Category: I-phone

The merger of iPad and television took another step forward with the release of ABC’s My Generation Sync, which is the first iOS app to synchronize live with a TV show — specifically, My Generation, coming this fall from the network that’s owned by the company with Steve Jobs as its biggest shareholder.

If you’ve ever been a “Nielsen Family,” you’ve had a box installed in your house that sends data on your viewing habits back to the Nielsen corporation. It works by monitoring a program’s unique “audio watermark” emitted by your TV; human ears can’t detect the sounds.

The My Generation Sync app uses the iPad microphone to check for these same audio signals during episodes of My Generation, and syncs the app content to the program segment. This approach lets it work (theoretically) with programs played back in ‘timeshifted’ DVR mode, as well.

Once synchronized, the app will display polls, trivia, games and more in real time, all related to the show, without providing spoilers. It sounds like a lot of fun and we’ll have a full review soon. Imagine what this sort of technology could do paired up with Monday Night Football or election returns. The future is now!

[via Electronista]

TUAWABC iPad app syncs with My Generation via audio cues originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 16 Sep 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So it’s almost six months after the iPad’s US release — and there are still no iPad refurbs in the Apple Store. At a time when AT&T is already selling refurb iPhone 4’s, which just debuted this Summer, iPad refurbs are noticeably absent from normal retail channels.

The iPad, in fact, remains in a launch phase. It will only start hitting major US retailers like Target in October and is continuing to roll out overseas. The iPad launches tomorrow in China, with prices starting at CNY 3988.

Although Apple is certain to be already working on the next generation of iPad, it’s clear that its high demand continues to produce limited availability. We may not be seeing refurbished units for some time yet.

TUAWWhere are the iPad refurbs? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 16 Sep 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has announced that the iPad will be officially launched in five Latin American countries and China tomorrow, September 17, 2010.

The über-popular iPad will be available in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru starting tomorrow. In China, the Wi-Fi model is launching, while the Wi-Fi + 3G is listed on the online Chinese Apple Store as “Coming Soon.”

TUAW also received a number of tips this morning that U.S. electronics retailer Micro Center is beginning to sell iPads in a number of locations. Recent rumors also point to mega-retailers Target and Walmart selling the iPad before the critical Christmas buying season.

With the influx of new markets and retailers, it’s a good thing Apple is ramping up production of iPads.

[via AppleInsider]

TUAWT-1 Day for Latin American, Chinese launch of iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 16 Sep 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While the Apple TV demonstrations during Apple’s launch event show that the new Apple TV isn’t running the iPhone’s central Springboard application, it’s very possible that the Apple TV will be jailbreakable since it is an iOS device.

Analysts have speculated that the onboard storage of the new Apple TV will be minimal, since the company has publicly stated that the device will support media streaming only. As a result, if hackers are able to jailbreak the device, there may not be enough room to run custom apps, nor is it clear how those applications would interact with the Apple Remote.

The new Apple TV is scheduled to ship in late September for $99, and it will be interesting to see how quickly the hacker community is able to tear into the device. Of course, the ‘classic’ Apple TV has been modded and supercharged in many ways.

TUAWConfirmed: ‘iProd 2’ is the new Apple TV originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 16 Sep 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Honestly, I spent all day yesterday playing Pocket Frogs, so go try that if you haven’t yet. But since we covered that one earlier this week, I’ll tell you about Unearthed. To be honest, I don’t exactly know how it all works. The app is complicated, and getting it to do what you want it to do is half the fun. It’s designed to be like a government security app, except there’s no five-inch thick manual binder to go along with it. The idea is that the app turns your iPhone into an “anomaly scanner,” and with augmented reality, you’re tasked with scanning various alien beings in the world around you. It’s a little hard to explain, but once you play around with it, it’s pretty trippy. You use the iPhone’s camera (3GS or better required) to look around the actual space you’re in, and aliens of various kinds appear on the screen as if they were actually there. Scan them in, and you earn points towards leaderboards and get recognized with bonuses and upgrades.

Unfortunately, as a game, Unearthed leaves something to be desired. It’s a little clumsy, and as I said, it’s not entirely clear what is happening, even when you figure out what all of the little buttons and lights do. A tutorial mode would be quite helpful, if the idea wasn’t to engage the conspiracy theorist side of your mind.

But as an experience, Unearthed is definitely worth checking out. Fortunately, it’s a free app that’s supported by some in-game purchases for access to the highest levels. If nothing else, give it a download and see for yourself just how freaky augmented reality games can be.

TUAWTUAW’s Daily App: Unearthed originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 16 Sep 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OK, admit it.

The multi-touch screen on the iPad is amazing for most of the work that you do, but when you’re really trying to type a lot of words quickly, the virtual keyboard sucks.

We’ve seen a few similar keyboard cases demoed over the past few months, but this is the first we can remember from a well-known accessory manufacturer like Kensington. When it begins to ship next month, Kensington’s Bluetooth keyboard case for the iPad will cost $99.

The case has hotkeys for launching the home screen, searching, and controlling media playback, which will keep you from reaching up to tap the screen while you’re working. According to the post on Liliputing, the case comes with a Lithium-ion battery that powers the Bluetooth transceiver for up to 3 months on a charge. Blogger Brad Linder noted that the keys have a “soft, rubbery texture,” which sounds regretfully like the infamous PCjr chiclet keyboard. Still, as Linder states, that’s still better than the on-screen keyboard for fast typing.

In other iPad keyboard news, AIDACASE is reporting that their very similar Keycase Folio Deluxe for iPad is now shipping. The $99.99 case looks strikingly identical to the Kensington case, is charged through a Micro-B USB connector, and now has a magnetic flap to keep the folio closed when on the move.

For this blogger, I’d rather spend $69 and get an Apple Wireless Keyboard if high-speed typing on an iPad becomes a necessity.

[via übergizmo]

TUAWFound Footage: Kensington Bluetooth keyboard case for iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 16 Sep 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Known for her salty language and accordian playing, Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz isn’t your typical Internet executive. Along with other comments in a recent Reuters interview, Bartz stated that she felt Apple’s iAd service was “going to fall apart for them,” since “Apple wants total control over those ads.”

Apple, of course, is known for having total control over a number of things: the design of its products, content in the App Store, development of apps, ad infinitum.

AAPL (at 10:46 AM EDT on September 16, 2010): 271.81
YHOO.O (at 10:46 AM EDT on September 16, 2010): 14.04

Need we say more?

[via Business Insider]

TUAWYahoo! CEO: iAds ‘going to fall apart’ for Apple originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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An Apple software update nearly sneaked by without notice yesterday. Pro Applications Update 2010-02 provides bug fixes and improvements and is recommended for users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Server, and Logic Studio. After the update, version numbers are listed as Final Cut Pro 7.0.3, Motion 4.0.3, Color 1.5.3, Compressor 3.5.3, and Apple QMaster 3.5.3. The Final Cut app updates include support for new cameras.

The update can be downloaded either through Software Update (where it will appear if you have one of the applications installed) or by going to the update Web page on the Apple site.

The patch notes show new features and fixes, and those are listed on the next page. Click the “Read More” link to view.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

TUAWApple Pro Applications Update 2010-02 released originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 16 Sep 2010 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ways to enable file sharing within apps has been much sought after functionality, and with iOS 4  new functionality was introduced allowing you to enable file sharing between your apps and iTunes.  There are so many little things that need to be done to get this functionality working just right.

Fortunately, Ray Wenderlich has written an extensive tutorial showing exactly how to get this done, and detailing all those little things.

Included in this tutorial are, among other things:

– ZIP compression
– Using the new NSFileWrapper Class
– Exporting/Importing Files
– Placing files in the right directories

You can find the tutorial here:
How To Integrate iTunes File Sharing With Your iOS App

This should prove to be a very useful functionality to include within many apps.

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©2010 iPhone, iOS 4, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

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I’ve been asked a few times after I wrote a post about an open source library to simulate the iBooks style page curl effect without using any private API’s as to how to properly display formatted text on the page, and spread text across multiple pages.  Manipulating text is what the Core Text library is all about, and just yesterday I posted about a tutorial about how to manipulate text to create cool text effects with Core Text.

I found an open source wrapper that aims to simplify the process by providing a set of Objective-C classes that simplifies using Core Text, and takes care of creating multiple columns of text, and text pagination.

The wrapper is from Akosma Software, and you can read their writeup on the project here:
Core Text Objective-C Wrapper

You can find the wrapper along with a sample project on Github here:
http://github.com/akosma/CoreTextWrapper

I’m finding Core Text a bit difficult to wrap my head around, and this wrapper simplifies much of it.

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©2010 iPhone, iOS 4, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

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In late June at E3, Square Enix tantalized fans of Final Fantasy Tactics by revealing that the game would be brought to the iPhone. The company even announced a release date for the game: September 15th. But September 15th has come and gone now without a release for this highly-anticipated title… and Square Enix’s response to the delay is highly unsatisfactory.

I played the original Final Fantasy Tactics on the PlayStation, and it’s one of my all-time favourite games. I didn’t play the remake on the PSP because I never really felt compelled to buy Sony’s handheld. I was excited enough by FFT coming to the iPhone that I set up an iCal reminder to check the App Store today for the game. But it hasn’t shown up, and it’s not going to for the foreseeable future. Only two days before the game’s supposed release date, Square Enix posted on its Facebook page:

“We are so sorry for confusing you. The wrong information about the FFT release date is spreading around somehow… It says the release date is to be September 15th but it’s completely wrong. The release date is still ‘TBD’.”

I don’t mind so much that the release date slipped; it happens all the time in the gaming industry, and honestly I was half expecting Final Fantasy Tactics to be delayed. But Square Enix’s response to the delay is pretty classless. Not only did the company try to sweep the delay under the rug by only announcing it on its Facebook page and nowhere else, its claim that the wrong information about the release date is spreading around “somehow” is a complete fabrication — that release date info came from Square Enix itself at E3.

If a company has to delay the release date on one of its games for some reason, that’s fine — as long as they can at least man up and admit that’s what happening. A company shouldn’t resort to “poor little us, wrong info got spread ‘somehow’ ” tactics, especially not two days before such a highly-anticipated title’s supposed release date. If the info really was wrong, Square Enix had more than two months to set us straight. Instead, this last-minute and all-but-unannounced delay, as well as the company’s unwillingness to accept responsibility and call it a “delay,” has only made the situation even more disappointing.

TUAWFinal Fantasy Tactics for iPhone delayed, Square Enix offers no explanation originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 23:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Left 4 Dead is the last promised Valve title to see release on Steam for Mac, and yet we haven’t heard anything about an official release date. Valve was moving along pretty well for a while there, releasing games for our platform every Wednesday. But they’ve petered out lately, leaving a lot of Mac gamers wondering if we’d ever get to shoot zombies along with the rest of the gaming world. But a slip found by our former cohort David Chartier, now at Macworld, hints that we’ll be exploring the zombie apocalypse soon — he notes that Valve is bringing the game’s new downloadable content, “The Sacrifice,” to all platforms, including the Mac, by October 5th.

The Sacrifice is an extra level that’s available for both the first and second games in the series, so there’s still a chance that Valve will only give us the original Left 4 Dead, and save the sequel for later. But I’d guess the reason for the long delay is that they’re bringing both games over, so we might see both of them released on Steam for Mac by then.

Of course, this could just be a slip of the blog, with the Mac just accidentally listed as an available platform. But that doesn’t seem likely — Valve tends to be careful about what they say. To whet your appetite, check out the game’s brand new comic, created just for the new DLC.

TUAWRumor: Left 4 Dead on the Mac by October 5? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A site called Letem Svetem Applem has put together some comparison videos of performance between the iPhone 4 and the new iPod touch, and the results may surprise you. In the startup speed test, the iPad actually beat all of the other iDevices, and the new iPod touch barely beats the iPhone 4 (but all of them were faster than last year’s iPhone 3GS, so your upgrade was not in vain). The iPod touch’s camera looks slightly darker than the iPhone 4’s, and perhaps most interesting, the displays of the iPhone 4 and iPod touch look pretty different. The Retina Display on the iPod touch looks just as sharp, but without the in-plane switching tech found on the iPhone and the iPad, the sides of the display are slightly muddier.

Some of the YouTube comments on the speed video claim that if your iPhone or iPad is stuffed with music, documents, or apps, the speed will be affected, but I’m not sure how much of a factor that actually plays on startup (not to mention that we’re talking seconds here — not nearly enough to judge a purchase by). But Apple’s claim that the iPod touch is sporting the same Retina Display as the iPhone appears to be missing the mark a bit. Watch all of the comparison videos right after the break below.

[via AppleInsider]

TUAWFound Footage: iPod touch 4G goes head to head with iPhone 4 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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