Up On the Roof…

MacRumors reports that the first native iPhone game has been released for the iPhone. Its a puzzle game called Lights Off.

First the good news:
It’s an exciting anouncement because the developers created it without much help from Apple. Apple has not provided developers with an SDK (software development kit). This means anyone who wants to make a third party program, has to more work to do to get a game or other program to work with the iPhone interface, etc.

Now the bad news:
I haven’t played or downloaded it myself because it takes hacking the iPhone and installing some extra pieces of software to get it to work. On top of that there is a risk that the iPhone could be permanently damaged by doing this. Here’s their disclaimer text “Disclaimer: Lights Off is provided on an “as is” basis, without warranty of any kind. If your iPhone breaks, don’t cry on our shoulders.”

But this is still exciting news because it indicates that additional software for iPhones, (other than web-based via Safari) is on the horizon.

Prediction:
I expect Apple will do one of two things in the next month or so, release an iPhone patch that makes the game not run, or give in to developers and release an official SDK.

Link to Part 1
One of the best features of the pearl, besides the “pearl (trackball) itself, is that it accepts the MicroSD card. I suggest getting a 2GB card and a full sized SD adapter, in case you want to use it with an external card reader. The only drawback to using it with a card reader is that you’ll have to power down the Blackberry and pop out the battery in order to get to it.

Once you have a multimedia card installed, you can then sync iTunes playlists between the Pearl and your machine. Open up the Missing Sync for Blackberry software. You’ll notice the fourth item down in the window is labelled “Music” Click on it and the row highlights. Then click on the “Settings…”

Another window will drop down and if you’ve set up playlists of music in iTunes, you’ll see them listed there. Simply check those you want copied to the Pearl. I left the default items listed below the playlists as is. You can change how much free space you leave on the media card and how often you want to sync tunes. You may want to turn of syncing music everytime, for sake of speed, if you sync frequently and only want to keep contacts, calendars up to date.

Missed Part 1? Click here

Since the iPhone is so good at trying to find and connect to available WiFi hotspots, it is no wonder that security companies are working hard to come up with solutions to improve on security.

The iPhone’s browser supports SSL websites, but often websites don’t offer SSL on all the pages they should be protecting, or maybe your accessing corporate intranets, etc. that also aren’t as secure as they should be.

I came across a security package from GoTrusted.com. They already make security products for the PC’s and now are offering a 7-day free trial to use their security system on the iPhone platform.

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In my quest for cool stuff I came across a mobile translation tool for the iPhone. It is a web-based tool that provides common phrases translated from English into French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese.

The coolest part is that they provide you with audio clips of the phrases, so that you can listen to the phrase a few times and practice saying it.

I found the program extremely simple to use. They did a great job creating a custom interface for the iPhone.

They also make an iPod version, and versions for various Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones, which I haven’t tried.

BTW the link from your iPhone is http://www.coolgorilla.com/iphone or for their main site, click here Also, when you visit the page, be sure to click on the “Talking Phrase Books” It doesn’t look like a standard web link so I had to click around to find it.

I just plugged in the iPhone in and was treated to the iPhone update 1.01. It took quite a bit of time to install, so I was hoping to see something new after it awoke. [ update, don't see any new features ]

However, as I was sliding, pinching, pulling and poking around to see what if any new features were available, I stumbled upon something I had missed before.

In Mail, in order to delete messages, I had been tapping “Edit” then tapping on the red circle with a minus sign in it, then tapped the “Delete” box to the right of each message. A tedious operation, to say the least. The better solution, I happened upon, is sliding the message you wish to delete, to the left. You’ll then get a “Delete” box, which you can tap to delete.

So now I can remove my spam more efficiently.

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