Filed under: App Review

I have been a fan of 3D ever since I found a 3D horror comic book in an old flea market when I was a kid. The anaglyph red/blue glasses made the black and white comic images jump off the page. It really hooked me, and since then I've seen most all of the 3D movies made, ranging from The Creature From the Black Lagoon, to Kiss Me Kate, to Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder, in the early days, to the pretty darned amazing IMAX 3D Across the Sea of Time, the first one that really blew me away. With recent releases using the Real-D process, films are using 3D as a storytelling device instead of a gimmick - as evidenced in both Coraline and Up.

Now 3D is making a huge resurgence. It's hard to find a CGI animated film that's not in 3D. The market is getting ready to explode with live action 3D films from big name directors, like the upcoming Avatar, directed by James Cameron, and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Dreamworks states that all it's animated product will be in 3D from now on and Pixar is redoing the two Toy Story pictures for 3D before the release of Toy Story 3, also in 3D.

I spent many visits exploring the old Museum of Holography in lower New York City standing, amazed, in front of, and walking around seemingly impossible sights. I'm by nature a gimmick nut and holography is the most impressive visual manipulation I've ever come across. I was very excited to find the Holograms app by Mach Kobayashi. Even though the app's 3D effect is not actually holography, the demo video looked amazing and the results are impressive - but getting it to work is less easy.

Continue reading Holograms: potential and confusion for $1.99

TUAWHolograms: potential and confusion for $1.99 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sponsored Topics: Tim Burton - Toy Story - New York City - Movies - James Cameron

While the online photo-sharing app Radar offers some interesting features, it really doesn't do enough to stand out in the crowded photo-sharing field.

Filed under: Video, Bad Apple, iPhone

Forget about everything else. The cool consumer rage is currently directed at AT&T. Pat Lee, a Chicago iPhone user, is asking the iPhone community to petition Apple to drop AT&T exclusivity. In this biting 30-second video, Lee suggests that disgruntled users voice their displeasure about "less bars in more places." He points viewers to Apple's feedback page to get their AT&T hate on.

Created in Adobe After Effects, the video has great production values and a stinging message. Oh, and it's not especially safe for work. So you might want to bookmark this for later.

TUAWFound Footage: iPhone Consumer Revolt (NSFW) originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sponsored Topics: IPhone - Apple - TUAW - Unofficial Apple Weblog - AT&T

Default Folder X adds support for Snow Leopard's 64-bit architecture and fixes a problem that could cause the utility’s hierarchical menus to crash under OS X 10.6. Also on Monday, Alien Skin Software released its Photo Bundle suite, Ion Audio released the Tape 2 PC peripheral, and version 9.0 of Akvis Sketch came out.

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, App Review

In a perfect world, every iPhone app would be free, fun, and washed in unicorn tears -- but alas, that's not the case (and just as well for the app developers trying to make money on the store). With more than 65,000 applications available, it's hard to tell what's worth the money and what isn't. In addition, developers are constantly updating their apps, changing prices, adding features and so on.

BargainBin [iTunes Link] is here to help (and it's free). The free application constantly watches over the App Store and lets you know when items go on sale. In the latest update of the app, you can now even receive push notifications whenever a price drop or sale occurs. In addition, you can view screenshots and descriptions of the apps right within BargainBin.

Users can set up a "watch list" that will inform them of changes to specific apps they're looking for or you can broaden your scope and have BargainBin keep you informed on changes to your favorite type of apps instead.

Sporting a nice custom interface, many customizable settings and filters as well as push notifications, BargainBin is a great addition for those looking to score great apps for low prices.

Here's a few shots of BargainBin in action:

TUAWBargainBin keeps you on top of app sales originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sponsored Topics: iPhone - App Store - Apple - IPod Touch - TUAW

Ed ecco, dopo tutte le notizie di oggi su TomTom, una bella notizia per tutti gli appassionati di GTA e tutti gli utenti che attendono con ansia l’arrivo di Gang$tar: West Coast Hustle nell’AppStore. Gameloft, infatti, ha da poco rilasciato due nuovi messaggi su Twitter in cui informa tutta l’utenza che è stato aperto un minisito dedicato al nuovo titolo, visitabile cliccando qui.

All’interno potremo trovare moltissimi contenuti che vanno da recensioni, ad immagini e video per finire. La cosa più interessante, però, è la rivelazione del prezzo di lancio: diversamente dagli altri titoli, Gang$tar West Coast Huntle avrà un prezzo iniziale di 5.49€, che crescerà, probabilmente, dopo una o due settimane dall’arrivo sullo store Apple. Non appena ci saranno novità a riguardo, naturalmente, sarete informati tramite un nuovo articolo.

Aggiornamento: all’interno di un nuovo tweet fa sapere che il gioco sarà disponibile a fine Agosto. Vi terremo, come sempre, informati!

The designer of Apple's iconic logo, Rob Janoff, talks about its history, its impact, and its design.

Filed under: App Store, App Review

If you're into entertainment, the newly updated i.TV for iPhone (iTunes link) offers more content than ever before. Now in its sixth release, i.TV aims to keep you on top of listings, DVD rentals, and more.

If there's a single word that describes this iPhone application, it's "cluttered." i.TV offers more choices, more features, more everything than you'd ever expect. It's a lot like walking into Aunt Marge's trinket-strewn living room with her 27 cats-complete with the chaos you'd expect from a large-scale multi-cat household.

And yet, despite this clutter, there's a lot of usable content on-offer. If you're willing to put up with too-many-kitties syndrome, i.TV provides some information gems.

As a standout feature, i.TV offers a very nice TV listings browser. It automatically detects your location and shows you what's playing on the services in your area. The interface for the show browser is well designed and it's easy to pick a date and time to examine.

When you find a show you want to watch, you can request an e-mail alert or invite a friend to watch with you. You can also use the TiVo scheduling API to create a recording schedule direct from your iPhone. The application even offers a Wi-Fi based TiVo remote.

i.TV doesn't stop with TV. It offers movie listings and reviews as well. You can scan your local theaters, find show times, or if the movie is older, add a request to your Netflix queue. If a movie is available via iTunes, you can tap a link to connect you to the iTunes Store.

As you can tell, there's an awful lot to love about i.TV. Yet, at the same time, there's an awful lot that needs work. In many ways, i.TV feels rushed. Its user interface design needs some serious re-thinking, especially given how many features and options are packed into this hand-held application.

As an example, when you sign up for an i.TV account, you must confirm that you're over 13 years old. The control that's offered for that option is a standard "On/Off" switch. With just a little more thought and programming, the i.TV developers could have created a standard button (rather than a switch) that toggles from No to Yes and back.

In the same sign up sheet, you must use the iPhone keyboard to laboriously enter your e-mail address. Twice. A simple register-by-email form could have let you use your current iPhone's mail settings with a pre-filled note to do the same work with far less typing burden.

Sometimes the application misses obvious usability elements. For example, if you want to record a show to your TiVo, you must work through the "Link to your TiVo account page," but there's no "Back" button offered on that page or any other hint as to how to return to where you were. You can move forward (enter your account data and tap Link My Account) but not back. Yes, you only encounter this page until you set up your account but it's just a basic development principle that you should provide a way to cancel out of an action.

Missteps like these are surprising on an app that does offer some very nice user interface features like the pop-down menu that appears when you tap on the Watch button. I'm enamored with that particularly clever UI element presentation. Unfortunately other UI choices fall short. I haven't played with earlier i.TV releases, so it's hard to tell which elements have been added on for the new update and which are original. But i.TV really needs to hire a usability engineer and work on the overall application flow and feature choices to integrate these million-odd possibilities into a better whole.

So even with these interface issues, do I recommend trying out i.TV? Why yes, I do. Its TV and Movie information retrieval is both useful and on-point. Despite the clutter of its million other features, i.TV puts you right on top of now-playing information. And if you can sort your way through to a few of the features you'll use in addition to that core functionality, you'll find it a handy tool to keep on your iPhone.

i.TV is a free download and well worth giving a spin.

TUAWi.TV for iPhone: Cluttered but promising entertainment guide originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sponsored Topics: iPhone - App Store - iTunes Store - Apple - TUAW