iOS Devices

Jailbreaking is stupidly simple.  Now adding Flash to your iPhone is just about as easy.  Benm.at, that site that used to add tethering to your iPhone, now has Frash in its repository.  One you’ve jailbreakme‘d, 

1. Open Cydia > Manage > Sources
2. Edit source and add http://repo.benm.at
3. Search Frash and install it.

Also, you might want to pick up some external iPhone batteries for your new space heater.  Works on iPad too but not on iPhone 3G or less. via Giz/iThinkDif

A new addition to iAds allows developers to sell their Apps directly from iAds, bypassing the App Store altogether.  The ad is basically the equivalent of an App Store page.  An added bonus: Developers can use the money/credit they earn in iAds to promote their apps in this way.  This also helps Apple fill iAds ad slots, which we’ve been hearing are seeing low fill rates.

The PayWall Street Journal throws their ‘people familiar with the matter’ on the Papermaster departure:

The Apple Inc. executive in charge of the iPhone has left the company following a string of stumbles with the device, and what people familiar with the situation said was a falling out with Chief Executive Steve Jobs….Mr. Papermaster had lost the confidence of Mr. Jobs months ago and hasn’t been part of the decision-making process for some time, these people said. They added that Mr. Papermaster didn’t appear to have the type of creative thinking expected at Apple and wasn’t used to Apple’s corporate culture, where even senior executives are expected to keep on top of the smallest details of their areas of responsibility and often have to handle many tasks directly, as opposed to delegating them…

It was Mr. Jobs, rather than Mr. Papermaster, who decided to move forward with the development of the phone even though the company was aware of the risks of the antenna design as much as a year ago, according to people familiar with the matter…

Mr. Papermaster started his position while Mr. Jobs was on sick leave to receive a liver transplant during the first half of 2009. At the time, executives had more autonomy to make decisions, so Mr. Papermaster was likely ill-prepared when Mr. Jobs, who is known for his hands-on management style, returned, said the people familiar with the situation.

You don’t have a falling out with Jobs and survive. I think the ongoing white iPhone manufacturing issues are a bigger concern than the antenna and the straw that broke the camel’s back.  Apple is making as many iPhones as it can (and not meeting demand) and still losing out to Android.  That couldn’t have been the plan.

A reader sent in the following video which shows how AT&T MicroCells can make your iPhone 4 calls even worse.   Calls will stutter, skip, and even drop while using an iPhone 4, but the issue cannot be replicated on a Blackberry, for example.  TUAW seems to be having iPhone 4 specific issues as well. Oh, and Chris Ziegler, an Editor at Engadget is having some MicroCell issues on his iPhone 4 too this weekend. 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZoHt_9e1iw&w=480&h=385]

Seth can attest that his Microcell works like a champ on his iPhone 4 so this isn’t everyone.  But if you are having issues and want to discuss here and here are discussion threads on Apple’s support site. 

Or report back in the comments.

Thank you, Allen!

Blah Blah Verizon iPhone January blah blah…

A CDMA-based iPhone would likely sell 2-3 million units in the first few weeks (modeled after iPhone 4

Update: Frash/Flash just got a lot easier.  3 step Cydia install process.

Move over hotspot/3G Facetime. The new “best reason” to jailbreak your iPhone is now Frash..errr Flash! (for those of you who care).  Redmond Pie shows you how to put the bain of Steve Jobs existence on the iPhone 4.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYVG-cKHPIE&w=700&h=400]

So about 20 days ago we told you that Apple had removed a Chatroulette-like app from the App Store called iChatr. iChatr was exclusive to iPhone 4 owners who happened to have earphones. Earlier this week an app called Chatisfaction hit the App Store and this promises randomized video chats on iPhone 4s and Evos. These video chats between strangers are setup based on similar likes, location, and gender. 

The app even promises to push out random video chats based on no similarities, FUN!. Also, Evo and iPhone 4 owners can now video chat, randomly, making Fring a thing of the past. So the moral of this story is that we’ll most likely have another post up in about a week telling you that Chatisfaction was yanked from the App Store. 

You can get Chatisfaction here for $4.99, (Pricey?!) if you dare. 

via App Advice

The New York Times reports that Apple’s Senior Vice President of Device Hardware Engineering has left Apple after the iPhone 4 antenna saga. Apple did not indicate whether he left on his own or if he was asked to leave but Apple spokesperson, Steven Dowling did confirm the depature. Dowling states Papermaster “is leaving the company and Bob Mansfield, senior vice president of Macintosh hardware engineering, is assuming his responsibilities”.

Mark Papermaster declined to comment by phone on the incident, and it’s also noteworthy that he worked to oversee the iPhone 4s new antenna design. We’ll update if we hear more. 

As a 9to5Mac commenter points out, Papermaster’s executive profile has already been pulled from Apple’s website. 

Update: The well-informed John Gruber claims he heard that Papermaster was asked to leave the company, but this is still not confirmed. 

Fortune today shows the rapid ascent of Macs in schools over the past five years, when ‘intent to purchase’ is measured.  The figures show that Apple has essentially replaced Dell as the preferred laptop of choice in that time.

Remember those rumors of iWork coming to iPhone a couple months ago here and here?  We remembered that hackers were able to get the iPad Netflix app running on an iPhone, and their result looks just like the production version later announced at WWDC 2010.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYJc4isiXZU&w=640&h=385]

So we put Pages to the test, we installed the iPad version on an iPhone 4 and it does not look too bad for being unofficial.

This is no concrete indication that Pages for iPhone is indeed coming, but it looks good and runs okay on a device it’s *not made for*. Could this story have the same outcome as the Netflix story? Maybe.

Yeah, it’s Flash.  But it is funny

.http://www.xtranormal.com/site_media/players/jwplayer.swfhttp://www.xtranormal.com/site_media/players/embedded-xnl-stats.swf

Thanks Jesse!

Barron’s has a set of predictions today from BMO Capital analcyst Keith Bachman:

• For starters, he sees the company launching two new iPods in September (SHOCKER – also swallows returning to Capistrano)
• More interestingly, he thinks that 1.7 inch Apple screen (BTW-original site got a C&D order) will be the new window into a smaller Nano, which will also “do away with the physical scroll wheel” (current one isn’t physical – but whatever) which likely indicates that the screen will be touch enabled.  All 1.7 inches of it.  I guess thats enough to imitate the features of a scroll wheel.  Or perhaps the back will be touchy scrolly?
• He also thinks, based on supplier checks, that Apple will release two new MacBook Airs in September as well.  These will be cheaper and therefore appeal to a much broader audience.  (If they still top out at 2GB of RAM, non-upgradable, I’ll kick a puppy!)  Frankly, Apple should make MacBook Airs their primary MacBooks.  Most people don’t need to lug around a DVD drive with them everywhere (USB!) and SSD’s will be dropping in price over the next few years.
• Also iPhone still selling like hotcakes (uses 3 week lead time on website as proof).  Story at 11.

NYTimes tech reporter Nick Bilton broke his Apple-borrowed iPhone 4 by dropping it on the pavement, even with his chic blue bumper attached.  (Andy Ihnakto had a similar experience (except for the bumper-pavement part) with his Apple-loaned review product).  

I thought it would work beautifully until I dropped my iPhone on the concrete on Tuesday evening. The phone

Short version: Power it off immediately and put it in a bag of uncooked rice.  Long version:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg8Fpb3UjHY&w=640&h=385]

We hope this video might save a few iPhones out there.

With Android this week overtaking Apple in terms of smartphone OS sales in the US, it seemed a good moment to reflect that Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, only finally resigned his seat on Apple’s board of directors this week one year ago.

read more

One of these is eventually going to find its way into a blogger’s hands.  They have been on eBay before but pulled by Apple.  

We don’t think this is the new iPod touch like the seller claims, it is likely the prototype that Apple turned down last year (to the dismay of just about everyone). This one is also interesting because it has an OS working on it (though we don’t see a camera app).  The eBay price has skyrocketed to $500 since this posting but Apple hasn’t taken it down!

more picts below

We’ve so been hoping music from The Beatles would make it to iTunes, if only to prevent the current download generation missing out on the band as a slice of cultural history, but it looks like bad news with John Lennon widow, Yoko Ono, telling us “don’t hold your breath”.

“(Apple CEO) Steve Jobs has his own idea and he’s a brilliant guy,” Ono, the 77-year-old widow of John Lennon, told Reuters. “There’s just an element that we’re not very happy about, as people. We are holding out.

Yoko teased us last year with a claim — later deleted — that music from the band would reach iTunes. She’s not teasing anymore, saying, “Don’t hold your breath … for anything.”

We won’t. We’ve kind of given up hope. A shame, as the Yellow Submarine movie seems made for the digital age, at least to our eyes.

One refused to be drawn into any further comment, and suggested that her opinion may not be 100 per cent matched by the other three stakeholders, McCartney, bandmate Ringo Starr and Olivia Harrison, the widow of George Harrison.

I don’t think it will ever happen — at least, not before all the band’s real fans have expired.

It is always sad to report news like this, but it appears that a 22-year old female Foxconn worker is confirmed to have passed away yesterday. The worker apparently “fell from a dormitory.” It is yet to be confirmed whether this is a suicide or not, but Foxconn went on record to say the previous (and this one) deaths were “not work related.” 13 Foxconn workers have committed suicide so far and this is yet another sad piece of the story. 

What may intrigue some readers is the specific factory of which this worker comes from. She supposedly worked in the packaging department of the Kunshan factory in Jiangsu, China. Kunshan is known to some as the iPod touch factory as they are known to be packaged and initially shipped from there. There is no evidence that the worker worked with Apple’s product lines or not, and in respect for the worker and her family, we don’t feel it would be right to speculate. 

Apple seems to be adding to and changing up their App Store’s featured sections quite frequently. Today Apple added a new section dedicated to promoting free applications on the App Store. One of the subsections of this new feature is “Try Before You Buy.” This section features many of the popular “free” or “lite” editions of apps, but the section title is what makes this all interesting. 

There is a common phrase going around when it comes to app piracy, and that is “trying before buying.” Many people claim they pirate apps to do just that and claim Apple does not offer app trials. Well, Apple and others feel that’s false due to the multitude of “lite” editions on the App Store. Apple pushes that belief with this new section as they are promoting “trying before buying” without pirating. 

These pictures from MacRumors clearly show a FaceTime camera on the front bezel of a supposed iPod touch 4th generation prototype. They are labeled “Apple (c) 2010,” which adds proof to their authenticity and have a build date of April 29, 2010. 

We’ve also independently heard confirmation from a source that the upcoming iPod touch will feature the Retina Display from the iPhone 4, as well as the same gyroscopes for gaming.  Below is a closeup of the Apple inscription.

I was actually at this talk last month at Fortune but the information was sequestered by AT&T in the midst of the iPad subscriber leak thing. In the Q&A, Stephenson said something like “losing the trust of subscribers with a security breach would doom a telco.  Which was probably untimely info.  A month later, here it is:

http://i.cdn.turner.com/money/.element/apps/cvp/4.0/swf/cnn_money_384x216_embed.swf?context=embed&videoId=/video/fortune/2010/07/26/f_cs_att_apple_data_plans.fortune

A little sucking up to Steve Jobs below.

http://i.cdn.turner.com/money/.element/apps/cvp/4.0/swf/cnn_money_384x216_embed.swf?context=embed&videoId=/video/fortune/2010/07/26/f_cs_att_verizon_iphone.fortune