Hey, just because using secret undocumented iPhone SDK calls might get you
booted from the App Store doesn't mean it's not a good time -- Ars Technica commissioned Freeverse to mod its Moto Chaser game to use the
hidden video-out features in iPhone 2.2, and we have to say the results turned out pretty decent. It's not perfect -- it looks like it only works in landscape mode, and rendering to TV resolutions strains the processor and slows framerates down on all but the
faster 2G iPod touch -- but it works, and it's a taste of where iPhone app development could go if Apple ever opens up the gates. Or you could just be Google and
do whatever you want, we suppose. Video after the break.
posted Dec 5th 2008 3:19PM
why on earth would apple NOT want to further develop this?
Because.....this is Apple we're talking about.
Jailbreak your device, live free.
Because they want to sell you a $79 adapter that does it for you.
An adapter would just contain memory buffers for the framerate, like an external graphics card to handle the scaling. So, why bother anyways?
THIS IS AWESOME! I hope this comes out. I hate playing the games by moving the phone around, and would much rather look at a stable screen, while using the device for navigation... hello Wii Jr.
No idea why. Some of their competitors' phones already have officially supported TV out functionality.
Hey, I'll buy the adapter to do something like this. You hear that Apple, I will give you money so you should develop it.
the iphone sdk is not yet complete, it will be featured
Too bad the resolution is a shitty HVGA (Half of what standard TV programming looks like)
Yes, why would Apple want to provide for us a function that Nokia has been providing for so long already....
Here we go with the "Nokia did it first" posts. Who cares who did it first? Go play your Ngage games on your TV and leave us alone.
ngage references make me smile.
And if this was Microsoft copying Apple you fanbois would be all over them. Hypocrites.
I'm sure someone will figure out soon that this thing can shoot red lasers.
pew pew?
pew pew pew
The one thing that will convince me to buy it. A frickin lazer beam.
I'm pretty sure the video adapter Apple sells only works for photos and movies, not games.
I hope I'm wrong, though.
As for Apple not developing this - it's Apple.
The only other reason I can see is that it'll drain your battery faster than a steely dan on high.
The game was modded to use undocumented APIs to send the video out through the cable.
This is awesome. If you watch the video in HD mode, it looks like the picture is actually quite sharp. Not the polygon count you'd expect in a full fledged console based game, but very nice.
The cable they are using in the video IS the cable Apple sells. I have tried a couple cheap third party ones that claim to work and none actually do for more than a few seconds.
Also the slowdown I believe is probably not due to a resolution problem, but due to the CPU being responsible for copying the framebuffer to the video-out hardware. AFAIK this hardware is part of the h.264 decoder so I'm quite suprised tht they are able to feed it fast enough to achieve this type of frame rate even. (Note that these bits of code would have been Apple's.)
Now they just need to crack into the bluetooth frameworks so we can get wiimotes, PS3 controllers, and bluetooth mice/keyboards working.
Further, I wouldn't be surprised if someone really enterprising managed to get HD out of the things -- component outputs + a programmable RAMDAC and you're basically set. Quite frankly, we're probably past the point where someone should have done this to a Wii already.
The gas pedal on the screen is flipped horizontally from where he appears pressing on the iPhone.
This iphone business is out of control. I would like to see the video out function hacked to work with app screens. It would be interesting seeing like airshare or even iwik up on the "big" screen
I call fake. This finger is not on the gas button the whole time.
I thought that at first, but his right thumb is down. Maybe the buttons are rotated counter-clockwise?
If you read the article through the "read" link, you would have seen this:
"In the normal game, the gas button is touch controlled to allow you to accelerate. In this demo, the same button is hardwired down so all you need to control is driving. These shortcuts allowed Freeverse to create a working tech demo within their time constraints and really show what the iPhone video out features were capable of."
Please do try and read before you post.
Requested letter to apple:
Dear Apple,
Let us do what we want with a device that we purchased.
Cordially,
non-Apple fanboys
ROFL. This won't happen until Steve Jobs dies, and from the looks of things... That won't be too long.
MWUAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
This isn't an issue of Apple not letting you do what you want. You are perfectly free to do something like this if you can program it. You just can't sell it (or give it away) on the app store.
Of course, I think that they should document these so-called "secret APIs" and make them available for the devs to use. But that's not really a matter of them letting you do what you want with your property...it's a matter of them not letting you sell something via their online store because you are doing something they told you not to.
Ha!
Lets see your shite Nokia do this!
Rank me up boys!!!
N93 has been doing this for 3 years. BBQSAUCE.
It(Nokia) has been doing it for ages i.e since d day N93 was born i believe
ieye, because of you i mentally low rank everything with an 'i' in front of it. *sigh*
Apple Iphone is doing video out thru exploit? why is that it is the jailbreaking teams that always push Apple to give users what should ve being.
i cant wait to play these low rez games on a 40" hdtv do i can experience all the blocking.
I fast-forwarded to see if he beat that asshole biker but no.
Aww.
What a difficult game!
From what I understand, this is not an exploit and doesn't require jailbreaking... it's just another part of the SDK that apple hasn't publicly announced or documented. Anyone with the iPhone SDK should be able to build video-out into their app and run it on a regular iPhone, or even theoretically release it to the app store as long as apple doesn't notice. I will probably test this out myself soon, at least to prepare in advance if apple decides to include this in the next SDK release.
Another feature the PSP does much better.
PSP is that a GSM phone? Oh wait...............I see
Now only if this works wireless; maybe connect one iPhone to the TV and control it with another iPhone using wifi. :)
heck, have multiple iPhones sending info to the iPhone plugged into the TV while youre at it. Multiplayer waverunner :)
Too bad you can't jailbreak the 2nd gen..
I wanna see safari crash on the big screen.
That never gets old
Nor does the blue lego block with a question mark when I see flash content..... Nothing like the real internet
This is shopped. I can tell from some of the pixels, and I've seen quite a few shops in my time.
I dunno it does seem like there are some inconsistencies from how the bike is moving, as compared to how he is moving the iPhone. Sometimes he's turning the phone left, and the biker is going straight...
Definitely still sick though.
Now if only they could do this with Crysis...
Huh?
You do know PC's plug into TV's, don't you?
Is it possible to display keynote/ppt presentations on big screen using an iphone?
This isnt all that impressive to me besides the fact that it was hacked to work. My PSP does this far better.
Agreed. And on top of that, the PSP plays games that aren't "tilt to steer" -- Pretty much ALL the iPod touch/iPhone's games are re-skins of the same three gameplay elements (touch here, tilt to maneuver in a path, shake to randomly do something).
psp does this better, huh? well arent we all lucky that the psp is also a phone.... oh wait.... it isnt....
Is it just me or do some of you not know that Apple sells a $50 cable for video out. That's what they are using with some undocumented APIs. Who knows, but they may document them in January.
As for the Keynote question. No. You can't use the video cable and do a Keynote presentation because the iPhone doesn't run Keynote. HOWEVER, you can export your Keynote into a Quicktime movie, and run the Quicktime movie with its transitions. I've done that. However, I prefer using my laptop connected to the projector running Keynote, and using the iPhone as a smart remote running Showtime. That's a great app.
Open up the AppleTV for apps. If you buy an app. it should be able to play on the AppleTV with your Ipod or Iphone as the controller. The would solve the "rendering to TV resolutions strains the processor and slows framerates down" problem. Like HD tv shows in Itunes you could have a HD app for the AppleTV and an SD app for the Iphone/Ipod. Turning the AppleTV into a gaming console of sorts and integrating it with the iphone/ipod would mean nothing but $$$. 300 million apps downloaded since July, imagine if they opened up the AppleTV.
Yeah, except that iPod touch/iPhone games pretty much SUCK.
How many variations of the "tilt to steer" game can we take before blood gushes out of our ears?
Seriously, developers, stop making driving/maze games for the iPod touch. I think that genre is COVERED.
Hum, I see real nifty applications for this... gps software running on your iphone, and output routed to your car lcd screen (btw, any word on when we can expect turn by turn driving directions?)... Or even a media center software such as xbmc ported to the iphone, with video routed to your monitor! The possibilities are limitless. Hackers, Developers, & Apple, please turn this dream into reality!
this is awesome
Should see this:
http://applediario.com/en/
These guys have gone beyond this feature, have used the video output in the iPhone to convert the iPhone in a computer, they are using the TV like a computer monitor, just look like they're browsing in the internet.