Tag: ios 4

Categories
Apple iOS Mobile

iPhone App Folders Disappearing After iOS Upgrade?

Folks at TiPb are pointing out to a bug on the new iOS 4.2 that we first mentioned over two months back – app folders on the iPhone or iPad seem to disappear inexplicably bringing all the stored apps back on to the homescreen. Apparently, Apple has not addressed this issue with the several iOS updates that it has issues since June when this issue was first noticed.

While Apple continues to stay mum on the bug, we hear that updating all the apps and then syncing them with iTunes (updated to the latest version) should address the issue. Alternately, you can also try out the fix that we had suggested in our earlier article –

1. Connect your iPhone to iTunes
2. From the left menu on iTunes, right click on your iPhone model and select ‘Back up‘. Wait for the backup process to complete
3. Now right click on your iPhone device on the left menu once again and select ‘Settings‘. Here, pick ‘Restore‘. Please remember this is only if you also need a firmware restore (Applicable to those who have unlocked their phones). Otherwise, from the ‘Settings‘, pick ‘Restore from Backup‘
4. If the system tries to sync files, cancel the process. Wait for the restoration to complete
5. Now perform restoration once again. Remember to pick the backup file created in Step 2. Wait for the process to complete

Does any of this resolve the bug? Don’t forget to tell us in the comments.

Categories
Apple Gadgets

Apple TV Browser & USB Hard Drive Support Software – aTV Flash (Black) Launches In Beta

FireCore have announced that their new beta release of aTV Flash (black) for the new Apple TV is now available for purchase. The application is presently in public beta and a final version of the software will be made available pretty soon. So what do you get with this package? Well, according to a recently updated blog post, aTV Flash (Black) will come with an internet browser that will support HTML5 video streaming (though not from all the websites), access to Last.Fm radio, a Plex content to stream media from Plex server with playback support for additional media formats coming soon.

We had written about this release sometime last month and interestingly, FireCore have reduced the price of the software since then. aTV Flash (black) will now be available at a price of $19.95 during the beta phase post which it will retail at $29.95. The company is also reducing the price of the original aTV Flash from $49.95 to $39.95.

But before you proceed, do note that the current version is only compatible with iOS 4.0 and Mac computers. If you have already upgraded to a more recent firmware or on Windows, you may have to wait for some more time.

Categories
iPod Touch Product Issues

Users Complaining Of Jitter On iPod Touch With Docking Station

Several users on the Apple forum have recently been noticing jitters and random squeaking noises when their iPod Touch 3G is connected to a third party docking station. According to these users, the issue has been primarily occurring ever since the device was updated to the iOS 4.1 platform. Docking stations where the problem has been observed include Wadia 170iTransport, Onkyo ND-S1, Musical Fidelity V-Dac and Musical Fidelity KW DM25 DAC.

According to a Wadia support executive, Apple has worked on this issue for the future versions and that the jitter issue should not affect devices running iOS 4.2 (when that’s released).

Some users have however reported having seen improvements after a full factory restore. A user writes,

I think i have found a solution. What I did was a full factory restore, and when using the dock set ‘Autolock’ in the settings menu to never. It seems to have sorted the problem for me.

Are you one of those who is affected? Did this resolution work for you? Write in the comments.

Categories
News Product Issues

HDR Photography On iPhone 3GS May Come In Future Update

Apple is always known to intentionally block features on older devices in order to push people to graduate to newer devices. One such functionality that is available on iPhone 4 but is not provided on the older iPhones is the HDR capability. As you may already know, this functionality delivers effective contrasts on pictures by superimposing three pictures that are taken in normal, under-exposed and over-exposed modes.

Now, there are jailbreak apps that will let you enable this functionality on the older iPhones. From what we’ve heard in the past, the functionality works perfectly on the older models and there is no reason why Apple shouldn’t have offered the feature to the older iPhones as well. Nevertheless, if ever Apple had decided to block this feature on older models, it appears that this could have been a last-minute decision. Folks at 9to5Mac have uncovered a couple of HDR icons from the iPhone SDK that reference to iPhones with retina display and those that do not have this display. The difference can be noted in the nomenclature that usually contain a @2x in case of documents pertaining to the  retina display.

HDR on iPhone 3GS

If you were to stay an optimist, what this could mean is that Apple could bring the HDR functionality to the older iPhone; iPhone 3GS primarily, via a future software update. The question is however whether Apple would want to.

Categories
iOS News

Second iOS 4.2 Beta Version Available For Download

You must be already aware that the next version of iOS – version 4.2 is scheduled to become available for public consumption in November of this year. As we move towards the official launch date, Apple has been releasing beta versions of this new mobile operating system for developers who will need it to format their applications to be compatible with the new platform.

Two weeks after the first beta release of iOS 4.2 was made, we now have the second beta of the upcoming iOS software released to the developer community. To get started, you need to log in to your Apple developer account here and find the appropriate link for download.

The upcoming version of iOS brings a number of new features like AirPlay and AirPrint to the iDevice. Besides this, the new version will also let iPad users get access to multitasking, folder management and threaded email access. The enhancements made in the latest beta release is not known as yet. Keep looking out for the same, though.

Categories
iTV Jailbreak

Jailbreak For iOS 4.1 On Apple TV Now Available

There was not really any doubt that the new Apple TV was indeed running on iOS. But in any case you did have your doubts, that should be put to rest now as we see that Apple has uploaded a new version of iOS 4.1 to their servers that references Apple TV. The software is identified as AppleTV2,1 and is noted to be of 4.1 version. You can download it from here but that does no good unless you will need to restore the OS.

More interesting since the discovery is the fact that this new iOS for Apple TV is jailbreakable with the recently discovered SHAtter exploit. If you are not of what SHAtter is, it is worth noting that this is a bootrom level exploit that can only be patched by releasing a new version of hardware. This means that the new Apple TV can be jailbroken for life with this exploit. MuscleNerd from the iPhone Dev Team writes,

“It’s looking like SHAtter is going to be the gift that keeps on giving. Even though the new AppleTV isn’t yet in people’s homes, the firmware is available on Apple’s normal public distribution servers and SHAtter has been used to decrypt its keys! The main filesystem (“Mojave8M89.K66OS”) key for 018-8609-066.dmg is:

31c700a852f1877c88efc05bc5c63e8c7f081c4cb28d024ed7f9b0dbc98c7e1406e499c6

If you’re familiar with vfdecrypt, you can use that key to decrypt the image and mount it.”

Categories
Apple

iOS 4 Draining Battery On iPod Touch – Here Are Some Fixes

A massive thread up on the Apple support forum has been up and running since June this year and presently has close to a thousand posts from people who have been noticing severe battery drain on their iPod Touch since it was upgraded to the iOS 4 operating system. Since then, Apple has released newer versions with a major iOS 4.1 release expected this week. However, the problems that these users have been facing are unlikely to be resolved anytime soon.

There are some observations that the problem could stem from the fact that Apple has chosen to keep power guzzling features like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth on while the iPod is asleep.  If you are facing the same issue, you could use one of the following resolution procedures.

  • Navigate to Settings and turn on Airplane mode before retiring for the night. This feature will automatically disable features like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth so that you may save battery while the iPod Touch is not in use.
  • Deactivate Push notifications and alerts. Some users have seen results with just this
  • Navigate to Settings -> Mail,Contacts,Calendar -> Fetch New Data. Set the feature to ‘Manually‘
  • Attempt a system restore

Many users have seen an improvement in battery performance using one of the above fixes. Do try them and let us know if they work.

Categories
iPod Touch Product Issues Tips and Tricks

iPod Touch Randomly Changing Time After iOS 4 Upgrade

Many iPod Touch users have been complaining on the Apple support forums about a new iOS 4 related issue – the time on their device appears to be randomly changing. Most of the users who have been experiencing this issue have been noticing it only after their device was upgraded to the latest iOS 4 platform. One user writes,

“Similar issue here with my 2nd gen iPod Touch, after upgradeing to iOS4. My time keeps “resetting” to exactly 1 hour 13 minutes behind the actual time, no matter what I set the time to. I’ve noticed it does this when I open certain apps. In particular it seems to be apps that use Location Services, like Yelp, Facebook, and even the preinstalled Maps app. Whether Location Services is on or off makes no difference, opening the app will reset the time.”

There is no word of acknowledgement or possible fixes being offered by Apple right now. Here is a solution you can try out. But this does not work according to some users.

  • Power off the iPod Touch by holding the Home and Power button together
  • Restart by holding down the Power and Home buttons together once again
  • Connect your iPod Touch to iTunes and attempt to Restore via a backup. If possible, try the ‘Restore as new’ option.

Does this work? Do you have an alternate solution? Please tell in the comments.

Categories
Product Issues

iPhone 3GS Rebooting Randomly? iOS 4 Upgrade To Blame

Several iPhone 3GS users seem to be facing a peculiar OS reboot issue ever since their handset was upgraded to the new iOS 4. A thread on the Apple support forum presently houses close to 934 responses from users who seem to be suffering from this issue. Here are some reported cases,

“After about 4 or 5 mins in a phone call my iPhone 3GS reboots itself for no apparent reason. this did not happen before I put the iOS4 update on it. “

“Mine can do it twice in a call and so the second time, having rebooted, with no apps on the device the memory should have cleared therefore I would imagine it’s something in the hardware”

“I appear to be having a similar problem since I updated to Os4 on my iPhone 3GS 32 gig. However my problem is when I make a call and I end the call.. My screen locks up in the sense that the touch screen is deactivated. My home button still works.. But I am forced to force a reboot to get it to work again. “

“Upgraded to iOS4 on my 16gb 3gs with O2 in the UK, get rebooting during phone calls and have lost all my emails, work account and private account, though I get them all downloaded again luckily. Also Bluetooth to car was perfect for the last year, but now get intermittant pairing isues. Then this week migrated to Vodaphone, again rebooted in a phone call, lost all my emails, but again they have all downloaded again. last thing I’ve noticd a few of the apps I have just stop and drop back out to the main icon screen.”

If you are one of those suffering from the issue, one thing is to approach the Apple Genius support to get it fixed or at least get a replacement. If that doesn’t sound feasible, it appears that reformatting your iPhone 3GS (after backing up all data, of course) apparently helps according to this user,

“I have now fixed this problem. Went to Apple Store and “Genius” knew the problem. She said that during the upgrade something interfered with the update and corrupted a file (probably the anti-virus). She said she would “reformat” the phone and restore operating system. Problem has now disappeared. “

Are you seeing this rebooting problem on your iPhone 3GS? Write down your experience in the comments below.

Categories
Apple Mobile

No Multitasking On iPhone 3G – Is Apple Bluffing?

A lot of iPhone users out there must have already upgraded their iPhone to the latest iOS. The new iPhone OS platform brings close to 100 new features including multitasking, custom wallpaper support and bluetooth keyboard to the iPhone. However, as most users owning an older model of iPhone would realize, several of the iOS 4 features including multitasking and wallpaper customization shall not be available on iPhone 3G.

Steve Jobs has his answers ready. On multitasking, he has explained how this new functionality will degrade battery performance since the old iPhone model is really not built to handle multiple applications at a time. Consequently, the battery may die sooner thus spoiling user experience. But is this assessment true?

Truth be told, the iPhone 3G battery will die only as fast as the iPhone 3GS would. This is because the new multitasking functionality on iOS 4 does not in fact run multiple apps all the time. Instead, as popular iPhone app developer explains, this is only a “sleight of hand“. Hockenberry writes,

“When you double-tap on the home button and start another application, the previous application is “frozen” and put into a state where it’s not running but can be restarted quickly. A part of the freezing process also reduces the amount of memory being used: allowing more applications to fit in freezer.

Most of your apps will be frozen and not using power: only the app on your screen is active. And even with audio, phone or GPS apps that are running in the background, you won’t be using more than one of those at a time (go ahead and try to listen to Pandora and the iPod apps at the same time!)”

As you see, when users “multitask“, all that they are doing is creating a bookmark for active apps that are quickly accessed via the double-tap. This is more or less the same as closing one application and launching another application – but just more convenient. Consequently, this sort of multitasking SHOULD work efficiently on iPhone 3G as much as it works on the 3GS or iPhone 4.

This is not the one feature iPhone 3G users have a problem with. The iOS 4 does not allow users to set customized wallpapers on their iPhone 3G. In response to an email from a user, Steve Jobs writes,

“The icon animation with backgrounds didn’t perform well enough.”

If Apple’s bluff in the earlier instance was not apparent, it is very evident in this case. Custom wallpapers for mobile phones is nothing revolutionary – it is as old as the mobile phone itself. It only speaks poorly of the Apple engineers if they were unable to get the icon animations right for the iPhone 3G.

Nobody can reason out why these are not supported though. But speculations can be right many times and in this case, it is just Apple’s greed to get more people upgrade to a newer iPhone. And lack of support to features like multitasking and wallpapers help Apple show iPhone 3G as the proverbial ugly ducklings in a crowd of iPhone users. “Hey, you don’t have a custom wallpaper? Your phone must be really old, then“.

Now, iPhone 3G users – go upgrade your iPhones then.

[via Gizmodo, Furbo]