Posts in news

Leaked Photos of Supposed iPhone ‘Light’ Surface Online

On Vietnamese forum Tinhte, a user has uploaded the above photo which he claims is a new “light” version of the iPhone 4 - potentially the rumored iPhone 4S that has been milling around in recent months. The photographs posted seem to show a nearly identical product to the iPhone 4, with the exception that there is no glass front and back panel. Instead the iPhone is plastered with a translucent plastic on either side with the familiar stainless steel banding around it.

According to information leakage, predictable from the English website, the more likely Apple will introduce the iPhone 4s (cheap version) and the iPhone 5 next month. And it looks like the iPhone that you see below is the iPhone 4s.

On the whole we’re fairly skeptical of this photo, except for the fact that in the past, Tinhte has been somewhat successful at leaking Apple prototypes, including this internal iOS 4 build and last year’s MacBook refresh. As for the possibility of a cheaper iPhone launching this year, not only has the rumor mill been churning out stories fairly frequently but Tim Cook conceded in this month’s earning call that Apple would be doing “clever things” to address the pre-paid mobile market and wouldn’t “cede any market”.

[Tinhte via TechCrunch]

BBC Rolls Out iPad iPlayer App To 11 Western Europe Countries, Coming To The US This Year

Last month we reported that the BBC was preparing to launch its iPad video-on-demand service iPlayer internationally for a fee under $10 by the end of the year. That day has come with the BBC today (Thursday, July 28) launching the iPlayer iPad app in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.

Some iPlayer content will be available for free, but for full access users will need to pay either €6.99 a month or €49.99 a year. The program’s director spoke with The Guardian about the launch and reinforced previous statements by noting that the international version of iPlayer is a video-on-demand service, not a catch-up service as it is in the UK (primarily). The catalogue will include popular shows such as Top Gear and Doctor Who but will also offer a deep catalogue of shows that the BBC has aired over the past decades. At launch that catalogue is roughly contains roughly 1,500 hours of content – the BBC says it aims to add another 100 hours to that each week.

“What we’re trying to test in the pilot is the ability to drive exploration and discovery through a programming approach rather than an algorithm-based approach,” said Bradley-Jones. “We’re not trying to compete against a Netflix or a Hulu. This has to be tailored and hand-crafted, so we can create a tone of voice.”

Unlike the UK version of the app that was released earlier this year, the international version allows users to stream shows over 3G and even pre-download (cache) shows that they want to watch later, helpful for downloading a bunch of shows for a trip. For that feature they worked closely with Apple due to problems with iPad’s auto-sleep functionality interrupting downloads - ultimately Apple was happy with the app disabling the iPad’s ability to sleep whilst downloading shows.

If you don’t live in one of those 11 Western European countries that today got access, don’t stress because the BBC is going to continue to launch the iPlayer iPad app in further countries this year. In particular, Australia, Canada and the United States (the BBC notes it will probably charge around $7.99, roughly comparable with Hulu and Netflix) will see the iPlayer iPad app by the end of the year.

[The Guardian via The Next Web]

Kickstarter Project: c/dock - Retro Clock/Docking Station for iPhone 4

The c/dock by Hatchet Goods‘ James Aloysius is an iPhone charging station, media viewer and clock (compatible with any clock app) for your bed stand, desk, or wherever you want to charge your iPhone and keep it close. The c/dock was “born out of necessity, desire, many a prototype, and some late nights.”

Many of us keep our iOS devices close to us at all times, even when we sleep at night. Our devices double as alarm clocks, ambient music players and news broadcasters. Battery life can be an issue with running any nightly clock app, and if the battery happens to die it could mess up our whole schedule. The c/dock is a modern twist on a classic design that is different than most iPhone docking stations available.

The c/dock, with a patent pending design, is a thick piece of solid walnut with a brushed aluminum or glossy resin face plate with an attached-6 foot USB cable for charging. Once the iPhone is placed into the c/dock, fire up your favorite app (bedtime or not) and get some rest knowing your iPhone’s battery won’t die. The c/dock is also a great video viewer too - hands free and focused.

Video after the break.

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Google Testing Clean New Google Search Design For Tablets

Multiple users are today reporting that Google is trialing a new tablet-optimized Google Search page that merges the recent design changes from the desktop version with a more touch-friendly design for tablets. Digital Inspiration managed to take a few screenshots of the new design running on their iPad which we’ve included above and below the break.

The new look uses just a single column layout, keeping the old sidebar options minimized below the search box instead. The new orange, dark gray and blue color theme is also present in this new design, which certainly feels cleaner with large amounts of white space. The one final design change that is of note is that the rather famous ‘Goooooooooogle’ at the bottom of the page that links to following search pages is gone – instead all that exists is the numbers one to ten.

This new design is currently being tested, and as is normal with Google product changes, is being randomly presented to a certain percentage of users. It may yet be a few weeks or possibly even months before this rolls out to everyone. Jump the break for some more screenshots.

[Digital Inspiration via The Next Web]

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Distimo: Mobile Game Prices Fall, In-App Purchase Revenues Soar

In a new report released by Distimo today, the firm highlights how mobile gaming trends have changed over the past year. It found that the prices of mobile games have declined by 28% from $2.01 to $1.44 over the past year. The ‘Games’ category on the Apple App Store is also the most popular category, with 56% of the top 300 free applications being games.

In-app purchases have dominated in mobile games, particularly in free games where 35% use some form of virtual currency to monetize their app. However over the past year the amount of revenue generated by ‘free’ games and their in-app purchases has increased ten-fold. The revenue-share of games that solely charge an upfront cost now only occupy 27% of revenue raised in App Store games, whilst of those, the top 10 publishers dominate with a 56% share of the revenue. An interesting note is that Andreas Illiger (creator of Tiny Wings) managed to enter that list of top 10 publishers and is ahead of others including SEGA and even Gameloft.

When comparing the various app stores to see which had the highest percentage of games in their catalogues, the iPhone App Store came first and the iPad App Store second – followed by the BlackBerry PlayBook, WP7 Marketplace, Palm App Catalogue, Nokia’s Ovi Store, Android Market, GetJar and lastly the BlackBerry App World. In terms of the growth of games in the app stores, only the iPhone App Store and GetJar saw a faster rate of growth for games – the others all saw the number of other applications growing at a faster rate.

AViiQ Portable Charging Station Powers Up Your Devices Without the Clutter

You know the feeling. You’re packing up for a two-day trip to some gadget conference and you find yourself stuffing your backpack with bulky cables and chargers so you can power the company BlackBerry, your personal iPhone and iPad. All of these different chargers are heavy, take up a lot of space, and add clutter to an already messy travel bag. What you want is a contained solution: something that can take care of all of your devices so you don’t have to remember to pack and unpack the bird’s nest of cables you’re likely to create.

AViiQ has a reputation for keeping things simple with their line of stands and cases for the MacBook and iPad, and their product design continues to shine through with the AViiQ Portable Charging Station. Complimenting their line of mobile products, the Portable Charging Station is a zip-up bag that features a charging hub which wrangles all of your cables into one small package that easily slips into a messenger bag or backpack. The charging hub, able to charge four devices when connected to a wall outlet, is smart in design. Pockets tuck away cable excess, a retractable USB cord can sync a connected device of your choice (designated with a pink label) to your computer, and the zip-up design keeps everything in its place. 3 powered + 1 power & data USB ports offers travelers plenty of choice for recharging everything from bluetooth headsets to smartphones and e-readers through a simple, unfolding base.

The AViiQ Portable Charging Station is $79.99 at AViiQ.com. Press release after the break.

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Ustream Releases iPad App with AirPlay Support

Ustream, the popular web service to broadcast and interact with live events, updated its iPhone app back in March to unify the broadcasting and chatting features in a single package that allowed users to record and engage in conversations in the chat room at the same time, providing additional social features for Facebook and Twitter sharing as well. With a new update released today and now available on the App Store, Ustream is bringing native support to iPad owners with a brand new app that’s been completely redesigned to take advantage of the iPad’s larger screen. The update is universal, so you’ll need to update your existing Ustream iPhone app to get the iPad version.

Just like the iPhone app, Ustream for iPad will let you broadcast and interact with your audience from a single interface that, on the iPad, lays out video, audio, chat and social controls in a semi-circular overlay control popup similar to Grazing’s slidepad. You can flip cameras and adjust audio, or if you want to see what’s happening online, head over the social stream to hear what people are saying on Twitter and Facebook about your show, or simply pop into the chat room dedicated to your broadcast. Obviously, you can also watch live shows and participate in the chat room – Ustream’s iPad app lets you check on popular, live and featured shows right from the homepage, so if you’re a heavy Ustream user you’ll always have something to tune into. Among the new features, Ustream also touts “Airplay support for true social interactive viewing of the chat and social stream”.

Ustream already had a very solid iPhone app, and this new iPad version contributes to making the service a complete solution that works on any web browser, and now iOS devices as well. Get the app here for free.

Face Detection Technology And APIs Make Their Way Into iOS 5

After doing some digging in iOS 5, 9to5 Mac today reported that Apple is planning to open up face detection APIs to developers. It appears from what they found that Apple will bring similar face detection techniques that Photo Booth on Lion currently employs to iOS and allow developers to build different apps that utilize the APIs.

These claims come after 9to5 Mac found the ‘CIFaceFeature’ and ‘CIDetector’ APIs within a recent beta build of iOS 5, which they say are “very advanced” APIs. The first of the two can be used by developers to locate where a person’s mouth and eyes are, whilst the latter is used when processing those images for face detection. Apple’s Developer Library online also already has some notes on the new APIs for developers to take advantage of.

Obviously at this point there is only speculation as to what these purported APIs could be used for – an obvious stretch is that the iPad version of Photo Booth may add the new effects added to the Lion version that take advantage of the information of where a person’s facial features are. It is also claimed that Polar Rose, a company that specialized in facial recognition software and was purchased by Apple last year, played a role in the development of these technologies within iOS and Lion.

[Via 9to5 Mac]

Apple Posts OS X 10.6.8 Supplemental Update And Other Revisions

Earlier today, Apple posted a series of revised Mac OS X 10.6.8 updates aimed at both desktop and Server users to fix a number of bugs and issue from the previous 10.6.8 release, and ease the transition to Lion. The “Mac OS X 10.6.8 Supplemental Update” – showing up now in Software Update and available on Apple’s website – brings audio fixes when using HDMI or optical audio out, resolves issues with certain network printers and improves the transfer process of personal data from Snow Leopard to Lion, something that Apple also addressed with a separate Migration Assistant update last week.

The supplemental and combo updates for Snow Leopard are all available on Apple’s website, or directly through Software Update. The updates are recommended for all users running Snow Leopard, presumably looking to upgrade to OS X Lion in the near future. Direct links below.

- Mac OS X Server v10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1

- Mac OS X 10.6.8 Server Supplemental Update

- Mac OS X Server v10.6.8 Update v1.1

- Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1

- Mac OS X 10.6.8 Supplemental Update

- Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update v.1.1