New Mobile Bloging Contender

iBlogger, another 8€ blogging Application is now available since 4 weeks on the iTunes store.
It came shortly out after BlogPress so let's have a look what's different on this application.

First, you have the ability to add tags and categories to your posts, which on date of testing, is not possible on BlogPress.

It integrated better with the WordPress protocol.

Point number 2 goes to the ability to integrate a location link to your post. A nifty feature where you can show people your whereabouts when you blogged the post.

Point 3 is going to the fact that you can add links to your post, for me, the outstanding feature of this Application.

To sum up: If you were still holding out to buy an mobile blogging App, here it is. There are still some rough edges which the developer need to smooth out, bit overall, a very solid Application.

If you bought already BlogPress (like me), you can wait till the developer adds the same functions in a next update or, if you are some sort of "Power Blogger", invest additional 8€ into iBlogger.

But, between you and me, I personally still hold my breath to anounce the "ultimative mobile blogging App" till MarsEdit is released for the iPhone.

Mobile Blogging from here.

[Posted with my iPhone]

BlogPress: Multi-Blogging Client

One thing that bugged me for a long time was the fact that there was no real application available to blog from the iPhone to the Google Blogger service. The Wordpress App was quite stunning and working flawlessly. But only for the (as the name of the App implies) Wordpress service.

I was glad then to see a Multi-Blogger App popping up in the iTunes store which had the possibilities to upload posts to Blogger.

The App is called BlogPress and is worth about 8€. A hefty price I thought but hey, I wanted to give it a spin.

After using it for almost 2 weeks I have to say that it is working pretty neat. You can manage your Blogs, delete entries, upload posts (with pictures) but what I found lacking was the Tagging/Categories function.

On the other hand, you can post to multiple Blogs the same time (Crossposting) which is kind of nice.

Overall the App is stable and working nicely for people which are on travel and want to keep up blogging through their iPhone.

The developer is quite responsive and told me that he will try to add the Category and Tag function to his as App also.

All in All it's still a hefty price for an App, but it is totally worth the money if you are a heavy Blogger.

Info: BlogPress Version tested 1.0 tested with Blogger and Wordpress Service

The Application can be downloaded here: iTunes Store Link


PS: This review was written whith WordPress.


-- Post From My iPhone

Where To?

Where To? is a nifty little Application which is aimed to help you
find fast different Points of Interest near you. Are you looking for a near Restaurant? Or do you want to find fast the next car mechanic? This Application helps find it for you.

First I was a little bit sceptic about this Application, due the fact that it is optimized for english language which means for the U.S. and GB.

So, I checked using it in France and in Germany to see if it is also working in not native english speaking countries.

For most of the entries searched, I found something, which was a result expected. In fact, the biggest problem in Europe is that most Businesses aren't on Googlemaps so the Application can not find them.


Overall, in 90% of searches I found Businesses near to me (not all due to the lack of Business applying to the Google Business Service) but it was still a great experience. The App is well designed and very functional in what it does.

Some examples of possible searches:

After selecting what you want to search for (in my testing case Restaurants) you will have the second screen coming up where you can select for example if you want to search near you or near a contact (if you are invited to some friends you can already start looking what's next to them to go out).

In my case I chose "Where I Am Now" and after selecting this option, Google Maps opened and showed me the results:

Overall, this little Application is well crafted (made by Sophia Teutschler - the same woman making CoverSutra a nifty iTunes Controller for Mac) and sure people might tend to say that they can enter those search words themselves into Google Maps, but I see this Application as nice Front End to Google Maps. It is well made with nice Graphics and I really love the "Surprise Me" function which randomly searches for you (funny results are expected).

It's priced at 2,39 Euro and can be downloaded via the iTunes Store.

I really would like to see more polished Apps like this one in the iTunes Store but sadly there are more and more worthless Apps popping up.

Anyway give this Application a try, it is the most convenient way of searching Points of Interest available on the iPhone.

Intermission: First rumbling against the iTunes App Store

Long time not an update of one tested application here.
This is due to some issues which I would like to explain. First of, the Apple iTunes App Store looks like getting lamer every single day.

That's really lame, where are the so-called "great Apps?
Every day, I am checking the new releases in the iTunes store and what do I see? Mostly lame Applications where there should be great stuff. As of writing this, there are already 141 pages of Apps in the iTunes store and sadly the bad Apps are hiding the real pearls, Apps which were carefully crafted by the developer to make people enjoy using it.

We will continue to provide here unbiased reviews and will try to clear the mist of Lo-Apps out of view.

Stay tuned.

Twinkle - THE Twitter Client for Mac

As many people are currently using Twitter to stay in touch with

friends, or just to brabble stuff on the internets, I considered

testing Twinkle, another Application from Tapulous.

After creating an account (this has to be done via internet

on the Twitter Homepage) and installing Twinkle on my iPhone,

I was ready to go.

No, wait: Twinkle urges you also to create a Tapulous ID

(which you might already have, when you installed Tap Tap Revenge).

The reason is: In case that the Twitter Service is down (due to outage) 

you could still post your messages and also, 

this service from Tapulous is providing the storage for your pictures

you attach to your messages.

Additionally it serves for the purpose of the “near location messages”.

The first thing I noticed was that the Application is well polished

graphically.

My first tests were a little bit disappointing (with Version 1.0)

due the fact that the message postage lagged a little bit while writing

and also due to some problems Tapulous had with their S3 Servers.

Those things are fixed in the latest Version 1.1 which can be

downloaded over at the iTunes Store.

The Display of the messages is clean and clear,

yellow bubbles for the people you follow, blue ones for your posts.

The “proximity” function is pretty neat and a great feature of this App.

Due to location services (same used as for Google Maps Application)

you can select to see Messages by people near to you. 

A very interesting function which gives Twinkle a real advantage

over Twitterific for iPhone.

And last but not least, it is important to note that this application

is completely free, so when you are already and avid Twitter Service user,

you might give Twinkle a chance and try it out before purchasing

the Twitterific Premium Software - I personally consider the free

Twitterific Application ad-ware.

You maybe will not pay the Application, but getting “Adds” on it is

kind of disturbing.

I can guarantee if you like using Twitter you will enjoy doing

your Twittering on your iPhone through Twinkle.

Definitely an Application worthy to be installed on the iPhone.

The iPhone a good platform for game developer ?

July 11th 08. We've just witnessed the emergence of a brand new platform. The iPhone now plays alongside Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. What really makes a platform is what developer can do with it. With its SDK, Apple clearly wanted to change the game of mobile development. Forget about Java ME, the Carrier dictatorship, Apple is about to change the rules of mobile game development.

Hardware

With its smooth user interface, full of animation, the iPhone seems to be a pretty decent platform. We will compare it with the two leading portable gaming platform: The Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP. So how does it stack-up?
Of the two leaders, the PSP is clearly the most powerful. With its gorgeous screen of 480 x 272 pixel, its 333 MHz MIPS R4000 CPU (previously 222MHz) and a pretty capable custom graphic chip, the PSP is an excellent playground for the creative developer.
By comparison, the Nintendo DS, the market leader (despite modest hardware spec) sports two ARM processor clocked at 67 & 33 MHz. The two LCD screen can display graphics at 256 x 192 resolution. One of the two screens is touch capable (with a stylus), which enabled an entire new line of games, often targeted at casual gamer. This, in part, explains the success of the console.
iPhone main CPU is a Samsung ARM9 clocked at 412 MHz. The phone also has a PowerVR MBX 3D GPU, the mobile version of the GPU that powered the regretted SEGA Dreamcast. So clearly, the iPhone seems to have what it takes to make visually stunning games. The screen is spacious, offering a comfortable 480×320 pixels resolution and is multi-touch. The multi-touch screen is something unique to this platform, we have yet so see new Gameplay ideas based on this feature, and I’m sure there is room for creativity here. The iPhone features 3 accelerometers that might, again, open new Gameplay opportunities (Wii anyone?).
Mobile game developers have historically been limited by carriers in terms of file size. The iPhone and it's generous storage space (8 or 16 Go models right now) and it's distribution model (game under 10Mo can be downloaded on the cellular network, over wifi otherwise) breaks yet another barrier.
One of the problems of the iPhone hardware, when seen through game developer’s eye, is the absence of physical button. Clearly not all game will be portable on the platform. Another problem is that if the phone is handled horizontally with two hands (like PSP), chances are that no sound will come out from the speakers.
Judging solely on the hardware spec, the iPhone seems to be a pretty solid gaming device with plenty of room for creative developers. Its connected nature adds up even more to an already rather spicy mix.

Software

What about tools for developers ? IDE, debugger, simulator, profiler, etc…anyone with background in handled console development will find Apple offering pretty generous. What about the API’s ?
On the Graphics side, there is access to OpenGL ES, the mobile version of the established 3D API. Supporting PDF rich drawing model, Quartz bring unprecedented level of quality for a 2D API on a mobile platform.

Open AL provides positional audio while Core Audio give access to a simple sound playback, sound manipulation as well as recording.

The iPhone SDK also provide video playback capabilities.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Coming from the desktop version of Mac OS X, those API's are deep and rich, and should cover a great deal of developer's needs.

But the iPhone is a pretty odd platform too. Not every game developer is familiar with Mac OS X set of API's. As opposed to the PC/XBOX360 couple, the Mac has never been a huge gaming platform.

You can code in C and C++ on the iPhone, but Apple promoted language is Objective-C.

This is probably the biggest barrier to entry. Of all developer I've talked to, this point always comes back on the complain list.

The smalltalkesque syntax is for most people a curiosity on it's own. I’ve shown the most basic Cocoa example from Apple developer web site to a few fellow developers and nearly none of them were able to tell me what this very trivial piece of code was doing. Objective-C just looks odd to a developer used to a C style syntax.

So not only you have to be up to the game programming challenge, which would be enough to keep you busy, but you have to fight against the API's and, most importantly, the language.
Don't get me wrong, Objective-C has some very interesting aspect to it, but it seems like a rather stubborn and anachronistic choice for an otherwise modern platform.

Free SDK

The thing that is really huge about the iPhone is its free SDK. You don't need to buy pricey hardware development kit to work on the iPhone. Download the SDK, and you are set to go. Indie game developers will appreciate for sure. And the distribution deal is pretty good too. You pick the price, and Apple keeps 30%. That, for me, looks like an ideal environment for innovation. I wouldn't be surprise if the most creative games of next year were released on the iPhone.

Market & opportunities

The iPhone is a fast growing platform. Apple has a target of 10 millions iPhone by the end of 2008. Most people, including me, think Apple will over achieve this target by large. Just look at the momentum of the iPhone 3G currently has. It's sold out pretty much everywhere. It's the new big thing, the Wii phenomena 2.0 if you want. People are buying it like crazy. And I’m not accounting for iPod touches. More over, when you look at the demographics, people spending that kind of money on a mobile phone and an associated plan, those people are no kids. They have money to buy your games. You can look at PS3 sells figures to give you some perspective. There’s currently about 14 millions PS3 sold in the world. Sony expect to reach 20 millions by the end of this year. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more iPhone/iPod Touch than PS3 pretty soon. And because of the Apple deal, the fact that there are no physical medium, no resellers, etc… The games are pretty cheap too. Currently, the average price is $10. When you compare this to a PSP or a DS title...Of course the few real commercial games released so far may not be as deep or as long as a $60 PS3 title. But not every game needs to be that complex, something hard to achieve on a classic portable system because of games price tag, and therefore customer expectations. But with a $10 price tag you have to make volume, that's for sure.
With the iPhone you also escape the carrier hegemony. They used to make the rules, but with Apple the game is changing. Some might argue that you escape a dictatorship to fall into another, but as we've seen, it could be worst.

Gaming Platform ?

With its frequent updates, the iPhone hardware spec could evolve too.
Nobody knows how Apple will handle this, but that could potentially brakes the console style of development of fixed hardware, making it harder for developer to fine-tune their game. Something that would be closer the PC or Mac game market with minimum hardware spec...not really sexy.
The potential is clearly here. There are few glitches here and there. It is impossible to provide a game demo that can be upgraded to the full game when purchased. The battery might be a problem too. With 3G and OpenGL 3D graphics the device's autonomy is clearly reduced.
But overall I see great opportunities for game developers on this platform.

Some links:
EA Vet Young Reveals iPhone Publisher Ngmoco
Is The iPhone A Major Opportunity For Game Innovation?

Watching DVD on your iPhone

So you have a bunch of DVD that you would like to be able to watch on the go, on your iPhone. In this little guide I'll present you HandBrake, a DVD converter for Mac OS X that will transform your DVD into a video that is playable on your iPhone.

But before we start, DVD ripping might be illegal in your country. Please check your local legislation before using Handbrake.

Handbrake is a free application for Mac and PC initiated by french developpers Eric Petit and Laurent Aimar. It is an Open Source project and the list of active developers is already pretty impressive. Looks good for the future of the app.



A quick glimpse at the presets will show you that handbrake support a wide variety of output devices. AppleTV, PS3, PSP, you name it. But we will focus on settings for the iPhone or iPod Touch.


When you insert a DVD a launch the app, it will analyse the disc to find the available audio tracks, subtitles, chapter layout, ect... And the great thing about Handbreak is that it will be able to export those informations to the iPhone video player.

So on the iPhone it is possible to switch languages.

...and choose a chapter.

And select subtitles...Just like a movie purchased on the iTunes Store.
The great thing is that you no longer have to re-buy a video on the store that you would already owned in DVD.

I'm not totally convinced by the "iPhone/iPod Touch" preset. It seems to be targeted to hight quality video in order to output on a TV with a video cable plugged on the iPhone. But I have the DVD for this, I more interested in adapting the video for playback on the iPhone, looking directly at the phone screen.

First, to save battery it is better to have a video resolution that matches the screen resolutions. It is Ok to have black stripes but if the iPhone has to scale the video it will consume more processing power either on the CPU or/and the graphic chip, and so drain power. Even if the iPhone has some hardware scaler support it might consume more if active, that's clearly not what you want in a mobile usage scenario.



The iPhone screen has a resolution of 480x320, pretty dense for such a small device. So if you want to be battery friendly try to choose an output resolution that matches it closely.

I've choose to use x264 encoding over regular MPEG4. The video quality/file size ratio is clearly better. Unfortunatelly the encoding process will be longer with this setting. I still need to do some testing to find out if H264 is battery friendly on the iPhone. I'll give an update on this blog as soon as I find out.

The default bitrate is clearly way too high for such a small resolution and will produce large files. Again on a 16 Go iPhone you may not want to spend 2 Go just for a single movie. Setting the bitrate to 350 seemed to be a good compromise between video quality and file size. I've choosed to allocate aproximativelly 4 Go for videos on my device, with a 350 bitrate, I can store about 8 movies on my phone. Just reduce the bitrate if you want smaller file size.

The encoding itself takes about an hour on my MacBook. Good news, Handbrake take advantage of a multi CPU machine.


On Mac OS X you can see the encoding progress on the Dock icon. A pretty nice detail.