Filed under: iPod Family, iPhone, App Store
Playing with AppStore
So I've downloaded the new 2.0 firmware, upgraded iTunes to 7.7 and went wild downloading free apps to my iPhone. Here's how the first batch stacked up.
iFob Social organizer sort of thing, that lets you beam your info to other iFob-enabled users. It's not a bad idea but it's eerily reminiscent of using the Zune. Sure you can connect to others but there are no others yet to connect to. In a Facebook/Twitter world, I don't see this one catching on.
Jared Jared is the same Freeverse app that they've previously released for OS X, but now Jared sings badly on the iPhone as well. I am completely unable to talk about this objectively because it's a love it or hate it app. Me? I love it. It's perfectly and addictively moronic and I just love me some Jared. Your mileage may vary.
Cube Runner Cube Runner by Andy Qua is exactly what a free iPhone app should be. It's simple, fun to play and has no unneeded bells and whistles. It's a simple accelerometer based game. You guide yourself through a minefield of cubes by tilting the phone. Nice.
Remote Apple's free remote tool lets you use your iPhone to control iTunes and Apple TV playback. Perfect and free.
Rotary Dialer Joshua Minor's Rotary Dialer is a great idea whose delivery falls short. It's not very usable (I tried) and it provides no retro click-click sounds as you dial. I guess it's a cute thing to show off to friends once or twice but it won't be making a home on my iPhone.
T4Two free If you're looking for a cute free pong game, you could do worse than T4Two. It offers a basic pong interface with a touch-draggable paddle and accelerometer awareness. Developer Masayuki Akamatsu did a nice job with this and offers several other free AppStore apps including a beat-tapping utility and a calculator.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Libb said 1:07PM on 7-10-2008
Erica, don't be afraid to be a shameless plugger - plug your app To Do!!! It's a lovely little free to-do app for those that don't need the power of the two 800 pound gorillas for $10-20.
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shaun said 1:20PM on 7-10-2008
Thanks for mentioning that, I just downloaded it. Haven't had a chance to try it out yet as I have no iPod currently (sold iPod Touch to my dad last week in prep for the 3G tomorrow)
I remember trying out this app in simulator a few months back and it was pretty good
Kevin said 2:21PM on 7-10-2008
Then I'll plug my friend's
www.droidspot.com
CUBSWILLWIN said 1:07PM on 7-10-2008
I hope Apple suprises us and gives us the 2.0 for the touch for free.... Or I can keep dreaming
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boardopboy said 1:30PM on 7-10-2008
I don't mind paying for it, at this point... I JUST WANT IT ALREADY!
Why are we always the bastard step children to the iPhone!
I want my toys too!
f.duane said 1:07PM on 7-10-2008
Hm. I'm having problems with Remote. I can add my library fine to the app, but it then doesn't connect to it, says it can't find it.
Any ideas?
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Funke, Tobias Dr. said 4:33PM on 7-10-2008
I had the same problem. Previously I had set my Firewall settings (Sys Preferences>Security>Firewall) to "Allow Only Essential Services". When I change this to allow all incoming connections, it works. However, I'd rather not leave this setting as it is, and so far I am unable to find a workaround. (Adding iTunes to the list of programs and setting to "allow incoming connections" does not work)
f.duane said 4:39PM on 7-10-2008
yeah, i just figured that out too - and i'm similarly unimpressed by the need to decide between a firewall and the remote. i found though that once the iPhone is connected i can turn the firewall on again, and the connection still works.
Erwin said 6:36PM on 7-10-2008
I have a similar but different problem. After I enter the 4 digit code in iTunes, my iTunes library briefly shows up in the Remote app, and then I almost immediately get a pop-up that says "This remote has been unregistered from "Erwin's Music" Please select another library." And yes, I have turned the firewall off, to see if it made a difference, which it didn't. Normally the iTunes app is one of the exceptions in the firewall list, anyway.
tevetorbes said 1:08PM on 7-10-2008
Weatherbug is pretty neat, although I can't get the RADAR to work correctly- I have to manually zoom to my area to see the national radar.
Maybe this is the way the functionality... functions? I dunno, it seems like if I choose a specific site it should snap to that area automagically, but maybe not.
Facebook app didn't work for me when I tried to fire it up this morning- "Facebook is unavailable at this time" greeted me twice, haven't tried since.
I like the AIM app and the Jott app- pretty self-explanatory. The Bank of America app is (seemingly) just a frontend to the BoA website, so nothing really to write home about there, but I haven't tried the BoA locator portion yet, so that might be worth something.
Same with the google app- just seems like a fancier google to me, but maybe I'm missing something.
Overall, fun times!
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Bassir said 1:11PM on 7-10-2008
Where's the movie showtimes application?
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djlos said 1:15PM on 7-10-2008
I dont think the ipod touch 2.0 will be free. We always end up having to pay for upgrades. Ill just hack it and not pay for it. :)
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canuck said 1:16PM on 7-10-2008
hi! I hope it's okay that I'm posting this here, but I have nowhere else to go :(
Is anyone else not able to access .mac today? For at least the last 6 hours, I can't access anything and can't access my email...
any info on this, please, would be GREATLY appreciated!
Thanks so much :)
canuck
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Eric said 1:15PM on 7-10-2008
Has anyone else downloaded every single free app from the store?
I did... I only have an iPod touch, but I even downloaded the ones that will be entirely useless without an iPhone.
Now if 2.0 would just launch, already...
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Tom said 1:16PM on 7-10-2008
iFob was around in installer.app too, but it requires users to hop on the same access point, and even then i don't know how it works
Also I claim the idea for remote because I told Apple (in February) to make an API for the Apple TV so someone could write a remote app on the iPhone for the Apple TV and they KINDA already did it. I'd like to see a way to rent movies from work so that when you get home they're ready to watch, and I don't think that's there, but that was my suggestion.
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Rick said 2:07PM on 7-10-2008
Maybe that's the direction they're heading since you can now "star" movies for later... kind of like a queue. I agree, it'd be particularly nice if you could star things remotely and have it start downloading at home.
scott said 1:17PM on 7-10-2008
I might just be missing it, but in the AIM app it doesn't seem like they included any account management functionality at all. Once you enter your account info on first boot up, it doesn't look like there's any way to edit that info, change accounts, or use multiple accounts.
On the plus side, I had an ongoing chat, exited out to the springboard, was browsing in Safari, and got a popup message from the AIM chat that took me back to it. I guess that means that push is working well. So much for the background processes complaint.
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Paul said 2:03PM on 7-10-2008
The AIM account preferences are under Settings on your home screen
Scott said 7:47PM on 7-10-2008
That's interesting... I'm surprised Apple would even allow that. Not to mention that it goes against every other app's internal settings model.
Mike said 1:23PM on 7-10-2008
What is up with all the password fields in 2.0? In Safari and in apps, they show that last character in plaintext for 2 seconds before turning it into a dot.
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