Infinity Blade is the killer app Apple fans usually run on their iPhone or iPad to showcase the graphical prowess of iOS gadgets to their Android-toting friends. It’s arguably one of the best iOS games around and thus far the only title based on Epic’s Unreal Engine. Developer Chair Entertainment has kept the game alive with two big content updates. Today’s third and most ambitious update has brought us brand new multiplayer and survival modes in a 584MB download. You can fight your friends over the Internet via Game Center’s match-making feature, compare your respective scores, check out your unlocked items and so forth…
The multiplayer battles for supremacy are set in the new Arena section. You can choose between a titan character or a knight, while your opponent gets the other character. Those looking to kill a few minutes of their time will love the new survival mode which pits you against the legions of titans and puts your sword-fighting skills to test without the added burden of character management. As if two new gameplay modes weren’t enough, Chair is spoiling us with over two dozen new magic rings, swords, shields and helmets. New achievements and a new helm for every season add up to the impressive value proposition of this must-have package.
Infinity Blade costs three bucks, which is a steal for such a high-quality game that supports both iPhone and iPad with a single download and taps iPad 2′s nine times faster graphics.
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Apple’s first foray into retail was a giant question mark on May 19th, 2001, when Apple opened the doors to its first two retail locations in Glendale, CA and McLean, VA. Ten years later, Apple’s retail stores are a crucial piece of the puzzle that has been assembled to create a customer experience unlike any other. “Apple today announced that its first two retail locations welcomed over 7700 people and sold a combined total of $599,000 of merchandise during their first two day weekend,” an Apple press release boasted on May 21st, 2001. Despite the solid weekend, several media outlets lambasted Apple for its decision to target high-rent areas with its first flock of retail shops while Gateway had just closed the doors on its retail endeavor. “I give them two years before they’re turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake,” one analyst was quoted as saying following Apple’s retail debut.
But the company was still optimistic. “We are blown away with the numbers,” CEO Steve Jobs said following the stores’ opening weekend. “More importantly, customers have told us they love everything about the store—from the knowledgeable sales staff to the Genius Bar to the store’s design and unique approach to presenting digital lifestyle solutions.” In fiscal 2009, Apple Stores grossed $6.65 billion globally for $1.66 billion in profit. In fiscal 2010, Apple’s retail stores pulled in $2.36 billion in profit on $9.8 billion in revenue. So far over the first six months of fiscal 2011, Apple has made $1.84 billion in profit on revenues of $7.04 billion. Apple’s gravity defying retail performance can’t keep climbing forever, but from where we’re sitting, opening those first few Apple Stores 10 years ago seems like it worked out pretty well. And we’re fairly confident Apple still has a few tricks up its sleeve to ensure that the crowds keep coming. Hit the break for a video of Steve Jobs introducing the world to Apple’s first Apple Store.
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Rumors have been abound for months now that Apple is looking to get into the online music locker game, and given they recently took over the domain name for iCloud then it’s looking fairly certain the Cupertino outfit is planning something in the cloud space. Add the fact we still don’t know what their infamous new data center has been built for and all signs point to something big.
It makes sense after all. iTunes is already the largest distributer of music on the planet, and buyers have been crying out for a better syncing solution that iTunes and a sync cable ever since the iPhone came along, so why not give it to them? We already know Apple is working with music companies to navigate out the usual licensing merry-go-round.
With all the excitement and speculation about an Apple music locker though, are we forgetting about the alternatives that are already out there?
Alternatives such as Google’s recently announced (and sort of released. Ish.) Music Beta and mSpot already offer what many are hoping Apple will perfect when they finally get around to joining in the online music storage fun. So what exactly are the alternatives? Here’s a rundown of just a few that allow users to upload their own music to some form of cloud storage and offer playback to iOS devices over the internet.
Google Music Beta
The new kid on the block, Google Music Beta offers cloud storage for 20,000 songs for the princely sum of absolutely nothing. Nada, zip and indeed, zilch.
While Music Beta (catchy name, no?) is free, it’s worth remembering that it’s currently in beta status which, as with all things Google, could mean instability and almost certainly zero support.
As with most of the solutions on offer, Google’s foray into the online music locker space involves downloading a client app to your computer that goes off and uploads your entire collection to their servers. Once there playback can be commenced using either the surprisingly impressive web page or Android app. Google Music Beta is also one of the few apps designed specifically for Google’s Honeycomb tablets. Offline playback is also available on the Android platform.
When it comes to streaming to iOS devices though, you’re stuck with using the web interface which although not idea, does work. Multitasking is even possible when playing back music using Mobile Safari. Unfortunately the lack of an app for iOS does mean there is no way to play your music while offline.
Not bad for free.
mSpot
mSpot has been around since its original beta was released way back in May 2010 and offers wireless syncing of all your music, to all your devices.
Sporting apps for both Android and iPhone, mSpot offers 5GB of storage for free which doesn’t come anywhere near the 20,000 songs offered by Google’s solution. A $3.99 per month plan is available should you wish though, with your money buying you 40GB of storage – enough for approximately 32,000 tracks.
mSpot works in much the same way as all other music locker services – tracks are uploaded to the mSpot servers by their free Mac or Windows applications for streaming (and offline playback) later.
mSpot does tout its technology as being particularly smart when it comes to spotty data connections, with the company claiming music will not stop playing when data connections aren’t as solid as they should be. We’ve not tested this ourselves though, so take that with a pinch of salt until you try it for yourself.
BoxyTunes
Perhaps the most intriguing approach to cloud storage of music is BoxyTunes.
Using the storage offered by Dropbox as a place to keep all your music, BoxyTunes is, in its simplest form, a player for your Dropbox account.
Priced at $0.99, the iPhone/iPad app offers simple playback features without doing anything too fancy. Yes you could use the free Dropbox app to playback your music files, but BoxyTunes just works….better.
So to answer my own question, yes, we are forgetting about the competition. Of course, if Apple comes out with its own take on the music locker there’s no telling where it will leave the other companies already playing in the space.
Our money’s on Apple though, especially with the power of iTunes behind it.
Accept at the welcome screen wait for the one signal bar then call 112 and say 1thousand, 2 thousand and hang up RIGHT AWAY..wait.... then go to airplane mode..turn it off..wait 45secs and turn it on again.. thats it
sometimes..while waiting for the 45secs..u get an error..that is wen u can also turn it back on
the VERY CRITICAL part in this procedure is the dialing 112 part, u need to time that 2 secs REAL accurate!
zcrugby wrote:Shazam can't ID a song on an iPhone 4 with TuneIn playing music in the background
had to record the video on a Galaxy S (which was a task in itself)
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Verizon on Thursday said it will institute capped data plans for customers this summer much like its rival AT&T did last year, and also that it will receive Apple's fifth-generation iPhone at the same time as its competition.
Speaking with Reuters at the Global Technology Summit, Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said his company will offer the next iPhone at the same time as AT&T. He also said the device will work in "as many countries as AT&T's iPhone," suggesting the next-generation handset will, as rumored, be a world phone with both GSM and CDMA connectivity.
It was also Shammo who previously said in April that the next iPhone would include both GSM and CDMA integrated radios. Verizon's network relies on CDMA technology, while AT&T is based on the globally more common GSM standard.
Since Apple's partnership with Verizon was announced earlier this year, Shammo has been the source of a few Apple-related details. In January, he revealed that the iPad 2, before it was announced, would have a separate model with an integrated CDMA radio for compatibility with Verizon's network.
Shammo also said his company has been pleased with initial sales of the iPhone 4, and spoke about the possibility of a 4G long-term evolution capable iPhone in the fifth-generation hardware version. He suggested the company is not concerned about whether the so-called "iPhone 5" will support LTE.
"I think it's a bigger issue for Apple than it is for us," he reportedly said. "Depending on where Apple plays, that's where we'll sell."
Finally, Shammo also reiterated the fact that his company plans to cease offering unlimited data plans for users of smartphones like the iPhone this summer. Those pricing changes are set to take place this summer, and will eliminate the current unlimited offerings with a tiered pricing structure.
Apple has placed its orders for the next generation iPhone 'several months later than usual', according to an AppleInsider report.
Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray joins the many who are predicting that Apple will release the next iPhone in September.
Munster noted that on average there are 79 days between Apple's iOS software event and the iPhone hardware announcement. There have also been an average of 99 days between the software event and the actual ship date of the new iPhone.
Under the assumption that Apple would introduce new iPhone software, likely iOS 5, at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, beginning June 6 in San Francisco, the historical averages point to an announcement of the fifth-generation iPhone on Aug. 24, and a shipping date of Sept. 13.
Munster believes a 4-inch display is possible for 2011 but believes Apple will likely delay LTE until 2012.
Don't know if I'm late but ppl check out (atomic web) it's a really good fast alternative tO safari plus it has ad block integrated so pages load even faster
skyfire is also a good one for the mobile platform..
faf- with respect to the gevey sim.. i dont have a data sim in it..however..dey are videos on youtube showing how to have the data goin with the gevey hack
Speculation before the iPhone 4 was announced was that the handset would be available in both 32GB and 64GB models, but alas Apple settled on the 16GB and 32GB variations we have today. According to sources of former Engadgeteer Chris Ziegler though, we could be in for a higher capacity model after all.
The information also comes via a third party Verizon reseller called Russell Cellular who has been circulating a memo that makes mention of a 64GB iPhone 4. As Ziegler points out, it’s entirely possible this is a typo, though the aforementioned sources believe not.
While the next iteration of Apple’s iconic handset is obviously in the works – with a release anticipated later this year – Apple has shown with the release of its Verizon handset that they are not adverse to bringing out new variations on an old theme mid product cycle. The same goes for the white handset, which many believed wouldn’t make its way into the hands of eager punters until the next model arrived.
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S_2NR wrote:any info on what features would be added to the ipod touch 5?
Based on what the supposed iPhone 4S/5 would have
-same resolution display (probably may add IPS to it this time). May increase the size to whatever the iPhone 4S/5 screen increases to (assuming it does). -an improved camera, perhaps 5MP, 1080p recording -Apple A5 processor -more RAM
Fake Apple email about the "iPhone 5GS". Do not click links associated with it should you get it, but seriously though, who could fall for this email being from Apple Inc?
I stress this again, make sure if you are buying gevey sims they are LEGIT gevey PRO sim cards. There are a lot of fakes out there and that is the main reason why many people are having problems. So far I've bought and sold 10 gevey pro's and no one has reported any problems yet plus I use them in my iPhone 4's also. (haven't sold them on here yet sticking with people I know for now).
Had it for a couple weeks now and there have been absolutely no problems. good buy.
