The iPhone 4’s new 720p video recording capabilities and the fantastic iMovie for iPhone app make shooting beautiful movies on the run an absolute snap, but sharing them is another story. The second you try to upload your gorgeous, high-def movie to YouTube, the iPhone 4 crunches your video down to a low-quality 360p clip.
What the heck, Apple? Don’t you want us to show off your phone’s video capabilities? That forced compression is plenty irritating, but an enterprising App Store developer has now remedied the problem in the form a free application called 720Tube, which does exactly what it says: makes sure your videos are shared in the same quality they were shot.
There’s something heartwarming about a Mac software developer so dedicated to maintaining the quality of his product that, discovering a pirated version of his software on the Pirate Bay that had been shoddily cracked at the expense of the user experience, he actually told the cracker how to do it more elegantly.
That’s just what Coding Robots dev Dmitry Chestnykh did when he found a version of his journal-taking application, Mémoires, up on the popular Bittorrent search site.
Incensed at the crumminess of the crack, Chestnykh wrote the following to the Pirate Bay.
The iControlPad has been teased for so many years that the case — which promised to allow you to add physical gaming controls to your iPhone or iPod Touch — was the front contender in our own internal Vaporware awards. Heck, just a month ago, I wrote: “The sad fact of the matter is we’re never going to see the release of the long fabled iControlPad.”
So much for my soothsaying and shows what I know. After two and a half years of development, the very first iControlPad has finally popped off the production line as the sexy unit you see above. The first run of the device will be limited to 3,000 units, and orders should start being taken “soon.”
That’s great news for iPhone gamers, particularly emulation enthusiasts, but what impresses me most about the new design is its modularity: the bumpers actually pop off and can be changed to theoretically support another smartphone, or even an updated iPhone design.
Really neat. We’re glad to see the iControlPad’s long transition from dream to product finally nearing the end its final days.
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.
Apple’s iOS devices clearly aren’t built with styluses in mind, and Apple institutionally loathes them but some of us feel a more nuanced and precise control when using styluses, particularly when it comes to digital drawing.
There’s a lot of companies who are willing to sell you a little plastic pointing stick for your iPad, if you don’t just go the cheap route and use a SlimJim instead, but one problem with these styluses is that they obscure what’s underneath the stylus, making it hard to see what letter you’re tapping on the onscreen keyboard or even if you’ve completed that circle.
We’d prefer someone figure out how to make a fine-tipped stylus work with an iPad, but until then, the DAGi Pen is a neat solution: it makes the tip of the stylus transparent and suspends a red dot in the middle so you always know where the stylus contact area is in relation to your iPhone’s display.
Pretty clever, and cheap to boot: each DAGi Pen costs just $20.
The first of the would-be, Android-toting iPad killers is about to arrive in the Samsung Galaxy Tab. It’s set to debut at next week’s IFA conference in Berlin, but as you can see, Samsung’s already teasing the device.
We’ve got to admit: the rapid fire staccato of intercut images in the promotional video actually does get our pulse pounding a bit… well, as much as our pulse ever pounds for an Apple knock-off product, that is.
As far as specs, nothing’s official except it’s 7-inch form factor yet, but the Galaxy Tab is tagged to feature an AMOLED display (distressingly rumored to run at a resolution of only 800 x 480, the same resolution as the four-inch Galaxy S smartphone) and run Android 2.2. As you can see, the Tab’s shape is different than the iPad too, allowing for one-handed holding.
The one obvious advantage the Tab has over the iPad is video-calling support, thanks to a forward facing camera… but that camera’s also rumored to be pretty chintzy, only supporting a 320×240 resolution. There’s also a rear mounted 3.1MP camera, according to scuttlebutt.
Can the Galaxy Tab trump the iPad? We doubt it: spec-wise, the Tab is looking underwhelming, even in the areas where it bests the iPad. Still, can’t fault an electronics manufacturer for trying.
Pioneer’s latest iPod speaker dock is the KODO XW-NAW1, which sounds more like a jive-speaking droid’s designation than a product to be interested in, but look beyond the engineer branding and what you will find is a gorgeously svelte wafer of a dock that doesn’t sacrifice big sound for footprint.
Perhaps designed to be wall mounted, the KODO XW-NAW1 is only 83mm thick, but still contains a couple of thirty watt speakers. The buttons are as touch-sensitive as your iPhone, and while the ports on the KODO are few, there is a component video output for hooking up to a TV.
It’s a gorgeous dock that would elegantly fit any entertainment center decor, but one big problem is the small width of the docking bay, meaning iPad owners can’t avail themselves of the KODO’s docking abilities without snapping their tablet in half and cramming it in a crunch of aluminum and glass into the bay.
It’ll also be pretty expensive when it drops in September, costing around $300.
Reading Amazon press releases about their Kindle e-reader reminds one of the Cold War days when Soviet analysts interpreted the meaning of which leader were present during Red Square parades or diplomats fired off long missives about a cryptic statement from Chinese leaders. The Seattle-based Internet bookseller is no different when it trumpets its e-reader.
“Kindle is the best-selling product on Amazon.com for two years running and our new generation Kindles are continuing that momentum,” Amazon Kindle senior vice president Steve Kessel said in a Wednesday announcement. Lacking, however, were specific sales figures.
Despite the rumblings from companies looking to knock the iPad off its pedestal, Apple will dominate the tablet market at least through 2012, one analyst believes. The iPad will account for 74.1 percent of worldwide tablet sales in 2010 with the figure slipping to 61.7 percent of the market by 2012.
“If recent history is a lesson, it will take some time for these companies to get their products to market, longer for them to offer necessary software support and infrastructure, and an even lengthier period to begin to rival the overall user experience Apple is able to deliver,” Rhoda Alexander, iSuppli monitor research director, announced.
More than a quarter of mobile workers either plan to buy or receive an iPad in the next six months, just the latest signal Apple’s tablet device is being warmly welcomed by the business community. Just 6.9 percent of those surveyed said they plan to get a tablet PC.
The survey, taken in July by corporate mobility service provider iPass, queried 1,100 so-called “mobile workers” in North America, Europe, and Asia. A mobile worker is defined by iPass as anyone who uses a mobile device to access non-corporate networks for work purposes.
The first porn service to target iPhone 4’s video chat feature FaceTime claims some 1,000 callers have been, uh, satisfied in the first five days of operation.
Called iP4Play, the service costs $4 a minute to chat live with a video vixen. Most of the service subscribers, 93% of whom are men, opted for what the company dubbed a “quick-draw McGraw” five-minute session.
While interactive video sex chats are nothing new, FaceTime brings portability and convenience to virtual cavorting — it’s definitely easier to lock yourself in a bathroom than get your groove on in front of a 27-inch iMac screen.
FaceTime is an iPhone 4-only videoconferencing service that works over Wi-Fi. Both parties need iPhone 4 for it work. Callers pay via credit card for time increments of 5, 10, 20 or 30 minutes.
Buhler's prototype Liquidmetal casting machine is called the most advanced in the world. This is a similar die-casting machine made by the same company.
Apple’s recent deal with Liquidmetal Technologies will give it access to the most advanced manufacturing machinery on the planet, one insider says.
“This is the most advanced injection-molding machine ever made,” Merkel says. “It is state-of-the-art.”
Apple recently licensed Liquidmetal Technology’s IP for use in consumer electronics. Liquidmetal Technologies is one of the leading companies trying to commercialize space-age metal alloys that are extremely hard and lightweight but can be processed as easily as plastics. NASA has said Liquidmetal is “poised to redefine materials science as we know it in the 21st century.”
This aerospace part is a one-piece casting from Liquidmetal, which if made traditionally would have required several manufacturing steps. Image courtesy of Drew Merkel.
If your Time Capsule or Airport just won’t blanket your entire house with sweet, invisible WiFi, Western Digital has a new, easy to use solution to extend your network to the basement, the attic or the back yard: the Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit.
The kit includes two Livewire network adapter boxes, each with four ethernet ports. All you do is plug one Livewire adapter into your router or Time Capsule as well as a wall socket. Then plug the other adapter into a wall socket in any room in your house where you don’t have networking. As long as those two outlets are on the same power grid, which most newer homes are, your internet connection will be shot through your electrical socket to the Livewire in the other room.
A practical use for this would be to extend your network to a room that is too far away to get WiFi. For example, if you wanted to set your basement up as an office, you could just set the Livewire adapters up and plug your iMac into the second one. Easy networking, without extending your WiFi network with repeaters or wiring up the room for Ethernet.
According to Western Digital, the Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit can provide data transfer speeds of up to 200 megabits per second, which should, theoretically, be enough to stream even 1080p video. At $140 for a pair of adapters, this is a solution to consider if you’ve got any dead spots in your home network you’re feeling an itch to fill.
Not that we ever expect elegant, fully-realized products from China’s plucky constabulary of Apple knock-off shops, but apparently, it takes a lot more to make an iPad killer than just aping the design and slapping Android on it.
Reviewed by Giz-China, the ePad seems to be an excellent example of what you get if you try to save yourself a couple of hundred bucks when you buy yourself a tablet.
It looks like an iPad superficially, but where the iPad has an aluminum unibody casing, the ePad has a cheap plastic back that’s easy to break. Unlike the iPad, though, at least the ePad has you covered with all your missing features, including a USB port, HDMI port, a microSD card reader and even a front-facing camera.
The display is where things really start falling apart, though. According to Giz-China, the ePad’s display looks “dull and washed out” and is “terrible” compared to the iPad.
As for performance, sure, the ePad boasts a 1GHz ARM A8 CPU… but apparently, even that isn’t enough to get this baby running right. The ePad is apparently plagued by choppy video and app launching so slow, the reviewer compares it to Commodore 64.
Bizarrely, after that litany of complaints, Giz-China ultimately declared the ePad a better device than the iPad in their head-to-head faceoff… only to contradict themselves a sentence later. I’ll have a snootful of whatever you guys are having, it seems like a real loosener.
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.
I’m certainly no expert, but I’ve often felt that a lot of what is behind Japan’s seeming eccentricities — the fascination with robots and automation, as well as the strict adherence to a social protocol that can seem , to Westerners, distant and stand-offish — to the crushing biomass of their overcrowded cities. In a country of shoebox sized apartments and packed trains, the only personal space you can get isn’t physical, but psychological.
One of the examples I like to point to is just the experience of walking into a diner. In America, you’d go in, sit at the counter, order your food from a waitress and get it delivered to you a few minutes later. In Japan, though, it is handled with what can seem to be an absurd level of detachment from your server: orders are placed through a touchscreen or ticket machine, where you pay for your food. That ticket is placed, without a word, upon the tray of someone working behind the counter, who later — and just as silently — brings you your food.
I was really interested, then, to see this iPad self-ordering system pop up on Japan Probe. Designed by Sharp Systems Products, it allows Japanese diners to order from a menu on their iPad, completely obviating the need for the aforementioned touchscreen ordering systems or ticketing machines. It’s a more feature rich implementation too: for example, you can pinch to make a picture of your food bigger, or drill down for ingredients.
Interesting stuff. It’s an obvious fit for a country like Japan, but I wonder if this isn’t the inevitable path that American dining will take as well: the tablet as a dynamic, self-updating menu.
Fantastic. This LED-embedded jacket might just be the glue gun and rhinestone vest of the iPhone generation.
Created by Art and Program after collaboration between Yutaka Takahashi and Junpei Wada, the Vanilla Jacket is simple to use. Just shrug it on on and plug your iPhone or iPod Touch into it. Not only will the Vanilla display a graphic visualizer of the beats you are jamming to on the 8 x 8 LED matrix embedded into the back of the jacket, but you can even use the coat as a turn signal: just flick your wrist to let people behind you know if you’re turning left or right. You can even use the jacket to pump out a Twitter message.
The Vanilla jacket series will supposedly be available for purchase later this year at an undisclosed price, but what I love most about this video is how it seems to be a callback to Apple’s own “dancing silhouettes” iPod ads. I could easily see Apple outfitting a bunch of dancers in Vanilla jackets and starting out the September iPod event with a choreographed, LED equalized dance.
Paul Devine — whose offshore assets and bank accounts have already been frozen, and who was recently discovered to have $150,000 squirreled away in shoeboxes as fast “escape” money — is now said to have two safety deposit boxes, which might contain even more money and perhaps a spare passport or two.
Authorities are now demanding access to those safety deposit boxes, saying that they won’t allow him out on bail until they know the contents of those boxes since Devine is a serious flight risk. Man, this was a guy with a plan.
There’s not a gadget under the sun that the chroma-crazy lads over at ColorWare won’t slather in Pantone hues if you pay them enough money, alleviating the necessity of the Mac-loving hockey fan from trying to turn his iMac into as gaudy a display of team pride as his torso and face with the help of spray paint alone.
Needless to say, with the advent of the Magic Trackpad, Colorware has now updated their services to allow you to custom-color your new input device. So if you’ve been despairing that your Magic Trackpad doesn’t match your desktop’s Pan-African chromatic aesthetic, head on over and plunk down your change. Who says every Mac has to be so gray, anyway?
Steve Jobs certainly wouldn’t agree, but I know a few of you grumps out there were disappointed when the iPad turned out to more of a big iPhone than a convertible tablet with a built-in keyboard. Even if you’re not one of those people, serious typing on the iPad pretty much requires lugging a Bluetooth-pairable physical keyboard around with you.
If you fall into either category, you might be interested in this case that transforms into an iPad stand, complete with integrated Bluetooth keyboard. It’s a great design: the keyboard’s chiclet keys get folded against the display when closed to protect the glass. Sure, it adds a bit more bulk to your iPad, but if you do a lot of typing on the go, this is certainly preferable to lugging a real keyboard around you.
Unfortunately, this convertible iPad dock is a bit expensive, costing just over $90… which seems like a lot of money to spend for what will only prove to be marginally convenient for most. Perhaps when it passes through the FCC and hits these shores, though, they’ll have figured out a way to lower that price. Halve that tag and this would be a no-brainer for me.
All the internet scuttlebutt at this point converges upon one big and tasty rumor: Apple will announce a new, iOS-driven AppleTV called the iTV in September, which will cost $99 and have no local storage, but support streaming media only.
If the rumor is true, it’s a bold plan by Apple to transform their “hobby device” into a veritable cable, satellite, HTPC and Netflix killer… but if content carriers aren’t on board and the price isn’t right, even iOS isn’t going to save the new iTV from the ignominy of its predecessor.
Currently, renting a show for 48 hours through iTunes costs $1.99, which is just enough to keep iTunes from being a competitive way to watch a show, especially when it’s on both the boob tube and sites like Hulu for free… albeit with ads.
$0.99 is a much easier to swallow price for renting a show. It’s a no-brainer price point that is hard to resent, and easily justifiable for most consumers if they can watch a show at their convenience, legally and without ads. It’s also an imperative price point for a streaming iTV with no local storage to reach in order to succeed.
All the stars seem to be in alignment for the iTV: the price now seems set to be right for the device itself and the content it’ll play. If Apple doesn’t announce the iTV in September, this will end up being the most disappointing rumor of the year.
As Mac fans, we all know that Apple habitually throws an iPod event in September, where the obsolete iPods allowed to grow dusty in our love are whisked off behind the killing sheds, while the shiniest new models are simultaneously heralded. These events usually see an updated iPod Touch and a new version of iTunes, and this year, everyone’s expecting word on the new streaming iTunes features and perhaps a relaunched, iOS-driven AppleTV called the iTV.
Needless to say, excitement is high… but Apple still hasn’t tipped their hat on when we can expect the conference. Well, you might want to pencil September 7th in for following our iPod Event liveblog, because Bloomberg’s sources are now saying that date’s a lock.
Of course, since Apple traditionally doesn’t alert the press to an iPod Event until a week ahead of time, we won’t know if Bloomberg’s sources are right until the end of this month… but Apple certainly can’t put it off much later. If you’re hungry for a new iPod Touch or even an updated AppleTV, earmark some credit for that date.
Apple released a Mac OS X security update today that patches a critical PDF vulnerability and a handful of other security issues.
Security Update 2010-005 supplies a fix that addresses a “heap buffer overflow” that exists in CoreGraphics and the way it handles PDF files. The vulnerability could have allowed the “unexpected application termination of arbitrary code execution” via a malformed PDF file.
It is interesting to note that this sounds just like the exploit hackers used to jailbreak iOS 4 on the iPhone. It is possible that it is the same since the two Operating Systems are said to share the same code base. However, there isn’t any indication that this is true in Apple’s support document. Apple released the update for the iPhone exploit, iOS 4.0.2, a few weeks ago.
This update also addresses a “stack buffer overflow” that would allow arbitrary code execution through a malformed embedded font and the remainder of fixes in the update resolve problems with network security.
Security Update 2010-005 is available for: Mac OS X v10.5.8, Mac OS X Server v10.5.8, Mac OS X v10.6.4, Mac OS X Server v10.6.4 via Software Update or direct download.
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 appto 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.
