Being a big mark for third-person console action games, Gameloft's 9mm naturally appealed to me.  With the promise of GTA-style gameplay on the iPhone, even the steep price didn't deter me from scoring a copy.

First, the bad.  There's no free roaming, which kinds of kills the whole GTA-style buzz the game debuted with in the first place.    The writing tries to sell the whole "gangsta" business with a straight face, too, with none of the self-awareness that makes many similar games funny.  And, no, it doesn't come across as a serious and gritty action tale, either.

The single player campaign is quite substantial, although you'll spend most of your time doing the same things, which is shooting drug dealers and other tattooed bad guys.  There's no cover system at all, so you'll have to pray your enemies miss.  Fortunately, you can crouch the protagonist (John Kannon) behind a scenery to regenerate health.

Movement is done via an onscreen thumbstick, with your right hand allowing you to aim the crosshair.  There are various controls available on screen, too, most notably a slo-mo button (which lets you dive in cinematic slow motion across the screen) and a crouch/stand button.  A unique element here is the game's use of the gyroscope, which lets you move the phone around to play with camera angles.  While it looks good, it's a headache to use during play and actually ends up a wasted feature (more likely than not, you'll turn it off).

One impressive addition is the multiplayer, which lets you join up to 11 other people in some crazy action shootouts.  It's serviceable enough, although the mechanical weaknesses of the game gets even more prominent when you have a lot of people playing.

While I commend Gameloft for the effort on 9mm, it just isn't a good enough game, especially for $6.99.  It's too bad, since less unpredictable gunfights and a cover system could have made it much better.  And they could have left off that whole camera-moving thing to put those things in.

[iTunes]

As long as you have way of holding it steady, the iPhone can make for a serviceable way to scan documents using the rear camera. If you'd like to scan something for turning into text, though, you'll need an OCR software and the ABBYY TextGrabber is arguably the most cost-effective offering currently available.

You can use TextGrabber both to convert an existing image in your library to text or to photograph then convert a physical document.  Once the conversion is done, the text is saved into a file that you can edit, send to email or copy for pasting into other apps.  The process is as simple as it sounds, with each taking no more than a few taps to get done.

TextGrabber's OCR is actually pretty accurate.  If you have a photo of good quality, it easily gets 95% or better accuracy,  with only occasional misspellings creeping in.   It works fast, too, with conversions done at a noticeably faster rate than other mobile OCRs I've tried.  We also like that it can crop photos, so you can restrict the conversion strictly to the text portion of a page.  Plus, it supports around 60 languages, although you'll have to tell it exactly what language the document is in if you want it done right.

The feature set ends there, though.  Unlike other iPhone OCRs, it doesn't come with a whole lot of editing options that let you improve poor photographs.  For scanning your own documents (since you control the quality) and converting them to text, though, it's easily the best app in the market.

TextGrabber's strength lies in its balance of price, accuracy and simplicity.   At $1.99, it's a well-made program that makes for money well spent.

[ABBYY]

Samsung debuted a new messaging phone for Cricket's roster.  Called the Samsung Comment, it's a QWERTY candybar feature phone for texting-heavy users.

Sporting a Blackberry-style form factor, the handset measures 4.41 x 2.4 x 0.43 inches and weighs 3.3 ounces.  It appears to be Samsung's replacement for the Freeform II, although the specs aren’t all that much of an upgrade.

Details of the Samsung Comment include a 2.4-inch LCD (320 × 240 resolution), aGPS, Bluetooth, a 1.3 megapixel camera module, a four-row QWERTY keyboard in the front panel, microSD card support (up to 32GB) and a 1,000 mAh battery module rated at 5 hours of talk time.  There's no 3G or WiFi, although you do get GPRS access to  Cricket’s proprietary storefront, where you should be able to download Java apps, wallpapers and various other types of content.  Preloaded apps include MyHomeScreen (access to weather, news and horoscopes), MyBackup, and Cricket Navigator.

While there's really nothing very attractive about this phone's feature set, it should appeal to the text-and-call crowd who aren't really interested in anything much beyond the basics.   Paired with Cricket's cheap monthly plans (which don't require any extended tie-in), those on a budget should find it a decent pick-up, too.

The Samsung Comment retails for $89.99 with no contract.

[Samsung]

Nokia has unveiled the latest update to its soon-to-be-killed Symbian OS, along with three new devices that are going to run it.  The successor to Symbian Anna will be called Symbian Belle, bringing a whole set of new features for the platform Nokia is surprisingly still pushing.  The three debuting phones running it consist of the Nokia 700, the Nokia 701 and the Nokia 600.

What does the new Symbian flavor bring to the table?  The most notable new features include  NFC sharing and pairing, three additional home screens (for a total of six), a dynamic lock screen, live widgets in five different sizes, and an Android-style pull-down taskbar/notification menu.

Nokia 600. Billed as the company's "loudest smartphone," it's a music-centric handset that packs both a built-in FM antenna (you can listen to FM radio without headphones) and an FM transmitter (for streaming music from the phone to FM radios).  It can also stream music via both NFC and Bluetooth.  Details include a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen (640 x 360 resolution), a 5.0 megapixel camera module (with LED flash and 720p recording), a 1GHz CPU, 2GB of internal storage and microSD card expansion.  Unsubsidized, the phone should go for around $260.

Nokia 700. Rumored earlier as the "Zeta," it's a compact slab that Nokia claims is their smallest smartphone at only 110 x 50.7 x 9.7 mm.  Details include a  a 3.2-inch AMOLED "ClearBlack" display with Gorilla Glass, a 5.0 megapixel camera module, penta-band 3G, WiFi, NFC, a 1GHz CPU and a battery rated at 7.3 hours of talk time.  Unsubsidized pricing (before taxes) is around $390.

Nokia 701. Nokia bills this one as packing " the world's brightest ever mobile phone display."  Details include a 3.5-inch IPS LCD (with ClearBlack and Gorilla Glass), an 8.0 megapixel camera module, a front-facing webcam, 1GHz CPU, pentaband 3G radio, NFC, WiFi, 8GB of onboard storage and microSD card expansion.  Unsubsidized pricing is expected at around $420.

All three handsets should arrive any day between now and the end of September.

[Nokia]

RIM has announced a trio of new additions to the Curve line.  Well, it's actually just one phone in three variants: the Blackberry Curve 9350 (CDMA-only), the Blackberry Curve 9360 (GSM/UMTS) and the Blackberry Curve 9370 (GSM/CDMA).

Sporting the familiar QWERTY candybar form factor, the handset embraces the classic Blackberry styling, all while coming in at an extra-slim 11mm.  Both front and rear surfaces are curved for a sleek fit in hand, with a soft-touch band wrapped around the edges for extra comfort.

Details of the new Blackberry Curves include a 2.44-inch non-touch LCD (480 x 360 resolution), a 5.0 megapixel camera module (with LED flash), aGPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, 512MB of built-in storage (1GB on the 9370), microSD card expansion (up to 32GB) and a 1,000 mAh battery module.   A modest 800MHz CPU provides the muscle, aided by 512MB of RAM.

As with RIM's releases over the past week, the new phones will run Blackberry OS 7 with its HTML5-optimized web browser and voice-activated universal search.   All the usual staples are onboard, of course, such as BBM 6.0 and Social Feeds 2.0.

The Blackberry Curve 9350, Blackberry Curve 9360 and Blackberry Curve 9370 will be available in Canada beginning this month and the rest of the world by September.  No word on pricing, though, but expect it along the affordable tip.

[Blackberry]

LG has announced a smartphone with a name based on the Spanish word for "sun."  Called the LG Optimus Sol, it packs what the company calls a "first-class display" as its main selling point.

Think your AMOLED display is great?  This new phone's screen should trump that, boasting an Ultra-AMOLED panel that reputedly packs more advanced reflection rates compared to standard AMOLED displays.   For the user, this improvement is realized with better clarity under the sun and even lower degradation in image quality.

Details of the LG Optimus Sol include a 3.8 inch Ultra-AMOLED capacitive touchscreen (800 x 480 resolution), a 5.0 megapixel camera module on the rear, a VGA webcam in front, aGPS, 3G with HSPA, WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, DLNA, a 1,500 mAh battery and microSD card expansion.  Muscle is provided by a 1GHz MSM8255 Snapdragon processor, which is paired with 512MB of RAM and 2GB of ROM.

The new phone implements LG's "enhanced idle-based power management system," which will supposedly allow it to have 20% to 30% longer battery life compared to other phones with a similar battery module.  It runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

The LG Optimus Sol will roll out in Europe beginning mid-September, with Central and South American markets following shortly after that.  No pricing yet, but it will be available in three colors -- black, titan and white.

[via AndroidGuys]

Sony Ericsson has announced a new sporty Walkman phone running Android.    Called the Sony Ericsson Live, this is a refreshed WT18i that focuses heavily on music and social networking integration.

Sporting a funky curved design that's definitely less-generic than your average Android slab, the handset measures 56.5 x 106 x 14.2 mm and weighs 115 grams.  The Walkman branding doesn't seem to be as loud as with phones in the line, though, as there's none of that liquid W logo anywhere on the front panel.  Do expect it heavily in the UI, though.

Details of the Sony Ericsson Live include a 3.2-inch scratch-resistant touchscreen 480 x 320 resolution), a 5.0 megapixel camera module (with LED flash and 720p recording), a front-facing VGA camera, aGPS, WiFi, 3G with HSPA, Bluetooth, stereo speakers, a 3.5mm audio slot and microSD card expansion.  Processing will be handled by a 1GHz chip, with the 1,200 mAh battery claiming up to almost 7 hours of talk time.

As with every Walkman handset, there's an emphasis on music-centric features here, including xLOUD (Sony's digital enhancement for speaker output), TrackID, Infinite button (jumps to a music-focused content app), Media Discovery app and access to Qriocity.  The Gingerbread-running phone also boasts "deep Facebook integration," providing access to the social site from many areas of the interface.

While this is far from the most exciting Android release in the last few months, the Sony Ericsson Live should provide an interesting option to younger users who spend most of their time listening to music and fiddling with Facebook.  No pricing yet, but it's slated to roll out sometime in the fourth quarter.

[Sony Ericsson]



T-Mobile just announced the first 4G handset from RIM to join its roster.  It's the Blackberry Bold 9900 and it's the thinnest Blackberry ever.

Running the latest version 7 OS, the smartphone pairs all of the platform's best features with high-speed data access for the best experience any Blackberry phone has to offer.  The sleek and streamlined appearance pays a perfect compliment, as well, to the keyboard-cum-touchscreen combo adorning the handset's face.

Details of the Blackberry Bold 9900 include a 2.8-inch capacitive touchscreen display (640 x 480 resolution), a four-row QWERTY keyboard, a 5.0 megapixel camera module (with LED flash and 720p recording), aGPS, WiFi, 4G (HSPA+, really), Bluetooth 2.1, 8GB of built-in storage, memory card expansion (up to 32GB) and a 1,230 mAh battery (rated at 6.3 hours of talk time).  Muscle is provided by a 1.2GHz processor, paired with 768MB of RAM.

While the size of the screen is a little small for what most people are now used to, do take note of the resolution -- that 640 x 480 pixels should make for some impressive-looking detail.  Preloaded apps include welcome titles like the latest version of BBM, Facebook for Blackberry and Social Feeds 2.0, as well as T-Mobile's own "may be useful, may be not" bloatware.

The Blackberry Bold 9900 is now available to T-Mobile business customers, but will roll out in full force at the end of the month both online and in stores.  Price is steep, though, at $299.99 on a two-year agreement after a $50 mail-in rebate.

[T-Mobile]

Motorola just announced an enhanced version of their semi-rugged Android smartphone.  Called the Motorola Defy+, this equally durable successor boasts numerous hardware improvements that make the unique offering a whole lot better.

Like the original Defy, this new model retains the sleek form factor, the scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass and IP67 credentials.  While it didn't get an upgrade in shock-proofing (it's still the same slim profile), it does continue to be impenetrable to dust and resistant to submersion in water (up to 1 meter depth for 30 minutes).

Details of the Motorola Defy+ include a 3.7-inch capacitive touchscreen (480 x 854 resolution), a 5.0 megapixel camera module (with LED flash), aGPS, 3G with HSPA, WiFi, Bluetooth, 2GB of internal storage, microSD card expansion (up to 32GB) and a 1,700 mAh battery (rated at 7.1 hours of talk time).  Muscle is provided by a 1GHz processor, paired with 512MB of RAM.

It runs Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread with the latest version of Motoblur and the usual Google Mobile suite of apps.  Preloaded apps include CardioTrainer and Zinio e-magazine.

No exact date has been given for the Motorola Defy+, but it will be available beginning in the fall.   Expect it to roll out in Asia, Europe and Latin America.

[via Engadget]

While it sounds like another city builder in the vein of SimCity, Megacity HD is actually a puzzle game.  A smartly-done puzzle game at that, with city building at the core of the experience.  It's a fresh approach that's both fun and engaging.

At the start, you begin work on a 6 x 7 grid of empty grass with a queue on the left consisting of five tiles.   The one on top is the current tile you can put on the grid, with the rest moving up and a new one popping at the end after you play.

Each tile represents a structure you can put up in the game -- office buildings, housing projects, power plants, hospitals and such.   Inserting a new tile will affect the other tiles around it.   If you put a landfill, for instance, people won't want to live in the residential buildings around it; put a park, on the other hand, and the housing tiles will attract residents.  Points are assigned based on this implementation of real-world property values.

The goal is to reach a certain value for the housing in each column.  You start off with a low goal score, but this increases as you move up levels, so it's going to get very difficult to balance everything very fast.  Since you can't cherry-pick tiles (whatever comes up is random), you can end up with a lot of crappy industrial structures and you'll have to find a place for them all.

This random aspect, unfortunately, is also the game's biggest flaw.  Games can turn out unwinnable as a result.  It's a novel concept, though -- one that will likely be polished and expanded on with later versions of the game.

If you’re up for a new puzzle challenge, you're bound to enjoy MegaCity HD's novel gameplay.  The app is universal and is a great buy for $1.99.

[ColePowered]