Category: I-phone

A rumor out of 9to5 Mac suggests Apple will drop its 10% restocking fees starting January 11th. These fees were assessed when a customer brought a product back within the 14-day return and could get quite expensive, especially for the high-end MacBook Pro notebooks or Mac Pro desktops.

The reasoning behind this rumored policy change was not divulged, but Apple may be following in the footsteps of Best Buy, which got rid of its restocking fees this past holiday shopping season.

This new no restocking fee policy may also explain why some Apple stores were covering their windows last night. Signage promoting this new policy would need to be setup by employees working under the cover of night. Coincidentally, this January 11 date is also the same day Verizon Wireless is hosting an event, we assume to announce the CDMA iPhone.

[Via Engadget]

Apple will drop restocking fees on January 11 originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 10 Jan 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the market for a shoe-phone? iShoes are funky little iPhone cases coming out of Asia that make your phone look like a tiny, somewhat flattened-out sneaker.

Recently available for purchase from Japan-based vendor Strapya, iShoes are made by Korean company Play Hello. These colorful cases seem to have been around since earlier this year but surprisingly without much foreign fanfare. Strapya is selling the iPhone 4 iShoes cases on site for 2380 yen (or about $28), and the company will take orders from outside Japan. Cases are available in an assortment of colors: black, blue, orange, pink, red, and white.

Play Hello has cases available for the iPhone 4 and 3GS, and even for the homegrown fave Samsung Galaxy S, though as far as I can see the company doesn’t ship internationally.

If you do want to convert your iPhone into a cute l’il shoe-phone, then this might be for you. I can’t help but think however that somewhere Don Adams is yelling down at us that we’re doing it wrong.

Hello, Chief?

Hey, your iPhone’s untied! originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 10 Jan 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The opening salvo in the upcoming war of words between wireless carriers AT&T and Verizon has been fired.

After Business Insider published a report about Verizon planning to offer unlimited data plans for their soon-to-be-announced iPhone, the head of PR at arch-rival AT&T couldn’t help but take a poke at the CDMA network that the Verizon is currently using (they’re currently in a transition to a much faster 4G LTE network). Saying “I’m not sure iPhone users are ready for life in the slow lane,” Larry Solomon of AT&T noted that AT&T’s GSM-based network is faster than Verizon’s legacy technology.

What is unknown, of course, is whether or not the Verizon iPhone will take advantage of Verizon’s 4G network. That, of course, would be the best response to the AT&T attack. We’ll all find out, hopefully tomorrow at 11 AM ET.

[via AppAdvice]

AT&T warns Verizon iPhone users of “life in the slow lane” originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 10 Jan 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Starting as soon as tomorrow in some Apple retail store locations, the company will be providing yet another service to new Mac owners to make their purchasing experience as painless as possible — a personalized Mac setup service.

With the service, an employee will sit you down with your new Mac, set up your email account(s), demonstrate the Mac App Store, set up your iTunes account, and then guide you through some of the things that “make a Mac a Mac.”

This service is similar to the setup room at Apple’s Covent Garden store in London, and is expected to become as much of a fixture in Apple Stores as the Genius Bar. While it’s a plus for customers and a way for Apple to sell more Macs, it’s also going to cut into the business of Apple Consultant Network members, many of whom have been relied upon in the past to provide setup services in the homes and businesses of new Mac owners.

Select Apple Stores to offer personal Mac setup service originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 10 Jan 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just four days after AT&T cut prices, Apple has dropped the official U.S. price of the iPhone 3GS to US$49. Apple made the adjustment — a drop of $50 — without fanfare.

It’s widely expected that Verizon will announce its intention to carry Apple’s iPhone tomorrow. In fact, it seems to be reveling in the anticipation among consumers a bit this morning, posting teasing tweets to Twitter. With that in mind, it makes sense that Apple would want to clear out some stock, and AT&T would want to lock in as many new 2-year contracts as possible before the big announcement.

We’ll have full coverage of the news when it drops. In the meantime, if you’re quite happy with AT&T and want a deal on a nice iPhone, here you go.

Update: US retailer Target has also followed suit.

Apple lowers official US iPhone 3GS price to $49 originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 10 Jan 2011 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HyperMac’s portable charging systems are back on the market with a revamped product line that does not violate Apple’s patents. HyperMac was faced with a patent lawsuit from Apple over the company’s charging cables, which used Apple’s MagSafe and 30-pin connectors. The company stopped selling the infringing cables on November 2, while continuing to produce its line of HyperJuice batteries. Without the cables to connect to your laptop, though, the batteries were more or less useless.

Sanho Corporation, the company behind HyperMac, was back at CES 2011 and showed off two new DIY power cable systems that skirt Apple’s patents. One system uses Apple’s MagSafe Airline adapter and a special plug provided by HyperMac to daisy chain a HyperJuice battery to your Apple laptop. While easy to implement, this setup powers your Apple notebook but does not recharge your battery.

A second solution, detailed by Ars but not on HyperMac’s website yet, requires the user to splice the cable on their MacBook power adapter. HyperMac provides the appropriate connectors to let users attach this modified cable to a HyperJuice battery or to the original Apple power adapter. These modifications require minimal technical skill and do not require any soldering. Though not as easy as the Airline adapter method, this latter solution does provide users with the ability to charge their battery from a HyperJuice battery while on the go.

[Via Ars Technica]

HyperMac offers DIY solutions after Apple lawsuit originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 10 Jan 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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To a lot of people’s surprise Apple has pulled the very popular VLC app from the App Store. This is a pretty big deal since the VLC app was eagerly awaited before its release and a very popular app after. The reason for the VLC App’s popularity was the ease of use and number of supported video formats. So why was it pulled?

The answer to that lies with Rémi Denis-Courmont, one of the core developers of the VLC media player. VLC is protected under the GNU General Public License so Denis-Courmont filed a complaint with Apple in November stating the app went against the license and requested the app be taken down. It is assumed Apple finally complied in order to avoid a long drawn out legal battle.

So because of this VLC player is no longer available (for non-jailbroken iPhones).

OpenGL ES does not have a built in library for curve generation, and while the formulas for creating curves can be readily found there are so many different types and it is always nice to have everything done for you. Core Animation provides a few different types of curves, but there are many more. I found out about some great open source code that performs the necessary calculations for 22 different types of curves.  In case you’re wondering why you might need this data — it is extremely useful for animation.

The library is from Jeff Lamarche, co-author of Beginning iPhone 3 Development and More iPhone 3 Development books you can find out more about the functions, and see some of the examples of the curves at:
More Animation Curves Than You Can Shake A Stick At

Further information on how to use the functions can be found at the above link.

©2011 iPhone, iOS 4, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

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Last week while we were at CES, I asked our editor-in-chief, Victor Agreda, for one of his favorite iPhone games, and he told me one that I’d never heard of: Gravity Wars. It’s a very retro affair — the idea is that you control a pixelated ship and fire, given an angle and speed, at another ship on a starfield. Your lines are drawn out as you fire on the screen, and the goal is to navigate the complicated gravity to hit the opposing ship. It’s simple, but very interesting — you end up calculating some really complicated shots as you try to take the other ship down.

There’s a free and a paid version of the app, but there’s no difference between them — the idea is that if you like the game, you’ll buy it from the author for just 99 cents. Note that the app’s settings are unfortunately stored in the Settings app on your iPhone or iPod touch, since this is an old school title. And, of course, there’s no Game Center integration or any other bells or whistles. This one’s still fun, but it’s retro in both graphics and iOS features.

TUAW’s Daily App: Gravity Wars originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 10 Jan 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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My colleague Chris wrote a post about the popular video playback client VLC being pulled from the App Store following objections from a developer who worked on the project that it was in breach of the GNU Public License. [The app has now been released on Cydia for jailbroken devices.]

This unpopular move had provoked strong reactions throughout the Mac blogging world, and Chris made a strong case for the prosecution in his post. However, every story always has two sides (and somewhere between them lies the truth). I’m here today to present the case for the defense: why Rémi Denis-Courmont was absolutely in the right to do what he did.

However, to do so, I’m going to have to lay out some open source history to give structure to my arguments. Please follow me on.

Continue reading The GPL, the App Store, and you

The GPL, the App Store, and you originally appeared on TUAW on Sun, 09 Jan 2011 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has announced dates for this year’s iTunes Festival London. Like last year, the festival will run every night in July. Sixty artists will be performing over thirty-one days at Camden’s Roundhouse in London. Three of the confirmed bands are Linkin Park, Duran Duran and Rumer.

As in years past, tickets to the shows are only available for free via competitions. Apple will be giving away a limited number of tickets for each showing. The entry form for the competition can be found here. Participants may apply for as many of the gigs as they’d like but are limited to the three confirmed bands for now.

Those who can’t make the festival should still be able to watch highlights, read the latest news and see behind-the-scenes photos on the event’s Facebook and Twitter pages as they did in years past. Apple has also set up an official Ping page for the concert this year. All performances will also be recorded and sold on the iTunes Music Store worldwide.

Apple announces dates for iTunes Festival London 2011 originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 10 Jan 2011 04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We mentioned the CarTrip when they announced it earlier in the week, but after seeing this thing in person at CES I really want one. Primarily because the device will allow you to clear the stupid “check engine” light in most cars made after 1996 with an ODB-II port. You see, the CarTrip features a dongle which plugs into the ODB-II port in your car, and communicates via Bluetooth with an iOS device (in your hand or dashboard).

The CarTrip can then show you certain codes from your car’s “brain” and alert you to problems or clear the check engine light. Plus, a little plant sprout on the app will show you how efficiently your car is driving and the device will track efficiency even if you don’t have your iOS device in the car. Check out the video on the next page; we had a chat with Eric Weisinger from Griffin about the CarTrip. It should be available in the second quarter of 2011 for $89.99.

Continue reading Griffin CarTrip will track efficiency and show diagnostic reports (video)

Griffin CarTrip will track efficiency and show diagnostic reports (video) originally appeared on TUAW on Sun, 09 Jan 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hm, what product could make Apple cover the windows of a retail shop so soon after the holiday shopping season? Surely not the iPad 2. Maybe something that looks the same but works on a totally new network? You know, that Verizon iPhone that we’ve been hearing about for a few years now, perchance? Well, as it turns out, probably not.

The above pic and another one posted on Uneasy Silence by way of TwitPic (dated January 9, 2011) show retail employees deploying the big black shroud to cover the store windows. The poster is from the UK, but no specific location of this store is given. Calls to several US stores said they are not covering up, and honestly covering up (and closing a retail shop) for an entire day before a major announcement would be nuts. This cover-up is most likely for an already-existing product that is getting a new window display, which would be installed overnight. It happens frequently at Apple Stores, particularly after the holidays.

Despite the unrelated coverup, we’re hearing that retail employees will have a meeting next weekend for the “red zone” — a code name given to the sales area of the floor. We’re also hearing of a possible new set up area, meaning you may see a part of stores set up to accommodate new iPhone purchasers get their phones activated. This would be great for Verizon customers suddenly flocking to Apple’s warm embrace, yes? At any rate, it’s more about the service than the product, both in the retail experience and on your network when you leave the store.

Update: As 9to5Mac points out and we hear independently, starting January 11 there will be no more restocking fees. Perhaps this “test drive anything” policy is getting some big display announcement? That would seem apropos.

Update 2: We’re hearing the reason the windows are being blocked off? Retail employees are being trained on new “setup areas” that aren’t for the Verizon iPhone, but for new customers who may be unfamiliar with Macs or iOS devices and would like to get things started with the help of a friendly Apple retail employee. Doing that now involves clogging up the Genius area in many cases.

Apple Store spotted covering up, but likely not for new iPhone (updated: no restocking fees, setup centers) originally appeared on TUAW on Sun, 09 Jan 2011 20:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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