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 ...

Newtonica Review

One of the first apps I ever owned on the iPhone was an app called Newtonica. Newtonica was released on August 25, 2008 and it's a pretty simple game. It got great reviews in Japan so I wanted to see what it was all about...Basically you use the touch screen ...

Apple patents adaptive volume controls based on environment, not quality of your music

Ever walk through a crowd with your headphones on, only to find your music drowned out by the uproar? A recent Apple patent proposes dynamic volume adjustment based on your local surroundings. According to the filing, a sound sensor would be used to detect ambient noise and adapt accordingly. It says user volume controls are accounted for, so passing by a construction site likely won't cause your jams to be pumped up to an ear-shattering 11. Although it sounds more likely than some of the company's other patents, don't get your hopes up for seeing this any time soon. Hit up the read link for more details.

[Via Electronista]

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Apple patents adaptive volume controls based on environment, not quality of your music originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Palm Comments on Apple Multi-Touch Patents

Following up on Apple Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook’s comments during yesterday’s Q1 conference call, and the supposition that he was hinting that Apple may just take legal action against the Palm Pre for violating Apple’s intellectual property (i.e. patents), PC Mag quotes a reaction from Palm:

A spokeswoman at Palm said Thursday that the company has not been contacted by Apple’s legal team, to her knowledge. “Palm has a long history of innovation, obviously reflected in our own products and our own robust apps portfolio,” she said. “We have long been recognized for our fundamental patents in the mobile space. If we’re faced with legal action, we’re confident that we have the tools to defend ourselves.”

When asked whether gestures like “pinching” were universal, or belonged to Apple, the Palm spokeswoman said that “our position is that multitouch has been around a long, long, long time before Apple introduced it.”

We learned that Apple first began patenting multi-touch in 2004 and acquired additional patents when they bought Fingerworks in 2005, but is Palm hinting that — as PreCentral.net pointed out — they may have some patents of their own to fight back with?

Curiouser and curiouser…

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

Palm Comments on Apple Multi-Touch Patents

Birthplace of the iPhone: Rare Glimpse of Apple Design Studio

While conducting a follow-up interview for the upcoming documentary, Objectified, the film makers were able to catch not only a rare glimpse inside Apple’s design guru Jony Ive’s studio, but managed to snap an almost unheard of picture of the man himself at work. (via Daring Fireball)

This is where the iPhone was designed and prototyped, people. We’re talking unicorns being born or Norse dwarves forging Uru hammers or something…

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

Birthplace of the iPhone: Rare Glimpse of Apple Design Studio

Tim Cook’s View of the Apple Philosophy

In the Q&A section of yesterday's earnings conference call, the first question unsurprisingly addressed Steve Jobs' leave of absence and how that would affect the way Apple is being run. Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer noted that Jobs rema...

iPhone apps round-up: Insults, Shakespeare-style

Official Shakespeare Audio Insulter is a mobile version of the Shakespearean insult generators you’ll find on the Internet, with an audio twist.

iPhone apps round-up: Insults, Shakespeare-style

Official Shakespeare Audio Insulter is a mobile version of the Shakespearean insult generators you’ll find on the Internet, with an audio twist.

A Peek Inside Apple’s Design Studio

Gary Hustwit posts a rare photo of Apple's Jonathan Ive inside Apple's design studio.

We did a follow-up interview with Jony Ive at Apple in California last week, and enjoyed the opportunity of filming inside Apple’s...

Google Dumps Optimized version of iGoogle for the iPhone; Redirects to a Standard Mobile version Instead

Quick App: RepairPal for the iPhone

RepairPal, from the website of the same name, leverages the power and convenience of the iPhone to provide highly targeted — and at times vitally important — information when and where you need it. Say the developers:

We made this application because it addresses the real world disconnect with auto repair. Many times when your car needs repair, you aren’t at the computer. People may end up at an unfamiliar shop in an unfamiliar town so they need something to reassure them that they are not getting ripped off.

We built this for the iPhone because we need to convey a lot of information to the user. Development tools for iPhone allowed us to build an application that is easy to navigate and provide the best user experience. Being able to take advantage of features like GPS makes a lot of sense for our application since people may not always be sure of their location when they are broken down on the side of the highway.

Looking for some repair work? Give this FREE app a try and let us know how it works for you!

More screenshots after the break…

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

Quick App: RepairPal for the iPhone

iWork ‘09 Torrent Carrying OS X Trojan [Updated]

A security alert posted this morning by antivirus vendor Intego reveals that the company has discovered a new Trojan horse that is being carried by pirated copies of iWork '09 circulating on a number of torrent sites.

The Trojan, which...

Opinion: 99-cent apps a steal, but who’s really being robbed?

The App Store has been overrun with a proliferation of cheap and free apps of debatable quality, but most consumers aren't thinking about what this could mean in the long term.

Apple Researching Sound Sensors for Automatically Adjusting Audio Output

A new patent application published today reveals that Apple is researching the use of ambient sound sensors to automatically adjust speaker and mobile phone ringer volume based on the device's environment.

For instance, a user...

Round Robin: We Have Our Winners!

As it did the year before, the Smartphone Round Robin needed to go into overtime again this time around — but we’re finished now!  If you haven’t been following along, here’s what you missed:  Each of the editors of our five Smartphone Experts sites swapped phones for a week or so, reviewing and leanring what it’s like to wear another smarphone user’s shoes.  The result is the entire series of articles you see linked on this handy page, the Smartphone Round Robin of 2008.

What will you learn there?  You’ll learn that there was no single smartphone that ‘won’ the Round Robin — but that’s by design.  There’s no perfect smartphone out there, but there just might be the perfect smartphone to fit your needs.  If you’re looking to get a new smartphone soon, think about what you need it do to and then hit up these articles — you’ll find that depending on what each of us care about, we’ll give you a useful perspective on whether a given smartphone matches up. 

Actually, we explain it all pretty well on this page. Oh, yeah, one more thing, we are giving away fabulous prizes:

• From Android Central, the T-Mobile G1, the BlueAnt Z9 Bluetooth Headset, and SPE Screen Protectors
• From CrackBerry.com, the BlackBerry Bold, Spare Battery, and Case-Mate Second Skin
• From The iPhone Blog, the iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset
• From TreoCentral, the Treo Pro, Case-Mate Clear Armor, and Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth Headset (original)
• From WMExperts, the HTC Fuze and the Celio Redfly Mobile Companion

Find out who the winners are, after the break!

Smartphone Round Robin Winners!

Here are all the winners for the 2008 Smartphone Round Robin, chosen randomly in accordance with the contest rules:

From Android Central, winning the T-Mobile G1, the BlueAnt Z9 Bluetooth Headset, and SPE Screen Protectors, we have:

Hunter McNabb, for this post about how the G1 is snappier than the Fuze.

The runner up, who will receive a $50 coupon to any Smartphone Experts accessory store, is Devonair. From CrackBerry.com, winning the BlackBerry Bold, Spare Battery, and Case-Mate Second Skin, we have:

Dimietriev, for this post about one of the ‘little things’ we pay attention to on Smartphones, namely the calculator.

The runner up, who will receive a $50 coupon to any Smartphone Experts accessory store, is jordanmah. From The iPhone Blog, winning the iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset, we have:

Mark, for this post about his primary need in a smarpthone: messaging.

The runner up, who will receive a $50 coupon to any Smartphone Experts accessory store, is Jeff. From TreoCentral, winning the Treo Pro, Case-Mate Clear Armor, and Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth Headset (original), we have:

berdinkerdickle, for this post about just how important one-handed use is — how else can you eat that sandwich?

The runner up, who will receive a $50 coupon to any Smartphone Experts accessory store, is Geo-Treo. From WMExperts, winning the HTC Fuze and the Celio Redfly Mobile Companion, we have

Pamina, for this post about how somewhere in the the Fuze there’s an awesome phone that’s just waiting to come out.

The runner up, who will receive a $50 coupon to any Smartphone Experts accessory store, is blancmik. Congratulations to all of our winners!  You can expect an email from Dieter (aka me) over the weekend.

A special thanks goes out to the sponsors of the Smartphone Round Robin, without whom we couldn’t have possibly pulled it off:

Celio Corp	Palm
Case-Mate	Smartphone Outlet

---

Well, the Smartphone Round Robin has been a ridiculous amount of fun (and an equal share of work and shipping fees!) and we loved doing it.  We hope you loved following along and learned as much as we did along the way. 

We’ll bring it back again, of course, later in 2009.  Here’s a promise: this year we’ll actually bring in some Nokia/Symbian action and heck, we might even deign to include a Windows Mobile Standard device.  Oh yeah, and there’s that whole Palm Pre/webOS thing to look forward to as well.

The smartphone world is going to rock in 2009, and Smartphone Experts will be there to cover it all for you.

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

Round Robin: We Have Our Winners!

Review: Shazam for iPhone

This music identification app can tell you the name of that catchy song by this week’s hot band. But Shazam stumbles when dealing with other genres and is error-prone in other ways to boot.

Review: Shazam for iPhone

This music identification app can tell you the name of that catchy song by this week’s hot band. But Shazam stumbles when dealing with other genres and is error-prone in other ways to boot.

First Look: Hellfire for iPhone / iPod touch

Filed under: Gaming, Software, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, First Look

Ahhh, there's nothing quite like taking your helicopter gunship out for a spin to wake you up first thing in the morning!

Astraware has announced the immediate availability of their newest action game for iPhone and iPod touch, Hellfire (click opens iTunes). This US$4.99 game puts you in the pilot's seat of a helicopter gunship, ready to take on one of 16 missions.

Control is provided through both the accelerometer (steering, speed) and touch-screen controls (throttle, weapons) as you fly US and Soviet-era helicopters through the missions. There are various levels of challenges, with missions in locations throughout the world. Some missions provide multiple objectives, such as taking out enemy defenses, then rescuing hostages and returning them to a base.

The helicopters are pre-rendered and very realistic, and the gunships fly over 3D terrain that is rendered on-the-fly. The soundtrack and sound effects can be switched off for play during meetings, and your own music can be substituted if you prefer.

There's a YouTube video showing Hellfire in action, complete with Alison's camo green nail polish. Click the Read More link to view it.

Continue reading First Look: Hellfire for iPhone / iPod touch

First Look: Hellfire for iPhone / iPod touch originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

First Look: Hellfire for iPhone / iPod touch originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone Game Roundup: Tic A Tac Poker, Puzzle Quest, Oddage

Our latest iPhone game roundup features a tic-tac-toe variation on poker, an iPhone adaptation of an enormously popular puzzle/RPG game, and lots more.