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If you follow anything Apple, you’ve heard about the controversy surrounding the working conditions at Foxconn, the supplier of such products as the iPhone and the iPad. This controversy has been swirling around the news outlets for a while now and things have really heated up over the past few weeks.

I’m here to ask one important question: how much do people really care? Forget about what the press wants you to think and ask yourself that question. Deep down, how much does it really matter?

China, Incorporated

First, it’s important to get the right frame for all of the things people are telling you. We aren’t talking about working conditions in, say, Nebraska. We’re talking about China, a country that accounts for a huge portion of the world’s population and has been mass-producing Western (and Eastern) goods for the last couple of decades.

What do we know about China? If you’re like me, the answer is probably “not all that much.” What we do know is that as bad as Foxconn is, it can’t be abnormally bad compared to what Chinese workers are accustomed to, given the large crowds of people that try to get a job at the huge supplier’s factory.

It’s a plain fact that many of the people that are getting all hot and heavy over this (Western journalists and consumers) are looking at this through the wrong lens. They have jobs that don’t require such long hours and pay a significantly higher salary, so they expect that this is the way it is all over the world. This is a fallacy, not only at Foxconn but in many other countries with similar conditions.

It Isn’t Just Apple

The media seems to think that Apple is the only company that makes use of Foxconn for mass-producing goods. This simply isn’t true; other electronics companies (including Amazon, Microsoft and Sony) work with Foxconn. As a matter of fact, one of the recent suicides that gained a lot of attention wasn’t even working on Apple products, but instead on manufacturing the Xbox 360.

Why is Apple getting blamed for all of this, then? Because Apple is the biggest company, not only in terms of how much they’re ordering from Foxconn but also in terms of, you know, being the biggest company in the entire world. Apple’s a prime target for any kind of controversy, no matter how much they have to do with the actual issue.

What Do You Want Apple To Do About It?

What goes on in Foxconn isn’t, as a point of fact, Apple’s responsibility. While they have a certain moral responsibility that is imposed by the company itself (and its stakeholders) they don’t really have any control of what happens behind Foxconn’s closed doors. Sure, they have one hell of a big stick to make Foxconn do what it wants, but beyond that Foxconn isn’t part of Apple.

Sure, Apple could threaten to leave Foxconn, but what then? Who do they do business with that can crank iOS devices out at the rate that they’re selling? Once you’ve got that (short) list, go ahead and look at how many of those places have better working conditions than Foxconn. Who’s left?

Until the rest of the world can match China in terms of sheer export powers, Apple is going to do business with Foxconn. They’re doing their best to help the workers, but at the end of the day Apple can’t decide what happens in the Chinese company.

Does It Really, Genuinely Matter?

Let me ask you this: have you stopped using your iPhone since you heard about all of this stuff that’s going on at Foxconn? My money is on no, you haven’t. I don’t blame you, neither have I.

Do you think that the people who walk into a carrier’s store or Best Buy are going to think to themselves, Hey, I wonder how this was made and how much someone had to work to produce it? Again, my money is on no. We don’t care about that in our day-to-day lives. We’re looking for well-made, cheap products, and Foxconn is where we can get them from.

If you actually stopped using your iPhone because of this, and you’re working to change things, good for you. I’m happy, and I would like to see these things change. Until then though, I’m not going to pretend that this is some moral injustice that we’re all just realizing. This is the way that the world works. You can either act like you didn’t know that all along or you can continue using the products that you love.

My money’s on the latter.

We’ve reviewed lots of iPhone games over the years here at iPhone.AppStorm, but, shockingly enough, we’ve never talked about the one game that gave validity to the iPhone as a gaming platform: Angry Birds. That’s right, the same app that now has merchandise found everywhere from Staples to Hot Topic has never been a under our microscope for review. Why not? Heck if I know, but we’re going to remedy that situation right now.

That’s right folks, it’s Angry Birds for the iPhone, and we’re reviewing it after the jump. 

Those Birds Are Ticked

The concept of the game really isn’t that important in the grand scheme of things, but what the heck, let’s get into it anyways. You’re a bird — well, a group of birds anyways — and your eggs have been stolen by little green pigs that not only hate you, but everything your family stands for. Seriously, they said your mother was so fat that if she dropped her sandwich it would fall into orbit around her waist. They’re jerks is the real gist of what I’m getting at.

To get revenge on the pigs, you have to kill them. Sounds harsh, I know, but the pigs aren’t so dumb that they’re all sitting out in the open waiting for you to do something. They’ve erected forts made from glass, wood and stone, and they’re hiding inside, taunting you with oinks and wayward glances. You need to slaughter them like, well, pigs.

Finger Flickin’ Good

To put these green porkers out of their misery, you’re provided with a slingshot that’s used to fling the birds into the air and at the forts. The farther you pull back, the farther the birds will go, and depending on what angle you use, the higher or lower the arc of their flight pattern will work out.

But that’s not all. There are multiple types of birds in this game, and each one has their own set of advantages and disadvantages. The red bird on the icon is simple, he just flies in the path you give him. Next comes the yellow triangular bird, and he flies the same as the red one, but touch the screen once and he goes into turbo mode, making a beeline for the structure in front of him. There’s also a blue bird, which, although small, will split into three when you tap the screen. That’s just the start of it all really, and the farther you go in the game, the more birds you’ll find.

The Never Ending Challenge

To say that this is a short and sweet game would be like saying that Mount Everest is a tiny hill. There are seven groups, and in each group are anywhere from 30-60 individual levels. Needless to say, this isn’t a game you’re going to play for five minutes and beat, not unless you’re the most awesome person in the universe (and you have fast fingers).

There are some annoyances in the system, however. Some levels are only unlocked when you like the game on Facebook, for example, which is a shill of a device to try to make the most popular game on the App Store even more popular. And that’s not all that’s irritating.

The Irritating Stuff

There are no iAds or pitches for body spray anywhere in Angry Birds, and that’s because there’s simply no room for anything but Angry Birds advertisements. Tap the bird with the bow in the corner, and you can gift the app to a friend. You can buy an eagle for $0.99 that will allow you to beat a level with one touch. You can buy Angry Birds Seasons or one of the many sequels if you like, or sign up for the newsletter. And don’t forget to like them on Facebook!

This whoring of the product is really my only complaint about the game. It’s fun, easy to pick up and quick to play. But man, the push to sell more, more, more is just insane, and almost surpasses Zynga levels if you can believe that. I get that they have to make money, but it’s consistently in the top 10 for paid apps in the App Store, and there’s so much merchandise that’s out in brick and mortar stores that it’s hard to ignore. What more do they want from us?

It’s Fun — But You Already Knew That

I’m not even sure why I’m telling you this, because chances are pretty good that you already either own Angry Birds, or have played it with a friend. That said, It’s fun, and there’s no doubt about it. Who would’ve guessed that flicking birds at pigs would be such a blast, and yet I’ve lost many an hour to the game myself. Plus, there are so many levels to it, that it’s hard to even beat it — and when you do, you can always replay levels to get more stars. It’s seriously addicting.

My only complaint is the shilling of additional products. And even though it’s not quite as bad as in-app purchases on its own, those are in there too, which just puts the icing on the cake.

So should you get it? If you don’t already have it, $0.99 is nothing to buy what is a stellar game to play and a lot of fun to boot. Now go make those pigs into bacon.

What an exciting week for mobile gaming! With the official release of the PS Vita, it remains to be seen how the portable gaming landscape is going to be transformed. As if rising to the challenge, a number of tremendous new games have hit the App Store, and we’ve collected some of the best to show you.

Have a look after the jump!

What Have You Been Playing?

One thing’s for sure: it’s not going to be a boring week with all those wonderful games to keep you busy. Tell us if you liked them, or if you found some others worth playing in the comments!

Junk mail. For some of you, these two words may bring about a feeling of unease or outright aggression. In the digital age, spam email is simple enough to get rid of, but junk paper mail remains an elusive arch nemesis, continually plaguing your mailbox. It’s simple enough to throw away mail that you don’t need or want, but wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t receive that mail at all?

To rid yourself of such junk mail, you’d need to contact the supplier of said mail and request that they refrain for sending additional junk. That is until the release of PaperKarma, an extremely simple-to-use tool that does this dirty work for you. Find out how after the jump.

Getting Started

When you start up PaperKarma, you’ll need to create an account, which can be done by signing in with Facebook or simply signing up within the app. You’ll need to provide your name, mailing address and email address. Your phone number is requested, but is not required; however, some companies require your phone number to properly remove you from their system, so providing it is strongly suggested.

Unsubscribing to Junk Mail

The process of unsubscribing to junk mail is dead simple and my hat is off to PaperKarma making it so. Start by tapping the Take Photo button on the home page. The camera on your iPhone will open and you will need to capture of photo of the mail in question.

When capturing your photo, it’s important to include as much information about the sender as possible, as PaperKarma already has your information and does not need it in the photo. Examples include a magazine title, the sender’s name and address on the front or back of the envelope, the company’s logo or a website URL.

After capturing your photo, you’ll be directed to a confirmation page. If you’re satisfied with the content displayed and the quality of the photo, tap the Send & Stop button in the bottom left corner if you don’t have additional junk mail to submit. If you receive a nice batch of junk mail and want to capture additional photos, tap the Send & Take New button in the bottom right corner. That’s the whole process.

Keeping Tabs On Your Requests

Once you’ve submitted your unsubscribe request, PaperKarma goes to work by verifying your photo and contacting the offending proprietor of junk mail. As stated in PaperKarma’s FAQ section, the process takes around 24 hours, which was accurate for three of the four unsubscribe requests I submitted. It’s worth noting that an email was sent out to users recently, stating that due to a high volume of traffic it may take a few weeks to clear PaperKarma’s backlog. Luckily, Readabl, Inc. has stated they are hiring more staff to help with the traffic.

If you wish to view the status of your submissions, tap the View All button on the home page. The Requests page will open, which has four different areas you can toggle between — All, Success, Pending and Failed. These four pages are extremely nice to have, considering there’s no way to delete previous submissions. So if you submit a lot of requests, you may end up with a long list to scroll through.

If you tap on a request, you’ll be transitioned to the Status page, which includes some additional information regarding the status of your request. If your request was successful, PaperKarma reminds you that it may take a few weeks for the company to process your request to be removed. In addition, PaperKarma will follow-up with you at a later date to see if the request was honored.

If PaperKarma did successfully identify the company, it requests that you confirm so by tapping the Correct button on this page. In addition, if you would like to view information about the company that sent you the junk mail, you can do so by tapping the Company button on the bottom of the screen. It’s worth noting that if you’re not on a Wi-Fi network, both the Status and Company page may take fifteen plus seconds to load.

Does PaperKarma Really Work?

I would not be surprised if that was the first question you asked yourself upon reading the opening of this article. PaperKarma seems like a “too good to be true” type of service, but Readabl, Inc. has provided images of emails they have received from companies, verifying that they will honor the requests PaperKarma has made on the behalf of its users.

One important detail you must keep in mind when submitting requests is that PaperKarma can only handle junk mail that was sent to you specifically, meaning your name is on the mail. Advertisements or other junk mail items that are labeled as “to the current resident,” or something similar, are types of junk mail that PaperKarma refers to as being “carpet-bombed over an entire postal code or mail route,” and can not be removed from a mailing list.

Closing Comments

I know some readers may still be skeptical, but I have very high hopes for Paper Karma. I’m not someone that’s overrun with junk mail, but the amount I do receive is enough to make me want to use this service. Granted, I won’t know if PaperKarma is really successful for at least a few weeks, if not longer. If I do continue to receive junk mail from the same company, I plan to follow PaperKarma’s advice and re-submit a new request, hoping that will be the final nail in the coffin.

At the time of this writing, PaperKarma is free in the App Store, with no mention of what the cost of the app will be in the future (or when that cost will be applied). So, if you’re tired of junk mail clogging your mailbox, I highly recommend downloading PaperKarma while it’s still on the house.

There’s a picture of me floating around my parent’s house somewhere, where I’m pictured sitting on a bed in Massachusetts at just a year or so old with a puppy to my immediate right. I’ve always has dogs in my life, and as I type this there’s a rather smelly dachshund named Scrappy sitting at my feet, warming my toes with his body heat. I’d do anything for him and his sister Freckles, they’re like my kids with tails.

When Caniner Doggie Diary showed up as a Featured App in the App Store, I figured it was worth taking a look. Turns out that CDD (as I’ll refer to it from here on out) is less like a diary and more like a social network for your pets. 

Conceptualizing Caniner Doggie Diary

Take a paws for a moment (see what I did there?) and think about your dog’s life. They were born, you take them to the vet on a regular basis, you take them for walks. But do you really know that much about what they do?

Just the other day I was debating with my wife how old our lemon beagle Freckles was, and we couldn’t put a number on it. After digging through a pile of paperwork that almost outweighed the dog itself, we found out that she was born on May 23, 2003, making her almost nine years old. That put things into a slightly different perspective, particularly when we noticed that she was having trouble jumping up on the couch. She’s old.

CDD is essentially a combination of Facebook’s Timeline feature and Path’s innovative iPhone app, and when you put it in a different perspective, it kinda makes sense. Your dog has a life, why shouldn’t it be documented like our own?

A Social Network for Dogs

“But Kevin,” you say, “isn’t that the type of thing that only a crazy cat lady would do?” Well yes, but only if you get obsessive about the whole thing, and that’s not at all what I use it for. For me, this is a tool for documenting what your dog does, but also one that comes in handy on those inevitable visits to the vet.

Going back to my elderly (and very chubby) beagle, I’ve often gone to the vet and been asked questions that I simply don’t have the answer to. “When was her last dental exam?” “How often does she get walked?” “Holy crap, do you feed this thing buckets of lard?” With the exception of that last question, I don’t always have the information right at hand (and for the record, she only gets lard when she’s been good).

CDD is my new dog log book. I don’t feel it’s necessary to get into the minutia of what my dogs do all day (Tuesday: Freckles slept from 8 AM to 10 PM. Consider giving her coffee), but the major events should get recorded. Should my vet tell me that my dogs need to be walked more often, then I notate that in the system and mark down each walk as well to ensure that I’m consistent. It doesn’t have to become a burden unless you want it to be.

Setting It Up

CDD walks you through the setup process, making it easy to enter in your dog’s vitals (One note: I couldn’t find a way to change a pet’s sex after they had a profile created, so take that in mind when you build your own). The details are pretty basic — weight, sex, name, etc — then your profile page is generated for you automatically.

The page itself does look very Path-esque, with little plus signs along the left column denoting when a special occasion occurs and a circled picture of your pet in the upper left corner. If you have multiple pets, you can switch between them by tapping on their icons on the top of the screen.

When you want to notate an activity with your dog, just hit the plus sign underneath their icon to be transported to a new page complete with circular icons for each task. Tap on one or more to categorize what you’re doing, or even just note it down for a future appointment. You can add a picture too if you like, and even add geotags for specific spots.

The Caniner System

In my house, both my wife and myself take turns working with the dogs, whether it’s feeding them daily or taking them to appointments and what-not. What’s nice about CDD is that you don’t have to connect to the Internet every time you want to post an update. However, if you setup a Caniner account via the app (which is free), you can sync with other iPhones that have the app installed. So if my wife has to take Scrappy to the vet in an emergency, then she can note down what happened and why, and I’ll get the information the next time I open up the app.

Final Thoughts

This isn’t a homescreen app. You’re not going to download CDD and have to check in every day with your dog, or use it to catch up with friends. It’s not a burden, it’s a system. And that’s awesome.

For me, it solved a simple problem: When is my dog’s birthday? But more importantly, it became a way to track my dogs as they get older, which may help when diagnosing health issues later in life. And even if it doesn’t, it’s nice to have pictures and landmarks for my pet, just like I do on Facebook.

If you’re a dog lover, Caniner Doggie Diary is going to be your new best friend. Well, on your iPhone, anyways.