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Kinect hackers give us iOS-friendly dodgeball and Human Tetris
Remember that Microsoft Rally Ball demo from a few days ago that showed Windows Phone 7's integration with Xbox? Well, the gang at Supertouch has stolen a bit of Ballmer's thunder with a new Kinect hack that lets you hurl digital orbs at your Kinect-controlling friend using an iOS device instead of a WP7 handset. The graphics for the game and the iDevice controls aren't nearly as pretty as Microsoft's cross-platform gaming solution, but the end result is pretty much the same -- flingin' balls with a phone while your friend dodges them courtesy of Kinect. Meanwhile, Frog Design has added a Human Tetris game to the Kinect's repertoire where players perfect their Vogue-ing skills by striking a pose to match an approaching cut-out on screen. Finally, all the shape-shifting fun with none of the goofy silver jumpsuits. Vids are after the break. [Thanks to everyone who sent these in]
CEOs discuss Apple at Web 2.0 Summit
While the Web 2.0 Summit was under way from Nov. 15 through Nov. 17, there were a few inevitable pot shots at Apple from attending chief executive officers. This isn't really a surprise with the ongoing growth of Apple and Apple's overall value, but it's definitely interesting to see what those CEOs felt needed to be said. Shantanu Narayen is the CEO of Adobe Systems, and he told the Web 2.0 Summit audience that "there's a war happening for developers, there's a war to get the best applications for a particular platform." Narayen considered the conflict between Apple and Adobe to be an issue of control and that the two companies are on different sides of that line. When asked to define how Narayen saw the two sides of the conflict, he was willing to explain. "Apple would like to keep [the web ecosystem] closed and proprietary," claimed the Adobe CEO. Narayen opined that Apple wants to "ensure that applications created for the iDevices only work on the iDevices if they're native applications." By contrast, Narayen claimed that Adobe would prefer to create content across all the web and mobile platforms. As if that weren't enough, Narayen's finished off that depiction by declaring, "Let the games begin!" Jim Balsillie, who is a co-CEO of Research in Motion, was a little more direct when comparing Apple's iOS devices to the Blackberry. In a soundbite that's likely to be heard around the world, Balsillie said that users "don't need an app for the web." He claimed that RIM's upcoming tablet, the PlayBook, would be up to four times faster for browsing than the iPad. Balsillie felt that the "appification" of the web shouldn't be necessary and that websites shouldn't need to convert to some kind of mobile version to be accessed. Even more importantly, Balsillie predicted later in his Web 2.0 Summit discussion that the "appification" would soon be reversed, and that the era of the app would be passing soon. Check out the videos for yourself in the second half of this post. [via TechCrunch and The Telegraph]
40.1 million people are playing games on iDevices, 45% fine with in-app ads
Here are two interesting stats about iOS gaming to round out your Monday. First up, a new industry survey says that 40.1 million people in the US are playing games on Apple's mobile devices -- that's over half of the 77 million strong total gaming audience. That's a huge market share, especially considering this platform has only existed for a few years. By comparison, Sony's PSP system only has an audience of around 18 million, and Nintendo's DS audience in the States sits at 41 million. We've talked about sales of all of those systems before, but the same survey says that while two-thirds of gamers will pay for games on traditional handhelds, a much smaller percentage will pay for games on the iDevices (only 45% on iPhone and iPod touch, and only 32% on iPad). Not that apps aren't bringing money in -- Parks Associates also says that the North American apps market is now worth $2 billion, and will double in value over the next few years. Even if gamers aren't willing to buy games, more and more are willing to put up with ads in both games and apps -- a recent report says 45% of adults 18-34 don't mind sitting through ads to play games and use apps for free. In short, Apple has built one heck of a market here in the last few years, and it's only going to be growing from here on out.
iPod touch makes up 38% of iDevices shipped
Blogger asymco did a little calculating from last week's announcement numbers, and has hammered out a rough estimate of just how many of each iDevice are floating around the world today. According to Steve at last week's event, there are 120 million iDevices total in the world, and we already knew from SEC filings that 59.6 million of those were iPhones. The current number of iPads in the hands of customers around world is 3.2 million, which (with estimates for the past month on both of those devices added in), means that there are likely 45.2 million iPod touches around. That's 37.7% of iOS devices at large -- not as big as it used to be, as the iPad's arrival shook things up a bit, but still a very significant total. It's somewhat surprising to me that the touch is so popular, given that the iPhone and the iPad have gotten most of the press for iOS. But then again, it makes sense -- the iPod touch, as Jobs himself joked during the event, is like an iPhone "without the contract," and it's the cheapest of all the devices. While it's lacking a bit of functionality, iOS, the main selling point, is still there and running, so all of the super popular apps like Angry Birds and Doodle Jump are able to be bought and played. It makes a lot of sense that the iPod touch would be so popular -- maybe what's surprising is that Apple has waited until now to update it with the iPhone 4's big features as well.
Rumor: iTunes still heading to the clouds
We didn't get that cloud-based iTunes at the last keynote, but the project (and the rumor) isn't dead yet. Boy Genius says "one of our reliable Apple sources" is confirming that iTunes in the cloud is still being developed -- the capability discussed would allow streaming of music and movies both from Apple's servers and between home computers, as well as wireless syncing with whatever iDevices you've got laying around, sending apps, contacts, and videos and photos wirelessly back to your Mac. That all sounds good (and fits with Apple's purchase of Lala a while back), but when? No answer yet. But the source does say that this fall will bring "two new devices with camera/camcorder capabilities." Now we're talking -- if Apple updates the iPod touch and the iPod nano with the same camera system now found in the iPhone 4, it would make a lot of sense to update iTunes and premiere a cloud-based service then as well. As is usually the case, we'll just have to wait and see. But good to know iTunes still has a chance of getting partly cloudy.
