iPhone - page 468

The proliferation of cheap applications on the AppStore is stifling innovation and holding Apple’s mobile touch platform back from realizing its true potential, according to developer Craig Hockenberry.

In a post Tuesday at his furbo.org blog, Hockenberry published an open letter to Steve Jobs, saying, “I’m not going to give you suggestions on what to do” about developers (himself included) working on 99¢ titles that have a limited lifespan and broad appeal instead of on “the cooler (and more complex) ideas that could see the utility of the platform taken to another level.”

He goes on to describe the economics of paying development team members the going rate of $150-200 per hour, the realities of having to make up the bulk of development costs during the short period of time an app is likely to be featured among the tens of thousands soon to be available on the AppStore, and concludes “there’s too much risk…in developing something that takes 6 or even 9 man months…with a break even at 215K or 322K units.”

Under the prevailing conditions, where 99¢ “ringtone apps” dominate the landscape, Hockenberry says “going for simple and cheap instead of complex and expensive” is the fiscally responsible choice for developers to make.

In the end, he says “We’re not afraid of competition. In fact, we welcome it as a way to improve our products and business. [But] we’re hoping for a way to rise above the competition when we do our job well, not just when we have the lowest price.”

It’s hard to quibble with Hockenberry’s assessments from a developer’s economic risk perspective, especially in the midst of a contracting economy such as the one at present. It’s also unlikely the iPhone’s “killer app” will end up being one that goes to market at 99¢.

From the perspective of consumers, though, from that of users of new technology that is itself in the midst of early stage development, of users who in many cases make purchase decisions sight-unseen or on the basis of 2 minute YouTubed product demos – simple and cheap seems just about right.

Bring me the head of Nick Pavis! The CEO of San Francisco-based entertainment software company MunkyFun is ultimately responsible for the two hours I failed to notice ticking by this afternoon while engrossed in his visually stunning, sneakily addicting iPhone game, Ivory Tiles.

With its oddly calming Oriental soundtrack and the realistic sounding slide and click of ivory tiles on a wooden gameboard, Ivory Tiles draws you into the challenge of solving its spatial and geometric puzzles like nothing I have ever experienced. Making excellent use of iPhone’s accelerometer and impeccable 3D graphics engine, the game took me through levels of frustration, elation and ultimately relaxation that I hardly imagined possible from playing a game on a mobile device.

Must. Keep. From. Number. One. Son.

$1.99 from the AppStore; worth ten times that amount. Requires iPhone 2.1 software update.

iPhone beatbox app Beatmaker has been updated to version 1.3, which brings with it some nice new features.

This release is about detail: there’s more detailed edit options in the step sequencer. You can do more with your patterns, they can be more complicated and mixed in more interesting ways.

Editing the whole song is easier thanks to a zoom control and an access bar that lets you jump from one part of the song to another.

Best of all, it’s now a proper sampler. Beatmaker will let you record sounds using the iPhone’s built-in mic, assign them to pads, and use them in songs without any extra fussing about.

Wait, though, there’s more! Have you wanted a pocket Stylophone ever since the 1970s ended? Me too!

Weeeeelllllll…

A pair of electronics Phd candidates at Ottawa, Ontario’s Carleton University may have invented a process for wirelessly connecting the circuits of a mobile device to its antenna, allowing it to consume 12 times less power than traditional, wired-transmitter modules and lowering the overall cost of any hand-held device, according to a report at OttawaCitizen.com.

Atif Shamim and Muhammad Arsalan, together with their adviser Langis Roy of Carleton’s department of electronics, co-authored a paper describing a packaging technique to connect the antenna with the circuits via a wireless connection between a micro-antenna embedded within the circuits on the chip.

Their work was named the best paper at the European Wireless Technology Conference in November, whose judges praised the invention for “excellent integration of system design, material sciences and electromagnetic antenna design.” They also said the innovation is “highly relevant, with large potential for commercialization.”

Shamim has filed patent applications in the U.S. and in Canada, with the knowledge consumers continue to gripe about the short lifespan of the iPhone battery.

“It’s a common problem. There are so many applications in the iPhone, it’s like a power-sucking machine,” said Shamim.

Research on the invention is due to be published in the upcoming edition of Microwave Journal.

Via LowEndMac

AdWords advertisers can now show desktop text and image ads on the iPhone, the T-Mobile G1, and other mobile devices with full (HTML) Internet browsers, Google announced Monday.

Google text and image ads can now point to desktop landing pages without advertisers needing to create mobile landing pages or ads in mobile formats. The ads can deliver mobile-specific calls-to-action and reach mobile users searching with their phones more than ever during the holiday season.

Recently, the Google mobile team launched new results pages formatted specifically for the iPhone, according to the post at Google’s Mobile blog. Now, advertisers will be able to display ads exclusively on these mobile devices, create campaigns for them, and get separate performance reporting. Advertisers who prefer not to show desktop ads on these phones can opt out and show ads only on desktop and laptop computers.

Via Techmeme

Spawn Illuminati (App Store)is a fun and cheap little app for your iPhone/iTouch. You can see what it does; it spawns little blobs of light that respond, in a manner of speaking, to your touch commands.

The commands aren’t terribly intuitive, and the app seems to have a mind of its own half the time, but that doesn’t stop it being fun to play with, especially for little ones. With a bit of practice, you can get some very nice results with it (as evidenced in the official gallery).

And it’s a great way to make a wallpaper image for your iPhone that’s completely unique.

There’s no Flickr grounp yet – gasp! Perhaps one will pop up later on. I would have made one myself, but I’ve got tea to drink.

More floopy screenies after the clicky thing.

You may have heard that one of the linchpins of the federal government’s multi-pronged effort to save the crumbling American economy may include Uncle Sam himself underwriting home loans at 4.5%.

What better time then, to spend $4.99 on an iPhone app that may help you navigate the treacherous waters of real estate finance and help you make sound financial decisions for you and your family?

Foggy Noggin Software’s Loan Shark app is a timely, easy to use loan calculator. Enter the information you know, click a button for the field you want calculated, and Loan Shark fills in the amount for you.

With Loan Shark for iPhone and iPod Touch (requires 2.0 update) you can:

* Enter loans from different banks and save for later comparison.
* Calculate how long it will take to pay off credit cards.
* Determine how much in interest loans are costing you.
* See in real time how an extra payment a year affects your loan.
* Easily compare loans to see which is best.

The app lets you calculate any component of the loan, including payment, interest rate and loan amount; see the full Amortization Table for the lifespan of the loan; set your local currency in preferences; find Banks in your area. It also calculates semi-annual interest for Canada and other countries.

Foggy Noggin has some other cool looking software projects, too, including desktop and cookie managers, so be sure to check out their website.

When I think of high-powered, busy professionals the first word that comes to mind is not “Zen” but that certainly has not stopped Hladecek from marketing its new collection of iPhone ringtones as “Professional ringtones designed with executives and the fashion-forward in mind.”

The iRingPro Zen Collection is 21 tones, among which you’ll find no annoying songs, or silly sound effects. The collection consists of tones – not “tunes” – that are “smart, attractive, livable alerts engineered to ensure universal appeal, and provide a high tolerance for routine use and repetition.”

Each tone features moderately longer pauses between ring repeats than what many are used to. The designers believe this cuts down on the hurried fumbling that can occur when a cell phone rings unexpectedly, giving you time to see who’s calling, often before the second ring.

And of course there is the personal branding that comes from your ringtone. A snippet of “My Humps” or “The Immigrant Song” says something about you. iRing Pro ringtones seek to ensure that what is perceived when your phone rings is technically advanced, considerate, and enviably fashionable.

The Zen collection sells for $9.95 and is available for download directly from the designer. They come in “Meeting Grade” and “Active Grade” styles, with the meeting tones being subtler, lower pitched, and richer, while the active tones are stronger, more resonant, and present. Om, baby.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one, but Greystripe, a San Francisco-based rich media advertising platform for mobile content claims to have developed ads including Flash IAB medium rectangles and game-in-game (or “tailgate”) ads giving advertisers the ability to target the iPhone audience for the first time with Flash content.

In an effort to make it easier for the online media buyer to purchase mobile, Greystripe claims to have brought creative power to the iPhone with Flash creation tools allowing brands to extend any online advertising campaign directly into mobile content as well as the ability to create miniature advertiser-branded games in Flash and place them before, during or after existing iPhone games.

“Using the iPhone’s revolutionary platform, Greystripe has solved the serving, reporting, third-party tracking and, best of all, ad creation problems that have plagued the mobile advertising industry since inception,” says Michael Cai, Director of Digital Media and Gaming at Parks Associates, according to a BusinessWire release made public on Thursday.

Michael Chang, CEO and Co-founder of Greystripe was quoted as saying, “We have made it easy for advertisers by removing barriers to execution. Brands like Jeep, RadioShack, New Line Cinema, Rock the Vote and Yahoo! have seen strong results.”

If true, this would seem to come as news to Adobe, which claims to have been thus far stymied in the effort to develop a mobile version of Flash that is compatible with Apple’s SDK for iPhone developers.

Have you seen any Flash-based ads on your iPhone?

We reported last week on developer/blogger Erica Sadun’s discovery of an undocumented feature in Apple’s iPhone SDK that allows video out from an iPhone to be displayed on a TV monitor. Friday she revealed what is sure to become a popular exploit of this feature.

Sadun contacted developers at Freeverse, producers of the popular mobile game Moto Chaser and convinced them to create a TV version of their game. In a few hours, Freeverse code monkeys were able to come up with the demo version of Moto Chaser featured in the video above, which seems to herald happy days ahead for fans of iPhone gaming.

The detailed technical ins and outs of how Freeverse managed to pull off its feat are available in Sadun’s post at Ars Technica, but it’s worth noting that the TV version of the game played best on the second-generation iPod touch. The newer touch is built on a 532MHz CPU versus the original iPhone’s 412MHz. This extra speed helps up the frame rate produced by the device, the key component for any first person interactive video game.

Via Ars Technica

iCan Drive may help Europeans navigate driving tests.

Back in 2006, the EU approved plans for a single drivers license to replace the over 100 different driver’s license standards on the Old Continent.

Countries have until until 2033 to phase it in, but there’s a good chance if you have to renew, your pan-european driver’s license test is going to have a few new things on it.

This iPhone, iPod touch iCan drive app carries quizzes for all official 664 tests for the EU driver’s license. It covers both A class (small scooter) and B class (standard car) licenses.

Developed by Italian Daniele Perilli, the quiz gives results immediately, totals errors and gives all acceptable answer for every question.

There are some 6,891 road-ready questions available in Italian, English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Arabic.

Not bad for .99 eurocents. Available on iTunes.

Via Mac City

Here’s a demo video for Star Walk, the astronomy app for iPhone and iPod I posted on yesterday. The more I look at this app, and the more glowing comments it gets from both reviews on iTunes and CoM readers, the more I wish I’d paid a little better attention in my college astronomy class.

Thanks to reader Cliff for sending it in!

UPDATE: This article has been corrected to reflect Shazam’s compatibility with iPhone only and not iPod Touch, as originally indicated. We regret any confusion our error may have caused.

I’ve been wanting to write about Shazam, the music discovery software app for iPhone, for a while now, but since it’s been around for a good while and is one of the most popular downloads on the AppStore, it didn’t seem there was any news there.

Shazam’s developers announced they have extended its database to include additional North American, Asian and European content, however, and Shazam now offers the facility to recognize songs in a database that has grown to include 8 million different songs.

“This increase in our database cements Shazam’s position as the leading mobile music discovery service in the world,” says Will Mills, Shazam’s Head of Music, and adds the app’s unique user experience “has made Shazam the perfect partner for mobile phone operators and handset manufacturers across the world.”

In September the company announced that more than 20 million customers had used Shazam to identify over 100 million tracks so far, numbers that are likely to continue growing along with the size of the app’s database.

Via Distorted Loop

Mac fans Tuan Nguyen and Ken Thomas got busy with corrugated cardboard and regular white glue to make this iPhone table. The straightforward design comes with handy removable icons to use as coasters.

It doesn’t quite reach the chic of the iPod table, but it’s cute and hey, if you decide for a radical home makeover, you wouldn’t feel too bad about breaking it up for the recycling bin. Details about price, availability to follow.

Photo Credit: iLounge
Via iLounge

More smartphones are using Apple’s OS X operating system than Windows Mobile, a researcher said Thursday. Apple’s software now has 12.9 percent of the global smartphone market, pushing Microsoft out of No. 3 behind RIM and handset giant Nokia.

OS X-based smartphones – fueled by Apple’s popular iPhone – saw a 327 percent year-over-year increase, rising from 3.4 percent of the market in the third quarter of 2007. The increase far outstripped the 11.5 percent annual increase in the overall smartphone market, according to Gartner.

By contrast, Microsoft’s marketshare fell 3 percent to 11.1 percent.

The Amazon Mobile app could get you out of a few Christmas-present dilemmas. The app gives iPhone and iPod Touch users access to wish lists, shopping carts, one-click shopping, plus all the customer reviews and ratings that may make last-minute buys less of a shot in the dark.

It also includes a nice feature called “Amazon Remembers” which lets you save snapshots as visual post-its if you see something you want to buy later. The app saves the photo and searches for similar items, too.

Released a few days ago, it’s had some good reviews, including a five-star rating from “ericthewhat” who says: “Great. I can definitely see my drunk-texting problem becoming a drunk-shopping problem.”

Well, at least you won’t be sobbing into your beer buying stuff like “I’ve Never been to Me.”

In the first release, one of the useful things you can’t buy or download from Amazon are MP3s.

From the mobile app you can put MP3s on your wish list and then buy from your computer, but it’s a bit of a buzzkill for what otherwise seems a useful app.

Via: 37 prime

A version “Dope Wars,” the game that challenges users’ math and marketing skills as well as their street smarts (released for Windows some ten years ago) has been rumored to be coming to iPhone under the name Drug Lords.

The video posted here, from Pocket Gamer, UK, indicates it was to be available by the end of November, but a report Wednesday said it has been re-branded by the developer a-steroids and submitted for AppStore approval under the name Underworld, which, according to Pocket Gamer, should make it less controversial.

The game sets you up as a small-time drug pusher, selling your stash on the local street corner to other players, and even makes use of the iPhone’s GPS functionality, meaning you can be wheelin’ and dealin’ from your realworld local street corner.

Can’t wait to see what America’s scolds have to say about this one.

Via PocketGamer UK

Melodis Corporation looks to make manual searching and scrolling for telephone contacts a thing of the past on your iPhone with its free Voice Dialer, available now on the AppStore.

“Dialing by voice is a much simpler, more natural interface than scrolling through a long list of contacts,” says Keyvan Mohajer, president and chief executive officer of MELODIS Corporation. “Many voice-based dialers are unacceptable because they are too slow, particularly as the number of contacts grows,” he adds, saying, “The Melodis Voice Dialer scales easily to deliver speed and accuracy whether the user has 10 contacts or 10,000.”

Users can search for contact information or dial contacts automatically using different voice commands. For example, users can say “Michael Smith”, “call Michael Smith”, “call Michael”, and so on. Saying “call” before the name automatically dials the number. Users can also specify whether they want to call the contact at home, at work or on their cell phone.

The app uses the company’s proprietary Crystal Engine, which avoids the traditional approach of voice-to-text conversion for search, which the company claims can achieve higher accuracy compared to existing solutions.

Unlike Google’s Voice Search capability, which allows users to simply raise the phone to the ear and begin speaking, Melodis requires the touch of a button on the phone’s surface to activate its voice reception. The app is free, though supported by what the company describes as “non-obtrusive mobile advertising.”

We stumbled across Vito Technologies’ Star Walk app for iPhone and iPod Touch and found yet one more way for Apple’s mobile devices to make us say, “wow.”

Not quite a pocket planetarium, Star Walk does boast impressive, detailed graphics showing past and future astronmical events from any place on earth and is an easy to use, annotated guide to stargazing.

Available in six languages for $4.99, the app has gotten glowing reviews on the AppStore and the developers promise updates soon supporting improved night mode viewing and mapping for deep space objects. Yes, Google Earth is free, but would you pay 5 bucks to see into infinity?

First: here’s Dong Chang! (App Store) What is it, and what does it do? I think we’d better let the developer explain:

“It is every funny and easier to play. Try to sway your iphone/itouch Three dimensional direction, You can get three Hip-Hop’s accompanist. Whenever, any where you can dancing with your iphone/itouch. Come on, Move your body, geting Exercises! You will be enjoy it.”

Fantastic! Next!

Whacket! (App Store) “replicates the experience of playing your favorite racket sports – without the hassle of all those silly rackets.” Thank goodness for that. Rackets, eh? Who needs ’em?

The guys at Tap Tap Tap, responsible for the gorgeous Classics app, churned out this extra gorgeousness – made entirely out of iPhone app icons – to celebrate the App Store reaching 10,000 apps.

That’s 10,000 apps in less than half a year.

Just imagine what amazing stuff we’re going to see in 2009. I can’t wait.

We’re really going to need a better way to manage all our iPhone apps, though. All this flippy-flapping between screens is going to get really boring really quickly once there’s 50,000 apps competing for space there.

(Pic re-used here with Tap Tap Tap’s permission. Thanks guys!)

Apple has given iPhone developers an early Christmas present, freeing them (somewhat) from the convoluted mess of ad hoc distribution.

Once an application has been accepted to the App Store by Apple, developers can now issue up to 50 promotional codes. The codes allow the recipient to download a full copy of the application for free. Presently, these codes can only be used in the U.S. iTunes Stores by using the “Redeem” link in the App Store. The 50 code limit is reset for each new version of an application, according to a report at MacRumors.

Presumably developers may continue to use the ad hoc model, wherein a special version of their app can be sent, along with a mobile provisioning file, to up to 100 users (beta testers and/or reviewers) who provide the unique device identification number of their iPhone or iPod Touch, for giving out copies of apps prior to their acceptance in the AppStore.

‘Tis the Season to make a list out of everything you can possibly think of – who’s been naughty, who’s been nice, the Best of This and The Worst of That.

Apple released its lists of the Top 10 Paid and Top 10 Free Apps on the iTunes AppStore Tuesday, and also broke down the top apps by category. If you visited the iTunes store since the AppStore launched in July, you’ve been able to get a running snapshot of the Top 10 overall lists, as they have been published on the AppStore’s front page since the launch.

After opening strong, Super Monkey Ball ended up 4th on the list of top paid app downloads, while Koi Pond quietly, like a zen warrior, took the top honors. Amazingly, enough people paid for iBeer to put it in the #10 spot.

Among the free downloads, two music apps, Pandora Radio and Shazam were in the top 5 (#1 and #4, respectively) and in only two months of availability, Google Earth managed to place #7.

For all of the AppStore’s Top Lists, click here.

For all of the iTunes Store’s Top Lists, click here.

This prototype tactile iPhone case called Invisual allows sight-impaired users to get the most out of the smart phone. It would work in conjunction with special accessibility functions, such as text-to-speech features and moon type tactile alphabet keyboard.

Portugal-based designer Bruno Fosi crafted the silicon case with modified bas-relief buttons that correspond to the iPhone home screen. Fosi says that the iPhone thus covered keeps all its functions intact, including multi-touch and finger flick scrolling.

Via Yanko Design

A video blog entry by Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.i.am shows just how much fun you can have in a recording studio with an iPhone at hand.

At about 1:40 seconds, the club-ready tune on youtube (or under “video blog” on his site) is catchy enough to have some fans wondering whether it’ll be part of his next album. It might not win over new converts to his Blackberry social network or much love at Nokia where he was a featured guest for the Remix party…