NEWS 4 APPS 11 FEATURES 27 HOW-TO 35
iPhone SWIPE
NEWS • REVIEWS • TIPS
Welcome
mag
A note from the editor If you’ve a hankering for some competitive action on your iPhone, we’ve got the top five Sports games to download that you can play without having to suit up. You can also check out reviews of some of the newest apps such as pop-up adventure Tengami, UpWord Notes, and a head-tohead between two new calculator apps. With $145 billion in the bank, Apple sure is rich but from time to time it does splash out and buys other companies. In Features we look back at some of those recent acquisitions including Siri and innovative Camera technology. Alongside this we have a review of the Pebble Smart Watch. Could this be a precursor to a possible iWatch? In How-to, we help you become a power user by showing what you can do with Launch Center Pro. All that plus the latest news and rumors make this a top Swipe issue. See you again in two weeks for another excellent installment.
Thanks for reading
Meet the team
Contributors Steve Jarratt Craig Grannell Joe White iOS, iPhone, iPad, AirPlay, AirPrint, iTunes, Safari, iCloud, iMessage, and any other trademark is a trademark of Apple inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Screenshots are for illustrative purposes only and all prices are correct at the time of publishing.
NEWS
CarPlay revealed Apple shows off in-car system
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n the past week Apple has unveiled CarPlay, its in-car system, at the Geneva International Motor Show. The new system has been coined “the best iPhone experience on four wheels” and shows important apps through the car’s display. CarPlay will enable users to make phone calls, dictate text messages or hear them, and get directions with Apple Maps. Music apps are also supported including iTunes Radio, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Beats Radio, and Stitcher Radio – but no Pandora as yet.
Volvo shows off CarPlay in action
Volvo, Ferrari, and Mercedes-Benz are a few of the first automotive partners to show off CarPlay in their new models to be released later in 2014. Other partners which have signed up to integrate CarPlay include BMW, Ford, General Motors, Honda, and Jaguar Land Rover. CarPlay was originally announced at WWDC in 2013 as “iOS in the Car” and has seen a slight redesign since then. Apple hopes that the new system will help drivers keep their eyes on the road and make interacting with a cellphone safer. CarPlay will be made available in an upcoming update to iOS 7 and will only work from an iPhone 5, 5s, or 5c. n
No need to buy an expensive GPS system when you can use Maps from your iPhone
Image © Mike Deerkoski
Shareholders meet Cook answers questions Apple recently held its annual shareholder meeting for 2014 and discussed the company’s plans for the coming year. Tim Cook revealed that Apple processes several billion iMessages a day and between 15 to 20 million FaceTime video calls. Cook also shared that they sold 10 million Apple TV boxes, which generated $1 billion in revenue. With rumors of a new Apple TV box, it has now become a major product in Apple’s lineup.
The Apple TV has seen 80% year-over-year growth in sales
Apple also fielded proposals from shareholders including one from the National Center for Public Policy Research that suggested Apple cut back on any environmental initiatives that may harm profit. Cook reacted angrily to this, stating: ”If you want me to do things only for ROI reasons, you should get out of this stock.” The measure was voted down by shareholders by a margin of just over 97 percent. Recently Apple published a report detailing its supplier responsibility and improvements it has made across all areas of the supply chain. Greenpeace applauded Apple’s efforts, having been critical of its manufacturing process in the past. n
More controllers MOGA and Mad Catz
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wo new controllers made for the iPhone have joined the fray. MOGA has teased an upcoming follow-up to its Ace Power model, which we reviewed in the last issue of Swipe. Apart from the image above, MOGA hasn’t revealed any other details but it looks as if the newer version is a standalone model that connects via Bluetooth, rather than a clamshell case. MOGA will be showing off this new model at the Game Developer’s Conference in late March 2014, so hopefully we’ll get a closer look then.
The MOGA Ace Power holds the iPhone in the middle
Well known console and PC gamepad makers Mad Catz has also shown off its first ‘made for iPhone’ effort at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Called the C.T.R.L.i, the controller connects to the iPhone over Bluetooth and also comes with a detachable mount to hold your device in place. The mount can be removed if you want to play with an iPad.
The C.T.R.L.i by Mad Catz on display at Mobile World Congress
In a hands-on with the controller, Engadget stated they “were impressed with how stable the controller remained while we played, and our iPhone looked to be in no danger of falling out.” The gamepad will be available in early Spring in black, white, red, and orange for a price of $80. n
APPS
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hether it’s smacking balls or performing extreme tricks, there’s an iOS sports game for you It wouldn’t be possible to untangle sports from videogames. Even in home gaming’s earliest days, the influence of sport was obvious, most notably in the stripped-back abstract tennis that was Pong. And through the ages, arguably some of the best games ever made have had sport at their center: Hyper Sports, Punchout!!, Sensible World of Soccer, PGA Tour, NBA Jam, NHL Hockey, Virtua Tennis, Madden, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater… the list goes on. But what makes for a great sports game today, and also on iOS? For us, it’s as much about feel as any attempt to bring realism to the touchscreen. That’s why our selection of the best sports games for iOS is a mix: there are efforts that at a glance might resemble something being beamed from your TV; other titles are more abstract in nature, but still give you the feeling that you’re gunning for sporting glory.
Super Stickman Golf 2 Price: $0.99/£0.69 Version: 2.2 Size: 53.2 MB
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ou might look at Super Stickman Golf 2 leading our sports round-up with more than a little suspicion. Its bright, vibrant graphics look fantastic, but aren’t exactly banging on the door of realism, and nor are the courses, which are more likely to include giant saws and teleporters than something as mundane as a sand-trap. Also, the simple controls (left/right/power) and side-on view aren’t a million miles away from the likes of Angry Birds.
Safe to say, we’re not getting a hole-in-one here
But fire up your imagination and this really is a fine game of mobile golf of an admittedly crazy kind. You must plan your shots carefully, learn the courses, and not mess up if you want to end up several under par. To increase your chances of success, you get access to a slew of powerups in the form of special balls (sticky, magnetic, and so on) and hats that provide various advantages. These must be bought via in-game currency, earned by completing courses or collecting cash left lying around; optional IAP is an alternative. Longevity’s further guaranteed by two multiplayer modes: exciting (if slightly unreliable) live multiplayer races and an excellent asynchronous turn-byturn mode with Game Center friends.
Golf on the TV would be more exciting with giant saw blades
Loads of inventive courses Asynchronous turn-by-turn Live multiplayer can lag Currency can be imbalanced DOWNLOAD
Magnetic Billiards: Blueprint Price: FREE with IAP Version: 3.0 Size: 48.5 MB
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he fanciful idea behind Magnetic Billiards is it’s a digital interpretation of a game found in a dusty bundle of papers hidden in a long-forgotten attic. It takes billiards, removes the pockets, makes the balls magnetic, and then has you perform all manner of trick shots to accrue high scores.
There are no pockets — the aim here is to up your trick-shot skills
If you think you’re a dab hand at this kind of thing, because you can pot a pool ball by smacking it off of a cushion, you’re likely to get a rude awakening here. Balls must only connect with those of the same color, and points are added for bouncing off table edges and also ‘buzzing’ (grazing) balls of other colors. Additionally, bonuses are awarded for ending up with a group of colored balls in a long string or representing a specific shape.
Buzz balls on your way to a connection for bigger scores
This, then, is a rewarding game of strategy, where it pays to think ahead, and carefully set up conditions that will enable you to rocket a ball back and forth, buzzing several others as it goes. There’s the brainwork and tension found within pool, but with several extra layers. For free, you get 20 tables to try; for $1.99/£1.49, you can buy the Skeleton Key, unlocking dozens more. Inventive and interesting Loads of levels to try A touch fiddly at times Not actually magnetic DOWNLOAD
FEATURES
Apple Acquisitions
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How Apple is buying the future
ike most large corporations with a healthy bank balance, Apple goes on the hunt for acquisitions from time to time. It often makes more sense to buy up a company and absorb its technology than try to compete against it, spending money to do the same research and potentially end up falling foul of patent laws. Apple never makes a big noise about its activities, but its been buying up companies and acquiring tech since the late 80s. The most famous of which is when it bought NeXT, which would go on to provide the basis for OS X and also brought Steve Jobs back into the fold. But the speed at which Apple is doing deals has increased rapidly in recent years. It made fewer than ten major acquisitions in the 80s and 90s, but since 2000 that number has risen to over 40 – and those are only the ones we know about.
Apple’s mobile future As Apple moved towards the mobile space, its choice of targets changed. The 2005 acquisition of Fingerworks should have signaled that Apple was up to something. This US company manufactured a multi-touch keyboard and the iGesture Pad – a device not unlike Apple’s Magic Trackpad. Undoubtedly Fingerworks’ technology played a key role in the development of the iPhone, released two years later.
Fingerworks iGesture pad
Then, as Apple’s manufacturing partners slowly became its competitors, Cupertino’s focus switched again. In 2008 it bought P.A. Semi (Palo Alto Semiconductor) for an alleged $278 million in cash. Specializing in the design of powerful, low-power silicon chips, it was precisely the know-how Apple needed for its future iOS devices. This was followed two years later by the purchase of another semiconductor company, Texasbased Intrinsity. In a deal valued at $121 million, Apple picked up the company’s expertise in designing highly efficient semiconductor logic, which helps to squeeze more power from fewer transistors while using less power. The buy-out also prevented the technology from falling into the hands of Samsung. The engineers from P.A. Semi and Intrinsity on Apple’s payroll helped develop the market-leading A-series CPUs, including the 64-bit processors found in the latest iPhones and iPads.
The A7 was the first 64-bit processor to appear in a smartphone
The advent of these CPUs has seen Apple’s competitors scrambling to catch up: Qualcomm, manufacturer of the Snapdragon processor, publicly dismissed the 64-bit chip as a “marketing gimmick.” But an employee later revealed its release was completely unexpected. “The 64-bit Apple chip hit us in the gut,” he admitted. “Not just us, but everyone, really. We were slack-jawed, and stunned, and unprepared… and now everyone wants it.” So for Apple, these investments were definitely money well spent.
HOW-TO
Launch Center Pro Take a shortcut If you want to become a power user of your iPhone then it’s worth investing in Launch Center Pro. This amazing $4.99/£2.99 app gives you a way to add shortcuts in the app to commonly used applications and functions. To help you get started with Launch Center Pro, we thought we’d provide you with this helpful how-to.
Start up When you open the app for the first time, you’ll see a few short and sweet instructional slides before you’re deposited on the dashboard of the app. This is at first populated with default actions and groups, which hold more actions behind their icons. At first you’ll also see the examples of ‘Message Jon’ and ‘Email Anna’. These are here to give you an idea of what you can add.
Edit To get rid of these default actions you need to simply tap the icon followed by the situated on the upper-left hand corner of a square. Now you can get on with the business of adding some new commands to the dashboard.
Adding commands While you are still in the edit mode, tap any available + square. You’ll be offered the choice of creating a Group or an Action. For now we’ll focus on creating an Action, so select that.
Tap on any of the available empty squares This reveals a blank form where you’ll create your action. The simplest way to create one is to tap the Action Composer option. If the action you want to create is attached to a default app, then select the System Actions option. This will enable you to create commands to quickly send emails through the Mail app, jump to a bookmark in Safari, or text someone through the Messages app.
The Action Composer lets you access all the possible Actions
Control the system For this example, we’re going to select System Actions and choose In-App Messaging. This allows the message to be composed within the app, rather than jumping out to the Messages app. You’ll then see another list of options and you can select from these. We’re going to select ‘Send Message to Group’. You can now name this command to make it clear on the dashboard. Then select the ‘To’ option. Here you can type in phone numbers or tap the icon to select from your address book. Tap Options to return to the previous screen and select Done followed by Done again.
There’s plenty of options available if you want to send a quick text message This now places the command on the dashboard. If you tap this then it will create a new message with your selected contacts already added in the To section. You can then type out your message and send it to them.
Other apps Apart from quick links to default apps, there are plenty of third-party apps that can also be accessed by Launch Center Pro. When creating a new action select the Installed Apps option, to check for apps already installed on your iPhone, or any of the remaining options to find more apps that you may not have installed. For now we’ll select ‘Installed Apps’ and pick from our apps. Your library may differ from ours but many popular apps are supported, such as Tweetbot, Google Maps, Instagram, Clear, and many more.
Plenty of popular apps have Launch Center Pro support If the app has a gray arrow to the left, this means you can access more options after selecting it. You can then add the instructions into the blank form. If you’re not sure what each will do, tap the ‘?’ icon in each entry box. If no gray arrow is visible then adding this action will just open the app from your dashboard.
iPhone SWIPE
NEWS • REVIEWS • TIPS
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