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Elgato EyeTV HD: A review of the Mac DVR for cable and satellite HDTV

Elgato has been in the Mac video market for quite some time, developing and marketing such popular products as the Turbo.264 HD USB video compression device and various varieties of EyeTV, a tuner and digital video recorder for Mac.

Eariler this year, TUAW reviewed the EyeTV Hybrid, a US$149.95 USB dongle that serves as a tuner and recorder for over-the-air digital TV. Since that time, Elgato has released the EyeTV HD ($199.95 and available for less through online outlets), which the company touts as "the ultimate DVR for HD cable and satellite TV."

Both devices work with Elgato's EyeTV software for Mac, which features a program guide, smart guides for recording a season of any show to your Mac or an external disk automatically, easy export of video to iTunes for syncing to iDevices, and even streaming to the EyeTV iOS app. The big difference? EyeTV HD works with the HD cable or satellite boxes that many people use to pump that high-quality digital signal to their HDTVs. Click the Read More link below for a full review of this unique video hardware.
Continue reading Elgato EyeTV HD: A review of the Mac DVR for cable and satellite HDTV
Elgato EyeTV HD: A review of the Mac DVR for cable and satellite HDTV originally appeared on TUAW on Sat, 18 Dec 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Screens: an easy and elegant VNC app for iOS
VNC (virtual network computing) has been around for a long time, but lately there seems to be more and more interest in it, perhaps because of all the iPad and iPhone owners who want to connect to their computers back home or at the office.

Screens, from Edovia, is a new entrant in the VNC app race. It is on sale at US $14.99 for a limited time, after which the price will go up to $24.99. The app is universal, so your purchase allows you to install it on both an iPad and iPhone, or an iPod touch.

Like many other similar apps, Screens has support for many multi-touch gestures, as well as squeeze motions to enlarge or shrink the screen back down. The main difference is that with the other apps, you use those gestures to move a cursor around the screen or in some cases, move the screen around a stationary cursor. Screens allows you to control the remote computer using your finger as a virtual mouse or trackpad.

Of course, you have to run a VNC server app on the machine you want to connect to, and you can find those for Windows and Linux. OS X has VNC built in; you just activate screen sharing in the Mac Sharing preference pane. If you have multiple PCs set up to connect to, you flick between those screens on your iPad, iPod touch or iPhone.

I've tried it at home and was easily able to connect to my desktop Mac and a Windows XP PC. Using the app was a pleasure, and because of the way touch is integrated it felt like a pure multi-touch app, rather than a screen emulator. There is a dedicated keyboard, and a second one with keys that relate to the type of computer you are connecting to. For example, you can invoke a Spotlight search with a tap when connected to a Mac.

Gallery: Screens Remote access app for iOS devices
Continue reading Screens: an easy and elegant VNC app for iOS
Screens: an easy and elegant VNC app for iOS originally appeared on TUAW on Sat, 18 Dec 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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PhatPad: a Newton-like note-taking app for iPad
There are so many good note-taking apps out for the iPad that it's hard to believe that someone just came out with one that will probably take the place of the ones we've already installed.

That's the case, though, with PhatPad (US$4.99). From PhatWare, a long-time developer of apps for handhelds and smartphones, PhatPad brings the best of Newton MessagePad note-taking to the iPad. That's right -- I just compared the ahead-of-its-time Apple Newton MessagePad of the 90's with the sleek and powerful iPad.

Two things that the later models of the Newton did very well were to convert handwriting to editable text, and to provide a way to sketch diagrams freehand and have them "cleaned up." By that, I mean that the built-in Newton software was able to take a scrawled circular shape and turn it magically into a perfect circle. It did the same for squares, rectangles, and triangles.

PhatPad provides the same capabilities, and then adds in the sharing capabilities that weren't available even in 1998 when the Newton product line was canceled by Apple. You can take handwritten notes and convert them to text later on, enter text via handwriting into text boxes placed in specific places on a blank page, and annotate photos or other images with text or drawings. PhatWare's long experience in the handheld arena definitely shows in PhatPad. The app has many features that haven't been added in other note-taking apps.

Continue reading PhatPad: a Newton-like note-taking app for iPad
PhatPad: a Newton-like note-taking app for iPad originally appeared on TUAW on Sat, 18 Dec 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Jenga for iPhone has great graphics, frustrating gameplay
Jenga. Jenga. J-J-J-Jenga. Now that you've got that Jenga song stuck in your head, you're ready for a review of Jenga on the iPhone.

The original Jenga was about as simple as games get. As the song goes, you take a block from the bottom, and you put it on top. Or, you can take a block from the middle, then put it on top. Once the tower of wooden blocks falls over, the game ends. When two or more players play, the one who caused the tower to topple is the loser.

The basic gameplay works exactly the same way on the iPhone, with graphics that seem almost excessively beautiful for a game of this type. But there's one very critical "gotcha" that made the game incredibly frustrating for me -- without any sort physical feedback, I found the game almost impossibly difficult compared to the real-world version of the game.

Read on to discover how Jenga proved to be both an unexpected delight and an exercise in frustration.

Continue reading Jenga for iPhone has great graphics, frustrating gameplay
Jenga for iPhone has great graphics, frustrating gameplay originally appeared on TUAW on Sat, 18 Dec 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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SmartPush iPhone app dead, reminds us apps are not forever
SmartPush was a neat iPhone app from a small startup, Syphir, which allowed the configuration of clever filters for Gmail push notifications. For example, the user could configure rules like "always send me a push notification for all emails from my wife," "don't send notifications between 11pm and 7am" or "don't sent me a notification if the email was sent to more than three people." Our own TJ Luoma was very positive when he reviewed it back in July, and said it's a good way to for people with busy inboxes to calm down the incessant beep-beeping of their iPhones.

Sadly, one of the founders of the company has confirmed on a post to their customer service forum that the iPhone app is no more. He's attempting to keep part of the company going but the other two founders have left and he can no longer afford the infrastructure costs for the push notification service. He has had to turn it off and remove the app from sale. This means that people who paid for the app during its nine month lifespan (between $1 and $3) are now out of luck -- it will no longer work for them.

The sums of money involved in this case may be small, but the principles are large. The explosive popularity of the App Store, as well as its accessibility to small startups, has drawn many new companies into the fold, and we all know that a lot of apps use the iPhone's wireless networking to hook into always-on web services. Let's be frank: not all of these companies are going to have reliable revenue streams, and when they fold, people who bought their product are going to be left with broken apps and no compensation.

This is particularly problematic for apps that offer Push Notifications. Because of how Apple structured them, any developer adding notification support to their app has to commit to keeping servers alive to send the notifications through -- even if the app doesn't have any other need for hosting. Once the app sales saturate the developer is left with dwindling income but a significant fixed ongoing cost hosting and maintaining the servers.

Continue reading SmartPush iPhone app dead, reminds us apps are not forever
SmartPush iPhone app dead, reminds us apps are not forever originally appeared on TUAW on Sat, 18 Dec 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Daily Deals for December 18, 2010
Again brought to you by dealnews.com. These won't last forever, but what does? Christmas is just seven days away, after all.
- iTunes Store: iPhone App Price Drops: PolyTune, Crayon Physics Deluxe, Bruce Lee, more
- iTunes Store: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for iPhone and iPod touch downloads for $1
- Apple Store: Refurbished Apple iPads: Up to $100 off, from $429 + free shipping
- Meritline: Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter and 6-Foot HDMI Cable for $7 + free shipping
- Small Dog Electronics: Apple iMac 3.33GHz 27" Desktop w/ 12GB RAM, AppleCare for $1,600 + $5 s&h
- JR: Audio-Technica Stereo Headphones for $13 + free shipping
- BuyDig: Canon EOS Rebel T2i 18MP DSLR Bundle for $817 after rebate + free shipping
- TigerDirect: Samsung HZ50W 14MP 26x Zoom Digital Camera for $200 + $4 s&h
- MegaMacs: V-Moda Faze Nero Headphones for $20 + $9 s&h, more
- Best Buy: Canon PIXMA Wireless Multifunction Photo Inkjet Printer for $50 + pickup
- SquareTrade: SquareTrade coupon: 30% off warranties
- Buy.com: Genica Mini USB LED Digital Projector for $90 + free shipping
Daily Deals for December 18, 2010 originally appeared on TUAW on Sat, 18 Dec 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Rage v1.11 update adds Game Center, gyroscope controls and TV support

A big update for id games' Rage: Mutant Bash TV (available in SD and HD versions for $0.99 and $1.99; the latter being for iPhone 4 and iPad) has appeared on iTunes overnight. As John Carmack noted in our recent interview with him, it adds a number of new features that arguably should have been there from day one -- namely Game Center achievements and scoreboards. As the game is fundamentally an on-rails shooter with a strong score attack aesthetic, social leaderboards will certainly make for a more compelling experience.

That's not all the update contains, however. The previously unofficial TV out support has been upgraded to a supported feature, allowing you to cable your iOS device to a bigger screen. A new "museum mode" removes the monsters and lets you play through the levels at your own pace, presumably so you can show your friends the graphics whilst exclaiming "it's on a phone!!" A mirror mode flips the game left-to-right so you can eek out a little more fresh gameplay out of the three rather short levels.

Most intriguing, however, is the addition of gyroscope controls if you have an iPhone 4. As with the recent Star Wars: Falcon Gunner, this adds an aiming mode based on moving your iPhone around as if it were a window onto the game space. This offers a new and potentially compelling way to control iOS shooters, not to mention a definitely compelling way to look stupid if you play it in public.

With Rage vying with Epic's Infinity Blade in the iTunes charts, it's just like the late 90s Quake-versus-Unreal competition all over again... except this time they are both getting crushed by Electronic Arts.
Rage v1.11 update adds Game Center, gyroscope controls and TV support originally appeared on TUAW on Sat, 18 Dec 2010 10:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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TUAW Giveaway: Ash, classic-style RPG for iOS

You probably already have plenty of iOS games to play, given how many crazy good releases we've seen in the past week or so. But there's always room for one more, right? Ash was chosen as our Daily App a while back -- it's an iOS game that hearkens back to the classic 16-bit RPGs of my youth, the old Final Fantasy games on SNES and Phantasy Star on the Sega Genesis. It's currently US$2.99 on the App Store, but apparently you've all been very nice this year, because SRRN Games has passed along ten promo codes to get the game for free. We're giving those to ten lucky commenters.

Hit the "Read more" link below to see the official rules, and enter by leaving a comment on this post.
Continue reading TUAW Giveaway: Ash, classic-style RPG for iOS
TUAW Giveaway: Ash, classic-style RPG for iOS originally appeared on TUAW on Sat, 18 Dec 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Found Footage: An iPad-controlled robot that attacks

Thanks to the iPad and TouchOSC, robot Hikari can now be controlled by our favorite tablet device. The system for control on the iPad is powered by TouchOSC, a remote control application that sends commands to an external device using the Open Sound Control (OSC) protocol. These commands are sent to a Max patch running on a Windows-based PC. Commands are then relayed directly to the PC-connected robot.

In the YouTube video after the break, owner Darkback2 uses this system to make Hikari walk and stand up from both a face-up and a face-down position. You should watch out, though, as the iPad controller can also be used to make Hikari attack, an action that fits in nicely with the video's drum-heavy theme music. For those that are wondering, ... no, robot Hikari does not dance.

Thanks Bob for sending this in!

Continue reading Found Footage: An iPad-controlled robot that attacks
Found Footage: An iPad-controlled robot that attacks originally appeared on TUAW on Sat, 18 Dec 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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EA's App Store price war

As we previously reported, EA dropped prices on most of its iOS apps this week, and that sale sent shockwaves through the App Store's holiday season. We've seen tons of awesome new apps hit the store in the past few weeks, but if you look at the Top Paid apps right now, most of them are older EA favorites. EA currently has six of the top 10 apps on the store (with Battlefield: Bad Company 2 leading the way -- a big name title released for just 99 cents), and it's peppered throughout the rest of the top 50 as well. The biggest recent release on the list is probably Infinity Blade, which, despite extremely solid reviews and lots of press about its release, is currently down at number 16.

In short, EA has kicked off a price war, and there's a time limit on this one. Apple is freezing the charts on December 23rd, which means that any games in the top 200 at that time will remain there over the all-important Christmas holiday, the point at which we've seen the biggest jumps in App Store sales (due to all the new hardware out there under the tree).

At least one big publisher has already responded in kind -- Gamevil has announced a price drop on many of its apps, including the just-released Illusia and Nom, although it couldn't make it down to the 99 cent price that EA is offering. I would say look out for more big sales in the next few days. Companies have had a lot of success with App Store sales in the past, and as we get closer to that holiday freeze and the ensuing burst of sales, they're much more likely to start pulling out the big guns.
EA's App Store price war originally appeared on TUAW on Sat, 18 Dec 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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