iOS Devices

In the smartphone wars Apple’s iPhone can claim to be far, far healthier than Research In Motion’s BlackBerry devices, at least in terms of radiation…

The latest report from the US Environmental Working Group (EWG) contains radiation rankings for top brand mobile phones, including those from Motorola, BlackBerry and iPhone. And the report makes grim reading for RIM, with handsets from that firm joining those from Motorola and T-Mobile (US) in the top ten worst phones in terms of radiation exposure.

To be fair, all models tested are within current international limits, but the EWG warns that consumers should try to buy phones with the lowest level of radiation emission, to be on the safe side.
 

The test measures the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) for different handsets. SAR is a means by which the amount of radiation passed from a device to a human body is assessed. The internationally-accepted safe limit of exposure to the head and trunk of a body is SAR 2W/Kg. Some say this should be set lower.

It’s not all good news for Apple – the iPhone 3G secured a maximum score of 1.19 W/kg, putting the device outside the top ten least ‘radiating’ phones. However, news is worse for the competition: the ten devices with the highest radiation levels are:

1. Motorola MOTO VU204 – 1.55 W/kg
2. T-Mobile myTouch 3G – 1.55 W/kg
3. Kyocera Jax S1300 – 1.55 W/kg
4. Blackberry Curve 8330 – 1.54 W/kg
5. Motorola W385 – 1.54 W/kg
6. T-Mobile Shadow – 1.53 W/kg
7. Motorola C290 – 1.53 W/kg
8. Motorola i335 – 1.53 W/kg
9. Motorola MOTO VE240 – 1.52 W/kg
10. Blackberry Bold 9000 – 1.51 W/kg

And the ten devices with the lowest radiation levels are:

1. Samsung Impression (SGH-a877) – 0.35 W/kg
2. Motorola RAZR V8 – 0.36 W/kg
3. Samsung SGH-t229 – 0.38 W/kg
4. Samsung Rugby (SGH-a837) – 0.46 W/kg
5. Samsung Propel Pro (SGH-i627) – 0.47 W/kg
6. Samsung Gravity (SGH-t459) – 0.48 W/kg
7. T-Mobile Sidekick – 0.50 W/kg
8. LG Xenon (GR500) – 0.52 W/kg
9. Motorola Karma QA1 – 0.55 W/kg
10. Sanyo Katana II – 0.55 W/kg

Via: The Ecologist

The iPhone Dev Team have released an updated version of popular jailbreaking utility, PwnageTool, but has stumbled on a few road blocks in assembling a one-size fits all tool.

The developers explain the newly released application supports iPhone OS 3.1 and 3.1.1 for iPod touch, but is only capable of jailbreaking/unlocking first-generation devices, and the iPhone 3G.

“This is the low down on our tools for use with the 3.1 firmware from Apple, please read the whole post in full before attempting anything,” the developers warn on their blog. “Because of changes with Apple’s update techniques (that complicate the 3GS upgrade process) this will be a multipart release. This release starts with PwnageTool 3.1 for Mac OS X – this application supports the iPhone 1st Generation (2G), the iPhone 3G and the iPod touch 1G. NB: THIS DOES NOT SUPPORT THE 3GS OR 2G/3G IPOD TOUCH. redsn0w for Mac OS X and Windows will follow sometime in the near future, please don’t bug us about it – we’ll release when we have something ready.”

They also warn that 3G iPhones unlocked with ultrasn0w should only be updated to 3.1 with a PwnageTool-created IPSW. “Stay away from Apple’s direct updates as described here and here please get up to speed on the whole subject by reading the information contained in these posts,” the team warns. “This version of PwnageTool will NOT work for the iPhone 3GS,” another warning goes.

PwnageTool 3.1 will jailbreak and unlock original iPhones (1st Generation), the original iPod touch (1st Generation) and the iPhone 3G.

Users must download special support files before beginning the jailbreaking process, which may appeal to users in areas which don’t enjoy particularly great coverage from Apple’s authorised carrier partners.

The ZuneHD came out today.  Have you heard of it?  It gets pretty good reviews and it costs less than a 32GB iPod touch…well, it did. 

Microsoft priced the Zune at $289 to undercut Apple’s iPod Touch 32GB $299 price point.  However, today the price of a 32GB iPod touch has dropped to $279 at Amazon (something that almost never happens on a brand new model of ANYTHING from Apple).   Strangely, the 64GB model, which doesn’t have a ZuneHD equivalent remains unchanged while the 8GB model is $10 off.

Microsoft…do we hear $269?  Going once…going twice

The iPod touch, of course, is still beating the Zune in the Amazon top 10 (below) but not by much.

Great news for Mac Dev, Apple has now allowed open source its’ Grand Central Dispatch API’s to potentially allow us to get some core tapping applications headed are way. If you are interested more info here and here 

http://developers.slashdot.org/story/09/09/11/1139212/Apple-Open-Sources-Grand-Central-Dispatch?from=rsshttp://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/Performance/Reference/GCD_libdispatch_Ref/Reference/reference.html

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2151382&start=0&tstart=0

Dan Frakes at Macworld ran some basic tests on the new (but cameraless) iPod touch and got some interesting results.  Most tests had the new iPod touch coming in around twice as fast as the previous model with browser tests going over 2X speed.  Apple only claims a 50% improvement in speed on its website.  Does the speed make up for the lack of a camera?

Note: the current 8GB version has the same processor as the previous model.

The iPhone 3GS has some significant Voice Over navigation features built to help the seeing-impaired use the iPhone.  However, we can see this functionality helping anyone who can’t look down at their iPhone while they are doing another activity.  Changing a iTunes track while driving, for instance, becomes a lot easier with voice navigation. 

Other times when something like this would be useful for the sighted? In classroom setting, or in bed at night?

Just for fun, the latest iteration of the "Hitler finds out.." meme – this time his reaction to the iPod touch lack of camera. (Warning, contains some sweary bits).

Microsoft’s iPod-contender, the Zune HD is shipping now in the US, but the company has played another of its PR master strokes – the products are shipping without software installed.

You’ll have to wait until later – perhaps today – for the world’s biggest software developer to get the code you’ll need to actually use the new device. Though you will get to look at the demo movie on the Zune HD’s OLED screen.

“It’s a pretty unusual move for a company like Microsoft to put devices into the hands of consumers with no functionality at all, but it seems the Zune team was cranking till the last minute,” EnGadget explains.

Now that’s what we call an open public beta test!
 

In the battle for the low end video recorder, Apple’s iPod nano is staking its claim vs. the Flip. But is the video out of the Nano as good as the Flip?  NewTeeVee did a side by side and you can see there are some differences:

[blip.tv http://blip.tv/play/AYGfvwgC]

While the Nano is good for its size, there are obvious areas where the Flip and its bigger lens grab better quality video. Perhaps this is the reason that Apple kept this camera out of the iPod touch?

This simple trick lets you crack the passwords on an iPhone or iPod touch – though it only threatens users who leave their device in hands reach of somebody they can’t trust.

The slight flaw can be exploited in almost every available application that stores passwords, including your saved email account passwords.

By simply using the delete button, an unauthorised person can reveal all the characters which make up your password, with the exception of the very first character in the password field. It works when a password field is present with a saved password in it.

The good news? This particular bug seems to have been patched in iPhone Software 3.1.

Perhaps that makes it a good reason to upgrade your Apple device – though users of jailbroken iPhones will probably wait a while.

Via: ModMyi.com

You know how we feel about MMS.  It is an outdated technology that ties your communication to a carrier and doesn’t offer many of the benefits of email, let alone more modern technologies like IM.  That being said, we know a lot of you out there can’t wait to get your hands on it. 

AT&T’s official launch date is September 25th, a few weeks beyond the "Late Summer" release promised at WWDC.  However, according to the Consumerist, AT&T has been turning a few AT&T customers’ MMS capabilities on by disabling the MMS opt-out code.  No reason was given for the changes.

Mediaite’s Ash Kalb discovered that his iPhone suddenly had MMS after a recent upgrade, and theorizes that AT&T is slowly removing the MMS opt-out codes on iPhone users’ accounts.

Perhaps they are testing the ability of AT&T’s frail network to withstand the MMS onslaught?  Or they are trying not to get sued.  Or "under-promising and over-delivering".  Whatever the reason, we’re sure many of you will want to check your iPhones and comment below.

Well, whaddya know?  Adobe has released a set of HTML5 authoring tools for its market leading vector authoring product.  The download is only 2.8 MB and can be found here.  Somehow I don’t think those 2.8mb of data are going to be enough to replace all of the functionality of Flash, but it is a start.

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There’s a new comic book format in town, an Apple format, which suggests the company has a vision to enable next-generation book and comic publishing through its range of multimedia devices.

Tyrese Gibson’s Mayhem is the first digital book for sale on iTunes 9, and its being sold in the extended multimedia format, iTunes LP/iTunes Extras.

Mayhem’s comic iTunes LP ($1.99) is the first comic book to explore the format as a form of highly visual creative expression.

Its introduction makes it easy to see the potential of book or magazine sales through iTunes. And, let’s face it, it’s built for handheld devices and, we think, the fabled Apple tablet (October? January?)

The release of this beautiful digital comic – and look at the way the action flows and the expression isn’t confined to words and pictures – means Apple boss Steve Jobs may already be back to his opaque public statements self, when he told the New York Times Apple doesn’t see eBooks as a big business – for the company.

Being a big business for Apple doesn’t necessarily mean eBooks aren’t a potentially big business for its platforms. In fact, with eBooks being the second-biggest content category on iTunes after games, there’s a proper eBook gold rush surging up. It’s just that Apple doesn’t publish the books…but it does create the platform – particularly its mobile platforms.

If NYT interviewer David Pogue had thought things through, he’d maybe have been more explicit in reading between the Jobsian lines.

What Jobs, the Twitter-killer, did say was, “I think the general-purpose devices will win the day. Because I think people just probably aren’t willing to pay for a dedicated device.”

(You always need to read between Steve’s lines, even when he’s recovering from another life-saving surgery).

Can Kindle deliver this excellence in multimedia?

Take a look at the comic, it’s fab. (I’m finding the link troublesome, sorry).

As John Fortt at Fortune notes, "Maybe the tools Apple created to digitize Gibson’s Mayhem comic will be part of an author’s kit with that oft-rumored Apple tablet?"

Apple delivered on one of the most-demanded features, radio, in the latest iteration of its iPod nano, and radio broadcasters seem thrilled by the news.

What’s interesting about the FM tuner inside the iPod nano is its capacity to rewind up to 15-minutes of a radio show, and a new tagging tool which lets users make a note of songs they’ve enjoyed for later purchase through iTunes, using technology from the Radio Advertising Bureau’s "Buy From FM" platform.

This is a significant move, which boosts just how attractive standard FM radio broadcasts can now be in a digital age. Jeff Haley, CEO of the Radio Advertising Bureau, said: "The idea that an 85-year-old medium has the chance to remain relevant and capture new distribution in an environment when those things are hard to come by is very exciting."

Jeff Smulyan, chairman-CEO of Emmis Communications, says the move will help make radio ubiquitous, pointing to the radio industry’s determined effort to ensure FM tuners are installed on all portable devices by 2013. The industry argues that making such a move would deliver a relevant emergency broadcast system, among other reasons.

The technology is there, but there’s a lot of nascent activity to really drive interactivity to radio," Haley said.

Until now, the radio industry has only had one similar deal in place, with Microsoft and the Zune.

Of course, we know the iPod touch and iPhone already have the technology inside existing models to receive FM radio broadcasts, but this has been blocked by Apple for some unknown reason.

Future developments for the Buy From FM standard promise radio stations and advertisers the chance to tag their radio ads to become interactive through the MP3 platform.

Clear Channel’s iPhone/BlackBerry app, iheartradio gathered 2.5 million users in June, a report claims.

This one slipped through the cracks last night but for those of you mulling a 3.0 update to your iPod touches, the already low $9.95 price just got cut in half to $4.95.  The update, which will take your Touch to 3.1, is recommended by Apple and will give your touch the added bonus of the 3.0 software.

It’s a shrewd move on the part of the company, which claims it is forced to charge for the upgrade under accounting/regulatory procedures. Recent months have seen claims that only a minority of iPod touch owners actually invest in the software patches as they emerge.

June saw a report from mobile advertising firm AdMob which suggested only 1% of iPod touch users accessing its ad network had upgraded to V.3.0 software, compared to 44% of iPhone users.

With 20 million iPod touch units sold so far, that’s an awful lot of customers who aren’t up to speed with the latest improvements in the company’s mobile OS.

I did a blog post over at Computerworld last night on the mystery of the iPod touch camera.  We’d seen pictures and videos of prototypes, heard the rumors from as far away as China and France and even saw iPod case designers from all over building their new cases with holes.  But the iPod touches released at the even had no cameras.  What happened and why? 

Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, is world-renowned for playing it cool under pressure (and dancing for developers), and he played it cool when faced with an iPhone-wielding employee this week.

The company held a meeting in Seattle yesterday to preview some of the things it is working on, proferring free beer for stressed-out employees. There was even a ceremonial entrance by the CEO, and that’s when the moment happened.

As he entered the room, a Microsoft employee tried to take a picture of Ballmer – using an iPhone…

The CEO’s reaction was calm in the circumstances. He grabbed the device from out the hapless employee’s hand, made some remarks which generated an outbreak of boos from assembled employees, threw the iPhone to the floor and mimicked stamping on it…

We’re not 100 per cent sure if this wasn’t a staged stunt, of course, given the admiration with which Microsoft views its Apple smartphone challenger.

Later on when making his presentation on stage he referred to the incident again and glanced at the iPhone-using Microsoft employee. Who we hope has a pleasant day at work today.

Twittering about the incident, one employee pointed out, "you just don’t pick up the CEO of Chevy in a BMW."

Which pretty much sums up this incident. Also interesting is news today the Zune HD won’t ship in Europe before Christmas, leaving Europe open for Apple’s iPod, which already boasts 69 per cent UK market share.

via Engadget

And Just like that after Apple’s "It’s only Rock and Roll" event they have seeded OS X 10.6 to the masses

The 10.6.1 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes for:

– compatibility with some Sierra Wireless 3G modems
– an issue that might cause DVD playback to stop unexpectedly
– some printer compatibility drivers not appearing properly in the add printer browser
– an issue that might make it difficult to remove an item from the Dock
– instances where automatic account setup in Mail might not work
– an issue where pressing cmd-opt-t in Mail brings up the special characters menu instead of moving a message
– Motion 4 becoming unresponsive

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3810.
For information on the security content of this update, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

In case you wondered what the new Nano looks like with its itsy bitsy camera, 52 extra pixel screen and FM radio tuner, iFixit has taken the time to take a blue one apart.  Overall, it looks pretty much how you’d excpect.  Unsurprisingly, they don’t reccomend you try this at home.  More choice picts below.