Apple nabs four of Engadget’s 10 gadgets of the decade

Filed under: Hardware, iPod Family, OS, Apple, MacBook, iPhone

Our friends over at Engadget have selected their top 10 gadgets of the last decade (the naughts, as I like to call them), and Apple has come up big: four out of the ten choices are made by the company from Cupertino. The iPhone is on the list (of course), as is the iPod. The original Titanium PowerBook fills a spot for its "category-shaping design" and its influence on laptops since its release in 2001.

Perhaps most interesting, Mac OS X is on the list right alongside Windows XP as a co-gadget of the decade. Engadget says that both operating systems provided fresh and clean restarts for their respective companies, and that while OS X took a little while to "become a usable daily OS" (ouch), it still helped to "set a new standard for computing."

Being the Apple weblog that we are, we might argue that Windows XP provided a solid update to Windows 98, while OS X offered up some actual innovation in the operating system market (and Apple still carries the banner on commercial UI innovation today). But we're nitpicking on that one -- 40% of their gadgets that shaped the decade were made by one company, and that's good enough for us.

Apple nabs four of Engadget's 10 gadgets of the decade originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple nabs four of Engadget's 10 gadgets of the decade originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Found Footage: Sudoku Grab goes Augmented Reality

Filed under: Cool tools, Hacks, Developer, iPhone, App Store, SDK

When it comes to the iPhone, Augmented Reality refers to applications that integrate live camera feeds with data generated either directly from those camera images or from related data linked to the user's real world location. Over the past year, we've seen a number of augmented reality applications appear on App Store and in the Cydia store, offering a way to connect real world visuals with enhanced data presentations.

On the recent Augmented Reality front, Sudoku Grab [iTunes Link] developer Chris Greening has been inspired by Apple's recent decision to allow calls to UIGetScreenImage(), the computer function that allows iPhone developers to copy an image directly from the iPhone screen. By relenting on this issue, Apple has allowed programmers to pull live data from the iPhone camera, and process that data in real time. That opens the door to immediate image processing and visual presentation of data on top of that image stream.

The above video demonstrates this ability by scanning for Sudoku boards. When it detects one, the numbers in question turn green. So how useful in general is this new SDK feature? Chris says, "It's a bit horrible to do anything really useful, you haven't got a direct feed from the camera so you have to do a bit of jiggery pokery if you want to draw on top of the camera preview and still have something usable." As you can tell from the video, his "jiggery pokery" is pretty well done. His real time scanning and enhancement of raw image data allows his detection routine to work with the camera's live feed to acquire new Sudoku boards.

It's still early days on the augmented reality front. Greening's work represents just the start of where this technology can go. With faster processors and better screen access routines (UIGetScreenImage is a very slow call compared to the iPhone's non-public CoreSurface routines), real world integration is just going to get better and better.

Found Footage: Sudoku Grab goes Augmented Reality originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Found Footage: Sudoku Grab goes Augmented Reality originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone Live! with Android/WMExpert Phil Nickinson Tonight at 8pm ET/5pm PT (1am GMT)

Join us along with special Round Robin guests Phil Nickinson of Android Central and WMExperts, and fellow cross-platformer Keith Newman of PalmCast fame! We’ll look at how the Motorola Droid, HTC Hero, HTC HD2, and HTC Touch Pro2 (that’s a lot of HTC!) compare to TiPb’s own iPhone. Plus all the week’s news, views, and rants. If you have any questions, leave a comment below, hit us up on Twitter @theiphoneblog, or better still — join us live in the chat room via http://www.tipb.com/live

REMINDER: You can watch us live on your iPhone with the Ustream Viewer app [Free - iTunes link]. Just wait until the show starts (8pm ET) and search for iPhone. We’ll pop up. Literally.

Chat with you soon!

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

iPhone Live! with Android/WMExpert Phil Nickinson Tonight at 8pm ET/5pm PT (1am GMT)

Review: Pocket Devil for iPhone

Fans of Pocket God will notice a lot of similarities between that god game and Pocket Devil, which puts you in the cloven-heeled boots of the man downstairs. Pocket Devil is not without its gory charms, but it's a far cry from the quality of Pocket God.

Fieldrunners updated to 1.3, offers two new maps as in-app purchases

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

Touch Arcade has word that one of 2008's best iPhone games (our 2009 list is coming out this week), Fieldrunners [iTunes link, $2.99], has released an update (1.3), in which they've released two new maps available as in-app purchases, and they've included OpenFeint 2.4 functionality, with messaging, chat, and everything else the in-game social network portends.

The two new maps are called Skyway and Frostbite. Skyway boasts a metal floor with a few holes in it, which limit where you can place your units in the tower defense classic. Frostbite is a snowfield with a base in the middle to defend from attackers on all sides. Seems like both offer up some interesting twists on the gameplay -- they're 99 cents each (a fact that has the most recent iTunes reviews up in arms), but if you ask us, two bucks for new content is cheap, especially if you're a big Fieldrunners fan already.

The update itself is a free download for paid users, though, so if you want that OpenFeint functionality, hit up the App Store and load the game up yet again.

Fieldrunners updated to 1.3, offers two new maps as in-app purchases originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Fieldrunners updated to 1.3, offers two new maps as in-app purchases originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple January 26th Event ‘Confirmed’ by Internal Source? Focus on ‘Mobility Space’?

FOXNews.com claims to have received confirmation from a "source inside Apple" that the company will in fact be holding a media event on January 26th in San Francisco. According to the source, the "big" event will focus on the "mobility space", sugge...

Former Chief Chinese Googler Leaks iTablet/iSlate Gossip?

According to former chief Chinese Googler, Lee Kai-fu, who apparently is well connected with Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn, the upcoming iTablet/iSlate looks like a giant iPhone with:

• an awesome UI packed in a beautiful 10.1-inch screen
• 3D graphics,
• virtual keyboard,
• video conferencing,
• e-books,
• Internet and other functions

All this from a connected friend, discussed in his Chinese language post [Google translate link]. Oh, and Apple expects to produce 10 million of them in the first year.

Happy kindling for the fires of rumor, indeed!

[Gadget Mix via TUAW]

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

Former Chief Chinese Googler Leaks iTablet/iSlate Gossip?

Appsaurus Personalizes Discovery of iPhone Apps

OnLive Streaming Gaming Shows off iPhone Use

As part of OnLive’s intent to stream you your Crysis Wars over the internet (rather than on physical media like a DVD or Blu Ray), they’ve put together a 48 minute demo, including the use of their companion iPhone app. The iPhone part starts at 19:30 in, and they say latency over current 3G networks is still too high, but WiFi isn’t bad (though the controls are “kinda funky”).

The more interesting part of the iPhone experience, they claim, is the spectating stuff. We’d disagree. But what do you think? Do you want to get your video games streaming from a cloud server, rented like streaming Netflix rather than owned like traditional media? Let us know!

(Note: no iPhone friendly video, but we embedded the Viddler version, on the frame where the iPhone talk starts, below the fold).

[Gamertag Video via Joystiq via Engadget]

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

OnLive Streaming Gaming Shows off iPhone Use

Nokia Fires Another Lawsuit On Apple - Claims “Virtually All” Apple Devices Infringe On Their Patents

Engadget releases iPhone app

Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch

Our sister site, Engadget, unveiled its iPhone app [iTunes link] today. The free app functions in the same way as the current TUAW app [iTunes link] by delivering a constant stream of news from the site. Engadget's app will cover news from the main site, Engadget Mobile and Engadget HD.

Among the app's features are sharing articles through Twitter, Facebook or e-mail, the ability to tip Engadget on breaking news, and the ability to bookmark and view articles offline. A full list of features can be found here.

Engadget releases iPhone app originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Engadget releases iPhone app originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Case-Mate Barely There Chrome Case for the iPhone 3G

Say hello to the Case-Mate Barely There Chrome Case for the iPhone [$19.95 TiPb Store Link]. It’s a streamlined case with a chrome outer shell and a mirrored screen protector. And it’s the hottest iPhone case to come around in a while.

If you haven’t already bought a gift for that special man/woman in your life, then just pick this one up. The perfectly mirrored surface is beautifully complimented by the gleaming chrome case. Yes, if Hercules had had this case he would have been able to defeat Medusa and make sure his hair still looked good. The back of the case also has a “beauty spot” for your apple icon (a hole in the case so you can see the apple logo). This case is such a stunner that it got a gasp of approval from one of my more difficult to please male friends.

This case offers protection for the iPhone without being bulky and cumbersome. It covers the edges and corners of the phone while allowing easy access for volume, mute and charging.

My favorite feature on this case is that the sides are protective but it fits below the level of the screen. This means that you can swipe right off the edge of the phone, without hitting the edge of the case. (I find cases that have a raised side edge very constraining and disruptive.)

The case easily comes off and on the iPhone. You place the iPhone into the case sideways with the volume and mute button going in first. Taking off the case is easy if you first gently pry off one of the corners and then use the Apple logo cutout to push out the phone.

Every case has an Achilles heel and one of the drawbacks to this case is that it would not offer the phone a lot of protection in case of a high drop.

Also, I was hoping that this case would allow me to place my phone into its base charger. It is close but you still need to remove the case to charge it into a base charger.

I enjoyed this case so much that I removed my Gelaskin backing so that the apple logo would be properly displayed! (Yeah, I’m cool geeky like that).

Disclaimer: TiPb Store provided the case for this review.

To learn more, check out TiPb’s iPhone Accessory Store…

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

Case-Mate Barely There Chrome Case for the iPhone 3G

Review: Asphalt 5 for iPhone

With the release of Asphalt 5, Gameloft careens its way into the upper echelon of arcade style racing games on the iPhone. This racer lets you blaze down streets at break neck speeds, smash into cars, collect power-ups, find shortcuts and launch into huge jumps.

Reports of Possible Upcoming 8 GB iPhone 3GS Revived

Earlier this year, several pieces of evidence from the internal computer sales system for Canada's Rogers Wireless suggested that an 8 GB iPhone 3GS was in the works, although Rogers representatives claimed that the listing was an error and no such m...

Das Cube for iPhone

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

Das Cube [iTunes link, $1.99] is a simple little iPhone game that comes with a pretty impressive pedigree: it's made by one of the creators of Aquaria, Mark Johns of Space Barnacle, and features music by the composer of Canabalt's crazy addictive soundtrack. As you can see in the video above, it's got more in common with the iPhone post-apocalyptic running simulator than the underwater adventure: your job is to move a little ball that can smash together a series of abstract shapes that then explode into points. That's pretty much it -- as the game gets tougher (there are two difficulty settings, though I found the "Brutal" setting to be only a little tougher than the "Easy" setting in the first few minutes), more blocks drop, and while you can shake the iPhone occasionally to help you clear the screen, if you go too long without matching pieces, your game is over and the high scores are calculated.

It's not quite as simple or addictive as Canabalt -- the controls feel a little floaty, and sometimes the ball you push around will squeeze in between the blocks. A few times while playing, it seemed to me that the easiest way to win would be to just swirl the mix around, and sure enough, when I just rolled the ball around the screen, I eventually got blocks to crash together randomly. But by the time I hit around 60,000 points or so (you can tweet your high scores, just like Canabalt), I found a little more precision was required, but even then, the controls are anything but sharp.

Still, Das Cube is an amusing little mix of music and graphics. Unfortunately, there's no free trial, but what you see above is what you get: smash shapes together to groovy techno tunes. If that appeals, you can pick it up for $1.99.

Das Cube for iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Das Cube for iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone Hands-on from an Android User’s Perspective — Smartphone Round Robin

This week our main man Casey Chan from Android Central got a hands-on demo of the iPhone 3GS from yours truly, so be sure to check out that video. Now he’s asking TiPb iPhone Forum members for their help as well. Every day you reply to that thread, you’re entered for a chance to WIN AN iPHONE 3GS! (smartphoneroundrobin.com has all your details!)

Also, this week on the Cell Phone Junkie Podcast, all the Smartphone Expert editors get together for a round-table talk on the iPhone, where it is, and what the future holds for Apple’s mobile platforms. Listen in!

Lastly, I’m getting droidy with it over at the Android Central Forums, not sure what that slide out alphabet is really for on Motorola, and getting splashed by HTC’s awesome Sense weather app. Help me out and you could win the Android smartphone of your choice as well!

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

iPhone Hands-on from an Android User’s Perspective — Smartphone Round Robin

Return of the 8GB iPhone 3GS Rumors

Could an 8GB iPhone 3GS replace the 8GB iPhone 3G Apple currently offers as it’s ahem bargain-basement smartphone? The $99 iPhone 3G was one of the big stories of 2009, set against otherwise anemic competition at that price point. An 8GB 3GS at $99 (or lower?) has been rumored before. Now Gizmodo says it could be immanent:

A user on the German apfeltalk forums ordered an 8GB iPhone 3G, and while the handset was what he was expecting, the packaging suggested it contained an 8GB version of the latest model, the 3GS. As you know, it’s only available in 16GB and 32GB options, so either the box info contained a typo, or Apple accidentally got its new packaging mixed up with the old.

Sure, $99, $199, $299 makes little real difference when you factor in the thousands of voice and data dollars spent over a 2 or 3 year contract. Psychologically, however, walking in with almost no money in your pocket and walking out with an iPhone is huge to a mainstream customer base, and Apple could be planning to keep up the low price-point pressure in 2010.

Would you want?

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

Return of the 8GB iPhone 3GS Rumors

Google Nexus One Appears Set to Launch January 5th

Anticipation surrounding the much-rumored "Google Phone", now apparently known as the Nexus One, has been growing in recent weeks, and it appears that the rumors were correct: Google has announced an Android-related press conference for Janua...

China Unicom has now sold 300,000 iPhones

Filed under: iPhone

Things started off looking grim for the iPhone when it went on sale in China in October of this year with sales of only 5000 phones in the first week. Forty days after the initial launch however, China Unicom reported they sold 100,000 iPhones. Now, just twenty days after that 100,000 mark, Dan Butterfield over at iPhonAsia.com is reporting a surge of iPhone sales equaling 200,000 in the last three weeks. That brings China Unicom's iPhone sales to 300,000. in just two months.

This really isn't surprising considering the massive popularity of the iPhone with some of China's neighbors and another pretty big country.

It also looks like China Unicom is putting their money where their mouth is when they said "iPhone will become China's best-selling smartphone." This week they've kicked off a 46-city roadshow tour to promote the iPhone to prospective buyers across the country.

China Unicom has now sold 300,000 iPhones originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

China Unicom has now sold 300,000 iPhones originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I’m on a Phone [NSFW-L] Wins $5,000, Disses Palm, BlackBerry

10 weeks, 115 videos, and $5,000 later Smule has announced the winner of their I Am T-Pain [$2.99 - iTunes link] contest and it’s “I’m on a Phone”. Legitimately awesome, gets huge shots in on our frenemies of old, Palm and BlackBerry, and also has language hardcore enough for… well, a rap video. So NSFW-L warnings apply if you want to check it out, after the break…

Other notables included [YouTube links, language warnings]: “a celebration of natural fabric, An auto-tuned tribute to man’s best friend, and an ode dedicated to Smule’s support staff

Congrats to all, and hats off to Smule for getting the auto-tune engine into the iPhone!

[YouTube video link]

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

I’m on a Phone [NSFW-L] Wins $5,000, Disses Palm, BlackBerry