iLounge

By Charles Starrett

Senior Editor, iLounge
Published: Wednesday, December 17, 2008
News Category: Mix

Laminar Research, developers of Best iPhone/iPod touch App of the Year, X-Plane 9, has released X-Plane Helicopter and X-Plane Airliner for the iPhone and iPod touch. X-Plane Helicopter and Airliner use the same FAA-Certified flight-model used in X-Plane for the desktop and the prior X-Plane 9 for the iPhone, providing users with realistic helicopter and commercial airliner flight simulation. Helicopter offers a number of different helicopters to fly, including the Robinson R-22, the Bell-206, the BlackHawk, and the Sea King, and uses the Grand Canyon as the in-flight area, providing varied, visually-interesting terrain in which to fly. Airliner, on the other hand, lets users pilot large, long-range airliners including the Boeing 777, 747, and 787, as well as the Airbus A-380, and lets users fly over Southern California, from San Diego to Edwards Air Force Base. X-Plane Helicopter and X-Plane Airliner are available now from the App Store and sell for $5 each.

Papadakis Technologies has announced that it is now shipping its Soaripod device stand with a holster compatible with the iPhone 3G. The Soaripod is a flexible stand that holds devices using a belt clip holster included with the stand, and attaches to various surfaces using a metal P-clamp. Papadakis Technology’s Soaripod is available now for $30; for more information, see our review.

Kodak has released its Kodak Gallery application for the iPhone and iPod touch. The app allows Gallery members to access and browse their albums directly from device, upload pictures from the iPhone’s camera to the service, share albums via email, and lets users view their albums as full screen slideshows. Kodak’s Gallery application is available as a free download from the App Store.

Electronic Arts has released its SimCity game for the iPhone and iPod touch. Based on SimCity 3000 and offering a full PC experience, the game lets users build a city from scratch, including public and private transportation, six zone types, and public works management, lets them destroy their city with five different disasters, and features three difficulty settings and city sizes. In addition, the game offers intuitive touch-based controls, letting users flick to move about in the city, and zoom in and out to see more detail of a given area. SimCity is available now from the App Store and sells for $10.