iphone videos (13 videos)
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Parrot to launch an iPhone-controlled helicopter
This will probably be one of the more compelling augmented reality gaming applications around this year. A French company Parrot is demoing a remotely-controlled helicopter in Las Vegas during CES this week that flies depending on how you tilt your iPhone. I played with the helicopter last month and it was quite responsive — it could change altitude, fly forward and turn around. You could tilt your iPhone forward to send it ahead, or even lift a finger to get it to drop a few feet. The drone has four propellers that stabilize it and help it tilt back and forth. There’s are two cameras attached to the drone, so you can see on your iPhone what’s ahead of or below the helicopter. Parrot is releasing an software development kit, so that others can create games off the technology. The most obvious apps would be shooting or flight simulation games. At the time I played with it, the iPhone viewfinder just showed me a raw feed from the drone’s camera, but you could imagine overlaying visuals of other virtual planes or robots to battle. The company hasn’t nailed down pricing for the device, but it may come in at around $300 to 400.
iPhone breaks another barrier: Lets you deposit checks with its camera
A mid-sized bank, USAA, has become the first bank to let you snap a picture of your check with your iPhone, and automatically deposit it once you hit the send button (demo in video below). This is the sort of beautiful simplicity we’ve long wanted for in our mobile lives. But until now, those aspirations have been shattered by the arcane rules of the banking industry, where conservative practices (and prudent security measures) have so far forced us to keep using paper — and usually an envelope, and stamp we can never find. This latest move by USAA, a bank with 7 million customers, is one more sign we’re moving much more quickly to a world where we can do almost anything while on the go — from banking to shopping and even checking in with our doctor. USSA, which ranks below the top 20 banks in the U.S., released an iPhone application in May, and will add the the new photo-deposit feature to the application this week, according to the New York Times. The feature requires a customer to photograph both sides of the check with the phone’s camera. All you’ll need is a cellular connection to send the image. Once you send the images, you no longer need the paper check — you can simply discard it. USAA’s system takes over. Three years ago, the bank introduced the option of depositing a check from home using a scanner. USAA plans to offer the feature on other phones later this year, according to the Times. The company has been developing a mobile strategy for some time: Three years ago, it launched a feature that let you deposit a check using a scanner. Of course, this is the sort of feature that will only help the iPhone’s appeal. The phone is still used by only a fraction of mobile phone users, but its cool applications like this that has users using their phones in ways most people don’t. Bank of American tells the Times that 43 percent of its more than 3 million mobile banking customers do their banking with an iPhone or iPod touch.
Augmented reality transit app adds MUNI, bus stops for SF
British iPhone application developer Acrossair is launching an augmented reality transit-finding app for San Francisco as soon as Apple releases a newer version of its iPhone OS in early September. Augmented reality is a nascent field that lets you superimpose graphics or information over a live camera feed, letting you see geotagged Wikipedia entries or videos related to your surroundings, for example. The app works by letting you pan around with your iPhone 3GS’ viewfinder and then marking nearby transit stops and their distances. (It won’t work on other iPhones because they don’t support video.) Acrossair has released similar subway apps for London and New York, but a few intrepid commenters noted that incorporating only subway data isn’t really helpful for San Francisco, since the city’s main lines are concentrated down Market Street. Acrossair added Muni Rail and bus stops to compensate for this. Augmented reality apps aren’t widely available on the iPhone yet because the operating system lacks a public application programming interface for manipulating live video feeds. (About a dozen start-ups and research hubs petitioned Apple to change this.) There, of course, many other, non-augmented reality iPhone apps that help users navigate public transit, though one called Routesy has faced its own set of challenges. Acrossair is self-funded with offices in London and Mumbai.
First iPhone 3G S video: The auto-focus is cool
Attention iPhone fans: While you’re installing the a href=”http://www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/”>3.0 software, watch the clip below. The video was shot with a new iPhone 3G S, which has improved what was already an exceptional camera for a mobile phone. In this clip, the auto-focus is surprisingly good at keeping the image sharp as the phone’s owner swing its eye across a desktop. Why do people love Apple? Besides the fact that everything Apple makes is pretty, the company has good instincts for what to automate, such as focusing a camera, rather than leaving it in the user’s hands.
Antimatter: Pangea makes another winning iPhone game » VentureBeat
The first game I downloaded from Apple’s App Store for the iPhone was Enigmo, a puzzle game by the development company Pangea. It’s a great game in the vein of Lemmings, but you manipulate drops of water rather than death-seeking drones — so great, that I still actually play it.
Joost is loosed on the iPhone. Looks great, performance an issue » VentureBeat
Joost, the once mega-hyped online video startup, has just launched a free application for the iPhone to grant mobile access to its videos. With a nice, clean interface, this app could be a winner — if it can get over the performance issues currently plaguing it.
New Rolando trailer shows its controls in action on the iPhone » VentureBeat
When I wrote about my experience playing Ngmoco’s upcoming iPhone game Rolando, quite a few people (in our comments and elsewhere) noted that it seemed to be a rip-off of an older Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) game, Loco Roco.
Rolando, one of the best looking iPhone games, plays even better » VentureBeat
I’ve been excited about an iPhone game named Rolando ever since a video of it spread throughout the internet back in July right before the launch of the iPhone 3G (and App Store).
SGN’s iFun puts a bit more Wiimote in the iPhone » VentureBeat
Gaming company SGN has a strategy that has worked so far with iPhone and iPod touch games: Use the device’s accelerometer to create simple sports games similar to one that have been made popular on the Nintendo Wii console thanks to the accelerometer in its Wiimote controller.
