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Lost in the hype about Siri is the fact that the iPhone 4S is the first available smartphone to support the Bluetooth 4.0 standard. Announced in early 2010, Bluetooth 4.0 focuses on low-energy, sensor-filled devices that can be powered by button cell batteries. Examples include pedometers, heart rate monitors, glucose meters, and home automation tools.

Now that the first Bluetooth 4.0 ready handset has hit the market, the Bluetooth SIG group has created a new logo and name to describe these low-power devices. Starting soon, any device with a Bluetooth 4.0 compatible radio will be branded with the name Bluetooth Smart or Bluetooth Smart Ready. A new Bluetooth logo will be emblazoned on packaging to help customers locate this category of Bluetooth products.

The iPhone 4S may be the first Bluetooth Smart compatible smartphone, but it’s not the first Bluetooth 4.0 hardware available from Apple. The Cupertino company also added Bluetooth 4.0 support to the latest Mac Mini and MacBook Air models. These Apple products will be ready to connect to Bluetooth Smart devices once they begin to hit the market in the upcoming months.

Bluetooth Smart announced, iPhone 4S is ready originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tony Fadell, Apple’s former Senior Vice President of the iPod Division, oversaw iPod and iPhone development between 2001 and 2009. Ten years after his most iconic project first saw the light of day, the “father of the iPod” has a new product: Nest, a home thermostat that’s smarter than the average bear.

Nest is a new breed of home thermostat that Fadell has developed with partner Matt Rogers, who led an engineering team at Apple’s iPod division in 2009. Mike Matas, formerly of Delicious Monster and Apple, contributed to the design.

“It’s a thermostat for the iPhone generation,” says Fadell. Aside from its striking looks and color-coded, digital display, the Nest thermostat boasts impressive features. For example, a motion sensor notices if there are people in a room and adjusts its temperature accordingly. It also learns your habits and preferences, so there’s no programming to be done.

Even fine-tuned adjustments of just a few degrees can make a big difference for consumers and the environment. The New York Times notes that each degree cooler (in winter) or warmer (in summer) a house is kept translates into a 5 percent energy savings, according to experts. John E. Bowers, director of the Institute for Energy Efficiency at the University of California, Santa Barbara, likes the idea of using an smart device to monitor those adjustments. “There is a huge amount that can be gained in homes, and an intelligent thermostat could be a great opportunity,” he told the Times.

The Nest will ship sometime in November at US$250, via the company’s site and Best Buy’s website. It certainly looks cool, but what would you expect from “the father of the iPod?”

iPod designer Tony Fadell takes on thermostats with Nest Labs originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Siri is quickly becoming everyone’s favorite personal assistant. It helps you navigate, sends messages on your behalf and provides quirky answers to life’s most difficult questions like “Where do I hide a dead body?” Siri’s capacity for juvenile amusement was not lost on Conan O’Brien who used Apple’s Siri commercial as the basis for his latest Apple parody. As you would expect, his short skit pokes fun at the voice assistant’s ability to answer just about any question you ask of it. For a chuckle or two, check out the Team Coco video below.

Conan O’Brien pokes fun at Siri originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 10:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steve Jobs’s biography debuted ahead of schedule this week and skyrocketed to the top of the charts at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Exact sales numbers are not available, but the biography is the top seller on Amazon’s Kindle, hardcover and audiobook bestseller lists. It also tops the charts on Barnes and Noble’s hardcover, Nook and audiobook lists.

The biography, written by former Times editor Walter Isaacson, was originally scheduled for a March 2012 launch. That date was pushed up to November 21, 2011 over the summer. The biography unexpectedly became available on Sunday via the Amazon Kindle Store and Apple’s iBookstore, while the hardcover version went on sale in stores and online starting yesterday.

Now that it is officially in the hands of Apple fans worldwide, details of the book are now being publicly released. The juiciest tidbit to come from the biography is the suggestion that Jobs and Apple were possibly working on an Apple-branded television set. The book also details Jobs’s dislike of Android and his vow to go nuclear in his fight against the competing platform.

Steve Jobs bio debuts atop Amazon, Barnes & Nobles best-seller list originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Whale Trail is a catchy little game that combines a few of my favorites lately into a cotton candy sweet package. Jetpack Joyride is in there, as you need to press on the screen to move upwards and avoid obstacles. Tiny Wings is in there too, as you keep a cute little whale flying using swooping patterns to stay up in the air. And Baby Monkey (going backwards on a pig) is in there too, as a goofy little song plays for you while flying along.

In short, it’s cute, fun, and pretty darn addictive. The polish on this one is excellent — the graphics are as airy and light as the sound effects, and while the story itself is nonsensical, the controls definitely aren’t. You can do some pretty precise swinging with this little whale. A frenzy mechanic will keep you chasing down the various routes available as the game goes on, and Game Center integration offers up plenty of achievements to go after as well.

Whale Trail is an excellent title — simple but fun, and perfect for the iPhone. It’s available on the App Store right now for 99 cents.

Daily iPhone App: Whale Trail originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Updated to link the source post.

Apple is known for its attention to detail. The layout of its stores, the design of its icons and the colors used in its promotional materials are all carefully planned. This attention to the littlest of things even appears in the iPhone 4. As pointed out by David Goldman of Edible Apple, pointed out by Dustin Curtis, the placement of the iPhone speakers is almost perfect.

Unlike its competitors which place the speakers on the back of the phone, Apple places the speakers on the bottom face. This bottom location gives you a loud, clear sound when the phone is laying on the table. Competitor’s handsets with a rear-facing speaker will be muffled when they are placed in the same position. This might not seem like a big deal until you miss a meeting because your handset is laying on your nightstand and the muffled alarm is too quiet to wake you up.

You can also see this attention to detail in Apple’s design of copy and paste. Other mobile platforms include copy and paste, but their implementation is awkward. Selecting the correct text is hit or miss because your fat fingers block the text that you are highlighting. Apple’s version of copy and paste, though, lets you zoom in with a magnifying glass that appears above your finger. This simple magnifier makes it easy to select the first and last letter of the text. It’s this attention to detail that makes Apple products a pleasure to use.

[via Edible Apple]

Apple design and the little things originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iOS 5 tethered and Semi-tethered jailbreak solutions are available but iBooks keeps on crashing on all iOS 5 jailbroken devices making it difficult to purchase and read Steve Jobs’ eagerly…

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While Android has been the leader in market-share for mobile OSs for quite some time the OS was still behind iOS when it came to apps being downloaded, but not anymore. According to this InformationWeek article, 56% of folks who purchased a smartphone opted for an Android powered device, 28% went with an iPhone. In addition to that, Android now holds a 44% share in app downloads compared to the iPhone’s 41% share.

In September 2010, Apple had over 40% share in downloads. That number climbed to over 50% by December, but has been steadily declining since then. It now holds 31% of the download share. Android has jumped to 44% from just a bit over 20% last year.

Source: Android Surpasses iPhone in App Downloads