Georgia kicks Seth and Rene in the Flash! Also, iOS 5 beta 3, iPad 3 manufacturers, volume pricing, App Store re-alignment, the Amazon tablet, and iPad as a second screen. This is iPad Live!
Thanks to the TiPb iPad Accessory Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!
Music Hear me Roar by iPad Live theme song contest winner, DieselJesus!
Version 1.7 of the everythingiCafe app is now available in the App Store. The application is the perfect companion app to our iPhone and iPad forums and it’s free.
The new update includes the following:
The everythingiCafe app remains free. The app is also completely ad-free for members who are signed into the forum. Our next update will include support for conversations/PM’s.
You can download the everythingiCafe app from the App Store.
Fomola has updated their iPad blogging app, Blogsy, with the ability to edit WordPress pages.
Blogsy is a tool designed specifically to take full advantage of the iPad’s unique touch functionality. Adding your photos and videos is as easy as dragging them from the media sidebar and dropping them into your blog post. This makes writing blog posts as easy as it should be, saving you from the hassle of manually copy/pasting embed codes or links. Simply put, we think that Blogsy makes writing so easy that you will use it instead of your computer.
I’ve never been one to blog from my iPad because of the limitations that most apps (and Safari) have on photo management. Blogsy has the potential to change that.
Blogsy is available on the iPad for $4.99. Screenshots after the break.
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.
You all probably don’t believe any of these circulating rumors anymore, and I don’t blame you. After all, there are a whole plethora of them floating around, of which one or none materialize. But
The interesting part about this new rumor, which was written about today, is that the low-priced device could in fact be the 3GS selling for $350. So why would a current owner of the iPhone 4 decide to downgrade? Come August, Apple would announce the new addition in their lineup (the iPhone 5 or 4S) along with the new option to purchase the 3GS without a contract.
What could this mean for Apple and for potential buyers? For Apple, anyways, they have opened up their own smartphone market to offers buyers a choice of three different iPhones. Yes folks, three different iPhones. Given that Apple will be offering the 3GS, they will probably also still keep the iPhone 4 in production. That means that there will be low, middle and high price-point options available for customers. The iPhone 4 and next-generation would of course be sold with contracts as well.
Seems Apple is determined to stay in the lead in the race of smartphone-producing companies. What do you think? Would you upgrade to the next-generation device or instead downgrade for the perk of not having an additional contract?
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Apple has apparently started testing display panels made by Samsung and LG for its next generation iPad 3 according to The Korea Times. The article claims that both companies are close to signing a deal with Apple. The screens are thought to have a huge resolution increase over the current iPad 2 display which is 1024 x 768. The new panels are believed to be “Retina” displays at a resolution of 2048 x 1536; with the same 4:3 aspect ratio.
Apple’s upcoming iPad 3 will feature an improved display to support quad extended graphics (QXGA), a display resolution of 2048×1536 pixels with a 4:3 aspect ratio to provide full high definition (HD) viewing experience,’’ said a source close to the talks.
The display panels are said to be going through various tests at laboratories in China and should be complete in the third quarter of this year.
Now when you put this rumor alongside the recent story of a second iPad release this year; with a retina display, it all starts to make a little sense. If the panels pass all of Apples tests in the third quarter, we may well see the rumored release in October. Of course you never know anything for sure until it is officially announced. I still think it is a bit of a long shot and really don’t think it’s going to happen this year!
There are numerous apps out there, which are hugely underrated. These apps can be immensely useful but unfortunately, many people have never even heard of them. The following are some of the most underrated apps currently on available on Apple’s app store.
Flowerpaper
One of the biggest challenges to work in general is stress. Yet, as of now, the only real stress relievers are games, music and video. Ironically, these things tend to distract people, leading to less time available, which in turn lead to more stress. However, Flowerpaper takes a completely different approach by allowing you to work on brilliant colors and patterns to create wonderful works of digital art.
Evernote
This one is actually highly rated but it is not something everyone seems to be aware of. It allows users to save text, photos, videos, screenshots, etc. You can even add your details and share it with your friends or colleagues. You can even access this app from other platforms including your desktop PC.
Bing
Microsoft’s search engine, bing, is well suited for the iPad. One of the best things about this app is that you can instantly search interesting keywords by drawing a circle around the particular word.
Plannr
This innovative app acts as a instant travel guide, providing advice for your travel itinerary depending on the date, location, interest and budget of your trip. Since it uses up-to-date information from the internet concerning the travel destination and relevant reviews, you can be sure to have a pleasant experience.
Dragon Dictation
Despite the advances in voice identification technology, it is sorry to see that it is not used more extensively. One reason is that it can be a hassle to set up. This will be no longer a problem with Dragon Dictation, which converts voice into text in a very simple and straightforward manner.
Just last week we heard of Apple trying to block the sale of HTC phones in the USA, and surprisingly, the ITC has already ruled against the HTC — but for a suit filed in 2010, not the most recent one. Man, these things get confusing. The International Trade Commission made an initial ruling stating that HTC infringed on two of the 10 patents that Apple alleged.
This is not a final ruling, and HTC is expected to appeal. The patents are apparently for a ”system and method for performing an action on a structure in a computer” and a “real-time signal processing system for serially transmitted data.”
Meanwhile, patent blog FOSS News has dissected the ruling, and points out that the patents are related to some pretty fundamental areas of Android’s OS, and could spell trouble for all Android phones in the USA.
MacPhun has updated their iPhone photo editing apps, FX Photo Studio, with a new Masking Studio. This allows the user to apply a filter to only part of an image.
Masking tool allows applying effects on a particular part of the image. With a selection of 194 effects, which can be customized and mixed, masking tools gives close to unlimited creative possibilities when it comes to image processing on your iDevice. Masking studio lets users choose a brush type and supports maximum iPhone 4 image resolution.
Here are all of the update details:
The Masking Studio is such a great feature! I’ve never been much of a fan of drastic filters because although they make part of the picture look great, they commonly ruin (in my opinion) another part of the photo (like skin). I’m looking forward to seeing the type of images I can get out of FX Photo Studio with masking.
The good folks at MacPhun have given us a couple promo codes to give away to you! For a chance to win, let us know how many photos are in your camera roll!
FX Photo Studio is available on the iPhone for $1.99. Screenshots and video after the break.
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.
Over in our forums, user IllusionEntity has discovered something quite worrying: he’s getting billed for iMessages:
I have just received my monthly bill and it seems that I have been billed for all of my iMessage messages!! I have been billed for each individual message and I know it is iMessage because it is iMutter’s number. I have been billed £102.49 for all of the iMessage usage! So steer clear of iMessage! I am in the uk just so you know.
Unfortunately, since iOS 5 is still in beta, I wasn’t able to look around the official Apple dev forums to see if this is a problem others were having. Have any of our other users been hit by this? Is your carrier forcing you to pay for iMessages, which are meant to be free?
Here’s my gut-feeling about what’s going on: does Apple have to okay iMessaging with the carriers before it rolls out? If so, it might be that since the OS is still in beta, they haven’t okayed the new protocol with carriers outside of the USA, and as such, they’re being treated as SMS messages.
If any of our other members have experienced anything similar, we’d really like to know about it.
Would you like to buy an
On the Sears
Of course, $69 is a fraction of the manufacturing cost per unit, not only making the deal staggering but also impossible to fulfill. Thus, it was not to be for the buyers who tried to take advantage of it. Sears declined to say how many devices were ordered while the offer was up, but has cancelled every order made at the time and issued potential customers a refund.
A third-party seller is to blame for the crushed dreams of resellers and bargain buyers looking to obtain the greatest deal of 2011. The vendor was part of the Marketplace section of the site where items are not directly supplied by Sears.
Could this have been a “fun joke” by the vendor to watch the Internet blow up over the prospect of a true 86% discount on one of the most sought-after items on the market? I would not rule that out since it sounds even more crazy that somebody would manage to type $69 instead of $99.
No matter why the error happened, it is not logical to blame Sears for a simple number typo. They have a lot more to lose financially than they have to gain since the company would practically be unjustifiably paying out-of-pocket to provide customers with iPad 2 at an unattainable price.
[via
On Friday, Apple released iOS 4.3.4 to plug a jailbreaking hole, and what do you know? It’s already jailbroken. Right now it’s a pretty raw hack to do it, involving manually tweaking PwnageTool, but I’m sure a more elegant version is in the works.
The big drawback is that this is a tethered boot jailbreak, so you have to plug your iPhone into your computer in order to reboot it — and it’s going to stay this way.
According to i0n1c, the current security situation means that there won’t be an untethered jailbreak for a while, saying:
In a way it is nice to see that Apple instead of merely fixing vulns add more mitigation checks. But for jailbreakers this suxx.
Don’t expect a iOS 4.3.4 untether anytime soon.
If you’re interested in why this is, there’s a bit of a writeup here.
My gut feeling is that if the jailbreak community had a loophole for an untethered jailbreak, they would be wise not to use it, and save it for iOS 5 when it’s released this Autumn.
Apple just might have had the iPhone nano — or whatever you’d prefer to code-name the second, lower budget version of the iPhone family — ready to go as early as WWDC 2011, though they chose to make that keynote focus exclusively on OS X Lion, iOS, and iCloud. What people mean when they talk (or leak) about iPhone nano is still unclear, however. Just like “Apple is working on a TV” ultimately turned out to be a 27-inch iMac, and Apple’s “interesting ideas in the netbook space” ultimately turned out to be iPad and the 11-inch MacBook Air, what “iPhone nano/budget iPhone” turn out to be will no doubt be difficult to predict in advance but obvious in hindsight.
Today, BGR reported:
According to our source, Apple will indeed be launching a prepaid / lower cost iPhone this year. We are told the handset will retail for no more than $350 without contract. Ready for the really interesting part? It’s entirely possible that the low-cost iPhone will in fact be the iPhone 3GS. [[BGR]http://www.bgr.com/2011/07/18/apple-to-launch-low-priced-iphone-for-350-iphone-4s5-end-of-summer/)
We’ve long speculated that iPhone nano might be a stripped down iPhone 3GS, same lower resolution screen and lower cost, high volume, components, but a smaller, tighter, refreshed package. Again, that’s pure speculation but based on iPhone nano not being a straight up iPhone 3GS. (Or just a new name for the discounted iPhone 4 when iPhone 5 goes on sale.)
Apple has been tremendously successful at dominating the high end, premium phone market, and have grown by adding Verizon as a carrier. They’ve also done a good job in grabbing those who transition from feature phones to smartphones; an ever increasing number. That last group is hugely important, as are emerging markets. Low cost options are important to them, but so are low cost plans. Apple could make an iPhone nano free on a 2 year contract but AT&T and Verizon voice and data plans make that difference negligible when it comes to total cost of ownership (Saving $100 when you’re spending $2000 is nice but not transformative.)
Cheaper plans on alternate carriers in the US, and certainly internationally, are one way to address this. (The other is a non-app phone, but it’s hard to see Apple pull a ROKR again.)
Either way, it’s going to be interesting to see if Apple finally decides to pull the trigger on a second class of iPhone, and how they choose to market it. iPod nano became the best selling MP3 player in history. Could that lightning strike again in the smartphone space?
According to KoreaTimes, Apple has started testing displays from LG and Samsung for a new, HD iPad. These sources say that Apple is testing the LCDs at a lab in China, and are looking for a QXGA resolution 2048×1536 screen, with 4:3 aspect ratio.
These sources don’t mention when or how we’ll see the screens, just that Apple is intent on using LCDs.
2048×1536 would be substantially beyond current HD (1920×1080), and would require some major under the hood firepower in order to power such a high resolution screen.
If correct, the pixel density would probably be high enough for Apple to label it as having an iPad retina display.
It didn’t take long for Apple to patch the
Apple released
Tethered means you must connect to your computer every time your device reboots or the when battery dies to restart the jailbreak. Not as good an untethered jailbreak, but for those of you who updated to iOS 4.3.4 , this is your only alternative. Unfortunately, the beta update for the redsn0w jailbreak utility doesn’t work with the
Jailbreaking gives iPhone, iPod touch and iPad owners the ability to hack their devices and use 3rd party apps and themes not approved by Apple. The company frowns upon jailbreaking, and it can void a device’s warranty. Anyone jailbreaking their device should do so at their own risk, make sure to follow all the directions and make an iTunes backup before jumping in.
Comex’s
Taiwanese Apple leak-source Apple.Pro has published a series of shots of some sort of iPhone 4 prototype. The internet immediately lost their tops, and started claiming that this was a prototype for the iPhone 4s or something similar, but now that things have settled down a touch, the general feeling is that this is an early iPhone 4 prototype. This assumption is based on the fact that it has the same processor as an iPhone 4, the same camera, and runs iOS 4.
Yeah, that’s another iPhone 4 prototype.
Still nifty, though.
So, where’s the actual next iPhone leak? We’re only 2 or 3 months from release, and we haven’t seen any major leaks yet! Come on guys, what’s going on?
TiPb’s developer spotlights are like DVD/iTunes Extras for the App Store — a weekly look behind the scenes at the programers and designers that bring you the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games you love. This week Rene talks with Jonathan George and Josh Viney of Boxcar.
What should we call you? Jonathan George, Josh Viney
What should we call your company? Boxcar (App Remix Corp.)
Where are you located? Wichita, KS and NYC
What’s your website address? http://boxcar.io
What are your Twitter handles? @boxcar, @jdg, @joshviney
What apps do you make? Boxcar
What apps, other than your own, are currently among your favorites? Jonathan: iA Writer, Tumblr, Alien Blue (unofficial Reddit client), Instapaper, Calendar. Josh: Foursquare, Calculator, Netflix, Instagram, Words with Friends
How long have you been a developer? Jonathan: Developer / 16 years, Entrepreneur / born with it. 
. Josh: Product Manager / UX Designer 12 years
How long have you been an iOS developer? Jonathan/Josh: ~3 years
Do you develop for any other platform in addition to iOS? Jonathan/Josh: Web
What primary computer setup do you use for your iOS development? Josh: Macbook Air. Jonathan: MBP 15″ + 27″ Dell Monitor
What iOS device(s) do you personally use most often? Josh/Jonathan: iPhone 4 and iPad
What mobile devices, other than iOS, do you currently use? None.
What’s your favorite thing about developing for iOS? Josh: Mobile interfaces that don’t suck, and being able to reach a wide audience. Jonathan: Being able to immediately show (and relate what you’re doing) to people you interact with everyday.
What’s your least favorite thing about developing for iOS? Josh: It can be tough to QA and changes can’t be made as quickly as on Web. Jonathan: Apple’s draconian, yet understandable, policies around the app store.
What feature would you most like Apple to add to the iOS 5 SDK? Josh: Make call and sms data available via API. Jonathan: Greater flexibility around notifications
What feature would you most like Apple to add to the App Store? Josh: Better ways for people to tell their friends about their favorite apps. Jonathan: More insight and analytics into where your users are coming from.
If we were to eavesdrop on you while you were coding, what curse word would we hear you use the most? Josh: The usual, but louder and with more frequency. Jonathan: “What the f–k?”
What do you do when you’re not coding iOS apps? Josh: Designing UX and thinking up new ways to get people to connect. Jonathan: Race motorcycles and practice putting my pants on.
What should we look for from you next? Jonathan: Boxcar 5. Just guess.
How do you use Boxcar? Josh: I use Boxcar for two things. For work, I use it to quickly reply
to and manage customer service for Boxcar, and check out the newest
Github commits. Socially, I use it as a replacement for RSS readers,
and as a way to keep track of social happenings on Twitter and
Foursquare
Jonathan: I use Boxcar to follow people. Using our Twitter @anyone
service, I follow the people I care about, and know when they do
something.
Thanks Josh and Jonathan
An administrative judge at the International Trade Commission (ITC) has issued an initial determination that HTC is infringing on 2 Apple patents, which — in a worst case scenario — could result in an import ban of iPhone-competing HTC Android smartphones. HTC’s stock has taken a hit since the ruling, obviously, but it’s important to remember it’s an initial ruling and a lot can change between now and any final decision, including an agreement between HTC and Apple, similar to HTC’s existing agreement with Microsoft.
Florian Mueller from FOSS Patents doesn’t think that’s likely, however.
For Apple this is not just about money. They’re not going to let HTC build fully functional smartphones and tablets in exchange for $10 or $20 per device unless HTC owns patents that Apple absolutely needs to license.
It’s a fallacy to assume that Apple v. HTC is just the usual patent dispute between two large players, and therefore going to have the same kind of happy end. This one is different. From a shareholder value point of view, what Apple needs to achieve — even if it costs a lot of time and money — is as much of a technological gap as possible between its own products and the Android-based products offered by HTC and other vendors.
In other words, as Florian discussed in our World War Patents podcast, while Microsoft seems to want to make Android more expensive (through licensing fees), Apple wants to make it less usable.
HTC meanwhile, could be fighting back using a company called S3 as a proxy. HTC’s chairwoman is a major S3 shareholder, but S3 has to do what’s best for S3 and that could end up being a licensing agreement with Apple that doesn’t end up providing any cover for HTC.
I could imagine a situation in which Apple might agree on a partial cross-license that would grant Apple access to all of HTC’s and S3′s patents while HTC would get access to only some of Apple’s patents: maybe just enough so that HTC can at least continue to sell Android-based products of some kind, but those products could be limited and there might be substantial degradations of the user experience.
Google, for their part, is continuing it’s terrifying silence on all things patent related, including a remarkable non-answer by Larry Page during the latest financial results conference call. This probably means they’re either playing their cards very close to their ninja vests, or they’re just not concerned with how this might play out, including the unlikely possibility of HTC switching to Windows Phone exclusively, just to avoid any more patent-related headaches.
Check the link below for Florian’s full rundown and his excellent “battlemap” visualization of the dispute.
CNN has updated their iPhone and iPad apps with the ability to watch live video streams of breaking news and other major news events.
Now you can get live streaming video of breaking news, the most important headlines of the day with location-based news, weather and traffic from the palm of your hands. With the NEW CNN App for the iPhone and iPod touch, you can also iReport directly from your phone using the phone’s advanced photo and video capabilities.
CNN is free on the iPhone and iPad but requires a cable subscription. 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.
BGR has been talking to some might well informed sources, and have come up with some information that seems to gel with some of what we’ve heard, but leave us scratching our heads over other bits. Their eternally unnamed sources are saying that the next big iPhone release will not just be the annual upgrade, but also a low-cost, non-contract version that’ll go for $350 with full ownership — and it might be the iPhone 3GS.
The sources also say that while the iPhone 5 will be a major redesign over the iPhone 4, they don’t know if it’ll be released on this product cycle or the next one, and if it were destined to hit soon, we would see leaked cases for it.
Not only that, but the source says Apple will keep selling the iPhone 4 in addition to the iPhone 4S, essentially giving a complete product range from inexpensive to full-featured.
So, when can we expect this to happen? The source says they’ll be released “at least announced by the end of Summer, late August-ish.”
As always, grain of salt, but there’s some interesting sounding things going on here.
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!
Countdown+: A timekeeper that tells you exactly how much time has passed or is remaining for all the events that are important to you. Can also notify you in advance of an upcoming event so you’ll never miss an important date ever again. [$0.99 for iPhone and iPad - iTunes link]
Gatsby’s Golf: A miniature golf game! Now with iPad support. [$0.99 for iPhone and iPad - iTunes link]
Sober House: Keep track of how many drinks you’ve had. See totals for the week, month, and year. [$0.99 for iPhone and iPad - iTunes link]
The Treasures of Hotei: Collect the lost magic coins and bring them to Hotei. If you can make it back, Hotei’s Jewels will be yours! [$1.99 for iPhone - iTunes link]
FreakyAlarm: Forces you to wake your brain because you will have to solve a series of logical-mathematical games otherwise it will not stop ringing. [$0.99 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.
Polyphonic Spree have created an iPhone app in their ongoing quest to blow your freaking mind! Bullseye By Polyphonic Spree is a $1.99 universal iOS app which is billed as “an interactive music video collaboration between The Polyphonic Spree and Moonbot Studios” — and it looks absolutely gorgeous.
While it may have been four years since their last album, this new track is presented as a sort of “choose your own adventure” song/video/app mashup.
Full description after the jump:
Bullseye is an interactive music video collaboration between The Polyphonic Spree and Moonbot Studios.
Over the four years since the release of their most recent album, The Fragile Army, The Polyphonic Spree has been working on new music. “Bullseye” is the first single released from a collection of songs for the forthcoming label, Good Records Recordings. Moonbot Studios and The Polyphonic Spree together have created an interactive, character-based narrative music video. Play through an expansive and changing world as You-Me, a small creature striving to find his way in the world. Bring plants and creatures to life in a video where you see, hear, and touch the world around you.
- – - – - – - – - – - -
Features:
- Seamless world of interaction
- Touch clouds, plants and animals to life
- Evolving visuals that change with the music
- Follow and interact with a creature named You-Me
- Tilt your device to sway You-Me as he falls
- Choose between the Studio or Acoustic song tracks
[via Engadget]
Most people are too afraid to actually get a tattoo because the thought of deciding on a piece of art and then permanently displaying it on your skin is daunting just to think of. It’s not the idea that you have to choose a particular piece of art but rather the uncertainty of what it would like that puts most people off. Now a very cool app can help people decide on what to get: the Tattoo You.
The app is available on all iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch devices that are running iOS 4.0 or later. This is basically a photo-editing tool that allows users to attach realistic tattoo designs onto photos with a few simple steps. In addition, to basic customization and sharing features, the app allows users to purchase unique tattoo designs through in-app purchases.
As soon as you download the app, you will get access to sixteen free tattoo designs. However, you can have the additional option of choosing from over two hundred and fifty amazing designs through an in-app purchasing system. All you have to do is select the part of the picture where you want to add the tattoo (e.g. bicep, chest, hips, shoulder, etc.) and then add the tattoo to get an idea of what it would look like.
Once you have attached the tattoo onto a picture of yourself or your friends, you can share it via Facebook, Twitter or E-mail. This is great for looking cool in your pictures without actually getting a tattoo. Perhaps this will do great for pranks too. Just imagine sending your parents a picture of your body full of tattoos!
Whatever use you have for this app, what is certain is that you will have a lot of fun using it. The app is free and you can find it in the entertainment category.
The WINGStand is a clever two piece plastic stand designed to work with the official Apple Bluetooth keyboard. It clips onto the Apple keyboard and then an iPad can be used in portrait or landscape mode; you can even use the iPad while it is in its case. The stand works with the original iPad, iPad 2, iPhone or even other tablets. If you don’t want to use a keyboard, the WINGStand also works fine as a stand for your device.
The WINGStand has been developed by student Daniel Haarburger who is currently studying at Stanford University. It has already reached its target funding figure of $9,500 with more than 38 days remaining; looks like this one is going to be a very popular accessory.
You can still make a pledge and guarantee yourself one of the first ones off the production line. $20 will get you one in white, $30 if you want an exclusive black one and you can even get a package including the Apple keyboard; that will set you back over $100.
I really like the look of this and hopefully it will be available very soon. Take a look at the video after the break!
