If you just can’t live without emoticon functionality on your iPhone, you may have cell phone users in Japan to thank. Perhaps with a nod to the centrality of “emoji” on all mobile devices in Japan, Apple has apparently enabled their use with iPhone 2.2 firmware, according to one report, but only through the Japanese virtual keyboard.
You must be willing to enter the brave world of jailbreaking your phone using cydia.app, but once there, you’ll be able to enable “emoji” right from the phone’s settings for International keyboard functionality: settings -> general -> international -> keyboards -> japanese -> emoji
For those of you who remember the good old days of the Error Bomb and the SE-30, you may remember the old Broderbund game Shufflepuck Café. You were thrust into rough and tumble space bar, clearly the outsider, forced to prove yourself in a true game of wits and agility: computer air hockey. It was a simple game for simple times: a handful of wacky alien characters, mild nudity, and an animated screen crack when your opponent scored. Ah to go back for one more round.
But you’d need a vintage Mac for that, and you threw yours out with your velour leisure suit years ago. Fret not! There are a few free possibilities for a quick match on OS X! None line up perfectly with the original, and for that I am exploring the avenues of emulation, but in a pinch these will do.
TuxPuck is perhaps the most reminiscent of the original, with a character closely resembling Princess Bejin. It is, however, limited in the characters you can play against and might need a bit of massaging to get it to play.
Shufflepuck REVOLUTION provides a bit more variety in the way of characters, including Woz and Jobs as opponents, but it’s also updated the system with 3D graphics. Unlike TuxPuck, Shufflepuck REVOLUTION insists on playing in fullscreen, which is a bit off-putting if you don’t know that right away.
The quest for the perfect OS X Shufflepuck match continues!
Did you know the AppStore has a free app for iPhone and iPod Touch that will let you print borderless 4 x 6 photos (10 x 15 cm in Europe) directly from your device, without the need to upload them first to a computer or image processing program?
iPrint Photo, from HP uses Apple’s Bonjour technology to locate most WiFi enabled HP network printers wherever you are, letting you immortalize that once-in-lifetime capture on the spot. Printers with separate photo trays automatically select that option, and otherwise default to the main paper tray. The app is compatible with most industry standard WiFi environoments, including Apple Airport, Linksys, D Link and Netgear.
Sloane Crosby, author of essays “I Was Told There’d be Cake” and maker of creepy dioramas, has a bewitched iPod.
When asked by the New York Times to name her iPod playlist (Marvin Gaye, Bon Iver, New Order) Sloane rants about her MP3 player, which apparently has a few issues:
The worst example of this technological tyranny has to be my iPod. Our relationship has gone from one of pleasurable convenience to a series of baroque rituals and infuriating modifications, of tricks and mysteries, of songs that my iPod considers playing (as evidenced by the flashing image of album art) but, thinking better of it, decides to supplant with Carla Bruni’s “Quelqu’un m’a dit” juuuust one more time instead.
My iPod may be possessed. It may be infuriating. It may be trying to tell me something.”
These things happen, I have a temperamental iPod, too. But it started acting up after falling under the subway tracks. A three-person rescue team fished it out, but alas, it has never been the same since. Maybe she isn’t telling us the whole story?
A promise to “unleash the true power of your iPhone” might not be the best marketing slogan for Snapture Flash, a xenon flash accessory with red-eye reduction for Apple’s mobile device. As snappy as it sounds, the slogan also calls attention to what is roundly regarded as the iPhone’s weakest attribute, its 2.1 megapixel, fixed focal length still camera.
The flash’s sleeve-like case is powered by the phone itself, which SnaptureLabs estimates will give you 1000 flashes on a single charge. As a bonus, the sleeve also provides amplification for the iPhone’s on-board speaker.
The downside here is that the flash is only a prototype and the accompanying Snapture camera software (which itself provides some interesting creative mods and controls for the iPhone’s camera), requires a jailbroken phone to avail yourself of its charms.
It will be interesting to see whether Snapture Labs can strike a deal to get it’s patent-pending flash technology to market before Apple comes out with a new version of the iPhone with some sort of flash built-in.
Is there any social dynamic the iPhone cannot be leveraged to transform somehow?
Here’s a six minute video from digitalJournal TV detailing a “social taxi service” that San Francisco-based Avego Shared Transport hopes will one day expand the public transit system by enabling every private vehicle to operate as a public transport vehicle.
This free iPhone app has the potential to dramatically reduce wasted seat capacity in cars, reduce the costs of commuting and expand commuting options for riders and drivers alike. This is definitely not your father’s hitchhiking experience.
Using the iPhone 3G’s GPS capabilities and web services, Avego seeks to enable a cross between carpooling, public transport and eBay, by matching a driver’s wasted seat capacity – those seats which are unoccupied – to passengers, reducing commute costs for all participants. Avego automatically apportions the cost of the commute, providing a financial incentive to commuters frustrated by high gasoline prices.
The company is quick to point out that the arrangements it facilitates clearly fall under “carpooling” laws that exist in nearly every jurisdiction in the US since the oil shock of the 1970s, and financial transactions are carefully limited so that participating drivers only recover the expenses associated with providing transport and do not cross the line into making them commericial transport operators.
For the nitty gritty on how Avego works, see the further information page on Avego’s website, but definitely take time to watch the video here and marvel at yet one more example of how Apple technology is changing the ways people interact with each other and with the world around them.
In the wake of Apple pulling out of Macworld — and the prospect that Steve Jobs may leave the company — many are wondering if Apple will survive without him.
The answer is yes, Apple will definitely survive without Steve Jobs. It may even thrive.
I’m very interested in Wiimote projects for the Mac for two reasons. One is that the guy who came up with the idea (Johnny Lee) is an alumnus of my university. I’m so into his work that I even went to his thesis defense. The other is that my mom is a sixth grade teacher, and I helped her convince the technology department at my old middle school to buy two Wiimotes for her to use with the projector and iMac in her classroom.
Setting up the Wiimotes with the whiteboard is a snap, especially with the Wiimote Whiteboard program for the Mac. The only problems we’ve had are making the IR light pen and finding something simple for the kids to do.
In a quick demonstration last week, using a DVD player remote control since the IR light pen I made ran out of batteries, I set the kids up drawing in Appleworks. This was fun, and the ENTIRE class immediately jumped out of their seats and lined up at the chance to draw themselves. This was certainly one of the most excited and engaged audiences I’ve ever presented to.
Even so, Appleworks isn’t a really great program to be using for this type of thing. It’s obviously not designed for a pen interface, and it can’t use the Wiimote’s multitouch capabilities. This is why I was so excited to see Adrien Mondot’s effort to hook up eMotion to the Wiimote set up:
The video shows all kinds of wonders that sixth graders would lose their minds over. Drawing is cool enough, but I think we’d have to resuscitate some of them once we got them moving letters around, using multiple pens, affecting particles and giving them 3D graphics.
I’m going to try to make some little kids pass out after winter break. Have you tried the Wiimote whiteboard project?
A good Apple t shirt is hard to find. You want to be unique, to be different. You want your shirt to be like your Birkenstocks and Uggs before they were cool. Some companies will mail these things out to you for free if you beg them enough (my friend got a Digikey shirt after a week of calling), but for Apple you’ve got to go out and get them from third party vendors. These are for the long time Mac users, and the nerds who want to look good.
This shirt lurks in its awesome. Most would think that it’s just another “power button” shirt. Those in the know recognize it from other places. There’s also a bandana for the truly serious.
Mac t shirts are all well and good, but when it really comes down to it, you probably don’t want to wear them to work. You want something with a little more sophistication, even if you’re locked in the server closet all day. The Spinning Beach Ball of Death polo shirt is the way to go for casual Fridays.
Insanely Great Tees could easily fill this entire list, but I’m just going to include two of their shirts. The Bomb is definitely a must-have for me, as I can’t remember how many times I saw that little popup window. It’s ingrained in my mind. This shirt says “Yes, I was around before OS X”, “Yes, this is a metaphor for my coolness” and “No, I don’t belong in airports”.
The second Insanely Great Tees shirt is also one of my favorites. The Campground Command symbol is a subtle nod towards your Mac side, but the general concept is there for Windows and Linux users as well. This shirt was even featured in the nerd-shirt gold mine of a television show The IT Crowd.
Finally, a parody of the most sold t shirt ever. There’s too much Mac nerdiness going on here to even try to get into it all.
For those of you looking beyond this list, I recommend that you click around the sites that these shirts are from. Blue Collar Distro and Insanely Great Tees have a great selection of Mac and otherwise geeky shirts. I recognize that there are lots of great Mac shirts on Cafepress, but I tried to steer clear of them because of some issues with quality they’ve been known to have. There are also lots of great expo and out of stock shirts to be had, but that’s no good for your wardrobe is it?
British-Sri Lankan rapper Maya “M.I.A.” Arulpragasm’s last album, Kala, was made on a Mac.
Her second album, called an “international block party” by Rolling Stone, Kala is full of ear-wormy music that includes samples of Pink Floyd, gun shots, digeridoo riffs, cash register ca-chings and kids on backing vocals. (Give a listen to “Mango Pickle”.)
She traveled with producer Dave Taylor to India, Australia, Jamaica and Trinidad to record it.
Although news satirists The Onion target Apple with a certain frequency, pull back the curtain and staffers are Apple users.
When asked by the Guardian to name their favorite piece of technology, both Onion staffers Will Graham (executive producer/director) and Julie Smith (general manager) said the iPhone.
The rest of the tech Q&A reads like a love letter to Apple, a few excerpts:
Mac or PC?
Will: our whole Onion organization is very fervently pro Mac, despite doing jokes about them. For creative people there is no comparison.
Do you think the iPhone will be obsolete in 10 years’ time?
Julie: Yes, I do. They’ll probably have the iPhone 36G by then.
What’s the most expensive piece of technology you’ve ever owned?
Julie: My Macbook Pro.
Will: I remember there was a thing my dad gave me as a Christmas gift that I thought was really cool, about eight or nine years ago –œ the Mac Talk…
What piece of technology would you most like to own?
Julie: I guess a robot. Or another iPhone.
Apple’s iPhone now has 23 percent of the smartphone market, trimming RIM’s lead and showing signs of strong consumer demand even five months after the launch of the 3G, a new survey indicates.
The iPhone’s share of the smartphone market has more than doubled since June, when ChangeWave found the Apple handset held 11 percent of smartphone sales.
Although RIM’s BlackBerry remains leader, with 41 percent of the market between September to December, the Ontario company slipped by 1 percent.
In the hustle bustle of modern urban life, especially during holiday seasons fraught with travel delays, white-knuckle driving on treacherous roads, crowded shopping districts (though maybe not so much that, this year) and kids on vacation underfoot, a little bit of peace and tranquility can seem like the greatest of gifts.
Now you can give such a gift to yourself, a friend or loved one, with Freeverse’s Tranquility app for iPhone and iPod touch.
For just $1.99, drift off to sleep or catch a few peaceful moments during a stressful day. With a beautiful visual interface and new audio tweaks in the recently updated version 1.3 (requires iPhone 2.2 firmware), you can choose from a full 60 minute relaxation and meditation track, or from other themes such as Flowing Water, Ocean Waves, Desert Wind, Gentle Rain or Thunderstorms, even Pink Noise – an enhanced form of white noise.
Tranquility is the other side of Freeverse, the award-winning app developer responsible for Moto Chaser, Burning Monkey Casino and Big Bang Sudoku, among many others. Available now in the AppStore.
The iPhone app formerly known as Exposure has just been updated to version 1.5 and now has a new name: Darkslide.
Developer Fraser Speirs explains what it’s all about on his blog. For the uninitiated, the app is an iPhone-friendly environment for your Flickr account. It lets you keep track of your photos, your contacts’ photos, and check what images have been taken near your current location (which comes in extremely handy when you’re at a tourist attraction and you want to try and shoot something a bit different).
The big new feature in Exposure – sorry – Darkside 1.5 is, in Fraser’s own words, “Upload, upload, upload”. So, it does uploads now.
(I’ve not been able to test it yet, because my App Store is refusing to acknowledge that Exposure has been updated to anything other than Exposure. I expect it’ll all update itself in a few hours.)
I did ask je@n what the story was behind it, but je@n didn’t reply. I expect je@n’s very busy. Thanks anyway, je@n, for letting us re-use your Creative Commons licensed photo. Of a sofa. Covered with MacBook keyboards.
Although some are questioning how long Steve Jobs will continue to lead Apple, the Cupertino chief executive ranks No. 2 in a list of most-like company leaders.
Jobs had a 90 percent approval rating by participants in the first-ever survey by review site Glassdoor. Jobs garnered 290 reviews, far above the 50 needed to qualify.
Art Levinson, CEO of biotech firm Genentech, was ranked No. 1 most-liked boss with 93 percent approval.
Jobs beat Eric Schmidt, CEO of Internet Google, who had 88 percent approval.
Office Depot CEO Steve Odland ranked as the least-liked CEO, obtaining just 4 percent approval from reviewers.
Add Garmin to the list of companies announcing plans to introduce Android-based handsets in 2009. Garmin said its nuvifone will link GPS features with Google Maps.
The handset is expected to be the first in a series from Garmin, according to the company’s head of Asia Pacific marketing, Tony An.
An said while the nuvifone will launch this Spring, a number of others based on Android will appear during the second half of 2009. The Garmin phones will be produced by another company, reports said Monday.
Friday, Samsung said it would launch its first Android phone in the U.S. sometime between April and June of 2009. Development of the handset has been accelerated to meet the “specific needs of local carriers,” an unnamed Samsung official told the South Korean ET News.
Palm, the down-on-its-luck Treo maker, announced Monday $100 million in new funding amid talk it will unveil new products at the January CES trade show.
In addition to the $100 million lifeline, the deal allows Palm to sell shares worth $49 million — or a 31 percent premium before April 1.
The much-needed funding comes as Palm reportedly has just two years before cash is depleted and the company is set to unveil a new handset and a smartphone operating system.
‘Tis the Season of Giving and for a site such as MacHeist, where you can get bundled amazements year-round, giving really means giving. This Christmas, sign up for a MacHeist account and come to the MacHeist Giving Tree on Christmas to see what free gifts are under the tree just for you.
Refer your friends and get additional gifts with your name on them.
eMusic is into the gifting spirit this season, offering a 12 song set of Christmas tunes available to download for free.
The playlist includes songs by an eclectic mix of artists ranging from Twisted Sister to Eartha Kitt, The Brian Setzer Orchestra to Lisa Loeb, with Shawn Lee’s Ping pong Orchestra and Kidz Bop Kids thrown in for good measure.
Classic seasonal favorites include Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls and Auld Lang Syne, as well as Bach: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring and Angels We Have Heard On High.
Well worth checking out, after all – who doesn’t love free music?
Samsung could join T-Mobile to offer the second Android phone in North America.
Samsung expects to launch its first Android-based touchscreen phone in the U.S. between April and June next year, reports said Friday.
An unnamed Samsung official said the company is “accelerating” development of the handset in order to meet “specific needs of local carriers,” according to South Korean ET News.
Although few details are known, the handset may include a design similar to Samsung’s Instinct and Omnia phones, according to one report.
Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder and designer of the Apple I and Apple II computers, has joined the advisory board of Axiotron, maker of the Modbook Mac tablet.
Wozniak “brings a network of personal and professional contacts and offers his insight into market trends,” according to an Axiotron statement.
In 1976, Wozniak cofounded Apple with Steve Jobs, now CEO of the Cupertino, Calif.-based computer-maker.
Earlier this month, Axiotron updated the tablet-based Modbook, improving its screen and dropping to 5.3 pounds the weight of the unit priced at $2,249. MacBooks can also be converted to a Modbook, using Modbook Service for $1,299.
RIM announced Thursday it sold 6.7 million BlackBerry handsets between September and November, a figure approaching Apple’s 6.9 million iPhone 3G sales.
The Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM referred to a “record” quarter that saw revenue climb 66 percent to $2.8 billion – despite an economic recession expected to slow handset demand.
RIM told analysts it is having trouble keeping pace with demand for the BlackBerry Storm, the company’s first touch-screen smart-phone.
Apple is being sued for patent infringement after a company alleges Cupertino used confidential data to launch Apple TV and other products.
EZ4Media is asking an Illinois court to grant an injunction and fine Apple for infringing on four patents on technology to stream video from a device to a television.
The company claims three employees with “confidential and proprietary information” about the patents were hired by Apple months before the computer-maker launched Apple TV, a product that streams video to home television screens.
