iOS4 Tips and Tricks

The latest and greatest iPhone software just came out.   Our interns in Gaum got it 25 hours before everyone else and have discovered a few tips and tricks worth knowing:


SMS Search
Just as you can search your inbox, you can now search SMS messages.  Scroll up to the top of the text screen for this goodness.


Home Screen Backgrounds
You can set separate backgrounds for your lock screen and home screen.  You'll find this in the preferences.  Apple has kindly included a bunch of bland backgrounds which will get you started.  Oddly, this feature will not work on iPhone 3G.  Steve responded to an email about why this is, with the claim that icon animation wasn't good enough on the 3G over a background graphic.  This is odd, because hacked iPhones have had home screen bg graphics for ages.  We think Steve is bullshitting us and that this is a clever way for Apple to visually brand older iPhones.  If you see what looks like an iPhone 3Gs, but it has a black home screen, it's really an iPhone 3g -- which means that poor sucker can't afford an iPhone 3Gs or an iPhone 4.

Camera Zoom
By tapping the screen or sliding the little bar, you can zoom in and out when taking a picture.  This feature basically made 20 or so camera zoom applications obsolete.  Incidentally, the pictures suck when you zoom in.

Web and Wikipedia Search
Can't find what you need on the phone? Jump to the Web or Wikipedia straight from the global search screen.  When you do a spotlight search, this should show up at the bottom of the list.  For some reason, it doesn't always pop up.

Spellcheck!
Now, wherever you're typing, those little red underlines aren't far behind.   If you use a lot of dirty words (like we do at iPhonePOV) it will take a while for the software to adjust your potty-mouth (but it eventually will.)

Resize Photos While Sending
This very cool time-saver pops up when you're emailing a photo, just after you hit "Send." Depending on how big the file is, you can have two to four size options, including "Actual Size."  This will be a big time saver for iPhone 4 owners who will be snapping 5mp pictures.


New Playlists
On-the-Go Playlists seem to be officially dead in iPhone OS 4, replaced by a more sensible "Add Playlist..." The benefit here is that you know it's something that will be synced back to iTunes, and you get to name it up front.  This is good.


Long Alpha-Numeric Passcodes for Lock Screens
No longer are you limited to guarding your precious data with four numbers! Now you can set longer, alphanumeric passcodes for your lock screen.  If you deal with a lot of top secret tips and secrets like we do, this is great.  We recommend a 22 symbol password with leters, numbers, and symbols.  It should not rhym and should be nearly impossible to repeat.

Unified Inbox
You can view all your emails in one spot or segregate them to separate inboxes.  This is another example of incredible innovation from Apple.  This feature has been available on every mail program for any phone and computer since 1997.
  
App Folders (with Alerts)
A lot as been said about app folders, but did you know that if any alerts hit any apps inside a folder, the folder gets an exclamation point?  Create an app folder by holding down an icon until it jiggles and then drag it on top of another icon.  We love things that jiggle, so we do this all the time just for kicks.  You can also drag these icon folders to the dock.

Smart Links For Dates and Addresses in Emails
Addresses and dates in emails now turn into links which can be used to look up the locations or add the dates as events. This is similar to what you see in the Gmail web client.  This would be a great feature if it wasn't so stupid.  For instance, mail will now identify "Tomorrow Morning" as a smart link.  Little vague for a smart link.

Double-Tap and Hold Brings Up Phone Favorites
Not our favorite hidden secret, the beloved Phone Favorites shortcut has been demoted. Instead of the double tap—which now brings up the task manager—you have to double-tap and hold. Single-tap holding of course triggers Voice Control.   No one at iPhonePOV can get this to work, but everyone else on the internet claims it does, so we're posting even though we don't think it works.

Bluetooth Keyboard Pairing
You can now pair your Apple bluetooth keyboard with your iPhone.  If you have a need for this, it's time to buy an iPad.

Vertical YouTube
You can finally watch YouTube videos in a vertical orientation.  So basically Youtube goes both ways (not that there's anything wrong with that.)

We'll print more as we find them.

The iPad (or iSlate) Skinny

Here's our rundown of what's can, should, might and will come.  We've been working very hard on this, so  be sure to read it all and comment on what you think... Only a few days away!

1. The name: 'iPad' and iSlate have been thrown around.  I've focus-grouped it with 9to5mac readers and iPad seems to do pretty well.  Apple may throw a curveball on this and could even bring back the 'iBook' name it used to use for its consumer laptops.   Believe it or not, smart people in Cupertino and in Venice have given considerable thought to this and they'll come up with something.

2. Pricing: Analysts seem to think that there is no way in the world that people will pay the rumored $800-$1000 for this device.  One thing to consider: this thing will likely have a 3G component to it and be sold subsidized, just like the iPhone, and almost every other handset out there.  In fact, some netbooks are now seeing subsidized pricing from the carriers.  So what does that mean for the tablet?
That means the price could come down to $350 for an $800 product.  Or how about $550 for a $1000 product?  Remember the iPhone, when it was first released, was $599.  Oh and don't forget, we are talking about Apple fanboys here who will mortgage their house to be the first to get their hands on Apple's kit.  So don't worry about the price (it will come down later anyway).

3. "It will save the newspaper, book and magazine industry":  Just like Apple "saved" the music industry?  Apple will provide them a life line would be a better way to put it.
Apple already has a few quality means of getting books and magazines on the iPhone. Scrollmotion, Zineo and other iPhone app developers already bring printed magazines and books to the iPhone.  I'd be surprised if Scrollmotion (who presented at last year's WWDC and had a head start on the 3.0 - in app purchase SDK) didn't already have a head start on the tablet SDK.
Since Apple is also dealing directly with the publishers, it is doubtful that they'd want to let Amazon build an eReader app for their tablet (like Microsoft demoed on the HP tablet).  In fact, Amazon just did an about face and gave publishers a huge break on their cut of book sales this week — so I'd say Apple is making some headway here.  

4. Screen resolution - iFrame.  Have you heard of it?  This one I am far from certain on, but I find Apple's iFrame standard a bit curious.  The resolution is 960x540 which is exactly half of the height and half of the width of 1080P HD, yielding a quarter of the pixels.  Interestingly, iFrame is also about double the length and double the width of the iPhone's 320x480 resolution yielding quadruple the pixels.  This resolution is interesting because it could also give you four iPhone-sized windows to work with.

In this vein, I submit that Apple's newest computer screen – the one on the new, smaller iMac – is exactly 1080P, 1920x1080.  So what's half the diagonal of that screen? 10-11 inches, the very size of the rumored tablet, which would mean iFrame on the tablet would have the same dot pitch as the new smaller iMac, something I think Apple would be pleased with.

That being said, I would like to see one of the 720P movies on this screen natively.   1366x768, 1280x800 or 1280x720 are all possibilities for the wishlist.

5. Processor: Apple bought PA Semi to "make chips for iPhones" as Steve Jobs put it to the New York Times after the deal was made.  If that is indeed the case, then it isn't a stretch to consider that they are making tablet processors as well.  (Contrary to what a German Intel executive said last year). 

Apple is believed to be a licensee of ARM's IP and their platform would make the most sense since the iPhone and even the Newton are both based on ARM designs.  The current ARM Cortex A8 designs fill the high end smartphone world -- the iPhone, Pre, and Droid.

But are these chips powerful and fast enough to run a high-priced, high performance tablet?  Maybe not.  Therefore I am entertaining the idea that Apple has leaped forward a generation and licensed an ARM Cortex A9 design.  These mullti-core designs can run up to 2GHz and are faster than Intel Atom chips, all while using a fraction of the energy.

NVIDIA and Qualcomm both announced ARM Cortex processors at CES this year.  It is certainly possible that Apple is also releasing Cortex A9.  That's about the only hardware that can give faster than Netbook speeds on a device as thick as an iPod touch.
So how fast is a Cortex A9?  The DLink/Boxee Box uses such a chip to do 1080P mediacenter work, which up until now required an Intel chip.    Its design would give Apple a huge advantage over other Intel tablet products in terms of performance per watt, something we know Steve Jobs holds very close to his heart.  The tablet would be able to run for hours/days all the while displaying faster-than-netbook type speeds.

That sounds like the kind of differentiators that will make us fanboys frothy at the mouth.

6. Cameras?  Recent rumors have suggested that the tablet won't have a camera.  This seems highly unfortunate but there might be a caveat here.  Apple patented a way for the pixels of a screen to pick up images just like a CCD in a camera a few years ago.  Perhaps a Bluetooth camera/headset will debut to replace Apple's discontinued bluetooth setup.  
Other reports say that the device will have a camera that recognizes the user using face recognition.  That would bode well for video conferencing and augmented reality browsing as well as photo and video capture.

7. Human Interface?  There have been recent mentions of Apple using a 3D navigation for multi-touch at some point in the future.  Is January the future?  I won't pretend to know this one.  The tablet will probably resemble the iPhone's interface with some sort of Mobile/Lite Finder functionality so it can be used wherever a Netbook can.
I think there will certainly be a multi-touch "language" you need to learn to use this device.  However, being Apple, it will be intuitive and easy to pick up.

8. Apps: I think Apple has to introduce some new apps for this product.  It will be pretty boring without any, especially as no one else has any specifications for it yet.  I think Apple could have a Touch Photoshop type of App at launch - the invite certainly conjures up an image of iPaint.  Apple will hopefully have a word processor and maybe even some other productivity apps as well.  iPhone apps that do video and audio could also become more "Pro" with feature additions too.
Apple is also rumored to be releasing a new version of iLife on January 27th.  The timing would seem to indicate that this version might be multi-touch and available for the tablet.

9. Peripherals: If you are meant to communicate with this thing, then obviously it will need audio in and out. 

A dock that turns the tablet into a full featured computer is a very interesting proposition.  I wonder, though, if Jobs is willing to sacrifice MacBook and Mini sales for this device.  It will be interesting to see how this tablet affects the sales of those products, dock or not. 
I don't know that Apple will let the tablet handle a Bluetooth keyboard for that very reason.  I think Apple wants to fundamentally separate this from your computer workstation .

10. When?  All signs point to March or April with overseas launches coming soon after.

The iPhone, whether Apple likes to admit it or not, is a convergence device.  Not only does it do the things that Steve Jobs mentioned above, it is also a networked camera and a map/compass/GPS.  It does one hundred other things and it does them really well.  What's more, the functions complement each other and make the others better.  With the camera you can take a picture, geotag it, then SMS it to a friend who can locate you on a map.   Any combination of its functionality can yield new uses.  Indeed new ones are invented every day at the App Store.

You could never do that sort of thing before the iPhone because a device that had this many functions and an operating system to handle them didn't exist.

The tablet is the bigger brother of the original convergence device, offering a faster processor, bigger screen and new OS but losing the all-important ability to be pocketed.  Just like we had no idea what the iPhone could do when it was released, we'd be foolish to think we can get our head around what this next device will be able to accomplish.  It could just "redefine the experience of personal computing".

Apple iVites The Faithful To Its iSlate Event On Jan 27th

Many websites (including iphonePOV) are reporting that Apple has issued invitations for a media event scheduled for 10:00 AM Pacific Time on January 27th. The event will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, and the invitation's tag line reads "Come see our latest creation."

Apple had been rumored earlier this month to have scheduled a media event for that date and location, and the company is widely expected to introduce its highly-anticipated tablet device at the event.

iSlate - Wanted Dead or Alive

The Bozos at vallywag are offering a bounty for real tips on the pending iSlate.  While we respect their gutzpa, we're also pretty sure they're breaking about ten laws (and entering into creepy territory by offering to pay more if Steve Jobs is in the picture.)

UPDATE:

Apple filed suit (basically a legal cease and desist) against these bozos, which probably means the offer is off the table. 

iSlate is "iPhone On Steroids"

A new rumor from a self-confessed "Master Of The Obvious" is now referring to the iSlate as an "iPhone on steroids."

Citing a close contact within Apple, somebody with only basic skills in rumor deductions on Wednesday issued a report with alleged new details and specifics on Apple's 10-inch touchscreen device. The source said the device has an internal model number of K48AP and sports an "incredibly fast" ARM-based processor.

What kind of ARM chip remains unknown, though many have speculated that the reference Cortex-A9 design would be a likely candidate for any new hardware. However, one analyst recently claimed that the device would sport a Cortex-A8-based chip with a speed of about 1GHz.

In the report, the source also said that the tablet has multi-touch gestures that are "out of control," and the device runs the on the iPhone kernel. There hasn't been an update to the iPhone OS in some time, the tipster claimed, because the new build has too many tablet-related references that "Apple obviously didn't want to leak."

iSlate Rumor Guide

For those of you who like pictures more than words, we've summed up all the iSlate rumors (and their probabilities) into a nifty little graphic.  Enjoy.

Personally we don't agree with all of the predictions.  We think a webcam is a certainty--if they even release a "slate" device, which is not a certainty.

Needless to say, we'll know in 13 (or 14) days which of these predictions are true.

Camera showdown: iPhone 3Gs vs. Nexus One

Rumors cropped up last week that Apple had put down a big order for LED flashes, something useful for one thing, and one thing only: a digital camera. It doesn't take much to figure that the next iteration of the iPhone is likely to be packing one of these, since many of the latest cell phones--including HTC's recently released Nexus One, now have them included.

The Nexus One's 5-megapixel camera also has an LED-powered flash.

That got me thinking: how does the Nexus One's 5-megapixel camera and its eye-searing flash stack up against the 3-megapixel, flashless camera module of the now-aging iPhone 3GS? Is the ability to take bigger, and better-lit photos worth touting as the end-all, be-all feature among smartphone cameras? The easiest way to figure that out is to run a few tests.
Full disclosure here: I'm not a camera-testing expert. I am an avid photographer with a handful of pro gear, as well as a few high school and college photography courses under my belt. I'm not even going to try to get into things like testing dynamic range, color sensitivity, signal-to-noise ratio, etc. So instead, I've set up the two cameras to take essentially the same photo in various situations, to see how the two stack up.
All photos in this comparison were taken within the same minute of each other, while balanced from a leveled tripod to maintain the same height and distance. Images were then transferred directly from the devices for analysis. All comparison shots are presented side by size, at full quality, without any recompression or conversion. Any timings were done with a stopwatch.
Basic lens specifications

Apple iPhone 3GS
3-megapixel camera (resolution: 2048x1536 pixels)
autofocus (can also be set by touching the screen to select focal point)
aperture: f2.8
focal length: 3.85mm

HTC Nexus One
5-megapixel camera (resolution: 2592x1944 pixels)
autofocus
LED flash (optional)
aperture: unknown
focal length: unknown

It's worth noting that Apple is a little more liberal with the camera metadata, something the Nexus One could gain in a future software update. Right now, any photos snapped on it come without things like ISO, exposure time, aperture, and the lens' fixed focal length. However, both come with embedded GPS metadata, which makes for easy geotagging. It's just surprising that Google would have location, but not some of the more rudimentary camera info, within its metadata.
Camera speed
Time to boot built-in camera app:
iPhone 3GS: about 2.5 seconds
Nexus One: About a second
Lag between pressing the button, getting the shot, then returning to on-screen preview for next shot:
iPhone 3GS: A little less than 2 seconds
Nexus One: A little less than 2 seconds

Macro focus
Macro photo testing was done with a tape measure and a shipping box.

A camera's macro-focusing capabilities are no minor benchmark. This is how good your camera is at focusing as close to a subject as possible. This is most useful for taking shots of business cards, bar codes, and QR codes.
Between the two, the 3GS gives users a bit more control over what area they want to focus on, allowing users to simply touch the phone's screen to select the part of the photo they'd like in focus. The Nexus One, on the other hand, does the thinking for users, putting things into focus as it sees fit. In other words, users don't really know what the camera will focus on until after it takes the picture.
For our testing, we set a tape measure out across a table, and moved a labeled box closer and closer to the phone's camera, until it reached an optimal focus. For the iPhone, that length was 2.5 inches on the dot. A centimeter closer, and it lost a noticeable amount of sharpness. The Nexus One was able to pull in just a tad (and we do mean a tad) closer than the iPhone, coming in at 2.4 inches. To take it a step further, you can pull in both phones to about an inch of a subject and still have details such as text be legible. It's just not anywhere near as sharp as it is from 2.5 inches and beyond.
Both cameras' close-focusing capabilities are to be commended, but between the two, we'd happily put the 3GS out as the victor. Despite it's 0.1-inch disability, it lets you see what will be in focus before you take the shot. It also refocuses as you get closer or farther away from your subject, which the Nexus One does not.
Low-light sensitivity
Low-light performance is one of the big differentiators between these two cameras. Any camera nerd will likely scoff at the low-light capabilities of a camera phone and its tiny sensor, but in real-world use, this ends up being important. Having a camera you can use with less-than-ideal lighting can be incredibly valuable.
The first part of the low-light test has both cameras taking photos in a darkened room, with very little available lighting. And the second test compares the iPhone to the Nexus One in an even darker room, with the Nexus One's flash on.

Darkened room

The iPhone 3GS versus the Nexus One, from the same height and distance (in low light). Click to enlarge.

Darker room

The iPhone versus the Nexus One in a very dark room. The third shot makes use of the Nexus One's flash. Click to enlarge.

Low-light noise

Pixel noise from the same shot, seen in its native resolution.

Worth noting is that the Nexus One had considerably less noisy phones than the iPhone in identical situations. Even with plenty of available light, the iPhone's photos still had a noticeable amount of grain, when viewed at 100 percent.
That said, the noise on the iPhone can be more pleasing. Take a look at the shot from the darkened room: there were fewer blue color aberrations within the grain, the kind you can really see when viewed on a large monitor or photo print. Such things can be removed in post-processing, but it's nice to start out with fewer.
Distortion
Both cameras exhibited very little distortion--at least not enough to ruin your photos, if you're taking shots of things like buildings. Straight lines stay straight, and subjects that appear in the corners of the frame do not look bent or stretched. This isn't very surprising, given that both lenses have fixed focal lengths and aren't very wide.
Focal length
The iPhone's focal length is 3.85mm, but because of the tiny sensor's crop factor, this ends up being equivalent to a 37mm lens. The Nexus One is noticeably wider. Shots taken with it, from the same place as with an iPhone, show much more of the scene within the frame. Using the Nexus One is basically like taking a big step back, if you were to be using the iPhone. This can come in handy, if you're snapping pictures in a small room, or trying to get a tall building into your shot without having to change positions.

Other notes
• Both cameras make it easy to see what's in the frame with a large preview display. Between the two, the Nexus One's higher-resolution OLED screen presents a more vibrant image with noticeably deeper blacks. It also has a faster frame rate, leaving less on-screen blurring when you're framing your subject.

Android's camera app has a number of advanced settings the iPhone's stock camera does not offer.

• The Nexus One's camera app comes with a number of advanced settings the iPhone's stock camera app does not. This includes the options to turn the flash on and off, to tweak the white balance, to apply a digital color filter, to pick the quality and size of the shot, to change the focus mode to infinity, and to turn geotagging on or off.
• The Nexus One's camera lens is protected by the back of the phone's case, which can be removed to access the battery, SIM card, and MicroSD slot. This could lead to a wealth of aftermarket camera add-ons, which, for the iPhone, have come in the form of cases.
• Photos taken on the Nexus One are automatically stored to the microSD memory card, meaning that you can retrieve your photos, even if the rest of the phone goes kaput.

Conclusions
Unfair comparisons aside (we are, after all, comparing newer technology to older), it's pretty clear that the Nexus One's camera is more capable than what's found in Apple's 3GS. Was this a surprise? No. But it is great to see how big of a gap there is between the hardware packed into a device unveiled in June of last year and the hardware we're getting in January of this year.
Even better, both of these cameras can be augmented with extra hardware goodies that can make photo taking in new directions (the Nexus One especially, as noted above). Software can help a phone's camera go far beyond its stock capabilities. This has already been proven true on both platforms, which have a myriad of camera apps, though Android developers continue to have the problem of an increasingly wider range of hardware they need to support.
The most surprising difference in the two cameras is the difference in the low-light performance. When you're shooting in a dark or darkened room, you're going to want a camera with a flash. Otherwise, you end up with a grainy, almost-unviewable shot. This was most apparent in our poster picture from the darker-room test above. Whereas the iPhone came out on top in picking up the poster with no flash (likely due to a higher baseline ISO), it got blown away, in terms of colors, sharpness, and noise, when the Nexus One got to break out its flash.
Of course, neither of these phone cameras is as desirable as a point-and-shoot or, even better, a real SLR with a big, light-sucking sensor in it. But in a pinch, I'd take the camera on the Nexus One over the iPhone's any day. Even without the flash.

iSlate Webcam (Maybe Yes, Maybe No)

In classic Apple rumor fashion, various "reliable sources" are offering contrasting opinions on whether the iSlate (which incidentally, may or may not be introduced in a few days) will possess a web camera. We think yes--even shitty cell phones have a video camera--and it will be able to provide nifty iChatty Video for those of us that aren't satisfied with just "sexting." (Video chats will be limited to WiFi connections)

You heard it hear first.

iPhone, Droid, Nexus One, and Eris capacitive touch screens compared

iPhonePOV Touchscreen Analysis from iPhonePOV on iPhonePOVision.

So smartphone hardware is smartphone hardware right?  They probably all use the same capacitive touch screen parts from the same suppliers in China right? Actually no.  And this test from MOTO proves it.  According to their (frankly a bit unscientific) tests, the capacitive touch screens from Motorola and HTC aren't nearly as accurate as the one that Apple uses in the iPhone.  Whether this is related to software or hardware isn't certain, but it is clear that Apple's iPhone has a distinctive lead in touch screen accuracy, which in turn leads to a better touch and typing experience.  Perhaps this is yet another example of Apple's hardware/software integration proving to be an advantage.

iSlate Coming

Well well. It looks like we're on the verge of receiving a giant "iPhone" from good old Steve. Here's the skinny and what might happen:

Several sources close to iPhonePOV have reported that the product will be announced in the last week of January (though there is some disagreement about whether that will happen on Tuesday or Wednesday of that week). A source for Bloomberg is corroborating that an Apple tablet will be unveiled at the end of the month. Echoing a report from Wall Street Journal earlier this week, Bloomberg's source also says that the as-yet-unnanounced tablet will go on sale in March, so consumers shouldn't have much of a wait to get their hands on the device. (Incidentally, Bloomberg's source once dated iPhonePOV's source, so we're inclined to believe this is all true.)

Apple is also expected to unveil an SDK and tablet "simulator" for developers to prepare apps for the new device, according to sources for French Mac website Mac4Ever. The SDK may already be in the hands of a select number of developers asked by Apple to modify existing iPhone apps to work with a larger screen. Those apps would be demoed during the product announcement. (We have no source for this, but a little birdie told us, so we believe this is true, too.)

That developers could modify existing iPhone apps to work on the tablet suggests that it will have an interface and user interaction very similar to the iPhone. However, the tablet is expected to have at least some new "unexpected" UI features. Apparently that new UI will come with a steep learning curve, according to information supposedly gleaned from an anonymous Apple employee. (We don't believe this... If you don't count their numerous dysfunctional mouses (be they mighty or magic) Apple Inc. spends millions to reduce learning curves.)

"This person is an employee of Apple and had just had a meeting regarding some of the new things coming," a reader told Cult of Mac. "He/She would not go into details, but did say that he/she hoped we liked learning." That doesn't sound very Apple-y to us, but using the iPhone's onscreen keyboard, which is second nature now, took some getting used to initially. (We think the "hoped we liked learning" has more to do with the positioning of the devise--as a student aid for textbooks and classes--than the UI.)

Lastly, it looks like Verizon customers will finally get some Apple love. Broadpoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshall cites several sources saying that rumors of a Verizon partnership for providing mobile networking for the device are in fact true. "The tablet will be supported by multiple carriers, Verizon and others," Marshall told Computerworld. "Definitely Verizon. I've been told that's a certainty." (This is hard to believe because very few internet devices (actually none) are compatible with multiple networks--some are technically capable of it, but that doesn't mean different competing telcoms will allow them on their networks.)

The rash of leaks from anonymous sources may be part of a concerted effort by Apple to keep the hype up in the face of numerous announcements of mobile products during CES this week—especially a rumored HP tablet set to be unveiled during tonight's keynote. Of course, Apple is officially keeping a tight lip about what's in store. "We are not going to comment on rumors and speculation," Apple spokeperson Steve Dowling told Bloomberg. (Hmmm... Isn't not commenting on rumors a form of commenting?)

Iphone controlled Drone

This is equally cool and scary. We've already got a unit and are testing it as we write this. We'll have a full review soon.

Augmented Reality Is A Reality

Layar, the first camera-based AR app to really blow us (or anyone) away, has quietly slipped into the App Store. As with the Android version, the app overlays all kinds of information onto a live view of the world around you.

Since OS 3.1 dropped, giving devs (almost) open access to the iPhone's camera we've seen a minor avalanche of augmented reality apps hit the store; some have been interesting, like Yelp's, but most feel a little bit like tech demos. Layar, for what it's worth, has grown up since we last saw it: now you can overlay all kinds of data, from geotagged Wikipedia entries to Flickr photos to local Tweets.

You can get Layar here (and it's free!)

Apple Adding FM Radio to iPhone 3G(s)

Apple is building a new app for its iPhone and iPod Touch that will bring FM radio to the devices.

Our guess is that the functionality of the application will be similar to what Apple built into the iPod Nano. That includes the ability to pause live FM transmissions and fast-forward when you resume playing. The delay in getting the app to market is Apple's decision to integrate it with the iTunes Store. With this integration, people will be able to tap on a song they hear on the radio and buy it through iTunes. Whoptee-doo.

This app is made possible by the Broadcom chip that runs the iPhone 3G(s) which already contains an FM Tuner. So Apple is basically just adding a program to access a feature which should have been available on day 1.

We're filing this one in the "This Would Be Great If It Was 1998" pile. FM Radio? Really? Didn't we buy iPods so we didn't have to listen to all those commercials?

Who knows, if you're into corporate rock, this will bring a rainbow of joy to your ears.

PS What about AM? That's where all the action is? With just FM, Republicans won't be buying this app any time soon (and will probably complain that it's a left-wing plot to squelch wind-bag conservative talk show hosts. On second thought, we hope it is. Good Job Apple.)

What's New In iPhone 3.0

We've had the 3.0 software for a couple of hours now and have compiled a list of what's new. Exciting stuff:

• Previously, if you launched the Notes App and you had no notes saved, the app would automatically open a new note and the keyboard would pop up. It no longer does that. If you have no saved note, it just says No Notes.

• In Maps, directions are smoother. The next direction slides in nicely and has the distance to the next action PLUS that action on the same screen, as shown below. Previously it would've said on action 6 "Drive 63.3 Miles"...action 7, "Continue on I-91 N...."

• Playlists starting with spaces and/or dashes no longer appear at the top of the list in Music.

• Any favorites you may have in the old YouTube app can be merged into your YouTube account when you sign in to the new YouTube app.

• For Exchange the old "Passcode Lock" feature (required by some IT departments) had delay times of up to 15 minutes where you would not need your password to get to your phone. There is now a 1-Hour option and a message about longer times being less secure.

• when you enter safari and you reconnect to wifi the screen grays out and says "Connecting..."

• you can now download apps redeemed from promo codes on the device. previously you could only redeem them and had to download them in iTunes

• If you had a Safari Bookmark on the home screen, and the website didn't have it's own icon when you made the bookmark, if the website ever does get an icon, it will auto update on the home screen

• in Stocks if you "swipe" the mini-graph left, then a more detailed stock quote will show up with Open/High/Low/Volume/PE/Mkt Cap/52w High/52w Low/Avg Volume/Yield...and if you swipe another time to the left then news for that stock comes up and the news is scrollable in the vertical direction.

• when exiting an app, the minimize effect now has shading to make it seem more like it's disappearing into the distance.

• when call forwarding is activated there is now an icons next the the carrier name

• in Stocks the right side of a stock quote, when tapped, used to toggle between value change and percent change. Now it also includes market cap.

• in Messages, the "Send" button is now grayed out until you start typing

• The keyboard letter keys are a few pixels narrower than in the last OS, and the spaces between the keys slightly wider

• Mail preview loading is much faster

• You can now share a contact

•You can now add 20 places to weather

• Messages, Phone, and iPod have a new icons

• Unknown incoming calls show the location of the call

• if you start a movie/tv show on wifi. and go off the wifi network. itll finish over 3g.

• You can send as many pictures as you want in Mail. usually you can only "share" 5. this still holds true but with copy and paste you can copy as many photos as you want into the mail app.

• photos no longer turn upside down

• Podcasts are now sorted in ascending order by date/time stamp.

• When you attach a photo in mail, you can magnify it like you would text. Just tap and hold on the image.

• In one of the last iPhone OS updates Google Maps changed by default from Miles to Km in the UK and the only way to change it back was to change your region. This has now been fixed.

• When logging on to a secure website the Name of the site turns green and has a lock on it.

• messages now has its own tab in the settings along with store.

• you can close apps while they're opening. previously you had to wait until the app was fully loaded until it would close

• when apps that play audio are closed, the audio now fades out instead of abruptly quitting.

• international keyboards are now more accurate

• Time elapsed and time remaining in songs, podcasts, etc. are now always displayed in double digits. For example it will display -02:45 instead of -2:45.

• At the end of one video podcast episode it will now play in the next episode available in the videos section of the iPod app.

• The iPod app "scrubber" now is outlined and glows when selected with little directions under it that explain what to do.

• when you bring up playback controls and hit play when nothing is playing, it will automatically shuffle your songs. previously it played them in alphabetical order.

• When the is iPhone vertical, videos played through the iPod app will fit to screen. In 2.X they always played as if the iPhone was horizontal.

• you can zoom further into photos in the Camera Roll then you could with 2.0.

• iPhone 2.2 would search your Exchange global addressbook, if you started typing a name into an email's To: field, but now you can search the global Address book directly from your Contacts app, and get telephone numbers too!

• You can now select which folders to push from MS Exchange so you can have folders other than inbox synced

• Previously TV episodes within a season were listed on the iPod in reverse sequence (eg. ep3, ep2, ep1) - but now they are listed in the more usual ascending sequence (ep1, ep2, ep3, etc).

• TV Show seasons are now grouped together into one group.

• when using the camera, if you tap on the previous photo (bottom left) and go to the flimstrip, you can select "Done" to go back to the camera.

• The App Store now shows your current account on the bottom of each search page. Clicking on it will allow you to sign out or login to view/edit account information.

• When you buy something from the iTunes App, the purchase now goes into your general iTunes purchases list, instead of a specific "iPhone purchases" list.

• 3.0 has LDAP Directory support. It now searches through my company directory as I'm typing a name or email address.

• You can now type a second SMS message while the first is in the process of sending.

• when typing lol auto correct no longer makes it LOL

• You have the option to forward a contact on to someone now when you view their contact details.

• on previous versions, whenever you restored from a back up, the original apple applications would go back to the position they were at before the restore but the app store applications wouldn't. now, app store applications go back to their position from before the restore

• applications no longer install on the first page, even if you have an open space. it automatically goes to the next open space after the first page

• when moving icons on the home screen and you move an app to a different page, if you keep the icon to the edge of the page it will go on to the next page. previously you had to move the icon away from the edge before you could keep moving it to other pages.

• in music if you go to Artist->Album, then the back button on the top left displays the artist's name, rather than just "albums"

• it shows which phone (mobile, home) or location (Orlando, FL, etc) you dialed under the number or name in Recents

• Recents now also display whether or not the call was incoming or outgoing in the list

• Voicemail also displays what phone the voicemail is from (mobile, home, etc) or the location (city, state)

• Clicking an iCal link (subscription calendar link) will ask you if you want to subscribe to that calendar

• you can control the speed that thing rewind and fast forward by moving your finger vertically along the screen while scrubbing horizontally. different heights on the screen are different speeds

• Safari now has a phishing warning

• In Settings-Phone you can edit 'My Number' so it displays at the top of your contacts list

• You can send pictures to emails using the Messages application, just type in the email, input a message (if you want) and attach a picture

• There is a new iPhone setting under phone numbers in the contacts. It still has home, mobile, work, etc, but also now has iPhone

• now there is a different way to force quit apps. now you have to hold the sleep/wake button until the red slider appears, then you hold down the home button to quit the app

• the push notification settings for mail have been moved to the mail, contacts, and calendars menu in settings instead of being on the main settings menu

• you can now have 11 home screen pages instead of nine

• when a text message is recieved and you do not "Slide to view" but want to look at it later, when you open the messages app it will open up to the latest received message

• shake to shuffle is now on the iPhone/iPod Touch
• in the calendar app there is now an availability field. you can chose from busy, free, tentative, or out of office

• When using edit to delete new mail, the new message blue dot appears on the left as well as the delete dot, so you can see what's unread
• curse words are no longer auto-corrected

• when listening to a podcast, you now have the options to email the link, rewind 30 seconds, or chose the playback speed (1/2x, 1x or 2x)

• when listening to an audiobook, you now have the options to rewind 30 seconds and chose the playback speed (1/2x, 1x or 2x)

• when typing a long text message, it enlarges the text box you are typing in to all the way to the top of the screen rather than limiting it to like 4 lines

• when you engage airplane mode you can no longer enter phone preferences and it says airplane mode next to it

• when you create a new calendar event and add a number in the notes field, you now have the option to call that number when viewing the event

• when a ringtone has a long name and is assigned to a contact instead of cutting off the name of the ringtone it just makes the text smaller

• you can now type all emoji icons when in landscape. previously, the landscape keyboard would cut some of the icons off.

• when making a genius playlist, it has little dots instead of letters for every second letter

• smart playlist now update on the device. previously they wouldn't update until the next time you synced it with iTunes. this means that if you have a smart playlist to include all songs with a rating of 5 stars, whenever you rat a song on the device, it automatically moves to the playlist.

• you can now delete notes using the swipe method as you've been able to do in mail

• you can now turn off the second SMS message alert

• when a call has failed, you can slide to call back

• you can now edit contact info from the message app

• when a phone call interrupts you, after the phone call you are taken back to the app you were in before you were interrupted

• when one tab is left in Safari, you can now "close" that tab. when you tap the red X on the last tab, it opens up a blank page

• in previous versions, when you switched to the 123 keyboard and hit space before you typed anything, it would automatically go back to the ABC keyboard. now it won't automatically go back to the ABC keyboard unless you typed at least one thing with the 123 keyboard. (i tried to not make this sound confusing, lol)

• more keys on the keyboard now have more options when holding them down. "." now has "...", "-" now has a longer dash, quotations and apostrophes can now be curved, quotations also has the option for "<<" and ">>"

• when charging and playing a song, the album art comes up. previously it showed the battery icon

• you can now switch iTunes account straight from the device. you can do this in Settings, iTunes Store, and the App Store

• images taken with the camera are now more crisp

• you can now share, copy, and delete multiple images. just press the icons in the lower left corner and start selecting pictures. you can only share up to 5 pictures and you can only delete pictures taken with the camera an screenshots

• the iPod App now reconizes Japanese hiragana and lists it in the right order if you insert the spelling into iTunes. previously this only worked in the contacts app

• there is now more information displayed for phone calls

• viewing music videos in the iPod/Music app now play in portrait mode rather than showing an image of the video

• the badge for the App Store telling you that you have and update now goes away when you start updating the app. previously it stayed there until it was done updating

• if you play a podcast that has notes included, the notes are now displayed as soon as the podcast starts

• App store reviews no longer default to 1-star ratings - they now default to no rating and require you to choose one

• previously if you device was in a dock and playing music while in other applications, whenever you skipped tracks it would take you too the iPod Application. it no longer does this

• Google Sync allows 25 synced calendars to your iPhone now. previously they only allowed 5

• you can now sync calendar subscribed calendars from iCal

• instead of using spotlight to search the whole in the whole device, most applications now have a search bar at the very top (slide the menu down for it to appear). these only search within that application.

• if you add an address under the "Notes" field in a calendar event or in the notes app, tapping the address brings it up in maps

• you can now agree to the iTunes terms and conditions straight from the device

• instead of swiping to get to spotlight you can also hit the home button from the first home screen page

• text messages seem to be clearer as in easier to read than before

• in the app store, screenshots of the app are now displayed differently. they no longer pop up but instead you just slide through them.

• when no headphones are inserted or if the device is in a dock, the volume scrubber goes away

• street view and the ability to change the transportation method is now on the iPod Touch. this was previously only on the iPhone

• you can now edit double-click home button preferences on the iPod Touch

• On the App Store, instead of having an updates tab its labeled as "more" where you can check updates or redeem codes. the iTunes is also the same way

•In maps tapping on the blue dot will display the approximate current address. Also, the dot appears to be larger overall

• On the stop watch app, when you hit lap, instead of the timer starting at 0 it keeps going but has a second timer in the top right hand corner

• In the camera app in the lower left hand corner where you would click to go to the Camera Roll instead of a generic logo it shows you a small preview of last photo in the roll

• Taping and holding a link in Safari now brings up a menu with "Open" "Open in new window" and "Copy" which copies the link location

• Notes now has data detectors. Links are clickable, phone numbers are callable, email address are emailable, and address are locatable (using Maps)

• you can now encrypt your iPod/iPhone backups in iTunes

• the device now remembers whether or not you had the video playback controls up the last time you exited a video. it you did have them up, the video starts with them up. if you didn't have them up, the video starts with them not up

• you can now view .gif images

• when you are in voice recorder and you 'tap' the mic image on screen the VU meter pulses (as if you are tapping a real mic)

• you can now add invitees to calendar events

• when bringing up the playback controls on the lock screen it now shows song title, artist, and album. previously it only showed the song title. the font is also smaller

• there is a new UI for using the camera and importing images in 3rd party apps.

• In the settings -> general -> home button you can now set the double click to the new search feature or the camera

• Number of installed applications now shows under Settings->General->About
• There is an edit button when your inside a conversation and you can now delete/forward each line in a text just like you would in mail

• you can shake to undo typing

• there is no limit to the number of apps that can be installed (beside storage space). once you reach the home screen limit, apps installed after that are installed without an icon but can be accessed in spotlight. below 67 of the 203 apps are not shown on the home screen. you can also use this to hide any apple application (i.e. weather and stocks)

• in messages, the sending bar now replaces the name at the top instead of being imposed over the message history

Pre-order iPhone 3Gs

It's hear and it rocks. The iPhone 3Gs is faster, smarter and will lead to world peace. You know you want one, and even if you don't, you're gonna get one. Fortunately, this time, you don't even have to wait in line to get the latest awesomeness-ness from mighty Steve.

If you pre-order from the apple website, it will arrive on June 19th. Sweet. Right now the website is a little slow, but if you're persistant, you'll get through.

Here's the iPhone Pre-order link.

32 Gb iPhone Imminent

It's coming... Tmobile's Austrian website briefly displayed a placeholder for a 32GB iPhone. Tmobile is the official iPhone carrier in Austria

Nice. (Though, our 16 Gb is rarely full, so we're not exactly sure why we're so excited about this--honestly, we won't start curling our toes until they announce a 100 Gb version, which is years off.)

iPhone 3.0 - AKA iPhone HD (details and release date)

Our crafty spies have uncovered the skinny on the new iPhone, which we have good reason to believe will be called the iPhone HD.

32GB and 16GB to replace current capacities
$199 and $299 price-points to be maintained
3.2 Megapixel camera
Video recording & editing capabilities
Ability to send a picture & video via MMS
Discontinuation of the metal band surrounding the edge of the device
OLED screen
1.5X The battery life
Double the RAM and processing power
Built-in FM transmitter
Apple logo on the back to light up
Rubber-tread backing
Sleeker design
Built-in compass
Revolutionary combination of the camera, GPS, compass, and Google maps to identify photo and inform about photo locations.
Turn by turn directions

July 17th, 2009 release date

Next Gen iPhone (4g?) Announced

Sort of.

Turns out the latest iPhone upgrade includes a couple of (oops, we forgot to delete) code strings which indicate a new version of the iPhone is in the works (or already working!)

These strings indicate that this new iPhone is different than the current 3G version and not just a memory upgrade.

Expect an announcement from Apple in early April with a June delivery (just in time for Steve's healthy return.)

We've already got a couple of our interns waiting in line at the Honolulu Apple store.

Iphone 2.2.1 Firmware Available

Fire up your iTunes and download the latest and greatest for your super-phone.

2.2.1 promises various bug fixes and increased stability. Does this mean Safari will stop crashing? We'll believe it when we see it.

Unfortunately, the paltry list of additions accompanying this update do not include any new interface tweaks, which means it'll still be a pain in the ass to find a contact that isn't in your favorites list.

Apple, please add voice dialing!

iPhone 2.2 Available

We sat up all night writing a review of the iPhone's new 2.2 firmware... then we read what David Chartier wrote for arstechnica.com and decided to scrap our story and run his.

Here it is:

After what were surely a few extra pots of coffee last night, Apple released iPhone OS 2.2, the latest update to its operating system for the iPhone and iPod touch. As with the 2.1 update just over two months ago, Apple administered a healthy dose of new features and fixes throughout the OS and a handful of applications, many of which we saw previewed over the last couplemonths. Let's take a look at the most significant changes, some appreciated polish, and recap what's still missing.

Google Maps

As one of the iPhone's most frequently touted applications by Apple, Google Maps received the most attention in iPhone 2.2. At the top of the list is Google Street View, which the Android T-Mobile G1 was first to market with. In order to use Street View on the iPhone, you'll need to either drop a pin manually on the map or search for a specific address or store. Tapping a pin will reveal a subtle new orange icon to the right of the address or business name displayed in the popup tooltip, and clicking that icon invokes a fluid animation of zooming into the map as Street View is activated.


Apple: We don't need no stinkin' labels on our compass
The iPhone's accelerometer is not used for Street View navigation, however, so you can't impress your friends by tilting and turning your iPhone here. You have to use your finger to flick around on the street (complete with the iPhone's trademark smooth deceleration), and an unlabeled compass in the lower right serves as both a guide and your ticket back to the regular map view. Tap it, and the animated zoom whisks you back to your previous birds-eye map view of the area.

Also new for Google Maps is the addition of walking and public transit directions. When searching for directions from point A to B, new icons at the top of the directions interface allow for huffing the route on foot or adding bus, train, and subway routes from any of the cities that Google Transit supports. These new features are very appreciated by those of us living in Chicago, though the transit functionality does not quite match the features of Google Maps' desktop counterpart. For example, when viewing L train routes for Chicago, IL in Google Maps on the desktop, you can click on any stop to view a list of routes, their next scheduled stops at that station, and a link to the Transit Authority's web site. Google Maps for iPhone doesn't provide that depth of access, as you cannot yet tap on stops to reveal any of this information. Still, it's great to see these public transit routes now factored into Google Maps directions.

Other new Google Maps features include a tweaked UI of pin tooltips to display the address, as well as a new "share location via e-mail" feature that creates a new e-mail with a Google Maps link inserted. Unfortunately, Arsians are reporting on our announcement post that the iPod touch and first-generation iPhone did not receive most of these key new Google Maps features that the iPhone 3G did. We aren't sure why Apple excluded the first-gen iPhone, but it's arguable that most of these features will typically require on-the-go network access that the iPod touch (which only has WiFi) cannot provide much of the time. Still, since bringing the iPod touch in software feature parity with the iPhone via a commercial upgrade in January 2008, this is the first time we remember seeing Apple split the device back off again.

Of podcasts and anti-competition

iPhone OS 2.2 also brought a major new feature to both the iTunes Store application that users have been requesting for quite some time: on-the-go downloading of podcast episodes. Users can either start up the iPod app and tap "Get more episodes" to launch the iTunes Store on the iPhone, or simply go straight to the new Podcasts category in the store manually. Both video and audio episodes can be downloaded over WiFi or (surprisingly) the cellular network.

The feature is useful, but has its limits. First, podcasts cannot be subscribed to on the iPhone; you can manually download individual episodes to get a quick fix, but you can't create a new subscription or batch download 20 episodes and start binging. Second, the 10MB cap already in place for songs and applications is in effect, which means you'll have to connect to WiFi if you want to download anything larger.

Apple caused a bit of a controversy back in September for denying Podcaster from the iTunes App Store. Podcaster was a third-party application designed to browse and download podcasts on the fly, and Apple's rejection letter cited that Podcaster duplicates iTunes functionality. At the time, debate raged about the anticompetitive nature of this denial, but also about the simple fact that, at the time, neither the iTunes Store nor iPod applications built into iPhone OS offered these features.

App Store experience

The next tangible area of polish in iPhone OS 2.2 is in the App Store application, as Apple has brought a few features and tweaked UI elements to provide a more pleasant and thorough experience. New sorting options of "Top Paid," "Top Free," and "Release Date" when browsing categories like "Games" or "Productivity" allow for more granular control over what you see. A large icon taken from a popular application is now also displayed next to each category name to help identify it. Plus, when viewing a specific application's details, all screenshots for the application are now accessible on the iPhone via a convenient, finger-flicking slide show.


The choice between productivity and
funny cats is always tough to make
Outside the store, iPhone OS 2.2 also now encourages users to rate applications when removing them from an iPhone. Tapping and holding an icon still invokes the icon "jiggle," informing the user that the management UI is now in effect. After confirming that you want to delete an application, though, a dialog prompts you to rate the it, but offers an opt-out if you are worried about anonymously hurting the developer's feelings.

Everything else

Plenty of other useful new features and changes have been added throughout iPhone OS 2.2, including a new preference to turn on/off auto-correction in keyboard settings, a new trick where pressing the Home button when viewing any Home screen application page will bring you to the first page, support for Japanese Emoji icons, and more reliable performance for Safari, phone calls, and visual voicemail. Problems with Mail's fetching schedules have been resolved, and it also has improved formatting of wide HTML e-mail.

As with each of these major iPhone OS updates, the overall OS feels a lot more responsive as well. There is always the possibility of a placebo effect at play, but nearly every application we have tried, even those from third parties, launches and responds faster. Google Maps seems to pinpoint our location faster, and Safari does indeed seem both more responsive and less inclined to throw out cached pages when switching between applications.

Still on the to-do list

A number of significant features are still missing from iPhone OS 2.2, including some long-standing requests from users and one that was promised and later pulled by Apple. Copy-and-paste is still missing (but confirmed to be on its way sooner or later), as is even a simple to-do list, let alone one that integrates with iCal or Outlook. We also haven't seen much improvement on any of our major complaints about the iPhone's Exchange experience that we noted in our original review of the iPhone 3G and iPhone OS 2.0.

Perhaps most notably still missing, though, is the push alert system Apple showed off at WWDC 2008. Since the iPhone doesn't allow background processes beyond those from a handful of Apple's own blessed applications (specifically: Mail, iPod, SMS, and Clock), Apple proposed a compromise that took a "single background process to rule them all" approach. This process could be a sort of middleman, watching for things like new IM messages or task alarms from third-party applications or services, then presenting those alarms in the way that SMS alarms are displayed now. Users could choose to act on the alarm and open its corresponding application, or dismiss it and continue in the current application (or doing nothing).

This system even made its debut in early developer builds of the iPhone OS 2.1 update that was eventually released in September. In mid-August, however, the push alerts feature was pulledfrom these test builds, and Apple has not mentioned it since.

Feature requests and vaporware aside, though, iPhone OS 2.2 is a strong update that fleshes out a maturing OS. Once again, there is something for almost everyone here, whether it be more flexible podcast downloading, better traveling directions, or a more thorough on-the-go App Store experience. The update weighs in at the average size of 246MB (each iPhone OS update is the entire OS, ensuring a clean install), and can be downloaded by plugging your iPhone or iPod touch into iTunes and using the "Check for Updates" feature.