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- HourFace: The picture of Dorian Gray in an app
Filed under: App Review
HourFace [US $.99 iTunes Link] is a very neat little novelty app. I'm told that it's the top selling app in Japan. HourFace uses your camera or your photo library to take or choose a head shot. It then uploads the picture to its server which turns it into a very realistic moving 3D image with the face naturally moving and eyes that blink. If you touch part of the screen, the face will move in that direction. The effect is startling.
The neat part is that app makes your 3D face younger or older depending how you hold your device, using the accelerometer. Tilt the screen up and the face gets younger. Tilt it down and the face gets older. Keeping the bar in the middle shows you the default age of the the face. You can also move the blue bar yourself with a finger. HourFace works on any iPhone or iPod touch running OS 3.0 or better
The app is quite picky when it comes to taking pictures or using them from your photo library. If there are more than one person in the picture only one person will age. If the face not exactly what the app expects, you'll get a message telling you that it can't find a face, even if the whole picture is a face. You are informed that the ideal photo faces directly ahead, has its mouth closed, be not too bright or dark, show a visible forehead and not be wearing glasses.
I found that more than half of the pictures I took or were in my photo library worked well, while the rest didn't. You are also given the option of emailing the image.
I don't know how much utility I'll be getting from the app, but I like it very much for what it is, which is is an eerily realistic graphic manipulation.
Take a look at the video below, and give it shot. It's worth a buck for the entertainment value and the result is amazingly real.
TUAW is commonly provided with not-for-resale licenses or promo codes to permit product evaluations and reviews. For more details, see our policy page.
- Note: As of testing the app about 20 minutes before the post is scheduled to go live, I found that pictures will upload, but it gets stuck on 'processing', eventually timing out. My uneducated guess is that their servers are temporarily down.
TUAWHourFace: The picture of Dorian Gray in an app originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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iPhone - Apple - IPod Touch - IPod Classic - IPod Photo
Переслать - McGraw-Hill CEO: "The tablet is going to be just really terrific"
Filed under: Hardware, Rumors, Software, Apple
McGraw-Hill's CEO Terry McGraw is obviously very excited that he's been asked to work with Apple on a brand new type of computer, and he just couldn't wait another 24 hours to tell somebody -- he showed up on CNBC today to talk about his company's latest earnings, and he more or less spills the beans, saying that Apple will "make their announcement tomorrow," that the tablet will be "based on the iPhone operating system," and that it "will be transferable" (so anything on iTunes now will go straight on the tablet?).
He also says that they've got 95% of their materials up and ready to run as e-books, and it's not a stretch to think that Apple has made similar deals with other major publishers as well. This still isn't official confirmation of the tablet (remember, it's not real until Jobs is actually holding it on stage), but man, we're about as close as we can get at this point. Watch the whole video after the break, with the Apple stuff starting around the 2:50 mark.TUAWMcGraw-Hill CEO: "The tablet is going to be just really terrific" originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - And the winner for the first tablet software announcement is...
Filed under: Humor, Software, Developer
It had to happen. Somebody had to be the first to announce software for a still-nonexistent piece of hardware.
A lot of us in the business of reporting Apple news and rumors were waiting for the shoe to drop on tablet-related software announcements. Sure enough, developer Ben Gottlieb has taken the bold step of announcing an "iPad" (please let that not be the name...) app in development.
Gottlieb's Stand Alone, Inc. announced today that they're working on a larger version of their popular Crosswords iPhone app. As Gottlieb mentioned, "The main constraint in developing a Crossword app for mobile devices has been the distinct lack of screen real estate. We have been anticipating the Apple tablet as the greatest piece of hardware for App developers since iPhone itself, and Crosswords will be even better on the new device."
So there you have it! A piece of history, right in front of your eyes -- the first software announcement for Apple's tablet device, which hasn't even been officially confirmed yet, and (technically) may not even exist at all. The price and availability of the app were not included in the announcement, but really, let's not sweat the details, shall we?TUAWAnd the winner for the first tablet software announcement is... originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Found footage: iPhone + Arduino + Heartrate Monitor = HumanAPI
Filed under: Hacks
HumanApi, Sports ECG in real life from uxebu on Vimeo.
iPhone hobbyist Nikolai Onken has been hard at work putting together what he calls the Human API. He wants to explore how real life can be the source of data that can be gathered and analyzed using web technologies. In the project demonstrated in this video, he has put together a prototype that gathers heart rate data from a Polar T31 transmitter, and collects it on his iPhone using Bluetooth transmission. An Arduino kit receives the Polar data using a custom receiver and transmits it via Bluetooth, where it is read on the iPhone using the open source BTstack, that we've covered before here on TUAW.
As the video shows, the iPhone provides live feedback of his heart rate as he engages in running and deep knee bends. His custom application tracks the data as it streams in via Bluetooth and displays that data on an on-screen graph. In the end, he has created a customizable iPhone solution that communicates with external hardware in real time. Pretty neat stuff, and a great example of how a jailbroken iPhone can provide a great prototyping platform.TUAWFound footage: iPhone + Arduino + Heartrate Monitor = HumanAPI originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Apple and the tablet go a long way back
Filed under: Hardware, Multimedia, Cult of Mac, Education, Apple, Apple History
Earlier this month we took you down memory lane for a 1987 video that Apple produced about a futuristic product called the Knowledge Navigator.
It was a super smart, full featured tablet with internet connectivity, video conferencing, datebook and browser. It also contained a nifty personable digital assistant.
Ten years later, Apple was still selling the idea of an enhanced tablet. One of our readers sent us this YouTube video of a concept that Apple sent around to educators. It had a lot of the same great technology, like video conferencing and browsing, but the video shows a variety of form factors, including a desktop unit, a tablet, and a small hand held device.
It's pretty clear Apple has done a lot of thinking about what a tablet should do. Who knows if any of these concepts will get into tomorrow's announcement, but the technology is pretty much here to make the dreams into some kind of software/hardware reality.
Will an Apple tablet change the world? Stay tuned.
Thanks to Fred for the Apple nostalgia!TUAWApple and the tablet go a long way back originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Professional number crunching falls short with the Formulator Series calculators
Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, App Review
My name is Steve, and I'm a recovering engineer. Although I'm no longer a practicing engineer, I still hold a Professional Engineer license and I'm still interested in most things dealing with engineering. That's why I perked up when I received an email from MultiEducator, Inc., a software development firm known previously for multimedia history CDs and their Historycentral.com website.
Their new Formulator Series of specialized iPhone calculators for engineers, architects, plumbers, and construction professionals features 22 individual apps priced between US$0.99 and US$17.99. Since my background is in Civil Engineering, I requested a review copy of Civil Engineering Formulator [US$4.99, iTunes Link] to get a feel for the depth and breadth of a typical Formulator Series app.
A look at the web page for Civil Engineering Formulator shows that the app began with 75 formulas in the Civil Engineering areas of beams, bridges, columns, elevators, piles, plates, roads, soil, and structural steel. Over the next few months, the app is to grow to more than 200 formulas, at which time the price will increase for new buyers. Civil Engineering Formulator also includes almost 100 conversion formulas, as well as 50 area calculations.My name is Steve, and I'm a recovering engineer. Although I'm no longer a practicing engineer, I still hold a Professional Engineer license and I'm still interested in most things dealing with engineering. That's why I perked up when I received an email from MultiEducator, Inc., a software development firm known previously for multimedia history CDs and their Historycentral.com website.
Their new Formulator Series of specialized iPhone calculators for engineers, architects, plumbers, and construction professionals features 22 individual apps priced between US$0.99 and US$17.99. Since my background is in Civil Engineering, I requested a review copy of Civil Engineering Formulator [US$4.99, iTunes Link] to get a feel for the depth and breadth of a typical Formulator Series app.
A look at the web page for Civil Engineering Formulator shows that the app began with 75 formulas in the Civil Engineering areas of beams, bridges, columns, elevators, piles, plates, roads, soil, and structural steel. Over the next few months, the app is to grow to more than 200 formulas, at which time the price will increase for new buyers. Civil Engineering Formulator also includes almost 100 conversion formulas, as well as 50 area calculations.TUAWProfessional number crunching falls short with the Formulator Series calculators originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Access Google Voice from the iPhone via Safari
Filed under: Software, Internet, Internet Tools, iPhone
Earlier today, Google made a mobile web version of Google Voice available for the iPhone. To understand the significance of this move, here's a bit of back story.
Apple pulled all Google Voice related apps from the App Store back in July, which led to an FCC inquiry, which led Apple to claim they had not rejected but were "studying" Google Voice, which Google contradicted. The biggest surprise in the whole scenario is that AT&T said that they had no problem with Google Voice on the iPhone. Months later, there's still no official Google Voice app in the App Store. You can view the long version of the story here.
The mobile web version announced today (iPhone 3.0 required), while not the first, utilizes HTML 5 to accomplish some new and impressive tasks. For example, it lets you display your Google Voice number on outgoing calls and provides easy access to voice mail plus text messaging (send and receive). Additionally, you can dial with the virtual keypad and read transcripts of messages.
It's not all roses, of course. For instance, it won't access your iPhone's contact list or push incoming SMS.
Unless they're going to limit the capabilities of the iPhone's browser, or somehow block access, there isn't much Apple can do to prevent users from trying it out.
Note that this is limited to the US. To try it out, point Mobile Safari to http://m.google.com/voice. Pro tip: Add a bookmark to your iPhone's home screen to launch with a tap.
[Via ZDnet]TUAWAccess Google Voice from the iPhone via Safari originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - iPhone devsugar: PLJukebox (Coverflow) license reduced to $50 for indie devs
Filed under: Developer
Coverflow provides one of the most visually appealing elements in the iPhone GUI repertoire. It's the view that you see when rifling through albums in the iPod application while holding the device in landscape orientation. Although Apple has included a full working implementation of their technology in the iPhone's UIKit library, it's not part of the official SDK. (You can find sample code for using the unpublished Coverflow API over at Google Code). These unpublished APIs are not App Store friendly and they may break at any time.
A number of developers have looked at Coverflow, and provided their own implementation libraries. Coverflow basically consists of some core animation for the movement between covers, geometric transforms to create the right perspectives, gesture interpretation for selecting or swiping through the covers, and a bit of finessing between artistic presentation and deceleration algorithms to make it all look and feel just right.
If you're looking for an App Store friendly Coverflow implementation and don't really care for Apple's rather clunky "Covert Flow" (sic) sample code, head on over to Plausible Labs, Landon Fuller's shop. His team has dropped the indie dev licensing fee to $50 for PLJukebox licensing. PLJukebox represents one of the nicest third party Coverflow libraries out there. It's so nice that Apple rejected Fuller's Peeps app back in the days when they were a lot crankier during App review. It looked and performed like the UIKit version.
As a final note, the fees for PLJukebox help underwrite other Plausible Labs projects like the open source PLBlocks project, which introduces programmatic blocks (it's a programming abstraction similar to lambda expressions) into Objective-C and PLCrashReporter, which provides enhanced crash reports from iPhone and Mac OS X apps. You might also want to investigate the open source OpenFlow project, which is hosted at github.
If you have any questions about any of these projects or want to learn about corporate licensing, contact Fuller directly via his websites.TUAWiPhone devsugar: PLJukebox (Coverflow) license reduced to $50 for indie devs originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Rumor: Apple's TV subscription plans stall on "tablet eve"
Filed under: Apple Corporate, iTS, Rumors
With less than 24 hours to go before the tablet's likely introduction, the New York Times is reporting that the TV networks are resisting Apple's proposed subscription model of distribution. For $30 per month, Apple would supposedly allow customers all-you-can-eat access to their library of television content. However, TV execs fear Apple's recent stance on individual song pricing in the iTunes Store, which spurred track sales but dampened sales of albums.
AppleInsider suggests that there's a contingency plan in place, in which Apple asks* the networks to change the price of an individual TV episode from $1.99 to $0.99, which jibes with a story on Financial Times this morning.
I'd welcome a subscription model for TV and movies. For $30 per month, I could stream any TV show or movie in Apple's library to any approved device: Apple TV, iPhone, iPod, computer or tablet. This would prevent the last-minute shuffle of files as I prep my machines for a hotel stay and more importantly, eliminate the "You missed your show" tax.
If I miss an episode of "The Office," why should I pay two bucks just to catch up when I can see it on Hulu for free? Sure, I can get a HD (720p) version from iTunes, but I'm willing to go with 480p from Hulu when it's free. I pay $40/mo to the cable company now and the vast majority of shows/networks I never watch. Why pay for them?
When Apple first introduced television to the iTunes Store, only a handful of networks were on board. Now there's a laundry list of participants. I imagine that we'll see a similar growth pattern with the tablet.
*Define "asks" as you will.TUAWRumor: Apple's TV subscription plans stall on "tablet eve" originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - The iPhone Devcenter is down... and now, back up
Filed under: Other Events, Developer, SDK
Update 11am ET: Logins appear to be working again for the iPhone Dev Center, at least from the East Coast. If you're still having trouble logging in, try using Firefox rather than Safari. Still hearing reports of intermittent issues (Namely "Can't connect to application instance")
Isn't it weird that Apple has taken down the iPhone devcenter a day before their big "newest creation" announcement? Normally we expect site outages on the day of announcementpalooza, not the day before. Maybe it's a maintenance/infrastructure thing that needs to go live and be tested before the big day. Maybe it's 3.2. Maybe it's an attack of rainbow unicorn puppy dog devs. We don't know. All we know is that the site has been down since about 5AM Eastern. (I write this at about 10:30 Eastern). iTunes Connect remains unaffected by this outage.TUAWThe iPhone Devcenter is down... and now, back up originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Aluminum Keyboard Firmware Update 1.1 available
Filed under: Hardware, Software
Earlier this month, we reported on an issue with the Magic Mouse and Apple's aluminum Bluetooth keyboard. Specifically, users were reporting that the mouse was draining the keyboard's batteries at an alarming rate. Now, Apple has released a fix.
According to Apple, Aluminum Keyboard Firmware Update 1.1 "...improves battery performance of the 2007 aluminum Apple Wireless Keyboard when used in combination with other bluetooth devices (eg. Magic Mouse, some bluetooth headsets) and addresses an issue with the 2007 aluminum Apple Keyboard and the 2007 aluminum Apple Wireless Keyboard where a key may repeat unexpectedly while typing." You'll find full installation details here.
This issue has existed for quite a while, as the support form discussion thread was started back in November. I've got the keyboard, but not the mouse, so I can't test the patch. If you do, follow up and let us know. Has your battery life improved? Thanks for the input.TUAWAluminum Keyboard Firmware Update 1.1 available originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Some personal thoughts about the Apple Tablet
Filed under: Hardware, Multimedia, Odds and ends
From every hint, from every rumor, from every direction it seems like some sort of Apple tablet is a done deal. We'll know for sure Wednesday, probably after a "one more thing" from El Jobso.
If a tablet is announced, I'm trying to figure out if I will buy one. I already have a Mac Pro desktop, a very serviceable MacBook Pro, and the latest 3GS iPhone. For reading I have a Kindle, and the 2 week battery life is pretty hard to beat. It's small, it's thin, and compared to the rumored cost of the Apple tablet, it's likely a lot cheaper.
But I think the dilemma will be even rougher on MacBook owners, who already have a nice small information appliance they can take anywhere. Looking at it as objectively as I can, there doesn't seem to be any room in my life for a tablet. It seems like the cure for which there is no disease. I get my email easily away from home any number of ways, and the iPhone is so good at so many things I don't take my laptop on the road as much as I used to. If, as expected, the tablet is smaller than the MacBook, maybe as thin as the MacBook Air, and significantly less expensive than either of those, it will turn some heads, but probably not mine. No way.
Of course it will take some stamina to resist the reality distortion field, and every friend I have will be wondering exactly when I'll get that tablet. I am "Mr. Mac," after all, and that's a lot of pressure. In fact, even now, the more I think about life without the tablet, the more difficult life seems. My resolve is slowly coming apart at the seams as I write these words.
To hell with it! It's not something I need. It doesn't solve any problems I have. I can resist. I am strong. I may be "Mr. Mac," but I am also "Mr. Practical."
Which is exactly what I said when the iPhone came out. 3 days later I was in the Apple Store eagerly holding out my credit card to anyone who would take it.TUAWSome personal thoughts about the Apple Tablet originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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