Mark Gurman

Today, Fring announced a major new update to their iPhone application. The new update supports iPhone 4’s front facing video camera for two way video chats as well as multitasking for iOS 4. The neat thing about Fring is its lack of restrictions, meaning you can two-way video chat with any device running Fring and a front facer. Fring shows this in action below:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUaFaKApPX4&w=640&h=385]

We’ve played with the new Fring for a bit and discovered one let down and that is the lack of AIM video chat support. This is something we would have liked to see provided natively in an Apple iChat app but it does not look like we will see something that soon. AOL: You there? Want to give us a preview of AIM with video chat for iPhone 4?

On the brighter side of things, video chat does work on other major services such as Skype. In our few basic tests, we discovered that video chat with Fring over 3G is very mediocre. In a couple tries we successfully connected but this little thing called audio wasn’t present. I could not hear Seth at all during two of our tests. It could be the 3G connection in New York or an uncommon bug. Who knows? We’ll probably see soon enough. Additionally the video quality is almost unusable, I could hardly see the other caller. Over WiFi, it is a bit clearer, though.   

Moving to other enhancements, Fring got the iOS 4 treatment: it can now multitask. You can use fast app switching, and the app will fully run in the background. For example, if you are in the middle of a call or video conference, you can hit the home button, move to another app, and a red bar will sit on top. This is identical to multitasking during a voice call or FaceTime chat; it works flawlessly.

Another let down is the lack of Retina Display support. This update is built around iPhone 4 as it utilizes its front camera. It seems odd that the developers didn’t beef up the graphics and icon to look groovy on the new display.

Check out some test photos after the break:

This afternoon YouTube completely transformed their mobile website into something completely new. The site features a drastic overhaul and is written specifically for HTML5 devices such as the iPhone and iPod touch. 

The new user interface begins with a very clean looking ‘home-screen’ with quick and easy access to subscriptions, playlists, favorites, your uploaded content, as well as quick access to video searching and settings. 

The video viewing user interface has also been modified to a cleaner look with multitudes of additional options. You now have the option to play the video in its higher-quality format, like or dislike it, view and compose comments, and view related videos.

As others have noted, this new YouTube web app is substantially better than the native YouTube player in many regards. Videos load up much quicker, you have the HQ video option, and many other features from the standard website. Hopefully the native application included by Apple, since day one, will receive an update in the future with more features. 

On the larger side of things, the iPad’s online YouTube site slightly changed. When a user formerly navigated to YouTube.com on an iPad, they would be taken to a larger representation of the old mobile web app. Now, users are taken to the official standard YouTube.com layout you always have gotten while browsing videos on a standard Mac or PC. 

We also encourage iPad YouTube users to try the full YouTube experience by enabling HTML 5 video on their devices. You can easily do so by navigating to this YouTube page. 

What a coincidence; just days prior to the July 4th App Store fraud incident, Apple set out to find a specialist to deal with fraud in the iTunes store and its components.

This full time specialist would work to ‘cancel fraudulent orders’ and ‘research and resolve fraud escalations from various sources.’ Hmm.. This person would have really come in handy the other day.

Did Apple know that issues such as the Thuat Nguyen incident were looming? Was there a spike in App Store fraud the last few weeks? Well at least now we know Apple has been on top of things and this is evident through this job posting and their quick response to the recent event.

This new job at Apple will surely aim to pull down those said ‘app farms’ and stop the recent spikes of fraudulent activity in the App Store. Although the July 4th incident is the most sizable iTunes fraud case we recall, only 400 people were affected. 400 people is practically nothing (0.0003%) when compared to the 150 million active iTunes accounts.

Update: Apple has removed the job posting. Uh Oh, Apple. – What say you?

We

Clayton Morris reports on an official Apple statement in regards to the impact of July 4th’s supposed iTunes “hacking.” As we reported that day, Thuat Nguyen under his development company, “mycompany” compromised iTunes accounts in order to purchase his applications. It is assumed he did this in hopes of a major spike in revenue which correlates to bringing his apps to the top of the App Store.

This turned out to be a complete failure as only hours later we discovered that Apple completely booted him along with his applications from the iTunes App Store.  

This morning we reported that Engadget got vague official words confirming the occurrence of said incident. Tonight, we have been given the most specific information yet through some simple answers from Apple’s public relations team.

Apple has gone on record to say that only 400 users were impacted by the incident which is only 0.0003% of the 150 million iTunes accounts. Additionally, Apple iTunes servers were not compromised in any way. 

This still leaves doubts in Apple’s iTunes security system as information as to how even 400 people were impacted is yet to be officially revealed. We along with many others presume that this is connected to online fishing scams. This is connected to people using the same email and password combination on multiple online accounts. 

Last week we reported that a very rough version of a Firefox 4.0 beta hit the servers and today Firefox has released an official beta.

New Features in 4.0:

-Updated User Interface with Tabs on top (Safari 4 beta, Google Chrome style)

-New Add-ons manager

-WebM video support (HD quality video)

-Amped up HTML 5, Privacy, and CSS support.

Coming in later releases:

-Sync all your passwords, bookmarks, and settings across devices

-Speed Improvements (Probably something like iPhone 3G to iPhone 3G in terms of web browser speed) 

And the best part… That flashy new UI is not currently available in the current Mac and Linux beta release so stay tuned. 

Tech Restore has done the coolest unboxing/disassembly we’ve yet to see using the stop-motion image technique. The video uses a whopping 1784 super high-res snapshots to create this awesome take on an unboxing. Enjoy the throwback to our good friend Gumby:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkcLLI6Yv8I&w=640&h=385]

They fixed things that should have worked in 1.0. That is all.

Today, Apple has released an update to their popular MobileMe iDisk application to include iPad compatibility. The free app is now a single universal binary that works to its full potential across all iOS devices running iOS 3.1.3 or above. 

Apple also beefed up the iPhone version with multitasking, retina display, and iBooks support among other small enhancements:

The iDisk app was originally released almost one year ago and is now at version 1.2. To use the app, you must be a MobileMe subscriber which normally costs $99 per year. 

On July 4th we reported that iTunes may have been hacked by Vietnemise developer, Thuat Nguyen. Later in the day we updated that Apple had removed the developers applications from the App Store, and today Engadget brings us an official statement from Apple:

As you can see in the statement, Apple has “vaguely confirmed” the incident by simply stating the removal of the developer. Apple also states, that if users did get swooped into the horrible scheme they are urged to contact their bank or credit card company to work out refunds.

Users are also encouraged to research safe password practices and change their iTunes password immediately. 

Update: We’ve just discovered that all applications created by “mycompany” (the developers behind these shenanigans) have been removed from the App Store. It also appears that the App Store “Books” section is back to normal. Reports also have emerged that other applications have been fraudulently downloaded, so stay on the lookout and protect your iTunes accounts.

We’ve been hearing tips and all over the web from articles on Engadget, The Next Web and twitter that the iTunes store might have been compromised. Apparently a Vietnamese developer might have juiced the “Books” section of the App Store, as well as several iTunes accounts. As you can see in the screenshot below a plethora of the books in the Book section are these oddly named titles (eg: Conan 1, Conan 2, 7 Vien..) with icons stolen off the web.  Have a look (iTunes link)

With this information, it seems that the developers might have compromised user’s iTunes accounts and falsely purchased their books with stolen artwork. We’ve heard many reports of users getting holds on their bank accounts for the price of several books. We’ve even heard cases of users having holds in the hundreds of dollars range.

The developer’s iTunes Development account even seems very sketchy as his website leads to www.home.com and so does the support page for each product of his.

New firmware discoveries in Apple’s latest Mac mini suggest future Mac desktops will house Radeon HD 5000 and GeForce 400 graphics cards. 

The portion regarding ATI’s future Mac desktop offerings is not very specific, but the NVIDIA side of things is. “GeForce 400” is specifically named and this can be seen in the screenshot below. 

Where these chips will be used is not specified, but it would makes sense that we will see these upcoming powerful chips in iMacs and Mac Pros very soon. 

ATI Screenshot after the break:

Mac Forums via Electronista.

RazorianFly has teamed up RFLYGD to create a monthly iPhone 4 wallpaper series. The first wallpaper in the collection, Folzi, caught our attention so we wanted to let you guys know about it. 

Click here to download for iPhone 4.

Next month, the designers will unleash the collection’s second wallpaper, Klarion. Here’s an exclusive preview:

Click here to download for iPhone 4.

Incipio was kind enough to send us along three of their iPhone 4 cases. When Apple releases new products, case manufactures scramble to make the best protection devices, and Incipio is a company we consider to be a “pro” at this. Their cases range from mild protection, to medium protection, to almost Tank/OtterBox Defender like protection.  

In this article we review the Incipio Feather, Incio NGP, and Incipio Silicrylic cases. 

Click here to read our entire review coupled with video. 

<a href="http://www.myincipio.com/product/IPHONE_4_IPH-512/Matte-Black-Ultra-Light-feather

Our Entry: 99 problems but reception ain’t one?

Winners:

3. “I got 99 problems but reception’s my main one” – Faymus

2. “If you have a Droid, I feel bad for you son. – Our very own Seth Weintraub

1. “I’m not number one on iTunes? What the hell happened?” – PhilHeazy

If you feel you should have won feel free to let us know in the comments…

Image source: MR.

TechCrunch reports Disney has acquired the very popular iOS app development startup, Tapulous. Tapulous is the group behind the extremely popular Tap Tap Revenge series.

The music game has multiple versions such as Lady Gaga, Nickleback, oh and… Justin Bieber games. With Disney in control we think you’ll soon be seeing some Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers action on an iPhone near you.

The details of the deal are yet to be revealed, and who knows… maybe El Jobso himself had something to do with the deal. Also, Bart Decrem, CEO of Tapulous and the guy above, will now take a seat as a Disney VP. Congratulations, Tapulous!

Apple has announced on their QuickTime website that their financial results conference call for Q3 2010 will take place at 2 PM Pacific time July 20th. Investors and others are encouraged to listen in on the conference call via a QuickTime stream.

Although these conference calls usually include Q & A with Apple executives, ground breaking information is rarely unveiled. We’ll be sure to post a reminder prior to the event along with important updates during the stream.

via Mac Observer.

In case you were curious, the iPhone 4 can fly… with balloons attached to it. The end result with HD aerial footage shot on an iPhone 4 is actually pretty sweet. Enjoy the video.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvo2g7RkVSo&w=640&h=385]

Apple is set to unveil its second Apple Store in China, and this one’s looking like a charm even under curtains. From the looks of things, this new store has a big glass cylinder above land which houses an escalator and elevator to take you to the actual store. 

It is also reported that Apple’s Ron Johnson has confirmed that China will reach the 25 store mark by the end of 2012.

Invitations to the grand-opening, on July 10, are already being sent and for those who care:

Via M.I.C. Gadget.

Boy Genius Report and their trusty sources claim Apple will be adding a major cloud and wireless component to iTunes and this is described through a threefold:

1. Wireless streaming of iTunes content (tunes and flicks) from Apple’s servers to your devices.

-Your purchased content will be housed at Apple’s server farms and streamed to you. This will stop all those 1.5 GB movies from killing your HD space. 

2. Wireless streaming of content from your computer to your other computers or devices. 

-You can wireless stream content from one computer onto another. This slightly seems a bit like iTunes Home Sharing that we had since last year for music.

3. And finally… Wireless syncing with iTunes. – Remember that wireless iTunes sync app that was rejected?

-Any changes you make to your devices such as notes, calendars, contacts, oh.. and apps will be synced wirelessly to your iOS devices. So what the heck is my $99 a year MobileMe going to be for?

Lastly, BGR is calling on two new camera/camcorder capable devices making their way to Steve’s stage in September. These will most likely be still shooting and video taking iPod nanos and touches. 

Remember Netshare, that amazing application that provided unlimited tethering for a one time 10 buck fee? Well since being removed from the App Store after approximately a day and a half, people have been experimenting to see if the application will still work as Apple rolls out new devices. iPhone 4 with iOS 4 is out, and Macenstein put Netshare to the test. 

As you can see by the screenshot, the in and out stats aren’t to bad and Macenstein says they’re even better than the results on previous iOS versions.