Steve Jobs appears to still be banging out email replies to regular Joes and Janes. His latest customer missive was sent out to German Apple owner Niko, who wanted to know whether Apple would still be supporting or updating the iPhone 2g.
The death knell for the 2g isn’t super surprising, it wasn’t part of the iPhone 4.0 presser and in device years, the original iPhone was pretty long in the tooth, discontinued in the US in summer 2008.
For those of you curious about what device Jobs used to send this answer, this one came from his iPhone, not his iPad.
Pilgrims trekking Italy to ogle the the Shroud of Turin, on public display for the first time in a decade, now have iPhone apps to help them see more.
Last time thousands of visitors flocked to peek at the yellowed cloth said to depict the face of Jesus, the best mobile option was probably some lame WAP browser.
This time around, iPhone apps can help negotiate the challenges of Italian travel — opening hours, monuments off the grid — with the flick of a finger.
iSindone (“sindone” is Italian for holy shroud) costs $0.99, and offers opening times, directions for getting there and info on the cathedral. There’s also a hi-res image of the shroud, rumored to be a medieval fake, which may give you a better look than the quick drive-by visitors get of the real thing.
Instant Turin, gratis for the next two weeks in honor of the shroud unveiling, promises to steer you clear of restaurants with dreaded tourist menus and get you to the Mole on time.
The official app, also called Sindone, hasn’t been released yet. Registering on the web site will give you details when it launches, we’re going to hope before the shroud display ends May 23.
And, if you need to walk off the chocolate and Barolo, try the sprawling gardens of Venaria Reale outside Turin — just remember to get bus times and hours handy or printed out or you will risk getting stranded.
It’s certainly exciting that the iPhone is getting multitasking… but with only the very last generation of iDevice’s supported, a lot of people are going to be left behind. Even Apple seemed a little bit embarrassed not to be rolling multitasking out across all devices.
Presumably, the issue is one of horsepower, but not complete inability for pre-3Gs devices to multitask. A developer has discovered that by switching just one variable, you can enable multitasking on the iPhone 3G fairly easily.
Personally, I wonder if Apple wouldn’t have been wise to be a little more flexible on their rigid performance expectations for multitasking. When Apple introduced the App Store, they essentially eliminated the biggest and most obvious reason why the average iPhone owner would choose to jailbreak their devices: the ability to run third-party software. Getting multitask on older iPhones and iPod Touches is going to be a big reason for people to start jailbreaking again.
The evidence continues to mount that the next iPhone, iPad or both will support video conferencing. Just a few days after the iChatAgent process was found running under iPhone OS in the 4.0 Beta… and now 9to5Mac has unearthed the motherload of all video chat references.
According to Mark Gurman, “We’ve found references to moderators, chat rooms, encrypted video conferences and other features which could be even be used by developers in the future to add video chat to gaming applications, perhaps with ties to Gamecenter.”
A built-in video chat API for game developers to use in their apps is exciting enough, but 9to5Mac have also found that Apple is testing iPhone video conferencing services and have opened four servers (one external, three internal) to test out the feature.
Finally? According to 9to5Mac’s sources, iPads and iPod Touches are going to get video in the fall, simultaneous with the next iPhone release. And you thought you’d have a year before you had to upgrade your iPad.
Introduced way back in iPhone OS 2.2, the “Rate on Delete” feature was a great example of how even Apple sometimes get it wrong.
The intention, of course, was to prompt users to actually rate the apps on their iPhone in a non-intrusive way, but if you never deleted an app, you were never prompted to rate it. Combined with the fact that people deleting apps tend not to care much for them and you had a system that promoted app reviews but with a slant to the negative.
Now MacRumors is reporting that Apple has fixed its mistake and removed Rate on Delete from OS 4.0
I’m not sure this is the right tack. You still want user ratings, it’s just the current system skews towards bad ratings. Why not supplement Rate on Delete with a one-time Rate prompt the fifth time you open an app? That would cover all the bases.
Golf aficionados — or viewers agog about Tiger Woods’ emergence from hibernation — might have noticed a curiously new AT&T in a TV spot during the start of the PGA Masters in Augusta on Thursday.
Yesterday’s announcement of the Apple Game Center was exciting news for serious iPhone OS gamers: it’s a defragmentation move by Apple to consolidate all of the many social gaming services like OpenFeint, Plus+ and others. Gamers can expect a uniform social gaming experience across all their iPhone games with features like universal friends lists, matchmaking and achievements.
There’s a lot to like here, but you’d expect the people behind the existing systems to be upset. Not so: OpenFeint and Plus+ are thrilled by Apple’s move. Why? They anticipated it, and have been moving their networks in the direction of supporting the freemium model of selling virtual goods in ostensibly free games as a way to profit.
Although the iPad doesn’t contain a camera, references in the iPhone OS 3.2 software to the functionality strongly implied the addition of video chat to future Apple devices. We probably won’t see video come to the iPad until the next generation of devices to debut next year, but video conferencing on the next iPhone isn’t just a long wished for feature… if the iPhone OS 4.0 beta is anything to go by, it may well be a lock.
A TUAW reader sent in a screenshot that shows the iChatAgent process running in iStat under iPhone OS 4.0. That’s a strong indication that Apple plans to introduce iChat to the iPhone OS, and while that doesn’t confirm video chat, it doesn’t make sense for Apple to hold off on an IM client for the iPhone OS for so long if they don’t intend on also going the video troute.
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.
