Review: Snow Moto Racing for iPhone

Resolution Interactive succeeds in creating a unique racing game in Snow Moto Racing. This arcade game puts you in the seat of a snowmobile to race against seven computer-controlled opponents across six snow covered tracks.

Opera Mini Browser for iPhone Being Demoed at Mobile World Congress

As previously reported, Opera Software has been showing off the iPhone version of Opera Mini browser at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week. Opera Mini is a mobile browser that uses Opera's compression and server-side technology to quickly ...

RIM intros new BlackBerry browser to rival iPhone’s Safari

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion introduced a new browser for its devices, which runs on the rendering engine behind Apple's Safari browser.

RIM intros new BlackBerry browser to rival iPhone’s Safari

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion introduced a new browser for its devices, which runs on the rendering engine behind Apple's Safari browser.

Opera Mini on iPhone is fast, but why?

We came, we saw, and we're still scratching our heads over what Oforpera is up to with its Mobile World Congress demonstration of its Opera Mini browser running on the iPhone 3GS. But before we get into that, let's talk performance: it's fast. Opera Mini is very, very fast on the iPhone. Loading the New York Times, for example, was about 5x faster than loading the same page in the iPhone 3GS' stock browser. Pages loaded smoothly and were interactive just as quickly as the content began to load -- not unlike the Safari browsing experience. From a functionality standpoint, Opera Mini operates exactly as it does on other, less-contentious platforms. So while double-tap to zoom is supported, pinch-to-zoom is not. The iPhone version does, however, remember the state of the browser when you exit Opera Mini. As such, you'll find your tabs and recent pages right where they were when you last used the app.

The impressive performance gain has to do with how Opera Mini works. First, it's not doing any rendering of the pages or code processing locally. Web pages are processed by Opera's servers before sending just the results to the iPhone. Not only does this speed up the local processing but it also limits the amount of data sent -- a potential big money saver for people browsing while data roaming (like us in Barcelona) or for those without unlimited data plans.

Unfortunately, Opera refused to let us or anyone photograph the app or take any video of it in action. We couldn't even photograph the Opera icon in the launch bar or the wallpaper adorned with the Opera logo. Why? It looks just like Opera Mini beta on any other device so it's not like we're exposing any competitive intelligence. And it's not like Opera would be violating any Apple NDA related to the SDK or the app approval process. Unfortunately, Opera was unable to give us a valid reason other than, "you just can't."

So why is Opera making such a fuss about this before it has even submitted to Apple for approval? We have three theories that we discussed with Igor Netto, Senior Product Manager within Opera's Mobile group. Click through if you like conspiracies.

Continue reading Opera Mini on iPhone is fast, but why?

Opera Mini on iPhone is fast, but why? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pinger’s Textfree delivers billionth free text message

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

Among the many methods available for getting around AT&T's stronghold on text messaging and the exorbitant rates associated therein stands a giant in the form of an iPhone application. Pinger's wildly popular app "Textfree" puts the power back in the hands of users by creating a simple and elegant way to text message your contacts without running up the wireless bill.

Today, Pinger announced that they have reached a significant milestone. In the short 10 months that Textfree has been available on the App Store, over one billion messages have been delivered. This huge amount of messages represents a staggering savings to Textfree's users and shines a spotlight on the innovation that Pinger has brought to the iPhone ecosystem.

I had a chance to talk with Greg Woock, one of the co-founders of Pinger Inc., about the success of Textfree as an individual app as well as Pinger's strategy for App Store success. Hit the read link to check out Pinger's success story.

Continue reading Pinger's Textfree delivers billionth free text message

Pinger's Textfree delivers billionth free text message originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Pinger's Textfree delivers billionth free text message originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Documents To Go for iPhone to get Google Docs, Desktop Sync

We just finished having a sit down with the fine folks from DocsToGo and they shared some exciting news about DocsToGo Premium: Desktop Sync and Google Sync are en route! They expect they’ll be submitting the app to the Apple in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned for the release. DocsToGo is currently $14.99 in the App Store.

Document Sync with the desktop works just like you would expect it to: plug in and Sync. What’s more exciting for me (and for cloud-lovers everywhere) is that you’ll be able to sync with all the documents you’ve stored up at Google Docs. It’s a full sync client – meaning that you can download and edit documents offline and then sync them up with Google Docs later. Another thing worth noting is that Google recently updated Google Docs to allow you to upload any file – which means you will be able to upload and store PDFs, images, and documents to Google Docs and then access them later with DocsToGo.

Otherwise, as it always is with major mobile conferences, the iPhone isn’t officially here but unofficially it’s everywhere. My completely unscientific method of “hey, what’s in people’s hands” poll shows that it’s slightly edging out Nokia as the most popular phone at Mobile World Congress.

Documents To Go for iPhone to get Google Docs, Desktop Sync is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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RIM CEO claims we are staring ‘down the barrel of a capacity crunch,’ should all get BlackBerrys to prevent it

Capacity crunch, isn't that a breakfast cereal? RIM's Mike Lazaridis seems to have been a real grouch at MWC this week as apparently he hasn't stopped talking about the doom and gloom awaiting mobile carriers over the next few years. Focusing on the bandwidth-hungry North American market, Lazaridis has criticized the apparently irresponsible network saturation growth, which he sees as being primarily driven by app-centric operating systems. If you're wondering who he could possibly be referring to, let Mike clarify it -- according to him, you could carry five BlackBerry devices for each iPhone on a network. As evidence of his firm's focus on efficiency, he points us to that freshly demoed WebKit browser, which he claims uses a third of the bandwidth required by the competition from Apple and Google. If only he wasn't implying that owning a BlackBerry would save the internet, Mike's sales pitch would be rather compelling -- those are mighty impressive numbers he is citing.

RIM CEO claims we are staring 'down the barrel of a capacity crunch,' should all get BlackBerrys to prevent it originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 03:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Macworld 2010: Flook app brings urban exploration to your pocket

Filed under: Macworld, iPhone

Among the unusual and innovative iPhone apps we saw at Macworld Expo was Flook, a location-based search tool for urban discovery that turns your walk through town into a multimedia adventure, complete with audio and image annotation and growing popularity for the most intriguing spots.

The idea is to create "serendipitous discovery" of the interesting and novel places around your neighborhood -- "a bit like StumbleUpon for the world around you," as the Flook site says.

We got a chance to chat with Ambient Industries co-founder Tristan Brotherton, who provided a quick demo of the app and a few words about the Flook approach and philosophy. Catch the video below.

Macworld 2010: Flook app brings urban exploration to your pocket originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 03:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Macworld 2010: Flook app brings urban exploration to your pocket originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 03:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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