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Vietnamese Videos Show Old iOS 4 Build With Several Unreleased Features

 

Two videos from Vietnamese website Tinhte [Google Translation] making the rounds of the Internet this morning claimed to show an internal build of the soon-to-be-announced iOS 5 running on a prototype white unit of the iPhone 5. The videos generated quite a debate on several blogs and among iOS developers on Twitter as a completely new multitasking system, folders and settings are demoed. Whilst many initially reported the iPhone shown in the videos was a 64 GB iPhone 5 running iOS 5, further inspection of the videos revealed the prototype unit (likely an iPhone 4) is running an old internal build of iOS 4.0 – carrying build number 8A216. Of course Apple might have changed the number of a “real” iOS 5 build to prevent people from leaking it, but we think that’s very unlikely. Plus, the iPhone sports old Calculator and Voice Memos icons – the Golden Master version of iOS 4.0 carried build number 8A293, so this might be an internal seed tested before the first developer betas released last year.

This build is interesting for a couple of reasons. First off, it shows Apple had been considering an alternative, Exposè-like interface for switching between applications – a UI Apple eventually discarded in the public version of iOS 4.0 for the icon-based multitasking tray. The Exposè design is very similar to jailbreak tweaks like Multifl0w in the way it displays apps in the background through a preview of their actual windows, rather than simple icons. The internal multitasking implementation features snappy and elegant animations, alongside a new placement for Spotlight search on top of running applications. The videos also showcase a different folder creation system with a smaller overlay on top of the device’s Springboard. In the settings, there are a series of preference panels like direct Facebook integration (perhaps linked to MediaStream) and “file sharing”, although no further details are provided. Update: as @chronic reminds us, File Sharing was enabled in the iOS 4 developer betas to let devs control sharing with iTunes through an on/off switch.

It is possible that these features are still being considered for iOS 5 – and especially in the case of file sharing, that would make sense as Apple is working on a Mac-to-Mac file sharing protocol called “AirDrop” for the upcoming OS X Lion.

The device shown in the videos also runs some Apple internal applications, and has a series of extra settings that suggest the build is legit and somehow leaked by Tinhte – which has a good track record when it comes to Apple rumors and products leaks. It is unclear whether this is a real white iPhone 4, an updated version of the device, or a simple mod – but the fact that it’s got 64 GB of storage seems to confirm the iPhone itself is legit, too.

Check out the videos below. [via Chronic, 9to5mac] Read more

Sonos Brings AirPlay Support With Latest Software Update

Sonos, makers of beautiful and efficient wireless music system including the S5 I reviewed here, announced today the release of the official Android client, and a software update that brings official AirPlay support to the Sonos Desktop Controller, and better multitasking integration on the iOS apps. What’s curious is that I was already able to accomplish AirPlay streaming by connecting a Sonos S5 to an AirPort Express as you can read here. I guess Sonos, however, added some overall polish to the desktop app to indicate support for AirPlay – I can’t test the feature now, but I can say that it was already working very well when I first connected an S5 to my AirPort Express with the line-in cable. Last, an update to the iPhone and iPad app should bring support for iOS multitasking (finally), although said update still isn’t available in the App Store.

Press release is embedded below. I’m a huge fan of Sonos’ products, so I’ll make sure to check out the new iOS app and updated AirPlay integration as soon as I can. [via CrunchGear] Read more

Sony Releases Official Crackle App for iOS

In spite of previous rumors suggesting Sony would never consider releasing an iOS app again after the rejection of their eBook reader application a few months ago, the company pulled the trigger today on the official Crackle app for iPhone and iPad. Crackle, a growing digital entertainment platform that offers movies and TV shows from Sony’s library (including series from Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Classics), allows you to stream content over WiFi and 3G, it’s universal and has “unlimited, on demand viewing.” Crackle, however, is only available in the United States and with “selected content” to viewers from the UK, Canada and Australia.

You can browse by Movies, TV shows, Originals and Genres, or build your queue to organize the content you want to watch later. The design looks decent from the screenshots, and there are some sharing options as well. Alternatively, you can buy movies and episodes on iTunes with the tap of a button.

You can find Crackle in the App Store here. [via Cult Of Mac]

Writings 1.2 Adds Workspaces and Custom Keyboard [Giveaway]

Since I reviewed the first version of Writings for iPad back in December, I haven’t switched to any other text editor for iOS. I don’t write much on my iPhone, so an iPad application is all I’m looking for when it comes to writing long pieces that will eventually end up on my Mac or into an app like Blogsy. Writings, beautiful user interface aside, has the features I need from an iPad text editor: Dropbox support with plain text editing so I can keep writing on my Mac (or anywhere) if I want to; unobtrusive word counter; a readable default font; a handy margin feature that won’t scroll the document when I’m holding the iPad or resting my thumbs at its sides.

Writings 1.2, released today in the App Store, builds on the excellent feature set of versions 1.0 and 1.1 (the latter brought a list view to easily navigate between dozen of documents) by introducing two new functionalities that I’ve been testing in the beta and greatly improved my workflow: Writings 1.2 adds support for Workspaces – you can decide to sync certain documents to different Dropbox folders, even on different accounts. Whilst the feature sounded a little to complex to me at first, I’ve seen that being able to create a “MacStories” workspace alongside a “Personal” one with notes syncing to multiple Dropbox folders at once helps me getting my notes and articles better organized. You can create as many workspaces as you want, and each one will retain its specific settings. On top of this, you can now manually trigger sync within a document without going back to the main screen.

Last, Writings 1.2 comes with an optional extra row of most used punctuation keys above the standard keyboard. This extra row sure makes the keyboard bigger and will let you see less text on screen, but it can dramatically speed up your typing if you think the iOS keyboard could use some customization options for writers. The tab key and quick “-” access sure help me get my writing done quicker.

Writings 1.2 is still propagating in iTunes and it’s available at $4.99. We have 5 codes to give away thanks to the Ice Cream Studios developers, so follow along past the break for a chance to win a copy of Writings 1.2 for iPad.

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Google Brings “Undo” Bar To Gmail iOS Web App

With a post on the company’s official Mobile blog, Google announced a few minutes ago that they’re bringing the popular “Undo” action to the Gmail web app for iOS and Android devices. You can check out the new feature by opening mail.google.com on your iPhone now.

Sometimes when I’m using Gmail on my phone, I delete a message by mistake or label it incorrectly. Sure I can fish the message out of my Trash or remove the label and apply the correct one, but that takes several steps. Even just a few seconds is usually enough time to catch those annoying mistakes.

The new Undo feature works with labels, archived and deleted messages, as well as moved messages or conversations. Undo appears in the same bottom bar that Google added a few weeks ago to display the status of a mobile connection. It all works fairly well, and the bar stays on screen for a few seconds even if you move to another section of Gmail – like starred items from the Inbox. Google also recently brought Priority Inbox to mobile devices through Safari, although support for Retina Display graphics is still nowhere to be seen.

iTunes 10.2.2 Released with Bug Fixes

A few minutes ago Apple released an update for iTunes, which reaches version 10.2.2 and adds a number of stability enhancements and bug fixes to improve the overall performances of the app. From the changelog:

  • Addresses an issue where iTunes may become unresponsive when syncing an iPad.
  • Resolves an issue which may cause syncing photos with iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to take longer than necessary.
  • Fixes a problem where video previews on the iTunes Store may skip while playing.
  • Addresses other issues that improve stability and performance.

You can find the update here, on Apple’s iTunes webpage or through Software Update on your desktop.

Apple Sues Samsung Over Galaxy “Look & Feel”

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Apple has filed a lawsuit against Samsung on April 15 in the Northern District of California claiming that the South Korean company copied the “look and feel” of iPhones and iPads with its Galaxy devices – smartphones, tablets and media players.  A very few details are provided in the original report, but the WSJ claims the lawsuit indicates products like the “Galaxy S 4G,” “Epic 4G,” “Nexus S” and “Galaxy Tab” are violating Apple’s intellectual property.

Rather than innovate and develop its own technology and a unique Samsung style for its smart phone products and computer tablets, Samsung chose to copy Apple’s technology, user interface and innovative style in these infringing products,” the lawsuit said.

Representatives of Apple and Samsung didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Samsung is one of the big players in the current Android landscape – the company came out last year with a 7-inch tablet and recently announced two new models (Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1) that will also support Android’s Honeycomb 3.0 update. The relationship between Apple and Samsung is quite complex, as the South Korean tech giant makes the processors that go into iPhones and iPads sold by Apple. Several rumors in the past pointed to Apple willing to move the production of A4 and A5 CPUs away from Samsung (the iPad 2’s A5 CPU comes from Samsung), and this lawsuit might be a sign of things changing between the two companies. This lawsuit could also imply Apple is targeting Android indirectly by suing OEMs instead of Google itself – manufacturers like HTC, Samsung and Motorola are free to use Android, but they usually apply their custom graphical skins to differentiate their products. Apple is suing Samsung, a manufacturer of Android-based devices which applied its custom TouchWiz user interface to Android. TouchWiz, however, was also used on proprietary and Bada-based devices, but Apple is suing over the “look & feel” of the Android Galaxy line. The Wall Street Journal doesn’t specify whether or not TouchWiz was mentioned in the lawsuit.

A few weeks ago, Apple also sued online retailer Amazon over the usage of the term “App Store” in its new Android digital marketplace. Read more

Mac Sales Up 27% In First Quarter of 2011

Quoting a research note issued by Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster to clients this morning, BusinessInsider reports the Mac platform has seen a terrific rise in sales during the first quarter of 2011 in the United States. By summarizing data from NPD, the report details how the release of the new MacBook Pros in late February drove a 47% increase in sales year-over-year in the month of March, with an average 27% growth in the first quarter.

That 47% uptick followed growth of 20% in January and 12% in February, for average of 27% over the first quarter of 2011. That stands in stark contrast to the 3.2% drop in worldwide sales reported last week by IDC.

Bottom line: Munster expects Apple (AAPL) to report Mac unit sales in the range of 3.6 to 3.7 million, ahead of the Street’s consensus of 3.6 million.

So while the worldwide PC industry was seeing a serious decrease in sales in Q1 2011, Apple apparently managed to achieve a 27% growth with (allegedly) high Mac sales in the US. Like previous reports suggested, however, overall iPod sales should be down from last year – quite possibly because of the media playback capabilities of iPhones and iPads.

Analysts polled by Fortune two weeks ago claimed Apple could have sold nearly 4 million Macs in the second fiscal quarter of 2011 (which ended on March 26). Apple is set to announce the Q2 2011 financial results on April 20th.

Microsoft Releases New iPhone App To Create Panoramic Photos

In its ongoing effort to support the iOS platform with a steady flow of new releases and updates, Microsoft released earlier today a new app for iPhone called Photosynth which is aimed at letting you create panoramic, 360-degree photos with your device’s camera. The concept and overall execution are very similar to Occipital’s 360 Panorama for iPhone: you hold your iPhone, and rotate it to capture what’s around you. The app will then “stitch” the panorama to offer a zoomable image that you can pan with your fingers to see the complete result. Unlike Occipital’s software, Microsoft’s application comes with sound effects for each photo (in fact, Photosynth does nothing but capturing a series of photos and making a collage after processing them) and simpler on-screen guides. I’ve used the app for a couple of hours now and, lack of gyroscope aside, it seems to me that Occipital’s app still produces better panoramas both in direct sunlight and low-light conditions. There’s some serious overlapping of photos in Photosynth, and the underlying processing algorithm doesn’t look very smart to me.

However, if you’re a fan of Microsoft’s new Metro style, the Photosynth app will please you with Windows Phone 7-like menus and buttons. The animations are quite nice, but not exactly “iOS native.” Photosynth also comes with several sharing functionalities: you can send panoramas to the Photosynth.net service (requires a Windows Live ID login), Facebook and even Bing Maps. Microsoft actually encourages you to share through Bing Maps, as “millions of people could see your panoramas on maps and in search results for locations you’ve captured.”

Photosynth is an interesting experiment, and I look forward to future updates. Get the app here.