Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Asteroids is a pioneer video game, classic staple on old arcade boxes and computers. Zoom around in your spaceship, shoot asteroids, and dodge threatening flying particle chunks. Now, Asteroids 2012 hopes to revamp this arcade classic by bringing in a graphical overhaul, a variety of ships and weapons, and a full 3D space-combat engine. Does this iPhone remake stand up the popular arcade classic?

XLCamera (0.99$) by Maksym Tsanko

Available on iPhone & iPod Touch

According XLCamera, you can enjoy better "pictures at low light with much better quality." This sets off alarm bellsimmediately. I'm skeptical of any app that claims to boost your iPhone camera's picture taking ability. Does XLCamera live up to it's hype, or does it fall short like dozens of other photo apps?

Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

I just made the leap back to Mac after about 13 years of suffering with PCs! Thank you, thank you... please hold your applause. One of the first things I did after firing up my shiny new MacBook Pro was to go hunting for apps to install (yes, PC users, Apple also has an App Store just for Mac users), and I grabbed PhotoSync right away because I'm constantly moving photos off my iPhone to use on my desktop computer. In the past I've always relied on WifiPhoto to do this job but I wanted to see what, if anything, PhotoSync could do better.

Available on iPhone only

Ok... either Band Boss is a really good game, or I'm just incredibly bored! It's probably a little of both. I mean, I've been sitting here for literally 4 hours playing this damn game and I don't even like these so-called "simulations". The simulations I hate are those games where you build an "army" and "attack" people but it's all text based and there's a lot of waiting around. Band Boss is definitely a simulation and it's pretty much all text, but instead of commanding an army you're managing a band and, unlike other games in this genre, it keeps things simple so you can focus on the task at hand which is your band's success.

You get to choose from actual (albeit small and relatively unknown) bands to manage or you can make up your own, and then it's up to you to make them popular and rich. I don't know a thing about the music biz, but apparently popularity is gained by releasing new music (which costs money) and money is made by touring (during which you can't release new music, thereby eroding your popularity). If you know what the hell you're doing, you'll be able to strike a balance that will gradually turn your group of losers into mega-rich superstars.

I'm gonna take a break from reviewing apps right now to rag on someone else's website even though it means giving them undeserved publicity in the process!

The other day I came across a press release for this ass-ugly website called reviewroster.com. Wanna guess what they do? They "connect (app) developers with (app review) publishers" and, somewhere in the middle, money will change hands with Review Roster taking a cut.

Send in your own Christmas iPhone/iPad video!

Available on iPhone & iPod Touch

I love games like this! There's nothing to learn, no levels to advance through, no rules to think about... just get your weird little Santa Cat to fling his bag of toys as far as physics will allow. It's not quite as funny as Sapus Tongue, but it's just as fun and addictive.

Your first instinct may be to gently rub your iPhone screen at the start of the game to get Santa Cat going down the hill, but to get any distance you'll need to rub like you've never rubbed before. Run your finger back and forth across the screen like you're trying to put a hole in it, and then a couple of well-timed taps will launch your sleigh and bag of toys in the air like a two stage rocket. The hardest part is timing the final fling of the toy bag 'cuz if you don't do it fast enough Santa Cat will just chuck it directly at the ground, but you'll get the hang of it fast enough.

Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Christmas is The Most Wonderful Time of the Year... for sending idiotic yet strangely festive videos to your friends and family! In a world where nearly every Christmas app is aimed at spreading cheer and good will, Annoying Christmas is uniquely positioned to capitalize on all the smartasses who are just itching to spread stupidity instead which I think is 100% awesome.

Annoying Christmas provides a small set of templates to choose from, then you record a video of yourself saying some really stupid shit while keeping your head relatively still, and then *voila* you've got a pretty weird video that you can upload directly to Annoying Christmas' YouTube channel and share with loved ones whether they want you to or not!

Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Decorate a Christmas tree, turn on the lights, and admire it in all its glory while you listen to a nice piano rendition of Silent Night on an endless loop as snow falls gently from the night sky. There! I just described iTree'4′Christmas from head to toe.

It's not the sexiest app I've ever seen, but the resulting tree is nice and I'm sooooo glad iJeem Factory made it so you can actually turn the tree's Christmas lights on. Dragging tree decorations from their little boxes at the top of the screen can be hard at times (fat-fingered tree decorators beware), and I wish you could take in the tree, music, and animated snow without the control buttons present, but other than that iTree'4′Christmas is alright in my book. The app's built-in screenshot button is also a nice touch in case you want to use your tree creation as a background image.