Deep Green Chess Game for iPhone
December 30th, 2008 by iPhoneTechZone
Everyone is going to tell you how great Deep Green’s interface is, but the real beauty to me is that I can actually play chess at a reasonable level with it. The chess engine (it is based on “Tiny”) is strong, and it responds quickly. You can take back moves (all the way back to the beginning), get suggestions from the computer, and move pieces either by dragging or tapping without changing settings.
Deep Green is a fast and strong Chess Game for iPhone.
Flaws? It doesn’t bring up a “check” or “checkmate” indicator. It does, however, vibrate, which was more than enough for me. You can’t play another human over a wireless network; you could hand the phone back and forth. That’s it for flaws.
If you’re interested in trivia, Deep Green was originally available for the Newton, which Apple stopped producing shortly thereafter. It takes up less than 2MB on your phone.
Back in the day I paid almost $100 for my Radio Shack board, and upwards of $30 for Chessmaster. Deep Green costs $4.99 during the introductory period ($7.99 thereafter), and it is fantastic. Go buy.
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Thoughts and Rumors About the iPhone Nano
December 28th, 2008 by iPhoneTechZone
With rumor’s swirling around about a possibly iPhone Nano being announced at this year’s Macworld Expo, I thought I would weigh in on the future of the iPhone product line.
To me, as a consumer, the iPhone Nano is a waste. Why would you want a phone that is smaller than the iPhone? That trend died when the RAZR did. Now, phones are all about function, and it seems like an iPhone Nano would need to cut a whole lot of function in order to fit the title.
From the leaked screens, it seems like the phone is much smaller than it’s counterpart [the iPhone 3G]. This ultimately comes down to screen size and capacity. I would assume that with this launch, they would bump the iPhone 3G to 16GB and 32GB, and launch the iPhone Nano at 4GB and 8GB. I know many people that have iPhones but DON’T store their music libraries on them [at least not all of it] because it is too small. So the thought of making the capacity smaller is not a turn-off for me.
Instead it is the idea that the current iPhone is GREAT the way it is. By making the iPhone Nano smaller, you are cutting out screen space. Now you can’t watch movies on that big of a screen, the keys when it comes to the qwerty keyboard are smaller [which is already an issue for many people], and there’s less room to view webpages, emails, photo’s and more. One of the great things about the iPhone was that it was one of the first phones to enclude a very large touch screen.
But why do I think that the iPhone Nano is a waste? Another rumor that is floating around is that the new iPhone Nano would have to run on the Edge network from AT&T. The reduction in over all size of the phone would force Apple to use the smaller Edge chipset, meaning you couldn’t have the great speed of the iPhone 3G. Not only would Apple be compromising on screen size, but also overall speed.
Every time I see Steve Jobs up on stage announcing new products there seems to be a recurring theme. Apple doesn’t compromise [at least according to him]. So what would be an advantage of a phone with so many compromises? Price. I am going to go out on a limb here, and say that IF Apple were to release an iPhone Nano AND assuming they used the 4GB and 8GB price points I mentioned, I would not be suprised to see a 4GB iPhone Nano priced at $99.
So why is the iPhone Nano a waste. Well it seems like there would be too many compromises for the price to be justified. Granted, a cheaper iPhone would sell like hot cakes [sounds a lot like when the RAZR went mainstream], I don’t think the overall preception of the phone would be that great. In the coming months and years, 3G cellular networks will be implemented in more places and in more carriers that it would almost be a standard. And to have Apple compromise the chip and go back to Edge would be pretty sad.
But then again, this is all based on rumors and speculation. Who knows what Apple will announce at Macworld? Only time will tell! Check back here on January 5th for all the news!
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Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes Hits the iPhone
December 2nd, 2008 by iPhoneTechZone
That’s right, while some of you were sleeping last night one of the most anticipated games of the season hit the app store. Unfortunately I found out a few minutes before I went to bed so I only had time to play through the first training level, but let me tell you – so far the game definitely looks incredible and looks like its going to be a lot of fun. I’ve attached a screenshot from my iPhone below:
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Rumors about iPhone firmware 2.2.1 to Bring Push Notification
December 1st, 2008 by iPhoneTechZone
Apple announced early this year with the release of the iPhone 3G that a ‘Push’ notification system would be introduced by September but as you have probably guessed, it was harsly delayed. Thankfully rumors have been floating claiming that the next release of 2.2 (titled 2.2.1) will introduce it to the public.
RussianiPhone.ru have announced this week that the 2.2.1 beta will have the ‘Push’ notification feature bundled with the MobileMe notes syncing. They have backed up their claim with this following screenshot but of course this could easily of been photoshopped:
What is making us not entirely believe this is the fact that the 2.2.1 beta has not even be released to developers so the Russians must have somehow achieved it outside of public distribution. Whether it real of fake it does beg the question, is ‘push’ notifications coming to our 3-inch screens soon?
Steve Jobs has already told us that Apple are planning to get the system ‘100% right’ from the beginning so maybe the long wait has been worth it. With these rumors and screenshots floating around however, it may catch some attention of some eager developers who like to produce instant messaging apps. Watch this space.
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