Category: I-phone

Tap Tap Tap has released Camera + 2.2 (US$0.99) today, which includes some nice UI changes, automatic saving to the iPhone’s camera roll (yay!) and a hot new feature called Clarity, which is Tap Tap Tap’s answer to Apple’s HDR photo feature. I spent the morning shooting photos with Camera + 2.2, and here’s what I found.

UI

Camera + hasn’t received a complete UI overhaul, but the changes are quite welcome. Transition animations are smooth and pretty. For example, tapping the Edit button while viewing an image full-screen first pulls the shot forward, than sinks it into the edit window as the tools appear. Tap the Done button when you’re finished and the editing tools fall away as the image slides back into the foreground. Each transition is smooth and pretty with no stuttering.

The info panel has been updated with the Tap Tap Tap gang re-ordering a few buttons. Now you get a thumbnail at left, the time stamp and date stamp, size and resolution. Beneath that you’ll find EXIF data and flash status at the time of exposure (on or off). Lastly, a pin identifies where the shot was taken on a Google Map. Give it a tap to open the Maps app.

Finally, you’ll find buttons for the camera, editing tools, save options, sharing options and finally a delete button.

Continue reading Camera + 2.2 adds Clarity feature, UI improvements, more

Camera + 2.2 adds Clarity feature, UI improvements, more originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s New York SoHo store has a long and storied history. It was the first Apple Store to open in New York City and is housed in an old, distinctively-styled Post Office building.

It has been visited by Steve Jobs himself and has been the host of several high-profile guest appearances by the Coen Brothers and the Jonas Brothers. These appearances attracted so much attention that the store was cited as a bad neighbor by its community.

Though its reputation is large, the square footage of the SoHo store reaches a mere 16,000 square-feet, making it the smallest Apple store in the Big Apple.

A recent building permit issued for work on the SoHo store and a rental agreement for an adjacent property suggests the store may be expanding its retail footprint. The store currently occupies the upper level and a portion of the lower level and basement of 103 Prince Street. A remaining portion of the building is addressed as 124 Greene Street and was home to a Post Office branch until 2009. Now that this spot has been vacated, Apple has reportedly signed a lease for this parcel and is looking to integrate the 5,000-square foot space into its existing SoHo store. This expansion would put the SoHo store on equal footing with the other NYC stores which average 20,000+ square-feet.

Building permits suggest SoHo Apple Store ready for expansion originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Vimeo expanded its video hosting service to include an iPhone application today. The new mobile application is integrated tightly into the Vimeo service and lets you easily edit and manage your existing video content as well as add new content recorded on your iOS device.

The Vimeo application is feature rich and lets you upload new content and download existing clips to your camera roll. The account management feature lets you edit the details of your video clips and organize them into groups, channels and albums. You can also retrieve stats such as daily views, likes and comments. The obligatory social networking features let you share your videos using Twitter, Tumblr, WordPress, email or SMS.

To sweeten the pot, the Vimeo application also includes a built-in video capture tool and editor that lets you spruce up videos recorded by your phone before you share them with the world. Editor features are basic and include transitions, titling and trim effects. You can also add a personalized audio track and adjust the volume level of recorded clips.

Lastly, Vimeo has covered all the bases with this application by allowing users to browse Vimeo’s extensive catalog of video clips from their mobile phone. Similar to its web client, the mobile application lets you watch videos stored in your Inbox and your Watch Later queue as well as those clips you have liked. You can also use the iOS application to “like” videos and add them to your Watch Later queue.

Best of all, Vimeo is open to suggestions for improvement and is committed to providing regular updates which will include new music, effects and feature requests submitted by users. The application is available for free from the App Store and is compatible with iOS devices running version 4.0.1 including the iPhone, iPod touch (4th generation) and the iPad 2.

Vimeo for iPhone now available, features video editor originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As we reported Monday, Mac software is once again eligible for an Apple Design Award with the caveat that it be available on the Mac App Store by May 23. Not only does it exclude companies that can’t enter the Mac App Store, but it also cuts out a good bit of past winners.

Out of the past 22 winners of the Apple Design Award spanning 2006 to 2009, nine apps would be eligible for the 2011 awards. Thirteen are out of the game, though two developers have indicated future Mac App Store plans. A couple pieces of past winners are no longer actively developed.

Read on to see a list of past winners — 2010 excluded, of course — and their current status regarding the Mac App Store

Continue reading Apple Design Awards: Would past winners be eligible?

Apple Design Awards: Would past winners be eligible? originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After yesterday’s decision by the International Trade Commission that Apple isn’t violating five key Nokia patents, Nokia today has hit back by claiming that they invented, well, just about everything Apple has ever made.

AppleInsider is reporting that Nokia has today launched a second complaint with the ITC saying that Apple’s iPhone, iPod, iPad and Mac computers violate seven of their patents covering multi-tasking, data synchronization, positioning, call quality, and the use of Bluetooth accessories.

Nokia has issued a press release in which they also say they disagree with the ITC’s judgement yesterday, and “is waiting to see the full details of the ruling before deciding on the next steps in that case.”

“Our latest ITC filing means we now have 46 Nokia patents in suit against Apple, many filed more than 10 years before Apple made its first iPhone,” said Paul Melin, Vice President, Intellectual Property at Nokia. Nokia is also suing Apple in patent courts in Delaware in the USA, Mannheim, Dusseldorf and the Federal Patent Court in Germany, the UK High Court in London and the District Court of the Hague in the Netherlands.

It appears that about the only Apple product not first developed by Nokia is the Apple HiFi — although, as it ran on electricity and has at least one speaker, even that could be theirs.

Nokia files second complaint against Apple originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Andrew asked us about how to have a folder convert documents to PDF format so that he can sync them to his Dropbox.

Today’s show goes into how to use Automator and AppleScript to do some scripting, and we’re going to demonstrate an iPad app that will convert documents for you on your iPad.

Some resources for you:

• Automator – Mac OS X Automation Automator
• AppleScript – Mac OS X Automation AppleScript
• Save2PDF – Main Company Page

Any questions, please leave them in the comments or email us! Read on for the video.

Continue reading Ask TUAW Video Edition: PDF and Scripting

Ask TUAW Video Edition: PDF and Scripting originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon announced Cloud Drive and Cloud Player for the web and Android, a new web-based service that lets you store your music and other files in the cloud and access them on the go. Streaming music is possible using a web-based player compatible with the Mac and PC as well as an Android application.

The Cloud Drive service competes with online storage solutions like Dropbox by letting you upload music, video, photos and other documents to an online locker. The service provides you with 5 GB of online storage space for free and additional storage capacity is available for a minimal fee. The paid service includes 20 GB of storage for $20, 50 GB for $50 and so on.

Amazon’s Cloud Player service is free and brings music streaming to the masses who shop Amazon’s web store. Amazon apparently launched the service without the blessing of the recording industry and is working on securing post-announcement licenses. The online retail giant is forcing the music industry to play its hand and either support the service or risk appearing as the bad guy by shooting Amazon down. It’s a gutsy move, but one that Amazon needs to make if it wants to catch up with its competition.

Speaking of competition, read on to find out how Amazon is taking on Apple’s popular iTunes music service.

Continue reading Amazon launches ‘cloud locker’ music service

Amazon launches ‘cloud locker’ music service originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 09:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ring Blade is an interesting take on the top-down shooter genre (sometimes called “bullet hell,” though that specific genre is a little tougher than Ring Blade actually is). Games of this ilk on the iPhone have struggled a little bit with control schemes, and Ring Blade tries something original — rather than dragging your ship around the screen or blocking the action with a finger, you can flick your ship back and forth on the bottom of your iPhone’s screen. You charge shots with a touch, and then you can flick shots up off the “walls” on-screen; they’ll bounce back and forth and hit enemies as they go.

It’s a weird little twist on the controls for the iPhone, and it works pretty well. Of course, as you can see above, Ring Blade’s other selling point is the graphics — they’re all based on tribal tattoos, making for some interesting enemies and bosses. The game also features 30 levels and OpenFeint integration as well (no Game Center, sadly). It’s available on the iPhone right now for just US$0.99.

TUAW’s Daily App: Ring Blade originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 08:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For the last six years, global research firm TNS has been compiling extensive reports on the usage habits of mobile phone users. Today the company announced the release of its latest work, TNS Mobile Life 2011. Based on a staggering amount of effort — 25,000 hours of interviews with over 34,000 respondents covering 43 countries — there’s a ton of interesting data here on all sorts of things wrapped up in some attractive Flash graphics to allow you to slice and dice the data. For example, the above graph shows how various phone use cases — email, social networking, internet and so on — varies by time of day across different countries.

The survey shows strong brand loyalty amongst both iOS and Android users, with 51 percent and 49 percent of respondents, respectively, “very likely” to stick with their current platform in the future. I suspect this is because of the lock-in effect of the two platforms’ strong app store offerings. Once you’ve bought a few hundred apps through iTunes or the Android Market, you have a few hundred reasons not to want to switch platforms. Indeed, a quarter of all survey participants said that content and apps for their devices are a key part of choosing a platform.

For Windows and Symbian those customer loyalty numbers were only 30 percent and 31 percent, respectively. It might be that Nokia’s deal with Microsoft to switch to Windows Phone 7 might not help it as much as it hopes, although it’s likely that the relatively poor customer satisfaction in the Windows camp reflects more on previous versions of Windows Mobile (which, as an owner of one, I can confirm stink out loud) than they do on the shiny new WP7.

Looking to the future, the survey sees that as usage of SMS and still photography will reach market saturation, and customer purchasing decisions will be increasingly driven by advanced features, such as access to social networks, live TV viewing and photo and video uploading, particularly in emerging markets. Indeed, the survey paints a picture of a tremendous, untapped hunger for advanced smartphones in these emerging markets, which it defines as 24 countries including most of South America, most of Africa, China and India, amongst others.

There’s far more data here than I can hope to cover in this post — if (like me) you’re a data nerd, I recommend you take a long look for yourself.

Mobile Life 2011 survey covers phone use habits and future trends originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here in the UK, O2 was Apple’s partner operator for several years, and it remains the default choice for a lot of us iPhone users. With the new emphasis on tethering in iOS 4.3 via Personal Hotspot, many of us O2 users (particularly those of us with Wi-Fi iPads) have been clamoring for better tethering plans (as Ben Sillis notes, O2 has recently fallen behind rival networks in terms of its value for money.)

Today, O2 is announcing new tariffs (note that in UK jargon we say “tariff” instead of “plan”) across the board, for both its subsidized handset contracts and its SIM-only deals. The full details are here, but the important details for iPhone owners are:

• Tethering is now completely free. If you have a 1 GB data allocation, then it doesn’t matter if you use that data on the phone or on a connected device — it’s all charged the same.
• Data allocations are now tiered separately to your base plan. 100 MB of data is £3/month, 500 MB is £6 and 1 GB is £10.
• The basic 300 min voice / unlimited SMS / 500 MB tariff is £37 per month with an 18 month subsidized handset deal. If you commit to a 24 month contract, you can deduct £5 per month. This used to cost £30.64 per month (Google Cache of the old page).
• The same tariff structure on a 1-month-notice SIM-only deal is £21.50 per month (previously, this was £20.43). If you commit to a 12 month contract, you get twice as many voice minutes.
• Upgrading customers can now choose 12 month contract lengths, meaning you can get each new iPhone release when it comes out. Previously, most people were on 18 month contracts, which didn’t sync up very well with annual iPhone refreshes.

What do you think of the new plans, readers? Personally, I’m going to be calling them today to move my SIMplicity over to the new structure so that I can tether my iPad at will — I might bump up to 1 GB per month of data, too.

Thanks to Jonny Riches for sending this in.

UK cell operator O2 changes tariffs, offers free tethering originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lima Sky has just released an updated version of its insanely popular Doodle Jump game. The 2.0 release adds the ability to compete against your friends in a multiplayer race to the top. The multiplayer race requires a Wi-Fi network and is limited to your Game Center friends.

For those of you patiently waiting for an iPad-optimized version of Doodle Jump, you’re going to have to wait a little longer. The 2.0 release isn’t a universal app. However, iPad owners who are Doodle Jump fans can download the free Hop app for iPad, which is basically Doodle Jump in animated, Hollywood movie tie-in bunny form.

The latest 2.0 version of Doodle Jump is a free update to current owners and the usual US$0.99 for anyone who hasn’t bought the app yet.

Doodle Jump adds multiplayer race with version 2.0 originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, if you weren’t quick enough to get a ticket to this year’s WWDC, this just might … make you angry. A developer is selling an unactivated extra ticket on eBay for the Buy It Now price of US$3,500. That’s $1,900 more than the original $1,599 cost. The eBay seller says the ticket is one he bought for a colleague who can’t make it this year. It’s great that he wants to give another dev who missed out on a ticket the chance of going, but trying to make a buck off it? Come on. [We thought about putting in a link to the auction itself, but decided that was just bad form. -Ed]

Now before anyone gets too hopeful (or angry), I’m certain that Apple is going to put an end to this auction quicker than it can pull an app from the App Store. The last thing Apple wants to have happen is a string of bogus developers in future years buying up WWDC tickets and then scalping them for a profit. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some more WWDC tickets show up on Craigslist or eBay before the June 6 conference begins.

WWDC 2011 ticket shows up on eBay originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 01:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Several Verizon customers who tried to order an iPad 2 directly through the telco giant are still awaiting their shipments. Considering the worldwide shortage of iPad 2 units, that might not sound like a big deal at first, … until you hear the second half; many of these customers ordered the iPad 2 on its first day of availability and still haven’t received one.

According to the rather lengthy forum thread linked above, these Verizon customers were promised either next-day or 2-3 day shipping for their iPad 2s, but more than two weeks after launch day, many of these orders still haven’t shipped. This hasn’t been the case for all launch-day Verizon customers, but it’s become enough of a problem to gain widespread attention.

Citing sources within Verizon, CrunchGear claims the shipping window from Verizon was always 2-3 weeks and has since been extended to 3-4 weeks. This is the same shipping delay as that on Apple’s website. What’s rankled many of these Verizon customers is not just that their orders have been delayed out much longer than they were promised, but that Verizon has charged many of these customers for their orders well in advance of those orders actually shipping.

Verizon has not commented on the matter, but even if it does so, it’s unlikely it’ll be able to do much to fix the situation to everyone’s satisfaction. Demand for the iPad 2 has vastly outstripped supply almost everywhere, so those few unfortunate Verizon customers finding themselves in this mess have little recourse, sadly.

Some early-bird Verizon iPad 2 customers still waiting for shipments originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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i0n1c has posted a video showing untethered iOS 4.3.1 jailbreak running on his iPod Touch 4G. This untethered 4.3.1 jailbreak uses the same exploit he earlier used in iOS 4.3 untethered jailbreak demo.

There is no ETA on untethered iOS 4.3.1 jailbreak release. Watch the untethered jailbroken iPod Touch 4G in action below:

iOS 4.3.1 and 4.3 tethered jailbreak solutions are already out. You can follow the step-by-step guides linked below to jailbreak iOS 4.3.1 and 4.3 firmware on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

• Jailbreak iOS 4.3.1 with Sn0wBreeze 2.4b
• Jailbreak iOS 4.3 Sn0wBreeze 2.3b

Meanwhile everyone should have noticed that my prediction became true and Apple released iOS 4.3.1 in order to fix the PWN2OWN vulnerability in Safari.
(* according to reports Apple did not use 4.3.1 to fix the PWN2OWN vulnerability. Instead they fixed a resurfaced kernel vulnerability @comex used for untethering iPad 2 *)

It was very unlikely that Apple also fixed the kernel vulnerability I used for my untether exploit. Mainly because the kernelcache binary is about 8-10 MB in size and the likelihood that Apple finds the same vulnerability in that short amount of time was very low.

However you never know until you try it. So this morning when I woke up and saw that Sn0wbreeze 2.4 beta was released I thought it would be fun to create a new video.

Unfortunately Sn0wbreeze does not work with my iPad 1 and so I had to test with my iPod 4G.

So I just used Sn0wbreeze to do a tethered jailbreak of my iPod 4G and then I manually installed the untether exploit with SSH.

In the video you can see how I switch off the iPod, then restart it, show the version, show that it is untethered and has the multitasking gestures, i show that you can buy ringtones and then I show cydia and the ninja jump game from last time.

Because several people misunderstood me in the past:

a. I repeatedly stated that I will not release a jailbreak tool – I will only give out the untether. I did not try yet, but if it is feasible the untether could be a cydia package.

b. While the vulnerability I use is in the iPad 2 kernel my untether will NOT SUPPORT the iPad 2, because there is no way to install it there (bootrom exploits fixed). – however Comex is working on that part.

c. I am not giving out any ETA again, because the Jailbreak community is simply nuts. Last time I gave an ETA and even before that had passed I got constantly insulted by people that were demanding an immediate release. Sorry guys the more you insult people with the knowledge to actually do what YOU WANT the less motivation there is to use our free time to give it to you.

d. The only reason why I did not finish the untether before the ETA was due to unexpected work overload in my real job. It had nothing todo with the untether being too hard or unreal.

e. I don’t know why the dev team has not released a redsn0w that does tethered jailbreak for 4.3.1 – I would prefer that to be available, cause sn0wbreeze obviously does not work 100% yet.

f. If you want to learn more about iPhone kernel hacking/exploitation you should come to SyScan Singapore at the end of April. http://syscan.org/index.php/sg/program

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Apple has officially announced dates for the WWDC 2011. The developers event “WWDC 2011″ kicks off on June 6 through June 10, at Mascone Center in San Francisco. This year’s WWDC will be special as Apple is going to unveil the future of the iOS and Mac OS.

WWDC, with more than 100 sessions and support by over 1,000 Apple engineers, provides great opportunities to developers to connect with other iOS and Mac OS developers.

Tickets have already been sold. We’ll cover the WWDC 2011 event in details as it kick Off on June 6. Stay Tuned!

Full Press Release

Apple Worldwide Developers Conference to Kick Off June 6 at Moscone West in San Francisco

CUPERTINO, California—March 28, 2011—Apple® today announced that it will hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) June 6 through June 10 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. At this year’s five-day conference Apple will unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS®, including exciting demonstrations of the new kinds of apps that developers can build using Apple’s advanced frameworks and more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers.

“At this year’s conference we are going to unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “If you are an iOS or Mac OS X software developer, this is the event that you do not want to miss.”

Mobile developers will be able to explore the latest innovations and capabilities of iOS and learn how to greatly enhance the functionality, performance and design of their apps. Mac® developers will see and learn how to develop world-class Mac OS X Lion applications using its latest technologies and capabilities. Developers can even bring their code to the labs and work with Apple engineers, applying development techniques and best-practices to enhance their apps.

Activities at Apple’s WWDC 2011 include:

more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers on a wide range of technology-specific topics for developing, deploying and integrating the latest iOS and Mac OS technologies;
over 1,000 Apple engineers providing developers with code-level assistance, insight into optimal development techniques, and guidance on how they can make the most of iOS and Mac OS technologies in their apps;
the opportunity to connect with thousands of fellow iPad®, iPhone® and Mac developers from around the world; and
Apple Design Awards which recognize iPad, iPhone and Mac apps that demonstrate technical excellence, innovation and outstanding design.

Go to the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2011 website (developer.apple.com/wwdc) to purchase tickets, as well as for updates and more information.

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