Metallica Revenge: Tapulous takes revenge to the next level
Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch, App Review, Music
The Tap Tap Revenge empire just became more credible… at least to the Metallica fans out there. Metallica Revenge [iTunes Link] sells for $4.99, but it is not out to make lots of money — not according to the Associated Press interview with the band’s drummer, Lars Ulrich. Ulrich explains that the application itself is really just for fun and that “it’s one more thing that’ll keep me semi-cool in my kids’ eyes for another six months until the next thing comes out.”
But we think that this is a little bit more than just a cool marketing scheme… it actually has some brand new features never before seen in a Tap Tap Revenge game. It’s the first game in the archive to include a Bluetooth Battle mode. In this mode, two devices connect over Bluetooth to play note for note against each other while obtaining power ups that you can toss at your opponent to distract them and move ahead in points.
Tapulous touts this game as the most difficult Tap Tap Revenge yet. It has a Hard mode with four rails in landscape and an Extreme mode with five rails in landscape. There has never been a Tap Tap Revenge game with five rails. I’m scared to even try it.
The band has also created a contest for those of us who purchase this application. You can win everything from cool Metallica gear to the grand prize of a trip to meet and greet Metallica at a show in Vegas on December 5th.
Here’s the track list:
- For Whom the Bell Tolls
- Fuel
- King Nothing
- Sad But True
- Some Kind of Monster
- Enter Sandman
- One
- Seek & Destroy
- All Nightmare Long
- Master of Puppets
Metallica Revenge: Tapulous takes revenge to the next level originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Metallica Revenge: Tapulous takes revenge to the next level originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Roundup: Recent iPhone app reviews
Filed under: iPhone
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Win a copy of Distant Suns to see the night sky on your iPhone
We’ve covered Distant Suns before, and we missed the Galilean Nights, but we’re giving away 10 copies of Distant Suns [iTunes Link] for your iPhone or iPod touch this week. It’s always a good time…
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MyReef 3D Aquarium puts a realistic aquarium in your pocket
I’ve always thought aquariums as screensavers were a no-brainer. Most are lacking, limiting themselves to small fish you’d find in just about any aquarium, freshwater or salt water. MyReef 3D…
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Nota is a sweet melody to musicians
As a musician who’s been out of the loop a bit (3 years into the degree but life throws curveballs) I was happy to find a new application for the iPhone and iPod Touch appear in my inbox. It’s…
Also of interest:
Roundup: Recent iPhone app reviews originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Roundup: Recent iPhone app reviews originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Digital Chocolate: We’re owning single-digit search on the App Store
Filed under: Gaming, Software, Odds and ends, iPhone, App Store
We’ve mentioned Digital Chocolate and their App Store releases before, of course, and we’ve even mentioned just how prevalent they are — they’ve been extremely prolific in releasing new titles, and as a result, they’ve posted on their website that they are more or less ubiquitous in search results. They say on their official blog that any search of a “single digit” on the App Store search window has about a 20% chance of pulling up a Digital Chocolate release. If you search for “D,” “H” or “3,” they’re the number one hit. I don’t actually know anyone that searches “D” anywhere (”You know what I really want to play tonight? A ‘D’ related game!”), but it just shows how many releases they’ve got out there.
That does get them plenty of downloads — they also say that they’re number one in downloads on the platform as a whole, with 40 million downloads already of their software, with 1.5 million reviews (!) total — but I think it says more about the App Store in general, and that we’re not quite as far along as it might seem. If one company could so easily own, say, Amazon’s search, you’d just say that Amazon needed a bigger catalog, no? 85,000 is certainly a lot of apps (especially in the realm of mobile software), but in terms of the platform’s progress as a whole, it’s still in its infancy.
So we’re definitely in for more growth. Even Digital Chocolate sounds a little surprised that they’re so prevalent, and I think as the App Store ecosystem grows and we get more and more companies with popular titles in different areas, we’ll see the search results become more diverse.
Digital Chocolate: We’re owning single-digit search on the App Store originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Digital Chocolate: We’re owning single-digit search on the App Store originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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CSStringTokenizer, a Cocoa Touch front end for tokenizing strings
Filed under: Developer, iPhone, SDK, iPod touch
Have you ever wanted to work with rather deep elements of Core Foundation in the iPhone SDK with some sort of front end? August Joki has just come up with a project that provides a Cocoa Touch wrapper for the CFStringTokenizer type in the Core Foundation framework.
As you can see in the screen shot at right, the demo provides various aspects about the current string including the string in a letter, word, or using a WordBoundary. It works just like CFStringTokenizer can, but can be accessed using this front-end.
If you’re wondering what CFStringTokenizer actually is, it’s useful for breaking a string into a token, which can specified by words, sentences, or paragraphs. You’re also able to further modify the tokenization once you break it down.
This is something that’s going to be useful for iPhone developers who like to work with a Cocoa Touch interface to bring lower-level elements of the iPhone OS into their apps, and also to developers who work with natural language strings.
To download this project, go over to the cocoa-stringtokenizer project page on GitHub.
CSStringTokenizer, a Cocoa Touch front end for tokenizing strings originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
CSStringTokenizer, a Cocoa Touch front end for tokenizing strings originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Dreamr app: a relaxing experience?
Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch, App Review
A dreamachine is a strobing flicker device, invented by Brion Gysin and Ian Summerville, that pulses light in a frequency range relating to alpha waves present in the brain while relaxing. Originally created using a turntable, a bulb, and a cylinder, you close your eyes and and the pulsing of the lights as seen behind your eyelids is supposed to cause varying states of relaxation, sometimes creating colorful patterns of swirling lights.
Pulses from 1-4 beats per second are supposed to cause deep relaxation, while pulses from 8-13 beats per second are said to cause a waking sleep often with accompanied by psychedelic shapes and trippy colors.
Author William S. Burroughs, one of the first proponents of the dreamachine, wrote:
“Subjects report dazzling lights of unearthly brilliance and color. …Elaborate geometric constructions of incredible intricacy build up from multidimensional mosaic into living fireballs like the mandalas of Eastern mysticism or resolve momentarily into apparently individual images and powerfully dramatic scenes like brightly colored dreams.”
The Dreamr app tells you to turn the brightness all the way up, choose a number of beats per second and a color, and then to hold the device’s screen up to your closed eyes and see what happens. The buttons to choose beats per second were quite small and hard to consistently tap.
I gave Dreamr two ten minute tests, both in a comfortable recliner with my iPhone resting on my eyes. At 13 beats per second I found nothing at all, outside of noting that the speed of the flickering seeming to slow down and speed up after about 6 minutes. At 4 beats per second I may have been a bit more relaxed after about 8 minutes but that could have been due the quality of my recliner. Overall, I wasn’t affected. Your results, however, may vary.
The app comes with a warning that this should not be used by small children, photosensitive people, or those that react badly to flashing lights. The price is $US.99.
We’d be very curious to know of the experiences of anyone who has used Dreamr, or in fact, any dreamachine. And that, my friends, is what the comments section is for.
Dreamr app: a relaxing experience? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Dreamr app: a relaxing experience? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Win a copy of Distant Suns to see the night sky on your iPhone
Filed under: iPhone
We’ve covered Distant Suns before, and we missed the Galilean Nights, but we’re giving away 10 copies of Distant Suns [iTunes Link] for your iPhone or iPod touch this week. It’s always a good time to have the “universe in your shirt pocket,” right? The rules couldn’t be simpler (unless we allowed everyone to enter, but promo codes are US-only, sorry) so enter a comment to win!
- Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.
- To enter, leave a comment below.
- The comment must be left by Saturday, October 31 at 11:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time.
- You may enter only once.
- Ten winners will be selected in a random drawing.
- Prize: Promo code for the Distant Suns app (US$4.99 value).
- Click Here for complete Official Rules.
Win a copy of Distant Suns to see the night sky on your iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Win a copy of Distant Suns to see the night sky on your iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Monoprice iPhone/iPod Battery Backup: Such a deal
Filed under: Accessories, iPod Family, iPhone
In a previous post about offshore iPhone chargers, a few astute TUAW readers mentioned Monoprice.com as a good source for chargers, connectors, and computer, TV and audio cables. In searching their site, I found a real deal.
The Monoprice Backup battery pack is the simplest of devices. When your iPhone or iPod is running low on juice, just plug this battery pack into the 30 pin connector. You can then either keep running with a fairly large dongle hanging off the bottom of your device, or wait and the battery pack will charge your device in 3.5 hours according to Monoprice (or about 2.5 hours according to my tests).
Yes, there are a lot of battery backups that do this, but how many are sold at US$14.50? You read that right, only US$14.50, and for that you get pack with a capacity of 2200 mAh.
For comparison, the capacity of the iPhone battery is 1150 mAh, so this battery should be able to charge your device twice. Due to my ignorance of the vagaries of electricity, mine winds up charging the iPhone about 1.75 times, which isn’t bad at all.
Continue reading Monoprice iPhone/iPod Battery Backup: Such a deal
Monoprice iPhone/iPod Battery Backup: Such a deal originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Monoprice iPhone/iPod Battery Backup: Such a deal originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Dear Aunt TUAW: Recovering iPhone data and media
Dear Aunt TUAW,
I’m from the Philippines and I would just like to ask for your help. I don’t know if the news had reached you guys but there had been some massive flood lately in our country brought about by super typhoons storming over our land. Anyway, I own an iPhone and thank God I brought it with me when the flash flood came which sadly destroyed my PC and laptop. Now I have a new desktop which leads me to my problem. I’m afraid to install iTunes in it because if ever I’d sync my phone with the new desktop, I’m pretty sure all my iPod files will be gone. Are there any work around for it (so that I can still save my files on my phone)? Will jailbreaking help (as a last resort)?
Thanks and more power! =)
Best regards,
Rand B.
Read on for Auntie’s answer…
Continue reading Dear Aunt TUAW: Recovering iPhone data and media
Dear Aunt TUAW: Recovering iPhone data and media originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Recovering iPhone data and media originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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New York Times: Windows Mobile sinking, Android and Apple benefit
Filed under: Odds and ends, Surveys and Polls, iPhone
This morning, the New York Times had an interesting piece about the shift in cellphone momentum away from Microsoft to Android and the iPhone. The story refers to Windows Mobile as ‘foundering,’ which won’t bring much happiness to Redmond. Of course, Microsoft already knows that they’re quickly becoming a non-player in the smartphone market.
What’s of interest beyond the basics is just how far the Windows based phones have slipped in terms of customer satisfaction. Quoting the story: “Indeed, a J. D. Power & Associates survey found that Windows Mobile had the lowest satisfaction rating among customers of any smartphone operating system. The iPhone has by far the most satisfying software, the study found. Android is a distant second, followed closely by BlackBerry’s operating system.”
“Windows Mobile scored below average on every attribute, said Kirk Parsons, director of the study, especially in ease of operation, speed and stability.”
That was my experience — I had two Motorola Q phones fail. They tended to lock up frequently, and one had to be replaced. I was on the Verizon network, which was very good, but when the iPhone came out the thought of having something designed to work well with a Mac, and something that had a certain well-thought-out elegance was just too much of a lure.
Microsoft owned the smartphone market for years, so it is a mystery to me why they fell so far behind. The entry of Android, and especially the new models, is welcome competition. Most cell phone makers are migrating to the Android platform, which doesn’t require licensing fees. The iPhone design isn’t for sale to anyone, and seems to be doing just fine. Apple could fall into the same somnambulant stupor that Microsoft seems to be in with smartphones, but the Android offerings should keep them scrambling. We’ll all benefit from that competition.
What phone did you drop to get the iPhone? Do you think Apple will stay ahead? Leave a comment below.
New York Times: Windows Mobile sinking, Android and Apple benefit originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
New York Times: Windows Mobile sinking, Android and Apple benefit originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Robert Scoble: 85,000 reasons why the iPhone won’t be disrupted
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blogging, iPhone, App Store
Whether you think he’s the voice of reason on the Web or an annoying pest, when Robert Scoble over at the Scobleizer blog speaks, people listen.
Yesterday, a Twitter follower of Mr. Scoble stated that he thought “iPhone users were beyond reason,” referring to the almost unnatural fixation that most of us have for our phones. Scoble brought up a very good point in his blogged response — every app that comes out on the market (more than 85,000 at this point) provides another way to customize your iPhone to the way that you live and work.
In order for another manufacturer to come out with a device that will pry that iPhone out of our fingers, they’re going to need to exactly duplicate or surpass the functionality that we’ve become used to. That’s not likely to happen, in Scoble’s opinion, because the 85,000+ apps that filter down to a couple of dozen (or hundred) apps on each iPhone turn that iPhone into something completely unique. It’s not likely that any iPhone user is going to want to give up that up unless every app in the special combination on his or her iPhone is replaced by something better.
It makes sense. I’ve worked with all of the other smartphone platforms, and in no case have there been compelling apps that hold me to the platform. With the iPhone, I’ve tried thousands of apps, kept about a hundred, and those hundred apps let me work and play the way I want to. iPhone developers have also made sure that the apps are simple to use, too.
Perhaps the Android or some other smartphone platform will eventually evolve to the point that there is a critical mass of compelling apps that provides the same magical combination of power, ease-of-use, and fun, but until that time the iPhone will reign supreme. That’s even despite Microsoft CEO and iPhone hater Steve Ballmer’s recent assertion about the iPhone, “That’s why they’ve got 75,000 applications — they’re all trying to make the Internet look decent on the iPhone.”
Obviously Mr. Ballmer hasn’t used an iPhone, or he’d realize that the iPhone is much more than Web apps. That might also give Ballmer a clue why Windows phones aren’t even on the radar for most smartphone buyers today.
Robert Scoble: 85,000 reasons why the iPhone won’t be disrupted originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Robert Scoble: 85,000 reasons why the iPhone won’t be disrupted originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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