News from category ‘Software’

This week AppleInsider discovered a new patent application from Apple that demonstrates company's interest in expanding its Siri voice-assistant to help with online shopping. The current version of the service available exclusively on the iPhone 4S does not allow users to make online purchases. The voice-driven personal assistant software responds with "Sorry, I can't purchase that," when a user tries to complete transactions with online stores.

The patent application, entitled "Intelligent Automated Assistant," is a detailed look not only at what Siri can already do, but what it might be able to do in the future. And it specifically highlights e-commerce as a key function of its "Intelligent Automated Assistant." The application notes that Siri could be used for "online purchases of items such as books, DVDs, music and the like."

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Today in the second part of its education-focused media event Apple turned attention to iTunes U, free podcast section of the iTunes Store. Eddy Cue announced that more than 1,000 universities are using iTunes U, and its content was downloaded over 700 million times to date.

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Today, during the education-focused media event Apple announced iBooks 2, an updated version of its e-book program for iOS devices. This update is a part of Apple’s move into sphere of interactive digital textbooks, performed in cooperation with several major publishers.

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Pod2g has posted a photo confirming the successful untethered jailbreak of the iPad 2 on iOS 5.0.1.

Recently pod2g posted a video showing the successful untethered jailbreak of the iPhone 4S on iOS 5.0.1.

Release of the jailbreak is expected in a few days. We'll let you know as soon as it is available!

iMore dug through the recently released third beta of iOS 5.1 and found evidence showing that Apple could add a deeper iPhone and iPad integration with Facebook into a future operating system update. In one screenshot shown for the iOS Contacts application, there is an option to enter a person's Facebook user name right below their Twitter account. The same deeper integration was provided for Twitter that was one of the most-touted features of iOS 5, which was publicly released last October.

Deep integration with the social networking service allows users to quickly post Web links from Safari or pictures saved in the Photos application to Twitter. Presumably, future iOS integration with Facebook would offer similar functionality, making it easier for users to share information with their friends on the popular website.

The pre-release build of iOS 5.1 also reportedly includes references to new iPad models that are named in the code such as "J1AP" and "J2AP." The references corroborate with rumored code-names of "J1" and "J2" that were first reported last November, when it was said that Apple was secretly working on two new iPad models.

This week, on Thursday, January 19, Apple plans to hold its education-related media event. Last week Apple sent out invitations for the event with a tagline stated that the company would make an "education announcement in the Big Apple." The multiple reports are claiming that the company could announce an initiative to help textbook makers produce interactive ebooks for the iPad, with some sources calling the initiative "Garageband for e-books."

ArsTechnica reported on Monday that its sources are claiming that Apple will release a simple app that makes e-book publishing as easy as recording a song in GarageBand. Inkling CEO Matt MacInnis, who worked on education projects at Apple before leaving to focus on interactive e-books, also confirms the rumors, because he dosn't believe that Apple would start releasing content to replace, for example, textbooks, the company is likely to provide content production tools, similar to its own Logic or Final Cut Pro software.

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iH8sn0w has released new version of popular jailbreak utility Sn0wBreeze 2.9. Sn0wbreeze is used to create a custom firmware with jailbreak and preserve iPhone modem (baseband) version for unlock. New version 2.9 adds support for untethered iOS 5.0.1 jailbreak as well as support for all firmwares supported by previous versions of sn0wbreeze.

For now Sn0wBreeze 2.9 supports untethered jailbreak for iOS 3.1.3, 3.2.x, 4.0.x, 4.1, 4.2.1 - 4.2.8, 4.3 - 4.3.3 and 5.0.1. Supported devices are: iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad 1, iPod Touch 2G, iPod Touch 3G, iPod Touch 4G.

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UPDATE: Apple released iOS 5.1 firmware. Apple has stopped signing iOS 5.0.1, so you can NOT restore to 5.0.1 any more. If you are on 5.0.1 you can jailbreak with RedSn0w.

Using this tutorial you will be able to untether jailbreak iOS 5.0.1 running on iPhone 4. Pwnagetool will also preserve baseband version if you need carrier unlock. This tutorial uses PwnageTool 5.0.1 for Mac OS X.

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UPDATE: Apple released iOS 5.1 firmware. Apple has stopped signing iOS 5.0.1, so you can NOT restore to 5.0.1 any more. If you are on 5.0.1 you can jailbreak with RedSn0w.

Using this tutorial you will be able to untether jailbreak iOS 5.0.1 running on iPhone 3GS. Pwnagetool will also preserve baseband version if you need carrier unlock. If you have updated the baseband to version 06.15, you can use this tutorial to update to iOS 5.0.1. This tutorial uses PwnageTool 5.0.1 for Mac OS X.

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As French magazine AixEnProvence.fr reports (via ifoAppleStore), Apple plans to build a new store in Aix-en-Provence in France. According to the renderings, a one-store building will be relatively small one compared to other Apple stores and will be constructed on a broad stone plaza. Apart from the tan-colored rear wall, the store will be entirily encompassed with transparent glass. A second rendering depicts the store with a fountain that is similar to the the Fifth Avenue plaza fountain in New York. Reports note that the new location could be open in the end of 2012 or in early 2013.

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Saurik has announced that an update to the Corona Untethered Jailbreak has been released in Cydia.

The update fixes issues for iBooks and launchd and it's recommended that users who previously jailbroke their A4 devices install the Corona package from Cydia.

Corona (5.0.1 untether) 1.0-4 is now out: users of redsn0w or the older packages should install. This fixes both iBooks and launchd (again).

As many users don't realize that untethers only affects boot, I just released 1.0-5 of the Corona package, which forces a reboot on upgrade.

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Pod2g has posted a video made by DHowett showing the successful untethered jailbreak of the iPhone 4S on iOS 5.0.1.

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iPhone Dev Team have just released a new version of RedSn0w 0.9.10b4. It includes a fixes for iBooks and launchctl. As always, you can simply run the new redns0w over your current jailbreak, just make sure to uncheck Cydia. To fix iBooks and launchctl errors you can also simply install new version of Corona from Cydia.

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iH8Sn0w has announced the release of iREB r5, an update to his Windows utility that helps you get past iTunes errors when restoring to a custom firmware.

Release Notes:
● Much smaller file size (390kb).
● Fixed USB 3.0 issues.
● iREB's speed for the iPhone 2G/iPhone 3G/iPod Touch 1G has increased significantly!
● Fixed rare DFU detection issues.
● Updated limera1n/steaks4uce payload to not hook "cmd_go" on 4.x images (nothing severe, but useless here).

You can download iReb version 5 here.

The 'dream team' of iPhone hackers has made more progress on the A5 jailbreak with planetbeing just announcing that they're out of Apple's sandbox.

And we're out of the sandbox with @saurik's invaluable help! (well, at least there's a PoC) 😀 Turning out more complex than X-Gold 618.

pod2g also mentioned progress in twitter:

@planetbeing escaped from the sandbox with the help of @saurik. Thanks to their awesome work, there should be nothing left blocking for the A5 jailbreak. Now it should be a matter of days. Still no precise ETA of course.

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