Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Odds and ends, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

While we really liked Gameloft's Castle of Magic at E3, these two music games in their lineup didn't impress nearly as much. Guitar Rock Tour 2 is a sequel to Guitar Rock Tour, and as you can tell from the picture at right, it's more or less a Guitar Hero knock-off: hit the notes as they pass the line at the bottom, and you'll hear whatever song you choose to play. At this point, gameplay on all of these games is more or less the same, so song selection makes the difference, and that's where Guitar Rock Tour 2 falls short: the game contains only four original tracks, and fifteen covers. While they do lay claim to tracks by Judas Priest, Panic at the Disco, Wolfmother, Placebo and Twisted Sister, Tapulous pretty much has the market covered in terms of getting great music playable on the iPhone, and we didn't see anything during our hands on that would attract us away from Tap Tap Revenge and its various forms.

DJ Mix Tour is the other music game they showed us -- this one had a club feel and had you pressing notes on a turntable rather than guitar frets. There were some interesting choices in that game -- we saw some covers of Britney Spears club mixes, as well as Lady Gaga and Darude's famous Sandstorm tune, so if you're a die-hard techno fan, there might be some new tunes in there for you among the sixteen total songs. But again, Tap Tap Revenge is so polished after all their updates, and already has such a great selection of tunes that it's hard to recommend Gameloft's versions.

Both will be available for $5.99 in the App Store sometime this month.

TUAW at E3: Guitar Rock Tour 2 and DJ Mix Tour originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW at E3: Guitar Rock Tour 2 and DJ Mix Tour originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google will announce enterprise enhancements to its Apps communications and collaboration suite on Tuesday.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WWDC, iPhone

Congratulations! When Apple releases iPhone OS 3.0 next week, we'll finally be gaining the following features ...

Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)! ... unless you're on AT&T.

Tethering! ... unless you're on AT&T

A brand new 16GB iPhone 3G S for only $199 with a two-year contract! ... unless you're on AT&T and already own an iPhone 3G.

AT&T has long been the subject of grumbling from the community of US iPhone users who want to use their phones legitimately. Ever since the original release back in 2007, it feels like AT&T has been trying to play catch-up when it comes to service and tower availability. But, the release of the iPhone 3G S might be the straw that breaks the camel's back. I can walk down to my local AT&T store and pick up a cheap handset for less than $100 that will have MMS. AT&T knew this day was coming. The company may wail and gnash its teeth, complaining that it aren't ready for this, but it should be, especially since Boy Genius Report tells us that all AT&T needs to do is manually remove the opt-out code!

It was even apparent during the keynote yesterday that Apple sounds pretty disgusted with how far behind AT&T is dragging them. Notice the absence of any AT&T personnel on stage. Had AT&T been on the ball to begin with, it most likely would have taken center stage -- boasting about all the improvements that would garner shiny new services for iPhone users and more money for the corporate coffers. But it didn't, and the tension coming from Apple during the moments when MMS and Tethering were announced was pretty tangible. Apple had all of these features that people have been begging for ready to go, and now Cupertino is forced to wait for AT&T to finish twiddling its thumbs and do what it should have done two years ago. I wouldn't even be surprised if AT&T somehow found a way to block copy/paste!

A small footnote on Apple's iPhone page indicates that MMS support from AT&T will be coming later this summer. Another note on the 3.0 software pages says that tethering isn't available in the U.S. and some other countries, although Engadget cites AT&T sources who say it's coming -- there just isn't anything to announce yet.

Then there comes iPhone pricing. Those expecting a repeat of last summer's offer to replace their current iPhones with the latest model on the cheap are being sorely disappointed. You can read full details on that kerfuffle thanks to one of the recent additions to our team, Michael Jones. However, our commenters do have a point with that one -- those who bought the first generation iPhone paid the full price right off the bat, but later buyers were able to get the iPhone 3G at a subsidized price. Like with any other subsidized phone with any other carrier, you'll have to pay a pretty hefty price for the privilege to upgrade before you're eligible. For me, that'll be in October 2010. By then, the iPhone 3G s4π will most likely be out. Still, people aren't happy with this one either.

The ramifications for AT&T will come when it sits down at the negotiation table with Apple to extend its current gig as exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the United States. Apple won't forget that AT&T didn't have key features in place when they needed to be there. If Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, or any other carrier can convince Apple that they would be ahead of the game while AT&T lags (and, believe me, it wouldn't be that hard of an argument to make), Apple will take its toys and go elsewhere. And loyal iPhone users would follow. I know I would.

The dying goodwill toward AT&T originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Jun 2009 23:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The dying goodwill toward AT&T originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Jun 2009 23:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has posted a QuickTime stream of the WWDC 2009 Keynote address.

It’s been a busy day here on TiPb, so just in case you missed anything, here’s a roundup of all our WWDC 2009 news and coverage.

• TiPb WWDC 2009 Live Meta Blog
• Apple Posts WWDC 2009 Keynote Live Stream
• Apple Announces iPhone 3G S - Ships June 19
• Apple Posts iPhone 3G S Guided Tour
• iPhone 3.0 Release Date: June 17
• 2008 iPhone 3G Now Priced to Move! $99 Starting Today!
• iPhone 3G S — What We Didn’t Get
• AT&T — MMS Later. Tethering… Um… Er… Bai!
• AT&T Responds: iPhone 3.0 MMS and Tethering
• Rogers/Fido to Sell iPhone 3G S in Canada, $199/$299 on June 19
• iPhone 3G S — Apple Delivers Mobile Video to the Masses
• Apple Demonstrates Voice Control for iPhone 3G S
• iPhone 3G S - 2x Faster, but Still no 802.11n
• MobileMe Update Coming June 17: Find my iPhone, Remote Wipe, iDisk Mobile, File Sharing, Public Folders
• Apple Releases iPhone 3.0 Gold Master to Developers + WARNING!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

WWDC 2009 News Roundup: iPhone 3G S and iPhone 3.0

Yeah, we’re the entitled generation. We want everything, we want it now, and free isn’t good enough — you better pay us to like it!

Well, most of us aren’t that bad, but our expectations have no doubt been set high, almost impossibly high.

So, while Apple is touting their faster, video shooting, voice controlling, compass spinning new iPhone 3G S, we just want to remind them of just what we didn’t get… after the break!

• No new casing. No colors. No matte finish. No black bezel. No aluminum unibody. Nothing. The iPhone 3G S is stuck inside the same shell as last year’s model. Doesn’t Apple know that smartphones are fashion accessories now? How will other people know that we have better, newer versions than they do if the casing doesn’t show it off?

• No HD. No OLED. No Hi-Res 480×800 display. No 16×9 display. No HD-Radio. No HD out via AV cables. Nadda. When even Windows Mobile and the Zune have better screen specs than what Apple produces, well… it’s like looking up at the end of the movie and seeing the monkey on top of the horse.

• No Mobile iChat Video. So what if AT&T’s network would come crashing down around our ankles the first time Kevin Rose jumped on it, Mobile iChat with a front-facing camera for video is something we wanted. International readers, we’re sorry AT&T is holding you back. We realize the Asian iPhone likely already materializes holograms….

• No CDMA. No Verizon. No China Mobile. No EDVO Rev whatever. The iPhone 3G S stays locked to GSM.

• No 802.11n. We got faster CPU, faster GPU, faster web rendering, faster HSPA cell data, faster everything — except Wi-Fi. Sigh.

• No FM Transmitter. Um. Okay. We don’t really care about this, but if you do, we’ll share your rage and incredulity.

• No MobileMe 2.0. We got Find my iPhone. Remote Wipe. iDisk (iDisk?!). But we didn’t get server-side email rules, server-side calendar subscriptions, no remote back ups, no photo sync. And that stinks!

• No Multitasking Background apps Except for Apple’s built-in apps, which have always multitasks, the newer, faster, stronger iPhone 3G S doesn’t even provide for limited 3rd party apps.

• No glowing Apple logo. Come on. You know you wanted it. It would have sold more units than multi-touch. What. Were. You. Thinking.

• No Steve Jobs. No cameo. No “one more thing”. No phone call. No voice mail. No video. No poppa.

Did we miss anything? Were there any other new hardware or hardware/software features you really wanted that evil Apple still haven’t given you?

Sound off in the comments!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 3G S — What We Didn’t Get

While Apple will no doubt post a high quality version in their iTunes podcast feed in the next couple of days, if you absolutely have to watch the WWDC 2009 Keynote address — where Apple introduces the iPhone 3G S — right now, the streaming QuickTime version is available for your enjoyment.

Go watch it at Apple.com!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Apple Posts WWDC 2009 Keynote Live Stream

Apple boasted of low price points for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S, but what you see may not be what you pay, thanks to upgrade pricing from AT&T.

We’ll just pass then the mic and let you tell us what you think in the comments!

Regarding MMS:

We absolutely will offer MMS on iPhone 3G S in late summer once we complete some system upgrades that will ensure our customers have the best experience with MMS.  These upgrades are unrelated to our 3G network.  When MMS is ready, we will let customers know.

Regarding offering a tethering plan:

We plan to offer one but we don’t have an announcement to make at this time.

Joe Chandler
Executive Director
AT&T Corporate Communications

[Thanks to Phil for bringing this one home!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

AT&T Responds: iPhone 3.0 MMS and Tethering

The full release version of Safari 4 differs in some noticeable way from the Safari 4 Public Beta that we saw earlier this year.