Kick

The big game is this weekend and most American's will tell you it's a lot more than just a football game.

Many people make an event out of the game with parties, barbecues, and betting pools, even if their favorite team isn't in the running. Even the commercials shown during the game are an event in themselves with advertisers spending huge amounts of money for 30-second and 1-minute spots.

While you wait for the Sunday's festivities to kick off, I've put together a collection of mobile games to get you excited for the main event. … Read more

Remember when exchanging information at the scene of an accident on the side of a road involved a pen and paper with barely legible names and phone numbers? Well now there's an app for that.

Bisnar Chase, a personal injury law firm in Newport Beach, Calif., released its Car Accident SideKick app for iPhone, which will help drivers figure out what to do and whom to contact in the event of an automobile accident.

In addition to an accident checklist, the free application can connect the mobile phone owner to 911 emergency responders or direct them to nearby hospitals. … Read more

You might have a Smart Cover for the front of your iPad, but what's got its back?

Well, if you hate scratching its aluminum backside when you rest it on some surface impregnated with a million microscopic razorblades, BlueLounge's Kicks can ease the pain.

These thin silicone-rubber rails from the Los Angeles design studio stick to the back of your tab with a light adhesive from 3M that keeps them securely in place.

They're lightweight and flexible, and won't leave a mark if you remove or reposition them.

Kicks, which follow BlueLounge's Cool Feet pads for the Apple tablet, come in packs of four, priced at $11.95. … Read more

Freekick 2 is a free, ad-supported soccer game that lets you take repeated direct free kicks on a goal.

Freekick 2 looks great, with a photorealistic field and cartoonish players, and it has a fun, easy-to-learn interface that lets you adjust the speed and direction of your shot, including the ability to put a little bend on the ball. You tap arrows to rotate your point of view left and right, and you swipe your finger up an arrow to determine the force and spin of your kick. As you score, the number of defenders rotates between one, two, and … Read more

Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty is an action-adventure game that puts you in the Cap's fittingly patriotic shoes. With trusty shield in hand, you battle your way through 24 stages, fight off Hydra henchmen, and eventually engage in supercharged fisticuffs with Mr. Anti-freedom himself, Red Skull. Plus, there are plenty of unlockable costumes and comic covers to keep you coming back for more. With its jaw-dropping graphics and surprisingly simple controls that actually enhance gameplay, this is one of the best-looking, most fun platform games we've seen for Android. It's definitely worth the nominal cost. But be … Read more

It was hard enough coming up with names for my cats. I can't imagine the struggle to find just the right name for a human baby. Busy parents-to-be can now hand the baby-naming burden off to their unborn children with the Kick to Pick iPhone app.

Choose your favorite names from a list of thousands or let the app randomly pick from boys' or girls' names in its database.

The 99-cent app takes the term "baby bump" in a whole new direction. Start up the kick picker, place the iPhone on your belly, and wait for your baby to give a hearty kick. You can stick with the name Junior lands on or try again.

I picked out a few names and tested out the app. I'm not pregnant, but it still works with the tap of a finger. If I have a boy, he will be named "Festus." If it's a girl, she will be called "Agnes." My imaginary kids are going to hate me.

Kick to Pick doesn't shy away from some of the unusual names that are so popular with Hollywood types. You can, for example, throw "Captain," "London," "Early," and "Zebulon" into the name hopper.

If your little angel complains when he gets older, you can just say remind him that he picked his own name using an iPhone app. … Read more

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for iPhone and iPad brings the legendarily gory and addictive fighting game to iOS, and it mostly hits the mark with only a couple of problems. What was formerly a smash hit (and somewhat controversial) stand-up arcade game went through a complete face-lift for the iPhone version. Gone are the stop-motion character animations from the original arcade game, replaced with beautiful 3D animations that re-create all your favorite characters' fighting moves. For the most part, this game looks and plays great, as long as you can get past the limited character set and the lack of … Read more

The Apple event on Wednesday was largely about the next iteration of Mac OS X (appropriately named Lion). But an interesting development came when Steve Jobs introduced the new Mac App Store, which will become available to Snow Leopard users in about 90 days.

Much like the iTunes App Store, the Mac App Store will let you purchase Mac apps and install them quickly on your computers. And as it does with the iTunes App Store, Apple will take a 30-percent cut of the sale price, leaving developers 70 percent. But Jobs was careful to point out that the Mac App Store will not mimic the closed system of the iTunes App Store--it will simply be another option to bring apps to your Mac. But do we really believe him?

It seems to me that creating the Mac App Store is Apple's way of testing whether the market will tolerate Apple getting a piece of the action on software developed for the Mac, just like it does with iPhone apps. We can be pretty sure that several developers will submit their apps right off the bat, if for no other reason than for the exposure that an iTunes-like experience can provide. But what Apple might be banking on is that once the software submissions gain momentum, the larger players may no longer have a choice but to submit their software to the new system. Am I just being paranoid?

While we certainly can't be sure what Apple hopes to achieve with the Mac App Store, this sort of soft launch makes me think there's something more going on here. Let me know what you think in the comments.

This week's apps include a 3D third-person soccer game and a new arcade space flier with a fun single-player mode.… Read more

Goaaal! is a soccer shootout arcade game, in which you try to rack up the best score possible by taking successive shots on goal.

The interface is simultaneously simple and tricky: you have a fixed view, facing the goal (and the goalie), and you just flick your finger to kick the ball. The trickiness comes from mastering accuracy (requiring much trial and error), learning how to fire on the ground versus in the air, and figuring out how to put spin on the ball by flicking from one side or the other. You can also reposition the ball by holding … Read more