Security Cam app turns your iPhone into a security camera

Crowded Road's Security Cam turns your iPhone into a makeshift security camera that takes photos at time based intervals or whenever it detects sounds past a certain threshold.

Apple Tablet Operating System Claims: ‘A Good Bit of New Sexy’

With Apple's long-rumored tablet device reportedly set for an introduction later this month, much remains unknown about the operating system it will be using. Speculation has ranged from a touch-sensitive Mac OS X to a scaled-up iPhone OS to an all-...

Review: Twin Blades for iPhone

This anime-influenced hack-and-slash game is certainly pretty-looking, but the action is limited.

Apple Researching Technology to Provide Image Pixels With Touch Sensing Capabilities

Patently Apple reports on a newly-published patent application from Apple disclosing research on touchscreen technology involving the use of pixels with dual-function capacitive elements that are capable of both displaying images and register...

CDMA iPhone With Qualcomm Chips to be Launched Later This Year

CES 2010: Intel Officially Announces Core i5 Chips Suitable for Apple Notebooks (and new i7s and i3s)

After all the lead up, Intel finally officially announced the new Core i7, i5 and i3 chips this morning. These chips were previously known by the Arrandale and Clarksdale codenames. The new chips represents the arrival of the 32nm manufactu...

Smartphone Experts at CES: The Podcast

Since the entire SPE team was here at CES in Las Vegas, it made perfect sense to take some time away from ogling gadgets and chatting up our friends in the blogosphere to record a podcast. We talk up what we’ve seen so far, including the Nexus One and Motorola Backflip; we also chatted a bit about what we’re hoping to see at Palm’s event today.

As you might have guessed, the show was recorded and hosted by our pal Mickey Papillon of TCPJ. Give it a listen!

• The Cell Phone Junkie
• Subscribe with your favorite client
• Subscribe via iTunes
• Listen via phone with Podlinez: 510-495-6352
• Download the show directly

[Rene apologizes for quality of iPhone-taken pano, but felt the behind-the-scenes peak made up for the lack of photography skillz]

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

Smartphone Experts at CES: The Podcast

Facebook App Version 3.1 Released - Introduces Push Notification And Contact Syncing

Facebook 3.1.1 for iPhone… Brings Bug Fixes!

No sooner did Facebook 3.1 [Free - iTunes link] finally bring push notifications to Facebook’s iPhone app… then a few bugs popped up. Proving Apple’s iTunes App Store can turn around updates with lightning speed when they decide to, an update has already been released to squash those bugs and get everyone updating, friending, event inviting, and otherwise getting social with it as fast and furiously as possible.

Does Facebook 3.1.1 fix things for you? Let us know in the comments. And if you’re still having issues, let us know that as well!

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

Facebook 3.1.1 for iPhone… Brings Bug Fixes!

Nexus One tips for iPhone users

Filed under: Hardware, Portables, iPhone

Here's an interesting post from Scott Knaster, a happy iPhone user and Google employee who made a cold-turkey switch to the Nexus One for three months (yes, some employees can get their hands on things early).

You might expect a Nexus One v. iPhone post from a Google employee to be slanted, but that's not the case here. Mr. Knaster obviously loves his iPhone, and offers practical tips for users looking to switch, like:

• You can simply move the SIM from iPhone to the N1. However, you won't get 3G on AT&T, only Edge. This hasn't been a big deal for me. And my iPhone data plan seems to work fine for the N1.
• I miss the iPhone's silence/ring switch, but you can silence the phone by swiping the volume control on the lock screen. If the phone is already on, hold down the Volume Down button to (silently) silence.

There's a lot more, so read the whole thing. He also talks about the Dolphin browser with its support for touch, pinch and gestures. I haven't used it but must admit that gestures screen seems like a holdover from Graffiti, and not in a good way.

[Via Guy Kawasaki]

Nexus One tips for iPhone users originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Nexus One tips for iPhone users originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Digital Experiences iPhone Gallery — TiPb @ CES 2010

Digital Experiences is an event held the eve before CES 2010 officially kicks off, and as we’ve come to expect — there was a lot of iPhone in the room. From EA showing off their latest games to Sonos showing how completely they’ve gone in on iPhone, from Speck to Griffin to XtremeMac giving us sneak peaks at their upcoming gear from Powermat’s inductive charging solutions, all the way to Google’s massive Nexus One booth (okay, everything except that maybe!) the iPhone was in full force.

Check it out, after the jump!

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

Digital Experiences iPhone Gallery — TiPb @ CES 2010

Apple Tablet Will Support Multiple Carriers Including Verizon, Will Require Steep Learning Curve

Orbit Social Phonebook for iPhone Hands-on — TiPb @ CES 2010

Orbit aims to do for your iPhone what Syngergy does for Palm’s webOS — aggregate all your contacts and their status — but with an equal and opposite focus on notification management.

So, not only can you link together your friend’s contact info along with their Facebook, Twitter, etc., you can group them into various “orbits” (and each contact can be in more than one “orbit”), create all manner of filters, and raise or lower the “volume” of notification you receive.

So, you can set the volume of your raging editor in chief to “high” and your in-laws to “low”.

TiPb has discussed this before — after the rush to Push Notification, we have devices pinging and poping at us all the time and that can become as useless as no notifications.

Orbit [Free -- iTunes link] has just gone live in the App Store, check it out. Video after the break!

[YouTube video link]

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

Orbit Social Phonebook for iPhone Hands-on — TiPb @ CES 2010

Apple Adds 30-Second Song Samples to Browser-Based ‘iTunes Preview’

GigaOM briefly noted late yesterday that Apple has added 30-second song samples to its browser-based iTunes Preview pages that quietly appeared several months ago. The report notes that Apple is serving the previews, which are encoded in 44.1 KHz AA...

AT&T completes 7.2 Mbps software updates, but faster iPhones still in the future

Filed under: iPhone

AT&T's perceived "ball-drop" in regards to handling the iPhone is not a new story. What is new, however, is that AT&T has announced completion of a large-scale software upgrade that paves the way for AT&T to get back in the game. Once ready, the iPhone 3GS will be able to take advantage of its full 3G potential.

Remember when AT&T was under fire for not spending any money on network upgrades, a claim which was duly refuted? Well, it turns out that AT&T wasn't blowing any smoke and has completed widespread software upgrades for their network infrastructure. The software is intended to ready cell sites for the much-hyped and rarely-delivered HSPA goodness with its 7.2Mbps 3G connection.

While this is all well and good for press releases and Wall Street analysts, the real magic comes from AT&T upgrading its backhaul connections. In other words, AT&T has upgraded the software but still needs to upgrade the hardware. Even though AT&T is already testing HSPA in several markets, the network-wide software upgrade is a big step towards bringing high(er)-speed 3G to the masses.

[via MacRumors]

AT&T completes 7.2 Mbps software updates, but faster iPhones still in the future originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

AT&T completes 7.2 Mbps software updates, but faster iPhones still in the future originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Review: Simplenote for iPhone

This clean-looking, easy-to-use app is superior to the iPhone's built-in Notes offering. Simplenote makes it easy to jot down notes on the go and then get that information onto your computer.

Millions of app store downloads everywhere

Filed under: Software, iPhone, iPod touch

Last year was a big one for mobile downloads, according to a number of sources. A Quantcast mobile trends report says that mobile web activity grew 110% in the US throughout 2009, and of course Apple was responsible for most of that, with a 65% market share, 41% from the iPhone and the rest from the iPod touch. Apple's market share slightly dropped in 2009 (due to increasing competition), but it's still head and shoulders above everyone else.

App downloads are huge as well. Not only did Apple announce that three billion downloads, but Gameloft says they've reached 10 million paid downloads of apps by themselves, and developer Lima Sky (makers of Doodle Jump, one of our favorite games of 2009), says downloads skyrocketed after Christmas, with over 500,000 downloads of their app in December of 2009 alone.

The App Store is doing big business lately -- it's probably a safe bet to say that 2009 kicked off a golden age of mobile web activity. And all indications are that 2010 will be even more interesting.

Millions of app store downloads everywhere originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Millions of app store downloads everywhere originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SnapTax allows you to do your taxes on your iPhone

Filed under: Software, Developer, iPhone

It's a new year, which means that in a few months, taxes will come due yet again. So why not get a head start on them with your iPhone -- there is, it turns out, an app for that. TurboTax has an app coming out called SnapTax that promises to make taxes easy. All you do is take a picture of your W2 form with the camera, and then the software automatically reads the form, extracts the necessary information, and then uploads it into TurboTax's software and processes your return. Pretty amazing.

There are, of course, a few drawbacks here. First is that you need to be in California. While the software will eventually work everywhere, they're beta testing in the Golden State this year only. Second is that you should have a later generation iPhone -- the optical text software works better with more processor power, so you'll have to fix fewer errors on your 3GS than earlier versions of the hardware. And finally, you'll need to have a pretty simple tax return. There are more options to handle more complicated tax issues, but basically the software is designed for a simple W2 plus maybe some extra income. Being a freelancer, I have all sorts of hoops to jump through, so I'll have to head to the accountant yet again.

But hopefully this will help some of you. The app is coming later this month and will be available for $9.99. I'm not sure if that includes the actual return, but if it does, that's a bargain. If you're lucky enough to be in California and in the position to use this app, keep an eye out for it.

SnapTax allows you to do your taxes on your iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

SnapTax allows you to do your taxes on your iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WebOS phones coming to AT&&T

AT&T plans to offer two Palm webOS phones "soon."

EA Mobile Hands-on with Sim 3: World Adventure — TiPb @ CES 2010

EA Mobile’s Sims 3: World Adventure for iPhone brings an airport to your simulated town, first established in the original Sims 3 game, and you can now jump on a plane and visit France, Egypt, and China — and play mini-games like accelerometer air sickness avoidance — while you fly. (Yes, it’s fun!)

We don’t have all the details, but EA mentioned some way to capture image-based information from the original game and use that to load character info into the new game. If it’s as slick as it sounds, that’s a smart way to get around Apple’s no-sharing data sandbox for apps.

Either way, if you enjoyed the first iPhone Sims 3 game, EA is planning to give you more of what you loved — lots more, and they give TiPb a sneak peak look at it — after the jump!

[YouTube link]

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

EA Mobile Hands-on with Sim 3: World Adventure — TiPb @ CES 2010