The kittens are freezing!  The game is very similar to Tetris.  Each piece may have a cat, a cat stuck in ice, or just ice.  The more blocks you set, the more kittens are saved.  Figuring out the game is a bit tricky at first because you are trying not to reach the top like in Tetris, but you also want to stack cats on top of each other.  The game comes in 10 levels and each time you rescue a cat, it meows out of relief.

“As a cat lover, I’m excited to play a game that captures the cuteness of kittens,” stated Anne McElvain, GiantCrayon Games’s VP. “It’s my way of bringing the charm of kittens with me wherever I go.”  To buy the game, it costs $2.99 and it can be found here [iTunes link].  Below is a video demo of the game:

For more information, go to the ShiveringKittens website.

In the past 24 hours, Apple has started allowing third party application browsers to enter the Apple App Store.  Four browsers that have recently been added include the Edge Browser (Free), Incognito ($1.99), Webmate ($0.99), and Shaking Web ($1.99).  Web browsing applications have not been approved before as they were known for duplicating functionality.

Edge Free is a browser that makes the website full-screen.  Incognito enables people to browse the web without a leaving a history of links behind.  WebMate adds links that you tap on the iPhone on a queue until you are ready to look at them.   And Shaking Hand replaces scrolling with previous page and next page buttons.

A couple of months ago it was believed that Opera submitted an application to the App Store, but it was rejected.  Perhaps now they will have better luck.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs stated that he will be taking six months off for medical reasons.   In the meantime, Tim Cook will be filling in for Steve Jobs.  Due to the announcement, Apple shares went down about 2.71% today and is down between 6 and 7% after-hours trading.   Jobs did not give any additional details regarding the leave.

However the reason behind why Jobs did not attend the MacWorld conference this year was due to hormonal imbalance.  Since Jobs is stepping out of the limelight for a while, I do not expect Apple to make any major announcements about upcoming products until the summer.  It seems like the iPhone and iPod sales will be on auto-pilot for the rest of the year anyway.  Piper Jaffray predicts that 45 million iPhones will be sold by the end of 2009.

Below is the full letter that Jobs sent out to the company:

Team,

I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.

I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.

Steve

[via Apple Media Advisory]

Vela Design Group has created VelaClock 1.4 for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  VelaClock is a world clock application with a configurable user interface.  The application displays the sunrise, sunset, dawn, and dusk times.  The application also displays twilight (civil, nautical, astronomical), moon phase, and tilt information.  VelaClock divides screens into two panes.  The upper pane contains a list of cities and the lower pain has details about the twilight.  About 50 cities can be added from a selection of 500 built-in cities.  Each row of each city displays the country flag, citiy name, local time, day of the week, and daylight bar.

Below is a description of each panel:

1. First panel:
* Countdown to the next sunrise or sunset and next moonrise or moonset.
* Time of the next sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset.
* Name of the current moon phase.
* An image of the moon as seen in the sky above the currently selected city. This image accurately depicts the moon’s phase, and the angle at which the moon’s crescent appears to be rotated from the vertical. Because this angle can change rapidly, it is updated once a minute.
* Time until the next moon phase (new, quarter, full).

2. Second panel, for current day:
* Time of sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, and three kinds of twilight (civil, nautical, astronomical) for both dawn and dusk.
* Azimuth of sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset. Azimuth (compass direction) is specified in degrees, 0 to 360, clockwise from North.
* Daylight duration in hour and minutes. Change in minutes of daylight from the previous day.

3. Third panel:
* Dates, times and images of the next four moon phases.

The application is $3.99.  Click here [iTunes link] to check it out.

B3 United Inc. has created an addictive game for ages 4+ made for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  The objective of the game is to balance cats of various sizes towered on top of each other.  You have to use the accelerometer of the iPhone and iPod Touch to keep the cats balanced. The game currently retails on iTunes for $1.99.

Move your finger to pull a cat from the passing hot air balloon and place it on top of the tower. Currently the game has about 9 reviews and 3.5 stars.  The 3.5 stars seem to be not enough.

One reviewer by the name of Nagikokiyohara wrote “Best game EVER!” but only rated the game one star.  One reviewer stated that the game needs an accelerometer fix or some sort of visual feedback.  To download the game, click here [iTunes link]

Slacker Radio is an online radio station where users can listen to all sorts of genres and create playlists.  To choose the next station, it is easy to do without interfering with the current song playing.  The favorite stations and custom stations are found by vertically scrolling.  To start playing music, registration is required.

Music streaming on Slacker is good with the 3G connection, but even better when on WiFi.  On iTunes, there are currently about 65 reviews and an average of 4 stars.

Slacker Radio is available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  There are about 100 programmed radio stations.  The download is about 0.7MB and the application is available for free.

To donwload the app, click here [iTunes link].

Chipotle the burrito restaurant has launched a free iPhone application to make online ordering possible through the iPhone and iPod Touch.  Chipotle has their whole menu available and there is a find the closest Chipotle feature built in.  There is a favorites feature that allows users to order their usual orders.

Phil Lu had a keen interest in designing a Starbucks iPhone ordering application, but Chipotle’s Mobile Ordering application seems to tbe the first release of an application made for the purpose of getting an order through.

The application has been temporarily removed due to programming glitches, but is expected to return again soon.

One of the coolest iPhone Apps on the market today is called Ocarina. Smule put the application together and ran a competition. The top 10 videos would receive $1,000 each. Runner ups would receive a t-shirt. Those who want to participate would have to submit it to The “This Contest Blows” Contest on YouTube.

While Smule has their own algorithm for determining the winners, here is my personal top 10 favorite Ocarina players. I based it on creativity and what just sounds best to me.

10. X-Files Theme by imychelle

9. Amazing Grace by ericasavaaree

8. Tetris Theme by hellomoto3485

7. Will.i.am’s It’s A New Day by songbirdocarinas

6. Song of the Storms from Super Smash Brothers Brawl by Bwana from Bwana.tv

5. Zelda Theme by Kizzale

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