Best of Smartphone Experts, 31 Oct 2010

Android 2.3 — and 3.0.1 — starting to ping websites


Alltel HTC wildfire mini review


Hands on with the Samsung Mesmerize on U.S. Cellular

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App Review: Tantrix Strategy connects luck and strategy

The beautiful Tantrix Strategy game app [US$ 2.99] is an example of why it's sometimes good to wait for the second or third version of an iPad app before plunking down your money in the App Store. We're reviewing Version 1.1 here, and it improves on the original with an AI opponent (three levels). This is a huge boost, and it turns a so-so app into something all strategy gamers will want to at least look at. If you just want to dive in and check it out yourself right now, there is a free

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iTunes restores Genius sidebar

The launch of iTunes 10 in September left a lot users disappointed for several reasons. In addition to the lack of a complete rewrite that many people were hoping for, the highly underwhelming Ping social network was added, and the subsequent 10.0.1 update replaced the former Genius sidebar content with Ping.

Thankfully, despite Apple's insistence on tightly controlling the user experience (which is generally a good thing), the company has been willing to reverse course from time to time to

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MacMiniColo will host your Mac Mini server for just $10/month for 6 months

Colocation facilities are typically stuffed full of various rack-mounted servers running all manner of websites and other tasks with fat pipe connections to internet backbones. One company, MacMiniColo, offers colocation services and is dedicated to hosting Mac mini servers. Long before Apple introduced the dedicated Mac mini server a year ago, MacMiniColo has been setting up all flavors of the headless Mac for customers.

The Mini makes an excellent server thanks to its compact

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Facebook holding event on Wednesday

Like our sibling site, Android Central, TiPb has been invited to a mobile event at Facebook HQ this Wednesday, November 3. If it had just been AC, I’d have started wondering about that Facebook phone. Just TiPb and I might have thought iPad app. Both Android and iOS at the same bash and maybe Facebook is ready to make some bigger cross-platform waves. With former Android lead Eric Tseng and former iOS developer Joe Hewitt busy in the mobile division, who knows what they have up their

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Apple Store offline

Yup, the US store is down. Couldn't tell you why just yet, but if you really wanted to buy that new MacBook Air this evening, you'll have to wait until it comes back up. When we see something new, we'll post about it here -- or just stay tuned to the comments on this post!

What could it be? A Mac revision? A revamped cinema display? The rumored dead white iPhone? Your guess is as good as ours.

Apple Store offline originally appeared on TUAW on Sun, 31 Oct 2010 01:07:00 EST. Please see

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UK Pizzeria, PizzaExpress installing iPod/iPhone docks

PizzaExpress, a UK-based pizzeria, is adding iPod/iPhone docks into some of their seating areas as part of their “next-gen” restaurant upgrade.

PizzaExpress has started the roll out in their restaurant in Richmond, London. They call their new dining concept “Living Lab”, inviting the british public to try out all the new features before a full roll out nationwide.

Included in the line of the new features, are new ‘parabolic booths’, which are domes hung from the ceiling that

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Trick or Treat with TUAW: iPhone 4 and iPad cases from iSkin

TUAW is giving away a gaggle of ghoulishly good gadgets over the next few days. Be sure to come back every day between now and October 31st for a chance to win. The good part of the giveaways? You don't need to wear a costume to win 'em.

With the surprisingly active adoption of the iPad in the healthcare industry, as well as recent concerns about how microbes can live happily on iPad screens, wouldn't it be nice to have something that would at least keep bugs off of most of your device? And

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Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear app now available

MTV Networks has released the official Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear app for this Saturday's Jon Stewart rally and Stephen Colbert march. The app features a map of the rally site, Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare integration, a portal to upload photos to the official rally photostream, news updates, and an exclusive message from the master satirists themselves.

The app also features a complete FAQ about the rally including directions on how to get there, accessibility for the disabled,

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iPhone apps on sale for Halloween

Happy Halloween weekend! This is my favorite holiday of the year, not only because it's a fun time for parties during my favorite season, but also because it seems to be an excellent time for developers to put a little something special into their apps -- like put them on sale. There are quite a few sales hitting the App Store this weekend -- Sega has some of their titles on sale again (including Ecco the Dolphin and the great Shining Force), and Namco Bandai is doing the same. You can pick up

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Apple releases update to fix iPhoto '11 bugs

Apple has released iPhoto 9.0.1 via Software Update. The update addresses issues that, in extremely rare cases, could result in data loss when upgrading a library from an earlier version of iPhoto. Indeed, many of our readers have complained of such issues and our own Mel Martin wrote about them in his review of iPhoto '11.

The update weighs in at 33.87 MB and requires iLife '11 and Mac OS X 10.6.3 or later. You can also download the update here and read Apple's knowledgebase article

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Found Footage: Back to the Mac in an incredibly great 140 seconds

Remember last week's Back to the Mac event where the stunning iLife '11 suite and the jaw-dropping new Macbook Airs were announced? No? Well if you missed it, Lockheed91 has saved you some time and reduced the introduction of the awesome new computers along with the amazing new releases of the incredible new iPhoto, the stunning new Garageband and the extraordinary new iMovie down to a remarkable 104 second adjective-fest. Take a look at this phenomenal (and really exciting) video after the

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iPhone live podcast 123: Team Jailbreak

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We’re talking iPhone passing BlackBerry, AT&T vs Verizon, white iPhone delayed… again, greenpois0n vs. limera1n vs. pwnage tool, and the week in apps. It’s team Pure vs. team Jailbreak folks and this is iPhone Live!



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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:

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Apple posts higher revenue than Microsoft

Apple earned more revenue this quarter than their ancient frenemy, Microsoft. Roughly $ 20 billion to $ 16 billion, or $ 4 billion more. Not too long ago they passed Microsoft in market cap as well, another impressive sounding, if not terribly meaningful measure. Microsoft still leads in revenue due to their software-centric business being much higher margin than Apple’s hardware-heavy mix. But that too could and just might change as well.

Apple, thanks to the Apple II, got off to

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Found Footage: Reggie Watts and his iPhone rock Sirius XM

Comedian/musician/mad genius Reggie Watts found himself sans equipment (seems to be going around) when he was being interviewed on Sirius XM radio, but that didn't slow him down one bit. He pulled out his iPhone 4, and using a looping app (possibly Everyday Looper, $ 5.99) he improvised a number that absolutely wowed host Ron Bennington and the rest of the folks in the studio. Be sure to listen for Bennington's final line.
Seeing this, you wonder: are the rest of us really getting the maximum

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First Look: Boinx PhotoBox app for iPad

The guys at Boinx Software have done it again, this time with a product for the iPad. PhotoBox, a free app, is the first iPad app for the company, which is primarily known for its Boinx TV and FotoMagico applications for Mac OS X and the You Gotta See This iPhone photo collage app.
What's PhotoBox all about? The idea is that it's an on-site photographer's assistant, allowing you to analyze photos that have been moved to the iPad through the Camera Connection Kit or a wireless connection. The

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After iLife '11: Alternatives to iDVD and iWeb

Over the weekend TUAW is going to be featuring in-depth reviews of the new iLife '11 suite -- or at least the three apps that were updated. As most of you know by now, iWeb and iDVD didn't receive an update at all. In light of that, we've compiled a list of several alternatives to iDVD and iWeb that you may want to try out. From a purely consumer standpoint, I don't think any of these apps offer the ease of use that Apple has so successfully built into iWeb and iDVD, but given that iDVD seems

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Limited edition Joule and Vapor cases from ElementCase

We've drooled over the Joule, a classy metal iPad stand before, and the Vapor iPhone 4 case is one of my favorite iPhone cases. That said, they are not what you would call inexpensive. Nevertheless, the latest models to roll off their custom shop floor are even more exclusive, as limited-edition colors are now available under the "extreme metals" line.

These are extremely limited-edition collectible stands and cases. As you can see in the gallery, the Joule stands have a nice variety in

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Some Apple execs exercise stock options

Several Apple executives took advantage of the fact that Apple stock hit an all-time high recently to cash out some stock options for extra christmas spending money. Apple hit $ 319 on October 18 and Bertrand Serlet, software engineering senior VP exercised 5,000 options at $ 318.50 while controller Betsy Rafael, operations SVP Jeffrey Williams and hardware SVP Bob Mansfield all sold at over $ 300.

Mansfield in particular made a killing exercising 40,000 options that were priced at $ 36.54

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The MacBook Air's unique display

The folks at TechRestore have taken it upon themselves to remove the gloss from Apple's MacBook Airs. In the process, they've discovered that the laptop's multi-layered display is truly a thing to behold.

Calling the screen "paper thin," TechRestore CEO Shannon Jean tells ZDNet how the display differs from nearly every other one he's seen. "It's in layers, it's insane," he says. "I don't think there's ever been a screen like this used in a laptop. It's very similar to a Sony PSP screen, where

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Another hardware keyboard solution for iPhone

There are many iPhone detractors who still won't let go of the fact that the iPhone doesn't have a physical keyboard. Whether it's because the on-screen keyboard is too difficult to use, or the move away from "the norm" is too jarring, it's what holds back many from making the switch or from liking the iPhone they already have.

There have been physical keyboard solutions for the iPhone for some time now, like the 4iThumbs and iTwinge overlays, but now there's a new type of keyboard from

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Barnes & Noble intros Nook Color: the worst of all worlds

Barnes & Noble introduced a new color version of its Nook eBook reader on Tuesday and as expected, it features a color touch screen. Unfortunately for B&N, this new device is unlikely to pose a significant challenge to either Apple's iPad or Amazon's Kindle.

The big advantage that both the Kindle and the original Nook had was a monochrome e-ink display which uses very little energy and generally provides excellent readability. The iPad on the other hand needs to be charged daily but

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Apple introduces online Chinese store, App Store now in Simplified Chinese

Apple launched a Chinese-language version of its online store today with all of Apple's product lineup in place, including the online-only (PRODUCT) RED iPod nano, and a selection of third-party products.

In addition to this, a Simplified Chinese version of the App Store was rolled out with localized apps and the most popular paid and free apps in China.

The top paid iPhone app in the Chinese app store is Cartoon Wars 2: Heroes. You'll find your Angry Birds fix all the way down at

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Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 now on sale, downloadable for upgraders

It's been percolating for ages, maturing like a fine wine and fermenting like a premium cheese: the latest edition of Microsoft Office for the Mac, Office 2011 (or Office 14, if you're counting version numbers) has finally made it to market. Enterprise and education customers have had access to the new version for a few weeks now, but as of late last night those users who had registered for free upgrades from Office 2008 (for purchases after August 1) were able to start downloading the

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Put your Mac on a diet with CleanMyMac

CleanMyMac by Macpaw software is an amazing bit of Mac utility software that has one purpose in life: to streamline your hard drive by getting rid of all the extraneous stuff that you probably don't know is there and almost certainly don't need. It cleans out all of the useless cache files, logs, languages you don't know or don't want, universal binary code that your specific computer can't use, and other assorted junk, trash, and leftover bits and pieces. It does the job easily, elegantly,

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Rumor: Apple looking at buying Spotify... to incorporate it or close it?

Fans of streaming music service Spotify might not want to read this story. The last time Apple bought such a company, it lived on for about six months before being unceremoniously shuttered. Hopefully if a rumored buyout of Spotify does go through, the service will face a happier outcome than Lala did earlier this year.

The rumor of early stage talks between Apple and Spotify comes via Techcrunch, so it's probably worth grabbing a big hunk of salt to go with it. According to Michael

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White iPhone 4 delayed until Spring 2011

If you've been holding off on buying an iPhone 4 because you were waiting for the white version, you may as well give up and go black. Reuters reports that the white iPhone 4 has been delayed until spring of next year. If you've been paying attention at all over the past few years, you'll know that's only a few months before the iPhone 5 will likely come out, so waiting for a white iPhone 4 really doesn't make any sense now.
Apple hasn't given any reason for the delay, and the news seems

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Windows Phone 7 Connector Beta available for download by Mac users

Are you a Mac user who is excited about Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 devices? Or a Mac user who is being forced against your will to put away your iPhone and use the company-supplied Windows Phone 7 phone (and forgive me if that one sounds redundant)?
Well, you're in luck. As promised, Microsoft has issued a beta version of Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac. This software allows you to sync certain selected content with not only "WinPho7" devices, but Microsoft Zune media players as well.
The

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iPad live #27: Dead on Arrival

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We’re listening to Steve Jobs lay the smackdown on Android and BlackBerry tablets, and watching Apple take the iPad back to the Mac. The stage is set for 2011 folks. This is iPad live!



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Thanks to the the iPhone Blog Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!
iPad live #27: Dead on Arrival is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog

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Is your new Apple TV skipping frames?

Apple's new $ 99 Apple TV may be getting a lot more fans than its predecessor, but early reports from a number of users are indicating that the streaming video on the device sometimes skips frames.
As reported on 9to5Mac and relayed by several of our readers from personal experience, the issue may not be apparent to everyone, but can be annoying enough to those who know what to look for that they'd like to use the device for target practice.
An Emmy-nominated editor who sent 9to5 an email

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iOS 4.1 security flaw allows calls to be made on passcode locked iPhone

It looks as if there’s yet another Phone.app security hole, this time in iOS 4.1 that allows someone to get around a passcode locked iPhone, gain access to the owner’s contact list, make calls and send emails to anyone in said contact list. From MacStories:


“To reproduce the bug, make sure to have a passcode lock turned on and lock your device. In the lockscreen, tap on Emergency Call in the lower left corner. Now type a non-existent emergency number, I tried #946494.

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Free PBS iPad app allows streaming of the network's content

Like a few commercial television networks before it, PBS has launched an iPad app designed to stream the network's content to your iPad on demand. PBS for iPad is available for free right now on the App Store, and has full streams of lots of classic shows. There's some new content as well -- Circus is a show that's been created just for the iPad app itself. But there's also some Masterpiece Theater and Julia Child in there, as well as other well-known standbys of the government run and

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TUAW's Daily App: Tiptop

Tiptop is a game that came out back in April of this year. It's a take on the Lemmings genre (which asks you to guide little characters through a map to an exit), and it uses line drawing to create paths for the characters, leading them around obstacles or across gaps. The style of the game is nuts, with lots of silly abstract flourishes and jokes, and the action can get frantic at times.

The game is now a universal app, and the graphics have been updated as well. Both versions are free to

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Apple may double the size of its North Carolina data center

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We still don't know what it's for, and it hasn't even officially opened yet, but multiple sources are claiming that Apple is already planning on doubling the size of its North Carolina data center. A local realtor informed Data Center Knowledge that "site work is being performed," which seems to confirm rumors from the Charlotte Business Journal and All Things Digital from last week.
Much speculation has surrounded Apple's intentions for the site since construction

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iPad's orientation lock to mute switch change will be permanent

When iOS 4.2 gets rolled out to iPad users sometime in the coming weeks, the button on the side that has until now prevented the screen from swapping between portrait and landscape will become a mute switch, just like it is on the iPhone. However, since this is clearly a software-managed control rather than being hard-wired, some users were hoping that this might be configurable somewhere in the settings.

Unfortunately, Steve Jobs has made it clear to a 9to5Mac reader via email that no such

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Best of Smartphone Experts, 24 Oct 2010

Video walkthrough of the Samsung Continuum


Google unveils Gingerbread statue; Googler says Gingerbread is Android 2.3


Winamp for Android is a winner

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Check out Movie Vault for iPad and win a free copy for yourself

I love old movies, so much so that I even wrote a book about a 60s movie producer. Some of the best of the old classics have slipped into the public domain, which means they're free. Some of the old PD titles have been put out on DVD over the years, but a great many are in a kind of film limbo, with no easy way to see them if they don't get picked up for DVD distribution.
I'd suggest one nice solution for the iPad. It's called Movie Vault, and basically it lets you stream more than a thousand

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Talkcast tonight, 10pm ET: Mac App Store & more, open phones for developers

There was something for everyone at Wednesday's 'Back to the Mac' event: new hardware, new software, new OS preview and new paradigm for Mac software sales. If you've got an opinion on any of these topics -- and we know you do -- then be sure to join us tonight on the TUAW Talkcast.
We're going to be joined by a special guest this week; Talkcast frequent flyer Ged Maheux from the Iconfactory (the company's latest iPhone app, music auto-resume utility Take Five, is in the App Store now). Ged

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Adobe launches Project Rome preview, all-in-one content creation/publishing

Apple's favorite software vendor has just released a preview of a new content creation and publishing tool called Project Rome. Project Rome is an Adobe AIR application that can either be run as a web app in your browser or downloaded and installed on your local machine.

Project Rome is mix of old-school desktop publishing, graphical editing, animation and content publishing. You can create everything from business cards, to newsletters or even full web-sites within the tool and then

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Steve Jobs: iPad 4.2 mute switch not changing, not user-definable

Ever since the iOS 4.2 beta for iPad came out, some people have been a little upset about the hardware orientation lock being changed into an iPhone-like mute switch. There’s been talk (hope) of getting a settings option that would allow for the user to choose between orientation lock and mute, but now that’s been dashed by an email response purportedly from Apple’s top dog himself, Steve Jobs:

The question:


In IOS 4.2 for iPad is the switch on the side going to be

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iSeeU brings FaceTime-like video calling to iPhone 3GS [Accessory]

There is an endless list of apps that allow you to make video calls with your iPhone 4, and aside from Apple’s FaceTime, most of t hese are also compatible with the 3GS, but it can be quite awkward to video call without a front facing camera.

Korean company, PLAYMASS, have produced a new accessory that can solve the problem, iSeeU.

iSeeU clips onto your i Phone 3GS, and flips open to reveal a series of mirrors, that allow you make a video call using the rear facing camera. One neat

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How to Jailbreak iOS 4.1 via greenpois0n for Mac [Jailbreak]

Wondering how to Jailbreak iOS 4.1 with greenpois0n? Jailbreakers have a wealth of options when it comes to iOS 4.1. We’ve already looked at how to jailbreak via limera1n for Mac and how to jailbreak via PwnageTool 4.1 for Mac. Now we’re looking at the Mac version of greenpois0n. PC users shouldn’t have too much difficulty following along with any of these as the steps are generally the same. It’s really up to you what tool you decide to use. I suggest

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AT&T trains retail staff on non-iPhone smartphones

When the iPhone burst upon the world three and a half years ago, the smartphone landscape was very different from the one we see today. Palm Treos, Blackberries and Windows Mobile were the dominant players; they were mainly selected by geeks and people that needed them for business. In the intervening period, the staff at AT&T stores have focused on selling and supporting Apple's super-phone, but that's beginning to change as it appears ever more likely that iPhones will soon be available

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Can iPad competitors compete?

This week we found out the Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab would be hitting Verizon for $ 599, with a $ 20/1GB month data plan, and the Windows 7-powered HP Slate, 10 months after Steve Balmer showed it off on the CES stage, will be available to Enterprise for $ 799. RIM has the BlackBerry PlayBook coming next year and HP the PalmPad in the pipeline as well.

The baseline iPad 3G is $ 629 with a $ 15/256MB month AT&T plan, the baseline Wi-Fi iPad + MiFi bundle on Verizon is

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MacBook Air software update addresses responsiveness and graphics issues

A MacBook Air update already? Yes, we've had some tips about intermittent MacBook Air issues and it seems Apple's next-generation super-thin wedge-Macs are already sporting a shiny new software update that addresses "an issue where a MacBook Air (Late 2010) computer may become unresponsive while playing back movie trailers in iMovie" and a bug where the Mac becomes unresponsive after waking from sleep when connected to an external display. Oh, the the requisite "general graphics performance

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President Obama meeting with Steve Jobs

It looks like US President Barack Obama will be meeting with Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs today. Business Insider reports:


“President Obama is flying to the Bay Area from Seattle this afternoon. He’s speaking at Google exec Marissa Mayer’s house in Palo Alto this evening. Before that, says a source familiar with the details, he will have a one-on-one meeting with Steve Jobs.”


We aren’t exactly sure what they’ll be discussing, but we have a

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How to Jailbreak iOS 4.1 with PwntageTool 4.1 for Mac [Jailbreak]

PwnageTool 4.1 was recently released and a lot of jailbreakers have been waiting for this one. The main difference between some other methods and PwnageTool is that it preserves your baseband in most cases. Meaning for unlockers, they’ll still be able to safely upgrade and keep their unlock. We recently covered how to jailbreak via limera1n for Mac and now we’ll look at how PwnageTool 4.1 differs and walk through this process as well.

PwnageTool 4.1 will jailbreak the

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Can you trust a Steve Jobs email? "Nope."

A reader just emailed us to point out a post I wrote this past April. MacStories.net had published an email a developer at Chiaro Software had sent Steve Jobs to ask him if the rumors of a Mac App Store and no software running on OS X without authorization from Apple were true. Job's answer? "Nope."

Yesterday's Mac App Store announcement puts a different spin on that response. Jobs sent the "nope" email in late April. It's unrealistic to think that Apple had no plans for a Mac App Store at

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iFixit tears down the 11-inch MacBook Air

Less than a day after the new 11-inch MacBook Air hit shelves, iFixit's already dissected it. The repair site gave the new MacBook Air a repairability rating of 4/10, with 10 being easiest to repair. Two major obstacles face any user trying to do their own repairs on the MacBook Air. First, the screws involved in a MacBook Air teardown are all T5 Torx screws, so you'd better either have that type of screwdriver or be prepared to file down a flatblade like iFixit did. iFixit notes that once you

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Steve Jobs chilling with President Obama today

According to Business Insider, President Obama is scheduled to be flying into the San Francisco area this afternoon to attend an event for District Attorney Kamala Harris and to deliver remarks at a later dinner. What isn't on the President's public agenda, according to an anonymous source familiar with the matter, is a one-on-one meeting with the turtlenecked crusader himself, Steve Jobs.

You may think that they'll be talking about several important issues regarding Apple's lead in the

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Firemint's Flight Control HD coming to Mac App Store

The dust hasn't even settled in the wake of Apple's announcement of the Mac App Store, but one well-known developer is already on board. Firemint, creator of Flight Control for the iPhone/iPod touch and Flight Control HD for the iPad, has announced it will bring Flight Control HD to the Mac via the Mac App Store. As a matter of fact, according to Firemint, Flight Control HD is already running on the Mac.
Firemint may be the first company to publicly announce support for the Mac App Store, but

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App Store for Mac highlights two major App Store flaws

The idea of a Mac App Store is great... from a certain point of view. As it currently exists, the App Store has several problems and limitations which could be fairly easily removed.
1. Demos/Trial Periods/Returns: I'm not going to state unequivocally that Apple will have demos in the Mac App Store, but I will state unequivocally that Apple should have demos in the Mac App Store. As noted earlier, the Mac App Store guidelines state "Apps that are 'beta', 'demo', 'trial', or 'test' versions will

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SafeSleep lets you use safe sleep on demand on your Mac

If you've ever wanted more control over Apple's "safe sleep" mode, the free SafeSleep.app from Side Tree Software is for you.
If you've never heard of it before, you might be wondering what "safe sleep" is (but if you have heard of it, you can skip the next couple paragraphs). When the battery on one of Apple's notebook computers (including the MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and some late-model PowerBooks) is very low, OS X will put the machine into what Apple calls "safe sleep" mode. This

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Verizon's FiOS Mobile Remote app ready for iPhone

Verizon has had their FiOS DVR Manager app available for some time now. Now the company has released another offering to the App Store in the way of a wireless remote.

Using the Verizon FiOS Mobile Remote requires you to be connected to your FiOS-provided wireless network in order to work. Once you follow the simple steps presented by the app, you'll be paired with your cable box and have the ability to quickly change channels, traverse the on-set programming guide and control the DVR. You

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Report: Apple to make significant enterprise gains in 2011

Despite Apple's insistence that it is a mobile device company, it turns out that the Mac category is far from done growing. A new study from the Enterprise Desktop Alliance says that 2011 is set to be a huge year for Mac on the enterprise level, with reportedly 25 percent of all new systems in that category to be Macs. That would be astonishing, and would move the Mac from the current figure of 3.3% of enterprise systems up to 5%. All of this growth, says the EDA, will primarily come from

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Consumer Reports' Mobile Shopper a mixed bag

This is the second foray into iPhone territory by Consumer Reports. The first app pretty much duplicated the currently-available online content, and was free. This second app, called Consumer Reports Mobile Shopper is US $ 9.99, and puts the impeccable brand and product reviews in a more iOS-specific form.
The app allows you to browse through CR ratings of thousands of products, and allows searches by brand name or model. You can also scan the UPC bar-code using the iPhone's camera. The app

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Developers weigh in on Android vs. iOS openness

Former Facebook for iPhone developer Joe Hewitt has weighed in on the Steve Jobs re-ignited “openness” debate with a cogent argument that Android isn’t much more open than iOS, at least not in the true spirit of the term. Here’s what he posted (mostly via Twitter for iPad, for those keeping track at home):


How does Android get away with the “open” claim when the source isn’t public until major releases, and no one outside Google can check in?

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New Kindle app for Macs adds many desired features

I do most of my reading of books purchased from Amazon on my iPad, but there are times where my laptop and desktop Mac would be just dandy for catching up on my non dead-tree efforts.
Amazon has released a new version of Kindle for Mac, and it brings the Mac version up to feature parity with the iOS versions. The new version includes these capabilities:

Add, edit or delete notes and highlights
Search for words or phrases in a book
Multi-column text is now supported
The overall

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Grooveshark brings streaming music with search to Jailbroken iPhones! [Jailbreak]

Grooveshark is an online music search engine and music streaming service which allows users to search for, stream, and upload music free of charge that can be played immediately or added to a playlist with the option to cache files for offline play.

In the past, an iPhone app was available on the iTunes App Store, but was quickly removed as it appeared to violate Apple’s iTunes Store Terms of Service. It has now returned on Cydia for free, however the app requires a VIP subscription

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Yojimbo 3 released with companion iPad app

In the department of "Things That Took TJ By Surprise" you can add "Barebones released Yojimbo on the iPad!"
Yojimbo was the first "collection box" app that I ever used. It is still the easiest app I know to grab bits of information from anywhere on your Mac to save it for later. The lack of an iOS app has been a big drawback.
Being able to access Yojimbo on the iPad may be surprising, but it's great news, and I look forward to putting it through the paces. There's a good overview on

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Setting the stage for 2011: Why Steve Jobs took a flamethrower to BlackBerry and Android

Why did Steve Jobs show up on an Apple financial results call, something he’s done in the past but doesn’t typically do, and more importantly why did go all Samuel L. Jackson on RIM’s BlackBerry and Google’s Android, something not typically done on any results call? After all, there’s an Apple event coming up on Wednesday where no doubt Jobs will be center stage, in front of almost the entire blogsphere and half the internet at large. Why not wait for

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Determining Game Center's current popularity

The always insightful Stuart Dredge over at MobileEntertainment has crunched some numbers on Game Center's actual popularity. Since Apple's own gaming social network on the iPhone launched, I've heard lots of different things from developers in terms of how they're implementing and using it. Some developers jumped in head-first, bringing all of their apps on board quickly, while others have only brought one or two apps on board at a time, waiting and seeing what their users are into. And some

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Turn your MacBook into the Justice League

We've written about MacBook decals in the past, but I couldn't resist showing this one to you guys and gals (especially the comic book fans out there). Stuff Off Decals is selling a Justice League sticker for MacBooks. The sticker is designed in the Justice League animated series fashion and features (from left to right) Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, The Flash, and Hawkgirl. Superman's "S" symbol lights up when you overlay the sticker on your MacBook's lid.

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125 million iOS devices, 300,000 apps, 35,000 iPad apps

As part of their Q4 2010 conference call, Apple today announced that 125 million iOS devices have been sold to date. That includes the 14.1 million iPhones, 4.19 million iPads, and perhaps the 250,000 Apple TVs this quarter. No iPod touch numbers were broken out, but 9.05 million iPods in general were also sold. That brings the iPhone up to 40 million sold in the last year on 156 carriers in 89 countries, and 7.5 million iPads in the last 6 months in 26 countries. They’re activating and

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Driverless taxi gets called with an iPad

This is just wild! A group of researchers in Berlin have been working on "autonomous cars" for a while. Those, of course, are cars that drive themselves, and as you can see above, this one uses a variety of equipment to monitor the road and environment. It then drives by itself according to all of that information.

The Berlin team has pushed the idea ahead by hooking the car up to an iPad. In the video posted after the break, you can see how it all works. The iPad's GPS location is sent out

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TiPb Picks of the Week

Every week a few of us from team TiPb will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch related, they’re fair game.

To see what we picked this week, and to tell us your pick, follow on after the break!



Ally’s Pick: TLert (Jailbreak)

TLert is a quickreply SMS app available to jailbreakers via Cydia. It

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Audiogalaxy brings your music to your iPhone, iPad and more

Ever since Google bought Simplify Media and killed it for the iPhone, there has been a need for a reliable way to get your DRM-free music library to your iPhone. Audiogalaxy has done that, and quite a bit more. Audiogalaxy basically streams your music collection using a helper app to another computer, an iPad, iPhone or an Android phone.
To get started you sign up for free, and a web-based client will scan your hard drive for your music collection. If you have a lot of music, it can take a lot

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Apple Q4 financial results conference call

Apple is set to announce its Q4 financial results today at 5pm ET, 2pm PT. The conference call usually provides a wealth of information about iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad sales, so we’ll be listening intently, posting highlights, and giving you our very best color and commentary to go along with it.

If you want to listen along with us, the call will be broadcast on Apple.com.

In the meantime, give us your best predictions: 10 million iPhones in one quarter? Is iPad still selling 1

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TUAW's Daily App: FlightBoard

I can't say I'm a huge traveler -- even though I've hit up quite a few conventions this year for work, I haven't been flying so much that I need to keep tabs on what's going on at the airport. But I like the idea of FlightBoard anyway -- it's an app that will automatically create a departing flights board for any airport in the country, so you can see flight numbers, gate arrivals, and departure times for all the flights in the airport.

Like I said, I personally don't fly enough that I'd

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Best of Smartphone Experts, 17 Oct 2010

T-Mobile G2 review


HTC Merge video preview


Verizon Fascinate review

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Fullscreen for Safari extension for iPhone [Jailbreak]

The Cydia Store now has a great extension available for jailbroken iPhone and iPod touch called Fullscreen for Safari that allows for not only toggling Safari into fullscreen mode for completely unobstructed browsing, but also includes multi-touch gestures.

This package costs $ 1.49 and has functionality and options that will completely change the way you use Safari. You can do things like two finger swipe left/right to switch tabs, two-finger swipe up/down to either open a new tab or

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Talkcast tonight, 10pm ET: Back to the Mac

With quarterly earnings due tomorrow and Wednesday's 'Back to the Mac' event coming up right afterward, there's plenty to cover and speculate upon tonight on the TUAW Talkcast.

We'd love it if you joined us. To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the Web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm on Sunday. To call in on

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iPad: Six months later

It’s been roughly 6 months since Apple launched the iPad — April 3 for iPad Wi-Fi, April 20 for iPad Wi-Fi + 3G. Since then, millions and millions of us have bought iPads but that only proves the demand was there, it says nothing about how iPad has lived up to that demand. So we thought we’d take a moment and ask: how’s it working out for you?

In what ways has it surprised and delighted you, and in what ways has it frustrated and disappointed you? Are you using it

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FaceTime: Group video chats and Middle-East carrier spats?

A couple of interesting FaceTime tidbits this weekend as it looks like group video chats might be available in the future, but only on iPod touch in the Middle-East.

First up, while FaceTime is still missing from certain Middle-Eastern iPhone 4 carriers, it appears to be working fine on iPod touch (2010). So it’s not a government restriction, which just leaves the carriers asking for it to be removed, or Apple worrying about the carriers and pre-emptively removing it. This begs the

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White iPhone 4 in the wild, when will they be in the stores?

There have always been a few white iPhone 4 in the wild, Apple employees in Cupertino the likely suspects, or high profile celebrity friends like Stephen Fry, or even low-profile friends far from the spotlight. Some have been caught on camera, some have been sent in as quiet tips. The only thing that hasn’t been seen is the white iPhone 4 generally available for sale online or in stores.

The latest rumor says Apple is still having manufacturing problems involving color consistency,

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Mac 101: Making a fancy signature in Mail.app

I was leafing through some emails this afternoon and came upon one with an extremely attractive signature block. So attractive, in fact, that I promptly stopped doing the writing I was working on and decided to create my own new signature to replace the ugly one I had been using.

I wanted to have three major components to the signature: my name in color so that it stood out, links to the websites that describe my work (TUAW being one of those sites), and the ever-popular links to my Facebook,

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How will Apple make the MacBook Air relevant in a post-iPad world?

Rumors strongly suggest Apple’s Back to the Mac October event will feature the introduction of an all-new, perhaps all different MacBook air, the first in a post-iPad world. Which has got me thinking — what does that mean?



Apple originally introduced the MacBook Air as the ultimate ultra-light, bereft of optical drive, reduced to a single USB port, yet still boasting a full sized 13-inch screen and keyboard. Light and impossibly thin but powerful and a fully capable Mac. It was

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Found Footage: iPhone concert on the B train

It's time for another installment of our favorite viral program, "Bands You've Never Heard Of Play A Song On Their iPhones." In this case, the band is Brooklyn's Atomic Tom, the song is the decidedly catchy Take Me Out, and the performance is live on the 6th Avenue line of the New York City subways, crossing the Manhattan Bridge on the B train.
Add the degree of difficulty of shooting the video on iPhones, the noise and lighting challenges of the train, and the likelihood of an overeager "see

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Costco pulling iPod, iPhone, everything Apple from shelves

Well it looks like that tip we got last week about Costco pulling iPod and everything Apple from their US Stores, and iPhone as well from their Canadian stores is now getting confirmed around the web.


The story goes an emergency conference call was set up to inform staff in both the warehouse proper and the mobile sales kiosk that all Apple products, accessories, etc. were being pulled.


iLounge has added a potential reason — Costco didn’t get the iPad when Walmart, Target,

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River of News' real money returns

Developer Dylan Ginsburg has noticed that a lot of iPhone companies (including most of the folks I spoke with at GDC last week) don't like to talk about exactly how much money they've made on the App Store. But he has no such compunctions, so he's written up a nice post on his blog about how much his River of News RSS app for the iPad has made so far. The short answer? About $ 20,600 since the app was released on August 19th. The app, which peaked in the top 30 (good, but not outstanding), has

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iPhone live 121: Pois0nRa1n

Our podcast feed
Download Directly
Subscribe via iTunes


Apple going Back to the Mac with OS X 10.7 Lion, iOS 4.2 beta 3, iPhone 5 to unite CDMA and GSM, more on Verizon iPhone, and Greenpois0n vs. limera1n. No simultaneous voice and data here, folks, this is iPhone live!

With special guest Mickey Papillon from The Cell Phone Junkie.



Credits

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

Our

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New York Post first newspaper to offer in-app subscriptions

The New York Post released an iPad app today and it is the first iOS digital publication to offer in-app subscriptions. For $ 1.99, you get a 30-day introductory subscription to the newspaper. An in-app purchase of $ 6.99 or $ 79.99 will get you a subscription for a month or year, respectively. Here’s what The Post’s iPad app has to offer:


All the key sections of the newspaper – News, Page Six, Opinion, Pulse, Business and Sports
Ability to make your own front page and

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How to Jailbreak iOS 4.1 via limera1n on a Mac [Jailbreak]

Wondering how to Jailbreak your iOS 4.1 iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad? limera1n was updated to support Mac today and after testing, it’s a pretty painless process. Pretty much what we’ve come to expect from Geohot. So here’s your TiPb-style walkthrough. You PC users should be able to follow along relatively easily as well since both jailbreaks are pretty much identical in nature. But as usual, here’s the standard disclaimer first:

If you are at all hesitant about

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Use Quix to make advanced searches easier

Google may be the best search engine available today, but it has several frustrations to me. One of the biggest is that it routinely forgets my preferred search settings. At best, Google only remembers your preferences when you are logged in, but personally i find that Google forgets my preferences all of the time, even when logged in.
I finally figured out a way to avoid that frustration plus limit my Google searches to recent pages, regardless of whether I am logged in. The key was to use

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Remote Pallette lets you paint on your iPad with colors from your iPhone

The story a while back about connecting an iPhone to an iPad for a game of darts was pretty interesting, and here's another one in that vein: a new app called Remote Palette is universal for both devices, and will let you "paint" on the iPad, while controlling the colors used with the iPhone. "Dip" your finger into a certain color of paint on your iPhone, and then when you go to touch the iPad, that color will show up as you draw. Very cool idea, and while the reviews on the app say it's not

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TUAW's Daily App: Robot Unicorn Attack Heavy Metal Edition

Take the beloved Canabalt-style Robot Unicorn Attack game, remix it with some heavy music music and aesthetic, and you've got the new iOS-exclusive version, available now on the App Store. That's really all you need to know -- give the online version a play if you haven't yet, and you'll see how much fun dashing and jumping with a robot unicorn can be. Sure, it's simple, but it's fun, and with the heavy metal tune playing in the background, it's even more awesome.

And it's only US 99 cents,

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Bar Refaeli for iPhone [Give away]

The official Bar Refaeli app for iPhone is here complete with photos, interviews, and videos. It’s not Retina Display (yet?), and we had some trouble with the video (though that could just be launch day hiccups) but if you’re a Bar Refaeli fan and want to take her everywhere you go, yes… there’s an app for that.


View personal life pictures from her childhood years.
Huge collections of professional photo shoots.
Exclusive videos from interviews and her biggest

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It's the iPod touch's time to shine

The iPod touch is like that really hot cheerleader you already wanted to talk with, but were a little too afraid to approach. It shines on its own by simply existing. It's the iPhone without the phone, a competent gaming platform, has the capacity its iPhone sibling dreams of, and it's extremely popular.

But, now the iPod touch has come into its own. During September's media event, Steve Jobs revealed that the touch is Apple's top-selling iPod. But, as Fortune magazine points out, the

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A controller for the iPhone ... or bust

The iControlPad project seems to have fizzled out, so another group is trying to bring the dream of a hardware iPhone button-based controller to life. Controller or Bust is a new project trying to move through the long list of steps required to get a hardware controller into production. The blog is the work of Benjamin Morisse, who is looking for all kinds of help from the community to get an actual controller off the ground. "This is ridiculous," he writes. "The iPhone was introduced over

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New Apple Store opening in the St. Louis Galleria this weekend

This weekend Apple will open up its 305th retail store in the St. Louis Galleria mall, right there at Brentwood and 40-64 (which I heard finally finished construction recently). Saturday is day one, and the store should be open at 9am, so if you want to be around for the festivities (including the t-shirts and the hoopla), make plans for this Saturday morning.

I'm kind of surprised the Galleria didn't have an Apple Store yet -- the only other one in St. Louis is down at the West County Mall,

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MailTones for iPhone gets new look, more tones

MailTones, by Electric Pocket, has received a nice little update. In case you are unfamiliar with the app it enables iPhones users the ability to change your email tone and set different tones for emails. The newest updated is bundled with 60 more tones raning from discrete bells to more audible horns and buzzers as well as an enhanced overall look and feel with full retina support.

MailTones has been a nice little application for people who want the option to filter their incoming emails.

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