Independent game developer XLUSH has just announced that its newest title Ninja Wrath is now available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, bringing swift arcade action and the thrill of classic beat-em-ups to mobile players everywhere.

Featuring a unique mix of brawler action and stat-leveling gameplay, Ninja Wrath invites players to become a deadly yet agile ninja warrior. Responsive controls inspired by nostalgic console-game favorites have been tuned for a smooth and intuitive touchscreen combat experience like never before, and allowing players to unleash lightning-fast attacks and string up powerful combos.

Seamless animation and hi-res hand-drawn visuals capture each strike with eye-popping clarity and flair. Waves of mystical foes and fearsome beasts will be asking for trouble across 60 epic stages, including Boss fights, Survival and Time Attack Modes. Players can hack and slash harder, dash and smash faster as they earn experience points, collect items, unlock new attack skills, combos, and weapon upgrades. Magic spells can also be used to crush, poison, burn and snap-freeze enemies in the blink of an eye.

Ninja Wrath Features: 

• True arcade-style controls inspired by console brawlers & classic beat-em-ups
• Intuitive combo skill system and fast-paced action combat with cartoon flair and a dash of gore
• Hours of top-tier gameplay across 60 levels including Boss fights, Time Attack, Survival Mode
• Weapon, item, combo, magic, skill stat upgrades and unlocks
• Fluid hand-drawn illustrated graphics, seamless framerates, optimized for iPhone 5
• Over 30 Game Center achievements

Packed with hours of non-stop action, top-tier combat gameplay and intuitive console-inspired controls, Ninja Wrath is now available for $0.99 USD and equivalent from the App Store on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Get Ninja Wrath in Apple’s App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/app/ninja-wrath/id635492232

Chicago-based development company, Zappitize launched BodyShuffle, a new entertainment and photo app for the iPhone. Available in the iTunes App Store, BodyShuffle lets you to take photos of your favorite living things, swap out heads, torsos and legs to create hilarious mash-ups of your friends, family, pets and anyone. The possibilities are endless and ridiculous.

Shuffle-worthy Moments 
BodyShuffle is the photo-tainment app that answers age-old questions such as: “What would I look like with giraffe legs?” “Do you think my boyfriend could rock a prom dress?” Or, “Wouldn’t it be hilarious if grandma’s head were on our baby brother’s body?”

Perfect for any age group, BodyShuffle puts laughter and amusement at your fingertips. Great for shuffling it up at birthday parties, Halloween parties, wedding receptions, family reunions, bachelorette parties, car trips or just a night out with friends. BodyShuffle is great fun whenever the urge to shuffle strikes.

How it Works 
It’s easy to use; just snap, swipe, size and share! BodyShuffle makes framing the perfect shot easy with a body outline-guide and once you add a friend to your BodyShuffle library you can use their photo again and again.

SNAP photos of your friends, family and pets. 
SWAP in and out different torsos, heads and legs with just a swipe of your finger. 
SIZE each section as needed with pinch-zoom for a seamless swap. 
SHARE your favorite swaps on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or email with the click of a button.

Tap the SHUFFLE feature or shake your device to generate endless shuffling fun in a snap.

Start Shuffling Today 

BodyShuffle is free until October 15, 2012 so download it from iTunes today and get shuffling! Click here to see BodyShuffle in The App Store.

You can also interact with BodyShuffle on Facebook and Twitter.

modulR, the leader in mobile iPad solutions, today introduced ionSwipes, a new weapon in the fight to stop the spread of germs. ionSwipes long-term antimicrobial wipes eliminate 99.9% of germs, viruses and bacteria on your devices for over two weeks.

“We live in a touch screen world, and those screens are highly effective at transmitting germs,” said Josh Beatty, founder of modulR. “In fact, cold and flu viruses can survive for up to 18 hours on our devices. Think about how many times you handle your phone throughout the day. ionSwipes offer the most advanced germ defense for all your devices – perfect for offices, schools, hospitals, and anywhere else screens are shared.”

With flu season on the way, the transmission of germs poses a potential public health hazard. Seventy-two percent of people admit to working sick and spreading germs, and it is the surfaces we touch that are the major causes for transmission.

Other screen cleaning products may disinfect, but only ionSwipes eliminates germs and prevents them from coming back. The core technology of ionSwipes is based on decades of university research, development and experience.  Harnessing silver, copper and zinc ions at the nano-scale, ionSwipes is able to provide broad-based infection control that is completely safe, natural and long lasting.

To help spread the word about spreading germs, ionSwipes has started a campaign for clean screens everywhere at RememberToWipe.com. The site includes "viral" videos and educational infographics through a partnership with Keeping It Kleen – a health education resource.

ionSwipes is also offering a free sample to visitors on their website.

For more information, visit ionSwipes.com.

The RealHelp App uses the power of your social network to stop would-be rapists and abusers. By broadcasting voice, location, and pictures to dozens of pre-selected contacts, the RealHelp App has been designed to destroy the secrecy and isolation that is so necessary for rape and abuse. Its creators hope that it can help keep users from being victimized.

RealHelp, now available for the iPhone, may be the most powerful entrant among so called “Rape Apps”. With the touch of a button it’s capable of notifying dozens of pre-selected contacts that the user is in trouble, broadcasting audio live from the user’s phone, and sharing the user’s location. “Contacting so many people greatly increases the chance that someone’s close by and in a good position to come to your aid.” explains RealHelp’s founder, James Medina. Even if no one is close by, those contacts can listen in, assess the situation, then direct emergency services to the user’s location. Any contact who misses the notification will still be taken to an archived recording of the alert session. “Pretty much from the moment that alert is triggered, a potential rapist or abuser’s chances of getting away with anything drops to near zero,” says Mr. Medina.

The RealHelp App was built on the theory that rapes happen because the perpetrators think they can get away with them. It’s unfortunately all too easy for a rapist to argue consent after the fact if there were no witnesses. The egregiousness of the crime makes it harder for people to believe that someone they know could do it. Consequently rape victims face the possibility that they may be accused of maliciously lying if they report the rape. The RealHelp App does everything it can to destroy any chance that a potential rapist or abuser can get away with anything.

RealHelp is easy to set up and easy to use. A user can load contacts quickly using his or her Facebook account. They can then specify what levels of alerts each contact receives, and how those contacts will be notified. The alert levels inform all alert recipients as to the severity of the situation and how they should respond. For example, Red Alerts include the script: “I need help now! Come right away and listen in.” In a potential crisis, the user can load the app, swipe one of three alert levels, and the contacts set to receive that alert level will receive notifications connecting them to the live alert session. The alert session includes a live updated map of the user’s location, streaming audio from the user’s phone, pictures taken by the user, and a chat session where RealHelp App users can coordinate. If the user’s friends don’t have the RealHelp App to receive push notifications through; they’ll still be able to receive notifications through Facebook messages, Facebook wall posts, or email. The Facebook and email notifications will include a link to a mobile optimized web based alert session. “The important thing is that your contacts are able to respond to an alert effectively, whether they have the app or not. Every one of those Facebook notifications should trigger push notifications for smart phone users with a Facebook App. Even if you’re the only RealHelp user you know; you should be able to light up dozens of people who care about you, and give them the tools they need to respond.” explains Mr. Medina. For a more visual look at how RealHelp works, there's a graphic step by step guide on RealHelpApp.com.

While any app on an iPhone may have its limitations, RealHelp stands out as a powerful tool; capable of using your social network to get a real world response, and create real world consequences for anyone who might seek to victimize a RealHelp user. RealHelp’s founder has this to say: “We thought through the scenarios we’re targeting and tried to tailor RealHelp to be as useful as possible in every situation. It’s the app that we’d want our friends and family to have if they were ever in trouble. Ultimately, we’re hoping that RealHelp can keep a lot of people from being victimized.” RealHelp’s team goes into more detail on why they built the app here: Why RealHelp Works.

RealHelp is currently available for the iPhone, and an Android version is slated for the next few months. It’s completely free to download and use indefinitely, but they’re hoping that users will donate to support it. Interested parties can learn more at RealHelpApp.com.

Bladepad, a detachable iPhone game controller, is getting their product noticed through their Kickstarter funding campaign. The campaign is also providing legitimacy for Bladepad and showing strong demand for support from popular iPhone games.

The Bladepad is both a protective case and a video game controller for the iPhone. The game controller slides out for easy gaming and fits comfortably in your hand. When not in use, the controller can be stored in the case, or can be easily removed.

“I wanted to make playing games on the iPhone easier” said CEO of Bladepad LLC David Baum. “Bladepad gives the gamer dual analog sticks and a full console-controller button layout, making iPhone games much more enjoyable.”

The Bladepad currently works with the iPhone 4S by connecting to Bluetooth 4.0. The Bladepad comes with a protective case that can be used even with the controller detached. To keep the iPhone game controller charged as well as the iPhone itself, a USB charger is included which will charge both devices simultaneously.

There has already been press surrounding the Bladepad. They have been mentioned in iPhoneBuzz, Chron.com, and Appadvice.

Bladepad began their Kickstarter campaign on August 1st and will end on August 26th with a goal of $55,000. Early adopters can get the black Bladepad for $69 and backers can receive the special Kickstarter white and green pad for $79.

Bladepad is already gearing up to build an iPhone 5 version of the Gamepad. An android version will also be made available in the future.

To pre-order your Bladepad, visit their Kickstarter page.

Since its inception in 2009, bloggers all over the world have been increasing their monthly revenue with VideofyMe, an online blogging tool for uploading and sharing video. Today, the team behind VideofyMe announces the release of a newly updated mobile version for the iPhone and Android, featuring social video editing that allows users to shoot video directly on their phone, add custom color filters, share it, and earn money for the content that they share.

Initially developed with video bloggers in mind, the new version of VideofyMe is a simple way for anyone to earn money for their video content. VideofyMe works directly with leading brands and advertisers to automatically encode every uploaded video with ads. Direct in-app integration across top blogging platforms and social networking sites like WordPress, Tumblr, LiveJournal, Blogger, Facebook and Twitter make for easy sharing, and once the video has been shared its creator earns money for every view.

“VideofyMe is all about empowering social media talents with the tools they need to create and publish videos,” says co-founder Oskar Glauser. “We’ve developed an easy to use social video service, but unlike Social Cam or Viddy, VideofyMe is the only tool that gives publishers, no matter their size, the ability to earn money for the content they are making.”

With over 250,000+ users all over the world, ranging from top fashion bloggers and mobile enthusiasts to college students documenting a trip abroad, VideofyMe is quickly gaining ground as a must have tool for anyone looking to grow their online presence and add cash to their wallet at the same time.

VideofyMe is a free app which can be found in the Social Networking section of iTunes® and Media & Video section of Google Play®.

Hackers, makers and other technology do-it-yourselfers will soon be able to easily and affordably connect “things” to the Internet—ranging from people to pets, other objects and locations.

Startup firm Rowdy Robot is currently developing its new tōd (pronounced “toad”) device and open development software platform. The company is actively attracting investors on the tōd Kickstarter website.

Scheduled for release in October 2012, the company’s small rounded disks—known as a tōd Smart Beacon—and accompanying software will let tech savvy creators connect real-world objects and events to the Internet and even offline using their smartphones and other Bluetooth 4.0 enabled devices.

Using tōd Smart Beacons and their smartphones, people will be able to virtually bind together various people, places and things. Imagine being able to know the instant your child gets separated from you in a crowd...or your pet wanders too far from home...or a store’s customers come in and are instantly greeted with that day’s specials...or a nursing home is alerted if a patient with Alzheimer’s leaves the facility.

“The possibilities for creating actions tied to people, places and things using a tōd and a smartphone are endless,” said Rowdy Robot CEO and tōd Creator Jonathan Prevo. “We’re especially excited to put our product and an open development platform out there and see what innovative uses people come up with. We want developers to know that we are providing an affordable alternative for Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) development. Our solution is entirely unique due to the Bluetooth 4.0 wireless protocol and offers much more than a single use, proprietary platform.”

     Early Developer Access

Rowdy Robot plans to ship the first devices in October. However, developers will have early beta access to the hardware in July. “This will be ahead of the software development, so interested developers can begin creating solutions for themselves, us and the whole Smart Beacon crowd,” Prevo said.

Early adopters and project backers are buzzing about the tōd, which has been written about on Mashable(and here), Endgadget, Geeky Gadgets and Mobile Magazine.

     Low-Cost, Low Energy Connectivity Solution

The tōd is a small device, about the diameter of a silver dollar. The current prototype is 38mm in diameter and 13mm in height, which may be reduced slightly in the final design. Depending on the final enclosure design, that will also add about +/- of 2mm all around.

Each tōd is small enough to fit in a child’s pocket or a car’s glove compartment and has a battery life of over a year. The effective range of each tōd is adjustable from three to 500 feet.

Pricing for the Smart Beacon will be about $35, making it one of the lowest priced, ready-to-use wireless devices on the market. Developer kits ranging from $95 to $155 are available and include access to an open development community, SDK, documentation, EULA and hardware needed to start developing your own “Internet of things” or to evaluate Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity for your own project.

     Connectivity Powered By The Growing Bluetooth 4 Standard

The tōd platform is based on proximity between the device itself and a smartphone enabled with Bluetooth 4.0. It uses “in range” and “out of range” events to trigger an interaction on the device within the app. Then using the cloud, those interactions can be made into richer experiences.

“Bluetooth 4.0 is quickly becoming the new, ubiquitous wireless connectivity standard for devices,” Prevo said. “Other comparable devices in development rely on WiFi connectivity, which is OK—but we wanted to enable people to use the low power, lightning fast connections with Bluetooth 4 regardless of whether they were connected to the Web.”

The tōd Smart Beacon is a single-mode Bluetooth 4.0 device, also known as Bluetooth Smart or Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Rowdy Robot developers are using the BlueGiga BLE112-A module. The “A” represents that it ships with an on-board antenna and that the model has been RF Certified.

BLE112 Bluetooth low energy single mode module is a single mode device targeted for low power sensors and accessories. BLE112 offers all Bluetooth low energy features: radio, stack, profiles and application space for customer applications, so no external processor is needed. The module also provides flexible hardware interfaces to connect sensors, simple user interfaces and even displays directly to the module.

The BLE112 can be powered directly with a standard 3V source and includes on module voltage regulation. The Smart Beacon design offers enhanced voltage projection with the TI’s TPS62730, an ultra low power DC/DC converter with bypass mode that will reduce the current consumption during transmission nominally by about 20 percent when using a 3V coin cell battery. In the lowest power sleep mode, the BLE112A consumes only 400nA and will wake up in few hundred microseconds, according to the manufacturer, BlueGiga. The Smart Beacon is based on the BLE is module on a PCB that uses Rowdy Robot’s own design and includes the battery holder for a CR2032 coin-cell battery.

The BLE112A module includes the entire standardized Bluetooth low energy stack protocol which includes GAP, GATT, L2CAP, SMP and Bluetooth SIG low energy profiles. It can support an unlimited number of connections (master only) and offer both master and slave modes.

BLE112 has 32 pins, 21 of which are programmable. Rowdy Robot has exposed all 21 programmable pins with quick connectors, 2-2x5 headers for the GPIO and another 2x5 header for the debugger, which allows developers to add any number and configuration of add-on modules including sensors, Human Interface Devices, displays and even motors and servos to control.

Developers can also develop and implement their own firmware using the Texas Instruments Debugger Kit. The debugger is required to license and access the TI software and connect their computer to the Smart Beacon to add their own firmware. Custom firmware solutions are written in BGScript language using the BlueGiga's SDK.

Each tōd has a programmable 8051 CPU on board with 128K that can provide simple Arduino-like functionality using Bluetooth 4 and firmware.

     tōd Compatible Devices

Currently, tōd is compatible with the iPhone 4S, the new iPad, new Macbook Air, new Mac Mini, the Droid Razr family of phones, the HTC One S and X as well as the latest Samsung Galaxy S3. There are also USB Bluetooth Low Energy Dongles that plug into a PC or Mac for backwards compatibility.

“As far as being able to connect other accessories besides a tōd Smart Beacon to the platform and App, this is still under development, but we are committed to creating the most hardware agnostic platform we possibly can,” Prevo said.

     tōd Open Development Technology Platform

“We have an open development environment due to the fact that BlueGiga has graciously allowed us to utilize their SDK, documentation and tools provided that each Smart Beacon ships with the end-user license agreement,” Prevo said. “This allows developers full access to their BG Script and Profile Development Kit at no charge. BlueGiga has provided the FCC and Bluetooth certifications so that we don’t need to.”

Rowdy Robot will provide an API that will be open for development, allowing for unlimited connections into any existing platform such as ifttt, Ninja Cloud and any other system that allows open development.

The free tōd application comes pre-installed with 10 aptly named templates, including functionality for proximity-based events and automatic updates to social media sites like Foursquare and Twitter. Rowdy Robot developers have also created an easy way for non-technical users to build their own interactions.

“We are planning for an array of sensors and add-on modules to extend the functionality of the tōd Smart Beacons,” said VP Don Mallicoat. “We are actively experimenting with existing products and services that could be enhanced by the power of the tōd Cloud, the tōd App and Smart Beacons.”

“Our first priority is to the iOS and Android mobile platforms, and possibly WinMobile if they have their OS and compatible devices ready in time,” Mallicoat continued. “After that, we plan to release an application for PC and MAC desktops.”

To further spur development, Rowdy Robot is building a reusable framework based on HTML 5 that will simplify the process of porting to other platforms.

     Sign Up For Developer Access

Developers interested in the project are encouraged to participate in the company’s early funding on Kickstarter. Everyone who participates will be signed up to be notified as soon as the development materials are available.

Squrl is excited to announce the latest update to their popular video discovery service is now available in the Apple App Store. This new update brings our popular iPad experience to the iPhone, providing users with one central hub to discover and play videos across the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. With the explosion of video apps and websites Squrl ensures consumers will not miss out by bringing together the video they care about from the most popular sources in one place. The ability to playlist videos across different providers without having to queue up the next video, jump around from website to website or app to app makes for a unique mobile video experience.

“We want to make video easy for our users—from discovery to watching and sharing,” says Mark Gray, CEO and co-founder of Squrl.

A streamlined start experience lets users tell Squrl what they are interested in immediately upon entry with categories like "Make me laugh,” "Show me the future," "Give me gossip," "Keep me informed," and more. Squrl creates a personalized channel guide of content from a variety of providers that match the consumer’s desires with playlists of video ready to watch.

Focusing on bringing the best content to consumers, Squrl has refined and expanded its content offerings. The "Fresh" section brings the most recent unwatched content to the forefront, so users can stay on top of the latest videos. There are opportunities to discover trending video across their social networks in the new "What's Hot" section or in their friends activity feed. The channel guide highlights the thousands of feeds and millions of videos Squrl supports from hundreds of providers like Youtube, Netflix, Hulu with new additions of Khan Academy, BloombergTV, Chow, DIY Network, Travel Channel, The Ellen Show and much more.

"Our last iPad update showed incredible results. Total downloads doubled and our conversion rate from download to registered user went from 35% to 70%, effectively quadrupling our active user base. What’s been most exciting is the high rate of user engagement. When a user starts to watch video in Squrl, the average session length is now approximately 50 minutes. Today we are bringing this very engaging video experience from the iPad and putting into the hands of an even larger, more mobile audience on the iPhone," says Gray.

Single touch sign-in with Facebook and Twitter now lets users get to video faster and makes sharing simple. Sharing content to Facebook has been made completely frictionless with Squrl's new Timeline integration. Squrl has also simplified the user interface by adding a new press and hold menu for actions like liking, sharing, getting more information about a video, and adding a video to a watch-later queue.

"We happy to announce our Facebook Timeline integration that lets our engaged users control how they share their playlists and video they have collected with their Facebook friends. We think this will be a fantastic way to introduce Squrl to hundreds of millions of new people." said Michael Hoydich, COO and co-founder of Squrl.

Squrl is available for download in the Apple App store http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/squrl-for-ios/id398256703?mt=8. To learn more about Squrl go to http://www.squrl.com.