There are close to 160,000 iPhone apps available on the App Store today. This is not including the several hundreds that are available on Cydia and Rock for jailbroken iPhone users. If this is not enough and you are looking for more, StyleTap is an app for you.
Recently released on the Cydia store, StyleTap is a Palm OS emulator that enables jailbroken iPhone users to access the over 30,000 apps built for Palm OS devices.
Palm OS, as you might already know, is the the company's operating system built for PDA devices. While this operating system does not include the sophistication that comes with WebOS, the emulator provides access to several applications that can be handy for businesses and users that traditionally use PDAs. The StyleTap Palm OS emulator for iPhone and iPod Touch supports the applications written for the Palm OS 5.2 platform and the earlier versions.
Considering that many of the original Palm OS devices came with physical keypads, the StyleTap emulator offers virtual buttons to replace these physical buttons. Also, since the iPhone does not have a provision to access external memory cards, the emulator application replaces the traditional use of external memory cards with a "virtual memory card" to store large databases thus enabling the apps to work with files stored in the iPhone's flash memory.
The StyleTap Palm OS emulator for iPhone and iPod Touch is available from the Cydia store at a pricey $49.95. Nevertheless, we believe that there is a niche group who should be interested in accessing the Palm OS apps for the iPhone.
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The popular social news aggregator website, Digg.com is finally available as a native iPhone app on the App Store.
This comes five months after we first confirmed reports that the company was building an iPhone app for their popular service.
As it is on the Digg.com website, the iPhone app too aggregates and lists news articles under the 'Top', 'Recent' and 'Upcoming' sections. These news articles are assorted under their respective categories and users can vote these stories up or down and can also post comments. The iPhone app also provides an option to save particular stories for a later read - something that is pretty useful when you are on the move and would like to read the complete news article at leisure.
Digg's iPhone app does a pretty good job in condensing all the popular features of the site as an iPhone app. As anticipated, the application is available for free at the App Store.
But the app is yet to be available on the US App Store though Mashable reports that Digg's iPhone app is available in most of the European countries.
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Nintendo has announced the Nintendo 3DS, a glasses-free 3D mobile gaming console, as the successor to the DS and DSi.
The full unveiling is set for E3 2010 this June; however, the company does say the device will offer backwards compatibility with current games and will launch "during the fiscal year ending March 2011."
Engadget has combed Japanese news sites to learn that the device achieves its glasses-free 3D by using a parallax barrier LCD from Sharp. The screen is said to be smaller than 4 inches diagonally.
Other features include a 3D control stick, improvements in WiFi transfers and battery life, as well as a new vibration function.
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The official Discovery Channel MythBusters app for iPhone and iPod Touch is now available in the App Store.
You will find yourself spending hours playing and chatting in this brand new TV fan adventure -- all in the palm of your hand. Try to bust 3 myths that you've seen on TV through fun gameplay, submit scores and see yourself ranked on the national leader board.
The MythBusters app features:
•More than 300 minutes of video content, including Exclusive Sneak Peeks, Show Out-Takes, Show Selects, Cult Favorites, High-Speeds and Behind-the-Scenes.
•Keep up with all MythBusters news and announcements on Facebook.
•Track past episodes and current scheduling for this season.
•Find about more about the show and cast.
•Chat live with other MythBusters fans in real-time through Twitter.
•Follow MythBusters on Twitter, Re-Tweet through your personal account on Twitter, and become a fan and interact on Facebook.
•Play complete games based on three popular myths: Soda Bomb, Seesaw Saga and Matchstick Cannon...all included!
•Check out photos from some of your favorite MythBusters moments.
Find your favorite MythBusters merchandise and your favorite shows and seasons on iTunes.
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A new test of touchscreen smartphones with a precise laboratory robot has confirmed what a human test already concluded: Apple's iPhone touchscreen is far and away the most accurate touch panel on the market.
The test, conducted by MOTO Labs, compared an iPhone using the SimpleDraw application with a number of other touchscreen smartphones: Google Nexus One, Motorola Droid, Palm Pre, HTC Droid Eris, and BlackBerry Storm 2. As the company, which has no relation to Motorola, discovered earlier this year, the iPhone is in first, followed by the Google Nexus One in a distant second place.
The test was done with both a 7mm robotic "finger," for a "medium touch," and a 4mm robotic finger to represent a "very light" touch. In both tests, the iPhone was found to have straight and accurate lines, with some weaknesses at the edge of the panel with the light touch.
In second was the Nexus One, which MOTO said had "solid performance" much like the Droid Eris, also manufactured by HTC. Both handsets were also specifically named in Apple's patent lawsuit against HTC filed early this month. Apple has accused HTC of "stealing" its patented iPhone technologies, which include touchscreen capabilities.
Both the Palm Pre and BlackBerry Storm 2 performed well in the medium test, but produced significant signal loss when the very light touch was employed.
The poorest performer of the bunch was the Motorola Droid, which featured "significant waviness and stair-stepping," even with the medium touch test. In the light touch, signal drops were extremely common.
MOTO noted that the touch panel alone does not make a good phone -- it must perform well in combination with the phone's operating system to ensure responsiveness for the user. With that, the labs said they do not expect such a high level of variation to exist in future smartphones.
"We know for a fact that the solutions in these phones (other than the iPhone) are all last-generation silicon and touch panel components -- the other touch screen makers are hard at work perfecting their new solutions, and they may just leapfrog Apple in some areas when they arrive on the market over the next year," the report said.
