iPhone apps - page 54

Apple’s policy on what constitutes content too risqué for the iTunes store vacillates more than one of those iBoob apps.

Case in point:  developer Jon Atherton says he received a letter that Apple pulled his wildly popular Wobble iBoobs app because Apple “decided to remove any overtly sexual content from the App Store” following customer complaints.

Now we’re really confused. Many of the apps that wiggled, jiggled or writhed past Apple censors in our last iSmut app story have been pulled (Bikini Ispector, Peek-a-Babe, Crazy Eights with Hooters Girls). But if they’ve put a firm hand on iJiggles, there’s plenty of exposed flesh still available on iTunes.

So, you think you have the legs to take on Lance Armstrong. One way to go about it would be to race against his time in the latest ingenious use of Twitter, the Twitter Time Trial (and for the cycling-illiterate, a time trial is where riders leave the start gate one at a time, in an attempt to set the best time over the exact same course and distance).

But a better way would be to race Lance using TrailBlazer Challenge.

Apple continues to loosen up the restrictions on app developers using the iPhone’s 3G connection: a little less than a month after Apple finally started to allow VoIP applications to make calls over 3G, and a couple of weeks after Slingbox’s video-streaming app was finally granted 3G-capable status comes the news that Apple has increased the maximum app size for download over the 3G network from 10 megabytes to 20.

That’s not exactly a huge bump, but it should be enough to suck down almost any application that isn’t heavily media based (for example, larger games). It’s almost definitely a move meant to give iPad app developers more wriggle room as they put together apps catering to a larger and more high-resolution display, but iPhone owners should see some tangible benefits as well.

It’s great to see Apple getting less restrictive about exactly what developers can do with the 3G radio. Let’s just hope AT&T’s beleaguered 3G network is up to the task of handling the upped bandwidth usage.

[via Macworld]

I’ve always had trouble explaining my addiction to Keita Takahashi’s surrealist puzzle-action game Katamari Damacy to people who have never had the psychotropic thrill of rolling up a giant ball of cows, schooners and sea monsters for the approval of the binge-drinking, rainbow-clad King of All Cosmos.

If you’re one of those people, and if that last sentence didn’t make a lick of sense to you, then I’m going to have an even harder time describing Takahashi’s follow-up title, Noby Noby Boy, in which the worm-like, quadrupedal BOY must stretch his ever-lengthening abdominal section across the map to reach his one true love, GIRL. So let’s just leave it at the fact that a port of Noby Noby Boy has hit the iTunes App Store for $1.99 and call it a day, shall we?

Except I really can’t, because Noby Noby Boy looks like a very different game on the iPhone. In fact, it isn’t even being placed under the “Games” section, but is rather listed as a Productivity app. Indeed, it doesn’t seem like much of a game at all: according to the App Store Listing, you can use BOY to become the hands of a clock, use BOY‘s body as a notepad and use the GPS unit to stretch BOY according to how far you’ve traveled in the real world?

Neat? Jeez, I don’t even know. Who would have thought that Takahashi could have taken the weirdest game he’s ever made and turned it into an even weirder iPhone productivity app? It’s only 2 bucks, though, so what the hell.

No one should fault a company for protecting its trademark whether in the real world or on the App Store, but the University of Texas has taken things too far, trying to get their former students to pull the useful iTexas app from iTunes because the University claims that it infringes on their trademark on Texas.

iTexas is a free app released by Mutual Mobile that allows students to access their class schedule, search the UT directory, check out their grades, look at the day’s cafeteria menus and more. It sounds like a must-have app for iPhone-toting UT students, and while Mutual Mobile has had complaints from the university before — namely, when the app was called “UT Directory” and used the school colors in the design scheme — they were quick to rename the application and address the concerns.

You’d think that would end the problem, but now the University of Texas is claiming that because iTexas uses the word “Texas” in the App Name, it is too “confusingly similar to [UT’s] Texas [trademark].”

Look, this is just totally absurd in every detail: from the way the University of Texas is gunning for a company for releasing a totally free app with obvious utility to the majority of their students, to the fact that UT got a trademark on a State name in the first place.

Perhaps Techdirt said it best: “Lesson learned. Don’t try to make life better for UT students without first paying the University.”

Hadouken! Although Street Fighter IV almost obliges its players to invest in a special arcade stick in order to be playable even on next-gen consoles, Capcom’s still going to try to bring its famous fighting game to the iPhone and iPod Touch… although the virtual joystick should be enough to arch the eyebrows of anyone who has pumped a quarter into a Street Fighter arcade machine.

Now you can carry around quotes like “The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall,” from Che Guevara on your iPhone. (Irony not included.)

Guevara, launched Feb. 12 for $0.99 or €.79, is the latest app in the iTunes store to capitalize on lightning rod figures. Not to be confused with iChe, another Italian-developed app released four days later, Guevara features notable quotes from the Argentine revolutionary and guerilla war tactician in English, Spanish, French and Italian.

All of these apps were approved first for the Italian iTunes store but are for sale in others, including the US store, too.

The first of its kind was iMussolini, an app featuring famous quotes and speeches of the Fascist ruler. Despite a storm of complaints, iMussolini was only yanked for a week over copyright issues.  Once ranked no. 2 in the Italian app store, developer Luigi Marino tells us his creation has been dowloaded 8,000 times so far. It is once again for sale, along with another similar app of Mussolini’s speeches.

It seems there is a kind of double standard for quote apps of controversial figures: the US iTunes store features six apps of Dalai Lama teachings and quotes, but these were all removed from China’s iTunes store leading to cries of censorship.

The Guevara app, given a +12 rating for “mild or infrequent horror/ fear /violence themes”  was developed by two 30-something Italian IT consultants who have created another five apps on the iTunes store.

As far as we know, there have been no formal complaints to Apple about the El Che quote app. (Apple has not responded to our requests for comment).

Cult of Mac talked in exclusive with one of the developers of Guevara, Marcantonio Magnarapa, about an iPad version, the approval process and iMussolini.

Cult of Mac: How did you come up with the idea?

Marcantonio Magnarapa: We came up with the idea of a Che Guevara iPhone app while talking about the man behind the revolutionary –  inspired by the Steven Soderbergh movie, actually.

However you might feel about his actions, there is no doubt that his words strike a chord in every one, independent of the era or place. His thoughts are as relevant today as they were back in his day.

Big shocker: Microsoft isn’t supporting Adobe’s Flash in its brand new Windows Phone 7 operating system.

Windows Phone 7 joins Apple’s iPhone and iPad in snubbing the widely-used plug-in.

The news was delivered to Information Week, which received a surprise email from Adobe saying:

“While the newest version of Windows Phone won’t support Flash at initial availability, both companies are working to include a browser plug-in for the full Flash player in future versions of Windows Phone. More details will be shared at Microsoft MIX next month.”

Information Week is skeptical. It says it’s not clear if Flash is coming to WinMo 7 at all.

Microsoft launched WinMo 7 on Monday to great acclaim. Blogs like Gizmodo and Wired’s Gadget Lab, which got to play with the new system at the Mobile World Congress, say it looks better and is easier to use than the iPhone. (Giz: Windows Phone 7 Interface: Microsoft Has Out-Appled Apple; Gadget Lab: Hands-On With Windows Phone 7 Series

Of course, Microsoft makes its own Silverlight platform, a rich-media platform which competes with Flash on the web.

Although Apple has remained officially mum on the issue of Flash, it’s widely understood that the company views the plug-in as buggy and power-hungry.

Not all smartphone makes are snubbing Flash, however.  Adobe just announced Flash for Google’s Android platform, it’s first step into mobile.

Information Week: Windows Mobile 7 Won’t Get Flash

Via Gadget Lab.

Although I’m still an Adium man on my primary Mac, I’ve been using the excellent online IM client Meebo for years to keep in contact with a decade’s worth of collected buddies scattered across ever instant messaging protocol under the sun across multiple machines.

Unfortunately, using the Meebo site on the iPhone was never quite as good as an experience. I’m really excited to see, then, that they’ve just released a native Meebo app to the iTunes App Store.

All the best features of Meebo are here, including searchable chat history across all of your Meebo sessions, regardless of machine, and support for just about every IM protocol under the sun. The Meebo app will also push IM notifications to you when the app is closed, and early reports suggest that it keeps you logged in far longer than just about any other IM app out there. It’ll even automatically reconnect when you lose coverage.

The best news, though, is the price: Meebo is completely free. I’ve been a huge fan of the Meebo web service for years: if you do any instant messaging on your iPhone at all, this is worth a download.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k0V4Zk4Nqs

We told you a few weeks ago that Square|Enix was bringing classic titles from its long-running RPG series Final Fantasy to the iPhone. Today, we bring you the first footage of the game in action (and a screenshot showing the interface).

Looks tasty, though I admit I’ll be more excited when Final Fantasy IV comes to the iPhone. That’s a must-download. And don’t even get me started on Chrono Trigger…

Via TouchArcade

The AR.Drone feels like the future of video games. A combination of a flying, hovering, and downright smart helicopter with four rotors and lots of sensors, and an iPhone augmented reality app, the Drone allows gamers to see the world through cameras on the chopper, to augmentedly dogfight with friends, and even to attack robots that only they can see. Basically, it was the hit of CES, and it shows an entire class of games that the iPhone makes possible.

On Friday, the AR.Drone from Parrot took the stage at the venerable TED Conference in Long Beach alongside everyone from Bill Gates and complexity theory genius Benoit Mandelbrot to Andrew Bird and Sarah Silverman. But before then, the little helicopter from the future hit northern California, making a cameo at MacWorld and, in a stroke of luck, briefly landing in my control on Thursday. And I came away more impressed by the actual device than I had been by video and demos of it.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RNpMAtqIZ8&feature=player_embedded

In the wake of last week’s report that sausage-mania was gripping South Korea when Maxbong brand sausages were found to be usable as capacitive styluses, there were some small few who doubted the report.

Our retort? This video, showing a South Korean playing Taiko Drummaster with a pair of Maxbong Sausages. As you can see, it works well, but those Maxbongs look a little too thick to be truly decent styluses. I still think a Slim Jim would work better.

Well, that certainly took long enough: Apple has finally allowed a version of SlingPlayer Mobile app to creep through the App Store with 3G support.

And it’s about time. SlingPlayer Mobile is a great little app that allows you to stream video from your television, cable, satellite or DVR to your iPhone. The previous version was WiFi only, due to pressure from AT&T, but Ma Bell claims that they worked with SlingPlayer to optimize their 3G compression scheme, and they are now happy that the app won’t be too much of a bandwidth hog.

That’s good news for home theater enthusiasts: it means you never really need to load your iPhone up with movies at all, but can just stream your library from home. Of course, that functionality has a price premium: it costs $30.

Don’t search for Horticulture vs. Necromancy or Vegetables vs. Decomposition, but if you go to the App Store now, Plants vs. Zombies is now available for the iPhone and iPod Touch for only $2.99.

Trust me, that’s an absolute steal. Pop Cap Games’ wonderfully goofy tower-defense game — in which rows of flowers and funguses must cheerily hold off wave after wave — was the most addictive game of last year, and not only does Plants vs. Zombies feel more intuitive to play on a touchscreen, but the iPhone app costs 85% less than the desktop port.

For iPhone gamers, this is news that should be met with nothing less than hysterical shrieking and full-on bladder evacuation. Buy Plants vs. Zombies here, then join me in the comments where I’ll explain my patented, never-fail Gloomshroom defense.

SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD 2010 — One of the most welcome aspects of the post-Apple Macworld is the absence of the giant booths devoted to iPhone accessories.

In recent years, Macworld was in danger of becoming the iPhone case show. Many of the biggest and most prominent booths on the show floor were devoted to cases and screen covers.

This year, they’re mostly absent. While there were about 100 case and accessory makers at CES in January (in the iLounge pavilion), the 150 iPhone developers at Macworld are mostly software publishers. It’s a welcome change.

SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD 2010 — Veteran Mac programmer Bill Atkinson took the stage at Macworld for the first time in 23 years to show off PhotoCard — an app for sending fine-art postcards through the mail.

Written by Atkinson himself (he’s the genius behind early and great Mac software such as QuickDraw, MacPaint and HyperCard), PhotoCard allows you to write a postcard on your iPhone. When you hit send, a beautifully-printed postcard is sent through the mail.

It’s time for our weekly digest of tiny iPhone reviews, courtesy of iPhoneTiny.com, with some extra commentary exclusive to Cult of Mac.

This time, we review Showtimes, Space Deadbeef, UFO Kidnapped, Ramp Champ, IMDB, Air Hockey, Valet Hero, RunKeeper Free and RunKeeper Pro.

Mobile Safari is a lovely browser but lacks a few features, and one of those is Find-in-page. If you want to find a specific piece of text on a very long web page, you have to resort to third-party fixes.

There are a variety of bookmarklets, alternative browsers and add-ons around, but this latest one is a bit different. Although it’s basically just a bookmarklet, it’s being distributed as an app on the App Store, for a fee of 99 cents.

It’s called Find in Page, and just from the title you know what it does. Here’s a simple demo video:

What separates this from other bookmarklets is the extra interface controls that appear above Safari’s built-in navigation controls when you’re using it. They let you flick between instances of your search term, or start a new search, without having to start all over again.

The app itself simply adds the bookmarklet to Mobile Safari’s bookmarks folder; in theory, you need only run it once to do this, then you can delete it from your device. But you might want to keep it around in case your bookmarks get edited or lost and you need to add it again.

Who knows — soon, having to watch your cell minutes might just be a thing of the past, as more communication apps embrace VoIP over 3G after Apple nixed its no-Internet-calls-over-3G policy. The latest to do so is Fring, announcing today that calls — and video calls — can now be made over the 3G network (in addition to the already available wifi call/videocall function).

The iPhone already plays Doom better than just about any smartphone out there thanks to iD Mobile’s continuing interest in porting their older titles and releasing iPhone-specific spin-off games of their more popular franchises to the App Store… but years before the iPhone’s debut, I was playing Doom RPG on my little Motorola RAZR.

Doom RPG was a great little game that did the impossible: it translated the frenetic first-person action of Doom into a wonderful, story-rich, turn-based RPG perfect for playing on a cell phone’s numeric keypad.

Ever since I got my iPhone, I’ve wished that iD Mobile would port it on over to the App Store… and while they still haven’t done so, they’ve done one better, releasing a sequel for the iPhone and iPod Touch called Doom II RPG. It’s available on the App Store now for $4.

My only question: who is that egghead shooting the demon in the screenshot? That’s not the bloodied, Schwarzenegger-esque marine I remember from Doom days gone by.

With the App Store Review Team’s undisguised animosity towards approving apps that “duplicate” innate functionality of the iPhone’s built-in applications a stark fact of the iPhone development scene, releasing a third-party web browser for the most widely adopted smartphone on the market is a risky proposition… but Opera’s going to try it anyway, having just announced that they will be previewing Opera Mini for the iPhone next week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Before Firefox and Chrome smudged a lot of their luster, Opera was one of the most cutting-edge browsers out there. In the last couple of years, though, most of Opera’s users are in the mobile phone sector: in fact, before the iPhone, Opera Mini was one of the only options out there for using a (relatively) full-featured browser on a mobile phone. A huge chunk of Opera’s money these days is made in the mobile phone and smartphone sector, so it’s no wonder they want to get their browser on the iPhone.

Unfortunately, Opera Mini is going to be at a marked disadvantage here. Even if it can get past the App Store approval process, Safari is allowed to run on the iPhone in the background while Opera will have to open and reload anew every time the user switches apps. Until Apple allows third-party apps to stay loaded in the background, I’m just not sure I see a market for another iPhone browser.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1NpU0NwKKk&feature=player_embedded

Courtesy of PopCap Games’ Twitter account, I can now tell you the exact date that my girlfriend will plant herself in her apartment with her iPod Touch and gradually undergo a zombie-like desiccation process herself: February 15th. Because that’s the day that Plants vs. Zombies is finally coming to the App Store.

Plants vs. Zombies is an adorable, hilarious and disgustingly addictive tower defense game in which you must set up rows of specially powered anthropomorphic plants to fight off wave after wave of brain-munching zombies. You can play it over at Pop Cap’s site for free, or buy it for OS X for $20. And let me tell you, if the iPhone port is half as good as the OS X version, we’re looking at one of the best iPhone games of the year.

Late last week, a word of warning to iPhone and iPod Touch app developers was posted on Apple’s official developer site: “If your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user’s location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store.”

It’s a strange little note. The iPhone’s Core Location functionality is already opt-in, and it seems useful from both a developer and user’s standpoint if advertisements are tailored to a user’s individual experience… and location is a big part of that.

The wording is also worrying: what does “primarily” mean? That’s another one of those vague App Store Review Process wordings that just leads to headache down the line.

There are a few interpretations on this. When Apple tries to launch their own in-house iPhone ad network, they may want to position location-based advertisements as a major advantage of their service. On the other hand, this simply could be about limiting advertising-based apps from needlessly hogging the GPS radio and draining battery life.

If I were to guess, I’d say the latter is true. Hopefully Apple will clarify matters in due time.

[via Boy Genius Report]

There aren’t many games on the iPhone platform that can match games on the big 64-bit boxes for production value — but Electronic Arts Mobile‘s Madden NFL 10 can, and does, fantastically. Unfortunately, it also has one gaping hole.

It’s time for our weekly digest of tiny iPhone reviews, courtesy of iPhoneTiny.com, with some extra commentary exclusive to Cult of Mac.

This time, we review Pastebot, 007: Top Agent, Jackson Pollock, Rhythm Racer, Judgement Day War, and TweakyBeat.