Quick Review: Qik VideoCamera Video Recording for iPhone 3G

Qik Video Camera for the iPhone, from Qik [$0.99 - iTunes Link] finally brings 15 frames per second video recording to the iPhone 3G. It also supports zoom, has some fun filters, and adds an easy system for sending your videos via e mail.

For the complete rundown, and pictures of Qik VideoCamera’s effects, stay with us after the break.

As mentioned above, Qik VideoCamera lets the iPhone 3GS shoot video at 15 frames per second (FPS) but that’s only when using the default size. It’s basically a trade off. Qik gives you the option of having low video resolution (200×152) and high FPS or high video resolution (400×304) and lower FPS. I usually go for the low video resolution and higher FPS because if the frames are too few the video is too choppy to appreciate.

Qik video has some really fun special effect filters to play with. Like with video quality, however, when you start using a special effect filter the frame rate slows down. Here are some examples of how they look.

Black and White.

Black white and red, which makes any red object show in color and everything else in black and white. While interesting, aside from the novelty I don’t see many real life applications.

Color game, which inverses blue and red (I call it the Avatar effect!)

There are two mirror effects, both vertical and horizontal. These are good for making object suddenly disappear. It can be a lot of fun for the little ones to play with, if you would trust your little one with an iPhone.

Zoom is another nice feature, though I have found that for shooting anything very close it can cause blurring.

One of the other useful additions to this application is the audio and light enhancing controls. Since the iPhone has no external lighting source (plz 4.0!) the addition of brightness control can make those precious moments easier to see in low light settings. The audio boost helps increase the audio track but I usually don’t realize that something is going to be too soft until the event has already occurred.

Qik VideoCamera also allows you to email your videos easily, by choosing which video to email and typing in the email address. The program is also linked to your contacts so you dont have to worry if you have forgotten the address.

All in all, Qik VideoCamera is a very nice app and has a lot of useful and fun effects for saving your life’s special moments. It’s not the same resolution or frame rate as the iPhone 3GS’ built-in video recorder, but for iPhone 3G users who didn’t get that feature, it’s currently the next best thing.

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

Quick Review: Qik VideoCamera Video Recording for iPhone 3G

Ten One says Pogo styli will work with iPad

If you're all thumbs and the iPad's multi-touch interface is not your thing, Ten One has announced that its Pogo styluses will be compatible with Apple's latest brainchild.

Review: Bankshot delivers a quick hit of fun

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

The other week I said a lot of good things about Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, but one of the great things about games on the iPhone is that they don't all have to be epic masterpieces. Such is the case with the free Bankshot [iTunes link], which is a simple and fun one-hit game that was created in just 36 hours: the only goal is to bounce a little neon "puck" into a target that gets placed on different sides of the screen. It's fun, it's easy, and it's the perfect kind of game to just pull up and play when you only need a few minutes of distraction.

The game does have a little bit of hidden depth (you can score more points by bouncing the puck off the walls more times before it hits the target, but if you go more than four bounces, the game is over), but essentially, this is an addictive little pick-up-and-play game (and it's even OpenFeint enabled, if you're into that sort of thing). The game is free with ads, but they were never distracting or in the way. If you want a quick arcade hit to play during your next few iPhone breaks, definitely pick it up.

Review: Bankshot delivers a quick hit of fun originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Review: Bankshot delivers a quick hit of fun originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T Claims Drop Call Rates Have Reduced Network-Wide

Apps for Less: Classics Free post-iPad, iBomber Free, Battle Bears is Free Today Only!

e-Book reader Classics [iTunes link, which like Delicious Library saw its UI copied by Apple's new iPad iBooks app, has decided to go free in celebratory protest. Gorgeous app, great public-domain content, so check it out.

iBomber [iTunes link] is also free, though we’re not sure for how long. Georgia recommends it though, so give it a try.

And to celebrate the 2,000,000 download mark one of the top games of 2009, Battle Bears, [iTunes Link] is now FREE for today only in the App Store!

Check out the video of Battle Bears in action after the break!

[Via Touch Arcade]

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

Apps for Less: Classics Free post-iPad, iBomber Free, Battle Bears is Free Today Only!

Display of Flash Content in iPad Promo Materials Likely Not Indicative of Actual Flash Compatibility [Updated]

A discovery that Apple's promotional materials for the iPad show properly-displayed Flash content while Web browsing in contrast to the "broken plug-in" icon observed on-stage at Apple's media event has generated a great deal of interest and discussi...

Display of Flash Content in iPad Promo Materials Likely Not Indicative of Actual Flash Compatibility

A discovery that Apple's promotional materials for the iPad show properly-displayed Flash content while Web browsing in contrast to the "broken plug-in" icon observed on-stage at Apple's media event has generated a great deal of interest and discussi...

ePrint is a nice solution to printing from your iPhone

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

The iPhone wasn't designed from scratch to print things, but it can be done. I've reviewed some solutions in the past, including one that required you to run a small print server on your computer, which then directs your print jobs to any local printers. There are also some apps that print photos directly to printers.

I've just tried ePrint, which has some limitations, but gets the job done without any print servers. There are two versions of the app: The free version, ePrint Free [iTunes link] lets you print contacts, notes (more on that later), photo albums, and even brings up the camera so you can fire off a snapshot and print it immediately. The paid version [iTunes link], meanwhile, is U.S. $2.99 and adds the ability to print web pages as well

Setting up is easy. The app will find your printers in a snap if your phone is in Wi-Fi mode, and you are running Bonjour zero configuration setup on your network. You can also elect to enter the IP addresses of your printers as well. If your printer is color, and you send color images, you'll get them in color.

There are a few catches, however. To print a web page you either have to enter a URL for it in ePrint, or set a preference to bring up the last web page viewed. When you go to print notes in either app, it doesn't mean from your Notes app. ePrint can only print from the ePrint Notes app, although you can still copy and paste any text into it and print away. That's how I test-printed an email, because Apple doesn't allow any way to print an email or anything else directly. After doing a 'select all' on an email, I copied and pasted it into the ePrint Notes app, and it worked just fine.

Continue reading ePrint is a nice solution to printing from your iPhone

ePrint is a nice solution to printing from your iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

ePrint is a nice solution to printing from your iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In praise of the iPad: A contrarian view

Filed under: iPod Family, iPhone

If there has been an editorial theme about the iPad over the last few days, it's been this: it disappoints. Pundits and consumers alike have been underwhelmed by the name (I mean, seriously, does anyone in the product naming department use feminine hygiene products? How many of these devices are going to be named "Max"?), by the physical design (Can you say "Un-Ives-like Bezel" three times fast?), by the missing features (no camera, no multitasking, still no Flash), and so forth. And yet, despite these seeming flaws, I'm wildly enthusiastic about the tablet. I think part of that enthusiasm is attributable to the fact that I'm a dyed-in-the-wool netbook user... and we are the actual target audience for the device.

Steve Jobs laid out the raison d'etre for the tablet right at the start of his presentation. Apple was going after the part of the market that wanted light computing: more than a phone could deliver and less involved than a laptop demanded. Ergo, the netbook. The list of things in the middle column of his main slide reflected the exact way that netbook users operate: checking the mail, surfing the web, enjoying some media. That's exactly how my parents use their netbook, how my friends do, how I do. We're coffee-shop, hotel, and passenger-seat netbook users. To that, you can add city commuters and airline passengers among those who have driven the netbook craze.

Netbooks are great. They are small, they are insanely cheap, and they offer just enough functionality to get a few things done without jumping into serious work that would demand a full-sized screen and keyboard. I know approximately three badzillion netbook users, and with very few exceptions, they are all Windows users.

Continue reading In praise of the iPad: A contrarian view

In praise of the iPad: A contrarian view originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In praise of the iPad: A contrarian view originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The iPad in the world around you

Where does the iPad fit in your life’s locations? Christopher Breen takes a virtual tour through the places he'll likely use Apple's latest device.

Will iWork for iPad - Multi-Touch Version of Productivity Apps Come to the iPhone?

Nokia, Apple win as phone sales bounce back

Nokia and Apple were the big winners, as the sale of mobile phones rebounded grow during the fourth quarter.

Flight Control confirmed for iPad

Flight Control developer Firemint confirmed that it will develop an iPad-specific version of its well-regard Flight Control game.

iPad Promotional Video and Images Show Properly-Displayed Flash Content

One of the major complaints so far about Apple's new iPad tablet device has been a lack of support for Flash content, a limitation also placed on the iPhone. At several points during Apple CEO Steve Jobs' demonstration of the iPad at Wednesday's med...

Review: StarBurst for iPhone

Just when you thought a genre of puzzle had played itself out, along comes StarBurst. It succeeds by combining accessible basic gameplay, strategy to challenge the dedicated puzzle fan, and hours of fun for everyone.

Apple’s A4 iPad chip could find a home in iPhones

Apple's A4 chip, used in the iPad tablet, could be used in future iPhones.

Apple inside: the significance of the iPad’s A4 chip

The Apple A4 represents a bold move forward for Apple, as a newfound designer of custom chips.

iPad Displaying Adobe Flash in Apple Publicity Videos? Wait, What?

TiPb assumed, for reasons we’ve written about ad nauseum infinitum, that there was no way Apple’s new iPad would include Adobe’s Flash plugin, yet 9to5mac has been analyzing the publicity videos and claims in them Flash there be:

In Apple’s official video the iPad, they show the New York Times being used. Looks pretty nice right? Well, unless the Times has a special iPad version of the site that converts Flash into jpegs or something, THE IPAD HAS FLASH. Normally, we’d say that Apple simply did the renders in the Mac version of Safari and just CG’ed it into the video. However, you can see the page rendering and being resolution independent as well, so it is likely being done on an iPad.

Of course, during Steve Jobs’ on-stage demo, we saw no sign of Flash, only the now famous/infamous blue lego-brick of plugin fail. And Adobe doesn’t seem to know anything about it, given the little barb the Flash team posted the other day:

It looks like Apple is continuing to impose restrictions on their devices that limit both content publishers and consumers. Unlike many other ebook readers using the ePub file format, consumers will not be able to access ePub content with Apple’s DRM technology on devices made by other manufacturers. And without Flash support, iPad users will not be able to access the full range of web content, including over 70% of games and 75% of video on the web.

We’ll get to that scary ePub news in another post, and schedule our tears right behind those we’re saving for the “iPad/iPhone don’t run ActiveX” charges inevitably to follow, but for right now–

What’s going on here? Internally Apple has Flash running in the lab and it crept into the demo? “One more thing” scheduled for pre-launch hype? Is the NYT doing dynamic for-iPad/iPhone Flash to H.264 or JPG conversion? Did some eager video maker make a colossal mistake? WHAT?!

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

iPad Displaying Adobe Flash in Apple Publicity Videos? Wait, What?

Apple to Developers: Start Developing Your iPad Apps Today… with iPhone SDK 3.2 Beta (Sigh)

Apple has sent a note out to iPhone and iPod touch developers encouraging them to start developing iPad apps today… with the iPhone 3.2 SDK beta (!)

iPhone SDK 3.2 beta is now available to all iPhone Developer Standard and Enterprise Program Members from the iPhone Dev Center.

The iPhone Dev Center also provides additional resources including the iPad Programming Guide, iPad Human Interface Guidelines, Preparing Universal Applications, and sample code.

Log in to the iPhone Dev Center and start developing innovative applications for iPad today.

And yeah, Apple said from the beginning that iPhone 3.2 beta was exclusive to the iPad, but come on Apple, it’s iPhone 3.2, are you going to throw the actual device, the one that hasn’t seen even a hint of an update for months, a little love here?

Or are we going to have to wait for an iPhone 4.0 beta in March?

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

Apple to Developers: Start Developing Your iPad Apps Today… with iPhone SDK 3.2 Beta (Sigh)

Jobs to Mossberg: iBooks Same Price as Amazon, iPad 140hrs to Music, Save as iWork Pages as Word Doc

The godfather of tech columnists, Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, got some face time with Steve Jobs at the iPad launch and Boom Town’s Kara Swisher was there with the shaky cam!

• When asked why people would buy an iPad iBooks book for $14.99 rather than an Amazon Kindle book for $9.99, Jobs said the books would be the same price, and further said publishers withhold books from Amazon because they’re not happy about the price. (Could be referring to Apple’s standard 70/30 split which Amazon just recently announced they’d match in some cases).
• When asked about battery life, Jobs said the iPad’s quoted 10hrs for video/WiFi would actually be a bit longer for iBook reading, and around 140hrs for music playback.
• When asked if 10hrs was enough for iBook reading, Jobs pulled out the “no big deal”, said users would just plug it in, and asked if anyone reads for more than 10hrs anyway.
• When asked if Mossberg could write his iPad review on the iPad, Jobs told him he sure could, in iWork Pages, and export it as a Word Doc if he wanted to. (there’s been talk it can export as PDF for easy sharing as well).

[via Macrumors]

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

Jobs to Mossberg: iBooks Same Price as Amazon, iPad 140hrs to Music, Save as iWork Pages as Word Doc