Das amerikanische iPhoneBlog berichtet, dass die Copyrightbesprechungen (oder was auch immer da war) zwischen THQ/George Lucas und dem Entwickler der Laserschwertapplikation PhoneSaber, die aus dem AppStore geflogen ist, beendet sind. Doch damit nicht genug: anscheinend soll die App diesen Monat wieder in den Store gelangen. Der Preis ist noch unbekannt, vor dem Rausschmiss durch THQ war die Applikation kostenlos. Für alle, die nicht wissen, was PhoneSaber macht: Es setzt die Accelerometerbewegungen des iPhone in Lichtschwertgräusche um. Hier zwei Screenshots:

It was always suggested that the ‘killer’ aspect of the iPhone would be the Applications written to provide added functionality. We all remember that nauseating ‘monkey boy’ display by Steve “Developers Developers Developers” Ballmer of Microsoft.

[Don't forget his laughable 'laughing' at the iPhone comments]

Anyway enough of that filthy rich nutter. He did however have one point that was correct. Unfortunately for too long at Apple, they opposed the concept, that of independent Developers. With the iPhone, Apple has turned this into the cornerstone of the iPhone . The iPhone would still be a good phone, with amazing technology, design and functionality without the independently developed Apps. With them, it has become one of the greatest ‘convergent’ tools/toys of the 21st Century.

Below is my list of current favourite applications for the iPhone. Funny enough the first is by Apple itself.

Remote: I have Airport Extreme, Airport Express and constantly play music wirelessly. Remote allows you to control iTunes on your computer from the iPhone. The perfect party tool, you know, hide the computer and no one can hijack the party by finding your copy of Mariah Carey hidden in your music library. Best of all has been the distance. Out on the lawn, being able to even simply turn the music up and down without running inside is brilliant.

Sol Free Solitaire: Totally addictive. Nice graphics and way hard.

TV Guide (New Zealand): Not all channels yet, but the basics are there. Nice design and good differentiation of the layouts from Vertical to Horizontal. Now if only it could send a message to my Sky box to change channel and turn on the DVD to record while I’m in town, that would be awesome.
{Note. Version 1.2 now available:
4 Australian States and the United Kingdom have now been added, with limited channels. The New Zealand version has added a huge range of channels (although not all), but unfortunately it’s now become more or less ‘bloatware’, as it’s slow to load and responds to commands very slowly.}

Sports Tap: Covers all of the sports I follow (no doubt some will miss their sports). But sitting in a cafe in New Zealand some 718 miles or 14031 kilometres from Chicago and more or less watch play by play my White Sox beat up on some poor baseball team is just fun. I see they have the Premier League and other major football competitions coming up this week. Will be interesting to see what level of information there is.

RIP PhoneSaber. I wondered how long this would be around for, and it seems the people connected with Star Wars finally caught up with these guys. The good news is, that although it’s now not available as a download, they are working with the official Star Wars folk to develop something – well official. This tool is indispensible for the very fact that it gets the kids off my back for 10 minutes a day (and yes they did drop it, we don’t have two iPhones in this household). So look forward to some real Star Wars action soon.

I’ve been thinking about buying an iPhone (yes, I’m late to the party, but then again I’ve only just started blogging which is sooo 2005) and looking at its specifications it brought to mind another smart handheld device – the Gizmondo.

For those of you who don’t remember, or simply missed it, the Gizmondo was a short lived handheld game device released in the wake of the PSP and DS in February 2006. It had built-in GPS, could play MP3s and video, had a comparatively weak camera, and perhaps most impressively had games that you could play by tilting the handset. Instead of an accelerometer, the Gizmondo used its camera to register movement. For a brief period there was a rumour that this no-mark console would have a version of Halo where players controlled the FPS camera by moving the handset – an idea that is now coming to iPhone with a port of Bioshock.

Of course the Gizmondo never took off partly because despite its many features, it was a bit rubbish and mostly because it turned out to be a front for the Swedish mafia – which is one of the great new-media scandals of recent years.

The iPhone, I think it’s safe to say, has taken off, and I’m really interested in game uses for its accelerometer.  Monkeyball is probably the most famous example so far, but there are some other, smaller, but no less cool apps emerging.

Researching yesterday’s post I found mention on American McGee’s blog of a cool slashing game to promote the serial killer drama Dexter.

Over on Knitware they’ve been admiring Carling’s iPint game.

And for the extra geeky there’s always the phonesaber

I’m looking forward to someone building a Wii-esque multiplayer tennis game that I can play with all my iPhoney friends.  When I buy one of course.  In 2010.

Use the force!

Nokialaisia käyttäessäni välillä iski sanoinkuvaamaton tyhjyyden tunne. Sellainen, josta ei oikein itsekään osaa sanoa mistä se johtuu. iPhonen App storea selaillessani tuo tyhjiö täyttyi yllättäen, sillä löysin sen mitä en ollut tiennyt edes etsiväni: PhoneSaber muuttaa iPhonen valomiekaksi. Ainakin melkein.

Käyttämällä hyväksi iPhonen sisäänrakennettuja liikettä tarkkailevia sensoreita PhoneSaber pitää ääntä kuin valomiekka huomioiden liikkeen. Kun käyttäjä heiluttelee puhelinta vienosti, kuuluu tuttu hurina, ja kun puhelinta heilauttaa reippaassa kaaressa, kuuluu särähtävä ääni kun valomiekka osuu kohteeseensa.

Seuraavaan versioon tulevat toivottavasti muun muassa: GPS ja WiFi -ominaisuuksien hyödyntäminen siten, että viholliset löytyvät helpommin, ja miekkailua voi suorittaa moninpelinä. Siihen asti kyseessä on melkein yhtä siisti kapistus kuin mekaaninen, teleskooppivarrella varustettu muovivalomiekka, joita saa lelukaupoista..

It’s so nice to have all the free apps on the Iphone 3g, some good and some bad. I’ll try any app that is out there…

Some of the really good ones include:

AIM: Great program for anyone that uses aim and wants to view and talk to their friends while they are away. It’s easy to use and just all around a good program.

Pandora: I personally really like Pandora as it is for the computer and I was flipping in joy when I saw it for the Iphone. What could be better than free internet radio whereever you are? I was at my friends house the other day and her satillite radio couldn’t find a signal for music. So I quickly made a new station on Pandora and plugged it into her speakers.

Boxoffice: Came out with a new update today! The update fixed it from crashing and now it shows the rating, the time length, and you can also view trailers straight from it, and alot more. If my friends say “hey, do you know what time The Dark Knight is playing? (Amazing movie by the way) I can pull up my local theaters playing the Dark Knight and the times in about simple clicks.

Tomatoes: I use this app everytime I’m in blockbuster. I just go around the store with my Iphone in my hand and the tomatoes app open. If I see a movie I like I check the rating real quick. Saves me from renting crappy movies thats for sure.

Myspace: I along with about 7/8ths of this planet have a myspace. This is a simple program to check mail, update your status, view your friends, and alot more with. If you are the person with an Iphone and a myspace you need the myspace app.

WeatherBug: Weatherbug is so much better than the already built in weather app. Just plug in your zip code, pick a location and you have the weather forecast for the next few days, a radar of what’s coming across the country your way, and a camera that updates a live picture about every ten minutes so you can see what the sky looks like.

Loopt: This application is a so so application. It’s basically stalking but for the Iphone. It’s a fun to play with app though. You find your friend with their Iphone phone number and then they accept your request; soon you two are looking at where you both are on google maps. You can have as many people as you want, as long as they have an Iphone, blackberry, or any of the compatible phones listed on loopt.com

Shazam: The awesome little magical app. Imagine this, your driving down the highway and you hear a song come on the radio that you know all the words to and really like but don’t know the song name. Well you can pull out your Iphone, click the app, and in about 15 seconds the song name will be up on your screen along with the artist, album name, and year. It also gives you the option if you want to buy the song through your Itunes account right there. Works with background noise and wind!

Remote: If your like me and your computer is on one side of the room and your bed in another then you’ll like this app (especially if you like to listen to your Itunes while your going to bed. This app will wirelessly find your Itunes and it will instantly become a remote for your Itunes library.

YPmobile: 411 was a thing of the past, now there is Yellow Pages mobile. Say your driving around and want to find the nearest Walmart, well this app finds your current location, you type in Walmart, it searches, you click the one you want, and then you have the option of clicking the phone number to call them, or you have the option to click the adress and get turn by turn directions with the Maps app already in the Iphone.

WordPress: Well considering your probably reading this on wordpress then you probably want this app if you have an Iphone. You can edit and add new posts from this app. I just got it today and I’m still playing with it but so far I give a thums up.

And now I get to the random fun apps…

Labyrinth Lite Edition: This is the free version of the game Labyrinth. This is the game with the ball and the wooden board with holes. It’s a fun game (unless your in a car, trust me on that one, almost impossible while someones driving) You only get one pack so I will be buying the full version of the game to play. Download it, its fun.

Magic8Ball: This is a fun app that does one thing. You ask it a question, flick your wrist, and then the magic 8 ball has spoken!

Bubbles: Everyone seems to love this app. You drag your finger across the screen and bubbles will appear, then as gravity pulls them down you can pop them. Its an interesting app, that for sure.

Bubblewrap: How many bubblewrap bubbles can you pop in one minute? My one friend got 100, thats the most I’ve seen so far… can you beat it?

PhoneSaber: I downloaded this app when I was in Borders the other day, and I tried it out in borders, people were looking at me like I was crazy when they saw me with an Iphone in my hand… moving around… making noises from the phone… Hmm, really fun for having pretend lightsaber battles with friends too.

PegJump: Remember the game from Cracker Barrel with the pegs? Well now it’s on the Iphone too… Can you leave one of the 15 pegs left. It’s free, its an amazing game, I highly recommend it for those moments when your bored.

Those apps are all really good, of course there are bad free apps out there two… Like one I found today called “MixMeister” not good, at all. And there are the ones that are just so so. I downloaded “Tap tap revenge” the first day I had the phone, I also deleted it the first day. It’s an alright game and some people like it, I just havn’t found it to be that fun.

Well that just about wraps up the free apps I have to talk about that are currently on my Iphone, I’m sure there will be updates to come along with a blog about Iphone apps that arn’t free.

Ever watched Star Wars, saw those light sabers and always thought to yourself, “OH MY GOD! THOSE ARE AWESOME!”? Okay, maybe you wouldn’t really be that energetic about it, but certainly you think it is very cool.

Read More

Mon application iPhone preferee : PhoneSaber! Je n’arrete pas de l’utiliser depuis que j’ai croise son chemin sur l’AppStore…

Merci a TheMacBox!!!

Ich bin ein sog. Early Adopter von Apple. Wikipedia sagt dazu: Der Begriff Early Adopter (englisch für: frühzeitiger Anwender) bezeichnet einen Menschen, der die neuesten technischen Errungenschaften oder die neuesten Varianten von Produkten erwirbt. So auch mit dem iPhone von Apple. Kaum wurde es im vergangenen Jahr offiziell in Deutschland angeboten, musste ich zum T-Punkt nach Karlsruhe pilgern und so ein Device haben. Am 11. Juli diesen Jahres kam die neue Software 2.0. Und ich bin begeistert. Als dem Apple Store kann man nun Software kaufen bzw. kostenlos laden. Ich mir gleich folgende Programme gezogen: PhoneSaber (Laserschwert-Simulation), AIM (AOL Instand Messanger), FiatLux (Taschenlampe), Shazam (Musik taggen), NetNewsWire (RSS-Reader), Remote (für iTunes), iPint (Bier), Fahrplan (Auskunft) und Einkaufsliste für 0,79 Euro. Ich bin eben ein Apple Fan und steh dazu.