Recommended: iPod Touch Battery Test Videos

I came to this conclusion after a series of tests I performed, beginning with checking the baseline. No sound, no Wi-Fi, minimum brightness, and minimum enjoyment. How long does it last at the very most? 4 hours and 20 minutes of constant, solid gameplay is the most you can expect if you don’t plan to be in the sunlight, hear the game, or be on the Internet.

Much has been made recently about the iPhone and iPod Touch being full-on gaming devices, able to stand comparison with the Nintendo DSes and PSPs of the world. With that in mind, EIC forum member fury has done a pretty comprehensive set of battery tests on the Touch, via continuous game play, and captured them all in a series of videos.

The videos are well done and have good soundtracks - and cover various scenarios from a ‘baseline’ as described in the quote above, with several key items turned off to maximize battery life, through to ‘the mother of all battery tests’ with everything turned on and maxed out.

Head over HERE to see all the videos and fury’s blog post describing his process, and offering some conclusions on the Touch as a serious gaming device.

Crayon Physics Deluxe for iPhone Launches

It first became a phenomenon in the beginning of 2008 in YouTube websites around the globe. The Grand Award winner for 2D Physics PC puzzle game in “INDEPENDENT GAMES FESTIVAL” is finally here for iPhone/iPod touch! Paint a picture by dragging your finger across the screen… Presto! The picture becomes an object and drops to the bottom.

Crayon Physics Deluxe has gathered a lot of praise already, and its iPhone / iPod Touch version has been anxiously awaited. I’ve never managed to get into physics type games, but I was very impressed watching the gameplay demo video for this one, which you can check out HERE.

I might give this one a try, just because it looks impressive and probably quite unique. The app is supposed to be available in the App Store now (at $4.99) but I am not seeing it there yet (same for SHOUTcast Radio and a couple other new apps today - probably my issue I reckon) - so let’s say it’s there now, or very soon.

Anyone tried this yet, or keen to get it?

UPDATE: The app still does not show up if I search for it in iTunes, but it is there - at this link …

OT: Yet More Fodder for Microsoft Jokes

Yesterday’s great Zune Swoon, in which pretty much all 30GB Zune models keeled over dead because of a miserable (and stunning) failure to cope with a leap year, has provided very rich pickings for Zune / Microsoft jokes.

And today, Gizmodo kicks off the 2009 Microsoft jokes season with a real classic. Gotta love their wording to sum this one up too:

Apparently there’s a huge storm coming up in New Bedford, which will cover most of Massachusetts with a low pressure Windows error system, and tornado watches for the western region of NBC’s weather PC.

Check out the full post HERE …

iPhone 3G Unlock Released by Dev Team

Just in time for the new year, the iPhone Dev Team have released yellowsn0w, their iPhone 3G Unlock package …

As rumored yesterday, the unlock works with the latest iPhone firmware and baseband (in fact, only with the latest, 2.2, firmware). The Dev Team’s announcement post for yellowsn0w provides the expected and usual warnings - mainly that this is beta software and you use it at your own risk.

The package is apparently very easy to use, and Gizmodo has a step-by-step breakdown on how to use it, HERE. MMi also has a good usage run-through, including a useful FAQ section, HERE.

Image Source: Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo

SHOUTcast launched on the iPhone/Touch!

Wow! Talk about a great way to start the new year! I figured with only like 60 new apps launched last night there’d be little chance of anything worthwhile … boy was I wrong!! If you’re been looking for a good FREE internet radio app, this might just be the one you’ve been waiting for. I know its the one I’ve been waiting for, finally I can get my favorite station on my iPhone! (chronixradio)

Description:
SHOUTcast Radio is one of the leading online directories of professionally and community programmed radio stations. There are over 25,000 stations from around the world and over 500,000 simultaneous listeners at any given time. SHOUTcast is known for its depth and breadth, with broadcasts ranging from globally recognized music to local music and talk stations. You can now take all of your favorite SHOUTcast stations with you anywhere! • Access to over 25,000 SHOUTcast radio stations on your iPhone. (EDGE, 3G or WiFi) or iPod touch (WiFi) Search the vast SHOUTcast directory right on your iPhone or iPod touch. Organize a list of your favorite SHOUTcast stations Innovative accelerometer control Just shake to get a random station. You’ll never know what you might hear! Built on the award-winning AOL Radio for iPhone platform

Website: http://www.shoutcast.com
Support Website: http://www.shoutcast.com

One quick note - I’ve found it doesn’t differentiate between a network timeout and a full stream. So, if you know your connection is good but you can’t connect to a stream, there’s a good chance that the stream is full and not allowing more connections. Also, you’ll notice when you first launch the app there’s only stations up to 96K. In order to see the higher bitrate streams you need to go into the settings (homescreen > settings) and enable them (see screenshot).

Happy New Year

Image Source: plrang via stock.xchng

With 2008 just about done (in my neck of the woods) and 2009 about to begin, I wanted to wish all of you a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year. I’m ready for - even looking forward to - 2009, and I hope all of you are as well.

Also wanted to say thank you, thank you - for visiting the site, for subscribing to our feed, for commenting. We’ll do our best to make JAiB a great iPhone site to visit in 2009.

I hope you’re all cozy and safe and enjoying the end / beginning of the year

iPhone Dev Team Interview at Mobile Crunch

Before the release of the iPhone I used to use Symbian devices (mainly Nokia) and I would always be
looking for the next device, the next upgrade, the next vendor. These devices held my attention for a couple of months and I’d be spending my money on a new handset to get the next gadget high. This all changed with the iPhone, for my needs it is an almost perfect device, my eyes have not wandered at all.

Mobile Crunch has done an extensive interview with Pytey of the iPhone Dev Team, just hours before their much-anticipated iPhone 3G Unlock package is due to launch. It’s a very good read, with the topics covered including:

• How the team work together at great distance and largely via IRC
• Their relations with Apple
• Thoughts on the App Store and Apple’s restrictions on apps / developers
• Some insight on where the ‘yellowsn0w’ nickname for the upcoming 3G Unlock tool came from
• Thoughts on Android

It’s also good to see that, as per the quote at the top of this post, the Dev Team still loves the device they spend so much time working with.

The interview is definitely worth a read - give it a look HERE …

iPhone Apps for Kids: Butterflies

Butterflies is a visually stunning and fun iPhone app for kids (especially those who like butterflies) …

I’ve got a 5 year old daughter, and she is a huge fan of butterflies (and all sorts of insects and animals generally) - so when I first spotted Butterflies in the App Store I thought it might provide a gentle and maybe short-lived distraction for her, and went ahead and grabbed it.

A pleasant surprise has been that the app’s charm for her has not been short-lived. She goes back to it just about daily, and still seems to enjoy the heck out of it after a couple of weeks.

Butterflies boasts ‘hyperrealistic’ butterflies that will land on your finger for you in response to your taps on the screen as they flutter past. You can then lift your finger and watch them perk up and fly back off into the overall scene again.

The colors of both the butterflies themselves and the background scenes are striking - and featuring everything from Monarch butterflies to some that look like pure fantasy creations in wild colors.

There’s not a whole lot more to this program, but a few other features include:

• Options to change the color of the background scene and the butterflies
• Tilt to rotate
• Landscape and portrait views

That’s about it - the app doesn’t boast any other bells and whistles, but it does what it does quite elegantly.

Oh, and my daughter says the app is relaxing, and that the butterflies feel quite real on her finger. We like it.

Butterflies is available now in the App Store, at $0.99.

Recommended: Check Out iPhone Life Magazine For Free

Read the exact digital replica of the entire premiere issue of iPhone Life
for free on your Mac, PC, iPhone, or iPod touch at
< http://www.smartphonemag.com/iphone/freeissue>.

iPhone Life is a new magazine devoted entirely to our favorite mobile device - covering iPhone related news, tips, application reviews, and more. It’s published by the team that has brought out Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine for many years (sadly that ceased this year), and is an excellent read.

I’ve heard that pages 54/55 and 88 are especially good in the debut issue Well, actually that’s a snidy lead-in to saying I may just be a tad partial on this one - I’m one of the contributing writers for iPhone Life. I did some mini-reviews of several apps, and a story on how I use the iPhone in both my day job and in running this site. My good buddy Dan (author name danc here, and an owner at the WOIP site) and a bunch of other good people are helping to make iPhone Life the best iPhone publication around.

I hope some of you will get a chance to give it a look …

Why Pay for One Speed Dial App If You Can Pay for 26 Instead???

*** This is a Proxy Rant. A small rant delivered on Brandon’s behalf while he is unable to get to a post editor. It’s a subject that both of us find appalling though. In fact, I just did a similar post last night on the ridiculous 30 ‘DaysTo’ apps.

Do you need to have a quick, easy speed dial icon to call Ashley, or Christopher, Jessica, or one of the other 26 names currently offered by the ‘Call One Name’ series of apps? If you do, you don’t want to be able to use one application to meet your speed dialing needs right? You’d far rather have to get 26 apps for your 26 individual names, and pay $0.99 for every single one I bet

How stupid is this getting for the App Store? I mean, this developer has put out Twenty-freakin-Six apps already, each associated with ONE first name. There are a whole lot of names not yet covered. Dozens, hundreds, I don’t know. Is Apple going to allow 100 apps in this ’series’??? And let the ‘born every minute’ folks out there pay $100 and litter their Home screens with this stuff?

Oh, and perhaps the stupidest little irony on this particular set of ‘apps’: they are located in the ‘Utilities’ section. Unbelievable. So we’ll head to a section intended to be full of useful items, and have to wade through page upon page of ‘Call Amber’, ‘Call Bill’ and so on to get to anything worthwhile.

I know one thing - I would *not* like to be one of the people at Apple who has to try to manage and control the App Store, trying to figure out where you draw the lines for what should get sanctioned and what should be rejected etc. - especially with nonsense like this to cope with …