Archive for 2010

Recently iStorytime has announced a new application for reading texts with children called Danny the Dragon. It's not the content of the selected stories, which we admire. This application for the iPhone and iPad devices is one of the first that includes video stories being read in a beautiful and understandable language.

Well, if you are waiting for something extraordinary or high tech, you have come to the wrong place. This application includes simple video narrations being read by the woman. Nevertheless, it is quite useful and necessary application for each family that has a child and has no time to go shopping in search of paper books.

As you may know, few days ago Apple had released a new version of iOS for all its mobile devices except first-generation iPhone and iPod touch, so owners of the latter are still not protected from a security flaw that allows hackers to obtain a remote control of their handsets. In fact, the latest compatible version for them is currently iOS 3.1.3.

But Saurik (who is known as a developer of Cydia) recently announced on the Dev-Team blog that he released a PDF patch that is compatible with any iOS version down to 2.x. It can be found in Cydia if you'll search for "PDF Patch". After installing it you can check if the patch is working properly with visiting jailbreakme.com page. After sliding the box to jailbreak you should only see the star background (and not a dialog box), which means you are no longer vulnerable.

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In the world, the Apple's Regent Street store is still the busiest selling point, according to senior vice
president of Apple's retail sales Ron Johnson. He has highly appreciated Regent Street considering that undertaken
risk has been justified. Now, in the Regent Street store has one of the best traffic performances in the world.

The Apple network has had a significant impact on the retail sector. Many other stores around the world seek to
repeat their success.

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Apple has removed the updated of the Camera+ application from the App Store within two weeks. It happened because Cupertino found out that the current app has some hidden downsides allowing let the volume buttons on the iPhone side to act as a camera shutter button, each time a user comes opens Mobile Safari and searches for the URL camplus://enablevolumesnap.

It definitely violates the regulations and rules of Apple, that’s why the company decided to get rid of this application quite unceremoniously. What does it mean? It means that when you try to buy the app, you’ll get the following error: “the item you are trying to purchase is currently unavailable”.

The developer of the Camera+ photography application, TapTapTap, might think about creating new versions of the app in future, but we hope it won’t have such “surprises”.

Among the downsides that the present Apple’s MacBooks have lies in the fact that there is no possibility of 4G, 3G or LTE network connection without using a USB modem (or some other devices).

According to the Apple’s patent filings we may state that the company has some ideas and is working on their fulfillment. It goes about a telephonic MacBook that will have a magnetically coupled antenna.

It is said that the company is planning to use the wireless communication circuitry in MacBooks. Thus, users can get data communications in some communication bands and cellular telephone communications in several frequency bands.

Let’s wait what actions Apple is going to take with such fancy patent ideas for their future line of MacBooks, but we think that users won’t be disappointed.

Taking into account the rumors about iPods from Apple, some people all over the world have found out that in UK there are many retailers who decided to slash their prices for the iPod nano and iPod shuffle by nearly 40%! The result of this action is that these media players have been already in various places, speculating that Apple is going to introduce a new version of the iPod nano and iPod shuffle very soon. Some guys are even thinking that the new iPod shuffle will feature a miniature touchscreen. It’s quite interesting till the device price haven’t yet risen to the stars.

Today Adobe has announced a new Photoshop application for the devices based on iOS while giving a new image to its previous limited functional application Photoshop.com Mobile for the Apple iPhone. Now it has got a new name Adobe Photoshop Express. Here you’ll find a great number of new features for the iPad sporting the larger screen space, support for the device and improved user interface (UI).

Does it have pros and cons?

Yes! There is no support for the Retina Display of the new iPhone 4. It is quite disappointing for many users.

This Wednesday VirnetX filed a lawsuit against Apple, accusing the latter in violation of patent No. 6,502,135. NEC, Cisco and Aastra are also named as the defendants.

The patent No. 6,502,135 is titled «Agile network protocol for secure communications with assured system availability" and describes technologies that are used in creating and managing VPN-connection. VirNetX is assured that these technologies are illegally used in all iPhones, iPod touches and an iPads.

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First Apple’s iAd was Nissan Leaf ad. Users who viewed Nissan's Leaf electric car iAd spent 90 seconds with the interactive advertisement -- ten times longer than customers will spend with a traditional ad. Moreover, people are five times more likely to click on interactive advertisement than they are a traditional online display ad. One more proof of iAd success was made by Unilever, maker of Dove shower products, said its initial advertisement proved to be successful, with 20 percent of viewers checking the ad multiple times, and a percentage in the double digits seeking further information about the product. iAds are also popular among iPhone users,  because they don't have to leave their app and launch a browser to view them.

iAd success helps Apple to take up more than half of the mobile advertising market in 2010. And developers, too, have found success with the new iAd platform: Apple providing them a 60 percent cut of the advertising revenue.

At first glance, Apple's new “Apps to Impress your Friends” section may seem like an innocent section showing you the coolest apps that will surely wow your pals. Look again and you will soon realize the section should be called "Apps to Impress your friends enough to buy an iPhone." The section includes amazing and the newest iPhone exclusive apps.

These apps leverage advanced technologies. But apps work extremely well on iOS. For example, Ocarina will blow your friends away when they see you're playing an instrument with your breath, Red Laser will blow your friends away when you scan items at the mall and etc.

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We’ve gotten exclusive legit details of the upcoming Verizon (unicorn) iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 supposedly will gain a 1.2 GHz next-gen A4 chip, a larger 3.7 inch retina display, an all new internal antenna, all in a more durable design. To be honest that just sounds like the probable iPhone 5 launching in June 2011.

To prove all that, we may say, that Verizon isn’t likely to want launching in January an iPhone 4 that has identical specifications to the current AT&T model. Another possibility, if this is all true, is that the probably iPhone 5 launching in June '11 will be the first (AT&T model too) and will carry the rumored features.

Recently released Apple's rechargeble batteries were found to have many of the same characteristics as the Sanyo Eneloop model HR-3UTG batteries first developed in 2005 and launched for sale in 2006. Both batteries retain over 75% of their charge after three years of use. In addition to having identical performance, the Sanyo rechargeables also have the same minimum capacity of 1900 mAh. Moreover, Apple's new rechargeable batteries do not offer any indication of who manufactured them.

Experts took apart one of the AA batteries from Apple, but did not find any evidence on the inside that they are manufactured by Sanyo. The batteries are the first Apple’s product, which doesn’t have an Apple logo on them. In fact, the only thing known about these batteries is what that they were made in Japan. Sanyo's corporate headquarters is in Japan, and its Eneloop batteries are manufactured also in Japan.

And batteries have almost similar prices: Apples batteries retail for $29 and Sanyo Eneloop – for about $22.

Apple has not commented this situation.

Social Bicycles - a bike sharing system with a twist – plans to start using an iPhone application, the system allows users to drop off, locate, and borrow a bike nearly anywhere. The bikes are equipped with a GPS device which is locked to one of the wheels, and when the bike is locked, it's locatable using the application, so that someone can borrow it; when it's in use and unlocked, it doesn't appear in the app. The real upside to Social Bicycles is that the regular infrastructure required for bike lending systems are unnecessary, which can make lending much cheaper.

We've gotten some information that Apple plans to rename the Apple TV into "iTV", which was initially named as "iTV" in September 2006, but changed the name to "Apple TV" for its launch in January 2007. Apparently the box won't be capable of handling 1080p video. Instead it will only push out 720p clips. Moreover, video experts note that the difference in resolution is not visible to users at a normal TV viewing distance unless the screen is larger than 55 inches. The device will be getting apps and presumably an App Store entry.

iTV well be running iOS that means that it will get access to iTunes. By converting Apple TV into an iOS device, the company could erect a third new wing of apps in iTunes. This smaller, cheaper device will probably use network streaming rather than Apple TV's hard drive for local storage.

It is much of a rumor that there is going to appear a new iPad sporting a 7-inch display. Now Digitimes specifies the possible features that this Apple device may get.

It is that at the beginning of 2011 Apple is going to launch an upgraded iPad with 9.7-inch display that will feature 512MB of RAM and a new processor based on ARM Cortex-A9. The 7-inch iPad will use an IPS panel having 1024 x 768 resolution and a similar processor.

Except the introduction of the iPad, it is rumored that in December we’ll get a CDMA iPhone. It is going to be supplied to China Telecom and Verizon Wireless. Evidently it will feature an integrated antenna and a metal backplate.