CBS experimenting with iPad-friendly video

Several Mac bloggers have discovered possible hints at alternate HTML5-encoded video for the iPad on CBS's website. The network currently uses Flash to display most of its content.

Review: Rogue Planet for iPhone

Rogue Planet from Gameloft is a turn based strategy game that seeks to take the crown as king of the genre for the iPhone and iPod Touch. With it’s involving story line, strategic gameplay and upcoming online play, Gameloft may have succeeded.

The #1 thing I want in the next iPhone: support for 900 MHz UMTS/HSDPA

Filed under: iPhone

The next iPhone is widely expected to debut sometime in the next few months, most likely at WWDC, which is rumored to kick off on June 28. Even though that's only a hair over three months away, so far there's been very little revealed about the next iteration of the iPhone either in terms of its appearance or likely features.

Apple can put a better camera in it, add more capacity, a better processor, a front-facing camera for videoconferencing, and a dozen other things -- but quite honestly, I'd be perfectly happy if none of that made it into the next-gen iPhone so long as one feature does find its way in: support for 900 MHz UMTS/HSDPA.

The iPhone 3G and 3GS, as well as the forthcoming iPad, all contain 3G antenna/chipsets that support UMTS/HSDPA at 850, 1900, and 2100 MHz. UMTS/HSDPA is an alphabet-soup way of referring to the GSM flavors of 3G. In other words, high-speed broadband works at those frequencies, and only those frequencies. If high-speed broadband isn't available at those frequencies, the iPhone will fall back to GSM/EDGE at 850, 900, 1800, or 1900 MHz.

For those of you living in the US and on AT&T, the iPhone's 3G frequency range is especially tailored for your use. Most of AT&T's 3G network runs on 850 MHz, while T-Mobile runs at 1700 MHz -- this is why the iPhone only works at EDGE speeds with T-Mobile, because the iPhone's 3G chipset isn't tailored for the 1700 MHz band.

3G networks in many other areas of the world, including portions of Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand function at 900 MHz. This creates several problems for users in those regions; read on to find out why.

Continue reading The #1 thing I want in the next iPhone: support for 900 MHz UMTS/HSDPA

The #1 thing I want in the next iPhone: support for 900 MHz UMTS/HSDPA originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The #1 thing I want in the next iPhone: support for 900 MHz UMTS/HSDPA originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple Patent Application Addresses Use of Ambient Light Sources for Notebook Backlighting

A rather strange patent application published today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (via Patently Apple) reveals that Apple has looked into the possibility of using reflecting "light harnesses" as a means to gather ambient light for backlight...

iPhone Pwned at Pwn20wn

Looks like our iPhone didn’t put up much of a fight at the latest Pwn20own contest in Vancouver, falling on the first day to hacking duo Ralf Philipp Weinmann of the University of Luxembourg, and Vincenzo Iozzo of Zynamics according to CNET.

The team wins $15,000 for their efforts, which took them about 2 weeks to write. The exploit involved getting a user to go to a malicious website whose payload downloads and executes, stealing the contents of the iPhone’s SMS database. (Though they said the same attack could be used to get contacts, photos, or any other data).

The exploit was written to bypass the digital code signatures used on the iPhone to verify that the code in memory is from Apple, he said. The exploit then looked for chunks in Apple’s code that could be pieced together to accomplish the attack, according to Weinmann.

Bypassing Apple’s security was “major issue” and used a process known since 1997 but not exploited on an ARM-based device like the iPhone until now.

The details of how the exploit was done are being kept confidential but will be shared with Apple.

Hacking the iPhone is nothing new, of course, as getting around Apple’s security is how Jailbreak is achieved (and original iPhone 2G owners may remember one of the earliest Jailbreak techniques involved simply going to a website with Mobile Safari). Apple has been beefing up their security team so while it’s not good news for Jailbreakers, future iPhone hardware and software should be harder targets.

Oh, and yes, Charlie Miller won $10,000 for exploiting Mac Safari. Again.

iPhone Pwned at Pwn20wn is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

TiPb Apps 6.3: AllSport for iPhone (CTIA 2010)

Some of us recently realized there’s a whole world out there, and perhaps it’d be a good idea to visit it once in a while, and an even better idea to (gulp) exercise in it.

And so, we hug out for a few minutes at CTIA 2010 with the folks from Trimble Outdoors and their AllSport GPS app, which comes in a free, ad-supported version [iTunes Store link] and a full, $4.99 version that adds a few additional features [App Store link]. It’s kind of your standard GPS trip app, but it’s for athletes and out-of-shape bloggers of any age. Pick your activity, hit the start button, and it tracks your route, time — hell, altitude, if you’re flying — and logs it all online for posterity and/or sharing on Facebook and the like.

Check out video of it in action after the break.

YouTube link

TiPb Apps 6.3: AllSport for iPhone (CTIA 2010) is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

The Witcher to cast its spell on the iPhone

CD Projeckt and one2tribe are creating a Witcher experience fit for the iPhone with The Witcher: Versus.

Advertisers Gearing Up for iPad Editions of Magazines While Content Pricing Firms Up

The Wall Street Journal reports that advertisers are gearing up for next week's launch of the iPad in the U.S. by committing to spots in iPad-formatted content from magazines and newspapers. At the same ...

Sprint 4G: what you need to know

Sprint has been aggressively promoting its expanding 4G wireless network at the CTIA show in Las Vegas this week. Here's what it could mean to you and your business

Review: iSilo for iPhone

If you have a lot of Palm Doc files and are familiar with iSilo because you have used it on other portable platforms, the iPhone version could prove very useful. But as a general document viewer or e-book reader, it doesn't measure up to similar apps.

A glimpse at some iPad games

The iPad is just a week away, and game developers are starting to reveal what their titles will look like on the device.

CBS.com to Serve HTML5 Video for iPad?

The Other Mac Blog and MacRumors have discovered and confirmed that CBS.com is at least testing iPad-compatible playback ahead of Apple’s magical new device launch on April 3.

This new version of the video does not yet work but appears to be based on HTML5. The css files reference HTML5 and have a number of “webkit” specific calls. Webkit is the browser engine used in the iPad’s mobile safari. While the videos don’t currently play, the “fullscreen mode” reportedly already works in the iPad simulator.

UPDATE: 9to5Mac has several examples up of the site in the iPad simulator.

The iPad, like the iPhone and iPod touch, doesn’t support the Flash plugin that CBS.com uses for computer-based browsers. More and more sites, including YouTube are testing HTML5 as an alternative, however, so It will be interesting to see if CBS.com pulls the trigger on it, and how many other big media properties follow suit. Hulu anyone?

CBS.com to Serve HTML5 Video for iPad? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

CBS testing HTML5 iPad video out in the open, sorry Flash

Hey Dan, ever heard of a staging area to do your testing? Apparently not judging by the screenshot above. MacRumors took that "iPad - test - dan config - 3" content from the CBS.com homepage for a spin and discovered what appears to be HTML5 (not Flash) video. A bit more sleuthing reveals several "webkit" (the foundation of the iPad's and iPhone's mobile Safari browser) calls after peeling open the CSS. This suggests that CBS is preparing to serve up parallel HTML5 content with the launch of the notoriously Flash-less iPad -- take that Hulu -- becoming yet another high-profile company swayed into providing video and other content in an Apple friendly format. Then again, maybe CBS is just testing a "what if" scenario with no intention of moving this into production any time soon. US netizens can try it themselves by setting your browser to spoof the iPad's user agent and hitting the source below (for as long as it lasts) but you'll need the iPad SDK Simulator to view the actual HTML5 videos.

CBS testing HTML5 iPad video out in the open, sorry Flash originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Mar 2010 05:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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