Phoenix Wright, Hexen II coming to the iPhone

Filed under: Gaming, Software, Apple, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Good news for fans of good games: the terrific DS courtroom simulator (which, trust me, sounds much less fun than it actually is) Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney is coming to the iPhone, and Slide to Play has posted some hands-on video. The game takes the two DS screens and stacks them on top of each other rather than converting the game into a landscape version, so it’s basically a straight port of the DS game. It’d be interesting to see a more iPhone-specific version of the game (maybe something that uses the camera or the accelerometer to show off evidence in the courtroom), but we’ll take just the port, too — if you haven’t played any of the Phoenix Wright games but enjoy a good adventure yarn, you’re in for a treat. The game should be out “soon.”

Hexen II is on its way to the iPhone as well, and Touch Arcade has a few screens and video of that one. I was much more of a Quake fan, but Hexen, with its medieval setting and RPG elements placed in the same game engine, had its share of followers back in the day, too. Unfortunately, Vimov doesn’t yet have the rights to Hexen II — they’re just working with an open-sourced version of the engine. To actually release the data on the App Store, they’ll need to make a deal with Activision, so we’ll have to wait and see if that can happen before you can start hacking and slashing through the world of the Serpent Riders again.

Phoenix Wright, Hexen II coming to the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Phoenix Wright, Hexen II coming to the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source:[tuaw]

Phoenix Wright, Hexen II coming to the iPhone

Filed under: Gaming, Software, Apple, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Good news for fans of good games: the terrific DS courtroom simulator (which, trust me, sounds much less fun than it actually is) Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney is coming to the iPhone, and Slide to Play has posted some hands-on video. The game takes the two DS screens and stacks them on top of each other rather than converting the game into a landscape version, so it’s basically a straight port of the DS game. It’d be interesting to see a more iPhone-specific version of the game (maybe something that uses the camera or the accelerometer to show off evidence in the courtroom), but we’ll take just the port, too — if you haven’t played any of the Phoenix Wright games but enjoy a good adventure yarn, you’re in for a treat. The game should be out “soon.”

Hexen II is on its way to the iPhone as well, and Touch Arcade has a few screens and video of that one. I was much more of a Quake fan, but Hexen, with its medieval setting and RPG elements placed in the same game engine, had its share of followers back in the day, too. Unfortunately, Vimov doesn’t yet have the rights to Hexen II — they’re just working with an open-sourced version of the engine. To actually release the data on the App Store, they’ll need to make a deal with Activision, so we’ll have to wait and see if that can happen before you can start hacking and slashing through the world of the Serpent Riders again.

Phoenix Wright, Hexen II coming to the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Phoenix Wright, Hexen II coming to the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source:[tuaw]

In Case You Missed It: Feb. 21-28

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. If you’re one of our more easterly
readers, you’re probably getting sick of the stuff. Unless you’re a
skier or a snowboarder or are inexplicably into curling. If you’re out a
little further west, it’s just the thing for the slopes and you wish
you were getting a little of that east coast action.

And if
you’re up north in Vancouver, you’ve been seeing it all the time. And in
honor of the 2010 games, Mac|Life has a full slate of medals to hand
out in the best writing of the week. Of course they’re all gold, silly.
It’s Mac|Life, after all.

Features:

- 15 Awesome
Google Services You Never Knew Existed - Will they stop at nothing? The
constant stream of new products and services offered by the company that
promises to "don’t be evil" come fast and furious with new stuff every
half-second. We take a look at some of their lesser known services that
just might auto-complete your life.

-
The Gregory Brothers Interview: Auto-Tune the News and Other Blatant
Acts of Awesomeness - Seriously, need we say more? We bagged an
interview with the gang behind the online sensation that is Auto-Tune
the News. Why are you even still reading this?

How-Tos:

-
Send Large Files Over the Internet Without Enraging the Receiver -
We’ve all been there. Some dolt promises to send you a file, and he
attaches it to an email, tying up your computer and timing out as the
email server tries to handle the bulk. There’s loads of better ways to
do this, and as usual we’ve got the list.

Reviews:

- Logitech Harmony 900 - It’s funny how many remotes you end up
with around the house, even after you’ve bought your first, second, and
third universal remote that promises to be the one remote to bind them.
Logitech’s $400 Harmony 900 might seem pricey for yet another so-called
universal remote, but it goes many steps beyond universal remotes. This
baby is programmable with macros that don’t just turn on one product,
but help you organize your entire entertainment experience.

-
Google Nexus One - Sigh, another iPhone killer hits the market. They
keep getting a step closer, but not really. Google’s own branded and
sold Nexus One is probably the closest yet, but trackballs are so 1997
we don’t know what to think. Oh wait, yes we do: "cumbersome and
imprecise." Maybe that can be the pull-quote for the review. Not without
its highlights, such as background processing and no AT&T suicide
pact, the Nexus One could kill the iPhone 2.

-
G-Technology G Drive - Remember when a 100GB hard drive seemed like a
vast vista of storage that would last you long into the future? Hahaha,
yeah, those were the days. Now, we all look to terrabytes to save our
souls, and G-Technology’s G Drive offers speed, size, and a beautiful
aluminum case that perfect matches your Mac Pro. Cut down on the 2TB’s
spin volume and give us a vertical orientation for non Mac Pro users and
this baby’s just about flawless.

News:

It’s
to be expected that Apple business (not just products) were all the
news in follow-ups to the iPad announcement. One slight tech note: some
analysts claim that the new A4 chip for the iPad cost a cool $1 billion
in research and development…that’s apparently small change to the
$40 billion in cash that is sitting around in Cupertino while Steve Jobs
rolls around on it naked, demanding the company "think
big"….shareholders might have been stoked about that news, but those
shareholders who don’t understand science found Al Gore’s appearance
controversial and wasted no time spouting their silliness, to no
discernible effect…Apple COO Tim Cook sat down with some folks at the
Goldman Sachs Technology & Internet Conference in San Francisco and
dished on the iPad, AT&T, Apple TV, and more…speaking of
everyone’s favorite mobile carrier, if this report is to be believed,
AT&T actually improved; tell it to the judge, people…speaking of
being judged, Apple’s commitment to no sweatshops in their manufacturing
partners is a nice reminder of the power of persuading corporations to
do right…and speaking of corporations doing right, it seems more of
them are finally seeing the value of switching to Macs. It’s about time,
gang.

Fallout
continues from the great prude purge of the App Store. First there was
the Purge. Which oddly enough didn’t seem to touch big name profitable
joints like Playboy or Sports Illustrated…then a few apps that were
caught up in the same dragnet, but which did things like sell swimsuits,
found their way back in…Phil Schiller was dragged out to answer a few
questions and unsurprisingly said Apple is doing everything right and
just be quiet about it after all…then there seemed to be some hemming
and hawing going on about whether or not to let these kinds of apps have
their own little private corner of the App Store…and finally the app
whose name is synonymous with all of this, Wobble came back to the App
Store, with toned-down marketing imagery…

In
hardware news, analysts predict yet a cheaper iPhone to hit the market
around mid-year….Boxee has managed to get itself back on Apple TV and
the game goes on….touch interaction might just be coming to all your
computers, and if this patent application is to be believed, Apple’s
definitely on the way to bringing it to the iMac…while there was no
camera in the iPad that was shown off by Jobs & Co., tidbits of the
SDK still manage to turn up that suggests that a camera is in the
future, either very soon or not far off…speaking of that SDK, Beta 3
was out for a second and a half, then pulled back at the last
moment….and Apple seems to think this mobile OS the iPhone sports
might just work in more than just the three mobile devices we’ve all
seen and loved; need a job working in Apple’s mobile product line? Well,
this posting could be your ticket….and while iPad pre-orders didn’t
start last week as the rumor mill had it, there’s still the possibility
that they could be taking orders aaaaannnnyyyyyy minute now…

Source:[therawfeed]

TUAW redux: The future of iPhone OS and Mac OS

Filed under: OS, iPhone, iPad

One of the big topics of discussion yesterday in our TUAW back channel was this post from the New York Times Bits blog. In “Why can’t PCs work more like iPhones,” Bilton pointed out that the iPhone has given Apple a chance to build a new OS from the ground up.

This is a familiar viewpoint to us here on TUAW. Last year, I asked whether the future of the Mac OS would turn out to be the iPhone. In my write-up, I pointed out that the iPhone OS was built from scratch to work with Objective C 2.0 with its properties and other modern language features. Its API, far from being cobbled together, showed ever increasing design maturity without the weight of heavy backwards compatibility concerns. I concluded that Apple might take a lesson from the iPhone OS and consider offering a ground up redesign for Mac OS X, at least in terms of core OS principles.

In his post, Bilton considers how Mac OS X might integrate iPhone OS features into its user experience, suggesting a possible Front Row-like overlay layer, running an iPhone OS interface. The goal would be to craft iPhone-style GUI simplicity onto the desktop experience, so that users could move seamlessly between their mobile and desktop worlds.

But as much as we believe that Apple is heading cautiously in the direction that Bilton suggests, the TUAW consensus is that a desktop OS needs far more structure and, at the same time, flexibility than what the iPhone OS offers.

Continue reading TUAW redux: The future of iPhone OS and Mac OS

TUAW redux: The future of iPhone OS and Mac OS originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW redux: The future of iPhone OS and Mac OS originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source:[tuaw]

Apple Shareholder’s Meeting Roundup

Yesterday Apple held its annual shareholder’s meeting at its Cupertino headquarters. All the top brass were there to answer questions from the men and women to whom, let’s face it, they must eventually answer. Of course, that didn’t stop Steve Jobs from being his usual tactless self, quipping during a lengthy comment from one shareholder, “Do you have a question?”

There’s a lot of information to digest, so I’ve condensed the juiciest morsels into what I hope is a more accessible short-form. Here goes!

All seven board members were re-elected; there was an advisory vote on executive compensation and Apple’s public accounting firm was chosen (it’s Ernst & Young, by the way.) Votes also were cast on two shareholder proposals. The first called for a published “sustainability report” detailing the company’s environmental policies and its contingency planning in the face of climate change. The second proposal was for the creation of a second board of directors, tasked with overseeing Apple’s environmental policies and business strategy in the face of climate change. The board felt they were already doing a fine job in both these areas, and recommended voting against the new proposals. Votes were counted and, unsurprisingly, neither proposal was successful.

Green

According to Macworld, Jobs claimed that Apple is the first company to work directly with suppliers on issues ranging from environmental impact to worker protection and education. Macworld’s Dan Frakes writes;

Taking a jab at other companies, as well as organizations such as Greenpeace, [Jobs] noted that “other companies just make promises” and attend conferences and events to “schmooze with [environmental groups], but the work ain’t getting done,” whereas Apple is actually taking steps to improve the company’s real-world green credentials and treatment of workers.

Jobs also noted that the smaller packaging used across Apple’s product line has reduced the number of annual cargo flights “by the hundreds”;

“It’s the right thing to do from an environmental point of view; it’s the right thing to do from a business point of view.”

Money

In its first quarter 2010 investor conference call, Apple announced it had $39.8 billion in the bank at the end of December 2009. The question now is, what on earth should it do with it? Spend it? Save it for the next recession? Perhaps pay dividends to shareholders — something BusinessWeek says the company has not done since 1995? Jobs said;

We know if we need to acquire something – a piece of the puzzle to make something big and bold – we can write a check for it and not borrow a lot of money and put our whole company at risk. The cash in the bank gives us tremendous security and flexibility.

You never know what opportunities are going to be around the next corner. We are a large enough business now that, in order to really move the needle, we have to be thinking pretty bold – pretty large.

New Role

On the matter of Apple’s new role as a ‘mobile devices’ company (first announced by Jobs in January and reiterated by Tim Cook in last month’s earnings call) Jobs said;

This is not something that we’re ordaining from the top. This is something our customers are saying with their dollars, if you just look at the products that we’re selling. They’re telling us what they think is important and we’re reflecting that.

But specifically, what does this mean about the future of Apple’s desktop Macs, the iMac and Mac Pro? “We love desktop computers,” El Jobso assured the shareholders, “And plan to continue making them.” So, that’s alright then.

Asia

When asked about Apple’s efforts to increase international sales, Jobs turned to (VP of Retail) Ron Johnson, who announced that Apple is looking to open 24 more stores in China to join the existing store in Beijing. This is to be expected, given how important (and lucrative) China is to Apple. DigitalDaily’s John Paczkowski writes, “Mac sales in China increased nearly 100 percent year over year in the first financial quarter of 2010… while iPhone sales [are] ramping up.”

Apple's Beijing Store

Beyond the Mac, Paczkowski quotes Tim Cook on Apple’s overall revenue in that market;

“…if you look at greater China last quarter, which is China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, our revenues tripled year-over-year… We have a tremendous focus on it.”

I guess it’s only right China should get a little Apple-love… after all, they make most of Apple’s gear in the first place!

Stability

Finally, there was a moment of fun, Jobs-style; a shareholder wanted to know of Jobs, “What keeps you up at night?”

“Shareholder meetings,” Jobs immediately shot back, before getting very serious and adding, thoughtfully;

“Apple requires stability in the world. People aren’t going to worry about which laptop to buy if they can’t afford dinner, can’t afford to send their kids to school, can’t afford textbooks. There are things much bigger than us that are out of our control. So we try to just do the best we can.”

Bravo, Steve. And bravo, Apple.

Source:[tuaw]

Line2 adds a second line to your iPhone for $15 a month

Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, iPad

Would you like to add a second line to your iPhone? Perhaps you’d like to add a business number to the phone, but your existing phone is currently tied to your personal mobile number. You could always carry a second phone, but that’s an expensive proposition, particularly if you’re an iPhone addict.

VoIP provider Toktumi has a solution that may work out well for you. They’re now selling an app called Line2 (US$0.99) that mimics many of the capabilities of the standard Phone app, complete with a form of visual voice mail. Purchasing the app provides you with one month of free VoIP service. After that point, each month’s continued service costs $14.95 for unlimited calls within the US and Canada. The service is purchased in-app, and was a point of confusion for me — the app listing in the iTunes store shows a “Top In App Purchase” at a cost of $19.99 for a month. Toktumi’s website and the promotional video (above) do show the lower monthly rate.

While many VoIP solutions require a Wi-Fi connection to work, Line2 works over both 3G and Wi-Fi. The app has many of the features you might want in a business phone, including call waiting and call transfer, the ability to create conference calls with up to 20 participants, and even integration with Toktumi’s hosted PBX service.

For small businesses that want to present a more professional image to callers, Line2 might be just the right solution. Toktumi notes that the app also works with both the iPod touch (Wi-Fi only) and iPad (Wi-Fi or 3G).

Line2 adds a second line to your iPhone for $15 a month originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Line2 adds a second line to your iPhone for $15 a month originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source:[tuaw]

Logitech Harmony 900

Our entertainment-center remotes are like tribbles; they look warm and welcoming at first, but we swear they keep multiplying to the point of overrunning the living room. We spend more time swapping between clickers than actually pressing buttons… so we’ve replaced them all with a single, universal device: Logitech’s Harmony 900. And it does more than just duplicate the original remotes’ controls–it adds new features. We had one significant setup problem, but after we corrected the issue, the Harmony 900 excelled.

Programming the Harmony via your Mac is simple, amounting to answering a series of plain-English questions. When we first plugged it in via USB, however, our Mac identified it as an Ethernet device and asked if we wanted to open the Network Preferences. Huh?

Since the remote had no documentation identifying the procedure–and it just seemed so crazy–we thought it was defective. But after consulting Logitech tech support, we discovered that this is what’s supposed to happen. The remote needs to be set up as an additional Ethernet profile in the Network Preferences. This change can muddle your Network Preferences and certainly was confusing. At press time, Logitech said it’s working on updating the documentation to explain the process more thoroughly.

It might look like every other remote, but it feels like the future.

After that initial problem, we breezed through the rest of the setup. The software prompts you to enter specific model numbers for your TV, cable box, audio receiver, game systems, and anything else you want to control, then the Harmony 900 adds all of the original remotes’ commands to its profile. We have yet to stump Logitech’s massive database of 225,000 devices, but if you do, you can manually program those commands. Fair enough.

More than just replacing those remotes, though, the Harmony elegantly ties everything together. You’ll set up simple macros to watch TV, play videogames, watch a DVD, or do any other activity by telling it how everything is connected. For example, after we tap the Watch TV button, the remote turns on the TV and A/V receiver, and sets both for their proper input. Most of the remote buttons then command our connected TiVo, but volume commands still go to the receiver. These macros beautifully streamline even the most complicated media setups.

The remote also feels great in your hand. Pick it up, and the motion sensor activates the backlighting. We appreciated how easy it was to figure out how to control important commands by touch since different buttons have unique textures. And we liked how the clear touchscreen augments all of the hard buttons with specialized commands, such as the TiVo’s Thumbs Up or the Xbox 360’s A, B, X, and Y.

Best of all, the Harmony 900 translates between radio frequency (RF) and infrared (IR) commands, and that means you can control hardware that’s in another room or a closed cabinet. To do this, the Harmony 900 sends an RF command to a small box that you place near your devices. The box then translates this back into the standard IR commands that your original remotes would send. That can feel magic-like, but unfortunately, the remote can’t normally control Bluetooth gear, such as the Wii. At least a $60 adapter makes it work with PlayStation 3, which also uses Bluetooth… but $60? Ouch!

Unfortunately, the RF mode didn’t work at anywhere near Logitech’s estimated 100-foot range, but we had no problem controlling everything in an adjacent room, which was good enough for us. But if you need to adjust music volume from across the house, the Harmony 900 might not work. Its whopper of a price tag ($399!) might also stop you in your tracks. Still, it’s worth it if your household is tech-challenged and needs the help–or if you’re willing to pay through the nose for the coolness of what this remote can pull off.

Source:[therawfeed]

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