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- Behold, the iQueue
Filed under: Retail, Odds and ends, iPhone
What do you do when you've got a pre-queue queue downstairs, then an actual queue proper upstairs? There's a lot of tired people involved, and twice as many tired legs. The answer, of course, is the iQueue. Dozens of plastic chairs brought in solely for the comfort of your customers' backsides.
This pic was snapped in the London Regents Street Apple Store on Thursday afternoon as a great many people wait for their change to buy an iPhone. Photographer Chris Mac Morrison was less than impressed.
"I'll wait until waiting time is less than 10 mins before i hand over any cash," he told us. Good plan.
Thanks to Mac for the pic.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - First Look: Twinkle
Filed under: iPod Family, Internet, iPhone, App Store
The iPhone will no doubt see it's fair share of Twitter clients (just as the Mac has). Twitterrific is the big name in the Mac/iPhone Twitter app space, but in a client from Tapulous called "Twinkle" has also been generating some interest. Originally released as a jailbreak application for the iPhone and iPod touch, Twinkle has just debuted on the App Store with the ability to location-base your tweets.
While Twitterrific seems to have more precise locating abilities, Twinkle uses the location-based tweeting in interesting ways. For instance, you can see tweets originating within a certain mileage range from your location. Twinkle allows you to easily view your direct messages.
Overall, Twinkle looks like it will give Twitterrific a run for its money. Best part of all? Twinkle (iTunes Link) for iPhone and iPod touch is absolutely free.
Check out our gallery for some screenshots.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Longtime mobile developer feels no love from Apple
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Bad Apple, Developer, iPhone, App Store
Imagine you are a software development company that has been around for 11 years, with award-winning titles for mobile computing devices. You follow the rules, you submit iPhone versions of your applications to the App Store, and yet you still haven't seen your programs make it to the store.
This is the boat that a lot of developers are in, but it is particularly frustrating for Ilium Software. Ilium has sold two well-respected applications -- eWallet and ListPro -- for Palm OS and Windows Mobile devices for years, and has a number of other commercial and free mobile applications on the market.
According to Ilium spokesperson Ellen Craw, eWallet has been "in the queue" at Apple for over two weeks, and they can't get any word from App Store personnel on when their highly anticipated app will actually appear online. The comments in Ilium's blog are particularly revealing, as longtime customers are also frustrated by the black hole at Apple.
Having used Ilium's products before, I'm waiting for both ListPro and eWallet to show up in the store to fill those niches on my iPhone. What other great products are being held up by Apple? We'd love to know!Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - iPhone 101: Re-downloading an application
Filed under: iPod Family, iPhone, App Store
Has a sync somehow gone terribly wrong and you've lost your favorite paid application for your iPhone or iPod touch? Well, if you didn't have a backup of it in your iTunes library, fear not. Apple has designed the App Store to allow for re-downloading purchased applications.
All you have to do is navigate to the application that you originally bought in the App Store and tap "Buy." You will have to enter your password, and the App Store will return you to your home screen where it displays a message saying that you've already bought this application and are entitled to an additional free download. After you tap "OK," your app will begin downloading.
Now you don't have to fret about losing your favorite iPhone or iPod touch application.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - iPhone apps we crave
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, iPhone
Well, Merlin, you did ask.
Having listed some imaginary iPhone apps he'd like to see, Merlin Mann asked the world: "What's the iPhone app you crave?" Hmm, let me see now - I've got a little list.
- Avant Go: A fantastic portable newsagent, in which you could download whole chunks of your favourite magazine and newspaper web sites for offline reading. I used to read dozens of articles in Avant Go on my train commutes in and out of London, back in the days when I commuted. It was an absolutely essential app and I'm very much looking forward to it - or something similar - arriving on iPhone.
- Yojimbo or Notational Velocity for iPhone: See yesterday's rant. If this, or something like this, isn't right round the corner, I shall eat my router.
- TextMate or Bean: This is dependent on Apple opening up Bluetooth to other devices in a future software update. If I could use a full-size external keyboard to quickly write text, I'd want a decent editor to write it in.
Continue reading iPhone apps we crave
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - New Apple Store coming to Leicester
Apple will open a new UK store in Leicester on September 4th. The 577 square metre store will be located in the Highcross Leicester development along with 119 others, 15 restaurants and 3000 parking spaces. The new store joins others in Birmingham, Manchester, Solihull and Sheffield to provide pretty good coverage for the whole region.
Thanks to John Coxon for the tip!Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - iPhone 101 (Canadian edition): Don't forget to sync with iTunes
Filed under: iTS, iPhone, iPhone 101, App Store
For the past year when it comes to the iPhone, us Canadians have had to watch enviously as our American neighbors got to have all the fun. Well, no more! As of today I have joined the ranks of the enlightened -- at least, my wallet has been "lightened".
I am, like many of you, a software junkie. As such, one of things I am really excited about is the App Store. Imagine my surprise today when I tried to access it from my gleaming new device, only to run into an error message when I attempted to download my first app. The error stated "Your account is only valid for purchases in the Canadian iTunes Store." Huh?
My first thought was, "this darn thing has GPS on it, doesn't it know I'm in Canada?" So I went looking in the international settings on the phone, and sure enough the region format was set to United States. I dutifully changed it to Canada and tried again, to be met again with the same error.
At this point I should mention that I had, up until this point, not synchronized my iPhone with iTunes. I had not planned to, since my MacBook Pro is currently down for the count with a dead video card, and it will be a week before the Apple Store has one in stock to repair my machine.
Frustrated by my inability to download apps, I finally threw caution to the wind and synchronized my new iPhone with a newly downloaded copy of iTunes on the Windows desktop I am relegated to using while waiting for my laptop to be repaired. Unfortunately, I still had no luck.
Then it occurred to me to log into the iTunes Store in iTunes using my account. It was at this stage that iTunes informed me that I was viewing the wrong store, and transferred me over to the Canadian iTunes Store. One more synchronization of the iPhone was needed to transfer my iTunes Store credentials into the phone, and I was finally able to waste untold hours downloading applications.
I imagine this tip will apply to almost nobody, but here's hoping that if there's someone else out there that is so dazzled by the iPhone that they are unable to think coherently, as I was, that they will find in this post the help and understanding that they so desperately need. Or something like that.Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - And now for something completely different...
Filed under: TUAW Business
Greetings, TUAW readers. Allow myself to introduce...myself. My name is Kent Pribbernow - a freelance web designer and tech writer hailing from Fort Wayne Indiana - a land of corn fields, lake resorts, Amish buggies, and deadly turnip bombs.
As a long time blogger, I have written about all things Apple with passion and enthusiasm, minus the Kool-Aid and mock turtleneck. Now I join the TUAW team in delivering you the best Apple coverage anywhere. I look forward to your comments, and most of all filling your RSS reader with lots of great content. Keep reading.Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - More Cowbell
Christopher Walken's 'More Cowbell' skit for SNL holds a special place in my heart. So I literally squealed out loud when I saw More Cowbell in the App Store.
Certainly not filed under Productivity, the application presents you with a large cowbell, while the voice of Bruce Dickinson -- yes, the Bruce Dickinson -- lets you know that he's gotta have more cowbell. Outstanding.
So tap away, Gene, tap away -- preferably to the tune of (Don't Fear) the Reaper. Don't do yourself a disservice.
Remember, everyone: I put my pants on, just like the rest of you, one leg at a time. Except, once my pants are on, I make gold records.
[Via Macenstein.]
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - First Look: Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D
Filed under: Gaming, iPhone, App Store
One game that jumped out at me while I was pawing through the virtual game racks at the App Store was Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D from Vivendi Games Mobile.
A racing game featuring Playstation perennial Crash Bandicoot, Nitro Kart 3D is sure to wear out your iPhone batteries quickly. This app uses the accelerometers in the iPhone for control; turn the iPhone left or right like a steering wheel to turn, and tilt the phone up or down to accelerate or brake.
The entire time you're racing against the other characters, including the nefarious Brio, you need to avoid oil slicks and weapons used by your opponents, try to pick up a little time by hitting rainbow-colored "hyperdrive spots" on the track, and hit boxes containing weapons (like surface-to-surface missiles, my personal favorite) so you can slow down the other racers.
The game is localized for English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish, and you can adjust the sensitivity of the accelerometer to keep you from over-controlling your kart. With smooth 3D graphics, fun sound effects, and the enjoyment of waving your iPhone around to steer, Nitro Kart is well worth the $9.99 price in the App Store.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - AT&T finally offers free wifi for US iPhone customers (Update)
Filed under: iPhone
After teasing us about it back in May it looks like AT&T has finally come through. They have announced that they "are proud to offer iPhone customers free access to the nation's largest Wi-Fi hotspot network with more than 17,000 hotspots, including Starbucks". Unfortunately, the details are a little sketchy; it's unclear exactly what you have to do to access the network with your iPhone.
In any case, you can look up an AT&T hotspot near you or search for a Starbucks. Let us know if you've been able to take AT&T up on their offer.
[via iPhone Alley]
Update: It looks like AT&T has once again mistakenly posted this information. That's right, at the moment AT&T is not offering free wifi to iPhone users, but it is in the works. Look for an announcement, and a quick retraction, sometime next week (and then the week after that, and once again...).Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Brando offers A2DP adapter for iPhone & iPod touch
Filed under: iPod Family, Bluetooth, iPhone
A lot of folks had been hoping for support for the A2DP Bluetooth audio stack in the 3G iPhone. (A2DP allows for stereo music over Bluetooth in addition to the standard mono Bluetooth headset audio.) Unfortunately, Apple did not gratify this particular wish, but now Hong Kong-based accessory maker Brando is stepping to the gap with the INFINXX AP23.
Basically, it's a small dongle that plugs into the iPhone or iPod touch Dock port. You can then sync a pair of Bluetooth headphones (with microphone) to both the dongle and the iPhone allowing for phone as well as music support. While the INFINIXX is far from the first A2DP Bluetooth dongle, it is one of the smallest (~5 grams) and clearly takes its design cues from the iPhone.
The Brando INFINXX AP23 is $62. Standard shipping is $3 (7-20 working days) while express shipping (2-7 working days) is $39.
[via Gizmodo]Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - TUAW Hands-on: Spore Origins for the iPhone
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, Apple, iPhone, App Store
In the Electronic Arts booth here at E3, nestled in among the raucous noises of various first-person shooters, is a completely white room with a few cell phones on tables. This is the EA Mobile space, and it was here that we got to play Spore Origins, the iPhone version of Will Wright's sure-to-be masterpiece.
Like the EA Mobile space, Spore Origins is pretty simple and clean, and stands out as a fairly calm experience among the racket of a lot of other iPhone games. Spore takes you through a civilization from ameoba to space travel, but Spore Origins sticks with just the ameoba stage. You play a creature of your own creation and float through the microbial ether, eating things that are smaller than you, and running away from things that are larger.
Read on for TUAW's impressions of one of the most anticipated iPhone games, and why it might not be all we had hoped.Continue reading TUAW Hands-on: Spore Origins for the iPhone
Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - iPhone 3G shortage could last for a month
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone
Contrary to other analysts' rosy comments about Apple's supply chain, Gene Munster from Piper Jaffray is estimating that shortages in the supply of iPhone 3G handsets will last until mid-August.
Munster said that he'd wager "we'll see problems for another two to four weeks," adding, "early demand has been more than [Apple] expected."
Apple's own supply-checking tool reports that a little over a quarter of Apple Stores had iPhone 3Gs to sell today. The hardest model to find is the black, 16GB version. It was available in only 18 stores worldwide.
AT&T stores are also "nearly out."
[Via Macworld.]
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - THQ Wireless' Brad Pitser talks to TUAW about iPhone development
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, iPhone, App Store, SDK
I'm here at E3 in Los Angeles all this week (come say hi at the Joystiq meetup tonight if you're in town!). Yesterday, I got to sit down with Brad Pitser, the Director of Global Production for THQ Wireless, a company that makes games for mobile platforms like the iPhone. Pitser has helped oversee two iPhone games so far: De Blob (now on the App Store) and Star Wars' Force Unleashed (coming out later this year -- Joystiq has my impressions of both). He said that developing for the iPhone so far has been "a dream." They've partnered with Apple to publish on the iPhone and iPod touch as much as they can. "Apple was interested in our brands," Pitser said, "and we were interested in their platform."
One concern he does have about the App Store so far is the pricing -- "everyone thinks $9.99 is too much," he told me. THQ released De Blob at the $6.99 price point. He says THQ has a lot of licensing fees and costs to pay for every game they make, and when those games compete with software that sells for 99 cents, they don't necessarily have a money-making proposition. But at the same time, he'd rather let the market figure things out -- the App Store has a lot of settling down to do, and Pitser is sure that companies will find their place in the price plan soon enough.
I asked him what he thought of what he'd seen in the software that wasn't his, and he said he really enjoyed the iPint visual gag, the UrbanSpoon restaurant finder, and Aurora Feint (all very nice choices). It's great to have a bigger company like THQ interested in getting some good licenses on the iPhone, and hopefully we'll see more come out of Pitser and the division he oversees.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - iPhone 101: Jumping to the top of your mail
Filed under: iPhone, iPhone 101
Mobile Safari has always had a handy feature that i wished Mobile Mail would acquire. Apple must have read my mind, because it's now available.
If you're unlucky enough to receive lots of email, you can quickly jump to the top of the list by touching the menu bar (where the time is displayed) as of the iPhone 2.0 software. Ta-dah!
Remember, you can bulk delete mail with greater ease now, too. Both of these improvements are welcome, but it would be even better to be able to mark all messages as read (or unread) just as easily.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - A quick rant about Notes
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, iPhone
You got your iPhone. You got your computer. Your emails sync. Your contacts sync. Your calendars sync. Your music, your podcasts, your photos, all your stuff: it just syncs. This is good.
Your notes? They don't sync.
This. Is. Bad.
Not just bad, but actually driving me nuts. It drives me nuts because I can't believe there's a technical challenge to be overcome here. On the iPhone, you have your Notes app in which you write text notes. How hard can it be to sync them up with something on the computer to which the iPhone is attached?
A friend says to me: "Sync them where? With Stickies?" He has a point - there's no obvious, existing place for text notes to go, but again, that doesn't sound to me like something that need be a problem. Let's have a simple desktop app called, um, Notes, with which the iPhone version syncs. OK, even Stickies if we have to. All I want to do is easily reach my iPhone-jotted notes when I'm working on the Mac.
Yes, I know about the work-arounds. I could use a Drafts folder in an IMAP account. I could add notes to a contact. I could just email stuff back and forth to myself. But none of these fits in with the way I work already, all of them are work-arounds. We're talking about text notes here: there shouldn't be any need for work-arounds. I look forward to a simple solution appearing in the App Store soon.
That said, despite the horrible Marker Felt font, I quite like the Notes app. I just wish it would sync. Is that too much to ask?Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Amazon Video on Demand Service is Mac-friendly
Filed under: Video
Back in 2006 we covered the launch of the Amazon Unbox video service which was then being pitched as the best alternative to the iTunes Store. There was one big problem: it didn't support Macs. Now, finally, Amazon is starting to rectify the situation with their new Amazon Video on Demand Service. PC Magazine has a First Look at the Service and, sure enough, it now supports Macs.
It appears that the new service will be similar to Netflix's streaming (which does not support the Mac, though they have promised it a long time ago) in that you'll be able to watch 40,000 movies and television shows in your browser. Unlike Netflix, however, the content will be priced individually with no subscription options. The video will be streamed with Flash 9.
Unfortunately, the program is still in beta and Amazon apparently has enough testers at the moment. However, you can sign up for their beta mailing list if you want to get in the next time they issue invitations.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Apple rectifies App Store sorting
Filed under: App Store
A while back we noted that there some shady practices going on at the App Store. Basically certain developers were putting spaces or other characters in the front of their application names so that they would come up on the first page in the alphabetical sort at the iTunes App Store. According to Infinite Loop Apple has quietly rectified the problem.
It now seems that if you go to the App Store the default listing is by release date. However, if you change it to Name you'll find that the first page basically has what it's supposed to have. Right now displaying all iPhone apps (iTunes link) starts with the ebook 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea with Abacus second. It's nice to see that Apple has been proactive in taking care of this.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Two views on iPhone OS and the App Store
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple, iPhone
Most of you will have heard of Fraser Speirs. He's the developer behind FlickrExport and now Exposure for iPhone.
This week he's made two consecutive and interesting posts that show what it's been like to be a software developer during the first few days of the Store's operation.
In one post, he complains about the review process imposed on not just every app, but every update to every app that gets submitted to the Store. Things are not being reviewed fast enough, he says: "If Apple can't guarantee a maximum 24 hour review process, they should drop it."
In the second, Fraser reveals that Exposure has been downloaded an average of 3,200 times per day since the Store opened. It already has more users than FlickrExport for Aperture, a much older and better-established product.
"These are crazy numbers," he says. His point is simple: the iPhone as a platform is going to be huge. In fact, it's going to be "Apple's mainstream platform for 2012 and beyond." Now there's a prediction.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать
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