In the competitive battle for the newest and greatest iPhone apps and games, five independent developers set aside their own pursuit for that #1 spot in the iTunes store and created a pioneering new concept.

Sega had them, Playstation had them and Nintendo had them. Now, the iPhone has one: the game bundle.

The 5 Fingers Games Bundle takes five of the most popular and best selling iPhone games, and combines them into one great package. In addition, besides having five great games readily available, because they are all together in one app, it only takes up one app space on your iPhone. That means five games for one dashboard spot!

With a shared admiration and enthusiasm for each other's work, these 5 indie developers have joined forces to bring you the following five addictive and high-energy games on one simple launch pad:

Chopper - Majic Jungle Software
Up There - Veiled Games
Sneezies - Antair Games
BurnBall - IMS
Blackbeard's Assault - Warhorse Games

Often for a games bundle, a publisher pulls together one or two good titles and throws in some weaker games to fill in the space, but these are the best selling game from each of five indie developers. Each one is a gem in their own right, with production values, quality, and most importantly, heart.

Together these games have a value of over $10.00, with each being at least $1.99. The bundle is available for just $4.99, a discount of 50% or more off each game.

Could this be a new trend in the competitive world of iPhone gaming? We'll just have to wait and see.

For more info click here.

When thinking of the word flurry, one could imagine a gust of floating snow, but there is nothing cold or wet about Flurry Analytics.

Flurry Analytics is a leading cross-platform mobile application analytics provider for iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Java ME developers. With the intention of helping developers make better applications by providing consumer behavior and application performance analytics, Flurry announced the release of two ground-breaking extensions to its analytic services: User Path Tracking and Dynamic Parameters.

The User Path Tracking will monitor the sequence of actions completed in mobile applications by consumers and the Dynamic Parameters will analyze user-generated content and other user action data within mobile applications.

“Flurry is committed to dramatically raising the standard of iPhone and Android Analytics for its customers,” said Flurry CEO, Simon Khalaf. “Building the ability to track user flows and event parameters was technically challenging but exactly what our customers needed to better understand their consumers, increase retention and grow their active user base.”

The User Path Tracking gives developers the chance to track the sequence of actions that consumers complete in their applications from the time of launch, thus giving the option of using the collected data to increase user satisfaction and retention by improving the design of an application and discovery of key features.

In addition to the ability to track when end-users perform key actions, developers can now “describe” and understand how that action was completed in richer detail with Dynamic Parameters.

Click here to learn more about Flurry Analytics.

For all iPhone/iTouch users and developers who were looking forward to an Xbox Live-like interactive game play and ecosystem, you may have to wait a little longer. Followers of Demiforce will be disappointed to hear that the company is cancelling their plans for Onyx.

Onyx developer Steve Demeter, best known for the very successful Trism, broke the unfortunate news on his blog yesterday. Fearing the uncertainty of not being able to guarantee the App Store's approval of the Onyx-enabled games, led the company to a potential business risk. The Apple store declined to elaborate whether or not Onyx would comply with the guidelines to the terms agreement contract and even though much time, money and effort was placed in the investment and development, Demeter decided to “throw in the towel.”

”The blame should lay with me for this,” Demeter stated on his blog. “I was the one who failed to acknowledge the gray areas in the Apple contract before starting Onyx. I sent out the initial announcement, getting peoples' hopes up by calling for potential beta testers. I take full responsibility for this, and I apologize to you if you were one of the many people who have been patiently waiting for it. I always intended for Onyx to be for you guys, my peers in the indie developer community, so the pain really hits home when I say it isn't going to happen.”

From online scoring to community forums to even level update packs for existing games, Onyx would have given developers a new outlet to create and erase solidarity game play as the only option for gamers.

However, there's no shortage of companies out there planning to offer similar services and Demeter is eager to see what other companies can create. Until then, Demiforce and Demeter are keeping their heads up and are excited about the new and innovative games they have planned for 2009.

Check out Steve's Blog for more info.