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I wanted to mark my first day with a post releasing the first of some backgrounds for desktops and the iPhone and iPad that we’ve been working on. It gives our designers an opportunity for a little bit of creative outlet while also promoting the Jam3 brand.

Joon Kim designed this one which is rad and (not) coincidentally my current desktop background! Just click the image to open in a new window and control click to save, but I don’t have to tell you that, right? I kind of assume anyone reading this site can handle this bit of technical mastery, but you never know.

Desktop (1440 x 900)
Desktop (1920 x 1080)
Desktop (1920 x 1200)

iPad (1024 x 768)
iPhone 3 (320 x 480)
iPhone 4 (Retina) (640 x 690)

Spinder Blocks is finger twisting Tetris-style puzzle game exclusively designed for the multi-touch experience of the iPad and iPhone!
Spinder Blocks is a Color Matching game that is fun, fast and addictive!

The concept is simple: Spin or Tap the blocks to match colors. Match 4 or more to make them disappear. Easy, right? Until you add a second column… or FIVE!

Along the way, ‘Hazard Blocks’ will try to ruin your plan by mixing-up colors! Thankfully, ‘Bomb Blocks’ will assist in getting you out of a jam, eliminating all blocks of a specific color! Use them quickly, they only last a few seconds!

You’ll need to use both halves of your brains when you start playing with both hands! All of this Making Spinder Blocks unique playing experience and a contender for best new Action/Puzzle iPad and iPhone game!

Spinder Blocks is a universal app, and can be played on the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch!

Screenshot from the iPhone Version

http://iphoneapppodcast.com/
Perfect for viewing on your iPhone/iPod Touch before you buy or download the app contains video reviews of apps.

http://www.iphonetoolbox.com/
This site is cool in that it shows what the app looks like on the phone itself. When visitors roll over, they get a quick snippet about the app. Clicking on it brings you to another quick introduction and a link to the app’s website or something else with a more in-depth review.

http://www.iphoneappreviews.net/
Clean appearance featuring quick blurbs on apps and always important comparisons against other apps that provide similar services. Got to love honesty: “one of the dullest games I’ve ever played.”

http://www.appleiphoneschool.com/category/appstore/
iPhone School has quick glances and typically uses video and pictures to help

http://www.iphonealley.com/reviews/apps/
iPhone Alley offers reviews and probably the best snapshot summaries with pros, cons, and the bottom line.

http://iphone-apps.toptenreviews.com/business/
Looking for apps for business? Need to say anymore?

http://www.imedicalapps.com
Quickly becoming an important market segment in application development on the phone OS, this site like the link above specializes in apps and news in the medical industry. This segment should explode with the advent of the iPad.

http://www.apprater.com/
Taking a different approach, apprater allows developers to submit apps for review through a form. Quite a nifty discovery engine at work here.

http://www.148apps.com/
A well polished site with an editorial review process. Well written reviews will keep us coming back.

http://www.appstorehq.com/
A personal fav, this site pulls in blog posts from around the blogosphere – fairly Spartan design doesn’t distract too much from the sheer utility of the site.

Definitely worth doing a follow-up post with respect to sites that focus in on specific markets like books, games, business, medical etc.

Follow me on Twitter @mrmcq5

For a company like ours whose specialty is Flash and interactive production it’s disappointing to say the least that we won’t fully be able to take advantage of what Apple and some people deem to be the new “it” device or “game changer”.

Will it sell? Will we in the coming months or year figure out how to make this “useless” device useful? Probably. Until then it still remains just a large, cool gadget at best to show off to friends. Had it been more computer like with multi-tasking and an actual browser that lets you “surf the web” instead of just a giant iTouch it would reach the masses much more quickly and not just the mac fanboys (to whom Apple can do no wrong).

As much as I love my Apple stuff and am part fanboy, they’re starting to get more and more irritating. Their insistence on making things proprietary is annoying. The Apple TV could have been great but its a complete dud because of it. Would the game changing iPod which changed a whole music industry have sold so well if they said you had to convert all your music to an iPod specific format instead of the MP3? (anyone remember sony’s mini-disc?)

Personally, I’m still waiting for an iPhone that has a flash on it like my crappy phone did 3 years ago.