by T.J. Brumfield

Not many people know, but Mario was originally called Jumpman in Donkey Kong. Later he became the Italian plumber we all know and love. There was another classic game called Jumpman back in 1983. Well, Leaf Bound is here with a girl named Yuri who would like to inherent the Jumpman crown. All Yuri does is jump. She jumps when she breathes. She jumps when she sleeps. And when she wants to jump, she jumps some more.

I think you get the point. In this game, you don’t even have to do anything to jump. Jumping is a given. It is inherent, and intrinsic law of the Leaf Bound universe. All you do is swipe your finger from left to right to control the direction Yuri is jumping in. Along the way there are Mecha-Monkeys. And if there are Mecha-Monkeys, it is also inherent that there will be Mecha-Monkey Mayhem. You learn to expect such behavior from robotic primates.

Yuri’s job is to jump on these monkeys. I’m not sure she collects a paycheck for it, but she is jumping anyways, so it is no major inconvenience to her. You have to keep jumping to climb to the top of the level. You do this by bouncing off those naughty primates, the occasional ledge, and leaves that seem to very slowly drop from the sky. Physics be damned, as falling leaves provide the perfect surface for you to bound from most of the time.

Yuri leaps with amazing prowess very high into the air. It is slightly less amazing when you encounter gravity-defying fruit hanging in the air. Not even Yuri can defy gravity the way giant oranges can. The various fruit power-ups are collected on your journey to the top. Collect any three, and you receive a heart to replenish part of your health. Do so, and you will see Yuri hug a giant heart with exuberance and emotional hyperbole reminiscent of anime. Frankly, no girl on the planet can possibly be as happy as Yuri is when she hugs that giant heart.

If you happen to pick up hot sauce or hot peppers, then life begins to get interesting. As you reach your next power-up, you may want to pass it by. Combined with other power-ups, the peppers and hot sauce do nothing. But combine any three hot power-ups together, and you gain temporary invincibility. You also seem to skyrocket up to top even faster than before. Logically, I can assume this is from the natural allergic reaction to hot peppers that forces Yuri to rocket towards relief. The painful burn of hot peppers makes her oblivious to the attacks of Mecha-Monkeys who might normally harm her. Who cares if she suffers, so long as you beat the level that much quicker.

As you reach the top of each level (there is an indicator on the left) a boss appears. This boss is none too pleased with your desire to jump. They want to train Yuri not to jump using negative reinforcement techniques inspired by Maslow’s dogs. But you can’t stop Yuri from jumping. Jump on the boss a few times for good measure, and then rocket on to the next level.

At the end of each level you get a point breakdown for the various power-ups you picked up along the way. You then continue to the next boss. Lather, rinse and repeat. There aren’t many levels. An in Arcade mode can you can simply skip to the level you want to play. But Pixel Stream’s website mentions they are considering adding more levels, more characters and more features. And in the end, this is a 99 cent app.

I don’t love it personally because at times I was jumping so quickly that I couldn’t really see in time what was above me that I was jumping into. I felt like I simply watched what was happening to Yuri as opposed to controlling her. But sometimes you want quick mindless fun. Leaf Bound certainly provides that.

This tip originated on the referenced site: http://www.iphoneappreviews.net

by T.J. Brumfield.

The iPhone is far from perfect. But perhaps its greatest appeal is its ability to replace several separate cumbersome and expensive gadgets with one simple device. With Garafa’s GPS Kit, even the most ardent GPS enthusiasts may be able to set aside their dedicated GPS units and reach for their iPhone instead. I took version 3.2 out for a spin, which works well with OS 3.0 on my 3G S.

For those who don’t own dedicated GPS units, you may be wondering if you need anything more than the basic functionality that the iPhone provides out of the box, especially for an app priced at $9.99. The iPhone by default comes with an application which pulls up Google maps. It can find your current location, show you maps around the globe, and provide directions by car, bus or foot.

If you want to mark your current position, or any number of positions and recall it later, the basic map app likely won’t be enough. GPS Kit allows you to store unlimited locations to pull up at any time. You can name waypoints, and even place waypoints together in a set. You can also discover nearby waypoints that others have saved, download sets, and share your own. For example, I can download approximately 12,000 Panera Bread locations.

Likewise you can download or create an unlimited series of tracks. For an outdoor hobbyist who wants to find trails on vacation, a good bike route, or even get into geocaching, GPS Kit is the app for you. Both the waypoints and tracks are exported in GPX format.

A compass will help direct you to your desired waypoint if you get turned around. If you want traditional directions, GPS Kit will pull up the iPhone’s built in map application with your destination already set.

Obviously, a big part of the value inherent here is in the data created by the community and hosted on Garafa’s website. As more users add their waypoints, it will be easier to find new destinations to explore. If you want to wander off to new routes of your own, simply pull up the map, double-tap to drop a pin, or pull up the ruler and stretch between two points to gauge the distance. In addition to the traditional map view, and the street image view, GPS Kit adds a topography view that is especially useful when exploring less urban locales.

While en route, the dashboard tracks the trip time, speed, overall pace, GPS accuracy, direction and distance traveled. On the fly you can change any of the readouts to display in the units of your choosing. Feeling nautical on your next fishing trip? Set your speed to display in knots. It isn’t guaranteed to help you grow sea legs however. I recommend a Dramamine for that.

GPS Kit will also let you cache your data which is an important feature. If you lose signal along the way, you can still pull up information on your destination. Leave the app, bring it back up, and it will ask you if you want to restore the track you had open, or start fresh.

It would be nice if I could add waypoints by entering in an address or GPS coordinates as opposed to sticking pins directly in the map. And ideally I’d love to see turn-by-turn directions that update based upon GPS locations. However, that functionality currently only exists with the AT&T Navigator service. I’m not sure competing products will find their way into the App Store.

A proximity sensor, dashboard lock, adjustable settings and clever coding help optimize battery life to make GPS Kit a viable alternative to dedicated devices on your next expedition. Garafa’s website also provides several videos and user guides. A clean, responsive interface rounds out the professional polish on this feature rich app. The $9.99 price tag might scare off a curious buyer who isn’t sure they need a GPS app. But Garafa has pulled out all the stops in putting together an impressive product for the serious enthusiast in GPS Kit that could save you hundreds over a competing dedicated device.

This review originated on the referenced site: http://www.iphoneappreviews.net