iOS Devices

(Thanks Tomas who develops Nightstand Weather Clock for the image) 

Apple appears to be addressing the “skin apps” controversy by adding another category, ‘explicit’, to the lineup.  The category is not yet in the App Store but it is likely a way to keep some of those “racy” apps in the store without disturbing parents and (17 year old) kids.

Apple currently has a 17+ year old category for apps that were before labeled as controversial.  Like dictionaries.

First reported by Cult of Mac last night.

Two surprising news bits from Google coming out of Europe this morning.

First, an Italian court sentenced three US-based Google executives to six month prison terms because a video was posted on Google Video of students bullying a disabled boy.

Even stranger: Microsoft is putting Google in EU court for…wait for it…being a monopoly.

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http://embed.break.com/MTc1NzEwOQ==
iPad Photos App Walkthrough

Here we have a detailed video walkthrough of the iPad’s photos application we were posting about earlier today.

<object width=”464″ height=”289″ id=”1757109″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” classid=”clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000″ alt=”iPad Photos App Walkthrough Funny Videos”><param name=”movie” value=”http://embed.break.com/MTc1NzEwOQ==”></param><param name=”allowScriptAccess” value=”always”></param>http://embed.break.com/MTc1NzEwOQ==</object><br><font size=1><a href=”http://www.break.com/usercontent/2010/2/23/ipad-photos-app-walkthrough-1757109″ target=”_blank”>iPad Photos App Walkthrough</a> – Watch more <a href=”http://www.break.com” target=”_blank”>Funny Videos</a></font>

Tonight, we’ve been piecing together what appears to be an iPad video recording and still camera application.  For a device that has no camera?

We have found video recording indicators, ‘take video’ buttons, take still photo buttons, video editing toggles, video playback icons, etc.  The list goes on and on.  Also, in these files are little new tidbits such as a rotate image button and an icon for importing images.

Additionally if this camera is real it was auto-focus according to other images within the iPad SDK. Another feature that will cause some excitement is the addition of cropping photos. There are two images indicating photo cropping.

After using the Photos we have found some more small tidbits.  Apple has added some advanced wallpaper settings that are not currently found on the iPhone or iPod. It has been known that users will be able to customize their home screen wallpaper, but this has yet to be seen in the previous two SDK betas. In the photos app when you select an image, you can choose to set it as the “Lock Screen” or “Home Screen” wallpaper. There is also an option which allows you to simultaneously set an image as the wallpaper for both aspects of the device. Furthermore it is also possible to have a different images as the lock screen and home screen wallpapers.  More below:

Apple took down the iPad SDK for some reason. We still don’t know why.  But it might be that third tab in the Photos.app below.  We’ll see if this is the reason for the takedown when the next iPad SDK comes out. 

Update: The iPad has a USB interface with a camera (and an SD card reader) so this might just be the interface for importing pictures.

Some “Photos” from the shiny new SDK which Apple has taken down for some reason…

Also the Photo Frame works.  More pictures below…

We’ll have a look at the new stuff as soon as it finishes downloading.

I have to admit, once I leave San Fancisco or New York, my iPhone magically becomes usable.  Calls go through and last more than a few minutes before getting cut off.  At my parent’s house in Ohio, I have the best wireless data network in the world.  Maps data is instant and there is never even a little bit of a lag.  Youtube movies load almost instantly over 3G as well.

I had the opportunity to talk to a lot of people at Macworld who had the exact opposite experience.  They’d come from such places as Philadelphia (see #2), San Diego, and even Chicago where their iPhones actually behaved like … phones. 

Trying to make a call at Macworld expo was comical.  There was no shortage of attendees screaming into their phones, repeating themselves over and over and pausing to look at their screens to see if the call was still connected.  Welcome to my world.

So today, PC World came up with a study that puts AT&T out in front where they had been lagging previously.  That’s great for the 95% of the US that gets great service from AT&T.  I can attest that AT&T still is laughable in New York and San Francisco.  I’d love to hear from anyone else who thinks otherwise. 

This chart, which puts SF at 55% reliability speaks the truth, but one must wonder what cell phone tower they climbed to get their NY results.

The problem for Apple is that you must download the iBookstore from the App Store, which makes it a subset of the App Store. Technically, the same rules should apply.

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I was just talking about this with friends the other day.  Traveling has totally changed since I got an iPhone and with more and more carriers getting Gogo wireless, even the flights are much easier to deal with. 

It doesn’t stop with interesting apps either.  With sites like Flightaware, you don’t’ have to believe the gate people when they say they don’t know when a flight is going to arrive or take off or if you’ll be late or not.  Update: OF COURSE I knew Flightaware had a free app!

Anyway, Apple has a new ad called Family Travel, below:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq6o_mc0tx4&w=700&h=420]

Here’s a presentation we can get behind from Stanford’s class CS193P – Designing for iPad (sorry it is Flash)

via Gizmodo

Techcrunch reports that ngmoco:), the popular iPhone App development company behind such App Store hits as Rolando and Eliminate Pro, has purchased Freeverse. Freeverse is another popular iPhone Development company with App Store favorites Skee-Ball and Motochaser. 

ngmoco was one of the beneficiaries of the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers iFund. 

Earlier this year the extremely prolific gamemaker made a bold move by making their most popular games free and relying on ads and in app purchases for income. It looks like that gamble paid off. ngmoco will do the same with all the apps they have acquired from Freeverse.

So far ngmoco has raised over $40 million from investors and seems that CEO Neil Young is putting it to great use. Young also today announced that the company plans to release an SDK so other developers can use their popular in-game scoring and messaging service.

Just a quick note to update you on our feeds and Twitter.  During the update last month we changed how feeds were broadcast.  We had been getting complaints that our large, media heavy feeds were causing issues with feedreaders so we cut them off at around 600 characters and skipped over media.

Clearly, this wasn’t a universally loved idea.  So now we’ve brought back the full feed as the default which you can access here.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/9To5Mac-MacAllDay

However, if you like short feeds without ads, we’ve created a special feed for you.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/9to5mac/feed

These feeds will also include my Computerworld posts (like today’s).

Also, if you are like us, you are doing a lot more of your feed viewing with Twitter. With that in mind, you can pull 9to5mac’s Twitter feed from here.  We have been doing some app giveaways and other fun stuff there as well, so if you use Twitter,

http://twitter.com/9to5mac

Lastly, the 9to5Mac Toys Section has its own feed and Twitter account.  Grab them if you are so inclined.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

With the launch of Apple’s tablet a mere few weeks away, we can already start looking at other platforms which Apple may aim its new processor architecture.

Apple, in a job posting last week, advertised for an “Engineering Manager (Platform Bring-Up)” which states that Apple is taking their iPhone OS and putting it on new platforms:

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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxRyMeFcZEw&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

The very popular and well acclaimed first-person shooter which helped pioneer console gaming on the iPhone is back with a sequel. Brothers in Arms 2: Global Front brings “13 new nail-biting levels” taking place from North Africa to Sicily complete with compelling in game video clips and more interaction with your fellow virtual soldiers. The sequel also brings several new weapons such as sniper rifles and flamethrowers.

In addition, Gameloft has added their popular “Gameloft Live” service to the game play complete with 26 unlockable trophies. Perhaps the best new feature added to the game is multiplayer mode. In this mode you can play on the battle field with up to five of your friends over bluetooth or WiFi. The game is available today in several countries and is $7.99 in the United States. Click here to view in iTunes.

Two new iPhone ads were put up on Apple’s site last night. The first touts the iPhone’s ability to multitask while calling, including App Store purchases.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_QbJfh2nR8&hl=en_US&fs=1&]The second shows video capture, MMS and conference calling:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdTZVun1mUY&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

They can all be seen here.

Some interesting information has come to light this evening that may indicate a future direction of Apple’s iPhone OS products.  Below is some pretty definitive evidence that future iPhones and iPads will have video chatting capability.

These icons were found in the 3.2 SDK which seem to indicate that there will be video calling on a future iPxxx device.

But Wait!  That’s not all.  If you click below, hidden in some of the underlying iPad telephony apps are some VideoChat strings that are equally, if not more, telling evidence of future VideoChatting capabilities.

Video chat likely means front facing camera on these devices as well.  We’ll know more soon.  Also, we’ve found some references to “iChat”.

While it is possible that Apple brought code over from its Mac telephony products, it is unlikely that they also built icons and compressed them into the iPad SDK for such a product if it weren’t being built for future release.

Thanks again @sonny788 for your help!