iphone posts

I've enjoyed reviewing some of the clever magic tricks that are getting developed for the iPhone over the last year, and I want to be sure to point out Magic Card which is clever and will likely fool the uninitiated.

Here's what the spectator sees: a person cuts the deck to select a card, which is kept face down. You use your iPhone to take a picture of the card, either alone on the table, or as I prefer at the top of the stack. The spectator sees you select the camera icon and take the picture. To be sure the picture wasn't taken in advance the spectator can put something in the picture like a ring or tableware next to the card to prove it.

You display the picture you have just taken, and shake the iPhone a bit. In a moment, the face down image of the card changes to a face up picture. When the card is turned over, it matches.

The trick can be repeated, and another card will show up. To the experienced, it may be obvious how it works. To people I tried it out on, it was a 'gee-whiz' moment. If you've done a bit of magic before, you can use alternate methods to get the card selected that may be even more mysterious.

I think this is a nifty effect to do at a party or at a bar. Of course you'll need a deck of cards, but no self-respecting conjuror would be without one.

Magic Card is on sale at the app store for US$2.99. Early versions of the app were reported to have some bugs, but I found this release to be rock solid. I think these tricks will have a place on the iPad as well, and look forward to seeing versions in higher resolution.

At long last, Opera Mini for iPhone has been submitted to the App Store. It was almost 2 years ago that Opera Software CEO Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner told the New York Times that Apple was not going to admit the browser to the App Store, a claim which was later refuted.

Last February, Opera Software officially announced that Opera Mini will be made available for the iPhone, and offered a sneak peak at Mobile World Congress 2010 (MWC) in Barcelona.

Today, a preview video has been released (above) that shows off some of Opera Mini's impressive features, namely tab management and speed. Opera Mini makes use of server-side rendering, significantly compressing data before it reaches the phone, resulting in speedy browsing and less data usage. At the end of the video, you'll see an impressive head-to-head speed test between Opera and Safari running on identical iPhones over EDGE.

I'm looking forward to giving this browser a try. The tab management looks well done. If you're also eager to use it, watch the official submission countdown (or count up, actually). While you're there, place your guess as to when it will be approved. Whoever comes the closest will win a new iPhone.

[Via First & 20]

If you don't already know about Project Gutenberg, you should. The site has over 30,000 free ebooks, most of them classics whose copyrights have lapsed. The site includes big-name titles from big-name authors, representing everyone from Dante Alighieri to H.G. Wells. The site's free digital ebooks saved me untold hundreds of dollars while I was doing undergrad work for my English degree.

9to5Mac points out that all of those ebooks should be compatible with Apple's forthcoming iBooks app for the iPad. iBooks will be using the ePub format, and Apple itself has said "you can add free ePub titles to iTunes and sync them to the iBooks app on your iPad." ePub is one of many formats available for Project Gutenberg's ebooks; therefore, it stands to reason that those ebooks should all work in the iBooks app.

However, even if Project Gutenberg's ebooks don't work in iBooks, whether for technical reasons such as formatting or more sinister reasons such as content providers' demands, it won't matter. Project Gutenberg's ebooks are already available on the iPhone and iPod touch through multiple channels -- the Stanza app, and through Project Gutenberg's own site via MobileSafari -- and the iPad will be able to access Project Gutenberg's library in the same way. Reading those ebooks will undoubtedly be a better experience on the iPad's larger screen, whether it's through iBooks, Stanza, Safari, or some other means.

Apple isn't advertising the iPad as coming with 30,000 free books, but thanks to Project Gutenberg, without spending a penny more than the cost of the iPad itself, you'll be able to carry an entire library of classics around in a device that weighs less than most hardcover novels.
[Via Cult of Mac]

An updated version of the the preferred game for those who want to create cities and watch them prosper or founder is coming to the iPhone this summer.

SimCity Deluxe from EA Mobile will have a user interface that improves on the current Sim City offering, with enhancements that make it look a bit more SimCity 4 on the PC. SimCity has been popular on the iPhone since it was released in 2008

The game includes different seasons (with appropriate disasters, of course) and 7 starter cities just waiting for you to run them into the ground.

The new version will sport improved frame rates, and the ability to modify terrain with a touch and swipe of your finger.

These type of games go way back. I remember playing Santa Paravia which was a similar, but considerably more primitive economic simulation, way back when it was on the TRS-80. Ah, memories.

The new SimCity Deluxe will work on the iPhone and iPod touch, and I reckon that you can count on an iPad version as well.

[via Slide to Play]

Ngmoco's We Rule is now available for download worldwide in the App Store -- it's the first ground-up game developed for their big freemium experiment, in which they give away a game and then support it with periodic updates, bringing in revenue with in-app purchases driven by social interaction and game design.

I got to play the game at GDC a few weeks ago, and if you've ever played Facebook's Farmville, you'll find most of it very familiar -- you can plant crops, build a town, and earn money both by waiting in real time for investments to pay off, and trading/giving items among friends. Early App Store ratings are pretty good, and while the app doesn't seem to be charting yet, Ngmoco's Neil Young made it clear at GDC that this is a slow burn model -- they're not worried so much about charts as building up average daily users.

Unfortunately, it seems the app suffered from some early bugs -- the game requires a 'net connection to run (like Farmville, it's very server oriented), and many users were having trouble connecting. Young wrote a blog post himself about the issues the other day; he says that it's primarily a server problem, and that the teams are working as quickly as they can to fix issues. Not unexpected -- Ngmoco's model calls for an "MVP" ("Minimum Viable Product") to be released on the App Store, so again, they're more interested in how the app does long term, not in the first few days.

Other than the hiccups (which did result in a few bad App Store reviews and ratings), We Rule appears to be taking off carefully. We'll have to wait and see if the Farmville-style click-and-wait gameplay is enough to bring in those average daily users that Ngmoco is craving from the App Store.

9to5Mac reports that Apple has changed the requirements for buying an off-contract iPhone in the USA. US buyers have been able to purchase off-contract iPhones at "list price" for quite some time, but they still had to present proof of an AT&T plan at the time of purchase. That requirement has been removed.

For twenty brief, shining minutes, this sounded like the iPhone was being offered unlocked by Apple, which would have been truly huge news -- if you wanted to use the iPhone on another GSM carrier (meaning T-Mobile, in the States), you could have done it without jumping through any extra hoops. According to both 9to5Mac and Engadget, however, it appears those initial reports were incorrect: the iPhone is still locked to AT&T, though according to one source (supposedly an Apple retail employee), "it takes like 2 minutes to unlock them."

iPhones have been available unlocked in other countries for some time now, but the US is definitely the iPhone's biggest market. Having the iPhone available for sale unlocked, officially, via Apple, would have been a huge deal. But that day, unfortunately, doesn't seem to have arrived quite yet.

[Via Engadget]

There's nothing offensive about Holopic. It's a rather ingenious app that (according to the developer) uses just a couple of pictures to create a sort of lenticular lens pseudo-3D effect. That is, when you tilt the image you can see other angles in the image, like 3D, but it isn't true 3D. Unfortunately the developer spent a bunch of money getting attractive models into bikinis and then into the app right before Apple put the kibosh on nearly every app with so much as a bare ankle exposed (let alone cleavage). The fact that the app was rejected doesn't really surprise me, given Apple's new stance, but you could tell months of planning had been thrown off track by the decision. The developer was less than pleased about the situation.

Apologies for the fuzzy video, the Kodak Zi8 has no macro capability.

Here's a nifty little iPhone stand for you. MoviePeg is basically just a piece of plastic with a notch cut into it that slides over an iPhone. Its design makes it the simplest iPhone stand I've ever seen. But as Apple has proven, simplicity works. I used to think that I would never have a need for an iPhone stand, but then I started using recipe apps and I can tell you the stands come in handy in the kitchen. MoviePeg is especially handy because its solid body lacks ridges and is a snap to wipe flour or egg batter from.

MoviePeg works in landscape of horizontal mode and comes in six colors. At £5 (about $7.50US), if you need a durable iPhone stand, MoviePeg is a no-brainer.

[via Wired]

Note: The medical opinions expressed in this post are anecdotal in nature and represent the non-professional experiences of one blogger. It's true that some people have had success with trigger point therapy. However, it is our recommendation that Ms. Levitz and any person suffering with carpal tunnel or a repetitive stress injury should follow the advice of his/her physician or other certified medical professional.

File this under "what did you expect?" Annie Levitz, a sixteen year old from Mundelein, IL has been sending 4,000 text messages a month. Yes, FOUR THOUSAND. She began to feel tingling, pain and numbness in her hands and went to her doctor who diagnosed her the the RSI injury, carpal tunnel syndrome. She's had cortisone injections and will need surgery. But Annie thinks there's another solution -- switching to an iPhone. "I do think that since it's touch it won't be as rough on my hands," she said.

Annie, I could make fun of your situation, but I'm not going to because neuropathic pain sucks. Matter of fact, maybe I can help a bunch of our readers out who are in similar situations.

Annie: you especially, and most likely your doctor, are wrong about the solutions to your problem. "Carpal tunnel syndrome" is more often than not a description of the symptoms than a diagnosis of the actual problem. The cure is not an iPhone, cortisone injections, or God forbid, surgery. It's trigger point therapy. How do I know? Because for two years I had crippling back pain. It was so bad I couldn't walk without excruciating pain. I went to the best doctors and physical therapists who did little to relieve my symptoms. Most doctors said they couldn't pinpoint what was wrong but "knew" I needed injections or surgery to fix it. By chance I read about trigger points online and ordered a book about them. It was the best purchase I've made in my entire life. In less than half an hour, I ended my excruciating back pain -- pain I lived with for two years! -- on my own with a tennis ball.

Since then I have been diagnosed with carpel tunnel, plantar fasciitis and a bad knee. I have successfully treated all -- without doctors -- using trigger point therapy. Usually it only takes two days of about 10 to 20 minutes of self-applied trigger point therapy to take care of these "medical conditions."

Unless you don't listen to a whole lot of music, chances are pretty good that your iTunes music library is larger than what will fit on your iPhone. As an example, my music library is over 39 GB, but my iPhone 3G only has a 16 GB capacity -- and I have to fit apps, pictures, videos, and data into that small space, too.

One way of solving this dilemma is by using iTunes's powerful smart playlists to filter your library into a size that's a little more iPhone-friendly. The following smart playlists are examples from my own setup, but the smart playlist system is flexible enough that you can do almost anything with it to filter your songs. Naturally, these tips will work just as well for any of Apple's smaller capacity players, like iPod nanos or lower-capacity iPod touches and iPads; I've focused on the iPhone only because that's what I own.

I've rated almost every song in my library, and those with 4 or 5 stars end up in a playlist called "Top Rated," or in the language of smart playlists, "Rating is greater than three stars." This represents music that I want to listen to more often, and it ensures that songs I don't like don't end up playing when I shuffle songs in iTunes. It also guarantees that only music I actually want to listen to makes it onto my iPhone.

Want to get a new iPad but a little short on cash? Trade in a bunch of your old CDs or DVDs to a company called iPodMeister and your problems are solved. Sound too good to be true? It's not, reports the New York Times. iPodMeister was founded by a group of musicians and students who realized that though CDs are virtually worthless in the US, they often fetch higher prices abroad. Their business model is to collect your discarded CDs or DVDs, giving you an iPod, iPhone, or iPad in return, and sell your CDs and DVDs for a profit in other countries. A fringe benefit of this is that your old CDs and DVDs actually get used for something instead of just going into a landfill.

The cool cats at iPodMeister do have strict rules regarding what CDs and DVDs are acceptable, but note that if you bought your CDs in a record store, you're probably good to go. They do require both the original jewel case (remember those?) and the original album artwork, however. If you've got binders full of original CDs, but no inserts, you're out of luck.

So what will the various iterations of the iPad cost you? The full breakdown's past the link below, but you might be surprised -- an iPad ain't cheap.

I just tried out PhotoNest, a cool new way to view just the images posted to your Twitter stream. It picks up just the photos, and presents them in a slide format, captioned with the tweet they were posted with. You can quickly flick through and see what your friends are up to (based on the photos they post).

Given that Twitter doesn't have a genuine photo-posting mechanism, this seems like a grand idea to me. I've done something similar to collect and expand just the links posted to my stream, but this app does a great job of pulling photos posted with multiple services and presenting them in an easy-to-navigate format.

The only trouble I ran into with PhotoNest was a login issue: when I mistyped my password on the first try, it gave me an error and took me back to the login screen. After that, though, a correct password just kept landing me back at that screen without any message. However, quitting the app and starting it again logged me in automatically without a hitch, so I assume it's a small bug that will be squashed in the next update.

The app will also let you post photos (with a tweet) to your Twitter account, and you can filter your view based on favorite contacts. PhotoNest is available on the App Store for $1.99US. If your Twitter friends post a lot of photos (and people with iPhones tend to), it's a fun way to keep up and worth checking out.

Earlier this week, Wired posted a story about what they call "App Store Payola" -- the practice of sites that solicit cash payments (or other compensation) in order to expedite or publish app reviews. This isn't anything new. Ever since the App Store first went online, there have been sites that have offered developers a chance at the spotlight in return for behind-the-scenes payment. Apparently, it is still going on, and Wired's piece takes a good look at what's under the table.

It should go without saying, but for the record: TUAW isn't involved in this practice, and never has been. We will use promo codes for reviews rather than buying the apps directly, but a promo code doesn't guarantee a review and it definitely doesn't influence our stated opinions on the products we cover. Informally, our editorial team gives a thumbs up to the OATS standard, although TUAW hasn't officially joined the sites promoting the 'code of conduct' for app reviews.

Nevertheless, this is an interesting issue. My main question actually revolves around whether or not this practice actually "works" for the developer -- do devs who pay the $25, or whatever these "Reviews R Us" sites are charging, actually see returns in their product's sales or downloads?

Silicon Alley Insider has posted an interesting chart that shows the total number of apps available across various mobile platforms. As you can see from the chart, Apple's iPhone leads the pack by a longshot with 170,000 apps according to AppShopper.com. AppShopper typically lists more apps than Apple publicly states it has because AppShopper updates its numbers on a daily basis. As of today's count, AppShopper says Apple has approved 198,924 apps with 171,722 available to download. The discrepancy between the numbers accounts for apps that either the developers or Apple have removed from the App Store. Apple officially states that it currently has 150,000 apps.

A distant second after Apple's App Store is Google's Android Marketplace with 30,000 apps. RIM's Blackberry trails with only 5,000 apps, while Palm has a paltry 2,000. Windows Phone 7 Series Applications were announce a few days ago with a limited number of developers signed on. Of course, these numbers don't take app quality into account at all (100,000 fart apps is still just a bunch of junk), but clearly in terms of available downloads, Apple has a huge lead.

Sprint has released an ad that features the iPhone with its Overdrive 3G/4G Hotspot mobile router. The Overdrive allows you to use Sprint's 4G network with any WiFi capable device.

The ad features "Matt" and the appropriately-named iPhone-owner "Steve."

"My friend Steve's iPhone is cool, but it's limited to AT&T's 3G speeds," Matt says. "So I'm going to use the Overdrive 4G mobile hotspot to make it up to ten times faster. And while that's happening, I'm going to enjoy this tasty snack," at which point Matt pulls out an apple and takes a bite. Steve connects to the Sprint 4G WiFi network on his iPhone and quickly begins streaming a music video which leads him to exclaim, "Whoa. Done." The ad ends with Matt asking, "What can you do with 4G?" before the narrator chimes in, "Whatever you do, do it up to ten times faster than 3G with 4G from Sprint."

Sprint was one of the first to attack the iPhone but now, like most wireless providers, wants to be an official iPhone carrier. Last September Charlie Rose asked Sprint CEO Dan Hesse how the Pre was stacking up against the iPhone, to which he replied, "It's... it's doing well, but you can almost put the iPhone, to be fair, in a separate category. The Apple brand and that device have done so well, it's almost not... it's like comparing someone to Michael Jordan."

Well, if you can't beat the star, why not make some sweet accessories to go along with those Air Jordans?