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Cultured Code’s Things On Its Way To The iPad

March 16th, 2010 Appstore Apps none Comments

Good news folks, the very popular Mac and iPhone task manager Things, by Cultured Code, is on its way to the iPad.

Alright, we’re still somewhat in the dark, as all we have for now is a very discrete and short note about it in a post named “Arrivals and “Arrivals”” on the developers’ blog last week :

Finally, one other arrival that is approaching very quickly is the iPad version of Things. We’ll have more to share with you about it once April 3rd gets closer, so stay tuned. $

I’m a big fan of Things on both my Mac and my iPhone, so I’m sure I’m not the only one looking forward to this one.

Confusing: Developers Who Complain Apple’s iPhone is Closed AND Think HTML5 is the Future

March 15th, 2010 Uncategorized none Comments

TechCrunch links to noted developer Tim Bray who’s taking a position as “Developer Advocate” at Google for Android but who announces it while taking a swipe at Apple’s iPhone and the closed nature of the App Store:

The iPhone vision of the mobile Internet’s future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what. It’s a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord’s pleasure and fear his anger.

Which is completely and utterly wrong, of course. That’s Apple’s vision of the mobile, curated App Store which they intend to be a family friendly, corporately liable software repository. Apple’s vision of the mobile internet is Mobile Safari and its WebKit rendering engine and other technological underpinnings, most of which are open source and heavily supported by Apple.

You can, now, today, get porn on the iPhone via Mobile Safari. You can get Google Voice. You can pretty much get anything and everything without any interference from or need for approval by Apple. It’s the definition of the Winer-ian vendor-less platform Bray quotes. Never mind:

I’m going to have to get savvier about HTML5-based applications, because a lot of smart people think the future’s there, that the “native app” notion will soon seem quaint.

And HTML5 (which allows web-based apps to behave more like native apps) is something Apple has been pushing very hard as well (from promotion at Apple’s Developer Tech Talk World Tour to WebKit.org itself). And again, now, today, you can code and run some of the best, most robust HTML5 applications for mobile to run well on iPhone Safari — and other WebKit-based mobile browsers.

We’ve said many times Safari is Apple’s open app store, and Apple even includes it beside Mac and iPhone on developer.apple.com. That’s what confuses us about comments like Bray’s and TechCrunch’s mention of former Facebook for iPhone developer Joe Hewitt (who has since said the iPad is “everything he’s wished for”).

It’s awesome for Bray and Google and Android and developers, and we congratulate and wish all of them well on his new position. But it’s important to point out that while Apple’s App Store might be “closed”, Mobile Safari is wide open; if you’re a web developer it’s delivering as well or better than anyone else on the promise of of that platform today.

Confusing: Developers Who Complain Apple’s iPhone is Closed AND Think HTML5 is the Future is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

From GDC: Namco Announces UniteSDK, Cross Platform Pool Pro Online 3, and Two New Games

March 14th, 2010 Appstore Apps none Comments

Namco had big news at GDC, and I was lucky enough to meet with them to find out all about it. The biggest news is that they’re introducing a new cross platform social network called UniteSDK. The platform will include the typical online features of high scores and achievements, but includes so much more than that.

The main feature is that it connects players across platforms, and isn’t limited to the iPhone/iPod Touch like Plus+, OpenFeint, or Crystal to name a few. This means you can play on PC, Mac, iPhone/iPod Touch, iPad, Android, Java, BREW, RIM, and Windows Mobile against users from any of those devices. This instantly increases the number of users which is essential to have a successful online multiplayer system.

Also include is a deluxe chat functionality that allows players to communicate live around the world, and includes translators for all of the languages the iPhone supports, 42 in total. UniteSDK is currently for in house games only, but will soon be available to their publishing partners, and may be available to 3rd party developers in time.

The first game to use this system was also announced at GDC which is Pool Pro Online 3 that was just released on Thursday. It’s a full featured 3D pool game that is the third installment of a series that has been on older mobile phones. The games is focused on multiplayer allowing you to play pool live against other iPhone and iPod Touch users. In the coming months it will roll out to PC, Mac, Android, Java, BREW, RIM and Windows Mobile and then you will be able to play live online against all of those device owners as well.

The online leaderboards will also be cross platform to really show off your pool skills. Now you can play pool against those using android or those on their computer at home all from the comfort of your iPhone. You can chat live with your opponents as well.

Three gameplay modes are included with 8-ball, 9-ball and Snooker. You can make in game wagers to put your money where your mouth is to earn money to be able to purchase table felts, cue sticks and new pool halls. The controls for the iPhone/iPod Touch version are simple dragging mechanics as you would expect. Single player mode is also included to keep the pool action going.

Pool Pro Online 3 will also be coming to the iPad relatively close to launch April 3rd. The game is designed with the iPad in mind, and you can see a couple screenshots below of it running natively on the device.

Namco had other news as well including two upcoming puzzle games. The first is Tinseltown Dreams which is a match three game with a 50’s movie making theme. It plays similar to Bejeweled 2, but with each match earning you credits to buy your entire movie staff to make movies with seven in total. See the screenshots and gameplay video below.

The next game is Lt. Fly Rise of the Arachnids which is mock-up of a match four game and shooter. You swap colored titles to make matches of four which earns you ammo to blast away the invading spider army. Gameplay video and screenshots are also below. Both puzzle games are expected in the coming weeks with Tinseltown Dreams as soon as March 18th.

Miscellaneous notes include Pac-Man Championship Edition will probably be coming to the iPad though no confirmed release schedule. Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man will be getting the UniteSDK in about a month, and a control update is in the works to provide the great Championship Edition controls. Finally of note according to Namco the iPad is just another device to develop for, and simply added to the device list they support.

That’s everything Namco who seem to have all their ducks in a row for the iPhone OS platform. We will have a full review of Pool Pro Online 3 soon, and will cover the two puzzle games as they’re released.

Review: Picture Safe

March 13th, 2010 Appstore Apps none Comments

The Overview

After the great Porno Purge of 2010 (February 20th – Bikini and Boobies will never forget!), we are left with few places to get our semi-naked images from rather than Safari and other browsers. We are all left grumbling for our loss and, sorry, but I am not going to turn you on to any apps with secret easter eggs to help you get your groove on.

However, once you DO get the images on you iDevice, what are you going to do with them? Leave them with your vacation photos, hiding behind that pretty little sunflower icon where your kids or just ANYONE can find them? Of course not! You need an app that can store photos that has, at minimum, password protection.

Picture Safe has been in the Top 25 in Utilities for a year and for good reason – this app is incredibly feature rich in organizing, protecting, transferring and hiding your photos…and not just the p0rn…seriously, there are plenty of other legitimate reasons you’d want to hide some of your photos, like….errrr…you are…..ummm……a spy….or something.

The Features

Picture Safe has multiple password protection: your real password , an accidental password, and an interrogation password. Your real password gets you to your actual photos. If someone tries to guess your password, after a preset number of failures, PS acts like they “accidentally” guessed correctly and shows them innocent photos…by default, PUPPIES!…no, wait…just silly background images.

And if you are ever forced to give out your password, say by an upset significant other who threatens to rip your ‘nards off unless she sees what is hidden behind that vault icon, this password takes them to same folder of images. My suggestion would be to change those images to something upsetting but not damning….else, why would you be password protecting them?

There are multiple ways to move files into Picture Safe: importing directly from your Photos app, upload through a web interface, upload through FTP, Bluetooth transfer for iDevices that have the hardware, or transfer over USB cable with a special app downloaded directly form the collect3 mobile web site. Unlike similar apps, you can upload 1000s of photos with one push of a button.

The Breakdown

The Good
Did I mention that it hides your porn? And gives you multiple smokescreens to keep prying eyes from seeing what you don’t want them to see.

Being able to organize into multiple folders and do all that from your PC or Mac is so much easier than trying to arrange things on your iPhone screen.

Picture Safe has a password hint and password reset function (after answering security questions). I’ve used other photo privacy apps that completely locked me out if I forgot my password.

Take camera photos and add them straight to Picture Safe from within the app. No need to take pictures then transfer them over.
The Bad
The web interface is very non-intuitive. Without watching the tutorial videos or reading the online documentation, you will spend a lot of time fumbling around trying to figure it out.

Choosing multiple images from the Photo app does not give feedback as to what you have and have not chosen – just a count of the number of images picked. If you feel that you have chosen all the images in a folder, but PS’s count is different from the folder count, you’ll have to cancel and start all over again.

USB upload is sketchy. The client is still in beta but collect3 customer service responds to your questions fairly (I still cannot get it to work consistently, though).

The Verdict

Of course, not everyone needs a place to hide images. But if you are reading this review, I am guessing that you do. Whatever your reason for needing such an app – and, hey, I’m not judging! – Picture Safe has been the top privacy app for 12 months for a reason. It is the highest quality “protect your photos” app that I have used. Also, you can use its In App purchase system to get Video Safe, also….cause, you know, you need to password protect your kids’ Christmas Pageant videos.

Seven Alternatives to the Apple iPad - Washington Post

March 13th, 2010 Headlines none Comments

Reuters UK (blog)

Seven Alternatives to the Apple iPad
Washington Post
The iPad has a leg up on all of these options because of the user-friendly iPhone interface, but it's not like you're dropping $600+ on a tablet for your …
Apple iPad on Sale … Are You Buying?FOXNews
Why I Pre-Ordered an Apple iPadPC Magazine
Anticipation Grows as Apple Takes Orders for IPadPC World
ChannelWeb -San Jose Mercury News -Cult of Mac (blog)
all 694 news articles »

Apple.com Adds iPad to Menu, iPod and iTunes Now Separate

March 12th, 2010 Uncategorized none Comments

iPod + iTunes is dead on the Apple.com menu, long live iPod | iPhone | iPad | iTunes. (And yes, Mac is still there too).

The all new iPad section coincides with the launch of pre-orders and pickups today, and links to all the content previously available at apple.com/ipad via the homepage. The broken out iPod and iTunes section lets Apple focus on the devices (with the iPod touch front and center) on the former, and the iTunes software and store on the latter.

So what do you think of the new navigation, cheers or jeers? And is iPhone, iPad, iPod, and iTunes taking the place over?

Apple.com Adds iPad to Menu, iPod and iTunes Now Separate is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

HP Slate vs. iPad: Focus on Flash - PC World

March 10th, 2010 Headlines none Comments

PC World

HP Slate vs. iPad: Focus on Flash
PC World
As my PCWorld colleague David Coursey illustrates, "The Slate and other Windows 7 devices support Adobe Flash and AIR, Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, …
iPhone Pro concept could fit the mini iPad billMobile Magazine
UK iPhone Carriers to Battle for Apple iPadPhones Review
Apple to build 5 million iPads during first half of 2010 - reportApple Insider
Moby1 (blog) -Cult of Mac (blog) -Sporkings (blog)
all 682 news articles »

TiPb Top 5 iPhone Notes Apps

March 6th, 2010 Uncategorized none Comments

Today’s TiPb Top 5 is directed towards our iPhone and iPod touch wielding readers who love to take notes/memos on the go. Just like our other TiPb’s top 5 must-have posts, all of these applications are available in the App Store. For the full run down, follow us after the break!

Notes

Okay, all the applications are available in the App Store but this one — Apple’s Notes is built-in and comes pre-installed on every iPhone and iPod touch. And it’s not bad. Harkening back to the old PalmOS Memo app, you can add a note, start typing, hit Home, and the Note is automagically (and persistently) saved. That’s right, no explicit user action is needed — not even to name it as Notes just pulls the first line and uses that as the name. You can add new notes, edit old notes, and delete what you no longer need. You can also sync Notes via iTunes now (though not via MobileMe… get on that, Apple!)

Set up to look like a yellow, legal-esque note pad, the only drawback is the almost universally panned use of the Marker Felt font. If you can stand that, it’s simple but it’s free and you don’t even have to download it. For some users, that’s all they’ll ever need. For me, it’s perfect to jot down a hotel room, phone number, parking space, or anything else I want to remember and keep with me.

Simplenote (and Notational Velocity + DropBox)

Simplenote [Free - iTunes link] came to our attention via Daring Fireball’s John Gruber and has stayed there thanks to the Notational Velocity awesomeness highlighted by 43Folders‘ Merlin Mann.

Simplenote by itself is just as the name implies, quick, clean, and highly usable. Instead of tethered iTunes sync over USB, Simplenote offers secure wireless sync to the cloud (their WebApp). You can keep using it free with fairly unobtrusive adds, or for $8.99 a year (less than $1 a month) you can go “premium” which removes the ads and gives you auto backup (versioning), create by email, an RSS feed, unlimited API use, and some cherries on top like early access to future features.

If you’re a note ninja, however, combining Simplenotes with Notational Velocity could dang-near blow your mind. Notational Velocity is a desktop client that offers modeless operation (search is your gateway), incremental search (start typing, it starts filtering), and keyboard-optimized operation. DropBox can store the data/files so you can enjoy not only iPhone to desktop, but cross-desktop sync as well. Getting things done indeed!

This is pretty much the nuclear option when it comes to note-oriented productivity, and the scaling from just Simplenote to the cross-platform sync solution is impressive. If you’re the high-order geek and notes are where your life lives, this combo can be hard to beat.

PhatNotes

PhatNotes [$9.99 - iTunes link] is a big, bold drought of note taking. On the surface, it’s covered in icons and colors. Under the hood you can organize “thousands” of notes in folders and groups. It also supports handwriting recognition so you can scribble your note on the screen and Phatnotes will OCR it and turn it into editable text. (A process which works pretty well (and yes, internet, it does OCR and print curse words without any censorship).

You can sync PhatNotes for iPhone with the PhatNotes for Windows desktop client (no Mac client… yet?). Given the price tag, PhatNotes will most likely appeal to hardcore on-device users who want to do as much as possible on their mobile, especially if they already use PhatNotes on the PC and see the sync as a bonus.

For those who like the handwriting recognition but don’t want the higher price and fuller organizational features, the same developer offers WritePad [$1.99 - iTunes link]

Appigo Notebook

Appigo’s Notebook [$4.99 - iTunes link] earns a spot immediately simply by virtue of its integration with the excellent Appigo Todo, but proves its own worth with clever offline/online note sync handling, password protection for secure notes, Toodledo.com sync, and TextExpander [$4.99 - iTunes link] support.

The user interface is simply gorgeous and the workflow is quick and easy. Notebook isn’t free but it’s not premium priced, it’s not bound to the desktop or the cloud, and if you’re invested in Toodledo, TextExpander, and/or Appigo Todo… well, you likely have it already! If you don’t, and you want a flexible yet elegant note-taking solution, give it a look.

Evernote

We’re not just including Evernote [Free - iTunes link] so that Chad (and Leo Laporte) don’t smack us around for not including, though that’s certainly a plus. Evernote is literally — and iconically — the big elephant in the note-space. Unlike the apps above, Evernote isn’t primarily focused on traditional, text-based note taking. It puts pictures and voice right up front alongside text. What’s more, it will make text included in your photos searchable (though it won’t OCR that text and make it editable — please ad?)

You can sync Evernote for iPhone with Evernote for Windows or Mac, or for other mobile devices running Android or BlackBerry OS. If the free functionality isn’t enough for you, you can “go premium” for $5 a month or $45 a year. Premium gets you 500MB of monthly upload bandwidth, support for Office docs, PDF, and videos, share and collaborate with other premium users, and SSL encryption.

Evernote is a great choice for people who want to include a wider range of material and basically scrapbook their notes as they go. It’s also especially handy for cross-platform users with different desktop and mobile platforms. If you’re not already using a different cloud-based or desktop solution, Evernote is something to check out.

Conclusion

iPhone and iPod touch users are fortunate to enjoy a wide range of high quality note apps, everything from the built-in to tons of App Store downloads (we barely scratched the surface here!), from free to premium, from cloud-based to desktop-bound. Which one is best for you will depend on what, if anything, you’re already using and what functionality matters most to you.

If we didn’t mention your favorite, or if you have any ninja or pro tips to share to take our iPhone note-taking to the next level, let us know in the comments!

TiPb Top 5 iPhone Notes Apps is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Remotely Access Your PC Or Mac With TeamViewer

March 5th, 2010 Appstore Apps none Comments

Desktop sharing and remote pc access software can be great tools for presentations, collaborating and providing technical support with members in your office or just for simply getting to that particular file when you’re on the go. One of the best of this category, TeamViewer, has been handling these needs fairly well as a desktop client and has recently launched their own application for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

TeamViewer, like LogMeIn and VNC Viewer, gives the user complete access to any Mac or PC running the desktop application. By doing so, you’re free to view, control and retrieve files on any remote computer.

The setup is simple. Download the free application from the TeamViewer site to your PC or Mac and to your iPhone. Launch the desktop client and retrieve the ID number and Password generated from the TeamViewer software.

Once you enter in this information onto your iPhone, it’s just a matter of seconds before your target desktop computer appears on your device for you to control.

Interacting with your remote desktop on your iPhone is handled nicely with multitouch gestures and a helpful toolbar at the bottom of the screen. Pinching allows you to zoom in and out of your display and dragging and tapping your finger will operate your mouse. You can access other functions like typing, mouse right clicks and zooming with icons located on the bottom of the iPhone screen.

Overall, the experience is executed wonderfully well with connections over 3G and WiFi. The iPhone app does a good job of optimizing the screen’s resolution based on your connection speed and the controls are responsive and fluid. Sharing your computer and getting access to files when you’re away from your office or home computer couldn’t be easier.

And here’s the best part: TeamViewer, the desktop and iPhone app, are completely free of charge for private use. A Pro version for commercial use is $99.

Get them now in the App Store. [Free] [Pro]