Since the beginning of October, I've had a constant companion -- a Fitbit Ultra fitness tracker. It's been tracking my activity (or lack thereof), my sleep, and the number of flights of stairs that I go up and down. But until earlier this week, I had to visit the Fitbit website to enter in other information such as what I was eating, how many glasses of water I've had to drink, etc... Now Fitbit has released an iPhone app to give Fitbit owners a way to track or enter fitness and nutrition data on the go.

To use the app, you need to have a US$99 Fitbit or Fitbit Ultra registered with the Fitbit service. Unfortunately, the app does not let your iPhone or iPod touch communicate directly with the Fitbit -- for that, you still need to be within 30 feet of the charge/sync dock to have the device transfer information. It would be nice if Fitbit would figure out a way to get the device to communicate directly with the iPhone so traveling users don't have to lug around a laptop and the little dock in order to transfer the fitness info.

What I like about the iPhone app is that I'm much more likely to track my food and water intake when I have the app at my fingertips rather than needing to grab a computer to enter the info. You can also see how many steps you've taken, how many calories have been burned so far today, how many calories you can ingest for the rest of the day, and how much water you've had to drink. It's also nice to see a history of your weight, although I prefer using WeightBot ($1.99) for that.

Gallery: Fitbit App for iPhone

This first go at a Fitbit app is quite well done, and it's a must for all Fitbit owners. Be sure to check out the gallery to get an idea of how the app works.
Fitbit releases iPhone app for fitness tracking on the go originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 22 Oct 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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I spent most of my time when learning to skateboard primarily on my face, not understanding the first thing about proper technique. Know Skateboarding Street Fundamentals provides everything a beginner skater needs to know to bust tricks like Tony Hawk. More »

Jawbone's fitness-obsessed wristband appears to be closing in on the retail finish line. The Up pairs with what appears to be an iOS app, (no news on whether an Android version is in the pipeline), and will pile on the guilt about your disgustingly sedentary lifestyle. You can have the luxury of feeling like a weight loss reality show contestant by scheduling "get up and move" reminders when you've succumbed to watching back-to-back mediocre sitcoms with a Doritos family bag chaser. There's also a sleep tracker and a challenge tab to plot your amazing weight loss journey (or descent to an early demise) against friends and family. It'll monitor what you eat, and even tell you which foods "help you feel your best." (We think it's cake.) No word on price or arrival date just yet, so you'll just have to put up with Autom until we hear more.

[Thanks, Luke]

Jawbone's Up wristband warms up at AT&T store, wants you faster, stronger originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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I’m not generally one to predict the death of things. I’ve rarely been known to herald a shiny new Device X as a “Device Y Killer!”, and I’m a firm believer that Facebook is doing a perfectly good job of being “the new Facebook”. Pundits love to make these crazy claims because they’re easily forgotten and rarely does anyone call them out for being wrong after a few years have passed.

With that said: October 12th, 2011. Mark it down, and come back and yell at me in a few years if I’m wrong. Today is the day SMS begins to die.

It begins with today’s launch of iOS 5.

Or, really, it begins with iMessage.

Back in June, MG wrote that Apple had “finally stuck a dagger into SMS” with the announcement of iMessage. Today, they’re pulling that dagger out… and sitting back and laughing as the wound bleeds out.

You! Heading for the comments! Wait a second. (A crazy request, really, given that it’s 5 line breaks deep into this post. I probably should’ve put it right in the headline.)

To be clear, iMessage alone won’t kill SMS. It’ll just start the avalanche.

Today, many millions of people (and millions more, come Friday) are being shown something better. Besides updating to iOS 5, they don’t have to do anything to make it work. They don’t have to manually install an app; hell, they don’t even need to use anything they’re not already using.

This isn’t BlackBerry Messenger. There are no PINs to share. iMessage just knows when the person you’re texting can receive iMessages, and handles everything for you.

This isn’t Google Voice, with its free texting. There is no new app to install and use, or new service to sign up for.

This is many, many, many millions of devices, suddenly switching to a new protocol with little interaction from the user. This is millions of iPhones, suddenly sending a fraction of the SMS messages they sent before. The carriers are terrified, and rightly so.

Yes, iMessage only works from iOS device to iOS device — but that doesn’t matter. This is just the beginning of the end.

Next, iMessage support will come to iChat in OS X. Users will be chatting across platforms — again, with no new apps to install, and no new services to sign up for.

Next, Google will respond with their own, completely integrated Android-to-Android alternative. They already have such a thing to some extent with Google Talk — it’s just lacking things like photo messaging, read/delivery receipts, and the most important part: the seamless, almost entirely automatic integration. Don’t expect it to stay that way.

At a certain point, probably 2-3 years down the road, these proprietary services will be in no way unique. Any surviving platforms will likely have their own SMS alternative, and the concept will reach a point of entropy where they’re no longer directly beneficial to device sales. In fact, that they are not cross-compatible will be seen as a detriment to the concept as a whole — and at that point, the major players will begin working together on a cross-platform (but still carrier independent and agnostic) standard.

Users will grow accustomed to these service’s fancier tricks — the aforementioned read/delivery receipts, the typing status indicators, and the whole, you know, being free part. Users will see texting people via the old SMS system as antiquated; being SMS-only will be like being in a different area code in the mid 90′s. You’ll still get texts — your friends just won’t be happy about it.

SMS won’t go away completely, just as e-mail hasn’t entirely killed snail mail — it’ll just be a sad shell of its former self. It’ll hold strong for a few years longer in certain countries outside of the US, until a standard is set and the new protocol is embraced in feature phones. Companies will still harass you via SMS. You’ll still be able to vote for your favorite American Idol via SMS. But SMS, as we’ve known and loathed for far too long, as a ubiquitous and integrated part of our world’s communication, as an unjustifiable cash cow for the carriers, is dying. Good riddance.






Crunchbase





APPLE






Company:
Apple


Website:
apple.com


Launch Date:
January 4, 1976


IPO:

October 13, 1980, NASDAQ:AAPL



Started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from computers to consumer electronics over the last 30 years, officially changing their name from Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple, Inc. in January 2007.

Among the key offerings from Apple’s product line are: Pro line laptops (MacBook Pro) and desktops (Mac Pro), consumer line laptops (MacBook) and desktops (iMac), servers (Xserve), Apple TV, the Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server operating systems, the iPod (offered with...






Learn more

AnandTech has seemingly done the impossible and provided preliminary benchmarks for the iPhone 4S and the A5 SoC that is daintily ensconced within. If the numbers are accurate, the iPhone 4S will sport the same processor as the iPad 2 — the same dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU and SGX 543MP2 GPU — but clocked at 800MHz, rather than 1GHz. As a result, the iPhone 4S is about 20% slower than the iPad 2 — but it smokes the Galaxy S II, the Droid Bionic, and every other phone under the sun.
The most direct (and shocking) comparison is against last year’s iPhone 4, which (spec-wise) has started to show its age: the iPhone 4S really is twice as fast as its predecessor on CPU-intensive tasks like JavaScript execution, and Apple wasn’t lying when it said the iPhone 4S GPU was seven times as fast; the SGX 543MP2 from PowerVR is a monster, and it makes you wonder why other SoC makers don’t use it. The A5 at 800MHz also seems to be twice as fast as the Samsung Galaxy S II’s 1.2GHz Exynos 4210 (with Mali-400 GPU), and between two and four times as fast as the Droid Bionic with the 1GHz OMAP 4430 SoC and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 with a 1GHz Tegra 2 SoC. We don’t have a complete set of benchmarks, though — and the imminent release of Ice Cream Sandwich and the Nexus Prime should certainly be taken into account.

With the iPhone 4S out of the way, Anand’s tables reveal an interesting and unreported tidbit: iOS 5 (due out tomorrow) seems to significantly increase performance over iOS 4.3. The jump is so sizable that the iPhone 3Gs is almost as fast as the iPhone 4. This looks like it is mainly down to a new version of Safari in iOS 5, which no doubt improves JavaScript performance and rendering speed, but iOS 5 performance is generally improved across the board. With iOS 5, you could even say that iPhone 4 to 4S is a bigger leap than the 3GS to 4 — redesign excluded, of course.

So there you have it: tomorrow, when iOS 5 and iPhone 4S are released, Apple will regain the performance crown, retain the design mantle, and even provide a healthy dollop of love for the tens of millions using the iPhone 3GS. It also makes you wonder just how powerful the iPhone 5 will be, too, if it is powered by Apple’s quad-core A6 processor, which is due to make its debut next year with the iPad 3.
Read more at AnandTech (benchmarks are from GLBenchmark Database, Geekbench Database, and Macrumors)

Even though iOS 5 won't be released officially until October 12th, you can install the final version right now even if you're not a developer. Thanks to some anonymous public postings of the software update files, you can update right now. Here's how. More »

Fox Mobile Entertainment updated its Star Wars Blu-Ray Early Access App to include support for the iPhone. Now all you smartphone owners can enjoy the same experience as your iPad-owning brethren. The app is a teaser meant to tide you over until the Blu-Ray discs land next month. It includes trailers, background information and some bonus content to whet your appetite until you can pop in the discs and watch Star Wars to your heart's content.

[Via Engadget]
Star Wars Blu-ray pre-release app ready for iPhone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Answer these two questions really quickly:


Are you a developer?

Are you running the iOS 5 beta?

If you answered no to the first question and yes to the second, then this post is meant for you. You are doing it wrong, and on behalf of everyone everywhere, please stop.

Why do I say that? Look no farther than the e-mail we received this morning (edited for clarity/brevity and to disguise the sender's identity):


Subject: Major iOS 5 beta 2 glitch


I recently bought an iPad 2 right before a trip to Africa for a family vacation. Being right after the release of the iOS 5 beta 2, and being part of the development program, I put it on my brand new iPad. It worked very well for the first 2 weeks of my trip. Then at exactly the halfway point in my trip, the screen went black, and I was booted to the initial iOS 5 "Slide To Set Up" screen.


The iPad semed to have automatically reset itself and I have no idea how. I've searched the internet for other people with a similar problem, but haven't came up with anything, as this seems to be an isolated incident. Even worse, I don't have my laptop here to set it up again, as the server is still down for wireless set up. Its just sitting in my backpack now, useless for the next week until I'm home.


Really a pain, because I'm still in Africa with nothing but my iPod nano and an internet cafe to entertain me for the rest of the trip.

Developers will read this email and, depending on their disposition, either start chuckling or slamming their heads against their desks. Though this person claims to be part of Apple's Developer Program, he or she clearly has no idea how Apple handles developer betas. Those betas expire after a certain amount of time elapses. In fact, iOS 5 beta 2 expired a couple weeks ago, and confusion over that expiration among the many non-developers running it probably contributed to exaggerated reports of widespread shutdowns of some iOS developers' accounts.

I'd hope that any real developers would either know immediately why their iOS hardware locked them out as described above, or they'd at least know where to find the answer within two minutes. More than that, I'd think they'd know better than to load up their main iOS devices with beta software if they were heading on an extended trip to a region lacking reliable internet service -- like, you know, Africa.

That's not the only reason non-developers shouldn't be toying with iOS betas. Unlike Google, who applied the "beta" label to things like Gmail years beyond when the term was still realistic, Apple's beta software is really, really beta. The first two iOS 5 betas were so crashtastic that many paying developers felt compelled to downgrade to iOS 4, and compatibility with many third-party apps gets broken with just about every beta iteration.

My colleagues here at TUAW want me to emphasize this point: Apple's definition of "beta" when it comes to iOS is not the same as Google's, or Mozilla's, or many other third-party development entities. What Apple calls "beta" is what most other developers would call "alpha" -- software never intended for use by the general public, released only to small numbers of (hopefully) knowledgable people for testing purposes.

If you want to look for an Apple example of "beta" software as almost everyone else defines it, look at the public release of OS X Lion, or just about any version of OS X before it. The 10.x.0 release of OS X is almost always riddled with bugs, inconsistencies, etc., and Apple usually pushes out a 10.x.1 update within a few weeks to address those. More cautious/paranoid Mac users often avoid upgrading to the next version of OS X until the .1 release for that very reason.

The iOS x.0 public release software is usually pretty stable, but that's only because it's been preceded by months of testing on millions of units. The iOS betas themselves, especially the first few releases, are often about as stable as a drunken unicyclist. Sometimes this goes beyond app crashes and general instability -- sometimes, iOS betas can be so bug-riddled that the basic, core functionality of the device simply doesn't work worth a damn until the next release comes out.

Developers know and understand these perils of beta software. Non-developers usually don't, so support forums get flooded with messages from irritated-to-irate users wondering why their formerly rock-solid device is suddenly crashing every time they try to load more than three tabs in Safari, or why the Music app crashes and burns every five minutes.

Far worse than that is when these same people flood the App Store with negative ratings for apps that are "broken" in iOS 5, as developer Malcolm Barclay noted a couple months ago. "Your app crashes on launch in iOS 5. ONE STAR until it's fixed." These negative reviews have an insidious effect on developers' bottom line. Many users base their app buying decisions on an app's reviews, and if a dozen or more non-developers flood a small app with one-star ratings over iOS 5 incompatibility issues, it might mean that people who otherwise would have downloaded the app will avoid it instead. As Barclay said, App Store reviews aren't the place to file bug reports, and developers can't be expected to know beforehand whether beta software -- which no one leaving App Store reviews should be running in the first place -- will break their apps.

At the risk of sounding hypocritical, I'll be honest: I'm not an iOS developer, but I'm running iOS betas on both of my devices. Even though I'm not actively involved in writing apps, however, I still have an excuse to be running these betas -- it's my job to know what Apple's up to, even if the NDA prevents me from telling the rest of you about it until the official launch. That said, I also go out of my way to educate myself about the potential pitfalls of running beta software on my equipment, which is something I doubt many non-developers are bothering to do beforehand based on the number of emails like the one above we've been getting over the past couple months.

I know you non-devs are curious about trying out the new features in iOS 5. I sympathize. I also know at least some of you are motivated by the "first kid on my block to have it" mentality. But you know the old saying about curiosity killing the cat? Running iOS beta releases on your hardware won't kill your cat, but it'll make it seem like the thing is running all over your house with a string of cans tied to its tail -- for three months.

If your livelihood doesn't depend on running the iOS 5 beta, then for your own sake and ours, just let it be. If you don't know how to restore your iPhone or iPad's firmware without looking it up on Google first, just don't do it at all. If you're not prepared for a subpar experience involving bugs, crashes, app incompatibilities, weird UI behaviors, unfinished or even half-baked features, and even terrible battery life, then give iOS 5 a miss until the public launch, when Apple will (hopefully) have all the bugs squashed. If you don't understand the concept that iOS betas have an expiration date, and you must keep pace with the current betas if you want your hardware to continue functioning, then don't run iOS 5.

In short, if you're not prepared for your Apple hardware to behave in a very un-Apple way for months at a stretch, then in the name of all that is holy, leave the betas alone.
PSA: This is why non-developers shouldn't run iOS betas originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 16 Aug 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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A new image of what is claimed to be an actual iPhone 5 handset emerged today, perhaps giving us our first look at Apple’s fifth-generation smartphone. Posted by MacRumors forum member guigsh, the image shows a slender smartphone that looks even thinner than Apple’s current iPhone 4 model, jibing with reports that the next-generation iPhone could be just 7mm thick. “Picture taken yesterday in the office of a French operator. Believe it or not,” the forum member said. He continued in a separate post, “We were able to see it only 2 minutes, pictures forbidden of course, so, we did our best.” As far as details about the device itself are concerned, guigsh added, “The only thing I can tell you, is that my iPhone 4 looks really slow now.” Of note, the image shows a device that looks strikingly similar to the Chinese counterfeit “iPhone 5″ we saw in images and a video recently, but it looks much more refined. This could mean that the Chinese clone pictured earlier was indeed based on Apple’s actual design as BGR and others speculated, or it could mean that this is just another fake from the same manufacturer.

UPDATE: The image is said to be fake, first posted here by a Twitter user. Thanks, Ron.

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If you want to listen to music on your iPhone for a set period of time, maybe because you need to go somewhere in 30 minutes or you're trying to fall asleep to music, the built-in clock app has a neat feature. You can set a timer to sleep your iPod once time runs out. It's really easy to do. Just open up the clock app, set the time you want, and then tap "When Timer Ends." If you scroll all the way down to the last option, past your ringtones, you'll see one called "Sleep iPod." Select that, start playing some music (or a podcast or whatever), and start the timer. When it ends, the music will fade out and stop. More »

iOS: Alfred is a very intelligent robot that can find your next new favorite restaurant after learning where you like to eat now, kind of like a Pandora for restaurants. The free app is a nice alternative to reading through a bunch of reviews, and it cleverly learns your tastes. More »

There aren't a lot of options for writing code on your iPhone, so picking the best option wasn't all that difficult. Nonetheless, Nebulous Notes wins out thanks to its better-than-average Dropbox-syncing abilities, handy time-saving features, and ability to serve as more than just your programming text editor. More »

In the world of computing, no two companies have more history than Microsoft and Apple. In fact, the companys’ history is 10,124 pixels tall. From modest beginnings to IPOs, and later to global domination, Microsoft and Apple are largely responsible for computers as we know them today. Microsoft concentrated on software early and now owns the lion’s share of the global PC market, and more recently, Apple looked to mobile computing to revitalize its business and its market cap. Of course from an investor’s perspective, the stock chart at the bottom says it all, but as is remarkably evident in looking over the meandering paths these two tech titans have taken, no one knows what the future might hold. The full, extremely large infographic can be found after the break.

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While Apple has indeed been giving some developers access to a device known as the iPhone 4S — an iPhone 4 with upgraded internals — BGR has independently confirmed that the next-generation iPhone will not merely be an upgraded iPhone 4 as had been previously rumored. We have been told by a reliable source to expect a radical new case design for the upcoming iPhone, though we have not been given any additional details surrounding the design of the new iPhone case. What about a release, then? The consensus is that Apple is going to announce the next-generation iPhone at the company’s annual September event, traditionally focused on iPods, but we have heard it’s quite possible Apple will break tradition. According to our source, Apple may hold an event in the beginning or middle of August to announce the new iPhone, with availability to follow in the last week of August. We’re not sure if that means the iPod event will be moved up slightly, or if this will be an iPhone-specific event. Thisismynext reported earlier that the upcoming iPhone 5 would feature a new teardrop-shaped case design.

One of the most anticipated features of iOS 5, at least in my book, is AirPlay Mirroring. This feature endows the iPad 2 with the ability to wirelessly mirror all video on the screen of the device to an Apple TV 2. No longer is mirroring just enabled in a few apps here and there -- anything on your iPad 2 can be blasted to the big screen with a few taps.

The guys over at Apple'n'Apps have produced an amazing ten-minute video walkthrough of several popular iOS apps being beamed wirelessly to a large screen HDTV from an iPad 2. More than anything, the video shows just how smooth AirPlay Mirroring is. The lack of cables makes it all that much better for game play, as you can shake, rattle, and roll your iPad 2 without worrying that a cable will fall out.

Without further ado, here's the video for your viewing pleasure:

iOS 5 AirPlay Mirroring demo brings games and more to the big screen originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 Jun 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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OnLive — the popular gaming service that allows you to purchase, subscribe, or rent games and play them on your television —  has now announced that it’s extending its gaming support to mobile devices. Later this summer the company will debut a new controller, as well as applications for iOS and Android. OnLive basically streams the game your playing, which means you don’t need to have an insane amount of hardware muscle on your device just to play Duke Nukem in all of its glory while on the road. We had a chance to go hands-on with OnLive running on the iPad, HTC Flyer, and Motorola XOOM, and the experience was virtually the same across all three devices; we were blown away at the performance. The custom controller, which will also launch later this summer, felt a lot like an Xbox 360 controller, and we felt right at home. Check out our gallery below, then hit the jump for the full press release.

























OnLive Unveils iPad/Android Tablet App that Far Outperforms New Consoles



iPad, Android Tablet Instantly Becomes Touch/Motion Controller

or Standalone Cloud Gaming System with Touch/Motion or Game Controller



Seamless Integration of Tablet with or without HDTV



First Touch/Controller Game from Major Publisher Unveiled for OnLive



Unparalleled Multiplayer Mobile or In-Home Experience



Available in Autumn 2011 in US and Europe

Los Angeles (E3 Expo 2011) — June 7, 2011 — OnLive, Inc., the pioneer of cloud gaming, is pleased to report that gamers throughout the world can immediately experience the seamless integration of tablets and HDTVs with high-end gaming. Their current iPad or Android tablet and current HDTV will not only provide this experience in 2011, but will provide it with far higher performance, richer gameplay and deeper social integration than any console announced for 2012, with more than 100 games available today.

OnLive is pleased to announce the OnLive® Player App for iPad and Android. Like the recently announced consoles, the OnLive Player App will enable gameplay of virtually all OnLive games on an iPad and Android tablet with touch or OnLive’s new Universal Wireless Controller. In addition, the OnLive Player App allows the tablet to be used as a touch and motion controller combined with an HDTV (or PC/Mac® if preferred), and allows both synchronized or independent video on the tablet and HDTV screen, enabling combined gameplay with tablet and HDTV, or separate gameplay on tablet and HDTV.

Full voice chat-enabled multiplayer is supported, both in-room and with others throughout the world, providing a complete multiplayer experience whether at home or on the go with a mobile device.

Core patent-pending exclusive OnLive cloud gaming features such as massive spectating of live gameplay throughout the world, instant no-obsolescence gameplay, Facebook integration with Brag Clip™ videos, etc., will work seamlessly on both tablets and HDTVs and will continue to distinguish OnLive from consoles, both in 2011 and beyond.

“The power of the cloud is definitely the theme this week, displacing what had been assumed to be platforms that could never be displaced,” said Steve Perlman, Founder and CEO of OnLive. “The OnLive Player App for iPad and Android shows how with the power of the cloud, the question is not whether cloud gaming will be able to catch up to consoles, it will be whether consoles will be able to catch up to cloud gaming.”

OnLive is excited to demonstrate the first game from a major publisher supporting both OnLive’s iPad/Android tablet touch and game controller, as well as running seamlessly on an HDTV, PC and Mac, to be released later in 2011. Come to OnLive’s booth (South Hall, Booth #801) for a demo.

For gamers preferring a smaller screen, OnLive will provide the exact same functionality on iPhone and Android smartphones, allowing them to be used both as game systems themselves with touch and the OnLive Universal Wireless Controller, or as a controller to an HDTV (or PC/Mac), for simultaneous or independent play.

OnLive is also unveiling as part of this experience the first 10 gigabit cloud-based full-featured browser for iPad, Android and HDTV; bringing the full richness of the Web loading from ultra-fast 10 gigabit/second Web connections to OnLive’s cloud-based servers, including support for full-featured Flash and video sites. Mobile and home devices will no longer be limited to the speed of their local connection for Web browsing or Web plug-in compatibility, opening up access to Flash games and social gaming for tablets and HDTVs.

All OnLive games played using the OnLive Player App will play seamlessly across all OnLive-compatible devices, including iPad, iPhone, Android, on HDTV via the OnLive Game System, on connected HDTV and Blu-ray/media players and on PC and Mac.

The OnLive Player for iPad and Android is being showcased live at OnLive’s booth (South Hall, Booth #801) and will be available later this year. For a video presentation please visit http://www.onlive.com/corporate/pressroom.

Had some doubts that Apple was heading skyward? Those lingering concerns can now be put to rest. Apple has confirmed that it will be announcing iCloud on June 6th, what it's calling an "upcoming cloud services offering." That will be part of the keynote for this year's Worldwide Developers Conference, known to the cool kids as WWDC. This is, of course, where everyone has come to expect new iPhones to come to light, but this year we're thinking the focus will be more on software, and indeed Apple's event notice indicates that the big highlights will be Mac OS X Lion and the next version of its mobile operating system, iOS 5. This is a decidedly non-Apple way to announce something big like iCloud, making us wonder what other surprises Steve Jobs will have for us at the event -- yes, he'll be kicking things off. As ever you can find out as it happens here, live.Continue reading Apple to unveil iCloud, iOS 5 on Monday, June 6
Apple to unveil iCloud, iOS 5 on Monday, June 6 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 May 2011 08:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We love both mobile operating systems and their corresponding devices, but just like Android has its many advantages so does iOS. Here are our favorite parts of iOS that outdo their Android counterparts. More »

There seems to be no lack of options for cloud music players on Android these days, but what about your neglected iPhone? If you have a Dropbox account and use it to store music and podcasts, BoxyTunes makes it easy to grab those audio files on the go. More »

Once upon a time, Armor Games published a flash game called Crush the Castle, and it was quite good. Then another studio came along, replaced the trebuchet with a slingshot, the ordnance with birds, and made off with all the gold in the land. More »

We met up with Seagate last week to get a sneak peak at its brand new wireless mobile storage drive, the GoFlex Satellite. It’s a battery-powered external hard drive, though it’s not just a traditional drive — it can also stream any and all content wirelessly over Wi-Fi to any iOS or Android device, or even any Wi-Fi device with a browser. The premise is that since most mobile devices are limited in storage, you can load only what you really need on your iPad, for example, and have your entire music or photo collection (or both) loaded up on the external drive to be accessed only when you need something. To get content onto the drive, you just use one of the GoFlex connectors such as the included USB 3.0 connector (there is a ThunderBolt connector coming this summer), and either use the company’s Media Sync software to automatically add content, or use the drive like a normal external drive and manually load on your data. More after the break.

The iOS app worked reasonably well in our tests, and the app we used wasn’t even the final version. The GoFlex Satellite can support and stream to three devices simultaneously, and we saw 1080p video played wirelessly on an iPad with zero stuttering — even skipping to the middle of the movie didn’t result in any playback issues, it just a couple seconds to catch up with the stream — non-1080p content played back with even better results. Battery life is around 5 hours of video streaming playback. The device itself isn’t bulky, but we’d have liked to see something even more portable. While a 2.5-inch drive offers capacity, we can’t help but think a 1.8-inch drive would have been a great additional option for a smaller unit. If you’re in the market for a brand new external hard drive, the Seagate GoFlex Satellite is a great option, though if you’re not the type of person who has room to carry a drive with you at all times, you might be better off with a smaller, normal external hard drive. The GoFlex Satellite is available starting next month, but is available for pre-order now from Best Buy and Seagate’s website for $199. Here is Seagate’s full press release:

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. — May 16, 2011 —Seagate (NASDAQ: STX), the leading manufacturer of hard drives, today announced GoFlex Satellite™ mobile wireless storage, the first battery-powered external hard drive to wirelessly extend the storage capacity of any Wi-Fi enabled mobile device. With 500GB and Wi-Fi access over 802.11 b/g/n , theGoFlex Satellite mobile wireless storage provides the ability to carry an entire library of video, music, pictures and documents with you. The GoFlex Satellite wirelessly streams content to an iPad®, iPod touch™, iPhone® or other Wi-Fi enabled devices without the use of the Internet or a cable.  To allow seamless access to the GoFlex Satellite from an  iOS device, Seagate has provided a free app available for download from the iTunes app store. GoFlex Satellite mobile wireless storage is now available in the U.S. for preorder from Amazon.com and Seagate.com for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $199.99. For the U.S. market, the new mobile wireless storage will also be available from Best Buy in June and is planned for global availability later this summer.



“With the incredible growth of the tablet and iPad markets and the insatiable desire to devour larger volumes of media by consumers, there is a clear need for access to content that is not burdened by the limitations of  Internet streamed video,” said Patrick Connolly, vice president and general manager of Seagate’s retail group.  “The unfortunate fact is that these popular new mobile devices are hampered by their limited storage capacity while one of their primary functions is that of media consumption.



With the GoFlex Satellite mobile wireless storage, we wished to create an elegant solution that provides real value to the multitude of iPad users out there by delivering a seamless connection to local storage. No longer will a consumer feel as though it is a compromise to purchase a lower capacity tablet or iPad. With GoFlex Satellite, people will be able to carry their entire media library with them without the need for wires or the web at a fraction of the cost of adding 3G or purchasing the 64GB iPad.”



Streaming over the Internet has enabled video access for tablet owners, but the quality is at the mercy of the Internet connection, be it over Wi-Fi or 3G/4G. With more connected devices per hotspot, it’s rapidly becoming difficult to watch video without choppiness or pixilation. Rather than rely on a buffered stream from a distant provider, GoFlex Satellite mobile storage wirelessly serves up media content as a local attached storage for up to three devices at the same time. With a stand-by battery life of up to 25 hours, the powerful lithium-polymer battery delivers up to 5 hours of continuously streaming video. To help with extending battery life, the free the GoFlex® Media app provides a progressive download feature, which temporarily loads the video on to the iOS device it is being streamed to.



GoFlex® Media App

Initially available for Apple iOS devices, such as: iPad, iPhone and iPod touch; the GoFlex Media app provides a seamless way to connect the mobile wireless storage to your iPad or iPhone. The Android app is expected to be available by this summer. Those that currently use an Android smartphone or tablet can access content on GoFlex Satellite through the device’s browser.



Media Sync software

The easy-to-use Media Sync software, also included free with purchase, makes grabbing media from a Windows® PC or Mac® OS X computer a breeze. Wherever the files are stored, whether that is a file structure of your own creation or in an iTunes library, the Media Sync software will load all of your desired music, videos, photos and documents on to the GoFlex Satellite.  Media Sync is easily configured to only place files on the drive that are compatible with your iOs device.  Even music and videos purchased through iTunes can be loaded to the GoFlex Satellite and will play on all authorized devices.



Loading Media

For rapid loading of media content, the wireless mobile storage  comes equipped with the superfast USB 3.0 cable to get files from your computer to the GoFlex Satellite. The USB 3.0 cable will also continue to work with USB 2.0 ports and is easily removed for portability.  In addition to the USB 3.0 cable the GoFlex Satellite drive comes complete with a car charger and a compact wall charger.

Have you ever played a Final Fantasy or a Dragon Age? Actually, have you ever had to slog through a bad role-playing game, one in which the characters just go on and on about their problems and the evil that's going to destroy the world? More »

As enraged as you may or may not be over the fact that your phone is tracking your location, you have to admit… it’s a pretty interesting story. The Wall Street Journal has filed a new report stating that both Apple and Google are collecting location data from their smartphone users — deflecting some of the public outrage in Google’s direction as well. “According to new research by security analyst Samy Kamkar, an HTC Android phone collected its location every few seconds and transmitted the data to Google at least several times an hour,” writes the Journal. Researcher Mike Castleman has developed a program that will harvest and parse location data stored on your Android device. The script isn’t quite as user-friendly as its iOS counterpart — you need root access to your device and some command line experience (as opposed to just clicking on a pretty icon and seeing your coordinates on a map) — but it will present you with a formatted location list. Castleman notes that the code used to collect location is “no longer open from Google” and that the data collected gets “pruned” when new location information is added. “Following the latest days internet outrage/overreaction to the revelation that iPhone has a cache for its location service, I decided to have look what my Android devices caches for the same function,” Castleman writes. If you’re interested in trying to squeeze the location information from your Android handset, hit the jump. The necessary links are waiting for you.

Read [WSJ] Read [android-locdump]

We've just laid eyes on a video from the prolific leaksters over at Tinhte, who claim they not only have a white iPhone 4 from Apple, but it's one with a "test version" of iOS that nobody else has yet seen. It's difficult to ascertain how legitimate this software is -- it could just be a neatly done jailbreak mod -- but that site has a track record of getting its hands on Apple gear ahead of the pack. With that said, the multitasking menu shown here substitutes the current use of apps' icons to represent them with a visual of each app's open window. You can tap on a window to expand it (replete with animation) to fill the screen or long-press on it to bring up the familiar "x" button for shutting it down. This is all accompanied by a new "Search iPhone" dialog at the very top, which sends you into Spotlight search that looks very much the way it currently does (though it seems to no longer be accessible with a left swipe from the first homescreen as on previous versions of iOS). Jump past the break for the video.

Update: A second video has been uncovered, this one showing that we're looking at a prototype unit and taking us on a tour around its body. A visit to the Settings menu shows a 64GB storage capacity, while app folder creation is also handled a little differently from iOS 4. The presence of the Touch Fighter app on this phone, which Apple built to show off the capabilities of earlier versions of the handset, and other internal-looking software seems to point to this indeed being some form of iOS beta build. Of course, it might not be iOS 5 at all, but simply a never-released version of iOS 4. All we know for sure is that the video's after the break.

Update 2: All indications are that this is indeed an early, unreleased version of iOS 4. Interesting, but probably not something to get your hopes up about.Continue reading White iPhone 4 used to demo new multitasking, Spotlight search in 'test version' of iOS? (video)
White iPhone 4 used to demo new multitasking, Spotlight search in 'test version' of iOS? (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 09:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The internet is a great resource for developers looking for tips, tricks and solutions to troubling coding problems. Sometimes these nuggets of information are found in highly visited websites like Stack Overflow. Other times, these resources are uncovered accidentally via a series of web links that lead to an interesting blog chock full of information. Such is the case with a recent blog post by Petter Silfver of SignificantPixels.

Silfver presents a compelling case for developers to spend time designing the iPhone Tab Bar. The tab bar is the core navigation element within an iOS application, and its design is often the difference between a good and a great application. Silfver provides six rules for tab bar design that he gleaned from his years of mobile development. The tips range from the common sense, such as "never change tab from a non-tab-bar navigational action," to the more complex reasons that determine whether you should customize a tab bar or leave it alone.

Current or prospective iOS developers should take a look at Silfver's post. Even if you don't agree with all the points, it is an excellent read for those interested in the design as well as the technical side of application development.
Lessons learned from the iPhone tab bar originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tweeturl='http://blog.everythingflex.com/2011/04/11/flash-builder-4-5-is-here-with-ios/';The long awaited Flash Builder 4.5 was released by Adobe this morning. This update is a monumental one as it adds the full mobile application development tooling for Android, BlackBerry, and iOS development. Although, the Flex mobile workflow for iOS will arrive in a few months as an update, the ability to create and package [...]

iPad 2 owners have one cool feature that can't be replicated on the original iPad -- the ability to mirror everything that's on the screen onto another display. Or should I say "had one cool feature," since 18-year-old Belgian student Ian Bauters has figured out a hack that enables video mirroring on a jailbroken original iPad.

As with the video mirroring on the iPad 2, this works with both the Apple VGA Adapter and the Digital AV (HDMI) Adapter. Bauters notes that despite the original iPad having less RAM and a less-capable CPU, he hasn't seen any issues with the mirroring hack he developed.

There's a video that shows the mirroring in action on the next page, and you can get full step-by-step instructions on how to enable this feature from the Nature's Eye Studio website. Remember kids, jailbreaking is legal and awesome -- but it is done at your own risk.

[via MacStories]
Continue reading Video mirroring on the original iPad
Video mirroring on the original iPad originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Despite being 27% thinner, a series of stress tests show that the glass covering Apple’s iPad 2 display is significantly stronger and more flexible than the glass used on the original iPad. The team at Apple product repair shop iFixYouri took it upon themselves to put glass display covers from the original iPad and the iPad 2 through a series of abusive stress tests, and the results are pretty remarkable. We’ve already spoiled the ending but watching the iPad 2 glass survive these torture tests is pretty impressive to say the least. Hit the break for the video and please, don’t try this at home.

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iOS developers have realized that there will probably be a whole lot of iPad 2 apps sold this weekend (since there will be so many new iPad 2s wandering around), so they've dropped prices on quite a few iPhone apps. AppAdvice has a good list up -- EA's apps are in there, including Mirror's Edge and the recently released Dead Space, and Firemint's Flight Control HD is down to a buck this weekend. Minigore HD is also on sale for a dollar, definitely worth a purchase if you haven't grabbed it yet. Bulkypix is also putting most of its iPad games on sale, though that sale doesn't start until tomorrow morning.

I doubt this is the last we'll see of these sales -- there's going to be a pretty big rush for the top apps lists in iTunes this weekend, as developers try to take advantage of the incoming flood of iPad 2 owners. The good news is that you, as an iPad 1 owner or someone lucky enough to get a shiny new iPad 2, will get to grab some great apps for cheap.
Lots of iPad games go on sale this weekend, likely more to come originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 10 Mar 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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As you’re aware, I tend to take Apple’s side on almost all matters iPhone versus Android. Having tried over a dozen Android devices ranging from the G1 to the Nexus S, I simply still prefer iOS. And it’s not really close. But there is one argument I absolutely cannot make on Apple’s side: the notification system. On Android devices, it’s good. On the iPhone, it’s awful.

It’s not like I’m saying anything sacrilegious here. Everyone knows it sucks. And that undoubtedly includes Apple, as they have made moves in the past year indicating as such. Moves like hiring Rich Dellinger, the guy who designed the great notification system for Palm’s webOS. And they have been sniffing around some of the Push Notification apps in recent months as possible acquisition targets. But today we bring them all they really need: the idea for how it should work. Please Apple — please — copy this system.

Now, mock-ups of how the notification system should work on iOS are nothing new. But the system Shawn Hickman has mocked up on his site today looks damn near perfect given how I use the iPhone. Gone are the lame, text-message like Push Notification pop-ups. They’re replaced by a new notification bar that appears at the bottom of the screen when a new notification comes in.

Okay, you might think: the last thing the iPhone needs is a #dickbar. But it’s much more than that — and it actually contains useful information, unlike the #dickbar. While bottom notification alert gives the latest notification coming in, the real key is the new left-most screen, where all of the recent notifications are held for you to go through. Yes, Hickman’s idea is to replace the Spotlight Search area with in iOS this new Notifications area. “Spotlight is a cool feature that I rarely use. That space can be used much more effectively,” Hickman writes. I totally agree.

And actually, he doesn’t kill off Spotlight, he just makes it a secondary option on the same screen. And he even has come up with a nifty way of highlighting when you have a new notification without the slide-up notification: a red dot indicator in the tiny dot area above the dock on iOS to let you know where you are in the navigation.

On this new Notifications screen, you’ll see all your messages sorted by app (see: screenshot). It’s brilliant. It’s like the excellent Boxcar app, but more organized and with a more native iOS look and feel.

Why put the slide-up notifications at the bottom, rather than the top like on Android? Two reasons: “The bottom of the screen is the best place to have a notification come up. It’s non-intrusive and doesn’t interrupt what I’m doing.” And: “Pulling a notifications tray from the top of the screen is not the easiest thing to do, unless you have large hands. Managing one on the bottom of the screen is super easy, regardless of hand size.”

I completely agree with that as well. While Android’s notification system is good, it’s far from perfect. Being at the top of the screen does make it tricky to get to at times.

That said, I’m not sure Hickman’s system wouldn’t be even a little bit better if it pushed the apps up rather than overlaid on the dock (such a #dickbar thing to do). Currently, iOS services like Personal Hotspot have the bar that pushes apps down in a similar manner, only from the top.

Hickman says he didn’t want to add another icon to the menu bar as it’s already too crowded. And presumably, another stand-alone app would work, but again, that would just be Boxcar — Apple’s system should feel more natively built in.

Boxcar is perhaps now my most-used app on the iPhone and iPad. I’m constantly checking it to get my updates. Apple badly needs to fix their system. And this is the most straightforward and simple implementation of how it could work that I’ve seen yet. Please Apple, copy it.

CrunchBase InformationAppleBoxcarInformation provided by CrunchBase

Simply put, Apple’s iOS notification system is horrible. Terrible. In fact, in our opinion it’s the worst smartphone notification system on the planet. We’ve written as much in the past on numerous occasions, and we’ll continue to harp on the issue until Apple fixes the problem. Of course many iOS users share our opinion, and some developers have even gone as far as offering up their own solutions. One such developer is Peter Hajas, who built MobileNotifier for iPhone and iPod touch users with jailbroken devices. MobileNotifier is a complete rewrite of Apple’s system, and it certainly represents a far superior solution compared to the current official implementation. Apple is expected by many to unveil a revamped notification system this summer when it reveals features from the next major revision of its mobile platform, iOS 5. The solution is expected to work in a similar fashion to MobileNotifier, though the UI will likely be more elegant and better integrated in the OS. Hit the break for a video demo and a pair of screen shots.

[Via 9to5 Mac]

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If you have an iPod, iPhone or iPad with the SlingPlayer Mobile app, you now have a Slingbox to go since the app was just updated with support for video out over component cables in high quality mode. Version 2.1 also includes a few unspecified bugfixes, but we're figuring the opportunity to watch TV, on a TV in high bitrate streams is more than enough to get users mashing that update button and digging out their unused connectors.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone & iPad updated with video out support originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 12:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Spec sheets are one thing, but we know what you really want to see -- two tablets going mano-a-mano in the ring. Here they are, your Apple iPad and HP TouchPad slates, sized up side-by-side each with their own sizable black bezel and 9.7-inch screen -- and incredibly similar in both size and weight. See how they literally stack up in the gallery below!
Gallery: iPad vs. TouchPad... Fight!
iPad vs. TouchPad... Fight! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Google released a Google Translate Web app for iPhone users back in 2008, but now the Apple crowd has a native Google Translate iPhone app. Available in the App Store now, the free Google Translate app includes speak-to-translate for 15 languages, a full screen mode, and the ability to listen to translations in 23 languages.

The iPhone app doesn't have Android's on-the-fly "conversation mode," but it does allow you to quickly zoom up the text size of your translation, so you can easily show it to the person you're trying to communicate with. The ability to play back your translations using the voice synthesizers Google first introduced in the desktop version of Google Translate is also cool. Sure, Google Translate for iPhone is a long time coming, but it's a nice step up from the Web app.

Gallery: Google Translate for iPhone screenshots
Google Translate for iPhone now in App Store originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 08 Feb 2011 14:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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