iPhone applications and exploits
This weekend I let the kids loose on the iPhone and the iTouch upgrades. I told them they could buy any application as long as it was free (well I did break down and pay for two applications). My daughter was upset that she (meaning I) had to pay for the update to her iPod Touch ($9.95) and the iPhone was free. The first application I downloaded (and only one before my son took over my iPhone) was AIM. Works perfect, I love it, I need to get use to it, I keep forgetting its there. My daughter downloaded the game Super Monkey Ball II $9.95 (USD), she played it for about 10 minutes and complained the controls were to hard. I heard that SEGA was suppose to refined the control in a later version, but to the kids, its a dead issue, they wont play that game again. My son downloaded Chopper $7.99 (USD), which is a throwback to the 1980′s. I used to play the game on my Commodore 64. I told him that Ii could beat his best score any time. Some of the free applications they tried where JirboMatch (card matching), Cube Runner (maze fly-though used with the built-in motion detector), iMaze (horrible), Blip Solitaire, Phone Saber (which hit it off with my son, its just a motion detect application that has light saber sounds), Tap Tap Revenge (great head to head or single player Guitar Hero clone). Really none of the free Application held their attention long, with the exception of Tap Tap Revenge. The Application I liked was the BoxOffice application by Cyrus Najmabadi, it is a mash-up of a few online services to bring the movie ratings and theater listing together. I will try some business apps this week.
In case you did not hear, there was a huge DNS exploit that was patched, which did not really fix the problem, but made it harder to exploit. It involved the process of "poisoning" the DNS tree, which included rerouting calls to a hackers (or business) websites. What is funny is that you hear companies "rushing" to patch their systems. This exploit has been there from the very beginning of the internet and the only person that had exploited it was for business reasons.
E3 Expo is this week, you know the big game Expo in Los Angeles, its all week but here is a recap. Microsoft introduced a bigger hard drive for Xbox and dropped $50 (USD) off their existing unit until supplies last. Microsoft and Sony announced new movies download deals to their units (Microsoft via NetFlix). More killing, slasher, aliens invading earth games for the new units than you can shake a stick at. Nintendo announce a new motion controller add-on for the WII controller. I know that Nintendo is selling a lot of their Wii’s but the games stink. My son/daughter still play a majority of their GameCube games on the Wii and never bother with the actual Wii games.
If you ever want to take a look at some history of the early 70′s computer revolution (before the suits) go to the DigiBarn.
Later.
