Submitted by Marshall Walker on
It was a busy week for App Store releases, but before we get started let's talk about the Pangu iOS 8 jailbreak. The Chinese team of hackers behind the iOS 7.1 jailbreak this week released an iOS 8.0 - 8.1 jailbreak for developers. The jailbreak does not come bundled with Cydia, but Team Pangu announced today that they are working with Cydia creator @saurik to fix this and other issues plaguing the release. It is unclear when a full English version of the iOS 8 jailbreak will be available, but it should be released way sooner than we expected. This means we will be seeing more jailbreak tweaks in the near future that take advantage of all the new features found in iOS 8.
There were also quite a few new iOS games announced this week. Nimblebit released a teaser trailer for Golfinity, Foursaken Media posted a bunch of screen shots of Heroes and Castles 2 on the Touch Arcade forums and Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf got an official release date: of October 28, 2014. You can see the trailers for all titles and more at the bottom of this post.
Here are this week's games, apps and jailbreak tweaks released to the App Store and Cydia through 10/19/14 to 10/25/14. Apple's Free App of the Week is RGB Express - Mini Truck Puzzle. The game will be free on the Apple App Store until 10/30/14.
Camp Pokémon: Free for the iPod touch, iPhone and iPad (Requires iOS 6.0 or later) Rated 4+
Newest iPhone FAQs
Pixelmator: $4.99 for the iPad (Requires iOS 8.0 or later) Rated 4+
Remember that photo editing app Apple previewed at its iPad keynote a few weeks ago? This is it, and it is now available on the App Store for an introductory price of $4.99. That's pretty cheap considering the Mac version is $29.99. Pixelmator is a photo editing application for the iPad that features tons of tools to enhance and edit images. You can watch the iPad demo video in the Game Trailers / Previews section below.
Rooms: Free for the iPod touch, iPhone and iPad (Requires iOS 7.1 or later) Rated 12+
Facebook has released another iOS app called Rooms. At first glance the app seems interesting, an anonymous forum where users can create their own topics and share images and videos, but only a few days after its release the app has turned into a sea of SPAM and unfunny images you see on a daily basis on your Facebook feed. The goal of the app is to recapture the spirit of message boards and forums that brought internet users together in the past, but that may be hard now that internet culture is mainstream. The process of inviting people to join your room is also confusing and suspicious. Room moderators must created a QR Code invitation for other users to use to gain access to private Rooms. This requires taking a screenshot of the invitation and allowing Facebook access to your camera. It will be interesting to see if Rooms ever develops into something or if it will be just another forgotten Facebook app that nobody uses.
Puzzle to the Center of the Earth: Free for the iPod touch, iPhone and iPad (Requires iOS 5.0 or later) Rated 9+
Foursaken Media's new title is getting great reviews from around the internet for its interesting take on the overused match-three genre. Puzzle to the Center of the Earth mixes platforming elements with match-three gameplay as you dig to the center of the Earth. The game features over 80 randomized levels with plenty of hidden achievements and loot to collect.
More App Store Releases *The listed prices are launch prices and are subject to change.
- Peninsular War Battles: $9.99 (Universal) Turn-based strategy war game from the creators of Civil War
- Zero Lives: $2.99 (Universal) Puzzle game where you collect hearts to survive
- NHL 2K: $7.99 (Universal) 2K's latest hockey game for the 2014 - 2015 NHL season
- RETRY: Free (Universal) Rovio Entertainment's (Angry Birds) 8-bit time Flappy Bird-like game
- Battle Academy 2: Eastern Front: $19.99 (iPad) Play as Axis and Soviet forces in more than 30 strategy war game missions
- Pro Strategy Football 2014: $4.99 (Universal) Manage a 2014 PSF team - now with Career mode
- Castle Scout: Classic arcade color match game where you catch ghosts
- Black Tower Enigma: $0.99 (Universal) Retro style riddle-solving fantasy adventure
- Money Pro: $4.99 (Universal) Helps manage your money
- Wordly: $2.99 (Universal) Improve your knowledge of the world
- Vandelay: $2.99 (iPad) Provides three separate delays in as many frequency regions
- Ghost Blade: $4.99 (Universal) 3D action game where you play as a necromancer named “Zhang Jiao”
- PhotoMath: Free (Universal) The world's first camera
- Infuse Pro: $9.99 (Universal) A way to watch almost any video format on your iPhone or iPad
- TinType by Hipstamatic: $0.99 (iPhone) "Inspired by daguerreotypes, tintypes, and other photographic processes from over a hundred years ago, TinType faithfully reproduces these amazing images with stunning accuracy"
- Fighting Fantasy: Caverns of the Snow Witch: $5.99 (Universal) "Travel to Northern Allansia’s perilous Icefinger Mountains to defeat the wicked Snow Witch in this Fighting Fantasy adventure"
- Miika: $3.99 (Universal) 3D puzzle game
- Tilt to Live: Gauntlet's Revenge: $2.99 (Universal) Tilt your device to avoid obstacles
- Toca Boo: $2.99 (Universal) Toca's Halloween game
- Inbox by Gmail: Free (Universal)
Inbox by Gmail requires an invite. Email inbox@google.com to request one. Your email inbox should help you live and work better, but instead it often buries the important stuff and creates more stress than it relieves. Inbox, built by the Gmail team, keeps things organized and helps you get back to what matters.
New Cydia Tweaks
- Monochrome (Free) Get black and white home screen icons on iOS 7
- Flurry (Free) Customize blur and tint
- Ascend ($1.00) A redesign for the Lock Screen
- Reachability7 (Free) Use Reachability with iOS 7
- ColorfulKBD Pro ($0.99) Add custom colors to all facets of the keyboard
- Impulse ($1.99) Control music playback while your device is locked
Noteworthy App Updates
Be sure to check out all the best Halloween updates this month.
- Final Fantasy V Version 1.1.0 adds iCloud and Logitech PowerShell Controller support
- Instacast 5 Version 5.0 adds iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus support
- IMDb Version 4.5.1 adds box office info from Box Office Mojo
New iOS 8 Widgets
- iHeartRadio Version 5.3.0 adds "Today Widget " that allows yout to "play your recent stations from the iOS 8 Notification Center," and CarPlay support.
Game Trailers / Previews
Camp Pokémon Trailer
Pixelmator Apple iPad Demo
Crashlands Alpha Trailer
Vektor: The Courier Trailer
Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf Gameplay Trailer
Golfinity Teaser Trailer