Monthly Archives: November 2008
Apple introduces iPhone3G Gift Card
With a little more than 24 hours before the official start of the 2008 holiday shopping season, Apple has made a new offer to shoppers. The iPhone 3G Gift Card provides its lucky recipient with an activated iPhone that has been tricked out with email and personalized ring tones. Plus, an Apple Store Specialist will help the new owner customize his or her home screen, pick some great apps and find their favorite songs.
You can purchase the card in any amount starting at $25US toward the cost of a new iPhone. They may be redeemed at any Apple Store in the US. Apple also notes that the iPhone 3G Gift Card can also be used for all things Mac and iPod at the Apple Online Store or any Apple Retail Store. Sweet!
[Via Steve Rubel]Apple introduces iPhone3G Gift Card originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Woz Talks about iPhone, iPhone Hacks & Apple’s Cat and Mouse Game with Hackers
The iPhone Dev team had published a photo of of Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak with a pwned iPhone in September. It had come as no surprise to hear that he advocated iPhone hacking as he had also hacked Emmy award winning actress, Kathy Griffin’s iPhone on TV back in June.
In a must-watch video interview with Spencer Kelly of BBC’s Click Online show he talks about iPhone, iPhone hacks and hackers cat and mouse game with Apple.
When Spencer Kelly asked Woz:
TMMC releases “Slam it!” for iPhone or iPod touch
Frankfurt, Germany – TMMC is proud to announce the immediate availability of “Slam it!” A parlor game for the iPhone or iPod touch. “Slam it!” is a fun way to draw sticks, to have a shoot-out or to find a random winner. The game makes use of the multi-touch interface to recognize game participants and as part of the game idea makes use of the accelerometer to detect players slamming on the desk.
“Having a kids’ birthday and want to find a team captain? Need to determine who’s paying the next round? Who will be the designated driver? Which poor soul in your shared flat will do the dishes? Don’t just agree on it or, god forbid, command it – no, slam it!”, said Sven Schmidt, co-developer of “Slam it!”.
To play “Slam it!”, one player puts his or her iPhone or iPod touch on a table or desk. Participants gather around the device and each player then selects a playing field by placing a finger on the screen. Once every player has lifted his or her finger, a spinner in the middle of the game board will start to rotate and to accelerate. At full speed, players can slam on the desk. The internal accelerometer of the iPhone or iPod touch will detect the vibration and the spinner will decelerate, pointing out a player.
UK watchdog bans ‘really fast’ iPhone TV ads
The BBC reported today that a TV ad for the iPhone has been banned in the UK by the government’s advertising standards watchdog group for being misleading.
The Advertising Standards Authority received 17 complaints about the ad above, which showed web pages, the Maps application, and mail attachments loading in fractions of a second. The group said that the ad “led viewers to believe that the device actually operated at or near the speeds shown,” the BBC story read.
The ASA said after reviewing the complaints, “Because we understood that it did not, we concluded the ad was likely to mislead.”
Google: Yeah, we did use undocumented API. So what?
On last Sunday’s talkcast, we all speculated on the situation behind Google’s voice app using undocumented API calls on the iPhone. Either Google just went and did it themselves, or they got special permission from Apple to dive into places that most developers aren’t really supposed to go. And it turns out that the former is true: Google says to CNET that, yeah, they used undocumented APIs. What are you going to do about it?
They’re not using private frameworks at all, and apparently Apple isn’t even part of the situation — Google’s engineers just jumped on some extra, undocumented features in the API. The danger here for most devs, apparently, is that if Apple changes something in the undocumented stuff, it’ll break the app. But Google seems unconcerned — they have the resources, apparently, to change things if needed.
As for Apple themselves, my guess is they’ll do what they’ve been doing: stay hands-off until a smaller developer breaks something really important. If anyone is going to get special permission to bend the rules, it’ll be Google, and given that Apple’s API agreements are something they can choose to enforce (or not) as they see fit, Google likely has nothing to worry about.Google: Yeah, we did use undocumented API. So what? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.