News tagged ‘push’

According to research conducted by Chitika, nearly 45% of users still have the old iPod Touch firmware 2.0 installed and have not upgraded to the 3.0.

The reasons are numerous and starts from the need to pay for the upgrade - $10 could be an issue. However the main reason is the lack of motivation for upgrading. Unless you want to play with copy/paste, the 3.0 update doesn’t bring much to the iPod Touch - Push notifications are useless on Wi-Fi and many games still run on 2.0.

Who knows, maybe Apple will decide to make the next update to version 4.0 free just to encourage upgrades. Updates are free for iPhone users nad wee see that almost 95% of users have updated to 3.x.

Microsoft just released an official application of its search engine "Bing". The app looks really good and is well done. It allows you to find websites, images, videos, maps, shopping, news and offers step by step directions to navigate from one point to another! There is even a voice search, a business directory, ability to add pushpins and save locations.

Bing app is avaliable for free via AppStore (link).

MacWorld has listed their 20 favorite apps of the year for the iPhone and iPod touch. With over 100,000 apps in the App Store, MacWorld focused on 20 categories and narrowed it down to the best performer in each category.

Here is the list:

Best Messaging App: BeeJive IM
Best Photo App: Best Camera
Best Notification App: Boxcar
Best News App: CNN Mobile
Best Book App: Eucalyptus
Best Social Networking App: Facebook 3
Best Casual Game: Flight Control
Best Search Tool: Google Mobile App
Best Reference App: iBird Explorer Plus
Best Reader: Instapaper Pro 2
Best Multimedia App: MLB.com At Bat 2009
Best Education App: Pocket Universe
Best E-Mail App: Postage
Best Designed Game: Ramp Champ
Best Sports Game: Real Soccer 2010
Best Shopping Tool: RedLaser
Best Platform Game: Rolando 2
Best Strategy Game: Strategery
Best Twitter Client: Tweetie 2

You can read a bit more about these apps MacWorld's site.

It looks like Google and Apple have been steadily moving from friends to enemies. Google created Android and CloudOS, Apple rejected Google Voice and Google Latitude, Google’s CEO left Apple.

So Back in July Apple stealthily acquired Placebase, a mapping company that provides a service similar to Google Maps, but with more robust customizations and set of APIs, called Pushpin.

The obvious interest Apple would have in the company would be the mapping content and expertise that they are currently relying on Google for in their iPhone maps application. Placebase, however, also offered additional functionality that is not currently available in Google's offerings that Apple could theoretically take advantage of.

Given that Apple wrote the iPhone Maps app themselves, and just used Google for the backend, a switch to Apple Maps might even be transparent to the end user.

Placebase CEO Jaron Waldman LinkedIn profile now listed his position as part of the "Geo Team" at Apple.

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iTwitter is really first app that has push. But push only works if the person @replying or DMing you is using iTwitter too. Well, looks like this kind of push is almost useless...

The app is $3.99 (AppStore link).

Here is a list of 113 new features in 3.0 firmware. The information is  from hackint0sh site forum:

1. Cut/Paste
2. Copy/Paste
3. Shake to undo/redo typing
4. Text selection for easy mass deletion
5. MMS
6. Landscape keyboard in Notes
7. Landscape keyboard in Mail
8. Landscape keyboard in Messages
9. Forward texts or picture messages
10. Delete individual texts or picture messages

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Here is a changelog of new iPhone firmware 3.0 beta 3:

• The “Store” entry in Settings App still links to a blank page.
• The keyboard background becomes black in every phone number box. It may be a bug.
• The Skype app gives an error on its first launch.
• Greater overall speed.
• Sometimes the SMS sending freezes. It could be caused by the keyboard bug.
• Better integration for Push Notifications APIs.
• Better Audio APIs (probably for A2DP).
• Error correction works better.
• iTunes synchronization now requires less time.
• Youtube app now works on every device.
• The MMS and Tethering old bundle does not work anymore.
• Spotlight saves last seach data.
• Users can assign home screen.
• Parental control.
• Users can disable In-App Purchase.
• Ability to hide the text of a message just received.

Apple has just let developers know that they can start testing the upcoming Push Notification Service starting today:
Start testing your applications using the Apple Push Notification service today. Log in to the iPhone Dev Center and review the Apple Push Notification Programming Guide and Getting Started video. Team Agents can log in to the iPhone Developer Program Portal and proceed to the App ID section to create the components necessary to enable and test applications using the Apple Push Notification service.

Here is an unofficial changelog of iPhone 3.0 beta2 firmware:

• Better Spotlight feature
• Better Copy-Cut-Paste
• Greater speed and overall stability
• MMS natively supported (without any hack) for a lot of new countries
• In-App Purchase first APIs released
• Push notifications first APIs released
• New APIs available to developers
• Bugs afflicting Beta 1 fixed
• Safari’s lower bar is no more transparent
• New “Store” entry in Settings App: it links to a blank page
• Contacts now divided in “All contacts”, “All contacts on My iPhone” and “All contacts (Mobile Me)”
• New Safari’s landscape mode when clicking on a image or a link
• Anti-phishing mode in Safari. Activate it in Settings App > Safari, switching Fraud alert ON. The green title bar on 3.0 firmware means a security certified and reliable website. The “htpps” protocol icon instead has been moved on the left of the title.
• SpringBoard has now up to 11 pages and 180 applications.

via ispazio

One more interesting, fantastic device. Indeed it is the first phone in the world to record video in HD 720p (1280 × 720). Here are the photos (click to get high resolution images):

Samsung OMNIA HD (I8910) Product Specification:

Apple has just pushed out Firmware 2.2.1 for iPhone and iPhone 3G, iPod touch, iPod touch 2G. You can download them here. Firmware 2.2.1 cannot be jailbroken at this time, so unofficial application users should wait for new version of QuickPwn from DevTeam. Unlock (yellowsn0w) also doesn't work for 2.2.1.

This update contains bug fixes and improvements:

• Version 2.2.1 (Build 5H11)
• Modem Firmware 02.30.03
• Improved general stability of Safari
• Fixed issue where some images saved from Mail do not display correctly in the Camera Roll
• Fixed issue that caused some Apple Lossless (ALAC) to skip during playback
• Unofficially Apple fixed SMS bug: users suddenly experience inability to send SMS text messages on the iPhone 3G, receiving the message "error sending" upon attempting to send.

UPDATE: Please, consider reading our Jailbreak & Unlock FAQ, especially if you have questions or troubles.

This is a step-by-step tutorial. If you have iPhone 3G this guide will help you jailbreak and activate the device. For iPhone 2G it will also perform the unlock.

I recommend using 2.2 firmware, because iPhone 3G unlock is avaliable now. But you can use it with old v2.1, v2.0.1 and v2.0.2.

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Apple announced that v2.1 firmware will be delivered this Friday. Change log is:

• lots of bugs fixed
• fewer dropped call
• big battery life improvements
• no crashes with Apps - hopefully the whole app install process is better.
• backing up to iTunes is faster
• great new performance enhancements

There is nothing said about push notification service, cut/copy/paste or turn-by-turn GPS.

As always, I strongly recommend no one update until the Dev Team releases an upated pwnage.

Apple has just seeded iPhone 2.1 beta 4 to developers—uninteresting, really, except for the fact that the push notification service has been pulled from the release "for further development."

Targeted to hit your iPhone in September, the push service allows apps to receive notifications (internet data) in the background while they're not running, a godsend for AIM and other messaging apps. Hopefully this doesn't mean it'll be delayed.