Playing Chess!

It really looks like there is no limit to what developers can do in a web browser for the iPhone. The game called iChess will let you play Chess in Safari on your iPhone. You can try it out now in any web browser. The interface is very well adapted for the screen size of the iPhone and it looks like it will work great with the touch-screen. The game is available here.

iPhone web app from Apple?

Well it seems that Apple is truly wanting to prove to everyone that web apps are the way to go. To do that, they even created their own iPhone web app. It is the "Apple iPhone RSS Reader". Apple unfortunately put a restriction on the website. It won't let you try it without being on an iPhone. It says: "This Application Is Viewable Only On iPhone". It still looks like it will be a pretty cool web app! You can check out the website where you can find it once you have your iPhone here. (http://reader.mac.com/)

What the website displays when trying to see it in a regular web browser:

A better shopping experience!

I really like this iPhone web application because it provides you with instant results about certain products. When you are out shopping and find something very specific, you can check if the price is competitive on the spot with your iPhone. The application will even let you buy Amazon products if you like what you find. The interface is not clunky and is well adapted for the screen size of an iPhone. You can take a look at the application called CheapMF here now.

Screenshot:

A real iPhone game!

This is really the first cool iPhone game: Avalanche. The first game I presented wasn't really well-optimized for the iPhone. This one is great, however. You'll be able to easily play with the touch-screen. It will let you eliminate blocks by group. You can eliminate the group if it has at least three blocks. The less blocks you have left at the end, the better. You can try out the game in a full web browser now: http://homepage.mac.com/hockey2891/Widgetaria/Avalanche/.

Preparing your iTunes library!

Not everyone has an iTunes library made of songs exclusively bought on the iTunes store. What is not cool is that the "Get Album Artwork" feature in iTunes 7 doesn't always work perfectly. The bottom line is, a lot of people have missing artwork when using CoverFlow in iTunes 7. It's not as elegant, but it's still not that big of an issue in iTunes, but with the iPhone, you'll want CoverFlow to work flawlessly. Getting the missing artworks manually is really long. There is a very nice application that will check the song you highlighted in your iTunes library and find the right artwork on Amazon. If you have enough information, such as Album, Song and Artist, the widget should give you the right artwork. In the case that some information is missing, it will let you browse through a list of artworks from that artist and you can choose. Once you have the right one, you just have to hit "Set as Album Art in iTunes" and the widget will take care of the rest. The widget will also let you choose if you want it to search on Amazon.com or in other countries. The widget is called Amazon Album Art and is available for download here from Apple.com.

Apple.com screenshot:

The Widget!

The widget for "A New iPhone Tip Every Day" is now available for download on VersionTracker. You can download it here. Screenshot:

iPhone game?

This is probably the first iPhone game released on the web: WordBreaker! I really post about it because of it's the first out there, because the game is not that cool. It still shows that it is possible to get pretty good web applications for the iPhone. The interface could be more touchscreen-oriented (like yesterday's application OneTrip), but it still works pretty well. The website is designed to fit exactly the iPhone screen which is nice. You won't have to scroll constantly to play. You can check out the game at http://www.wordbreaker.org/. The interface:

iPhone web applications!

The iPhone isn't released yet, so it is hard to say if these applications will work or not yet, but here it is: one of the first iPhone web application released, "One Trip". This is a great example of the kind of app developers can create for the iPhone solely using the web. The application is expected to work because it is working great in Safari now. The whole app was designed to be used with the multi-touch interface. The keyboard usage is minimal. It will basically let you create a shopping list in a few seconds. You can quickly select the items from the list. The application will also let you add rare items that might not be on the main list. While you shop, you will be able to just check the items off the list. Their current website will let you try the app in a "simulated" iPhone. You can also click "Launch OneTrip in this browser" to see how it runs. The OneTrip website!

Getting your hands on an iPhone!

This might be very easy like it might be very hard. If it is very easy, I don't expect it to be that way because of low demand, I expect it to be because Apple planned the demand and will answer with a lot of iPhones in stock. Still, we have no idea what to expect next Friday.

Apple has currently confirmed three ways of getting an iPhone: the Apple Online Store, the Apple Retail Stores and the AT&T Corporate Stores.

Other info that Apple confirmed:

- There will be more in stock where demand is higher for iPods.
- The stock will vary according to population.
- There will be a limit on the quantity one person can buy.

So let's get back to how to actually get one!

The online store is probably not the fastest way. You'll probably be able to order on the 29th and you'll get it sometimes in July considering the shipping.

The Apple retail stores are a great option but the lines will probably be crazy. According to the latest reports, the stores will close at 4:30 pm (local time), get delivery of the iPhones and reopen at 6pm. If you want to be sure to get one, you'll probably want to show up early and wait in line! There are currently (according to Wikipedia) 162 Apple retail stores in the US right now.

List of Apple Store in the US

You can also get it in the AT&T corporate stores. Depending where you live, that might be much closer to where you live and there might be less people in line as well (although there will probably be less iPhones as well). The AT&T website unfortunately mixes the corporate stores and the resellers. One of the best way of quickly seeing all AT&T corporate stores is to use the Google Earth plugin. Google Earth provides satellite images of the earth and will let you see where the stores are located.

Download Google Earth here.

Download the Google Earth AT&T plugin here.

Check back tomorrow for info on some of the first iPhone web applications ever created. In the future, once I can get my hands on an iPhone, I will cover the issue of getting your own video content onto your iPhone.

The new website "A New iPhone Tip Every Day"!

This website will join my primary website "A New Mac Tip Every Day" and will be oriented on iPhone tips. The iPhone is not yet released, so until the 29th of June, I will mainly focus on tips about how to get your hands on an iPhone, nice web applications that are expected to work, etc... A widget is also expected to arrive soon to bring you updates in your dashboard.