Josh Clark of Global Moxie, Seth Clifford of Nickelfish, Marc Edwards of Bjango, Phill Ryu of Impending, and Rene Ritchie of iMore talk gesture-based user interface: buttonless UI, discoverability, digital authenticity, and the future of gestures. This is Iterate!

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Hosts

• Josh Clark (@globalmoxie) of Global Moxie
• Seth Clifford (@sethclifford) of Nickelfish
• Marc Edwards (@marcedwards) of Bjango
• Phill Ryu (@phillryu) of Impending
• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) of iMore.com

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• Email: podcast@iterate.tv
• Twitter: @iteratetv
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If you're one of the best-of-the-best-of-the-best in mobile design for Android, BlackBerry, iOS, webOS, or Windows Phone, we'd love to get you on the show, or if you've found a drop-dead gorgeous app on any platform and really want us to talk about it, contact us and let us know.

At BlackBerry World 2012, RIM has finally given us a sneak preview of their next generation BlackBerry 10 operating system. It won't be released until later in 2012, likely pitting it head-to-head against iOS 6 and iPhone 5,1, and a lot can change, but here's some of what we've seen so far:

• Highly gesture based. That'll be quick for power-users who become familiar with the system, but RIM will have to work hard to make it discoverable enough to get new users on board.
• Sliding layers of information. Something that looks like an extension of Twitter for iPad, you can slide the screen aside to see notifications behind, slide layers over to get more information, etc.
• Virtual keyboard. Looks very BlackBerry, works to "learn" how each individual types so it can personalize the experience. Presents words you can "flick up" to enter. (See CrackBerry's coverage of the BlackBerry 10 keyboard.)
• Time travel camera. When you take a picture, it records frames before and after and you can pick the perfect shot from that period of time. Be interesting to see what resolution they can get out of that and for how long.
• They also showed off what looked like the BlackBerry 10 versions of FaceTime and AirPlay, on both phones and the PlayBook, stressing their ecosystem play.

Right now there's only the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha to actually get hands-on with, and again a lot can change between now and "later this year" when they release, especially in so competitive a market. A lot of their initial keynote sounded like something straight out of CrackBerry Kevin's smartphone hierarchy of needs. Whether they can focus, target, and most importantly, ship, remains to be seen.

Check out the video below and let us know what you think. Will BlackBerry 10 make RIM competitive again? Anything you see in BlackBerry 10 that you'd like to see in iOS 6?

Source: CrackBerry.com

The current method for fast camera access in iOS 5 might soon be changing into a faster camera access in iOS 5.1, according to Blog do iPhone. The existing method involves double-clicking the Home button and tapping the Camera icon to quickly switch to the Camera app. That's 3 actions and a wait for a separate app to launch or come to the foreground. The new method is a gesture -- a slide up to reveal an embedded camera. That's 1 action and no wait for a separate app. You just slide and shoot.

They're only showing pictures of the supposedly new user interface, so it's hard to tell how it feels in implementation. If accurate, Apple would have to give it enough traction and timeout so you can't accidentally reveal the camera in your purse or pocket, and leave it on to drain the battery.

Likewise, since fast camera access bypasses the passcode lock, hopefully Apple will add a Settings toggle to disable it when and if you want to, like for when your prankster friend is visiting and tries to photo bomb you.

iOS 5.1 has been in developer beta for a long while now, with current guestimates pegging its release sometime in March to coincide with the iPad 3 release.

Source: Blog Do iPhone

More: iPhone photography starters guide, iPhone photography projects, iPhone photography forums

Activator allows you to launch apps or utilities on your jailbroken iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with a quick swipe, tap, or button press. Swipe up from the bottom of your screen to quick compose a text, double tap the status bar to bring up SBSettings, or shake your device to take a screenshot. Setting up an Activator gesture takes just a few seconds and the possibilities are endless.

Install Activator

Activator can be found in your Settings app. If you're jailbroken, chances are you already have Activator installed whether you know it or not. Many utilities and applications in Cydia, the jailbreak app store, support it, and will install it as a pre-requisite to using the app. SBSettings, which lets you quickly toggle Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Airplane mode, among other things, is an example.

If you don't see an Activator your Settings app, you can install it for free via Cydia.

1. Launch Cydia and tap on the **Search** tab.
2. Type in **Activator**
3. Tap on **Activator**
4. Tap the **Install** button in the upper right hand corner.

Your device will require you to re-spring (restart the Springboard, or Home screen app) after installation. Then you're good to go.

How to configure a gesture in Activator

1. Launch the **Settings** app.
2. Tap **Activator**.
3. Choose how you want to trigger an actions.
4. Choose what you want the action to do.
5. One the supported apps show up, choose the one you want.

We typically recommend you allow Activator gestures to work from anywhere. However, you may not want this if you're setting a gesture that slides in from the bottom or top of the screen as it can conflict with the controls of some games. There's nothing like trying to slice in Fruit Ninja only to suddenly find yourself in a different app!

There are plenty of action options to choose from. For example, you can set up double tap on the status bar to bring up quick reply for Messages+.

Once you're done, you'll be able to perform any gesture you've specified, or call up any supported app or command on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

Under iOS 5 you can even set up Twitter gestures and other system gestures like activating Siri.

If you have any favorite or especially cool Activator gestures set ups you'd like to share, let us know in the iMore apps, hacks, and themes forum.

Additional jailbreak resources:

• Jailbreak news, guides, and how to's
• General jailbreak help and discussion forums

Marc, Seth, and Rene iterate about the Windows 8 app store, Twitter 4.0, and Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich multitouch tracking, and interrogate Global Moxie's Josh Clark about the future of gesture-based interfaces. This is Iterate!

• Our podcast feed
• Download Directly
• Subscribe via iTunes

• Window Store announced. Has some great rules that favour developers and customers alike
• New new Twitter, iOS app, Android app, website etc
  
  • Brent Simmons’ take
  • Mike Rundle’s take
  • John Gruber's take
  • Ross Rader's take

• Josh Clark of the Global Moxie

Hosts

• Marc Edwards (@marcedwards) of Bjango
• Seth Clifford (@sethclifford) of Nickelfish
• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) of TiPb.com

Feedback

• Email: podcast@iterate.tv
• Twitter: @iteratetv
• Facebook: Iterate page

If you're one of the best-of-the-best-of-the-best in mobile design for Android, BlackBerry, iOS, webOS, or Windows Phone, we'd love to get you on the show, or if you've found a drop-dead gorgeous app on any platform and really want us to talk about it, contact us and let us know.

Zephyr by chpwn has been updated to version 1.0.1 to add a few enhancements and fix a few existing bugs. Among the changes are fixes to disable multitasking gestures within apps such as Cut the Rope or Words with Friends where you may not want gestures to be active.

For those not familiar, Zephyr adds multitasking gestures to the iPhone similar to those found on the iPad. It registers bezel to screen swipes to allow a much easier way to multitask and switch between apps than the options you are given stock. If you're jailbroken, you can pick up Zephyr from Cydia for $2.99. You can check out all the changes and enhancements to Zephyr via the Pastie link below.

Source: @chpwn via Pastie

Have a broken or buggy iPhone Home Button and curious how to work around it? When Apple released iOS 4.1 several of our readers reported a bug with their iPhone Home Button, and for some of us, performing a restore or waiting for Apple to fix it in a software update hasn't paid off.

If you aren't near an Apple Store to swap out your iPhone, or you're out of warranty, here's something you can do to help circumvent the problem using Activator gestures to simulate a Home Button click -- hit the jump to find out how it's done!

Activator is a well-known jailbreak extension that integrates gestures into your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch using a system-wide mobilesubstrate hook in iOS. You can designate a number of gestures to do things like launch apps, perform tasks, toggle WiFi on-the-fly and a lot more -- you can even map a gesture to the Home Button!

My personal iPhone 4 has had this issue for a while. Right now I just swipe up from the bottom of the screen in order to 'press' the Home Button, and swipe up from the bottom-right to call up the app switcher. It was a little awkward at first, but after a day or two my muscle-memory kicked in and I haven't been annoyed by the Home Button problem ever since -- simply because I never actually have to press it anymore.

If you haven't already jailbroken your iPhone then check out our jailbreak starters guide first. Then just follow these quick steps to get Activator set up to allow a custom Home Button gesture:

1. After installing Activator in Cydia (free) open the Settings app and select Activator from the settings menu.
2. Tap 'Anywhere'.
3. Now you'll have to select your desired gesture here. I chose the Slide In gesture but you can choose whatever you prefer.
4. Now swipe up to reveal the search bar and run a quick search for the Home Button.

You'll need to kill the Settings app for the gesture to kick in, and you can go through the same steps for setting up a gesture for the iOS app switcher as well.

That's it! Using a gesture to simulate the Home Button has taken away those random frustrating moments when my Home Button wouldn't respond, and we hope it helps you get around the problem too! Let us know what other suggestions and work-arounds you've come up with in the comments below!

Bonus Tip: @JBaby_9783 on Twitter suggested using rubbing alcohol to help clean dust and grit from areas around the Home Button. You'll need to wet a QTip with 91% rubbing alcohol and apply it on and around the Home Button after you've powered off your iPhone. Get the button area slightly wet (having a small puddle in the concave of the button is fine) and then press the Home Button multiple times while it's still wet, then let dry. You can quicken the drying process by applying a blow dryer to your iPhone for about a minute, but make sure it's fully dry before powering the iPhone back on. This should help address response issues with the Home Button but you won't see a change if your problem is bug-related.

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

PatentlyApple has uncovered some interesting patent applications from Apple involving new multitouch gestures and smart bezels aimed at making interaction more simple and gestures more memorable.

Apple's patent introduces us to mid-drag gestures, microgestures within gestures, and other gesture modification motions performed contiguously within an overall gesture (i.e., without losing contact with the touch-sensitive input surface during the gesture) to provide intuitive ways to interact with a user interface for varying purposes, such as modifying user interface behaviors, changing optionally displayed items, etc.

Apple states that the use of mid-drag gestures reduces the cognitive burden on a user, thereby creating a more efficient human-machine interface. For battery-operated computing devices, enabling a user to use mid-drag gestures allows for faster and more efficient use of user interfaces, thereby conserving power and increasing the time between battery charges.

Apple did enable some additional multitouch gestures in the beta of iOS 4, but they never made it to the final release. If you are a registered developer they can still be enabled.

The illuminated smart bezel would allow some controls to be moved off the display, so fingers no longer cover areas of the screen. Parts of the bezel could illuminate indicating control regions for starting and stopping media, navigating maps, playing games, etc. While Palm has used a gesture region since the introduction of the Pre and RIM will be using a 1-pixel wide screen border to detect gestures coming off the bezel, and illuminated bezel would offer better orientation for users and the possibility of more dynamic and flexible interactions.

Of course just because Apple patents something is no indication we'll see them in real world software or hardware any time soon, though wouldn't they be interesting in iOS 5 and iPhone 5?

[Patently Apple, x2]

It looks like those dreamy new multitasking navigation gestures in iOS 4.3 -- pinch to return home, swipe sideways between apps, swipe up for the fast app switcher dock -- may not be making it into the release version, as the iOS 4.3 beta 2 notes say:

This feature will not be enabled in iOS 4.3 for customers, but we are providing this preview to gather input on how these gestures work with your apps.

Developers are encouraged to evaluate any existing interactions in their applications for potential sources of interference. In order to properly interoperate with multitasking gestures, applications must properly handle the following methods and notifications:

Of course anything can and will change between now and iOS 4.3's final release, but without these gestures the iPad version looks suddenly anemic compared to iPhone's personal hotspot update. And it begs the question -- if not now, when? Saving it for Scott Forstall to show off at the iOS 5 preview event in a couple months?

If you want to see what you may just be missing out on now, check out the video on our complete iOS 4.3 beta walkthrough... then sound off in the comments!

Boy Genius is reporting that, according to a source, iPad 2 won't have a physical home button and will rely completely on the multitouch gestures introduced in the iOS 4.3 beta. They were also told this change may be extended to the iPhone 5 later this year.

We have exclusively been told that the reason Apple just added multitouch gestures for the iPad in the latest iOS 4.3 beta is because the iPad will be losing the home button [...] Our source said Apple employees are already testing iPads and iPhones with no home buttons on the Apple campus, and it’s possible we will see this new change materialize with the next-generation iPad and iPhone devices set to launch this year.

In addition, they state that Photo Booth (more evidence of a front-facing iPad camera) and iLife apps will be available on the iPad around the same time the iPad 2 hits the market.

Removing the Home Button is a pretty far-fetched idea. As John Gruber points out, gestures can supplement the Home Button like keyboard shortcuts supplement GUI buttons for expert users, but removing the Home Button would completely confuse a new user.

What do you think, should the Home Button go away?

[BGR]

Here we go, everything you need to know about iOS 4.3 for iPhone and iPad in just 5 minutes -- orientation lock/mute switch toggle, multitouch navigation gestures, and Wi-Fi personal hotspot.

If you don't have a lot of time but do have a lot of curiosity, just hit the video up top, sit back and watch, and then let us know what you think in the comment below.

UPDATE: We've now got our complete iOS 4.3 beta walkthrough online, so go check it out!

Note: If you're running iOS 4.3 and you can't get the multitouch gestures to work, try connecting to Xcode and hitting the "use this device for development" link. That should make the toggle pop up in Settings.

Now iPhone will be getting those gestures and iPad that hotspot... right?

Screenshots after the break!

A new Apple patent was just revealed that suggests iOS (and the upcoming Mac OS X Lion) could have scrolling menus and toolbars The idea would be that users could bring up menus and toolbars that apply to whatever application they're in, scroll through them, and select a command from the toolbar itself.

The patent also tells us that these toolbars could consist of text only commands or that icons could be used. To put it in simpler terms, it could change the way you interact with your OS. Right now in Mac OS X we use drop-down menus to save a file, open a document, or edit them. In iOS we use typically use pop-up menus. This patent implies that Apple may be looking at changing it up a bit. I'm not quite sure how I feel about scrolling through menus on a Mac or if I prefer the traditional solution (drop-down menus are easy to access), but I could definitely see this being an extremely useful feature in iOS. What do you guys think?

[via PatentlyApple]

9to5Mac continues its tradition of tearing through new iPhone 3.2 SDK for iPad betas, this time digging into beta 4 and finding:

In the gestures folder, you'll see two new types of commands (3Tap.plist and LongPress.plist) that are certainly not implemented in the current 3.1 iPhone SDK.

No idea what these mean yet, but if you were Apple, what would you use the triple tap and long press for? (Aside from morse code!)

Okay, that headline about how an analyst thinks Apple should lower the price and add new features next June/July when they release the 4th generation iPhone (not iPhone 4G, that's a couple years and an LTE network away) is only semi-facetious. Apple has lowered up-front costs and increased features on every generation of iPhone, after all. Last year the iPhone 3G dropped to $99 and the iPhone 3GS added video recording, hardware encryption, voice control, and a host of other things -- never mind iPhone 3.0. According to AppleInsider, however, Katy Huberty of Morgan Stanley has two things more specific in mind.

"We expect Apple to launch new iPhones in June that offer both a lower total cost of ownership and new functionality, potentially including gesture-based technology."

We'll leave the part about gestures alone; just file it under "reads the same patent applications we do" and move right along. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), however, is interesting because in 2008, even as the iPhone 3G was offered at $199, the cost of the AT&T data plan rose to $30/m making the overall TCO (over the course of the 2-year contract) higher.

Now, if Apple wants the iPhone to battle it out with Nokia in emerging markets, TCO is vitally important. But Apple hasn't historically chosen to battle it out in the low-end PC space, and their answer to netbooks wasn't cheaper MacBooks but the iPad. Makes it tough to see them doing it with discount iPhones.

In the US, big, colorful charts show how much you can save in terms of TCO on other networks and devices. With the iPad coming, and tiered AT&T data plans coming with it, maybe it's not unreasonable to think a reduction in TCO is in order -- not just "everything unlimited" but "overall less expensive". Then again, AT&T isn't hurting for subscribers or iPhone sales, so where this downward pressure would come from, if not Apple or our simply wishing it so, is unclear.

What do you think? Any chance Apple will pull "magical new plans" out of AT&T for the 4th generation iPhone?

Patently Apple brings another interesting Apple proposal to our attention -- this one involving using the iPhone camera to detect swipes backward, forward, and the accelerometer to detect pause or play for things like Voice Mail without having to move the iPhone away from your ear. But that's not all:

Consider the following example of navigating the display screen. If the user wishes to scroll down on a webpage or text document, then the user would simply move their finger across the camera lens in an upward direction (i.e., towards the top of the screen 200). This would be consistent with moving the page "up" so as to bring a bottom portion of the page into view. To move the page down (and thereby bring a top portion of the page into view), the reverse needs to occur, i.e., the user needs to swipe across the lens in a downward direction. Note that navigation on the display screen (using a finger swipe across the camera lens) need not be limited to straight up and down, but rather could be performed in other or additional directions (e.g. left and right). Now that Apple is introducing "iBook" – think of flipping the page of a book using this method so that you don't even have to move your hands from the iPhone or future camera based iPad.

So now we've heard of case gestures, bevel gestures, and camera gestures... Of course Apple patents tons of stuff we haven't and may never see in real products, but are any of these starting to interest you?

[Patently Apple via MacRumors]

Dear Apple: yesterday, as part of your huge pre-holiday product launch, you announced a new iPhone-inspired multi-touch Magic Mouse with gestures. It looks nice. It might even (finally!) be a decent mouse. But TiPb's left to wonder -- for those of us who already have iPhones and iPod touches, wouldn't it be even nicer to have an official "Magic Mouse" app? Scratch that, given the greater functionality in the MacBook (and MacBook Pro) multi-touch Glass Trackpads, wouldn't it be great if you could just give us that in the App Store?

We have the Apple Remote (no, not the new doohickey, the app!), true enough, but that's limited to iTunes and the Apple TV (not even Front Row!), and we have the Keynote Remote, but again that's limited to presentation software. And granted, there are some great third party remote apps that do way more than just Mac. But you make Mac. Why not just take that wonderful technology you've built into Snow Leopard, hook it up over Bluetooth (until you get WiFi Direct going), and let us swipe, pinch, rotate, one-finger, two-finger, three-finger, four-finger move our way around the Mac just like the Magic Mouse -- or the Glass Trackpad -- from anywhere in Bluetooth range?

Dear Apple, we have the device, you have the technology. Hit the "launch" button on this one already! Sitting 10' away on a sofa, using our iPhone or iPod touch to seamlessly gesture through everything on our media center Mac Mini or massive 27" new iMac... t'would be sweet!

(And hey, Microsoft and Windows 7 developers -- feel free to hook us up for your phenomenal multi-touch support as well!)

MacRumors brings word of yet more Apple patents passing through the system, this time focusing on multi-touch gestures. How can you patent a gesture? Don't get us started. The USPO has raised the bar on ludicrous so high a giant could now safely run under it. The particulars of this one is interesting to anyone interested in the iPhone interface, however:

For example, erasing and basic punctuation insertion, directional swipes (also referred to herein as "swipe gestures") over the alphabetic keys can be used as an alternative to striking certain keys. Because the Space and Backspace keys are quite frequently used, they are logical candidates for the rightward and leftward swipes, respectively. Leftward and rightward swipes intuitively match the cursor travel caused by these symbols. Following this cursor movement analogy, the Enter/Return may be invoked by a downward swipe, and a Shift/Caps may be invoked by an upward swipe. Alternatively, as the Enter and Shift functions may be less frequently invoked, these may be substituted for other functions as well. One alternative mapping for the upward swipe, for example, could be to activate an alternative numeric and punctuation keypad or a particular punctuation symbol like an apostrophe or period.

Our question? Where's the cut/copy paste gesture already?!