Category: I-phone

When Game Center was first announced way back in April, the first question everyone had was about all of the third-party networks that had already built up in the space. OpenFeint was the biggest of these, and founder Jason Citron had no apparent worries about Apple’s advance into social gaming — he said that OpenFeint would continue to offer features beyond what Game Center did, and that developers would be easily able to use both networks in their apps. A report released last week by OpenFeint says that’s exactly what’s happened — the userbase has doubled to a whopping 50 million users since Game Center launched, and games on the network have also increased 119% since Game Center was announced.

Those are pretty amazing numbers — there was a lot of talk earlier this year that Apple would walk into this space and just dominate (and certainly, I’ve seen a lot of solid Game Center integration since release, and of course because Game Center is automatically installed in iOS, adoption is probably huge), but that hasn’t been the case at all. There’s definitely room for services like Plus+ and OpenFeint, even with an official network up and running. OpenFeint, as far as I’ve been told, is also still planning the OpenFeint X service, with more options for in-game microtransactions, so we’ll have to see what they’re up to next.

OpenFeint has doubled community since Game Center’s launch originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 23 Nov 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As the holidays approach we’re seeing some very tempting prices on navigation apps for the iPhone. Here are some deals worth considering if you’ve been waiting for price drops.

My favorite app, from Navigon is on sale Black Friday only. The USA version drops to $29.99 from the regular $49.99. The MyRegion versions, giving you a choice of the US East or West Coast, or the central states drops $10.00 to $19.99. I’ve consistently recommended the Navigon app because of it’s many features, excellent voice directions, and easy GUI.

I’d also point our readers to the CoPilot Live app which is on sale this week only. The North American version, which contains maps of both the US and Canada is now $9.99. A high resolution version for the iPad is now on sale for $19.99. Those prices are 50% off the regular cost. If you’d like to see what CoPilot Live can do, watch this video demo.

We’ve already reported that the Magellan Roadmate app is also on sale for $34.99 until December 1, so no more excuses and stop getting lost on those road trips.

Great GPS navigation deals for holiday travelers originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 23 Nov 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s pretty simple: I want to stream music from my Mac to my iPad or iPhone. Why? Because I sometimes connect one of those iOS devices to a home stereo. Those devices do not contain my entire iTunes library. Unfortunately, AirPlay won’t let me stream my iTunes library to my iOS devices. Thus, I’m not able to use AirPlay in my home.

I don’t own an Apple TV. The Airport Express I have is an older model that causes my Airport Extreme Base Station to freak out, requiring frequent reboots of either device, often randomly, never at a good moment. Yet, with all the awesomeness of AirPlay, I cannot do one simple thing: play music (or anything else) from my $2,000+ MacBook Pro to my iPad. Instead, Apple wants me to pony up another $99 for an Apple TV — a device I simply don’t need right now.

I’m not sure why this is so. There is a 3rd party application on the store right now that will do this called AirVideo. In fact, true to its name, it’ll stream more than music. I used to use Airfoil to do this from Mac to Mac and from Mac to iPhone. Why this seemingly simple use case is hobbled by Apple’s design is beyond me. It’s such a puzzler that I wrote Steve Jobs an email about it. Naturally, I have yet to hear from him.

So I’m throwing it open to the audience: would you also like to stream music or photos or movies from your Mac to your iDevice?

View Poll

photo by flickr user niceness

Why I’m skipping AirPlay originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 23 Nov 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s a nice little tutorial on Justin Schwalbe’s blog for using a simple script to backup a few folders to a Dropbox backup folder every day. Why would you do this? Well, let’s say you aren’t always able to connect to a hard drive for Time Machine, but you have a couple of document folders you want to make sure are backed up off site every day. If you are traveling but have internet access, this script plus Dropbox will save your bacon — or your files, at least.

Note that you should be comfortable with bash scripting to successfully implement this backup solution. You can, of course, also keep folders in Dropbox itself, but Justin’s scripted method allows incremental backups that keep versions from a few days back, so (sort of like Time Machine), if you find yourself needing a file from two days ago versus five minutes ago, you’ll have that in a dedicated folder based on the date.

If you’re not comfortable with Terminal or scripting, consider carrying a USB drive with you and relying upon Time Machine, Apple’s built-in backup solution.

Update: As noted by Justin in the comments, this creates encrypted disk images. Also, Dropbox does have versioning that goes back 30 days, available on the Dropbox site.

photo by Flickr user jm3

Use Dropbox to backup a few folders every day originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 23 Nov 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You had to see this coming. Rovio is reportedly prepping a Christmas-themed update to the ridiculously popular Angry Birds game for iOS. Finnish TV site MTV3 has the scoop (English translation) with a screenshot showing snow-bound pigs about to receive the wrath of flying snowballs.

MTV3 suggests that the game will be out “before December.” You’ll remember Rovio recently shipped a Halloween version of the app for $0.99. Expect the yule version to cost the same.

[Via Pocket Gamer]

Christmas Angry Birds bring inevitable addiction to the App Store originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 23 Nov 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If a report from Digitimes is to be believed, Foxconn is adding iPad production at a second factory in Chengdu, China to help meet demand for the Apple tablet. Since it launched last spring, Foxconn has been producing iPads only at its plant in Shenzhen which has a capacity of about 2.5 million units a month. Shenzhen is expected to ship about 7 million units in the October-December quarter bringing total 2010 shipments to 15 million units.

While Foxconn has not announced any production increases, Digitimes claims that component suppliers have reported that Foxconn began shipping iPads from Chengdu earlier this month. Digitimes is claiming that Foxconn will put in 50 assembly lines at Chengdu bringing total iPad capacity to 40 million units annually, although it’s not clear if that number is the combined output of the two factories or just units from the new factory.

It’s worth keeping in mind that while Digitimes does sometimes break real news, it has a spotty record when it comes to accuracy. However, if the iPad follows the pattern of the iPod and iPhone before it, sales of the iPad could really explode when the second generation model arrives sometime next spring. The probable addition of “missing” features like cameras for FaceTime could push the iPad to a whole new level.

Foxconn expands iPad production to second plant according to report originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 23 Nov 2010 12:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Nexaria BC2 router is a rather ugly 802.11b/g/n router that will allow tethering on the iPhone 3, 3GS and 4. Unfortunately, you must plug the thing into an outlet to power it up, providing somewhat limited use. Typical use case for tethering is using your phone as a modem and connecting to your Mac on the go. Here, you are chained to your desk. But if you’re willing to uglify your work space, the router will grab that bandwidth from your iPhone (using your data allotment from AT&T) and beam it around your room via Wi-Fi for the low price of $189. Ideal? Hardly, but it works for what it does.

Tether your iPhone with the Nexaria BC2 router originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 23 Nov 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The release of iOS 4.2 has brought us a nice little surprise in the form of the new icon shown in this post. If you’re tracking birthdays in your Contacts application, those birthdays will appear in your iCal calendar with a little gift package icon. It’s a nice little touch to the friendly organizer application, and helps you visually spot that special day for your loved ones.

No one’s made a big deal about this being a new feature in iOS 4.2, of course, since it’s such a small detail (much as the new Voice Memos icon is a small detail). But for those of us who rank reaching out to loved ones to say “Happy Birthday” as a priority in our to-do list, this little touch might be a favorite change in iOS 4.2.

In order to set up this functionality, pull up the Contacts record for the person whose birthday you want to track. Select Edit in the upper right hand corner, scroll to the bottom, and tap “add field.” Then enter the birthday, and the date will show up in your calendar app.

Updated to correct iCal/Calendar app mixup.

Thanks to Ryan for the tip!

New birthday icon for Calendar in iOS 4.2 originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 23 Nov 2010 12:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reuters recently reported that News Corp is working on an iPad-only publication, “The Daily,” and today’s rumor suggest that it will be introduced at a December 9th (or thereabouts) press event featuring Rupert Murdoch and Steve Jobs. It’s also suspected that this event will see the introduction of the much-rumored App Store subscriptions that many publishers have been clamoring for.

Apple is supposedly developing a Newsstand app for iOS, perhaps similar to the iBookstore. If so, The Daily could be among its offerings. Rumors price The Daily at US$0.99 per week.

If there is an event scheduled with Murdoch and Jobs on the ticket, you can be sure that they’ll be discussing more than a news app. We’ll let you know if and when the announcement goes official, and of course will have full coverage on launch day.

[Via Electronista]

News Corp’s iPad-only publication supposedly due Dec. 9 originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 23 Nov 2010 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some iPhone users are reporting that their iPhones are unable to play music after upgrading to iOS 4.2.1. Fortunately, the fix is simple (for most). In fact, all you must do is re-sync your iPhone.

If you receive a message that the iPod app is unable to play your music after updating (you’ll see a message that says something like, “There is no content on this device”), just connect it to your Mac and sync with iTunes as usual. Yes, that’s it.

There seems to be additional trouble for those who are manually managing their music. One thread poster notes that he has to launch the iPod app, play a song and then sync every time new content is added, or the problem returns.

What has your experience been? Please share a fix if you’ve found it and help some folks out.

Easily fix “vanishing” iPhone music in iOS 4.2.1 originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 23 Nov 2010 11:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has sent out emails and posted a page teasing a Black Friday sale on November 26, 2010. If history is any guide the Black Friday deals at your local Apple Store won’t be that spectacular. Last year’s Black Friday sale consisted of MacBook Pro models reduced by $101, a slight discount on the iPod touch, the nano and Apple TV plus a decent discount on the iMac. I wouldn’t expect the already low-cost new Apple TV to be discounted this year, but a push to sell new iPods would definitely make sense — they make terrific presents. The Mac discounts will likely be there as well, although if I were to make a bet, I wouldn’t bet on the Air having a discount. The iPad may see a discount, given the rumors of an update early next year, but with Oprah’s recommendation and the popularity of the device who knows how deep a discount it’ll be.

Will you be standing in line at your Apple Store, or will you take advantage of these bargains on the online store (or Apple Store app)?

Apple teases Black Friday specials but don’t expect much originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 23 Nov 2010 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Steve Jobs action figure has been making the rounds of the internet in the last few days. Rocking a black turtleneck, blue jeans, and an iPhone, the magical and revolutionary replication of Apple’s chief honcho has been a huge hit for many fans of Apple. Unfortunately, according to M.I.C. gadget, Apple has already kindly asked M.I.C. gadget to cease the marketing and sale of the figure since they never gave any kind of permission for use of Apple’s copyrights and trademarks.

Still, the figure looked like it was pretty awesome. The figure’s likeness to Steve Jobs was unmistakable and the level of detail was kind of crazy. The tiny little iPhone the figure held even had the Apple logo on the back of it. The figure came with speech bubbles you could fill out yourself, empowering little Steve to say things like “Magical and Revolutionary,” and “One more thing.” I might quibble a tad with the use of the phrase “action figure” to describe the miniature statue, but the overall effect is awesome enough that they can call it that if they want.

While it’s regrettable that the Steve Jobs action figure is no longer on the market, we can hope that Apple sees the demand for such a thing and creates their own version.

[M.I.C. gadget via Engadget]

Steve Jobs action figure no longer available originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 23 Nov 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As expected, that was fast. The current exploit used by jailbreaking tools greenpois0n, redsn0w and limera1n attack the iOS device’s boot rom, which is outside of the bits Apple can change in software. As such it cannot be addressed without issuing new hardware, meaning that for the time being all iOS devices are capable of being jailbroken using the same method.

Our own Erica Sadun reported iffy results from an early jailbreak of a dev build of iOS 4.2 but these have been resolved and iPhone Dev Team are reporting that their redsn0w tool can now jailbreak all iOS 4.2.1 devices.

There are some caveats, however.

Firstly, if you use the ultrasn0w tool to unlock your phone (so you can use it with any carrier), then you have two problems. One, the tool itself doesn’t work on iOS4.2; two, if you allow iTunes to update to the newer versions of the baseband software in 4.2 then it might never work again on your phone. If you rely on carrier unlock, or think you might ever come to rely on it, you should always stay away from iOS updates until one of the dev teams supply a tool to create custom IPSW files. This will give your phone all the creamy goodness of 4.2.1 but keep the old, unlockable baseband software in place.

Secondly, on newer devices (specifically iPhone 4, newer model iPhone 3GS, and iPod Touch 3G and beyond, and iPad) this is a so-called tethered jailbreak. This means whenever you reboot your device you have to physically have it connected to your Mac or PC with the jailbreak software running; otherwise it’ll boot back up without the jailbreak in place. Obviously this can be a serious nuisance.

Expect both of these caveats to be addressed in time, although of course there is no guarantees as to when. If you are not put off, then Redmond Pie have a really nice walkthrough of the jailbreaking process.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

Redsn0w jailbreak already live for iOS 4.2.1 on all devices originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 23 Nov 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mobile Web Programming has a detailed writeup of the new HTML5 and W3C future standards support included in yesterday’s iOS 4.2 release. These new APIs haven’t been fully documented yet by Apple but these changes have been uncovered as part of Mobile Web Programming’s own independent research. They include new standards like Accelerometer and Gyroscope support in the DeviceOrientation API, the WebSockets API that’s part of HTML5, and information on how to invoke printing dialog in mobile Safari.

Some of the new functionality includes expansion of the DeviceOrientation API to include the accelerometer and gyroscope on devices that have them, so web apps can react to the device being moved around. WebSockets is a new HTML5 standard that allows developers to build even more responsive webapps (by allowing JavaScript to create raw TCP socket connections to HTTP servers), and now comes to mobile Safari for the first time.

Not only is Mobile Web Programming’s information detailed and informative, the comments to the post are also fairly illuminating. There’s a lot more going on in yesterday’s iOS 4.2 release than a casual user might suspect, and there’s a lot of great news in this release for web developers. If you have any interest in the spinning cogs and gears that make the mobile web work, it’s definitely worth your time to check out this writeup. These additions help buttress the idea that Apple is committed to supporting the ongoing growth of HTML5 web standards and the importance of those open standards.

New HTML5 and web standards support in iOS 4.2 originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 23 Nov 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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