Monthly Archives: August 2010
Researchers create pixels eight times smaller than the Retina Display
You might be pretty proud of your iPhone 4′s Retina Display, and those teensy pixels 4x smaller than the already good-looking usual Apple displays. Or maybe you’re looking forward to seeing the Retina installed in some of Apple’s other products at the event later this week. But like most consumer electronics these days, that display isn’t quite state-of-the-art. Researchers at the University of Michigan have created a display with nanometer-thin sheets of metal (called nanoresonators) that use slits to create pixels eight times smaller than the pixels currently on the iPhone 4. To show off their work, the University of Michigan researchers created their school’s logo on a display only 9 microns tall (a strand of human hair is about 100 microns wide, so the display itself could fit inside the period at the end of this sentence).
Crazy. You have to wonder what an iPhone-sized display would look like with a resolution like that (or if we’d even tell the difference, given that our eyes have a limit on the amount of detail they can discern). Obviously, this is strictly a research project at this point — creating all of the “nanoresonators” required to make a fullsize display would probably cost a lot more than the iPhone 4 actually does. Maybe it’s something to look forward to for the iPhone 5, 6 or 7.
China Unicom offering in-store jailbreaking
Chinese customers who want a jailbroken iPhone but lack the nerve or time to do it now have a reliable option, as distributor China Unicom (CU) is offering jailbreaking as a service in their retail stores.
Chinese language site WeiPhone notes (here’s the English translation) that customers can have their iPhones jailbroken by the store’s staff, who will also trim SIM cards to fit the iPhone 4′s micro-SIM tray. Additionally, some are even advertising that they’ll install apps for their customers after the jailbreak is complete.
Note that the iPhone 4 is not yet officially available for sale in China, so we assume that CU staff are jailbreaking older models.
The App Store: 250,000 apps and growing
Apple set another milestone over the weekend when it reached 250,000 apps available in the App Store. Last Saturday, 148Apps recorded 252,227 apps currently available for the iPad and iPhone/iPod touch. Expect Steve Jobs to tout these numbers on Wednesday at the beginning of Apple’s scheduled press event.
As Electronista reports, Apple still has the numbers when it comes to mobile app stores. Unofficial statistics suggests that there are over 100,000 apps available in the Android Store, and far fewer — around 9,000 — in RIM’s BlackBerry App World.
148Apps also provided some additional little tidbits about the App Store. For instance, apps typically wait a week before going live. The average price of a paid app is US$2.67. The majority of apps are book apps (not to be confused with iBooks), followed closely by games.
Show Time may be the mother of all alarm clock apps
There’s no shortage of apps to wake you up in the morning. Show Time may be the most extensive, and it has a wicked sense of humor as well.
The app handles multiple alarms and has 25 ambient noise selections to put you to sleep, or you can choose something from your iTunes collection. There are 58 versions of clock faces, all in horizontal or vertical layouts. The alarm clock goes off even if your phone is set to silent, and you can shake the clock to change the color of the display or to snooze the alarm.
Some of the sound choices are a bit weird, like a dishwasher, a hair dryer, or a prison(!). One weak point is that you can’t easily preview the sounds before you choose them. Other than that, I like Show Time. It’s US$0.99 on the App Store. If you want to give it a test drive, there is a lite version, but the selection of sounds is limited, and there aren’t nearly as many clock styles.There isn’t an iPad version, but there should be. Check out the gallery for a peek under the hood.
TUAW’s Daily App: No, Human
No, Human is an intriguing little morsel of gameplay for both the iPhone and the iPad. The clever premise is that humans are planning to go out and explore the Universe, and the Universe, in turn, has decided that’s not a good idea. So, you’re actually playing against humans (who are lobbing fiery meteors out into space) and human-created objects like space stations and rockets.
The gameplay is simple but fun, and the graphics are minimalistic but quite stylish. There are 50 levels to go through, and while they’re pretty quick plays, there is a high score board element. The developer also promises that there are more levels on the way. (Knowing humans as I do, I’m guessing that they won’t get the lesson.) All in all, No, Human is an inventive title that’s worth the US$1.99 on the App Store. It’s not really innovative in any specific way, but as a whole package, it’s a pleasure to play through and figure out.