On Gear Live: 2024 Nissan Z Nismo Review

Shoot It AppSo check it, , one of our absolute favorite apps in the entire iTunes App Store catalogue has finally gone free. As a refresher, shoot it! allows you to take a snapshot and have it sent as a physical postcard to anyone in North America, Europe, and some parts of Asia. It is all kinds of awesome, and we even used it in our Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 console giveaway. Fun times. We highly recommend grabbing it and putting it to good use!


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Remember that HP Envy 13 we showed off a couple of weeks ago? Yeah, the one that was even featured in Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance music video? Well, thanks to HP, we’ve got one to give away to one of our readers. All you need to tell is is what you want the HP Envy to do for you. Need some ideas? Check out the video above. There are a few guidelines:

  • Videos may be SD or HD, live-action, or animation, and must be under 100 MBs in size.
  • Videos must clearly answer the question “What do you want the new HP Envy to do for you?”
  • Videos must be posted to YouTube, and announced on Twitter with a link to the YouTube video. Start your tweet with “Hey @gearlive” and include the hashtag #HPEnvy.
  • All content must be owned by entrant.
  • Anything depicting violence, bodily harm (including cigarette smoking), profanity, nudity or explicit sexual content, or unlawful activity, including underage drinking, binge drinking, or gambling is not permitted in any video submission.

So, why is the HP Envy 13 cool? There are a bunch of reasons you should be interested. Aside from being slim and stylish, it weighs just 3.74 pounds and is less than 1-inch thin. It rocks a 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo that lets you play movies or edit video without lag, and there’s even an optional ultra-high capacity battery that’ll last up to 18 hours. Lastly, the 400 nit display is gorgeous, twice as bright as other similar notebook displays.

Wanna win? You’ve got all the details - get to work on submitting those videos! You have until December 18th at 11:59 PM PST to get them in.


Super Monkey Ball 2 iPhone

Sega has just launched Super Monkey Ball 2 for the iPhone and iPod touch, aiming to follow up on the original that took the App Store by storm. The new version includes over 115 levels, as well as 2-, 3-, and 4-player Wi-Fi play. One of the biggest gripes with the original Super Monkey Ball was that the accelerometer didn’t seem to cooperate as well as the player expected it to, making for a frustrating experience. Having played the sequel, it appears that Sega has taken care of those problems, as Super Monkey Ball 2 for iPhone and iPod touch seems a lot more responsive and fluid.

In case you aren’t familiar, Super Monkey Ball games feature monkeys that are encased in balls. You tilt the iPhone to roll the ball towards a goal, and as you progress through the game, that goal is increasingly more challenging to get to without falling off of the level. It’s a good time. You can pick up Super Monkey Ball 2 for $9.99.

Read More | Super Monkey Ball 2 [iTunes]

MAGnificent makeover

Yes, we realize we are in the midst of our awesome Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 limited edition console giveaway, but hey, it’s the season for giving and we are taking part in yet another fantastic contest that we need to tell you about. Here’s the deal:

We, along with 24 other sites, have partnered with MAGHOUND and People StyleWatch to bring you the MAGnificent Makeover sweepstakes. Up for grabs is a grand prize that includes:

  • Roundtrip Airfare for two (that would be you and a guest!) to New York City, NY on a Thursday through Saturday
  • Airport Transportation to and from the NYC airport to the hotel
  • Hotel Accommodations for a Three-Day/Two-Night stay at a NYC hotel of the Sponsor’s choice
  • An afternoon of pampering at a People StyleWatch Recommended Salon, which will take place on the Friday of the trip. Guy or girl, be ready for a salon consultation and treatment that’ll have you walking out feeling like a new person.
  • A $1,500 Shopping Spree with a People StyleWatch Editor (on that Friday) who will advise on trendy outfits and wardrobe suggestions at a retail store of the Editor’s choice

Oh, did you think that was all? We’ve also got three first prizes as well. That’s right, three people will be chosen to receive a $100 gift card to either Macy’s or Sephora, your choice.

Here’s the kicker - the contest ends on December 15th, and you can enter once per day! Seriously, go back daily and you increase your odds of walking away with this amazing prize package. Head on over to the entry page to enter and get full details, and be sure to select “Gear Live” in the “How did you hear about this?” pulldown menu.

Read More | MAGnificent Makeover Entry

We love the holidays. Why? Because it puts us in a giving mood, and we know how much you guys like receiving from us. That’s why we’ve teamed up with our friends at shoot it! to bring you this awesome promotion. If you’re a gamer, you probably know that Microsoft is set to release a limited edition Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 console. It hits stores on November 10th, and we’ve pre-ordered one that we’re giving away to one of you. In case you’re unfamiliar with the console, here’s what’s in the box:

  • Limited edition Xbox 360 Console with exclusive design
  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Standard Edition.
  • 250GB HD
  • 2 black wireless controllers
  • 1 black Xbox 360 wired headset
  • 1 Ethernet cable
  • 1 Standard Xbox 360 Composite A/V cable

Yeah, did you see that? A 250GB hard drive. That is more than twice the size of any other Xbox 360 hard drive that you’ll find. This is a serious piece of kit! So, how do you win? Simple. We want to see your “pwned face.” This is where shoot it! comes in. We want you to take a pictures of the face you make when you just pwned a n00b straight out of existence - but we also wanna see the sad pwned face you make when you get straight-up schooled by an 6-year old Halo prodigy. Entertain us, make us laugh, and strike fear into our hearts. We’ve got a few ways that you can enter the contest:

  1. If you don’t have the shoot it! app: You can register for the shoot it! app and they’ll email you a link to download the app for either your BlackBerry 8900, Bold, Tour, or iPhone. They’ll also add 3 FREE postcard credits to your account. All you need to do is snap your photos and send them off using shoot it! to the Gear Live mailing address listed below.
  2. If you already have the shoot it! app on your phone: Enter the promo code “gearlive” to receive the 3 FREE postcard credits. All you need to do is snap your photos and send them off using shoot it! to the Gear Live mailing address listed below.
  3. If you don’t have any of the shoot it! compatible phones: Take a photos of your pwned face, send them to the Gear Live mailing address listed below.
  4. On Twitter, send the following message:
    “Hey @gearlive - I’m sending you my #pwnedface with @shootitmobile. That Xbox 360 is mine! http://bit.ly/pwnedface”
    (Click here to tweet this now)

You should be following the Gear Live Twitter account. Be sure you put your email address and Twitter handle that you used to enter in the message area so that when we get your shoot it! postcard, we can contact you if you win! We will be picking a winner on Monday, November 30th. You can enter as many times as you like, so if you wanna send us fifty different shoot it! images, go for it. The more, the merrier. Here’s the address:

Gear Live
PMB 443
914 164th St SE Ste B12
Mill Creek, WA 98012

Of course, there are always rules to keep things legal. In this case, you’ve gotta be 16 years old or older as of November 1, 2009 to qualify, and you’ve gotta be a US resident. Good luck to all!

Read More | Gear Live shoot it! Xbox 360 giveaway

Free in-app purchase

It took Apple a while, but finally, in-app purchases are allowed to be used in free apps. Why is this exciting? Well, previously, only apps that had a price were allowed to include an in-app purchase model. That means that games like Tap Tap Revenge 3 has to cost at least $.99 if the developer wanted to sell you add-on packs. This is also the reason that you see so many demo, or “Lite” versions of apps in the App Store. Now, you can download a demo version of an app, and upgrade to the full version while playing the free version. We’d love to see apps like Shoot It! get on board with this as well, as we think the freemium model is the sweet spot in the App Store.


Ping! 1.0.1

Ping!, the iPhone-to-iPhone messaging app, has just been updated to version 1.0.1, and with the update comes a bunch of bug fixes. Here’s a little of what’s changed:

  • You can now unregister your Ping! ID
  • Landscape keyboard fixed so you can now send updates from that view
  • Duplicate messages will no longer be received
  • Notification settings icon fixed
  • There’s now an in-app invitation email

Ping! certainly isn’t the prettiest app in the world, but it is definitely functional, and allows free iPhone-to-iPhone messaging without having to use SMS, and it’s way faster. You can pick up Ping! for $0.99.


Tweetie 2

Tweetie 2 has just launched and is now available for the and , and the popular Twitter app brings with it many, many improvements and feature additions. Some of the more notable additions include full app persistence, which means that if you leave the app for any reason and come back to it, Tweetie 2 will remember exactly where you were. There’s also a nice offline mode, that lets you read, favorite, and even write drafts of tweets. Once you connect to the Internet again, everything gets synced up.

Many users have been waiting for video support and push notifications to come to Tweetie as well, and Tweetie 2 delivers on both fronts, but we feel both are lacking. With video support, we’d love to see Posterous added as a hosting service, as opposed to just yFrog and TwitVid. As is pertains to push notifications, Tweetie 2 gives it to you, but only on a per-user basis. So you have to go into each user that you want to receive notifications from, and enable them in a menu that is buried a couple of levels deep. We’d love an option to get all mentions and direct messages pushed to the phone from Tweetie 2, rather than having to rely on another Twitter app that can do it (like SimplyTweet) or an app dedicated to pushing content (like Boxcar.)

Still, don’t let those two issues deter you. We’ve been playing with it for a while, and can say without hesitation that Tweetie 2 is now our iPhone Twitter application of choice. It is fast, elegant, and a great deal at $2.99. You can buy Tweetie in the App Store now, we’ve got a full feature list for you after the jump. Oh, and feel free to follow Gear Live and App.tapper on Twitter!

Click to continue reading Tweetie 2 makes long-awaited debut

Read More | Tweetie 2

ngmoco Eliminate FPS

Oh, San Francisco. Home to the 49ers, majestic bridges, historic Alcatraz, cable cars and even countless videogame development studios. Amongst these studios, in a cozy restored building cloaked by the AT&T Park, lives Neil Young’s iPhone & iPod Touch game developer—NGMOCO.

ngmoco has been put out some of the most successful games for the & , including the Rolando series, Topple and Word Fu. Ranging from puzzle, strategic and adventure, ngmoco knows how to create entertaining portable games. Now, they are set to release one of their most exciting titles yet, ELIMINATE. ELIMINATE is a 3G/Wi-Fi enabled First-Person Shooter (FPS) game, which takes advantage of micro-transactions, where you can upgrade characters, weapons, and the like.

Uncomplicated games currently dominate the App Store platform, due to their casual nature and mass appeal. The creation of more complex genres, such as FPS and strategic games, require a higher level of thought and consideration— a challenge ngmoco was more than willing to take on.  ELIMINATE brings with it an FPS online arena with intuitive controls that make it simple to jump in and play, and while the game might be a pick up and play experience, they haven’t ignored the importance of creating a story. ELIMINATE casts you as an employee of Arsenal Megacorp, a company in question for the use of humans in testing as a way of perfecting their gear. You and three other players are the guinea pigs of this project—SURPRISE!

Click to continue reading Preview: ngmoco’s new iPhone FPS: ELIMINATE


If you’ve been looking for an app that can replace the default camera app for taking photos, Best Camera just may be what you’ve been looking for. Developed by Seattle photographer Chase Jarvis, Best Camera provides a full-featured camera control app, fantastic photo editing (think of it as an iPhone version of Photoshop,) and a great online community that lives both online and in the app, where you can see great photos that have been taken by other Best Camera users.

The app lets you fade, crop, lighten, darken, and add a ton of effects to photos you take. You can then share those photos to social sites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and the Best Camera community.

As part of the launch, and to build up the Best Camera community, there will be a photo contest where the winner receives an . Hit the video above to get a look at the idea behind the app, and how it works. It costs just $2.99, and you can download Best Camera now on the App Store.

Read More | Best Camera

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