Category: I-phone

If you’re looking for an eco-friendly case for your iPad 2, you should take a closer look at Flowfold for the iPad. It’s an attractive sleeve made of reclaimed sailcloth and recycled plastic bottle felt. This combination of recycled materials produces a sleeve that’s weather-resistant on the outside and soft on the inside. It’s available in some stylish-looking patterns, too.

The Flowfold iPad 2 case is a Kickstarter project from Charles Friedman, who also makes a wallet with the same materials. He came up with the idea for the Flowfold while working as sailmaker in Yarmouth, Maine. He used surplus sailcloth to fix his grandfather’s wallet and spent the next five years perfecting the design from his home in coastal Maine. The iPad 2 case joins the wallet in his product lineup and is available online at Kickstarter. The first production run of sleeves will ship on December 14.

[Via Inhabitat]

Flowfold turns scrap sailcloth and recycled plastic into an attractive iPad 2 sleeve originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 05 Dec 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you crave even more info about Steve Jobs, the Computer History Museum has just posted an online exhibit called “Steve Jobs…First NeXT, One more thing…”. The exhibit has lots of information, some archival photos and a smattering of videos, some donated by friends of Steve that haven’t been publicly seen.

While not a comprehensive biography, I had no trouble finding things I didn’t know. I also appreciated the links to other videos and websites that further illuminate one of America’s most prolific marketers and inventors.

The Computer History Museum is physically located in San Jose and has thousands of artifacts and exhibits that highlight the invention of computers, the legacy of the personal computer, and features a speaker series, tours, and other online exhibitions.

[via MacRumors]

Online museum offers Steve Jobs exhibit originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 05 Dec 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The jailbreakers among you are probably anxiously awaiting the first untethered iOS 5 jailbreak promised by pod2g and MuscleNerd. However, if you’ve upgraded to iOS 5.0.1, you’ll be out of luck because the first untethered jailbreak will be for iOS 5.0 only. Nothing later.

In iOS 4 and earlier, you could simply restore your iPhone to the base version of the firmware (ie: 4.0), but with the introduction of iOS 5, Apple made it so that once you upgraded the OS to a later version (ie: 5.0.1) it was impossible to downgrade via a restore to the base firmware. However, as Morpheus from the Matrix said, some rules can be bent and others broken. Hacker iH8sn0w has released a (currently) Windows-only tool called iFaith that allows users to downgrade to iOS 5.0. This will enable users to then apply the future untethered jailbreak patch to their iOS 5 device. For those of you who are interested in how iH8sn0w accomplished this feat (using SHSH blob vulnerabilities) you can check out this short YouTube video.

[via Engadget]

Use iFaith v1.4 to downgrade to iOS 5.0 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Above, you can see an intriguing graph from Compuware APM that shows a kind of kooky new trend in shopping this holiday season, something the researchers are calling “couch commerce.” Shopping via the web is up big-time lately, and as you can see above, a big part of that is shopping from the iPhone and even more so from the iPad. Web users have been shunning the crowded and noisy retail experience for a few years now to shop online during the holiday shopping season, but the iPad has moved that experience from the computer over to the couch.

And that doesn’t mean just apps — online shoppers have spent over $18 billion already this holiday season on actual real world items (a rise of 15% from the year before), and of the shopping done over the Black Friday weekend last month, the iPhone and the iPad accounted for 10.2% of that traffic. That’s interesting. I didn’t personally buy anything online or in-stores over the weekend (boring, I know), but I did buy an international plane ticket this year using my iPad, which is a big chunk of money to add to the total. How about you?

Report: iPads and iPhones helping create ‘couch commerce’ originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Many Mac users use a combination of an Apple Wireless Keyboard and a Magic Trackpad for their typing and pointing pleasure. Twelve South came up with a lovely way to merge the two devices into a single unit with the MagicWand (US$29.99). Now Henge Docks has developed a less expensive and more functional device called the Clique ($24.99) that should be a fierce competitor to the MagicWand.

Design and Functionality

Three minor issues with the MagicWand have been addressed with the Clique. First, I felt that $29.99 was a bit expensive for what is essentially two pieces of plastic and a tiny piece of silicone. Second, if I want to use the keyboard and trackpad in my lap, I’m out of luck with the MagicWand as there’s no physical support for those peripherals. Finally, if I’m going to be away from my iMac for a while and wish to turn off the keyboard, I have to take it out of the MagicWand to have access to the power button on the right side.

The Clique is actually a thin, bright white plastic rigid tray into which your Apple Wireless Keyboard and Magic Trackpad “click,” hence the clever name. When the peripherals are snapped into the Clique, they form a rigid unit that can easily be used in a lap. I found this to be wonderful — when I’m using the MagicWand, I have to place it onto my desktop and sit closer to the screen of my iMac. Now I’m able to place the keyboard and trackpad on my legs and move back a bit into a much more comfortable position in my chair.

Turning off the keyboard or trackpad is also easy. Henge Docks designed a small spring-loaded button into the right side of the Clique that can be depressed to power the trackpad on and off. In addition, there’s a small slider underneath the keyboard that is used to turn the keyboard on and off without taking the keyboard out of the Clique.

I was a bit concerned that the Clique would be uncomfortable for typing, as it adds a bit of thickness to the keyboard that doesn’t exist with the Magic Wand. That concern went away as soon as I started using the Clique — if you hold your hands in a proper position for typing, that extra 1/16th of an inch doesn’t cause any problem.

Conclusion

I type a lot (I’ve written well over one million words for TUAW during my three-plus years here), and anything that makes typing and pointing more comfortable gets a thumbs-up from me. The Clique works very well and moves my keyboard and trackpad to a much more comfortable typing position. Now that turning off the keyboard is going to be easier, I’ll probably get better life from my batteries.

With the help of Henge Docks and the Clique, I think I’ll be able to crank out another couple million words without too much damage to my arms and hands. The Clique would also make a wonderful holiday gift for anyone who wants a rigid keyboard/trackpad combo that they can use to make their daily Mac user more comfortable.

Henge Docks Clique: A new way to merge your Wireless Keyboard and Magic Trackpad originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last week, I interviewed IDG World Expo’s Paul Kent about the upcoming Macworld | iWorld 2012. After discussing all of the exciting changes to this year’s event (the video will be part of this Wednesday’s TUAW TV Live), Paul said he had an announcement that he’d spring on us on Monday. That announcement was just sent out — Macworld | iWorld starts off with a bang the night of January 25, 2012 with a concert headlined by Grammy-nominated indie rockers Modest Mouse.

The concert, known officially as the Macworld | iWorld Opening Night BLAST, is at The Warfield, a 2300-seat venue on Market Street not far away from the home of the expo at Moscone West. Doors for the concert open at 7 PM, and tickets are available now as part of a US$110 (today only) package that also includes the $75 iFan pass for attending all events that are part of Macworld | iWorld.

It’s definitely not too early to start thinking about getting your iFan pass for Macworld | iWorld; the price with the concert jumps up to $135 tomorrow, and seats are limited.

Modest Mouse headlining Macworld | iWorld Opening Night BLAST originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wired has posted a profile of one Afshad Mistri, an Apple employee whose goal is quite focused. As the medical market manager, he’s tasked with connecting medical professionals and Apple’s technology. Mistri couldn’t chat with Wired for the article itself (Apple’s less-than-press-friendly reputation is upheld), but according to medical personnel he’s working with, Apple is pushing hard on the healthcare industry by setting up iPads and other brand new tech in medical workplaces.

That’s interesting, as Apple traditionally hasn’t aggressively pursued the enterprise, leaving most offices to companies like Microsoft and RIM. But the medical market is different. In addition to Mistri’s behind-the-scenes work and stories about organizations using the iPad, Apple has featured medical apps during several public presentations.

It’s not a big surprise, since the medical industry is tech-friendly (which is right where Apple wants to be) and has deep pockets to fund upgrades. But it is interesting that Apple has chosen to actively pursue medicine. We can probably expect to see more universities and hospitals embracing the iPad and Apple’s devices moving forward.

[via gigaom]

How the iPad is succeeding in healthcare originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the past I have mentioned some great tutorials and libraries using Cocos2D classes to produce different  effects like this CCRenderTexture tutorial showing cool things you can do with sprite masking and this class for an easy Cocos2D lightning effect.

This latest effects example is really cool, showing you how to make an ultra-realistic water ripple effect just like in the different top-notch aquarium apps.

This example is from Birkenmose, a member of the Cocos2D forum.   They have posted a “RippleSprite” class which works very much like a CCSPrite and with just a few lines of code you can add this ripple effect to an image.

Birkenmose has also done an excellent job of explaining everything that is going on in the code with his comments which is of great help.

Here’s a video showing the code in action:

You can read the original thread on the Cocos2D forum here.

UPDATE: The original author has now added a demo project – you can find it here:
http://thebackfiregames-dk.temp14.domaindirect.dk/Media/rippleDemo.zip
You may have to copy/paste the link if it doesn’t work.

Another forum member, Clarus, has posted a working project using the code that you can find here.

Definitely a thread to watch and the effect is still being further optimized/enhanced and hopefully Birkemose is able to figure out Github soon

Thanks to Marin from Touch Code Magazine for pointing me to the thread.

If you’ve always wondered how this is done this is some great code to check out.

©2011 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

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While the tech world was buzzing last week about Carrier IQ, one group of lawyers was busy preparing a class action complaint. The complaint was filed in Federal Court in Wilmington, Delaware by three local law firms: Sianni & Straite of Wilmington, DE; Eichen Crutchlow Zaslow & McElroy of Edison, NJ; and Keefe Bartels of Red Bank, NJ.

The complaint asserts that several wireless companies and cell phone manufacturers violated wiretap and computer fraud laws when they included Carrier IQ software on their phones. The suit names wireless carriers T-Mobile, AT&T and Sprint as well as mobile phone manufacturers HTC, Samsung, Motorola and Apple.

The Carrier IQ controversy hit the internet last week when 25-year-old Trevor Eckhart posted a video of Carrier IQ in action. Carrier IQ is diagnostic software that’s present on a variety of phones (including at least some editions of the iPhone, though Apple says it has pretty much eliminated Carrier IQ in iOS 5). Several wireless carriers use it to troubleshoot network or device problems.

Eckhart detailed in several blog posts and a video how the software allegedly logs and transmits keyboard input, website URLs and other potentially sensitive information. The company denied allegations that it violates wiretap laws, but that has not stopped the lawsuits.

With the US Senate asking questions about Carrier IQ and now several lawsuits, we are going to hear a lot more about this controversy before it is all ironed out. Until then, iPhone owners can rest easy. Even though Carrier IQ is present in iOS 5, the software is turned off and should be inert. Apple also said it recently stopped using Carrier IQ and promises it will remove any remaining traces of the software in a future update.

[Via The Loop]

Apple, Samsung, others sued over Carrier IQ scandal originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When it comes to forecasting the next big thing, we turn to our secret weapon: the TUAW braintrust. We put the question to you and let you have your go at it. Today’s topic is QA.

Should Apple shift its focus away from new product development in the near future and focus on QA improvements for a while?

TUAW reader Lyle42 asks, “Was FCP X finished? Was Lion? Was Xcode 4?” Apple has always shipped beta. Has its “beta” become a little more alpha than usual?

You tell us. Place your vote in this poll and then join in the comments with all your predictions.

View Poll

You’re the Pundit: Should Apple shift its focus away from new products? originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You’ll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what’s happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today’s Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.

No Flash? Click here to listen.

Daily Update for December 5, 2011 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I’m not a big fan of running, but I love cycling and walking, so I’m always looking for nice iOS apps to compliment my activities. A beautiful app I’ve fond for tracking my walks is Walkmeter 6.0 by Abvio. If Abvio sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve covered their Runmeter app in the past.

Abvio actually makes three apps (Runmeter, Walkmeter, and Cyclemeter) that all do the same thing: they use the iPhone’s built-in GPS to track and record your favorite exercises. Though all of the apps actually track any number of sports (walking, running, cycling, skying, etc. — no matter which app you have) the developer decided to make three separate apps because he thought the individual names and icons would appeal to people depending on their favorite sport. That’s something I think is cool, even though others might think the developer is trying to snake people in buying multiple apps when he’s not.

In our earlier review of Runmeter, we told you about the enhancements that came with version 5.0 of the apps, including the excellent voices feature, which reads various stats to you as you exercise, the tight social integration, and the ability to export .GPX files to share your exercise’s stats and maps with others. Version 6.0, which were released last month, continue to add a myriad number of features.

One of the coolest features is ANT+ support, which allows Walkmeter to talk to the Wahoo Fitness ANT+ system. This means that heart-rate monitors and speed/cadence cycling sensors are communicated with in real time, giving you instant feedback. No need to wait until your walk is done to see your results. You can also set target announcements for heart rate, speed, and pace, which are read to you by the Walkmeter voice of your choosing. Another cool feature is Zones, which allows you to see how much time, distance and calories were spent during a pace within a certain range. Version 6.0 also adds Notification Center support, laps and interval training, along with dozens of other enhancements throughout the app.

Walkmeter and its brothers aren’t the cheapest exercise tracking apps out there, but I believe they are the best. The interface is fluid, responsive and easy to navigate, something that matters a lot if you are interacting with the app during your exercise. I’ve tried a lot of GPS-enabled exercise apps, and I deleted them from my iPhone once I found Walkmeter. If your current exercise app isn’t doing it for you, I urge you to give one of Abvio’s apps a try. Walkmeter 6.0 is US $4.99 in the App Store.

Daily iPhone App: Walkmeter 6.0 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thanksgiving is done and Black Friday is behind us. Now, it’s time to get serious with your holiday shopping. Here are a few apps that will make your holiday shopping easier, maybe even fun (all prices are USD).

Santa’s Bag- Christmas Gift List ($0.99)

Santa’s Bag- Christmas Gift List is an app to help you make your list and check it twice this holiday shopping season. The app includes a much-needed screenlock passcode so you can keep your list safe from prying eyes. The lists imports names from your contacts and lets you sort your gifts by recipient, store or status. You can add a status to your gifts like To Buy, Purchased, Wrapped or Given. It even tracks how much you spend and lets you backup your data to Dropbox in case something happens to your phone.

Delivery Status ($4.99)

Delivery status is a package tracker for the iPhone and iPad that help you manage your online purchases. The app lets you input tracking numbers manually or import them from online retailers like Amazon. The app will give you a summary of all incoming or outgoing packages and lets you know how many days until they are delivered. You can view the tracking details and locate the package on a map. If you sign up for a free Junecloud account, you can sync the tracking data between multiple devices.

Deals & Steals from SlickDeals (Free)

Deals & Steals is a quick and easy way to see all the deals that land on Slickdeals. Slickdeals is a large community-based website that gets most of its deals from a very active online forum. The forums are a source of hot deals and buying advice so you can find out if that item on sale is a winner or a loser.

Xpense Tracker ($4.99)

Xpense Tracker is a receipt-tracking app that’ll store your holiday shopping receipts. You may not want to remember how much you spent on your gifts, but this information is invaluable if you need a receipt for warranty purposes or if someone needs to make a return. It does a lot more than just track receipts, which means you can use it outside the holiday shopping season. It also has a business slant and includes mileage tracking and support for a client list.

Simon Malls (Free)

The Simon Malls app has location and event information for over 300 malls in the US. The app has store listings and interior maps so you can make your way from store to store with ease.

5 Apps to make your holiday shopping easy originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple may follow in the footsteps of Facebook and build a 31-megawatt data center in Prineville, Oregon. The Cupertino company is considering the 160-acre property because of Oregon’s low energy cost. The state also has a favorable tax break that could save Apple millions in property taxes.

Apple is supposedly negotiating under the code name Maverick and is close to making a decision, said people familiar with the matter. According to Crook County planning director Bill Zelenka, Maverick has the option to purchase 160 acres, currently owned by the county. The company must make a decision by the end of the month or risk losing the option to buy this parcel of land.

What makes this deal possible is an ongoing upgrade in the county’s electrical transmission capacity. This improvement should be completed by June 2013 and will give companies like Apple the power it needs for a large data center.

Cheap power and low taxes make this rural area attractive to companies like Apple and Facebook. One monkey wrench, though, is a law that lets the state tax a company on intangibles like the monetary value of a company’s brand name. Both Apple and Facebook are concerned this “central assessment” could significantly raise taxes. Lawmakers plan to introduce a bill to stop this tax when they reconvenes in February, but that won’t help Apple now. Zelenka notes that the company has not asked for an extension, which is an option if it wants to wait for the outcome of this legislation.

[Via 9to5Mac]

Apple reportedly considering Prineville, Oregon for data center originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s modern desktop OS is famous for its feline monikers — Panther, Tiger, Leopard/Snow Leopard and Lion, among others. But what about the other Apple operating system, iOS? While the code names for those versions aren’t used in the public branding and promotion of the iPhone/iPod touch/iPad family the way Mac OS X leans on Lion, they still exist, and there’s still a pattern to them.

iOS developer Steven Troughton-Smith tweeted the full list of iOS code names over the weekend, and while they might seem a bit random they actually have one thing in common: snow. Alpine, Kirkwood, Timberline, Telluride and the rest are all ski resorts in the western US. Does Scott Forstall enjoy some time out on the slopes?

These names are certainly cute, but they also have a dark side. The ‘Alpine’ code name was used as the default SSH password for earlier builds of iOS, and users who jailbroke their phones but didn’t bother to change the password found themselves susceptible to a potentially malicious SSH worm.

[via TiPB]

Photo by laszlo-photo (cc)

iOS code names head for the hills originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 05 Dec 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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