Mili Phonesuit Power Pack for iPhone adds some style, weight to your device
[Via Engadget Spanish]
Filed under: Cellphones
Mili Phonesuit Power Pack for iPhone adds some style, weight to your device originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apple patents adaptive volume controls based on environment, not quality of your music
Ever walk through a crowd with your headphones on, only to find your music drowned out by the uproar? A recent Apple patent proposes dynamic volume adjustment based on your local surroundings. According to the filing, a sound sensor would be used to detect ambient noise and adapt accordingly. It says user volume controls are accounted for, so passing by a construction site likely won’t cause your jams to be pumped up to an ear-shattering 11. Although it sounds more likely than some of the company’s other patents, don’t get your hopes up for seeing this any time soon. Hit up the read link for more details.
[Via Electronista]
Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video
Apple patents adaptive volume controls based on environment, not quality of your music originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apple on smartphone competition: "if others rip off our intellectual property, we will go after them."
For those of you who weren’t listening in to Apple’s earnings call today, you missed a prime moment of defensiveness when Tim Cook fielded a question about how the company plans to stay competitive amidst new entries from the likes of Google and, more recently, Palm. What seemed like an answer due to end with a “we’ve got some great new stuff on the way” slant, Cook dovetailed into how the company views its new smartphone competition. In his words:
Q: “There are other iPhone competitors coming to the market: Android, Palm Pre. How do you think about sustaining leadership in the face of these competitors?”
A: “It’s difficult to compare to products that are not yet in the market. iPhone has seen terrific rating from customers. Software is the key ingredient, and we believe that we are years ahead of our competitors. Having different screen sizes, different input methods, and different hardware makes things difficult for developers. We view iPhone as primarily a software platform, which is different from our competitors. We don’t mind competition, but if others rip off our intellectual property, we will go after them.”
And then the follow-up:
Q: “The Palm device seems to directly emulate the iPhone’s innovative interface. Is that what you’re referring to?”
A: “We don’t want to refer to any specific companies, so that was a general statement. We like competition because it makes us better, but we will not stand for companies infringing on our IP.”
Now, we’ve heard Apple sound off on its intellectual property before, but the way a somewhat innocuous question about new challengers in the mobile arena got turned into a not-so vague threat of legal action is a bit stunning. Could it be that the Pre is Apple’s first real multitouch, capacitive-screen competition, and the device just happened to be co-developed by Jon Rubinstein… formerly of Apple? We’re not taking any flying leaps here, but the preempted initial answer seems to suggest that the folks in Cupertino may not take every new threat so coolly.
Apple on smartphone competition: “if others rip off our intellectual property, we will go after them.” originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Knife Music e-book approved for App Store after language modification
We’re not exactly sure what this says about the officially unofficial App Store policy on explicit content, but David Carnoy’s Knife Music has just been approved for distribution in said marketplace after the so-called “objectionable content” was removed. Essentially, the author decided to submit a copy of the novel sans a few foul words, with him noting that it was “more important to have people check the book out — along with the whole concept of e-books on the iPhone” — rather than take some stance for personal liberties and whatnot. For those interested, it’s ready for download as we speak at no charge, but if you’re the indecent type, you’ll have to manually add in those swears as you go.
Filed under: Cellphones, Misc. Gadgets
Knife Music e-book approved for App Store after language modification originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Make contact with First Contact
Filed under: Gaming, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
I’ve said in this space before that I’m not always an enthusiastic gamer, but lately some really cool games have appeared that use the iPhone’s capabilities to the max.
A good example is First Contact [App Store link], a new game for the iPhone/iPod touch. The game is US $2.99 and certainly packs a few bucks worth of enjoyment and excitement. The scenario involves protecting your colonies on a distant planet from UFOs, incoming missiles and other dastardly space hardware.
The game is rendered in beautiful 3D and the inferface takes some cues from Google Earth. You can rotate your planet and zoom in or out with finger gestures. You’ll need to be doing that, because the incoming nasties can hide behind your planet and you have to keep things moving to protect your colonies. You touch all the targets, and your defense system launches missiles to prevent them from finding their targets. Of course, as the game progresses, you’ll be moving pretty fast to keep up with the increasing threat.
You can also shake your iPhone to detonate some screen clearing nukes, and you can post your high scores online to see how you are doing against other players.
A couple of small nits to pick: The instructions were quite hard to read. The text is too small. Another issue is that the pause button is on the lower right of the screen, and frequently while tapping to mark targets, I inadvertently paused the game. On the plus side, if you bail out of the game, you are given the option to resume from where you left off. You’ll use that feature a lot, I suspect.
I think you’ll get hooked on this game pretty quickly. The aliens get more numerous, and increasingly more aggressive. It’s always a nice day when you can save a planet.
Here’s some images from the game:
Gallery: First Contact
Continue reading Make contact with First Contact
Make contact with First Contact originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Make contact with First Contact originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Letting the iPhone read to you
Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
With apologies to Steve Jobs, who pretty much implied reading was dead, there are more and more applications coming to the iPhone/iPod touch to allow people to do just that — read books.
Today, Traveling Classics has released several public domain titles that you download as applications. A voice reads the book to you while the text stays in sync.
The books are narrated by volunteer readers from the Librivox Project, who record the complete text and release their narration into the public domain. It is a bit like open source for books.
Among the titles are: (click on them for their App Store links)
* Treasure Island
* Art of War
* The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
* Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
* The Tell-Tale Heart
* The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
* The Gospel of John
* Pride and Prejudice
All the books are US $0.99 until February 20th, then they are all $1.99.The Gospel of John is free. I tried two of the books, The Art of War, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Both presentations sounded professional. The text did scroll along with the spoken words. You could exit the book, and when re-starting you are given the option to resume where you left off. That worked well. Audio quality was quite good on headphones, and clear enough through the iPhone speaker, but I don’t think that is the preferred way to listen.
These books compare with other Audio Books available from the App Store, and are certainly cheaper than the same titles from Audibile.com, the iTunes Store or Amazon. On the other hand, those titles from other sources can be played back through a car audio system with an iPod adapter, or burned to a CD, where with the self contained books from Traveling Classics, you’d have to use the headphone jack to get access to the sound. Also, you can get current books from Audibile.com, but the Traveling Classics are just that — Classics in the public domain.
There are other versions of almost all these books. There is, for example, a free version of The Art of War on the iTunes store, but it is text only, no narrator.
The Traveling Classics are a nice variation of the standard audio book that people started buying on cassettes years ago, then on CD, and now by downloading them from the Internet. This latest option will appeal to some, but many readers will stick with something they can download and use with other media players.
For those of us who like books, despite what Steve Jobs thinks about the market for them, having more to read, and more ways to read, can only be a good thing.
Letting the iPhone read to you originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 13 Feb 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Letting the iPhone read to you originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 13 Feb 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone demoed on video, coming in Q1
No surprises here, but Sling Media has created a new SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone portal on its website in order to accomplish two important tasks. 1) To announce that it will indeed be submitted to Apple for certification this quarter and 2) to show off a new video of the software in action. If you just can’t wait, head to the read link and mash play.
Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Video
SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone demoed on video, coming in Q1 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone, SlingPlayer for Mac HD make debuts
Remember that proof-of-concept you saw way back in June of last year? You know, that one involving SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone? Here at Macworld, Sling Media is doing its darnedest to take the spotlight away from the looming Apple keynote by announcing that said app is almost ready for consumption. It’ll be demonstrating a functional version in San Francisco, and it’s planning to submit the software to Apple for certification sometime this quarter. In case you couldn’t care less, it’ll also unveil a prototype SlingPlayer for Mac HD, which will enable Mac-using Slingbox PRO-HD owners to stream high-def material to their Mac. As for the good stuff, pricing has yet to be determined for the SlingPlayer iPhone app, but the SlingPlayer for Mac HD will be made available gratis. Full release is after the break.
Continue reading SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone, SlingPlayer for Mac HD make debuts
Filed under: Cellphones, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Portable Audio
SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone, SlingPlayer for Mac HD make debuts originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Just how bad is AT&T?
Filed under: Bad Apple, iPhone
The well-known tech blogger Om Malik has broken up with his iPhone. It seems that despite loving the iPhone itself, AT&T’s shoddy service in San Francisco just wasn’t cutting it. A couple of dropped calls during a phone interview was apparently the straw that broke the camel’s back and Om traded his iPhone for a iPod touch plus a couple of phones from other carriers.
That got me wondering. Just how much of a drag on the iPhone is the AT&T network? My service has generally been reliable here in the Twin Cities, but I have suffered problems when traveling. So how about it? How many of you have actually had to dump an iPhone because of the carrier?
[via jkOnTheRun]
Just how bad is AT&T? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 13 Feb 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Just how bad is AT&T? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 13 Feb 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Craigslist tool defers to App Store decency standards
Filed under: iPhone, App Store
The developers of the iPhone Craigslist app craigsphone [App Store link] seem to have found themselves in a bit of a pickle. Sure, most of Craigslist’s content is perfectly appropriate for all audiences — nothing too risque about buying a used bike or looking for an apartment — but there are some more adult areas of the service, including the ever-popular Missed Connections, that might just run afoul of the App Store’s ever-shifting sands of appropriateness. What to do?
Apparently, the answer is “throw up your hands and turn the URL over to Mobile Safari,” as you can see in the screenshot here. I’m not sure this is a particularly well-thought out workaround; there are plenty of other apps that can pull down adult-themed content, starting with Apple’s own YouTube tool and including ebook readers, RSS feed handlers, etc.
Should a developer providing a custom portal to an external website really be responsible for all the content hosted there, or would it be simpler to put up the same 18-and-up warning that Craigslist uses? It may be up to Apple to implement, or allow a third-party to build, more granular parental controls for iPhone apps, but simply handing off the same mature content to Safari for display seems like a pretty big cop-out.
Update: In response to some of the commenters, we don’t know whether this restriction was put in out of an overabundance of caution, or because of a specific requirement of the App Store — so blaming Apple for prior restraint may be premature. We’ll try to get the straight story.
Update 2: It has been confirmed that the change to the craigsphone behavior was, in fact, prompted by a concern from Apple’s app store team that the app might be violating terms of service by displaying the mature content. If other apps have been given similar red flags, please let us know.
Thanks xnifex & Nilay
Craigslist tool defers to App Store decency standards originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Craigslist tool defers to App Store decency standards originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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