GigaOM’s Charles Hamilton writes about two new alternative iPhone Web browsers. (Another one, Atomic Web Browser is still my go-to browser on my iPhone–sorry, Safari.)
Tag Archives | Apple. iPhone
Tango on the iPod Touch
A couple of months ago, Laura Locke told us about a new smartphone video-calling app called Tango. Now it’s available in a version for the current, camera-equipped version of the iPod Touch. And the Android version uses the OS’s new background notifications to dramatically reduce the impact on battery life.
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Apple-Approved iPhone Unlocking?
AT&T has cheerfully helped me unlock several phones in the past. I never understood why the iPhone should should be any different. Maybe it won’t be eventually.
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Games Dominate iPhone App Charts (But Not iPad)
Take a look at the top iPhone and iPad apps of 2010, as listed by Apple:
iPhone:
- Free: Facebook, Angry Birds Lite, Words With Friends Free, Skype, Tap Tap Revenge
- Paid: Angry Birds, Doodle Jump, Skee-Ball, Bejeweled 2 – Blitz, Fruit Ninja
- Grossing: MLB At Bat 2010, Angry Birds, Call of Duty: Zombies, Bejeweled 2 – Blitz, FriendCaller 3 Pro
iPad:
- Free: iBooks, Pandora, Netflix, Google Mobile, Solitaire
- Paid: Pages, Goodreader, Numbers, Angry Birds HD, Keynote
- Grossing: Pages, Numbers, Keynote, LogMeIn Ignition, Scrabble
Video games are clearly the killer apps on the iPhone, but productivity and media consumption rule on the iPad. However, I’m not convinced that the year’s top app charts tell the whole story.
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Your Life, Recorded for Posterity
Last Gadget Standing Nominee: Looxcie
Price: $199
When I was a kid, I freaked out my sister by theorizing that human beings would someday be able to use miniature cameras to record their entire lives for later playback. I believe that the cameras I envisioned would be implanted in the user’s forehead–but except for that tiny detail, Looxcie (great name!) is the invention I had in mind.
Looxcie looks like a rather oversized Bluetooth headset–and can, in fact, work as one. But it’s also a video camera that’s continuously buffering thirty seconds’ worth of footage. What you see, it sees–and if you push a button, it’ll save the last half-minute and keep on recording. You can transfer the video it captures to your Android phone for saving and sharing; an iPhone app is on its way.
I still like the idea–and I bet it would still freak out my sis.
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Splashtop Brings Its Windows Remote Control to the iPhone
Splashtop is best known for its lightweight, fast-booting operating environment, which comes preinstalled as a Windows alternative on hundreds of PC models. In August, it branched out with Splashtop Remote, a remote-control program for the iPad that let you control a Windows computer from your tablet. And now it’s launched an iPhone/iPod Touch edition.
Like the iPad version, Splashtop Remote for the iPhone is cheap–it’s ninety-nine cents, compared to $29.99 for LogMeIn’s Ignition. It’s designed for local use–it works over Wi-Fi connections, not 3G. It does indeed let you maneuver around your Windows machine, launching and running apps and doing stuff you can’t do on an iPhone (such as watch Flash videos and play Flash games). And the performance is snappy enough that even video playback is decent.
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Sun Power
Last Gadget Standing Nominee: Dexim P-Flip Solar Power Pack
Price: $79.90
Solar powering your older iPhone has become fairly run-of-the-mill, but whither goest the iPhone 4? The P-Flip is the world’s first foldable, portable, rechargeable power dock for the iPhone 4. According to Dexim, it can extend talk time up to eight hours, video or game time up to 15 hours, or audio playing time up to 60 hours. The unique design is composed of two solar panels that convert the sun’s rays into juice for your iPhone, taking about 15 hours of exposure to natural sunlight for a full charge. But the two panels also serve as a foldable docking stand for hands free viewing. The Solar-Powered P-Flip is now available in the Dexim Amazon.com store for $79.90 and includes a charging cord, a screen protector, cleaning cloth, and a case.
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Young Entreperneur’s White iPhone Solution Gets Him in Trouble
If Apple can’t produce the white iPhone, apparently a young entrepreneur from Queens, N.Y. can help you convert your black one. 17-year-old Fei Lam has reportedly struck an agreement with Foxconn, the Chinese manufacturer contracted by Apple to produce the iPhone. Under this deal, Foxconn is sending him white iPhone 4 cases for those not willing to wait to see if Apple will ever ship the anticipated model.
We’re not exactly clear on how he accomplished this, but Lam is now selling a conversion kit for $279 which includes the front and back panels along with the home button from his own website, WhiteiPhone4Now. It seems Lam may have had friends in high places, and knew someone within the manufacturer that was willing to wheel and deal with a kid looking to make a quick buck to pay for college.
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Mobile Google Docs–Now With Editing
For all the cool stuff that’s going on with Web-based apps for smartphones and tablets, not much has happened yet with tools that let you edit documents right in your browser. But Google just added support for editing Google Docs word-processing files on Android 2.2 and iOS devices. (The Google Docs spreadsheet already has a somewhat peculiar editing mode.)
Here’s a video explanation:
Sadly, I’m at the Web 2.0 Summit, sans the one gizmo I really want to try this on–an iPad.
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Apple’s TV Game Console: iPad + iPhone
Apple may never release a dedicated game console, but for now, an iPhone and iPad can do the same job.
Big Bucket, developer of an 8-bit platformer called The Incident, announced on its blog that the game’s next version will allow for TV playback, using an iPad as the video source and an iPhone or iPod Touch as the controller. When plugged in, the game runs at a widescreen aspect ratio, created specifically for this purpose.
Forgive me if you know about this capability already. Big Bucket isn’t the first iOS game to add TV Out — that distinction, I believe, goes to Majic Jungle, which put Chopper 2 on big screens a couple months ago — but it’s news to me (and to TechCrunch’s MG Siegler, who found the news about The Incident), and I think more people should know about it. If more app developers get on board with TV Out, I might spring for an Apple composite AV cable.