This new version of SmileOnMyMac's time-saving text snippet tool gains faster tools, search, more powerful options for customizing snippets on the fly, and easier ways to sync one's snippet library between Macs.

This app taps an RSS feed to pump out the first half-dozen words of news headlines, requiring you to play an individual game of hangman on one or more of those words. It's easily one of the more clever and challenging hangman games in the App Store.

Facebook and Twitter are preparing to flip the switch on features that will allow you to share your location with your friends at any time.

Filed under: Gaming, Retail, Software, Developer, iPhone, App Store

They started by looking at the original game developed by Activision and Treyarch. Zombies is a extra mode of Call of Duty: World at War that was developed as a "lunchtime project" -- a few developers threw it together on a whim, and enjoyed it so much that they released it as DLC, outside of the original game. So Ideaworks wanted to run with that vibe -- create a game that you could play on your lunch break, or squeeze into a few minutes. They did find that the App Store tended towards more casual and family games, but they didn't feel that the mature game could be successfully translated to a family-friendly format. Instead, they decided to stick with the blood and gore: "Activision," Clarke joked, "said we would have to learn to love our 17+ rating, and live with not releasing in every country in the world."

And they also wanted to create a game with "relaunchability," a term that a developer at Treyarch coined. "What keeps you relaunching the game," said Clarke, "is that, like most zombie games, you don't really win. You're just postponing your inevitable death." He also said that learning became a big function of the gameplay -- the game allows you to defend the same environment against zombies every time, so eventually you learn the best spots to make a stand, and so on.

Before development even started, they created a set of benchmarks in terms of performance and gameplay that they wanted to hit: Twenty zombies felt right for gameplay (you'd only be fighting 10 at any given time, but 10 more would be hanging around in the background), 20 FPS seemed like a good target for speed, 2000 triangles for graphics, and of course two thumbs ("the amount that most people have") for control.

The controls were probably the most interesting part of prototyping -- Clarke says his team really tried to brainstorm an interesting way to control an FPS on the iPhone. The problem, however, was that in an FPS game, you're doing three things (running, looking, and shooting), but you only have two thumbs to do them with. One prototype they created had you tilting the accelerometer around to move (while looking and shooting with two onscreen controls), but for some reason, that made everyone who tested it rather dizzy. In the end, they went with a compromise, including a few different choices: a dual stick standard, an aiming assist system, and even a mode that only slightly uses the accelerometer to look around.

Authenticity was another question -- obviously the iPhone doesn't have the processing power of the latest and greatest consoles, so Ideaworks had to work hard to walk the line between keeping the game running smoothly and keeping it detailed enough to compare to the bigger title. They did a lot of pruning on the original model work, turning geometry into straight textures, and cutting off 3D modeling that couldn't actually be seen by the player (the original team had even modeled tree roots underground, rendered on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, but never actually seen). They did things like not animating enemies when they weren't in the player's line of sight, and just using a sphere for the grenade hit model rather than actually modeling the shape, since it worked just as well. In the end, the iPhone had only about 1/7th of the geometry of the original game, but Ideaworks tried to make it at least look as similar as they could.

Multiplayer was a challenge, but fortunately, Activision had already created an online backend, so when Ideaworks hooked into that system, they were able to put together all of the multiplayer ideas they had (2-player, 4-player, and even a full online system) and then some (host migration was a project one of their engineers threw together in his spare time, and Bluetooth multiplayer was also added in on a whim).

Finally, Clarke shared a few lessons from the game's development. In terms of the controls, they learned that offering a choice to the player is sometimes the right move, and when there is a choice, you usually need to force it at some point (if you hide a different control scheme in the options, most players will never find it). Piracy was something else they learned -- while Clarke was hesitant to speak much about his opinions on piracy, he did say that it was easier to pirate the game than anyone on his team believed, and that in the first days of the release, they saw a significant number of extra users playing than had actually bought the game.

Still, Clarke said that the game had done very well -- they've been high on the App Store's Top Paid list ever since release, and while he didn't mention sales for the main game, he said that the lite version has seen over three million downloads. Clarke's panel offered up an interesting look behind one of the App Store's big name hits.

TUAWGDC 2010: Call of Duty: World at War Zombies postmortem originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Un peu plus tard que d'habitude et donc sans push pour ne pas réveiller les utilisateurs de notre application iFon.fr !

Voici donc quelques applications et jeux proposés dans le cadre des opérations de passage en gratuit quotidiennes ou limitées dans le temps.

• "Mobicip Safe Browser" est un navigateur destiné aux plus jeunes puisqu'il propose un navigateur avec 'controle parental' permettant d'éviter que vos enfants naviguent sur des sites réservés à un public adulte. Il sera à utiliser en remplacement de Safari, dont il reprend les bases, pour cela il faut aller dans "Réglages > Général > Restrictions" et les activer puis désactiver Safari. Ce navigateur est proposé gratuitement actuellement (pour combien de temps) , ici sur l'AppStore.
  

• "Code Postal" est une application permettant ni plus ni moins que de trouver les codes postaux des villes de France, puis de les positionner sur une carte. Il est proposé gratuitement depuis récemment ici sur l'AppStore.
  

• "Kaleidora Deluxe" est situé entre l'application et le jeu, qui vous propose des effets visuels et sonores de type kaléidoscope. Il est proposé gratuitement ici sur l'AppStore.
  

Quant aux jeux, les voici :

• "Sniper Strike" est un jeu dans lequel vous êtes un snipper en charge d'éliminer vos cibles. Il est proposé gratuitement aujourd'hui uniquement, ici sur l'AppStore.
  

• "Funkyball Worlds" est un jeu de puzzle dans un univers graphique original et coloré. Il est proposé gratuitement aujourd'hui uniquement, ici sur l'AppStore.
  

• "Lucky Shot, Revolver Gold Edition" ne restera surement pas longtemps sur votre machine, mais pour ceux qui veulent jouer à la roulette russe sans danger, pourquoi pas ? Il est proposé gratuitement ici sur l'AppStore.
  

Bonne chasse aux apps et ... Bravo Lyon !

Ne manquez pas les bonnes affaires de l'AppStore, suivez nous sur Twitter, via RSS, sur le site mobile de iPhon.fr ou avec l'application dédiée iFon.fr

ComScore's latest numbers on U.S. smartphone market share show Apple holding second place, though Android is growing strongly.

Filed under: Apple

Unit testing refers to a software validation methodology that allows programmers to test individual program units for correctness. It's been an ongoing question in the iPhone developer community as to whether the iPhone's view controller class is testable or not.

In response to these discussions, iPhone developer Jonah Williams has written up a view controller unit testing how-to over at the Carbon Five web blog. His write-up offers examples that show how to incorporate some best practices into your code.

Williams points out how broken NIB bindings are a common problem for iPhone OS applications. To address these issues, he regularly adds simple assertions that test that each IB outlet and action are set properly from inside his view controller class implementations. These assertions check that IBOutlet instance variables are not set to nil and that IBAction targets have been assigned, adding a layer of protection against broken bindings.

Another typical view controller issue involves responding to application memory warnings. To respond, he adds tests that ensure that each view-dependent property gets correctly released and re-created as views unload and then later reload. By building these into test methods, he can execute this behavior on demand, and ensure that the sequence will execute flawlessly in real world conditions.

Finally, Williams discusses view controller interdependencies. Often instances are tightly intertwined, with objects acting as clients for each other. For example, a simple table view controller, living within a navigation controller, might present a detail view via yet another view controller when a row is selected. That's three separate controllers to account for, when you really only want to test one at a time. Williams suggests isolating these view controllers away from their interdependencies to test each component separately and provides examples of how you can do so.

What made Williams' approach pop for me is how he carefully exposes and isolates dependencies for testing. These are features that can otherwise be hard to inspect and validate in the normal course of programming. His write-up is well worth reading through, and provides an excellent jumping off point for investigating view controller unit testing.

TUAWiPhone devsugar: Unit testing for iPhone view controllers originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

iPhoneItalia Redeem Contest è il nostro concorso quotidiano in cui mettiamo in palio codici promozionali per scaricare gratuitamente e legalmente applicazioni e giochi da App Store. Oggi mettiamo in palio 5 codici redeem per Pacco, disponibile su AppStore al prezzo di 2,99€.

Pacco consente di monitorare le spedizioni di numerosi corrieri.

Il concorso termina alle 08:00 (ora italiana) di domani marzo 2010 e i codici saranno assegnati per estrazione. Per partecipare è sufficiente commentare questo articolo.

I vincitori dell’estrazione verranno indicati su questa stessa pagina in serata. Ricordiamo che per usufruire dei codici redeem è necessario disporre di un account iTunes Store USA (qui la guida su come crearne uno).

Possono partecipare al concorso tutti gli utenti (registrati e non registrati) del sito, ad esclusione dei membri della redazione e dei membri dello staff del forum (moderatori).

Ricordiamo che ogni utente può partecipare una sola volta: tentativi di partecipazione multipla usando nickname/email diversi comporteranno la squalifica automatica dell’utente.

I vincitori saranno contattati tramite email al termine dell’estrazione, per questo è importante assicurarsi di fornire un indirizzo email valido e funzionante. Buona fortuna a tutti!

On Tuesday, Samsung showed off its first-ever line of 3D LED TVs as well as other additions to its LED, LCD, and plasma TV lineups, many of which offer built-in 3D technology.

Unusual Studio ha presentato la nuova linea di custodie per iPhone.

Si tratta di custodie molto carine, che raffigurano originali artwork stampati sul case tramite avanzate tecniche di stampa.

Le custodie proteggono la sola parte posteriore dell’iPhone. Al momento non sono ancora disponibili per la vendita.