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A New Kind Of Heist: Six Apps For Free

Those crazy MacHeisters are at it again, and this time the deal is even harder to resist.
The first ever MacHeist Nano won’t cost you a penny. You can download, without charge, fully licensed copies of ShoveBox, WriteRoom, Twitterific, TinyGrab, and Hordes of Orcs. If 500,000 people take part (which I think is a pretty safe [...]

Getting More iPhone Home Screens – And Keeping Them

A couple of weeks back, I wrote Temporarily Get More iPhone Home Screens Via Cunning Bug Exploit, but had heard staying away from the iTunes Applications tab within my iPhone was probably a Very Good Idea. Reader Larry Pressnell noted that since the most recent iTunes update, his extra screens have been accessible in iTunes.
Since [...]

Cult of Mac Favorite: MobileStacks Is the Best Reason To Jailbreak. Period.

I really like Stacks on my Mac. Stacks makes it fast and easy to find files, folders and apps right from the Dock. It makes managing a Mac pretty slick with all sorts of little UI tricks. That’s why I recently gave MobileStack a go on my jailbroken iPhone.
I must say that it lives up to the [...]

Gallery: Behind the Scenes From Two Classic Apple TV Ads

Is this Steve Jobs driving a tank in a classic Apple TV spot from the late 1990s? That was the rumor at the time: Jobs was making cameos in Apple commercials.
Ken Segall, the TBWA ad man responsible for naming the iMac and Think Different, reveals the truth after the jump. He also shares some rare [...]

iPhone

Full category list for displayed posts: News, iPhone, iPhone Apps

John Carmack: Apple Looks Down on iPhone Games

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Programmer John Carmack helped bring Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake into the world.

Getting his games on the iPhone was not so easy.

“My relationship with Apple has been long standing, but it’s a roller coaster ride,” he told web site Kotaku. “At the highest level of Apple, in their heart of hearts,” Carmack said. “They’re not proud of the iPhone being a game machine, they wish it was something else.”

However, the popularity of gaming on the iPhone has forced Apple to think different(ly).
And, now that former collaborator Graeme Devine has gone to work for the iPhone Game Technologies division, iPhone games may get the respect they deserve.

Carmack calls Devine his “man on the inside…a real developer and I understand everything he is saying.”
Via Kotaku

iPhone App Biz for Sale on eBay

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Pssst: If you want to get in on the iPhone app business, there’s one for sale on eBay.

The starting bid for JBMJBM, LLC. — an app factory with 87 approved ones so far — is $100,000 and ends Saturday, Nov. 14

Top-selling titles include Friday Night Lights, iSpy Game, iReferee, iSexyRef (pictured above, which helps muddled sports fans remember the rules), iSexyRef2, Pro Rodeo Fan, Sit Up Counter and Shake 2 Count.

Buy the developer out and you get 87 applications currently listed on iTunes plus all application assets which include source code files, website files and all collateral.

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Review: LogMeIn Ignition, Super Simple Desktop Access for the iPhone

Download the App->Download the Application->You're In

Sure, I could write a whole How-To on rolling your own “Back To My Mac.” It involves port forwarding, obtaining a Dynamic DNS, blah blah blah.

Or you could use the iPhone app LogMeIn Ignition [iTunes Link] to remotely access to your Mac or PC in three steps.

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Launch Balloons From Your iPhone To The World

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This is a great idea, and bound to go down very well with your kids.

Balloons is simple: you launch a virtual balloon into the air from your phone. You add a photo and a text message to the label that dangles below the balloon, and send it off.

Anyone with the Balloons app can catch that balloon and add their own message. If you shell out for the paid version, you can track the balloons you’ve launched and see what other people have added to them.

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To celebrate and set things off, we’ve created a Cult of Mac balloon for you to catch. It’s purple with green stripes, and has a photo of the Cult home page at the top. If you catch it, let us know what you think about Balloons.

This is a particularly friendly application. I can see school classes all over the world launching balloons to make contacts in other schools. And Shiny development have wisely kept the choice of balloons fairly limited to start with; I wouldn’t be surprised to see custom balloons appearing soon, as an in-app purchase.

Update: Fear of Flying App + Promo Giveaway

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Virgin’s new Flying Without Fear app — an interactive guide to easing panic — left us with a few questions that we got answered by Mickey Beyer-Clausen, who co-developed the app for Mental Workout.

CoM: Can you use the app during take off and landing?

MBC: Unfortunately, passengers cannot use any electronic device – including the iPhone in airplane mode – during take-off and landing but the app is developed to prepare users for flight whereby making the brief “no electronics” period at the beginning and end of the flight more manageable.

The panic button is intended to be used during the flight when turbulence is encountered or other events occur which make the user uncomfortable.

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Cult of Mac Favorite: MobileStacks Is the Best Reason To Jailbreak. Period.

MobileStack v3

I really like Stacks on my Mac. Stacks makes it fast and easy to find files, folders and apps right from the Dock. It makes managing a Mac pretty slick with all sorts of little UI tricks. That’s why I recently gave MobileStack a go on my jailbroken iPhone.

I must say that it lives up to the challenge of making an interface that is intuitive and user friendly enough for the small iPhone screen. In fact, it’s definitely the best excuse to jailbreak.

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Safari Data Bug Could Mean Huge Phone Bills for Some

iphone-3g-money-screen_w300.jpgAn Estonian website claimed Tuesday to have broken news of a major bug in iPhone’s Safari app that could put unsuspecting iPhone users at risk of running up huge bills with their cellular service providers in certain cases.

The danger appears related to Safari’s failure to close connections with web servers that run Motion JPEG to stream video over the Internet. In the case where an iPhone user uses Safari to browse, for example, to the webcam on the island of Keri and then closes Safari in favor of another app or simply returns to the iPhone’s home screen, data continues to stream over the phone’s 3G or EDGE connection from the Motion JPEG-running server.

The Estonian report claims to have been able to run up over 740MB of data transfer in a little over an hour in this manner and that the only way to get Safari to properly sever the data link is to browse to another site before closing the app.

The bug would appear to affect only those iPhone users who do not pay for ‘unlimited data’ as part of their standard service plan, and thus poses no risk to at&t subscribers using their phones in the US, or to many European users with similar plans in their home countries.

With the rise of limited data plans in some countries, however, and in the case of users traveling with iPhones overseas using limited International Data plans, this could cause a real problem.

A request for comment from Apple PR remained unanswered at press time.

How To: Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone / iPod Touch Using Blackra1n

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George Hotz a.k.a GeoHot has released blackra1n RC3, which is an update to a 1-click jailbreak that adds activation options and an add-on blacksn0w, which unlocks latest iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS baseband version 05.11.07. To use blacksn0w, make sure you have this new baseband (check under Settings –> General –> About –> Modem Firmware) and if not, then update to a stock 3.1.2 firmware.

It is pretty easy to use and worked perfectly with my iPhone 3G. Besides the tool, there’s a blackra1n application that gets automatically installed on the iPhone after jailbreak, which gives you option to install Cydia and some other alternatives like RockYourPhone and the ’sn0w’ option to use blacksn0w unlock solution as well.

Please note that if you have an iPhone 2G, you can still jailbreak using blackra1n but blacksn0w will not unlock for you. You must use BootNeuter available in Cydia for that purpose. Also, if you purchased an iPhone 3GS or iPod Touch (any capacity) in October or later, there is a high probability that you have a new model. Blackra1n currently performs only a tethered jailbreak for these new devices, which means you need to use blackra1n every time you boot the device, otherwise all your jailbreak data gets wiped.

Here’s see how it works.

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IvySkin Intros iPhone Smart Case With Integrated Battery

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Whether funky or fashionable, protective or passe; made of titanium or cardboard, most iPhone cases are predictable. IvySkins Tuesday introduced an interesting twist on the ho-hum case: integrated energy. The SmartCase ($79.99) claim to fame is an integrated an interchangeable battery that supposedly will extend your iPhone 3G or 3GS’ battery by 200 percent.

The key is the case will signal your iPhone to first feed off the SmartCase’s battery, then your handset’s. The device includes a five-LED indicator, built-in power charger and a USB cable. The case itself is made of a polycarbonate and a polysilicon coating protection.

If you’re looking for something a bit more basic, iaPeel has a print-and-peel alternative for $21. You use the included designer software to create your own ’skin,’ print it out on any inkjet printer and then apply it to a generic case.

[Via IvySkin and Gadget Lab]

Adobe Gets Bitchy About Flash and iPhone

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Adobe makes clash over Flash on iPhone personal

Adobe made its position on the unavailability of Flash for the iPhone clear Monday with a snippily worded announcement that points the finger squarely at Apple for any iPhone user who might end up at the ‘getflash’ web page.

But an interesting comment on the Reddit thread about the long-standing brouhaha makes it appear the Adobe folks might doth protest too much. Flash would suck the iPhone’s battery dry in less than an hour.

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Blacksn0w Add-on For blackra1n Unlocks Any iPhone 3G / 3GS, Enables Tethering

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GeoHot, creator of the famous blackra1n jailbreak tool has now released blacksn0w. Blacksn0w is a full fledged software unlock solution for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, having baseband version 05.11.07 found in firmware version 3.1.2. Unlocking the phone enables you to use it with any carrier in the world.

This means if you have older firmware, you can now upgrade to a stock 3.1.2 and still have the ability to remain unlocked. Blacksn0w also enables the tethering option on these iPhones for you to share the data connection with a laptop or desktop computer.

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The blackra1n application for iPhone installed as a result of the blackra1n jailbreak process then allows you to run blacksn0w and finally unlock the phone. However, those who already have the old version of blackra1n application installed on the iPhone can upgrade to the latest version by selecting the new ‘ra1n’ option inside the application. After installing the updated version, tap ’sn0w’ in the application to unlock. For those who used the DevTeam’s PwnageTool to jailbreak, blacksn0w will soon be available on Cydia.

To accompany blacksn0w, there is a new hacktivation feature added to blackra1n, which activates the iPhone to be used without the iPhone specific plans from carriers like AT&T, O2 etc. But, if you have an officially activated phone already, this won’t interfere. The update to blackra1n tool also makes it  a lot faster, enabling it to jailbreak the iPhone / iPod Touch in just 15 seconds. It also adds support for Mac OS X Tiger and PPC Macs along with the existing Windows and Intel Mac support.

Please note that if you have an iPhone 2G, you can still jailbreak using blackra1n but blacksn0w will not unlock for you. You must use BootNeuter available in Cydia for that purpose. Also, if you purchased an iPhone 3GS or iPod Touch (any capacity) in October or later, there is a high probability that you have a new model. Blackra1n currently performs only a tethered jailbreak for these new devices, which means you need to use blackra1n every time you boot the device, otherwise all your jailbreak data gets wiped.

The new version of blackra1n is available to download at blackra1n.com

Check out our guide on how to jailbreak and unlock using blackra1n and blacksn0w here.

Verizon Charges $15 Per Month for Exchange Mail on Droid

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Image via Despair

So, you know those off-the-mark iDon’t commercials Verizon’s using to hype the launch of the Motorola Droid? No removable battery, no physical keyboard, and a list of features only a developer could care about? Well, according to InfoWorld, that campaign could be turned against the Droid with the far more damning “DroiDon’t include free corporate e-mail access with a standard data plan.”

That’s right, in addition to the mandatory $30 data plan, equivalent to the iPhone’s, Verizon is charging Droid customers $15 per month extra to check their work e-mail — as they do all smartphone customers. It takes a lot to make AT&T look like the superior network, but Verizon has managed it.

And no, there’s no possible justification for this other than greed and foolhardiness.

InfoWorld via Daring Fireball

XM SkyDock Plus App Brings Satellite Radio To iPhone and iPod touch

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Has streaming songs to your car’s FM radio become passe? Looking to go beyond in-car GPS for your iPhone? Sirius XM Radio Monday introduced the XM SkyDock, a hardware and software combo delivering satellite radio to your auto’s iPhone or iPod touch (1st and 2nd generation).

Along with listening to XM programming, you’ll be able to charge your iPhone or iPod. Subscribers can also tag songs they enjoy, purchasing them via the iTunes Store.

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Orange Fails To Impress With 750MB Data Limit

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O2 has had exclusive rights to sell the iPhone in the UK for a couple of years, but now its rivals are lining up to start selling it too. The big question is: will any of them offer a better deal?

So far, the answer seems to be “No”.

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Competitor UI Dominates iPhone’s Music Experience

There’s a dirty little secret lurking within the hearts of iPhone and the iPod touch: neither of them is a particularly great music player. A lot of iPhone owners actually keep a separate iPod nano or classic with them to listen to their music libraries. I’m not one of them, but I’m thinking about it.

Don’t get me wrong. Syncing media to modern Apple handheld is the best such experience money can buy, and the actual playback and browsing experiences are in the top tier of media phones and Internet tablets. That doesn’t mean they’re great, though. For the most part, the iPod app found on the iPhone and touch is a fairly literal translation of the original iPod interface ported over to a much higher-end device, plus an overly complex Cover Flow mode — which doesn’t even work well with Playlists. And that’s kind of pathetic, given Apple’s ordinarily high standards.

This is not the usual case where Apple is so far ahead of the competition that it’s not even clear how a media player app should change as it migrates to a modern multitouch platform. The video linked above is the proposed Rachael UI for the media player app in Sony Ericsson’s Android-based phones. It’s not amazing, but it does a few things really, really well. Notably, it provides a lot of rich information on artist pages that brings back some of the feel of listening to a physical album, and it also makes it easy to find your favorites, recently added albums, and tracks, and your most recently played music — all on one screen. That alone, in my opinion, annihilates the best of the current iPhone music experience. And I think we’d all agree it’s a refreshing departure from either a long list of artists listed in alphabetical order as a home screen.

The Zune HD, though its UI is an overly stylized collection of wank, also does some interesting things with tagged favorites that show the untapped possibilities available in next-generation handheld music playback.

I’ve had my iPhone 3GS for about four months now, and I love everything about it — except that it doesn’t do a great job of helping me rediscover diamonds in the rough of my music collection. The iPod app is good enough, but it isn’t great yet. Here’s hoping that the old competitive spirit will push Apple to truly push the edges of what’s possible. Shouldn’t we be able to view iTunes LPs on the iPhone, at the very least?

Sony Ericsson’s “Rachael” Android UI: Android + Zune HD > iPhone [Gizmodo]