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AutoPilot should be with you on your next trip
USA Today has released AutoPilot for the iPhone and iPod touch, and it looks like a winner. This free app [iTunes link] lets you plan your trip, informs you of flight delays, gives you quick links to hotel, rental car and airline phone numbers, gets you the weather for your destination, and pulls up Flickr photos of where you are going. Whew! There are lots of other travel apps, but I think AutoPilot has hit all the highlights of useful information that people will want in one place. The app even reminds you to check in for your flight, and allows you to email your itinerary to others. If you need to quickly call your hotel or your airline, all that information is there. You can tap on a phone number and the call gets made, or you can save the info to contacts. You can also click on a URL and go to a hotel, airline or rental car website I put in some suggested trips, and everything worked very well except for flights with connections. Each flight had to be entered one at a time. I'd have preferred to be able to enter all the flights at once by typing in flight numbers separated, for example, by a comma. The app integrates with Tripit, so if you have an account there it can pick up your flight information. Tripit, by the way, has an excellent iPhone app [iTunes link] as well. Everything else about this app worked very well. There are ads at the bottom of the screen, but I did not find them distracting or obtrusive. Having the flight tracker is very nice when you are meeting friends at the airport, and the information appeared up to date. The app was developed by Mercury Intermedia, the same firm that did the excellent USA Today [iTunes link] app. It's very slick and reliable for a version 1.0. I can't think of any reason why a traveler wouldn't want to try this app out. I'm thinking about making a trip I don't even need to go on, just for the experience. One other suggestion I'd make. The app shouldn't be limited to just air travel. If I'm driving somewhere, I'd still like the ability to define a trip, have the hotel and weather information and the destination galleries available for me, and maybe add some points of interest whether I'm driving or flying. Check out the gallery for screen shots of AutoPilot in action: %Gallery-74972%
First Look: TIME Mobile, a slick magazine for your iPhone / iPod touch
Instead of sifting through the piles of TIME magazines at your doctor's office, where you don't know who's healthy or unhealthy hands have touched the pages, you now have another option to browse through TIME content on your iPhone. The recently launched TIME Mobile [iTunes link] app provides a better browsing experience and more content than the mobile version of magazine's website. In addition, the app brings with it support for video, which is lacking on the mobile version of TIME's site and not supported for the iPhone on the full version of the site because the videos are encoded in Flash. TIME Mobile also brings a new approach for browsing articles. Like Cover Flow view in the iPhone and iTunes, TIME Mobile's "Image Flow" provides some eye candy in front of the meat and potatoes of the article content. One thing absent in the app is support for offline reading, a useful feature for situations where data connectivity is lacking, such as on an airplane. The USA Today app [iTunes link], which is in the same app genre as TIME Mobile, supports offline reading by tapping on the update button on each section. Perhaps such a feature could be added to TIME Mobile as a paid-for feature, or as for free to those who subscribe to the paper version of the magazine. Update: TIME's app team tells us that offline reading is built-in as part of the app, but for some reason I could not get it to work consistently; we're following up with them to figure out why it's wonky. Powered by Polar, a mobile publishing provider that also powers BusinessWeek [iTunes link] and CNNMoney [iTunes link] iPhone apps as well as a host of other apps on a variety of mobile platforms, TIME Mobile is available as a free download in the App Store.
Regator provides news aggregation for the more blog-minded
Catching up on the happenings around the blogosphere is a difficult task. Luckily, I happened to stumble upon John Burke's Download Squad piece on the release of Regator [iTunes link]. So, if you'd like to get caught up on the latest news, insights and commentary on Rod Blagojevich around the blogosphere (now that's a tongue twister), Regator could be of assistance. Regator's user-interface is similar to USA Today's iPhone app [iTunes link]. A horizontal menu displays a number of categories -- such as sports, lifestyle, and entertainment -- that are touch-scrollable. Tapping on a category displays its subcategories. For instance, NBA news would fall under the basketball branch of the sports tree. While a breadcrumb trail displays your viewing hierarchy, the browsing menu disappears as you scroll down; this was my only annoyance with the app, although it's a relatively minor one. Regator's stand-out feature is what it calls "trends." Like a tag cloud on a blog, in which bigger clouds are usually associated with more hot topics or issues, trends provides a listing of the latest hot topics around the blogosphere. For instance, a look at sports trends shows Tiger Woods at the top of the list -- which is no surprise given Y.E. Yang's surprising victory over him this past weekend. And Brett Favre's retiring-unretiring-retiring-unretiring-retiring-unretiring puts him near the top of the trends list as well. Regator is available as a free download at the iTunes app store. Domo arigato, Regator!
News apps! Get your News apps!
MSNBC recently added an iPhone app to the store, so we thought it was a good time to take a look at a few news apps.The gold standard for news on the iPhone is the USA Today app. Love them or hate them, the USA Today punchy writing style feels right at home on the iPhone. News can be received from a wide range of mobile sources, and it's the design of this app that makes it stand out. I would love to have the authors pack my suitcase the next time I travel, since they have found a way to cram an incredible amount of information into a very small package. Using persistent buttons on the bottom of each screen, you can get to Headlines, Sports Scores, Weather, Photo Galleries, and Snapshots (which are a set of insta-polls), from anywhere. What makes it special is that, along with the local weather, at the top of most category screens there is a sliding set of sub-categories allowing you to get to just what you want in no time. For example, if you wanted to get the score of the Yankees' game, just tap Scores, and the sub-categories of NFL, MBL, NBA, NCAAF and NCAAB appear at the top of the screen. Tap MLB and there it is. Two taps total. Similarly, tapping Headlines brings up sub-categories of: Top News, News, Money, Sports, Life Tech and Travel. When in any category, tap Top Stories and you can set a default for the type of story you would like to see first. For example, under the sub-category of Money, you can choose to set the default to: Top Stories, Markets, Economy, Cars, Personal Finance or Industry. Set it up once and you'll be able to drill down to specific results in a universe of information with just a few taps.Tap on Share Article and you can Email, Text, Twitter (your Twitter client can be chosen in the setup pane), or log into Facebook. in all the apps covered here, you can share, but this has the most robust feature set of the lot. The fit, finish and depth of the app is, okay I'll say it -- awesome. Weather is location enabled, the Picture Galleries are extensive and under Snapshots there are nine running polls in each of the four sub-categories of News, Sports, Money and Life. USA Today is not just for hotel rooms anymore.
Swine Flu good for gaming in Mexico
As if the rampant window plasticizing and complete blanketing of nighttime news with Swine Flu stories weren't bad enough, USA Today is reporting that Mexicans are flooding markets before a five-day quarantine begins in Mexico. The good news? People are renting games (and, ya know, buying other stuff) by the boatload, with the newspaper reporting "residents are snapping up DVDs, renting video games and stocking up on food." We contacted a few American Blockbuster outlets and asked the folks on the other end of the line how business has been lately, and if they've seen an uptick in game rentals over the past couple of weeks. "No, actually, it seems kinda slow ... I guess maybe people are afraid to come out or something," we were told by an employee at the chain in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Calling another store in Madison, Alabama yielded vastly different results, where an employee told us, "The past couple of days it's increased. I think it definitely has to do with the Swine Flu worries." While these testimonials do little for our theory that more folks are renting games in the States for the same reason, it's quite possible that us brazen Americans are simply turning a blind eye to the clear signs of end times. Hell, we're still planning on going to E3 2009 and that's a month away! We could all be dead by then! [image]
USA Today for iPhone helps you keep up
I've spent most of my life in the news business, and like many people, I can't get enough of the latest political, sports, tech or business news. There are plenty of apps for the iPhone and iPod touch that help you keep on top of what is going on, but USA Today [app store link] has done a good job of translating the paper to the iPhone. Like many of the competing apps like the New York Times [app store link] or AP Mobile News [app store link], USA Today is free, although some unobtrusive ads do appear at the bottom of stories.When you install, you can customize the app for weather in your favorite cities, and your top ranked city temperature helpfully appears on every page you navigate to. There is a good sports section, but no way to customize favorite teams. In addition to sports news, there are up-to-date scores for all the major contests.Stories you like can be emailed to friends, sent as a text message, or to Twitter. The setup section also allows you to submit bug and feature requests. USA Today appears to download everything it can when you are connected via Edge, 3G or Wi-Fi, so if you get on a plane and have no Internet access you can still read all the content. I noticed that all the pictures were not available though.The app also gives you access to USA Today snapshots, and allows you to vote in various polls. Some of the polls were out of date, however, like asking what people are going to wear on New Year's Eve. When you do vote, you're asked if you want to share your location. I think this allows the polls to be parsed by section of the country. Keep in mind that USA Today is an American newspaper. This is not the app to use to search for much news outside the U.S. of A., and users report you can't even start the app if you are outside the country. The developers say that is a bug, not a feature and will be fixed soon.Having said all this, the USA Today app for the iPhone/touch is very fast, nicely laid out, follows iPhone GUI conventions very well, and despite some of the little glitches I saw, was a pleasure to use. Just the thing for getting the latest news while strolling around the Macworld Expo, or anywhere really.
USA Today's 15,000 LittleBigPlanet keys
It's great to see LittleBigPlanet getting such positive press, especially from a mainstream national newspaper like USA Today. This is exactly the kind of buzz the PS3 needs right now before the all-important holiday shopping season. If you've been following the news on LittleBigPlanet here on PS3Fanboy, none of the information in the article will be new to you. However, they are giving away 15,000 LBP beta keys, which we are sure at least some of you are still interested in. The giveaway is simple: just drop an e-mail over to littlebigplanet@usatoday.com with "LittleBigPlanet Beta" in the subject line, and they'll send you a code while supplies last. Easy peasey![Via PS.Blog -- thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
MOJO's A Shot at Glory profiles US Olympic athletes
If you haven't seen enough behind-the-scenes footage in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing (or you just don't subscribe to AT&T's U-verse TV for whatever reason), MOJO is hoping to give you even more just prior to the start of the Games in August. Reportedly, the network will begin airing a 10-part weekday series on July 28th at 9:00PM ET / PT in which US Olympic athletes are profiled and interviewed in order to give the general public a look at what it takes to compete at the highest level. For a full list of who all will be showcased, check out the read link.[Via Multichannel News]
Mossberg, Pogue, Baig review the iPhone 3G
While most people are waiting in line for their soon-to-be new friend, pal and everyday communications device, the world's top tech reviewers have already been playing with the long awaited device. Below is a summary of their findings along with links to their full reviews of the iPhone 3G. Walt Mossberg (Wall Street Journal) Pros: Faster cell network data speeds, GPS Cons: Weaker battery life due to 3G/GPS Bottom Line: If you don't already have an iPhone and can live with the weaker battery life, then you should go ahead and buy; otherwise wait out for the 2.0 firmware update (hmm... I think I've heard this advice somewhere else) David Pogue (New York Times) Pros: You can talk and access 3G data network simultaneously, cheaper, improved audio quality Cons: 3G isn't wide-spread, AT&T pricing, Bottom Line: "iPhone 3G is a nice upgrade," 2.0 firmware update will make your original iPhone in most ways similar to the iPhone 3G Edward Baig (USA Today) Pros: Faster data network, cheaper, GPS, Visual Voicemail Cons: Slow EDGE speeds when not in 3G area, no video, no memory expansion Bottom Line: "The Sequel, is worth the wait," he also shows a side-by-side comparison between EDGE and 3G speeds As an interesting note: David Pogue says that the iPhone's GPS antenna is too small to provide you with turn-by-turn directions in Google Maps -- this is something that Apple has failed to note until now.
USA TODAY LIVE partners with MOJO HD, Versus for series-based programming
Though many of you may not be familiar with the "television arm of the USA TODAY brand," USA TODAY LIVE is announcing a new partnership with the likes of MOJO HD and Versus (and Fuse, for what it's worth) in order to pump out a smorgasbord of series-based programming in 2008. Up first is City Limits Fishing, a six-part weekly series (starting February 15th) on Versus that highlights world class fishing spots within some of America's most bustling cities. If that's not your bag, you can check out the ten-part Gotta Get Gold series on MOJO HD (starting July 28th), which concentrates on "what it takes to train and to compete at the highest levels in athletics." For more details on each show as well as what's available through Fuse, hit up the read link below.[Via TVover]
USA Today picks Madden for 360 over PS3
Trying to decide which version of Madden 08 -- PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 -- you want to buy? If you want USA Today's advice, the Xbox 360 version is the way to go. Issues cited include stutters in action and half-second delays. "Even close-ups between play look dull when lined up against the 360's sleeker cut scenes," the article reads.Of course, there's always an explanation available for technical deficiencies, from the rational to the conspiratorial. Let's see how the two version stack up for Madden 09. %Gallery-4322%[Thanks, Marty]
First Killzone 2 screen nabbed by USA Today [update]
After a particularly long engagement, this is the first real, really real, actual screen of Killzone 2 gameplay. It appeared in a USA Today story in which the game was described by Sony's Ron Eagle as "a hardware mover." Hey! It's going to be good too? We were just happy it existed.We know how you're feeling, we had a hard time believing it too. Finally? After all both these years? But when someone from the dev team hops on to the official PlayStation forums to vouch for it, we take notice. Seb Downie, QA Manager for Guerrilla Games, does say that it's "a bit early" though, so keep that in mind. We'll hopefully see more of the game tonight (remember this invite?), so we'll keep you posted.Update: According to BitFood, a brightness adjustment to the image reveals a brick wall in the background, indicating that the enemy posed is just a poster. We'll leave the speculation up to you.
More iPhone reviews coming in -- Newsweek & USA TODAY
Two more reviews of that loveable scamp of a cellphone are out on the Interwebs, and it's more more more of the same: Steven Levy of Newsweek and Ed Baig of USA TODAY are saying it's time to start believing the hype. Both writers, like Pogue and Mossberg, point out the iPhone's weak spots (EDGE, no one-touch or voice dialing, limited apps, no video capture) while furthering the basic premise: by and large, the iPhone experience lives up to the insane advance billing. Levy's long and thorough review states it plainly early on, as he reports on the reaction to his iPhone use during a visit to Pittsburgh, PA: "[W]hen I showed the iPhone to people during that trip and in the days afterward-especially people under 25-the most common reaction was, "I have to have this," sometimes followed by a quick, if alarmingly reckless, consideration of what might need to be pawned in order to make the purchase.... And there it is: one of the most hyped consumer products ever comes pretty close to justifying the bombast."Baig puts it this way: "[W]ith a few exceptions, this expensive, glitzy wunderkind is indeed worth lusting after... That's saying a lot. After months of hype, Apple has delivered a prodigy - a slender fashion phone, a slick iPod and an Internet experience unlike any before it on a mobile handset."Interesting tidbits from both reviews: Levy got a call from Steve Jobs during his evaluation period, just to check on how he was doing (!), and he noted the new thinking behind Apple's buy-it-and-go-home iTunes activation plan. Baig's article includes a sidebar entitled "The Quest Begins" with the get-an-iPhone strategies of a few would-be buyers, and Baig encountered a feature I haven't seen mentioned anywhere else; when he finished watching A Bug's Life (it would have to be a Pixar film) on his iPhone, the device asked him if he wanted to clear the movie from memory to reclaim the space. Nice.via Apple 2.0
Mac consumer marketshare doubles since 2004?
Over at Mac Daily News, they're citing a USA Today article which indicates that Apple's "home computer market share" hit 7.6% in May 2007, up from 3.2% in May 2004. MDN says "we assume that the market share number came from USA Today research." Presumably this number is for the US and obviously focuses on consumers rather than businesses, but this feels right to me. We've already mentioned that sales are way up and Mac shipments are up 30%. Let the Mac train roll on![via Digg]
USA Today calls out Sony: 'from top dog to underdog in record time'
USA Today, who purports to have the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, published a story today discussing Sony's fall from an almost monopolistic first place with the PlayStation 2 to less-than-stellar sales with the PlayStation 3.Drawing from the February NPD figures, writer Mike Snider places Sony in third place with 127,000 in PS3 unit sales, behind home consoles Xbox 360 (228,000) and Nintendo Wii (335,000). This is in addition to anecdotal evidence that the PlayStation 3 is easily available in stores while the Wii is still hard to find. Total Wii sales in the U.S. are estimated to 1.9 million while Sony has 1.1 million.Newsweek's N'Gai Croal chimes in on reasons for Sony's ranking, including price, software lineup and negative press. Of course, early runnings mean nothing long-term, and the PlayStation 3 could easily pick up steam following release of heavy-hitting games, PS Home and a possible price drop. Still, when you got one of the biggest newspapers giving less-than-complimentary status reports it can't be good for business.
Gears of War doing its job as a system seller?
As of December 15, Gears of War for the 360 sold an estimated 2 million copies. It has won several "game of the year" awards (including ours) as USA Today reports on its "break out" status. From the article: "It's no doubt [Gears of War] sold a lot of Xbox 360s and has made existing 360 owners feel very good about their investment. It came at exactly the right time and has proved to be a great counter to the launch of the PS3."In the same article, Newsweek's N'Gai Croal disputes the game's "system seller" moniker but goes on to say, "Microsoft can hold up Gears of War and say, 'Sony says their machine is more powerful than ours, yet we have this game that looks better (than any PS3 games).' "System seller? If not that then at least really good backup. Get it ... backup? (Cue lame sounding trumpet.)
Select subscribers getting TiVoCast web-based programming
Following last month's deal with web video publisher Brightcove, TiVo has announced another round of partnerships that will bring various on-demand video clips to broadband-equipped Series 2 owners, with a new service called TiVoCast. The company has been making moves in this direction for some time now, but this is the first time we're being offered content that we'd actually bother watching, including NBA and WNBA highlights, New York Times-produced video (featuring David Pogue's often-humorous reviews), advice from CNET, and a dose of hip hop culture from H2O, along with male- and female-targeted programming from Heavy.com and iVillage, respectively. The new content -- accessible from the "Showcases" screen when it begins appearing next month -- will not be available to everyone, however, as USA Today is reporting that neither DirecTV subscribers nor Comcast customers will have access to any of these value-added TiVoCast downloads.
Getting more HD through the same old cable; CableCard on the outs?
That's the problem cable providers are facing, as we keep pushing for more channels and capacity keeps...staying the same. USA Today had a nice writeup today concerning the problems faced as they try to add more channels and features to compete with satellite television providers, and a couple different ways they can solve them. Unfortunately for CableCard DVR and television users, one of the proposed solutions "switched digital" would make their cards useless and force them into using a digital cable box. As TV works now, every channel is sent to you all the time, the proposed solution changes things so that you are only sent the channel you are currently watching. Time Warner has implemented the technology in a few areas already, while Cox and Cablevision are looking into it. The other workaround means stripping channels from analog cable packages, and replacing them with high definition channels.This conundrum may explain the sudden disappearance of CableCard, as manufacturers wait for the 2.0 standard instead of throwing in a feature that may soon be obsolete anyway.
USA Today moron: "Boot Camp to cause exodus to Windows"
Andrew Kantor has posted a pretty darn funny piece of satire at USA Today based on the idea that Boot Camp is actually going to cause Mac users to switch over to Windows (ok, maybe it isn't 'satire.' Maybe it's 'saying anything he can for page views'). I have to hand it to Andrew - if this article wasn't obviously a clever piece of humor, he would instead have what could quite possibly be an educated, insightful and altogether accurate argument for why Mac OS X users should simply replace their cumbersome, overpriced and useless Macs with a Windows PC from, say, Gateway.Andrew, I gotta tip my hat - you really know how to hit the nail on the head. Once I used Windows on my friend's MacBook Pro "long enough to be deprogrammed," I'm already on the hunt for the nearest garbage can to dump the PowerBook I (begrudgingly) am typing this on right now. Anyone have the sales phone number for eMachines?
Mainstream media nails it!
Well done Kim Komando of USA Today. Well done. Projectors can be a great option for some consumers that seeks a HUGE screen but have space requirements. (and a budget) But they can be daunting because of the huge price range ($800 - $15,000) but Kim did a great job laying out most of the things you need to look for. She goes over LCD, DLP, and CRT options and talks about how important lumens is. Kim even talks about their Achilles heal: the pricey bulb.Ms. Komando covers most of what a person should look for but forgot to cover the different resolution. A lot of lower priced units do not produce a high enough resolution to be considered high-def. They will display the same image, but will do so by lowering the resolution of the signal to its native resolution. You can find good inexpensive projectors for under a thousand that does have a good resolution however; just stay away from the 800x600 units if you want to use it for HDTV.Check out Kim's guide to projectors if you have any questions about these mini-giants of TVs.
