Review: Infinity Blade game on iOS

Engadget reviews the first (?) 3D game for the iOS. The verdict is that the US$5.99 you pay is worth every cent!

Viber - Free calls via Wifi & 3G

Who needs calling minutes anymore? With Viber's new free calling software for iPhone (and soon for Android), make calls from iPhone to iPhone for free!
Download the free App now, and let's get this thing going..

Via Engadget (and our friends).

Magnetic lenses snap onto your cellphone

Here's one of the better solutions for extending the capabilities of your cellphone - a pair of lenses that are magnetically attached to a ring that you permanently attach to your phone.

The 2 lenses available are fish-eye and wide-angle, made by Photojojo.

Read more via Wired Gadget Lab.

LH's Guide to the Best iPhone Apps

Check out this list of the best iPhone Apps by Lifehacker.com.

Android Beats iPhone in Smartphone Sales

For the first half of 2010, Android smartphone sales have been steadily picking up, and for the first time, has now overtaken iPhone sales. However, this is before factoring in the recently-launched iPhone 4 (it also does not consider iPad and iTouch sales in this study).

Well, that means Android will soon be the platform of choice for smartphones (well, RIM's Blackberries are still have a declining lead). And rightly deserved, what with all the capabilities and mega corporations backing it, Apple actually did an amazing thing, leading the pack for quite a while.

Thanks to Wired Gadget Lab.

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge is out!

The remake of the old classic Monkey Island 2 is out now at the one and only Apple App Store! Get your copy by paying US$7.99 only! You can get the Lite edition for free at the cost of a 71MB download too, if you just want to test it out.

Thanks to Joystiq.

What's in store for your iOS4?

Now that iOS4 for iPhone and iPad has been released, what could you be looking forward to when you make that OS upgrade? Multi-tasking, a useful iPod widget, app folders, and more!

Read the full article from Wired.com.

I'm personally giving it a few days before I upgrade, just so, you know, other people can help work out the bug kinks for me..


Lifehacker has a post about the new shortcuts, settings, and features you'll need to know—and want to use. Read it here!

'Retina Display' is an exaggeration

According to this statement published in Wired.com, Apple's iPhone 4 "Retina display" screen is a marketing exaggeration, as the number of pixels does not yet reach what the actual retina can see.

I don't think it will make any difference to Apple fanboys though.

Read it from Wired Gadget Lab.

Here's another link on WGL, slightly different article, but same claim.

iPhone4 vs the other smartphones

Thanks to PCWorld.

Here's my take on the stats:
- the iPhone4 has the smallest display screen, highest density of pixels notwithstanding.
- higher resolution on iPhone is a moot feature since the human eye cannot tell the difference with that small a screen. Also, the icons are smaller..
- For a fee, you can edit your movie on the iPhone. That's cos its really hard to extract said movie for external editing. Being open source, Android doesn't have this problem. Just extract the movie for full scale editing on your PC.
- Facetime for iPhone allows you video calls. BUT limited only to Wifi, and only between other iPhone4s.
- Still no Flash for browsing and games, and not anytime in the foreseeable future.
- 5MP camera is really quite ok. Remember its not the Megapixel race, but the quality of the picture we want.
- but touting 5x digital zoom as a selling point? Every photog worth his salt knows that digital zoom is just image cropping. You get worse definition the more you zoom.
- I really hate the proprietary locking in that Apple does. For eg. I have issues transferring movies and songs about on my iPhone 3GS cos of iTunes, and the fact that I can't access the iPhone directly. This issue will remain for iPhone4.
- the next iPhone will appear next year, same time. Android will continue churning newer and better phone models until then. I vote for a HTC Incredible/Samsung Galaxy S hybrid/evolution please!
- iAds... You're buying a spanking brand new phone, and in the agreement, you're telling Apple "hey, take my money, and yes, you can also take ad revenue by showing me your ads, because they're 'emotive'! I can relate to emotive ads!"

And finally...
- iPhone4 has a 'gyroscope' - this is to ensure your phone always lies flat while on a flat surface.

Ok, here's what its really for - "iPhone 4 is the first phone with a built-in three-axis gyroscope (device for measuring or maintaining orientation). Paired with the accelerometer, the iPhone 4 is capable of advanced motion sensing, which translates to greater precision for a better gaming experience."

eBoy's FixPix iPhone game available now for $1.99

Ok, this looks like fun, but I will probably only play the trial (if there is one) cos its kinda fun having an image deconstructed on placed on several planes. But I won't be paying US$1.99 for it.

eBoy FixPix [iPhone] - CreativeApplications.Net from CreativeApplications.Net on Vimeo.

Adobe Air gets native Android App compilation

Adobe being shunned by Apple and their iPhones has become good news for Android - Adobe's developing a native App compilation for Adobe Air.

So perhaps Flash + Air utilities/games will become so good as to make iPhone/iPad apps look like expensive pieces of code? I must admit, Google gadgets and Windows Vista widgets never quite appealed to me as much as those darned iPhone apps though.

Read more from Engadget.

iPhone's security flaw

Apparently, when plugging an iPhone to a PC running Ubuntu Lucid Lynx version, your data is fully accessible even without you keying in your PIN.

Hmmmmmm.....

Read more from Engadget.

Apples vs Androids

August Man online does a comparison between the Apple iPhone vs the Android smartphone (the HTC Hero was used). Overwhelmingly, the Android wins due to usability and open-ness. Read more here.

Adobe decries Apple's "walled garden"

This is why I'm still very cautious of Apple - apparently Adobe says that Flash works very well with iPhone, only problem is that Apple is continuing to deny it access so as to force developers to build apps natively for iPhone OS, rather than a cross-platform solution that Adobe provides.

Apple = Sneaky? Profiteering? Not-transparent?

All of the above.

Read more from Engadget.

This article on an antitrust probe on Apple instigated by Adobe might interest you too.

Update:
And Wired Gadget Lab offers Apple a PR solution here.

Adobe gives up on Flash for iPhone/iPad

The primary goal of Flash has always been to enable cross-browser, platform and device development,” Chambers wrote in a blog post. “This is the exact opposite of what Apple wants. They want to tie developers down to their platform, and restrict their options to make it difficult for developers to target other platforms.

This quote by Adobe's principal product manager for Flash developer relations, comes courtesy of Wired Gadget Lab. And with it, my friends, takes the long awaited horizon away from iPhone users who've been waiting for ages for the day they can natively use Youtube in their browser.

Time to shift to Android?

Or we can see if other developers create a platform that will eventually be able to solve the problem this corporation could not.

Card magnifier as iPhone close-up lens

This is a good idea - using one of those card-thin magnifying lenses as a zoom or macro lens for your iPhone 3G camera. The situation - you want to take a pic of a picture in a book but can't get the ideal focal length right. Enter the magnifier - just place it against your camera lens, and snap away. The attached sample pic shows great improvement. Its easy to keep in your phone sleeve too!

Via Lifehacker.

iPhone 4 revealed!

Gizmodo got their hands on a lost iPhone 4. They give a complete visual and internal breakdown of the phone, and postulate why the device they have is NOT a fake.

Read all about it at Gizmodo. Or read the summarized version at Wired Gadget Lab.

Hidden Secrets of iPhone OS 4!

Herein lies all the detected changes that iPhone OS 4 will bring to your iPhone.

Click the Lifehacker link for a complete run-down.

iPhone OS 4

Here're highlights of what you can expect with iPhone OS 4. Unfortunately, it won't be available to devices older than the iPhone 3GS and iPod touch.

* Multitasking.
* Spell check (like on the iPad).
* Bluetooth keyboard support (again, on the iPad).
* User-defined wallpaper (a jailbreak favorite).
* Tap to focus when recording video, just like with photos, and a 5x digital zoom for the camera.
* Playlist creation and nested playlists.
* App folders for sorting apps! You can even put an app folder in the dock.
* Enhanced Mail! You can have a merged inbox view, switch between inboxes quickly, and sync to more than one Exchange account. There's also threaded messaging (at last!) and in-app attachment viewing.
* iBooks, just like on iPad, only smaller. You can wirelessly sync books between platforms, a la Kindle.
* Enterprise features, including remote device management and wireless app distribution.
* Game Center. It's like Xbox Live, but for iPhone games. Includes achievements, leaderboards, and match making. It will be available as a "developer preview," and out for consumers later this year.

Read more at Engadget!


Engadget has also uploaded an OS 4 video. From what I see, I imagine the multi-tasker function to work just like the Alt+Tab on a Windows OS. Check out the video below:


Engadget is updating their hands-on experience here.

Why Google Nexus One loses in sales to Apple iPhone

This analysis pretty much sums up why, despite having better specs and being open-sourced, the iPhone is selling much more than the Nexus One:

From one end, the iPhone has roughly a zillion apps available, against the tens of thousands in the Android marketplace. And from the other end, it seems that the real, normal cellphone buyer could care less about multitasking, preferring something that is just easy to use.

We have seen this before, remember, in the MP3-player market. Everyone tried to compete with added features, from FM radios to voice recording, but people kept buying the iPod because it was easy, it worked with iTunes and it was what all their friends had. If Google or anyone else is going to beat the iPhone, it had better come up with something that isn’t just an old desktop style OS made for the small screen.

Read it from Wired Gadget Lab.