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Make Your Site An iPhone App

By Adam DuVander November 19th, 2008 Categories: Mobile

Webmonkey in an iPhoneYou can get most of the benefits of an iPhone application without writing a single line of Objective C. An open source project called PhoneGap lets your wrap your website in iPhone App goodness. And you can even charge for your creation.

Even more exciting than being able to easily create an app is getting access to some native iPhone APIs. Currently PhoneGap supports JavaScript access to the user’s location and the device accelerometer. Camera and vibration are still in the works.

There’s talk of being able to use a web form to create your app by submitting only the URL of your website. Currently, it’s a little more work, but easier than creating an app from scratch. You’ll still need to download the SDK and write your app in Apple’s XCode. The PhoneGap wiki has a hello world tutorial that should get you started.

One really cool aspect of the PhoneGap project is that it also supports Android and Blackberry. A write-once approach to mobile development is within grasp of the ordinary web developer.

[via John Resig]

See also:


Tags: android, iPhone
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iPhone App Puts the Glue Social Network in Your Pocket

By Scott Gilbertson November 17th, 2008 Categories: Mobile, Software & Tools

Glue iPhoneAdaptive Blue has released an iPhone app for the new Glue service we profiled last week. Glue is a social network, but not in the normal sense. Glue has no destination site, rather it works through a Firefox toolbar that follows you around the web and, when relevant, shows you what your friends thought of the things you’re looking at.

The beauty of Glue lies in its simplicity — as you browse the web and check out pages about things that Glue recognizes (books, music, movies, restaurants, etc.), the “Glue Bar” slides down and shows you what your friends thought of the same things, regardless of what site they viewed it on.

That simplicity also makes Glue a natural fit for the iPhone. The interface on the iPhone splits Glue into three main sections — things you’ve recently browsed, things your friends liked and what’s popular across the whole Glue network.

Within each of those options you can filter by all the various types of data Glue handles — books, movies, music, restaurants etc. From there, you can see detailed lists of what you looked at and what your friends thought of an item. There’s even a very nice CoverFlow-style view for quickly paging through objects.

If you want to try Glue for the iPhone, follow this link to the App Store and download a copy. Glue for the iPhone is free, though you should install and configure the Firefox version first since there doesn’t appear to be a way to signup for Glue directly from the iPhone app.

The easiest way to see how Glue on the iPhone works is to watch this video from Adaptive Blue, which covers the hightlights:


Glue for iPhone from AdaptiveBlue on Vimeo.

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Adobe Improves AIR Platform, Hints at Flash 10’s Mobile Future

By Scott Gilbertson November 17th, 2008 Categories: Mobile, Multimedia, Software & Tools

AirlogoThe world of web-desktop hybrid apps is looking up — Adobe has released an important update for its AIR platform — and those apps may soon be migrating from your PC to your favorite mobile device.

In addition to the new version of AIR, Adobe has announced it will partner with mobile chip maker ARM to work on improving Flash support on mobile devices.

Will that mean Flash finally makes it to the iPhone? It’s too early to say, but if you’ve ever used Flash Lite, which is what most mobile devices currently offer, you know there’s nowhere to go but up.

By working direct with ARM, which makes the chips that power many mobile internet devices, Adobe hopes to create an energy-sipping, full-featured version of Flash 10 that fits in your pocket. Unfortunately, any potential Flash mobile improvements won’t be available until 2009.

But fear not, AIR 1.5 is very real and very available.

Today’s release of AIR 1.5 gives developers access to all of Flash 10’s cool new tools — like 3D effects, pixel bender tools, the new drawing API, dynamic media streaming, a new dynamic sound API and more.

But, the latest version of AIR isn’t just about Flash, it also includes a brand new build of the WebKit HTML engine, which offers vastly improved JavaScript performance.

Also new in this release of AIR is support for encrypted local databases, which means developers can now feel better about safely storing sensitive data in AIR apps.

At the moment AIR 1.5 is Mac/Windows release, though a Linux version is said to be in the works. That’s probably no surprise to Linux users, who should by now be used to Adobe to treating them like second class citizens.

However, there is one thing that should make Linux users rejoice — a native 64-bit Flash Player 10 for Linux. The much requested (and by “much” we meaning deafening internet roar) 64-bit Flash Player isn’t quite ready for prime time (you can download the alpha preview from Adobe Labs), but at least things are looking up for the high-end Linux crowd.

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Tags: flash
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New Google App Lets You Bark Orders Through IPhone

By Scott Loganbill November 14th, 2008 Categories: Mobile, Software & Tools

According to several sources, Google is set to release an iPhone app that allows you to speak your Google queries through the phone. Google then sends search results back in text. The application is set to be released on the App Store Friday.

It’s not the first time Google has made speech queries accessible. Earlier this year, Google announced GOOG-411, a telephone based information service that uses Google results (as a side note, even my home telephone has a GOOG-411 fast dial button built into it).

However, the immediate reaction to the application is of its questionable usage. Questions like: are people that desperate to avoid the iPhone’s touch-screen keyboard? For example, Daring Fireball questions its usefulness:
“Is it really going to be more convenient than just typing out ‘how tall is mount everest’ in the Safari search field? I’m highly skeptical.”

But a good friend of mine reminded me that a lot more people can talk than can type. My question is, how many of them own an iPhone?

[tip of the hat to John Markoff and the New York Times.]

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What Language Do You Game In?

By Adam DuVander November 6th, 2008 Categories: Mobile, Multimedia

The developer of an online game-building platform is switching from Java to Flash. The reason? Users don’t want Java.

“Up front, I’ll say that the reason we are moving to Flash is because of Java’s adoption rates. It is not, in fact, because of the language itself but because of Java’s deployment model. We suspect that we lose somewhere between thirty and fifty percent of users due simply to the fact that we are in Java.”

Java -- DENIEDIt probably comes as no surprise to anyone who has ever tried to load applets on the web. They are slow and prone to crashing. To be fair, the same could be said of other technologies, including Flash. Java tends to get more than its equal share of criticism, for what I’d call legitimate reasons.

Still, Java has been embraced for most mobile game development, excluding the iPhone. Google’s Android open development platform uses Java. Sun estimates that its Micro Edition of Java is deployed on billions of devices.

So, is Flash the answer? Flash has been popular for creating web-based games. Adobe’s Flex framework has made programming Flash easier, giving developers a more standard environment than a timeline. But Dale Beerman, the developer making the leap to Flash, admits Java’s development environment is still “years ahead” of Flash.

Flash is also mostly unproven as a mobile language. Apple has not allowed it on the iPhone, apparently over worries of battery life. Adobe announced that it has an iPhone version ready to go, should Apple change its mind. So, Flash is getting some mobile love.

The iPhone, of course, has its own development framework, based on Objective C. There are major benefits to developing for a device as well-loved as the iPhone. Unlike Java and Flash, games written for the iPhone cannot be used elsewhere.

As we said recently, mobile casual games are going to be big. There will always be multiple platforms, but the fight for number one is still in the early rounds. Do you think it’s fair to rag on Java? Is Flash a viable alternative? Or, will all the world eventually have an iPhone?

[Graphic by Dale Beerman]

See also:


Tags: Games, iPhone, java, Mobile
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Popular WPA Wifi Security Scheme Cracked Open

By Scott Gilbertson November 6th, 2008 Categories: Mobile, Software & Tools

wifi routerJust when you thought it was safe to go back in the water: a pair of researchers have announced a serious flaw in the WPA wifi encryption scheme, which was designed to keep your wireless traffic hidden from prying eyes.

Security researchers Erik Tews and Martin Beck have discovered a way to help those eyes pry a bit further into your traffic using a much faster means of break the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) key used by WPA. TKIP has long been vulnerable to dictionary attacks, but dictionary attacks take a long time. The method used by Tews and Beck takes a mere 15 minutes.

The good news is that Tews and Beck so far have not managed to crack the encryption keys. But since security-minded folks like Webmonkey readers probably long ago ditched WEP (an older wifi encryption scheme cracked years ago) in favor of WPA — thinking it was the secure alternative — this attack has some widespread implications.

On the bright side, the attack reportedly does not work with WPA2, which uses a different key protocol to encrypt traffic. If you’re worried, upgrade your router to support WPA2 (in a couple of years we’ll probably be telling you about a flaw in WPA2, but for now anyway).

The details of the Tews and Beck’ findings will be made public at next week’s PacSec conference in Tokyo.

[via Computer World]

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Tags: security
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Casual Games Trace iPhone Popularity

By Adam DuVander November 4th, 2008 Categories: Mobile

The more iPhones that are purchased (and there have been about 5 million 3G models sold), the fewer owners are early adopters. That means apps will become more mainstream. The trend in desktop gaming appears to be holding true for iPhone: casual games rule.

Though action games, which take advantage of the iPhone accelerometer, are quite popular, so are simple, graphics-light games that can be played in short bursts, but are also incredibly addictive. Bejeweled remains popular for paid apps, and four of the top free apps are games, including my new favorite, Trace.

Trace game on iPhoneThe game at first appears a lot like Line Rider, a classic Flash game where you draw a course then watch your player move along it. Trace takes it a step further, as you avoid obstacles in order to finish each level.

The controls are way simple: you can move left and right, as well as jump. As for drawing your path, you can create or erase lines with the tip of a finger. With those few commands, much can be done. I’ve spent more time than I would like to admit playing Trace. And unfortunately for me, the app keeps track of the time.

I expect games like these to continue to grow in popularity on the iPhone, as the general public recognizes it’s a device worth the price. The iPhone is capable of graphics less childish than Trace’s crayon look, but mobile devices–and the ever popular casual games–don’t require a pretty face.

See also:


Tags: Games, iPhone
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Opera Mini Skips iPhone, Citing Apple’s History of Rejecting Competitors

By Scott Gilbertson November 3rd, 2008 Categories: Mobile, Software & Tools

opera.jpgWas Opera Software’s Mini Browser denied a spot on the iPhone? Given that Apple has rejected competing apps in the past, many were quite ready to believe that Apple had reject Opera Mini as well.

The truth, however, appears simultaneously less interesting and more important. Opera has revealed that it does have a version of Opera Mini working on the iPhone (though like John Gruber, we suspect it’s running on a jailbroken iPhone). However, the company hasn’t indicated that Apple actually rejected the app.

Rather it would seem that Opera never even bothered submitting the app since Apple would likely have rejected it anyway.

In fact, the Opera Mini saga appears to be more a political move on Opera’s part to point out how Apple’s App Store policies hurt consumers — how many other apps have never been submitted because they’re likely to be rejected?

Unfortunately, it seems likely Opera is right. If history is any guide, Apple probably would reject the app — if not on some technical point, than simply because it competes with Mobile Safari.

Of course Opera Mini isn’t a “real” web browser, it’s designed to run on “dumb” phones where a full-fledged browser would be dog slow. We can’t imagine why you would want it on your iPhone (that would be Opera Mobile you’re thinking of, which is a full browser on par with Mobile Safari).

Still, useful or not, the knowledge that at least some software developers are simply not bothering to submit apps for the iPhone could be bad news for Apple — especially when its biggest competitor, Google’s Android platform, is poised to embrace any and all comers.

See Also:


Tags: browsers, Opera
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OMG! Gmail Adds SMS Chat - Updated

By Michael Calore October 30th, 2008 Categories: Mobile, Software & Tools

UPDATE: Google has rolled back the SMS feature in Gmail due to a glitch. It will be available again in about 2 weeks. See the official word from Google at the bottom of the post.

Users of Google’s Gmail service can now send text message chats to mobile phones using the webapp’s built-in Chat feature.

Google is adding the experimental functionality through Gmail Labs. To turn it on, go to the Labs tab within Gmail’s settings. Or, just click on the little green Erlenmeyer flask icon next to your e-mail address at the top of the page in Gmail. If you don’t see the option right away, check back later — Gmail product manager Keith Coleman, who demonstrated the new feature for Webmonkey, says it will be made available in Labs to all Gmail users Thursday evening.

Once the option is turned on, start typing a phone number into Chat’s search box and you’ll see the option to send an SMS.

If you already have your friend’s phone number stored in your Google account’s contacts, try searching for them by name. When your friend’s name appears in the drop-down list of contacts, you’ll see an option to send them an SMS. You can also hover over or click on anyone in your Chat buddy list to send them an SMS.

The first time you send a text message, it will appear on the person’s phone as coming from a number in the 406 area code. Google has made several thousands of these numbers available for Gmail users, and once a number is associated with your account, all of the text messages you send through Gmail will come from that number.

The 406 number works both ways, so your friend can reply to you via text message. Also, your friend can save that number in their phone as belonging to you, and they can even use it to initiate new chats with you.

[UPDATED:  Google has rolled back the feature after finding a “glitch.” According to Google:

“When you’d try to turn it on, it wouldn’t fully enable. We thought about keeping it out there — bugs and all — but the experience wasn’t that great. So, in the spirit of Labs, we’ve pulled SMS chat back to fix it, and we’ll get it back out to you as soon as it’s ready — probably within 2 weeks, so stay tuned.”

We’ll be sure to update you on Webmonkey when the feature reappears.]


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Hold the Planet in Your Palm With Google Earth for the iPhone

By Scott Gilbertson October 27th, 2008 Categories: Mobile, Software & Tools

Google Earth on the iPhoneGoogle Earth is now available on the iPhone/iPod Touch. Although Earthscape previously released a version of Google Earth for Apple’s mobile devices, the official app is considerably faster and free (though EarthScape has since dropped its price to free as well).

In fact, the iPhone version of Google Earth is remarkably speedy considering its complexity and the fact that it’s constantly streaming data from the web. Using a wifi connection there was almost no hesitation in my testing. Falling back to an Edge connection did of course slow things down.

Our sister site, Gadget Lab, found similar results, concluding that Google Earth on the iPhone “speeds along at a fair clip.”

As you would expect, the iPhone version takes advantage of all the touch screen niceties — pinch to zoom, twist to spin the map and throw the screen to move around. Tilting the iPhone screen adjusts the altitude of your view.

Navigating Google Earth with your fingers takes some getting used to — changing the angle of your view using the tilt features is by far the tickiest part — but once you adjust it’s easy to get where you want to go. Like the Google Maps app on the iPhone, Google Earth can zoom in on your current location by using the iPhone’s GPS triangulation tools.

The main downside to the iPhone version of Google Earth is that you can’t add custom layers or download any of the cool Google Earth overlays. Currently the app offers overlay markers for Wikipedia entries and Panoramio photos, but that’s the extend of third-party content.

Google Earth for the iPhone is free and can be downloaded through Apple’s App store (iTunes link).

See Also:


Tags: maps
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