iPhone most searched online

A recent study found that 29.4% of all online searches for consumer electronics among UK Internet users were mobile phones. According to web traffic analysts at Hitwise, Apple's iPhone leads the Top 5 most-searched gadget brands, with Nokia grabbing second place. Since the iPhone’s launch, it has apparently remained at or ...

Sully’s Flight on the iPhone

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

The flight simulator X-Plane is generally acknowledged to be among the best on either a Mac or a PC. Surprisingly, X-Plane [App Store link] made it to the iPhone as one of the first apps available.

That was quite an accomplishment, and while the iPhone version is not as sophisticated as its big brother, it has a lot of the accurate flight physics bundled in to give you a pretty compelling flight simulator experience on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Now, Laminar Research has done it again, bringing a simulation of Chesley Sullenberger's January 15th USAirways landing in the Hudson River saving all the passengers and crews from what could have been a very deadly accident.

You can relive the experience with Sully's Flight [App Store link, U.S. $0.99] and you don't have to even have X-Plane installed to run it.

You start out on Runway 4 at LaGuardia Airport, in similar weather conditions to the real event. You take off, and to follow the original flight path, there are rectangular hoops displayed for you to fly through. To make the sim even more realistic, you get the actual air traffic communication with the stricken airliner. It gives you an appreciation for just how cool Sullenberger was that day, matter-of-factly telling air traffic control he wouldn't be trying to make a landing at another airport, but was going to land in the Hudson River instead.

I've tried the sim a few times, and pretty consistently I land too fast... I need more work on flaps and the aircraft speed when I get closer to the water.

Normally, I might say a game like this is in questionable taste, but it is more a simulation than a game, and, of course, no one was hurt in real life. It would be good to know something about flying before trying this app, because with no engines the plane goes down pretty rapidly. The average person trying it won't be able to escape the physics of the simulation, so if you're looking for a full flight sim, this is not for you.

Like all X-Plane products, there will likely be some updates, but I did not see any bugs when running the sim. And remember, Sully's Flight is not a standard flying game. No matter what you do, you will hit the birds, and your engine will fail, so don't plan on just flying around Manhattan.

Sully's Flight on the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 21 Mar 2009 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sully's Flight on the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 21 Mar 2009 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s New iPhone to Have Video Camera, Take Higher Resolution Photos & Use Multi-Core Processors?

Forum Review: Meditate Now 2 for iPhone

Meditate Now 2 Forum Review by msbaylor. (Visit the thread for video and more pics. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

Meditate Now 2 is an application that contains a series of audio clips that capable of helping you alleviate stress and allow you to relax. The audio is narrated by Stin Hansen, whom is an extremely experienced speaker and an award wining meditation expert. Her voice is absolutely perfect for this type of application. Most of audios range from about nine minutes long to about 15 minutes long (with two exceptions being at three & five minutes)

The audios include (paraphrased from the iTunes description):

• Be Grateful – Relax and feel more gratitude in your life
• Anchor your Spirit – bring substance to your life
• Breathe It Out – breath meditation that is perfect for anxiety and feelings of panic
• End Pain – bring relief to arthritis, labor, chronic, and surgery pains
• Your Best Self – Connect with your full potential and move beyond daily concerns with the meditation
• Serenity Prayer Meditation – recited at a time of trouble. Used in recovering alcoholics and addicts.
• Center Your Chakras – Center and align your energy centers
• Emotional Acupuncture – for emotional emergencies (also utilities a picture to show you how)

I also found that Stin offers a free podcast through the iTunes store. So if you are hesitant to get his application, you can always check out her podcast. I definitely recommend this app to anyone that listens to audios for meditation. While the ‘Emotional Acupuncture’ audio displays a picture, it is a little hard to understand what it is exactly saying to do. To alleviate this, it would be nice to have only certain parts of the picture visible that relate and change with the audio.

Pros:

• Professional voice & audio
• Easy interface to switch between audios

Cons:

• Photo in audio is hard to discern, if unfamiliar with technique.
• The info icon leaves the app unexpectedly

Forum Review Rating:

[<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=299295151&mt=8">Meditate Now 2 is available for $1.99 from the iTunes App Store.]

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

Forum Review: Meditate Now 2 for iPhone

Review: Next Read, revisited

A major update has dramatically improved this book-tracking app for the iPhone and iPod touch. Ben Boychuk takes another look at Next Read.

Streaming video on the iPhone? It’s madness

Philip Michaels takes the CBS Sports March Madness On Demand app out for a spin to see if the iPhone’s an ideal way to watch live video of an event. It can be when it works—with an emphasis on “when.”

Rumors about a future iPhone

Filed under: Hardware, Rumors, iPhone

There are a few rumors floating around today about the next generation iPhone. The first comes from AppleInsider, who are reporting that a video camera will be a part of that design.

Referencing a historically reliable source, AppleInsider claims that a future camera will take higher resolution stills in addition to video. The lack of a video camera has been a glaring omission since the beginning, and many users (including yours truly) have been waiting for its introduction.

Another rumor we're tracking is a boast of "faster internet speeds." Just what could that mean? AT&T's 4G network won't be ready for at least a year. It could refer to WiFi connectivity, as the current model has 802.11b/g (vs. n).

It's all conjecture, of course, so we'll have to wait and see. The iPhone 3G was announced on June 9th of 2008, and iPhone OS 3.0 is scheduled to be released this June. It wouldn't be a surprise to see the 3G phone drop in price while a new model takes the top slot at the same time.

Rumors about a future iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 21 Mar 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Rumors about a future iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 21 Mar 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Review: Scribble for iPhone

This gem of an app gives you a blank canvas for doodling with the help with a slimmed-down set of tools. Or, if you prefer, you can copy over images from your photo library and modify them with Scribble’s tools.

Apple’s New iPhone to include an OLED Screen to Improve Battery Life?

Q&A with Transactions app developers: Kyle Richter and Ian Baird

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

I recently had the opportunity to sit down (virtually) and have a chat with Kyle Richter and Ian Baird, two iPhone developers who have come up with the game-changing Handshake app for contact sharing on the iPhone (TUAW review), then released the credit card and payments app Transactions (TUAW review) which can transform any iPhone or iPod touch into a basic point-of-sale device. We talked about how they came up with the idea of their Transactions application, and they shared their experience of developing for the iPhone.

Cory: What was your vision behind creating Transactions, and why did you pursue this idea and turn it into an iPhone application?

Kyle: When working with a platform that is as new as the iPhone the goal is to try and find niches that haven't yet be filled or not properly filled. While I was out jogging with Ian one evening it hit me that a lot of businesses have a need to accept credit cards anywhere. It felt like a perfect solution for the iPhone so we started to research the feasibility.

Ian: One of the driving influences for us has been to take advantage of the "democratizing force" of the platform. We have Authorize.net for the higher end, more professional users who will use this app on a day to day basis. We also felt we needed to make this application accessible to the farmer who's selling his or her produce at the farmer's market. Or the craftsperson selling his or her wares at a trade show. That was the motivation for including the Paypal option. It doesn't require a merchant account. That's a *big deal*.

Continue reading to hear more from Kyle and Ian about their iPhone programming experience, and advice for prospective iPhone developers.

Continue reading Q&A with Transactions app developers: Kyle Richter and Ian Baird

Q&A with Transactions app developers: Kyle Richter and Ian Baird originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 21 Mar 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Q&A with Transactions app developers: Kyle Richter and Ian Baird originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 21 Mar 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone 3.0: New Safari Link Options — Copy, Open in New Page

Tap and hold is a multi-touch gesture that Apple introduced into Mobile Safari in iPhone OS 2.0. It triggered a popup a menu that allowed users to Save Image to the camera roll.

In iPhone OS 3.0 it’s been given a bit more power. Now, in addition to selecting blocks of text for Copy and Paste, when you tap and hold on a link, you trigger the same type of popup as the Save Image function, but instead you get the URL path for the link and options to Open (in the same page/tab), Open in New Page (tab), or Copy (the URL path).

If the link is also an image, you get all of the above options, with Save Image combined into the mix.

May not seem as sexy as MMS or Stereo Bluetooth but we heart this new functionality. It will make our lives easier, which is what OS updates should do.

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

iPhone 3.0: New Safari Link Options — Copy, Open in New Page

Apple and AT&T Being Sued for Slow 3G Speeds (Again)

If Apple is not being sued over iPhones with cracking cases they are usually being sued for slower than advertised speeds. Lets not forget AT&T, they are involved with this latest lawsuit as well.

This suit has been filed in the good state of New Jersey by Damone Dickerson. Dickerson claims Apple misrepresented the speed, strength and overall performance of AT&T’s 3G network. The lawsuit also claims he could only connect to the 3G network periodically. Can we say “possible fringe area”? According to Macworld the charges against both companies include the following:

Negligence, Breach of Express Warranty, Breach of Implied Warranty of Merchantability, Unjust Enrichment, Negligent Misrepresentation, Violation of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act and Other Similar State Statutes, and Breach of Contract.

Dickerson is seeking to recover compensatory, statutory and punitive damages. What’s next? Will it come down to all of Apple’s TV commercials for the iPhone being yanked off of the airwaves?

[Via Macworld]

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

Apple and AT&T Being Sued for Slow 3G Speeds (Again)