Aayush Arya

Apple has informed registered Mac and iOS developers that the App Stores for both platforms are now available in 33 more countries. As of these latest additions, the iOS and Mac App Stores can now be accessed in 123 nations around the world.

The newest places to join the App Store include Algeria, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Dominica, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Iceland, Montserrat, Nigeria, Oman, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and The Grenadines, Suriname, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, Uzbekistan, and Yemen.

Theodolite HD.NASA's space shuttle program lifts off for the last time this week, with space shuttle Atlantis slated to take off on Friday, July 8. And two iOS apps aim to let you participate in the launch.

If you're looking to follow the shuttle as it orbits the planet en route to the International Space Station on its 12-day mission, GoSoftWorks's free GoAtlantis app will let you know when to turn your gaze skyward. The universal app will provide real-time tracking of the final space shuttle mission and, using the location capabilities of your iPhone or iPad, predict when the shuttle will pass over you and where you should look.

Fetch Softworks, which makes the Fetch FTP client for Mac OS X, has come out with Roadshow, a new iPad app that allows you to save web videos for viewing later, even when the device is offline. The free, ad-supported app imposes a limit of up to 15 saved videos; a $5 in-app purchase removes that limitation (as well as the advertising).

Roadshow includes a built-in browser with a list of bookmarked websites to get you started. Visit any of those sites, or enter a URL of your choice in the address bar, and the app adds any videos it finds to a Found Videos shelf at the top of the browser window. Tapping on any of those videos adds them to your collection.

Apple launched its 10 billion download countdown for the App Store a week ago when it was at a little over 9.7 billion downloads. For the past week, the counter has been racing ahead at a speed of about 1.8 million downloads a day, eventually reaching its target on Saturday.

The winner of Apple's promotion, the person who downloaded the ten billionth app, is yet to be announced, but whoever they are, their fortuitous download will find them awarded with a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card before long. That's enough money to download another billion apps (provided almost all of them are free).

You know that Apple thinks a milestone is significant when it holds a countdown. And the company considers a milestone very significant when there's a giveaway linked to that countdown.

So it is with the App Store, which is fast approaching its 10 billionth download, according to Apple's figures. The company is counting down to the big number and giving away a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card to the lucky customer who nudges the App Store's download count into five-figure territory. We haven't done any formal calculations, but we reckon that's enough money to never have to pay for anything from the iTunes Store ever again. Or enough for 10 copies of I Am Rich, if that app ever makes it back to the App Store.

I first played Chopper on the Mac before the iPhone had even been released and though it was simple in terms of graphics, the side-scrolling shooter was immensely fun to play. When the iPhone was released, David Frampton, the one-man company behind the game, was there on day one of the App Store launch with Chopper for the iPhone. It was a straightforward port of the Mac version but was even more fun to play, due to the accelerometer and touch-based controls.

With the release of Chopper 2 as a universal application for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, Magic Jungle Software has taken the Chopper series to a whole new level. The games boasts three-dimensional environments, more realistic physics and all-new levels, while retaining the same side-scrolling gameplay. And there are some surprise additions too, which I will get to later.

Made by DarkWave Games and distributed by Chillingo, Master of Alchemy HD is a puzzle game for the iPad where you use various tools to change the properties of solids, liquids and gasses and make them do your bidding. Each of the sixty levels in the game starts with faucets dripping various substances in liquid or solid forms. Your goal on each level is to direct each of these elements to their respective targets using the various alchemical tools at your disposal.

On their way to the targets, you must make these elements change forms, break through walls, escape through gaps and even collect some gems. The tools allow you to transform the elements to different states and change their paths.

Spider: Bryce Manor HD is a puzzle and mystery game for the iPad where you play the part of the eight-legged arachnoid that has a mansion to explore and a multitude of insects to eat. You go about building webs to trap the doomed critters and then feast on them once they fall prey to your machinations.

The game starts you off by taking you through the basics of building a web and trapping insects in it. As you progress through the 38 levels, you come across new kinds of insects that require you to employ more sophisticated tactics in order to make a meal out of them.

Like several App Store offerings, Keymote lets you control your Mac remotely from your phone. But while similar apps provide a remote touchpad, virtual keyboard, or media controls, Keymote takes a different tack. The $4 app from Iced Cocoa merely populates your iPhone's screen with realistic-looking keys which trigger custom keyboard shortcuts on your Mac.

For Keymote to be able to control your Mac, you'll need to first download the free companion Keymote Receiver desktop application. When you launch Keymote on your Phone, you tap on New Connection in the app's Settings tab to pair your iPhone with your Mac. The process might have been made much simpler by having the New Connection setting pop up when you launch the app for the first time since the app won't work without that initial setup.

One of the categories of apps the iPad is uniquely suited for is board games. With its generous screen and responsive touch controls, board games on the iPad are just as much fun as the real thing. Words With Friends HD, the iPad version of the popular Scrabble-like game for the iPhone, is no exception. Developed by Newtoy Inc, this addictive social board game is a must have for all iPad owners.

Words With Friends is designed to be a social version of the popular word-making game Scrabble. When you launch Words with Friends for the first time, it asks you to enter your e-mail address, username, and password, and sets up an account for you. It's a simple two-step procedure and you're never asked to go through it again.

Electric Pocket released BookLover on Wednesday, an iPhone application that allows you to keep track of the books you've recently read and remind yourself of ones that you'd like to read. It also features some sharing options for you to recommend books to your friends and a handy feature for keeping track of whom you've lent your books to.

BookLover features the now familiar virtual bookshelf, which houses all the books you've read and added to your library. The app can automatically download cover art for books based on the title you enter. There is also a wish-list to keep track of books that are next on your reading list. Rounding up the features are some sharing options that allow you to make notes about the books you've already read and publish them to your Facebook wall or e-mail them to friends.

Walmart announced on Tuesday that it had dropped the price of the iPhone 3GS 16GB to $97, the lowest price on the handset ever in the United States. The 32GB variant of the iPhone 3GS, however, remains at its previous price of $297 on Walmart.

Down from its previous price of $197, the $100 price cut brings for the 16GB 3GS puts it on par with the price for the 8GB iPhone 3G, which Apple sells for $99. However, Engadget reported on Tuesday that the 8GB iPhone 3G seems to currently be unavailable at Apple's online store, adding further fuel to rumors of a new iPhone.