Daniel Brierton
7
Apr '09

The Apple Effect

Category: Randomness,Thoughts - Tags: , , , , ,

I want to start this post by saying I am not a Mac fanboy, in fact I’ve hated everything Apple until the iPhone. I know I’m very late to the party with this post, but it’s only with the talk in AIT about introducing iPhone development into the Games Development course to replace J2ME that I’ve become interested in the sector. Granted, I doubt the college will actually introduce that, considering they thought it’d be perfectly fine to use Hackintoshes, and full development can be done with just the emulator in Mac. This obviously isn’t the case, and a full suite of Mac hardware – computers and iPhones/iPod Touches – would be needed to truly run an iPhone development module as part of the course.
Anyway, this brought me to realise how effective a single device can be in bringing people over to their platform. For the first time ever, I want a MacBook.

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8
Mar '09

First Impressions of the Cydia Store

Category: Reviews - Tags: ,

Last night I updated Cydia to the latest version, in order to access paid content. Jay Freeman (saurik) has developed the latest version of Cydia to take on Apple’s App Store directly. Until now very few apps on Cydia cost money, and if they did, the payment system was different between each app. Now with a unified system of payment through Amazon Payments (PayPal support coming soon), developers can now get return on their hard work.

Freeman launched the new store with an app of his own, Cyntact. This simple app displays contacts’ pictures in any contact listing, somewhat similar to the Facebook app’s friend listing. He has listed the app at $1, but plans to continue developing free apps for the iPhone, and this app is more to demonstrate the Cydia Store.

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20
Jan '09

Rejoice! Copy & Paste finally properly comes to iPhone

Category: Randomness - Tags: , ,

Yes, that’s right, you can now get proper copy & paste functionality on your jailbroken iPhone. When you bring up the symbols keyboard, an extra bit slides up from the top, displaying a copy button paste button and the clipboards current contents.

It works in any app that uses text input, and yes, you can copy from one app to another. :D

You can get in Cydia now. It’s called Clippy.


3
Aug '08

WordPress iPhone app review

Category: Randomness - Tags: , ,

This is by far my favourite iPhone app so far. It makes blogging on the go so much easier. Download the free app from the App Store, then just input your blog URL and your username and password (you may need to enable XML-RPC services in your blog’s dashboard) and you can browse through your posts, add and edit posts. It will work with any WordPress.com hosted blog, and any self-hosted WordPress blog (2.5.1 or higher) with XML-RPC services enabled. You can also add multiple blogs, which is useful if you manage multiple blogs, or contribute to others. (as I do)
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2
Aug '08

Coming Soon

Category: Randomness - Tags: ,

Well, I just installed the WordPress app on my iPhone free from the App Store, just testing it out with this post.
I shall post reviews of my top free iPhone apps sometime soon, along with a review of my holiday to Tokyo.
Anyway, I’ll post soon, see ya!


10
Jun '08

Little bits of iPhone 3G news

Category: Randomness - Tags: ,

Sorry to those who don’t particularly like news about iPhone, but there’s a few little bits that I thought I’d post about:

  1. Apple are taking actions to stop the reselling of 3G iPhones on the likes of ebay.
    They are changing the way iPhones will be activated, requiring you to sign a contract with your network before you can get your hands on it. All iPhones will have to be activated in store before being handed over to the customer. That means no buying online. :(
  2. The iPhone 3G will come with a SIM tray remover tool, no more paperclips! :)
  3. The iPhone 2.0 firmware will be available “early July”, probably coinciding with the iPhone 3G release, and the App Store will launch on release day.

iPhone available on pre-pay?

Category: Randomness - Tags: , ,

While on the O2 Ireland website looking for pricing information on iPhone 3G, I stumbled across this:

iPhone on Speakeasy

However, clicking on the “Buy now” button brings you to to the bill pay page.

Could be a mistake, or could be a sign of things to come. Only time will tell!


9
Jun '08

22 iPhone Launch countries now known

Category: Randomness - Tags: , , ,

3G iPhone Lucky 22

Yup! Those are the lucky 22 countries that will be getting the 3G iPhone on July 11th

That list in case you can’t see the image is:

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US.

[via Engadget]


3G iPhone finally confirmed by Steve Jobs

Category: Randomness - Tags: , , ,

3G iPhone

Steve jobs has finally confirmed details about the 3G iPhone, the new iPhone firmware, and official third party apps.

The 3G iPhone will have 3G (obviously) but there was no mention about whether it’s HSDPA or not, although judging by their speed comparisons, it is HSDPA. It will also have a built in GPS, which apparently is very fast to react. It will also feature improved battery time. There was no mention of cameras, however there doesn’t appear to be a front facing camera, and I would assume Apple would shout about a 3.2 or 5 MP camera.

The 8GB model will be all black, and retail at a maximum of $199, while the 16GB will be white and retail at $299 max.

Both models go on sale on 11th July across the 22 biggest markets, eventually reaching 70 countries.

Apple also invited app developers to demo their apps. Among those demoing were SEGA, ebay, TypePad and MLB.com.

There were a few impressive demos of games, including Super Monkey Ball from SEGA which rivals the graphics of the Nintendo DS. Ebay showed off an app that just makes it easy to browse, keep track of, and bid on auctions.

Apple also showed off some new stuff that is part of the 2.0 firmware upgrade. Upgrading adds many features such as push email, calender and contacts, that can all be synced over the air with their new MobileMe service. This is an online web app for desktops that lets you manage your email, contacts, calendar, photos etc., and push them to your iPhone. Screenshots of this service show a very nice looking interface that would rival many fully featured desktop programs.

A push service will also be freely available to developers, so that notifications appear on the users iPhone while the app isn’t even running. Interestingly, there was no official iChat app announced to use this feature, but IM was mentioned as something that could utilize this.

Any app that is less than 10MB in size can be downloaded over 3G, while anything bigger must be done over Wi-fi, or through iTunes. However Wi-fi does not limit you to downloading off the internet. There is also Enterprise App distribution, allowing businesses to distribute apps wirelessly to employees, while ad-hoc is intended for college use, allowing the same thing.

Handwriting recognition is there for Chinese and Japanese for easier input. Sadly there was no mention of an English version. And the calculator now has a scientific mode. Powerpoint is now supported, but no mention of an app to view transfered files.

That’s all from Steve Jobs keynote speech at WWDC. I’ll add any other details as they surface.

[via Engadget]

EDIT:

The iPhone 3G Apple store page clears up some of the unknown spec.

The camera is only 2MP. It is tri-band UMTS/HSDPA, and quad-band GSM/EDGE. It will also come with a sim tray remover tool. No more paper clips! :D


Apple online stores being updated all over the world

Category: Randomness - Tags: , , ,

Many of Apple’s online stores (in countries that do not yet have the iPhone) are currently showing the message “We are busy updating the store for you and will be back shortly.” What could this be for… Hmmm… Possibly the 3G iPhone? New Macbooks? If I were a betting man, I’d say 3G iPhone (and maybe new Macbooks) But it’s pretty much definite that Steve Jobs is to announce a new version of iPhone, and there are several rumours that the new iPhone will be available worldwide after the announcement.

It all seems pretty obvious, but who knows, perhaps it’s routine maintenance, or a marketing ploy by Apple. Just be ready for the possibility of buying the new iPhone today.

[via Engadget]

EDIT: All online Apple stores are now down



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