Hasta La Gadget!

TomTom told us that its long-awaited iPhone navigation app and in-car mounting kit would be landing “this summer,” and at least on our watch, summertime is quickly drawing to a close. If a pre-order listing over at Handtec is to be believed, it looks as if the outfit is exceedingly close to finally having both the software and hardware ready for shipping. The £113.85 ($194) asking price includes a suction mount for your iPhone as well as the mapping software, though there’s no indication of exactly how much the app and hardware will run by themselves. Of course, until the iPhone supports multitasking, using it as a dedicated PND is still a risky move; one stray call during a pivotal moment in your travels and you can consider yourself lost. Oh, and then there’s the fact that this thing has a TomTom logo on it — if the iPhone app functions anything like the company’s high-end GO 740 LIVE, we’d say you’re better off asking Mr. Gas Station attendant (or buying a different brand).

[Via DaniWeb]

Continue reading TomTom’s iPhone car kit and navigation software priced overseas

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Peripherals

TomTom’s iPhone car kit and navigation software priced overseas originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know guys, you’re not really doing yourself any favors at this point. We’ve seen plenty of stories thus far detailing the company’s absurd, reactionary, and typically confusing application rejections or changes for its App Store, but the treatment given to dictionary app Ninjawords seems particularly telling. In essence, the program, a simple and fast reference tool — a straight-up dictionary — has omitted a handful of common words seen as objectionable by the Star Chamber of application reviewers at Apple HQ. What kind of words, you ask? Well, namely the same kind of words which you can find in any standard dictionary in just about any classroom in this country. John Gruber of Daring Fireball fame succinctly calls out what is patently obvious:

Apple censored an English dictionary.

A dictionary. A reference book. For words contained in all reasonable dictionaries. For words contained in dictionaries that are used every day in elementary school libraries and classrooms.

But it’s far worse than that.

Continue reading Apple’s new low: censoring a dictionary

Filed under: Cellphones, Software

Apple’s new low: censoring a dictionary originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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YES. The FCC is looking into Apple’s chickenshit shenanigans with Google Voice, asking whether AT&T was involved, why it was rejected and what’s going on with this Google Voice thing. Updated with correspondence among FCC, Apple, AT&T and Google.

The request is part of a broader-ranging inquiry by the commission on exclusive deals between cell phone carriers and handset manufacturers for hot phones. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Thursday that the FCC wants to look into rural areas where customers can’t buy the latest fancy phones because of such exclusive deals.

Update: We now have access to the letters sent by the FCC to Apple, AT&T, and Google, trying to sort this whole mess out. The questions to Apple and AT&T are exactly what we ourselves want to know: What role, specifically, does AT&T play in Apple’s app approval process? What are Apple’s specific reasons for pulling the Google Voice app, among others? And why in the hell is Google Voice approved for BlackBerrys and not the iPhone? Check out the letters here at Techcrunch.

AT&T responded with a very frosty denial that they have any influence on the app approval process, which is a tough argument to make when everybody everywhere is convinced they do. Here’s their statement:

AT&T does not manage or approve applications for the App Store. We have received the letter and will, of course, respond to it.

We’ll keep you updated when AT&T, Apple, and Google formally respond to the FCC’s inquiry.

This doesn’t signal, by any means, that Google Voice is going to get onto the iPhone, but it does put some pressure onto Apple to not pull moves like this in the future. [WSJ]

This week in the App Store it may as well’ve been 1991: We’ve got Lollapalooza! Monkey Island! Novel self-help strategies! Glittery-clothed strippers! And last but not nearly least, everyone’s favorite defunct supermarket tabloid! The Golden Age of culture, people.

Weekly World News: Now is neither the time nor place to get into my deep appreciation of the WWN, and I feel their blurb says enough:

For over 30 years, the Weekly World News has been the World’s ONLY Reliable News Source. The Weekly World News bares the TRUTH about UFOs, aliens, monsters, Elvis’ whereabouts, cryptids, popular celebrities, and the mutant freaks that live among us.

Considering you can get the entire archives of the paper for free on Google Books, it seems dumb that this $1 app only gives you access to covers, though the add-your-own-face feature is pretty neat. Granted, this could have been a content ratings thing, because half of the dead magazine’s columnists were basically insane, or sexist, or some other terrible kind of “ist.” It’s part of the charm! [via Gawker]

Pocket Dancer: A 3D lady will dance a sad little dance while you spin her around with your finger and occasionally change the floor lighting. Fact: There is absolutely no way to use this without looking and feeling like a creep. One dollar!

Booyah Society : Pulling ourselves out of the slime, here’s the high concept app for the week: Booyah Society assigns arbitrary point values to day-to-day achievements, creatings a sort of WoW-ish self-help game, integrates with Twitter and Facebook. Despite how it sounds, it’s not at all pathetic or annoying; I can easily see how someone who already broadcasts their every action on social networks could get hooked on this. Free.

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition: Diehard fans see Monkey Island titles as the zenith of 2D adventure gaming, while most people who grew up in the early 90s just remember them as being pretty fun. I’m guessing only one of those two groups will be willing to drop the full $8 on this, but to be fair to LucasArts, the game translates well to the iPhone and it’s pretty massive.

Lollapalooza: Sharing its concept and design with the excellent Coachella app from last year, this free download helps you find your way around the only legendary music festival ever to be ruined by the advent of txt speak.

This Week’s App News on Giz:

• TheXchange: Will This Porn iPhone App Survive the Apple Banhammer?

• iDisk iPhone App Lightning Review: Halfway There

• Soon We’ll Be Able to Search the App Store For More Than Exact Product Names

• Apple’s Chickenshit Approval Process Has Gone Too Far

• EA Bringing Madden, FIFA Franchises to the iPhone

• iPhone Owners Score Free MobileMe iDisk App

• Offender Locator Tracks Sex Offenders on Your iPhone

• iWet T-Shirts: Yet Another iPhone App That Makes Me Shake My Head in Shame

• GV Mobile Google Voice App Available For Free On The iPhone via Cydia

• Nissan Developing iPhone App to Monitor Electric Cars

• Apple Rejects Official Google Voice iPhone App

• Multiplayer Chess iPhone App Is Very Cool, But Probably Won’t Be a Bestseller

• GV Mobile Google Voice iPhone App Getting Booted From App Store for Usual Ridiculous Reasons

• Spotify iPhone App Kills Pandora, Last.FM, Slacker and iTunes in One Shot

• Weirdest Use of Spreadsheets I’ve Ever Heard

• Man, Don’t Choices Suck?

• Passion iPhone App Will Let You ‘See How Good You Are at Sex’

• Resident Evil 4 Brings More Re-Killing Zombies to the iPhone

• Top Three iPhone Apps: Weed, Booze, and Partial Nudity

• Apple Will Let iPhone Apps Augment Our Sad Little Realities in September With OS 3.1

This list is in no way definitive. If you’ve spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see our previous weekly roundups here, and check out our Favorite iPhone Apps Directory and our original iPhone App Review Marathon. Have a good weekend everybody.

It still can’t multitask, but as of today, it’s finally capable of accessing and sharing iDisk files. Apple has at long last let loose a long-awaited application for iPhone OS 3.0 that enables iPhone and iPod touch users with MobileMe accounts to access the inner sanctums of their own iDisk. The app lets you login, view files (up to 20MB or so, sayeth Apple) and share files by sending others a link via email to whatever you deem appropriate. There’s also an option to password protect those files and limit the amount of days the download is active, though viewing files is limited to iPhone-supported file types such as iWork, Office, QuickTime, PDF, etc. If you’re a paying MobileMe user, go on and give this one a download — it’s free, you know?

Read – iDisk [opens in iTunes]
Read – TUAW’s First Look: iDisk app

Filed under: Software

Apple kicks out MobileMe iDisk app for iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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