Archive for 2010

Flash for iPhone has a long history. Back in March 2008 Adobe CEO announced that they start working on a Flash player for the iPhone. Last year Apple and Adobe again announced that they were working together. The problem is that we haven't seen any result of this work. This year we had iPad Flash-less introduction and very aggressive words from Steve Jobs calling Adobe lazy.

Adobe is keeping track of its download stats using a script installed on their official website. Statistics show that as many as 7 million iPhone and iPod Touch users have tried to download the Flash Player. That number is up from 3 million download attempts from iPhones and iPod Touches in June. These numbers are shocking. They clearly show that iPhone and iPod Touch users want Flash, despite Apple's decision not to support it. However don't be surprised if Apple decides to ignore Adobe once again.

It is known, that iPad has a restrictive DRM shackles, which makes Apple the only available supplier of software for this device. So if you buy an iPad, you will have to download software only from the Apple’s AppStore. Yes, there is a big possibility of jailbreaking the gadget within the first 48 hours after its shipping since it’s based on the already jailbroken OS iPhone, but still this is not the best way of downloading applications for most of the people.

There are people, who disagree with a DRM-based strategy of software distribution. Some of them created an Anti-DRM group named Defective by Design. They told us they created an online petition that has been signed for 8,800 times since its inception 4 days ago. DbD has already sent off their first 5,000 signatures in the form of a giant postcard, which is in the photo above.

DbD’s operations manager John Sullivan says their main target is to get Apple to remove DRM and DRM enforcement from all its media and software. This is especially valuable for the iPad designed to be widely used by non-technical people who might not be aware of DRM.

- What Apple is doing with software is quite different. This is a scary step … as Apple move towards this model in the future,

said Sullivan.

Giles Turnbull from the CultOfMac noticed one interesting thing in the video of Apple’s official iPad announcement event.

At 1:04 of the video (the picture above) Phil Schiller demonstrates the new iWork for iPad. On the picture we can see a Keynote and visible in the left corner of the screen button called “My Presentations”. When he moves on to Pages, “My Documents” can be seen clearly. And it really reminds of Windows 95!

Still it is not clear, is this just a Pages feature or maybe a system-wide folder that can be used by other apps. And eventually, “My Documents” may only be a working title with a possibility to be renamed when iWork for iPad will actually be released.

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Just over a week ago, Apple published a table that showed the percentage of the number of applications that were approved and therefore also those that were rejected during the review. These numbers are a bit higher now: 98 to 97% for new applications and 99 to 97% for the updates.

There are more than 140,000 applications in Apple AppStore, so a change of 2 percentage points is certainly not as small as it may seem. The number of rejected apps might increase even more in the future. The most important concern for developers right now is the obligation to add metadata to their applications.

According to the statistics just 14% of iPhone users have updated the firmware to version 3.1.3.

In particular 72.3% are still using firmware 3.1.2, less than 1% - firmware 3.1.1 and 4.6% have previous versions yet. The reasons for this are probably from the fact that 3.1.3 is only a minor update. Another reason could be the uncertainty of the jailbreak.

We have spoken several times about Flash CS5 that will allow to transform the Adobe Flash applications in real native iPhone apps ready to be distributed through the AppStore. This video shows a quick overview of everything that Flash developers will be able to:

The are many possibilities. The only limitation is the skill of the developer. You can create games using the accelerometer, a multitouch applications, apps with video, pictures or even Twitter. We are looking forward to Flash CS5 release.

iPad's announcement caused many people to wonder why Apple decided to use an ancient standard for video output rather than a more modern protocol, such as DisplayPort or HDMI output.

About ten years ago Apple changed Macs output from VGA to DVI standard that supported HD resolution displays and improved digital accuracy. Few years later Apple made another shift – from DVI to DisplayPort. So why Apple chose VGA output on the iPad? There are 2 main reasons:

1. Most of the video projectors support the iPad’s resolution of 1024x768 over a VGA port.
2. VGA is sufficient to handle the iPad’s resolution, and it is really cheaper and easier.

For more details – watch the video of Daniel Eran Dilger from the RoughDrafted Magazine:

iPhone 3G is on left and 4G is on the right

iPhone repair site iResQ.com has posted photos of the parts for the iPhone 4G that will be released later this year.

As we can see, the most notable feature is a front panel, which is approximately 1/4” taller than the iPhone 3GS.

You can also notice the reflective surface on the new front panel that is located just above the earpiece slot. iResQ suggests it is a likely location for a proximity sensor, though that wouldn’t explain the need for the mirrored surface to be visible on the front of the device.

The LCD appears to be factory glued to the digitizer. This looks more like the iPhone 2G than the 3G or 3GS, as the latest versions have a digitizer that can be separated from the LCD. This means for us that the 4G screen repair prices will be much higher since both parts will have to be replaced at once.

The iPhone Dev-Team has released PwnageTool 3.1.5 for Mac OS X. It allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to safely upgrade to firmware 3.1.3. With PwnageTool you can preserve jailbreak and ultrasn0w unlock. But if you’re using the blacksn0w unlock with baseband 05.11.07 you will need to stay at firmware 3.1.2.

PwnageTool 3.1.5 creates a custom 3.1.3 IPSW for the following devices:

• iPhone 2G
• iPhone 3G
• iPhone 3GS with early bootrom
• iPod touch 1G
• iPod touch 2G with early bootrom

Warning! Don't try to use this tool if you have  iPhone 3GS with firmware 3.1.3 - it just won't work. If you have iPod Touch 1G, iPhone 2G or factory unlocked iPhone 3G , try to use redsn0w - is would be much easier.

You can download PwnageTool 3.1.5. here.

Credit Suisse analyst Bill Shope recently met with Apple executives:

Apple wants the iPad to be the best device for a few key use cases. For instance, the company believes it could eventually be seen as superior to both handheld and notebook devices for browsing the Internet, using the App Store, and consuming mobile media (video, photos, and e-books). Nevertheless, in other areas, notebooks, the iPhone, or an iPod may be more appropriate. This clear segmentation of capabilities suggests that cannibalization may be less of a concern than most currently believe.

Shope writes about the price:

it remains to be seen how much traction the iPad gets initially, management noted that it will remain nimble (pricing could change if the company is not attracting as many customers as anticipated).

Sounds great. What do you think about $200 iPad? Would you buy one?

ZoomIt is the first SD card reader for the iPhone and iPod Touch. This peripheral together with ZoomIt application gives iPhone users the ability to load photos, music, PowerPoint, PDF and other files directly from SD card.

ZoomIt is a great way to extend iPhone's storage or simply backup photos during vacation. It will be available in April for $50.

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19 percent of all game developers are writing for the iPhone and iPod Touch, according to a new study from Game Developer Research. It is more than twice as high as for the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS and results in 3/4 of all mobile game developers writing for Apple’s gadgets.

Developers claim their choices of platform dictated by the level of market influence and ease of writing code. The cost of development and the ability to port code are important too.

The transition to the iPhone is evident through the number of ports. While many companies are producing original titles, games like Civilization Revolution and Assassin’s Creed series are actually Nintendo DS versions modified to use the touchscreen and the better performance of Apple’s devices.

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H8sn0w has just released the new version of Sn0wbreeze 1.4. Sn0wbreeze is a jailbreak utility with functionality similar to PwnageTool. The new version supports firmware 3.1.3 jailbreak for the following devices:

• iPhone 2G
• iPhone 3G
• iPhone 3GS - old bootrom
• iPod Touch 1G
• iPod Touch 2G - non MC

Sn0wbreeze is a Windows application, so Mac users have to wait for the upcoming release of PwnageTool by the DevTeam. Alternatively, both Mac and Windows users can use Redsn0w to run jailbreak (no custom firmware though).

You can download the new version of sn0wbreeze here.

MuscleNerd continues to argue that we should not use sn0wbreeze. Especially users who have unlocked their iPhone with blacksn0w utility:

Fraser Speirs posted a large collection of iPad UI conventions to help application designers. Most of them are from Apple promotional videos. The collection is viewable as a notated Flickr set. Here is the link.

The iPad will be available for purchase in March. For those who don't want to wait Jess Silverstone put together a cut-out of the Apple iPad. Just print these images on a standard A4 paper (8.3 x 11.7 inches) and make your own iPad:

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