iphone blog

March 8, 2010

TiPb at Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2010

GDC 2010

Tuesday and Wednesday TiPb is going to be at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) San Francisco 2010 to find out what’s new and notable in the world of iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad gaming. Scuttlebutt is, if you think gaming is big on the iPhone OS now… get ready for it to explode in 2010.

We’ll do our best to meet with all your favorite game companies, from the huge houses to the best and brightest indies.

If you’re in the area, stop by and say hello. If you’re a developer with a great new iPhone OS game to show off, ping us [news at tipb dot com] so we can meet up. If you’re joining us from a far, keep your browsers locked right here on TiPb for all the video action, and follow along for live updates and behind the scenes banter with @reneritchie on the Twitter.

Game. On.

TiPb at Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2010 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

March 7, 2010

WiFi Stumbling Apps Return, To The Jailbreak

WiFi stumbling apps are not giving up on the iPhone. After Apple’s unfortunate decision to no longer tolerate them in the App Store this week, the developers of Wififofum and yFy Network Finder have decided to release their apps on the jailbreak, following the same path Google Voice apps had chosen last year already.

Starting today, Wififofum is available free of charge to all jailbreakers on Cydia and according to modmyi, yFy Network Finder should follow very soon.

While this is definitely a very nice gesture from those unfortunate developers, this sends us back to step one.

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WiFi Stumbling Apps Return, To The Jailbreak

Apple Rejects Electrosmog Measuring App – Keeps Us In The Dark

While latest studies seem to demonstrate the opposite, we all live with some sort of fear regarding radiations emitted by our dear iPhones. To address this concern, Tawkon, an Israeli startup came up with quite a brilliant concept; a radiation counter app. Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t want to hear about it.

Some background first, to connect to surrounding cell towers, as you probably know already, your iPhone emits radio signals. The power of this signal however varies importantly depending how far you’re situated from the tower. If you’re close, it stays low, if you’re far away, it goes up.

You can actually easily consult your iPhone’s current emitting power by going in test mode, to do that, just type *3001#12345#* on your iPhone’s dialpad and hit call. In short, the idea of the app was to take that data, and turn it into something more human-readable.

Alright, it’s a little more complicated than that and Tawkon went a little further:

Algorithmic magic analyzes your phone’s dynamic SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) levels, location, environmental factors, as well as unique smart-phone capabilities such as bluetooth, accelerometer, proximity sensors, GPS and compass. The level of radiation a person is exposed to during calls is determined by analyzing several dynamic parameters, including the impact of environmental factors such as distance from cellular towers, network and weather condition, terrain, antenna’s proximity from the body, antenna orientation (if the user is holding the phone vertically or horizontally) and travel speed.

While we have no way to tell how plausible those measurements are, it did look like an interesting tool. However, like so often before, Apple rejected it. Because in their opinion:

a diagnostic tool of this nature would create confusion with iPhone owners from a usability perspective.

I’m reading “this would freak iPhone owners out” here, what’s your take on this one?

[via TechCrunch]

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Apple Rejects Electrosmog Measuring App – Keeps Us In The Dark

March 2, 2010

Play Ball! MLB At Bat 2010 Is At The Plate

Filed under: AppAdvice — Tags: , , , , , , , , — @ 11:08 pm

With spring training beginning this week, Major League Baseball has rolled out today the 2010 version of the popular iPhone app, At Bat 2010.

This year’s version returns with all of the great features that have made it a must have for the die hard baseball fan. Listen to every pitch of every regular and post season game and even follow the action with streaming video of live games (blackout rules apply). Push notifications on news from your favorite team and coverage of spring training are also available.

Baseball wouldn’t be the same without the extensive stats and box scores and this app collects them all and presents them in a beautiful UI that earned the developers an Apple Design Award last year.

What’s even more interesting to note will be the expected updates throughout the season. Last year’s version saw many improvements throughout the summer and with an iPad enhanced version already demo’d during January’s announcement, an already robust app will be even more feature rich.

Get ready to follow the boys of summer.

MLB At Bat 2010 is available now in the App Store for the price of $14.99.

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Play Ball! MLB At Bat 2010 Is At The Plate

TopJam Is Out – Win A Promo Code With A Retweet Or Comment

We first previewed TopJam ($1.99) one week ago, even giving some of our readers early access to the app via a promo code giveaway. Now that the app is out its developers have decided to hand out 15 more promo codes to our wonderful readers.

TopJam allows you to find music videos on YouTube for iTunes’ top 100 downloaded songs. The app displays a list of the top 100 downloaded songs in order of popularity. Each listing displays the song’s name, artist, and album artwork. When you tap on a song you are given what the app considers to be the most accurate music video for that specific song. If it isn’t the correct one, you can tap the “Wrong Video” button and the app will display the next best result. If it is the correct video, you can start watching it immediately. You can also tap “Correct Video” when you are done viewing to help the developers improve the service and give more positive results. The song’s page gives you the ability to purchase it in the iTunes Store as well.

TopJam only displays the top 100 iTunes songs in the U.S. App Store at the moment, but if the app catches on, the developers intend to release localized versions.

To possibly win one of ten Twitter designated TopJam promo codes, simply hit that green retweet bottom near the bottom of this page or retweet this post from your favorite Twitter app before 11:59 PM PST tonight (March 2nd). We will then search the Twitterverse for all of the retweets and randomly choose our lucky winners. The winners will be notified via Twitter, so please be sure to follow us so we can send you your promo codes via a direct message.

Non-Twitter users and those of you who want to increase your odds of winning can simply leave a relevant comment below before 11:59 PM PST tonight to have a chance at winning one of the other five TopJam promo codes.

Feel free to participate in the giveaway via either or both methods. This giveaway is only open to U.S. iTunes account users.

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TopJam Is Out – Win A Promo Code With A Retweet Or Comment

February 26, 2010

Exclusive ‘Hexen II’ Hands-On Preview with Video

Early this morning we got a sneak peek at a port of Hexen II. It's a work in progress, as currently there's no music yet, the menu system hasn't been implemented, the controls are basic and nowhere near final, and they've got a bunch of performance tweaks left to do to make it run across the whole iPhone and iPod touch device family. Other than that, it's all there.

Hexen II is, obviously, the sequel to Hexen (which was the sequel to Heretic) and was developed by Raven Software and published by Id for the PC in 1997. This first person shooter utilizes a modified version of the Quake engine to add a roleplaying element to the game where players could choose from multiple classes, and increase statistics by earning experience throughout the adventure.

Like the other games in the series, Raven eventually released the source code for Hexen II, which is what is powering the following gameplay video:

The sticky situation that the developers of this Hexen II port face is that, while the actual game source itself has been made open source, the data files that make Hexen II more than just a modded Quake engine are not open source. The preview version we were given is utilizing assets from the free Hexen II demo, but the game itself can't hit the App Store until the developers work our some kind of licensing agreement with Activision.

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Exclusive ‘Hexen II’ Hands-On Preview with Video

February 23, 2010

More Physics-y Goodness: Angry Birds, Rafter, and Doodle Bomb Updates

IMG_0393Three games from relatively recent reviews have all received robust updates of late. Forgive me if these aren’t exactly “new,” but if you passed on these games in the past due to concerns about content, take note: now’s the time to try them again.

Angry Birds
Clickgamer’s Angry Birds won my heart with its quirky style and cheerful, bizarre art. One feature that was notably absent from the birds-in-a-slingshot game, however, was online high scores. The 1.2 update remedied that with Crystal integration, which brings leaderboards and achievements. It also included 42 new levels for an already-great game.

Angry Birds
Our Rating: ★★★★☆ :: GREAT :: Read Our Full Review >>

Category: Games / Family
Released: 2009-12-11
Price: $1.99 ON SALE: $0.99


IMG_0424Rafter
Rafter is a great physics game, and a simple one: you draw rectangles and circles in the upper area in hopes of them colliding with the red target below. In my review, I noted that while the puzzles were challenging, inventive, and fun, thirty-one levels just didn’t feel like enough. Apparently in response to such complaints, the developers have added another 10 levels, bringing the grand total to 41. It’s a free update, and one that leaves me much more satisfied with Rafter’s length. I already loved Rafter; now, it’s even better. More content is always a good thing!

Rafter
Our Rating: ★★★★☆ :: SHORT & SWEET :: Read Our Full Review >>

Category: Games / Puzzle
Released: 2010-01-18
Price: $0.99

Doodle Bomb
Back when I looked at Doodle Bomb, I just didn’t find it challenging enough, and it took too long to reach the harder “master” levels. The app has since been updated with additional levels—10 extra “master” missions and 5 normal levels— new physics devices like anti-gravity control, and the ability to jump straight into the hard levels. There’s also a lite version if you were on the fence before. It’s still not the most challenging physics game out there, but these new tweaks are nevertheless appreciated.

Doodle Bomb: Physics Puzzle with a Bang
Our Rating: ★★★½☆ :: DECENT :: Read Our Full Review >>

Category: Games / Puzzle
Released: 2010-01-12
Price: $1.99

Doodle Bomb Lite: Physics Puzzle with a Bang

Category: Games / Arcade
Released: 2010-02-20
Price: FREE

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More Physics-y Goodness: Angry Birds, Rafter, and Doodle Bomb Updates

iPhone Gaming Studio ngmoco :) Buys Mac/iPhone Developer Freeverse

ngmoco_buys_freeverse

ngmoco, maker of such free-to-play (with in-app purchases) game hits like Touch Pets and Eliminate has just raised a cool $25 million in funding and bought long time Mac and iPhone developer Freeverse of Skee-Ball and Flick Fishing fame. Techcrunch spoke to ngmoco CEO, Neil Young who said it was all about scale and acceleration:

He expects ngmoco to put out about about 20 new games this year, and the newly-acquired Freeverse team to nearly match that.

In addition to rolling out wave after wave of new iPhone games, Young also plans to open up an SDK to ngmoco’s Plus+ system so that other developers can more easily tap into it.

We just look forward to Eliminate-ing some Skee-Ball’ers in crossover action! But the question we have for you is this — do you like the free-to-play with in-app purchases model? (i.e. you get the game for free but can buy food or energy or power-ups or whatever inside the game). And how do you feel about all of ngmoco — and now all of Freeverse’s games going that way?

iPhone Gaming Studio ngmoco :) Buys Mac/iPhone Developer Freeverse is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

February 20, 2010

‘Paperboy, ‘Super Pipeline’ Coming for ‘C64 for iPhone’

Last month we reported that a number of highly notable retro titles are on the way as DLC for Manomio / Kiloo's C64 for iPhone [App Store] emulator. We've just gotten an update from the developers, naming the first of the upcoming releases.

The first new games out of the gate will be Super Pipeline and Super Pipeline II from Taskset as well as Paperboy from Elite. The Super Pipeline games will cost $0.99, while Paperboy will go for $1.99 as in-game DLC. Following these first titles into the app will be several as yet unnamed free titles.

The developers previously indicated that the app's forthcoming v1.5 update will be focused on usability and playability, with some control and UI tweaks. Kiloo has just pointed further down the road to the v1.6 update that will follow, which they indicate will bring the notable update of customizable controls. We're glad the folks behind C64 for iPhone are keeping the ball rolling for retro fans like myself.

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‘Paperboy, ‘Super Pipeline’ Coming for ‘C64 for iPhone’

February 12, 2010

Rumor: Google As The iPhone’s Default Search Engine: $100 Million/Year

We heard before about Apple getting kickbacks from Google for letting them be the iPhone’s default search engine. The juicy question here is however: how much is such a (priceless) deal worth?

Well, according to Business Insider’s sources, it’s about a $100 million per year.

While this doesn’t tell us if the spot is up for sale, or if Microsoft would be ready to match that number, we see once again that, everything has its price.

[via Gizmodo]

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Rumor: Google As The iPhone’s Default Search Engine: $100 Million/Year

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