This Windows-based emulator gives you a sneak peak at how Firefox Mobile will perform. And by the look of things, it’s shaping up pretty well. Instantly, you’ll see that this isn’t merely a port of the desktop version of Firefox but rather a completely new interface designed to be used comfortably on the small-screen.

Touch-screen users will love the way that Firefox Mobile is organized. The main window dedicates pretty much the whole screen space to the web page itself rather than placing loads of tools and options on screen. In fact, the only things displayed here other than the web page itself are the large, touch-friendly address bar and bookmarks button.

Firefox Mobile avoids clutter by locking its settings in a menu that can only be viewed by dragging the screen to the right. Here, you can tinker with options for JavaScript, cookies, passwords, etc., as well as managing your plug-ins. Yes, that’s right, Firefox Mobile will be fully extensible, and this version even picks up the add-ons you’ve got installed in your desktop version of the browser.

Perhaps the feature I like most in Firefox Mobile, is the way it handles tabs. Instead of displaying tabs underneath the address bar like in normal Firefox, this version stores all your tabs in a hidden area on the left, which again, can be opened by dragging your finger across the screen – this time to the left. This is another way in which the program optimizes screen space without sacrificing functionality.

There are other features on the horizon that haven’t been wholly integrated into the Fennec alpha yet, such as quick dial for phone numbers on Web pages, and more work will be done to support maps and GPS tools. In fact, the sky is the limit really in terms of features if enough developers get excited about Firefox Mobile. Mozilla is banking on the fact that developers can build apps and add-ons freely using AJAX, CSS, JavaScript or HTML, rather than having to learn new techniques to code projects for multiple mobile platforms using multiple languages.

For now though, Fennec is a very crude version of Firefox Mobile, which is rife with display errors, bugs and feels very much incomplete. Nevertheless, if you want a sneaky peak at how the future of mobile Web browsing might look, then the Firefox Mobile emulator is worth a look.

Fifteen years ago, I was 15 years old, ambitious and filled with dreams. Most of these entailed the creation of those fictitious worlds that sucked me in. Adventure games presented me with both worlds of magic (far, far away), as well as dystopian, grim representations of OUR world. Beneath a Steel Sky (1994) belongs to the latter category.

With references to Nietzsche, Huxley and Orwell, BASS came packed with intelligence, leaving us disconcerted by… hiatuses of thought. Of course back then, in The Netherlands, all we got from our English reading list was Watership Down. Don’t get me wrong: I felt sorry for those rabbits. However, I felt even sorrier for those who did not get their hands on a copy of Beneath a Steel Sky.

Your quest

The game takes place in a post-nuclear world, divided in an outside – the Gap – and an inside – a hierarchical city. Or is it the other way around? Robert Foster is a child of both worlds: he finds himself growing up in the Gap, yet feels something from the inside pulling him in.

What or who this is and what happens next, are catalysts in Foster’s quest. Find out who you are, where you come from, who put you there and how exactly that fits into the bigger picture. Kind of like ordinary life, wrapped up in a shiny iPhone port of a classic adventure.

This remastered version features new artwork by Dave Gibbons, a unique user-interface and high quality music. Unlike previous versions, you can use an extensive hint system to help you out.

Getting stuck is out of the question.

Full control

The new controls are unique: point-and-click has become tap-and…tap. There is no cursor on the screen, blue dots show points of interest instead. Although I played around with a beta version, the game certainly feels right. It translates well to the small screen and feels more effective than  ScummVM’s interface on iPhone. Let’s be honest: if you found this blog post you probably played the game under the popular engine.

Beneath a Steel Sky flirts with visual styles that remind you of Metropolis and Blade Runner. The game was a huge success back in 1994 and seems reminiscent of that time. Revolution Software nailed the controls and fixes the ‘point’ issue (who needs cursors nowadays) which may pave the way for adventure gaming on the iPhone.

The game should hit stores, one in particular, in about a month. Until then,

BE VIGILANT

Hi! I’ve been thinking about buying a smartphone, and one of the features I’ve heard people talking about on mobile blogs is “Augmented Reality”. What is that, and why is it useful? Should it affect my choice of phone?

Though it seems like something of a current buzzword, Augmented Reality as a term was actually coined in the 1980’s. In simple terms, Augmented Reality – also called AR – means the enhancement of what you have around you by adding a layer of data to it. In other words, you can use AR to make your surroundings ’smarter’ – pointing out places of interest, for example.

On my HTC Magic Android phone (AKA the myTouch 3G), I’ve tried out a few of the more popular AR apps and I can honestly say that while I don’t use them 24/7, knowing that I have them to hand is a great feeling. Wikitude AR is the first Augmented Reality app I tried and its results were impressive. Simply point your phone’s camera at anything you like and Wikitude combines GPS location, your phone’s internal compass and a variety of data streams (most notably Wikipedia) to provide you with a wealth of information about what you’re looking at. A newer competitor, Layar, performs similarly but with the advantage of being free and open – meaning that anyone can add their own data layer to it.

Another application, Sky Map, may not be considered to be a classic use of AR but in my opinion it’s a great example of what Augmented Reality can do. Using it to locate and name celestial objects is actually really fun and enhances a fun hobby.

Old heavy industry has a poor environmental image, but do new high tech industries do much better? We don’t imagine smoke stacks and poisoned lakes etc when we think of web 2.0 (or 2.1, 3.0…), but is there any evidence this industry thinks about the future of the planet any more than the old industries?

With the Spotify mobile apps one thing becomes quickly obvious – streaming to your phone hits your battery, much more than listening to your personal library would.

I have a contact who works with design sustainability in the UK, and after a short discussion about Spotify, his answer was unequivocal: “Digital streaming has the look of another clever technology that is not good for us“.

In essence it’s because when consuming media ‘locally’, you only have to download it once, and can then access it as many times as you want, only using the energy of that one device. But with streaming services, every time you access media you are consuming more energy in the sending and receiving  of information, the server running at the other end and your device too. That uses more energy.

We are supposed to be cutting our energy consumption dramatically over the next decade, and yet are developing new technologies that are obviously less energy efficient. I’m picking on Spotify because it’s new – video services like Voddler would undoubtedly be worse, and any streaming service is essentially wasteful. These services are convenient, and people love what they can do, but shouldn’t convenience be secondary to sustainability? The idea of downloading content that is then “thrown away” immediately after use is dreadful, after all.

I read many tech blogs daily, and the environment is basically off the radar, as if it’s not their concern. It is everyone’s concern: if sustainability and energy efficiency aren’t part of your development and design decisions in the 21st Century, you are designing irresponsibly.

Duke Nukem – The original king of action returns for more mindless mutant-mashing mayhem

Sonic The Hedgehog – The speedy critter’s original and best adventure remade for the iPhone

Golden Axe – Relive your dragon-riding, dwarf-slashing childhood years

Ms. Pacman – Essentially Pacman with a bow on his head, but man was Ms. Pacman hot

Streets of Rage – Clean up the streets in this brutal side-scrolling beat-em-up from the old day

Columns- The second best falling-bricks game ever

Doom – OK, it’s not that scary now but at the time you couldn’t play it with the lights out

Bomberman – Explosive arcade fun on your iPhone

Worms – The slimy mercenaries return in this, one of the best games available for iPhone

Flashback – Make out like you’re James Bond in this stylish mystery adventure game

It is certainly true that if Microsoft was seen as being this controlling today, it would get roasted by the press (as it has done in the past). But I think Microsoft are in a very different position, as they have a massive market lead over the rest, and unless you can pay more fomore for an Apple,  or are brave enough for the uber-tech-nerd world of Linux, you will use Microsoft. So they’d better listen to people, as people mostly aren’t using them by choice.

But you choose to use a Mac, or to buy an iPhone. Apple products are beautifully designed, incredibly user friendly, and generally don’t crash. People loved the iPhone when it came out, but now it’s being demonized for not being able to do something it has never been able to do. Maybe the iPhone would be improved with Google Voice -  but it’s no worse without it. It seems a great deal of this is that users feel they are being denied a free service, but you can’t blame companies for wanting to maintain revenue.

To me, people are wrongly assuming that because they own a product, they have a say in its development. They don’t. Apple, like Nintendo, make incredible products by not listening to people, and being secretive. There may be odd things that other companies do better, but none of them get the whole package as right as the iPod and Mario creators. When lowly users are allowed to get involved, you get a big mess as the Simpsons showed us years ago with “The Homer” automobile.

As for exploding iPods: that just sounds cool!

Of course, it’s unrealistic to expect a major corporation to welcome applications that could rival their own with open arms. But Apple’s recent decision to reject the Google Voice iPhone app displays an ugly tendency by Apple to block anything that threatens its position. The poor excuse used by Apple was it already offers functionality available on the iPhone. This particular decision now hangs a big question mark over whether Spotify will be accepted by the Apple iPhone store as I questioned last week. A decision to reject that too would symbolize yet another unacceptable blow by Apple to a superbly innovative application that could provide the blueprint for music distribution in the digital age.

To be fair to Apple, the acceptance or rejection of Spotify for iPhone will be a much greater indicator of its true attitude towards innovation than the The FCC in America have stepped-in to investigate that particular case because it’s been suggested that it may actually be mobile network AT&T (who distribute iPhones in the USA) that put pressure on Apple to reject it, based on the fact that they obviously don’t want people using their iPhones to make calls and send texts for free. Spotify on the other hand is a direct competitor to Apple’s own iTunes and the decision to reject or accept it will be Apple’s alone.

However, as Jon pointed out earlier this year, censorship of applications is nothing new to Apple. He highlighted the increasing lack of credibility they suffered when they initially rejected an app which linked to “offensive” song lyrics and an e-book reader that, shock-horror, would allow you to read a version of the Karmasutra translated from the 1800’s. Albeit, these were widely interpreted as a knee-jerk reaction to Apple’s decision to withdraw the tasteless Baby Shaker application.

Meanwhile an indication of Apple’s “bullying” business tactics when it comes to hardware were illustrated by its recent decision to silence exploding iPod victims with gag orders. One particular British iPod owner, who heard a hissing sound from his daughter’s increasingly hot iPod, threw it into the garden to see it explode 10 feet into the air. Although he only requested a refund, he was demanded to sign a gagging order that would allow Apple to take legal action against him if he or his family ever revealed the terms of the settlement being offered.

The bigger question here is what gives Apple the right to dictate what can and can’t be installed on an a piece of hardware once someone has shelled-out the cash for it? Not even Microsoft – the embodiment of the monopolistic business practices in software – would even go so far as to dictate what can and can’t be installed on a Windows Mobile device for example. The evidence is mounting – Apple has it’s eye on the crown and it won’t let the spirit of innovation that has brought it so far stand in its way.

Bowling Master – If it’s realistic bowling fun you’re after then Bowling Master is the place to find it. The game gives you four different lanes to play, lots of funny animations and great graphics to boot. The ball physics are some of the best you’ll see anywhere, and the one-button control system makes Bowling Master a dream to play. Strike!

Pro Tour Golf- Become the next Tiger Woods by downloading Pro Tour Golf. This realistic 3D golf sim comes with two challenging courses to play in either single or multi-player modes. You can customize your set of clubs, choose between match and stroke play competitions, and enter as a male or female golfer. Hole in One!

Legacy – Here’s one for all you RPG fans. Legacy combines combat and puzzle-solving in a rip-roaring adventure that will consume your life. The graphics and sounds are superb giving the game an atmosphere that puts you in mind of classic RPG adventure games such as Eye of the Beholder, Black Crypt, and Might & Magic. There’s even a free level editor for expanding your World. Magical!

ScummVM – Remember how addictive those old LucasArts point-and-click games like Sam & Max, Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle used to be? Well, now you can relive those eight-hour gaming stints by installing ScummVM. It’s a free utility that lets you run any LucasArts game based on the SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Manic Mansion) engine. Manic mayhem!

Virtual Pool – Chalk up and smack into the pack – it’s time to play the most realistic mobile pool game ever. Virtual Pool lets you take to the circuit and try to become the best in the World, in its highly enjoyable career mode.The game’s realistic ball figures and natural-feeling control system make it the most realistic pool experience on the S60 platform. Pool potty!

Sky Force – This one has been around for some time now and has earned its placed as one of the all-time classic games for Series 60 phones. It’s a top-down scrolling shooter in the mold of Raiden and 1942, and boasts astounding graphics and mesmerizing gameplay. You really get the impression that you’re hurtling through the sky at full speed. Supersonic!

vNES – Love Nintendo games? Then get your hands on vNes, an NES emulator for Symbian devices. With this utility you’ll be able to download and install all your old favorites for the classic console, such as Super Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, and the like. vNES is lightweight, easy-to-use, and comes with customizable controls. Retro!

Cricket 20-20 – This one might be a bit niche, but if you like cricket you’ll be bowled over by this one. Cricket 20-20 sees you take control of one of the World’s finest teams and enjoy the thrills and spills of a limited-overs cricket match. Both graphics and gameplay are excellent, as is the game’s attention to detail. Howzat!

Aces Texas Hold ‘em – No Limit – Get practicing your poker face because you’re going to need it and in this no limit game of cards you better be good, otherwise you’ll end up losing a lot of money. Not real money, thankfully, although when you win it’s a bit disappointing not to be able to pocket the cash. There are loads of options including playing a huge game of 22-man poker. Full house!

Lemonade Tycoon – I bet you never thought a lemonade selling sim would be fun. Well, think again because Lemonade Tycoon is a ridiculously addictive Nokia game. You start out with a small lemonade stand on a street corner and must build yourself an empire through a combination of sweet recipes and business savvy. Fizzy!

Spotify is serious search for Spotify on Mac on the Apple downloads website and no results were found although I’m not sure how much can be read into this.

A promotional video launched by Spotify shows that users will also be able to listen to music offline by downloading playlists onto their iPhone. This is great news for those who live in areas where network coverage is poor. However, the bad news is that initially, it’s only going to be available to premium users but this could finally be the driver that Spotify has been looking for to encourage users to convert from the free ad-supported version.

The likelihood is that Apple will approve the app. After all, Spotify is growing hugely and its success will only drive iPhone sales even further and these should offset any losses iTunes makes. And by blocking it from the store, it’s only going to make iPhone users want it more and no doubt, eventually someone would create a hack for it anyway.

One other strange thing worth noting about this news is that Spotify mobile was first demoed on Android and yet it’s being released on iPhone first. Depending on the success of the iPhone version, an Android release will surely follow shortly. US users will have to wait the longest unfortunately – Spotify hasn’t even launched there yet and isn’t expected to until the end of this year.

NomaDesk bills itself as “The easiest and most secure way to share, synchronize and backup critical files; wherever you are, even off-line.” Such a service does come at a price however – usually $15 per month for teams and $50 a year for individuals although if your data is important, it’s a relatively small price worth paying. Fortunately you can have a free 30 day trial of NomaDesk before parting with any cash.

NomaDesk is available in two separate versions — a “Team Fileserver” for people who want to share and collaborate on documents, and a “Personal Fileserver” for those who use different computers but want to make sure information is synchronized.

Naturally, all files stored on NomaDesk’s servers are encrypted and password protected. Getting them there is also made as easy as possible. For example, you can e-mail them directly to the server and allowing others to access them is as easy as sending a link. In case the worst happens, there’s a handy “Theftguard,” which enables you to remove data from your hard drive in a flash if your computer gets stolen. NomaDesk can remotely remove data at your request but the information is still securely saved on NomaDesk’s fileservers. The program also uses a “Delta-sync” feature which synchronizes only those parts of a file which have changed, saving you time and bandwidth. Meanwhile, if you’ve got an iPhone, you can access and modify your files extremely easily via a NomaDesk dashboard widget.

There are some major drawbacks I found to NomaDesk however. One is the lengthy setup process which requires a complete restart after installation and is really annoying if you’ve got lots of applications open. You also have to send a confirmation e-mail after the restart which all adds time onto the account setup process. Worse than this however are the frequent hang-ups and crashes when NomaDesk logs-in. Twice it hung my entire system forcing me to make a complete restart leaving me less than impressed.

However, these problems can probably be attributed to the fact that NomaDesk for Mac is still in Beta stage. When it is working properly, NomaDesk is extremely simple and easy to use. The cost of using NomaDesk may put off some but if your data is valuable, it could be a price worth paying once it’s more stable.