What? Why are you still reading this? Lightsaber Unleashed, the THQ’d official re-release of the PhoneSaber application, is now available from the App Store.
Got it? Good. What do you think? Better than the original? Or totally prequel’d?
Our take after a quicky first look? The UI is… er… underwhelming considering the LucasArts resources. The advertising for the Force Unleashed would be grating if we didn’t understand it was basically subsidizing this freebie (and curse the iPhone sandboxing for not letting it know we already bought the dang Force Unleashed, and disabling the adware!) Tying it to the Force Unleashed also, and unfortunately, limits us to that universe and its characters (one of which I would say demands a SPOILER WARNING, THQ!). No Luke, no Yoda, no Mace Windu (no purple!), no Obi-Wan, etc. On the plus, side, we get music!
Bad Ash Bonus from Jeremy: When you are in the app you will see stars in the background that shine every once in a while. Tap on them for a little voice action… (depending on the character you select).
Chances are, if you’re reading this you’ve been in this spot: a loved one suddenly wises up to your gadget addiction and is forced to call you out on it. Looking into your desk drawer and the tangle of USB cables snaking out of your computer, you’re forced to agree that, yes, perhaps you don’t need all these iPods.
Above, the heartwarming tale of how Paolo dealt with his familial intervention. The next time you realize that, yes, you maybe didn’t need to buy that 2nd iPhone to back up your first, we guarantee Paolo’s method for resolving the issue will get you out of the bind. Well, maybe we don’t guarantee it, but it’s certainly worth a shot.
If you head on over to Crackberry.com you will notice a “few” articles relating to the BlackBerry Storm on Verizon. Honestly, it is no surprise since this is supposed to be RIM’s answer to the iPhone.
A few months back Casey reported on a AT&T store handing out anti-iPhone propaganda to it’s customers… Now AT&T themselves are taking shots at the BlackBerry Storm. And is it really a surprise seeing how Verizon is pushing this device as it’s iPhone killer?
The Boy Genius Report has two independent sources supplying a email floating around AT&T that is laying the smack down on the latest effort of RIM, the BlackBerry Storm. Some of the key points being the lack of WiFi, multi-touch screen, App Store, and tri-band HSDPA.
…Meanwhile, BlackBerry News [via CrackBerry.com, naturally) has their own internal documents from last summer detailing why the BlackBerry is better than the iPhone 3G. Naturally, RIM is touting their history, keyboard, and most of all Enterprise chops.
Personally I want this Storm to come out already so we can put it up against the iPhone 3G and find out once and for all which device will come out on top!
Start alienating your developer base and there’s two ways to handle it: the right way, and the current Apple way. Delicious Monster’s Wil Shipley offers up what should be required reading for both Apple PR and App Store staff, on how to go about the right way: let the market decide. Apple, much to their discredit on this one, has chosen pretty much the exact opposite. Macrumors reports:
Apple has now started labeling their rejection letters with Non-Disclosure (NDA) warnings: THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS MESSAGE IS UNDER NON-DISCLOSURE
That’s right. Apple’s answer to upset developers? Shut them up. It’s the business equivalent of not only Apple putting their heads in the sand, but yanking the developers heads down with them. iSigh.
And if developers choose to use (or abuse) the Ad Hoc distribution method to provision 100 specific licenses at a time as a way of circumventing the App Store? Well, Podcaster got away with it for a while (read: 13,000 whiles!) but TUAW now says Apple has turned off the spigot on that one as well. Podcaster: no more licenses for you!
NetNewsWire’s Brent Simmons says this behavior is beneath the Apple he knows and loves. John Gruber, by way of linking to Simmons’ article, says the situation is beginning to give him “the Fear”. We know how, and what, both of them feel.
Hey, Eddy Cue: Didn’t Apple put you in charge of the App Store? You did great on iTunes and are fixing the MobileMe. Can’t you put foot to trouser seat on this fiasco before it drives all the best developers (and customers!) to You Know Where?
[This is a GRAND PRIX App vs. App Review! Congratulations to our second heat winner, Patrick, who gets a copy of last week's winning racer: Asphalt 4! Want a chance to win this week's? Comment below, and make sure you leave a valid email address in the comment form -- it won't be made public, but it will be used to contact you if you win! Check out the full contest details, then grab your iPhone and get ready race -- the GRAND PRIX starts now!]
Finishing off our TiPb GRAND PRIX and coming up the backstretch, we give you Moto Chaser (available from iTunes for $5.99) versus Auto Contra Sense (also available from iTunes for $1.99)! So we must ask again, who is going to get the checkered flag this time? Will it be the game with a throw-back to Road Rash-like gameplay or the one with a Spy Hunter type feel? See how they compare in Heat #3 of TiPb’s GRAND PRIX!
Apple said they would release the iPhone 3G in over 70 countries this year. They started off with 22 way back on July 11, added another 22 in August 22, and now it looks like they’re planning on adding 29 more to the party starting September 26. According to Apple Insider, these include:
Botswana, Brazil, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Madagascar, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Niger, Panama, Russia, Qatar, Senegal, South Africa, Turkey, and Venezuela.
Still no China, of course, along with Korea, or… Antarctica. Anyone else missing?
Does anyone remember the good old days when you could walk into a Apple store and walk right out with an iPhone that was not opened or activated via an Apple store employee? Well those days are long gone but Apple did make one step in the right direction with their new smart buying process.
This process basically allows you to start the buying process at home instead of doing it all in store. You enter in all of your billing information, review your eligibility and pricing options, and the final step consists of you selecting your AT&T rate plan.
Once you’re done, choose your closest Apple Retail Store and let us know when you’d like to come in to complete your purchase.** An Apple Specialist will be ready to help you personalize your new iPhone 3G, make calls, browse the web, receive email, and more.
What is the downside to all of this you ask? Well you still have to go to the store to get your phone… I know… it’s a downer. Apple should have made this option available on July 11th, I’m sure it would have cut down on the wait times in all of their stores.
If anyone is in the market for a new iPhone and uses this method on Apple’s web site, let us know how it goes!
Well it seems like these scam artists will just not go away! Here at TiPb we like to keep you, our loyal readers, safe by alerting you of every scam out there. A while back we reported twoother phishing scams aimed at MobileMe customers, and told you Apple was even posting warnings about them.
Just like those phishing scams, these latest scammers are looking to obtain your credit card information. According to UGN Infomanager:
Yesterday, and over night a wave of phishing attacks hit the servers targeting Apple Mobile Me users, and others who might not know the specifics of the phish. There were several, all from different “senders” but leading to the same address. READ THIS ALERT.
DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINK IN THIS PHISHING ATTEMPT.
Not only could it extract information from your computer, the site, or clickthrough pages could contain malware or spyware intended specifically for Mac users. If you can avoid opening it, you will avoid pinging the botnet of a live address.
In addition to all of that, MacNN is reporting that “the originating server DNS addresses have been masked by Joker.com, a site suspected of sympathizing with online criminals”. Really nice isn’t it? Be careful out there people!
Today is a good day, we have had a few Android related stories today here at TiPb but competition is good. It will only make Apple kick things into high gear and improve on what is arguably the top touchscreen phone on the market today. That brings us to the first thread I want everyone to check out. It’s brought to us by none other than our very own writer extraordinaire, Rene. Android vs iPhone! What are your thoughts?
Our next thread comes to you from forum member sturamsden, and he wants to talk more about the rumored 32 gig iPhone 3G. I honestly can’t see it coming out this soon but who knows… anything is possible, no? Finally here is a thread that yours truly started, how many home screen pages do you use? I found 3 home screen pages to be a perfect fit for me, how about you?
Not a member of our growing community? Head over here to join us!
Yeah, A-Day — it’s like that. No sooner did Apple announce the iPod Touch as the “funnest” ever (yet apparently didn’t tell OS X’s built in dictionary not to take issue with that obscure, yet valid usage…), then Google and T-Mobile decided to have a little, er, “fun” with it themselves:
The friendly feel of Google but funnerer, smarterer, and conecteder
No, they have to go and get with the Funnererer…er…
Well, with Windows Mobile 7 delayed until late 2009, which may be before Palm OS 2.0 even sees the light of day, and Blackberry still not even on the next generation OS radar, it’s nice to see someone taking it to Apple (even if they, with a CEO on the board of Apple, and services linked to the iPhone, may be more about complementing than competing at the moment).
Still, when the dust settles, and Steve takes the stage at Macworld 2009, we’ll just see who’s the Funnererer…est!
