Category: I-phone

Rainbow Silo was started by a single, independent developer with the goal of creating cool applications and games for iOS. Rainbow Silow apps include Almost DSLR, iPrivacy Manager, and iPocketMemory.

Mobile Orchard:Tell us about Rainbow Silo.

RS:I made Rainbow Silo to make fun games and useful applications for everyone. I am sorry that it’s taking a long time to make and update an application. It is because I couldn’t convince my friends to work with me. I have to plan, design, and program all by myself. But I will try my best to make cool applications. So please stay tuned.

MO:How did you get into iPhone app development?

RS:I never played video games before and was never friendly with computers, phones, and other devices. But one of my friends taught me how to play games using an iPhone. I loved it! I became so addicted to the games and decided to make one myself. So I tried making relatively simple applications first to study programming. Hope I can make cool games soon.

MO:What changes the iPhone/iOS were you most excited to see?

RS:It is great to see the devices are getting much better and the SDK is getting better too. Making it easier for developers.

MO:Which app has been the biggest challenge for you as far as development goes?

RS:I made three applications so far : iPocketMemory, iPrivacy Manager, and almost DSLR. All of them were challenges to me because I was very new to iPhone development. But if I have to choose one, I would pick almost DSLR because I updated the application many times and each of the updates was quite a challenge. I learned so much about programming making them. There are still more updates to come!

MO:Do you think it is a good time to get into iPhone app development?

RS:Well, I started quite late and there are too many developers and too too many application on the app store. I think the best time was the first year when Apple opened the app store. But I believe that it is still quite a good market if you have a great idea and endless enthusiasm.

MO:What tips would you give someone who is just starting out developing apps?

RS:Plan simple first and make sure to finish it! I think it is easy to plan for a good application but it’s hard to finish a project on time.

MO:Any plans to create apps for the iPad? If yes, why?

RS:Yes I am planning to make iPad applications too. I have some in my mind but I was too busy updating other applications. Although I use iPad mostly for games, I think it is a great device for both games and utilities. And iPad market seems to be growing very quickly. So I would like to try to make some cool stuff for iPad. Hope I can make them soon.

MO:Finally, what is your favorite app?

RS:Plant vs Zombies and Rummikub.

MO:Anything else you would like to add?

RS:I guess it is impossible to satisfy all users but I will try my best to make my applications better and better by updating them as much as possible.
There are more updates and other new applications/games to come. So please stay tuned.

MO:Thank you very much for taking the time to do this interview and best of luck to you in your future iOS endeavors.

The person behind Rainbow Silo is a great individual and iOS developer. Please support them by purchasing their apps.

Here’s one open source game engine for iOS4 that continues to impress me with its rich features and abilities.  The Galaxy Engine is a full game development kit for aspiring iPhone and iPad game developers – complete with a 3D graphics engine – that apparantly uses OpenGL ES platform, a sound engine that uses OpenAL and game center.

One also gets access to tools that are included for level editor, terrain editor, model editor, particle editor and shader IDE.  The tool kit can also be used for Mac development. It is licensed under BSD terms – which makes it pretty impressive for the zero cost price.

Below is a 10 minute video that will walk you through all the features and the capabilities of the Galaxy Game Engine –

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here is a brief extract from JAM studios Google Code site. More can be found by visiting the link at the end of this post.

What is Galaxy Engine?

Galaxy Engine is a complete game development package for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. It is programmed in Cocoa and uses the OpenGL, OpenGL ES, and OpenAL libraries to give you a powerful core with direct access to iPhone SDK features such as Game Center. Galaxy Engine is designed with indie developers in mind. Which means that it is designed to be as efficient and flexible as possible. It also is one of the only Open Source game engines to include critical tools for game development such as: Level Editor, Terrain Editor, Model Viewer, Particle Editor, and Shader IDE. It also includes features such as: vertex animation, advanced lighting, dynamic shadows, vertex and pixel shaders, normal mapping, parallax mapping, and massive outdoor environments.

Why use Galaxy engine?

Intuitive complete object orientated Objective-C framework designed in the same style as Cocoa allows you to quickly write your game with a relatively small learning curve compared to other C++ based systems. Galaxy engine is extremely flexible and not based on a specific game type which allows you start on your game no matter what it is on day one. Comprehensive source code allows you to confidently configure, edit, and expand the engine right out of the box. Extensive documentation allows you to quickly understand how classes work and how you can use them. Proven stability used in several commercial products from iPhone games to space shuttle simulation software. Powerful and stable tools developed over several years with consistent and clean interfaces will save your company tons of time in programming and game content creation. Native cross platform support with graphics abstraction layer and automatic compilation of all resources to platform specific formats allowing you to develop for iPhone, iPad, and Mac all the time with minimal code and resource changes. JAM Studios and the open source community will continue to support the Galaxy engine by adding new features and updates to the base framework and all its tools so you can be sure it will remain competitive and continue to expand its feature set.

If you want to get started and download the source code etc, please visit the Google Code repository for Galaxy Game Engine.

South Korea’s KT Corporation will begin taking iPad pre-orders “this week.” Initially banned by the Korea Communications Commission, the iPad eventually passed inspection and has been highly anticipated by customers. KT Corp. hopes to begin shipments in November. All models will be sold, though a firm release date was not available as of this writing.

Meanwhile, KT Corp. competitor SK Telecom is preparing to release the Galaxy Tablet. SK holds about half of the country’s wireless market. The heat will be on in South Korea when this tablet battle commences.

[Via The Mac Observer]

iPad pre-orders to begin in Korea this week originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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British photographer David Sims is rumored to have been shooting a TV ad for the next generation iPad in New York City recently. According to 9to5 Mac, the shoot took place at Pier 59.

As with most rumors, details are few and far between. Sources say that current-model iPads were used in the shoot, which will be replaced in post-production. Apparently security was very tight and all participants were required to sign non-disclosure agreements (you can see how well that worked).

After the break you’ll find a video of an ad David shot for perfume. It’s certainly got an old-school iPod ad feel to it, yes?

Continue reading iPad 2 ads being shot in New York City?

iPad 2 ads being shot in New York City? originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mac fans in China who can’t get their hands on a real MacBook Air can pick up the next best thing something that would make Steve Jobs and Jony Ive nauseous: an 11.6″ MacBook Air clone.

Made by China’s E-Stary, the HY118 (gotta love that name) has the guts of a standard netbook, including a typical 160GB hard disk, an Intel Atom N270 CPU and 1GB of RAM. For a few bucks more, you can get the HY118 equipped with a genuine Apple logo!

As you’d expect, it’s not the most perfect clone. It’s more like a clone with irradiated DNA. First, it runs WIndows 7 instead of Mac OS X 10.6. The specs aren’t listed, but it looks like this MacBook Air has been snarfing KFC Double Downs and put on a bit of weight. It’s definitely thicker and weighs in at 2.97 pounds. There’s a cheesy black bezel around the display, which at 1366 x 768 pixels matches the resolution of the real 11.6″ MacBook Air. The font used for the “realistic” looking model label isn’t even close to Apple’s standard.

For about the equivalent of US$260, the HY118 also comes with built-in Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and a pair of USB 2.0 ports. If you’re not too happy with the looks of this MBA clone, you can always buy a Mem-Tech “Mini MAC” clone instead. Check out a side shot of the HY118 on the next page.

[via Electronista]

Continue reading Chinese 11.6″ MacBook Air clone needs to go on a diet

Chinese 11.6″ MacBook Air clone needs to go on a diet originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of the key elements that allowed Apple to make the new MacBook Air so slim was the elimination of traditional drive packaging for the solid-state drive (SSD). Rather than installing the flash memory in a case that could be installed in place of a spinning drive, the SSD looks like an old-school DRAM stick with exposed chips and the interface contacts along one end.

Toshiba is now offering these blade-type SSDs in the aftermarket in the same 64, 128, and 256GB sizes found in the 11- and 13-inch Airs. They even have the same part number as the originals, indicating that Toshiba may be the OEM supplier. Apple has designed the Air to try and prevent end-user serviceability, but if you can find a five-point Torx screwdriver, you can perform a drive upgrade.

It’s not yet known if the 256GB drive will fit into the 11-inch Air (a combination not offered by Apple) since the largest stick is marginally thicker than the other two parts. There’s no word on pricing or availability, but it seems likely that we’ll soon see computers from other manufacturers using these parts as well.

In the meantime, PhotoFast has also produced a SSD upgrade kit for the MacBook Air that boosts internal storage to 256GB and turns the machine’s original 64GB drive into a USB 3.0 device.

Continue reading Toshiba introduces MacBook Air-type solid-state drives

Toshiba introduces MacBook Air-type solid-state drives originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Viz Media, LLC introduced its first iPad app this past week, Viz Manga, and it’s something that I’ve personally waited a long time to see.

I’ve been a manga fan for years, ever since I saved my allowance as a teen to buy $18 copies of Ranma 1/2 in the mid-90s. A good section of my bookcase is devoted to volumes in both English and the original Japanese.

As, first, the Kindle, then the iPad were introduced, I looked at both of these devices as not only a more convenient and cost-effective way of obtaining more series, but also as a chance to hopefully cut down on the frequent pirating that goes on in the manga (and anime) world. Hundreds will take the latest chapters of well-known, licensed series, such as Bleach and One Piece, then translate and release the chapters online within days of the Japanese release. While Viz, one of the larger companies out there, has taken strides toward getting chapters of the English releases done at the same time as the Japanese, it’s not fast enough for a very picky community that wants their fix before the releases have even hit the printing press.

There is manga out there that’s available for the Kindle and iPhone, but these are niche titles. TOKYOPOP took a step in the right direction of making more mainstream work available by releasing Hetalia through the comiXology app. Dark Horse introduced more digital content in October, but that focused more on traditional comic books than their manga titles. There is also an iPad app coming from Yen Press. But by Viz opening its own store on the iPad, we’re finally getting to see the mainstream manga releases like Bleach, Naruto, Dragon Ball, and more in a legal, digital format, and I couldn’t be happier.

Continue reading Viz brings mainstream manga to the iPad

Viz brings mainstream manga to the iPad originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In April of 2009, Apple announced the pending discontinuation of its .Mac Homepage service. A formal date was set in October, and that date is today.

Your sites won’t be gone for good, however. To find them, open your iDisk and navigate to the Sites folder. There you’ll find all of the HTML pages that made up your Homesite. Likewise, pictures and movies will be found in the Pictures and Movies folder.

Note that publishing with iWeb will not be affected by this change. So long, Homepages! Thanks for all the fish.

.Mac Homepage shutting down today originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh, Steve Jobs, you certainly do know how to get tongues wagging. During last quarter’s earnings call he attacked Google’s stance that Android is the superior mobile OS because it is “open,” restating the debate into terms of “integrated versus fragmented” instead — with iOS on the integrated side, of course. He went so far as to cite Tweetdeck’s analysis that it had to deal with “more than one hundred” flavors of Android when developing its Twitter client — something that seems to have ruffled its feathers.

Google’s Andy Rubin responded with a rather elegant tweet (shown at the top of this article) that claims to demonstrate just how open Android really is, although our own Victor Agreda Jr wasn’t convinced of the relevance. However the real story of how open Android is and isn’t — and of what that means — is far more complex than can be captured in a tweet.

Continue reading Dissecting Android’s openness

Dissecting Android’s openness originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While corporate, scientific, entertainment industry, and university buyers of the soon-to-be-dead Xserve are bemoaning the loss of the rack-mounted powerhouse, Steve Jobs has reportedly told a French Xserve customer “hardly anyone was buying them.”

A reader of the French MacGeneration website sent Jobs an email complaining about the pending end-of-life of the Xserve and wondering why Apple hasn’t considered allowing virtualization of Mac OS X Server under VMWare or Microsoft’s HyperV, or license the Xserve technology to another vendor. Jobs replied in his usual terse manner.

Comments on my Friday post about Xserve show that there is widespread dissatisfaction with Apple’s decision in the server administration community. AFP548 user mcal27 has even started a petition in an attempt to persuade Apple to change its mind about the decision. Unfortunately, such petitions have a dismal record of success.

One of our commenters speculated that Apple might be considering a new Mac blade server, which is not entirely out of the question. Apple loves minimalist design, and blade servers are the epitomy of minimalism — a complete server on a board which slides into a rack-mounted chassis. A lot of blades can be packed into a standard 42U equipment rack, in much higher density and lower cost than the Xserve. However, it’s odd that Apple didn’t make an announcement of a new server technology prior to dropping the axe on the Xserve.

[via Electronista]

Steve Jobs says hardly anyone was buying the Xserve originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Tango Remote Music Player performs a neat trick and does it for free: it links any two iOS devices on a wireless network, allowing one to be a music source and the other to be a remote control.

To get going, Tango needs to be on both devices. One device is set to play its on-board music; the other device serves as the remote. In my case, I used my iPhone as a music source while it was plugged into some external speakers. My iPad discovered the iPhone, and I saw playlists, albums, and tracks. I could play anything I wanted from the iPad. Of course it also works the other way, and you can have an iPod touch substituting for the iPad or iPhone.

The only issue I had was that the two devices could not link if Bluetooth was activated. There is an on-screen note about this, so if Tango’s not working, Bluetooth is the first thing you should check. Hopefully this isn’t permanent — I’d like to see the developers add Bluetooth linking between iOS devices, rather than requiring Wi-Fi. (Note: The developers says you can link with Bluetooth, something I didn’t try. you just can’t have WiFi and BT on at the same time and have the WiFi work.)

Tango may be a bit of a niche product because it solves a problem that only a few people might have, but it works well and does the job at no cost. Assuming you have multiple iOS devices, I would definitely give this app a go. It has some built-in help and doesn’t require deep thought to get it up and running. Check the gallery to see what it looks like running on an iPhone.

Tango links your iOS devices for remote music control originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Stoneship was released earlier this year exclusively on the App Store, and it’s got quite a pedigree. It was created by Cyan Worlds, the creators behind the classic game Myst, one of the most-loved PC games of all time. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your gaming tastes), Stoneship is a completely different game. While there are some elements of exploration and puzzles to solve, Stoneship is much more of an arcade title than straight adventure.

In Stoneship, you are the captain of a British frigate, and it’s your job to not only explore a series of Caribbean Islands but also set up and defend them against the invading pirate hordes. When you start a map, you get a set number of turns to split among exploration, creating and transferring defenses around, and fighting various findings on the map. After those turns end, you have to defend against a set of pirates; if you haven’t moved your troops to the right places and cleaned up the map enough, you might lose all of the great towns you’ve built up.

It’s an interesting game, but it’s kind of lame that things are mostly out of your hands (you do press some buttons to actually run the battles, but mostly you’ll make or break them early on). It’s also a little frustrating to always have that turn limit knocking at the door, but the game is well-produced and good fun. It just recently got a clean-up update, and the next update is supposed to bring Game Center integration and a few more goodies. If you’re willing to put a little thought into the way you play, check out Stoneship on the App Store right now for US$2.99.

TUAW’s Daily App: Stoneship: The Curse of a Thousand Islands originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Friday’s news hasn’t really sunk in yet for most Mac admins and server-lovers, but it’s true: the Xserve is heading to that great rackmount in the sky. Whether you’re deeply bereft or couldn’t care less, you’re welcome to join us tonight on the TUAW Talkcast. We’ll be kicking things off at 10pm Eastern Standard Time, so be sure to set a 2nd alarm.

To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the Web UI, just click the “TalkShoe Web” button on our profile page at 10 pm on Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (take advantage of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 — during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8.

If you’ve got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac or your PC, you can connect via the free Gizmo or X-Lite SIP clients or by using the TalkShoe client’s ShoePhone tool; basic instructions are here.

We’ll kick things off at 10pm ET/ 7pm PT. See you there!

Xserve, we hardly knew ye: a requiem tonight at 10p ET on the Talkcast originally appeared on TUAW on Sun, 07 Nov 2010 18:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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