Monday 28 June 2010

iWork suite working on the iPhone

After showing you the iphone4-exclusive iMovie running on an iPhone 3GS, this time i bring you the entire iWork suite:

Pages



Keynote

Numbers


All have problems due to screen size, but Numbers and Keynote are surprisingly usable, in landscape mode. However, due to difference in the APIs used by the iPad (iOS 3.2) vs the iPhone (iOS 4.0), the applications tend to crash when we try to access the photo library, etc. However, unlike iMovie, i think we can expect Apple themselves to make the entire iWork suite available for at least the 3gs and iPhone 4 in the coming months, with all me mentioned problems solved.

(thanks to @metion)

Sunday 27 June 2010

You know what? iMovie does run on the iPhone 3GS



What you see above is iMovie running on my iPhone 3GS. And it's supposed to work on the 3G too. I guess it will work even better on the iPad. Here's a sample project:



However, there's some problems that do justify the iPhone4 official exclusivity:

Browsing existing videos is fast, but when it comes to a big photo gallery, it does slow a bit.

Export only works in the lowest 320p setting, and for simple projects (have to run more tests to see if it is the duration that causes problems)




That said, a Apple could easily have released a specific 3GS version.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tuesday 22 June 2010

Thursday 17 June 2010

WOW



Really, i have no words to describe ao cool this looks.

(via topless robot)

Multitasking in iOS 4 - not perfect




While i do rave about the way task switching has been implemented in iOS 4, and all the other multitasking APIs, truth is i will still be using Backgrounder to have full on complete multitasking when i need it. And this TUAW post explains why.

Multitasking in iOS 4 - compatible apps start appearing




If you have iOS 4 GM installed (now easily done even for Windows users, with the release of itunes 9.2), now you can see multitasking in action even with 3rd party apps, and not only with Apple´s own stuff (Mail, Photos, Settings, etc). The first great example is Dropbox - install the last update, and see how it works marvelously for fast app switching. Can´t wait for more apps to use this, and the other multitasking APIs available!

Wednesday 9 June 2010

iOS notifications - there is hope now




You all know i hate current iOS notifications implementation (aka stupid blue popups) with a passion. However, there is finally reasons to be optimistic, because Apple just hired the guy responsible for WebOS notifications. Let´s just hope it won´t take a whole year.

Monday 7 June 2010

Strategy gaming on the iPhone at its prime


Last week, two iPhone games caught my attention: Land Air Sea Warfare

and Highborn

I´m a big strategy fan, be it in it RTS (real time strategy) or TBS (turn based strategy), and have played several games of this kind on the iPhone (Command and Conquer, Warfare Inc, Quantum Colapse, Robocalypse, all RTS, Rogue Planet, Uniwar, Mecho Wars, Transformers G1 and Reign of Swords, TBS), and while several were really good (Robocalypse, Transformers), they still lack something to reach perfection. Well, after playing Highborn (TBS) and LASW (RTS), i can tell you, they are it! I´m specially amazed with LASW, because it was made by a single guy (!), and even so manages to kick EA´s Command Conquer - Red Alert in all sorts of ways. So please, if you care about this genre of games, go and buy those games, your money was never so well spent.




Friday 4 June 2010

iPad - my impressions

IMG_0526

Last Monday i visited the Louvre Apple Store while passing by Paris, so i had the opportunity to test the iPad (while it´s out in some European countries, it´s not here in Portugal).

IMG_0527

First, i noticed Apple has lots of units available for testing...and i mean LOTS - there were always several with no one using them.

IMG_0523

On to the testing. I´ve heard several people saying this, and i had the same impression: the iPad is heavier than what we expect. However, i think i´d quickly get used to it. And it is indeed a beautifull piece of tech.



I tested several aplications, including games like Real Racing HD (impressive, but i think the iPad is too heavy for long driving sessions), productivity apps like Appigo Todo (love the interface!), NY Times (yeah, i see myself using this to read the daily news at breakfast), iBooks (again, great interface), plus Mail, Safari and Calendar, all clearly benefiting from the bigger screen. But Photo.app takes the prize has most awesome iPad feat...see the video above.



And the youtube app is equaly great.

To sum it all, i loved what i saw, loved to have one, but it is still not something i would "die for". The iPhone is still more usefull for me, and i have a netbook for other type of portable stuff. However, it all comes down to price, in the future i may get one.