with an iPhone or iPad app. No Photoshop CS6! If you have external lens accessories you are more than welcome to use them. You can submit as many photos as you'd like, but remember, this is a contest, so make sure you submit your best work!

Resources

Now, before you run off to take your photos, remember that it's not technical skill alone that will claim this prize. Even if you're not the best photographer (yet!), a great eye and a great subject can still get you the win. However, a little help can never hurt, so make sure you check out these articles from our iPhone photography series for some tips.

• How to take great looking portraits with your iPhone camera
• How to take fantastic photos of your kids with your iPhone
• How to take dreamy iPhone photos of your newborn baby
• How to make your iPhone photographs more powerful with negative space
• How to make your iPhone photography more striking with the "rule of thirds"

How to submit

Submitting your photos is easy. Just head over to the iMore Photography Forum and post your photos to the official contest thread. Don't forget to state which apps, if any, you used to edit your photo!

That's it! Now go out and shoot!

ENTER NOW

iMore is here to help you play God, build cities, and run commercial empires with these top free simulation games for iPhone.

Last week we featured the best free iPad games, but there were a few new categories there that weren't in my original best free iPhone games post. One of those categories is simulation, where your micro-management skills pay the virtual bills. Some of these will look familiar, but others may be new to you. Keep in mind that all of the current picks here are free-to-play, but subsist on in-app payments for various non-essential perks, so if you're not a fan of being nickeled-and-dimed, this list might not be for you. Buckle up hit the jump to see our favourite free simulation games for the 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

The Sandbox

The Sandbox is clever mix-and-match game with an 8-bit art style. You take the role of an almighty creator trying to combine various elements in the right order at the right spot in order to complete a puzzle. Those goals can be as simple as evaporating water and as elaborate as discovering electricity. In that sense, there's a definite Doodle God vibe, except this is a lot more fluid. Beyond painting element-infused pixels, you also have control over a wide variety of environment elements, including temperature and weather. The real magic of The Sandbox is that elements all behave as you expect them to - trees catch fire if you turn up the world temperature, dirt falls when you paint it in the sky, and electricity surges through metal and shoots off the ends of wires with sparks. Given, all of that action is in chunky pixels, it's still all very believable. Outside of the puzzles, you can also go freestyle to make your own creations and share them online in the burgeoning pixel art gallery.

Though The Sandbox is free, new elements are unlocked with mana points, which are awarded as you play through missions or bought through in-app purchases. Mana points can also be used to purchase hints for particularly tricky puzzles - luckily the hints aren't too expensive. There's Game Center support here to track achievements, but it's not Universal, so unfortunately no enjoying this one on the big screen.

• Download now

My Country

My Country is a city simulation game where you build businesses, attract residents, and connect with neighboring communities. It's about as close to a full-featured, free version of the premium SimCity game as you'll find. Sure, there are some of the FarmVille trappings of having to tap on buildings to collect revenue, but there's a ton of depth to the resource structure; for example, to run a business, you have to gather up equipment either through other business or upgrading residential units to hire the required professionals. You need to juggle ecology ratings and electrical demands as your city expands from one era to the next. As you complete missions, you gain experience points, level up, and unlock new buildings to propel your metropolis to further heights.

The in-game cash you earn from running businesses within your city (or country, once it gets big enough) is generally what you use to expand and unlock new buildings, but you can also use the premium CountryBucks currency to complete most of the same tasks.

• Download now

Order Up!! To Go

Order Up!! To Go is a cooking and restaurant simulator that tests your time management skills. The gameplay is twofold - for one, you're working on building up the reputation and menu for your restaurant, always with an eye to the next establishment, so there's a fair bit of budgeting involved. The cooking itself is very similar to the Cooking Mama series in you cut tomatoes with downward swipes and flip burgers with curved swipes (though I wouldn't mind some accelerometer control for that). What really keeps the game fun is the variety of other mini-games and the great humor both in the writing an art style. Smaller nuances, like recognizing customers as they come in and using the appropriate spices adds even more depth to the frantic gameplay.

You earn silver coins through regular gameplay, which can be used to buy your ingredients, access new restaurants, and hire extra help, but you can speed up the process with premium gold coins acquired through in-app purchases.

• Download now

 

The Sims FreePlay

The Sims FreePlay is a classic life simulation game where you tend to a collection of virtual people, each with a variety of needs and colorful spectrum of personality quirks. You do everything from steering their conversations with other Sims, decorating their home, getting them to work, and making sure they bathe regularly. A recent update even added the ability to play as and care for child Sims. As you guide your Sim to accomplish daily tasks, you gain experience points, level up, and unlock new items. Unlike the old Sims games that had a handy fast-forward button, activities in The Sims FreePlay all happen in real-time, so when you put your little people to sleep, they're gone for 8 real hours.

As you play, you earn Lifestyle Points, which can be used to immediately satisfy your Sim's needs and quickly complete tasks. Those can be bought through in-app purchases, alongside the game's currency, Simoleans, which your Sims earn through various kinds of work.

The UI is better-suited for the iPad; on the iPhone, I find gameplay a little cramped, but everything is still there, and in the world of simulation games, there's really no contest. Saved games can be manually synced to the cloud between iPhone and iPad, but that can prove to be a hassle if you switch back and forth a bunch.

• Download now

Your favorite sim games for iPhone?

There's a wide world of free iOS sim games out there, and new ones are coming out all the time. What have you been playing lately ? Anything you'd like to see on this list? As with the other features, you can expect this list to be updated over time.

Facebook is the most popular photo sharing service on the web so it comes as no surprise that they released an app dedicated to the photo aspect of Facebook -- it's called Facebook Camera. With Facebook Camera, you can easily share multiple photos to Facebook, add filters to them, tag your friends, and view a newsfeed restricted just to photos posted by you and your friends. And, of course, you can also leave comments and likes on photos.

The main screen of Facebook Camera is the news feed, except that this news feed only contains photos, not status updates and links like in Facebook for iPhone. You can sort the stream to show photos posted by your friends or just your own photos.

The appearance of the photos in the stream is similar to the new look that was recently implemented into Facebook for iPhone. The photos are full-width and wider than the white background. Each photo is also cropped as a square.

At the bottom of each photo you'll see a thumbs up button to "like" it, a comments button to leave comments, and the number of likes and comments is also displayed. When you tap on the numbers, a popup will appear that shows who liked the photo as well as all the comments. You can also leave a comment of your own. This button actually does the exact same thing as the speech bubble button.

Tapping on the photo will display it on a black background with the caption at the bottom as well as buttons to "like", comment, and tag.

At the top of the feed, you'll see a strip of photos from your Camera Roll and a button to launch the camera. Sliding down on the news feed will slide it off the screen so you can scroll through all the photos in your Camera Roll.

Tapping a photo will display it bigger and allow you to crop, tag, or add filters to it. These filters are remarkably similar to Instagram's filters, but this is to be expected since Facebook recently purchased Instagram. Once you've edited the photo to your liking, you can select it with the checkmark button or share it. If you select it, you'll be taken back to the grid of your Camera Roll photos so that you can repeat the process with more photos.

Once you're ready to share the photos, just tap the share button. This screen looks similar to the photo sharing screen on Facebook for iPhone. It will display small thumbnails of all your selected photos, let you say something about them, add a location, add friends, and adjust privacy settings.

The good

• Beautifully designed
• News feed displays either your friends photos or just your own
• Upload multiple photos at once
• Edit photos by cropping and adding filters
• Tag friends
• Adjust privacy settings before posting
• Leave comments and likes on photos

The bad

• Speech bubble and comment/like count buttons perform the exact same thing

The conclusion

I must say that I'm rather surprised with how much I like this app. I do nothing but complain about Facebook for iPhone, but Facebook appears to have done an outstanding job with Facebook Camera. It's not an Instagram replacement, but it's as great addition to Facebook. Now I'm just curious to see how long before these filters become available on the web version of Facebook.

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