Developer Gonzalo Oxenford wrote in to let us know the story behind Truco, a South American card game for the iPhone. These are the types of developers that make us so excited about the future of the platform!
Since we decided to start making iPhone Apps, we realized that we had to take a lot of care in the interface design, and graphic arts. We think this new platform is an amazing approach to virtual reality, and that’s what we’ve been doing while designing Truco.
If you take a look at the card games now at the App store, you will see that not even the one made by Apple takes care of that. The wood textures, the card size, the beauty of the cards. All other card games have so small cards, that makes you think you are playing an 8 bit game. And you are not supposed to, since these games are running inside of one of the most advanced mobile OS on Earth.
It’s very important for the user to feel the cards, to move them. Cards must be big enough so you can appreciate the beautiful illustrations on them. And this is what the real Truco player loves.
Other interesting aspect of the game is the AI (artificial intelligence) it has. The game of Truco is actually played by tricking your opponent. The AI we developed can make things like raising the stakes and bluffing which can put pressure on you, and might cause you to fold. So we let the user to choose the computer skill level, making it easier or harder to play…
Truco can also be played in multiplayer mode via Wi-Fi. It takes advantage of Bonjour, Apple’s technology that lets two devices communicate in a local network with zero configuration. Truco just sees other Truco installed in your friend’s iPhone and they arrange a multiplayer game automatically, it’s so beautiful how it works.
Odasoft is a 3 people company. Tons of years playing video games have help us a lot. We work at our homes during our free time. We are Mac users and nerds. And we just invested our small tiny savings on this project. We love what we do, and that’s the key that let us wake up sunday mornings at 7 AM to start working on this, while most people keep sleeping…
I will admit I am not the biggest fan of Photoshop but I am into all of these compositing apps in the App Store and this new application, Juxtaposer, [iTunes link] is one you can really have some fun with, especially if you like taking pictures of your friends and family and making them look ridiculous.
Along with all of that fun comes ease of use as well:
First, load in any two pictures – perhaps one of your dad, and one of your dog.
Next, use your finger to erase around your dog’s head. Quickly zoom in and out or move around using two finger pinching gestures. To cut out your dog’s head exactly, first zoom out and make a rough outline, then zoom in, and erase or un-erase with pixel-accuracy. Switch to move mode and use two fingers to move, re-size and rotate your dog’s head into place over dad’s. It’s easy, intuitive and fun, and you’ll have a great new Dog-Dad in about a minute.
The app will run you $2.99 but for that price you are getting the best compositing application in the App Store. Period.
[This is an iPhone blog App vs. App review! Last week, we ran our Shazam vs. Midomi showdown, with Midomi scoring the win. But which commenter won an iTunes gift certificate? Congratulations Patrick! Want your chance to win the winning app this week? Comment below!]
Ever used a laser pointer? Ever used a wireless mouse? Ever wish you could have both in one and more? Well, there are some apps on the iPhone that allow you to do just that! These devices work great! They turn the iPhone into a remote mouse with a virtual touch pad. You use your finger to control the mouse; left-click, right-click, scroll, it makes no difference! You can even create macros to automate launching applications! Let’s take a look at two of these apps: Air Mouse [iTunes Link] and Snatch [iTunes Link]
It allows you to apply several different filters to a picture you have already taken our one that you can take within the application itself.
Besides the filters themselves, you have the option to choose which resolution you wish to use. The higher the resolution the longer the app will take in saving your new photo, but the better the quality the picture will be. Personally I want the highest quality possible and it didn’t seem to take an unnecessary amount of time to save (the save time is shown in there video below.)
This application converts the iPhone / iPod Touch backups that are created by iTunes into readily usable Mac OS X files. It is designed to run on Mac OS X Leopard only.
Twitterrific creator Craig Hockenberry, among others, claim this tool is invaluable for debugging and decoding.
TiPb: Avantar has a wide range of apps on the market. Most appear to focus on quickly acquiring and succinctly displaying useful information like movie times, business listings, and restaurant options. What made Avantar choose these particular apps for your initial iPhone offerings?
I watched the recent Apple iPhone commercial, the one featuring Loopt that promised to keep me in stronger, better, faster contact with all my similarly teched-out friends, and immediately fired my iPhone to download it.
But guess what? It didn’t show up in the App Store. Dieter was kind enough to send me a direct link, so I clicked on that, and know what happened? I got a pop-up telling me Loopt wasn’t available in the Canadian App Store.
So, either we Canucks have no friends to stay in contact with, Loopt has yet to expand their offering to our frozen shores, or Apple didn’t bother to make a commercial with wider appeal than AT&T’s network coverage (or all of the above?)
In a global village, is it odd that an App isn’t just an App, and often medieval licensing rights prevent real parity in services?
For our international readers, any other Apps you’ve been unable to get due simply to where you live? Any Americans ever come across an App you couldn’t get?
Dying for an external keyboard on your iPhone? Well, you’re in luck! This proof of concept shows that if you’re an electrical engineering genius — or more likely a teenager — you can hack together one of your very own! Engadget says this solution involves Ruby code on a jailbroken iPhone, so it’s definitely not plug n’play (or better yet, Blue Tooth!) so for now only the hardcore need apply.
We’ve heard about podcast downloads being added to iPhone OS 2.2 before, but now Macrumors (via Shimanke.com — check out their screenshots) has more details how the process will work. In response to Chad’s fears of overwhelming AT&T’s fragile 3G network (aka “rabbit ears”), it looks like cell downloads will be limited to podcasts under 10MB, the same limitation currently imposed on App Store purchases over 3G. Both audio and video podcasts will be available for download, however, and on WiFi there’s no limitation.
Could TV Shows and even Movies be next? And with Exchange, MobileMe, and other sync services storming the “clouds”, what does this mean for the days of USB tethering to your Mac or PC?
Meanwhile, the App Store looks to have a cosmetic makeover, with categories now sporting the icons of some of their most popular Apps (i.e., Social Networking shows the Facebook icon).
Lastly, still no sign of Push Notification, which Macrumors hears via the whisper-net is still having “major issues”. After the disastrous MobileMe rollout, could Apple be waiting to get it right the first time?
