Potentially serious Apple security flaw found?

Piergiorgio Zambrini, who many of you may know him as the creator of the Ziphone application, claims to have found what he believes to be one of the most wide-spread security holes in Apple’s product line. Zambrini has recently applied for a job as an iPhone security engineer at Apple. We ...

Adult entertainment has hit the iPhone

iPhone has finally gotten its first adult webcam entertainment service. iPhone owners enjoy watching video on the large iPhone display, but until now were limited to the YouTube application, now there is something for everyone. Xgoes.mobi has taken the bold move to bring adult entertainment to the iPhone by offering this ...

iPhone gets physical keyboard in some form

One of the major issues that iPhone haters bring up when trying to put it down, is the onscreen keyboard. A lot of people just don’t adapt to it very well. It appears that this may not be as strong of an argument as it once was with a new ...

Lightsaber Unleashed application review

Lucasfilm Ltd. has released their official Lightsaber Unleashed application in the App Store. We quickly downloaded it and dove in to what has become a very fun and interesting application.  When you open the application you are taken to what looks like an ad for another StarWars game. After selecting Lightsaber ...

Review: Firemail for iPhone

Our look at wide-format e-mail applications continues with Firemail, another promising option thanks to its clean interface, comfortable keyboard, and free price.

New iPhone Commerical: Loopt

Saw this online last night, and you have to give Apple’s advertising gurus credit: they know how to show off the App Store. Never once do they get bogged down in the tech-talk quagmire of Social Network or Location Based services, nor do they trade comical barbs like their Mac Switcher ads.

iPhone ads show cool things being done easily. Case in point, the latest spot featuring Loopt.

Stay in touch with your friends. That’s the iPhone. Done.

Maybe that’s why the iPhone ranks #1 in satisfaction?

Check out the add via Apple.com

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

New iPhone Commerical: Loopt

AT&T brass talks big on future of iPhone

AT&T’s Ralph de la Vega outlined his vision for the iPhone at this week’s Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco.

Devicescape’s Easy Wi-Fi Makes it Simpler for iPhone Users to Connect to Wi-Fi Hotspots

Apple Researching Virtual Reality Headsets

Apple's latest patent application reveals that they're continuing to look into personal virtual reality headsets. The February 2008 application is titled "Automatically adjusting media display in a personal display system" and details a "personal d...

An observatory in your pocket: Star Walk for iPhone and iPod touch

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

I've always had a fascination with astronomy. Even when I'm not lugging my telescope out to do deep sky work, I'm using my eyes and binoculars to see what's visible in the night sky. Now I can use my iPhone to help me figure out where some of the night objects are -- even when it's light outside.

VITO Technology has just released Star Walk (click opens iTunes), a US$4.99 astronomy app that shows you what's in the sky above. It has an internal database of almost 9,000 objects including the planets, various stars and clusters, and more.

While not for serious amateur astronomers, this is a great tool for anyone who is interested in knowing more about the universe they live in. There's a moon phase calculator, a time machine function to show you what the skies were like or will look like on any day. If you have an iPhone 3G, Star Walk uses GPS to automatically determine where you are on Earth to adjust the view. First-generation iPhone and iPod touch users can select their city from a list.

Star Walk should be a great app for teaching youngsters or yourself more about astronomy.

An observatory in your pocket: Star Walk for iPhone and iPod touch originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

An observatory in your pocket: Star Walk for iPhone and iPod touch originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Forum Review: SmartTime for the iPhone

Smarttime Forum Review by msbaylor (see forum post for video highlight!) For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

The SmartTime application is a simple yet complex to-do application.

When creating a task/event, you have multiple options, including color category (6 choices), duration, deadline.

By tapping on the blue circles next to title, duration & deadline, you will be given more options for each correlating section. In the title/description section details (pic above), you have several shortcuts that enable quicker entry. You also have the ability to insert a location (Where), if you do this, when viewing the event, you can send it to the Maps App, and it will route you to your event, etc.

There are 3 different views - Smart, Calendar, & Focus.

The smart focus view (my favorite) basically shows all your upcoming events & tasks in one view. The tasks are represented by a bar that is half the width of the screen, and events are the whole width of the screen. The color indicates a certain category that you can change to suite you. The circles indicate a deadline - if there is a red dot with an exclamation point, it means it is overdue. If there is a an orange circle with a ‘0′ in it, it means it is due that day. If the circle is green and has a number in it, that means the task is due in that number of days.

The Calendar view shows your events & tasks (if it has a deadline) in the corresponding day and time. The Calendar is quite easy to navigate. By swiping your singer across the screen you go from day-to-day, by moving your finger up and down you move through time (dun dun duuun… ). One of the two problems I found is located in this view, it you have a large event that covers a large amount of time and you are trying to move the calendar around, if you antecedently touch the event and drag you finger around, the event will also drag (see example in the long video.) The other issue is, if you tap an item, you cannot change views. You have to tap ‘defer’ then cancel before you can change the view.

The focus view basically displays what you have due today and what you have already completed today. You also have the option in this view, to view the history of completed tasks.

The small magnify glass in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen in any of the 3 views, by tapping on it, it allows you to apply a filter in order to find a certain task or event. This is fantastic if you have a bunch of to-dos and your looking only your urgent to-dos (I have mine color-coded red).

In the Smart & Calendar view, when you click on en event/task, you are given the option to mark it done, defer, copy the task/event, share event/task, or show in map app.

This is a very well done, and I don’t see why it shouldn’t be a paid application. The only reason I don’t give this app a perfect 5 is because of the two issues I had that are explained above.

Pros:

• Complex, yet simple
• Color-coding categories
• Option of task or event
• Nice and easy UI
• FREE

Cons:

• Home & Work schedules can make things confusing when scheduling events/tasks (view video)
• Easy to accidentally move items around in calendar view.
• Can’t change views once you have selected an item, unless you cancel out of a screen correlating to the event (see video)

Forum Review Rating

[Smartime is available from the iTunes App Store]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Forum Review: SmartTime for the iPhone

Engadget Podcast 117 - 11.07.2008: Zune giveaway edition

Filed under: Podcasts

Yes -- it's happening again. Another installment of the beloved Engadget Podcast has made its way to the virtual airwaves of the ever-loving internet, and now you can listen in for personal enjoyment and edification. Today Josh, Paul, and Nilay get to the heart of our recent "preferred OS" poll, Apple's treatment of iPhone developers, Amazon's abandonment of painful packaging, and more. Included in this podcast is a first-ever (for Engadget at least) on-air unboxing. That's right, hear the sounds of a Gears of War 2 Zune getting ripped open.

As a treat to our faithful listeners, we'll be giving away that very special edition 120GB Zune! Follow the instructions after the break to learn how to make it yours.

Update: We've also included that Best Buy rap discussed in the podcast. Enjoy it after the break.

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Paul Miller, and Nilay Patel
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Smells Like Teen Spirit

01:43 - Poll: Which OS do you prefer?
12:38 - Apple adds OTA podcast downloads to iPhone firmware 2.2, continues to burn developers
27:14 - Amazon takes a stand to eliminate wasteful, hard-to-open gadget packaging
34:30 - Circuit City announces store closure plans, full list of locations revealed
45:51 - Dash cuts 50 employees, drastically changing business model
55:05 - Gears of War 2 canvasses special-edition Zune

Subscribe to the podcast

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (enhanced AAC).
[RSS MP3] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in MP3) to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically.
[RSS AAC] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in enhanced AAC) to your RSS aggregator.
[Zune] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace

Download the podcast

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Contact the podcast

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Continue reading Engadget Podcast 117 - 11.07.2008: Zune giveaway edition

Engadget Podcast 117 - 11.07.2008: Zune giveaway edition originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tips and How To’s: Best Western on iPhone

The iPhone is a great phone and an awesome entertainment device, but it’s also a great tool for a variety of things, including an excellent travel companion. Ana Ortiz at LaunchSquad dropped me a line and suggested I check out Best Western’s site, which also happens to be iPhone-friendly as a web app. Best Western, partnering with Usablenet, brings their site to the iPhone for your traveling convenience. What features are available via the web app? Read on after the break!

If you enter www.bestwestern.com into your iPhone’s Safari, the site detects you are mobile and will bring you to the web app version. From here, you can check the status of your reservation on the fly, reserve a room for the night, get directions to the hotel, and more - all accomplished from your iPhone.

I like the fact that if I’m out and about and without access to a computer or laptop, I can still confirm my reservations, make a reservation, use the Trip Planner, or get directions to Best Western so I can crash for the night. Since there are thousands of Best Westerns across the globe, this can be a useful web app for the frequent and/or unexpected traveler. If you wish, you also have the option to view the full web site, but that usually isn’t necessary when you have full functionality using the web app. 

According to Ana, Usablenet makes this possible with their comprehensive mobile-web platform, which also works with numerous other hotels, like the Hilton, Starwood, Four Seasons, etc.

As an added bonus, check out Urbanspoon in the App Store. Once you’ve settled in to your Best Western, you might want to grab a bite somewhere and Urbanspoon uses the GPS of your iPhone to help you locate a restaurant near your location for some good eats. Just shake your iPhone and let Urbanspoon do the rest. Keep shaking until the slot machine dials up something you fancy.

That’s it for this time. Thanks, Ana, for the Best Western tip!

If you have a tip or how-to that you would like to share, drop by the forums and/or email us atbrian.hart@tipb.com.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Tips and How To’s: Best Western on iPhone

Freeverse goes Flick Fishing

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, iPhone

Freeverse has followed up Flick Bowling with the second game in the line of Flick Sports games: Flick Fishing. Truth be told, I'm more excited about this one -- the motion controls of the fishing rod and reel seem like they'd work well on the iPhone, and with "dozens of species of fish to catch," seems like this could keep me busy for a while. You can even play multiplayer over a local network, and you can apparently email big catches to friends. The game's in the App Store right now for the low low price of 99 cents -- looks like a good outing.

Freeverse is also holding a giveaway to celebrate the launch. Personally, I'd just like a copy of the game, but no -- apparently they're giving away a few Coleman Fish Pens (don't click that link if you don't want autoplay video, but it's so funny I had to link it anyway), which are pen-sized objects that expand out into working fishing poles. We have no idea, but if that's what you want, go put your email in on their page to enter.

Freeverse goes Flick Fishing originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Freeverse goes Flick Fishing originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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2.2 Firmware Jailbroken by the Dev Team Already?

Now does this really come as a surprise to anyone out there? Well it comes as no surprise for all of us here at TiPb that the Dev Team has jailbroken the latest 2.2 firmware beta released by Apple to developers. Not too shabby, and it should make all of you out there happy to know that the wait to jailbreak the 2.2 firmware will not be long! Short and painless. Now remember this is a beta right now so Apple may make some changes that can toss a wrench into the Dev Team’s work but seriously how long would that slow them down? A day or two? Props to the Dev Team, they have yet to let us down.

For all of your jailbreaking needs be sure to check out our dedicated forums on that particular topic, iPhone Jailbreak Central and iPhone Jailbreak Apps.

{Via iPhone-dev.org]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

2.2 Firmware Jailbroken by the Dev Team Already?

J.D. Power survey ranks iPhone highest

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone

J.D. Power and Associates released the results of a survey today, showing Apple's iPhone ranked highest in terms of customer satisfaction among 1,388 business wireless customers queried between August and September.

Apple scored 778 (out of 1,000), higher than Blackberry-maker RIM (703) and Samsung (701). The scores were derived from survey answers in five categories: ease of operation, operating system, physical design, handset features, and battery aspects.

Apple owners reported the highest average purchase price for a smartphone, $337. Motorola owners paid the least, averaging $169. The average across all smartphone brands was $216.

The survey also found that a quarter of all smartphone users have at least one software-related problem with their current handset. Forty-four percent had to reboot their device at least once a week. Sixty-nine percent own a hands-free device, and 74 percent of them are wireless.

[Via Macworld.]

J.D. Power survey ranks iPhone highest originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

J.D. Power survey ranks iPhone highest originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone #2 in Smartphones… #1 in Business Satisfaction?!

During Apple’s last conference call, Steve Jobs positively cooed about Apple’s iPhone passing RIM’s Blackberry in sales last month. If anyone had any doubts, Canalys says it’s so (for whatever that bag of analysis is worth). According to Apple Insider, they pegged the market as Nokia 46.6%, Apple 17.3, RIM 15.2, and Windows Mobile 13.6. (Google’s Android, of course, was not yet launched and Palm… er… Palm?)

While some have cited Bold delays, Storm warnings, an iPhone 3G honeymoon, and other reasons to explain Apple’s good fortunes last quarter, JD Powers 2008 Business Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study gives an even more interesting answer: Business users like the iPhone better!

Blackberrys are okay, and Palms are teh sux, by contrast, according to the survey. The iPhone’s edge? ease of use, feature set and design. Engadget points out that the iPhone scored 5/5 on features, in spite of our ongoing complaints about the lack of cut and paste, A2DP, MMS, etc., etc. ad naseum infinitum.

ahem

So maybe, just maybe, users prefer a smaller set of features done delightfully well to a gobsmack of them cobbled together with near impenetrability?

Who’da thunk it?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone #2 in Smartphones… #1 in Business Satisfaction?!