Late last year, Ustream and qik launched iPhone applications that let you stream videos from the iPhone to the web and allow others to watch them as they’re being recorded. And now there is an iPhone app called TwitCasting Live (iTunes link), which offers the same basic functionality, but is – as the name suggests – much deeper integrated into Twitter.
The free app is essentially a live streaming app and Twitter client rolled into one. TwitCasting Live splits the iPhone screen in half, allowing you to view your Twitter timeline, update your status, access the web etc. on the bottom half, while recording (broadcasting) video on the top.
More and more apps are stricken from the App Store as of late, for a variety of reasons. Today, the Apple hammer hit Tokyo-based Tonchidot whose augmented reality app Sekai Camera was removed without warning.
The free app, which made its – memorable – debut during TechCrunch 50 in 2008, intends to help users “tag the world” by imposing information (text, pictures, video and audio) over images in the iPhone camera.
As reported (and following Final Fantasy I and II, which are now available), the App Store will get another hit Japanese video game this month, Streetfighter IV. It will be the first mobile version of the Arcade game that so far was only ported to PS3, XBO360 and the PC. And today maker Capcom released the official trailer and a slew of new screenshots.
Who doesn’t love a good concept piece? Spaziocellulare forum user “Seraphan” just posted his render of what the iPhone 4G could look like, and his ideas aren’t too shabby. Of course, it’s one man’s idea of what the phone of the future should look like, including an expanded color pallet, built in microSD slot, and front and rear cameras complete with a built in flash on the back.
Obviously it’s not real, but it’s fun to look and dream eh?
Earlier today, Apple issued a press release stating that it has filed suit against cell phone manufacturer HTC for patent infringement. No mention of Android or Google was in the press release. But one of the actual legal complaints, which we’ve obtained and embedded below, makes no bones about it. As expected, this lawsuit is about Android. HTC, of course, is one of the largest manufacturers of Android handsets.
The complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware targets: “certain mobile communication devices including cellular phones and smart phones, including at least phones incorporating the Android Operating System (collectively, “the Accused Products”).” By going after the biggest Android manufacturer, Apple is putting all Android cell phone makers—and by extension Google— on notice. Is there any doubt now why Google CEO Eric Schmidt had to resign from Apple’s board last year? The battle lines are now drawn.
When Jason Kincaid tried out the iPhone app online music streaming startup Grooveshark built and showed off in July 2009, he wrote that it was great but that he “wouldn’t expect this to pop up in the App Store any time soon”. He was right on both counts.
Grooveshark now says it has given up on its ambitions to get approved for the official App Store, claiming that Apple has been “ritually rejecting” the app for “primary selfish reasons”. We’ve heard that song before.
Another fire erupted amongst developers and consumers when Apple decided to pull the plug on apps that contained content of questionable nature. This isn’t the first time Apple has done this, but with the pulling of Wobble iBoobs from the app store came a surge of app killings and everyone said they’d had enough.
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Well – not entirely. After all, it’s bright, responsive, and has a much higher resolution. But there is a lot more to making a good screen, and under a detailed analysis it’s far from a rout when you pit HTC’s bleeding-edge OLED screen against the old-school LCD of the iPhone.
Apologies if it gets a bit technical. Here is the basic list of complaints, as investigated here:
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Things just got a lot more wholesome in Apple’s app store as a boat load of apps were just banned, and new rules for future apps have been put into place. Bring on the lynch mob!
If you’ve jailbroken your iPhone or iPod touch with little to no regard for the law, maybe it’s time you reconsider your evil ways. Apparently, jailbreaking your iDevice will get the cops on your back if you’re not careful.
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It’s no surprise that Apple’s approval and rejection process for iPhone apps can be completely arbitrary and often asinine. Take Wobble iBoobs, for instance: the application has been on the market for several months and has even earned about $300,000 in sales, but after Apple “recently received numerous complaints” from customers, the app was pulled. The best part? This app didn’t even contain any questionable content — certainly not a first for an app store rejection.
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One thing I really love about the iPhone is discovering a new app while I’m out on the town, ignoring friends and family for my phone. I’ll check out reviews, look at some screen shots and take the plunge. Then the unexpected happens: the app won’t download because the file size is too big.
When one thinks of mobile apps, it’s tough to think of anything other than the ones for the iPhone. There’s an app for that rings through our heads as TV commercials and websites reveal to us that the iPhone is the platform of choice when businesses want to develop mobile apps. Apple now has a little over 175,000 apps in its store and over 3 billion have been downloaded to date. Attempts to topple Apple have probably left the company thinking, “You and what army?”
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I’ll admit that I love me some Skype. I get to call and video chat with all my buddies from overseas without hefty fees, except I was accustomed to doing it only where Wi-Fi was available. While AT&T and Apple have made some recent policy changes to allow VoIP over 3G, it looks like Verizon and Skype are partnering up do to a little of the same.
Just the other day, AT&T announced that it was able to work with Sling Media in order to optimize Sling player for AT&T’s 3G network. That’s good news for consumers and all, but it appears as though AT&T might have been doing a little posturing to make itself look like the good guy. After all, Sling users were disappointed about the lack of a Sling player on the iPhone when the application had been avaiable on BlackBerry for some time – and on AT&T’s network, no less.
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Looking at the iPad SDK, programmers are starting to say that the new version of the iPhone OS will support video calls, file downloads, and some sort of multitasking. There’s also several other features in the SDK that won’t work with the iPad, but would be applicable to the iPhone in it’s current configuration.
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Legendary RPG creator Hironobu Sakaguchi is working on a new game for the iPhone. In case you don’t recognize the name, he helped create a few games you might of heard of: Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, Xenogears, and Final Fantasy.
It’s tough at the top. When you’ve got tens of thousands of developers vying for your acceptance, your every decision is scrutinized and criticized. Such is the case with Apple; if they approve a thousand applications and deny one, that one that got cut off will be the one you hear about.
It looks like Apple might be making moves to loosen up their restrictions, if only ever so slightly. Earlier this week, Apple finally let a live video broadcasting app through the gates, after apps of that genre sat on the review backburner for months. Today, they’ve willingly approved another application that calls upon one of Apple’s private (and generally blacklisted) APIs.
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As the old mantra goes, “Cheaters never prosper”. In this digital age, it may be time to revise that saying. Granted a veil of anonymity by the Internet, cheaters surely prosper from their cheating; it’s just that when they get caught, they go down hard. Alas, “Cheaters may temporarily prosper – but if they get caught, they’re totally boned” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
Such was the case earlier today, when the development company behind over 1,000 iPhone applications was busted scamming the review system. In a flash, the developer — and all one thousand of their applications — have been pulled from the store.
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The word “droid” is short for “android.” When you think of androids you think of robots. “Robot” is a Czech word that means “drudgery.” “Drudgery” is defined as “dull, irksome, and fatiguing work.” And let me tell you: it is dull, irksome, and fatiguing to sit through this latest Verizon Droid commercial.
