Category: I-phone

Back in February we told you that the popular Mojang sandbox game Minecraft would be making its official debut on iOS later this year (there had previously been an unofficial Minecraft for iOS). While it’s still on schedule to debut for iOS in 2011, today Gamasutra broke the news that Minecraft will launch on the Sony Xperia Play first before it comes to other Android and iOS devices.

Minecraft originally debuted in 2009 as a Java game and allowed players to build worlds out of colorful cubes. While most traditional video games have invisible walls or visible barriers that restrict where players can go, Minecraft is a sandbox game where players can roam anywhere in the game’s world.

The Minecraft game released with the Sony Xperia Play will feature controls that work with the handset’s physical joysticks, but future Android and iOS versions will only allow for control via touchscreen. There’s no word on how similar the game will be to the desktop version, but a Mojang employee told Gamasutra, “When playing on smartphones you will have a different screen size compared to PC, different hardware, different attention spans, and thus the game needs to be customized to fit the mobile specifications.” Currently there is no pricing available for the game and no firm release dates, although Mojang is expected to reveal more details at E3 in June.

Minecraft iOS debut set for after Sony Xperia launch originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 26 May 2011 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hey, you remember iSync, right? You there, with the RAZR, you remember iSync? I remember using iSync to somewhat handily sync my contacts and calendars way back in the dark ages when phones had monochrome screens and most iPods had spinning plates inside them. Then, one day, it quit working and joined the long list of “applications time and Victor forgot.”

Well, goodbye, iSync, we barely used ye. Lion users are telling us that iSync is nowhere to be found in Apple’s next OS, along with FrontRow, Java runtime and Rosetta (as AppleInsider reported earlier this year). One wonders if a better solution will take its place (MobileMe?), or if Apple felt it was legacy cruft needing to go.

What’s next on the chopping block, Grapher?

No more iSync in Lion originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 26 May 2011 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A week ago, I did my public service duties and linked the MacDefender protection and removal guide that Steve Sande wrote to my Facebook wall. Then I braced for the comments. Luckily, none of the taunts I expected about Macs now being subject to malware came to light. What I did get was general surprise that Mac users had to be aware of such a thing.

“I thought Macs couldn’t get viruses and such,” one commenter said.

Sadly, it’s not the case any longer. As fast as we’re educating people on how to fight MacDefender, and Apple is developing a patch to fight it, the malware is morphing and coming up with different methods of worming into your system — including now being able to install sans password. It’s a battle that Windows users have long grown tired of, but Mac users are still blinking their eyes and not quite believing that it’s our turn.

Macworld published an excellent piece on what MacDefender really means to the Mac community. As Macworld says, even though this is the monster under the bed that Mac users have evaded until now, it doesn’t mean a malware apocalypse is upon us.

Continue reading In a MacDefender world, practice constant vigilance

In a MacDefender world, practice constant vigilance originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 26 May 2011 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Matt Tubergen heads Recharge Studios, a wholly owned subsidiary of W3i that invests in the development and marketing/distribution of freemium mobile games.  W3i is a market leader in distributing and monetizing apps with over 500 million apps distributed for W3i clients. Recharge Studios is actively seeking new investment opportunities, if you have a great idea for a game contact us.

Everywhere we go we read about the battle between Android and iOS. It’s simply impossible to get away from the conversation of which platform is better, where’s the money, which monetizes better, what the cost of porting is and even which OS is sexier…  Setting all the noise aside I wanted to do a simple comparison to see what the actual popularity is for freemium on each platform.

In my search I choose to do a simple count of the top grossing free apps. I also segregated the counts out by relative deck placement (i.e. top 10 apps vs. top 200).

iOS has twice the amount of freemium apps in the top 200 grossing yet both have similar ratios in the top 10 grossing. What does this tell me? Freemium opportunities on Android exist, but the market has yet to meet the demand. See below for full details.

Why go freemium on Android?

Beyond the fact that freemium has exploded on iOS, there are many other reasons to go freemium on Android. The first and foremost reason to move your business model to Android is due to the ramped increase in piracy. I have heard multiple horror stories from AAA premium developers that for every 1 paid install they are seeing 100 pirated installs…. Ouch!

Other reasons for going freemium on Android include cost of user acquisition. Predictable user acquisition and discoverability is far worse in the Androids market comparable to iOS. Going free allows for a greater opportunity to increase distribution without risking cash for means of unknown distribution sources.

Do you have a question about freemium gaming or a topic you’d like us to explore? Let us know in the comments or catch us on twitter @rechargestudios or @w3i.

Freemium Game Blogs are published in partnership with the series on W3i’s corporate blog.

Appcelerator Titanium Mobile is an extremely popular development tool, and the ability to extend it through the use of modules gives you the potential to go beyond the functionality included in the Titanium Mobile SDK and add any functionality available with the iOS SDK.

After posting about a couple of OpenGL ES tutorials last yesterday I noticed a number of searches coming into this site for an Appcelerator OpenGL ES module so I decided to see what I could find.

While there is no official module, I did find an OpenGL ES module created by a developer in Japan that even supports the popular Particle Designer tool.

You can find the OpenGL ES Module here:
https://github.com/atsusy/tiopengles

There are a couple of blog posts related to the module with some source code (they’re in Japanese so you may need to translate) – Titanium Mobile Module For OpenGL ES ,  Titanium Mobile OpenGL ES Module Particles.

I also found the developer has also created an augmented reality marker detection module which looks pretty cool too:
https://github.com/atsusy/tiarmarker

The related blog post is here: Titanium Mobile AR-Marker Detection Module

If you are a Titanium Mobile Dev, and want to check out some advanced modules either for use or just to see how it’s done you may want to check out these modules.

Added to the Appcelerator Titanium Mobile Tutorial And Guide page.

©2011 iPhone, iOS 4, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

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Yesterday I mentioned a good hands-on OpenGL ES tutorial for absolute beginners to OpenGL ES 2.0.

I received a message about another set of iOS OpenGL ES tutorials covering many different topics in-depth.  If you have trouble grasping some of the concepts then this could definitely be for you.

This one is not as hands-on as the tutorial I mentioned yesterday – covering many topics from a more abstract point of view (which some will prefer). In addition to the beginner concepts also gets into many more advanced concepts  with a multitude of very useful code snippets, and diagrams.

You can find the tutorials in the OpenGL ES tutorial collection, and on the developer’s website here (split into 3 parts):
Basic concepts of 3D world and OpenGL (Beginners)
OpenGL ES 2.0 in depth (Intermediate)
Jedi skills in OpenGL ES 2.0 and 2D graphics (Advanced)

A very good set of tutorials for those learning OpenGL ES – also depending on when you read this you may want to check out the OpenGL ES Tutorial And Guide page where I am attempting to organize the many OpenGL ES posts made on this site in the last two years.

©2011 iPhone, iOS 4, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

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I took a stroll down the startup and “battle” aisles at TechCrunch Disrupt this week. The startups were largely focused on social media plays, though not to exclusion, and surprisingly not all of the had associated apps for mobile devices. That said, there were definitely some to keep an eye on. The “battle” aisle was for companies involved in Disrupt’s daily battles, where companies with somewhat similar services duked it out on stage in front of a panel of judges. In some cases we’ll have deeper reviews of the apps described below, so stay tuned.

Do@ – iOS app, free

This oddly named app is an ingenious new mobile search engine that was highly regarded at Disrupt. By using your social graph to influence results and pulling results from a variety of sites pertinent to what you’re looking for, I was impressed with the overall relevance of searches.

For example, by searching “inception @movies” you are presented with web view pages around the movie inception. Pages from IMDB, Fandango, Wikipedia and more are shown clearly and you can swipe between them. If one of your friends happens to like Fandango, or if you happen to, it will show up before the others. A neat trick, although I’m anxious to see how it plays out in day to day use.

SpotOn – iOS app, free

Currently only available in New York, SpotOn is like FourSquare but influenced by your friends. It pulls in data from your social graph on Facebook and Foursquare and offers suggestions for things to do (places to see, where to eat and so on). Until it rolls out wider it’ll be hard to gauge how useful this will be, but I do see the potential. Instead of having to go to Facebook and look at an event and scroll through attendees to see if your friends are attending, SpotOn saves time by showing you, say, an event going on nearby later that night that your friends are attending. It’s everything Foursquare’s guides could be, limited to your social circle and with a very direct purpose.

Spenz – iOS app, free

Similar to Mint, Spenz wants to show you what you’ve been spending your money on. Unlike Mint, the app doesn’t pull info from a bunch of places, it asks you to input that data. Of course, there are bunches of apps like that in the store, but Spenz has some nice features built in that I’ve never seen before.

For example, Spenz will note that you go to Starbucks in the morning and input an amount for coffee. When you go to input how much you spend in the morning, the “coffee” tag will be further up top than it will be in the evening. Makes sense, right? There are several little touches like that baked in to the app, making it easier to enter your data than most of the budgeting apps you’ll see out there.

Plus, Spenz has a website component, and every time you input your data it is pushed to the site where you can track your spending there. We’ll have a deeper review later, as the Spenz founder let me in on some powerful features coming soon.

GameBuilder Studio – Mac app, currently in limited beta

I spoke to founder and CEO Lavon Woods about GameBuilder Studio as it reminded me of ColdStone, an abandoned Mac OS game-builder application from many years ago. GameBuilder, when publicly available, will produce games across a variety of platforms (yes, Mac and iOS) and runs on Mac, Windows and Linux machines. It isn’t Unity, however. These games are two-dimensional, but I was impressed with the interface and workflow.

GameBuilder will build side scrollers, isometric games and more, but again, in 2D. Woods told me the studio will be free to download, but there will be licensing for developers who wish to deploy their games, with the cost varying. We’ll check in when this is publicly available and report back, but the game design geek in me liked what he saw.

Tomorrow I’ll have another roundup of startups seen at Disrupt.

As seen at TechCrunch Disrupt New York 2011, part one originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 25 May 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At first I kind of made fun of GarageBand on the iPad because I never thought anyone could make truly compelling music on a touch device. That’s all changed after I saw Cult of Mac point out George Lambro’s guitar solo on the iPad. I’ll let the music speak for itself, but I will say this is how the iPad becomes “magical,” as Apple likes to put it. It’s not so much what the device can do, but what people can do with the device.

See the video on the next page.

Continue reading Guitar solo on iPad shreds

Guitar solo on iPad shreds originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 25 May 2011 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fortune’s Apple 2.0 blog has an interesting tidbit about Apple’s stock lately. A blogger who calls himself Sammy the Walrus IV has been poking around into AAPL records, and has found out that several of Apple’s top shareholders have sold some of the stock recently.

There’s nothing shocking here (nothing outside of the usual buy and sell on the stock exchange), but the numbers are interesting, with firms like Janus Capital and Capital Research investing back into AAPL for over a billion dollars each. Four of the top 10 holders of Apple shares have sold off some this past quarter, including Goldman Sachs, who got rid of 61% of its shares, and these same top 10 holders basically determine the fate of AAPL, as they own around 25% of the company as a whole.

Again, these are all routine sales, and as you can see from the chart above, there’s still plenty of AAPL buying going on (and we’ll even state the obvious: this post should not be considered financial advice). But it’s an interesting overview of some of the core firms and shareholders behind the movements of AAPL lately.

AAPL’s top owners have cashed in some stock recently originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 25 May 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last month we told you about a Pioneer filing with the FCC that revealed something called the AppRadio. Today, Pioneer has officially showed off just what the AppRadio is — an iOS-integrated car receiver that hooks up to your iPhone or iPod touch. AppRadio features a 800 x 400 6.1-inch multitouch capacitive display that allows the user to easily navigate and interact with not only the media on your iOS device, but your apps as well.

The receiver features built-in Bluetooth and GPS, an AM/FM radio, and a video input that can be used with an optional rear view camera. The receiver can also take advantage of iOS’s Google Maps app. Pioneer is opening its AppRadio to developers, allowing them to design their apps to work in conjunction with the receiver. No apps will be stored on the receiver — everything is done through apps on your iPhone or iPod touch — but developers will be able to build in AppRadio support directly to their apps.

Right now four app developers have partnered with Pioneer including Motion-X GPS Drive, Pandora Internet Radio, Rdio streaming music, and Inrix Traffic and, as CNET points out, those apps sport AppRadio features in addition to iOS features, allowing for sending information to and from the car’s touchscreen and speakers. Some features aren’t available through the touchscreen, however, because Pioneer is trying to keep interactions as safe as possible.

No word yet on the pricing, although Pioneer is saying AppRadio should sell for “below $500” when it goes on sale June 22.

Pioneer announces iOS-integrated AppRadio receiver originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 25 May 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Earlier today we told you about the iPhone 4 launching in India on May 27th. Now Apple’s iPad 2 is set to make a splash in new markets as well. As noted by 9to5 Mac, the iPad 2 is set to go on sale in Russia, Ukraine, Chile and Brazil this Friday.

Our Russian readers will be able to pick up Apple’s latest tablet at a host of stores, including MediaMarkt, Beliy Veter Cifrovoi, M.Video, ION, Technosila, Eldorado, z-Store and Re:Store. As is sadly usually the case, the iPad 2 will be much more expensive in Russia than it is in the US or Europe. The 16 GB Wi-Fi version starts at 18,990 rubles, or US$667, while the 64 GB 3G version comes in at a whopping 30,990 rubles, or $1,088.

Not much information is available at this time as to what the cost will be and what resellers will have the iPad 2 in Brazil, but in Chile the iPad 2 will be sold at retailer Ripley.cl and in Ukraine it will be sold at the retailers iStore, Moyo, Comfy and Foxtrot. Ukrainian prices will be as high as Russian ones with the 16 GB Wi-Fi version costing the equivalent of US$670 and the 64 GB 3G version the equivalent of US$1100.

iPad 2 coming to Russia, Ukraine, Chile, and Brazil on May 27 originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 25 May 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TechnoBuffalo’s Adriana Lee has an interesting writeup that claims to go behind the scenes on Verizon’s big deal with Apple to finally sell the iPhone on a second network earlier this year. Unfortunately, this information comes from an unnamed source, so we can’t exactly vouch for its veracity. But it’s an interesting tale anyway of what the Verizon deal may have been like.

Apparently security was tight — only those who needed to know about the deal did so officially beforehand (though, honestly, we’d heard rumor after rumor about it for a long time). And actual handsets were closely guarded, with owners being required to routinely put a special code in to guarantee things hadn’t leaked out.

The post also talks about the mood at CES about the “VPhone.” I was at CES this year, and I can at least agree to the authenticity of that part — the buzz around the press rooms and show floor was that it was pretty silly that Verizon was still playing dumb about an iPhone release, and when the invites finally appeared in the middle of the busiest tech show of the year, the response was more a sigh than anything. “Really?,” we all asked. “Now?”

Of course, that release plan worked out just fine anyway. The launch turned out to be more than a solid effort, and while lots of the buzz was undoubtedly due to the actual iPhone itself, Verizon seemed to handle things well on its side also.

Thanks, Sean!

Behind the scenes on Verizon’s big deal with Apple for the iPhone originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 25 May 2011 17:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Today on TUAW TV Live I’ll be moderating a fun discussion with three different guests — not all at once, but separately so that we can have a nice orderly talk about the subjects that our guests have suggested. I already have my lineup of potential TUAW stars for today, but if you missed your chance today, I’m sure we’ll be doing this again in the near future.

From your Mac or PC, go to the next page by clicking the Read More link at the bottom of this post, and you’ll find a livestream viewer and a chat tool. The chat tool allows you to participate by asking questions or making comments.

If you’re driving somewhere and would like to watch TUAW TV Live while you’re stuck in traffic, please don’t — keep your eyes on the road! However, if someone else is doing the driving, you can watch the show on your iPhone and join the chat by downloading the free Ustream Viewing Application. If you’re on an iPad, you should be able to use the Skyfire Browser to watch the stream, although you will not be able to participate in the chat.

We’ll start at about 5 PM ET, so if you’re seeing a prerecorded show, be sure to refresh your browser until you see the live stream. For those of you who are not able to join us for the live edition, you’ll be able to view it later this evening on our TUAW Video YouTube channel and as part of the new TUAW TV Live podcast viewable in iTunes or on any of your Apple devices.

Continue reading TUAW TV Live: A trio of guests, a lot of topics

TUAW TV Live: A trio of guests, a lot of topics originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 25 May 2011 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the past couple of days, we’ve seen reports here and there of iPhones getting stuck in a restart loop. The black screen with the Apple logo shows up, holds for a while, and then disappears again; repeat ad infinitum. While it’s not clear yet exactly what’s triggering the issue (the complainants suspect that it may be a recent application update to blame), there is a tried and true way to get your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad or older iPod back to square one: either use recovery mode or do a DFU restore.

As OS X Daily explained, DFU (Device Firmware Update) mode is a means to getting your iPhone to interface with iTunes without iTunes automatically loading the latest version of iOS onto it (it skips the iBoot bootloader, for jailbreak aficionados). Differing from recovery mode — where iTunes restores your iPhone to its original factory settings but with the latest iOS and firmware — DFU mode allows you to change and choose the firmware you want to install onto your iPhone. For instance, you would use DFU mode if you want to install a previous version of iOS, jailbreak your iPhone or unlock your SIM. If (for whatever reason) standard recovery isn’t working for you to get your device back to working condition, DFU may help you out.

Remember, if you restore your phone in any fashion (via the iTunes ‘Restore’ button, recovery mode or DFU) you will lose any modifications made to unsynced content or in-app data since your last iTunes sync (game states, voice memos, notes etc.). Be cautious.

So, here’s the basic info on how to enter DFU mode (and it works for your iPod touch, too). Instructions may vary slightly by year or model; if these steps do not work, check YouTube’s extensive library of how-to demonstrations).

• Connect your iPhone to your computer via USB and launch iTunes.
• Now turn your iPhone off. Hold down the sleep / power button at the top right of your iPhone, then slide your finger across the “slide to power off” button on your iPhone’s screen. (If it won’t turn off, press Home and Sleep/Power until the screen goes dark, then release.)
• Once your iPhone is off, hold down both the sleep / power button as well as the home button for 10 seconds. Once 10 seconds has elapsed, release the sleep / power button on your iPhone, but continue to hold the home button until the the above message has appeared in iTunes telling you that your iPhone has been detected in recovery mode. (If you just want to go to recovery mode, skip the 10-second hold on both buttons and simply connect the phone while holding down Home, then wait for ‘Connect to iTunes’ screen on the phone.)
• Click OK. You’re now in DFU mode.

It’s pretty straight forward, but if you see the Apple logo or the “connect to iTunes” screen on your iPhone, you’re not in DFU mode. DFU leaves the screen of the iPhone completely black turned off.

To exit DFU mode, simply hold down the sleep / power button and the home button together until your iPhone disappears from the device list in iTunes, then turn on the iPhone as normal.

Again, for most purposes (save jailbreaking) there’s no practical difference between DFU and a regular restore, except and unless you’re in a situation where your phone won’t go into restore mode normally. Restore with care!

iPhone: What is DFU mode, and what’s the difference from recovery mode? originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 25 May 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A while back, I posted about some of my ongoing issues with iPhone navigation powerhouse Navigon, which has been my primary nav app. After that post went live, Navigon immediately contacted me to see how they could improve their product, asking for specific details of the intersections where navigation failed and I was directed in circles. I was also contacted by TomTom, who asked me to give their product a try.

A few weeks later, I’ve got to say that I’m pretty much ready to go back to Navigon. TomTom is a good product with a weak interface that gets the job done — but when it comes down to the details of how well it integrates into my driving, Navigon is the winner for me. I say this even though Navigon’s software sometimes sends me driving in circles. Navigon also has its share of GUI limitations and other quirks.

Continue reading TomTom GPS app offers good maps, terrible interface

TomTom GPS app offers good maps, terrible interface originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 25 May 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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