News

iOS 5 beta 3 lands

Apple announced iOS 5 about a month ago and have been providing developers with beta versions of the new OS with updates every few weeks. Today Beta 2 is replaced with Beta 3 and is being offered to developers to download today.

Beta 2 contained updates for iTunes sync over WiFi, which works rather nicely, but temporarily dropped Facetime. Beta 3 concerns itself with location services and offers more granular controls with a raft of new toggles and a control for using voice when roaming which will be particularly useful rather than just the data while roaming.

I haven’t installed on my iPhone or iPad so don’t know if Facetime has been re-enabled but I’ll be looking at this later on today and will find out what else has changed in there too.

Oh and just in case you were interested this version has already been Jailbroken!

Posted by: Matt

Apple suing HTC, again

Yesterday Apple filed a fresh complaint against HTC with the US International Trade Commission claiming that HTC have infringed Apple’s patents on technology used in the iPad and iPhone. This isn’t the first time that Apple have gone to the ITC with such complaints, indeed the ITC are already reviewing three other cases between the two tech giants.

Apple seem to be quite happy to make such accusations at the moment as this latest claim against HTC comes just a few weeks after a similar suit between Apple and Samsung.

The exact details of this latest claim have not yet been disclosed but is looking to block US sales of the HTC Flyer and Droid Incredible, Wildfire, EVO 4G and Desire. Previous claims by Apple included the ‘swipe to unlock’ which Apple believe they own the patent for.

HTC commented:

"HTC is disappointed at Apple’s constant attempts at litigations instead of competing fairly in the market," said HTC general counsel Grace Lei in a statement.

"HTC strongly denies all infringement claims raised by Apple in the past and present and reiterates our determination and commitment to protect our intellectual property rights," she said.

Following the complaint being issued by Apple, HTC’s stock prices fell by over 4 percent yesterday. This is sure to rumble on for months yet!

Posted by: Matt

iTunes movies to go Full HD

Awesome news for movie fans, Apple are going to bring Full HD 1080p video content to the iTunes video store in Q3 of this year. Many films and TV programmes are already available in both 480p (standard) and 720p HD formats with a small premium for the HD version.

Critics of Apple and iTunes have long slammed Apple for the lack of Full HD content so this is their answer but to be honest it had to come sooner or later so perhaps it’s really no great surprise.

If there is a change to 1080p content though there’s one other thing that’s going to have to change, the Apple TV. Currently the iOS powered version 2 Apple TV’s have the trusty A4 processor from the iPad and iPhone and it doesn’t have the power to play 1080p content, even with a firmware update. Looks like there is going to have to be a new version of the Apple TV released which will, presumably have the A5 chip so that there’s enough horsepower.

I wish I’d know this a month ago before I bought another Apple TV for home though!

Posted by: Matt

BlackBerry PlayBook featured in Renaults latest concept car

Well it looks like RIM have a new friend and it is Renault. Renault’s latest concept car neatly has the BlackBerry PlayBook mounted in the console!

With the BlackBerry PlayBook integrated into its latest concept, the FRENDZY becomes an innovative office on wheels, perfectly doubling up as a commercial vehicle and a comfortable passenger car, ideal for both business and pleasure.

For business users on the road, the ultra-portable BlackBerry PlayBook simply plugs into the dashboard, delivers advanced performance, uncompromised web browsing, with support for Adobe Flash, HD multimedia and advanced security features and out of the box enterprise support.

ALK release CoPilot Live Premium for iPhone and iPad

We’ve reviewed CoPilot in the past and have been impressed with its user interface, map views and general map accuracy. I’ve been using the UK version in my iPhone for some time and have the USA version on my iPad 2 for those trips abroad.

Today ALK got in touch with me to let me know about their latest version of the CoPilot Live, the new Premium edition which includes new features such as Personal Routes, Active Traffic and social network integration so you can check in with Facebook places via the app.

What’s more, for the next 7 days you can get 50% off the already low price making UK & Ireland maps just £14.99 for unlimited use and the European maps version for £29.99.

More details of the new features follow. Head on over to the App Store to download.

Microsoft ‘charging forward with Nokia’

According to a statement made by Microsoft’s Steve Balmer the company is ‘Charging forward with Nokia’. This sound bite was from the Imagine Cup 2011 conference held on 8th July.

Mt Balmer goes on to talk about the next version of Windows Phone 7 and the next generation of phones running WP7 that will ship towards the end of this year. We’re looking forward to see what Nokia and Microsoft have in store for us and to testing the first phones released as a result of the partnership.

You can see an extract from the speech below or head over to Microsoft.com for the full thing.

HTC to unlock bootloaders from August

I’m sure you’ll remember the statement that HTC’s CEO Peter Chou made back in May about reconsidering their position on looking the bootloaders on their Android phones. This was good news for anyone wanting to load customer ROMs on to their handsets as it makes the process a whole lot easier and reduces the likelihood of ‘bricking’ the phone.

In an update made via their Facebook page (see below) HTC announced that they are going to provide an unlocked bootloader for the HTC Sensation, HTC Sensation 4G and HTC EVO 3D some time during August. They will do this via a series of firmware updates.

The HTC EVO 3D will go on sale here in the UK during the same times frame so we wonder if it will ship here with an unlocked bootloader or will require a later update?

Research from Protect your bubble shows that Dance fans are most at risk of losing their mobile at festivals this year

Protectyourbubble.com, the gadget insurance specialist, has found that 1 in 4 festival goers will lose something. Dance fans are the worst with over one in 10 losing their mobile at a festival (12%), despite 43% owning an expensive iPhone.

Protectyourbubble.com polled Wireless Festival goers, quizzing music fans of the different genres to find out how likely they are to lose their phone and other items. Hip Hop fans, though losing their mobiles slightly less (9%), place themselves at the most risk, with 29% bringing along BlackBerry’s and over 70% admitting to not having any mobile phone insurance cover at all. 84% of the group also confessed to drinking over 7 pints of lager at a festival, placing their gadgets in even bigger danger. Twice as many gadgets are lost from ‘drunken incidents’ (56%) than through being stolen (21%) or dropped (12%).

Pimms-drinking Pop fans are the most likely to look after their gadgets with them half as likely to have their phone stolen and one in three (35 per cent) having specific mobile phone insurance cover. They also bring the least money with most (61%) bringing under £40 to a festival compared to Dance fans who flash the cash with 15% spending well over £80 on the day. On average people spend £54.65 at a festival.

Rock fans are the most loyal fans with 32% travelling over 100 miles for the day. They are also the most likely to leave their iPhone at home with 29% bringing cheap ‘dumb phones’ to a festival with them. They are the most likely to lose other items at a festival though, with 8% losing their shoes and 5% losing their girlfriend or boyfriend.

Warning over Facebook video calling scam

Earlier this week Facebook announced a tie-up with Skype that’s resulted in a video calling service, for full video chat, within the Facebook web interface. I haven’t tried this out yet but I’m looking forward to doing so.

However, since the announcement a raft of scams relating to the video chat service have plagued Facebook. These fake applications within Facebook are nothing to do with the official service but instead offer the promise of video chat but are, in fact, rogue ‘apps’ asking you for access to you personal information, permission to post on your wall and read your posts!

So just a word of warning, if you see a post on your wall or in your profile saying ‘Enable Video Calls’ or similar avoid it like the plague! If you’ve already succumbed to the temptation then head in to your settings and revoke privileged access to the naughty scammers!

Posted by: Matt

BlackBerry SDK update

If you are a BlackBerry developer or it is something to are looking to pursue then the following news from RIM will be of interest.

RIM has announced the availability of the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK v 2.1 for BlackBerry Smartphones. This update comes shortly after the introduction of the BlackBerry® WebWorksT SDK v 2.1 for Tablet OS [http://devblog.blackberry.com/2011/06/blackberry-webworks-sdk-tablet-os-version-2-1/] and brings similar functionality and APIs to the BlackBerry® Smartphone OS. 

The new capabilities that WebWorks developers can now leverage include NTML & BASIC Authentication support, Camera API, Top Banner Indicator API, Enhanced Push APIs and improved rendering speeds for some applications. The APIs enable web developers to deeply integrate with the BlackBerry Smartphone OS and thereby build feature rich apps that offer more immersive and interactive end user experiences. Other benefits developers can derive from the new application functionality and APIs are better app monetization, diversified development approaches, support for standardized security and better integration with the widely popular BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM) Social Platform.

Developers can learn more about the new APIs at http://devblog.blackberry.com/2011/07/blackberry-webworks-sdk-smartphones-v2-1 and can download the latest WebWorks SDK for BlackBerry Smartphones at http://us.blackberry.com/developers/browserdev/widgetsdk.jsp.

Posted by: James