Category: I-phone

Anybody can fingerpaint — it’s pretty much a standard part of kindergarten curriculum — but artist Evan Roth took it a step farther with his Multi-Touch finger paintings. (Heads-up: some salty language on his site). By putting tracing paper over his iPod touch, paint on his fingers, and performing some routine tasks, Roth created six paintings that show the details of the actions he took with his device.

This struck me as similar to the work Design Language News did several months back when it analyzed fingerprint patterns left behind on an iPad’s display after using several different apps. It also reminded me a bit of a keyboard frequency sculpture that Mike Knuepfel created around the same time.

In each case, artists are taking something that’s seemingly mundane — our day-to-day interactions with devices — and creating something of possible analytical value that’s also uniquely artistic. That marriage of geeky attention to detail and artistic aspiration is really what Apple’s all about, and it’s projects like these that really highlight the art behind the technologies we use every day.

Multi-Touch finger paintings merge art with tech originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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That’s a tactic that should get SiriusXM customer’s attention. The new version of the SiriusXM app released this week has moved to version 1.6, but the app must be updated or the older version will stop working.

The satellite radio company says the app adds “required location awareness in compliance with new content provider policies”. If the app is not updated, the older version will stop working, so to avoid any surprises it would be best to get the new version. In a past update, many SiriusXM apps lost the login information, but this version seems to protect it, so after you get the new one, and it downloads some graphics, you should be good to go.

SiriusXM app needs updating or old version will stop working originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Developer Michael Gile took the stage at 360iDev in Denver to talk about the next generation of iOS development: Apple TV app development. Apple hasn’t officially released or even announced iOS apps on the Apple TV yet, but that hasn’t stopped Gile and a community of jailbreakers from diving in and getting code running on it anyway. Gile started his speech with a prediction: “Apple TV 2 will be the biggest game console in history,” he said. If Apple implements a way to play iOS games on the device directly, it’ll have a gigantic game library — it’s already larger than many of the biggest consoles in history combined.

Gile said he believes there’s still space to conquer in the living room. Xbox, Netflix, and Roku have all made bids for setting up “set-top boxes.” No one has brought about the kind of “grand strategy” that Apple likes, with a complete vertical solution for selling hardware, software, and entertainment content (through iTunes, and its install base complete with credit cards ready for purchase).

The rest of Gile’s talk was mostly demos of the code he’s already gotten running on the Apple TV. He started off with the GLTeapot, a traditional “Hello World” kind of demo used for 3D developers. He then dived into the code, showing off the interface Apple has already included on the Apple TV system (though none of it is yet officially documented or available to developers — this is all internal code used by the company to run the device). While iOS uses the UIKit framework to run most of its code, the Apple TV uses a “BackRow” (or “BR”) framework, apparently a twist on the “FrontRow” application that originated back in the days of Apple’s “experiment.” This “BRKit” does have lots of the standard UIKit ties, though Gile pointed out there are still quite a few differences in both names and functionality.

Still, he and the rest of the jailbreak community have gotten quite a bit done already. Gile showed off a navigation app similar to Apple’s own app, though hooked up to his own applications. He was able to load up and play media assets (in this case, a trailer for Sony’s Spider-Man movie), and he ran through a few other demos and functions of what the code was capable of.

But perhaps the most exciting parts of Gile’s talk were two things he wasn’t able to show off just yet. He says he’s grabbed the recently released source code for id games’ Wolfenstein 3D and Quake and has been working hard on porting it over to the Apple TV’s system, with a nice bit of success so far. Gile also announced that next month he’ll be releasing a version of the popular cocos2D iOS development platform that will also work with the Apple TV, essentially making it very easy for cocos2D developers to get their games up and running on Apple TV without issue.

Gile was quite enthusiastic about Apple TV development. He made it very clear he thinks Apple is going to go big on this iOS device in the living room, and he was quite serious about building apps for the platform in order to have them running and ready to go on day one. “I want to be the Trism of Apple TV 2,” he said (referring to the original jailbreak game that made it big when the App Store first launched), and he invited any other interested developers in the room to join him in his quest.

It’s still unclear just how Apple will approach iOS development on the Apple TV, whether it will simply extend the current SDK the way it did with the iPad or instead offer up an entirely new way to control and code apps and games. But whatever Apple decides, it’s clear Gile wants to be ready for it.

360iDev: Getting ready for apps on the Apple TV originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MacLegion has announced their fall bundle for 2011. This year’s bundle features 10 Mac apps worth US$639 for the low price of $49.95. The apps in this year’s bundle are:

• Corel Painter Essentials 4
• RapidWeaver 5
• BannerZest Pro 3
• Postbox 2.5
• DEVONthink Pro 2.2
• Swift Publisher +Extras 2.3
• Disk Drill Pro 1.4
• CheckUp 3
• Voila 3.1
• Fumy 1.5

The sale runs until September 28, and the first 9,000 customers who buy the bundle also get a copy of CleanMyMac (a $29.95 value) for free. The MacLegion bundles also entitle buyers to full after-sales support as well as valid upgrade paths for software releases, just as if you had bought each app individually from the developers.

MacLegion 2011 fall bundle now available originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Even some old-schoolers might not know this, but Apple’s more recent foray into the living room with the Apple TV wasn’t the first time it has attempted that jump. You’ve probably heard of the home console Pippin, but Apple also spent part of the ’90s working on an interactive television box, a very early predecessor to video-on-demand and what would eventually become the Apple TV. Every once in a while, a version will pop up on eBay, but it never actually went into production, so everything out there is just various prototypes still hanging around.

And here’s another one: friend of TUAW Randall Bennett has posted a few pictures of Apple’s Interactive Television Box spotted at Bell Atlantic, presumably from when they were working with Apple to set up the content delivery service. As you can see, it’s a little more unwieldy than the little black box that Apple uses today, but that logo is unmissable. This one’s named the “Pippen,” apparently — one letter off from Apple’s game console — and it has some neat Mac-like features, including the Finder: “When it boots, you see the Mac OS Finder on your TV and the inits start loading on the bottom of the screen.”

The back of the device shows an S-video and serial hookup, as well as SCART connections for a TV and a VCR. It’s a pretty wild device, but likely before its time in terms of the network infrastructure (not to mention the content marketplace) required to make it into production.

The original Apple TV, the interactive television box originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Capcom has introduced two new characters to the iOS version of Street Fighter IV (subtitled Volt), so fighters now can jump into the ring with Yun and Fei Long, making the character total on the game an impressive 22. The company has also dropped the price. It’s usually $6.99, but until next week, it’ll be available for $2.99, so grab it if you haven’t yet.

The company also has released a new iOS title called Street Fighter Collection, which includes three editions of Street Fighter II: the original, champion and the hyper-fighting edition. You may have already bought these through Capcom Arcade, but this is a standalone version outside of Capcom’s big meta-app.

And finally, the standalone version of Final Fight (also included in Capcom Arcade) is on sale for 99 cents. There’s no real reason for that one, apparently Capcom just wanted to offer up one of its games for a buck. We’ll take it!

Capcom puts apps on sale, releases new characters for Street Fighter IV originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Do you like space battles? Do you like explosions? Do you like strategy games? Gratuitous Space Battles is worth a look, then. While it isn’t perfect, I’ve spent hours playing this game because it is so much fun to zoom in to a battle and see tiny fighter ships flying around gigantic space cruisers. But first let me describe how Gratuitous Space Battles works.

You play the role of a fleet commander, and must create a fleet from somewhat limited resources. In fact, you actually “build” your ships based on a set of weapons and subsystems, and you place theses on a variety of ship chassis that range from tiny fighters to huge cruisers. You position your fleet, give a few orders (generally non-specific orders but you can set parameters to tweak the automatons piloting your ships) and set the battle in motion. During battle, which can be sped up or paused, you are a passive observer — but that’s the point. The idea is that you’ll watch your wind-up toys duke it out and scoot around the screen, as you zoom and pan to watch the mayhem. As you win battles you’re allowed to “buy” more powerful or efficient systems for your ships, and even unlock other races, which provide a variety of ship configurations to build upon.

Gratuitous Space Battles is an interesting mix of strategy and resource management. As you move around and zoom in/out you’re treated to some great visuals and sounds. For example, zooming in you’ll see each fighter (tiny compared to cruisers) flying around, shooting and you’ll hear the sounds of each weapon and explosions aplenty. It’s great fun to watch this unfold. Still, your fleet is on autopilot. You cannot change orders during battle. This is an unfortunate flaw, but it forces you to think more carefully about the orders you give before battle. I’d like to see a more thorough set of orders as well, however, as you cannot target specific enemy ships, as a strike team would do. In fact, early on you may become frustrated as your ships do some dumb things. But I found that if you experiment with the orders and create teams within your fleet, you stand a much better chance of simulating an AI. If you stick to merely placing your ships with default commands you will not be pleased with your dimwitted captains fleeing battle once their damage gets too low!

Despite these shortcomings Gratuitous Space Battles is fun, and even more fun to watch. I recommend pausing before jumping from fleet placement to battle, as that’s when the app tends to crash. But once you see what’s going on during battle you’ll see why this game is processor intensive. Each weapon has a damage counter, each ship has a plan, and all of these details can be seen when you zoom in. Or zoom way out to see the bigger picture. You cannot zoom out to see the entire battle at once, however.

Gratuitous Space Battles is $16.99, but there’s a free version as well. I recommend you check it out and see if you like the game play, but give the learning curve a chance. I play the game on a big HDTV and it’s glorious.

Daily Mac App: Gratuitous Space Battles originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone mobile game publisher Ngmoco has confirmed that it has acquired Lionside, the San Fransisco-based maker of social networking sports games on Facebook. Ngmoco is the maker of over 20 popular iPhone games, including Rolando and Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid.

There’s no word on how much the acquisition cost the iPhone game maker, but a Ngmoco spokesperson did confirm to InsideMobileApps that it did indeed acquire Lionside. Lionside’s website and Facebook Page have already been taken offline. Lionside is best known for their Facebook game NBA Legend, which at one point had as many as one million active monthly users. Though no plans have been announced it’s reasonable to assume that ngmoco will bring NBA Legend and other sports games to the iPhone platform in the future.

Ngmoco acquires Lionside, maker of sports games on Facebook originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 19:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reuters reports that two Apple-knockoff stores located in the Queens borough of New York City have been offered a settlement agreement, currently under judicial review. Apple’s proposed settlement mandates that the stores hand over all products bearing Apple’s trademarks and branding; one store called Apple Story has also agreed to change its name to something a bit less infringing.

This brings a swift end to a saga that only started a couple months ago. Counterfeited items bearing Apple’s trademarks were seized from both stores in July, which followed Apple’s initial filing of the suit only two days earlier. According to court filings, Apple hired private investigators to buy many items from both stores earlier this year in order to amass evidence for the case.

Apple has found itself a popular target for counterfeiters recently, with fake Apple Stores popping up in China around the same time as the suit against the Queens-area counterfeiters began.

Apple proposes settlement with Queens-area knockoff stores originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You’ll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes, which is perfect for a quick review of what’s happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today’s Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for listening through iTunes, click here.

No Flash? Click here to listen.

Daily Update for Sept. 15, 2011 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s the end of an era for one of iOS’ biggest ventures — OpenFeint has hired a new CEO, Naoki Aoyagi, which means company founder Jason Citron is leaving the company to head elsewhere.

OpenFeint, you’ll remember, has its roots in an iPhone game called Aurora Feint, which Citron developed a few years ago with co-founder Danielle Cassley (who left the company fairly early on). After that early title saw some success, the venture was transformed instead into a free platform for developers to share friends’ lists and other social networking features across apps, even before Apple’s own Game Center was announced. Despite the introduction of that official service, OpenFeint has remained popular, and has expanded out into Android and elsewhere. The company was bought by Japanese social network GREE earlier this year, and it’s from that company that Aoyagi comes (he was the 10th employee), taking over Citron’s role. Aoyagi reportedly plans to combine the US operations of both GREE and OpenFeint, so it’s unclear what this will all mean for developers using the service now.

As for Citron, he confirms on Twitter that it’s “time for something new.” He and his team at OpenFeint did an incredible job of building up that company and network piece by piece, so it’ll be interesting to see what he takes on next, as well as what OpenFeint ends up becoming without its founder.

OpenFeint hires new CEO, Jason Citron leaves originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bloomberg is reporting that a former Samsung manager has testified to a federal jury that he leaked confidential iPad information to a hedge fund manager before the iPad was introduced in 2010. In December 2009 ex-Samsung manager Suk-Joo Hwang met with Primary Global Research LLC executive James Fleishman and revealed to him confidential shipping information about the Samsung LCD screens it was supplying for the then yet-unannounced iPad.

“One particular thing I remember vividly was that I talked about the shipment numbers of Apple, it was about iPad,” he told the court. “This is in December 2009, before it came out with the tablet PC, they didn’t know the name then, so I talked to them about the tablet shipment estimates in that meeting.”

Hwang said that Fleishman was “very excited” to hear the news. He also noted that immediately after he told him he noticed someone who could have been an Apple employee was in the restaurant and apparently overheard his conversation. It’s unknown whether Hwang was just paranoid or if an Apple employee did indeed happen to be in the same restaurant having lunch, but soon after the meeting Samsung lost a supply contract with Apple. Then in October 2010, Hwang was approached by the FBI. In June 2011 he was fired by Samsung.

Hwang is testifying against James Fleishman, who is on trial for “two counts of conspiracy for facilitating a scheme in which employees at public companies passed confidential information to fund manager clients of Primary Global,” according to Bloomberg. Hwang was granted immunity from prosecution for his part in the scheme in return for his testimony.

Former Samsung manager testifies to leaking iPad info to hedge fund originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s a compelling Kickstarter project that iPad keyboard jockeys will like. The Levitatr keyboard is ready for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. It’s a thin aluminum thing at 12.5mm thick and features Bluetooth connectivity and keys that pop up when you need them, and recede when you don’t.

When you’re ready to type, press a small button on the left-hand side, causing the keys to rise into view, ready for use. When you’re done, press it again and they sink back into the device.

The Levitatr also offers a built-in stand for your device and LED backlit keys. Inventor James Stumpf says his ultimate goal is to get the retractable Levitatr keyboard built into the tablet of a major manufacturer.

His immediate goal, however, is to produce a batch of Levitatrs to sell. As of this writing, his project has accumulated US$15,598; short of his $60,000 goal. With over 30 days to go, there’s hope.

Good luck, James!

Levitatr iPad keyboard would offer keys on demand originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Of the many things I expected my iPad to do, ray tracing was not one of them. The ability to make realistic looking objects with accurate reflections was originally the domain of high end workstations, but over the years it has migrated down to laptop and desktop class computers.

Now the programmers at Angisoft in Germany have a pretty impressive ray trace app for the iPad. Called, appropriately, Quaternion Julia Raytracer HD, it renders quaternion julia fractals at a reasonably fast clip, and supplies some background images that can provide the reflections on the surface of the 3d object.

What you get is a kind of modern sculpture that can be seen from any angle, and with onscreen settings, you can modify the shape all you want. Of course each change requires another rendering pass, but it only takes a few seconds.

The app also allows you to render in anaglyphic 3D and the image looks great with red/blue glasses if you have some around.

The renderings you produce would make a great iPad desktop or lock screen. The app was stable throughout my testing, and the images that resulted were sharp. A few negatives should be noted. The app should provide for export to mail, some of the social networks, or even saving it to the camera roll. As it is, you have to take a screenshot by holding down the home and power button on the iPad. I’d also like to see the ability to import images of my own to use as a background, rather than be stuck with the 4 images supplied.

Still, I’m impressed to see ray tracing on an iPad. It’s not a must-have app, by any means, but I applaud the creativity and it’s a great demo. The app is US $1.99, and there is also an iPhone version for $0.99 and a stripped down free iPhone version if you want to give it a try. I’ve included some screen shots and renderings in the gallery.

Daily iPad App: Quaternion Julia Raytracer HD originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Skype has released Skype for Mac 5.4 beta, which adds Facebook integration to the VOIP app. After downloading the beta, users have the option of linking their Facebook account to their Skype account. Once linked, all Facebook friends appear in a special “Facebook” section of your Skype contacts list. Moving your cursor over a contact’s name allows you to select whatever phone number they have listed in their Facebook information and place a call to it from Skype. Double-clicking on the user’s name instantly starts a Facebook chat.

The beta also features a version of your Facebook news feed right inside the Skype app. You can see the latest news in your news feed or post a status update all from within the app. Unfortunately this news feed functionality looks like it was designed for a poor man’s Facebook mobile app, so many people will probably just opt to check their feeds on the website.

There’s one more “feature” to Skype for Mac 5.4 beta: ads! Yes, for the first time Skype users will see ads in the app (thanks, Microsoft!). However you can get around the ads by buying a Skype Premium account or keeping a balance on your Skype credit account.

You can download the Skype for Mac 5.4 beta here.

Skype for Mac 5.4 beta adds Facebook integration (and ads!) originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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