iOS 5 has earthquake warnings for Japan

According to a 9to5Mac tipster, iOS 5 in Japan will include notifications from Japan’s earthquake early warning system. It ties into iOS 5′s Notification Center, and can be enabled and disabled just like any Notification Center section in Settings. Because it stays connected to Japan’s nationwide online monitoring network, it will most likely lower battery life slightly, but given the importance of the system, that’s likely a tradeoff anyone enabling it will be more than willing to make.

No word yet on whether any other earthquake-prone, or natural disaster-prone areas with early warning systems of their own will be able to likewise tie into Notification Center, though App Store apps can fill that gap where and as needed.

[9to5Mac]

The week in iPad, August 21, 2011

Missed a compelling piece of iPad news, a great review, or a killer how-to? We’re not collecting absolutely everything in iPad here — you can hit up TiPb.com/iPad for that! — but we’re carefully picking what we think is the best of the last 7 days and presenting it here for your review.

And hey! — these double as show notes for our iPad Live! podcast tonight at 9pm Eastern. So join us and follow along!

Evidence Mounts For Apple LTE

href="http://cdn.everythingicafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/lte.png">class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-23208" title="lte" src="http://cdn.everythingicafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/lte.png" alt="" width="472" height="194" />

Earlier this week we heard that href="http://www.everythingicafe.com/is-apple-installing-lte-readers-in-their-stores/2011/08/16/">LTE broadcasters were being installed in Apple stores and that Apple may have been testing LTE devices in the wild. Now two new pieces of evidence have come to light showing that Apple might be in the midst of going LTE.

href="http://www.macrumors.com/2011/08/21/apple-testing-lte-in-ios-5-and-hiring-more-lte-engineers/">MacRumors has spotted that iOS 5 makes explicit mention of LTE in its code. The references come from a .plist file that is used as part of Apple’s internally used Fieldtest application, which implies that Apple is testing LTE devices in some way, shape or form.

Forbes called attention to the fact that href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/elizabethwoyke/2011/08/18/more-lte-iphone-evidence-apple-seeking-engineers-for-lte-field-tests/">Apple is hiring LTE engineers.

Smart money says we won’t see any LTE devices until next year, be they iPad or iPhone — but we could be wrong, Apple has surprised us before.

Apple Limites UDID Access With iOS 5 Beta 6

The changes in iOS 5 beta 6 must have been pretty small because we haven’t seen a rush of news href="http://www.everythingicafe.com/apple-releases-ios-5-beta-6/2011/08/19/">out of the release — but one thing that did pop up is that Apple has href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/19/apple-ios-5-phasing-out-udid/">killed access to the UDID. The UDID is a string of numbers associated with each handset that developers have used to track ad impressions, usage and the like. Last year saw href="http://www.everythingicafe.com/apple-sued-over-apps-sharing-user-details-to-advertisers/2010/12/28/">privacy concerns raised about the practice, and in the release nots of iOS 5 beta 6, one of the changes reads:

Deprecated in iOS 5.0

uniqueIdentifier/> An alphanumeric string unique to each device based on various hardware details. (read-only) (Deprecated in iOS 5.0. Instead, create a unique identifier specific to your app.)

People who run ad and gaming networks often use this number as a way of tracking how users interact with their programs, what they’ve done, achievements they’ve unlocked and similar. Apple now requires that they create their own unique identifier system.

Gruber posits that href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/08/19/ios-udid">this is a privacy protection move, which seems to make the most sense out of anything we’ve heard. This is a shift to make the OS look more privacy conscious in the wake of a number of issues (like that whole GPS tracking thing).

I’d also recommend reading the comments in the TechCrunch article linked above for a look at what developers make of the change.

Seas0nPass jailbreak updated for Apple TV 4.3

If you currently jailbreak your Apple TV 2, you may have held off from applying the recent Apple software update to avoid losing your jailbreak. The good news is, Seas0nPass has now been updated to support an untethered jailbreak with the latest iOS 4.3 for Apple Tv 2. Thrown into the update is a new version of fireCore’s Media Player which allows you to playback many more media formats with a whole host of options.

The  iOS 4.3 update added a couple off new features for the Apple TV 2 like Vimeo support. It is well worth an update now that this jailbreak is available. Just simply update your Apple TV 2 software to the latest version then jailbreak again using the latest aTV Flash (black) Beta6.

[fireCore]

 

 

HP Discontinues Its iOS Competitors, Drops TouchPad to $99

It is a sad weekend for HP and Palm, as HP has decided to discontinue both the TouchPad as well as webOS phones, including the coveted Pre, effective immediately.

Poor sales lead to the too-soon death of devices that showed a strong amount of potential. Unfortunately for webOS, the onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.ipadngravy.com');" target="_blank" title="iPad" href="http://www.ipadngravy.com">iPad was just too enticing in the marketplace. Even Android won more buyers over with its cheap prices and significantly larger app selection, making webOS’s strengths less apparent.

In terms of interface design, webOS has Android beat with slicker multi-tasking and more polished features, but both pale in comparison to where both draw inspiration from, none other than iOS. In my opinion webOS should have went on to take the second spot in the smartphone operating system race, but this a case of too little, too late.

If you are in the mood for a little post-party mourning, then be sure to pick up a TouchPad. After launching just months ago, HP has dropped the price of the 16GB model to $99, while 32GB will run you an additional $50. That is, if you manage to find the hundreds of thousands that had previously been sitting on shelves and in warehouses. Just don’t expect software updates or new apps to play with, but you cannot beat the value nonetheless. Even early adopters are getting compensated for the difference after the price cut of 80% (if you count the original $500 starting price, it was very recently dropped to $400 prior to the “going out of business” sale).

R.I.P. TouchPad and Pre, you will be missed. However, the Palm-designed webOS is confirmed to live on, it is just unclear in what reality on which systems/device. HP/Palm may license webOS to other hardware manufacturers, effectively giving the mobile OS that could a future.

[partially via onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110818006301/en/HP-Confirms-Discussions-Autonomy-Corporation-plc-Business');" target="_blank" href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110818006301/en/HP-Confirms-Discussions-Autonomy-Corporation-plc-Business">Business Wire]