Category: I-phone

Reuters is reporting that China Telecom will officially launch the iPhone on its 106 million-subscriber service by the end of 2011, according to sources. We’ve heard this rumor before, but this seems about as good as we’re going to get before an actual, official confirmation. Currently, China Unicom sells the iPhone in China, but that deal is relatively thin, according to Reuters, and a China Telecom deal would bring out a CDMA iPhone, along with the possibility of that new crop of subscribers.

If a deal is hammered out by the end of the year, that will mean a lot of new iPhones to sell in a country where Apple’s been trying to make some big gains.

Sounds like we’ll know by November — that’s when China Telecom is set to introduce the new phone. If Apple and China Telecom can hash out this deal, they’ll not only make a mint, but probably make a lot of Chinese customers happy besides.

China Telecom plans iPhone launch this year originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 18:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Prices in several international App Stores are fluctuating today, as MacStories predicted earlier. Prices have fallen in the Australian App Store; Angry Birds used to cost AU$1.29, but it now goes for $0.99. Strangely, despite the recent weakening of the US dollar, prices seem to have increased in the UK; minimum pricing in the UK was once £0.59, but that’s been raised to £0.69.

The timing of these pricing changes may coincide with the imminent launch of OS X Lion, which is expected to launch some time this week. However, not all App Stores have seen pricing changes yet. New Zealand App Store prices have remained at NZ$1.29, an eight-cent premium over US prices at the current exchange rate.

App Store international pricing changes afoot originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 18:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not happy with merely going after app developers who offer in-app purchase in their iOS apps, Lodsys is now sending out infringement letters to developers who cross-promote apps. Developer EpicForce received an infringement notice from Lodsys over its iFighter 1945 game, which offers users the option of purchasing another EpicForce game, Super Laser: The Alien Fighter, from within the app.

Many App Store developers engage in this kind of cross-promotion within their apps, including big names like PopCap (recently acquired by even bigger name EA). Lodsys is now asserting that its patent on in-app purchases applies to these cross-promotions as well, which could indicate that this “patent litigation factory” is looking at expanding the scope of its lawsuits against app developers.

EpicForce emailed Lodsys to attempt to dissuade the company from its lawsuit, but Lodsys is adamant that app cross-promotion falls under the rubric of its patent. Lodsys’s full letter to EpicForce is printed below.

Apple has recently made motions to intervene in the dispute, and for the sake of the App Store’s livelihood, let’s hope the intervention is successful. Lodsys may assert that it’s merely trying to “protect its rights,” but what it’s really doing is threatening the entire development environment for iOS devices.

Continue reading Lodsys now going after apps with More Apps buttons

Lodsys now going after apps with More Apps buttons originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, with that headline I’ve finally acheived a life goal — writing a TUAW headline with the word “extravaganza” in it. Today’s TUAW TV Live is going to be all about iPad apps, except for the parts where I’ll be talking about Google+, opening some boxes of hardware that are awaiting review, and maybe talking a little bit after all about an upcoming OS update.

Below, you’ll find a Ustream livestream viewer and a chat tool. The chat tool allows you to participate by asking questions or making comments.

If you’re driving somewhere and would like to watch TUAW TV Live while you’re stuck in traffic, please don’t — keep your eyes on the road! However, if someone else is doing the driving, you can watch the show on your iPhone and join the chat by downloading the free Ustream Viewing Application. If you’re on an iPad, you should be able to use the Puffin browser to watch the stream, although you will not be able to participate in the chat.

We’ll start at about 5 PM ET, so if you’re seeing a prerecorded show, be sure to refresh your browser until you see the live stream. For those of you who are not able to join us for the live edition, you’ll be able to view it later this evening on our TUAW Video YouTube channel and as part of the new TUAW TV Live podcast viewable in iTunes or on any of your Apple devices.

Hate Flash? So do we. Click this to watch a non-Flash version.

TUAW TV Live: iPad apps extravaganza originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Neil Ticktin (Editor-in-Chief, MacTech Magazine and MacNews) interviews Alykhan Jetha of Marketcircle Inc. at WWDC 2011. Alykhan was kind enough to tell us about their thoughts on the announcements on WWDC, and how it will affect their plans moving forward.

TUAW and MacTech Magazine teamed up to speak to developers at WWDC 2011 about the keynote announcements and how Apple’s new technologies will help them and their customers. We’ll bring you those videos here, MacTech.com and MacNews.com. Also, check out the free trial subscription offer for MacTech Magazine here.

WWDC Interview: Marketcircle originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The upcoming iOS 5 software has pretty clear indications of support for Bluetooth keyboards for the second generation Apple TV. 9to5Mac reports that several hints of keyboard support are embedded in the code for iOS 5. It would be a welcome update.

Using the little stick remote that comes with the Apple TV for entering text is like descending through the levels of hell in a Bosch painting. The Apple Remote app for iOS certainly helps, and allows you to use your iPhone or iPad keyboard to enter searches, but full keyboard support would be a great way to go, especially for Apple TV owners who don’t have iOS devices.

The Apple TV hardware has a Bluetooth chip on the motherboard that has been silently waiting for activation. If the feature does appear, it could also open the door to other devices like game controllers if Apple allows iOS games and other apps on the Apple TV.

Bluetooth keyboard support appears to be heading to your Apple TV originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Have you ever thought iTunes was just a bit plain? Want a customisable controller that you can theme to match your mood? You need Bowtie.

We’ve covered Bowtie before, but it’s basically a replacement for the iTunes Mini Player, giving you track information, controls and the ability to rate the currently playing track. The “Bowlet” is the part of the application you see when in use, which can sit on top of other windows (dependant on theme) and is themeable using HTML5, CSS and JavaScript. There are some 12 pages of skins available for free download directly from the app, meaning that there’s something for almost everyone (some examples can be seen above). If you don’t see one you like you can always set about writing your own Bowlet themes with a fairly extensive guide available.

Bowtie also has a menu bar icon, which accompanies the Bowlet and allows you to show or hide the Bowlet, access the preferences and change the source that Bowtie is controlling. Using a companion iOS app (US$0.99), Bowtie can also control music playing on an iDevice, allowing you to control music playback on your stereo if you happen to have it hooked up to an iPod, iPad or iPhone. Bowtie will also let you scrobble the current playing track to Last.fm, providing a nice lightweight alternative to running the Last.fm client itself.

Bowtie is available from the Mac App Store for OS X 10.6.6 and up, but there’s also a version available for Leopard and up that can be downloaded directly from the Bowtie site.

If you’ve been looking for a fancy yet lightweight iTunes controller, then give the free Bowtie a try.

Continue reading TUAW’s Daily Mac App: Bowtie

TUAW’s Daily Mac App: Bowtie originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Police in the U.S. may soon have a new mobile tool to aid in the identification of criminals. It’s called MORIS, Mobile Offender Recognition and Information System, and includes both a retinal scanner and camera to scan suspects from as far as five feet away. The system is powered by an iPhone which attaches to the device. When fully assembled, it weighs 12.5 ounces.

MORIS will replace conventional identification procedures which require an officer to take a picture, download it to a computer and run facial recognition software on the image. The new device does all this on the fly and in one relatively small package. It was create by BI2 Technologies, a small company from Plymouth, Mass, and uses facial recognition software from Conway, NH-based Animetrics.

Privacy advocates are leery of the device which can scan individuals from a distance possibly without their consent. Officers, though, view the technology as necessary. “If the purpose is to determine instantly an individual’s identity and determine whether they are wanted or have serious criminal history, that is not only a desirable use, it is an important use,” says Bernard Melekian, director of the COPS program. “To simply collect information on individuals to add to the database would not in my opinion be a desirable use of the technology.”

The MORIS device is expected to launch commercially by the end of the year and cost US$3000 per unit.

Police adopting iPhone-based facial-recognition device originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you live in an area where earthquakes happen, or if you just want to track earthquakes around the world, check out QuakeInfo from Atomic Powered. It’s a simple thing, really, but a handy way to track earthquakes globally. QuakeInfo uses information from the U.S. Geological Survey to display quakes of magnitude 2.5 or greater within a week.

Check out the video below to see QuakeInfo in action. There’s a list view and map view, with the map view allowing you to look for geological trends. Handy if you’re predicting the end of days!

Video App Demo: QuakeInfo originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Foxconn is using its production muscle to keep Apple’s iPad 3 manufacturing contracts to itself. This contradicts an earlier report that claimed Apple was shopping around for a second manufacturer like Pegatron to assist with iPad 3 production.

According to this new report from Digitimes, the Hon Hai subsidiary has told Apple it doesn’t need any help and can handle the expected volume of iPad 3 orders. Don’t feel bad for competitor Pegatron, though. It supposedly has a contract for over 10 million iPhone 5 units and is vying for the iPad 4 and 2012 notebook/desktop orders from Apple.

Foxconn to reportedly build all iPad 3 units originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s some interesting news. It appears that FaceTime will gain AirPlay support with iOS 5. Rene Ritchie at TiPb has posted a screenshot of a FaceTime call up on a big TV. Noting that he “snuck out to a developer friend’s place to try it out,” Rene calls the experience “magical.”

This feature is available in iOS 5 beta 3, but as Rene correctly points out, not all beta features make it to the final product. If it does, however, millions of people will benefit, and my childhood dream of owning a Jetsons phone will finally be realized.

AirPlay mirroring for FaceTime appears to be coming in iOS 5 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re all hanging around the TUAW newsroom waiting for Lion to drop. When that happens, there will be a flood of posts about Apple’s newest Mac operating system, and I’ll finally be able to devote a TUAW TV Live episode to OS X Lion. Until then, the NDA is still in place, I have my lips sealed, and the closest to a Lion you’re going to get is that adorable lion cub photo. So what do I talk about until Apple’s biggest cat hits the Mac App Store? iPad apps, of course!

Today on TUAW TV Live I’ll be demonstrating a pile of iPad apps that have been making their way into the coveted home screen on my ‘pad. Whether it’s Tapatalk for navigating your way around online forums, Readdle’s nifty new PDF Converter, the surprisingly good Puffin browser, or a number of other iPad apps, I’ll be showing off some of the best of new software coming out for the best tablet on the planet. You’ll also see some new hardware that has made it to the TUAW labs for upcoming test and review.

As usual, I’ll be starting the show at 5 PM EDT (2 PM PDT / 10 PM BST) sharp, and we’ll take a few minutes to chat before the demos start. To join in on the chat and watch the live streaming video, drop by TUAW about five minutes before the start time to get your instructions on how to participate. If you’re unable to join us for the show, remember that you can always subscribe to the video podcast and watch the show at your leisure in iTunes or any other favorite podcatching app. The past shows are also available on the TUAW YouTube channel.

TUAW TV Live at 5 PM EDT: The pre-Lion iPad app episode originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The iSites.us site has rebranded itself today as GENWI (the name of the parent company) and expanded to offer iPad app creation in addition to iPhone and Android apps. With a straightforward CMS engine, the service lets you create either mobile HTML5 web apps or true native apps around your content, delivering a digital magazine experience without coding or extensive development chops.

The core of GENWI is a feed aggregation/cloud content tool that website owners or publishers can point at their feeds (including RSS, ATOM, iTunes, or custom XML and homegrown APIs) to automatically update content within the app. Publishers can easily categorize and reorganize the app’s sections, insert custom announcement posts, permit social media sharing, add images/rich media (audio or QuickTime/MP4 video) and more. Like any good app platform, advertising services are bundled into the system.

The new iPad instance provides many more visual customizations, as befits the larger real estate of the tablet apps. While the instant HTML5 apps and the native iPhone/Android apps can be completely skinned and graphically customized, the iPad GENWI apps can be rearranged and laid out in more sophisticated ways. Customers also have the option of designing a full HTML5/CSS skin from scratch and plugging it into the GENWI platform.

GENWI’s low-end plan charges US$99/month for the app back-end services, covering up to 100K app interactions (page views, etc.); you submit the apps through your own Apple developer account, which is a separate $99/year cost. If you want to deliver the iPad experience, though, you’re looking at the $499/month Professional plan; that puts this service out of the reach of most casual publishers and hobbyists.

Back in March, our colleagues at Download Squad did a full rundown on the ‘Instant App’ authoring within GENWI (then branded as iSites). Check it out here.

Create content-centric iPhone & iPad apps on the fly with GENWI originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gameloft recently released a new iPad book-app, Warplanes: A History of Aerial Combat (US$6.99). This app is follow-up to Gameloft’s earlier book-app, War in the Pacific. This latest offering includes detailed information on 43 historic war planes including popular bombers like the B-52, fighters like the F-15 and reconnaissance airplanes like the SR-71 Blackbird.

You can view a 3D model of the plane, browse vintage photographs, read detailed specs and even watch a video of the plane in action (though not all planes have a video). The app opens to a home screen with clickable images of all the planes and is organized as reference guide, not a chapter book that you read.

The content is organized nicely and there is a lot of information for users to comb through, especially if you are new to military aviation. Besides background information, there is an interactive cutaway diagram of each plane and a rotatable 3-D model. The 3D model is a bit disappointing as you can only move it left and right. You cannot spin it to see the top and bottom of the plane.

The photo gallery for each plane is also inconsistent. When you click on gallery, sometimes you get a nice slideshow of pictures for each plane. Other times, you open a grid of images for all the planes, not just the one that you are viewing. The latter is a tease as you see fifteen thumbnails on the screen, but only two or three are for your selected plane.

Overall, the app is geared towards the beginning aviation buff or the more experienced aviator who wants a quick reference guide. It’s not for the seasoned aviation veteran looking for a lot of stellar pictures and heart-pounding video of the planes in action.

This media-rich content which would look great on the iPad is lacking. I would love to see more images and, especially more videos of the planes in various aerial maneuvers. More planes would also be a welcome addition as 43 entries only scratch the surface of historic military planes. It is also worthy to note that the book-app is heavily weighted towards US planes and jets. There’s a rich history of early World War I and World War II propeller planes that’s missing.

TUAW’s Daily iPad App – Warplanes: A History of Aerial Combat originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A fix has been released for Verizon iPhones stuck after jailbreaking with JailbreakMe 3.0. Some users found their Verizon iPhones stuck at the white Apple logo after applying the jailbreak. Not to worry, as Comex has provided the following instructions to get you back on track:

“A bug in JailbreakMe 3.0 could cause iPhone 4 (CDMA, i.e. Verizon) to get stuck at the Apple logo and be unable to boot. If you are in this situation, there are two options:

1. Hold down the home and power buttons until you see “Connect to iTunes”, then use iTunes to restore to the latest firmware. This will lose data stored on the phone.

2. Apply a quasi-experimental fix using redsn0w. Download:

1. redsn0w 0.9.6rc19: Windows / Mac (do not use an earlier version)
2. Fix bundle, depending on firmware version: 4.2.6 / 4.2.7 / 4.2.8
3. IPSW for your firmware version, if you don’t have it: 4.2.6 / 4.2.7 / 4.2.8

Open redsn0w, select your IPSW, choose ‘Install custom bundle’, and select the fix bundle. Then follow the directions. If it works correctly, after installation your phone will boot normally.”

That should do it. Also note that the JailbreakMe 3.0 tool has been updated and is now ready for Verizon iPhone owners to use as-is.

[Via Gizmodo]

JailbreakMe fix available for stuck Verizon iPhones originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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