Call of Duty now on iPhone

Activision has just released the first official iPhone game in the franchise in the shape of Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies.

Review: JunoWallet GiftCards for iPhone

This app aims to help you keep track of all those plastic gift cards you accumulate. Unfortunately, it has a way to go before it's a truly useful option.

Should we continue using an app that Apple has rejected?

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone, App Store

It doesn't happen so much anymore, but not too long ago you'd hear about a new offering arriving in the App Store that would stir up a little controversy (the NetShare tethering app springs to mind). They'd enjoy some fanfare and a ton of purchases for a few days before being summarily removed, never to return and often without a thorough explanation from Apple. A relatively small number of users would retain possession of the app and would take a bit of pride in knowing that they were in the right place at just the right time to snag a copy of the app before it was yanked.

When I got the email from our very own Mike Rose regarding the release of GV Mobile, I was pretty excited. I'd been wanting to more fully adopt the Google Voice service, but had wanted a more iPhone-ish experience in doing so and GV Mobile seemed to have just what I was jonesing for. I paid the three bucks right then and, like The Giving Tree, was happy.

My adoption plan for Google Voice didn't pan out quite like I'd hoped for a while after that. I'd use it occasionally, but I had trouble moving it from the number I gave to sales people to the number I gave to my mother-in-law. But, despite the absence of the app in the App Store, I still had a perfectly working copy of it on my iPhone, ready when I was - or so I thought.

A couple of weeks ago, I had decided that it was time to make Google Voice a more central part of my communication workflow. Having not launched GV Mobile in a while, I fired it up to reacquaint myself with the interface, capabilities, etc. Trouble is, I couldn't authenticate with Google. I triple-checked my credentials but the app would just throw an error on launch and that was that. A couple of people on Twitter had mentioned having the same issue and a quick Google search informed me that, sure enough, the app no longer worked. Apparently, Google had modified the Voice API such that authentication now worked differently than it did when GV Mobile was written. Because the app no longer had Apple's seal of approval, I had little recourse because there obviously weren't going to be any updates to the app anytime soon.

Which raised the broader question - how heavily should we rely on "orphaned" apps? If they're self-contained (which is to say, they don't rely on any web sites or services to function properly), it probably isn't a big deal, but if you're a heavy Google Voice user and GV Mobile is how you got your work done, is it really a good idea to hang your hopes on an app that will likely never see any type of upgrade or bugfix release?

I can confidently say that this little hiccup has seriously cramped my plans for more completely adopting Google Voice. Is the same true for you? Have you experienced this type of dilemma with any other now-missing App Store purchases? Tell us about it in the comments!

Should we continue using an app that Apple has rejected? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Should we continue using an app that Apple has rejected? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Palm Releases webOS 1.3.1, iTunes Media Sync Missing

Late last week, Palm announced the release of webOS 1.3.1 in its blog, and Boy Genius Report noted over the weekend that iTunes media synchronization is missing in this latest update.

Palm and Apple have played a cat-and-mouse game ove...

Magellan enters the iPhone nav app sweepstakes

Filed under: Odds and ends, iPhone, iPod touch

I guess it was inevitable. Magellan has just launched an iPhone app that looks great and will offer road warriors even more choice in a very competitive landscape.

The Magellan Roadmate 2010 North America is being offered for a 'limited time' for U.S. 79.99. [iTunes link] The 1.36 GB app includes the usual features plus text-to-speech for pronouncing street names, a car finding feature for when you park, pedestrian mode, lane assist, 3D landmarks, in-app music control, address book integration and an intuitive one touch menu system.

With the Magellan offering, all the big navigation companies have a cell phone product. TomTom is on the iPhone along with Navigon, and Garmin has a cell phone/ nav app hardware solution that hasn't exactly caught on fire with consumers. Then there is the 'will it or won't it appear on the iPhone' Google app.

Also interesting is that Magellan has announced a Premium Car Kit that will allow you to keep your iPhone in your current case, charge your phone, give you a bluetooth speaker phone, allow an iPod touch to work as a GPS, and it is supposed to function with any nav app. No price or specific launch date for the car kit, but it's supposed to be available before the end of this year.

We'll get a review copy of the Magellan app ASAP and give it our usual whirl around town. The more choice the better for iPhone users, and the new features on this Magellan app are most welcome.

[Thanks to David for the tip]

Magellan enters the iPhone nav app sweepstakes originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Magellan enters the iPhone nav app sweepstakes originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Loopt 2.0 for iPhone brings more context to your location

A major upgrade to Loopt's location-based, social iPhone app brings a much better experience and puts more emphasis on finding businesses, restaurants, events, and even shopping discounts around you.

Hands-on (and feet-on) with RunKeeper Pro

Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Review

The $9.99 pro version of RunKeeper [iTunes link] serves as a nice alternative to Nike+, especially for the interval-training minded runner.

While the Nike+ kit serves a means to an end for many runners, it may not suit everybody's needs. There's the additional cost of the transmitter and receiver (USD $30) for iPod nano owners -- iPhone and iPod touch owners need only purchase the transmitter for USD $19. Then there's the cost of Nike running shoes, which are the only shoes that accommodate the Nike+ transmitter; or as a workaround, you could get a pouch that fits the transmitter on your shoelace; and these usually run about $10.

And then there's the issue of accuracy. I personally find a calibrated Nike+ kit very accurate. For instance, during a 4 mile run (I mapped out the trail on walkjogrun.net prior to running) RunKeeper Pro showed that I ran 3.95 miles while Nike+ showed 3.90 miles. Others, however, have not been as fortunate. And this is understandable, as the kit works by detecting the steps a person takes; and as runners' gaits and strides can sometimes change during a run, this may affect the kit's accuracy.

Accuracy issues aside, RunKeeper Pro, at face value, appears little different than Nike+: at its core, RunKeeper Pro aims to track your running progress, albeit with different technology than Nike+. But dive a little deeper, and what you'll find is a training gem, especially for interval-based workouts.

Continue reading Hands-on (and feet-on) with RunKeeper Pro

Hands-on (and feet-on) with RunKeeper Pro originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Hands-on (and feet-on) with RunKeeper Pro originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Review: Archmage Defense for iPhone

Archmage Defense is a darkly humorous, clever, addictive, and beautiful tower-defense game that puts you in the shoes of an evil necromancer. An in-app purchase option ratchets up the difficulty and the fun.

How to Change Your Jailbroken iPhone’s Root Password

iPhone ‘home’ button earrings are for serious fangirls (and guys) only

We've seen plenty of phone-inspired earrings -- it's a multitasking age, after all, so it's not really a surprise to see gadgets inspire jewelry. It is kind of surprising to behold these earrings, however, which appear to have been made with iPhone 'home' buttons. What, there are so many disused iPhones lying around that someone just had to make jewelry out of them? Poor reception got you down? If you want to scoop up a pair of these, hit the read link... but be warned: these bad boys will run you $14.95.

[Via Make]

Filed under: Cellphones, Wearables

iPhone 'home' button earrings are for serious fangirls (and guys) only originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Palm updates WebOS — without iTunes sync

iTunes syncing is conspicuously absent from the latest update to Palm's WebOS, signaling a possible end to the back-and-forth between Palm and Apple.

Phil Libin on the past, present, and future of Evernote

Filed under: Cool tools, Odds and ends, TUAW Interview, iPhone, iPod touch

It must be nice to be Evernote CEO Phil Libin right now. His company's product / service, Evernote, is about to break 2 million customers, they're past the days of initial development and beta testing, and the future is looking bright.

I had a chance to chat with Mr. Libin last Friday about Evernote, the service that acts as a cloud-based repository for all of the information in your life. Last year during the closed beta test of the service, TUAW's Brett Terpstra interviewed Libin, who called Evernote "universal human memory extension." Whatever information you want to put into the Evernote cloud -- text, photos, voice memos -- is available for searching and viewing from your Mac, PC, or iPhone. Handwritten or printed text runs through a recognition routine that makes it searchable text, something that I've found incredibly useful when storing my business cards in Evernote. You can send web pages to Evernote from Firefox with the click of a button, or tweet notes to Evernote by addressing them to @myEN.

Libin ran me through a short history of Evernote, mentioning that many of the first reviews and discussions of it were provided by TUAW. The Mac app and the service began a closed beta in February, 2008, moving to an open beta in June of that year. As Libin noted, "We never really told anyone when we came out of beta; we just gradually removed the word 'beta' from the site and the software." Since then, Evernote has signed up almost 2 million users.

When I asked Libin if Evernote was meeting the company's expectations in terms of growth, he replied that "we're right where we thought we'd be now." In terms of the present and near future, there's a lot going on. Localized versions of Evernote will be available by the end of 2009 for several European countries, with a Japanese localized version on tap for early 2010. Libin noted that "the Japanese market is huge! Evernote is listed in many Japanese magazines, half of our Twitter traffic is in Japanese, and we're even thinking about opening an office in Japan."

All of the client software has been recently updated. The first version of the software is always for the Mac; Libin is an unabashed Mac fan, having switched to the platform a few yeas ago. Some of the things we'll be seeing in the near term include geotagging of all notes, which provides a way to search for information by where you entered it. For example, if you attended a conference and captured a lot of information through your Mac and/or iPhone, you could search for all notes that you entered while you were there simply because they were all captured in the same vicinity.

Libin mentioned that the most requested feature for the iPhone app is the local caching of notes. To add this functionality, the app will require a total rewrite, but support for full caching will be available in a few months. What's great about this upcoming functionality is that there's no need for a network connection to be able to view your Evernotes. Instead, you'll be able to sync all, some, or none of your notes between devices. Notes that are created on the iPhone will stay there, as will notes that you view on the iPhone. Users will have the ability to specify which notebooks (logical collections of notes) they wish to sync to their iPhone. The company is still determining requirements for these user tunable features. Libin also mentioned that the upcoming changes to the iPhone app will make it much more usable on the iPod touch, opening up full usage of its feature set to a much larger audience that will no longer need to be tied to a Wi-Fi connection.

The future looks very bright for Evernote integration in other applications. Libin stated that over 600 developers have API keys, although only a handful of products are currently shipping. Existing partners with Evernote include EyeFi, the JotNot and Readdle Scanner Pro iPhone apps, ReQall, and Pixily, among others.

Pixily's service could be especially useful for Evernote users who have boxes full of documents that are cluttering up their lives. They can send those paper documents -- bills, magazine clippings, recipe cards, handwritten journals -- to Pixily for scanning, and have then automatically transferred to their Evernote account for future reference.

Libin ended the call on a high note as well, mentioning that the company has recently received a new round of funding. For TUAW readers who haven't yet tried out Evernote, you can register for the service here, download the Mac or Windows PC software here, or even try out the iPhone / iPod touch app [iTunes Link].

Phil Libin on the past, present, and future of Evernote originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Phil Libin on the past, present, and future of Evernote originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

What’s next for future iPhones?

Apple's iPhone has been the smartphone to beat for the past two years, but what does the company need to do to keep its position as leader of the pack?

iPhone app debuts for plastic surgery enthusiasts

Continue reading iPhone app debuts for plastic surgery enthusiasts

Filed under: Cellphones

iPhone app debuts for plastic surgery enthusiasts originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

First Look: WhatsApp

Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch, First Look, App Review

There's a lot of buzz about iPhone IM clients.Other applications have gotten a lot of coverage for allowing iPhones to chat from their AOL, Google, ICQ, Jabber or a host of other screen names.

WhatsApp [iTunes Link] is different, calling itself an "iPhone-to-iPhone chat application" that provides direct messaging between iPhones. The application features push notifications and provides functionality similar to SMS.

So why bother trying it? The app makes it easy to chat with other iPhones with no need for screen names, logging in and out or the added cost of text messaging and cellular charges. It's a lot like an iPhone version of Blackberry's popular messaging service. You'll also quickly and easily be able to point out which of your contacts have WhatsApp installed. Even if you're offline, your messages will be saved until you're back online.

Other cool features include the ability to "Broadcast" or send a message to multiple users, emailing of your chat history and sound and visual badges to show your unread message count. Users can also see when their friends are typing as well as the last time they checked their messages.

WhatsApp is free "for a limited time" so head on over to the App Store and grab it.

Here's a few shots of the app in action:

First Look: WhatsApp originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

First Look: WhatsApp originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Apple Tablet Speculation Continuing to Gain Attention

CNNMoney.com today reports on the continued hype over Apple's much-rumored tablet computer, citing the multitude of different speculative reports of the device's specs to attempt to paint a picture what users can expect when it is finally announced.<...

Apple Retail to Release Concierge App for iPhone?

MacRumors has heard from multiple sources that Apple is planning to release a (presumably free) Concierge app for the iPhone and iPod touch that would:

…provide many of the same functions available through the company’s retail store online reservations system, allowing customers to schedule Genius Bar and One to One appointments from their mobile devices. Sources have also indicated that the application will allow users to keep tabs on their premium membership subscriptions offered by the company.

Since the current option is via the web (screen shot above), it sounds good to us. If wanted to schedule service or training for your iPhone, Mac, or other Apple gear, would you use it?

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

Apple Retail to Release Concierge App for iPhone?

iPhone Hints: Access MobileMe site via iPhone

Apple doesn't normally let you access MobileMe via the iPhone's Web browser, but here's a way you can sneak around that with the help of several third-party applications.

Apple Using Static Analysis Tool to Find Private APIs, Reject iPhone Apps

Speaking of Storm8, Unity-engine code, private API, and Gruber, A recent Twitter exchange between him shows just how seriously all of this is now being taken by the App Store:

Hockenberry: Hearing lots of reports about apps getting rejected due to private API usage. Maybe now you’ll believe me when I say it’s a bad idea…

Gruber: Yup: Apple recently started running apps through a static analysis tool to look for private API calls.

Google set off some of the private API discussion when they implemented them as part of the Google Mobile app (though it’s our understanding those API were later made public). Generally, private or unpublished API are kept that way because Apple (or whichever platform maker is supplying the APIs) hasn’t finished working on them, are planning changes, or is otherwise reserving their use — if 3rd parties implement them anyway, any future OS update can break them and cause problems for end users. Public API, on the other hand, are supported and intended to let developers do their thing without worrying about platform-level changes wrecking their apps.

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

Apple Using Static Analysis Tool to Find Private APIs, Reject iPhone Apps

iPhone Game Developer Storm8 Responds to Privacy Complaints

Following our posts last week concerning the lawsuit against Unity-engine using iPhone game developer Storm that alleged they used private API’s to violate user privacy by collecting their phone numbers, the developer, Storm8, contacted TiPb with their side of the story:

I just saw your post on the iPhone blog that discusses Storm 8 and the Unity games issue, and I wanted to make sure that you saw the statement that we put out to our users outlining the proactive steps we’ve taken to address concerns so it can inform your coverage. This includes updating the applications in August so that current game versions do not download, store or use iPhone telephone numbers when a game is opened.

They further pointed us to a statement they issued on their community forum.

If this issue concerns you, take a read and let us know what you think.

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

iPhone Game Developer Storm8 Responds to Privacy Complaints