Popular open-source media player VLC is now available for iPad, thanks to developer Applidium.
Offered gratis, VLC faces some competition from other universal media-playing apps already available for the iPad including paid apps OPlayer ($2.99) and CineXPlayer ($3.99).
VLC has long been my go-to app for video viewing (can’t remember the last time I even bothered to update Quicktime), nice to know it’s available now for the iPad, too.
Women’s activewear retailer Lole launched a new store design concept with 15 iPads they hope will connect customers and make the store more sticky.
The new concept store called Atelier Lole opened doors recently in one of Montreal’s main shopping drags, St. Denis Street. One of the main portions of the store is set aside for community, with tree stump stools and iPads on a low workbench opposite a wall featuring customer’s travelogue pics.
Described as kind of a “living Facebook,” through an app developed especially for the stores users can also “flip” through photos directly on the iPads located along the Atelier’s social wall.
httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qq3-5Vajw8
Perhaps more than any App Store publisher, Gameloft is just the master of the quickly dashed off tie-in game: a huge chunk of their 123 game strong iTunes library are entries into popular gaming franchises like Splinter Cell, Rayman or Prince of Persia.
What’s awesome about Gameloft, though, is what happens when they can’t get the rights to a gaming franchise. For example, when Gameloft couldn’t get the rights to the Resident Evil series, they just released Zombie Infection, which looked and played exactly like Resident Evil 5. Their title Gangstar: West Coast Hustle is a similar knock-off on the Grand Theft Auto series.
The trailer for their latest game, Dungeon Hunter 2, is obviously one of their latter genre of game knock-offs… this time of Blizzard’s Diablo series. That said, the first Dungeon Hunter is still one of the most competent hack-and-slash RPGs on the iOS platform, and now that Dungeon Hunter 2 is adding co-operative multiplayer into the mix… this is one of my most anticipated iOS games no matter how stupid “Gothicus: land of fear, land of destiny!” sounds when you actually think about it.
We start off another week with two hardware deals and one free application for your iPhone or iPod touch. First up is the Superleggera case for your iPhone. The Acase unit includes two screen protectors for $8. Next is Flip/Bubble, a messaging app from the iTunes App Store. Finally, there is a deal on Sony’s Speaker Dock and Clock Radio for the iPhone or iPod for $80. The unit comes with a 7-inch LCD screen, 16GB of memory and an iPod dock.
Along the way, we’ll also check out other gadgets for the iPhone, iPod and Mac. As always, details on these and many more items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.
httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHOZZJ_2Wjg&feature=player_embedded
Samsung’s just pushed live their latest advertisement for the first of the prestige-band iPad competitors, the Samsung Galaxy Tab… and while you certainly shouldn’t expect device agnosticism from someone who has “Cult of Mac” written on his paychecks, I’ve got to say, I think they did a pretty good job enumerating the Tab’s relative advantages over the iPad.
In about two minutes, the commercial quickly and compelling puts ticks next to the boxes of all the iPad’s more niggling omissions — web cam and expandable storage being the most obvious — and even a few that no one really cared about, like the fact that you can’t also use the iPad as a big stupid looking phone, which you can with the Galaxy Tab.
Apple has reportedly acquired all shares of the Swedish face-recognition firm Polar Rose. The company develops three software applications able to recognize faces in images.
The Cupertino, Calif. based company appears to be interested in two Polar Rose applications, Face Cloud and FaceLib, according to a Norwegian Mac site Mac 1. Speculation is that the software could be rolled into web apps, such as MobileMe. Apple already offers face recogntion in iPhoto.
httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-naRP6vllXc
Whether Infinite Lives’ forthcoming Contra-inspired shooter Moral Decay gets pushed live on the App Store has a lot to do with how Apple’s reviewers decided to view the game’s central protagonist…. a bearded man in sandals and Messianic robes who can fly on a rainbow, shouts “Oh my father!” when he’s shot and spends most of the game using an AK-47 to transmutate a constabulary of sinners as multivariate as sumo wrestlers, extraterrestrials and Satan into big, spattering chunks of gelatinous gore.
Here’s the question: will Apple’s reviewers subscribe to Infinite Lives‘ pretense that their protagonist is, in fact, an unassuming dude by the name of Christ T? Or will they decide that Chris bears an uncanny resemblance to Jesus Christ of Nazareth and should therefore be censored based upon the sheer principle of the thing?
My guess is the latter, in which case I hope Infinite Lives quickly gets a Cydia release: as long as you like your gaming violent, full of chiptunes and almost panoffensive in its 8-bit religious sensibilities, this looks like a hella fun game.
[via Pocket Gamer]
Like all iPods before it, the new sixth-generation iPod nano comes with a handy diagnostic mode to allow Apple’s constabulary of technicians to dig into the underlying wetware of the device before the flouncy frills of the operating system have been slathered on top.
Unlike past iPods nanos, though, the new nano doesn’t have a clickwheel, which makes accessing its hidden iTerm Diagnostic Mode slightly different than before.
If you want to access the nano 6G’s diagnostic mode, here’s how you do it:
1. Reset your nano by holding down the sleep and volume down buttons until the Apple logo appears.
2. When you see the Apple logo, hold down all three buttons until “iTerm: iPod Display Console” flashes on screen.
3. (Other) You can reset your nano into Disk Mode by simply holding down the volume buttons when you see the Apple logo.
My favorite takeaway from the new nano’s diagnostic mode? The fact that the sixth-generation iPod nano is apparently codenamed “Snowfox” internally. That’s just adorable.
At this year’s Photokina expo in Cologne, Germany, Casio has unveiled their latest point-and-shoot, the EXILIM EX-H20G, a sexy and slender little camera that manages to differentiate itself with an interesting Hybrid GPS system which can figure out your position by using your last known coordinates, even if you’re indoors.
Here’s how it works: the EXILIM EX-H20G is chassis-stuffed with acceleromaters and motion sensors, all of which work to estimate your current position the second you walk through the front door. Walk back outside again and the EXILIM tries to get a new fix and updates any photos that have been made in the interim with revised coordinates.
Outside of that nifty little software trick, the EX-H20G has a 14.1-megapixel sensor (which is surely too much for a sensor this small) that is also capable of recording 720p HD video at up to ten degrees of optical magnification. It will be released in November and play nice with your Mac for the price of just $349.99.
The Monday Giveaways are BACK and we’re badder than ever. This week’s slate of apps has everything from Zombies and custom ringtones to everyone’s favorite game, Words with Friends! We’ll pick 5 random winners to win 4 great apps and if you want a chance to get your hands on some these iPhone apps this week, then follow the instructions carefully below:
Special Thanks to Appular for helping us put together these app code giveaways! If you’ve got a mobile app that you’d like marketed effectively, contact the good folks at Appular!
Over the years, Napster has pupated from an illegal peer-to-peer music sharing network to a streaming audio subscription service, and today marks another surprising evolution in a brand that has, over the past decade, meant all things to all men: it’s now an iPhone app.
10-4, you heard that correctly: Apple has finally approved Napster on iTunes as a free application. Weighing in at just 1.8MB, Napster will stream over 10 million songs to you on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, provided you’re willing to give a Hamilton a month to Napster LLC (which the App Store listing proudly reminds us is “a Best Buy company”) for their Napster plus Mobile Access subscription.
Okay, it’s not the long delayed U.S. launch of our favorite streaming music service, Spotify. None the less, it’s great to see so many options for streaming your music start hitting the App Store, and I think it heralds great things for Apple’s own entry into the Cloud: clearly, whatever Apple’s got planned, they don’t think existing services like Napster or Spotify are a threat. iTunes Live, when it comes, is going to do things we didn’t even know we wanted.
Always faddish in their production of knock-offs and crap gadgets, the black market electronic shops of the Far East have lately been disgorging a surplus of cases that sandwich in a SIM slot and a cellular radio, thus allowing you to make phone calls on your jailbroken iPod Touch. They’re clever hacks, to be sure, but it appears that Cupertino itself has already thought of just that approach to transforming an iPod Touch into an iPhone… and if Apple can think of it, you can bet that they’ve patented it.
In fact, earlier this year, Apple filed a patent application for an “accessory transceiver” that would bring mobile calling and data to the iPod Touch. You know, just like the Peel 520. Or the tPhone. Or any of the other iTouch-to-iPhone cases we’ve written about since August.
An agreement allowing newspapers and magazines to parlay the iPad into new print subscriptions may be one or two months away, according to a Monday report. The pact with publishers could be timed to coincide with Apple unveiling a new iPad in early 2011.
Apple has “accelerated its efforts to persuade publishers to join the company’s first foray into selling newspaper and magazine subscriptions for the iPad,” the Wall Street Journal reports. The Cupertino, Calif. company has already discussed its plans with Time Inc., Condé Nast, News Corp. and Hearst’s publishing divisions, the paper reports, citing insiders. Hearst may have already agreed with the proposal. Apple reportedly said “at least one” company is willing to sell subscriptions through its iTunes service, the report adds.
Recall the old joke about being slightly pregnant? Shift the premise to Apple’s tablet and you have the latest opinion on whether the iPad will hurt Mac sales. After previously thought to hurt PC notebook sales most, an analyst tells investors Monday morning the iPad is “slightly cannibalizing” demand for low-end MacBooks.
Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu slightly reduced his expectations for September Mac sales to 3.8 million, down from 3.9 million. He points to suppliers indicating the tablet is “slightly cannibalizing” the most inexpensive MacBooks. At the same time, the analyst increased his forecast for iPad quarterly sales to 5.7 million, up from 3.6 million. The rosier picture is due to the kinks being worked out of iPad screen supplies.
We all like our eyes. What a shame we subject them to such an endless onslaught of photons from computer screens all day long.
F.lux is an app designed to make your eyes feel a little more comfortable while working on a computer.
Like a time travel scenario where you meet your own grandfather as a child, enthusiasts working with the Einstein Newton Emulator project have ported the Prodigal PDA to the iPhone. The current implementation is only available as source code and runs a bit slow, but is an actual working version of NewtonOS complete with handwriting recognition and familiar input gestures.
Most of us don’t need VoiceOver, the accessibility feature that’s built into the operating system of each and every iPhone.
But for one blind iPhone owner, it has been a life-changer.
Your choice of smartphone may tell more about you than you realize. Various sources are reporting on a Nielsen Mobile Insights survey about mobile phone usage; among other findings: iPhone users prefer chicken, while Android owners love ribs.
[coupons.com] examined its mobile coupon usage from the different platforms and came up with some staggering results. Did you know that women’s body wash coupons were routinely used by iPhone owners while men’s body wash was often purchased by Android owners?
If that doesn’t floor you, you should know that iPhone owners buy baby products 42 times more than Android users. Google OS users are more apt to use pain-relief coupons though, probably because of the headaches of using Android’s multimedia player. [intomobile]
According to the Wall Street Journal additional details from the survey reveal that a higher proportion of 18- to 24-year-olds use Androids than iPhones, BlackBerry users tend to use their phones more for business purposes than entertainment, and iPhone users tend to be more affluent and better educated.
I’m not sure whether this is more useful as flame-bait or marketing demographics, but it’s fun!
[via Digg]
This week’s must-have iOS games include the newest addition to the The Sims series with some fantastic new features, guns galore in the latest Time Crisis arcade shooter, and Gameloft’s impressive Prince of Persia game in HD on the iPad.
Check out a few of our favorite games from the past week after the break!
Turn your videos in to cartoons, share you favorite books, movies & TV shows with friends, and make notes with the best interactive notepad in the world; all with apps featured in this week’s must-have iOS apps.
Check out a few of our favorites from the past week after the break!
According to a story on Network World a cease and desist letter was sent by Apple to Newsday about their popular and viral iPad app commercial that I wrote about last week.
The commercial demonstrated one way the iPad could not possibly replace a newspaper — using it as a fly swatter. If you use the iPad to swat flies according to the commercial the iPad screen will shatter. Allegedly Apple wasn’t to happy about that ad.
Network World received the e-mail below, but wasn’t able to confirm its authenticity:
“Newsday got a cease and desist letter threatening all of our apps, if we did not remove the commercial immediately. They took exception to the fact that the (iPad) glass shattered into large jagged pieces … Your instincts are correct.”
The e-mail above leaves me feeling a bit disturbed, since we all know how controlling Apple has been over iTunes App Store content. However, I highly doubt that Apple would resort to these tactics just to get a commercial pulled.
Something doesn’t feel right about this and I’ve contacted Apple for comment. I’ll post their response or refusal to respond here later.
In the mean time you can try to catch a glimpse of this commercial, while you still can, via YouTube. The original video that I linked to last week has been pulled from YouTube.
[via Network World]
Google Voice apps have had a chaotic history appearing in and then disappearing from the iTunes App Store. The “official” excuse was duplicity of iPhone features, but now it looks like Apple is putting all these excuses aside by allowing, Andrea Amann’s, GV Connect app into the App Store.
The Commodore 64 emulator application for iPhone was pulled from the App Store by Apple in September 2009 for leaving its BASIC interpreter intact and accessible via a backdoor hack. This week, the app has returned after some rework by its creator, Manomio — with BASIC included.
At least he was polite, but it’s obviously not customers for whom Steve Jobs has little regard — it’s journalists.
When Long Island University senior Chelsea Kate Isaacs, 22, emailed Jobs Thursday asking why Apple’s PR department wasn’t responding to her questions about about the use of iPads in academic settings, she claimed she wasn’t expecting a response, according to a report at Valleywag.
But she got one, several in fact, and in the end Jobs said, simply, “Please leave us alone.”
Ms. Isaacs should have emailed us about why Apple PR doesn’t respond to questions like hers; there’s a whole staff here with lots of experience in that area.
[Gawker]
We close out another week with three top deals. First up is a new batch of free iPad apps, including “Sproutster,” a spelling game for the Apple tablet. Next is a deal on refurbished iPhone 4 handsets, starting at $149 for a 16GB version from AT&T. Finally, is iStart Spanish, a free app for your iPhone or iPod touch. Use this app to learn “acuerdo,” which translates into English as “deal.”
Along the way, we’ll also check out other iPhone apps, hardware deals for your iPod and other items. As always, details on these and many other bargains can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.
