Your car, when you drive like me, gets damaged! The more damage you get, the lower your top speed is and the idea is to complete all the stages of the rally without completely killing your car. You can turn off the ‘damage’ but then any fastest times and records etc are not saved however this would make it more child-friendly as a game.

The graphics are very slick, the retina screen of the iPhone 4 makes a huge difference when developers go to the effort of adding support for it. On first play you can have pop up hints explaining how to do things which can be useful but on the first course there are 3 or 4 points where the game is interrupted to tell you how to change the view for the car, or to explain that the red/green bars mean! It took a few races to get used to the game and the best techniques for steering but thankfully after the course is complete you can either ‘accept’ your time or race that course again. If you choose to ‘race again’ and you actually get a slower time then your faster one is lost – it’s a risk you have to take…

During the race the bars on the left show each part of the course and at each checkpoint these then become colour coded red or green depending on how your time compares to the other competitors. You also have your damage shown at the top left of the screen.  After every 2 races you get the chance to repair your car. You can either let the app do it automatically or you can play a mini-game to stand a chance of getting a better, faster repair. The mini-games are quite fun and a nice break from driving; the first is a skill game to hit a button at the right time, the second is a mini puzzle to join up 2 lines and I’m yet to see the third!

The difficulty seems spot on; it’s not too easy that you can win every race and complete the game straight away but also, it’s not so hard that you simply don’t want to play it. I came 2nd in my first rally, which I’m pretty happy with and it also gave me a new car.

As well as the normal rally mode the game has 2 extra modes: Adrenaline and Time Trial. Time Trial is self-explanatory really (try get the fastest time on a course). Adrenaline has you trying to finish the course within a set time limit and with as little damage as possible to your car. On both these modes you can control the weather conditions.

At the moment this is an iPhone/iPod only app and priced at $4.99/€3,49/£2.99 however it will soon be updated to be a Universal app (for both iPad and iPhone/iPod) when the price will rise to $6.99/€5,49/£3.99 – so if you want it for your iPad then grab it now and wait for the free update!

Rally Master Pro is a good game, it has some good features such as the mini-games and some very varied tracks. It’s difficulty level is just about right and leaves you wanting to keep playing to beat your last time.

Posimotion Helix gaming grip

Posimotion have overcome these fears with the $19.99 Helix gaming grip. This is basically a steering wheel style of holder allowing you to keep a good hold on your device and improves the tactile input whilst playing games. The design of the Helix is such that the iPhone can be installed in both portrait or landscape modes.

If you dont own an iPhone but have an iPod Touch then the Helix is for you too. Posimotion provide an adapter that mates with the Helix to provide a cradle to securely hold your iPod Touch as well.

I was able to try out the Helix when I visited the Posimotion offices in Florida. I found it easy to use, but not being an avid gamer I handed it over to the experts to show me how effective it really is. We have one in for review at the moment so more details will follow soon.

In the mean time the Helix gaming grip will be available from Best Buy and online from the Posimotion store for $19.99 plus taxes and shipping.

Posimotion Helix with iPod adapter

Posimotion Helix with iPod adapter

Posimotion Helix in portrait mode

Posimotion Helix in landscape mode

When I met Posimotion there was a special offer being promoted with the Helix: A free copy of their latest game Twisted Abyss. When I visited them the game was not quite complete, but was shaping up very nicely. Twisted Abyss is a 3D submarine shoot-em-up with the combat vessels modelled on aquatic creatures taking on their unique attributes in the game.

Twisted Abyss free with Posimotion Helix

Twisted Abyss free with Posimotion Helix

Twisted Abyss free with Posimotion Helix

Twisted Abyss free with Posimotion Helix

We will have more about Twisted Abyss very soon…

The Posimotion Helix gaming grip Press Release follows:

PosiMotion is pleased to announce that the Helix, a gaming accessory for the iPhone and iPod touch, is now available in Best Buy stores. It can be found in the Best Buy Mobile section, as well as bestbuy.com ($19.99USD).

Helix has a grip-enhancing soft touch that vastly improves gaming performance. Both extremely light and portable, Helix offers a sleek aesthetic and ergonomic design for enhanced playing comfort and control.

Features include:
• Compatible with iPhone 3G, 3GS and iPod touch 2G, 3G
• Devices fit securely in portrait and landscape orientation
• Comfortably wide handles for accurate steering control
• Sturdy, durable construction
• Simple wire management
• Ideal for racing, first person shooters, action RPG’s, flight simulators, side-scrollers… virtually any game.

Check out the new Helix video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sew-IivonhQ

For more info about Helix, visit http://www.posimotion.com/helix

Posimotion Helix gaming grip.

The idea behind the Powermat system is one of simplicity – charge as many devices as you can using a single socket. For this to work you need to remove the main obstacles; those obstacles are generally in the form of custom, proprietary and generally different power adapters. What you have with the Powermat system is a charging mat that you place your device on and, well, it charges it – without the wires/adapters.

This site is called Wired4iPhone for a reason: we like iPhones. As such I will mainly concentrate on the iPhone Powermat solution and only briefly mention these ‘other devices’ that apparently exist. So, the obvious question is how do you charge your iPhone without connecting a lead? Well, basically you stick it in a Powermat case which has a direct connection into the “dock-connector” and a power receiver on the back. The case itself is sturdy, made out of a slightly rubberised plastic and adds around 3mm to the depth of the phone and about 6-8mm to the bottom where the dock connector fits into it. While it’s not overly bulky, the receiver does tend to cause an unsightly bulge in your pocket – perhaps if the case had been designed to blend into the receiver a bit more rather than sticking out so much then it may have ‘felt’ a bit better in your pocket. While in the case you can easily get to the power, and volume buttons but the silent switch is tricky to control though – it is easy to flick it away to put it into silent but, because of it’s proximity to the case, it is hard to actually pull back to turn silent mode off. The case also has openings at the base for the microphone and speaker.

So, your iPhone has it’s new jacket on so what next? Well, you need to charge it! This is beautifully simple – put it on the charging mat. Yes, that’s it – no fiddling with the lead, simply place it on one of the ‘dots’ on the mat. These ‘dots’ are magnetic so if you are very slightly off target it will pull it into place. You will also get a confirmatory noise and the white LED will glow (both the sound and lights can be turned off). This particular mat has 3 charge points but you will also be able to buy single point mats in the near future – these were on display at MWC but are not yet on the Powermat website. The Powermat will not overcharge your iPhone as it detects when it is fully charged and turns off the supply. I’m pretty sure it is all more technological that this but from an end-user point of view it’s all very simple!

Rather annoyingly the Powermat iPhone case does not use the standard iPhone sync lead, instead the case has a micro-USB connection (the lead is included). The case is actually quite tricky to remove so unless you have another micro-USB lead in the car then you will start to get fed up with the whole set up…

Another disadvantage is the likelihood that you are the only person you know with a Powermat set up. This means when you go away you either need to take the Powermat with you (a normal charger is way smaller) or remove the case (somewhat defeating the point). This is, however, a chicken and egg situation: as more people use Powermat, more charging points will be available, but without the availability of public or commonplace mats then fewer people might be inclined to use the system…

All is not lost though, at MWC the company were showing off their OEM kit along with a camcorder battery, smartphone battery and kettle all with Powermat built in. Once companies see the potential of such a system then it should be easier to get your device(s) charged.

As well as the iPhone case you can also get an add-on for a Nintendo DS, back plate for Blackberry, iPod dock and the Powercube. I managed to get a Powercube and iPod dock for this review.

The iPod dock is adjustable according to which model you have and does a good job of holding your ipod in place thanks to a rubber grip. Again, to charge you place the dock on the charge mat. The Powercube is for practically everything else. It contains a receiver, a mini-USB fly-lead and a box of adapters. The adapters fit onto the mini-USB and allow you to connect various phones and devices. It’s quite handy and they’ve even printed the adaptor type onto each one in case you get your Samsung mixed up with Sony Ericsson! This brings us back to the chicken and egg again, you have more adapters and leads than if you just took a single charger but then if more places had a Powermat available then it would actually give you less to carry.

Overall it’s a good system. The parts are well made and don’t feel cheap. Perhaps that is because they’re not cheap! The set up below costs a rather staggering £169.96 (Powermat £69.99, iPhone case £34.99, iPod dock £34.99, Powercube £29.99). Again, once something like this becomes more common place then the prices may drop – or at least I would hope so!

The whole thing works well but is let down somewhat by the lack of places, for example hotels, who offer a Powermat as a service. But then more people must embrace the technology before anything like that will happen. If they hurry up and market the replacement smart phone batteries they had on show, as well as pushing the OEM take up, then it could speed up the whole process.

Having played with the 3G version of OS4 for a few days there are a few new features that are quite small but are really useful.

Firstly the Spotlight Search has been extended to include messages (previously only mail was searched). Also, at the end of the results list are two quick links to search in Google and in Wikipedia. This opens up the relevant search page in Safari.

The next new feature is the integrated spell-check. Unrecognised words are underlined in red and then when you tap on the word you are given a few suggestions as to what word you intended writing. This, along with the good old spelling corrections, makes typing in the iPhone even more fulfilling.

Searching in Safari has also been improved. The Google/Yahoo! search bar now offers suggested searches just like when you use the normal Google/Yahoo! websites.

Maps has a new view mode so you now have the option of map, satellite, hybrid or list. List simply shows a list of the directions for your route or just shows your search result(s) in text form.

Whenever the GPS (or other ‘My Location’ services) are running you now get an arrow showing in the status bar. I can only assume that this has been added as am aid to multitasking so you an easily see if there’s an app running that’s using the GPS.

Sending messages has become friendlier for the cheap-skates among us (or those who tweet by SMS) with the new option of a ‘character count’. After writing 3 lines of a message a count appears above the send button saying, for example, 89/160. At the moment it will also simply say 254/160 but you have to work out for yourself how many messages that will take up! Remember though, this is still beta so it may well be improved upon.

App folders work really well and have been covered by various blogs across the web. Simply drag an app on top of another one to create a folder and then rename it and add/arrange further apps. You can fit up to 12 apps into a folder and can also place them in the dock thereby giving you quick access to 48 apps regardless of which home screen you are currently on.

The Camera app now has 5x digital zoom, for what it’s worth. Simply tap the screen and a slider will appear. It’s digital zoom though so not completely wonderful, but still, it’s something new so worth a mention!

And, finally, the unified inbox! This is great! Changes mailboxes was such a hassle but now from your inbox it’s a single tap to get to the list of accounts where you can either view a single mailbox or everything together. You can still view all the other folders (Trash, Sent etc) easily too. Another enhancement to the Mail app is threaded email. If you have multiple emails with the same subject / recipient then you can view these in a single thread. Mail will show the number of messages and a double arrow to signify this.

UPDATES:

The Calendar app has had a little update too – but it’s very useful. You can now select which calendars you want to display for example if you have a few Mobile Me calendars as well as a GMail calendar. Also added is a Birthdays calendar – the data for this is pulled from your contacts list and is not editable (i.e. you can’t add an alert for them).

Something I missed earlier with the updates to the Mail app is the new option to resize image attachments. When you press ‘send’ you are asked if you want to resize the image or use the original size.

Over the air Notes syncing has also been added. The Notes app now has an accounts button where you can choose which notes are shown in the list – this includes ‘all notes’, Mobile Me notes’, ‘gmail notes’ and ‘notes on the iPhone’.

In the Settings there are a couple of new additions too. You can now turn off all cellular data and not just 3G like you could previously. Also, once you have given an app permission to use your location then you can manually turn on/off that permission in the Location Services settings.

I mentioned earlier about the spell-check feature when inputting text. Something I missed was the option to ‘Replace’. When you select text you now get the option to Cut, Copy, Paste or Replace. Replace simply gives you a selection of a few similar looking words to change to. This would be useful when you accidentally select the wrong word via the spell-checker!

And, finally, for this update the iPod’s ‘On-The-Go Playlists’ have been removed! Before you reel in horror I should explain that they have been replaced with just good, old fashioned, playlists. Tap on ‘Add Playlist’, give it a title and then pick the songs you want to add.

If we find any further forgotten features we’ll make sure we post them here at Wired4iPhone.com