iphone Archive

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First Infinity Blade update next week, multiplayer coming soon

By
Andy Yen
– Posted on December 16, 2010Posted in: Mobile, Video Games

Shit. and Yes.

Also, while unsurprising, it’s still mindblowing to know that the iPhone  is capable of pushing the same essential graphics required for a Gears of War.

From Joystiq:

“We’re all very thrilled with how cool it looks, but the same amount of time it takes to make a high-res character for Gears is the same amount of time it takes to make one for Infinity Blade or to make these environments,” Chair’s Donald Mustard told Joystiq. “It takes time to make this stuff look awesome, and we want it to look awesome.”

via First Infinity Blade update next week, multiplayer coming soon | Joystiq.

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Infinity Blade conceived as a Kinect game

By
Andy Yen
– Posted on December 16, 2010Posted in: Video Games

Now that I think about it, Infinity Blade would make a whole lot of sense on the Kinect. Just hold a plastic tube in your hands and you’ve got a ready made Kinect game.

Chair co-founder Donald Mustard:

“We always have some cool ideas on deck, and kind of the inception of Infinity Blade began as a discussion around: ‘If we were going to make a Kinect title, what would we make? What would a Chair Kinect game look like?’,”

Infinity Blade conceived as a Kinect game | Joystiq.

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Game Recommendation: Shibuya (iPhone)

By
Andy Yen
– Posted on October 14, 2010Posted in: Recommendations, Reviews, Video Games

Even though I’ve yet to visit Shibuya, its name will always have a positive mental association in my head with visions of bright neon colors, modern architecture, large crowds of fashionably modern people, and upbeat music. Yes, my mental picture of Shibuya is comprised entirely of the arcade/karaoke scenes from the movie Lost In Translation and the general eccentric awesomeness of the Nintendo DS game, The World Ends With You, but so what? It works for me.

Nevertheless, that positive vibe got me interested in a recently released iPhone game unsurprisingly titled Shibuya. It’s a puzzle game inspired by the aesthetics of the real-life place in Tokyo. Think Tetris meets your favorite color matching game with some delicious special sauce that you haven’t quite tasted before. Oh, and it was also named a finalist of Penny Arcade’s PAX 10 indie games.

It’s got the “easy to learn; hard to master” learning curve going for it. Plus, developer Never Center has structured game progression utilizing achievements in a manner I can get behind. You can ignore the achievements completely if you just want a quick game. But if you’re a goal-oriented person like me, you’ll appreciate the bite-sized checklists of achievements to accomplish. Basically, there are 11 “levels” in the game broken up into groups of 4 achievements. Complete the current 4 achievements and you’ll get the next set of achievements. These can range from surviving Endless mode for a certain amount of time or for completing a 2 minute Quickplay game on a certain difficulty level. It’s simple, but effective way to motivate players to play an otherwise endless puzzle game.

“How do I play this wonderful game?” you may ask. Well, you know what they say about pictures and videos and words.

Here’s the president of Never Center explaining how the game is played:

Shibuya is currently available on the iTunes App Store for $1.99 and it’s totally worth it if you like puzzle games. An Android version is supposedly in the works.

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Epic Citadel Brings Unreal Engine To The iPhone/iPad

By
Andy Yen
– Posted on September 1, 2010Posted in: Technology, Video Games

Hot off the announcement of their first iOS game (Project Sword – check out the clip at the end of this post!) this morning at Apple’s iPod event, Epic Games (Gears of War, Unreal Tournament) sends word that a playable tech demo of Unreal Engine working on the iPhone is now live on the iTunes store.

Entitled Epic Citadel, the demo gives you a sneak peek as to what kind of graphics you can expect from Project Sword when it releases later this year. As you can see from the screenshots below, the graphics are jaw-droppingly good. It reminded me a little bit of the wonder I experienced when I saw the first Unreal engine fly through way back in the 90’s before the first Unreal game came out.

Now, don’t expect much of a game with Epic Citadel, it’s basically a really pretty graphics tech demo. You can move around using virtual dual analog sticks or you can let the software take over and provide a “Guided Tour”, which is basically an autopilot demo. You can also navigate by tapping anywhere on the screen and the character will automatically walk there.

I gave it a short test drive and the frame rate was locked in at about 30fps for the most part, but dipped below during a flyby or when a lot of the environment was in view. Nevertheless, it’s a real impressive piece of software and might be worth keeping on your iPhone/iPad just to show off to your friends. Plus, at “free”, its the right price.

We’ve already got a cool gyroscope control proof of concept with ngmoco’s Gun Range. Epic’s Epic Citadel shows us what the graphics capability of the iPhone/iPad is. Come on devs, enough with the demos. Let’s get a real game out now, eh?

Download Epic Citadel for free on iTunes

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Cutting Through The Potty: ‘Antennagate’ Apple iPhone 4 Keynote

By
Andy Yen
– Posted on July 16, 2010Posted in: Cutting Through The Potty, Technology

Cutting Through The Potty is a new segment where we break down large announcements into TL;DR takeaway points, provide real world-based conclusions, and posit some nitpicky snark (if applicable)

The issues surrounding the iPhone 4’s antenna have been fodder for one of the biggest product backlashes in recent memory. I’m sure most readers are aware of the fact that the iPhone 4 seems to lose cellular reception if you hold the phone in a “natural way.” Today, Apple addressed those concerns in a 30 minute presentation along with a Q/A session.

Takeaways:

  1. Free Cases – Every iPhone 4 owner gets a free case until Sept. 30. You can choose from Apple’s Bumper or other unspecified 3rd party ones. If you bought a bumper already (but not any other case) you’ll get a refund.
  2. No Restocking Fee Refunds – If you continue to be dissatisfied, Apple will allow you to refund the iPhone 4 within 30 days of purchase with no restocking fees. You will also get your AT&T contract refunded too.
  3. There Is A Reception Problem, “But It Only Affects A Small Percentage of Users” – Though it was obfuscated in the presentation at first, Apple did acknowledge that the iPhone 4 did seem to suffer from a real issue of losing cell reception when gripped. Jobs wasted no time in pointing out that Blackberry, Android, and Windows Mobile phones also exhibit the same behavior. He then concluded that this issue only affected a small percentage of users.
  4. The Stats Support That Conclusion – Lots of statistics were presented to put the problem in Apple’s perspective. Out of the 3 million iPhone 4’s sold, only 0.55% of those reported problems to AppleCare. 1.7% of iPhone 4 users have returned their phone, compared to the 6% return rate of the iPhone 3GS. 5,000 people have emailed Steve Jobs personally saying they have no issue. iPhone 4 drops less than 1% more calls than the iPhone 3GS.

My Take:

Let me start by disclosing that I am indeed an iPhone 4 user and that this antenna issue did affect my phone. I can make the bars go down on the display by covering up the antenna at the right spots. It’s a neat parlor trick that you can do at parties and bars, but honestly hadn’t noticeably affected my real world use of the phone. However, I don’t like the nagging feeling that the way I hold my phone could cause decreased usability. It’s a crappy feeling to be lurking in one’s subconscious. Hence, I bought a bumper not only to prevent reception problems, but also because i liked the gripability of the case and the buffer it creates for putting the phone down on public tables.

Nothing in the presentation was especially surprising. The announcement of free cases to given away (and refunds for previous bumper purchasers) was certainly welcome and a sigh of relief that I didn’t just get jacked $32. The restocking fee waiver seemed like a no-brainer too. I doubt most people would return their iPhone 4’s over this, so it’s an easy bone for Apple to throw.

All the stats Jobs rattled off were a nice way to shift perceptions away from the “overblown” media hype. I mean what looks better: 16,500 people have complained about the issue to AppleCare or that 0.55% of all iPhone 4 users did? (Hint: they’re the same) Can’t blame them for doing this though, the tech bloggers and mainstream media have made this out to be a “doomsday”-like scenario. Even non-techies know about this issue. It’s only fair Apple gets to frame perceptions too.

Troll all you want on the web about principles and Apple apologists, but the antenna is simply not a deal-breaking issue. If you’ve decided that the iPhone 4 is the best phone for you, go ahead and buy it. Yes, it’s an admitted issue. No, you shouldn’t interpret that as the Scarlet Letter and avoid the phone solely because of it. Shit, take advantage of the 30 day grace period Apple is giving you now. You can always return it if the antenna issue bugs you so much.

Ultimately, both the media and Apple can be attributed blame for this mess. Consumer Reports’ “non recommendation based on the antenna issue” was simply a shameless attempt at retrieving relevancy again. Apple’s an easy target now because of their success and prominence. It doesn’t hurt that people love reading this stuff too. We’re a society that delights in schadenfreude, especially when the most successful are involved. While it’s easy to poke fun at Apple’s egomania and hubris, there has to be some sort of journalistic restraint involved.

Apple also fucked up in not addressing this as a problem sooner and by initially blaming the user for “holding it wrong.” It’s one thing to stay silent, but it’s another to dismiss a clearly demonstrated problem by blaming the customer. Had they been more transparent and admitted the issue earlier, the media may not have been able to reach the fever pitch that it has in recent days. The issue may even have been contained and forgotten by now.

The Snark:

  • So Steve Jobs rattled on about “working their butts off” over the last 22 days to find solutions and the solution was “show videos of other smartphones dropping bars when gripped”? That’s the best their $100 million testing facilities employing more PHD’s than a full NBA roster could come up with? Come on, at least show us some “hard numbers” as the fruits of your labor. Anandtech has written up two very detailed and articulate reports using less than $100 million of equipment. Tell me why Apple can’t provide us with something similar instead of talking down to us like we’re Luddites (or the New York Times).
  • Along those lines, I got why they showed one of each Blackberry, Android, and Windows Mobile phones, but why the Droid Eris? Why not show something more relevant, like an EVO or Incredible or even a Nexus One? Maybe these phones didn’t exhibit so many dropped bars…

    • image courtesy of Engadget.com

  • Think someone failed on the slide showing the table with the 3 other phones’ “Min” and “Max” bars. Those columns on the table seem to be flipped.
  • Gruber asked the Apple execs if they used bumpers or cases for their iPhone4s. Each of them whipped out their phones to show that none of them do. That’s a  pretty telling image.
  • Steve Jobs explained the delay in making a public stance by needing to collect “hard data”. It’s understandable, but there’s no reason to let this fester without comment for so long or blaming the customer for “holding it wrong.”
  • Steve Jobs gives himself plausible deniability on his public email replies by saying that “some of them are made up!” Great, now we’ll never know which assholic dismissals are real or not.
  • On the topic of the iOS 4.0.1 update yesterday that “fixes” the reception display algorithm: Someone brought up the fact that Apple supposedly “fixed” the reception bar display algorithm two years ago. Jobs feigned ignorance at this. Uh huh. I still think two years ago they updated the display to show 5 bars even when reception wasn’t that good and now that it’s bit them in the ass, they’re changing it again. Cell phone reception bars are such a load of crap. Personally, I’d love an option to show real dB readings.
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E3 2010 Preview: Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 1

By
Andy Yen
– Posted on June 29, 2010Posted in: Video Games

Sonic the Hedgehog’s gone through a rough time since the glory days of the Sega Genesis. We’ve been given so many unfulfilled promises of “This is the return to the Sonic you know and love!” each year that the announcement of a new Sonic game is akin to an announcement that there’ll be a new Madden game out in the fall.

Well, after having checked out Sonic 4: Ep 1 at E3 this year, I’m gonna go ahead and say this is the return of the Sonic you know and love!

All joking aside, if there were a game for that cliche to actually hold, it would be Sonic 4. The developer I sat down with reiterated that they tried to keep the feel of the old Genesis-era Sonic titles and that if you were to put this game in the timeline, it would fit in right after Sonic and Knuckles. (yes, the one with the crazy add-on cartridge) Since that’s the last time I remember having actual fun with a Sonic title, I’m gonna go ahead and say that’s a good start.

The game certainly plays as such and is a fairly delightful (if not entirely familiar) romp down memory line. I can say the game looks sharp on the iPhone and will probably look better on the iPhone 4. It’d probably be my platform of choice as it’s a great game to play on the go in bursts. The tilt controls were pretty awkward and difficult, though. You can check out the video walkthrough further down for a better idea on how the game looks.

An interesting thing you may notice about the game is the ominous “Episode 1” subtitle attached. Sega promises 16 levels in EP1 with more episodes to follow after. Now, I’m not so sure why a platform game that’s light on story needs the episodic title treatment. One reason might be to release new level packs soon after, but my efforts to narrow down the timeframe for new episodes were unsuccessful. The best I got was tentative agreement that they would come out faster than Half-Life 2 Episodes. I think we can all agree that’s not saying much.

Regardless, if you’re in the mood for a nostalgic 2D platformer, this game should excite you. Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 will be released on the iPhone, XBLA, PSN, and WiiWare “later this year and priced competitively.”

Developer Gameplay Walkthrough:

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Video Review: ngmoco’s Eliminate Gun Range

By
Andy Yen
– Posted on June 28, 2010Posted in: Reviews, Technology, Video Games

When a gyroscope was announced as one of the new features of the iPhone 4 a few weeks ago, I was admittedly a bit nonplussed. After all, didn’t we already have tilt gaming on the iPhone?

Like the Wii Motion Plus, all it took was some hands on gameplay experience before I “got” it.

Eliminate: Gun Range is a simple shooting gallery game that requires the iPhone 4. (supposedly a 3GS version is on the way) You’ll earn credits by hitting a certain target number threshold on a given range scenario. Credits can then be used to unlock more guns and challenge levels to play. The game itself not very original, but the method of control is.

Aiming in Gun Range utilizes the iPhone 4’s gyroscope to present a 1:1 movement to graphics representation on the screen ratio. Think about how fluid the screen display is when you use the camera app to take a picture. Now imagine that smooth display in a game. That’s basically how Gun Range feels. The graphics are also very nice, taking advantage of the Retina Display, but the star of this show is the control scheme.

It’s almost more of a tech demo than a fleshed out game, but there’s enough entertainment in this $0.99 package that it’s worth keeping around to play even after you’re done showing off your new iPhone 4 to your friends. I can’t wait to see where this leads iPhone game developers. If nothing else, we’ll have a great way of aiming in iPhone first person shooters.

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Some iPhone 4 Thoughts

By
Andy Yen
– Posted on June 7, 2010Posted in: Technology

It’s kind of a shame we had so many iPhone leaks before Steve Jobs’ keynote today at WWDC. He may not admit it, but it definitely took some wind out of  the announcement sails from a consumer perspective. That being said, it’s still an impressive looking device on paper. However, like the iPad, it’s beginning to look like hands on exposure to the device is what’s really going to determine it’s necessity.

My initial thoughts on the words and pictures sent forth from WWDC today:

  • Design – It looks great. A logical evolution of the “iPhone shape”. I definitely would not be embarrassed to be carrying it around. The one “unknown fact” about the device was that the aluminum siding on the phone is actually the antenna. Hopefully, this will help network usage out. (I’m not holding my breath on AT&T, but will be open to pleasant surprise.)
  • Screen – Looks to be the best mobile screen on the market. IPS LCD means the highest consumer quality panel tech, while still being fully readable in direct sunlight. The pixel density of the display is almost unheard of for a device so small. It’s approaching native 720p on a 3.5″ screen! However, all the slides, videos, and words in the world can only convey so much. According to everyone at WWDC who’s handled the device, you have to see this thing with your own eyes to really appreciate it.
  • Faster processor(A4 chip, same as in the iPad) – This doesn’t sound very exciting, but it’s HUGE if you’re upgrading an older iPhone. If it’s one thing i abhor about my current iPhone, it’s that it takes so damn long to load almost anything. Not to mention sluggish frame rates in games and app animations.
  • Gyroscope – Ok, can’t say this excites me greatly. I mean, Sony had SIXAXIS movement 4 years ago and everyone pooh pooh’d that to oblivion. I’d love for there to be awesome new games based on this, but the pragmatist in me worries that this might be a Wii MotionPlus situation where most developers are just going to develop for the lowest common denominator (iPhone 3g tech).
  • Camera – 5 megapixels with LED Flash. Finally. This is probably the biggest feature for me. I find myself increasingly unwilling to carry a separate camera around with me to the point of just forgoing photo taking unless I plan in advance. The camera on my iPhone 3G is atrocious in low light conditions and is truly frustrating when I want to take pictures at concerts or dimly lit bars.
  • Video Recording– 720p resolution recording at 30 fps. Fuck. Yes. Flip who? We’ll see if the quality is up to snuff, but if the iPhone 4 can really obviate the need for a point and shoot camera and Flip-like video camera, I will be overjoyed. LOVE how you are able to send recorded videos to Youtube/email/mms with 2 taps. Mobile video blogging will also be feasible now with the front facing camera. I may have to try my hand at that.
  • iMovie – At first I was like “WHOA!” Then I was like “Ehh, would I really use my phone to edit videos when I already have a Macbook Pro.” But now, I’m thinking that it might actually be a godsend. If it’s one thing I hate about the current iPhone/computer syncing paradigm, it’s the plain annoyance of shuffling content from one to the other. If I can do most edits and production on the phone and publish it, well, that would definitely be worth $4.99.
  • iOS4 Stuff – Multitasking, folders, iBooks, iAds, etc. We saw all this stuff in March – it’s needed and will be welcomed.
  • Battery/802.11n antenna/dual mics – Longer battery, faster WiFi throughput, and better sound input. Not exactly sexy-sounding, but who wouldn’t want these things?
  • FaceTime – This is the “WOW” feature of the new phone. I have to admit, it looks to be the best video conference solution out there in that it “just works.” There’s no account creation, no logins, no setup required. Everything is automagically done via the iPhone. That’s going to be crucial in getting video communication widespread adoption with the mainstream. When Grandma Luddite can video chat with little Timmy, then you’ve got something special. That being said, I can’t see this taking off for a couple more years. Communication methods are only truly compelling once everyone is using them and it’s going to take some time for the required hardware to disseminate. I see myself using it a couple of times for the novelty, but probably not on a regular basis.

If you’ve been following mobile technology at all over the past couple months, none of the iPhone 4 feature announcements should come as a big surprise. That doesn’t mean they should be dismissed though. All of the new features are significant and definitely place the new iPhone on par, if not ahead of other smartphone options out there. However, I think the days of Apple with a 2 year features lead on the competition are over.

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AT&T’s New Data Plans Actually A Change For The Better?

By
Andy Yen
– Posted on June 2, 2010Posted in: Music, Technology

So the big news today in the tech world is that AT&T Wireless will be drastically changing their smartphone data plan options on June 7th.

It boils down to the following for smartphone users:

  • No more $30 “unlimited”(actually 5gb) data plan (if you have one now you can still be on it, even if you buy the new iPhone, but you won’t be able to get it back if you change plans)
  • Choice 1: “DataPlus” $15 a month for 200mb of data (Overages: $15 for each additional 200mb)
  • Choice 2: “DataPro” $25 a month for 2gb of data (Overages: $10 for each additional 1gb)
  • If you want to tether your data, you’ll have to choose the DataPro plan and pay an additional $20. (Shitty, but unsurprising)

Naturally, the first thing that went through my mind when i saw this was, “ZOMG WTF!! FUCK YOU AT&T YOU ARE THE WORST!”

Then, once I was done nerd raging, I thought, “Hmm, how much data do I actually use each month?”

Here’s my last 6 months of usage (You can find your graph by logging into your AT&T wireless page and clicking “Past Data Usage”):

I’ve gone over the hypothetical 200mb plan only twice, and didn’t even come close to a 2gb limit. I can’t remember what I did in November, but I do know that in May I had been streaming more live baseball games using the MLB At Bat app. Using the iPhone for Twitter, Foursquare, and looking random shit up while you are out does not use up a ton of bandwidth. It’s pretty clear streaming media is going to be the deciding factor for a lot of people. Since I’m paying $30 a month for data currently, I could be saving either $15 or $5, depending on how much I want to limit myself to.

That’s the good news. The concerning news is how this will affect rumored features in the new iPhone, such as video calls and a cloud-based iTunes. According to Wired, 200mb is roughly 7 hours of streaming audio. Thats like 2 baseball games, or a few commutes. Live, 2-way video streaming just sounds like it would eat up bandwidth like Brian ate poop in last month’s Family Guy episode. While I don’t see myself using video chat regularly, I’d like the option to, without feeling like I’m wasting precious allocated bits.

Maybe it was just wishful thinking to assume I could save $15 a month on my phone bill. It’s looking pretty tough to get by on only 200mb if you’re looking to stream any sort content. Ideally, Pandora, Spotify, iTunes, or whatever music cloud service ends up winning will over a robust caching feature so I can just preload all of my music at home before heading out into the wild.

Another silver lining in all of this is that AT&T will let you figure out which plan you want without much dicking:

The carrier’s going to be very flexible about changing between the DataPlus and DataPro plans — if you’re on DataPlus, for example, and you discover that you’re blowing past your allotment, you can choose either to start DataPro the following billing cycle, pro-rate it, or apply the higher plan retroactively to the beginning of your current billing cycle.

I look at this whole thing as hey, at least I’ll probably be saving $5 a month at the very least.

Read a more detailed breakdown on Engadget.

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PSA: Get Textie for iPhone Stat

By
Andy Yen
– Posted on April 29, 2010Posted in: Technology

I’ve hated other “free texting” apps for the iPhone because they either have shitty interfaces, or they just take waaaay too long to load.

Textie is written by Loren Brichter, developer of the awesome (and soon to be official) Tweetie client for Twitter.  That was enough to get me to download the app, as I consider Tweetie one of my most indispensable apps on my iPhone and Mac.  It’s free with ad-support or you can pay $1.99 within the app to get rid of the ads.

Textie requires a simple user signup, but once that’s done it looks and feels almost exactly the same as the official “Messages” app on your iPhone, complete with message threading.  The best thing about Textie is that it loads just as quickly as Messages does.  It supports text and picture messages between email or Textie users.  Of course, you can text any mobile phone as normal for free.  Unfortunately you can’t MMS, though.

We’ll see how I feel after using it in the wild for a couple weeks, but as of now I’m in love.  Go grab it.

(Man, Lefsetz was right, tech guys are the rock stars of the 21st century.  As soon as I knew “the guy from Tweetie” was behind this, I gobbled it up like a side project album from “the guy from Radiohead”.)

Textie Messaging for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store.

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