News tagged ‘fun’

Opera had finally demonstrated new Opera Mini for the iPhone at the Mobile World Congress.

In comparison to the default iPhone browser it looks pretty quick - Opera Mini loads the New York Times like 5x faster than its rival. Its main disadvantage is that it lacks the all-important feature pinch-to-zoom, and the only alternative is a method of double-tapping the webpages. Generally, the iPhone owners will find that the usual silky smooth scrolling through favorite webpages and responsive interface are maintained at the very best.

Unlike other platforms, the iPhone variant actually remembers the website you happened to browse last - the feature that will obviously be favored by a legion of iPhone admirers.

Company says as soon as beta tag is removed the browser will be submitted for approval. And it is not obvious whether Apple approve it or not, because it maintains the option of rejecting any app that "duplicates functionality" of the apps Apple builds into the iPhone. Opera co-founder Jon von Tetzchner has his own point of view on this:

"Opera Mini is the world's most popualr mobile browser and users on the iPhone deserve a choice."

It's really true, that in some cases the best ideas are the simplest ones that come to mind in moments when we least expect it. Here is a good example, when one of users created an iPhone stand using cigarette package. The result is a support for the iPhone that is very simple and functional:

A new job offer on the official Apple website gives one more evidence that in future the iPad and iPod Touch will have a camera and will be able to record video. In particular, Apple is looking for an engineer for the team "Media Systems" who will test the possibility to take pictures, playback and record audio and video:

The Media Systems team is looking for a software quality engineer with a strong technical background to test still, video and audio capture and playback frameworks. Build on your QA experience and knowledge of digital camera technology (still and video) to develop and maintain testing frameworks for both capture and playback pipelines. You will work together with the development team to ensure quality. Your focus will mainly be on performance testing and developing performance measurement test tools. You will be responsible for the development and maintenance of methodical testing strategies and accompanying test documentation. Day to day activities will include developing and conducting functional/system/regression testing.ad-hoc testing; creating and tracking high quality bug reports; and reporting on project progress.

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:

Darren Beckett created a small table, comparing the entry-level iPad's cost and functions with popular e-readers like the Amazon Kindle DX, Fusion Garage JooJoo, Sony Reader and others.

While the iPad is as the most expensive on the list, it's fairly obvious if you need anything more than a simple e-reader, the iPad offers the most bang for your buck.

Google released a software update for Android-based Nexus One smartphones. The update offers a number of enhancements, but the most interesting one is a support of the multi-touch technology in phone's Browser, Gallery and Maps applications. The new functionality is called "pinch-to-zoom".

Google previously had an agreement with Apple, that Android OS would not support multi-touch in the U.S. Now it looks like all the agreements are gone.

Engadget posted a video of the Nexus One's pinch-to-zoom functionality:

Once Apple began allowing VoIP over 3G we can now expect this functionality to apper in real iPhone applications. Fring already implemented it. Skype has announced via it's blog that a new version of Skype app for iPhone will support 3G calling:

You may have seen other apps offering calls over 3G, but we’re holding ours back for a little bit longer. Why? So that we can give you the very best audio quality we can. When our 3G-capable Skype for iPhone app is released, it’ll let you make calls in wideband audio, giving you greater clarity and fidelity – because that’s what you expect from Skype.

Watch the video for more details:

Every Apple’s device has been embraced by pop culture sooner or later, and we have to admit the iPad is already one of the most popular devices.

Here is a Parry Gripp’s latest tune about the iPad, which represents an idea of how successful this device will likely be: we can argue about which kinds of nachos are ruling, but we can all agree nachos in general are awesome.

Here is a small collection of funny pictures and video about Apple iPad:

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A month ago John Gruber, author of the Daring Fireball blog, posted on twitter: “Shouldn't the iPhone shoot 16:9 video? Who wants 4:3 video nowadays?”

Many people admit that they expect all screens to be closer to 16:9 aspect ratio. However from the first look it is obvious that iPad does not have 16:9 screen. We can see from the picture above the iPad screen is apparently equivalent in its aspect ratio to 2 iPhone screens, stacked in landscape mode, which is 4:3. It is primarily meant to be used in portrait mode, and it looks like a video playback is a secondary function. Indeed a 16:9 video looks a bit skinny on the iPad.

So will 4:3 video get back to business or it is just another feature of more comfortable e-book reading?

As the new A4 CPU is rumored to be the next CPU for the 4th generation of iPhones, MobileCrunch proposes four more features to transfer from iPad to iPhone:

1. Bluetooth Keyboard Support.

Apple iPad is claimed to support Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR that lets you connect Apple Wireless Keyboard, wireless headphones or other devices. This feature isn't supported yet in iPhones.

2. Desktop file syncing for third party applications

Now iPad allows you to drag-and-drop files from computer to the storage folders of third party applications. At one moment you're editing your document on a Mac, and at the second you're viewing it on your iPad.

3. Apps identify themselves as supporting their specific file types.

On the iPhone even if you have installed a specific application, you will need to find a way to get that file into the application's storage space. On the iPad you can open a file from the desktop or even from an email.

4. PDF Creation Support

There was always a problem of saving files that other people need to see in the friendly format. New iPad has built-in PDF creation functionality for iWork, which is very convenient.

With this improvements iPad can obviously be considered as a sign of innovations to come for the iPhone.

Here is an Apple iPad hands on video from CNet specialist Brian Tong. He actually finds some functionality that Apple didn't show at the keynote. Let's watch:

Here is another CNet iPad video, made right after the keynote:

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As always before the release of a new device many designers and regular users make interesting concepts. Here is a new one for iPhone 4G:

The author also provided a probability percentage value for each functionality of seeing it actually implemented:

• Removable battery (30% probability)
• Flash LED (50%)
• Back (Case) touchscreen, like the surface of the Magic Mouse (75%)
• Front camera (70%)
• Contacts on the Home Screen, as shown by a recent patent (70%)
• 64GB flash memory (60%)
• Dual-core processor and more RAM (80%)
• OLED display (90%)

Google today announced the launch of its Nexus One smartphone. It is based on the Android 2.1 operating system and offers 800x480 screen, 5 megapixel camera with flash,  Qualcomm's 1 GHz Snapdragon processor. The Nexus One offers 512 MB of Flash and 512 MB of RAM, and ships with a 4 GB Micro SD card with support for cards up to 32 GB.

Nexus One is initially available from the Google web store in the US without service for $529 or starting at $179 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile USA. In the near future, Verizon Wireless in the US and Vodafone in Europe plan to offer similar service plans.

Here is the full list of hardware and software features:

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Sn0wbreeze, the famous tool for Windows, will be released towards the end of this week. Sn0wbreeze is the software that will allow users to create custom firmwares to use for jailbreak and unlock. Now this functionality is available for Mac OS usera with PwnageTool.