Flight Control for iPhone Update: Online Multiplayer, Voice Chat

Flight Control, popular iPhone game from award-winning development studio Firemint, was updated a few hours ago to version 1.9.2. As promised by Firemint developers before the public release of iOS 4.2 in November, this update follows “HD” iPad version and introduces support for online multiplayer through Game Center, with the possibility to start a voice chat with your opponent.

You can invite a friend to play, or let the app search for a random match in Game Center. The voice chat option is turned off by default but can be activated at any time. I just tried the online multiplayer mode with one of my Game Center contacts and it works pretty well, although I noticed some lags.

Flight Control is available at $0.99 in the App Store. Check out the full changelog below. Read more

Shocker: iPad 2 Won’t Use AMOLED

As noted by 9to5mac, Digitimes published yet another report last night about the next generation iPad – or, “iPad 2” – claiming that Taiwan-based company Coretronic has been selected to supply the backlight units (BLUs) for the new device to Chimei Innolux and LG Display.

The second generation iPad is expected to hit the market at the end of the first quarter of 2011 and suppliers in the supply chain are estimated to start shipments in the first quarter.

It is understood that Coretronic is the only BLU supplier of CMI for iPad 2, while LG Display is getting iPad 2 BLUs from Coretronic and Radiant Opto-Electronics.

So according to this new report, the next iPad won’t use the popular AMOLED screens (well, at least popular on Android devices thanks to Samsung’s “Super AMOLED” units) but will keep relying on standard LCDs instead.

Surprised, huh? Don’t be: Apple never really liked AMOLED screens, and with the iPhone 4 they decided to deploy their own LCD solution with extremely high resolution and call it “Retina Display”. The iPad also comes with IPS (in-plane switching) technology, which allows for improved viewing angles and picture quality.

The real question is: will the iPad 2 have some sort of Retina resolution?

Untethered iOS 4.2.1 Jailbreak Coming Before Christmas, Will Support New Apple TV

Great news for jailbreakers this morning: the Dev-Team has been busy working on an untethered solution for the current iOS 4.2.1 jailbreak (which requires to boot the device using Redsn0w) and it should be released before Christmas. Last night, @musclenerd tweeted a video showing the untethered method running on a jailbroken iPod Touch 4th gen which relies on the kernel from iOS 4.2 beta 3.

According to @musclenerd, the current implementation doesn’t use any new exploit, but @comex is working on a better system that will perhaps be implemented in the final release. Read more

Infinity Blade Now Available In The App Store - Not The U.S. One Yet

Infinity Blade is one of the most anticipated games for iPhone and iPad to hit the App Store this holiday season. Demoed on stage at Apple’s event back in September and released as a tech demo known as Epic Citadel back then, the game is built on top of the Unreal Engine 3 for iOS devices and it shows impressive graphics and animations. Apparently, Steve Jobs couldn’t believe the game was running on an iPhone when he first saw it either.

As previously confirmed in November, the game changed its name from Project Sword to Infinity Blade and was set to come out in December. TouchArcade also revealed that the app would be released on December 9th at $5.99, but we just took a look inside the New Zealand App Store and found out that, as usual, iTunes started propagating the app on its own due to time zone differences.

Infinity Blade is available at $8.29 over there, and you can take a look at the screenshots and full description from iTunes below. The app isn’t available in other stores for now, but we believe it’ll start propagating in European ones in 10 hours. The app is universal and runs on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad, iPod Touch 3, or iPod Touch 4 – with Retina Display-ready graphics optimized for the iPhone 4.  From what we can read in iTunes, it seems like there will be customization possibilities, a “dynamic single player campaign” and support for Game Center leaderboards and achievements.

We’ll take a deeper look at the game once it becomes available in the U.S. Store. Read more

Hardware Orientation Lock for iPad Returns … As a Case

MacLocks just added what it calls “The First iPad Security Cable Lock”, the iPad Lock - a clear plastic iPad case that can be closed with a lock (same locking mechanism as a bike lock) and tethered to whatever your heart desires with a coated steel cable. In Apple-fashion, “This makes the iPad Lock flexible and light, not to mention stylish, so you can easily pack it in your bag and take it with you wherever you go!” Once it’s secured, the only way to remove your iPad is with a key. The case itself is $39.95, or you can purchase the bundle (case & lock) from MacLocks for $64.95.

Read more

Google Latitude App Starts Rolling Out In International App Stores [Update: Pulled?]

As noted by TechCrunch a few minutes ago, Google released its official Latitude app for the iPhone in the Japanese App Store. The app is available there but, actually, we can see it already online in a few other international stores such as the Italian, French and German ones. My guess is, Google isn’t limiting this to Europe and / or Japan but iTunes is simply slow to register the changes. The app is propagating.

Google Latitude for iPhone lets you check on your friends’ location. You can see your friends on a map and see who’s nearby so you can meet up, share your own location from the mobile app, tweak the privacy settings to share only your city. You can also disable the automatic background updating. Google’s Latitude service has been available for Android devices for a while now, but couldn’t make it to iOS due to Apple’s limitations…or something. Basically, Google announced they wouldn’t bring Latitude to the iPhone when Google Voice was a no-no either, but things are different now. There is an official Google Voice app in the App Store. Until today, Latitude has been a web-only service.

iOS 4 is required for background updating. Go check out the app while we’re updating this post with more screenshots and details. Full app description below. Read more

Apple Confirms Devs Can Use The Same App Name Across iOS and Mac App Store, Provides Other Tips

Three weeks ago we reported Apple updated its Mac App Store submission FAQ for developers to inform developers that it was possible to submit apps with identical names to the iPhone, iPad and Mac App Store. Today they’re making it official by posting the news on the Developer News website:

You can now submit a Mac OS X version of your app to the Mac App Store with the identical name as your iOS app on the App Store. Having the same name for your app on both the App Store and Mac App Store allows you to maintain the consistency of your brand and makes your app easily recognizable to customers.

Earlier today Apple also posted a series of tips regarding in-app purchases and app metadata. Apple reminds developers that “there is certain metadata which cannot be edited, such as keywords and the name of your app” and suggests in-app purchases should come with accurate screenshots and predictions.

According to a rumor surfaced yesterday, Apple may be a targeting an early Mac App Store opening for next week. We haven’t been able to verify this rumor with the developers we contacted, though, as no one apparently got notified from Apple about the change of schedule.

Apple Releases QuickTime 7.6.9

A few minutes ago Apple pushed an update to QuickTime, which reaches version 7.6.9 and includes various security fixes for vulnerabilities found in previous iterations.

QuickTime 7.6.9 is propagating now in Software Update, or you can download it from Apple’s website. More information about the update are available here.