Category: I-phone

Apple has enabled a very cool feature for iPad users in the latest beta of iOS 5. “Assistive Touch” allows users to perform gestures and button actions on the iPad with one touch. Users can call up the Assistive Touch menu by tapping a designated corner of the iPad’s screen. The menu itself is similar to the bezel overlay that appears when adjusting the iPad’s volume.

As noted by MacRumors, the Assistive Touch menu “allows one-tap access to all of the iPad’s functions including rotation, shaking, volume changes and even gestures. Known gestures such as pinch and swipe can be recalled by a tap, and custom gestures can even be recorded and played back on command.”

Assistive Touch is primarily meant to help those who might have trouble using some of the gesture elements of the iPad’s multitouch features, like the elderly. The feature’s settings were present in earlier iOS 5 beta’s but were not enabled until the release of iOS 5 beta 3 earlier today.

Apple enables ‘Assistive Touch’ features on iPad in latest iOS 5 beta originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Apple has sent out an email to developers soliciting them to get their Lion-ready apps into the Mac App Store so they can be ready for customers alongside the launch of Lion later this month. From the email:

OS X Lion, the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system, will soon be available to millions of Mac users around the world. Submit your Lion apps for review now so they can be on the Mac App Store when Lion ships this month.

Apple also asks that developers be sure to build, test, and compile their apps using the latest developer release of Lion and Xcode 4.1. As MacRumors notes, this call for submissions would be cutting it close if Apple is to release Lion this week, as most Mac App Store submission take about a week. However, Apple has been known to speed up new release submissions for apps in the past.

Apple soliciting devs to get their Lion-ready apps into the Mac App Store originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

We’ve taken a look at Tango Remote before, and I’ve always thought it was functionality that Apple should have included in iOS to begin with. Tango Remote allows you to remotely control the music on one iOS device from another iOS device. This way you could plug in your iPod touch to a stereo, but use an iPad or iPhone to control that music. There are several other features, so check them out in the video below.

Video App Demo: Tango Remote originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Today’s earlier iLife updates are a sign that Lion is set to drop any day now. Not only do the updates add full-screen support to the iLife apps under the latest Lion Developer Preview release, they also tweak some UI elements of iPhoto to match the upcoming UI Finder elements found in OS X 10.7.

The image shows a side-by-side comparison of the source list of iPhoto ’11 (version 9.1.4) and iPhoto ’11 (version 9.1.5). Both are running under Mac OS X 10.6.8. Gone are the colorful icons designating Events, Photos, Faces, and Places. They’ve all been replaced with grayed-out counterparts that mimic the look of the Finder’s source list in Lion.

The source list in iWeb has retained its color icons, though that’s no surprise as iWeb (and most likely iDVD) has no future as part of the iLife suite and their minor updates today were solely focused on 10.7 compatibility.

iLife updates add full-screen Lion support, change iPhoto UI elements to match Lion originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has put out a call for prior art request in hopes of invalidating patents Apple has applied for over the HTML5 standard. At issue are two patents Apple holds which describes how mobile apps can request sensitive material, according to ComputerWorld.

The W3C’s issue with these patents is that, if Apple is allowed to hold them, HTML5 developers who use the technologies will need to pay royalties to Apple. The W3C says that those specific technologies are already part of the royalty-free HTML5 stack and thus encompasses web standards that can be used without paying royalties to any company.

As a member of the W3C, many feel Apple should provide a royalty free license for the patents in question — something Apple has yet to do or even comment on. Until Apple does so, the W3C hopes to find examples of the technologies in Apple’s patents that were in use before Apple patented them. Proof of pre-patent use would invalidate Apple’s patents, thus allowing the technologies to be rolled into the HTML5 standard and be used royalty free.

W3C goes after Apple on HTML5 patenting originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

It’s come out this week that Apple sent a letter last month to mobile application database GetJar asking them to cease and desist using the term “App Store” to describe their mobile app offerings. Apple’s been trying to keep the term “App Store” for itself, with varying degrees of success, and this is another push by the Cupertino company to keep other mobile app platforms from confusing the iOS app delivery service with anything else.

But GetJar’s not budging — a post on the service’s developer blog says Apple can stuff it, more or less. To be fair, the company says it’s not really competing with Apple, instead both directing customers to the iOS store, and serving lots of users from other systems and devices. But GetJar also says it’s been running since 2005, before the iPhone’s release, and it’s been using the term “App Store” since 2009, even though Apple has issued the C&D only now. Apple’s been unsuccessful in securing a trademark on the “App Store” term, it’s lost injunctions against Amazon and Microsoft in the past regarding the term, and GetJar basically says that it won’t kowtow to what it calls “bullying” by Apple.

GetJar has also started a Facebook group called “The Open and Free App Movement,” to better organize developers and application vendors who are “fed up with this crap.” Interesting. We’ll have to see what response Apple has to all of this. This might not be the fight it wanted to pick.

GetJar responds to Apple’s cease and desist over App Store term originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Courts in both the US and Canada have approved the sales of Nortel patents to a consortium of companies led by Apple. On July 1st Apple, Microsoft, Ericsson, EMC, Sony and RIM beat out competing offers from Google and Intel to win a treasure chest of 6,000 Nortel patents. The total cost of the sale was US$4.5 billion.

After the sale there was some concern that that patents would give the winning companies unfair advantages in the marketplace and over the weekend it was reported that the Feds were looking into how Google and its Android OS would be affected. Being the losing bidder, it’s no doubt that Google held out hopes to have the sale blocked, but Reuters now reports that courts both in the US and Canada have approved the sale. This gives the winning bidders – mainly Apple – a significant advantage in the smartphone sector as many of the patents were related to the up-and-coming 4G LTE technologies.

Courts approve sale of Nortel patents to Apple, others originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

When you absolutely, positively need to be able to view Flash websites, the new Puffin Web Browser for iPad (US$0.99, universal app) is an inexpensive way to do so.

The app, much like Skyfire ($4.99) before it, runs the sites through a server for rendering and compression before delivering the results to your iPad. The result? You can watch Flash animations and movies that are not viewable with Safari.

I asked my TUAW cohorts to recommend a few Flash-heavy websites to check out Puffin, and each passed my tests with flying colors. First, Victor Agreda had me check the Fluidmaster website. This site is for a toilet repair kit company, and just going to the site in Safari was a total fail (see below).

Opening the same site in Puffin, I was immediately able to view all parts of the site, including the ultra-cheesy Flash-animated “Bob the Plumbing Expert” (below). Rendering was fast over Wi-Fi, so moving from page to page was quick and pain-free. As you can also see in the image below, Puffin provides tabbed browsing on the iPad.

One of our resident sci-fi experts, Dave Caolo, recommended trying to watch the Flash video episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars available on Starwars.com. When I loaded the site in Safari and went to one of the episodes, all I got was R2-D2 telling me I needed to load the latest Adobe Flash Player (below).

Popping over to Puffin, I was immediately able to watch an episode. In comparison to watching it on my iMac in Safari with the Flash Player, the video was a bit choppy, and the audio occasionally got out of sync.

One issue I did have with the app is that at the present time, cut and paste isn’t supported. This was irritating when I was trying to paste in a password and couldn’t. The Puffin folks say that it will be supported in a future version of the browser. The “drag” mode, which brings up a hand icon to facilitate dragging frames or scroll bars on websites, was also non functional for me.

Still, the app is much less expensive than Skyfire; $0.99 gets you Puffin on both iPhone and iPad, while you’d need to spend $7.98 to get Skyfire on both devices. For those who really need to view Flash sites on mobile devices, Puffin is a capable browser at a bargain price.

TUAW’s Daily iPad App: Puffin browser originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Apple may begin producing the iPad 3 soon and manufacturers needed to assemble this tablet device are being chosen. Not surprisingly, the primary manufacturer is expected to be Foxconn, a long-time manufacturer of Apple devices. A recent explosion at Foxconn’s Chengdu plant has impacted Foxconn’s production rate and Apple is looking for a second manufacturer to meet the expected high demand. Both Pegatron and Quanta Computers are reportedly in the running to snag this second place spot. Taiwanese sources claim Pegatron is a better position to win the contract as it is supposedly manufacturing the iPhone 5 for Apple. The sources also claim the iPad 3 is slated to launch late in the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter.

Apple reportedly to add another iPad 3 manufacturer originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

A new report by analyst Gene Munster at Piper Jaffray says that not only are Apple users buying more apps this year than in previous years, but they’re also generally paying more for them. The average iPhone user will buy 83 apps in 2011, according to Munster’s research, which is 61% more than the year before. And the average price per app, after falling down to the bottom a few years ago, is rebounding at an increasing rate, as developers find more and more ways to add premium value to apps and games.

In terms of background, part of the reason for this is the sheer size of Apple’s App Store, which now encompasses over 425,000 apps. With that many available, it’s no wonder people are finding more and more to download. The average app price rising can also be attributed to iPad apps, which Apple has generally been able to set up at a higher price, given that the iPad versions of apps are often very different experiences from their smaller-screen brethren.

All good news for developers in terms of keeping the App Store growing and sustainable. And with rumors of even more iOS devices due out later this year, that’s something Apple will need to depend on going forward.

Research shows Apple customers buy more apps, pay more for them originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Cleaning up a Mac is something many users never do, but if you want to squeeze all the performance and disk space you can out of your Mac, you need a tool like Onyx.

A free multi-purpose utility, Onyx lets you run a myriad of system tasks such as disk maintenance, cache clean-up and index rebuilding. You can use Onyx to clear away the cobwebs that collect in things like the browser cache, font caches, boot, kernel and extension caches, as well as logs from crash reporters, system diagnostics and Software Update. If that wasn’t enough, you can also get Onyx to delete previous iTunes libraries, the QuickTime Content Guide, recent items lists and even Mail downloads. OK, you can do most of these things yourself manually, but Onyx makes it fast and easy to do it all from one place.

Cleaning isn’t the only talent Onyx has — it’s able to do quite a few maintenance and repair tasks such as verifying your startup disk, which it will do on it’s first run automatically. By rebuilding the Spotlight Index or LaunchServices, you can often cure small corruption issues with your Mac. You can check the S.M.A.R.T. status of your internal disks, verify file structure and fix disk permissions without having to open Disk Utility. Onyx will also let you change some hidden preferences in Finder and other Apple programs such as iTunes and Mail, allowing you to tweak a few things here and there.

Onyx is a great free system utility that we’ve covered many times in the past and which allows you to perform a load of different tasks all from one application. If you’re interested in cleaning out OS X, download Onyx today. By the way, Onyx also works well with OS X Lion.

Continue reading TUAW’s Daily Mac App: Onyx

TUAW’s Daily Mac App: Onyx originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Along with several rumors that seemed far-fetched, the Wall Street Journal reported last week that Apple is looking at a new charging capability for the 2012 iPhone — most likely wireless. Now an international patent filing by Apple seems to be linking the company to 2007 startup WiTricity, a group that is working on extending inductive charging to a distance of several meters.

HP’s Palm Pre uses wireless inductive charging, but requires that the device be in physical contact with the charging “Touchstone.” Apple’s patent filing, which was first published in May, describes a situation where an iMac is used to create a charging zone. Any device, whether it be a mouse, a keyboard, an iPhone or an iPad, is charged simply by being within 1 meter of the computer.

The link between Apple and WiTricity comes from a reference in the patent filing to the original paper published by MIT researchers which is the basis of WiTricity’s technology. For a look at a demo of the WiTricity wireless power capabilities in action (including an iPhone powered by the company’s technology), check out the video below from the 2009 TED conference.

Patent suggest link between Apple’s wireless charging and WiTricity originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Photojojo details an easy set of instructions that will let you create eye-catching photo-in-photo transparent images like the one shown above. You don’t need a fancy camera or expensive software. All you need is a few extra gadgets, some creativity and a helper to snap the photos.

The process to create a transparent photo like the one above is quite easy: your helpful assistant takes a succession of photos, starting with the closeup of your eyes, and then you display the photo in position on the iPhone when you take the next shot, which gets displayed on the iPad… you get the idea. Check out Photojojo for the detailed rundown.

This is just one example. You can use this technique with different gadgets and additional layers to create captivating images. Experiment and enjoy!

Make your Mac, iPhone or iPad 2 transparent originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

If the bugs and instability of iOS 5 Beta 2 are driving you completely, utterly, and totally nuts[1], then this news will surely please you. Apple just posted iOS 5 Beta 3 at its developer site and it’s ready for you to download, enjoy, and rip out your hair as you refactor your code. Again.

If you are a paid ($99/year) dev, you can sign in with your developer credentials to gain access to this beta.

The beta is, as always, released under the terms of Apple’s NDA. For that reason, enhancements, APIs and features are not listed within this post.

TUAW’s iOS 5 coverage — researched and written by our non-NDA staffers — is available here.

In addition, Apple has made iTunes 10.5 beta 3 and iCloud for Lion beta 4 available to developers. Have at it!

Happy developing everyone! Thanks, everyone who tipped us.

[1] strictly a hypothetical situation, you understand

Apple posts iOS 5 Beta 3, other developer updates originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Pangea Software is celebrating three years of development and US$7 million in sales by making all its iOS applications free for today July 11th. The free-for-all starts at 8 am CST and ends at 8 pm CST. When the free promotion ends, Pangea will lower the price on its iOS apps to 99-cents for a limited time. Some of these apps are in $2-4 range, so this is an excellent deal for the casual gamer.

Be careful when you grab your free app. Though Pangea says this promotion extends to all its iOS app, some, like Quarters and Warheads, still have a $0.99 price tag as of the writing of this post.

[Via MacObserver]

Pangea iOS games are free for today only originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments