Nate True, iPhone developer extraordinaire and friend of TUAW (but who isn't, really), has sold off his Tap Tap Revolution game to a company called Tapulous, and they're renaming it Tap Tap Revenge and are going to try selling it in the iPhone's (and iPod touch's) App Store. The game isn't much tweaked from its jailbroken incarnation, but there is a chaotic two-player mode, seen above, that could be a lot of fun. I've never played the original version, so I have no idea what's up with the shaking, but it looks like it incorporates some accelerometer fun as well.
If you're a super TTR fan, Tapulous tells us that they've got a wallpaper to download on their site right now, and that more videos will be coming out over the weekend, so stay tuned. All these games are looking terrific, but of course the one thing we haven't heard confirmed from any of them is when and if they'll be showing up on the App Store. That, it seems, is up to Apple. It doesn't matter how many games you've got ready to go -- if Apple doesn't have them set for download right away, both the devs and iPhone owners will miss a nice opportunity.
"Some General Tips for Switch to Mac From Windows," is Walt Mossberg's new post in which he tells users, well, how to switch from Windows to a Mac with ease. He covers the menu bar, task bar, Start menu, control panel, keyboard shortcuts, quitting programs, minimizing windows, switching programs, right-clicking, and finally, dealing with the screen.
So, if you are a new Mac user, you might find these tips and tricks helpful. (Walt notes that you can also find tips similar to his on Apple's Mac 101 website.) I'm personally grateful to Walt for writing this blog entry, which is part of a larger article in the Wall Street Journal. This shows that there are still true big media journalists who are open to other platforms besides Windows/PC.
TUAW also invites you to check out our ever-growing Mac 101 section to find tips, tricks and more for getting around in Mac OS X.
Is it even possible? Forbes does a little bit of speculating on just who might take over when Jobs takes his leave from Apple, and candidates aren't exactly jumping out of the woodwork. Jobs is about as visionary as they come -- only a guy like Steve could lead Apple from the iMac to the iPod to the iPhone, breaking records and status quo the whole time. Phil Schiller and Scott Forstall are tossed out as two names currently within Apple's ranks, but Jobs is almost as much of a company mascot as he is a CEO. As consultant Patrick Sweeney says in the article, anyone who steps into the turtleneck has to fit completely into the culture of the company, or it won't work.
And forget the day-to-day and design decisions -- who's going to stand on stage and say "boom" at WWDC and Macworld? Here at TUAW, we're pretty sure the rumors of Jobs' ill health are exaggerated; he's probably not going anywhere anytime fast. But at the same time, it's hard to imagine an Apple without him at all.
First EA, and now gaming giant Ubisoft has inked a deal with Transgaming to wrap their titles in Cider and port them over to the Mac. Which seems like great news -- Ubisoft has a huge number of quality titles, and bringing those to the Mac must be great for gamers who appreciate a better operating system. But not so fast.
First things first, Cider hasn't exactly proven itself in terms of making great games, or even ports for that matter. And apparently Ubisoft is taking it slow -- rather than bring us games like Prince of Persia, Assassin's Creed or the great Rainbow Six Vegas series, we're getting... wait for it... Catz and Dogz. Oh, and CSI: Hard Evidence, which was hardly a blockbuster on game shelves.
It's definitely good news that Mac gamers are getting more to play, but if this is all we're going to get, they can keep it. If they wanted to port us Far Cry 2 when it comes out, or maybe even the long-awaited Beyond Good and Evil 2 whenever it's done, awesome. But if all we're going to get is years-old bottom-of-the-barrel crapware, we'll stick with original Mac game developers, thanks.
After looking over the iPhone 3G information here on TUAW and on the AT&T website yesterday, I started thinking about what my wife and I should do with our "old" original iPhones.
Without a SIM and phone service, the original iPhone essentially becomes an iPod touch. You can still update it to the new software when it arrives, you can use it with Wi-Fi in your home, and you can use it to watch video and listen to tunes.
By keeping the old iPhone as an iPhone touch, I can get rid of some of the old iPods I have scattered around the house. What are you going to do with your iPhone after July 11th?
Here we go. You guys sounded really jaded on the comments for the kart racing game, so here's an iPhone game that might actually break some new ground. It's called Rolando -- Simon Oliver is the developer, and he sent us a tip and the trailer above, and if you're looking for some fun and innovation in iPhone gaming, here you go. It looks kind of like a cocktail of LocoRoco, Lemmings, Kirby's Canvas and Katamari Damacy all mixed together with some iPhone originality for good measure. With a mix like that, you can't go wrong.
Simon tells us it's a "physics-based platform/puzzler.". He says that there will be four different worlds in the game, with ten levels each, including boss levels and bonus stages, and while it's not seen in the video, there might be a little accelerometer action as well. There are a few different versions of the little circular guys, called Rolandos (the King Rolando, with the crown in the video, has to be moved around by the others, for instance), as well as various implements throughout the levels that can be controlled directly. Simon's aiming to get it in the App Store by August, and while pricing hasn't been finalized, he's thinking $9.99 sounds good.
Don't like kart racing on the iPhone? As long as we can get a few good original games looking as good as this one does, you may not have to worry.
The Mac accounts for 7.94 percent of computers on the Internet, and Safari is the browser of choice for 6.31 percent of the same audience, so says marketshare.hitslink.com.
This increases Mac users' worldwide presence by nearly two percent from a year ago. In June 2007, 6.4 percent of the internet used a Mac, and 4.85 percent used Safari.
The vast majority of the Safari users are Mac users, with only 4.3 percent of Safari users running it under Windows. That's a ten-fold increase, though, in Safari for Windows users since it was introduced at 2007's WWDC.
Jade attributes Safari's gains to the one time Windows "Software Update trick" that placed Safari in the list of apps to update, even if the user didn't have Safari already installed.
Of all the racers we've seen for the iPhone so far (and therearequite a few), this might be the one I'm most interested in -- Polarbit, who've already dipped into the iPhone's racing game capabilities with Raging Thunder, is working on a Crash Bandicoot-branded kart racing game for the iPhone (video here). And it sounds like it's got everything you'd want in a kart racing game on a console, much less on a smartphone platform -- twelve tracks, lots of characters, lots of weapons and powerups, and configurable controls. There are going to be a ton of racing games out when the App Store drops, but something silly and fun like this, crafted by a developer who knows their way around the fledgling platform, will probably be very near the top of the list.
Can't wait to play it. No exact word on when Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D is coming, but it can't be too late after the App Store releases, and we'd guess $10 for a price, since that's what most of these things will be going for. Definitely looks like it might be a standout among the plethora of accelerometer racing games we'll be sure to have.
As everyone has told us this morning (Thank you guys, we love you!), AT&T has announced their price plans. Christina got a post up about this earlier today. As I dragged my weary Mountain-Time-based self out of bed (after a night of random fire alarms due to a wonky 9-volt battery), I decided to see what all the fuss was about. You can imagine my surprise when I saw that AT&T was slapping a $400 premium onto non-contract phones.
In case you were up most of last night (like I was) and weren't reading that last line correctly, let me say that again: there is a four hundred freaking dollar premium for non-contract phones.
Follow the jump for more thoughts about this development.
AppleMatters has published a great list of their top ten ways photographers can benefit from the iPhone. From sharing your portfolio on-the-go to note taking, it's a good list. My favorite is the example of a wedding photographer who keeps a sort of "check list" of shots to get (grouped shots, individual shots, etc.) as a reference on his phone.
We've seen people use the iPhone's camera to create to-do lists, share instructional videos and more. On a recent car shopping expedition, I made a gallery of all the vehicles I test drove for reference and comparison at home.
I was just as much a naysayer as Dave was when the service first came out (and for the record, I haven't used it all either), but apparently there are lots of people who do use Apple's "Complete My Album" service in iTunes -- the NYT says that it has become a prime selling tool, especially for bands and labels that pre-release singles from their album in a digital format. A whopping 52% of Lil Wayne's latest album sales on iTunes were sold through the "Complete My Album" feature. That means half the people who bought the album on iTunes had previously purchased one of the singles, and clicked through that way to buy the rest of their music.
And though neither Dave or I use "Complete My Album," that's a good sign for consumers, and a nice wake up call for the record industry -- the days of playing a song on the radio to up album sales are over. Digital releases are what sells music, and though "Complete My Album" currently only works on music previously purchased in the iTunes store, Apple could very easily extend that to all music in iTunes -- if you like a song that you've downloaded as a free single from the artist's website, it's just as easy to find music of theirs to buy in iTunes the same way.
We're done with a world where radio airplay determines what sells at the record store. These days, consumers are the ones who tell record makers what they want to buy -- it's already in their iTunes playlists.
In an interview with Financial Times [registration required], Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg shared his company's answer to the iPhone's popularity "...As handsets become banking tools and games controllers, he argues, mobile operators can up-end other companies' business models. 'It's very cool. And Steve Jobs will eventually get old ... I like our chances.'"
Seidenberg, who is nine years Jobs' senior, has decided to wait for his rival to "age out" of his position. This reminds me of the skinny 7th grader who laments, "Someday my bully will notice girls and lose interest in stealing my lunch money."
Or, perhaps by "old" he meant "out-of-favor" as Daring Fireball suggests. Like Jelly Shoes and Jarts, the appeal of Apple with Jobs at the wheel will eventually fade. All Verizon must do is ride out the trend, like a lobster boat in a Nor'easter.
Forget innovation and hard work. The sit-and-wait method is a good one, too. It worked for Estragon and Vladimir.
Yesterday, we asked you, dear readers, to identify the forthcoming Apple goody that you're anticipating the most. Thousands of you answered, and here are the results.
First and foremost, you're looking forward to the 3G iPhone. A full 1,802 (29.4%) respondents put the new phone at the top of the list. Close behind is the iPhone 2.0 software (26.8% of votes) and the App Store (22.6%).
More than 700 of you (12.1%) are most interested the online whining that will certainly follow each release, and only 9.2% of respondents are eagerly anticipating MobileMe.
We were certain that MobileMe would at least beat out whining. What do we know?
Several TUAW readers have reported after seeing midnight showings of Disney-Pixar's new and highly-rated movie WALL•E that when the robot boots up, he makes the standard Mac startup sound. That's not the only Apple connection with the movie.
Of course, Steve Jobs is the largest single shareholder of Disney after Pixar was purchased by the entertainment giant for $7.4 billion in 2006. He still serves on a steering committee for Pixar that oversees the Disney-Pixar animation businesses, and he's on the Disney Board of Directors. I'm not sure, but he may be tapped to be the first CEO of BuyNLarge...
WALL•E's job is to wander around an abandoned Earth, pick up trash, and compact it into small blocks. However, when he finds something nostalgic that he likes, such as an iPod or Rubik's cube, he keeps it.
The object of WALL•E's desire, EVE, was actually designed with the assistance of Apple Senior VP of Industrial Design Jonathan Ive, who apparently spent a day with the Pixar team in 2005 consulting on the ultra-sleek floating robot.
Thanks to Matt for the heads-up and inspiration for this post!
With only a week before July, we're eager to get our hands on the new goodies from Apple. With so much to look forward to and try out, we're wondering which of the pending updates you're most interested in.
Is it Mobile Me's offer of "Exchange for the rest of us?" Perhaps it's iPhone software 2.0, or even the snazzy 3G iPhone you're waiting for.
Here's your chance to let us now. Add your answer to our highly unscientific poll, and we'll post the results tomorrow. Oh, it's like Christmas! In July. Or something.
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Several TUAW readers have reported after seeing midnight showings of Disney-Pixar's new and 
With only a week before July, we're eager to get our hands on the new goodies from Apple. With so much to look forward to and try out, we're wondering which of the pending updates you're most interested in.
