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No surprise that SGN’s iPhone games are doing so well - they’re fun to play and they’re free. iGolf is at no. 7 on the top ten apps list and has, the company says, more than 1 million downloads. The newly launched iBowl is at no. 8.

Both games extensively use the accelerometer to control game action, resulting in a Wii-like experience. The only problem is the high chance of throwing the iPhone through the nearest window.

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Source: Michael Arrington

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Filed under: Cellphones

Apple’s insistence on locking down iPhone developers with a restrictive NDA has been controversial from the start, and it looks like the company’s seen the light — it’s just posted up a tersely-worded letter saying that the NDA is being dropped. It’s a strange little note, actually — the first paragraph comes off as a little defensive and whiny, if you ask us — but we’re not going to complain about anything that makes developing apps easier and faster for devs. Now let’s work on not capriciously rejecting and deleting apps from the App Store, and maybe we can go back to focusing on the iPhone platform’s actual merits instead of all these paperwork shenanigans — we’ve got some suggestions if you’re having a hard time figuring this out on your own.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Source: Nilay Patel

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Rumors are coming fast and furious today citing unnamed tipsters that Apple is hard at work hammering out a CDMA iPhone for its friends at Verizon to be announced and released next year, the carrier it had initially approached about carrying the device back in 2005. Way we see it, though, 2009 ain’t 2005; Apple’s wielding boatloads more power in the wireless biz than it was before the first model launched, the industry’s economics have changed, and technology roadmaps have been rewritten.

So why isn’t this happening, exactly? First, Apple appears to be having no trouble finding enough customers (carriers, that is) to keep iPhone 3G production at a nice clip. Second, CDMA represents a minute fraction of the world’s mobile customer base that GSM / UMTS does — no matter how big Verizon, Sprint, Telus, Bell, KDDI au, and the remaining CDMA stalwarts may be. Third, CDMA is a dying technology that will be finished off in the early part of the next decade as networks make the migration to LTE and other 4G platforms. Fourth, we have to believe Apple would sooner pour its engineering efforts into advancing the iPhone platform in the same direction as the world’s networks than divert considerable resources to busting out a one-off special.

Might this mythical CDMA iPhone yet exist? Yeah, Verizon’s a huge carrier, and yes, stranger things have happened — but until Steve and Ivan get on stage together at Macworld 2009, we’re not buying it.

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Source: Chris Ziegler

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Filed under: Peripherals

For any iPhone or iPod user brimming with energy that might otherwise go wasted on aimless fidgeting, Swedish designer Peter Thuvander has devised the perfect way for you to marry your hyperactivity and your love for your Apple device: the iYo YOYO Induction Charger. While playing with the charger as you would an ordinary yo-yo, a small lithium-ion battery is charged inside, which in turn powers your device. The idea sounds great, and if it ever gets out of the concept stage we look forward to having our idle hands finally used as something other than the Devil’s playthings. Check out a video of the device in rendered action after the break.

[Via Engadget German]Continue reading iYo YOYO Induction Charger lets you enjoy your tunes sans AC

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Source: Stephanie Patterson

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RIM posted a 72 percent increase in quarterly profit but warned that income in the current quarter would be lower because of higher costs related to its newest BlackBerry smartphones.

Source: By REUTERS

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Filed under: Cellphones

var digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/Apple_prepping_a_32GB_iPhone_update_bringing_back_at_home_a’; We’re not particularly inclined to believe them, but the whispers that Apple is about to bump the top-end iPhone capacity to 32GB are getting harder to ignore — especially since 8GB inventory is drying up, leading to speculation that’s it’s going to be dropped as soon as next week. We think the timing’s a little odd on the heels of the Let’s Rock iPod refresh, but considering the rampant speculation that Apple was forced to bump the nano to 16GB and drop the “limited edition” 4GB model entirely at the last minute in response to the new Zune lineup we suppose it makes competitive sense. AppleInsider also says customers will once again get the option to activate in-home, but we haven’t heard anything about that — we’ll see what happens in the next few days.

[Thanks, Harry]

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Source: Nilay Patel

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With the Presidential election right around the corner, a new iPhone app called Campaign from Gorloch Interactive tries to provide you with all the dirt on both candidates to make you a “more-informed” voter.

The app is separated into three basic categories: news, polls, and candidates. Campaign collects the latest news from the campaign trail and claims it’s up-to-date each time you open the app. The polls section displays how well each candidate is performing a slew of metrics to show what the general public is thinking through election day. In the candidates tab, the app provides users with biographical data about the candidates and where each stands on major issues.

For those that want to get opinionated, Campaign also lets users engage in daily polls about the election and view the opinions of other iPhone users. Most importantly, it also lets users register to vote right in the application.

Once you start using the app, you quickly realize that user opinions are extremely split. After reading news about Barack Obama’s latest attack ad poking fun at John McCain for being a self-proclaimed Web novice, some are attacking McCain for his lack of understanding, while others are coming to his aid claiming a leader doesn’t need that kind of knowledge. You can also see how the candidates stack up with the daily polls, which can change drastically given the day’s headlines.

Campaign is available now in the iTunes store for $0.99. But if you want it, make sure to get it quick — the election will be over in under two months and once that happens, this app will be obsolete.

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Source: Don Reisinger

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iPhone use in the epicenter of the technology world is on the rise, according to research released by Meraki Thursday.

According to the company, which is creating Free the Net, a free wireless network in San Francisco, it has witnessed a significant uptick in iPhone usage as it continues to roll out its service. Of the 150,000 devices that have used Free the Net, the iPhone accounts for nearly 20 percent. At its lowest point months ago, the iPhone accounted for just 6 percent of all the devices connecting the network.

Obviously iPhone usage in San Francisco isn’t indicative of usage elsewhere in the world and it’s tough to gauge how popular it really is in different areas, but this is even more evidence proving the iPhone may be more popular than RIM and others want to admit.

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Source: Don Reisinger

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