iPhone - page 336

IBM, once known as on of the most straight-laced companies in the world, has jumped on the BYOD bandwagon with a level of enthusiasm rarely seen in such large and established enterprises. The company has big plans for BYOD – rolling out a program out that covers all 440,000 employees worldwide.

That’s a big challenge and one that Big Blue has yet achieve. However, the company currently has mobility solutions deployed to about a quarter of its workforce (120,000 users) two thirds of whom (80,000)  are supplying their own devices and service plans. The company, which had been a predominantly BlackBerry shop, began to shift gears as iPhones and other devices began showing up in its offices.

While not a model for every company, IBM’s BYOD policies can serve as a great starting point.

Have you ever wished that there was an easier way to check your data usage on the iPhone? For those of us that aren’t lucky enough to have a grandfathered unlimited plan, bits are precious. It can be too easy to blow through a 1GB data plan in a month’s time.

If your iPhone is jailbroken, you have access to a great tweak called Data Usage Monitor. Once installed, your usage will be shown unobtrusively in your iPhone’s status bar. The beauty is that it will only appear whenever you are using data.

Reminders is a pretty slick to-do app, made by Apple for OS 5, that uses location and calendar data to help us remember the milk, our laundry, and any other important task we might need reminding for. Here’s a tip for the Reminders app that may be old news to some of you, but we’re betting that if we just found out about it, chances are there are other folks who haven’t noticed it, either.

Earlier today, we reported on the variability in how companies can define BYOD programs. For some companies BYOD can mean access to just email while in others it can include a range of customer internal apps along with company-purchased selections for the App Store. The exact mix of allowed or supported functionality reflects the IT and management culture of an organization but it can be guided by what users feel they need most.

Email may be the lowest common denominator when it comes to BYOD because it is the most common use of mobile devices in the workplace. That statistic stands out in a new report on how businesses and employees are using mobile technology and how businesses are addressing BYOD as a trend.

This iPhone 4 money clip is either the best or the stupidest solution to the wallet/iPhone carrying problem that I have ever seen. The trouble is, I can’t quite work out which it is.

Do you have an old film SLR lying around that you promise yourself you will one day load up with film and take out shooting? Well, forget about that — it’s just taking up space and picking up dust. You should instead do what Etsy-er Roberto Altieri does, and turn it into a dock for the camera you actually use every day: Your iPhone.

Smartphones are close to becoming the primary type of mobile phones sold in the U.S. for the first time. Market research giant Neilsen’s latest analysis of the mobile industry shows that about half of all mobile phone owners in the country now own a smartphone – up significantly from this time last year.

In addition to smartphones gaining major traction, the company also released its data on the makeup of the U.S. smartphone market that shows gains by Apple’s iPhone and significant losses for RIM’s BlackBerry. Android, however, still manages to hold the biggest share of the market overall.

The concept of employees bringing their own devices to the office has seen a meteoric rise in popularity over the past couple of years. When the term BYOD first entered the IT lexicon, most CIOs and systems administrators tended to shrug off the suggestion that their company might consider such a non-traditional approach. Today, surveys show more than fifty percent of organizations are considering or have already adopted BYOD policies.

While the concept of BYOD is pretty easy to grasp (companies actively support user-owned devices and may even encourage employees to bring their iPhones, iPads, and other devices into the office), exactly what BYOD translates to in the real world can vary widely.

During the whole ‘antennagate’ debacle back in 2010, Apple attempted to appease iPhone 4 adopters by offering them one of its bumpers, or another case from a third-party manufacturer for free. Those who didn’t think a free $30 bumper was good enough can now claim $15 compensation.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has been spending some time in China this week, meeting with officials and even posing with fans at the company Xidan Joy City retail store. He also paid a visit to Foxconn’s new plant in Zhengzhou, where the company employs around 120,000 employs, some of whom are assembling Apple’s iPhone.

Ubisoft has confirmed that its future iOS games will store your save data in the cloud, allowing you to sync your progress across multiple devices. That means you can beat missions and levels on your iPhone in your lunch break, then continue your game right where you left off on your iPad when you get home.

It’s a feature that almost every game — especially those build for both the iPhone and the iPad — should not be without.

News media conglomerate Gannett is making a big push for mobile reporting and they’ve decided that the iPhone 4S is the perfect tool to start with for journalists across the country. To that end, the company has equipped 1,000 print and broadcast reporters with new iPhones to use for on the spot reporting, editing, and broadcasting.

The initiative was announced in December and will eventually include iPads as well as iPhones, but it is just now rolling out after the company put journalists getting the handsets through intensive training in the use of the iPhone and of the handful of apps that Gannett has chosen for reporters to use.

With all of the rumors surrounding the possibility of a 7-inch iPad, a new report suggests that Apple is working on a totally new mobile product for 2013. The mysterious 5-inch device would feature a Retina display.

AT&T’s head device guy Jeff Bradley made a bold statement today regarding the upcoming launch of Nokia’s Lumia 900 Windows phone. The device is widely expected to be the first Windows phone to hold a candle to the iPhone, and AT&T thinks it has a massive hit on its hands.

“Before you walk into the store, you know this is our hero phone,” said Bradley. AT&T thinks the Lumia 900 has the potential to be its new heavy-hitter. Where does that leave the iPhone?

Most days, our iPhones sit in our pockets, not seeing too much use, maybe a phone call here, a tweet or text there. Then there are the days where we’re on Facebook all lunchbreak, playing games on the train both ways to and from work, and then watching a little Netflix while cooking dinner. You know, a heavy use day. There are a kajillion power managers out there, but this one seems to have enough cool features that we thought we’d pass it along to you as today’s iOS tip.

The first iPad was debuted by Steve Jobs to thunderous applause on March 12, 2010. Many media pundits criticized the tablet for its ridiculous name and called it a huge flop. Fast forward two years later, and we couldn’t imagine a world without the iPad. It has shaped what Apple has dubbed the “post-PC era.”

Over 50 million iPads have been sold to date, and Apple just sold 3 million third-generation iPads over launch weekend. Most tablet manufacturers dream of selling 3 million units in a year, but analysts estimate that Apple will sell an upwards of 66 million iPads in 2012 alone. That is an absolutely astounding figure.

A new report from app analytics firm Distimo takes a look at the iPad and its App Store footprint two years later. Let’s take a closer look:

Since the day the original iPad was announced more than two years ago, there’s been a constant discussion about its use in healthcare. At face value, the iPad offers a lot of tools to doctors and other healthcare professionals like access to electronic medical records (EMRs), access to electronic prescribing systems, and access to a wealth of reference materials like medication guides. To some extent the same benefits are available from the iPhone and other smartphones.

Those seem like great additions to a doctor’s daily workflows – both in the office and while on rounds at hospitals. Those great healthcare features don’t live in a vacuum, however. They live on mobile devices that also allow their owners to check-in on social networks, send and receive texts and emails, play games, and do all manner of personal tasks. That has some doctors and hospitals concerned that iPad, iPhones, and other mobile devices could actually be putting patients in harm’s way.

The chart really says it all. According to a new CNBC survey, 51% of all American homes now own at least one Apple product, with the national average being 1.6 Apple devices per household. And if you own an Apple product, you’re probably educated, young and doing well for yourself. Score all around!

[via ModMyI]

Cloud storage provider Box today announced its new Box OneCloud initiative. With OneCloud the company is looking to create a one-stop work environment on the iPhone and iPad that’s centered around Box’s cloud storage and collaboration features. The aim is to make the Box app the hub of a range of additional iOS apps in the business and productivity space. While many apps in that space allow you to access Box storage (along with several other cloud providers like Dropbox, Google Docs, and Sugar Sync), they often have limited file management capabilities and can only access specific types of files.

Box aims to fix that by partnering with developers that offer access to Box storage and giving users that ability to launch those apps from with the Box app, which will serve as a central file management solution. The approach is a creative way to make up for the lack of a user-accessible file system in iOS.  In some ways, you can consider OneCloud to be a business or enterprise version of iCloud.

The Chinese will celebrate Tomb Sweeping Day on April 4, a ceremony which encourages them to remember their ancestors by laying out food at their grave sites, and burning paper replicas of daily necessities, such as clothes, money, cars, and houses. This year a few new items have been added to that list of necessities: the iPad and the iPhone.

LogMeIn has rolled out a new feature to its Pro subscribers today, now allowing them to stream high-definition video from their Mac to other devices capable of accessing LogMeIn, including the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch via the free iOS app. The feature is sure to be a welcome addition to those who have just adopted the new iPad with its Retina display and super speedy 4G connectivity.

Setting up a passcode for your iOS device is one of the first steps you can take to keep your data safe. It prevents access to your device, blocking unauthorized user from accessing your personal data, photographs, contacts, messages, and anything else you have stored inside.

However, that passcode lock is useless when it comes up against a piece of software called XRY from the Swedish security firm Micros Systemation. With XRY, your personal data, call logs, GPS location data, contacts, and even keystrokes can all be extracted and decrypted in under ten minutes.

Apple introduced a handy lock screen shortcut for the native Camera app in iOS 5.1. You can quickly tap the camera icon from your iPhone or iPad’s lock screen and snap a picture. Unfortunately, jailbreakers left stranded on iOS 5.0.1 haven’t been able to enjoy this great feature — until now.

A new jailbreak tweak brings the lock screen camera shortcut to jailbreakers on iOS 5.0.1. 

Apple’s next-gen smartphone is widely expected to feature 4G LTE networking like the newly-released iPad. Rumors peg the product release for later this year, but no real evidence for the device has surfaced quite yet, including carrier partnerships. AT&T and Verizon are expected to be onboard as usual, but what about Sprint? The iPhone 4S debuted on all three carriers last October, but Sprint is relatively new to its Apple partnership.

According to comments from Sprint CFO Joe Euteneuer today, Sprint will be able to sell the 4G iPhone when it’s debuted by Apple.

Some new jailbreak tweaks have surfaced in Cydia that allow you to open and send all kinds of files between iOS devices with iMessage. Apple’s messaging protocol can be used to send much more than simple SMS and MMS messages; you can send everything from a song to a PDF.

Attacher will let you send and receive all kinds of files with iMessage, and it includes a couple features that make it a compelling offering. A pair of jailbreak tweaks called SendAny and ReceiveAny also accomplish the same goal with a different approach. Which tweak option is best? Let’s take a closer look.