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Rally Up, a new location-based iPhone and iPad app from the innovative Santa Cruz, CA team behind 12seconds apps, made its debut in the iTunes App Store Wednesday, hoping to capture the attention of a growing fanbase for apps that leverage mobile communication technology to let people connect with one another.

For the past year the social networking game has been dominated by two players: New York-based Foursquare and Gowalla, out of Austin, TX. With loyal adherents numbering in the hundreds of thousands each, both companies have raised millions in investment funding and explored media partnerships with the likes of Bravo TV, Zagat and the Travel Channel to position themselves for a future in which everyone owns a smartphone and GPS technology allows their location to be pinpointed on a mythical matrix of Coolness.

Enter now Rally Up, which looks to capitalize on privacy concerns that have led many to remain skeptics of social networking apps. Rally Up touts itself as a unique vehicle for letting “real” friends share their wisdom and discoveries about the places they live and visit. “Foursquare and Gowalla are mainly broadcast apps,” said Rally Up founder Sol Lipman. “You check in somewhere and tell the Facebook and Twitter universes about it and there’s very little interactivity or real communication about the experience.”

Rally Up’s focus is more on combining microblogging with location, providing its users a platform for sharing text, videos and direct messages with one another. With an emphasis on the quality of a user’s friends in the Rally Up network, the app doesn’t support mass ‘Friend’ imports from Twitter or Facebook, rather it draws from the phone’s contact list or address book to populate the app with people a user is more likely to be interested in sharing with.

Within the app, any Rally Up contact can be set with a profile providing that contact with more or less access to a user’s comings and goings with Rally Up. The app also allows a user to choose between broadcasting his or her current location or letting contacts know where they are headed next to facilitate greater interactivity and social planning than other social networking apps allow. With 1.7 million points of interest at launch through integration with Open Street Map, Rally Up also has a look and feel distinctly different from the stylized GUIs of Gowalla and Foursquare, while also supporting many of the features that have made those apps so popular, including push notification, leaderboards and stamp/badge collecting.

With an iPad optimized version of the app also ready to go when the highly anticipated Apple tablet device launches April 3rd, Rally Up may be poised to turn the Check-in Wars into a three-front battle.

Rally Up went live as a free download on the iTunes App Store Wednesday.

Ever wanted to make it look like it was your face on the massive billboard you pass every day on the way yo work? Sure. We all have — and now we can, sorta, thanks to a new app called Mr. Photo from Italian developer Seac02.

Have a look at the English-disadvantaged blurb from the app’s App Store page, and everything will become clear:

“MrPhoto 1.0 is the first genuine Augmented Reality focus with realtime hardness tracking and user generated hardness target. The focus allows to supplement any design from a fire done by a iphone camera, Augmented being algorithm will take caring of a viewpoint of a Augmented being content. Take a print of an outside promotion print and put your design with a single click, no photoediting during all MRphoto and his record will do anything for you. MRPhoto is a initial genuine step to visible tagging, user generated tags for user generated contents.”

Another analyst has piled onto the growing sentiment that Verizon will not offer a CDMA iPhone by the middle of 2010 – or not until 2011. Citigroup analyst Richard Gardner said Wednesday a 2-month manufacturing delay in a “key component” will push the CDMA handset’s launch back to the fourth quarter of 2010 or the first quarter of 2011.

The hitch is due to “a manufacturing delay of several months in a key component,” Gardner told investors Wednesday.

If you’re wondering whether iPad is just going to be a big iPhone or iPod Touch, look no further than the preview released by iVerse Comics to see the depth and complexity of the iPad’s touchscreen features.

Comics and other traditionally text and image-based reading material have been somewhat less than satisfying to read on iPhones simply due to the size constraints of Apple’s smartphone display. With the impending release of the iPad’s significantly larger form factor all of that is about to change and it’s not too hard to predict the coming boom in digital book, magazine and yes, comic content optimized for the iPad.

“We’d all been waiting for Apple to announce the iPad, and once the specifics were finally known, our team began putting together our plans for the device the same day.” said iVerse Media founder and CEO Michael Murphey. Wanting to create a traditional comic book reading experience on the iPad, iVerse built “a completely new application from scratch, then [married] that to our existing app,” Murphey said. “The end result gives the user the best possible experience on whatever device they’re using.”

iVerse Comics features some of the biggest publishers in the comic book industry including Archie Comics, Ape Entertainment, Archaia, BOOM! Studios, IDW Publishing, titles from Image Comics creators, Marvel Comics, and many more.

Long time users of iVerse Comics will have the ability to download new, high resolution, iPad files of their previously in-app-purchased comics for no additional cost. iVerse Comics is available as a free download in the iTunes App Store now. The app includes 30 free comics with over 100 more available as in-app purchases.

Remember all the talk earlier this year that Apple was developing its own search engine, possibly even picking Microsoft’s Bing to replace Google as the default iPhone search? Well, such speculation has reignited. A popular Apple analyst now believes there’s a 70 percent chance the Cupertino, Calif. company will create a mobile search engine in the next five years.

Why would Apple go to the trouble when Google reportedly is paying $100 million each year to be the iPhone’s search? Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says the main reason is all about control, a word that gets the attention of Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

If you’ve heard those rumors of Verizon selling the iPhone this summer, don’t hold your breath, suggests an analyst. The talk is just the latest gamesmanship by Apple in an attempt to throw Google’s Android phones off-stride.

Although Verizon’s 90 million customers would allow Apple to directly confront the growth of Android-based phones, there remains some major sticking points before any agreement between the Cupertino, Calif. company and the carrier are signed, Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu told investors Wednesday.

Despite a report Monday suggesting Verizon Wireless could offer an iPhone this summer, some analysts see such a future as unlikely. Instead, if Apple produces a CDMA iPhone, the Cupertino, Calif. company probably has another customer in mind: China.

UBS Investment Research analyst Maynard J. Um calls a report that U.S.-based Verizon would get the CDMA iPhone as “unlikely.” Instead, Um believes the reported CDMA Apple handset could end up in China with China Telecom or Japan’s KDDI.

When you first get your hands on an iPad April 3, there will probably be about 200 apps for sale for the touchscreen device.

The San Jose Mercury news reports that a frantic “land grab” is taking place as software developers race to be among the first apps available. These early settlers may make the most profit.

“It’s definitely going to be important to be first out there,” said Steve Demeter, a San Francisco developer whose puzzle game Trism was among the first apps in the App Store after it launched in July 2008. He says he made $250,000 in the first two months. The instant success enabled him to leave his day job and found  app company Demiforce.

quit his job writing software for Wells Fargo and start his own app.

The iPad app competitive terrain is uneven, however. A few lucky developers can test their magic on iPads, others have to use an iPad simulator.

“I would like to say I have one in my hand, but I don’t,” said Jeff Whatcott, senior vice president of marketing at Brightcove, an online video platform that has created the technology to allow Web sites to run video on the iPad using Apple’s required HTML5 standard.

Some early pioneers to iPad territory — hoping to launch with the device on Saturday — may include an app from the crew who created Ocarina and Ngmoco games “We Rule,” “GodFinger” and “Charadium.”

Interested in picking up an iPad but a couple of bills short? The electronics sweatshops of Shenzhen again come to the rescue with their own counterfeit iPads, completete with WiFi, Bluetooth, 4GB of storage and a cute, knock-off operating system skinned like OS X 10.0.

The company who makes them, Shenzhen Huayi, says their iPad looks like a giant iPhone… although I’m guessing he’s never seen one, since this is a big iPod if I ever saw one.

If you’re a collector of Apple knock-offs or just a poor SOB, the “iPad” can be yours for just $290, and it’ll be available on Saturday simultaneously with the release of the iPad proper.

[via Redmond Pie]

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

If you’d told me yesterday that I’d be eagerly anticipating a new release by nu metal doofus band Linkin Park, I would have promptly puked up my entire central nervous system… but today, I’m holding my stomach, keeping my mouth closed and my nostrils pinched shut, because Linkin Park’s upcoming iPhone game doesn’t just look good… it looks fantastic.

Perhaps what’s so great about Linkin Park 8-Bit Rebellion is that it somehow manages to cater to both Linkin Park fans (a blight on the species which makes a strong argument for eugenics) and those who find the band’s metal-and-rap-for-fratties musical style nauseating in equal measure. It’s a game with a sense of humor about its subject, not exactly the kind of thing you’d expect from Linkin Park.

The game pits the members of Linkin Park in 16-bit pixel art glory, battling an infection of 8-bit sprites with fun weapons ranging from flamethrowers to super lasers. Even better: Linkin Park’s oeuvre of unlistenable audiophonic vomit is taken and distilled until each song has become a fun, warbling chiptune, which you can choose to listen to instead. Excellent!

Even Linkin Park haters like me should check out the trailer above: this may be the iPhone game I’m looking forward to most right now, god help me.

Although his fingers are always yellow with nicotine and his teeth are always brown with Marmite, Gadget Lab’s Charlie Sorrel is my very favorite of secret boyfriends, and it’s mostly due to that wonderfully sinuous memory of his.

The latest fragment of mnemosyne plucked from the pickled depths of Sorrel’s gin barrel mind? Charlie realized that the iPad Camera Connection Kit — Apple’s suggested method for directly transferring your digicam’s photos to your tablet — looks remarkably similar to 2005’s iPod Camera Connector, which allowed you to do the same thing on your iPod Photo (albeit, without the USB dongle). In fact, they look identical.

What that means is that if you happen to have that old, useless iPod Camera Connector dongle collecting detritus in a drawer, you may well just be be able to slap it into your iPad when it’s delivered. Or you may not, but if you ask us, there’s no real reason for Apple to change the tech here when they can just recycle an old piece of hardware for an entirely new generation of device.

Well spotted, Charlie, old top.

The person who sells you the iPad on Saturday will probably be seeing it for the first time, too.

Keeping in line with air-tight secrecy around new product launches, Apple retail store employees have not had any hands-on time with the new touchscreen device.

Reuters reports:
Apple store workers say they have yet to see or touch the iPad, even though the launch is just days away and they are being trained and encouraged to talk about Apple’s newest device with customers.

“We haven’t seen it; we never do” before a product is launched, said one employee, who asked not to be identified because workers are barred from speaking with the media. “Every store employee I know, including the managers, they haven’t seen it.”

If Apple follows the same route for the iPhone launch, store workers may see it an hour before it goes on sale.

And presumably, the iPad blackout doesn’t extend to genius types who will be helping customers set up their just-purchased devices.
Reuters also notes that while Apple store workers get 25% discount on iPods and Macs, they get no discount on iPhones and it’s uncertain whether they’ll get something off the already priced-to-move iPad.

Via iPhone Freak

With the iPad’s imminent arrival, we knew it would be coming, and now it’s here: load up “Software Update” now to slurp iTunes 9.1 down to your Mac. The update weighs in at 102.1MB.

As reported, the changes involve the addition of a “Books” category, some improvements to the way Genius Mixes are handled and the new, universal ability to downgrade songs on the fly to 128kbps AAC when transferring them to your device in order to save space… function previously limited only to the iPod Shuffle. Hurrah!

The only real thing to watch out for here? Some users are reporting issues syncing iTunes 9.1 with their jailbroken devices. The issue seems to be rare, and may be solved by a reboot, but if you’ve got a jailbroken iPhone, you might want to be wary here.

In the final frontier of the App Store, the upcoming, Star Trek-inspired iPADD app boldly goes where no app has gone before beaming the tablet technology of the 24th Century to the iPad of the day.

Oh, sure, it’s just a neat little skin with some clever sound effects for a rudimentary journal program (the “Captain’s Log”) , e-mail, Twitter and Facebook… but even so, this is going to be a big hit at the Con.

Sometimes, I look at my iPhone and, fighting the quell of soul-sickness, remark to myself “Yeah, I guess it’s a pretty good phone, but I wish it had a cord.”

Cords, after all, are very useful things: they allow even the cheapest telephone to enjoy the dual-function of a tethered nunchuck, can be wound tight around you if you get cold and are just eminently necessary if, like me, you happen to be an auto-erotic asphyxiator trying to get through a long distance relationship.

The Desk Phone Dock for the iPhone gives your iPhone back its cord. It’s a docking station featuring two built-in speakers, a microphone, volume control, instant mute, and both USB and AC power sources. Want to call your girlfriend? Just dial her contact, pick up the ivory handset and garrote yourself with abandon as she picks up and remarks in dulcet tones, “I thought I told you never to call me again.”

All joking aside, this is a pretty gorgeous docking station. If you want to use your iPhone like a landline when you’re at work, the Desk Phone Dock isn’t just functional, but its design is totally inkeeping with a Mac-friendly workspace.

Perched like Olympians upon the penthouse patios of the gleaming skyscrapers that perforate the very sky of the home of the brave, you Americans are noble and blessed creatures who almost always get the latest Apple products long before the rest of us unfortunate indigents of the Earth’s farther flung butthole shores.

This Saturday, for example, you will be unwrapping the gold leaf from Apple’s latest magic slab of aluminum, the iPad; meanwhile, here in Berlin, Germany, I will be spending my day hiding from the desiccating European sun in my ramshackle bamboo hut, my only past time listening to staticky iPad news over the wireless radio once given to me by a missionary I later ate, all the while compulsively blinking to keep the flies from laying eggs in the jelly of my eyes.

Still, hope is on the horizon for the strangely chattering aborigines of exotic foreign climes like Canada, Australia, Asia and Europe. Apple has promised an international iPad rollout in late April, and now it looks like we might have a date: April 24th.

The rumor comes from unknown site iPad In Canada. Their source has said that Apple employees have been told that April 24th has been marked as a “black out period” for staff, meaning that they can’t take leave on that date. If true, it strongly implies that at least Canadians can expect to get an iPad on April 24th…. and may be able to pre-order the iPad as early as this week.

The rumor should, of course, be taken with a grain of salt, but the date certainly aligns with what Apple’s been hinting. As for me, I guess I should begin collecting bartering my beads and pelts with the traders so I have the scratch to buy one by April 24th.

Sachin Agarwal is one of the founders of hip email blogging service Posterous – but he used to work for Apple, and like a lot of us, he has opinions about OS X.

His latest is something that sparks a certain amount of controversy, because he’s predicting the imminent death of the Finder.

The iPad Guided Tours that Apple published yesterday are a great way of getting a better idea of what it will actually be like to use an iPad.

But they also show us how Apple’s own “My Documents” feature – first spotted by us back in February – will work.

Keen computer collector Melissa Maloney has a lot of iPods. A LOT of iPods. And quite a few computers too, including an ancient Canon Cat.

I saw her stuff and wanted to ask her: Why do you have so many iPods? What’s the appeal of these old computers? So I did. And here’s what she said.

Ever the genius engineer, Woz has figured out a simple and elegant way to run two iPhone apps simultaneously (otherwise known as multitasking).

He has two iPhones.

Having two iPhones also doubles his battery life.

“By the way, I solved the problem of battery life and [the lack of] multitasking on the iPhone,” Woz told Dan Lyons of NewsWeek. “I just have two iPhones, so if the battery runs down on the first one, I can use the other. And if I’m talking on one, I can use the other one to look something up. You would not believe how much use I get out of that.”

Genius.

The New York Times this morning calls Tony Fadell the “godfather” of the iPod (he’s leaving Apple for greener pastures). But the title should probably go to Jon Rubinstein, the former head of Apple’s Mac and iPod divisions and now CEO of Palm.

The history of the iPod’s development is told here and here, but the short story is:

1. In late 2000, Steve Jobs asked his executive team to look at gadgets people were attaching to the Macs. Perhaps Apple could do a better job of designing them. Videocameras were an obvious candidate, but they were already pretty good. Jobs wasn’t sure Apple could do better. But early MP3 players were a different story — they were horrible.

2. Jon Rubinstein, the head of hardware, hired Tony Fadell to look into making some prototypes, but the project didn’t go into high gear until Toshiba showed Rubinstein a tiny 1.8-inch hard drive it had just developed. They had no idea what to do with it, but Rubinstein did.

3. Rubinstein called Jobs to tell him he’d found the perfect technology for an MP3 player, and he kept Fadell on to oversee the early protoypes. Fadell did such a good job, he went on to become head of the iPod division and eventually took Rubinstein’s job.

As Steven Levy says in his writeup of the iPod’s development, The Perfect Thing:

There is no single “father of the iPod.” Development was a multitrack process, with Fadell, now on staff, in charge of the actual workings of the device, Robbin heading the software and interface team, Jonathan Ive doing the industrial design, Rubenstein overseeing the project, and Jobs himself rubbernecking as only he could.

However, I give credit to Rubinstein, who was at the heart of the development process. He had the initial technological insight, put together the team to develop it, and led the charge to keep improving and updating the device. If there’s a godfather of the iPod, it’s Jon Rubinstein.

As a journalist, and a bit of a design geek who’s dipped a toe into the arcane world of tabloid page layout, it’s always oddly thrilling for me to read from a front page that’s actually been printed. Or at least looks like it was intended to be printed.

Kiosko.net, a virtual gallery of the day’s front pages from the world’s top newspapers, is one of those must-visit sites if you’re a newspaper aficionado — and now it has an iPhone app (and yes, it really has gotten to the point where we start making references to newspapers as if they were LP records or Sinclair Spectums).

The first shipments of iPads have arrived at the huge UPS facility in Louisville, KY, and will soon be heading to customers’ home towns.

The UPS shipping info for CoM’s iPad, which was ordered last month, says the iPad is undergoing “UPS internal activity” (whatever that is) in Kentucky. UPS ‘s all-points international air hub is based in Louisville.

We were surprised the iPad is already here. When we last checked the shipping info a couple of hours ago, the precious iPad was supposedly sitting in Shenzhen, China, where it was assembled.

Little did we know it was being airfreighted to the U.S. and would soon be rescanned into UPS’s system.

UPS system is unbearable, btw. The constant updates providing an incentive for obsessive checking and rechecking. I can’t wait until Saturday.

Here’s a very cool mockup of the iPhone 4G with an aluminum “unibody” enclosure from our friend Graham Bower of MacPredictions.com.

The mockup takes its style cues from Apple’s current lineup of unibody MacBook Pros, which are carved from single slabs of aluminum. Metal gives the iPhone a much nicer look and feel.

Like today’s rumors, Graham is predicting a front-facing camera and a high-resolution screen. A high-res screen would allow the iPhone to display more than one app at a time (multitaking!):

And given that the iPhone OS now supports multiple resolutions, a higher resolution screen is also eminently possible. Perhaps we’ll even be able to pinch and zoom the icons on the Springboard. A higher resolution screen also makes dashboard widgets for the default Springboard screen more likely – it’s hard to believe that Apple will sit by while Android and Windows Phone 7 Series are enjoying this feature.

Thanks Graham!

One of the coolest new features introduced in Leopard’s version of Mail is the ability to automatically add contact details to Address Book. Just hover the mouse pointer over something that looks like an address or phone number, and a box magically appears that lets you import the info, with the details brilliantly ending up in the right places. Well, good news: Now, an app has brought the feature to the iPhone.