Category: I-phone

Sadly, a 20-year-old male employee at Foxconn (Apple’s contract manufacturer for many products) committed suicide Thursday morning, according to a report from the Hong Kong China News Agency (HKCNA) cited by Bloomberg. The worker was reportedly employed at the company’s new facility in Chengdu where an explosion killed three workers on May 20.

Further details about Thursday morning’s incident are sparse, and the reasons behind the factory worker’s suicide are currently unknown. This is at least the 14th publicized death by suicide among Foxconn’s workforce since the start of 2010.

Foxconn chairman Terry Gou declined to comment about the incident saying he doesn’t know the full details about the apparent suicide. However, last year, Gou said suicides by Foxconn employees were prompted by personal issues rather than tough working conditions in his company’s facilities.

Labor groups like China Labor Watch disagree. Foxconn’s critics have slammed the Taipei-based company for operating facilities with a sweatshop atmosphere — an accusation Gou vehemently denies.

In response to last year’s suicides and subsequent harsh criticism, Foxconn, which builds electronic products for several other recognizable brands including Sony and Dell, raised wages, slashed overtime, offered counseling, and tried to improve the work-life balance for its more than one million factory workers in China.

Although Foxconn’s suicide rate remains markedly lower than China’s national average, Thursday morning’s death, last Friday’s explosion, and protests outside a Foxconn shareholder meeting earlier this month suggest the manufacturer has more work to do to improve employee safety and overall satisfaction.

Our thoughts and condolences go out to the friends and family of the young man who died.

Foxconn worker from Chengdu factory commits suicide originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 27 May 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Peekaboo! Guess Who? (US$1.99) from Bacciz Apps is a lovely little educational iPad game for toddlers and young children. It teaches kids to identify the sounds animals make.

Gameplay is simple and features both a “Kids Mode” for very young players and a “2+ Mode.”

First, kids choose a setting — Farm, Ocean, Jungle or Circus — and are guided to the appropriate screen. Players next hear a sound made by a hidden animal (in 2+ Mode, the animal is briefly displayed at the start of the turn). Next, three animals appear in circles and the player taps their choice of who made the sound.

If correct, the circle changes to a smiley face and the child is rewarded with a big “Yay!” or “Yippee!” The animal’s name is displayed as it emerges from behind a curtain, barn door pile of leaves or forest of seaweed, depending on the level being played.

If the wrong animal is chosen, the face frowns and another choice can be made.

The game also fosters independent play. For example, kids are prompted through gameplay by a dopey, Wallace Shawn-sounding voice. Also, if a player hesitates for a certain amount of time, a hand appears and points out the hidden animal’s location. Finally, you can switch between Kid Mode and 2+ Mode at anytime with a tap.

Continue reading Peekaboo! Guess Who? an inviting game for the smallest of iPad users

Peekaboo! Guess Who? an inviting game for the smallest of iPad users originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 27 May 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Unarchiver isn’t a new utility to the Mac world, and we reviewed an earlier version of it. It’s the Swiss Army knife of unarchiving programs and can handle pretty much any file, no matter how ancient, you throw at it. The native unarchiver for OS X is pretty solid in and of itself, but it’s nice to have a utility such as Unarchiver around when you need something to tackle anything from Amiga PowerPacker files to StuffIt Archive files.

There are a number of unarchiving options, including when you want to create folders for the extracted files or alter the modification date, and the ability to move the original archive file to the trash after expanding the contents. The one thing you can’t do is archive stuff. If you want to do that, you can use OS X’s built-in archiver, buy the venerable StuffIt Deluxe ($49.99) or spring for the US$19.99 BetterZip.

However, Unarchiver is a free download in the Mac App Store, so it’s definitely worth having as one of your basic Mac utilities.

TUAW’s Daily Mac App: The Unarchiver originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 27 May 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Brothers John and Sam Shahidi are living the classic American dream. The pair developed RunPee, a small iPhone application that lets you find the right time to take a bathroom break during a movie. The app became so popular that the brothers founded a startup company called RockLive. They used their experience with RunPee to help sports celebrities develop their own iOS applications and social presence.

Their first client was Chad Ochocinco of the Cincinnati Bengals and they recently signed Mike Tyson. The brothers developed a free game, Mike Tyson Main Event, that’s been downloaded almost one million times. During this time, RockLive has grown from two to 22 employees. The California company is still expanding and looking to attract clients outside the sports realm. So who is on their radar? Musicians, celebrity chefs and stay-at-home Moms, of course.

Building apps for big celebrities originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 27 May 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dear Auntie,

Just got my first iPhone, but the ringtones stink! How do I take my super awesome Star Trek MIDI file and use it as a ringtone?

Hugs and snuggles,

JayW. in MN

Continue reading Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me customize my ringtone

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me customize my ringtone originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 27 May 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you see a group of people dancing in front of your local Apple store next weekend, don’t be alarmed. Steve Jobs didn’t make a surprise visit to the store and, no, Apple isn’t launching another product. They are just protesters from the US Uncut group.

The grassroots movement is upset with corporate tax loopholes and has deciced to target the Cupertino company on June 4. They accuse Apple and other corporations like Pfizer of hiding US income as foreign income to avoid paying taxes. The group is calling on its members to protest with a flash mob-style dance-in outside Apple retail stores around the US. Read on for a video to find out why this group is so upset with Steve Jobs and company.

Continue reading US Uncut group to target Apple with protests on June 4

US Uncut group to target Apple with protests on June 4 originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 27 May 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Can’t get enough of watching the local TV stations? Cydle has a solution coming for your iPhone.

The soon-to-be-released Cydle i30 is a digital TV receiver “sled” for the iPhone. Featuring its own 1100 mAh battery, it’ll snag that local PBS outlet, four Spanish-language stations, and three full-time religious channels that you just can’t wait to watch. And yes, since your local network stations are required to broadcast their content not only over cable, but also through digital over-the-air broadcasts, you’ll be able to watch just about any network show and enjoy all of the advertising as well.

The advantage of the Cydle i30 is that it doesn’t require a Wi-Fi connection or use your precious 3G data plan bits, and many times digital TV is about the only way you’re going to be able to watch local sporting events or soap operas on your iPhone. Cable network apps such as Comcast’s Xfinity TV provide a lot of on-demand content to watch on your iPhone, but not much live TV. They’re also dependent on a Wi-Fi network.

No price or expected ship date has been released for the i30.

Cydle i30 is a digital TV receiver for iPhone originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 27 May 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s legal team finally caught up with Fei Lam, the teenager from New York who was selling white iPhone 4 conversion kits, and filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against him.

Lam claimed to be getting white iPhone 4 parts directly from Foxconn and was reselling them on his website, whiteiphone4now.com, for US$279. He supposedly raked in over $130,000 from his endeavor until a “private investigator”, thought to be hired by Apple, accused him of selling stolen goods.

The trademark lawsuit was filed and voluntarily dismissed in one motion suggesting Apple and Lam reached some type of settlement. Lam is likely out of business as the wording of the dismissal leaves the door open for Apple to refile the claim in the future.

Apple files trademark infringement against WhiteiPhone4Now website originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 27 May 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hollywood is afraid of online video streaming, but a recent study suggests their biggest threat is the smartphone. IPG Media Lab and YuMe looked at people’s behaviors when they watched TV. They discovered participants had the TV on, but were not always actively engaged. About 94% of the study’s 48 participants were distracted during the 30 minutes of watching. The smartphone was the biggest culprit and accounted for 60% of these distractions.

The researchers also compared DVRs with the smartphone and found that turning your head to look at your phone had a greater impact than fast forwarding through a commercial. This isn’t rocket science. When you glance away, you miss the commercials on TV. When you zoom through the commercial, you get glimpses of the ad which still leaves an impression.

My own usage mirrors this study. When my phone chimes at a new tweet or an incoming email, I quickly turn away from the TV and see what just came in. TV advertisers have an uphill battle as this practice of checking my phone is so ingrained that it’s almost automatic. The only way to stop it would be to devise a method to detect when the TV is on and disable my phone.

Smartphones threaten TV advertising originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 27 May 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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More evidence points to something big happening at WWDC 2011, as Apple has reportedly invited Australian journalists to the June 6 keynote.

iTechReport.com.au referenced a tweet from Australian technology editor Charlie Brown which mentioned his invitation to the WWDC keynote. Brown wrote:

“I think something big will be announced on June 6th in San Fran by #Apple. I have just been invited to attend the event.”

Interestingly, that tweet has since been deleted. Earlier this week, Apple reportedly extended invitations to UK journalists as well.

Remember that this is a developer’s conference, not a consumer trade show, so don’t get your heart set on goodies. However, a little birdie has told us that Mac OS X Lion has begun internal testing at Apple, and could possibly be ready for WWDC.

Apple invites Australian journalists to WWDC keynote originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 27 May 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Illusion Labs’ Touchgrind was one of the first iPhone games I ever saw in action. Honestly, it wasn’t very successful as a full game, but using the iPhone’s multi-touch screen to control a fingerboard was fun. Now, Illusion Labs is bringing the brand back with Touchgrind BMX, a game that changes your mode of transportation to BMX bikes, and opens up the view a bit.

One of the big issues with Touchgrind was that, because the camera was top down, you had a hard time seeing exactly where you were going. Illusion has fixed this in Touchgrind BMX by moving to a more from-behind view, and setting the bike along a path rather than letting you freely explore. But you still control the bike with two fingers, flipping the handlebars around with one, and spinning the bike’s body with the other. It still takes quite a bit of getting used to, but it’s much friendlier than the original Touchgrind interface.

There are plenty of extras to find and explore, including goals and scoring medals and challenges, along with a nice replay mode that even lets you send videos off to YouTube and Facebook. There’s no Game Center integration, strangely, which would have been nice for leaderboards and achievements. But if you’re interested, the app is now available for US$4.99 on the iPhone.

TUAW’s Daily iPhone App: Touchgrind BMX originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 27 May 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With another holiday comes another big EA app sale. Nearly every game in EA’s iOS catalog is on sale for just a buck or two, so if you’ve been waiting to pick up any of EA’s games cheaper than usual, head to the App Store and search for the ones you want. We’ll call a few good deals out for you right here: NBA Jam for the iPhone is only US$0.99, as is Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. Over on the iPad, Reckless Racing HD is just a buck, and so are SimCity and Snood. If you want to spend a few dollars, Mr. Moneybags, Dead Space is just $2.99 on the iPhone, and the latest edition of Tiger Woods PGA Tour is the same price on the iPad.

These are all great deals and well worth the price if you’ve been waiting to pick any of them up. EA has an extraordinary amount of success with these iOS deals, so it’s no surprise that nearly every time a holiday rolls around the prices on EA apps drop. Take advantage while you can, and in the meantime, have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend.

EA puts iOS catalog on sale for Memorial Day originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 27 May 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Japanese blog Mac Otakara claims sources have told them Apple is testing a MacBook Air with an A5 processor, the same CPU powering the iPad 2. While the machine performed “better than expected” according to their source, Mac Otakara says it’s unclear whether this test machine was running Mac OS X or iOS. At any rate, the site claims this A5 variant MacBook Air has been created “just for experiment.” Mac Otakara has been a reliable source of rumors in the past, having been one of the first sites to accurately depict the updated form factor of the iPad 2.

If Apple has indeed built such a device, it’s unlikely the company intends to put it on the market. While the A5 processor is powerful enough under iOS, in terms of raw performance it pales in comparison to even the least powerful Intel chips. For example, the iPad 2’s Geekbench score is around 720, while the lowest-rated MacBook Air processor scored over 2000. Benchmarks don’t tell the whole story, of course, but they’re a fairly reliable predictor of the general performance you can expect to get from a machine.

If Apple’s experimenting with ARM processors in its laptop line, it’s very unlikely that it’s a simple matter of trying to run Mac OS X on the A5 and more likely that Apple is looking for ways to run iOS in a notebook form factor. This could be something as simple as a device that looks like a MacBook Air but has a touchscreen and runs iOS — basically an iPad with an attached keyboard. Or Apple could have more ambitious plans in mind, with an A5 processor running as a sort of sidecar to a standard Intel CPU, with Mac OS X and iOS both capable of running on the same machine on their respective CPUs. Under such a scheme, iOS might run as a sort of “layer” atop Mac OS X — rather like Dashboard does now, but more like Dashboard after a serious dose of growth serum.

From what we’ve seen of Mac OS X Lion thus far, it already looks as though Apple’s looking at ways of merging OS X and iOS as far as the software’s concerned. If Mac Otakara’s sources are correct, it seems it’s just a matter of time before the hardware follows.

Rumor: Apple testing MacBook Air with A5 processor originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 27 May 2011 06:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Maps+, a new mapping app for the iPhone and iPad, has just been released. Developed by IZE, Maps+ uses Google Maps data, meaning you must have a data connection for it to work, but it adds a couple of interesting location-based features into a customizable interface that you can’t get in the default iOS maps app.

GPS tracking has been added, meaning you can record your route, whether you’re running, cycling, driving or walking. Sounds familiar, but this time it’s opt-in. You can even import or export your recorded tracks to GPX for viewing on the desktop or in other apps.

Location-based alarms are also included, allowing you to set a reminder that’s activated when you hit a certain location. That’s handy if you’re a bit forgetful and need more than just a timed alarm to jog your memory.

Maps+ also comes with most of the standard features found in Google Maps, including directions with route alternatives; standard, satellite, hybrid and even terrain maps from Google; and bookmarks and address-only search (no business search is included).

Maps+ is free to download, with a couple of features, such as pins, bookmarks and tracks, being limited by number. They can be unlocked via a US$2.99 in-app purchase. If the default Google Maps-based app is just a bit limited for you, then the free Maps+ is worth a look.

Maps+ adds tracking and location-based alarms to Google Maps originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 27 May 2011 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Nielsen Norman Group did a usability study on iPad apps not long after the device’s debut in 2010. A year later, they’ve done a followup study to see how things fare today.

While most apps have made big strides in overall usability in the year since the iPad’s debut, many of the apps covered in the study still had suboptimal user interfaces that in many cases seem to sacrifice ease of use in favor of good looks. Overall, the biggest UI problem present in the studied apps was inconsistent or obscure navigation controls.

Nielsen Norman first encourages would-be app developers to ask themselves if their site or service needed an iPad app in the first place. “If your service requires substantial interaction, consider an app instead of a site,” the Group says. However, a poorly-designed app will sabotage that increased interactivity potential.

Study participants were always successful in completing assigned tasks in Mobile Safari, but when asked to complete the same tasks in a standalone iPad app, participants failed to complete tasks a third of the time. Participants weren’t iPad newbies either, having owned the device for a minimum of two months. This shows that many apps still have a long way to go in crafting a UI that’s accessible and comprehensible to all users.

Read on to find out what the Nielsen Norman Group recommends for enhancing the usability of both iPad-optimized websites and iPad apps.

Continue reading Usability study finds many iPad apps still need to work on their UI

Usability study finds many iPad apps still need to work on their UI originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 27 May 2011 02:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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