February 2009: Monthly Archive

School of Rock Forum Review by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

School of Rock (hypothetically based on the movie of the same name) is an app that tries to teach you the ins and outs of music. You progress through a series of “schools” – school of drums, school of guitar, school of keyboard, etc.

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Pwn2Own is a hacking contest which in previous years demanded OS exploits on day one, allowed browser vectors on day two (how OS X was compromised last year — thanks Safari!), and opened the floodgates with 3rd party bugware on day three. First person to successfully hack a machine won it as a prize, along with a nice cash bounty for their troubles.

This year, Ars Technica says Pwn2Own is doing something a little different: they’re bringing in the mobiles!

Apple’s iPhone is front and center on their target list, along with the Google Android G1, and devices from the BlackBerry, Symbian, and Windows Phone families. Pwn the mobile and you not only win it, but $10,000 to boot!

Not a lot of solid info on the rules yet, but we’ll keep a look out. Any white hats out there eager to try their luck?

While Big Media wants you to stay off their lawn (i.e. not stream their content to your TV’s), it looks like they’re increasingly okay-ish with their streaming it to your PC and… iPhone. Macworld brings word of the latest content streamer to hit the App Store, TV.com (iTunes link):

Most of the content consists of clips, interviews, and promos, but you’ll also find full episodes of some TV shows, such as “CSI: Miami” and the aforementioned [MacGyver] mixed in (well, to be honest, there weren’t many other shows I could find full episodes of at first glance). Full episodes are presented as multiple clips instead of as a single video. You can search for shows using the Search box at the top, or tap on the Shows and Channels buttons to browse in other ways.

Of course, a few more things need to happen to flesh out this category. Getting other networks on board via apps for Hulu and other services is one. Also, realizing it’s the 21st fraken century and NOT restricting streaming apps from international users would be grand. (TV.com is US App Store only).

Anyone tried it yet? If so, how was the quality? Would you use this over your laptop for TV to go? Over your TV for viewing in general?

Apple has confirmed repeatedly that they’re not going to make an iPhone nano. So while that means they may or may not, it definitely means the knock-off artists are making them. Register Hardware brings us this little gem:

The Mini’s touchscreen in resistive rather than capacitive, a choice no doubt partly dictated by cost and partly by the need to use a stylus to type on the diminutive virtual Qwerty keyboard which only appears in portrait mode. That’s not to say you actually have to use the stylus – after some practice we managed to finger-type with around a 60 per cent chance of getting the right letter the first time.

Anyone racing over to get one?

[Thanks to Icebike for the tip!]

The OtterBox Impact Series Case for the iPhone 3G is available here at the TiPb iPhone store for only $12.95, in either black or white. It is a case that encloses your iPhone 3G in a soft rubber skin, extra rubber padding on the back and all four corners. Can a skin case for only $12.95 really stand up to the rigors of everyday use that may subject your sleek iPhone 3G to bumps, bruises and scrapes? Read on for the full review!

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Seems Emoji aren’t the only thing being scrubbed from the App Store today! MacRumors is reporting that old reviews made my users who hadn’t actually downloaded the app they were reviewing are also being removed. Apple stopped non-users from reviewing apps a while back, this is just retroactively applying the new policy to the old reviews:

Several long standing apps have seen dramatic decreases in their review counts. SEGA’s Super Monkey Ball count dropped from 4197 reviews down to 3710 while Namco’s Pac Man dropped from 395 to 122.

Most everyone involved, from developers tired of no-good-nicks trying to game the system, to users tired of sorting through gamed or off-topic reviews, will likely appreciate this move. Maybe this is one rejection Apple’s done right?

Lots (and lots) of you have become smitten with Emoji, the cute, extra smiley-faces that come to us from Japan and work quite well on the iPhone. That is to say, they work quite well if you’ve hacked them on or downloaded one of the several apps that turns them on on-the-sly.

Sadly, that latter option is no longer going to be available. Ars Technica is reporting that Apple has issued a global take-down notice on any app that enables Emoji on non-Japanese iPhones. More specifically, they’ve told developers with apps that enable it to immediately remove that functionality:

Existing applications that offer Emoji enabling beyond their base functionality have been ordered to remove Emoji support. Fung told us that Apple has required an immediate update to his Typing Genius program with the Emoji support removed. This same order appears to have gone out to all developers whose App Store marketing text mentions an Emoji feature.

The good news is that if you’ve already installed one of these apps or otherwise enabled Emoji, the little guys should still work just fine for you — that is, until Apple decided to use their best-of-class software updating system for the iPhone to push out a new ROM that, one assumes, will break it.

DataViz just pushed out an email update on the current status of their upcoming iPhone document editing software, DocsToGo (which Dieter sneaked a peak at during Mobile World Congress). As most of us on TiPb came to the iPhone from other platforms, such as Palm, we’re all not only familiar with DocsToGo, but big fans of the mobile productivity suite. Needless to say, we’ve been waiting for this functionality to hit the iPhone for a (long!) while now:

We wanted to let you all know that Documents To Go is still on track to be released in the second quarter of 2009. We’d also like to give you a look at a few screenshots so you can get a better feel for what we’re up to.

They promise more updates on more features to come.

Wow, the Storm launching to a buggy, bashed start must really have bothered the marketing drones at RIM, especially when the iPhone 3G outsold in its second quarter outsold the Storm in its debut by almost 2 to 1… How else can we explain this cute little “shot” just taken at Apple?

Of course, we all know in the real world the Apple would have spun around, Kung-Fu style, and caught RIM’s little BerryBullet in it’s bitten-out teeth. Then… Skeedoosh! Massive shock-wave leveling everything this side of Waterloo.

Seriously though, why would anyone end any ad for a touch-screen device by saying “no one can touch it”, especially after all the complaints about this particular implementation’s usability…?

Still, hung-over as we are from the CrackBerry birthday bash, we’ll link up the romanticized little RIM version so you can lend us your thoughts…

UPDATED: Developer NiceMac provided an update in the comments:

The app was not rejected, however it could not be approved at this time.

It does no good to send hate mail to or bash Apple or any other involved parties. In fact, it could damage relationships required to get this product to market.

Instead, we encourage positive emails and messages of support to all those involved.

ORIGINAL: Lately I have been the bearer of bad news. First it was Apple rejecting the official South Park application and now they’re breaking our hearts once more and waving bye bye to Howard Stern and Sirius XM by rejecting the uSirius StarPlayr application that we previously told you was due to be in the App Store in a few short weeks. Yes this is a very sad day, as I am a huge Howard Stern fan like many of you.

“As of yesterday, the uSirius StarPlayr Application for iPhone still had a status of “In Review” with Apple. Late last night, we became aware that the application could not be approved at this time. As fans, we are committed to continuing to work with all parties involved as necessary in any capacity required to see this product to market. It is our goal, as it has always been, to release this application at as low of a price point as possible, if not free of charge.”

With no real reason given why this application was rejected, we must sadly move on. You really have to wonder what exactly made Apple reject this application. Surely it was not Sirius XM as Howard himself loved the idea and was ready to pick up an iPhone just for this application.

Apple, why did you reject this one? This was an application that I been patiently waiting for… oh so much. This news will surely disappoint Howard and many of the other Sirius XM iPhone owners out there.

Hopefully, we will see this application available on Cydia or the App Store sooner rather than later.

[Thanks to Darren for the tip!]