My newest iPhone app – Lightning Calc. Calculate the distance and approximate location of lightning strikes.

Now available for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad in the Apple App Store.

http://bit.ly/bvNtN9

A new version, 2.0.1, is available from the App Store. This is just minor bug fixes including the fixing the overvalued Ace high bug.

http://www.techcrunch50.com/2009/penn-teller/

Enjoy a video the launch of another one of my projects – Penn & Teller Chat Magic Trick available now for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

If you have any issues with the app make sure none of your contacts have both the First & Last name blank.

The new version of Chinese Poker has been released for the iPhone and iTouch.

New features include:

• playing against 3 other AI Players instead of heads up
• stats charts view to track your progress
• improved AI engine
• send hands by email to friends

This should be a free upgrade to all existing customers. Enjoy!

Coming in 4-6 weeks to an iPhone near you!

The new version has support for Naturals and a learning mode.

After many long hours of testing and debugging Naturals are now finished, including dragons (13 different ranks.) The new release will be submitted to Apple and should be available in mid-January.

I decided on the following scoring table:

Dragons – 13 points

Six Pair – 6 points

Three Flushes – 6 points

Three Straights – 6 points

Creating your own scoring table might make the next version.

Phil Ivey playing Chinese Poker on the plane for $10,000 a point (or so hopes Barry!)

By way of Poker Road.

Any feedback on how naturals should be scored please forward ASAP. I am assuming it will be OK to automatically detect naturals. I am running out of screen space!

Dragon (One of every rank) 13 points
6 Pair – 6 Points
3 Straights – 6 Points
3 Flushes – 6 Points

(Updated on December 30th.)

From http://genebromberg.com/2008/11/02/the-even-keel/ comes this tale:

Lately, when I go to bed, I play Chinese poker on my iPhone until I get drowsy. At one point I was up $14 on my “computer genius” opponent. And then I went on a 2-night losing streak that left me down $70. I’d like to point out that (a) I was playing against a telephone and (b) the money involved was not real. Still, I got so frustrated, and so exquisitely angry, that I toyed with the idea of throwing my phone against the wall. And then grabbing a hammer and smashing the pieces into much, much smaller pieces.

I should say that I only toyed with the idea. I never cocked my arm and took aim. I love my iPhone. Really. And I don’t consider myself a violent person. It’s just that occasionally I have the urge to beat the everlovin’ crap out of smiley computer-generated pixies and impersonal digital interfaces.

Maybe I shouldn’t announce that I’m working on improvements in the AI bot. I don’t think it surrenders enough. I also think it can play better with lowball and royalty options turned on. I’m glad you are playing the game and find it challenging.