Category: I-phone

Apple has been waging a legal battle with Samsung over the look and feel of its Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets. In response, Samsung filed a series of its own patent infringement lawsuits against Apple that involve 3G technology. These countersuits may have landed Samsung in hot water with the European Union as some of these patents may be subject to FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) licensing terms.

FRAND extends to patents that cover industry standards like 3G technology. Any company that’s involved in the development of a standard must license patents essential to the technology at a reasonable rate and with reasonable terms and conditions. These patents are not supposed to be used as weapons in a legal battle.

The European Commission has opened a preliminary investigation and is examining whether Samsung’s lawsuits against Apple have abused FRAND standards. This investigation was first mentioned publicly in a recent court filing by Apple in California and later confirmed by Samsung in a statement released to Computerworld.

Samsung has at all times remained committed to fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing terms for our wireless standards-related patents. We have received a request for information from the Commission and are cooperating fully. Note that this is a preliminary investigation and the European Commission has not yet determined whether to conduct a full investigation.

The European Commission will now gather information from all parties involved and will determine whether there’s enough evidence for a full investigation. If the EC continues, Samsung could be forced to withdraw its lawsuits against Apple. It could also face a possible fine.

EU antitrust body to investigate Samsung’s use of patents against Apple originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 05 Nov 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview will arrive in Landmark Theatres nationwide on November 16 and 17. As the title suggests, the movie is an interview, specifically a 70-minute conversation between Steve Jobs and Robert Cringely that was held in 1995.

A small 10-minute segment of the original conversation was included in the Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires, a 1996 PBS miniseries about Silicon Valley. The rest of the interview was supposed to be included in a sequel to the PBS series, but the original footage was lost.

Unbeknownst to Cringely, Paul Sen, the director of the original Triumph of the Nerds series, recorded a backup copy of the interview on VHS. When Steve Jobs passed away, Sen began a hunt for the video and found it in the deep, dark recesses of his garage.

Sen then contacted Cringely who, in turn, contacted Landmark Theatres co-owner Mark Cuban about screening the film. It only took five minutes for Cuban to agree and another $6,000 investment to convert the VHS recording into a theatrical-quality film.

Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview will be shown in Landmark Theatres in 17 cities nationwide including those in New York, Los Angeles and Palo Alto, the center of Silicon Valley.

Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview coming to theaters in November originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 05 Nov 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Something that I saw mentioned back when the iOS 5 sdk was in beta was that you could use custom URL schemes to open the settings app up to a specific page.

While this capability has carried over to the iOS 5 release this capability appears to still be undocumented by Apple.

Alex Curylo has created a useful little writeup on using these URL schemes for location services, twitter, and bluetooth settings:

Turn on Location Services?

[NSURL URLWithString:@”prefs:root=LOCATION_SERVICES”]];

Set up Twitter?

[NSURL URLWithString:@”prefs:root=TWITTER”]];

Hook up a Bluetooth device?

[NSURL URLWithString:@”prefs:root=General&path=Bluetooth”]];

And one commenter on Alex’s site also mentioned how to do it for your own app:

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@”prefs:root=Apps&path=Your+App+Display+Name”]];

The url schemes also work just fine when linked in HTML for those browsing on their iOS devices.

Source: Alex Curylo

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

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According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Apple’s senior executive team received lucrative stock grants worth US$60 million dollars at current market prices. A Securities and Exchange commission document filed by Apple on Friday details this financial reward.

Each executive will receive restricted stock shares that are meant to entice the executives to stay with Apple for the next five years. The grant requires that the executive remain at Apple to claim half of the stocks which will vest in 2013. The second half will vest in 2016.

Executives receiving the 150,000 shares include CFO Peter Oppenheimer, general counsel Bruce Sewell, iOS Software VP Scott Forstall, Worldwide Product Marketing VP Phil Schiller, Hardware Engineering VP Bob Mansfied and Operations VP Jeffrey Williams. Senior VP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue received 100,000 restricted shares.

Apple senior executives get lucrative stock grant originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 05 Nov 2011 16:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple is sometimes known for adding little features and not giving them much notice. A case in point is the recent 4.4 update for the Apple TV 2. Noodling around the other night, I noticed a new screensaver called Photo Wall. I selected it, and the Apple TV put my photos in a variety of frames, some with mattes, that slid slowly across the screen from left to right. It was sort of like walking in an art museum.

This wasn’t the only surprise. At a certain point, the Apple TV did a cool little 3D move that looked like I was going around a corner and more photos appeared. It’s a nice way to display your favorite photos, and had I not stumbled on it, I would never know it was there.

Apple also added 2 more screensavers, one called Flip-up, the other is called Shifting Tiles. I think Photo Wall is the best of the new ones, but you may have your own thoughts.

If you have an Apple TV 2, be sure to check these out, and let us know what you think. There is no easy way to capture a screen from a TV, but I used my trusty iPhone and have some examples in the gallery.

Found: Apple sneaks in a very cool Apple TV 2 screensaver originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 05 Nov 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This is interesting — Activision has apparently teamed up with an iOS developer to release a promotional game for its upcoming title Prototype 2. ProtoSlice is now available as a free download from the App Store, and it’s made by the creators of Slice HD, a developer named SmallBall. The new game is very similar to the old one (which itself reminds me of Hand of Greed), in that you need to try and use your real finger to press a fake button, all while dodging virtual blades. Of course, in ProtoSlice, you’re dodging Prototype-themed blades, and you can win new screenshots of Activision’s game by finishing levels.

The game is free, so if you’re looking forward to Prototype 2, downloading this one is a no-brainer. But even more interesting about this game is simply the fact that it exists. Activision has experienced a little success on the App Store with its Call of Duty: Zombies app, but we haven’t seen a lot of action from them lately. Other publishers like EA have learned a lot more from iOS, both seeing big success with apps and app sales, and even acquiring companies who know how to make iPhone and iPad games. Activision has been relatively silent on this front for the past year or so, but this release indicates what the company really thinks of iOS so far: It works best, apparently, as a vehicle for promoting console games, not an actual game platform itself.

This is one release, of course. We do know that Activision is set to release iOS apps for the upcoming Call of Duty Elite metagaming service for its big Call of Duty series, so it’s very possible there are other strategies in the works for the big publisher on Apple’s platform. But we haven’t seen any of that yet — ProtoSlice is a clear sign so far that Activision isn’t necessarily taking iOS seriously as an actual gaming platform.

Activision releases ProtoSlice iOS app to promote Prototype 2 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 05 Nov 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After spending about 10 months without an iPhone, I stayed up late to order the iPhone 4S. Then the next question occurred to me: “What am I going to do for a case?”

I ordered 3 different cases for three different purposes: an AmazonBasics Silicone Case for everyday use, a Mophie Juice Pack Air Case/Rechargeable Battery for “really long day” use, and an iPhone Wallet from the folks at Waterfield Designs/SFBags.com.

Back in February, I bought a bag for my MacBook Air from Waterfield Designs, and I absolutely love it. I carry my 13″ MacBook Air and my iPad in it every day. When I decided to get an iPhone, I knew I’d be heading to SFBags.com to see what they had to offer.

The iPhone Wallet

I love this idea. You carry a wallet, you carry an iPhone, why not carry one thing instead of two? For the past several years I’ve had a wallet which was used mostly to carry cards. If I have cash (which I often don’t) I carry it in my pocket but not in my wallet. I have also been known to walk out of the house without either my iPhone or my wallet, so having one less thing to remember seemed like a good idea.

Let’s start with what’s good about the iPhone wallet. The first thing I noticed is that it looks and feels well made. This isn’t a case that’s going to start fraying around the edges after a few months. It also already feels “broken in” rather than stiff.

The window in the front will allow you to see the entire screen. I was pleasantly surprised to realize that I could actually use the touch-screen right through the plastic. Even the plastic window seems to be made of sturdy material that won’t easily scratch and won’t start to pull away from the edges. I assumed this plastic would be the “weakest link” in the case, but it seems just as good as the rest of it. The window is just a bit too small to let you see the iPhone’s home button, but you should be able to judge where it is, and you can press it while it is still in the case.

You can fit the iPhone in the wallet while it is in the silicone case (which I assume is about the same size as Apple’s “bumper” case). It will be snug, but it will fit. However, once you do that, you have added considerable “bulk” to the iPhone (relatively speaking) and putting it inside the wallet like that will not leave room for much else. If I have the silicone case on, I can only fit 3-5 cards in the wallet before it really starts to feel “too big.” (I tried the wallet with the Mophie Juice Pack on it… I did, and it does not fit. The Juice Pack extends the length of the iPhone, and the wallet does not have enough extra room to accommodate that. Nor should it; I only mention this because I assume someone else might want to know.)

If you carry the iPhone “naked,” then you can easily fit about 8-10 cards inside the wallet. There are two separate pockets which hold the cards securely.

One unexpected detail was a divider between the “iPhone” part of the wallet and the card section. It is mentioned in the wallet description and shown in the video (see below) but it is thicker than I expected it to be, about 2-3 credit-cards, and covered in “ultrasuede.” At first I thought that was intended to protect credit cards from being demagnetized, but Richard tells me that isn’t much of a concern these days.

I’m not sure the divider is 100% necessary, but I’m willing to bet that someone at Waterfield Designs had practical experience with another a case that led them to include it. My best guess is that it is probably intended to keep the cash or anything from the “money side” from falling out when you are taking the iPhone out of the wallet. It adds a bit of bulk, but it’s not a huge deal. As Gary points out in the video, it does help keep the iPhone pressed up against the window

Two minor complaints…

There’s one drawback to the iPhone wallet that should be fairly obvious: if it’s in your pocket and you get a call, you have to get the wallet out of your pocket and then the iPhone out of the wallet before you can begin your conversation.

The only other minor complaint I have with the iPhone wallet is with the placement and direction of the zipper. If you think of the “window” side of the case as the “front” then the zipper runs from top-left (when zipped) to bottom-right (when unzipped, as shown above).

The headphone jack is on the top-left of the iPhone. Why is this combination a problem? Because if you are using headphones, you can’t keep it in the wallet.

If they had made the wallet so that it zipped from “top-right” to “bottom-left” then you could have stuck the headphones in and threaded the wire out. However, that would have made it a little more awkward for people who are right-handed.

Conclusion

Let’s be clear: this isn’t a wallet for slipping into the back pocket of your “skinny jeans” before you go out clubbing. It has a certain heft to it. But before you decide whether or not it’s “too big” take a minute and walk through this next section with me.

Take out your wallet, put your iPhone on the table, and stack up all of the cards that you carry around with you. Then imagine that wrapped in leather and lined with ultrasuede. Ok, now take a look at those cards again. How many of them do you really need in your wallet all of the time? I took most of my cards out of my wallet and put them into my old wallet and leave it in my office desk drawer or the glove compartment of my car. Library card? Sam’s club? Prescription card? AAA? I never carry any store card if they can lookup my account by my phone number.

I was able to get my total down to 5 (and could probably get by with 3 for 95% of the time), which means that I could even leave the silicone case on and still have it not feel “too big.” The biggest adjustment for me is that I am used to having my wallet in one pocket and phone in the other, but I love being able to feel it in my pocket and not have to think “Is that my phone or my wallet? Do I have both?” With this I know if I have one, I have the other.

If the idea of a combination wallet/iPhone case appeals to you, the Waterfield Designs iPhone wallet is a great option. A reasonable $41 ($39 + $2 US shipping) buys a great product that will most likely still look and work great even when you’re thinking about the iPhone 6!

If you’re on the fence, Waterfield Designs has a 90 second review video available too. It shows that you can text or email through the case, and even suggests you could talk on the phone while it was still in the case. I haven’t tested that theory because the only people I know who talk into their wallets are crazy people.

The iPhone wallet has a place for your stuff originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 05 Nov 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A baker in England has made these gorgeous cake pops (featuring some Apple logos and Steve Jobs’s likeness) to raise some donation money for a pancreatic cancer charity. The pops will go on sale next Wednesday in London, when cake blogger and maker “Miss Cakehead” is set to open up a “Steve Jobs Inspired Cake Shop.” The whole event is part of something called Internet Week Europe, and all proceeds from the Steve sweets will be donated to Pancreatic Cancer UK.

We can’t be in the UK by then, unfortunately, but we hope the cakes get all the money they’re worth, considering just how great they look. And we’re very curious to see what a “Steve Jobs Inspired Cake Shop” looks like. If anyone in the neighborhood over there is reading this, be sure to take pictures!

[via Neatorama]

Apple cake pops made to raise money to fight pancreatic cancer originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 05 Nov 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unlike many, I didn’t buy the iPhone 4S for Siri. It’s nice to have a voice assistant, but what I really wanted was the camera. I shoot a lot of photos throughout the day using my iPhone and have been looking for a good image editor to complement its camera. Now with PhotoStream, I am no longer limited to using the iPhone for editing. I can automatically transfer my photos and edit them on my iPad, a convenience that led me to try Photogene for the iPad.

Photogene is a fantastic editing application that’s great for tweaking and touching up photos. You name it and Photogene has it. It lets you crop, straighten, resize, sharpen, reduce noise, adjust color, correct red-eye and remove unwanted blemishes or spots.

If you want to get more creative, there’s also specialized effects like reflection or vignette and standard effects like dodge & burn, blur, and grayscale. You can add captions and text to images and apply artistic filters such as sepia or charcoal. There’s even several categories of presets that’ll let you add a border or change the look of your photo in just a few taps. And if you don’t like what you have done, there’s multiple undo and redo.

One of my favorite features is the collage creator which takes up to six photos and turns them into one image using templates. The app comes with a handful of collage templates and you can buy a pack of 60 that gives you twelve designs for each group of photos (12 templates for a 2 photo collage, 12 templates for a 3 photo collage, and so on).

When you’re done, you can export your images back to your iPad’s photo library, upload them to an online web service like Dropbox, Flickr or Picasa, or share them via email, Facebook or Twitter. If you have a printer, you can use AirPrint to get a hard copy.

Photogene is available for $2.99 from the App Store and is a must have for anyone that uses their iOS device for photos or image editing.

Daily iPad App: Photogene originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 04 Nov 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Security chief leaves Apple after clumsy investigation of iPhone 4S prototype.

Apple is the only mobile phone manufacturer to show positive growth since June.

U.S. Cellular says no to iPhone proving they hate money.

All the iPhone 5 rumors for the week in one convenient article.

Apple goes after iPhone related porn domains.

Joe Wilcox of BetaNews wants to know why Apple can’t get the iPhone’s design right.

A fix for the 4S battery issues is on the way.

One of the guy’s at Binpress shot me an e-mail about a new contest they’re having that is offering prizes for your mobile components – you will of course also be selling your components on the Binpress marketplace.

So if you’ve got a cool feature in one of your apps that you’d be willing to package off and sell as a component then you will definitely want to check this out.

They’re offering prize packages valued of $11,500 for the grand prize winner, $6000 for the runner up and $3500 as the third place price.

You can read more about the contest for mobile components on Binpress here.

The prizes look good, and the site itself looks like a good way to earn more revenue from your app development.

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

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MacTech Conference 2011 was held this week in Los Angeles, California, and since last year, this conference has definitely grown. There were almost twice as many people as last year’s event, says MacTech publisher Neil Ticktin, reaching a total of almost 350 people. There were plenty of great speakers in both the developer and IT tracks of the conference, and highlights include Guy Kawasaki’s great keynote speech, an impassioned series of questions from Aaron Hillegass, a demo of the Simian deployment software that got the Mac IT guys talking, and a to-the-point talk from Andy Ihnatko about how developers can put together strong relationships with the press to help promote their apps. Everybody at the conference seemed to have a great time throughout, and during coffee breaks, lunches, and even the bowling party held last night at Universal CityWalk, Mac devs and IT professionals chatted and networked together in the strong Mac development community.

If you weren’t at the conference itself, videos of all of the presentations are now available online, in a bundle for $449, or individually for $20 a piece. There’s a lot of wisdom hidden in those, whether you get one or the whole bunch, so if something on the schedule piques your interest, do check them out.

And the MacTech train is going to roll on — Ticktin says a new one-day, specially focused event called MacTech InDepth will be held on December 7 in San Francisco, and both MacTech Bootcamp and MacTech Conference will be on again next year in 2012. Thanks to MacTech for graciously hosting the show this week for us as well. This year’s conference really showed that the event is a great place for the Mac IT and development community to touch base and learn how better to work with the platform, both from peers and influential speakers.

MacTech 2011 pulls in huge attendance, videos available now originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Two reports have come out which show the immense impact Apple’s iPhone has had on the mobile market. The first report from comScore indicates that one in ten mobile customers in the US owns an iPhone of some kind. That’s not just smartphone customers; that’s all mobile customers. Given that just four years ago pundits laughed off Apple’s goal of gaining a modest one percent of the market, that’s a pretty incredible milestone.

comScore’s numbers show Apple is fourth in overall handset market share in the US, behind Samsung, LG, and Motorola. The firm’s other numbers seem to indicate that a large portion of that gap is due to those companies splitting the still huge feature phone market between them, while Apple naturally sells only the iPhone.

Google continues to “win” the market share race among US smartphone owners, with Android handsets claiming nearly half of all subscribers compared to Apple’s more modest 27 percent share. However, another report from Canaccord Genuity (via Forbes) shows that Apple’s “loss” to Android in terms of market share means next to nothing; Apple earns 52 percent of all profits in the mobile phone industry. Once again, that’s not just smartphone profits, but all profits for all phones.

Samsung is the closest thing Apple has to a competitor when we talk about the actual amount of money companies make from handset sales, with 29 percent of the industry’s profits. (Clearly, Samsung’s, er, strategy is working out well.) All other handset makers are holding on to an extremely small share of mobile industry profits.

Once-mighty Nokia, which held an incredible two-thirds of all mobile industry profits in 2007, now accounts for only four percent of overall profits. All other handset makers, including RIM, are either earning a niche amount of profits or facing huge financial losses. Motorola has posted a net loss every year since 2007, which makes Google’s $10 billion acquisition of the company seem that much odder.

None of this is to say that Apple can afford to stop innovating now that it’s positioned itself at the undisputed top of the mobile industry’s financial heap. Nokia is a perfect example of just how far a company can fall if it rests on its laurels for too long, but it seems unlikely that Apple will make that mistake.

10 percent of US mobile phones are iPhones; Apple earns half of all industry profits originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 04 Nov 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sprint “bet the company” on the iPhone with a US$20 billion payout to Apple, and C Spire Wireless is the first smaller, regional carrier approved to sell the device. In the wake of Sprint carrying the iPhone, the company has seen its best one-day sales ever. Even so, one smaller company’s actually had the stones to turn Apple down at the negotiating table.

FierceWireless reports that U.S. Cellular turned down the iPhone because, according to CEO Mary Dillon, “terms were unacceptable from a risk and profitability standpoint.” Dillon said she believed U.S. Cellular’s network was robust enough to handle the iPhone, and she remains open to carrying the handset in the future.

It’s not clear exactly what it was about Apple’s offer that Dillon found unacceptable, but it’s worth noting the company has suffered a net loss of wireless customers for several quarters in a row, including a net loss of 23,000 customers in the last quarter alone.

U.S. Wireless still has 5.62 million customers, but given that the company will be moving to tiered data plans in the first half of next year, it’s likely to lose even more customers unless it can offer them a compelling reason not to switch to another network. Offering the iPhone might be just the incentive the company needs to keep its customers from looking elsewhere, so it will be interesting to see how long it refuses to sell the device.

[via BGR]

US Cellular refused iPhone, citing ‘unacceptable’ terms originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 04 Nov 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A couple of weeks ago, we ran a post about the release of the XtremeMac InCharge Home USB charger (US$29.99) for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Now the device is available in the wild, and one was sent to the sprawling TUAW Labs for hands-on testing. Read on for a detailed look at this ultra-portable charger for your favorite iOS device.

Design

Let’s face it — if you try to put one of Apple’s little power cubes into a pocket, you’re likely to be asked “is that a charger in your pocket or are you not too happy to see me?” Yep, they make an awkward little bump in your pocket, with the iPad’s charger being a little larger and even more obtrusive.

XtremeMac managed to put a full 10W, 2.1A charger into an exceedingly thin package. The InCharge Home USB charger, which features a glossy black front to match your favorite iOS device screen, is just under a half of an inch thick (12.7 mm). It’s also extremely light, weighing in at just 1.6 ounces (45 grams). By comparison, Apple’s standard iPad charger is an inch thick (25.4 mm) and weighs 2.3 ounces (65 grams). XtremeMac has out-Appled Apple on the design of this charger. It even looks better than Apple’s little white box.

As you’d expect, the InCharge Home USB charger features a set of fold-out plugs to maintain that slim profile. Note that the existing model works only with the standard twin-blade NEMA sockets used in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and parts of Asia including Japan, so many of our European readers are out of luck unless they wish to carry a clunky plug adapter with them.

Functionality

Like I mentioned in the last paragraph, this is a much better design than Apple’s! In terms of functionality, it basically does the job of delivering up to 10 watts of power at up to 2.1 amps, enough to charge up a single iPad or other iOS device.

Since the InCharge Home USB comes with a standard USB port on the “downstream” side of the adapter, you can use it with just about any device that uses a USB charger cable. I have a number of devices that use micro-USB to USB cables for charging, and they all worked perfectly with the InCharge Home USB. InCharge includes a USB to dock connector cable that’s suitable for charging your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, as well as older iPods that use the dock connector for charging.

Conclusion

Owners of iOS devices who need a replacement or extra charger should definitely consider the InCharge Home USB. At $29.99, it’s about a buck more than Apple’s iPad 10W USB Power Adapter ($29), but doesn’t include an extension cable. It’s about $5 less than the new (and about to be reviewed) TwelveSouth PlugBug, but that device allows charging of both an iOS device and a MacBook Pro / Air from one socket.

Who’s the InCharge Home USB for? Anyone who wants a well-constructed, lightweight, and very thin charger to accompany them anywhere. I honestly hope that Apple looks at licensing this design to power the next generation of iPad.

XtremeMac InCharge Home USB charger for iOS devices originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 04 Nov 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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