A-Z London Maps for iPhone

UK iPhone users planning a trip to, or living in, London have something to look forward too, as the Geographers A-Z Map Company has reached a deal with Visual IT mobile solutions that enables iPhone owners to carry that classic London travel guide on your iPhone, Cult of Mac informs.

Better than Google Maps, this solution doesn't require your phone to be connected, as the maps and data are stored on your phone, and require 50MB of space.

While Google Maps can e incredibly helpful when you travel round town, the great advantage of these maps is that they offer better detail on places of interest, and are utterly familiar to Londoners.

The original A-Z was created by Phyllis Pearsall in the 1930s. She walked 3,000 miles, painstakingly recording and indexing as she went.

London A-Z is available now on the iTunes App store for 5.99.

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Nokia 'Comes With Music' service won't kill iTunes

Carphone Warehouse today confirmed the pricing and launch details of Nokia’s ‘Comes With Music’ service, and while the proposition may appear attractive, it's already being slammed as "fatally flawed" by some detractors.

How it works: Nokia Comes With Music offers a year of unlimited access to music all within the Pay As You Go handset cost of 129.95. It launches 16 October and the available handset is the 5310 XpressMusic handset.

The service allows tracks to be downloaded directly to your computer, from where they can then be transferred to the handset. Downloaded tracks can be kept on the handset or PC - but that's where the problems begin.

Customers must register their PC and their Comes With Music device to their account before any content can be downloaded and content can then only be downloaded/synchronised between the two devices registered to the account at any one time.

Once the year’s subscription is complete, customers can keep all of their music - but two years after that one year period, users will be able to keep the content on their current device/PC but will no longer be able to transfer it to other computers.

And, because the music is shrouded in DRM, they won't be able to burn it to CD or keep it in some other way - in other words, the music won't belong to them forever.

Andrew Harrison, UK CEO of The Carphone Warehouse said: “Music lovers nationwide will now be able enjoy access to millions of tracks for a one-off charge. We believe this to be the best music offering available which completely breaks the mould of conventional online music purchases.”

Ben Drury, CEO of UK online music service 7digital.com has slammed the newly-announced Nokia 'Comes With Music' service as "fatally flawed".

"Nokia’s new service is an interesting new model for digital music but at first glance seems fatally flawed," he said.

"Why would you download music in a format that is so restrictive, when you can get the same music in a universal format that can be played and shared across any music enabled device? MP3 is the only format that works on all devices - MP3 downloads are compatible with any music player, including iPods, iPhones, Blackberries, Sony Walkmans and all other MP3 players," he added.

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iPhone Bootcamp planned for Germany in Dec.

Big Nerd Ranch Europe plans to hold a week-long iPhone Bootcamp for developers, in Frankfurt, Germany. The event runs from December 8 - 12, 2008 in Kloster Eberbach.

iPhone Bootcamp features instructor Alexander von Below, an experienced Mac developer who works as a consultant to the Mac industry. Attendees need no previous experience in coding Objective-C, coding for the Mac or coding for the iPhone, but students should be familiar with C, along with an object-oriented languages like Java or C++. Tools used in the course include the latest versions of Mac OS X and Xcode.

Specific features of the iPhone bootcamp will include drawing with Quartz and OpenGL, making graphics move using Core Animation, dealing with multi-touch events, displaying text, input from the onscreen keyboard, using toolbars and view controllers to create applications with multiple views, accessing telephony and web services, accessing the camera function, and more.

The class costs €2800, which includes all class materials, a luxury room, three meals a day, t-shirt, and transportation to and from the airport.

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Obama campaign creates an iPhone App

The democratic campaign to elect Barack Obama for president has introduced an iPhone application.

The Obama '08 Application (iTunes link) is available from the App store and has a flurry of features for those actively supporting Obama:

- Call Friends: A volunteering tool that enables you to talk people you already know. Your contacts are prioritised by key battleground states, and you can make calls and organize results all in one place. - Call Stats: See nationwide Obama '08 Call Friends totals and find out how your call totals compare to leading callers. - Get Involved: Find and contact your local Obama for America HQ. - Receive Updates: Receive the latest news and announcements via text messages or email. - News: Browse complete coverage of national and local campaign news. - Local Events: Find local events, share by email and get maps and directions. - Media: Browse videos and photos from the campaign - Issues: Get facts about Barack Obama...

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Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare hits UK

Aspyr Media has introduced 'Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare' for Mac.

Developed by Infinity Ward and licensed by Activision, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was made available for Mac by Aspyr Studios.

The game has a tense storyline filled with plot twists, pitting players into intense battles featuring spectacular special effects, including rim-lighting, depth of field, texture streaming and character self-shadowing. The developers call this "one of the most photo-realistic gaming experiences imaginable."

The title also features multiplayer gaming, including a robust levelling system, a variety of unlockable elements and more. Additionally there's over 100 challenges and a host of new game environments and 29 modes.

Oh, and there's the return of Killcam, a feature which allows game spectators to enjoy instant replays of their favourite gaming moments.

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Buffalo LinkStation NAS sports iPhone access

Buffalo Technology has revealed its latest external NAS (network attached storage) hard drive, the LinkStation Live, and its new Web Access technology.

The drive is designed to attach to a home network and internet connection to enable remote access to files. The Web Access function enables remote users to log in to the hard drive via Buffalo's NAS Web site from any Mac or PC computer and access and stream the files.

Macworld caught up with Buffalo's Paul Hudson, Sales Director Northern Europe. He told us that Web Access enables users to quickly and securely access their NAS drive without any of the usually difficulty required in setting up a NAS service.

Like Back To My Mac, the service appears to work with regular dynamic IP addresses, rather than requiring the user to purchase a static IP address from their Internet service provider. The device is currently undergoing testing.

The LinkStation Live is fully compatible with iTunes 7.0 (iTunes 8 is expected to be compatible but is undergoing testing), which means you can store your iTunes library on the LinkStation Live and access it remotely via iTunes on your laptop or another desktop Mac.

Interestingly, the Web Access function also works on the iPhone, and would enable users to access and stream media directly from the NAS drive through Buffalo's Web Access site. Although the Web Access function is designed for desktop use and the interface isn't optimised for the iPhone, it should work just as well. However, Buffalo told us that a dedicated iPhone App is currently in production – if successful this will enable iPhone users to access all the contents of their hard drive (music, video and documents) from within a custom-built interface.

The LinkStation Live is available in two models, a 500GB unit costing 124.99, and a 1.0TB model costing 169.99.

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iTunes future hangs in the balance over royalty payments

The future of music at the iTunes Store rests in the hands of three Washington judges who will decide today what royalties music publishers should get from sales through online stores like Apple's.

At present, iTunes pays 9.1-cents per track in royalties to publishers, though the National Music Publishers' Association wants this raised to 15 cents, arguing that there's lower cost of production for digital goods, arguing this means there's more cash in the pot to share out.

Major labels, Apple and other music retailer members of the DiMA (Digital Media Association) want the royalty reduced to 4.8 cents.

Apple has threatened to close its store if the ruling goes against its wishes. Eddy Cue, vice-president of iTunes, told the three judges - who sit on the Copyright Board board, “[Apple] is in this business to make money, and would most likely not continue to operate [iTunes] if it were no longer possible to do so profitably.”

The judges will also set “mechanical” royalties publishers earn from mobile ringtones and compact discs.

While the decision should be made today, it may not be made public until later this week.

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