Archive for November 9th, 2011

Vooma announced a new case for iPhone that includes a backup battery and a slot for SIM-card. The case can work with the app on jailbroken iPhone that emulates the native phone app to make calls via the external SIM card.

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Last week, Apple confirmed that some users indeed experienced problems with battery life on their devices with the iOS 5. The company said that the issue was caused by some bugs in the operating system and now Apple is working on update that will solve the problem. The iOS 5.0.1 seems to be in developing testing already and Apples intends to expand its testing, asking customers, who have experienced problems with their devices, to participate in testing.

Apple invites you to participate in a software seeding project. We have selected you, based on a referral from AppleCare for participation in our program, to assist us in testing an upcoming iOS 5 Software Update. Please follow the directions below to complete the invitation process.

Apple also asked retail store staff to recommend customers to wait for “a few weeks” until the update will be released, not offering replacement handsets for battery life issues.

A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices. If you are helping one of those customers, follow standard procedure to rule out any hardware issues with the device. If no hardware issues are found, let the customer know that Apple has found a few bugs in iOS 5 affecting battery life and Apple will release a software update to address those in a few weeks.

The iPad 3 with Retina display will unlock very valuable capabilities for professionals, for example, for pilots who use tablet for electronic charts and doctors who use it for medical imaging. Many airlines replaced conventional flight bags weighing 40 pounds or more with light-weight iPad. But the iPad is not allowed to be used further than a 50-mile radius of the originating and destination airports, because the charts are quite complex to be displayed on any electronic device.

While "about 75 to 80 percent of a flight is done using the autopilot, in conjunction with the flight management system," according to Flight Safety Foundation executive vice president Kevin Hiatt, the ability to use an electronic device to navigate highly complex flight maps could be expanded with the additional resolution in a "Retina Display" iPad.

And this is only one example how the iPad 3 with Retina display might be used. Other professionals would similarly benefit from such a doubling improvement in resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels.

Appleinsider obtained an email that was reportedly a bug report where the company confirmed that it currently has "no plans" to support its Siri personal assistant feature on older devices and would keep Siri as the iPhone 4S exclusive feature. Some analysts view Siri as the main selling point of the newest iPhone, so it would be quite irrational to provide support for Siri on older devices in first months of iPhone 4S sales.

"Engineering has provided the following feedback regarding this issue: Siri only works with iPhone 4S and we currently have no plans to support older devices," the email read.

But it is not surprisingly, when Apple introduced Siri last month, the company made it clear that the feature was exclusive to the iPhone 4S alone. There were some speculations that Siri might require faster processor implemented in the iPhone 4S, but a hack we reported about denied that fact and show that Siri works on the iPhone 4 also quite well.

According to an internal document, Apple on Tuesday launched a new mandatory training program for new store managers. All managers will also be required to take it biannually.

"This course is intended to provide managers with a practical understanding of how unions affect the workplace, how and why employees organize, and the legal do's and don'ts of dealing with unions," the course's description reads. "This is a mandatory class for all new managers, and is required biannually for all managers." The training is also billed as a "great opportunity" for managers to meet the company's legal team and ask any questions.

This program could be Apple’s response to action of group "Apple Retail Workers Union" that struggle against "unfair treatment" at Apple's retail stores.

iOS hacker Conrad Kramer, better known as Contradev, have discovered a way how to enable the hidden panorama mode within Apple’s Camera application of the iOS 5. But, he noted, the feature seems to be not completed and in ongoing development by Apple. It offers settings for a grid and HDR when creating a panorama photo. A user can capture individual photos from left to right and the software will stitch it together. Kramer has said that the function is easily activated by "EnableFirebreak" key in a preference file within the mobile operating system.

Another hacker Grant Paul, also known as Chpwn, posted a screenshot (see above) of the panorama mode and has already submitted an application, called Firebreak, to Cydia to enable the panorama mode for Jailbroken iPhones.

It is obvious that Apple has been testing the Panorama mode that could appear in the iOS 5, but it is unclear why Apple did not include the feature in the final release.

The newest Apple’s iPhone 4S became available for preorders in Hong Kong last Friday and sold out almost immediately. As Brian White, analysts at Ticonderoga Securities, said, iPhone 4S preorders sold out in their first 10 minutes of availability.

"In our view, this is a very positive sign for iPhone 4S demand in Greater China has Hong Kong represents the first entry of the new smartphone in the rapidly growing region, and we expect the 4S to reach Mainland China in December," White said in a note to investors on Monday.

"We believe this rapid sell out will rest concerns surrounding the uptake of the iPhone 4S in the Greater China region that were driven by the limited language capability of Siri, which did not launch in Mandarin or Cantonese."

Although, the current version of Siri understands only English, French and German, Apple plans to start supporting additional languages in 2012, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Italian and Spanish.

A successful start of the iPhone 4S in Chine is good news for Apple. Of course, the nation of over a billion people is an important part of Apple’s international policy and growth.