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| Sunday, 28 June 2009 23:00 |
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cnet
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by Erica Ogg Font size Print E-mail Share 39 comments The iPhone 3GS is already wooing game developers with its faster, more powerful platform, but don't expect a ton of games fully taking advantage of it to flood the App Store--yet. Though 1 million iPhone 3GSs sold in one weekend , the latest Apple mobile device is essentially still a niche product, compared to the 40 million original iPhones, iPhone 3Gs, and both iPod Touch models already sold. And those won't be able to run games with the same efficiency and speed as the new iPhone 3GS. 1 million iPhone 3GSs sold the first weekend, but it's still considered a niche device for many iPhone game developers. (Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET) In short, it's still too early to declare the era of iPhone 3GS games officially arrived. Some game makers are waiting, or not creating games to take advantage of the device at all. Some say it's "not wise" to play specifically to what is still a small slice of the audience combing Apple's App Store for the latest downloads. For example, Pop Cap, the company behind Peggle and Bejeweled for the iPhone, said its games are benefiting from the faster load times the 3GS offers, but it has no plans to create games that are iPhone 3GS-specific. This wait-and-see approach may be contrary to what some expected. The iPhone 3GS was essentially an update to the iPhone 3G. The "S," we were told, stands for "speed." Indeed, there's a faster processor, a PowerVR SGX graphics chip that can handle 3D rendering, and support for OpenGL ES 2.0 , a standard use for creating 2D and 3D graphics. It also has a magnetometer and a video camera, unlike other Apple mobile devices. At the device's world premiere at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller promised that games on the iPhone 3GS would perform better , and, in the parade of developers brought up on stage to demonstrate apps for the new device, the only category among education, health, games, books, and music to be repeated were games. Pop Cap will continue to make casual games, not graphics-intensive action games, despite the opportunity the iPhone 3GS offers, according to Andrew Stein, the company's director of business development. "Our philosophy is not to take advantage of technology just because it's there," he said. "The other thing to keep in mind: Apple has sold 1 million 3GSs, but there are 40 million devices already in market. By focusing specifically on 3GS, you're leaving a huge potential market untapped at that point," said Stein. Independent developer Kuan Yong is already hard at work on updating his AirCoaster 3D game, which has sold 100,000 copies since February on the App Store. AirCoaster is a... |
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| Sunday, 28 June 2009 05:27 |
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crunchgear
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Free fun, thy name is Lemonade Tycoon. I downloaded EA Mobile’s free Lemonade Tycoon to my iPod touch yesterday and spent the better part of the afternoon creating my own beverage empire, one fresh squeezed glass at a time. |
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| Sunday, 28 June 2009 04:18 |
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crunchgear
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More proof (see: the Perfect Pushup and the Snuggie .) that having a quirky, on-all-the-time commercial is a step in the right direction toward Big Success. MagicJack (commercial here ) is selling something at the rate of 9,000 to 10,000 units per day , making its parent company, YMax Communications, some $100 million this year alone. But, in this age of Skype , who’s buying this thing? Two points for you if you guessed “older people.” The company’s average customer age is 50, and and live in retirement-friendly places like California or Florida. MagicJack, if you have no idea what I’m on about, is a device that plugs into your computer’s USB port that in turn lets you make and receive phone calls through your Internet connection. The reason why it’s so popular, I guess, is that you get the first year of service for free, and after that it’s only $20 per year. That low price is especially appealing to people on fixed income, or for people whose regular phone bills are too high. One side note: you do need to keep your computer on all the time for something like the MagicJack to work, so all that savings you’re getting by freeing yourself from the phone company may go straight toward powering your computer. Flickr |
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| Sunday, 28 June 2009 03:05 |
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boy genius report
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Ahhh, the Dev Team — where would we be without them? Just last week the crew issued ultrasn0w, making jailbreaking and unlocking your iPhone 3G as easy as finding a farting app in the App Store. But what about 3GS owners? As fast as the Dev Team works, a separate hacker by the name of “geohot” (the guy who made the first iPhone unlock as well as the injection vector for the first iPhone 3G unlock) has made a major breakthrough with the help of his friends at Chronic Dev. A little before 4:00AM this morning, George Hotz became the first person in the world to have a fully jailbroken iPhone 3GS (picture above). Now of course this doesn’t mean it will be released to the masses just yet, but it does mean we’re unbelievably close to lift off. Geohot ftw! Hit the jump for one more shot. Read |
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