Hasta La Gadget!

It’s back. After making a horrendous false start with the early promise of iPod touch support and the inclusion of the iPhone App in its £100 price tag, the TomTom Car Kit has returned to the Apple Store. In a big fat disclaimer, TomTom writes:

The TomTom app for iPhone is not included with this TomTom Car Kit. The Car Kit dock is compatible with all iPhone models, but the TomTom app only works with iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.

We only see it in the UK store at the moment but it’s likely to pop on your local store anytime now. Ships in 1-2 weeks.

[Thanks, Joe W.]

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS

TomTom iPhone Car Kit returns to UK Apple Store, awaits drama originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 05:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Don’t listen to the pasty dude with the Arsenal shirt who lives downstairs—FIFA 10 isn’t the only good thing to land in the App Store this week. Not even close.

AP Stylebook: Anyone who has to crank out copy on a regular basis is probably familiar with the AP’ stylebook, but an iPhone app seems like an odd incarnation. It’s more portable and convenient that the hard copy, sure, but there’s an online version too, which makes more sense for most folks, since you don’t do a whole lot of actual writing on an iPhone, and flicking an alt+tab to your browser is faster than thumbing through an iPhone search query. Still great for the occasional spot-check, though. $29, which you should probably try to expense.

Talk Assist: This super-simple, free text-to-speech app was designed to help people who have trouble talking. However, it will almost exclusively be used by people who can speak, for laffs.

Squareball: A minimalist, but amazingly polished game that’s sort of like if Pong had levels, or if Breakout was a side-scroller. It’s really, really hard—give the free version a try before taking the two dollar dive.

cAR Locator: One old gimmick—GPS as a way to find your car—combined with a new one—an augmented reality overlay, cAR Locator is more of a tech demo or party trick than anything else, but it’s a pretty cool one. 2bux, 3GS only.

Scarab: The first iPhone literary magazine, Scarab still has a few kinks to work out. Most of all, you’ve got to purchase each issue in-app, but due to a quirk in Store policy, the app itself isn’t free. If you feel like supporting an experiment like this, feel free; there’s some neat stuff here, like the ability to listen to poems read aloud by their writers. One dollar.

Buzzd: An old BlackBerry classic, buzzd meters the amount of activity at local establishments, according to other buzzd users, and tells you where the most people are, and what they have to say about it. Think real-time Yelp, roughly. The app used to depend on other buzzd users for content; now it taps into Twitter with natural language recognition, which gives it way, way more content, and enough users, or at least unwitting contributors, to make it worthwhile even in a midsized city. Free.

FIFA 10: The only licensed soccer game in the App Store, this one’s got actual teams, actual players, and at least a passing resemblance to the FIFA franchise console games everyone goes so apeshit over. Controls are predictably a bit awkward, but there’s a lot of game here, especially for diehard soccer fans. $10.

This Week’s App News on Giz:

• iPhone Gets Better Image Stabilization from Pro-Camera App

• Cyclopedia Augmented Reality iPhone App Drenches Your World In Wikipedia

• Apple Buys Their Very Own Maps Company (See Ya, Google Maps?)

• iFukkin iPhone App Maybe Is Not What It Seems

• Why iPhone TV Apps Are Doomed to Mediocrity

• iPhone App Developer Jacks Your Phone Number to Pitch You More Apps

• ALK CoPilot GPS Navigation App Gets iPhone Keyboard, Text-To-Speech, Other Improvements

• CNN’s iPhone App Makes Other News Apps Look Lazy

• iPhone Accessories Can Now Trigger App Download Prompt

• Daniel Johnston’s iPhone Game Is Predictably Bizarre, Bizarrely Fun

• Tweetie 2 for iPhone: Full Offline Powers, Filters and Push Notifications

• Ping is Like a Free SMS Client For iPhone and iPod Touch Users

• Tweet Reel iPhone App Sends 640 x 480 Video to Twitter

• Ramp Champ Mixes Skeeball With Flicking

• Data Shows What Everyone Knows: Gimmicky Apps Aren’t Used Frequently

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. Have a great weekend, everybody!

It’s looking more and more likely that Apple will release a 10-inch tablet computer in early 2010.

Even if you’re sick of Apple tablet rumors, we promise you’ll like this one. The latest update comes from a tipster with a solid track record, which reinforces previous reports that Apple will deliver a tablet in early 2010. The tipster also shares details on the rumored product’s specifications.

ILounge, an iPod and iPhone blog, cites a source who claims Apple plans to announce a tablet by Jan. 19, 2010. The tipster claims the tablet will measure 10.7 inches (diagonally) and will run the iPhone operating system.

The tablet will sport a higher resolution than the iPhone or iPod Touch screen: “Expect something like 5-6 times the resolution of an iPod Touch or iPhone screen (720p or thereabouts) and 7 times the touchable surface area,” writes iLounge.

Also, there will be one version equipped with 3G networking and one without. This would make the 3G model a bigger version of the iPhone, and the non-3G tablet a larger iPod Touch.

This particular report raises the likelihood of an Apple tablet landing in stores soon. ILounge says this is the same source who was spot on when leaking details on the fifth-generation iPod Nano prior to its Sept. 9 launch. That same source was also accurate with its description of the fourth-generation iPod Nano before its release.

ILounge’s source also said the tablet would specialize “as a slate-like replacement for books and magazines.” Wired.com in previous months has argued that an Apple tablet would pose a serious threat to the Amazon Kindle as well as the Amazon.com e-book store. We speculated that Apple could integrate an e-book section into the iTunes Store, giving it the potential to shake up the publishing industry.

Are you getting overwhelmed by the flurry of tablet news? We don’t blame you. Here are the rumors that have been echoed by several publications:

• Steve Jobs has had a heavy hand in the tablet’s development.
  Sources: Wall Street Journal, AppleInsider, Barron’s, iLounge
• The Apple tablet will launch in early 2010.
  Sources: AppleInsider, TheLoop, iLounge, Barron’s
• The tablet will look like a larger iPod Touch or iPhone, measuring approximately 10 inches.
  Sources: Gizmodo, AppleInsider, Barron’s, iLounge, InfoTimes
• The tablet will cost between $700 and $900, positioning it between the iPhone/iPod Touch and Apple’s notebooks.
  Sources: Gizmodo, InfoTimes, Barron’s
• The tablet will come in two versions. Gizmodo’s source claims one model will feature a webcam (perhaps for videoconferencing) while the other will focus on education. A camera-equipped tablet would make more sense on the 3G-equipped tablet described by iLounge’s source; likewise, a camera-less version of the tablet could be the non-3G tablet mentioned by iLounge’s source.
  Sources: Gizmodo, iLounge

Have any doubt left in an Apple tablet? We don’t. But there’s so much here that if the tablet turns out to be a media-fabricated illusion, even David Copperfield would be impressed.

See Also:

• Rumor: Apple Tablet Will Feature OLED Screen
• Rumor: $800 Apple Tablet Coming in October
• How an Apple Tablet Could Pit iTunes Against Amazon.com
• Analyst Predicts Apple Will Unleash Touchscreen Tablet Next Year …
• Gallery: Tablet Computing From 1888 to 2010
• Analyst Claims to Have Seen Apple Tablet
• Rumor: 10-Inch Apple Tablet Landing in Early 2010

Photo: Illustration of an imaginary Apple Tablet (vernhart/Flickr)

The TomTom iPhone Car Kit has just gone up for pre-order on the Apple UK store — we presume it will go global in the hours to come. It’ll cost 5 pence shy of £100 and ships in 2-3 weeks with the dock and adhesive disk in the box. Better yet, for that price you also get the £60 navigation app for the UK/Ireland. Then there’s this little note:

“The Car Kit dock is compatible with all iPhone models, but the Car Kit app only works with iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G”

So what about the iPod touch compatibility as claimed in the TomTom FAQ? Or is that just a gaming device now?

Update: Just hit mainland Europe for €99,95.

Update 2: Oops! Looks like the page was pulled — back to waiting! See the original after the break.

[Via Recombu]

Continue reading TomTom iPhone Car Kit up for £100 UK pre-order, includes navigation app

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS

TomTom iPhone Car Kit up for £100 UK pre-order, includes navigation app originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At this point, it’s pretty clear that something went horribly wrong in the development of the iPod touch causing Apple to remove the camera somewhere late in its lifecycle. But if you really need more evidence, take a look at the latest circular from dabs.com, a well-known UK retailer and official Apple reseller. This flyer was recently mailed to subscribers and still lists a “built-in video recorder” as a feature. Of course, clicking through reveals the same ol’ iPod touch launched sans camera. While the error could be explained as a simple editing mistake in the creation of the advert, we doubt that’s the case — not with all the case leaks, rumors, and that mysterious internal gap just big enough for a camera sensor. Honestly, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Apple sneak out a camera-enabled iPod touch replacement during one of its infamous “The Apple Store is down!” Tuesdays.

[Thanks, Peter M.]

Filed under: Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

iPod touch with “built-in video recorder” not for sale at Dabs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Sep 2009 07:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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