H. López de Victoria

Easily one of my favorite photography apps available on the App Store. I love taking random "Photo Booth-like" pictures whenever I go, and the streamlined interface of IncrediBooth (from the makers of Hipstamatic) lets me do that in mere seconds. Facebook and Photo Library export is great to have, as well. A must for any iPhone 4 (it uses the frontal camera to great effect) owner out there.

It's the most interesting of all the alternative twitter apps, that's for sure. Reminds me a lot of TweetDeck in network integration and design, but still a tad too slow for my tastes. Sticking with Twitter for iPhone. :)

Polished, polished, polished. Difficulty whores: this is the puzzle game for you. No Game Center integration yet (achievements would certainly be welcomed), but hopefully there'll be some kind of update in the future adding it.

If you're a (popular) music fan you love music videos, and what better way to enjoy them on your iPhone than with this app? That's right: YouTube. Ok, I know I'm being unfair. Let's try again. :P

Despite the limited catalogue of artists and videos so far, this app succeeds on its presentation and ease of use thanks to its intuitive user interface. There's a another great point to be done, perhaps the most important one: it's FREE!

I had already played through this game on my Nintendo DS but I wanted to have a copy of it on the iPhone because I love it so much. What makes it great? It's design harkens back to the great Adventure games of yore. Every case is a delight to solve thanks to the solid game design, excellent written dialogue and inventive puzzle mechanics. The characters are very endearing and even iconic, in some cases. And the music, a very basic set of decently-composed midi arrangements, helps in transporting you to the world of Phoenix Wright.

Case in point: If you haven't played this yet just buy it. :D

An iPhone/iPod Touch classic. You play the role of an Air Traffic Controller directing all types of aircraft to their respective landing strips by...well, drawing lines simply by just swiping your finger. Sounds simple enough, yah? Well, after a few minutes it gets tough...REAL TOUGH. :P Still, the game is ridiculously fun specially for casual gamers. Classy art, visuals that take advantage of the Retina Display and a very polished presentation round this game's selling features.

This is 8-bit Pictionary with a very intuitive and friendly (if a little glitchy) online multiplayer component, excellent presentation and full Open Feint integration (if you care about sharing your in-game achievements/scores with the world).

In short: it's awesome.

This one I purchased as a gift for the boyfriend. Other than making him sentimental over the current state of the poles (yes, he's that awesome), he LOVED it. :P

Purchased it about two weeks ago and arrived yesterday. Perfect timing too, since I start college tomorrow (if Hurricane Earl doesn't decide to set-up camp here, that is >_>).

Oh, and I absolutely love it. :D

This one's interesting. Not as polished as I'd like but its rhythm-based gameplay has me hooked (like virtually all decent rhythm games do). I'd go as far as saying that some gameplay scenarios are as fresh (in originality) as they're fun to play, something that cannot be said about most games in the genre.

Give it a try. I think you'll find it fun, too.

Booted it up last night for the first time and I was in awe at the quality of the product. Presentation-wise, it's easily among the best I've seen on the platform. Starry nights out in the patio with the boyfriend will never be the same. :)

So...EpicWin...

I eagerly anticipated the release of this app for it promised to make me do the things I had to on any given day (ie. wash the car, which I hate dearly) and reward me with EXP points and loot in the process (yea...LIKE AN RPG!). Well, guess what? I purchased it blindly for $2.99 and it didn't live up to my expectations. No SFX, very unpolished UI and presentation...a mess, to put it bluntly. That sorta' changed with an update released yesterday which added SFX and a bit more polish here and there, but its true potential hasn't been fully realized. I'll keep my eye on it and will update/edit this accordingly.

It'd be too easy to call Enchanted a "guilty pleasure", so I'll just ask this instead: do you like fairy tales in the sometimes musical, always sugary Disney tradition? Then you'll LOVE this. Amy Adams is fantastic here, as usual, and the songs by Menken and Schwartz are a blast to sing and jump to. A favorite here at home. :)

Watching this makes me cringe, cover my eyes, fall in love, feel sorrow and ALWAYS hope for a better outcome. Easily del Toro's masterpiece, "El Laberinto del Fauno" is what made me trust blindly in Guillermo when he was positioned to direct The Hobbit. A gem in my collection.

What follows is entirely real:

When it was first unveiled at last year's SXSW, I looked at this Location-sharing thingy with dubious eyes. Foursquare? Gowalla? What the hell is "Location-sharing", anyway!? :| So I decided to join one of those services to end my ignorance, as a good social media whore. I then used to own a Blackberry Curve 8520, so the only option I had was Foursquare, and download it I did.

I became totally addicted to it.

Checked-in EVERYWHERE, loved to retain and steal mayorships and even actively searched for badges. But something happened then, the app did not intend: the "game" became monotonous and didn't exactly cater to my high visual design standards (yes, I'm a whore for pretty UI). I'd heard about Gowalla being prettier and stuff, but there was no app out for Blackberry back then...so I stuck with Foursquare for a while, checking-in casually.

Fast-forward to June of this year, when I got my first iPhone...an iPhone 4. I proceeded to download Foursquare and even checked-in in a few places, just before I realized I was now able to enjoy Gowalla as well. So I went to the App Store, tapped on "Free", "Free" turned into "Install" so I tapped again...and the rest is history. I've been a loyal Gowalla user for the past two months and loving it. But why is it better for me, prettier design aside?

It's all about the "stamps". Each and every spot you check-in in Gowalla has an exquisitely designed stamp accompanying it that reflects the type of venue/service it is. Not only that, there are also "Featured Spots", usually landmarks, culturally-relevant places, shops and services on any given country. These have their very own custom stamp, lovingly illustrated by Gowalla's awesome illustrators. As a result, your Gowalla account has this "Passport" feel to it that its competitor only wish it could have. If it sounds like I'm gushing, believe me, I am.

I haven't touched the fact you can actually upload pictures to any spot, engage on a very rewarding item-swapping game and even create trips around your neighborhood for visitors to enjoy...oh, looks like I did. :P Yes, I love Gowalla. It's less competitive than Foursquare but in my opinion "location-sharing" doesn't need to be. It's about discovering new places and the people that go to them, and documenting your visits, creating digital memories.

It's about the journey AND the destination, and Gowalla will make both special again.

Excellent for making and storing digital copies of physical receipts, important documents or just a flyer of an event you got interested in while you walked around town. Best of all, it's F-R-E-E. :D

The magic of Sondheim's brilliant composition. The dark hues & character quirks of Burton. A wonderful tragedy of a film, incredibly presented on Blu-ray. Highly recommended.

p.s. Hemophobia? Don't get near this.

Works pretty well as a picture uploader but I haven't found so far a "defining feature" that separates it from the rest. I like it, though.

As with Up, not loving Wall-E means you need to get your pulse checked. Only the artists at Pixar could've crafted such a charming, heart-felt movie with a *real* message, and this Blu-ray set does it proper justice.

Now this is more like it: BEAUTIFUL presentation and tight controls give this classic european board game a new life on the iPhone. Add to that a great online component that lets you play with friends and voilá: a great game, you have. Buy.