Category: I-phone

Mashable posts a great article on getting started with mobile app development. Has a lot of great resources.

The Pioneer says the risks of jailbreaking outweigh the benefits. Personally I would have a hard time trusting an app called ‘Pwnage Tool’ or ‘Greenpois0n’.

Over 50% of developers prefer iOS but Android is quickly picking up ground.

Red Foundry raises $1.1 million to help create and manage iOS apps.

MacRumors reported on freemium iPhone apps growing as a successful business model.

It seems our last Almost DSLR giveaway was very popular. I have had many readers contact me and request a promo code. Rainbow Silo was nice enough to provide Mobile Orchard with a few more.

If you would like one please leave a comment telling us what question(s) would you ask if you could interview the most successful iPhone Developers.

We will be selecting the winners next Friday, November 19th. Good luck and have a great weekend.

Today we presents collection of best WordPress plugins for October 2010.

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The iPad is rapidly moving beyond its role as consumer device and infiltrating the enterprise. A new survey conducted by BoxTone Mobile Service Management indicates that three-quarters of corporations will deploy the Apple tablet in the next year. Twenty-five percent are deploying the slates already.

IT professionals and executives at 800 companies were interviewed for the survey. The combination of the iPad’s hardware execution with its highly readable capacitive touchscreen, which doesn’t require a stylus, enables a more natural and intuitive user interface than previous attempts at tablet computers. Just as it did with the original iPod, Apple has kept the system deliberately limited and focused rather than trying to stuff every possible piece of functionality into it. While this frustrates some of the geekier folks among us, it helps to ensure that the parts that are included work better.

On top of this portable, wireless platform, Apple has created a highly touch optimized interface that allows software developers to produce applications that enable smoother interactivity and collaboration.

Survey respondents also cited the new management features in the imminent iOS 4.2 release that allow for improved enterprise security. All of this allows staff to work amongst themselves and with customers to see new possibilities in the information. Of course, all of this depends on developers coming up with excellent software. By all accounts, Apple has provided an excellent development platform and tools for doing this even if its approval policies for distribution have been a bit wonky. The end result seems to be that IT departments are more willing to allow this new device into their ecosystems than any previous consumer oriented platform.

iPad adoption increasing among corporations originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Earlier today, Twitter announced that it has integrated Apple’s Ping into users’ home pages. Now, Twitter users can view each others’ Ping activity, listen to song previews and link to/purchase music from iTunes directly from tweets posted to Twitter.com.

Here’s how it works: First, log into your Ping account and click the new “Connect to Twitter” button. A window pops up requesting your Twitter credentials. You’ll receive a confirmation and a list of Twitter contacts who have also enabled Ping sharing. Then you’re done! The new Ping information will show up at Twitter.com for you.

Apple introduced PIng a few months ago, and has struggled a bit during its initial growth period. Steve Jobs recently met with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to discuss Apple’s fledgling social network. That meeting was well-publicized, but we didn’t know this Twitter collaboration was coming.

Good luck to both companies on this joint venture. Now you can tweet your ping. Or is it ping your tweet? We’re so confused.

Twitter adds Ping functionality to user pages originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While the modern global economy has allowed companies in far-flung parts of the world to get into manufacturing, one of the many issues they face is exchange rate fluctuations. Electronics manufacturers in Taiwan are currently feeling the pinch as the Taiwan dollar has climbed more than other currencies in the region, jumping 2.5 percent in the past month and 7.2 percent in the past year. Each percentage point of exchange rate increase translates to 0.5 percent of profit margin according to Wintek, which produces touch panels for many Apple devices.

Suppliers like Wintek rarely manage to achieve the sort of enormous profit margins that Apple does when selling to the consumer, and losing 3 percent off the top is tough to swallow. As a result, Taiwan-based companies may have to look at increasing the prices charged to Apple and other customers.

Apple’s premium pricing to end customers means that it has some flexibility to absorb price increases from suppliers in the short term. That will, of course, hurt its profits, which it won’t tolerate for very long. Given the competitive marketplace, Apple will be reluctant to increase prices, but if the exchange rate situation doesn’t improve soon, we’ll probably see some decontenting or a slow-down in the spec increases. Instead of seeing next-gen MacBooks and iPhones getting more memory or better cameras, they will probably hold steady.

[Via Electronista]

Taiwanese Apple suppliers may be forced to raise prices originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Do you remember about a year ago when we showed you a Wiimote working as an iPhone input device ? Jump forward to the new era of Apple TV 2. Developer hacker Tom Cool from the #awkwardtv channel on irc.moofspeak.net has cross-compiled that demo for the ATV 2. You can see it in action in this newly posted YouTube video.

Like the keyboard hack we posted about a few days ago, this mod is based on activating a custom stack (via Matthias Ringwald‘s BTstack implementation) that enables the Apple TV’s built-in Bluetooth functionality. The Wiimote communicates over Bluetooth to the Apple TV unit, and displays a virtual representation that concurrently mimics the Wiimote’s orientation.

We’re still a bit ways off from full Wii-style gaming on the Apple TV 2, but it’s getting closer every day as this demo shows.

Apple TV hacking: Wiimote footage originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s good news for iTunes customers in Japan today, as Apple has finally added movies to Japan’s iTunes Store. The news comes just as the Apple TV hits the Japanese market. Several major studios are on board, including Asmik Ace Entertainment Inc., Fuji TV, Kadakowa Pictures, Nikkatsu, Shochiku Company Limited and Toei Company Limited.

As for pricing, new HD releases can be bought for ¥2,500, while catalog titles will cost ¥2,000. If you want to go SD, you’ll pay¥2,000 for new releases, ¥1,500 for recents and ¥1,000 for catalog titles.

If you want to rent, you’ll pay ¥500 for new HD releases and ¥300 for library title rentals. SD versions start at ¥200 for library title rentals and ¥400 for new releases.

Apple is making a push in the Japanese market recently, with this update, the Apple TV’s release, and by inking an iAD deal with the Dentsu Group.

iTunes movies now available in Japan originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 12:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Gorillamobile revised for iPhone 4

Gorillamobile revised for iPhone 4 originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As if Instapaper wasn’t useful enough, version 2.3 for iPhone and iPad was released late last night and brings with it a long list of stellar features. My personal favorite is OmniFocus support. Here’s how it works.

Open an article and tap the Share button. A slip with several options will appear, including Send To OmniFocus. Give it a tap and OmniFocus launches, creating a new inbox item with your article’s title and URL. Fantastic.

That’s hardly the only change. Version 2.3 also includes a “length and progress indicator” in the form of a row of dots next to each article’s title. The greater the number of dots, the longer the article. Also, the dots grow dark as you read further into the article. Now you can judge each story’s length and approximate time to completion at a glance. We love it.

Other changes include a preview of the first few lines of an article on the iPhone (previously titles only), and an additional line on the iPad. The dark feature has also significantly changed on the iPhone. Now you can make adjustments without leaving the current article or, better yet, opt to have the dark theme applied automatically. If selected, the app will note the time and switch to the dark theme at night. How does it work? Instapaper 2.3 is now location-aware. Just enter your location and it will note the time of sunset.

There’s so much more to this update, like Safari synchronization, meant to eliminate issues occurring when the iOS app and the web app are using different account names, plus an option to bypass the in-app browser and jump right to Mobile Safari.

Instapaper gets a lot of attention from its rabid fan base, and deservedly so; it keeps improving but never to the detriment of its usefulness.

Instapaper 2.3 adds many new features originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Among the 16 iPhone updates that greeted me this morning was version 1.3.1 of the free Dropbox app, which adds improved photo support and a number of bug fixes.

A quick jog through the release notes shows that iOS 4.2 compatibility was a major contributor to the update, particularly since it is expected that the new OS will arrive shortly.

Photos are now handled differently than they have been in earlier versions. There is persistent photo caching, which means that standard image file formats (not PDFs) are cached on the device for quick viewing of photos even after leaving the app and returning. Previously, PNG and GIF images were JPEG compressed when they were viewed on the device — the update turns off the compression for better image quality. On devices with Retina displays, thumbnails of images are now much higher quality.

One of the features listed is “improved scroll bar behavior and appearance in document viewer,” although I really couldn’t see any difference over earlier releases. The bug fixes include proper handling of .PPSX, .XLSM, and similar less-popular Office file types, stability improvements, and media player performances fixes, among others.

Dropbox update is iOS 4.2 friendly, good to photos, and fixes bugs originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LaCie has long been associated with producing external hard drives for Macs, having created a wide array of FireWire drives. Now that the old standard is moving toward obsolescence, the accessory maker has now released a fresh USB 3.0 version of its Philippe Stark designed portable drive.

Fortunately, LaCie has at least partly addressed the fact that Apple has neglected to install USB 3.0 ports on any of its products. If you have a Mac Pro or older MacBook Pro with PCI Express or ExpressCard slots, you can get an adapter for the new drive.

Barring that option, you can still use the new drive with an existing port at USB 2.0 speeds. The drive has backup software preloaded, and LaCie also provides 10GB of cloud storage at Wuala Online for the first year. The 3.0 drive is initially available in a 500GB size that starts at US$109.

LaCie introduces Philippe Starck designed USB 3.0 portable drive originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Most of the focus on the forthcoming iOS 4.2 update has been on the iPad, and rightly so. The iPad is finally getting marquee features that most iPhone users have enjoyed for months, like multitasking and folder support. iOS 4.2 doesn’t bring as many changes to the iPhone as it does to the iPad, but it does introduce a few new features to the iPhone. iOS 4.2 is expected to go live later this week, but we’ll give you a brief rundown of the new features today. Note that most of these features should be identical on newer versions of the iPod touch, so anywhere I say “iPhone” (which is all I’ve got to test with), you can probably safely assume I mean iPhone/iPod touch.

AirPlay

The biggest new feature in iOS 4.2 is AirPlay, which allows you to stream audio to an Apple TV, AirPort Express, or AirPlay-enabled third-party system. You’ll also be able to stream video to an Apple TV, but since I don’t own one I haven’t been able to test that part of the functionality.

AirPlay icon on the right — blue means it’s working

Select which destination you want to stream to

In my testing, AirPlay has worked not just in apps you’d expect it to work, like the iPod and YouTube apps. At least in the iOS 4.2 gold master, AirPlay will stream audio from any app, including games. Before you get too excited by the prospect of playing Canabalt’s awesome soundtrack through your surround sound system, there’s an important caveat: there’s a delay of approximately two seconds between actions on your iPhone and output from external speakers, caused by the encoding and decoding of the audio stream. In other words, if you’re playing Flight Control on your iPhone and streaming audio to your stereo over AirPlay, sounds will be delayed by two seconds or more. Obviously this is less than ideal, so it’s somewhat surprising that Apple’s enabled AirPlay at all for these kinds of apps.

In apps specifically designed for AirPlay, like iPod and YouTube, the iOS software is smart enough to delay video output on your iPhone so that it syncs up with the audio stream. You can watch music videos or movies on your iPhone and play the sound over AirPlay to external speakers. This is a truly “gee-whiz” feature, and it’s almost sold me on the idea of getting an Apple TV so I can stream video, too.

Click “Read More” to see the rest of iOS 4.2’s features on the iPhone.

Continue reading What to expect from iOS 4.2 on iPhone

What to expect from iOS 4.2 on iPhone originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 10 Nov 2010 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Once upon a time, it was possible to dial a cell phone in cold weather without removing your gloves, provided the gloves weren’t too fat and the physical buttons on the phone weren’t too small. In this modern age of smartphones dominated by capacitive touchscreens, it takes either bare skin or perhaps a refrigerated sausage in order to activate the virtual controls.

That may change as soon as next summer when the iPhone 5 is expected to arrive. It’s entirely possible that the next iPhone (and its iOS companions) will utilize a new touchscreen technology that’s being developed by Hitachi Displays. The new touch display can detect both capacitive elements, like fingers, and insulators, like fabric and plastic. That means a gloved finger or even a stylus could be used for input. The new Hitachi sensors are expected to be available in sizes from 3 to 10 inches, so they could be used for iPods, iPhones, and iPads.

Next-gen touchscreen displays may support gloves originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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