Third Party Company Building BBM Compatible Messenger?

For those who don't know what BBM is, take a seat. BBM stands for BlackBerry Messenger, and is RIM's exclusive messaging service that makes keeping in touch with fellow BlackBerry owners a cinch.

Last month we heard rumors tossed around that the exclusive messaging service would finally make its way to iOS at the end of April. The gossip was later denied by the BlackBerry maker in an official statement to BGR. Well, it looks like if RIM isn't gonna bring BBM to iOS, someone else might have to...

GeoHot Gives Left Over Donations to EFF

If you missed out on the Sony vs. GeoHot saga, let me quickly fill you in. GeoHot (real name George Hotz) was one of the first people to jailbreak the iPhone years ago. He's been in and out of the jailbreak scene since then, but had recently turned his attention to Sony's PS3.

After hacking the console, GeoHot released the code to the internet. Sony caught wind of this and took the infamous computer wiz to court. Hotz hopped online and asked for donations to help him in litigation, and received overwhelming support. He told supporters that he had received more than enough help to survive the first round of legal fees...

White iPhone 4 Finally Launching on April 26?

It appears that Apple is planning on releasing the white iPhone 4 in exactly ten days. Several recent reports have confirmed a "Springtime" launch, and April 26 looks to be the lucky day.

According to iPhoneItalia, Apple will finally release the white iPhone 4 next week.

2Phone Case Gives Your iPhone Dual Sim Cards

Dual-SIM adapters have been available for the iPhone for a while. It's even speculated that we could see dual-SIM technology show up in the iPhone 5. If none of the current offerings for dual-SIM adapters appeal to you, you might want to see what Rebel Simcard has cooked up.

The Rebel 2Phone case for the iPhone 4 will give your device the ability to make and receive phone calls on 2 different lines, or 2 different carriers. The coolest part is that both SIMs are active at the same time, meaning you can make calls on both lines simultaneously...

‘Black Keyboard’ Allows You to Use the iPhone’s Black Lockscreen Keyboard Anywhere

If you've ever disabled your iPhone's "Simple Passcode" in the Passcode Lock section of the Settings.app, then you're no doubt familiar with the black keyboard that's hidden within iOS.

Most of the folks I know stick to the simple numeric passcode as a means to protect their iPhones, thus they're not aware that a black keyboard even exists.

The sad news is that besides the lock screen, you're unable to use the black keyboard anywhere else; that is, until now.

Black Keyboard is a new jailbreak tweak available for the iPhone that allows you to enable the elusive black keyboard anywhere...

Toys R’ Us and Best Buy iPad 2 Promotion

If you haven't been able to snag an iPad 2 just yet, pay attention. It looks like the rumors we heard about Toys R' Us becoming an iPad 2 retailer soon were spot on.

The Toys R' Us website is spreading the word that the toy store chain now has iPad 2 stock at many of its retail stores. It appears to just be specific locations, not completely nationwide. I also couldn't find a way to order online.

That wasn't the only retail chain gossip that seems to have materialized. MacRumors is reporting that Best Buy featured its rumored iPad 2 promotion in today's sales ads.

For those that don't recall, Best Buy was accused of withholding stock for sales purposes, then later revealed that they were holding onto local iPad 2s for an upcoming promotion.

Like Toys R' Us though, it seems Best Buy also has a limited amount of inventory. Engadget has gotten their hands on an employee bulletin that mentions the promotion :

"The iPad 2 will be featured on the front cover of the April 17 ad, and because of this, the reserve system will be turned back on" ... "Corporate Support Teams know that many stores won't be in the optimal situation to handle customers' requests"

The document goes on to say that multiple stores are quoting a minimum of 3 units per model of the device, but that is only at select locations.

If this round of shipments is anything like the last, they are going to go quickly. It appears that if you have been looking to get an iPad 2, today would be a great day to do it.

Have you gotten your iPad 2 yet? What do you think of it?

Top 10 iPhone News You Might Have Missed This Week

This is a summary of the most popular articles published on iDB and our sister, ziPadBlog, this past week.

Please make sure to spread our iPhone wisdom by sharing our posts on Twitter and Facebook.

Troubleshooting Cydia: problems with broken repos Geohot and Sony settle in Playstation lawsuit CutYourSim offers a permanent iPhone unlock iOS virus hiding behind jailbreak and unlock ads? More evidence points to September launch of iPhone 5 Impressive iPhone 4 3D demo How a permanent iPhone unlock works Apple releases iOS 4.3.2 RedSn0w can jailbreak iOS 4.3.2 Jailbreak iPhone 4.3.2 with PwnageTool bundles Untethered jailbreak confirmed to work with iOS 4.3.2 Android vs iOS, Google always wins

From our sister iPad Blog, ziPadBlog.com:

3D on the iPad 2 No iPad 3 coming later this year? iPad 2 demand up 40% from its predecessor More iPad 2 jailbreak updates iPad rocking US PC market InvisibleShield for iPad 2 review

Time Warner Channels Back on iPad App

We told you about all of the fire Time Warner Cable was under after releasing its new iPad application. The popular software saw tremendous success until networks starting interfering.

Discovery and Fox networks pressured TWC into removing their channels from the app. Viacom forced Time Warner to remove 11 of their channels from the application, and is currently in litigation with the cable giant.

Today we bring you an update on the situation, as several media outlets are reporting that some of the pulled channels are starting to reappear in the iPad app.

The returning channels include Discovery Channel, TLC, and Animal Planet from Discovery networks, and National Geographic, FX, and Fox News from Fox. Obviously due to their legal dispute, Viacom channels still remain excluded.

What's really interesting is that competing cable company, Cablevision, has recently rolled out its own iPad application that allows customers access to close to 300 channels. TWC is currently offering around 50 channels, depending on the subscriber package.

The difference might be in the technology used to stream the content. While TWC broadcasts the video over the internet, Cablevision streams the media via Wi-Fi from their digital cable boxes. However, both methods require the user of the iPad app to be in their home to view the content.

The good news is that major cable networks are starting to realize that we are in the 21st century. Times are a changing, and only the companies that figure out how to adapt will survive. We'll keep you updated on future news regarding the iPad app lawsuit.

What do you think?

[Tuaw]

Kick it Old School with SNES on Your iPad

Console emulators have been around the jailbreak scene for a long time. Those that aren't familiar with emulators, they basically allow you to play copies of console games, while not on that console.

SNES HD turns your jailbroken iPad into a Super Nintendo system. Not only that, it allows you to connect up to 2 other iDevices to use as controllers.

It's free, and all you need is a jailbroken iPad and iPhone or iPod touch. Wanna try it out? I'll give you an easy tutorial to get you started.

Step 1. Make sure you have a jailbroken iPad and iPhone or iPod touch (both devices must be jailbroken).

Step 2. Open Cydia on both iDevices, and go to the Sources tab. Add the following source by selecting Edit > Add : http://wherethewoozlewasnt.com/cydia/

Step 3. After the sources are done loading, you need to install SNES (HD) on your iPad and ControlPad onto your iPhone/iPod touch. Both apps can be found by searching for them in the Cydia Search tab.

Step 4. Almost done! Make sure bluetooth is activated on both devices, and load up the downloaded applications. You should see an SNES console on your iPad, and an SNES controller on your iPhone.

Step 5. If the controller doesn't connect right away, touch the bluetooth search icon. Once paired, press the power button to start your game!

If you are wondering why you don't have any games, it's because it doesn't come with any. Console games are copyrighted, and it is illegal to host or download them. And we certainly don't condone piracy.

There are, however, several websites that do offer them, but clearly state that you must have the original game in your possession. These copies of the game are known as "backup copies" which are legal to have, I've read.

If you can stomach the pain of locating games, it really is quite worth it. Games are surprisingly playable on the iPhone's touch screen. You can race against a buddy in Top Gear, or take them on in Street Fighter. That's it, now your kicking it old school.

Any questions?

True HD Enables Your iPhone 4 to Upload 720P Videos to YouTube

If you have ever uploaded a video to Facebook or YouTube from your iPhone 4, you might have noticed a drop in video quality. No, it isn't poor lighting, the resolution and frame rate are actually lowered. This is because a reduced quality video is produced before uploading, to save on internet bandwidth usage.

A 1280 x 720 video, 9 minutes in length, is about 700 MB natively. When trying to upload a video to YouTube or Twitter, the file size gets reduced to less than half that. To get full HD quality, you would typically need to transfer video from your iPhone to your computer and upload from there, but not with True HD...

Adobe Looking to Finally Bring Flash to iOS, Sort of

We've talked about Adobe Flash on iDB quite a bit. The absence of the platform plugin in iOS products has been a hot button issue since the original iPhone was released. For those who have been living under a rock for the last few years, let me break it down for you.

Adobe's Flash is used in close to 80% of the top 100 most visited websites, so needless to say, it's pretty popular. Apple, the maker of some of the hottest portable electronics right now, has barred Flash from its mobile platform for several reasons. And now it looks like after years of watching home-grown tweaks bring Flash content to iOS devices, Adobe might finally have an answer of their own...

RainBallet Case Makes the iPhone Waterproof

There's a chance that your iPhone has come into contact with water, and you've probably figured out that the device isn't exactly waterproof. There are some heavy duty cases out there that help protect the iPhone from water damage, but not many can guarantee that your iPhone will be totally waterproof.

The RainBallet case, by The Joy Factory, is a waterproof case for the iPhone 4. Now your iPhone can accompany you on those long days at the beach.