iPhone - page 425

According to Apple, there’s no problem with the iPhone 4’s antenna… or, at the very least, no problem it doesn’t share with all of its competitors. But are they being disingenuous? According to a new rumor, Apple is very much hard at work on an updated iPhone 4 that alleviates the signal attenuation problems once and for all.

The rumor comes via the admittedly questionable source of a spokesperson for Mexican wireless carrier Telcel, who says that Apple will release an updated iPhone 4 by the end of October… a date which will closely follow the end of Apple’s own iPhone 4 Bumper program, which is Cupertino’s current PR band-aid slapped over the problem.

It’s an interesting rumor, but I think it’s a bit spurious. Apple’s said over and over again there’s no problem: they can’t reverse course on that without reopening the debate, and possibly making themselves even more liable in class-action lawsuits. If Apple significantly redesigns the iPhone 4’s antenna, there’ll be a name for it: the iPhone 4.

Danish illustrator Mads Peitersen has been painting a series or really imaginative pictures showing the anatomy of technology. His guts of an iPhone pic is particularly cool.

“Smartphones today are soo advanced and good they almost behave alive. And becomes an extension of your body,” he writes.

Via LaughingSquid.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2F4O0QIzC4&feature=player_embedded

Embedded in a long and informative (but badly Google-translated) link to a breakdown of Apple’s A4 CPU, we noticed this intriguing video of all four iPhones — the iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 — pitted head-to-head in a performance test.

There’s nothing really shocking about the results here: Apple has improved the performance of the iPhone with every single release. As each test app is launched — including Plants vs. Zombies, Google Earth, Seadragon and Safari — it always fully loads quickest on the most recent iPhone, with every preceding iPhone lagging incrementally behind. Reboot is the same.

That said, we found something rather soothing about watching this video in this last day before the calm of new Apple product announcements. Perhaps it’s the cheery, burbling music. Either way, it’s an interesting look not only at how far the iPhone has come over the last three years, but in actuality, what a great smartphone it was in the first place.

Open source devotees, iPhone users and hedonists unite! News today that low cost, OpenBTS GSM cell phone service is being tested at Burning Man in a true trial-by-fire fashion:

Today I bring you a story that has it all: a solar-powered, low-cost, open source cellular network that’s revolutionizing coverage in underprivileged and off-grid spots. It uses VoIP yet works with existing cell phones. It has pedigreed founders. Best of all, it is part of the sex, drugs and art collectively known as Burning Man. Where do you want me to begin?

“We make GSM look like a wireless access point. We make it that simple,” describes one of the project’s three founders, Glenn Edens. [Network World]

The economic and environmental potential of the system is promising, particularly for remote and under-developed areas.

Blamed on everything from a software bug to greasy ear canals, the iPhone 4’s overly sensitive proximity sensor was supposed to get fixed with the release of iOS 4.1.

Don’t hold your breath, though, says Apple’s Australian mouthpiece Fiona Martin. According to Martin, the company has yet to fix the proximity sensor issue, with no other information given as to when we can expect the patch.

In our own tests, we found that iOS 4.1 Beta 2 fixed all of our proximity sensor issues, and Steve Jobs himself promised the fix next update. Either our own anecdotal experience with the 4.1 Beta fixing the proximity sensor was wrong and the nature of the issue remains unidentified to Apple or a hardware design flaw, or Miss Martin misspoke. Wednesday should tell all.

Cult of Mac has been going nuts with iPad and iPhone app giveaways lately, and today is no different! Today, we’ve got some great apps for your iPhone and iPad. We’ll pick 5 random winners to win 4 great apps. If you want a chance to get your hands on some of these sweet apps this week, then follow the instructions carefully below:

1. “Like” Us On Facebook (you must do this, if you’re not a fan of us, we can’t contact you if you win).
2. Post a link to your favorite Cult of Mac article from the past week on our Facebook Wall. Make sure you post it on OUR wall, not your own.
3. Your wall post will be your entry into the giveaway, only ONE entry is allowed per person, and the giveaway will last until 11:59pm tonight. We’ll contact the winners later this week and explain how to get the codes!
4. Optional step: If you want to go the extra mile, you can post it in your Facebook status and status tag us. Do it ’cause you love us.

Special Thanks to Appular for helping us put together these app code giveaways! If you’ve got a mobile app that you’d like marketed effectively, contact the good folks at Appular!

Here’s a look at the apps we’re giving away:

China Unicom is the only authorized and official carrier of the iPhone 4 in China, but apparently, that doesn’t mean they are content to tow Cupertino’s anti-jailbreaking line: recent advertisements for the carrier indicate that they are more than happy to jailbreak an iPhone or iPad for customers for a price.

Translated, the circled portion of the signage reads: “Supported Service: Free SIM-trimming, jailbreak, installation of more than 10 hot apps.”

How odd. Leaving aside why China Unicom would jeopardize its relation with Apple by selling jailbroken iPads and iPhones, why are they being so cheerfully helpful in allowing their customers to migrate to other networks.

We suspect that this is ultimately about censorship and warez. The promise to install “ten hot apps” is the tip-off there: by offering to jailbreak customers’ phones, China Unicom can profit from their own customers’ desire to install apps not only without paying for them, but which also haven’t been censored for the local market.

[via 9to5Mac]

The iPhone 4’s incredible retina display boasts pixels so small and tightly packed that they are almost indistinguishable to the human eye…. but if a new technology created by University of Michigan researchers ever hits the market, the Retina Display might end up looking as antediluvian as VGA.

Using nano-thin sheets of metal with precisely spaced slits that act as resonators, the team of researchers built a tiny high-definition display with pixels eight times smaller than those on the iPhone 4. These nano-resonating displays are incredibly green-friendly, since they don’t require the chemicals needed to make an LCD; better, they’re far more energy-efficient to boot.

Need proof? The above image of the University of Michigan logo might look blurry, but that’s only because it’s magnified up from its original size, which is just nine microns wide. Six of these logos would fit in the width of a human hair.

If this technology ever hits the market, a fully high-definition 1080p display could be fit in the area of a postage stamp. Don’t be surprised if half-a-decade down the line, a grizzled and hunched Steve Jobs holds aloft the iPhone 9 and introduces the world to their hot new marketing buzz term: Nanoresonators.

Not quite sure what you’re looking at? These seven Escher-esque airplane propellors were captured by iPhone photographer Soren Ragsdale, and while the resulting image is a bit mind-bending, no genius would find anything wrong with his iPhone’s camera sensor. Instead, the photo is just a trippy (but terribly neat) demonstration of the iPhone’s rolling shutter.

Here’s how it works. Unlike a film camera — which quickly opens its shutter and burns the resulting image into the ensconced film strip all at once — most digital cameras have a rolling shutter. An iPhone doesn’t take the picture all at once; instead, it works more like a scanner, starting from one side and — line by line — moving to the far end of the photograph.

Usually, this all happens so fast that you can’t tell the difference, but when you start adding in photographic subjects that spin faster than your iPhone’s camera can scan them, you get the weird reality bending of the image above.

The iPhone’s not alone in exhibiting this behavior: you’ll see this sort of sampling on pretty much every CMOS sensor camera on the market. A nightmare for professionals, surely, but for a consumer interested in Dali-fying his iPhone photos without downloading an app, it’s a pretty cool side effect.

[via Gizmodo]

When we reviewed ID8-Mobile’s sneaky little MoGo Talk XD a month ago, we mentioned that it was only available for the 3G/s, but ID8-Mobile said they had an iPhone 4 version in the works. Turns out they weren’t kidding.

The iPhone 4 MoGo Talk — which hides a thin Bluetooth headset in a sleek case —  is a little lumpier than its predecessor due to the fact that they’ve dropped the problematic flip-up charging port in favor of a port completely housed within the case; on the other hand, the case is still better-looking than a bumper.

At $99, the iPhone 4 MoGo Talk XD is $30 less than the older version; current owners of the older case can upgrade to the iPhone 4 case for $20 through the company’s website.

Apple’s long history of design consolidation is obvious at every level, from the no-button Magic Mouse and Trackpad, to the adoption of MiniDisplayPort, to the iPhone’s iconic home button.

But Cupertino doesn’t want to stop there: a new patent filing, Apple is now exploring ways to combine the headphone jack with the microphone on their iPhone and iPod Touch.

The patent says that “”in addition to using housing real estate, sound input apertures and electrical connectors introduce openings in the housing and breach the barrier that protects components inside the housing.”

In other words, drop a hole from an iPhone and you have less risk of dust and moisture making its way in. The advantages don’t seem to lie just in hardware reliability either: apparently, the two-in-one design would also enhance voice quality through a noise-cancelling technology Apple’s calling “audio beamforming.”

We’d say this one’s a lock: it’s not a pie-in-the-sky patent, but a natural extension of Apple’s predilection for the utmost in simplicity.

[via Gizmodo]

The iPhone Dev-Team will not release a jailbreak for iOS 4.0.2/3.2.2.

“With FW 4.1 still in its beta stages, it makes no sense to escalate the ‘cat & mouse’ with Apple for FW updates that only fix the jailbreak holes,” the Dev Team says on its blog. “To quote WOPR, ‘the only winning move is not to play.'”

Here’s the Dev Team’s full statement:

The light at the end of the tunnel seems to be glowing ever brighter for iPhone 3G owners running iOS 4.  In addition to Steve Jobs’ recently publicized email claiming a software update coming soon to fix the problems, the Blogosphere and Twitter are also carrying reports of big performance improvements with recent betas:

Tests with a beta version of Apple’s iOS 4.1 on a well-used 3G suggest that the new OS has increased the phone’s responsiveness. Indeed, apps load much more quickly, text entry is much smoother and the phone no longer slows down beyond the point of usability when more than one browser window is open. [The Next Web]

These have been among the most widely reported problems.

On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that a Dallas man, Vincent Hunter, who was visiting relatives in Hartford, Conn. watched the in-progress burglary of his home after receiving an alert from his iCam app (iTunes link) running on his iPhone.

The app warned him that motion had been detected in the house. It turned out that two burglars were attempting to get into the man’s home and eventually made entry into the home by throwing a brick through a glass door.

He immediately called the police and officers were immediately dispatched to his home. The app alerted him to the arrival of the officers and as he watched via webcam they made entry into the home with guns drawn.

The story wasn’t clear about whether or not anything was stolen, but the combination of iCam, some webcams, and the iPhone certainly did their job — advising the home owner of the in-progress burglary.

Longing for the gaming arcade but stuck at your desk?  Well, the Pinball Magic [app]cessory from New Potato won’t fool you into thinking you’re at the real thing, but it looks like a cute way to kill both time and disposable income.  Slide your handheld iDevice into the mini pinball machine and Tilt Away:

Get ready for iPhone and iPod touch entertainment that’s in a class by itself! The Pinball Magic [app]cessory creates realistic and engaging gameplay, bringing classic pinball machine cabinet design and fun to iPhone and iPod touch. Pinball Magic, just like the classic cabinets (only smaller), works with the free Pinball Magic app to create a portable arcade experience, complete with flipper buttons and ball-launching plunger.

Perfect for entertaining miniature coworkers or family members.  Available soon at Best Buy for $40.

[via TUAW] [Chip Chick]

Blogger Brian Sweet of Gumball Tech claims to have beaten the world text-messaging record using the onscreen keyboard of his iPhone 4.

The record was recently set by a U.K. woman using a Samsung Galaxy S running the SWYPE keyboard. Melissa Thompson, 27, managed to swipe out the phrase: “the razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human,” in just under 26 seconds. (Her feat is still being verified by Guinness).

Sweet claims to have thumbed out the same phrase in less than 22 seconds, besting the record by 4 seconds. “It’s not official,” says Sweet, “but it’s definitely better than what that woman recently achieved.”

If genuine, Sweet’s feat disproves the notion that the iPhone’s onscreen keyboard is slow. Typing on the iPhone has typically been characterized as slow compared to a physical keyboards, such as those on Blackberry devices.

See for yourself. Here’s a YouTube video of Sweet typing out the phrase. Watch those thumbs fly!

Tain’t the heat, t’is the humidity… at least when it comes to iPhone moisture sensors in Hong Kong.

According to the South China Morning Post, numerous Hong Kong iPhone users are having a hard time getting their handsets covered under warranty because the moisture sensors — the small little stickers inside every iPhone that discolor when they get wet, indicating user error — max out at 95% humidity.

The problem? Hong Kong and other Asian countries regularly excess 95% humidity, with some areas seeing greater-than-95% humidity for 73 days between June 1st and August 16th. For an iPhone, this is the equivalent of spending two and a half months in a sauna.

For some users like Justin Hayward, this has resulted in it being impossible to get an iPhone fixed under warranty, and instead being dinged a massive charge for a replacement phone.

“I’ve never used it in the bath, gone swimming or anything like that,” Hayward said. “Let’s face it; many people do break the rules. But a significant number of people are making these kind of report. If the limitation is over 95 per cent humidity, they ought not to be selling the product here. I find it quite unbelievable – a real piece of corporate greed or a great oversight.”

I’m not going to blame this on corporate greed, but Hayward has a point: if the mechanism Apple uses to detect moisture in iPhones doesn’t work in real-world locations, they shouldn’t be denying warranty service on those devices when they fail with triggered moisture sensors.

This isn’t even a problem limited to the Far East: a California woman sued Apple earlier this year over the same problem, and faultily triggered moisture sensors is a rampant problem in the tropics. If Apple’s not going to honor service based upon a moisture detection mechanism that verifiably fails in real-world conditions, they should reconsider selling devices where you can cut the air with a knife.

And here’s Percolator, today’s Best Thing Ever for people who love their iPhone photography.

What does it do? It re-renders photos in glorious approximation, creating gorgeous mosaics out of roundels of color.

Pixels At An Exhibition, an online gallery of iPhone photography,  launched a new Remix feature with a stunning series of nudes.

As per the site’s house rules, all photos are edited on an iPhone, this time other artists were invited to re-interpret a photo series.

There are two Remix galleries of the Sarah nude series in what will become an ongoing feature; the originals are by photographer Christian Peacock.

(Here in the luxurious and well-appointed Cult of Mac offices, one could get a good gander at these pics without recrimination, but we erred on the side of caution, including the ones chosen for this post.)

Déjà vu. A likeable geek whose job is largely dedicated to testing mobile phones leaves his precious new iPhone in a bar… except this time, that affable geek wasn’t Gray Powell. Instead, it was Gizmodo editorial director Brian Lam… the same guy who helped okay the purchase of the lost/stolen iPhone 4 prototype months before its official debut.

According to Lam’s Twitter account, the Gizmodo chief lost his iPhone at a restaurant while having lunch, but a random bystander sitting at a nearby table held onto it for him until he returned. Seemingly without a dose of sarcasm, Lam then tagged his tweet with the Twitter #karma tag.

Perhaps it should have been tagged with #dramatic-irony instead. If anything, the whole misadventure underlines how different things could have gone for Apple and Gizmodo if someone with some scruples had found the iPhone 4 prototype and tried to return it to Powell, as they did for Lam, instead of almost immediately rushing to the highest bidder.

The most surprising detail of this story is that since the tweet, Lam has Brian Lam has locked down his Twitter account so people can’t read his tweets, presumably in response to the Twitter taunts of people on whom the irony was not lost. What a weirdly defensive move, especially from a guy like Lam, who certainly realizes that his job at the largest gadget blog on the Internet makes him a public figure.

Look, Gizmodo, at the end of the day, you landed the biggest tech scoop basically ever, but at the cost of some of your journalist’s ethics. That’s cool, but you’ve got to be ready to take your lumps when people loudly laugh at the irony.

[via Daring Fireball]

Once the most profitable cell phone company in the world, and still the largest, Finnish telecommunications giant Nokia has seemed so utterly unprepared for combating the game-changing iPhone that their corporate confusion could only be matched by someone flipping the gravity switch to the off position in the middle of a basketball game.

It’s no wonder that Nokia is trying to copy Apple’s success, but as these recently leaked shots of their upcoming N9 prestige phone is anything to go by, their strategy seems to be to petulantly ignore Apple’s revolutionary advances in the smartphone arena while rather lamely aping the brushed aluminum and black chiclet aesthetic of the MacBook line.

The result is a confused mishmash: a smartphone that wants to be a MacBook when what Nokia needs is a handset that makes the iPhone want to be more of a Nokia. Come on, Nokia: once upon a time, you made the best phones on Earth. You can do better than this.

Desperate for a real keyboard on your iPhone?  Indian industrial designer Altamash Jiwani was too, and created a prototype of a snap-on sliding QWERTY keyboard for the iPhone 4:

[The] keyboard offers a QWERTY slider tactile keyboard and a stylish impact case to protect your Iphone from bumps and bruises along with access to all the switches and jacks on your Iphone. Just fit your Iphone in the case while connecting the QWERTY keyboard’s port to the dock connector of your Iphone.

Design also incorporates a finger rest at the lower end bottom of the case to get a comfortable hold while typing. If you don’t open the slider, you still have access to whole Iphone screen and the QWERTY keyboard for quickly typing something.

Jiwani put significant thought into choosing among three possible form factors: a flip keyboard, an elongated iPhone frame, or a sliding keyboard.  He documented the design process on his blog.

We all hate chores. Whether it’s taking out the trash, washing the dishes or any other number of horrifyingly dull tasks. Game developer Rexbox aims to inject some fun into these mundane tasks with the release of EpicWin for iPhone, which turns your to-do list into a game.

If you’ve ever hit Craigslist or eBay looking for an iPhone, you’re probably used to seeing ads for new, unlocked iPhones from mystery dealers. You might see less of them for the time being, though: London detectives have arrested nine members of an international iPhone resale ring.

The suspects in question are alleged to have taken advantage of the UK’s extremely subsidized iPhone rates to purchase thousands of new handsets through a middleman boasting a fraudulent credit card or identity. They would then sell those iPhones internationally for a healthy profit, sticking local British iPhone carriers with the tab.

That’s not all: the same criminals stole over £1.2 million in July from wireless carrier O2 by hooking up SIM cards to automated dialers to call premium phone lines in their control which charged ten pounds a minute. They then simply abandoned the contracts by disappearing without a trace.

It was that latter crime that actually prompted the City of London detectives’ month-long investigation, which ultimately netted them nine collars. At one home, they also confiscated over £15,000-worth of iPhones still in their boxes.

[via Apple Insider]

OPlayer, from olimsoft, is an iOS application for both iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad, that claims to boost your device’s media capabilities by allowing playback of a huge list of audio and video file formats.

The list of supported formats is pretty impressive, and will save you a great deal of effort if you often find yourself having to convert movies to watch on your device while you’re on the move. A fairly big video file can take a while to convert and it’s not the most exciting of tasks. But with OPlayer conversion isn’t needed – simply transfer your media to your device.

The full list of supported formats includes MP3, WMA, RM, AAC, WMV, AVI, MKV, RMVB, XVID, MP4, MOV, 3GP and MPG.

You can transfer files to your device using the File Sharing feature within iTunes or you can download them using the built-in browser from your computer, from the internet or from an FTP server. It’s also possible to stream media to your device over Wi-Fi and 3G.

The release of OPlayer, and of CineXPlayer last week, in to the App Store certainly suggests that Apple is relaxing some of its restrictions on app approvals, most likely in a bid to discourage users from jailbreaking their devices. Will this open the doors for other third-party media players?

Get OPlayer for your iPhone & iPod Touch from the App Store here, or get the HD version for your iPad here.