iPhone - page 321

Your iPhone is more than a phone, it’s part of your life. It knows what you’re doing now (putting out fires with your boss? planning for drinks?), where you’re going for lunch and where you wish you were.

Even if you’re an open book — frequent Foursquare check-ins, Instagramming dinner, Spotifying all over the place — you probably wouldn’t broadcast every single thing you do with your iPhone, right?

That’s just what self-dubbed “interface artist” johannes-p-osterhoff will be doing for a year with his iPhone live project: letting the world see his every email, round of Mega run and lunch date on his Apple device. Berlin-based Osterhoff is a techno-provocateur whose previous exploits include pornifying iPad ads, creating a real-life OS X icon house and playing William Tell with iPhones.

He tells Cult of Mac why he’s doing it, what makes his mom worry and how you can reach him to be part of the project.

The big advantage Jambone’s Jambox has over its competitors is upgradeable firmware. The speaker is in fact a tiny computer which can be updated from time to time. Previous additions have been the spookily excellent surround-sound simulation called Live Audio, and you can also install one of many apps which add new voices, or let you access third-party services.

The Jambox might not be the loudest or even the best-sounding speaker out there, but it is certainly the most future-proof. And now another update adds yet more new features.

The iPhone 4S has a great 1080p camera, but unfortunately, getting great video with it is still a challenge, due to the lack of stabilization options available for it. Tripod accessories have become more widespread within the last year, but there’s still been no good way to get creative, professional looking shots with the iPhone. With the iStabilizer dolly, all that changes.

We’re still a few months away from Apple’s new iPhone unveiling, but that hasn’t stopped a number of Chinese retailers from selling the device in advance. They’re using the mockup pictures that have been circulating for weeks to make a quick buck from the hotly-anticipated handset, with some asking for as much as $8,600 a piece.

Our iPhones and iPads, which enable us to work and be on call virtually anywhere at any time, will lead to more than half of us working while on vacation. That’s the result of a new study that looked at how technology impacts the work/life balance. iOS devices are common players in the bring your own device (BYOD) era. As BYOD programs lead many of us to use our personal iOS devices and other mobile technology for work-related tasks, they also encourage an “always on” attitude from employers and employees alike.

The study, commissioned by enterprise remote access vendor TeamViewer, shows that just over half (52%) of professionals expect to work while on vacation in one capacity or another.

It also comes on the heels of a similar study that we reported last week. That study showed that always-connected devices like the iPhone and iPad lead most of us to work well past the end of the business day. A practice so common, in fact, that many of us will work an extra seven hours outside of normal business hours and outside of the office each week.

A new iPhone case called the Yellow Jacket protects your phone — and your ass! It’s actually a powerful stun gun. Best of all, it adds about 20 hours of battery life to your iPhone!

Thanks to The Red Ferret.

One of the unique traits around iOS devices used in business and enterprise environments is that users have much higher expectations for mobile tools and processes than they do for traditional PC applications, processes, and user experiences. That’s true whether the device is employee-owned or provided by an employer.

It’s easy to see why most iPhone and iPad users have these higher standards. With iOS, Apple has created a platform that is app-driven and offers an incredible selection of apps to users. Apple, and many iOS developers, have done an amazing job of getting rid of anything that stands between the iOS user and the experience of content that they are watching, reading, or creating. That delivers an immersive experience that is unlike the vast majority business or productivity tools loaded on workplace PCs.

I don’t know about you, but I’m a huge fan of the mobile version of Chrome on my iPhone and iPad. I use Chrome for Mac almost exclusively, and having all my bookmarks and browsing history available to me on the go is really the killer feature.

Alex has already shown you how to set Chrome as the default browser if you have a jailbroken iOS device, but what about those of you (like me) who don’t want the hassle of a jailbreak? How can we quickly hop over to Chrome on our iPhone? Turns out, it’s pretty easy.

Tapbots has just launched an alpha version of Tweetbot for Mac, and we’ve been eagerly testing it out. Want to see it for yourself? We’ve put together a video walkthrough of it, which you can check out after the break.

Bring your own device (BYOD) programs that let employees use their personal iPhones, iPads, and other devices for work purposes are becoming increasingly common. No one doubts that there are advantages to these programs in terms of employee productivity and satisfaction. That said, whether they actually save businesses money or incur outrageous new costs has been a matter of debate in the business and IT circles.

Based on a survey conducted by Osterman Research, such programs do have significant costs associated with them. On average, the study indicates that they will raise IT expenses by 48% between 2011 and 2013. Those costs, while real, may not always be easily seen or quantified in many companies.

When you’re getting a little bored of looking at the same old home screen, the DreamBoard app for iOS can completely revamp your device with a whole new look. Couple that with a new tweak called Metroon and you have yourself an iPhone that runs Windows 8 (well… almost) — complete with a Metro user interface, live tiles, and even the “Charms” bar.

What if I told you there was a case that adds up to 16GB storage to your iPhone? And further, that this case costs just $50. You’d be pretty interested, right? Well, it’s kind of true. You can indeed buy a 16GB case, but sadly that memory can’t actually be used with the iPhone.

Following earlier rumors that claimed Amazon is gearing up to launch a smartphone that will rival Apple’s iPhone, The Wall Street Journal has confirmed with sources that the retail giant is currently testing the device with its suppliers, and that it could enter production as early as the end of this year.

It seems like every couple weeks now, we get new rumors that the iPad is about to get all mini-me on us. But does anyone really want a smaller iPad? We’ll tell you what we think on our latest CultCast.

Then, Raves and Faves! The segment where we pitch our favorite tech and then vote on which is best — only one gadget may live!

Go on and subscribe to the CultCast here, or download Apple’s smart new Podcasts app and effortlessly stream The CultCast whenever you’d like.

Full show notes ahead!

Enterprise customers form the backbone of RIM. Many of them are now preparing contingency plans in case the BlackBerry maker goes out of business or is bought by another technology company. Many enterprises first began thinking about contingency plans in the wake of RIM’s large-scale outages last year.

What those contingency plans look like varies. Some companies are soliciting advice from leaders in the mobile management like MobileIron. Some are revisiting their agreements with RIM. Others have already begun migrations away from the BlackBerry.

T-Mobile may finally get the iPhone next year, according to one analyst. Sanford C. Bernstein’s Craig Moffett predicts that T-Mobile could partner with Deutsche Telekom to sell the iPhone in 2013.

Twitter has updated its official iPhone app in the App Store with several new features, including added settings for notifications, enhancements to the Discover tab, the new expandable tweets feature for viewing media content in the timeline, stability improvements, and the new Twitter icon.

Twitter for iPhone 4.3 is available now in the App Store for free. Change log after the break:

In 2006, Apple released an iPod that, to this day, is unique amongst all of the iPods it sells in that it didn’t come with a standard Dock Connector: the iPod shuffle.

In order to save space in a design that was built from the ground up to be as tiny as possible, Apple jettisoned the traditional 30-Pin Dock Connector in the second-gen shuffle in favor of a clever implementation of USB that plugged in right through the 3.5mm audio jack.

For the last six years, Apple has favored this implementation of USB syncing and charging in its line of iPod shuffles, even as every other model of iPhone, iPod or iPad shipped with a much bulkier 30-Pin Apple Dock Connector.

As rumors have heated up that Apple will abandon the 30-Pin Dock Connector in the next iPhone for a slimmer 19-Pin Connector, a natural question to ask is, “why?” If Apple just wants to save space in the next iPhone, why not just adopt the time-tested iPod shuffle’s approach, which is about the most efficient and elegant implementation of USB ever designed?

The answer’s simple: while the iPod shuffle’s USB design is ingenious at syncing and charging, it’s really crappy at everything else that the 30-Pin Dock Connector is designed to do. But what does the 30-Pin Dock Connector do, why doesn’t Apple just use USB like most of its competitors, and why is 19-Pin — not 30 — the way to go?

When Apple opened the App Store in 2008, it began a revolution that would lead to the largest and most vibrant mobile apps ecosystem in existence. It should then come as no surprise that Objective-C, the object-oriented coding language used by developers to build apps for iOS and OS X, has become the third most popular coding language, right behind Java and C itself.

The Audio Xciter music player’s press release is full of the usual superlatives, and I quickly glossed over them in my usual cynical manner looking for something to make fun of (which I found – more on that in a bit). But one listen of the audio-processing iOS app is enough to make you sit up and, uh, listen.

It really is amazing.

Struggling to find beautiful wallpapers for your new MacBook Pro’s high-resolution Retina display? With Wallpaper Wizard for Mac OS X, you can browse over 100,000 high-definition wallpapers with resolutions up to 2880 x 1800 all in one place, saving only the images ones you want to keep. And best of all, Wallpaper Wizard is today’s Two Dollar Tuesday pick, meaning it has 80% off its normal $9.99 price tag.

Sometimes a jailbreak tweak comes along that is so subtle and yet so brilliant. Banner notifications in iOS are great, but Apple made a poor design choice: incoming banners push in on the top of whatever app you’re using at the moment. If you’re using Safari, the address/search bar is momentarily obscured by a banner notification. That’s no good.

A new Cydia tweak called CoverMeNot keeps banner notifications out of the way by automatically doubling the height of your iOS status bar. No more obtrusive banners covering the top of your favorite apps.

Last March, Twitter told the developer community to stop making third-party apps and clients that “mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience.” Twitter said, “We need to move to a less fragmented world, where every user can experience Twitter in a consistent way.”

Fast forward more than a year later, and Twitter is slowly moving away from an open platform for developers to build upon. Twitter plans to implement stricter API guidelines for developers, and while there’s no concrete evidence that Twitter will shut down third-party apps altogether, the current landscape of great apps like Tweetbot and Twitterrific could look very different in coming months.

Oh man, I can totally see myself taking this mechanical Bluetooth keyboard to the local bar and clackety clacking out a few posts every morning. It’s called the KBtalKing Pro and it is a rather clever little beast, a pro keyboard which is designed to work with – and switch seamlessly between – up to ten of your devices.

It’s getting almost painful to read reports about RIM. The ongoing hype about how great BlackBerry 10 will be mixed with the reports of layoffs, inventory sitting around warehouses, the company’s share price plummeting – it all reminds me of the time one of my high school friends broke her ankle in gym class and hobbled around for nearly half a day trying to convince herself that she’d only sprained it.

Among all that news, however, is a question – can organizations that need incredible security manage in a world without RIM and the manageability made possible by its BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES)? Is iOS up to that challenge? Is Apple up to or interested in making a major play for the enterprise market?