Apple’s Super Cool Projector

Apple never ceases to take something old and boring and make it into some thing cool and unique.  A patent for a projector with some very unique features was just granted to Apple.

This patent will feature a projector with some awesome remote capabilities.  The projector may be able to connect to a presentation wirelessly or even remotely, unlike current projectors. Apple describes how: “Conventional projector systems are local to the presentation, for example, typically located in the same room as the source of the presentation data, such as the computer,” in the patent.  How awesome would it be to just set up your projector anywhere and then go and sit down any where you want with your MacBook, iPhone, or iPad with out a bunch of wires holding down.

The filing also reads: “While video conferencing equipment may also be present and make it possible to view the presentation remotely, interaction and viewing is limited to the video conferencing equipment.”  We can try to read into this but what I think they are trying to say is that Apple will have software that will allow other devices to log into the presentation and view it on other devices while it is being presented.

If this is all true I cant wait to get one.  I love my projector but it is so annoying to set up and take down and hook up the wires and then the computer has to be right next to the device.

Pocket Ant App Review

You are now the King or Queen of all the ants in the colony, it’s up to you whether they live or die. With the power of wind, rain, rocks, even lasers and more you will unleash your furry on all ants who cross your path.

Pocket Ant puts you in control of the ant hill. Your arsenal is pretty big and you have a large range of weapons including manmade and some mother nature made. You can attack the ants with fire, freeze gun, rain, rocks, land mines, firecrackers and more. I have to say I was surprised with all the “tools” you are given to play the game I did not expect so many options from a $0.99 game.

The point of this game is simple but a ton of fun, the controls worked great, the graphics were pretty darn good and the sounds matched up great with what was happening. The ants make a shrilling noise when the end has come for them. This app is suitable to be played by users of all ages and has great pick up and playability.

There is more to this game than just killing ants you must also keep track of love triangles, total number of ants, number of red ants vs black ants and the aggressiveness of the ants this can all be controlled within the control panel in the game. One great thing I always love to see is constant updates from developers and Concrete Software, Inc. has done a great job building the app up and adding new features. One of the newest features is the best, the rain storm with lighting is just to fun not to use every time I play the app plus the graphics and sounds of the storm are outstanding.

Pocket Ant comes recommended to anyone looking for fun game that can be played by anyone in the house or maybe somebody who just got bit by an ant and is in need of some revenge. Pocket Ant is currently $0.99 in the app store.

Rhapsody Offline Update!

Real’s Rhapsody iPhone app has had mixed reviews since its initial release last September. The companion app to the $15 monthly service requires a 3G or Wi-Fi signal to listen to any of the music, frustrating some users. Rhapsody’s development team has been hard at work on an offline play option to help remedy these woes, and now it looks as if the feature might finally be ready.

The company’s product team released a news brief on Monday along with a YouTube video showcasing the new version. Users can download songs over 3G or Wi-Fi by first creating a playlist on their device, then tapping on the new Save button that appears at the top of the list of music. Playlists with saved songs are highlighted in orange, while regular streamed playlists remain in black.

When the device’s network connection is unavailable, the app only displays downloaded songs and playlists, so as not to confuse listeners and the color of the menu bar even changes to let you know you’re offline.

Downloaded songs can be listened to and accessed from the device as long as the user is subscribed to Rhapsody’s service; once a user drops the subscription, the songs presumably become inoperative. Sadly, the new version isn’t yet available to the public, though Rhapsody’s planning on submitting it to the App Store “very soon.” Until it lands, users will have to be satisfied with the YouTube video and their existing app. Still, it’s nice to know the update is coming eventually.

iPad Sales Heat Up

It looks like the Apple iPad is a hotter item than anlyst expected.  The iPad is expected to have sold 120,000 pre orders in just the first 24 hours on the market.

Citing the AAPL Sanity Board at Investor Village, the Insider report also claims the multi-touch tablet computer enjoyed immediate impact with prospective buyers, who snapped up 51,000 units in the first two hours of pre-order availability.

If ongoing pre-order figures and launch sale projections from Investor Village are anything to go by, Apple can expect to sell a full 1 million iPad units by the end of the device’s second week on store shelves.

Should that level of retail performance be awaiting Apple’s iconic iPad, it will represent a significant upsurge when compared against initial Wall Street estimates that had suggested Apple would require a full year of sales to scale that particular peak.

With 120,000 units supposedly already marked and ready to go, two-thirds of which are thought to be Wi-Fi models, the current pre-order “guesstimate” offered by Venezuelan blogger-analyst Daniel Tello points to weekday orders of around 30,000 units with a weekend drop-off of 15,000 units.

Add Tello’s prediction to the 120,000 outlined by AAPL, and Apple may well have sold more than 600,000 iPads before the device’s formal launch.

Gibson App Review

There are countless guitar apps out there that offer some great tools for musicians on the go. Gibson Learn & Master Guitar is one of those applications that include a tuner, metronome and guitar chart, all in one nice package. This one even includes a few free video guitar lessons taught by the man who produced the Learn & Master Guitar course. Even though it seems like a big advertisement for Gibson and the lesson series, it’s still a free and useful tool for all guitarists.

The tuner is actually pretty accurate and there are two ways in which to tune your guitar. You can use the chromatic tuner, which will have the microphone listen to the pitch you play, showing how sharp or flat the note is. Or, you can use the simple tuner, which will play each string’s pitch through the iPhone’s speaker, and allow you to tune by ear. What’s really nice about this feature is that the pitch will automatically play four times so you have a few chances to get it right.

The metronome is very basic, offering only a few simple meters. You can choose to have the sound on or off. If the sound is off, the metronome will flash a bright light for each beat, so you can visualize the tempo.

The chord chart is useful, yet a bit disappointing at the same time.  Its nice, and clearly shows you how to play each chord, but it doesn’t actually play the chord so you can hear what it sounds like. Being a free app, you can’t complain too much, but it would still be nice to have that feature added in a future update.

The part that makes this app unique is the collection of free video guitar lessons that are available. There are eight free lessons that you can view from right inside the app and they are actually pretty lengthy. The beginning guitar lesson is forty-five minutes long! They are great lessons that move at a nice pace, and really do get you going on the basics of guitar. There are also intermediate and advanced lessons available. The top of the video selection screen is a big advertisement for the Learn & Master Guitar instructional series. If you want more lessons, you can tap on the ad to go check out the website and make the purchase. The app also includes a navigation button to visit the Gibson website to check out news and special articles.

Overall, the application is a great, free tool that any guitarist would appreciate having. Even though it’s not feature rich, it’s still nice to have. The user interface is intuitive and the graphics are surprisingly nice, making it look and feel like a paid application. It’s absolutely worth a try.

Multi-Tasking For 3rd Party iPhone Apps?

Sources who have spoken to AppleInsider are saying, it appears that the version 4.0 of Apple’s iPhone operating system will finally support app multitasking.  This is a feature long desired by iPhone users and is currently provided by Google’s competitive Android mobile OS.  Actually the iPhone does currently support multitasking

The current 3.x OS running on the iPhone and iPod Touch does in fact support multitasking, it just that Apple restricts third party apps from running in the background.   Bundled apps, like iTunes, the phone, and Mail currently run in the background, so it’s not a technical issue preventing full multitasking.

One of the benefits of Apple’s current policy is that it prevents malware from running in the background unknown to the user.  This increases the overall security of their devices and thus retains Apple’s perception of producing virus-free hardware.

iPhone Street Fighter 4 Released

The wait is finally over and all you street fighter fans out there can finally start kicking butt on your iphone!

The Game Developer’s Conference is currently underway in San Francisco this week and during last night’s super secret Street Fighter event, Capcom pulled the switch and put Street Fighter IV onto the App Store.

Street Fighter IV will cost you $9.99 and feature 8 out of the 19 characters from the console versions.  A new ‘Dojo’ mode is also available on Street Fighter IV iPhone, which serves as a way for players to practice simple moves, to more advanced ones.  Multiplayer is possible as well via Bluetooth, so traveling street fighters can take on everybody no matter where they go.

This game is awesome and has some pretty cool graphics and responsive game play that all street fighter fans will enjoy!

Apple Will Revamp The iPhone For China

Apple is reportedly trying to re-enter the Chinese smartphone market with a revamped iPhone, by working together with China Unicom.

The Cupertino-based company wants to offer a re-designed version of its popular iPhone, along with Chinese standard WiFi capabilities.

Back in October, Apple tried to enter the Chinese smartphone market, but failed to take the country by storm as the phone offered a lot less than the what was being offered by the localized fake versions of the device.

The Chinese government asked Apple and Unicom to stop supporting WiFi and adapt to the Chinese standard WAPI.

However, now, Wall Street Journal has reported that Apple and Unicom are working together to offer the Chinese customers a re-designed iPhone which will comply with all state laws including support for WAPI wireless internet and WiFi.

Talking to reporters at a session of the National People’s Congress, Unicom’s Chief Executive Chang Xiaobing stated that the company will look to sell the iPhone at a competitive price in order to cope with competition from the cheaper fake versions of the device available in grey markets across China.

iPhone Rocks The GDC

If you had any doubts that the iPhone must now be considered one of the world’s most important gaming platforms, this week’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco will try to put them to rest once and for all.

For years, GDC, as it’s known, has hosted two days of “summits” early in the week, before the main keynote address and the bulk of the panels and sessions begin, including the longstanding GDC Mobile, which dealt with just about every issue a developer could want on mobile and handheld devices.

And this year is no exception. Starting Tuesday, the GDC Mobile/Handheld summit will begin, offering 18 discussions on things like “bootstrapping games on Android;” “Creating augmented reality experiences on Nintendo DSi;” “Social networks: The new marketplace for mobile games?” and more. There’s even one called “Get your iPhone game to 2,000 other devices.”

But strikingly absent among those 18 panels are any that deal with game development specifically for the iPhone. And why? Because for the first time, the GDC advisory board decided that Apple’s smartphone is an important enough platform to warrant its own summit.

As a result, on Tuesday and Wednesday, hundreds–if not thousands–of people will shuffle into the 16 panels and discussions that make up the iPhone Games summit, sessions like “How to keep your game on top of the charts;” “Fastest path from concept to Top Paid;” “A big dash of success: how to capture the female iPhone gamer” and more.

Finally A Release Date for iPad!

Finally we know when the iPad will go on sale, April 3 with pre-ordering starting March 12. Apple says it will first sell its Wi-Fi-enabled iPads on April 3 and will sell Wi-Fi- and 3G-equipped models “in late April.” On March 12 you’ll be able pre-order either model.

Apple says iPad will be available in Wi-Fi models on April 3 in the U.S. for a suggested retail price of $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, and $699 for 64GB. The 3G-equipped iPad will be available in late April for a suggested retail price of $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB, and $829 for 64GB. iPad will be sold in the U.S. through Apple’s online store, Apple retail stores, and select Apple authorized resellers.

The announcement puts a rest to rumors of a delay by Apple to bring iPad to market. During his keynote introducing the iPad in late January, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said the non-3G iPad would hit store shelves in 60 days, followed by the 3G model 30 days after that.

In a prepared statement today, Jobs said, “We’re excited for customers to get their hands on this magical and revolutionary product and connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”

As part of the launch of the iPad, Apple says it will also officially release the free iBooks app for the iPad that gives the iPad e-book functionality. Starting on April 3, the iBooks app will be available along with Apple’s iBook bookstore, which is available through iTunes. The iBookstore will feature books from both major and independent publishers, including Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Group, and Simon & Schuster, Apple says.

Apple says the iPad will first be available in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the U.K. Pricing for countries outside of the U.S. is expected in late April.

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