Archive for November 17th, 2009

Google today announced that it has issued an update to Google Earth the companion iPhone and iPod touch application to the company's desktop application offering virtual globe and other geographic information.

Among the biggest changes in Version 2.0 of Google Earth is the ability to view custom maps stored in the "My Maps" section of users' Google Maps accounts:

By logging in directly to your Google Maps account, you can view the same maps that you or others have created, using the My Maps interface.

What's new:

• Take your maps with you wherever you go. View Google Maps created on your desktop computer on your iPhone.
• Visual feedback when you select photos, businesses, and other icons. It's now much easier to browse.
• Improved performance
• Available in many new languages and countries

The app is free and avaliable in AppStore (link).

More and more developers complain about the rejection of their applications in the AppStore. There's a good reason behind all this.

It seems that Apple has created a tool that can automatically review applications and APIs that are used. According to the rules of the SDK, the developers can not use private API. If this initial test is passed examiners begin to manually check the app.

So the advice is quite simple - follow the rules of the SDK.

Apple today posted two new iPhone commercials to its ad gallery and also began airing them on prime-time television. Here is a list of applications, that are used in these videos:

Song
- Jamie Oliver's 20 Minute Meals [App Store, $7.99]
- Credit Card Terminal [App Store, $0.99]
- Facebook [App Store, Free]
- The Sims 3 [App Store, $6.99]
- Redfin Real Estate [App Store, Free]
- Shazam [App Store, Free]

Gift
- Target [App Store, Free]
- ColorChange [App Store, $2.99]
- The Snow Report [App Store, Free]
- Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition [App Store, $4.99]
- HotelPal [App Store, Free]
- Zipcar [App Store, Free]

Watch the videos:

Read the rest of this entry »

There is an app for about everything. iMaya is an iPhone application that shows a countdown clock until time X of 2012.

Here is a quick story about this Maya calendar. Maya civilization had several different calendars, the longest one, The Long Count, identifies a date by counting the number of days from the Mayan creation (August 11, 3114 BC in the proleptic Gregorian calendar or September 6 in the Julian calendar). But instead of using a base-10 (decimal) scheme like Western numbering, the Long Count days were tallied in a modified base-20 scheme. Thus 0.0.0.1.5 is equal to 25, and 0.0.0.2.0 is equal to 40.

The Maya name for a day was k'in. Twenty of these k'ins are known as a winal or uinal. Eighteen winals make one tun. Twenty tuns are known as a k'atun. Twenty k'atuns make a b'ak'tun. Confused? Don't panic. 1 B'ak'tun is about 144,000 days or 394.3 years.

The date December 20, 2012 is simply the last day of the 13th b'ak'tun. And here is the big misinterpretation of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. There is a belief, that this date is the basis for a New Age and for a big cataclysm. For the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle. But that is not the end of the Long Count because the 14th through 20th b'ak'tuns are still to come. So we need to wait for another 7 b'ak'tuns (> 2700 years), when this Long Count calendar will end.

The app costs $0.99 and is available in AppStore (link). It requires firmware 3.1.2 and is localized in various languages.