Archive for the 'iPhone Software' Category
February 6th, 2009 by ifoneplanet
If you happened to miss the Pre’s unveiling at this year’s Computer Electronics Show (CES), it seems that the smartphone market just got a little more crowded with Palm’s most recent entry.
The Linux-based phone
looks promising and has a lot of industry bloggers excited because of it’s fluid webkit-based UI. From what I’ve read so far, it seems that Palm is taking a similar approach to what Apple did when it introduced the iPhone two years ago…having developers create “web-apps” in sort of a sand-box environment.
In any case, I just wanted to post some of my thoughts on the Pre and what’s been unveiled so far..I just want to say beforehand, I’m excited about this phone and what it means to the expanding smartphone market. Remember folks, choice and competition is good for everyone.
I see a few trends that could possibly play out here and in the first one, I think that there is obviously room for more than the “one smartphone to rule them all.” My opinion is that like computers or game consoles, this new breed of smartphones have markets they can serve. I see the G1 as the “enthusiasts” phone, Blackberries and WinMo phones as the business-users phones and iPhone as sort of a “jack-of-all trades.” (Btw, I didn’t forget about Nokia Symbian, I’m just not too sure where they’ll fall.) Oh yes and the Palm Pre is somewhere in between, sort of like the iPhone but it’s marketshare will be smaller, fierce and loyal. Hmmm who does that remind you of, about 10 years ago?
On the other hand, the cellular market could continue to be dominated by the iPhone much like the desktop market is dominated by Windows. Basically it’s a snowball effect, because a lot of phones have been sold (approx. 10 million), developers will be writing apps and with a huge library of software, more people will buy iPhones and the cycle continues…We’re already starting to see this happening with developers like Konami bringing their hits,
Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill (oh ya and Frogger, how could I forget) to the iPhone platform (you’ll notice I didn’t call it a phone).
In any case, even though this is an iPhone-centric website, we don’t feel the second scenario is necessarily the best case scenario. As time progresses and this smartphone market matures, what I am afraid of is that Apple will fall back into the “
Not invented here” syndrome and feel like there is less of a need to innovate (ie. see lack of cut and paste functions & flash support) as it feels it can dictate what the market wants. Nonetheless with all these new entrants, it’ll be interesting to see who’s left standing at the end of the year or at least see how things pan out.
February 6th, 2009 by ifoneplanet
VelaClock ($3.99) 
by Vela Design Group.
VelaClock is a world clock with unique features and an easily configurable user interface. Users can quickly display the time of sunrise, sunset, dawn and dusk for three kinds of twilight (civil, nautical, astronomical), moon phase and tilt, and much more. Great for photographers who are looking for that “magic moment”.
DAV-E ($9.99) by greenbytes GmbH.
DAV-E is a WebDAV client for the iPhone. WebDAV is a wide-spread extention of the HTTP/1.1 protocol. Using DAV-E you can access your MobileMe iDisk, connect to a WebDAV server, browse files and collections and more.
Photo Lab 1600 ($3.99) by Sudobility.
This app allows you to use Photo Lab’s 20+ image effects on images as big as 1600×1200 resolution. Adjust color, white balance, saturation, brightness, or choose monochrome effects, art effects, and crop photos to different sizes.
LiveView (FREE) by Nicholas Zambetti.
LiveView is a remote screen viewing application that enables you to interact with your Mac via WiFi. It provides an iPhone-sized view of your Mac’s screen by way of the LiveView Screencaster desktop application.
If you’ve got a new iPhone application that just got into the iTunes App store,
contact us and we’ll feature it in the New in the iTunes iPhone App Store section of iPhoneNewsBlog.
February 6th, 2009 by ifoneplanet
For some as of yet unexplained official reason, it seems that Apple has quietly lifted its “rule” of not allowing 3rd Party Browsers to be sold in the AppStore. It seems that various iPhone/Mac rumor sites have picked up that in last 24 hours, Apple has begun to approve web browsing applications. Originally, 3rd party browsers were not allowed in the AppStore because according to Apple developer restrictions, browsers would be duplicating existing app functionality.
In any case, the apps that have appeared in the AppStore include:
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Edge Browser (Free) - No loss of screen real estate to the address or navigation bars.
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Incognito ($1.99) - Now you can browse without leaving a history of any kind.
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WebMate:Tabbed Browser ($0.99) - Web Mate simplifies browsing by queuing up all the links you click on, then allowing you to view them one by one when you’re ready.
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Shaking Web ($1.99) - adds a sophisticated algorithm to compensate for small hand shaking to allow for easier reading.
We’re really excited with this change and look forward to reviewing these applications for your viewing pleasure. Keep an eye out for upcoming reviews…cross your fingers!
February 6th, 2009 by ifoneplanet
One of the first apps I ever owned on the iPhone was an app called Newtonica. Newtonica was released on August 25, 2008 and it’s a pretty simple game. It got great reviews in Japan so I wanted to see what it was all about…Basically you use the touch screen to move a three-dimensional sphere around to “catch” falling blocks. The game is simple in design and takes some time to ramp up. I played it a lot and still go back to it once in a while but the soundtrack is great. It’s a pretty good deal if you like these type of puzzle games. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants a solid grade A game. Buy it now from the iTunes app Store for $4.99
Thanks and watch my short video review below:
February 6th, 2009 by ifoneplanet
As the AppStore matures and developers get familiar with the SDK, the quality of the games available have just been improving by leaps and bounds. Like some of the other games I’ve been reviewing as of late, Touch Physics is a well-polished game that has a simple concept: move/nudge the circle with shapes that you draw on the screen so that it touches the star.
The challenge comes in when obstacles/hills and other drawn-in environments get in the way. There are 30 levels and the game gets progressively harder. For a better explanation of how the game works, have a look at my video:
February 6th, 2009 by ifoneplanet
Where To Golf ($.99) by Carpe Diem Ventures.
Where To Golf shows information on golf courses and how to get there. An extensive collection of over 19,000 golf courses in the United States provides info about a particular golf course. I believe Ryan will be doing a review on this one soon.
WhosHere (FREE) by myRete.
WhosHere helps you meet people near you with similar interests. It takes the chance out of the chance encounter. Simply fill out your profile and indicate the age and gender of the person you would like to meet. Use WhosHere for making new friends, dating, professional networking, or just chatting with new and interesting people nearby and around the world.
Contact Tool ($1.99) Alessandro Levi Montalcini.
Contact Tool is your address book’s best friend. Use it to search, sort and inspect your contacts for increased efficiency or just fun. Find people more quickly when you need them or polish your address book while sitting at the airport.
February 6th, 2009 by ifoneplanet
If you enjoy space/shooter-type games, you’ll be pleasantly surprised with NGMoco’s Dropship. The gameplay is challenging yet easy enough to pick up for the casual gamer. The object of the game is to navigate around the map while picking up passengers and packages. While it seems easy enough, add complex maps and enemy fire to the mix and you’ll soon find yourself coming back for more.
One of the first things off the bat you’ll notice about Dropship are the wonderfully stylized retro graphics. The other thing that distinguishes Dropship from other similar titles is in the way that the ship is controlled. The ships thrust is controlled by your left thumb and the ship’s cannons are controlled by your right thumb. It does take some getting use to, but in the end I really feel that the control scheme works. I must admit that the first few rounds I played were painful.
In any case, I enjoy this game and I find myself coming back to it every so often. What makes it awesome are little touches like having the names of the people you need to rescue taken from your address book. There are 18 mission and even downloadable levels…If you just want to practice, there is even a free play mode where you can hone your skills. For $1.99 you can’t go wrong. Have a look at my vid review and
check it out in the AppStore.
February 6th, 2009 by ifoneplanet
In the not really iPhone news category…Yesterday, the big news at CES 2009 was that Palm unveiled their new smartphone called “Pre.” In an nutshell, the Pre has Linux underpinnings and a web-kit based graphical interface called WebOS. So far, the technical specs seem really good:
- 3-megapixel camera
- EVDO Rev. A
- Wi-Fi
- stereo Bluetooth, GPS
- 8GB of storage
- a new TI processor that offers notebook-level performance.
Right now, the phone is aimed at the Sprint network although in the past, Palm has been known to make several versions of their phones for each network. There has been very good coverage so far around the net, so if you’d like more information, Electronista has a good pre writeup.
In any case, we here still love our iPhone but we do think competition is a good thing…Hey Apple, where’s our PNS (push notification services)?
Anyway, this is now a new platform to keep an eye on. Tonight I’ll be getting a brief hands on with a HTC G1 Android based phone, maybe i’ll post my brief impressions here…Keep an eye out for those.
February 6th, 2009 by ifoneplanet
Over the next few days, I’m going to go through my list of favorite iPhone apps. First on my list is Devicescape’s Easy Wi-Fi for AT&T iPhones. The premise of this iPhone app is very simple: It logs you into any AT&T hosted wi-fi hotspot location and it does it really fast too!
In case you didn’t know, you can get free wi-fi if you have an iPhone with a current AT&T account at any Starbucks, McDonald’s and anywhere else AT&T Wayport hotspots are located! In order to connect you have to do a cumbersome set of tasks. First load up the Mobile Safari browser and get the hotspot’s home page to come up. Once it does, you input your iPhone phone number then submit it. In a few seconds, AT&T will send you an SMS text message with a link that you will click to validate you. Once you do that, you’ll be able to use wi-fi for free… but man, that’s a ton of steps just to do that!
Enter Easy Wi-Fi for AT&T! Devicescape’s app allows you to connect to any AT&T hotspot by just launching the app. You simply setup Easy Wi-Fi for AT&T with your 10-digit phone number just once. Once you’ve done that you’ll never have to do it again. Then in a few seconds, you’ll be connected to an AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot and you’ll be free to surf the net, send email, twitter, etc.
I’ve used Easy Wi-FI for AT&T just about everytime I’ve been near a McDonald’s or Starbucks coffee location and it works flawlessly. It sure beats going through all of the steps to get connected. One thing I have noticed is that if you put your phone in standby for a while, you’ll have to reconnect via Easy Wi-Fi to get reconnected to the hotspot.
This is a real time saver for me. Could I live without it? Sure. Is it worth $1.99? For the ease of use and no hassle, I have to say a resounding YES! Get Easy Wi-Fi for At&T [link goes to iTunes] for $1.99.
Devicescape also has another iPhone app that can connect you to more than just AT&T hotspots called simply Easy Wi-Fi. Along with easy connection to AT&T hotspots, you can also connect easily to Boingo, FON, NTT Comm, NTT DoCoMo, PCCW, Softbank, T-Mobile and many more! Easy Wi-Fi [Link goes to iTunes] is a dollar more at $2.99 but might be worth it if you have accounts with a different hotspot provider and need easy access to them.
Just a reminder that this app will only work for iPhone, and not iPod touch. Don’t complain about it, because only iPhone users who pay for an AT&T account are given free access for AT&T hotspots.
February 6th, 2009 by ifoneplanet
Writing this story on an iPhone newsite might seem a little strange, however, if any of you have been following me on twitter (TypeZero3), you’ll know that I’ve been really excited about the G1 even though I am a happy iPhone owner.
In any case, last night I had the chance to play with my friends developer G1. Question: Why does he have a developer G1? Well, first off, some background: He used to be a sprint customer and when the G1 was released he found out it was Linux-based and programs were developed with the mobile version of Java. To make a long story short, he signed up for T-mobile, got the G1 and is now a developer. In any case, he published an app called noblefart (basically a simple clone of iFart) and is now in the process of converting his risk-like desktop game to the G1. Pretty neat stuff if you ask me….hehehe
At any rate, I was excited to get an initial impression of the G1, so when my friend started showing me around functions/navigation, I was even more intrigued. It seemed right off the bat, Android as well as the JUST announced Palm Pre are trying to shrink desktop experiences to the handheld level…At this point, I’m not sure that this or Apple’s approach to the iPhone is the better way, they’re just different philosophies…For example, the G1 has a drawer on the bottom where you can pull apps out and place them on your desktop (on 1 of 3 screens). On my friend’s phone, apps were scattered all over the desktop and he showed me that you can even “trash” app (basically placing them back in the drawer). Mac users familiar with drop drawers should get a pretty good understanding how this work.
On the iPhone, Apple took a somewhat different approach…they created a UI specifically for the iPhone form factor and threw the desktop metaphor out the proverbial window. In many ways, this simplistic approach is what makes the iPhone so powerful, you’re never more than one click away from launching the app that you want. I do however realize that there is room for improvement and the G1’s interface does have some elements that I’d like to see in future iPhone OS upgrades. Here’s a list of features I liked about Android:
- Drawer interface for storing of applications
- Pull-down notfication “shade”
- Ability to run third-party applications in the background
At this point, you’ll notice that I’m excluding hardware differences like the keyboard and the auto-focusing camera because I felt that system software differences were more relevant. On a similar note, when we tested the cameras in the same lighting conditions, for some reason, the iPhone picture came out clearer and was a much better picture overall. Maybe i’ll see if I can get my friend to send over his picture and I can write a follow up post later.
Now, here’s what my friends liked about the iPhone…one of my friends was from Japan and the other was from Switzerland, so were were joking about how/if the iPhone could support German and Japanese input. I only tried this once before so I decided to do it again…First I pulled up German and my friend who owned the G1 was impressed because he was able to type in German on the notepad application and the iPhone dictionary worked in German. I mean it was pretty amazing. Next we tried Japanese and my Japanese friend seemed impressed that the iPhone had such good character support. It was pretty cool, at the end of the test, I was able to go between 3 different keyboards/type of input: Japanese, English and German…I’d like to see all you phones with a physical keyboard do that! Actually, I know how they would handle Internationalization and that would be handled by a stylus…For some odd reason we couldn’t get multiple language support to work on the G1…perhaps a sign that these options are buried too deep and hard to find???
After the showing off “Internationalization,” I played with Rolando, Tap Tap Revolution and Touch Physics. As I was demoing the games, it came to me that the iPhone along with the AppStore is truly the key to the iPhone being the killer platform that it is today. I know that we all realize the AppStore is amazing but you only realize how good something is until you see another implementation of mobile software distribution.
In the end, I still have a deep respect for the G1 and I am looking forward to seeing the platform mature. What’s more is that I hope that Apple is taking notes on what people are saying about other platforms (like the G1 and the Palm Pre) and are actively looking for ways to make the iPhone better, because Apple should know more than any other company how easy it is to become irrelevant even if your product is superior to what exists in the market.
I walked away from this comparo with two suggestions, one to each company: to apple: watch your back because everyone has painted a target on it…to google: monetize your app store like yesterday because without the ability to sell their applications, developers are hesitant to publish their applications for Android. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get my hands on a Palm Pre in the future…till then, I’ll be posting strictly iPhone related news.
February 6th, 2009 by ifoneplanet
Wobble is semi risque, but highly amusing. Import any image from your iPhone photo album and then set wobble regions. Shake the phone and enjoy… The video kinda says it all…
February 6th, 2009 by ifoneplanet
Apple certainly have been very successful with their App store, and they’re telling EVERYONE on the front page of their home page. We would like to congratulate Apple and more importantly, every coder and developer who have their app on iTunes. The community surrounding the iPhone platform is by far the strongest in the industry and without the community, Apple would have nothing to sell!
Here’s to an amazing 2009 and beyond! Stay tuned for our first iPhone app very soon too 
February 6th, 2009 by ifoneplanet
From the creators of TouchGrind comes SWAY, a VERY unique multitouch game for iPhone where you have to help your character swing like a monkey around various environments to complete the level.
We don’t know too much about this yet other than what we can see in the video above, but this looks amazing, and we’re looking forward to more multitouch games in the future!
Sway is set for an early Feb release.
February 6th, 2009 by ifoneplanet
Ten One Design has released SoundClip for iPhone. SoundClip directs sound from the iPhone towards you to increase the volume and clarity for movies and music. SoundClip clips into the dock connector using a special clip type, and is easily removed for charging. The dimensions and shape of the SoundClip create a resonance chamber facilitating the attenuation of some frequencies, and the amplification of others.
SoundClip Features:
- 10dB gain between 5kHz and 20kHz
- Focuses iPhone sound toward you instead of away
- Keeps your dock connector free of dust
- Prevents blocking of speaker while gaming
- Handy cord grip
Buy your SoundClip from TenOne’s site
February 6th, 2009 by ifoneplanet
We’ve been waiting for an app like this for a while now, and are super happy to see it’s finally made it to the iPhone.
Saltlick Labs has released Pocket Workout for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Pocket Workout is an easy-to-use, highly effective calisthenic exercise program stuffed into a mobile application you can take anywhere. Designed for travelers, life-hackers, active parents, students on a budget and kids, Pocket Workout lets users create customized exercise routines based on test results, a weekly schedule, and improvement goals through a unique personal training system. Emphasizing usability and motivational support, users enter data in two taps and feedback is displayed immediately.
Pocket Workout 1.0 for the iPhone and iPod Touch is only $2.99 (USD) and available in the Health and Fitness section of the iTunes AppStore.
February 6th, 2009 by ifoneplanet
Point your iPhone at iphone.gelaskins.com
Gelaskins offer a whole series of free wallpapers to match the stick on protective sticker things they manufacture. Whilst the cases are not amazing quality (review coming tomorrow) the wallpaper designs are amazing and free. Check out Gelaskins iPhone Site and download some to try out.
February 6th, 2009 by ifoneplanet
Draft auctions anywhere and anytime
Now you can prepare drafts of your online auctions anywhere and anytime with your iPhone - may it be at home or on the move. It’s never been more comfortable to photograph and measure all that junk in the cellar, attic and garage and design an auction draft.
iSale is one of the top Ebay apps for Mac and we are so pleased to see this FREE app come to iPhone.
VERDICT: 90%
Get it from the app store
February 6th, 2009 by ifoneplanet
We love the new Macbook White Keyboard theme for Winterboard. It really is a MASSIVE improvement over the standard keyboard and makes typing a whole lot easier.
Recommended for anyone who has jailbroken their iPhone. In Cydia search for Macbook White Keyboard.
VERDICT: 88%
February 6th, 2009 by ifoneplanet
Toucharcade reports: Resolution Interactive, who brought us Clusterball Arcade, has today posted a gameplay video of a new iPhone title in development, Aqua Moto Racing.Right now we have basically no deatils on this title, but the gameplay video looks rather promising and we wanted to send a heads up out to the iPhone / iPod touch gaming community.
February 6th, 2009 by ifoneplanet
Bjango, a company from the creators of iSlayer, have announced that they will be releasing a iPhone Version VERY SOON. To use this app, all you have to do is install iStat server (free) form the developers website on your Mac, and then your ready to go. If your iPhone is sharing the same network, then Bonjour will take care of everything, if not you can manually enter the IP Address and Port number of your mac on your iPhone. [via buymeaniphone]
