iPhonemenon » Applications

Amazon’s Kindle E-Reader Faces Challenge from iPhone

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:45:17 +0000

With the popularity of reading books in electronic formats growing at a rapid pace, rivals are hitting the market to challenge the dominance that Amazon holds with its recently introduced Kindle e-reader. Barnes & Nobles, along with a host of other companies, have introduced their own e-readers in attempt to capture a market share that publishers, authors and readers have long speculated over. Despite its rocky start, the eBook industry is gaining momentum, being the only segment of the book publishing market that has been growing in the last year while all other publishing segments have fallen.

However, consumers are discovering a new twist that is allowing them to not only take advantage of the convenient mobile reading experience, but do so at a lower cost. Smart phone users have begun to see a new utility that their mobile devices provide them and are turning to apps by the Barnes & Nobles, Amazon and even smaller companies so that they can purchase and read books using their iPhones. The extra benefits of being able to listen to music or watch videos over the phones makes them a very attractive alternative to consumers who aren’t looking to spend the $250 to $350 on a dedicated e-reader.

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Plastic Surgeons Creating Their Own Apps

admin — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:59:50 +0000

When it comes to fields of medicine, it comes as no surprise that plastic surgery would be on the cutting edge in terms of tech know how. This is a relatively new field of medicine and as a result, makes heavy use of a wide variety of hi tech equipment to accommodate the desires of patients looking for a physical transformation. With the iPhone being something of a status symbol for not only the tech savvy, but social elite, mobile industry analysts are not surprised by the inundation of medical apps and devices being offered. Plastic surgery seems a natural fit, as well, with two prominent plastic surgeons stepping forward to create apps for the iPhone in recent months.

The first plastic surgery application was created only a short while by Dr. David Shafer who practices in New York. His Shafer Plastic Surgery app was created to give users a taste of what he creates when shaping the physical form and also give consumers answers to important questions about the operations. The other surgeon, Florida’s Dr. Michael Salzhauer, has created not only a book titled “My Beautiful Mommy” to help children understand why their mothers undergo such surgeries, but also an app called iSurgeon that allows users to upload their photos and see what plastic surgery could do for them.

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R-Type Arcade Shooter Game to be Released by DotEmu

admin — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:00:20 +0000

Over the past decade or so, classic style arcade games have made a big come back across multiple gaming platforms, among them Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch. Gaming developer DotEmu, who released such smash hits as Golvellius, Nicky Boom and Krypton Egg, are bringing the old school shooter R-Type to Apple’s much loved mobile device. With development already under way, the studio expects to release the game in the coming months, an answer to the prayers of a vast number of old fashioned shooter game enthusiasts around the world who often gather for competitions of R-Type.

Working in conjunction with developer Irem Software Engineering, Inc., DotEmu intends to bring a whole new level of entertainment to this classic title by bringing it to the touch based platforms that increasing numbers of players are turning to in order to game quickly while on the go or waiting in public places. R-Type was a side scrolling shooter released by Japanese developer Irem in 1987 that quickly rose through the ranks to become a smash hit in arcades across the globe. Players will use the R-9a Arrowhead fighter craft to defend the world against bio-mechanical aliens bent on Earth’s destruction. The game is expected to strike the hearts of nostalgic fans and be another major triumph for both developers.

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Eminem to Bring Relapse Game to iPhone

admin — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:21:42 +0000

Pioneering hip hop musical artist and media mogul Eminem, also known as Marshall Mathers, has been relatively low profile in recent years, but is planning a comeback described as a “full on assault” by industry sources to get his name back in the public spotlight. The Detroit rapper recently released a video entitled 3 A.M. that is intended as a horror movie send down and recently announced that he is working in cooperation with developers to release an app for the iPhone to accompany his upcoming album, Relapse.

According to a tweet from the entertainer sent out via Twitter, the game will feature the styling’s of the 3 A.M. music video, as displayed by a photo included with the tweet. In the photo, the performer is shown nude in an abandoned hotel lobby, wielding a 2 x 4 board against what appears to be a zombie covered in blood and gore. Behind Eminem stands a female zombie, a possible reference to his many songs about his ex-wife.

Analysts are awaiting the game’s arrival, curious to see if it will be allowed on Apple’s iPhone after the rejection of Nine Inch Nail’s app due to the fact that their app contained a streaming version of their hit song The Downward Spiral, deemed by Apple to contain ‘objectionable content’.

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PocketCloud Allows iPhone and iPod Touch Users to Access Home Desktops

admin — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:57:23 +0000

Software company Wyse is releasing a new app that allows users of both the iPhone and iPod Touch to be able to access their virtual or physical desktop environments so that they can perform tasks they would normally need to their computer for on the go. The software is intended to enable business people to do work while away from their home or office and also to allow IT administrators to access end-user devices through their mobile Apple devices.
The PocketCloud software will be shown during San Francisco’s VMworld 2009 show.
While users will need to be running iPhone OS 3.0, PocketCloud will be compatible with iPod Touch and iPhone 2G, 3G and 3GS. The software supports VMware’s View 3.1 connection broker and uses SSL (Secure Socket Layers) for security. It will be able to connect with machines running Windows 2000, Windows XP Pro, Windows Vista Business and Windows 7. Along with the standard software, Wyse will also include a client-side application called PocketCloud Windows to allow for more advanced processes. The Windows agent is available for free download.
Through Apple’s App Store, PocketCloud can be purchased and downloaded for $29.99 but companies can buy an enterprise license for PocketCloud if they run their own Enterprise iPhone App store.

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Barnes & Noble Reader Released

admin — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 18:47:52 +0000

It appears that Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader now has serious competition. Barnes & Noble is going a different way from Amazon, releasing a software solution that will work on portable digital devices that customers already own, such as the iPhone. Readers will be able to choose from a wide variety of book titles offered by the brick and mortar bookseller, over 700,000 titles in all. That is more than twice the available offerings of Amazon which claims over 300,000 titles available for its Kindle.

Not only will readers be able to get bestseller titles for $9.99, but through Google over half a million public domain books will also be available. All of this comes thanks to a buy of Fictionwise by Barnes & Noble in March 2009. Consumers will need a Barnes & Noble online account to be able to use the software and will use web browsers to select and purchase their titles rather than doing so from within the app itself.

When browsing, readers are allowed to sample books by reading the first few chapters free of charge. The app itself allows for a wide range of style choices to allow users to customize the look and feel of their e-books and page turning is as simple as a finger swipe across the screen.

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Flex Photo Lab

admin — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:32:42 +0000

Ford motor company has released a new app for the iPhone called Flex Photo Lab. It is a photo manipulation tool for the iPhone, which can be used to add effects to photographs or be used to improve their quality through alteration of brightness/contrast or hue/saturation. Users can also darken or brighten select areas of a photograph with the included spot burner and spot lighter tools. Flex Photo Lab also showcases Ford’s new car “Flex” with information and photographs. The app is free and currently available at the app store.

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