Posts tagged with "iPhone"

Andy Rubin, Android Creator: “Everybody Is Embracing The iPhone”→

Andy Rubin, Android Creator: “Everybody Is Embracing The iPhone”

Andy Rubin, speaking at the D: Dive into Mobile event:

Rubin has some relatively nice things to say about the iPhone. “I think everybody is embracing the iPhone. They are pretty open.” Rubin said that most developers actually are having a pretty easy time getting their apps approved by Apple.

Kara: How do you consider Apple as a competitor?

Certainly they make great products, Rubin says–robust, solid, good user experiences. A lot of consistency across applications. More recently I see them getting involved in the other end of the spectrum–services like a bookstore, the app store.

Consistency across applications and devices. Something Google is perhaps underestimating? I’m excited for the changes introduced in today’s Android update, anyway. Gingerbread looks like a solid OS with lots of refinements, and the Nexus S might be the first Android phone I’m going to use on a regular basis. Problem is, I’ll have to find an unlocked one here.

Permalink

Swarm Light: iPhone-Controlled LED Chandelier [Video]

This falls under the category of neat installations powered by an iOS device we have covered so many times here on MacStories. The Swam Light is a $180,000 LED chandelier based on an algorithm originally meant to analyze the behavior of bees. The LED that power the chandelier, in fact, are organized in a series of grids and lit up to display “simulated collective movement” – or, the movement of groups of insects.

What’s cool is that the creators of the installation, rAndom International, developed an iPhone controller in-house to handle operations remotely. The iPhone app can dim lights and switch between the various modes implemented in the Swarm Light.

Check out the video below. [via TUAW] Read more

Color Splash Gives A “Dramatic Look” To Your Photos

I downloaded this app last week, but it turns out it’s been around for quite some months in the App Store. Color Splash by Pocket Pixels is a simple iPhone app (iPad version is available, too) that allows you to highlight areas of a photo to make them black & white, or make the entire photo black & white and only set certain areas to be colored.

It’s a very cool effect that it’s made easy by iOS multi-touch technology and would otherwise be a rather difficult task for the average user on Adobe’s Photoshop. Read more

BlackBerry vs. iPhone: What’s In Your Pocket?→

BlackBerry vs. iPhone: What’s In Your Pocket?

Apple says the iPhone is more than a mere appliance for sending e-mail. The device, with its sleek touch screen and ability to run hundreds of thousands of Web-connected applications, games and utilities, can be used for nearly any purpose, business or personal, a line that Apple hopes to blur out of existence.

“Most people now want to use a single device to handle both their personal and professional lives,” said Shaw Wu, an analyst at Kaufman Bros. “That’s what Apple’s really good at — and now RIM is playing catch-up.”

I guess the question is: can they even catch up at this point? 275,000 apps is no small difference. [via]

Permalink

Slow Down: An App That Will Make You Slow Down Your Car, With Music

This is an app I’m completely supporting, as it’s been developed and promoted by the Belgian organization OVK, Parents of Children Killed in Road Accidents. Slow Down, available for free in the App Store, will make you slow down your car by slowing down the music you’re listening to while driving.

Thanks to a combination of GPS to retrieve a road’s driving speed limit and access to the iPod library on your iPhone, Slow Down will remind you when you need to slow by slowing down a song or completely stop its playback. Simple and genius at the same time, as as I said – a concept I’m seriously rooting for.

Go download the app here. Then use it.[Engadget via OVK] Read more

Fring Update: Full-Screen Video Calling, “Dynamic Video Quality”

Fring, a popular VoIP service that allows you make regular phone calls, video calls and chat, released an update to their official iPhone client today which brings a number of new features and fixes.

First off, fring is introducing a new video calling technology called DVQ (Dynamic Video Quality) that automatically adjusts the quality of a video calling session according to your bandwidth in order to provide an always-good experience. I’m testing it on 3G and, admittedly, it works pretty well. There’s also a new video quality indicator that enables you to check on the quality of the connection in real-time. Neat. Read more