Pete Mortensen is a design strategist for consulting firm Jump Associates and the co-author of Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy, a book and blog that are significantly more interesting than you might initially think. Pete's particular Apple avocations are both around design--interface and industrial. Follow him on Twitter!
Int13, a prominent mobile games developer, has released a video showing its racing game, “Crazy Kart 2,” running on the iPhone. I hadn’t seen the title before, but I’m pretty impressed by the demo. Nice environments and graphics, wacky gameplay highly reminiscent of “Mario Kart,” but, you know, touch-controlled steering wheel! I can’t wait to see the state of the iPhone gaming platform a year from today…
Via iPhoneAlley
Just, um…21 years…after its predecessor, the long-anticipated “Return to Dark Castle” has finally been released for Mac OS X. This is some seriously old-school Mac gaming, stretching back to 1986 and the hey-day of WASD controls. I remember playing Dark Castle on a Mac SE FD/HD that I picked up from the local school district for a nominal fee. Truly innovative for its day, though Return to Dark Castle is all about staying true to the DNA. The screenshots look great, so if you’ve been itching to get some vintage exploration and adventuring on, get over to download a game more than two decades in the waiting.
Via Digg.
Cool tech demo for something new called “NeXTStep 3.” Could be big. Just kidding, of course. Always interesting to see Steve before his more recent, peak form. A little less suave than you might be used to. Still, NeXTStep 3 was awesome for its era – just barely shy of the first few releases of OS X.
Except that GUI. YEESH. Who on earth thought that all those floating palettes was a good idea?
Via Macenstein
French Mac site MacGeneration discovered that the Swiss Apple Store touted a new version of Apple’s delightfully compact and stereo-friendly Airport Express that would stay the same on the outside but throw in blazing hot 802.11n WiFi on the inside, too. The evidence is in the picture above. Unfortunately, there is no word that this upgrade is on its way at any other Apple Stores, and even Switzerland, breaking neutrality, now bears not a trace of any 802.11n verbiage.
As MacGeneration puts it,
Le webmaster qui a fait la bourde a se faire taper sur les doigts. La page consacrée la borne Airport Express sur l’Apple Store suisse a été modifiée et ne fait plus mention de la prise en charge du 802.11n.
Or, if you’re into the whole English thing,
[Update: 16/03 23:30] webmaster who made the bourde had to be done to tap on the wrist. The page devoted to the Airport Express at the Apple Store Swiss has been modified and no longer refer to the taking over of 802.11n.
Let’s hope the wrist-tap is temporary. How soon is next Tuesday, anyway?
The drama caused by lithium-ion batteries just continues to snap, crackle and pop along, according to our friends at Epicenter, as an old-school iPod nano reportedly began shooting sparks out while recharging at a home in Japan.
Overall, details remain spotty about the case, but the problem supposedly surfaced in January in Kanagawa Prefecture southwest of Tokyo. Once again, officials are blaming those occasionally unstable lithium-ion batteries. While no one was injured during the mini fireworks show, Japanese officials have publicly chastised Apple for failing to report the incident earlier (the company submitted its report on March 7). In the meantime, Apple has been ordered to look into the matter further and report back to the Ministry.
This could be a major black eye for Apple is it turns out to be a widespread problem. A recall on the previous generation iPod nano would be extraordinarily costly. Has anyone ever had problems with older nano batteries?
Back in January, I was fairly effusive in my disappointment in the MacBook Air. I still think it’s a product that has a long way to go before it fulfills its promise as a thin, light, road warrior’s machine (the fact that it isn’t standard with an SSD is a pretty poor statement about its long-term reliability), but I’m now willing to admit that it hits the mark with at least some people, including people I really respect, like BusinessWeek’s Reena Jana, their innovation editor.
I’ve had a lot of conversations with Reena in the past, and she’s a constantly on-the-go kind of person, meeting with design and innovation leaders around the country. She probably travels for business more than I do. And she loves her MacBook Air:
OK, so I personally don’t have the need for many USB ports, nor for a huge, huge hard drive. And I don’t even feel that bad that there’s no Ethernet port, although I could get an attachment for it, which to me isn’t such a big deal (I rarely use the Ethernet jack). I’m reminded of when MacBook’s stopped having a floppy drive, or a dial-up jack. People were upset. But other laptops followed, because these features became obsolete. I see a parallel here, and my laptop lifestyle was starting to reflect the phasing out of DVDs and Ethernet jacks before the Air was released.
Fair points all, though I think I’d be more comfortable with the Air’s lack of a DVD drive if Apple distributed its own software, such as iWork, on USB key instead of DVD… Still, this is another reminder that a lot of people don’t need anywhere near the file storage capacity that I do. Just this weekend, I learned that my sister-in-law is desperate for an Air, as well. I’ll be very interested to hear how the Air performs in the market. I still think it will meet a fate similar to the G4 Cube, but there are some people who are incredibly excited by it.
For me, I think I’m stuck in Steven Levy’s camp: If I even had one, I think I’d probably throw it out with the newspapers by accident.
I’ve been saying for quite some time that the iPhone and iPod touch would eventually become killer gaming devices. Last week’s SDK presentation in Cupertino finally showed what was possible: Multi-touch and accelerometer-driven GameCube and PS2-quality visuals on the most compelling mobile multimedia platform in the world. It’s actually a lot better than what I was expecting in terms of 3-D visuals performance. Right now, it blows the DS and PSP away visually.
But does that matter? Do we need another portable games platform?
Yes. But not the way you might think. Though Apple is dazzling with visuals and gameplay from upcoming major publisher titles. And iPhone Spore and Monkey Ball will be cool, as will Pac-Man and the new version of Galaga that have been announced. But that’s not what will make the iPhone and touch must-have gaming platforms. What will make them take off and start to pull players away from PSP in particular will be the user-generated games. The creativity of the developer community. Anyone who comes up with a good game can get it published on the App Store and make some serious cash off of it if it takes off. That’s one hell of an incentive to break new ground. I’m tempted myself.
Now, on computers, and even on cell phones, user-designed games are a dime a dozen, and many of them are of far lower-quality than what the commercial publishers create. But this is different. This is a real platform with sophisticated tools available to everyone. There has never been a portable games platform of this power and pro-gaming features that has been this open to outsiders and upstarts. The DS is closed. So’s the PSP. Most cell phones have horrendous gaming interfaces. Keyboards and mice are great for MMORPGs and First Person Shooters but little else. The iPhone will be relatively open, has a great distribution model, and the best interface in the world for portable games.
So keep an eye out. I’m willing to forecast here and now that the best-selling game for iPhone by the end of 2008 will be made by a virtual unknown. Anyone throwing in?
In just four days, Apple has seen the iPhone SDK downloaded more than 100,000 times. In the release, Cupertino notes that ever more major developers are getting on-board with iPhone development, including blogging kingpins Six Apart and Pac-Man purveyors Namco.
I think that’s all fine and good, but I’m not excited to see what the existing powers can do with the iPhone. I’m psyched about what the freeware and shareware community can do on this platform, particularly for games. I have a lot more to say about that (see the previous post), but I’m most interested to hear if any of you are in the development community yet. If so, what are you working on? I’d love to spotlight some Apple fan creativity on this page.
Less than a week after Apple showed off all of the tantalizing SDK and Enterprise features of iPhone OS 2.0, the iPhone Dev Team has announced that it has fully unlocked the iPhone, patching its firmware to work with any carrier and allow the installation of any application, not just what Apple distributes through iTunes.
This is a really big deal, and I’m curious to see how it plays out in the coming months. Apple has made it very clear that it will do whatever it can to relock the iPhone whenever an exploit is discovered. According to the Dev Team, however, this firmware patch, called “Project Pwnage” is unfixable by Apple. I don’t buy it yet, but if this code remains quiet until the official launch of iPhone OS 2, this could be an invaluable tool for anyone who wants the full iPhone experience without AT&T.
Still, a lot of time between now and then, and Apple is as dedicated to lock things down as the hacking community is to opening them up.
Via Gizmodo
At the Mix 08 conference in Las Vegas, Microsoft CEO and noted iPhone fan Steve Ballmer reprised two of his greatest hits in a panel with Apple Evangelist Guy Kawasaki. First Ballmer suggested Apple was trying to get too big of a cut from iPhone application sales (30 percent is fine, in my opinion; exposure on iTunes is worth the royalty). Second, Ballmer did something truly sublime: he actually responded to a “fan’s” request that he do the “Developers, Developers, Developers” chant. And then, HE DID. It’s awesome. You have to hit the link.
At its developer event his morning, Apple showed off the iPhone and iPod touch OS 2.0, which is quite an amazing update. It’s got fully loaded Exchange ActiveSync support, a full SDK opening up the complete iPhone toolkit – Spore and Super Monkey Ball for iPhone and touch look awesome and will challenge the DS and PSP – and it’s just got everything that was missing from the original iPhone (though no word on cut and paste yet…).
It’s great – but it’s not shipping until June. The software is in Beta today (you can apply to participate here), and developers have access to download the SDK now. Appl software will be distributed through the iPhone Apps store, available in desktop iTunes and over-the-air iTunes. It’s a slick system, and free applications will carry no fee for developers or customers. Commercial apps will give Apple a 30 percent royalty “to maintain the cost of the Apps store” and 70 percent of revenue to the developer. It’s a little onerous, but it’s good visibility for developers. Beyond which, the upgrade is free to iPhone owners and a “nominal charge” for touch users, who get screwed again.
One more thing about “late June” – that’s the one-year anniversary of the iPhone’s release. And Apple calls it iPhone 2.0. I guarantee that there will be significantly upgraded hardware out there to ship at the same time. Can you say iPhone 3G? I knew you could!
Seven minutes into today’s highly anticipated iPhone SDK conference, Phil Schiller has dropped a bomb on Apple Campus – the iPhone is getting full MS Exchange ActiveSync supoprt, including:
Basically all the big stuff that’s held the iPhone back from mass corporate adoption. This and a physical keyboard have been the only things RIM BlackBerry has over the iPhone, and it should mean a huge boost to sales for Apple. I think the physical keyboard is less relevant than a lot of people do. Die-hard Blackberry and Treo users will miss it, but most of us won’t mind so much.
Live from Apple’s iPhone SDK press conference – Engadget
Tags: iphone, sdk, exchange, enterprise
UPDATE: Guys, chill out. This problem wasn’t about my credit card or my ignorance of iTunes One Click. My problem was that the software didn’t notice the credit card issue until after I had entered my password three times. And, when I went to fix that problem, the store crashed.
And I say again: $13 on iTunes and $9 on Amazon. What possible incentive do I have to stand by iTunes? Amazon has no DRM, plays on all the devices I own and doesn’t demand that I agree to new terms of service every time I update its software. Apple is officially selling an inferior product at a higher price, and I’m not OK with that.
ORIGINAL POST: As I often do, I got a song stuck in my head just as I was getting ready for bed tonight – “Flux” by Bloc Party. Since I was updating my iPod shuffle anyway, I decided to pick up just the song from iTunes, never mind the album, “A Weekend in the City.” Popping over to the iTS, I tried to initiate a download. Apple had me log in to my AppleID, confirm my purchase, then sign off on new terms of services (which I didn’t read all the way through, but you’ll be shocked to learn that the music is more constrained than ever), log in again, confirm my purchase again, and only then announce that the credit card on file had expired, asking for another log in to change the information. I did so, and then the iTunes Store told me that an unexpected error.
I then went over to the Amazon MP3 store, entered my log-in once and got the whole Bloc Party album with one click. The album was not only totally DRM-free, it was $4 less than the iTunes price, and it downloaded incredibly fast, right into iTunes. And all it’s missing was a bonus music video that I don’t care about. There is a serious problem with the current iTunes user experience. Apple shouldn’t be offering me so many opportunities to stop my transactions. It’s a good way to lose business, as it did tonight. The current terms of service are tailored to record companies, not record fans. I’ve said it before, but I really believe it now: unless a song you’re looking for is iTunes-only, buy it from Amazon. You can use it on any device, and it’s totally seamless with Apple’s ecosystem, too. I’ll be very curious to see sales figures as Amazon’s library gets bigger over time…
One last thought: Is Apple planning to charge for most or all iPhone applications through the SDK? If legit freeware is kept off of the iPhone because Apple sees the opportunity to make more money, they’ve officially let the new content business get in the way of great software and hardware experiences. Fingers crossed, eh?
Apple’s teaser for tomorrow morning’s event was pretty explicit about the impending launch of the iPhone SDK, but some skeptics still remain. The ability to legitimately install additional software on the iPhone and iPod touch is the #1 request for Apple’s mobile platform, and we’ve been wrong before, but things look more and more like it will really happen.
Besides Apple releasing an image with the word “SDK” on it last week, GyPSii, a Dutch company that makes geo-location and real-world friend-finder software for cell phones, has announced that it will develop a version of its program for the iPhone. The more interesting part is this comment from the CEO:
Apple’s Software Developer Kit (SDK) which is scheduled to be launched later this week, providing seamless access for all Apple users, from the desktop, to the iPhone.
I think this is pretty much a done deal. I don’t think Apple will announce and then not ship the SDK. I think it will be available tomorrow, and there will be a bunch of high-profile apps waiting in the wings, including Lotus, and, the good lord willing, MS Exchange support. Those are the two ingredients holding iPhone back from mass corporate adoption. Fix that, and this will really explode.
At this point, I think there are really only three legitimate complaints about the iPhone:
1. It only runs at EDGE speeds. Sure, it loads pages fast once it connects, but 3G would make it sing.
2. The chrome bezel around the screen – iPod touch is way classier.
3. It’s tied to a single network in each country where it’s available.
Well, according to Apple COO Tim Cook, maybe we won’t have to live with the last one for very long (and we all pray that 3G is coming any day now…). According to MarketWatch, Cook said that Apple wasn’t wedded to the exclusive, single-carrier business model.
While that sounds like great news for anyone that wants an iPhone on T-Mobile, his meaning is actually unclear. While I’d love to say that this is a clear rift with AT&T and iPhones will start popping up unlocked for everyone direct from Apple, that would be a lie.
Absent other information, it sounds more to me like Cook is saying that Apple is open to bringing the iPhone to new markets without tying up with a specific carrier. In other words, South Africa, you may have your pick of iPhone carriers. Let’s hope it eventually makes it back to the U.S.
Apple ‘not wedded’ to iPhone sales model – MarketWatch
Via Digg.
Tags: iphone, apple, tim cook, announcement
The news we’ve been waiting on for more than a year has finally arrived. According to Gizmodo, Apple this morning sent out invitations to an event at Apple Town Hall in Cupertino on March 6th to launch the software developer kit for the iPhone. Of particular note on the “roadmap” image included with the invitation is the prominent sign reading “Enterprise.” This certainly connects with the rumblings of Lotus support that have emerged in the last few weeks, and I hope it means Exchange Active Sync support. If the iPhone has integrated push e-mail support for Exchange, Apple will really start to breathe down the necks of RIM, the top-selling North American smartphone maker. It would put Apple in line to really put iPhones in the pockets of a lot more executives immediately.
Very exciting. Stay tuned, folks. I really hope that Apple allows every application developer who’s interested to make their software available for the iPhone. That’s what’s made the underground iPhone app community so exciting – the sheer creativity of the freeware community.
Apple Event for the iPhone SDK: March 6th
Tags: apple, iphone, sdk, iphone sdk, iphonesdk, exchange, enterprise, software
As anticipated, Apple took the wraps off of new hardware early this morning. In a twist on the rumors floating through the Internet, however, the Cupertino Kids updated two product lines – we get new MacBooks, but the Pro line gets a bump, too. Both lines get Penryn hardware, with the consumer line clocking in at 2.1 and 2.4 Ghz, and the pros running from 2.4 to 2.6 Ghz iron. As usual, a major difference between the lines is in graphic acceleration – the pros get some serious NVIDIA hardware, and the consumer line is still bopping around with Intel integrated graphics, in this case the X3100 system. Though history suggests the X3100 will be pretty sad for gaming, I’m excited to see benchmarks.
But there is a new pair of distinctions to the product line – environmental impact. While Apple has extended the availability of mercury-free LED backlit screens to the whole Pro line, the consumer line has the same glossy screen it did yesterday. Additionally, the MacBook Pro has a multi-touch trackpad, while the consumer line trackpad doesn’t do anything new and nifty. Gizmodo already got ahold of an Apple spokesperson about the latter, and received this spectacular explanation:
The multitouch technology is a feature of the Macbook Pro and Air, but not the Macbook. Apple has already committed to transitioning all machines to LED backlights, and will do so when economically and technically feasible.
That pretty much sums up Apple’s product strategy, doesn’t it?
You’ll notice soon that we’re adding a number of new contributors to our humble abode. We start this week with DJ Rizzo, a frequent commenter and Windows to Mac convert, a story he tells in his first post. Owing to WordPress weirdness, some of you already got to read it via RSS, but it just won’t appear on the main page, so I’m providing a link. Enjoy.
You’ll notice soon that we’re adding a number of new contributors to our humble abode. We start this week with DJ Rizzo, a frequent commenter and Windows to Mac convert, a story he tells in his first post. Owing to WordPress weirdness, some of you already got to read it via RSS, but it just won’t appear on the main page, so I’m providing a link. Enjoy.
DVDJon has broken Apple’s FairPlay DRM scheme, but the current implementation leaves a little bit to be desired, as new contributor fitterhappier notes in his comprehensive survey of the project.
It’s the night before the last Tuesday of February, and you know what that means: Rumors! It’s been widely speculated that Apple is holding a secret event tomorrow, likely for the roll-out of the iPhone SDK or new hardware. And now…proof. Or something very like it. Photos of an inventory sheet from a store with new hardware SKUs that suggest new MacBooks, MB403LL/A and MB402LL/A. Initially, some speculated that these must be new MacBook Pros (because they desperately need updating), but these numbers suggest an update from the low end.
BusinessWeek claims they have it confirmed that the iPhone SDK will be late. What do you think will happen tomorrow?
Via Gizmodo.
Image via Paul Stamatiou
It’s an open secret that there are legions of iPhone owners who operate their phones outside of Apple’s officially sanctioned networks AT&T, O2, Orange, and T-Mobile Germany, either because they live outside of the countries where the iPhone is on sale or because they’re aware that AT&T has terrible coverage.
What is less well-known is just how big the problem has gotten. BusinessWeek reported last week that 800,000 to 1 million iPhones have gone AWOL after legitimate purchase. And now this weekend, analyst In-Stat claims that 400,000 of those iPhone are all in operation on China Mobile, the largest carrier in Mainland China.
This makes a few things clear:
Via iLounge
Nineteen-year-old Mac enthusiast Cameron Kerr has made a spot-on parody of the HP Hands ad campaign to detail his own life. Though he doesn’t mention it in the actual spot, he did put together a clever how-to which reveals that a Mac can make it so easy to create a visually stimulating ode to HP computers.
A shame. Of course, the only thing wrong with today’s HP laptops is that they ship with Windows, so maybe the celebrity endorsers of the famous campaign just aren’t telling us something.
Via Winandmac.
Philip Barnes has uploaded a handful of vintage Apple print ads from the late 1970s and early ’80s. He’s got the “Welcome, IBM. Seriously.” spot, as well as the amazing commercial above, which makes the argument that A is for Apple, and therefore, you should use one. Sink your teeth into finances! Do you see that 16-color bar chart on that TV! It’s dope!
My colleague Chris Kohler at Wired News has a thought-provoking piece on the iPhone’s potential as a games platform. Since the day Apple introduced it, I’ve been waiting for Apple to unleash multi-touch games, and many of Chris’ sources think that the impending release of Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch SDK might let that happen at long last:
Whether or not iPhone gets a gaming-centric redesign, the release of the SDK makes it all but certain that we’ll see some touchscreen games from the development community.
Ehrenberg sees iPhone games as a sort of warm-up for a dedicated gaming system to come later: “This could be a launching point to get people thinking: Apple, games, Apple, games. A device may well follow from that that’s more tailored to the gaming experience.”
What’s really interesting is that 2008 promises to be a huge battle in mobile gaming. Nokia has relaunched N-Gage as an Xbox Live-like social gaming service for its highest-end phones like the N82 and the impending N96. Samsung could easily go this direction in a heartbeat, and if Microsoft ever does make a ZunePhone (as Zune fans believe), you can bet that gaming would be a major component of it to leverage the Xbox brand. Can Apple get there first and best? Only time will tell.
One thing is certain, however. Analyst Roger Ehrenberg of Information Arbitrage could stand to do some more research on the screen resolution of most handheld game systems:
But if the iPhone and iPod Touch are going to be serious contenders for gamers’ attention, they’ll need a screen upgrade, in more ways than one. Ehrenberg says gamers will want a higher-res display: “Right now, the screens generally don’t have the clarity to get the most out of the videogame programming that exists today.”
Um…yeah. Here’s the thing. The Nintendo DS? Uses two screens, each at 256×192, which is a total of 98,304 pixels. The Sony PlayStation Portable? One screen at 480*272, which is 130,560 pixels. The iPhone? One screen at 480×320, or 153,600 pixels. It would be the highest-res gaming platform on the market, not the lowest. That said, maybe there’s a screen-refresh issue that I don’t know about that could make the iPhone weak for action games. It would surprise me, given how nice “Pirates of the Caribbean” looks on it, but one never knows.
Gamers Eye the iPhone, As SDK Approaches
Tags: iphone, games, uninformed analysts