Android – Iphone – Applications

In one of the smaller announcements today, Apple announced that iOS 5 on the iPad 2 will support a feature called AirPlay mirroring. This feature is something that I’ve been telling people would eventually come to the iOS world and basically backdoor Apple into the console market.

If you aren’t familiar with HDMI mirroring on the iPad, it’s a feature that lets you plug in an cable into a special adapter on your iPad 2 and display your screen on an HDTV. This feature is great for use in classrooms and has even seen some play in games as well with Firemint using this feature to allow 1080p output on your TV from their Real Racing 2 HD via mirroring. But, you are tethered to the TV with a cable.

So, what’s AirPlay mirroring then, you ask? According to Apple, “AirPlay® Mirroring to wirelessly display everything you do on your iPad 2 right on your HDTV through Apple TV®.” To me, that means with an iPad 2, you’ll be able to do that mirroring without a cable. That means anything you see on your iPad 2, you will be able to see on an Apple TV. Let that sink in and then think using that feature for games.

This means that any game you play on your iPad 2, you’ll be able to play on your TV, wirelessly. Yes, wirelessly. You launch Angry Birds on your iPad 2 and the Angry Birds screen will show up on your TV. Boom, instant game console with $0.99 game downloads.

To control the game, you would use the iOS device as the controller. The Apple TV becomes the cheapest console out there at $99 with the largest game library at nearly 100,000 games. Your iPad 2 becomes your controller, albeit a very expensive one. We can assume that this feature will also be available in the next iPhone and iPod touch, once their processors and memory are upgraded and on parity with the iPad 2.

Let’s wrap that all up together, and it means that you can consider the Apple TV to be firmly in the game console market now. This is huge! I can’t stress enough how much of a game changer this is for the gaming world.

Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft should be worried. They have all been rather slow to adopt downloadable games, now Apple has gone and made it easy and cheap. If Apple does to the console market what they have done to the mobile software market, they should be very worried. The Apple TV, which started out as Steve Jobs hobby, could turn out to be the most popular home game and entertainment console around.

About: Did Apple Just Backdoor Their Way Into the Game Console Market? Yes. is a post from 148Apps

written by chenzhikai \\ tags: airplay mirroring, angry, apple, apple tv, console, gaming, ipad, microsoft, processors

Coming soon to the app store is Hard Lines – a game that appears to happily capture the spirit of Pac-Man, Snake and Geometry Wars all in one go.

Like all the best arcade style games, Hard Lines is all about how long the player can last. Players must guide Lionel the line through the Geometry Wars style arena, ensuring that they don’t collide with an enemy’s tail (just like Snake).

Gaining the best high score is the order of the day here with OpenFeint support allowing for global comparisons, and there will be 6 different gameplay modes providing some fresh but fast paced entertainment. Developers, Split Milk Studios, promise a good healthy dash of humor too so it’ll be interesting to see how that works out in the full product.

Hard Lines will be available on the App Store in the near future and we’ll be sure to provide more information soon. For now, take a look at the screenshot gallery and trailer below.

About: Retro Gaming With A Twist Coming Soon With Hard Lines is a post from 148Apps

written by wmbanku \\ tags: gaming, lines, lionel-the-line, pac man, provide-more, snake, split milk studios, split-milk, the-screenshot, twist-coming

Due to the fact that many of the latest games to hit the streets have very advanced graphics, gamers have generally flocked to high powered desktop computers. While this is a good thing as the power featured in some of these machines is quite ridiculous it usually keeps you glued to your desk. Luckily, if you want to get [...]

written by wmbanku \\ tags: desk, fact, gaming, laptop, laptops, latest, qosmio, streets, the-fact, the-latest, the-power, these-machines, toshiba, very-advanced, x770

There has been a lot of talk regarding the gaming capabilities of the various mobile platforms. In fact, many have gone so far as to say that platforms like Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android will eventually go on to phase out dedicated portable consoles like the pSP and Nintendo DS. This isn’t too far of [...]

written by MinhA18Mumford \\ tags: dedicated-portable, gaming, glasses-free 3d, like-the-psp, nintendo, phase-out, phase-out-dedicated, portable console, talk-regarding, the-gaming

There has been a lot of talk regarding the gaming capabilities of the various mobile platforms. In fact, many have gone so far as to say that platforms like Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android will eventually go on to phase out dedicated portable consoles like the pSP and Nintendo DS. This isn’t too far of [...]

written by klstej14 \\ tags: apple, dedicated-portable, gaming, like-the-psp, mobile gaming, nintendo, portable console, regarding-the-gaming, talk-regarding, the-various, too-far