iOS - page 162

Four U.S. Senators have sent a letter to Apple urging it to pull several apps they claim help drunk drivers avoid the police.

“Giving drunk drivers a free tool to evade checkpoints, putting innocent families and children at risk, is a matter of public concern,” the senators said. “We hope that you will give our request to remove these applications from your store immediate consideration.”

According to the senators, there are “numerous” apps that help drivers identify DUI checkpoints, allowing drunk drivers to avoid them. One app has a real-time database of DUI checkpoints, while another allows its 10 million users to alert each other to DUI checkpoints in real time, the senators say.

The letter was sent to Scott Forstall, who is in charge of iPhone software at Apple.

The four Democratic senators include Harry Reid (D-NV), the Senate Majority Speaker. The others are Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), and Tom Udall (D-NM).

Are there really numerous DUI checkpoint apps? And should they be pulled? Last year, I talked to Trapster (likely one of the apps targeted by the Senators), which was seeing a number of police departments using the app to highlight their own checkpoints. It’s just another way of increasing enforcement, the police say.

Here’s the full text of the letter that the senators sent to Scott Forstall:

When it comes to iPhone photography, some folks are Hipstamatics while others are Instagrammers. For the latter bunch there’s now a new app for iPad called Instagallery (iTunes link) that lets users do all kinds of fun stuff with the Instagram API.

Users can view all Instagram photos as a gallery on the iPad, see popular photos, or sign in to to see photos from those people they follow. They can view their own photos, “like” photos, read and add comments, see what users their friends follow, and more.

Instagallery was developed by InfinitApps, costs $1.99 and is available in the iTunes App Store.

The popular Flipboard app was updated on Wednesday, adding Instagram support and search across social networks. But it also included a surprise for users with jailbroken iPads.

Half of all people using mobile devices for business transfer “sensitive” data over smartphones and tablets, according to a Harris Poll released Thursday. Results of the survey, compiled from the responses of more than 2300 Americans in late January 2011 indicate tablets such as Apple’s iPad may herald a post-PC society, with men and younger audiences more likely to trust the security of their mobile data.

FuzeBox, developers of collaboration solutions for desktop and mobile installations, commissioned the survey, which found that sensitive data transfers appear to be increasing in the mobile universe as professionals begin to adopt tablets in larger numbers, and that tablets, generally, increase the likelihood of transferring sensitive and private information.

I feel pretty bad about yesterday’s post about the iPad 3 being the one to make a song and dance about. I’m sure the iPad 3 will be great when it comes out, but for right now, the iPad 2 is a great upgrade. This is not a ho-hum update, as our anonymous Apple staffer suggested.

It’s a rockstar from Mars update. It runs on tigerblood.

The slimmed-down weight and bulk make a big difference. It’s much easier to hold and handle. It’s pretty astonishing that Apple managed to cram in so more, yet made the case so incredibly thin. That is rockstar engineering.

The cameras should have been in there all along, of course, but the addition now makes the iPad much closer to feature-complete.

But the real magic of the device is the integration of hardware and software. Look at the piano in Garageband. You tickle the virtual keys softly and it plays softly. But hammer on them and you sound like Little Richard. The iPad 2’s screen is touch-sensitive, thanks to the built-in accelerometer, which tells the iPad how hard you are touching the screen. Watch the video of it in action here. It really is pretty astonishing!

Without that integration of hardware and software, other tablets are just fancy digital picture frames, as Wired’s Brian Chen noted on Twitter.

The iPad 2 is pure Apple: it proves that Apple is its own most ruthless competitor. Overnight, 15 million first-generation iPads were rendered obsolete.

Apple’s competitors are dead in the water. Steve Jobs is a master of hyperbole, but this time he’s right. There’s no doubt about it: 2011 is the year of the iPad 2.

Here’s an iPhone photography app that’s rather different to all the others.

It’s called nofinder, and its name is a clue.

Text Writer – ($0.99) Universal – Productivity

Writing on your iOS device can sometimes be a painful experience, especially if you don’t have a good text editor. Fortunately, Text Editor is just that – a wonderfully effortless, yet incredibly useful text editor that will go a long way to ensuring that writing on your iOS device isn’t so bad. My favorite feature is a very simple one, yet you’ll be surprised how much you use it: there’s an additional line of keys across the top of your keyboard that features the copy, paste, select, home, and end functions, as well as all four arrow keys for when you can’t quite drag your cursor where you want it. It makes performing different tasks that little bit easier, and you’ll soon miss it within other applications.

While you’re writing your document Text Writer will automatically save it, so you don’t need to worry about losing your work if you take a call, jump out of the app to reply to a text, or if your battery dies half way through your document. And once you’ve finished, you can send the finished article via email. This app is universal, so one download will work on all of your iOS devices, and it’s great value for money at just a dollar. I love this application for its pure simplicity and ease of use, and for anyone looking for a basic text editor without all the fancy functions, you won’t go wrong with Text Writer.

[xrr rating = 80%]

The incredible indie sensation Minecraft has sold over 1.3 million copies since it was first released halfway through last year, and it’s still only in beta. Expect the amount of copies sold to quickly grow as high as one of Minecraft‘s physics-defying, voxel-based fantasy structures in 2011, though, because dev Mojang has just announced that Minecraft will be coming to iOS in 2011.

Back to the Future: Ep 1 HD – ($6.99) iPad – Games

The first in a series of five highly-anticipated Back to the Future games for the iPad has finally hit the App Store with a brand new escapade for Marty and Doc. This touch-based puzzle adventure features striking voiceovers and a delightful story line that is sure to warm the hearts of fans of the movie. I adore how Telltale Games’ efforts have delivered a mesmerising experience that remains true to the original trilogy, with innovative touch controls and impressive visuals that make Back to the Future: Episode 1 a fantastic iPad game.

Set 6 months after the events in the third movie, this storyline sees Marty take off in the DeLorean to save Doc once again. If you’re a fan of this movie and a lover of adventure games, this title is a sure-fire way to cure your weekend boredom – I’m certain you won’t be able to put it down.

The other four episodes in this series are scheduled for release on a monthly basis, so look out for episode two in mid March.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0AsGfcJjuc

Starfront: Collision – (Free + $6.99 in-app purchase) iPhone – Games

Starfront: Collision is the latest in Gameloft’s long string of smash hit releases, and claims to be the epitome of real-time strategy games. It packs 20 action-packed missions across five gorgeous environments, a competitive online multiplayer mode, and striking 3D-redered environments, making it one of the best RTS titles for iOS to date. Discover the deep and engaging story of a war of resources told throughout the solo campaign, or wage war against friends in 4-person online multiplayer. Live your first battles as a commander completely free, and if you’re ready to take up the challenge of the full game, you can unlock it through an in-app purchase.

Gameloft has once again looked at an incredibly popular game and created an iOS alternative that doesn’t disappoint. It’s a model they’ve been following for while with their App Store releases, and one that certainly seems to be working incredibly well for them. For fans of Blizzard’s Starcraft series and other real-time strategies, I highly recommend Starfront: Collision – with its near-perfect UI and control system, countless hours of intense gameplay, and eye-popping 3D visuals, I think it’s one Gameloft’s most impressive releases so far.

Readlines – ($0.99) Universal – News

Readlines makes great use of your iOS device while it’s sat in its dock on your desk, and turns an otherwise boring blank screen in to a big, bold stream of random headlines from your Google Reader RSS feeds. In the same way that the recent Trickle application displays tweets from your Twitter feed, Readlines cycles through your unread stories and displays a constant stream of headlines. Clicking on a headline that interests you will take you straight to Safari where you can read the whole article.

If you use your Google Reader account like I do, you’ll get hundreds of news stories every day that you’ll have to sift through to get to the good stuff that you want to know about. With Readlines you can simply get on with your work while your headlines are streamed to your desk, and it makes picking out only those that interest you incredibly simple.

Mahjongg Dimensions – ($0.99) Universal – Games

Just like classic Mahjong, the main aim of this game is to use your creativity, speed, and memory by matching and removing all of the tiles before the times runs out, but Mahjongg Dimensions offers a whole new way to play. Rather than a set of 2D tiles, Mahjongg Dimensions is a rotatable 3D cube that requires you to explore each side in order to find your matches. The faster you match, the more points you’ll earn, and the points multipliers and bonus rewards ensure there’s plenty of excitement and intensity to keep you hooked.

For puzzle lovers, today’s must-have game is certainly worth its dollar price tag! I think it’s a great new way to play the classic game of Mahjong and offers a highly addictive challenge to those who are looking for something a little bit different.

I wasn’t really surprised by the popularity of my post Apple Publishes Six Free Electronic Books for Developers since I’ve been telling everyone that developer topics would be popular and you delivered. That post was re-tweeted 253 times and shared on Facebook 92 times which isn’t to shabby for a short news blurb about books for iOS developers. So, the good news out of all this is that I’ll be covering more developer related topics on Cult of Mac in the future. Especially due to all the nice comments on the above post.

Therefore let’s get started by taking the six free books and adding some good books that are worth purchasing to your reading list. If you are interested in iOS development then you should not overlook these books from The Pragmatic Bookshelf.

The latest update to PwnageTool from the iPhone Dev-Team is now available to download, and version 4.2 brings with it untethered jailbreaking for devices running iOS 4.2.1 and fixes the recently discovered iBooks issue that prevents a user opening an iBookstore purchase on their jailbroken device.

PwnageTool uses the “feedface” untether developed by the Chronic Dev Team to allow for untethered jailbreaking in the latest release, and supports all 4.2.1 devices other than the iPod touch 2G. Another issue fixed in this version is the Wi-Fi problem that some users had with the second-generation AppleTV.

If you’ve already jailbroken your device and you’re desperate to gain access to your iBookstore purchases, don’t think you need to restore and jailbreak again with the latest version of PwnageTool. On their blog, the iPhone Dev-Team have stated that fixes for both the iBooks issue, and the Wi-Fi issue for AppleTV, will be available in an upcoming Cydia package that you’ll simply be able to download and install on your device.

Once again that’s iOS jailbreakers 1, Apple nil.

UPDATE: The big question about a streaming-only iPhone is apps: How will users download apps? My source compared it to the second-generation Apple TV, which is a streaming-only device but includes 8GB of onboard memory (for the OS and buffering media). “I’m not 100% sure on the amount of memory available for the user,” he said. “I know there is some memory but it acts more like the memory on the AppleTV. There is some there, I’m just not sure how much.”

We have more detail on Apple’s iPhone nano, which according to Sunday’s Wall Street Journal is real and may be headed to market this year.

But what we have will blow your mind.

The recently released Greenpois0n jailbreak tool has been updated to release candidate 6 today, and this particular version will allow you to jailbreak your second-generation AppleTV and install the popular NitoTV software, adding a few great new features to your device.

The process is exactly the same as that used for release candidate 5, and just as before, this will provide an untethered jailbreak for all devices, meaning you won’t need to plug them in to your computer when you want to boot them.

Greenpois0n RC6 is available for both Mac and Windows, and you can download it now from here.

Oh, there’s gonna be a bumper crop of iPhone musicians born this weekend if Frontier Design Group has their way. Practically all their music-slinging iPhone apps are on sale to celebrate the iPhone coming to Verizon, including the highly regarded iShred app — sister app to the free iShred LIVE app required to use Griffin’s GuitarConnect and StompBox accessories — GuitarStudio and PianoStudio, all three of which are normally $5 each, but on sale for a buck apiece.

As musician and fellow Cult of Mac contributor Lonnie Lazar says, these apps won’t turn you into a Rock God; but they’re certainly a truckload of fun and great tools to learn with. Sale ends tomorrow, so don’t mess around if you want ’em.

I’m with Scoble on this one: the Nokia/Microsoft partnership is a pretty good idea. Here’s why:

1. Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 is actually pretty good. It’s certainly better than Nokia’s Symbian and arguably better than Android.
2. Microsoft gets massive hardware distribution, which will attract developers.
3. Apps: The platform will be too big to ignore. And apps are what count. You can’t just have cool devices or cool software, you’ve got to have a platform. This is why HP should also go with Windows Phone 7, instead of trying to get webOS off the ground (it’s great, but it’s doomed).

As Scoble says:

Nokia has great hardware design and supply chains. They always have great cameras, great screens. Supply chains matter. A lot more than anyone thinks (the stuff Apple never talks about, but works its ass off on is supply chain management — I got to see this first hand when I visited China).
You add that all up as a salad and now the smart developers have to take another look at Microsoft and Nokia. They can’t ignore them like they can RIM (we all know people won’t use a lot of cool apps on a Blackberry).

Scoble: Dear Nokia Fans: You’re Nuts!

UPDATE: I sent an email to App Remix’s CEO Jonathan George asking whether his company was going to be bought by Apple. His response? “No comment…” he said.

Apple is working on a new notification system for iOS and will be buying a small company to build its technology into the operating system, according to one of our sources.

Apple’s pop-up notification system for new text messages, voicemails and the like has often been criticized as one of the weakest parts of the iOS. Notifications are intrusive, modal and often cryptic. It’s a mess.

HP/Palm’s webOS banner notification system, on the other hand, has been widely praised for its utility and ease of use. And from this week’s preview, it looks to be getting better.

There were rumors last year that the iPhone’s notification system would be fixed after the chief architect of Palm’s system, Rich Dellinger, returned to work at Apple. However, the system still hasn’t been fixed, and according to our source, Apple is now trying to buy a small app developer to fix it.

Our source, who asked to remain anonymous, didn’t know the identity of the company, except it already has an iPhone app in the App Store.

One candidate is Boxcar, a free app from App Remix that enables push notifications for Twitter, Facebook, and email. Boxcar’s system has been highly praised, especially the new iPad version.

Other than that, we couldn’t find other obvious possibilities for the company Apple is buying. If anyone has a good idea, please leave it in the comments.

Free-App Hero is a clever tracker for good quality free games on the iOS App Store. Note the use of the words “good quality” there; Free-App Hero has an editorial team that’s fussy, and cares about the recommendations it makes.

So they won’t recommend rubbish games, or ad-supported games, or games that start good but get worse, or games that claim to be free but turn out to be useless without an in-app purchase.

All they’re interested in is finding the good free stuff, and passing it on to you.

Free-App Hero isn’t free, but neither is it expensive. And if you really don’t want to pay for it, the Cheapskate Edition is just as effective.

As a direct result of downloading Free-App Hero, I’m now completely obsessed with King of Tennis, which is probably the most bonkers game I’ve ever seen. Great fun, though. And that’s what Free-App Hero is all about; delivering fun.

Landing in the iOS App Store tomorrow is Index Card v2 for iPad, a multi-touch version of the corkboard-and-index-cards system popular with screenwriters and others who need to arrange multiple ideas within a project.

Inspired by the Corkboard feature of Scrivener for Mac (the Scrivener people know), Index Card allows users to move cards around, label by color, and even write on the back of cards (the ‘flip’ arrow changes color if there’s something written on the back).

This latest version adds a trio of new features: Stacks, customizable label names, and the option to export notes with the rest of your project to RTF for Word or Final Draft.

Testing the app last week, I found it to be responsive and easy to use. It does exactly what it it promises.

That said, at least on the surface, Index Card is very much about the needs of screenwriters. Developer DenVog would do well to add options in its next release to make the app more appealing to general productivity users. More backgrounds than just cork and solid black would also be welcome.

I can’t say I use index cards in my daily life, but for those that do, Index Card should prove practical. The app already counts a couple of Emmy-nominated producers as users.

William N. Fordes, a Co-Executive Producer/Writer on Law & Order, tells me that he finds Index Card “superb” and “well thought out”.

“The ease with which the individual cards can be moved around is terrific, and makes rethinking the shuffle of scenes so much easier,” he says.

It is a popularly held belief that one day Mac OS X and iOS are destined to merge into one OS to rule them all. When Apple announced last October that Lion, the next major update of Mac OS X would feature some of the best ideas from iOS, it only added to the convergence speculation.

But are Apple’s two operating systems really destined to converge? After all, they both seem to be doing very well by themselves. The Mac may benefit from some iOS features, but it’s hardly struggling on its own. Mac sales are stronger than ever. So what exactly would the advantages be?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqr7a0ekmS8&feature=player_embedded

FaceTime is now available on most of Apple’s iOS devices, and through its OS X operating system for Mac, however, there is one device that’s still sat out in the cold. The incredibly popular iPad is still patiently awaiting FaceTime compatibility, but now, thanks to a hack, it’s possible to enjoy the feature on Apple’s first-generation tablet.

Courtesy of “Intell,” the hack uses a version of the FaceTime application created for the iPod touch, which has been optimized for the larger device and boasts a full-screen user interface.

Of course, you won’t currently get the full FaceTime experience on your iPad because of its lack of front-facing camera, but it’s certainly a start and a nice little taste of things to come. You will be able to see your FaceTime partner on your iPad, and they will be able to hear you.

You’ll need to be connected to Wi-Fi to enjoy FaceTime on your iPad, just like you currently do for other iOS devices.

If you’d like to try the hack yourself, check out the lengthy step-by-step guide copied, from Intell’s post on the iFans forum, after the break. Be warned, however, this process is noted to be risky.

If you try the hack out for yourself, let us know how it went.

One of our favorite applications to make it in to the App Store this week is Google’s latest iPhone app, Google Shopper. By recognizing products by barcode, voice and text search, and even cover art, Google Shopper helps you find the information you need on millions of products, including online prices, reviews, specifications, and more.

Also to feature in this week’s list of must-haves is The Daily, the first digital news publication created exclusively for the iPad. The long-awaited publication boasts original content every single day, covering breaking news, sports, pop culture, entertainment, apps, games, technology, and lots more.

PaperHelper for the iPad also makes our pick of the best apps this week thanks to its innovative design and excellent user interface, which makes writing essays and papers on your device a great deal easier. Its unique split-screen feature enables you to write your document on one half of your iPad’s display while you browse the web for information and reference on the other half.

Find out more about the applications above and check out the rest of this week’s must-haves, including IntoNow and Thermo, after the break!

First on our list of must-have iOS games this week is EA’s latest hit, Bop It!, which brings all of the crazy fun from the incredibly popular Hasbro handheld game to your iPhone and iPod touch. Listen to the whacky commands and get ready to test your reflexes in this frantic mega hit.

Also on our list of favorites this week is Gameloft’s latest App Store release, Sacred Odyssey: Rise of Ayden. Plunge in to the most ambitious action RPG ever made for iOS in this amazing adventure that features countless hours of fascinating gameplay set in a glorious 3D world.

Battleheart is a unique fantasy combat game from the creators of Zombieville USA and OMG Pirates, which distills some of the greatest elements of roleplaying and real-time strategy games and incorporates them in to this remarkable battler that also earns a place in our pick of this week’s top games.

Find out more about the games above and check out the rest of this week’s must-haves, including Who Wants To Be A Millionaire 2011 and New Bust-A-Move, after the break!