It’s not the size of the iPhone screen that could fragment, it’s the resolution

Despite case-leaks to the contrary, TiPb heard fairly consistently that we we shouldn’t expect a redesigned iPhone this year, and it turns out we heard right. Business Insider, however, is saying that there was a redesigned iPhone on tap but Apple pulled the plug months before.

Steve Jobs was unhappy with the bigger screen because it “fragmented” iPhones, Apple’s big argument against Android is the way all the different phones from different manufacturers fragment that operating system.

Which is odd, because screen size doesn’t “fragment” phones, iPhone or Android. It’s screen resolution that does that. A 3.5-inch iPhone at 960×640 pixels is pretty much the same to develop for as a 4-inch iPhone at 960×640. It’s only if that 4-inch iPhone jumps to something like 1280×720 that developers have a problem.

Apple has several prototypes per generation and I’d be shocked if they hadn’t and aren’t still testing devices with different screen sizes. If Apple does ever choose to pull the trigger on a bigger iPhone screen, they’ll no doubt have a plan for it, whether it’s slightly reducing the density or boxing the content (like iPad does with iPad apps) to maintain the pixel count.

Even if Apple stays with 3.5-inches, believing it to be ideal for single-handed ease of use, they can’t change the resolution arbitrarily without causing massive issues with pixels falling off the grid.

BI‘s source goes on to say this iPhone prototype had an aluminum back, like the iPad, would eventually use liquid metal in “nano-chromatic” colors, and had a wide, capacitive Home button.

Source: Business Insider

Walmart releases new iPhone app

The iPhone and iPad have come to affect many parts of our lives and as more firms begin to embrace iOS products, it is becoming easier to integrate and coordinate different parts of lives without the hassles that we have become accustomed to in many ways. Now Walmart, which is somewhat like Apple in the supermarket industry, has begun adopting the iPhone and iPad in earnest in hopes of capturing a wider market and making the shopping experience much more simpler for existing customers. Hence, it has now launched an excellent iPhone app, just a month or so after launching an app for the iPad. The objective here is to allow customers to manage their shopping, just like anything else they could manage with their iPhones.

Thanks to the smart shopping list tool, customers can now create a shopping list by either typing in the name or scanning the barcode of the relevant products. Users could also combine this list with a budgeting tool that provides the prices of the products and lets them calculate the exact amount they would need even before leaving the house. Hence, no one would have to leave home with a few dollars short ever again. The app also allows users to find and make use of manufacturer’s coupons that can be printed from an email.

Customers will also be able to check up on information including reviews, prices and availability by typing in the name of the products or scanning QR codes. Yet, the most exciting tool is probably the store finder tool that tells people exactly where the products they are looking for are located. The feature is also designed to work with the smart shopping list tool so that you know exactly where to find everything on your shopping list, which is bound to save time and money.

Week in iPad for October November 13, 2011

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Secret iPhone panorama camera mode revealed through hack

The iPhone it seems, is literally a box of tricks and one of its tricks has been unlocked recently by a software expert named condradev. His discovery – a hidden panorama mode – has sent very enthusiastic shock waves across iPhone communities all around. Once activated, the app allows the user to shoot continuously from left-to right. What’s interesting that the presence of the app almost definitely means that Apple is planning some very exciting features to go with the next iOS update.

Soon after the discovery was announced, a number of other developers confirmed the findings as well. The jailbreak developer chpwn, has released a new version of his iPhone jailbreak in Cydia called Firebreaker, that will allow users to enable the panorama mode on iPhones that are already using this jailbreak.

Now as it is, the feature does work but it is still not properly refined. The feature was most probably included in the existing code for testing purposes. This also probably means that it will be ready for release sooner or later. Apple, which obviously cannot be happy with this finding, has remained tight-lipped as always. The company has already been working hard to release a patch for the battery-draining bug that has plagued the devices that recently adopted the iOS 5 update.

What this means in the long run is that Apple is beginning to take a renewed interest in the camera feature, which is one of the few areas that its rivals have surged ahead in many ways. Another suggestion is that Apple is still waiting for feedback on the features it recently released with the iOS 5 update, which also contained numerous improvements to the camera interface. Perhaps, it wants to release these other updates slowly over the course of the next few cycles, while also ensuring that compatibility and functionality are not compromised.

Contest Winners: Apogee Jam, Farnsworth Video Communicator, Ringtonium

If there’s one thing TiPb loves even more than iPhones and iPads, it’s giving cool iPhone and iPad accessories and apps to our awesome readers. This week we have…

Amazon link; Apogee Jam

App Store link: Farnsworth Video Communicator

App Store link: Ringtonium

Didn’t win anything this time? Never win anything? We know how you feel! Luckily, we have tons more chances for you to win, so hurry up and enter everything!

The iPhone 5 Was Reality According to a Source

While the various news outlets of the web may have gotten readers a bit too ecstatic when hyping out the iPhone 5, truth is, there was no iPhone 5 come Apple’s annual press conference. One source says that next year’s iPhone, unofficially and presumably dubbed iPhone 5, will be a noticeable overhaul over the iPhone 4S. But that’s old news. The new news, from the same source, is the fact that most peoples’ rumored release date and rumored features of the iPhone 5 weren’t too far off.

Even though our fantasy iPhone 5 that we so easily managed to dream up didn’t materialize this year, it was supposedly going to. onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.businessinsider.com/the-iphone-5-was-real-says-a-source-who-played-with-the-prototype-2011-11');" target="_blank" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-iphone-5-was-real-says-a-source-who-played-with-the-prototype-2011-11">Business Insider recently reported that they had received word from a source who claims to have hands-on time with the iPhone 5 and offers a few details about the handset.

The features that the iPhone 5 boast, according to this source, of course, are the following:/> - An aluminum back, like the current onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.ipadngravy.com');" target="_blank" title="iPad" href="http://www.ipadngravy.com">iPad 2/> - Better screen, 4 inches diagonally/> - Capacitive home button/> - Flatter body/> - Supposed horrible battery due to much, much faster hardware/> - 10 megapixel camera/> - The current Siri, however instead called “Assistant”

So, apparently, the iPhone 5 was ready for announcing and launch on October 4th and 14th, respectively, but it’s thought to have been turned down by Steve Jobs months before because of the larger display. Steve hated how Android devices all had different sized screens, so he didn’t want the iPhone to also be “fragmented”.

Of course, all of the above should be treated as simple rumors. Even Business Insider advises so:/> We’ve been told this by an industry source who has been right about future Apple products in the past.

We have not been able to verify what he told us with a second source. So we’re still treating these details as rumors. You should probably still read this post with a nice fat dose of salt.

But it’s interesting to see how accurate most people were when it came to predicting the iPhone 5′s improvements over last year’s iPhone 4.

[Picture via onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.macrumors.com/2011/11/11/source-claims-hands-on-experience-with-iphone-5-prototype/');" target="_blank" href="http://www.macrumors.com/2011/11/11/source-claims-hands-on-experience-with-iphone-5-prototype/">Macrumors, news via onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.businessinsider.com/the-iphone-5-was-real-says-a-source-who-played-with-the-prototype-2011-11');" target="_blank" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-iphone-5-was-real-says-a-source-who-played-with-the-prototype-2011-11">Business Insider]

Rumor: Apple Store Genius Bars replacing Mac Book Pros with iPads

9to5Mac‘s Marc Gurman is reporting that Apple Store Genius Bars might just be swapping out their Mac Book Pros for iPads.

Due the size of MacBook Pros, Apple has been limited to fitting only a few the computers at Genius Bars. Typically, the Genius Bar can only service as many people as computers at one time at the Genius Bar. Now, due to the size and price of iPads, Apple could service more people at one time at the Genius Bar by installing multiple iPads. Apple fairly recently instated a system called MobileGenius which runs the iOS Diagnostic service I previously detailed. This service only works with iOS devices, while the new iPads should cover Macs and Apple’s other non-iOS products, too.

While iPads can’t do everything MacBooks can do, like Steve Jobs said when he announced them, they can do some things far, far better, and if this pans out, Apple is once again putting their stores where their mouths are.

Source: 9to5Mac

Apple releases iTunes 10.5.1 beta 3 to developers, more iTunes Match fixes

Apple has released iTunes 10.5.1 beta 3 to developers which includes stability and performance improvements for iTunes Match. Developers must update to iTunes 10.5.1 beta 3 if they want to continue using the service.

The iTunes beta update comes hot on the heels of Apple deleting developer’s iTunes Match libraries again. All of these things should add up to a launch of iTunes Match sooner rather than later. Apple originally stated a released date of October but that has come and gone.

iTunes Match will eventually cost $24.99 a year  and will allow a subscriber to store all of their music in iCloud; not just music purchased through iTunes.

Source: TUAW