54% of Future Smartphone Buyers Say They’ll Buy iPhone 4S

A new survey shows that 54% of people who are planning on buying a smartphone in the next three months plan to buy an iPhone. ChangeWave Research, in a new survey of North American consumers, has found that a significant … Continue reading →

Eyes-on with Energizer’s LED lighting solutions and USB chargers at CES 2012

Energizer doesn't get much coverage here at Engadget, primarily because those AA cells you see at the Walgreens checkout counter haven't changed much throughout the years. Every now and then, however, there are special events such as CES, where the company that keeps going and going trots out its latest products for techies to fawn over. This year, we got to check out its lineup of USB power solutions designed for the home and automobile, along with a very handsome set of LED lights. Next month, Energizer will release new 5W chargers that include either a USB cable or Apple's dock connector. These are available for both the home and car, and will retail for $24.99 each. Perhaps most intriguing, however, is a product that combines both a wall and car charger into one handy unit. Known as the 2-in-1 USB Charger, it will retail for $39.99 and is set to hit store shelves this summer. In every situation, a cord management system is built into the unit, which is simple, effective and thoughtful.

Then we have its beautiful accent lighting solution that makes up the Edge Collection. Available in small and medium sizes, they were introduced in September of this year and feature rather dramatic dimming options that respond to touch at the base of the unit. A single press will turn the light on or off, while a continual press causes the lamps to slowly dim or brighten in a slow and smooth gradation for a perfect lighting level. They do get quite bright, too, as the small light ($64.99) puts out up to 350 lumens, while its larger brother ($79.99) pushes it all the way to 400 lumens. With no physical switches and bulbs that don't need to be replaced, Energizer's Edge Collection seems to be a long-lasting product that can either add a curious focal point or elegantly blend into the background of any room.

Eyes-on with Energizer's LED lighting solutions and USB chargers at CES 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 01:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Latronix xPrintserver mobile printing system hands-on (video)

It's been nearly a month since Latronix announced its xPrintserver mobile printing solution and today, we finally got to see it in the flesh, here at CES. With this little white box, users can wirelessly print photos or other documents directly from their iDevices. All they have to do is hook it up to their network, select an image from their iPhone or iPad, and just click the print option in iOS. That kind of convenience will cost you a mere $150, and it's about as simple as it sounds, as we found out during a demonstration here at Pepcom. Check it out for yourself, after the break.

Continue reading Latronix xPrintserver mobile printing system hands-on (video)

Latronix xPrintserver mobile printing system hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 01:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iOS 5.1 beta 3 reveals Siri dictation coming to iPad?

9to5 Mac has uncovered what could be Apple’s plan to bring Siri dictation to the iPad once iOS 5.1 is released.

Our own tipster Sonny Dickson was looking through the iOS 5.1 beta 3 settings application on the iPad and discovered a new section in the keyboard menu called “About Privacy and Dictation.” When opened, as shown above, the iPad provides the user with the standard legal literature and feature information for Siri Dictation.

They also learned that, although present in the iOS 5.1 beta 3 code, Siri dictation isn’t actually functional on the iPad running the latest beta firmware. This doesn’t deter the possibility of Siri dictation becoming a launch feature for the iPad once it hits the public, however, and would help Apple take the first small step in expanding Siri to other iOS devices.

Indeed, this could be Apple’s presumtive intention on bringing full Siri functionality to the iPad, and possibly the iPod touch further down the road.

Source: 9to5Mac

Xerox Mobile Scanner hands-on

Xerox and consumer aren't necessarily words that get thrown together a lot, but the company's Mobile Scanner could actually find a home with some -- provided they're willing part with $250. It's reasonably light-weight (only 22.5 ounces) and it can (almost) instantly beam any document you feed it to an Eye-Fi connected device. It'll survive 300 pages on a single charge and keep your Android phone full of docs. What makes it special is the ability to scan not just JPGs, but PDFs. You can also switch between JPG, black and white PDF or color PDF with just a few taps of a button. It can even create multipage PDFs if you just feed a second document through within five seconds. Around back you'll discover the secret weapon -- an SD card slot populated with an Eye-Fi card that supports PDF creation. Check out the gallery below for a few more impressions.

Xerox Mobile Scanner hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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January 9, 2007: iPhone introduced at Macworld Expo, five years ago

As we bid goodbye to this January 9, amidst the CES chaos, we pause to remember. It was five years ago today that Steve Jobs announced the very first iPhone, at the annual Macworld keynote, and very much changed the world.

It might seem like a long time ago, but before the (long rumored) iPhone finally came into existence, cell phones were clunky, confusing devices. Many of them did have email and Internet access -- if you could figure out how to get to it. Mobile devices in general were smaller, less useful versions of their larger counterparts, and yet most of us just went ahead and lived with things like text-only mobile web browsers, or menu interfaces that were cluttered and laggy.

Then the iPhone was announced -- and at first, it was like an artifact from another civilization. We discovered what a smartphone could really be: A touchscreen (with no stylus!) attached to a surprisingly powerful and thin package.

The first iPhone didn't have all the sophistication of the iOS devices we enjoy today (no iOS SDK or App Store, because web apps were good enough for everyone, right?) but the core principles stated by Steve Jobs at the announcement are still around. The iPhone is still extremely powerful for its time, very simple and intuitive to use, and, above all, just works.

Apple is also a very different company, and being here at CES this week would be a very different experience if not for the iPhone and that original Macworld announcement. So today we remember the very first official news of the iPhone, how much it has changed the world in the last five years, and how we all happily anticipate that it will continue to do so.

You can watch the announcement below; it's still powerful, and now bittersweet knowing that Steve would not survive to see the iPhone's fifth birthday.

January 9, 2007: iPhone introduced at Macworld Expo, five years ago originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

January 9, 2007: iPhone introduced at Macworld Expo, five years ago originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iOS 5.1 Beta Hints at Siri Dictation For iPad And iPod Touch

9 to 5 Mac has discovered something interesting in iOS 5.1 beta 3 that was seeded just a few hours back. They’ve discovered a new section in the keyboard menu  called “About Privacy and Dictation”, which suggests that Apple is working … Continue reading →

iHealth’s 2012 lineup revealed at CES

iHealth produce body monitoring devices that help you stay in tip-top condition and is building out a line of devices for this year that will arrive just as soon as it's gotten past the hurdle of FDA approval:

• Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor is a wireless update to the (wired) Blood Pressure Dock, the armband pushing your vitals over Bluetooth to an app on the device of your choice.
• Smart GlucoMeter connects to your iDevice's 30-pin port and once you've installed the free app, you'll be able to stick smears of blood onto cardboard paddles in order to see how many Mike'n'Ike's you've been snacking on.
• Wireless Body Fat Scale will record your weight and measure your body fat to your device (and eternal shame once you've polished off all that candy).

There's no word on pricing, but for reference, last year's digital scale retailed for $70 and the Blood Press Dock for $100, so we'd expect the followups to linger around those same bands. All of these products will also connect (via their apps) to a new cloud service that the company's launching to aggregate all that data into a single spreadsheet for the next time you need to negotiate your fee with your HMO.

Dana Murph contributed to this report.

iHealth's 2012 lineup revealed at CES originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Daily Tip: How to delete iCloud backups from your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch

iCloud offers iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users a fantastic way to secure your personal data in the cloud. It makes everything a breeze if you have to restore a device or set up a new one. Just yype in your iCloud details and everything magically appears just how it was before you had the problem. Of course you only get 5GB of free storage, if you need more, you have to pay each month. Whilst this is not a problem for most, if you have multiple devices linked to one iCloud account and no longer use one or more of them, the iCloud backup may be taking up valuable space. Well there is a way to delete individual device backups in iCloud all from your iOS device. Read on and we will show you how.

• Open Settings

• Scroll down to iCloud and tap on it
• Scroll down to the bottom and tap on Storage and Backup

• Here you can see the storage being used and what is available

• Click on Manage Storage

• Here you will see a list of backups being held in iCloud, as you can see I have two iPhones. I had one replaced at the Apple Store last week so no longer need this backup.
• Click on the one you want to remove from iCloud

• Click on Delete Backup

• Click on Turn Off and Delete
• That’s it, that backup has now been removed and the space reclaimed in iCloud

Daily Tips 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.

iPhone 4S and iPad 2 jailbreak imminent with new “dream team” behind A5 exploit efforts

Notorious iPhone hacker pod2g has updated the community letting everyone know a jailbreak “dream team” has been assembled to help tackle a sandboxing issue in the Apple A5, a vital part of the exploitation process necessary for an iPhone 4S and iPad 2 jailbreak.

@planetbeing, the legendary hacker behind iPhone Linux and lot of jailbreaks has joined the A5 research!

The famous @MuscleNerd, the leader of the iPhone Dev Team, who did a lot of tests for Corona and whom integrated it and made it simple in redsn0w is willing to help also.

And last, but not least @p0sixninja, the leader of the Chronic Dev Team, and my partner for years on iPhone security research has started to code and fuzz the Apple sandbox.

We now have a dream team to find a path for a public release of the A5 jailbreak.

Cross your fingers.

Most of you in the jailbreak community should instantly recognize these names, and the fact that they’re now all together working in unison towards the same goal means an A5 jailbreak shouldn’t be too much further out.

Source: pod2g

5 years ago today, Apple re-invented the phone

5 years ago today, Steve Jobs took to the Macworld 2007 stage and introduced 3 new products — a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough internet communicator. An iPod, a phone, an internet communicator. We got it. They weren’t 3 seperate devices. They were one device.

They called it iPhone.

Eat healthy with Trufflehead for iPhone and iPad

Trufflehead is a healthy cooking and recipe app for the iPhone and iPad. It features over 260 recipes including vegetarian, dairy-free, gluten-free, low-cal, and low-fat dishes as well as hyperlinks to find more information about ingredients.

Trufflehead is a cooking app that works for you. Whether you’re a good cook already or about to become one, you decide when and how much input you need to prepare healthy food that looks and tastes great. It’s all at your fingertips—from ingredient IDs and reference guides, to smart shopping lists, and how-to demos packed into 260+ recipes. But Trufflehead is more than just an app! Beyond all of its premium features, www.trufflehead.com is your ticket to share this unique adventure in food.

• Over 260 full-flavored recipes – 160 vegetarian, 150 dairy-free, 110 gluten-free, and more than 200 low-cal and low-fat dishes; over half the recipes can be prepared in 30 minutes or less, and 95% are budget-friendly. All carry nutrition data.
• Recipe-embedded hyperlinks to comprehensive info on over 200 ingredients and more than 150 equipment photo IDs. 

• 170 step-specific multi-media demos accessible directly from recipes.
• “Smart” shopping lists that integrate ingredients from multiple recipes and group identical items together for easy shopping.
• Priority Organics labeling of ingredients that are best purchased in organic form.
• Doppelgänger recipes in “Simple” and “Not-so-Simple” versions so that new cooks can start slow and grow as they master techniques and become familiar with ingredients.
• Interactive usability allows you to upload photos of your Trufflehead creations to trufflehead.com, the online community for celebrating and sharing your experiences with the Trufflehead Universe.

Trufflehead is available on the iPhone and iPad for $3.99.

• App Store link

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

iOS 5.1 beta 3 restores 3G data toggle in Settings

iOS 5.1 beta 3, which was released to developers today, restores the missing 3G toggle Apple removed in the initial 5.1 developer beta.

The restoration of the 3G toggle will no doubt be a welcomed return for iPhone users with inadequate 3G access in their area, or for users who just want to conserve a little extra battery life.

Still, this makes us wonder why they removed the 3G toggle in the first place. Could Apple be planning to make this optional between wireless networks with a per-network proprietary carrier update file?

Thanks: @funguyom!

One of these things is a lot like the other…

We’re sincerely flattered.

Apple Releases 2012 Proxy Statement to Investors

Apple has posted its 2012 Proxy Statement (PDF) on its investor relations page. The proxy statement is released ahead of the annual stockholders meeting, and details voting procedures, background and compensation information on the company's directors, and information about executive perks and compensation, amongst other items.

This year's shareholders meeting will take place on Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific, in Building 4 of Apple's Infinite Loop headquarters. Shareholders will vote on a number of different items:

- To elect the Company’s Board of Directors (the “ Board ”). The Board intends to present for election the following eight nominees: William V. Campbell, Timothy D. Cook, Millard S. Drexler, Al Gore, Robert A. Iger, Andrea Jung, Arthur D. Levinson, and Ronald D. Sugar

- To ratify the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm for 2012

- To hold an advisory vote on executive compensation

- To consider four shareholder proposals titled "Conflict of Interest Report", "Shareholder Say on Director Pay", "Report on Political Contributions and Expenditures", and "Adopt a Majority Voting Standard for Director Elections"

- To transact such other business as may properly come before the Annual Meeting and any postponement(s) or adjournment(s) thereof.

Some interesting notes in the statement include the fact that CEO Tim Cook owns a total of 13,754 shares of Apple plus 1,362,500 RSU's which will vest into shares if Tim Cook stays with the company for the foreseeable future, worth $580.5 million at current prices. Other executive officers hold hundreds of thousands of RSU's which should keep them with the company for years to come. In the statement, Apple explained the board's philosophy behind the large RSU grants:

The compensation for the other named executive officers consists of three elements—long-term equity awards in the form of RSU awards, annual performance-based cash bonuses, and base salaries—that are designed to reward performance in a simple and straightforward manner. The compensation program is weighted toward long-term equity awards rather than cash compensation in order to maximize retention and ensure that a significant portion of the named executive officers’ compensation is tied to the Company’s long-term stock price performance. The named executive officers’ 2011 cash compensation levels were substantially below the levels generally provided by peer companies, despite the Company’s strong financial performance. In addition, the Company has no long-term cash compensation program, nor does it have a pension plan.

The Company’s executive compensation program is intended to promote and retain stability within the executive team. Each named executive officer has been an employee of the Company for at least 10 years. The Company expects each of its executive officers to contribute to the Company’s overall success as a member of the executive team rather than focus solely on specific objectives within the officers’ area of responsibility.

Because the Company’s executive officers operate as a team, the Compensation Committee’s decisions on executive compensation in 2011 were largely driven by considerations of internal pay equity as to the named executive officers, other than Mr. Jobs and Mr. Cook. As a result, the compensation awarded to Messrs. Oppenheimer, Forstall and Johnson in 2011 was largely the same. Mr. Cook’s compensation is set at a higher level than the compensation for the other members of the executive team to reflect his responsibilities for the overall leadership of the Company.

In addition, the statement notes that "there was no formula or peer group “benchmark” used in determining the award amount. Rather, the award was the product of the Board’s business judgment, which was informed by the experience of the Board members, the input received from Mr. Jobs, and the Board’s assessment of Mr. Cook’s performance in assuming responsibility for the Company’s day-to-day operations during Mr. Jobs’s prior leaves of absence." The statement discusses executive compensation for several more pages, including the cash bonus payout structure and other arrangements.


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iOnRoad augmented reality driving assistant app for iPhone, iPad

Rather than banning iPhones from the car, the way the National Transportation Safety Board recommended, iOnRoad by Picitup aims to use mobile technology to keep you safe and sound behind the wheel. It uses the live camera stream and image detection to monitor for tailgating, cars slowing ahead of you, or lane drift, and sends visual and audio alerts to get you back to the proper distance, speed, and lane where you belong.

With a big, easy-to-tap interface iOnRoad has a bevy of features to help you with everything from your daily commute to occasional road trip. Check out the video above for our live interview from CES 2011 with Pictitup CEO, Alon Atsmon.

Already available for Android, iOnRoad is coming soon to the App Store for iPhone and iPad.

Source: iOnRoad.com

App Giveaway: System Monitor with Battery Max

System Monitor with Battery Max is an iPhone app that aims to speed up your iPhone on free memory, CPU and battery life. It’s your one-stop health check for your iPhone.

The System Monitor with Battery Max, is the most comprehensive all in one health check app on the App store that frees memory, boosts battery performance, and monitors your system memory, CPU utilization and disk utilization.

• Double Tap Memory speedometer view to rotate to a 3D bar chart view.
• Double tap battery or open it to see the battery capacity for your favorite apps.
• Double tap the CPU speedometer view, to view a 3D CPU utilization.
• Shows the used and free space.
• Shows the IP address acquired, and hardware address of your device.

Giveaway

The good folks at Tekton Technologies have given us promo codes to give away to 10 lucky readers! For a chance to win, let us know how many times a day you need to charge your iPhone in the comments below!

System Monitor with Battery Max is available on the iPhone for $0.99.

• App Store link

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

OnLive Intros Virtual Windows 7 Desktop With Office for iPad

Video game streaming company OnLive has announced a free, streaming, virtual Microsoft Windows 7 desktop app for the iPad. The OnLive Desktop app, announced at CES, will eventually expand to other platforms -- including the Mac. Users will have access to full-featured versions of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, less than a week after CloudOn introduced its Office solution for the iPad.


GigaOm has details about how the service will work:

Since applications are running on high-end computing clusters in OnLive’s data centers, the only thing holding back performance is the network. Which means that in today’s world of pervasive broadband connectivity, Windows applications running on an iPad could potentially be faster than those running on a standard Windows 7 laptop.

OnLive is making the Desktop app available in a freemium model through which users will get 2GB worth of cloud storage and the ability to use Windows 7 applications such as Word, Excel and Powerpoint, as well as other utilities and games. Documents can be stored in the cloud and accessed from any device with a web interface. In the near future, OnLive expects to launch Onlive Desktop Pro, a more robust service that will offer up 50 GB of storage, priority access, additional apps and other features for $9.99 a month. It also promises collaboration features for enterprise users such as sharing documents or working on virtual whiteboards.

The Verge notes that when they tried the app at OnLive HQ, there was "a little bit of perceptible lag, it's pretty impressive manipulating objects with our fingers and flipping through PowerPoint presentations on a desktop miles away."

OnLive previously announced iPad and iPhone support for its gaming products, though those apps have yet to be publicly released.

Available this Thursday in the U.S. and "soon" in the UK, OnLive Desktop for the iPad will be free on the App Store.


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Google+ update lets you start video Hangouts from Messenger

Google+ has been updated with the ability to start video Hangouts from Messenger as well as a new UI for photos and mysterious bug fixes.

• Start a video Hangout from Messenger
• New photos UI
• Bug fixes

I’m not a big Google+ user, but to those of you who are – let us know what you think of this update!

Google+ is available on the iPhone for free.

• App Store link

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

Daily Apps: vlock, Mortgage-Calculator, TUI Stopper, iMusic, Fit

vlock: Use any video you have on your iPad or iPhone as a clock background. Play movies, music videos, podcasts, and album videos on your clock.

• $0.99 for iPhone and iPad – App Store link

Mortgage-Calculator: Quickly calculate the relevant numbers needed when figuring mortgage payments.

• $1.99 for iPhone – App Store link

TUI Stopper: Don’t you always hate when there is that one person (or multiple ones) you tell yourself you aren’t going to text or call when you go out and end up doing it anyway? This app allows you to hide some of your phonebook contacts for a given amount of time.

• $0.99 for iPhone – App Store link

iMusic — The Perfect Music Player: Want to tweet your currently playing song, have infinite control over your music, or simply stare at a gorgeous interface? Then iMusic is for you!

• $0.99 for iPhone – App Store link

Fit: Want to get Fit for the New Year? Want the benefits of a personal trainer in the gym? Someone to create your workout routines, vary your exercises, and find the right weight for you to lift? Fit is all of this and more.

• $1.99 for iPhone – App Store link

Any other big app or game releases or updates today?

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