KEY POINTS:
As I said in my last blog, I recently visited Australia to meet with Apple's senior director of iPod product marketing Stan Ng, and Christie Wilkerson.
iPod product marketing manager Christi Wilkerson used the opportunity to show me some apps. These highlighted the diversity of development the App Store platform in iTunes has made possible.
Ng confirmed that New Zealand and Australia had experienced a surge in iPod touch sales in the week before Christmas just as the US had, but no figures were offered.
While there are loads of free and relatively simple (but good) games like JellyCar, Bubbles, Labyrinth Lite Edition and Pac-Mac Lite, and there are also some very well developed games like the World War Two-based shooter Brothers In Arms. I bought this just to have a look: as a Call of Duty devotee, I just didn't think this would be possible. It's very impressive.
Another complex iPhone/iPod touch game more like a traditional computer game is gameloft's Hero of Sparta, an almost cinematic adventure (considering the little screen of the iPhone/touch) set in, erm, that old Sparta of Ancient Greece.
It uses a simple stylised touchpad on the left for directing movement and another icon to press for your bulgy-bicepped hero to swipe his sword-arm most threateningly. It even has cut scenes as in a 'real' computer game.
Of course, the best thing about apps is they're very affordable. Even Hero of Sparta is only $8.29 in the NZ iTunes Store.
Just how complex can you get? Electronic Arts has announced plans to release a new version of the hugely successful cross platform computer game The Sims in version 3 on June 2, 2009.
So? It's coming out simultaneously for the PC and Mac ... and for iPhone! Meanwhile, the complex and involving SimCity International for iPhone has been getting rave reviews. That will set you back just $10.99.
Applications that use both the motion and tilt of the iPhone/touch along with the touch screen are numerous. One is iSteam, which lets you choose a picture you've taken with your iPhone or one loaded from your pictures folder.
But then a steamy window appears. Rub it with a finger to reveal the image, just like on a real steamed-up mirror. iSteam even lets the droplets run away from your finger according to the tilt of the iPhone or touch - this is very clever for what's basically a free novelty app, and reveals the type of lateral thinking at work in app developers' brains.
Another simple favourite of mine is iHandy Level. Lay your iPhone or touch on a real builder's level to calibrate it, and from then on you have a level in your pocket, sensing and measuring the tilt of the unit against vertical and horizontal and as handy as the name implies. (How often do you carry a level?)
There are lots of weather apps out there, including a good one for New Zealand (WeatherNZ). I like this particularly for the tides and the marine forecast. But the best I've seen was shown to me by Wilkerson.
Oz Weather, developed by Anjnaware PTY, animates an Australian map in radar mode, shows forecasts current to just a few minutes before and has weather information for every major Australian city. It's really excellent - consider it seriously if you're going travelling to the subcontinent. It was written by an Australian with a PHD in meteorology and oceanography and it's only $2.59. Wilkerson said she'd seen nothing as good yet for the US, even.
EAT was good too, localised as it was for Sydney (there's also a Melbourne version). Put in a food preference, allow your iPhone or iPod touch to use your location (since GPS is built in) and there's your restaurant complete with information about it and its location, either on a map or relative to you to help you get there. Oh for Apple's entertainment budget...
There's no New Zealand version, yet. In the mean time there's Zenbu, a NZ business and services locator which might fit the bill. Of course in iTunes there are guides to every major city in the world, covering Beijing taxis, the London tube and San Francisco bars.
There are also loads of health apps out there - ones that help your fitness, monitor your eating, help with food shopping and more. Nike got ahead of the game years ago with Nike +, which worked on a 2G nano to measure your runs or walks and to give you feedback via the nano's earbuds from a shoe-mounted sensor. Now there's iPump, iPosture, iFitness, Absolute Fitness, Run Chart and many, many others. Some let you, like Nike +, collaborate with other nutters, (fitness enthusiasts) online.
Who am I calling 'nutters'? My personal fave is The Bike Computer by GlobalMotion Media, that tracks my daily cycle workout and lets me keep tracks, using the GPS, on the EveryTrail website. It's free.
Currency and units converters abound, of course, and a good one is always worth having on you, for when your dad tells you his car does '90 miles per hour' or to work out how much cheaper a Mac is in Sydney compared to Auckland. (It's not.) Just go hunting in iTunes - click Power Search over on the right, choose to search in Applications and go nuts.
You'll be staggered at the wealth of this new universe of apps.
- Mark Webster mac.nz
PHOTO: Novelty app iSteam and weather tool Oz Weather.
