The Apple Byte: Let's Play Lasertag With iPhones

A new Apple patent wants to bring augmented reality games to iOS devices, iOS 4.2 is ready to rollout with all new text tones, and Steve wants you to "buckle up" for all new products.

The Apple Byte: Let's Play Lasertag With iPhones What's happening? I'm Brian Tong and welcome to the AppleByte for all the good and bad inside the world of Apple. Let's get to the show; Apple is looking to bring augmented reality games to the iPhone, think of it like laser tag, coming to your phone for grown man. A recent Apple patent describes games that would use motion detection, GPS and the camera to compete with friends for grown men in a real 3D space. Virtual crosshairs would appear on screen and a light of fire at them, you would be able to know each other's location and there's even talk of a car docking system. Just exactly what we needed, now the ideas involved are actually really cool but I would never get all gangsters and use my iPhone like a gun. -Yeah it happens with it; no, no, this is it yeah. Yeah anyways I could probably come through to that. -Now Apple has released the Gold Master of IOS 4.2 to developers and that means it should be available to you within a week if not sooner. We showcase many of the improvements but here a few details in the final version on the iPad alongside the player controls, you'll now be able to adjust both the volume and the brightness and you'll also be able stream media with the dedicated airplay bun. The airplay iPhone has changed, you can view YouTube content and other videos to the media player on a larger screen but it still doesn't work till Apple releases an update to the Apple TV and my favorite screen orientation Lock switch is now a mute switch that rest directly next to the volume controls; Thanks Apple. Now on devices like the iPhone and iPod Touch from your player controls, swipe to the right one more time and you'll also get volume controls but they should have just made this a brightness slider since there's physical controls for volume accessible to all the time. Now we also told you about the exciting edition of new text tones, you won't be confused by that same old tri-tone sound anymore and we like to introduce a few of them to you in the Apple Bites Text Tone Theater: Ladder, Bloom, Cho-Cho. Yes we get paid to do that guys and now another news I've been raving about the new Mac Quick Air, it fits what I'm looking for by maybe I'll wait till they fix a recent display issue that causes horizontal flickering and the fading of dark colors to light which is never a good thing. Apple acknowledges they exist in an internal document and they'll be offering a software fix. Well let's check out a video we did a long, long time ago but we still think it will be really helpful for you all; it's 7 essential free apps for the Mac. Here are 7 essential apps you need for your Mac and all of these are free. iChat is fun but it doesn't work with every chat client, instead download Adium, this chatty app talks to Yahoo, MSN ICQ, AIM and more. You might have some issues transferring files to your friends but it's still our topic for a multiple service chat client. Now if you want to actually be productive, you don't have to spend hundreds of dollars on the Microsoft Office Suite; Open Office from openoffice.org is more than capable of handling word processing, spread sheets and presentations for professionals and may not be what you're looking for but for most of us, it's more than enough and it's free. Our computers are entertainment devices and QuickTime alone just doesn't cut it, VLC Media Player can play every video File format under the sun and also can be your default DVD Player. Now if you have DVDs from your personal collection that you want to back up, look no further than HandBrake, select the preset, let HandBrake do the work and your movie is ready to watch on anything from an iPhone to your PS3, we're halfway there and we've got 4 more to go and not everyone who owns a Mac has an iPod or iPhone that sync seamlessly with iTunes; and if you're one of those people DoubleTwist is the app for you, it takes the media from iTunes and converts music, photos and videos to work with your Blackberry Android Phone, PSP and almost any other mobile device. Now if you want to take productivity to a whole new level, Quicksilver is the hotkey king, bring up the interface, search for file, anywhere on your computer and choose from a list of actions like attaching a file and then email, it's all done with your keyboard, no dragging or dropping with your mouse. Everyone needs backup and Apple's Time Machine is built in to the OS but Carbon Copy Cloner gets you and on the spot bit for bit copy of your hard drives for backups or restores and it saved my butt plenty of times. Now I know there are plenty of other great apps like 1 Password, Things and Potomac but those will cost you. These 7 free apps are ones that our editors, readers and myself just can't do without but you know I had to add a few free Mac OS 10 widgets in to this mix. iZap Pro is for the geek in you, if you want to see your max CPU performance, memory usage and battery status and less geeky if you got to have those lyrics of the latest song Canto Pod is probably still the most effective lyric grabber that I know of. 7 apps and 2 widgets, I think that's a good way to get you started. I'm Brian Tong with your Essential Free Mac Apps, use them wisely. Another classic CNET Video, alright guys, let's check out some quick bites, iTunes Song Previews are now moving from 30 seconds to 90 seconds if the song over 2 minutes and 30 seconds, that means Charlie, I guess enjoy those extra sweet, sweet moments of Iron Butterfly. Oh, far-out Charlie. Alright now according to Steve Jobs, Apple TV will get support for iTunes Extras and iTunes LP Content in the near future and for those of you waiting for a 64-bit version of final cuts studio, as they responded in another email with Stay Tuned and Buckle Up and you know what? That's exactly what I'm going to do. I really hope you don't actually wear that Brian. Do Safety First, come on. I totally don't wear this. Alright Apple has opened up the Mac App Store for developers to start submitting their Mac Apps and we'll see how many developers actually jump on board and the latest Skype 5.0 Beta for Mac is available, it looks really clean with its single window design, it works with both Macs and PCs and their support for 3 way video chatting and finally check out this demo called Table Connect for the iPhone, it's a 58 inch, HD Capacitive Touch Screen that's dock with an iPhone and gives you full control device. I'm asking these guys to send me one of these immediately but it's just another cool tech demo. Alright let's going to do it for this week’s show, send me your emails to applebyte@cnet.com . I'm Brian Tong. Thanks for watching, we'll see you guys next week for another Byte of the Apple.