The iPhone game F.A.S.T. (Fleet Air Superiority Training) is an air combat simulation game with online multiplayer functionality. Yesterday it was updated and today it became free. The regular price was $0.99. The discount is probably due to the addition of some new paid content that is avaliable through the in-app purchase.
Why not try it for free? Go ahead and download via AppStore (link).
MarketWatch reports that Apple will begin mass production of its much-rumored iTablet in February ahead of a launch in late March or April.
The report claims that the device will include a 10.1" multi-touch LCD screen. There were rumors that iTablet will have OLED screen and therefore delayed till the second half of 2010.
Current rumors also say that Apple has begun contacting book publishers about distributing their books through Apple for consumption on the new device. Apple is reportedly proposing a similar business model to its App Store, where Apple would retain 30% of each download's sale price with 70% going to the publishers. Amazon, for example, uses 50/50 model.
The estimated cost of the future device is $1000. Apple may sell 1-1.5 million tablets per quarter. The name of the future device is still unknown. Rumors say different vartiants: iTablet, TabletMac, MacTablet or just Apple Tablet.
iPhone developer Pandav informed MacRumors that they, thanks to the scripts of statistics included in their application, have managed to record tracks for a new iPhone model, not yet released.
PinchMedia, which offers a system of statistics and analysis on the use of software, has noticed the same thing and the new device is identified with the code iPhone3,1. The last iPhone released to the public was the iPhone 3GS which carries the identification string iPhone2,1. Apple similarly began testing the iPhone 3GS (iPhone2,1) back in October of 2008 about 8 months ahead of its launch.
The next generation iPhone might include a multi-core processor and Verizon compatibility. It might be released as early as mid 2010.
iPhone Explorer is a handy application for Mac and Windows. It allows users to use a USB connection and access all the system files. Users can create, delete and rename files and folders on iPhone or iPod Touch, or use the device as a flash drive. If you have a jailbroken device can gain access to the root directory. The functionality is somehow similar to iFunBox and iPhone Folder applications.
The application is completely free and you can download it from here.
Electronic Arts, one of the biggest game developer company, EA has discounted all their iPhone games for this holiday week/weekend. You can save a lot of money:
Musicbar is a new Tweak from user Gi-Lo that lets you control the music from the StatusBar.
Operation is very simple: install the tweak via Cydia and run it via a tap on the name of your operator. Now we can control the playback directly from the StatusBar.
More and more developers complain about the rejection of their applications in the AppStore. There's a good reason behind all this.
It seems that Apple has created a tool that can automatically review applications and APIs that are used. According to the rules of the SDK, the developers can not use private API. If this initial test is passed examiners begin to manually check the app.
So the advice is quite simple - follow the rules of the SDK.
Apple today posted two new iPhone commercials to its ad gallery and also began airing them on prime-time television. Here is a list of applications, that are used in these videos:
There is an app for about everything. iMaya is an iPhone application that shows a countdown clock until time X of 2012.
Here is a quick story about this Maya calendar. Maya civilization had several different calendars, the longest one, The Long Count, identifies a date by counting the number of days from the Mayan creation (August 11, 3114 BC in the proleptic Gregorian calendar or September 6 in the Julian calendar). But instead of using a base-10 (decimal) scheme like Western numbering, the Long Count days were tallied in a modified base-20 scheme. Thus 0.0.0.1.5 is equal to 25, and 0.0.0.2.0 is equal to 40.
The Maya name for a day was k'in. Twenty of these k'ins are known as a winal or uinal. Eighteen winals make one tun. Twenty tuns are known as a k'atun. Twenty k'atuns make a b'ak'tun. Confused? Don't panic. 1 B'ak'tun is about 144,000 days or 394.3 years.
The date December 20, 2012 is simply the last day of the 13th b'ak'tun. And here is the big misinterpretation of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. There is a belief, that this date is the basis for a New Age and for a big cataclysm. For the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle. But that is not the end of the Long Count because the 14th through 20th b'ak'tuns are still to come. So we need to wait for another 7 b'ak'tuns (> 2700 years), when this Long Count calendar will end.
The app costs $0.99 and is available in AppStore (link). It requires firmware 3.1.2 and is localized in various languages.
MIT student Chris Varenhorst developed a hydraulic system connected to some electronic components that allow you to open a door with the ability to control it with the iPhone.
The system is very simple, the mechanical part to open the door is connected to a PC with an Ubuntu Linux system from which it receives the commands. Application iDoor connects to a PC via an internet connection and sends the instructions for opening or closing the door.
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.
Here's a new video preview of Sn0wbreeze, the iH8sn0w's Windows tool that will be able to create a custom firmware, just as PwnageTool Mac.
In the video we see a preview of the graphic interface and the first functions. At startup we choose the expert or the simple mode and the rest should be exactly as we know it already.
Geohot has released his BlackSn0w utility. BlackSn0w is an unlock for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. It supports the latest firmware 3.1 and 3.1.2 with baseband 05.11.07 and enables official tethering. Available for both Windows and Mac.
Here is a quick tutorial:
If you havn't done the jailbreak: go to blackra1n.com, download blackra1n, run it, follow the instructions (it is really simple) to perform the jailbreak. Run balckra1n app on iPhone and install BlackSnow.
If your device is already jailbroken - run Cydia, add repository blackra1n.com and install blacksn0w. That's it!
The latest version of blackra1n is RC3. It now has hacktivation support, 15 second speed improvement, Tiger+PPC support.
PS: If you just bought a new iPhone 3GS or have one that was made recently (approximately after 40th week after iPhone 3GS release): your device has a new BootROM. Unfortunately it is impossible to run regular jailbreak with this new BootROM. There is a sloution - tethered jailbreak. Everything including unlock will work fine. However every time you restart your iPhone, you need to plug it to a computer with blackra1n installed.
U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has published a new Apple patent on a removable module designed specifically to add new features to the iPod Touch.
The Apple device can read the circuit cards (ICCs), the chip cards, memory cards, and even the SIM card. The operation is not simple and is not quite clear. Maybe some day we will ba able to use SIM cards in iPod and SD in iPhone?
We have seen a video from Verizon named iDon't and an ansfer from iPhone fans - the video named iDon't Care. Here's a new one, called iCan. It describes what a jailbreaked iPhone can do:
Here is the list of apps for that:
Can be customized: using Winterboard
I can run applications simultaneously: thanks to Backgrounder and Kirikae
I can always use the tethering: thanks to the tweaks available in Cydia
I call with Skype on 3G network: using VoiceOver3G or 3GUnrestrictor
Support an open development: with applications to be released via Cydia