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- TUAW's Daily App: ZombieSmash
Our own Michael Grothaus really enjoyed ZombieSmash when it came out around this time last year. Last week at GDC, I had a chance to speak with Matthias Hoechsman, creator of the game and CEO of gamedoctors, about the title. An upcoming update due out in just over a month will essentially double the size of the game, bringing 31 new days of stages to play through. Since it's at a prison called "Camp Nowhere," there will be new zombie types to take down and new weapons to kill them with. The update is adding a few new social features as well, including the ability to tweet and share killshots showing friends how you take out the last zombie in each wave. ZombieSmash will finally get a long-awaited Retina Display update and Game Center integration as well.
The update isn't out yet, but the game's available right now for $1.99 on the App Store. There are already 31 days of waves to defend against, plus an Endless Siege mode and a Sandbox mode to just play around with. If you pick up the game right now and play through a level a day, you'll be ready for the big update right around the time it hits. Seems like a good deal to us.
TUAW's Daily App: ZombieSmash originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 07 Mar 2011 08:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - iPhone 5 rumors: aluminum backside, redesigned antenna
Now that the MacBook Pro refresh has happened and the iPad 2 is out, what's left for the rumor mill? The iPhone 5 of course. Citing a Chinese source, Japanese site Macotakara claims that Apple is abandoning the current iPhone 4's exposed antenna/glass backside construction for the iPhone 5. The iPhone 5 will supposedly have an all-aluminum rear case similar to the iPad 2. Wireless signals will penetrate the case via the Apple logo, which will be made from a plastic resin, presumably similar to the black bar on top of the 3G iPad 2.
Macotakara has had a fairly good accuracy rate in its rumors so far, although Economic Daily News, Macotakara's source for this rumor, has been less reliable in the past. Macotakara's reports nailed the iPad 2's announcement and shipping dates, and it got some of the hardware details right as far back as December. If the site is getting its information directly from Chinese sources as it claims, that might account for its accuracy rate.
A complete case redesign for the iPhone 5 isn't beyond the realm of possibility, but personally I'll remain skeptical until there are corroborating reports from at least one other source. The iPhone 5 will likely be announced in either June or July of this year, and in the meantime we can expect to hear a lot more about the forthcoming device -- not all of it accurate.
[via MacRumors]
iPhone 5 rumors: aluminum backside, redesigned antenna originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 07 Mar 2011 07:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - iPad 2 and iOS 4.3 Javascript benchmarks show big performance gains
Some of the first speed tests coming in show that hardware and software improvements in the iPad 2 are giving it decent performance gains over its predecessor -- and over rival devices.
CNET UK decided to spend its brief hands-on time with the iPad 2 by running the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark, which CNET calls "an increasingly important indication of overall performance. The better a phone or tablet is at dealing with JavaScript, the faster more complicated websites such as Facebook will run, which means your whole experience with the device will feel faster."
CNET found initially that the iPad 2 is up to four times faster than the original iPad, but not all this speed improvement is down to the upgraded hardware. The speed advantage dropped to a 1.5x boost when CNET updated the original iPad's OS to a beta version of iOS 4.3 it happened to have lying around. This could be good news for anyone who wants an original iPad just for web surfing. Heavy discounting to clear stock means you can pick one up for $100 less than this time last week, a bargain if you don't want the cameras and other goodies the iPad 2 brings.
The other good news is the boasting rights this will give you over owners of rival Android hardware; iPad 2 cleaned the clocks of the Galaxy Tab (3x faster) and the Google Nexus S smartphone (also 3x faster). Since it will also be getting the iOS 4.3 update, the iPhone 4 will be 2.5x faster.
Thanks Nik!
iPad 2 and iOS 4.3 Javascript benchmarks show big performance gains originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 07 Mar 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - GDC 2011: Nexon goes kart riding on the iPhone
Nexon is a South Korea-based publisher that's basically helped create and define the idea of free-to-play, microtransaction-based MMOs around the world. While microtransactions have become popular in all kinds of game genres in the last few years (including in quite a few apps on the iPhone), Nexon pioneered the business model with popular MMO games like MapleStory and Combat Arms. The company's been saying for a while that it plans to move more into the social and mobile game spaces in the West (it already has quite a stable of mobile games in Korea). At GDC 2011 this past week, I got to see the company's first entry on the iPhone in America, a game called KartRider Rush.
KartRider Rush is based on an MMO called Kart Rider that has never been brought to the West before, but is well established in Korea. It's a cartoony kart racing game in the vein of Mario Kart, with customizable characters racing around a set of tracks. I enjoyed the game, though it is fun and simple. KartRider Rush accelerates for you, so you can either drive with a set of on-screen buttons or change the option to tilt the device. There are powerups like speed boosts and attacks, and races can be chaotic, with players quickly switching positions over the ride.
Continue reading GDC 2011: Nexon goes kart riding on the iPhone
GDC 2011: Nexon goes kart riding on the iPhone originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 07 Mar 2011 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - GDC 2011: Spacetime Studios returns to Blackstar
I last spoke with Spacetime Studios' CEO Gary Gattis last year at GDC Online in Austin, and when I saw him then, he told me his company was commissioned to create a PC MMO for NCSoft called Blackstar. Spacetime spent months and months of work on the project before it was abruptly canceled, leaving the company in the lurch and requiring it to make cutbacks until it got to work on what was supposed to be a much smaller project.
That project eventually became Pocket Legends, an MMO that's now thriving on the iOS App Store. The game has seen over 3 million downloads across both the Apple and Android platforms (somewhat surprisingly, the game is more popular on Android, where Gattis says he's seen "more numbers and more money" coming in), and is an unqualified success.
It's so successful, in fact, that when Spacetime thought about what to do for its second game, Gattis and company decided to go back to their origins and recreate Blackstar on the mobile platform.
Continue reading GDC 2011: Spacetime Studios returns to Blackstar
GDC 2011: Spacetime Studios returns to Blackstar originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 07 Mar 2011 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Six reasons iPad 2 will be a huge success for Apple
Photo courtesy of Engadget
Since last Wednesday's announcement of the iPad 2, we've heard a lot of tech bloggers stating that they think the newest Apple tablet is going to be a flop. Well, maybe not exactly a failure, but not as successful as the original iPad was.
I think the naysayers are completely out to lunch, and it's not just because I am a rabid fan of Apple products. Follow along as I go through my reasoning as to why the iPad 2 is going to be a resounding success for Apple.
Newer is better (or at least that's the perception)
Unlike the innovators and early adopters who write for tech blogs, there are a lot of people who don't buy the first round of anything; instead, they wait until the second edition becomes available. I heard this a lot from people who were gazing at my iPad with lust in their eyes: "I really want to get one, but I'm going to wait until the second generation comes out."
For those who waited, they now have their chance to get an iPad that is demonstrably better than the first model. It has cameras, it has a dual-core processor, and it has graphics capabilities that are much better than what came with the first-generation iPad. Those people who waited are still in the "early majority" of consumers, so they'll still appear to be ahead of the curve in terms of being technological leaders to their friends.
I think we'll see a lot of people who were on the fence about buying an iPad suddenly deciding to pick up an iPad 2. The features of the newer tablet address many of the complaints that the tech press had about the original iPad, and for a number of people, those features will take down the last barrier to making a purchase decision. Even if the iPad 2's specs aren't a huge step forward over the original iPad, for many people the perception is that "newer is better," and that perception is all it takes for someone to make a purchasing decision.
Click or tap on that read more link to see the rest of this post.
Continue reading Six reasons iPad 2 will be a huge success for Apple
Six reasons iPad 2 will be a huge success for Apple originally appeared on TUAW on Sun, 06 Mar 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Confirmed: iPad 2 will NOT be carrier-locked in Canada, or anywhere else
At first glance, wording on Apple's Canadian website would seem to imply that the iPad 2 will be carrier-locked in Canada. "The iPad model you purchase is specially configured to work with either Bell, Rogers, or Telus," the site states. "So while you don't have to activate 3G service right away, you should choose your iPad with Wi-Fi + 3G according to the carrier you prefer."
This had GigaOM up in arms claiming that the "iPad 2 is a step backward for carrier choice." The original iPad was never locked to any specific carrier, but GigaOM took the wording on Apple's Canadian site to mean that the iPad 2 would be locked to whichever carrier you chose when you bought it.
Let's be absolutely clear on this: just like the original iPad, the iPad 2 will not be carrier-locked in Canada, or anywhere else. If you buy the UMTS/GSM model of iPad 2 (known in the US as the AT&T iPad 2), you can swap out the iPad 2's micro-SIM and replace it with one from another carrier at your leisure. Unlike the iPhone, which usually is SIM-locked to a specific carrier and often requires a jailbreak in order to use it on a different carrier, the iPad and UMTS/GSM iPad 2 are both carrier agnostic out of the box.
Website iPadinCanada has confirmed directly with Canadian mobile provider Rogers Wireless that the iPad 2 will not be carrier-locked in Canada. The same site also confirmed the AT&T iPad 2 won't be carrier-locked to AT&T, as did numerous requests for info from Apple Experts, a CNET article on international roaming with the iPad 2, and my own phone call to Apple's US support center.
The only iPad 2 that is carrier-locked is the Verizon model, and it's only "locked" to Verizon because its 3G chipset won't work on a GSM network. If you buy the UMTS/GSM or "AT&T" model of iPad 2 on March 11, you will be able to use it almost anywhere in the world without having to worry about being locked to one specific carrier. It's unclear why Apple chose to word things the way it did on the Canadian site -- no other country's site contains similar verbiage, at least not in any of the languages I can read -- but both the Canadian carriers and Apple itself have confirmed that the UMTS/GSM iPad 2 won't be locked in to any specific carrier when you buy it.
Update -- Some more details on Canadian activation: Each Canadian carrier requires slightly different software (the carrier settings file). This update will not download over the air after swapping SIMs, and getting the new carrier settings file requires plugging the iPad into iTunes before its 3G service will be usable with the new SIM. Current iPads cannot connect to Canadian carriers until they are plugged into iTunes with a SIM installed and have the proper carrier settings file synced over through iTunes.
What's not clear is if this is a situation specific to Canada or not. I know I was able to switch SIMs between a New Zealand and Australian wireless provider without having to sync to iTunes before using my iPhone 4's 3G service, but this apparently isn't possible when switching between providers in Canada.
Apple's verbiage on its Canadian website seems to be addressing this limitation and attempting to avoid customer confusion by having iPad 2 buyers choose a carrier when they purchase the unit. The iPad 2 should ship to Canadian customers with a micro-SIM from their carrier of choice already installed, but the iPad 2 will not be locked to that specific carrier, despite what the somewhat confusing wording on Apple's site may appear to imply.
Confirmed: iPad 2 will NOT be carrier-locked in Canada, or anywhere else originally appeared on TUAW on Sun, 06 Mar 2011 16:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Talkcast tonight, 7pm PT/10pm ET: iPad 2 Event Edition!
It's that time again kids, and this week we have TONS to talk about! We had a media event which included not just an official appearance by Medical Leave Steve, but loads of Apple news as well! We got our first look at the iPad 2, and a peek at iOS 4.3. Add to that the launch of Joint Venture and sightings of the new Thunderbolt laptops in the wild, and it's been quite the week to be a Mac geek.
Remember it's "buy one get one free" when I'm hosting: Come for the show, and stay for the aftershow! A healthy dose of TUAWTF is a very good way to wrap up the weekend.
Your calls and questions help us make the show the best it can be, otherwise I'm just talking to myself! To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or download the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the Talkshoe Web button on our profile page at 4 HI/7 PDT/10 pm EDT Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (yay for free cellphone weekend minutes!): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8.
If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free Gizmo or X-Lite SIP clients; basic instructions are here. Talk to you tonight!
Talkcast tonight, 7pm PT/10pm ET: iPad 2 Event Edition! originally appeared on TUAW on Sun, 06 Mar 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - GDC 2011: Backflip Studios' Boss Battles, Army of Darkness Defense, and more
Backflip Studios' Julian Farrior was here in attendance at GDC 2011 this week. His company has been doing quite well lately, and he tells me that they've recently hit 85 million downloads across all of their free apps, with over 23 million monthly active users. In plain terms, that means that tons of people have downloaded Backflip's apps (like Paper Toss, Ragdoll Blaster, and the popular Ninjump), and they're playing them often as well.
As I heard at last year's conference, Farrior is all about experimentation, using paid downloads, freemium apps, and a large, well-organized network of in-app advertising to drive traffic around and monetize his company's users.
He has a relatively large slate of games due out in 2011, including four social games that we'll be hearing about later in the year, and a few games using various models that I got to see in action. Boss Battles was the first -- it was still in an early stage of development, but the idea is that Farrior wants to try to marry a scrolling arcade shooter (like Gradius) with the freemium business model.
Continue reading GDC 2011: Backflip Studios' Boss Battles, Army of Darkness Defense, and more
GDC 2011: Backflip Studios' Boss Battles, Army of Darkness Defense, and more originally appeared on TUAW on Sun, 06 Mar 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - iPhone 4 + Personal Hotspot + Wi-Fi-only iPad: Possible, but with drawbacks
Once Apple announced Personal Hotspot, the new iPhone 4-only feature, a lot of potential iPad buyers started asking the same question. "Can I use this feature with a Wi-Fi-only iPad and avoid paying extra for a 3G-enabled iPad, plus another monthly data plan for it?"
Indeed you can. With Personal Hotspot activated on an iPhone 4, any Mac or iOS device will treat the iPhone 4's Wi-Fi broadcast like it's a standalone base station. This means if you have an iPhone 4 and a Wi-Fi-only iPad, you can "tether" your iPad to your iPhone's 3G data connection for the first time.
"Awesome! So this means if I have an iPhone 4, there's no reason to get an iPad with built-in 3G, right?" Well, no, that's not necessarily true. I can think of three things you lose if you go Wi-Fi-only with your iPad and keep it tethered to your iPhone 4.
1. GPS. Only the 3G models of iPad have built-in GPS functionality. The Wi-Fi models can approximate your position using Wi-Fi, but it's almost never as accurate as with GPS. "Well, so what," you might say. "If I've got my iPhone right there, what do I need GPS on my iPad for?" That depends on how important GPS functions are to you. If you hardly ever use apps that depend on location-based services, you probably won't be missing out on much. If you're like me and you use location-based apps all the time, having to sacrifice GPS functionality on one of your iOS devices might be more trouble than it's worth.
2. Longevity, by which I mean the amount of time you can use the iPad in a single session. The 3G version of the iPad 2 is rated for nine hours of battery life when surfing over 3G. When using your iPhone 4 as a Personal Hotspot, you can expect the iPhone 4's battery to last for only about five hours before it needs to be charged. Granted, you can bring along the iPhone 4's charger, plug it in, and use Personal Hotspot as long as you like. However, the charger and cable are just two more things to carry, finding an unused outlet isn't always easy when you're on the go, and having your iPhone plugged into the wall quite literally tethers you to one spot. That leads into the third thing you give up if you go the Personal Hotspot + Wi-Fi iPad route...
3. Flexibility. If your iPad doesn't have its own 3G capability, it's totally dependent on your iPhone's Personal Hotspot unless you can find another Wi-Fi source. If your iPhone's battery dies, or if you forget your iPhone in a bar and some unscrupulous wag pockets it, your iPad loses all of the versatility it gained through Personal Hotspot.
The iPhone's data plans aren't anywhere near as flexible as those on the iPad, either. For one thing, in most countries the iPhone is locked to whatever carrier you buy it from; the iPad has no carrier locks whatsoever, and you can roam between carriers (or between countries) at a whim. Not only that, in several countries (most notably the US) you'll pay an extra monthly fee to enable Personal Hotspot on your iPhone 4. In the States this comes to $20 per month, which gives you an extra 2 GB of monthly data, for a total of 4 GB per month on your iPhone's plan.On a US iPad plan, you'll get 2 GB of data for $25. That's $5 per month more expensive than enabling Personal Hotspot on the iPhone, but you can manage the iPad's data plan on a month-to-month basis -- no contracts to sign, and no obligations to any carrier. Most carriers also offer cheaper iPad plans with lower monthly bandwidth caps, which should satisfy most users' data needs.
Personally, I'm still getting a 3G-enabled iPad 2. I may never actually use its independent 3G capabilities since the iPhone 4's Personal Hotspot costs nothing extra through my wireless provider, but I'd rather know that I could use the iPad's own 3G if I needed to.Update: Many commenters have pointed out that Apple's Canadian website contains the following verbiage on the iPad 2's 3G capability, which at first glance seems to indicate the iPad 2 may be carrier-locked in Canada:
If you decide on an iPad with Wi-Fi + 3G, be sure to select the model that corresponds with the carrier you'd like to use for 3G service. The iPad model you purchase is specially configured to work with either Bell, Rogers, or Telus. So while you don't have to activate 3G service right away, you should choose your iPad with Wi-Fi + 3G according to the carrier you prefer.
Website iPhoneinCanada has confirmed directly with Rogers itself that the iPad 2 will not be carrier-locked in Canada. And despite similar wording on the US Apple Store urging buyers to decide between an AT&T iPad or a Verizon model before purchasing, the situation for the iPad 2 in the US remains the same: the AT&T iPad 2 is not locked to AT&T. iPhoneinCanada verified this by calling Apple directly; I just got off the phone with AppleCare myself, and they confirmed that just like the original iPad, the iPad 2 will not be locked to any specific carrier. Therefore, if you're like me and you live in a country where the iPad 2 won't be released until after March 11, you can still order an AT&T model iPad 2 from the US site without fear of having to jailbreak the thing in order to use it in your home country.
The AT&T versus Verizon iPad 2 situation is a matter of the hardware differences necessary to access the different networks, not a case of the iPad being artificially locked to one carrier or another. It's unclear why Apple chose to word things the way it did on its Canadian site (no other country's site contains similar wording), but the Canadian carriers themselves have stated the iPad 2 won't be carrier-locked.
iPhone 4 + Personal Hotspot + Wi-Fi-only iPad: Possible, but with drawbacks originally appeared on TUAW on Sun, 06 Mar 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - iPad 2 gets same quad-band 3G as iPhone 4
Just like the iPhone 4 before it, the feature I wanted most from the iPad 2 was support for 900 MHz UMTS/HSDPA in its 3G chipset. And just like the iPhone 4, the UMTS/GSM version of the 3G-enabled iPad 2 delivers, with the same quad-band support as the iPhone 4.
The original iPad (and the iPhone 3G and 3GS) supported three frequencies for high-speed 3G access: 850, 1900, and 2100 MHz. If a wireless provider's 3G network didn't operate at one of those frequencies, the iPad or iPhone would then fall back on EDGE, or worse yet, GPRS, at 850, 900, 1800, or 2100 MHz. In countries whose wireless providers chose to run wide swaths of their 3G networks at 900 MHz, this meant older iOS devices would have extremely slow connections anywhere outside areas running at 1900 or 2100 MHz.
As an example, my old iPhone 3G would drop to GPRS anywhere outside the central areas of major cities here in New Zealand, because my wireless provider's "extended 3G" network operates at 900 MHz. The iPhone 4 supports 900 MHz, greatly expanding my local 3G coverage compared to older iPhones, and the same will be true of the iPad 2 compared to the original iPad. As a matter of fact, the original iPad's lack of support for 900 MHz UMTS/HSDPA was one of the main reasons I didn't buy it.
Now that the iPad 2 has the same quad-band 3G capabilities as the iPhone 4, this is no longer an issue. Almost all wireless providers worldwide operate their 3G networks at a frequency now supported by the iPhone 4 and iPad 2, meaning US owners of the AT&T 3G iPad can travel internationally with few worries about network compatibility.iPad 2 gets same quad-band 3G as iPhone 4 originally appeared on TUAW on Sun, 06 Mar 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Got a new 3D camera? Here's how to view the images on your Mac or iOS device
It's Sunday, and I'm going a bit esoteric for the weekend. A reader wrote to me and said that he had a new 3D still camera, the Fuji Real 3D W3. He has a 3D TV and can plug the camera in and see his images using the camera HDMI out, but he'd like to send his pix to people not so well equipped, and even view the images on his iPad or iPhone.
I have just the right solution, and it's free. First, a little background. Fuji seems to be selling more 3D cameras that anyone else, and Fuji cameras save files as standard jpegs as well as in MPO format files. MPO is a Fuji only format, and it's basically two jpegs with some metadata. Those MPO files are designed to be viewed on compatible devices like 3D TVs or some computers, and you need shutter glasses to see them. However, you can turn those MPO files into anaglyphic images, the kind that you can view with those old red/green glasses that came with comic books in the old days.
A great Mac solution is an app called StereoSplicer. It's still in beta, but it's free and it works perfectly. You grab an MPO file from your camera and open it up in StereoSplicer. You can choose what format you want to save the files in. What's relevant to this discussion is to save the image as an anaglyph. You'll get a jpeg that's viewable with red/green glasses, keeping the red lens to the left eye. There are lot of other fancy options, and you can even adjust the parallax of the two images if your original needs adjustment.
Continue reading Got a new 3D camera? Here's how to view the images on your Mac or iOS device
Got a new 3D camera? Here's how to view the images on your Mac or iOS device originally appeared on TUAW on Sun, 06 Mar 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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