Apple’s Next iPhone Will Rule at Gaming

apple iphone | Friday January 30 2009 10:17 am | Comments (0) Tags: , , ,

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By Brian X. Chen EmailJanuary 29, 2009 | 4:53:09 PMCategories: Apple, iPhone 

Iphone The next upgrade to Apple’s iPhone will have a strong focus on gaming, analysts and developers agree.

That’s because the gaming market is an increasingly juicy segment of the mobile multimedia space — and it’s one that Apple’s phenomenally successful iPhone is well-positioned to dominate.

"The iPhone and iPod Touch are becoming a major new handheld gaming platform, and if you look at the App Store and look at what’s doing well, that’s reflecting," said Bart Decrem, CEO of Tapulous, developer of the popular Tap Tap Revenge iPhone game. "I would look forward to improvements in the device as a gaming platform both for the phone and iPod Touch."

Apple made clear its plans to seize the gaming market in November 2008 when Apple marketing executive Greg Joswiak called the iPhone and iPod Touch "the future of gameplay," posing a serious threat to (more…)

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Apple iPhone Raining On BlackBerry Storm’s Parade

apple iphone | Wednesday January 28 2009 4:00 pm | Comments (0) Tags: , ,

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The Channel Wire

January 27, 2009

The BlackBerry Storm didn’t bring a sharp enough knife to the table to officially kill the Apple iPhone, according to sales figures featured in a report this week.

Citing anonymous sources, the The Wall Street Journal, indicated that Verizon Wireless managed to sell only about 500,000 of the first-ever touch-screen BlackBerry smart phones in its first month. The Storm became available on Nov. 21.

The BlackBerry Storm, which was seen as BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) Ltd.’s official slap across the now-iconic iPhone’s face, got off to a rocky start, with first-adopters facing technical bugs, software issues, operating system glitches and a host of other hurdles with the 3G device. Many of the problems were fixed with a December software update.

Further fueling the flames of the Storm’s rumored failure, in Verizon’s fourth-quarter earnings call Monday, the company glossed over the Storm, not revealing official sales figures or projections.

While 500,000 is a solid showing for one month, it pales in comparison to the Apple iPhone 3G’s 2.4 million units sold in its first quarter.

What worked against Storm was RIM’s frantic rush to get it into users’ hands. It was originally planned to hit stores in October, but went back to the drawing board to right some software wrongs. The delays forced RIM to hustle to get the device in stores in time for the ever-important Black Friday shopping masses.

Despite hitting the crucial Black Friday deadline, it wasn’t enough for the Storm to edge out the iPhone for touch-screen smart phone dominance, a market that has many device makers jockeying to be king of the mountain.

Shortly before the Storm hit the streets, T-Mobile and HTC joined the battle of the touch-screen titans, with the release of the first-ever open-source Google Android-based smart phone, the T-Mobile G1. Concrete sales figures for the G1 have also not been divulged.

The heated competition, however, didn’t faze the Apple faithful, which helped put Apple and its iPhone higher up in the smart phone food chain. By some industry analyst accounts, the iPhone, which is exclusive to AT&T, has captured 25 percent or more of the overall North American smart phone market.

Together, the Storm and the iPhone 3G represent two of the coolest and most sought after smart phones of 2008 and their allure will likely carry on well into 2009. But there are sure to be more iPhone clones and potential iPhone killers trying to overthrow the king.

Another damning blow against the Storm and other iPhone competitors came last week, when Apple won a U.S. patent for touch-screen controls, arming Steve Jobs and Apple with a new weapon against any touch-screen copycats looking to dethrone the iPhone. The patent office awarded Jobs and Apple U.S. Patent 7,479,949 for a method of "detecting one or more finger contacts with the touch-screen display," specifically multitouch commands like the swiping, twisting, pinching and rotating actions used on iPhones and iPod Touch devices.

And Apple will likely use the patent to its advantage. In Apple’s stellar first-quarter earnings call the day following the patent victory, acting Apple CEO Tim Cook said, "We like competition, as long as they don’t rip off our [intellectual property], and if they do, we’re going to go after anybody that does. We will not stand for having our IP ripped off and we’ll use whatever weapons we have at our disposal [to prevent that from happening]."

Cook made that comment after being asked specifically about Palm and the Palm Pre, a soon-to-be-released touch-screen Palm smart phone that has been christened as the latest iPhone killer. The Palm Pre was one of many marquis smart phones showcased at CES 2009 in Las Vegas earlier this month.

While Cook did not call out Palm specifically, the comments can be seen as a warning for any company, including BlackBerry, looking to rival Apple with a touch-screen device.

Posted by Andrew R Hickey at 12:33 PM

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Travel and Your Apple iPhone

apple iphone | Tuesday January 27 2009 9:18 pm | Comments (0) Tags: ,

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 Do you like to travel? Are you on the road constantly for business? Then the Apple iPhone may be the phone of choice for you. The reason for this is that the iPhone has a GPS navigator built into it. If you are always on the go, a navigator is what you need. Fussing with maps and asking for directions is a thing of the past. Nowadays, tech savvy people have a navigation system in their cars. With an iPhone, you always have your navigator with you, no matter who is driving. Travel and your iPhone; it’s a match made in heaven (sort of).  

Why would you need a navigator on your cell phone? Anytime you need directions, to a new club perhaps, just tell it where you want to go an viola’ directions are there. Even those of us who are no longer part of the club scene will benefit from having a navigation system with us at all times. You can use this to quickly find directions to the field your kid should be playing on. Perhaps the directions given to a friends party were vague. These are all situations where having a navigations system like the one included with the iPhone comes in very handy. Lost in the desert? (yes it happens) Then you really need the navigation system on your iPhone.

In addition to the navigation system there are other reasons to make sure you have your iPhone with you when you travel. Aside from the fact that you will always have a cell phone with you, another advantage is (more…)

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Mophie Juice Pack (Apple iPhone 3G)

apple iphone | Tuesday January 20 2009 12:59 pm | Comments (0) Tags: , ,

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Mighty Mophin’ Power Juice Pack

By Aloysius Low

The one major complaint from many Apple 3G iPhones users is the relatively short battery life that barely lasts you a day from running the apps, games and just your basic phone usage. So if you’re feeling the lack of juice, well, there’s the Mophie Juice Pack, which serves to recharge your battery and double your usage while simultaneously offering some protection like a casing.

Juice Juice Juice

Mophie claims that its juice pack is capable of tacking on another day of usage and our field tests showed that this was true. Making calls, playing with our apps and games normally would have drained our phone in just a day but using the juice pack extended that for about another day. When the battery pack is in use, the phone will rely on the external power source first (the Mophie) before resorting to the phone’s own internal battery.

You’ll also get a good indication of when this is going to happen when your main screen changes from the charging battery indicator to your usual wallpaper. If you prefer your original wallpaper, well you’re so out of luck while the juice pack is attached. Besides looking at the front screen to find out when the Mophie is running low, you can also check the back of the Mophie, where a LED charge indicator is located.

Juice Protection

While it’s not compatible with existing cases, the Mophie by itself serves as a protective casing. You’ll note that the battery pack is shaped to fit the iPhone 3G exactly, and protects the rear from scratches. It also provides a heftier grip to the slippery iPhone but does add some substantial bulk and weight to the phone.

Lastly, the Mophie doesn’t use the standard 30-pin connector that’s used with Apple products – instead, you’ll find a mini-USB port that works with any USB cable, allowing for your iPhone to sync with iTunes while it’s being charged. This is a nifty feature for those always looking to charge their iPhones and face it, mini-USB cables are definitely much cheaper than the Apple cables if you happen to lose your original mini-USB cable.

Juicy Delight

There’s really nothing not to like about the Mophie Juice Pack, though at S$138, it may seem a little costly at first, but like all good things, the cost does factor into the value you get from the Mophie Juice Pack. If you find your iPhone 3G inadequate in the battery life department, well, this may just be the solution to your woes.

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Free iPhone Photo Printing App From HP

apple iphone | Wednesday January 14 2009 10:23 am | Comments (0) Tags: ,

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By Mendelson Tiu | Wednesday | 14/01/2009
HP has released a free application for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch which allows a user to print photos to most HP printers.

According to HP, the HP iPrint Photo is a free application available on the Apple App store that provides wireless printing of 4 x 6-inch photos from an iPhone or iPod touch to most HP inkjet printers connected to a local Wi-Fi network.

Consumer Business Manager for HP’s Imaging and Printing Group Australia, Guyon Collins said, "HP has previously developed applications to enable simple and convenient mobile printing from HP’s iPAQ, desktop PC and notebook ranges. However until now, consumers had no easy way to print these special moments captured on their iPhone or stored on their iPod touch. This is a significant step forward in the history of HP’s mobile printing innovations, which continue to help customers print their moments anywhere, on any device."

This application was showcased at the 2009 Macworld Conference & Expo and the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

HP iPrint Photo is available at no charge from Apple’s App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.appl e.com/au/ipodtouch/appstore/.

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Ballmer: Maybe the iPhone ain’t so bad after all

apple iphone | Tuesday January 13 2009 10:54 am | Comments (0) Tags: ,

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By David Chartier  | Published: January 12, 2009 – 04:18PM CT

Before you could even buy an iPhone in the first half of 2007, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was already panning the device as "the most expensive phone in the world with "no chance" of gaining significant market share. Of course, a year and a half later, we have seen the gadget drop in price by nearly two thirds and rise to become the best-selling phone in the US. Now, in a recent interview with Financial Times about various Microsoft initiatives, Ballmer appears to have backpedaled ever so slightly over his stance on the iPhone.

Amid discussion about Windows 7 and fighting Google, Ballmer conceded that Apple’s iPhone (and RIM’s BlackBerry) have "clear market momentum." Indeed, Windows Mobile has suffered in the face of strong competition from RIM and Apple. The BlackBerry made significant gains this year, and the iPhone OS—in addition to powering the best-selling US phone—now accounts for more mobile web requests than Windows Mobile and BlackBerry combined in the US and over 10 percent of requests worldwide, thanks to the iPod touch.

The rest of the piece covers Ballmer’s comments on the Zune’s performance and the potential for its software to get rolled into a slimming Windows Mobile device lineup. Needless to say, we’re skeptical about the Zune, but we’ll be sure not to write off these efforts completely as "no chance" of getting anywhere. 

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Troubleshooting Your Apple iPhone

iphone troubleshooting | Saturday January 10 2009 12:29 am | Comments (0) Tags: , ,

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Where you can turn to and what can you do if you are having problems with your iPhone. There are many reasons that you might be experiencing problems. Before you can correct what is wrong, you have to know what is causing your problems.  Apple’s website has a lot of information about what you can do to correct your iPhone problems. Listed below are some common issues. Troubleshooting your iPhone is not as difficult as you would think. Let us take a look at some common problems and solutions.

Is your iPhone "frozen" or not working? If so, let’s take a look and see why. Does it need to be recharged? You can charge the iPhone with a high-powered USB port, not on a low powered one. If you are using your PC to charge your iPhone, be sure that your USB port is a high-powered port. If you are using a USB hub, check the power, some are low powered, your keyboard USB port (if you have one) is low powered. Only a high-powered USB port will charge your iPhone.

If you are sure that your iPhone is fully charged, try restarting it. To do this hold the sleep/wake button and wait for a red colored slider to appear. Then slide your finger across this red slider and this will (more…)

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The Apple iPhone – Downloads and Piracy

iphone downloads | Monday January 5 2009 12:29 pm | Comments (0) Tags: ,

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One of the biggest things that customers want they purchase a cell phone is simplicity. People want to make their calls quickly and they need to be able to access their contact lists without a fuss. The Apple iPhone makes this easy. This is why is has become so popular. That popularity has its downfall. There are many programs that can hack into the iPhone and undo the security that Apple has put into it. So what is the link between with the Apple iPhone, downloads and piracy?  

It is amazing that Apple has been able to pack so many features into one small device. The Apple iPhone includes widgets. These are simple but powerful programs that allow you to keep tabs on things like the weather, stocks, news and more. Everything that you could want or need to know is right there, available for you to use whenever you need it.

Apple knew that downloads for their iPhone would be a hot commodity.  Other software manufacturers and programming gurus know this too. They are getting into the downloadable software scene too. Many websites are geared to the iPhone user. To find them all you need to do is (more…)

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A Look At Some Of The Best iPhone Apps Of 2008

iphone apps | Thursday January 1 2009 2:03 pm | Comments (0) Tags: ,

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by Guest Author on December 31, 2008

This guest post was written by Bryan Barletta, lead reviewer at AppVee, a site that offers iPhone app reviews and news. Barletta has picked out some of the App Store’s best applications, and we’ve embedded video reviews for some of them (click the corresponding review link to view a video if it isn’t already embedded). Also be sure to check out our picks of the hottest iPhone apps from back in July when the App Store first launched.

The iPhone and iPod Touch have taken the world by storm. In just a little over six months time we’ve witnessed the doors of the iTunes App Store opening to the 10,000 app marker being crossed. In between that time we’ve see the $999 I’m Rich make several people poor, fart joke apps earning over $25K in one day, and Apple still looking the other way when users mention copy and paste. And with the number of total apps reaching over 13,500 less than a month since the 10,000 mark was passed, that growth is showing no signs of stopping. But some of these stand out much more than others do, so we’ve tried to hone in on the cream of the crop.

Top 10 Apps

Tweetie
An easy to use and full featured Twitter app that is speedy. The app has quite a bit of competition (other popular apps include Twitterfon and Twitterific).
Link: AppVee’s Tweetie Review

Pandora
Browse through the music genome and find new artists that fit your taste. These are automatically recommended by the site’s algorithm, so it acts like a personalized radio that works surprisingly well.
Link: AppVee’s Pandora Review

Simplify Media
Connect to multiple computers and stream their music directly to your iPhone.
Link: AppVee’s Simplify Media Review

RJDJ Album
Let your iPhone and the world around you create unique and original music. The app uses external inputs (like sound) to create a dynamic soundtrack).
Link: AppVee’s RjDj Review

Beejive IM
A multi-client instant messaging app for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Link: AppVee’s Beejive Review

Camerabag
Emulate 5 different camera and film setting directly from your iPhone. This helps spice up the photos you’re taking with the phone (the default application doesn’t offer much in the way of effects.
Link: AppVee’s Camerabag Review

Facebook
An updated version of the Facebook app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, this allows you to chat with friends, post on walls, and use nearly every feature available on the social network’s main website.
Link: AppVee’s Facebook Review

Friendbook
A full featured replacement for the iPhone and iPod Touch contacts app.
Link: AppVee’s Friendbook Review

Vlingo
Voice control nearly every aspect of your iPhone and more – it’s like a more powerful version of the highly hyped (and still-impressive) Google Mobile App.
Link: AppVee’s Vlingo Review

Evernote
Keep track of everything you could possibly want to remember (like notes or photos) whether you’re on the go or at home.
Link: Appvee’s Evernote Review

Top 10 Games

Rolando
An epic platform adventure game for the iPhone and iPod Touch, this is easily one of the most innovate games to hit the platform.
Link: AppVee’s Rolando Review

Fieldrunners
A Tower defense game with SNES-like graphics. The classic gameply is highly addictive.
Link: AppVee’s Fieldrunners Review

Jellycar
A unique puzzle game that asks you to guide your “jelly car” to an endzone. As with most of the other games on this list, this is highly addictive.
Link: AppVee’s Jellycar Review

Scramboni
A multiplayer online word game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Multiplayer games on the iPhone are still rarer than they should be, and being able to play online definitely adds an extra dimension to the gameplay.
Link: AppVee’s Scramboni Review

Dr. Awesome
Save your friends and family from deadly micro viruses in this iPhone and iPod Touch game.
Link: AppVee’s Dr. Awesome Review

Up There
Guide your balloon through various obstacles as you attempt to get the highest score
Link: AppVee’s Up There Review

Flick Fishing
Forget your fishing rod – this uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to allow you to mimic a realistic fishing motion to cast a line. Also check out many of SGN’s games, which feature similar motion detection.
Link: AppVee’s Flick Fishing Review

Hero of Sparta
Control King Argos as you battle the Gods and their minions in this action adventure game.
Link: AppVee’s Hero of Sparta Review

Brothers in Arms
Play through 14 levels on foot or vehicle in this WWII action game.
Link: AppVee’s Brothers in Arms Review

Aurora Feint II
The popular iPhone and iPod Touch puzzle RPG game goes multiplayer.
Link: AppVee’s Aurora Feint II Review

While it’s easy to simply break down the top apps and games that we’ve enjoyed in 2008, it becomes a lot more difficult to find just five apps that took a chance and brought more innovation to the iPhone and iPod Touch. Below are the five apps we feel helped define the future of apps on these devices.

Top 5 Innovations

Ocarina

Link: AppVee’s Ocarina Review

RJDJ Album

Link: AppVee’s RjDj Review

iFun

Link: AppVee’s iFun Review

LogMeIn

Link: AppVee’s LogMeIn Review

Slydial

Link: AppVee’s SlyDial Review

The future of the iPhone and iPod Touch is wide open, to some degree. Depending on what restrictions Apple decides to lift. Developers are already chomping at the bit to release a video recording option as well as the ability for apps to run in the background. While those factors sit solely on the shoulders of Apple as they have been proven possible by the jailbroken community, there are quite a few things that we as consumers should expect out of the apps we’ll see in 2009.

With titles like Rhythm Spirit, a rhythm fighting game based on Japanese folklore, and Myst, a remake of the classic adventure game, making their way over to the iPhone and iPod Touch sometime in 2009 we’ve got some idea of what to look forward to. The real question is: What will be our Ocarina? Our Rolando? What apps are going to challenge the capabilities of this phone and create such a large hype that we find ourselves begging for just one more screenshot or bit of information? We’ll have to wait and see what the App Store has in store for us in 2009 as we count down the remaining hours.

2008 was all about experimenting. A fantastic device emerged, developers went crazy, and we’ve been flooded. Its now time to settle down, dig in and create some revolutionary applications. 2009 is going to be all about quality and depth. We’re going to see richer games that rival the DS and PSP, applications that truly make this device a portable computer, and multi-user apps that really start connecting people. Mobile social gaming is going to be huge and we can’t wait to see what developers have in store for us in the New Year.

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