Archive for 2009

Navigon has decided to produce a Car Mount for iPhone (just like TomTom). This is a much simpler version that only allows to keep the iPhone in position and charge via the cigarette lighter or USB:

It will be avaliable in October and will cost less than $60. More advanced model with GPS module might appear later.

Here are a few interesting sales over the past couple of days:

• Silent Hill: The Escape ($7.99 -> $0.99, AppStore link) – Konami's first person shooting game set in a creepy environment has seen a massive price drop from $7.99 to $0.99. So, if you've been curious about this title, now's a good time to try it.
• Resident Evil 4 ($7.99 -> $2.99, AppStore link) – The mobile edition of Resident Evil 4. There was some very split opinions between those who loved the game and those who felt it paled in comparison to the original console version. Regardless of your position, a $5 price drop certainly makes it easier to pick up.
• Dirt Moto Racing ($4.99 -> $0.99, AppStore link) – A solid off-road racer that's easily worth $0.99.
• Crash Bandicoot ($5.99 -> $2.99, AppStore link) – One of the original kart racers for the iPhone, it seems they are starting to feel the pressure with Konami's Krazy Kart Racing and the upcoming Shrek Kart.

And, we've heard of one major game that will be holding a sale soon. Firemint's Real Racing (App Store link) will see its first sale this weekend dropping from $9.99 to $6.99 temporarily. The sale should be live by Saturday morning, so keep that in mind if you've been holding out.

via toucharcade

Same announce as yesterday, but in a form of a video. A bit more information on network, how things work, what's happening. Worth watching:

AT&T has issued a press release today announcing that MMS will become active for iPhone users on September 25.

We've been working for the past several months to prepare our systems and network to ensure the best possible experience with MMS when it launches - and that launch date is: September 25 for iPhone 3G and 3GS customers. MMS will be enabled through a software update on that day.

AT&T points to the need for the company to build out its network infrastructure to handle the demands of heavy MMS messaging volumes as the primary reason for the delay in launching the service compared to carriers in other countries that have offered MMS since the launch of iPhone OS 3.0 in June.

As announced in June, MMS messaging will be included at no additional cost to users with an iPhone text messaging plan.

via macrumors

It happend in New Jersey. The video shows the men quickly enter and grab 23 MacBook Pros, 14 iPhones and 9 iPod touches in 31 seconds:

The site 9 to 5 Mac found a new virtual keyboard in the new recently released Mac OS - Snow Leopard. The new keyboard is much bigger (finger sized) and is located in an input method (keyboard) system pref. You can resize it as well to stretch all the way across the screen. This might be the first steps towards touchscreen hardware such as Apple's much-rumored tablet computer (also known as iTablet and MacBook Touch).

For comparison, here’s the old soft keyboard in Leopard. This is not a touchscreen keyboard.

Enigmo [App Store link] was originally created in 2003, and since has become Pangea Software's most successful game. It was voted the "Best iPhone Game" of WWDC '08.

The goal of Enigmo is simple, water falls from droppers and a certain number of drops need to make it in to the tank at the end of the level. Utilizing a limited number of objects from the variety of different ones that make up the puzzle pieces in the game such as bumpers to bounce drops off of and sponges to collect drops, etc., the gameplay of Enigmo started simple but quickly made way to levels that would leave you stumped for days.

Enigmo 2 [App Store link] took the award winning gameplay of the original, made everything 3D, and even added lasers and plasma particles that must also be directed to their respective containers. Enigmo 2 takes place in space, and gravity plays an even bigger part than the original with objects that can be dropped in game to manipulate gravity to steer the plasma particles around.

User can rotate the world using two finger swiping gestures, and some puzzles will require the placing and manipulating of objects in 3D space to complete the level.

Pangea Software released demo video that details nearly every corner of Enigmo 2, and is really worth:

Read the rest of this entry »

Dell Mini 3i is an Android-based smartphone for chineese market. It has a 3-megapixel camera and GPS with included software. Chinese site Sina got several photos. Dell Mini 3i looks like a genetic experiment between the Palm Pre and the iPhone:

Something is changing in the AppStore application approval process. Action Babes has just been approved by Apple. It had been rejected previously due to explicit content, but now the developers have obtained approval and the download will be available from 15 September.

Wikitude Drive is a revolutionary new navigation software which will be launched soon for Android and iPhone. Unlike regular navigation applications like iGo, TomTom, Garmin and other programs the WikiTude Drive will use the Augmented Reality!

The software will also include all the classic features such as Turn-by-turn navigation, voice prompts, points of interest. In short, just point the iPhone on the road and we shall see an arrow that will point the way forward. The data for the route is downloaded in real time via the Internet.

via ispazio

New features in 3.0:

• Landscape mode
• See your upcoming Events and RSVP
• See your friends' birthdays
• See Pages and post updates and photos to Pages you administer
• Write Notes and read your friends' Notes
• Upload videos from an iPhone 3GS
• Upload photos to any album
• Complete photo management (create albums, delete albums, delete photos, delete photo tags)
• Change your Profile Picture
• Zoom into photos
• Like posts and photos
• See the same News Feed as the Facebook website
• Visit links in a built-in web browser
• See all of your friends' friends and Pages
• See mutual friends
• Easily search for people and Pages
• Make friend requests
• Become a fan of Pages
• Quickly call or text your friends
• Create shortcuts to your favorite friends and Pages
• Friends sorted by first or last name according to your settings
• Chat friends sorted alphabeticaly

So there are many new features. Here is a good video review from CNet:

Yesterday Facebook upodated to version 3.0.1 (minor bugfixes). It is avaliable for free in AppStore (link).

Recentrly we've talked about Nokia and their willingness to enter into direct competition with the iPhone releasing new devices based on Linux. Now on the official Nokia website we can already pre-order the new mini tablet N900.

The operating system is the Maemo 5, that is based on Linux. It has an ARM Cortex A8 processor with 256MB of RAM for applications and other 768MB in virtual memory, so total is 1GB. So the multi-tasking is guaranteed. The graphics uses Open GL | ES 2.0, which is quite good.

The new operating system is much more flexible compared to Symbian. The Web browser is developed by Mozilla and is capable of playing Flash 9.4 movies and animations.

It looks like an iPhone but lacks the Home. It also has a sliding QWERTY keyboard. The screen resolution is 800 × 480 pixels (16:9). There are two cameras. The main has 5 MP with Carl Zeiss optics, Tessar lens and two LEDs for flash. The onboard memory is 32GB but can be expanded with microSD to additional 48GB.

The target price (tax excluded) is 500 euro. Nokia N900 will be available starting from October.

Here's a video that shows the Maemo interface in action:

Read the rest of this entry »

A new package called iPhoneDelivery is avaliable in Cydia. It is a little hack to enable delivery notification for SMS. In other words, we can now see a new popup screen when the recipient receives the message.

To install the package just run Cydia, add repository http://iphonedelivery.advinux.com/cydia and install package called iPhoneDelivery.

Next, go to Settings> Messages and turn on the last two switches that will enable the Services that show a new screen with the delivery status (last screenshot).

via ispazio

Playing with the latest beta software for iPhone, one of iH8sn0w employees (firmware 3.1 beta 3 jailbreak utility), found that the expiry date for latest firmware is September 18.

Firmware 3.1 will be probably released 1 or 2 days before the expiration of the beta. This means that Apple might perform a release during the Apple event in September. However this event is dedicated to the music, so we cannot be sure.

The only certain knowledge is that by the middle of next month we will see either 3.1 beta 4 or 3.1 release.

Gameloft has just released a new fantastic video trailer showing in-game graphics of the masterpiece called Modern Combat: Sandstorm.

The expected price is $9.99. The game will appear in AppStore soon.

via ispazio