If you live in the US or Canada then the iTunes 10.3 beta is ready to rumble. Automatic downloads and access to your purchase history is limited to iOS 4.3.3 users on the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 (GSM only, sorry Verizon subscribers), and 3rd and 4th generation iPod touch devices. Once you meet those requirements, the iTunes in the Cloud beta promises to keep all of your newly purchased iTunes music in sync between devices while giving you the choice to download previously purchased tracks whenever you want at no additional cost. 10.3 beta also brings the Automatic Downloads feature to your apps and books, now allowing you to purchase tomes from your desktop while keeping them in sync with the iBooks app running on your iOS devices.
Naturally, we couldn't help but test it out ourselves from both a Mac and iPhone 4, so click through for our first impressions.
Continue reading iTunes (in the Cloud) 10.3 beta available for download, we go hands-on
iTunes (in the Cloud) 10.3 beta available for download, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Jun 2011 07:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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By now you've probably seen the latest spectacle to consume the white iPhone 4: it's thicker than the black model. The image above illustrates the point using a piece of lead from a mechanical pencil.
So what, you say, in righteous indignation to a device that shipped ten months late. Well, the size difference creates a potential consumer issue since cases (at least the good ones) are manufactured against the tight tolerances supplied by Apple. We've confirmed ourselves, that an Incase slider that fits a black iPhone 4 just fine has to be forced into place on the new white model. Unfortunately, Apple's own spec page doesn't highlight the change in thickness (measured at 9.5mm by
TiPb). Instead it still shows a 9.3mm depth with a tiny disclaimer stating, "Actual size and weight vary by configuration and manufacturing process." The result is confusion -- will this case fit or won't it? -- which is never a good thing for consumers.
But why is the white iPhone 4 thicker? Phil Schiller mentioned that Apple needed to add
extra UV protection among other tweaks, in an attempt to reduce the "unexpected interactions" between the white cover and the internal components. As such, Apple apparently needed to sacrifice some slimness for a better functioning white phone. In the end, we have what looks to be four different size / button configurations that must be considered when purchasing a shrink-wrapped case for your white iPhone 4, black iPhone 4, white Verizon iPhone 4, or black Verizon iPhone 4. Good luck with that.
Additional reporting by Sam Sheffer
[Thanks, Jon]
Filed under: Cellphones
White iPhone 4 thickness creates issue for case makers, owners originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Apr 2011 05:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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By now you've no doubt heard about a certain iOS database file called
consolidated.db. It made quite a splash yesterday when a pair of researchers, Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden, from O'Reilly Media announced the "iPhone tracking software" the duo had "discovered hidden on the phones." Here's the problem: they didn't discover it, at least not originally. The file, known to hold large amounts of geolocation data collected from WiFi access points and cell-towers, has been probed by forensic experts ever since the retail launch of the iPhone 4 back in June of 2010. Hell, Sean Morrissey and Alex Levinson published a physical book on the topic back in December 2010, entire excerpts of which can easily be found on Google. So either the team from O'Reilly is being disingenuous with its claims or it's being lazy.
Regardless, the story laid dormant for months until the O'Reilly team was able to visualize the data in a very personal way. Running the team's open-source iPhoneTracker software to see the detailed locations of our worldly travels is absolutely fascinating. Imagining the same data file in the hands of a stalker, misguided detective, or a jealous lover is downright creepy.
But how is it possible that an issue like this has avoided the tech community at large for more than a year? And more importantly, what can you do about it? Read on to find out.
Continue reading The iPhone tracking fiasco and what you can do about it
The iPhone tracking fiasco and what you can do about it originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Apr 2011 11:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We awoke this morning to a deluge of hype surrounding Tweetbot, the version 1.0 Twitter client from Tapbot. So we sucked down some legal stimulant and ponied up the entrance fee to give it a go on an iPhone 4 (the app requires iOS 4.1 or later). Granted, we're still in the honeymoon period but we're definitely impressed. The design elements, animations, and audio tones are slickly implemented and the functionality is rich and intuitive. We're especially smitten by the right and left swiping actions used to reveal conversations and replies, respectively, and the customizable tab bar that gives quick access to lists and retweets. In fact, the list integration is so good as to finally make Twitter lists useful on a smartphone. We also applaud Tapbot's plucky release in light of Twitter Inc.'s preference that developers
stop reproducing the Twitter client experience, especially since the result is superior to Twitter's own
free iOS app. Sure, the user interface can be a bit overzealous at times (think HTC Sense vs. Windows Phone 7) but it's more fun than it is distracting, especially during these early hours. At $1.99 it's definitely worth a look -- just promise to view the video overview after the break first, ok?
Continue reading Tweetbot might replace your iOS Twitter client (video)
Tweetbot might replace your iOS Twitter client (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Apr 2011 08:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It's the perfect rumor: the officially delayed and often rumored
white iPhone 4 has reemerged as the white iPhone 5 riding a horned stallion through virgin rumor fields. According to the
Economic Daily News, the previously unheard of white iPhone 5 will feature a touch panel supplied exclusively by Wintek. If true, then the white iPhone 4, officially scheduled for a
spring 2011 launch, should be available just prior to the launch of the next generation white iPhone 5, anticipated for a summer launch in keeping with Apple's typical launch cycle. Not exactly ideal, but hey, it's only the first of many related rumors to come.
P.S. Here's a link to an Apple-free Engadget in anticipation of your needs.
Forget the white iPhone 4, white iPhone 5 rumors begin! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 05:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Thus far we still know surprisingly little about the next generation iPhone (or iPhone 5 for lack of a better name) expected to be announced shortly in keeping with Apple's traditional launch cycle.
We've heard that the completely redesigned handset will boast a next generation A5 processor and Qualcomm chipset that will unify the CDMA / GSM / UMTS radios. Others have heard that it'll also feature
NFC integration along with the possibility of a "
universal SIM." But what about the display? How will it size-up to the existing iPhone 4's rather puny 3.5-inch display and the smaller and lighter iPhone model that the
Wall Street Journal and
Bloomberg say is in the works? Well, if
DigiTimes and its chatty "upstream component suppliers" are to be believed then the next generation iPhone will be sporting a 4-inch display. While
DigiTimes can, at times, be a suspect source for Apple information, the idea of a larger 4-inch iPhone flagship to help differentiate itself from a smaller iPhone nano and legacy iPhone 4 (that becomes the
budget model) does make some sense.
iPhone 5 to feature a bigger 4-inch display? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Feb 2011 01:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It was bound to happen sometime, and today is as good as any other post-holiday day to launch the mythical
white iPhone 4. While normally we'd consider a Wednesday night shuttering of the global Apple store to be maintenance-related, a tweet identifying a pair of supposed white iPhone part numbers
-- MC604X/A (16GB) and MC606X/A (32GB) -- has surfaced, attributed to an established last-minute Apple insider known only as "
Mr. X" in various tech forums. Mind you, "
spring
" was the last official timeframe for a white iPhone release. But please, we beg you... don't say that it's
early if it does appear when the Apple Store returns to business later today -- we don't want anyone to get hurt in the comments.
Update: Apple.com has undergone a subtle redesign, with the navigation bar up top taking on a shinier new look, though the Store remains down. A little bit of web-based multitasking, eh Apple?
White iPhone rumored as Apple Store goes down globally originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 01:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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CES 2011 might be over but we've still got a few gee-bees of data to get through before calling it quits. One nugget of unpublished glory is this SmartStor Zero NAS from Promise Technology. Now hold on... just because it's a
DLNA 1.5 compliant Network Attached Storage device doesn't mean that it's complicated to use. Hell, even iOS users can join the DLNA streaming and media transfer party even though Apple is one of only a few major manufacturers missing from the alliance. Promise has purposely dumbed down this particular 1TB or 2TB NAS to make it suitable for use in any home where a "zero configuration" storage and media streamer is the priority. That's most households, come to think of it. Promise's Billy Harrison gave us a walkthrough of the highlights including a live demonstration of the free (for a limited time) SmartStor Fusion Stream app running on an iPad (and soon Android and Windows Phone 7 devices). Compared to many DLNA streamers that we've seen this one was dead simple to use and even allowed us to upload / download music, video, and photographs to / from the SmartStor Zero. Of course, other devices that support native DLNA upload and DLNA download (like the Droid X) will work right out of the box. Fusion Stream also supports media multitasking right inside the app. But hey, don't take our word for it, watch Bill lay down the truth after the break.
Continue reading Promise's SmartStor Zero NAS streamer dumbs down DLNA for the iPad (hands-on)
Promise's SmartStor Zero NAS streamer dumbs down DLNA for the iPad (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Jan 2011 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Although
DLNA may have had a significant head start, the streaming media standard available on more than 9,000 devices is about to be challenged in a very big way by Apple's upstart AirPlay technology. At least it will be if Jordan Watters,
BridgeCo's VP of Sales and Marketing, is to be believed. BridgeCo as you'll recall, is the company that makes the silicon for AirPlay devices -- currently an exclusive arrangement we're told. While Apple may have thrust BridgeCo into the consumer spotlight, this ten year old company has a long history of quietly providing networked media processors and connectivity software to a who's who of audio companies. Here at CES we've already seen
two speakers from iHome, the
Zeppelin Air from B&W, and a
trio of speakers from the previously unannounced AirPlay partner Klipsch rolled out. And this is just the beginning.
According to Jordan Watters, AirPlay devices could ultimately dwarf "made for iPod" audio docks by 2x to 4x. Part of the reason for Jordan's optimism is the fact that so many iOS devices have already been sold and that many audio devices already on the market using BridgeCo chips can add AirPlay functionality via a software update, including the nine receivers just announced from
Denon and Marantz. "The ecosystem is already there," he said smiling. And unlike iPod docks which are usually sold at a rate of one per iOS device, Watters sees consumers purchasing multiple AirPlay devices for every iOS device sold in order to enable whole-home distributed audio. In fact, growth could come as a "step function ramp sucking into the market," Jordan enthused. In other words, he expects AirPlay growth to be explosive. We'd chalk up the hyperbolic talk to Jordan's marketing role if it weren't for the abundance of anecdotal evidence supporting his claims here at CES. To start with, the company's modest meeting room was packed with interested manufacturers poking around BridgeCo's AirPlay offering. Jordan's also booked back-to-back-to-back with meetings until the show ends (and into the coming weeks we suspect). But what really convinced us was an all-in-one speaker prototype from a
major consumer electronics company that was quickly whisked away before meeting the sensor beneath our D300's lens. If they're involved, well, we expect the rest will follow.
Apple AirPlay devices set to explode in 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Jan 2011 18:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The
Dev-Team Blog was just updated with a new redsn0w version 0.9.6b4 jailbreak (based on Geohot's
Limera1n bootrom exploit) for
iOS 4.2.1. Unfortunately, iPhone 4, iPad, and newer iPhone 3GS and iPod touch owners won't find jailbreaking as easy as
navigating to a website -- the 4.2.1 jailbreak is currently "tethered" so you'll have to reattach to a PC or Mac to boot into a jailbroken state each time your device loses power or needs a reboot. Those of you who rely on ultrasn0w unlock should hold off for now. Good advice for
anyone not comfortable with terms like "SHSH blobs" or "Cydia." Everyone else can hit up the link below with a detailed how-to provided by
Redmond Pie.
iOS 4.2.1 Jailbreak hits with updated redsn0w originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Nov 2010 05:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apple co-founder,
Steve Wozniak, has never been one to mince words. Today's no different as demonstrated in an interview with the Dutch-language
De Telegraaf newspaper in The Netherlands. The first revelation is an admission that Apple had collaborated with a well-known Japanese consumer electronics company in 2004 to develop a phone that was ahead of its time. Woz is quoted as saying that while Apple was content with the quality, it "wanted something that could amaze the world." Obviously, the phone was shelved until Apple announced the iPhone in January 2007.
Woz then moved on to the topic of Android saying that Android smartphones, not the iPhone, would become dominant, noting that the Google OS is likely to win the race similarly to the way that Windows ultimately dominated the PC world. Woz stressed that the iPhone, "Has very few weak points. There aren't any real complaints and problems. In terms of quality, the iPhone is leading." However, he then conceded that, "Android phones have more features," and offer more choice for more people. Eventually, he thinks that Android quality, consistency, and user satisfaction will match iOS.
Steve closed the interview with a jab at Nokia calling it, "the brand from a previous generation" suggesting that the boys from Finland should introduce a new brand for a young consumer. Hmm, so we guess he'll be in line for the launch of the
MeeGo-based N9 then?
[Thanks, Nguyen T.]
Steve Wozniak: Android will be the dominant smartphone platform originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Nov 2010 06:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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An iPhone bug already seen when Australia switched between Daylight Savings Time and Standard Time a few weeks ago has now hit Europe. Twitter is alight with reports of recurring iPhone alarms going off an hour later than usual. So even though the iOS clock changed correctly over the weekend, the alarm is still locked to Daylight Savings Time. Thing is, according to a
ZDNet Australia report from more than three weeks ago, Apple acknowledged the bug with a promise to fix it with a software update. So why wasn't it rolled out in time to avoid this mess in Europe? Let's see if Apple fixes it when North America makes the switch on November 7th.
[Thanks, David O.]
iPhone DST bug causing alarms to fail across Europe originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Nov 2010 02:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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More fuel for the CDMA iPhone fire today. The
Wall Street Journal says that Apple is in talks with both Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices to bring a CDMA version of its iPhone -- the one it again says will be on sale at
Verizon early next year -- to India. The discussions have apparently been ongoing for four or five months according to one
WSJ source.
This comes out as news of iPhone exclusivity arrangements are ending in both Germany and The Netherlands. In Germany, Deutsche Telekom loses its exclusive now that both O2 and Vodafone will be offering Apple's finest before the holidays. In Holland, T-Mobile just lost its exclusive arrangement as both KPN and Vodafone have announced plans to carry the iPhone -- no specific dates were mentioned though, like Germany, in time for the holidays is a pretty good guess.
CDMA iPhone rumored for India as exclusivities end in Germany and Holland originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Oct 2010 04:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It sure didn't take long for the dev community to
hack into Apple TV's iOS build. One of the first payouts is a port of Apple TV's "lowtide" 10-foot user interface to an iPod touch as briefly demonstrated in the first video after the break. While not very useful on such a small display, that could change when ported to the iPad's bigger 10-inch display. In fact, that might be Apple's plan according to our friend
Erica Sadun who's been busily spelunking the Apple TV's disk image. She posits that the iPad could launch the lowtide UI when responding to AirPlay requests in a future iOS build.
Another minor victory was achieved by
TUAW reader Arix who spliced the Apple TV's AirPlay daemon onto a jailbroken iPhone 3GS thus allowing it to receive AirPlay streams (second video). But the best news of all, perhaps, is the ability to restore the Apple TV in iTunes by connecting its micro-USB port to your computer. That means that existing PC- and Mac-based jailbreak tools can be updated to work over the connection. In fact, TinyUmbrella has already been updated to backup the Apple TV's SHSH blobs in order to preserve your ability to downgrade in the future. With
8GB of storage and 256MB of RAM to play with, we suspect this little media puck will become quite the developer playground, with or without Apple's consent.
Continue reading Apple TV restores in iTunes via micro-USB, UI hacked onto iPod touch (video)
Apple TV restores in iTunes via micro-USB, UI hacked onto iPod touch (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 07:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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