Check out a video of the game in progress below:

Here’s a quick excerpt from the man himself:

I took a moment to relax and ported Quake 1 natively to the iPhone and iPod Touch last night. I call it quake4iphone. Everything is implemented including network play. This video is of Quake4iphone running one of 3 demos included in the shareware Quake 1 WAD files. It’s also taken before I implemented controls, which are similar to how my other apps such as the GBA emulator gpSPhone work in portrait mode.

No word on if he’ll be releasing it once completed, but I don’t see why he wouldn’t. We’ll keep you informed on future updates of ZodTTD’s Quake port for the iPhone.

It’s no Quake III, but hell, it’ll do for now. By all means, it’s only a cellphone for frig sakes. (”only”… ha ha!)

(via iPhone Alley)

Apple this morning posted three new television spots on their website, advertising the new iPhone 3G internationally. These ads are viewable via the Apple website.

The first of the three ads was named “Everyone”, and can be viewed here. This ad talks about how the new iPhone 3G has 3G access but costs half the price.

The second of the ads was named “Unslow”, and can be viewed here. This ad explains that 3G is internet access that’s “twice as fast” as EDGE.

Lastly, the third ad was named “Work Friendly”, and can be viewed here. This ad talks about how the iPhone 3G has enterprise features for business users like push calender, email, and contacts.

Korean manufacturer Neoneco seems to understand this, so they have not only devised a set of speakers that are actually portable to a realistic degree, and rather attractive to boot, they’re powered. The iPod Swing Speakers are effectively Crystal-style cases with attached speakers and have their own rechargeable Lithium Ion battery pack that Neoneco rates at about 10 hours of play time (though they don’t say at what volume level this rating is based on). Aesthetically they’re actually rather nice looking — despite my objections to plastic cases, which don’t really count since these needn’t be used specifically as your every-day protection.

They’re available for the Nano, Classic and Touch. Their product page has approximately zero information (other than an image of the Nano version) but the good folks at Aving have managed to squeeze a few more details.

The good news is that they are quite inexpensive, setting you back a mere 29,000KRW (US $29) for the Nano version, 32,000KRW (US $32) for the iPod Classic, and 35,000KRW (US $36) for the iPod Touch. The bad news is that they’re currently only available in Korea, and there is currenrtly no word if we’ll be seeing them on this continent soon — but here’s hoping.  Check the article image for a larger preview.

(via Aving USA)

So let’s do a bit of multiple choice here. How do you think they did it?

1. They worked out their own unlock method
2. They somehow managed to snag some early code from the Dev Team
3. They obtained a factory-unlocked model from abroad and are passing it off as a software-unlock for the purposes of attention whoring

Before you lock in your vote, have a look at the video. No information is given about their alleged method of unlock, and there is a shameless web URL and Montreal phone number plastered all over the place.

Don’t all push “3″ at once.

(via Engadget)

It will also unlock any first-gen iPhone running up to and including firmware 2.0, but as expected it is not yet capable of unlocking the iPhone 3G due to the updated baseband.

Those who have WinPwn 1.0 are advised to uninstall it before going ahead and installing this. Obviously, you also need iTunes 7.7 and a valid firmware IPSW to Pwn. If you are doing this on AT&T you do not need to activate or install the YouTube fix.

Also remember that a great deal (most?) of the toolchain-developed apps won’t work on 2.0 until the authors update them for the new firmware. As far as I know, Installer, Cydia and NES.app have all been updated to 2.0. Beyond that, you’re on your own.

Note that as of right now, winpwn.org seems to be having troubles, presumably due to high traffic. You can download WinPwn from this direct link, or from the dreaded RapidShare (.de or .com) mirrors.

(via Engadget)

We’re now well into the second week of the App Store, and things certainly aren’t slowing down. Apps keep pouring in — and some of them are even good! And since I’m a Canadian, bereft of a credit card, it’s not like there’s a simple way for me to go buy any of the pay ones, is there? Canadian tax and commerce laws being what they are and all. But I digress. We’re here to talk about the stuff that wants you to keep your wallet (and assorted other things) in your pants, because your dirty, dirty lucre is no good to them.

This week, please imagine each entry being read by James Earl Jones. It’s much cooler that way.

Alright, that’s all I can cram in for tonight. It’s too damn late and I ought to be sleeping, so that’s an oversight I’m about to correct. You can just go ahead and download some free digital swag while I dream of wrapping my mitts around a glossy black iPhone 3G and wondering why oh why shiny shiny things can tempt me even to give into the Evil Rogers Empire but consoling myself with the knowledge that soon enough, Ted Rogers will be soiling his starchy drawers as the spectre of competition looms over his balding pate. Ahh, sweet, sweet dreams.

The biggest gripe for Canadians when it comes to mobile technology? Rogers has the lock on the GSM market. (Fido is owned by Rogers, remember.) They have no useful competition to force them to offer more reasonable rates, and except when users band together in large numbers and scream loudly enough, as was the case with the recent iPhone rate fiasco, we have little say in how they choose to shaft us. Threaten to go to Bell? Sure, we could — but that’s hardly much of a threat. Bell is CDMA, and while they offer more attractive rates, it’s only because they don’t get all the cool phones because many of the cool phones aren’t available to CDMA providers, and that’s because CDMA is dying. With only 20% of the global wireless market, CDMA has been steadily losing out to GSM, which most of the rest of the world uses.

And in a startling turn of events, both Bell and Telus, the second and third largest wireless carriers in Canada behind Rogers, have finally decided to toss in the CDMA towel and cast their lot with GSM.

In case you TLDR’ed that: Bell and Telus are converting to GSM.

Any Canadian will be able to tell you how fundamentally game-changing that is. If Ted Rogers wasn’t particularly concerned about the spectrum auction generating some minor contenders, he ought to be stocking up on his Depends now. Bell is huge. They were the home phone monopoly in Canada for the longest time, and even after the government deregulated the telecom industry, no significant competition ever cropped up. (Sprint tried but failed quite spectacularly.) Although Rogers offers home phone technology, it isn’t quite up to snuff, and Bell is still the de facto monopoly.

Bell switching to GSM, and Telus following suit? That ought to be enough to have Ted very, very concerned. Obviously this isn’t going to be an overnight thing; the move will reportedly cost an estimated $360-480m, and Huawei and Nokia-Siemens are favourites to win in the list of contenders to handle the transition.

But it’s not the iPhone that prompted Bell to take the plunge - or not only that. Besides being the industry standard wireless technology, GSM also makes it possible for switchers to bring their phones with them to Bell or Telus. It also allows the two telecoms to benefit from lucrative roaming charges when visitors from abroad bring their GSM phones with them — and if not roaming charges, then prepaid SIMs for local calling. Either way there’s big money in it for them.

But the big winners here will be Canadian wireless afficionados. Between Bell and Telus switcing to GSM and new entrants to the arena popping up from the wireless spectrum auction also expecting to use GSM technology in the next 12-18 months, Rogers is going to have a great deal of competition in a very short period of time, some of it a clear and present threat to Rogers’ own dominance. This means that we’re going to be seeing wheels turning and deals being spun left and right as Rogers tries to keep their customers from being swayed by the sweet sounds of the competition luring them with even better deals.

Oh, these are definitely interesting times.

(via CBC News)

**rub**rub**

Nope. Still there. Those words are still there. But let me back up.

Turns out that this June quarter has been the best June quarter in Apple history, pimping gross revenue of $7.46bn and a net quarterly profit of $1.07bn. Compare that against $5.41bn gross and $818m profit this time last year, and that spells big paper, yo.

More numbers? How about 11,011,000 iPods sold during this quarter. That’s eleven million iPods in three months, or 12% unit growth over the same period last year. iPhone sales? 717,000 sold this past quarter, compared to 270,000 last year. And then The Steve dropped the quote of all quotes:

We set a new record for Mac sales, we think we have a real winner with
our new iPhone 3G, and we’re busy finishing several more wonderful new
products to launch in the coming months.

Did you see that? Those words, “…wonderful new products to launch in the coming months.” That’s Steve Jobs flat out spilling the beans that there will be new products launching soon. Steve never — never talks about future releases. Ever. Apple has scrupulously been quite possibly the hardest rumour nut to crack in the history of tech companies — you’d have an easier time pulling hen’s teeth than getting The Steve to confirm or deny even the tiniest of rumours. And now here he goes just blurting it out right there on the table.

Is he placating investors? Maybe. But The Steve knows the power of hype. He uses it masterfully to spur the blogosphere to spin rumours en masse and build anticipation to a fever pitch. But rumours have to be built on something, and apart from the next iPod revisions, no one yet has any clue what else they might be up to — nor has anyone reason to believe they’re up to anything.

Until now. Now he’s dropped a tantalizing but perfectly vague statement talking of new products. And there is absolutely no doubt that this single statement will now become the nucleation site from which pages upon pages of rumours will now bubble up to the surface. A new convertible tablet Macbook? A new rethink on the iPod? Some other as-yet unimagined device? Oh, the possibilities that the blogosphere will dream up between now and the next Apple Event.

Please remember to remain seated and keep your hands inside the ride at all times.

(via Apple)

Ann Arbor, Michigan - Ilium Software is very pleased to announce the immediate availability of eWallet for iPhone and iPod touch devices. eWallet is an award-winning secure information and password manager application that’s used to store important personal information like credit card numbers, passwords, PINs and much more. The release follows on heels of eWallet 6.1, made available earlier this month for Windows Mobile and Palm OS devices.

Ilium Software used its more than eleven years of experience developing mobile device software to bring the popular eWallet application to the iPhone platform. eWallet uses the 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to keep user’s private information from falling into the wrong hands.

Information can be displayed in the easily recognizable card format or in a grid view. The cards are rendered with crystal clarity using the iPhone’s built-in graphics engine and can be customized to look the way users want them to. The application includes Ilium Software’s world-class, technical support and customer service available by web, email and phone.

In addition to the eWallet for iPhone release, Ilium Software has also announced that eWallet will be available for BlackBerry devices within the next two weeks.

Pricing and Availability:

eWallet for iPhone will be available through iTunes and the on-device App Store and will have a special introductory price of $9.99 (USD). More information about the new release can be found on Ilium Software’s website.

Ilium Software
eWallet
Purchase Link
Screenshot
Screenshot/App Icon

Founded in 1997, Ilium Software is a privately held, independent software vendor. The company produces and sells a family of award-winning consumer and business mobile applications for Windows PC, Windows Mobile, iPhone and Palm OS mobile devices. Complete information about Ilium Software and its products is available on their website.

Now, I dunno about you, but in Ye Olden Tymes (even, uh, oldener than PDAs) my desk was a replica of the Earth’s mantle made up of little notes and diagrams and graph papers and lordy only knows what else — and there were always half a dozen sheets with passwords and crap scrawled on them. Once I switched to the PC, all of those paper notes turned into digital ones, which now litter the My Documents folder in various locations that guarantee I’m never going to be able to find them when I need them, because every time I try and organize my stuff, I put them in places and give them names I never remember.

Sound familiar? You’re just as scatterbrained as me. But this app helped me on the Palm and PocketPC platforms, and now it’s going to help me on the iPhone. I like the 256-bit AES, ‘cos I feel safe enough to put my banking info and cards in there too. Now I just have to remember where I put all my passwords so I can add them…

You’ll need the original 1.0 version of WinPwn, the original 1.0 version of BootNeuter from Installer, iTunes 7.7, ZiPhone, and a pre-fab IPSW created by Pwnage 2.0. Then you can follow the step-by-step instructions posted on iPhoneHacks and cross your figures that all the steps go as planned and everything works as advertised on the tin.

Again though, this is not for a first-timer. You’d better have your iPhone hacking game up to snuff and follow the instructions to the letter, lest you end up bricking your poor device.

One good note is that it has been confirmed that a jailbroken iPhone 2.0 can coexist peacefully with the App Store, as I figured it would, so you needn’t worry about your app store apps suddenly not working.

Those of you with sufficient intestinal fortitude who can’t wait to get their 2.Pwn on can head over to iPhone Hacks for a complete tutorial.

(via iPhoneHacks)

Bolstered by the roaring success of Super Monkey Ball and an adoration for the platform, Simon stated that they already have “quite a few” games in development for the iPhone, “…and some very cool stuff.” He would not admit to a Sonic game in the works when asked point blank, but the intimation was there quite strongly. He did however say that they are absolutely be looking back at their Dreamcast lineup for material.

Which brings us to the interesting statement he made. “You’re playing dreamcast-quality games on this tiny little device,” he said, adding when it was brought up that the iPhone’s processing power was comparable to the Dreamcast, “It’s like that, yeah.” I admit, I was a little baffled by this statement, but once I took a look at the tech specs of each device I realized, that’s probably not too far from the truth, though perhaps a tad hyperbolic.

Witness the main CPU, for example. The Dreamcast used a 32-bit Hitachi SuperH SH-4 RISC CPU (specs) with an integrated 128-bit floating point unit (FPU, the thing that does all the hard math) running at 200MHz and pushing 360 million instructions per second (MIPS) and 1.4 gigaflops (that’s 1.4 billion floating point operations per second). The iPhone uses a 32-bit ARM 1176 RISC CPU (specs) that runs natively at 620MHz, but is underclocked to 412MHz. Faster, yes, but there’s no FPU, so the main portion of the CPU has to do the math itself. This lack of an FPU on the iPhone’s CPU means significant degradation in the processor’s ability to handle math-intensive operations like physics calculations.

The graphics processor, or GPU, is where the two are far more similar. The Dreamcast uses the Imagination Technologies PowerVR series 2 GPU running at 100MHz. The chip featured all the latest technologies of the time — perspective-correct hardware texture mapping (helps correct texture distortion), transparency, 32-bit Z-buffering, gouraud shading, coloured light sourcing, MIP mapping, bump mapping, point, trilinear and anisotropic filtering, full scene antialiasing with supersampling, volumetric fog, light and shadow, et cetera. The iPhone uses the PowerVR MBX, which was effectively an enhanced, low-power successor to its KYRO 3 line, but adds capabilities such as curved surfaces, DOT3 lighting (per-pixel lighting), environment mapping (reflections of the game world on shiny surfaces), multitexturing (texture layers), displacement mapping (how imagery gets distorted when viewed through transparent, distorted surfaces like mottled glass, or reflected off of turbulent water), light bloom (how light from bright sources seems to seep around the edges of objects) and more.

Another issue here is bus bandwidth.  The bus is like a highway along which data travels from one component of the system to another.  Like a real highway, the wider it is, the more traffic can move along it at once, side-by-side, so the more data can get from one place to the other in a given time frame.  The Dreamcast utilized a 64-bit bus, which was pretty fat for the day and was rivaled only by its predecessors, the Nintendo 64 and the Atari Jaguar.  That means that 8 bytes can travel along the bus at once, so the processor could concievably send 8 instructions, or 4 instructions with 4 one-byte parameters, to the GPU in one CPU cycle, for example, and the GPU could send just as much data back to the CPU in one CPU cycle.  The iPhone on the other hand runs on a 32-bit bus — half the width, so it can only send a maximum of 4 bytes per CPU cycle.  This again significantly reduces the amount of data the device can process at once.

Now, these are just the primary areas where the two can be most favourably compared. You can also add that the iPhone has more main memory (128mb with 112mb available to the user) and a lower screen resolution, which means less to render and therefore more power available to place 3D objects on the screen and/or add special effects. This is certainly true, but it comes back to the iPhone’s lack of a powerful FPU and its narrower bus, because this is where the Dreamcast shoots out ahead in terms of raw 3D processing power. The ability to handle complex maths and be able to transfer large quantities of data across the bus can’t be underestimated when we’re talking about 3D applications. Math is the core of 3D processing, and distributing the graphics that make up 3D scenery requiers a fat bus. The better a processor is at it, and the wider its bus, the faster and more complex the 3D scenes it can build, and this is where the iPhone falls behind.

Oh, don’t get me wrong — the iPhone is still very capable of building wonderful 3D imagery, but a Dreamcast it is not. Not quite, anyway — its higher specs in some areas go some distance towards mitigating its shortcomings, but not far enough.  Still, it gets close, and that’s no small achievement for such a small handheld.

At any rate, you can watch the interview at the Kotaku link below for all the tasty Sega plans.

(via Kotaku)

Based around the original Wolfenstein 3D series, which kickstarted the whole first-person shooter era on the PC, Wolfenstein RPG will put you back into the role of B.J. Blazkowicz, combining familiar FPS elements with additional RPG elements such as character levels, experience points, in a quest to assault Castle Wolfenstein and shut down the Nazi Paranormal Division. During your campaign, you will encounter 32 different enemies, including super soldiers, elite guards, zombies, and tormenters, across 9 levels, plus a couple of amusing mini-games, “War” and “Kick the Chicken,” for a change of pace. (I’m guessing the latter will be something like “Super Turbo Turkey Puncher III” from Doom 3) You’ll come across 17 different weapons, both conventional and paranormal, discover secret treasures, earn medals, read books (which may enhance your abilities, much like certain books in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion did) and apparently be able pick up objects and hit enemnies with them.

No iPhone screenshots yet, so check below for screenies from their Java/AJAX version below. (No, they don’t get bigger if you click them. That’s the actual resolution. The iPhone version will obviously be larger.)

(via IGN, gamersnewsbits)

For the more intrepid Magellans among you however, TUAW has some preliminary first-look details for you with their very first two-point-pwned device. Naturally, it will jailbreak any iPhone or Touch on the market right now, but as we’ve reported earlier, 3G unlocking is still in the realm of the theoretical right now. First-gen iPhone owners, including those who upgraded to firmware 2.0, can still unlock and activate though.

In brief, it seems to work well, and application launching does seem to be a little snappier, but command line operation appears to bog down somewhat. Cydia works solidly, as does OpenSSH, and overall it worked pretty well. No word yet on if it interferes with App Store purchases, but I’m betting they get along just fine.

For a second opinion, C-Net Thailand’s Jesada Chandraprasert has also given his first-timer experience with the new Pwnage 2.0, just so you can get some idea of what you’re in for if you decide you absolutely must dive right in.

If you’re up for some adventure, you can give the new Pwnage tool a try here. For the rest of you who’d rather wait for a full-on release with trumpet fanfare and all, give it another week or so and your patience will surely be rewarded. Oh, and of course, it’s Mac-only right now. I’m sure WinPwn will be along some time after the full release.

(via TUAW)

Fortunately, Sega is aware of this issue, and have announced at E3 2008 that they will be addressing this problem in a future update. This should satisfy those of you who felt the game required too much finessing to play properly.

Another complaint was the fact that there was no real way to determine where “center” was — you just had to tilt your device at what was hopeflly the right angle and hope you don’t start the level flying off somewhere. Sega may be addressing this as well with a new calibration feature that will let you tell the game where center is and it will use your calibration measurements to base the controls off of.

It will be a free update of course, but there’s currently no firm release date for the update. However, I’d count on it turning up in the App Store within the next week or two.

(via IGN)

Tecumseh, Michigan - Marvel Apps LLC has announced that it will be releasing Fandora’s Box for the web and iPhone in August, 2008. Fandora’s Box is your web and mobile application designed to conveniently showcase all news, scores and live game statistics. Track your favorite sports teams and athletes from the Olympics to the NFL. The Fandora’s Box product line will keep you connected to all the sports information you crave and even help you dominate your Fantasy Football league.

The myth of Pandora’s box states: “Only Hope was left within her unbreakable house, she remained under the lip of the jar, and did not fly away before Pandora replaced the lid of the jar.” Hope is the fuel of sports fans everywhere and it resides inside Fandora’s Box. Fandorasbox.com is the place for fans to go inside to get news, photos, forums, and other information about their favorite players and teams. Make your personal Fandora’s Box and keep track of ‘My Players’ and ‘My Teams’ in one easy to navigate site.

Fandora’s Box is also available on Apple’s iPhone. Coupled with this breakthrough platform, your mobile sports fan experience will never be the same. Users will be able to access all of their favorite teams and player information with a touch of their finger.

Your ultimate mobile Olympics(R) application, Fandora’s Olympics(TM) provides Olympic(R) events schedules, results, and news via your iPhone. Track your countries medal performance and see who is dominating the Olympics(R) with the touch of your finger. Coming soon to Apple’s App Store. Target release date is August 1, 2008.

Marvel Apps is also excited to announce their fantasy football advisor service: Fandora’s Box Fantasy Advisor. Receive real time alerts for your players for both scoring and yardage milestones. Additionally, you will receive periodic ‘box scores’ for your teams throughout gameday and multiple emails during the week to help you field your best lineup.

To stay tuned in to the events leading up to the release of Fandora’s Box, please register at their website.

Marvel Apps
Fandora’s Box
Fandora’s Box Product Information

Marvel Apps, LLC’s mission is to create the best user experience in web and mobile applications. In doing so, customers can ‘Expect the Extraordinary’. This is not a tag line. Rather, it is the Marvel Apps corporate identity that is fueled by the knowledge, experience, and passion of the Marvel Apps team. Fandora’s Box is a registered trademark of Marvel Apps, LLC.

Oh, I know you want it. I can hear your hooting and hollering and your foam finger waving frantically around from here. But you can’t have it yet. If you’re really hot for it, you can sign up to their update mailing list to receive word when it’s ready.