Category: I-phone

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Music Playback Possible in iPhone’s Safari Browser [Grooveshark, Take Note]

8tracks on iPhone

I discovered something amazing about the iPhone today. While I never thought it was possible, it turns out that you can actually play music through the Safari browser.

After a friend of mine posted a mix from 8tracks on Facebook, I clicked through to the website on my iPhone and hit the play button. I expected nothing to happen, but it actually played back the songs! Not only that, but I exited Safari and the music continued to play. Don’t believe me? See for yourself: TSN mix on 8tracks.

Why is this huge? Because this capability opens the door for developers to build powerful mobile music web apps that do not have to pass through Apple’s strict app approval process. The Grooveshark app comes to mind.

When Grooveshark announced it had finally released its Grooveshark for iPhone app last year, I was ecstatic. At first, Grooveshark was repeatedly denied the right to host their app in the App Store, so they released an app that was available to jailbroken iPhones only.

But after a year of working to meet Apple’s requirements, Grooveshark released its official App Store app and pulled the jailbreak app. Luckily, I downloaded the new iPhone app immediately, because in a matter of days (five to be exact), the app was removed from the App Store due to a complaint from a music label.

Today, only those who were lucky enough to snatch the app can use Grooveshark on their iPhones. The rest of you are out of luck until Grooveshark comes to an agreement with Apple over an acceptable Grooveshark app for the App Store. Unless…

What if Grooveshark used the same technology that 8tracks is using to enable music playback through the Safari browser? I’m not sure what technology 8tracks uses to accomplish this (maybe this github codebase for 8track mobile can offer some insight — jquery? HTML5?), but the fact is 8tracks has demonstrated that music playback is possible through Safari.

Grooveshark, get to work! Avoid all the Apple App Store nonsense and build a web app instead.

Most websites with a music player are not compatible with the iPhone, so I always assumed Apple placed a limitation on Safari to not allow music playback. After all, allowing web applications to play music through Safari would mean giving up control of a huge aspect of Apple’s business, namely iTunes. Apparently I was wrong. 8tracks proves that you can indeed play music through Safari.

The merits of web apps versus native App Store apps are certainly debatable, but no one can debate that a web app is better than no app at all. With the advent of HTML5 and Apple’s commitment to support the open web, web apps are becoming viable alternatives to native iPhone applications.

Were you previously aware of web apps that could play back music from the Safari browser? Are you as excited as I am about the potential for a Grooveshark web app?

Music Playback Possible in iPhone’s Safari Browser [Grooveshark, Take Note] is a post from Apple iPhone Review.

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Rumor: Future Jerusalem Apple Store to house the world’s first "Apple Digital Library"

Okay, make of this what you will, but the Jerusalem Post is reporting that Apple is set to open up “a giant Apple store and education center” in the city within the next three years. Apple is working with Bet Yair real estate to open up a 50,000-square-foot Apple Store at the entrance to Jerusalem, the Post says.

The report goes on to claim that Apple directors in Israel recently toured the prospective site and that they want to bring the 50,000-square-foot store to Jerusalem for “symbolic reasons.” Most interestingly of all, the Jerusalem Apple Store will reportedly hold the world’s first Apple Digital Library, which would be open to the public.

As to what the Apple Digital Library will contain, the Jerusalem Post didn’t say, but it’s hard to see Apple, which makes a decent chunk of change from distributing digital media, opening digital libraries where you could presumably check out e-books, movies and other digital wares.

The Jerusalem Post also points out that the rumored location of the Jerusalem Apple Store is set to become the city’s high tech corridor, with a 15-screen cinema and a high-speed Jerusalem-Tel Aviv train and light rail stop.

Israel has no official Apple retail outlets, although the iDigital chain serves as an authorized reseller in the country.

Rumor: Future Jerusalem Apple Store to house the world’s first “Apple Digital Library” originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zapd allows website creation from iPhone sans social networking

Inkd, the startup formerly known as PressPlane, launched Zapd over the weekend. It’s a free iOS app that allows you to create and publish websites from your iPhone. “Create beautiful websites. In 60 seconds.” the makers of Zapd vow, combining photos with premade layouts to create instant sites, ala Tumblr. Think iWeb for your iPhone.

After launching the app, you’re presented with a number of layouts that remind me of various Tumblr sites. You can tap on a text, photo or link widget to add content. Before you publish, you can either sign up for your own Zapd account or link it with your Facebook account. From there, you can preview your site or publish it, sending post announcements to Facebook, Twitter and email at the same time.

Zapd doesn’t have the social networking aspects of Tumblr, which makes it a good alternative for someone who wants to make a quick website for sharing with a few people. Though it’s geared for iPhone users, those with an iPad 2 can also take advantage of the photo features. It’s simple enough that those less tech-savvy members of your family can use it without confusion to make a nice-looking mobile photo album or travel journal.

Zapd allows website creation from iPhone sans social networking originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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App Review: Viking Lords is good fun, but could be "borrowing" too much

viking lords

Sending miniature warriors — cavalry, spearmen, archers, dwarves and giants — into pretend battles has a long tradition, and there are already plenty of ways to do so on your iDevice. We looked at Ex Illis a while back, which used your iPhone as a scorekeeper for your physical miniatures, and there is no shortage of Risk and Stratego games in the App Store. Today we’ll take a peek at a third: Viking Lords, a US$3.99 iPad app that is fun to play, but has a big potential problem.

Viking Lords is an iteration of Richard Borg’s popular BattleLore game system (also used in Memoir ’44 and evolved from his Commands and Colors System), and this can be seen as a good and bad thing. It’s kind of a good thing, because the original BattleLore tabletop board game is out of print and expensive right now. BattleLore was first published by Days of Wonder in 2006, but the rights now belong to Fantasy Flight, which will reprint the game in France. It’s a bad thing because this app appears to be, pretty simply, theft of intellectual property. According to the developers, “We have had inspiration from various computer games as well as card and tabletop games. Attempt has been to try to combine the best from both worlds.” Rumor has it that Borg is looking into legal action against Puffin Software, the app’s developers.

Since you cannot trademark game mechanics, any legal outcome is uncertain. Still, don’t be surprised if this app suddenly disappears from the App Store. Perhaps it will return one day as a licensed version of either BattleLore or Memoir ’44. We don’t condone any sort of IP rip-offs, but I wanted to review this game for two reasons: A) it’s an iOS “tabletop” board game, and that’s kind of my thing, and B) I wanted to show the people who do have the rights to the game that there is an interest in porting this sort of thing over to digital devices. Plus, since Apple is still allowing the app to exist, we’ll take a moment to review it. If a miniatures strategy game sounds interesting to you, read on and decide if you want to support Puffin or sit this one out and wait for an official port to hit your iPad.

Continue reading App Review: Viking Lords is good fun, but could be “borrowing” too much

App Review: Viking Lords is good fun, but could be “borrowing” too much originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hey Apple, WWDC is broken

Thinking about registering for WWDC 2011 during June 6-10? Um, too late. The premiere Apple developer event, affectionately known as “dubdub” to many of its participants, is already sold out, as we posted a short while ago.

If you were traveling or in meetings today, you may have missed out entirely on the opportunity.

Listen, Apple, if your event sells out in 10 hours, you’re oversubscribed and under-serving your community. Just 10 hours, people — 10 hours. That’s just crazy. The Beatles won’t even be there.

Continue reading Hey Apple, WWDC is broken

Hey Apple, WWDC is broken originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wedding proposed via engraved iPad 2

We think this might be cheating a little bit, but we’ll let you decide: 9to5Mac reader Jordan C. wrote in to say that he’s proposed to his girlfriend courtesy of a custom-engraved iPad. He ordered one with “Will you marry me?” engraved on it, and when it showed up last Monday, he carted his girlfriend out (in the California rain we had last week, no less) to the Redwood Forests and knelt down to propose to her with Apple’s magical device underneath “the largest tree in the world.”

Very cute story, and congrats to the happy couple. But Jordan’s now-fiance Jessica was reportedly a little more excited for the tablet than the nuptials; she followed up her “yes” with a “Now give me my iPad!” Oh, Jordan. You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into, buddy. Above is a picture of the bride to be, with her true love presumably standing just off camera. But then again, she sure does seem to love that iPad, right?

Wedding proposed via engraved iPad 2 originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 19:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Still more iPhone alarm clock issues in the UK

You’d think that after the clock returned to Daylight Saving Time a little while back, iOS clocks would be back to normal, but no. Macworld is reporting that iPhone users in the UK are having even more issues with their device clocks, with some alarms not going off and others going off at the wrong time. At this point, the issue seems to simply be old versions of iOS out there — Apple has, of course, been dealing with this one for a while, so the latest update to version 4.3.1 should fix the issues.

Britain also moved from Greenwich Mean Time to British Summer Time over the weekend, which could have caused some confusion. At any rate, if you had issues, make sure your iOS device is updated, and hopefully this will be the end of the problems we’ve seen with clocks.

Still more iPhone alarm clock issues in the UK originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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