Posts tagged with "iPhone"

Google Launches Official Translate App for iPhone

A few minutes ago Google announced the availability of the official Translate app for iPhone. Built on top of the HTML5 webapp  that’s been around for quite some time now, the native application allows you to “speak to translate” in 15 different languages with output translation supported up to 50 languages. You can listen to your own translations spoken out loud by the app , enable full-screen mode to get a larger view of the translated text (that’s quite useful) and even check on single words dictionary entries from within the app. The interface design resembles most of Google’s apps for iOS – nothing exceptional to note there. It’s got a clean and minimal UI.

Google Translate for iPhone is a better version of the popular mobile-optimized webpage packed into a useful package for iOS that comes with a few additional features. It’s a free download in the App Store. Full list of supported languages below. Read more

This iPhone App Takes Pictures With The Microphone

Back in December we saw Apple approved an app called Quick Snap that allowed users to take pictures with the iPhone using the volume buttons instead of the regular camera icon on screen. As you know, Apple doesn’t really like applications that re-purpose hardware elements of the iPhone to perform specific tasks inside an app – just like, again, volume buttons used to snap pictures.

But it looks like they did it again, although we’re not sure whether or not Camera Mic violates Apple’s iOS guidelines. Basically, this app can take photos using the iPhone’s internal microphone; the app’s camera shutter can be triggered by a spike in volume caused by a quick tap on the mic or (this is the option I like the most) a quick whistle or a word like “click” or “go”. The app doesn’t offer much besides this functionality which, after a few tests, I have to say really works as advertised. You say something or tap on the mic, and the app snaps a photo. Of course, the downside is that if people are talking around you the results might not be so effective. But, and here’s another neat feature, it also supports the iPhone’s headphone cord, which can become a remote trigger cable so you don’t have to touch the iPhone’s screen when, say, the device is on a tripod.

There’s the possibility Apple will pull this app soon. So go download it here if you’re into this kind of things, while it’s still available at $0.99.

Update: As noted by our friend Jonatan Castro, Camera Genius offers a similar functionality inside the Settings. I have tested the feature in Camera Genius and it works similarly to Camera Mic, although I got better results with “tap on microphone” with Gamblus’ app. A few readers suggested using the mic’s audio to trigger the camera isn’t breaking any rules, as I wrote above. Still, this is an interesting (and curious) way to take pictures with an iPhone.

iControlpad Game Controller for iPhone Finally Shipping Next Week

Over the past years we’ve been keeping an eye on the iControlpad, a Bluetooth controller for a variety of phones which, among other things, will support the iPhone 3G, 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPod touch. With a few adjustments and padding when needed, the iControlpad will provide an alternative (we can’t judge on comfortable from pictures) way to control iOS games, or any other device that supports Bluetooth.

As noted by Engadget, the iControlpad has left the vaporware stage and is now accepting orders with shipments starting next week. The design has been finalized and it looks pretty good although, admittedly, it will add bulkiness to your iOS device. That’s the price to pay for classic game controls on a 3.5-inch screen, I guess.

The question remains whether or not in the multitouch era buttons are needed at all. Most iOS games are perfectly playable and meant for multitouch controls. Some of them, however, could take serious advantage of the configuration offered by the iControlpad, like first-person shooters and arcade games based on virtual buttons on screen. We also wonder if it will be possible for developers to officially support the iControlpad in their apps by offering a way to entirely get rid of interface elements on screen, although maybe we’re just dreaming too much.

In the meantime, go check out the iControlpad here and take a look at your iOS game collection to see if the gadget would come in handy for you.

Are iOS Game Prices Creating Culture of Disposability? Nintendo Boss Thinks So

The head honcho of Nintendo North America, Reggie Fils-Aime has criticized the price levels of apps in the iTunes App Store claiming that the low prices create a “mentality” for consumers that portable games should only be a few dollars. Fils-Aimes who is the Nintendo North American president and chief operating officer felt that such a mentality also breeds a culture that believes content is disposable because of the cheap price and that this was one of the gaming industries biggest risks today.

Whilst Fils-Aime’s is not the most independent commentator on this issue with his company’s Nintendo DS platform directly competing with the gaming aspects of iOS, his points do have some validity. Games on the App store have tended to be below $5 compared to DS and PSP games that are typically well above that range. The presumption is the Fils-Aime’s fears that the App store prices will spread across to all platforms and lead to more gimmicky, simplistic games rather than well though out, in-depth game experiences.

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Instagram Shifting Focus to an Open Platform With API

Instagram has been a phenomenal success story gaining a user base of 2 million people in just four months that are now uploading 300,000 photos a day and now the developers are inviting developers to sign up for access to an Instagram API. In a blog post, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom said that the guiding principle for Instagram was to “create and maintain an open ecosystem that changes the way we see our world,” opening up Instagram to other developers is their next step to fulfilling that principle.

The opening up of a developers API seems to indicate a shift by Instagram from one of giving users an app to edit photos and share, to one dominated by creating a social image sharing service. This could allow other apps such as Hipstamatic to hook into Instagram and let users share their Hipstamatic photo’s on through Instagram. The blog post doesn’t quite make it clear if this is their intention but it most definitely seems like the logical iteration.

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Verizon iPhone Teardown: Dual GSM-CDMA Chip, iPhone 5 Likely To Be Worldphone

The folks over at iFixyouri and 9to5mac have taken a look at the internals of the Verizon iPhone and found out the device is running a dual-mode GSM-CDMA-capable Qualcomm Gobi chip. This Qualcomm’s chip enables worldphone capabilities with GSM and CDMA support on all carriers, but of course the Verizon iPhone won’t be able to accomplish this due to the lack of a SIM slot.

The Qualcomm Gobi MDM6600 modem supports GSM, GPRS, EDGE, CDMA, HSDPA, HSPA (up to 14.4 Mbps) and EV-DO (up to 14.7 Mbps), as well as GPS.

Rumors about integrated dual-mode Qualcomm chipsets in the next-generation iPhones and iPads have been floating around for a while now; at this point, it seems very likely that, at least the iPhone 5, will support multiple networks in a single device capable of switching from GSM to CDMA. Read more

Verizon iPhone Jailbroken

Well, that was fast. The Verizon iPhone has started arriving today to some people who pre-ordered it and it looks like the device has already been jailbroken. As you can see from the photo above, the iPhone is running Cydia and it clearly says “Verizon 3G” in the status bar. We guess the special iOS 4.2.6 version the iPhone is running was jailbroken through Greenpois0n, and a new version of the jailbreak tool with official CDMA iPhone support should come out soon.

So fear not, Verizon iPhone owners: you too can have Cydia. And by the way, here are some apps and tweaks you should install. [via]

Gmail’s Priority Inbox Comes To The iPhone

Great news from the Google Mobile team today: the Gmail webapp for iPhone has now Priority Inbox support built-in. Priority Inbox for mobile will import all the sections you have created on the desktop and it will also display the “important and read” or “important and unread” markers you’ve got used to see in Gmail.

Now, once you set up Priority Inbox in the desktop version of Gmail, you’ll see Priority Inbox sections when you visit gmail.com from your phone’s browser and click on the ‘Menu’ screen. You’ll also see importance markers in your inbox, so you can quickly identify which messages are important.

The new feature is available to Android and iOS devices. iOS 3 or later is required.