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iOS Tips and Tricks

iOS 4.1 HDR Photography For iPhone 3G/3GS – A Jailbreak App For That

Apple released the new iOS 4.1 version of its operating system earlier this week. One of the new features that this new iOS version comes with is the support for HDR photography. The new High-Definition-Range photography tool will allow users bring extra detail out of high contrast scenes so that there is a greater dynamic range of luminance between the lighter and darker areas. This is done on iOS 4.1 by capturing two photos – one that is over exposed and another that is under-exposed. These two pictures are combined to produce the final picture that offers effective contrasts.

Now however,as you guessed it right, this feature is not available for users with the older iPhone models with Apple having restricted the feature to work only on iPhone 4 models. No longer. iPhone jailbreaker Will Strafach has announced that a hack to make this feature available to iPhone 3G and 3GS users is already underway and should soon be made available over Cydia. There is no word on how long that should take. Anyway, as long as you get it, that’s happy news right?

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Apple iOS iPad iPhone Mobile

Jailbreak Your iPhone/iPad Permanently With New SHAtter Exploit

Getting tired of having to jailbreak your iDevice everytime a new iOS update comes about? A new bootrom exploit has been discovered that will help you keep your device jailbroken for life and will work on the iPhone, iPod Touch as well as the iPad – including the most recent versions. The reason is because this exploit is related to the hardware and hence Apple cannot fix the issue with their software updates.

The jailbreaking application is still not publicly available and the iPhone Dev team and Chronic Dev team are learned to be still working on using the exploit to develop a jailbreak tool. While this is definitely something to be excited about, do note that this jailbreak is tethered. This would imply, users will have to tether their iPhone or iPad to a computer while rebooting in order to keep the device jailbroken. Otherwise, it’s only the risks with warranty and performance that you have to be aware of, which I am sure, you may have already mulled over.

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iOS News

Apple iOS 4.1 Firmware Releasing On September 8

Apple does not need a PR machinery. Everything they do makes news anyway. All that they need to do is to stoke the flames by making sneaky changes and get the blogosphere all worked up. Now that the buzz surrounding the iPod Touch event has died down, it is time for the next buzz. Apple iOS 4.1, it appears, is releasing on September 8. The date is something one may have speculated. But what’s interesting is that Apple appears to have explicitly mentioned the date in an Apple UK website.

The change does not seem to have been retracted, as it is typically the case, and other country websites like the US’ seem to be showing the expected ‘Coming soon‘ message. As you are aware, the new iOS 4.1 will bring new enhancements to iTunes, photo app and introduces the new Game Center.

So get ready for the next update, but not if you own a jailbroken handset. The hacks are still cooking.

Categories
iOS iPod Touch News

Is iPod Touch 4 An iPhone 4 Without A Phone?

The newly unveiled iPod Touch 4 brings a lot of new features that Apple has borrowed from the iPhone 4 that was launched earlier this year. Most notably, the device is equipped with the same retina display, an Apple A4 chip and two cameras – one on the front and one on the rear.

Does it make the new iPod Touch an iPhone without a voice plan? As GigaOm points out, there are some pretty important functionalities that the upcoming version of iPod Touch will be missing that is hard to call the features on this device close to the iPhone 4.

Firstly, iPod Touch 4 will not carry a GPS chip. What that means is that users will not be able to use the hugely popular location based services when they are outside Wi-Fi coverage areas. Presently, iPod Touch users can only use LBS applications using the location data pulled from the Wi-Fi networks. Of course, even with a GPS chip on, this device cannot do much outside a Wi-Fi network primarily because the iPod Touch also misses 3G connectivity.

Following the successful launch of the iPad 3G model, it was widely speculated that the iPod Touch model too could come with a 3G data plan. But that was not to be.

Lastly, the rear-facing camera on the iPod Touch does not compare to the specs of even the older iPhone models. This is because the camera renders images at 960 x 720 pixel resolution which is approximately 0.7-Megapixels. That is completely unusable for capturing any picture worth, well, capturing.

What are your thoughts? Are you buying a new iPod Touch?

Categories
Apple iOS

Drop boxes for your Apps, are they really better?

Since the release of the first iPhone, the general software format has remained relatively unchanged from model to model. A few months ago however, this trend changed and some new options became available for App organization for iPhone users. Back before this update, people with multiple apps (such as myself) had problems involving their apps being spread over numerous pages. This of course resulted in wasted time (and battery life) scrolling through the pages to find the right one.

When I installed the update, I immediately noticed a difference in the performance of my iPhone (like similar updates in the past). It ran smoother, faster and not as many glitches. It was after messing around that I accidently discovered the added option of being able to condense your apps into boxes or folders on a single screen. I thought to myself, “I am no longer going to have to browse through five pages of apps to find just the one I was looking for!” Alright, so this is what I thought until I got to the actual process of moving things around. I started by moving Apps from one page to the next which is easy enough but then I realized how poorly organized everything was. First, the categories offered when combining certain apps weren’t the best, resulting in me naming all 12 of the boxes. Secondly, once a category was set up, I was hoping certain apps could automatically be added, this feature however was nowhere in sight meaning a lot of time spent matching the apps to the right boxes. Finally, my third and biggest problem was the limited space in each box! There are certain categories I had to make two of which I guess is alright but I wasn’t that thrilled about at the time.

Despite my ranting and raving about how much the process of organizing my apps into the boxes with the new software sucked, I have a confession to make. I LOVE IT! It did take a little getting used to at first, but now that I know where all of my apps are according to the well named categories, the ease of use jumped exponentially. I went from spending anywhere from 10 to 30 seconds trying to find the app I was looking for down to anywhere from 5 to 15 seconds. Even though some of you may find this to be microscopic in terms of the time spent setting it up, think about the battery life you save from not running your iPhone as much as well as the added time to your day you will come away with not spent with your head down searching tirelessly for that one app you know you had.

All in all, Apple did this one right. I am very happy with the updates and the additional organization that has come to the iPhone and I feel has made its potential for what it can do even greater.

Michael Blumreich is a contributor for the aptly named computer review site, LaptopReviews.com. He’s currently a university student and lover of all things tech.

Categories
iOS iTV News

When Is Apple iTV Launching? September, Says Rose

Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg, sure has some nice connects at Apple and when he does make an assertion, you sure have to take it with some guarantee given that his credibility is at stake. So when he writes that the Apple iTV could be launching as soon as next month, it is definitely some bit of interesting news.

But that’s not the only assertion he makes in his recent blog piece. According to Rose, Apple iTV could be “changing everything“. Why? Because he says that Apple’s launch of an iTV Store – similar to the iPhone App Store – could be drastically changing dynamics which would bring content producers like HBO and Fox in direct connection with consumers and which would do away with the middlemen in the form of cable TV providers. And at $99, he says, this is definitely disruptive.

Get ready for yet another over-dosage of magical and revolutionary in the next few weeks from the man in turtleneck and jeans. But truth be told, this is not as revolutionary as it seems since the feature is already used to a major extent on computers. Apple is merely pushing the internet connectivity on to the television.

Nevertheless, with Google TV too launching in the next few months, get ready for yet another segment where these tech giants will get us talking about.

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iOS News

Apple Wins Patent For iPhone ‘Slide To Unlock’ & Keyboard ‘Character Popping’

Often times when I write about new patent filings here on GoRumors, commenters complain about the frivolity of these patent applications and how Apple is among the companies that files a number of such trivial patents. Many a time, these commenters have pointed out to the company’s patent filing for the iPhone’s “slide to unlock” feature as an example of trivial patents.

Three years after Apple filed for patent to this technology, the USPTO has finally conferred the patent to Apple. In a series of two patents titled “Animated graphical user interface for a display screen or portion thereof“, the United States Patent & Trademark Office has awarded Apple the rights to make use of such a ‘Slide to Unlock’ feature as well as the characteristic ‘character-pop’ that appears when you type a message using the iPhone’s keyboard.

iPhone Slide to Unlock

iPhone character pop

These are not very significant considering that not many other companies have similar animations on their devices, but raises the interesting question of whether software patents are really worth it.

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iOS

New Jailbreak Rule – Will Jailbreaking iPhone Void Warranty Now?

Jailbreaking the iPhone is a popular activity among the more adventurous and tech-savvy customers to make full use of their iPhone’s capabilities. However, considering that the procedure can open the platform to malware attacks besides ruining Apple’s successful walled-garden business model, the company had warned users that jailbreaking their iPhone could void their warranty. This has proven to be a successful strategy to prevent jailbreaking from becoming more mainstream.

However, a recent US Congress had announced that jailbreaking the iPhone to install software from other third party stores like Cydia or unlocking to another carrier are not illegal – a huge victory for jailbreakers.

But will this ruling also mean that Apple is now liable to attend to jailbroken iPhones as well? In a brief statement, Apple has warned jailbreakers that the company is still not liable to attend to iPhones that have been jailbroken. The statement reads,

“Apple’s goal has always been to insure that our customers have a great experience with their iPhone and we know that jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience. As we’ve said before, the vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones as this can violate the warranty and can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably.”

Categories
iOS

Waiting For Software Update To Fix iPhone 4 Reception Issue? Read This

If you are reading this, then you are probably one of those who were sold by Apple’s media release a couple of weeks back about how much they were surprised to see a small software glitch affecting the way signal strength is displayed. In that event, you must know that the latest version of iOS that is expected to solve the antenna signal issues is out.

But here’s some bad news – The new iOS 4.1 does not solve any of the antenna issues. At present this iOS 4.1 SDK is only released to developers so that they may make the appropriate changes to their apps in order to prevent them from breaking. However, reports show that the changes incorporate into the latest OS do not address the antenna issue. Technically, it cannot since this is a hardware issue and not a software glitch. However, in any case you thought a software fix would help, here’s the news that it won’t.