The Appcast #50: January 24, 2010 – Tablet Apps and OS 4.0 Speculation

This week’s show: Introducing the Tabcast. We take a look at our idea of how apps might be a part of the new Apple Tablet as well as our speculation on OS 4.0.

Episodes can be downloaded by clicking the Episodes tab above. Intro Music: Borderline D.U. Mix from Mixter Two – I Don’t Know What I’m Doing by Brad Sucks.

Show Outline:

1. Introductions
2. Listener Feedback
3. News: Bing to replace Safari’s Google Search?
4. News: iPhone, Apps, and Haiti
5. News: Kindle Apps
6. New Apps for the Week
7. Core Topic: Apple Tablet Apps and OS 4.0 Wish-list

New Apps Discussed on January 24th, 2010:

1. The White House – Free - Direct blog news with photos and video, including live streaming video. I’m surprised we have this and that the White House put this together. Though, really, it is very interesting and a quick way to at least get to know what is going on with US Politics, even if just brief.
2. Tuba Legend – Free – In this silly parody of the usual Guitar Hero rhythm-style games, you can learn the art of the tuba and feel like a Tuba God with the simple and silly gameplay. Even though it is a game, it’s more like a toy meant to be a quick time killer.
3. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars – $9.99 – This may just be the first big-name iPhone game that will prove the iPhone will be a giant in the handheld gaming market. GTA: Chinatown Wars started with the DS, moved to the PSP, and ultimately becomes the best version on the iPhone (where touch controls and sharper graphics combine to form some form of GTA Captain Planet). With the same production values as the DS and PSP version, a cheaper price tag, and very quick load times, GTA: Chinatown Wars will be another example of how 2010 shifted a lot of handheld gamers over the iPhone and iPod Touch. The game is very fun as well (it will harken back to the days of the old 2D over-head view of the earlier GTA games, though the gameplay is the usual mission-based roaming).
4. Emojinabler Emoji Keyboard – $0.99 – Another way of unlocking emoji for non-Japanese iPhones. There are likely other apps that do the same for free, but only this app requires the use of the Konami code in order to actually turn Emoji on and off.
5. Fleeced! Shear Terror – $3.99 – It’s Rampart meets Llamas! Presented in a cartoony 3D environment, Fleeced is all about fast-paced cannon action! You build, aim, and fire cannons at an opponent’s castle in hopes of breaking down the walls so that your wrangler can shear his llama. The same is being done to you, so it’s a matter of quick multitasking, planning, and aiming skill. With fantastic graphics, online multiplayer, and a fun concept, Fleeced is showing that 2010 will be a very strong year for iPhone gaming.
6. Afro Photo Free – Free – Place one of 19 colorful afro wigs on photos of your friends or enemies. You can rotate and scale the afros as well as control transparency. When you’re done, you can share your new afro’d pics on Twitter, Facebook, or save them for later use. Bob was distraught by the lack of a rainbow afro though. (Long live Afro Ken!)

Apps of the Week:

The Raging Dead – (Kevin) – $2.99 – An incredibly cool concept applied to a zombie theme. You control a cannon in the sky (or machine gun, depending on your choice) and need to eliminate the zombies in town (red dots) before they spread out and infect the human population (the blue dots). All this is in a 2D overhead presentation of a city layout where the zombies run around and infest the city while you try to kill them and contain them from infecting others. It’s quick, strategic, and relies on good design rather than graphics.

Silly App of the Week:

Framed! - (Kevin) – $0.99 Premium version or Free Lite version – Take photos of your friends and apply them to a set of fun templates that range from museum displays to concert venue screens to the side of a milk carton. Some of the frames work better than others while many include additional touches like news headlines, messages, and others. It actually ended up being very fun and simple to use.

iEncoder and iDecoder – (Bob’s Runner-Up) – Free – Send an encoded message to your friends in QR 2D barcode mode. You encode with iEncoder and they decode with iDecoder. And vice versa! Or you could just send an IM, email, text, speak to them, etc.

Burrito Amigo – (Bob) – $0.99 – Learn about several types of burritos, find nearby Mexican restaurants, share burrito photos, and receive Push notifications on the latest burrito news. This is the true successor to the Burrito app, folks! We wouldn’t have it any other way.

Core Topic: Tablet Apps and OS 4.0 Speculation

We keep it brief this week and take some time to discuss how apps might find their way from the iPhone to the Apple Tablet as well as the current apps and genres that might work very well on a Tablet presentation. Then we also go over some of our wish-list items for OS 4.0 (rumored to be a part of Apple’s big tablet conference).

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