Category: I-phone

Surely you’ve heard the joke. You tell Siri, “Call me an ambulance” and Siri responds, “From now on, I’ll call you, ‘An Ambulance’, Okay?” As Leanna Lofte points out in a great writeup over at the iPhone Blog, that this joke can actually be of practical use.

You can create a more friendly identity for yourself by telling Siri to call you by your nickname, or simply indulge your monomaniacal streak by instructing her to call you “Master” or “Emperor” or similar.

Siri does this by checking out two fields in your primary Contacts entry. The Nickname field takes priority. When you say “Call me ‘Master,'” Siri updates your nickname field directly. Keep in mind, though, that the nickname field is considered a canonical part of your contact information, and Fury.com pointed out that if you were to send your vCard to someone else they would see that you prefer to be known as ‘Master’ — which, depending on who you like to share contacts with, could be a good thing or a bad thing.

Another way to achieve the same result, without adding a nickname to your entry, is to use the phonetic guide fields in your contact record.

The Phonetic First Name and Phonetic Last Name fields have been around for quite a while in iOS and OS X. They help you pronounce people’s names while calling them. For example, you might enter “Ser Hee Yo” for a contact named Sergio. Siri now uses those fields to override the default pronunciation of your name, as well as for any other contacts that have unusual name pronunciations.

You can add these fields in iOS by tapping Edit, scrolling down to Add Field, and then choosing one of the phonetic options.

Call me Ishmael: creating a Siri nickname for yourself originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 17:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple is planning the ‘Tech Talk World Tour‘ for iOS 5 developers. It will kick-off on November 2nd in Berlin.

If you dislike the ‘Newsstand’ app in iOS 5 (like me) Lifehacker has a trick to hide it.

The ‘Avengers’ movie due out next year has some scenes shot with an iPhone.

Verizon sells a whopping 2 million iPhones in the 3rd quarter of 2011.

Twitter integration in iOS 5 has tripled their sign-ups.

The folks at 9to5 Mac have noticed that Apple’s iPad 2 Smart Cover lets you bypass a passcode lock on a device running iOS 5, albeit with limited access to the iPad’s applications. Here’s how the bug/exploit works.

First, make sure your passcode lock is set to activate immediately when you lock your iPad (this will simplify testing, although the problem is still there if there’s a lock delay). Press and hold the iPad 2’s power button to elicit the “Slide to Power Off” slider — but don’t slide the control to actually turn it off.

Next, close the Smart Cover over the iPad’s display to put the device to sleep. Finally, open the Smart Cover and click Cancel on the power off screen. From there, the iPad will present whatever was last running before you locked it.

Here’s where it gets interesting. Whatever you had on screen before locking your iPad is all you’ll have access to. If you were on the Home screen, you won’t be able to launch any apps, although you could delete one. If you had an app loaded when you locked your iPad, that’s the only app you’ll be able to run; backing out of the app using the Home button kicks you to the lock screen immediately.

Although the steps to reproduce this behavior specifically single out Apple’s Smart Cover, I was able to reproduce this by simply passing a refrigerator magnet along the right edge of my iPad 2 — so those of you without Smart Covers are still “at risk,” though as you’ll see the risk is relatively small.

The implications of this bug really depend on what app you left running when you closed the cover on your iPad. I tested Settings, Mail, and Safari using this hack, and I had basically unlimited access to all three apps. I was able to send an email to a colleague using Mail, and I was able to post to Twitter in Safari — all without having to input my passcode first.

That having been said, and acknowledging that this is an iOS 5 bug that needs to be fixed: the opportunities for malice or mischief are pretty slim, and only the truly paranoid should be overworried about this. First of all, I don’t know about you, but I never leave my iPad unattended in a public place anyway. I’d be less worried about someone forwarding porn links to my entire Contacts list or looking at my banking info (as if I’d ever leave that up anyway) and more worried about someone walking away with my iPad. Of course, if you have Find my iPad set up on your iCloud account (or an ActiveSync account for your business email), you can remotely wipe your data in a matter of a few clicks

Second, this exploit is pretty easily defeated by one of two means: either back your iPad out to the Home screen before you lock it (I almost always do this anyway) or, as 9to5 Mac notes, disable the setting that allows your Smart Cover to unlock the iPad. I suppose the biggest worry is what happens if someone does indeed steal your iPad, but given that they’ll have relatively limited utility in the things they’ll be able to do with it, it’s still not likely to be as big of a worry to you as the fact that your device just got ripped off.

The steps to reproduce this bug are fairly obscure, although now that it’s being publicized more people may try it (not necessarily including iPad thieves, who most likely don’t care about continuing your game of Fruit Ninja). It’s also something that Apple’s going to have to fix in the next minor update to iOS 5. I don’t even have a passcode lock active on my iPad in the first place, so this particular issue doesn’t have me shaking in my shoes one bit. Meanwhile, although it’s certainly an interesting bug and one with some security implications, iPad 2 users who don’t have mischievous little brothers are probably safe for now.

Smart Cover unlock bug may lead to iPad 2 data exposure originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:45:00 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 October 21, 2011 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Consumerist has posted a cute story about a 10-year-old girl whose purchasing of an iPod touch was made rather special by an Apple Store manager in Utah.

As the story goes, the particular young lady has wanted an iPod touch for quite some time. So much so that she saved her birthday and allowance money over the last 9 months so that she could finally afford to buy one for herself (I think a lot of us could learn a little something about this alone)!

Accompanied by her mother, she arrived at the Gateway Apple Store at 10:30 AM. Both were greeted by two Apple employees who told them that the store was closed from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM and that they could not shop now. The mother explained the situation and pointed to the young girl with her jar full of money, but they were politely told that they would have to come back later, even though it wasn’t quite 11:00.

The saddened but understanding pair moved along to do other shopping, but after a short distance an Apple employee chased after them to tell them that the store manager had made a special exception to let them in. Escorted into the store, mother and daughter were given the attention of the entire staff, and after the transaction was made the store manager asked all the employees to “…give [redacted] a round of applause for saving her money and buying an iPod today.”

The young lady waved goodbye and immediately called her dad to tell him the story.

For the story as told by Matt the dad, click here.

10-year-old girl has memorable experience at Apple Store originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I think I may have to make Siri my mistress, since she (well, it does have a female voice in the U.S.) can now pour a beer at my command. That’s more than my wife of 32 years will do for me! The folks at redpepper, an ad agency in Nashville, Tennessee, had a little time on their hands, so they rigged up a way for a Siri command to open and pour a beer.

It’s a bit messy, and it doesn’t look like the entire contents of the 12 ounce can make it into the glass, but it’s certain fun to watch. The redpepper blog explains the entire process of setting up what they call “Beeri,” including creating a special Twitter account, outfitting an R/C monster truck with an Arduino Uno with Wi-Fi Shield, and building a special beer opener.

The entire process is more fun if you watch it in action. Enjoy, but remember to get a designated driver if Siri is too generous with the beers this afternoon. TUAW urges you to use “Beeri” responsibly.

Siri can pour you a beer, perfect for Friday Afternoon Club originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Cupertino City Council has paid tribute to the memory of Steve Jobs by adjourning its meeting on Tuesday, October 18, 2011. As mentioned on the Cupertino City Council website, “The city is in the process of reviewing the new Apple Campus 2 headquarters project, which was Mr. Jobs’ vision.”

Earlier this year, Steve Jobs unveiled plans to build a new Apple Campus in Cupertino to house the growing needs of the company, alongside its existing campus at 1 Infinite Loop.

The council staff also put together a tribute video montage of extracts from Steve Jobs’ last presentation to the council, amongst memorable moments of Steve Jobs career at Apple.

The last two times Steve Jobs presented at the council, he received standing ovations on both occasions. And on both occasions it was made very clear how proud the council members are to have Apple call Cupertino its home.

[Via Business Insider]

Cupertino City Council produces Steve Jobs tribute video originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I’ll be straightforward on this one: Mage Gauntlet is one of the best iOS games of the year. It’s a throwback RPG to the 16-bit days of Secret of Mana and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, put together by Rocketcat Games, the folks responsible for the great Hook Champ and subsequent Hook Worlds titles. You play as a girl in a world of magic, who just happens to be nonmagical, and while the story is cute and fun, the gameplay here is the real draw — this is old school action RPG all the way.

The look is extremely polished and well done, the music of the game is some of the best I’ve heard on a handheld title in a long time, and the game offers up plenty of addictive action, whether you’re slicing through foes with a charge-and-slash mechanic, or casting spells across the touchscreen with your finger. If there’s a problem with the game at all, it’s probably a slightly sharp difficulty curve (especially on a specific level), but the dev has already stated on Twitter that there’s an updated planned to tweak that section’s difficulty, and let you do more of what’s really fun in this one: finding and casting great spells to level up your character.

There’s also tons of great gear to collect to customize your character, and if you buy the game right away at the launch price of $1.99, you can get some special gear from other Rocketcat titles, along with a special pet that grants some nice bonuses to your attributes. Unfortunately, this one’s iPhone only, but even blown up on the iPad, it still looks great. Mage Gauntlet is one of my favorite games on iOS this year — definitely don’t miss out.

Daily iPhone App: Mage Gauntlet originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The iPhone 4S launched last week in seven countries and got off to a big bang. Apple said it would roll out the handset to 22 total countries by the end of the month and is making good on that promise.

Starting today, the next generation iPhone is now available for pre-order in the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Ship dates are about 1 to 2 weeks out which is similar to the US and other launch countries.

[Via GigaOm]

International iPhone 4S pre-orders begin originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you find yourself fighting over the iPad with your significant other to get your fix of news from Zite, there is finally a happy ending to the debate.

Since Zite learns what you like to read and adjusts your personal mix of news accordingly, it was pretty messy if more than one person shared the same iPad. As of today, Zite now allows multiple profiles with a new feature called Sybil, which has the ability to log in to get the news selection that Zite has learned. So if you hand your iPad to someone and they log in under their own profile, the news mix will be personal for that person. There is nothing that prevents a user from having different identities for themselves, so they could change the mix of news and information depending on their mood.

I’ve always given high ratings to Zite, and the more I use it, the more relevant my news content is. If you haven’t tried Zite, which is free, go ahead and download it. If you’ve been a user, but constrained by other people in the household wanting to use it, those problems are solved.

An October 12 update added source blocking, so you can ban a particular source of news if you don’t want it, Twitter integration and some speed enhancements. The new Sybil feature does not require a new download of the app. The changes are pushed out from the Zite servers and were scheduled to be available at 9:30 AM Pacific time.

Zite adds personal profiles to its iPad news app originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steve Jobs doesn’t like Android and considers the mobile OS to be Apple’s main competitor. It was apparent in the Q4 2010 earnings conference call when he discussed the mobile operating system and berated competitor’s adoption of the 7-inch tablet. And this same hostility is very apparent in his biography.

According to the Associated Press, which got an early look at Walter Isaacson’s upcoming biography, Jobs reportedly said this about Android,

I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong. I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.

This hostile statement was a response to the introduction of an HTC handset in January 2010 that was similar to the iPhone; too similar for Jobs’s liking. The Apple CEO reportedly met with Eric Schmidt to discuss what he called “grand theft.” Jobs told Schmidt he wouldn’t accept any settlement, even if it was US$5 billion, and ordered the Google chief to stop copying the iPhone.

This excerpt sheds some light on that mysterious cafe meeting between Job and Schmidt that captivated the Internet for a short time last year. It also explains Apple’s fierce legal battle against Android handset makers including Motorola, HTC and Samsung.

[Via Macrumors]

Steve Jobs vowed to “destroy Android” according to biography originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A supplier of MacBook Air aluminum casings, Catcher Technology, recently had to shut down a plant in Eastern China following complaints by neighbors of “strange odors” emanating from the facility. While this could have been a concern for a critical part of the supply chain for one of Apple’s most popular Mac products, the manufacturer says the plant should be back up and running by November.

A Catcher spokesman noted yesterday that the company is spending between US$2 – 3 million to resolve the environmental issues, cutting back on gas emissions from the plant. Realizing that dependence on a single plant could be a major risk, Catcher is planning on adding some production space in Tainan, Taiwan.

The quick resolution of the environmental issues should be reassuring to Apple. The MacBook Air accounted for a large part of the 4.89 million Macs sold in the 4th fiscal quarter ending September 30, 2011, and a slow response by Catcher might have resulted in shortages or worse, Apple moving to another long-term supplier.

Catcher hopes to have MacBook Air plant working by November originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here is another of a series of posts about Siri. Steve Sande and I have been hard at work collaborating on “Talking to Siri,” an ebook that will soon hit the Kindle store. We’re exploring how get the most from Siri, and sharing some of our favorite tips with TUAW readers.

Siri always gives you a second chance. You can always fix what you said or correct Siri’s interpretation of your speech. Just tap the talk bubble that represents what you said.

When you do, the bubble turns white and the system keyboard appears. This allows you to type directly into the bubble. You can edit your request directly or tap the microphone button on the keyboard to re-dictate your request. Tap Done to finish.

Sometimes Siri’s dictation processor will add a blue line under a word in the text you have spoken. When you tap that word, iOS presents alternative interpretations of your speech. Select the correction you’d like to use, or edit/dictate a replacement.

You can also speak to correct text messages or mail contents that you have composed. The following examples let Siri know that you’re not satisfied with what you’ve said. Notice how you can change the contents completely, add new material, and so forth.

• Change it to Let’s get together soon.
• Add: Can’t wait to see pictures of William exclamation point.
• No, send it to Megs.
• Cancel.

Before you send a text on its way, you can have Siri read it back to you. Say “Read it to me” or “Read it back to me.” When you are satisfied with your text or email message, you can say something like “Yes, send it” to start it on its way.

I don’t know what you mean: Correcting Siri’s recognition mistakes originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As I mentioned on my earlier post, Steve Sande and I have been hard at work collaborating on “Talking to Siri,” an ebook that will soon hit the Kindle store. One of the topics we’re exploring is how to push Siri beyond its advertised limits.

Take blogging, for example. Did you know that you could create blog posts entirely by voice? I’m not talking about basic dictation either.

That’s because Siri supports SMS messaging, and a little known feature of Google Blogger allows you to create blog posts directly from SMS text messages.

[You can also use SMS to post to Tumblr and Posterous, although it’s a bit more finicky. Services like ping.fm or HelloTXT may help if you plan to update several social networks right from Siri. -Ed.]

Interested in giving it a spin? Send REGISTER to 256447. Blogger replies to your registration text by texting you a URL for your new blog and an optional claim code. This code can be used to associate your new access with an existing blog. It just as easy, however, to work with the automatically generated blog that is sent to you.

To create a new post, just reply to the 256447 conversation. Dictate your new blog post to Siri and send it. Once you do, the text contents are instantly posted to the blog. If you want to start posts from scratch, just give that SMS number a memorable contact name in your address book (I used ‘Geronimo Blogger’ in the screenshot).

You can visit the mobile blog I created this way over at Blogger and see the two posts I created using Siri.

If you’re on a limited SMS diet, posting by text message may prove too rich for your blood. There’s still a Siri-capable workaround for that, but you must use an existing blogger account to create a Mail-to-Blogger address. You’ll find a complete set of instructions at the Blogger help article on this subject. That write-up shows you how to use your account settings to establish your blogging email address, which consists of your user name and a secret word. You can then use Siri to send an email to that address whenever you want to post-by-voice.

If you’d prefer not to use Blogger, there are plenty of other services that work with post-via-email. Tumblr, Posterous and WordPress.com all support creating a custom address that you can use to post directly. Simply add the email to your address book with a distinctive yet pronounceable contact name (“Erica Tumblr” will work, but you might want to include a phonetic last name to help Siri suss out that it’s pronounced ‘tumbler’), then tell Siri “Send an email to Erica Tumblr.” You can dictate your post and share it with the world.

Blogging with your voice: Siri, Blogger, and post-by-SMS originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon Wireless announced its Q3 2011 earnings on Friday and confirmed it sold 2 million iPhones last quarter and a total of 6.5 million total this year. This quarterly number still trails AT&T, which activated 2.7 million iPhone 4 handsets in Q3 2011. As its has reported in previous quarters, 20% of iPhone 4 sales are to new customers and 80% are renewals from existing Verizon Wireless customers.

This 2 million number is also down from previous quarters. In the first six weeks of sales at the beginning of the year, Verizon sold 2.2 million iPhone 4 handsets which was its best smartphone launch ever. Verizon also sold 2.3 million iPhones in Q2 2011. This slight decline to 2 million in Q3 may be the result of the iPhone 4S. Rather than purchase the iPhone 4, customers waited for the iPhone 4S.

Verizon also confirmed it has sold 6.5 million total iPhone handsets thus far this year which is about 11% of the total 55.97 million iPhone 4 handsets sold by Apple. In the same nine months, AT&T has sold 9.9 million iPhone handsets. None of these figures include the iPhone 4S, four million of which flew off the shelves in the first three days of sales. Verizon did not divulge iPhone 4S sales, but said demand was strong. It confirmed that its initial allocation ran out in the first 24 hours and the iPhone 4S is on backlog.

Verizon Wireless sells 2 million iPhone 4 handsets in Q3 2011 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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