by Mel Martin on Apr 17th 2009 at 4:30PM
Got a hankering to fly through some pylons? Red Bull Air Race World Championship Lite Version [App Store link] might be just the ticket. The $0.99US game puts you in air races in either San Diego or Abu Dhabi. Red Bull Air Race is not a flight simulator like X-Plane, but more of an arcade game. It uses the iPhone accelerometer for steering. and is pretty responsive. The course, said to be an accurate representation of the real locations, is rendered in nice 3D. On-screen markers point you in the right direction if you get off course. You will.

Flying the race is a good challenge, and happily you can choose to turn off the background music if you want to. You can choose a cockpit eye view, or follow along behind your plane.

In the hangar you can chose from 2 planes to fly, but you have no options to configure them further. An options screen allows you to change the volume, the vibration and sensitivity of the controls. There is also a calibration screen if things get off a bit.

The game is the lite version, with a more full-featured version coming. It runs on both the iPhone and the iPod touch.

My only complaint is that the game has a slow load time, made even slower by seeing an animated logo from the developers, then a video from a real race. It takes about a minute from the time you launch the app until you are flying. As they used to say around the flight schools, 'Got time to spare, go by air.'

Screen shots are here:

Gallery: Red Bull Air Race World Championship

Tags: app store, arcade game, flight sim, iPhone, iPod touch, Red Bull Air Race, review

* Related Story
* Email this
* Share
* Comments (3)

Filed under: WWDC, Found Footage, iPhone, App Store, SDK, iPod touch
Found Footage: iPhone Developer Profiles

by Steven Sande on Apr 17th 2009 at 3:00PM
In anticipation of the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference coming up June 8 - 12 in San Francisco, Apple has posted four videos highlighting developers who are creating apps with the iPhone SDK.

Each video shows how the developer is creating a unique app with the iPhone SDK, using the tools and frameworks, and then selling the app through the App Store.

The videos highlight:

* Dr. Ge Wang of Smule, the developers of Ocarina and Leaf Trombone: World Stage (clicks open iTunes), among other apps. He is an assistant professor at Stanford who researches
* Christina Wick, who is part of the Mac software team for AOL (parent company of Weblogs Inc. and TUAW). Christina's team is using the SDK to develop iPhone versions of many of the AOL Mac applications, including AOL Radio
* Werner Jainek of Stuttgart-based Cultured Code, the developers of Things for Mac and iPhone. Things (click opens iTunes) is an amazing task management app that is a favorite of several TUAW bloggers.
* Steve Demeter of Demiforce is a lifelong gamer who saw the potential of the iPhone as a gaming platform and who has had great success with his app Trism (click opens iTunes).

In this cynical world, it's great to see four people who are so positive about the iPhone platform and the SDK.