Archive for 2009

This wonderful accessory plugs into the docking port on an iPhone (or iPod Touch), and turns Apple mobile platform into the holy grail of living room devices — a full programmable, multitouch universal RI remote. Included features are: an extensive library of IR codes, customizable buttons, and RF learning from other remotes. The accessorywill be used along with an app.

There is not much information about this gadget yet, but it will be officially announced at CES in just a few weeks.

All iPhones are manufactured in China. Probably that's why users can find so many iPhone clones. Here is the latest arrival: iFhone 3GS - one of the best iPhone clones ever.

The device is identical, however there is no Apple logo. Take a look at these interesting features:

• 3.5-inch touchscreen
• accelerometer
• WAP, GPRS, Bluetooth, WiFi
• 230MB of memory expandable to 15GB with a memory card
• VGA camera
• Java for games and apps
• Audio and Video support (MP3/3GP/MP4/JPG/TXT)
• Built-in FM Radio Tuner
• Voice recording

Even the interface of the springboard and the various applications is very similar to the original iPhone.

The box is identical, complete with Apple logo. Included: stylus, headphones, USB cable and an extra battery to attach to the dock. All this costs $123 without shipping charges.

More photos:

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Simsons comes to iPhone! Unfortunately the title isn't really what the app is about. This is not The Simpsons Arcade, it's a upgraded port of a J2ME game.

The gameplay is still a lot of fan. There are many familiar characters. Simpsons fans will be impressed. The only real variety in the game is from the power ups you pick up along the way, which consist of weapons for you to use as well as other members of the Simpson family coming to briefly help you out.

Here is the first few levels, including a boss fight with Chief Wiggum and Mayor Quimby:

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SBSettings is a great application to quickly turn on and off different services. Recently two developers have released tethering toggles to easily enable and disable iPhone tethering from SBSettings.

The first called, "Tethering" by Filipe Pina makes changes to the files that the preferences framework makes, then restarts the service. The second called, "Tether" by Ryan Petrich uses the preferences frameworks and calls the functions that the settings app calls.

According to BigBoss, both toggles work well. You can download togles and SBSettings via Cydia (for jailbreaked iPhones only).

via iclarified and bigboss

MacWorld compared nine different iPhone GPS Navigation applications:

• AT&T Navigator
• CoPilot Live N.A.
• GoKivo GPS Navigator
• iGo My way 2009 (N.A.)
• Magellan RoadMate 2010 N.A. Ed.
• MobileNavigator N.A.
• MotionX GPS Drive
• Sygic Mobile Maps U.S.
• TomTom U.S. & Canada

Prices ranged from $4/month to $100 to own. Overall the AT&T Navigator ($10/month) and MobileNavigator ($90) received the best ratings.

Here are some results in tables:

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Texting while walking is dangerous, but we all do it regulary. The new iPhone app called "Type n Walk" solves this problem by using the camera to make the phone transparent. Type n Walk displays a transparent viewport of what's directly in front of you. This combined with your peripheral vision is just enough to help you avoid obstacles.

Despite the name, Type n Walk is useful while you're sitting or standing too. Use it anytime you would like to keep an eye on your surroundings while you type.

Avaliable for $0.99 via AppStore (link).

The iPhone game F.A.S.T. (Fleet Air Superiority Training) is an air combat simulation game with online multiplayer functionality. Yesterday it was updated and today it became free. The regular price was $0.99. The discount is probably due to the addition of some new paid content that is avaliable through the in-app purchase.

Why not try it for free? Go ahead and download via AppStore (link).

Watch the video:

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Apple today launched a new holiday-themed iPhone commercial entitled "12 Days of Christmas". The ad reworks the standard Christmas carol of the same name to feature twelve iPhone applications related in some way to the holiday season:

• 12 cookies cooking: The Betty Crocker Mobile Cookbook [App Store, Free]
• 11 cards a' sending: Postman [App Store, $2.99]
• 10 gifts for giving: My Christmas Gift List [App Store, $0.99]
• 9 songs for singing: TabToolkit [App Store, $9.99]
• 8 bells for ringing: Holiday Bells [App Store, $0.99]
• 7 slopes a' skiing: Snow Reports [App Store, $1.99]
• 6 games for playing: Christmas Fever [App Store, $0.99]
• 5 gold rings: Anna Sheffield Jewelry [App Store, Free]
• 4 hot lattes: myStarbucks [App Store, Free]
• 3 flights home: Flight Search [App Store, Free]
• 2 feet of snow: Weather Pro [App Store, $3.99]
• And an app that can light up the tree: Schlage LiNK [App Store, Free but hardware required]

Let's watch the video:

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The iPhone game 7 Cities is a Tower Defense type game available in AppStore. The price varied from $0.99 to $4.99. Today it is offered for free. This is limited time offer, thich means it is free for a short period of time.

The game is very nice and well done, the graphics are rich but not too confusing. The goal is to defend against different attacks and to do that user has types of 5 towers and 12 different skills.

Download via AppStore (link).

Microsoft just released an official application of its search engine "Bing". The app looks really good and is well done. It allows you to find websites, images, videos, maps, shopping, news and offers step by step directions to navigate from one point to another! There is even a voice search, a business directory, ability to add pushpins and save locations.

Bing app is avaliable for free via AppStore (link).

It seems Apple is continuing to invest in advancing web-based technologies to provide a more full feature experienced on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Daring Fireball describes in detail an impressive new web framework called PastryKit. This kit is for making HTML, CSS, and JavaScript-based WebApps.
It is already deployed in Apple's iPhone User Guide web page (when viewed from an iPhone). You can watch the video at hte end of this post.

Apple has implemented a few key interface features in Javascript that could make web-apps feel much more like native iPhone apps. These include:

• Completely hiding the address bar
• Allowing for fixed-position toolbars that don't move when you scroll
• Allows for scrolling with momentum so you can quickly scroll long lists

Since these features have been implemented by Apple in Javascript, they could be available to any web developer.

Let's watch the video:

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MacWorld has listed their 20 favorite apps of the year for the iPhone and iPod touch. With over 100,000 apps in the App Store, MacWorld focused on 20 categories and narrowed it down to the best performer in each category.

Here is the list:

Best Messaging App: BeeJive IM
Best Photo App: Best Camera
Best Notification App: Boxcar
Best News App: CNN Mobile
Best Book App: Eucalyptus
Best Social Networking App: Facebook 3
Best Casual Game: Flight Control
Best Search Tool: Google Mobile App
Best Reference App: iBird Explorer Plus
Best Reader: Instapaper Pro 2
Best Multimedia App: MLB.com At Bat 2009
Best Education App: Pocket Universe
Best E-Mail App: Postage
Best Designed Game: Ramp Champ
Best Sports Game: Real Soccer 2010
Best Shopping Tool: RedLaser
Best Platform Game: Rolando 2
Best Strategy Game: Strategery
Best Twitter Client: Tweetie 2

You can read a bit more about these apps MacWorld's site.

Apple has approved iVideoCamera, an application which lets you record video on any iPhone including the iPhone 2G and iPhone 3G. Now you don't need a 3GS to record and share videos with your friends and family. Works with firmware 3.1 OS installed and includes:

Ability to save to your camera roll or "Photos" and share via:

• FaceBook
• YouTube
• Vimeo
• Twitter and more coming soon

Limitations:

• The iPhone can only capture about 3 frames per second
• Videos are limited to about 1 minute in length
• Resolution is low: 160x213

You can purchase iVideoCamera in App Store for $0.99 (link).

This is a great step forward, because Apple did not allow such apps to be in Appstore before. The quality of the recorded video is quite low, however it might be improved in the future. Could the acceptance of iVideoCamera open the door for Cycorder, popular video recording app that can be installed via Cydia?

TheBoyGenius report that they have found some very interesting data while analyzing the access statistics to their web site:

We can see that this data is related to the new iPhone firmware 3.1.3 and 4.0!

The iPhone OS 3.1.3 should only be a minor update over the current version and could be released even in several days. Firmware 4.0 will probably be released after testing phase and several private beta versions for developers. Rumors say this new version 4.0 will be released together with iPhone 4 some time in June or July next year.

French site Nowhereelse.fr has published a very cool video of what appears to be a multitouch tablet device. The user is browsing through an electronic version of an Ikea catalog. The device itself is very slim and has several Apple technologies: cover flow, shake to shuffle, etc.

Is this the Apple iTablet? That's how I imagine the interaction with the Apple Tablet. However the video is fake, a clever fake over a blue screen (as you can notice on the hands' edges and shadows).

Anyway, a good concept video. Let's watch it: