Ustream viewer makes it to app store just in time

Filed under: Multimedia, Software, Video, Freeware, Internet, iPhone, iPod touch

There has been quite a bit of excitement over the last few weeks with the announcement that Ustream would be offering a live video viewer so people could watch the Obama inauguration on their iPhones and iPod touches. It didn't look like it was going to make it, but the free application [app store link] slipped into iTunes today with just hours to spare. While the Joost app should also allow streaming of the festivities, the Ustream viewer is unique because it allows live TV streams, and registered viewers can join a chat room creating a community around any video stream.

Video can be viewed horizontally or vertically, but many of the sources are not 16 by 9 so it won't make a great deal of difference. The app appears to be WiFi only, which is a bit of a drag. My cell reception here in the wilds of Arizona is not too great, but I got an error message trying to run the video streaming under 3G.

With WiFi most of the channels looked pretty good. I even got a quick look at Chris Pirillo doing his live bit from his desk at home. The real test will be tomorrow with the swearing in ceremonies. It will be a good test of the Ustream distribution system.

Ustream wants lots of players out there, because they are creating a content network and are actively courting people who will create videos on their home computers and laptops. The firm says they will soon have an app that allows live streaming of video and audio from the iPhone, in the same vein as the Qik tool currently running on jailbroken phones. If so, that will be a very big game changer for the iPhone. The big question is, will Apple allow it into the app store?

Looking toward the future, Ustream will need more and better content deals, and streaming via the 3G network. Tonight is a great first step, and I expect by swearing-in time a lot of iPhones will be tuned in, if you'll pardon the archaic term.

Here are some screen shots hot off the presses (thanks AppleUniverse):

Ustream viewer makes it to app store just in time originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 23:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Ustream viewer makes it to app store just in time originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 23:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Use your iPhone to navigate Inauguration Day

Filed under: Features, Odds and ends, iPhone, App Store

Update: Late word is that the Ustream video viewer has made it to the App Store in the past hour, so you might be able to stream the inaugural coverage after all. We're downloading it now and will have a full review up tomorrow morning. Joost is also planning to stream the CBS coverage, so that should work on your iPhone as well.

Among the hundreds of thousands of celebrants descending on Washington, D.C. for tomorrow's big day, there must be at least a few iPhone owners. What might they find in the App Store, we wonder, to improve the visit?

The Inauguration Guide iPhone app (all app links open iTunes), developed by PointAbout and sponsored by a D.C. law firm and communications consultancy, aims to give visitors to the District everything they need to find their way around the city in the midst of the crowds and commotion. Although the front screen of the app is a simple countdown and distance-to-the-Capitol readout, the data gallery includes parking, public transport and restaurant info. The app is free, so it's certainly worth adding to your toolbelt if you're attending the festivities.

If you already know your way around but you'd like an easy tool to relay your experiences, the Inauguration Report app (also free) might be your ticket. You can send your impressions in text, picture or audio form to the coverage team at CBS News and NPR for possible inclusion in the reporting of the event.

For $0.99 each, you could pick up a guide to the inaugural event schedule, a comprehensive photo and speech gallery or a countdown clock that includes press coverage and citations from the US Constitution (awful handy). Still don't have a place to sleep? It's probably far too late to make a difference, but the free Crash the Inauguration app provides links to room listings, places to eat, video links and more. If you want a pocket reference to the country at large, you've got a $2.99 option with America Deluxe, a reference app that promises rapid updates immediately after the inauguration is complete.

While you've got a full range of options for audio coverage of the inauguration on your iPhone (NPR Mobile, Public Radio Tuner, TalkRadio, moodio.fm), video is a bit more challenging -- many sites are streaming, but few if any will work for your handheld. The official YouTube channel will work, but that won't have live feeds. The recently TechCrunch'ed/pre-announced uStream app for the iPhone isn't in the store yet (you can send in a request for an ad-hoc build, but they're probably well past the 100-device limit by now), although it looks very tempting. [See update above.]

Comments report that Joost will offer streaming of the ceremonies, and there's a page up on the site for the stream. The SlingPlayer app for iPhone is still a month or two away, so for live TV -- if you happen to have a Windows PC with the Orb tuner card -- you're looking at the $9.99 OrbLive app for streaming some C-SPAN to your spot on the National Mall.

Got your iPhone in Washington? Send a tweet our way and let us know how the 3G coverage holds up from your iPhone. Oh, and don't forget to take a few pictures.

Use your iPhone to navigate Inauguration Day originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Use your iPhone to navigate Inauguration Day originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Illusion Labs wants you to Sway with them

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, iTunes, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Illusion Labs is probably best known for their first app, iPint, but have been making splashes since then with interesting apps that make great use of the iPhone's features and touchscreen. I tried out their Touchgrind app, and while it was a fascinating demo of how to combine an in-game physics system with the sensitive touchscreen controls, it was a little too tough for me to use (you have to really be a skateboarder, since the app really is a fingerboard, basically).

But Sway looks much more casual, and still puts the touchscreen and tilt abilities to great use. Like Rolando, it's a cartoony, physics-based platformer, but unlike Rolando, the mechanic here isn't rolling, but swinging. You swing the little characters around, and then use the touchscreen to grab onto various parts of the environment while exploring it.

Very intriguing. Like Touchgrind, the controls might be a little too sophisticated to appeal to all players (it looks tough coordinating which hand is which and exactly when to grab and let go), but we'll have to see how it works out -- if it starts out in an accessible way, Sway might be really impressive. Illusion Labs didn't tell us a price yet (their two other paid games are $5 and $7), but the game is set to hit the App Store soon.

Illusion Labs wants you to Sway with them originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Illusion Labs wants you to Sway with them originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone Apps Allow you to Email Multiple Photos from your iPhone

Video: Working iControlPad adds buttons to the iPod touch

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Odds and ends, Mods, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

It's pretty wild to have seen the iControlPad go from idea to concept to production, and here's the final step straight from Engadget: video of the device working just as planned. ZodTTD is playing quake4iphone on it, and while the naysayers will probably still have some nays to say, I'm convinced. If Apple is as serious as it seems about turning the iPhone and the iPod touch into serious gaming devices, it would be worth selling something like this as an official accessory. It's fine and good to say that the multitouch screen works even for traditional controls, but so far, we haven't seen a developer that's been able to put "buttons" on the screen and still be able to make worthwhile use of screen space.

As Engadget says, there's still no price or release date on the iControlPad, and given that it's working on jailbroken games right now, there's no sign yet that we'll have any official App Store support. But it's an idea for which the time, in my humble opinion, has come.

Video: Working iControlPad adds buttons to the iPod touch originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Video: Working iControlPad adds buttons to the iPod touch originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone, Twitter on the scene of the plane crash

Since I think it's part of the iPhone revolution, it's interesting to post here about the role of a "citizen journalist" who are using the iPhone on the scene of the US Airways Hudson River crash. Above is the picture was taken with his iPhone and sent via TwitPic, a third-party service ...

Skype developing its own iPhone app

This is a great news! Skype is developing its own native iPhone app, following the release of similar services (Truphone, fring and Nimbuzz, and IM+ for Skype) which also have brought Skype to the iPhone. The Denver Post’s online site reported: Scott Durschlag, Skype’s chief operating officer, said Skype’s iPhone application is ...

Review: AccuWeather.com for iPhone

The weather forecast app from AccuWeather is elegantly designed and easier to read than a competitive offering from The Weather Channel. But it lacks depth, and you may find yourself looking to other sources for weather info.

Forum Review: Monopoly - Here and Now Edition for the iPhone

Monopoly - Here and Now Edition Forum Review by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

Monopoly is a classic game, and it was just a matter of time until it appeared on the iPhone. I remember playing this in the summers with my sister when we were out of school. We would get games that lasted months as we would finally run out of money in the bank!

So finally Monopoly comes to the iPhone! The game is visually appealing, and is based on the Monopoly: Here and Now version with updated locations, dollars amount, and random cards. There is a lot of animation in the game, including rolling the dice, moving the pieces, and various cut scenes while running the app. That graphics are nicely done, and there was only a little stutter now and then with the animation sequences.

The game can be played over wifi, but internet play is not yet available. You can, however, play with multiplayer on the same iPhone. When creating a new game, you can set various game options, including some standard variations on the rules like landing on Go gives you a double paycheck, or all tax money goes to free parking. You choose a token for yourself (new, updated tokens), the difficulty level, and the number of players, and go ahead and start.

The in-game controls are fairly easy to use, but they can get a little cumbersome. I prefer that the controls are easily laid out, however, instead of being hidden or confusing. It is relatively easy to scan the board, scroll through the various title deeds to see who owns what. You are presented with action “tiles” at the bottom of the screen that enable all your actions - including purchase property, manage properties, buy houses, and trade.

I was pleased to see that setting up a trade is pretty straighforward, as is building houses and hotels. You can also change the house rules during the game if you like.

The AI seemed pretty good, I was mostly testing it at the medium difficulty setting. When you start a game, there is a nice help section that leads you through the game the first few times you try something. I couldn’t find any way to turn off the help, so I got the help tutorial each time I played a game. This got a little annoying. It would also be nice to be able to turn off animations in order to speed the game up a little bit.

One thing I wish they had was the ability to choose your game board. With all the variations of Monopoly out there (Simpsons, Star Wars, Classic, etc) it would be nice to have various “skins” that you could apply.

Also, the “auction” rules seem a little odd. You are presented with a turn by turn auction, with each player taking turns to place bids. I don’t know why they didn’t implement a real auction for unpurchased properties (or even better, have an potential in-house rule to disable the auction).

Pros:

• Nice customization options with the “house rules”,
• easy to play

Cons:

-Only one “skin”, - no ability to turn off help or animation

Conclusion

All in all, this is a nicely designed game, that is pretty straightforward and easy to play. The various options and settings are nice. It’s fun to play as well, and is currently on sale for $4.99.

Forum Review Rating

[Monopoly is available from the iTunes App Store.]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Forum Review: Monopoly - Here and Now Edition for the iPhone

Tips to Add Words to iPhone’s Dictionary

Multi-Photo solves an iPhone problem

Filed under: Multimedia, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

For all the good things about the iPhone, there are still some troubling features that were left out (No, this isn't a post about MMS or copy and paste).

One of the things I often find myself wanting to do is send an email containing multiple photos. As it is, the iPhone/ iPod touch doesn't allow this, but now a 3rd party has solved the problem.

Enter Multi-Photo [App Store link] that gives you this functionality for US$.99. After a brief setup where you tell the app who your email provider is, a short test ensues and if everything is OK you're ready to go.

You select your photos from your camera roll, add an email address or multiple addresses, and the pictures squirt out to your friends or family. In the app settings you can preset a subject line, as well as text for the body of your email, or just insert your own as you would in the regular email app. You can also select some quality options for the images you are sending, as well as determine the size of the image.

The app is pretty intuitive, and the publisher happily provides a built in video tutorial and a user manual. Unhappily, the first time I tried the video, it crashed about half way through, but it worked fine the next time. I didn't think the way addresses are selected was as easy to figure out as I would have liked. You can type a recipient in manually, or grab it from your address book, but I had to give the interface a second glance to get that procedure right.

The look of the app is not quite to my taste. I think the wood grain background is a bit garish, but Multi-Photo does what it advertises and does it well. It solves a long standing issue with the iPhone and I can only wish Apple had included this in the iPhone feature set from the start.

Multi-Photo solves an iPhone problem originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Multi-Photo solves an iPhone problem originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First Look: Witch’s Workshop

Filed under: Gaming, iPhone, First Look

I'm addicted to Diner Dash, and I greatly enjoy other time management games. The basic gist of a lot of these is that you're given a setting and you must complete a task (usually fulfilling an order for a customer) in a certain amount of time before the customer gets angry and leaves. As time goes by, the tasks either become more complex or your time speeds up.

Witch's Workshop [link opens iTunes] is a new game for the iPhone from Spark Plug Games that combines the best aspects of Diner Dash with Bejeweled. Your task is to fill potion bottles for your customer by swapping the various potions around on the screen until they form a horizontal or vertical line of three or more potions. The same-colored potions then fill the bottle and you drag the full bottle over to the customer. A small dragon is placed in the bottom right corner and can be charged up and used to help fill orders. As time goes by, the customers become more and more impatient and more potion is needed to fill the bottles, so it becomes quite challenging.

Game play fluctuated between very smooth and some of the potion bottles being hard to drag -- but I'm betting on that being more operator error than a flaw in the game. Graphics are simple, but clear and well-executed for what is needed with the game. Various options include the ability to toggle hints when you get stuck.

There's also some nifty tricks. During the course of the game, I managed to get something called a Cauldron Crash and had to shake the iPhone to unstick it. Then, I happened to turn the phone onto its side. I heard the sound of glasses hitting each other and noticed that the potions themselves had swapped into the horizontal position, but the rest of the game remained vertical. It made for an interesting screenshot, as seen in the gallery.

Witch's Workshop is currently available for $1.99 through the App Store.

First Look: Witch's Workshop originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

First Look: Witch's Workshop originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Farewell, iPhone-optimized iGoogle

Filed under: Internet Tools, iPhone

One shining year -- that's how long the iPhone-optimized iGoogle search page hung around, and now we must tell it goodbye. Introduced in January 2008, the customized iGoogle UI for Mobile Safari provided a single-column view and easier navigation for iPhone users. As Christina noted earlier today on Download Squad, the sleek UI has been replaced with the unified mobile format for iGoogle that renders similarly on most mobile browsers, including Google's own Webkit-based Android browser (which previously had benefited from the Webkit-tweaked front page for the iPhone).

The unification of the mobile iGoogle interface may simply be an effort by Google to level the playing field instead of having the iPhone as a most-favored-device, or it might be part and parcel of the big G's shaving down on costs by eliminating offerings like Jaiku, Dodgeball and Google Notebook. Either way, if you're mourning the loss of your custom iGoogle look, let us know below.

Farewell, iPhone-optimized iGoogle originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Farewell, iPhone-optimized iGoogle originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone apps round-up: A head start on Valentine’s Day

Valentine-themed apps are beginning to flood the App Store. We look at four recent arrivals.

New iPhone Apps for Wednesday, January 14, 2009

VelaClock ($3.99) by Vela Design Group. VelaClock is a world clock with unique features and an easily configurable user interface. Users can quickly display the time of sunrise, sunset, dawn and dusk for three kinds of twilight (civil, nautical, astronomical), moon phase and tilt, and much more. Great for photographers ...

Apple Easing Up on AppStore SDK Restrictions - Allows 3rd Party Web Browsers

For some as of yet unexplained official reason, it seems that Apple has quietly lifted its "rule" of not allowing 3rd Party Browsers to be sold in the AppStore. It seems that various iPhone/Mac rumor sites have picked up that in last 24 hours, Apple has begun to approve web ...

Crayon Physics Deluxe for iPhone

Filed under: Gaming, iPhone, iPod touch

Crayon Physics Deluxe (App Store) is an iPod Touch/iPhone 2.0 game highly similar to Touch Physics (App Store) in that you must move a ball to the goal (represented by the star on the right) by drawing various things on the screen. For instance, to move a ball across a gap, you would simply draw a line with your finger over the gap.

The game has 50 levels, and it includes a level editor so that you can make your own levels to increase replay value. You can play straight through the levels, or use the level chooser to jump around and play any levels (useful if you get stuck on a particular level). The music is calming and the graphics are good, but the levels initially draw very slowly.

Continue reading Crayon Physics Deluxe for iPhone

Crayon Physics Deluxe for iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Crayon Physics Deluxe for iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Send in the iClones! Windows Mobile 6.5 Services Edition!

Welcome to 2009, where Microsoft will — at some point later this year or next — release versions of what Apple released in 2008!

Our frenemies over at WMExperts have the details, and we have the snide remarks:

• SkyMarket looks to be the App Store done Microsoft’s way. Does that mean each app will ship in Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Really Professional, Ultimate, and 8 more server SKU’s?

• SkyBox, which if MobileMe is “Exchange for the rest of us”, makes SkyBox “MobileMe for the same of you?”. We can only guess it’s a repackaging of Hosted Exchange and Live! services, so join in on the Sync Toy/Live Sync/Live Mesh/Azuze MPD-brandfusion. It will, reportedly, run on non-WinMo devices (which is actually a Very Nice Thing).

• SkyLine, either a business version of SkyBox(!) or a Mobile clone of iDisk, depending on who’s reading the tea leaves.

Microsoft, like RIM, Google, and Palm have to go in this direction. Apple opened a floodgate with the AppStore, no doubt about it, so while we poke some friendly fun, we also hope this gives Apple more competition, like the new Palm Pre, so that Apple has to up their game and give us iPhone faithful more functionality faster than we might otherwise get.

Anyone racing to pick up an HTC FUZE and try it out?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Send in the iClones! Windows Mobile 6.5 Services Edition!

Inauguration, iPhone-style

Juicy Development, maker of the Talk Radio app for the iPhone, says it will offer an audio stream of Barack Obama’s inauguration on Tuesday. And check out these other inauguration-related apps.

TiPb Interview: Craig Hockenberry on Free vs. Paid, Twitter To-Dos, and Why He Wants Lotus Notes for the iPhone

Craig Hockenberry and the Icon Factory are among the earliest and most well respected iPhone developers in the community. In addition to their amazing design work and Mac and Windows software, they created the highly popular Twitterrific and Frenzic for the iPhone.

TiPb: We’ve been spending a lot of time lately discussing the App Store and what business model(s) it will evolve From launch, you took the route of having both a premium paid version of Twitterrific and a free, add-supported version. What made you settle on that idea, and how effective has it been for you?

Craig Hockenberry: The desire to have both a free and paid version of Twitterrific came from our experience on the Mac. It’s the best of both worlds for everyone: we get some funds to pay for the development of the product, and users get to choose how they want to support us.

We decided on having ads before the final details of the App Store were revealed. Since there are no demos in iTunes, the ability to have a free version for people to evaluate has been a big benefit. A lot of my fellow developers are now looking at this model.

With stories about apps being rejected or removed from the App Store, how (if at all) does this effect your planning or strategy as a developer? Is it something a developer should have to consider?

Rejections and other App Store issues are certainly a factor in planning. But it’s just one aspect of a successful product: it’s more important to focus on how an app will make customers happy or solve a problem.

That being said, I know of an app that was cancelled before it even left the drawing board. It included both podcasting and fart noises, and was actually a great app concept. I’m sad that it will never get made.

There’s still a demand for multitasking on the iPhone, which would obviously benefit apps like Twitterrific. How far will Apple’s still- pending Push-Notification service go towards satisfying this demand for you as a developer and as a user?

Asking me about a unreleased Apple technology isn’t going to get you a very interesting answer. (This stuff is still under NDA.)

I will make the observation that Apple is still getting its own push service (MobileMe) in order, so we’re all waiting to see how this will pan out. It’s not a simple problem from a developer’s point-of-view.

Now that Twitter seems to have solved their up-time issues, what could they surface or add to their platform to make apps like Twitterrific even more useful or powerful?

There are a lot of things that could make Twitter more useful: http://bit.ly/9L0A

One thing I see a need for is the ability to “jump into” existing threads of conversation amongst a group of users. This has been hard to do until recently because replies didn’t contain accurate links to original tweet. That has improved recently (thanks to Twitter implementing one of my suggestions.) But there could still be a lot done in that area to make the user experiences better.

You’ve now developed for the iPhone during three distinct phases: pre-SDK, post-SDK under NDA, and now SDK post-NDA. Any particular insights you gained from that range of experience, and what steps would you like to see Apple take next?

Everything led up to the “SDK post-NDA” phase. It’s what I wanted all along: developers can now freely exchange information about what we’re working on. When something doesn’t work right, others can help.

I think Apple is fully aware of this need: the recent launch of devforums.apple.com is an excellent example of how they’re actively working to help developers come up to speed with this new platform.

The only thing that I’d like to see from Apple at this point is a detailed list of what is and is not allowed in the App Store. This lack of information regarding acceptance limits innovation from developers: it’s too risky.

If there were absolutely no limitations on the SDK, what app would you never consider developing yourself, but still love to see on the iPhone?

I’d love to see a native version of Lotus Notes with excellent calendar support.

Seems like a strange request, I know.

But my wife uses a BlackBerry because she needs this functionality. If it was available on the iPhone she could buy her own and stop borrowing mine all the time

Profound thanks to Craig Hockenberry for taking the time to share his insights on the iPhone.

Furbo.org is his personal blog, iconfactory.com is his company’s website, and both Twitterriffic (read our review) Free and Premium and Frenzic (read our Forum review) are available via the iPhone iTunes App Store.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb Interview: Craig Hockenberry on Free vs. Paid, Twitter To-Dos, and Why He Wants Lotus Notes for the iPhone