Apple adding more graphics gurus to iPhone team

Apple isn’t done building its arsenal of chip designers, according to a new report, which claims the company will acquire the services of yet another expert who’s enjoyed a long and successful tenure with the ATI/AMD camp. Citing sources close to Apple, the Inquirer is reporting that one of AMD’s chief technology officers, Raja Koduri, will [...]

The Palm Pre inside scoop: It will cost $170 each to produce?

Palm Inc’s highly anticipated Pre smartphone costs around $170 to make, according to analysis by research group iSuppli released on Wednesday. Although the Pre has not yet shipped and Palm has yet to announce a release date, iSuppli said it generated the estimate of the device’s hardware and manufacturing costs based on second-quarter component and assembly [...]

Blizzard vets get iFund money for iPhone development

Three ex-Blizzard Entertainment employees have struck out on their own as iPhone software developers, and just wrangled more than $4 million in seed capital from the iFund.

More App Store controversy from Pocket God

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, iPhone, iPod touch

Last week the Baby Shaker app received a lot of negative attention and was subsequently pulled from the App Store. Deservedly so; that game was tasteless.

This week, Elaine Howard of the International Pacific Women's Information Network called Bolt's popular Pocket God an "...arrogant slap in the face to our people," referring to Pacific Islanders. If you're unfamiliar, the object of Pocket God (it's really more of a toy than a game) is to torment and kill island-bound characters in a variety of ways. I've always thought of the characters as pre-historic "cave men," not belonging to any specific culture. However, if I were of Pacific Island descent and saw someone playing this game on the subway, it'd bother me.

iPhone Saviour quotes Bolt representatives as saying "The fictional characters in Pocket God do not directly or indirectly represent any human nationality, race or cultural people ... Bolt Creative does not intend and has never intended to offend or marginalize any nationality, race or culture in any of its video games, including Pocket God." I believe that the game was in fact created without malicious intent.

Perhaps a solution would be to use culturally neutral characters like astronauts or LOLcats (see above)? For more on Apple's questionable approval process (not to mention the tastes of some customers), check out this horrifying list of The Ultimate Tasteless iPhone Apps.

More App Store controversy from Pocket God originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

More App Store controversy from Pocket God originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zillow real estate services come to iPhone

Web service Zillow has packaged its real estate services into an app for iPhone and iPod touch that can easily display the stats and values of more than 88 million homes in the U.S., including those that are for sale or have recently been sold.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 Mac Version Due in June

Engadget reports that a version of NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 285 graphics card for the Mac Pro will be released in June.


Image from Engadget
The GTX 285 is currently NVIDIA's fastest single-processor GPU, offering 240 process...

Quick App: qTweeter for Jailbroken iPhones

Efiko Software, the developer behind which we remember fondly for providing much needed UI relief to our old Palm OS devices, has produced a very interesting looking quick tweeting application for Jailbroken iPhones called qTweeter.

It works almost magically: just wipe your finger down from the very top status bar in an application and a quick Twitter window slides down and the keyboard slides up to overlay your screen. If you’re in iPod and want to tweet the music you’re listening to, if you’re in Safari and want to tweet a link you’re reading, a quick button press auto-fills the details in your tweet for you.

It can alternatively — or simultaneously — update your Facebook status as well.

This means no exiting one app, launching another, waiting for load, waiting to launch entry dialogs, etc. when you want to tweet something. Just drag and go.

These kinds of apps show that, even post iPhone 3.0, until Apple surfaces more API’s and figures out how to allow better cross- and multi-app functionality while retaining security, there’ll still be a vibrant community of Jailbreak developers — and some amazing software to go along with it.

Available for trial on Cydia, and can be unlocked fully via donation.

(Thanks to Doc31 for the pointer)

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

Quick App: qTweeter for Jailbroken iPhones

Apple Researching Carbon Fiber Composite Materials for Exterior Shells

A patent application from Apple filed in October 2007 and published today reveals that the company is researching the use of carbon fiber composites for use in the exterior shells of electronic devices. Specifically, the patent application relates t...

Tiger Woods PGA Tour released for iPhone, iPod touch

Tiger Woods PGA Tour is finally available for the iPhone.

Review: Let’s Golf for iPhone

Rich graphics, solid controls, and a nice set of options not only make this golf game fun but also surprisingly deep.

Unity game development engine boosts performance

Unity, the game development engine, has been updated for the iPhone with performance improvements and optimizations.

Apple Chipset Plans All About Power and Control?

Following up on the recent series of domino-like chipset stories, wherein Apple bought PA Semi CPU design firm, licensed ARM CPU architecture and PowerVR GPU architecture, Hired Papermaster from IBM and Drebin and Koduri from AMD/ATI, and have reportedly picked up over 100 chip designers from Samsung, Intel, Qualcomm, and other hardware companies.

Steve Jobs previously confirmed that PA Semi would be used to create system-on-chip components for future iPhones and iPods, but questions remain as to what exactly the master plan is behind these moves (unless Jobs just wants the world’s best gaming mod in his basement, of course…)

The Wall Street Journal, however, thinks it maybe less about the specifics of the hardware — though low-power, energy efficiency is still a major goal — and more about the control of it:

People familiar with the situation say Mr. Jobs told P.A. Semi engineers last April that he wanted to develop chips internally and didn’t want knowledge about the technology to leave Apple.

These new chips, containing technology that couldn’t be easily be shared with competitors or exposed to the rumor-mill, aren’t likely to appear for at least a year still, but shows how Apple’s strong position — including the success of the iPhone — give them the luxury of expanding in this way, in this market.

Apple is, after all, known for their Kremlin-eque love of secrecy, and recent supplier and manufacturer leaks of new iPod and iPhone components can’t have made Cupertino happy.

And of course, it could be the iPhone is still just the tip of the iceberg. When do we get our iPad that wireless connects to big screen TVs to become awesome multi-touch controllers for HD movies and games?

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

Apple Chipset Plans All About Power and Control?

TiPb Presents: iPhone Live! #12 — Birthday Bash!

• Our podcast feed
• Download Directly
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Join Dieter, Chad, and Rene for iPhone 3.0 Beta 4, Apple building chipset-zilla? Verizon rumorfest, announcing TiPb’s Birthday Bash! and your questions. Listen in!

Featured Review

• Review: iGrip Custom Fit Sturdy Swivel Mount for iPhone 3G

Credits

Thanks to the the iPhone Blog Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat, or sent in questions!

Our music comes from the following sources:

• I Called You — iPhone Remix by Pete Leidy
via Sneakmove iPhone Ringtone Challenge

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

TiPb Presents: iPhone Live! #12 — Birthday Bash!

Thursday Fun Video: iPhone vs Netbook in Stress-Typing Test

Crave UK (via Gizmodo) decided to put two ultimately mobile devices, the iPhone 3G and the Asus Netbook, to the ultimate mobile stress-typing test, in a rally car going 80mph under 3Gs (not cell speed, forces of gravity!).

Yep, it’s virtual keyboard vs. cramped keyboard, typing on glass vs. typing on chiclets.

Any guesses as to which device reigned supreme?

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

Thursday Fun Video: iPhone vs Netbook in Stress-Typing Test

Reasons Behind Apple’s Strategic Shift Into Chip Design

The Wall Street Journal explores the reasons why Apple has been moving towards designing their own chips rather than using off-the-shelf components. This strategic shift was first revealed when Apple acquired chip-designing company P.A. Semi last ...

Review: AmbiScience Brain Power for iPhone

Through ambient music and sound, AmbiScience Brain Power aims to help you keep your focus on the task at hand, whether it's working, relaxing, or sleeping. And the $2 app delivers.

Quick App: TruPhone 3.0 VoIP for iPhone

TruPhone let us know that they’ve updated their iPhone VoIP app to version 3.0 and called up some major enhancements along the way. Among them:

• TruPhone, previously a WebApp, has now gone native for better speed and performance
• It’s new UI makes the app much slicker - specifically the integrated IM functionality
• Oh, and the call quality has been “radically improved”

Other highlights include:

integrated messaging tool unifies all IM communities in a single place, meaning users can manage all their IM communication from a single page within the application - eliminating the need to constantly jockey between different applications or even different pages within an application. IM services currently supported include Skype, MSN Messenger, AIM, Yahoo! Messenger and Google Talk.

TruPhone 3.0 is available, for FREE, via the iTunes App Store.

Drop us a note in the comments and let us know how it works for you!

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

Quick App: TruPhone 3.0 VoIP for iPhone

Simplify Media update, take 2

Filed under: Software Update, iPhone, App Store

Earlier today we reported on an update to the media sharing tool from Simplify Media. It added some nice features, but it also installed a demo share on home machines that was not appreciated by many. It set off a mini-firestorm on the company blog, and we received plenty of negative comments as well.

Tonight, wasting no time, the folks at Simplify Media have pushed out another update for Macs, as well as Windows and Linux boxes. It defaults with the demo/test share turned off, but allows you to turn it on if you want to test to see if your system is working.

Paul Joyce of Simplify Media had some comments tonight on his blog:

Today I've been trading emails and comments with a few of you around a feature in Simplify 2.0 -- the Simplify Demo. The exchange has re-enforced one thing I already knew -- we have great, passionate users -- and one thing I know now -- I made a mistake in communicating this new capability.

Such candor is refreshing in a software company. This would be a minor issue, but the iPhone app that allowed users to have access to their large music collections from anywhere was a major hit at the App Store, and one of the most downloaded utilities, so a lot of people had a chance to be pretty angry about the installation of test content on their machine without permission.

Anyway, it's solved now, and it's a really positive outcome. I downloaded and tried the update, and indeed the test share is gone by default. A new version of the iPhone app will also be submitted this week. If all software developers were this responsive, it would be a better world.

Torches and pitchforks can now be stowed. A link to the new updates is on this page, about halfway down.

Simplify Media update, take 2 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Simplify Media update, take 2 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LTE iPhone hitting Verizon in 2010?

According to the latest leaks, Verizon and Apple are in discussions regarding a new iPhone for the carrier, which would be launched in 2010.  USA Today quote "people familiar with the situation" who claim discussions between Steve Jobs and Verizon began a few months ago. While USA Today suggest a CDMA ...

World of Warcraft coming to the iPhone?

Do you think it's real or fake WoW iPhone app? Someone posted a video of a rumored Vollee port of World of Warcraft for the iPhone - looks nice. Touch Arcade wrote: A few interesting things to note. The game is running in the Vollee client, an application from a mobile company ...