Dev Team Making Good Progress In Unlocking iPhone 4

US government posts more mobile apps

Filed under: iPhone

US President Barack Obama famously used an iPhone app and several social media tools in his successful campaign for the White House. Now, the US government has released more mobile apps.

Just this week, USA.gov has added several new apps, including:

• Product Recalls This mobile-optimized site lists product safety updates from Consumer Product Safety Commission, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Food and Drug Administration, and Department of Agriculture.
• My TSA Find out if a particular item will be allowed on your flight before you leave home and save potentially costly guesswork.
• FBI's Most Wanted An up-to-date list of those the FBI would most like to apprehend.
• Find Your Embassy Quick directions to the nearest American Embassy, no matter where you are.

You'll notice that some of these are optimized mobile sites. The government is releasing apps for the mobile web, iPhone and Android. More than 100 apps are either available now or currently under development (though not all will be issued to the public).

The government in your pocket. What more could you want?

[Via Information Week]

US government posts more mobile apps originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

US government posts more mobile apps originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tell-a-Friend coming as app on iPhone, BlackBerry, Android

Tell-a-Friend; an online marketing referral widget will be available as an application on iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android phones

iPhone 4 shipping, faulty home buttons, iAds, Jailbreak, iOS apps – From the Forums

The TiPb forums are naturally a great place to talk, commiserate, celebrate, get help, and offer advice to your fellow iPhone users. In order to create a new thread of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is easy and free so if you haven’t already head on over and register now!

• Still waiting for that iPhone 4 you ordered a while back? This is the perfect place to talk about it: iPhone 4 July 14th Ship Date.

• Besides the antenna issue not many of you have had any major gripes regarding iPhone 4’s hardware. That being said, is anyone else having issues with the home button?

• iAds are slowing but surely turning up now, how have these adds effected your user experience if any at all? Good? Bad?

• So many of you are still interested in jailbreaking so why not stop TiPb’s Jailbreak and Unlock forum? Whether you have questions you need answers to or you simply want to help others out, that is the forum for you.

• When you want to talk about any of the thousands of iOS applications this is the place to do it in: Apps and Games.

See you in the forums!

iPhone 4 shipping, faulty home buttons, iAds, Jailbreak, iOS apps – From the Forums is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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AT&T capping iPhone 4 data upload speeds?

It appears as though AT&T has put a cap on the 3G upload data speed in certain regions. Members of MacRumors forums are reporting that the cap seems to be at 100 kbps and the areas that are affected are:

NYC, Central Jersey, Boston, Orlando, Seattle, South Jersey/Philly, Columbus, Cleveland, West Houston, Phoenix, Northern Colorado, St. Paul/Minesota, Suffolk County/Long Island, Quad Cities, South Jersey, Denver, Detroit Metro, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Fairfax, Minneapolis

A possible explanation could be maintenance work related to HSUPA (high speed uplink), the network protocol that will bring us faster upload speeds to devices that support it, like iPhone 4. We hope to hear an official statement from AT&T soon.

I did a quick test in Denver while connected to my AT&T Microcell and got a whopping 47 kbps upload speed. Meanwhile, Jeremy is experiencing no problems in HSPA-drenched Chicago. What about you? What 3G upload speeds are you getting and where are you located?

[Gizmodo, Macrumors forums]

AT&T capping iPhone 4 data upload speeds? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Microstrategy rolls out BI app for iPhone, iPad

Microstrategy is releasing a new business intelligence app for the iPhone.

Geocaching Version 4.0 features UI redesign and new functions

Filed under: iPhone, App Store

As a longtime fan of the pastime of geocaching, I've been following the evolution of the official Groundspeak Geocaching app (US$9.99) since the painful early days. With the release of Geocaching version 4.0 yesterday, it appears that Groundspeak has raised the bar with a new design and additional features.

If you're not familiar with geocaching, it's a location-based hobby where you seek caches (usually small containers with a logbook and goodies inside) based on hints, latitude and longitude coordinates, and a keen eye. You can also hide caches for others to find. GroundSpeak has a free Geocaching Intro app available if you're interested in learning about the hobby but don't want to make the $10 investment in the full app.

So what's new in Geocaching v.4? A lot. The user interface has been redesigned to make it much more streamlined. I found that actions that formerly took a number of screen taps are now usually no more than one or two taps away. Although I'm not fond of long lists of features, there's no other way to show all of the additions and improvements:

-- Google Maps integration (now have choice of Google Maps, Bing, or OpenStreetMap)
-- Ability to take photos and submit them with geocache logs
-- Ability to submit logs for trackable items such as geocoins and travel bugs
-- A logs tab with displays of pending and sent logs
-- Better reliability downloading pocket queries
-- Online / offline indicator
-- GPS acquisition status and location display
-- Listen to iPod app during caching
-- Support for home location (specified in geocaching.com user profile)
-- Notepad for every geocache listing
-- View any list of caches on map
-- View trackables inventory

Geocaching 4 has not been specifically rewritten for iOS 4 or the iPhone 4, so if you want to see the map graphics in all of their glory on your Retina Display, you're out of luck. A few screenshots of the revised app are included in the gallery below.

Geocaching Version 4.0 features UI redesign and new functions originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Geocaching Version 4.0 features UI redesign and new functions originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple Responds Regarding App Store Sales Ranking Fraud

Engadget reports that Apple has issued a statement on strange App Store rankings over the weekend that saw one Vietnamese developer grab nearly all of the top 50 positions in the App Store's Books categor...

Nice white iPhone 4 mod

Filed under: iPhone

While we wait for Apple to begin selling white iPhones, people have been coming up with their own solutions. The folks at Engadget used several spare parts to build theirs. But TUAW reader Trevor took a decidedly simpler approach.

First, he created a file with a JPEG of the vintage Apple logo and then sent it to Gelaskins' upload tool. From there, the process is simple. Using the online tool, drag the uploaded image to the iPhone 4 template and set it just so. You can even create matching wallpaper. Finally, make your purchase and let the Gelaskins worker bees do the rest.

Yes, it's just a stick-on skin, but the vintage logo ads a bit of cool and, unlike Engadget's solution, all of the original parts are intact.

Nice white iPhone 4 mod originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Nice white iPhone 4 mod originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone 4 Users on AT&T Experiencing Widespread Drops in Upload Speed

In a rapidly-growing thread started in our forums over the weekend, iPhone 4 users from a number of locations around the United States have been reporting significant drops in data upload speeds on AT&T's 3G network. As noted by Gizmodo, man...

Droid X review: Verizon and Motorola’s answer to iPhone 4?

Droid X review

Come next week Verizon users still waiting for a mythical iPhone 4 all their own will get Motorola’s latest, greatest new Android offering — the Droid X — to hold them over. And Verizon users with no interest in anything Apple will have the new king of Google’s ever growing hill to play with.

The original Motorola Droid on Verizon was arguably the first smartphone to really give the iPhone 3GS a run for it’s money. However, it came out months after the iPhone 3GS when hype had abated somewhat, and it’s Droid Does list included things like multitasking, which iOS 4 now Does Too. That means while Droid X is a better, badder phone, it has a tougher challenge ahead of it as well.

If size matters, the Droid X is bigger… 4.3″ of screen but with less pixels, at a lower density, and without iPhone 4’s IPS Retina Display panel.

It’s got a bigger 8 megapixel camera on the back to iPhone 4’s 5 megapixels. But iPhone 4 has a back-illuminated sensor that isn’t as chopped up, which should mean better low-light pictures, and iOS 4 camera software while less feature-filled still seems to produce better images with just a touch of the tap-to-focus-and-balance. iPhone 4 also has a front-facing camera (and FaceTime), Droid X don’t.

3 external mics on the Droid X, including one for video camera work trump iPhone 4’s two mics. iPhone 4 does have a gyroscope, though. And yeah, Droid X has got dual antenna. Ouch. Otherwise they’re both monsters on the spec sheet.

In terms of apps Apple’s App Store still wins on sheer number, though Google’s Android Market retains bragging rights on being more open.

Droid X is only running Android 2.1 Eclair right now, though a turbo-boosting 2.2 Froyo update is on the horizon. So, a lot may come down to whether you like Droid X’s “don’t call it MotoBlur” UI, which seems quicker and cleaner than the CLIQ if not as spartan as the original Droid. iOS 4 on the other hand is iOS 4, there’s only one iPhone and one interface on the market at any time.

Strangely, that may mean the Motorola Droid X will face stiffer competition from something other than Apple’s iPhone 4. Verizon already has the HTC Droid Incredible, Sprint the HTC Evo 4G, and every carrier and their subsidiary seems poised to get a Samsung Galaxy S class-device, including Verizon with the Facinate. As we’ve mentioned before, in a world where Apple releases one major iPhone a year, and Android can drop 8 news phones in a weekend, it gives any one new Android as much competition from within as without. And that’s great for Android lovers.

So is the Droid X currently iPhone 4’s big nemesis? If you live in the US and don’t want AT&T, it’s definitely a phone to look at if you’re in the market today. If not, wait a week or more. AT&T might drop a tower in your backyard and Google might just drop 5 more Android’s on another carrier.

Great time to be a consumer!

Droid X review: Verizon and Motorola’s answer to iPhone 4? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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XGear Folio Carbon Fiber Case for iPad – accessory review

The XGear Folio Carbon Fiber Case for iPad is slim, strong, and sexy, with a suede interior and what feels like a darn-near bullet proof outer shell. In sharp contrast to the plush, old-world, executive leather of the Marware Eco-vue, the XGear Folio is sleek, futuristic materials and textures. It adds considerable protection against scrapes and scuffs, if not as much against shocks and drops.

The cover is double-jointed and can be folded back to prop the iPad up for easier typing or viewing in landscape mode, or to keep it standing for a portrait-mode picture frame.

You secure it closed or folded back with a little, tuck-in flange. I’m not crazy about that. It works but the sight of it when it’s not tucked annoyed me. The elastic band, like the old-school moleskins, seems more elegant. Score one for retro.

There aren’t any interior pockets or slots of cards or papers, but given the slim nature of the folio that’s fine.

What you get with the The XGear Folio Carbon Fiber Case for iPad is no more and no less than a super-strong external shell that’ll keep your iPhone safe and otherwise stay out of your way. Check out the video above and photos below, and if you like what you see, it’s available now from the TiPb iPad accessory store.

Pros

• Carbon fiber exterior
• Slim profile for easy stowing
• Easily propped up for typing, viewing

Cons

• Minimal impact protection
• Flange is annoying

TiPb review rating

XGear Folio Carbon Fiber Case for iPad – accessory review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Review: Dracula: Path of the Dragon Part 2 for iPhone

You play Father Arno Moriani, a priest on a mission to investigate a candidate for sainthood. But your mission is derailed amidst local legends and fears, and you find yourself with the task of proving that vampires don't exist…but now, even you’re not so sure that that's the truth.

iPhone 4 reception issues? A network reset might help

Filed under: iPhone

I know this sounds like a bit of Voodoo, but it's worth a try. If you've upgraded to the new iPhone 4 and have restored your old software, you may see what appears to be a signal drop-off. Let's stay away from the whole iPhone 4 "death grip" controversy; that aside, no matter what you do, you're not seeing as many bars or getting reception that's as good as what you had with your older iPhone.

Here's something to try. On your iPhone preferences, navigate to "General," and then scroll down to the bottom where it says "Reset." Tap that, and then tap "Reset Network Settings." You'll get a warning, and the phone will reset to factory defaults. You'll likely lose some Wi-Fi passwords, but you may also find that your cellular reception gets a lot better.

I have two friends who tried this, and they went from one or two bars to for or five at the same locations. This is the same trick they are doing at the Genius Bar, and my research shows that it can help in many (but not all) cases. We've talked about this fix before, but we have a lot of new readers, and some old ones, who may have missed it. There are also some discussions about this on the Apple support board. If you have seen a drop-off in reception, it's certainly worth a try. If it doesn't work, we're sorry. If it does, well, the price is right for the fix. Let us know in the comments if it helped, or sadly, if it didn't.

iPhone 4 reception issues? A network reset might help originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iPhone 4 reception issues? A network reset might help originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s iAd Takes on Google With Targeted Mobile Advertising

Bloomberg takes a look at Apple's new iAd platform and how the company is using its vast database of customer information to target advertising campaigns and get a leg up on Google in the mobile advertisi...

Pac-Man iOS 4 wallpaper just a ‘video’ feature away from perfection

We won't say that this is on the same level as Google's own playable Pac-Man graphic, but it's darn close. Designed to fit perfectly onto the iPhone 4's Retina Display, this Pac-Man PNG wallpaper lines up perfectly to give you a glimpse of retro on each and every home pane. The only problem? There's no motion in the background, which leaves Sir Pac physically incapable of chowing down on any extra dots. Android users: this is where you stifle your evil grin and pretend that you're sympathetic.

Pac-Man iOS 4 wallpaper just a 'video' feature away from perfection originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 09:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple Ramps July iPad Production to Over 2 Million Units

According to a new report from DigiTimes, Apple has pushed orders with its suppliers for iPad production well beyond two million units for the month of July, marking a continued increase in supplies as th...

Abvio offers alternatives to Nike+ iPhone offering

With Nike+ users reporting problems after upgrading to iOS 4, app maker Abvio says its fitness apps have been updated to run on Apple's new mobile OS.

TUAW’s Daily App: HexaLex

Filed under: iPhone, App Store

HexaLex is a new title from developer Nathan Gray that offers up an interesting twist on the online Scrabble phenomenon. HexaLex has the same basic rules as most other word games (Words with Friends being probably the most popular iPhone title so far), with one big change: instead of squares, you use hexes to mark out the words. That creates a few interesting gameplay effects, including that you get a "bye" of two nonsense words per turn. If you can use the hexes to spell out multiple words, though, you can build up your score that way, too.

Other than that, things aren't too different; you have a number of tiles to choose from, you can shuffle or exchange them as needed, and there's a full online complement to the game, complete with push notifications and nice options to brag or send messages back and forth. Unfortunately, the online service requires an account, which is something that probably would have been an obstacle for me if I was just checking out the game on my own.

That's the main issue with a game like this -- if all of your friends are already playing Words with Friends, you'll be hard pressed to get them all to switch. Still, if you're a big wordsmith or if you have a few fellow players who are ready for a new variation on word games, HexaLex is worth a look. You can check the game out for US $2.99.

TUAW's Daily App: HexaLex originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW's Daily App: HexaLex originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Analysis: What Kin’s fate says about Windows Phone 7

The Kin debacle demonstrates Microsoft's mismanaged mobile strategy and could affect the success of Windows Phone 7.