Well, that didn’t take very long. Less than a day after the iPhone OS 4.0 beta was released to developers, iPhone hacker Musclenerd has already jailbroken it.
So as not to jeopardize a working jailbreak technique before the final iPhone 4.0 update hits handhelds, no one’s talking about the exact jailbreaking method being employed here. I suppose it could be the same Spirit technique that’s being pursued to finally bring untethered 3.1.3 jailbreak to the third generation iPod Touch.
It’s unlikely that any solution this early in the game will last to the final beta, but if the jailbreaking community’s recent efforts both here and in with the iPad suggest that 4.0 won’t stymie hackers for long.
Let's hope they work out these bugs before the summer!
iPhone OS 4.0 has been out for less than a day, but let’s dig a little deeper into the beta preview.
The home screen shot above captures what happened when I was trying to rearrange apps. The UI is still quite buggy and all hell can break loose when you least expect it. Moving apps around is even trickier now that folders are an option. Great way to organize apps, still the same horrible system for moving them around!
OPINION: The scuttlebutt was pervasive and we all hoped it was coming, so when Steve Jobs announced iPhone OS 4.0 multitasking at today’s event, it was more a pleasant confirmation than a surprise. It may have more than surprised Apple’s mobile partners, though: the addition of background VoIP functionality will, at the very least, finally force wireless carriers like AT&T to compete with companies like Skype on their own networks.
Boy, Steve Jobs doesn’t mess around, does he. Not content with his Google throwdown, he’s challenging the entire telecommunications industry with the iPhone’s new Background VoIP.
The “Get A Mac” series may be over, but Apple’s app-centric iPhone campaign is still as effective as ever. In the latest ad, “Shopper,” a husband explains how he used his iPhone 3Gs and the RedLaser price comparison app to get his wife a new espresso maker.
Unlike other iPhone ads, this one is unique in that it focuses on a sole app, but these ads still really hit the right note to me: they’re down-to-earth messages aimed at the every man focusing on the one indisputable thing the iPhone still does better than every other smartphone out there: software.
Last week’s release of iTunes 9.1 was largely noted for enabling the use of the iPad, no small feat. Of potentially far more use for those of us who haven’t yet managed to scrape together the pennies to buy an iPad is the ability to downsample all music for devices, whether iPad, -Pod, or -Phone, to 128kbps AAC. What this means is that you can keep high-quality (even lossless) audio files on your computer, and still carry a ton of songs without investing in a 160 GB iPod classic.
This is incredibly welcome news for me. I have a 28.07 gigabyte iTunes library, more than enough to take up nearly all the room on the highest-capacity iPhone 3GS. And lately, it had gotten to the point that I couldn’t even update my larger apps unless I deleted some music. So I synced my iPhone, clicked on its icon in iTunes, and then checked the box under Options reading “Convert higher bit rate songs to 128kbps AAC”. And voila — my phone was out of commission for eight hours! Seriously, don’t stop this process if you start it — there are grave consequences for interruption.
But when I woke up, the magic had been done. I went from eight spare megabytes (really) to 8.5 spare gigabytes — a thousandfold improvement. It’s like Apple upgraded me to a 40 GB iPhone while I slept. The music isn’t noticeably worse (to my ears, anyway), and it means I can carry a lot more of it. Brilliant. Thanks, Apple.
Is printing directly from your iPhone or iPad in the cards for iPhone OS 4.0?
Well, maybe, although the evidence is pretty scant.
. Check the support pages for iWorks, and you’ll find this little note on the subject: “Printing directly from iPad is not currently available.”
The operative word here is currently, and while we’re reading a lot into it, it does at least hint that Apple’s considering how to best go about bringing direct printing to its line of handheld devices… and give iPad and iPhone users one less reason to open up their laptops.
Like many questions about iPhone OS 4.0, we expect to know more about this at Apple’s corporate event on Thursday.
The iPad, as we all know, does not have a camera. But one developer has come up with an ingenious way of getting round that minor inconvenience, and turning the iPad into a photography device.
Ever wish someone could invent an app that would let you picture ketchup on your iPhone and douse the real thing from your smart phone on to your fries?
That’s the kind of whimsical hyper-reality Israeli pop band Izabo gets in their latest video for a catchy ditty called “On My Way.” Yeah, OK, so it may be awhile before iPhone augmented reality means you can shave with a razor pictured on your device, but the effect is clever.
CoM talked to video director Shushu Spanier about surprisingly uncoordinated musicians, borrowed iPhones and non-Mac equipment.
We knew it was coming — we just had no idea it’d be here so quickly. Yes, iPhone OS 4.0 will be revealed to the world at a press event this Thursday, at 10 a.m. Pacific, according to our friends over at Gizmodo — and every other tech blog under the sun.
There’s a reason high-end car interiors are often accentuated with wood — it wears far better than many other materials, lends a rich, warm look, and each piece is unique due to striations and markings inherent in the wood.
Add the fact that wood is a renewable resource that — if care is taken to plant more trees — won’t harm the environment, and the result is a beautiful, warm, hard-wearing case from Vers that’ll also appeal to the green-conscious.
Two men charged in federal court with planting credit card skimmers at gas stations used an iPhone to plan the crime.
The Hummer-driving, iPhone toting pair hit eight gas stations in central Utah before an attendant noticed the devices. He provided security cam footage of Robert Fichidzhyan, 27, and Levon Karamyan, 55, both of California, installing skimmers.
They were busted after police searched their car, a damaged white Hummer H2, and found keys to open the skimming devices and an iPhone with a map of Richfield with gas stations marked on it. Reports didn’t mention whether it was a map or a gas-station finder app.
I may hate April Fool’s Day, but I can still appreciate a good gag product when I see one, like this iPhone-to-iPad Converter. It’s like a microfilm reader for your iPhone: Just slap your iPhone in, let the display upscaler do its thing and you’ve got an iPad for just a fraction of the price suckers like Leander are paying for it!
The Otterbox Defender iPhone Case is the Hummer of iPhone cases. Offering three layers of plastic armor, it protects the iPhone in any terrain.
The Defender case is chunky but offers serious protection for tough jobs. This is a case for construction workers, firefighters, and stunt skateboarders.
At first I thought this steel grey Ivolution GT case from Vaja was made from some new space-age material. It is textured but smooth, and has a luxurious silky feel. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize it’s made from a pretty old material — leather.
Commanding a primo price ($100), the Ivolution GT is a primo case. The more I use it, the more I like it.
Rally Up promises to cut social network noise, emphasize privacy.
Rally Up, a new location-based iPhone and iPad app from the innovative Santa Cruz, CA team behind 12seconds apps, made its debut in the iTunes App Store Wednesday, hoping to capture the attention of a growing fanbase for apps that leverage mobile communication technology to let people connect with one another.
For the past year the social networking game has been dominated by two players: New York-based Foursquare and Gowalla, out of Austin, TX. With loyal adherents numbering in the hundreds of thousands each, both companies have raised millions in investment funding and explored media partnerships with the likes of Bravo TV, Zagat and the Travel Channel to position themselves for a future in which everyone owns a smartphone and GPS technology allows their location to be pinpointed on a mythical matrix of Coolness.
Enter now Rally Up, which looks to capitalize on privacy concerns that have led many to remain skeptics of social networking apps. Rally Up touts itself as a unique vehicle for letting “real” friends share their wisdom and discoveries about the places they live and visit. “Foursquare and Gowalla are mainly broadcast apps,” said Rally Up founder Sol Lipman. “You check in somewhere and tell the Facebook and Twitter universes about it and there’s very little interactivity or real communication about the experience.”
Rally Up’s focus is more on combining microblogging with location, providing its users a platform for sharing text, videos and direct messages with one another. With an emphasis on the quality of a user’s friends in the Rally Up network, the app doesn’t support mass ‘Friend’ imports from Twitter or Facebook, rather it draws from the phone’s contact list or address book to populate the app with people a user is more likely to be interested in sharing with.
Within the app, any Rally Up contact can be set with a profile providing that contact with more or less access to a user’s comings and goings with Rally Up. The app also allows a user to choose between broadcasting his or her current location or letting contacts know where they are headed next to facilitate greater interactivity and social planning than other social networking apps allow. With 1.7 million points of interest at launch through integration with Open Street Map, Rally Up also has a look and feel distinctly different from the stylized GUIs of Gowalla and Foursquare, while also supporting many of the features that have made those apps so popular, including push notification, leaderboards and stamp/badge collecting.
With an iPad optimized version of the app also ready to go when the highly anticipated Apple tablet device launches April 3rd, Rally Up may be poised to turn the Check-in Wars into a three-front battle.
Rally Up went live as a free download on the iTunes App Store Wednesday.
My sons are constantly stealing my iPhone to play their games, until I got the Pink Lady Mirror iPhone Case, which totally put them off. This iPhone case from USBfever screams girly!
Note: It’s Case Week on CultofMac.com. We’re checking out some of the latest and greatest iPhone cases on the market. Read all the case reviews here.
Sometimes, I look at my iPhone and, fighting the quell of soul-sickness, remark to myself “Yeah, I guess it’s a pretty good phone, but I wish it had a cord.”
Cords, after all, are very useful things: they allow even the cheapest telephone to enjoy the dual-function of a tethered nunchuck, can be wound tight around you if you get cold and are just eminently necessary if, like me, you happen to be an auto-erotic asphyxiator trying to get through a long distance relationship.
The Desk Phone Dock for the iPhone gives your iPhone back its cord. It’s a docking station featuring two built-in speakers, a microphone, volume control, instant mute, and both USB and AC power sources. Want to call your girlfriend? Just dial her contact, pick up the ivory handset and garrote yourself with abandon as she picks up and remarks in dulcet tones, “I thought I told you never to call me again.”
All joking aside, this is a pretty gorgeous docking station. If you want to use your iPhone like a landline when you’re at work, the Desk Phone Dock isn’t just functional, but its design is totally inkeeping with a Mac-friendly workspace.
When I first saw Uncommon’s customizable iPhone Cases at Macworld in January, I was skeptical. The company lets you print your own designs or artwork on customizable iPhone cases. Their samples looked cool, but I didn’t think they’d look so good with real photos or drawings.
But after testing it out, I’ve got to say I’m absolutely delighted with the results.
Note: It’s Case Week on CultofMac.com. We’re checking out some of the latest and greatest iPhone cases on the market. Read all the case reviews here.
Ever the genius engineer, Woz has figured out a simple and elegant way to run two iPhone apps simultaneously (otherwise known as multitasking).
He has two iPhones.
Having two iPhones also doubles his battery life.
“By the way, I solved the problem of battery life and [the lack of] multitasking on the iPhone,” Woz told Dan Lyons of NewsWeek. “I just have two iPhones, so if the battery runs down on the first one, I can use the other. And if I’m talking on one, I can use the other one to look something up. You would not believe how much use I get out of that.”
A mockup of the iPhone 4G with an aluminum "unibody" case. Image by Graham Bower.
Here’s a very cool mockup of the iPhone 4G with an aluminum “unibody” enclosure from our friend Graham Bower of MacPredictions.com.
The mockup takes its style cues from Apple’s current lineup of unibody MacBook Pros, which are carved from single slabs of aluminum. Metal gives the iPhone a much nicer look and feel.
Like today’s rumors, Graham is predicting a front-facing camera and a high-resolution screen. A high-res screen would allow the iPhone to display more than one app at a time (multitaking!):
And given that the iPhone OS now supports multiple resolutions, a higher resolution screen is also eminently possible. Perhaps we’ll even be able to pinch and zoom the icons on the Springboard. A higher resolution screen also makes dashboard widgets for the default Springboard screen more likely – it’s hard to believe that Apple will sit by while Android and Windows Phone 7 Series are enjoying this feature.
Several tidbits of information about the iPhone 4G are circulating today:
Front-facing camera
960×640 screen
Called the iPhoneHD
Coming June 22nd
Apple A4 system-on-a-chip
Third-party multitasking
Coming to Verizon and AT&T
The front-facing camera has been rumored for some time and evidence for videochat capabilities has been found in the iPhone 3.2 SDK. The 960×640 screen is double the current 480×360 resolution.
Engadget says the high resolution (most Android phones are around 800×400) will earn the name “iPhone HD” (makes sense). Engadget was also tipped the iPhone will be launched on June 22nd (a Tuesday, naturally).
The Apple-designed A4 chip is a full system-on-a-chip with better graphics capabilites than the current Samsung-made ARM CPU, making it capable of powering the HD screen without taking a performance hit.
And third-party multitasking was pulled from the iPhone 3.2 SDK at the last minute, so it’s ready to go for both the iPhone and the iPad.
For years I’ve been shuttling movies and TV shows between Macs at home and work using a portable hard drive.
But now that same drive is hooked to the internet thanks to the Pogoplug, a nifty $129 device that turns any USB hard drive into your own little cloud server accessible over the Internet.
Sitting on a bookshelf at work, the Pogoplug serves up all my files over the Net, even to my iPhone. It’s also going be a great complement to the iPad (arriving Saturday), storing all my media and streaming music and movies over the net without eating up the iPad’s limited memory.
