Real working app? Proof of concept? Science fiction? All of the above? Don't care. Want it now. This amazing demo shows an App that uses the iPhone's camera to record and display visual tagging information in real time, right in front of you. Drool.
Want to see more? Check out their long (18 minute) presentation from Techcrunch 50. Amazing stuff.
The iPhone Map App, which leverages Google's mapping services, became location aware with 1.1.3, and GPS enabled with the iPhone 3G and 2.0.
Basically, it superimposes a blue circle around the area it believes you're located. More confident the belief, smaller the circle. GPS lock, and a blue dot shows up. Only problem? Sometimes there's not dot and Google's lack of confidence results in a pretty huge circle. Well, last week Google's blog announced some improvements:
TiPb loves answering your emails, but we also love sharing our answers with the community in hopes that more people will benefit, and even better answers will present themselves (hey, that's why we have them forums!). For today's debut TiPb Answers, reader Ryan asks:
I've installed some apps on my phone from itunes, one being facebook mobile. What concerns me is that once i've entered my user/pw the first time it is never required again and anyone who simply "slides" the phone unlocked will have full access. I assume this is true for email as well (although I haven't set that up yet.)
My question is, is there any way to passcode a particular icon on the iphone? Or put a security lock on it?
If you currently own a iPhone 3G and are lucky enough to be paying $15 for the MEdia Net Unlimited data plan, your luck is about to change. And not for the better. AT&T is currently on the hunt for you, and you will soon join the rest of us in coughing up another $15 a month of your hard earned money for the the $30 iPhone 3G data plan.
You chould be receiving the following email anytime now:
Good news? Looks like there really is a new "Home" option for iPhone activation in the US. Bad news? Looks like it has nothing to do with the iPhone being sold unlocked. Apple Insider, who broke the rumor, updates as follows:
Following on the heels of PodcasterGate, another App has been denied entry into Apple's iTunes App Store: Mailwrangler. The reason, according to Apple (as cited by developer Angelo DiNardi, via Daring Fireball):
… Your application duplicates the functionality of the built-in iPhone application Mail without providing sufficient differentiation or added functionality, which will lead to user confusion. …
And:
… There is also no way to edit an account once it has been added. …
The latter is a gimme, and the developer acknowledges it, though feels is a capricious enforcement. The former?
Many developers are still in an uproar over Apple's tight-fisted control of the App Store, and others are distracted by counting the huge heaps of money they're making, and Google's "open" Android Market looms on the horizon, we're left to wonder how this will shake out in the ecosystem.
Some have theorized that Apple rejected Podcaster because iTunes is a revenue stream for Apple, and they don't want any precedence set for bypassing iTunes, even for "free" podcasts. But MobileMail's Gmail functionality doesn't generate any revenue, does it? And all the calculator, weather, etc. App's already duplicate functionality, so what's going on here?
Big Media, which pretty much makes the loons in Big Music seem reasonable, witnessed NBC have the distributive equivalent of a hissy fit last year when they pulled their content from iTunes. At issue? They wanted more control over pricing. They said they wanted lower prices. Anyone ever seen media lower prices on anything established? No. Us neither.
Apple said NBC wanted to be able to charge up to $4.99 per episode of TV, much of which was 22 min. long and had already aired "for free", and that they wanted to be able to bundle content together so, for example, if you wanted Hot Show X, you had to take Dud Show Y as well. Anyone ever seen media overcharge, re-release "Special Editions" to double dip, and raise the prices of movie downloads to DVD levels (when it costs them nothing to distribute and includes none of the bonuses typically packaged with a DVD)? Yeah. All the time.
Still want to give NBC the benefit of the doubt? Remember, one of their demands for coming back was that Apple block non-commercial content from iPods and iPhones. I.e., if you can't prove you bought your show specifically for the iPhone (no content swapping from your PVR! And no home movies!), you're a de facto pirate.
After trying all sorts of disruptive alternate markets, including giving their content ("their" in that they own it, but typically did not create, direct, produce, star, or otherwise do anything but cull and cancel it), away for free on Hulu (to people in the US, at least) along with a back-door onto the iPhone, and through other online distribution models, at Apple's September "Let's Rock" event, it was announced NBC was coming back to iTunes.
Today on the forums we have a couple of newly started threads that you should enjoy. There has been a lot of talk about jailbreaking lately with the new QuickPwn's released for both Mac and Windows. Have you given jailbreaking a try? Let us know in this thread.
