Apple Releases iOS 4.3 Beta, Here’s What’s New

A few minutes ago Apple released iOS 4.3 beta to developers. It’s available now in the iOS Dev Center. The beta is available for iOS devices and the second generation Apple TV. Supported iOS mobile devices are iPad, iPhone 4 and 3GS, iPod touch 3rd and 4th gen. Build number is 8F5148b. A pre-release version of the Apple TV software has been provided to test AirPlay functionalities with 4.3 apps.

It looks like iOS 4.3 has some cool new gestures built specifically for the iPad. 4 & 5 finger gestures; pinch to the home screen, swipe up to reveal multitasking tray, swipe left/right to switch apps. Update: even though Apple says the gestures are there, I can’t seem to be able to use them at all. They don’t work for me in Apple’s own apps, and there’s no option to activate them in the Settings. We’re hearing several reports of other users unable to use these gestures. Read more

Black Diamond for iPhone Brings Apps To Life

Well, sort of. This very particular dock for the iPhone has indeed the shape of a diamond, but it can also take colors from the iPhone’s screen and bring them to a 3D ambience light experience. You’ll have to use together with an app, although no further details have been provided on the product’s website.

I can you hear you say “But Ticci, what does it do?”. I don’t know, but it’s cool. And the name Black Diamond? I bet Steve Jobs already has one. In a super secret testing lab. With a white iPhone. And an iPad 3 prototype. [Yantouch via Slashgear]

Denso Dash Has an iPhone Steering Wheel

Everyone owns a smartphone so why not integrate it into your future car? Many automobile companies are already integrating them because it could be the next big thing. Skip the built-in GPS screen, plug in your iOS device and do more! Denso is showing a futuristic dashboard, with an iPhone embedded in the center of the steering wheel. Sounds distracting and dangerous but it controls the infotainment system and a small, circular LCD above with some widgets you can flick & bounce with a touch from the iPhone. It also communicates with traffic lights to inform you what speed to drive in order to meet them when they’re all green. Weird I know, but the idea is to save fuel (and money) by not stopping and starting all the time.

Video after the break. Read more

Doodle Jump Creators Going After “Doodle Games” In The App Store

Look, we get it. There are too many “Doodle” games in the App Store. If you look closer, I believe you’re going to find some Doodle Browser or Doodle Twitter in there, too. Since the incredible success of Doodle Jump, many indie developers have tried to follow its path with not-so-clever marketing moves that, indeed, involved using the word “Doodle” next to something else. Like Doodle God. Or Doodle Army. Just take a look in the App Store. Still, I’m a firm believer of the “users decide” philosophy and I think what Doodle Jump developers, Lima Sky, are doing is just wrong. Read more

#MacStoriesDeals - Wednesday

Soon we will have a better rotation of Mac App Store sales once I find an easier way to look for deals. Anyway, here’s today’s deals on iOS & Mac (Store) apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get ‘em while they’re hot! Read more

Prediction! 200 Million FaceTime Devices in 2012

Oh, you’ve got to love analysts’ predictions on forthcoming Apple products and sales figures. Why? Because most of the times they’re just plain wrong. Still, they’re pretty fun to read so, here we go: according to Barclay’s analyst Ben Reitzes, Apple will have 200 million FaceTime-enabled devices out in 2012. Thanks to what he calls the “FaceTime networking effect”, Apple will be able to gain a terrific user base with a simple video calling system that most competitors won’t be able to replicate with their alternative video conferencing solutions. Read more

NoteNow Brings Sticky Notes To The Lock Screen

Even though I have an iPhone, an iPad and two Macs syncing my tasks and projects all day long through OmniFocus’ online service, I often forget about stuff. The most trivial things, like buy some iTunes credit or check on the car’s gas. I guess the reason is that I’ve never settled to bring these common, real-life tasks and activities into my GTD workflow, which is mainly set up for work purposes. I know it’s wrong as GTD should be for everything and anything, still it happens.

NoteNow, a simple $0.99 app developed by Manolo Sanudo, aims at fixing this issue with world’s most popular organization system: sticky notes. Who hasn’t written down things on a sticky note at least once? I have. And boy, you can trust sticky notes when they’re in sight. They make you remember you have to do stuff by looking at you in the eye. But how could you ever make sticky notes work on an iPhone, where there’s no desktop to attach notes to and Apple doesn’t want developers to use private APIs to enable secret, and perhaps dangerous for the iOS experience, features? Read more

Behind The Scenes Of The Verizon iPhone

Bloomberg reports of some interesting details behind the Apple / Verizon deal that made possible for the two companies to announce the iPhone 4 on Verizon starting February 10. The Verizon iPhone, as you may know, was one of the most anticipated devices in the United States because of the 4-year long AT&T exclusivity and the reported poor performances of the carrier in some areas.

First off, about the lack of Verizon branding on the CDMA iPhone 4, it looks like Verizon simply had to get along with it as Apple never puts logos on their devices and they really wanted to have the device in their portfolio anyway.

To reach a deal, Apple and Verizon had to reconcile different approaches to branding. Verizon puts its stamp on other manufacturers’ devices, including phones from Research In Motion Ltd. and Motorola. By contrast, only Apple’s name appears on the iPhone.

“They don’t put a lot of logos on their phones,” McAdam said in the interview. “So that wasn’t a major issue for us.”

Watching the success of the AT&T-Apple partnership may have led Verizon to accept a similar deal, said Jean-Louis Gassee, a former Apple executive who is now a venture capitalist at Allegis Capital in Palo Alto, California.

Read more

Seas0nPass Jailbreak for Apple TV 4.1.1 Released

The FireCore developers (the same guys behind aTV Flash) have released a jailbreak tool for the Apple TV 2nd generation called “Seas0nPass”. This jailbreak tool, like the popular Pwnage Tool app, can create a custom firmware file for the device to load and install non-Apple approved apps. Seas0nPass has been created exclusively for the Apple TV and also comes with an option to perform an easy “tethered boot” – a procedure that requires you to boot the Apple TV plugged in your computer. Seas0nPass lets you do that with a few clicks, in a simple and minimal user interface.

To use Seas0nPass, Mac OS X 10.6 is required. A Windows version will come out soon and, again, this only works on the 2nd gen Apple TV – don’t try to use with any other iOS device. Seas0nPass is free and open source, you can download the source code here. For instructions on how to use the app to jailbreak your Apple TV, see here.