iSmashPhone

Rolando Combines Game Play, Physics

Ncmoco's Rolando is a game with a hidden agenda.  It doesn't just want to, y'know, entertain you.  It also wants to teach you stuff -- physics, in particular:

Rolandoland is in peril and the Rolandos need your help! Use innovative tilt, tap and
Multi-Touch controls to guide the Rolandos through four visually-distinct worlds and 36 engaging levels. Solve physics puzzles, toy with the interactive environments and evade pesky enemies as you lead the Rolandos to victory.

In other words, it's a cheery, colorful platform adventure with a kid-safe "4+" rating.  Of course, the danger here is that, if you actually give your iPhone to a 4-year-old with this game on it, Junior'll likely run down the battery without making a single call.

[US$9.99 at iTunes]

Sayonara, Jailbreaking: A Hack-Free Way to Add Emoji Support to Your iPhone

Until now, Japanese iPhoners who wanted to add those graphic emoticons known as emoji had to employ various jailbreaking/pwnage techniques -- like this one we reported on earlier in the month.

Turns out there's an even easier way to stuff your iPhone full of emojis.  Much like the curseword-enabling workaround, this technique revolves around the contact list:

1. Download this vcard.vcf file.
2. Import it to your address book program.
3. Go into “Settings” > “General” > “Keyboard” > “Japanese Keyboard”. Enable the QWERTY keyboard.
4. In Notes (or any other program you want), typing “emojia”, “emojii” or “emojiu” will select emoji icons.

Note: this process adds 27 new contacts into your address book, so it might behoove you to put them all in their own group.

[Via iPod Touch Lab -- and yes, it's in Japanese]

Xskn Fans the iPhone Nano Rumors With "Official" Line of Skins

We already reported on the rumors being propagated by Chinese handset case maker Xskn that an "iPhone Nano" was in the pipeline -- and, basically, pointed and laughed at said rumor.

Not only has Xskn not backed down, their latest online catalog has an entire page of US$24.95 Nano skins.  Here's a product closeup from said page:

In addition to Xskn, the iDealsChina site continues to float the iPhone Nano rumor, even offering a video of David Letterman discussing it.  (Watch the video, and -- to put everything in perspective -- keep in mind: it's David Letterman...)