Devloper: Spotify Ltd.
Category: Music
Price: Free (with monthly subscription)
It may be a small sum, but splashing out 79p for every track you buy on iTunes soon adds up. That’s why Spotify became such a smash hit when it arrived on the Mac and PC, allowing music lovers to listen to tunes for free as long as they could put up with adverts every 30 minutes. Now Spotify is available on the iPhone but you have to be a premium subscriber to use it. So is this an iTunes killer – and is it worth the monthly cost? David Crookes checked it out.
The first thing which sprung to our minds when we used Spotify on our computers earlier this year was the question of when it was going to make it to mobile devices. Being able to stream music on your Mac or PC is all well and good but the wonder of Apple’s iPod means we’re now used to taking our growing music collection around with us – so it just had to be Spotify’s next step.
And so it has finally come to the iPhone. We’ve had a chance to play around with this much-awaited app for a short while now, allowing ourselves to become au fait with its inner workings, foibles and all. It hasn’t been an easy ride for Spotify to get to this point – there was talk that the application was set to be rejected by Apple – but the good news is that it works well. And the bad news? You have to be a premium subscriber to Spotify and it costs £9.99 a month.
But then a service like this was never going to be free. To do so would have put it directly at odds with Apple’s own iTunes and, given the quality of Spotify’s service, it would have most likely caused some major damage. It may well be that Apple and Spotify work more closely together in the months and years to come (maybe Apple will even buy Spotify?) but until then, you can add the £9.99 to the many other monthly payments you undoubtedly shell out for entertainment.
Playback
So is it worth it? The most important aspect of a streaming music service such as this is obviously the quality of the playback. Using Wi-Fi, Spotify streams music within a second or two and there is no lag. There really is no difference between Spotify’s sound and that which results from iTunes either. Songs play at a bitrate of around 160kps and best of all, it’s so impressive that using the app in view of non-iPhone users gives you a rather smug feeling.
Streaming audio over 3G is also faultless. The delay in playing a song is ever so slightly longer than with Wi-Fi but we’re still only talking mere seconds. When the song is underway, there is absolutely no stop-start frustration and it’s a seamless experience that will have you dancing with joy (even if, like some of us, your choice of music is decidedly ropey).
Spotify is let down when using an Edge connection, however. It was always inevitable but it makes the app almost unusable whenever there is a lack of 3G or Wi-Fi to tap into. Improved Edge buffering would most likely make this an iTunes killer. As it is, the hesitant nature of the streaming jars and damages the Spotify experience in some respects.
Offline
The saving grace is that you needn’t suffer if you are in an area with poor – or indeed no – reception. The app has the ability to save music to your iPhone, allowing you to listen to songs offline, perfect for when you’re travelling by air or Tube or, perhaps more rarely, sitting atop a mountain and in need of some stirring music to accompany the views.
The offline playlists are accessed via the chunky grey “Offline playlists” link at the top of the Playlist screen. Tap it and you can select the playlists you want to make available offline. You simply tap the required playlist and it immediately starts to download. It can take a little while, though – seven Michael Jackson songs took us five minutes so if you’re intending to have a couple of thousand tracks available offline, be prepared to wait.
Downloading is only available via Wi-Fi and you are “limited” to 3,333 tracks for offline playback although that’s more than enough for even the heaviest of users. Syncing between the iPhone and the Mac or PC application is dynamic too. When you add a playlist on your computer, it immediately appears on the iPhone.
Interface
Another plus point in Spotify’s favour is the interface. Apple-esque in nature, it’s a breeze to navigate and you’ll be familiar with it in minutes. It’s not without its faults, though. Everything within Spotify is displayed as a list and this could prove a problem when scrolling through them – maybe a future version could make organisation a little better. It’s okay when you have a few songs on the phone but get thousands on there and you are likely to run into problems. When offline, there’s no way to search your tracks, for instance.
Searching online, however, is fast and simple. One tap of the Search icon on the bottom of the screen and you can use the prominent search box at the top. Results are listed under tabs for Tracks, Albums and Artists. With Wi-Fi, we did a search for the Pulp B-side Mile End and it came up instantly, top of 12 results, which shows some depth to the Spotify catalogue. It was just as quick with 3G but Edge took slightly longer and yet in all cases, we just hit the title and the album cover immediately showed. The song began to play, either straight away or after a hardly noticeable delay depending on the connection.
Worth buying?
This is only the first version of the Spotify app and it’s fair to say that it’s extremely promising. Overall, there’s a mix of excitement and disappointment. It’s good to see that songs still play when the iPhone is locked but annoying that you can’t control the settings without unlocking the phone first (although you can adjust the volume using the iPhone’s controls). We wish the radio function was available and bemoan the lack of Play Queue and a simple way of setting up Playlists but we adore that offline mode, like the fact we have millions of songs at our fingertips and that songs pick up where you left off if you quit the app and then resume it.
Spotify has promised to continuing improving the iPhone app so we may well see the app saving searches and a spelling correction facility when tapping in track, artist or album names. We’d also like to be able to use the headphones to play or stop songs and some way of ensuring that battery doesn’t drain half as much as it should. And are our moans justified? They are, given that you’re shelling out close to £120 a year for the service. If it was cheaper, we’d brush much of them aside as mere annoyances.
Verdict
So is it worth the cost? It really depends on how heavy a music lover you are and we guess that by reading this far, you most probably are. In many respects, it’s like having a subscription to an online DVD rental service – you are, in a sense, renting these songs for use on your iPhone and, as soon as you stop paying, you don’t get to listen. The bonus is, you don’t lose all the hard work you’ve put into building up your playlists because you still get to listen to them for free on your computer should you quit the Premium service, albeit it with ads.
On the iPhone, though, It’s not quite a substitute for iTunes just yet but it’s certainly on its way. When you think about it, £10 is the price of three pints nowadays and for that you’re going to get drunk on quite a lot of music. If it was a little cheaper, particularly to compensate for some of the failings, we’d obviously award it a higher mark. As it is, it’s still a worthwhile purchase, the future of music in many ways, and we reckon Apple will tweak iTunes sometime soon in order to match it.
David Crookes
Pros
Fast streaming via Wi-Fi and 3G
The offline mode is a killer feature
You can take your music with you
Cons
Spotify can’t run in the background
Edge connection is poor
Some will find £10-a-month just a tad too much
Longevity: 9.0
Fun Factor: 9.0
Practicality: 8.0
Value For Money: 7.0
Kung Fu Verdict: 8.25
Our suggestions for Spotify 2.0
Although we are loathe to over-complicate our apps, some greater depth is called for with Spotify.
-Artist biographies
-Suggestions of similar artists we may like
-A list of recently played thus avoiding the need to add all of our music to playlists
Gamers who fancy creating their own iPhone titles will be able to do so very soon thanks to the imminent launch of a new publishing system.
Targeted at amateur and professional game developers, GameSalad Creator has been operating as an open beta application for a few months but the official release is due in the next few weeks.It comes as a relief for hundreds of developers who have been creating games using the system and have so far been in the dark about the intentions of Gendai Games, the firm behind the service.
Although Gendai is remaining tight lipped about the specifics until the official launch, it is expected that developers will have to pay to see their games available on Apple’s App Store. But GameSalad allows people to create games without any programming knowledge, providing a user-friendly interface and templates for various game genres.
Game making programmes are nothing new but this is the first time one has been made available for the iPhone and it paves the way for independent games production.The open platform program can also be used to produce games for the web and social networks such as Facebook and it is free to download from gamesalad.com
“We’re at an extremely exciting point in our company”, says Gendai Games CEO, Michael Agustin.
“The number one feature that everyone has been clamoring for is an easy, more intuitive way to create a game for the iPhone. With GameSalad’s visual based logic system along with it’s drag-and-drop interface – we are poised to make that a reality.”
By David Crookes
Developer: Chillingo/Mountain Sheep
Category: Games
Price: £0.59/$0.99
Pick up and play gaming has returned to the iPhone at last. While we’re always excited to see apps that push the boundaries of portable gaming, there’s still a lot to be said for games you can instantly get involved in when you have a spare five minutes. Minigore is one such game; simple, effective and great looking. After a load time of a few seconds, by comparison to the tea break-length startups we’re begrudgingly getting used to, one tap of the screen drops you straight into the action.
You take on the role of John Gore, a kind of square-headed Chuck Norris, whose sole purpose is to defend himself from onrushing creatures named “furries” of which there are several different types. One bite from a Furry sees damage done to your character, allow a second and you’re Furry food.
Control-wise, Minigore provides two pads at the lower left and right of the screen when held horizontally. The left controls the character’s movement while the right fires and aims your gun. As game controls go, this is the perfect method for the type of frantic survival tactics you’ll need when playing Minigore and the game reacts well and plays fluidly. While you have the option to turn the pad displays off to avoid distraction, it’s all too easy to miss an on-rushing Furry hidden by your thumb which can, especially in the latter stages of the game, become very frustrating. 
Concentration, Red Bull-fuelled reactions and a cool head are what you’ll need to score highly in Minigore as the Furries get bigger and more numerous. Four different enemies are ready to take a bite out John Gore: the Minifurry, Furry, Giant Furry and the Firefurry. While the Giant Furry is a worry due to the way it spits out more Furries when shot, the Firefurry is the one you need to look out for and use all of your available powerups before you become surrounded. As you progress through the game you’ll discover four-leaf clovers which, when you collect three, offer you a burst of invincibility for a few seconds of sheer carnage. Aside from your machine gun which, thankfully, never runs out of ammunition, you can also collect a shotgun which does a decent amount of damage. Weapons appear as crates which you’ll find scattered around the landscape periodically and they can also be used as a handy explosive device when repeatedly shot which can reduce the pressure as things get more hectic.
Online highscores, provided by the excellent OpenFeint, show the top Minigore players hitting above the 20,000 point mark while we struggled to break two thousand in the first few hours of play. An Expert mode is available on the Settings screen to crank things up from the start once you get good.
The music in Minigore is great (although somewhat repetitive) but, now we’re all OS 3.0 crazy, the option to pick tracks from your own iPod library is also available. We did find it occasionally sluggish when browsing tracks, but it’s nice to be able to handpick individual playlists of tracks rather than simply play a whole album through.
As we said, this is a true pick up and play game. Easy to get into, difficult to put down. When you start playing, you may think you’ll tire of the same map, weapons and features but, just wait until you realise Minigore has taken so much of your time you haven’t eaten, shaved or showered in three days. Regardless, the game is due for an update anyway, with episode two already submitted to the App Store boasting new abilities and save/restore features and Episodes 3 and 4 are on their way with multiplayer among other updates.
All this and the application is still only 59p ($0.99), which makes Minigore even easier to get hooked on.
Longevity: 8.9
Fun Factor: 9.0
Practicality: 6.0
Value For Money: 8.8
Kung Fu Verdict: 8.8
The guys at Chillingo have just sent us over an ad hoc build of their latest iPhone app, Inkvaders, which was submitted to the App Store last Saturday. Assuming the approval process goes to plan, you should be enjoying this great 2D shooter in no time at all.
We’ve played through the first stage of three so far and are loving the hand drawn, side scrolling comic book madness. The effects are good, the aliens numerous and there are plenty of weapon upgrades and power-ups to keep you occupied. The “Rush” feature is also very fun and we’re expecting utter mayhem in the coming levels plus some really late nights glued to our iPhone screens.
Definitely one to watch out for and likely another chart-topping game from Chillingo. We’ll post our full review as soon as the app is live and we’ve purged a whole bunch more alien in(k)vaders!
Apple has added a new iPhone app to the App Store to sit alongside its Remote and Keynote Remote apps. MobileMe iDisk is an app for those signed up to Apple’s MobileMe service that allows access to the files stored on a users personal MobileMe server space.
The free app provides a convenient way to view the files you have uploaded, access Public Folders and even share files from your MobileMe iDisk with other users.
Using a simple interface to scroll through folders and access files, the iDisk app offers navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen to select between recent files, shared files and Public Folders where you can add the account name of another user to access files they have made available.
Files compatible with the iPhone, such as photos, iWork and Office documents, PDFs and QuickTime movies can also be accessed and played from within the app.
Testing the app on WiFi connection we’ve found it to be pretty quick thus far. Even, dare we say it, faster than accessing the iDisk on your desktop. Files, including small videos, loaded and played/displayed in a snap and sharing is as easy as tapping a small share button next to your file (although it’s so small it may take a few attempts). 
This is a handy way to manage files on your MobileMe iDisk and, being a free app, offers additional value to your MobileMe subscription. We recommend trying it out today. iDisk for iPhone wont make a huge difference to basic MobileMe users but for those already storing and sharing files online, it’ll be a handy addition to your iPhone. It may even convince those who haven’t made use of their online storage to start doing so.
Developer: Chillingo/Two Tribes
Category: Games
Price: £1.19
There are a host of cute little characters dashing around the screens of iPhones worldwide but in Toki Tori, we think we’ve found our favourite.
Toki Tori is a chicken… at least we think he’s a chicken. He has webbed feet which suggests duck, yet he cannot fly. He’s also yellow. We’re sticking with chicken. (ahem) Toki Tori IS a chicken, tasked with recovering eggs across a variety of worlds filled with obstacles, nasty creatures and a lot of brain-bending fun along the way.
Traditionally, platform games have been a struggle for iPhone developers since the birth of the App Store. What input method does one take when it comes to controlling your character across the levels? Some have opted for the classic keypad to direct the action but, without any tactile feedback, it’s tough to keep track of your commands. Then there’s the accelerometer-powered tilting method which is a little more eratic and likely to make you look quite strange when playing in public. Toki Tori has seemingly found the perfect option for touch screen, platform gaming. By simply pressing the point on the screen you want your character to move to you’re in complete control of the action without having to have a finger touching the screen at all times.
What’s enjoyable about Toki Tori compared to your standard platform game is that it’s the shortcomings of the hero that create the challenges. If the little guy could fly (definitely a chicken) you could probably finish each level in a matter of seconds. If he could jump over things a lot of of the tearing out of hair would be removed. But how much fun would that be?
The game’s levels are of mixed difficulty, from fairly straightforward to downright MENSA standard. As you progress you are provided with new tools to help you complete each level, including small bridges, blocks to climb on, a teleport and so on. The number of items you are provided with at the beginning of each level serves as a clue as to how the level should be completed, and the rest is up to you. We’ve found trial and error is the best approach at first, don’t expect to rip through stages one after the other, you’ll be restarting levels frequently (a mercifully snappy process) as you come up with new ways to utilise the tools at your disposal and avoid the baddies in your way. We also highly recommend using the pinch action (two fingers moving together in a pinching motion) during the game to get your bearings and figure a level out before committing to anything. It’s all too easy to find yourself trapped or left unarmed in front of the enemy.
For such a fun and relatively inexpensive game, you would expect the app to look fairly average but, by comparison to others in this genre, Toki Tori offers some of the best graphics we’ve seen on the iPhone – perhaps any platform. It’s not just attractive backgrounds and effects either, tiny details like Toki Tori’s movements, dripping sludge in the later levels and rich, cartoon colour all combine to make this a glowing example of the way all iPhone games should look.
What would we change? Very little. Perhaps a few in-built hints if you needed them. We’re not saying we’re impatient, but a gentle nudge in the right direction every now and again wouldn’t hurt. There is a “wildcard” option that allows you to skip one level but, unless you can eventually complete that level, you don’t get your wildcard back. Ours is still stuck somewhere in the second chapter!
With four stages available, each with ten levels, there’s plenty of fun to be had with Toki Tori and it’ll take you a good while to progress through all of them. Hours if not days in fact. We were hooked from our first play and, during the course of this review, found plenty of opportunities to “re-visit” the game just to keep our addiction fed.
If you like the idea of a classic platformer for your iPhone sprinkled with all the modernday graphical magic the iPhone affords, you can’t go wrong with Toki Tori.
Longevity: 8.8
Fun Factor: 9.0
Practicality: 5.0
Value For Money: 8.8
Kung Fu Verdict: 9
Check out Toki Tori on the App Store
Developer: Gameloft
Category: Games
Price: $0.99/£0-59
In this sumptuously designed platform game you are a warrior. A warrior who must defeat all in his path. This game oozes class and the animations are astounding for a mobile phone. Controls are simple with a directional controller for your left hand to use and your right hand controls the attack and defend button. You’re guided through levels by a handy arrow and enemies can appear out of thin air at any time and you must then defeat them with ruthless efficiency. What’s great about this game is that it starts off nice and easy so you can really grasp the way it works before the serious slaying begins. A lot of games on the iPhone present too may problems too soon which can make them too hard for you to invest any time in. Hero of Sparta is well balanced and well worth its asking price. It looks great, plays well and is easy to dip in and out of.
Longevity: 8.8
Fun Factor: 8.5
Practicality: 5.0
Value for money: 9.0
Kung Fu Verdict: 8.6
Developer: Backflip Studios
Category: Games
Price: Free
The best games aren’t the ones with the most advanced 3D graphics or the ones that have the best frame rates. They are the ones that make you scream with frustration and force you to play them over and over again in order to beat your last score. Paper Toss is one of those games. The idea is simple; use a flick of your finger to send a balled up bit of paper flying towards a bin. The idea is to land the ball of paper in the bin, a pretty simple goal, apart from the fan that is blowing across your flight-path. So, you have to judge the wind-speed and your aim accordingly. Then just get as many balls in the bin as possible. It’s great fun, very addictive and very frustrating. You can’t really fault Paper Toss but it would be nice to have some other obstacles and some different levels of difficulty. That said this is a free app so we can’t expect too much. Great fun all round.
Longevity: 5.5
Fun factor: 9.0
Practicality: 4.5
Value: 8.8
Kung Fu Verdict: 7.8
Developer: Rodrigo Neri
Category: Education
Price: Free
Kids these days don’t know they’re born. Not only do they get to live in the age of the iPhone and iPod touch but some of they’ll even be able to use one of these great products to record their homework on. This app is a great little free option for said students. It lets them add assignment titles, the class that the assignment is for and they can then add the date its due and add notes. There is a colour scheme for due items. Those in orange are due in the next day, those that are red are late and those in blue are still pending. Other cool features include different calendar views and the ability to swap assignment details with others. This is another great example of a sole developer making a cool, functional application that they could be charging for but are happy to let go for free.
Longevity: 8.8
Fun factor: 4.6
Practicality: 7.8
Value: 8.9
Kung Fu Verdict: 8.5
While its great having such a seemingly unlimited supply of apps to review, its always nice to find out a little bit about the people behind the apps. So, in order to get the lowdown on one of the UK’s finest app development companies we managed to snare Dave Vout for a few minutes of his time, so he could talk apps with us. Dave is the Business Development Director for Big Head Games who have produced several excellent iPhone apps including International Snooker which we reviewed here. He’s been in the gaming industry for quite some time and having set up Software Invasion in the late 80’s and has since then worked for the likes of Virgin Interactive, Philips Media and Codemasters having varied roles that have included programmer, producer and studio manager. His game credits are extensive and include Predator 2, Tony Hawks, Sky Sports Football Manager and Batman Dark Tomorrow across a multitude of platforms. We sat him down on the Kung Fu couch and asked him about developing for iPhone.
IPKF: At what point did you decide you wanted to make apps for the iPhone. Was it as soon as it was announced or once you’d had a play with the device?
DV: It was gradual, we liked the idea of a new platform that allowed us to publish our own games but sat back and watched it a bit as we finished other projects (also watching Wiiware, PSN, etc.), then yes once we had a device and saw the app store go live that’s when we made a decision to commit to it, but as a bit of back history we have been to date (for five years as 8bit Games) a work for hire developer and working on projects for publishers, in 2007 we kicked off a PS3 PSN project called Elefunk that was entirely our own idea and design, this went live in 2008 after a very painful final development stage including the closure of 8bit and opening of Big Head and the loss of all rights to Elefunk. I guess that made the idea of truly publishing our own games on a simpler platform even more attractive and made the decision much easier.
IPKF: What were you doing before you started developing for the iPhone?
DV: The three directors are I guess what people call veterans of the games industry, we have all worked in it for a very long time and have had games published on all the key platforms since the BBC micro. We all met at a development studio where we were working on XBox, PS2, GBA titles, we left and formed 8bit Games to develop games for mobile with console quality and values..our experience of GBA and GBC being especially useful. On closing 8bit and opening Big Head we finished off a few projects including a plug and play joystick and then moved over fully to iPhone, so while we’ve been on iPhone for one year now we’ve not really produced as many titles as we are capable of as we’ve been on other platforms at the same time.
IPKF: What is it that excites you the most about about developing for the iPhone platform?
DV: Speed of results, it’s been a steadily more and more painful process making games with project times measured in years and teams in 100’s (how can that remain a creative environment?)…this feels like the 80’s again and yet with up to date hardware and development tools…the best of all worlds. This means we can have an idea and with minimal risk bring it to market, console is totally driven by the bottom line hence so many sequels and unoriginal racing games and first person shooters. Already on iPhone we’ve seen everything from the wacky/novelty app to the PSP contending title…a great range, that’s very exciting, we just love the fact we have a huge list of game ideas and it’s growing daily!
IPKF: As a developer you have intimate knowledge of the submission process for getting apps on the app store – how have you found it?
DV: It’s ok, very simple, remember we are used to having to go through console submissions which require a very strict list of requirements being adhered to and tested against (called the TRC’s) and while Apple have some if you don’t stray out of the SDK you hit them with no problems. You also suffer in console very tight slots, miss them and you have to wait, you can also be rejected for a host of difficult to understand reasons, not so on the iPhone (in our experience anyway!). We have heard horror stories about titles being held back, we had a slight delay on Terminator but only a few days, so far we’re very impressed.
IPKF: Do you speak with any other developers/development companies and share ideas or tips and tricks?
DV: All the time, I was at the Develop conference yesterday in Brighton and caught up with a few friendly developers, it’s quite a small industry and we do bump into each other all the time, we have a number of trade shows and events. Outside of that we do have friends where we can swap stories, techniques, issues, etc. I don’t think anyone is really an ‘open book’ but we do get on and do discuss things all the time. At the moment I feel the US is maybe a little more advanced in the development community for iPhone, probably because of Apple’s location and the key events being held there, but here in the UK most ‘professional’ developers are ex mobile or current console developers dipping their toes in the pool. I have to qualify that somewhat, by professional I mean companies in offices hiring staff, there are allot of ‘bedroom’ coders out there doing very well on the iPhone.
IPKF: Now that the App Store has been around for a while is it still the cash-cow it was when it was new?
DV: No not at all, I welcome the more realistic stories, it is very hard to have a hit, there is no system or rules to making a hit and only the hits are doing those crazy numbers, a key factor is Apple featuring your game and this seems to be purely at their discretion and decision, no amount of food hampers will sway them!
If you do not have a ‘hit’ then the money tails off very quickly, even just outside the top 100 the returns are small, too small to warrant big spending, there are now a good few developers (that’s the wrong term in my book it should be publisher) that have made a name for themselves and do tend to get results from their games however it’s very obvious to see that even they struggle at times and have to do the old 59p/99c trick to get their games up in the charts. That is the main problem as I see it with iPhone, it all started at launch with Sega and co launching at £5.99, where was the market going to go from there? Certainly not up, and mix into that that there are no rules to the pricing and very quickly it has been a market driven by price so now it’s very, very hard to sell above the lowest price points. This on the surface seems great for the consumer, but it isn’t, even companies like Gameloft and EA have to draw the line somewhere, if this trend continues companies will not want to spend money on big licenses and big development budgets and so games like Terminator Salvation and Tiger Woods won’t happen. Licenses like that cost $50,000+ development $100,000 that’s well over 200,000 copies just to break even.
IPKF: Aside from hoping your apps do well in the charts, what are the best ways to market them? Have you ever paid to be profiled on iTunes?
DV: I’m not aware you can pay Apple for any promotion of any kind, that’s the public line anyway. Marketing is very limited, the impact of websites and magazines are a blip compared to being in the top 50 or featured by Apple, it’s that simple, not enough of the market actually read games websites, the vast majority of purchases are spur of the moment or word of mouth. That’s why most people put their titles on 72 hours sale on launch to try and get a top 100 or better still top 50 position as it will then become visible to everyone. What the development community now needs is help from Apple, we do now need a more structured and reliable way of presenting titles to the public via iTunes and via the device, better search and browse options are key as well as more visible charts that show more than top 100. I would really welcome a few marketing initiatives from Apple, this has to be done fairly so that it’s not a 3 company closed shop as the mobile market is.
IPKF: What developments/improvements would you like to see Apple make in the next version of the iPhone?
DV: Well I’m not a big fan of the radical changes to the platform we’ve seen with the new iPhone, the mobile market suffers from fragmentation and now we see the first stage of it on iPhone, the new device is so much more powerful we could all do some great stuff, I’d say as good as or better than PSP, however no one will because the market is so much smaller than all those ‘old’ devices that are out there and it’ll be years before everyone upgrades, so I’m all for extras to the firmware that can be shared across all devices. One feature I would love to see, and it exists but not usable at the moment, is TV output for gaming, to be able to play games on your TV as well as the device would be fantastic…it’s in the SDK but slows the device up and isn’t yet ‘allowed’ by Apple.
IPKF: Do you think any other mobile phone manufacturer will ever trump the iPhone for features or usability?
DV: Trump, no, there will be plenty who come a good second for a while, the iPhone/Touch is so far ahead how can anyone catch up? Everything is so well done, if anyone gets close Apple will produce the next update and jump ahead again…one key factor is the iPhone is a cool device, it’s not seen as a gamer’s device or a geek’s device, every sector wants one, every age, male, female, no mobile or gaming device to date can claim that and I see no reason for that to change.
IPKF: What’s the most satisfying thing about developing for the iPhone?
DV: Freedom, we can make what we want, how we want, when we want and when we get it right the public tells us and we make some money…the flipside is get it wrong and boy do the public tell you!
IPKF: Have you got anything you’d like to plug on iPhone KungFu?
DV: Well, all our games…The Terminator (not Salvation!), International Snooker and Retro Cave Flyer, but as importantly I would say keep an eye on www.bigheadgames.co.uk and our youtube channel as there is already some info about our next releases…oh and look out for MCM Mobile Club Manager from Sanco, we’re developing a football (soccer) management game for them like no other…due out for the start of the season.
