Firemint’s Real Racing was a defining moment for the App Store – it showed that true, proper games could exist on the platform and whilst it wasn’t perfect, the driving sim took the iPhone by storm and ensured that everyone stopped and listened.

More importantly, it helped pave the way for other top tier games to find their feet amongst the crowd of me-too puzzlers and meant that developers could invest time and effort and still come out on top without having to resort to bargain bucket prices.

Enter Real Racing 2, Firemint’s follow-up, which released at the end of last week to unanimous acclaim; and rightly so, it’s absolutely stunning. This isn’t just a lazy rehash of the first game, R2 (as it’s known) features a completely rebuilt career mode, proper real-world vehicle licenses and graphics to die for as well as some welcome tweaks to the handling of the cars and a fair chunk of driver aids to ensure that players of all skill levels can jump right in and get onto the track with the minimum of fuss.

But first, it’s worth mentioning that Firemint have absolutely nailed the user interface. With a bold mix of hot orange buttons and steely grey boxes, R2?s menus are a joy to use and offer up a masterclass for anyone wanting to know how to present consistent, cascading, deep menus without ever making the player feel lost or disorientated (like some other racing sims around just now) – they really are gorgeous and a breeze to navigate. From the garage screens to the way vital stats are presented, this is sheer tactile perfection.

And the in-game graphics aren’t bad either. In fact, Real Racing 2 is probably the best looking game on the iPhone, and that includes the likes of Infinity Blade: the cars are highly detailed, the tracks alive with character and the framerate’s smooth for most of the game. Yes, it’s crispest on iPhone 4 but R2 actually contains two graphics engines and swaps in the best one for your hardware and in some respects 3GS owners come out on top with some lovely motion blur, despite the drop in resolution over the Retina powered 4th gen models.

It’s tough to compare Real Racing 2?s vehicles against console equivalents because the screen is so small, but it’s hard to understate how good they look both in the menus and out on the tarmac – richly modeled, transparent windows, realtime reflections, cockpit views, visual damage, smooth shadows and fully 3D wheels and lights on the higher spec phones make these cars, from the starter Golf GTi right through to the race-spec JGTC rides, the best we’ve seen on the platform by a mile. And that’s not counting the fact that R2 sports 16-vehicle races, offline and online.

How the player controls the cars is a matter of personal preference – you can choose between tilt and touch and opt for all manner of assistance, from automatic acceleration to braking and steering help; and you’re never penalised for taking the easy way out other than the simple fact that you’ll get quicker lap times and more out of the game if you choose to manage everything yourself rather than letting the AI take over the trickier aspects of racing. Likewise, you can play through the career mode on Easy, Medium or Hard – the game doesn’t mind.

The career mode is a sublime single player experience – split into tiers and then further into tournaments, time trials, one-on-one duels and special events, each individual race comes with requirements and limits (like the power rating of your car, measuring as ‘P’) but these are clearly presented and picking a car to fit is never more than a tap or two away. Visual customisation is limited to paint jobs, but performance wise each vehicle has a number of purchaseable options that vary from car to car and realistic ceilings are in place in terms of raw engine output.

The online real downer is the multiplayer mode, which whilst smart enough to match you against online opponents with similar classes of cars (which keeps races as close as possible) there’s nothing other than a simple one off race and the ever present leaderboards for time trials – some kind of tournament or cup would have been nice. Races were a little laggy too, and although most races worked just fine we did get a couple of connections – hopefully Firemint can smooth over any issues with updates down the line.

Pros:

* Incredible graphics
* Gorgeous UI
* Superb handling
* Expertly crafted single player mode

Cons:

* Multiplayer needs beefing up a little

Real Racing 2 is an absolutely brilliant game. It epitomises what’s possible on iPhone and iPod Touch if you’ve got time and money to invest – but make no mistakes this is up there with console games in terms of scope, depth and quality and as such it feels disingenuous to rate it alongside fellow iDevice racers. Indeed, the price point (£5.99) suggests that Firemint are looking to make some serious money back on the development of the game – they needn’t be concerned, this is an exemplary title and a showcase for portable gaming.

Source: The Sixth Axis

All the signs are pointing to 2012 for Apple to take control of how you use and connect to your network services on the hugely popular iPhone.

This final step by Apple would put the gadgets and media company in firm control of every iDevice on the market within a couple of years of the service starting, as old models are replaced with better functions, unrestricted by the limits of current network providers.

If Apple does decide this is the way to go, the iPhone will likely get smaller again, as there will be no requirement for a SIM card slot. Instead, the SIM data would be embedded directly into the existing hardware of the phone.

The same method would be used for the iPad and any other iDevice that uses network services.

The move to an embedded SIM for iPhone users would be a frustrating one for consumers and retailers alike. Currently, many network providers such as O2 or Vodafone sell the iPhone on their own data plans at a heavily subsidised rate. Without the guaranteed monthly income for network providers, this subsidisation will of course end as iPhone owners will be able to select their preferred network at the point of sale, and would possibly be able to change providers at will, using Apps downloaded from the App store that re-encode the phone.

Apple already manage to control stocks of their popular devices very well, seemingly restricting supplies to retail stores when demand is at its highest – which only serves to further increase consumers’ desire to get their hands on the latest models. With Apple in control of stock levels and network services, they really will have complete say in how their products are distributed and used.

A source from Apple has stated that the iPhone 5 that is scheduled for launch in mid-2011 is not expected to contain an embedded SIM so network providers can relax for at least another 18 months.

Tom Advani – Guest Poster, owner of FreeiPhones4me.com – another great resource to get yourself a free iPhone

Apple’s iPhone App Store acknowledgement approach has up to now been about as easy as dealing with your mother-in-law. However, today Apple will be raising the curtain, at least a little bit.

For developers, it might truly feel scary, mysterious, and arbitrary. And even though businesses that sell software from the App Store are typically in business with Apple, that has not meant that they’ve experienced much clarity into what was going on, or the reason why.

That was then….

But today, Apple is actually cracking open the curtain, at least a little. It’s making several improvements and clarifications to App Store approval guidelines and improving the certification it provides to developers.

The rule changes now enable programmers to use programming resources other than those supplied by Apple to create software programs.

That apparently means that creators of Flash-based applications (and ones created using environments including RunRev) may port them to the iPhone. (That’s an unexpected development given that it wasn’t all that long back that Steve Jobs was cogently reasoning and arguing that this would be a terrible strategy.) What’s more, it’s very clear that developers might go for third-party advertisement communities such as Google’s AdMob–rather than Apple’s iAds–to embed advertising in their programs.”

At this point, great. Nonetheless it’s the revolutionary extended justification of the reason why Apple rejects various iPhone apps which is most fascinating. It’s actually intriguing for its bluntness (“If you run towards the media and trash us, the idea never helps”) and the way it codifies Apple’s power to be arbitrary (“new applications delivering new questions could possibly give you brand new guidelines at virtually any time”).

It’s actually undoubtedly an increasingly recent and also all-inclusive guide to iPhone validation and rejection plans as opposed to remarks Steve Jobs made when the App Store debuted back in 2008.

Smart, the iconic automotive brand, has launched its first iPhone application which brings to life the extensive customisation capabilities of Smart’s new design service, BRABUS tailor made.

Inspired by smart BRABUS tailor made, a service which gives owners the chance to put their individual stamp on their car, the smart car designer iPhone application allows users to virtually create the smart of their dreams.

There are four in-built design features; ‘design your own’, ‘surprise me’, ‘find your inner smart’ and ‘save’

• The ‘design your own’ option allows smart fans to instantly customise a variety of exterior and interior sections of the car to create their very own individual smart
• For those looking for some design inspiration, users can simply shake their device to create a differently styled smart. The ‘surprise me’ option responds to movement, meaning the more vigorously it’s shook, the more the design will vary
• For a bit of fun, users can find their ‘inner smart’ by taking a quick personality quiz to establish which smart model they are most like
• With the ‘save’ option, previous designs from ‘design your own’ and ‘surprise me’ can then be stored to a personal gallery for editing or viewing at a later date. ‘Find your inner smart’ designs can also be saved. Users can browse the ‘Showroom’  to view other users’  designs and share their own with friends and family via email or MMS

Smart car designer application features

Design your own smart fortwo

• Custom design a smart fortwo using any colour in the RGB spectrum. Colour 13 different components of the exterior and 7 components of the interior
• Reset the colours at any point with a single tap
• Switch from interior to exterior with a single tap
• Colour picker remembers up to three of your recently used colours for easy reselection of your favourite colour

Surprise me!

• Simply shake your iPhone to generate a randomly styled smart car. The harder you shake it the more customisation occurs
• Works on interior and exterior shots

Find your inner smart

• Answer three personality and lifestyle questions and smart car designer will match you with a specially designed smart modelled on a selection of iconic cars from the past and the present.
• 20 different possible routes with 20 different results
• Save and share the pre-designed smart you are presented with

Save

• Save your designs to your personal gallery on your own phone
• Save your  designs to a public gallery
• Browse designs from other app users throughout the UK in the public gallery
• Rate other users designs (1-5)
• View designs by:
  • Your designs
  • Public designs
  • Highest rated
• Save other people’s designs to your phone
• Share your designs by emailing them or sending an MMS from your photo gallery on your phone

The smart car designer application can be downloaded free from the App Store for use on iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. 

We’d heard the rumours that one million users grab Opera for iPhone but just couldn’t understand why so many tech savvy people out there would want Don Giovanni or Tosca!

Seriously though folks, the gurus from Norway must be over the moon the over a million of us have downloaded the mini version of their Opera software suite.

Up to know, we’ve had two choices – Safari or no browsing.  Three weeks ago Apple was asked to approve Opera Mini and we now have pages that are drawn from compressed servers, meaning much faster response times for iPhone and iPod users.

“We were at the top of the charts of every 22 App Stores,” said Dag Olav Norem of Opera.

Norem wouldn’t tell us the figures by region but it is clear that the USA and UK were at the forefront of their minds, given the iPhone user base in those countries.

Opera Mini is in the App Store now !

We all love to digg and be dugg and can now do so on the move. Digg have released a free iPhone app that means we can get up and coming articles and news events on the go. The free app also allows users to add comments and save things locally to look at later.

Digg have inevitable included tie-ins with the normal social bookmarking sites and Digg users can access their accounts on the fly.

Get the Digg iPhone app from iTunes, we certainly digg it!

Even after the emergence of several competitors, demand for the iPhone is only increasing and hence so is the demand for free iPhone Apps. One would wonder, after developing the perfect iPhone application, what are the best ways to put it out there and make it sell putting into consideration that there is fierce competition from other developers? What are the ways to make it stand out and catch the attention of buyers?

Below are 10 ways to easily promote an iPhone Application:1. Create a YouTube account and make a good Demo Video for your application. Ensure that you promote this and you get some views. You can do this by back linking from your blog or articles.
2. Use a name that is catchy, interesting and easy to remember.
3. Offer a free trial. This will make sure that your buyers have a chance to experience what you are selling to them for some days before making the actual purchase.
4. Use social networking sites like twitter and face book to promote your application.
5. Place an ad on Craigslist.
6. Use Word of mouth to Promote your App. This can involve telling your friends and relatives about it.
7. Send out a press release to media houses.
8. Create a website for your application.
9. Use Google PPC and make campaigns that will link to your website.
10. Use Social Bookmarking sites like Digg.com and Stumbleupon.com to promote your App.

If you follow the above tips and implement them well, you will rest assured that your iPhone application gets the attention it deserves and you also get to make some sales from it!

Wow, amazing if it’s true (albeit limited to the USA), take a look at this article reproduced in full from Bits …..

A recently released app that offers free text messages on the iPhoneis welcome news to parents of teenagers upset over the cellphone bills of their hypertexting children. But can it be a sustainable business?

TextPlus is a free iPhone 3GS  application that offers unlimited free text messaging from iPhones or iPod Touches and includes group text messaging. It is the first app from Gogii, a start-up backed by $5.2 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ iFund, which invests in firms making iPhone applications.

iPhone or iPod Touch users can download the app free from the iPhone app store. Then they can send as many text messages as they want to other phones that use any carrier. TextPlus pays the text messaging bill to AT&T in exchange for showing ads to its users. (Though the iPod Touch does not have cellphone capability, textPlus users can send texts from the device over the Web and Gogii converts them and delivers them to the recipients.)

Since textPlus came out in June, its 800,000 monthly users have traded 80 million text messages, with the flow currently about 1.6 million a day. All those texts get expensive for Gogii, which pays AT&T for them to be sent. Scott Lahman, Gogii’s chief executive, concedes that the revenue from ads so far does not come close to the amount of money Gogii pays AT&T.

“Free texting does not work and would not work,” Mr. Lahman said. “We think of it more as sponsored texting. And I don’t think our texting would be monetizable if not for the rich app” provided by the iPhone, he said.

Mr. Lahman thinks textPlus has some advantages that will enable it to make more money from advertising than mobile Web services have so far been able to do. For one, about two-thirds of its users are teenagers, which makes sense, since the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that texting is teenagers’ top communication activity.

“Advertisers have lately been scratching their heads about how to reach teens,” Mr. Lahman said. “Text is the way they want to be reached.”

He also plans to experiment with different text-message ad models. “We’re trying to innovate the text platform, but we’re just as eager to innovate the ad platform,” he said.

Today, most of the ads on textPlus — and on the mobile Web as a whole — appear as banner ads on the app, placed through mobile ad networks like AdMob and Quattro Wireless.

Soon, though, Gogii plans to offer its own ads, including some within text messages. These will go beyond banner ads and could include SMS ads or video, for example. Mr. Lahman said Gogii would also survey its users to find out which types of ads are acceptable to them and which kinds of companies they are interested in hearing from.

Though Gogii expects advertising to be its main revenue stream, it will also have others, possibly including selling virtual goods or offering a paid version with additional features.

Mr. Lahman and his Gogii co-founders, Austin Murray and Zachary Norman, also co-founded Jamdat Mobile, a mobile gaming company that sold paid games. It went public in 2004 and was sold to EA for $680 million in 2006.

Free, ad-supported text messaging could have traction, said Charles S. Golvin, a principal analyst at Forrester Research who studies the mobile market. The cost of sending text messages is decreasing and mobile advertising is growing.

“It’s not going to rival broadcast TV advertising, but I think it’s going to grow steadily, because this really is a very personal channel,” he said. “If you do a good job, you can give them very relevant and timely advertising.”

Still, he questions whether advertisers will want to reach a group of people who do not want to pay the relatively low prices that carriers now offer for unlimited texting. “You have to ask: how attractive is that category of consumer to the people who are trying to advertise to them?” he said.

Gogii hopes to eventually negotiate a deal with the cellphone carriers to share ad revenue with them instead of paying them per text message.

Mr. Golvin is skeptical. Carriers are extremely interested in finding other revenue streams, particularly advertising, he said. But “they have designs on being that enabler of advertising to their customer directly,” not through a third party like Gogii.

Facebook for iPhone has just the big 3.0 – the new version is a major update to the social networking app, with lots of new features. read on for more details of one of the premier timewasting apps for the iPhone.

The new Facebook app has just hit the App Store, bringing with it some great new features and some improvements to the existing one.

The new iPhone app has much better photo handling – you can zoom into opics, create new photo albums and upload photos to any album. 3GS owners will now be able to upload video directly from thei phones too.A new home screen will let you arrange profiles into different pages that you can flip between just like the iPhone home screen.

The app also integrates better into the ‘phone’ function of your iPhone. You will be able to call or message people directly from your Friends list and you will no longer lose messages that you were typing when you get an incoming call.

Some users are reporting that the App Store is still listing version 2.5 as current – if this happens to you, you can delete the app from your phone and then download it again – you shuld get the correct version 3.0.

Source: Mirror UK