Appletell

As you’ve no doubt noticed, we here at Appletell are big fans of the Ocarina for iPhone, produced by Smule. But we’re not the only ones: the app is, as of this writing, currently the #1 paid application in the iTunes Store.

But can it hold on to this spot, now that it is (gasp) no longer the only Ocarina app available? That’s right, kids, the moment we’ve all been waiting for is now upon us:

Ocarina Wars!

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Today is a great day for iPhone gamers with the release of Cube on the App Store. Cube is a first person shooter for desktops, and now it’s been ported to the iPhone. The best news of all is that it drops at a very attractive price…free.

But, as you might suspect, it’s not perfect. This version of the game has frame rate, texture and memory issues. But, it’s still free.

Cube is actually a rather ambitious project. Porting an entire 3D desktop game is no trivial matter…

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No one denies that Apple’s been a little control-freaky about the iPhone and iPod Touch; they control the means of distribution for music, photos, video and applications. Furthermore, if they determine that an application is malicious, they can disable it using a “kill switch” embedded in each iPhone/iPod touch sold.

So why not use that technology to kill stolen iPhones?

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Adobe and ARM have announced they are working together to optimize Flash Player 10 and Adobe AIR to run on ARM powered devices.

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) and ARM [(LSE:ARM); (Nasdaq:ARMH)] today announced a technology collaboration to optimize and enable Adobe® Flash® Player 10 and Adobe AIR™ for ARM Powered® devices, ranging from mobile phones to set-top boxes, mobile Internet devices, televisions, automotive platforms, personal media players and other mobile computing devices. The collaboration is expected to accelerate mobile graphics and video capabilities on ARM platforms to bring rich Internet applications and Web services to mobile devices and consumer electronics worldwide.

This is extremely interesting, because the iPhone is powered by the ARM11 processor…

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As if you haven’t already heard enough announcements about new iPhone battery extender and case combos, another one from Incase is ready for your holiday checklist. One of the interesting things about this case is that it’s designed to allow you to charge the phone without removing the case, a feature that will save some time struggling to remove the case. To do this, Incase ships their own USB cable extender with the iPhone that will fit through the case.

This case is also said to extend the battery life of your iPhone to double that of the iPhone regularly. It has a five light LED on the back that reminds you of how much charge you have left. If this case is anything like other Incase products, you can be sure it is going to do a great job of covering and protecting your phone. Be sure to get it in time for the holidays to make sure your phone doesn’t run out of battery during any of those important memories!

Product [Power Slider]

• Should Apple use the “Kill Switch” to discourage theft?
• Ocarina Wars: A challenger appears!
• Cube debuts on the App Store for free

Google’s anticipated update to Google Mobile has finally gone live. The update was expected last Friday, but for whatever reason…Apple…it’s out now.

The most “talked” about feature is, of course, the ability to search using only your voice.  All you have to do is hold your iPhone up to your ear and speak your query as if Google is a person on the other end of the line. If you can make it past the geek factor of doing this, your iPhone will upload the sound clip it recorded to the net where Google’s machines can make sense out of the sound.

Voice search is probably the coolest new feature, but it’s not the only one. Following are the full details from the update.

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Classics is a book reading application for the iPhone. It features twelve classic books available through a simple, intuitive and powerful interface.

It includes Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Gulliver’s Travels, The Time Machine, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Call of the Wild,  Flatland, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Robinson Crusoe, The Jungle Book, The Metamorphosis, Paradise Lost and Hound of the Baskervilles. Phill Ryu and Andrew Kaz, the creators have promised more books in the future free of charge.

After a quick glance at the interface, you can see the passion and dedication put into Classics.

Full review after the break.

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TouchArcade is reporting about an exciting first person shooter being developed for the iPhone. It’s called Hill Billy, and it’s controlled the way we’ve come to expect games to be controlled on the iPhone; by accelerometers. For me, this kind of control has always been kind of hit or miss, but it appears this one’s a hit.

Besides having smooth controls, what really makes this game look so impressive are the graphics. Not only are they detailed, the frame rate is smooth and everything looks good. It really is amazing what a device like an iPhone is capable of doing. It will be interesting what the developer decides to charge for this game. In any event, I really can’t wait to see this game hit the App Store.

See the a video of the action after the break.

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When it comes to the iPhone, there are plenty of complaints from various users. For instance, we can whine about the lack of copy and paste or even criticize the missing feature of over the air iTunes syncing. However, along with these somewhat serious issues, there are still some complaints that are just plain weird. Although they don’t receive as much attention as the others, they are still somewhat annoying to me. I’m sure you have noticed these at one point or another during your use of the iPhone but just haven’t really realized just how strange they are. Well we have, and you can read our list after the break.

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I hope you like hearing about the Ocarina application for iPhone, because we here at Appletell are unlikely to shut up about it. The app turns your bleeding-edge-of-tech iPhone into a 12,000-year-old musical instrument, and is quite possibly the most offbeat musical application since Jared.

Wow, that was an unfortunate comparison to make.

Following is a video from Smule (makers of the Ocarina app), showing how you, yes you, can sit around with around $1,000 in hardware and groove to “Stairway.“

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