iPhone - page 416

What’s that you say? You missed your chance to get a free case from Apple for your iPhone 4 as part of their Antennagate free case giveaway? Well, good news: you can once again buy an official iPhone 4 bumper in a panoply of colors directly from Apple. It’ll cost you just $29.99.

Don’t have the scratch? Not to worry: you can still try your luck complaining to an Apple Store Genius about your iPhone 4’s attenuation issues. Really, though, isn’t it worth thirty bucks not to have to listen to some insufferable turtleneck lecture you on the physics of radio antennas for half an hour before he wearily sighs and condescends to hand over your free Apple-branded rubber band?

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal threw some more sparks at the kindling of the rumored Verizon iPhone, claiming that it was conclusively on track for debut in the first quarter of 2011.

Personally, I wasn’t inclined to believe the rumor. It was only two weeks ago that Verizon’s own CEO said that the iPhone wouldn’t be coming to their network until they had their 4G network in place, claiming that the wireless carrier needed to “earn” the iPhone.

Today, though, I’m ready to change my tune due to two new revelations. The first is that Verizon has announced that they would be rolling out 4G to 38 cities this year, and start showing off 4G-capable smartphones at CES in January 2011. That makes a 4G Verizon iPhone next year possible, even within the Wall Street Journal’s optimistic first quarter timeframe.

Over in the world of Android smartphones, one form factor that has been seeing an increasing push from handset makers is the 4.3 inch touchscreen phone, best exemplified by the likes of the Motorola Droid X and HTC EVO 4G. That’s significantly larger than the iPhone’s 3.5-inch touchscreen.

While many companies are embracing this larger display, which makes internet browsing a lot easier at the expense of pocketability, it’s unclear if consumers really prefer it… which makes the claims of one Wall Street analyst that Apple will expand the iPhone line with a series of handsets with larger displays pretty suspect.

According to Shaw Wu, a Wall Street analyst from Kaufman Brothers, sources familiar with Apple’s overseas suppliers say that Apple is considering larger as well as smaller displays for its iPhone line.

The file cabinets of mobile companies are always filled with patents, but it’s only recently they have started going to war over them. Before 2007, in fact, most patent disputes were handled behind closed doors with smiles and handshakes. Then the iPhone came along, and all of a sudden, it was sue or die.

Motorola’s the latest company to launch into the smartphone patent lawsuit fray, lodging
a series of patent infringement complaints against Apple in both Northern Illinois and Southern Florida federal district courts, as well as asking the International Trade Commission to ban Apple from importing, marketing or selling all iOS devices, as well as some Mac products. They’re out for blood.

SAN FRANCISCO, MobileFocus, CTIA — Best known for its indefatigable bunny, Energizer launched a couple of cool charging products for the iPhone here at the CTIA mobile phone show.

Plans have emerged today from people briefed by Apple that the company is to begin mass producing a new iPhone by the end of 2010 that will allow Verizon Wireless to sell its popular smartphone early next year.

The new iPhone will be no different externally to the iPhone 4 in shops today, however, internally it will feature an alternative wireless technology called CDMA used by Verizon. According to the same people, the key chip will be provided by Qualcomm, and the device is expected to be released in the first quarter of next year.

A CDMA iPhone would spell the end of Apple’s exclusive arrangement with AT&T in the U.S., a deal that has been in place since the iPhone made its debut in 2007.

The same people have also spilled some beans on the fifth-generation iPhone, which they claim is currently being developed by the Cupertino computer giant. One person familiar with the plan claims that the next model will feature a different form factor from the iPhones currently available, however, it was unclear how soon this version will be available to Verizon.

Spokeswomen for both Apple and Qualcomm have unsurprisingly declined to comment on the matter, and so has a spokesman for Verizon Wireless.

[via WSJ]

Who knew it might turn into infographic week? Here’s another visualization of the battle raging among companies in the mobile communications universe. This one plots the contestants’ current positioning and trend directions on XY axes of profit share and market share — and it raises some interesting questions:

Should we be talking about manufacturers or platforms? Is the ultimate success of one dependent on the success of the other (ie: can HTC thrive and Motorola whither if Android’s popularity continues to increase)? Do consumers have manufacturer, platform or carrier loyalty — some combination thereof, or no loyalty whatsoever?

And perhaps most crucial of all, can we get George Kokkinidis to re-do this chart?

Via [Horace Dediu]

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Sega’s long-awaited return to the 2D roots of their most famous speedster rodent is coming to the App Store tomorrow, and as you can see in the trailer above, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 looks pretty faithful to the original Sonic games for the Sega Genesis… you know, before the whole franchise leapt into 3D and was marketed predominantly at furries with masturbatory echidna fantasies.

Looking pretty good, and I know loads of iPhone gamers will be excited about this, but on my part, I’ve never found running at 1000 miles per hour into an undodgable wall of spikes very fun, which seems to be the defining element of the series. I think I’ll probably give Sonic 4 a pass.

We absolutely loved that fantastic chart we posted yesterday showing off the litigious melee amongst smartphone companies as they all try to figure out which of their thousands of patents are enforceable and which are nonsense… but, infographically, it was a bit ugly, like a particularly inelegant illustration of magnetic repulsion found in a 70s-era high school physics book.

The updated chart by George Kokkinidis above conveys the same information more attractively, with clean geometric precision, sexy fonts and color coded arcs.

We approve. Maybe the Guardian should hire this guy instead of doing all of their infographics in Powerpoint ’97.

The promise of a free iPhone should always be subject to the skeptical arching of an eyebrow, but Facebook users should be extra cautious over the coming days, as new malware promising free iPhones to those who click on a link is taking the social network by storm.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeDTJZtFfI0

Sharp has just matched the iPhone 4’s touchscreen pixel for pixel with their new IS03 Phone, but that’s not going to stop Apple from crowing about the Retina Display in their latest ad, highlighting the fact that the world’s “highest-resolution phone screen ever” will make “every freckle, every wrinkle” (and presumably every wart, every melanoma, and every port wine stain) look clearer and more beautiful than ever before.

For extra points, check out those impossibly beautiful Twitter friends the iPhone 4 hand model has. Compared to that, my Twitter friends are a sad collection of hobos.

Well, it took nearly a year, gut Google finally put Goggles into its mobile search app for the iPhone, according to a blog post Tuesday.

A feature Android users have enjoyed since last December, Goggles allows a Google mobile Search user to tap on the camera button to search using Goggles. The blog post said “Goggles will analyze the image and highlight the objects it recognizes — just click on them to find out more.”

The feature remains a Google Labs project and thus should evolve and improve with time. It works reasonably well, according to Google, for things such as landmarks, logos, and products, but not so well yet for animals or food.

Via [TechCrunch] [iTunes app link]

Tony Curtis was a wonderfully idiosyncratic man. His roles included a cross-dressing jazz musician, a medieval Briton with a Brooklyn accent and a Lawrence Olivier’s slave boy toy. He once cheated on his blonde bombshell wife, Janet Leigh, to have an affair with another blonde bombshell, Marilyn Monroe… and afterwards almost came to blows with her husband, playwright Arthur Miller.

Now, after his death, add one more charming idiosyncrasy to the list: he was buried with his iPhone.

Apparently, when Tony Curtis was buried on Monday, he was interred with his favorite possessions. Not only did he go into the ground still clutching his iPhone, but the 85-year old Oscar-nominated actor was also buried with a Stetson hat, an Armani scarf, driving gloves and a copy of his favorite novel, Anthony Adverse.

Let’s all hope Mr. Curtis thought ahead of a good charging solution when he’s down there. I’m not sure HyperMac sells a battery big enough.

RIP Mr. Curtis, you wonderfully weird man. You’ll be missed.

[via Gizmodo]

An iPhone bug gave users in Australia an early wake up call — or not one at all — as they adjusted to daylight savings time over the weekend.

The good news: the bug appears to affect only “recurring” alarms.

The bad news: because it appears to affect all of Apple’s products running iOS — as daylight savings goes into effect around the world, you may get it too.

Remember this video from a week or so ago? It was made by the people at London’s BERG studio for people at advertising agency Dentsu, as part of a wider project called “Making Future Magic”.

BERG hit on the idea of breaking words and pictures into slices which are displayed on an iPad screen one at a time. If you capture this display with a long exposure on your camera, you get 3D words and images extruded into thin air.

And now the rest of us can join in the fun, with a $1 app for iPhone and iPad, called Holo-Paint.

Panasonic today proffered up what sorta looks like an iPodaphone-powered mini home theater for the bedside table, complete with Lilliputian hi-res 9-inch screen and audio whiz-bangery.

The MW-20 can display a digital clock/calendar, photos or play movies on its adjustable-angle screen from an iDevice resting in an attached cradle. Stereo sound is enhanced via a 5.6mm “super slim” semi-dome speaker that incorporates a digital-signal processor which optimizes sound for the small speaker, and hopefully makes the MW-20 sound as tantalizingly good as it looks.

No bedside table? The unit is also wall-mountable, includes a SD-card slot and generous 2-gig internal memory, and will automatically adjust the brightness of the screen to match the ambient lighting. The MW-20 hits stores in late November, priced at $250.

Here’s a bit of fun for any would-be street magicians among you. Card2Phone lets you do tricks with playing cards and common American, British, European and Australian coins.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOnUmO7oLgA

ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection is a new ZX Spectrum gamer for the iPhone that’s made its way in to the App Store today. The application features 6 full games, each with game-specific controls, and it’s only $0.99!

The six games included in the first release are:

• Turbo Esprit #3 on top 100 best games, voted for by visitors to World of Spectrum
• Saboteur #10 on top 100 best games
• Chuckie Egg the classic, developed by Nigel Alderton
• Harrier Attack inspired by the conflict in the South Atlantic
• Frank Bruno’s Boxing the UK #1 Best-Seller
• Buggy Boy the arcade original driving game

Each game is 100% original, and is accompanied by authentic Spectrum sounds. There are extensive playing instructions for each game built-in, and you can play in both portrait and landscape modes.

Elite Systems, the developer of ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection, has explained in the description of its app that volume one is still a little rough around the edges, and that any issues you may experienced will be ironed out in future updates. Some of its plans for future updates include a further six games with volume 2, which will be released within a month, and then an in-app shop to purchase more games with volume 3. And Elite’s plans don’t stop there:

Commercial agreements have already been reached with two more publishers (including one of the 80s biggest) taking to more than 200 the number of games available for inclusion in the forthcoming updates or volumes of ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection. (This will keep us busy through to Vol. #6 and beyond). Also, we’re in discussion with the owners of 100s more, including some of the most well known, with the aim of bringing them to you too.

Check out the video at the top of this post to see ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection in action.

This week’s top iOS games features EA Sports’ latest addition to the Fifa series in Fifa 11, which delivers console quality gaming to your iPhone. Offering an outstanding visual experience on the Retina display, and improved controls that make for fluid gameplay, Fifa 11 gives other soccer games in the App Store some great competition for 2011.

BIT.TRIP BEAT HD is an arcade game from Namco that fuses Pong with interactive beats in a colorful, pixelated environment. Listen to the different beat progressions and try to survive the onslaught of spectacular retro visuals as you bounce back beats from where they came. BIT.TRIP BEAT also features an intense multiplayer mode that allows you team up with your friends.

The incredibly addictive 0.03 Seconds Pro tests your reaction time using various different puzzles over 24 challenging stages, and then rates your score out of 5 stars. The puzzles seem simple, but you’ll be tearing your hair out as you try to beat the reaction time for each level and grab a 5-star score.

We also have an awesome augmented reality game that’s probably the best yet for iOS, and a chance to win one of the games featured in this week’s post.

This week’s must-have iOS apps features a new application that allows you to have free, high quality video calls over both Wi-Fi and 3G. Tango Video Calls is free a application to download, and works on other smartphones as well as the iPhone.

PDF Expert for iPad is Readdle’s latest application that delivers the ultimate solution for all your PDF needs on your iPad. It lets you read and annotate PDF documents, highlight text and make notes. You can also edit the documents you have stored on your Dropbox, iDisk, and Google Docs accounts.

PlainText is a free text editor compatible with all of your iOS devices that uses your Dropbox account to save your work. It has a paper-like interface that provides a nice, simple feel, and it’s a great substitute to iOS’s built-in Notes app.

One of the reasons owners of the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS have been waiting for a jailbreak for iOS 4.1 is to enable the iPhone 4’s impressive HDR functionality on their older handsets… a hack which is already available for jailbroken 3G and 3GS users on the iOS 4.1 beta through a Cydia app.

It looks pretty likely, though, that these users won’t need to jailbreak their devices to enable HDR functionality… Apple seemingly intends to add HDR in a software update coming down the line.

Look-Up is an augmented reality shoot-em-up for iPhone (not iPad or iPod) in a Space Invaders style. And it’s fun.

Swarms of 1950s-style flying saucers fly down at you from the sky – you point your phone back at them and hit the fire button. Zappity zap zap. I tried it this morning in my office in flooding-with-rain Wiltshire, but I suspect it would be more exciting to play when you’re outdoors in the sun, like the guys in this demo video:

OK, you’ve used your iPhone to control robots. Now you can turn it into one, if you have the same techno wizard chops as Kazu Terasaki, the guy who’s done just that.

Here’s the video:

Perhaps “walking” isn’t quite the right word here. They’re sort of “sliding” their way across the table. But hey, all robots have to start somewhere, right?

(Via Gizmodo, and about half of Twitter this morning)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WANpzCJHcvU

Augmented reality has been buzzed about, spun and just generally been hyped to death. Problem is, the technology has so far been used more for flash than actual function, with features like Yelp’s cool-but-useless “monocle” view a typical application.

But that’s about to change. Spearheading new possibilities — at least as far as the iPhone is concerned — is German-based augmented-reality expert Metaio, who yesterday flexed its muscles at its own AR conference in Germany.