Google’s ‘Favorite Places’ Lets You Scan Businesses For Information - Fails To Impress

Review: Layar Reality Browser for iPhone

This free navigation app, which taps into the iPhone 3GS's compass, Web connectivity, and camera to help you find where whatever you're looking is, certainly offers a unique look at the world. But it does so at the expense of your battery life.

Rumors we Love: Apple iTablet to Bring Back “Think different”

If Apple does release a mythical iTablet, could the mythical advertising return them to the glorious campaign of “Think different” past? TiPb doesn’t take anything involving the iTablet as anything approaching news, but seeing as how our site was originally called “Phone different” this particular rumor warmed even our frozen, jaded little blogger hearts.

And, frankly, we’d love to see a refreshed, renewed, Think different on our TV and in our webs.

[via 9to5mac]

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

Rumors we Love: Apple iTablet to Bring Back “Think different”

Apple Rolls Out Customizable Digital iTunes Gift Cards Via Facebook

TechCrunch reports that Apple has rolled out a new feature through its iTunes Facebook page allowing users to create customizable digital gift cards. The feature, which is currently limited to U.S. iTunes Store customers, allows gift givers to choos...

AT&T improving their network or rationing data: take your pick

AT&T cannot decide whether its problem is network capacity, or those pesky customers who keep using the network.

Stream audio and video live from your iPhone with Ustream Live Broadcaster

Filed under: Multimedia, Video, iPhone, App Review

The floodgates are beginning to open. Just last week we had the first live streamer, Knocking Live [iTunes link], that worked from iPhone to iPhone. Now, Ustream is offering a free app [iTunes link] that lets you put a live or recorded stream on the web that multiple people can watch from a web browser.

This is a rather stunning turnaround from just weeks ago when Apple did not allow any live streaming of video from the iPhone. This app supports the 3G and 3GS iPhones, and allows streaming over the 3G network and Wi-Fi. You can record the stream to your iPhone for a later upload, and it even works on 3G phones that don't have built-in video record capability.

The app allows you to share your recorded stream on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook and of course the Ustream site. You can relay your GPS location and your URL appears in the video so you can tell your friends how to find you. Finally, you can archive your broadcast to the web for later viewing.

To get it all going you must create a free account. I tried it this morning, and it worked on both 3G and Wi-Fi. I couldn't try the app on a 3G phone, but it is reported to work, giving that phone video capability in its unjailbroken state. Video resolution is 320 x 240 pixels, and can be lowered to 176 x 144. In my test, video and audio were lagging about 2-3 seconds, which is to be expected. There are ads on the Ustream web page, so that's where the money comes from to support this app.

I'm not sure what is causing the change of heart at Apple/AT&T about live streaming. It may be competition from other phones, or increased scrutiny from the FCC. I wonder if the Sling application will ever be fixed so it can use the 3G network? It seems they would have a good case.

It's great to see the iPhone finally get this capability. It's lagged behind some other smartphone platforms, but it is catching up rapidly -- so get the app, and become your own TV station.

Let us know in comments about your experiences, your likes and dislikes.

Stream audio and video live from your iPhone with Ustream Live Broadcaster originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Stream audio and video live from your iPhone with Ustream Live Broadcaster originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pac-Man Championship Edition coming to iPhone this Thursday

Namco Bandai confirmed that an iPhone version of its popular Xbox Live Arcade game will arrive in the App Store this week.

Dragon Dictation iPhone App Lets You Dictate All Your Emails and Text Messages

Edge becomes Edgy, here’s a quick review

Filed under: Gaming, iPhone, iPod touch, App Review

I wrote the review below several weeks ago, but when I went to post, the app didn't appear. I asked and the developers explained a name kerfuffle that landed the app in limbo until today, as reported by BetaNews. It seems "Edge Games" didn't like the game being called "Edge" and to make a long story short, the same game is now called Edgy. Huzzah!

Edgy is an action puzzler. Some dexterity involved, and you'll be scratching your head as you scoot around an isometric landscape of hazards and obstacles. You play a cube, apparently living life on the edge, constantly in danger of falling off. Edgy is a retro platformer, really, but beautifully rendered on the iPhone with some fun, 8-bit retro audio.

It took a few months and about eight attempts to start enjoying Edgy. It isn't a bad game, but the controls can be tricky. I'm sure that's an appeal for some, but to me it was a turnoff for what I figured would be a very casual game. There are three ways to control your hero cube around a geometric world of right-angles and moving hazards. The three control mechanisms are: touch/swipe to move, tilt to move and use a virtual d-pad of sorts. I preferred the d-pad, honestly. Trying to swipe the cube to make it move was an infinitely frustrating experience and I'm not even sure why it is an option as it barely works at all. Maybe there's a trick to it, but there were no real directions so I've no idea. Tilt to move is fun until you get thrown off the side of your maze a couple dozen times because the accelerometer can be twitchy at times. This leaves the old fashioned "push buttons to move" mechanism we know so well, but it doesn't elevate the game to anything special.

That said, Edgy is well-made and once you get the hang of what's happening is fun. It reminds me of Marble Madness, another geometric landscape featuring a ball instead of a cube. That game took a while to get used to, but once you did, it was mesmerizing. If you like puzzles and retro games you'll enjoy Edgy. And while I'd love to give you an iTunes URL, it appears the app is still not appearing in the US store. Check the official site for info.

Edge becomes Edgy, here's a quick review originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Edge becomes Edgy, here's a quick review originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T Addressing Network Performance in Manhattan and San Francisco, High-Bandwidth Users

The Wall Street Journal reports that AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega noted at an investor conference today that the company is continuing to work to address network issues in Manhattan and San Francisco, areas with high densities of iPhone and oth...

Ustream Offers Live Video Streaming for the iPhone

TechCrunch notes that Apple has approved Ustream Live Broadcaster [App Store, Free], offering users the ability to stream live video directly from their iPhones via Wi-Fi and 3G.

While one of the key features of the iPhone 3G...

Will AT&T introduce usage-based pricing?

Filed under: iPhone

Ralph de la Vega, AT&T head of consumer services, has hinted at usage-based pricing strategies in response to increased consumer data consumption, according to stories on the Huffington Post and Reuters newsfeed. De la Vega spoke at a recent USB investor conference, saying that AT&T was working on improving service to the strained New York and San Francisco services. AT&T may soon introduce pricing tiers that would penalize high-bandwidth users.

Although none of these write-ups mentioned the iPhone, it has facilitated greater and greater network demands with its easy-to-use App Store software and fully-rendered Internet access. That access, using Mobile Safari's browser in particular, was a big selling point in early Apple iPhone commercials.

Although App Store has historically limited high-bandwidth applications to Wi-Fi-only usage, AT&T has recently given the go-ahead to allow Voice-over-IP apps like Skype to use their 3G network. A tiered pricing system for greater usage might help offset increased demand but would need to be backed by an enhanced network infrastructure, which AT&T appears to be building.

The 2-year contracts for the new 3GS iPhones introduced this summer will begin to expire in the 2nd quarter of 2011.

TUAW has contacted AT&T's PR department to request a statement about possible pricing tiers and usage choking but did not hear back by the time this post went live.

Will AT&T introduce usage-based pricing? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Will AT&T introduce usage-based pricing? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Review: Touch Pets Dogs for iPhone

Touch Pets Dogs is beautiful, clever, well-conceived, fun to play, and painfully cute. Unfortunately, Touch Pets is marred by two brutal business decisions from its developer.

Is the Leonard Maltin Movie Guide app ready for its closeup?

Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch, App Review

Long before people went to the Internet for film information, movie buffs annually bought the latest revisions of huge paperback books like The Leonard Maltin Movie Guide and Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever. These were, and are, massive reference books; the current version of Maltin comes in at 1664 pages, and the current version of Videohound at 1700 pages. You needed a strong coffee table to hold these massive tomes.

Today there are many ways to get movie reviews, with IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes probably being the most popular sites. But there is a real virtue to reading reviews written by someone with an encyclopedic knowledge of film and a lifetime career of reviewing them. That's why I was very happy to find that the Leonard Maltin Movie Guide [iTunes Link] $2.99US, has morphed into an iPhone/iPod touch app, adding features that could never be found in books like streaming preview videos, and a tie-in to Netflix and iTunes along with the ability to email reviews from the app.

Upon launching the app you are presented with a scrolling list of Maltin's current picks. You can tap on them to bring up a full review, links to information on the director and major actors, and a streaming video preview of the film. If you have an Internet connection you can see the videos. If not, the option isn't even presented. I really like that, since unlike many apps that won't work without connectivity, the main database is always available for any iPhone/iPod touch running OS 3.0 or better.

Continue reading Is the Leonard Maltin Movie Guide app ready for its closeup?

Is the Leonard Maltin Movie Guide app ready for its closeup? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Is the Leonard Maltin Movie Guide app ready for its closeup? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iCam updated, now records video when motion is detected

Filed under: Multimedia, Video, Odds and ends, iPhone, iPod touch, App Review

I have always really liked iCam [iTunes link]. It will certainly be on my 'best iPhone apps of the year' list. Now it's been updated to automatically record video when it detects motion, and it allows you to play it back on your iPhone.

This was a much requested feature, and in my testing it worked like a champ. iCam can use almost any webcam to monitor a location. I use my built-in camera on my MacBook Pro, and a Linksys wireless webcam to monitor my pet bird. I can set either camera to send an alert if they detect motion, and now, with the new feature, the software takes a very quick succession of stills (several images per second) that I can view right from my iPhone wherever I may be. You just hit the play button and you can see what or who set off the recording.

You can remotely turn on the image recording, and even the motion detection notifications. All this in a U.S. $4.99 app. To make it all work you'll need some software running on your PC or Mac, and that software is free for the downloading. If you have the cameras, iCam makes for a complete and low cost home security system. Setup does not require any firewall tinkering. It just works.

You can monitor up to 4 webcams, and see them all simultaneously on your iPhone. To get everything up and running you'll need an iPhone or iPod touch with OS 3.0 or above, the iCam app, and iCam Source for your home computer. The software runs on Windows XP/Vista/7 or OS X 10.4 or later. Here's a link to a video so you can see how it works.

Just the thing to keep track of the house/kids/pets over the holidays, or any time.

iCam updated, now records video when motion is detected originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iCam updated, now records video when motion is detected originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Announcing The 3rd Annual Smartphone Round Robin!

We are ridiculously excited to announce that today we’re launching the 3rd annual Smartphone Round Robin! If you’ve never heard of the Round Robin, buckle up: Each year the sites of the Smartphone Experts Network spend some time out of our comfort zone, examining the platforms of our sister sites and learning how other smartphone users live. This year, the event will span six weeks, eight sites, over a dozen phones, over five hours of video, hundreds of photos, several hours of podcasts, dozens of discussion threads, and of course dozens of comparison reviews. Seriously.

What’s in it for you? Plenty, we hope. To start with, each site will be giving away one smartphone (or your choice!) representing its platform. We have a Twitter contest for accessory prizes every week too. You can find contest details here.

More than that, though, every year we hear from grateful readers who have said the Round Robin helped them decide on their next smartphone, made them happier about the one they have, or even compelled some to switch outright. Researching and learning six platforms and all the phones on each is a massive undertaking – so we’re doing it for you and you can just follow along.

If you want to know more about how to play along with this crazy event, hit up SmartphoneRoundRobin.com, where we explain the contest, the schedule, the participants, and even have an archive of the last two events.

The event begins in earnest on Monday, but today we’re releasing the first of several podcasts, all of which are hosted by our friends at The Cell Phone Junkie.  We’ll toss direct links to download and subscribe after the break, plus let you know who’s playing along this year.

How to listen:

• The Cell Phone Junkie
• Subscribe with your favorite client
• Subscribe via iTunes
• Listen via phone with Podlinez: 510-495-6352
• Download the show directly

Participating sites

Smartphone Round Robin

@speroundrobin

Android Central, Casey Chan (@caseychan)

CrackBerry, Kevin Michaluk (@crackberrykevin)

Nokia Experts, Matthew Miller (@palmsolo)

The iPhone Blog, Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie)

PreCentral.net, Dieter Bohn (@backlon)

WMExperts, Phil Nickinson (@philnickinson)

The Cell Phone Junkie, Mickey Papillon (@TCPJ_Mickey)

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

Announcing The 3rd Annual Smartphone Round Robin!

Nuance Responds to Dragon Dictation for iPhone Privacy Concerns

Nuance’s Dragon Dictation for iPhone raised some privacy concerns upon launch due to the server-side nature of its transcription and the apparent transmission of users’ contact list to Nuance’s servers. Addressing at least some of these concerns, Nuance has posted the following statement:

Some people have expressed concern about what the new Dragon Dictation for the iPhone application does with your contact information. As you may have experienced already, Dragon Dictation for the iPhone goes through your contact list on your iPhone and uploads the names to our server. We do this for a pretty simple reason: we found that people are often dictating names from their address book and expect the names to be recognized. We take this information and create an anonymous user profile for your device that understands what names are likely to dictate into a document. It’s important to note that we only upload the names, not the e-mail addresses, phone numbers or any other personally identifying information from your contacts.

Even though there is no personally identifying information, we still treat all of this information with the highest privacy standards. All of our servers are located in the United States and meet the most stringent privacy and security standards. We conform to these high standards because we use the same data centers for other areas of our business where we are required to store personal information.

All of this is spelled out in our license agreement that comes with the Dragon Dictation for the iPhone application. Since most people only see that license agreement briefly when they are installing the software (and they usually can’t wait to start using their software, so they don’t spend 30 minutes reading a complex legal document…), we provided a link to that agreement here: http://www.nuance.com/company/privacy/.

So the bottom line is that nothing scary is happening with your data and we only use a little bit of information from your phone to help make the dictation accuracy as high as possible. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, feel free to post them here.

Michael Thompson, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Nuance Mobile

Of course, Nuance is storing all your transcriptions on their servers, which while not dissimilar to Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, or Apple storing all your email, documents, location, etc. is an important factor for users to keep in mind so as to make informed decisions about services and the companies behind them.

Let us know what you think of the statement, and if it does indeed address your concerns (or not).

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

Nuance Responds to Dragon Dictation for iPhone Privacy Concerns

Analyst: Apple Prepping February Tablet Production Ramp Ahead of March or April Release

MarketWatch reports on a new research note from Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Yair Reiner predicting based on industry checks that Apple will begin mass production of its much-rumored tablet computer in February ahead of a launch in late March or April.<...

Yet More Mythical iTablet Rumors: Coming This March!

Marketwatch is citing “checks” and saying that Apple’s unannounced, still mythical iTablet will begin production in February, “implying” a launch in March or April. The iTablet and also-unnannounced companion services delivered via iTunes are said to feature:

• 10.1 inch multi-touch LCD (no OLED)
• Traditional Apple 30/70 split for print publishers (which is better than Amazon’s traditional 50/50)
• To be sold at an average price of $1,000 at a 22% margin

Price sounds high to us. Apple has had tablet concepts in the vault since before the iPhone but they’ve never made it past Steve Jobs. He’s going to need to see a market for them and a price that delivers that market. Apple is premium, but they’ve already got the iPod touch at under $500 and the MacBook at over $1000 (both of which provide great balances of portability and functionality). If a place exists for an iTablet, it would seem to be between those two points.

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

Yet More Mythical iTablet Rumors: Coming This March!

Apple Reportedly Preparing to Seed Builds of Mac OS X 10.6.3 to Developers

AppleInsider reports that Apple is preparing to being seeding builds of Mac OS X 10.6.3, the next maintenance release for Snow Leopard, to developers as soon as this week.

People familiar with the matter say the forthcoming builds are...