Apple

As a professor in Computer Science that includes a Game Developers Degree I often hear students talking about games being mutually exclusive to NOT iPhones and iPads.  But that is changing, as I taught the first iPhone and iPad class here at the University of Colorado I am seeing more of my students, particularly those in Games developing games on the iPhone. To top it all the the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco being held today is having 16 iPhone and iPad . The GDC advisory board decided that iPhones and iPads are an important enough platform to warrant its own summit. It is certainly an option now that the next iPad and iPhone App class I teach with my iPhone and iPad Apps for Absolute Beginners will in fact include many Gamers. The challenge is using Objective-C in games when students are more attuned to Java and C++.

iPad Apps for Beginners

What Recession? AAPL has skyrocketed more than 650% in  the last 10 years and  RIMM holding great at 200% due to the BlackBerry. Gamers such as ATVI,  NVDA and Wii NTDOY are also skyrocketing.

Now if you have a BA … meaning you didn’t do your math homework then well … mmm … welcome to the Recession.  There is hope for you.  You could start to learn how to make iPhone and iPad Apps.  As a non math artist, MBA, BA or other non tech type there is hope for you.  Learn to Program the iPhone and iPad here at iPhone and iPad Apps for ABSOLUTE Beginners.

It was so cool last night while watching the Oscars to actually witness history when Kera and I saw our first iPad Apps.  After completing the the book last week:  iPhone and iPad Apps for Absolute Beginners, it was awesome to see how the advertising machine is getting in gear to rip out the iPad just in time for the book. The ad adheres to the same Apple formula featuring unidentified users navigating the iPad with catchy music.  Among the iPad functions highlighted by Apple in the ad: Displaying newspaper articles and e-books, playing movies, showing maps and pictures and typing on the iPad’s touch-screen keyboard.

My Book id here!

Wi-Fi models will be available in the U.S. on April 3 and models with Wi-Fi and 3G will be available in late April. Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) will introduce the device internationally in late April as well.

The war has begun and this is the playing field as it stands: At the moment Apple’s winning the app war with about five times more apps than Google. But app developers have to get their products cleared by Apple’s standards police and thats a drag, remember the 6,000 sexy apps that got purged last week getting ready for the iPad? Also there are more than 100,000 apps. Google’s Android Market only has 20,000. The next biggest competitor is RIM with several thousand and Palm’s (PALM) WebOS just crossed the 1,000-app threshold. But its not only about Apple and Google, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIMM), commands 41.6% of the market with iPhone OS at 25.3%, and phones that run Google’s Android operating system are in fifth with 5.2% of the market.

Let the Games Begin!

Soon Apple’s iPad will be on sale, and the big deal is not whats new.  Yes many Mac Heads have been scratching their heads thinking whats in it for them.  NOTHING.  The iPad is not for you.  The iPad is for future University students who will never buy a text book they will use iPads. These books will all be based upon Apple’s iBookstore which will blow away their e-book competitors like Amazon’s Kindle App. This is because the  iBookstore lets one seamlessly buy books from within the iBooks reader app, with the iTunes account it’s already aware of.  Across the ether its a mes where Kindle app and Barnes & Noble make you schlep and navigate and boot up their apps, then click a button to boot up the iPad’s Web browser, shop for e-books in a Web store, sign in and pay with a non-iTunes account, relaunch the e-reader app, and sync up your new e-book. Dude!  This is totally bogus.  How can that compete against one click iTunes?

In fact, ever since the Kindle iPhone app launched last March, users have had to leave the app to buy e-books and Amazon didn’t built the app this way from the beginning – it first submitted its Kindle application for the iPhone to Apple.  here  Amazon included its own payment system within the app, so customers could just pay for e-books and download them right in the app. However, when Apple spotted the payment system they axed it! yeah.  The WAR IS ON BAYBEE.

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What does a company do if their new phone won’t talk to its new operating system.  yeah!  Tell the world to not buy the phone mmmm thats what MSFT just did.  Essentially, every Windows Mobile phone out there is dead in the water becasue MSFT  won’t kill the old system, which also was a loser anyway, but to make matters worse they are not going to put too many resources towards making it a kick-butt phone with killer features.  Their old phones are too obsolete to upgrade to the new system so they pulling the plug on everything. This means that they are in fact telling everybody, we can’t keep up with the iPhone so there’s no reason to purchase a new Windows mobile phone this year.  Note that MSFT’s  new , Windows Phone Series 7 won’t be ready until the end of the year.  See the fatcs here at Gizmodo

What a loser company!

Palm’s (PALM) new Pre fell (even though its linked with Verizon Wireless) made Palm stock fall 20% when figures show it sold a dismal 783,000 Pres, compared to 8.7 million iPhones (AAPL, Fortune 500) in the same time period. If Palm ever does catch on, then it will bloat Verizon’s bandwidth making the Verizon At&T switcharoo pointless. The fact is that the iPhone is streaking ahead and it will generate sales for the iPad. The fact that people are even surprised that the Pa,m cannot compete with iPhone, let alone the iPhone and iPad combo is amazing. Verizon’s flagship phone is the Motorola (MOT, Fortune 500) Droid, which run’s Google’s popular Android platform. New releases of BlackBerry devices and Google’s (GOOG, Fortune 500) much-hyped Nexus One phone have also largely overshadowed the Pre in recent months.

A bar graph produced by AppShopper.com, shows Apple withdrew  6,000 apps over the space of four days.  Its all about keeping the iPad clean I believe.  If its a strong brand like Playboy or Sprts Illustrated that is widely disseminated then Apple keeps it but if its a bunch of retards showing how boobs can wobble or flat out porn then no.  You’re outa here baby! Wobble adds a jelly-like wobble motion to photo and was removed because advertisements suggested it could be used on photos of breasts. This is what Mr. Wobble said today:

I have spoken with Apple, and the following are the new rules:

1. No images of women in bikinis (Ice skating tights are not OK either)

2. No images of men in bikinis! (I didn’t ask about Ice Skating tights for men)

3. No skin (he seriously said this) (I asked if a Burqa was OK, and the Apple guy got angry)

4. No silhouettes that indicate that Wobble can be used for wobbling boobs (yes – I am serious, we have to remove the silhouette in this pic)

5. No sexual connotations or innuendo: boobs, babes, booty, sex – all banned

6. Nothing that can be sexually arousing!! (I doubt many people could get aroused with the pic above but those puritanical guys at Apple must get off on pretty mundane things to find Wobble “overtly sexual!”)

7. No apps will be approved that in any way imply sexual content (not sure how Playboy is still in the store, but …)

Phil Schiller defended the Sports Illustrated app to the Times. “The difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format,” he said.

Can the Porn Apps dude!