I’ve been meaning to mention iSaidWhat?! for a while. It’s one of those apps that makes you marvel at what can achieved on your iPhone.

It’s really cleanly designed app from Tapparatus that allows you to record voices. There’s nothing new about voice recording on the iPhone, but iSaidWhat?! adds the ability to re-arrange those recordings to make… something new. You can record, then edit those recording into sections, and move them around into a snippet that’s more interesting (or incriminating!).

Continue Reading

Fed up with your phone? Miffed at your mobile? You’re not alone. But why do we expect our phones to do so much, and is it justified?

I’ve written a post for The Really Mobile Project, and for once, I only mention the iPhone a couple of times!

Read it here: http://thereallymobileproject.com/2010/03/feature-perpetually-dissatisfied-guest-post/

At first glance “1000: Find ‘Em All” from Glu Mobile reminded me of Zelda – A Link To The Past on the SNES – the art and style of the game world is really cute and slick. The world is a traditional 2D pixel art background, whereas the main character is rendered in 3D, which gives him a nice appearance. It also allows a full 360 degree direction of movement.

The controls are very slick. You can either tap a location and your character automatically walks to this point, or you can drag your finger round and control your character’s movement directly. All in all, the actual game engine and controls are a triumph that Glu Mobile can be very proud of. But how does 1000 fare as an actual game?

Continue Reading

Last week, Erik Huggers presented at Mobile World Congress and disclosed that the BBC is developing three iPhone apps: for News, Sport and (potentially) iPlayer. According to the Beeb’s Technology Correspondant, Rory Cellan-Jones, developing these apps has taken a while because of a “complex legal problem“.

Well, despite that and any objections being raised by other media organisations (*cough*), the News and Sport apps are being developed by MobileIQ – here’s their press release about it. There’s no details available about who’s could be developing the iPlayer app – although it has been reported that the Beeb has already shut down development of a non-sanctioned iPlayer app from Camiloo.

I’ve delved through all the BBC’s websites, Tweets, and anything else that I’ve seen posted on the new apps to give you a summary of what’s coming.

Continue Reading

The tech furore has subsided, and we’re left with Apple’s tablet – the iPad. Whether you’re of the opinion that it’s just an oversized iPod touch or something more, it has certainly had a massive impact.

All About iPhone contributor Andy Cook has already given his opinion.

I also asked Steve Litchfield if he was considering getting an iPad. His response:

The iPad itself is not for me, I type in too much text! But I can see it being perfect for other family members, each of whom the has “the full Internet” (minus Flash, of course!) in a single A4 device that doesn’t have trailing wires or get hot or need a pointing device. So yes, put me down for a place in the queue, shortly before the drive to my parents house to get it “installed”.

So it’s not for Steve. But he, like me, can see the appeal for those who want a rich Internet and media experience, without having to worry about all those viruses, software updates, and general management overhead that’s associated with a computer.

Continue Reading

Before the announcement, my mental picture of what Apple’s iPad would be was a big iPod Touch. This did make me wonder why the iPad would be preferable to my Touch. Sure, the bigger screen would be better for viewing videos and playing games but does that alone justify a new product? That said, I assumed Apple would be doing more to the iPad than simply super-sizing an iPod Touch and I looked forward to being surprised.

So, come 6pm (UK time) on the 27th January, I was to be found hunched over my laptop, tea in hand and phone off the hook waiting for the gadget sites to reveal the news live, one line at a time. Never has it been such agony waiting for web pages to auto refresh. The day after, the first thing I did was to watch the video of the whole event which, it has to be said, gave me a rather different impression of the audiences reaction to the one I had from reading the live blogs.

Continue Reading

Back in August of 2009 under the title, ‘Presenting Apple’s new iBook!’ I proposed that Apple’s rumoured tablet computer wasn’t just going to be an oversized iPhone but rather a replacement for paper and ink. Six months on and I’m even more convinced.

The invitation tagline, ‘Come See Our Latest Creation’, the rumour that Steve Jobs believes this to be the most important moment of his life, Tim Cook’s recent admission that their new creation will bring ‘joy and surprise’, all point towards a product that has the potential to change industries.

What can we expect on the 27th?

Continue Reading

One of the most useful functions for a portable device such as the iPhone and Touch is as a way to view or edit office documents while on the move. If there’s a reliable way to do that, many people will feel able to leave their laptops at home when travelling.

It’s surprising then, how few apps cover this function. Microsoft has spent decades and tens of millions designing, developing and testing their office applications and they work on high powered desktop computers. So, any developer wanting to make the equivalent for the iPhone has their work cut out.

Byte Squared has taken up the challenge and has an app allowing you to view, create and edit Word documents called Doc² and another that does the same for Excel files called Sheet². Will they allow you to leave your laptop at the office when out on business?
Continue Reading

All About iPhone contributor and all-around gadget fiend James Burland has his own blog at Nokia Creative. Recently he’s been taking a look at the Nokia N900 – considered by many to be the current uber-smartphone of choice for the connected geek.

His main phone is still Apple’s iPhone 3GS. But could this change?
Continue Reading

This is the inevitable Apple Tablet post. Barring any last-minute explosion in Silicon Valley caused by the white-heat of tech journalist speculation, Apple should reveal their hitherto mythical Tablet device next week.

All the rumours seem to point to it running some form of iPhone operating system, and that iPhone OS 4.0 will be revealed (there’s a really good Gizmodo UI speculation article on this). But what’s really interesting me is how could a Tablet fit into Apple’s existing home setup, where iTunes is the media hub? And what this could mean for the iPhone?

Continue Reading