More iTunes Accounts Compromised by App Store Developer?

Arstechnica reports on at least one other iTunes user who also claims to have been the victim of fraudulent App Store charges, possibly by a developer.

Ars reader Harper Reed contacted us to detail the problem. His account wa...

Tweetings for iPhone – App Review and Giveaway!

Tweetings for iPhone is a full featured Twitter client complete with push notifications.  Last week we looked at the iPad version of Tweetings, so this week we’ll look at the iPhone version.  In many ways, it’s very similar.  The layout is extremely similar and it also offers things such as push notifications.  The iPhone version also adds themes into the mix as well.

It’s definitely a worthy contender against the big guys like Twitter for iPhone (formerly Tweetie) and Twitteriffic.  Read on for screens, a feature run down, and how you can win a copy of Tweetings for iPhone from TiPb!

Much like the iPad version of Tweetings, the iPhone version includes features such as list support, combined direct messages, support for iOS4, push notifications, now playing support, and FaceBook integration. It also adds themes into the mix. There are a total of seven themes to choose from. They are silver, carbon (dark), plain, speech bubbles (glossy), speech bubbles (matte), shadows, and shadows evolved. I’m a fan of shadows evolved as it’s simple but clean. It adds subtle gradients. Themes are, of course, a matter of personal preference. I’m a fan of simple and clean. I’ve never been a fan of the themes within Twittelator Pro as they seem to always be overdone. Even making my own, I can never get something quite “simple” enough for my liking. It may just be the layout that doesn’t do it for me. I just want to be able to access what I need, when I need it without having to search or dig through menus.

For those of you who didn’t read my iPad review, Tweetings has built-in push notifications. I tested this against Boxcar and the results were pretty good. At some points Boxcar would chime in a little ahead and vice versa with Tweetings sometimes pushing to me quicker. My conclusion was that it probably just depended on how loaded the servers were. They were pretty much neck and neck.

You also have support for services like Instapaper, you can configure them right from within your settings. Your settings panel can be accessed either within app or through your general iPhone settings.

Viewing user’s profiles within Tweetings is simple enough and allows you options like follow and unfollow as well as showing you their bio and their location (if they’ve chosen to share this).

Another feature I like about Tweetings is combined timelines, which allows you to view a conversation between any 2 people you choose. If someone tags you in a tweet and you aren’t sure why, you can always use the combined timeline feature to figure out where you came into the conversation.

Overall, Tweetings for iPhone is an incredibly decent Twitter client with an awesome developer that completely backs their work. You can always contact the developer with questions or concerns via Twitter via the handle @Tweetingsapp.

Pros

• Built in push notifications
• Great developer support
• Frequent updates
• Good theme selection
• Pull down to refresh

Cons

• Sometimes a little laggy when scrolling (most of these seemed to be fixed in the last update, only when scrolling rather quickly does this happen)
• Some clients out there are just as good for a bit cheaper, if Boxcar hadn’t of went free, Tweetings would be ahead due to native push
• Sometimes crashes after changing a theme or using the nearby feature, hopefully this will be fixed in an update

Overall, I think the iPad version is a bit more polished and stable, so hopefully the iPhone version will receive the same polish in a coming update.  The developer is very supportive and seems to update often.  If you’re looking for a good Twitter client (or you’re like me and are completely shallow about Twitter clients), give it a shot (but first enter our giveaway to see if you can get your hands on one courtesy of TiPb and Tweetings!).  If you do, or already have it, let us know in the comments.

Giveaway!

Alright, last week we gave away 5 Tweetings for iPad promo codes and this week we’re giving away 5 Tweetings for iPhone codes! How do you go about getting your hands on one you ask? Just leave a comment. Yep, that’s it. It can be why you want a copy of Tweetings or what Twitter client you’re currently using, anything you want really, or just to say hi! Just make sure you use a valid e-mail address you check when leaving your comment. Next week we’ll pick 5 of you randomly to receive Tweetings code. And keep in mind, this week’s codes are for the iPhone version only, not iPad. Good luck and happy tweeting!

[US iTunes App Store account required to redeem Promo Codes -- Apple's rule, not TiPb's -- and they expire so if you get one, use it quickly!]

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Tweetings for iPhone – App Review and Giveaway! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Fring bends under the pressure of iPhone video calling, Skype temporarily locked down

We guess this is a "good" thing in a roundabout way, but Fring has just dropped the knowledge that its video calling update for the iPhone 4 has been so wildly successful that they've been forced to temporarily restrict Skype access to "free up capacity" for direct Fring-to-Fring calls. Hopefully the company is hard at work beefing up its infrastructure to bring everything back to normal -- but in the meantime, at least you've got an easy way to look your EVO-toting friends square in the face without having to actually see them in the flesh. Perish the thought!

[Thanks, Roy]

Fring bends under the pressure of iPhone video calling, Skype temporarily locked down originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Jul 2010 19:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone AT&T exclusivity lawsuit granted class-action certification, every AT&T iPhone customer included

Hey, remember that iPhone class-action lawsuit we poked around in a couple months ago and discovered Apple's lawyers confirming the original five year AT&T exclusivity agreement? Well, get ready to hear about it a lot more in the months to come, as the judge in the case has officially certified the case as a class action, meaning it now officially includes anyone who's ever bought an iPhone on AT&T. If you'll recall, the argument is that iPhone customers signed up for a two-year contract without being told that AT&T had an exclusive for five years -- thus in reality being held to the carrier for an additional three years without recourse. Sure, that sounds a little silly, but if you bought the first-gen iPhone and wanted to stick with the platform it's the truth -- discounting the fact, of course, that no one's required to buy another Phone after two years, and even then you have to sign a new contract. While we're definitely curious to see if the plaintiffs can get past that little logical hurdle and win something more than a token settlement, we're far more interested to see if they can get any more documentation from Apple nailing down its actual agreement with AT&T. Should be juicy -- we'll keep you in the loop.

iPhone AT&T exclusivity lawsuit granted class-action certification, every AT&T iPhone customer included originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Jul 2010 19:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google’s Larry Page: Steve Jobs is ‘rewriting history’ by saying Android came after the iPhone

Steve Jobs might have thought he was lightly playing down reports that the Apple / Google rivalry had dramatically changed when he said "they decided to compete with us -- we didn't go into the search business" at D8, but it appears that his phrasing didn't sit so well with Larry Page, who told Reuters yesterday that Jobs was doing a "little bit of rewriting history," and that the "characterization of us entering [the phone market] after is not really reasonable." Page, who was being interviewed alongside Eric Schmidt, also said that Google had been working on Android for "a very long time" and that the goal was always to develop phones with solid browsers to fill a market void.

That's true, of course -- Google purchased Andy Rubin's Android, Inc. in 2005 -- but it's also an equally slight distortion: when Android was officially announced in November of 2007, it looked nothing like the OS we know and love today, and the SDK emulator used an image of an HTC-built prototype that had much more in common with the traditional BlackBerry than the iPhone. (Fun fact: that device eventually became the Palm Treo Pro running Windows Mobile.) It wasn't until the G1 shipped almost a year later that Android started to look more like what it is today, and we'd even argue that it wasn't until Android 2.0 hit on the OG Motorola Droid along with Verizon's Droid Does marketing campaign that the platform grew into its own unique and successful identity -- an identity that is now powerfully differentiated against the iPhone and driving accelerating device sales every quarter.

So, does any of this really matter? To the tech historians, perhaps -- and Apple and Google clearly see what they're doing as historically significant. Apart from that, it's a pretty meaningless distinction; Eric Schmidt followed up Page's comment by saying that the market was big enough for the iPhone and Android to coexist, and we seriously doubt anyone's phone purchasing decision will ever turn on what platform was released first. But it's also clear that the competition between these two companies is at fever pitch, which is great news for the rest of us -- let's just hope everyone involved remembers that Jobs closed his D8 remarks by saying "just because we're competing with somebody doesn't mean we have to be rude."

Google's Larry Page: Steve Jobs is 'rewriting history' by saying Android came after the iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Jul 2010 18:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fring enables 3G video calls on iPhone 4

Find FaceTime's iPhone 4-only limitation unappealing? Fring lets you make video calls from any phone. And you can do so over 3G -- not just Wi-Fi.

Report Claims iPhone 4 Caught Fire; Blames Defective USB Port

iPhone vs Android: Cooper, Woz, and Page edition

A bit of a roundup this afternoon as the cell phone inventor Martin Cooper, personal computer inventor Steve Wozniak, and advertising revolutionary Larry Page all give their opinions on iPhone vs. Android.

Martin Cooper went on CNN with this zinger:

“I think that the Android phones are catching up now, and the latest version of the Android phones are every bit as good, if not better, than the iPhone.”

Of course, the accuracy of statements about which is better are inversely proportional to their generality. Don’t tell us which, tell us why.

Apple’s Steve Wozniak on Korea Times offers a little of that:

“It’s difficult to find where things are (on Android phones). More and more, I feel like it is more like (Microsoft’s) Windows in which many different hardware vendors have installed different equipment on the same platform. The (Windows’) platform has to be very neutral and cannot be special. That’s the similar problem Android phones have,” he said.

“When you write an app for Android phones, there are so many platforms to consider. That’s the problem Microsoft was facing with its Windows years ago. People like Apple products because they are always predictable and work.”

Apple does a subset of features very well, but woe to you if you need something outside that subset. Google is currently doing as much as they can, even if all of it isn’t polished yet. Both are moving towards the same goal, just taking very different paths.

As if to highlight that, Google’s Larry Page went so far as to accuse Steve Jobs of distorting reality when it came to Jobs’ charge that Google dropped the gauntlet by deciding to compete with Apple:

“We had been working on Android a very long time, with the notion of producing phones that are Internet-enabled and have good browsers and all that because that did not exist in the marketplace. I think that characterization of us entering after is not really reasonable.”

But it is reasonable to say Android was aimed squarely (pun intended) at Windows Mobile Standard before Apple launched the iPhone, and now look at who’s duking it out full-screen multitouch to full-screen multitouch.

We’ve just gotten a Nexus One running Android 2.2 Froyo here at TiPb HQ and we’re going to put it one-on-one with iPhone 4 and iOS 4. If there’s anything in particular you’d like to see, let us know in the comments.

[CNN via Android Central, Korea Times, Fortune, via 9to5Mac]

iPhone vs Android: Cooper, Woz, and Page edition is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Last day! Save 10% on ALL iPhone and iPad accessories!

Last day! Save 10% on ALL iPhone and iPad accessories!

Today’s the last day to enjoy post July 4th savings at the TiPb iPhone and iPad accessory store. From right now — this very moment — until midnight PST, Friday July 9, use coupon code TiPb4 to save 10% all iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS/iPhone 3G, and iPad accessories. We’re talking cases, chargers and cables, Bluetooth headsets and stereo headsets, and much, much, more.

Start shopping and save now at TiPb iPhone and iPad accessory store!

Last day! Save 10% on ALL iPhone and iPad accessories! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Solving the mystery of blank e-mails in an iOS 4 inbox

Lex Friedman wasn't worried about an issue with black email messages affecting some iOS 4 users, until it affected his mom. Now, he's figured out a potential fix.

iRetrofone goes steampunk

Filed under: iPhone

We've posted about the great iRetrofone handset base for the iPhone before -- it's really just a block of resin, but having an actual handset hooked up to your iPhone around the house makes for some pretty nostalgic phone calls. The iRetrophone's creator Scott Freeland said he would be hard at work on new designs, and now he's gone a little Steampunk with the latest one, as you can see above courtesy of iPhone Savior.

It's designed specifically for the iPhone 4, and has both an audio hookup and a USB connection ready to go -- just plug your iPhone into the base and start calling. It's not quite as nostalgic as the old handset, of course, but I like the steampunk aesthetic. And for $450 plus $25 shipping, you better like it. Still, as an art piece (the whole thing is actually cast in copper, rather than just the resin of the first one), it's a pretty unique piece of tech.

iRetrofone goes steampunk originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iRetrofone goes steampunk originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Review: Atomic Web Browser for iPhone and iPad

The beauty of this mobile Web browser may leave much to be desired, but the brawn -- in the form of power features and customizable options -- is present in full-force.

News Wall visual feed reader takes on Pulse

Reading news on iPhone and iPad is getting a fresh interface injection, thanks to a new crop of visual feed readers. News Wall is the latest entry, sporting a photo-happy dashboard for your feeds, and no limits on the number of feeds you can add.

iPhone 3GS-Like 3.2-Megapixel Rear Camera Possible for Next-Generation iPod Touch?

There has been considerable discussion over the past couple of days regarding possibilities for front- and rear- facing cameras in the next-generation iPod touch, sparked by claims that the device will carry an iPhone 4-like 5-megapixel rear-facing c...

Apple Reportedly Paying Out $150 Bonuses to Certain iPhone 4 Launch Day Retail Store Employees

ifoAppleStore reports that Apple has decided to pay out bonuses of $150 to its retail store employees who worked the iPhone 4 launch day, at least in the U.S. But there appears to be a catch: Eligible em...

How To: Use iPhone 4 data plan with iPad 3G

Filed under: How-tos, iPhone, iPad

I love my iPad 3G, almost unnecessarily so. I use it as my primary computer for a multitude of tasks. The only thing that I dislike about my iPad is that I have to pay AT&T even more money to use their data network, even though I'm already paying for it with my new iPhone 4.

We have covered in the past how to manage your 3G data with your iPad using the Apple/AT&T-sanctioned methods built in to the device itself. Today, we want to show you how you can swap Micro-SIMs to make use of your iPhone's unlimited data plan with your iPad.

Note: This is not an officially sanctioned technique and you do this at your own risk! If AT&T comes down on your SIM-swapping antics with the force of a truckload of anvils... you are on your own, brother.

That said, let's proceed.

Continue reading How To: Use iPhone 4 data plan with iPad 3G

How To: Use iPhone 4 data plan with iPad 3G originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 09 Jul 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

How To: Use iPhone 4 data plan with iPad 3G originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 09 Jul 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone 4 Drop Test With Bumper Case

Rescue Kit 2.0 helps iPhone users in times of need

The new version of the "crisis situation" app offers internal emergency numbers, reports position and serves as an emergency flashlight.

Let the gyroscope do the drawing with Gyro Draw

Gyro Draw -- currently available for free from the App Store -- uses the iPhone's 4 gyroscope feature to let you draw by tilting your phone. Older phones and iPod touches can use the built-in accelerometer.

Apple patent application details instant product research via iPhone, more NFC possibilities

Past Apple patent applications have already offered some evidence that the company is at least thinking about NFC-enhanced apps on the iPhone, and a recently published application has now tossed out one more possible application: instant product research. That would apparently be done using either NFC (or near field communication) or a simple barcode scan, which would let you easily access product reviews, user manuals and other information about products before you purchase them -- the application even includes the example of an NFC-enabled restaurant menu that would let you check nutritional information before you order. Somewhat interestingly, both this and and Apple's previous NFC-related patent application use "+" in the app's names (Products+ and Concert Tickets+), although that could simply be the work of one patent attorney, and not evidence of an overarching Apple strategy.

Apple patent application details instant product research via iPhone, more NFC possibilities originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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