Section: Apple MacUser is still going strong in the U.K., but there was a time when it was also a print magazine in the U.S., and TUAW helpfully points us towards a copy from 1996, featuring: …all of the amazing applications available on the Internet, and decided go look at what had become of them. Sadly, most of them have gone missing, but the old names sound familiar: CU-SeeMe for messaging, Lycos for search, and Happy Puppy for gaming. It’s almost hard to believe there was a time before Skype, Google, and Steam, but 1996 was it. Thirteen years is a geological age by Internet standards, of course, and it’s a fascinating read to see what the Next Big Thing used to be, the applications we couldn’t live without, and here’s a document of that long ago era… the 90s. Via [ TUAW ] Full Story » | Written by Bill Stiteler for Appletell . | Comment on this Article »

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Section: iPod + iTunes , iPod touch , iPhone , iPhone , iPhone SDK & Apps , Originals The iPhone/iPod touch is a cutting-edge technological device which can access the vast knowledge available on the internet and display high-resolution video. Which makes it the perfect tool to use in old school pencil-and-paper role-playing games. RPG geeks collect dice like dragons hoard gold, but one thing about these iPhone dice: they’re free and they don’t roll off the table. All three of these programs work with both the iPhone and iPod touch. Crit Crit is by far the most flexible of the three apps. You can quickly select one of the seven classic gamer dices (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, d100), or you can set up three “bags,“ each with up to three different kinds of dice, in quantities up to twenty each. So you can have 1d20 (for determining “to hit” rolls) along with 1d8 (for damage) in one bag, and 5d6, 20d4, and 1d20 in another (if you find yourself using that arrangement a lot). If you want to track how the dice are rolling, Crit also keeps track of the last 10 rolls. Product [ Crit ] Dice Bag Dice Bag, on the other, subscribes to the notion of simplicity: doing one thing and doing it well. It features no customization at all, but simply gives the user what he needs: The clasic 7 dice, along with a 3d6, and—in a nod to classic character creation—a 4d6 that “keeps” only the highest three rolls. It’s not the flashiest program in the world, but it “does what it says on the tin,“ and for basic rolls, it’s the one I turn to the most.

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Section: Mac + Computers , Wireless , Networking Comcast, the cable and high-speed internet provider, is test marketing a public wifi program which allows subscribers to access the internet while away from their homes. According to sources within Comcast, the cable giant has been studying Cablevision’s free Wi-Fi operations with great interest, and today launched a technical trial offering Wi-Fi service near NJ Transit commuter rail stations throughout the New Jersey region. According to the source, users are required to sign into the service by entering their Comcast.net usernames and passwords before they are allowed to access the Internet via the Wi-Fi Hot Zones. Since this is a preliminary trial, there is no information on any expansion in NJ or other states, or if the service could be available to non-subscribers. Of course, certain cities have started their own initiatives to have wireless signals available everywhere—can a system exist where several companies are offering competing public wifi? Would the signals and equipment end up interfering with each other, or could they find a way to cooperate, like cell phone companies must? Read [ DSL Reports ] Via [ Electronista ] Full Story » | Written by Bill Stiteler for Appletell . | Comment on this Article »

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Section: iPhone , iPhone , iPhone SDK & Apps The iPhone is “by far” the most popular mobile phone device for gaming (what, more popular than the N-Gage ?) according to a recent report. The 8GB, 3G version of the iPhone tops the list. It is followed by the original 8GB version and the 16GB 3G version. The old 16GB iPhone trails the others, but it is still number seven on the list. A total of about 1.1 million U.S. owners of the four iPhone models have used the device for downloading games, according to comScore. There are a number of reasons for this, detailed in the article, but I think the most obvious reason is the design itself. The iPhone has a huge screen, a processor that can handle good graphics, and a number of ways to control the game (tilting and the touch screen, as opposed to a numeric keypad)

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Section: iPod + iTunes , iPod touch , iPhone , iPhone , iPhone SDK & Apps i.TV is a digital TV and movie guide, Tivo, and Netflix manager. By using the location manager (or plugging in your zip code), and choosing your service provider, you can browse and search for upcoming programs. Once you’ve selected a show, you can also get more details about the show, or read a Wikipedia entry formatted for the iPhone screen—though in one case (Doctor Who), the page reformated itself to tiny, unreadable text that was impossible to enlarge. For films, i.TV has the expected features; you get theaters, show times, and reviews, current and upcoming releases, along with YouTube previews and links to photo galleries and Wikipedia entries. If you’re willing to enter your credit card information in the (encrypted) “Wallet” function, you can also use it to buy tickets online (at theaters that, you know, sell tickets online). i.TV recently added a couple of new features, allowing users to manage their Netflix and TiVo accounts. The Netflix side is relatively full featured. You can view your queue, change the order or delete films. You can add films to your queue, but you can’t search for films to add—you have to follow recommendation links from other films. You’ll get the star rating that Netflix provides, but you can neither read nor write reviews. As for TiVo, you can link i.TV to your TiVo account and record show from within the description, along with the padding time, the number of shows to record, and the priority, should it conflict with another program you’re interested in. i.TV is quickly turning from a simple channel guide into a media addict’s delight. If they can add the ability to start streaming video from Netflix Watch Instantly and/or the TiVo itself (as Slingbox does, with additional hardware), they’ll have the media convergence app that everyone seems to be looking for

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Good Saturday and a Happy Weekend to one and all, it’s time to sit down, relax and wrap your big eyes round this week’s App Store Roundup. This week on TheAppleBlog, we got in there super fast with an in-depth look at iMovie ‘09 , iPhoto ‘09 and iWeb ‘09 . Of particular note was our very own Liam Cassidy describing iWeb as an, “embarrassing, backward cousin,” to the breathtaking updates of iMovie and iPhoto. And in other news, Darrell Etherington reported on rumblings from two separate sources about a potential new iPhone. With some of the week’s most notable news out of the way, let’s roll on to our weekly App Store Roundup. This week I’ve been looking at Distant Shores, Sax Man, Photo fx and LifeTicker. Distant Shore (99 cents) Frankly I’m not a fan of LOST . The same location again and again, the same characters every episode, the same premise… it’s infuriating. I’ll take my re-runs of Cheers any day, thank you. However, this app — a virtual desert island which you can wander at your pleasure, soaking up the tropical ambiance — is a wonderful concept. You’re even able to cast off a message in a bottle and read messages from other stranded players

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Section: Software + Apps , Third-Party , iPod + iTunes , iTunes , Features , Reviews Provides: Finds and fixes album art for your songs Format: Download or CD Developer: Equinux Minimum System Requirements:   Mac OS X v10.3.9 or higher Processor Compatibility: Universal Price: $39.95 Availability: Now Version Reviewed: 3.0.3 If you thought only Apple could have a flawless cover art library for Cover Flow, you obviously haven’t used CoverScout 3. CoverScout 3 is an application that scans your iTunes Library and searches the Internet for art to match your albums. You can use its well designed interface to fill the holes left in your library or even to upgrade the quality of your existing cover art. CoverScout 3 has a beautiful interface. It’s dark grey on black and uses, what else, Cover Flow to show what your library looks like. On the right side there is a list of all of your albums. The left portion is where you can see what your albums look like, or more likely, what a stack of giant musical notes looks like. You can do a number of things if you select an album, but I’ll outline them in the order in which you’re likely to perform them. First, you’ll pick an album that needs fixing

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Section: iPod + iTunes , iPod touch , iPhone , iPhone SDK & Apps , Features , Reviews Category: Entertainment Developer: iFunApps Requirements: iPhone 2.0 software Compatibility: iPhone and iPod Touch File Size: 0.5MB Version Reviewed: 1.1 Price: $0.99 When I originally reviewed pFlix , a Netflix management app for iPhone, I found it to be buggy and unstable to the point of calling it unusable. But now the app has been updated to v1.1, and I’m happy to say that not only have they fixed everything that was wrong with it, cool new features have been added to the program that allow you to view, manage, and share your Netflix ratings with your friends. There’s no shortage of apps for Netflix—the movie rental service where you build a queue of the films you want to see—and many of them are free. So any app that charges for on-the-go access had better be something special. But, while most of the free apps are one trick ponies, pFlix gives a level of account access almost equal to what I’d get on my laptop You can see what’s in your queue, what you’ve got at home, and your recent activity (movies returned and rated). Searching for titles, seeing your customized recommendations, as well as the top rentals and new films are also there. You can also watch trailers for films via YouTube. What’s missing?

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion , Productivity , Odds and ends , Internet , Apple Reader John sent us a fascinating little trip back in time (thanks!) he took on his blog: he found a 1996 copy of MacUser about all of the amazing applications available on the Internet, and decided go look at what had become of them. Sadly, most of them have gone missing, but the old names sound familiar: CU-SeeMe for messaging, Lycos for search, and Happy Puppy for gaming. It’s almost hard to believe there was a time before Skype , Google, and Steam , but 1996 was it. Even Apple has moved on — their “/documents/product-support” page, something you’d think would have survived all this time, is gone. It’s amazing the turnover the Internet’s gone through in just 10 years. It’s hard to believe that in 2029, something like Google.com will be retaken by a domain squatter as everyone’s moved on to the next big thing. But then again, things are different these days — Google has obviously successfully figured out how to monetize their free service, and most of the original web companies went down because they could pull that off.

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Section: Apple News , Steve Jobs , iPod + iTunes , iTunes “Visionary” is a word that gets thrown around a lot, especially in the tech world. Anyone who suggest anything different from the status quo is hailed as one, and if they’re wrong, well, who remembers? But Greg Sandoval of Cnet stumbled across an interview that Steve Jobs gave to Rolling Stone in 2003, outlining his vision for the then-new iTunes music store. Steve lays out his “vision” on how the online music business will play out with his customary confidence and startling clarity, and it turns out he was pretty much on the money. Jobs on whether the iPod could become more important to Apple than the Mac. Apple has a core set of talents, and those talents are: we do, I think, very good hardware design; we do very good industrial design; and we write very good system and application software. And we’re really good at packaging that all together into a product. We’re the only people left in the computer industry (who) do that. And we’re really the only people in the consumer electronics industry (who) go deep in software in consumer products. So those talents can be used to make personal computers, and they can also be used to make things like iPods. On major music labels When the Internet came along, and Napster came along, they didn’t know what to make of it. A lot of these folks didn’t use computers—weren’t on e-mail; didn’t really know what Napster was for a few years.

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