Thursday 29 April 2010

Amazing HTC Sense-ish theme for iPhone - [Beta] iHTC HD2



More details here.

Friday 16 April 2010

X2 Football 2010 - in-game footage looks awesome



I´m really hyped for this: x2 Football, the best football game for iPhone is almost back with it´s 2010 edition. And looks absolutely marvelous, easily better than anything seen on PSP. 3GS optimizations and specially online multiplayer done right (i hope) are some of the changes regaring the first game. It should be out during April.

Monday 12 April 2010

Fact: iPhone OS Notifications SUCK


Gizmodo got it right. Notifications on iPhone OS, aka stupid blue popups, are an abomination that should not exist



There is hope though...Notified promises to go a step further than GriP in dealing with this problem.

Friday 9 April 2010

HTML5 video fully working on iPhone OS 4.0




While testing the new iPhone OS 4.0 beta 1, it crossed my mind something had to have changed on Safari. Then I remembered HTML5 video was not working on 3.x, be it fullscreen or embedded. Some of you might remember this address has a popular example of HTML5 video:

http://jilion.com/sublime/video

Guess what, it's now working in iPhone OS 4.0 beta 1, both in fullscreen and embedded mode (inside window, just like in desktop browser), and there are cool control buttons being used. Take a look at some other images:











This probably means YouTube desktop HTML5 mode is also working.
-- Post From My iPhone

Habemus iPhone OS 4.0

Has promised, i installed the beta 1 of iPhone OS 4.0 and will be sharing my views on the new features during the 2 months of beta testing that will precede the release for the general public.

First reaction is very positive - the new wallpaper is great to show the new ability of setting a background for Springboard.

What can i say about yesterday´s presentation? I´m very happy with some changes (multitasking, internal notifications, mail.app improvements, gamecenter - i called this one in my predictions, folders), but i´m VERY angry with Apple for not doing anything regarding what i think is the main problem on iPhone OS - the POOR way that notifications are handled! I mean, we´re in 2010, the competition have shown how to do it in a usefull, non-obtrusive way, and we have to put up with the stupid popups in the middle of the screen...really Apple? Funny thing is that we will have even more types of notifications to deal with, making the problem even bigger. Thank God for jailbreak!

The other two BIG letdowns are the way the Lockscreen remains the same, very far from what can be done, and the absence of ways to quickly access most used settings (think sbsettings). It´s very clear that jailbreaking will remain a must for iPhone users, unless you´re a soccer mum.

Tuesday 6 April 2010

iPhone OS 4.0 - Predictions and Expectations



It finally came. The news i was expecting since January, and that caused me to delay doing any maintenance restore to my iPhone for months. iPhone OS 4.0 will be presented Thursday the 8th, and this is what i expect:

  • Some kind of multitasking, even if limited.
  • New notification system.
  • Unified inbox for email.
  • Refreshed Springboard UI
  • New system wide multitouch gestures
  • Printing support
  • Global documents storage area
  • FM radio app
  • Access to calendar events in the SDK
  • Xbox Live/PSN style gaming network
  • IM integration with contacts

What i also would like to see:

  • Wifi sync for podcasts
  • Widgets, at least on the lockscreen
  • Tasks app
  • Quick access to wifi, bluetooth and 3G settings
  • Better battery life
  • Less restrictions in the SDK

It´s clear expectations are really high. However, this time i think there´s a big chance most of this will really happen, because it has to - now Apple has real competition, and the current iPhone UI is showing it´s age.

One more thing - has i´ve been in the beta test program for one iPhone app, i have my iPhone´s UDID registered to a dev´s account. This means i will be able to install the beta builds of OS 4.0, so stay tunned!