All Entries Tagged With: "Apple"

New iPod Touch faster than original

The second-generation iPod touch is substantially faster than the first, to the point of affecting app design, a game developer notes. Handheld Games observes that in writing TouchSports Tennis, it was forced to reduce polygonal detail on players to 800 in zoomed-out views, and 1,000 in close-ups. This is because the first-gen Touch “chokes” when displaying the constant 1,500 polygons possible for each player with the second-gen model, says Handheld CEO Thomas Fessler.
The main processor on the second-gen Touch is said to be have been boosted from 412MHz to 532MHz, which additionally improves loading times. This also makes the player Apple’s fastest handheld, as all others are limited to the 412MHz level. It is thought though that CPU speed is not the only factor contributing to performance, as the iPhone 3G rates faster than the original iPhone, which is in turn faster than the first-gen Touch. This could be related to graphics processing tweaks, but Apple has not published detailed specifications.

Spore for iPhone due Sunday 9-7-08

The iPhone version of Spore is due on Sunday, says Electronic Arts Mobile. Called Spore Origins iPhone, the game will not be a port of the computer or clickwheel iPod versions of Spore, but a reworked title meant to take advantage of the iPhone’s graphics, multi-touch interface and accelerometer. It will arrive on the same day the game officially launches on the Mac and PC. EA Producer Mike Pagano tells MacNN his team spent months working with iPhone SDK, and was “surprised at its capabilities.”

Unlike the Mac and PC versions — which begin with microorganisms that evolve into a modern civilization — the iPhone game is confined to the cellular phase, set in an ancient tidepool. The objective instead becomes staying on top of the food chain, surviving 35 levels of play. An initial port of Spore was among the first games demonstrated on the iPhone SDK back in March. It was created in about two weeks (see video), but since that time, Pagano says EA developers discovered the iPhone SDK could do “a ton of stuff” they had not expected. Programmers were able to use the iPhone’s hardware acceleration to create levels of parallax, image meshes and 3D graphics that we previously unavailable on mobile devices.

Spore Origins is said to make extensive use of multi-touch, notably in the Creature Editor, where people rely on finger gestures to add eyeballs, fins, scales and other body parts. Once the game begins, the iPhone’s accelerometer controls the creature as it fights to stay alive and/or evolve. Players must tilt, twist and rotate the device to slip across the tidepool. Pagano says the iPhone version was designed for intermittent play — users can pause the game and resume play in a spare moment. The game likewise has separate Evolution and Survival modes, with various backgrounds including underwater caverns.

“It’s intentionally a different experience,” says Pagano, “it should provide three to five hours of gameplay depending on skill.”

A disappointment for iPhone users may be the inability to download creatures or play online against others. But Pagano says that the game does allow users to import textures or images — including photos of their own faces — when designing creatures. Snapshots can also be e-mailed or exported to share with friends on MySpace, and other social networking sites.

The success of games like Sega’s Super Monkey Ball have shown the iPhone’s potential as a gaming platform, Pagano adds, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. He says the device is “a totally viable platform,” and programmers are just beginning to exploit its features. He compares the iPhone to the Sony PlayStation 1, which took time to catch on as developers moved away from cartridge-based games to CD-ROMs.

EA Mobile says it has nine other game titles in development for the iPhone and iPod touch: Yahtzee Adventures, EA Mini Golf, Lemonade Tycoon, Mahjong, Monopoly: Here & Now The World Edition, Sim City, Tiger Woods 09, Need for Speed Undercover, and The Sims 3.

Spore is already available for clickwheel iPods for $5 at the iTunes Store. Spore Origins for the iPhone and iPod Touch is expected to cost $10.

iLounge Review of Movie Apps for iPhone

With the releases of Apple’s Dashboard and Yahoo!’s Konfabulator/Widgets programs, Macs and PCs gained the ability to run miniature applications called “widgets” that could quickly check the Internet for weather, flight information, stock prices and more. Notably, Apple developed a Movies widget for Mac OS X Leopard, capable of displaying movie and theater details, quick links to trailers and summary text, and even offering the ability to buy tickets directly from the widget. Though the iPhone received custom versions of some of the best Apple-developed widgets, it somehow never wound up with an official “Movies” program.

Where To: iPhone Application Review

Description:
One of the best features of the iPhone is that it’s able to determine your current location. But missing is something that’s become a staple of most GPS systems: a quick way to find points of interest around you. Where To provides that in a slick, intuitive user experience.

Find food, places to shop, fun things to do and much more with just a few taps. Then quickly get driving directions to your destination through a familiar Maps user interface.

Not sure what you want for dinner tonight? Tap “Surprise Me!” to make the choice. Take a chance and find something new and exciting!

Price: $2.99

Review:

Accu Fuel: iPhone Application Video Review from iPhoneAppReview.com

Details:
AccuFuel Fuel Efficiency Tracker is a powerful tool that makes monitoring your vehicle’s fuel efficiency simple and fun. Is your SUV guzzling gasoline? Is your hybrid saving you money? With AccuFuel, you’ll instantly see how your driving habits affect your fuel efficiency.

Cost:
$0.99

Video Review:

Koi Pond: iPhone Video Review from iPhone App Review

Description:

The iPhone lends itself to be the home of many peculiar apps. It has a lot of really great functionality that would make it perfect for some form of virtual pet or even just a nice ambient environment. Koi Pond has taken a little bit from each of those ideas and has actually made a virtual fish pond for your iPhone.

This app is pretty unique, as it’s just something that you watch. Your interaction is limited to changing the water color, amount of fish, lily pads in the pond, the different animal sounds you hear, and switching it from day to night. You can shake the iPhone and feed the fish, tap the pond to scare the fish, or leave your finger in and watch them eventually swim up to you.

That’s all this app does. There isn’t anything more to it. The sounds are pretty interesting, but the chances of this being something you want to fall asleep while listening to are slim to none. Unless of course your soothing sounds of the rain forest tape broke and you can’t get to sleep without it.

It’s a great concept and it really does look cool. But the fact that Koi Pond actually costs and that you really don’t do much besides watch the fish, it’s hard to justify making the purchase. While Koi Pond does seem to be one of the more popular paid apps at the time of this review, we’re going to have to recommend that you keep that dollar in your virtual pocket for the time being.

Cost: $0.99

Video Review:

Fotomatic iPhoneAppReview Video Review

Description:

Fotomatic puts your favorite Facebook, Flickr, and Picasa photo albums in the palm of your hand with animated, captivating slideshows that are fun to watch and cool to show off! Simply enter or search for the names of online photo albums hosted on Facebook, Flickr, and Picasa, and they’ll be automatically transferred to your iPhone (or iPod touch).

From your iPhone, you can browse your photos or watch them within uniquely animated slideshow themes. View them mounted in a virtual photo book, zooming past you, part of a mural, and many more! Fotomatic also features a unique “Add Fun Album” feature, where you can instantly access public photo albums, ranging from landmarks, sports, and shoes to cars, skateboarding, and NASA!

Fotomatic is designed to meet all your mobile photo needs and combines multiple photo apps into one. Enjoy your photos on the go in a whole new way! More screenshots coming soon.

Features:

• A multitude of animated slideshow playback themes
• Seamless Facebook, Flickr, and Picasa downloads
• “Add Fun Album” offers instant access to countless public photo albums
• Intuitive multi-touch interface to browse, navigate, and manage photo albums
• Automatic updating of previously downloaded albums on startup
• Downloads photos while you view other albums

Cost: $4.99

Video Review:

Apple releases an updated iPhone SDK

Apple has just released a new version of the iPhone SDK Beta.

Here are the details as released by Apple:

The second beta version of the iPhone SDK is now available and includes Interface Builder, a powerful tool that allows you to visually build your interface and makes creating a UI as simple as drag and drop.
We’ve also added new sample code and updated documentation to the rich set of resources available to you in the iPhone Dev Center.

Log in to the iPhone Dev Center today and download the new version of the iPhone SDK.

John C. Dvorak is my Hero

On a site like iPhoneAppReview you may not understand the title of this post.  But let me explain, in one short article John Dvorak can bring more attention to a product and him self than a thousand press releases.

a recent article as an example
He likes to beat the war drum and gets the Apple faithful worked up, scratch a little of the chrome on the shinny Apple logo.  I think it’s great, because I get his schtick.  He does not pick his topics based on personal beliefs but on what is going to get a rise out of the community that he is attacking.  The easiest targets are Apple fans, most Apple faithful read his articles or headlines and froth at the mouth.  They discuss the idiot John Dvorak, they email his articles they go to his web site, they view his web ads, they watch him on TV, they make him money so that next month he can do the same thing again.

Microsoft Office on the iPhone

Microsoft is said to be leveraging the skills it has learned from it’s Mac Business Unit to look at creating a mobile version of MS Office for the iPhone. Microsoft will leverage it’s expertise in Active Sync technologies to create business applications that are sure to appeal to the corporate units who are looking to bring the iPhone in house.

This looks to be shaping up as an explosion of applications and development as every company wants a piece of the iPhone marketplace. 10 million phones may be an easily attainable sales figure if this is picked up on the corporate level as it looks like it is shaping up to do. I predict by this time next year that Apple will be on level playing ground with Rim as far as phones in the marketplace. I believe the adoption will be swift, and snowball as corporations adopt, developers create compelling apps, and other corporations adopt so as not to be left behind.