In spite of some flaws — it can be hard to position pieces and the game is a little picky about when you’re allowed to move things — Geared is a perfectly fine puzzler that satisfies after its too-easy early stages.

FaceCall , a new photo-based dialer for iPhone, is a neat enough concept. The app adds direct-dial photo icons to your home screen

Filed under: Odds and ends , Podcasts , Holidays Here it is, T-7 days until Black Friday, and you don’t have any gift ideas? I joined MacJury podcaster Chuck Joiner earlier this week to provide my ideas for gifting. This was part two of a holiday gift ideas episode on the popular podcast.

Cover Up is a new $0.99 iPhone app that masks embarrassing bathroom noises with other bathroom sounds, like running water, a hand dryer or blow dryer. Trying to mask the sound of a giant anal raspberry is like spraying deodorant to mask a pooey smell: it never really works. But it may be useful if you’re

Canalphones from Altec Lansing and Maximo sound great while looking good.

Add buttons and more control to Apple earbuds with tapStick and Belkin’s Headphone Adapter for iPod shuffle.

Keep your earbud cords nice and neat with SendStation’s earBuddy.

Filed under: Software , Cool tools MacUpdate announced today the release of version 5.0.2 of the MacUpdate Desktop utility, which allows users to manage application and widget software updates on their Mac OS X machines. The new version of the application adds some features and bug fixes as well as support for more languages.

Happy Friday! Mac Games and More has again picked out a collection of casual games you might not have heard of, to play into the weekend. Games include a hack and slash fighting elves, a logic puzzle mining for treasure, an addictive arcade classic and more. Deluxe Poc Mon – As the name suggests, this game

Filed under: iPhone , App Store Twitter has flipped the switch on some new features, including geotagging of tweets and automatic retweeting. As a happy user of Stone Design’s Twittelator Pro 3.3.1 [iTunes link ], I was even more giddy when I found out that my favorite Twitter app already supports both of these features

There’s nothing better than gazing up at the stars on a night out. For $3, Pocket Universe: Virtual Sky Astronomy, using sorta-augmented reality, lets the astronomically impaired among us impress our dates. The app uses the iPhone’s accelerometer, compass and level — just not the camera (which means it works on an iPod Touch too) —

We close out the week and prepare for the long flights, long waits and long lines as Thanksgiving rears its head. To get you ready (maybe even point out a stocking-stuffer or two), we offer our top trio of deals.

It’s not an easy time for Microsoft — with Steve Ballmer having to field questions about being “buffoons” and an “evil empire”  at the shareholder’s meeting (.doc) — so when they get together “the world’s most influential technology pundits and online writers” (nb: we weren’t invited) for Mobius to discuss super-secret mobile tech you’d think