Apple recently seeded a second revision of its iOS 5.0.1 firmware, and besides decrypting key files that aid in the legality of a Siri port, the update seemed to bring nothing new to the table. Some speculated that the second update had something to do with Apple’s continued international rollout of the iPhone 4S.
It turns out that the new iOS 5.0.1 (Build 9A406) is meant to fix SIM-related errors that a limited number of iPhone 4S customers have been experiencing.
None of us enjoy typing out our email address, especially if we have to do it a number of times a day on an iOS device. But thanks to the new Shortcuts feature in iOS 5, we don’t have to. Here’s how to setup a shortcut that will save you from typing out your email address forever!
We’re all familiar with how costly data can be on our iOS devices if we’re using them to get on the internet abroad with no access to a Wi-Fi hotspot. To prevent nasty charges, most of us turn off data roaming and avoid using our devices for the internet.
However, there’s a nasty bug in Apple’s iOS operating system that could cost you a fortune while you’re on vacation by allowing you to download apps over a 3G data network even with the feature turned off.
Apple has released two minor software updates today. A tweaked version of iOS 5.0.1 (Build 9A406) for the iPhone 4S has been pushed for users who haven’t yet upgraded to the latest firmware (essentially replacing the current 5.0.1 build).
The second-generation Apple TV has been updated to version 4.4.4 (Build 9A406a) and features small bug fixes and stability improvements. Both updates can be downloaded now.
iOS hacker and Chronic Dev-Team member Pod2g is making quite a name for himself right now as he works away on an untethered jailbreak for iOS 5. According to his latest blog posts, he has now completed the code for an untethered jailbreak on all A4-powered devices, suggesting a public release of the exploit isn’t too far away.
Every couple of years, Apple gets a new design fetish in their UIs: brushed aluminum, for example, or that god awful faux leather look Cupertino’s rocking for iCal and Address Book.
Less objectionable than most of Apple’s UI fetishes is the gray linen background we’ve been seeing creep through iOS and Lion over the last year or so, but if you’re sick of drab gray, here’s a colorful way to replace your iOS Notification Center’s gray linen background with a colorful, blurred version of your springboard.
Carrier IQ CEO Larry Lenhart and vice president of marketing Andrew Coward have revealed in an interview that despite the company’s assurance that no personal data is recorded by its software, a “bug” did unintentionally collect users’ text messages. What it does collect intentionally — particularly for the Federal Bureau of Investigation — is yet to be clarified, with the FBI refusing to disclose this information.
Spotlight search on an iOS device is a fantastic feature. If, like me, you have pages and pages filled with apps, it’s easy to find the one you’re looking for simply by typing the first few letters of its name into Spotlight. You can do the same with songs, contacts, messages, emails, reminders, events, and lots, lots more.
However, there may be some things you don’t want to show in Spotlight. That doesn’t mean you should avoid the feature altogether — just customize its results to suit you. It’s incredibly easy, and not only will this remove items you don’t want to see, it’ll also make it faster to find what you’re looking for.
Chronic Dev-Team member and iOS hacker Pod2g, who we’ve mentioned a number of times in recent reports surrounding an untethered iOS 5 jailbreak, claims to have successfully developed an untethered jailbreak for the iPhone 4 running iOS 5.0.1 and says it’s safe to update to the latest firmware.
Back in November, iOS hacker Pod2g announced in a message on Twitter that he had discovered a bug in the iOS 5 software that could provide an untethered jailbreak. To backup his claims, Pod2g has posted a video to YouTube that demonstrates the hack in action, but he’s yet to provide any indication as to when the jailbreak might go public.
Today’s tip is a simply one, but it’s a question I get asked a lot when people see the battery percentage in my iPhone’s status bar. The iPhone ships with this feature disabled by default, and Apple hides the option away within the device’s general settings. So, here’s how to enable it!
Having the Maps app on the iPhone is a lifesaver for me. Not only does it help me navigate my way around places I don’t know, but it’ll also tell me how to get there when I leave the house.
However, trying to read directions from an iPhone while driving isn’t ideal, and it’s certainly not safe. Fortunately, iOS 5 allows you to print your directions from directly within the Maps app as long as you have a printer compatible with AirPrint. Here’s how!
Apple comments on the presence of Carrier IQ on some iPhones:
We stopped supporting CarrierIQ with iOS 5 in most of our products and will remove it completely in a future software update. With any diagnostic data sent to Apple, customers must actively opt-in to share this information, and if they do, the data is sent in an anonymous and encrypted form and does not include any personal information. We never recorded keystrokes, messages or any other personal information for diagnostic data and have no plans to ever do so.
Seems like that says it all. Carrier IQ’s not seeing a lot of support from the big boys here, is it?
[via All Things D]
The Carrier IQ scandal has broken everywhere since we first reported it yesterday morning. The invasive rootkit is installed on over 140 million phones the world over, and logs everything you do with your device, from the numbers you dial to the smutty pictures you send to your girlfriend.
Yesterday, we reported the story as one proving Steve Jobs right about how Android tracks everything you do, but a day later, things seem a lot less black and white. Carrier IQ’s software comes pre-installed on other devices besides Android, like BlackBerrys and Nokias, and as even the name of the software suggests, seems to be something installed by carriers. And, as it turns out, some iPhones. Luckily, disabling it is the easiest thing in the world, and it logs none of your personal information, unlike the software’s more nefarious Android counterpart.
Apple has just seeded the first iOS 5.1 beta to developers, along with XCode 4.3 beta. What’s new, only time and playing around with iOS 5.1 will tell, but according to past reports, iOS 5.1 should not only get to the bottom of the iPhone 4S’s battery drain issues, it should also introduce some cool new Siri functionality. We’ll have to wait and see though.
After the jump, the release notes. Are you a developer who has noticed something new in iOS 5.1, or seen the update fix your iPhone 4S battery drain problem? Please tip us!
A method has been uncovered that unlocks the GSM iPhone 4S for T-Mobile. By taking advantage of an alleged bug in iOS 5, you can supposedly unlock your iPhone 4S on AT&T without jailbreaking.
To perform the hack, you’ll need a T-Mobile Micro SIM and your AT&T SIM from your iPhone 4S.
It seems early iPhone 4S adopters the world over have discovered a new issue with Apple’s latest handset. No, it has nothing to do with poor battery life, but rather a complete loss of signal for no apparent reason. To be clear, this isn’t a new “antennagate” — the issue does not occur while holding the device in a certain position — it’s a new problem that causes the device to lose its signal randomly. Users report they can be enjoying a full five-bar signal one minute, then be greeted by that frustrating “No Service” status the next.
The Notification Center that ships with iOS 5 is nice, and by default it displays a stock ticker, weather, mail, and calendar entries. It all looks great and the eye candy it provides actually conceal some very useful tricks you can use to reach some of its hidden secrets. Today we’ll take a look at the stock ticker.
My Notification Center tends to get a bit busy. It shows me my favorite stocks, weather, five of my most recent emails and upcoming calendar appointments. Now and then I’d like to clear these items from the Notification Center.
Here is an easy way to do just that.
The iPhone 4S has some bodacious battery life problems and no one seems to know what’s going on. Apple themselves have released an iOS update, iOS 5.0.1, to fix the problems, to no avail. Meanwhile, some iPhone 4S owners find their batteries draining at a rate of 10% every ten minutes, while luckier customers can only report the same excellent battery life the iPhone 4 was known for.
What the heck is going on? Are some iPhone 4Ses just defective? Will Apple have to initiate a recall?
Thankfully, no. Although no one knows what the problem exactly is, it has at least been proven to be a software problem… not a hardware problem.
Apple has issued a statement to AllThingsD saying that, while iOS 5.0.1 did addresses issues regarding poor battery performance for iOS devices, battery life bugs still need to be fixed.
After iPhone 4S owners started heavily complaining about poor battery life on iOS 5.0, Apple issued two developer betas before pushing iOS 5.0.1 to all devices yesterday.
No matter how hard you concentrate and how far you extend your pineal gland, Siri can only understand what you say to it, not read your mind? But what if it could?
That question is no longer a hypothetical. The guys behind Project Black Mirror have just figured out a way to imbue Siri with telepathic abilities… kind of.
Oooh, this is pretty. MacThemes forum user SkyJohn has created a theme for Growl that emulates iOS 5 style notifications. It’s not a perfect fit, but it does exhibit the same cube animation you see when you get a notification under iOS 5 on your iPhone or iPad.
A lot of people don’t have access to unlimited 3G data plans, so they need to keep an eye out on the amount of data they use every month. There are different tasks and apps that will use data on an iPhone or iPad, and it can be hard to keep track of them all. Luckily, Apple has thought of a few ways you can limit access to 3G data by forcing apps to use Wi-Fi instead when it is available.
Apple issued its first iOS 5 update to the public yesterday — an update which was released to fix “bugs affecting battery life” under the latest firmware, amongst other issues. Following the update, however, users have reported that their battery life has seen no improvement, and that iOS 5.0.1 comes with more bugs of its own.
