Keep tabs on iPhone rumors with Top-Tens app

Top-Tens, a reference app that lets users follow lists of their interests and hobbies, has added a list of top rumored features for the next iPhone.

Comparison Photo of Apple’s New iPhone back cover with Matte finish and iPhone 3G?

Review: PocketGuitar for iPhone

PocketGuitar, which mimics a guitar fretboard and provided various types of guitar sounds, takes the metaphor a little too literally. Because of the size of the iPhone's screen, you can only access a few frets at a time, and you can't slide up and down the fretboard gracefully. Guitar players will find this app frustrating.

Sky Burger for iPhone/iPod touch free for the day

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, Friday Favorite, App Review

Hey, the weekend is coming, so how serious can we be? Sky Burger, [App Store] a pretty cute arcade game for the iPhone and iPod touch, is free today only.

The game involves tilting your iPhone to catch ingredients to make a sandwich with the required ingredients. There are 50 possible burger orders to try and get right. You cap it all of with a bun. It reminds a little bit of the theme of the 1982 game called Burger Time.

Sky Burger seems a bit silly but it can get pretty addictive as you try to build up points and tips. The game has good music and sound effects. Try it for free: even vegetarians will like it. Tomorrow the game goes back up to US$0.99. Even at that price, it's pretty good fun.

Thanks, Ian!

Sky Burger for iPhone/iPod touch free for the day originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 May 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sky Burger for iPhone/iPod touch free for the day originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 May 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Return of the iPhone 3.0 Direct Movie + TV Show Download Rumors!

Following last week’s crazy screen rumor that iPhone 3.0 would add movie and TV show direct, on-device downloads to the current music and audio and video podcast downloads, Apple Insider reports that they have:

…learned from people familiar with Apple’s training program that new self-guided training materials being distributed to familiarize AppleCare agents with the features of iPhone 3.0 software “definitely covered” the ability to directly download movies and TV shows on the device itself, rather than just syncing video content through iTunes.

And points out that “Apple never puts out product training this far ahead of a product launch.”

So what’s going on with that? We figure it’ll be Wi-Fi only, but could there be anything else going on here?

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

Return of the iPhone 3.0 Direct Movie + TV Show Download Rumors!

Early Palm Pre Review: WebOS Off to Great Start But Bad Keyboard

BoyGeniusReport publishes the first hands on review of the upcoming Palm Pre. Palm has been especially secretive about allowing media access to their device, so this represents one of the most detailed looks of the device.

BoyGeniusRe...

More Claims of Wireless Movie and TV Downloads to iPhone Surface

AppleInsider reports that Apple has begun internal training of its AppleCare staff to prepare for the deployment of wireless movie and TV downloads in the forthcoming iPhone OS 3.0. The report comes on the heels of a blog entry posted last week show...

Amsterdam Interactive City Guide 3D released for iPhone

Amsterdam now has an interactive city guide with 3D available for the iPhone and iPod Touch: the Amsterdam 3D Guide. This is the first three-dimensional panorama travel guide app in the world, specially developed for the iPhone. Users of the Apple iPhone don’t have to use their old guidebooks for the Dutch capital anymore with [...]

Austin GDC iPhone Games Summit accepting submissions

The 2009 GDC Austin’s iPhone Games Summit has been announced and is now accepting submissions, following a similar call for the Indie Games Summit earlier this week. Here’s the blurb from the organizers: “The inaugural iPhone Games Summit (September 15-16) at the 2009 GDC Austin will bring together top game developers from around the world to share [...]

Award-winning board game Zooloretto in the App Store now

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

Chillingo is not kidding about iPhone releases lately -- it seems like every other day they're premiering a new download in the App Store, for better or worse. Their website calls them "The Leading Publisher of iPhone Games," and it seems like they're definitely pushing for quantity. But there are some good gems in the mix (have you tried Zen Bound yet?), and Zooloretto looks like it might be another. The $4.99US game is based on an award-winning board game in which you have to balance zoo animals of varying sizes with pen space, all while bringing in as many visitors as possible. Like all great board games, it looks pretty simple to start out, but more and more complicated as you go along. And the fact that it's turn-based makes it perfect for the iPhone, when you can play in small spurts and keep a strategy rolling over time.

If there's a drawback, it's that the game might be too simple -- it's meant as a family game, so really hardcore strategy geeks might not find enough here to dig into (it's too bad we haven't seen a quality Settlers port, or maybe even a version of Puerto Rico). And it's too bad there's no lite version to try before you buy. But if you're looking for a nice little strategy game to play around with occasionally, and enjoy a well-designed board game, Zooloretto is worth a look.

Award-winning board game Zooloretto in the App Store now originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 May 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Award-winning board game Zooloretto in the App Store now originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 May 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New Comparison Photo of Matte iPhone Enclosure?

In February, the first images depicting the back casing of an unreleased iPhone began circulating around the Internet. The images showed a matte finish to the casing, but looked otherwise identical to the current iPhone enclosure. Recently...

Friday Fun TiPb Birthday Bash Videos!

Thanks so much to everyone who entered our Make Us a TiPb-themed YouTube video intro contest!

The winning entry, courtesy of llofte, is embedded above, and be sure to check out some of our other favorites from Alli, sil3ntrid3r11, iLoveiPhones, and Bela, below the fold!

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

Friday Fun TiPb Birthday Bash Videos!

iPhone nabs 59% of smartphone ‘net traffic, 43% of mobile web traffic

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Internet, iPhone, iPod touch

Fortune has the results of an AdMob survey up, and they're pretty surprising -- Apple has apparently taken over 59% of smartphone traffic on the Internet, and in the mobile category in general, they've got a giant 43% of 'net traffic surveyed. But there's another side here: the report doesn't just point out that Apple accounts for the lion's share of mobile 'net traffic, but it states that smartphone traffic, and specifically the iPhone in general, hugely overshadows the actual sales numbers. The iPhone has 8% global market share, but accounts for 65% of HTML traffic. And smartphones in general overshadow their sales to a lesser degree: smartphones represent about 12% of mobile device sales, but AdMob calculates them at around 35% of their traffic last month.

What does this mean? AdMob suggests it's a phase -- right now, because we're so early in the development stages of this platform, mobile web makes up the main chunk of traffic. But in the future, we may go through applications to get data, or use push notifications, and/or come up with other, more streamlined ways to get information out to mobile devices. But for now, iPhone and iPod touch users are still browsing the web, and as a result, they are accounting for way more traffic than their sales hint at.

iPhone nabs 59% of smartphone 'net traffic, 43% of mobile web traffic originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 May 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iPhone nabs 59% of smartphone 'net traffic, 43% of mobile web traffic originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 May 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple Edu Promo: Buy a Mac - Get a Free iPod touch

Apple is gearing up their 2009 university student-targeted promotion, and it turns out this year is a lot like last year:

A Mac has everything university students need for school. And now it includes something extra special. When university students buy a qualifying Mac, they’ll get a free iPod touch after mail-in rebate. And they save even more with Apple education pricing. This offer is for a limited time and is available only at the Apple Online Store, Apple Retail Stores, and Apple Authorized Campus Stores.

Rumor was we’d see an iPhone option this year, but no such luck. Let jokes about mail-in rebate success levels begin!

(Thanks to everyone who sent this in.)

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

Apple Edu Promo: Buy a Mac - Get a Free iPod touch

Review: Textfree Unlimited for iPhone

This app, aimed at iPod touch users or iPhone owners who don't want to use the phone's built-in SMS app, handles Internet-based texting more elegantly than rival offerings.

Daring Satire: Excerpts From the Diary of an App Store Reviewer

Daring Fireball has posted a bitingly satirical look at Apple’s iPhone App Store review process which, like the best of comedy, is firmly rooted in both tragedy and truth. That Apple hasn’t posted clear guidelines for developers is frustrating enough. That they apparently haven’t imposed them on their own internal staff raises the flabbergast bar to dizzying new heights.

With 35,000+ apps and a billion downloads Apple is well on their way towards building that next great platform. Until they fix the app approval process, however, that building is a house of cards.

Enough of the choir preaching. Here’s Gruber bringing the painful funny:

MONDAY MAY 18: The dude who wrote that game with the iPhone icon seems very upset. Says that the iPhone image is used to explain that the user must tilt the device in order to play the game, and so how can he show this visually without using an image of an iPhone. And he has a list of other apps already in the Store which use similar graphics. I reply with the exact same message as last week, word for word. Spend the rest of the day playing Flight Control.

Read the entire Excerpts From the Diary of an App Store Reviewer via Daring Fireball…

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

Daring Satire: Excerpts From the Diary of an App Store Reviewer

iPhone 3G price drops almost $100 in Indonesia

Apple's partner in Indonesia, Telkomsel, has dropped the price of the iPhone 3G for the second time in the past two months.

Japanese university to track attendance with iPhone

Aoyama Gakuin University plans to distribute the iPhone 3G to students in order to track class attendance.

Is the Palm Pre Syncing with iTunes by Pretending to be an iPod?

nanocr.eu (via MacRumors) has a theory on how the Palm Pre is managing to sync so seamlessly with iTunes. Read the full post for details, but their conclusion is a tad concerning:

• When you select “Media Sync” on the Pre, it will switch its USB interface to use Apple’s Vendor Id and the Product Id for a specific iPod model
• The Pre exposes a filesystem through Mass Storage Class that mimics the structure of an iPod
• The Pre responds to Apple’s custom USB command and returns XML info about the device

They warn — like we have — that this will be pretty simple for Apple to intentionally prevent, uncaringly break, or accidentally bug up (they’ve done all three to jailbreakers in the past, after all, and expecting Apple to devote time and engineers to maintaining compatibility for unlicensed devices is just this side of silly).

Their advice? Anticipate Palm Pre iTunes sync to go the way of the dodo and fast. Then get a copy of DVD Jon’s DoubleTwist and sync your hearts out that way…

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

Is the Palm Pre Syncing with iTunes by Pretending to be an iPod?

Another Warning From AT&T to iPhone Users with Non-iPhone Data Plans

It was not that long ago TiPb passed along some warning signs we’d seen about AT&T cracking down on iPhone users who currently not on an iPhone data plan. Well they’ve gone and given all of you rebels out there one more warning for good measure.

After some digging around in AT&T’s myWireless application, we have found yet another dose of legalese from AT&T that states they can and will change your data plan and charge you accordingly if you are currently using an iPhone with any data plan other than the iPhone data plan.

While this is nothing earth shattering, we figured we would pass it along so, if AT&T started following up on the warnings, our readers wouldn’t be caught by surprise.

Switch to the appropriate data plan or possibly end up with a larger than normal bill? We know iPhone data use is hammering AT&T’s network, but is this the best way for them to go about things?

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

Another Warning From AT&T to iPhone Users with Non-iPhone Data Plans