TRANSFORMERS: Dark of the Moon – Native iPhone Game Rolling Out

Kudos to EA Mobile, one of the most popular movie franchises is on its way to the iPhone. Fans of the TRANSFORMERS movie series will be psyched to hear that a native iPhone and onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.ipadngravy.com');" target="_blank" title="iPad" href="http://www.ip4help.com">iPad version will soon be rolling out (pun very much intended!) on the App Store.

I recently received an email with press assets to EA Mobile’s, as far as I know, most-close-to-release iPhone title. This Tuesday, June 28th, a game based on the TRANSFORMERS series’ newest movie, TRANSFORMERS: Dark of the Moon will be launching on the App Store – and I’ll have a review for you!

Here’s the game’s official trailer: width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hK9V_Os-23E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

iOS 5 could shut down SHSH downgrades?

According to the Dev-Team Blog, it looks like Apple might be making the practice of downgrading iOS using SHSH blobs, something typically stored by Jailbreak store Cydia and utilities like TinyUmbrella. The Dev-Team says this has to do with the process behind over-the-air (OTA) updates, but either way it’s not great news for frequent SHSH blob users.

Starting with the iOS5 beta, the role of the “APTicket” is changing — it’s being used much like the “BBTicket” has always been used. The LLB and iBoot stages of the boot sequence are being refined to depend on the authenticity of the APTicket, which is uniquely generated at each and every restore (in other words, it doesn’t depend merely on your ECID and firmware version…it changes every time you restore, based partly on a random number). This APTicket authentication will happen at every boot, not just at restore time. Because only Apple has the crypto keys to properly sign the per-restore APTicket, replayed APTickets are useless.

This will only be in place for iOS 5 onward, and only when Apple makes use of it. It also can’t stop limera1n, which happens before these checks in the boot sequence. What, if any, workaround may be possible the Dev Team doesn’t say… and won’t until iOS 5 is out of beta.

Whether or not Apple is actually targeting Jailbreak with this is difficult for me to say. I’ve often conjectured that Apple enjoys the “incubator” that is Jailbreak — a way for para-iOS features to be tested on a large user base without having to sanction it, and a way to serve the hardcore market without having to support it. They’ve even ignored exploits in past iOS point updates. We’ll have to wait and see if a) Apple implements it in furtherance of OTA updates, b) if the Dev-Team finds a way around it, and c) how Apple responds to any circumvention.

[Dev-Team Blog]

Apple’s Attack On The Blobs

According to the Dev Team, Apple is changing up the role of the “APTicket” in iOS 5. Those familiar with jailbreaking have often taken precautions of saving blobs, which allowed you to restore to a previous firmware after Apple stopping signing it. That won’t be an option know due to the changes to the role of the APTicket. This will affect restores from iOS 5 onward.

Of course, the Dev Team has been known to find work arounds for every detour. You can certainly bet they will be actively pursing a workaround.

via Dev Team Blog

iPad Live, tonight at 9pm EDT. Be there!

Best damn iPad podcast in the ‘verse aims to misbehave again tonight. Reckon you better be there.

If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to discuss, just leave them in the comments then come be part of the show!

(And yes, you can watch from iPhone via Ustream Viewer app (here’s how) and iPad (we recommend Duet Browser.)

Chat with you soon!

Is Geohot now working for Facebook? [video]

George Hotz, the jailbreak ninja that brought us LimeRa1n for iOS devices as well as the Sony PS3 jailbreak, might just be working at Facebook now.

In a video interview yesterday, Joshua Hill (P0sixninja) a member of the Chronic-Dev Team, confirmed that Geohot had a day job working at Facebook; that is why he declined the offer to help with the iPad 2 jailbreak. Apparently he does not want the attention after being recently sued by Sony.

Also Gabe Rivera of Techmeme, discovered Geohot’s Facebook page and confirmed that the first post at the top of the page said “Facebook is really an amazing place to work…first hackathon over.” The page has now been removed and throws up a message that the content is currently unavailable.

If true, this is an interesting development to say the least . Could it be linked somehow to the three recent Facebook stories which broke last week? We know Facebook is set to release a new photo sharing service, that Facebook was working on an iPad app, and also an  HTML 5 web app store.

Geohot’s efforts to date seem to be in a different area than app development, but even with his experience in breaking security we are sure he would be a great asset!

Video after the break. Do you think Geohot’s at Facebook and if so, what could he be working on?

[MyGreatFest, @gaberivera via Techunwrapped]

Apple still tweaking Notification Center UI ahead of iOS 5 launch

There have been some significant UI changes to Notification Center in iOS 5 beta 2, specifically, the way notifications are handled on the Lock Screen. In beta 1, notifications would simply appear as line items, with new notifications stacking as new line items, one after the other. In beta 2, if a single notification comes in, it now gets its own, newly styled popup.

In both cases, you could and can drag the associated app icon to unlock and be taken directly to the app, only the appearance of the first notification has changed. I addition, Apple has added a visible “window shade” UI element, complete with a little “gripper” handle, to the lock screen, above the single notification, so you can pull down the full list of recent notifications.

For alarms, the change is even more striking, as the addition of the “snooze” button seemed bitsy in the beta 1 UI but is now big and bold in the beta 2 UI (see above).

The most interesting part of this is that Apple is still working on, or experimenting with, the notifications user experience during the beta process. During previous iOS releases, the user experience for cut, copy, and paste, and for the multitasking fast app switcher and folders remained relatively unchanged during the beta process. (Though significant changes were made prior to the beta period, when it was still internal to Apple).

We know Apple hired the father of webOS notifications over a year ago, but also hired the developer of Jailbreak notifications just prior to the iOS 5 beta release. What, if any, impact that might be having on the betas is unknown, but it’s tremendous to actually “see” Apple’s design iterations on such a major new feature release.

Apple goes easier on subscription rules for publishers

Apple has decided to relax its relatively restricted subscription rules. This will come as good news for major newspaper and magazine publishers, many of whom have signed up in droves to write tons of applications for the iPad in hopes of reaching an even larger (and more tech savvy) audience.

According to MacRumors, Apple will no longer compel publishers to offer users subscriptions via its App store at the same price or less than offered elsewhere. Currently, Apple earns around 30 percent of subscription frees that are purchased via the App store. Apple is ready to remove these restrictions in the next issue of subscription guidelines.

This serves to highlight an interesting fact, Apple’s iPad is the most popular tablet PC on the market right now but emerging competition, especially from Android devices is forcing it to take a more conciliatory tone with publishers. Earlier Apple could simply dictate almost anything it liked, but now the odds are slowly becoming more even and publishers are becoming bolder when it comes to things like negotiations over subscriptions.

Do not expect Apple to give away too much ground though because the popularity of the iPad will live on for the near future and publishers are eager to reach new customers right now; they simply cannot afford to wait any longer.

Users will now experience a greater surge of publishers, especially those connected to News Corp. Other publications have also expanded to iPads and iPhones including The Economist, Time Magazine, CNN, BBC and Foreign Policy. This is because demand for traditional print media has been steadily declining over the years and selling material online through special subscriptions is the only way these prestigious firms can continue to survive. However, as experience as shown, simply settling for a weaker business model online is not an appropriate strategy. Therefore, Apple’s decision will help publishers adapt more positively to emerging trends.