Have you thought of adding a little festive cheer to your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad? What about a useful Christmas app to help you remember everything? Here is the official iTalk Magazine Must-Have Christmas App List for 2010:

• Christmas Countdown (iPhone/iPod Touch) and Christmas Countdown HD (iPad) will show impatient children how many nights, hours, or even seconds until Christmas. Also works for impatient adults!
• Sleeps To Christmas (iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad) is a similar application, and also allows you to broadcast your joy via Facebook or Twitter. They have an advertisement-supported Sleeps To Christmas Lite version for free too!
• Nice List (iPhone/iPod Touch) – For making a list and checking it twice. This gift manager app will help you to make sure you’ve got something for everybody, as well as helping you stick to your Christmas budget. For iPad users, Gifts HD is a do-everything gift manager app that even helps you find the lowest prices on the net!
• Fuzzle Christmas – fun and free Christmas puzzle game. This is a Christmas-themed version of the great Fuzzle game.
• Try the Christmas Tree Decorator (iPhone/iPod Touch) for some fun “practice” before you have to do the actual tree. Try dropping an ornament and see what happens!
• The Holiday Snow Globe (iPhone/iPod Touch) might not really be much like the real thing, but it’s fun nonetheless!
• In the area of Christmas book applications, the old favourites are still winners for me. At the top of my list are How The Grinch Stole Christmas (iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad) and The Night Before Christmas (iPad), both with graphics and audio, and A Christmas Carol (iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad) a professionally narrated audio version of Charles Dickens’ perennial book – remember Scrooge?
• Are The Wiggles popular with the kids at your house? We recommend the Wiggly Wiggly Christmas album for children of all ages. Their catchy songs will have you humming some new Christmas tunes in no time!

This is our list, we’ve checked it … well, only once actually – we are too busy playing our favourite games. What about you? Tell us what apps you recommend for Christmas in our comments and we’ll update the list with your additions!

- Ricky

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This article was originally published at Must-Have Christmas Apps and is copyright (C) Ricky Buchanan 2010. May be forwarded but do not republish without permission.

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Their list is quoted to include:

[...] over 8,000 United States locations and counting including dozens of popular national chains.

KidsEatFree encourages you to help update the list constantly by reporting any changes to entries and submitting new entries if you find a place with a “children eat free” period that isn’t already listed.

You can let the app use your current location as a base for searching, or search manually using a city name or zip code.

See the results of your search on a handy map to help you choose where to eat

Once you’ve found a place that looks likely you can see a map of how to get there, add it to the address book, or even automatically email yourself about the location.

This looks like a great way to find child-friendly eating venues too, as anywhere offering free meals to kids at certain times is likely to have facilities for children and be generally accepting of kids even outside those times.

Have you tried KidsEatFree, and does it show your local eateries?

- Ricky

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This article was originally published at Take The Kids Out To Eat For Free! and is copyright (C) Ricky Buchanan 2010. May be forwarded but do not republish without permission.

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I discovered a flash version of the game first, named Chain Factor and got a bit addicted to it so I went looking for a version I could play on my iPod Touch and iPad. Drop7 is what I found, and I’m really enjoying it.

In this game, you drop single blocks one by one into a grid of seven by seven blocks. Unlike Tetris-like games, you have an unlimited amount of time to choose where to drop each block, and they’re dropped simply by touching the column you want to drop the block into.

Here you can see three of the 5 blocks in the process of exploding, as I just dropped the hidden block on top of them to make a column five blocks tall. The grey blocks in the bottom row are because I have just advanced to level three.

If the blocks dropping to fill the gaps after an explosion creates another valid move, the explosions repeat – this is called a chain. Scores for blocks exploding in a chain are much higher than scores for blocks that explode all at the same time:

• Initial round of blocks: 7 points per block.
• Second step of a chain: 39 points per block.
• Third step of a chain: 109 points per block.

I can’t tell you the values after that, but they keep increasing rapidly. I once (accidentally, I must admit) created a chain that was eleven moves long and scored a phenomenal amount of points with it. Setting up chains that will explode one by one like dominoes is a challenge made harder by the fact that some blocks initially have “hidden” values and will only reveal their digits after two adjacent blocks have exploded to “break them open”. After a certain number of blocks are dropped, you move up a level which introduces a row of hidden blocks at the bottom of the screen.

It’s a difficult game to describe because it doesn’t sound interesting but it’s really both interesting and one of those games that stays interesting the longer you play. I also really like that there’s an unlimited amount of time to drop each block because I really hate games that just get faster and faster until my fingers can’t keep up! I was skeptical at first because at US$2.99 it’s more than most simple games I buy, but it’s definitely been worth the price. Drop7 is a universal app which works on iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.

I highly recommend Drop7 to anybody who likes number or shape based logic games.

- Ricky

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This article was originally published at Drop7 – Perfect for Tetris and Sodoku Lovers! and is copyright (C) Ricky Buchanan 2010. May be forwarded but do not republish without permission.

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Moms With Apps was begun by three iPhone and iPod Touch developers who connected over Twitter. They quickly recognised the family-friendly nature in each of their apps and suggested a brainstorming session on cross-marketing. The group’s founders were Alesha and Jill from MomMaps, Lynette from PicPocket Books, and Lorraine from My Busy Kit, and what started as a small conference call for brainstorming soon grew into an enthusiastic group with members collaborating over the internet in a huge variety of ways.

The purpose of the group is to brainstorm and support each other in mobile app marketing and development – most apps are for iPod Touch and iPhone although there are a few for other mobile platforms.

The apps represented within the group cover children’s books, family-friendly destinations, audio tales, magazines, communication tools, games, and interactive stories. All apps share the common purpose of providing a quality experience to help kids and families.

The group is certainly well represented on the internet in multiple ways:

• Read their Moms With Apps Blog to keep up with the main goings on.
• Follow @momswithapps on Twitter for short updates
• Become a fan of MomsWithApps on Facebook
• Any parent developer, reviewer, or industry specialist interested in family-oriented mobile apps is welcome to join the MomsWithApps Google Group where brainstorming and development happens.

The My Little Suitcase app for kids

I’d like to wish them all the best – I’ll be looking out for iPhone and iPod Touch apps from the group to review for iTalkMagazine in future.

Cheers,
Jeshyr

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This article was originally published at Moms With Apps: Safe iPhone and iPod Touch Apps For Kids and is copyright (C) Ricky Buchanan 2010. May be forwarded but do not republish without permission.

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Welcome to the world of RIDDIM RIBBON, where you guide a spinning ball as it races and rushes down a twisting, turning ribbon that’s floating in a dynamic digital space. With the beats of The Black Eyed Peas (and downloadable levels from Tiësto, Benny Benassi and, soon, others) pumping in your ears, use the iPhone / iPod Touch’s ultra-sensitive tilt controls to stay in the groove.

Each fork in the ribbon presents a new direction for you to take the mix of the song. Jump the ramps to reach upper levels, where wild audio effects kick in and the sound becomes more uniquely yours. Roll over pebbles and hit targets to maintain your speed through the checkpoints, but watch out for beat-dropping obstacles – you’ll need to flick your phone to jump over them! If you veer off the target line too long, instruments start fading, the music slows down, and the track falls apart. Then you’ll certainly lose the crowd, which is a DJ’s worst nightmare. The better you play the game, the better the song sounds!

Playing Riddim Ribbon

The game comes with three different Black Eyed Peas songs (Boom Boom Pow, I Gotta Feeling, and Meet Me Halfway) and, like the Tap Tap series, has in-game purchases from other artists, avatars, and online scoring.

There’s three skill levels for each song and (I like this bit best) there’s multiple ways to get successfully to the finish line for each skill level. So if you’re bad at games like me, you aren’t stuck with just one thing to do at the easiest level! On the other hand if you’re really good at games, check out the Riddim Ribbon Launch Contest: Every day for 30 days, one Riddim Ribbon player wins the entire Black Eyed Peas catalog, which includes Behind the Front, Bridging the Gap, Elephunk, Monkey Business, and The E.N.D.! Then, one grand prize winner gets a pair of Beats By Dre Headphones! You win by posting the highest score (on any set) is the winner for that day. For more details, check out the Tapulous blog.

Here’s another screen shot for you:

More Riddim Ribbon playing action

So, who’s playing Riddim Ribbon and how’s it going for you?

- Jeshyr

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There’s also a handy auto-reload setting, enabling you reload the page automatically every 30 seconds.

App URL: http://khotrahul.110mb.com/

This application is a web app, rather than one you buy in the iTunes Store. You may wish to read the following articles:

• What's a web app?
• How do I use a web app?

- Jeshyr

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This article was originally published at Cricket Score for iPhone and is copyright (C) Ricky Buchanan 2010. May be forwarded but do not republish without permission.

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Learn10 is designed for adult language learners, it aims to “give you a learning habit that’s hard to kick.” Amongst other modalities, they have a web app suitable for iPhone or iPod Touch users. They also offer a toolbar and screen saver for Windows users, and can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and other places.

Learn10 offer 15 different languages, and every day you will have 10 new words to learn. The words are taken from a list of the 1000 most commonly used words so they’re words you can use right away.

App URL: http://m.learn10.com

This application is a web app, rather than one you buy in the iTunes Store. You may wish to read the following articles:

• What's a web app?
• How do I use a web app?

Happy Learning!

- Jeshyr

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This article was originally published at Learn10: Learn A New Language and is copyright (C) Ricky Buchanan 2010. May be forwarded but do not republish without permission.

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We have a great gift for all iPhone and iPod Touch users thanks to of the people from Shoot It!. If you sign up for Shoot It! New Year’s Eve Freebie you’ll get to send five free postcards to friends in America, as well as a chance to play with the free Shoot It! software. These aren’t email postcards or MMS postcards – they’re real physical postcards the postman will deliver to your recipients!

And if you have an iPod Touch or another device without a camera you can still take part – the Shoot It! software can grab any pictures you’ve synchronised from iPhoto and use those on your postcards. And for a change, this one isn’t just for iPhone and iPod Touch users – Shoot It! also works on Windows Mobile devices, Android devices, and the Blackberry!

If you want to send more than five postcards, you can purchase additional credits from the Shoot It! website and send as many as you like – it’s US$0.99 or less per postcard, depending how many credits you purchase at one time.

It’s the new year in New Zealand now, and it’s 10pm in Melbourne, Australia where I am so go sign up for Shoot It! New Year’s Eve Freebie and I’ll sign off now and go enjoy my own new year’s eve. Anybody want a postcard from me?

I hope your 2010 is everything you wish for.

- Ricky

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Most of the apps available are games, but there are a few non-games amongst the bunch too. The full list of discounted apps is:

• Twilight Golf
• Crayon Ball
• EyeGore’s Eye Blast
• Pinch ‘n Pop!
• Pollywog
• Smiles Zen
• Smiles
• Train Conductor
• iTweetReply
• CatTaTa
• RocketFuse
• Rail Adventures
• Space Duel!
• Ringo
• Screw The Dealer
• Cash Machine
• Outnumbered
• iHurt
• Dragon Eye
• iType2Go
• Tap-Fu
• Rogueship
• Hi, How are you
• 3D Wizard Wand

Which apps are you planning to get from this bundle? Smiles and Crayon Ball seem most interesting to me!

- Jeshyr

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This article was originally published at 2009 New Year’s App Blowout – Cheap Apps For 2010! and is copyright (C) Ricky Buchanan 2010. May be forwarded but do not republish without permission.

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Sure you can save to favourites, you can view all on the map, you can email the details to a friend and such like, all you’d expect it too. It’s not in the App store just yet, but there is now a demo video on YouTube.

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