Mailboxes for iPad gets offline reading, fast account switching

Mailboxes for iPad, Lilliput Labs's multi-user Gmail client, has been updated with offline support and fast account switching.

Camera+ for iPhone – app review

Camera+ for iPhone is a photography application that allows you to take photos and edit them. tap tap tap claims Camera+ is “all about one thing – GREAT PHOTOS!” How does Camera+ hold up to this expectation? Follow along to find out.

When you launch Camera+, you will be looking at the back of camera with a view finder. Under the viewfinder, where there would normally be a screen on a digital camera, there are two options: take photos and Lightbox. Behind the camera, you can see a little of what your iPhone’s camera can see. Inside the viewfinder, you’ll see a very small version of exactly what your camera sees. Tap on the viewfinder or “take photos” to take a picture.

When taking a photo, there is a 3×3 grid to help line up your shot (optional). There is also a stabilizer which will not snap the picture until the iPhone is held still. This is great for low light situations or when you are zoomed in (up to 5x).

The Lightbox is where you go to view all the photos you’ve taken with Camera+. The Lightbox is designed with filmstrips containing 3 photos each and is very visually appealing. None of the photos save to your camera roll until you tell it to. This is great for keeping your camera roll clutter-free of photos you don’t want. Tapping a photo brings up options to edit, save, copy, or share. Double tapping a photo makes it larger and provides the same options.

There are 4 different ways to edit your photos: scenes, crops, effects, and borders. Scenes is similar to the different modes you might find on a digital point and shoot camera: auto, flash, sunset, night, backlit, portrait, beach, scenery, concert, food, and text. There are 9 different common crop ratios available. The 21 different effects are categorized as color, retro, and special. I am impressed with all the options and quality of these effects. They are fun and look great. There are 7 different borders to choose from. Most are very basic; the only “fun” one being “instant” which makes your photo look like it was taking with a polaroid camera.

Overall, I was impressed with Camera+. The plethora of good effects makes the app worth it alone. Camera+ does a great job of producing great photos.

[$1.99 - iTunes link]

Pros

• Unique UI
• 5x zoom, stabilizer, and grid available when taking photos
• Creatively designed Lightbox to scroll through pictures
• Many scene modes, crop ratios, borders, and effects
• Share to Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr
• Support for multitasking, Retina Display, flash, and front facing camera on iPhone 4
• Access photo library to edit photos not taken with Camera+

Cons

• Only portrait mode.
• Cannot view photos in full screen
• Saving a photo to camera roll removes it from the Lightbox

Camera+ for iPhone – app review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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White iPhones delayed by paint issues

Filed under: iPhone

We know that a few of you have been waiting patiently for a white iPhone 4. Chances are you're still getting one even if you have to use a Bumper, right? Apple has announced the wait will soon be over, mostly, as white iPhones should start dribbling into inventory at the end of this month. In a year this will likely all be a distant memory (isn't everything in tech a distant memory in a year?).

If you've been wondering why the delay, wonder no more: it's the paint. You see, the folks making the glass components are having quite a time getting just the right coating of paint on Apple's hot new hardware so that it'll match all the rest of its white hardware: namely docks and cables and bumpers, oh my! Engadget has a thorough dissection of the process and problems, which is interesting if you're into the supply side of things.

White iPhones delayed by paint issues originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

White iPhones delayed by paint issues originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s ‘Magic Trackpad’ Apparently Approved by FCC

Diagram showing location of FCC label on presumed "Magic Touchpad"
Engadget reports that a new Apple product has appeared in the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's online database, and while it is not possible to positively ident...

High Society card game app is money (almost)

Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch, App Review, iPad

As promised, RPGnet has transformed another Reiner Knizia card game into an iPhone/iPad app. The coders' last such project was the very well done Money. This time around, it's High Society [US$2.99], and RPGnet has kept the interface and look of the games almost exactly the same but swapped the bidding, set-collecting gameplay from Money with the bidding, card-collecting gameplay from the High Society tabletop game. Like with the first app, High Society is smooth and intuitive, allowing you to easily wrap your head around the new challenges and strategy. While they appear similar, the two games are quite different - as different as two light, auction-based card games can be.

The High Society card game was originally released in 1995, and it has since been published in a variety of editions. The RPGnet app takes its art from the latest physical version, currently in print from Gryphon Games (there's even a code in the app for a 10 percent discount off the card game, which almost covers the price of the app). Keep reading to find out if that discount is something you'll be interested in.

Continue reading High Society card game app is money (almost)

High Society card game app is money (almost) originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

High Society card game app is money (almost) originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIM, Nokia, and HTC defend against Apple’s antenna claims

Research in Motion, Nokia, and HTC dispute Steve Jobs's claim that most smartphones have antenna weak spots.

Bumper cases no longer on sale, pending giveaway

Filed under: iPhone

As announced on Friday, Apple is planning to provide free iPhone 4 cases (either the Bumper case or other yet-to-be-announced models) to all iPhone 4 purchasers through September 30, 2010. Anyone who bought a Bumper already is due to get a refund.

As the night follows the day, it would make sense that Apple would remove the Bumper from store shelves and the online store to prevent people from paying for something they are entitled to get for free -- and that's exactly what's happened. Reader Mike Polizzotto reported on Friday that the online Apple Store had dropped the Bumpers to a price of $0 and marked them out of stock, and today both Different District and iLounge are noting the absence of Bumpers from the retail stores.

No details yet on the refund/application setup for free cases, but it's expected that Apple will post instructions on apple.com latethis week.

Bumper cases no longer on sale, pending giveaway originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Bumper cases no longer on sale, pending giveaway originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Camera phone inventor makes a FaceTime call from racing yacht

Filed under: iPhone

In a fitting tribute to a technology that he had a hand in creating, entrepreneur and sailing yacht racer Philippe Kahn recently used a satellite hookup and his iPhone 4 to make a FaceTime call to his office from dead-center between Santa Cruz, California and Honolulu, Hawaii.

While the video isn't as smooth as what we're used to via land-based Wi-Fi and broadband networks, it's pretty incredible to see Philippe talking to a co-worker from the deck of the racing sailboat Pegasus in the Pacific Ocean.

Kahn is a pretty bright guy. He was one of the founders and former CEO of Borland, an early programming tool development company, is credited with the invention of the mobile camera phone in 1997, and is now the CEO of FullPower Technologies, the company behind the MotionX GPS apps for iPhone and iPad.

Kahn's invention of the mobile camera phone was triggered by the birth of his daughter Sophie in 1997; he mentions during the video that he called his "camera phone baby" at home using the same setup.

Thanks to Richard for the tip!

Camera phone inventor makes a FaceTime call from racing yacht originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Camera phone inventor makes a FaceTime call from racing yacht originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Behind the Scenes of the Apple-AT&T Relationship [Updated]

ZDNet reports on a new feature article in the August 2010 issue of Wired discussing the relationship between Apple and AT&T and how the success of the iPhone has enabled the partnership to continue despi...

Behind the Scenes of the Apple-AT&T Relationship

ZDNet reports on a new feature article in the August 2010 issue of Wired discussing the relationship between Apple and AT&T and how the success of the iPhone has enabled the partnership to continue despi...

How Apple moved the conversation from iPhone 4 death-touch to industry-wide death-grip

One of the greatest tricks Apple pulled off at the iPhone 4 press conference was changing the dialog from death-touch — a single point of antenna trouble on iPhone 4 — to death-grip — a device-wide point of antenna trouble faced by the entire industry.

Apple for their part did cop to making iPhone 4’s point of attenuation very external and incredibly visible. Steve Jobs called it “x-marks the spot”, but then Apple very quickly moved on from this death-touch to a wider death-grip and demonstrated it on handsets from RIM’s BlackBerry to HTC’s Droid to Samsung’s Windows Mobile.

I initially thought this was a mistake on Apple’s part — that they were spending too much time deflecting onto the competition. Turns out I underestimated Apple, but not as badly as the competition. What Apple very neatly managed to do there was conflate their own widely reported iPhone 4 death-touch into the very real but widely under-reported death-grip phenomena that does indeed affect the entire industry.

What’s more, by those very competitors responding that the death-grip either didn’t affect their devices, was minimal at best, or wouldn’t affect future devices, they cinched it for Apple. They became part of the problem. Why?

Because their devices absolutely suffer from the death grip. Instead of pointing out that yes, Apple was correct, the death-grip was an industry-wide problem but the death-touch was thus far unique to Apple, RIM BlackBerry, Samsung, and Nokia denied the death-grip, thus ensuring everyone with the issue — or just an itch for attenuation attention — would fire up YouTube and make a video clearly discrediting their statements.

HTC for their part just said they didn’t have many reports of the problem. However, as David Chartier points out, HTC effectively white-labels their phones to Verizon and they didn’t make it clear whether the number of complaints they reported included Verizon numbers. This is similar to Apple citing AT&T return numbers for iPhone 4, not gross Apple return numbers. It’s what brought about the saying “lies, damn lies, and statistics”.

My original take on Apple’s press conference was that Steve Jobs should have just stressed that making the iPhone 4 antenna the way they did was a trade-off, better battery life and stronger signal in many cases in exchange for that single point of problem — the lower left hand corner death-touch. Andy Ihnatko made the same point, if more eloquently. Arguably a modern smartphone has any number of tradeoffs — AMOLED screens offer better color and blacks that utterly fail in direct sunlight. (Free sun-screens anyone?)

I still think Apple should have been crystal clear about that trade-off, but it’s looking increasingly like they didn’t have to. In their rush to get comments out in front of the media RIM, Samsung, Nokia, et al have let the conversation get changed from death-touch to death-grip, and they’ve let videos on their own handsets propagate across the web. One look at BlackBerry on Boy Genius, Nokia on Electronista, Samsung on InformationWeek, HTC on Engadget, many others via Daring Fireball, and even manufactures’ own warnings against touching their antennas in their own manuals via 1FPS shows how they’ve become part of a story that last week was all about Apple.

Sure a few sites like Ars Technica and When Will Apple? will raise a fuss over it, but it’s done. Competitors dove headlong into it. And since Apple has now effectively priced the death-touch problem as one free case per phone, all that remains to be seen is if competitor’s denials + customers videos = free cases for other phones too.

So I underestimated Apple but they didn’t underestimate their competition.

Note: this editorial is based on a Twitter conversation with Seth Weintraub from 9to5Mac who is absolutely right, one day college courses will be taught on these PR tactics. Check out his article on Fortune.

How Apple moved the conversation from iPhone 4 death-touch to industry-wide death-grip is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

White iPhone 4 Delays Due to Glass Painting Issues?

Engadget summarizes reports in the Chinese-language media claiming that the delays experienced by the white iPhone 4 are due to issues with the paint application process for the device's glass front and back panels. In particular, the compan...

How to apply BodyGuardz screen protector for iPad [sponsored]

Here I am showing how to apply a BodyGuardz screen protector to your iPad. Why? I don’t know about you but for me my iPad screen is 9.7 inches of beautiful, colorful joy and the thought of scratching it fills me with equal parts apprehension and terror. So, in the better safe than sorry department, here’s what I did:

1. Clean my iPad screen thoroughly (I use iKlenz)
2. Apply the liquid to my fingers
3. Peel off the screen film and apply liquid to the back
4. Place the skin carefully on my iPad
5. Squeegee out excess liquid, carefully blotting to keep it away from water sensors
6. Press out any remaining bubbles

I use a big squeegee for the initial pass, the supplied smaller one for the details. I also made sure to put my iPad on a non-slip mat first so I don’t have to chase it around the table. (Basically what I did for the iPhone screen protector how-to, a little more conservative than Dieter’s approach).

We’ll be testing BodyGuardz out for durability in the future, and I’ll be looking at other skins soon. If you have any tips for applying them, or any questions about them, let me know in comments.

If you want to pick up a BodyGuardz screen protector for iPad, check out the TiPb iPad accessory store.

How to apply BodyGuardz screen protector for iPad [sponsored] is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

iPad launches on Friday, July 23 in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore

Apple has just announced that, come Friday, July 23, the next round of international iPad roll-outs will hit Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore.

Beginning this Friday, customers can purchase all models of iPad through Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.

And they’re not done yet:

iPad will roll out to many more countries later this year and Apple will announce availability and local pricing for these additional countries at a later date.

Are you in one of those countries, ready to get your iPad? Or are you in one of those countries still waiting? Let us know.

iPad launches on Friday, July 23 in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Apple Q3 2010 Financial Results Set for July 20th

Apple today issued a media alert announcing details for tomorrow's release of its financial results for the third fiscal quarter and second calendar quarter of 2010. The results will be released after the close of tomorrow's trading at approx...

Next Round of International iPad Launches Set for July 23rd

Apple today announced that the next round of international iPad launches will take place this Friday, July 23rd. All iPad models will be available at launch, with pricing information available through Ap...

Is this how FaceTime will work on next gen iPod touch G4, iPad G2?

Boy Genius and 9to5Mac have been digging deep into how FaceTime might work on iOS devices that don’t have phone numbers attached to them — namely the next generation iPod touch G4 and iPad G2. Since iPhone 4 uses phone numbers as “accounts” to route FaceTime connections, the alternative for iPod touch and iPad seems to be Apple ID and the associated email address.

You enter the email address, hit verify, check your email, and if it works — boom — you’re good to go. Then something like Push Notification could be used to request a FaceTime session.

If iPod touch G4 and iPad G2 indeed get their front-facing cameras and FaceTime on, and if Android, Palm and others choose to implement the open standard Apple released, next year could be a very interesting time for smartphone users. Hundreds of millions of smartphone users.

Want?

[Boy Genius, 9to5Mac]

Is this how FaceTime will work on next gen iPod touch G4, iPad G2? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Apple shipping iPad to nine more countries on July 23

Apple announced on Monday that it would begin iPad sales in nine additional countries as of Friday, July 23.

Taiwan news animates Steve Jobs as Darth Vader – Monday video (NSFW-D)

Taiwan news decided to have a little — fun? — with Apple and iPhone 4 by casting Steve Jobs as Darth Vader, laughing as Foxconn workers jump off buildings, and light-sabering off the fingers of customers who complain about reception problems.

It’s sensationalistic, callus about the suicides, and convenient in casting blame entirely on Apple for the problems of Taiwanese and Chinese owned businesses, and some might find the imagery disturbing. Consider yourself warned before you hit the play button. But, hey, Star Wars.

[Thanks Michael for the tip and the subtitles!]

Taiwan news animates Steve Jobs as Darth Vader – Monday video (NSFW-D) is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Crisis expert gives Apple a ‘C’ for iPhone 4 response

While praising the way Steve Jobs handled Friday's iPhone 4 press conference, an analyst from a crisis management firm said Apple waited too long to respond to complaints about the phone's antenna and reception.