RazorianFly

Ping – Now Showing In iTunes On iPhone (and iPod touch)! – [Update]

2010-09-02T16:13:04Z

Yesterday you may remember we showed you some of the first shots of Ping, Apple’s new social network based around music, running on iPhone, courtesy of Tech Crunch – and while most people now await the official release of the ‘Ping’ app on the App Store, we noticed something.

Ping is already available … because it’s not a separate app.

What Apple forgot to make clear yesterday was that Ping for iPhone was an extension to the iTunes app found on iOS and not a separate app all of it’s own (which was our initial first impression of the feature). If you’re logged into an iTunes account which you’ve previously activated Ping on the on-device iTunes store and are currently located in one of the participating countries, you should now see a little button called ‘Ping’ automatically pop up next to ‘Music’ and ‘Videos’.

Tapping the button will launch you into the Ping social network, with three simple tabs across the top. Activity – All the activity of everyone you’re currently following, People – People you follow and people who follow you back and lastly, My Profile – A quick summary of your activity over the last week or so.

My first impressions of Ping are that it definitely has potential, but there are a few quirks which need ironing out. Firstly, the recent activity stream doesn’t appear to update all that often. Another issue I noticed was that it becomes pretty difficult to keep up with your friends stream as soon as you pass that 100 follower mark. Don’t get me wrong, like I said, I think it has potential. I’m pretty addicted too it already, in fact. But there are a few little issues that need ironing out – fast!

[Update] – As noted by one of our writers Branden, you can also sync your device to a Ping enabled iTunes library to enable the button.

Or you can sync to a Ping enabled iTunes library to enable it manually.

Follow me on Ping – here.

HUGE: Twitter For iPad – Now Available!

2010-09-02T04:15:24Z

In a shock move, Twitter has just announced via their official blog, the worldwide release of Twitter for iPad, with development headed by the original developer of popular iPhone and iPod touch client Tweetie, Loren Britcher.

The client, which now supports iPhone, iPod touch and iPad has taken on a new form for the iPad’s larger touchscreen display, focusing it’s user interface on three main elements:

Panes: Tapping on a Tweet opens a pane to the right. Depending on the content in that Tweet, you’ll see a video or photo, or maybe a news story, or perhaps another Tweet. You can continue tapping on Tweets, opening new panes, and getting new content as long as you’d like to. And, it’s really easy to move between panes by swiping to the right or left.

Media: When you tap a video link or open a web page with an embedded video, you can play that video inline. And, let’s be honest, video is great but sometimes it can take some time to load. The panes in Twitter for iPad let you look through your timeline while a video is loading, and then you can just swipe back to the video when it’s ready to play. You can also pinch on a video to watch it fullscreen.

Gestures: You can pinch on a Tweet to quickly view details about the author and to take actions on a Tweet, such as reply or retweet. Put two fingers together and pull down on a Tweet to peek at the replies, showing the entire conversation leading to that Tweet.

Twitter for iPad is FREE and by the looks of it still propagating through the iTunes Store, but should be available within the next few hours. We’ll have a full review very soon, but for now – go and get it!

Click here to view the embedded uQuery application.

BREAKING: iTunes 10 – Now Available For Download!

2010-09-02T01:54:14Z

We’ve just heard from a few people that Apple has just released iTunes 10.

iTunes 10 which features Apple’s new ‘Ping’ music-centric social network is now available for download here directly or as a free download from iTunes.com.

Epic Citadel Version 1.01, Now Live!

2010-09-01T23:21:17Z

Yes, you are reading this right. The newly published technical 3D gaming demonstration by Epic Games, dubbed “Epic Citadel”, has just received it’s first ever update, despite only being released just a few hours ago.

The new update contains fixes for what seems like incorrect compatibility with a number of iOS devices in version 1.0. It’s FREE for everyone and available from the App Store, so we suggest you go and check it out!

Full Changelog

BREAKING: September 1 Apple Keynote Stream, Now Available!

2010-09-01T21:08:21Z

If you didn’t manage to tune into Apple’s real-time LIVE stream of today’s special iPod media event, and you didn’t manage to follow our feed either, you’ll be glad to know Apple has just posted the full keynote in quicktime format on Apple.com.

The keynote can be watched here (which is interesting as it’s the same link as used by the real-time live stream).

First Look: The “Ping” Network For iPhone (and iPod touch) – [PHOTOS]

2010-09-01T23:21:45Z

TechCrunch has just posted what we believe are the first photos of Apple’s new music-centric social network “Ping”.

For those unfamiliar with the network, Apple has today announced the release of ‘Ping‘, a new social network centered around what Apple does best – Music. Imagine Twitter and Facebook, add a little touch of MySpace to the mix and you have Ping. See the full set of photos here.

Ping is set to be available next week, simultaneous to the launch of iOS 4.1 for iPhone and iPod touch.

[via TechCrunch]

Epic Citadel – Out Now!

2010-09-01T20:01:18Z

Hot off the back of Apple’s Music Event today, Epic Games Inc have released Epic Citadel into the App Store.

Almost the moment Apple’s event ended reports started coming in about this release. Epic Citadel is not really a game, but a tech demo showing what the latest iOS devices can offer. Using the award winning Unreal Engine 3, Epic Citadel was created in just 8 weeks.

I grabbed this the instant it was available and am in awe, the graphics remind me more of an xbox or PS2 title and not something you would expect to see on a portable device like the iPhone.

Epic Citadel is available for iPhone 3Gs and iPhone 4 owners along with the iPad and iPod Touch (3rd generation only). This really is the best way to show people just what modern iOS devices can do, I for one can’t wait for the full game release expected later this year.

If you have a compatible device, don’t delay and download it now. If you don’t, well, you can always check out the images below, though they hardly do it justice.

Click here to view the embedded uQuery application.

Terry Touch™ – Now Available For iPhone (and iPod touch)!

2010-09-01T13:03:48Z

A few weeks ago you may remember we gave you the heads up on a mysterious new project the guys over at ustwo had been working on. Heading up operations on the app was of course 16-year old ustwo intern, Jack McLean.

Quite impressively we’ve learned that McLean had just 3 weeks to take the project from on paper to the App Store, and Today Mills was quick to inform us that the app is now available on the store!

Terry Touch™ is an app featuring 4 addictive was to swipe your iPhone or iPod touch. The Tap, The Slide, The Glide and The Spin. The faster you are at completing the gestures, the higher up the leaderboard you shoot!

We’ve just launched another app – As you know, at ustwo™ we innovate …

This one is called Terry Touch™, it was developed by our 16 year-old work experience placement – Jack McLean. (pic attached)

We think it’s pretty impressive – He’s just done his GSCEs and he emailed us asking if he could work with us over the school holidays. We took him under our wing and within 3 weeks he had developed Terry Touch™.

An Interview

Most of your school friends did work experience in banks, newsagents and supermarkets but you chose to work for a iPhone app development studio – why?

I got into programming when I was 14 and I published my first iPhone application on the App Store in 2008. I then published another simple one in 2009. By this time my interest had grown massively.

About a year ago I did compulsory work experience with school and decided to do it at a local debt management company in their programming department and it put me off programming altogether because the work was so boring and mudane.

I therefore decided to concentrate on the sort of development work I was interested in and off my own back I emailed ustwo™ and to my surprise was immediately contacted by the man himself, mills.

ustwo™ is a company I have followed on twitter for over a year and I’ve been fascinated by their mad and beautiful applications and I’m so glad I gave it a shot and emailed them.

What is it about app developers, ustwo™ that made you want to work for a company like it?

From seeing tweets, blog posts, videos etc, ustwo™ seemed to be an amazing company to work for because it looked so fun and the people there seemed so friendly. I loved just looking at their approaches to applications, how they worked and the amazing graphics and sounds they used. They obviously focused on design and quality, which I admired and really wanted to learn from them and discover how it was all done.

Why do you love developing apps?

I love developing applications and the satisfaction of solving problems and creating software that works well and look nice.

It’s so great when you know 1000′s of people have used your app – especially when you get emails and reviews from people saying how much they love it and enjoy using the app.

When developing apps, I constantly learn new things and I am experimenting with interactive design and animation with applications which I love doing.

What’s the hardest part of being an app developer is?

Personally over the couple of years that I have got into iPhone development, the hardest thing was solving problems on my own, without being able to discuss concepts and problems with other people because I had no one to contact. It was extremely hard to get around the concept of programming at the beginning, without a teacher and I still have so much more to learn.

It’s hard to just pinpoint one thing that is a challenging being an app developer but fixing complicated bugs and crash’s will always be a problem to all developers and I personally think it is the hardest most time consuming.

Terry Touch™ is a simple finger olympic-esque type of game, almost pointless. But fun. Do you think it will do well?

Yes, I hope it does well because many of the applications, which are doing well on the App Store, are totally pointless but I think that’s a good thing. The Terry Touch graphics are great and anyone can pick up and play the game because the learning curve is so small. The game can be strangely addictive especially with its global leaderboard and achievements on OpenFeint. This will hopefully attract kids at school to complete and help it escalate it to the top of the charts!

I see you have supported Terry Touch™ with iAds, meaning the app is FREE to download, do you think FREE is the only way to get big downloads?

I don’t think the use of iAds is the only way to get big downloads, but maybe an easier way, because Terry Touch is a quite small simple game which people would be more than happy to download for free but, due to big company’s such as EA selling their games for very low prices, customers are no longer happy to spend the same amount of money for an independent simpler smaller game. iAds keep the quality of the game really high and help bring in revenue when the game is doing well.

ustwo™ chose to release Terry Touch™ as part of their ongoing mission to ‘TRY ANYTHING on the app store – will this work?

Most definitely because they have tried various ways of cracking into the App Store top charts such as the ‘coollectable’ 48hr games with their small but addictive and gorgeous games. The Granimator™ is a mad but fascinating idea of getting artists around the world to get involved with one app masterpiece, and now they have free iAd supported fun game developed by me, a student on work experience. I haven’t heard of any other company who has tried so many things on the App Store whilst concentrating on creating quality applications and not just to make money.

When you leave college what do you want to be?

At the moment I really don’t know because I have only experienced a very small portion of the programming industry. But I loved working at ustwo™ as an iPhone developer and would really love to work in this area as a future career. I want to see what interests me most through school and university. I am interested in user experience and interfaces, which is why I think I like developing for the iPhone because the small screen size means restrictions, which creates a challenge. So at the moment I would love to develop mobile applications and maybe even Mac software once I have finished my education.

Terry Touch™ is now available from the App Store for FREE and we suggest you go and snag it!

BREAKING: Osfoora For iPhone and iPad Pulled From Sale – [Update: OAuth Issues?]

2010-09-01T12:05:59Z

Announced via their official Twitter account just moments ago, the guys behind the popular Twitter client Osfoora have announced that both the iPhone and iPad client will be unavailable for download temporarily (at least we hope it’s temporary), for the next few days.

It’s so far unclear as to why the developers are feeling the need to pull the two clients from the store, however we have full faith that they will return shortly … and when they do, we’ll be sure to let you know.

[Update] – According to Twitter user @AjBopp, the app has been pulled due to issues with it’s OAuth authentication system.

“The reason appears to be that @osfoora’s OAuth implementation works for existing users but not for new osfoora users.”

OUR RATING: READ THE REVIEW

iPad/iPhone Integration Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Usability Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

BREAKING: Apple Announces LIVE Video Stream Of September 1st Media Event – [PRESS RELEASE]

2010-09-01T02:07:04Z

In a shock move, Apple has just announced it will be providing a real-time live stream of today’s worldwide media event, which is due to take place at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, starting 6PM GMT tonight.

It’s been quite a while since Apple has offered LIVE video streams of it’s media events, however today, the company has announced it will be providing a LIVE real-time stream of today’s events, set to be available to both Mac and iOS users at Apple.com.

The event is quite clearly set to be focused around the music aspect of Apple’s business, with rumors running rampant of possible revisions to both the iPod touch and iPod nano product lines.

[Update] – Despite the move, we’ll still be covering the event via text and photo updates – here.

Press Release

Apple to Provide Live Video Streaming of September 1 Event

What:
Live video stream of Apple’s September 1 event

When:
Wednesday, September 1, 2010, 10:00 a.m. PDT

Where:
www.apple.com

Live Video Streaming

Apple® will broadcast its September 1 event online using Apple’s industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards. Viewing requires either a Mac® running Safari® on Mac OS® X version 10.6 Snow Leopard®, an iPhone® or iPod touch® running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad™. The live broadcast will begin at 10:00 a.m. PDT on September 1, 2010 at www.apple.com.

This broadcast is the property of Apple and is protected by US copyright law and international treaties. Any reproduction or distribution is strictly prohibited without prior written approval from Apple. Please contact Apple Public Relations with any questions.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.