Category: I-phone

Sure, an iPhone-shaped soap bar is fun as it is, but surely there’s something else that can be added to make it even more enjoyable, no? Etsy user twoeggplants decided to answer that question with a resounding yes, and is selling an iPhone-shaped bar of soap that just happens to smell like grilled meats while you use it. I kind of wish my actual iPhone smelled like grilled sausage — I wouldn’t want the grease on it, but the scent would be fine to have around.

Apparently the scent can be customized, so if you’d rather have a more traditional soap smell (like, oh I don’t know, something which smells like apples), you can go with that. It’s also out of stock at the moment, which is usually what happens when something cool on Etsy gets discovered by a few blogs. But just the idea of a sausage-smelling iPhone soap is pretty fun anyway.

iPhone-shaped soap smells like sausage originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looking to amaze and impress your gaming friends with a new decal for your iPhone 4? Well then feast your eyes on the Game Boy Color sticker for your iPhone!

The vinyl adhesive decal affixes to the back of your iPhone to give that retro-gaming look to your iDevice. The same seller makes the skin in other colors, as well as a classic Nintendo console controller. Each sells for US$6, and it’s not exactly clear whether or not they’re easily removed once the novelty has worn off. I guess you could always just stick it on a case.

Alright, maybe it won’t so much amaze or impress. But old-school gamers will find them just nostalgic enough to prompt a purchase.

[via DVICE]

Game Boy decals for your iPhone 4 originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Despite landing with a distinct thud earlier this year, the JooJoo tablet from Fusion Garage is set to make a second run at the iPad in 2011. Instead of the underdeveloped Flash-based software that “powered” the first JooJoo, Fusion Garage has decided to go the Android route for its sequel.

In addition to the software change, the JooJoo2 is expected to transition to an all-new hardware platform as well. The original JooJoo was based on the same Intel Atom processors that power most netbooks. Android can run on this architecture, but it’s really optimized for the ARM architecture that powers most cell phones and, of course, the iPad. The JooJoo2 will probably shrink from its current 12-inch size to something in the 7 to 10-inch range. Fusion Garage hopes to launch the JooJoo2 in early 2011, which will probably be right around the time that the iPad 2 appears.

JooJoo tablet to make another run at iPad with Android power originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Over the past decade, Apple has accumulated an enormous bankroll of over $51 billion, spending only a tiny fraction of it on acquisitions. If the current (wild and wacky) speculation around purchasing Sony holds up, that would change.

At one point on Tuesday, Sony’s stock was up almost 3 percent as the rumor spread among the traders on the Tokyo exchange. Sony’s market capitalization is currently less than $34 billion, making a cash buyout a possibility.

While Apple has mostly gone from strength to strength over the past 10 years, expanding into new markets like music players and phones, Sony has struggled to gain market traction with its newer products.

However, despite having the money in the bank to do such a deal, buying Sony is likely to be a mistake for Apple. Huge mergers like this rarely work out well, and the differences in the corporate cultures between the two companies could cause some serious indigestion. The Japanese government is also likely to offer some serious resistance to having one of its corporate jewels swallowed up.

Rather than buying Sony whole, it might make more sense for Apple to just buy part of the company, such as its film/music library or the TV business. On the other hand, Apple might just want to look elsewhere to get something that it doesn’t compete with, like Disney or Facebook.

[hat tip to MacRumors]

Rumors: Apple to buy Sony? originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re too young to remember it, the Banana Jr 6000 was a thing of beauty that appeared in the comic strip Bloom County, which used to run in these things we called newspapers. (You can find out more about newspapers on Wikipedia and by asking your older relatives.) To this day, Bloom County still cracks me up, and I can quote you more of those strips word for word than is probably healthy.

Anyway, Bloom County featured a character/computer called the Banana Jr 6000. I loved him so. He made his grand debut just about the time that I got interested in the machines made by another fruit-named computer company. He was a clever little television worshipper who taught me that Dan Rather was a god, tequila hallucinations are to be avoided, and poor translations are hilarious. Eventually he strolled off into the sunset, and I always wondered how things went for him after that.

At one point he was threatened with having his memory chips put into programmable toaster ovens, but thankfully that never came to pass. Instead, John from the RetroMacCast took his love of Bloom County and some free time and built his own Banana Jr 6000. It is a glorious thing to behold.

He posted a few progress shots on his Ning blog, and getting to see it take shape is fun to watch. Get a good look at the gallery for the finished product and see if that last photo doesn’t remind you of something.

This is the sort of case mod that I love most. It’s done with such care and attention to detail. It helps that it includes something I love (like that Millennium Falcon/Mac mini case mod from back in the day), but really, anyone who puts this sort of time and effort in deserves all the accolades they can get.

I adore this case mod, and I love even more that it can actually be used with current software since there’s a mini inside. I give this one four Basselopes.

Thanks to exiledsurfer for the tip!

Bloom County’s Banana Jr 6000 lives on as a fantastic case mod originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As reported earlier today, Apple has updated the App Store app, and with that update seems to come indication that the much coveted white iPhone 4 may be making its way to stores soon.

If you open the App Store app and navigate to the “Stores” area, then attempt to make a product reservation for an iPhone, you may note that there are black AND white versions listed. Unfortunately, if one attempts to reserve one of the white versions of the iPhone, you’ll get the notice pictured. Attempting to reserve a black iPhone appears to work, though.

Still, this is promising indication that things may be changing soon, if you’re one who has been holding out for one of these.

White iPhone shows up in Apple Store app originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After announcing last week that he would be stepping down as Microsoft’s chief software architect, Ray Ozzie has posted an essay where he warns that the end is near for the Redmond company’s way of doing business. Despite all of the businesses that Microsoft has gotten into over the past two decades, only two account for the bulk of the company’s enormous profits: Windows and Office.

According to Ozzie, these platforms are getting too complex to build and use. This is likely to spur both to move toward simpler, more appliance-like systems, such as mobile phones and tablets. While Ozzie praises the progress that Microsoft has made with online services like Live, Office 365, SharePoint and others, he warns that many opportunities have been squandered, especially in mobile.

Ozzie highlights the success of other companies in agile innovation in a rapidly changing marketplace. While Apple, Facebook, and Google are never mentioned by name, those are clearly the examples that Ozzie thinks Microsoft should be following.

[via Electronista]

Departing Microsoft software architect warns of post-PC world originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just as the rumors suggested, Apple updated the official Apple Store app to include support for customer check-ins, reservations and other location-based services.

You can use the app to reserve products to pickup at Apple retail stores, check into stores upon arrival to alert employees to your appointment and add reservation appointments to iCal (note that iOS 4 is required for check-in and iCal support). You’ll also be able to add engraving and gift wrapping options when making purchases from the store.

Version 1.1 is available now and requires the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad running iOS 3.0 or later.

[Via Mac Stories]

Official Apple Store app updated originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We already know the MacBook Air is thinner than most laptops, but it turns out that the stack of money it makes Apple isn’t. An analyst named Brian Marshall of Gleacher & Co. says that the flash memory in the MacBook Air is one of the big places that Apple makes its money on the machine, reportedly costing Apple just $80. According to Marshall, this means the profit margin on the Air is between 28 and 37 percent; that’s almost 10 percent higher than Apple’s traditional MacBook lines.

According to Andrew Rassweiler of iSuppli, also quoted in the story, Apple is now one of the world’s biggest (if not the biggest) consumers of hardware flash memory, and its deals on memory are so good that the more memory in a device it makes, the better profit it will eventually see. Which, of course, is why the latest MacBook Air is so big on flash memory.

Of course, Marshall’s analysis doesn’t take into consideration marketing or advertising costs, and Apple certainly has a sizeable advertising budget going into its devices. But when you consider pure hardware costs, Apple’s positioned its “satellite laptop” to be a very strong product indeed.

Analyst: Flash memory makes MacBook Air more profitable than bigger laptops originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Monster Feed is a colorful little tower defense title for the iPad, and it’s a little more action-based than most TD titles. A lot of your interaction with the oncoming hordes is actually interactive, as you have not only towers to build and grow but also spells and even summonable minions fighting with you and at your side. Monsters have a few new tricks, too — rather than just blindly following the paths, some will require you to tap on them or otherwise keep them back as you play. There are a few good ideas in the mix, and especially if you’re a fan of the growing tower defense genre, this one seems like a must-see.

The iPad app is on sale right now for US $1.99, which is 50 percent off of the usual price. If you don’t want to jump right in, you can try a lite version for free. And while the app isn’t on the iPhone yet, we’re told that it will be soon. If you want to try tower defense with a little bit more actual interaction, give Monster Feed a look.

TUAW’s Daily App: Monster Feed originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve ever wished you could put a personalized message on the back of an iPad like you can with an iPod, you’re in luck: Apple has unveiled free engraving for the iPad just in time for the holiday season. Free, as in $0: for no additional cost, you can add a laser-engraved message onto a new iPad’s aluminum backside.

Engraving increases the shipping time by a small amount, but there’s an even bigger potential pitfall. If Apple follows the same policy for iPads as it has for iPods, you may not be able to return an engraved iPad. Apple’s sales and refund policy specifically states, “Personalized iPods (e.g., engraved or customized in any way) may not be returned for refund or exchange under any circumstances unless such product is Dead on Arrival.” The policy hasn’t yet been updated for the iPad, but it won’t surprise us at all if the same policy holds true for Apple’s far more expensive tablet. Having a personalized engraving on your iPad could also reduce its value if you want to sell it later; having something like “Merry Christmas honeybuns” printed on the back of a secondhand iPad doesn’t go over well with most potential buyers.

In other words: iPad engraving is a great idea, but the buyer should definitely beware.

[via Mac Rumors]

Apple now offering iPad engraving originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 03:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve got a passcode entry set on your iPhone, you might think it could block nefarious or mischievous people from accessing any part of your iPhone. Not so. We’ve been made aware of a security flaw in iOS 4.1 that allows users to bypass the passcode entry screen and gain direct access to the iPhone’s Phone app. It’s not just hype either: this is easier to pull off than the Konami code.

How it works: when the passcode entry screen comes up, tap “Emergency Call.” Input any number you like, then tap “Call” and click the iPhone’s sleep switch in quick succession (to get this to work, I had to perform the two actions almost simultaneously). If you’ve done the “trick” properly, you should now have full access to the iPhone’s Phone app, including contacts, keypad, and calling history. What’s more: tapping “Share Contact” and the camera icon will give you access to the Photos app. That’s the extent of your access — hitting the home button doesn’t do anything at all — but it’s bad enough.

According to Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, this bug isn’t reproducible on the latest iOS 4.2 beta, so it’s possible Apple was already aware of the security bug and has fixed it in 4.2. Until 4.2 is released, the best thing you can do is take our own Dave Caolo’s advice: physical access is total access, so the first and most vital step to making sure people can’t access your sensitive information is making sure they can’t access your iPhone at all.

iOS 4.1 security bug: bypass passcode entry and access Phone, Photos apps originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 01:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We had the opportunity to interview Josh Guest of b2cloud, a company that specializes in iPhone application development and social media consulting. Not only is he the director of b2cloud and iOS app developer he is also a Mobile Orchard reader.

Mobile Orchard: Tell us a little about your background in app development as well as your company, b2cloud.

Josh Guest: I founded b2cloud in early 2009 as a new media blog based out of Melbourne, Australia. Over the months to come b2cloud evolved into a consulting and development company, with iPhone and iPad being the major focus as demand for applicaitons increased. We brought together a team of developers, designers and user experience people who are really awesome at what they do. Most apps that we build are either built and released on behalf of a client, or in partnership with b2cloud.

B2cloud has had around 10 apps released in the last year, and in some cases we have contributed to other apps on the store. As demand for apps is far higher than what we can supply, we are constantly on the look out for developers who think well outside the square and passionate about really innovative ideas. As a company we want to share our experiences and code with other developers around the world.

MO: What was your inspiration for MorningReport?

JG: The original idea was by Adam Rudd, a really creative and passionate guy who wanted to have the days weather read to him when he woke up. Both Adam and I are both based in Melbourne, and our city is known for its unpredictable weather, 4 seasons in a day . So the solution was to replace the alarm, with a MorningReport.

MO: How is morning report different from other weather/alarm clock apps?

JG: If you look closely on the app store in weather, there are a multitute of apps that receive an RSS or XML feed, and display the results differently using varied design interfaces. Morning report uses a premium XML feed too, but unstead of only displaying the results, the feed connects to our remote database of several hundred sound bytes, retrives the relevant files, stitches them together, and the result is a spoken report, as well as the traditional on screen weather.

Adam organised for professional voice actors to read a script of every time and weather condition, in both Celcius and Farenheit. Then each piece of audio was precisely cut to avoid gaps when programatically joined together.

MO: Were there any major hurdles you had to overcome during development?

JG: I guess one challenge when we got kicked off with the app development was around multitasking. We started building on iOS 3, which meant that the app had to be open once the alarm was set, to activate Morning Report. Towards the end of the app, when iOS 4 was available, we started investigating how to activate the alarm whilst multitasked. We are still looking at this now, and a challenge is how we allow the MorningReport to generate the audio file and play, whilst in the background. We can easily set a generic alarm sound, but the custom report is a little trickier. Ideas anyone?

MO: How long did MorningReport take from idea to App Store?

JG: At a guess I would say around 6 months from idea, recordings, design, programming, database setup and release.

MO: What was your experience like trying to get your app approved?

JG: A little slow, much slower than most of our other releases. We nominated to be reviewed on the US store, so I think there was far more demand on this region as opposed to Australia. It was around 16 days from our first binary upload, and it was rejected. Reason was that if a user chose “do not allow locaiton based services” on the first load of the app, there was no prompts saying that the app could not function properly. So we put in a prompt, re submitted and it was approved after another 12 days.

MO: How are you marketing the app and do you have any tips you can share?

JG: Early on during development, Adam put together an awesome blog where he was able to share with the community progress of development. This was also a great way to recieve input and ideas from people, that were actually included. This builds an early stage following and in turn downloads when released.

I guess an important tip is to think of ways to generate as many downloads as possible within 3 days of release, this will assist in getting a peek into a top 50 list. Have a blog and start building followers, prepare an email to send to all your friends, family and colleagues, think about using facebook and twitter to share. As soon as the app is approved, create a bit.ly link (to track clicks) to the store and start sending.

MO: Do you have any app development projects you are currently working on?

JG: Yes, we have several live projects and a couple in final beta. An iPhone app which will be in review this week is called Calendar Snap, the fastest way to put appointments in your calendar. It is built for people who use shared calendars to let their colleagues and friends know where they are at any one time. Basically if you get pulled into a meeting, which wasnt already in your calendar, no one will know where you are. Entering it into the iPhone calendar takes way too long. Calendar Snap creates an appointment with 2 touches, load the app, and set. The defaults can be changed quickly too.

We are all using it now at b2cloud and its actually really useful. We are always looking for help testing pre-release so please contact me if your interested.

MO: What, if anything, will you do differently on your next app?

JG: Every app we build we learn something new, so im thinking on our next app we will do a dual iPhone/iPad release. Use the same code for both but make some changes to the UI design. More and more people search for apps on the iPad, so iPhone apps dont usually get much real estate on the screen, so a dual release should be good.

MO: Finally, what is your favorite app right now?

JG: My favourite app at the moment is PressReader, a newspaper reader on the iPad which has most publicaitons from around the world scanned in high resolution. Check out my recent review for it at AppAddict.net.

MO: Josh, thanks for the interview. Good luck with your projects in the future.

We hope you enjoyed this interview. Please feel free to post questions for Josh in the comments and we will see if he will answer a few of them.