Why is this particularily significant? Well, Mossberg is usually a major fan of Apple products, as depicted in this video here. (NOTE: It’s the first clip, so you don’t need to watch the video in its entirety.)

I can just imagine the following conversation between Mac and PC….

Mac: Oh, hey, what’s that?

PC: Oh, it’s the Wall Street Journal, specifically a review by Walt Mossberg, one of the most respected technology experts on the planet, as you said…

Mac: D-D-D-D-Don’t read it!

PC: …..Well, he certainly can’t recommend MobileMe for crap.

Mac: …………………..

This ought to send a message to Apple about how MobileMe is being handled. Then again, when one suddenly decides that life is no longer @mac.com but at @me.com, I guess one really has a mid-life iCrisis.

I know Apple’s doing its best to fix it, but it really is significant when your most popular fan gives you a bad review.

Post from: EveryJoe

Walt Mossberg Delivers negative Review to MobileMe

• Get a to-do list – The App Store has a multitude of free todo programs available for you to play with, from the incredibly simple “todo” to the GTD powerhouse GTD application “Easytask Manager.” Personally, I would go for Zenbe Lists: It gives you a basic todo that you can edit online on any web-accessible computer,  as well as your iPhone.
• Be Aware of the world – Any person trying to be productive needs to get their hands on some information in the world. Consider downloading the programs NowLocal  Mobile News, and of course, NetNewsWire. These will keep you in the know about whatever place you end up in, or any place you need to know about.
• Communicate! - If you’re a web worker, or anyone who needs to be in constant communication with others, get some apps to help out. I suggest downloading a Twitter app to see what other people are doing, and get the AIM client for iPhone as well. And of course, don’t forget your Facebook and Myspace apps.
• Play! – All work and no play, right? Overworking yourself results in stress, which means less productivity. Solution? Free games! You can try the excellent Othello clone Morocco, or the Moonlight Mahjongg game. And of course, you can grabe Cube Runner for free as well. Grab Pandora and Last.fm as well, for your personal entertainment.
• Get your Email/Contacts/Calender anywhere - Need that always there connection of Push email, but don’t want to shell out $90 for MobileMe? Check out NuevaSync, which can be configured to work with your iPhone, and allow the download of email from anywhere, your calendar from Google, and your contacts from either Plaxo or Google. It can’t be beat!
• Other stuff you should have includes the following:
• If Found
• Urbanspoon (for finding places for lunch)
• Paypal (for paying people)
• Remote (for all your itunes needs.)

Got anything else you want to add? Leave it in the comments!

Post from: EveryJoe

Make your iPhone Productive on the cheap and free

1. What originally got you into programming?

Well, my Dad bought a Commodore PET back when I was 7 (about 1979) and it came with Space Invaders. I was so blown away with this I pretty much decided there and then that that was what I wanted to do (it was either that or design the chips but I was no good at the hardware side).  Professionally, I’ve been working at British Airways for nearly 20 years – staying as technical as I can manage (sometimes quite a hard thing to do) which gave me a great foundation in C/C++ and Java. This also made learning Objective C much easier.

2. How did you come up with the idea for Cube Runner?

I’d love to say that the idea was mine but unfortunately it wasn’t. Cube Runner was based on the flash game Cube Field (by Max @ flecko.net). I loved his version when it came out and always wanted to do a version in some form. Then after Apple released the SDK, I was trying to write a 3D based version of my iCave game (a game for jailbroken iPhone/Touch based on SFCave). This didn’t turn out to be practical, however it did inspire me to write Cube Runner, and the accelerometer turned out to be the perfect control method.

3. What made you want to give it away for free?

I actually enjoy writing code for fun, and I think that the added expectations of selling software would change that from fun into something more serious. I also can’t dedicate a set amount of time for the support and maintenance I’d have to provide. I also get a buzz from people using software I’ve written – especially if they enjoy using it :).

4. Where do you think iPhone gaming will lead? Will we see more games based on the accelerometer, or on other features?

It has the potential to be one of the best mobile gaming platforms available. It won’t beat the DS (not surprisingly really) but it is already head and shoulders above pretty much [sic] mobile phone game I’ve played). The accelerometer is an interesting control mechanism and combined with the touch screen I hope will produce some novel games. The lack of hardware buttons does make some games a little tricky – platform games for instance.

5. What plans do you have for other software?

I’ve already co-written the BA Flights application (for Timetable and Real-Time flight arrival and departure information), and have a couple of other projects on the go at the moment. A nonogram puzzle game (think Picross DS) which is nearly complete, and a re-write of iCave using OpenGL. I’d also like to have a go at a Flight Simulator – I have some ideas but we’ll see.

6. What do you do in your spare time, and what kind of games do you like yourself?

My wife and two children take up most of my time, but I do play squash fairly regularly. I also enjoy Snowboarding and just lazing on a beach (although not much chance of that for a bit!). Oh yeah, and I do use computers just a little bit and have an ever growing collection to my wife’s disgust.

I mainly enjoy older games – and still play some old C64/Amiga games. I do like some FPS games – Quake 2, Unreal, Call of Duty being my favourites and also the occasional driving game (Gran Turismo).

I personally love that people still play C64 games, but that’s a post for another time, and another blog.

Post from: EveryJoe

Interview with Andy Qua – Creator of Cube Runner

Essentially, you play as a pilot who has to navigate through multitudes of cubes that have been strewn about, all the while turning the iPhone left and right to avoid crashing into the cubes. The game demonstrates an incredible use of the iPhone’s accelerometer, allowing the player to actually feel like they’re flying…in a simulated sort of sense.

Cube Runner starts working only with the portrait mode, but this can (and should be) easily remedied by going to Options>Change to Landscape. It’s way easier to play it that way, and in my opinion, should be enabled by default. The end result looks something like this:

It makes the game much more playable, don’t you agree?

Regardless of the mode of play, Cube Runner earns a 4.5 Generations out of 5 for its ingenuity in use of the accelerometer, and addictive nature. Check back later when we actually interview Andy Qua, creator of Cube Runner!

Post from: EveryJoe

App Review: Cube Runner

There are a multitude of arguments for and against sticking with one side or the other. Personally, I’m not going to jailbreak my iPhone, simply because I’m happy with the App Store. Although I wish that mXtube would hurry up and get a legit version, so I can download some legal to download Youtube videos.

For those on the fence, here’s a handy iPhone 24-7 comparison chart!

So with that, I want to hear your thoughts:

Post from: EveryJoe

App Store versus Installer.app – The battle begins: With Handy comparison chart

iFob’s original incarnation was as a Jailbroken app for Installer. Back then, I thought little of it since the people I knew were unwilling to jailbreak their iPhones, and I didn’t think the mainstream was different. Now that it’s a legit app, though, I decided to give it a try, and was supremely disappointed.

At the left, you find the main screen, where you enter all your profile information. This consists of the usual stuff like your name, email, etc. Of course, entering all of this is extrordinarily tedious on the iPhone, due to the size limits.

So, after a ton of pressing glass, I was ready to go! Unfortunately, when I found a nice hotspot, nobody was around, so I just deactivated it and went on with my business in that area.

But when I got home, I found a nice suprise: ALL OF THE DATA I HAD ENTERED WAS DELETED!

All of it. I had to retype in every single damn thing into the program. Then I exited the program and went back in. Guess what? ALL GONE AGAIN. Furious, and avoiding the urge to post an iPhone destruction video on Youtube that would have made BlendTec’s blender bow before me, I uninstalled the application, only to (Guess what?) have the app returned upon my sync with iTunes (hence the Uninstall rant last Monday.)

For ingenuity, but real lack of competence, iFob gets 2 Generations out of 5. (See, I’m thinking like Apple, in Generations.)

Do you use iFob? Or is there something better? (I’d love to know.) Drop a line in the comments. 

Post from: EveryJoe

Review: iFob – more like iFlop

Recently, I was tooling around with a quasi-social networking app for the iPhone, and after three straight days of trying to get it to act decently, It just kept messing up. (And yes, you will be seeing a review of this former Installer-based app soon.) So I deleted it. But then, when I synced my iPhone, I noticed that it made an appearance again!

See, whenever you decide to delete an app from the iPhone, it gets deleted, but then when you sync up to iTunes, the program notes that it has an application that isn’t on the program, so what does it do? It syncs the program to your phone, so now you’re stuck with the same program that you just uninstalled!

Come on, Apple. I’d figure you’d have more smarts then to let this happen. At least with Installer, I could uninstall an app, and it was gone for good. I didn’t have to go into iTunes and manually delete the damn thing! Apple should make it so that once an app is uninstalled on the iPhone, it’s gone for good on iTunes until next download. Maybe it will be in the next update?

Post from: EveryJoe

iRant: Uninstalling apps on the iPhone

Jailbreaking means to allow specific programs or websites to hack into your iPhone (In a good way.) It was originally coined due to the idea that Apple initially “jailed” the iPhone by keeping it closed off to third-party developers (and in a way, they still have.) The hack was made in order to allow a program called Installer.app to appear on your iPhone. Installer.app’s purpose is to allow the installation and regulation of Third-party apps.

Right now, there isn’t a public way to Jailbreak 2.0 iPhone firmware, but the iPhone Dev Team has declared victory over the firmware, and says to expect a jailbreaking tool from them soon.  Let’s just see what happens.

Post from: EveryJoe

Important iPhone terms – Jailbreaking

Post from: EveryJoe

BlendTec Explores Redundancy: Blends iPhone 3G

Just about every computer, every videogame console, every cell phone, hell, ANYTHING ELECTRONIC has always had some form of the game Tetris available, so it is to be expected that Tetris would be offered for the iPhone. However, considering the fact that Tetris is so universal, it’s kind of hard to justify the high price. At least with Tetris DS, you got different types of Tetris as well as multiplayer Tetris. With EA’s version, the only thing different is dragging the tetrads around, rather then using a keypad.

My thoughts: EA should reduce the price. I don’t think the app should be free (It might. I just don’t think so.) but it definitely should be available cheap, because it is Tetris, and it happens to be my favorite game of all time, above Super Mario Brothers, Halo, and others. So here’s my question…what do you think it should be charged?

Technorati tags: iPhone, Tetris, Iphone apps, App Store, Electronic Arts

Post from: EveryJoe

iRant: Tetris for the iPhone