With the iPad 2 set to come out sometime in April and Apple reportedly about to announce a media event to unveil the new device in February, the Apple rumor mill is in fully-working state. And when it comes to the next-generation iPad, two are the kinds of rumors that blogs and publications are reporting: Retina Display and faster processor. Lately, we have noticed a rapid increase in the presence of “iPad Retina Display” rumors on the Internet. Read more
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iPad Retina Display? Maybe With iPad 3…
Woman Tries To Commit Suicide Because She Lost Her iPhone
You can file this in the “just wrong” category we have seen appear from time to time here on MacStories. Mrs. Wong, iPhone 4 owner from Hong Kong, was really happy about her purchase; she was so glad she got an iPhone, in fact, that when she accidentally lost it she went asking her husband to immediately get a new one. Her husband is a bus driver, and the couple has two daughters to think about, too. For an average family, getting two iPhones in the same week might be a little too much.
So her husband said no, and Mrs. Wong went crazy about it. She left home at 6 in the morning, only to try to jump from the 14th floor of the building. All of this because she was upset about the lost iPhone. Luckily, her husband noticed her weird behavior, called the police and went up to the 14th floor to stop her.
Now, I’m not here to judge people, but this is just wrong. Wrong. Committing suicide for an iPhone? For as much as I love Apple device, I would never put my life at risk because I lost one. Also: the free Find My iPhone works great. [iPhoneShine via OrientalDaily]
Oh, Satire: An App Store for App Stores
What’s better than Apple’s App Store with its 350,000 apps available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch? An App Store to download other App Stores. Chris Genetti at Draconum has imagined the following scenario: an App Store for iOS and OS X that lets you download, manage and update a variety of stores like the App Store itself, the Android market and the Kindle store.
The problem is, he may actually be right. We’re surrounded by app stores. Anyway, pretty funny.
This Notification System Would Look Good on iOS 5 [Mockup]
One of the key areas users would like Apple to focus on for iOS 5 is the notification system. Currently, notifications on iOS are far from useful and unobtrusive: they get in the way too much, there’s no way to access a log of past notifications, if you’re playing a game and quickly dismiss a notification’s alert because you’re busy / concentrated, there’s no way to get that notification back. Many says notifications are the less Apple-like feature in iOS.
In the past, we have covered several alternative solutions to improve iOS’ notification system, like Notified. All these tweaks are available for jailbreakers in Cydia, and require a bit of manual hacking and configuration. The following mockup, realized by Youtube user hustn, shows a few ideas that we think might be a good fit for the next major update of iOS. Notifications that don’t get in the way but appear in a bar at the top, even multiple ones; possibility to tweak the settings with quiet times and display order; an additional section above the multitasking tray that shows the most recent notifications from all apps. It looks pretty good and interesting. As the creator explains:
This is a mockup of my current side project of designing an improved iPhone notification system. Unlike other attempts at improving the iPhone’s notification system, my approach is to use design direction from the current iPhone UI to create a seamless interface for the user.
This is purely theoretical. There is no code behind this; I’ve mocked this all up in Flash and Photoshop.
What do you think? The system looks a bit like the notifications seen in Palm’s webOS, and undoubtedly borrowing a few ideas from Palm wouldn’t be so bad for Apple. Especially considering that former Palm Senior UI Designer Rich Dellinger now works at Cupertino. [via Reddit]
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New Cydia Feature: Theme Center
In his attempt to make Cydia faster, richer and truly competitive feature-wise with Apple’s own App Store, Jay Freeman, a.k.a. saurik, added a new feature to the alternative store a few hours ago: Theme Center. It was only three days ago that Freeman implemented a new account management system that allows users to easily check on previously installed packages; now, thanks to the new database / index put in place by saurik called “Whole Package Index”, users will be able to browse featured themes optimized for Retina and Non-Retina iOS devices.
The selection of themes right now is limited to top-selling Cydia themes and the ones picked by staff of MacCiti and ModMyi. Soon, users will have the option to pick the best themes in Cydia and vote them to have them featured in Theme Center.
We think Cydia keeps getting better on every release and update, and saurik’s support is exceptional. Apple should took a few elements from the Cydia Store and port them to the App Store.
Game Center Achievements…For A Camera App
Achievements are that sort of thing that keeps gamers going even when frustration and disappointment take over the initial excitement for a new game. You beat the game, you can’t have any more quests, but you want all the trophies / achievements. Many friends of mine do this on their PS3 and Xbox 360 – I’ve never been a fan of achievements, personally. Clearly I must be an exception, as even Apple itself implemented the functionality in Game Center. Not to mention other gaming networks for iOS like OpenFeint and Plus+, which have been offering achievements and leaderboards for quite some time now. Read more
App Store: 10 Billion Apps Downloaded
It’s official: 10 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The competition Apple launched to celebrate the new milestone has ended, and Apple is now projected towards the next milestones, 15 billion apps and 20 billion apps.
The App Store was launched in 2008, when the only iPhones available were the original iPhone and the 3G. In January 2010 App Store downloads topped 3 billion; the downloads became 5 billion during summer 2010. Thanks to the enoermous success of the iPad and iPhone, Apple added another 5 billion downloads in 6 months.
Will we see 20 billion apps by the end of 2011?
View Instagram’s Most Popular Photos on Instagreat!
Instagram has been a massive success but it is largely an experience that has been exclusive to its iPhone app. Not anymore though, web developers Elliott Kember and Hector Simpson have created Insta-great, a site that showcases all the most popular photo’s from Instagram.
The brilliantly designed site allows you to also drill down to photos by a specific person, in a specific place, on a specific date or photos using one of Instagram’s filters. Plus Elliot (who has a game of Snake running on top of his site!) and Hector added keyboard navigation which is another great touch to a really finessed site.
If you’re a fan of Instagram like I am, definitely check the site out, you’ll find yourself just scrolling through the photos for ages.
[Via Cult of Mac]
Sending Emails From @mac.com Accounts Will Soon Be Impossible
According to a recent thread on Apple’s Discussion boards and a support document on Apple’s website, users of @mac.com email addresses who upgraded to iOS 4.2 are no longer able to send email messages through a @mac.com account unless it was setup prior to updating to iOS 4.2. Alternatively, the @mac.com account details can be synced through iTunes on the desktop, but this won’t enable push for emails.
A user on Apple Discussions explains:
Because of this unannounced development, I had a sneaking suspicion that Apple may be planning to do the same in the future for sending email from @mac.com addresses via www.me.com and a desktop email client.
It appears my suspicion was true. Here are the relevant sections from a Chat Session I’ve just finished with a very nice MobileMe Support agent.