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A few days ago, I caught a tweet from Paul Haddad (of Tapbots), showing a screen full of obvious copycat apps from one developer. Of course, anyone who has spent appreciable time on the App Store knows there are plenty of copycats out there. Not all of them are small shops, either. But these copycat apps were truly astonishing in their brazen nature -- I mean, Plants v. Zombie? Temple Jump (instead of Temple Run)? Come on.

Luckily Apple finally woke up and rooted out a number of these cloned games from this single offending developer. I'm sure others will pop up again, but hopefully Apple will be more on top of things in the future. In the meanwhile, let us know if you see a copycat app. You can give us a shout either in the comments or using the "Tip Us" button at the top of our website.

[via The Loop]

Apple removes one iOS developer's copycat games originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

We've seen lots of photo accessories that let you add filters and lenses to your iPhone, but SkyLight is the first to let you add a full-fledged microscope. It's a platform that attaches to a microscope and aligns the phone's camera with the eyepiece. You can view the microscope image on your phone and take photographs. It's perfect for classroom usage, for researchers who need high-quality images in their published papers and for clinicians who can take a photo and send it off for analysis.

SkyLight started as a Kickstarter project that reached its $15,000 funding goal last month. It was available for a preorder price of US$60 and will ship in March. It includes a generous five for one incentive plan that'll donate one SkyLight to global health or educational purposes for every 5 SkyLights purchased. You can read more about the accessory and its inspiration at the SkyLight website.

[Via Springwise]

SkyLight combines iPhones and microscopes originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Glitchsoft's oddly-titled Star Marine: Infinite Ammo (more on why that's weird in a moment) is both good at bad. First, it's good at heart. Star Marine: Infinite Ammo is a Contra-style run-and-gun title that has you controlling a soldier on a spaceship among other environments. Your job is to fight through hordes of aliens and escape. The action is great and fans of the old Contra game will find a lot to enjoy.

However, Star Marine has a few unfortunate issues. First of all, the controls are a little more wonky than they should be. For example, the action often gets fast and furious. When things heated up in Contra, you could duck and jump out of the way reliably. Star Marine's touch controls, by contrast, don't always get you where you need to go. I got hit by several stray bullets and alien flyers because the controls weren't quite as tight as they should be.

Repetition is also an issue. While the environment options eventually expand, the first few levels are basically the same hallways and enemies over and over. An enjoyable boss battle becomes drudgery after you've done it several times.

The freemium-style in-app purchase system doesn't help, either. When you discover a gun you haven't unlocked with gems you've collected, you just plain don't get it. Plus, the gems come way too slowly. If this was a freemium game, the rate might be acceptable (and I fully expect it to drop to free at some point), but for the current price of US$1.99, it's too slow.

I've got one more complaint. For a game called "Infinite Ammo," there's only one gun I found that was truly infinite. Everything else, including weapons you can buy, health packs and special attacks, are limited.

Despite those issues, Star Marine: Infinite Ammo can be fun. There's even a Boss Rush and Survival Mode to enjoy after you've finished the main campaign. I don't know that I'd recommend it at the $1.99 price, but this game seems made to be discounted, so keep an eye out for it. At a slightly cheaper price (or maybe if the freemium system is tweaked to be a little more forgiving), Star Machine: Infinite Ammo has a lot more going for it.

Daily iPhone App: Star Marine Infinite Ammo originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.