The truth about jailbreaking and the jailbreak community

Lately we’ve been seeing a lot of rumors about iOS 5 and whether over-the-air updates will affect the ability to jailbreak. Regardless, I think there are some misconceptions about the Jailbreak community being spread around the blogsphere lately, even as link-bait or and well-intentioned rebuttals that take the bait and provide the links.

This isn’t that. I’m not going to reward negative attention seeking. I’m just going to reiterate why I think jailbreak greatly benefits all iOS users, Jailbreak and otherwise, and trust people are smart enough and critical enough to read all the opinions and decide for themselves.

First off, the jailbreak community is extremely innovative. I’ll go out on a limb here as I have many times before and insist that there are Apple employees walking around Cupertino with jailbroken iPhones in hand. Why you ask?

Because they’d be stupid not to keep up with all the bright minds and ideas floating around the jailbreak community.

We already know Apple hired Peter Hajas, the creator of MobileNotifier, right before the announcement of iOS 5.

We can debate all day why Apple made that move but I personally see a striking similarity between the new iOS 5 notification system and Peter Hajas’ design for MobileNotifier. Notification Center gestures are also quite similar to the InfoShade feature of the popular jailbreak app, LockInfo.

Let’s face it, the jailbreak community has had a lot of great ideas. A lot of these same ideas end up trickling down into later iterations of iOS. Sometimes Apple manages to make them their own. Other times, they are blatantly copied, like Wifi Sync. Greg Hughes, the creator of the jailbreak version of Wifi Sync, had submitted his version of the app to the official App Store well over a year ago. It was rejected and then quickly found its way into Cydia.

A year later, we see Apple unveil their version of wireless syncing. This time, they didn’t even bother to change the icon. What you see on the left is Greg Hughes’ Wifi Sync icon compared to Apple’s. See any similarity?

Apple is a secretive company. They can’t and won’t publicly test future versions of iOS years in advance. With Jailbreak, they get hundreds of thousands of people testing all sorts of apps, interfaces, and experiences, and Apple can see which ones work, and cherry pick all the best and brightest and most successful ideas.

It has been implied on several occasions that jailbreaking will completely screw up your device and Apple will be stuck eating the cost when you bring it in for warranty repair.

I really can’t begin to point out how many things are wrong with that statement. Let’s start with the obvious…. Apple will not service a jailbroken iPhone. They will simply turn you away. I do not know many jailbreakers that aren’t aware of this fact. That is their right and jailbreakers understand this.

Next, there is nothing a simple restore won’t wipe away. I have never seen an iPhone, iPad, or iPod rendered useless from a jailbreak gone wrong. I’ve seen some that get stuck in a recovery loop but sticking it into DFU mode and doing a stock restore always fixes the issue. I run a small tech company locally and we offer jailbreak and unlock services. We also troubleshoot tons of devices a week. We actually receive just as many users with stock issues as we do with jailbreak issues if we want to be honest here.

I can’t speak for the entire jailbreak community but I can speak for myself and those I know that jailbreak. I do not pressure others into jailbreaking. I don’t want to and frankly I don’t need to.

We may joke about it around the forums and have #TeamJailbreak and #TeamPure battles during podcasts but that’s as far as it goes. In fact, I am always hesitant when someone asks me to help them jailbreak due to the amount of questions I’ll probably get for the next several weeks. I know many others who sometimes feel the same. I’m not saying I’m never willing to help but I do believe users who want to attempt jailbreaking should at least have some basic knowledge or technical understanding of iOS.

Bottom line, if someone sees Jailbreak, they know if it interests them and if they want to try it, and they know if it looks difficult or stressful and want no part of it. To think otherwise gives them far too little credit.

Sadly, I can’t say piracy doesn’t happen. It does. On iOS. With music and movies. It happens. But it doesn’t mean all jail breakers steal any more than it means all PC users steal (PCs come already jailbroken, that makes it even easier, right?).

Most of the Jailbreak users purchase apps just like stock users do. They not only purchase applications from the App Store like the rest of the population, but from Cydia as well.

There are tons of developers that will tell you that jailbreakers that steal apps make up a very tiny portion of their user base. Ironically, a lot of the jailbreakers I know end up being some of the biggest sticklers about not stealing applications and money out of developers’ pockets.

Why? Because most of them are developers as well.

Not only does Apple get a pretty large user base to test on, they have an extremely talented group of developers to keep their eye on. I don’t think Peter Hajas will be the last jailbreak developer to join Apple. Nor will iOS 5 be the last iteration of Apple’s latest and greatest to “borrow” ideas from the jailbreak community.

I do not see Apple going out of their way to block out jailbreakers in future iterations of iOS. Will they close exploits? Sure they will. For the safety and privacy of their users in general. The jailbreak community will always find a way in. If it’s coded by a person, it can be cracked by a person. And the game will continue. Until people grow bored or Apple gives us all the functionality we desire.

The main goal of the jailbreak community has always been to provide more options to power users who would like more control than Apple would like to give us. In return, we may deal with a little bug here and there or a few resprings. If you choose not to deal with that, that’s okay too.

But going against the grain doesn’t make this community evil or snide. It just makes us different. We are aware that we make up a very small portion of iOS users. We’re okay with that and never pretend to be the majority.

We don’t need to use link bait in order for Apple to pay attention to us. You can safely bet they already are.

The difference between Mike Lazaridis and Steve Jobs

Jonathan Geller, the Boy Genius, reports that Mike Lazardis was convinced of BlackBerry’s superior design and feature focus, long after the proverbial ship hit the not-so-proverbial iceberg:

Picture yourself sitting in an executive briefing at Research In Motion. You’d hear Mike Lazaridis unequivocally state time and time again that BlackBerry smartphones would never have MP3 players or cameras in them because it just does not make sense when the company’s primary customers were the government and enterprise. “BlackBerry smartphones will never have cameras because the No. 1 customer of ours is the U.S. government,” Mike Lazaridis would say in meetings. “There will never be a BlackBerry with an MP3 player or camera.”

Mike Lazaridis would say that the most ridiculous idea was to name a phone with a marketing-derived name, like the Motorola RAZR. “BlackBerry will never do that, it will always be a model number,” he said to executives. “A BlackBerry with a name is ridiculous.”

Compare and contrast with Steve Jobs who put sneaker to stage at WWDC 2007 and showed off the original iPhone, a device that eschewed the design of the market leaders of the day, RIM’s BlackBerry and Palm’s Treo line. Unlike almost everyone else at the time, the iPhone dropped the keyboard, and replaced the stylus with the finger and multitouch.

Never mind that RIM eventually, reluctantly backtracked and shipped camera totting, MP3 rocking, Bold-ly branded, devices of their own. They failed to see where the market was going, dismissed where it was, and seemed to only angrily react to where it had long since been.

To their credit, Google rapidly switched Android from a BlackBerry clone to an iPhone clone. To their detriment, RIM just kept making BlackBerrys, the same ones that owned the world in 2006, long after the world had moved post-2007.

Steve Jobs, meanwhile, probably isn’t waiting on anyone to obsolete the iPhone. He likely has all of Apple working on doing that themselves.

[BGR]

Apps to Boost Your iphone

Ever since the introduction of the first iPhone, Apple opened the door to a completely new world that probably not known then, exploded in popularity. This is called the App Store. After 4 years of apps, the store features now more than 200.000 applications, a true Big Bang in the software development world. Many of these accessories can give your iPhone the necessary boost in becoming your main tool for web surfing, navigation, media fun and much more.

When you purchase a new iPhone there are already included several apps, these come preinstalled with the operating system. To access a huge variety of other apps you need to visit the App Store, either at Apple´s website or directly on your phone. Here you can then download applications in whatever domain you are interested. You can browse thought apps for work, for cooks, to impress, for music, student´s, working out, managing money, traveling and many more. This gives you the possibility of almost limitless interaction between you and your iPhone. Let´s consider the most popular app that was number one for weeks and enjoyed by millions of people´s. I am talking about the Angry Birds, rated by millions of users as being the best entertaining app. You just have to love the way those crazy birds furiously fly towards their targets and brings mayhem and destruction in the most fun way possible.   Many say that this game completely changed the level of competiveness. This game and many other ones keep the top places in the most popular applications ever developed, showing the huge potential for enjoinment of this platform.

Another fun bringing application is Hangman, the old words decoding software. Known by many ever since they were small continues to bring endless entertainment. It also “hangs” the competition with its popularity. For those who love social interactions there is an app to meet their needs, called Stroodle lets you access all your preferred social network in the same time getting updates from all of them. It has a simple and easy interface for fast access. For the reading articles lovers there is Pulse, an app which enables you to save any article for later reading. It is compatible with any model of the iPhone. For those with a preference for sports you can find apps to better follow your progress take your time and manage your amount of workout. Working is something we do every day; to have a better organizational level and manage more things at once you can do all that directly from your iPhone with a number of different apps, like Scatter Brain. This is a tool that will not let you forget anything from the multitude of tasks we have daily. Keeps you organized and keeps track of your thoughts. These apps are just a drop in the ocean compared with the immense variety found solely in one place, the App Store from Apple. Many more are waiting for you to explore.

Technology Crunch: iPad 2

The all new slim and sleek iPad came into the market with a blast. Its slim design and techno advanced features grabbed the attention of all gadget freaks. It has an amazing battery time of about 10 hours and is much faster as compared to its previous version. The iPad has brought a complete break through into the world of computer technology and has got really good reviews from the users. However some unhappy customers don’t like the issues that they are facing with their new iPad system.

For a start the company as facing some issues with the delivery system which is why the customers are complaining to the company of not receiving their order on time. There was a huge order cancellation error on the part of the company, which displeased the customer. However some people have also complained of having face time freezing. This problem starts when you enter into a live chat session and the video on the screen gets stuck. The whole system gets jammed. Then the iPad gets rebooted.

Another major issue is with the Wi-Fi signals. This issue was also experienced by users of iPad and now it comes in iPad 2 as well. The connectivity system seems to break down frequently and this can be irritating on the part of the user. Heating issues have also been reported frequently and it is said that this device heats up more as compared to the iPad. This heating seems to be excessive which can be a problem in the operating system. Some customers have complained of discolouring right after they have received their new system through shipment. The yellow colour that sticks to the screen is merely the glue that is added to keep the cover in place. It dries in about a couple of days.

Microphone distortions tend to prevail in this model too along with the Wi-Fi issues. The speakers of this newer version have been advanced as compared to the original iPad. Some iPad systems also have a light bleeding issue or patches of light start to appear on the screen. This can be a major problem and should be resolved by the company.

Poor quality camera is also one of the issues customers are facing after getting hold of this new technology. The camera also records high definition videos and two cameras can be seen at the same time on the screen but the resolution switches when still photographs are taken from it. For the video recording the resolution is about 720p but for the photograph it is only 960 x 720.

As far as the resolution of the screen is concerned there are no improvements in the new model. The resolution is the same as the previous one so don’t bother to look for a better retina display. So when you are out to buy a new iPad 2 system do check for technical faults like bleeding lights, mic distortions and heating issues. If you face issues after you have purchased the device and used it for a while then you can always contact the Apple office.

The Trick of Double Tapping Your iPhone Screen

If you are the owner of iPhone and experiencing it more than a month then we will say that you are an expert of iPhone regarding its amazing features and cool applications now. May be you are experiencing these amazing tricks and features….. or may be not. A trick according to me is, using your iPhone efficiently and uses all features that are already built-in in your mobile. If you will not give some time to learn about your iPhone than you will definitely miss these tricks.

It is obvious and true that best feature of this mobile is its user interface.  One of the best and most leading features of the iPhone is its user interface. But if you have iPhone and unfortunately you are not aware of these tricks and features than you will miss the iPhone’s amazing interface. This article will help those iPhone’s owners who want to learn the trick of double tapping on their iPhone screen. As you know, Double Tap is an addition to the single tap. We have noticed that only few people double tap any single item on their iPhone screen. We seems that every icon react with a single tap motion, but there are few interfaces which response to double tapping rather than  only one tap on the screen.

This trick is used when you are viewing photos, web page, email or video the double tap will help in zooming. Again double tap the screen if you want to zoom out. You have noticed that while watching a video or movie there are two black lines one is above and the other is below the pic, these black lines gives you narrow view, if you want to see the video then only double tap your iPhone screen and video will be on full screen. However, because of full screen, words may be cut off if you are watching a video with subtitle. To go back to small screen again double tap your screen.

These were the example of how you may get benefit by double tapping your mobile screen. Double tapping mean to get a better image at your iPhone screen, just double tap any image and you will be able to magnify your image. You must have to spend your few time to uncover these tricks if you want to experience the amazing feature of your mobile. As you will discover these features you will be amazed because it gives you many choices to be entertained.

The Fifth Generation in iphone Technology

The iPhone hype has already got on everyone and everyone is excited about the features and applications that the fifth generation of iPhone would be providing. Each year Apple launches a new version or generation of the iPhone and this year the fifth generation is due and everyone is already talking about what would be new in this generation of internet and multimedia enabled smart phones. And this year due to the delay in the release of next generation has left people with even more curiosity of what is taking Apple too much delay. Apple has always tried to secrete the pre-release images or videos of its new smart phones but more or less every time there have been seen some leakages. The same happened this year as well when an Asian trading site ‘AliBaba.com’ released one of the images of the new iPhone 5G. Below is the image that is being seen now days at almost every iPhone website.

The new iPhone is believed to have the 100% high quality crystal case which would give iPhone 5G a highly elegant and stylish look. The crystal case is believed to be a bit fragile and to overcome that, iPhone 5G would have extra layers of some protection that would give it a high security and extra protection against accidental drops.

Another very noticeable difference of iPhone 5G from its previous generations is that it would have edge to edge display with a big display size screen. The display of iPhone 5G is being compared with that of iPad. iPad also has edge to edge display screen and uses 3:4 screen ratio. The iPhone is currently using 2:3 screen ratios but in iPhone 5G, the screen ratio is believed to be the same as that of iPad. This is a very good feature and would definitely be appreciated by all around the globe.

Another noticeable and spotable difference in the photo received from AliBaba.com is the camera of iPhone 5G. The photo shows that the camera behind the iPhone has a flash a few inches beyond the camera lens. It is the noticeable difference but its implications are unknown yet. The camera is believed to be higher than at least 8 mega pixels and it is being heard that Apple has got Sony camera in iPhone 5G. if this is truth, it would be definitely a great news because everyone knows about the quality of the image produced by Sony Camera. It is also believed that the camera would also be the video camera and a small camera on the front side would be supporting the live Video Conferencing. It would be a great feature because video conferencing on your iPhone would be a great fun as well as great facilitation for professionals.

IPhone would definitely be thinner, easy to hold and more stylish looking and would definitely be providing better storage and battery life. There should also be better processor to handle more complex applications and offer even better internet speed. These are some of the features that are must to have been in the fifth generation as expected by everyone.

Today’s New Apps: Spotify, Captain America, Monopoly Goes Local And More…

While we all sit and frantically refresh Spotify’s US website hoping for it to go live for signups this morning, we’ve been informed that the app is now available to download in the USA. So, you can’t sign in yet, but it’s a start.

Marvel has just released a $4.99 Captain America app for the new movie. Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty looks to be a pretty standard brawler, with initial reviews pointing to fun gameplay but repetitive levels.

Dragon Go! is a free voice based search engine from Nuance, the folks behind the entire Dragon line of speech recognition apps.

If you’re tired of vanilla Monopoly with its Boardwalk and Park Place, EA has brought the localized Monopoly: Here and Now edition to the iPad as a $9.99 download. Instead of buying streets, you now buy entire cities, like Toronto or Barcelona.

iPhone Live 161: Scattered across the galaxy

Rene, Seth, and Georgia talk iOS 5 beta 3, iPhone 5 wireless charging, Netflix price hikes, AT&T roaming data rates, Swype for Jailbreak, and BT keyboards for Apple TV. This is iPhone Live!

Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie)

Seth Clifford (@sethclifford)

Georgia (@GeorgiaTiPb)

Thanks to the TiPb iPhone accessory store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Our music comes from the following sources:

Daily Tip: How to use iOS 5 AirPlay mirroring for FaceTime

Developer interested in trying out iOS 5‘s new AirPlay mirroring for FaceTime on your iPad 2 and Apple TV? It’s a great way to take personal video calls between family or business associates and make them group calls that everyone can engage in. And we’ll show you how, after the break!

You need to make sure you have an iPad 2 and Apple TV both on iOS 5 beta 3. If you’re a developer, you can grab all the software you need via Apple’s developer portal. If you haven’t joined already, here’s how to become a paid member.

Remember, only iPad 2 can do AirPlay Mirroring. You can call your iPad 2 from an iPhone 4 or iPod touch 4, but you can’t mirror those devices’ display. Only the iPad 2 display.

Note: Before you install, make sure your UDIDs are registered with Apple. You might not be able to activate your devices if your UDIDs aren’t properly registered.

That’s it, your FaceTime call should now be up, and usable, on the big screen!

Remember, you can also mirror apps and games with iOS 5, so when your FaceTime call ends, launch Plants vs. Zombies or OmniGraffle and keep on enjoying the big screen fun.

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Angry Birds Rio updated with 15 new levels and a boss fight

Angry Birds Rio for iPhone and Angry Birds Rio HD for iPad have been updated with 15 new levels and a boss fight.

The carnival continues!

I just can’t get enough Angry Birds and am looking forward to the boss fight. Have you beaten the boss yet?

Angry Birds Rio is available on the iPhone and iPad for $0.99 and $2.99, respectively. Screenshots after the break.

[iPhone iTunes link] [iPad iTunes link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

iUsers brings multiple user accounts to the iPad [jailbreak]

iUsers is a new jailbreak tweak that enables an iPad to have multiple user accounts. If you share your iPad with other people in your home, this jailbreak tweak could be just what you have been waiting for.

Each user that has access to your iPad can now have a separate account with their own log in passcode, separate home screens, different apps and log in credentials. Pedro Franceschi is the man to thank for this awesome looking tweak. He has even put together a short video showing how it all works; it looks really well put together and a highly useful add on. The iPad does have to go through a short reboot cycle when switching accounts. It doesn’t seem to take very long to do it, so it’s not really a deal breaker.

If you want to give this one a go, you will need to add http://cydia.iblogeek.com/ as an additional repository in your Cydia settings. Once you have done that, simply search for iUsers.

Take a look at iUsers in action after the break!

[YouTube via Cult of Mac]

Apple Is Hiring Staff For August, Is That The iPhone 5 Launch?

We still don’t know exactly when the iPhone 5 launch is, but a newly uncovered job ad — spotted by CNET UK — points to an August until October launch. The job listing was for short term, full time iPhone sales specialists: ”full-time iPhone Sales Staff for an exciting project to work 5 days a week (Tuesday-Saturday) for the period 16th August – 29th October within key retail stores.”

This could point at a slightly early August launch, or else August could be a week or two for the staff members to get their heads around Apple’s way of doing things and their products before the actual launch in September.

Is This The First Parts Leak Of The iPad 3?

Taiwanese site Apple.pro (Google translate) have posted some pictures of what they claim to be the dock connector and ribbon cable for the iPad 3. If these are actually from the next iPad, they signal a different internal layout for the next edition, as they look different to their current versions.

The new dock connector is also white, which might hint at a white rim to the iPad 3, as opposed to the current metal version.

It’s also possible that this is a part for the iPad HD, which might explain a different external aesthetic.

Apple.pro has had a pretty solid reputation for leaks, and have leaked some pretty solid hardware in the past — but they’re in no way infallible.

[via MacRumors]

the show: 31 – “Recycle”

Join your hosts Marianne Schultz and myself for The Show: 31 – “Recycle”. You can subscribe to our show on iTunes, grab our RSS feed, listen now or download directly. We broadcast our iPad and iPhone podcast live each week. If you missed the live show, we hope you’ll join us next week for live chat and more. Our next show will be July 12th at 7pm EST. If you’d like to be included on a future broadcast, please call 646-820-3431 and leave your name along with your question. If you’d like to provide us with feedback, we’ve set up a topic in our forums.

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Google’s Photovine Goes Live (If You Have An Invite)

Late last week we posted about a new app from Google called Photovine — an app which has now gone live, but you can’t get into without an invite. You can now go to the Photovine website and throw your name in a hat to try and get an invite, but without being let in, the newly available free app is unfortunately more or less worthless.

Because the service is invite only for now — and is a social networking app — we’re in a bit of a Google+ situation. We’d love to get in and play around, but even if we did, no-one we know would be there.

However, once people start getting into the app, it sounds like it should be fun. You start a “vine” by taking a photo and adding a caption, and then your friends upload images riffing on the same theme. Sounds great to me, if only I could get in.

Case-Mate Barely There Chrome Case for iPhone 4, Verizon iPhone 4

The Case Mate Barely There Chrome Case is a line of light, sporty cases for the AT&T iPhone 4 or Verizon iPhone 4. These cases are designed to help protect the design of the AT&T iPhone 4 or Verizon iPhone 4 while allowing more of it to show.

Shop Case-Mate Barely There Chrome Case for iPhone 4, Verizon iPhone 4 now!

App Store Volume Purchasing for Businesses, Coming Soon

The Blackberry is undoubtedly still winning among most businesses. Apart from its reliable hardware and steadily built name, the Blackberry boasts a various amount of features that appeal to the likes of companies. However, Apple’s taking their first step to compete; coming soon is the volume purchasing program for businesses within the United States.

This new feature, which will soon be available, simplifies the process of purchasing applications in bulk. At the moment, you can only buy applications one at a time – think about how long that would take for a large corporation with thousands of employees! From Apple’s onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.apple.com/business/vpp/');" target="_blank" href="http://www.apple.com/business/vpp/">newest website dedicated to this new feature:

“Whether you’re providing apps to two employees or ten thousand, the Volume Purchase Program makes it simple to find, buy, and distribute the apps your business needs.

The Volume Purchase Program also provides a way to purchase custom B2B apps built by third-party developers to meet the unique needs of your business.

The Volume Purchase Program for Business is coming soon to businesses in the United States.”

You can use the website, once it opens for real, to search for needed applications, enter the amount you will be purchasing and then you’ll be given a redeem code (much like a promo code) that you can use to distribute the application. To sign up, you just need to create a volume purchasing account with Apple with your contact information, for verification purposes, your company’s Dun & Bradstreet number (D-U-N-S) and a corporate credit card that can be billed for purchases.

Could this be the first step for Apple in making the iPhone a more business-friendly phone (not that it currently isn’t)? Is this something you or your company would look in to?

Poll: What new feature do you want most for iPhone 5?

iPhone 5 should be unveiled this fall, and as always Apple won’t reveal any of its specs or features until Steve Jobs holds it up on stage. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have our wish lists! From the almost certain (Apple A5 processor) to the even odds (bigger screen) the pie in the sky dreams (glowing Apple logo!), we’re curious to know what new feature you want most?

Vote in the poll up top and give us your full wish-list in the comments below!

The iPhone in Japan

Please excuse my uninformed self, but I really had no idea how big Apple was, visually anyways, in Japan before arriving for my one week vacation. First off, the 33 million people in Tokyo are always texting – seriously, as soon as I hopped onto Tokyo’s main public transportation system, I noticed everyone had their phones out furiously clicking away. And the interesting part about it is that everyone either has an iPhone running on Tokyo’s ATT, Softbank Corp. or this abnormally long flip-phone from NTT Docomo (Tokyo’s Verizon).

Literally, everyone has one of the two phones above. Only a small minority had anything other than that. Although the iPhone seemed like it was a big thing there, I didn’t see too many advertisements, whereas Android had ads almost everywhere, each sporting the same people and line: on trains, in train stations, on buildings. The few iPhone advertisements I did manage to get a glimpse of on the various screens hung all over Tokyo’s lit-up cities were interesting to see, though many did seem to lack the official Apple touch, if you know what I mean. Stores advertising for the iPhone had different looking ads, while the few Apple ads looked official.

So, any of our Japanese readers agree with the any of the above? Maybe you guys have more solid evidence than I do. Comment below – I’m really interested to see how much of Apple’s fanboys reside in Japan and how well the iPhone fits in to the Japanese unique trends and lifestyle.

Oh yeah, those of you people that own Android devices or Blackberries and actively defend them against the iPhone: 33 million people can’t be wrong!

Disclaimer: Everything written above is solely based on short-term, visual experience rather than on any physical numbers. Information is all opinion and could very well be untrue when actual data is examined.

A few more pictures:/>id="attachment_20344" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 610px">href="http://www.iphonealley.com/blog/the-iphone-in-japan/attachment/iphone-in-japan4" rel="attachment wp-att-20344">src="http://www.iphonealley.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/iphone-in-japan4.png" alt="" title="iphone in japan4" width="600" height="448" class="size-full wp-image-20344" />class="wp-caption-text">Apple store in Ginza (district of Tokyo, look at right side of picture)

Google releases Photovine for iPhone, a photo sharing app with a strange twist

Google has released another photo sharing app for the iPhone, this one called Photovine and actually made by Slide. Slide was acquired by Google some time last year.

Watching the video it appears that it is aimed at some sort of photo word association type game. One person starts the photo conversation with a picture then friends add other photos with a similar theme. It is all a little bit strange if you ask me!

What’s also hard to figure out is where it fits in with Google’s other photo sharing services, like Picasa, Google+, and Pool Party. When do you use one rather than the other? Is it variety or lack of focus?

[Free - iTunes link, Photovine]

Pocket Academy App Review – Kairosoft + A School = Brilliant!

If you haven’t heard of Kairosoft by now, you’re either really ignorant and uninformed, or you just got an iPod Touch or iPhone yesterday. Either way, if you haven’t, you’re just downright crazy! For those that don’t know, Kairosoft is the king of simulation games with hits such as Game Dev Story, Hot Springs Story and most recently onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocket-academy/id432080204?mt=8');" target="_blank" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocket-academy/id432080204?mt=8">Pocket Academy.

This time around, you’ll be managing a school in an attempt to build up its name and have the most prosperous numbers against other schools. Whether it be in the quality of your teachers, the amount of students or how well your various clubs do in competitions, the overall goal in the 11 year game span is to make the most out of your funds and build yourself up from “unknown” to “very well known”.

You’ll start off with two students, one boy and one girl. As time passes, more will join the school depending on how well you appeal to different types of students (jock, nerd, etc.).href="http://www.iphonealley.com/application_reviews/pocket-academy-app-review-kairosoft-a-school-brilliant/attachment/pocket-academy2" rel="attachment wp-att-20331">src="http://www.iphonealley.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/pocket-academy2-208x300.jpg" alt="" title="pocket academy2" width="208" height="300" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-20331" /> Students will join the school as transfer students or as totally new students when the time comes around, and it’s your ultimate job to get them through their three years at your school and into their dream jobs.

The experience is truly very realistic, which is what everyone loves about Kairosoft. You’ll be posed with hiring and leveling up your teachers and managing your funds correctly. Through the various ways to get money, you’ll keep on collecting and must then decide on what to spend that money on. For the first couple of years, getting your school on track is pretty difficult – you’ll keep on going into bankruptcy (negative money) because of the initial unbalanced ratio of teacher’s salaries to student’s tuition payments, which could lead to insufficient facilities and such. However, after that hard period of time the game gets more forgiving and you’ll soon your money will be rocketing upwards.

That’s the bad thing, though. Kairosoft hasn’t included enough to do with that money. The overall amount of things you can do are lacking. Currently, I’m approaching $200,000 with nothing to spend the money on or invest in; the game just gets too easy after some time. But it’s a great time waster for the first few hours!

In terms of variation, though, the game does an awesome job with keeping things fresh. Along with the tons of unique, pixel-ly rendered character sprites, there are always constantly popping up variables and the soundtrack barely gets annoying.

The weekend’s approaching, so if you’re looking for something to keep you occupied for a few hours, a short fling, check out onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocket-academy/id432080204?mt=8');" target="_blank" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocket-academy/id432080204?mt=8">Pocket Academy. $3.99 is relatively steep for a game that only stays fresh for a little, but while it lasts it’s great!

onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUXL2asK72s');" target="_blank" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUXL2asK72s">Video Via the Game Trail:/> width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HUXL2asK72s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

Spotify for iPhone hits the US App Store

Spotify for iPhone has finally hit the US App Store.

Stream millions of tracks from thousands of albums and artists to your iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Take your existing Spotify playlists with you on the go – listen to them during your commute, in the gym or on a flight. With ‘Offline mode’ you can listen even when no connection is available. Wirelessly sync your local files to your phone to merge your catalogue with ours, no cables required! Download and get started directly from your mobile.

Personally, I’ll be sticking with iTunes and iCloud for my music streaming needs, but I’m old school and actually enjoy listening to my local radio. However, Spotify is a great alternative to iTunes and offers features that Apple does not. Will you be jumping ship?

Spotify is available for Free for iPhone and requires a free Spotify account. There are also premium and unlimited accounts available starting at $4.99 per month.

[iTunes link] [Spotify]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Reviews From the Forums

A few of our senior forum members are taking requests to review iOS games/applications of your choice. We’ve decided to spotlight these reviews and encourage all of you to reply with your opinions regardless or whether your agree or disagree. We want to know what you think of these applications.

Pictureka, by Electronic Arts (iPad)

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit HD, by Electronic Arts (iPad)

iGo North America Primo, by NNG (iPhone)

Spinballs, by Christian Gross (iPhone)

Would you like to see a particular iOS application reviewed? Let us know here for iPhone apps and here for iPad apps! Keep in mind a request is simply just a request but if our reviewers think it’s worth a look, rest be assured you will see it reviewed.

See you in the forums!

iPad 3 parts leak in Taiwan

Apple.pro, which has a good track record with such things, has posted a couple pictures of what they say are iPad 3 parts.

We pretty much know an iPad 3 is coming at some point, and we know it will have parts, but for pre-release techno-fetishists and gadget geeks like us, this as close to p0rn as we can post. Enjoy.

(And yeah, Liv might be in some trouble…)

[Apple.pro]

Does the iPhone 4 screen dim over time?

Maybe I’m just going crazy, maybe others have noticed it.  A couple of my friends just got new iPhone 4s, two got the white one and one got the black one.  I originally got mine last year after waiting in line for 8 hours but the one I have now is from last November I believe.

Does anyone else notice a difference in the clarity of the screen?

I decided to do a little test: I set the lock screen backgrounds at the same pre-installed picture that Apple has in the backgrounds camera roll, set at the same brightness with the auto-brightness turned off, and we both swear the new phone is brighter.

So does the screen lose it’s resolution or over time does the phone dim?

Has anyone else noticed this?  Anyone have any fixes for it?  I miss the bright clear screen my phone used to have!!

Apple Announces Bulk App Purchasing For Businesses

If you own a business where your staff all have work iPhones and you need them all to have a standard set of apps, buying all those copies individually could be a royal PITA. Luckily Apple has just done the enterprise world a solid by announced bulk app purchasing for business types. All you have to do is set up a business account with Apple, search for the app you want, and then say how many copies you want to purchase. Boom, done. Then you just give the download codes to your staff, and they get the app.

What’s also interesting is that Apple has announced a custom app setup, where business clients can use the app store to contact third party developers to create custom B2B apps.

[via Daring Fireball]

BlackBerry App World Deceivingly Competitive with a Billion Downloads

Sure, it isn’t quite the App Store’s recent astonishing fifteen-billion download milestone, but for another mobile app hub to reach its own billion download milestone in the same week shows that Apple is not alone in strong application distribution. Research In Motion is the next to make news with reports of there having been a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/blogs.blackberry.com/2011/07/blackberry-app-world-success/');" target="_blank" href="http://blogs.blackberry.com/2011/07/blackberry-app-world-success/">billion app downloads from BlackBerry App World.

RIM’s premier tablet, the BlackBerry PlayBook, and a few select BlackBerry smartphones have access to App World. Though RIM has a significant smartphone market share overall that gives it a strong mobile presence, only more recent BlackBerry devices can be taken into account for contributing to the market’s success, making it a more interesting feat.

Despite how Android Market is still treading arguably far behind the App Store, it has its own figures to boast about, including reaching 4.5 billion downloads in May. While other mobile operating systems don’t have as strong of an app selection as iOS, they are certainly supported as well.

After launching in April of 2009, BlackBerry App World has shown tremendous growth. In fact, the App Store has been around for a few months longer than App World, but it is extremely doubtful that App World will come close to the App Store’s many achievements over the next few months; especially when taking into account how it took the App Store a total of nine months to hit the same number of downloads.

The growth of an app library is always a great showcase of developers’ push towards expanding a market from nothing at its very beginning into a highly-useful, functional ecosystem.

Zeke in Orbit now available for iPhone and iPad [giveaway]

Brendan Wood has released his new iPhone and iPad game, Zeke in Orbit. It is an action-physics-puzzle-platformer with a simple premise but challenging gameplay.

Zeke has been launched into space…help him get home! Use Gravity Nodes to push and pull Zeke through 6 unique and challenging Galaxies with never before seen gameplay mechanics! Collect bones, fire missiles and place your own nodes to solve the mind-warping puzzles.

I am such a sucker for these types of games and Zeke in Orbit is no exception. It’s a lot of fun and very well made with natural feeling physics. It only took a few moments of gameplay to get me hooked!

Brendan has generously given us a few promo codes to give away! For a chance to win, just let us know which version you prefer, iPhone or iPad.

Zeke in Orbit is available for $0.99 for iPhone and $1.99 for iPad. Screenshots and video after the break.

[iPhone iTunes link] [iPad iTunes link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

New and updated iPhone and iPad apps for Thursday, July 14

Every day, TiPb gets flooded with announcements for new and updated iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games. So every day we pick just a few of the most interesting, the most notable, and simply the most awesome to share with you!

Jumping Frenzy: Aliens hold a massive attack against the Earth. All continents are in danger. Two heroes Chidi and Chike need your help! [$0.99 for iPhone - iTunes link]

Star Walk – 5 Stars Astronomy Guide: Point your iPhone at the sky and see what stars, constellations, and satellites you are looking at in real-time. Now with up to 8000 artificial satellites. [$2.99 for iPhone - iTunes link]

Snipper: Share those small video moments in your life, with family and friends, or whoever, using just your mobile phone. Create private broadcast channels to send films to only selected groups of people, or start a public channel and create your own following. [Free for iPhone - iTunes link]

KindApp: Makes it easy to to bring a smile to someone’s face by deciding what random act of kindness you will do today, and so giving you that little extra ‘push’ to get involved. [$0.99 for iPhone - iTunes link]

iWoot: Not only allows you to quickly and easily view the latest Woot items, but it also sends you push notifications to alert you when new items are posted! [Free for iPhone - iTunes link]

Any other big app or game releases or updates today?

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Apps Overtake Music In iTunes Sales

According to analytics group Asymco is stating that iOS apps have now finally overtaken iTunes music in sales numbers. It took iTunes music six years and 10 months to hit the 15 billion downloads mark, which apps hit in exactly three years — less than half that time.

Currently, app download rates are around 31 million apps per month — yes, more than a million a day globally — and music is around 12 million per month.

This crossover occurred later than was originally expected by Asymco, who thought it would happen at the end of 2010, due to an unexpected surge in popularity of music downloads. Beatles effect maybe?

TweetBot update submitted to Apple, will include push notifications but limited to the first 1000 users

TapBots has announced that it has submitted an updated version of TweetBot, their beautifully designed Twitter app, to Apple for approval and the good news is it will now include push notifications. The downside is that the push notifications are classed as experimental and will be rolled out initially to the first 1000 users.

The update will also have some other additional features like the ability to publish text notes with tweets, selected tabs remembered when switching between accounts, the ability to view someone else’s lists as tweets and various bug fixes.

The update has not been approved yet, we will let you know as soon as it is available; so you can get an opportunity to try out the experimental push notifications. I personally applaud Tapbots decision to take this slow roll out approach. There is nothing worse than launching a new feature in an app that relies on third party servers. If they get overloaded it becomes a huge can of fail for everyone.

[Tapbots Blog]

Apple to hire temporary iPhone Sales Specialists throughout the UK starting August 16, could this be iPhone 5 launch day?

Apple is looking to recruit temporary full time iPhone Sales Specialists for its Apple Stores across the UK. The ads appeared on UK recruitment site Reeds.co.uk. The start date for the temporary positions is August 16 with an ending date of October 29. Could August 16 be the release date for the iPhone 5?

Our client, Apple, one of the largest consumer electronic hardware and software companies in the world are seeking full-time iPhone Sales Staff for an exciting project to work 5 days a week (Tuesday-Saturday) for the period 16th August – 29th October within key retail stores. If you are successful, full training will be provided and you will be required to attend a 4 day training event 9th -12th August 2011 in the London area.

Apple has been rumored to release the next version of the iPhone in September; this new information may be a sign that it could surprise us all and release it in mid August. Of course throwing iPhone Sales Specialists into the deep end after a few days training is not really Apples way of doing things. I would still expect the iPhone 5 to arrive sometime in September, allowing the new recruits to gain on the job experience in an Apple Store before the chaos of a new product launch!

[Reed.co.uk via Cnet]