With the growing array and proliferation of iOS gadgets Apple fans own, finding a free USB port to sync is sometimes anything but piece of cake. This is especially true if you keep other USB peripherals connected to your computer all the time, the stuff like printers, external hard drives, USB flash drives and what not. The iHub from MIC Gadget solves this problem efficiently and in a tiny package while looking utterly cool. Read on for more info and nice promo footage. Expand Expanding Close
Your broken iPhone, iPod touch or iPad may fetch higher prices on eBay submitted through their instant-sale program. The auctioning site says it’ll increase the amount of money paid for broken iOS gadgets throughout April in celebration of Earth Month. Exactly how much, you ask. Read on…
The official Dropbox app for the iPhone and iPad has been updated to version 1.4. The release has brought out several new features, including the ability to finally upload multiple photos and videos from your camera roll to your Dropbox (finally!). Only one file uploads at a time, with others queued in the new Uploads column. Additionally, the Dropbox app now interacts with iOS via the Open In feature available in apps like iBooks, Mail and Safari. This is quite handy and we also love the redesigned interface on iPads. Another screenshot and more info right below the fold.
Wall Street analysts as well as their unaffiliated colleagues polled by Fortune’s spreadsheet wizard Philip Elmer-DeWitt are modelling up to 19 million iPhones in the first calendar quarter, Apple’s second fiscal quarter. The estimates range from as low as 13.24 million units (Goldman Sachs’ Bill Schope) to an astounding 19.80 million iPhones (Jeff Fidacaro of Susquehanna). Apple sold 16.24 million iPhones in the lucrative holiday quarter and 8.75 million units in the year-ago quarter. A few other tidbits caught our attention as well… Expand Expanding Close
A leaked presentation slide exclusive to PreCentral suggests that Hewlett-Packard is developing a cloud locker for music and movies for its webOS-drive TouchPad tablet. What’s best, HP doesn’t seem to be terribly interested in co-operating with record labels on the initiative:
According to that slide, the TouchPad will come with a music syncing solution built-in that utilizes cloud servers to sync and remotely store your music. More than that, it will leverage a “smart algorithm” to ensure that the music the user is most likely to listen to is cached locally on the device. This service will also allow TouchPad owners to stream music that they don’t yet own. There’s also mention that this service will allow you to stream music to HP smartphones, presumably once they too are updated to webOS 3.0 like the TouchPad.
Don’t hold you breath for a glasses-free 3D screen on the next iPhone, it would be very unlike-Apple to go with the tech many folks suspect is just a fad. If you’re a fan of 3D imagery, this nifty app will have you covered.
Panorama4D by OWLAB is a photography app that lets you take stereoscopic 3D images with your phone even though your device has a “dumb” 2D camera. Plus, you can slightly rotate around your subject on images bullet-time style by tilting your device. How does it work? Expand Expanding Close
The fondest memories of my childhood involve listening to my uncle’s vinyl record collection (gramophone records we used to call them). A few decades later, our music is delivered as crystal clear digital files, but many audiophiles (rightfully) point out that digital lacks the warmth, depth and texture of analogue.
If that wasn’t the case, there would be no cottage industry of limited vinyl releases for niche markets such as DJing, audiophiles, hobbyists, etc. You’d think that in the 21st century there would be an app to recreate the magic of vinyl. Enter VinylLove, an iPad music player from Swedish developers Color Monkey and BinaryPeak. Expand Expanding Close
Apple patents all sorts of crazy things, mostly just concepts that never see the light of the day. We would have classed this one under the ” highly improbable” drawer had it not been for the company’s past patents which toy with various aspects of laser-based projection systems. This one surfaced in the United States Patent & Trademark Office database under the code 20110075055 and entitled “Display system having coherent and incoherent light sources”. What’s it all about?
If you haven’t seen it yet on Google.com, today is Charlie Chaplin’s 122nd birthday anniversary. Marking the occasion, MacPhun has updated Silent Film Director, a fun video effects app currently ranked #4 in the US App Store’s photography section. I’ve been playing with Silent Film Director this morning and found it very addictive and a pleasure to use. If you’re anything like me, your iPhone is jam packed with a bunch of clips shot on the go whenever inspiration strikes.
Silent Film Director lets me breathe new life into my videos by applying high-quality effects ranging from standard Black & White, Sepia and Vintage Sepia filters to the more sophisticated 20’s Movie, 60’s Home Video and 70’s Home Video effects. In short, anything from the beginning of the movie era to a hippie style music video from the ’60s to the modern hipster look.
You can choose between two silent movie piano tracks, the movie projector background noise or select a song from your iPod library. It’s a lot of fun and only a buck on the App Store (works best with iPhone 4, 3GS and fourth-gen iPod touch). Sample clips and more information right below the fold.
Don’t believe the hype prophesying the death of plastic as smartphones with e-wallets take over. According to Juniper Research, only one in five smartphones will have an NFC chip by 2014, or 300 million devices. Half of these are expected to ship in the US and about one million will be sold in France this year, the research firm says. That’s an improvement over Juniper’s 2009 forecast calling for one-to-six ratio by 2014.
It’s kinda depressing knowing that we’ll have to stick with plastic for a few more years. The report goes on to note that the biggest story in NFC will be targeted deals via coupons rather than wireless transactions per se. Apple, of course, probably wants a piece of the action as they’re rumored to be developing a disruptive e-wallet solution for future iPhones.
“Whenever iPhone succeeds, Google succeeds,” Google’s Asia-Pacific president Daniel Alegre tellsAdNews. Welcome to the new Google. Even though Apple and Google are currently embroiled in a brutal iPhone versus Android war, the two tech giants maintain a frenemy relationship.
The search monster needs those iPhone eyeballs and Alegre’s comment helps alleviate the issues some iPhone users are having over Android’s success in the marketplace. Re-iterating 300,000 Android activations a day and explaining how mobile benefits from as few platforms as possible, he then launched into the iPhone appraisal:
I actually don’t look at it as iPhone versus Android. iPhone is a very strong driver of query growth for Google. We also monetise apps through the iPhone..we actually benefit from iPhone’s growth.
Search traffic is important, but AdMob is even more so. Read on…
Perian is one of the must-have utilities for your Mac. It’s an open-source and free media component that enables compatibility with dozens of audio and video formats not natively supported by Mac OS X. And because it’s a QuickTime plugin, it enables new media formats on a system-wide basis. Perian versions 1.2.2 is now available for download.
It brings, for the first time ever, support for the Google-promoted WebM open video format and VP8 media container – outside the confines of the Chrome browser which supports these formats out-of-the-box. But wait, there’s more…
Phew, that was fast. Just hours after releasing iOS 4.3.2, enthusiasts have successfully jailbroke the firmware update for iPhone 4, iPad and third- and fourth-generation iPod touch. RedmondPie has a handy guide up. You need to know that this is a tethered solution, meaning you’ll have to tether your device to a computer each time you reboot. You will need custom PwnageTool bundles for iPhone 4, PwnageTool version 4.3 and tetheredboot utility. A Mac OS X machine and iTunes 10.2.1 are also necessary. Do not jailbreak if you’re device is unlocked because there is no unlock for the new baseband on iOS 4.3.2 yet.
MacRumorsspotted an interesting report by Data Center Knowledgeclaiming Kevin Timmons, Microsoft’s former high-ranked exec in charge of their worldwide data center operations, is expected to take a “leadership” position. Prior to spending two years at Microsoft, Timmons worked at GeoCities and Yahoo for nearly a decade.
Data Center Knowledge explains:
The move strongly hints that Apple is stepping up its plans for an expansion of its data center infrastructure beyond its huge new facility in North Carolina.
MacRumors warns the development raises questions about Timmons’ capacity at Apple:
Don’t expect any press releases from Apple or Microsoft on this one. The position Kevin is going to fill is not known and is not the position vacated by the departed Olivier Sanche. Olivier’s position has been filled by another data center operations executive. Sanche, Apple’s previous data center boss, passed away in November from a heart attack. And given that that position has already been filled internally, it appears that Timmons may be taking on other projects related to data center operations or even outside that scope.
Apple must have offered big bucks to hire away Timmons from Microsoft…
The above video pits browsing capabilities of Windows Phone’s Internet Explorer 9 mobile running on a “Mango” device against iOS’ Safari browser running on an iPhone 4 and Android’s WebKit-based browser running on a Samsung Nexus S. The results clearly show IE taking the lead in terms of speed. WinRumorsexplains that the Windows Phone browser came in first with 20 frames per second versus only two frames per second for mobile Safari, or ten times slower. Android came in second with 11 frames per second.
Naysayers are free to test their device themselves by visiting said benchmark in mobile Safari. Something’s fishy here, if you ask me. The HTML5 speed reading test comes from the Microsoft-operated ietestdrive.com site and it’s just one of many available tests. How do we know the test wasn’t specifically designed to favor Microsoft’s mobile operating system? It wouldn’t be the first time flawed testing was used to bash Apple’s browser. Read on… Expand Expanding Close
Verizon iPhone has boosted the iOS platform share, according to the latest Mobile Mix report from Millennial Media, which is the largest independent mobile network. Analyzing the top mobile devices and operating system, they found out that Verizon iPhone accounted for 8.2 percent of iPhone impressions last month, which helped grew the iOS platform share 11 percent on a month-over-month basis. Tablets had 17 percent of the total device impression share versus 64 percent for smartphones and 19 percent for feature phones.
Android and iOS took 48 percent and 31 percent impression share, respectively. That’s a drop from Android’s 51 percent share and an increase over 27 percent for iOS. The Android-Apple competition is heating up significantly in terms of apps. Revenue breakdown for apps shows Android represented more than one third (36 percent) of the overall application platform mix. How about iOS? Read on…
A bunch of PlayBook reviews hit the web today. It’s the first branded slate to match Apple’s $499 pricing on the low-end plus it comes with RIM’s signature corporate security features, a speedy dual-core processor and brand new QNX operating system that has the polish and shininess to it. So what’s the verdict? PlayBook has a huge disadvantage in the software department, says David Pogue from The New York Times:
Remember, the primary competition is an iPad — the same price, but much thinner, much bigger screen and a library of 300,000 apps. In that light, does it make sense to buy a fledgling tablet with no built-in e-mail or calendar, no cellular connection, no videochat, Skype, no Notes app, no GPS app, no videochat, no Pandora radio and no Angry Birds? You should also know that even now, only days before the PlayBook goes on sale April 19, the software is buggy and still undergoing feverish daily revision. And the all-important BlackBerry Bridge feature is still in beta testing. It’s missing important features, like the ability to view e-mail file attachments or click a link in an e-mail.
The Wall Street Journal tech columnist Walt Mossberg also dissed the PlayBook over the lack of software. He called it “a tablet with a case of dependency” and added this:
Unlike the iPad, which can run almost all of the 350,000 iPhone apps, the PlayBook can’t run any of the 27,000 BlackBerry apps. It will launch with only about 3,000 apps designed for tablets, compared with 65,000 tablet-optimized iPad apps.
And another quote from Wired about PlayBook’s lackluster Flash support:
During a round of Plants vs. Zombies, gameplay bogged down whenever the animation got intense. Every time I tried to access a Flash game on Facebook, the browser crashed. Yes, every single time. Say goodbye to your well-tended crops, Farmvillians. Another glaring flaw is the PlayBook’s complete lack of native e-mail, contacts and calendar apps. Want those apps? Log on to your Gmail account with the browser. RIM’s WebKit-based browser is about as stable as your bipolar uncle. App ecosystem is lacking. You’ll need to install a driver before you can connect it to your PC or Mac.
Yeah, they disassemble docks these days… iLounge took it upon themselves to tear apart the new iPad 2 dock. For those unaware, the iPad 2 dock is substantially heavier than its predecessor for iPad 1. The secret is in the metal plate used to affix the accessory firmly by the means of added weight:
First, if you’ve ever wondered how Apple gets those docks to feel substantial, the answer’s not tiny sandbags. Each version of the Dock actually has a huge, heavy metal plate inside molded with a “Zinc-3” legend on its undercarriage. These plates actually jut up to form the reclining mini-walls found behind the iPads, which is to say that Apple’s Docks are far sturdier than their pretty little glossy white plastic exteriors would suggest.
I guess that’s one of the rare cases of Apple engineers actually thinking about how to make a product heavier. More images after the break. Expand Expanding Close
After three most popular browsers implemented the do-not-track feature – Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Google’s Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox – Apple is joining the party as well. A test version of Safari implemented this privacy feature that lets you opt out of tracking cookies used for targeted advertising, reportsThe Wall Street Journal:
The tool is included within the latest test release of Lion, a version of Apple’s Mac OS X operating system that is currently available only to developers. The final version of the operating system is scheduled to be released to the public this summer. Mentions of the do-not-track feature in Apple’s Safari browser began to appear recently in online discussion forums and on Twitter.
I guess this development will calm down privacy advocates who have been calling for a greater protection of online users.
Camp fires and rock parties will never be the same with this nifty program that just hit the App Store. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame app comes with some 600 recordings cherry-picked by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as the most influential songs in rock history. An iTunes review reads:
Add in the fact that each song has a description of why it’s awesome and influential that you can read while playing a preview of the song, and it’s an app that you can easily lose hours in just discovering (or rediscovering those hits).
The app’s got built-in search and arranges songs by artist and song title. You can hear samples and download songs you like to your device. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame costs two bucks a pop, it runs on iPhone and looks great on iPad. Check out a video walkthrough below the fold.
Update: The press release said that 600 songs were included. Upon inspection, these aren’t full songs. Expand Expanding Close
Remixation, the company behind video startup Vodpod, has a new iOS app focused on the social component of online video. It’s a frontend to the Vodpod.com service where one million users have shared videos from 20,000 different video sites. An engaging user interface sets apart the app from the crop of content aggregating programs on the App Store. It’s a Flipboard for videos, writes TechCrunch.
Indeed, a nicely laid out and customizable grid collects clips your friends share on a bunch of social networks, including Facebook and Twitter. Or, you can get started by streaming clips from YouTube, TED and Vimeo, excluding licensed content. It’s a fun way of checking out clips from your friends in one place and it supports AirPlay so you can beam them to your TV set via an Apple TV. The complete list of features plus a cool promo video right after the break. Expand Expanding Close
I don’t get it, why all the fuss about cloud lockers from Apple and Google? In Amazon’s case, it’s just a hard drive in a datacenter that stores your data and streams your media files – and they don’t even have an iOS client. Big deal.
I’ve been using Dropbox for over two years, which is the ultimate cloud locker if you ask me. MobileMe subscribers can also stream video clips and music (sans cover artwork and song metadata) from their cloud locker to iOS devices using the iDisk app.
Today, another player jumps in – one that you might already use for backup. Mozy, the Cloud backup specialists now have an iOS app.
“With Mozy’s mobile apps, you’ll be able to access your backup files from your iPhone, iPad or Android device,” a blog post reads. It works with both paid and free home accounts (business accounts aren’t yet supported). The free Mozy for iOS app packs in some cool features. Expand Expanding Close
As the jailbreak community awaits patiently for Dev-team to deliver a stable unlock for the iPhone 4 baseband (a tough nut to crack), third-party solutions are gaining traction. We told you about CutYourSim, a permanent factory unlock that doesn’t require jailbreaking. If your comments are anything to go by, that service has captured your imagination.
Unfortunately, at $168 per device many folks tell us it’s priced above their comfort level plus it is unclear whether this is a legal solution considering it basically comes down to whitelisting your device’s IMEI in a carrier’s database. Rebel’s Micro Sim is a bit more affordable, costing about $65 in the pro variant or $48 for the lite version. What’s the difference between those two?
Whenever Apple decides to produce a new gadget, they usually commission suppliers and manufacturers a few weeks or months ahead. Deals have to be made, parts have to be purchased and the whole supply and production chain needs to align with Apple’s production roadmap before the actual manufacturing can begin. That Apple has not yet released iPhone 5 roadmap to Asian partners is an indication there are no immediate plans to manufacture the handset. Sources told Asian trade publication Digitimes:
Apple has not yet released a production roadmap for iPhone 5 as shipment volumes of iPhone 4 have continued to mount and related suppliers are not yet ready to shift their production lines for new products, according to sources at Taiwan-based touch panel makers.
The sources noted that touch panel shipments for iPhone 4 have remained steady and that suppliers have not been given a heads-up to begin preparations for a next-gen iPhone. Read on… Expand Expanding Close
