News

BBC Active employ Coolgorilla for iPod and iPhone development

BBC Active has today re-launched their succesful Quickstart language-learning series, which has now been fully optimised for use with your iPod or iPhone.

Working with Coolgorilla, BBC Active has developed these new products so that in addition to listening to the audio course, you can also view the accompanying translations and course text on the screen of your iPod or iPhone. Chapters within each episode enable users to navigate easily around the courses, making it simple to pick up key phrases such as booking a hotel, getting directions or ordering a meal.

The series contains eight languages – Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish and come as part of a two-CD package retailing at £13.99.

Apple unveil 3G iPhone

Billed as "Twice as fast, Half the price" the widely anticipated 3G iPhone was unveiled today by Apple CEO Steve Jobs and will start shipping to stores from 11th July this year.

So, what's new? Here are the five key points where the new iPhone will differ;

3G Speed - The handset boasts surfing speeds almost three times faster than existing iPhone models and allegedly 35% faster than a Nokia N95 using the same 3G connection.

Battery Life - This was the main reason cited for the lack of 3G on the 1st generation iPhone as 3G is particularly hungry on battery juice. The new iPhone will provide up to 5 hours of 3G talk-time, 7 hours of video playback and 24 hours of audio playback, significantly higher than that of other 3G handsets.

GPS (Global Position System) - Using Google Maps you'll be able to accurately pin point your exact location within feet! Your position is highlighted in blue and will move as you travel from A to B. You'll never get lost again!

Price - Apple have massively slashed the price which will start retailing at just $199 for the 8GB model and $299 for 16GB. There will also be a 16GB model available in white.

Countries - The new iPhone will be available in over 70 countries by the end of the year! That's great news for Apple's fans across the globe and massive increase from the existing 6 countries.

Existing iPhone users can look forward to a free software update in early July which will provide some enhanced features including third party downloadable applications available from the App Store. One less popular announcement however is that iPod Touch users will have to pay $9.99 for the same update.

Google Android - The Swiss Army Phone

The big "G" lifted the lid a little further on their soon-to-be-released mobile operating system last week. Google Android, which looks set to shake up the mobile industry, was briefly demonstrated on a touch screen mobile not dissimilar to the iPhone.

A few features were flaunted such the phone unlocking system which, rather than relying on a PIN Code or password, requires you to draw a shape on your screen to unlock the phone.

Most impressive however was the demo given of Street View for mobile which comes complete with a built-in compass! If you haven't checked it out already, Street View is currently available on the Google Maps desktop and renders street level photography in a way which enables you to control a complete 360 degree view of major US cities.

Samsung and LG have both announced that they will start shipping handsets with Android by the end of the year and both Motorola and HTC are expected to follow shortly afterwards.

If you're feeling geeky you can watch a brief YouTube video here.

$100 Million Free Mobile Games Giveaway

In a move that will save mobile consumers an estimated $100 Million over the next three years, software developers Coolgorilla have today begun distributing third party mobile software applications completely free of charge.

The move enables mobile users to download free mobile games many of which consumers would normally expect to pay between $5-$10 for.

To get a look at some of the titles available click here or to get straight to the action visit www.coolgorilla.mobi from your mobile phone!

Breakout the iPhone Games!

Coolgorilla have unveiled their latest iPhone game, "SMASH" which someone told us is a little like an old arcade classic called "Breakout".

Using your skill and judgement, control your bat and ball to clear all the blocks and reach the next level.

Providing you with hours of finger tapping fun we think this is one of the best iPhone games yet. But then we would say that because we made it.

If you fancy smashing your blocks off using either your iPhone or iPod touch click here or visit www.coolgorilla.com/iphone Happy tapping!