Apps

Apple has just updated the iPhone version of the App Store to include a re-designed gaming section. This updated games section has its own dedicated new games pane, a what’s hot (popular) section, a way to get into all the gaming categories (role playing, sports, etc.) and a Genius section just for games!

Check it out on the App Store on your iPhone. Thanks, Randall!

Update: It looks like Apple tried to push out this new section a little to quickly… It seems to have been removed to the App Store and has been replaced with the old gaming category. Oh, Genius isn’t working for some users we’ve talked to and Apple may be adding another categories pane to the featured section.

YouTube has had a feature for sometime on their desktop web video upload client that allows video uploaders to choose whether their video is public, private, or unlisted. Public’s for the world to see, private is for you and your bros, and unlisted makes the video only viewable from a direct link or embed.

That feature has just arrived in iOS 4.2 beta 2 and hopefully it sticks around for the public launch… which it probably will.

Game Center compatibility indicators made their way to the desktop version of the iTunes App Store just the other day, and Apple’s bringing this new feature to the mobile App Store in iOS 4.2. The feature is currently available on beta 2 of iPad 4.2.

iPhone/iPod touch version after the break:

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The new Apple TV runs a ‘Front Row’ like software called ‘Lowtide.’ This software has multi-device support and this means it can technically work on any iOS device. Developer, Dustin Howett got it running on his iPod touch, which he doesn’t recommend others to try.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTJ5yG2LyX8&w=640&h=385]

via TUAW

For those who are still hoping for another Safari alternative on iOS, this one’s a heart breaker. Mozilla today announced in a blog post that they have no plans to bring a Firefox browsing experience to iOS.

We are working to bring as much of your Firefox experience as possible to Firefox Home. People have asked about adding more browser-like features to Firefox Home, but there are technical and logistical restrictions that make it difficult, if not impossible, to build the full Firefox browser for the iPhone. We are focused on building Firefox Home as a rich, cloud-based application and making it a valuable product that people will continue to love and use.

Mozilla currently offers their ‘Firefox Home’ application for iPhone which wirelessly transfers users bookmarks, history, and all sorts of things to their iPhone. Firefox said back in 2008 that they wouldn’t be making an iOS version of Firefox due to Apple’s app review process, for those keeping track.

Image Credit: TiPb

Apple has given its approval to the Google Voice App for iPhone, which should be available at the App Store “soon”. Some changes were required to make the app work the iPhone 4 and iOS’s multitasking capabilities. The move follows Apple’s move to block the app last July of last year and its subsequent decision to relax its app guidelines for App development in September.
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A UK university is offering free iPhone loans to its fourth and fifth year medical students,  report claims.
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According to TUAW, iOS 4.1 has a little bug which wakes up those New Zealand folks an hour early each morning via clock.app. The cause of the bug is related to daylight savings time in the Southern Hemisphere and other than that this is goes into the meh category (OK it’s not meh).

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Last night Apple updated iTunes to version 10.0.1 and perhaps the most important new feature is Ping Sidebar. Besides the new Ping features Apple fixes tons of bugs and added a neat little time saver to the App Store. For those who are interested in finding out if the app they want to download is compatible with Game Center, they traditionally would need to scan the app description or take a look at the featured Game Center section.

Now, Apple has added Game Center compatibility indicators to Game Center apps. If you want to find out if the app you’re looking to buy works with Game Center simply take a look at the upper-right-hand-corner of the iTunes page and if you see the pictured logo (above) you’re good to go. As far as we can see, this feature is not yet available on the mobile version of the App Store. Thanks, Benjamin!

Update: Reader, Justin, has let us know that this is not iTunes 10.0.1 specific. This is a new feature though so the story still stands.

There’s a series of interesting App Store metrics contained in a handy (but large) infographic you can go grab from a business-focused website right now. These little visual nuggets of information include data on just how many inactive apps exist, how quickly the App Store has grown and much more.
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You knew Rock Your iPhone was officially acquired by Cydia just over a week ago and today it’s officially done. Over. When you head to Rock.app on your jailbroken iPhone it will tell you to hit up Cydia for your themes and all.

via IDB

If Apple’s iPhone 4 promotional pages for some Middle Eastern countries are any indication, it doesn’t look like the FaceTime part of the iPhone package. For many of these countries, the image on the left turned into a Retina Display promotion while they were FaceTime images before like on the U.S. site.

We’ve confirmed the loss of FaceTime promotional images for Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia but check out the full list yourself by navigating this page. This could either be a simple image swap, but TUAW speculates that (via SaudiMac) the lack of FaceTime may be due to some “cultural sensitives” in the Middle East. Or it could just be that the woman in the ad doesn’t have her modest covering on.

We’ll be sure to update when we learn more.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4CHkHtUJ8w&w=640&h=385]

Your .AVI and .MKV on iPad  prayers have been answered.  VLC is  now (or will soon be) available from the App store via this link. It is already live in New Zealand and is making its way across the globe. via

See our previous coverage for the backstory.

Update: We’re not getting much for our videos on our 4.2 iPads.  How are ya’ll makin’ out?

Google has updated their Earth app for iOS this morning to support the iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4th generation Retina Display. The update also brings the fancy ocean layer to Google Earth as well as some underwater bathymetry and ocean surface support.

The app is free and works natively on all three iOS devices.
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Napster is back (well it has been for a while), and while it isn’t really the same service that became so very legendary back in 1999 (new management), it is now available — on your iPhone.

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This one’s crazy! ABC has teamed up with Nielson to create an iPad app that eavesdrops on your TV. The iPad’s microphone is used to pick up what you’re watching and the app will present interactive content to go along for the show. The first show that gets TV-wiretapping is My Generation and Nielson claims their uber-cool technology is built so it won’t pickup your personal convos; yeah right.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY6oJR38OoI&w=640&h=385]

via Engadget

Fortune reports on a blog post by Adobe’s John Nack which appears to show that Flash is faster and much more efficient than HTML on mobile phones. These statements are conclusions based on a benchmark test by web developer, Chris Black. He tested HTML 5 running the same animation on an iPod touch 4 (same for iPhone 4), and a Nexus One, but also ran it in pure Flash on the Nexus one.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFFax1oYyBE&w=480&h=385]

The HTML 5 animation ran at 24 frames per second on the iPhone 4 and at 40 fps on the Nexus One. The same animation running on Flash on an Nexus One ran at an unprecedented 57 frames per second. This is more than double the frame rate of Apple’s offering and is still 17 frames faster than the HTML 5 version on the same Nexus One. The post also claims the Flash version used half the battery but it is not clear as to what the battery life of flash is being compared to. We presume it is being compared to the HTML 5 running Nexus One.

Update: The original Author chimes in in the comments:

Hey everyone, thought I might chime in as the author of the blog post being criticized. The code was engineered to be as equal as possible between the two demos. Full source has been provided to show this. The code posted by wolever is not scalable but raises some interesting points. The physical dimensions of the canvas being rendered does matter. Scaling the demo down to 300x300px yields 40fps on the iPod Touch. I’ll be doing an updated blog post on this tomorrow showing results at different sizes. I’m not sure why anybody thinks canvas is limited to 24fps. My post tomorrow that wrong. And no, I don’t work for Adobe. I complain about Adobe almost as much as Apple and I much prefer running my own company at the moment. You might find this post a bit more interesting,http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2010/09/19/css3-excels-on-ios-but-lacks-on-android/

Apple has just a dropped an update for their Apple Store app to the App Store. The Apple Store app allows customers to access the Apple Online Store from their iPhone and iPod touch and purchase any product.

The update brings Retina Display support for the iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4th generation as well as iOS 4 quick-app-switching. The update also promises the usual bug fixes and improvements… and where the heck’ is the iPad support? — I guess Apple figured people will just use the full site on the iPad.

Sean Kovac’s “GV Mobile +” – arguably the best non-official Google Voice app – has just hit the App Store. For the first week it’s on sale for $2.99 but there will be one free night. Kovacs will announce when that night occurs and we’ll be sure to post on that when the time comes.

It’s about to hit so Go! Go! Go!

An unofficial yet fully functional Google Voice app called “GV Connect” has just hit the App Store. This isn’t Sean Kovac’s GV Mobile + but it allows for GV calling, texting, voicemails, and more. via Mobile Crunch.

It’s available on the App Store for $2.99 right now! Update: It looks like Sean Kovac’s GV Mobile+ is in review… we should know it’s fate shortly.