Iphone Updates

Filed under: Accessories, Macbook Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air

It’s no surprise that TUAW bloggers like the products from Twelve South. They’re made only for Macs, they have excellent quality and the company always sends us items to give away to our readers. We’ve previously had giveaways for the BackPack, BassJump, and now we’re giving away a stylish BookArc.

The US$49.00 BookArc takes advantage of the ability of Apple’s MacBooks (Air and Pro included) to work as a desktop machine when the screen is closed and the computer is connected to an external mouse, keyboard, and monitor. You could just lay your MacBook on the desktop, but then it takes up valuable real estate. How about if you could just position your laptop vertically so it takes up a minimum amount of your desktop? That’s what the BookArc is all about.

Like the other products from Twelve South, the BookArc is attractively packaged, so it makes a wonderful gift for your favorite MacBook owner … or yourself. After opening the box, you see the aluminum BookArc with one silicone insert installed, and deeper inside the box are two more inserts. These inserts grip and cushion your MacBook, so you’ll want to make sure you have the correct one installed. Not to worry — they’re easy to install and remove. There’s not too much more to say in terms of a review, other than the BookArc looks great and it does its job well.

If you’re not familiar with how to use your MacBook with the display closed, TwelveSouth thoughtfully provides a link to an Apple Knowledge Base page that has instructions.

Now, it’s time for a TUAW reader to win a BookArc. Here are the details:

• Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.
• To enter, leave a comment telling us what kind of MacBook you’re going to use with the BookArc.
• The comment must be left before Wednesday, February 24, 2010, 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time.
• You may enter only once.
• One winner will be selected in a random drawing.
• Prize: One Twelve South BookArc desktop stand for MacBook ($49 value)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

Good luck! Check out the gallery below for some shots of the BookArc you may soon be using.

TUAWTUAW review and giveaway — BookArc from Twelve South originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MacBook – Apple – MacBook Air – United States – MacbookPro

Filed under: iTS, Software, iTunes, Developer, iPhone, App Store

Gameloft is one of the bigger iPhone-specific (or at least mobile-specific) game developers out there, and in fact they’re so big, they tell Mobile Entertainment that they’re not scared of their development partner Ubisoft and other big game developers headed to the iPhone. Ubisoft developed the most recent Assassin’s Creed game for the iPhone, but Gameloft developed the first, and Gameloft’s Gonzague de Vallois says that their game had better ratings and sales.

To a certain extent, yes, the App Store creates a level playing field for game developers, and allows companies even smaller than Gameloft to get their games out to a mass audience and gain a following based simply on gameplay, not necessarily marketing or other factors. But despite Gameloft’s bragging, some of the most popular titles on the App Store, from Rock Band to Call of Duty: World at War Zombies, are able to tie a successful brand into an app that features solid gameplay. Yes, Gameloft has been able to shine on the App Store. But I wouldn’t count big developers out yet — they’re still learning how to use the iPhone’s marketplace, and I think we’ll continue to see big successes from bigger developer in the future.

[Via Slide-to-play]

TUAWGameloft says they’ve got iPhone locked down originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 20 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – appstore – Apple – Ubisoft – iTunes

Filed under: iPhone, App Store

The prospect of an always-on, portable and discreet e-lottery ticket in your pocket may thrill some and horrify others, but as far as Apple is concerned it looks like it’s A-OK for the App Store. We were first tipped to a change in the iPhone developer agreement this past Monday by Joel Comm, the originator of iFart Mobile; the particular adjustment is in section 3.3.17 of the agreement:

3.3.17 Your Application may include promotional sweepstake or contest functionality provided that You are the sole sponsor of the promotion and that You and Your Application comply with any applicable laws.

This opens the door to all sorts of games, prizes and payoffs — not to mention the possibility of intriguing legal battles, as games of chance and contests are subject to all sorts of differing rules in different jurisdictions. Comm’s company’s latest app, KaChing Button, will be offering users the chance to win cash prizes in a monthlong sweepstakes that kicks off next Monday. He predicts — and I concur — that a massive wave of payoff apps is just over the horizon. I hope all those iPhone developers have excellent lawyers.

[H/T to RegHardware, AppFreak]

TUAWApp Store rules changed to allow sweepstakes and contests originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 19 Feb 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AppStore – iPhone – Apple – Joel Comm – TUAW

Filed under: Apple Corporate, App Store

Jon Atherton, the developer behind Wobble iBoobs, has just told TechCrunch that he received an email from Apple stating his application was being removed from the App Store because of a new policy change: “We [Apple] have decided to remove any overtly sexual content from the App Store.”

The full email:

The App Store continues to evolve, and as such, we are constantly refining our guidelines. Your application, Wobble iBoobs (Premium Uncensored), contains content that we had originally believed to be suitable for distribution. However, we have recently received numerous complaints from our customers about this type of content, and have changed our guidelines appropriately.

We have decided to remove any overtly sexual content from the App Store, which includes your application.

Thank you for your understanding in this matter. If you believe you can make the necessary changes so that Wobble iBoobs (Premium Uncensored) complies with our recent changes, we encourage you to do so and resubmit for review.

Sincerely,
iPhone App Review

At this time it’s unclear if Apple is removing all apps with the “over the age of 17″ warning that contain sexual content, or just specific apps whose sexual content is deemed “overt” by Apple. While iBoobs has been removed, I was still able to download an app called “Sexy Screen Wash Lite” at the time of this writing. TechCrunch has also been able to download other “sexy” apps, which makes Apple’s working definition of “overtly sexual content” unclear.

This isn’t the first time iBoobs has been removed from the App Store. In 2008, Apple rejected it on the grounds of “objectionable content.” The app was later allowed back in the App Store.

I wish Apple would either remove these apps, or file them all under a special “sexy” section in the App Store that remains hidden unless enabled. Of course a free T&A app is going to be a popular download, but when I’m searching for cool new free apps, it’s annoying when the top list is populated by “sexy” junk apps.

TUAWApple banning sexual content in the App Store? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 19 Feb 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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appstore – Apple – IPhone – Wobble – Sexual intercourse

Filed under: Freeware, iPhone, iPod touch, App Review

I really love to find cool, free apps, and I have a good one for you. 3D Sun, developed in collaboration with NASA scientists, will alert you to solar flares and storms which can disrupt communications on earth and trigger spectacular northern lights.

Activating the push feature provides instant notification of major solar activity.. Clicking on the app will give you detailed information, as well as a current picture of the surface of the sun provided by the NASA ‘Stereo‘ satellites. You can rotate the view of the sun with your fingers, and pinch in and out to zoom. The 2 satellites don’t have a 360 degree view, so there will be a dark sliver where the cameras can’t see. Using this app is a lot safer than trying to see these phenomena with the naked eye or even using some of the not-so-safe solar filters that are around.

In addition to the ‘live’ view of the sun, you can view recent pictures of the sun in different bands of the spectrum, and you’ll get a look at the rather fascinating magnetic field lines that are above the surface of our friendly orb.

The app also features a collection of stills and movies showing solar events and events triggered by the sun.

The app is just out, so grab it if you are interested. I’d also remind our scientifically prone readers of the terrific NASA app that Steve Sande reviewed in October. 3D Sun has scads of images, videos, launch information and more, and it’s another freebie.

These apps run on the iPhone and the iPod touch.

I think you should go for launch on both of these. A-OK?

Check the gallery for more screen shots:

TUAWKeep your eyes on the Sun safely with free 3D Sun app originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – Sun – NASA – Solar flare – IPod Touch

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Rumors, Bad Apple

Apple’s obsession with secrecy is legendary. For all the rumors and leaks that stoke media attention, very rarely do we have a clear picture of a new product until Steve Jobs comes out on stage and shows it to us. Even people who work for Apple often have very little idea what the company is up to; retail employees at Apple Stores usually don’t know any more about upcoming products than anyone else, and retail managers have told me the first clear picture they get of new products is when they arrive on a truck. Even people who work in Apple R&D on products like the iPad operate in a “cone of silence,” with security measures in place at Cupertino’s labs that sound like something out of a James Bond film. And last year, an employee of Chinese supplier Foxconn allegedly leapt to his death to avoid further interrogation after he “lost” an iPhone prototype.

A new report from Reuters offers more insight into Apple’s cloak and dagger world. Confidentiality agreements are only the beginning when it comes to Apple’s tactics with its overseas suppliers. Apple contacts suppliers at the last minute, often only weeks before a product’s release, and provides information about its products on a strict “need to know” basis. Apple also divides its projects between multiple suppliers, meaning that for a product like the iPhone, no one supplier is responsible for producing or assembling all of its components. As a result, even most of the people who are standing on the assembly line making Apple’s products have no idea what they look like when they’re finished. Only a handful of very closely monitored workers are responsible for final assembly. Apple also has a unique vetting process for its contractors: it will switch up product suppliers occasionally, issuing them different products, all in the name of hunting down and squashing leaks. Well, that and an attempt to thwart cheap knockoffs — a somewhat common practice in certain parts of the manufacturing world.

One South Korean supplier has stated Apple makes “unreasonable requests.” The company’s demands for customization in its designs means suppliers are left with equipment and components that can’t be used for other clients, and excess inventory cannot be repurposed.

The Reuters report paints a very dark picture of Apple’s relations with its suppliers. The company has its reasons for being secretive, some of them more valid than others, but it seems incredibly ironic that the same company who satirized George Orwell’s 1984 in their iconic Super Bowl commercial now employs the same sort of police-state tactics with both its own employees and its overseas contractors. As much as I enjoy using Apple’s products, reports like the one from Reuters make it hard for me to like the company itself.

Read the Reuters report for yourselves, and then let us know how you feel about Apple’s obsession with secrecy in the comments.

[Via AppleInsider]

TUAWApple’s obsessive secrecy hurting relations with overseas suppliers originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – Steve Jobs – iPhone – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Reuters

Filed under: iPhone, App Review

The makers of CoPilot Live North America are including free search from within its iPhone app. Previously the search function was a premium add-on.

CoPilot Live is $34.99 with most of the features users expect, like turn by turn voice directions, 2D and 3D driving views and U.S. plus Canada Maps.

According to the company, CoPilot Live v8′s integrated access to local search enables users to quickly and easily find whatever they are looking for, whether it’s the nearest service, product, brand or shop. Search results are displayed in the on-screen map or as a list.

The integrated search will be a free update for current customers, but the company has not given us a certain date for availability pending approval from Apple.

We’ve looked at the app before, and found it pretty useful. Users at the App Store give it mixed ratings. It should be more competitive now with integrated search, and it’s nice to see GPS prices in general dropping.

TUAWCoPilot Live adding free in-app search originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – App Store – Apple – search – Smartphone

Filed under: iPhone

Shazam is one of my favorite iPhone apps, and it was one of the first I downloaded from the App Store. Every time I’m in a store or listening to the radio and hear a song I like but don’t know, I let Shazam listen. The free version is still in the store, but just recently they’ve also released Shazam Encore and (Shazam)RED, two paid versions of the app that offer up more functionality (the RED version gives part of the purchase price to charity). Among that new functionality is Last.FM integration: now, you can apparently send any songs you “tag” straight over to the Last.FM app (assuming you have it installed), and make up a radio station directly from there. Pretty slick, and the iTunes description for both apps says that Pandora works as well.

Unfortunately, reviews for the paid version say that the app still includes ads (a weird choice for a paid app), and there are a few reviews that even say the app crashes occasionally (though I’ve never experienced the problem of it not finding a song for me — even with rarities and b-sides, it’s always come through). But it’s a real shame that reviewers are having problems — while Shazam definitely needs to find a way to monetize its service, failing to provide a premium experience on a premium app obviously isn’t the way to do it. Still, if you made the jump to the paid app already, or use Last.FM and/or Pandora often, it might be worth a look.

TUAWShazam adds Last.FM integration to iPhone apps originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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App Store – IPhone – Apple – Last.fm – iTunes

Filed under: Macworld, Accessories, iPhone, iPod touch

There were a lot of case vendors and manufacturers at Macworld, and we didn’t have time to run around and talk to all of them (not to mention that most of them aren’t all that interesting anyway). But we did make a stop by the iFrogz booth, because we’d heard about something interesting they’re doing with their customizable MyFrogz iPhone cases. Theirs is the first case that you can completely customize with an actual iPhone app. To start, you go into an AT&T store (the deal is an exclusive there, but only for a little while longer), and buy a card with a code on it for US$39.99, which comes with just a plain clear case. With that code, you can then go onto the MyFrogz iPhone app, and design your own case in terms of top and bottom colors out of 100,000 combinations. Finally, you enter your information into the app, along with the code from the store, and iFrogz will send you your customized case.

Obviously, the process isn’t exactly instant (and to be honest, the case isn’t anything special). But the idea is very interesting — they’re using an iPhone app to conduct business that might be done more traditionally elsewhere. When the iPhone was first introduced, we heard all about Starbucks using it to order coffee, or Barnes and Noble using software to let you order books in-store. But we haven’t seen much of that innovation at all, so it was surprising to find it (even in an imperfect form) in the iFrogz booth.

TUAWMacworld 2010: MyFrogz cases, designed by an iPhone app originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IPhone – AT&T – iFrogz – Apple – Macworld

Filed under: Macworld, Accessories, Odds and ends, iPhone

We stopped by the Armpocket booth at Macworld last week, and while we expected to find just another accessory sales pitch, we found something surprising: a family. The product was actually designed by a couple named Jyette Nielsen and Mark Morgan, and as Mark explained the cases to us (which are made from high-quality, renewable materials like recycled bottle plastic and natural bamboo), we could see that this was a product with real people behind it. He’s a retired military guy, and he and his “significant other” (“She’s too smart to marry me,” he joked) simply had a problem and came up with a solution: they’re both runners, and they needed a sweat-proof, secure case to keep their iPods and cell phones in. Armpocket was the case they came up with.

Morgan told me he didn’t have any significant manufacturing experience — the couple just went around to various trade shows and chose materials and designs based on what worked for them, and now they go around and sell their cases in retail and at the trade shows (their son was in attendance at Macworld also, selling and demoing the cases). And the Armpockets are impressive — while they’re a little bigger than the standard case, the material is all moisture resistant, the padding grips your arm well while holding your phone securely in place, and there’s even something called a “flexi-lock” audio port for holding the headphone cord. The cases are US$22.95 for the regular iPod versions, up to $32.95 for more extensive models.

Obviously, we didn’t get to go running around the Macworld floor, so in terms of testing, I can’t recommend this case over any other sturdy iPhone armbands out there. Still, it was nice to find some real people behind these often faceless accessory vendors.

TUAWMacworld 2010: Armpocket cases are a family affair originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IPhone – Apple – Macworld – TUAW – IPod

Filed under: Macworld, Video, iPhone, App Store

App Cubby has some of the more popular apps in the App Store. Whether it’s Gas Cubby for tracking car maintenance, Trip Cubby for capturing mileage information, or Health Cubby for motivating ourselves to get into better shape, the company keeps customers coming back with well-executed and full-featured software.

We talked with App Cubby’s David Barnard at Macworld Expo 2010 to see what’s new from the company. While we won’t tell you about the new and completely different app he has recently submitted to Apple, David told us a lot about the free version of Gas Cubby — Gas Cubby by FRAM — that provides the functionality of Gas Cubby in an ad-sponsored format.

Check out TUAW blogger Steve Sande’s video interview with David by clicking the Read More button.

We apologize for the sound quality, which was hindered by interference picked up by the microphone.

TUAWMacworld 2010: TUAW talks with App Cubby’s David Barnard originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 13 Feb 2010 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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App Store – iPhone – AppCubby – David Barnard – Gas Cubby

Filed under: Macworld

Welcome back to our team coverage of Macworld 2010. We’re wrapping up day 2 of the expo with an all-hands chat… and you can join in! Click ‘Read More’ below to see the video live and chat with us directly at the show.

It’s been a busy couple of days with plenty to talk about.

Chat below… TUAW Live at Macworld Expo 2010

TUAWMacworld 2010: Chat live with team TUAW originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video – Macworld – TUAW – Macworld Conference & Expo – Adult

Filed under: Macworld, TUAW Interview

In December we reviewed Moodagent [iTunes Link] a wonderful music app that puts you in control of creating Genius like playlists of your iTunes library. On release it didn’t recognize about 20% of my library, but now, after analyzing over one billion songs, I find it to be about 95% accurate, and getting better all time.

I spoke with Richard French, the CEO of Syntonetic Inc., the parent company of Moodagent, who gave me an update on what’s in store for the app and if you like it now, you’re going to love it in 3 – 6 months. On the front burner is an iTunes plug-in which has been the most requested feature. I can easily see this completely replacing Genius playlists by putting you in the drivers seat when using iTunes on your computer.

I asked about the possibility of importing Moodagent playlists into iTunes and found that it’s going to be difficult since the easy way would by necessity stomp all over some Apple proprietary code, but it’s not impossible and it’s going to happen this year. It will just take a lot of work and time. Another upcoming feature is integration of social networking so you can share your playlists on Facebook, Twitter and all the usual suspects. The limit of a 25 song playlist will eventually be raised, which would be my first request. This will is also on the drawing board and will be gotten to eventually.

It was interesting to learn a bit of how Moodagent works. Recent musicology graduates in Copenhagen sample songs during syncing and process them through 50 expert filters adding to the songs that Moodagent recognizes. They constantly work on improving the filters to make Moodagent more accurate. There is no tagging going on behind the scenes.

Moodagent is a great app now but after my discussion, I can see it being incredible about half a year from now. I can’t wait.

TUAWMacworld 2010: Moodagent has synced over one billion songs originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facebook – ITunes – Twitter – Macworld – TUAW

Filed under: Macworld, Humor, Video, TUAW Business

TUAWMacworld 2010: TUAW adventures, day 2 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Macworld – Apple – Macintosh – San Francisco – TUAW

Filed under: Macworld, Hardware

Although it isn’t exhibiting this year, flagship Mac television hardware gadget maker Elgato still had a presence on the show floor in the person of marketing VP Adam Steinberg, who visited our booth yesterday.

Adam ran down some of the current Elgato product offerings, including the Turbo.264 HD compression accelerator, the EyeTV line and the Video Capture standalone unit. He also left behind his demo Turbo unit — which, if all goes well, we will give away to a lucky showgoer later this week.

TUAWMacworld 2010: Elgato products roundup originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – Macintosh – Elgato – Macworld – TUAW

Filed under: iPhone, App Review

Ilan Aisic, the CEO of Pointer Software, had a problem. Or rather his wife did. Ilan snores and it was driving his wife crazy, so he developed Snoring U (US$4.99), an unusual iPhone app that monitors snoring while you sleep using the built-in microphone. You wear your iPhone using an arm band or put it on your night table and when it detects at least four snores, measured by a change in the decibel level of the room, the app will vibrate or play a sound clip that you can record to tell you to turn over, stop snoring or whatever you like.

It was developed under the guidance of an Israeli specialist in internal pulmonary and sleep medicine. Although no specific claims are made, I can easily see this working since I have exactly the same problem and this seems to automate what goes on three or four times a night. The snoring wakes me up, I ask my partner to turn over or change position and go back to sleep until the snoring wakes me up again. This app does the same thing but, from what I’ve been told, without the non-snorer waking up.

You can control just about everything in the app from number of snores to sensitivity determining when the app should kick in, to how long it should wait before it recognizes another snoring event. It also graphs what happened, so the next morning you can see a chart showing you all the times the app kicked in, what times it happened and the loudness of the snoring. But the neatest part for me is that it provides prima facie evidence against the daily intoning of “…But I don’t snore.”

Ha! Busted.

TUAWPartner snore? There’s an app for that originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – Apple – Smartphone – TUAW – Snoring

Filed under: Macworld, Enterprise

For a Mac enterprise administrator, hosting your users’ data someplace other than their valuable, easily-misplaced laptops is generally a good idea. Combining that with the powerful management and storage capabilities of a VMware infrastructure seems like an equally good idea, and that’s where the DiscCloud platform comes in.

The toolset provides login and sync for remote users on their Macs, with all their data stored in VMDK files back in the home data center for easy backup and management. Unlike terminal services (Citrix-esque) solutions for distributed user populations, this approach preserves the application performance of the local machine while only sending the changed data back and forth to maintain synchronization between the user and the servers.

DiscCloud is teaming up with integrators/consultants Attevo to provide service packages for companies and institutions that are interested in implementing this approach. See the video below for a short demo.

TUAWDiscCloud teams up with Attevo to provide remote home folder service originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – VMware – VMDK – Citrix Systems – Macworld

Filed under: Macworld, Video

Have a spare 60 seconds? Want to see the entire Macworld Expo 2010 show floor? Take a look at the above video, which is a time lapse of a walkaround of the show floor this morning before the Expo opened. This was taken with an iPhone 3GS and the iTimeLapse app, so the quality leaves a little bit to be desired.

Remember, if you’re at Macworld Expo 2010 in San Francisco, be sure to drop by booth #654 and say hello to the TUAW team.

TUAWMacworld 2010: The show floor in 56 seconds originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IPhone – San Francisco – Apple – Macworld Conference & Expo – Macworld Expo 2010

Filed under: Macworld, Video

We’re live at Macworld Expo, which will be opening to the public tomorrow. The TUAW team has already seen some pretty astounding things, but those are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Join your regular TUAW TV Live host Steve Sande and special TUAW guest Mike Rose for a quick half-hour of discussion, stories, and fun live from the TUAW booth (#654) at Macworld Expo. It all starts today at a special time, 6 PM ET / 3 PM PT, here at TUAW.

TUAWTUAW TV Live special Macworld Expo 2010 edition at 6 PM ET today originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Macworld – Apple – Television – TUAW – Steve Jobs

Filed under: Apple

So my folks were here this weekend, and as you’d expect my Dad is really curious about the upcoming iPad, or as he likes to put it “his new 3G iPad”. I convinced him that he should wait for April so he could get the new postpaid-data-ready iPad, which he could use anywhere, not just with WiFi hotspots.

As we were talking, I began to realize that he didn’t really have a clear idea of exactly what this gadget is — and lots of you probably have parents in similar situations. So I put together this Q&A using actual questions my Dad asked throughout the course of the weekend.

“So I can use it instead of my normal computer, right?”
The iPad isn’t going to replace your home computer. In fact, it’s supposed to be like an iPod — a mobile device you bring along but not a primary system. You manage your music and movies and everything over on your main machine (a Windows unit in my Dad’s case) and then synchronize that data to your iPad using iTunes.

“But what about Microsoft Works? Can I load that on?”
Afraid not. The iPad is more like a mobile phone than it is like a computer. You won’t be able to run Windows on it, or even the Macintosh operating system OS X. It has its own private system and can only run apps that you buy at the App Store. (Trust me, my Dad does not want to know from jailbreaking or Cydia.)


“So how do I get apps on it?”
You can buy applications from iTunes, either on your home computer or on the device itself. There are a gadzillion of really great games and utilities available and they usually cost just a few bucks. It’s a way, way better deal than buying applications for your PC or for most mobile phones.

“Where do I put in the DVDs?”
Unfortunately, you don’t. You can rent or buy movies from iTunes, again either at your computer or on the device, but you can’t get a DVD from the library and watch it on your system unless you want me to tell you more than you really need to know about something called “ripping”. Rentals cost just a few dollars. You have a month in which to start watching the movie and once you start watching it, you have to finish watching within 24 hours. If you buy a movie, it’s yours to watch forever. Just be aware that movies are big space hogs, so don’t put too many movies on your iPad at once. You can store them on your home computer and just choose which movies you want to sync at any time.

“So what’s the point of it?”
The iPad is going to let you check your mail, surf the web, and enjoy your music and videos when you’re out waiting for Mom to finish up at the store. Or the dentist. Or the doctor’s. Or the DMV. Or wherever she’s dragged you. You can pull this out and play a few games or get on the Internet or just watch some TV.

“Right. So when can I buy it?”
April. That’s when you can get the 3G version — and you want that because Mom’s errands rarely offer free WiFi connectivity. 3G lets you connect to the Internet wherever AT&T has a decent signal in your area.

TUAWAnswers for the ‘rents about the iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – AppStore – Microsoft – iTunes – ITunes Store

Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch, App Review

As a tabletop board game, Hive has been around since 2001. It draws inspiration from classic abstract strategy games like chess and shogi but does away with that pesky board (see also: Tile Chess). The iPhone/iPod touch app [US$1.99, iTunes link] brings everything from the physical version to your pocket, and if clever placement of bug-decorated pieces is your thing, the game is well worth the download – at least for a short while.

The Game

The rules of this two-player game are entirely simple. Each turn, you either add a piece to the hive (you can think of the hive as the board) or, if you’ve already placed your queen bee, you can move a piece in the hive. The object of the game is to surround your opponent’s bee and, like in chess, each type of piece (different kinds of bugs) has its own movement abilities, so knowing when to move where is a challenge and certainly part of the fun. Beetles climb on other bugs, the ant runs around the hive, and so on.The full rules are detailed in the app’s tutorial, or you can watch a video review after the jump (or get the rules PDF). Read on to discover if these bugs are the kind you want invading your iPhone.

A game of Hive goes pretty quickly, taking anywhere between five and 30 minutes depending on how good you are and what level you’re playing against. The app can save up to eight games so you’ll always have room for any game that gets interrupted.

The App

Since Hive, like chess and many other abstract strategy games where all pieces and options are known at all times, is a game of perfect information, it works wonderfully as a two player app. In fact, if your tabletop board game shelves are already full of abstract games, there’s really no reason any more to shell out the $25 or $30 for the physical copy when almost the same functionality – with quicker set up – can be had for $1.99 in the App Store. Heck, just the 2007 Mosquito expansion costs $10 in a store. There’s no way an iPhone can replace an entire board game collection, but in this case, it makes more sense to have the app than the box.

While the app doesn’t offer a way to playing with multiple mosquito tiles, the game’s visual options are ridiculously varied. None of them make the game look quite as nice and the polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride (sorry, Bakelite) pieces available for tabletop play, but you can pick from about two dozen background colors and five different tile types. There are also four difficulty levels and toggles to to turn the mosquito option and tournament rules on and off and to select which color the AI will play in single player mode. We recommend leaving the tournament rules set to be always on. Tournament rules mean that neither player can place the Bee as their first piece, a choice that often leads to games that end in a draw. Boring.

The trouble is that the AI, even on hard, is not too difficult to beat. In the course of an evening, an experienced abstract game player can learn the rules and manage to beat the system with some regularity. It’s not a total cakewalk, but a difficulty level beyond “hard” would be appreciated. You know, something really frustrating. Considering the game’s mediocre AI, a real online player option would be a great thing. Instead, the pass-the-device two-player and local network P2P are all that’s offered.

Of course, a harder-working AI might be a bit much for early iPhones. Running on a first-gen iPod Touch, the game repeatedly reported low memory and suggested restarting the device. Even after doing so, though, the message appeared. Still, the app continued to work, so it’s not the most useful of warnings. When playing the medium and hard AI levels, there is some – not too much – delay in the bot’s moves, which is kind of nice and mimics playing against a person, but it might become too annoying if the AI got smarter.

Thankfully, the game’s music and sound effects can be muted and, if iTunes is playing when the app starts, the audio continues without interruption. Also, while there is no undo button per se, you can touch the “Hive” logo on the game screen and call up the game menu, which includes a “Back to Game” option. If you do this when you’re selected the wrong piece, the piece will be unselected when you come back to the game. Handy, but the location of the logo makes it kind of troublesome for one player in a two-player game.

All in all, Hive is like so many of the “easy to learn, hard to master” style of games. Even when playing on the iPod touch, having two human players is better than playing against the bots, and the game loses nothing in the translation to virtual tabletop.

Review of the board game version by the Dice Tower:

Official app promo from Lotus Studios:

TUAWReview: Hive board game app offers all sorts of buggy fun originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – iPod Touch – Board game – App Store – IPod Classic

Filed under: Macworld, TUAW Business, Podcasts

We’re back live tonight with the usual gang of ruffians, this time (partially) live from San Francisco as we warm up for Macworld Expo 2010! So what if the iPad isn’t out for a few more weeks? We’re revved up for the show — it’s our first year with a booth of our own, and our first year livestreaming video directly from the expo floor — so what we need now is to hear from you. What coverage do you want to see, which products do you want reviews, who are the pundits and industry veterans you want to hear from? C’mon & call the show to let us know.

We’ll kick things off at 10pm Eastern (7pm Pacific); hopefully the Superbowl will be over by then, and if not, we’ll vamp. Once you sign in on Talkshoe, you’ll be able to call in with your own phone and chat live with TUAW bloggers and listeners. See you then!

To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the “TalkShoe Web” button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (take advantage of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 — during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8.

If you’ve got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free Gizmo or X-Lite SIP clients; basic instructions are here. Talk with you then!

TUAWTalkcast tonight, 10 pm ET: Macworld Expo preview originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TalkShoe – Facebook – Apple – San Francisco – Macworld Conference & Expo

Filed under: Interviews, Developer

More coverage of TUAW’s inside look at developer boot camp. See below for notes & disclaimer.

On my last day at Big Nerd Ranch, I got a chance to sit down with with the biggest nerd at the ranch, Aaron Hillegass, and talk about nerds, NextStep, the iPad and more. Aaron has a unique vantage point on all things Apple, and it was definitely an enjoyable conversation. If you continue reading after the first video, there’s a second short video of Aaron and I out at the site of the future Big Nerd Ranch.

After chatting with Aaron for a while, we drove about 20 minutes to get to the site of the “new” ranch (it’s much closer to the airport than the current residence). Ground hasn’t been broken yet, but the plans are laid for a new Big Nerd Ranch. Aaron expounds a little on his “monastic” approach, and had me walking up and down slippery slopes to see the land …

A big thanks to Aaron for his time, it was definitely a pleasure and an honor to sit down with him!

In order to give our readers the first-hand account of what it’s like to experience developer boot camp, Big Nerd Ranch has permitted Brett to attend complimentary classes and has provided transportation/lodging assistance. Other than those considerations, no sponsorship or advertising relationship exists between BNR and TUAW. This series is not an endorsement of BNR’s programs or teaching methodology.

TUAWTUAW at Big Nerd Ranch: Aaron Hillegass originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – BigNerdRanch – Aaron Hillegass – NextStep – TUAW

Apple today introduced Aperture 3, the next major release of its powerful photo editing and management software. Aperture 3 offers more than 200 new features including Faces, Places, and Brushes. A 30-day trial is now available for download.

Filed under: Portables, Software, Freeware, Apple

In addition to their Quattro Wireless buy last month, Apple has picked up two more new employees that seems like additions to an incoming mobile advertising business. Theo Theodorou was picked up from Microsoft’s mobile advertising sales department and will head sales in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. And Todd Tran, from mobile ad agency Joule, will serve as general manager in Europe.

Apple hasn’t announced exact details of what they plan to do with all of this mobile advertising, but they did say in the conference call last week that they plan to use their Quattro Wireless acquisition to help app developers make money, especially on free apps. We don’t yet know the exact specifics of that plan (“iAds,” coming soon to an App Store near you?), but it looks like Apple is making a significant investment in putting mobile ads on their devices.

TUAWApple hires two more for mobile ad sales originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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QuattroWireless – Apple – App Store – Advertising – Microsoft

Filed under: OS, Software, Freeware, Apple

Let’s face it — as much as we love our Macs, sometimes you’ve got to use a PC, whether that be for work or at a friend’s house, or just for playing some games. But when you absolutely must use Windows, maComfort can make the transition easier. It’s a free Windows application (with some premium options) that brings all of the nice software things you appreciate on your Mac back to your PC. It’s got a QuickLook-style feature, translates the Windows key to all of your Command hotkeys, and even replicates familiar Mac features like one-button volume control and Spaces and Active Corners. And the app also has a add-on system, so you can download extra features like homemade Docks and shadows just like on your Mac back home.

Of course, it’s not perfect — QuickLook only works in Explorer, not everywhere, and obviously all of the less-superficial features on the Mac (like Terminal and Stacks) will stay in OS X. But if you have to use a PC away from home and are frustrated that hitting what’s supposed to be the Command key keeps popping up the Start menu instead, try a little maComfort. The app is a free download with limited functionality, or $20 for full use.

[via LH]

TUAWMaComfort brings a little Mac back to your PC originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – Operating system – Macintosh – Windows – Microsoft Windows

Filed under: Portables, Software, Apple

Fox News writer Clayton Morris was also wondering just why Apple went with AT&T yet again for the iPad data plan, but it turns out things between the two companies weren’t quite so cut and dry as Jobs made us believe on stage. He says that inside sources at Verizon still insist that they’ve been talking with Apple about handling some of the data service, and he even says that they’ve mentioned not only an iPhone set up to work with Verizon later this year, but an iPad as well.

Rumor also has it that AT&T simply outbid the other cellphone providers for becoming the official iPad data service, and that makes sense: that $29.99 unlimited plan is a heck of a deal for consumers, but then again, it’ll bring in a heck of a lot of business for AT&T (who should have already been in hot water for their service outages, and will probably end up in more, despite their promises that their network can handle the data).

Of course, Verizon is really the only source saying they’re still in the game at the moment — most analysts believe Verizon won’t see Apple hardware until they bring out their next-generation LTE service, and even then having a bunch of different plans to choose from doesn’t really sound like Apple’s kind of thing. But it is interesting to hear that AT&T is willing to take a dive in price to keep Apple’s business. Wonder what might happen if their network dives as well.

[via Apple Insider]

TUAWRumor: AT&T outbid Verizon for the iPad data plan originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon – IPhone – Apple – AT&T – Clayton Morris

Filed under: Apple, Developer, iPhone, SDK

In pixel-terms, the iPad offers a much larger workspace to develop on than the iPhone but in terms of the human experience, it’s not that very far away from iPhone programming. The two share an underlying operating system and a large overlap in human interaction realities. Here are just three of those overlapping iPhone development realities. Consider taking these ideas into account as you’re building your new and updated applications for the iPad.

Human fingers are big. Although the iPhone has a much smaller screen than the iPad, the size and shape of the typical human finger does not change between the two devices. Do not design interaction elements for the iPad smaller than, say 40-by-40 pixels in size.

When in doubt, design larger rather than smaller. The iPad with its larger screen is more likely to be held further away during use than the iPhone, which is often raised fairly close in during use. Build your on-screen objects accordingly. With its 1024×768-pixel screen, the iPad has the room for clean, large interaction elements. Use that space to better compliment the human finger.

Attention spans are short. Like the iPhone, expect your users to approach the iPad in a sporadic netbook-style fashion. Design your applications around short interaction periods and prepare for your application to be cut off as a user stands up to grab his next Orange-Cranberry Frapaccino.

Always save your application state between sessions, as much as you possibly can. A well designed app should relaunch quickly and, upon relaunching, approximate the same task your user was performing the last time the program was run. This can demand diligence on the part of the programmer, but is worth the time investment due to the payoff in user satisfaction.

One more tip after the break!

Thanks Scott Lawrence, |Agent

You’ve got to launch fast. If users complained about your launch speed issues on the iPhone, expect even worse criticism on the netbook-like iPad. Get your user into your application and started with work as soon as you possibly can. Apps that display credits and launch videos are wasting the user’s time. Remember too that larger screen size means larger image asset sizes; which may take more time to load.

Use threads to keep your GUI from blocking on load. A well-threaded app should be able to catch up with the user without blocking the user from getting started. Remember that you’re working in a one-application-at-a-time OS. Users will both want to and need to flip from one app to another as e-mail arrives or when checking a reference on the web. By speeding up your application launches, you help ensure that your user can get back to what he was doing as quickly as possible.

TUAWiPad devsugar: Three lessons from the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – Apple – Software development kit – Operating system – Handhelds

Filed under: Hardware, Internet, Internet Tools

Soon the iPad will be upon us, and the US government is worried about the congestion it will cause.

Phil Bellaria is a staffer in the Obama administration. Specifically, he’s the director of scenario planning for the federal government’s Omnibus Broadband Initiative. He published a blog post earlier this week describing his initial concerns about the future demands on our networks.

“With the iPad pointing to even greater demand for mobile broadband on the horizon, we must ensure that network congestion doesn’t choke off a service that consumers clearly find so appealing or frustrate mobile broadband’s ability to keep us competitive in the global broadband economy. “

He refers to the network-crippling outages that occurred when Aol* first introduced unlimited Internet access in 1996. For months customers could scarcely connect, and even when they finally did those connections were fragile due to the huge numbers of people trying to get on at once.

Just as Aol remedied the situation in the 90′s with network upgrades, Mr. Bellaria explains, current Wi-Fi and 3G providers must prepare for the onslaught that iPad mania will bring. In the recent iPad press event, Scott Forstall mentioned the network upgrades that AT&T is currently working on. Hurry up, AT&T! The clock is ticking!

[Via International Business Times]

*Full disclosure: Aol is our parent company.

TUAWUS Government: iPad and other smart mobile devices may strain networks originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T – Internet access – Scott Forstall – US Government – Federal government of the United States

Filed under: Video, Podcasting

About three weeks ago, I had the opportunity to chat with Aaron Vronko, the service manager at RapidRepair in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The topic? What we thought would be the technical underpinnings of an Apple tablet. That chat turned into a post with a lot of prognosticating about the hardware that would make up the device.

Now that the curtain has been pulled back and we know a lot more about the Apple iPad, Aaron will be joining me this afternoon to talk about what we know about the actual iPad hardware. You can join us and ask Aaron your questions through the Ustream chat tool when we get together for another TUAW TV Live.

The fun starts just a little before 5 PM ET here at TUAW. See you then!

TUAWTUAW TV Live at 5 PM ET with a special guest (no, it’s not an iPad) originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – Ustream – TUAW – Television – Live at 5

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

As most of you know already, Apple has lifted the restrictions against making VoIP calls over a 3G connection, and a handful of apps have already “flipped a switch” behind the scenes to enable such calls. However, the most high-profile VoIP app on the App Store, Skype, has yet to follow suit.

Skype has posted an update on their blog regarding their progress on enabling VoIP over 3G. According to the company, 3G calling is coming “soon” along with a few other updates that will ensure that both the app itself and the calls it makes remain high-quality. The next Skype update will include a call quality indicator for the 3G network similar to the one they already have for Wi-Fi connections — depending on the strength of your network connection, the indicator will show green, yellow, or red, giving you a rough idea of what quality to expect out of calls on your current network. Skype is also working on implementing a “wideband audio” codec for calls, which the company says will allow for “CD quality sound” on Skype-to-Skype calls. From the sounds of the video below, however, this feature will only be coming to the iPhone 3GS and iPod touch; it’s probable that the iPhone 3G and original iPhone lack the processing power necessary to drive Skype’s wideband audio codec.

Since the announcement of the lifting of VoIP over 3G restrictions, much speculation has surrounded the possible implementation of VoIP calls on the iPad. The iPad has a microphone, speaker, and Bluetooth, all of which, when paired with a very competitively priced pay-as-you-go and contract-free 3G data plan, make the iPad a very compelling alternative to the iPhone. Skype says it is indeed investigating a Skype for iPad app, but at this very early stage, no further details are available.

We’ll keep you posted on the Skype app and let you know when it’s updated as soon as we find out. In the meantime, you can watch this brief video from the guys at Skype, where they discuss their progress on the app.

TUAWSkype 3G update coming ‘soon’ originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – Skype – App Store – Apple – Voice over Internet Protocol

Filed under: Software, Internet, Internet Tools

A Mac version of Cerulean Studio’s Trillian has been years in the making and as of this past Friday, the alpha build of the software is finally out in the wild for Mac users to try. A private alpha has been available since 2007.

Since I dropkicked PCs out of my household five years ago, I’ve switched between iChat and the wonderful Adium. Trillian has a lot to live up to when it comes to instant messaging on the Mac. Adium, to start with, is free. Trillian costs Windows users $25USD to get full access to all of its features (the Alpha version for Mac is free). As stated when the original alpha was released, Trillian is rebuilding its software for OSX from the ground up.

I downloaded a copy of the alpha to try, and I am not impressed. While Cerulean Studios did warn that the alpha version of Trillian is lacking features, the entire experience was just unpleasant. No buddy icons from any of my IM accounts came over and the program looks nothing like the picture included with this article (taken from Cerulean Studio’s blog announcement.) Having one-button clicks to access your different accounts is nice — when it actually works. The most glaring of the missing features is no group chat support, which will be a turnoff for many. Other missing features include a lack of voice and video support, chat logs and more. You have to sign up for an Astra account to even start using the IM client.

When I was on Windows, the free version of Trillian was my IM client of choice. The Mac version has a lot to live up to, and maybe it could hold its own against its Windows big brother one day. But for now, I’d recommend sticking with much better, and free, alternatives such as Adium and Pidgin.

[Via Lifehacker]

TUAWNew Trillian alpha available for the Mac originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Instant messaging – Adium – Trillian – Apple – Windows

Filed under: iMac, Software Update

Amid rumors that Apple has halted production of the 27-inch iMac due to display issues, Apple has released a second firmware update. The update, which is for iMac (27-inch, Late 2009) only:

Updates the display firmware on 27-inch iMac systems to address issues that may cause intermittent display flickering.

The update weighs in at 294KB and can be downloaded here or through Software Update.

The first 27-inch iMac update was released on December 21, 2009 that updated “the graphics firmware on ATI Radeon HD 4670 and 4850 graphics cards to address issues that may cause image corruption or display flickering.”

TUAWApple releases another 27-inch iMac firmware update originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iMac – Apple – Firmware – Radeon – TUAW

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Hardware, Apple Financial

Some people hate it, some people love it and some people attempt to predict its future.* Members of the last group include Shaw Wu of Kaufman Brothers and Needham’s Charlie Wolf, both of whom are cautions about the iPad‘s performance.

Wu brandishes the obvious like broadsword, noting that the Wi-Fi iPad will probably sell better than those with a data plan because it will cost less and that 3G users can expect slower speeds that those with Wi-Fi. He feels that Apple’s prediction of 10 million units sold in 2010 won’t be realized. Instead, Wu surmises, they’ll sell about 5 million.

Kaufman holds that the iPad is “…not a revolutionary product” that won’t take off without certain 3rd-party solutions, like books and customized iPad apps. His sales prediction is even more conservative than Wu’s at 4 million units sold.

They both like the entry price however, and we agree with them there. When the pundits were saying $1,000 before the announcement, we knew that wouldn’t jibe with Steve’s ambition to get one in as many homes as possible. Wu notes that the displays alone may be costing Apple $100 each, yet they’ve been very aggressive with the pricing.

Here’s my prediction: Apple will sell a mountain of these things and by this time next year, the nay-sayers will be downloading Humble Pie 1.0.

*But none have USED it, so let’s keep that in mind.

TUAWAnalysts project iPad sales originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – Wi-Fi – Macintosh – 3G – Unofficial Apple Weblog

Filed under: Gaming, Features, iPhone, iPod touch, App Review

Catan. If you’ve ever visited, there’s a good chance you’re passionate about it.

First unveiled as a traditional board game in 1995, the now-classic trading and settlement game has evolved over the years to include dozens of scenarios, expansions and reworkings, from limited edition game maps to browser-based Internet versions. Naturally, the Settlers of Catan is now also available for the iPhone [iTunes link], and it’s a a damn good condensed version.

First things first. This is the full, but basic, game. The original ruleset isn’t condensed at all, but none of the expansions are present in the current version. While long-time board gamers might scoff at simple “vanilla Settlers,” the basic game as presented in Exozet‘s iPhone version acts just like the tabletop big brother. You can choose to play on the fixed beginner board or a random map, you can play with three or four people (or bots), you can trade, you can go for longest road, etc. All the things that make Catan such an enduring game are here, and that’s great to have in your pocket.

Read on to find out more about Catan: the First Island on the iPhone (and iPod Touch).

The Game

The Settlers of Catan is, at heart, a game of collecting resources and building a collection of settlements and cities on a modular board, with the goal of reaching a set point total (between 8 and 12, but defaulting to 10) before the other players. Players who know the rules will be able to jump right in. You can set the animations to turbo and turn off the opponent comments for the fastest possible game. If you’re quick, a full game can take around 10 minutes – about as much time as it takes some people to set up the tabletop version. Players who aren’t familiar can go through a tutorial with digital Catan’s familiar Professor Easy to learn how to build, trade and acquire points or read up on the game at Board Game Geek.

The App

The Catan gameplay doesn’t suffer on the iPod’s small screen. Each resource hex is clearly differentiated by both color and graphics, but colorblind players might have trouble figuring out which settlements and roads belong to which player since there are no player icons to be found. You’ll have to rely on memory to kept things straight,

Figuring out how the game operates is superbly straightforward. Things blink when you can can affect them, the menus are easy to figure out and so on. If you know how to play the tabletop game and aren’t totally new to the iPhone, you will probably know how to play the app in, at most, 90 seconds.

Take, for example, the trade screen. You can see the five resource types and how many you happen to be sitting on at any given moment. Flick one up towards your opponents and the number goes down. This is what you’re offering. Flick one down towards your player avatar and the number goes up. Simple and clear. Click on the big green checkmark to try and seal the deal – and notice how this icon is located at the opposite side of the screen from the decline/exit button. Very smart.

If you get fed up with AI opponents trying to trade with you, there is an option to decline all offers for the rest of the turn. When you have the resources that you want already, this greatly speeds up the game (a good thing).

This brings up a point: who is this app’s target audience? With the tutorial and the easy playing time, someone totally new to Catan could pick up the game and enjoy it. But, c’mon, the people who will be most excited about this are the hardcore players. A skilled player will be able to beat the game’s toughest bots – William and Hillary – with some regularity, but there is still enough challenge here to be worth the five spot. If you’re addicted to Catan and want ultra-easy access to a quick game (make your decisions fast and you can be done in ten minutes), this is the app for you. Hopefully, enough players will complain about the less-than-brilliant AI and we’ll get another update to make them play better.

While it would be feasible to implement in the tabletop version, one new feature in the app is the “resource bonus.” This setting allows a player to never go too long without getting at least a little something. Especially early in the game, a series of bad rolls can mean you’re not building anything while your opponents erect cities all over the place. With the resource bonus option turned on, after five empty rolls, a player can simply select one resource of their choice.

A drought like this is less likely to happen if the dice option is set to Stack (or Stack5). When using Stack, the dice rolls have perfect distribution, so that if the game ends after exactly 36 rolls, you’ll have seen every possible combination of two dice during play. With Stack5, five random options are removed at the start of the game and the numbers reset after 31 rolls. There is a deck of cards that Mayfair Games sells for the tabletop Catan version that does the same thing, but the extra text on those cards is not included in the iPhone version.

Speaking of mini-additions, the First Island is ripe for mini-expansions like The Great River of Catan or The Fishermen of Catan, and I hope we’ll be seeing some of the more game-changing expansions like Seafarers or Traders & Barbarians. They’d better be working on these options. Seriously.

Looking even further down the road, should Exozet ever develop a larger version for the iPad, adding the 5-6 player expansion might also be cool, and players could play a tabletop game just by setting the iPad on the the table and going from there (dealing with cards hidden in players hands will be tricky, for sure). It’s a thought.

Final thoughts

For some reason, Exozet thinks players want to listen to in-game music instead of their iTunes library. The game’s music and sound effects can be muted, but is still doesn’t allow your own music library to play; that’s annoying, and one of the most-requested changes in customer reviews. Another downside is that there’s no way (that we could find) to offer trades with other players on their turn. This is important if you’re trying to offer 2-1 trades to stay under the 8-card robber hand limit, but because the game moves so fast it’s not that much of a problem, really.

We’d also really, really love an undo button. The app is pretty idiot-proof, but mistakes do happen.

Finally, there’s a bonus feature to this $5 app that hasn’t gotten nearly the attention it deserves. The Settlers of Catan needs at least three players (the 2007 expansion Traders & Barbarians expansion for the tabletop game gave us a reasonable two-player ruleset, but it’s not the same game) to get going. With this app, we now have a very good way to play real two-player Catan. It’s a slight hassle to coordinate, but this app gives two people a third “player” whenever needed. Catan: The FIrst Island is the next best thing to having an extra friend around who’s always up for another trip to Catan.

TUAWCatan: The First Island brings tabletop gaming glee to iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Settlers of Catan – IPhone – Board game – IPod Touch – Catan

In the tradition of the Billshrink infographics, Darren Beckett has thrown together this nice little infographic comparing the entry-level iPad’s cost and functions to other popular e-readers like the Amazon Kindle DX and the Fusion Garage Joo Joo. While the iPad ties as the most expensive on the list, I think it’s fairly obvious if you need anything more than a simple e-reader, the iPad offers the most bang for your buck.

As a guy who’s just written his first novel and a long-time bookaholic, I’ve have always said I’ll never go with any kind of e-reader. I love the feel of a book in my hands. Paper books are romantic in a way electronic books could never be. Plus, you just look really educated when you’ve got scores of them lining your shelves Also, when I go to the beach, I’m not worried at all about leaving my book when I go for a swim. If my $500 e-reader got lifted, that would be another story.

That being said, the iPad is starting to look appealing as an e-reader based on the videos I’ve seen (love those page-flips), but what’s more is the iPad has also gotten me interested in the Kindle (which I’m hoping to find a friend with one so I can do an iPad/Kindle e-reader-function-only review).

Before the iPad, I couldn’t imagine not having hundreds of books lining my shelves. And now… well, I might need to find other things to fill those shelves with. But what say you guys and gals? If you’ve thought about getting an e-reader, would you consider going with an iPad now, since it offers a lot more functionality for not much more money?

TUAWInfographic: Cost/benefit analysis of the entry-level iPad and six other ereaders originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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E-book – Amazon.com – TUAW – Billshrink – Books

In its offices from Baltimore to Shanghai, international architecture firm RTKL uses iPhone to stay in touch, access apps that enable creative collaboration, and travel with ease.

Filed under: Surveys and Polls, Apple, iPhone, App Store

Netsize unveiled the results of something called the Mobile Trend Survey 2010 at European mobile tech conference M-Days, and they say that 87% of industry professionals surveyed put Apple’s App Store front and center when asked about the most successful platform for mobile software. Android came in next at 60% of people expecting it to find success, and then drops off into generic answers and lots of smaller mobile outlets.

What’s perhaps most interesting is that while this announcement came out today, the survey was likely done before the official iPad announcement, and since Apple has made it clear that the App Store will play a huge part in the iPad’s future as well, that’s just more checks in the win column. Apple gets a lot of credit for its quality hardware (and rightly so), but it might actually be the App Store model (for better or worse) that becomes the most significant creation of the past few years.

TUAWNetsize calls out App Store as most successful mobile platform originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AppStore – iPhone – Apple – TUAW – Unofficial Apple Weblog

Filed under: OS, Software, Internet Tools

The iPhone and iPod touch haven’t run Flash natively in the years since their respective debuts, and it’s pretty clear based on Steve Jobs’s presentation yesterday that the iPad won’t run Flash, either. When scrolling through the New York Times’s main page, for example, where Flash ads or video might have been there were instead broken LEGO icons, big as life on the screen at the keynote.

Predictably, Adobe isn’t happy about this, and is accusing Apple of “continuing to impose restrictions on their devices that limit both content publishers and consumers.” They go on to say that without Flash support, “users will not be able to access the full range of web content, including over 70% of games and 75% of video on the web.”

Let’s work backwards from this. First of all, I’d be very interested to see where Adobe got those percentages. Apparently YouTube now accounts for a mere 25% of video on the internet? As for Hulu and a few of the other specific sites mentioned in Adobe’s rant, now that Apple is in the business of selling content, exactly how is it in the company’s best interest to provide access to that same content, through another company’s platform, for free? And as far as games are concerned, once again Apple has this covered, through the App Store. Far from being limited, content publishers and consumers will merely have to adjust to a new method of publishing and consuming content: one that doesn’t involve Adobe in any way.
I know anecdotal data is the worst kind there is, but in nearly a year of using my iPhone to connect to the internet, not only have I not missed Flash, I’ve been glad it isn’t there. Flash’s performance on Mac OS X is so abysmal that when YouTube announced an opt-in HTML5 beta to replace Flash, I bounced up and down in my office chair in glee. I can only imagine the bag of hurt that would be introduced if Apple let Flash run on its mobile devices.

If you want to know why Flash doesn’t run on the iPhone, the iPod touch, or the iPad, why Flash will never run on those devices, and why that’s a really good thing, check out this piece by Daring Fireball’s John Gruber. One of the key points of Gruber’s argument is that Flash is, by far, the biggest source of application crashes in OS X. Flash crashes so often that Apple’s engineers went out of their way to create a new mechanism for running plugins in Snow Leopard; in 10.6, Flash runs as its own process rather than being lumped in with Safari, meaning than when (not if) Flash crashes, it doesn’t bring all of Safari down with it. Considering Flash’s poor stability and fan-blasting, CPU-hogging performance on the Mac, gee, why wouldn’t Apple want it running on their mobile devices?

Want to see something that “imposes restrictions on content publishers and consumers?” Look no farther than Flash itself. According to the company’s own (possibly made-up) numbers, 70% of games and 75% of video on the internet is all shuffled through one company’s proprietary plugin. I don’t know about you, but that sounds awfully restrictive to me. It seems like a really bad idea to let a single company have that much control over the creation and delivery of the internet’s content, don’t you think?.

With the iPhone and iPod touch we already have tens of millions of mobile devices owned by tens of millions of highly satisfied consumers, and not one of those devices runs Flash. With the advent of the iPad, we can expect millions more mobile devices to hit the market, and none of them will run Flash, either. Thanks to YouTube and vimeo, HTML5′s star is on the rise for delivering free video content on the internet, and the App Store has gaming covered. There’s no telling what the internet will look like in ten years, but one thing appears certain: if things continue as they have, Adobe will no longer have the stranglehold over video and gaming content that it enjoys today.

[Via Engadget]

TUAWAdobe speaks up about Flash on the iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – Steve Jobs – IPhone – appstore – Flash