Someone must really like you — otherwise, how did you end up with an iPhone this holiday season? Yeah, we know, iPads don’t really fit into stockings. Besides, your parent or significant other got you an arguably better gift in the cheaper (with two-year contract, of course), more compact, and more recently updated iPhone 4. We’ve given you some app suggestions before when the device first launched, but that was six months ago, and in technology time, that’s like seven years. Want a run-down of the best apps, our favorite accessories, and the essential tips and tricks? Just follow along after the break!
Those that use jailbroken iPhones and other Apple devices are able to get software from places other than the App Store. One of the places that many of the jailbreak users go for software is the Hackulous community. Hackulous admin Dissident has announced that new innovations have been added to the software used at Hackulous.
The Clutch app has been updated, which is software that allows the cracking of iOS software and the GUI for the app Crackulous has been updated too. Hackulous also has a new piece of software for uploading apps to the pirate store called Mobile Hunt. Mobile Hunt will tell the user when it sees an app not on the pirate app store and prompt them to start a background upload.
Mobile Hunt is described as a reverse BitTorrent where it takes a tiny piece of the app from the users device, uploads it to the cloud and then combines that tiny bit with tiny bits from other users to recreate the complete and working app. Hackulous also says that it has a hack app ready for the Mac App Store too. However, it will not launch the Mac App Store hack until the app store has enough “crap” apps in it to make a hack store useful for trialing apps. The developers reckon to start with all of the apps in the app store for Macs will be good and crap apps will come later.
A number of iPhone keyboard cases have popped up lately, from the TK-421 flip-out case (which we reviewed) to the BoxWave Keyboard Buddy. We’ve spent the better part of 24 hours using an engineering sample of Nuu’s MiniKey QWERTY slider for iPhone 4 — expect “a few minor changes to be made” before actual launch — that the company was kind enough to send over. So, how’s it stack up?
Word on the street — and by that we mean a Nikkei Business Daily report — is that Toshiba’s dropping a cool 100 billion yen (around $1.2 billion in US currencies) for a new factory in the Ishikawa prefecture, Japan. Its raison d’être? Low-temperature polysilicon LCD panels, primarily for the iPhone (no indication on which version; Apple is said to be investing in a portion of the factory, as well). Construction begins early next year and production is apparently slated to commence in the second half. More than enough time to stockpile unicorn tears for the assembly line.
Behold! Notion Ink Adam! Chris Davies writes up a full report and a bunch o’ people chime in with high fives and cheers. Housewives then smuggle iPads and smartphones into China while the iPad 2 case shows up with a cute little camera hole. If you’re feeling like grabbing something for free, check out our Lenovo ThinkCentre M90z giveaway. Then if you’re in the mood for disks, Don has a column about how he forgot about DVDs in 2010, while Philip lets you know that it’s Time to Buy a Blu-Ray. All this and a BRAND NEW SECTION on The Daily Slash!
New Zealanders have been enjoying Epic Games’ visual stunner for a few hours now, as per usual, but the past has caught up with the present, so to speak. Infinity Blade is now available on the US iTunes store for both the iPad and the iPhone. Drop the gun, give the mutants a rest, and pick up the sword — cost of entry is $5.99 and the file size is a whopping 318.3MB. What are you waiting for?
Oh my goodness it really WAS Chrome OS like we had the freaky feeling it would be this morning! Take a look at the full Google Chrome Event Re-Cap and Analysis by our man in the field Ben Bajarin who was there to see it all go down! Then head through the massive list of links below looking for the [CHROME] tag to see all the sweet stuff! Then you’re probably so Google crazy you’ll want more so you can click around over to our exclusive Google Nexus S Hands-On (with video and pics!) Then take a peek at our review of the [Advent Vega] tablet, review of the movie [Black Swan], and read how Julian Assange was arrested and denied bail today, followed by an open letter by a mass of big names to the Prime Minister of Austrialia.
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In light of the current massive amount of important being placed on the WikiLeaks/Julian Assange situation, there’s been an open letter to the current Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard penned and signed by a slew of writers, publishers, academics, lawmakers and so forth, amongst them Professor Noam Chomsky (pictured in a piece of art by Shepard Fairey below), Helen Garner, and Adam Bandt. This is a clip from that letter:
“We believe this case represents something of a watershed, with implications that extend beyond Mr Assange and WikiLeaks. In many parts of the globe, death threats routinely silence those who would publish or disseminate controversial material. If these incitements to violence against Mr Assange, a recipient of Amnesty International’s Media Award, are allowed to stand, a disturbing new precedent will have been established in the English-speaking world.
In this crucial time, a strong statement by you and your Government can make an important difference.”
Parrot’s AR.Drone was the surprise hit of CES 2010, breaking the French company out of its Bluetooth prison and instead taking to the skies with an iPhone-controlled quadricopter. Reminiscent of something out of a William Gibson novel, the AR.Drone promises to best all R/C helicopters before it, with its combination of four-rotor stability and onboard autopilot intelligence. Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.
Hardware
While remote-control helicopters have long been using dual, contra-rotating blades for increased stability and easier amateur piloting, the AR.Drone goes even better and doubles that to a full four rotors. They’re set on short arms around a black polystyrene hub, into which slots the battery pack. Unlike with many “toy” ‘copters, Parrot expects the AR.Drone to be used indoors and out, and provides not only a colorful top chassis but also a removable four-hoop bumper. Indoors, the bumper reduces the likelihood of rotors snapping when you inevitably hit the walls, ceiling and floor; outdoors, the AR.Drone is faster, more maneuverable and more wind-resilient with the bumper taken off.
Inside the AR.Drone there are the same sort of sensors, radios and cameras, as you’d find in a modern smartphone, only here they’re all working together to keep the quadricopter airborne. As well as gyroscopes, ultrasound sensors and the like, to keep the ‘copter level, Parrot’s engineers have used twin cameras to track height and position. One camera points ahead, beaming back a live stream to whichever iOS device you’re using to control the AR.Drone, while a second looks down at the ground and is used to monitor speed. Together, they’re good enough to keep the AR.Drone hovering stable at a preset height – you can even nudge it with your hand and it will re-steady itself – which means that should you lose controller connection or generally screw up your piloting duties, the Parrot can righten itself automatically.
The final key ingredient is WiFi, which Parrot use to hook up your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad with the AR.Drone itself. Rather than rely on a third-party router – generally in short supply when you’re in a park – the AR.Drone creates its own WiFi network to which the iOS app connects (though you have to set up the WiFi permissions in iOS’ own Settings pages). Range is a quoted 160 feet – less if there are walls in-between, naturally – and if the AR.Drone does get away from you it’ll automatically land when it spots the connection has dropped.
Parrot’s choice of plastics, foams and other materials are suitably rugged, and despite repeated crashes as we gradually earned our pilot’s stripes we never managed to put more than a minor dent into the chassis. Happily Parrot also make various spares available (for instance, an indoor hull is $30 while an outdoor hull is $20), so if you do manage to snap a rotor you needn’t buy a whole new AR.Drone to replace it. As for safety, the blades automatically stop as soon as they encounter any resistance: we jammed a sacrificial SlashGear finger in their way, and escaped scratch-free.
Software
No small amount of the AR.Drone’s appeal is its method of control, with Parrot bypassing plasticky remotes and instead heading straight for Apple’s App Store. The free software turns an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad into a touchscreen controller, with simple on-screen buttons, a live video feed from either of the two cameras, and accelerometer-led flying.
Piloting the AR.Drone requires a combination of screen taps and device movement: physically tilting the iPhone moves the quadricopter forward, back, left and right, while the right thumb controls altitude and rotation with an on-screen joystick. Parrot has sensibly offered two modes, depending on pilot aptitude: the “beginner” mode is less responsive to sudden movements but more forgiving of novice users, while the “ace” mode tightens up the responsiveness if you have the skill level to match. Take your left thumb off the screen and the ‘copter automatically hovers.
Colored LEDs on the AR.Drone itself help you figure out its orientation, useful considering it can be otherwise tricky to differentiate which is the front; alternatively you can be brave and attempt to navigate solely from the video feed. This is a reasonably tricky prospect, however, what with the 15fps refresh rate – which Parrot claims is a limitation of the WiFi connection and 640 x 480 resolution – though it does mean you can control the AR.Drone from a completely different room. Unfortunately there’s no way to record the streaming video, so you can’t, say, strafe your family and then upload the havoc to YouTube. Screenshots via the usual home/power-button iOS combo do work, however. The bottom camera runs at just 176 x 144, but streams at 60fps.
The other notable controls are the auto-land and emergency buttons; the functionality of each is pretty obvious. Auto-land causes the AR.Drone to ease its way to the ground and then kill the rotors; the emergency button, meanwhile, cuts power instantly. Signal strength and power are shown as gauges in the top left and right hand corners, respectively, while the setting pages allow you to tweak responsiveness and re-calibrate the auto-leveling.
While users are expected to get no small amount of enjoyment with a single AR.Drone, Parrot is also hoping that owners will get together and play games with more than one unit. The “AR” in the name stands for “augmented reality”, which basically involves running games on the iPhone or iPod touch that overlay graphics onto the view from the AR.Drone’s camera. So, with two units you can hold in-air dogfights, trying to line up and blast your opponent on-screen. Each quadricopter identifies the other using the different colored stickers included in the box, and you can have three sets of colors in play at any one time.
Parrot is promising more apps that take advantage of the augmented reality aspect of the AR.Drone – they launched another earlier this month – but their real ambition is to get third-party developers involved. There’s an open SDK available, though so far we’re yet to see any significant results from it; it may well be a case of coders waiting for the AR.Drone to pick up in sales popularity before they dive in.
As for non-iOS devices, right now there’s no way to get involved: the AR.Drone is Apple-only. Back at CES in January 2010 there was talk of an Android version of the controller software, but that’s so far failed to materialize. Still, Parrot claims to be adding the communication source code to their development platform, so it’s possible a third-party developer could come up with an Android app.
AR.Drone taking flight
Performance
Parrot’s control system takes a little getting used to, as does figuring out which way the AR.Drone is facing, but after a short acclimatization period it’s clear this is one of the most easily piloted R/C ‘copters we’ve tested. It certainly benefits from having plenty of space, however; the manufacturer recommends 12 x 12 feet for indoor flight. More enclosed spaces can lead to the autopilot system being overwhelmed by air from the rotors buffeting against walls.
Outdoors and that concern is gone, though then you have wind to contend with. The AR.Drone can withstand a moderate wind, but anything above around 7MPH is considered no-go by Parrot, and considering watching $300 worth of quadricopter blown away into the distance will have an unpleasant impact on your wallet, we tend to agree.
The biggest frustration – like with all remote control vehicles – is battery life. Parrot estimate an average flight time of 12 minutes from a full charge, with the battery taking 90 minutes to rejuice. Unfortunately there’s only a single power pack in the box, though Parrot will sell you spares at $30 each. In practical terms, we found we were unlikely to fly the AR.Drone solidly, and so the amount of use from a single battery was longer – or at least felt that way – than the stated time. The ‘copter also varies in its power demands depending on how you’re using it: leave it hovering on autopilot, for instance, and it’ll last longer than if you’re actively flying it.
Still, it’s the biggest stumbling block the AR.Drone faces, and it puts a dampener on the user experience overall. Parrot could have easily gone some way to addressing this by bundling a second battery, which seems a miserly omission.
Wrap-Up
Although Parrot’s augmented reality dogfight ideas certainly have merit, they’re not the winning feature of the AR.Drone. The units themselves are simply too expensive – and thus rare – to make it likely you’ll come across another owner, which means you either need to double your outlay and buy two AR.Drones or content yourself with solo flight. Hopefully third-party developers will bring out games that allow a single user to take advantage of AR gameplay.
Instead, the AR.Drone stands out as the most consumer-ready R/C device we’ve played with, comfortably ahead of regular – albeit generally cheaper – toy helicopters. Though we wouldn’t argue with longer runtime or smoother video, they’re both limitations it would likely cost significantly more to address in any meaningful way, and with its $300 sticker the AR.Drone isn’t exactly budget-minded in the first place. Having to buy an iOS device if you haven’t already got one throws in another hurdle.
The AR.Drone is an expensive toy, certainly, but it’s an appealing one, with enough geeky kudos to endear it to adults and children alike. The tipping point will be when – if – third-party developers pick up Parrot’s SDK in any significant way, and the quality of the applications they develop. If the AR.Drone can make a good case for augmented reality gaming, that should give the quadricopter a much-needed push further out of the toy-gimmick category.
Missed out on Black Friday? Good on you. Now, still in the market for an iPhone 4? If so, you should probably point your vehicle to the nearest Radio Shack, STAT. For the first time since going on sale in June, Apple’s iPhone 4 is legitimately on sale from a retailer that actually exists and won’t sell your personal information to some goon in an offshore paradise you’ve never heard of. (No, Walmart’s $2 savings doesn’t count.) We’re told that the $50-off sale is being done to ramp up awareness surrounding Radio Shack’s (admittedly low-key) wireless business, and if we had to guess, we’d say it’ll probably work to perfection. Ever since the handset began shipping this summer, the going rate was $199 (on contract) for the 16GB model or $299 (also on contract) for the 32GB flavor; this deal hacks $50 from each, and there’s even an 8GB iPhone 3GS for $49 if you’re looking to take things even lower. Better still, The Shack‘s offering a $75 trade-in credit on any functional / non-cracked iPhone 3G as well as $125 for a 3GS in like condition, meaning that you could walk in today, hand over your 3GS, and walk out with an iPhone 4 for $25 (plus activation fees). Naturally, the deal’s only available in brick-and-mortar locations (read: not online), and the fun comes to a close on December 11th. So, who’s in?
It’s a [FEATURED] fantasy today! We’ve got columns and special posts by the barrel-full, and you’re gonna love em! First thing in the morning we got a pre-noon delivery from the FedEx truck – what did the FedEx man bring for us to unbox and get our hands on? A NOOKcolor, fresh off the factory line! Then we write a couple of columns: one on the raging state of the Tablets market, and one on the current quick-paced state of political news. Then Josh Marinacci says webOS will be available soon for ALL Palm devices, there’s a White iPhone 4 sale in China, and the feature stream begins. Last night our man Vince was at PEPCOM and brought back video demos of Gorilla Glass, a three screen monitor from Samsung, and a NOOKcolor. Finally (there’s more?!) the last installment of Evan’s Week with the HTC HD7 is up – Xbox LIVE! All this and even MORE on The Daily Slash!
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Today’s item of interest in The Daily Slash is a quote from the Professor / Writer / Inventer of the Internet Tim Berners-Lee as he writes an article called “Long Live the Web” about defending the Internet against those who would limit it in a variety of ways. I suggest you read the entire thing because it’s a masterfully written statement and it concerns us all, all of us internetlings.
Why should you care? Because the Web is yours. It is a public resource on which you, your business, your community and your government depend. The Web is also vital to democracy, a communications channel that makes possible a continuous worldwide conversation. The Web is now more critical to free speech than any other medium. It brings principles established in the U.S. Constitution, the British Magna Carta and other important documents into the network age: freedom from being snooped on, filtered, censored and disconnected.
Those that use jailbroken iPhones and other Apple devices are able to get software from places other than the App Store. One of the places that many of the jailbreak users go for software is the Hackulous community. Hackulous admin Dissident has announced that new innovations have been added to the software used at Hackulous.
