Mactropolis.com - Your Friendly Global Mac Community

The New Facebook 2.0 for iPhone is Here!

Facebook has finally gone ahead and updated their Facebook application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. And boy, they’ve managed to crank a lot of new features into it.  The first version was certainly lacking quite a few features, especially if you’re used to using the full-featured Facebook website. Facebook 2.0 brings you closer to that same experience… And yes, it’s still FREE!

So what’s in the Facebook 2.0 update? Here’s a list of key features:

• Notifications
• Full news feed
• News feed story comments
• People search
• Friend requests
• Photo tagging
• Photo captioning
• Photo posts to friends’ walls
• Full mini-feed combined with the wall
• Entire inbox, including sent and updates
• Inbox search
• Message attachments
• Speed and stability improvements

You can download Facebook 2.0 here.

What do you think? Would love to hear your thoughts on this new version.

Backgammon for the iPhone

Backgammon players can now get their fix of backgammon at any time on their iPhone or iPod Touch. Backgammon is an easy to play game that has tons of features. If you already know the rules, you’ll be off to a flying start in no time.

You can compete against your friends or the computer AI. If you’re playing with a friend, the controls for them are rotated by 180 degrees. Move your pieces with one tap, highlight possible positions, undo movements and more. Controls are uber-easy.

The computer AI has three levels of difficulty. The top end computer opponent is very tough. At least for me. I’m no backgammon expert, but I play one on TV (lame joke).

Priced at $5.99, I think this game may be a touch on the expensive side for what it is… But if you enjoy backgammon, then it is worth every penny. Screens and app store details after the jump >

(more…)

Put your drink down on the iPhone App of your choice :)

Now I’ve seen everything. Check out these cool iPhone coasters created by the folks at Meninos design. All of the standard app icons are there, from Maps to Calculator. The perfect gift for any true iPhone fan! Each coaster is 85mm square (3.34″) and is made from MDF and then wrapped in a premium vinyl decal, and finished with a durable varnish. A thin rubber layer is added to the bottom of the coaster for slip protection.

You can get a set of 16 coasters for $60 USD over at the Meninos Online Shop.

Note: Thanks to Joey for the tip!

Have a MacBook Pro? Might be Time to Put on the Gas Mask!

According to tests posted on a French site, MacDidouille, MacBook Pros may be producing toxic fumes. A testing lab called Analytika used a bunch of sensors over an 8 day period to collect air circulated by the cooling fan. The tests used gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. 7 organic contaminants were identified.

Needless to say I’m sitting here writing this, and looking at my MBP, giving it a bit of a stink-eye.

The list of substances detected include propanal, benzene, ethanone, isobenzofurandione, propanone and acetic acid. As a general rule of thumb, I like to say ‘if you can’t say or spell it, it’s probably not good for you’. I think most of these meet that criteria. While most of these are considered minor irritants, benzene has been found to raise cancer probability. Not good.

Mr. Jobs, um… Can you make me a laptop that won’t make me sick? Pretty please?

[ Source ]

I don’t even know why I’m writing about this. If you’re a Star Wars fan, just go ahead and download this one. It’s free, and only takes a few seconds to install… But for those of you that want to read on, please do continue

Lightsaber Unleashed is a small app that replaces the original PhoneSaber app. I believe the developers at TheMacBox had gotten into a little trouble with one George Lucas over their first app… But they worked something out, and together developed this new beauty.

In this app you can swing your iPhone and a range of Lightsaber effects will be heard through the speakers on your device. You can also draw or withdraw your Lightsaber with cool effect. In the game you can also choose any character you want from the ‘Force Unleashed’ game. There is also some ‘dueling’ music that should sound familiar to you… it should help add ‘drama’ to the situation Enough talk… Screens and purchase details after the jump >

(more…)

Spreadsheet for the iPhone

Developers at Softalk announced today the release of the first spreadsheet app for the iPhone. The app is called ‘Spreadsheet’ (brilliant) and features over 50 functions with the ability to email spreadsheets to anyone running Microsoft Excel 2003 or above.

CEO of Softalk Simon Bates said:

“The iPhone’s popularity is growing rapidly as a business tool, particularly since iPhone 2.0 introduced Exchange compatibility, but up until now it has desperately lacked a spreadsheet application. We are glad to have been the first to have filled that gap”.

The Spreadsheet app provides a scrollable and zoomable view, cell formatting features and more. Some of the key features include:

• Multiple cell types, including Numeric, Date, Time, Currency, Percentage and Text
• Copy/cut/paste operations.
• A range of functions, including date/time, math, statistical, string and trigonometric functions.
• Export (via email) to external spreadsheet applications.

You can pick up Spreadsheet for $7.99 at the App Store.

[ Source ]

Users now need to download an app before they can submit a review.

I’ve heard from numerous developers that have not only had a tough time with app inclusion in the store… But also with the review system. Because anyone could write a review, some unscrupulous developers would in some cases ‘bash’ others apps… Especially if the app was in direct competition.

To address the growing problem, Apple has finally changed the review process. It should help a bit. Now, in order to submit a review, a user must first be confirmed to have downloaded the application. This should help get rid of the thoughtless and pointless reviews from folks that obviously have never looked at or downloaded the app. However, I would expect some shady developers to still go ahead and purchase an app for $1.99 or $4.99 just to leave some negative comments.

Karma people… C’mon now.

When the first generation iPhone launched in June of last year, Jose Trujillo filed suit against Apple because the iPhone had a non-user removable battery. Trujillo filed suit against Apple in July of 2007 in Illinois state court. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly said:

“Apple disclosed on the outside of the iPhone package that the [battery has] limited recharge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced by [an] Apple service provider. Under the circumstances, no reasonable jury could find that deception occurred.”

Nice try Jose… Or… should I say…. ‘No way, Jose!’

Long time readers may remember a post a while back about the BETA of a custom RSS reader of the website for Mobile Safari, I am pleased to announce that 2nd BETA of the service is starting again available soon at this address where you will be able to test out the new platform which features these enhancements……

• Brand new graphics to accompany the new site design
• Significant speed increase
• Background images designed to accompany large posts
• Brand new home screen icon

Overall this new design is much more efficient although I am still seeing some problems with image resizing so I’ll have to see if I can do any editing to fix that!

A couple of people did mention that they had no idea how to use the service so as a rough guide you do not need to use any of Mobile Safari’s navigation buttons, you just tap the story you want to read, scroll down as per usual with any website and then if you would like to go back to more articles then tap the back to more articles button. Or if you would like to read the current story on the Mactropolis website then tap read more! Very simple very concise and built from the ground up for iPhones!

Pool players get ready for some pretty good pool action on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Vegas Pool Sharks Lite is a free app that brings some fairly realistic gameplay to your device.

The game features a rich, 3D environment. The physics of the table and balls is almost spot-on. You can view the table at any angle… Tilt and zoom the table any way you need it to get that perfect view on your next shot. As in the real deal, you can also apply ‘English’ to the ball to impart spin and play perfect position for your next shot.

While the free or ‘lite’ edition of this game is limited, it’s still enjoyable. If you really get a kick out of it I would suggest upgrading to the full version for only $1.99. Screenshots, developer and app store links after the jump >

(more…)