You Can Now Watch PBS Shows on Your iPhone

Back in October, we reported that PBS redesigned their website with an online player, and a new iPad app. They also said an iPhone and iPod Touch app were coming in Novem… well, January to be exact. PBS has finally announced the iPhone and iPod touch version of their iPad app. It looks great and it’s (you guessed it) free. Just like the iPad counterpart, you can watch full-length PBS productions wherever you are. It features over 300 videos: full length episodes, segments and previews with new content updated every day.

  • PBS primetime programs: Antiques Roadshow, Frontline, History Detectives, Masterpiece, Nature, Need to Know, Nova, Secrets of the Dead, and more.
  • PBS NewsHour segments.
  • Austin City Limits song performances.
  • Special clips and full-length episodes from the PBS special CIRCUS.
  • Original online series, including Nova ScienceNOW’s “Secret Life of Scientists” and “FutureStates” from INDEPENDENT LENS.

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A Freezing Cold Winter, An Exploded iPhone

Well, this is one of those stories worth to be told on the Internet. Imagine this: you live in Norway, and it’s cold outside. And by cold, we mean dozens of degrees below Zero. Scandinavian freezing cold works like that. A Norwegian woman is driving her car, with the iPhone plugged in the stereo playing some music.

Suddenly, her iPhone explodes.

The glass shattered, the iPhone broken on its magical Ive-designed back. She takes the iPhone to the nearest Apple Store, the Geniuses say they can’t repair it under Apple’s policies because an iPhone isn’t meant to be working under such temperatures. Fair enough, but Norwegian law for consumer protection allows the woman to claim her guarantee to be valid, as it overrides Apple’s standard iPhone policies if the device has been used under normal conditions. Freezing is normal in Norway.

It’s quite an interesting story, I told you. I hope my iPhone never finds itself in the freezing cold of Norway. [MobileCrunch via speechorgan]

Flickr For iPhone Now Supports Retina Display, Sharing To Twitter With Flic.kr

The latest Flickr update for the iPhone (Version 1.3) delivers some excellent new features for the Flickr community. EXIF data is now preserved across all of your photos (date, time, geo-data), you can batch upload up to five photos, there’s Retina Display support, and you can now share photos to Twitter via the Flic.kr short URL (which I must say, is a very cool looking URL). Your Flickr account just got much more mobile with their native iPhone app, and we recommend you download this update immediately – your eyes will thank you. Flickr’s official app is free on the iTunes App Store.

iPad 2 Coming on April 2nd or 9th?

As reported by MacRumors, according to German website MacNotes the next-generation iPad may launch in the first week of April, on the 2nd or 9th. The website reports that the iPad 2 will launch in the first “two Saturdays” of April. The first-generation iPad came out on April 3, 2010 – a Saturday.

Reliable sources told us about the upcoming launch of the Apple iPad 2: the first or second Saturday in April will see the first sales of Apples new tablet. The iPad 2 will sell US-only for three months, and Apple Store-only for up to half a year. In July, more countries will follow. Walmart, Best Buy and Co. maybe have to wait until October until they are allowed to sell Apples new tablets.

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Translator Free Translates Webpages & Text On The Fly

When you run across a piece of text that you can’t translate, do you find yourself in Google Translate, copying & pasting the text, before trying to determine what was exactly said? Why not cut out the middle-man and download Translator Free for OS X? Available on the Mac App Store, Translator Free is a menubar application that allows you to drag and drop websites and text for immediately translation. If you’re visiting our friends at iSpazio for example, you can simply drag the favicon from Google Chrome into the menubar icon, and a new tab will open with the translated page. It’s very cool.

If you’re throwing Chinese insults at me, watch out! Never before have friends on Facebook Chat been caught off guard so quickly now that I suddenly have language-esque superpowers. You can highlight a piece of text, hold your mouse button down, and simply drag it to Translator Free for instant translation. A window will pop-up allowing you to compare the original and translated texts.

Free in the Mac App Store, students, researchers, and anyone coming across foreign text they’re not familiar with can find Translator Free useful without having to go through the web browser. You can catch some great tutorials on Translator Free’s homepage, and download it here on the Mac App Store.

Outside for iPhone Comeback: Retina Graphics, Free Notifications

The last time I reviewed Outside for iPhone, a beautiful weather app by Robocat, I focused on the interface design that went into the app and the fact that, unlike other weather apps for iPhone, it allowed users to set up push notifications for certain weather conditions. Stuff like, “hey, perhaps you’d like to wear a t-shirt today” or “make sure to grab your gloves”. It was a clever system, easy to understand and packed inside fancy graphics that made Outside truly stand out in the crowded App Store market.

Months passed, the iPad and iPhone 4 came out and Outside basically disappeared. No word from the developers for months, then a “we’re working on it”. See, I really wanted to use Outside on my iPhone 4 but I couldn’t stand the fuzzy graphics. With version 1.2, released last night and available at a discounted price of $0.99, Outside makes a comeback with totally redesigned graphics updated for the Retina Display. Read more

With Version 1.1, Verbs Becomes A Great AIM Client for iPhone

When I reviewed Verbs for iPhone a few weeks ago, I was disappointed by the lack of AIM support and the overall feeling that the app was rushed to the App Store. Verbs came with a delicious interface design and cool ideas such as a Messages-like approach to IM chats, but the fact that I couldn’t plug into my AIM account and I was forced to use Google Talk was a major downside for me. Also, there was no support for local notifications: once you were out of the app, you wouldn’t know if someone was writing to you on Google Talk. The app was beautiful and elegant, but I couldn’t use it at all.

The latest 1.1 version released in the App Store fixes all these issues, and has become the best AIM client for iPhone for me. Verbs is the same elegant and refined app I tested weeks ago, only I can actually use it now. Read more

T-Mobile’s New Commercial Pokes Fun at iPhone, Verizon

T-Mobile may hide its frustration for not having the iPhone with clever commercials, but it’s pretty clear that they would love to have the device on their portfolio. In their latest commercial, the carrier’s lady says that even on Verizon, the iPhone can’t compete with the 4G network offered by T-Mobile. Either Verizon or AT&T, 3G is slow.

“How do you tell them apart? Does one of them have nation-wide 4G like me?”, T-Mobile girl asks. Verizon guy replies: “No choice is still a choice”. I guess no iPhone choice is still a choice for T-Mobile, too. [Youtube via 9to5mac]

The CDMA iPhone’s Next Stop: Asia

According to “sources from upstream component makers” close to Digitimes, the CDMA iPhone won’t be an exclusive to Verizon in the US (as also confirmed by Apple’s Tim Cook at the Verizon event) but it’s headed to China, Japan and South Korea. Digitimes reports the CDMA iPhone is manufactured both by Pegatron and Foxconn; Foxconn’s model (whose shipment started in December 2010) will be exclusive to the United States, while Pegatron’s version will ship to China and “other countries”.

Pegatron started shipping its CDMA iPhone 4 in January 2011 and Foxconn started in December 2010. Foxconn’s model will be solely supplied to the US, while Pegatron’s model will be supplied to China and other countries. Since US-based telecom carrier Verizon currently has over 93 million users in the US, the launch of CDMA iPhone is expected to double the number of the current iPhone users in the market.

Since Apple is also set to start supplying its CDMA iPhone to Japan and South Korea, the company’s iPhone shipments in 2011 are expected to reach a new record.

Reports surfaced in the past suggested the CDMA iPhone would be available in India, China (via China Telecom) and other CDMA European carriers. This latest Digitimes report also points to Apple adopting new technologies like “halogen-free connectors, carbon fiber internals, solar glass charger plates and double-webcams”.