iPhone - page 258

One of the biggest complaints about Android, is that Google will announce a new version of Android, but then it takes over six months for that software to actually get on your phone. What gives?

The guys over at Gizmodo decided to talk to both manufacturers and wireless carriers to find out what’s the hold up. It seems like a software update would be a pretty straightforward process, but what they found was a myriad of problems that can take months to answer before your Android phone gets an update.

According to some (questionable) reports, Apple will finally offer the iPhone in various different colors later this year. But rather than waiting to see whether or not that actually happens, why not take matters into your own hands. A number of third-party iPhone 5 replacement parts are now available to purchase, and they come in all sorts of pretty colors.

According to those dandruff-shouldered, bad-breathed “experts” at camera clubs the world over, converging verticals in a photograph are “bad.” Converging verticals are the effect you see when you tip your camera back to capture to top of a building and the verticals appear to point towards each other instead of straight up.

Amazingly, these “experts” never complain about converging horizontals.

So if you are planning on entering a competition at your local camera club, and there will be buildings involved in your pictures, then you might want to take a look at Perspective Correct, an app to — you guessed it — correct perspective.

Apple is expected to unveil its first smartwatch sometime this year, and there’s one company who will be right on its tail, competing for sales. As you may have already guessed, that company is Samsung.

Lee Young Hee, executive vice president of  the Korean company’s mobile business, confirmed the move during an interview with Bloomberg.

T-Mobile has been relegated to being America’s #4 U.S. carrier, thanks to it’s failed acquisition deal with AT&T. Apparently, the company has some big plans to put it back in the spotlight though.

T-Mobile just sent out invites to an exclusive event on March 26th in New York, where it is expected to detail plans to change its wireless business.

Samsung has already explained its love for plastic, and why it chose to stick with it for the flagship Galaxy S4. But after receiving a lot of criticism for that decision, the company’s head of design, Dennis Miloseski, was forced to defend the Galaxy S4’s plastic build once again at Engadget’s Expand conference in San Francisco this weekend.

WhatsApp, the hugely popular cross-platform messaging service, is bringing its paid subscription model to iOS. The company hasn’t yet confirmed when the move take place, but it will “definitely” happen during 2013. When that time comes, you’ll need to pay $0.99 a year to use the service.

The iPhone’s user interface is getting old and Apple isn’t innovating fast enough, according to Thorstein Heins, CEO of BlackBerry. Yes, the same BlackBerry which just released the BlackBerry Z10 (several months late) in a last ditch attempt to save the company from going under because of the iPhone.

Heins admits that Apple “did a fantastic job” with the iPhone and its iOS operating system, but he believes the company is now falling behind, giving Android and the new BlackBerry 10 OS a chance to beat it in many areas.

In response to Samsung’s Galaxy S4 announcement last Thursday, Apple has updated the iPhone 5 pages of its website to remind visitors why people love the iPhone. “Loving it is easy. That’s why so many people do,” the landing page reads, before going on to list all the reasons why the Cupertino company’s smartphone is so popular.

Chinese actor and singer Peter Ho criticized Apple on China’s Twitter-like Weibo service this week. 

But don’t blame Ho. He was apparently just following orders. But orders from whom? And why?

Or rather, “have someone drive you home.”

After being vilified so much for contributing to dangerous roads (along with all other smartphones, of course), the iPhone will soon turn Samaritan, and maybe help to make the roads a little safer. That’s thanks to the new Breathometer, “the world’s first smartphone breathalyzer.”

Add microscopes to the list of things your iPhone can replace. A group of scientist visiting Tanzania were able to convert their iPhone 4S into a microscope using nothing by a $7 lens, some double sided tape, and a torch.

After macgyvering the iPhone 4S into a microscope, the scientest then used it to take pictures of stool samples to determine the presences of eggs in some schoolchildren. Amazingly, the iPhone picked up 70 percent of the infections.

Even though Mailbox for iOS has only been out for a month, it’s taken no time at all for the buzzworthy app to get bought up by a bigger fish.

Dropbox is buying Orchestra Inc., makers of the popular new email app, Mailbox, that allows users to control their email in a new way.

We mix it up on this week’s CultCast! Join us for a very special hour with guest Jeff Cannata, former co-host of The Totally Rad Show (TRS) on Revision3 and current co-host of CNET’s Always On.

For all of you who used to watch and love TRS, we remember the show and relive how its cutting-edge virtual set — all made with just one camera and a Mac Pro — made it one of the most popular and beloved podcasts on the internet. Plus, what’s it feel like Kickstarting over $100,000 for a new show? Jeff knows, and shares his amazing experience.

All that and Mr. Cannata reveals his favorite iPad apps and gadgets! Subscribe to The CultCast now on iTunes to download our newest episode, or just hit play in the player below to listen right in your browser.

Show notes up next!

KitCam has become one of my favorite photography apps for the iPhone, and it continues to improve with every update. The latest promises to bring you better low-light photos, and a number of nifty new features — including a front-facing flash, TIFF support, live exposure, and more.

The Galaxy SIV is official, and it is a beautiful powerhouse of a phone with features unseen in any other device, but how does Samsung’s latest flagship phone stack up against the competition, spec-by-spec? Check out the chart below to find out.

Battery life in the iPhone age, right? It’s a conundrum we’ve all had to adjust our behaviors for. Before the iPhone, I can remember going days, maybe even a week or so in between battery charges. The advent of an iPhone in my life brought with it a new behavior – charging it every night. I use my iPhone for almost everything these days, including getting around town, communicating with loved ones, and checking email while out and about, so it makes sense that the battery drains quickly.

There are a few third-party apps out there that keep track of your battery usage for you. Turns out, though, if you just want a quick looksee at how much life you have left in your iPhone or iPad’s battery, you can look in the iOS Settings app itself.

The photograph at the top is from the announcement of the new Pope, Benedict XVI back in 2005; the photo at the bottom is from the announcement of Pope Francis yesterday. Says everything that needs to be said about how Apple has changed the world, don’t you think?

Via: Soff.es
Photo: Michael Sohn/AP

The #1 rule about owning an iPad: don’t use it to take pictures or videos in public. I don’t care if you’re freaking Spike Lee. You’re going to look silly.

Google doesn’t care about none of that though. They’ve just released YouTube Capture for iPad, so you can shoot videos with your giant iPad and upload them straight to YouTube.

There are a ton of ways to stream TV shows to your iPhone and iPad, but CBS is ready to give you another. CBS just launched their new app that will let you stream some of their most popular shows, right to your iPad or iPhone, for free.

After more than 14 months of watching the clock in tense anticipation, today I finally downloaded Super Stickman Golf 2, the sequel to the fantastic physics puzzler/golf game Super Stickman Golf.

If you are a fan of the original, you’re likely hitting the App Store link right now. If not, read on.

You may have figured that the rhythm game genre was finished, what with nary a Rockband, Tap Tap Revenge, or Guitar Hero game to grace the App Store in recent months.

You’d have figured wrong, at least as far as the devs behind updated iOS game, Duck & Roll, are concerned. WildFactor released Duck and Roll last November at a premium price. We can only assume that after several price drops and price increases, they weren’t finding much success.

Luckily, free games can attract an audience. Even more luckily, this one is pretty darn fun.

Phil Schiller, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, has called out Android multiple times recently. It’s only been a few days since Schiller warned Android users to “stay safe out there,” and now he’s gone on the offensive in a brief interview with The Wall Street Journal.

None of Schiller’s comments are particularly surprising, as Apple executives (Schiller included) frequently make jabs at the competition from the stage of a new product keynote.

I hate taxis. I hate having to find one. I hate having to talk to the driver. I hate paying them, and then worrying about how much I’m supposed to tip them (presumably spending the entire journey chatting to their cousins via Bluetooth headset counts as “service.”) So I’m very happy to have Taxi Turvi in my arsenal. It’s a weapon to be wielded against dodgy cabbies.

NBA hoops legend, Shaquille O’Neal – or as his friends call him, ‘Shaq’ – is used to dominating foes on the basketball court, but when he went up against Steve Jobs he got a heavy dose of his own medicine.

The Big Artistotle has come out of the closet. He’s a geek. In fact, he says he was a geek before geeks were cool. Back when the original iPhone was announced, Shaqtus knew a guy, who knew a guy, who knew Steve Jobs. Rather than waiting for the iPhone to be released, Shaq Fu called up Steve Jobs multiple times and begged him for an iPhone, but El Jobso wouldn’t budge.

It was one of the first, and only times, that The Big Maravich has been denied. Don’t feel bad for him, though; Shaq Diesel has a bright rapping career ahead of him if the geeky iOS development stuff doesn’t pan out.

Here’s a video of Wilt Chamberneezy retelling the story to Bloomberg: