There are only very few Role Playing Games (RPGs) available for the iPhone/iPod Touch. So today Chronicles of Inotia: Legend of Feanor was released. It features according to the developer:

• Old-school action RPG
• PC, console-quality graphics and animation
• Optimized touch control for iPhone
• Gigantic map, items, all kinds of fantasy monsters
• Dynamic weather, various quests, dealing, pet system

Well, I have played it a bit today and it seems a quite solid RPG which plays quite well on the iPhone/iPod Touch.

Some advice for the beginning: Build up your character with some skills before you run through the levels! Battle some of the easy opponents first, this might take some time but battles against tougher opponents will be much easier later-on.

On the graphics side you shouldn't expect "console-quality graphics" at least not current consoles like Xbox360 or PS3. The details of the graphics is fine buy the scrolling is very jumpy. This bothered me in the beginning quite a bit but after playing for a while I got used to it. I think some "old-school RPG" where also like that (e.g. Ultima VII I think).

Sound and Music are quite nice, but you can't listen to your own music unfortunately.

So afterall this RPG looks quite promising and it's worth the money if you like RPGs.

First my ratings (based on Game Version 1.0):
Game Type: Shooter
Graphics: 5/5
Sound: 4/5
Can listen to your own music: Yes
Gameplay: 4/5
Learning curve: Medium
Price: USD 1.99

Check our database for latest price/version changes.

This is another game from Ngmoco, who already released the excellent Topple and a few other games. I liked Topple and the screenshots for this looked quited interesting so I gave this also a try. I didn't regret it. In some ways it reminded me to Geometry Wars for the Xbox 360:

• One thumb controls the direction of the ship, the other one the direction of your weapon
• Achievements ;-)
• Color scheme

But don't get me wrong this is a completely different game apart from these similarities. Your primary objective is to descend onto a planet to retrieve a package. After you have retrieved your package you need to return to the top with-in a time limit. Your secondary objective is to rescue some team members. When you rescue a team member your weapon is also upgraded for a limited time. Of course there are the usual enemies who try to make it difficult for you...

You control the game with two fingers: the left side of the screen is for the ship movement the right side for your weapon. Overall the controls work very well, but you should avoid strong movements. When you move your finger smooth and gently controls are fine.

The game has a campaign mode where the difficulty gradually increases and a free play mode where you can aim for a new highscore.

Graphics are plain, simple, colorful but most importantly they are fast and smooth which is most important for an action game like this.

After a long while I found again a game that tied me to my iPod Touch for more than a few minutes.Actually it had this "OK let's do one more round" effect, where this "one round" lasts for a few hours and eventually leads to sleep deficiency...

Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition by Electronic Arts. (iTunes Link)

First my ratings (based on Game Version 1.2):
Game Type: Board Game
Graphics: 5/5
Sound: 4/5
Can listen to your own music: Yes
Gameplay: 5/5
Learning curve: Well, it's Monopoly. I think almost everybody know this and has played the board game ;-)
Price: USD 7.99

Check our database for latest price/version changes.

If you like the Monopoly Board game, you'll probably also like this game for the iPhone/iPod Touch. In the past played some versions of Monopoly for PCs, Macs and game consoles. This one for the iPhone is certainly the best.

Monopoly Here  & Now: The World Edition is actually based on the new World Edition of Monopoly as the name already implies. So instead of roads, you now buy cities. I haven't played the board game of the Word Edition yet, but it seems to me, that the cities, chance and community chest cards are taken exactly from the board game.

You can play with up to 4 persons passing around your iPhone/iPod Touch. The computer can also take part and play up to 3 person if you like. If a person needs to leave the computer can take over that part, too.

Furthermore this also has a WiFi mode. So if you gather with some friends who have an iPhone/iPod Touch you can play via WiFi also with up to 4 persons.

Interesting features:

• The game automatically saves the game, so you can resume it when you have time again.
• You can adjust some of the Monopoly rules.
• Some Quick Starts, i.e. some or all properties are already owned by the players.

Apple recently released the New V2.3 firmware for the AppleTV, which has some nice features but I actually don't really need them.

But unless you disable  tne Auto-update for your AppleTV you will get this sooner or later... One of your family members will definitely confirm the update...

So if you want to downgrade back to an earlier firmware you can either

• do a factory restore, which will wipe your AppleTV clean and return the firmware to the same version as came delivered with.
• Use OSUpdate, this tool can help your to downgrade to any firmware you like without erasing your AppleTV harddisk.
  A description about OSUpdate can be found here.

Downgrade AppleTV to V2.2 (or V2.1) with OSUpdate

OSUpdate makes the downgrade much easier and you don't need to copy your media files again.

1. To use OSUpdate you must be able to access your AppleTV with SSH and you must be able to copy files to your AppleTV. You can find out here, how to achieve this.
2. On the OSUpdate website you can find 2 scripts which automate the downgrade process, but unfortunately they have some small bugs (i.e. wrong path definitions), you can get the revised script here:
   Downgrade to AppleTV 2.1
   Downgrade to Apple TV 2.2
3. When you got this files use Cyberduck (Mac) or WinSCP (WIndows) to copy this file to your AppleTV. Which folder is not really important but I used the usual users folder /Users/frontrow
4. Open Terminal on your Mac (or start Putty, if you use Windows) and type
   ssh frontrow@appletv.local
   If this does not work you can also try
   ssh This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (you need to replace this IP number with the IP number of your AppleTV)
   The password is frontrow.
   
5. Execute:
   chmod 755 <script name>
6. Execute:
   sudo chown root:wheel <script name>
   Password is frontrow again.
7. To start the downgrade execute the script as below. Your AppleTV will now download the firmware files and all necessary tools. Afterwards it will start the firmware downgrade.
   sudo sh <script name>
8. Wait until the whole process is finished. Eventually your AppleTV should reboot with the firmware you selected.
9. Now you can install XBMC, Boxee etc. again as described here.

If you are a bit like me you probably have downloaded a few hundred Apps from the iTunes App Store. Many of them were free or "free for a limited time", I checked them out once or twice removed them from my iPod Touch and forgot about them.

Nevertheless sometime later might come an occasion where I need a certain App that I deleted from the iPod Touch, but I can't remember the name anymore...

With iTunes there are not many options you can only get a overview with the App Icon and App Name, but to get the actual description you need to remember the App Name and search the iTunes App Store for this.

Now there is an easier way: AppBrowse !

The current version works like this:

• Check the Mobile Applications folder on your Mac
  
• Displays the Apps.
  
• If you click on one of the App Names the description will be downloaded from this web-site and shown in the same window.

Future versions will also work offline, i.e. you download the Descriptions to your computer and can browse and search through your Apps.

Here is the download link for Version 0.1

Instructions:

• After the Program has started, click on Load.
• Wait a few seconds and your should see your list of Apps on the left hand side.
• Click on an App to see the details
• Click on the Column header to sort the list.

I appreciate some feedback either below in the comments or by email.