iLounge

By Charles Starrett

Senior Editor, iLounge
Published: Thursday, September 24, 2009
News Category: Apps + Games

Starbucks Coffee Company has released two new applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. MyStarbucks offers users an interactive drink builder, with the ability to share your drink via email or SMS, a store locator, food and coffee menus, and a favorites feature for quick recall of past orders. A separate application, Starbucks Card Mobile, allows users to check their Starbucks Card balance, reload the card, view transactions, and, in 16 select test stores—located in Cupertino, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, and San Jose, CA, and Seattle, WA—users can actually pay with their Starbucks Card using only their iPhone or iPod touch. Both applications are available as free downloads from the App Store.

Ubermind has launched Best Camera, its latest application for the iPhone and iPod touch. Created by well-known photographer Chase Jarvis, Best Camera is a new camera application conceived by Jarvis while he was shooting The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You, a new book of nothing but iPhone photography. Best Camera allows users to take pictures from within the app or pull pictures in from the library, and then apply a variety of filters and effects using a “stackable” design, so that multiple filters can be applied at once, and can be reordered to achieve various results; pictures can also be saved to the camera roll, emailed, or sent to Twitter, Facebook, or Jarvis’ sharing site thebestcamera.com directly from within the app. Best Camera is available now and sells for $3.

Q Entertainment has unveiled Lumines - Touch Fusion, its new game for the iPhone and iPod touch. Originally released for the PSP in 2004 and later adapted for other consoles, Lumines is a block-dropping game in which players must align rotate 2x2 multi-colored blocks and drop them onto the playing field in order to create solid 2x2 squares, which are then cleared away by a timeline that moves in sync with the background music. The game features single lap, endless, and time attack play modes, tap, slide, and flick controls, and a variety of built-in skins; the company plans on releasing new “specially-themed Skin Packs” soon. Lumines - Touch Fusion is priced at $3; a free Lite version is also available.

Square Enix has introduced Sliding Heroes, its latest game for the iPhone and iPod touch. Sliding Heroes is a real-time strategy game in which players must “slide” their units across the game map by tilting their devices. Features include two completely separate game modes—original and endless—with over 130 stages, a variety of unit types, and more. Sliding Heroes is available now and sells for $5; a free Lite version is also available.