Tell the guy you’ll upgrade your iPhone to a Droid when he upgrades his wife to a sheep.
– From a chat with a friend on O2 reps trying to snag a contract extension.
Radiance: the £59.99 Flashlight App for the iPhone.
Someone’s really trying it on. How did this beauty slip by Apple’s zealous approval process? ;)
The new Facebook App for iPhone (v 3.1) lets you download your friends photos and store them as the profile images for your Phone’s address book. This is definitely pretty cool.
It also now has push notifications, also cool.
No Multitouch on Nexus One ‘A Gentlemen’s Agreement’ with Apple
Google’s newly released Nexus One has received mixed reviews from the tech press, but one of the key questions for the so-called ‘iPhone Killer’ was the reason for its apparent lack of multitouch capabilities.
According to a source working on the handset’s innards, multitouch is indeed supported on the Nexus One’s Android API’s. The decision not to implement the feature in the handset’s core UI and applications was the result of a board-level ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ between Google and Apple.
Google in fact agreed to forego using multitouch in their core UI in exchange for Apple maintaining a high visibility for Google’s apps and services on their iPhone.
What this means in practice, is that there is nothing stopping third party developers from using multitouch in their own Nexus One applications. Whether this gentlemen’s agreement holds in the face of Apple’s ongoing move away from Google’s apps (on Mapping, for example) is anybody’s guess.
The development of mobile phones will be similar in PCs. Even with the Mac, Apple has attracted much attention at first, but they have still remained a niche manufacturer. That will be in mobile phones as well.
– Nokia’s Chief Strategist, speaking last month. From the Top 5 Assclown iPhone Quotes. And you wonder why Nokia keeps making the same mistakes (or do you?) [Thanks @GenuineEntropy]But with Layar already out, does anyone still care? Admittedly, Wikitude’s comparatively uncluttered interface gives it some usability points over its rival, but the app’s limited data set may have some users opting for Layar’s more varied and open information base.
Missed a show? Have no fear, for an iphone-optimised site called tvcatchup.com will let you watch your favourite UK terrestrial tv channel, plus E4 and others, with a 30 minute delay. Currently in Beta, and free, it’s definitely worth a shortcut on your Home screen.
iPhone OS 3.1.2 update is out. Fixes intermittent connectivity issues, a common ‘wake from sleep’ issue, and crashes when streaming certain videos.
Looks like our american friends have finally caught a break, with AT&T giving the all-clear to the use of VOIP apps like Skype on their 3G network.
What about UK mobile users? O2, the only iPhone carrier currently carrying the iPhone (if not for long), still hasn’t made any announcements on the subject. It’ll be interesting to see just how long they think they can get away with it.
RedLaser for iPhone: a great hack?
Barcode scanning apps on the iPhone are ten a penny, but £1.99 RedLaser [iTunes link] does something different: in scan mode, it constantly analyses the viewfinder’s video stream until it finds a barcode, without the user having to take a picture.
Big deal right? Well yes, because it’s not supposed to do that. Apple’s latest API’s, released with the iPhone OS 3.1 update, have expanded the use of the video camera to allow Augmented Reality apps to overlay data onto the camera viewfinder’s feed. However, as far as I know, developers weren’t allowed to actually manipulate, or process, said video feed.
How then is the RedLaser processing the viewfinder’s feed? And why isn’t the same technique used by AR apps such as WikiTude, RobotVision and Bionic Eye to process real-world markers? I’d really be interested to see AR applications expand their functionality to real-time processing of real-world markers such as billboards and landmarks. Too early to tell if and when that will become a reality on the humble iPhone.
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