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Posts tagged with "iPhone"

XBMC Comes to the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 2

XBMC, a popular media center originally made for the first Xbox has become fairly widespread has been available for a variety of platforms, today that platform base extended to include the new Apple TV, iPhone and iPad.

The client on these new platforms is not stripped down to simply just view streams but is fully fledged with all the features you would come to expect it to have on a Windows PC. Because of this it is being distributed for the iOS devices through a Cydia repository and for the Apple TV through an apt-get install.

Scott Davilla one of the XBMC developers talked to TUAW and he revealed that development for the Apple TV 2 started only on November 1st last year and the iOS versions a few weeks later. He notes that the built in web server is currently disabled and the skin isn’t optimized but says improvements will be made including the possibility of implementing AirPlay into all the Apple related releases.

Perhaps one of the most interesting developments that occurred whilst XBMC was ported was the discovery of an API called VideoToolBox that allows hardware video decoding, encoding and scaling of the video size to match the final display size. So powerful is this API that Davilla and others that developed XBMC for iPad are able to stream full 1080p video with no transcoding to the iPad and it plays nearly perfectly, only dropping a few frames. Davilla’s confident however that the A4 processor can handle 1080p and will be working to ensure fully smooth playback.

TUAW put together some video’s demonstrating it running on all three of the new platforms, check it out here.

[Via XBMC, TUAW]

TestFlight Goes Live For Everyone - Distribute & Receive Beta Apps Effortlessly

TestFlight has been in lockdown mode for a while, and I’ve had plenty of opportunities to put the service through its paces before they opened their doors to everybody this evening. I’ll just say that TestFlight is incredibly convenient for installing beta applications on the fly - there’s nothing more annoying than unzipping iPad or iPhone files, dragging them to iTunes, syncing, and it doing all over again when updates are distributed. TestFlight simply has you log into their site via your iPad or iPhone, tap a button, and you can browse through the beta apps developers have subscribed you to for immediate downloads. It’s so much easier for developers to submit one beta to TestFlight than to package their app and distribute it to dozens of emails, and it’s much easier on the tester to be updated and install updates. It’s completely Apple worthy, and if you’re a developer we encourage you to sign up for the service so you can focus on creating content instead of worrying about beta distribution.

TechCrunch notes that the service is free to developers, while a paid Enterprise version is in the works that will allow for licensed versions of apps to be passed through the airwaves (presumably for corporate/in-house application use).

[via TestFlight, TechCrunch]

Verizon Launches First Official iPhone Commercial

It begins. Verizon has just launched its first official commercial for the iPhone 4, the very same iPhone that’s been in the Apple rumors for years. In case you missed it, it’s real and  it’s coming on February 10. The commercial is a little too dramatic, maybe, but I guess it’s also appropriate: Apple will sell millions of these things this year.

“To our millions of customers, who never stopped believing this day would come…”

February 10. Verizon iPhone. Video below. [Youtube via Engadget] Read more

Transparent iPhone 4 Exposes Ive’s Best Kept Secrets

This iPhone 4 mod is the best I’ve seen so far. There, I said it. No other mod can compete with this one, from my personal point of view. I don’t know about build quality and difficulty of installation (I guess it’s not a 5-step How To), I just know I like it.

It’s a fully transparent mod for the iPhone 4, where you get to see the battery and innards through the back of the device, front-facing camera, sensors and screen at the front. It reminds me of those semi-transparent Game Boy Colors Nintendo released in the mid-90s, only for something made in Cupertino.

Full gallery available here. If you know where to buy it, please let us know in the comments. [via TUAW]

Update: Looks like it’s a DIY mod with paint thinner used on standard black OEM components. [Thanks, Markus]

Physical Mailbox Sends Push Notifications to iPhone

Matt Richardson over at Make: Online might have just come up with the ultimate way to get push notifications on the iPhone from physical objects in the real world. Like your garage door, your secret stash drawer – or your mailbox. Thanks to the power of open-source hardware Arduino, a PHP web server and the Prowl iPhone app, he managed to create a system that sends a notification to his iPhone every time mail is delivered to his mailbox. The notification arrives in seconds, as the mailbox is wired to an internet connection (no wireless for now) and the Arduino board tells the web server to forward a notification to the Prowl app via API. Of course, there is a sensor below the mailbox that knows when the lid is opened and closed.

The concept is great, useful and requires minimal PHP and hardware knowledge to be up and running. Sure, you still need to get an Arduino and follow the instructions, but it’s price worth to be paid only to be able to connect the real world with iOS. Let me say it again: real word sends push notifications to iOS. [via Boing Boing] Read more

Here’s Why Gestures On The iPhone Are A Bad Idea

Rumor has it Apple may be willing to implement the multitasking gestures already seen in the iOS 4.3 beta for iPad on the iPhone as well. Those willing to believe that gestures will take over buttons on our mobile devices someday even claim that Apple may get rid of the Home button altogether on the next iPhone and iPad.

Four and five-finger gestures on the iPhone’s screen, however,  have always sounded like a terrible idea to us. And now there’s video proof that, indeed, the iPhone isn’t meant for all those fingers.

It goes like this: a Youtube user enables multitasking gestures on the iPhone (weren’t they supposed to only being tested internally?) and records a video of the multi-touch galore in action. The result is embedded below. And, quite frankly, we do believe the Home button is here to stay.

[Youtube via Engadget] Read more

Leaked Screenshot of Internal iPhone with Gestures?

Well after the 4.3 Beta that previewed multitasking gestures on the iPad, there is now some supposed evidence that suggests that the iPhone is also being considered by Apple to have gestures thanks to an internal build that BGR claims to have gotten some screenshots of.

Obviously there is an issue with the supposedly leaked pictures, gestures on the iPhone would likely have to be different to those previewed on the iPad that used four or five finger swipes because they would be pretty unreasonable to use on the iPhone’s smaller screen. That said it remains possible that the text is left over from the iPad and whilst being tested internally has not been edited to reflect the iPhone’s gestures.

Engadget notes that information from it sources says that since the lost iPhone 4 debacle Apple made significant changes to how it keeps track of it’s devices and that it added clauses to screens saying “Confidential and Proprietary, if found, please contact…” listing a Cupertino 408 number. The photo’s BGR have gotten a hold have this message, adding credence to this leak. All three pictures posted after the break.

Read more

Cydia Adds Ability to Easily View All Your Past Purchases

Cydia, the App Store equivalent for all those jailbreak required apps that Apple has or would deny, has just received a handy new feature that allows you to view in one place all the packages that you have purchased from the Cydia store.

Jay Freeman, creator of Cydia has been working hard in recent months to improving Cydia in many ways from decreasing the all to common “Reloading” times, improving the polish and adding new features. This new feature has been a fairly common suggestion not only for Cydia but the App Store too, which whilst present in the Mac App Store has yet to reach iOS App Store - something which those of us at Macstories are hopeful Apple will add in the near future.

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