TUAW Responds: iPhone Pedometer
Filed under: iPod Family, iPhone
One of our readers wrote in asking whether the iPhone could possibly replace the Nike sports kit and work as a pedometer with its onboard accelerometer.
Short answer? It already does. The (jailbreak) iPhone pedometer project is open source and available on Google code. The iPhone's three onboard accelerometer sensors allow you to capture force vectors and figure out when the force changes direction as you take a step.
None of the iPhone-specific solutions that I've tried from Installer.app seem to work as well as my wiimote does on my treadmill with Wii Fit. I'd imagine that the iPhone will catch up quickly once the AppStore takes off.
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iPhone App News Roundup: June 21, 2008
Filed under: iPhone, App Store, SDK
Git along, little iPhones! TUAW readers keep sending us announcements about forthcoming iPhone App Store goodies that are in the works. Send us your tips about iPhone applications you plan on having in the App Store either at launch or shortly thereafter, and we'll pass that info along to the rest of the world.Here's today's roundup:
- Cocoa Touch Games has two of a planned four "fun, simple, joyful" apps ready to go for the App Store launch. Bug Bounce and Cocoa Marbles will both be priced at $2.99.
- Synthesis AG, developers of the SyncML platform and transmission media independent protocol for intelligent data synchronization, have announced a SyncML client for iPhone.
- Lint Labs (great name!) has announced No. 2 (AKA HB in Europe), an app that lets you use a virtual pencil and eraser on the iPhone to sketch or take notes, then organize your work into books.
- Jeffrey Grossman of movies.app fame is working on another great product, Currency. It's a currency exchange application with over 50 different countries. Looks good, Jeff!
- In the "it had better be a free app" category is Philip Corliss's Bubble Wrap. It looks like a great stress relief tool.
- Tom Cain of Smallware let us know about Solebon Solitaire for iPhone, a complete rewrite of their popular package for Palm OS.
- Sol Robots, the offspring of Cortis Clark, is offering a free app to help you save money to buy that iPhone 3G. Save Benjis works with Finders Cheapers, a price comparison site, to let you find the lowest price on just about anything.
- Steve Streza's Lockbox provides AES and SHA-1 level encryption and a unique gesture unlocking procedure to keep your notes and pictures secret. Expect it for less than $10 in the App Store.
- LateNiteSoft has a jailbreak app called Sketches that is moving to the AppStore.
- Right now it's for jailbroken iPhones, but hopefully Make Your Day Media's Remind You will be heading to the App Store within a month. It turns the lock screen of your iPhone into an appointment list.
- One more jailbreak app, textReader by James Beesley, will hopefully be scootin' to the App Store soon.
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What will you do with your old iPhone?
Filed under: iPhone
So like a gadzillion people have asked me: "What do I do with my old iPhone now that I'm upgrading to a spiffy new 3G unit?" I thought about doing a top ten list. I thought about clever and amusing ways to use an old iPhone. But seriously, it just comes down to this. So read my lips.
Jailbreak it. Unlock it. Give it away or sell it. The end.
Get yourself a copy of iLiberty+ or ZiPhone or whatever tool you like. Once unlocked, you can sell it for a badzillion dollars on eBay, because contrary to what I originally thought, AT&T isn't going to let you walk away with a new 3G iPhone without signing over your first born, your personal bank account and possibly your soul. So the demand for 1st gens is going to go through the roof (as will the demand for posthumous mobile air conditioning units once AT&T is through with you). Over at Google, those $250 refurb iPhones from a few weeks back are going for $500 and up. Ebay has relative bargains at $350 and up.
If you have a child, a spouse, a dog or any other loved one, you can now give them the phone with a T-Mobile or AT&T SIM and they're good to go. If any of these loved ones are foreigners ("votre chien", for example, in the case of those north of the border but within the Quebecois borders), they should be able to use a non-US SIM in the unlocked unit (i.e. "Le Rogers Fido").
As we've posted before, AT&T says it will reset your contract to 2 years once you get the new iPhone, so your old one will be completely free, clear, and contract-free. No one (except, perhaps, your dog) will sanction you for unlocking it.
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Can I buy the iPhone 3G without a contract?
For the advertised prices of $199 and $299, evidently not. A day after announcing the new 3G version of the iPhone with its new low prices, Apple clarified that the bargain prices advertised were those customers would receive when purchasing subsidized phones which require the signing of a contract with a cellular service provider (AT&T in the US, O2 in the UK, etc).
read…What is the 3G iPhone release date?
Despite the hopeful yearnings of many of you out there, the new iPhone 3G was not made available immediately following its announcement at this years WWDC (world wide developers conference) in San Francisco, CA.
Instead the second generation iPhone 3G will be released on the worldwide launch date of July, 11th 2008.
The new iPhone will be running the new iPhone 2.0 software, which brings a bevy of new features to the iPhone including real-time GPS tracking, the iPhone application store, contact search, and more.
read…3G iPhone NOT Released at 2008 WWDC, but Coming Very Soon
As expected, Apple has announced the arrival of the second generation 3G iPhone. The announcement occured just moments ago at this years WWDC (world wide developers conference) at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. Steve Jobs announced the next generation Apple iPhone and all its glory to a crowd of anxious observers who had many a set of cross fingers anticipating the announcement.
However, despite the formal announcement and the presentation of a ton of new information about the new 3G iPhone, it won't be available immediately as many had predicted. Instead, the 3G iPhone will be released worldwide on
read…Developers Show Off Tons of Exciting New iPhone Apps at the WWDC
Apple and some of their featured developers spent a good deal of time showing off some of the new and exiting native applications coming with the official release of the iPhone 2.0 software/firmware. Developers included SEGA, TypePad, eBay, and Loopt - who showed off their very cool social networking application with location based services. Below is a little bit of information on some of the applications developers presented.
SEGA
As you can imagine, SEGA was there to announce a native game for the iPhone (presumably you weren't expecting an office productivity application from SEGA). In this case it was the well-known SEGA classic Super Monkey Ball. The SEGA
read…New Glimpses of the iControlPad Gaming Accessory
Last week we told you about a new accessory coming for the iPhone that may very well change the face of gaming on the iPhone. Though we were able to provide a good amount of information about the iControlPad, what we weren't able to do at the time was get a good look at it. The only images available of the device at the time the original article about the iControlPad was written was a very small picture of a prototype unit that had been developed.
Yesterday, the iControlPad folks posted some new renderings of the iControlPad shown from two slightly different angles. If the actual iControlPad looks as good as the renders, iPhone gamers have something to get excited about. Have a look:
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