Articles by Brian Hart
A super… a monkey… a ball. A Super… a Monkey… a Ball. These are not three different games!
Does the above phrasing sound familiar? Steve Jobs used this same kind of phrasing when first introducing the iPhone waaaaaaaay back in January 2007. Much has happened since then! We finally have the iPhone 3G and, even more importantly (in my opinion), we have iPhone 2.0 and the Apps Store!
You may have heard of a little game called Super Monkey Ball from SEGA? It’s only just the top app at the iTunes App Store. It’s only $9.99. We got a taste of it several months ago at the last WWDC during the keynote and there has been salivation, hand-wringing and garment-rending ever since. Finally, with the release of iPhone 2.0 and the App Store last week, the venerable Super Monkey Ball is available for download from the iTunes App Store via your desktop or right to your iPhone.
Does it measure up to the hype? The answer is — (suspense killing ya?) Full review is a click away!
With the advent of the App Store where you can download AIM for free, there is now a way to send SMS messages for free. This method is brought to you by Jeff Carlson of Tidbits.com and will comprise this week’s Tip! (Important note: the following method is only proven to work in the U.S.)
When I picked up my shiny black iPhone 3G last Friday, I knew I was going to have to pay the inevitable rate increase for data (another $10 smackers a month). I also knew I would (hissing a curse under my breath) lose my built-in 200 text messages per month. AT&T’s SMS packages offer a laughable range of offerings: $5 a month for 200 messages, then an Olympian leap to $15 for 1500 messages and $20 for unlimited. What, no room for $10 a month for, say, 750 or 1000 messages? But I digress.
The basic idea goes thusly: AIM (and thus your AIM app on your iPhone) is able to send free text messages by sending them to +13522225555 (or whatever the phone number is). There’s a bit more to it, of course, so be sure to click on through and read Carlson’s walkthrough.
(Post updated since publication by request)
Civilizations rose and fell. Rivers carved canyons. Stars twinkled into existence, then died. All this while we waited for iPhone 2.0 and the App Store. If you were lucky enough to upgrade your iPhone 2G to 2.0 or have a newly-acquired iPhone 3G, and you have upgraded to iTunes 7, you now have access to the App Store on either iTunes or your iPhone and the 3rd party native apps downloading extravaganza can commence! If you are new to 3rd party apps, new to iPhone and/or iTunes, or just want a little guidance before diving into the App Store, then read on after the break for the App Store walkthrough!
Splashdata – the company that has given unto the smartphone-and-pda-user world such iconic titles as SplashID, SplashShopper, and SplashMoney on numerous popular platforms – has jumped head-first into the iPhone world with two of the three aforementioned apps in the iTunes App Store. Both SplashShopper and SplashID are currently available for purchase and download, each at $9.99.
SplashMoney, their popular money management app, is soon to follow, according to Kevin Doel of TalonPR. Keep checking the App Store because SplashMoney could arrive as soon as tomorrow. Following it’s release, you can find a full review right here on TiPB.
With the second coming of the iPhone at our doorsteps (3G for those of you living in a cave), there has been an intriguing amount of comparison between the “old” iPhone 2G and the shiny new 3G Wonder. The coming of 2.0 and the App Store has everyone a-twitter, but lest we forget, there are still a plethora of web-based apps out there that are just darn good and useful. This week’s Tip, courtesy of Fiona King and currencytrading.net (a BIG thanks, Fiona!), is all about helpful financial apps for the iPhone. Read on, friends!
The Smartphone Experts 2-in-1 Earphones w/ Handsfree for iPhone, available here for only $7.95 at your friendly neighborhood Phone different Store, prove that you don’t have to pay big bucks for top drawer functionality. These earphones just may be the ticket if you’re on a budget. Keep reading for my review!
The iPhone 3G is SOOOOO close, I can practically taste the doubled speed, GPS and iPhone 2.0-and-web apps sweetness! It’s hard to believe that it’s already been over a year since I held the object of my obsession (a.k.a. iPhone 2G) for the first time in the Apple Store. Now, my still-gleaming 2G is about to become a has-been. Will it be worth the box it was shipped in after July 11? Read on for this week’s Tip, the possible future of YOUR “old” iPhone!
Although the current iPhone does many things, it does fall short in some glaring ways. Managing tasks, for example, has been discussed both in forums and in TiPB podcasts. Perhaps Apple refuses to provide a means of managing tasks because they believe an iPhone user will have little time left for anything else in life other than surfing the web on Safari, watching movies and listening to tunes in iPod, Google Mapping, etc.? Speculation for this exclusion may abound, but fortunately, we’ve got you covered with this week’s Tip.
If you haven’t been checking out the new Web Apps lately, then you may have missed a little gem called Getting Tasks Done!, available here! Read more about managing your tasks on the iPhone following the break!
Fortunately, other enterprising companies have stepped up to the plate and given unto us some worthy replacements for the stock headphones: enter Maximo, the makers of the iP-HS1 iMetal Stereo Headset for the iPhone, available at our Phone different store for $69.99. Continue after the break for a full review! Read the rest of this entry »
Is there an iPhone on Mars? No, not exactly. Nor have we found little green men on Mars, either. Although if we did, would they be toting iPhone 3Gs? If it were up to Jobs they would (how ’bout a game of Interstellar Risk, Rene?). Unless you’ve been living in a cave (a la Bin Laden), you’ve likely heard of NASA’s recent success landing the Phoenix Mars lander. The lander is equipped with shovel and soil analysis equipment to seek out ice, water, life, etc.
Even though iPhones aren’t on Mars (yet!), you can use your iPhone to get the latest news and mission status of the Phoenix Mars lander. Toughturtle.com, a developer of several other iPhone web apps, has given to us the Phoenix Mars Mission web app for the iPhone. Keep reading to learn more about this week’s Tip! Read the rest of this entry »
