The Simpsons Arcade is coming soon for iPhone and iPod Touch. What more is there to say?
(Credit: EA Mobile)Remember the Simpsons coin-op arcade game? It's about to get the iPhone treatment.
EA Mobile is soon to release The Simpsons Arcade, which it calls "a throwback to the actual arcade game from the early 90s." How soon? EA swore us to secrecy for some reason, but let's just say you won't have long to wait.
The game casts you as Homer (woo-hoo!), who must race and battle his way through Springfield in his quest for, natch, a donut. (Mmmm...donut.) Oh, and there's something about a devious scheme that needs foiling (D'oh!).
Wait a sec: If this game's a 90s throwback, what's with the Matrix knockoff?
(Credit: EA Mobile)Homer can punch, kick, dodge, belly-flop, and, my favorite, butt-slam his enemies. Along the way he'll earn "Family Frenzy" power-ups to summon help from other members of the Simpsons clan.
You'll also encounter various mini-games, including the very promising-sounding "Slap Homer," which uses touch and accelerometer controls to "slap" Homer back to life. Somehow, I can't imagine ever tiring of that.
"Ow! Stop hitting me! It really, really hurts!"
(Credit: EA Mobile)Thankfully, all the characters' voices are supplied by the regular Simpsons cast.
I haven't seen the game firsthand yet, and I actually never played the coin-op original, but I'm dying to try it. How about you? Think you'll take this trip to the streets of Springfield?
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Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)
After announcing an updated version of Apple TV early on Thursday, Apple released a new version of iTunes (Windows and Mac) to support the changes. The new iTunes update also adds an option that enables users to choose a dark background for Grid View and improves accessibility. You will need the iTunes update in order to use all the new features in Apple TV.
The Apple TV update adds more content and extra features to the set-top box. Notable improvements include a redesigned Menu to help you get to your content more quickly; iTunes Extras, which lets you buy behind-the-scenes content from your favorite movies; and iTunes LP support, so you can now view iTunes LP content while listening to music on Apple TV. The update also improves photo browsing, bringing face-recognition and image category sorting to the Apple TV.
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CNET)
With more and more people watching movies on their wide-screen Macs and Apple TV, it's no secret the computer is starting to move in on traditional DVD, Blu-ray, and other video player territory. If you have a laptop and the right cords, you can even plug your computer into your big-screen TV and enjoy all the glory of the new standalone Hulu for Mac. But while your Mac is great for watching movies, your Mac's sleep feature to save energy has a nasty way of making your screen go dark right in the middle of the show. To keep this from happening, you can go into the preference pane before starting a movie, select Energy Saver, then slide the dial to Never sleep. I admit this isn't a terribly hard process, but I found a download that makes it even easier.
The settings window, though fairly sparse, offers all the settings you need.
(Credit: CNET)Caffeine is a free download that adds a simple icon on the right side of your menubar. When you click it, Caffeine prevents your Mac from going to sleep while you watch your movie. When your movie is over, simply click it again to return to your normal sleep settings. You also can Command-click the icon to bring up settings to set how long you want Caffeine to keep your Mac awake--anywhere from 5 minutes to indefinitely, but it also has 2-hour and 5-hour options for perfect movie-viewing time.
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CNET)
Apple Insider has unearthed proof that YouTube uploading will be built into the upcoming version of QuickTime that ships with OS X 10.6.
According to beta testers, several video-sharing options will be baked into the latest release of Apple's QuickTime media playback and editing software, including the capability to directly upload to YouTube. With the new QuickTime, you will be able to convert and upload any supported video file type to the online video service and all you will need is to be a registered YouTube user. You also will be able to seamlessly upload supported video to the MobileMe Gallery.
In addition to these new sharing options, iTunes also will offer ways to convert and export your video files to work on your iPod, iPhone, or Apple TV. All of these options will be available to you from the same convenient location and will automatically be imported to iTunes before being synced to your supported devices.
With this latest discovery, Apple will effectively offer built-in support for YouTube across all of its main products. Both the iPhone and Apple TV already offer YouTube support, along with some of Apple's other software including recent releases of iMovie. With the addition of direct uploads through QuickTime, Apple is providing support for desktop and laptop Macs.
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CNET)
For the past two years, several independent Mac software developers have teamed up to put together a bundle of award-winning Mac apps at a vastly reduced price--with 25 percent of the purchase price donated to the charity of your choice (chosen from a list). The whole thing takes place at a very well-designed site called MacHeist.com and over the past two years, thousands of Mac users have snapped up the limited time offer--it's really a great deal! The fun part about the MacHeist offer is the developers of MacHeist make it into a kind of scavenger hunt. They let users search for clues by watching entertaining videos and solving puzzles to win software and other prizes before the final bundle is announced.
This year, they've done it all over again with MacHeist 3 featuring a new bundle of indie software, the contents of which were announced yesterday. If you were to buy these programs separately, it would cost you almost $1,000. The list of software has products from all categories including a cooking app, photo-retouching software, an audio editor, Web-design tools, and 3D-modeling software. The scavenger hunt part of the offer is already over, but at least you're here in time to take advantage of an awesome deal. The bundle of a dozen Mac programs will only be offered at the reduced price of $39 for the next two weeks, so make sure not to wait too long!
If you're a couch potato, there's now a way for you to exercise your brain and socialize, a little bit, while watching TV.
Mobui, a mobile-application developer that acquired Action Engine awhile back, announced Thursday the launch of Mobui Audience Chat.
Basically, this is a mobile app that television broadcasters and studios could utilize to engage audiences' participation in their shows in real time via their mobile phones. Think of this as how you've been voting for an American Idol, only that you now can engage in much more interactive conversations, rather than just send in your vote. Audiences can interact with the show or with one another in different chat rooms.
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Mobui)
The first station that's adopted Mobui Audience Chat is MTV Networks' VH1. You can use the application with popular shows "Top Chef" and "I Love Money 2."
The Mobui Audience Chat product is currently compatible with over 100 different phone models, including the iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile-, Java-, and BREW-enabled devices.
Other features include:
- Chat rooms that let broadcasters match their on-air programming schedules.
- Celebrity-moderated chat rooms in which the audience can interact with on-air talent while the celebrity's show is airing.
- Audience members can set up their own chat rooms and invite friends and other fans to join. You can also create personalized user profiles, select avatars, and manage friend and group lists.
This seems like something that could change the way we think about watching TV, just as voice chat changed gameplay and turned something once branded as antisocial into a social experience.
Of course, this depends a lot on how many broadcasters and studios adopt the technology in the future.
Updated at 10:00 AM Pacific.
Six months after announcing its intention to bring SlingPlayer to the iPhone 3G, Sling Media has another announcement to make--just not the one you're wishing for.
SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone isn't ready yet, Sling said on Tuesday, but it is on its way.
Like SlingPlayer Mobile for Windows Mobile, Palm, Symbian, UIQ, and BlackBerry (beta) platforms, this iPhone version will let you access one or more Slingboxes from your mobile device, and watch your TV stations on-the-go. It will also be compatible with the iPod Touch.
You'll also be able to manage your DVR from the iPhone, and can synchronously add and remove favorite channels directly from the phone's interface--a first for the SlingPlayer Mobile line.
In our demo, the client streamed live, high-quality video of stations like MTV and TBS on both Wi-Fi and the iPhone's 3G network. Swiping the screen horizontally advances you through favorite stations, and flicking up and down rotates through all your home channels.
Sling Media says it will submit the file to the iTunes AppStore by the end of the first fiscal quarter. While Sling Media shared no firm price tag, it could mirror the $29.99 lifetime fee of SlingPlayer Mobile on other platforms.
Before getting too excited, just remember that Apple has been known to kill promising apps, ostensibly for the crime of a large data transfers. SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone could suffer the same fate. Assuming it doesn't, the client still faces competition from Orb, whose full version, OrbLive, delivers live TV and media stored on your PC for $10.
On Monday i.TV, the movie and TV show listing service for the iPhone, pushed out a really neat update that marries the idea of its live content guide with services that can take advantage of it as a platform.
The first service to be introduced into the mix is Netflix. I.TV users who are also Netflix subscribers can manage their queue right from the application, as well as start Netflix searches from i.TV's own listings.
If you find a movie in theaters, or recently aired TV show that you'd like to add to your Netflix queue, you can now do it from i.TV.
(Credit: CNET Networks)An example of how this might work is if you're perusing the latest movie listings. If you see a film that you'd like to watch when it's released on DVD, you can simply cross-reference it with Netflix's library. If it shows up (which I found to work with all the latest releases at my local theater), you simply hit the "add to queue" option and it will go into your saved items. This is also helpful for wannabe movie aficionados, since if the film you're looking at is a remake, you can see and rent the older versions from the same interface.
More importantly, with the outcropping of Netflix streaming-capable devices like Apple computers, and soon the Xbox 360--there's going to be a need to help pick out streaming TV content. Using i.TV, you can easily add any content that has a streaming counterpart to your Watch Instantly queue.
As a Netflix manager it's not as competent as an app like Dashbuster, which is currently unavailable from the app store while it works out some bugs. There are no Netflix RSS feeds (which can be a source of rental inspiration), and it doesn't save box art in a local cache, which can give the app a slight speed gain. There is one big plus though--i.TV is free, whereas Dashbuster and several other iPhone-based Netflix queue managers are not.
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CNET Networks)
Before I unveil this week's iPhone apps, I wanted to see if anyone else had the same iPhone problem I have. I keep having this issue with iPhone app updates that won't finish downloading and demand that I connect to iTunes to finish the update. But even when connected to iTunes, not all of the apps update and I'm left with that number on my home screen saying I need to update when I've done everything I can to complete the process. I also get some update notices dated before I downloaded the app, which clearly doesn't make any sense. I've looked at a number of sites that don't specifically list my problem--even our trusty iPhone Atlas site, which is one of the best places to look for common iPhone problems (and fixes). If any of you have experienced this issue and have a fix (or if I'm missing something), please let me know in the comments!
Fortunately, my update problems haven't prevented me from downloading new iPhone apps. This week I've got a couple new free apps that are definitely worth checking out.
Search for title on your iPhone or check out online catalogs for new things to read.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Stanza lets you read eBooks on your iPhone and it has a lot of great features making it better than you might expect. My first thought was it would be difficult to read on my iPhone, but Stanza offers excellent text size, screen color, and font options to make reading comfortable for anyone. You can import eBooks you already own on your computer and Stanza offers several online catalogs so you can download eBooks directly on your iPhone. The only area Stanza is lacking is when there are images in your book--Stanza strips out images and custom formatting. Aside from this easy-to-overlook problem, Stanza is a great way to read any eBooks you might already own and also discover new ones through its many included online resources. One of my favorite features is that it automatically remembers where I left off so I can get back to reading a story the next time I open Stanza.
Get detailed listings with user reviews and plot summaries for both TV shows and movies.
(Credit: CNET Networks)i.TV is my second iPhone app this week, and it has already shot to the top of the most popular list for good reason. i.TV is your television and movie guide for whatever area you're in. Either let your GPS determine your location (great for when you're out of town) or type in your ZIP code to get all the movie and TV listings in your current area. You'll be able to browse through times to see what's on television and you can browse by current movies or by theater to find a movie you want to see. You also can view almost 6,000 TV and movie previews. i.TV offers user reviews of TV shows and movies, but there aren't many up there as this app is still fairly new. At the iTunes Store, they say upcoming versions will allow you to watch actual TV shows, but even in its current state, i.TV is an incredibly useful app.
What are your favorite iPhone apps? Do you have the same problem with iPhone app updates? Let me know in the comments!
AppleTV has a rich history of getting hacked for the sake of adding extra utility. Contained within its small confines is a reasonably powerful computer that's capable of running Mac OS X (albeit slowly). The problem is that despite this power, the system software is tied to iTunes and its sister store for movies, music, and TV shows. This hinders it from competing with devices like mini-PCs and game machines that offer a huge variety of media playback, including DVDs and Blu-ray movies.
To help solve this, Boxee founder and CEO Avner Ronen has published instructions on how to get his company's media center software to run on the AppleTV. This system requires the use of developer Scott Davilla's ATVUSB-Creator, a Mac-only application that lets you create special programs that boot off a USB thumbdrive. The application comes with simple tools for putting SSH, Xbox Media Center for Mac, and its Boxee derivative on a drive with just a few clicks.
Once installed on the AppleTV, you can enjoy the same Boxee experience that's currently available on Macs and PCs running Linux. This includes being able to play Web video from multiple sources, and DivX- and Xvid-encoded content through your network--all without having to use any special transcoding software. You're also able to switch back to the Apple TV interface without having to make any massive changes to the way the system runs.
Within the next two months the software will be updated to play videos off of Hulu, meaning AppleTV owners who run the hack will be able to watch full-length TV shows (with ads) without having to purchase them from Apple's proprietary storefront. The company is also trying to get Netflix's freshly improved Watch Now streaming service running too.
Boxee is currently in private beta and limited to Mac and Linux users. We've been told that it's coming for PC users within the next month, with plans to open it up to everyone come next year's Consumer Electronics Show.
Once installed, you can run Boxee right off the AppleTV's source list.
(Credit: Boxee)Related: Hands-on with Boxee: A gorgeous social-media viewer
