Taiwan Economic News reports new rumors about Apple iTablet (MacBook Touch).
The tablet PC features a 9.6-inch screen, finger-touch function and built-in HSPDA (high speed download packet access) module, built-in 3G wireless connectivity, adopts a P.A. SEMI processor chip and long lasting battery pack. The expected price is between US$799 and US$999.
The report claims that DynaPack International Technology Corp. will make up to 300,000 'long lasting' battery for the Tablet per month. Wanshih Electronic Co., Ltd. will be supplying the mini coaxial cables. Layers Scientific-Technics Co., Ltd. and Wintek Corp. will be supplying the Power Chokes and the lovely 9.7 incher Touch Panel.
iTablet will probably appear some time in February 2010.
In less than a week Skype has been updated from from version 1.2 to version 1.2.1. Just couple minor bugfixes. Update is highly recommended.
Changelog:
- Fixed crashing in Dialing and History.
- Fixed erroneous handling of international prefixes.
- Fixed crashing due to special characters in contact names.
Navigon has decided to produce a Car Mount for iPhone (just like TomTom). This is a much simpler version that only allows to keep the iPhone in position and charge via the cigarette lighter or USB:
It will be avaliable in October and will cost less than $60. More advanced model with GPS module might appear later.
Here are a few interesting sales over the past couple of days:
Silent Hill: The Escape ($7.99 -> $0.99, AppStore link) – Konami's first person shooting game set in a creepy environment has seen a massive price drop from $7.99 to $0.99. So, if you've been curious about this title, now's a good time to try it.
Resident Evil 4 ($7.99 -> $2.99, AppStore link) – The mobile edition of Resident Evil 4. There was some very split opinions between those who loved the game and those who felt it paled in comparison to the original console version. Regardless of your position, a $5 price drop certainly makes it easier to pick up.
Dirt Moto Racing ($4.99 -> $0.99, AppStore link) – A solid off-road racer that's easily worth $0.99.
Crash Bandicoot ($5.99 -> $2.99, AppStore link) – One of the original kart racers for the iPhone, it seems they are starting to feel the pressure with Konami's Krazy Kart Racing and the upcoming Shrek Kart.
And, we've heard of one major game that will be holding a sale soon. Firemint's Real Racing (App Store link) will see its first sale this weekend dropping from $9.99 to $6.99 temporarily. The sale should be live by Saturday morning, so keep that in mind if you've been holding out.
DevTeam updated ultrasn0w. They removed the daemon and used ideas of GeoHot's purplesn0w, but implemented these ideas in a better safer way. New ultrasn0w 0.9 uses 152 bytes of baseband RAM, which is 6900 timesless than purplesn0w. They also use mobile substrate to patch CommCenter, instead of patching the file itself.
Here is a list of features from DevTeam.
Works on both 3G and 3GS.
Works on hacktivated devices.
Works regardless of how you jailbroke your device.
Doesn’t patch any mach-o binary whatsoever. (Doesn’t require a separate patch as each new firmware comes out).
Doesn’t install any additional daemon
Has no race conditions, no popups about “Missing SIM”, no network issues
Is almost 7000 times smaller than its nearest competition
Apple released new SDK and new firmware and 3.1 beta 2. Unless you have a developer account with Apple, don't plugging your iPhone into iTunes, you're not going to have access to it. However here is an unofficial changelist:
Minor release focused more to fix the bugs.
New APIs for video and images.It appears that there will be many applications in AppStore, suitable to apply effects on a video or create animated slideshow.
Xcode bug-fixes.
More items have been localized, such as "In Play", "Request access WiFi".
Developers will be able to use WiFi for debuging, etc.
Baseband is now version 05:10:01.This means that all those who use unlock - do not update yet.
The iPhone is heated much less.
Old method to turn tethering on does not work anymore.
UPDATE: Here are direct links to download firmware 3.1 b2:
Quantum Collapse is one of the best games RTS (Real Time Strategy) games for iPhone and iPod Touch. The game was released less than a month ago and has already been updated to version 1.1. Regular price is $3.99, but it is on sal enow for $0.99 (AppStore link). There is also a free lite version (AppStore link).
Features:
13 Campaign missions providing more than 8 hours of gameplay
11 Skirmish missions with 3 different AI Types.
Amazing Particle Effects and Explosions
2 Completely different factions with unique designs and powers
Voxel generated terrain (no repetitive tilemaps)
Map Zoom.
Each unit has a unique powerup. Some super units have up to 6 of them.
Spell system enables you to take a huge part in the battle.
In next version developers will implement multiplayer with voice-chat. Note for iPhone 3GS users: the game has graphical glitches on the iPhone 3GS. Developers found the solution and the fix is on it's way.
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...
We have already spoken about iGo My Way, a new navigation software that will be released shortly in AppStore. Here are some pictures and two video demonstrations showing the application in action.
The expected price is less than $100 ( €70). Here are two videos:
This is the first iPhone application to contain bare boobs. The $1.99 app for iPhone and iPod touch only showed girls in lingerie and bikinis until now.
This is not just an application that downloads softcore content from the Web, bypassing Apple's censorship. There is no censorship here, as this is truly an Apple approved app "rated 17+" for "frequent/intense sexual content or nudity" and "frequent/intense mature/suggestive theme."
According to developers: "We uploaded nude topless pics today. This is the first app to have nudity".
The app is avaliable via AppStore (link) for $1.99.
New iPhone is widely expected to be announced at WWDC 2009. But what name will Apple give to this new device?
iPhone 4G would assume 4G LTE wireless networks, which haven’t even begun to be rolled out yet, so last year’s scheme is out.
iPhone 3.5/3.9G is likewise a non-starter. HSPA+ is not for Apple.
iPhone 32GB is spoken all over internet. This name is more about memory, than a phone. It forces Apple to do actually 32GB models, etc. This too seems unlikely.
iPhone Pro fits with Mac Pro and MacBook Pro (and even Final Cut Pro). This name is cool, but kind of already used and abused by Palm Treo Pro, HTC Touch Pro, and a variety of other stylus-wielding Windows Phones.
iPhone, sans descriptor is always a possibility. After all, it’s not iMac X, Y, or Z, it’s just iMac. Whether internal documents say iPhone 2,1 or iPhone 3rd Generation, Apple could be ballsy enough at this point to just stick with the unadorned moniker.
iPhone HD - high resolution screen, full HD support, 10Mp camera.. all this is just our dreams. Why not?
This news comes directly from DataViz. Documents To Go application for iPhone has just been sent to Apple and it is awaiting approval. The software will allow you to view and edit Microsoft Office documents.
The University of Stanford created an iPhone related course for iTunes U. The first lesson will help developers to create iPhone applications, almost from scratch.
The course is obviously in English, and videos are posted about 2 days after the actual recording. The quality is very good, and we can even download the slides in PDF. To get started, just click here. And... yes, it is free.
Over the weekend, hints of several additional features for the next-generation iPhone were revealed. Among them was the discovery that text strings in the iPhone OS 3.0 software reference a new Broadcom wireless chip, BCM4329, which supports 802.11n wireless connectivity. In digging through the specs for the chip, 9 to 5 Mac has discovered that it also supports both reception and transmission of FM radio signals. The finding, however, doesn't mean that Apple will necessarily enable these features in the new iPhone.