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CNET)
With more than 100,000 apps in the iTunes App Store and huge success around the world with the iPhone, it would appear Apple has done just about everything right with the launch of its first mobile handset. But as any iPhone app developers will tell you, the app approval process is less than ideal, with some developers waiting well beyond Apple's 14-day waiting period and sometimes longer to get their apps approved. Though Apple has stated it is working on the app approval process, there has been little in the way of progress if you ask iPhone app developers.
Recently, Apple added an automated system for weeding out developers who use Apple's private APIs, a process that may be part of a larger plan to cut down on some of the wait time. Unfortunately, developers are still struggling to get their apps to the iTunes store, finding out at the end of the 14-day waiting period that it was the automated system that turned them down. Hopefully, as more time passes, Apple will be able to figure out a way to make the process more efficient while still being able to provide high-quality and secure apps for everyone. Happy iPhone app developers mean more and better apps, so it's in all of our best interests for Apple to make the process better.
This week's apps include a new (to iPhone) multiservice chat client and a stunt-racing game with beautiful 3D graphics.
Use the tabs at the top to switch conversations
(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)Trillian ($4.99) is a popular multiservice chat client on Windows machines that you can now use on your iPhone. Multiservice chat clients are ideal for those who have accounts across several services like Yahoo, Google, ICQ/AIM, and MSN, and want to use just one client to access them all. The interface is fairly intuitive, letting you add your user names and passwords for each service, and then letting you log on to all or specific services with only a few taps on your touch screen. Trillian does not support landscape mode for typing yet, but the developers say it is coming soon.
Once you're logged in, the Trillian interface looks a lot like it does in the Windows client, complete with your buddies' avatars, contact categories (friends, coworkers, etc.), and color-coded icons to indicate which service your friends are using. The way Trillian handles multiple chat sessions on the iPhone client is excellent, with a touch-scrollable tabbed interface, making it easy to switch conversations quickly. Also especially useful (and clever) is the push notification system, that sends you the first message of a chain so you know someone is trying to reach you, but doesn't send a huge list of messages when you don't want them. At this time, you can only stay logged-in (with the app suspended) for a maximum of 24 hours, but the folks at Trillian say it will be lengthened to seven days in future updates. Though the price is a little steep in my opinion, Trillian is a high-quality chat client that will appeal to those who use multiple services.
The screenshot doesn't do it justice, but this game looks and plays great
(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)Jet Car Stunts is a stunt-racing game that runs surprisingly smoothly on first gen iPhones on up to the 3GS. Beyond the beautiful graphics, the driving control system is excellent, using the accelerometer for steering and onscreen controls for gas and brakes. What makes the game unique from other racing games are the controls for your rocket boost to complete big jumps, and the braking system that works both on the ground and in the air.
You can choose from two different game types including Time Trial and Platforming. In Time Trial, you race five laps around a track with corkscrew twists, tight turns, and huge jumps, to qualify for bronze-, silver-, or gold-medal times. Platforming has no time limit, but instead records the number of tries it takes you to complete difficult tracks--and they get very difficult in both game types. Time Trial has three skill levels, with four tracks to complete in each to move on the next skill level. Platforming has five difficulty levels, with five tracks in each to pass before moving on. Overall, Jet Car Stunts is one of the more unique racing games and features excellent graphics, extremely smooth controls, and plenty of replay value, with increasingly challenging tracks. I've had the game for a week and I still can't get over both how good it looks and how smooth it plays.
What's your favorite iPhone app? Were you waiting for a big-name multiservice chat client like Trillian before spending your money? Is Jet Car Stunts hard or am I just not good enough? Let me know in the comments!
The Twitter service with the cutesy raccoon mascot is making a new home on BlackBerry and Google Android phones. The free Seesmic, like its proliferate rivals, lets you read, manage, and compose Twitter messages much more flexibly than you can do from Twitter's Web site. We crash-tested both mobile versions as soon as we heard the news.
Seesmic on Android
Seesmic 1.0 for Android is available from the Android Market app, which is located on the smartphone. It takes up just over 1MB. The interface spreads four tabs along the top in both landscape and portrait mode, one each for the timeline, replies, direct messages, and your profile. There's also a ribbon on the screen that you can tap to refresh the feed. Click to open a tweet and you can save it as a favorite, retweet, or reply as a public "@" message or as a private posting. From the menu button, you can refresh, compose, or tinker with the settings.
Although Seesmic's Android interface is much more stripped down than its desktop AIR app for Windows and Mac, the app manages to remain flexible by giving you a choice over the kinds of notifications you'd like to receive, and over the partner services you'd prefer to use to send a photo, video, or shorten a URL.
Sure, it's blurry (blaming the BlackBerry camera), but squint hard enough and you'll see that Seesmic associated a picture with my account that's not actually my face.
(Credit: Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)The biggest flaws we've noticed so far? ... Read more
Trillian IM is finally available to iPhone users.
(Credit: Trillian)It took a few months, but finally, Trillian IM is available to iPhone and iPod Touch users through Apple's App Store. The application costs $4.99.
Cerulean Studios, the company that created Trillian, said that Trillian for iPhone sports several features users will already find on the company's desktop software. The app displays contacts, grouped and sorted by their respective categories. Users can also view multiple chat windows in a tabbed display. Thanks to updates Apple has made to the iPhone and iPod Touch, Trillian for iPhone also supports copy and paste. As with Trillian for the desktop, users can set their status, choose an avatar, and set up different status messages.
Because the app is always connected to Cerulean Studios' Astra server, users can synchronize content across multiple IM clients. In other words, any changes made on the iPhone version of the app will immediately be reflected on the company's Windows client and the user's Astra profile. Any contacts users add will also be synchronized with their other clients.
According to Cerulean Studios, all chats are maintained on the server, so they are kept in case of a lost connection. The app will also alert users when they receive an instant message, regardless of whether Trillian for iPhone is open or not. When an IM is received, users will see a dialog box, hear the Trillian IM-notification sound, and be able to start Trillian and reply to the person.
Those interested in using Trillian for iPhone will first need a Trillian Astra account. Luckily, the iPhone app allows users to sign up for Astra from within the app.
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
The Microsoft Office 2010 beta was released Wednesday, and though there aren't many major changes from the Technical Preview from July, there are some new features and enhancements worthy of note. This post will focus on the changes to the beta, but if you want a larger overview of new features across all the applications, check out our rundown of the Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview.
Outlook is the cornerstone of many companies' communications and daily schedules, and as such received a lot of enhancements in Office 2010. In the beta version, Microsoft has added even more ways to connect with coworkers and contacts. The new Outlook Social Connector is an added information pane that gives you more info about everyday contacts. Once set up, you'll be able to view pictures of contacts (even in large cc lists), previous conversations, attachments shared, meetings attended, and much more. Though not complete in the beta, Microsoft says the Outlook Social Connector will soon be able to connect with social Web sites like Facebook and Twitter, so you can follow status updates and more all in one location.
The Office 2010 Technical Preview introduced the Back Stage view, an enhanced File menu (accessed from the Office Icon tab) that lets you manage your documents, set permissions, and share your projects with colleagues. In the beta version Microsoft has decided to return to calling it the File menu, but with all the functionality and flexibility of Back Stage. They also have made it possible to access all the other tabs in the Ribbon, which were previously inaccessible in the Technical Preview, so you can get to the information you want quickly without the added step of exiting Back Stage.
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Visual thumbnails for tabs are all new in Opera Mobie 10 beta.
(Credit: Opera Software)Opera impressed us a few months ago with its beta release of a restyled Mini browser for Java phones. Early in November, they did it again with a standalone mobile browser for Symbian Series 60 handsets that adheres to Opera Mini 5 beta's glossy master design. And on Wednesday, Opera repeats what it hopes to be mobile magic with Opera Mobile 10 beta for Windows phones.
The free Opera Mobile 10 beta starts off with a customizable Speed Dial screen, composed of nine preview thumbnails that whisk you off to a favorite site. Browser tabs receive a new treatment that echoes those thumbnail previews, and other features like the Password Manager get a few behind-the-scenes adjustments.
As with the recent betas for Java and Symbian phones, Opera Mobile 10 beta lacks some features for Windows phones that Opera expects to restore by the time it approves the app for general consumption. Opera Link, its bookmark- and favorite-syncing service, is among the laggers.
Our First Look video of Opera Mobile 10 beta (below) sees the browser tested on a Symbian phone, but it will look and work almost identically on Windows phones. Press "play" to get a good idea of what's in store, including those known bugs.
Note: Since our video, Opera has released an update for Symbian phones that can now handle font for several Asian languages.
Windows Mobile owners can download the mobile browser beta free by navigating to m.opera.com/mobile/ from the phone or www.opera.com/mobile from the desktop. Opera Mobile 10 beta will replace the Opera Mobile 9.7 beta that has previously been available for Windows Mobile phones.
Windows users: how do you like Opera's reworking of the browser? Let us know in the comments.
Yahoo will pull support for Go on January 12, 2010.
On Wednesday, Yahoo will tell some mobile phone owners that it's pulling the plug on the mobile app called Yahoo Go (video). Yahoo Go was Yahoo's all-in-one native app of Yahoo services for Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, and Symbian phones, since January 2006. It gathers together Yahoo's services around a rotating carousel motif, the application's start page.
Yahoo Go, which first emerged at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2006, was full of content--but information was buried and the app wasn't intuitive to customize. Yahoo pretty much halted work after January 2008 with Yahoo Go 3.0 beta, and began concentrating more on its Web portal. Yahoo's mobile-optimized Web site, m.yahoo.com, contains Yahoo Go's core features, like search, weather lookups, and RSS feeds for information like headline news and stocks. Yahoo's revamped mobile site also lets you check e-mail, send IMs, and track status updates on social networks.
Killing Yahoo Go is in line with Yahoo's mobile strategy, says Yahoo's global head of mobile product marketing, Adam Taggart. "In the past 18 months, browser quality has been increasing at an accelerated rate. We've doubled down on our mobile Web strategy."
While Yahoo pours resources into streamlining its mobile Web presence, it also continues to release Yahoo Mobile applications for some mobile platforms, like the iPhone. On top of Yahoo Mobile are more focused standalone applications. iPhone owners interested in stocks can download the Yahoo Finance app, for example. Sports enthusiasts have Yahoo Fantasy Football.
Support for Yahoo Go officially stops on January 12. On Wednesday, active users will see an e-mail or an update notice pushed onto the app itself that will inform them of the shut-down, and urge them to start using m.yahoo.com instead. Visiting the mobile site from some phone models will prompt a download for a compatible native app. Yahoo Mobile still isn't perfect, and it can also suffer from information overload. However, active Yahoo Go users will find that their content is intact, albeit somewhat rearranged.
This is a map I saved online from my desktop.
(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)Google Earth made a splash when it spun onto the iPhone last October, giving users the capability to explore the virtual globe for free from virtually anywhere with an Internet connection. But without some practical mapping features, like turn-by-turn navigation and street maps, Google Earth was largely a discovery tool that didn't have much real-world impact.
This week, Google Earth 2.0 for iPhone gets more useful by pulling those Google maps you saved in the My Maps section of the Google Maps Web site into the app's mobile orbit. In Google Earth, you'll tap the settings icon (the "i") and sign in to your Google Account. Just below the login field, there's any entry for My Maps. Tap it to view your saved maps, and tap again to select the map you'd like to zoom to. While you can view a saved location or route in Google Earth, the app doesn't replace Google Map's directions-dispending feature.
Google Earth for iPhone still spins its digital globe each time you switch locations, so if your maps are halfway around the world, expect a delay. It's also still slow to load each time, and the 2.0 model only makes the app larger, growing about 3MB in size since the first edition. But it has also gained other subtle features in version 2.0, including support for thirteen additional languages (listed below) and icons that glow as confirmation that you've tapped them.
Google Earth 2.0 for iPhone is available in 31 languages and dialects: English (U.S), English (UK), French (France), German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Arabic, Thai, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malaysian, Romanian, Slovak, and Croatian.
Download: Google Earth for Windows|Mac.
When Microsoft launched its mobile app store last month, Windows Marketplace for Mobile was only available for Windows phones running operating system 6.5. Although highly anticipated among users, the execution of the app store nevertheless put Microsoft on wobbly competitive footing. Here was Microsoft, a year and a half behind Apple on producing an app store, and the company had already dropped a boulder on its big toe by limiting the storefront to its brand-new operating system, which a bulk of its users didn't have.
Thankfully, Redmond seems to have recovered, and on Monday, Microsoft opened up its Marketplace app to more Windows phones. If yours runs version 6.0 or 6.1 of the operating system, you can now download the free Marketplace application by sending yourself a link from Microsoft's Web site.
Microsoft boasts approving more than 800 applications for Windows Marketplace for Mobile as of November 16, a little over a month after launching the digital storefront. But the figure pales in comparison to Apple's announcement of its 100,000 app milestone just two weeks before. Microsoft's has some serious work to do if it wants to attract more developers and attempt to reach Apple's benchmark. Making the Marketplace available to more users is a necessary first step.
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Like I've mentioned here several times before, I'm one of the people who is still using the iPhone 3G. Like many, I'm waiting for my two-year contract to be up so I can get whatever the next-gen iPhone is. It doesn't bother me too much (aside from a few app features that require 3GS), but I do long for the faster processing power and extra features found in the latest iPhone. Especially when it comes to (surprise!) games.
To give you an idea of the difference between the two iPhone processors and how they effect game performance, fellow CNET editor, Josh Lowensohn, put the two iPhone models to the test. In Josh's article, he offers up several side-by-side comparisons of many of the top iPhone games with analysis. If you're an iPhone-gaming fan or just want to see how the processing power matches up between the two models, check out his article.
This week's apps are both games, with the first complete basketball game for the iPhone and a fun sequel to one of the more unique games in the iTunes App Store.
I hope Ellis doesn't pass it to the guy with the green square around him
(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)NBA Live ($9.99) is the first fully licensed and complete basketball game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. You can play as any of the 30 NBA teams featuring the actual players and stats. You can play a quick exhibition game, play through an entire season, or just play through the playoffs up to the NBA Championship. The control system includes an onscreen joystick for movement and two buttons that take care of most basketball action (shooting, passing, etc.), but with a clever system for pulling off more advanced moves. The graphics are not on par with what you'll find in the current basketball games on consoles, but for an iPhone game, it looks fairly good and plays well enough to satisfy basketball game fans.
NBA Live packs a lot of features into the game using only a couple of buttons. Advanced moves like cross-over dribbles and hardcore dunks require you touch a button then flick in a direction. Holding down on the pass button brings up icons you can touch to pass to specific players. If you want to go deeper than just running and gunning, you can touch the clipboard icon to call a play and set up an open man for an easy shot. While I'm happy with NBA Live as an iPhone basketball game, I may be spoiled by the smooth experience on console versions. The graphics are pretty good, but not great and the movement can be a bit jerky. Overall, I think it's a pretty good basketball game, but it might be worth waiting a little while to see if it goes on sale. Hardcore fans should get this game.
The simple, hand-drawn graphics are part of what makes this game charming.
(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)JellyCar 2 is the sequel to the unique squishy driving-puzzle game, JellyCar. JellyCar 2 expands on the hand-drawn, cartoon puzzle game with several more levels, new game types, and the capability to customize your car and create your own levels. The controls involve touching the screen on either side to go forward and backward and you can tilt your iPhone to right your car when it flips over. Play the game in the Classic Mode to navigate your car through a level to the goal in the least amount of time. You have three skill levels in classic mode with a number of tracks for each level. Long Jump mode lets you drive down a long ramp and use obstacles in the level to project your car the longest distance. The third mode adds a new game entirely, requiring you to direct Tetris-like puzzle pieces to their associated bins--strange sounding, but it's pretty fun with the JellyCar physics in play. Adding to your options for solving puzzles, you can touch the car to "go big" like the original JellyCar. You also get two extra skills you can grab while driving: a balloon that lets you take to the air and one that makes your wheels sticky--each of which you will use at different times to pass levels.
JellyCar 2 also adds a few other features to play with and will amount to a lot of replay value. You can customize your vehicle and wheels with different colors, but you can also choose different vehicles, each with their own physical properties to change how you attack various levels. A new editing mode even lets you create and save your own levels from the ground up. Overall, I think JellyCar 2 is in a class by itself, with a fun, stylistic feel to the game and plenty of challenging levels that are very enjoyable to play.
What's your favorite iPhone app? Do you think NBA Live is worth the price to play? Is JellyCar 2 a worthy sequel to JellyCar? Let me know in the comments!
Google has a new VOIP client to help improve Google Voice.
(Credit: Gizmo5)Google confirmed its intention to acquire Gizmo5, an Internet telephony company, with plans to merge the group into the Google Voice team.
The pending acquisition had been reported earlier in the week by Techcrunch but was overshadowed by the announcement of Google's third-largest acquisition to date--the $750 million AdMob deal--on the same day. Late Thursday Google confirmed that it had acquired the company, although financial terms of this deal were not disclosed.
Gizmo5 is a Web-based VoIP client that lets you make phone calls over the Internet, similar to programs like Skype. It's based, however, on an open standard called SIP that fits a little better into Google's worldview, rather than Skype's internally-developed system.
Gizmo5 works on both PCs and mobile phones, and the technology will likely be used in some way to enhance Google Voice. Google Voice isn't a VoIP client; it lets you use a single number to ring multiple phones and get voice mails transcribed into e-mail, but it does that over existing phone networks.
As Google figures out exactly what it wants to do with Gizmo5, it is suspending new sign-ups for the service, but current users will still be able use it.
