iPhone App Review Team Rejects Application For “Minimal User Functionality”

iSkin solo FX SE for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS (iPad Give-Away Qualifier!)

So I have before me the new iSkin solo FX SE for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS [$29.95 - TiPb Store Link]. What does this new iSkin line of flexible cases offer?

We’ll take a look (and tell you about the give away!) after the break!

The first thing I wanted to know was, what is special about the iSkin solo FX SE in comparison to the regular iSKin solo? The iSkin solo FX SE keeps is the same great form and feeling as the iSkin solo but instead of being plain, the SE has a circular pattern emblazoned on the back for added dimension, and a frosted finish.

What’s Included

The iSkin solo FX SE also comes with two screen protectors instead of one: a mirrored screen protector and a bonus anti-glare clear screen protector (my choice was based purely on narcissism).

The case is composed of a flexible silicon base which is infused with Microban. What exactly is Microban? I had not clue, so I looked it up. Turns out that Microban is an antimicrobial protection agent which impedes the formation of microbes, mold and some kinds of algae. Why would you want that in a case ? Well, considering that a phone is probably the dirtiest thing you own (for some, maybe not…), it helps protect the case from stains, odors and product break down. Really cool for an iPhone case. Just imagine if they had full body suits made of this stuff!

On second thought, lets not… Ok, back, sorry.

Usability

You wont have to worry about reception issues as there are no metallic components in the case. The flexibility makes it easy to place on and off your iPhone without worry of scratches, and it has all the usual openings for easy access to all of your iPhone’s jacks and buttons, with the exception of the volume button and top start button, which are protected by a thin layer of Microban.

This case will not protect your phone from massive drops but the rubbery finish does offer a good amount of compression for its thickness. It will protect your iPhone from the everyday scratches and scrapes that can occur in briefcases, pockets, or purses. The case is easy to grip in your hands yet that same soft-touch finish can make it hard to get out of a tight pocket. (Though if you worry about your iPhone being pick-pocketed, then this is the case for you!)

Another mixed blessing, the side edges of the case goes up higher than the bezel of the iPhone, this offers more protection but it also means that you cannot swipe your fingers off the edge of the iPhone without hitting the case .

Conclusion

The iSkin Solo FX SE is a wonderful case for those who want to add a bit of texture and grip to your iPhone. If you want a case that will survive being sumo dropped…

…then this case may not be for you (we’ll review the sumo-proof option next time) but if you want a light streamlined case with a nice look, then iSkin is a great choice, and you can get it for $29.95 from the TiPb iPhone Accessory Store.

Give Away (and iPad Give Away Qualification)

Now what we have all been waiting for, the give-away!

The TiPb Store is giving away three (3) iSkin Solo FX SE cases, one each in black/gray, clear, and pink. To enter:

1. head on over to YouTube:
2. Subscribe to the TiPb YouTube channel
3. Leave a comment on our iSkin Solo FX SE video and include which color you’re entering to win (black, clear, or pink).

Only one comment per user, so pick your color carefully! We’ll choose three lucky recipients, one for each color, at random.

The give-away starts now and ends Friday, March 12, 2010 at 12pm PT.

iPad Give Away

Oh yes, everyone who enters this give away is also automagically entered into TiPb’s big iPad give-away (just read them details to make sure you’re eligible), so now you have even more reason to go subscribe and comment now!

YouTube Video Link

The iSkin solo FX SE was provided for review by TiPb’s iPhone accessory store.

iSkin solo FX SE for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS (iPad Give-Away Qualifier!) is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Comcast Releases Updated iPhone App With Remote DVR Functionalities: Lets You Record On-The-Go

RedEye mini makes your iPhone a remote control

Due in the spring, the new RedEye software/hardware combo can take control of any IR-based device.

Free Push Notifications with Push Doctor on your Hackivated iPhone

If you are the owner of a hackivated iPhone today seems to be your lucky day as Push Doctor for push notifications has arrived via Cydia. Push Doctor supplies you with true activation certificates so unlike other workarounds, certificates are always unique.

Push Doctor is completely free and can be found on the NERV repository (http://www.cmdshft.ipwn.me/apt/) which you must add in Cydia. Keep in mind you will not see any application on your Springboard as all it will do is add certificates to your device. If you do give this a try remember to be patient as the server has been getting hammered all morning and push notifications may not work right away. So if you get any sort of error on install, simply try again at a later time.

Let us know how it’s working for you in the comments below!

[Via cmdshft]

Free Push Notifications with Push Doctor on your Hackivated iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Chillingo’s Horror Racing Review

When I was growing up, I played A LOT of video games. Needless to say, one of my favorite video games of all time, was a game called Rock 'N' Roll Racing by Blizzard, Horror Racing  is just like Rock 'N' Roll racing.In an nutshell, this is a top down ...

Introducing the All New TiPb Forums!

In today’s From the Forums we’d like to introduce to you our new forum look and layout.

First, you may have noticed our little name switch to TiPb and domain switch to tipb.com. Likewise, you can now find our forums at http://forum.tipb.com!

Second, with some new great Apple devices right around the corner it was time to change things up a little bit — to help everyone find what they need faster and better.

Third, we’re doing a ton of great give-aways lately, and a lot of them happen right in the TiPb forums (like $260 worth of PowerMat last week, 10 Appigo Todo promo codes right now, not to mention our big iPad give-away coming up!).

Becoming a member is a simple process that will only take a few moments of your time, so if you have not already already done so, head on over and register now!

• iPhone Forum: This is the place to go if you are in need of help, how-to guides, and any news and rumors regarding anything iPhone related.

• iPad Forum: Visit this forum to converse about all things iPad including release news and feature rumorse.

• iPhone Jailbreak and Unlock: This forum is dedicated to all of your iPhone or iPod touch jailbreaking and unlocking needs.

• iPhone Apps and Games: Discuss iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch native App Store apps and games, and Web Apps. Share tips, tricks, and reviews.

• Jailbreak Apps, Games, and Themes: Here is the place to chat about jailbreak apps, games, and themes for your iPhone and iPod touch.

Now that’s not all, feel free to browse our other forums to find one that interests you! See you in the forums!

Introducing the All New TiPb Forums! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Review: Call of Duty: Zombies for the iPhone

If there was ever an enemy you’d feel guiltless about killing, it’s Nazi zombies. And for the wince-inducing base price of $9.99, Activision’s Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies lets you blow them to pieces to your heart’s content.

Latest Netflix survey gauges interest in iPhone app

A question from the latest Netflix survey outlines plans for a future iPhone service.

Apple sues HTC for infringing 20 iPhone patents

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/apple/Apple_goes_to_war_Sues_HTC_for_infringing_20_patents'; Looks like Apple's going on the warpath, kids. Just a few months after Cupertino got into it with Nokia over phone patents, Apple's filed suit against HTC, alleging that the company is infringing 20 patents "related to the iPhone's user interface, underlying architecture, and hardware." Steve, you have something to say?

"We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours."

Okay then. We're pulling the complaint filing now, we'll let you know the exact details as soon as we learn them.

Update: HTC just gave us a statement -- this is apparently coming totally out of the blue for them, since Apple hasn't even served the complaint yet.

We only learned of Apple's actions based on your stories and Apple's press release. We have not been served yet so we are in no position to comment on the claims. We respect and value patent rights but we are committed to defending our own innovations. We have been innovating and patenting our own technology for 13 years.

Update 2: We mean it when we say this was all just filed in the past few hours -- it's not yet in the court's systems. We just got the PDFs and put the full list of claims from the federal lawsuit below, but remember not to take the names of the patents literally or directly, since they don't mean much. We'll poke each one apart and tease out what's really at stake as we go along.

Update 3: We've just learned that Apple submitted over 700 pages of exhibits to the District Court, which is a little nuts. In addition, the ITC complaint lists a number of specific HTC handsets as exhibits, including the Nexus One, Touch Pro, Touch Diamond, Touch Pro2, Tilt II, Pure, Imagio, Dream / G1, myTouch 3G, Hero, HD2, and Droid Eris. That's really a full range of HTC phones, running both Android and Windows Mobile, with and without Sense / TouchFLO. Interestingly, the Android sets are specifically included because they run Android, while the WinMo sets are called out specifically for including DSP chips, not anything to do with Windows Mobile.

Continue reading Apple sues HTC for infringing 20 iPhone patents

Apple sues HTC for infringing 20 iPhone patents originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shipping Times for 27-Inch iMacs Finally Return to Normal in U.S. and Canada

Several MacRumors readers have reported that shipping lead times for Apple's 27-inch iMac models have returned to "Within 24hrs" in Apple's online stores in the U.S. and Canada, the minimum possible shipping window in Apple's stores. Shippin...

Apple sues HTC for patent infringement

On Tuesday, Apple filed a patent infringement lawsuit against HTC with the International Trade Commission and the US District Court of Delaware. Apple is accusing the company of infringement on twenty of its iPhone-related patents.

UPDATED: Apple Sues HTC for Patent Infringement

Apple announced today that they are suing Windows Phone and Android hardware manufacturer, and Sense UI developer, HTC for patent infringement. The suit, filed in US District Court in Delaware, alleges violation of “20 Apple patents related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware”. Says Apple CEO Steve Jobs:

“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

This harkens back to Steve Jobs’ original introduction of the iPhone at Macworld 2007 when, as a keynote bullet point, he stated emphatically about the iPhone — “boy did we patent it.”

HTC, who produces the Android G1, MyTouch, and Hero and the Nexus One hardware for Google, and a variety of Windows Phones including the Touch Pro 2 and HD2 has built their own multitouch solutions, even when Google was reticent to implement the technology themselves. Curiously, Apple has yet to go after Palm, perhaps due to Palm’s equally impressive mobile patent portfolio. Likewise, does going after HTC allow Apple to go after Android and Windows Phone without taking on Google and Microsoft?

More on this as it develops. Also keep an eye on our sibling sites, Android Central for more from the HTC angle.

UPDATE 2: Android Central brings us an HTC response:

We only learned of Apple’s actions based on your stories and Apple’s press release. We have not been served yet so we are in no position to comment on the claims. We respect and value patent rights but we are committed to defending our own innovations. We have been innovating and patenting our own technology for 13 years.

UPDATE 1: Gizmodo has the full list:

• The ‘331 Patent, entitled “Time-Based, Non-Constant Translation Of User Interface Objects Between States,” was duly and legally issued on April 22, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
• The ‘949 Patent, entitled “Touch Screen Device, Method, And Graphical User Interface For Determining Commands By Applying Heuristics,” was duly and legally issued on January 20, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘949 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit B.
• The ‘849 Patent, entitled “Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image,” was duly and legally issued on February 2, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘849 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit C.
• The ‘381 Patent, entitled “List Scrolling And Document Translation, Scaling, And Rotation On A Touch-Screen Display,” was duly and legally issued on December 23, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘381 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit D.
• The ‘726 Patent, entitled “System And Method For Managing Power Conditions Within A Digital Camera Device,” was duly and legally issued on July 6, 1999 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘726 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit E.
• The ‘076 Patent, entitled “Automated Response To And Sensing Of User Activity In Portable Devices,” was duly and legally issued on December 15, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘076 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit F.
• The ‘105 Patent, entitled “GMSK Signal Processors For Improved Communications Capacity And Quality,” was duly and legally issued on December 8, 1998 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘105 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit G.
• The ‘453 Patent, entitled “Conserving Power By Reducing Voltage Supplied To An Instruction-Processing Portion Of A Processor,” was duly and legally issued on June 3, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘453 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit H.
• The ‘599 Patent, entitled “Object-Oriented Graphic System,” was duly and legally issued on October 3, 1995 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘599 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit I.
• The ‘354 Patent, entitled “Object-Oriented Event Notification System With Listener Registration Of Both Interests And Methods,” was duly and legally issued on July 23, 2002 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘354 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit J.

Yikes. Apple is asking for permanent injunction and triple damages. Some of those also read so broad that I don’t feel safe even making gestures in traffic any more!

What do you think? Is Apple right to sue? Is this their attempt to stop what happened with the Mac from happening to the iPhone? And why HTC in particular?

UPDATED: Apple Sues HTC for Patent Infringement is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Apple sues HTC for patent violations

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Odds and ends, iPhone

It's a festival of lawsuits. This morning Apple has announced it is going after Taiwan based phone giant HTC for infringing on 20 patents concerning the iPhone user interface and the underlying hardware and architecture. The lawsuit was filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission and in the U.S. District Court in Delaware.

"We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours."

Although the Google Android phone is not mentioned in the lawsuit, HTC makes several Android handsets, and the touchscreen models look quite a bit like the iPhone screen. HTC has not yet reacted to the lawsuit.

Apple's lawyers are busy. There is ongoing litigation with Nokia over patents and technology licensing.

Apple sues HTC for patent violations originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple sues HTC for patent violations originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Innocomm shows Android phone with analog TV

Innocomm plans to launch its first handset with Google's Android mobile operating system and an analog TV receiver by June.

The IconFactory & DS MediaLabs Ramp Champ Review

I have been eagerly awaiting this game. I've heard and read all about Ramp Champ  before it was published to the AppStore and when it came out I eagerly watched to see how people reacted to it. All the reviewers had very good things to say about it and all ...

Nokia Siemens: LTE more than higher speeds

The higher speeds that next generation mobile networks based on LTE is getting most of the attention, but the lower latency offered will be equally important.

Apple Files Lawsuit Against HTC Over Alleged iPhone Patent Infringement

Apple today announced that it has filed suit against handset manufacturer HTC regarding alleged infringement of 20 iPhone-related patents. The patents cover such aspects as the user interface, architectu...

Netflix Surveying Users Regarding Interest in iPhone Streaming via Wi-Fi

HackingNetflix reports (via TechCrunch) that DVD rental and streaming service Netflix has issued a survey to some of its users including a question asking about their interest in using a Netflix iPhone application to watch streamed video offe...

RedEye mini converts iPhone, iPad or iPod touch into IR-beaming universal remote

ThinkFlood's original RedEye was pretty swank, but unfortunately, it was both expensive and somewhat convoluted. It's only been four months since that very device hit the scene, but it's safe to say it's already history. Today, the RedEye mini is setting a new bar in the world of iPhone / iPad / iPod touch remotes, with a single plug-in Infrared (IR) adapter enabling your Apple device to beam out a near-limitless array of IR commands. All that's needed is the 3.5mm dongle (read: your dock connector remains open), iPhone OS 3.2 and the free RedEye app; once you're setup, you can then control your TV, AV receiver, Blu-ray player and whatever else is lucky enough to be in your home theater rack and support IR dictation. Better still, the app allows users to customize the way they control their gear, with full multitouch and accelerometer support complementing the ability to add (soft) macro buttons. Oh, and did we mention that this wealth of functionality will only set you back $49? Huzzah!

Continue reading RedEye mini converts iPhone, iPad or iPod touch into IR-beaming universal remote

RedEye mini converts iPhone, iPad or iPod touch into IR-beaming universal remote originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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