Doodle Jump Goes Retina on iPhone 4

No real news here - unless you are a huge Doodle Jump fan (one of the highest selling iphone apps of all time - and one of the biggest time sinks of all time). Yesterday Doodle Jump released the newest version of their app such that it is compatible with iPhone 4 and the retina display. That's the news - which is not why I am writing this... Rather, I was struck by how crisp and clear the imagery is. For iPhone 4 users (and to a lesser extent iPad users), graphics and web browsing looks great - thanks in part to apple and in part to designers / developers.

This is the welcome screen from the new Doodle Jump game - it's gorgeous. And you're probably not viewing it on an iPhone 4 screen. Its like looking at a zoomed in adobe illustrator font vs. a non-true-type font.

It is also interesting how developers are now using retina display optimized graphics as a selling point.

Apple iOS4's Auto Calendar Event Creator

The best feature of Apple's iOS4 update that is overshadowed by background applications, folders, etc? Apple now enables calendar event creation contextually and within email exchanges. When a date and time are written in an email - iOS4 will hyperlink the text (ie Tomorrow at 8:30am) and allow you to add it to your calendar. It's a huge time saver and something I have long wanted in Outlook (where calendaring is a *massive* pain) and in GMail (where there is similar, but flaky functionality).

Apple consistently pulls off these relatively small features and integrates them seamlessly. Why Microsoft hasn't figured out a similar feature within Outlook... over its many years... signals the shift in the two companies' success in consumer products / development.