Month: December 2010

Camera+ is Back in The App Store

The Camera+ fiasco has been an interesting one to follow. The popular photography app was a sensation when it was first released in the App Store. Then, it was pulled. Just like that. The app was updated with a backdoor to allow a volume button camera shutter, which apparently Apple didn't like.

At the time of it being pulled, Camera+ was considered the crème de la crème of photography apps. Most felt as though Apple should have lightened up on Camera+ by not pulling the app for simply adding a cool and innovative feature. The problem was that Camera+ violated Apple's guidelines on how an app can interface with the iPhone's controls.

We recently reported that Camera+ had announced that its return to the App Store would be very soon. After many months of silence, Camera+ is back and better than ever...

‘SB 2 Cloud’ is the Perfect iPhone Screenshot Companion

Being an iPhone blogger means having to take tons of screenshots of the iPhone's screen, and meticulously emailing them to myself so that I can use them in my articles. It's a drawn out process that I've been looking to streamline for quite some time.

Droplr was a great start, but it still required me to manually select the files I wanted to upload to the cloud, similar to email. Wouldn't it be great if every screenshot you took was automatically uploaded to the cloud with no human intervention?

Apparently the developers of SB 2 Cloud think so, because this jailbreak tweak accomplishes just that...

Ninja Steve: Steve Jobs Satire At Its Finest

Apparently, Steve Jobs really is a ninja. "Ninja Steve" isn't your typical iPhone game. In it, you are the man himself - Steve Jobs.

You aren't the calm, keynote-giving Jobs that we all know and love. You are Ninja Steve. As Ninja Steve, you must fight through waves of green robots (that bear a striking resemblance to the Google Android bot) by throwing your trusty shurikens.

I have no clue how this app got approved for the App Store, but I would think it definitely wins the "Most Assured App to Piss Steve Jobs Off" award...

Apple TV Sales to Reach 1 Million Units this Week

Apple issued a press release earlier today that the Apple TV was going to reach one million units sold sometimes this week. While the Apple TV is clearly not a top seller like the iPad or even iPhone would be, the one million milestone is a pretty important one.

This is the full press release:

Apple® today announced that it expects sales of its new Apple TV® to top one million units later this week. The new Apple TV offers the simplest way to watch your favorite HD movies and TV shows, stream content from Netflix, YouTube, Flickr and MobileMe℠, all on your HD TV for the breakthrough price of just $99. iTunes® users are now renting and purchasing over 400,000 TV episodes and over 150,000 movies per day.

Now with AirPlay®, recently available in iOS 4.2, users can wirelessly stream their music, video and photos from iPad™, iPhone® and iPod touch® to their new Apple TV, making it the perfect iOS accessory. Users can also control Apple TV with their iPad, iPhone or iPod touch using the Remote app, available as a free app on the App Store℠.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

iPhone 4 Unlock to Become a Priority for the Dev Team

A couple weeks ago we reported that the Dev Team was working on a baseband downgrade method that would allow for an easier iPhone unlock. This baseband downgrade method was supposed to downgrade any iPhone baseband (including 06.15.00) to a baseband version that can easily be unlocked with UltraSn0w.

Today, someone asked MuscleNerd on Twitter when this baseband downgrade would be out, and while the answer isn't exactly what most of you would expect, MuscleNerd gave us an indication about the Dev Team's priorities...

Next Version of RedSn0w to Allow Quick iPhone Untethered Jailbreak

If you decided to update to iOS 4.2.1 and jailbreak using RedSn0w, you most likely have a tethered jailbreak, which requires you to plug your iPhone in and kickstart it with RedSn0w every time you reboot. Very inconvenient.

We've had words for a while that the Dev Team was working on an untethered jailbreak, which MuscleNerd confirmed would be available before Christmas.

Today, the Dev Team's frontman gave us more information about this untethered jailbreak via a tweet in reply to someone asking if we'll have to fully restore the iPhone and run RedSn0w again in order to benefit from all the untethered goodness...

WikiLeaks App Has Been Pulled From the App Store

It seems that we spoke too soon. A couple days ago, we reported that there was an unofficial WikiLeaks app in the App Store. The app allowed you to view Twitter updates and leaked documents from WikiLeaks.

Igor Barinov, the app's developer, recently tweeted that Apple had his app "removed from sale." At the time of the app being pulled, downloads of the app had nearly approached 4,500 with almost $6,000 in profit.

There is no clear reason why Apple would have pulled such an app, but it's not a shocker that a sensitive app about WikiLeaks was pulled...

Bring the Awesome Look of TRON to Your iPhone

The recent movie release of "TRON: Legacy" has lots of geeks salivating over the amazing universe  of "The Grid." I went and saw the movie this past weekend, and I was blown away by the special effects used to create the world of the film.

Luckily, I've found some nice TRON iPhone wallpapers and an awesome theme for jailbreakers. After using these wallpapers and theme, your iPhone will look like it was designed by Kevin Flynn himself...

How An iPhone App Can See Your Location Without Asking

Lately, there have been some serious privacy concerns about how apps are tracking user's location and personal information. The Wall Street Journal performed a survey of multiple, various applications on both Android and iOS and discovered that many apps are sending information (like the device's location) without explicit permission from the user.

In particular, an app called "Pumpkin Maker" traced the general location of a device without requesting any type of permission from its user. The Journal contacted the app's develepor and gained some valuable knowledge on how, and why, the stealthy tracking of app users is taking place...

The World’s Biggest iPhone

This is the world's biggest iPhone. This giant iPhone is composed of 56 iPads and is located in the heart of London's famous St. Pancras International Train Station.

This giant device does not serve much of a practical purpose, it serves as a promotional stunt for the new iOS game, "Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light." It's a shame though, I wouldn't mind having this massive iPhone hanging on my bedroom wall.

Promo images for the new Lara Croft game run on this giant display (I guess it's actually 56 smaller displays) for anyone walking by to see. But don't get too excited, you probably can't play Angry Birds on it...

Camera+ On Its Way Back After Volume Button Shutter Debacle

The entire situation that went down with Camera+ probably ranks near the top as one of the weirdest events of 2010 for iPhone owners. This rings especially true if you happened to own or were considering purchasing Camera+ at the time of its banishment.

Essentially the story went like this, tap tap tap -- the app's developer -- snuck in a hidden method to enable the volume buttons to function as physical shutter buttons for the iPhone's camera. Apple didn't like this, and as expected, removed all traces of Camera + from the App Store...

Mail Rules Aims to Add Structure to Your Inbox

Since I'm a Gmail user, all of my email is already organized on Google's servers before hitting my iPhone. This is done by means of filters, which are essentially rules in Outlook-speak.

Rules have been noticeably absent from the iPhone's cache of email features, but that's probably because most people have setups like I do, meaning that their email is sorted and filtered prior to being downloaded to the iPhone.

For those of you that don't have this luxury, Mail Rules -- a jailbreak tweak for iOS 3.2 and up -- aims to fill in the gaps. But does the tweak's shortcomings rule it out?