I usually write about two iPhone apps every week, but this week is special. This week, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars came out for the iPhone and it is worth every cent of the $9.99 price tag. Though it is certainly not what I would call a family game, it is done so well that serious gamers should head to the iTunes Store immediately. I want to reiterate here: this is not a family game. Gratuitous violence, bad language, drugs, theft, and murder, are all commonplace in Chinatown Wars--in other words, we strongly suggest you don't buy it for your kid's iPod Touch.

Having played many console versions of the games in the Grand Theft Auto franchise, I struggled to see how Rockstar could translate the action to mobile devices. I admit that the iPhone version was the first I tried (it's been available for some time on the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP handheld game systems), but even after 5 minutes spent playing Chinatown Wars on the iPhone I realized Rockstar knew what it was doing developing the game for handheld devices.

You play as the young Huang Lee who only recently arrived in Liberty City. Your first contact is with Huang's uncle, Kenny, a drug lord who is going through a rough patch, requiring you to take on various missions to improve his gangster image. Like all of the GTA games, you'll be sent on missions to steal cars, take out rival gangsters, and other nefarious activities. You view the action from a top-down (yet 3D) perspective with the control system involving an onscreen joystick, and onscreen buttons for driving, shooting, punching, and kicking. I should warn you that driving takes some getting used to, partly because of the onscreen controls and also as a result of the top-down view (making it hard to see what's coming). I definitely prefer the driving on the console versions, but with some practice I was able to get where I needed to go without too much trouble. The controls also make it difficult to shoot or use melee attacks with no targeting system, but fortunately the game is forgiving when it comes to aiming.

Even with the well-written storyline and challenging missions, what makes this game even more entertaining is the clever use of the iPhone's touch screen. Little things like spinning your finger to take out the screws of a panel to hot-wire a car, or swiping your finger to move trash bags out of a Dumpster to reveal a hidden gun add to this game's charm. Though some of the actions get kind of repetitive, it's fun to discover the various ways Rockstar utilized the touch screen.

In between missions you'll be able to visit your apartment to save the game, view a bulletin board where you can play previous missions, and log in to a laptop to check your e-mail. Like older GTA games, you also can save cars you find by parking them in the garage at your apartment before a save. There are several apartments to unlock as you play through the game, all of which will make it easier to complete specific missions in different locations.

Overall, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is an excellent game for iPhone with few issues, mostly revolving around the controls. Once you get used to the driving and melee fighting, Chinatown wars offers an engaging storyline, unique cartoonish graphics, a city that's alive with constant action, and music that puts it among the best games for the iPhone. The mature content makes it an adults-only type of game, but the sandbox-like gameplay and huge open world will make adults remember why they liked video games in the first place. Also, now that arguably one of the biggest video game publishers ever has made a game for iPhone, it could mean we will see more and more top-tier games making their way to our favorite handheld device.

What's your favorite iPhone app? Do you think Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is as good as I say it is? Do you find the whole concept of this game offensive? What game do you think should have an iPhone version? Let me know in the comments!

Take two new add-ons, judiciously use some pre-existing extensions, and creatively apply built-in tweaks, and you can make Firefox 3.6 look like Firefox 3.7 or even Firefox 4.0. In this How-To video from CNET TV, I'll take you through the steps explained in this blog post from last week. The process isn't hard, and can be good for getting more familiar with the deep level of customization available in Firefox.

I own J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek" reboot. The DVD's bought and paid for. Needless to say, I'm not about to give Apple another $14.99 so I can watch the movie on my iPhone or iPod Touch. That's as ludicrous as buying the MP3s of an album I already purchased on CD.

Alas, though it's easy to turn a CD into iPod-friendly digital media--iTunes can do it, as can Windows Media Player--ripping a DVD requires a bit more muscle. That's why I tested the latest versions of two popular products: WinX DVD Ripper Platinum ($29.95) and Wondershare DVD Ripper Platinum ($39.95). (Apparently platinum is the, um, gold standard when it comes to ripping utilities.)

Basically, I wanted to see how well the two tools handled a new release like "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" and an older one like "Back to the Future." Again, these are movies I own; I believe creating a digital copy constitutes fair use, same as ripping a CD does.

For these fairly informal tests, I opted for medium-quality MPEG-4 conversion using preselected "iPhone" profiles. Also, my system has a quad-core AMD processor with 6GB of RAM, so performance results will undoubtedly vary unless you have similar hardware.

From a feature standpoint, the two programs are pretty similar. Both give you an abundance of conversion options, meaning you can rip your DVDs for viewing on devices other than just the iPhone and iPod (everything from Apple TV to Zune).

I'm happy to report that both programs ripped all my sample DVDs with ease. Wondershare occasionally produced an error while opening a disc, but it never interfered with ripping the actual movie.

Wondershare definitely has the snazzier, easier-to-use interface, but one point in WinX's favor is that it automatically reads the currently inserted DVD. With Wondershare, you have to point it to your DVD drive. On the other hand, WinX doesn't let you preview the selected track so you can verify what you're about to rip.

Even so, WinX wins the day for two key reasons: it costs $10 less than Wondershare, and it's much, much faster. It blazed through "Cloudy" in just over 15 minutes, an amazing time. Wondershare took nearly twice as long (about 27 minutes) to complete the same job. Likewise, WinX finished "Back to the Future" in just 22 minutes, while Wondershare spent 48 minutes on it.

I'm sure some readers will point to free solutions like Handbrake, but that app (which I like and use regularly) doesn't rip protected DVDs unless you pair it with increasingly outdated third-party tools.

Ultimately, if you want a fast, effective, and fairly user-friendly DVD-ripping solution, WinX DVD Ripper Platinum is the way to go--with Wondershare's eponymous product running it a close second.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas