I’m not dropping the phone because it’s not a great phone or because of AT&T’s coverage, nor am I dropping it because of their piss-poor service. I’m ditching because of their new data plan pricing, just announced this morning.

One of the biggest reasons I find that people don’t switch to the iPhone is that it’s too expensive — not the phone itself, but the minimum iPhone plan runs about $100 a month. After you pay for the required 3G data plan, the minutes and the texting, you are left paying quite a hefty price. My counter argument is normally that it’s worth it, that having that unlimited data connection and non-stop access to the Internet is a life-changer, that it will change your daily routine and the way you communicate with the world.

A year ago, Apple announced it was bringing the much requested tethering feature to the iPhone. For those who don’t know, tethering is a feature that allows you to use your phone as an Internet connection, making it possible to use a laptop or other wireless device in a location where there is no WiFi but  your phone gets 3G service. The catch to this announcement? The iPhone would have the tethering option in almost every market internationally, but AT&T would not yet be supporting tethering in the United States. AT&T said it needed to get its already over-taxed network prepared to be able to handle tethering, and promised that tethering would be available to iPhone customers by the end of 2009.

Well, here we are — it’s June of 2010 and guess what? My iPhone still can’t tether. That puts AT&T six months past their own deadline to provide tethering to its customers. This morning they announced that tethering would finally be available with the release of iPhone OS 4.0 in the coming month. Better late then never — or is it?

With tethering, AT&T also announced new data plan pricing schemes for its customers. Currently on both the iPhone and the iPad, customers pay $30 a month for unlimited data. Under the new pricing scheme, however, customers will have the option to pay $15 a month for 200 megabytes of data (and $15 a month for every 200 megabytes after that) or $25 a month for two gigabytes of data (and $10 for every gigabyte after two).

For those who want tethering, they must have the $25 plan and pay an additional $20 per month. AT&T touts this as a great way to give customers more flexibility and reduce their charges as only (according to AT&T) 2 percent of iPhone users use more then two gigabytes of data a month.

This is a smokescreen. 200 megabytes of data will be beneficial to only a handful of people. I am hard pressed to see how it would suffice for even the lightest of iPhone users. Many customers will switch to the cheaper 200 megabyte plan not realizing how much data they actually use and will find themselves needing more — and paying AT&T $15 more, which comes out to $30, saving them no money with a lot more hassle. The $25 plan will be admittedly beneficial to most people — they can save $5 per month as two gigabytes will be enough for them.

However, of the supposed 2 percent of people that use more then two gigabytes a month. I am one. I love my iPhone. I use it for email, GPS, a plethora of apps, and streaming video and audio. I stream most of my podcasts as it saves me the hassle of having to sync my phone and wait for podcasts to download. Considering I listen an average of three podcasts a day, this comes out to a lot of audio being streamed over my phone.

I also love some of the streaming video applications. When the NCAA tournament happens, there is an app released every year that allows you to stream the games at a pretty good quality. The Major League Baseball app allows you the same convenience, not to mention the coming Netflix app. The ability to tune into a game in progress is one of the best uses of my iPhone. It’s great to get a text saying such-and-such is three outs from a perfect game and being able to instantly, no matter where you are, tune in to that game on your phone and catch history.

Apple is all about the user experience. Everything about their product design is geared towards convenience and ease. If I want to download an app, one click and it’s there. If I want to listen to a podcast, one click and I’m able to do it. Watch a game in progress or use the GPS? Apple’s goal is to make it seamless, thoughtless, and natural.

To me, AT&T’s new plans run contrary to that policy. No longer will these things be thoughtless — you will be worrying about how much you have left on your cap. Want to watch that video? Listen to a podcast? Play with Google Earth? Better check your cap first, because you don’t want to go over. It would seem to go against the form factor and design mentality — and perhaps demonstrate an ever-growing gap between the companies.

AT&T has stated that current customers can keep their unlimited plans, but all new customers will have to make the choice. I will be keeping my unlimited plan, thank you very much, but I don’t know for how long. What happens when my upgrade is available and I want to pick up the next iPhone? Will I be able to keep my unlimited plan then? What flaming hoops will I have to jump through in order to keep it?

That is why I won’t be getting another iPhone — not unless AT&T changes the pricing scheme or the phone becomes available on another network. In the age of unlimited broadband connections, AT&T wants to take us back to the AOL/Earthlink pay-by-the-minute business model of Internet access.

Why should I go along with it? There are some really great Android phones out there (which, by the way, now offer tethering applications for free) whose pricing plans can hopefully offer me the ability to use as much data as I want. I just don’t ever want the day to come when I get a text saying,”Hey, Tim Lincecum is three outs away from a perfect game” and I can’t watch it, because I’m just a few megabytes away from my AT&T data cap.

You can stream the podcast by simply clicking on the link below, or you can download it to your computer by right-clicking the link and selecting “Save Link As” from the menu.

Tech: Podcast: HP/Palm, iPad Sales, Apple Hates Flash

You can stream the podcast by simply clicking on the link below, or you can download it to your computer by right-clicking the link and selecting “Save Link As” from the menu.

Listen to: Rhombus Tech Podcast: iPad, iPhone OS 4.0, and Sprints 4G Episode 1

Fandango (Free) — I’ve been using Fandango for a number of years now (literally, since the *gasp* dial-up days). However when it comes to finding movie times on my iPhone, I’ve been using the Flixster app. I recently tried out the Fandango app and, while I’m not sure if I like it as much when it comes to looking up movie times, it has an excellent feature for buying movie tickets. It easily integrates the ability to buy movie tickets just like the full Fandango website. So if you’re on the go and need to buy tickets for a show you think might be sold out, this is an excellent app.

Angry Birds ($0.99) — I tend to really like “quirky” and quick iPhone games. Angry Birds really fits that bill. It’s a game you can just open and get right into fast, play for two minutes, hit the home button and be done. Word’s can’t really do it justice, but the game involves shooting various breeds of birds at green pigs, who begin constructing various ways of defending themselves as the game progresses. The game is quick, addictive, and crazy fun. For 99 cents, this is really a must buy.

Digg (Free) — I’m a huge fan of news aggregator Digg.com. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, Digg is a Web site where people submit stories they find from across the internet. People can “digg” a story and when a story has sufficient “diggs” it makes it to the front page of Digg.com. It’s one of the best places to find the day’s best online news, jokes, pictures, videos, etc. The iPhone app incorporates all the features of the regular website into a native app allowing you to get all the day’s best content while mobile.

Tetris ($4.99) — Tetris… for iPhone. I would write more about it, but I don’t have any time as I’m too busy playing it.

BlogPress ($2.99) — This past semester I’ve been assigned to maintain a blog for one of my English classes. Not soon after I created the blog and had a couple of posts up, I started looking for a way to manage and add new blog posts on the go. After reading and listening to several recommendations, I settled on trying BlogPress and I haven’t been dissapointed. BlogPress is very easy to use and allows you to create blog posts right from your iPhone. It’s extremely simple while still allowing you to maintain multiple blogs and upload text, photo, or video posts to them. I would highly recommend this one for the avid bloggers out there.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 ($9.99) — If you’re my age, this game was probably an important part of your adolescence. I spent a good chunk of my formative teenage years playing this game on the original PlayStation. I had all the best tricks perfected. I knew the location of every secret tape. I was once challenged to beat the entire game in under an hour — and I did it in less then 45 minutes. I’ve never been beaten in a head-to-head game. I own this game.

So imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning and saw that Mr. Tony Hawk himself had tweeted that the game had finally arrived for the iPhone. Never has getting an app been more of a no-brainer for me. What I found upon launching it is that the game is a surprisingly good port from the original PlayStation version. The on-screen touch controls were actually much better then I anticipated and all the same levels, goals, and tricks are still there. If you’re as big a fan of the Tony Hawk series as I am, you should pick this one up.

Unless you’ve been living in a technology-free zone for the last six months, you probably heard the rumors of the secret Apple tablet computer (and when I say secret, I mean officially the worst kept secret in the history of technology).

Well, today Steve Jobs and his black turtleneck finally unveiled the product to the masses at a media event in San Fransisco. Despite sounding more like a high-tech feminine hygiene product than a groundbreaking media device, the iPad demonstrated impressive capabilities and Apple appears poised to have another huge hit. We at Rhombus, of course, are here to bring you the breakdown of what you need to know about this next-generation mobile computing device.

What is it?
Basically, it’s a giant iPod touch. The iPad looks identical to the iPhone except, instead of a 3-inch screen it features a 9.7-inch LED backlit display. It uses the same multi-touch technology used on the iPhone/iPod Touch, only made even more responsive by the enlarged screen.

What does it do?
The iPad is based on the iPhone operating system, so it will run almost all of the 144,000 iPhone apps on the day it launches. That means if you already have an iPhone or iPod touch, you’ll be able to play Bejeweled all you want right on your iPad — and the best part — without having to pay for the app again. The iPad will also have apps specifically developed to take advantage of its larger screen and increased processing power. So eventually, there will be an app for pretty much whatever you want your iPad to do.

The iPad was shown as using a bigger version of mobile Safari for Web browsing that looked quite slick and seemed very fast and responsive — about the same, if not faster than using Safari on a MacBook. Apple also demonstrated that eBooks are a large part of their plan for the tablet, with several big name publishers on-board to provide reading content through an iTunes-like store called iBooks. The iPad has completely redesigned the mail, calendar, and photo applications, with each one taking full advantage of the larger screen with more robust interfaces and features than their iPhone counterparts.

Video-wise, the iPad will do full 720p HD video, whether it be by buying them from iTunes, HandBraking them from existing copies, or watching them on the redesigned YouTube app. Furthermore Apple demonstrated new iWork apps for the iPad, allowing you to make spreadsheets, presentations, or even do word processing. Of course, the iPad syncs with iTunes on a PC or Mac so you can manage your content between your computer, iPad and iPhone. Really, the possibilities of what this device can do are limitless. For more information, you can see Apple’s promotional video.

What doesn’t it do?
Apple didn’t appease everybody, and some of the features people were expecting and hoping for aren’t in the final product. There is no multi-tasking on the iPad. Therefore, you are unable to do things like listen to music on Pandora while you work on a spreadsheet — one app at a time. Also, the iPad features no camera. A lot of people were hoping for a front-facing camera so  one could use programs like Skype for video conferencing. However, the tablet features no camera, front- or rear-facing. There is no Verizon connectivity either, which many were hoping for. Finally, there is no Adobe Flash capability on the iPad, which means (sadly) no Hulu.

How much is this going to cost me?
There are six models of the iPad. The low-end model will be priced at $499, much lower than what people were expecting. This will be a 16GB storage model with no 3G wireless capabilities. If you are okay with just Wi-Fi, then your options are the 16GB model at $499, 32GB for $599, or 64GB for $699.

You can purchase upgraded models that have 3G wireless capabilities built in for $130 added onto the price of whichever sized model you get. In the U.S., your options for 3G are limited to AT&T. You have the option of a 250MB a month limit for $14.99 a month, or an unlimited plan for $29.99 a month. Fortunately for us , the 3G connectivity is done on a month-to-month basis instead of on a two-year contract. So if you can’t afford it one month, you can just cancel it and reactivate it the next month.

When can I get one?
The Wi-Fi-only iPads will be available in 60 days or so, with the 3G models shipping in approximately 90 days. If you want one, be sure to order early as they are sure to sell out quick.

My overall impressions of the device are that it does pretty much exactly what I wanted a tablet device to do. I definitely can see myself taking my laptop or netbook with me less and less and instead using the iPad for a lot of situations. While it surely won’t ever replace traditional computers, I think it is the next step towards a true all-in-one device, capable of doing what we previously needed two or three devices to do.

Ben Wagner is a technology correspondent for Rhombus and is undoubtedly counting his pennies to pre-order an iPad. Follow him on Twitter @ben_wagner.

Tweetie 2 ($2.99) – Tweetie was a popular Twitter application for iPhone, but it did little to seperate itself from the pack of iPhone Twitter apps, such as Tweetdeck, Twitterfon and Twitterific. Tweetie 2 was released and has now set itself apart as the Twitter app. Some of the killer features include landscape mode throughout the entire app, as well as an intuitive swipe interface where you swipe a tweet to see all the available option like responding, retweeting or quoting. The app is the fastest and most reliable of the half-dozen or so Twitter apps I’ve used — and also does little things I didn’t even know I wanted done, such as saving my place in my feed, allowing me to come back to it hours later and pick up where I left off. Let me say that I like Tweetie 2 so much that i actually tweet with much more consistency now then I ever did before, just because it’s so much better with Tweetie 2.

ESPN Radio ($2.99) — I just recently started using this app and I absolutely love it. This app gives you the ability to listen to the live ESPN Radio national feed right on your iPhone, as well as listen to 15-plus local ESPN Radio affiliates, such as ESPN Radio New York or Seattle. The sound quality is excellent, much better than actual radio. You also get the ability to listen to any of the ESPN podcasts on demand, like The B.S. Report, Pardon The Interruption, or The Fantasy Focus. This is also one of the most polished iPhone apps out there — when you are streaming the live radio feed, you are treated to the same ESPN BottomLine feature you see on the network’s HD broadcasts, keeping you updated with scores and all the latest news.

Newsie ($3.99) — My Google Reader is one of the staples of my daily routine. I subscribe to a dozen feeds or so and I check it periodically throughout the day. I previously used the Google Reader Web app to check my from my iPhone using the Safari Web browser. Newsie has easily replaced that as my way of checking my Google Reader when I am away from a PC. Newsie is faster than the native Google Reader app and has a built-in browser, which allows you to read the sites right in the app instead of opening a new Safari window. The app also has integration with Instapaper, allowing you to save a site to your Instapaper app so you can read it later when you are without an Internet connection. Newsie also allows you to instantly tweet the link to a news item through Tweetie, a feature that definitely comes in handy if you buy Tweetie 2 as well.

Back Breaker Football ($0.99) — I haven’t had to much time to play iPhone games of late, but of the ones I have tried Back Breaker is definitely the cream of the crop. The game is not a football game in the classic sense, you start off by creating a customized player, similar to the create a player mode found for years in games like Madden. The gameplay consists of you controlling the player through a series of increasingly difficult drills. The main objective of the drills is to simply avoid being tackled by the computer’s defenders. You control your player using the accelerometer and are armed with a series of impressive juke and spin moves.

At first the drills are very simple, but as the game progresses more tacklers and parts of the field that become illegal to touch increase the difficulty. The most impressive part of the game is undoubtedly the amazing graphics, which are amongst the best I’ve seen on the iPhone. Watching the slow-mo replays of your player getting drilled is just a blast. Altogether, for 99 cents this game will provide you hours of fun, smash-mouth football action.

2Do ($2.99) — The iPhone comes with a great lineup of basic apps, but one of the glaring weaknesses of the iPhone is the lack of native to-do list capabilities. You can get your calendar to sync with iCal or Google Calendar, and yet there is no way to sync the tasks you have created on these applications to you iPhone. I have searched far and wide and tried a variety of to-do list applications available in the App Store, such as Things, ToDo, or Toodledo. While all of these are fine, none of them just quite cut it for me and I eventually found myself returning to the old-fashioned, pen-and-paper to-do lists. This past week, I saw 2DO featured on the App Store (and on sale), so I decided task management on my phone was worth one more shot.

As soon as I opened up 2DO, I knew I had found the app I’d been looking for. It features the best user interface of all the task management apps I’ve seen, using a basic tabbed interface. You are able to quickly switch between different task calendars, like school, work, home or whatever else you want to add. The app features the ability to (finally) sync iCal tasks over wi-fi, something the iPhone should have been able to do years ago. If you need something to organize your tasks, 2Do is the perfect app.

Ben Wagner is a correspondent for Rhombus and is gladly accepting iTunes gift cards as Christmas gifts. To send him one, contact him on Twitter @ben_wagner.

Google's Android: The future of the smartphone market?

I love Apple. The iPhone is a really great gadget — it’s smooth, fast and has really cool features. I’ve been on the verge of getting one several times and nearly won over by its amazingness, yet never fully committed to it. I have two reasons for this. First, because it doesn’t have a physical keyboard, and second, because I am a Google fan(atic). Last year Google entered the smartphone market, not with any hardware but with an operating system (OS) called Android.

Let me make clear what can be considered a “smartphone.”  This category does more than texting and calling; they can also do e-mail, web-browsing, word processing and anything else a normal, run-of-the-mill phone does not. The way these devices are used varies immensely, and thus there are a huge number of distinctive features. Many are affiliated with physical attributes, i.e. a slider, flip, headphone jack, touch screen, keyboard, or other general aesthetics. Second, and sometimes the more important issue, what can the software do? Can it handle games, business tools, social networking functions, etc.?  Whether you’re a corporate mogul, college student or teenybopper, one smartphone is going to satisfy your needs with a huge variety of apps and functionalities available.

That is, in essence, the appeal of the iPhone. According to a Canalys Q3 2009 report, Apple owns 17% of the global smartphone market. That’s just one product bringing in a giant chunk of change. The iPhone’s success with apps has been so great that an app store actually made its way into the OS of many competitors, including Windows Mobile, Palm, Symbian, RIM (Blackberry) and Android, making each respective phone more nimble and prompting almost every cell manufacturer to try and come out with the iPhone “killer.”

It’s virtually impossible to compare and contrast every new device to Apple’s unstoppable behemoth. Not many aim to accomplish what the iPhone has, which is provide the most dextrous product to the widest range of consumers. Google had the right idea when it created Android by designing it for everyone. Android apps can be developed by anyone. You can go out there, download the necessary tools, learn the required skills, create an app and publish it to the market. No need to buy into a developer program, have your app approved (although Google does screen for malicious or illegal apps), or even own an Android phone. I can speak lightly of Palm, Symbian and RIM in saying they are not as versatile, and heavily against Windows Mobile with its many failings.

There are some failings to Android, of course: you have to have a Google account and it runs on only a small selection of phones (for now). But what product was perfect in the first year? The iPhone wasn’t, and  Google’s Android now promises to start taking on the lone warrior with an army of new devices. In its first year, Google has already secured 3.5 percent of the global market and is experiencing growth with the rollout of each successive new device.

One smartphone to check out is the Motorola Droid; it sports a larger screen with better resolution than the iPhone and, while it’s only 1.4mm thicker, it has a four-row, slide-out keyboard. The Droid will be running the newest Android version 2.0 with the new Google Maps Navigation. While it probably wont be the iPhone “killer” (I highly doubt any phone will ever be as successful), the Droid might provide some real competition.

There’s still a lot of ground to be covered by Android and any devices it will run on but, as already proven with the downward trend of Windows Mobile, the market is open for some change and new product growth.

Jon Schwarzmann is a new tech correspondent for Rhombus.

Steve Jobs

Steve’s Back!
After a six-month absence, Steve Jobs is finally back at Apple and gave the event’s keynote speech, complete with his ever-present black turtleneck and jeans. It is well known that Jobs has been the face and creative driving force behind Apple for the last 10 years, and has experienced various health issues of late, including pancreatic cancer and most recently a liver transplant. The crowd offered its approval with a standing ovation as Jobs returned to the stage. It should be a huge boost to the investors to know that Jobs is back behind the wheel at Apple.

iTunes 9
This may be the biggest announcement from the event, mainly because everybody uses iTunes — if not the store, at least to organize and play all their music. This newest version adds several new features to the popular media center:

• Genius mixes — The Genius feature allows you to pick a song, then iTunes uses data collected from you and from its massive user base to create a playlist comprised of songs similar to the one you’ve chosen. The new Genius mixes feature creates 12 mixes for you to choose from; for instance, a soundtrack mix or an alternative rock mix. As a big fan of the Genius feature, I’m very impressed with the new Genius mixes and I think it’s a fantastic step forward.

• Improved synching — This one is mainly for iPhone and iPod touch users. You now have greater freedom over exactly what you sync with your handheld device. Especially useful is the new Apps tab on the device page, where you can choose what apps to sync on your device, as well as organize what apps show up on the home screen and additional app pages.

• New iTunes Store — the iTunes store now has a new and improved interface. I like it a lot. It seems to be even easier to navigate than before, which is saying something.

• Home sharing — I haven’t tried this one out yet, but it allows you to keep your iTunes libraries synced throughout a household. If your family has music and videos spread across several different computers, you can sync them up so you can access the entire collection from any computer. Pretty cool.

iPhone OS 3.1
This one was only briefly mentioned, but a new software update for the iPhone came out this same day, fixing many of the bugs present in the 3.0 software update. After trying it out for a few days, I have had no problems with the update and my phone seems to be running fine. The software update may have also been necessary to prepare customers using AT&T to finally get multimedia messaging on September 25th.

iPod Line Refresh
As expected, Apple announced a new slew of iPods for the upcoming holiday season. Many of the rumors before the announcement revolved around a possible camera and/or video camera on the new iPod touch. To the disappointment of many, Jobs announced that the third generation of iPod touches will not include any camera features. The iPod touch line now includes three models: a more aggressively priced 8gb model for $199, a 32gb model for $299 and a whopping 64gb model for $399. Other then that, no new features were announced for the iPod touch and it remains essentially the same, except for a newer model with more storage.

The big announcement was about the new iPod nanos. The nano will retain the same form, but will now contain a built-in video camera, allowing users to shoot 30 frames-per-second video right from their portable music player. Jobs said this was a definite attempt to crack the growing market of small portable video cameras like the Flip. This announcement was surprising to many, as most expected Apple to build camera functionality into the iPod touch.

However, the move makes sense: if someone wants to buy a portable video camera and they can choose between the Flip cam, which shoots only video, or the iPod nano that plays music, videos and photos and shoots video, the thinking is they will obviously choose the iPod nano, especially considering there is almost no price difference. This will undoubtedly help Apple begin to lock down the portable video camera market and make the iPod nano a hot seller this holiday season. Look for the 4gb version at $149 and the 8gb version at $179.

Ben Wagner is a tech correspondent for Rhombus. He got a little weepy upon Steve Jobs’ return to the big stage.

• TweetDeck (Free) — Last time, I raved about Twitterfon being a great free iPhone app and then received some feedback from some people who had problems with it. As soon as I posted the article, my Twitterfon app started going on the blitz as well and I was forced to consider alternatives. So far my favorite is TweetDeck. TweetDeck originated as a desktop Twitter app that features a unique columned interface. The best thing about the iPhone version is that it mimics this columned interface on the iPhone, as well as being a fast and fully featured Twitter client. TweetDeck does have its disadvantages though. For me, the lack of landscape mode in the browser is a huge turn-off. Also, I will often open TweetDeck and it will tell me there is no connectivity, yet it still loads the latest tweets. This is a nuisance more then anything and hopefully they can fix it with a small update. Even with these flaws, the unique interface TweetDeck uses keeps bringing me over all the other Twitter apps I’ve recently used.

• F.A.S.T. ($0.99) — Fast is simply one of the coolest games I’ve seen on the iPhone and a great example of what the iPhone is capable of. The game is a combat flight simulator capable of placing you in the cockpit of 10 military aircraft and plunging you smack dab in the middle of mid-air dogfights. The accelorometer controls allow you to fly the plane by tilting the iPhone, giving you the sense that you are actually flying the plane. The game also features multi-player functionality over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, allowing you to dogfight against your friends. The graphics are quite impressive and, with over 30 missions to play, this game will literally keep you occupied in the danger zone for hours on end.

• MyPhone+ for Facebook ($2.99) — This is one of those apps that you never realized you wanted or needed until you get it. This app takes all of the info in your address book and syncs it with your Facebook info. It takes the names of your contacts and looks for them amongst your Facebook friends, then it takes their profile picture and uses it as the contact picture in your iPhone address book. It also adds their emails, addresses and birthdays to your address book when available, allowing you to easily keep your address book updated with the most current info on all your contacts.

• BeeJiveIM ($9.99) — This application falls into the category of something I’ve always wanted and, when I finally found it, I was giddy with excitement. Beejive is an instant messaging application that can do Aim, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Myspace, Yahoo and Facebook chat. You can keep use all of your chat accounts right on your iPhone. The interface is simple, but effective and easy to use. The app also features landscape mode which is a huge plus allowing you to type a lot faster. However all of these pale in comparison to BeeJive’s best feature: BeeJive allows you to close the app and even turn off the phone, but it keeps your accounts open and logged in. Therefore you still show up as being available to all your contacts and, if they message you, the phone tells you with a push notification that appears similar to a text message. You can then open back up Beejive and chat away. For anyone addicted to communication like myself, this app is a dream come true: the ability to always be connected to my chats, even when I’m not physically at my computer or even using the chat application on my phone. So from now on when you see me on Facebook chat for 17 hours straight, just remember I’m always on — even when I’m not.

Ben Wagner is a tech correspondent for Rhombus Magazine and considers the time before the iPhone to be the Dark Ages. Give him some feedback about the apps by following him on Twitter @ben_wagner.

If you read part one of my “Best of the App Store” series, you will have noticed that this was intended to be a three-part piece. Well, two vacations later I realized that may have been especially ambitious. There was going to be one article about free games and one about paid games. I also discovered that I couldn’t find five free iPhone games that were worth my time and, therefore, yours. So I decided to combine the two into one, so I present to you “Best of the App Store: Games.”

Honorable Mention

• Space Deadbeef (Free) — For me, this is the best pound-for-pound free iPhone game available. The game is a simple side-scrolling space shooter that boasts impressive graphics and a unique control scheme. Part of what makes this game so addictive is the way the levels are laid out. Essentially you play the same level over and over again. Every time you beat the level it increases the difficulty. Also, you have an unlimited amount of lives so when you die you can keep re-trying the level at the same difficulty. The game displays how many deaths you have and what level you are on so that you can compare your skill level with your friends. If you own an iPhone or iPod Touch and are looking for a free game, this is the one.

Top 5 Games

• Tiger Woods Golf ($9.99) — I realize this game may not be for everyone. It is a sports game and it’ll cost you $10. However, it is absolutely phenomenal. It is a fantastic mobile version of the console game. The control scheme is great for the iPhone and the graphics are as impressive as I’ve seen. You are presented with a realistic golfing experience right on your phone. I’ve definitely gotten my $10 out of this game; if you like golf, you will too.
• World Cup Ping-Pong ($0.99) — I love ping-pong. I have spent countless hours in my basement with my brother, destroying all hope in his soul with a barrage of power shots, drop shots and spinning serves — and I have never, ever enjoyed a ping-pong video game. Even the Wii Play version bored me instantly. So I was skeptical of this game, but I figured for $0.99, why not? What makes this game great is that it uses the touchscreen interface just as it should. Its simple: wherever you move your finger, the paddle follows, allowing you to feel like you’re in complete control of the paddle. Therefore, the precision that makes ping-pong a great game is present in a simulated version played on a 3.5 inch screen. There is a free “lite” version available that removes all the different levels of competition and tournaments available in the paid version. So if you want to give it a shot, you’ve got nothing to lose.
• Flight Control ($0.99) — This game took the App Store by storm some weeks ago and has become a must-have for iPhone/iPod Touch owners ever since. The game is built upon a simple premise: there is a runway on the screen, various types of aircraft begin to enter the screen and you have to land them on the runway without crashing them by tracing their flight path with your finger. Sounds simple, but once more and more aircraft enter the screen it becomes quite difficult. Definitely give this one a shot. It’ll keep you trying to best your high score for hours.
• Dropship ($1.99) — This game is a fun space shooter that has a slight learning curve, requiring some mastery of the controls. Once you have them down, you’ll find yourself spending hours and hours steering your spaceship around, trying to rescue fellow space cadets and shoot down alien fighters. This is a very fun space shooter and I highly recommend it. Definitely worth your $1.99.
• Need for Speed: Underground ($6.99) — One of my favorite genres of games from the App Store is racing games. The steering control system is very fun and intuitive. There are plenty of racing games to choose from, but so far this one has been my favorite. The game features fantastic graphics for a game you are playing on your phone. It also features a surprisingly involved storyline and several types of racing modes. You also get the option of earning money to upgrade and customize your car, even down to the color. While its a bit pricey at $6.99, you get what you pay for here. Nothing less then a console-worthy racing game in the palm of your hand.

Well, that’s that. Enjoy!

Ben Wagner is a tech correspondent for Rhombus. He apparently has nothing better to spend his money on than iPhone games. Follow him on Twitter at @ben_wagner.