A week ago the free Inception iPhone App was introduced. It’s a project by the movie’s director Christopher Nolan, Michael Breidenbrücker and Hollywood’s star composer Hans Zimmer. As an absolute Hans Zimmer fan I tried it out immediately and I must admit, it is intriguing. It uses augmented sound through the iPhone’s headset to change the “dream” your are experiencing which is underlined by music composed by Hans Zimmer.
This app is a dream machine that transforms the world around you into a dreamworld. It uses augmented sound to induce dreams through the headset of your iPhone and iPod Touch. It will change your perception of reality.
Inception The App transports Inception The Movie straight into your life. New dreams can be unlocked in many ways, for example by walking, being in a quiet room, while traveling or when the sun shines. You will get realtime musical experiences, featuring new and exclusive music from the Inception soundtrack composed by Hans Zimmer.
Apple has introduced a new software tool for developers: iAd Producer. It enables anyone to create iAd banners without any coding experience. The tool is available to members of the iOS developer program.
It’s really easy to create simple iAds with this tool. The most parts can be completed with just drag and drop and minimal additional configuration. The tool comes with a nice user interface and a good visual representation of the iAd’s walkthrough.
You can easily add iPhone apps from the itunes store for purchase in the iAd. All you need to do is insert the application id from the store. iAd Producer inserts the icon, description and screenshots on its own. Of course you can add any other itunes store content but I guess this is a nice way to promote your apps.
It just takes a few minutes and you can see your iAd live on your iPhone. You need the iOS SDK installed on your machine to preview the app on the iPhone simulator or you can preview the iAd in any web browser since it is based on HTML5.
Although I really appreciate this tool and everything looks nice, comes with smooth animation and works as advertised, I must admit it looks nothing like a real cool iAd out of the box. I suppose for some supreme quality iAd you still have to do things manually after all. Luckily within in iAd Producer you can.
This tool really is a great start. I can’t wait to see iAds in action in Germany. According to Apple’s announcement, iAd is coming to Germany in January 2011 with some major brands signed already. If you want to be ready, try out iAd Producer for yourself.
Until now there are only English and Spanish packages available, so it does not come in handy in Germany but more languages seem to be in the making.
Looking through the web for some Apple news, I stumbled upon a cutout of a Steve Jobs cubee. A guy named Jay Hauf provides an iconic template at his Flickr profile.
Isn’t he cute? I think so. Finally I have a playmate for my plush Steve Jobs puppet I bought at PodBrix many months ago. I am sure you remember seeing it on the web as well. For 30 € it sure was the best geek investment of my lifetime. Unfortunately the item is no longer available.
Here is what they look like together. They do make quite a team, don’t you think? So why don’t you create your own Steve Jobs cubee?
The first Unreal Engine-powered game for iOS, Infinity Blade, has sold at least 274,000 copies in its first five days on sale, according to recent player counts on Game Center. At $6 a copy that’s a $1.64 net for the publisher, and a new record, according to Gamesindustry.biz.
Not so shaby at all. I suppose there is real money to be made in the app store. The full story can be read at gamesindutry.biz but you need to register for free to read the whole article. Meanwhile I will keep on playing the game.
I know it is already old news, but I really like the nerdy t-shirts from Last Exit to Nowhere. They really create stuff for the more discerning film fanatic.
We collaborate to create unique T-shirts that pay homage to the most memorable places, companies and corporations in cinema history.
Of course there is HAL 9000, the the sentient computer of the Discovery One spacecraft in Arthur C. Clarke’s fictional Space Odyssey saga.
Mostly appreciated are the Cyberdyne and Skynet shirts inspired by the 1984 James Cameron film The Terminator.
In addition one should not miss the Venkman Stantz Spengler Paranormal Studies shirt. Bill Murray would love to have one, I am sure. Of course, this tee is inspired by the 1984 film Ghostbusters, written by Dan Aykroyd.
There is more in the Dany Aykroyd corner as well. As a fan of The Blues Brothers, one cannot go on living without endorsing Ray’s Music Exchange.
So, feel free to take a look for yourself. For about 20 € there certainly is something you can’t live without.
It’s finally happening. As announced in September 2010, Epic Games brings the Unreal Engine 3 to the iOS platform. Until today, there only was a Unreal showcase application called Epic Citadel. In this app nothing is happening at all. One can just explore a castle realm. It looks nice with lots of animation amazing visuals and textures. It sure has the best graphics on the iOS platform. Since today one can buy the first full game Infinity Blade for just 4,99 €.
Infinity Blade is the all-new action RPG sword-fighting game for iPhone®, iPad™ and iPod touch® developed by Epic Games’ award-winning studio, ChAIR Entertainment. The first mobile game powered by Epic’s cutting-edge Unreal Engine 3 technology, Infinity Blade takes handheld gaming to new heights with gorgeous visuals, adrenaline-fueled battles and advanced character progression in a fully 3D castle realm.
TouchArcade reviewed the app quite intensively and describes it as a “must have”. I am not into this particular kind of game, but I needed to see this graphics in action. The game has a decent game center integration and promises to bring a multiplayer mode soon. I really like the concept of game center and hope to see interesting competing modes to arise from it. Infinity Blade really looks amazing and runs quite smoothly on my iPhone and my iPad. Remembering the poor graphics on a desktop machine in the 1990ies, playing games like Half-Life, Unreal Tournament and Counterstrike, I never imagined to see even that kind of performance on a mobile device. So from this perspective I agree that Infinity Blade is a must see. I can’t wait to see more games with high end graphics on the iOS platform.
Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac? No thanks.
That means your home Macs can be protected automatically in-the-background with the latest anti-virus protection, checking every program you run, every file you download, every USB stick you insert, completely free. Is there a catch you’re wondering? Well, nope! There isn’t!
But as it turns out, it is a disappointment as well. I admit it is just a security tool, but the look and feel alone is a flashback to the last decade and not really the desired pitch. In addition I feel that it is a lousy piece of engineering when it comes to process management. Like any other anti-virus software it consumes huge amounts of CPU power. Of course this is already a known issue, but nothing is happening. For automatically protecting my machine in-the-background I am not willing to reduce its power to the point where I can’t browse the web anymore.
It feels like anti-virus software for Windows performed in the 1990ies. I suppose porting Windows software to the Mac just doesn’t cut it anymore. There maybe sufficient reasons for the necessity of a anti-virus software on the Mac but as long as they perform like this, I have to get by without it. I just have to limit my contacts to Mac users only. I don’t want to get involved with Windows users anyway.
As I mentioned LCARS (Library Computer Access/Retrieval System) for the iPad in my blog entry recently (Star Trek on the got… iCARS for iPad), it became obvious: I am into Star Trek. Reviving the passion from my childhood, I was looking for a LCARS theme for my gmail account. As it turns out, there is none. Disappointed by the certain lack of enthusiasm of google engineers and other willing google users to accommodate my desire, I almost lost my faith in nerds and geeks around the world… but I found something amazing instead.
There is this guy, Bracer Jack, who is willing to do anything that pays the bills. And this is what he did: He created a LCARS GuideLine, a LCARS Manifesto and of course he is working on a tricorder as well. Not only does he explain what a decent LCARS has to look like, he even takes it further, suggesting LCARS could be 3D. This actually seems reasonable to me. It’s just a holographic version of LCARS. I am sure Lt. Cmdr. Data would have liked that. Take a look for your self.
Also he used augmented reality technologies to show very promising results. You can try it out for yourself within his LCARS Guideline article or have a look below.
I couldn’t stress this enough, if you are a die hard “LCARS is pretty” fan that couldn’t care less about the intellectual deployment side, please stop reading now and move on, there is nothing here that will please you, this is not a good source if you just want to create a pretty LCARS web site or something just pretty for its own sake.
So, if you really want to know where the LCARS evolution should be going, take a look for yourself and find out if you’re are a real LCARS aficionado. If not, you might just like to have a tricorder of your own. Feel free to admire the development of Bracer Jack’s tricorder project.
In the end, I am not sure wether any of this pays any bills at all, but I highly appreciate Bracer Jacks’ efforts and his appreciation for Star Trek. Thank you Bracer Jack for brightening my day.
Using Apple’s wireless keyboards and mouses keeps annoying me with the need for new batteries in the most inconvenient situations, such as sunday afternoon when there is no place to get new ones. Obviously rechargeable batteries would be an option but it never quite worked out with my Apple peripherals before.
Still, I want the most energy-efficient way to power my accessories. As advertised, the new Apple Battery Charger might just do the trick.
Introducing the first battery charger designed by Apple. It charges quickly and uses energy wisely. And it comes withs six AA batteries, so you’ll alway have plenty of power for your wireless Mac accessories.
I don’t really know if it is the promised “More charges. Less waste.” “The Smarter way to charge”, nore can I varify it in any way. Fact is, it is not important because what gets my attention in the end is “It’s a beautiful fit.”. It is the most beautiful battery charger around for sure. Just google “battery charger” and you will know what I am talking about.
One could argue, it is not really important what the charger looks like because it is hidden away behind the desk anyway but I prefer the hidden spots to look nice as well. So for just 29,99 € you get something nice for your other power supplies and cables to hang out with.