Coin Dozer

Price at time of writing FREE

Let's face it not all free apps are actually worth downloading. In fact the vast majority aren't. If they are not overladen with advertising they are graphically poor or just downright rubbish.

Coin Dozer is a pleasant exception to the norm.

It follows the traditional arcade machines where you drop your pennies in hoping that the machine will push a bigger number of coins off the edge to you rather than down the gutters at the side into the coffers of Mr Arcade owner.

Graphically this app is really nice and the coin pushing physics are actually very impressive. I wouldn't say the physics are perfect as larger gaps than I would expect to see sometimes appear between the coins. However it's pretty darned close to perfect and it is great to see coins that are teetering on the edge of a ledge gradually fall off.

You start off with 40 coins and this is your initial starting coin limit. Coins will be accrued at 5 per hour whilst offline. Whilst playing you accrue one per 30 seconds.

Bonus coins appear from time to time. If won these may result in a huge coin which thumps to the "coin bed" thumping lots of coins to your "win tray"  but equally creating lots of gaps. When this big coin is won you get extra coins. There are other special coins such as one that awards extra coins and one that raises walls at the sides to temporarily stop gutter losses.

Large prizes also fall to the coin bed. Dice, Bears,  Gems, Hearts, Whistles and Yo-Yos. When you collect a set of all 4 colours of each of these you unlock power ups such as an increased coin limit and winning prizes that fall in the gutter. If you collect more than one identical prize (type and colour) you can sell the extra prize for a few vital coins. Note if you have a full set selling your last remaining prize of one colour will relock any power up you have unlocked. So only sell prizes when you have 2 or more.

It will take many, many hours of gameplay to unlock all the bonuses. Indeed after a week I have a yellow yo-yo that still escapes me. I have had to watch 2 fall into the side gutters during the week, much to my disgust.

The advertising is not over the top. A banner runs towards the bottom of the screen - that's fine. However the app was initially spoiled by a continuous advert for Broken Bottle 2 another app from this developer. Spoiled because Broken Bottle 2 is probably one of the most controversial apps available. It has received scathing feedback to Apple and iTunes for promoting crime and violence. This is in stark contrast to the great feedback Coin Dozer is receiving.

Leftover Studios have now fixed the advert so it it a changing banner but it doesn't make the other app any easier to appreciate.

The developer has also showed commitment to Coin Dozer by fixing a memory problem so that the coins stayed in the same place if you quit out. This has resulted in a little graphical lag from time to time but it is not excessive.

Some of those who have given feedback have said that once you've unlocked all the power ups there is nothing left to do. This is factually true. But it will take you a long time to get to that stage and it is quite fun doing so.

Perhaps the developer has plans to take improve Coin Dozer more to improve its longevity? Obviously as a free app the developer is looking for the advertising to work. Perhaps this is why they have one 'nice' and one 'nasty' app? Both will gain customers for different reasons.

I however hope the developer makes the most of the success of Coin Dozer and show it does have some respect for the victims and families of those who have had a broken glass shoved in their face by pulling the Broken Bottle 2 app from iTunes. It does not appear Apple are going to make the family friendly decision to do so.

Edit. 3rd April 2011. The developer has continued to add to the features on this app and others in the dozer series. They all represent excellent value and with ad-free versions available for a small charge I am pleased to change my rating

10/10 (as a free app) available here

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Free Apps Review

Price at time of writing FREE

Look it's not going to win any awards for presentation although the developer PBJ Studios has a sense of humour in saying following a recent update that the interface is "63% less ugly" than it was before.

To be fair for an app with such a basic function the screens are as detailed and informative as they need to be.

The sole object of the app is to give you a quick and easy way to locate iphone and ipod touch apps that were previously "paid for" but are now free.

When the app contacts the database you can sort your list in 3 ways - by category - rank within category - or alphabetically.

Because of the huge volume of apps which are complete rubbish I have found I use only one of these sorting methods - rank within category.

Apple do not permit their star ratings to appear in third party apps so the developer has arranged a clever alternative method of judging good apps for bad.

If an app was ranked #3 in games for example it will be towards the top of the list whilst a utility that was ranked 5000 in its category will be way down.

I would recommend this method of sorting. Free Apps is free app and at the end of a 30 day period I understand you can stick with a fully functional ad supported version or pay on a 30 day cycle period for an ad-free version.

I have to be honest because of the vast amount of rubbish apps this is always going to throw at you I can not see that this is ever going to be worth paying a one-off fee for let alone a monthly fee.Also the database is sometimes several hours behind "live iTunes" and you can therefore regularly choose to look at a free app only to see the price has gone back up. The database update period really needs to be changed.

Free Apps does what it claims to and is worthwhile if you want to look daily to see if there is a bargain going. But it isn't worth paying for.

8/10 Download from

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