‘Handwriting recognition’ is a good idea, but poorly executed

Handwriting recognition is a new $0.99 jailbreak tweak that recognizes hand written text, and converts that text into typed characters.

The cool thing about this tweak is that it uses Action Menu to activate itself, meaning it can be used freely in any app.

It's an excellent idea, but it's not without some major issues holding it back from its potential...

Jony Ive on Apple’s design and business principles

"Apple's goal is not to make money, but to make good products", is the key quote from Wired's exclusive one-on-one with Jonathan Ive, Apple's senior vice president of industrial design. The article touches upon several interesting topics dealing with Apple's design acumen, its business philosophy and some of the inner processes that guide decision-making at the world's most-valued public corporation.

It's timely, too. Today, Apple and Samsung have started duking it out in a mega-trial in the U.S. over who copied whom. A bunch of pre-trial briefs have already offered a unique glimpse into Apple's jealously guarded design process by revealing numerous device prototypes, from the octagonal iPhone to the Sony-inspired design to the 'Purple' 2005 thing.

Interestingly, the company's vice presidents Scott Forstall (iOS chief) and Phil Schiller (marketing boss) will both testify in the U.S. trial, but not Ive...

Microsoft’s Surface tablet arriving on Friday, October 26

Microsoft revealed in its filing with the Security and Exchange Commission that come October 26 it will launch both Windows 8 operating system for consumers and the Surface tablet which was announced a month and half ago. Apple, of course, is expected to unveil a rumored cheaper, smaller iPad at a media event this fall (iLounge says in November) and launch a fourth-generation iPad some time during the first quarter of next year...

Taiwan university sues Apple over Siri speech recognition

A university in Taiwan has sued Apple over its use of dictation feature in Siri and the underlying speech recognition engine, claiming Apple's implementation violates its patents. National Cheng Kung University has on Monday launched a lawsuit against the iPhone maker and is seeking undisclosed damages, though its lawyers noted that any calculation would be based on Apple's U.S. sales of devices that use Siri, quite possibly amounting to millions of dollars in damages...

How to force all apps to run in full screen mode

We get it. The status bar is useful for telling the time and for displaying your remaining battery life. But what if you don't need that information to be always visible?

Wouldn't it be nice if you could take the real estate borrowed by the status bar, and use it for your apps? Some apps, like games, already do this; it's called full screen mode.

What if you could force all of your apps to run in full screen mode? If you have a jailbroken device, then you no longer have to hypothesize about that scenario. That's because Maximization is a jailbreak tweak, that allows you to do just that...

Rumor: iPad mini in November, thinner iPad 3, new iPhone cases

Just a couple hours ago the increasingly credible iMore reported that the next iPhone and mini iPad will launch on Friday, September 21, suggesting the original App4phone story was correct. Now, a new report from another credible publication has it that Apple will launch the iPad mini around November, with a thinner, re-worked full-size iPad model apparently following shortly thereafter...

2005 Purple iPhone prototype proves Apple didn’t lift iPhone’s design from Sony

Remember Apple's Sony-infused iPhone prototype that Samsung recently showed in its pre-trial brief? The one done by designer Shin Nishibori whom Apple hired from Sony to create one of the early iPhone prototypes? As you know, Apple fought hard to keep the jury from seeing that evidence that, Samsung hopes, establishes that the Cupertino, California company lifted the iPhone's design from Sony.

That may not have been the case as Apple offers in its brief a look at a 2005 iPhone prototype code-named Purple (nothing to do with color, it's white actually) which the company says predates the original iPhone...

Apple announces three million Mountain Lion downloads in four days

Apple this morning announced that OS X Mountain Lion has been downloaded three million times in the four days following its release last Thursday, making it the most successful OS X release in the company's history.

Its predecessor, OS X Lion, clocked in Lion a million downloads on its first day on the Mac App Store, moving six million copies in total during its first 76 days.

Mountain Lion is being distributed exclusively via the Mac App Store and is priced at $19.99 a copy, with rights to install it on up to five different Macs. In other words, Apple made a cool $60 million in revenue off Mountain Lion in just four days...

The Apple-Samsung mega-trial kicks off today, here’s what the jury will see

A high-stake technology trial involving Apple and Samsung is set to kick off today in a U.S. District court in San Jose, northern California over design and patent infringement claims involving Samsung's Galaxy lineup of smartphones and tablets and Apple's iPhone and iPad.

In the run-up to the mega-trial a bunch of court filings was made public, revealing Samsung's overly aggressive court strategy but also offering a unique glimpse into Apple's prototyping and industrial design processes. When all is said and done, this is what the jurors will see...

Access the web from anywhere on your iPhone with AnyBrowser

When you get the sudden urge to look up something on Google or heck, iDB, what do you do? If you're iPhone is locked, you have to unlock it, locate Safari, or whatever your browser of choice is, and launch it.

The process isn't by any means tedious, but it could be cut significantly shorter if you installed a tweak like AnyBrowser. AnyBrowser allows you to access the internet from practically anywhere on your iPhone...

Partially assembled next-gen iPhone appears on video

The tech world was set on fire yesterday with images of what appeared to be a nearly-assembled next-generation iPhone. While we've seen similar parts, separately, over the past few months, put together they seemed to carry a lot more weight.

But if you're still having a hard time with the proposed two-tone design, or feel like it doesn't differ enough from its predecessor, you may want to check out this video. It shows the claimed partially assembled next-gen iPhone in all of its glory...

The InVogue iPad stand is the perfect accessory for couch potatoes

Hitting the ground in early 2000, LapWorks, Inc. began making portable products for notebook computers. Over the last decade, the company has made items for major hardware companies, including privately labelled products for Targus. LapWorks then began making products for the iPad in 2010 and now offers a wide assortment of hardware accessories, of which the InVogue iPad Stand is a proud member.

There are plenty of evenings when my wife or I enjoy a movie on our iPad. As a hardware reviewer, there are plenty of iPad cases and stands around the house made specifically for that situation, but none of them are hands or lap-free. By that, I mean, the iPad must be held/rested on my lap or nearby table. Those who do not invest in fancy accessories are just holding it in their hands, and what a shame it is!

Everyone has experienced the burning shoulder syndrome that is caused by trying to hold the iPad at the perfect viewing angle while taking in their favorite Netflix movie. The InVogue iPad Stand is the prescription only LapWorks can fill...