March 2009 Archives
The ball's in Apple's court. Sling Media just announced the submission of its client software for the iPhone to the iTunes App Store. Upon approval, owners of the company's SlingBox device will be able to watch home TV and digital video recorder (DVR) content on their iPhone or iPod touch anywhere in the world.
Sling Box works by placeshiftting and streaming cable, satellite, or DVR data, making the content accessible through a wireless broadband -- cellular or Wi-Fi -- Internet connection on a smartphone or laptop. In the case of a DVR, for example, users can not only watch recorded shows, but pause and rewind live TV or queue new recordings from their smartphone as well.
The Sling Player client software is already available for the BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Palm OS and Symbian platforms. You can check out a demo of it in action on the iPhone here. Sign up here to be notified when Sling Player for the iPhone is officially available.
The series of comic books for the small screen is being released as a series of apps called Star Trek Countdown. They star characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation (Piccard, Data and everyone else) and a time traveling Romulan named Nero who is apparently the main villain in the upcoming movie. So it looks like film, which will also feature a cameo by Leonard Nimoy as old Spock, is going to fit nicely into the puzzle that is the Star Trek universe.
Three of the four apps in the series are already available at the App Store for 99 cents each. You can download them here, here and here. You read them on the iPhone using the iVerse Media Comic Reader Software.
The paper edition of the comic book is available for $3.99.
For years, it looked like China Mobile—with around 415 million subscribers the largest mobile operator on the planet—would be that home. However, in a major upset, it looks like that carrier's main competitor China Unicom, which has about 170 million customers (125 million GSM, 45 million CDMA), may have nabbed Apple's smartphone as its new flagship handset.
Although it has yet to confirm it would offer the iPhone, China Unicom posted a spec sheet -- since taken down -- for the iPhone on its Web site. Supposedly, it could ship the iPhone as soon as May 17.
According to reports, it's not just the iPhone headed to China Unicom's mobile menu. The carrier is said to have also posted specifications for the G1, the first Google Android-run gPhone, which was released in the U.S. by T-Mobile last fall.
Rumor has it a future iPhone will include a more advanced camera that allows users to take hi-res photos and video. The iPhone, unlike nearly every other smartphone on the market, does not allow users to take video -- although it is almost two years old.
Apples iPhone OS 3.0, which is due to ship this June, will allow users to send MMS messages for the first time. Multimedia messaging allows folks to attach and send files, including pictures and (yes) video, in text messages. Perhaps Apple will introduce the next-gen iPhone model then as well? It would make sense.
Clearly, thousands of developers are happy to live under the friendly dictatorship of Apple's App Store, but not Freeman, a graduate student in computer science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The App Store now contains over 25,000 apps, far more than Windows Mobile (at around 20,000), which is considerably older than Apple's iPhone platform. Get the full story here at InternetNews.com The Blog.
The iPhone 3.0 OS will sport some long sought-after features. But users will have to wait a bit longer. The software is available now for developers, who will be able to integrate its features into their apps. End users will have to wait a few months, however, to get their hands on it. It’ll be free for iPhoners and cost $10 for iPod touch owners.
The iPhone 3.0 OS will include around 100 new features, including the addition of global search; cut, copy and paste (it's about time!); the ability to send photos, contacts, audio files, and location data via MMS; and the ability to read and compose e-mail and text messages in landscape mode.
Get the full story here at InternetNews.com and here at Apple.
WordFu is beautifully put together and is ideal as a small diversion for when you have a few minutes of free time. It must be one of the best games in the store for only $.99. If you enjoy word games, give it a try and start earning your belts.
Our favorite Twitter app is still Tweetie (available here), but if you're looking for something free and you use the other social networking tools that are included, this is a strong contender.
MoloPix ($.99, available here) automatically takes multiple shots with your iPhone camera and combines them into a photo collage. Just select a photo style and you can automatically take a number of shots in quick succession. If you like the result, the app makes it simple to save or share your creations. Be sure to adjust the settings, which let you control the interval between shots.
Purim is coming, and to help you celebrate the Megillas Esther app (available here) lets you read through the entire Megillas Esther with added electronic effects. You can scroll through Hebrew text verse-by-verse with the flick of a finger, then tap buttons that let you add noises at the appropriate times. Sound the grager, fire machine guns, hear the crowd "boo," shoot off fireworks, and blast an airhorn.
There's not much to it, but we like it. MusicNeon ($.99, available here) directs you to rotate neon tubes to create a connection from the positive electrodes on the left to the negative electrodes on the right. When a connection is made, the tubes all light and are then replaced with new tubes. As you advance, more tube styles are added. Each tube has its own sound, so you'll hear a musical riff as you make each connection. It's not a hard game, but it's just right for those times when you need a little mindless diversion.
French students, this one is pour vous. Conjugueur (available here) offers clear conjugation tables for over 9,8000 French verbs. If you're not sure of a verb form, this handy app will tell you, and it works without an Internet connection. The app also includes a helpful grammatical rules database to help you avoid common mistakes.
Escape into some of the greatest stories every written, right on your iPhone. This virtual bookshelf includes over a dozen hand-picked masterpieces, including Frankenstein, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Robinson Crusoe. The intuitive design shows realistic 3D page flips and the ability to see how far you are in a book at a glance. When you're done reading for the day, Classics ($2.99, available here) automatically remembers your place with a satin bookmark.
There are several paid travel apps that deliver the same content, but Travelocity TravelTools (available here) gives it away for free. Use this app to get airport information such as departure and arrival times and even security wait times. If you're stranded at the airport, you'll appreciate the "Hotels Near Me" feature. Of course, it lets you book travel through Travelocity, but you don't need to purchase anything to use it.
Alcoholics Anonymous members will appreciate having 12 Steps Companion ($2.99, available here) close at hand. This packed app includes the main 164 pages of the AA Big Book and several additional pieces of text. Read in portrait or landscape mode, and easily jump to the passage you want to see. Other tools include a sobriety calculator and the ability to e-mail notes to yourself or others. Contacts for all US offices help you always find a nearby meeting.
Check out free TV content anytime you've got a Wi-Fi or 3G connection. TV.com (available here) offers a variety of clips and full shows from CBS, CW, CNET, and more. The interface makes it simple to browse through shows. Personalization features let you create your own feed based on keywords. We'd like to see more full episodes available, but it's still a decent way to watch shows on the go.
Japanese carrier SoftBank Mobile will now hand over an 8GB Apple iPhone for free when customers purchase a two-year contract.
Free calls were already possible on the iPhone using applications such as Skype or Fring, but now in countries such as Japan and Spain you can get the actual device for free as well.
Will AT&T follow suit in the United States?
On a recent earnings call, Apple COO Tim Cook spoke about iPhone pricing, noting "there's clearly a price elasticity in this market."
Meanwhile the 16GB iPhone in Japan drops from $350 to $118.
An adapter can give you printer access via Bluetooth to a USB or parallel printer. The gadget will work with any Bluetooth device, not just smartphones, so you can also use one to print from a laptop without a physical cable.
Belkin's F8T031 and HP's Bt450 are both billed as Bluetooth Wireless Printer Adaptors and should work with many different printers. AbiCom also makes an adaptor, but it's specifically designed for certain USB ink jet printers.
