Mezzoblue
27th Feb 2008, 01:07 am
Ahead of the possibly-delayed (http://www.businessweek.com/technology/ByteOfTheApple/blog/archives/2008/02/the_iphone_sdk.html) iPhone/iPod Touch Software Development Kit, and the plethora of applications that will undoubtedly ensue, I thought I'd do a quick run-down of some of the more interesting third-party applications that already exist, in an unofficial capacity.
Since I had to jailbreak my phone in order to get it working outside the four countries where it has been officially launched, it was hardly a stretch to start playing around with the software that's being developed anyway, SDK or no. This could very well end up being a preview of some of the first applications that will be officially available once the SDK is released.
My list below isn't comprehensive by any means; these are just some of the apps I think deserve mention due to their utility or polish. There's a lot of crap to wade through already, so I think it's worth calling out some of the gems. All these are available directly from Installer.app, provided you have also installed Community Sources.
http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/apollo-sm.jpg Apollo (http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/apollo-large.jpg) http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/fivedice-sm.jpg FiveDice (http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/fivedice-large.jpg) http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/iano-sm.jpg iAno (http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/iano-large.jpg) http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/imatrix-sm.jpg iMatrix (http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/imatrix-large.jpg) http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/isolitaire-sm.jpg iSolitaire (http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/isolitaire-large.jpg) http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/labyrinth-sm.jpg Labyrinth (http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/labyrinth-large.jpg) http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/photoboard-sm.jpg Photoboard (http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/photoboard-large.jpg) http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/sketches-sm.jpg Sketches (http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/sketches-large.jpg)
The images above link to larger screenshots. I just recently updated (http://flickr.com/photos/mezzoblue/2289229685/) to firmware 1.1.3, and all of the existing iPhone Screenshot utilities don't seem to be working for me anymore. So pardon the grainy photos.
Apollo
There are a few native IM clients out at the moment, and obviously Meebo (http://www.meebo.com/) works just fine too. But I'm finding none of the native clients thus far are any good, or even good enough. Apollo (http://code.google.com/p/apolloim/) is the one I've been using occasionally when I need IM on my phone, but it still needs a lot of work. Active development stopped back in October, with the developers stating they're focusing on an official version once the SDK is released, so this may turn out to be one of the first official IM clients for the iPhone. Hopefully it will have seen some massive updates in the interim.
Killer feature: IM over EDGE. It's not great for long chat sessions, but damn if it isn't useful to have the ability to ask an IM contact a quick question when out and about. (Terrible video of Apollo in action (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C1m7s31Dxo))
FiveDive
Just your average Yahtzee (http://www.google.ca/search?q=yahtzee) clone, but polished to a shiny finish. FiveDice (http://code.google.com/p/5dice/) is one of the few games worth having thus far, in my opinion.
iAno
Almost more of a proof of concept than a useful app at this point, iAno is still fun. It's a piano simulator that crams a full octave on screen at once, and can play any note between C3 on the low end and C7 on the high end. What makes iAno stand out is its use of Multi-touch; chords are possible, you can play three notes at the same time. Here's a video of iAno in action (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycIjt-ykWRo), and you've probably already seen it on the top phone in the iBand video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh0VX74alwk) going around recently. If they end up adding a sequencer to the app, I'd expect to start seeing rather a lot of iPhone-generated music in the future.
iMatrix
My screenshot above is mostly useless, as the entire point of iMatrix (http://www.imatrix.lt/default.aspx?page=about) is what the iPhone's camera sees and I wasn't able to demo that. What it does is two-fold.
First, if you happen to run across a QR Code (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code) or other 2D code, you take a quick snapshot of it with the phone. Then iMatrix will process the data contained within, and automatically (with your permission) use the data to open a URL in Safari, add a contact to your address book, dial a phone number, or a few other actions.
Second, it's able to generate 2D codes on the screen of the phone that can be read with scanners. Some of the applications this opens up: virtual ticketing, coupons, identifaction, and other purposes where simple authentication or data exchange is useful.
The idea of 2D codes isn't unique to this application by any means, they've been around for over a decade. They're not common in North America yet, but given time and more devices that are able to process them, it seems like momentum's building. They may be as common as URLs in a few years. Here's a poorly-narrated video of iMatrix contact exchange in action (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hSSzkeQD7k).
iSolitaire
I don't really need to describe Solitaire, do I? This particular version (http://iphone.rustyredwagon.com/) just happens to look great, and makes fine use of the touch screen for dragging cards around. If it's not one of the first official solitaire apps, I'll be very surprised.
Labyrinth
You know the classic wooden labyrinth (http://www.otherlandtoys.co.uk/labyrinth500.jpg) puzzles? Yeah, it's just like those. Using the accelerometer, Labyrinth (http://labyrinth.codify.se/video.html) has you tilt the entire phone to guide the ball into the hole. It makes for a great demo of what having accelerometers in these devices can get you. Unlike most of the other apps in this list, Labyrinth is a demo; there's a full version available for purchase. The iPhone software market has already begun.
Photoboard
Remember that wow feeling after watching Jeff Han's TED demo (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/65) of a multi touch interface a few years back? Photoboard brings a bit of that to the iPhone/iPod Touch with its rotation and zoom ability. It's a fairly simple toy at this point, akin to a basic lightboard for photos. You pull in photos from your device's library and then use two fingers to rotate them, pinch zoom in and out, and layer them on the screen. It's cramped on the small screen, doesn't save your setup when exiting, and isn't really altogether useful yet, but it's a great tech demo and shows promise for what might be possible in the future. Here's a video of Photoboard in use. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBzb1pIN05M)Sketches
A basic note-taking and sketching app, Sketches (http://sketchesapp.com/Home.html) has a few basic drawing tools that turn your finger into a pencil. You can import photos from your library or the iPhone's camera and use them as a canvas, save your creations, email them, etc. Given the limitations of using your finger as an imprecise stylus, this feels like the perfect mix of basic utility without going too far into more advanced and harder to use features. There may be apps in the future that allow more complex image editing on the iPhone, but right now this seems like the furthest you'd want to go.
Plus, to erase the image? You just shake the device. How cool is that? There's a reason the icon looks like an Etch-a-Sketch. Here's a video about using Sketches' tools (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_8ua0YVlB8).Others
This is just scratching the surface; it seems like every week there are a handful of new ones worth keeping. A few more notable applications:
Categories This is a recent discovery; it allows for folder/group creation on the iPhone/iPod's home screen. You choose an icon for the folder, then drag a few apps into it. To get at them later from the home screen, you tap the group, then a new menu pops up with those icons. Pretty much as you'd expect. weDict A reusable dictionary/lookup app. If I get it, and I'm not 100% sure I do, you plug in various installable dictionaries, and then use the application to search them. Right now I have French > English and English > French dictionaries, and if I look up "neige" it tells me that the French > English dictionary thinks that word means "snow". Books A basic eBook reader. It's ugly, but it works. I've seen some public domain titles available for install, and a few newer CC-licensed works, like Cory Doctorow's books. Evolution RGB This is a little toy/game thing that doesn't make any sense at all when it first loads. In a nutshell, you have pre-defined elements like fire, water, plant, clay etc. You draw them onto the screen, then watch water interact with fire, fire interact with plant, etc. It's generative like the old-school evolution game from decades past, and setting up some opposing elements and watching them interact can be vaguely hypnotic. This is the best video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztujpEztZh4) I could find that demonstrates how it works. It won't win any beauty contests, but it's really worth taking a look. NES, gpSPhone, Frotz, ScummVM Various emulators for games past, of varying and questionable legitimacy. In order: Nintendo Entertainment System (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVh429Dp7r0), Game Boy Advance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rCVfUbqZ-8), Infocom text adventure games like Zork, and the LucasArts Scumm system that powered classics like Monkey Island (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V21ejSiNunc&feature=related) and Day of the Tentacle (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2ZVQ_5tolQ). (I say "questionable legitimacy" because the practice of emulting ROMs is kind of a legal grey area (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM_image#Legal_status_of_ROMs).) VNotes A simple audio recorder that uses the iPhone's built-in mic. Something that ought to be officially available sooner or later, but isn't yet.Update: And it figures that as soon as I hit publish, I discovered that firmware 1.1.4 came out today. Not sure yet what it changes, if anything.
More... (http://mezzoblue.com/archives/2008/02/26/third_party/)
Since I had to jailbreak my phone in order to get it working outside the four countries where it has been officially launched, it was hardly a stretch to start playing around with the software that's being developed anyway, SDK or no. This could very well end up being a preview of some of the first applications that will be officially available once the SDK is released.
My list below isn't comprehensive by any means; these are just some of the apps I think deserve mention due to their utility or polish. There's a lot of crap to wade through already, so I think it's worth calling out some of the gems. All these are available directly from Installer.app, provided you have also installed Community Sources.
http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/apollo-sm.jpg Apollo (http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/apollo-large.jpg) http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/fivedice-sm.jpg FiveDice (http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/fivedice-large.jpg) http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/iano-sm.jpg iAno (http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/iano-large.jpg) http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/imatrix-sm.jpg iMatrix (http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/imatrix-large.jpg) http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/isolitaire-sm.jpg iSolitaire (http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/isolitaire-large.jpg) http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/labyrinth-sm.jpg Labyrinth (http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/labyrinth-large.jpg) http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/photoboard-sm.jpg Photoboard (http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/photoboard-large.jpg) http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/sketches-sm.jpg Sketches (http://www.mezzoblue.com/i/articles/2008/feb/sketches-large.jpg)
The images above link to larger screenshots. I just recently updated (http://flickr.com/photos/mezzoblue/2289229685/) to firmware 1.1.3, and all of the existing iPhone Screenshot utilities don't seem to be working for me anymore. So pardon the grainy photos.
Apollo
There are a few native IM clients out at the moment, and obviously Meebo (http://www.meebo.com/) works just fine too. But I'm finding none of the native clients thus far are any good, or even good enough. Apollo (http://code.google.com/p/apolloim/) is the one I've been using occasionally when I need IM on my phone, but it still needs a lot of work. Active development stopped back in October, with the developers stating they're focusing on an official version once the SDK is released, so this may turn out to be one of the first official IM clients for the iPhone. Hopefully it will have seen some massive updates in the interim.
Killer feature: IM over EDGE. It's not great for long chat sessions, but damn if it isn't useful to have the ability to ask an IM contact a quick question when out and about. (Terrible video of Apollo in action (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C1m7s31Dxo))
FiveDive
Just your average Yahtzee (http://www.google.ca/search?q=yahtzee) clone, but polished to a shiny finish. FiveDice (http://code.google.com/p/5dice/) is one of the few games worth having thus far, in my opinion.
iAno
Almost more of a proof of concept than a useful app at this point, iAno is still fun. It's a piano simulator that crams a full octave on screen at once, and can play any note between C3 on the low end and C7 on the high end. What makes iAno stand out is its use of Multi-touch; chords are possible, you can play three notes at the same time. Here's a video of iAno in action (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycIjt-ykWRo), and you've probably already seen it on the top phone in the iBand video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh0VX74alwk) going around recently. If they end up adding a sequencer to the app, I'd expect to start seeing rather a lot of iPhone-generated music in the future.
iMatrix
My screenshot above is mostly useless, as the entire point of iMatrix (http://www.imatrix.lt/default.aspx?page=about) is what the iPhone's camera sees and I wasn't able to demo that. What it does is two-fold.
First, if you happen to run across a QR Code (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code) or other 2D code, you take a quick snapshot of it with the phone. Then iMatrix will process the data contained within, and automatically (with your permission) use the data to open a URL in Safari, add a contact to your address book, dial a phone number, or a few other actions.
Second, it's able to generate 2D codes on the screen of the phone that can be read with scanners. Some of the applications this opens up: virtual ticketing, coupons, identifaction, and other purposes where simple authentication or data exchange is useful.
The idea of 2D codes isn't unique to this application by any means, they've been around for over a decade. They're not common in North America yet, but given time and more devices that are able to process them, it seems like momentum's building. They may be as common as URLs in a few years. Here's a poorly-narrated video of iMatrix contact exchange in action (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hSSzkeQD7k).
iSolitaire
I don't really need to describe Solitaire, do I? This particular version (http://iphone.rustyredwagon.com/) just happens to look great, and makes fine use of the touch screen for dragging cards around. If it's not one of the first official solitaire apps, I'll be very surprised.
Labyrinth
You know the classic wooden labyrinth (http://www.otherlandtoys.co.uk/labyrinth500.jpg) puzzles? Yeah, it's just like those. Using the accelerometer, Labyrinth (http://labyrinth.codify.se/video.html) has you tilt the entire phone to guide the ball into the hole. It makes for a great demo of what having accelerometers in these devices can get you. Unlike most of the other apps in this list, Labyrinth is a demo; there's a full version available for purchase. The iPhone software market has already begun.
Photoboard
Remember that wow feeling after watching Jeff Han's TED demo (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/65) of a multi touch interface a few years back? Photoboard brings a bit of that to the iPhone/iPod Touch with its rotation and zoom ability. It's a fairly simple toy at this point, akin to a basic lightboard for photos. You pull in photos from your device's library and then use two fingers to rotate them, pinch zoom in and out, and layer them on the screen. It's cramped on the small screen, doesn't save your setup when exiting, and isn't really altogether useful yet, but it's a great tech demo and shows promise for what might be possible in the future. Here's a video of Photoboard in use. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBzb1pIN05M)Sketches
A basic note-taking and sketching app, Sketches (http://sketchesapp.com/Home.html) has a few basic drawing tools that turn your finger into a pencil. You can import photos from your library or the iPhone's camera and use them as a canvas, save your creations, email them, etc. Given the limitations of using your finger as an imprecise stylus, this feels like the perfect mix of basic utility without going too far into more advanced and harder to use features. There may be apps in the future that allow more complex image editing on the iPhone, but right now this seems like the furthest you'd want to go.
Plus, to erase the image? You just shake the device. How cool is that? There's a reason the icon looks like an Etch-a-Sketch. Here's a video about using Sketches' tools (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_8ua0YVlB8).Others
This is just scratching the surface; it seems like every week there are a handful of new ones worth keeping. A few more notable applications:
Categories This is a recent discovery; it allows for folder/group creation on the iPhone/iPod's home screen. You choose an icon for the folder, then drag a few apps into it. To get at them later from the home screen, you tap the group, then a new menu pops up with those icons. Pretty much as you'd expect. weDict A reusable dictionary/lookup app. If I get it, and I'm not 100% sure I do, you plug in various installable dictionaries, and then use the application to search them. Right now I have French > English and English > French dictionaries, and if I look up "neige" it tells me that the French > English dictionary thinks that word means "snow". Books A basic eBook reader. It's ugly, but it works. I've seen some public domain titles available for install, and a few newer CC-licensed works, like Cory Doctorow's books. Evolution RGB This is a little toy/game thing that doesn't make any sense at all when it first loads. In a nutshell, you have pre-defined elements like fire, water, plant, clay etc. You draw them onto the screen, then watch water interact with fire, fire interact with plant, etc. It's generative like the old-school evolution game from decades past, and setting up some opposing elements and watching them interact can be vaguely hypnotic. This is the best video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztujpEztZh4) I could find that demonstrates how it works. It won't win any beauty contests, but it's really worth taking a look. NES, gpSPhone, Frotz, ScummVM Various emulators for games past, of varying and questionable legitimacy. In order: Nintendo Entertainment System (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVh429Dp7r0), Game Boy Advance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rCVfUbqZ-8), Infocom text adventure games like Zork, and the LucasArts Scumm system that powered classics like Monkey Island (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V21ejSiNunc&feature=related) and Day of the Tentacle (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2ZVQ_5tolQ). (I say "questionable legitimacy" because the practice of emulting ROMs is kind of a legal grey area (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM_image#Legal_status_of_ROMs).) VNotes A simple audio recorder that uses the iPhone's built-in mic. Something that ought to be officially available sooner or later, but isn't yet.Update: And it figures that as soon as I hit publish, I discovered that firmware 1.1.4 came out today. Not sure yet what it changes, if anything.
More... (http://mezzoblue.com/archives/2008/02/26/third_party/)