Abilityhub

As far as iPhone apps go, social networking applications are pretty sedate. Not boring, but sedate. Nevertheless social networking is still a market growing from strength to strength; iPling is the iPhone’s attempt at an app made specifically for the 3G iphone. These iPhone apps are trying to hit a very unique market with a very unique product; they need to approach common problems in a different way, and iPling does this with flying colors.

The iPling approach is, to start with, quite similar to other social networking applications: you fill in your profile and specify the things that you’re interested in. So far so normal.

Then the magic that is present in almost all iPhone apps kicks in. You tag your interests and profile with colors and keywords. This allows the iPling software to measure just how compatible you might be with other users; if it decides that you are compatible with others then you will appear in their iPling ‘circle’. Once ‘in the circle’ you can contact other users via SMS without them knowing your phone number (or indeed you theirs). This kind of security is more vital in iPhone apps than it would be on software for a computer (since a phone points to an actual, physical object).

I assumed getting iPhone music would be easy. Actually, it was: places like iTunes offer a very simple to use service that anyone (even me) could wield with ease. The problem was that, paying per track, I soon racked up a considerable bill.

My first thought was to download the iPhone music for free. While this is a totally feasible option I didn’t like the idea: everyone to there own, and everything, but I wanted the artists to get something back for what I was getting from them.

So I did some more research and found that there were services available that allowed me to download as much iPhone music as I wanted to for a flat monthly fee (and in one case a flat lifetime fee – hurrah!)

Once I’d got the music I wanted I encountered a further problem: apparently my iPhone music wasn’t compatible with my iPhone (this being caused by my using a general music download site rather than one specifically designed for iPhone music).

Never fear! At Google’s advice I downloaded some conversion software and everything worked as it should; I even found some similar software that allows me to convert some video files that I have downloaded (my favorite TV show!).

There’s no doubt that owning an iPhone is a full time job: you’ve got to show it off to your friends, you’ve got to let them have a little go on it, and, most importantly, you’ve got to keep up with any of your other friends (or enemies) and make sure you’ve got more up to date iPhone accessories than them.

Fortunately, it’s easy to rack up on your iPhone accessories because there are so many of them around. Both Apple themselves and many independent designers and manufacturers are churning out great (and not so great) iPhone accessories almost as we speak.

The more pragmatic iPhone accessories are largely quite boring but useful affairs: the cover and screen protector spring to mind. These are pretty much essential pieces of kit for any iPhone owner, but they can be beefed up a little with different colors and designs.

As well as being a phone, the iPhone is a top of the range music player; it is, essentially, the top of the iPod tree. For this reason you’re going to have to have some headphones. The Bose iPhone headset brings top quality Bose headphones to the iPhone accessories range. Not essential, but certainly worth their price tag. And they look pretty cool, too.

The app store will shortly be coming to town. And what does the app store have in (ahem) store for us? Free software!

While this wasn’t the original plan of the Apple bunch, it is quickly becoming a reality if figures from an industry survey are to be believed.

Apple planned for the apps in the app store to sell for an average of $10 each. From this $10 sale they would take a $3 for their trouble. It’s not a lot when you say it like that, but when you say it like this: “there will be millions of downloads”, it soon takes on a different meaning.

So what of this free software then?

Industry analyst Gene Munster conducted a survey of 20 developers that planned to release software for the app store. These developers revealed that over 70% of those apps would be available to the grateful customer for free. Of the remaining apps for which a charge would be made, the price was looking to be settling on an average of around $2.29 – a far cry from Apple’s estimates.

Munster also discovered that half of those surveyed were working only on iPhone apps and half were working on apps for the iPhone and for the Mac environment.

Free software all around, then!

Apple’s new model iPhone games is expected to be unveiled in June at Apple’s Worldwide Developers’ Conference in San Francisco. It is altogether smaller and sexier.
One reason that everyone expects this announcement to be made soon is that there are very few iPhone games left in stock in brick and mortar shops; the online shop is completely out. This is Apple’s way of artificially increasing market demand on their product. When the new iPhone games is announced the floodgates will open the world, once again, will be a wonderful place.
And it is likely to be a wonderful place for those countries where Apple has recently agreed deals with telephony carriers. Singapore, India, the Philippines and Australia have been the subject of the latest talks.
Most interestingly Apple may be planning on waiving the plan which seems them sign exclusivity deals with just one carrier. This could be great news for iPhone games customers.

Where should I download my iPhone games from? I’ve seen lots of advice against ‎downloading from torrent or P2P sites, and I’ve heard bad things about Warez. Whilst ‎these avenues might mean I get free iPhone games, there is also the chance that I ‎could pick up a virus, and no game is worth a dead iPhone.‎

Next I could pay identify the games that I want to play and make a beeline for them, ‎paying the premium for getting the latest in digital entertainment. If I knew anything ‎about gaming – or indeed about what titles were out at the moment – then I’d probably ‎go this route. Unfortunately I know next to nothing and I fear I’d be in danger of ‎tossing my money away.‎

So I come to what is probably my preferred option: membership sites. With a iPhone ‎games membership site I can pay a monthly fee (or in some cases a single upfront fee) ‎and for that I will be able to download as many games as I want. This seems to me to ‎be a perfect solution since I can try a number of games to get my head around the ‎whole situation; I’m also not in danger of just choosing the wrong game before I ‎realize I don’t like it! ‎