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- Now Boarding: Airline Tycoon Gaming
Though no gaming platform has a shortage of "simulator" tycoon style games, few have enough engaging gameplay to really stand out among the crowd. Now Boarding, a tycoon style game revolving around routing passengers at an airport, is one of these little treasures and a great game to help you relax and escape from the real world.
The basic gist is that you are the owner of an airline and its home terminal, in charge of the amount and placement of seats, stores, and snacks (among other unlockable treasures). Your mission is simple. Ferry passengers from your airport to others. As your business grows, you can take on other destinations, more passengers and larger aircraft to handle the traffic.
The game is laid out as five "episodes" spanning various regions across the northern hemisphere. Individual cities within each episode have their own unique characteristics, such as Orlando being busier during the summer (due to its amusement parks). Strategy is essential as you grow your fleet of aircraft and choose which destinations to expand your airline service to next.
With unique graphics and an engaging soundtrack, gameplay is very upbeat and fun. Don't be surprised to waste huge amounts of time as you play to unlock awards and achievements.
Inside your terminal, you are responsible for staffing appropriate positions (ticketing, gate attendant, customer service, docking) in addition to expanding your airline fleet, all while keeping within your budget. As traffic to your airline grows, you will be able to expand to offer more unique methods of transportation, including a helicopter, a 36 seat plane and a private jet.
As your airline business grows, so does the difficulty of keeping happy the hundreds of passengers that move throughout your terminal. As the pressure mounts and more passengers pile into your terminal than you can handle, they will start to get angry. When they have a melt down, the game is over.
Now Boarding started as a Flash-based game and, due to its nature, does require a pretty beefy system for decent gameplay. Users will need to have at least a 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo or 1GHz PowerPC G4 processor or faster to play. On older Macs, performance may degrade as you progress higher into the game as your airline plays host to an increasing number of passengers. The game is built around the Adobe Air platform, so in addition to being compatible with Windows and Linux, it also runs just like any other standalone application, complete with its own icon.
Now Boarding is a great game that starts off simple and easy, but quickly scales in terms of difficulty and challenges. A demo version of Now Boarding is available at its website here. The full version costs $14.99. If you've had a chance to play, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
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Переслать - Zefyr Pro Keeps Your MacBook Cool
The Zefyr Pro from Moshi is one of the prettiest laptop coolers on the market. Designed for the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 15 and 17-inch models, it's one of the more expensive laptop coolers, too, at a staggering $80. I bought it because my previous cooler — an Akasa 15 inch Classic Cooler — was starting to look like a battered old griddle. Not to mention it wasn’t particularly portable, being a single large rectangle of thick corrugated metal. So, after a trip overseas last month where the temperatures were high and my MacBook suffered, I returned home convinced I should find a Mac-centric replacement.
The Zefyr Pro is aesthetically close to unibody MacBooks, with its minimalist industrial design and sleek brushed-aluminum body. It's smaller than a typical laptop cooler, too; while most coolers consist of a base-plate with roughly the same footprint as the laptops they're designed to accommodate, the Zefyr Pro is only 10 centimeters deep, but its aluminum fins provide acres of surface area to aide in heat dissipation (first by conduction, then by radiation).
The Zefyr Pro is squarely aimed at MacBook Air and Pro owners; in its 'folded' mode the device perfectly fits the MacBook Air, while extendable 'wings' slide out to easily accommodate the wider 15 and 17-inch MacBook Pro's.
My old Akasa had two large (and silent) USB powered fans, while the Zefyr Pro has only one, but that single fan is positioned in what is seemingly just the right spot on the underside of my MacBook Pro to get airflow where it's most needed.
Moshi brags about a special "high-thermal conduction interface compound" on the Zefyr Pro that provides a heat-hungry contact between the Zefyr and the underside of the MacBook. It sounds impressive, until you realize this "high-thermal conduction interface compound" amounts to a slightly rubbery 8×5cm grey pad in the middle of the Zefyr. I don't know if it's as effective as Moshi claims, but if it is, I wonder why the entire contact surface of the Zefyr isn't coated with that material? If it were, surely the Zefyr would do an even better job of conducting heat away from the MacBook?
The "High-thermal conduction interface compound" is that dull grey rectangle in the center
All I can tell you is that, by bringing my MacBook Pro's operating temperature down an average of 8-12º, my Zefyr Pro manages about the same practical cooling my old Akasa did, but in a device a little under half the size. My Akasa cost me about $20 three years ago. The Zefyr cost me over $80. I'm not feeling very good about this.
The single fan is reasonably quiet, though not as silent as the old Akasa (and that thing had two fans!). It's a small point to make, but I wish there were a hardware switch for turning the fan on and off (which I could do on the old Akasa). Currently, the fan is powered-up the moment the Zefyr's USB cable is plugged-in to my MacBook. Call me picky, but I don't think a hardware switch on the USB dongle would be so hard to do, right? At $80, this is an expensive heat-sink. I'd expect a little more attention to detail.
Because the Zefyr Pro is so diminutive, it raises the MacBook slightly at the back. If you're working on your lap you might not notice much of a difference, but on a desk those few degrees make a surprising difference — and for the better. Typing is genuinely more comfortable.
Slip Slidin’ Away
But here is where my final gripe lies. The Zefyr has very little friction between itself and the underside of the MacBook. Not even that 8×5cm "conduction interface compound" is rubbery enough to prevent slippage. As you type, the vibrations and downward pressure of your fingers on the keys encourage the MacBook to 'slide' across and down the Zefyr's smooth surface toward you.
This is particularly noticeable if you are working on a desk or other smooth surface, though you might not experience it as much if the machine is resting in your lap. Over time, quite without realizing it, your MacBook eventually slides so far forward that the Zefyr is only partially covered by the MacBook, so presumably doing a far less efficient job of cooling it. I feel this could be easily solved if the top edges of the Zefyr's 'wings' were rubber instead of hard, frictionless plastic. Again, it's attention to detail I think Moshi should have made to justify that $80 price tag.
Overall though, this is a reasonably effective piece of kit I'd recommend to anyone who wants to keep their MacBook Air/Pro cool and remain stylish, without sacrificing portability. If you don't think style and portability are worth the larger part of a hundred dollars, I'd find it hard to argue with you. It does what it’s supposed to do, but the Zefyr Pro simply isn't worth its current price tag.
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Переслать - Namco Powers Up Apple Gaming
If you play Texas Hold ‘Em on the iPhone, you know Jonathan Kromrey, the former games producer at Apple having worked on that title. His new title isn’t a game, but a position, head of Apple Gaming for Namco, producer of 80s’ nostalgia games like PAC-MAN, Dig Dug and Galaga.
According to Macworld, Kromrey will be busy. Namco will have “five games shipping in August, and five more to go before the year is out,” though no titles are named. However, a slightly more informative interview at the Washington Post states “some new IP” will be coming, though again no names.
Kromrey will also be overseeing the addition of features like voice recognition and multi-player in new games, as well as updating released games to better utilize iPhone OS 3.0. This means features like accessing the iTunes library during gameplay and Facebook Connect support.
Kromrey also stated that Namco is not interested in ad-supported games, preferring to develop games where price determines content. If this means “lite” versions, great, but as a gamer who watched with horror the In-App Purchase system demo, I fear a gaming future of being micro-transacted to death.
Just say no to buying dual fighters in Galaga.
Переслать - Tip Jar: Getting More Out of Google Voice
With invites going out every day and Google and Apple being in the news many times over because of the rejection of its native Google Voice app for the iPhone, many are giving this service a close look. If you're a Mac or iPhone user, here are some tips that'll help you get the most out of this service.
Unlocked Phone? Free calls!
Though officially iPhone users in the U.S. should be on the AT&T network, if you're using another carrier, you may be able to use your Google Voice number to get around your monthly allotment of minutes. Some carriers, like T-Mobile, offer the ability to provide a list of "frequently" used numbers that do not impact the minutes allowed on a monthly plan. Since Google is footing the bill for connecting calls between a Google Voice number and any other number inside the U.S., simply adding your Google number to your "favorite list" results in free calls. It's too bad AT&T doesn't support this feature.
No GV Mobile? No problem!
The internets were in a tizzy last week over the removal of GV Mobile from Apple's App Store, leaving iPhone users with Google's mobile website to place calls. If you are one of few who have jailbroken your phone, you can find GV Mobile through Cydia. For more information, check out Sean Kovacs website.
If jailbreaking isn’t your bag, then no problem! The traditional way that Google Voice works is that you simply call your Google Voice number and then press “2.” From here, you can dial the outgoing call as normal. For those who frequently are calling contacts with their Google Voice number, here's a quick way to simplify the process.
In your iPhone's address book, you can add another number for a contact and format it so that your iPhone does all the dirty work of calling Google and connecting the call for you.
The process is simple. Create a new contact entry for your desired contact and for their number, insert your own Google number. Then press the “+*#” key and then the "pause" button to insert a pause. Now type a "2" followed by another "pause" and finally the desired phone number for the contact. Now you've told your iPhone to dial Google, initiate a new call and contact the number you've selected. Here's how it should look:
Though dialing will take slightly longer, it's all automated and the other person will see your Google number when their phone rings! Depending on your settings, you may also need to input your PIN number with appropriate pauses. Also, make sure your Google Voice account is setup to allow direct access to voicemail when calling from your phone. These options are all in your Google Voice settings.
Google Voice On Your Mac
If your browser of choice is Firefox, developer Chad Smith has developed a plugin that quickly allows users to click any phone number on the web and dial and connect via their Google Voice number. This free plugin is available here.
Are you a Google Voice user? Have you discovered other neat tips and tricks? Do you love it? Do you hate it? Sound off and share your thoughts!
Переслать - iPhonetography: Yeah, There's an App for That
Since the first camera phone, the Sharp J-SH04, was released back in 2000, new cell phones have continued to raise the bar by delivering an ever increasing number of pixels and functionality into the waiting hands of mobile photographers. With the arrival of the iPhone App Store and the new iPhone 3GS, the bar has been set higher than ever and emerging iPhonetographers are taking full advantage.
Obviously there are some limitations to the type of images you can produce with an iPhone. It’s not going to replace your DSLR anytime soon, as Duncan Davidson makes plainly clear. But it’s got huge potential as a tool for making great images anytime or anywhere precisely because it’s a tool you’ve always got with you wherever you go. It’s a niche part of the photography market for sure, but serving a niche market is what Apple does best.
With popular services to facilitate image sharing, and with image quality steadily increasing, one can only imagine that this niche will continue to grow while the gap between the camera phone and the dedicated camera continues to close. If Flickr usage is any indicator, it would seem that the iPhone is far and away the most popular camera phone out there. All this despite the fact that its closest mobile competitors offer things it doesn’t, like more megapixels and a built in flash. What accounts for this discrepancy?
Popular Cameraphones on Flickr
It’s the apps!
The three megapixel camera and new touch interaction that came with the 3GS were a clear step forward for iPhonetography. With an intuitive way to quickly adjust the color temperature, focus, and exposure of the image users now have more freedom to capture scenes that will work well within the iPhones limitations. The real power of the iPhone as an imaging device though comes from the amazing applications available for it in the iTunes App Store.
- AutoStitch is an application for creating panoramas by stitching together multiple images taken from the phone. It does an amazing job at connecting the individual photos together and creating a seamless shot. I’m a total amateur, but I took a couple of quick shots from my balcony and had AutoStitch combine them with the result you see below.
- Photogene provides a full suite of editing options for your photographs, with features including cropping and rotating, effects filters, and fine tune adjustment of the photos color and exposure. I actually used Photogene to crop the raw panorama image produced by AutoStitch that you see above.
- Vint Shift will let you have some fun with the “tilt-shift” effect. If your not familiar with this style of photography, it’s all about simulating a smaller depth of field in the photograph to create the illusion that the scene your looking at is taking place on a much smaller scale. Again, as a total amateur I used Vint Shift to snap the photo you see below.
- CameraBag lets you apply a set of filters to your photos so you can recreate historic camera styles. CameraBag provides 11 styles in all including:
- Helga: A square-format tory camera with washed-out highlights and old-school vignetting.
- 1974: This is your father’s camera. Faded, tinted, and hip.
- 1962: Dynamic black and whites from the photojournalists of a bygone era.
- Mono: Smooth gradation from black to white.
These are just a few of the over 1000 photography related applications available in the iTunes App Store, with more showing up everyday. It’s not all about the tools, though. Taking great photos takes talent and creativity, but perhaps more importantly, it takes practice, and I also wouldn’t underestimate the role of serendipity and being in the right place at the right time. Which is why I’m so optimistic for the potential of the iPhone as a great photography platform. It has often been said that the best camera is the one you have with you, and if that’s true then I like the iPhone’s chances.
Some great examples of iPhonetography in action
As I said above, I’m a total amateur when it comes to photography, so I wanted to include some links to people who are truly taking advantage of all that the iPhone has to offer when it comes to mobile photography.
If you’re aware of others who are pushing the envelope of iPhonetography, or if you have a favorite photography app you’d like to share, please add it to the comments.
Переслать - AutoStitch is an application for creating panoramas by stitching together multiple images taken from the phone. It does an amazing job at connecting the individual photos together and creating a seamless shot. I’m a total amateur, but I took a couple of quick shots from my balcony and had AutoStitch combine them with the result you see below.
- Upgrade Strategy: Get Ready for Snow Leopard
Snow Leopard’s release is just around the corner, so here are some quick and easy steps to make sure that you are ready to upgrade.
Turn On Time Machine
If you haven’t already, now is a great time to turn on the Time Machine built in backup. It’s not perfect, but it’s a great first line of defense against data loss.
Make a Bootable External Drive
Use Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper to clone your Mac’s hard drive to an external USB drive as an emergency backup, in case both the upgrade and the Time Machine backup both go south. The real point of both this step and the Time Machine step are to backup, backup, backup! Get your data off of your computer and onto something else that can be saved in case of the worst.
Get Rid of Haxies
Haxies are unsupported hacks that alter the appearance or functionality of OS X. While they can be cool, and nothing against Unsanity, anything that’s done under the covers or outside of what Apple says is OK to play with is easily broken during a major OS upgrade. Application Enhancer has been a known culprit in the past, and some developers will ask that it be removed before support or ignore crash reports that involve it all together.
Disable Bundles
Bundles like SIMBL are also a sort of hack that can cause problems during an upgrade. As I said before, they are a good hack, but a hack nonetheless, and can cause unforeseen problems during an upgrade.
Sync Up
iPods, iPhones, MobileMe, any third-party devices or syncing that you have set up…make sure they are all synced and up to date before starting the upgrade procedure.
Update Your Apps
This shouldn’t be that big of a deal as long as you are already running Leopard, but it’s still a good idea to check and make sure that you are running the latest released version of your apps. Developers who joined the Apple Developer Connection as a premier member have had access to Snow Leopard for a while now, and have hopefully worked out the bugs in running their app. That being said, upgrade your apps, just to make sure. I’ve found that it’s also a good practice to download updated installers for your favorite apps and burn them to a CD or DVD for quick access.
If you are feeling daring, you may want to give AppFresh a look and see about having it update all of your apps for you.
Clean House
Have a ton of old apps laying around that you don’t need anymore? Now is the best time to AppZap them! I seriously do not understand why AppZapper, or some similar functionality is not built into OS X. Both Cocktail and Onyx have functions to clean out temporary files, check permissions, and ensure that the OS is in good operating order.
Watch the Clock
Snow Leopard is set to be released in September 2009, which as the writing of this happens is just around one month away. Snow Leopard brings with it the opportunity to make your Mac “Better, Faster, Easier,” than ever before.
Have a favorite OS X upgrade tradition? Sound off in the comments!
Переслать - A Look At the Upcoming OS Family Packs From Apple and Microsoft
As more and more households have multiple PCs, the idea of a “family pack” (i.e., a piece of software with multiple licenses for use) makes a lot of sense. Since Apple and Microsoft are set to release new versions of their respective operating systems this fall (Apple’s Snow Leopard in September, Microsoft’s Windows 7 in October), let’s look at the family pack available for each.
Microsoft
Microsoft finally ended all rumors of a Windows 7 Family Pack, announcing that there would indeed be such a product:
The Windows 7 Family Pack will be available starting on October 22 until supplies last here in the U.S. and other select markets. In the U.S., the price for the Windows 7 Family Pack will be $149.99 for three Windows 7 Home Premium licenses.
It’s not that paying $150 for three licenses is a bad deal, it’s just that the paragraph above pretty much constitutes the entire announcement, which is bad because…
- Where is the Family Pack for Professional? What about Ultimate? Sadly, there is no such thing. Why isn’t Microsoft making its other OS editions available in similar “family friendly” offerings?
- It’s only for a limited time (”until supplies last”). This is a software product on disc that comes with a three-user license, there are no “supplies.” The only thing that can run out is Microsoft’s willingness to provide this value to the consumer.
So Microsoft will thwart consumers who desire Professional or Ultimate by requiring full licenses even if they want to run it on all the PCs in their home. This is practically an engraved invitation to pirate the software.
Further, after some as-yet-unnamed amount of time, the Home Premium deal will be withdrawn. Perhaps this is just a maneuver to juice up early interest and sales for PR purposes, and once they can report large numbers of licenses sold they’ll just end the deal.
Apple
Apple’s upcoming Snow Leopard will be sold in family packs of five licenses for $49. This is a better deal than Microsoft’s in many ways:
- Obviously, $50 for five license is much better than $150 for three.
- Unlike Microsoft, Apple doesn’t offer “crippled” editions. Their family pack will consist of the full (”Ultimate”, to use Microsoft’s term) version of Snow Leopard.
- There is no expiration date on availability.
Aside from its OS, Apple also offers family packs for their iLife and iWork suites that are incredible values.
Conclusion
While I’m not suggesting upgrade pricing alone would be a reason to switch to a Mac, I do believe Apple’s family packs (which are not new) are an impressive, and important, value. I consider them part of the Apple value equation; a computer is a combination of hardware and software, not just one or the other.
I think Apple’s philosophy on family packs is clear. Put simply, they take the sting out of wanting to run multiple licenses for multiple machines. They provide such an excellent value, the consumer has little issue with legitimizing multiple software copies in their home.
For Microsoft, this is new territory. I’m glad to see there was some truth to the earlier rumors, but it all falls short. While the family pack for Windows 7 is a smart move, Microsoft is misguided to limit it to just the “cheap” edition and to make the offer short-term. Indeed, why not encourage people to legitimize multiple copies, and up-sell Professional, by offering a family pack at the high-end? If the goal was to limit piracy, I believe it will have only a minimal impact there.
Nonetheless, if your decision to use Windows 7 is already made, and Home Premium is what you desire, then I’d certainly recommend snapping up the family pack before Microsoft changes its mind.
Переслать - Eric Schmidt Resigns From Apple Board
Google CEO Eric Schmidt has resigned from Apple’s Board of Directors. Given the conflicts of interest, this is not unexpected — Schmidt had already recused himself from any iPhone discussion, and now that Google is getting into the OS business, I guess that would leave Schmidt free to talk about hardware.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs issued a statement confirming Schmidt’s departure as well as offering praise for Schmidt’s past work on the board:
“Eric has been an excellent Board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful,” Jobs said. “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s board.”
While we are now free to discuss how “mutual” the decision was — it’s been my experience any “mutual decision” for a separation is a “mutually decided upon bundle of cash as we kick your sorry butt out the door” — I much prefer Fake Steve Jobs’ take on the situation.
Переслать - OS X Market Share Jumps, iPhone Bumped, Safari 4 Trumps in July
According to web metrics firm Net Applications, July was a very good month for Apple. OS X was sharply higher in usage, while the iPhone 3GS launch boosted Apple mobile numbers, and version 4 of Safari effectively replaced version 3 for those using Apple’s browser.
What can you say when your main competitor, Microsoft Windows, has 93 percent of the market? At least OS X is not Linux, which just topped 1 percent of client usage worldwide. As for OS X, it now measures 4.86 percent, up from 4.7 percent in June. If an increase of 0.16 percent doesn’t seem like much, consider that last year at this time OS X market share measured 3.54 percent. That’s about a 33 percent increase in a year. Next month, it’s possible OS X could see 5 percent worldwide share. OS X is on the way up, though not as fast as iPhone OS.
While iPhone OS measures just over a third of a percent of all operating systems, that represents around 50 million users. It’s also a tenfold increase from when the original iPhone was launched in June 2007, and as the chart shows, that trend is accelerating. With the rollout of the iPhone 3GS worldwide, especially the imminent release in China, it’s quite possible there could be 100 million iPhone OS users by this time next year. Even if that number isn’t realized, in less than two years, the iPhone OS has become the leader among mobile operating systems, at least according to Net Applications.
It should be noted that the above accounts for only 0.88 percent of all OS usage, according to Net Applications. Again, that’s a lot of users, perhaps more than 100 million, and Apple is moving towards a user majority. Speaking of majority, Safari 4 has reached one of its own.
Microsoft can only look longingly at the upgrade rate for Safari compared with Internet Explorer. In less than two months since Safari 4 was officially released at WWDC 09, a majority of users have transitioned to the latest version. Of course, Internet Explorer still commands two-thirds of the browser market, but alternatives, including Safari, continue to make inroads. Safari usage topped 4 percent in July, 4.07 percent to be exact, a new all-time high, and up from 3.79 percent in June. The big boost was likely the result of Apple’s near-record quarter for Mac sales, as new users started surfing with their shiny 13″ MacBook Pros.
July was indeed a good month for Apple, but the good news is arguably tempered by Net Applications’ new policy on weighting the numbers. The company has retroactively adjusted its reports “proportionally based on how much traffic we record from a country vs. how many Internet users that country has.” What this means is that China Internet users, among others, now have a proportionally larger role in determining the numbers. Since the U.S. accounts for slightly less than half of Mac usage, Apple’s numbers have pretty much been halved. Nonetheless, the same trends can still be followed, and those trends point to increased strength for Apple’s platforms, and that matters to OS X and iPhone OS users everywhere.
Переслать - CoRD: Remote Desktop 0.5 Released
As much as we all love our Macs, we still generally live in a Microsoft business world and need to connect and work with Windows boxes. While Microsoft does release its own Remote Desktop application to facilitate Mac users connecting to Windows machine, I’ve never been impressed with the interface for it (on either Mac or Windows). I’ve much preferred using the open-source CoRD project.
Two years since the last release of CoRD, its development team has finally released version 0.5, bringing a whole heap of polish to an already excellent software package. For me, the killer feature that CoRD has over Microsoft’s official client is the ability to have multiple connections going at once, all selectable from a list. The work flow becomes similar to a tabbed interface (although it’s not actually tabs).
A screenshot shows it the best:
CoRD 0.5 with three active sessions
The release notes for 0.5 show a large number of enhancements, bug fixes and optimizations in the multiple areas.
New Remote Desktop Functionality
Support for connecting to Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 has been added. Microsoft’s font smoothing technology, ClearType, can now be turned on, as well as experimental support for disk and printer forwarding. Custom screen resolutions can now be defined in preferences and then applied to connections.
User Interface Improvements
Many nice usability touches have been added, such as being able to set default connection preferences for when creating new servers or doing quick connections. The list of servers now has a search box at the top for quickly locating a server by name without scanning over the list manually. Hotkeys can now be assigned for commonly accessed servers and many other keyboard shortcuts, and small UI tweaks have been added to improve the user experience. You can also configure the application’s auto-updater to fetch the stable, betas or nightly builds to suit your risk level.
Behind the Scenes
Initial support for IPv6 has been put in, along with commandline automation. CoRD is now an Intel Universal (32bit/64bit) binary with full support for OS X 10.5 and 10.6. The general performance of the application has been increased, and many stability bugs have been addressed.
What It Won’t Do
As powerful as CoRD is, there are some things that still need the official Microsoft client. CoRD does not support Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol version 6.0. Windows Server 2008 needs to be configured to not use TLS or network authentication to allow CoRD usage. In addition, CoRD cannot run on OS X 10.4 anymore. While it will currently still run on PPC architecture, the team will no longer be supporting it.
If you haven’t tried CoRD and need to connect to many remote desktop, I’d highly recommend giving it a look.
Переслать - FCC Opens Inquiry Regarding Google Voice App Rejection
According to the Wall Street Journal, the FCC is opening an inquiry into the Google Voice app rejection debacle.
In a statement Friday, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said the FCC “has a mission to foster a competitive wireless marketplace, protect and empower consumers, and promote innovation and investment.” The inquiry letters “reflect the Commission’s proactive approach to getting the facts and data necessary to make the best policy decisions.”
Letters have been sent to Apple, Google, and AT&T looking for more information. TechCrunch has transcripts of the letters, which break the inquiry down roughly like this:
- Apple has been asked why they refused the Google Voice app, what role AT&T played in the refusal, and why other apps that integrate into Google Voice were pulled after their approval, and what other apps were refused for the iPhone?
- Google has been asked for the a description of the proposed app, what explanation (if any) they received from Apple on why it was rejected, what other Google applications have been approved or are pending, and are there other mechanisms by which an iPhone user will be able to access either some or all of the features of Google Voice? If so, please explain how and to what extent iPhone users can utilize Google Voice despite the fact that it is not available through Apple's App Store (emphasis mine; I find them phrasing the inquiry to reference jailbreaking interesting).
- AT&T has been asked what role they played in the rejection, did Apple consult with AT&T on the rejection, does AT&T know of other app store rejections, and is there anything in A&T’s terms of services that limit customer usage of third party apps?
I’ve ranted on my thoughts on how Apple is running the App store already, so I’m not going to cover it again. However, I’m applauding the FCC looking into this. Apple is handling App Store rejections similar to how myself and my childhood friends resolved differences when we played games: we changed the rules when we were losing and when called on it, we pouted. There’s no consistency to this. “Your app is approved, no wait it’s not, sorry. OK, we’re not sorry. Your bug fix is rejected even though the original app has been in the store for months. No, we’re not sorry about that, either. Your app allows unfiltered access to the Internet even though you can use Mobile Safari to find even more hardcore content.”
Riverturn, the developer of VoiceCentral — one of the Google Voice-integrated apps Apple approved and then unapproved — comments on his blog his experiences when he called Apple on their inconsistent rules and Apple just pouted. Developers need to know what the rules of rejection are before they start investing time and money into the process. It’s becoming apparent that even support from Phil Schiller himself isn’t a guarantee the app will be approved.
While I don’t think the FCC inquiry is going to directly affect whether Google Voice makes an appearance on the App Store, I hope Apple sees this as a warning shot across the bow and realizes people other than irate developers and users are paying attention. Apple needs to be more transparent about how approvals and rejections are handled. “If you don’t like it, tough,” isn’t an acceptable answer. If it takes the FCC to start a sea change, I’m all for it.
Переслать - Final Draft 8 Review
If you've ever harbored the desire to write for the silver screen and tried to do something about it, you'll already know about Final Draft, the showbiz industry's favorite scriptwriting software.
Everyone in Hollywood uses it; Studio Execs, beleaguered Producers, hot-shot directors… even Michael Bay uses it, but don't let that last one put you off. If you use Final Draft, you'll be in the company of James Cameron, Guillermo del Toro and Richard Donner. JJ Abrams is quoted saying, "Even if you don't own a computer, I recommend buying Final Draft."
The company behind Final Draft — also called Final Draft — has crammed an impressive array of tools and functionality into version eight. In fact, there's so much functionality that for novice users it can seem daunting getting to grips with it.
The good news is that it's really quite easy to get started with Final Draft, particularly if you have some idea of how movie or TV scripts are constructed. And even if you don't, Final Draft makes the learning process so smooth it's really just part of your work flow. The software keeps your work in order, properly formatted, properly structured, yet never gets "in the way."
There is a mountain of goodness packed into this release. So much, in fact, it's beyond the scope of this review, but here's a quick rundown of the highlights.
Templates
If you're unsure of how to structure your script, you can use one of over 50 television and movie templates bundled with the application. There are dozens more available on the Final Draft website, too, though the assumption is that you are a naughty software thief so you must provide a valid customer number before you can download them.
Templates come in many of flavors, including movie scripts...
...TV shows...
...Graphic Novels...
...and even good old fashioned manuscripts.
Smart Element Formatting
The single greatest feature in Final Draft is its intelligent and intuitive element formatting. The software watches what you type and anticipates what you are doing next. With only the tiniest bit of learning, you'll find yourself zooming through scripts faster than Stephen King can knock-out novels.
Smart Elements pop-up works a lot like IntelliType
Speech
Final Draft lets you assign the Mac OS X system voices to the characters in your script, and have them read-aloud. Ask any writer — there is enormous value in hearing another voice read your dialogue back at you!
Choose which character gets which voice...
...then hit play!
Scene Tools
Brand new Scene Navigator and Scene View tools provide handy ways to view, structure and manage your script without scrolling through a hundred or so pages every time you need to check scene order, or remind yourself exactly when it was your characters fell into that trash compacter… Was it before or after your hero blasted the controls to extend the bridge?
File Format
A new file XML-based file format improves compatibility with modern productivity software and other script-writing tools.
And more…
Also packed-in to version eight is improved page formatting and counting, workspace management, powerful production features for preparing a finished script for distribution or revision, a neat new toolbar and an apology from Final Draft for selling a copy to Michael Bay. (OK, that last one is a lie. But if you've cringed at the dialogue in Tranformers, you know that man owes us all. Big time.)
Just as a professional graphic artist can't get far without learning Photoshop, anyone who's serious about screenwriting should have a copy of Final Draft.
Переслать - App Developer Diary Part 4: The Hidden Cost of iPhone Apps
Going behind-the-scenes of a real iPhone app’s development, the latest installment takes a candid look at the economics of the App Store.
In my previous entry for the App Developer Diary, I was lost behind a mountain of paper-work. Since then, the rapidly growing mountain of tasks hasn’t changed too much — I’m still working on the game design document and concept artwork, but an array of new tasks have also joined the list.
The game I’m developing with Pear Computers is being created in our spare time. As such, we’re not keeping any records as to how long we’re spending on a given task. We’re working evenings and weekends, any random available hour, to push the project forward.
Although some smaller developers may work in this manner, this isn’t the way it would work at a big studio. A larger studio needs to know how much money they’re investing in an app’s development, ensuring that they’re staying on-budget and able to accurately calculate how much profit will be generated.
As we’re not keeping any official record, without running through e-mails and diary entries, we’re unable to accurately quantify the cost of development. So instead of generating a hasty approximation for the benefit of this diary’s readers, I spoke to Mills, founder of mobile content studio UsTwo, to tell me about the hidden costs of developing for iPhone.
Stepping Back
Founded in 2004, UsTwo specialize in mobile content development, their current largest client is Apple-competitor Sony Ericsson. Having grown to an impressive 43 staff, made up of designers, animators and coders, the London-based team are also opening studios in San Diego and Mälmo, Sweden.
When the App Store opened last Summer, Mills decided to experiment with developing for iPhone. “We do so much work for clients but, more importantly, we wanted to create our own apps. We’re a design-led company, the iPhone is a really exciting device and so we decided that UsTwo is the perfect space to do create apps.”
Released in February this year, UsTwo’s first project was Steppin, a tap ‘n’ drag game that tests the player’s digit dexterity. Looking back, Mills describes the project bluntly as, “how not to develop a game.” He explained that Steppin’s development cost an estimated $50,000, with it only generating around $1600 in profit.
The extraordinary development costs were really due to UsTwo’s drive to experiment and test different gameplay concepts. Mills explains, “We kept experimenting, trying to get it perfect. Rather than prototyping in Flash first, we went straight to iPhone and kept changing it as we went. Nowadays we’d never develop like that.”
Mouthing Off About Costs
With the studio’s next app, MouthOff, Mills felt that UsTwo had learned from their previous mistakes. “Before we began development, we looked at the apps that were doing well, like the fart apps, and decided to make something quickly with minimal effort and cost. It’s only made around £11,000, but it probably broke even. Development cost a tiny amount, however we spent time promoting it and have rolled out updates too.”
Despite MouthOff breaking even, Mills believes the real value for UsTwo is in the contacts the studio has made and the exposure they gained in promoting the app. MouthOff was even used in a video for Tanya Morgan. In a surprisingly candid move, Mills shared the sales figures and stats for MouthOff with me. Sales for MouthOff are revealed as averaging out at around 50 per day, the vast majority of which come from the U.S. and Great Britain.
Although he knows it could have been even more popular, Mills is happy with the general response to MouthOff, “In some ways it was a massive success and in other ways it wasn’t nearly as successful as it could have been. We made lots of contacts though and we’ve been approached by new clients too.”
Looking forward though, it’s clear that UsTwo has its eye on the App Store’s future. “The next wave in the App Store has to be coming soon,” Mills explains. He believes that, as there’s an over-saturation of duplicated app concepts, it won’t be long until people run out of novelty ideas. Hinting at the future, it’s clear that Mills sees UsTwo as a part of the next wave, “We’re in talks with a fair number of clients, discussing some interesting and genuinely useful apps.”
Only a few weeks in to developing an app for iPhone, it’s clear to me that this could be a potentially costly undertaking. Mills, with his straight-talking and utterly candid approach to development costs, gave me a serious reality-check. As a team, we need to take on UsTwo’s approach — building gorgeous, fun apps while keeping one eye on the books.
Next time: I wrestle with Apple’s Developer Center and try to test out the first playable prototype of our game concept.
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