Do You Want the 4th Gen iPhone Case to be Multitouch like Magic Mouse?

From the now we’ve heard everything department, an analyst is “predicting” that the 4th generation iPhone’s plastic casing will be multitouch enabled, just like Apple’s new Magic Mouse.

Not “predicted” of course is how it would work, and how it would filter out things like holding the iPhone for normal use vs. deliberately initiating a multitouch gesture on the back of the case.

Again, with Apple anything is possible, but is this desirable? Can you see Apple doing it?

The Palm Pre and Pixi have a multitouch area below the screen to enable consistent gestures for “back” and to bring up the app launcher. Is that preferable?

[Bloomberg via Macrumors]

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Do You Want the 4th Gen iPhone Case to be Multitouch like Magic Mouse?

Winter 2010 Stanford iPhone Application Development Course Now on iTunes U

The Loop points out that the Winter 2010 semester of Stanford University’s popular iPhone Application Development Course is now being posted to iTunes U.

“We’re getting the videos closed captioned this time, so they’ll be even more accessible,” said Julie Zelenski, a Stanford computer science lecturer who helps coordinate the class. “In addition to helping those with hearing disabilities, the captions will be helpful to English language learners or students trying to understand the more technical aspects of the classes.”

Our prediction — they will also continue to be incredibly informative for new iPhone developers, and will hopefully once again feature guest lectures like they did last year, including the key folks from Tweetie, Tap Tap Revenge, and others.

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

Winter 2010 Stanford iPhone Application Development Course Now on iTunes U

Next-Generation iPhone to Offer Touch-Sensitive Casing?

In an interesting twist as fourth-generation iPhone rumors begin to gather steam in the new year, Bloomberg cites Goldman Sachs analyst Robert Chen, who predicts that Apple's next iPhone may take some cues from the company's new multi-touch Magic Mou...

Tiffen Smoothee brings Steadicam to the iPhone 3GS

We had no idea the market of iPhone filmmakers out there was big enough to support pro-quality accessories, but it looks like we were mistaken: Tiffen just announced the Smoothee Steadicam rig for all you mobile Tarantinos out there. As with all Steadicam rigs, the Smoothee stabilizes a handheld camera by means of a counterweight, and the phone cradle can also be detached and mounted on a tripod or used as a stand on a flat surface. No pricing or availability yet, but those things don't matter when your masterpiece is at stake. Video after the break.

Continue reading Tiffen Smoothee brings Steadicam to the iPhone 3GS

Tiffen Smoothee brings Steadicam to the iPhone 3GS originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 22:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: iPhone, Android, Blackberry users use the same apps

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

I'm not sure if this is a fascinating peek at the way we're wired or an obvious conclusion based on reason, but I'll let you decide. Despite the fact that they seem to be polar opposites on Internet forums and comment sections, Android, Blackberry, and iPhone users all end up using mostly the same apps. That's according to an "app discovery service" over on Facebook called Mplayit, which tracked 42,000 visitors and the apps they preferred for a set of "genres." Turns out that for the various categories, the same cross-platform apps tended to be the most popular on the different platforms. Evernote topped the charts for Lists and Notes, Shazam and Pandora were on all three lists for music, and apps like Yelp and Facebook sat high on the chart for multiple platforms. In the end, an app is an app is an app, "app"arently, and it doesn't really matter which platform you're using it on.

There were a few difference of course -- in the "Utilities" section, things were different for each platform. Bump is the most popular for iPhone, Google Goggles was most popular on Android, and Vlingo won on Blackberry. As far as I know, with the possible exception of Bump, those are all platform-exclusive apps. But in general, if an app is available on multiple platforms, a popular app on one platform means it'll be popular on the other. Good to know both for developers (a hit in one place means a hit somewhere else, too) and for consumers: next time you choose a smartphone, the apps probably won't matter as much as the hardware features.

Report: iPhone, Android, Blackberry users use the same apps originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Report: iPhone, Android, Blackberry users use the same apps originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source Claims Apple Has Pre-Ordered All 10 Inch Display Screens From Asian Suppliers For Tablet

Zen Bound 2 coming soon with beefed-up graphics, smoother interface

Filed under: Gaming, Software, iPhone

The fine gents at Touch Arcade have the first confirmation and screenshot of the sequel to one of our favorite games of 2009, Zen Bound 2. As you can see above, the new version (on the right) is a little more subdued with a cleaner UI, although Secret Exit stresses that this is still a work in progress (and obviously they'll have new objects to wrap up in rope to score points). But the new engine will be upgraded to use the most current version of OpenGL available in the iPhone, and you can see that on the rope above -- there are cleaner textures, and supposedly it'll move more smoothly as you play.

Looks awesome to us. There still isn't an official announcement yet (this is actually a teaser picture), but that's expected soon, with a release still a few months out. So if you haven't tried out the first Zen Bound [iTunes link] yet, you've got plenty of time to pick it up and get good before the sequel.

Zen Bound 2 coming soon with beefed-up graphics, smoother interface originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Zen Bound 2 coming soon with beefed-up graphics, smoother interface originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hey Canada! Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search now in your app store

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

This will please many of our neighbors to the north. Nuance, the creator of Dragon Dictation [U.S. iTunes link] and Dragon Search [U.S. iTunes link] for the iPhone and iPod touch say the U.S. version of the apps is now available in the Canadian iTunes store.

These versions support U.S. English and will use U.S. English spellings ("center" vs. "centre", "color" vs. "colour", etc.). Canadian users will want to verify that their iPhone or iPod Touch's Region Format is set to Canada (see Dragon Search FAQ -> General) to search Canada specific content.

Nuance wants our readers to know that they are working on new dialects and new versions for other countries, and they hope to have some further announcements soon.

The Dragon apps are free, and have become quite a hit with users who can dictate email or text messages using the dictation app. Your words are sent to the Nuance servers where they are returned as text in a couple of seconds. The search app lets you search Google, Bing, Twitter, YouTube, iTunes and Wikipedia by simply telling the app what you want.

Hey Canada! Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search now in your app store originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Hey Canada! Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search now in your app store originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Review: Quickpedia for iPhone

What makes this free mobile Wikipedia browser worth the download over simply navigating to Wikipedia from Safari is the app's easy-to-read interface and the search history.

Flash on the iPhone, in demo form

Filed under: Software, iPhone

Flash has finally made its way to the iPhone, with the help of some sneaky developers. The open source Gordon project, hosted over at github, has provided a JavaScript-powered Flash runtime. With it, you can actually load and view Flash's .swf files, even on the iPhone's Mobile Safari browser. I gave it a try earlier today and was delighted to find that several Flash demos ran fine on my 3GS, no jailbreaking or other installation necessary.

Admittedly, this is a very preliminary build, that supports just these SWF tags. Also, to make this work, Flash developers will need to encapsulate the SWF into an HTML wrapper, importing the Gordon JavaScript source and then loading the swf, as shown here. I am not a Flash expert by any means, but this seems like a pretty cool development for any iPhone enthusiasts who would be interested in seeing the platform support that technology. At this point, there's not much to show for it besides a few demos (and who knows what Apple will think about this), but at least there's a currently viable way to run and view Flash on the iPhone.

Thanks, August Joki. And yes, the project name is apparently a riff on Flash Gordon

Flash on the iPhone, in demo form originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Flash on the iPhone, in demo form originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone Live! with PreCentral.net’s Dieter Bohn Tonight at 8pm ET/5pm PT (1am GMT)

Join us for a very special Round Robin and CES 2010 episode of iPhone Live guest staring PreCentral.net and Smartphone Expert Editor-in-Chief Dieter Bohn!

We’ll look at Palm’s big webOS, Palm Pre Plus, and Palm Pixi Plus announcements, and oh, yeah — Dieter’s got a Nexus One to talk about. Plus everything we saw on the showroom floor.

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 PreCentral.net’s Dieter Bohn Tonight at 8pm ET/5pm PT (1am GMT)

Review: Google Nexus One smartphone

The coveted "Google phone" is finally here, but the HTC Nexus One may not be quite the superphone that Google intimated it would be.

ZAGGbox, ZAGGsparq, App Space — TiPb @ CES 2010

ZAGG, the makers of Invisible Shield, have diversified in a big way with their ZAGGbox video recorder, ZAGGsparq battery charger, and AppSpace service.

ZAGGbox pulls in all your analog video (including HD via component), gives you fast switching via a unified remote, and renders iPhone-compatible video you can send right to your device.

ZAGGsparq is a massive battery charger that re-charge an iPhone 4 times before it runs out of juice, and since it has 2 USB ports, it can charge your Bluetooth or any other compatible gadget at the same time.

AppSpace is an application discovery engine where you can go online to try and sort through the App Store’s massive catalog and find more of the stuff you like. It also supports Android, with BlackBerry, Palm, and Symbian coming soon.

Video of all three, after the break!

[YouTube video link]

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

ZAGGbox, ZAGGsparq, App Space — TiPb @ CES 2010

Valleywag Offers Questionably Legal $100,000 Apple Tablet Bounty

Valleywag today announced that it is offering a bounty of up to $100,000 for information on Apple's much-anticipated tablet device. The reward ladder begins at $10,000 for "bona fide pictures" of the device, increasing to $20,000 for video. ...

Evernote’s CEO: 5k new users a day, but long-term retention is a problem

Filed under: Software, Internet Tools, Developer, iPhone

Mashable's Ben Parr sat down at CES with Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote, which is not only a TUAW favorite, but acts as your "external brain," saving little clips and bits of information both collectible from and accessible by any device you happen to have with you. We love the app, and while it isn't a Mac exclusive, there are both Mac and iPhone versions, and apparently they're doing very well. Libin tells us in the video that not only are they picking up five thousand users a day (!), but over half of their two million users are using the iPhone app [iTunes link]. As Libin says, the app is "very good" -- it's easy to use (and free), the iPhone's camera makes picking up even real-life scraps of information super easy, and Evernote is designed to share information back to your Mac. Libin says that "most" of the iPhone users do access their information back on other PCs.

Libin also talks about power users of the service -- there's one in the system that has over 80,000 notes, though due to privacy, Libin doesn't share what they're keeping in there. And apparently one issue they're dealing with is long-term retention. I can identify with that -- while Evernote is a great service, it's tough to remember that you can use it to remember things, and for that reason I think that even with two million users, it's still very underrated. Libin sounds like he's on top of things, though -- he promises that they're always working on not only helping users figure out how to use the service, but also in polishing it and making it even easier and simpler.

Evernote's CEO: 5k new users a day, but long-term retention is a problem originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Evernote's CEO: 5k new users a day, but long-term retention is a problem originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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From Safari Pad to iPhone and Back Again

Many of the latest rumors about the Apple iTablet/iSlate involve it being a large iPhone, or as Daring Fireball points out, the iPhone being a smaller version of an older Apple tablet project. Way back in June of 2007, the New York Times mentioned just that, and the tablet project was Safari Pad:

Mr. Jobs seized on the multitouch technology after Apple product designers proposed it as a “safari pad,” a portable Web surfing appliance. Instead, he saw the technology as something that could be used for a similar purpose in a cellphone, a former Apple employee said.

We’ve linked to those stories and that name several times over the years, and while we doubt an actual shipping Apple tablet will still be called Safari Pad, given the state of the rumors, Gruber’s point (linked above) is salient:

The Tablet is what Apple set out to build all along, and the iPhone was an offshoot that shipped first because the technology wasn’t there yet to produce The Tablet. In short, that Apple has had something bigger in mind — both physically and conceptually — from the outset.

Gruber’s also heard there won’t be a camera or webcam in the tablet, but we’re still keeping our fingers crossed.

Either way, it’s looking more and more like the “next big thing” for Apple is tightly connected to the iPhone.

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

From Safari Pad to iPhone and Back Again

Game Developers’ Conference to include iPhone Games Summit track

Filed under: Gaming, Other Events, iPhone

Macworld reports that the 2010 Game Developers' Conference will include an 8-class track on iPhone games. The iPhone Games Summit, which takes place over two days, replaces an older format where panels on the iPhone were mixed in with those on gaming for other mobile platforms or independent development.

Classes appear to be aimed toward niche development ("A Big Dash of Success: How to Capture the Female iPhone Gamer") and utilizing social networking and multiplayer capabilities for iPhone games. The two most interesting classes to me is a case study of one company's year in the App Store and a class aimed at covering the finer points of the iPhone contract. Given that this is their first year, it'll be interesting to see how these are attended and what changes they make next time around as well.

The Game Developers' Conference will be held March 9-13 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

Game Developers' Conference to include iPhone Games Summit track originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Game Developers' Conference to include iPhone Games Summit track originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumor: Apple tablet said to be “iPhone on steroids”

Filed under: Rumors, iPhone

If there's anything consistently consistent about the purported Apple tablet, it's that it's said to be, in essence, a larger iPhone. Expanding on this, Boy Genius Report cites its "close Apple contact" that claims the device is "an iPhone on steroids."

Like its iPhone brethren, the tablet is said to sport an ARM processor, adding the caveat that the processor will be "incredibly fast." Also according to the report, the tablet will support multi-touch gestures that are said to be "out of control." Back in 2005, Apple acquired FingerWorks, a company that specialized in gesture-based computing. According to former Apple engineers, FingerWorks will have its footprint -- er, fingerprints -- on the purported tablet.

The meat behind these potatoes is said to be the iPhone OS kernel. For this reason, there hasn't been an updated build of the iPhone OS out of fears that tablet-related references in the code would leak.

Rumor: Apple tablet said to be "iPhone on steroids" originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Rumor: Apple tablet said to be "iPhone on steroids" originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cost of App Store Piracy Pegged at $450 Million

24/7 Wall St. reports that Apple and App Store developers appear to have lost approximately $450 million to piracy since the marketplace for iPhone and iPod touch application opened in July 2008. The rough number is based on several estimates regard...

Found Footage: LEGO steering wheel for the iPhone

Filed under: Found Footage, iPhone

You can make an iPhone dock out of LEGOs, so why not a steering wheel? Check out the above video to see the LEGO-built steering wheel in action. And, if you can't get enough of LEGOs on your iPhone, give LEGO Photo [iTunes link] and LEGO Batman: Gotham City Games [iTunes link] a try.

[Via Cult of Mac]

Found Footage: LEGO steering wheel for the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Found Footage: LEGO steering wheel for the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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