Apple today launched a new holiday-themed iPhone commercial entitled "12 Days of Christmas". The ad reworks the standard Christmas carol of the same name to feature twelve iPhone applications related in some way to the holiday season:
12 cookies cooking: The Betty Crocker Mobile Cookbook [App Store, Free]
MacWorld has listed their 20 favorite apps of the year for the iPhone and iPod touch. With over 100,000 apps in the App Store, MacWorld focused on 20 categories and narrowed it down to the best performer in each category.
Phil Shiller, Apple Senior Vice President of Marketing, was asked what his favorite iPhone Apps were, and here’s what he said:
Shazam [Free - iTunes link]: “There’s just something so amazing about being anywhere, and some music starts playing and you just hold up your phone and can find out what it is,” Mr. Schiller said. “You never again have to say ‘That’s a great song! Who is it by?”
CNN News [$1.99 - iTunes link]: “It’s really cool having the news in your pocket.”
MacRumors has found a new Apple job listing seeking an iPhone Software Engineer to join the iPhone and iPod Touch Maps team with the goal of taking the iPhone's built-in Maps App to "the next level":
The iPhone has revolutionized the mobile industry and has changed people’s lives and we want to continue to do so. We want to take Maps to the next level, rethink how users use Maps and change the way people find things. We want to do this in a seamless, highly interactive and enjoyable way. We’ve only just started.
Apple and Google have increasingly become competitors in the mobile space while Google's mapping data remains an integral part of the iPhone's Maps application. Add this job listing to previous news that Apple quietly acquired Placebase, a would-be Google Maps competitor, back in July, and it certainly looks like Apple is planning something interesting (and less dependent on Google) for future Maps.app updates. Rumors say this new app will have navigation functionality.
Agile Web Solutions is offering 1Password Pro free until December 1st for iPhone and iPod touch users.
1Password will securely store your important information and can automatically log you into websites with a single tap. There's no need to remember the username, password, or even the website address.
1Password Pro is normally $7.99 and can be installed from the AppStore (link).
Feature List:
(pro) Special easy switching mode allows you to quickly copy-and-paste usernames and passwords to Mobile Safari.
(pro) Support for copying multiple field values (for example, both username and password) from 1Password to Mobile Safari.
(pro) Folders for better organization (in this version a desktop application required - sold separately)
(pro) Features coming soon: Favorites, MobileMe/WebDAV syncing, and more.
Securely store your website names and passwords so you never forget them again
Save important information like credit cards and membership numbers
Jot down other notes too sensitive for stickies or bar napkins
Synchronize it all with 1Password for Mac via Wi-Fi (sold separately, available at http://1password.com)
Automatically log into Web sites on iPhone and iPod touch to avoid remembering and typing usernames and passwords
Hardware-accelerated AES encryption and Auto-Lock keep your data protected even if your iPhone is lost or stolen
All cryptographic operations are performed using standard iPhone libraries to ensure there are no security gaps or backdoors
Two-layer defense with Unlock Code and Master Password to combine security and convenience
Data Backup & Restore option available on Mac, Windows and Linux.
Gameloft company made an agreement with Capcom to bring new cool games to the iPhone platform. In particular here is a list of 6 games that will be avaliable in 2010:
Resident Evil
Uprising
Street Fighter Alpha
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
Lost Planet 2
Dead Rising 2
Where's Wally 2
This collaboration represents the first partnership between Gameloft and Capcom. With a network of 180 operators in 80 countries worldwide, Gameloft has all the resources, tools and experience to distribute Capcom's games to a larger number of users.
Capcom's mobile games will be available during 2010.
AdMob has released their latest October 2009 October Mobile Metrics report with details on devices and platforms requests ads from AdMob network. The iPhone and iPod Touch platform (iPhone OS) has a comfortable 50% share of worldwide traffic and 55% of US traffic. In terms of top handset models, Apple’s iPhone accounted for 22.4%/24.1% (up 5.5%/5.2%) and iPod touch for 9.8%/11.4 (up 1.4%/2.3%).
Apple nearly reached the milestone back in May when it hit 49%, but the company's share temporarily dropped back over the next several months before beginning a sharp climb again in September.
A second iPhone worm virus has been found by security company F-Secure. It is specifically targeting people in the Netherlands who are using their iPhones for internet banking with Dutch online bank ING.
It redirects the bank's customers to a site with a log-in screen (phishing). The worm attacks "jailbroken" phones - a modification which enables the user to run non-Apple approved software on their handset. Only handsets with installed SSH (secure shell) are at risk. SSH is a file-transfer program that enables users to remotely connect to their phones. It comes with a default password, 'alpine' which should be changed.
Here is a tutorial how to change the default SSH password and minimize the risk.
Yesterday Tristan Nitot, the European president of the Mozilla Foundation, has responded to some questions about the future opportunity to see Firefox on the iPhone and iPod Touch:
"The issue is more with Apple than with us because they control the App Store and because they refuse applications which compete with something that is already on the phone. It’s unlikely that we’ll see a version of Firefox running on the iPhone"
As for Firefox Mobile, it will be launching on Symbian, Android, Windows Mobile, and Nokia Maemo tablets in December.
Google today announced that it has issued an update to Google Earth the companion iPhone and iPod touch application to the company's desktop application offering virtual globe and other geographic information.
Among the biggest changes in Version 2.0 of Google Earth is the ability to view custom maps stored in the "My Maps" section of users' Google Maps accounts:
By logging in directly to your Google Maps account, you can view the same maps that you or others have created, using the My Maps interface.
What's new:
Take your maps with you wherever you go. View Google Maps created on your desktop computer on your iPhone.
Visual feedback when you select photos, businesses, and other icons. It's now much easier to browse.
This is quite simple. If you did a jailbreak on your iPhone you need to change the default password. Why? Because hackers can access your phone, read your mail, sms, download other data. The second reason is because there are already several viruses (worms) that use these default passwords.
Here's a quick step-by-step tutorial.
If you don't have MobileTerminal application installed: for 4.х and 5.x firmwares we have a good step-by-step tutorial, for 3.x just run Cydia, search for MobileTerminal and install.
Run MobileTerminal.
Type passwd and press return.
Enter the default user password alpine and press return.
Enter a new password and press return.
Enter a new password again and press return.
Congratulations, you changed it for default mobile user. Let's do the same for root user.
Login as root user: type su root and press return.
Type alpine for password
Type passwd and press return.
Enter a new password and press return.
Enter a new password again and press return.
That's it!
The passwords are now changed, and your jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch is now a bit more secure than it was before and less vulnerable to the worm detected recently.
Bell Keller, Executive Editor of the NY Times, let slip on the still unconfirmed Apple tablet in a speech last week.
The New York Times speech comes from an internal "all hands" meeting at TheTimesCenter, which was intended to be off the record. However, the video was also provided to the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University. Skip to about 8:20, and you'll hear:
We need to figure out the right journalistic product to deliver to mobile platforms and devices. I'm hoping we can get the newsroom more actively involved in the challenge of delivering our best journalism in the form of Times Reader, iPhone apps, WAP, or the impending Apple slate, or whatever comes after that.
Given the matter-of-fact way Keller refers to the slate, it sounds like a done deal versus a hypothetical.
With internet tethering enabled you can use iPhone internet connection on you desktop or notebook. Here is a quick tutorial for experienced users. For everybody else - just wait for the new version of PwnageTool or some other utility.
Here it is:
A bsdiff patch to apply to CommCenter in 3.1.2 to re-enable tethering is available here for the 3GS and here for the 3G. It's just a 2-byte patch as shown below (and an appropriate readjusting of the mach-o's codesign hash):
USE THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK! Your carrier may end up charging you for unauthorized tethering access.
Update #1 It looks like a lot of people have been looking at CommCenter lately because IRC user CleanAir had a similar tethering patch. Meanwhile over in the 2G CommCenter, WhiteRat and geniusan have patched in native MMS support for that platform. Kudos to CleanAir, WhiteRat, and geniusan for digging into CommCenter and coming up with patches!
Update #2 A few tutorials have started to pop up. Eventually this will be made a part of the normal PwnageTool flow but for now this is best left for the adventurous users out there!
Here are new iPhone ads: 'Dine', ' Nature', and 'Pass'. Each one feature six applications per ad. All three commercials also mention that there are now 75,000 applications available in the App Store.
The first one is named "Dine". Here is the list of apps used in the video and the video itself:
- TripCase [App Store, Free]
- New York Subway 09 [App Store, $4.99]
- Epicurious Recipes & Shopping List [App Store, Free]
- Zagat To Go '09 [App Store, $9.99]
- Quickoffice Mobile Office Suite [App Store, $9.99]
- Gap StyleMixer [App Store, Free]
Mobile Substrate has been updated to version 0.9.3043-1. According to Saurik the update; “fixes the issues some extensions (like WinterBoard) are having with the new dyld “shared cache” in iPhone OS 3.1.”. So, if you are on firmware 3.1, WinterBoard should work properly once you update to the new version of Mobile Substrate.
Avaliable in Cydia for jailbreaked iPhones and iPod Touches.