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

Review: Leaf Trombone for iPhone

One of those rare apps that uses the iPhone platform in a creative, compelling way, Leaf Trombone also happens to be insanely addictive once you feel the lure of competing against others on the World Stage.

Palm Pre Emulating an iPod to Accomplish iTunes Sync?

The news broke yesterday that Palm's anticipated Pre phone will seamlessly sync with iTunes for both Mac and Windows, allowing users to transfer non copy-protected content to the new Palm phone. While there has been speculation on how this had been ...

Palm Pre Emulating an iPod to Accomplish iTunes Sync

The news broke yesterday that Palm's anticipated Pre phone will seamlessly sync with iTunes for both Mac and Windows, allowing users to transfer non copy-protected content to the new Palm phone. While there has been speculation on how this had been ...

Official: McNamee Calls Palm Pre “iPhone for Ladies”

As Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak paid rapt attention (via Engadget), Palm’s new dynamic duo, Jon Rubinstein and Roger McNamee took turns amazing, informing, and stupefying the crowd at All-Things Digital’s D7 conference. Our sibling site, PreCentral.net has complete coverage, but from an iPhone perspective there were a few things worth drawing attention to…

The good: Ruby and Mac, straight and funny man respectively, were an awesome combination in the best, most comedic sense of the term. Palm should make sure their contracts say they need to co-host all future events. Presentation Gold. Ruby controlled the message and acted the responsible corporate governor while Mac was left to make outrageous claims and obfuscate the tough questions. And it worked brilliantly. Their opening video alone, which self-deprecatingly poked at Mac’s history of grandiose statements all the while letting him slip in even more jabs, such as the terminal “[Palm Pre] eats iPhone’s for breakfast.”

The bad: when demonstrating the previously mentioned Palm Pre hooks into sync, comments were made about Apple being “monopolistic”. Puh-leeze. Palm has an absolute right to make their own desktop client (they already make Palm Desktop for example). They don’t have the right to hook into Apple’s without license, even if Apple has the most popular media client on the planet. To make it simple for them, no matter how popular McDonald’s is, they have the right to serve their own fries with their Big Macs. Burger King DOES NOT have the right to set up a stall inside McDonald’s and hook up Whoppers next to the MacFries machine — unless McDonald’s says it’s okay.

Tangent: Telling Palm Pre users they can hook up and sync with iTunes, even if you specify “DRM free music, photos (?!), and videos” is all fun and games until a) users can’t transfer their iPhone apps and blame Apple, b) a routine (or not so) update to iTunes breaks Pre compatibility and users blame Apple.

The ugly: Great as Ruby and Mac were together, Ruby couldn’t stop Mac from fully inserting his foot into his mouth towards the end. In a painfully, painfully drawn-out exchange with Kara Swisher, Mac began by saying the Pre had a mirror for woman, which Swisher immediately took exception to. Unrelenting, Mac continued to press the point about women being an ignored segment of the market, then took exception to Swisher’s exception, and basically ended up writing the title for this here blog post, casting the Palm Pre as the “iPhone for Ladies” — insulting women and potentially turning off a segment of their male audience as well. Sad, given the great start to the show.

So that was the likely the last big Palm song and dance before release, and it was a mixed bag and perhaps a changing of the guard as well. A lot was made of Ruby’s pedigree — and we couldn’t help but notice that after Ruby’s comments that he basically rescued the Pre from resistive hell, Palm founder Ed Colligan was nowhere to be found. If the Palm Pre is Ruby’s iPhone, maybe we’ve just met the new iPalm?

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

Official: McNamee Calls Palm Pre “iPhone for Ladies”

Zune HD Hands on Demo and Impressions

Gizmodo posted this hands on video of the upcoming Zune HD which is positioned to compete directly against the Apple iPod Touch.


According to the gadget site, the Zune HD is "tighter and more physically beautiful than the iPod ...

Next Gen iPhone Bezel Reveals Speaker & Color Changes?

iXpenseIt: iPhone App that helps you Manage your Finances on the Move

Review: Groceries for iPhone

This shopping list manager is a lovely application. Fast and simple to use, Groceries makes a trip to the supermarket a little more enjoyable.