It’s easy to feel jealous of the free iPhone, no matter how cool your own phone is. Why? Because Apple has the App Store, which lets iPhone users download such cool applications as iBeer. No matter how nifty your new handset is, it probably doesn’t have easy access to as many apps as an iPhone.
The problem, of course, is that the huge variety of carriers and handset models makes it difficult for developers to design applications that work everywhere. But today, Hands-On Mobile launched a beta version of its Hands-On Mobile Developer Network, which will allow developers design rich mobile applications that work on any phone. The San Francisco company will also soon release Mixt, which makes it easier for cellphone users to find the applications, once they’re developed.
Eventually, the applications will work with all four major carriers.
“Apple made really a big splash when it launched the iPhone, and it had a built-in developer community,” said Michael Temkin, chief technology officer of Hands-On Mobile. He said that developers are looking for ways to easily develop similar applications for other phones. “I think there’s really a pent-up demand for it,” he said.
So far, Hands-On has a variety of applications, including a Magic 8 ball on phones that will answer users’ questions and a local search feature. We’ll know it has caught up to the App Store when people with lots of different handsets can go to the bar after work and all drink iBeers from their own separate phones.
Now the iPhone, the tech symbol of the “in” crowd, is on the verge of crossing the line into AIG-like excess and arrogance. “I’m not sure, under the current economic conditions, that it’s a great statement to make,” says Rob Enderle, principal analyst of the Enderle Group. “You may not want to flash it.”
From “my apps are cooler than your apps” contests to “sent from my iPhone” e-mail footers, people love showing off their iPhones. That’s not surprising, given that the users most compelled to buy the latest and greatest handsets and cell phones are “alpha dogs,” says Sarah Welch, COO of Mindset Media, which helps companies target ads based on personality traits. It’s when alpha-dog enthusiasm goes overboard and becomes bad manners that others get annoyed.
Yet the iPhone’s cultural impact is much more than just another wedge separating the haves and have-nots; the iPhone changes how people interact with each other and their surroundings. Traditional cell phones and iPods already audibly isolated people in their own little worlds, and iPhone’s visual carnival pushes that isolation further.
With more iPhone-like devices hitting the streets (most notably, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry Storm and T-Mobile’s Google Android-based G1), the notion of a siloed nation is neither far-fetched nor far off.
Indeed, traditional cell phones rattled American culture in only a few short years. In 2006, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger put the kibosh on the use of cell phones while driving in California — “you’re terminated!” — which led to a rash of tiny Bluetooth headsets sprouting from people’s ears.
“You can walk around and be insane, and people will think you’re just another person with a headset,” Enderle says. “With cell phones, we were largely talking on the phones, and that created a problem. We’ve moved to things like the iPhone that are much more visual, which makes the problem more pronounced.”
The visual nature of the iPhone can be a big distraction. Will consumers, walking around with their heads down as they play a game or look at a map on the iPhone’s mini-screen, collide with each other like pinballs?
Glibness aside, there are real and tragic consequences to being visually distracted. Last month, a train engineer in Los Angeles was allegedly text messaging on his cell phone moments before he crashed into a freight train, killing 25 people, including himself.
“These things are significant distractions,” Enderle says, “and I think the culture is going to have to wrap its arms around a certain number of behaviors that reduce those distractions.”
Anyone played these online mafia type games?
Fast Start
Go to the Hire section and scout for some operatives and defensive units Go to Black Market and buy some drugs, alcohol to make your guys happy. Also get weapons for your defensive units. Keep in mind that defensive units without weapons won’t do a thing. Also keep an eye on your guy’s happiness. It’s easy to keep them happy but if you don’t they will start leaving you. Start by making some money by collecting money from your casinos, brothels, loan sharks, gambling dens. When you get enough turns, go get some more operatives and defensive units and repeat from step 1 When you feel strong and rich enough. You can attack other Mafioso’s in your range. Be careful, nobody will let you attack them without revenge. This is the real Mafia World “an eye for an eye, an arm, and a leg”. Don’t forget to protect part of your money in the bank or you can loose it if somebody mugs you. Join a family since you won’t be able to survive by yourself. Otherwise start your own. Finally, enjoy the game as much as you can and watch you’re back 
Rounds…. Each round will last about 7-10 days to make it fair for newcomers, plus it gives everyone a better chance to win. Once the round ends everything starts over from scratch you can change your name family name everything. You don’t carry anything from one round to the next; this means no money guy’s and any turns (you’ll see more about turns in the next section) Turns & Reserves
Turns is what you use to do everything. For example: to attack someone, it requires 2 turns. Every 10 minutes you will receive a certain amount of turns, depending on the rounds settings. Each round, you also start off with a given amount of reserves. Reserves are also basically turns, except reserves can be saved for later in the round until you decide to use them. Net worth
Awards are given to Mafioso’s based on their net worth ranking. So here is how net worth is calculated: Whores ($2,500) + Card dealers ($2,000) + Bootleggers ($1,500) + Hustlers ($1,000) + Punks ($500) + Hitmen ($1,000) + Thugs ($500) + Bodyguards ($500) + cash + bank
Ranking…. We rank members based on levels for net worth and kills. Net worth rankings are based on many aspects see levels in game for description of each level and what it takes to be in that level. Killer ranks area based in the same manner however some round there will be killer prizes some rounds there are not. However 3 medals are also given per level in net and killer levels.
Families…. Midnight-Mafias is a simulation of the mafia underworld. Just like the real mafia, you can join families - a group of people who believe in the same thing, have the same ideas or just trust each other. A family brings protection, it brings respect from other members and it gives you trust in other members. Trust and respect can save your life, but it can also get you killed. Families have a size limit of 30 Mafioso’s / family.
Hire…. One of the basics of organized crime is to be able to do things your way and not end up in jail. Partly this is accomplished by not doing any crimes yourself, instead paying others to do so. In order to maintain your empire under control, you’ll need different types of personnel to perform all the different tasks and duties. In order to get some staff in your crew you could scout for them. To scout for crew members, just use your turns and look in the place where you would find the kind of guys you need.
Operatives…. Operatives are the kind of units that would work in your businesses and produce different kind of goods. The operatives that could be part of your crew are: Card dealers - work in your casinos and will determine how much cash your tables will roll out. Whores - work in your brothel and will determine how much cash people will pay for them. Bootleggers - work in your speakeasy and will determine how much liquor your speakeasy will make. Hustlers - work in your loan shark and will help to push people to collect loan payments. Punks - work in your gambling den and will help to push people to bet.
Defensive Units…. Defensive units are units that would protect you and your operatives, and would attack other Mafioso’s. The defensive units that could be part of your crew are: Hitmen - strengths are their intelligence at the time of performing an order and their good weapons skills. They would kill and protect you. Thugs - are not as intelligent and well mannered as gangsters. They will also be used for attacks and to protect you. Bodyguards - are really easy to get and will protect you well. They are not that good for attacks though.
Happiness…. Having your crew happy is one of the most important things that you would be looking after. If your operatives or defensive units are not happy, they would start leaving you as soon as you ask them to operate. Your operatives need some alcohol and coke to be happy. They would also need to have defensive units to protect them at work which would make them happy as well. Your operative’s payroll is also a part of their happiness. Your defensive units need liquor and weed to be happy. They insist to have from 2 glocks to 1 ak47 per defensive unit to be happy.
Black Market…. In the black market you are able to get whatever you need for you guys. You’re able to buy narcotics, weapons, cars and planes. You could sell cars and planes for 90% of their price. You could also sell drugs at a smaller fraction of what price you paid. Narcotics are mainly used to make your guys happy. Your defensive units need liquor and weed to be happy. Your operatives need liquor and coke to be happy too. Try to get a big stock of them. Weapons are used for attacks and are important for you guys happiness. You could get glocks, shotguns, Uzis and ak47’s. The more expensive the weapon, the more the kills it makes. Cars are used to do a drive-by or to steal other Mafioso’s cars. The Chrysler 300 only takes 5 people. Planes are used to travel to other cities to attack other Mafioso’s. When you get your private jet you don’t need to pay for plane tickets. You should keep in mind that your members that don’t travel with you are lost. The Boeing 737-400 can take up 300 people..
Produce…. Productions are part of your illegal activities. So you could use turns to produce coke, weed, alcohol and fake cash. Your thugs are used to produce coke and weed in you drug lab Your bootleggers are used to produce alcohol in your speakeasy Your punks are used to create fake money
Collect…. You could use some turns to collect some money from your businesses. You own casinos, brothels, loan sharks and gambling dens. Your Card dealers are used to run your casino tables Your whores are used to work in your brothels Your hustlers are used to collect loan payments in your loan sharks your punks are also used to run your gambling dens
Cash and the bank…. Just like the real world, you have a bank account and a pocket. The money you use anywhere is the cash you got on you. However, keeping money in your pocket is risky. Another Mafioso can mug you and take whatever you have there. So, depositing a part of it in the bank is a good idea. You are able to put 25% of your net worth which will cost you 15 turns each time. Later, if you want to add more money in safe box, you would have to withdraw all the money and put 25% of your net worth. You can withdraw it when you need it at anytime for free. From your cash you can also transfer deposited money to another Mafioso. This can be useful if you need to pay them for something, bribe them, or just give a cut of your organized crime. Transfers can be made to anyone however if someone is a new player or a level 1 member if they are transferred cash they move to level 2 by default. level 1 is held for absolute free players with no extra edge in the game.
Attacking…. There are 7 different types of attacks. To attack a player, go to the attack or go to find the Mafioso you want to attack and click on his name. When you are viewing his profile, click on attack!!! If you see Out of Range, you may not attack this Mafioso. You can only attack players with 1/2 or up to 4 times your net worth. Midnight-Mafias will automatically take your best crew members armed with the best weapon you got them in order to have the most efficient attacks ever. There is a limit to the amount of times you can be hit. Within the first attacks, you can be hit 24 times and then only once each hour. If you win the attacks, they do not count against you and the revenge hits do not count either.
(Headquarter Invasions) - Most common attack done by Mafioso’s. Invade your enemies headquarter and whack his defensive units! You could also steal money if you killed enough of his defensives
(Cartel Invasions) - Most common attack done by Mafioso’s. Invade your enemies businesses and whack his defensive units and operatives! You will be able to kill some operatives if you killed enough of his defensives
(Drive-by) - This attack is sort of like HQ invasion, except the enemy has a harder time killing your thugs in the drive-by. You do a drive-by with as many people that get in your rides.
(Drug Labs Sabotage) - This attack is meant to steal drugs from your opponent.
(Armoury Attack) - This attack is meant to steal guns from your opponent. (Jacking cars) - In order to steal someone’s cars you will need to make sure enough of his defensive units are dead.
(Stealing Planes) - In order to steal someone’s planes, you will need to make sure enough of his defensive units are dead.
Revenge…. The revenge is an option that would give you the chance to hit back when somebody attacks you. Whenever somebody attacks you, you will have a revenge (unlimited attacks) on him for 24hrs even if he is out of range. You could check your revenges in your mail box > revenges. If somebody attacks you, you got a revenge on him but he will get a revenge on you until you attack back.
Subscriptions … Buying a subscription will greatly boost your abilities in the game giving you much more turns every 10 minutes and a higher max build you can build them up to.
Travel…. Travelling is used for different purposes: running away from someone that is trying to kill you, doing booze runs or travelling from and to your hometown where your family is located, being in your own city has pro’s and Con’s. A pro is that you’re family offers you more protection in your hometown, a con is that it’s more likely for your enemies to find you!
Support: These are the admins of the game. They monitor your actions and make sure everyone is playing fair. It’s best to stay on the admins good side. If you have any problems, found a bug in the game or found a game abuser, let them know by leaving a message under the Support link.
Prize money: There is a Weekly prize which is given to the Gangster who has earned the most money in that round, rounds normaly start monday and finish sunday, but sometimes there will be longer 10 day rounds for bigger payouts. Only supporters are allowed to win the prize money as this is a % of the rounds takings which is a minimum of 50%, so if supporters have paid a total of $100 in any one round the winner will be paid a minimum of $50
Free mafia game
Ahead of the hotly anticipated T-Mobile G1 smartphone’s arrival in stores next week, early reviews show not everyone is convinced that the Android-powered handset is ready to take on the Apple iPhone or muscle onto the turf of Windows Mobile or the BlackBerry.
Yet among reviewers and industry watchers, there’s still little doubt that the G1 offers big potential for driving smartphone innovation.
One of the earliest reviews of the HTC-manufactured device, which was first introduced by Google and T-Mobile last month, came from the Wall Street Journal’s Walter Mossberg, who called it a “worthy competitor” to the iPhone in his column this week. But Mossberg also saw several areas in need of improvement in its software and its hardware.
The New York Times’s David Pogue described the handset’s Android platform as “polished enough to give Windows Mobile an inferiority complex the size of Australia.” Yet Pogue’s scorecard similarly illustrated that the G1 isn’t perfect. He gave it an A-minus for software, a B-minus for phone capabilities and a B-minus for network capabilities.
Avi Greengart, mobile device research director at Current Analysis, came to a similar conclusion on the G1 — calling it an iPhone “challenger” that “falls short in every area.”
The early reviews come as the mobile phone industry is seeking to come to grips with an influx of powerful, new devices. That’s driven in part by competition: wireless carriers are finding themselves relying on increasingly advanced smartphones to woo more subscribers and increase revenue from lucrative non-voice services, like Web access. T-Mobile is the exclusive G1 carrier and AT&T is currently the exclusive iPhone network in the U.S.
Among those new consumer-oriented devices is the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone, which has rocketed in popularity since its debut a year ago and sparked a trend in consumer handsets toward touchscreens and easy access to third-party applications.
Not surprisingly, the iPhone also spawned a slew of competitors, among which the Google-backed Android platform is one of the most closely watched.
Hits and misses
And despite some initial criticism, the G1’s early reviewers still find a good deal about it to praise.
“This is a competitive product,” Greengart told InternetNews.com, noting G1’s “beautiful” touchscreen. The G1 features a 3.2-inch LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 320 x 480 resolution. The iPhone has 3.5-inch widescreen, multi-touch display with 480 x 320 resolution.
Greengart also complimented the G1’s Web browsing capability — built off the same engine as the iPhone’s, he said — and its GPS application that provides real-time street views for navigation.
On the downside, Greengart wasn’t impressed with the G1’s girth, describing it as “heavier and bulkier” than the iPhone. The G1 weighs in at 5.6 ounces, and is 4.6 inches tall, 2.16 inches wide and.62 inches in thickness. Apple’s iPhone weighs 4.7 ounces and measures 4.5 inches in length, 2.4 inches wide and .48 inches thick.
Greengart also noted that the G1 offers no easy way to sync with non-Google mail applications, such as Microsoft Outlook, which enterprise users may find frustrating. The latest edition of the iPhone connects to Microsoft Exchange for access to e-mail, calendar and contacts.
“What Android does offer with the G1 is [smartphone development] potential, and some of these [downsides] will hopefully change with development going forward,” Greengart said.
It’s that potential that some say could result in Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) ultimately striding ahead of Apple and other smartphone players, such as Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM), Palm (NASDAQ: PALM), Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Motorola (NYSE: MOT), in the battle for smartphone sales and mobile service revenue.
