Category: I-phone

You just dropped your beloved iPhone into the pool! Now what? Today we’ll take a look at the best way to ensure that this isn’t the end of your device.

In addition to outlining which recovery methods work best, we’ll also tell you some very important actions to avoid if you don’t want to ruin your phone while trying to save it!

A Lesson Learned the Hard Way

Like anyone with a modicum of sanity living in the arid desert of Phoenix Arizona, I own a swimming pool. I also own an iPod Touch. You can see where this is going. One day, as I was diligently brushing the walls of my pool, a friend stopped by. Being the polite guy that I am, I turned my back to the pool to engage in discussion.

The problem of course with turning your back on a swimming pool is that you forget that it’s there, which means when you take a step back, your friend has cause to roll on the ground with laughter as you fall helplessly through the air in slow motion with one thought on your mind: My iPod is in my pocket! Splash.

I was drenched, completely submerged. As I scrambled out of the water I handed my phone to my friend to dry off, he managed to suppress his laughter for long enough to comply. At this point, we have an all too familiar situation on our hands. This is no mere $20 mp3 player. This is a significant purchase that has possibly seen its last Words With Friends session.

In this situation there is a right and wrong way to react. Before we get into the steps that you should take, let’s look at one important thing not to do!

Don’t Turn Your Device On

This may sound like an obvious piece of advice, but trust me, it’s not. In fact, when as I climbed out of the pool having already handed my iPod to my friend, I found that this is exactly what he did. He quickly dried off the outside of the device with his shirt and then naturally wanted to see if everything still worked and tried to use it.

This is a fantastic way to fry your device permanently. Granted, it’s likely already on standby and not truly off, but you’re still only going to heighten the risk of permanent damage if you try to increase the electronic activity.

Fortunately, in the end, this action didn’t spell disaster for my iPod Touch, but you might not be so lucky.

Drying Out the Device

As soon as you recover your device from its watery grave, the first step is to get all of the water out that you can. This goes beyond wiping the device off to even gently shaking it to try to free any trapped water inside.

Be Wary of Heat

From here one of the most common ideas is to grab a hair dryer. The problem with this method is that you can do as much damage as you repair. We know that water and electronics don’t mix, but it turns out heat and electronics have a similar relationship.

I’ve talked to and read about people that have successfully saved their iOS devices with a hairdryer, so it can in fact work. However, I don’t recommend it. If you’re convinced that this is the way to go, just be sure to use a low heat setting and take frequent breaks to allow the sensitive components in the phone to cool down.

Silica Packets: Do Not Eat!

You know those packets that come in everything from shirt pockets to guitar cases? These handy little guys are always equipped with a life-saving warning: “Do not eat!” This message doesn’t really help us in this situation but the packets are actually quite useful. As you know, they’re designed to absorb moisture, which means they offer a great method for sucking the water out of your wet device.

Silica packets are awesome for saving wet electronics

What you want to do is fill a plastic bag or tupperware container with silica packets like in the image above and then toss in your iPhone. Next, seal the container and let it sit for a lot longer that you want it to. At the very least, let it go over night. If you’re cautious, 24-48 hours is a safer bet.

During this time, resist the urge to take your phone out and turn it on to see what happens. There will still be some condensation hanging around inside and you therefore have the same circuit frying risk as before. Patience is the key!

Rice: A More Practical Solution

In theory, a bag full of silica packets is awesome, but who really has twenty of those things lying around? If I tear my house completely apart I might be able to find two if I’m having a really lucky day.

When my iPod Touch went for a dip, I was too busy being angry at myself to fix the thing. Luckily, my wife jumped in and took over the situation. Being the resourceful woman that she is, she put my iPhone in a bag and filled it with rice. I was born with an overactive sense of skepticism so I saw my wife’s actions as pure nonsense and started planning my trip to the Apple Store for a replacement.

Rice is a great substitute for silica packets

It turns out though that my wife’s black magic is actually a fairly common practice with wet electronics. The rice acts exactly like the silica packets and absorbs the moisture. In fact, this trick worked like a charm and in 24 hours I threw my iPod on a charger and it came to life. That was well over a year ago and the device still works!

The reason that rice is a less ideal solution than the packets is that it’s much messier. Rice might take the water out of your device, but it can fill it with dust. Still, unless you’re a strange hoarder who happens to have mounds of silica, rice can be a very effective solution.

Conclusion

To sum up, as soon as your iPhone gets wet, resist the urge to turn it on. Next, dry it off as best as you can, avoid heating it up unnecessarily and reach for the silica packets. If you don’t have any, fill a bag with rice, throw in your iPhone and seal it for around 24 hours.

Despite many stories of successful revivals, you’ll likely find that an iPhone that has been completely submerged in water will never be quite the same. Even if it still works, there will be noticeable quirks in how the responsiveness of the buttons, the audio quality, how well it takes a charge, etc. Ultimately, if you didn’t kill it, you’ve definitely brought it much closer to death than it was before.

It’s important to note that Apple has sensors in place that can tell if your phone has gotten wet, so don’t stroll into the Apple Store and claim that the thing just stopped working unexpectedly. Be honest and tell them what happened. You probably won’t get a free phone but Apple should offer you a discounted replacement (often refurbished).

If you’ve ever gotten your iPhone or iPod wet, tell us your story below. What method did you use to dry it out? Would you recommend that to others? Did Apple work with you on getting a replacement? We want to know!

Photo Credits: Scott Brown and Lisa Norwood.

One short year ago, Tapbots announced that they had started working on a new Twitter app: Tweetbot. Twitter had just announced that they were buying out Tweetie, and soon turned it into the new free Twitter for iPhone. Since then, Twitter has made it obvious that they want their own apps to be the only standard consumer Twitter apps, and recommended developers find other things to focus on.

Overall, though, Twitter for iPhone is still a nice app, and is quite popular. However, it has had some recent problems including the recent addition (and quick removal) of the extremely unpopular Quick Bar, which showed trending and promoted topics on the top of your tweet stream. Even though Twitter has now removed the Quick Bar, the episode has left many iPhone users considering other Twitter apps again.

The stage was set for an all-new Twitter app to be released. And Tapbots stepped up to the challenge.

Meet the Fourth Tapbot

Tapbots infuses everything they touch with their own unique design that takes common iOS elements to the next level. Their popular Calcbot, Convertbot, and Pastebot apps are popular for their combination of useful functionality with beautiful design, and have inspired the design of many other apps in the App Store today.

Tweetbot, the newest member of the family, is no exception. Their fourth app (apparently since it was announced before Calcbot), Tweetbot includes a 0004 branding under it’s main background texture, one of many delightful design touches. In fact, when you go to add your Twitter account to Tweetbot, make sure to enter your password incorrectly just to see the error box. If your account info is incorrect, you’ll see a standard notification that lets you know the info is wrong, which then drops away instead of simply fading. Beautiful!

The fourth Tapbot keep up the tradition of quality and style

While there’s only so many features you can include in a Twitter app while still keeping it simple, Tweetbot includes enough new tricks to fill a small intro tutorial when you first log in to Twitter on the app. Swipe through the pages to see the unique features, including timeline list selection, conversation and related Tweet views, special features for double and triple taps, and more that we’ll look at below.

Yes, there's enough new features to warrant a guide

Not Just Another Twitter App

When you first get to your account, it’s easy to think that Tweetbot is just a close cousin of Twitter for iPhone with a slightly different style. You can pull down on your list to refresh the timeline, or tap a tweet to reply, retweet, favorite, view included links and media, or add a link to your Instapaper account. You can also double-tap on a tweet to view the full tweet with additional info, or triple-tap on a tweet to instantly reply.

At first, it looks like a re-skinned Twitter for iPhone

Keep digging though and you’ll find more and more unique features that set Tweetbot apart. The most unique feature is the conversation and related tweets views that let you see the whole conversation around any tweet in your timeline. Swipe to the left over a tweet to see related tweets include replies from others to that tweet, or swipe right to reveal the conversation so you can see what you’ve missed. This is the best way I’ve seen to get the whole conversation from a tweet, on any platform.

Swipe to reveal conversations and related tweets

Then, the next biggest unique feature is the option to set your timeline to display the tweets from any of your lists. Tap the Timeline button to reveal all of your personal lists and the lists from other you subscribe to, then select the one you want to see. This is a great way to catch up on tweets on the topics you care most about. Best of all, you could just use a list as your main timeline if you follow too many people to keep up with. If you’re a heavy Twitter list user, this alone could be worth Tweetbot’s price.

Switch your timeline to a list by tapping the top bar

Do More With Twitter

On the bottom right, Tweetbot includes two customizable buttons. Press and hold to reveal the extra options, and the button on the bottom will change to show your most recent choice. Between the two, you can see your lists, favorites, retweets, and searches. The lists view here lets you edit your lists, while the search pane lets you find tweets or users quickly. Plus, checking the retweets list to see which of your tweets have been recently retweeted can be a great ego boost!

Customize the last two buttons on the toolbar

As mentioned before, you can double-tap on a tweet to view more info about it, including its time, the client it was sent from, and who retweeted it. Tap on an icon or the Twitter name under a tweet in full view to view a full profile page for that user. Here you can quickly see their site, add them to a list, view their recent tweets, followers, favorites, and more. There’s so much to explore here, you’ll never need to go to the Twitter web interface to find out anything about a user or tweet!

View detailed info about individual tweets and accounts

You can even include more info in your tweets with Tweetbot. Add as many images as you can fit in one tweet, and they’ll all show up in a small preview bar on the bottom of your tweet editor. If you need to save a tweet for later, Tweetbot has a robust draft tweet system that makes it simple to edit and send draft tweets. Tweetbot works great with multiple accounts, too. Just tap the back arrow on the top of your timeline to view and switch accounts, and click Edit to rearrange, remove, or add new accounts.

Multiple accounts? Multiple image uploads? All here!

Tweak Tweetbot

In the buzz on Twitter about Tweetbot’s launch, one common complaint was that many thought it didn’t include URL shortening and Instapaper integration. As it turns out, Tweetbot has an extensive settings section that includes these and more. To get to the settings, tap the back arrow on the top of your timeline, then select Settings under your accounts list. You can tweak sounds, font size, tap settings, and more from the main section, then select your account name to choose your URL shortener, image and video upload services, and add Read it Later or Instapaper integration.

The URL shortener doesn’t let you sign in with your Bit.ly account, though interestingly enough it does let you use CloudApp as your URL shortener. Additionally, while Tweetbot doesn’t support native push notifications, you can add Boxcar support for instant notifications of new tweets if you’d like.

Tweak settings for URL shortening, read later services, and more

Conclusion

So is it time to dump Twitter for iPhone? While most of Tweetie’s original goodness is still in Twitter’s flagship app, Tapbots showed that it’s not the absolute best a Twitter app can be. I’ve fallen in love with Tweetbot’s interface and features, and don’t plan to switch back. It’s good enough to have jumped to the 5th most popular paid app on the App Store only a day after launch, and with it’s solid ratings, it looks like plenty of other users think the same. If you’ve made the switch, or decided to pass, let us know why in the comments. At the very least, Tapbots proved that 3rd party developers can still innovate on the Twitter platform!

In this Quick Look, we’re highlighting Gold & Chocolate. The developer describes Gold & Chocolate as follows:

The name of the game “Gold & Chocolate” comes from the only two colors that make up this groundbreaking look. They are chosen to fit in elegantly with your iPhone and thus create a truly beautiful visual experience. With “retina display” its beauty is taken to a whole new level. Sometimes, it becomes strange to think that you are playing a video game.

Read on for more information and screenshots!

Screenshots

Gold & Chocolate

Gold & Chocolate

About the App

Here are the top five features you can expect to see in the latest version:

• Beautiful and groundbreaking look.
• This original look has been used to create a unique gameplay. You will have to use your focus abilities and your memory.
• Relaxing.
• Incredible with Retina Display.
• 90 levels.

Requirements: iPhone – iPod Touch – iOs 3.1 or later
Price: $0.99
Developer: Cocobic

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Who doesn’t love a little customization? Both the iPhone lock screen and home screen provide us with a blank canvas to display photographs and graphics that are both functional and fun. So how do you get your hands on the best iPhone wallpapers and background? There are of course, a few hundred apps for that.

We combed through tons of wallpaper and background apps on the App Store to bring you the top seventy-five from several different categories. Below you’ll find apps containing wallpapers with cars, artwork, nature, app shelves and a lot more, many of which can be downloaded completely free.

Shelves and Icon Borders

Dimensionz Wallpapers ($0.99) – Introducing a whole new way to customize your homescreen. Now you can place your apps on virtual shelves — inset them into your background — and create a crisp seamless HD layout on the fly. Dimensionz Wallpapers isn’t just a wallpaper app. It’s a whole new dimension in custom wallpapers.

Dimensionz Wallpapers

Pimp Your Screen ($0.99) – Pimp Your Screen is here to customize the way your device looks by giving you an exclusive selection of specially designed backgrounds, icon skins, app shelves, neon combos and many other eye candies.

Shelf Backgrounds and Wallpapers Pro ($0.99) – With 1,000+ shelf backgrounds for your home screen. Amazing icon frames all in this single App. You can customize your own home screen with 450+ glow effects, including 24+ Christmas glow effects, show to your family and friends!

iWallpaper Maker ($1.99) – iwallpaper, made by a professional designer, has high quality frames and backgrounds. Just take your pick! iwallpaper maker helps you change and make easily your own backgrounds.

iWallpaper Maker

Home Screen Wallpaper Maker (Free) – Add frames to your apps with our neon glow effects. Import your own photos and add any effects from our library to create custom home screen wallpapers.

Topping Pro ($0.99) – You can make your own home screen by not only choosing wallpapers but “Topping” with cute and unique character designs.

Create a awesome lock screen / i LockScreen Maker (Free) – Lock Screen Maker of YoungGam is definitely not typical Lock Screens that most apps offer. calendars, backgrounds, symbols and frames made by a professional designer provide a variety of high quality frames. It will help you change and make easily thousands of new Lock Screens you like. Just take your pick of any one of our Lock Screen Frames and enjoy your imagination!

iTexture Retina Background Wallpaper Generator ($0.99) – Generate your own wallpapers from the many included textures and icons backgrounds. More than 700 combinations available.

Free App Frames – HD Wallpapers (Free) – FREE App Frames from Pocket Zebra includes the best collection of HD home screen wallpapers for your iPhone 4 and 3GS and select iPod Touch devices. Bonus lock screen wallpapers! Customize your device even further with lock screen wallpapers included for free as a bonus!

Free App Frames

App icon backgrounds & home screen wallpapers (Free) – Focusing on quality not quantity we have made a collection of the best home screen backgrounds to customise your phone.

Shelf Maker ($0.99) – This app takes your own photos and creates an overlay that sits on top of a shelf graphic.

Shelf Maker

Glow Effects

Retina Wallpapers & Glow Effects (Free) – You can save all pics in your device as Wallpaper! This app has the largest number of pics in the app store! You will find almost all Wallpaper, Eye Illusions, 3D stereograms Funny Pics and others in this app store.

All-IN-1 Wallpapers Box With Glow Effects (Free) – With 150,000+ wallpapers and 10,000+ Retina HD 640×960 wallpapers and 400+ glow effects, and more every day, All-IN-1 Wallpapers Box is the most full-featured, versatile and functional app you’ll find at any price.

All-IN-1 Wallpapers Box With Glow Effects

Retina Wallpapers HD with Glow Effects (Free) – 11,000+ Crystal Clear and Vibrant Wallpapers for crisp retina screen from 30+ categories.

98,000+ Wallpapers HD & Glow Effects Backgrounds ($0.99) – 98,000+ Wallpapers HD & Glow Effects Backgrounds Pro, 70% off at launch, on sale now! Only 0.99, you can own more than 98,000 High Quality Pics and thousands of Glow Effects.

98,000+ Wallpapers HD & Glow Effects Backgrounds

Glow Backgrounds & Wallpapers (Free) – Make your iPhone/iPod look outstanding with amazing glow backgrounds, customize your own app screen glow backgrounds and impress your friends.

Nature

Sea Beach Wallpapers ($2.99) – Sea Beach Wallpapers- is a great arrangement of the best and most sea beach wallpapers right on your iPhone. It is most perfect for all people those who love to stay in sea beach. Discover the ultimate collection of best picked high quality and most sea beach wallpapers for your device and decorate it nicely.

Sea Beach Wallpapers

Nature Images (Free) – With over 3 million downloads, these beautiful, close-up Nature Images grace the desktops of computer users everywhere, and they’re now available for your iPhone or iPod touch. We’ve partnered with a photographer whose work is included in major operating systems and whose photos are among the most popular wallpaper images in the world. Only the best images have been selected and each is carefully optimized to fit the exact specifications of the iPhone and iPod touch screens.

Nature Wallpapers & Images (Free) – The application contains hundreds of nature wallpapers collected elaborately. There are magnificent scenes such as lakes, mountains and sunsets.

Flower Wallpaper (Free) – Decorate your iPhone screen with various flowers. Just download the flower wallpaper application and you can change your iPhone screen everyday! The application includes 20 beautiful flower images.

Amazing Fall Wallpaper ($0.99) – Amazing Fall Wallpaper features breathtaking images of autumn leaves, trees, foliage, and scenery that can be used as wallpaper and backgrounds designed specifically for your iPhone and iPod Touch.

Amazing Fall Wallpaper

Space Art Wallpaper Backgrounds (Free) – Features beautiful Space Art Background images of planets in our solar system, extrasolar planets, gas giants, stars, galaxies, nebulae and more. Scroll through images or watch a slideshow, save them to your camera roll and use them as your Background Wallpaper on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Bugs! ($0.99) – Bugs! Features over 180 Amazing Macro Photographs of Bugs. Join Photographer Thomas Shahan as he reveals the remarkable beauty, color and detail of this tiny world. Share images with friends using the facebook plugin, and add to the experience by playing the free Ambient Forest Sound track on the embedded media player. You can also save images to use on your iPad, iPhone or iPad.

300+ amazing animal wallpaper HD offline (Free) – Awesome Animal Wallpaper provides you with the most amazing animals and the best visual effect with a maximum resolution of 640 x 960 pixels! It’s free!! No network connecting is required. No additional traffic. No extra fee.

Nature Clock (Free) – Nature Clock brings you 130+ high quality photos taken by a professional photographer spending almost 5 years. Photos include Insect, birds, romantic sunset, flowers and landscape around the world.

Nature Clock

Nature Wallpapers HD (Free) – All images are HQ and in HD so you can enjoy the natural beauty of the scene. We only include the best!

Natural Wallpapers (Free) – Forget Browsing the Internet for hours to find backgrounds for your iPhone. Forget spending hours of time cropping and resizing the images to fit perfectly on your iPhone. Forget spending all that time to just get a nice background. This Application contains huge collection of high quality images sized specifically for your iPhone.

Amazing Nature – Wallpaper ($0.99) – This app contains more than one hundred of amazing wallpapers collected elaborately. All these photos can be saved to the album in your iPhone or iPad (Double-click on the screen, then press the button), and you can set them as wallpaper or send them to your friends.

Space Wallpapers Free – High quality cool space wallpapers for iPhone, updated regularly, and free!

Serene Nature ($0.99) – Get ready to relax and be at peace. This app contains a stunning user-driven collection of some of the most serene places in the world. Be sure to contribute and add to this experience!

Free Space Wallpapers (Free) – Get the awesome space wallpapers for free. High quality images which you can save and use as background.

Free Space Wallpapers

Beach Backgrounds ($0.99) – World Beaches contains gorgeous pictures of beaches from over 17 countries! A massive collection of beautiful beaches in the palm of your hand.

Landscape Wallpaper ($0.99) – A collection of 80 high quality images (and more to come) from every season of the year. If you like nature this is a perfect application for you, set the slide show and watch all the great views in the photos.

Moon Wallpapers (Free) – Moon Wallpapers- is a great arrangement of the best moon wallpapers right on your iPhone. It is most perfect for all people those who love to watch moon and its wonders. Discover the ultimate collection of best picked high quality moon wallpapers for your device and decorate it nicely.

Moon Wallpapers

3D

3D Wallpapers & Backgrounds (Free) – Unlimited collection! Tons of Stunning, clear and high resolution pictures. Updated regularly by user and app management team.

108 3D Funny Wallpapers ($0.99) – 108 Funny 3D Wallpapers contains 108 outrageously cute wallpapers rendered specially for the screen size of your iPhone/iPod Touch.

108 3D Funny Wallpapers

Wallpapers 3d (Free) – 208 unique wallpapers so far. This app consists of concepts created at my spare time. Each concept consists of images. Each wallpaper has its own name and meaning. Choose an image by using the arrows or flick left/right to change an image and tap ‘Save’. Image will be saved to your Camera or Photo library.

Amazing 3D Wallpapers ($2.99) – Massive collection of “Amazing 3D Wallpapers” is now at your fingerprints. All the wallpapers have been picked and prepared with a heart & soul effort by the content management team. Smarten your iPhone with such high quality & remarkable 3D wallpapers.

Amazing 3D Wallpapers

Holiday

Valentine Wallpapers for Retina Display (Free) – Huge amazing Valentine Wallpaper for Retina Display is now at your fingertips. Liven up your iPhone 4 at your valentine with such high quality amazing valentine wallpapers.

Valentine Wallpapers for Retina Display

Halloween Wallpapers for Retina Display (Free) – Now its Halloween time and “Halloween Wallpapers for Retina Display” brings the great opportunity to get in the Halloween mood perfectly. It provides you a set of high quality original Halloween themed and the most attractive Halloween wallpapers that you can discover the ultimate collection of best-picked high quality Halloween wallpaper for your Halloween event and make your Halloween especial from others.

Holiday Wallpapers HD (Free) – Collection of the best HD and Free April Fools Day and Easter wallpapers and backgrounds. Celebrate these two occasions with all your friends! Happy April Fool’s Day and Happy Easter!

Christmas Wallpapers & Backgrounds in One Pro (Free) – A large collection of wallpapers to show your Christmas spirit!

Christmas Wallpapers & Backgrounds in ONE Pro

Cars

Autoshow(Wallpaper) vol.6 ($0.99) – Autoshow is a collection of great 100+ latest auto wallpapers!

10,000+ Car Wallpapers Free – Offers thousands of high quality car pictures and car wallpapers. All makes. All models. Classic cars, muscle cars, exotic cars, supercars, everyday cars – we’ve got all them car pictures!

HD Lamborghini Wallpaper ($0.99) – HD Lamborghini Wallpaper is collection of cool HD (High-Density 640 x 960) Kawasaki wallpaper for iPhone 4, iPhone 3G/3GS & iPod Touch. All wallpaper are optimized for iPhone 4 with fine details and superb resolution. iPhone 3G/3GS and iPod touch users can also use this application. All wallpaper will automatically shrink to fit the screen of your devices.

HD Lamborghini Wallpaper

BMW Sportscar Wallpaper ($0.99) – BMW Sportscar Wallpaper is a collection of the world’s finest BMW sportscar wallpaper. All wallpaper are optimized for iPhone/iPod Touch.

Cars Wallpapers Cut ($0.99) – Cars Wallpapers is a collections of amazing cars from all over the world. You’ll get 250+ amazing car photos that you can email or save. No internet connection needed.

Cars Wallpapers Cut

Miscellaneous

Backgrounds Plus (Free) – 10,000+ of the best backgrounds and wallpapers hd to customize your device with. All in high resolution and optimized for the Retina display. Our team of artists have created and hand picked thousands of the best high definition backgrounds and hd wallpapers for your mobile device. We include only the best!

CoolPapers Pro – The Best Wallpapers & Backgrounds ($2.99) – CoolPapers Pro lets you customize your home screen by allowing you to browse and download the most stunning photos of your favorite celebrities, models, movies, cars, luxury brands, and much more! New wallpapers are added daily.

CoolPapers Pro

Society6 Daily Art Wallpapers and Backgrounds (Free) – Society6 artists hailing from Brooklyn to Barcelona bring you an endless supply of Grade-A quality Artist Wallpapers and Backgrounds to meet your recommended daily dosage of retina candy – all for free.

Wallpapers by GelaSkins (Free) – We at GelaSkins are proud purveyors of artist-designed, removable covers for iPhone, iPad, iPod and many more devices. We created this app so you can easily download amazing wallpapers directly to your iOS device. Browse our artist gallery or check out our collaborations with great studios like Marvel Comics, National Geographic, and Busted Tees.

Wallpapers by GelaSkins

Backgrounds (Free) – 10,000+ Backgrounds from 100+ Artists and our Design Team. New Backgrounds added daily. Choose from over 60 categories such as: Funny, Cars, Guys, Movies, Space, Cute, Girly, Sports, Games, Beaches, Water, Messages / Quotes, Night, Hearts, Swirls, Explosions, Buildings, Cities, Fantasy, Sunsets, Technology, Flowers, Animals, Music, Space, Valentine’s Day, Christmas, New Years, Easter and many more.

Cool Wallpapers HD & Retina (Free) – Now with Effects, as of Version 2.0! With Cool Wallpapers 2.0, you can add glow effects, black and white effects, and blur effects. Unleash your inner artist, and share your masterpieces with friends!

Backpapers – Online Backgrounds and Wallpapers (Free) – Backpapers is an online background and wallpaper viewer. It allows you to browse and search iPhone wallpapers and download them to the device to set as your home or lock screen. Browse new daily photos by flicking through backgrounds specifically made for your device which includes retina resolution wallpapers for iPhone4.

100 Free Girly Wallpapers (Free) – adorable doggies and kitties fairy wallpapers romance wallpapers and more!

Quotes Wallpapers & Backgrounds 25,000+ (Free) – Over 25,000 funny, love and famous quotes wallpapers in the palm of your hands. Become smarter and wiser every second by reading famous quotes from famous people.

Fantastic Wallpapers Free – Hundreds of high quality fantastic iphone wallpapers, free! Just shake to show a random wallpaper.

50,000+ Retina Wallpapers (Free) – 50,000+ high quality 640×960 Retina Wallpapers, perfect for iPhone 4, also suitable for iPhone 2G/3G/3GS and iPod touch, update regularly.

50,000+ Retina Wallpapers

ImagePro – Google Image search ($0.99) – ImagePro provides easy-to-use interface to the Google Image search. Just type the search keywords and ImagePro will start fetching images from Google. Save a photo or image to your Photo Albums, set it up as a Wallpaper, or go to the original photo/image web page.

So Cute! – Super Cute Images, Wallpapers and Backgrounds (Free) – Can’t get enough cute? Brighten up your device with 1000s of hand picked cute images and cute wallpapers!

Cool Backgrounds ($0.99) – Cool Backgrounds gives you a collection of amazing, awesome and ultimate wallpapers. Don’t waste time going through a collection of photos that requires you to connect to the internet each time. Get the ultimate collection of pre-selected high quality wallpapers for your phone that is available all the time.

Rare Wallpapers Collection (Free) – A huge amazing rare wallpaper collection.

10,001 HDR Wallpapers ($0.99) – Get 10,001 HDR Wallpapers for your iPhone or iPod! In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminance between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods. This wide dynamic range allows HDR images to more accurately represent the range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to faint starlight.

iPhone Wallpaper – Luxurious textures (Free) – Please enjoy our 42 luxurious wallpapers for Retina Display & iPhone 3G/3GS, more than 40,000 fantastic wallpapers from web service, making tool for your own wallpapers with any price.

iPhone Wallpaper – Luxurious textures

Cool Color Wallpapers & Backgrounds Box (Free) – With 5000+ all kinds of Color Wallpapers, specially for iPhone 4 Retina display, and more every day, Cool Color Wallpapers is the most full-featured, versatile and functional app you’ll find at any price.

Wallpapers For IP4 ($0.99) – Wallpapers For IP4 is ultimate collection of hundreds of carefully selected high resolution wallpapers for your iPhone 4/new iPod Touch.

iTexture v6 Vintage Retina Background Wallpaper ($0.99) – Generate your own special Vintage wallpapers from the many included new textures and icons backgrounds. More than 1000 combinations available.

50,000+ WallPapers & FX ($0.99) – More than 50,000+ high quality iPhone and iPod touch wallpapers. You can scroll the page vertically or horizontally to find the all 50,000+ pics in 120+ categories.

Album Wallpaper ($0.99) – Album Wallpaper lets you select artwork from your iPod library and then formats it perfectly to fit as a wallpaper on your device. Randomly selects artwork or choose the artwork you want.

Wallpaper Creator – Custom Backgrounds & Wallpapers ($2.99) – Place your own text on top of the backdrop (your name, your number, a contacts name if using for a contact graphic, or indeed anything else you can think of!); with 20 backdrops that are dynamically updated at regular intervals (or use your own photos and images from your Photo Library), 160 static built-in backdrops, 30+ fonts, 20 font colours, and 18 text effects, there are literally hundreds of thousands of combinations you could create.

Wallpaper Designer ($2.99) – Make your unique iPhone and iPod of HD wallpapers collection using unlimited combinations of backgrounds and special effects picked from 5 different categories: Frames, Shelves, Glow, Color and Holiday. Take full advantage of exclusive features like “Frame your Photos” and “Slide to Color”.

Wallpaper Designer

Football 2010 Wallpapers ($0.99) – The 2010 World Cup tournament is here! This app provides iPhone optimized wallpapers for each participating country’s flag.

Vivid Wallpaper ($0.99) – You can create a stylish background image just by selecting colors, lines and patterns. It’s so simple to use!

Art Wallpaper ($0.99) – You will be intrigued with the coolness of this wallpaper app.Give your iphone a very cool art look!Basically turn your iphone into an “Art Phone” with those beautiful clear high resolution wallpaper(Sum 380 Cool Art Wallpaper).

Art Wallpaper

Texture it! ($0.99) – Instead of being overwhelmed with thousands of wallpapers to choose from, Texture it! includes 200 beautiful iPhone wallpapers optimized for your iPhone. Categories of photographs include, beach, graffiti, natural, and more.

Which Is Your Favorite?

Obviously, we’re not suggesting that you download all 75! This article is instead aimed at helping you find those one or two perfect wallpaper apps for your particular tastes.

Personally, I love apps like those in the first section that let you mix and match various background with different shelf graphics because they help me create a clean, organized environment for my ever-growing collection of great software. Leave a comment below and let us know which wallpaper apps are your favorite and why.

I thought I’d take a second to sing the praises of an app that I find indispensable as a blogger and web publisher: WordPress for iPhone.

WordPress is the content management system that runs this website. It is a phenomenal open-source and easy-to-use software that anyone can use to publish a blog.

The WordPress app is the perfect counterpart to the WordPress web app. The iPhone app lets you post blog updates, upload photos & videos, and manage comments.

Since this blog gets a steady stream of comments daily, the WordPress iPhone app is vital for me to keep up with comment moderation throughout the day. It also works well for writing and posting articles.

Whenever you’ve got time to kill — in a doctor’s office waiting room, sitting on the bus, or waiting for your kids to finish soccer practice — the WordPress app can help you be productive by writing and publishing your blog posts on the go.

Pair the WordPress iPhone app with some photo editing apps, an FTP app (for uploading files to your site directory) and your favorite social media apps and you’ve got yourself a full-on mobile publishing suite.

WordPress for iPhone: How to Blog While On-the-Go is a post from Apple iPhone Review.

A mishap at a Greenwich, Conn., Apple Store resulted in the activation of the sprinkler system and significant water damage to the building. A cleaning crew working Tuesday night accidentally dislodged a sprinkler head which activated the sprinkler system and fire alarm. Within minutes, the city’s fire department responded to the call, but the main floor and two sub-basements were already flooded.

The store was closed and initially determined to be unfit for occupancy due to possible damage to the electrical wiring in the building. The building was deemed safe by Greenwich building inspectors on Wednesday, but remains closed indefinitely while Apple begins the arduous cleanup process. Store employees would not comment on the loss of electronic equipment from the flooding, but it is expected to be extensive.

This is not the first mishap for the beleaguered store which opened in 2009. The Greenwich store made the headlines in December 2010 when a break-in resulted in the loss of hardware estimated to be worth more than ten thousand dollars.

Greenwich, Conn., Apple Store closed temporarily due to flooding originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 21 Apr 2011 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The wait is finally almost over, Dark Horse Digital will be releasing their iOS app on April 27! I love reading comics on the iPad, the form-factor and experience is perfect – in fact, I prefer it to paper comics. However, while Marvel, DC Comics and some other publishers have been adding more and more issues from their libraries to a number of applications such as Comixology; Dark Horse has been notably absent.

The Dark Horse app is something I’ve been following pretty closely for a while now. Originally it was slated to be released in January, but they weren’t finished, so they postponed the launch and promised to make it up to excited fans. That’s a promise they’re making good on by including the first issue of Hellboy: Seed of Destruction bundled with the app, and they’ll be giving away a few other titles if they can get enough people to subscribe to the newsletter before it launches.

Continue reading Dark Horse Digital coming to iOS April 27

Dark Horse Digital coming to iOS April 27 originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 20 Apr 2011 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There were a few interesting apps demonstrated at the LA App Show last night, but the one that most interested me was an app that Black Entertainment Television’s Brandon Lucas showed off, the official app for the network’s 106 & Park music video show. BET teamed up with developers Bottle Rocket to make it, and I don’t think I’ve seen a more interesting combination of old school media (in this case, a popular cable network) and new school mobile programming.

106 & Park is a daily music video request/pop culture show. Lucas described it as the BET version of MTV’s Total Request Live (which itself was the MTV version of Casey Kasem’s radio countdown show). 106 & Park (named for the original studio location in Harlem) runs for two hours every weekday, and Lucas said his company wanted to design an app for their very mobile-aware viewers that could be used not only to promote the show, but drive engagement with the network at large, and “go for a whole new level of interactivity” with the way these things are done.

And so what they decided to do was deep dive into how their viewers watched the show and interacted with each other. From that came a whole bunch of fascinating features, from some really surprising social media integration to even a “fame lottery” that allows their on-air personalities to directly connect with app users.

Continue reading BET’s 106 & Park app impresses with promotion and social network integration

BET’s 106 & Park app impresses with promotion and social network integration originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 20 Apr 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re an artist and you like to paint with your iPad then you know how much nicer it can be to use a capacitive stylus rather then your finger. While there are already a number of styluses that work with iOS devices on the market, Studio Neat has decided there’s room for one more. The Cosmonaut is differentiating itself by using a wide-grip design inspired by dry-erase markers; which Studio Neat argues is a more appropriate analog for the way we use an iPad than a pen or pencil.

Studio Neat’s first big product, the Glif iPhone stand, was very successful being launched thanks to backers on Kickstarter who were willing to fund the manufacturing costs to get the Glif off the ground and the Cosmonaut is being funded the same way. The original goal was to have $50,000 pledged by the end of the Kickstarter campaign and right now — with only a few hours to go — they’ve raised more then $125,000.

If the Cosmonaut looks like your dream stylus then you should hurry over to Kickstarter and pledge $25 or more to reserve one in the first batch which they hope to be shipping in June.

The Cosmonaut looks like a pleasure to hold and I definitely plan on picking one up at some point.

Countdown to the last few hours before The Cosmonaut stylus launch originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 20 Apr 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re familiar with professional video production then you’ve probably seen the popular video post-production applications and plugins Red Giant Software makes. What you may not know is that Red Giant released the delightful iPhone photography app Plastic Bullet last year for making your photos look like they were shot with a plastic toy camera.

Red Giant Software wasn’t done with the iPhone though and they just released two new camera apps that look every bit as good as Plastic Bullet.

Continue reading Red Giant Software debuts two iOS camera apps, gives away Plastic Bullet today

Red Giant Software debuts two iOS camera apps, gives away Plastic Bullet today originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 20 Apr 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It started with a few tweets and progressed to our own internal tests and it would appear as though Apple’s iTunes servers are, at some level, not working properly. For me, it began with an all-too-familiar timeout while trying to update apps. Then I tried to download the currently-free Plastic Bullet app. Later, when we started testing it appears the issue has turned into a sign-in issue with authentication servers refusing the connection.

Steve and Chris in Colorado, meanwhile, are seeing slow downloads but are able to log in and download apps. The issue appears in iTunes and Mac App Store. Let us know if you’re seeing this in the comments.

Update: There’s no shortage of Apple Support threads on this. Here, here and here. Some are saying it’s back up, and no doubt if Apple is performing maintenance it’ll be back in a bit.

Update 2: This appears to be affecting iTunes Connect.

Update 3: As of 9:20 ET, it appears things are starting to stabilize with Apple’s servers. Both I and Megan up in Pennsylvania were able to authenticate, however Megan is getting errors stating she already purchased an app when she hadn’t bought it yet.

iTunes servers appear to be wonky today originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 20 Apr 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I attended an event called the LA App Show last night here in Santa Monica, CA, and saw seven demos of various apps that are seeing significant success on the App Store. Matt McMahon from 20th Century Fox was there, and while his company didn’t publish the actual app in question, he’s certainly seen plenty of success: he worked closely with Rovio on the creation of Angry Birds Rio, the movie tie-in that has nabbed 20 million downloads on the App Store in just 20 days of release, and has helped send the Rio animated movie to number one at the box office.

McMahon didn’t talk about the actual development of Angry Birds Rio — most of the technical work was left to Rovio, who McMahon called the “best in breed” on the App Store. But McMahon and his company did make an interesting decision, and that was to pin a large arm of their marketing for a huge movie on a little company from Finland with a popular app about birds and pigs.

Continue reading 20th Century Fox talks about the success of Angry Birds Rio

20th Century Fox talks about the success of Angry Birds Rio originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 20 Apr 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Welcome to TUAW’s liveblog of Apple’s 2nd Fiscal Quarter Results call. During the call, we’ll deliver a play-by-play of the details of the financial report for the quarter ending March 31, 2011. We will also be taking your questions and comments during the call.

If you’d like to listen in on this very important financial call, Apple is making it available via QuickTime streaming audio at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq211/ beginning at 5 PM ET sharp. The call will be available for your listening pleasure for two weeks after today’s event; the liveblog transcript is available on TUAW forever. iPhone and iPod touch users can join in on the fun using the free CoveritLive iPhone app.

TUAW staffers will be manning the liveblog starting at 4:50 PM EDT; the call will begin about 10 minutes later.

Apple Q2 2011 Results Call Liveblog originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 20 Apr 2011 16:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ahead of today’s 5pm conference call, Apple released its earnings report for the second quarter of fiscal 2011 (otherwise known as the first calendar quarter). Profit number: $5.99B in the quarter. Total revenue for the quarter is US$24.6 billion, versus 13.5B year-over-year. Earnings per diluted share comes in at $6.40, versus $3.33 last year. Forecasting $23B revenue for the next quarter.

Product sales numbers rolled in as follows: 28% up year over year in Macs with 3.76M sold in the quarter, 18.6M iPhones (113% unit growth), 9.02M iPods (including the iPod touch) and 4.69M iPads, including the iPad 2. (The number on iPad sales disclosed via the Samsung lawsuit was thought to be only counting the original iPad, but it may have included the iPad 2 which was supply-constrained.) We were expecting a big Mac number based on the predictions from Gene Munster and sales data from NPD.

You can compare and contrast the actual numbers against the predictions made by Wall Street analysts and top stock bloggers via the compilation done over at Apple 2.0/Fortune Tech.

We’ll be listening in to the conference call and liveblogging all the fun — join in!

Full press release below.

Apple announces record revenue for 2nd quarter FY11 originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 20 Apr 2011 16:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ABI Research’s 2010 analysis of the media tablet market reveals the iPad grabbed a respectable 85 percent market share. Trailing far behind the iPad was the Samsung Galaxy Tab with an eight percent market share and the Archos Internet tablets with a mere two percent market share. There three vendors accounted for 95 percent of all media tablets sold in 2010.

These figures are not surprising considering Apple’s jump on the competition. Launched in early 2010, the iPad kicked off this tablet revolution and other manufacturers have struggled to catch up. According to ABI, tablets will continue to hit retail shelves in large numbers. The market research company predicts manufacturers will ship 40 to 50 million tablets worldwide in 2011.

With an increase in the number of Android tablets hitting the market and the debut of a dedicated tablet version of Android, the iPad 2 will finally have some serious competition. Though Android will make inroads into the tablet market, the iPad 2 is expected to keep the #1 spot for the next few years. Hopefully, we will get a glimpse of these industry leading sales figures later today during Apple’s earnings conference call.

iPad held 85% market share in 2010 according to ABI Research originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 20 Apr 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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