Gizmodo: third party

Rumor: Microsoft to Allow Third-Party Xbox 360 Consoles

Jason Chen — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:30:00 EDT

The last time we saw the rumor of Microsoft licensing Xbox 360 technologies to other companies was a few years ago, but EGM's got a fresh update to it. Their rumor column says that Microsoft might be licensing third-party manufacturers to build Xbox 360 hardware that can play off-the-shelf Xbox 360 discs. That's right.

What would be the point to this? Kotaku points out that previous game systems like a Panasonic Q, which was the GameCube + DVD player, served to help bring in software money, but lower development costs for Nintendo because they don't have to spend effort making new hardware. In Microsoft's case, imagine what would happen if a company built an Xbox 360 with a Blu-ray drive. Eh? [EGM via Kotaku]

Twinkle, the iPhone Twitter Client, Adds Location Features

Jason Chen — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:50:00 EDT

Twitter Fans: an iPhone client called Twinkle was just released on Installer.app. What's the difference between Twinkle and other apps? It's true that you can let the world know that you're getting a haircut or some taxi zoomed past you without stopping on any client, but Twinkle lets you use the iPhone's location feature to add location data to your tweets. Not only that, there's a "near me" feature that can show you tweets from people within X miles of you, which is good for organizing a meetup or party. Location information is only visible from Twinkle and not on the Twitter website, unfortunately. Hit the link to see how you install it on your jailbroken iPhone, then follow me (diskopo) for some good times. [Just Another iPhone Blog via Tech Digest]

Note: It looks like Twinkle automatically adds "Twinkleking" (their official user) to your followed list, which isn't cool. Remember to remove this if you don't want to follow them.

TuneWiki Is the Karaoke-Like Lyrics App Apple Must Include in iPhone

Jesus Diaz — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 19:00:13 EST

Lifehacker's Adam Pash (co-author of the best iPhone book with some dude called "Jason Chen") told me this weekend about TuneWiki, an iPhone application that downloads songs lyrics from the web and shows them synched with the song in real time, karaoke-style. It works great and, being a closet karaoke whore, I admit I'm hooked. Apple must include this app integrated in their next firmware update. Watch the video review and, for an alternative take, you can see Californian high school cheerleader Rosita (yes, she's as sexy as it sounds) telling its virtues after the jump:

Rosita gives good reasons on her own but for me, TuneWiki is just perfect for drunk nights in the bar, when everyone wants to sing for some reason and nobody knows the exact lyrics to a song. Or maybe it's just me. Whatever. In any case, if you enjoy music and singing or reading lyrics as you listen to songs, TuneWiki is a must. [TuneWiki - Video review music by Goldfrapp]

Custom Apps Now Possible on Helio Ocean (Opera Mini)

Jason Chen — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 15:48:26 EDT

Not only is the iPhone getting its third-party cherry popped, the Helio Ocean is now running third-party apps now as well. The first proof of concept app is Opera Mini, the smallish browser from Opera that lets even lousy phones browse like a star. To get it to work on your Ocean (even though the default Ocean browser is just fine for us), just follow the directions on Heliocity. After you're done, you may want to check to see how you can support them to get even cooler apps on the Ocean. [Heliocity]

Unconfirmed: Third Party Native iPhone Apps Coming

Jason Chen — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 16:40:12 EDT

There's no confirmation other than some guy's word, but Macapper says third party native (Cocoa) iPhone apps are coming soon. Apparently, during one of the WWDC evening parties, an iPhone engineer responded, "Yeah. There will be" to the question of "are there going to be third party Cocoa apps on the iPhone."

The iPhone engineer either didn't know or wouldn't reveal when the apps were coming, and neither does just about anybody else. We'll keep an eye on this rumor, just because it would probably fill in a lot of gaps that the iPhone currently has.

Update: A source tells us the rumor is pretty bogus.

Exclusive: Third Party Cocoa iPhone Apps Coming [Macapper]

Official: Third Party iPhone Apps Later This Year

Jason Chen — Wed, 30 May 2007 17:00:26 EDT

From the D Conference Q&A:

Question: We'd love to write apps. Will it open up?

Steve Jobs: This is a very important trade-off between security and openness. We want both. We've got good ideas, and sometime later this year, we can open it up to third-party apps... – Jason Chen

Nintendo DS Motion Sensing Card

Jason Chen — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 19:25:56 EST

We're not sure how useful this $25 third party motion sensing card would be, seeing as there aren't any official DS games that support it. But if you're a fan of homebrew games and swinging your DS around like a monkey with a Dickens' novel, have at it.

Perhaps if enough people buy this once it's released next year, Nintendo will provide some games and/or an official motion sensing card as well. – Jason Chen

Product Page [NDS Motion via DS Fanboy]