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Posts tagged with "iPhone"

Short URLS Suck, OS X & iOS Malware To Become More “Sophisticated” According To McAfee

McAfee Logo

McAfee Logo

When short URLs first arrived on the scene, I was rather excited at the prospect of simply using a good looking “designer” URL to vainly share links on Twitter. Short URLs provide brand reassurance: MacStories, Engadget, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, and other sites now sport custom short URLs that verify the links we share lead back to our site. However, links from Bit.ly, CloudApp cl.ly links, and Twitter’s t.co links have become nothing more than a nuisance. If I use a service like TinyGrab, I know their short URLs will most likely lead to a snapshot someone has taken of their material. With more anonymous (everything) URL shorteners, there’s no way to verify its trust without using software that allows you to preview the long URL before you click through. We’ve seen their validity ruined plenty of times on Twitter through various attacks such as the cross-site request forgery attack that amused us for a few hours earlier this year, but I’ve simply lost trust in these “brands.”

While I didn’t need McAfee to be skeptical of weird Twitter users asking me if I want a free iPad, they predict short URLs will continue to annoy the tech savvy as the computer-illiterate continue to click through short URLs to whatever tomfoolery exists on the other side. McAfee’s other big claim: OS X could be the next target for malware kiddies.

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8mm For iPhone Applies Vintage Effects to Videos In Real-Time

Hipstamatic is one of the most popular iPhone apps in the App Store: not only it’s a great app with a cool camera-like interface and tons of filters, films and flashes to choose from, it has also been named “iPhone App of the Year” by Apple and journalists at the New York Times use it. Hipstamatic is the closest thing to having an old analog camera on your iPhone. Some say it’s overly designed and too complicated for the average users, I think the results and popularity of the software speak by themselves.

Then again, Hipstamatic (and other apps that apply cool effects to photos like Instagram or Camera+) is for photos.  8mm Vintage Camera by Nexvio is a new app that can apply vintage film effects to videos, all in real-time through the iPhone’s rear and front-facing cameras. Read more

#MacStoriesDeals - Tuesday

Is your wallet surviving all the holidays? Here’s some great deals for today on iOS & Mac apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get ‘em while they’re hot! iOS apps price drops are starting to show up again too!

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iPhone Controlled Mini Fridge Beer Cannon

Whaaaa? That’s right kids (of legal drinking age), ‘personalbeerrobot’ has created what every man only dreams about - a mini fridge that can be remotely controlled to adjust temperature, pivots and uses compressed air to fire beer cans into your thirsty grip for a shot of hoppy refreshment. It’s controlled using an iPhone web app; select what kind of beer you’re thirsty for, use the built-in cannon cam to aim, and fire away! The iPhone web app can also control and monitor the mini fridge’s temperature as well. There’s even a twitter account set up for the beer robot: @MyBeerRobot

Features:

  • Vends 4 types of beer
  • Broadcasts temperature
  • Adjust temperature via iPhone
  • Aim via webcam
  • Auto tweet video per shot
  • Fire beer with 50psi of deliciousness

Video after the break…

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The Nose Knows No Phone Like iPhone

Ever try smelling an Android phone? No? Some might say it smells like plastic. Smitten iOS graphic designers will tell you it smells like failure. But have you ever tried smelling an iPhone? It smells like Lucky Charms right? If it was anyone else other than me, it would be just plain disgusting. At least using your iPhone as a handkerchief isn’t as disgusting as using your iPad as a sushi plate (plus, boogers simply taste better), though I have yet another reason to keep my hands off your handset.

If you’ve an iPhone and busy hands, NoseDial assumes that the oleographic Retina Display is the perfect place to shnoze dial 911. Seriously, we can’t promise this kind of intimate nasal fondling won’t lead to anything more than an “app with benefits.” Perhaps it could be useful if you’re wearing more than biker gloves – those thick socks you yankees call mittens certainly aren’t very app happy. NoseDial allows you to tilt and scroll all with your face, but at the risk of looking ridiculous and triggering one of Apple’s sensitive liquid sensors with your snot, we ask you refrain from this $1 German utility just as you avoid taking your iPhone into the bathroom. On the contrary, you could buy the app and just use your fingers – but that wouldn’t be any fun now would it? NoseDial is an interesting concept, though when you need your fingers to just pull the darned thing out of your pocket, I can’t see it being very useful via the utensil between your eyeballs. Unless you’re a gymnast – that I’d like to see.

[via TUAW]

In 2007, RIM Thought The iPhone Was “Impossible”→

In 2007, RIM Thought The iPhone Was “Impossible”

According to a former RIM employee:

RIM had a complete internal panic when Apple unveiled the iPhone in 2007, a former employee revealed this weekend. The BlackBerry maker is now known to have held multiple all-hands meetings on January 10 that year, a day after the iPhone was on stage, and to have made outlandish claims about its features. Apple was effectively accused of lying as it was supposedly impossible that a device could have such a large touchscreen but still get a usable lifespan away from a power outlet.

So that’s why they got left behind: they spent months making fun of something they thought wouldn’t be possible. They came out with their touchscreen smartphone eventually, the Storm, but it didn’t have all the features of the iPhone and, more importantly, it was already too late. Now RIM is struggling to catch up.

Also:

Imagine their surprise [at RIM] when they disassembled an iPhone for the first time and found that the phone was battery with a tiny logic board strapped to it.

Imagine their surprise when they disassembled an iPad.

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This iPhone App Snaps Pictures With The Volume Buttons

Remember when Camera+ was removed from the App Store because the developers hid a feature in it that allowed you to snap pictures using the iPhone’s volume buttons? Apple didn’t want that and as far as I know they’re still going against apps that modify iOS’ standard functionalities such as volume adjustment. But then why is there an app in the App Store that lets you do just that? Quick Snap, available at $1.99 and released two weeks ago, enables you to take pictures using the physical volume buttons. I just bought the app and it works.

Not only does Quick Snap take pictures with the “+” volume button, it also triggers a timed shot with the other button. I don’t know how this app made its way into the App Store, also considering how much the developers promote the feature on the app’s description page. But other than that, the app isn’t really great. It’s got a less than decent UI and its animations when changing from portrait to landscape mode are slow. It saves pics to the camera roll, but it hasn’t got basic camera features such as zoom or tap to focus.

But hey, it’s got the volume buttons thing. If $1.99 is a good price for such functionality, then go ahead and buy it before Apple pulls it. I’m just surprised the App Review Team missed this one.

Update: And just as we expected, the app is gone. It wasn’t that great anyway.

iPhone Nano Watch: Worst of Both Worlds

We’ll never, ever grow tired of covering weird Chinese knock-offs of Apple products. What we have here today, though, can’t exactly be described as a knock-off: it’s something that doesn’t really exist to start with. It’s an “iPhone nano watch”, a strange combination of those iPod nano watches people have been wearing since September and the more popular iPhone with its distinctive UI. The iPhone nano watch has got a wristband and some clock functionalities I assume, but it also lets you “slide to unlock” and comes with a SIM slot, FM radio tuner, Bluetooth, USB, camera sensor and a speaker.

Don’t ask me how it’s even possible to make calls with this thing. I guess that’s why it’s still labelled as “engineering prototype” – hey, everyone deserves to be deeply tested, right? The iPhone nano watch will also get a headphone jack come the final release.

On a side note, I can’t wait to find a prototype of this one in a shady Shanzhai bar. Hit the source links for more photos. [Engadget via M.I.C. Gadget]

Jailbreak Hack Allows You To Rename iOS Apps

Ever wished you could change “Twitter” to “Tweetie” on your iPhone, as it used to be back in the old days? Well, a jailbreak tweak now lets you do that with a single tap. The hack, developed by Ryan Petrich and called “Icon Renamer” allows you to rename any app on your Springboard by entering “wiggle mode” first, then tapping on the icon and typing the new name. Done. Easy as writing down a new folder’s name. You can rename any app, and changes won’t affect your app library in iTunes. The tweak’s pretty handy if you have to deal with apps that have long names (usually games) and are displayed as acronyms on the iPhone’s screen.

The tweak is free and available in Cydia. And no, you can’t rename Icon Renamer because that would be too meta.