Smule turns you into T-Pain

Filed under: Gaming, Humor, Software, Odds and ends, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

God bless Smule. I panned their Ocarina app way back, but since then they've pushed right along without me, releasing idea after idea on Apple's App Store. And I think that, though the Leaf Trombone didn't really capture my attention, this one might finally be the big winner in my book: they've released I am T-Pain, an app that will automatically Auto-tune you into the style of some of the rapper's top songs, with more purchaseable within the app. There's even a "freestyle" mode, complete with a few unreleased background tracks to jam with -- as you can see above, all you do is talk into the iPhone's mic, and you can autotune the news or whatever else you want. Shawwwwty!

Silly? Maybe, but they're going to sell a million of these, and given that Smule's apps tend to be easy to pick up and fun to play with, even people who aren't familiar with T-Pain's work will probably get the app just to sing a few bars to see what it sounds like (you can also send those messages off to Facebook or email as well). And Smule is moving right up into the iPhone 3.0 era: the app comes with four songs, and there are four more available to purchase in-app, along with even more (and more popular: Kanye's "Good Life" and the Lonely Island's "On a Boat" track are due out soon) songs coming, complete with lyrics and auto-tune settings and timings in the future.

Maybe you're laughing. Maybe you think this is dumb, and you've already had enough of auto-tune on pop radio, and don't really want it in your iPhone, too. But trust me on this one: Smule is a company that's made silly music experiences on the iPhone extremely popular, and having T-Pain's tunes and auto-tuning abilities (officially from the company behind the pro version, too) available in this app is going to make it big, no question. The app's available right now for $2.99, so pick it up if you're feeling the beat and want to sing, even if you can't. Yeahhh-eeeyeaahh-yeah.

Smule turns you into T-Pain originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 04 Sep 2009 01:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Smule turns you into T-Pain originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 04 Sep 2009 01:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T Updates on Status of iPhone Tethering

Following up on today’s announcement that AT&T would be making MMS available to US iPhone users on September 25, TiPb asked the logical followup — tethering?

We expect to offer tethering in the future. By its nature, this function could exponentially increase traffic on the network, and we need to ensure that some of our current upgrades are in place before we can deliver the expanded functionality with the excellent performance that customers expect.

They’re likely referring, at least in part, to their ongoing rollout of 850 MHz 3G — most recently in New York and New Jersey — which should put more width in their bandwidth.

So are we happy enough with MMS to cut AT&T some slack on tethering, or do we want it all and now?

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

AT&T Updates on Status of iPhone Tethering

In Stock: mophie Juice Pack air for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G

In Stock: mophie Juice Pack air for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G

mophie Juice Pack air [$79.95 - TiPb Store link] is he world’s thinnest rechargeable battery case for iPhone 3G & iPhone 3GS.

The juice pack air is a rechargeable external battery concealed inside of a protective form-fitting case for the iPhone 3G & iPhone 3GS. It offers you the full protection of a hard-shell case while providing virtually twice the battery life of the iPhone alone; all in an ultra-thin, light-weight, low-profile design.

This is the first Apple certified “Works With iPhone 3G(S)” attached battery in the world! The juice pack air is specially designed for iPhone 3G & 3GS and has passed the strict over-the-air performance tests by an Apple designated test lab. As a result, the mophie juice pack air has been officially certified by Apple Inc. as a “Works with iPhone 3G(S)” product!

The mophie juice pack air for iPhone 3G & 3GS, also uses Apple designated connector, which can only be ordered through Apple’s certified vendors. This ensures it’s 100% compatible with your iPhone 3G or 3GS.

Extended battery and the full protection of a ultra-thin, light-weight hard case.Choose the color that matches your iPhone 3G & 3G S or your style. Black, white or purple.The built-in on/off switch allows you to use the juice pack air just as a case or as a battery at the flick of a switch. The juice pack air is fullycompatible with iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S.Charge and sync your iPhone to iTunes without removing it.

It extends the time that you can use your iPhone 3G or 3GS in these ways (additional hours):

• Standby Time: Up to 270 hours
• Talk Time: Up to 4.5 hours on 3G | Up to 10 hours on 2G
• Internet Use: Up to 4.5 hours on 3G | Up to 8 hours on Wi-Fi
• Audio Playback: Up to 27 hours
• Video Playback: Up to 9 hours

For more on the mophie Juice Pack air, check out TiPb’s iPhone Accessory Store…

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

In Stock: mophie Juice Pack air for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G

Quick App Updates: Facebook 3.02, QuickOffice 1.4, i.TV 2.0

Facebook 3.02, i.TV 2.0, and QuickOffice 1.4 — among many others, no doubt — have just hit the App Store, and what do they bring to the iPhone this time around?

• Facebook 3.02 [Free - iTunes link] contains the obligatory bug fixes as well as VoiceOver support. Very nice!

• QuickOffice 1.4 [$14.99 - iTunes link] now provides support for creating and editing Microsoft Office 2007 Word and Excel files (DOCX and XLSX)

• i.TV 2.0 [Free - iTunes link] offers a slew of new features, including remote control frameworks, push notification, and more.

If you update, let us know what you think!

[Thanks to everyone who sent these in!]

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

Quick App Updates: Facebook 3.02, QuickOffice 1.4, i.TV 2.0

Some Details on First Mac OS X 10.6.1 Seed (Build 10B503), Flash Updated

World of Apple posts the seed notes from the first Mac OS X 10.6.1 Snow Leopard update that has begun seeding to a limited audience. The 71.5 MB update details these changes:

The 10.6.1 Update is recommended for all users running Mac...

DirecTV NFL Mobile: The most expensive free app in the world

Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch, App Review

DirecTV, which I love dearly and which supplies signal to eight screens in my house, has just announced the NFL Mobile app [iTunes link] which doesn't go live until September 13th (although you can download it now). Once working, the app will let you watch live streams of all NFL Sunday Ticket football games, including the Red Zone channel. The Red Zone channel changes from game to game as the ball gets inside an opponent's 20 yard line while a narrator explains just what's going on.

The app also will display scores, statistics for players and teams, as well as video clips and highlights from each game. So far there has been no word as to whether video streaming will be available on 3G as well as Wi-Fi, but we'll know soon enough.

This is wonderful news for football fans who are already jonesing during pre-season, but it's not all hearts and flowers. For the privilege of using this free app, you need to plunk down $379.95 for programming. The NFL Season Ticket will run you $299.95 but that's not good enough to run the app. Additionally you'll need to toss in another $80 to buy the SuperFan package which gives you games in high-definition, stats and the Red Zone Channel, making the NFL Mobile app the most expensive free app in the world.

As I haven't seen the streaming yet, I can't comment on how good it might be, but I'm very encouraged due to the amazing implementation of the DirecTV Scheduling app [iTunes link], that Mel Martin covered upon its release.

I really love this app. It's much easier to use than the often arcane DirecTV web site for scheduling programs. Searching for programs is a snap. Just type in a few letters and all matches come right up. From there you can decide which receiver you would like to have record the show, set the recording, and even record a season pass which grabs every instance of the show according to rules you set up. Rules include recording only new shows, new and repeats, etc. It can also be set to 'record if possible' meaning that if shows are already set at that time they have precedence over your request, or to 'definitely record' which gives your newly searched show precedence over your record queue.

The only glitch I found isn't in the app, but most likely in the DirecTV system itself. If you have a DirecTV box running the TiVo OS, you cannot record season passes. My DirecTV 10-250 is one of these, but it's getting long in the tooth and doesn't record hi-definition shows from the MPEG-4 transponder in any event. More modern DirecTV OS machines like my DirecTV 20-700 will record season passes and anything else you can throw at it.

If you have DirecTV and an iPhone or iPod touch, you need to go and download the DirecTV app. With all the added functionality, you'll feel much better about paying your monthly bill.

Here are some pictures of both apps.

DirecTV NFL Mobile: The most expensive free app in the world originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

DirecTV NFL Mobile: The most expensive free app in the world originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T MMS Already Working on iPhone 3.1 Beta 3, or Just Testing?

AT&T is promising MMS on September 25, along with a software update to enable it. Sounds like iPhone 3.1 to us. Show it off at the September 9 Music Event along with the third generation iPod touch, then release it a couple weeks later to coincide with MMS?

WhenWillApple reports that AT&T MMS is already working for them in Florida under iPhone 3.1 Beta 3. and while it might just be another random network test, could it also be a sign of what’s to come?

Anyone else rocking AT&T MMS on iPhone 3.1 Beta 3? Say where and when in the comments!

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

AT&T MMS Already Working on iPhone 3.1 Beta 3, or Just Testing?

Apple Might Announce Availability of Ready-Made Ringtones at Next Week’s Event?

Review: DocScanner for iPhone

This app aims to capture documents just like a flatbed scanner would. The results are fine, but you could pull off the same feat using the iPhone's built-in camera.

Breaking News: September 25 for MMS on the iPhone

Filed under: iPhone

Hot of the proverbial presses. Finally, AT&T has a date for MMS! The word came to me a few minutes ago from Brad Mays of AT&T.

"The date is September 25th, which does indeed fall a few days past the official end of summer. It was important to give our customers a positive experience from day one. We support more iPhone customers than any other carrier in the world so we took the time necessary to make sure our network is ready to handle what we expect will be a record volume of MMS traffic. We truly appreciate our customers' patience and hope they'll understand our desire to get it right from the start.

The service will be enabled with a software update on the launch date. Customers can obtain the update from iTunes, just like all other iPhone updates.

As for tethering, by its nature, this function could exponentially increase traffic on the network, and we need to ensure that some of our current upgrades are in place before we can deliver the expanded functionality with the excellent performance that customers expect. We expect to offer tethering in the future."

He also added some comments on the network in general:

The unique capabilities and high usage of the iPhone's multimedia capabilities required us to work on our network MMS architecture to carry the expected record volumes of MMS traffic and ensure an excellent experience from Day One. We appreciate your patience as we work toward that end.

We're riding the leading edge of smartphone growth that's resulted in an explosion of traffic over the AT&T network. Wireless use on our network has grown an average of 350 percent year-over-year for the past two years, and is projected to continue at a rapid pace in 2009 and beyond. The volume of smartphone data traffic the AT&T network is handling is unmatched in the wireless industry. We want you to know that we're working relentlessly to innovate and invest in our network to anticipate this growth in usage and to stay ahead of the anticipated growth in data demand, new devices and applications for years to come.

So there you have it. As you can see, AT&T isn't saying much about tethering. It may be more than the current network can stand. At least some good news for a change. We'll keep you posted.

Breaking News: September 25 for MMS on the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Breaking News: September 25 for MMS on the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gamesalad aiming to bring their development system to the iPhone

Filed under: Gaming, Software, Freeware, Developer, iPhone, App Store, SDK

Here's yet another interesting take on the burgeoning App Store environment. A company called Gendai Games has a game creator IDE/app called Gamesalad, designed to let you put together rapid prototype-style games for the Mac. They've been doing this for a while, and they even let you export your games out to the 'net using an online portal. But here's the kicker: they're also planning to let you take those games right out to the iPhone.

Their roadmap page talks about downloading to a test iPhone straight from a Mac, but presumably, they'd either have their own app on the App Store in which you could play your games, or even output it to some sort of wrapper app that you could then release on the App Store yourself. Their press release says they will allow for games "to be sold and marketed on the App Store," and that seems to us like there's compensation involved somehow, either through their portal, or through Apple's setup.

Very interesting. Unfortunately, most of this is forthcoming -- their development environment is available for a free download right now, so you could start working on creating your masterpiece right away if you want, but you'd have to wait until sometime "in the next few weeks" to see what iPhone features they have planned. Part of the iPhone's draw as a programmer's platform is that it's relatively easy to develop for, and an environment like this promises to make it even easier and more accessible. Whenever you have a low barrier of entry to development, release, and sales, you end up with two things: a market possibly flooded with junk, but on the other end, lots and lots of creativity.

Gamesalad aiming to bring their development system to the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gamesalad aiming to bring their development system to the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T: MMS will be Available to iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS Customers on September 25

AT&T rolling out MMS to iPhone on September 25, tethering ‘in the future’

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gadgets/AT_T_rolling_out_MMS_to_iPhone_on_September_25'; AT&T has just announced that MMS -- a much-ballyhooed feature of iPhone OS 3.0 -- will finally be hitting AT&T on September 25. There's still no date for tethering, though the company is holding the line that it'll be offered "in the future." Expanding on the logic behind the tethering delay, they're saying that "by its nature, this function could exponentially increase traffic on the network, and we need to ensure that some of our current upgrades are in place before we can deliver the expanded functionality with the excellent performance that customers expect." We're no network engineers, but "exponentially increase traffic" and "AT&T" are two things we don't typically like to hear in the same sentence -- let's hope the 850MHz, 7.2Mbps, and backhaul upgrades they're cranking on right now go a long way toward sorting that out. As for MMS, they're acknowledging that the release "does indeed fall a few days past the official end of summer," arguing that their support of more iPhone customers than any other carrier in the world made a positive launch experience a bit of a challenge. Of course, virtually every other phone AT&T sells (and has sold for the past several years) supports the same tech, so this feels like a pretty active admission that iPhone users blaze through data-rich features at a pace that the carrier has been ill-equipped to handle.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

AT&T rolling out MMS to iPhone on September 25, tethering 'in the future' originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIM BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac (v1.0.0) leaks

After years of struggles with awkward third party software offerings and/or virtual machines dedicated to BlackBerry management, Mac computers users with BlackBerry smartphones can finally download a full-featured BlackBerry desktop manager built specifically for Apple computers.

Walkman outsells iPod in Japan for first time in four years… but iPhone sales don’t count

As with most accomplishments these days, we can't help but place a rather large asterisk next to Sony's award for managing to outsell the iPod lineup with its Walkman. According to Tokyo-based research firm BCN Inc., for the week ending August 30th, the Walkman series had a 43 percent share of the personal music player market versus 42.1 percent for iPods, marking the first time in four years that Sony's managed to get the upper hand. Got that? Good, now for a major caveat. For whatever reason, iPhones aren't considered part of the iPod line, meaning people who want the luxuries of the iPod touch and a wireless data plan aren't included in the survey. That's quite an omission -- the iPhone 3GS is currently the best-selling phone in Japan, after all -- and we gotta imagine it'd be more than enough to tilt the data in Apple's favor, even if you threw in Sony Ericsson's Walkman phones for good measure. But hey, it's still a feat in its own right, and Sony might as well celebrate while it lasts -- something tells us the gang in Cupertino has something up their sleeve soon.

Filed under: Portable Audio

Walkman outsells iPod in Japan for first time in four years... but iPhone sales don't count originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TomTom car kit delayed until October

Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store

Since its release in late August, the TomTom for iPhone [iTunes Link] application has received a lot of attention. When the application was first debuted at WWDC, it became one of the first products to combine both hardware and software for the iPhone. The car-kit (which provides a separate GPS module for enhanced positioning, connections for audio and iPhone charging capability) was expected to be released alongside the app.

More information was then leaked after TomTom's car kit was seen on the FCC website.

It looks like TomTom has decided to delay the release of the car kit until October to "deliver the highest quality innovative product." In a small note on their website's FAQ page, TomTom announced:

The TomTom car kit availability was originally planned for this summer. But we have decided to take some extra weeks in order to deliver the highest quality on this innovative product. So, the car kit will become available this October on www.tomtom.com.

There are now many GPS apps available for the iPhone, but much of the excitement and anticipation for the TomTom version stems from its inclusion of a bundled accessory. We'll see how sales do when the car kit is released later next month.

TomTom car kit delayed until October originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TomTom car kit delayed until October originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T Announces iPhone MMS Launch Date: September 25

AT&T has issued a press release today announcing that MMS will become active for iPhone users on September 25.

We've been working for the past several months to prepare our systems and network to ensure the best possible exper...

AT&T: iPhone MMS coming on Sept. 25

Running out of nails to bite while waiting for AT&T to enable MMS on iPhone? We have good news.

AT&T Announces MMS is Coming to iPhone on September 25th

Most AT&T iPhone owners have been waiting for any word from their beloved carrier regarding the activation of MMS and as it turns out, AT&T just notified us personally to make sure we pass on the good word that MMS will be available on the iPhone on September 25th.

The date is September 25th, which does indeed fall a few days past the official end of summer. It was important to give our customers a positive experience from day one. We support more iPhone customers than any other carrier in the world so we took the time necessary to make sure our network is ready to handle what we expect will be a record volume of MMS traffic. We truly appreciate our customers’ patience and hope they’ll understand our desire to get it right from the start.

The email went on to also make a point that this indeed will be a software update that iPhone owners will need to download via iTunes. Perhaps the release date for iPhone OS 3.1?

Anyone exited yet?

*Just to be clear, MMS will only be available on iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS.

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

AT&T Announces MMS is Coming to iPhone on September 25th

OpenFeint introduces multiplayer, Flick Fishing goes Plus+

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

The battle of the social gaming services on the iPhone continues. OpenFeint's latest weapon is multiplayer -- they're working on a way for games developers on the iPhone to quickly include multiplayer (it doesn't actually say real-time, so we'll assume it's the mix of ghosting and turn-based multiplayer that they talked about in their interview with us) in their games. They're asking interested developers to sign up to the open beta program, and they'll start rolling out the functionality soon. Even though it seems early in the process, it's a pretty cool idea, and it could definitely serve to set OpenFeint apart even more from the other services trying to attract developers to their social and multiplayer features.

Speaking of social features, Freeverse told us a little while ago that they were going to use ngmoco's Plus+ for their games, and apparently they've now integrated the popular Flick Fishing with the service. The additions allow for leaderboards, in-game achievements, and multiple profiles and saves on one iPhone, so you can compete with your friends on other iPhones or right there on your own. Flick Fishing was already an excellent game, and with the added social functionality of Plus+, it's worth heading back out onto the water to compete and compare your games with your friends.

As I've said before, having multiple companies competing for these social functions is turning out to be a real boon for consumers and developers alike. All of these services are able to bring out a lot of cross-game features that developers by themselves would have taken much longer to put together on their own.

OpenFeint introduces multiplayer, Flick Fishing goes Plus+ originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

OpenFeint introduces multiplayer, Flick Fishing goes Plus+ originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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