Filed under: iPhone

We've seen an iPhone-controlled R2-D2, a quadricopter, a dog treat dispenser, a tank, and even an iPhone-controlled soda machine. But c'mon people, let's get a little more practical here -- let's hook it up to a massage chair. That's exactly what Human Touch did with the HT-9500. For just US$4,999, you can sit back, relax, and let your iPhone do the massaging. The free HT-Connect app designed to work with the chair allows you to control posture and massage frequency, and you can even set schedules and create programs designed to work your back in just the right way.

Sure, sure, playing Angry Birds or texting friends on your iPhone might be cheaper, but this chair lets you -- oh wait. Yeah, that's the... oh yeah, right there. Oooohhhh yyeeahhhhh.

[via Engadget]

SquareTrade, a company that provides extended warranties for iPhones, is reporting that the iPhone 4 is "more prone to physical damage" than the iPhone 3GS, according to the warranty company's iPhone reliability report.

In the report, SquareTrade compared over 20,000 iPhone 4 claims, from the first four months of its release, to the equivalent for the iPhone 3GS. They found that the overall reported accident rate for the iPhone 4 is 68% higher than the 3GS, and that iPhone 4 users reported 82% more damaged screens than the 3GS.

The report goes on to say that "the aluminosilicate glass seems to crack at least as often as the old [3GS] glass, and there is now twice as much surface area to break," despite Apple claiming that the glass used in the iPhone 4 is 30 times harder than plastic, according to its website.

However, SqaureTrade's report says that accident rates need to be taken into perspective, and that overall, the iPhone has a much lower non-accident malfunction rate than compared with most other consumer electronics. SquareTrade also notes that in its last smartphone reliability study, it found the iPhone to be "far more reliable" than Blackberry and Palm Treo phones, though, this was compiled in November 2008.

Having just received my iPhone 4, I'm debating whether to get a case for it or not. I did purchase a highly rated case for my 3G, but it was more of a hassle than its worth, especially since I was particularly careful with the phone. I guess it boils down to how well you look after you gadgets. Nevertheless, accidents do happen.

You can download a PDF of SquareTrade's report here.

[via International Business Times]

Bebot is still one of my favorite apps on the App Store, and mScribble, a recently revamped app from Appular and a developer named Panpipes Ho!, reminds me a lot of Bebot in its simplicity and versatility. That's pretty high praise indeed if you're as big a fan of Bebot as I am, but if you've never heard of Bebot, let me explain. mScribble is an app that generates a melody for you on the fly. The app plays a simple drum beat in the background with whatever rhythm you want -- there are nine to choose from in the app's menu). Drawing a scribble on the screen plays notes in a melody that's already lined up to the tune. It sounds complicated, but the app does all of the hard work -- just swiping across the screen gives you music, and with a little bit of practice, you can make some really interesting tunes by just playing around.

Unfortunately, it's not quite as friendly to professional musicians as Bebot. This is more of a music generator than an actual instrument, and there aren't as many options. Each tune can play four tones, but you're pretty hard-coded to the drums in the background. But that's a plus for less experienced players -- it means that anyone can sit there, swipe across the screen, and create an interesting melody. It's a lot of fun, and just the ten minutes of random joy I spent playing around with the app was more than worth the buck they're charging for it. I'd like to see the idea developed even further (and Bebot is an excellent model), but for just swiping up a tune, mScribble is a great experience.

I know I'm extremely late to the game, but I only just downloaded and started playing Doodle Jump two weeks ago. Since then, I've become addicted to it, both on my iPhone and iPad.

Doodle Jump has been updated to version 1.24, which introduces a new Halloween theme: Doodlestein! The update includes new monsters (zombies, vampires, and witches among them) in the Halloween theme, plus broken bone platforms and a broompack (a jetpack made from a witch's broom).

Doodle Jump developer Lima Sky also announced that the next version of Doodle Jump will support Game Center. Now the only thing I'm waiting for is an iPad version of the app. Version 1.24 of Doodle Jump is free to those who have already purchased the app; for everyone else, Doodle Jump is US$0.99 in the App Store.

Millenial Media has released its latest report on cross-platform mobile advertising, and the iPhone has lost another step on the Android platform. According to Millenial's reporting, revenue for advertising from the Android platform has exceeded iPhone-only revenue. That's not quite as bad as it sounds -- the Android platform, as we already know, has outstripped the iPhone in terms of user numbers, just because there are so many more available handsets and carriers for those devices. Android ad requests, according to the company, are up a crazy 1283% since January of this year, and have gone up 26% month over month.

That's not to say that iOS is slouching -- its revenue growth increased 316% in the last quarter, and impression growth increased by 156%. Apple is still the leading device manufacturer on the network, with a 30% market share, and the company makes two of the top four "connected devices" in the iPad and the iPod touch, with the Sony PSP and PS3 rounding out that list.

It's also interesting to note that smartphone impressions overall are still growing -- this isn't a down and dirty fight between the manufacturers yet, as there are still new customers to grab out there. Smartphone impression share went up 7% month-over-month, so this is still a growing market.

This is the second foray into iPhone territory by Consumer Reports. The first app pretty much duplicated the currently-available online content, and was free. This second app, called Consumer Reports Mobile Shopper is US $9.99, and puts the impeccable brand and product reviews in a more iOS-specific form.

The app allows you to browse through CR ratings of thousands of products, and allows searches by brand name or model. You can also scan the UPC bar-code using the iPhone's camera. The app also gives you best prices both online and locally using PriceGrabber for online price comparisons and Milo for local purchases.

It all sounds great in theory, but there are some rough edges. I thought the scanning worked well enough, and it's a fast way to get to the product you're interested in. Typing product names is easy enough too. Of course you won't find details on everything, since you're always limited to what they've reviewed. In some cases there are big holes -- if you go to the car category, all you get are tires, batteries, and GPS units. Huh? Aren't cars one area where CR has a tremendous amount of information?

Worried about the glass back of your iPhone 4 getting smashed? If you have $13 and a few minutes, Hong Kong manufacturer CNN (Cellular Nationwide Network) can supply you with a nice looking aluminum backplate to replace the glass.

According to the original "how-to" post on Unplggd, the metal back is incredibly easy to install. You just remove the two screws on either side of the Dock Connector port, pop out the glass, slide on the metal cover and Boom! You have an attractive, custom iPhone 4. The sides are even beveled for a more comfortable using experience.

Wired's website noted that a metal backplate should not affect the iPhone 4's call quality thanks to the controversial and much-maligned external antenna design of the device.

You might want to order your backplate soon if you're thinking about doing this. Since it has all of the usual artwork that comes with the regular iPhone 4, including the Apple logo and the famous "Designed by Apple in California" tag, chances are very good that Apple's lawyers will shut down production (or at least the screen printing) of the backplates soon. CNN's website is stating that the covers are currently backordered and that they'll fill the orders as quickly as possible.

[via Wired]

Remember, back in 2007 -- you know, Year One BTAS (Before The App Store) -- when Steve Jobs gave Apple's rationale for keeping the iPhone a closed platform versus allowing native app development? "Cingular doesn't want to see their West Coast network go down because some application messed up," he famously said, and was mocked by us and others for his seeming excess of caution.

Now it seems the rogue app is on the other foot -- or, more to the point, on the other OS and carrier. Mike Dano at FierceWireless takes note of a January FCC filing (PDF) from T-Mobile planning & performance engineering director Grant Castle, where Castle makes part of T-Mobile's case on net neutrality rules and the need for traffic shaping and optimization for wireless data. The entire memo is a good read -- surprising enough, considering the audience and topic -- but the real zinger is the revelation about an unnamed instant messaging application that rolled out onto T-Mobile's Android handset base.

This mystery app apparently worked fine and dandy when tested on WiFi by the developer, but once in the wild it began to cause network issues; signaling demand went up, particularly on already-busy nodes in urban settings, and in one test the app was shown to increase device network utilization by 12x. The problems were exacerbated as the app grew in popularity, and eventually the traffic issues began to degrade service overall.

In this case, T-Mobile was able to reach out to the developer and request fixes to the app to resolve the network pain and suffering (which must have been a fascinating phone call). Still, this example of one poorly-adjusted application having widespread impact on a carrier network does indeed validate the original precautions in place for the web-apps-only iOS 1.x world, and today's gated garden/kill switch environment for iOS apps in the wild.

Interestingly, even though T-Mobile's support for unlocked iPhones in the US is officially unofficial, it's not entirely without challenges. FW also pointed out that back in April the carrier reported to the FCC that jailbroken phones on the T-Mobile network caused signaling issues akin to a DDOS attack. One could easily imagine a popular jailbreak application going off the network rails, with no way to restrain or recall it -- depending on the percentage of JB phones in the wild, it could get hectic.

[via Engadget]

In September, a board game app based on the 2007 game Kingsburg took the gaming community by surprise. We often hear about upcoming board game ports way in advance of their release, but Kingsburg appeared so suddenly on the App Store [for US$4.99] that someone submitted it as Kinsburg, which made it kind of hard to search for in the early weeks of its release. The typo has now been fixed, so if the game sounds interesting to you after reading this review, you know it'll be easy to find.

What is Kingsburg (subtitled "Serving the Crown") all about? It's a light, fun strategy game with plenty of luck and a good helping of "screw-your-neighbor" involved. You play an advisor to the king – or maybe a duke with his own duchy, something like that – and you spend five "years" gaining resources, erecting buildings, and preparing for invasions of evil armies with things like barbarians and zombies. It's fun once you know what you're doing. Continue reading for more.

Last Saturday, we posted this video of the band Atomic Tom singing with their iPhones on the B train over the East River. Since then, the video has gone viral, nabbing more than a million views on YouTube. But the band isn't the only group benefiting from the attention -- we heard from the developers of iShred, the guitar app seen in the video, and apparently just being seen in the video has had a huge effect for them as well. The app has jumped from #84 to #4 on the App Store music app charts, and has reached the #65 app overall.

That's quite amazing, and it shows that people are getting recommendations for their apps from all over the place, from sites like ours to just spotting apps used in other contexts. What's most surprising isn't just the US App Store growth, but the fact that iShred has seen a big jump up overseas as well -- iShred is in the top ten in over 20 countries in the world. In Japan, we're told, it's the #3 app out of all of them. That's surprising -- when the video went viral, it must have become popular internationally.

Of course, it probably doesn't hurt that the iShred folks have put the app on sale for just US$0.99 (and honestly, this post will probably give them another nice jump in the listings). But it is interesting to see the effects of such a subtle app mention when it goes out and reaches the right people.

With all of the hoopla about the alleged Verizon iPhone now being stirred up by such illustrious sources as the Wall Street Journal, it's surprising that we haven't seen much physical proof of the device turning up. Usually there are a few good leaked photos, devices are left in bars, and excited engineers spilling the beans to blogger friends.

Boy Genius Report (BGR) is quoting a "solid Apple source" as saying that iPhone model 3,2 is ready for field testing. This is widely expected to be the CDMA version of the iPhone 4, and has reached the last testing stage ("AP") before retail release with finalized hardware and software that just needs minimal tweaking.

The identifier 3,2 refers to a revised iPhone 4, as iPhone model 3,1 is the current iPhone 4. BGR's source stated that the new iPhone contains a SIM card, which indicates that the phone can run on GSM standard systems. Rumors earlier this month implied that the Verizon iPhone could use a dual-mode baseband chip from Qualcomm that would enable it to run on both CDMA and GSM networks. There's also speculation in the BGR post that the new model could include a fix for the "antennagate" issue.

The site is also saying that the iPhone 5 (model 4,1) is now in Engineering Verification Testing for a release sometime next year. As AppleInsider pointed out, BGR has been wildly incorrect with some previous rumors. They asserted that iTunes 9 would include support for Blu-Ray, and were slapped upside the head by Apple PR after they published a set of emails allegedly sent between Steve Jobs and an unhappy customer. In other words, if you have salt, sprinkle it liberally on this rumor.

[via AppleInsider]

I have to say, I'm a little more interested lately in longer and more developed experiences for the iOS devices, which is one reason why I loved Game Dev Story so much. But there is still some space in my app diet for quick, pick-up-and-play experiences, and Tap Disc is one of those. Actually, "pick-up-and-play" might not be the right phrase to use -- there is a lengthy tutorial with the game, and lots of things are happening. But at its core, Tap Disc is a pretty straightforward action game, and it's clean and satisfying enough to be well worth the buck it's selling for on the App Store right now.

The basic gameplay has you following a series of discs around the iPhone's screen, and you tap the screen to create matching orbs for them to touch. Touch to create an orb, then line it up so the bouncing disc touches it at the right time. The twist is that the discs are all different colors, and the orbs you create change colors over time. For example, a white disc simply has to hit a white orb, which is the color it is when it's first created. But a red disc can only hit an orb after it's turned red -- about a half second after you create it. You have to calculate the angles and time your orb placement just right in order to match colors and clear the discs.

It sounds complicated, but in practice, it's not. What you end up with is a fun mix of a timing and angle game that's pretty addictive. There is also a "preschool" mode for kids (much less complicated -- just tap the moving objects to clear them), and there are a number of different difficulties and powerups to contend with. OpenFeint integration extends replayability, and the team is even offering a monthly contest with cash prizes for the game's best players. Tap Disc is definitely worth checking out.

I remember the first time I made a call on my iPhone all the way back in 2007; I was truly smitten with Apple's revolution. However, during the second call, I realized that the sharp edge really was uncomfortable to my delicate, mirror-encrusted earlobes.

Fast-forward to 2010, and the problem has only been exacerbated by the folks at Cupertino. Sure, iPhone 4 is a beauty to behold, but while it's easy on the eyes, it's certainly hard on the ears.

Enter Yanko Design. The Earos ear cushion is truly one of the most elegant and striking solutions to the ear pain woes of the masses. Finally, we can answer a call on our beloved iPhones without wincing in pain as we bring it near our noggins.

YD points out that ear discomfort is not the only symptom that they're curing. The Earos doubles as protection from ambient device heat as well as an ear shield for use in colder climates. As a no-charge bonus, the Earos can be flipped around and used as a display stand on flat surfaces.

There is currently no word on pricing or availability, but you can guarantee that this will be in my stocking if they can release this in time for Christmas delivery -- even if it does qualify as a No Comment.

[via AppAdvice]

Sometimes it seems like the last thing we need is another social networking app, but how about being Unsocial?

Unsocial (free) is a new iPhone app described as the unholy spawn of LinkedIn and Foursquare. In other words, it's oriented towards business networking, like LinkedIn, and location-specific networking, like Foursquare. The new app and service came out this morning, and according to the developers, it's focused more on the people you don't currently know, but should.

The launch today is a beta, and it's currently only available to folks in the San Francisco Bay Area. The eventual idea is that when you're at conferences or just wandering around a city business center, you can have Unsocial search for people nearby who you might want to connect with -- people who meet certain search criteria based on smart tags and user profiles. For example, when I'm at Macworld Expo 2011 in San Francisco in a few months, I might only want to meet with Mac developers who meet a specific criteria. I'll set up Unsocial, which then alerts me when those people are nearby, and I can use built-in messaging to say "Hi" and specify a place to meet.

Conferences can also supply Unsocial with agenda information, speaker profiles, and official twitter feeds, making the app much more useful to conference-goers who use the app. Unsocial is an interesting concept, and one that I look forward to trying out.

I can't say I'm a huge traveler -- even though I've hit up quite a few conventions this year for work, I haven't been flying so much that I need to keep tabs on what's going on at the airport. But I like the idea of FlightBoard anyway. It's an app that will automatically create a departing flights board for any airport in the country, so you can see flight numbers, gate arrivals, and departure times for all the flights in the airport.

Like I said, I personally don't fly enough that I'd necessarily need an app just for this, but if you find yourself running off to the airport a lot for a certain reason, this app seems like it would be very helpful. Even beyond the specific function, I like the idea and design of FlightBoard -- it's modeled after the flight board at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, and it is terrific example of how an app can successfully use an interface metaphor. In the real world, flight boards are often just a standard LED display (or, more recently, a series of monitors). But in this case, the app represents the idea of a flight board, so it recreates the LED display, and it makes the information more familiar to the user. We've all seen and used a flight board, and this app benefits from that previous experience in its interface.

In any case, that's just some interesting UI design insight. If nothing else, this app will tell you when and where planes are leaving at whatever airport you choose. FlightBoard is on the App Store right now for US$3.99.