Category: I-phone

FaceTime live sex chat is for real, courtesy IP4Play (link goes to an adult site, likely NSFW). It’s a natural extension of phone sex lines and chat cams, and plenty of people had the idea when Apple unveiled FaceTime. After all, the white-hot fervor around Chatroulette had just died down when the iPhone 4 was announced. Currently IP4Play has five ladies available online, although at the time I wrote this none were actually available for a call.

As Cult of Mac reported, you can buy blocks of time (5, 10, 20 or 30 minutes) starting at US$4 per minute. You’ll need a Visa or Mastercard, plus all the requisites for FaceTime (WiFi, iPhone 4) and preferably a private place to have your conversation. The service calls you back once you’ve registered and purchased your minutes, although no word on what the turnaround time is for a callback.

I think we’ll see a bunch more players in this space, IP4Play just happens to be the first. They started advertising for models on Craigslist a while ago, so I have little doubt other operators will follow suit, some of them potentially big names in the adult industry. If you think about it, a five-minute FaceTime call from a real porn star would probably cost a lot more than $4 per minute, and be insanely lucrative for the performer. Juice up those batteries, FaceTimers.

TUAWAnd here comes the FaceTime porn originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I’ve been a member of Best Buy’s rewards program for a little while now — as long as I’m spending way too much of my hard-earned money at the big box retailer, I figure I might as well try to get some of it back. And I was pretty impressed with what they’ve done on their website with the program — you can track your status and check out whatever deals are available to you whenever you sign in.

And now, Best Buy has partnered up with an iPhone app called Shopkick, set to go live later this week. Shopkick is an app designed to automatically “check-in” with partnered retailers, so you can earn rewards bucks or other loyalty currencies whenever you stop by a specific retail location. Instead of using GPS, the app uses the smartphone’s speaker to pick up a certain audio signal being played in-store, so “checking-in” at a Best Buy with the signal running will apparently grant rewards or discounts to customers.

I don’t know if the process actually appeals to me, even as a loyal Best Buy customer — I haven’t been interested in the whole “check-in” fad, and Shopkick sounds more like adware than anything else. But we’ve heard already that Apple themselves are interested in location-based networking, and this seems like exactly the kind of system that retailers and app creators alike are trying to build, enticing customers to visit and interact with brands and products in their stores. Shopkick goes live later this week and has already partnered with 25 malls in cities across the US, so we’ll see how customers react to it.

TUAWShopkick, Best Buy team up to use location-based app for loyalty program originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Telegraph has published a lengthy and fascinating interview with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen. Most of the interview focuses on Adobe’s deteriorated relationship with Apple, particularly Apple’s refusal to allow Adobe’s Flash Player to run on the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Narayen had many things to say during the interview, but here’s the bottom line: “They’ve made their choice. We’ve made ours and we’ve moved on.”

Narayen continues to characterize Apple’s shunning of Flash as a business decision rather than one based on technical considerations: “There are companies that are choosing to provide a complete end-to-end experience and control every aspect of it and want all the business model gains from it,” he says. “There are other companies that have chosen to say that the open eco-system is the way to go and that’s how you would contrast Apple and Google’s business models. We’re on the side of the open.”

It’s interesting that Adobe, purveyor of some of the most ubiquitous proprietary software out there, keeps using that word, “open,” without any sense of irony. But regardless of whether Flash can rightly be characterized as “open” or not, this latest word from Adobe’s top executive proves one thing for certain: Flash is not coming to iOS devices. Not now, not in the near future, and probably not ever.

Adobe is working with “19 out of 20” handset companies to get Flash working on their devices, with Apple as the lone holdout. Will Apple’s continued anti-Flash stance hurt its iOS device sales in the long run? Probably not. Many pundits predicted the iPad would be a market failure because it lacked support for Flash video, and yet its sales have taken even Apple by surprise. The iPhone 4 continues to sell out worldwide nearly two months after its debut, and it doesn’t run Flash, either. Following an expected refresh of the iPod touch’s hardware next month, Apple will sell millions of them over the holiday quarter, and not one of them will support Flash. Adobe needs Flash to run in iOS far more than Apple does, and if sales are anything to go by, more than most iOS users do, too.

Narayen says Adobe’s “doors are open” if Apple decides to change its stance on Flash. However, it’s highly unlikely that Apple will ever open its doors to Flash, so as far as this debate goes, it really is time to move on.

[Via Mac Rumors]

TUAWAdobe on Flash in iOS: ‘We’ve moved on’ originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mancala. Chess. Backgammon. The number of ancient board games available in the App Store is long and somewhat predictable. A fresh new entry that deserves notice is Tafl, a pretty and interesting abstract strategy game that has existed in Northern Europe since at least 400 C.E. Exactly how the game was played has been lost to history, but the general idea was to have one player move a king pawn from the center of the board to the exits, which maybe have been simply off the side or maybe into the corners. Given the wide variety of boards and locations where the game was played – and knowing what we know about how ancient games traveled – it’s entirely likely that the games in the tafl family were all played differently. Well, now you can play it on a touch screen on your iPad or iPhone (or iPod touch). There is a great history of the board game(s) here; keep reading for the rest of our review.

TUAWApp Review: Tafl brings Norse asymmetry to your game table originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You Can’t Always Get What You Want (US$4.99 until the end of August, to celebrate Jerry Garcia’s birthday), is one of the best Rock and Roll books I’ve ever read. It is written and read by Sam Cutler, the tour manager of the Rolling Stones and later the Grateful Dead in the late 60’s and early 70’s. The centerpiece of the book is the free concert at the Altamont Speedway in Northern California that took place on December 6, 1969, which was made into a gripping documentary film titled Gimme Shelter by Albert and David Maysles.

The line up included: Santana, the Jefferson Airplane, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead, who later decided not to play since it was too dangerous. What most people remember about the concert is that during the Stones performance, quite near the stage, Alan Passaro, a Hells Angels member, stabbed and killed Meredith Hunter after Hunter pulled out a gun. Although horrible and headline grabbing the full story is much more gripping and is only one part of the book.

Sam Cutler, is a gregarious guy who was smack in the middle of the rock scene at the time. He’s a great story teller, and has the perfect voice to tell his story. He reads his book in a grizzled and sometimes tired English accent that gives instant credibility to his words. He knew everyone and remembers everything in amazing detail. Naming the cast of characters would go on for pages, but Sam was there at the start of arguably every English rock and roll band at the time and later knew just about everyone in the San Francisco music scene.

TUAWYou Can’t Always Get What You Want: Great book, lousy app originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I’ve been a Verizon FiOS subscriber since the day it rolled out in my neighborhood, and I couldn’t be happier (my bank account’s demeanor is another story). Actually, I take that back, because I got a tad bit happier when the cable company released an official iPhone app that allows for DVR scheduling and management. Joy!

If you’re a Comcast subscriber, there’s a similar app available. And, coming soon, Time Warner Cable will be rolling out their own answer to the iOS app scheduling game. Just as with the Verizon and Comcast apps, you’ll reportedly be able to manage your DVR recordings, view TV schedules and setup recordings from afar.

What the Verizon and Comcast apps do not have is the ability to view your recordings on your device, which, reportedly, could be a possibility with the TWC app. Imagine watching part of a recorded program on your iPad, then pick up later where you left off at home.

Check out the YouTube video after the jump, which shows off a glimpse of a prototype of the app.

TUAWTime Warner Cable entering the iPhone app game originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 08:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Soundrop isn’t really a game — it’s more of a musical instrument, although you can play with it for quite a while. The app presents a small hole that constantly drops balls out at a certain rate, while you draw lines on the screen with your finger. Where the balls hit the lines, a tone is sounded, and by positioning the lines in the right places, you can make an interesting sort of music. The app itself calls it “musical geometry,” and it is surprisingly fun, even if you aren’t a musician. With headphones, you can actually hear the whole thing in stereo, which makes for another fun factor of the experience.

The app is a free download, although you only get a demo for free, with the ability to just draw white lines anywhere. Paying US $1.99 opens up the full functionality, and you can change physics, add more spouts, or change the colors of the lines that are drawn, creating different musical noises with each color.

It’s a good time — play with the free version to see if it hits you right, and then if you’re interested, you can buy in for the two bucks and have the whole app.

TUAWTUAW’s Daily App: Soundrop originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I don’t know how much of a newsflash it really is that Apple is working on brand new versions of the iPhone and iPad, but just in case you thought that the current iterations were the last, let’s set the record straight. Code in the latest iOS release shows that Apple is currently working on “unreleased hardware.” The code, which bypasses the required iTunes activation, assuming that you have the right hardware, tends to show up before an iPhone revision — in other words, while the new hardware is out, about, running the iOS system, and in testing. The code then disappears as the hardware goes off to launch.

The code does mention “iPhone 3,2,” “iPhone 3,3,” and “iProd 2,1,” but those names don’t tell us anything about the actual hardware, just that they’d be new versions, obviously. And we’ve seen these names before hidden in iOS documentation, so these aren’t new developments — whatever these versions are, Apple has been working on them for a while. Still, if you haven’t been following along over the last few iterations of the iPhone, yes, we can tell you that we’ll see new iOS devices at some point in the future. Maybe someone will even leave one sitting around a bar.

TUAWCode shows future iOS devices currently in testing originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There have been a lot of console adaptations brought to the iPhone, but sending games the other way hasn’t been as common. Firemint is changing that, however — they’ve announced that they’ll be bringing iPhone superhit Flight Control to the PlayStation 3 as a downloadable title, and the game will even support the new Move controller, so you’ll be able to draw flight paths in the air with a motion control wand (or you can use a regular dual stick controller if you’d rather do that). The game will also bring 1080p support, as well as a four-player drop-in/out mode and an exclusive map named “Metropolis.” Flight Control HD will be available on the PSN on September 15th.

I’d be interested to see some other iPhone-specific titles make the jump to major consoles as well — with the onset of Kinect and Move, translating the iPhone’s touch controls to the television should get a little easier. We’ll likely see a few more big iPhone titles (Angry Birds? Doodle Jump?) head across from Apple’s platforms to more traditional gaming outlets in the future.

TUAWFlight Control coming to PS3 on September 15 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week is busy and with summer winding down and several of us on vacation, we can’t hit it all at once. So here’s a little roundup of what happened over the past few days.

• Ars Technica has a lovely chat with some designers from Star Trek: The Next Generation, the show where you may recall seeing an iPad-like device called the PADD (for Personal Access Display Device). You may be surprised to discover all those flat control panels were designed that way, in part, because they were cheaper than a panel with a bunch of physical buttons.
• As Apple keeps piling up cash ala Scrooge McDuck, some folks are calling for the iCompany to start doling out that cash back to stockholders in the form of a dividend. It’s a familiar refrain (Microsoft gets this one frequently as has Google), although we’re not so sure Apple won’t need that cash in case the economy tanks again or in case they need to buy Facebook or Nintendo.
• Illustrator CS5 had a bug, and Adobe patched it. Well, it was actually a pretty significant bug for people running professional work Macs and who had more than 4GB of RAM. Apparently the app would cause all sorts of bad things to happen. But this patch makes it better, so apply it now if you haven’t already.
• Free apps! Toodledo is usually around $3 but is currently free. If you’ve been wondering what the hubbub about Scott Pilgrim is, you can download six volumes of the comic on your iPhone or iPad. Duck Hunt is also free today for your retro arcade pleasure.
• MacRumors reports that Apple has hired a NFC (near-field communications) expert, which could herald ticketless concert trips for iPhone users, or the ability to buy stuff by just waving your iPhone around like an idiot. The future is soon!

TUAWNews roundup: Trek artists muse Apple design, Illustrator CS5 patched, Apple urged to pay dividends, free apps and more originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wherever you live, lightning can be dangerous if you spend a lot of time outdoors. In the USA alone, an average of 58 people per year are killed by proximity to lightning strikes. PinPoint Lightning (US$5.99), a new app from MyWeather, LLC, hopes to reduce that number by providing push notifications of lightning strikes within 30 miles of your present location within seconds of a strike.

This app only provides lightning strike data for the USA and Canada, with information coming from the National Lightning Detection Network in the 50 states, and from Environment Canada in the Great White North. The strike data used by PinPoint Lightning is rather expensive, which explains the rather high cost of the app. For hikers, bikers, golfers, and anyone else who spends time working or playing outside, $5.99 is a small cost to pay for advance warning of nearby lightning activity.

TUAW received a review copy of the software, and PinPoint Lightning is an extremely well-done and functional app that does precisely what it is designed for. Read on for a full review of PinPoint Lightning.

TUAWTUAW Review: PinPoint Lightning wants to keep you alive originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With the addition of the Safari Extensions Gallery to Apple’s website, TUAW will be highlighting extensions that we think are special, useful, or just plain fun.

Fellow keyboard jockeys will appreciate this one. Safari Access Keys displays a site’s keyboard shortcuts in the browser’s toolbar. Many sites like Wikipedia employ keyboard shortcuts, which make navigation faster and easier. However, they aren’t always readily apparent or even consistent. Safari Access Keys solves the problem by displaying each key combo clearly.

As a bonus, the extension’s author explains how to enable the HTML accesskey attribute on your own site. Well done, Dale!

TUAWSafari extension highlight: Safari Access Keys originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is Apple the most reviled brand online? Answer: not by a long shot. Some of you may recall a few studies this year and last year, or a few quarterly earnings calls to suggest that no, Apple is far from being the “most reviled brand” that Mr. Gralla claims in his linkbaiting headline over at Computerworld.

Brandwatch, another one of those awesome social media analyst firms, claims to have tracked over 1,200 messages on Twitter in a month directed at Apple. Which, to me, sounds astoundingly small given Apple’s dominance in the tech news world. But Brandwatch has to get clients, so why not spout some nonsense about how Apple is “reviled” given a bunch of cranky tweets, right? I mean, it’s not like Twitter is full of vacuous, id-fueled reactionary comments, right? Nah, clearly tweets and blog posts complaining about stuff is enough to let the Cupertino goldmine know that its days are numbered.

Yes, as Apple grows and expands it will carry along with it an ever-increasing number of people unhappy with their experience. We’ve all had some goofy thing happen to our Mac, iPhone, iPod or iPad. We’ve all been somewhat irked when a pleasant experience was “ruined” by this issue. But just because we feel the need to tweet our displeasure — as opposed to constantly tweeting our positive experiences — it doesn’t mean Apple has a PR disaster on its hands.

That said, the tech consumer is a fickle sort. Gralla likes to bait the “fanbois” with his language, but the fact is that Apple hasn’t courted the cult for a while. In case you’ve been asleep for a decade, the “Think Different” campaign died long ago and Apple’s latest mantra has been to gain marketshare. You don’t do that by focusing solely on your rabid fans. You do that by going into new markets, broadening your appeal and making insanely great products. According to Apple revenues, this seems to be working quite well. No doubt the geniuses at Brandwatch know better.

TUAWHyperbole police: Apple is the most reviled brand? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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VMware has pushed out an update for their virtual machine software for Intel-based Macs.

Version 3.1.1 includes:

• Improvements to iSight Camera access
• Fixes an issue where an incorrect disk error message pops up after A Mac hard crash while working in VMware
• Fixes audio recording issues when the device output was not 44.1 kHz

The update is free for all VMware Fusion 3 users, and the update notice should appear when you launch the app. This is the 4th update to version 3 since it was launched in October of last year.

VMWare Fusion 3.1 is available for US$79.99 as a download, and you can add a subscription to all updates for 1 year for an additional twenty dollars.

TUAWVMware Fusion gets an update with some important Mac fixes originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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