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iOS Devices

9,818 'iOS Devices' stories May 2007 - January 2010
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The devices that run the world’s most advanced mobile operating system

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iOS devices refer to any of Apple’s hardware that runs the iOS mobile operating system which include iPhones, iPads, and iPods. Historically, Apple releases a new iOS version once a year, the current version is iOS 10. Here is the complete list of iOS 10 compatible devices.

Gordon – An open source Flash runtime written in pure JavaScript lets you use Flash on your iPhone

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Jan 15 2010 - 1:11 pm PT
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Even if Apple never lets a Flash plugin within 50 yards of an iPhone, you may yet be able to enjoy the richness of those blinking banner ads. Gordon (Get it?  Like Flash Gordon?) is an open source Flash runtime written in pure JavaScript.  For simple Flash animations, web developers must only slip in a bit of code into the website to allow non-Flash enabled devices like the iPhone.  The Javascript pulls the relevant animations.

This only works with simple animations and is still quite resource heavy on the iPhone. 

As PCWorld points out,

As a JRE extension it runs natively inside the iPhone’s Safari browser, however it will only work on sites that have specifically incorporated the Gordon code. Reports indicate that a static image presented in flash will peg an iPhone at 100% CPU, so it’s not quite ready for browsing YouTube via Safari just yet. It does support the full feature-set of Flash, including interactivity and animation, but full-Flash sites may not be viable on mobile devices for some time.

Take a look at some of the demos – they work on the iPhone as well.  Interestingly, running the demos on my MacBook Pro, I saw less CPU usage with the Javascript version than I saw with the Flash version.

It might make sense for Adobe to incorporate this type of system so that developers can get their animations to work on all web-enabled devices.  The downside is of course that fewer people will need Flash on their computers – which flies in the face of everything they stand for.

So is Gordon, as iPhone processors get faster and faster, the long term solution to Flash on the iPhone?

Developers getting iPhone OS 4.0 already?

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Jan 15 2010 - 10:41 am PT
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Update: The iPhoneBlog is saying they got the same email and they spoke to the developer who said it was a mistake.

Rick Broida, writer of the Cheapskate blog over at CNET, has some slightly off topic news for us today.  Seems he’s been in contact with a “prominant application developer” who has gotten the iPhone 4.0 SDK and has actually updated their application to run with it.

“Just wanted to give you a heads up that we’ve submitted an updated app for the new iPhone OS 4.0 software.”

There has been some speculation that the iPhone 4.0 OS (or any updates to 3.x) has been held up because the code has numerous references to the tablet.  It would make sense, then, that if there is a tablet released later this month, Apple would be free to release at least a beta of the 4.0 iPhone software, to give developers a head start in getting their code ready for the update.

All of this excitement is reportedly only 12 days away.  Yet we haven’t heard a peep from Apple.  This certainly will be interesting.

Now Phones are tablets: Archos phone tablet revealed

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Jan 15 2010 - 9:58 am PT
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We know one thing: 2010 is the year of the tablet.  So much so that even mobile phones are creeping into the tablet territory.  Take, for instance the just-revealled Archos phone.  It has a 4.3-inch, 480×845 pixel resolution screen.  That’s pretty similar to the Nexus One and a bit smaller than the HTC HD2 phone. 

Yet, this is a tablet.  The marketing folks are on board.  In 2010, everything will be a tablet, even the phones.  

 

Businessweek covers the Google-Apple rivalry

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Jan 14 2010 - 7:15 pm PT
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Businessweek’s cover story this week is the Google-Apple rivalry, which takes place mostly in the mobile space (but also elsewhere).   You’ll recall that Apple bought Ad firm Quattro after Google snapped up rival Admob before Apple could make an offer.  That, according to Businessweek, was just the beginning.  Apple has hired a mergers and acquisitions guy Adrian Perica from Goldman Sachs and is preparing to do some buying.  Interestingly if Apple previously wanted to acquire a firm, they would do it “ad hoc”.  

In the past, there was no organized M&A effort, say three former executives at the company. Instead, business chiefs were supposed to keep an eye out for deals and go to Jobs if they thought there was a beneficial one to be made. After getting Jobs’ O.K., the champion of the idea would pull together a team to make an overture, negotiate terms, and work through the administrative details.

Apple’s bidding process for companies is now a much smoother process as evidenced by the Lala and Quattro purchases.

BW’s Peter Burrows says that Apple’s got a plan that he’s gathered from sources “inside and outside the company”.  It stands to reason that Apple, with its focus on apps and developers, can integrate advertising into the iPhone SDK, rather than have Google scoop up all of the ads on popular free apps.

http://bizweektv.pb.feedroom.com/businessweek/bizweektv/pboneclip/player.swf?site=bizweektv&skin=pboneclip&SiteName=bizweektv&fr_story=57c756cc9dbab5c7d7f483841ecbfa765b434907&stories=&AutoPlay=false&mute=false&setvolume=.5&tilenumber=&tilemargin=&videoratio=&detailsheight=&env=&SendEMailURL=http%3A%2F%2F%25SiteID%25.feedroom.com/custom/playerbuilder/feedroom/sendMail.jsp

or, listen to the BW podcast here.

Vodafone UK is now selling iPhones like hotcakes

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Jan 14 2010 - 6:46 pm PT
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Vodafone (49% owner of Verizon) is now selling iPhones in the UK as of today and they’ve announced that they’ve already activated 50,000 of them.

I have to say that, for whatever reason, I’ve never had better reception on my iPhone than I had with Vodafone in the UK.  Browsing was always super fast and there was never any interference or dropped calls.  That might be because Vodafone is generally seen as having the best network in the UK.  

It stands to reason, then, that a Verizon iPhone would do pretty well.  Just sayin’

Apple lawyers issue takedown notice of Gawker's Tablet bounty

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Jan 14 2010 - 1:56 pm PT
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Long story short: Yesterday Gawker issued a bounty on information on the Apple tablet.  Today, Apple’s famously heavy handed lawyers issued a cease and desist (and send us anything you get) order.  

The legality question is: Is anything that Gawker gets a violation of contract or theft of Apple’s trade secrets?  Certainly most of what they are asking for would seem that way.

But perhaps there is some gray area: Their $50,000 prize is for a picture of Steve Jobs with a tablet.  If you were at a restaurant and the guy next to you was Steve Jobs and he was showing off the tablet to Al Gore, and you snapped a picture, would it be against the law to sell it?

In any case, Gawker is getting what they wanted in the first place with this contest: Publicity and pageviews.  So it doesn’t really matter if they end up with a tablet or not.  

They got Apple to come out and react to the contest which means that there probably is a product of some sort on its way out of Cupertino soon…if you hadn’t already heard.

FWIW, the contest is still going on.  Letter pasted below:

Tip: Make your iPhone speaker louder with that empty pint glass on your desk

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Jan 14 2010 - 9:20 am PT
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This isn’t rocket science, but surprisingly, it does work.  Need your iPhone’s speaker to be a little louder?  Drop it into a nice big funnel-top pint glass.  The echo chamber effect will pump a few more decibels out of the iPhone speaker and you can still read what’s on your display as well.  Great for conference calls or sharing music at a quiet pub.

 

via Unplgged via TUAW

TUAW adds the tip of putting your iPhone in a ziplock bag when in messy cooking situations but that felt a bit on the obvious side.

Intel advertising contest to win Core i5 MacBook Pros lets cat out of bag

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Jan 13 2010 - 9:34 am PT
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Spanish site Faq-Mac.com found an interesting little Intel promotion which seems to indicate that Apple is on the cusp of releasing some new Core i5 MacBooks.  The advert says that two lucky winners will recieve MacBook Pros with the new Core i5 processors.  We think Apple might be giving Intel Spain a call fairly soon.  Intel demoed the performance gains between Core 2 Duo and Core i5 laptops in this video at CES.

As for us?  We’re recommending that you hold off on MacBook Pro purchasing for a few weeks – pehaps until, oh say around January 27th.  As Macrumors points out, the adverts have gone out globally.

Google's 'Gdrive' to compete with MobileMe iDisk storage

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Jan 12 2010 - 1:46 pm PT
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Google announced its GDrive storage today which will compete with Apple’s $99/year or less MobileMe service (and Microsoft’s Office Live).  Google’s service will be an add on to its Docs storage interface and will be Web only for the moment, though third party ‘uploaders’ exist.  Google’s service is free for the first Gigabyte but then is another $.25/GB/year.  So for instance, if you wanted to store  MobileMe iDisk’s 20GB of Cloud storage, you’d have to pay Google $5/year.  The service is also consolidated for enterprise users that is $17/year for 5GB of shared storage.

To be fair, MobileMe is far more integrated into the OS than Google’s offering.  Google seems to be building for future storage with its ChomeOS rather that being a virtual drive for your current file system. 

Do any of you have plans to use Google’s storage services?

Gruber: No camera, webcam or otherwise on the tablet

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Jan 12 2010 - 11:48 am PT
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Well, that’s no fun is it?  John Gruber says there is no camera on Apple’s upcoming tablet.  Not just a webcam but even a still shot camera ain’t going to be there.  That certainly flies in the face of other reports we’ve been hearing this week.  Maybe Apple had to cut corners to get it down to $1000 – or a matter of thinness just like the iPod touch?

I

Korea Times: April iPhone 4G launch, OLED, video chat, dual core processors …

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Jan 12 2010 - 11:15 am PT
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On the heels of last night’s French report of a May release, the Korea Times today says that the 4G iPhone will be released ‘as erly as April’ and they’ve got some mouthwatering specs as well:

They said the coming 4G iPhones will be equipped with organic light emitting diode (OLED) screens on surface and live video chat functionalities, while removable battery is ‘highly likely’.  The new 4G iPhone is also going to be loaded with dual core processors and higher and powerful graphic chips that can deliver higher video resolutions and better “still” images when taking pictures.

They also expect to see 500,000 iPhones – both current and 4G models fly off the shelf this year.  Interesting.

Huge iPhone or 'tablet' glass spotted?

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Jan 12 2010 - 10:57 am PT
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MacObserver says they’ve got a picture of the forthcoming tablet’s glass display.  They’ve had mixed luck with these things before (remember the 3GS rubberized back plate?).  This one has a hole in the upper left corner, presumably for a camera.  That would be interesting because there have been Apple patents on dual lens cameras.

We’re not sure of the scale (they say 10-inches diagonal conveniently), but could this also be the 4G iPhone?  Or a knockoff.

4G iPhone coming in 'early May'?

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Jan 11 2010 - 7:46 pm PT
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Those French Mobile Operators….they love to talk.  The latest information escaping their lips, according to French Magazine Challenges.fr (via TiPB), is that the iPhone 4G* is coming in early May, not the typical June-July timeframe that we are used to.   The magazine cites “several industry sources” but couldn’t offer any details on the 4G iPhone.  They also speculate that the reason for an early launch would be to counter Google’s rush of higher specced smart super phones with the Android OS.

They also mention that Microsoft could be a competitor as well, though we heard today that Windows Mobile 7 might not come until 2011 – which might as well be 3011.

*4th generation as in iteration of iPhone not 4G network

Fingerworks.com shut down ahead of Tablet launch

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Jan 11 2010 - 3:47 pm PT
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Fingerworks.com (Internet Archive) has been shut down, five years after Apple purchased the company. MacRumors postulates that the closing might have to do with the upcoming tablet (+multi-touch pad peripheral?) device that Apple has planned.  They note the following from an old press release that may perhaps be relevant:

The MacNTouch Gesture Keyboard is a complete user interface that serves as mouse, standard keyboard, and powerful multi-finger gesture interpreter. Mouse operations like point, click, drag, scroll, and zoom are combined seamlessly with touch-typing and multi-finger gesture everywhere on the MacNTouch’s surface.
….
People are amazed by all the things a hand gesture user interface provides. We have a large number of easy- to-use gestures that cover just about every common computer operation. Users don’t have to reach for hot-keys because gestures are faster and easier to do.

Adobe originally wanted to build printers, was partially owned by Apple

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Jan 11 2010 - 3:09 pm PT
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Some fun facts via Jon Nack that put into perspective how Apple and Adobe have been connected since “the beginning”…

I’ve heard Drs. Warnock & Geschke talk about how they started Adobe with the intention of selling printing hardware, and how they shopped this idea around and around until they finally agreed to do what customers wanted: just sell them the software. They depict it as something of a forehead-slapping moment that changed everything.

Adobe’s first big break came when [Adobe Founders] Geschke and Warnock convinced Apple Computer Inc. to use Post-Script with its LaserWriter printer. As part of the deal, Apple purchased a 19-percent stake in Adobe. The first printer using the PostScript language was made available for sale in 1985. Texas Instruments Inc. began using PostScript in its IBM-compatible PCs in 1986. That year, Adobe conducted its initial public offering (IPO).

It will be interesting to see if Apple invites Adobe Flash to be on the future iPhone or the tablet or if Adobe’s products get any better on the Mac platform.

Some more interesting stuff:

The hands-on nature of the [Adobe] startup was communicated to everyone the company brought on board. For years, Warnock and Geschke hand-delivered a bottle of champagne or cognac and a dozen roses to a new hire’s house. The employee arrived at work to find hammer, ruler, and screwdriver on a desk, which were to be used for hanging up shelves, pictures, and so on. “From the start we wanted them to have the mentality that everyone sweeps the floor around here,” says Geschke, adding that while the hand tools may be gone, the ethic persists today.