Latest Gear Live Videos
Sonos ZonePlayer S5 wireless music system, $399
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Home Entertainment, Music, Wireless / WiFi,
Sonos is looking to market to the iPhone and iPod touch crowd with their new ZonePlayer S5 wireless music system. If you’re familiar with Sonos, you know that the price of entry has always been a bit high historically. The ZonePlayer S5 brings that price down to about $400. You plug it in to a router, and you are good to go with the ability to play your entire music library, as well as music from services like Rhapsody, Napster, Last.fm, and others, by using your iPhone as the remote control.
The price rises if you don’t have an Ethernet port handy for the S5, as you would then also need to buy a ZoneBridge, which allows you to connect the ZonePlayer S5 (as well as any other ZonePlayers you have) to your network wirelessly. We definitely think this is a positive step in the right direction for Sonos. By adding an all-on-one ZonePlayer/speaker to their line-up at this much lower price point, they’ve made it enticing to check them out to see what all the fuss is about. We’d pick up a ZonePlayer S5 over a Bose Sounddock any day of the week.
Read More 
| Sonos ZonePlayer S5 Demo
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Ping! app updated to 1.0.1, fixes bugs
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Social Networking, App Updates, $0.99,
Ping!, the iPhone-to-iPhone messaging app, has just been updated to version 1.0.1, and with the update comes a bunch of bug fixes. Here’s a little of what’s changed:
- You can now unregister your Ping! ID
- Landscape keyboard fixed so you can now send updates from that view
- Duplicate messages will no longer be received
- Notification settings icon fixed
- There’s now an in-app invitation email
Ping! certainly isn’t the prettiest app in the world, but it is definitely functional, and allows free iPhone-to-iPhone messaging without having to use SMS, and it’s way faster. You can pick up Ping! for $0.99.
Griffin Reveal iPhone case review
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, Apple, Smartphones, Handhelds, Product Reviews,
Griffin has recently released a minimalist case for the iPhone 3G and 3GS that they call Griffin Reveal. Right, we know what you’re thinking - with all the various iPhone cases out there, what’s so special about this one? Well, for starters, the Griffin Reveal is meant to stay out of the way. It isn’t bulky, and barely adds any thickness to your iPhone. In fact, it just adds 1.4 mm in thickness to the iPhone 3G or 3GS.
Click to continue reading Griffin Reveal iPhone case review
Read More | Griffin Reveal
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iPhone OS 3.1.2 now available
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Handhelds, Software,
Apple has just released iPhone OS 3.1.2. According to Apple, the update contains bug fixes and improvements, including:
- Resolves sporadic issue that may cause an iPhone to not wake from sleep
- Fixes an issue that may interrupt cell network services until the phone is hard-rebooted
- Fixes a big that would cause an occasional crash during video streaming
If you’ve got an iPhone, iPhone 3G, or iPhone 3GS, go ahead and update. Of course, if you are jailbroken, you’ll want to wait until a jailbreak tool for 3.1.2 is available.
Preview: ngmoco’s new iPhone FPS: ELIMINATE
Posted by Drea Avellan Categories: Games, New Apps, Reviews,
Oh, San Francisco. Home to the 49ers, majestic bridges, historic Alcatraz, cable cars and even countless videogame development studios. Amongst these studios, in a cozy restored building cloaked by the AT&T Park, lives Neil Young’s iPhone & iPod Touch game developer—NGMOCO.
ngmoco has been put out some of the most successful games for the iPhone & iPod touch, including the Rolando series, Topple and Word Fu. Ranging from puzzle, strategic and adventure, ngmoco knows how to create entertaining portable games. Now, they are set to release one of their most exciting titles yet, ELIMINATE. ELIMINATE is a 3G/Wi-Fi enabled First-Person Shooter (FPS) game, which takes advantage of micro-transactions, where you can upgrade characters, weapons, and the like.
Uncomplicated games currently dominate the App Store platform, due to their casual nature and mass appeal. The creation of more complex genres, such as FPS and strategic games, require a higher level of thought and consideration— a challenge ngmoco was more than willing to take on. ELIMINATE brings with it an FPS online arena with intuitive controls that make it simple to jump in and play, and while the game might be a pick up and play experience, they haven’t ignored the importance of creating a story. ELIMINATE casts you as an employee of Arsenal Megacorp, a company in question for the use of humans in testing as a way of perfecting their gear. You and three other players are the guinea pigs of this project—SURPRISE!
Click to continue reading Preview: ngmoco’s new iPhone FPS: ELIMINATE
Best Camera iPhone app and community
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Photography, Social Networking, New Apps, Videos, $2.99,
If you’ve been looking for an iPhone app that can replace the default camera app for taking photos, Best Camera just may be what you’ve been looking for. Developed by Seattle photographer Chase Jarvis, Best Camera provides a full-featured camera control app, fantastic photo editing (think of it as an iPhone version of Photoshop,) and a great online community that lives both online and in the app, where you can see great photos that have been taken by other Best Camera users.
The app lets you fade, crop, lighten, darken, and add a ton of effects to photos you take. You can then share those photos to social sites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and the Best Camera community.
As part of the launch, and to build up the Best Camera community, there will be a photo contest where the winner receives an iPhone 3GS. Hit the video above to get a look at the idea behind the app, and how it works. It costs just $2.99, and you can download Best Camera now on the App Store.
Read More | Best Camera
Ping! brings iPhone-to-iPhone messaging to the App Store
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Social Networking, New Apps, Reviews, Free Apps,
We were just alerted to a new iPhone and iPod touch app called Ping!, which aims to provide free iPhone-to-iPhone (and iPod touch) messaging to users of those devices. We tried it, and thought it was worthy enough to give a shout out to.
Basically, once you download the free Ping! application, you set up a username, and you are set. You can invite others from within the app over email, letting them know your username, and also set up whether you want push notifications or not. Once you start a conversation, it’s very similar to SMS…except it’s free, and instant. You get the speed of an IM conversation with the persistence of SMS, all at no extra cost. Even better, it works internationally. So you can send and receive messages with people in other countries, and again, at no extra cost.
Go ahead and give Ping! a try, we think you’ll like it.
Read More | Ping! in App Store
MMS feature released for iPhone 3G and 3GS
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Handhelds,
Hey, don’t look now, but all of you who didn’t opt to enable iPhone MMS yourselves, the time has come for you to let iTunes do it for you. A carrier update file is now available that, once installed, will enable MMS officially for AT&T iPhone users throughout the US. All you need to do is connect your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS to your computer, and tell iTunes to check for an update. Install the file, and let the pictures of kittens start flying.
Oh, and yes, if you are an iPhone OG owner, you are left out in the cold on this one.
AT&T: iPhone MMS launching Friday afternoon
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Handhelds, Wireless / WiFi,
Just a quick note to those of you who haven’t already enabled MMS on your iPhone yourself already, the official rollout happens this Friday afternoon, according to AT&T’s Facebook page:
MMS Update: We know you’ve been eager for this service so we wanted to offer a quick update on the launch plans for MMS on Friday, Sept. 25. Late morning, Pacific Time, on Friday, the new carrier settings update enabling MMS should be live and ready to download through iTunes. We’ll provide the steps and all of the details you need right here at that time.
So there you have it - we fully expect that Friday to be full of cute kitten pictures, and video files of people mooning their iPhone cameras. Good times.
iTunes 9.0.1 now available, much more stable
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Music, Software,
Apple released iTunes 9.0.1 yesterday, and normally, they squash some bugs that some people experience. Here is a look at the changes in the latest release, which comes just a couple of weeks after the iTunes 9 release:
- Resolves issues browsing the iTunes Store.
- Addresses a performance issue where iTunes may become unresponsive.
- Fixes a problem where iTunes may unexpectedly quit.
- Fixes a problem syncing Podcasts in playlists to iPod or iPhone.
- Fixes a problem sorting albums with multiple discs.
- Addresses an issue with the Zoom button not switching to Mini Player.
- Improves application syncing for iPod touch and iPhone.
- Genius is now automatically updated to show Genius Mixes.
We must say, iTunes 9 feels more responsive, and works more “as it should,” or as expected. Hit up Software Update to grab it.
