Japanese gaming company DeNA has announced plans to purchase Ngmoco for a cool US$400 million. This purchase sets quite a precedent as it represents one of the highest amounts ever paid for an iPhone application development firm.

DeNA sees the mobile social gaming market heating up rapidly. The company’s founder and chief executive Tomoko Namba described his aggressive, forward-thinking vision to the New York Times: “The big tide in social gaming is coming, right now. We’d like to capture it and quickly become the world’s No. 1 mobile gaming platform…We want to enable developers to go cross-device and to go cross-border. And we need this to happen quickly, in about the next one or two years.”

Presently, DeNA runs Mobage Town, a wildly popular social gaming platform that is unique to Japan. The pricing model is interesting: the games are free but require users to create avatars that can be used to interact with each other. DeNA then sells clothes and other goodies for the avatars.

Good luck to DeNA and congratulations to Ngmoco. We’re eager to see what the next chapter will bring.

[Via the New York Times]

TUAWJapanese game giant DeNA buys Ngmoco for $400M originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 12 Oct 2010 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has published official Ping usage guidelines for artists which describe exactly how to create an artist profile and begin posting content.

According to the guidelines [PDF], artists are encouraged to hold off on creating a profile until they have several posts ready to go, because “Fans will be far more likely to follow you if they can tell that your profile is active.” I agree with Apple there. Additionally, artists are encouraged to submit videos (2GB max), as long as they’re in .mov, .m4v or .mp4 formats. Apple also suggests that artists create videos with iPhones whenever possible.

Apple also lists what’s not allowed on an artist profile, including “…pornography, hate speech, racism, nudity or drug use.”

Most of the artists I follow are relatively quiet, with notable exceptions like Jack Johnson. Some users have panned Ping, but I’ve found the 10.0.1 iTunes update to make it much more enjoyable.

TUAWApple publishes Ping guidelines for artists originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 12 Oct 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I first saw Superbrothers’ Sword and Sworcery in person back at GDC earlier this year. This past weekend, developer Capy’s Nathan Vella met up with me at the IndieCade festival in Culver City, California to show off the latest build of the game. It’s much farther along in development these days. While the GDC demo was more of a working prototype, Vella said the title is basically content-complete, and the creators are just polishing out the kinks at this point.

What they’ve created is one heck of an experience. The concentrated story that I saw at GDC has grown into a gorgeous, expanded universe for your Superbrothers-style warrior to explore and interact with, and the game plays like an interactive piece of art, with mystery and magic around every turn. It’s a game that’s hard to categorize; there’s not much text, and what’s there is pretty incoherent, with phrases like “she knew whence we had come,” and a quest for a book called the Megatome. When I asked Vella what genre he considered the game to be, he said it was “inspired by old-school adventure gaming, but we call it an exploration and experience.”

The basic mechanic is this: touch. Almost everything you touch in the world reacts in some way — if you touch plants or animals, they will shake or run and hide. You can drag to move your character, or double-tap to send him around the screens. The general theme is exploration — find caves, meet people, and learn about the world you exist in.

TUAWIndieCade 2010: Superbrothers’ Sword and Sworcery EP preview originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 12 Oct 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Limera1n jailbreak is out now. To jailbreak iPad 3.2.2 firmware with Limera1n follow the steps below. Limera1n can jailbreak iOS 3.2.2 on iPad 3G and iPad WiFi. Limera1n is currently available for Windows OS only.

Disclaimer: This guide is for information and educational purposes only. Follow it at your own risk. We cannot be held responsible if anything goes wrong.

How to Jailbreak iPad 3.2.2 with Limera1n

Step 1

• Download Limera1n
• Download iOS 3.2.2

Step 2

• Connect your iPad to iTunes and restore iOS 3.2.2 firmware.

Rest of the steps to jailbreak iPad 3.2.2 are exactly similar to the guide posted earlier. So, please continue reading from step 3 here:

• How to: jailbreak iPad with Limera1n

Have Fun! and don’t forget to share your experience and save SHSH blobs for iPad 3.2.2 with TinyUmbrella.

You can follow us on Twitter, Join us at Facebook, and also Subscribed to RSS Feed to receive latest updates.

Also checkout:

• How to: Jailbreak iPod Touch 4G / 3G iOS 4.1 with Limera1n
• How to: Jailbreak iPhone 4 / 3GS iOS 4.1 with Greenpois0n
• How to: Jailbreak iPod Touch 4G / 3G iOS 4.1 with Greenpois0n
• How to: Jailbreak iPad iOS 3.2.2 with Greenpois0n

Greenpois0n to jailbreak iPad iOS 3.2.2 is out now. In this guide you’ll learn how to jailbreak iPad 3G/WiFi running iOS 3.2.2 with Greenpois0n jailbreak. Greenpois0n is available for both Windows and Mac OS X.

Disclaimer: This guide is for educational and information purposes only. Follow the steps below at your own risk. We cannot be held responsible if anything goes wrong.

Lets jailbreak iPad iOS 3.2.2 firmware using Greenpois0n jailbreak.

How to Jailbreak iPad iOS 3.2.2 with Greenpois0n

Step 1

Download the required stuff:

• Download iOS 3.2.2
• Download Greepois0n

Step 2

• Connect your iPad to iTunes and restore iOS 3.2.2 firmware.
• Now turn your iPod Touch Off.

Rest of the steps to jailbreak are exactly similar to the guide posted earlier. So please navigate to the guide linked below and continue from Step 3 to jailbreak iPad running iOS 3.2.2:

How to: Jailbreak iPad iOS 3.2.2 with Greenpois0n

In case, Greenpois0n doesn’t work for you, you can always try Limera1n:

• How to: Jailbreak iPhone 4, 3GS iOS 4.1 with Limera1n
• How to: Jailbreak iPod Touch iOS 4.1 with Limera1n

You can follow us on Twitter, Join us at Facebook, and also Subscribed to RSS Feed to receive latest updates.

I first saw Superbrothers’ Sword and Sorcery in person back at GDC earlier this year. This past weekend, developer Capy’s Nathan Vella met up with me at the IndieCade festival in Culver City, California to show off the latest build of the game. It’s much farther along in development these days. While the GDC demo was more of a working prototype, Vella said the title is basically content-complete, and the creators are just polishing out the kinks at this point.

What they’ve created is one heck of an experience. The concentrated story that I saw at GDC has grown into a gorgeous, expanded universe for your Superbrothers-style warrior to explore and interact with, and the game plays like an interactive piece of art, with mystery and magic around every turn. It’s a game that’s hard to categorize; there’s not much text, and what’s there is pretty incoherent, with phrases like “she knew whence we had come,” and a quest for a book called the Megatome. When I asked Vella what genre he considered the game to be, he said it was “inspired by old-school adventure gaming, but we call it an exploration and experience.”

The basic mechanic is this: touch. Almost everything you touch in the world reacts in some way — if you touch plants or animals, they will shake or run and hide. You can drag to move your character, or double-tap to send him around the screens. The general theme is exploration — find caves, meet people, and learn about the world you exist in.

TUAWIndiecade 2010: Superbrothers’ Sword and Sorcery EP preview originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 12 Oct 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A little while back, I wrote about an app called Corkbin — it helped you track and share the various wines that you tasted while out and about. A few commenters asked for something similar for beer, and onTap is exactly that. It’s made by the same company, and it serves the same purpose. When trying out a brand new beer (or an old favorite), you can snap a picture of it with your iPhone, log it, and even share it across Facebook or Twitter.

Just for fun, the app also has a dictionary of some beer terms, and you can also browse and view brews from around your area in order to see what people are drinking nearby. Just like Corkbin, it’s a solid app, especially for those of us who enjoy a tasty beverage and trying some new variants from time to time.

Plus, you know, it’s completely free. It’s a great app to help you get the most out of exploring your favorite beers around town.

TUAWTUAW’s Daily App: onTap originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 12 Oct 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via Twitter, MuscleNerd announced the release of the Chronic-dev team’s iOS4 jailbreaking tool, greenpois0n. This follows some controversy in the jailbreaking community, after George “geohot” Hotz released his limera1in jailbreak tool one day before greenpois0n was due to be released, using a different hole in Apple’s security layer.

Chronic-dev team chose to halt the release of their own tool and change it to use the security hole Hotz discovered. This way, they still have the “SHAtter” exploit they previously discovered and initially based greenpois0n on. There’s a chance that when Apple closes Hotz’s exploit, SHAtter will still work.

At present, the tool is Windows-only; the “Mac” download button on the page doesn’t go anywhere. Chronic-dev team promises a release “soon” for OS X and Linux. Currently, it supports iPhone 3GS/4, iPod Touch 3G and 4G, and the iPad. Apple TV 2G and iPod Touch 2G support will come in a later release.

TUAWChronic-Dev Team release greenpois0n jailbreak tool originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 12 Oct 2010 05:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s true that the iPhone was previously banned from the floor of the Danish Folketing (Parliament) by its President Thor Pedersen. This was at least partially due to Member of Parliament Sophie Haestorp Andersen updating her Facebook page 59 times during a prolonged debate — certainly more than is polite. Nevertheless, it was reported by Politiken.DK that last week all 179 Members of Parliament and an undisclosed number of the staff of 1,000 adminstrators have each been given a 16GB iPhone3GS.

Folketing press secretary Peter Krab announced that after testing a number of mobile phones, it was decided that the iPhone best met the requirements of the Folketing, so they went with it. No one is willing to say how much it cost the Danish people who are currently taxed at a progressive rate that maxes out at 51.9% (one of the highest rates in the world). At a retail cost of 5500 Kroner (approx US $1022.21) without a contract, the potential cost was not lost on the Danes, who according to comments on a similar story posted on mobilsiden.dk were less than amused at not only the public squandering of money, but that the Folketing went for an older model instead of the current iPhone 4.

To all of this, we say no comment.

TUAWNo Comment: Denmark’s Parliament members get free iPhones originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As a Mac consultant, I’m often asked some pretty bizarre questions. One that I frequently hear is “How do I type <some special character> on my Mac?” A good example of this is people who want to type fractions that look like this — &frac12; — rather than like 1/2, or plop a character like an umbrella — ? — or a skull and crossbones — ? — in the middle of a sentence.

It’s actually quite easy to do this, although finding these uncommon characters isn’t something that’s readily apparent, especially to new Mac users. Follow along as I show you how to insert or type characters that won’t be found on your keyboard.

TUAWMac 101: Inserting or typing uncommon characters originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Our intrepid Kiwi reporter, Chris Rawson, recently told TUAW readers about a mysterious bug that hit his iPhone on the morning of September 25th when New Zealand switched to Daylight Saving Time. iOS users in Australian time zones that follow Daylight Saving Time had a similarly rude awakening on the morning of October 3rd when recurring alarms in the iOS Alarm Clock app went off an hour early.

What’s happening? There’s a bug in the Alarm Clock app that has been affecting users when a change to DST occurs. Other iOS users in Queensland, Austraila also reported that their alarm clocks adjusted to the Daylight Saving Time change on the 3rd, despite the fact that they’re not in a DST zone.

There are workarounds available — users can set the alarm for one hour after the time they actually want to wake up, or they can turn off the recurring alarm and set a non-recurring alarm every day.

Apple Australia apparently told ZDNet Australian Edition that they were aware of the problem and have developed a fix that will be included as part of an upcoming software update. It’s expected that the update will appear before daylight saving time changes happen in other parts of the world, including November 6th (USA) and October 30th (EU). That means that we may see another interim iOS release prior to the expected arrival of iOS 4.2 in late November.

[via AppleInsider]

TUAWiOS update forthcoming to fix Alarm Clock app bug originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Yahoo! Messenger app has received a pretty significant upgrade today — the app now lets you make video and voice calls to Yahoo! Messenger friends. That has a few interesting outcomes, the first of which is that you can now make video calls from any iPhone running iOS 4.1 to anywhere with a Yahoo! Messenger account, including back to PCs running the client there. We haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, but the app is a free download, so you can see for yourself if you want. You can also make free voice calls between friends, or for an extra fee, call out to phones around the world.

One caveat: the calls don’t seem to work on the iPod touch 4G, according to reviewers on the App Store. We’re not sure why that would be, but the app description clearly states that service is only for iPhone 3GS/4. Otherwise, here’s one more solution to voice and even video chatting over 3G on your iPhone.

TUAWYahoo! Mesenger app updated, offers free voice and video calling originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Are we tired of all the rumors around a 4G Verizon iPhone yet? First it’s off, then it’s on, and now it’s off again. TechCrunch’s Steve Cheney claims he’s heard from sources that Apple won’t support the 4G/LTE cell network in 2011, which means that we won’t see a 4G iPhone next year. Cheney claims Apple is going to wait on the standard, and instead implement a dual-mode GSM and CDMA iPhone sometime in 2011.

That still leaves the possibility of other carriers open, though, and it does corroborate what we’ve heard from the Wall Street Journal, which said a while back that Apple would bring a CDMA-enabled iPhone out on Verizon’s network. Honestly, at this point, it’s all just a blur — we’ve heard rumors for almost years now that Apple would release an iPhone on one technology or another, and to date, there are no (non-jailbroken) iPhones in the US that run on anything but AT&T’s 3G network.

As with all of this stuff, nothing is legit until we see Steve actually holding it up there on stage.

TUAWRumor: No 4G for Apple in 2011 originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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These are great — a company called Jailbreak Toys (name unrelated — I think) has apparently been selling a set of “App Magnets,” little square magnets that feature icons for Apple’s official iPhone apps. How cool — I’d love to have a Photos, Safari, or an App Store icon to pin things up on the fridge for me.

The magnets sell for 1260 yen, or about US $15, in Japan. But over on Jailbreak’s website, you can get them for just $12 (while supplies last, or until Apple’s lawyers boot up their iPads and send the C&D email, of course). I like the idea a lot, though — I’d love to have a magnet or pillow for the icons of some of my favorite unofficial apps, too.

[via WeLoveApple]

TUAWPut your favorite apps on the fridge with app magnets originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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