Thursday, February 21, 2008

More Potential iPhone Apps Emerge, Including BBC's iPlayer and Gameloft Games


Iphone_games_2Apple may be keeping tight-lipped about its SDK plans, but clues continue to emerge about what's in the native app pipeline. The latest hints come from this week's Game Developer's Conference here in San Francisco and a new report about the BBC's updated iPlayer.

Hidden among other stats about the streaming TV service, the BBC divulged it will also be launching an iPlayer service on Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch devices in "the next few weeks." Recall that Steve Jobs said the SDK would be available in late February and you'll note that the iPlayer service launch fits rather nicely within that release window.

Unfortunately, it's unclear whether the iPlayer, which comes in both web-streaming and Windows-only downloadable versions, will be native or simply an optimized streaming web version.

Then there are the games. As Wired.com observed last week, games are without a doubt some of the most likely candidates for native residency on the iPhone and iPod Touch. During Gameloft CEO and president Michel Guillemot's keynote at GDC, the iPhone made multiple appearances in several of his slides (see above), notes the U.K.'s Pocketgamer. And while the photo could be a mock-up, the fact remains that Gameloft already develops games for the iPod. Jumping over to the iPhone wouldn't be much of a stretch for the mobile game developer, especially with Guillemot predicting that touchscreen gaming, coupled with advanced handsets and the standardization of distribution costs will bring about a mobile-gaming renaissance later this year.

As for that supersecret Apple event that's supposed to happen during the final week of February -- the one that some are saying will be a venue for product refresh announcements and possibly an SDK unveiling -- the only clue that it might actually be happening comes from a post by Linkin Park frontman, Mike Shinoda.

"Looking forward to our first show at Madison Square Garden this week (sold out)!," he wrote on his site. "Also, look forward to a special show that we’re doing in NYC in conjunction with Apple…shh…it's a secret…"

Photo courtesy Pocketgamer

[Via MacRumors]

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