iPod touch posts

The idea behind Set, the now-classic card/puzzle game, can be mind-numbingly difficult to explain. Some people just can't wrap their heads around the "all the same or all different concept." Of course, some people get it right away. For both types, the new Set app [$2.99] for the iPhone and iPod touch is a fine challenge, even if it's not perfect in all aspects.

Here's the gist of the game: each card in the 81-card deck has between one and three images on it. These images come in three shapes (diamond, oval, and squiggly), three colors (red, green, and purple), and three levels of shading (solid, lined, and empty). Every possible combination is available on one single card.

The goal is to find sets from a collection of cards laid face-up on the table. A set is any three cards where each of these four features are, independently, either all the same or all different? So, a single red solid diamond, a single green solid diamond, and a single purple solid diamond make a set (in that example, the number, shading, and shape features are all the same while the colors are all different). Also, a single empty purple squiggle, two lined green diamonds, and three solid red ovals make a set. Got that? Good. If not, click through the gallery of images from the app starting here to see how the game's designers explain things.

If you want to give Set a try for free, you can try an online daily puzzle here, or download the very limited lite version of the iPhone app here. For learning the game, the app's tutorial is tremendously helpful. Keep reading to find out more about how the game works, or doesn't, on the iPhone.

PhotoAvatar (US $.99) is a remarkable iPhone/iPod touch novelty app from the makers of HourFace, an app I liked quite a lot when I reviewed it a few months ago. PhotoAvatar turns a properly taken photo into any one of three alien avatars, each so realistic that it's eerie.

Using a carefully taken photo snapped by the camera or taken from a photo library, you decide on which alien you want to be and the app does the rest. The picture gets transformed into an amazingly realistic 3D moving image. The result can be emailed or saved to the camera roll. But the creepiest part is watching the image on the screen. It's constantly in motion, blinking, turning, glaring and growling at you. If you swipe your finger over the image, the avatar will follow your finger. If you tap the screen, the image will stretch and audibly growl at you. If you shake the device, you'll get another animation.

This app is very simple to use and limited in usefulness, but for once, I don't think that matters since the results are really something to behold. I watched an avatar without touching the screen for a few minutes and regardless of what I knew, I was just about convinced that the image was real. You really need to see this gem for yourself and a buck is a fair price to show you something that you haven't yet seen in such a realistic manner.

PhotoAvatar has the same limitations of HourFace when taking or using a picture. The photo needs to look directly ahead, not be wearing glasses, have a visible forehead, a closed mouth and not be too light or dark. I found about half of the photos I tried from my photo library worked and half didn't, bringing up a screen detailing the specs I just noted. But when it works, it's incredible.

The only thing I would like to see added to the app is the ability to output a properly sized avatar file to be used with Twitter, Facebook, etc. The marketing text makes it clear that this is one of the purposes of the app, so I can't see why PhotoAvatar can't output such an image.

Take a look at this gallery where you can see my source picture and what PhotoAvatar did with it. Then, click the 'read more' link to watch the video since you really need to see it in action.

I'd buy it right now as one of the best graphic implementations yet.

If you've been lusting after the Navigon apps for your iPhone, the company has just released lower-priced regional versions that divide the country into three sections and let you add other parts of the U.S. with an in-app purchase.

You can now buy Western states, Central U.S. or Eastern states as standalone regions. The single region version is US$24.99 until April 12, when the price goes up to $29.99. If you buy one region, you can add another region for $12.99 each.

These new versions contain all the features of the Navigon U.S. and Canada version. All versions include the new MyRoutes feature. Navigon MyRoutes learns from the user's driving style to provide customized and better route recommendations. The feature also offers up to two alternative routes clearly displayed on a map including ETA, distance and driving time. This lets users choose the route that best serves their individual situation. The MyRoutes feature will be added to the North American version with update 1.5.0

Traffic Live, which is another add-on, provides crowd-sourced real-time traffic information to calculate better routes that avoid congestion and get drivers to their destination faster. The feature is available as an in-app one-time purchase at a promotional price of $19.99 until April 12th.

As I pointed out in my review of CoPilot Live yesterday, these add-ons are getting a bit confusing, and it would be nice if all the nav developers simply offered a complete version to keep things simple. Others will argue that by offering bits and pieces you can customize your app and get only what you want. It does keep the price down. Navigon has certainly done that with the Navigon MyRegion edition. If you stay in pretty much one part of the country you get a very advanced application at a very competitive price. You can find a complete Navigon feature list here.

The apps run on iPhone version 3.0 or greater. They can be used on first generation iPhones or the iPod touch with additional hardware accessories, and run on their own with the iPhone 3G or 3GS.

A few of you recently ordered an iPad. Now, the obsessive calendar-watching begins. How can April 3rd seem so far away? Satisfy your need for up-to-the-second notification of your iPad's whereabouts with one of these package tracking apps for the iPhone and iPod touch.

Delivery Status Touch (US$2.99) is my personal choice. It supports more than 25 delivery services, like FedEx, UPS, DHL, and the good old USPS. Additionally, there's built-in tracking for packages coming from Amazon, Adobe and, of course, Apple.

You can track several packages at once, and the main screen lists each at launch, sorted by color-coded listings. Shipments are accompanied by a big countdown to the delivery date. Once your goodie gets close, you can bring up a map and watch it approach. Finally, push notifications will satisfy even the least patient among us.

Poynt has come to the iPhone, after having been a very popular free app on BlackBerry phones. Poynt provides local searches of individuals and businesses. It also shares a database with Open Table, so you can use it to make reservations at restaurants. Unlike the BlackBerry app, it has augmented reality, but is missing some features beloved by the Blackberry crowd.

Like some of the other iPhone search apps, you can enter the name of a business, and get a phone number, links to a website (if there is one), a mapped location, or directions. If you use the theater search, you'll find nearby movie houses. You can also search by movie genres, or get a list of the top 10 box office films. You can't buy tickets, but you can stream trailers. (Note: The developer says you can buy tickets if a ticket icon appears next to the distance marker. I didn't see any offering from my local theater when I checked the app.)

When you search for restaurants, you get similar results to those of the business search. Results include phone numbers, restaurant websites, maps, and directions. You can also narrow your search by cuisine, or by distance.

Unit testing refers to a software validation methodology that allows programmers to test individual program units for correctness. It's been an ongoing question in the iPhone developer community as to whether the iPhone's view controller class is testable or not.

In response to these discussions, iPhone developer Jonah Williams has written up a view controller unit testing how-to over at the Carbon Five web blog. His write-up offers examples that show how to incorporate some best practices into your code.

Williams points out how broken NIB bindings are a common problem for iPhone OS applications. To address these issues, he regularly adds simple assertions that test that each IB outlet and action are set properly from inside his view controller class implementations. These assertions check that IBOutlet instance variables are not set to nil and that IBAction targets have been assigned, adding a layer of protection against broken bindings.

Another typical view controller issue involves responding to application memory warnings. To respond, he adds tests that ensure that each view-dependent property gets correctly released and re-created as views unload and then later reload. By building these into test methods, he can execute this behavior on demand, and ensure that the sequence will execute flawlessly in real world conditions.

Finally, Williams discusses view controller interdependencies. Often instances are tightly intertwined, with objects acting as clients for each other. For example, a simple table view controller, living within a navigation controller, might present a detail view via yet another view controller when a row is selected. That's three separate controllers to account for, when you really only want to test one at a time. Williams suggests isolating these view controllers away from their interdependencies to test each component separately and provides examples of how you can do so.

What made Williams' approach pop for me is how he carefully exposes and isolates dependencies for testing. These are features that can otherwise be hard to inspect and validate in the normal course of programming. His write-up is well worth reading through, and provides an excellent jumping off point for investigating view controller unit testing.

I've always liked Slate Magazine on the web. It's sometimes sassy and irreverent, but always interesting -- an eclectic mix of politics, culture and tech news.

Now, Slate has come to the iPhone in a US$1.99 app that features all the articles from the site, as well as the blog posts, staff tweets and streaming video from the Slate podcasts. Once content is downloaded you can read it off-line, which is a worthwhile feature. Access to Slate on the web is free, and you can read Slate from any mobile browser by going to mobile.slate.com.

So why the charge for the iPhone app? Slate says it cost something to develop it, and it gives you a much richer experience in a portable form. I can't argue with that, but I can argue with the ads that appear absolutely everywhere. Even the splash screen popped up with an ad. I think that's a bit much after I've paid for the app, but I'm beginning to see a lot of this in other apps as well.

I do like the app a lot, and it is a better experience for me than reading Slate stories in Safari on the iPhone. I even prefer the app to reading the site on my desktop or laptop. I just think the constant intrusive ads are a turn-off that will keep some people from pulling the trigger on what is an otherwise laudable effort.

Slate works on any iPhone or iPod touch with OS 3.0 or greater. I expect we'll see an iPad version as well.

Full disclosure: In the dim, distant past I worked at the Washington Post Company, which owns Slate.

Take a gander at some screen shots below:

App Store clutter remains an ongoing issue. In addition to "business card" applications that offer little or no functionality beyond a simple web page^[1], there are lite editions, demo editions, full editions, and even in the case of Tweetie 2, completely new applications providing upgraded functionality.

Each of those applications must be registered with a unique app identifier, each one takes up a separate slot when installed on your iPhone's home screen, each application occupies a separate App Store listing, complete with its own screen shots, marketing material, reviews, and so forth. Each one must be managed by you in iTunes, where you must decide which to sync, which to keep, and so forth.

Add to the mix, the possibility that we're likely to see iPad- and iPhone-specific application releases in the near future in addition to the Universal Application solution that Apple has been heavily promoting. That's because iPad applications offer developers the opportunity to re-imagine their interfaces, adding features without the constraints of the iPhone's small screen and modal interaction limitations. An iPad app that adds significant new functionality may branch off and become yet another related app in a single application family.

The Daily Telegraph reports that a new Apple patent has surfaced which could potentially allow the iPhone, or another Apple portable, to act as a sort of electronic key. The potential applications are as limitless as the number of things locked by old-school metal keys. It could be used for cars, offices, homes, or lockers. Basically, anything that could have an electronic receiver mounted to it in place of a metal tumbler-style lock could then use an iPhone as a key.

While Ars Technica notes that "the patent application itself merely describes a unique way of using motion detection to generate an input, such as turning a virtual combination lock-style dial," the patent itself, as reported by the Telegraph, says that the device could be "any suitable electronic device such as a portable media player, personal data assistant or electronic lock" that could open up any number of physical lock types just by communicating wirelessly.

The makers of the TomTom app for the iPhone have let us know that they've submitted an updated version that adds real-time traffic information, Google local search, and even some secret features the company isn't talking about yet.

The TomTom app was eagerly sought out last year, but of late has fallen a bit behind market leader Navigon. This new release, with real-time info and Google local, will give both apps rough feature parity.

The current TomTom app is on sale for U.S. $49.99 at the app store (U.S. maps only) and it includes a "free update to the new version as soon as its available." That would indicate that some or all of the new features will be an extra charge for current owners.

Version 1.3 will be available as soon as it passes through the App Store vetting process.

[Thanks to Steve H. for the tip]

Siri for the iPhone was quite a hit when it came out earlier this year. You could ask it questions like, "where is the best pizza nearby?" and Siri would find the answer. My favorite response was when I asked if there was a God, and Siri gave me directions to the nearest churches.

As much as people loved the app, iPod touch owners were left out in the cold. Not now. The app has been updated to run on the iPod touch with OS version 3.0 or above. And if you've already been using it, the app has been improved with more data, a larger vocabulary and some improvements to its reasoning algorithms.

You can also give it integer math problems and you'll get an answer. The app uses Microsoft Instant Answers from Bing for the heavy lifting.

Siri uses the speech recognition from Nuance Communications, which also powers the Dragon Dictatation and Dragon Search apps for the iPhone and iPod touch. It is uncannily accurate in my daily use, so Siri has gotten a bit smarter and learned a few new tricks. For free, it's a must have.

Self-respecting science fiction fans will remember the Daleks. They're the mutant alien villains from the Doctor Who television series with armored casing, warbling voices and a penchant for extermination.

Steve at BotBuilder is a fellow fan who combined his love of sci-fi and bots into the iPhone-controlled Dalek you see above. In what he calls "a cool and ultimately pointless experiment," Steve uses the iPhone to send messages to the board in the Dalek over Wi-Fi which, in turn, operate servos and lights up LEDs. The cool part is that he can move the bot about using the iPhone's accelerometer.

This isn't the first iPhone-powered remote control device we've seen of course (The Parrot AR.Drone was clearly our favorite), but it delights us as Dr. Who fans. Well done, Steve!

[Via Cult Of Mac]

While Sony appears concerned about its eroding share of the mobile gaming market since the phenomenal success of Apple's App Store, gaming giant Nintendo isn't worried about Apple at all. In an interview with VentureBeat, Nintendo of America's Cammie Dunaway said that with 11.2 million DS units sold last year, and 125 million DS sales in total thus far, Apple's mobile platform isn't really a threat to Nintendo's dominance of mobile gaming. "Consumers are still finding fun with our products, and there is a lot of room to grow," Dunaway said.

Nintendo certainly has room to feel comfortable, at least for now. In terms of units sold, the DS has been the most successful gaming system in history, and the iPhone and iPod touch aren't even primarily focused on gaming. If anything, Apple's success in gaming came almost accidentally; it's only relatively recently that Apple has been touting the iPod touch as a gaming device, and only after the success of the App Store did Apple even start to take portable gaming seriously. For many people, "Nintendo" remains synonymous with "video games" -- compared to Nintendo, Apple's only dipped its toe in the gaming waters. That said, the continued explosive growth of Apple's mobile device sales and the popularity of the App Store means Nintendo can't afford to rest on its laurels forever.

[Via slide to Play]

In terms of sales, Sony's PSP has been getting trounced by the various incarnations of Nintendo's DS since day one. Despite the PSP's better graphics and flexibility as a mobile media platform, the DS has grabbed hold of the handheld gaming market and shows no sign of letting go.

Since the introduction of the App Store in 2008, a new mobile gaming juggernaut has emerged, seemingly out of nowhere -- the iPhone/iPod touch. With the forthcoming launch of the iPad, whose larger screen and more powerful CPU could make it a gaming powerhouse, it means there are now three very big players in the mobile gaming market... and Sony is in an untenable position already.

Sony is hoping to change that. According to a leak to the Wall Street Journal, Sony is hard at work developing a range of handheld products designed to compete directly with Apple's mobile platform. One, a smartphone built in tandem with Sony Ericsson, would be a PSP phone designed to compete with the iPhone and iPod touch; the other, a hybridization of a PSP, e-reader, and netbook, would be Sony's answer to the iPad. Both devices would have a dedicated online store available to them, but the store itself isn't scheduled for deployment until later this year at the earliest.

I'm going to give Sony some free advice: if you want to have any hope of even competing with Apple's mobile platforms, to say nothing of surpassing them in sales, then gather up the marketing and engineering teams that developed the PSP Go, march them into an auditorium, and fire them all. The PSP Go has been savaged in reviews for its high price point, limited functionality compared to the older full-sized PSP, and download-only gaming catalogue. All these factors have combined to make the PSP Go a failure in the marketplace, and deservedly so.

Granted, the games catalogue for Apple's mobiles is also download-only, making traditional gaming conventions like buying and selling used games just as impossible as it is on the PSP Go. But there are three ways Apple's App Store buries Sony's online store under a pile of cat litter: the number of games available is staggeringly higher, the average price of games is far lower, and the App Store is much easier to navigate.

To its credit, Sony not only knows the PSP Go is a failure, but more importantly, the company also appears to know why. If Sony can learn from that failure and apply those lessons to the forthcoming handheld challengers, it might be in a position to regain some of the ground that's been lost in the mobile gaming marketplace.

[Via electronista]