News - page 2212

What a surprise: software updates don’t fix problems in hardware.

Check out our video above. An iPhone 4 running the 4.1 beta loses a couple of bars when held in a “death grip.”

Apple iPhone Configuration Utility hits version 3.0. The new version was released today and includes enhanced support for iOS 4 and bug fixes. I highly recommend this often under utilized tool as something to have in your arsenal of tools for advanced iOS troubleshooting.

Earlier today, Apple released an update to iOS 4 and the corresponding SDK to developers, bringing the current version of  both to 4.1 beta. The update follows the release of iOS 4 last month.

There are a plethora of problems being reported about the iPhone 4 and iOS 4 and I hope that this update will address them. I’d particularly like to see fixes for the sensitivity of my proximity sensor and the Jawbone bluetooth connectivity issues reported earlier on Cult of Mac. I’ve personally experienced both of these issues on my iPhone 4.

It will also be interesting to see if this update includes the new signal strength formula or not and what effect if any this will have on the problems reported with the iPhone 4 antenna.

Registered iOS developers can grab a copy of the new beta at developer.apple.com/iphone.

I have not yet heard about any new features in this beta, but these details will likely surface soon. If you find out anything new about this update feel free to tell us all about it in the comments.

If you’re a kid who grew up in the 80’s or 90’s, you might remember days spent carefully building slot-car tracks that would eventually overrun the entire floor; now all that fun can be had on the iPhone with HTR High Tech Racer — without the annoyance of hunting for slot cars sent unceremoniously hurtling off a sharp corner.

Build tracks, customize tires, chassis and motors, then race the creations. The game claims “realistic physics” and an “intuitive track editor.” And if the lure of racing slot cars on an iPhone isn’t enough, the app’s developer, Graffiti Entertainmant, says they’re also giving away an iPad to the top racer on the app’s race leader board.

HTR High Tech Racing is $2 on the iPhone, $5 for the iPad’s HD version.

TeamViewer released their free app that lets a user remotely control any computer over the Internet (with permission) back in March for the iPhone. Yesterday, they brought out an iPad version.

While it’s a pretty cool app to have sitting around on an iPhone, it practically gains Essential Status on the iPad because of the latter’s much bigger screen, making remote-access sessions much easier than on the iPhone’s tiny screen — not to mention the fact that the iPad is the kind of tool that lends itself to functioning as a remote client.

As with the iPhone version, if you’re using the app in any sort of professional circumstance, TeamViewer ask that you purchase a $100 license.

Speculation that Apple may be preparing to build its own mapping application gained strength Wednesday on a report the Cupertino, Calif. company acquired a Canadian online mapping developer. If true, the report could be the latest skirmish between the iPhone maker and Internet giant Google.

French-Canadian news site cyberpresse.ca wrote Wednesday Apple purchased Quebec-based Poly9 and moved employees to Cupertino, Calif. The company’s website is also offline, as well as Poly9’s chief product, Poly9 Globe. The product, which operates in a web browser, lets users find their location on a 3D globe. Websites, including Skype.com reportedly offer the service.

Although there is no official comment by Apple, the Canadian report said Poly9 was “recently” acquired and it Quebec headquarters closed. The company’s customers include Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, MSNBC and NORAD.

The purchase could be the next step in Apple developing its own mapping application for the iPhone and iPad. In 2009, Apple acquired Placebase, a Google Maps rival, as well as advertising for someone to take iPhone’s Maps “to the next level.”

[AppleInsider]

This huge hollowed tree trunk serves as an iPod dock and speaker system. Created by Austrian design studio KMKG, it weighs in at 60 kg (about 130 lbs).

They describe it as “just a simple tree (trunk) hollowed out with a special technique to create extraordinary sound.” They worked with speaker company Lenz on the sound engineering, customers can choose the type of wood, length of the trunk and  have some input on which techniques are used to influence the type of sound.

The one pictured above was a prototype used for a recent installation, designers are now at work on a product. They’ll be using Swiss pine or pinus cembra for it, noting that “this one is going to smell nicer, too.”
No word on price or availability,  yet.

This is kind of the supersize version of all the wood iPod cases and docks we’ve seen recently, though whether the green-minded would feel comfortable knowing a tree had been cut down for it may be another thing.

We’ve heard for some time the iPad could eat into the Netbook market. Now comes Goldman Sachs with the 5 Cs of why the Apple tablet device will crush the inexpensive PCs.

First up is Consumption. It wasn’t by mistake Apple gave the iPad a big screen and no keyboard. Unlike the Netbook, the iPad is meant to mimic your TV, not the PC. You sit in front of your TV to watch, not create. That brings us to Goldman Sach’s second point: content.

The iPad is also all about Content. With a direct connection to iTunes, iPad owners can easily slurp up content from the App Store. “Apple has created an easy-to-use, direct conduit between users and a vast library of content that is custom-tailored for the iPad,” writes financial blogger Henry Blodget.

Unlike netbooks, which rely on spotty 3G or Wi-Fi connections, the iPad offers both to ensure the consumer is constantly connected. This only reinforces Goldman’s previous point of the iPad being all about content.

Again, differing from netbooks, the iPad is instantly available. Just image you have the urge to play a game or check out the news. You go to your netbook and wait up to a minute for it to boot-up. The iPad is instantly on, keeping that urge to buy or consume alive. What’s more, according to the analysts, the iPad’s battery lasts between twice or five-times that of a netbook’s.

Similar to instant-on, Apple has reduced the steps needed to purchase an item via the iPad to just one click. Because Apple stores all the credit card information at iTunes, you don’t need to enter that data and go through other steps which present opportunities to change your mind or back out of a purchase.

The 5 Cs of iPad domination: Consumption, Content, Connected, Constant-On and Commerce.

[SAI]

We’ve heard a lot about the iPhone 4 “death grip.” Reception problems are said to be alleviated by applying a spot of tape or using a bumper.

But what about those bumper cases?

Ryan McManus took a much-needed humorous spoof on antennagate with his discovery of a “shocking flaw” to using the iPhone 4 with a bumper case:

“The problem is, in a word, friction. While the rubberized front and back of the iPhone 4 Bumpers may protect the device in fall situations, and keep it it from sliding on a desk, this very friction keeps the device from easily sliding in and out of jeans pockets.”

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A full recall of the iPhone 4 to fix antenna issues could cost Apple $1.5 billion, a Wall Street analyst told investors Wednesday. However, don’t expect such an event, he adds. Instead, Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi joins others suggesting the Cupertino, Calif. company could quiet the complaints by giving away a $2 rubber case.

A larger potential hit to Apple’s bottom-line is what Sacconaghi describes as “the emerging pattern of hubris that the company has displayed.”

If Apple doesn’t go along with the analyst’s suggestion of giving free bumpers to prevent the dropped-call annoyance, the company could opt for either in-store fixes or a wider recall, both with different price tags. Assuming Apple sold $6 million iPhone 4s, an in-store fix would cost $75 per handset, or $450 million. Using the same sales assumption, a full recall would cost $250 per iPhone, or $1.5 billion, he wrote.

But ‘antenna-gate’ may be small potatoes compared to the signals Apple is sending to consumers, he writes. The examples include refusing to talk about Jobs’ health, attacking Adobe, the lost iPhone prototype investigation, restricting app developers and the early poo-pooing of iPhone antenna problems.

“The worry is that collectively these issues may over time begin to impact consumers’ perceptions of Apple, undermining its enormous prevailing commercial success,” the analysts warns.

[Barron’s]

Looking for a new NAS that will play nice with your iTunes collection? Seagate has just announced the BlackArmor NAS 400 that promises to do just that.

The BlackArmor NAS 400 comes without storage bays, so you’ll have to plug your own drives into the four available storage bays, but it supports RAID 0/1/5/10, as well as JBOD configurations. The BlackArmor 400 also comes with a pair of gigabit Ethernet ports, four USB ports and ten licenses for Windows backup software.

Other than that, the usual features of a NAS are all here, including encryption support and robust security settings for data protection. The 400 is, as mentioned, also iTunes and DLNA server capable.

Don’t expect the 400 to be cheap though: without drive, the BlackArmor NAS 400 will cost you $399.99.

Ever since Apple purchased Lala late last year, iTunes users have been expecting to see their music collections make a jump to the cloud (often referred to as iTunes Live).

More surprising, though, is how many users are actively looking forward to a new, streaming iTunes: according to NPD’s polling of 3,862 iTunes users, about 25% are interested in a new streaming library function. Extrapolated upon iTunes’ population as a whole, that’s about 13 million users in the United States alone.

Even more interesting, according to NPD, is that roughly half of those users would be willing to pay up to $10 a month for the service, providing it supported multiple devices. That’s about 7 to 8 million iTunes users, adding up to a billion dollar market in the first year.

I was hoping that whatever form a streaming iTunes took, it would be free, but obviously that’s wishful thinking: Apple’s already got a huge number of users chomping at the bit to stream their entire libraries wirelessly to all of their computers and iOS devices. Of course they’ll end up charging.

My big question is what this means for Apple’s iPod-line. If iTunes goes into the cloud this year, does this mean we can expect a 3G-capable iPod Touch at this year’s September iPod event? In the context of a streaming iTunes, the lack of an always-connected iPod in Apple’s device line-up seems like a hole that would need to be filled.

Would you pay $10 a month for streaming iTunes?

There’s no denying that Valve’s team-based World War II multiplayer shooter Day of Defeat is one of their less popular games, but if you’re burned out on the recent ports of Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike Source, good news: Day of Defeat Source is now available on Steam for Mac for just a tenner.

Needless to say, like all of Valve’s other Mac ports, if you already own DoD for the PC, you don’t have to pay again. Day of Defeat’s a good game, but it doesn’t quite have the polish of Valve’s other games, particularly Team Fortress 2. If you’d like to play a similar game for free, I recommend Enemy Territory.

With Day of Defeat’s official Mac release, the only big Source-engine games Valve has yet to release are the two I’ve been waiting for most: Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead Ii. With Valve releasing a new port every two to three weeks, though, my guess is we’ll see both before the end of the summer.

As a last note, this is as good a time to mention that we’ve set up a fledgling Cult of Mac group for Steam, so if you want to do some multiplayer with fellow Macheads, load up Steam and join the cult.

The iPhone 4’s reception issues may get all the press, but there may be another big issue when it comes to iOS 4: a growing number of users are reporting that upon upgrading any iPhone to iOS 4, the performance and audio quality of Bluetooth headsets is vastly degraded.

The symptoms vary, but are usually reported as sounding “muffled,” “like you’re in a tunnel” or “far away” when using a Bluetooth headset with any iOS 4 device.

Users are also reporting significant issues over at the Jawbone forums, prompting a Jawbone spokesperson to comment:

We are aware of and concerned with the user frustration surrounding the issues affecting all Bluetooth devices (headsets, car kits, and speakers) connecting to the iPhone 4 and iOS4 updated phones. We know users have come to expect the freedom of hands-free and we are working night and day with our partners, Apple and AT&T, to resolve the issues as quickly as possible.”

Once infamous Hackintosh manufacturer Psystar’s name is popping up again in the newsfeeds. That’s discordant enough to have me tapping the flux capacitor trephined into my right temporal lobe like a faulty odometer: is it somehow 2009 again?

But nope, Psystar’s well and truly back after filing an Opening Brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, asking them to overrule the order that has prevented the company from making Mac clones.

According to the Mac Observer, Psystar’s strategy is “getting the court to adopt a radical revision of the Copyright Misuse doctrine that would in effect destroy copyright and force all copyrighted works to be licensed.”

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uH8K-TUhfk

The guys at ColorWare will take pretty much any gadget under the sun and dip it into a couple of cans of Pantone-coded paint for you. No surprise, then, that they’re now applying their multi-chromatic treatment to the iPhone 4.

Like usual, you just pick out a color scheme, write a check for $250, send them your phone and wait for them to send it back to you, as prettily painted as a surfer girl’s toe nails.

However, what makes the ColorWare treatment more interesting this time around is that a coat of paint on the antenna might be just enough to thwart the iPhone 4’s infamous ” grip of death” reception issues.

ColorWare’s not promising anything just yet, but they are testing their latest iPhone 4 coloring process in the lab to see if it has measurable effect on reception. Either way, this might be the first ColorWare paintjob that transcends the decorative for the prophylactic.

Pithy thoughts and official tweets are non-existent, but Apple’s Senior Vice President of iOS Scott Forstall has joined Twitter… and while he’s already got over 14,000 followers, the only person he is following so far is Coco Himself.

Since Forstall has yet to tweet, there’s little meat to this news, but it is an interesting subject for speculation: Apple has been notoriously tight-lipped in the past, but with the iPhone 4 a bonafide PR disaster due in part to a perceived lack of transparency in communicating with their customers about the issue, are we possibly seeing a shift in the way Apple communicates with the public? Does Forstall’s Twitter account represent a personal whim, or is it instead the first sign of a larger campaign of social media marketing?

This is a guest commentary by Bryan J. Ball, a stand up comedian and long-time Apple fanboy.

My relationship with Steve used to be such a happy one. He would create beautiful bits of electronic amazement and I would buy them, show them off and feel generally superior to my non-Apple friends and family. That’s still mostly true but I’m starting to have my doubts.

My life is pretty Apple-centric. I have an iMac, an iPad, all manner of iPods and I was literally first in line to get an iPhone 4. I’ve been pretty happy with everything I’ve had so far. My area has excellent AT&T coverage so I’m not even plagued by the death grip reception issue on my iPhone.

Yes… I’ve been called a fanboy on more than one occasion. I used to categorically deny this but after watching Steve Jobs’ behavior and listening to myself defend it over the last couple of weeks, I’m starting to wonder.

Tape is the cheapest DIY fix for the much-disputed iPhone 4 — even Consumer Reports recommends wrapping up your phone if you can’t get your hands on a bumper case.

Now you can do something good while fixing your phone: for $2, buy a roll of iTape on eBay and all of the proceeds for the quick fix go to the American Cancer Society. (It’s worth a visit to check out the iTape slide show, a nicely-done take on the iPhone 4 ads.)

Seller Jason Nolasco says:

“Yes, I will ship you a roll of tape in exchange for your assistance in fighting cancer. No, I can’t guarantee it will look like the picture. No, I don’t hate Apple. All in good fun. 100% of the proceeds go the American Cancer Society.”

We like.

Apple’s stock is taking a pounding today after Consumer Reports‘ negative iPhone review, and our story that the company may have to issue a hardware recall.

Apple’s share price fell 3-4% in heavy trading today, reports VentureBeat:

Apple’s stock price fell 3 percent on Tuesday after Consumer Reports gave a negative review of the iPhone 4 because of its reception problems.

… In the wake of the Consumer Reports review, experts speculated that Apple would have to recall the units it has sold to fix the antenna problem, which may be more complicated than the software fix that Apple talked about on July 2.

VentureBeat: Apple shares slide after bad iPhone 4 review, recall concerns

According to a recent tweet published by the DevTeam member planetbeing, he and MuscleNerd have finally managed to unlock iPhone 4 using the ultrasn0w tool by DevTeam, thus allowing it to be used on any GSM network worldwide.

My soft-unlocked iPhone 4 (in Canada). I’ll have video in a couple of hours once I can top-up the SIM https://twitpic.com/24ycdv

Although not a permanent unlocking solution, it’s still a big deal for all the iPhone 4 owners as not only does it mean freedom from AT&T and its outrageous international roaming charges but also the ability to use it in countries other than the five where it has been officially released.

With the upcoming spirit jailbreak for iOS 4, it will be much easier to unlock the new device. However, they are waiting for Apple to release a firmware update (4.0.1 or 4.1) but once it’s released, the unlock will be released too.

@planetbeing via Redmond Pie

Send in the clowns: Jeremy Clarkson, Britain’s alpha dog of all things auto-related, sucker punched the iPhone 4  on his uber-popular TV show “Top Gear.”

He’s not even particularly funny, but the point is the “death-grip” reception issue has become so widely known that it’s good for a chuck-let on a mainstream TV show. (On this side of the pond, David Letterman took a pot shot at Apple a few weeks ago.)

Not so good for Apple’s “it just works” selling point and one more sign that the Cupertino company has a PR debacle on its hands, however you hold it.

Via Crunch Gear

Apple iPhone sales expectations could be at risk if Apple’s current problems with the iPhone 4’s antenna increases, one analyst warned investors Tuesday. “Should this antenna issue become a bigger deal, there could be risk to our as well as consensus estimates,” Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu wrote.

However, the analyst reaffirmed his estimate of 7.5 million iPhones sold in the June quarter and 40 million for calendar 2010. “So far, in our supply chain and industry checks, we have not seen any change in build patterns or demand patterns,” he added.

Way too little, way too late: speaking at the opening keynote at the Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told his audience that we should expect Windows 7 tablet computers “sometime before the end of this year.”

“We know you really want to know what’s coming,” said Ballmer. “[Tablets] will come from the people you would expect. From Asus, from Dell, from Samsung, from Toshiba, from Sony.”

Microsoft just doesn’t get it. Their business is software, so it’s understandable they are focusing on selling a tablet operating system instead of a single iPad-challenging tablet themselves (even if that business model is so stagnant that it has directly contributed to the death of possibly revolutionary products).

The problem is: Windows 7, as an operating system, isn’t capable of taking on iOS. One was built from the ground-up to support multitouch; the other is a bad hackjob rlaid on top of a desktop operating system.

HP knows full well that Windows 7 isn’t up to the job of taking on iOS: that’s why they killed the Windows 7 Slate and purchased Palm’s mobile, multitouch operating system, webOS. It’s only a matter of time before Microsoft’s other hardware partners get the same memo.

At the end of the day, Microsoft is going to enter the slate arena several years late, just like they did with Windows Phone 7. How can a company this hopelessly entrenched in the business models of the past hope to survive when the likes of Google and Apple are swimming in the same waters, faster, stronger and smarter?

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_TFHqIHBqM

A lot has been made of the iPhone 4’s incredible Retina Display, but the handset’s unprecedented screen clarity won’t do you any favors if you’re blind.

Even so, it seems like iOS might be built from the ground-up to support blind users, as this video from musician Victor Tsaran reveals: he was able to effortlessly pair his iPhone 4 with a Bluetooth Braillant 32 display. Coupled with iOS’ innate (and somewhat hyperactive) voice-over accessibility feature, Victor is able to easily take advantage of most of his iPhone 4’s core functionality. Now that’s an attention to detail.

[via Gadget Lab]