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Ustream viewer makes it to app store just in time
There has been quite a bit of excitement over the last few weeks with the announcement that Ustream would be offering a live video viewer so people could watch the Obama inauguration on their iPhones and iPod touches. It didn't look like it was going to make it, but the free application [app store link] slipped into iTunes today with just hours to spare. While the Joost app should also allow streaming of the festivities, the Ustream viewer is unique because it allows live TV streams, and registered viewers can join a chat room creating a community around any video stream. Video can be viewed horizontally or vertically, but many of the sources are not 16 by 9 so it won't make a great deal of difference. The app appears to be WiFi only, which is a bit of a drag. My cell reception here in the wilds of Arizona is not too great, but I got an error message trying to run the video streaming under 3G.With WiFi most of the channels looked pretty good. I even got a quick look at Chris Pirillo doing his live bit from his desk at home. The real test will be tomorrow with the swearing in ceremonies. It will be a good test of the Ustream distribution system. Ustream wants lots of players out there, because they are creating a content network and are actively courting people who will create videos on their home computers and laptops. The firm says they will soon have an app that allows live streaming of video and audio from the iPhone, in the same vein as the Qik tool currently running on jailbroken phones. If so, that will be a very big game changer for the iPhone. The big question is, will Apple allow it into the app store?Looking toward the future, Ustream will need more and better content deals, and streaming via the 3G network. Tonight is a great first step, and I expect by swearing-in time a lot of iPhones will be tuned in, if you'll pardon the archaic term.Here are some screen shots hot off the presses (thanks AppleUniverse):%Gallery-42695%
First Look: Witch's Workshop
I'm addicted to Diner Dash, and I greatly enjoy other time management games. The basic gist of a lot of these is that you're given a setting and you must complete a task (usually fulfilling an order for a customer) in a certain amount of time before the customer gets angry and leaves. As time goes by, the tasks either become more complex or your time speeds up. Witch's Workshop [link opens iTunes] is a new game for the iPhone from Spark Plug Games that combines the best aspects of Diner Dash with Bejeweled. Your task is to fill potion bottles for your customer by swapping the various potions around on the screen until they form a horizontal or vertical line of three or more potions. The same-colored potions then fill the bottle and you drag the full bottle over to the customer. A small dragon is placed in the bottom right corner and can be charged up and used to help fill orders. As time goes by, the customers become more and more impatient and more potion is needed to fill the bottles, so it becomes quite challenging. Game play fluctuated between very smooth and some of the potion bottles being hard to drag -- but I'm betting on that being more operator error than a flaw in the game. Graphics are simple, but clear and well-executed for what is needed with the game. Various options include the ability to toggle hints when you get stuck.There's also some nifty tricks. During the course of the game, I managed to get something called a Cauldron Crash and had to shake the iPhone to unstick it. Then, I happened to turn the phone onto its side. I heard the sound of glasses hitting each other and noticed that the potions themselves had swapped into the horizontal position, but the rest of the game remained vertical. It made for an interesting screenshot, as seen in the gallery. Witch's Workshop is currently available for $1.99 through the App Store.%Gallery-42645%
First Look: LogMeIn Ignition
This post is a first for me in that I'm typing (or tapping) it in on an iPhone using our Blogsmith CMS. No, there's not a Blogsmith iPhone app that I'm aware of, and I'm not using Safari on the iPhone to pull up our web portal. Instead, I'm controlling my office iMac from about 16 miles away using my iPhone and LogMeIn Ignition.LogMeIn is a remote access and control application for Macs and PCs that creates a secure connection between two computers by having each logged into a secure server. LogMeIn Ignition adds the ability to control a Mac or PC from your iPhone. To test Ignition, I set up a LogMeIn Free for Mac account and then loaded the app onto my iPhone 3G. How did it work? Read on for more details.
A Lethal app for your iPhone
OK, the headline is a bit misleading. This app won't kill you; in fact, it's designed to inform you about dangerous situations in your vicinity. Lethal (click opens iTunes) from Elany Arts takes a location from either the iPhone's built-in location services or a list of 300 cities or parks throughout the USA, then provides you with a "lethal index" number. This number ranges between 0 and 400, with 400 being an extremely dangerous location. The ranking comes from a composite of four scores based on lethal wildlife, crime, disease, and disaster probabilities in each area. The About screen for Lethal notes that the app is designed for informational and entertainment purposes only, so you should use common sense to guide your use of Lethal. When I let Lethal determine the index for my home, I was surprised to see that it was 207 out of 400, or "somewhat dangerous". The wildlife index was rather high based on black bears and mountain lions in the area. Yes, we do see them on rare occasions in the area, but I'd be much more concerned about a neighbor taking a potshot at me than getting chewed on by a mountain lion.Still, Lethal is fun (many comments are obviously tongue-in-cheek) and educational. Whether it's worth the US$1.99 introductory price is up to you. Check out the gallery below for screenshots of Lethal in action. %Gallery-42207%
First Look: Health Cubby for iPhone / iPod touch
App Cubby announced that a new iPhone app, Health Cubby (click opens iTunes) arrived in the App Store today. Health Cubby (US$4.99) is a personal fitness tracking app with a difference -- it adds a social networking element for working with friends and family members to keep motivated to exercise more and eat less.The social features connect you with up to 7 other people, share your progress in achieving fitness goals, and even send motivational messages. To do that, you set up a private account with App Cubby for data syncing and sending messages. Health Cubby has a great online user manual complete with screenshots. Instead of tracking meals with points or calories, the app has you enter a 1 to 5 rating. Rating a meal a 1 means you put the all-you-can-eat buffet out of business, while a 5 is a low-calorie, healthy meal. You also set goals for strength, cardio and...vices! While the first two involve exercise, the third item makes you set goals to reduce the number of times you indulge in a vice. My goal is to reduce my beer drinking to one a day (yeah, right...).I've put Health Cubby on my iPhone right next to Weight Watchers Mobile. It'll be interesting to see which app I use most often. Check the gallery below for screenshots of Health Cubby in action. %Gallery-42198%
Warner and Paramount sign up for movies on SD cards
If you've ever wished out loud for movie distribution on solid state memory, a glimmer of a speck of hope has just popped on to the radar thanks to a partnership between digital media delivery system company MOD Systems and movie studios. Anchor Bay, First Look, Image Entertainment, and -- wait for it -- Warner and Paramount are among the studios signed up to set 4,000 titles loose at a kiosk near you. The bad news is that only standard definition titles are going to be set loose to devices or SD cards. That standard def limitation is a whine, we know -- we like where this is headed.
First Look: Mouse House
Mouse House is a very adorable and surprisingly complicated puzzle game from Plaid World Studios. At first look, it seems like a very simple game with graphics that appear to be on par with Super Nintendo games. But, it's actually surprisingly tough and addictive. The game's premise is simple -- eat cheese and progress through the unlocked doors once they open. Along the way, you have to dodge bees, evil rats, crumbling floors and try not to get pinned in a corner by pushing balls the wrong way. It looks simple, but isn't. After completing the 8-level tutorial, it took me a few retries to get through the next few levels. The sound effects are truly what make this game stand out. The little noises from eating cheese and getting through an open door successfully are quite adorable. The controls are easy to use -- tap the screen in a vertical or horizontal line from where the mouse is and he'll move to that spot. There's no game soundtrack other than the sound effects. Instead, you can listen to the music already loaded on your iPhone or iPod Touch and the sound effects will play over the music. However, I enjoy the effects so much I simply play without the music. Mouse House (link opens iTunes) is currently available for US$.99
First Look: Word Flow
I'm always on the lookout for applications to keep me entertained when I have little snatches of time that need filling: Waiting in a long line at the post office or for a movie to start, or being caught out at lunch without a book to read while eating. Word Flow is an interesting puzzle game that allows you to slide letters around a board to create words. Once your word is ready, tap the beginning and last letter of the word you've created. It's like Boggle with the ability to control where letters go. You have three timed versions you can play: One minute, three minutes and 10 minutes. Three minutes is the sweet spot for me. With the one minute version, you barely have time to string some words together before time is up. With the 10-minute version, I lost interest after about five minutes. Overall, Word Flow is a fairly decent game, but definitely not my favorite of available word games on the iPhone. The graphic response is not as smooth as other programs, and two versions of the game are either too short or too long. Word Flow (link opens iTunes) is currently available for $.99USD.
Tweetie: Twitter client with "oomph"
Yesterday, Dave published an awesome gift guide for the Twitter addict. It wasn't meant to be an all-encompassing list, nonetheless, the omission of Tweetie [iTunes link] -- one of the newest Twitter clients to hit the iPhone -- generated a ton of response via the comments, our inbox and of course, via Twitter. Because Twitter is my crack, I decided to take Tweetie out for a spin. Developer Loren Brichter was even nice enough to get me in on the Tweetie beta so I could take a sneak peek at some of the features coming in future releases.My initial thoughts are very, very positive; I now know why so many of you were so vocal about your Tweetie love. No sooner did I crown Tweetsville the current champion in the Twitter for iPhone Battle Royale, Tweetie shows up with some serious moves. At this point, I don't even know if I can adequately name a "champion." Another Twitter client?As I've said before, Twitter and the iPhone are a perfect combination -- they just go together. That said, Dave makes a solid point: the number of available Twitter clients for the iPhone is getting a tad ridiculous. I have tried almost every Twitter application available for the iPhone/iPod touch (see below) and they can tend to blur together. And these are just the apps I've purchased or downloaded for free Twitter's brilliance is in its simplicity. Twitterrific is my favorite desktop Twitter client, in large part because of its commitment to that simplicity. Having said that, Twitterrific for the iPhone is starting to strike me as too simple. I love the interface, I just often want to be able to do more. A simple interface coupled with lots of features is what makes a great mobile Twitter client. This is where Tweetie really stands out. On the features front, it is pretty similar to what Twitterlator Pro, Tweestville and Twitterfon offer, but its interface is extremely clean and unobscured. In fact, it took me a little while to figure out where some of the more advanced settings for the app are. They are actually in the main "Settings" panel, rather than inline the app itself. That makes sense, and is apparently something Apple recommends, but it's worth noting because otherwise you might miss where some of the features actually are.%Gallery-39588%
Primo Sguardo (First Look): Cucchiaio d'Argento
If you like to cook and eat Italian cuisine, this iPhone app will make you very happy. Il Cucchiaio d'Argento (The Silver Spoon) has been the definitive recipe book for traditional Italian cooking for the past 50 years, and now it's available for iPhone.This cookbook, available in the App Store for US$9.99 or €7.99 (click opens iTunes), features over 250 classic and tested recipes. Updates will add more of the 2,000+ recipes in the cookbook. Many of the recipes include notes about their history or tradition, or provide hints on excellent wines to try as an accompaniment to your meal.Ingredients are listed in both metric and imperial measures. There's space to add your own notes to recipes; this is helpful when making variations to the standard recipes. In real-life usage, the app works well. My only complaint is that the "add to shopping list" button only adds the ingredients, not the actual quantity of each item. There's no Mac version of the application, but you can always purchase the analog version of Il Cucchiaio d'Argento from most bookstores and Amazon. Check out the gallery below for more screenshots of the app in action. Many thanks to the readers who corrected Google's lousy translation! %Gallery-39394%
First Look: Public Radio Tuner
Whenever I'm not listening to my iPod in the car, I'm usually have my radio tuned to National Public Radio, where I get my fix of classical and jazz music. American Public Media has created an iPhone app that caters to those of us who want to listen to a particular NPR station, but don't happen to be near a computer.Public Radio Tuner (click opens iTunes) is a free application that compiles the Internet streams from more than 150 public radio stations into a single list. You scroll through the list to your preferred station, then there is a screen with a play button and volume control. Over Wi-Fi, the station I picked came in clear with no interruptions. I can turn off the iPhone's screen and it'll keep playing. However, when I tried to launch Public Radio Tuner using a fairly strong EDGE connection, the application insisted that it wasn't connected to the Internet. I had to utilize another program that activated an Internet connection, then relaunch Public Radio Tuner, before it would work over EDGE. After that, it works as advertised, though American Public Media warns that some stations require a 3G or Wi-Fi connection to work properly.It's a simple application, and does what it does well. It still needs some improvement. I would love to see a search tool implemented so you can bypass scrolling through the long list of radio stations; search by station name or by location would be great. The ability to bookmark your favorite stations would be an additional bonus, as well as tweaking the application to recognize a connection over EDGE without having to launch another application.
First Look: FlightTrack real-time flight tracker
Have you ever had one of those "damn, I wish I had waited a couple of weeks" moments? They usually happen when you buy an iPhone app you're not really thrilled about, but it's the only one of its type. About two weeks later, you're slapping your forehead when the app you really wanted ships.It happened to me this month. When I travel, I like to make sure my flights are on time, so I like to use FlightView's Flight Tracker. About two weeks ago I purchased another flight status app, and I've been underwhelmed with it ever since. Now Mac and iPhone Developer Ben Kazez has created FlightTrack, a real-time flight tracker for iPhone and iPod touch. The US$4.99 FlightTrack app (click opens iTunes) uses the same great FlightView data and maps, so it looks and works a lot like the online tracker. Not only do you get the cool real-time location of each flight, but weather is overlaid on the maps (see screenshot at right). You can track multiple flights, look at details, and search by a number of criteria.Thanks, Ben. Now I have to spend another $4.99 to replace that other app I'm using....
FirstLook: beamME universal vCard exchange app
Developers rmbrME have come out with a novel take on the "beam your card" app. beamME is the first universal vCard exchange app that's supposed to work with any device, whether it's a BlackBerry, T-Mobile G1, Treo, a Mac or a PC.The app and accompanying beamMe Basic service are free, and it takes only about 10 seconds to sign up from your iPhone. However, "beaming" is really nothing more than sending an SMS that tells the recipient to go to the rmbrME website and download the vcf file. If the recipient's mobile browser doesn't support downloading vcf files, they're prompted to send the file to an email address from the website. You can also text the person's cell phone number to a special number.I tried sending a vCard to my T-Mobile G1 and gave up after 10 minutes of trying to receive the vCard. I could have typed in all the info faster than that. My personal opinion? Use one of the other Wi-Fi based beaming apps, such as iBeam or Fliq. While they're not "universal" apps, they work well with most other Wi-Fi devices.How do you transfer business card information between devices? Leave us a comment.
First Look: Tweetsville brings pro features to Twitter on iPhone
There are a number of Twitter apps available for the iPhone and iPod Touch -- and why not? Much like peanut butter and jelly, Twitter and the iPhone are a classic combination. Tweetsville [iTunes Link] from Tapulous is the newest Twitter client available from the App Store, and it offers up an interface and feature set that really gives the competition a run for its money. But wait, doesn't Tapulous already make a Twitter application? They do, and Twinkle [iTunes Link] is a neat app. Although the two applications share some interface similarities, the scope and focus are actually very different. Twinkle's real user hook is in its geo-location features, whereas Tweetsville is a full-fledged Twitter application. I'm a pretty addicted to Twitter, and have been searching for an app for my iPod touch that could help me monitor and manage my stream with ease. Tweetsville appears to be that app. I follow a lot of users and my biggest problem with some of the other Twitter applications (and with the m.twitter.com interface) is that I can't view a large number of tweets at one time. With Tweetsville, not only does it grab the last 200 tweets for me, if I leave the application and come back an hour later, it will pull up what I've missed. That means I can access 532 tweets at once, rather than just the last ten minutes or so. That's extremely handy. %Gallery-36828% Read on for more...
Starz broadens offerings by landing multitude of licensing deals
Aside from producing its own original series, Starz Entertainment is also looking to outsiders to broaden its content offerings. In a recent announcement, the channel discloses that it has just closed a multitude of deals that will net it a "bevy of first run and library titles from Summit, Lionsgate, Hallmark, IFC, the Samuel Goldwyn Co., First Look and Fremantle." Better still, that material can be distributed via a variety of methods including all 16 of its linear channels, Starz HD, Starz On Demand and Starz Play (its broadband video download service). Eager to know what titles these deals will bring? Try 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, By Dawn's Early Light, Call of the Wild, Bye Bye Birdie, Hound of the Baskervilles and Rear Window -- and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
First Look: i. TV brings schedules, trailers to your iPhone
There are a lot of App Store submissions and works-in-progress that trigger anticipatory drooling here at TUAW (Sling Mobile! Sling Mobile!), among them the program guide and movie finder i. TV; we first saw it a few weeks ago and I've been checking every day to see if it's shipped. Now you can download this free tool from the App Store and see for yourself what's so exciting. (The promo video on the i.tv site borrows heavily from Apple's 1984 ad and the Apple TV intro, so clearly there's an effort to brand this app as 'revolutionary.')The heart of i. TV (App Store link) is a TV listings browser, which connects to the free data feed from the i.tv site (registration is required), including synopses and cast info. You can select your zip code and programming provider (the app currently supports US and Canadian TV listings only) and the current schedules are there at your fingertips; you can rate, review, filter or flag shows as favorites and optionally share your feedback with other i.TV users.Along with the TV content, the movies section of the app lets you browse by title or by nearby theaters, and watch streamed trailers of your selected films. Trailers and previews of TV shows are also included. The UI is clean and the app is easy to navigate; I was able to find show listings quickly for several series.As cool as the initial version of i.TV appears to be, the development directions are exponentially cooler. Future versions of the app are planned that will include remote DVR programming (ooh!), IR blaster integration (yes!), DVD rentals (ahh!), movie ticket purchases and even the ability to watch full TV shows streamed from the programming source (hmm.).Note that there is another app with a similar name, ITV, which provides French television listings and goes for $2.99 US.
First Look: Grocery IQ for iPhone
Since most people travel everywhere with their iPhones, it is only fitting that an application would come along that would allow you to create a grocery list. Now if you want, you can shop in the store while listening to tunes and looking at your shopping list -- Grocery iQ [iTunes link] allows you to do this and more. To add an item to your list, just tap the "+" button in the top right corner. When you start entering the name of an item, Grocery iQ will start searching its database of more than 130,000 items. This is amazing, because everything that I threw at it, it recognized! The database even has brand-name items, if you prefer to search that way. You can enter the quantity of the items needed (from 1-100) and some notes about the item. Something that sets this application apart from others is the ability to sort items by aisles -- and the app automatically tries to match your item to an aisle (however, you will probably have to re-arrange this to match the layout of your preferred grocery store). Another nice feature added by the developer is the ability to email the list to yourself or someone else! It doesn't just email a plain 'ole list either, it formats it to look just like it does in the application (with sections and everything). The application also keeps a running history of the items you purchase -- from this list, you can easily re-add items to your shopping list. This application should be on any iPhone/iPod touch owner's to-buy list if you forget items at the store, or just want to track your shopping list a little better. It would be nice to see a simple calculator in the application, so you could add up your list as you go through the store (or perhaps cache the recent price of the item). This application costs $4.99 at the iTunes App Store and weighs in at 7.2 MBs. Be sure to check out our gallery of screenshots to see the application yourself. An application update is expected soon that will add support for multiple lists/stores, and add even more information to the item database. %Gallery-33490%
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First Look: Equivalence for iPhone
Keeping with the famous science teacher saying of "every number must have a unit," Equivalence (iTunes link) is the one-stop converter for all things units. Did we say "one-stop?" Why yes we did, because Equivalence can convert between over 260 units in 31 categories. Once of the nice features of Equivalence is the ability for the application to auto update the unit conversions over the air, instead of through the App Store. So, if the developer decides to add a unit, or if a unit were to change, updates could get pushed out to the application. The beauty of this application is when you flip your iPhone into landscape mode. Just like the built-in iPhone calculator, this application adds much more functionality when horizontal, including a calculator that can add units together. Bottom line: This is the best unit converter for the iPhone, hands-down. Be sure to take a look at our gallery of Equivalence screenshots. You can buy Equivalence from the iTunes App Store for $4.99 (US). Update: The developer has dropped us an email to let us know about a special promotion. Equivalence will sell on the App Store for $1.99 until October 6th. The pricing changes have already been submitted to Apple for approval and should appear soon. Also, we have added two new screenshots in the gallery showing off the landscape mode in Equivalence. %Gallery-32369%
First Look: Cosmovox, an iPhone instrument
Cosmovox by Leisuresonic is an intriguing iPhone app; the kind of app which immediately looks appealing to me. Essentially, it's a theremin hopped up on music-theory steroids. While it does a decent job of emulating first-gen Star Trek sounds -- using the iPhone's accelerometer to translate vertical rotation into pitch with a continuous tone -- it ups the ante with a very complete set of scales: Major, Minor, Harmonic Minor, Major Bitonal, Pentatonic ... even heading East a bit to Okinawa and Hirajoshi (in case you want to play a digital koto) scales. All total, there are over 30 scales available, as well as a set of controls for adjusting modulation, beating, vibrato and doing other fine-tuning. Here's the thing, though. It's a lot of fun to play with by itself, and my head immediately filled with ideas for incorporating the sound into a composition. I was going to make a video demonstration with a breakbeat and B4 accompaniment, but try as I may, I found it too difficult to really make music with it. I attribute this in large part to a lack of practice and, quite possibly, skill; I can find my way around an array of instruments but this one is truly a challenge. For as simple as it seems once you set the scale (you can't play a wrong note, right?), attaining any kind of consistent melody or rhythm can be an uphill struggle. The best results I got were from layering Cosmovox tracks (recorded through a microphone, Cosmovox has no built-in recording abilities) with other Cosmovox tracks and chopping them up in post to cut out the mistakes. Thus, my efforts yielded no (bearable) movie. The demo video in the FAQ is far more impressive than my feeble attempts anyway. My thoughts: Cosmovox is a fun app for musicians of any caliber, with a far-reaching landscape of space-age sounds to explore. If I can find the free time, I'm hoping that enough practice will allow me to do with it what -- at this point -- only my imagination is capable of. Last I checked, Cosmovox was only $1.99USD at the App Store. A more-than-fair price for hours of wavering, warbling fun. Beyond its practical applications, it makes a great soundtrack for any occasion which kicks off with the words, "Captain's log: Stardate ... ," too.
First Look: GL Golf
If you're the golfing type (and I must admit, I'm no golfer), then you may like a new game/simulator for your iPhone/iPod touch. GL Golf [iTunes Link] allows you to play golf on your iPhone in a semi-realistic 3D world. The game consists of 5 golf courses, and you can play with up to 4 people. I really like the ability to change variables in the game. You can change things like weather, time of day, season, ball color, difficulty of play, and the type of course.The game play is solid. To swing the club just double tap on the screen; when the power meter reaches to a spot you want, just single tap and the club will swing, hitting the ball. You can change the type of club you have by dragging your finger up/down the screen, thereby changing the range. The game does pause itself when you tap the home button, so if you get a call while playing, you won't lose your game. The game is almost perfect with the exception of two things that could be easily changed with an update. First off, the graphics are not the best that you're going to find on an iPhone game. Second, not being able to move the camera (view point) around is a big downfall in certain circumstances. Sometimes a tree or river bank might be blocking your view and you cannot see if you're hitting the ball in the right direction (see screenshot 6). Despite that, the physics model in the game is amazing and very accurate. Overall, this is a solid game and should definitely be on every duffer's app download list. You can purchase GL Golf from the App Store today for $7.99. Be sure to look at our gallery of screenshots. %Gallery-32124%
