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October 30 2011
Siri hack now fully working on the iPhone 4 and iPod touch [video]
Siri has now been fully hacked onto an iPhone 4 and iPod touch and it now communicates with Apple’s servers to provide a 100% working solution. We told you a few weeks back that developer Steve Troughton-Smith was working on hacking Siri onto an iPhone 4 but had run into one or two hurdles. Well the main hurdle involved getting the hacked iPhone 4 to talk to Apple’s servers. That has now been overcome and it is now looking like a real possibility.
Talking to 9to5Mac, Steve Troughton-Smith revealed that the hack works across devices but requires files from an iPhone 4S that are not legally available to distribute. It also requires a validation token from a live jailbroken iPhone 4S. The whole hack involves around 20 steps to complete. Because of this, Steve Troughton-Smith doesn’t want to be involved in distributing the Siri port and has only done it to prove it can be done.
We don’t know at this point if others will take on the distribution and risk the wrath of Apple’s legal team, we will have to wait and see. In the mean time take a look at the two videos below. The first one shows the iPhone 4 running Siri side by side with an iPhone 4S and the second video shows Siri running on an iPod touch.
Source: 9to5Mac
October 26 2011
Aaron Sorkin being courted for Steve Jobs biography, the movie?
Aaron Sorkin, responsible for everything from The West Wing TV series to The Social Network, is rumored to be somehow, someway, in consideration or talks — basically being courted by Sony — to write the movie version of the just-released Steve Jobs biography.
Sorkin is one of the smartest screen writers in recent times, with a pitch-perfect ear for dramatic dialog. He made the relatively boring subject of Facebook into a highly engaging movie (as opposed to terrible writing, which made a lot of fantastic looking movies painful to endure) and could likely inject similar sizzle in the Steve Jobs movie.
Let’s hope they make this deal and get it done. Then all they have to do is cast Steve Jobs. What do you think, TiPb nation, Noah Wyle again?
Source: LA Times
How much has the iPhone camera improved over the years?
Camera+ has thrown together some great comparison photos depicting just how much the iPhone camera has improved over the years.
The comparison photos really speak for themselves, and the difference is especially noticeable with the iPhone 4S photos when compared to older models. They even go on to compare with more expensive DSLR cameras for reference. As expected, from the original iPhone to the latest iPhone 4S model, the camera quality has obviously improved immensely.
Feel free to drop into our iPhone 4S pictures forum for even more evidence of how well the iPhone 4S camera performs.
Source: Camera+
October 21 2011
'Batman Arkham City' Map App Hits, Gives You Side-Quest Tracking Abilities
One of the biggest games of the year has its own iOS companion app. Warner Bros. in collaboration with Brady Games just tossed out Batman Arkham City Map App [$2.99] for use with Batman: Arkham City. With it you'll be able to track and collect all the crazy little bits and bobs hidden around Arkham City's open-ish world. It also shows you where stuff is, which should take some of the edge off marking everything in-game.
Earlier this summer I managed to get pretty stoked about Dead Island's map app, which seems to be pretty similar to this one. I just love being able to relegate task manager-type duties to a separate device — it frees me to hunker down and focus on the big picture by providing a slick conduit to all the side-stuff I can now choose to miss until I'm good and ready to get my collect-a-thon on.
Also, this is totally Batman. Dude would use this if he could.
[Via Destructoid]
Steve Jobs considered Android “grand theft” of iPhone ideas
According to the latest excerpt from Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography of Steve Jobs, HTC’s introduction of what Apple considered iPhone-like innovations made Jobs “livid” and were equated with “grand theft”.
“I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong,” Jobs said. “I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”
Jobs reportedly told then Google CEO and former Apple board member, Eric Schmidt:
“I don’t want your money. If you offer me $5 billion, I won’t want it. I’ve got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that’s all I want.”
The issue is still unresolved and Apple has filed high profile patent infringement suits against a variety of Android ODM’s, including HTC, Motorola, and Samsung.
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson is available for pre-order now, and it wouldn’t surprise me if we got more fiery – and marketable — excerpts as the release draws near.
Source: AP
October 11 2011
iPhone 4S processor is 800Mhz, 73% faster than iPhone 4?
New tests conducted over at AnandTech reveal that Apple has chosen to underclock the A5 system-on-a-chip nestled inside the iPhone 4S to ~800MHz, just slightly slower than the iPad 2‘s 1GHz, but still far better than the iPhone 4‘s A4 SoC — by margins as high as 73%.
Using some of the integer and fp tests of published Geekbench scores we can already conclude that Apple is shipping a lower clocked A5 in the iPhone 4S than it does in the iPad 2 [...] Based on the Geekbench results it looks like the iPad 2 is clocked around 25% higher than the iPhone 4S, pegging the latter’s clock speed at 800MHz.
They go on to speculate that the reduction in processor speed is attributed to power-saving methods used by Apple, just as they did with the A4 chip in the iPhone 4 when compared to the original iPad.
The tests also reveal a slightly lower-clocked SGX 543MP2 GPU chip, but it’s safe to say that the iPhone 4S is easily the fastest smartphone on the planet — we just can’t wait to see how games like Infinity Blade 2 perform on this thing!
Source: AnandTech
October 10 2011
Untethered iOS 5 jailbreak coming soon?
Potentially good news for those of you looking to update to iOS 5 this week but don’t want to lose your jailbreak. Stefan Esser, also known as i0n1c if you follow him on twitter, has revealed that he believes an untethered jailbreak for iOS 5 may already be in the works.
As far as I know iOS 5 untether is covered by other people already. Guess who
We don’t know at this stage if this will include the iPad 2, which has proven difficult to Jailbreak, or the soon to be released iPhone 4S which has the same Apple A5 processor. There is already a tethered jailbreak available for the iOS 5 Gold Master but that does not include the iPad 2. Also the problem with a tethered jailbreak is the inconvenience caused each time your device needs a reboot; it has to be connected to a computer or it will not restart.
Let’s hope that we won’t have to wait too long for an untethered jailbreak for iOS 5, it’s good to know that things seem to be “covered”.
Source: i0n1c
October 07 2011
Gameloft Throwing Another Holiday Sale
Roughly three billion years ago, Christopher Columbus sailed across vast ocean and fell off the end of the planet. We celebrate his memory this Monday in the United States, which also means we’re about to get a ton of great App Store deals. For example, Gameloft is throwing a nice little $.99 sale on a small swathe of its titles. This one is particularly interesting, as all of the games on sale usually hover above the four dollar mark.
Here’s the list:
- 9MM – $6.99 → $.99 [Universal]
- Eternal Legacy – $4.99 → $.99
- Eternal Legacy HD – $4.99 → $.99
- Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus – $6.99 → $.99
- Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus HD – $6.99 → $.99
- Sacred Odyssey: Rise of Ayden – $6.99 → $.99
- The Settlers HD – $6.99 → $.99
As far as Zelda clones go, Sacred Odyssey ain’t so bad. So, if you’re really hankering to get in one these savings, we’d suggest you shoot for that one. Here’s our review if you’d like to spend some time reading about it.
On an unrelated but also related note, check this out:
Why did iPhone 4S stick with the 3.5-inch screen?
There were rumors Apple might move to a 3.75 or even 4-inch screen for the 2011 iPhone, but instead iPhone 4S was introduced with the same 3.5-inch screen size Apple has used since 2007. Dustin Curtis thinks it all boils down to what it usually does for Apple — usability.
Touching the upper right corner of the screen on the Galaxy S II using one hand, with its 4.27-inch screen, while you’re walking down the street looking at Google Maps, is extremely difficult and frustrating. I pulled out my iPhone 4 to do a quick test, and it turns out that when you hold the iPhone in your left hand and articulate your thumb, you can reach almost exactly to the other side of the screen. This means it’s easy to touch any area of the screen while holding the phone in one hand, with your thumb. It is almost impossible to do this on the Galaxy S II.
Basically, Apple treats iPad as a two-handed device, iPhone as a one- or two-handed device.
Source: Dustin Curtis via @justin_horn
September 12 2011
[UPDATE BELOW] Sure, it's the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, and you're flying on a day when there's extremely heightened security, but if you don't seize the opportunity to join the Mile High Club now, doesn't that mean Al Qaeda has won? Such apparently was the reasoning (or lack thereof) of an amorous couple on a Frontier Airlines flight from Denver to Detroit yesterday. After they slipped into the W.C. for an intimate encounter, their "suspicious behavior" was reported to the TSA, and F-16 fighter jets were scrambled to chaperone the plane to Detroit. [ more › ]
September 11 2011
Did Apple Try to Buy Dropbox For $800m to Help iCloud?
In the build-up to Apple announcing its MobileMe replacement, iCloud, the Cupertino firm apparently considered a move for the acquisition of syncing-in-the-cloud king Dropbox, according to reports.
Apple was so impressed with Dropbox, and its expected $100 million/year income, that they decided to offer $800 million in order to buy the company. The claim comes from Business Insider, and the report is quick to point out that the rumor is unconfirmed, but it is interesting to consider, nonetheless…(...)
Read the rest of Did Apple Try to Buy Dropbox For $800m to Help iCloud?
"Did Apple Try to Buy Dropbox For $800m to Help iCloud?" is an article by iDownloadBlog.com. Make sure to follow us on Twitter and friend us on Facebook.
September 06 2011
Atari set to release its own joystick base for iPad
Hidden within the recent update to Atari’s Greatest Hits app is a rather tasty snippet of information. It points to an Atari branded joystick add-on for the iPad. The joystick and base is set to be called the Arcade-Duo and has a retro arcade type red balled joystick and four buttons.
Relive the fast-action excitement of all your arcade favorites, like Asteroids, Centipede, and Missile Command. Simply connect your iPad to Atari’s Greatest Hits app for Duo, and you’re ready to share the fun with family and friends anywhere!It appears to be a similar concept to the iCade although that does have a retro arcade cabinet too. Looking at the two designs this one may come in at a much more favorable price than the $99 iCade. The only availability information is that it is “coming soon”.
These type of accessories only work with certain games which makes them very limited. I would welcome a solution for an Apple supported system; that way all developers could get on-board and offer support for the majority of suitable games! Would you use a joystick system if more games were supported or do you think the on screen controls are good enough for gaming?
[Discovery Bay Games via Macrumors]
August 30 2011
U.S. Troops Overseas Can Use Gmail To Call Home For Free
Uniformed U.S. military personnel serving abroad can use Gmail’s phone calling feature for free. The promotion starts now and runs through the end of the year.
The free offering merely requires would-be callers to add and validate their .mil email addresses in Gmail. Then they can click the “Call phone” link in the Chat sidebar to initiate a call via Gmail’s dial pad.
“We recognize and appreciate the sacrifices U.S. troops make when they serve abroad, and we’re proud to help make it a little bit easier for them to stay connected and hear a familiar voice,” Ilya Frank, Senior Software Engineer at Google, says of the company’s decision.
The generous free calling offer is Google’s second of the year. The company is letting Gmail users make free phone calls to the U.S. and Canada throughout the year to promote its Skype-challenger.
More About: gmail, Google, Google voice calling
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August 28 2011
Runner uses Runkeeper to create an Apple logo shaped route through Tokyo
Joseph Tame decided to map out and run a half marathon as a message of thanks to Steve Jobs for his awesome achievements at Apple. What was special about the route he chose to run? Well it was in the shape of the Apple logo.
The route was recorded using the Runkeeper app and two iPhones. Joseph is no stranger to this type of running art. He has previously run routes which resemble the Twitter bird and an elephant.
Asked why he wanted to create an Apple logo, Tame said that having an iPhone had really changed his life in Tokyo. In Japan it is like a lifeline, even more so now that it can warn him when an earthquake is about to hit.
[Cnet]
August 12 2011
Gameprom Reveals 'Da Vinci Pinball' as New Upcoming Table for 'Pinball HD'
Gameprom, one of the leading developers of iOS and Mac pinball games, have just revealed their latest upcoming table: Da Vinci Pinball. They’ve released a bunch of new screenshots for the game on the Da Vinci Pinball website, several of which you can see above as well as in the gallery below (click to enlarge). Here’s a quick blurb from Gameprom about the direction they’re going with Da Vinci Pinball:
Coming Soon: Da Vinci Pinball – a celebration of the quintessential Renaissance mind! This new addition to the Pinball HD lineup features innovative mechanisms and artwork in honor of the great Leonardo!
Playing the game, you will travel along the great Renaissance Man's path of groundbreaking discoveries and inventions and navigate these wonders from within his very mind.
First off, I can’t imagine a much better theme for a pinball table than all of the amazing creations of Leonardo da Vinci. The screenshots look gorgeous so far, with tons of interesting looking table elements that look straight out of the Renaissance era. Gameprom has let us know in our forums that Da Vinci Pinball will be a DLC item for their existing Pinball HD [99¢/HD/Mac] on both the iOS and Mac platforms. The table should be hitting sometime next month, and we’ll be sure to check it out then.
Queensboro Bridge Electronic Road Sign Advertises Ron Paul
August 08 2011
Mobile App Uses Twitter Feeds To Find Nearby Food Trucks
You can add one more app to the burgeoning list of food-truck-locating mobile apps. The digital agency behind Burger King’s Subservient Chicken has created another.
The Barbarian Group’s Gastrodamus is a free iPhone [iTunes link] and Android app that aggregates local trucks’ Twitter feeds.
Cities covered at this point include New York; Los Angeles; Portland, Oregon; Washington, D.C.; San Francisco and Boston. Unlike other apps, which use methods ranging from GPS to self-reporting, Gastrodamus is completely based on Twitter. If a truck’s feed mentions a location, it gets listed for that day. If not, it doesn’t.
The app, developed by the agency as a side project, is a work in progress. The Barbarian Group is asking users to send suggestions for new food trucks. One major oversight is the app’s inability to find the food truck closest to you. There are other glitches as well: Participating trucks that clearly state their location, like Korilla BBQ and Van Leeuwen Artisan ice cream, don’t show up in the “most recent” feed and get a “couldn’t locate this truck” notation.
Still, it’s hard to complain about a free app, especially one that provides some solid info.
Below are five other mobile apps that can help you locate food trucks:
1. Food Truck Fiesta
Food Truck Fiesta is a simple $.99 iPhone and Android app based on a blog of the same name. The site posts updates about new food trucks and food-truck events, maintains a catalog of food trucks and tracks trucks on a live map using their Twitter feeds. The app is basically the map in mobile form. Clicking a truck's location pulls up its Twitter feed.
2. Eat St.
Food Network's Eat St. show highlights the most innovative mobile cuisine in North America. Its free iPhone and Android apps are attempting to help viewers track down gourmet meals on wheels near them.
With somewhat of a different approach than most of the food-tracking apps on the market, Eat St. allows food truck owners to update their own locations, menus, hours and profiles. Other food trucks can be added by users, but their profiles remain barren and their locations dubious.
"We’re devoted to finding new ways to keep locations accurate and are constantly improving," reads the current app description. "In the meantime, the most accurate cities are those with mostly stationary food carts. L.A., New York, Miami and San Francisco have mainly roaming food carts and while the database has grown, it’s best to get location from the carts’ Twitter feed."
These limitations aren't unlike those of most food truck tracking apps -- Eat St. just seems to be more honest about them.
3. Roaming Hunger
Like Food Truck Fiesta, Roaming Hunger is a blog that chronicles food truck news and events. Its scope is much larger than L.A., however, and its catalog includes a smattering of trucks in most major cities.
The free iPhone app uses tweets and calendars to keep track of the trucks. You can search for trucks near you, those recently tweeted, most liked, savory, sweet or vegetarian. It also allows you to plan ahead by searching for trucks that are open at different times.
Because it covers many cities, its library isn't as extensive as some city-specific apps, and like most apps that rely on Twitter and calendars, its map points represent predictions rather than actual locations.
4. Road Stoves GPS
L.A.-based RoadStoves sells food trucks and books food trucks for promotions and events. Its free iPhone and Android apps use actual GPS location to track food trucks.
This makes its map one of the most accurate, but also one of the most sparse. Most of its trucks are in Los Angeles, and only about 15 of them are GPS-enabled. The app makes it easy to access the Twitter feeds and menus of other trucks, but it doesn't put them on them on the map.
5. TruxMap Lite Food Truck Map
TruxMap's free iPhone and Android apps plot open food trucks near you in green, and soon-to-open food trucks in blue. It uses the trucks' Twitter feeds to track and plot their locations.
The app makers say they're tracking trucks in 21 cities, but the majority of them are in Los Angeles, Austin and New York. Users can request new trucks be added to the app via the website.
Image courtesy of Flickr, Stu Spivack
More About: android, apps, Barbarian Group, Food trucks, iphone, Mobile 2.0
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August 02 2011
Enhance Shark Week with Shark Week Live for iPhone and Discovery Channel HD for iPad
To enhance the Shark Week experience, the Discovery Channel has released Shark Week Live for iPhone.
SHARK WEEK LIVE is a co-viewing app, designed to enhance your enjoyment of the Shark Week TV shows on the Discovery Channel. Just activate the app while you’re watching Shark Week (July 31st – August 5th on the Discovery Channel), and you will be treated to exclusive behind-the-scenes content synchronized to the TV broadcast. You can also compete in real-time against other viewers, by playing the Shark Week LIVE trivia game.
Discovery Channel HD has also been updated with the same content, and more:
- Shark Week Live interactive co-viewing experience
- Video puzzles
- Ability to “favorite” content for viewing later
- Schedule screen and Featured screen now show full episode descriptions
- Updated content badges for shows
- Facebook sharing links now use bit.ly
- Non-US IP addresses can now view video content
This may come as a surprise, but this loser has never watched Shark Week. However, my two week vacation starts tomorrow and includes access to the Discovery Channel, so I just might pick up these apps and join in on the Shark Week craze.
Shark Week Live and Discovery Channel HD are available for free.
[Shark Week - iTunes link] [Discovery Channel HD - 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.
August 01 2011
X Games Ushers in Human Tweeting [VIDEO]
Ad agency Weiden + Kennedy, which is behind the Old Spice “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign, introduced “Human Twitter” last week during the X Games on ESPN. The program worked like this: Viewers who tweeted using the hashtag #humantwitter had a chance to have their tweets spelled out on TV by 160 letter-holders. (Why 160 when Twitter famously limits tweets to 140 characters? To account for line breaks. The agency didn’t want to continue a word on the next line.)
The effort resulted in relevant tweets related to Travis Pastrana’s devastating injury and the X Games’ first-ever Moto X forward front flip by Jackson Strong. The program was a creative response to Twitter, which isn’t the most advertiser-friendly of mediums on first blush. However, Human Tweets wasn’t designed to promote anything in particular. A Wieden rep says it was meant to be a “fun, interactive event ESPN wanted to do that is meant to give fans a way to interact with the athletes at the X Games.”
[via Creativity Online]
More About: ESPN, old spice, twitter, Weiden + Kennedy, x games
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MasterCard Rewards Facebook Places Checkins in New “Priceless” Campaign
The original Yankee Stadium was demolished in 2010, but some of the seats have survived and are now being used in a Facebook Places campaign for MasterCard.
Twenty such seats will be scattered around New York City starting Monday. Fans who find the seats and scan a QR Code will be checked in to Facebook Places. Once a fan checks in, they make themselves eligible to win VIP tickets to a 2011 Yankee game in MasterCard’s exclusive Batter’s Eye Café.
The program will challenge fans to find the seats — which sport names like Doubleheader, Chin Music and Triple Play — around the city. The chairs will be placed at locations like Katz’s Deli, Murray’s Bagels, Junior’s and the New York Stock Exchange. The program runs all month.
The initiative, created by digital marketing agency R/GA, is part of the larger MasterCard Priceless New York program, which aims to differentiate MasterCard by offering consumers one-of-a-kind experiences. New York is the first city spotlighted in the MasterCard Priceless Cities program.
The partnership with Facebook Places also comes as rival American Express launched a program with Foursquare in June that lets card members get loyalty card-like credit when they check in.
More About: american express, Facebook Places, foursquare, mastercard, yankee stadium
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