IM+ is a multi-plaform messenger client IM+® All-in-One Messenger for iPhone. the newest version contains avatars support in contact list and dialogs and groups in contact list. Services:- AIM®,MobileMe®, MSN®, Windows Live®, Yahoo®, ICQ®, Jabber®, Google™ Talk, MySpaceIM and Facebook® now! The 3.0 version will support Twitter and Skpye™ .
Your emotions will soar and tumble around as you crank up Top Gun for a gaming session, fuelled by memories of the 1980’s film. You’ll soar with anticipation as the music starts, as you kick off the first, training level, with the absolutely stunning 3D-modelled aircraft carrier video sequence, but I’m afraid it’s mainly downhill from then on, with Top Gun at best a fast-paced arcade reaction-fest and at worst a travesty of the flight sim genre.
There are so many things wrong with Top Gun that it’s hard to know where to start. Let’s start with the factual inaccuracy of having F-22 Raptors on an aircraft carrier (the Raptor isn’t a naval jet) - why on earth couldn’t models of the film’s F-14 Tomcats have been used? It’s not as if there’s any detailed flight modelling going on, after all. In fact, there’s isn’t ANY flight modelling - you can’t crash, do aerobatics or even, staggeringly, fly in a particular direction. This is strictly a game on rails - which isn’t a compliment for a flying title!
After some cutscenes using characters from the film, you’re thrust into flying action, with the main aim being to swerve the jet up and down, left and right in order to avoid ‘danger zones’ (remember that song fragment from the film?) popped up on a 3×3 grid on-screen. This arcade element might work OK if it wasn’t for the fact that the controls are reversed from every other aircraft game you’ve played in your life. To roll the F-22 left, you have to tilt your iPhone right. To roll right, you have to tilt the device left. See where I’m going with this? The developers would argue that this behaviour is because of the way tilting left makes the on-screen plane graphic move to the left in the camera view, but everything about it just screams ‘wrong’.
In addition to dodging ‘danger zones’, you get to shoot bad guys of course. This being Top Gun, you’d expect screaming fast turns and trying to outwit the opposition through sheer flying ability. Sorry. All that happens here is that bad guys queue up (literally) to appear in front of your gunsight in order to give you something to shoot at. There is no element of dogfighting WHATSOEVER. Oh yes, and you have unlimited ammunition, so you can fire and fire and fire…..
All the efforts of the visuals team (carrier, gunships, landscape, sky effects, explosions and more) are unfortunately all reduced to the level of a simple dodge left/right/up/down arcade game. And even here Top Gun manages to mess up, moving from the trivial training mission to a slightly harder ‘mission 2′ to a ‘throw danger zones and bad guys to shoot at you faster than you can blink’ mission number three. When a game becomes so frantic that you, essentially give up, with seven of the ten missions not even glimpsed, then something’s wrong with the balance of the gameplay.
By all means buy Top Gun for the super stereo music soundtrack, by all means buy it for the nice visuals, by all means buy it for a little frenetic arcade action. But don’t be fooled into thinking it’s a flying game, let alone a flight simulation.
According to AppleiPhoneApps.com, the Web site posted some details on just what the third-generation iPhone will offer. What’s more, it names Friday, July 17, as the release date.
* A 32GB model–We’ve expected this for some time. What’s more, it would be welcome.
* Double the RAM and processing power–Ditto here.
* A 3.2-megapixel camera with video-recording capabilities–We’ve been hearing about this for a while, as well. But while Apple is at it, we’d also like more camera editing features.
* Ability to send a pictures and video via MMS–The iPhone 3.0 software update will add the ability to send photos with MMS so videos would make sense too.
* Turn-by-turn directions–We’ll also get this with the 3.0 update. The feature won’t be native, but it will come through apps.
* 1.5x the battery life–The short battery life is one of the iPhone 3G’s biggest flaws. I’d look forward to this improvement the most.
* Apple logo on the rear side will light up–This one is random, indeed. Outside of the, "Look at me, I have an iPhone!" factor I can’t imagine why you’d want this. Plus, I agree that it would be useless and annoying if it negatively affected battery life.
* Built-in compass–This is a bit random, but anything is possible. You can get limited compass functionality through a compass app.
* Built-in FM transmitter–This would be a first for Apple, so I’m suspicious. But I’d like it.
* Other physical changes–AppleiPhoneApps says the metal border might go away and the new model could have a sleeker profile and a rubber tread on its backside. Personally, I think the iPhone is sleek enough already, but some CNET readers have said the opposite. The rubber tread would protect against falls, I suppose. The blog also mentioned an OLED display.
Via CNET
Vodafone Portugal iPhone 3G users as first in the world can benefit from the LIVE TV application made by a local software developer. WIT software in cooperation with Vodafone Portugal has developed a software enabling its users to watch a Live TV coverage on their 3G iPhones.
As we red in an original press release the application is available for free on the Portugal AppStore as “Vodafone Mobile TV” , but it is also available for the licensing to other operators willing to introduce it on their markets.
It is already the third iPhone application of this developer certified by Apple. Other two applications are the iPhone MMS client and the Mobile ATM both available on AppStore.
With the dedicated TV viewer it’s users can go to the channel guide and back to the zoomed full screen view by rotating their handset. According to Luis Silva Wit software CEO, another unique feature of this application is “the support for Fast Channel Switching, where the user can do zapping of TV channels in an easy way.
Via iPhone world
DoiPhone.com is here to document the progress and ongoing developments of Apples awesome new product! I have added it to my blogroll, the Apple iPhone Blog is all about iPhone news, tips and applications, you can get the new form here.
The Apple iPhone Blog has posted a new article to create and downloading kick-ass wallpapers for iPhone, use Pikkoom they let you find and create kick-ass wallpapers without needing to draw anything or present any artistic effort, for free!
Pikkoo has a bunch of cool themes (you need to sign up to see them) created by artists, so you just go ahead and drag and drop different elements to create your piece of art.
After creating you can publish your wallpaper in the Gallery, where you find other cool wallpapers for iPhone as well as other mobile phones.
Getting these wallpapers to your iPhone is super easy. After signing up, under each wallpaper the system will show you a short code. Go to pikkoo.com with your iPhone and enter that code there. When you get the wallpaper, just tap on it longer, and choose “Set as wallpaper” from the options.
Best of all, all of this is FREE!
Auto Racing Live’s App Store page claims a “true offline browsing experience,” but that wasn’t my experience with the app at all. Yes, when you have no cellular or Wi-Fi connection available, you can read the news summaries you’ve downloaded during your most recent connection. But if you try to tap Read More, Auto Racing Live prompts you to connect to the Internet before more content can be loaded. That’s not exactly offline browsing.
Don’t expect live race updates, either. Auto Racing Live is a headline service—nothing more—and not a very customizable one at that. NASCAR fans who want the latest news but don’t want to click around the Web via Mobile Safari may appreciate the collection of headlines this app provides, even at its $5 asking price. Personally, this app had me waving the caution flag.
Photogene is Developed by Omer Shoor, this user-friendly app makes cropping, adjusting, and adding fun effects to your photos a breeze. Photogene can edit images in your library as well as ones taken with the built-in camera, so the app works with both the iPhone and the camera-less iPod touch.
The app’s Photoshop-like levels slider provides decent control, and the auto-levels feature yields surprisingly good results with little noise. Cropping with Photogene is easy and precise, letting users draw their own crop box or choose from pre-set aspect ratios. And if you’re not happy with your photo’s color or sharpness you can adjust that as well.
"HP iPrint Photo is a free downloadable software application that allows you to quickly and easily print 4" x 6" photos. Images stored on your iPhone or iPod touch can print on most HP networked ink jet printers connected to a local WiFi network. Wireless printing is a fun extension of the iPhone / iPod touch’s easy photo capture and viewing experience."
HP iPrint Photo uses Apple’s Bonjour technology to automatically identify HP wireless printers or other supported HP printers available on your network. HP iPrint supports industry standard WiFi environments (including Apple Airport, Linksys, D-Link and Netgear. To print using the technology via a computer, Apple iTunes must be installed.
Via iPhone Buzz
CBS Mobile has you covered with its new TV.com app (iTunes link) released. The app offers free streaming video content from CBS (including CBS News, Sports, and Radio), the CW, and Showtime, as well as CBS-owned Cnet and some other places.
Most of the content consists of clips, interviews, and promos, but you’ll also find full episodes of some TV shows, such as "CSI: Miami" and the aforementioned Richard Dean Anderson classic mixed in (well, to be honest, there weren’t many other shows I could find full episodes of at first glance). Full episodes are presented as multiple clips instead of as a single video. You can search for shows using the Search box at the top, or tap on the Shows and Channels buttons to browse in other ways.
