We've mentioned Chopper 2 a couple of times during development, once to show off the TV out function built into the game, and again when we met up with creator David Frampton at WWDC. Now, development has finally finished, and he's released the game out on the App Store. You can pick it up for a launch sale price of $2.99.

It's an excellent game, very polished, and while it starts out simply, the combat builds up well. It controls about the same as the last game (tilt to fly the chopper, and tap the screen to fire), but the firing controls have been refined. The presentation is probably the most amazing thing, actually -- the 3D world looks terrific, the music is excellent, and the titles on screen are in a kind of 3D as well, so that they seem to actually float in the game's real-world space. All in all, it's a very cool game and some excellent work by Frampton's Majic Jungle Software.

The game is universal for both iPad and the iPhone, and if you install it on both, you can actually play the iPad version with the iPhone or iPod touch as a controller. It's not a huge gamechanger, but it is a fun extra feature that probably required some coding work to get going. If you've been waiting for this one like we have, it's on the App Store ready for you right now.

Japanese blogger Shiinaneko has found a new use for his iPad -- a substitute for your typical dinner plate.

It's actually quite simple. Grab any one of the number of protective films that's out there for the iPad, place it on your device, study the dinner menu, find an appropriate plate for your meal through a Google image search, then plop the food on your iPad. Shiinaneko dubbed this the iDish, and showed off a variety of dishes using his iPad as a plate. He experimented with everything from sushi to curry.

However, this is not an experiment you may not want to repeat with your own iPad. Shiinaneko reports that following his endeavours that his iPad was pretty filthy despite the film and smelled fishy. Because he tried eating curry from the flat surface, he wasn't able to scoop up the liquid, and eating from an electronic platter left a rather nasty taste in his mouth.

[Via CrunchGear]

If you're a card-carrying iOS developer, trot on over to the developer page and grab the latest beta of iOS 4.1. As everyone is reporting, it's been about two weeks since 4.1 Beta 1 crash-landed, so maybe we're just a couple of weeks away from a release for the rest of us? That'd be nice, considering some iOS 4 woes on older iPhones, among other outstanding issues. If anything notable turns up, we'll let you know.

[thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Campfire, from 37signals, is a web-based group chat tool that uses secure chat rooms to allow groups to collaborate from wherever they are. A little over a year ago, the developers at Overcommitted came out with an iPhone client for Campfire. That app, Ember, cost $9.99, and was an excellent tool for remotely joining a Campfire group and getting work done on the road.

Well, the app was so good that 37signals announced today that they've purchased the app from Overcommitted, renamed it to Campfire for iPhone, and they're giving it away for free in the App Store.

According to the 37signals blog, the company was so impressed with Ember that they approached Overcommitted about purchasing it, and the developer was happy with the idea. A deal was cut, a few changes were made to the app, the app made it through the Apple vetting process, and as of yesterday, Ember is known as Campfire for iPhone.

If your team uses Campfire for collaboration and file sharing, be sure to grab Campfire for iPhone as soon as possible. The app works on devices running iOS 3.1.3 or later, although it is not optimized for iPad.

[via Mashable]

Apple released the Magic Trackpad this morning, but the OS update to make it work with your Mac is out now, available via Software Update on your Mac (drop down the Apple menu on the left if you've never done this before). Here's the link for a download of the update.

This update also enables three-finger drag gesture and inertial scrolling for older Mac portables listed on this support page for the update. Something our own Chris Rawson pointed out was possible.

Oh, and there's a new Preference pane! From Apple's page:

This update also installs a Trackpad System Preferences pane for configuring Magic Trackpad on Intel-based Mac desktop computers that support Mac OS X v10.6.4 and above.

If you find anything wonky, let us know in the comments (and report the bug to Apple as well).

Dear Aunt TUAW,

PopCap Games recently released an update to Plants vs. Zombies boasting "multiple performance enhances and bug fixes" (sure, but I never had an issue on my 3GS). Now, the King of Pop Zombie is nowhere to be found! He's replaced with a zombie with an orange Afro, white 70s leisure suit and orange shoes.

Why? Why remove the King of Pop? Was there a threatening lawsuit? Can you all find out for us and get the scoop? I won't be updating anytime soon now.

Thank you from your loving nephew,

Alejandro

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When I bought my iPhone 3GS, one of the helpful Apple retail guys told me to give textPlus a try for sending text messages, as I'd bought into the cheapest texting plan AT&T offers. I've since graduated to unlimited texting, and had left textPlus by the wayside until I found out it had a blossoming community angle to the service.

While you can still send free texts until your fingers fall off, the latest version of textPlus (an ad-supported app, although there's a paid version as well) allows you to create, participate and join in Communities, which are much like topical group chat rooms seen on AIM back in the early days of the service.

Once you've set up a basic account using not much more than your name, zip code and birthdate, textPlus looks a lot like a big chat application. You have access to your own Address Book and can send a simple text to anyone with a mobile number and the ability to receive texts. They can text you right back, and it'll appear in your Conversations panel.

This is an easy way to see basic conversations, and if you're texting from a "dumb" phone you can still use the service as a simple conduit. This works one-on-one and in groups, although there are various commands for simple text input that'll allow you to traverse group conversations and name yourself, etc.

Read on for more...

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According to the manufacturer, maybe. Intrepid Apple blognaut Leander Kahney rang up Apple, asked the question above, and got a response. This was more than we got when several of us asked Apple multiple variations of the same question. Apple's statement, as seen on Cult of Mac:


Well that's clear as mud, isn't it?

Apple points to a knowledgebase article here, indicating how much instability you might expect after jailbreaking your iPhone. Of course, now that jailbreaking is legal, Apple can't really go after anyone doing it, but that doesn't mean they have to support your functionality habit, either. Because, as Apple has vaguely worded, it might void your warranty. Not that it will -- because if you don't mess with baseband and restore your phone, no one would be the wiser. A simple complete restore really does bring your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad back to factory conditions.

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Today Monsoon Multimedia is announcing the Vulkano, a universal video platform that integrates DVR, Web video, streaming and time shifting of media from the home to a portable device, including the iPhone, iPad, and Macs or PCs. It also supports streaming to Android, Blackberry, Symbian and WM6 phones or devices.

Prices range from US $259 to $379 depending on the storage capacity customers desire. The $379 device stores 1 Terabyte. The company says it will introduce a 3G capable app for the iPhone next month.

Among the functions available are:

• Triggering recording from a remote device
• Playback of recordings on iPads, PCs and Macs in the home and remotely
• Browsing of an electronic program guide for shows and episode information
• Access photos, video and music on your home TV from UPnP supported devices
• Connects to cable, DVD, satellite, DVR and Tivo
• Streams using H.264 and MPEG-4 standards at rates as low as 150kpbs
• Connects wirelessly to home router

Although not currently in the product software, the company says it will offer free upgrades that include Google TV, Yahoo!, Netflix, Hulu and other services in the 'near future.'

"We designed Vulkano from the ground up to replace single purpose solutions, such as TiVo, Roku, Slingbox, etc," said Steve Stone, CTO at Monsoon. "In the coming months we will be pushing new apps to Vulkano owners for free so they can rest assured that this is the first and last product they'll need for all their TV and Internet media needs."

We're going to get a review unit soon and can give you our own impressions. For a full description take a gander at the Vulkano website. Monsoon is taking pre-orders for an estimated August 10 shipping date. It will be interesting to watch the consumer reaction to this device. It is very Apple friendly and if it is easy to use and set up Monsoon will have a winner.

Judging from the number of entries for our recent giveaway of two OtterBox iPad cases, most of you are familiar with the excellent products made by the Colorado company. Shortly after the end of the iPad case giveaway, I was surprised to find another box at my door from OtterBox containing one of the "bullet-proof" Defender cases for the iPhone 4.

No, an OtterBox Defender isn't going to save your iPhone 4 from a speeding bullet, but it can definitely keep your device clean and safe in a variety of tough conditions. TUAW reader Scott B. sent us an email today describing his experience with an iPhone Defender case, which reads "I received my Otterbox Defender Case for my IPhone 4, three days ago. It is great. I had one for my 3GS and it fell into a mud puddle. The case totally protected the phone. I now feel better having my IPhone 4 so well protected."

It's not often that we get unsolicited reader love for an iPhone case, which tells you just how special the OtterBox products are. Read along for a short review of the Defender for iPhone 4, and see how you can have a chance to get one from TUAW.

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