The | Apple iPhone | Thread

[SRASC]

Yesterday, Amazon released an application titled Kindle for iPhone. For those of you who are not familiar with Kindle it is a “software and hardware platform for reading electronic books (e-books), developed by Amazon.com.” Kindle for iPhone brings that software to your iPhone allowing the user to read Kindle books via their iPhone or iPod Touch. The application itself is free however, it does cost to purchase books from Amazon.com (though, there are a few free books and you can usually get a free “sample” of a book).

The application also introduces Whispersync which allows the user to “to seamlessly switch back and forth between your Kindle device and Kindle for iPhone while keeping your bookmarks and reading location synchronized between devices. Now you can easily pick up reading right where you left off on your Kindle or iPhone.”

Below is the App Store description of the app, my walk-through of the app and some screenshots

“Kindle for iPhone allows Apple iPhone and iPod touch owners to read Kindle books using a simple, easy-to-use interface. You can shop for hundreds of thousands of books at www.amazon.com/kindlestore, and wirelessly transfer the books to your iPhone or iPod touch. Enjoy Amazon’s low prices on Kindle books, including New York Times Best Sellers and most new releases for $9.99, unless marked otherwise.

With Kindle for iPhone, you can:
* Buy a Kindle book from your Mac, PC, or iPhone using a Web browser and wirelessly transfer the books to your iPhone
* Read first chapters of any book for free before you buy
* Download the Kindle books you already own for free — they are automatically backed up on Amazon.com
* Adjust the text size, add bookmarks, and view the annotations you created on your Kindle device

Kindle for iPhone also includes Whispersync, which allows you to seamlessly switch back and forth between your Kindle device and Kindle for iPhone while keeping your bookmarks and reading location synchronized between devices. Now you can easily pick up reading right where you left off on your Kindle or iPhone.

Books you purchase can also be read on Kindle and Kindle 2, Amazon’s portable readers that wirelessly download books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs to a crisp, high-resolution 6-inch electronic-paper display that looks and reads like real paper. “

Walk-Through

When you first open the application, you will get the main page where you can view your books by Recent, Title or Author. You can also delete books and add more books. Once you have selected a book, you have a few options on a lower menu bar (tap the screen to view the lower menu bar). You can bookmark the page, jump to a certain section of the book (including the pages you have bookmarked), change the font size and sync your book. Other than that, all you need to do is drag your finger on the screen to go to the next page.

I tested the application using a free sample of a book. I went to Amazon.com, on my PC, and found a Kindle book I was interested in and selected to see a sample of the book. I was able to easily choose to have the book sent to my iPhone and it showed up on my iPhone in a matter of seconds. I was actually impressed with how extremely easy it was to send the book to my iPhone…I did not have to try to figure out how to get it to my iPhone, it was all right there and the whole process took less than ten seconds. You can also browse the Kindle book selection in Safari on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

The application itself it smooth and easy to use…it doesn’t have a ton of features but, it’s simple and does what it says it is going to.

I’m an avid reader…seriously addicted to reading…but, I have yet to get used to reading a book on an electronic device. I would much rather curl up with the real thing. However, if reading books electronically is your thing then you will most definitely want to check out this app.

[Yeo]

Setting the iPhone free from AT&T
As the exclusive U.S. carrier for the Apple iPhone, AT&T has had a lot to celebrate. Rivals hope to crash the party.

A growing number of public interest groups want an end to the partnership that forces buyers of Apple's iPhone to buy their mobile-phone service only from AT&T. And they're taking their case to the highest levels of government.

The Consumers Union, the New America Foundation, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, as well as software provider Mozilla and small wireless carriers MetroPCS and Leap Wireless International, are lining up in opposition not only to the Apple-AT&T partnership, but to all manner of arrangements whereby mobile phones are tethered exclusively to a single wireless service provider.

Consumer groups are reaching out to the Federal Communications Commission, the Copyright Office, the Federal Trade Commission, and congressional leaders, asking them to outlaw exclusive handset and software deals. Judging from the track record of Julius Genachowski, the newly nominated head of the FCC, petitioners may get a sympathetic hearing, at least at that agency.

Opponents also take issue with Apple's insistence that iPhone users download software only from the Apple iTunes App Store. The argument is that these and other "exclusivity" pairings are anticompetitive and limit consumer choice. "It is unthinkable that you could only use a Macintosh on an AT&T connection," says Michael Calabrese, vice-president at the New America Foundation, which is chaired by Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt. Google has helped develop phone software that competes with Apple's.

Apple and AT&T aren't the only tech companies under fire. Every major U.S. carrier including Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile USA has struck exclusive deals with cell-phone makers such as Samsung Electronics, HTC, and Research In Motion. Companies such as RIM also have their own online application stores tied to particular devices.

Lots at Stake for AT&T
While any ruling would affect many industry players, AT&T and Apple may have the highest stakes in the battle. The iPhone is the No. 1 seller at AT&T, and the iPhone has been key to driving AT&T Mobility subscriber growth as it gets harder for carriers to add new customers. About 40 percent of the 4.3 million AT&T customers who activated the device in the second half of 2008 were new to AT&T, according to the company's latest quarterly filing.

Apple also benefits by extracting key concessions from its partner. For instance, Apple can sell music and applications to iPhone users without sharing revenue with AT&T, an arrangement AT&T doesn't allow with other devices.

AT&T would stand to lose big. Without an exclusive device, all the carriers may have to compete on service or handset price after subsidies. For Apple, "the [iPhone's] price might not drop very quickly, if at all, because the device itself still has great value — it's iconic," says Neil Strother, an analyst at consultant Forrester Research. The impact from opening up the phone to all software could be muted as well, as App Store revenue is minimal.

Friendly Ears at the FCC and FTC
The consumer advocacy groups are pinning their highest hopes on the FCC, which last year asked for comments on the exclusivity issue. Exclusive handset practices "result in a very direct and negative effect on the competitive positions of smaller carriers," wrote the Rural Cellular Association (RCA), which represents smaller carriers, in a Feb. 23 filing submitted in response to the FCC's request. "The large carriers use it as a vehicle to drive customers away from the smaller carriers," which end up getting popular phones years later, says Eric Peterson, executive director of the association.

The RCA hopes that as soon as a new, Democratic FCC chairman is in place, the agency will investigate the issue and rule on it. A former government official familiar with the FCC believes the new Democratic-majority commission will be sympathetic toward smaller carriers' interests. The FCC could prohibit exclusive handset deals outright, or it could impose limits on carriers' ability to restrict what networks a phone works on.

The RCA is also lobbying Congress to get involved and expects a bill that prohibits exclusive carrier deals to be introduced soon, Peterson says.

On Dec. 10, the New America Foundation met with law professor Phil Weiser and former FCC Commissioner Susan Ness from President Obama's transition team. The group asked that the Federal Trade Commission take up the issue of "wireless carrier anticompetitive practices" — namely, the practice of locking handsets to a particular network, and requiring users to buy software from a particular source, Calabrese says. A decision in the foundation's favor could make it illegal for AT&T and Apple to limit new iPhone users to AT&T's network or the App Store from the get-go. Former FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz, expected to be nominated for the FTC chairmanship position, is likely to be sympathetic to this view; in a February 2007 speech, he supported allowing any device to attach to any network.

Legalizing 'jail-breaking'
The U.S. Copyright Office is getting involved as well. This year, it will review whether to extend a ruling that made unlocking cell phones — essentially, making them work on a network for which they are not intended — legal. Public interest groups and companies such as Mozilla are trying to get that exemption renewed and get the Copyright Office to give a nod to a practice known as jail-breaking — essentially, allowing cell phones to run software of their owners' choosing vs. applications limited to offerings from, say, the Apple App Store. In comments filed in December, the Electronic Frontier Foundation claims that the current setups "disserve iPhone owners and suppress competition from independent iPhone application vendors."

The Copyright Office will hold hearings on this issue May 1 in Palo Alto, Calif., and the following week in Washington, D.C. It will issue final rules in October. "[The issue arose] in large part because of the iPhone, because the iPhone did not exist in 2006," says the Electronic Frontier Foundation's senior intellectual property attorney, Fred von Lohmann.

Battles over these kinds of arrangements could be lengthy. But Apple could actually benefit from an end to exclusive carrier deals by dramatically increasing the iPhone's distribution. "They'd have sold five times more iPhones [without exclusive contracts]," estimates Trip Chowdhry, an analyst at Global Equities Research.

Exclusivity as Driver of Innovation
Apple declined to comment for this story, and has not submitted comments to the FCC. But on Feb. 20, RIM commented in a filing that exclusive handset deals have done nothing to restrict competition in the wireless marketplace. "There are at least 35 companies designing and manufacturing handsets today," the maker of the BlackBerry wrote in its filing. "As of March 20, 2008, there were more than 620 unique models of wireless devices available to American consumers. New manufacturers continue to enter the U.S. market …"

In its December comments to the Copyright Office, Apple said that jail-breaking phone software "will destroy the technological protection of Apple's key copyrighted computer programs in the iPhone device itself and of copyrighted content owned by Apple that plays on the iPhone, resulting in copyright infringement, potential damage to the device, and other potential harmful physical effects, adverse effects on the functioning of the device, and breach of contract."

AT&T believes that exclusive deals actually drive other carriers' innovation. "Exclusive arrangements are an important form of competition," AT&T said in a statement. "The popularity of the iPhone and its innovative features and applications have provoked a strong competitive response, accelerating not only handset innovation but also the pace of wireless broadband investment and applications development." Indeed, most carriers nowadays offer iPhone look-alikes. If consumer advocates have their way, rivals may eventually offer the iPhone itself.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29510498/

[SRASC]

Saurik has announced that a Cydia Store for jailbroken iPhones will be launched tomorrow.

The official announcement of the Cydia Store was made at 360|iDev, complete with demo of social packaging: comments via Facebook Connect!

The Cydia Store is about providing a simpler billing channel to buy the already commercial applications in Cydia, like Snapture.

With many iPhone applications being rejected by Apple's approval process, developers are searching for an alternative way to distribute their paid applications. Cydia Store will provide these developers and their customers with a viable solution.

[xtech]

[SRASC]

The Cydia Store for Jailbroken iPhone Applications is now open with its very first package for sale.

The Cydia Store currently supports Facebook and Google as login accounts. You can take a look at some screenshots below and we will be posting a tutorial soon.

The very first package for sale is Cyntact an app that shows profile pics in your contact list. The app costs 1.00 dollar to purchase.

Meanwhile…back at the App Store

Would-be iPhone developers “pulling their hair out by the roots”

Apple’s ability to process iPhone developer contracts is quickly turning into a minor crisis as what was once a smooth process is rapidly turning into a months-long backlog that threatens to keep new developers out of the App Store.

Previous reports that the earliest third-party iPhone app developers are facing expired contracts are also being joined by stories from those who have yet to have their very first contracts approved.

Where requests for an agreement once took as little as two days for Apple to handle in the early days of the iPhone SDK, coders speaking to AppleInsider and on the iPhone development boards are increasingly reporting delays in initial approval that have changed from days into months — even for free apps, which require less paperwork than commercial software.

“Many developers are pulling their hair out by the roots,” one such producer tells AppleInsider. “Our corporate contract, submitted around December of last year, has yet to be approved after more than two months. And this is merely for a free app!”

This and other sources also report that many messages to Apple are either given a stock response apologizing for the wait or else receive no answer at all.

It’s quickly becoming clear that the long hold times and silence on the matter stem from unpreparedness on Apple’s part for the popularity of the App Store and the pressure it creates to renew its relationships with developers. A call by Ars Technica’s Erica Sadun to the Apple Developer Connection has not only revealed that the company knows there are “many developers” either without contracts or facing expiry but that there isn’t even a system by which Apple can renew its existing deals.

When that system will be put into place isn’t known, though the ADC representative promises that Apple will at least avoid a crisis that would see older apps gradually vanish from the store as existing agreements come to an end. Any software that has already been approved will, reportedly, remain on the store even after its associated contract runs out.

That’s little comfort to first-time developers, who are increasingly being discouraged by a process that in many cases prevents them from getting their first real foothold in the App Store. Without clear signs that Apple is addressing the problem, companies and individuals alike are questioning whether they should continue to produce iPhone apps in the first place.

“It makes it really tough to continue development,” one developer says.

[SRASC]

A widely reported interface overhaul making its debut in early betas of QuickTime X Player distributed with pre-releases of Apple’s Snow Leopard operating system this week is reportedly not much to write home about.

Unlike the current version of QuickTime Player 7.6 — which reserves considerable real estate for sizable, platinum-themed video controls at the base of the each player window — QuickTime X Player is said to forgo all traditional interface controls in favor of video overlay controls (like those that appear when you mouse over video in full-screen mode of the current Player software).

The only window-based interface element in the QuickTime X Player is reportedly the title bar, which is reminiscent of the iPhone’s semi-transparent black glass interface while also adopting hues from the video frames playing beneath it. However, this too fades away and disappears with the new overlay controls so videos appear to float on the screen with nothing more than a deep shadow surrounding all four sides.

AppleInsider has made its best attempt to provide mockups of this reported new interface using existing Apple interface elements, based off descriptions of the new QuickTime X Player provided by people familiar with the software. In addition to the standard overlay for controlling playback, the new player is also said to offer overlay controls for trimming, editing, and viewing scenes of a video like in iMovie.

Apple has described QuickTime X as a new version of its media software due to ship with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard that “optimizes support for modern audio and video formats resulting in extremely efficient media playback.”

Click for full-size.

Current QuickTime interface

An artist’s mockup of the minimal QuickTime X Player window interface in Snow Leopard.

A few other features are rumored to be baked into the new player software, such as the ability to export video clips in a variety of sizes to your iTunes library with the help of the CoreMedia framework or publish them through a MobileMe account.

Meanwhile, those familiar with the latest betas of Snow Leopard in general say that the previously-reported addition of Apple’s CoreLocation framework has been put to work in the Time Zone tab of the Date & Time panel, which attempts to pinpoint a Mac’s geographic location, dropping a pin on the world map at the Mac’s estimated location.

A handful of other additions and omissions are also being reported. For example, a new version of Apple’s Preview app is said by those familiar with the software to include a new annotations toolbar at the base of content windows, while VoiceOver is being upgraded from version 2.0 to 3.0. Also back from early betas are QuickLook icon previews but gone is the awkward interface for drilling down into stacks under grid view that first surfaced in pre-releases of Snow Leopard distributed last month.

[Wolfie]

Hi Guys,

I've created an offline map for the south region. This is for use with the google maps app. To use it install offline maps from cydia and copy the files in the archive over to the maps folder. The offline maps application provides instructions. So far it works perfectly with no gprs/wifi connection.

You may use http://i-funbox.com/ to put the files on the phone.











Get the map here

I'll eventually cache the whole of Trinidad & Tobago but for now i did this as a test to see how it was done and thought some other people could use it since it's fully functional.

FYI: These maps are the property of Google therefore selling them are against the law.

[Wolfie]

I need people in other regions to test maps for their area. If you have a 3g iphone please post your area map request here.

[ryan99tt]

i still having a little problem placing the maps into the folder...do u hav to create a folder "Maps" and extract the maps into there, then u restart an import?

[Wolfie]

Yep make sure the folder is named Maps and that you create a folder inside for every map you want. So you should create a folder called South and put the contents of the zip in there.

Maps/South/MapTiles.sqlitedb
Maps/South/com.apple.Maps.plist

[ryan99tt]

ok kool...now i just open maps an without a wifi connection i can get the maps?

[Wolfie]

Yup once you're in south. I'll do the rest of T'dad later.

[ryan99tt]

well have to wait until i'm away from a connection to let u no how it's working... thanks

[TURBOT]

wolfie ......... i in d port of spain

[Wolfie]

Aite i'll throw a map your way soon man.

[SRASC]

Apple on Wednesday introduced an all-new iPod shuffle that’s nearly half the size of the previous model and includes speech technology, making it the first music player “that talks to you.”

New Aluminum Design

The third generation shuffle (guided tour) is significantly smaller than a AA battery, holds up to 1,000 songs with its 4GB of built-in storage, and is controlled exclusively through buttons located on the earphone cord that ships with the player. It features a new aluminum design with a built-in stainless steel clip that makes it wearable like the previous-generation model.

VoiceOver Speech Technology

A new VoiceOver feature (demo) also allows the player to speak your song titles, artists and playlist names. With the press of a button (demo), you can play, pause, adjust volume, switch playlists and hear the name of the song and artist.

Click for full-size.

“Imagine your music player talking to you, telling you your song titles, artists and playlist names,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of iPod and iPhone Product Marketing. “The amazingly small new iPod shuffle takes a revolutionary approach to how you listen to your music by talking to you, also making it the first iPod shuffle with playlists.”

Click for full-size.

iPod shuffle is based on Apple’s popular shuffle feature, which randomly selects songs from your music library. So when you can’t remember the name of a song or an artist playing, with the press of a button iPod shuffle tells you the name of the song and artist.

The new iPod shuffle can also tell you status information, such as battery life. It speaks 14 languages including English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.



Dimensions and Battery Life

Available in silver or black, the new shuffles retain their crown as “the smallest music players” with a new 1.8-inch tall x 0.3-inch thin design the weighs just 0.38 ounces. Expected battery life from the built-in rechargeable lithium polymer battery is said to be “up to 10 hours” on a full charge. Depleted batteries will reportedly recharge to 80% of their capacity in 2 hours, or 100% in 3 hours.

Environment and box contents

In line with Apple’s continuing environmental progress, the third-generation shuffle is made with a highly recyclable aluminum enclosure and is free of Brominated flame retardants and PVC.

Inside each iPod shuffle box, which is similar to the previous generation’s plastic capsule, you’ll find a pair of Apple Earphones with Remote, an iPod shuffle USB dock sync cable (1.8 in/45 mm), a quick start guide, and the player itself.

Pricing and Availability

The third generation 4GB iPod shuffle is now shipping for $79 (US) through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. Each model comes with the Apple Earphones with Remote and the iPod shuffle USB cable.



iPod shuffle requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 port, Mac OS X v10.4.11 or later and iTunes 8.1 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows Vista, Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 3) or later and iTunes 8.1.

iTunes 8.1 Due Shortly

The most current version of iTunes is 8.0.2, suggesting iTunes 8.1 will arrive momentarily.

[SRASC]

MuscleNerd from the iPhone Dev has announced the 24kpwn LLB patch aka an untethered jailbreak for the 2G iPod Touch.

-----
Here it is. Just drop it into your existing pwnagetool or xpwn flow. You can even combine it with the nor-only variations to make this easy to install from iTunes without touching your main fs.

http://iphwn.org/24kpwn.zip

It's bitter sweet that this has to come out in this manner, because it *really* would have been nice to save for the next iPhone. On the other hand, nobody knows the struggle to jb like iPod Touch 2G owners So it's good for them.

Now it's a waiting game to see if Apple can react fast enough.

The patch needs to be applied directly to the LLB without decrypting it first, using "bspatch" or equivalent. The resulting img3 should have this sha1:
SHA1(LLB.n72ap.RELEASE.img3)= 82734c7cdf945ba5421b83962aab3ab91e4fb23a

[SRASC]

An iPhone prototype manufactured in 2006 which was used for testing prior to the launch of Apple's iPhone was briefly available on eBay. The auction had reached more than $2000 before Apple lawyers managed to get the auction pulled.

The prototype appeared to have an early beta version of iPhone OS running on it.

The guy trying to sell the prototype had also published a video to show that it was in good working condition (which should not miss). He was also giving away a non-functional unit along with it.

The working prototype interestingly featured a matte plastic screen as opposed to the glass screen found in production units of the iPhone. However, the non-functional unit had a glass screen.

The guy selling the iPhone prototype claimed that serial number of the working unit is YM649xxxxxx, which corresponds to a factory in China, manufactured week 49 of the year 2006, and it runs iPhone firmware 03.06.01_G. The iPhone launched running firmware 1.0, version 03.11.02_G.

The seller had also claimed that you can make calls, browse the mobile versions of websites, and also receive SMS, but lacks anyway to manually type an SMS on the iPhone.

The seller by the nick billions_of_money also commented that:

[SRASC]

The release of Metal Gear Solid Touch has moved a day and will now be available worldwide on Thursday, March 19th.

Konami sends word that Kojima Productions' Metal Gear Solid Touch, the iPhone & iPod Touch game that takes place around the events of Metal Gear Solid 4, will be released through Apple's App Store on Thursday, March 19.

Furthermore, it will run you $9.99.

[SRASC]

iBluetooth: The world first application that enables the file transfer via Bluetooth on your iPhone! Exclusively released in Cydia by iSpazio.net
Here there are some question you might ask:


IMPORTANT: Visit www.medevil.net

Q: When the app will be published?
A: It’s on-line, you’ll find it in cydia.

Q: Will i be able to send any file?
A: Yes, image support is built in, and the file viewer allow you to
send ANY file on the device.

Q: Will i be able to send music?
A: Music can already be sent by selecting an MP3/wav/aiff file from
the file system. However, i’ll include a music library to send ipod
syncronized songs directly in the near future.

And, the most important question:

Q: Why i have to pay 3.99 euro for this app?
A: Mainly, because apple didn’t want to include a full bluetooth stack
to be used by the developers. Implementing a complete and stable stack
(with all the bluetooth profiles) is nearly impossible for me in a
short time, so i’ve considered the idea of buying a complete (and
well-tested) stack. Now, there are only 3 stack that supports almost
all bluetooth profiles: BlueMagic, BCHS, ClarinoxBlue and, of course,
all of these are VERY EXPENSIVE.
So, i’ve decided to make you pay* this application, so i can buy one
of those stack for ALL the community and implement a background daemon
that will provide a full-featured stack for ANY developer out there.

Please, understand that the “free way” is not the right way. If you
want this application “for free” then take the “a cracked version”,
but you’re essentially removing yourself the possibility to have more
features, such as: A2DP (Audio stereo), Serial Port (needed for
bluetooth gps), DUN & LAP (internet navigation), implemented in a
small time and used by all of the developer out there: think at xgps
developers adding support for bluetooth gps devices or other free
developers adding bluetooth functionality to native apps like
contacts, photos… or any other infinite idea that developer can have!
And, yes, writing a complete stack is always possible, but how much do
you think it will take? Look, i’ve spent 3 month only for the obex
part… and that’s a small part: it’s just one (ONE) profile out of 27!

So, think about it!

Regards,
Domenico.

* Note: I said the price would be under 3 euro, but this is
impossible, because paypal and the italian tax will eat the 50% of the
final price.