Touching Up IX: Duo, XLaunch, Tricorder…
by Eric March on May 10, 2008 at 2:41 am
Another day, another pile. I know you’re just itchin’ to see what’s new so I won’t keep you from it with some long preamble and just tell you that we’ll be all about the possible and future Duo, the latest iFob, iSwish, iPhoneSlide, XLaunch, the Tricorder, a new ShopList, the Rockstar’s dig at Apple, the iPhone bike mount, the latest RemoteBuddy, and Apple’s spank on the bum from an environmental concern.
XLaunch Updated for SDK and iPhone 2.0
iPhone hacktress and author extraordinaire Erica Sadun has updated her application launcher appropriately titled XLaunch to work with the latest iPhone/Touch SDK. All of the original functionality that you know and love is still there, and Erica has also managed to incorporate both MakeItMine and Banner into the latest version. While that sounds most excellent as it is, Erica would still like some suggestions as to what else she can add to spiff her launcher up.
(via Just Another iPhone Blog)
He’s Dead, Jim
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The quest to bring science fiction into reality usually starts with a little fantasy. So, here’s a little fantasy: A tricorder web app. It does absolutely nothing, but it looks all funky and tricorder like, and once you flip on the power, it lets you flip between several tricorder animations, including medical monitor, galactic map, and an animation of the Enterprise taking a chunk out of a Borg cube. Periodically it’ll pop up a window with some Trek-themed wisecrack. For those of you who always felt like you were missing something in your Star Trek fantasies, this ought to fill in a gap or two — provided you have a WiFi connection or can get it added to iPortal. You can fiddle with it by pointing Mobile Safari at http://38i.biz/tricorder/
(via TUAW)
First-and-a-half Life?
Down yonder Android way comes a concept that could very easily be done on the iPhone and possibly bring about a rather fascinating new way for social (networking) butterflies to congregate and do … stuff. It’s called Duo, and it bills itself as “an online world. It’s also a social network, a content creation tool, a search engine, a massively multiplayer game service, and a development platform. But it’s not a mash-up! Mashing is messy.” That’s certainly an impressive CV, and it’s rather difficult to describe this mixed reality application and game in a few sentences, so you’re best to check out the video to get a sense of what Duo is all about. Yes it’s only for Android right now, but there’s nothing stopping it from being ported to the iPhone, and although I’m not much into the social networking scene, I can tell that this could be a very interesting new way to bring people together and let them do all sorts of things that have a lot more practicality than they do in purely fantastical worlds like Second Life. And probably with a lot fewer furries. (One can hope.)
(via Apple iPhone School)
ShopList 0.34
Everybody’s favourite grocery assistant ShopList (and I say that not just because it’s the only grocery assistant) has been updated to 0.34, but nobody knows why.
(via Apple iPhone School)
Apple Fans: Rockstar Hates You
Sure, there is a pervasive image that non-Mac users (generally Windows users) apply to Apple fans, which is that the average Mac-head is elitist and holier-than-thou and are willing to pay too much for that shiny Apple logo because they all have a herd mentality. Sure, some of them are, though I try not to lump the bad apples in with the bushel. (After all, we Windows users tend to be too blind to Microsoft’s flaws and too willing to bend over and take it from Microsoft whenever they shovel crap down our throats. At least until Vista was released…) But Rockstar has decided to bring that into mainstream media with their piss-take on Apple products as featured in Grand Theft Auto IV. The ad is displayed on one of the machines in an internet cafe. Also, it has resulted in getting this stuck in my head, so I hate it. I hate it so hard.
(via TUAW)
iSwish Makes Windows Mobile Users Feel Better About Their Phones
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then iSwish is flattering the hell out of Apple. Designed to run on top of Windows Mobile, the effeminately-named iSwish is an attempt to give WinMo users the look and feel of the iPhone UI — and frankly, it does a surprisingly good job of it, far better than any of the Chinese iPhone clones have ever managed to do. Finger swiping, rubber banding, the iPhone look-and-feel, the jiggly icon reordering — even support for Summerboard themes is there. Still, underneath it all, it’s still Windows Mobile, and as much as I loved the WinMo devices I have owned in the past, I’m well aware of that operating system’s shortcomings. However it looks, it still ain’t an iPhone. Have a look at the video and see for yourself.
(via PHONEmag)
iPhone Bicycle Mount keeps your iPhone safe. You, not so much
I’m just going to go ahead and file this one under “Ideas, Bad.” USBFever have devised a bicycle mount for the iPhone. Actually, it couldn’t be more generic, but saying that it’s for the iPhone gives it that air of elitism that makes it worth an extra five bucks. Nevertheless, mounting an iPhone — or any phone, PMP or DAP — to your bike that isn’t there to function explicitly as a GPS (which still isn’t the brightest of ideas) is just bucking for a Darwin. USBFever helpfully caution that you should really only use this mount for listening to music while pedaling around town, evidently feeling that not being able to hear the car that’s racing up behind you is safer than not being able to see the car whose bumper you’re about to eat. Nevertheless, if you want one, they’ll run you about fifteen bucks. There’s even a video demonstration you can watch, just in case you need convincing one way or the other.
(via iPhone Buzz)
iPhoneSlide Makes Mobile Blogging, Photo Sharing Easy
Mobile Safari is without doubt the best browsing experience on any mobile device, but there are certain things that become a little difficult. Like blogging. It’s possible, but, by way of example, my attempting to use WordPress’ editor on the Touch would be an exercise in frustration. (Both because the editor itself isn’t all that great, and it would have tremendous difficulty formatting itself to the small screen, even scaled.) So let’s say I wanted to create a simple blog post — nothing fancy, just an ordinary blog post with a header image. The easiest way would be to use iPhoneSlide. With this online service, I could simply E-Mail a photo (taken from the camera roll) to post@iphoneslide.com along with the content of the blog post. iPhoneSlide would then E-Mail me back with a link that I can follow, where it will let me position the picture where I want, and post! Or, if I just wanted to share photos, I could simply attach a picture with a description and away it will go. iPhoneSlide supports WordPress blogs, Twitter micro-blogging, and Flickr photo sharing. (Is there just no love for Photobucket anymore?)
(via Apple iPhone School)
Remote Buddy 1.10.1
Mac users, you’re in for a treat. Remote Buddy, the remote “everything” controller for iPhone, has been updated to 1.10.1 and features a massive pile of changes, enhancements and additions, including the ability to stream your iTunes music library (including playlist and album support), support for multiple speakers, new application behaviours allowing you to control more applications more easily, and a ton and a half more. See here for a complete list of changes. You can download a 30-day trial (oh noes! moar monies for appz!) here, or purchase your copy for 19.99 (approx. US $31) here.
(via iPhone Alley)
Climate Counts Has No Cookie for Apple
Look, I’m all for the environment. I mean, I kinda have to live in it, so it’s in my best interest to be at least a little concerned about it, and there’s no doubt that there are plenty of companies that need smacks on the behind to keep them from belching acrid smoke into the atmosphere. Even so, I can’t help but think that the whole Climate Change thing, while possibly having some merit, has been blown out of proportion, and has just become the latest post to which publicly funded watchdog groups can tie whomever they decide to make their next whipping boy. For environmental group Climate Counts, that boy is currently Apple whom, according to their latest list of ratings, is ranked a distant last based on their criteria that determines how (un)friendly companies are to the climate. Apple scored 11 points out of a possible 100, earning it the quixotic “Stuck” icon [PDF link] next to its name — the only company on its list to receive one. Bearing a “stuck” icon, according to Climate Counts, pegs you as a company that anyone concerned about climate change should avoid buying products from. Don’t mistake me. It isn’t that I don’t think that working towards a greener world isn’t a goal worth striving for, it’s just that I feel like special interest groups such as this have a tendency to overreach in order to justify their funding (and therefore their existence), and that ends up producing these semi-contrived lists that pander to the donors by reaching conclusions that they can view as unmistakable progress worthy of continued support. Maybe I’m out of line here, but I do think that many of these groups tend to lose perspective when they become so involved in a single cause that they begin to see demons in everything they encounter. Tunnel vision is bad, man. Okay, you can have your soapbox back, now.
(via Information Week)
Alright, enough for this issue. I’ve got lots more to come, don’t you worry, and love it or hate it, I’m-a gonna post it. See if I don’t!
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Posted in Accessories, Application Related, Gaming Related, In The Works
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