Wednesday, July 28, 2010

iPhone 4 to be released in Canada July 30th

The iPhone 4 is to be released for Rogers customers as per www.rogers.com



Customers are being asked to refrain from calling Rogers Customer Care for inventory updates as stock levels are anticipated to drop quickly and Rogers Care representatives will not have updated information on iPhone 4 inventory levels. Customers are instead asked to do the following:

1. Check www.Rogers.com: If there are iPhones available, customers may purchase it online.
2. Customers are to call or visit a Rogers Retail stores to see if they have any devices in stock. Customers can find the closest store location by going to http://rogers.com/storelocator/. The store will advise the customer of the current availability, and/or when they will receive a new shipment.
3. Customers can call Customer Care (1-888-ROGERS-1) and will be provided availability updates through the automated menu (IVR). The customer should hang up after they receive the availability information and not to call into Rogers Care, because Care reps will be unable to provide any additional information.
4. Customers can sign up on http://rogers.com/iPhone/ to receive e-mails from Rogers notifying them of any inventory updates.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

U.S. Government: iPhone Jailbreaking Is Fair Use

From www.pcworld.com

The United States Government, at the request of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has announced what amounts to a blanket exemption to the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) for activities that all under the Fair Use doctrine of U.S. Copyright law.

This announcement, and subsequent change in DCMA enforcement policy, has wide-ranging implications for consumers of electronic devices and media. As it applies to the on-going battle between Apple and iPhone hackers, the new rules stipulate that Apple may not actively prevent attempts to "Jailbreak" the iPhone to allow extra functionality with either hardware or software measures.

Those familiar with their iPhone and iOS history may recall that it was hackers that had initially modified iOS to allow support for third-party apps and multi-tasking which led to the creation Apple-authorized App Store, public iOS API, and true multi-tasking support in iOS4.

Beyond the iPhone, the new DCMA exemptions allow academics to legally break DVD copy-protection to use films clips in the classroom, users to remove software and hardware security measures that are no longer supported by the publisher or manufacturer, and legalizes the investigation and correction of software flaws by third-parties.

Here's hoping, for tech consumers everywhere, that these changes stand in the face of what is sure to be an intense lobbying effort by tech firms to stem the tide of consumer freedom.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Follow TGiJB on Twitter!!

@TGiJB

ultrasn0w is growing!

From the Fabulous iPhone Dev Team:

Those of you who follow @MuscleNerd or @planetbeing on Twitter probably already know that the team has had a series of successes with the carrier unlock on iPhone4 (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5-video). We’re fine-tuning the payload to make it as quick to load as possible (and making sure it remains crash-free of course!).

As usual before a public release, there are lots of fake Twitter and Facebook accounts trying to capitalize on the public’s eagerness to get the unlock. For those who only want to know when it’s released, either of these two official accounts will do. All other variations of these account names are fake!

@ultrasn0w

@iphone_dev

If you want to be kept up to date on progress as it’s being made, you can also follow:

@planetbeing

@MuscleNerd

And of course, our comment section below is a great place to ask general questions! There are lots of knowledgeable people able to respond, including our great moderators @confuciousmobil and @angiexpangie

P.S. If you want to help prevent more people from being fooled by the fake accounts, here are a few examples of them: fake#1 fake#2 fake#3 fake#4 fake#5. Feel free to tweet them, so that others following them realize they’re fake.


Best Selling iPod/iPhone Accessory Device!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

5 Ways To Fix The iPhone 4's Antenna Problem

By Eric Zeman from InformationWeek

Having trouble with the signal performance of your iPhone 4? Here are five ways to solve the "death grip" problem, plus some recommendations for Apple.

The "death grip" problem is unfortunately real for the iPhone 4. When skin comes into contact with and bridges the two metal bands in the lower left corner of the iPhone, the displayed signal strength drops. This may or may not affect voice calls or data sessions on the iPhone. I've been able to replicate the signal drop, but haven't experienced any actual performance problems. Others have reported dropped calls in areas with weak signal coverage when the antenna is obscured.

If the signal strength attenuates on your iPhone and you want to prevent this from happening, here are a handful of ways that do the trick:

1. Use a Bumper or Case: This is the official solution for the issue provided by Apple. Apple recommends that iPhone 4 owners buy a $30 bumper or other case, which alleviates the problem. It does what Apple says it does, but why is it the owner's responsibility to fix it?

2. Hold It Different: When first questioned about the signal reception issues, Apple CEO Steve Jobs famously responded in an email to a customer that he was holding it incorrectly. His words were, "Avoid holding it that way." This works, too, but could leave lefties in a lurch.


3. Use Duct Tape: This one is my favorite. Consumer Reports, which this week said it can't recommend the iPhone 4 to consumers due to the "death grip" issue, suggested that users slap some duct tape on the section of the phone in question. This prevents your skin from touching the antenna and solves the problem. If duct tape can't fix it, nothing can! Of course, your iPhone will gain a new level of street toughness with its taped-together look.



4. Use Any Other Type of Tape:
I actually tested this. You can solve the problem with masking tape, electrical tape (my personal favorite, plus, it's black), scotch tape, and packing tape (clear or brown). These solutions are better than duct tape, in my opinion, because they leave less of a sticky residue when the tape is removed from the iPhone.


5. Wait for Apple's Software "Fix": Apple has promised a software update to "solve" the antenna problem -- only changing the number of bars displayed on the iPhone's signal meter doesn't actually change the physics involved with the antenna itself. This might help to change the perceived performance problem, but won't prevent the iPhone 4's signal from degrading when the antenna is covered up.


Suggestions for Apple to make this all go away:

1. Give Away Free Bumpers: Apple clearly doesn't want to admit there is a problem with the iPhone 4's antenna. Apple needs to own up to it, and at the very least make the $30 bumpers a free option at the time of purchase so the antenna is covered properly. This alone wouldn't solve the problem, but it would prevent the symptoms from occurring. That likely will be enough to make most people happy. Also, a $30 fix per iPhone (on a product that has to cost less than $1 to make) is probably the cheapest option Apple has.

2. Install Plastic Film On New iPhones: Most brand new phones are packaged and shipped with a clear plastic film covering them. This is to prevent damage and scratching before the phone is sold. Apple could easily add a piece of this clear plastic film to the left side of the iPhone during the manufacturing process. Problem solved.

3. Recall the iPhone 4: I don't think this is going to happen, and I think it will be more of a pain to iPhone 4 owners, but it could help. First, however, Apple would need to redesign the iPhone 4's antenna, adjust its manufacturing processes, package and the ship the millions of replacement iPhones. That will take months and will cost Apple dearly.

Click on the ad below and get Skypin' !!!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Frash: Flash 10.1 ported to iPad

By: Matthew Humphries from www.geek.com


Apple and Steve Jobs have made it very clear that Flash will never be an option on devices like the iPhone and iPad. But making that decision is like showing a red rag to a bull–tell people they can’t have something and they’ll surely want it more.

The inevitable has therefore happened, and Flash has been ported to the iPad. You need to jailbreak your iPad of course, but once done, this port works with Safari using a compatibility layer.

It’s called Frash, and an image of it running on iPad can be seen above. An image isn’t good enough to convince people it runs though, so a video has been put on YouTube showing Frash running on a forthcoming iPhone port. The video description gives some more insight into the port:

Frash is a port of the Adobe Flash runtime for Android to the iPhone, using a compatibility layer, by comex…Frash can currently run most Flash programs natively in the MobileSafari browser. Frash uses a multi-process model similar to Chrome on the desktop, so a crash in the Frash/Flash plugin doesn’t take down the browser. Video and keyboard input are currently not supported. The former will require major reverse engineering of the video decoding frameworks on the iPhone, but the latter should be reasonably easy to implement.

The port was done from the Android version of Flash 10.1 by comex who also created the Spirit jailbreak. Here’s the blurry video below showing progress so far:



Frash is open for other developers to help make better/stable. Just visit the Frash GitHub page to learn more if you are interested.


Matthew’s Opinion


I don’t think Apple has much of a chance of winning this battle. There are a lot of people out there who hate Flash, but there’s a lot of websites that support and use it to good effect. Pushing the iPad as a great way to surf the web is fine, but it isn’t the best way because of the lack of Flash support. Due to that decision parts of the web are just broken, and talk of HTML 5 solving the problem is a little premature.

Frash looks like a better solution than Smokescreen which replaced Flash content with Javascript and vector SVG animations. Although a clever solution Smokescreen is meant to be CPU-intensive and slow. The fate of Frash will depend on how much of the Flash feature-set it supports. Comex states that video isn’t supported and will be difficult to get working, so it may not be a perfect solution. Of course, a perfect solution would be Apple support.

Apple will never back down on allowing Flash on its devices, but how long is it going to be before someone finds a way of supporting Flash without a jailbreak? When that happens, you can guarantee it will be one of the most popular iPad (and iPhone) downloads available.