TamsIJungle

Accelerometer-based games for mobile devices have been around for ages - Till Harbaum’s evergreen for the Palm Pilot (with an external sensor) dates back to 1999. The iPhone’s strength is the insane library of Accelerometer-based titles…let’s see how Resco Bubbles stacks up!

The core idea behind Bubbles is simple: your marble must hit the numbered points one by one. If you manage to hit all numbers in sequence, the level is complete - if you hit a “wrong” number, the game is over:

While this may sound easy, Resco’s engineers have added quite a few features to make the game more difficult. For example, some figures can move around the screen:

Various special tiles make your life difficult. For example, skull tiles - touch them and its game over:

Another lovely idea is the “crazy pill” - if you touch one (or more of them), control is inverted until the end of the level. This means that tilting the device up makes the ball go downward…a true nuisance…

Bomb tiles are a special kettle of fish: generally peaceful, they explode a few seconds after touched (destroying your ball if it happens to be closeby):

Bubbles has over 60 levels - one of the unique features of this game is that the level can be selected by tilting the device:

A highly unique feature of the program is its calibration tool - it allows you to set the “zero axis” to a position of your choice and makes playing easier:

I tested this game on an iPod touch and can’t complain about stability or performance - the game works extremely well.

In the end, Bubbles is a lovely (but insanely difficult) implementation of the unkillable marble and maze genre. Its unique calibration feature allows for somewhat ergonomic gaming, and don’t even get me started on the special tiles… The current price of just 3$ makes this a true marvel - get it now, the prices may rise tomorrow!

The game commonly known as iTunes App Store admissions has just gotten richer by two funny facets - here’s the full scoop:

No boobs for iPhone
A completely useless and pointless application simulating the movement of female cleavage via the motion sensor was banned by Apple on the grounds of the terms of submission:

“Applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc.), or other content or materials that in Apple’s reasonable judgement may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod touch users.”

iPhones can fart
People loving bodily odors can now choose from about 20 fart applications - VentureBeat reported that the number of these (similarly pointless) programs is currently exploding.

Our resident ad master Dr. Doris Maria Kohrs had had the following to say on the topic:

A game simulating breasts can be considered as sexist by a variety of individuals. Farting, on the other hand, is annoying, but can not be considered politically incorrect or sexist. The risk of annoying anyone is significantly lower here…

Says all, doesn’t it :-).

While some companies still work on fine-tuning their Christmas promotions, the folks from Apple’s have already announced theirs:

The promotion runs from the 26th to the 4th, and gives away one free “product” every day. While free songs have been given away in the past, this offer is said to be the first which also includes movies and even TV shows.

As of now, nobody knows which locations will be targeted. However, the co.uk page indicates that Great Britain is likely to be included:
http://www.itunes12daysofchristmas.co.uk/

I have absolutely no idea what the folks at Apple’s were smoking when they proclaimed that the iPhone is “a console experience” at a recent conference (see Engadget for details). While the iPhone definitely is a better market for game developers than traditional handhelds were in the past (the iPhone is the only platform with multiple games in the top 10), I fear that the device can not stack up against dedicated game consoles. The reason: input capabilities.

Many types of games considered console staple foods (e.g. driving, side-scrollers) rely on five-way navigators for input. If a five-way navigator is in a device, gaming is fun - the addition of the 5way navigator to Palm’s handhelds was one of the things which really kick-started game development for the platform a few years ago.

Furthermore, the iPhone’s platform is not optimized for gaming. Devices like the PSP are optimized for gaming - ergonomically and hardware-wise. A generic ARM CPU can never perform as well as a dedicated GPU: but a dedicated GPU eats more power than a frugal ARM chip. Gamers wanting top FX quality will always go for dedicated consoles…

The iPhone will definitely sell many games, and has the potential to open new market segments (thereby threatening the Nintendo DS to a limited extent). But: “real consoles” like the PSP IMHO have little to worry - customers who want to play on the go IMHO will want “the real thing”…

Apple recently overhauled its iTunes application, adding “top lists” on the left and the right of each category (image below):

Developers went bonkers immediately, claiming that this harms companies offering more expensive products. After all, cheaper programs move more produce, and thus rank higher. Sounds sane, isn’t it?

Actually, it’s not. Palm OS, PocketPC and S60 developers alike have fought hard battles about getting into the top-10, too - our ESDs have had top-10 lists for ages, and nobody has ever complained too much. The reasons for this are twofold: first of all, many ESDs are said to calculate with total revenue rather than the amount of sold pieces. Secondarily, developers don’t rely on ESDs as a sole way of marketing - they also use enthusiast web sites, reviews, and so forth.

But: for these alternative systems to work, users need to be “smart” enough to find and use the on-line resources available to them. The average iPhone user IMHO does not follow web sites or iPhone magazines/podcasts - for him, the iTunes store is the sole way of getting information.

IMHO, the problem of the iTunes store is not its system alone, but the demographics of users. Most iPhone users are not traditional smartphone folk - for them, a phone is a device which “just works”. Until this changes,…

Craig Hockenberry has posted a highly interesting letter to his blog - it chastises the extremely low prices on Apple’s iTunes store - I have abridged it a bit, and reposted it below:

…

As an iPhone developer who’s been in the App Store since its launch, I’m starting to see a trend that concerns me: developers are lowering prices to the lowest possible level in order to get favorable placement in iTunes. This proliferation of 99¢ “ringtone apps” is affecting our product development.

…

We have a lot of great ideas for iPhone applications. Unfortunately, we’re not working on the cooler (and more complex) ideas. Instead, we’re working on 99¢ titles that have a limited lifespan and broad appeal. Market conditions make ringtone apps most appealing.

Before commencing any new iPhone development, we look at the numbers and evaluate the risk of recouping our investment on a new project. Both developers and designers cost somewhere between $150-200 per hour. For a three man month project, let’s say that’s about $80K in development costs. To break even, we have to sell over 115K units. Not impossible with a good concept and few of weeks of prominent placement in iTunes.

But what happens when we start talking about bigger projects: something that takes 6 or even 9 man months? That’s either $150K or $225K in development costs with a break even at 215K or 322K units. Unless you have a white hot title, selling 10-15K units a day for a few weeks isn’t going to happen. There’s too much risk.

…

I’m also concerned that this “making it up in volume” approach won’t last too much longer. With 10,000 apps in the App Store, it’s already a fricken’ cat fight to get into one of the top 100 spots. What’s it going to be like when there are 20,000 apps? Or 100,000 apps? Volume is going to get split amongst a lot of players, hopefully the number of devices/customers will increase at the same rate.

Our products are a joy to use: as you well know, customers are willing to pay a premium for a quality products. This quality comes at a cost—which we’re willing to incur. The issue is then getting people to see that our $2.99 product really is worth three times the price of a 99¢ piece of crapware.

I also worry that this low price point for applications is going to limit innovation on the platform. Sure, apps like Ocarina and Koi Pond are very cool and very cheap. But when are we going to see the utility of the platform taken to another level, like when spreadsheets appeared on the Apple ][ and desktop publishing appeared on the Mac? (It could be argued that Safari has already accomplished this, but I still think there is a third party idea that will be just as transformative.)

It would be great if the killer app for the iPhone cost 99¢, but given the numbers above I can’t see it being very likely.
…

While I personally feel that Craig has just shot himself in the foot big-time (Apple does not like “dissidents”), I nevertheless understand why he is frustrated. The most expensive of the top-25 apps is priced at less than 10$ - small utility programs for other operating systems cost more than that. Actually: ESDs refuse to sell applications costing less than 4-6$ (not 100% aware of the exact lower limit).

iTunes is optimized on selling many small items in order to gain a profit: when looking at the historic purpose of the thing (selling music), it makes sense (people own hundreds of tracks). But when it comes to applications, this unfortunately back-fires. Rarely, users use more than 10-20 applications - but 20 applications at 1$ each are just 20$.

As already stated in the past: being an ESD is more difficult than one may think at first glance. Apple still has a long way to go until it reaches the perfection found by global players - let’s see how this all turns out in the end…

George Henne’s NS Basic is an extremely popular RAD tool for mobile platforms - developers who would like to use a VB like tool, flock to it in droves.

Unfortunately, the company’s representatives have not proved too talkative so far. This has now changed, though - look forward to a highly interesting interview looking at the development landscape, mobile computing platforms and - last but not least - the iPhone and its distant predecessor, the Newton!

Please tell me more about yourself!
NS BASIC was founded on the idea that if development tools were easier to use, more people could develop apps for mobile devices.

The most widely used dev tool in the world (53%, according to Microsoft) is Visual Basic. It seemed natural to design a VB like tool for mobile devices.

Our customers are in all sorts of industries, government and education.
We have been translated into half a dozen languages: our users are in over 80 countries. Close to 20,000 developers use our products.

Diving straight into your core business (NsBasic). Tell us in a short form why the world needs yet another Basic clone!
Everyone knows Basic, for good reason. It has a gentle learning curve.
Beginning programmers can understand the concepts easily and create their first apps right away. Modern Basic implementations are well enough designed so that it is reasonable to do sophisticated applications.

Where do you see the main benefits for developers?
Ease of use and quick development are the main ones. We have had many reports of experienced C++ developers using NS Basic to put together a quick proof of concept: In a day or two, they have a workable prototype to show the customer. It often works out that there is no need to spend
2 more months recoding in C++.

On the other extreme, there are professionals in other fields that would like to develop apps for handheld devices. For example, many doctors have specific apps that would help them in their work. They’re smart people, and have learned a bit of programming on the way. They find NS Basic is just the tool for them to create apps.

How does NSBasic work? Do the programs compile to native code, or is a runtime needed?
There is a runtime, but we do our best to keep it in the background, so it isn’t a big deal. Nearly all apps have some sort of runtime these days, whether it is in form of libraries, DLL files or overlays.
Runtimes do not mean the app has to run more slowly: in fact, key code in our runtime is written in ARM assembler for peak performance. What they do is add a great deal of power: a single statement in NS Basic will replace pages of C++ coding.

You have a very strong market in the Palm OS sector. Where do you see the Palm OS going? Which platform(s) will dominate the market in a year’s worth of time?
Palm was a strong marketplace for us for many years. For Palm’s sake, I hope their new devices come out in a timely fashion and can wow the marketplace. We will certainly support them if they do.

NS Basic/Symbian OS already outsells NS Basic/Palm. We’re working hard to make it a great product: we think it will be an important part of our future.

Do you feel the US sub-prime crisis?
Not directly. It’s likely that the economic uncertainly is leading companies to put off new development projects, which will certainly affect us. It’s a worldwide affair this time, which is different from past downturns.

To what extent is NSBasic compatible with VB and/or AppForge?
NS Basic is a subset of VB, with extensions to take advantage of the mobile platform it runs on. The important things a VB programmer needs are all there - but there are a lot of specific and weird things in VB that didn’t really have a place on mobile devices. An obvious example is Windows specific features, that just do not exist on other operating systems such as Symbian OS.

AppForge was a strange case. Technically, it wasn’t great, but it had a big marketing budget. When that ran out, the company was gone: the licensing model was not friendly to its customers.

Many AppForge customers have converted to NS Basic: it is entertaining to read their comments:
http://www.nsbasic.com/palm/info/kudos5.html

You have recently expanded your reach across platforms - is porting an app significant effort for the developer?
Moving to a new platform is not new to us: Symbian OS is our fourth major platform.

For developers who use our tools, it’s not too bad. NS Basic/Palm apps move to Symbian OS usually with no changes at all. Of course, once you are there, it is tempting to make use of features that are specific to the new devices: better graphics, extra features, etc.

You still support Apple’s Newton - does it still pay? Furthermore: do you plan to go iPhone one day?
We still have a lot of affection for the Newton. We still sell the occasional copy of NS Basic/Newton. It’s an important platform in the history of mobile computing. You’d be surprised how many current developers of handheld devices started on the Newton. I think the devices we are seeing these days are finally beginning to realize the potential that the Newton introduced us to 15 years ago.

We actually have NS Basic/iPhone working:
http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizVidz-2008051501.swf

Under the terms of Apple’s iPhone SDK, tools such as NS Basic may not be released. If they should ever change this policy, we would love to release the product!

Anything you would like to add?
I think the next two years will be very interesting for developers. The iPhone changed the rules and everyone is still trying to catch up. It’s good to see touch screen S60 devices: now the software has to catch up.
Our tools have always been touch screen oriented, so we are ready for the fun!

NS Basic has a large and active user community. If you have questions about our product, let us know. We’ll be around to help, along with many of our other users.

Apple’s iPhone is one of the very few platforms with centralized software distribution (aka there is one body who “censors” content). While this makes gathering stats easy, it also provides an easy target for people made mad by moral panics.

The cause of the outrage is a game about drug trafficking called Underworld - it has not even been released, but already makes journalists at a British Tabloid mad according to PocketGamer.

In a traditional handheld economy, the people are angered but are at a loss of what to target - after all, there is a huge plethora of distributors peddling the same product through a variety of outlets. Even if one distro delists the product, all that happens is that others are likely to profit more…which is why such economies are unattractive for fear mongers.

Apple, on the other hand, is an unfortunate (by choice) single target: as they alone hold the keys to the iPhone, they automatically “endorse” everything they release.

Dope games have been available for almost all handheld platforms (Dope Wars, anyone) - it looks like the iPhone will be the first one which has to go without them.

Image: Wikimedia Commons / Jorge Barrios

P.S. My personal stance on drugs: don’t do em. But: Alcohol is 50x more dangerous than cannabis…as it endangers innocents. Cannabis users say “dada dada”, and if they smoke too much they say “dada dada chrk” and perish peacefully (aka not harming bystanders). People drinking alcohol excessively, on the other hand, are proven to do grievous harm to other’s life, phones and property…

Sometimes, being a huge company is just great. When two big companies which once were partners start to duke it out, things get really interesting. Reason for post: Google has just admitted that its recently-released Voice Search program uses undocumented APIs, which is prohibited under Apple’s SDK/App Store terms.

The whole blogosphere currently is bonkers about the topic; wondering if/when Apple steps up and tells Google to abide by the SDK terms like other developers. Some Apple reps probably drown in email by now…

At TamsIJungle’s, we didn’t even bother to email Apple. The reason: we know that absolutely nothing will happen. Apple needs to have Google on-board, as its entire GPS and Maps stack is based on their technology.

If Apple would start to bug Google, their response could be firm and fast: discontinuation of all Google products for the iPhone. Google has little to loose, as they have a mobile platform of their own - Apple, on the other hand, would have to deal with thousands of extremely pissed off customers who want their Google Earth back.

Austrian parent law includes a concept of “very known brands”, which have almost complete protection. Google is such a brand - and I don’t think that Apple will want to stand in their way.

P.S. If they do, things will get very interesting…

Apple’s iTunes Plus is an offering which allows customers to download music in a DRM-free format for a slight premium (AFAIK 30 cents over the regular price). So far, EMI was the only label to parcitipate in this scheme - the three other major labels refused to chime in.

Renowned German Apple blogger Florian Schimanke claims that the three labels will soon cave in and will offer their music in a DRM-free format.

He furthermore states that some tracks can already be found in iTunes Plus, but can not be purchased as of now. According to him, Apple usually overhaules iTunes on Tuesdays…which means that iTunes Plus heads could be in for a nice treat soon…