Apple may be building more first-party games for iPhone
Apple has big on a big gaming push lately, specifically when it comes to the iPhone and iPod touch. Even Nintendo is at least acknowledging that the iPhone is a market force, even if the company doesn’t believe they are direct competitors. However, a recent job posting for a “Game/Media Software Engineer” suggests Apple may be taking gaming seriously enough to create new first-party titles—a strategy that Nintendo and other companies use to provide an advantage for their respective platforms.
While the job listing doesn’t specifically mention programming games—”interactive multimedia experiences” is what a prospective applicant will be working on—it does suggest that the company is looking for an engineer with three to four years of video game development experience. It seems that having shipped at least one “AAA” game would be another prerequisite. “The position also requires a creative thinker who can contribute and comment on the design process as well as being flexible enough to aid in all aspects of production such as asset management,” according to the listing.
Despite Nintendo’s claims, Apple is a competitor
Apple and Nintendo aren’t competitors—at least that’s the story Satoru Iwata, the president of Nintendo, is sticking to in his recent interview with the Wall Street Journal. According to Iawata, the two companies cater to very different markets, and thus any direct comparisons make him “uncomfortable.” Despite his comments, though, the two are not only in direct competition, but the iPhone OS devices may be the future of the portable gaming market.
While there have been cell phones with games for many years, there has rarely been a device that has been able to do both functionalities well. In the past, mobile ports of popular games have been terrible at best, meaning that individuals who wanted both functionalities had to carry around multiple devices. But no one wants to carry around numerous pieces of tech—if someone already has to carry around a phone, that person would much rather do gaming on that device if the capabilities were there.
App Store officially passes the 100,000 app milestone
Apple has announced that it has finally accumulated over 100,000 apps available to download for iPhone OS devices. This feat was accomplished just 16 months after Apple opened the App Store alongside the launch of iPhone OS 2.0 and the iPhone 3G in Summer 2008.
“The App Store, now with over 100,000 applications available, is clearly a major differentiator for millions of iPhone and iPod touch customers around the world,” said Apple SVP of Worldwide Product Marketing, Philip Schiller, in a statement. “The iPhone SDK created the first great platform for mobile applications and our customers are loving all of the amazing apps our developers are creating.”
Developers stealing from developers: an App Store tale
If you are Paul Haddad of TapBots, LLC, it isn’t unusual to get requests for contract work. When your applications are as eye-catching and functional as his, you garner attention. So when he received an e-mail earlier this month with a subject line of “I’m interested in Tapbots,” it didn’t really come as much of a surprise. What was surprising was the message content.
This prospective client wasn’t looking to hire TapBots for any development work, they were looking for confirmation that a development firm out of India did the coding on ConvertBot, a popular TapBots application. The client had found Trucid, the supposed coders of ConvertBot, on the Rentacoder.com website, a virtual cork board where companies can hang their business cards. Trucid quoted a sum of $2,400 for an application similar to ConvertBot. The only problem? TapBots designs and writes all of its applications entirely in house.
blacksn0w unlocks 3.1.2; Apple looks to curtail jailbreaking
Jailbreakers rejoice! If you’ve been holding off on updating to iPhone OS 3.1.2 to keep your jailbreaks or carrier unlocks intact, blackra1n and blacksn0w are here to rescue you. However, don’t expect the jailbreaking fun to last forever—Apple is looking to hire a manager to lead a team to boost the iPhone platform’s security.
blackra1n is a new jailbreaking tool for Mac OS X and Windows from iPhone hacker George Hotz, aka “GeoHot,” who also created purplera1n earlier this year. With the addition of blacksn0w, users with iPhone OS 3.1.2 and its updated 05.11.07 baseband—the software that runs the cell radio—can unlock the phone and use it on whatever GSM/UTMS carrier they prefer. (Note that in the US, your only other option is T-mobile, and it won’t work on 3G, only EDGE.) “Jailbreaking and unlocking have never been easier,” GeoHot wrote on his blog. The tool promises faster jailbreaking, one-click hacktivation, unlocking, and enabling tethering support all in one app. blacksn0w will be added as a separate iPhone app on Cydia for unlocking if you’ve already jailbroken using PwnageTool or some other method.
iPhone app piracy numbers show low conversion rate
Pinch Media added code to its Pinch Analytic API last June that allowed for the detection of jailbroken devices as well as whether an application had been pirated. Since then, the company has been monitoring the applications of developers who chose to implement the API, and the numbers have been a bit staggering thus far (hat tip to ReadWriteWeb).
According to Pinch Media, the company has received data from some 4 million devices that had been jailbroken, or eight percent of the estimated 50 million iPhone devices thought to be in circulation. Of those 4 million, 38 percent (or three percent of all users) have run a pirated iPhone OS application. Adding to that, Pinch Media estimates that its estimate of 1.5 million pirated applications is probably low due to the anti-detection methods used by some pirates.
TomTom Car Kit a no-go for iPod touch and early iPhones
The long-promised TomTom Car Kit is now available online via the Apple Store, but it comes with some unexpected limitations. Though the device is “compatible” with all iPhone and iPod touch models, it will only work with the iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS—no original iPhones or iPod touches allowed. The problem is not hardware, it turns out, but software.
The $120 TomTom Car Kit is designed to enhance the experience of using TomTom’s $99 GPS navigation app for iPhone OS. Not only does it hold the iPhone in place for easy viewing while driving, it also keeps the device charged, has its own built-in speaker to boost the volume of spoken directions, includes a mic for hands-free calling, and has its own GPS receiver that is designed to be more accurate than the iPhone’s built-in GPS.
Rumor: Apple shopping iTablet to Aussie publishers
The Sydney Morning Herald, a newspaper serving the people of Australia, is reporting that Apple has been sending specifications of a new tablet device to some Australian media outfits to see whether they would be interested in providing content for the platform. The device, which the Herald reports to be a “larger iPhone,” will be aimed at individuals wishing to surf the Web, read literary content, or play movies. The paper doesn’t indicate who the tips came from and says that no one would speak on the record regarding the new Apple kit.
The mythical iTablet isn’t a new rumor; speculation has been running rampant years. What is relatively new and picking up steam, however, is the idea of the device as a possible e-book reader competitor. If the rumors are true, it seems that Apple is looking at this new device as more than just a bigger iPhone or iPod touch, but instead a competitor to the Amazon Kindle, Sony’s line of e-readers, and the newly introduced Barnes and Noble Nook.
App Store pricing "dangerous" for game publishers
The most popular category in the App Store is Games, with over 15,000 now available for download—17 percent of all apps available. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that publishers are raking in the cash, as pricing can be all over the place. One industry analyst is warning publishers that the growing popularity of the iPod touch could mean bad news for game publishers’ bottom line.
“I think the iPod touch is the most dangerous thing that ever happened to the publishers, ever,” Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said during an appearance on the online gaming show Bonus Round.
Rock out on your iPhone later this month with Rock Band
If you long to rock out to Rock Band while on your morning commute, your dreams have finally been fulfilled. EA Mobile announced Thursday that Rock Band is coming for iPhone and iPod touch later this month, complete with multiplayer play and in-game downloadable songs.
Like Rock Band Unplugged for PSP, the iPhone version has just four note lanes instead of five, and you can choose to play guitar, bass, drums, or vocals. Guitar and drums have pick-shaped buttons to tap along to the notes as they scroll by, while the drums have familiar Rock Band drum pad shapes. (You’ll note that the colors seem out of place, as they’re designed to be easier to play with one finger from each hand.) Vocals unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, if you don’t have such a great voice) aren’t sung into the iPhone’s microphone. Instead, vocals are tapped out much like guitar or drum notes, with a modified interface that mimics the horizontal vocal note scroll of the console version. The upside of this arrangement is that first-gen iPod touch owners, which don’t even have the option of mic input, can play along with “vocals.”
