Plane Battle is a fun new twist of the classic Battleship game – the battle is in the skies! Try to take down all of your opponent’s planes or spaceships before s/he takes down yours.
If you pick this one up, let us know what you think! Trailer and screenshots after the break.
[$0.99 - iTunes link]
Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.
If you’re a frequent traveler and need to know how to get back to the right hotel room at night, this is a very simple, but also very handy tip. Lets set the scene, you check into another hotel on your travels, your given a plastic key card and a small piece of card with your room details printed on it.
The first thing you do when you go out later, is pick up the plastic keycard but leave the card with all the details on in your room. When you return later in the evening, exhausted from the business meeting or intoxicated from the on expenses alcohol splurge, you have forgotten your hotel room number. As it is never printed on the programmable plastic keycards your in a bit of trouble.
Read on after the break for our great solution to this dilemma!
The simple solution is to take a picture of your room number with your iPhone before you go out. When you return later, simply fire up the Photos app and there you have your room details and your all set to get that good nights sleep. No more embarrassing visits to the hotel reception to contend with. Hey I said it was simple but it is also a great tip!
Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to news@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)
TiPb iPhone accessory store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!
Our music comes from the following sources:
Disney has released their newest interactive iPhone and iPad book, Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue – A Magical Adventure. In the story, Tinker Bell is trapped on the mainland and depending on her fairy friends to help her out. The reader can contribute to and control the magic by blowing in the speaker to spread fairy dust.
If you pick this one up, let us know what you, or your child, thinks! Screenshots after the break.
[$3.99 - iTunes link]
Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.
We’ve known for a while now that iPhone 5 won’t be coming out this month, as it has for the last four years, but this fall, when iOS 5 is also scheduled to ship. Whether one delayed the other, or Verizon contracts, component shortages, engineering hours, a deliberate decision to change the launch schedule, or some combination of factors caused the delay, we may never know, but now rumors suggest new Macs are similarly on hold, this time waiting on OS X Lion before they ship.
Steve Jobs has always stressed that Apple is a software company, and has several times quoted Alan Kay’s “People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware”. They make beautiful boxes out of glass and aluminum and stainless steel and plastic, but as recently as WWDC 2011, Jobs called software their “soul”.
iPhone has always been tied to major new releases of iOS (previously iPhone OS), the two launching together with precise regularity. (iPod touch has almost always coincided with an iOS x.1 release, and iPad launched with the unique-to-iPad iOS 3.2, and iPad 2 came with the more modest iOS 4.3).
New Macs, however, were seldom if ever tied to new OS X releases. Users who bought new Macs on or around OS X launches would get a free upgrade offer or a DVD in the box, or something… less than coordinated.
But MacBook Airs with ThunderBolt ports and Sandy Bridge processors might just be on hold for Lion now.
Apple hasn’t always had luck with big, coordinated releases. They — and their servers — struggled under the same-day iPhone 3G, iOS 2, MobileMe, and App Store release back in 2008. But they have kept their mobile releases in a row.
There was little chance we’d see iPhone 5 announced with WWDC as shipping in June with iOS 4.3, upgradable to iOS 5 in the fall, and if rumors of Macs waiting on Lion pan out, could Apple be moving to an even more tightly integrated hardware/software model? Could we see a day where OS X and iOS releases are coordinated so features that bridge both, like iCloud, “just work” as desktop and mobile both come on line?
iCufflinks by Adafruit from adafruit industries on Vimeo.
iCufflinks by Adafruit are a set of incredibly cool set of cufflinks in the likeness of the classic “power” icon — and they softly pulsate, just like your sleeping Mac. Classy, futuristic, slightly geeky — and they won’t stand out too badly with formalware. You can order them online for $128 a pair — a remarkably reasonable fee given how much a decent set of cufflinks will set you back, even without crazy pulsating LEDs. Unfortunately the first batch sold out, but more are expected tomorrow.
Can we have more geek gear that’s both classy and subtle without being annoying and obnoxious? Because this is definitely a step in the right direction.
[via BoingBoing]
A few interesting patent applications from Apple have recently surfaced, showing they have some bold ideas surrounding Find My iPhone, social-matching, and a way to lock the camera so we can’t make bootleg concert recordings and plaster them on YouTube (?!).
Reminder: Apple, like any big company, routinely patents just about anything and everything they dream up, and there’s no way to know when, or if, they’ll use any them in actual, shipping products. Still, it’s interesting to see what they’re working on deep inside the secret Cupertino labs…
Follow on after the break for the roundup!
First off, Apple has applied for a patent describing a much more control-oriented Find My iPhone feature with additional security and deeper system integration. Find My iPhone currently lets users remotely lock their iPhone, wipe their data, locate the iPhone on a map or send a personalized message to the device.
This is all nice, but Apple may decide to up the ante and provide much deeper control for the corporate and enterprise environment and better assistance for recovering a lost iPhone.
A second new patent application reveals that Apple has some ambitious ideas to make the process of finding friends with similar interests a lot easier. Tapping into location data, interests, books and other data stored on the iPhone will help match you up with other iPhone users with similar interests.
Social networks are a well known phenomenon, and various electronic systems to support social networking are known. Growing a social network can mean that a person needs to discover like-minded or compatible people who have similar interests or experiences to him or her. Identifying like-minded people, however, often requires a substantial amount of and time and effort because identifying new persons with common interests for friendships is difficult. For example, when two strangers meet, it may take a long and awkward conversation to discover their common interests or experiences.
Common interests and experiences of two or more users located close to each other can be identified from content, including automatically created usage data of the mobile devices. Usage data of a mobile device can be created based on activities performed on the mobile device (e.g., songs downloaded), a trajectory of the mobile device (e.g., places traveled), or other public data available from the mobile device (e.g., pictures shared).
All of this would be opt-in to help avoid privacy concerns, but the location-based services are quite interesting to say the least. As an example, if you tend to visit a specific coffee shop in your town, your iPhone could match you up with another iPhone user who also frequents that location. The idea is to make it easier to discover like-minded people and help spark up friendships that wouldn’t otherwise be as easy to start.
Lastly, Apple plans to build a system that will determine when users are trying to record or stream live video at concerts and events, and subsequently turn off camera functionality on the device. It works by using infrared sensors that can tell when people in the crowd are recording and sends a signal to the device to disable the camera. Users would still be able to send and receive text messages, calls, data etc.
That… seem a little “Big Brother” to anyone else?
[Patently Apple, MacRumors, The Sun, thanks Steven!]
iOS 5‘s new Music app — that’s right, iPod.app on iPhone is dead, long live Music and Video apps like iPad! — has a nice new info popup feature that makes it much easier to make sure you pick just exactly the track you want to play.
On previous versions of iOS, long names were cut off. That meant, for example, if you wanted to find one of a dozen or more chapters in an audio book, it was a guessing game. (Tap. No, not 9-16. Tap. No, not 20-22. Where’s 25, dagnabit!) Now you just tap and hold and the full information pops up, making it easy to pick the right one.
It works for most fields, track name, artist name, album name, etc. Again, a small addition but a helpful one.
[Thanks A!]
This year’s “back to school” special by Apple is for a $100 gift card instead of an iPod Touch like they’ve done in the past.
For as long as i can remember, Apple has given away a free iPod nano or Touch when you purchase a MacBook for your student. But this year, you get a $100 gift card to the Mac App Store, App Store, iTunes Store, or iBooks instead. Until Sept. 20, if you buy a qualifying computer, you can get 10 percent off the computer and then the gift card.
Is Apple trying to do away with the iPod? With the popularity of the iPhone and iPad, how often do you see people with iPods anymore? An iPod Touch was popular when iPhones were first on the market and only available on AT&T but now that the iPhone is available on AT&T and Verizon and rumors of the new iPhone being available on Sprint’s network is putting the iPod out of business.
News about the iPod and new features for the iPod have dwindled over the past few years. Apple’s new products are killing the product that brought the company back in the early 2000s.
In Apple’s second quarter earnings, the company sold 9.02 million iPods, a 17 percent decrease from the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 4.69 million iPads and 18.65 million iPhones, a 113 percent increase from the year-ago quarter.
Is Apple slowly phasing the iPod with the better iPhone and iPad?
Since Apple is going to introduce a built in Reminders app with iOS 5 it’s a good time to pause and take stock and ask you, the TiPb nation, how you’re handling tasks and todos on your iPhone today? Do you just dump everything into the built in Notes app? Do you use a simple list making and reminder app like Rene’s favorites, SimpleNote and Due? Are you an Evernote nerd like Seth and Chad? Or do you use a full on getting things done app like Appigo Todo or OmniFocus?
Do you sync your tasks between iPhone and desktop? iPhone and the cloud? iPhone and other iOS devices like iPad? If you have an iPad as well, do you use a different system or different apps on it than you do on iPhone?
Do you keep every little thing in your todo list, just the big things, or just things you’re particularly bad about remembers (i.e. don’t want to do?) Do you (or will you) use location-based reminders? Once you’ve set up your perfect task management system, do you find you actually use it?
And no matter what you do now, do you see yourself switching to Apple’s built-in Reminders when it comes out this fall?
Let me know — how do you keep track of tasks on your iPhone?
At WWDC 2011 Apple once again “borrowed” a lot of great ideas from the Jailbreak community and gave them to iOS 5, including lock screen info, notifications, WiFi sync, volume buttons to take pictures, and a lot more. That’s not a bad thing — I even asked them to do exactly that this year. Whether you jailbreak or not, whether you realize it or not, the jailbreak community benefits all iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users — pure and jailbreak alike.
Follow along to find out why.
For years, the common argument against Jailbreak (aside from the DMCA, from which Jailbreak was granted an exception last year) was stability — it could make your iPhone buggier, slower, or crash more. The jailbreak argument is typically functionality — it could let your iPhone do far more than Apple does out of the box. The great news, and the real secret here is, everyone benefits from Jailbreak.
Over the years, several jailbreak applications and tweaks have slowly trickled down the pipe and found themselves becoming a core function of iOS at some point or another. For old school jailbreakers, they’ll remember Installer fondly. Installer just recently made its way back to iOS as well. It truly was the first official App Store. I remember downloading games and programs to my iPhone first gen through installer on iOS 1.x via Installer and AppTap. Then Apple came along with iOS 2.x and the official App Store. Installer even had page dots when you accumulated more than one page of apps. This was an idea that went straight to iOS 2.0. It wasn’t a similar concept, it simply appeared in iOS 2.x with the exact same functionality.
While Apple practices a pretty rigorous app approval process, the jailbreak app stores continues to allow developers to submit applications that Apple would not allow in the official App Store. A lot of would be rejects seem to find their way into iOS as core features later on.
Prime examples of this are jailbreak apps such as MobileNotifier, which looks strikingly like the notification system Apple showed off at WWDC 2011. Coincidentally, Apple recently hired Peter Hajas as an iOS and frameworks employee.
Other developers such as Greg Hughes, the creator of Wifi Sync, have also seen their applications later crop up in iOS. His iteration of Wifi Sync is very simliar to Apple’s newly announced iCloud wireless sync and backup feature that’s slated to appear this Fall in iOS 5. His version of the app was rejected by Apple previously.
Since the release of the first generation iPhone, the mobile industry has come a long way. A huge part of that was due to the fact that the first generation iPhone was not like anything currently on the market. It lit a fire underneath other manufacturers such as Palm and RIM (ok, maybe not RIM so much). We also got Android out of Google which has become one of the hottest smartphone platforms on the market.
The jailbreak community is full of young and talented developers that more often than not, land jobs at these companies or create programs and tweaks that eventually become the heart and soul of each respective platform. Whether Apple gives it to us or not, the jailbreak community always seems to find a way to make it possible. I have yet to see a company produce a device that meets every consumer’s wants and needs. Some may argue that’s why we have choice. While that’s very true, we still crave a mobile OS that will fill our every need. While that may not yet be possible, independent developers strive to innovate and provide unique solutions through other channels. These innovations eventually crop up in official releases which are then built upon even further.
Jailbreak developers have the ability to create individual solutions. Apple has the ability to refine those even further and produce a product that benefits mainstream users in a way that even the most novice user can understand. So while jailbreak may not be for everyone, a lot of the innovation and creativity is already done by the time Apple decides to refine it and slap an “i” in front of it.
Even if iOS 5 has everything you could possibly want in a mobile OS, next year Steve Jobs will walk on stage again and unveil that “next great thing”, and you’ll want it. Odds are, the jailbreakers out there already have it in their hands. We are, in some ways, beta testers. David Ashman, creator of LockInfo, has already stated he’ll be back next year with an even greater version of LockInfo. Independent developers won’t take it lying down. They’ll simply bow and accept the challenge laid in front of them with more excitement and motivation than the last time around.
So whether or not you plan to jailbreak the next iteration of iOS, you can rest assured Steve Jobs and all the folks up at Cupertino already have.
Reportage was WhereCloud’s insanely creative iPhone Twitter app that let users “tune in” to other users’ timeline — like a radio station for tweets. I say was because Twitter’s swerve away from the developer friendliness that helped them build their platform and their rapid acceleration into ownership plays that may — or may not — help them ensure its future has led WhereCloud to stop development.
Martin Dufort, who TiPb interviewed as part of our Developer Spotlight series two weeks ago, explains it was the the culmination of 4 changes by Twitter that led to his company’s decision:
Twitter stopped allowing modifications to the timeline, so ads couldn’t be inserted, and more importantly in Reportages case, their re-ordering to present individual timeline “broadcasts” could be seen as a violation.
Twitter’s switch to OAuth and XAuth took considerable time and resources to implement. WhereCloud went with xAuth for the better user experience. (It doesn’t force users to go to a browser to grant permission, then come back to the app.)
Twitter’s subsequent switch to only allowing direct message (DM) access via OAuth meant WhereCloud then had to consider redoing authentication yet again, because Twitter clients require access to DMs. Twitter’s timeline for the switch was also originally very, very tight. At the same time, Twitter for iPhone (made by Twitter) wouldn’t be subject to the same terms, making it harder to compete.
Twitter’s Director of 3rd Party apps, Ryan Sarver, came straight out and said developers shouldn’t be building their own 3rd party Twitter clients.
Taken together, these are all Good Things for Twitter — they get to control their brand, user experience, and user base, but Bad Things for developers who for years have offered alternatives that arguably helped Twitter grow. It’s a Mixed Bag of Things for users who may get a more consistent set of official clients to use, but will lose out on the creativity and innovation that helped make the now official clients great, and could make the next generation of clients even better.
All of this has led to WhereCloud pulling the plug.
We at WhereCloud, innovated with our own Twitter Radio Tuner: @reportage. To this day, this iOS application is still unique and a very good complement to other timeline-based clients. This last requirement to move from xAuth to oAuth will force us to update @reportage again but at what cost given the iceberg will surely hit again.
You win Twitter, your strategy of squeezing 3rd party developers is working with us. We will not update @reportage to support oAuth. We have no choice but to remove it from sale from the AppStore on June 25th.
Stranger still, iOS 5 will include built-in Twitter integration and authentication, so presumably next fall Twitter developers will no longer need to use OAuth on iOS but the new iOS Twitter auth system. Does that mean they’ll have to change from xAuth to OAuth now, then to the iOS auth before submitting iOS 5 binaries in 3 months or so? Does it mean cross-platform client makers will have seamless auth in iOS but have ugly OAuth on Android?
And which other clients might call it quits while we’re waiting to find out?
If you were one of our many readers waiting for Apple’s annual educational promotion to kick off so you could grab a new MacBook or iMac and get a free iPod touch along with it, you’re in for some disappointment. Instead of a free iPod touch like last year, this year Apple is offering a $100 iTunes gift certificate to cap off your educational purchase.
Sure, that means you can give it right back to Apple when you buy things from the iOS App Store, Mac App Store, iTunes Music (and media) Store, and iBookstore, and get some great stuff to put on your shiny new machine, but we can’t help but be a little sad that iPod touch isn’t getting in on the big promo this year.
Any of you taking advantage of the Back to School event anyway?
Passage is a short, fantastically unique game by computer programmer and game designer, Jason Rohrer. The 8-bit game, which is a piece of art comparable to that of paintings or literature, has been around for several years. Originally a free download for PC, the game was ported to iOS in 2008 after receiving widespread, critical acclaim.
The game is basically a representation of life and love, and a poignant reminder of the passing of time. Your character is a boy, whose entire lifetime plays out in your hands. Passage lasts only 5 minutes; there are no elements of danger in the game, no enemies whom present a risk to your life, there is simply the inevitability of death, and you as the player cannot change that. This, however, is what makes this particular game so interesting. There are several different things to do in the game, several different choices to make, and you must decide what to do with your five minutes of gameplay.
Gameplay
When the game begins, the first thing you’ll notice is the display. The game is presented through a letterbox-esque window, each end of which is blurred, so that visibility is very minimal. The game is set in a maze which continues on and on infinitely, increasing in complexity as the character travels south, and with various different scenes and areas to explore — which look splendid in their 8-bit, pixelated form — as the character travels east. This maze can be navigated through the movement of your character using the four-way directional buttons located underneath the ‘letterbox’ display.
The second thing you’ll notice is that you’re not alone, there is another character present when you begin the game. When you approach this other character, a red love heart encompasses the two of you and from that point on this character becomes your spouse and accompanies you on your journey through life. However, by joining in matrimony with this character, you are no longer as agile, and navigating the maze below becomes much more difficult; you can no longer pass through the same, small gaps as before since now you are marred by the presence of your new spouse by your side.
You do not have to ‘marry’ this character, however, and can, instead, decide to navigate the maze alone, collecting treasure chests along the way which give you points. These points contribute to your overall score, which is also added to with each and every step that you take to the east (the rate of points is doubled if you are traveling with your spouse by your side). Here is the dilemma: not every treasure chest contains points, and the amount of points that you will be able to gather from treasure chests in one sitting of the game is almost directly proportional to the amount of points you will receive for traveling as far east as possible in the game, with your spouse. This means that the amount of points that you will receive is not particularly influenced by your decision to marry the other character or not.
So what do you do? Do you go on a treasure hunt, alone, knowing that in five minutes, death will overcome you and all of those points will become irrelevant? Or do you marry the other character and seek treasure with her, aware that your attempts will be futile, often resulting in you being positioned mere steps away from a treasure chest, but being unable to open it on account of your spouse’s presence? You could always ignore the other character and explore this changing, infinite world alone, right? Or should you alternatively marry the character, and explore the world together, gaining double the amount of points that you would receive if you did so alone?
Graphics
As already mentioned, the game features very pixelated graphics, but that’s what makes it so beautifully simple. It’s reminiscent of the days of the Nintendo Entertainment System, evoking a sense of nostalgia and fondness for those simpler days when Super Mario ruled the world. But regardless of this wealth of pixelation, the graphics are beautifully detailed. The progression of time in the game is portrayed through the progressively aging appearance of your character, who evolves from a young, blonde boy to an elderly, balding gentleman, all of which is crystal clear from the wonderfully elementary graphics. The setting of the game is beautiful, providing an everlasting myriad of interest which is again complimented by Rohrer’s use of 8-bit graphics.
Conclusion
Passage is a beautiful game; as in life, there are many choices, but what Rohrer seems to be trying to convey is the sense of inevitability which is present in all of our lives, and that no matter what we do, we will all unfortunately perish, and so it is our own responsibility to make our ‘five minutes’ count, and to make the best of them. Granted, there isn’t a lot to do in the game in terms of gameplay, but it is ultimately a metaphor of life, and one that is fascinating and enjoyable to play over and over again. All of this, combined with it’s 59p (99¢) price tag renders Passage a worthwhile experience for any iPhone owner!
For any additional information, send me a tweet @Psychology.
If you haven’t already heard, Apple is now offering 16GB and 32GB unlocked iPhone 4 models through the Apple Store, but is an unlocked iPhone the device for you? First of all, “unlocked” doesn’t mean “jailbroken,” it only means the phone doesn’t come with a micro-SIM card married to a specific carrier, and that you don’t need a two-year contract to buy one. An unlocked device still requires you to receive software updates and purchase apps through Apple via iTunes. So if you’re looking for a jailbroken phone, you’re already barking up the wrong tree.
Unlocked iPhones really only benefit frequent international travelers by allowing them to avoid steep roaming charges. The new unlocked Apple devices don’t work on Verizon or Sprint at all, and are pretty much useless on T-Mobile since they don’t support its 3G download speeds. Meaning, you’re pretty much stuck with AT&T anyway, and with 16GB model selling for $649, and the 32GB model selling for $749, you’re better off buying the locked iPhone with two-year contract. According to Forbes, “Consumers would spend over $2,200 a year to use an unlocked 16-gigabyte iPhone 4 on AT&T’s cheapest wireless plan, as opposed to paying $1,750 for the same device on a contracted plan.”
Why does it benefit international travel? The same reason it’s limited in the U.S., the micro-SIM card. Buying a card with prepaid minutes from a local carrier in another country is a lot cheaper than paying international roaming charges. So if you travel a lot, then the unlocked iPhone might be a good investment, unlike a person who rarely or never leaves the country.
So why even sell the unlocked iPhone in the U.S.? One reason is international travelers are a huge market, and Apple wants to cash in on them. Another theory is that AT&T is trying to butter up the FCC for its T-Mobile merger, but that would mean AT&T was the one blocking unlocked iPhone sales in the U.S. in the first place. This is another reason why an unlocked iPhone may not be a good investment. If the AT&T/T-Mobile sale is approved, that would leave only on GSM carrier in the U.S. making the device really useless.
If you’re an international traveler who happens to be an Apple fan, or a person who doesn’t like commitment, and doesn’t mind paying a little extra cash for the freedom of choice (even though it isn’t much of a choice) then the unlocked iPhone model is probably a good fit for you.
Even with the introduction of Angry Birds Rio, the original Angry Birds continues to receive updates. Today’s update brings 15 new levels and allows unlimited use of the Mighty Eagle after a single purchase.
If you pick this one up, let us know what you think!
[$0.99 for iPhone - iTunes link] [$4.99 for iPad - iTunes link]
Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.
Every day, TiPb gets flooded with announcements for new and updated iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games. So every day we pick just a few of the most interesting, the most notable, and simply the most awesome to share with you!
Snowboard Hero: The ultimate snowboard experience with wicked tricks, insane air time, and super fast downhill speed. Now with 2 new characters, 2 new tracks, and 24 new events! [$4.99 - iTunes link]
Smurfs’ Village: Now you can customize your Smurfs with 13 new Smurfy hats from Tailor Smurf! [Free - iTunes link]
Due: Update brings new tweeks and fixes such as the ability to edit overdo reminders. [$4.99 - iTunes link]
Cat Physics: What are cats up to at dawn, when nobody’s around? Update brings 10 new levels, retina display support, and is now a universal app for iPhone and iPad! [$0.99 - iTunes link]
Shazam Encore: Now with LyricPlay: see synced lyrics as the music plays! [$5.99 - iTunes link]
Any other big apps or game releases or updates today? If you pick any of these up, let us know what you think!
Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.
Elevated Math is an iPad app that teaches you math. It has over 150 math lessons in topics such as numbers, geometry, algebra, probability, SAT and more. There are also career-oriented videos featuring professionals who use math in their jobs.
I’ve spent a little time with Elevated Math, and, as math teacher, I am rather impressed. Kids and adults alike can learn math with this app. Elevated Math Press also includes additional materials, like teacher notes and student study sheets, on their website for free.
If you pick this on up, let us know what you think! Screenshots after the break!
[Free, with in-app purchases - iTunes link]
Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.
TechCrunch has uncovered that Facebook is looking to launch an HTML5 based app store under the name of Project Spartan. The app store will offer games and news apps that run inside Safari, or as Web Clips on the home screen. Over 80 outside developers are currently working with Facebook on apps for the platform.
This comes hot on the heels of yesterday’s news that Facebook would soon be releasing a photo sharing application for iOS devices.
Currently most Facebook apps on the web are based around Flash; this new project could purely be aimed at making them available to the huge iOS market. Obviously Facebook would like to make some money from the arrangement and this appears to be the focus. Facebook would become the distribution channel in this case and not the App Store.
What do you think? Would you be happy to pay for apps from Facebook that would only be usable in the mobile Safari browser? Let us know in the comments!
iPad 2 mockups and cases were floating around CES 2011 and the internet long before Apple announced the device, and now China has fined the people responsible for leaking the information, and sentenced them to over a year in prison.
The court announced the decision Tuesday in statements on its official account at Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblogging service in China. It said that Xiao Chengsong, general manager of Shenzhen MacTop Electronics Co., had offered 20,000 yuan, or about $3,000, plus discounts on MacTop products to a former Hon Hai employee named Hou Pengna, for information about the iPad 2. The court said Ms. Hou then paid Lin Kecheng, a Hon Hai research-and-development employee, to get digital images of the device’s back cover from last September, six months before the iPad 2 was publicly announced.
The court said Mr. Xiao was sentenced to 18 months in prison, and fined 150,000 yuan. Mr. Lin was sentenced to 14 months and fined 100,000 yuan, and Ms. Hou was sentenced to a year in prison and fined 30,000 yuan.
Since the factories making the devices and near the factories making the accessories, leaks have always occurred. In the highly competitive accessory market, having a case or other product ready when Apple launches a previously secret new device gives a huge first mover advantage. (Which is why Apple lately has a case of their own, like bumpers or SmartCovers, ready to go at launch.)
Video of TiPb’s hands on with an iPad 2 dummy, after the break.
As we reported earlier this week, this year’s annual Apple Back To School sale will net you $100 to spend at the Mac App Store — which means $100 on your iTunes account, which could be used to buy music, iOS apps, rent TV shows, iBooks or just about anything else.
Unfortunately, unlike years previous you won’t score an iPod Touch. There’s something nicer about getting hardware, but free is free. I can see this being especially useful for the lucky some who have their textbooks available either as standalone apps or as iBooks. One less enormous thing to lug around all the time.
Google has just issed an update for Google Sync on iOS — their service for keeping your mail, calendar and contacts synced between Google and your iOS device. Here’s what they added:
If you don’t know how to sync your accounts between Google and iOS, here’s a handy guide.
TechCrunch recently got delivered an enormous folder of confidential details about Facebook’s plans for iOS. While they’re slowly revealing bits and pieces, what they’ve said so far is intriguing, and if they happen could substantially change the iOS environment.
Firstly, Facebook is planning a photo sharing app — hardly surprising considering they’re the largest photo host in the world. This app would allow you to take photos, attach them to events you checked in for, tag friends and more. TechCrunch describes it as “a combination of Instagram, Color, Path, and even Path’s new side project, With.”
The other piece of news is “Project Spartan”, and HTML5 based iOS app store that Facebook has been kicking around. That’s right, a web app store, from the people who filled your news feed with Mafia Wars and Farmville. Running the project out of Safari would give Facebook and the developers far more control than they’d see through the App Store.
The process of discovering iOS apps is currently pretty broken. You can nose through the iTunes store, but that’s slow and poorly designed. You can rely on app reviews, but they’re inherently limited. Sites like AppShopper do a great job of scraping content from iTunes and making it easier to dig through, but doesn’t help you discover new ones. Yahoo! has decided to capitalize on this market opening with a new search engine designed solely for apps. On your computer you can just head to Yahoo! Apps, or from your iOS device you can use the Yahoo! AppSpot app.
From the computer edition, you can browse and search through apps, reviews and screenshots, and when you find an app you like, you can SMS the link to your phone or scan a QR code. The app version will even search through the apps your already have, and personalize recommendations for you.
With hundreds of thousands of apps available, searching through them can be a drag — hopefully Yahoo’s entry into the app search market will help make it a little easier.
[via SearchEngineLand]