Thursday, March 3, 2011

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SkyFire 3.0 Comes To iOS, Brings Over Features From The Android Port

Posted: 02 Mar 2011 05:37 PM PST

Back in November of last year, SkyFire (the company behind the Flash-video-friendly smartphone browser of the same name) launched version 3.0 of their app to the Android Market. The big new features? It was all social stuff, like instant Facebook wall access, a one-click Facebook “Like” button that constantly lived on the nav bar, a “Popular” feature that scans social sites for popular content from the current domain, and the “Fireplace”, which lists JUST the Rich media from your social streams.

I harshed on it a bit, with my main nag being that SkyFire was forgetting to “Keep It Simple, Stupid.” Just about everyone in the comments seemed to agree with me.

But hey, what do we know? SkyFire has apparently seen enough love for the new social staples that they’ve just been added to the iOS port, bringing that build on par with its Android counterpart. You can find it in the App Store for $2.99.

iOS 4.3 Coming March 11th With Photobooth, Airplay Improvements, And More

Posted: 02 Mar 2011 10:55 AM PST

At the iPad 2 announcement today, Scott Forstall announced a few updates to iOS that will be rolling out on March 11th, some to do with the iPad 2, some more general improvements.

First, they’ve added Photo Booth as a free app, with special tweaks to make it more touchable. For instance, you can adjust the swirl with your finger when you do that effect. Fun for fifth-graders, sure, but I think the rest of us will be happy simply with the ability to save snapshots.

They’ve improved Safari Javascript performance with a new engine they claim is twice as fast. They call it Nitro, since everything has to have a special name. I like “Gecko,” personally.

The switch on the side of the iPad is now, of course, either mute or orientation based on user preferences. Thank god, I think the move to switch an existing interface element to something new was really foolish. They’ve fixed it now, though.

Facetime! If you’ve got any Apple product with a camera basically, you can now Facetime to each other. It works from iPad to iPad, iPad to iPhone, iPad to Mac, etc. And of course you can switch to the rear camera as well.

They’ve improved Airplay and iTunes home sharing, mainly in the ability to run Apps and websites over Airplay. Could be handy for streaming video, though I think games will be a little strange on the big screen. Actually, racing games could be tight.

This will be headed out to all compatible devices on March 11th. If you don’t have cameras you obviously can’t take advantage of the camera features, but hey.

Liveblog: We’re Live at Apple’s iPad 2 Press Event!

Posted: 02 Mar 2011 09:00 AM PST

Are you ready for the next iPad? Because Apple is. At least, that’s what we’re all assuming, given that the invite for the press event has a big ol’ iPad on it (with an even bigger number 2 right on top of that.)

What’s new in the iPad 2? What else does Apple have up their sleeves? We’ll be bringing back all the details with our up-to-the-second liveblog, which will begin at 10 A.M Pacific (1 P.M Eastern) on March 2nd. If all goes well, we’ll start piping in with color commentary and photos from the scene a bit earlier than that. Be sure to bookmark this page and tune in early so you don’t miss a thing!

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Verizon Slated To Cancel Unlimited iPhone Data

Posted: 02 Mar 2011 08:52 AM PST


According to Verizon’s Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo, speaking at a Morgan Stanley conference, Verizon’s current unlimited data plan is untenable and cannot remain in place forever, a bit of news that is disconcerting at worst and obvious at best.

The operator currently offers a $30/month “unlimited” (but potentially throttled) data plan.

According to a Cellular News report, Shammo said “Why did we do the unlimited $30 plan on the iPhone? Well, the reason we did that was we didn’t really want to put up a barrier to anybody who wanted to come over and experience the Verizon Wireless network. So we felt it was important to go out at the $30.”

Considering Verizon is moving towards a faster LTE network, the pricing will change over the next few months. Verizon customers could lose their unlimited plans as early as this summer, however, making for a class-action-lawsuit-worthy month of July.

The iPad 2 was just announced for a March 11th release on Verizon, but the plans for that device weren’t announced. Chances are unlimited data will not be carrying over to Verizon’s tablet selection.

Disney Opens Cute Cell Phone Store In Tokyo

Posted: 01 Mar 2011 11:34 PM PST

Disney exited the cell phone business in the US back in 2007, but the MVNO Disney operates in Japan seems to be doing well: last month, Disney Mobile Japan started offering a special Android phone, which is currently being advertised on national TV. And yesterday, Disney Mobile even opened [JP, PDF] a physical store in central Tokyo.

As you would expect, the store looks pretty cute. It’s very small (Disney wouldn’t say how small), too, but my guess is the target group over here doesn’t care.


If you make it to Tokyo, and if you happen to be both a Disney fan and cell phone geek: the store is located in Shinjuku ward and open every day.

Seriously Scary Android Malware Quickly Pulled From Market

Posted: 01 Mar 2011 06:44 PM PST

Apple’s semi-arbitrary approach to app store management may have problems, but Android (as much as I love it) is a jungle in comparison. Just tonight Google has pulled an app that, if downloaded, would have essentially rooted your phone and sent off every single detail it could find to a server in Fremont, California. Not only that, but it had the ability to download more code, potentially making it even more dangerous.

Redditor lompolo was investigating a suspicious app (Super Guitar Solo) that appeared to be a dupe of an existing app (Guitar Solo Lite), and found that it did indeed contain root exploits. Google pulled the code shortly after the guys at Android Police posted it, but it looks like at least 50,000 people have already downloaded the app, and there are a bunch more from the same publisher.

It’s the peril of an open app economy, but I have to say there’s rather a mismatch between the mentality behind the app store (essentially that behind the wave of download sites on the web in the late 90s) and the type of people increasingly using the OS. Right now this stuff is pretty limited, but if users get wind of it, or enough of these apps take down enough Droids, people will decide Android isn’t a “safe” mobile phone OS.

Windows Phone 7′s Marketplace Surpasses 9,000 Applications

Posted: 01 Mar 2011 12:33 PM PST

(Okay, Greg. Don’t make an “Over 9000!?” reference. Come on; you can do this.)

Microsoft might have made some silly choices with regards to getting people to develop for Windows Phone 7 early on, but it doesn’t look like they’re having too much trouble on that front.

Early this morning, the WP7 Marketplace surpassed 9,000 applications — which, as MobileBurn points out, is more than HP/Palm’s webOS (which got a much earlier start) offers up, and quickly approaching the 15,000 mark that RIM announced a few months back.

WHAT?! OVER 9000?! THAT’S IMPOSSIB — Crap.

Crazy, Fan-Made Windows Phone 7 Commercial Is Inspiring, Nice

Posted: 01 Mar 2011 10:46 AM PST

Created by Brandon Foy, this demo reel shows what can be done if someone loves their Windows Phone 7 phone and is willing to go a little bit crazy. The music, the lights, the graphics all build up to a delightful crescendo, reminding us that people who love gadgets are the happiest people in the world.

The Console Cable Lets You Fix Your Cisco Router From Your iPhone (Because You Should Totally Be Doing That)

Posted: 01 Mar 2011 09:58 AM PST

Just a quick stop. That’s all it is. You left your “STFU” hat (the one you like to wear on weekends) in your office, and it’s totally (kind of) on the way to the family reunion anyway. Just a quick stop.

Crap! The company’s router is acting up! Imagine how much business they might lose! They’re going to call you up while you’re at the reunion anyway — you might as well just fix it now. But all you have is your iPhone, and you’ll need a wired connection to fix this. If only you could connect your iPhone to the router via some sort of crazy, specialized cable!

Well, friend, your ultra-nerdy, ultra-niche, probably-non-existent wish has been answered.

Redpark, the same company that came out with that crazy specialized iPhone cable for controlling telescopes, is back with another one: The Console Cable.

The $69 Console cable is essentially a dock connector on one end and a 6-foot RJ-45 ethernet cable on the other. Plug the RJ-45 end into the Cisco router’s console port, pop the dock connector into your iOS device, then load up the company’s $10 Get Console app — bam! You’re fixin’ the Intertubes from your iPad, and you’re just about ready to head off to the family reunion. Once you’ve figured out why Mary-from-HR’s computer keeps resetting itself, of course.

(And for those wondering: no, this cable probably won’t let you get on the Internets on your iOS device via a wired connection.)

Completely Redesigned Evernote 4 for iPhone Is Now Available

Posted: 01 Mar 2011 06:00 AM PST


Evernote for iPhone launched with the Apple App Store, and the app has ungone a number of evolutionary steps in the years since. Today Evernote is unveiling version 4 of their iPhone app and the changes, while maybe not revolutionary, are certainly substantial. The home screen, for example, is completely revamped to show snippets of notes making the app useful as soon as you launch it.

The changes to the home screen look great. Most of the time when I launched Evernote I wanted to look at a note I had previously made, so being able to access this information immediately is a huge time saver.


Creating a new note in Evernote version 4 has been upgraded, too. You can type text as normal, but from the same screen you can now embed images from your photo roll, take new pictures, and record audio. Multiple media types can be added to the same note at the same time, which makes Evernote notes much more useful. From the Evernote blog: “So, if you're sitting in a meeting or lecture, you can have notes, recorded audio and a whiteboard snapshot all in a single note.”

For folks that use multiple notebooks, you can now view a list of notes in a specific notebook. You can also view a list of all the tags you’ve assigned to notes across all notebooks, so you can find that note you made three months ago tagged “Important” but have since completely forgotten what you titled it.

iPad owners may be a little disappointed that Evernote 4 is currently only for iPhone and iPod Touch devices. The changes should trickle into the iPad version soon, though.

I think it’s important to note that almost all — if not all — of the Evernote 4 features are the direct result of user feedback. The folks at Evernote listen to their users, and incorporate useful feedback into a better app for everyone, even the freeloaders like me using the free version.
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