Is the iPhone platform really fragmenting?
In “Welcome to fragmentation-land Apple“, Ben Smith of The Really Mobile Project has commented on a consequence of the iPhone OS 4.0 announcement. Ben points out that your favourite fruit-logo’d mobile maker will not be providing the oldest iPods and iPhones with the latest operating system. So for the first time we’ll have some iPhones running 3.x firmware, and some running the 4.x release. Oh, and don’t forget iPads will be thrown into the mix.
I want to have a look at this in more detail, and see what it means for both developers and users. Is fragmentation of the iPhone platform all that bad?
App Review: ArtStudio
Painting apps are fast becoming one of the most popular genres on the iPhone judging by the number and quality of new additions. Having reviewed many of the best of this type, I’m always interested to see how developers of new apps go about the task of delivering something bigger and better. On the one hand they can build on the best elements of their successors but it must also be increasingly difficult to offer something new and improved with which to make their mark.
Developer, Sylwester Los of Lucky Clan, says of his new painting app ArtStudio, that “My goal was to create the best (quality, performance, options-wise) drawing/painting app for the iPhone.” That’s quite an ambition and I was keen to find out if he’d succeeded.
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App Reviews: Phaze, International Athletics, MouthOff
The main focus of this site is (hopefully) informed commentary, and news we’ve unearthed ourselves. We also like to provide you with in-depth reviews. But, being a mostly volunteer-run site, there’s not enough time to review everything that comes through the door, and personally I have quite a backlog of apps to look at.
So in a series of posts, I’m going to have a quick look at apps that I’ve promised developers I’ll review – ones that I’m reviewing because I thought they are interesting, and either highlighted how powerful the iPhone platform is, or just made me smile.
I’ve already looked at Pixi, Orbital and CalenGoo, and SPB Brain Evolution, iDroidsMania and Copy Share.
For the last in this series of posts, we have Phaze, International Athletics, and MouthOff.
App Reviews: SPB Brain Evolution, iDroidsMania, Copy Share
The main focus of this site is (hopefully) informed commentary, and news we’ve unearthed ourselves. We also like to provide you with in-depth reviews. But, being a mostly volunteer-run site, there’s not enough time to review everything that comes through the door, and personally I have quite a backlog of apps to look at.
So in a series of posts, I’m going to have a quick look at apps that I’ve promised developers I’ll review – ones that I’m reviewing because I thought they are interesting, and either highlighted how powerful the iPhone platform is, or just made me smile.
I’ve already looked at Pixi, Orbital and CalenGoo, and now we have SPB Brain Evolution, iDroidsMania, and Copy Share.
Getting an iPad? Get iPad Creative
It’s iPad launch week. Excited yet? Well, whether you’re of the mind that Apple is about to change computing forever, or just sell an oversized iPod touch, it’s certainly going to be an interesting ride. iPhone apps are going to morph into desktop-style apps, and some desktop apps are going to attempt to re-imagine themselves as iPad apps. Yet as excited as I am, the amount of iPad coverage on All About iPhone is going to depend on whether I end up buying one!
But there are plenty of websites out there to satiate your iPad curiosity. And if you’ve enjoyed James Burland’s articles on this website, then I’m sure you’d like to read his new website dedicated to the Apple tablet, iPad Creative.
It’s in pre-launch beta at the moment, but he already has quite a few articles posted, including a great one exploring which graphics processor the iPad is running, and the impact that is likely to have on its gaming capabilities.
iPad Creative is currently running a series over the next few days entitled, “5 Apps We Cannot Wait To See On The iPad”. If really you can’t wait at all, then you should also check out these 60 leaked screenshots of iPad apps over at Boy Genius Report.
Good luck with the new site James!
App Reviews: Pixi, Orbital, CalenGoo
The main focus of this site is (hopefully) informed commentary, and news we’ve unearthed ourselves. We also like to provide you with in-depth reviews. But, being a mostly volunteer-run site, there’s not enough time to review everything that comes through the door, and personally, I have quite a backlog of apps to look at.
So in a series of posts, I’m going to have a quick look at apps that I’ve promised developers I’ll review – ones that I’m reviewing because I thought they are interesting, and either highlighted how powerful the iPhone platform is, or just made me smile.
In this first round up of review apps, I’m looking at Pixi, Orbital and CalenGoo.
App Giveaway: iSaidWhat?!
I’ve been meaning to mention iSaidWhat?! for a while. It’s one of those apps that makes you marvel at what can achieved on your iPhone.
It’s really cleanly designed app from Tapparatus that allows you to record voices. There’s nothing new about voice recording on the iPhone, but iSaidWhat?! adds the ability to re-arrange those recordings to make… something new. You can record, then edit those recording into sections, and move them around into a snippet that’s more interesting (or incriminating!).
Perpetually Dissatisfied
Fed up with your phone? Miffed at your mobile? You’re not alone. But why do we expect our phones to do so much, and is it justified?
I’ve written a post for The Really Mobile Project, and for once, I only mention the iPhone a couple of times!
Read it here: http://thereallymobileproject.com/2010/03/feature-perpetually-dissatisfied-guest-post/
App Review: 1000: Find ‘Em All
At first glance “1000: Find ‘Em All” from Glu Mobile reminded me of Zelda – A Link To The Past on the SNES – the art and style of the game world is really cute and slick. The world is a traditional 2D pixel art background, whereas the main character is rendered in 3D, which gives him a nice appearance. It also allows a full 360 degree direction of movement.
The controls are very slick. You can either tap a location and your character automatically walks to this point, or you can drag your finger round and control your character’s movement directly. All in all, the actual game engine and controls are a triumph that Glu Mobile can be very proud of. But how does 1000 fare as an actual game?
All the info I can find on the BBC iPhone apps
Last week, Erik Huggers presented at Mobile World Congress and disclosed that the BBC is developing three iPhone apps: for News, Sport and (potentially) iPlayer. According to the Beeb’s Technology Correspondant, Rory Cellan-Jones, developing these apps has taken a while because of a “complex legal problem“.
Well, despite that and any objections being raised by other media organisations (*cough*), the News and Sport apps are being developed by MobileIQ – here’s their press release about it. There’s no details available about who’s could be developing the iPlayer app – although it has been reported that the Beeb has already shut down development of a non-sanctioned iPlayer app from Camiloo.
I’ve delved through all the BBC’s websites, Tweets, and anything else that I’ve seen posted on the new apps to give you a summary of what’s coming.