iPhone Live 144: No new iPhone

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Rene, Chad, and Georgia discuss WWDC 2011, the sellout and the fallout, no new iPhone 5 in June, no iOS 5 event in April, Amazon Cloud Player, updated apps, and how do you IM? This is iPhone Live!

Show notes and all the week’s iPhone news after the break!

No new iPhone

• Apple confirm WWDC 2011 will be June 6-10, future of iOS to be revealed, iPhone 5 to debut?
• UPDATED: Will we get an iPhone 5 in June?
• Why would Apple “delay” iPhone 5, iOS 5 to fall or 2012?
• Poll: If Apple doesn’t release an iPhone 5 this year what will you do?
• WWDC 2011 sells out in 10 hours!

iOS 5

• Could iOS 5 only be coming this fall?
• Apple to include system-wide, artificial intelligence-powered voice control in iOS 5?

Cloud Music

• Amazon Cloud Drive and Cloud Player music services announced
• Amazon Cloud Music launched without licenses, has record labels fuming

News

• Apple airs new commercial – If you don’t have an iPhone, you don’t have Game Center
• Apple releases iOS 4.3.1 for iPhone, iPad
• Apple airs 5th new commercial – If you don’t have an iPhone, you don’t have the Retina Display
• iPhone hit by yet another daylight savings time alarm bug

Apps

• Final Fantasy III for iPhone hits App Store… at $16
• TiPb Asks: How do you IM on your iPhone or iPad?
• Official Vimeo app now available for iPhone
• biteSMS gets updated [jailbreak]

Hosts

• @reneritchie
• @GeorgiaTiPb
• @iChadman

Credits

Thanks to the TiPb iPhone accessory store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Our music comes from the following sources:

• I Called You — iPhone Remix by Pete Leidy
via Sneakmove iPhone Ringtone Challenge

iPhone Live 144: No new iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Rolando and Rolando 2 updated with Retina Display, on sale now

Ngmoco has surprised us with some updates. Rolando and its sequel Rolando 2 have both been updated for the iPhone 4's Retina Display and have had a few bug issues fixed. To celebrate the update, they're both on sale for just US$0.99. Either one of these is a bargain at that price. They're both very solid, original platformers, designed specifically for the iOS system.

What's most interesting about this, though, is that Ngmoco has updated these at all. Rolando was one of the first big titles for the now gigantic iOS developer, but when Ngmoco moved into the We Rule freemium model, the Rolando series was more or less abandoned in favor of games that could use more microtransactions and attract more "DAUs" (daily active users). A lot of Rolando fans were disappointed with that direction, though Ngmoco's We Rule and other freemium games have seen plenty of success anyway.

Rolando creator Simon Oliver's Handcircus has been working on a PSN game instead, but maybe with these updates there's a possibility we could finally see Ngmoco return to the little rolling hero and his series.

Rolando and Rolando 2 updated with Retina Display, on sale now originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Rolando and Rolando 2 updated with Retina Display, on sale now originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Momentum

In January 2007 Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone. Summer 2007 he announced its release data and “sweet” web apps to go with it. In Fall 2007 he introduced the iPod touch and iTunes Store app. Spring 2008 brought iOS 2 (then iPhone OS 2.0) and the App Store. Summer 2008 saw iPhone 3G and MobileMe. Fall 2008 was iPod touch 2. Spring 2009 was iOS 3. Summer 2009 was iPhone 3GS. Fall 2009 was iPod touch 3. January 2010, iPad. Spring 2010, iOS 4. Summer 2010, iPhone 4. Fall 2010, iPod touch 4 and Apple TV 2. Spring 2011, iPad and…

Nothing. Maybe.

For four years iOS software and hardware has been gaining momentum at an ever-increasing pace, from a single app-less iPhone in 2007 to iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Apple TV and a host of supporting software and services. The original iPhone was a true revolution, instantly obsoleting the Palm, Microsoft, RIM, and Symbian devices of the day in concept if not in function. They never saw it coming, denied it was happening, and then failed to frame anything close to a coherent response. And while they were spinning, Apple hit them again with the App Store. And again with the iPad.

Windows Phone has rebooted but is still in early days and has struggled to provide timely updates. Even with HP’s deep pockets and huge reach Palm has been slow to get new devices out the door. BlackBerry is counting on a tablet to bridge the gap between their phones of the past and superphones of the future. Apple could easily skate another 3 months on iPhone 4 in that competitive landscape.

But not in a competitive landscape that includes Android.

Originally shown off as a BlackBerry or Windows Mobile Standard competitor, Android rapidly changed focus post-iPhone. While the G1 was clearly unfinished they began to hit their stride with Droid. Half way through iPhone 3GS’ product cycle, Nexus One actually took the lead in some areas. An inspirational device, it was way ahead of previous Android phones and showed where the platform was going for the next year. iPhone 4 was Apple’s answer.

According to rumors, however, Apple may not preview iOS 5 this spring and may not introduce an iPhone 5 this summer. If that proves to be true than Apple’s momentum, their ever-increasing pace will have slowed.

And Android just keeps coming. While Nexus S turned out to be more summation of the past year than indicator of the next, spring has sprung seemingly a dozen more with dual core, LTE, and 3D. Whether any of these new Android features are particularly compelling or not, they’re still new features, new phones, news.

Come June AT&T and other carrier contracts will be up and for the first time in 4 years there won’t be a new iPhone to drive renewal. For the first time people who just want a new iPhone, the way they’ve been accustomed to getting a new iPhone, won’t have on waiting for them. Existing owners accustomed to an software refresh, a breath of new air into their older devices, won’t be getting a major new version of iOS. Developers won’t have had several months with new APIs and won’t have a slew of new apps ready to take advantage of them.

Whether or not finishing Mac OS X Lion has caused a delay in iOS 5 the way iOS has caused delays for Mac OS X in the past, whether or not a delay in IOS 5 has caused a delay in iPhone 5, whether or not there are issues with components or engineering, or absolutely nothing but Apple’s will to schedule it so, for the first time since 2007 we’re facing… a break in Apple’s pace.

Come June there’ll be no lineups, no race to iTunes’ update button.

No momentum.

Momentum is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Daily Tips: How to connect to a Wi-Fi network

Here is a simple tip which shows you how to connect to a Wi-Fi network. This tip may be something simple for those of us who have had our iPhones for a while but for those new to smartphones this is an important step.

Stay with us after the break to find out more about how to use Wi-Fi.

1) Go into your settings and make sure that Wi-Fi is turned on.

2) Available networks now appear under: Choose a Network.

3) Tap network you would like to join.

4) Some networks will ask you to enter a password.

5) If you do not know the password ask the network administrator of the Wi-Fi.

6) Now look at the signal strength or try to surf the web to see if Wi-Fi working.

I hope this has helped out those new to smartphones.

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to news@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Daily Tips: How to connect to a Wi-Fi network is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Sword and Sworcery EP coming out April 5, iPhone version in a few weeks

Sword and Sworcery is an unqualified hit for the iPad -- as I said when it released, we've been following this one for a while, and it's great to see such a solid indie effort recognized by critics and consumers alike. While the game is out for iPad, the property is far from over. A full EP based on the music of the game, written by musician Jim Guthrie, has been announced for release on April 5th, next Tuesday. "The Ballad of the Space Babies" will be available as a vinyl record, or online as a digital download in iTunes or Bandcamp.

There's also an iPhone version of the game on the way -- I talked to Nathan Vella of Capy about it, and he told me that work continues apace. The plan all along has been to release it around a month after the iPad release, and Capy is still on that schedule, so we should see an iPhone version (optimized for the smaller platform, of course) about three weeks from now.

Sword and Sworcery EP coming out April 5, iPhone version in a few weeks originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sword and Sworcery EP coming out April 5, iPhone version in a few weeks originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facebook Launches New Mobile Website

Facebook has announced that it is rolling out an upgraded version of its mobile website, which it believes will bring the best mobile web experience to mobile devices. Prior to this, Facebook had two websites: m.facebook.com for less feature-rich mobile devices, while touch.facebook.com was for touch based smartphones like iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Facebook [...]

Rogue Android app texts humiliating messages

Android users face a new threat, a rogue app that tells all their friends they pirated the program, according to a Symantec security manager.

Twitter for iPhone updated, QuickBar is dead

The Twitter for iPhone app has been updated (again), and this time the company has included the change everyone's been waiting for: the QuickBar, which featured trending terms along with some paid placement phrases, has been removed from the app. Twitter deftly sidesteps the actual reason why the bar was removed, but their reasoning basically lands on the idea that the bar didn't "improve the user experience" or serve the mission of connecting people to trends on the service. Whatever the reasons, the QuickBar is gone, despite what Twitter says are "incredibly high usage metrics," so the voice of the crowd wins this round.

Twitter says it will continue to experiment boldly, however, so it's unlikely that the trending topics are going to be gone for good. Still, after all of the fervor around this particular feature, it is nice to see that the company is taking public outcry into consideration. Those against the QuickBar (who gave it all of its silly monikers) will be happy to hear about the update.

Twitter for iPhone updated, QuickBar is dead originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Twitter for iPhone updated, QuickBar is dead originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone Dev Team Confirms Untethered Jailbreak For iOS 4.3.1 Is ‘Solid’

We had reported couple of days back that iPhone hacking expert Stefan Esser who goes by the Twitter handle i0n1c had figured out a way to jailbreak iOS 4.3.1, which was untethered. He had also handed over the the untethered iOS 4.3 jailbreak to iPhone Dev team so that they could test it before releasing it to [...]

Vimeo for iPhone doesn’t disappoint

Vimeo released an official iPhone app yesterday, and it does not disappoint. As a 1.0 release, it's impressive. Consider it a one-stop shop for watching, recording, editing and delivering video to Vimeo. There are a few bumps in the road, but all-in-all Vimeo for iPhone is a solid offering. Here's my experience with the app.

UI

Vimeo for iPhone is a portrait orientation kind of app. Unless you're shooting or viewing video, it wants to be vertical. You're first presented with your video library, aptly named "My Video Library." Across the top of the screen are the Camera and New ("+") buttons, followed by a list of your previously-uploaded videos. These can be viewed in list or thumbnail layout, and sorted by date or number of views. A search function returns results as you type, which is nice.

At the bottom of the screen you'll find buttons for My Videos, Recordings, My Stuff (which includes sub-tabs for Inbox, Watch Later and Likes,) Browse (by channel) and finally account information.

Browsing your videos in list view provides information on views, number of favorites and comments at a glance. Otherwise, tap a video to find those details and more, like tags, privacy setting, stats and licensing options.

Continue reading Vimeo for iPhone doesn't disappoint

Vimeo for iPhone doesn't disappoint originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Vimeo for iPhone doesn't disappoint originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Tightening Control Over Android as Fragmentation Increases

One of the major talking points long used by Google in support of its Android smartphone operating system over iOS is its "open" nature that has allowed handset manufacturers and others to tweak and cust...

Twitter Removes Annoying QuickBar From iPhone App For Now

Twitter has just announced that it has removed the QuickBar from their iPhone app, which floats at the top of the Twitter timeline and displays the latest trends, including promoted trends. Some users are quite annoyed with this change and called it the DickBar, referring to Twitter’s CEO DIck Costola. chpwn, iPhone hacking expert had [...]

Review: Discovery Channel HD for iPad

When it comes to promoting shows on the Discovery Channel, this iPad app does the trick. But users hungering for more might be dissatisfied by Discovery Channel HD's abbreviated clips.

Time Warner and Amazon Forge Ahead as Apple Negotiates With Content Providers

Over the past few weeks, a pair of announcements have seen Time Warner Cable announce a live TV app for iPad and Amazon unveil cloud-based storage for music, two areas in which Apple has been rumored to be trying to roll out its own offerings...

Twitter for iPhone removes #dickbar

Twitter for iPhone has been updated and the much hated #dickbar Quick Bar has been removed.

The intoduction of the Quick Bar infuriated many users, so this was a smart move by Twitter. In fact, many users sought out 3rd party Twitter applications to replace the official one.

Were you one of those users? Will you return to Twitter’s official application now that the Quick Bar has been removed? Or have you fallen in love with a different app, and if so, which one?

[Thanks Ethan for the tip!]

Twitter for iPhone removes #dickbar is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Apple considering 3D camera technology for the iPhone?

AppleInsider has discovered patent applications showing that APple may be interested in including dual rear-facing cameras and additional sensors for a new 3D image technology in mobile devices such as the iPhone.

The hardware-based system would be an improvement over recent Android devices that include 3D camera technology due to software that takes “guesses” at how to conduct stereo disparity compensation on 3D images. The more guesses needed to process these images result in loss of quality and artifacts.

Apple’s documented patent, entitled “Systems and Methods for an Imaging System Using Multiple Image Sensors”, would provide higher quality 3D images based on multiple image sensors and hardware processing, eliminating artifacts and other quality issues. The patent also describes 3D video recording capability. (This would require Apple to include a 3D display on the iPhone.)

If Apple were to pack this technology into the iPhone 5 would you actually use it, or are 3D cameras on mobile devices just another gimmick? Let us know in the comments!

[AppleInsider]

Apple considering 3D camera technology for the iPhone? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

MLB releases iPhone, iPad app updates

Major League Baseball updated its MLB.com At Bat 11 apps for iPhone and iPad, with big new features.

Words with Friends, 4G or dual core?, iPad 2 Element Case Joule Chroma give away, iPad light leak – 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!

• Looking for someone to play Words with Friends with? Be sure to check out the Words with Friends username thread!

• When the iPhone 5 is announced and you could only choose one option, what would you rather have – dual core or 4G?

• If you’d like to win a case for your new iPad 2 then visit the Element Case Joule Chroma give away thread for your chance to win!

• All over the internet there are reports of major light leak issues with Apple’s new iPad. Does yours suffer from this hardware defect?

See you in the forums!

Words with Friends, 4G or dual core?, iPad 2 Element Case Joule Chroma give away, iPad light leak – From the Forums is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

New and updated iPhone and iPad apps for Thursday, March 31

Every day, TiPb gets flooded with announcements for new and updated iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games. So every day we pick just a few of the most interesting, the most notable, and simply the most awesome to share with you!

• Essay – write in style: Rich text word processing for iPhone and iPad with Dropbox sync. Now a universal app for iPhone and iPad. [$0.99 - iTunes link]

• RDM+ Remote Desktop for iPhone: Access your Mac or Windows and run any desktop application remotely through NAT and Firewall! Now even faster and more convenient for users. [$9.99 - iTunes link]

• Forget-Me-Not: A tiny little arcade game for one or two players. [$1.99 - iTunes link]

• 100 Cameras in 1 for iPad: The popular iPhone photo editing app is now available for iPad! [$2.99 - iTune slink]

• RoomSaver HD: Planning a vacation? Search for a hotel and find great deals! [Free - iTunes link]

Any other big apps or game releases or updates today? If you pick any of these up, let us know what you think!

New and updated iPhone and iPad apps for Thursday, March 31 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

PairShare offers music streaming between iOS devices

A new app, PairShare, lets users stream music via Bluetooth from one iOS device to another. The app is being pitched at joggers, bikers, and other folks who exercise together.