Archive for 2010

According to AppleAdvice forecasts the pre-orders of iPad can probably start on February 25. Initially only Wifi iPads will be pre-ordered, and only in the US. They vaguely cite some reliable source familiar with the issue that puts Friday as a traditional day for a new Apple product launch. Taking this into account, March 26 seems to be the actual day of iPad’s release.

One last thing to be done by Apple is to receive the official approval from the FCC prior to iPad’s sales in the US. If AppleAdvice forecasts are true we'll witness this approval next week.

Few days ago we wrote about Steve Jobs' biography that will be written by Walter Isaacson. While most of the people are waiting for the book to be published, one of the Flickr members decided to think about how would its cover look like.

Here is a series of the cover mock-ups for the rumored forthcoming Job biography by Flickr member flypig:

The last one is commented by its author like this:

No matter what design style the English version will be, after importing to China, the cover will look this way.

Gameloft has finally released Brothers In Arms 2: Global Front game for iPod Touch and iPhone.

In this game you can challenge up to five friends to multiplayer battles. Connection needs to be established via Bluetooth or Wi-fi.

Key features:

• 5 locations and 13 levels in detailed 3D-world
• 3 different game mods (Free For All, Team DeathMatch, Domination)
• 3 different vehicles
• wide variety of historically accurate weapons

You can purchase Brothers in Arms 2: Global Front for 7.99$ here.

These icons on the picture below were found by 9to5Mac in the 3.2 SDK. They seem to be a definitive evidence of video calling capability in future generations of Apple devices.

Searching for more evidence the source explored the code and also found a more direct mention of video chat in the telephony UI code:

And here is a reference to something called iChat:

So it is almost obvious Apple will bring video calling to their devices. But what will happen with 3G networks if millions of new iPhone users will start to make videocalls instead of common calls?

Here is one more iPhone 4G concept from Antonio De Rosa. It looks particularly beautiful. This is a 3D rendering and I advise you to zoom the images to appreciate the quality of the details:

The device has a new AMOLED screen, an aluminum body, a front camera and of course the iPhone OS 4.0.

As we wrote before, Apple started to delete apps with sexual-content in App Store two days ago. That was explained by changing their moderating guidelines. Yesterday Apple representatives commented on this situation:

“Whenever we receive customer complaints about objectionable content we review them. If we find these apps contain inappropriate material we remove them and request the developer make any necessary changes in order to be distributed by Apple.”

But since the Frasier Spears filed the radar bugs in order to filter the inappropriate content at his school and blogged about it, the problem seems to be solved. Obviously, it will be better for Apple to implement soft porn filters that prohibit access to apps with dubious content rather than change their policy.

Hulu pushes its way to the iPad. According to the Hulu owners, they think of the ways to bring the services to the new Apple device. The ability to watch the stream video is more likely to be for a fee and available on subscription.

Adobe Flash support rates among the problems Hulu creators have to face. The iPad users will probably use a friendly ‘Flash-free’ version of the Web site. All in all, Hulu is not likely to be present on the iPad in late March.

Despite the fact that Steve Jobs and Apple representatives were not to be seen at the Mobile World Congress (Barcelona, Spain) this week, Apple CEO won the top title “Mobile Industry Personality of the Year.”

Among the other winners (19 categories) were BlackBerry (the creator of Enterprise Server 5.0) and HTC (for their HTC Hero).

The famous actor and humorist Stephen Fry hosted this week’s ceremony. He proclaimed himself to be Apple fan and was impressed with iPad after having seen it at San Francisco demonstration.

"Icons" Pop Art exhibition was opened on the day when most New Yorkers were preoccupied with St. Valentines’s Day bustle. The 15 000 square feet installation room houses the photos not only of Steve Jobs but other renowned persons as well. His photo is placed beside that of Jack Dorsey (Twitter founder), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook creator) and Bill Gates (Microsoft CEO). Although Jobs doesn't seemed to be very enthusiastic of his second row placement.

Last year’s installation was called "The Holy Trinity” and immortalized such personalities as El Jobso hung between Linus Torvalds (Linux creator) and Bill Gates.

This exhibition features the four luminaries who resemble more the wanted posters rather than pop art celebrities.

It will run till late March.

Meebo has recently released the iPhone version of popular service for stress-free and enjoyable chat. It has a number of advantages that differ it from other chat apps available. It is easy to handle and you are kept in touch with your contacts even when Meebo is switched off. It also provides the conventional chat history and the directions provide quick understanding of the manipulation process. And what is more important - it is free of charge.

You can download Meebo app here

Steve Jobs called Flash technology a 'CPU hog ' and an "old technology" with numerous “security holes.” On the iPad demo with the Wall Street Journal that took place in New York Apple CEO attempted to persuade the WSJ honchos to bring the issue to the iPad.

The parties discussed one of the stumbling rocks- the inability of iPad to support Flash technology. The point is that the Journal invested a great deal of money in Flash enabling to deploy videos, slides and other interactive media.

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Let's learn how to give iPhone contacts phonetic spellings in order to make iPhone Voice Control more useful:

There are so many iPhone 4G concepts created by different our users. Some show futuristic devices that are hard to create, while others are closer to reality.

Today we have an interesting concept designed by Francesco Maisano. It shows iPhone with more rounded design than the current one. We can also see some implementation of the future Firmware 4.0 - a special SpringBoard with Widgets for weather, calendar and clock. As for hardware there is a front camera, a flash for main camera, an intelligent Home button and much more. Take a look:

Apple announced that it has added App Store support for 13 new countries:

You can now distribute your apps to more customers with the addition of App Store support in Armenia, Botswana, Bulgaria, Jordan, Kenya, Macedonia, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Niger, Senegal, Tunisia, and Uganda. Log in to iTunes Connect to view and update the countries where your applications are available.

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iPhone display is quite strong. As you can see on the video, the glass is completely shattered, but the touchscreen still works perfectly:

But if something like this happen, try not to use the iPhone with your fingers as you can cut with some small splinter.