Filed under: Hardware, Rumors, iPhone
iResQ, the iPhone/iPod repair site, has posted pics of what they claim is the front faceplate of the next-gen iPhone. Two things about this piece of hardware are particularly interesting. First, the part is approximately 1/4 of an inch taller than the iPhone 3GS, indicative of a slightly taller form factor for the next-gen iPhone. Second, there’s a small, reflective strip directly above the hole for the phone speaker. iResQ believes this is likely to be the new location for the iPhone’s proximity sensor rather than an indication of any new hardware; however, moving the proximity sensor to a new location and increasing the overall length of the device could still point to a front-facing camera or other new hardware on the next-gen iPhone.
It’s worth mentioning the possibility that these “iPhone” parts aren’t legitimate. iResQ hasn’t revealed its source for the part, and purported iPhone bezels leaked in 2009 turned out to be parts for a completely different device. The backside of the supposed next-gen iPhone’s face is missing quite a few parts present on the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, which either means the part iResQ received was incomplete, the next-gen iPhone has had its internal hardware shifted around, or the part is fake.
So case manufacturers, don’t throw out your old blueprints just yet. Unfortunately, it’s likely we won’t find out whether these are legit or not until June/July of this year; despite rumors of an iPhone update in April, the most likely date for the next-gen iPhone’s release is early summer.
[Via MacRumors]
TUAWPurported pics of next-gen iPhone front face surface originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: How-tos, iTunes, iPhone, iPod touch
By default, movies and TV shows in the iPod portion of the iPhone and iPod touch play in landscape view. The biggest change with respect to video orientation came about with iPhone OS 2.0, which provided the option for landscape-right viewing (that is, with the volume and silent/vibrate buttons facing up). While most videos could, and should, be viewed in landscape, there are times that call for a portrait perspective — for example, when placing your iPhone into a dock, which is what I do when working out.
Getting your iPhone to play a movie or TV show in portrait mode requires a simple change in the video’s tag, from TV Show or Movie to Podcast. Simply right-click on the file and select “get info “(or you could use the Command-I shortcut). Then, in the “Media Kind” section within the “Options” tab of the video, select Podcast. Now, the videos will show up in both the Podcasts and Videos section of the iPod portion on your iPhone.
Obviously, this isn’t something you’d want to do with every movie or TV show in your library. So, to revert the file back to its old self, you’d want to follow the same process and change the video back to a TV show or movie.
Tricking your iPhone to play TV shows and movies in portrait view originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Tricking your iPhone to play TV shows and movies in portrait view originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Software, iTunes, Software Update
iTunes 9.0.3 is out now for download on Software Update and in the usual places. The update features the option to remember your password when purchasing items in iTunes (finally!), fixes problems with Smart Playlists and podcast synching on iPod, and resolves a few bugs and issues. There’s no word of any updates in compatibility for iPad, but it’s probably just too soon for that yet.
That “remember my password” fix will definitely come in handy, though. Get it while the gettin’s good!
iTunes 9.0.3 released originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
iTunes 9.0.3 released originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Hardware, Software, iTunes
Here’s a bit of interesting for you from the folks over at APC: during a press event at CES 2010, Intel used iTunes to tout its latest processors rather than one of the other oft-used performance-testing suites. Specifically, they showed off an i5 processor not by running some complex graphics simulation or commercial benchmarking algorithm, but by launching iTunes and synchronizing with an attached iPod.
Intel is attempting to make processor specifications more useful to normal people by focusing less on engineering statistics and more on actual applications. What is interesting here is that Intel is essentially admitting the difficulty in quantifying the improvements of their latest hardware. It is, however, easier to qualify their improvements by showcasing their hardware using applications people use everyday.
This de-obfuscation of a processor’s ability is a good thing. It means that my mother-in-law can stroll through Best Buy and understand that a given set of hardware is going to perform better at the tasks she cares about most. In the end, it really is less about GHz and more about GTD.
Intel uses iTunes for benchmarking originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Intel uses iTunes for benchmarking originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tapbots is back with its third iPhone offering, and for those of you who are familiar with the company’s beautifully designed applications, you will not be disappointed. On the surface, Pastebot is a clipboard manager for your iPhone or iPod touch that stores clippings in a beautiful, intuitive UI, but it’s more powerful than that. The folks at Tapbots have thought of everything, and Pastebot is the result.
Pastebot is more powerful than the name suggests. While the application’s intended purpose is to give you access to a clipboard history, you’ll quickly find unintended uses that make it much more valuable.
When Microsoft first launched the Zune, the player was something of a kludge. The hardware design had been licensed wholesale from Toshiba, and the fact that it had WiFi and could “squirt” songs was little advantage in a world where few people bought the device. (Several years after its launch, I have yet to run across another person “in the wild” who owns a Zune.) As Microsoft’s first product that was meant to derail the iPod juggernaut, it served instead only as a sacrificial victim that the juggernaut overran without pity.
Filed under: iTunes, iPhone, iPod touch
While of my colleagues are tremendously excited about Norah Jones and iTunes LP, I’ve got to say I was far happier to discover the new iTunes 9 iPhone application management screens that Brett touched on yesterday (Sorry, Dave!). Located in the Applications tab for each iPhone and iPod touch device, the manager lets you organize your applications on a screen-by-screen basis from the comfort of your desktop. Unfortunately, the organizer remains fairly primitive.You can…
- …check or uncheck apps that you want to sync or not sync.
- …drag apps around individual pages to reorder them
- …drag apps between screens to reparent them.
- …change page order by dragging them within the page column.
And that’s pretty much it. There’s no way to sort your screens alphabetically or by category. There’s no way to copy or share layouts between devices. There’s no undo support if you change your mind about any changes. That having been said, there are some iTunes 9 tricks that may help you better organize your applications. Here are TUAW’s top four.
Use Command-Click to group apps. Command-clicking an application icon adds it to (or if already added, removes it from) the currently selected group. You can move groups all at once between pages.
Use empty pages. If you have the pages to spare, use the empty pages that iTunes makes available to you to help organize applications by “theme”. For example, you can drag an empty page into, say, the page 2 position and then start filling that page with games from the other pages. Adding apps to that empty page causes another empty page to appear at the end of the list if there is room. You’re limited to eight 11 pages total for your applications.
Use the dock. Your dock provides a home for up to four applications that you use the most. Docked applications appear on every page, offering the quickest access to your most-used apps. Don’t feel limited to the apps that the iPhone OS defaults to. It’s your dock. Use it the way that best suits you.
Use the home screen. If you have more than four apps that you need quick access to, don’t forget that the first screen of apps is always just a Home button click away. Tapping the home button when viewing apps automatically jumps you to the first page. Place your high priority apps on this first page if they fall short of the urgency of the dock items.
The new Application editor is certainly a great step forward from the way things were. Here’s hoping that Apple will make it even easier to manage your applications in future iTunes releases.
iTunes 9 Focus: Tips for editing your iPhone apps screens originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
iTunes 9 Focus: Tips for editing your iPhone apps screens originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: TUAW Business, iPhone, iPod touch
I’m not talking about i.tuaw.com, although it still exists (and will continue to evolve — we hear you!). In fact, I am talking about the TUAW native iPhone app [iTunes link]. It works on iPod touch as well. For a full list of features you can check our TUAW app page here. Or, take a quick tour in the video below.
Thanks to everyone at AOL who made this happen!
TUAWWant to read TUAW on your iPhone? There’s an app for that. originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Industry insiders say that the big four record labels are working with Apple to boost full album sales, as individual songs have come to dominate digital downloads. A project called “Cocktail” is reportedly underway and set to launch this fall, which will bundle interactive “booklets” including artwork, liner notes, and other content with a full album purchase. Another interesting twist is that the new content may be launched alongside a long-rumored Apple tablet.
Apple has worked with labels and bands in the past to promote digital music. Many albums are now available with digital booklets, a PDF file that includes cover art and liner notes. A few artists have released a “digital box set,” most notably U2, which released a package that contained every song that band ever recorded—it could also be purchased alongside a special edition U2 iPod. Most recently, Apple unveiled what’s called an iTunes Pass with the release of Depeche Mode’s latest album Sounds of the Universe. iTunes Pass gives purchasers access to exclusive remixes, b-sides, videos, and other content leading up to the release of a new album.
Go to Apple working with record labels to resurrect the album
Filed under: Tips and tricks, iTunes, TUAW Tips
Have you ever been playing one of your finely-tuned playlists, blissfully grooving to the music, only to connect your iPod or iPhone and lose your place? In other words, iTunes (if you’ve set it to automatically sync) will move your view from whatever playlist you’re in to the sync window. That’s handy, of course, but if you forgot which playlist you were in, it can be a pain. I have several playlists set to random, and when I try to go back, it re-shuffles the order. There are other multi-tasking issues with iTunes that largely stem from its one-window interface. If you want to browse the store and manage a playlist, for example, you’re stuck doing a lot of scrolling. But iTunes isn’t really one window!
If you double-click the title of a playlist, it allows you to edit the name of the playlist, right? But if you double-click the icon of a playlist (for a standard list it’ll be a little blue note to the left of the title), iTunes will open an entirely new window, as seen above. You can open a bunch of these if you like and it works with TV, Movies, pretty much everything on the left side. It’s much easier to drag and drop songs this way if you have a bunch of playlists. Plus, the window menu will give you quick access to whatever you opened, or you can switch through them with Exposé.
Note: yes, this has been in iTunes for a long time.
TUAW Tip: Multitasking in iTunes originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
TUAW Tip: Multitasking in iTunes originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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