iPhone 3GS from AT&T. Free Shipping
The Need for Speed series returns to the iPhone with NFS:Shift.
(Credit: Screenshot by Antuan Goodwin/CNET)
EA Mobile has released the second iPhone game in the Need for Speed series: Need for Speed Shift.
You may remember that we took a look at Need for Speed Undercover not too long ago and found it was a fun, arcadelike take on racing with a decent number of fully customizable vehicles. Shift is an evolution of that game but with more realistic racing physics in place of the hokey storyline. Also new to Shift are customizable racing views. Users can now select between chase-cam, hood-cam, bumper-cam, and cockpit views. The cockpit view is unique to the vehicle you're driving, but unfortunately there are no working gauges. The cockpit view is also the only view that features damage modeling in the form of a windshield that gets more messed up the as you hit things.
This Nissan Z features an accurate interior, but no working gauges.
(Credit: Screenshot by Antuan Goodwin/CNET)On your first outing with Shift, you'll be treated to a quick tutorial that teaches you how to drive with an iPhone. Shift pretty much plays like Undercover, but with a few key differences. Its steering is still controlled by tilting. The vehicles still auto-accelerate and brake when the screen is tapped. However, the race-breaker, slow-motion feature is gone and the controls are supposedly more realistic. In practice, this means that you can no longer win races without touching the brakes and that the transmission is now manual, which can be frustrating for novice users who just want to drive.
Fortunately, there are driver aids that can be activated that automatically brake and shift for you and assist steering that make your ham-fisted inputs smoother and more accurate. Users who want an easy to play, arcade-style racer can turn on the driving aids and win a few medals on the bus ride to work; and users who want more of a racing-sim experience can set all systems to manual for more control over the game. Driving aids or not, drifting is maddeningly difficult this time around. I prefer the drifting mechanics of Undercover.
... Read More
The RoadMate iPhone app borrows the interface of the RoadMate line of navigation devices.
(Credit: Antuan Goodwin)As the PND vs. smartphone battle for navigation superiority continues, we're seeing more of the GPS heavyweights hedging their bets by developing application versions of their standalone GPS devices, while others push toward adding cellular technology to their portable devices in a bid to even the playing field.
Magellan finds itself in the former camp with the announcement of its Magellan RoadMate for iPhone turn-by-turn navigation application. The application is compatible with the iPhone 3G and 3GS models and will be available soon on the App Store at an introductory price of $79.99 (which will jump to $99.99 sometime thereafter).
Routing is quick, even when plotting four simultaneous courses.
(Credit: Screenshot by Antuan Goodwin/CNET)The Magellan RoadMate for iPhone inherits many of the features that we liked when we tested the RoadMate 1470 standalone navigation device, such as the OneTouch user menu--a customizable shortcut menu that allows users to store frequently accessed addresses, POIs, and searches--and the ability to calculate and compare multiple routing options simultaneously. The RoadMate app also uses the same Navteq maps as the standalone unit. Maps and POIs are stored locally so you can keep navigating even without a data connection.
Other positive features that stand out are spoken text-to-speech street names, an oversize on-screen keyboard that's easier to use at an arm's length than the iPhone's default keyboard, native access to the iPhone's contacts list, and graphic lane guidance with digital highway street signs. In-app music control with playlist creation isn't critical to getting from point A to point B, but it's nice to have. 3D building data for major cities may be nice for users who navigate visually, but I think it's more of an eye candy thing than a truly useful feature.
Once you get where you're going, the RoadMate app automatically remembers the location of your car so you can find your way back and can switch to a Pedestrian mode for further navigation on foot.
I got my hands on an advanced copy of the Magellan RoadMate for iPhone app for evaluation and found, for the most part, that it worked as advertised. The app booted quickly and responded snappily to my inputs when tested on an Apple iPhone 3GS. A positive side effect of locally stored maps and POIs is that searching and routing with the RoadMate app is lightning fast, even when calculating four simultaneous routing options.
... Read More
Merck has released a new medical book and its companion iPhone app, The Merck Manual--Home Edition, a reference manual that includes timely health topics such as H1N1.
(Credit: Merck & Co.)The Merck Manual, a New York Times best seller that has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide, is one of those medical tomes you don't typically find in a layperson's home library. It's big, heavy, not terribly exciting, and like most physicians' desk references, not the cheapest book around.
Not to be outdone by the competition, Merck & Co. released a new edition Thursday, called The Merck Manual Home Health Handbook (3rd edition). Because the book is still big, heavy, not terribly exciting, and not terribly cheap, Merck has released its contents as an iPhone app as well (home edition: $9.99; professional edition: $29.99), thereby solving its problems of size, weight, cost, and yes, even excitement, as the app has way more going on than its old-fashioned counterpart.
... Read More
(Credit:
Crave UK)
A Digg application for the iPhone is in the works, two years after Apple announced its own version. Kevin Rose, co-founder of the popular social-bookmarking and Web aggregation site, was spotted playing with the app in London.
Rose was attending the Future of Web Apps conference, where he hung out with our own Nate Lanxon and Natali Del Conte. Arnt Eriksen and Thomas Moen of Norwegian videocast Sofaprat clocked Rose playing with a trial version of the app on his iPhone.
Rose was unforthcoming about the functionality of the app, chuckling, "You're not even supposed to know about that." A quick way of submitting links to Digg would be useful, but we wonder how you'd move from the Safari browser to the Digg app, as Apple locks out apps from running in the background. It seems likely the app will have a built-in mini-browser, allowing you to view submitted content, then vote stories up or down, known as digging or burying.
A Digg iPhone app was announced in Apple's app news in 2007. This mobile version of the site includes iPhone scrolling, mini-permalink pages with the top five comments, and digging ability. Rose claimed then that the mobile site was coded in 48 hours, so who knows what kind of features they could have come up with in two years?
(Source: Crave UK)
(Credit:
VW/Fish Labs)
Volkswagen and Fish Labs have partnered to create yet another iPhone/iPod Touch advertisement, err, game. This time around, VW is giving you the opportunity to pull the Scirocco R out of your pocket and take it for a spin around the Nurburgring.
The game's title is a bit misleading. You don't actually get to complete a full 24-hour endurance race, which I'm sure would be impossible with the handheld's battery life. Rather, the game drops you in at last leg of the race in 11th place with 23 hours and 50 minutes already on the clock--just enough time for two more hot laps. I'm guessing VW Scirocco 10-minute Challenge was just too stupid of a name, necessitating this gimmick.
There's also a Time Trial mode, as well as a multiplayer option. Of course, the app includes the requisite links to order brochures and find your local VW dealer--which, if you live in the United States, will definitely not have the Euro-market only Scirocco in stock.
While we don't get the Scirocco R in the U.S., we may get the Golf R20, which is mechanically identical.
(Credit: VW/Fish Labs)The gameplay itself is about what you'd expect from a marketing piece. There's only one vehicle to choose from (the titular 265 horsepower VW Scirocco R) in four colors and there's only one track. Users are given the option of steering with the iPhone's accelerometer or by touching onscreen directional arrows. Likewise, the game features onscreen gas and brake pedals that are tapped with the thumbs.
As a Nurburgring veteran (in Gran Turismo 4 for PS2), it's fairly obvious that the track in VW's 24H Challenge is more of an homage to the Green Hell, as it is far from accurate. Famous turns such as the Carousel are missing and the final straight past Nurburg Castle isn't nearly long enough. So, don't go thinking that your 4:25.604 lap time means that the Scirocco R is a Porsche-slayer. It's only a game.
The steering is sluggish and unresponsive and the accelerometer doesn't ever seem to level out for the straights. Every time you touch the brakes, the Scirocco lays down thick skid marks--which is an odd design choice, because I'm sure the real-life 'Rocco is equipped with ABS.
At the end of the day, I'm willing to forgive VW Scirocco 24H Challenge of all of these gripes because it's free and available now in the Apple iTunes Store.
Like products in the real world, iPhone apps often go on sale. But those deals are hard to find and usually don't last long.
Free iPhone app PandoraBox can help you track down the latest and greatest sales on iPhone software.
On the surface, PandoraBox is similar to the App Store. You can search for software by name or browse by selecting among categories. The New Apps section points you to the latest software, while the What's Hot and Wish List sections display cool and popular apps. You can keep tabs on an app by adding it to a Favorites menu. PandoraBox also provides most of the standard details about an app. You'll see the full description, screenshots, ratings, and stats. If you want to read the user reviews or download a program, PandoraBox will lead you straight to the App Store itself.
(Credit:
AppZap)
The real secret inside PandoraBox is its virtual sales bin. The On Sale section in PandoraBox uncovers all apps that have dropped in price or are now free. Updated several times a day, the On Sale page shows you the original price crossed out and the new sale price. You can even switch the list between paid and free apps as you browse the sales bin.
I've found a lot of great apps on sale through PandoraBox, both free and low cost. I just picked up one app called Battery Magic for free (normally 99 cents) to keep tabs on my battery power, and another one called iProRecorder Premier for $2.99 (normally $4.99) to record high-quality audio.
Compatible with both the iPhone and iPod Touch, PandoraBox was developed by a small German company called AppZap. Led by IT consultant Dmitriy Glebenok, the AppZap team is composed of young developers who have designed other iPhone apps.
Released in March, PandoraBox has captured around 70,000 downloads. The AppZap team has already updated the program since its debut and promises more changes in the near future.
Mini Road Assist is free for Mini owners under warranty.
(Credit: Mini USA/Allstate Roadside Service)Mini USA announced today that it has developed, in partnership with Allstate Roadside Services, the first official roadside assistance app, dubbed Mini Road Assist for iPhone and Blackberry.
So the next time, you need a jump start, a flat tire changed, or an extra gallon of gasoline to get your Cooper home, you can just tap an icon on your iPhone or Blackberry and your personal info, the nature of assistance needed, and your current GPS location will automatically be beamed to Allstate Roadside Services' HQ and help will be dispatched, provided that you have a cellular data connection.
After downloading the app, Mini owners will supply their VIN, name, address, and other details to confirm ownership of a Mini vehicle. The system taps into the free roadside assistance that is available to all North American Mini owners as long as the vehicle remains under warranty. Mini owners who fall outside of the warranty safety circle due to expiration can still download the free app and use the roadside assistance for a fee set by the service provider.
Mini Roadside Assist is free to Mini owners and can be downloaded from Allstate Roadside Services.
Check out the video after the jump, which details the ins-and-outs of the app in greater detail.
... Read MoreWhen friends and family ask me to show them a useful application on the iPhone or iPod Touch, I have no trouble pulling up four or five that convince them it's a solid platform. "A Virus Protection Mask" is not one of those apps. This 99 cent gem (which usually costs $2.99) simulates a protective face mask...for your phone.
There are a dozen mask colors to pick from, all of which sport the same design, and do not actually protect you or your phone from anything. Especially a "you paid for that?"
(Credit:
Apple/CNET)
Related:
10 absurd new iPhone apps
10 (more) absurd iPhone apps
I'm a heavy e-mailer on my iPhone, and one of the things that really bugs me about the built-in mail client is that it falls just short of being ready for business use. For instance, it lacks the option to flag messages, have different signatures for different accounts, or simply turn on and off an out-of-office auto-responder. But what really irks me on a daily basis is the search tool that got added in OS 3.0. Don't get me wrong, this was a really important thing to add--but there's a big problem with it: it's limited to the subject line and who the sender or recipient was.
That level of search is certainly a good start, but it doesn't compare to newly-released app ReMail (download), which can index an entire e-mail account and do full-text search within all your messages. You want to find a word or phrase in an e-mail body? It can do that, and it's fast. Better yet, it doubles as its own e-mail app, so you can open up and read messages; copy parts to stick in new messages; or forward, reply, and delete--all without leaving the interface.
ReMail searches inside of mail messages. Here it's picking out the word "nice" from a handful of messages, including different ones from the same thread.
(Credit: CNET)Of course having the same account in both ReMail and the mail app means that it takes some extra storage on your phone, but what's surprising is how little it uses. A 140MB Gmail in-box I sucked in for my test account squeezed down to just 25MB. It works like that for one main reason--the app doesn't download attachments until you open them. Though the nice thing is that after it's been opened, it stays cached on the device so you can open it again.
Former Gmail engineer Gabor Cselle, who makes the app, is pushing ReMail as a tool for commuters. One thing that makes ReMail especially well-suited for that is that you can access your entire in-box--even offline. That's compared to the iPhone's built-in Mail app, which has to hit the servers to continue a search if what you're looking for falls outside of what it has recently saved on the device. This can also be a boon when traveling internationally, since you can access and search your account without being connected to, or having to sync up with any servers.
As fantastic as the app is, there are a few annoying bits that will keep it from fully replacing the Mail app, including the fact that it's currently limited to one account at a time. You can go in and switch it with another account, but then your old index gets deleted. Another pain point is that it doesn't work with Microsoft Exchange, just Gmail and IMAP. That's fine for casual users, but business users won't be able to get all that full-text search goodness on their work accounts, which for me, would have been one of the big draws. Cselle told me that Exchange and other account types, like POP, would be added later down the line, but for now he just wanted to get it out there.
Other small annoyances include no landscape view, and a slider you have to toggle every time you want to copy text from a message. I didn't mind this at first, but it's a real drag when you realize you want to copy something halfway down a message and have to go all the way back up to the top to turn that mode on.
For $4.99, this is a very, very solid way to search through e-mail. Though like many other innovative applications that have come along to try to improve on what Apple's done, it runs the risk of being made obsolete by the very product it's trying to fix. I wouldn't put it past Apple to have full-text e-mail search as part of its next major OS update--if not sooner, considering it's already such a big part of its desktop application counterpart. Though if you're willing to invest in this app in the meantime, you'll never have to trudge through e-mails again.
The good:
• Fast, highly-customizable search
• Autocompletion of search terms
• Saved search terms
• Built-in e-mail functions that let you create news messages right inside the app
• Local cache of data for offline reading
The bad:
• Limited support for e-mail services
• Possible obsolescence by an Apple software update
• No landscape view
• Copy and paste toggle is clunky
• Can take a very long time to do the first in-box download, and you have to leave the app running while it's happening
• App can crash when doing long downloads or when opening up attachments
MLB is now streaming all games via At Bat app to MLB.tv subscribers.
(Credit: MLBAM)Major League Baseball took another step in proving its technical superiority over the other three major sports leagues Wednesday, by connecting its wired MLB.tv subscription package with its At Bat iPhone application.
Beginning Wednesday, MLB will stream every single regular and postseason baseball game to fans via the $9.99 iPhone and iPod Touch application it initially released last year. Customers who already subscribe to MLB.tv and MLB.tv Premium packages--its online baseball viewing service--can now watch any game live from their phone or computer. The games will be streamed over the iPhone or iPod's Wi-Fi connection or 3G network. Games can be paused and rewound while playing.
Just after the iPhone OS 3.0 update was released in June, MLB added the feature that any purchasers of the At Bat app would get one free streamed game per week chosen by MLB, no MLB.tv subscription required. It took a little over a month to add the MLB.tv package, which streams 15 live games at a time.
The same rules of MLB.tv still apply however: if a game is blacked out in a local broadcast area, it won't be available to be streamed live, though the game will appear in the video archives at the conclusion of the game.
The most curious part of all this, however, has nothing to do with MLB, but AT&T. MLB is streaming 15 three-hour baseball games live every single day of the week, which is great for fans of the game, and AT&T is apparently cheering for it, too. So why is the carrier OK with this, but has restricted Sling's SlingPlayer Mobile application to Wi-Fi only?
SlingPlayer was not approved for the App Store with 3G streaming capability because streaming live broadcast TV over its 3G wireless network "violated the company's terms of use." MLB At Bat is now doing the same thing, but with AT&T's approval.
