iPhone Safari to Support Geolocation, Google Latitude Demoed

Posted on May 31, 2009 by MacRumors : Mac News and Rumors.
Categories: Uncategorized.
ComputerWorld points out a little publicized fact that iPhone 3.0's Safari browser will support Geolocation services. This means that websites will be able to request your current location (if you give them permission).

How many ti...

1Password touch 2.0 Now Available

Posted on by Rene Ritchie.
Categories: Uncategorized.

1password

A former pick of the week for me, and one of my most-used Mac and iPhone apps, has just seen the latter, mobile version updated. I had a chance to try out 1Password touch 2.0 [Free - iTunes link], and the new ability to sync Wallet Items, along with an entirely new, very robust way to sync over Wi-Fi, work the way such things ought.

If you loves security, and want the ability to take your super-strong, pseudo-random passwords, as well as credit cars, debit cards, and all that new goodness, with you, give it a try.

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

1Password touch 2.0 Now Available


Best of SPE, 31 May 2009

Posted on by Dieter Bohn.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Each week we bring you the biggest stories from around the Smartphone Experts network. We’re changing up our format this week: shorter, bite-sized, yet still delicious.

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

Best of SPE, 31 May 2009


QuickOffice Mobile Office Suite for iPhone Updated to 1.2.0

Posted on by Rene Ritchie.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Quickoffice Mobile Suite for iPhone Banner

QuickOffice has updated their Mobile Office Suite [$19.99 - iTunes link] for iPhone to version 1.2.0. The full list of updates is after the jump, but what caught our eye was this little goody:

  • Supports iPhone OS 3.0 Beta 5

What’s new

Quickword (Word Processor):

  • Predictive text, auto-capitalization, and double-space for a period shortcut
  • Find text in a document and search for next or previous occurrences
  • Increase and decrease indentation level of bulleted lists, numbered lists, and paragraphs
  • Set paragraph alignment
  • Increase and decrease first line indentation on a paragraph
  • View tables that are too wide for your screen by flicking the table left and right

Quicksheet (Spreadsheet Processor):

  • Copy/Paste cells, columns, rows, and cell ranges & formulas are dynamically updated!
  • Landscape editing directly into a cell
  • Edit directly into a cell in portrait — Just double tap the cell
  • New and easy way to build formulas
  • Set or remove cell borders
  • Add, rename, delete, and reorder worksheets inside a single spreadsheet
  • Clear the formula bar contents by pressing X or clear all contents & formatting from the toolbar
  • Edit font type and size
  • Set alignment within a cell

Quickoffice Files (File Management):

  • Auto-bookmarking your last viewed position in documents
  • Slide show viewing of remote and local images
  • UI improvements

As always, if you try it out, let us know how it works for you!

[Transcription via AppShopper]

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

QuickOffice Mobile Office Suite for iPhone Updated to 1.2.0


AP Mobile updated but still falls short

Posted on by Mel Martin.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Filed under: , , ,

The AP News [App Store] iPhone/iPod touch app that rolled out ugly earlier in the week has updated to version 2.01 and fixed that nasty problem that wouldn't let you run the app reliably if you had the previous AP Mobile app already on your phone.

That has been fixed, but the app still suffers from more bugs than the centerfield lights at a night baseball game. When you update to the latest version you will likely lose all your preferences, and as we reported, setting preferences is no small task.

The AP still insists on showing you a front page that wastes 1/3 of its space with a large photo and video icon. Usually, people come to a news app to read the news, but that concept seems lost on the AP. The result of this bad design decision is that only 3 stories show up on the front page, which is not as good as the New York Times app (4), the Bloomberg News app (5), or ABC News (4). Actually, most of the news apps have too much non-essential garbage on the main pages. I'd kinda like to read the news.

I think the AP app scrolling of long stories is still jerky, and some stories display a picture at the top which is so large it takes the whole screen and you can't read any of the story without scrolling.

Also, stories tend to repeat. In my local list of stories, I saw the same story 3 times. Clearly, that shouldn't happen in a well-written app.

All lists of stories must be viewed in portrait orientation, but you can read them in landscape mode, which means constantly switching back and forth between screen types if you want the stories in landscape format. Don't try this if you have vertigo.

The AP app is free, so one hates to complain, but frankly the previous version was easier on the eyes, less buggy, and organized in a way many news junkies would prefer to read the news.

Sometimes "progress" is anything but.

AP Mobile updated but still falls short originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 31 May 2009 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)AP Mobile updated but still falls short originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 31 May 2009 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple to Start Charging for Re-Downloading Apps Over-the-Air? [Update]


The iPhone Blog reports that in the iPhone 3.0 beta firmware, users are being told that may not re-download applications over-the-air without being charged. The dialog box (shown above), however, does indicate that users may still re-downlo...

Apple to Start Charging for Re-Downloading Apps Over-the-Air?


The iPhone Blog reports that in the iPhone 3.0 beta firmware, users are being told that may not re-download applications over-the-air without being charged. The dialog box (shown above), however, does indicate that users may still re-downlo...

Pre-Review: Motorola MOTOROKR S9-HD A2DP Stereo Bluetooth Headset for iPhone 3.0

Posted on by Rene Ritchie.
Categories: Uncategorized.

moto_sd9hd_hero

Come this “summer”, iPhone 3.0 — see our walkthrough — will allow iPhone users to enjoy new Bluetooth functionalityincluding stereo headsets, both the A2DP audio and ARCP control protocols. And if you’re a developer, you likely have this functionality already for testing purposes.

A while back I took a preview look at the Motorola S9 Stereo Bluetooth Headset for iPhone 3.0. Looks like they’ve gone and grown up! If budget is less of a concern to you than sound, and you want to enjoy your audio on the go, the Motorola MOTOROKR S9-HD (the “-HD” being the key — and really only — differentiator here!) are something you definitely want to consider (available now from our sibling store at WMExperts).

Note: This pre-review will not be focusing on iPhone 3.0 functionality, which is currently in closed beta. It will concentrate only on the headset itself. However, for those developers needing an A2DP headset for testing 3.0, it’s our understanding this one works well on multiple units, over multiple carriers.

About that -HD

I’m not going to bore you with a re-hash review. This headset, as mentioned above, is almost identical to the non-HD version reviewed previously. The big difference, of course, is the “-HD” itself, and that’s what we’ll focus on here. Starting with: how big a difference is it?

BIG. The bass is bigger, the emersion experience is better, the depth and scope of the sound in general is brighter. They call it SRS WOW HD technology. Given that A2DP will never equal great wired earphones, and great wired earphones will never equal vinyl and vinyl will never equal great live music, as far as stereo Bluetooth headsets go, these S9-HD certainly nail the WOW.

Conclusion

The same sizing and form factor issues plague this headset as did it’s non-HD sibling. If your head doesn’t fall into the comfortable rang, and you want to be able to lie on your back while listening, these aren’t the headset for you. Likewise, if you value price over performance, look at those non-HD siblings. If you want this form factor and sound quality matters to you, these are top of the charts — easily.

Addendum: In the previous review, one of the commenters asked about glasses. I wear glasses, and while all glasses will vary in size and form factor, I had no problem wearing the S9-HD for lengthy periods. Your mileage may, of course, vary.

Pros

  • Great sound
  • Good battery life
  • Light and comfortable
  • Well suited for on-the-go use.

Cons

  • May not fit all head sizes
  • Not well-suited for lying down

TiPb Accessory Pre-Review Rating

4.5 star rating

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

Pre-Review: Motorola MOTOROKR S9-HD A2DP Stereo Bluetooth Headset for iPhone 3.0


Next-gen iPhone photos leaked?

Posted on by Mike Schramm.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Filed under: , , , ,

The iPhone blogs says they've uncovered the very first photos of a brand new version of the iPhone (the pictures are watermarked from a site called UMPC Fever), and while there's no actual indication that they're real (at the very least, it wouldn't be hard at all to make a picture and load it on the iPhone stream), they are worth a look, if only as ideas. The pictures hint at what's basically a dream roundup of new iPhone hardware: a camera with autofocus, a digital compass, and there are hints at a CPU log as well (which may be a developer function of some kind).

A few people note that there is a percentage near the battery, but that's actually a known function of 3.0, and it's been possible on jailbroken iPhones for a while as well.

To add to the mystery, commenter Dstreelm in the comments over there took a look at the metadata on one of the photos (the one supposedly taken by the iPhone), and it was taken near Hong Kong, just a day or so ago. It's definitely all rumors, so take it all with a grain of salt, but it does lend more credence to the idea that we'll be seeing a new version of the iPhone hardware very soon.

Next-gen iPhone photos leaked? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 31 May 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)Next-gen iPhone photos leaked? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 31 May 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Doom for iPhone Update

Posted on by Rene Ritchie.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Doom for iPhone

John Carmack has written an update on his Doom port for the iPhone, and he’s continuing the same candor he began with his Wolfenstein 3D post. What are we getting? A classic in almost every sense of the word:

Before I actually started coding on the project, I had visions of adding a lot of modern tuned effects to the core gameplay experience. It would certainly stay a sprite-and-sector based game, but there are many things that would be done differently with the benefit of a GPU and the wisdom of hindsight. Once I began actually working on it, it started to look like a bad idea for a number of reasons. I am trying to not be very disruptive in the main codebase, because I want it to stay a part of prBoom instead of being another codebase fork. While I can certainly add a bunch of new features fairly quickly, iterating through a lot of user testing and checking for problems across the >100 commercial Doom levels would take a lot longer. There really is value in ” classic” in this case, and there would be some degree of negative backlash to almost any “improvements” I made. There will still be a couple tiny tweaks, but nothing radical is changing in the basic play. It would be fun to take a small team, permanently fork it, and make a “Doom++” just for the iPhone, but that wouldn’t be the best first move. Maybe later.

Check out the full post for more on his experiences with iPhone game development.

[Thanks to Icebike for the tip!]

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

Doom for iPhone Update


New Chinese blog photos claim to show new iPhone’s camera and compass

Posted on by Philip King.
Categories: Uncategorized.
A Chinese blog has blurry photos that appear to show an iPhone — possibly the next-generation model — using autofocusing with its camera, movie recording and the digital compass. The series of images from UMPCFever make side-by-side comparisons between an older iPhone and the device running the new firmware, which is claimed to be a new [...]

Gameloft’s Rise of Lost Empires being ported to the iPhone

Posted on by Maggie Mills.
Categories: Uncategorized.
Some screenshots have surfaced of Gameloft’s iPhone RTS, Rise of Lost Empires. The game is already available on some mobile handsets and is expected to hit the App Store very soon. The description and features are from the previous mobile release, but should be a good indicator of what we can expect from the iPhone [...]

Further Translation and Photos from Purported Next Gen iPhone Leak

Yesterday's claimed leak of the next generation iPhone has generated a lot of attention, resulting in the original site (UMPCFever) going down from the traffic. One 9to5Mac reader provides an manual translation of the entry which provides a bit mo...

More Snow Leopard Screenshots, Chinese Handwriting Video

A few items we neglected to post from the past week include a new flickr gallery that depicts screenshots from the latest Snow Leopard build (10A354) as well as a Chinese handwriting recognition video (embedded below). The flickr poster writes:<p cl...

The next-gen iPhone will come in six versions

Posted on by Top iPhone News.
Categories: Uncategorized.
According to iLounge’s tipster, the next-generation iPhone will come in six versions --three models each with two storage options: (1) standard 3G; (2) "enhanced 3G" (HSPA); and (3) China version. In term of its size and design, still similar as the current model. ...we’ve been told that the next-generation iPhone will ...

First Photos of Apple’s New iPhone? Reveals Auto-Focus and Digital Compass Features

Posted on by iPhoneHacks.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Apple Now Charging to Re-Download Apps on the iPhone?

Posted on by Rene Ritchie.
Categories: Uncategorized.

img_0105

Looks like Apple’s begun charging full price if you try to download an app you’ve already bought over the iPhone. This did not used to be the case — previously you’d be given a dialog stating you’d already bought it and you could go ahead and re-download it for free. Now the dialog says you can still re-download it for free on your computer (via iTunes), but if you want to download it again directly to your iPhone, you’ve got to buy it again.

What’s going on here? Not bandwidth control, since free apps and updates to paid apps are still free. Not device restriction, because you can still re-download for free via iTunes (though it’s not as convenient, of course).

We’re guessing that with the on-device account management coming to iPhone 3.0 — where you can log in and out of multiple iTunes accounts right on your iPhone — Apple is putting this in place to prevent the sharing of purchases between accounts. (Otherwise you could just log into 100 other iPhones with your account and give them all your paid apps right over the air).

We can understand the concern, but we’ll miss the functionality. Personally, I bought a FedEx tracking app that I delete when I’m not expecting anything and re-download when I am. Now I can’t do that any time I want any more — only any time I’m at my computer.

What do you think, is multiple on-device accounts worth the loss of free on-device paid app re-downloads?

[Thanks Jordan for the tip, iPhoneDocked for added confirmation]

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

Apple Now Charging to Re-Download Apps on the iPhone?


From the Forums - Poll Edition: Matte of Shine? Next Gen iPhone in Action? Steve Jobs at WWDC? Glow or No Glow?

Posted on by Jeremy Sikora.
Categories: Uncategorized.

From the Forums

It’s time again for another From the Forums post, today we have a few good poll threads for our forum members to participate in. Not a member you say? Well all you have to do is register right here for free! After you take a care of that, check out the following threads!

Another image, floating around the internet this past week, shows the iPhone 3G plastic back casing next to the rumored 3rd generation’s matte casing . So this thread is pretty basic, Matte or Shine? So far the matte finish has a comfortable lead in the poll. What’s your vote?

Today’s second thread contains a couple images of the rumored next generation iPhone’s auto-focus camera, compass, etc… in action. Again this thread contains a poll - are the images fake or are they legitimate? You be the judge!

Next up we asked the question that pretty much all Apple fans have been asking, will Steve Jobs be attending WWDC in any way, shape, or form? As long Mr. Jobs is healthy and feeling up to it, TiPb sure hopes to see him make an appearance. What are your thoughts?

For our last poll of the day Rene asks who wants a glowing Apple logo on the next generation iPhone?! We are thinking this one will be split pretty much 50/50. At first I was against the thought of this but have since changed my mind. If used properly it could come in handy. What do you think?

See you on the forums!

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

From the Forums - Poll Edition: Matte of Shine? Next Gen iPhone in Action? Steve Jobs at WWDC? Glow or No Glow?


Mr. Blurrycam takes new iPhone’s features for a test drive?

Posted on May 30, 2009 by Chris Ziegler.
Categories: Uncategorized.
There are two sides to this coin, the way we see it. On the one hand, the handful of pictures that have just popped over on UMPC Fever demo many of the features we're expecting to see in new iPhone hardware this summer -- magnetic compass, autofocus camera, video recording capability, and a battery percentage meter in the status bar. On the other hand, having a good feel for those rumored features makes it that much easier to mock up ridiculously blurry shots of 'em in action. The compass seems a little overdone, but then again, it's not necessarily out of place considering the direction Apple has taken its voice recorder app in 3.0, so we're going to play the cautiously optimistic diplomat here and say these could very well be real.

[Via The iPhone Blog]

Filed under: ,

Mr. Blurrycam takes new iPhone's features for a test drive? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 May 2009 20:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Photos of Next Gen iPhone in Action? Auto-Focus and Compass


A Chinese-language blog UMPCFever posted what it claims are the first photos of the next generation iPhone in action. According to the rough automated translation these images show the new iPhone in action but as it appears to be prototype d...