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: Hardware, iTunes, Apple, iPhone, SDK, Jailbreak/pwnage
Jailbreakers ahoy! Yesterday brought the release of the Dev Team’s pwnage tool for jailbreaking and unlocking iPhones equipped with the new 3.1.3 firmware. As usual, though, there are a few catches: first, if you don’t need to update to 3.1.3, the dev team says you shouldn’t bother anyway — it doesn’t do much that the old versions of the firmware doesn’t, so if you don’t need to upgrade, just leave your jailbreak as is.
3G and 3GS users especially should be leery of this one, since if a mistake is made, there’s a chance you could upgrade your firmware and then not be able to unlock it again. They also have all sorts of other warnings and exceptions on their blog post. As they say, don’t download and run those files without seriously thinking about what you’re doing with your iPhone.
If, after all of that thinking, you decide it is time to crack open your iPhone with the 3.1.3 firmware, the jailbreak will put together a custom 3.1.3 IPSW for you to restore back on to your iPhone — here’s a quick how-to to start with. Good luck, and be careful out there!
[via Engadget]
Dev team releases PwnageTool 3.1.5 to jailbreak iPhone 3.1.3 firmware originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Dev team releases PwnageTool 3.1.5 to jailbreak iPhone 3.1.3 firmware originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Hardware, Cult of Mac, iPhone
Unfortunately these guys are already sold out (though maybe there’ll be more soon), but I’m still posting them here just to gaze on their awesomeness — Etsy user Rabbitrampage put together these six iPhone icon keychains (well, five iPhone and one Finder) out of felt, thread, and fiber fill. I think they look great, though it would be nice to have even more custom icons available. I guess if you want a special icon keychain made of your own app (ahem), you’ll have to make it yourself.
This same Etsy user also enjoys wrapping your iPhone in felt recreations of old retro items like Game Boys and even a VHS tape. I’ve already got a case on my iPhone, but if I didn’t have one yet, I’d definitely pick up one of these.
[via iPhone Savior]
TUAWiPhone icons in felt keychain form originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:00:00 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: Gaming, Freeware, Developer, iPhone, App Store
This one might require a little patience to watch, but those interested will be rewarded well, I think. The footage above is from an Apple Store in Toyko’s Ginza shopping district, where none other than Keita Takahashi showed up to demo his latest iPhone game. Who’s Keito Takahashi? He’s the gaming auteur behind Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy, two of the weirdest yet most fascinating games of the last decade or so, and he’s bringing Noby Noby Boy to the iPhone.
Unfortunately, the above demo is in Japanese, but you can see what kinds of thinking is going into the game. It looks like he’s completely revamping the game as a top-down physics-based version of the already very strange PS3 version. We would provide you with some more explanation, but it probably won’t make things any clearer: the object of the game is to stretch out a little creature named BOY, and at the end of the level, your stretched length adds up with all the other players of the game online to another creature called GIRL, who is currently reaching out into the solar system. Told you it wouldn’t help.
Nevertheless, it’s pretty fascinating just to watch the four videos (start here) and see what weirdness transpires in the video — there are some interesting touchscreen controls, and lots of quick physics on the items bouncing around the iPhone’s screen. It’s not that great as an actual game preview, but that might not matter much anyway: Takahashi said a while back that whenever this weird monstrosity does release on Apple’s handheld, “price-wise might be like free.” We can’t wait to see it.
[via Panic]
TUAWNoby Noby Boy demoed at Apple Store in Japan originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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In light of the current tablet frenzy, TUAW is not alone shouting “Tablet, Tablet!” from the rooftops. The tablet has been a widespread and consistent story from several directions which we have been compiling and discussing. Over the last few weeks, TUAW has depended on multiple background sources who have information about the device, as do scores of other sites and news outlets.
In that light, we’ve assembled this round up of analysis and opinions posts, based on the most-likely credible rumors and sources we’ve been able to dig up from the last few years. Here are some of our longer discussion pieces that you might have missed the first time ’round.
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Publishing different: What the tablet brings to the table Like newspapers before them, traditional book publishers are facing the reality of the new digital world. With Apple’s much anticipated tablet expected to debut within the next few months, they’re… |
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App Store approvals and the tablet: why it matters When iTunes Connect returned after its Christmas break, developers noticed that things had changed quite a bit on the App Store approval front. Applications that had formerly taken ten to fourteen… |
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Tablet speculation: How could a tablet connect to the world? Do you know what word Dave Caolo is hearing in his sleep? Tablet. What phrase is trending mightily on Google Search? Tablet. What is every Apple fanboy and fangirl dreaming of for…um…some new… |
Also of interest:
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TUAWTablet analysis and opinion: What TUAW has put on the table originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Hardware, Software, iTunes, App Store
Most of the rumors coming out about next week’s event say that there’ll be a tablet with a lot of similarities to the popular Amazon Kindle device, but even before Apple takes the stage, Amazon is taking one of the new ideas for its own. The online retail powerhouse announced that it is adapting a payment model for content providers that’s very similar to the App Store, with a 70/30 split on pay sharing. There are a few limitations (there’s still a cost for delivery, and the publisher has to conform to a number of price, feature, and location standards), but essentially, Amazon is taking the exact same model that has worked so well for both Apple and its development partners, and bringing it to the Kindle platform.
The timing is interesting — with Apple just about to release what many expect to be a Kindle competitor, you have to wonder what Jeff Bezos is thinking. You have to wonder what Apple will do, too: while there are certainly all kinds of other things the theoretical tablet can do, it’s possible that, if they are as close as some people think, Apple and Amazon will end up competing over content delivery, and one or the other may have to change its royalty offerings in order to attract more premium content.
That’s all a ways down the line, of course — first, Apple needs to announce the tablet, and then we have to see what happens in terms of releasing content for it. But there’s no question Amazon and other companies are watching Apple’s plans in the App Store, and it’ll be interesting to see what comes next.
Amazon Kindle moves to App Store’s 70/30 revenue split originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Amazon Kindle moves to App Store’s 70/30 revenue split originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Apple, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Ars Technica has reported that a recent study from market research firm Gartner shows Apple’s App Store is responsible for a staggering 99.4% of all mobile app sales in 2009. However, as Daring Fireball’s John Gruber points out, Apple didn’t say it sold 2.5 billion apps in 2009; users downloaded 2.5 billion apps in 2009, including free apps.
Even with that distinction between sales and downloads in mind, it’s not difficult to see that Apple has a huge hold on the mobile app market, although it’s probably not as huge as Gartner’s numbers would lead us to believe. According to the Gartner study, all other mobile manufacturers’ platforms combined accounted for a mere 16 million apps downloaded in 2009.
Note, however, that Gartner’s analysis appears to focus on manufacturer-based stores (RIM, Microsoft, Google, etc.) rather than carrier-based stores (Verizon, Vodafone, etc.). It’s likely that mobile phone service providers’ stores account for a higher number of downloaded apps than the 16 million cited in Gartner’s research; the study also doesn’t appear to account for third-party stores for jailbroken iPhones, such as Cydia. This means Gartner’s 99.4% number for Apple’s mobile application marketshare is likely to be fairly wide of the mark.
Regardless of the possible inaccuracy of Gartner’s figure, it’s still clear that when it comes to mobile applications, the App Store has very effectively set the standard for the market.
TUAWApp Store accounts for 99.4% of mobile apps in 2009? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 03:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Retail, Odds and ends
A teen in New York has been arrested for leaving a threatening note on the screen of a computer at an Apple Store. The 17-year-old boy was joking around with friends when he typed a note on screen promising “a bloody death” to anyone working in the store via a “bomb loaded with C4, strapped to my chest.” The note was then signed with the name of one of his friend’s fathers. He claims he typed it just to be funny, and then forgot to delete it when he left, but the District Attorney in Staten Island says it’s no joke — the kid faces up to seven years in prison.
I can’t help but think they’ll let him off the hook eventually. Sure, it was a stupid (really stupid) thing to do, and they should come up with a punishment that teaches the kid a lesson, but time in prison labeled as a terrorist seems a little much for showing off to friends in an Apple Store. Maybe they can have him do some in-store lip synching performances as a community service.
[via Cult of Mac]
TUAWNY teen arrested after leaving threatening note on screen in Apple Store originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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