90 second iTunes previews starting to roll out internationally

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Rene Ritchie.
Categories: Uncategorized.

90 second iTunes previews starting to roll out internationally

The new, longer 90 second iTunes music previews seem to be finally rolling out internationally. They aren’t available on all songs yet, and in my testing of the Canadian iTunes Store, it seems hit in miss as to whether you’ll get them or not, but at least some songs are going the full 90 seconds.

After a November 2010 notification to record labels Apple originally switched to 90 second previews in the US back in December of last year. Why it took that email so long to reach beyond American borders is unknown, as is how long it will take to fully roll out now that it has begun.

In an effort to crowd source this, let us know if you’re seeing the 90 second previews, what country you’re in, and whether or not the 90 second previews are everywhere or just on a few songs.


Add NFC payment capability to your iPhone 4

Posted on by Chris Oldroyd.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Do you want to add NFC to your iPhone 4? If you do, there is now actually a way to do it; but it is not for the feint hearted. NFC is an acronym for Near Field Communication. NFC enables you to pay for items by waving an enabled card or phone in front of an NFC enabled credit card terminal. There is no need to input a pin number or sign anything; it is all done with a wave of your phone. NFC has been widely rumored to feature in the iPhone 5 too.

NFC is currently available on certain Android handsets and now you can add it to your iPhone 4 too; if the jealousy is just too much to bear. According to Unplggd, all you need is one of the new credit cards from your bank that supports NFC; it should have a logo on the card that looks similar to a WiFi logo. Some banks call these cards Tap & Pay.

Once you have the card, all you need to do is remove your iPhone 4 back panel, position the credit card behind the battery then replace the back cover. You now have an iPhone 4 with NFC payment capabilities. The glass back apparently does not interfere with transactions and it can even work when you have a case on too.

Now I do not know why you would ever want to risk opening up your iPhone 4 to do this. NFC is hardly a killer feature yet. I don’t think I have ever seen it being used in the UK. Also the additional pressure this may put on the glass rear panel worries me greatly. This could stress the glass making it much more susceptible to cracking. Is anyone remotely interested in giving this a try?

[Unplggd]

 


Apple Extends iTunes Previews to 90 Seconds Internationally

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Arnold Kim.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Apple seems to have extended iTunes song previews to 90 seconds internationally. Apple first rolled out 90 second previews in the U.S. back in December, 2010. International song previews had been stuck at 30 seconds.

According to a number of reports, the new preview lengths are available in at least Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK and parts of Europe. As with the U.S. launch, not all songs will have 90 second previews.

In the U.S., Apple had made the change unilaterally in an email to labels telling them that they would automatically extend previews from 30 seconds to 90 seconds in the iTunes Store in the U.S. It's unclear what was the reason for the delay for international markets.


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iPhone 5 case leak-a-palooza

Posted on by Rene Ritchie.
Categories: Uncategorized.

iPhone 5 case leak-a-palooza

According to M.I.C. Gadget, those iPhone 5 cases we caught a peak of earlier in the week are pretty much “everywhere” in China.

What we are hearing now is that the Chinese case makers are distributing their iPhone 5 cases.

Again, we won’t know for certain what iPhone 5 looks like until Steve Jobs or another Apple exec holds it up on stage this fall, but these manufacturers certainly seem confident enough in their knowledge of Apple’s iPhone 5 plans to risk their money on producing mass quantities of these Skittle-colored cases — with the mute switch on the “wrong” side…


iPhone 5 Cases Are ‘Everywhere’ in China

Posted on by Arnold Kim.
Categories: Uncategorized.

MICGadget reports that the early iPhone 5 cases are "now everywhere" in China. The site has posted another gallery of these case designs, which show a mute switch on the opposite side of the device.

The design is also said to be slightly larger than the existing iPhone 4 and has a slight tapering from top to bottom in thickness. This particular design was originally reported by ThisIsMyNext back in April. At the time, we had expressed doubts about it due to our own tipster about the validity of the design. But now, with the influx of these case designs, we have to reconsider.


It's clear that some Chinese case manufacturers are confident enough in these designs that they are starting to mass produce these cases. As we've said before, there is a massive financial incentive for companies to have case designs for new Apple products ready on launch day. In fact, three people were sentenced to prison in China for leaking details of the iPad 2 case design prior to its launch.

As frequent as these case leaks are, it's notable that they have been remarkably accurate in the past. The iPad 2 cases, of course, were quite accurate. iPhone 3G cases were real, as were 6th Generation iPod Nanos, and 5th Generation iPad Nanos. Not all case leaks turn into actual products, however. The iPhone Nano never came to be, and the iPod Touch with Camera cases were a full generation early.

Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 5 in September of this year.


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TweetFire for iPhone now available

Posted on by Leanna Lofte.
Categories: Uncategorized.

TweetFire – a Twitter client with Speed and Push Notifications – is now available for iPhone.

TweetFire was built with speed and performance in mind. Are you tired of other clients that take forever to load and try to download all of your data at once? TweetFire is perfect for you! Fast loading and smart refreshing means that you can navigate Twitter at lightning speed.

  • A unique interface giving you shortcuts to all your favorite views in Twitter.
  • Shortcuts for Home Timeline, Mentions, DMs, Favorites, New Search, and User Profile view
  • Add more shortcuts for User Timelines, Searches, and Lists
  • NATIVE PUSH NOTIFICATIONS for mentions and other Tweeps you want to follow in real-time.
  • Multi-account support
  • A comprehensive URL scheme so other apps can interact with TweetFire
  • Flickr integration for posting pictures and tweeting them
  • A bunch of other photo sharing providers
  • Instapaper for saving links to tweets and urls
  • Kik Messenger for sharing tweets and urls with other Kik users
  • Deep Favstar.fm integration for viewing Favstar pages and awarding “Tweet of the Day”
  • Other sharing options for Facebook, Pinboard, Read It Later, Email, SMS, etc.
  • Save Tweet and DM as Draft, with images
  • Instagram integration
  • One tap search
  • One tap user profile view
  • Quickly add users to lists
  • Add other people’s public lists to your home screen

I haven’t had the chance to try out TweetFire, yet, but I’ve seen many great things said about it on Twitter – particularly that it’s blazing fast. With a name like TweetFire, it better be!

TweetFire is available on the iPhone for free. Screenshots after the break.

[iTunes link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

tweetfire1 tweetfire2 tweetfire3 tweetfire4 tweetfire5


Never miss an appointment with Calendar with Alarm for iPhone

Posted on by Leanna Lofte.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Calendar with Alarm is an iPhone calendar app that, well, lets you set alarms.

Never miss an appointment again! CalAlarm is an elegantly designed user friendly calendar that adds an alarm to your appointments, so that you are no longer committed to the two short standard calendar beeps.

  • Easy and quick navigation through days and weeks and years.
  • Quickly add/edit multiple alerts.
  • Copy events.
  • Set defaults for new events.
  • Custom week numbers.
  • Distinguishes calendars with the same name but of different type.
  • Lists upcoming and overdue alarms.
  • Repeats continuously till acknowledged.
  • Snoozes with variable intervals.
  • Customize Quick Alert values, Snooze screen and birthdays alarms.
  • Choice of 25 alarm sounds.
  • Customizes sounds for different calendars.
  • All CalAlarm alarms on/off switch.
  • Sets local notifications.
  • Works with all calendars that use the iPhone calendar database (iCal, MobileMe, Exchange, CalDAV, Google calendar, etc.).
  • Syncs with these calendars.

It drives me crazy that the iPhone’s native calendar only allows two alerts for an event. For entries that require more alerts, I normally add them to MobileMe in iCal on my Mac. Calendar with Alarm seems like a much better solution.

Calendar with Alarm is available on the iPhone for $1.99. Screenshots after the break.

[iTunes link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

calendar_with_alarm_1 calendar_with_alarm_2 calendar_with_alarm_3 calendar_with_alarm_4 calendar_with_alarm_5


Daily Tip: How to turn off notification emails in Google+

Posted on by Rene Ritchie.
Categories: Uncategorized.

How to turn off notification emails in Google+

Annoyed by Google+’s constant stream of email notifications and wondering where and how to turn them off? It’s amazing how the next generation of social network feels the need to pollute our inboxes with massive amounts of old school email, but not to worry — it’s easy to shut off. We’ll show you how after the break.

Here’s how to de-clutter your inbox from the deluge of Google+ emails.

  1. Log into your Google/gmail account.

  2. Hit the gear icon at the top right and choose Google+ Settings from the drop down

  3. Uncheck everything imaginable (or at least everything you find annoying.)
  4. That’s it, you’re done.

If you have any other Google+ tips, or tips for avoiding email “bacon”, let us know!

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 dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)


iPhone 4 gets upgraded for NFC payments the hard way

Posted on by Donald Melanson.
Categories: Uncategorized.
Softbank customers in Japan can simply get an NFC sticker to add some contact-less payments to their iPhone 4, but most folks don't have it quite so easy just yet. There are some alternatives while you wait for Apple to hop on the NFC bandwagon, however, like this solution from Unplggd's Vivian Kim. It uses one of the smaller NFC-equipped credit cards now available from some banks, which is apparently just small enough to fit under the back cover of an iPhone 4 (a clear one, in this case, to show off your cleverness). And, yes, it apparently still works just fine under there -- even if you add a case on top of it.

iPhone 4 gets upgraded for NFC payments the hard way originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 20:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New Cases Indicate iPhone 5 Will Be Thinner, Longer And Wider

Posted on by iPhoneHacks.
Categories: Uncategorized.
The iPhone 5 rumor mill is working overtime. This time, folks at 9 to 5 Mac have published images of what they claim are iPhone 5 cases. The purported iPhone 5 cases suggest that Apple’s next generation iPhone will be longer and wider than the iPhone 4. 9 to 5 Mac report: Our new images [...]


Google tweaks iPad search experience

Posted on by Rene Ritchie.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Google tweaks iPad search experience

Google is continuing their bold new design initiative, tweaking the search experience on iPad for web results, image results, and more.

The search button located below the search box provides quick access to specific types of results like Images, Videos, Places, Shopping and more. Just tap to open the search menu and select an option to see results in one category.

For image results, we focused on improvements that enhance the viewing experience such as enlarged image previews, continuous scroll, and faster loading of image thumbnails.

Looks good.

[Google Mobile Blog]


Hack adds NFC payment to your iPhone

Posted on by Kelly Hodgkins.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Apple is rumored to be adding NFC support to the iPhone at some point in the future, but here's a way you can add wireless payments to your iPhone right now. You don't have to solder an NFC chipset, install any applications or even apply a sticker, all you have to do is pop off the back of the iPhone and stick an NFC payment card inside. The procedure is detailed over at Unplggd and it seems easy, once you overcome the fear of cracking the glass back of your iPhone.

Hack adds NFC payment to your iPhone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple WeblogHack adds NFC payment to your iPhone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T To Throttle Top 5% Of Unlimited Data Plan Customers From October 1st

Posted on by iPhoneHacks.
Categories: Uncategorized.
Last year just before Apple launched iPhone 4, AT&T killed its unlimited data plans and started offering tiered data plans to new iPhone users. However, existing iPhone users with unlimited data plans at that time were allowed to retain their unlimited data plans even through device upgrades. But we’ve some bad news for these iPhone [...]


AT&T to throttle speeds for some unlimited data users

Posted on by Megan Lavey-Heaton.
Categories: Uncategorized.

AT&T announced today that it's throttling back the speed that the highest-usage unlimited data subscribers can use on the network.

Starting Oct. 1, these high-use customers could experience reduced speeds on AT&T network once they've hit a data limit for the month. They'll still be able to access data, but at a much slower speed. The company said that it would provide notices and a grace period before cutting back on the user's speed. It'll be restored to full strength at the beginning of the customer's next billing cycle.

AT&T says that this only affects 5 percent of the heavier data users on the service. These people use more than 12 times the rest of data users combined. As 9to5Mac reported, Verizon and Virgin have also adopted similar plans to deal with bandwidth hogs. While AT&T hasn't released its data threshold, 9to5Mac gives Virgin's, which is 256Kb/s once you've reached a 2.5 GB limit. It wouldn't be shocking to see AT&T have a similar limit. Most likely, the upper threshold will be around 4GB, which is the company's top-tier data plan at this time.

AT&T to throttle speeds for some unlimited data users originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple WeblogAT&T to throttle speeds for some unlimited data users originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T to throttle heaviest users of unlimited data

Posted on by Dan Moren.
Categories: Uncategorized.
AT&T to throttle heaviest users of unlimited data As part of an attempt to combat what it calls "a serious wireless spectrum crunch," AT&T announced on Friday that it will begin throttling data speeds for the heaviest users of its unlimited smartphone data plans in October.

Five apps for the new mom

Posted on by Kelly Hodgkins.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Nothing compares to cradling your first newborn baby in your arms. It's a memorable moment you'll never forget. Though holding a newborn never grows tiring (trust me I know), there are other parts of parenting such as nursing and colic that can be a challenge. Here are five iOS apps to help you navigate the sometimes rocky, but always rewarding time of being a new mom:

Baby Shusher ($4.99)

Baby Shusher is an app to help calm your fussy baby. It uses a quiet shushing sound that mimics the sound of the womb. There's a timer that lets you "shush" for up to 8 hours and an equalizer that adjusts the volume according to your baby's cries. The latest version of the app adds in support for forums so you can share your experiences with other moms. Baby Shusher requires iOS 4.2 or later and is compatible with the iPhone, 4G iPod Touch (NOT 2G or 3G iPod Touch) and iPad.

Baby Geek ($0.99)

Raising a newborn is a science. You have to watch its weight, count its diapers and keep track of its sleep. Once your child begins to grow, you'll want to record milestones both for medical reasons and posterity sake. To help with this technical part of child rearing, you'll want to check out Baby Geek. Baby Geek is a logging and analysis app custom-made for tracking babies up to age 3. Besides tracking your baby, Baby Geek also has a syncing option so you can share important baby information with Dad. There's also an email option so you can send the stats to your doctor or another caregiver. Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later.

Baby Monitor and Alarm ($2.99)

Baby Monitor and Alarm lets you use two iOS devices as a baby monitoring system. You leave one device in the room and carry around the other so you can hear your baby while it sleeps. The app also plays soothing music from your iTunes library. You can even record your own voice and have it play back while your infant falls asleep. When the baby begins to stir, an alert function will call you on any phone number. It's great for home use, even better for when you're traveling. Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1 or later.

Skrappy Digital Scrapbook ($2.99)

Skrappy is a digital scrapbooking app for the iPad. It'll let you take those cute baby pictures and turn them into a keepsake. It's a full-fledged scrapbooking app with support for images, videos, clip art, backgrounds and more. If you want to take pictures of your baby, make them cute and share them with the grandparents, this is the app do it. Compatible with iPad. Requires iOS 4.2 or later.

Diapers.com Free (Free)

Unless you go the cloth route, diapers are a fact of life for every parent of a newborn. And, boy, are they expensive which is why it's so nice to have the diapers.com app on your iOS device. The app is a mobile interface for the diaper.com website which offers diapers at a discount. You can place new orders and track existing orders right from your phone. It also has a scanning feature so you can do some comparison shopping if you find yourself hunting down wipes at your local Target or Wal-Mart. Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1 or later.

Five apps for the new mom originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple WeblogFive apps for the new mom originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T to throttle top 5% of “unlimited” data users

Posted on by Rene Ritchie.
Categories: Uncategorized.

AT&T to throttle top 5% of "unlimited" data users

If you still have an “unlimited” data plan with AT&T and you’re among the top 5% of data users, prepare to be throttled.

Starting October 1, smartphone customers with unlimited data plans may experience reduced speeds once their usage in a billing cycle reaches the level that puts them among the top 5 percent of heaviest data users. These customers can still use unlimited data and their speeds will be restored with the start of the next billing cycle. Before you are affected, we will provide multiple notices, including a grace period.

This change will never impact the vast majority of our customers, and is designed to create a better service experience for all.

AT&T stresses they’re not the only one doing this, and that most users will never see the throttling, just those heaviest, most video streaming, sneakily tethering, packet clogging, network reputation ruining five-percenters.

[AT&T]


New iPhone 5 Cases Suggest Longer and Wider Form Factor

Posted on by Eric Slivka.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Mockup created by bikr
If new images of purported iPhone 5 cases obtained by 9 to 5 Mac are to be believed, it appears that the next-generation iPhone will offer a somewhat longer and wider form factor than the iPhone 4. The cases also reiterate other apparent changes such as the mute switch being moved to the opposite edge of the device and the form factor including a very slight "teardrop" design and rounded edges.


The most important change certainly appears to be the size, although it is difficult to say for certain just how much bigger the iPhone 5 would be than the iPhone 4 based on these cases, given that only exterior case dimensions and not interior dimensions are known.
Our new images are clear and there are appears to be a slight – not major – tear drop in the design. The case goes thick to thin from top to bottom. In addition, the sources who provided us with these two new cases have shared some dimensions. According to them, the case is 5 inches tall and 2.8 inches wide. These are tight cases so the iPhone 5 dimensions should only be a few millimeters smaller than those numbers. For comparison, the iPhone 4 is 4.5 inches tall and 2.31 inches wide.
A larger form factor naturally points toward Apple using a larger screen in the new iPhone, a claim that has been made by a number of sources. It is unclear, however, how Apple would deal with potential issues related to screen resolution, either keeping the same pixel density and increasing pixel count by a small amount or decreasing the density and maintaining the same 960x640 resolution.


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AT&T to Throttle Unlimited Data Plan Customers Starting in October

Posted on by Arnold Kim.
Categories: Uncategorized.

AT&T announced today that they will be throttling high end users with unlimited data plans.
Starting October 1, smartphone customers with unlimited data plans may experience reduced speeds once their usage in a billing cycle reaches the level that puts them among the top 5 percent of heaviest data users. These customers can still use unlimited data and their speeds will be restored with the start of the next billing cycle. Before you are affected, we will provide multiple notices, including a grace period.
Early AT&T iPhone customers were offered an unlimited data plan for their devices. Even after AT&T stopped offering an unlimited plan, they allowed existing customers to retain their unlimited plan through device upgrades.

This change will affect any of those users who still have an unlimited plan and are considered to be in the "top 5 percent of heaviest data users". For those users, download speeds will be reduced until the next billing month. By definition, this should affect 5% of users each month.

AT&T claims that users can still "send or receive thousands of emails, surf thousands of Web pages and watch hours of streaming video every month and not be in the top 5 percent of data users."


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iPhone 4 noise cancellation chip demoed with comparison video

Posted on by Matt Tinsley.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Last summer, when the folks at iFixit first did a tear down of the iPhone 4, one of the interesting tidbits they revealed was that the iPhone 4 has two mics (which is more than most other cell phones), and that it has a white-labelled (manufacturers details removed upon request from Apple) noise cancellation chip in it. The idea being that ambient noise is identified by the second mic, and processed and cancelled out by the chip -- leaving the person listening to whoever is speaking into the iPhone 4 with much clearer audio.

Furthermore, a few months ago, you may have noticed that iFixit -- along side the help of Chipworks -- revealed the unbranded chip to be a low power audio signal processor manufactured by Audience. The same noise cancellation chip found in the Google Nexus One phone.

While that in itself may not be all that interesting, we thought you may be interested in the YouTube video iFixit sourced to demonstrate the power of the Audience chip. The video below is a recording of two separate voice mail messages called from the same noisy location, but on two different phones. One is from an unnamed, standard cell phone, the other is from the iPhone 4.

iPhone 4 noise cancellation chip demoed with comparison video originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple WeblogiPhone 4 noise cancellation chip demoed with comparison video originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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