Is the New C63 AMG iPhone app even worth downloading?
(Credit: Antuan Goodwin/CBS Interactive)Mercedes-Benz AMG is the next automaker to join the battle for customers' attention in the Apple iTunes App Store. Except while the other automakers have built apps that actually do something aside from advertise cars (for example, Audi's game and Ford's photo editor), Mercedes-Benz's app does nothing more than showcase the C63 AMG.
The main menu of the application features four options: Video, Photos, Sounds, Specs, and Find a Dealer.
Disappointingly, the Videos section is essentially a list of four videos that stream from Mercedes' Web site. Sorry, iPod Touch owners, this means that you'll have to be connected to Wi-Fi to view the videos. It may be a good idea for iPhone 3G users to be connected to Wi-Fi, considering how sluggishly the videos loaded. Once you've gotten past the slow load times, you'll be treated to C63 AMG promo videos, one of which is a commercial that can be seen on TV.
The Photos, Sounds, and Specs sections can all be accessed offline, fortunately. The Photos section lets you view a gallery of eight photos of the C63 from various angles. It would be nice if there were a function that let you use one of the photos as a wallpaper, but there isn't. All you can do is look at them. The Sounds section lets you listen to audio clips of the C63, but you can do that by listening to the Car Tech Podcast (shameless plug). The Specs button takes you to--you guessed it--specs for the C63 sedan. Finally, the Find a Dealer button launches a Google Map marked with Mercedes-Benz dealerships (incidentally, there are 10 dealerships in the San Francisco Bay Area).
The Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG app is only really good for about half an hour of fun, including the time spent waiting for the videos to stream. I'm a big fan of the C63 AMG and even I don't think this app is worth the download. It's almost a shame that such a boring app shares the name of such a fantastic ride.
If you're one of the many waiting for Apple to get its act together and offer a copy/paste feature on the iPhone, there's a promising development called MagicPad from software creator Proximi. It's an application similar to the notes tool that ships with the iPhone. The big difference is that it's got support for multiple fonts; rich text elements like underlining, italics, and strikethroughs; and the much-wanted copy/paste.
It manages to do all this by adding a small toolbar over the iPhone's onscreen keyboard. Using the small loop magnifier you can highlight strings of text, then copy them into a virtual clipboard. From there it can be pasted into other notes, then sent off. Unfortunately you can't carry the clipboard to other applications, which is what most people are hoping Apple will provide.
Posted after the break is a video of the yet-to-be-released application in action, which was made by AppleiPhoneNotes.com. One thing that might keep MagicPad from making it onto the device is if it does not meet Apple's stringent human interface guidelines, which protect things like the keyboard configuration to keep the end user from getting confused.
(Via Macrumors)
Write notes, and use rich text elements including copy and paste, with MagicPad.
(Credit: Proximi)... Read more
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