If you, like me, were a big scifi/fantasy reader at a young age, you probably remember the “Choose Your Own Adventure” series. It was a series of books in which, every chapter or so, you could make a choice that affected the story, and you were then prompted to turn to a certain page to continue the story after that choice. Edward Packard was the original author of that series, and he’s now teamed up with an iPhone app company to create U-Ventures, a throwback iPhone application that works as an interactive, e-book style Choose You Own Adventure. The first book is called “Return to the Cave of Time” (after the first book in the original series), and just like the old series, it offers up a set of second-person branching paths.

Unfortunately, at US$3.99, the app is pretty expensive. Reviews say that there are only about 15 minutes of content to go through here, and while the old books were short, there are a lot of other interactive storytelling options on the App Store in the form of games and other e-books. But as a retro return to the old form, it’s a nice taste of what’s possible. I’m hoping that Packard will update the idea a little bit and make it a little more iPhone-friendly next time.

Or, … you could just roll your own. Our own Victor Agreda wrote about iPod-friendly CYOA books a long time ago. Download some of those onto your iPod, and you could be right back in those old pre-video game days of interactive storytelling.

[via Slashdot]

TUAWChoose Your Own Adventure available for iPhone as U-Ventures originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone 4 pre-orders have begun in Korea, and distributor KT Corporation (KTC) is reporting huge sales. Specifically, 130,000 orders were placed within the first 13 hours of availability. By comparison, it took 5 days to sell 65,000 units of the 3GS.

KTC reportedly had to expand their server capacity during the frenzied day as the initial surge brought service down. Customers were trying to connect from multiple locations, like work and home, in an attempt to make a successful transaction.

Pyo Hyun-myong, chief of KTC’s mobile business, shared his gratitude and apologized for the downtime some customers experienced via Twitter. “I really appreciate this enormous support from our customers, and I also apologize for the discomfort caused by the ordering system. We will do our best for flawless delivery of the product.”

There’s no definite release date just yet, other than sometime in September. Sales-killing antenna issue? What sales-killing antenna issue?

TUAWKoreans swamp servers as pre-orders begin originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Maybe I’m missing the point of Hulu Plus, but for ten bucks a month why is Hulu still showing me advertisements? I get that this new for-pay streaming video service offers full seasons (and past seasons) of current TV shows that would otherwise be limited to a handful of the most recent episodes. I get that the service works over Wi-Fi and 3G, and all the killer functionality that entails.

What I don’t get is why anyone wouldn’t apply their annual $120 somewhere, for ad-free services like Netflix.

TUAWHands on with Hulu Plus originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last year, Mobile Mechatronics released the iTwinge snap-on keyboard for the iPhone 3G and 3GS. This week, industrial designer Altamash Jiwani has imagined what such a device would look like for the iPhone 4.

In Jiwani’s design, the keyboard is a part of a larger piece that wraps around the phone much like Apple’s Bumper case. The keyboard is on slider rails and can be moved out of the way of the home key. It also plugs into the dock connector, disabling the software keyboard entirely. Finally, a female dock port on the bottom allows the iPhone to be synchronized with the keyboard in place.

It’s a nifty idea for BlackBerry addicts, but I imagine sliding it back-and-forth every time I want to click the home button would get old very fast. But kudos to Jiwani for putting his thinking cap on.

[Via iPhone Savior]

TUAWSnap-on keyboard for iPhone 4 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Madden is usually the word in football video games around this time of year, but just in case you don’t want to spend that $8, Gameloft has a deal for you. Even before the season starts, it’s dropped the price on NFL 2011 to just 99 cents. The Gameloft version doesn’t quite have as much polish or flair as the EA game, but it’s more than serviceable as a football game, and it includes all of your favorite NFL brands and players. If you just want to throw the pigskin around and see if your team can grab a few touchdowns or hold the line, Gameloft’s version is great.

If you’re a real football junkie, Madden’s version is probably worth the extra scratch; in addition to that aforementioned polish, it’s got a full management game, and Gameloft’s game has you sticking with whatever team they give you. Additionally, Madden’s got a playoff mode and a nice community behind it, and obviously, since Gameloft’s dropping the price, they’re basically declaring a surrender to the bigger EA title.

That’s fine, though. The cheapskates among us who don’t mind a pared-down pigskin experience still win. You can grab NFL 2011 for just a buck “for a limited time.”

TUAWTUAW’s Daily App: NFL 2011 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Everyone’s favorite sticky note has appeared on the Apple Store, which is down as of 12 A.M. Eastern. We’re not aware of any upcoming products, and the store being down on any day other than Tuesday usually points to maintenance rather than new stuff. That said, we’ll keep an eye on it and update if we see anything new when the store comes back up.

As usual, thanks to everyone who tipped us off.

Update: After roughly three hours of downtime, the store is back up with no obvious changes. Looks like it was just a maintenance update after all.

TUAWThe Apple Store is down… and back up, with no apparent changes originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It seems like only yesterday when anyone chomping at the bit to get their hands on an iPad had to wait a painfully long time to get one. Then the shipping time dropped down to anywhere from seven to 10 days, and new customers didn’t have the shakes of anticipation for too long.

Just recently, though, Apple has dropped the expected ship date for iPads down to as few as three days. Word is that the wait for an iPhone 4 may drop significantly by the end of September as well.

Something I’m wondering about with these wait times is whether it’s dissuaded people from purchasing. Have you ever visited the Apple store, seen that the wait time was longer than you were willing to hold out, and changed your mind?

TUAWiPad ship times shrink from seven to three days originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s the blog of two guys who have jumped onto the iPhone Apps bandwagon. Whats interesting is that they have absolutely no experience in development. They outsource most of their work.

The fantastic part (that you can learn a lot from) is that they are documenting their entire experience online – how they came up with the app idea, creation of the app, publishing it, marketing it, tracking sales and revenues generated, making a lite version etc.

You get to see everything from start to finish about each app they release. They give you some great insights and revenue figures for the apps they publish. This is one blog you want to visit – if you have never published an app before and want to get some very good tips and insights on what to expect.

Currently, they’re averaging around $2000 per month with the apps they have released (around 3 to 4 only, from what I can see). Which is pretty impressive and very encouraging for all indie developers!

Here’s a note from their homepage –

Our names are Pat Flynn and Quoc Bui. We’ve been friends since middle school and have recently decided to put our creative heads together in the iPhone application world. The catch is, we are not developers. We really have no experience with working on iPhone applications whatsoever.

Think of the work we do as an experiment. We outsource all of the work for our application ideas and we submit them to the iTunes Store, just to see what happens.

We’ll be documenting our progress, our marketing campaigns, and our income (if any).We’re hoping to be successful, and show you that anyone, even those who are not familiar with iPhone app development (like us), can succeed if you put in the time, effort and a little bit of money.

Visit Pat and Quoc on their blog at Loler Apps! There’s tons of stuff you can learn from them – that many companies and indie developers won’t tell you!

Here’s the blog of two guys who have jumped onto the iPhone Apps bandwagon. Whats interesting is that they have absolutely no experience in development. They outsource most of their work.

The fantastic part (that you can learn a lot from) is that they are documenting their entire experience online – how they came up with the app idea, creation of the app, publishing it, marketing it, tracking sales and revenues generated, making a lite version etc.

You get to see everything from start to finish about each app they release. They give you some great insights and revenue figures for the apps they publish. This is one blog you want to visit – if you have never published an app before and want to get some very good tips and insights on what to expect.

Currently, they’re averaging around $2000 per month with the apps they have released (around 3 to 4 only, from what I can see). Which is pretty impressive and very encouraging for all indie developers!

Here’s a note from their homepage –

Our names are Pat Flynn and Quoc Bui. We’ve been friends since middle school and have recently decided to put our creative heads together in the iPhone application world. The catch is, we are not developers. We really have no experience with working on iPhone applications whatsoever.

Think of the work we do as an experiment. We outsource all of the work for our application ideas and we submit them to the iTunes Store, just to see what happens.

We’ll be documenting our progress, our marketing campaigns, and our income (if any).We’re hoping to be successful, and show you that anyone, even those who are not familiar with iPhone app development (like us), can succeed if you put in the time, effort and a little bit of money.

Visit Pat and Quoc on their blog at Loler Apps! There’s tons of stuff you can learn from them – that many companies and indie developers won’t tell you!

Today we presents collection of best Illustrator tutorials for July 2010.

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