Category: I-phone

Around the end of February, the good folks at Plaid Doctrine sent me one of their laptop bags to try for a week. These stylish, vintage-inspired bags are aimed at women who want a more elegant bag to carry in a professional setting. An extra bonus is that these bags are also eco-friendly: they’re built from fabric made from recycled plastic bottles, vegetable-tanned leather and completely sourced and produced in the U.S.

Although my taste runs toward backpacks (my current bag of choice being the Tom Bihn Synapse), I took the US$449 Eco Laptop to work. It’s a great-looking bag, but it has a few drawbacks that might turn off some potential buyers. Read on for a short review of a solid eco-friendly bag — just in time for Earth Day.

Continue reading For Earth Day, consider an eco-friendly laptop bag

For Earth Day, consider an eco-friendly laptop bag originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ten One Design started the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad stylus market singlehandedly with the Pogo stylus. Now it’s hoping to jumpstart development of apps that capture signatures by licensing its Autograph iOS Library.

The idea is simple. Rather than re-inventing the wheel when writing apps that capture signatures, Ten One Design’s library — which works with Xcode, of course — can be purchased by developers for US$99 for a single one-time use or for $499 for an unlimited site license. This is the same code used in Ten One’s Autograph app ($6.95), and a free demo version of the library is available to developers who would like to test-drive its capabilities.

The Autograph iOS Library is used in apps to capture digital signatures on the capacitive displays of iOS devices. The Library allows users to customize the stroke color and width, as well as the size of the signature, and provides smoothing for accurate signatures. The velocity of a writing stroke varies the width of the digital ink, and this capability supports biometric verification to capture signature details. Users can undo or redo their signatures with a three-finger swipe, and the Library can also offer a unique security hash watermark for signatures for security and tracking purposes.

The applications of signature capture are huge, from getting signatures from patients in the medical world to having customers sign an app to take delivery of a package. By making the Autograph iOS Library available to developers, Ten One Design is hoping that you’ll be signing your name on many more iPads and iPhones in the near future.

Ten One Design licensing Autograph signature capture to developers originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IHS iSuppli cut its forecast for yearly iPad sales following Apple’s earnings conference call on April 20. iSuppli predicts the Cupertino company will ship 39.7 million iPads in 2010, a 9.1 percent reduction from its earlier forecast of 43.7 million.

Apple confirmed during its earnings conference call that iPad 2 demand significantly outpaced supply. The iPad 2 flew off the shelves in Q2, and Apple sold every tablet it manufactured. According to iSuppli, Apple’s manufacturing is constrained by a shortage of the new speaker that graces the iPad 2. Unknown quality concerns with the LCD display may have also played a role in this less than optimal rate of manufacturing.

Demand for the iPad is expected to be strong for the rest of the year with a continuing production shortfall limiting the total yearly sales. During the Q&A session after the earnings call, Apple would not comment on when the supply of the iPad 2 would catch up with demand. Fingers crossed it happens soon so that prospective iPad owners no longer have to camp out early at their local Apple Store each day.

[Via MacRumors]

iPad 2 production shortfall cause: LCD and speaker issues originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 12:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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YouTube entered the live video streaming market with the launch of its YouTube Live service earlier this month. The high-profile video site is competing against similar live stream services, such as Ustream and Justin.tv. Unlike its competitors, YouTube Live uses only Flash technology to deliver its live stream. As a result, iOS owners are unable to watch these live feeds on their mobile devices.

Coming to the rescue is a web app, YTLive, which lets you copy the URL of a YouTube Live feed and paste it into their web-based player. The player converts the live stream to a format compatible with iOS and lets you watch a broadcast within Mobile Safari. As long as YTLive’s servers can handle the load of streaming video to millions of iOS devices, then we may have a winner.

[Via Engadget]

YTLive web app lets you watch YouTube Live broadcasts on your iOS device originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As with most holidays these days, there are now several iOS apps that come in handy when needed in a pinch. For Easter and its surrounding holidays, this can be anything from dying eggs to explaining why today is Good Friday. The New York Times recently recommended several apps for the holiday including:

Egg Dyeing 101: This US$0.99 app from Martha Stewart Living will take you beyond the ordinary hard-boiled egg and has instructions for everything from blowing out eggs to little decorations you can use to turn eggs into animals. A glossary, color wheel and more are included in the app, making this not just a good Easter app, but useful for when you want to do any sort of project involving egg decoration. Those who want to have the fun of dying eggs without dealing with the mess of eggs and dye can go for the $1.99 iColor Easter Eggs.

Read on for more apps that add to the fun of this spring holiday season.

Continue reading Apps and games for Easter and Passover

Apps and games for Easter and Passover originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A few months ago, enterprise mobile integrator Good Technology reported on the second round of metrics from its device activation data. The story showed strong growth for Android phones; while the iPhone remained in first place, but the curves were getting closer.

In the first quarter of this year, however, something rather disruptive happened. In the company’s latest report [PDF], released today, the iPhone has widened the gap again — and it’s largely due to the Verizon effect. “There’s no doubt that Verizon’s launch of the iPhone 4, combined with AT&T’s response on the discounted 3GS devices, certainly gave iPhones a bit of a lift,” says Good’s SVP of Corporate Strategy, John Herrema.

“What we were seeing in the 4th quarter was that Android was trending upward and getting close to catching up,” he says, “but in the first quarter of 2011 the iPhone has reasserted itself as the leading platform, at least with activations by our customers.” The Verizon iPhone launch apparently resulted in the highest rate of activation (16.9 percent) for any new device since Good has been publicly tracking and publishing reports (Q3 2010).

The tablet story is dramatically more one-sided, with the iPad and iPad 2 generating almost all of the tablet activations Good saw in the quarter. iPads represented about 20% of all device activations seen on the system, with Android tablets creeping in and reaching the 1% mark for the first time. “We’re seeing the tablet momentum continuing, really driven by iPad and iPad 2,” said Herrema. “We’re starting to see the first glimmers of Android tablets showing up on the scene. It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out in the 2nd quarter, especially as Honeycomb [Android 3.0] shows up on more devices besides the Motorola Xoom.”

Overall, iOS devices made up just under 70% of all device activations Good measured during the quarter. As before, Good’s visibility into the enterprise is solid but not comprehensive; it cannot measure BlackBerry deployment volumes, nor does it support Windows 7 phones at this time. Nevertheless, as a proxy for deployments of the devices it does support, Good’s numbers are (sorry) pretty good.

Good Technology sees boost in iPhone, iPad activations in Q1 originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hothead Games, the developer behind DeathSpank, Swarm and the Penny Arcade series of PC and console games, just released Bunny the Zombie Slayer, its first title on iOS. Just in time for Easter, the game has you playing as a bunny fighting zombies by lobbing Easter eggs at them, taking them down by lining up your shots and using special eggs with various functions. The game’s reminiscent of Pro Zombie Soccer as you take down shambling hordes with a very arcade-style weapon. It’s fun, and Hothead’s great art direction and design keep things fresh every time you load it up.

The game’s low on features, with no Game Center integration or multiplayer, but it’s still a nice deal at US$0.99 for a universal version on iPhone or iPad. Bunny the Zombie Slayer is a nice debut for the iPhone from the increasingly impressive Hothead, and hopefully we’ll see more from them on iOS in the future.

TUAW’s Daily App: Bunny the Zombie Slayer originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s Easter, and although that normally means stuffing your face with chocolate and a bit of a break, it also means it’s time for another App Store fire-sale. Hot on the block this year is EA’s impressive, console-quality, survival horror third-person shooter Dead Space for iPhone and iPad; it’s been discounted from US$6.99 and $9.99 respectively to the absolute bargain price of $0.99. If you haven’t checked out Dead Space yet, now is the time.

But that’s not all from EA mobile — it’s got a whole host of games on sale.

For iPhone at $0.99:

• Monopoly
• Tetris
• Dead Space
• The Sims 3
• Need for Speed Hot Pursuit
• NBA Jam
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2
• Madden NFL ’11

For iPad at $0.99:

• Dead Space
• Pictureka!
• Reckless Racing HD
• Command & Conquer Red Alert

Sega’s got a couple of games on sale as well, with ChuChu Rocket! HD down to $2.99, while Super Monkey Ball, SMB 2 and Altered Beast are all down to $0.99.

Many other games and apps from all sorts of developers are also on sale this Easter weekend, so if you’re after a new app or game to play with, now’s the time to check and see what bargains you can pick up. If you’ve found an absolute steal worth noting, drop it in the comments and let your fellow TUAW readers know.

Easter App Store sale kicks off with deals from EA and Sega originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It turns out N.O.V.A. Elite isn’t one of the three new iOS games that Gameloft has licensed the Unreal Engine for. In fact, it’s not an iOS game at all. Instead, Gameloft has decided to bring its popular science-fiction shooter franchise to Facebook as a competitive multiplayer 3D shooter tied to your social network and running on the Unity engine.

While the core style of the earlier N.O.V.A. games is still the same in N.O.V.A. Elite, it has also picked up many of the features you’ve probably come to expect from any free-to-play Facebook game, including friends invitations and purchasable upgrades. That’s right, if you want to have all the best gear, you’ll need to pull out your wallet and exchange real money for Facebook Credits. Don’t worry though, they aren’t required to play.

If you don’t mind the free-to-play model, there’s a lot to like about Elite. The pace is fast, and I found the gameplay smooth and satisfying, even on dated hardware. The graphics are adequately impressive for a browser-based game, but they are more comparable to N.O.V.A. 2 running on an iPad than a modern native PC or console game.

Continue reading Gameloft launches N.O.V.A. Elite on Facebook, demonstrates the ubiquity of Unity

Gameloft launches N.O.V.A. Elite on Facebook, demonstrates the ubiquity of Unity originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s something to write up to 140 characters about. The Iconfactory deployed version 4.1 of its award winning Twitter client, Twitterrific, to the App Store on Thursday. The new version offers users a smorgasbord of enhancements and bug fixes.

Macworld’s “Twitter Client of the Year” in 2010 and a favorite among many of us here at TUAW, Twitterrific is available for free as an ad-supported version. An in-app upgrade allows customers to ditch the advertisements and manage multiple Twitter accounts for US$4.99. The app is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad and requires iOS 4.0 or later.

Continue reading to see a full listing of new features and bug fixes offered in Twitterrific version 4.1.

Continue reading Twitterrific 4.1 for iOS released, includes username auto-complete and spam reporting

Twitterrific 4.1 for iOS released, includes username auto-complete and spam reporting originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 01:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung has shot back against Apple and filed lawsuits in Korea, Japan and Germany just three days after Apple filed suit against Samsung for copying the iPhone, iPad and iOS. Samsung has issued a statement saying, “Samsung is responding actively to the legal action taken against us in order to protect our intellectual property and to ensure our continued innovation and growth in the mobile communications business.”

The statement also said that the patent suit filed by Samsung involved infringements on up to five Samsung patents, but it did not elaborate as to which patents it was referring to. Stay tuned, things are about to get messy.

Samsung shoots back, files patent lawsuits against Apple originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 00:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Engadget has got their hands onto exclusive photos of a white iPhone 4 retail package at Vodafone UK. Supposedly a customer was able to purchase the device with model number MC604B/A from Vodafone UK.

As the story goes, the salesperson rang it up as a black iPhone to help facilitate the transaction, and shortly after the sale went down, Voda sent out a notice to halt sale of these gems “until next week.” Just so you know, the MC604B/A model number shown here is particularly interesting when compared to our own in-house UK iPhone 4; the latter, which is also a 16GB edition, sports a model number of MC603B/A.

The noticeable thing in these pictures is the white iPhone 4?s new proximity sensor. The new sensor is just a black cut in the white front plate versus the old sensor with dotted cuts.

9to5 Mac suggests that it’ll be landing on April 27th, at least in the Netherlands.

We’ll update you as we know more about the White iPhone 4. Stay Tuned!

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Verizon CFO Financial Officer Fran Shammo said Apple’s iPhone 5 will be a global phone, during Verizon’s earning call today. A global phone is a phone capable of connecting to both GSM and CDMA networks worldwide.

The fluctuation, I believe, will come when a new device from Apple is launched, whenever that may be, and that we will be, on the first time, on equal footing with our competitors on a new phone hitting the market, which will also be a global device.

It’s been long rumored that the iPhone 5 will carry a Qualcomm chip, the same chip found in Verizon iPhone 4 and the CDMA iPad 2. This chip is capable of connecting to both CDMA and GSM networks. This means an iPhone 5 bought from AT&T may also work on Verizon’s network and vice versa.

Apple is rumored to start iPhone 5 production in July which will be hitting shelves in September. The iPhone 5 is rumored to look similar to the iPhone 4, will sport an A5 dual-core processor and a 64GB model. [9to5mac]

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Apple reaches 37.9 million users in the Unithed States, 59% more than Android.

AT&T activating more phones than Verizon.

United States Patent and Trademark Office has awarded Apple patents for the iPhone 4.

iOS 4 keeps a log of your location and stores it in a hidden file on your iPhone or iPad.

Reuters says iPhone 5 to arrive in September.

There’s been a fuss in the blogosphere in the last 24 hours about an Apple location tracking scandal after the O’Reilly Radar alleged that Apple is intentionally gathering your iOS location data.

However, it was not until 7:45 a.m. the morning after the scandal broke that O’Reilly clarified that there is no evidence to suggest this data is leaving your custody. Due to this glaring omission in the original story, many people around the web have misunderstood the gravity of the situation and are calling this iPhone location tracking discovery a privacy scandal.

Here’s why the location tracking scandal is likely overblown:

1. As noted above, it should be emphasized that your personal location file is being stored on your computer, and your computer alone. Apple is not collecting your personalized location data and storing it on their servers.
2. While Apple does collect some location data from iPhone users, this data is collected anonymously and in a way that “does not personally identify you,” according to Apple’s privacy policy.
3. Although your iPhone location data is stored on your computer by default, apps can only access this location data if you opt in to location tracking.

   Recall that location-based apps prompt you with a notification that asks you if you would like to harness your location — to which you may reply “OK” or “Don’t Allow.”

4. You can turn Location Services off entirely in Settings >> General >> Location Services.
5. Location data is not perfectly precise. After tracking my location history with the free iPhone Tracker app, it appears the iPhone may be merely tracking the nearby cell towers that are used to pinpoint your location.

My iPhone Location Data

Here is an overview of my locations in the last year, as stored on my computer. You can download the iPhone Tracker app to see a map of your own location history.

Yes, it can be shocking to see this map and you might naturally elicit a knee-jerk reaction for fear that Apple is building a Big Brother-esque database of individual iPhone users’ locations. However, there is simply no evidence that Apple is storing these personalized maps on their own servers, despite that it is building a database with some broader location data.

Wired notes that the reason Apple collects anonymized location data was explained in a letter last year by Apple’s general counsel Bruce Sewell: “Apple must be able to determine quickly and precisely where a device is located. To do this, Apple maintains a secure database containing information regarding known locations of cell towers and Wi-Fi access points.”

Nevertheless, it would not hurt for Apple to respond to these privacy concerns once again and better clarify its privacy position. What is just as worrisome as Apple storing your location data is a malicious person having access to your location file on your computer in the event that your computer is stolen.

Are you concerned about the Apple location tracking scandal? Feel free to share your opinion in the comments.

The Truth About the Apple Location Tracking Scandal is a post from Apple iPhone Review.