Tag Archive for ‘Apple’
Electronic digital keys are a very interesting solution to a lot of problems about having bulky key chains and a too many key to sort around with when one is trying to open a door while carrying some hefty luggage. It is a lot easier to use too, simply pressing the touch screen with a few commands will be enough to open the door.
However, the convenience is not the only factor that one has to consider –electronically locking doors and relying on wireless technology to open the lock also has its own set of security drawbacks.
Anyway, it seems that there are plenty of rumors pointing to the use of NFC technology on the upcoming iPhone 5. With the iPhone 4 just having recently, been launched, it seems odd that the next device in the series would be brought up so early. But with the issues with the Apple antenna brings up the possibility that Apple is planning to move on to the next model as soon as possible.
So what is the deal with NFC?
NFC, or near field communication, is an old technology that has yet to be fully utilized by mobile phones. There are pros and cons to the issue, but the biggest con lies in the fact that the phone is a security hazard. Having the device getting lost is already a big problem. Unlike credit cards and keys that are often kept in the bag, pockets, purse or what not, most people walk around using their mobile phones.
It is likely that during the course of a dinner outside, a person would pull out a mobile phone and use it rather to fish out the car keys and play around with it mindlessly. In any case, it will be interesting to see how Apple is able to twist the technology around to get more people to support it.
Tags: Apple, Apple-iPhone, Apple-iPhone-4, Apple-iPhone-5, NFC
According to 3 UK, the Apple iPhone 4 is about to be released this week. The virtual network operator has made the announcement earlier and has confirmed that interested buyers may call ahead to schedule an appointment with 3 UK store staff so that they may be accommodated on launch day.
So far, it is not known if there will be a queue for 3 stores, but with the demand for the iPhone 4 still going strong, it is likely that customer will certainly need to book an appointment in advance to be able to get a handset on the release date. It has also been announced that 3 UK stores will be opening early this July 30th so expect to have booking options available quite early in the morning as well.
Of course, many smart phone fans might be wondering if the iPhone 4 from 3 UK will come with a complementary iPhone 4 bumper. The answer, so far, is a no. According to Apple, the only way to acquire the free bumper is for users to download the official Apple bumper app from iTunes and use their account to acquire the accessory. This allows Apple to keep track of which users have already been given free bumpers to.
For those wondering why a bumper is important, this is because the iPhone 4’s antenna is faulty. A small portion of the antenna is exposed in the lower edge on the side of the handset. This portion of the iPhone 4, when touched, will cause the device to lose signal. In the middle of a conversation, touching this part accidentally will most likely lead to a dropped call.
While Apple is not willing to make a massive recall to fix all iPhone 4, they have announced that they will be giving out free iPhone 4 bumpers that would keep the antenna from being exposed.
Tags: 3-mobile, antenna, Apple, Apple-iPhone, Apple-iPhone-4, apps
Everyone who has postponed purchasing an iPhone simply because they are waiting for the white version of the popular handset will be sorely disappointed to know that its release has again been delayed. Apple CEO Steve Jobs previously announced that the white version of the iPhone 4 was due to be stocked on shelves at the end of this month.
Contrary to what he said however, Apple’s official statement last Friday declared that the much coveted version will not be available until later this year. Apparently the delay can be attributed to how hard it is to actually make white iPhone 4s:
“White models of Apple’s new iPhone 4 have continued to be more challenging to manufacture than we originally expected, and as a result they will not be available until later this year. The availability of the more popular iPhone 4 black models is not affected”
Does it sound familiar? It was just how Apple explained the delay for the white version experienced during the preorder period for the iPhone 4. The extension will surely disappoint many fans who have been putting off buying an iPhone 4 and those eagerly waiting to trade in the black version of the device for its fairer counterpart.
It is surprising that Steve Jobs, being the authority on all things that is iPhone 4, was seemingly optimistic about the white iPhone’s release just two weeks ago during the emergency conference. The bad news may have been delayed to prevent irking fans further after the repeated bad press that the reception problems have caused. Or it may be a strategy to draw in more customers as the hype and media attention centered on the device increases.
As of now, there is no tentative date of release or any word if the white version will have any hardware tweaks (like, say, a better positioned antenna) compared to the original black.
Tags: antenna, Apple, Apple-iPhone, Apple-iPhone-4, Steve-Jobs, White-iPhone-4
Owners of the Apple iPhone 4 are getting several options from Apple, and none of these are going to be solving the antenna, issue. Still, it is nice to have a choice every now and then. According to Steve Jobs, current owners of the iPhone 4 may choose to have their handset fully refunded to Apple –no questions asked. As for those willing to stick it out for the device, they will have a choice of various iPhone 4 casings that will help the device function no matter what way it will be held.
The sad part here is that most of the people who are going to bear with the troublesome antenna of the iPhone 4 are Apple’s very own fans and followers, and it is hard to deny the fact that these folks deserve a whole lot better than just a free case. Apple should at least give the users a substantial rebate or discount on repair costs –as no one should really stick with a handset that is practically broken already.
For those who missed out on the details of the emergency conference that Apple gave last Friday night, Steve Jobs basically went up onstage and practically denied that the iPhone 4 really has an issue.
The man managed to insult RIM, Samsung and HTC with a single slide as well as tell the world that the iPhone 4’s antenna has no real problems –with a straight face.
In any case, it is hard to imagine what form of bizarre time wasting rituals Apple might have at Cupertino that it took them a whole 22 days before they decided that they were powerless about the situation and should simply give out free casings to all iPhone 4 users.
On a more interesting note, it seems that the status quo for Apple is about to change once September 30 hits.
Tags: antenna, Apple, Apple-iPhone, Apple-iPhone-4, HTC, RIM, Samsung, Steve-Jobs
While it would be too much if we called foul, after all, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. However, one can also argue that Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Phone 7 did not deserve the outright slamming that it received from one of InfoWorld’s tech bloggers, Galen Gruman.
The issue he points out is that the OS is not even worth a lump a coal (or is only as valuable as one). Gruman lays out several points regarding this matter: first off, the OS style seems to be heavily theorized on the concept that Apple had last 2007 about making the user interface dynamic.
The UI is described as awkward and unsophisticated –which is actually odd. We have all seen video demonstrations of the UI where you can tap on anything on the screen and bring up a quick lists of tasks attributed to the content.
Click on a contact and you can choose to call, email, find the address on a map, or bring up a history of conversations with that person and more. Click on an image and you will have options to edit the file, attach it to an email, send it through SMS, or even upload it online.
It’s a simple one touch policy that brings it on the same level as the First ELSE (which was cancelled due to financial concerns of the developers and not because people are not interested in it).
Tiles are pretty hard to bash, after all, the sizes are actually quite variable (size is something that Gruman is so peeved about). And compared to widgets, the Tiles are far more convenient and easier to use. Maybe it is just us, but having 4 continuously live active boxes onscreen at a time is enough. Filling a touch screen with widgets just reeks of excessiveness.
Tags: Apple, FirstELSE, InfoWorld, Microsoft, Windows-Phone-7
YouTube is playing both sides of the fence now. Despite the fact that Google technically owns the media sharing website, they cannot simply ignore the 1.7 million iPhone users who may or may not be part of the YouTube network (and it is likely that most of them are YouTube users).
Originally, not having HTML5 on YouTube meant that iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad uses would have to use apps to view links that led to videos that were hosted on the video sharing website. Now, there is no need for that. According to the latest update from YouTube, the mobile version of their website will now be using HTML5 as a new standard.
In many ways, this is already predictable. After all, HTML5 really is a great new format for replacing Flash. The only issue is that many existing websites were made, designed and executed using Flash, there is also plenty of web content, such as ads and games that use the Flash format. This has made the shift from Flash to HTML5 a slow one –one that Apple is not happy with.
Several months ago, when Apple released the SDK for the iOS 4, it came with a developer’s agreement that basically ruled out the use of Adobe’s Flash Professional as a creation and compiling tool for iPhone apps. This made it harder for developers to create apps for Apple, and at the same time, it made the Flash developers want to work with Google instead.
Anyway, despite the tension and competition between Apple and Google, the fact that the iPhone 4 sold so much –despite not having Flash support is significant. In some ways, it shows that people simply do not care about what formats are supported or not –and in this regard, whatever format works with Apple’s new device is going to be the new standard.
Tags: Adobe-Flash, Apple, Apple-iPad, Apple-iPhone, Apple-iPhone-4, apps, Google, HTML5, YouTube
While it is hard to get information off the Apple iPhone, the smart phone itself is keeping a very tight list of information about its users. And this is why losing an iPhone is not only expensive, but it is also dangerous.
It has been reported that it is the police that are mostly doing the forensic work using iPhone data as evidence; nothing will stop a malicious individual to turn the tables on unsuspecting people. Here are a few things that all iPhone users should know about their smart phones.
First off, never type anything suspicious or compromising on your iPhone. The Apple device’s dictionary is not only designed to help people type faster on the virtual keyboard, but also for being able to keylog the messages that you have typed from anywhere between the last three months to even a whole year ago.
While specifics have not been revealed, one can only assume that the logs extend only up to certain point, and users who text heavily may have only the most recent messages in the cache.
Now if that was not scary enough, the iPhone can also provide the world of a user’s whereabouts. While phone signal triangulation through cell sites are a pretty common practice, the iPhone also has geo-tagging set to “on” by default. Yes, this means that those self images that users took when they woke up that morning and uploaded in the net are carrying a small line of data that actually points out their GPS location.
Speaking of GPS, the iPhone also takes a quick screen shot of the map whenever the map function is turned off. While the actual purpose of this image is not known, the number of these images can be quite plenty –enough to draw a rough map of places that users have been to and checked out, and quite possibly, enough to create a reasonably accurate profile.
Tags: Apple, Apple-iPhone, geo-tagging, GPS, security, smartphone
Microsoft has come a long way to prove that the Windows Phone 7 operating system is far more than the stiff and hard to use platform that the Windows Mobile OS was. And since they have first revealed the new system at the MWC, they have been able to convince a vast majority of people in the tech industry.
Now, all they need is the big reveal.
Microsoft has been sitting in a position below Apple and Google in the mobile phone industry and the computer giant seems to have had enough of playing third place. With the Windows Phone 7, they intend to show the industry that they have the right system to change the way people use smart phones. From what we have seen in the tech demos, it is easy to believe that Microsoft might just be right.
The new OS sports features that have never before been used in other handsets. The ability to transfer an app or a game from the smart phone to a computer –directly, has never been done before. In fact, this could change the way people treat daily work. The Xbox Live Games is one thing, but being able to continue progress in an app is one thing, and so far, they have only limited the application of the technology to this.
If they make this applicable to Microsoft’s Office software and other features –they can create an entirely new user experience. Outside of gaming, phones can start to be seen as real complements to desktop computers in terms of work.
According to recent reports, the new OS is expected to come out a full month ahead of schedule. September is the expected launch date for the first handsets that will be using the new platform –such as the LG Panther and the HTC Gold/Mondrian. HTC have had success with their HTC Desire and HTC Wildfire handsets which use the Google Android platform, so it will be interesting to see what they can come up with for Windows Phone 7.
Tags: Apple, Google, Google-Android, HTC, HTC-Gold, HTC-Mondrian, LG, LG-Panther, Microsoft, Windows-Phone-7
Apple has officially changed the name of the iPhone operating system from iPhone OS to simply, the iOS. There is no doubt that the new OS’s features and specs are worth playing around with, but we found a few nifty tricks that most users would certainly want to try out.
First off, locking the screen’s auto-rotation feature; now this feature may not seem like much of a big deal, but if you try viewing an image from a sideways perspective, you will get the point. Thanks to the ever-convenient auto-rotate feature, the screen will automatically adjust to whatever orientation you choose. This happens whether a user likes it or not –by locking the screen, you will be able to read and view iPhone content without the screen flickering left and right because you suddenly shifted positions.
Another nice new control feature is the change in the UI for the camera. Users can now have a small focus box that will allow you to have a sense of design composition in your images (or simply for making sure that some details do not get blurred out). Users simply need to tap on the screen and select a location for the camera to focus.
For people who have plenty of apps and features on their iPhone, the update all is a nice touch –unless you have hundreds of apps to update. For some, this new feature is a major time saver, but others might want to manually update on a per-app basis. In this case, make the most out of the multitasking and run multiple update instances.
Sadly, even for iPhone 4s that have been released locally, the setting for most seems to have been defaulted to US English. While there is nothing really wrong about this, it is rather annoying to get corrected when using the Queen’s English. In this case, be sure to change the global settings to reflect local needs.
Tags: Apple, Apple-iOS, Apple-iPhone, Apple-iPhone-4, Apple-iPhone-OS, Apple-iPhone-OS-4, apps
As if the world really needs more reason to be excited for the iPhone. Apple’s brand is so famous and marketable that they have managed to sell an otherwise tech-spec impressive handset based mostly on the brand name alone –and if anyone is willing to argue that a large percentage of the 1.7 million people who bought the handset actually care about the specs, then Google’s Android should have been selling almost just as good.
In any case, it seems that the geniuses behind the Tap Tap Revenge iPhone game are now going to be teamed up with folks from the most iconic animation studio in the world, Disney.
That’s right folks, the Disney has “acquired” Tapulous, the company that is probably the single most successful app developer for the Apple iTunes store –and by successful, we mean a developer with paid apps that get downloaded a lot. Thanks to the easy to learn game, intuitive controls and vast music library of the Tap Tap series, it is not a surprise that so many people play their games.
And now, Disney will be jumping into the mix. At this point, nobody knows what the folks at Disney Interactive Media are planning by getting into the iPhone app market –but it is one gaming platform they cannot afford to ignore. While it is hard to determine if Steve Job’s majority shareholdings in Disney have been influential in this move, it is an undeniably smart move for Disney to choose Tapulous.
According to recent reports, Tapulous was last working on a social networking game –if Disney joins in the development of this, they will not only be able to provide Tapulous with the resources, but also present a much larger market demographic. And Tap’s founders know this. In an interview, Tapulous co-founder Bart Decrem stated that he is excited to be working with Disney.
Tags: Apple, Apple-iPhone, apps, Disney, games, Google-Android, Steve-Jobs
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