2008: Yearly Archive

Blurry off-angle photo? Check. Recycled tag line? Check. Recycled hero artwork? Check. Photoshop? Check.

Yes, folks, Jon4Lakers appears to have iPhone Nano fakes just in time for Macworld? And could it be from the same fine folks who brought us the fake Mac Mini poster?

Sure, case makers have made iPhone Nano rumors all the rage again, but just shrinking down the screen’s physical size making capacitive targets difficult for beefy fingers to hit doesn’t make much sense, does it?

With Apple, anything can happen, so the only question is, what’s more likely? Phil Schiller whipping out an iPhone nano at Macworld, or tons more fakes before he ultimately doesn’t?

(Thanks to Kurt Lyon for the tip!)

Android Central (via Gizmodo) brings us the latest in a long — long — line of… er… iPhone inspired smartphones. This one, however, will be running the Google mobile OS:

The OPhone is 1mm bigger than the original iPhone, has a dedicated camera button, 5MP camera, flash, microSD slot and 3.5mm headphone jack. Yeah. Sounds pretty flippin’ sweet to us too.

TiPb will reserve judgement until it launches, but it will be interesting to see Android on hardware other than the slider-trackball-touch G1. Won’t it?

Tekzilla co-host Veronica Belmont explains the step-by-step process of converting an iTunes song into a ringtone… right in iTunes.

Check out the video for all the details, and Tekzilla Daily for many more helpful how-to’s. Text highlights after the jump!

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Hero of Sparta by msbaylor. (Visit the thread for video and more pics. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

Hero of Sparta came out a few weeks ago around the time of Brothers In Arms and it is also done by gameloft. I’ve come to realize that gameloft has really been putting out some awesome games and this is no exception.

Hero of Sparta brings the “Hack n’ Slash” genre to the iPhone.

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[This is an official Smartphone Experts Round Robin post! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a chance to win an iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset! Full contest rules here!]

After 4 weeks sampling Google’s Android G1, Palm’s (HTC’s) Treo (Windows Mobile) Pro, HTC’s Windows Mobile FUZE, and RIM’s BlackBerry Bold, it’s back, and I’m back.

Boom.

A lot has happened since Dieter ripped the still beeping iPhone 3G from my cold, not-even-dead hand. Promo codes hit the App Store. iFart apps did to (and made a killing — sigh). And, of course, Apple released a little something called firmware 2.2.

Admittedly, I cheated a bit. I checkout out the new firmware and the new Google Maps, but I really haven’t had the chance to use iPhone OS 2.2 as my “daily driver”, not until now.

I’ve reviewed the iPhone software several times now, for 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2, so I’ll spare you the regurgitation, because something else has happened to: I’ve spent time with all those other smartphones. I’ve experienced some things still unavailable on the iPhone, some I’ve really liked, others… well, check the videos for the Android G1, Treo Pro, HTC FUZE, and BlackBerry Bold if you haven’t already.

Instead, I’m going to focus on that: returning to the iPhone and looking at it again through eyes now widened by our sibling sites’ signature devices. And I’m going to start after the jump!

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An app that barks at a dog to get it’s attention so it can then snap the dog’s picture? Now that’s some cunning canine camera creativity right there. We imagine, however, a barking dog might get the attention of all sorts of other snap-able subjects.

Bow Cam comes from Appliya, a Tokyo based iPhone developer house. We’re hoping to see more from them, but we’ve also heard that waiting in the increasingly long line for app approval is even more problematic internationally, with some iTunes branch reps simply telling devs to contact the US for support (regardless of language differences.)

Let’s hope the post-holiday season slows down a little, Apple adds both staff and a modicum of transparency, and the process as a whole matures into 2009, b’okay?

Tried Bow Cam on your pooch? (or prowler?) Let us know how it worked for you!

Now they don’t celebrate Boxing Day in the US (think Black Friday the day after Xmas), but it seems no one told AT&T! Why else would the carrier race Walmart to the bottom and offer $99 iPhone’s: 8GB refurbs (and $199 16GB refurbs as well!) according to Engadget.

Since those rumors of Walmart selling them that cheap didn’t pan out (according to BGR, they’ll be putting them on sale — new — for a couple bucks below retail on Sunday), and you still haven’t gotten an iPhone (or several) of your very own, will this finally get you to take the plunge?

(Thanks to KurtLyon for the tip!)

Touch Physics Forum Review by cjvitek (For msbaylor’s take on it, check the link. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

Touch Physics is a strategy/puzzle game, where the goal is to get the purple circle to touch the yellow star. As the game progresses, you are presented with an increasing array and diversity of obstacles in your path that you need to navigate the purple circle around. The circle is moved by forces of gravity, friction, and elasticity. For example, if a large object falls on the circle on the left side, the circle will move/roll/bounce to the right.

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MacRumors brings word of yet more Apple patents passing through the system, this time focusing on multi-touch gestures. How can you patent a gesture? Don’t get us started. The USPO has raised the bar on ludicrous so high a giant could now safely run under it. The particulars of this one is interesting to anyone interested in the iPhone interface, however:

For example, erasing and basic punctuation insertion, directional swipes (also referred to herein as “swipe gestures”) over the alphabetic keys can be used as an alternative to striking certain keys. Because the Space and Backspace keys are quite frequently used, they are logical candidates for the rightward and leftward swipes, respectively. Leftward and rightward swipes intuitively match the cursor travel caused by these symbols. Following this cursor movement analogy, the Enter/Return may be invoked by a downward swipe, and a Shift/Caps may be invoked by an upward swipe. Alternatively, as the Enter and Shift functions may be less frequently invoked, these may be substituted for other functions as well. One alternative mapping for the upward swipe, for example, could be to activate an alternative numeric and punctuation keypad or a particular punctuation symbol like an apostrophe or period.

Our question? Where’s the cut/copy paste gesture already?!

Citrix has been warning… er… teasing Windows for the iPhone for a while now, but their blog (via Gizmodo) was recently updated to reflect some updates:

As we have announced here on the Citrix Blog ( still no Press Release though … ) we are actively developing a Citrix Receiver for the iPhone that will bring the world of millions of Windows apps and developers to the iPhone. As part of our testing and demonstrations we are looking for examples of compelling applications that will not run natively on the iPhone, however if the app was hosted on XenApp and delivered to the iPhone it would provide a great visual example of the power of Citrix and the iPhone.

They cite examples including IE-only apps (ActiveX?), Flash apps, medical apps, and cut and paste (?!)

While other remote desktop and VNC clients exist for the iPhone, Citrix comes from a background deep inside the Windows kernel and are thus unique situated to develop a killer solution.

So, anybody really want remote access to Windows on their iPhone, and if so, what do you want most from it?