Have you ever come across a PDF file while surfing the web in Safari and wondered how to save a copy to iBooks for later viewing? Whether you need to save an important forms, an eBook, a user manual, an insurance policy, or something as simple as a nutritional information sheet for your favorite restaurant, your iPhone and iPad have the ability to save to iBooks built right in. And using iBooks to store and manage PDFs is much, much easier than saving tons of bookmarks and waiting for them to re-load each time.

Here’s how to do it.

Note: Make sure you have Apple’s free iBooks app installed on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. If you don’t, you can get it from the App Store.

• Free – Download now

1. launch Safari
2. Go to the PDF link you want to save.
3. Tap the screen once to bring up the overlay menu beneath the address bar.
4. Tap Open in iBooks.
5. iBooks will launch, and in a few moments, it will add the PDF to your collection.

You can find your PDF any time simply by launching iBooks and taping the Library button in the upper left hand corner. Your PDFs will all be on your shelf.

You should be able to do this with any standard PDF you find in Safari and decide to keep.

Bonus Tip: If you have iBooks installed on more than one device, including iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and iTunes on Mac or Windows, and iCloud syncing enabled, all your PDFs will automatically be downloaded to those other devices as well.

Yearly is an iPhone app that pulls the birthday and anniversary information stored in your Contacts and displays them in a nice chronological list so you can keep track of which of these important dates are coming up next. When your friend’s birthday arrives, Yearly will send you a notification and you can quickly text, email, or call from within the app.

Since Apple’s built-in Contacts and Calendar apps support birthdays, you may be wondering the point of an app like Yearly. With the beautiful list that Yearly generates, it’s really easy to keep track of who’s birthday or anniversary is next in line and plan accordingly. You can also set it up to send you a notification 1-14 days before the events so that you are reminded if you want to buy a gift. Yearly has also implemented some nice gestures so that sending a Happy Birthday text is just a quick swipe away.

Tapping on a contact will bring you to a stripped down version of the info you’d find in the Contacts app. In nice big letters, Yearly tells you how old the person will turn on his or her next birthday and you’ll also find any notes you’ve stored for that contact, their phone number and email address. One piece of information that you find in Yearly but not Contacts is your friend’s zodiac sign.

Yearly may be duplicating some functionality of Apple’s built-in apps, but it’s focusing on a single function — keeping track of birthdays and anniversaries. The removal of unrelated information and the gorgeous UI is what makes Yearly a desirable app.

$0.99 – Download Now

Apple has released two new iPhone 4S ads, and like most of the previous commercials, they focus on Siri, the virtual personal assistant.

Road Trip shows a couple planning a cross-country trip, and using Siri to learn the best route, to find the best barbecue and find out about rodeos along the way, to find out where they are, to learn how big the Grand Canyon is, to find gas stations within walking distance (d’oh!), to learn what the constellation Orion looks like, and to remind them to do it all again.

Rock God shows a young man planning a music carrier, and using Siri to find out where to buy a guitar, how to play certain songs, creating lists of potential band names, to send messages to the ladies about when and where his band will be practicing, and to call him “Rock God”.

With Siri still in beta, there have been arguments raised against Apple making it the staple feature of their iPhone 4S advertising, saying it doesn’t work in real life anywhere nearly as well. However, Siri is also the most impressive, most demonstrable, most advertise-able feature of the new iPhone.

“When it comes to storing and syncing files online, Dropbox’s accessibility from multiple platforms, easy to use interface, free starting service, and reasonably priced professional services make it hard to beat.”

Dropbox is one of several high-profile cloud storage and sync solutions, but it comes out on top due to its fantastic iPhone (and iPad) support, multi-platform availability, easy to use interfaces, excellent availability and reliability, and highly competitive pricing.

Apple’s iCloud is a great way to keep your personal information, your device data, and a few, compatible files like iWork backed up and in sync. However, iCloud doesn’t provide anything beyond that. If you want to store files strictly online, if you want to access and edit them from other platforms, if you want past versions of files kept available, if you want an actual filesystem to work with, then iCloud isn’t enough. (Anything a previous user of iDisk on MobileMe or .Mac knows and laments.)

Dropbox does all this, easily and transparently, and more.

Dropbox looks just like an iPhone version of Windows Explorer or Mac OS X Finder... or the old iDisk app

Dropbox for iPhone opens up with a list of all the files and folders you have stored on their servers, arrange alphabetically. You can swipe up or down to browse, or just like Contacts, you can tap a letter on the right side of the screen to jump to files and folders that begin with that letter. It’s like a very simple, iPhone optimized version of Windows Explorer or Mac finder.

If you tap on a file your iPhone understands, like text, HTML, PDF, documents, music, or video, Dropbox will open it up and show it to you. If it’s an image file and the folder you’re in has multiple images, Dropbox will show you a small gallery button at the top left and if you tap on it, will switch to a thumbnail view for easier browsing. You can even delete files right from your iPhone if you want to.

Dropbox gives special treatment to images, including a gallery view option

If another app on your iPhone understands and can do more with that file, like edit it, Dropbox will list the app under the action button and offer to send it there for you. You can also tap the Link button to share the file via email or copy it to the clipboard, or the Favorites (star) button to store a copy of the file locally (so you can access it when offline).

If there's another app on your iPhone that can better handle a file, Dropbox will let you send it over.

You can choose how much local storage you want Dropbox to use in the options tab. This makes it really handy for not only stories work files or family pictures, but storing PDF copies of your travel documents (airplane, hotel, event registrations, photo of your passport, etc.) as a backup.

Allot a certain amount of local storage for quick offline viewing

Dropbox, smartly, made an open API (Application Programming Interface) so other apps could tie into their services. A lot of iOS apps have chosen to do so, including list-makers, password utilities, and text editors. Here are just a few of our favorites:

• 1Password
• Elements
• Comic Zeal
• Noteshelf
• PDF Expert

That means it’s really easy to access your files from pretty much anywhere. (Several of us here at iMore keep our entire local work directories in Dropbox, which means our computers are in sync at home, at work, and while traveling, and setting up a new computer is much, much easier.)

Dropbox also makes it easy to share folders and files. I’ve got several folders set up, some private, some shared. When I’m working on a website for a client I can share a folder with them so we can collaborate and they can preview what I’m doing and share back information I might need. This is far more productive than swapping emails and losing track of changes and versions.

Options vary depending on the type of file, but sharing with Dropbox is as easy as tapping and choosing.

You can move non-vital files off your iPhone (or iPad) an onto Dropbox to free up valuable local storage space. For example, if you have an iPhone 4S you have probably noticed how fast you can fill your phone with 1080p video and high quality images. While I was never able to fill 32GB on my iPhone 4, I’m quickly hitting a wall on my iPhone 4S.

Using Dropbox, I can simply upload photos and videos right from within the app, delete them from the Camera Roll, and still have access to them whenever I’m online. (The online part is key — if you absolutely, positively have to have something available, make sure you store it locally on your device. Dropbox is for the vast majority of stuff that’s okay to leave online.)

If you’re traveling and away from your computer, and you need to share a file, you don’t have to wait until you get back — just share a link from Dropbox.

Add a passcode to protect sensitive files in your Dropbox

With any online storage solution, security is important. Dropbox encrypts files in transit and when stored on their servers. Dropbox also allows you to protect your files with a passcode on your iPhone. After so many incorrect attempts you can tell it to wipe your data off that device as well. I use Dropbox to store client files and business information so anytime I configure it on my iPhone, I make sure I add a passcode for added protection on top of my default iPhone password.

If that’s not secure enough, you can even store encrypted disk images in dropbox, though you won’t be able to open them on your iPhone.

Backup is also extremely important. With Dropbox, copies of all your files are stored on their servers. So if you lose your iPhone or your PC hard drive fails, you haven’t lost any important date. You just replace the device or the drive, install Dropbox, and all your stuff is back.

While Dropbox is free up to 2GB, there are paid plans available as well

The Dropbox app for iPhone (and iPad, it’s universal) is free, as are your first 2GB of storage. If you need more, they have several reasonable price plans available.

• 2GB Basic account – Free
• 50GB Pro account – $9.99/month
• 100GB Pro account – $19.99/month
• 1TB+ Team accounts – $795/year for first 5 users

Dropbox also has a referral program that allows you to net an additional 250MB of storage space for each person you refer. Free accounts can earn up to 8GB from referrals while Pro users can get an additional 16GB of free space on top of their paid storage. (So if you sign up for the free account, hit up your friends and family before they find out about it first!)

The good

• Free basic service, reasonably priced plans for power users
• Dedicated apps for iPhone, iPad, other platforms like Android, as well as Windows, Mac, Linux.
• Online access via Dropbox.com
• Wide ranging support from iOS apps
• Referral program allow you to add quite a bit of extra space at no cost to you
• Save images and video from Dropbox directly to your device when you need to
• Easily create links to share files on the go straight from the app

The bad

• File sharing only available on the website
• iOS app lacks viewers for popular formats like Photoshop
• Online file storage is always susceptible to connectivity issues.

Conclusion

When it comes to storing and syncing files online, Dropbox’s accessibility from multiple platforms, easy to use interface, free starting service, and reasonably priced professional services make it hard to beat. Other services like Box.net and Sky Drive are comparable but when it comes to iOS app support and native client ease of use, Dropbox comes out on top.

Free – Download

Google has just released the too-long-in-coming Chrome for Android browser, and Phil from Android Central wasted no time loading it up on his Galaxy Nexus, and putting it up against an iPhone 4S running Safari, for a classic head-to-head, phono-e-phono, Mobile Nations browser showdown video.

Both browsers are based on WebKit, the project Apple adapted from the old Linux KHTML Konquerer browser and has been sharing back with the open source community ever since. So it’s no surprise both score 100/100 on the Acid3 rendering test. Safari makes use of Apple’s Nitro JavaScript engine, however, while Chrome has Google’s V8 under the hood. That let Chrome edge out Safari in the SunSpider JavaScript benchmarks.

Safari and iOS in general still offer smoother, more closely-tracked multitouch scrolling, panning, and zooming. (No doubt due to iOS placing priority on interface rendering tasks, while they’re left to fight as equals on Android.)

Interestingly, Chrome, like Safari, offers no support for Adobe’s Flash player, or any other internet plugin.

Chrome is still in beta and only available for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich right now. No doubt the release version will be even better still.

Likewise, Apple isn’t slowing down. With iOS 5.1 on the horizon, Safari will improve as well.

Heck, now that BlackBerry has their new WebKit-based Torch browser, and Microsoft has embraced modern Internet Explorer builds on Windows Phone, it’s getting harder to find a bad browser out there.

Check out the video below for full out web rendering showdown.

Source: Android Central

Your dreams of becoming the perfect home barista who offers up beautiful lattes to your guests will come true with Coffee Art for iPhone. This app will teach you, in great detail, how to add hearts, tulips, and even dragons to the top of your espresso drinks.

Art of Coffee is like attending a class. Before learning how to create your designs, the app teaches you the basics of espresso making and how to pull the perfect shot. It then focuses on how to steam the ideal pitcher of foamy milk. When it’s time to learn about the designs, Art of Coffee provides detailed, step-by-step instructions and photos, and a videos of the designs being poured and etched into perfection.

There are two levels of difficulty included in Art of Coffee. Essential Art will teach you designs like hearts, tulips and seagulls. The Advanced Art section is where you’ll go to learn the extra fancy designs such as butterflies, dragons, and double heart double rosettas.

Although any coffee lover would enjoy Art of Coffee, it’s important to note that accessibility to an espresso machine is required in order to attempt any of the designs. (If you have any recommendations, I’m guessing a lot of us are suddenly in the market!)

$2.99 – Download Now

“Women make up 50% of the global population, 40% of the global workforce, yet women own only 1% of the world’s wealth”. This fact is the first thing you read upon launching Fotopedia Women of the World before diving into this tribute to the diversity, beauty and strength of women on this earth.

Fotopedia Womeon of the World is filled with hundreds of beautiful images and stories of women from 75 different countries. Through photographer Olivier Martel’s art, you will witness the fighting spirit of these women in the face of human, political, religious or dramatic events. In her words,

It’s about giving people their dignity in a photographic homage that takes the form of a search for beauty.

Some of the women you will discover in Fotopedia Women of the world include a woman whose daughter had just been saved from malaria, girl-soldiers in Mozambique, nuns in the convents in France, and Ivory Coast healers who are feared for their power.

This is a must have app for any photojournalism lover. Even if you don’t have time to read all the stories or flick through every photo, Fotopedia has equipped the app with a slideshow so that you can enjoy seeing the images displayed on your iPhone or iPad while going about your day.

Free – Download Now

One of the cool features of Foursquare is Explore, a way to find really great things to see and do nearby to where you are, but until now, most of its features were only available on the web. That’s all changed with Foursquare 4.2 for iPhone — you can now set your location and filter your recommendations by type, or even specific foods like “ham sandwich”. Your search result just got a lot more personalized!

One of the improvements with the new version of Foursquare is that your recommendations are also now dependent on time of day, where your friends have been, and places on the lists you follow. That means many more data points are factored in to the process. You are also no longer restricted to only searching for recommendations in your current location. If you’re on your way downtown and want to search for places to go before you get there, you can move the map to the area you wish to search, or specifically search a specific neighborhood, city, or address.

Oh, and Foursquare also snuck in menu and pricing information in the update. Pretty sweet!

Free – Download Now

Source: Foursquare

Mid week and things have been rather busy here at iMore thus far. Lots of updates, news and rumors happening. If you missed out on anything make sure you get yourself caught up either here on the blogs or in the iMore forums. You can register now to get started today and while you’re at it, check out some of the threads below:

• Where do you keep your brightness?
• Forgot restriction password
• How many of you use iCloud?
• Twitter apps with multiple account support?
• How much data did you use last billing cycle?

If you’re not already a member of the iMore Forums, register now!

Still waiting impatiently for iOS 5.1 to be released? Well, carrier profiles that were recently published by iPhone carriers in Japan, France, Greece, Finland, and Sweden indicate a March 9 release date for iOS 5.1.

Apple has been slowly trickling out betas for weeks and weeks now, more slowly and less regularly than is usual for an iOS beta cycle. In previous years, the new version of iOS would debut with the iPhone in June and the x.1 release with the iPod touch in September. This year, iOS 5 didn’t debut until October with the iPhone 4S, and there was no new iPod touch. So we’re in uncharted territory here.

Based on leaks from the beta, there also don’t seem to be many new features included in iOS 5.1. At least not yet. March 9 would put the iOS 5 release somewhere around the anticipated March release date for the iPad 3.

That starts to sound interesting. Apple has been known to hold back key features in the past, preferring to introduce them live on stage when unveiling a new device.

We’re hip deep in crazy rumor season right now, so it’s impossible to say what, if anything, carrier profile dates have to do with actual Apple plans. (Which can and have changed at the last moment anyway.) But things do look like they’re aligning nicely.

Source: Your Daily Mac

Dell Voice launched in Canada today, allowing iPhone owners to get a free phone number with both free incoming and outgoing Canada-wide calls to land lines and mobiles alike.  The service comes complete with voicemail, caller ID, Call Waiting, and even 911 emergency calling. The VoIP app was built with Fongo, operating over a network called Fibernetics which seems well-entrenched across all of the major Canadian cities and a lot of the smaller ones. If you’re calling someone outside of Canada, they have some pretty reasonable international rates. Dell Voice provides you with a local number, and when you receive a call, it pops up as a notification on your iPhone. The call is then routed over a data connection, be it 3G or Wi-Fi – a great situation if you’re on a shoestring budget and all you have is an iPod touch. You can also port over an existing number for a one-time $25 fee.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any utilities for handling text messaging, but seeing as we don’t have access to Google Voice up here, I think we’re happy to just have access to a free VoIP phone number. It would be great to see Dell Voice to expand to include Video Calling, at which point it would be properly competing with the recently-launched Rogers One Number.  On that note, I’m really curious to hear how carriers will react to this service. I find this is a little more aggressive than Skype, since you don’t have to pay to get a number for incoming calls. The little carriers, Wind Mobile and Mobilicity, are having a hard enough time attracting customers even with absurdly cheap plans, and I worry that something like Dell Voice would cut them out altogether. Of course, the dependability of the service is yet to be seen, and if it’s not up to snuff, it might not be worth your while.

The one set-up that Dell suggests that I could see being helpful is creating a number for out of town, so if you have family elsewhere in the country, they could make local calls to you.  Dell Voice apps are available for iOS and Android, with BlackBerry coming soon. There’s also a PC app if you want to start taking calls on your computer. Head on over to the Dell Voice landing page for a closer look, or download directly from iTunes to get registered.

Tweetbot, the widely popular iPhone Twitter that also just happens to be a 2011 iMore readers choice, and editors choice award winner, has just been updated with new timeline and direct message views that feature image thumbnails, a redesigned “new tweets” bar, support for readability, and more.

Following the launch of the official Twitter 4.0 redesign, many power users fell out of love with the new, more mainstream direction Twitter decided to take, and switched over to Tweetbot instead. I’ve been using Tweetbot since it launched and it has consistently been one of my favorite Twitter apps.

The Tweetbot 2.0 update has made the already awesome experience even better. Now that the timeline features image thumbnails, Tweetbot meets all my requirements of the ideal Twitter app: gorgeous, fast, native push notifications, and image previews.

The new timeline also features colored links that are single-tappable, a new “retweeted by” bar, and some minor adjustments to the cell colors to improve contrast. The tweet replies view has also received some changes, and the overall performance of the app, including scrolling, is snappier.

$2.99 – Download Now

Hasbro has announced that its next release of Lazer Tag guns will use your iPhone or iPod touch to provide augmented reality and a heads up display. The Lazer Tag guns can accept an iPhone or iPod touch which is slotted into the gun in a purpose made holder. The user can then download an app from the App Store which can keep track of your gear, power levels and also setup multiplayer games with up to 23 other players.

To experience the LAZER TAG game, players download the free LAZER TAG app to their iPhone or iPod touch device, connect their device to their LAZER TAG blaster, and find themselves immersed in a world where video games and real life connect. Using either single or multi-player mode, players can engage in a LAZER TAG match featuring either real life worlds or virtual opponents. Each LAZER TAG blaster equipped with a device has a virtual firing range of over 250 feet and contains a ‘Heads Up Display’, or HUD, which allows players to keep track of their gear and remaining power, while also providing a view of the augmented reality targets and enemies in the area. A virtual leaderboard keeps track of each player’s profile and, with every successful mission, players will gain in-game access to upgradeable attacks, missions and gear. With LAZER TAG blasters, the stakes are high, the game is real. Don’t just play it, live it.

The Lazer Tag blasters will be available in August this year. A single gun will cost around $39.99. The app will be available as a few download.

Source: Engadget

The VooMoteZapper is a small accessory that clips into the dock connector of your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch and turns it into a universal infrared remote control for your TV and home theater components. Figuring out which remote controls which device, where to find batteries when they run dry, how to fix them when something goes wrong, or what to do when you can’t find them are just some of the problems we face. There are a lot of dedicated universal controls, from cheap dollar-store varieties to incredibly expensive, programable Harmony remotes already. All of them offer to make our lives simpler and easier by replacing the complexity of multiple remote controls with a single, simple solution. There are other iPhone remote adapters as well. But the VooMoteZapper looks to be one of the smallest and most elegant so far.

 Say goodbye to the days of switching from app to app or fumbling for the right remote.  The all-in-one VooMote Zapper software and hardware combine all you need for an entire home entertainment experience. With VooMote Zapper App, you don’t have to sacrifice customization for convenience. Consolidate all your remotes, TV Guide functionality (coming 2012), facebook and twitter (coming 2012) and still define custom remote layouts, programming and much more!

The VooMoteZapper can not only control single items of equipment but, like a Harmony remote, it also has the ability to be programmed with macro functions too. This enables you to program a string of commands under one function for example “Watch a movie”, this could then automatically turn on your TV, start your Blu-ray player and turn on your home theater surround sound system too.

Unlike the Harmony and other, dedicated, universal remotes, it harnesses the wonderful multitouch display of the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad for its user interface, making it far more powerful and easier to use.

The downside of course is that you need to have an iOS 5-compatible device available in your living room all the time. If you have an extra iPod touch, it won’t be a problem. If you’re trying desperately to change channels and your spouse is talking on the iPhone or your child is playing on the iPad, it could be quite frustrating.

The VooMoteZapper is available online from the Apple Store for $69.95 and is available in a few different colors like red, green, blue, pink and gray.

$69.95 – Buy now

Via: 9to5 Mac

What it lacks in depth or features, HQ: To Do makes up for in speed, style, and simplicity. For those interested in getting things done, it’s a good place to start.

HQ: To Do for iPhone is for those who need more than Apple’s built-in Reminders app, but not anything as complex or costly as some of the full on GTD (Getting Things Done) or power-user productivity apps available in the App Store. Part of the new generation of big, bold, user experiences, HQ: To Do does a good job of making sure most of what you need is always right under-thumb, and available, with a couple taps or swipes. And it looks great doing it.

Creating projects and lists in HQ: To Do is very easy and fast because the UI isn’t cluttered with an overflow of options. HQ: To Do also makes use of quick gestures like sliding over a project for easy access to checking it as done, deleting it, or making edits.

That makes HQ: To Do a good fit for everything from groceries to packing lists to daily to-dos. The touch targets are large, which makes the interface easy to use while out and about, and there are enough colors and contrasts to easily let your eye quickly find exactly what it’s looking for.

It’s also really easy to see which tasks are still pending, which tasks are done, and which are (long?) overdue. If you’re action oriented, HQ: To Do makes it simple to know what’s next. HQ: To Do also makes clever use of gestures so, once you’ve gotten familiar with it, getting around is as quick as a swipe and a flick. There are even “quick-swipe” filters to rapidly re-order and re-organize your projects.

Again, HQ: To Do isn’t for the GDT or super-productivity crowds. If that’s you, you’ll be happier with Omnifocus, Appigo Todo, or Things. HQ: To Do, however, is a good way to get started.

$1.99 – Download Now

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

If you’ve created home videos with your iPhone but are having a hard time finding music to accompany them, YouTube Producer has come to the rescue! YouTube Producer offers tens of thousands of copyright-free music tracks that you can add background, ambiance, and mood to your personal productions.

Copyright-free is the key point here. Most of us have big music libraries we’d like to use, but the songs they’re filled with are copyrighted. If we add them to our videos, we could get complaints, and YouTube could remove the videos. Using YouTube Producer alleviates this concern completely. It has a great selection of music that can be sorted by genre, mood or tempo, and it’s 100% safe to use.

There are some limitations, however. Namely, the music you choose for your video must be placed in the background of the entire video. Using it’s music for just your intro, for example, is not an option. You do have control over volume, however — either mix the music with the video’s existing audio, or have the new music replace the audio track completely.

Also, YouTube Producer isn’t a full blown video editor. If that’s what you’re looking for, you need to pick up a copy of Apple’s iMovie instead.

If you just want to add a soundtrack or some background music to your the videos in your iPhone Camera roll and easily upload them to YouTube, then this is the app for you.

• Free – App Store link

Georgia, Seth, and Rene talk about copy-cat apps, iMovie vs. Avid, Launch Center, Jailbreak apps for iOS 5, as well as cases with stands, iPhone guns, and glowing Apple logo mods. This is Apps & Accessories Live!

• Subscription information coming soon! Right now you can enjoy Apps & Accessories Live in the iPhone & iPad Live fees!

Meta

• February is fitness month at iMore and Mobile Nations! [iPad 3 giveaway!]
• Don’t forget we give away a ton of stuff!

App News

• Apple removes copy-cat apps from the App Store, doesn’t address larger issues
• iMovie vs Avid Studio: iPad video editing app shootout
• Readdle Remarks brings note-taking and PDF annotating in one to iPad
• Book Palette for Mac offers 10 beautiful templates for iBooks Author
• iMore app picks of the week for February 4, 2012 [Giveaway]

Jailbreak Apps

• BiteSMS vs Messages+ for iOS 5: which should you use?
• LockInfo vs IntelliscreenX for iOS 5 jailbreak: which should you use?
• Hands-on with Zephyr for the iPhone and iPod Touch [Jailbreak Apps]

Launch Center

• Launch Center puts Messages, Facebook, Twitter, a flashlight, more in your iPhone Notification Center

Accessory News

• Xappr Gun turns your iPhone into an FPS dream machine!

• Ten One Design announces Pogo Sketch Plus capacitive stylus for iPhone and iPad
• Hands on with the Jot Touch, a pressure sensitive stylus by Adonit

• Incipio SILICRYLIC case with kickstand for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 vs. Case-Mate Pop! Case with Stand for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4

iPhone Mods

• iFixit Thirsty Bag for iPhone, iPad review
• iFixit iPhone transparent rear panel mod kit review
• Hands on with the glowing Apple logo mod for iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S

Hosts

• Georgia (@GeorgiaTiPb)
• Seth Clifford (@sethclifford)
• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie)

Credits

You can reach all of us on Twitter [@iMore](http://twitter.com/imore), or you can email us at , or leave a comment on the website when the show goes live.

We’re here every Sunday night at 6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern, 2am GMT, and our companion show — iPhone and iPad Live! — is at the same time, on the same channel, on Wednesday nights — www.iMore.com/live

For all our podcasts — audio and video — including iPhone and iPad Live, ZENandTECH and Superfunctional, Iterate and Girls Gone Gadget and more… see MobileNations.com/shows

If you haven’t already please subscribe to all our shows in iTunes and leave a rating. It helps people find the show and means a lot to us!

Thanks to the iMore Accessory Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Halliburton, one of the world’s largest energy corporations with over 70,000 employees worldwide, will be making a huge move away from BlackBerrys, and converting their employees to iPhones. For those still not convinced about the iPhone and iOS’ place in enterprise, this decision comes after Halliburton did significant research into both Apple’s platform and the Android, and decided Apple was the way to go.

BlackBerry is undoubtedly still the best communications device on the planet, but increasingly users and businesses alike are requiring more than just communication — they’re requiring mobile computing platforms.

To give a sense of the breadth of this change, Energy Services Group (ESG) is Halliburton’s largest business segment and provides technical products and services for petroleum and natural gas exploration and production. Up until now Halliburton employees had been given BlackBerries. If they wanted an alternative the only option they were given were Windows Phones. BlackBerry have been part of Halliburton’s IT policy for over 10 years. Right now Halliburton supplies about 4,500 of their employees with BlackBerry smartphones.

BlackBerrys have long been the staple of enterprise — they performed well and lived up to what enterprise customers have come to expect. The iPhone and iPad have made great strides over the past several iterations of iOS in order to provide better support for business users. And it’s paying off.

More and more companies are starting to support iOS in enterprise on a regular basis, while others are letting the users choose with BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) initiatives.

Apple recently announced that pretty much all of the Fortune 500 were testing or deploying iOS devices within their organizations, which is startling considering how slowly enterprise usually is when it comes to responding to new technologies.

Even RIM has made moves to provide BlackBerry enterprise support for iPhone and iPad. Now we just need RIM’s new CEO to provide full on BlackBerry Connect functionality before other companies, like Good ride iPhone and iPad success to an insurmountable lead.

Are you using your iPhone in the enterprise? Let us know how wide iPhone and iPad deployment is where you work, and how they’re affecting productivity.

Source: AppleInsider

TinyWorld is a fun little app that turns your photos into miniature planets that you can save or share with friends. Specifically, it warps what your iPhone camera sees in front of you into 360 degree spheres, making your room, your garden, your skyline, your tourist shots — whatever you want to take a picture of — into the surface of a planet.

TinyWorld was recently updated and now allows you adjust tilting after taking your photo to fine tune where the two ends of you flat world meet. You can also convert your preexisting photos into a TinyWorld. Additionally, exporting your photos directly into Instagram is now supported.

I’m having a lot of fun with this little app! Now I just wish I was back in San Francisco where the tall buildings would make for a fantastic TinyWorld photo.

If you pick this one up, please share your little planets in our Photography Forum. We’d love to see them!

TinyWorld turns your environment into miniaturized worlds. The app’s “One Click to Shoot” process makes this simple and fun, while the live preview editor allows you to see the results before they’re created. And with easy exportation to eMail, Twitter, and Instagram, it’s never been more fun to create planetoids from your iPhone!

• Live preview guarantees quality in the finished product
• Easy exportation to popular social networking services like Twitter and Instagram, as well as eMail
• Seamless creation of planetoid-like photos from shots of your environment
• Fine-tuned controls allow for streamlined editing of shots, even after the shutter has closed

Update notes:

• Even better performing live warping preview
• Warping of existing photos is now also supported
• Adjust the tilting afterwards, to fine tune your planet’s shape
• Gradually adjust the softening of the stitching seam
• Share using email, Twitter or Instagram

TinyWorld is available on the iPhone for $0.99.

• App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Kenisngton and Chelsea College in the UK is planning a new course which will be devoted entirely to taking photographs with the iPhone’s camera. The course in “iPhoneography” is thought to be the first ever course of its kind in the United Kingdom.

The college says many iPhone owners struggle to use the camera properly. Students will create images using the iPhone camera and a range of “apps”. Tutor, Richard Gray, said: “all you need is a passion for photography and a creative mind.” Students are required to have their own iPhone to do the course which will begin next month. “With the right apps and skills, the iPhone can be a powerful creative tool,” said Mr Gray. “It is a great levelling force within photography. No longer do you need expensive or complex equipment to produce great images,” he added.

Mr Gray is planning on teaching students the basic rules of composition, color and light as well as editing skills using various iOS apps. He sees the iPhone as revolutionising photography by the way it allows you to take a picture, edit it and post it online all within minutes; no matter where you are. Mr Gray will also be holding a free workshop at the Apple Store in Regent Street, London in the near future.

We’ve been saying that here at iMore for years, of course. We even have a dedicated iPhone photography forum available for you to discuss the subject, share tips, and start projects. With more to come!

Source: BBC

With the launch of the Mobile Nations Fitness Month odds are you were probably out and about being active and doing things that, unfortunately, led to you missing some great news. Fear not, we know things get in the way, and news can be easy to miss so, let’s check out some of the highlights from the week gone by.

iPhone news

• Is Apple testing Oracle’s ZFS file system to make iOS and iCloud storage better, faster, and more resilient?
• Former Apple manager tells how the original iPhone was developed, why it went with Gorilla Glass
• iPhone 4S demand finally satisfied, all models now in stock for next day delivery
• iPhone 5 to launch at WWDC in June, claims analyst

iPad news

• Could Apple release a separate 4G LTE iPad 3 and Phone 5 in select markets?
• Supposed debug leak shows iPad 3 with quad-core A6 chip and LTE
• More rumors of iPad 3 coming in March, but no “strange” event in February

App news

• Manage your Sprint account on your iPhone with Sprint Mobile Zone
• Angry Birds boss doesn’t see app piracy as a problem
• Pad & Quill brings stylish notes to your iPhone and iPad
• iMovie vs Avid Studio: iPad video editing app shootout

Jailbreak news

• How to tell if your iPhone 3GS has an older or newer bootrom [jailbreak tip]
• Add customization options to ‘slide to unlock’ text with Slider Pro [Jailbreak]
• BiteSMS vs Messages+ for iOS 5: which should you use?
• Add launch preferences to Phone.app with StartDial for iPhone [jailbreak]
• Hands-on with Zephyr for the iPhone and iPod Touch [Jailbreak Apps]

Accessory news

• Hands on with the Crimson cases, sticker skins, and edgings for iPhone
• Case-Mate POP! Case with Stand for iPad 2 review [Giveaway]
• Incipio Hive Honeycomb dermaSHOT Silicone Case for iPad 2 review [Giveaway]
• Griffin Crayola Trace & Draw for iPad 2 review [Giveaway]
• OverBoard waterproof case for iPad review [Giveaway]

Our challenge this week was to find an app that could capture a still image — a photo — while simultaneously shooting video on the iPhone. With the default camera app, you have to stop recording video, switch to still camera mode, shoot a picture, then switch back to video and start recording that. Not ideal. Neither is trying to screen capture while recording, since there are way too many controls visible, cutting into the picture.

With over half a million apps for just about everything, you’d figure there’d have to be at least one in the App Store for this. But with so many apps, it can be hard to find the one you want. That’s where we come in. We’re sorting through the App Store and we’re going to help find just exactly the app for that.

App for that: QuickPix

QuickPix does exactly what Ron is looking for. While filming a video, QuickPix has two buttons: one to stop recording, and one to take a photo. These photos are sent directly to your camera roll along with the video once you end the recording.

Some other features of QuickPick are RapidFire (2 pictures per second), QuickPic (shoot on app launch), and the ability to separately set the focus and exposure.

Now that I have discovered QuickPix, I will use it for all filming I do from now on. There have been multiple times where I had to choose between capturing video or taking photos of a special moment, but now I can do both! Thank you, Ron, for sending me on the hunt for this app!

• $1.99 – App Store link

Thanks to Ron – Ertiguy for the question. Anyone else have any App for That suggestions for Ron? Let him — and all of us — know in the comments below.

Having trouble finding what you need in the app store? Head on over to our App for That Forum and let us know what you’re looking for. The iMore community will do our best to find you just the right App for That!

Following up on the information iMore received yesterday on potential ZFS hooks in iOS 5.1, a reliable source let us know that Apple has been investing heavily in ZFS appliances from Oracle. (Whether or not this will be made public is unknown; it doesn’t seem to be right now.)

Also, several of our readers familiar with ZFS wrote in to speculate as to why Apple may be exploring ZFS for use on iPhone and iPad. Broadly, it may have something to do with ZFS’ snapshot technology. ZFS snapshots can be easily compressed and encrypted, de-duplicated, and can transfer delta (bit differential) updates between cloud and device. The snapshots can also work like Time Machine, easily and efficiently providing incremental backup and restore capability from an hour ago, a day ago, a week ago, or more, asynchronously and block by block. Here’s what Wikipedia says about ZFS snapshots:

An advantage of copy-on-write is that when ZFS writes new data, the blocks containing the old data can be retained, allowing a snapshot version of the file system to be maintained. ZFS snapshots are created very quickly, since all the data composing the snapshot is already stored; they are also space efficient, since any unchanged data is shared among the file system and its snapshots.

Writeable snapshots (“clones”) can also be created, resulting in two independent file systems that share a set of blocks. As changes are made to any of the clone file systems, new data blocks are created to reflect those changes, but any unchanged blocks continue to be shared, no matter how many clones exist. This is an implementation of the Copy-on-write principle.

Snapshots is only one of the features of ZFS (Zettabyte Files System), the advanced file system created by Sun, now owned by Oracle. Apple included a partial port of ZFS in earlier versions of Mac OS X but pulled it before the official release. It’s a file system particularly well suited for cloud environments and storage pools, which might be why Apple is looking at it again in the post iCloud.

Apple is an incredibly private company that works hard behind the scenes in order to present a beautifully packaged, highly polished product to consumers. No doubt there is a lot of really cool, really geeky technology at the core of iCloud, for example, but all most of us see are elegant interface elements in Settings.app that, when tapped, all but transparently backup and restore our iPhones or iPads.

If indeed Apple is planning on using ZFS to make iCloud backups and restores better, it will probably be invisible to end users. One day, iCloud will simply work better, faster, and even more reliably.

More: Wikipedia

Every week a few of us from team iMore will bring you our current favorite, most fun and useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch related, they’re fair game.

To see what we picked, and to tell us your pick, follow on after the break!

The White House — @andrewwray

Looking for a great way to keep tabs on the Obama administration? The White House for iPhone is your best pick, giving you access to news, photos and video of what’s happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.

Not only will you have direct access to their blog, which is more of a news source than anything else, but you’ll also be able to browse through archived photos, video and more. I was able to watch the State of the Union address in its entirety earlier this week without strapping myself down to a desk or television. Instead, I just whipped out my iPhone and within a few minutes I was watching the livestream — no questions asked.

Next to the plethora of content, media and information about The White House at your fingertips, you can also setup push notifications to be notified of any major news stories going on in the political realm. Overall, it’s a great resource and the livestream feature is a lifesaver.

• Free — App Store Link

Zite Personalized Magazine – @sethclifford

Flipboard is the app that everyone likes talking about, but there’s actually a few new apps that are doing stylish news aggregation pretty well. One that I’ve really been enjoying lately is Zite, which takes a similar approach to Flipboard, but allows you to customize your reading experience over time by voting stories up or down and then learning what it is you prefer to read and giving you more tailored content.

The setup for the app is pretty simple, and I really like the clean UI. There’s really not much to get in the way and the content really takes center stage. I feel like it’s easier to browse than Flipboard, and while the Flipboard UI conventions are cool, don’t get me wrong – after a while, I feel like I’m really working to see new content, and I don’t feel like I can scan as quickly on my phone (which is a prime criteria for consuming news on the go). Zite feels like it allows me to do that more easily.

The customization aspects are cool too – you basically give stories a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, and Zite will remember what it is you liked and in the future return more content like it. There’s a lot of detail here as to how this is all accomplished, and since I’ve only been using it a short time, I can’t speak to its accuracy yet. Also, the type of feeds I’m looking at (tech stuff) usually have a bit of overlap, so it’s hard for me to tell right now. I’m less concerned with teaching the app though, and more concerned with the quickness of information and scanning, and it definitely succeeds there. But the app’s main draw is the personalization of content, so don’t let my particular use-case dissuade you from trying it out. It’s free and a really nice way to get your news.

Zite Personalized Magazine – Free – iTunes link

Messages+ – @iMuggle

I can not explain how happy I am to have a jailbreak on my iPhone 4S. Along with a new jailbreak comes tons of updated utilities and applications for iOS 5. I’ve been using IntelliscreenX and with it comes Messages+. I’ve been a long time fan of BiteSMS but I’m really loving the tight integration Messages+ has with iOS. There’s no separate application or icon, it just works. There’s really nothing to configure. Just set up a quick reply action via Activator and you’re good to go.

You can view images and files right from the quick reply window and then dismiss them. The UI blends perfectly with the default UI of iOS so it looks like something Apple themselves would have made. If you’re jailbroken and haven’t checked out Messages+ yet, I’d give it a try! If you already have IntelliscreenX, you already have a license for it and it comes built-in. If you don’t, you can buy Messages+ separately.

$7.99 – Cydia Search Link

Going back to a #TeamPure iPhone – @chrisoldroyd

This week I decided to give the new Absinthe Jailbreak a go on my iPhone 4S. I have always tinkered around with jailbroken devovces and do love apps like BiteSMS and SBSettings. This time the experience has been awful for me.

Installing the jailbreak was simple enough, I had to wait a bit longer as I am a Windows user. Anyway, to cut a long story short, my phone is all jailbroken in minutes and I installed BiteSMS and SBSettings and nothing more. A few days later and I try and listen to my music in the car and things start to go terribly wrong. Album artwork shows the wrong song playing and most songs start to play then stop or don’t play at all.

I turned iTunes Match on and off, and even synced again with iTunes, transferring all my music back on manually, still the same issue. Only option I had was to go back to a stock install and lose my jailbreak. That is where I am at now and guess what? Yep my music is now perfect again!

Squrl – @Bla1ze

I don’t watch a lot of TV and the shows I do want to watch are usually found on iTunes or Netflix but there isn’t a lot of good stuff out there these days any how in my opinion. For filling that void, I often scour the web looking for good online content to watch when I have some spare time but keeping track of that stuff has proven to be a difficult task over time. For Christmas I got an AppleTV and found Squrl. Squrl basically aggregates a lot of popular online video sites and various other content providers and provides a beautiful UI that allows for tracking videos, saving them for later viewing. Couple that with an AppleTV and you can amass plenty of content to watch in place of television shows. Social network integration as well as netflix, it has become a key resource of entertainment for me and it’s available for free in the iTunes App Store.

• Free – App Store link

Rdio – @jdipane

Music is a huge part of my life, and the ability to have almost any song at my fingertips without eating up all the space on my iPhone is a huge plus for me. Rdio is a subscription based service similar to Spotify, but I find that more songs that I enjoy to listen to are available through Rdio. Whether I want to select a certain song, album or just listen to a particular artists stations I can do so with a few simple clicks from within the application. I have various playlist’s set up, one for work out, one to relax, and I can add and remove songs with ease. Rdio also ties in with my home Sonos system which is great as I can listen to the music through my headphones, the speaker of the device or through the Sonos to keep me motivated. The application is free, but the service is paid, hit the link below to start your free 7 day trial!

• Free – App Store link

Puzzle Juice – @JorjLim

Tetris? Boggle? If you can’t decide which game to play, then Puzzle Juice is a sure winner.

The game starts as a standard game of Tetris; coloured blocks fall from the top of the screen, and you have to form a line at the bottom to score points.

However, unlike traditional Tetris, once you’ve completed a line, it won’t disappear. Instead, every block will turn into a letter and you’ll have to form words to score even more points. Here’s the fun part; while you’re looking for words, the next Tetris block has started falling. If you need more letters to form a word, tap on 3 same-colour blocks that are adjacent to one another to reveal more letters. There is also an optional Zen Mode, which challenges you to score as many points as you can in 90 seconds.

The game itself is well designed and even the menu screens have a pinch of character. You won’t see a “Ok”, or “Start” button throughout the game, instead you’ll see phrases like “Sounds Peachy” and “Totally Got It”, just to add that extra flare to the game.

The game is a mind-game, a fun-game and a challenging game all wrapped into one neat parcel, and will keep you busy for hours!

• $0.99 – App Store link

Doodlecast Pro

My day job is teaching two Intermediate Algebra courses at my local community college and this semester I’m experimenting with making videos for my students on new or difficult topics. Doodlecast Pro for iPad has turned out to be the best app to help me accomplish this. It records both my voice and handwriting and allows me to export and upload my videos directly to YouTube. If I made some mistakes along the way that I want to edit out, I can export to my Camera Roll instead and edit in another application like Avid Studio or iMovie. My only complaint is that the handwriting strokes are not really that great. I would love to see Doodlecast match the quality of handwriting to apps like Penultimate and Noteshelf.

• $3.99 – App Store link

LabTimer – Joe (Reader’s Choice winner – Comment #22)

My favorite right now is Lab Timer. It’s a free universal app that gives you 16 timers. They’ll count up or down and will sound an alarm. It’s handy for work so I can have a break timer, a lunch timer and can time how long a process is taking all from the same app. It’s especially handy for the iPad since there is no built-in clock app.

• Free – App Store link

Tell us your pick, enter to win a $10 iTunes gift certificate!

Those were our picks, iMore Nation, so now it’s your turn! Tell us your pick of the week below. Give us the name of your favorite app, site, or accessory, and tell us why it made your life more productive, more informed, more entertaining, or just plain more fun. We’ll pick one of you and send you a shiny $10 iTunes gift certificate so you can start stocking up for future picks! Contest starts now and ends next Friday, January 13 at 12pm PT.

So what are you waiting for? Jump into the comments and let us know your pick of the week!

Former Apple product manager, Bob Brochers, recently gave a lecture to students where he spoke about how the original iPhone was realized by a small team of engineers put together by the late Steve Jobs. MacNN went over some of the talking points:

“What’s interesting is that the challenge Steve laid out for us when we created the iPhone wasn’t to make a touch-screen device that would play apps and do all of this stuff,” Borchers told students. “His [charge] was simple. He wanted to create the first phone that people would fall in love with. That’s what he told us.” [...] “Now if you’re an engineer, like I am by training, you’re like ‘what the heck does that mean?’,” he said. “But he was right. The idea was, he wanted to create something that was so instrumental and integrated in peoples’ lives that you’d rather leave your wallet at home than your iPhone.”

Brochers went on to talk about how Apple’s idea of success with the iPhone was initially rooted in a small handful of tightly focused concepts, breaking the rules of the game while paying attention to detail and helping people “think differently” about the way they associate with their smartphones. It wasn’t about wiz-bang capabilities of the device like GPS or ground-breaking apps from the App Store, but instead simplicity in design and overall usability and user-experience.

But the hardware and software combination wasn’t the only thing they changed about the business. Brochers described how Jobs and his team wanted to setup a different relationship with their customers — a direct relationship — instead of allowing the carrier to control the rules.

“[We said] ‘no, we don’t want to do that,’” Borchers said. “We want to be able to sell the iPhone. We want to be able to talk directly to the customer. That was a big, big change for the industry.”

Another interesting aspect of the discussion was the oft-heard story about Apple making the switch from a plastic touchscreen to a glass display after Jobs confronted the team with his own iPhone screen, scratched by the keys in his pocket. They called up Corning and convinced them to jump back into their abandoned Gorilla Glass efforts shortly before the iPhone was announced — a great pivot at the last minute. (Interestingly, while Gorilla Glass is a feature now touted by many rival manufacturers and devices, neither Apple nor Corning to this day will confirm its use on the iPhone.)

The discussion was recorded and uploaded to YouTube, however it has since been removed. Overall, it’s a great look into how Apple brought the iPhone to the world and ended up changing the way we think about our smartphones.

Source: MacNN

Rene, Georgia, and Seth talk about Macworld|iWorld 2012, the latest iPad 3 rumors including quad-core and LTE, and what it all means for iPhone 5. Plus, new retail boss John Browett, Steve Jobs quotes, and Jailbreak troubleshooting. This is iPhone & iPad Live!

• Subscribe via iTunes: Audio | Video
• Subscribe via RSS: Audio | Video
• Download directly: Audio | Video
• Show notes

META

• February is fitness month at iMore and Mobile Nations! [iPad 3 giveaway!]

Macworld|iWorld 2012

• This was our Macworld
• Complete Macworld coverage
• What new hardware are you most looking forward to from Apple in 2012?

iPad 3

• Could Apple release a separate 4G LTE iPad 3 and Phone 5 in select markets?
• Supposed debug leak shows iPad 3 with quad-core A6 chip and LTE
• Foxconn plans to build five additional iPad production plants in Brazil

iPhone 5

• 40,000 petition Apple for “ethical” iPhone 5 manufacturing
• Tim Cook speaks out against claims of factory worker mistreatment
• iPhone 5 counter claims: not going into production yet, not going to be longer or wider

Grab bag

• Apple posting Steve Jobs pictures, quotes at Cupertino Campus
• Apple appoints John Browett as Senior Vice President of Retail
• China Telecom aiming to launch iPhone 4S in February
• Apple’s iPad not affected by Amazon’s Kindle Fire

Jailbreak

• How to troubleshoot common jailbreak issues on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
• How to take a screen recording on your iPhone or iPad [Jailbreak app for that]

Hosts

• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie)
• Georgia (@GeorgiaTiPb)
• Seth Clifford (@sethclifford)

Credits

You can reach all of us on Twitter @iMore, or you can email us at podcast@imore.com, or leave a comment on the website when the show goes live.

We’re here every Wednesday night at 6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern, 2am GMT at www.TiPb.com/live

For all our podcasts — audio and video — including iPhone and iPad Live, ZENandTECH and Superfunctional, Iterate and Girls Gone Gadgets and more… see MobileNations.com/shows

If you haven’t already please subscribe to all our shows in iTunes and leave a rating. It helps people find the show and means a lot to us!

Thanks to the iMore iPhone Accessory Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Apple may have begun testing what appears to be ZFS (Zettabyte File System) support in the latest iOS 5.1 beta. If the information received by iMore is accurate. references to ZFS, including the mounting tools, are contained deep inside the system files. This raises a lot of questions about where Apple may be taking iOS storage in the future.

If you’re not familiar with ZFS, here’s Wikipedia‘s introduction:

ZFS is a combined file system and logical volume manager designed by Sun Microsystems. The features of ZFS include data integrity verification against data corruption modes, support for high storage capacities, integration of the concepts of filesystem and volume management, snapshots and copy-on-write clones, continuous integrity checking and automatic repair, RAID-Z and native NFSv4 ACLs. ZFS is implemented as open-source software, licensed under the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL).

In other words, it’s highly scalable and highly resilient, something you want in cloud environments. ZFS support was included in some earlier versions of Mac OS X, but was not included in the final, shipping version. Rumor has it Apple wasn’t pleased when Sun spoke openly about Apple’s adoption of their technology, leading Apple to pull the plug. Whether that’s accurate or whether Apple simply determined it was going to go another way with OS X storage is unknown.

Even without official Apple support, we’ve seen OS X ZFS ports crop up since then. What sets this iOS implementation apart from some of the very original, official, OS X ports of ZFS is that it already contains the ZFS utilities (zpool, zdump, etc). By having the utilities already installed it means that the port is in a more complete stage of development and has full read + write access (unlike the original OS X ports).

So here’s the question again, if this information is accurate, why is Apple looking to include ZFS in iOS? Could it be part of a greater plan to integrate better cloud services into future versions of the iPhone and iPad?

More: Wikipedia

If you’re a jailbreaker looking to add a little more speed and functionality to multitasking on your iPhone or iPod touch, you’ll want to check out Zephyr. We have talked about Zephyr before but we’ll give you a close up look at what it does and the additional functionality it provides. There isn’t much to configure after you install Zephyr which makes it easy to use and it’s fully compatible with iOS 5.

The main purpose of Zephyr is to add additional multitasking gestures to your device. It adds the ability to swipe left and right on your springboard in order to page through apps. Swiping up will allow you to close out of an app as well. This is perfect for users who may have a broken home button on their iPhone 4, are out of warranty, and don’t want to attempt a DIY home button repair themselves.

You can always choose which swipe motions you want to have enabled. Ones you don’t want enabled you can simply toggle off in Settings. In addition to enabling or disabling gestures you can also add application restrictions. This is ideal for situations where the keyboard is active and you may not want a swipe gesture to switch apps or close out the application. This is also a good option for games that require you to swipe so Zephyr doesn’t attempt to switch between applications or close it out. If you’d like to get things done quicker and have better application switching functionality than what iOS offers stock, Zephyr is definitely worth checking out.

$2.99 – Cydia Search Link

Additional jailbreak resources:

• Jailbreak apps, hacks, and themes forum
• Best apps and utilities for new jailbreakers
• General jailbreak discussion and help forums
• List of popular Cydia repositories

As expected, Reckless Racing 2 is now available in the App Store. It is the sequel to the hugely popular racing game Reckless Racing which brought thrills and spills from the track as you slide you car around corners on dirt and tarmac.

Strap down and prepare for the ride of your life… Reckless Racing is back with more! Including a selection of 18 highly detailed cars, ranging from small dirt buggies to fast supercars, and 24 routes in a variety of flavors make this a racer for all tastes – both dirt and tarmac.Compete in the Career mode to earn money for new cars and car upgrades. Have a quick race in the Arcade mode with 40 pre-defined challenges. Compete against your friends on the leaderboards in Single Event mode – including Race, Hot Lap and Elimination events.Tune your car in the garage to match your driving style with a vast selection of parts and upgrades. Whether you are a reckless power slider or a slick race driver, make your car the way YOU want it.

• Probably the best power slides in the world
• Tune and tweak the performance, handling, tires, rims and colors of your cars
• Shader based game engine with normal maps, reflections, specularity, shadows, particles and more
• Improved and optimized shaders for iPad 2 and iPhone 4S
• Online leaderboards with downloadable ghost cars
• Online multiplayer over the Internet
• 17 characters, including your favorites from Reckless Racing 1
• 5 control layouts with customizable button positions
• Optional assists, such as race lines, mini map, chase camera and more

• App Store link

Scammers never miss an opportunity to scam, and while Twitter, forums, and email have long been subject to disgusting “test & keep new iPhone/iPad/whatever” spam, it looks like the iPhone 5 version has taken to SMS. That’s right, not only are they content to waste your time and attention, they’re now also wasting your text message totals.

A couple of our Twitter followers received identical scam spam today:

Apple is looking for iPhone 5 testers! The first 1000 users that go to [scam web address] and enter [scam code] will get to test & keep a new iPhone 5.

Needless to say, no they won’t. If you get the text message, let us know in the comments, report it to your carrier, and by no means do anything it requests.

Source: @AKMolin, @MDSaunders

Video Camera for iPhone by i4software is a video studio in your pocket. It allows you to switch between front and rear cameras while recording and snap photos while recording. For those looking for a professional level of control, Video Camera also lets you manually control exposure, focus, and white balance via a triple tap. The recent update also grants the permission to record up to 8 remote cameras.

Unleash yourself from time-consuming camcorders and editing programs—get Video Camera and join the video revolution.

• The most intuitive video app makes shooting, editing and sharing a streamlined process.
• Switch between front and rear cameras while recording.
• Snap photos while recording.
• Optional Date & Time stamps directly into the video.
• Choose one of three professional-quality studio intros for a Hollywood experience.
• Fully customizable titles and scrolling credits.
• Includes rights-free music for unrestricted use, or access songs from your own music library.
• Full-featured editing mode for advanced users.
• Quickly and easily move, duplicate or delete clips.
• Use location services to automatically add location to the scrolling credits.• 1920×1080, 1280×720 and 640×360 resolutions on supported devices.
• Optional manual controls for exposure, focus, and white balance accessible by triple tapping.
• Full zoom control for video, including a smooth auto-zoom.
• Patented Live Non-Linear Editing (LiNE™) makes trimming while capturing a seamless experience.
• Preview and trim clips the moment they’re shot.
• Move, delete, or load clips in your timeline without exiting the main camera view.
• Import .MOV files from the camera roll, including those created with third-party apps.
• With the iPad Camera Connection kit import and edit clips from many popular cameras, including GoPro Hero, Panasonic GH1, Canon PowerShot S100, 60D, and more! Process your final movie right on the spot.

Video Camera is available on the iPhone for $7.99.

• App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

iPhone 4S Made Simple is a new book from Apress written by Martin Trautschold and our very own editor-in-chief extraordinaire, Rene Ritchie, and tech edited by none other than Leanna Lofte. That’s right, there’s a huge iMore presence throughout this book — I forgot to lock the cages one night, who knew? — which means it’s super detailed, super informative, and has everything a regular person needs to get started with their brand new iPhone 4S.

More than 1,000 screen visuals and clear-cut instructions guide you through both basic and advanced features of iOS 5 that’s on your iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and earlier models, from email and calendar tips to navigating the App Store and understanding Bluetooth and Wi-Fi networks to the revolutionary Siri personal assistant.

If you have that special someone in your life who needs extra help figuring out how to use their iPhone 4S, send them to iPhone 4S Made Simple. You — and your stress level! — will be glad you did! (And don’t forget to leave a review!)

• $9.95+ Amazon store link

Cyclemeter, Runmeter, and Walkmeter are a collection of apps that use the iPhone GPS to track your activity while simultaneously providing you with feedback and motivation to go farther.

The upcoming updates for Cyclemeter, Runmeter, and Walkmeter will introduce a new interface that allows you to easily swipe through information making it easy to view data like time, distance, speed, location, elevation, and heart rate even while in the middle of your ride, run, or walk. Each screen is customizable so that you can be sure you are seeing the information that matters to you.

Although there are 3 different apps, each app is essentially the same. So if you purchase Cylcemeter and want to use it for your run, just set the mode of the app to running. Whichever version you purchase is just which activity the app will be preconfigured for.

We got a sneak peak of Cyclemeter version 7.0 while at Macworld 2012.

• $4.99 – App Store link

Cyclemeter turns your iPhone into a powerful GPS-enabled fitness computer, giving you feedback and motivation to go farther, be healthier, and live longer.

• Track – Cyclemeter continually records your time, location, distance, elevation, and speed – years of workouts only take up the space of a few songs.
• Visualize – See your results on maps, graphs, and a calendar, and organized by routes and activities.
• Hear – Monitor your progress with more than 70 configurable announcements including distance, time, speed, and elevation.
• RACE – Compete against your previous workouts along a route, or import and compete against other people’s workouts.
• Train – Keep on track with extremely configurable interval training, zones, and targets. Set up repeating intervals, pyramid intervals, or tempo workouts.
• Share – Use email, Facebook, Twitter, and dailymile to share Google Maps of your workouts, automatically updated every few minutes.
• Import/Export – Import a route or virtual competitor by simply clicking on a GPX or KML link or file in Mail or Safari. Export complete summaries of your workouts, or detailed CSV, GPX, or KML files for use in maps, graphs, or social fitness sites.
• For cycling, running, walking, skiing, skating and more – Cyclemeter, Runmeter, and Walkmeter and are built from the same core foundation, but come preconfigured for cycling, running, or walking. Each supports all features and activities.
• Improve – Cyclemeter gives you the data that helps you achieve your goals, whether it’s to cycle a park or a century, run a mile or a marathon, or walk a block or a march.

Cyclemeter, Runmeter, and Walkmeter are available on the iPhone for $4.99.

• Cyclemeter – App Store link
• Runmeter – App Store link
• Walkmeter – App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Zynga has released their newest iPhone and iPad game for animal lovers called Dream PetHouse. In this game, you are in charge of raising hundreds of adorable pets in a huge treehouse and making them has happy as can be.

As with all Zynga games, there is a social aspect to Dream PetHouse where you use Facebook Connect to visit your friends’ trees and help each other with various tasks.

• Do you love animals? Then here’s your chance to create the biggest, happiest home for hundreds of irresistibly cute pets in Dream PetHouse by Zynga! Collect the world’s cutest animals and care for them in your own unique tree, staffed by Chipper and his group of adorable chipmunk friends!

• Feed your pets and watch them grow up right before your eyes!

• Connect Pethouses using dynamic bridges and see your pets explore their new home!
• Capture fond memories of your pets’ childhood in family albums!
• Raise your pet families and collect all the Golden Frames!
• Visit your friends’ trees using Facebook and get their help raising your pets!
• Customize your Pethouse with wild-looking trees and unique habitats!

Dream PetHouse is available on the iPhone and iPad for free.

• App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

The Lotto Machine is not your average random number generator. This one has a beautiful UI and is equipped with a physics engine giving you the perception of having some control over the outcome. The Lotto Machine uses the iPhone accelerometer so that as you tilt your iPhone, the balls roll around in the spinning drum.

The Lotto Machine is purely designed to help you pick your numbers for the lottery – sounds boring, right? Wrong! With a gorgeous UI, a spinning drum and physics that you can control with the accelerometer, now playing the lottery is fun no matter the outcome!

The Lotto Machine is available on the iPhone for $0.99.

• App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Pad & Quill, the makers of The Little Black Book for iPhone and Contega for iPhone have a nifty littles notes app in the App Store whose design was inspired by their cases.

What makes Pad & Quill Notes so special is the same thing that makes their cases so special — craftsmanship and attention to detail. It looks beautiful. It works smoothly. It’s well thought out.

Your notes will be neatly organized in classic notebooks and stored on a wooden shelf with stylish papers, fonts, and colors waiting to be read. There’s nothing new age or fancy here. It’s for people who like type written notes in hand written fonts, exquisitely rendered and precisely placed. And it’s a universal app so it works perfectly on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

• $0.99 – App Store link

Pad & Quill organizes your notes in classic notebooks kept on a wooden shelf. It’s intuitive, simple and beautiful. Inspired by the Italian bonded leather cases made by Pad & Quill, the app turns your device into books you will truly love.

CORE FEATURES

• organize notes into different books
• sync notes on all your iDevices
• realistic page turn effects
• universal app
• beautifully designed

CUSTOMIZE

• 10 fabulously designed book covers to choose from
• 10 beautiful fonts (font size adjustable)
• different ink colours
• different paper styles (plain, ruled, wrinkled, bookish, squared…)
• customizable note titles
• bookmark individual notes

MORE FEATURES

• automatic page of contents
• e-mail notes
• typing is supported in both landscape and portrait mode
• infinite digital paper & unlimited number of books

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Paper Monsters is a new platformer game for iPhone and iPad. In the game’s world, everything is made out of paper and cardboard, including your character. It’s a classic 2d side-scrolling platformer placed in a 3d environment.

I am loving this game! Paper Monsters has great graphics that are also very fun. My favorite little feature of the graphics is that sometimes things like trees and bushes pop up in front of or behind you in the 3d atmosphere.

Dive into the world of Paper Monsters and watch a living world made out of paper, cardboard, and a few cotton balls unfold right before your eyes.

Paper Monsters takes all of the classic 2d platforming elements, combines them with cutting edge graphics and then packs it onto your iPhone or iPad.

• Classic 2d sidescrolling gameplay with gorgeous 3d environments.
• Original and adorable characters
• Awesome original soundtrack – headphones recommended!
• Fun under water and flying powerups.
• Two control types: “floating” Joystick or classic touchpad
• Game Center Leaderboards
• Adventure and Hunt for hidden Game Center Achievements
• 16 Large Levels across 4 unique worlds
• Tons of secret areas!
• High score dash mode for endless replay value!
• Airplay Mirroring
• Fun for all ages
• Universal for iPhone, iPod, and iPad

Giveaway

We’re a big fan of cute platformer games, here at iMore, so we’re giving away Paper Monsters to 5 lucky readers! For a chance to win, just leave a comment below! Must have a US iTunes account to win. Apple’s rule, not ours!

Paper Monsters is available on the iPhone and iPad for $0.99.

• App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Facebook has filed their IPO (initial public offering) registration and, in the process, revealed some rather astounding numbers related to users, revenues, and profit margins. Since Facebook is one of the most popular apps on iPhone and iPad, and a lot of those users are also iOS users, needless to say, they caught our attention.

Facebook saw $3.7 billion in revenues and around $1 billion in profits in 2011 — a healthy 27 percent profit margin — with significant growth each year. The jump in profits year-over-year sits at 65 percent, with revenues growing at a rate of 88 percent.

At last report, Facebook saw around 845 million active users with about half of them (483 million) checking the social network on a daily basis. In addition, Facebook processes roughly 2.7 billion ‘Likes’ and comments per day with users uploading an average of 250 million photos daily. Around 100 billion friendships were made in 2011.

Facebook also had more than 425 million monthly active users who logged into Facebook from a mobile device in December 2011. Although they weren’t specific about mobile operating systems, the Facebook for iPhone app is historically known for being the #1 app in the App Store, with mobile adoption increasing significantly after a recent update improving performance and integrating Timeline support.

Although it’s impossible to extrapolate the numbers based on Apple’s recent quarterly earnings call, assuming roughly half of those were iOS users wouldn’t be an unsafe bet.

That’s huge. And it’s also interesting given the persistent rumors that Facebook would be getting into the mobile space and going after those users. Google did it with Android. Amazon is doing it with Kindle Fire.

Given Facebook’s tensions with Apple of late, which are rumored to have resulted in the planned integration of Facebook into iOS 4 to get scrapped (leaving things open for Twitter in iOS 5), and caused a public spat over the iOS social music network, Ping, Facebook could well be next, and now they’ll have even more money and resources to put behind it.

Source: SEC

Flipboard, the hugely popular iPhone and iPad social magazine app, has announced that it can now deliver customized content guides for four more countries, including UK, Ireland, Canada and Australia.

Anyone who has his or her iPad or iPhone region set to one of those countries automatically receive the local edition of their Content Guide when they tap on the red ribbon in the top right corner of Flipboard. To switch back to the “original” Content Guide, set your device’s country setting to United States.

The four new content areas are in addition to the other areas which are already supported. These are China, France, Taiwan, Hong Kong and of course the United States.

• Free – App Store link

Source: Inside Flipboard

The amazingly functional and customizable BiteSMS takes on the deeply integrated and easy to use Messages+ in a battle of the jailbreak messaging apps

Are you jailbroken on iOS 5 and wondering whether you should purchase BiteSMS or Messages+? Both applications add quick reply functionality and make messaging more functional. But which is a better choice for you?

BiteSMS for iOS 5

BiteSMS has been a long time favorite when it comes to messaging enhancement applications. Many competitors have come and gone while BiteSMS seemingly manages to stay at the top of its game.

One thing that sets BiteSMS apart is its ability to customize almost every aspect of your experience. You can choose what buttons you’d like to show up on your quick reply windows such as send, open, close, mark for later, Skype, FaceTime, templates, and more. The quick compose feature provides the option of auto-populating contacts. You can choose for it to auto show favorites, the last person you messaged, and more.

If you send a lot of international text messages, Bite allows you to buy credits to use on their own network. I don’t necessarily recommend it as a way not to have traditional text messaging as the rates aren’t cheaper than most carriers domestic rates. They are, however, cheaper than most carrier international texting rates. AT&T, for example, charges $10/month for 100 international messages. After that, it’s $0.20 per message. You can set up per contact rules for sending messages as well. So if you have certain contacts in a different country, only then will Bite utilize your credits. Bite’s prices are as follows –

• $6 for 50 SMS credits
• $12 for 105 SMS credits (includes 5 free credits)
• $24 for 215 SMS credits (includes 15 free credits)
• $60 for 550 SMS credits (includes 50 free credits)
• $120 for 1200 SMS credits (includes 200 free credits)

While BiteSMS has a sleek user interface in its own right, you can definitely tell it isn’t something made by Apple. People who choose to theme and don’t like the stock look of iOS may actually prefer this. Those of you who like to stick with the stock look may have an issue with it. It’s also worth noting that BiteSMS is compatible with both LockInfo and IntelliscreenX.

Messages+ for iOS 5

Messages+ is an update of the messaging enhancement app TLert. The update not only brought a more streamline experience but deep integration into iOS 5. It literally looks like something Apple would release.

While BiteSMS aims to bring you an array of different customizations and user controls, Messages+ aims to be an easy to use add-on that just works. There’s next to nothing to configure. You just enable Messages+ and set up a quick compose gesture and you’re on your way. Messages+ also comes built-in to IntelliscreenX.

If your main reason for wanting a messaging enhancement app is to not have to stop what you’re doing to compose a message, Messages+ will provide this functionality without any added icons. It simply adds a quick reply and quick compose function to the default iOS messaging app.

While Messages+ ties in nicely with IntelliscreenX, it is not currently supported by LockInfo. If you’re a LockInfo user, BiteSMS is going to be your best option. We don’t know if LockInfo will add support for Messages+ in the future.

BiteSMS vs Messages+ – which is better?

There’s no arguing that BiteSMS still has plenty more features and controls than Messages+. It will really come down to what you personally need from a messaging enhancement application.

I personally prefer Messages+ over BiteSMS as I don’t send that many international texts and just desire quick reply and quick compose functionality. I also like the stock feel of iOS and Messages+ gives me that. There are no added icons or tons of settings to configure before you start using it. Enable it, set a quick gesture for composing, and you’re done.

There are no doubt users out there who care more about control and functionality than interface and ease of use. For those of you that think heavily of these things, BiteSMS is probably going to serve you much better over the long run. Let us know what you decide on and why. Make sure to check out our other resources below for tons of jailbreak apps, themes, tips, and more!

• Messages+ vs BiteSMS forum thread – See what our readers are choosing
• Jailbreak guides, how to’s, and news
• Jailbreak apps, hacks, and themes forum
• General jailbreak discussion forum
• iMore downloads section
• List of Cydia repositories

Cocktail Flow is a gorgeous bartending app filled with delicious recipes. This isn’t your basic recipe list, however; Cocktail Flow keeps a list of what ingredients you have in your bar and populates a list of drinks you can make with your current stock. If you’re only a few ingredients away from some drinks, CockTail flow will also show you those and provide a nice shopping list of the items you need and estimate their total cost for you.

Throwing a party for this weekend’s big game? Cocktail Flow has just been updated with a Super Bowl package available as an in-app purchase.

The application features beautifully presented recipes and identifies cocktails that can be made from ingredients in your bar. It also gives suggestions on what ingredients to buy next to make additional delicious cocktails.

• Amazing photography
• Select what drinks you have at hand, and it will automatically show you which cocktails you can make
• Shopping suggestions to maximize the amount of cocktails you can make
• Special themed packages like New Years, Christmas, Valentine’s day and St Patrick’s day
• Detailed guides to help you through the process of making amazing cocktails

Cocktail Flow is available on the iPhone for free.

• App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

If you’re heading to the Super Bowl this weekend, SB XLVI Guide will be your companion in your pocket. It’s your guide to official Super Bowl events, a map of Indianapolis, a 3D map and seating chart to the Lucas Oil Stadium, and a reference for local restaurants and nightlife.

Whether you’ll be in Indy or not, the Super Bowl XLVI Guide is your must-have companion to Super Bowl Week!

• A detailed guide to local restaurants, nightlife, and official Super Bowl events
• A 3D map of Indianapolis and an interactive 3D map of Lucas Oil Stadium for gameday
• You can follow all of the social media buzz with NFL Huddle
• Pin your parking spot and find your seating section in the stadium
• And much more!

SB XLVI Guide is available on the iPhone for free.

• App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

B is for Bluetooth, a wireless technology that lets your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad talk to headsets, keyboards, speakers, computers, and other accessories

If you’re new to iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad and are wondering just what exactly Bluetooth is and what it means to you, worry not — iMore has you covered. Bluetooth is an open standard wireless communications protocol, which just means that it’s a commonly available way for devices to talk to each other, and to other electronics, without having to be plugged in together. The most common things iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users do with Bluetooth include connecting to headsets and speakers.

Bluetooth works over short-wave radio (between 2400 and 2480 MHz if you’re techie) and has a range of about 30 feet. If you move further away than that, say leave your iPhone in your car and go into a store, you’ll lose connection.

There are several different Bluetooth profiles, each of which enables its own type of functionality. iOS doesn’t support all Bluetooth profiles, but it does support several important ones.

• HFP 1.5, the hands-free profile for connecting to hands-free headsets and speakerphones
• PBAP, the phone book access profile to allow for car kits to download contacts or display caller information (iPhone only).
• A2DP, the advanced audio distribution profile, which enables higher-quality audio, including stereo audio, to be sent to remote speakers
• AVRCP, the audio/video remote control profile, that lets pause, play, stop, next track, and previous track commands to be sent to headsets and speakers
• HID, the human interface device profile, or the protocol that connects to a wireless keyboard.
• PAN, the personal area network profile, which lets you tether to a computer and share your cellular internet connection. (Part of the Personal Hotspot system.)

Most previous iOS devices, including iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch support up to Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (enhanced data rate). EDR allows for faster data transfers, meaning smoother, better sound support and internet speeds (between 2 and 3mbps).

Bluetooth 4.0, a newer specification is supported by the iPhone 4S and will presumably be supported by future devices like the iPad 3. Bluetooth 4.0 allows for BHS (Bluetooth high speed) and BLE (Bluetooth low energy), which aim to provide better, faster data with lower battery drain.

There are very few Bluetooth 4.0 accessories available yet, for example the Find My Car Smarter. However, Bluetooth 4.0 offers the potential for more ubiquitous, persistent, and useful peripherals than ever before.

Want to know more? Check out more of our iOS A-Z words-of-the-day, or jump ahead to our complete iPhone and iPad glossary for the full on dictionary list!

• Bluetooth accessories for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad

FavorIt is the place where favorite friends and favorite apps meet. This new twist to app discovery lets you share your five favorite apps with your Facebook friends and view theirs. You can also see which apps are popular among all your friends.

This is one of those types of apps that needs participation from your friends in order to be useful, but the good news is that it only takes a few moments to login and do your part, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to get your friends on board!

We took a closer look while at Macworld 2012.

• Free – App Store link

When you know the apps that your friends call their FavorIts, the possibilities are endless!

Rediscover those awesome iPhone classics or join in the latest App Store craze. Find out who’s also addicted to that zombie-words-tower game, or learn about the latest time-saving productivity tool. Has the latest bird-themed release kept you up until 2am? Don’t just love it, FavorIt!

FavorIt – Where Favorite Friends and Favorite Apps Meet is available on the iPhone for free.

• App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

If Tetris were to wed a matching game, their resulting child may be something similar Revertis. The goal of this casual puzzle game is to draw 4 dots at a time in such a way that matches identical colors. The objective is simple, but execution may not always be.

I’m enjoying playing Revertis. It’s relaxing, has nice music, but isn’t mindless.

Are you on your way home from the work? May be in a subway or in a bus? Do you have 5 minutes? Would you like to shut down those thoughts in your head? Just for 5 minutes? Try Revertis! It is like meditation! It helps you to relax and trains your brain at the same time.

• 10 different game modes
• Competitive modes with limited time per turn
• Post your results on Facebook
• Game Center integrated
• Unique animation
• local leaderboards
• option for color-blind people
• soundtracks
• achievements
• German & Russian localizations

Giveaway

The makers of Revertis have given us promo codes to give away to 5 lucky readers! For a chance to win, just leave a comment below!

Revertis is available on the iPhone and iPad for $0.99.

• App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

We’ll likely get a new iPad 3 sometime this March and an iPhone 5 later this summer or fall, but will either or both of them run on the new, ultra-fast 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) networks? And if they do, will LTE be built into every device, or will there be special models made for just those networks that support it?

Right now there’s only one iPhone 4S and it runs on both GSM/HSPA+ and CDMA/EVDO Rev. A, on every carrier that offers it. That’s a change from the iPhone 4 that debuted as GSM/AT&T only and later had a different model, with a different antenna, released for Verizon. Likewise, the iPad 2 still doesn’t come in a unified model, having on version for AT&T/GSM and one for Verizon alone.

So, while Apple has moved to unify their manufacturing for iPhone 4S, they have in the past, and still to this day, made separate models of iPhone and iPad to handle different network technologies.

And they could do it again for LTE.

Size and power consumption

Previous generation LTE chipsets were deemed unusable by Apple due to their size and battery-draining power demands. Early Android LTE handsets like the HTC Thunderbolt bled power at an almost comical level. Early devices were also chunky, but soon thinned out again and grew in length and width instead of depth, like the Nokia Lumia 900, letting larger screens take advantage of that extra space.

While rumors persist of a 4-inch iPhone 5, it’s hard to imagine that Apple would let the iPhone 5 casing grow very much if at all just to accommodate an LTE radio and its battery. And they wouldn’t put one in the iPad 3 now if they weren’t planning on putting one in the iPhone 5 later. The phone is still the flagship, for now.

Qualcomm is releasing new chips, however, and it’s possible they’ll have one ready in time for the iPhone 5 that’s small and power efficient enough to meet even Apple’s demands. Let’s grant for a moment that that proves true. There’s still a much bigger problem when it comes to LTE.

Availability

Verizon has a decent U.S. LTE roll out, claiming coverage in 190 markets of varying size. AT&T claims 26 markets with large scale deployment not complete until the end of 2013. Sprint will have 4 markets on LTE by mid 2011, but it will likewise take years to roll out nationally.

Internationally things get worse. Both Rogers and Bell have a handful of LTE cities each. In Europe and Asia there are a smattering of cities, but many huge markets are still years way.

LTE simply isn’t very common yet, and Apple is the company that didn’t even add 3G to the iPhone until the second generation version launched in 2008.

Models

Would adding the expense — both component and engineering — of an LTE radio, along with any remaining size and power demands, make sense to Apple if there are so few markets able to make use of it? Apple sold the one-iPhone 4S-model-to-rule-them-all faster and further than any other handset in the history of the business, getting it into more countries, on more carriers, for more users than ever before. Would that be possible if the iPad 3 or iPhone 5 similarly included LTE all in one model?

Instead, what if Apple kept the current radio stack in place for the iPad 3 and iPhone 5 and but also launched separate models for LTE in the markets where they make sense, like the U.S., Canada, and those European and Asian countries that support it.

Not all LTE operates on the same frequencies, so engineering even an international LTE radio wouldn’t be dead simple, let alone a GSM/CDMA/LTE across all bands. Letting HSPA and CDMA continue to do what they do now, in markets that don’t have other options, isn’t a bad idea.

But if complexity and scarcity are still the case, why worry about LTE at all in 2012? Why not just wait until 2013?

Verizon

The current iPad and iPhone run at up to 14.4mbps on AT&T and GSM carriers. They run at 2-3mbps on Verizon’s CDMA network. Apple went out of their way to avoid calling the HSPA+ iPhone 4S a “4G” phone last year, knowing if AT&T and others claimed it as such, Verizon’s version would be made to look less-than by comparison.

That hasn’t hurt Verizon’s sales yet — iPhone 4S set records on every carrier including Verizon, eclipsing devices with bigger screens and LTE radios on the same shelves — but it likely hurts Verizon pride. With the best LTE deployment in the U.S. and a desire to use it that’s so strong Verizon reportedly won’t let Windows Phone and BlackBerrys on their network without LTE anymore, how happy would they be to sit on CDMA for another year, to again have to market an EVDO Rev. A iPad 3 and iPhone 5?

Apple could pull the trigger on LTE in 2012. In most markets they don’t need to, but in the U.S. in general and Verizon in specific, there’s reason to consider it. Doing two models — HSPA+/CDMA for most of the world and LTE for Verizon and the other carriers that support it — wouldn’t be unprecedented for Apple, and could indeed be the best of both worlds.

Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land

A turn-based strategy/role-playing game based on Call of Cthulhu RPG. Set in the midst of World War One, the game pits your team of investigators and soldiers against an ancient enemy, one older than humanity itself… Can your team of investigators keep their grip on sanity long enough to stop these diabolical plans? The fate of humanity is in your hands…

• $4.99 for iPhone and iPad – App Store link

Meeting Mapper

Documents all the important information in meetings and display a graphical depiction of your meetings. The information can be exported as a PDF and emailed and uploaded into your CRM application, SharePoint or just save it on your computer.

• $9.99 for iPad – App Store link

Tiny Review

Review stuff with just one photo and three lines of texts. Seriously, if they read how much we just wrote about them, they’d be pissed. (But now you can login with Twitter or email!)

• Free for iPhone – App Store link

Ringtones & Alert Tones Maker

Personalize your iPhone by creating your own ringtones, text tones and other alert tones with Ringtones & Alert Tones Maker. Choose the song you want to use as your ringtone, specify the type of your alert, then choose the required segment from the audio track.

• $0.99 for iPhone – App Store link

The Very Cranky Bear

The award winning and much loved children’s book, The Very Cranky Bear* is now an animated, interactive app! Join Moose, Zebra, Lion and Sheep as they try to hide from the rain in a cave, but accidentally disturb a very cranky bear…

• $4.99 for iPhone and iPad -App Store link

Any other big app or game releases or updates today?

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Apple has appointed John Browett as their new Senior Vice President of Retail. Mr Browett will be leaving his position of CEO of Dixons Retail, Europe’s largest specialist electrical retailer.

“Our retail stores are all about customer service, and John shares that commitment like no one else we’ve met,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We are thrilled to have him join our team and bring his incredible retail experience to Apple.”

Prior to taking the reins of the Dixon Group, Browett also held high positions within Tesco plc and even had the CEO role for Tesco.com. Browett replaces former retail head, Ron Johnson who left Apple in the summer of last year to take the post of CEO at JC Penney.

Full press release below.

John Browett Joins Apple as Senior Vice President of Retail

CUPERTINO, California—January 30, 2012—Apple® today announced that John Browett will join the company as senior vice president of Retail, reporting to Apple CEO Tim Cook. Browett comes to Apple from European technology retailer Dixons Retail, where he has been CEO since 2007. Beginning in April, he will be responsible for Apple’s retail strategy and the continued expansion of Apple retail stores around the world.

“Our retail stores are all about customer service, and John shares that commitment like no one else we’ve met,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We are thrilled to have him join our team and bring his incredible retail experience to Apple.”

Prior to joining Dixons Retail, Browett held a series of executive positions at Tesco plc including CEO of Tesco.com. Earlier in his career he advised retail and consumer goods clients at Boston Consulting Group. He holds a degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and an MBA from Wharton Business School.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

Apple has finally caught up with the huge demand for the iPhone 4S. For the first time since its iPhone 4S launch way back< in October/a>, all models of the iPhone 4S are now shown as in stock.

No matter which model you go for, 16GB, 32GB or 64GB or which carrier you choose from AT&T, Verizon or Sprint, they are all in stock. Even the unlocked and contract free models too.

Source: Apple Store via Macrumors

Crimson makes some colorful, sparkly cases, skins, and edgings for the iPhone, and I know this because while at Macworld 2012, I noticed a couple people sporting them around the antennas of their iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S’s. This is what drew me towards Crimson’s booth.

Crimson offers many options for adding personality and protection to your iPhone. Currently available is the Aluminum Frame Case and six different types of screen protectors. In the near future, Crimson will be offering skins for the backs and antennas of the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. Most of these skins are colorful and sparkly, but there will also be options that are more subtle and “manly”.

While visiting their booth, I picked up a purple skin for the back of my iPhone 4S and a purple Aluminum Frame case. I may be enjoying my sparkly skin, but I’ll admit to not being a huge fan of the case. The nubby corners are a turn off and add quite a bit of bulk to the overall size of my iPhone. If the corners were small and rounded, I may actually consider using it regularly.

• Variable – Amazon Store link

MacPhun, the makers of FX Photo Studio, are working on a selective-coloring photography for iPhone called Color Splash Studio. Unlike similar apps already available in the App Store, FX Photo Studio comes with a slew of tools that allows you to further customize your photos including contrast, brightness, saturation, and hue. You can focus these edits to just the background or just the colored portion of your photo. You can also apply various filters (like sepia) to your background, making it more interesting than the traditional black and white backgrounds.

FX Photo Studio is already available in the Mac App Store [$2.99 - Mac App Store link] and will be available on the iPhone in mid-February.

We got a sneak peak of Color Splash Studio for iPhone while at Macworld 2012.

Sprint has released an iPhone app for their customers called Sprint Mobile Zone. With this app, users can access their Sprint accounts, check out promotions, and read Sprint news. Non-account holders may also use the app to check your power consumption and running resources and find Apple and Sprint stores.

Sprint Zone offers Sprint customers immediate access to their account online, Sprint News and promotions and in addition, it offers the following for both Sprint and non-Sprint customers:

• Simple device management (power controls, resources etc.)
• Apple and Sprint store Locator*
• Help functions, including access to a care representative

Sprint Mobile Zone is available on the iPhone for free.

• Free for iPhone – App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Voice Calendar: Create calendar items on your iPhone with your voice.

• $0.99 for iPhone – App Store link

flickr hd: Displays a new photo from your public flickr photostream, your flickr.com favourites, or a custom flickr search every minute. Currently on sale!

• $0.99 for iPhone and iPad – App Store link

Girlfriend 411: Store all the information you will ever need to know about your girlfriend in a time of need. Thinking about sending her flowers, but can’t remember her address? Forgot what her favorite type of flowers are? These are the types of issues that a lot of men run into quite often.

• $0.99 for iPhone and iPad – App Store link

TextVite: The hottest new way to invite your guests and friends to anything! Choose a background, plug in your details, add a few cool design elements, and in seconds your TextVitation is buzzing on all your guests’ phones.

• Free for iPhone – App Store link

World Tree With Dragons: The first tree world simulation type game. You can build a fantastic world where you control almost everything! By combining 3 types of branches and 12 different patterns of leafs (more to come in future updates), you can grow your tree totally unique from any other one in this world! It’s the best game to show your creativity and art sense.

• Free for iPhone – App Store link

Any other big app or game releases or updates today?

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

There’s an interesting debate taking place about the merits and virtues of modern electronic books like Apple’s iBooks or Amazon’s Kindle books and their traditional counterparts — old fashioned paper bound and proper.

They’re qualitatively different, inarguably. The feel of board and cloth and leather is warm and textured compared to the crisp coolness of glass, aluminum, and plastic. The gentle sound of pages flipping is vastly different than a tap or swipe or click. The sharp smell of a fresh new novel or musky scent of an old tome exists in a different dimension from the relative sterility of chips and displays.

Yet the weight, permanence, and nostalgia of traditional books can be a disadvantage when it comes to carrying them, correcting them, and moving the state of the art of knowledge forward once again.

Ben Brooks laments this, almost romantically.

I can tell you from first hand experience that the reading experience is very different on each of the different mediums and that’s why the distinction matters to me. I don’t care which version you bought because it changes what you read, but I do care because it may not be the same as the book I read (sometimes in the minor content differences, but always in experience and layout).

Marco Arment does not, functionally.

When I start reading, the form of the book quickly disappears. Just as I don’t notice the individual letters in each word, I stop noticing the layout, the font, the paper, the binding, and every other physical artifact because I’m focused on the writing.

Dieter Bohn thinks we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

With ebooks, we’re still looking at the equivalent of the day after Gutenberg printed his first Bible. We need to decide which paper book “specs” are important and ensure that they get recreated in our new digital world. We also need to ensure that these digital equivalents are at least as free and unfettered as paper books are now. We’ve already surpassed paper technology in a number of areas. However we are not giving nearly enough attention to the very things that made paper books flourish in the first place. The most important specs are the ones you take for granted.

Here’s the thing — once upon a time we passed down our stories between generations. Then we carved them into stone, brushed them on papyrus, illuminated them on scrolls, and eventually pressed them into print. We lost the voices of our parents, the lines of our hand, the power of our art, the uniqueness of our craft. But we gained volume and the democratization of information. Beauty gave way to volume.

Each transition has been painful. Each transition has been decried and denounced. Yet, inexorably, the new has overtaken the old. Even if it’s never fully supplanted it. We still tell stories. We still practice calligraphy. We still work at leading and kerning. iBooks and eBooks won’t wipe out traditional books any more than non-traditional books wiped out message mediums older than they. Those mediums will shrink, perhaps, and become the providence of craftsman and collectors, enthusiasts and artists, and the very same folk who still enjoy wooden toys, vinyl albums, and pre-iPhone phones.

Meanwhile, iBooks, Kindle books, and other forms of digital books will continue to crawl out of the primordial ooze and make more content more available to more people (and children) than ever before. And perhaps they’ll recapture some of the magic of mediums past, the way Audible has voice and InDesign has done digital press.

iBooks, Kindle books, and their ilk are not perfect, not yet and maybe never, but they’re the future. Until the next transition.

iCookbook is an iPhone and iPad app that will help you plan, prepare, and cook your meals. One of its unique features is the support for voice commands. While cooking, it is not uncommon to have your hands covered in matter that you do not want transferred to you iPad’s screen, so instead of using you hands to navigate around the app, you can use your voice. It also includes features that you would expect to find in any good cooking app such as detailed, customizable recipes, shopping lists, social sharing, and the ability to add your own recipes.

We interviewed the folks at Publications International and took a closer look at Macworld 2012

• $4.99 for iPhone and iPad – App Store link

• Voice Commands. Completely unique to iCookbook is hands free voice command. Cooks can proceed through the preparation steps without touching the iPad or iPhone screen. Just speak the simple commands to move to the next step, manage timers, view notes [iPad only], and more.
• Prepare Mode: Unique to iCookbook, the Prepare feature provides an enhanced display of a recipe a cook can read at a distance from the iPad and iPhone.
• Stir it Up! Feeling adventurous? Press Stir and iCookbook offers a selection of randomly chosen recipes based on a particular search or filter criteria [Shake to stir on iPhone].
• My Recipe Box. Enables a cook to create a set of iCookbook favorite recipes for easy retrieval, and add recipes from a personal recipe collection.
• Network with Friends and Family. Share on Facebook, or email any recipe to all your friends to let them know what you are cooking.
• Printing. Now print recipes to any AirPrint™ compatible printer.
• Personalize the Recipes. Everyone likes to put their own personal touch to a recipe. Our Notes feature allows you to record your ideas and comments about iCookbook recipes.
• Kitchen Tools. Multiple timers, substitution lists, and measurement conversion charts.
• Shopping List. Tag ingredients directly from a recipe to your shopping list, then print or email your list.
• Add your own recipe – You can easily add your own recipes so you never lose your Grandma’s favorite chocolate cookies or your world-famous pasta sauce. Once the recipe is added, you can also easily add your own photos, search for your recipe or even share your personal favorite through E-mail.

iCookbook is available on the iPhone and iPad for $4.99.

• App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

While our editors Rene and Leanna hit the road to check out what MacWorld 2012 had in store for us, tons of other news was flowing through the iMore Nation this week. Odds are you missed something that took place this week, and no one wants to be left out, so check below for some of what took place, and keep it tuned in for even more news.

iPhone news

• Sony’s new 13MP CMOS image sensor could lead to thinner iPhones with better cameras
• Foxconn leak claims Apple is readying iPhone 5 production for summer launch
• iPhone 5 counter claims: not going into production yet, not going to be longer or wider
• iPhone makes up 80% of AT&T smartphone sales after selling 7.6 million in Q4

iPad news

• Apple’s iPad not affected by Amazon’s Kindle Fire
• iPad production in Brazil gets tax breaks
• Penultimate talks iPad stylus

App news

• Siri’s got competition, her name is Evi
• Turn business cards into contacts with WorldCard for iPhone and iPad
• Twittelator Neue now offers push notifications
• Hands on with Bag It! for iPhone and iPad

Jailbreak news

• How to troubleshoot common jailbreak issues on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
• Add effects and transitions to your app icons with Motion [jailbreak]
• LockInfo vs IntelliscreenX for iOS 5 jailbreak — which should you get?
• Tweet from anywhere on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with TwitkaFly [jailbreak apps]
• Best jailbreak apps for new iPhone users
• How to take a screen recording on your iPhone or iPad [Jailbreak app for that]

Accessory news

• Ten One Design announces Pogo Sketch Plus capacitive stylus for iPhone and iPad
• Review + giveaway: iCooly PhoneStand for iPhone
• Case-Mate Pop! Case with Stand for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 review
• iFixit iPhone transparent rear panel mod kit review
• iFixit Thirsty Bag for iPhone, iPad review

Garmin now owns Navigon and while you think twice as many turn-by-turn navigation apps from one company would be doubly confusing, they’re doing a good job at differentiating their products, but what’s more — Garmin themselves are going way beyond turn-by-turn apps and harnessing location-based GPS services including apps for pilots, and for fitness.

Garmin Fit uses location to measure and track you walking, running, or cycling activity, and lets you easily refer back to them or even share them via Garmin’s Connect service. It also ties into your music, trying to match a soundtrack to your activity level. Garmin Fit measures: current speed, distance traveled, your route, and your calories burned.

You can also get an optional dongle that uses ultra low-power Garmin Ant+ to wirelessly send data from your iPhone and Garmin Fit to external sensors including heart rate monitors, foot measures, and cycling meters.

Garmin On-Demand takes the traditional turn-by-turn navigation app and lowers almost every barrier of entry imaginable. It’s not expensive — you subscribe to what you need, when you need it, in small chunks for small periods, not massive bills forever. That also speeds up downloads and updates, since only the areas you’re traveling need to be transferred to your iPhone. Not driving? Not a problem — Garmin On-Demand has walkers covered too.

Both apps, as well as Garmin’s full suite of apps — which includes Navigon — are available now on the iTunes app store.

• $0.99 – Garmin Fit for iPhone – App Store link
• $0.99 – Garmin On-Demand for iPhone – App Store link

iPad 3 is likely up next, and the big rumor is Retina display on the order of 2048×1536. Less certain but still desirable are quad-core chips and LTE networking. Much the same rumors apply to the iPhone 5, just replace the already-present Retina display with an oft-requested 4-inch screen. You could throw a 7-inch iPad in there for good measure to.

Is it something subtler you’re waiting for, like NFC support, or something more dramatic like 3D?

Apple TV hasn’t been updated in over a year, so are you really craving some 1080p or are you all about the Apple iTV televion rumors now?

Maybe it’s the Mac you want — more specifically a 15-inch MacBook Air? A redesigned Mac Pro? If you could get just one big hardware gift from Apple this year, what would it be?

Give us your vote up top and then give us the details in the comments below!

How do you record the screen of your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad? That’s the question several of our readers have asked this week. Sure, you can use a fancy HDMI-out dongle and a video capture card to mirror and record your display if you have the hardware and can get it working right. But if you’re jailbroken there’s an easier way to go about recording your iPhone or iPad display.

Yes, there’s a jailbreak app for that!

Cydia, the Jailbreak app store, has a little something that should suit your screen recording needs pretty well. It’s called Display Recorder and it allows you to take screen recordings directly on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Once you’re done, you can choose to upload the screen recording to YouTube or connect over Wi-Fi and move it over to your computer.

I’ve used Display Recorder in the past for tutorials and walk-throughs. You can adjust the output quality and file type as well. The only down side I’ve found to Display Recorder is that it doesn’t record audio. I’ve always solved this problem by recording the audio with voice memos or another external microphone and editing them together in iMovie or a similar program.

Display Recorder is available in Cydia now and is already compatible with iOS 5.

$4.99 – Cydia Search Link

Anyone else have any App for That suggestions for screen recordings?

Having trouble finding what you need in the app store? Head on over to our App for That Forum and let us know what you’re looking for. The iMore community will do our best to find you just the right App for That!

The folks at Adonit have been working hard on their new product, the Jot Touch, a pressure sensitive stylus with a built-in antenna and a free SDK kit for drawing app developers. Adonit was showcasing the Jot Touch at Macworld, so I had a chance to check it out.

I will admit that the style of the Jot stylus lineup with the clear, flat nib has always seemed a bit awkward to me, but it only took a few minutes of use before I understood why this is a superior design. Because of the clear nib, I was able to see exactly where my markings would appear even if I was using a very fine line setting in the drawing app. This, combined with the Jot Touch’s pressure sensitivity, will make this stylus a fantastic choice for artists.

The Jot Touch is set to release in late March or early April.

Taglists is an iPhone and iPad app that lets you create and share playlists made up of music, videos, and photos that can be streamed for free by you and your friends. Just tag all the media with the same hashtag label and Taglists will generate the playlists for you. Want to enjoy these playlists via a different medium? No problem; Taglists lets you use Airplay or DLNA to play them on connected TV, A/V receivers, iPod docks, stereos, Apple TV and more.

We took a closer look at Taglists at Macworld 2012.

• Free – App Store link

Taglists lets you create and share playlists that mix free music, videos, and photos from multiple places, including Facebook, YouTube, Picasa, and SoundCloud.

• Create a Taglist by tagging songs, videos, and photos with the same hash-tag, like #inthedark (See #inthedark here: http://eye-c.tv/twv)
• Share Taglists on Twitter and Facebook automatically, and let friends add to your playlist to build your own shared channel that others can watch on any computer
• Play Taglists on your iPhone or iPod touch or iPad or use Airplay or DLNA to play them on connected TV, A/V receivers, iPod docks, stereos, Apple TV and more.

Taglists is available on the iPhone and iPad for free.

• App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

The Omni Group is famous for their high quality, thoughtfully designed, and enormously useful productivity apps for iPhone, iPad, and Macs, including OmniFocus, OmniGraphSketcher, OmniGraffle, and OmniOutliner. They were one of the earliest high profile developers to go all-in on the iPad, bringing several of their premium apps to platform on launch day. Not believing the “consumption not creation” mantra of the usual suspects, they took cues from Apple on model controls and full screen workflows and re-imagined their apps until they became a way to almost finger-paint with productivity.

In addition to their user interface and user experience work, they’ve also been early adopters of new iOS features, such as adding location to task management and implementing iCloud sync.

Live from [Macworld 2012], Ken Case talks about all of the above and more, and where The Omni Group might be going next.

Check out the video above, and find all of the Omni Group’s finely crafted apps on the App Store via the links below.

• OmniFocus for iPhone – $19.99 – App Store link
• OmniFocus for iPad – $39.99 – App Store link
• OmniGraphSketcher for iPad – $14.99 – App Store link
• OmniGraffle – $49.99 – App Store link
• OmniOutliner – $19.99 – App Store link

Garmin may be best known for their driving navigation apps and devices, but they also have Pilot My-Cast, an iPhone and iPad app for pilots to plan their flights by not only mapping out their route, but checking the weather by overlaying real-time data and maps including radar, clouds, and lightning. The UI is designed very nicely and is meant to be a quick and simple reference for general, corporate, and commercial pilots.

We got a closer look at Macworld 2012.

Garmin Pilot My-Cast is an aviation-centric weather and flight planning application designed specifically for general aviation, corporate and commercial pilots. Pilot My-Cast allows subscribers to view comprehensive weather information for your route or airport of interest. With Pilot My-Cast, you can quickly see how the weather will impact your flight by overlaying numerous real-time data including: Radar, visible and infrared clouds, AIRMETs, SIGMETs and lightning on a map with your flight displayed. Pilot My-Cast also features the AOPA Airport Directory along with the ability to file a flight plan and much more. Features:

• Designed by pilots specifically for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch
• Maps include: Animated radar, AIRMETs/SIGMETs, Lightning, PiREPs, METARs/TAFs, Winds Aloft, TFRs, Infrared and Visible Satellite and Prog Charts
• Extensive text products include: METARs, TAFs, Winds Aloft, PiREPs, AIRMETs, SIGMETs, Area Forecasts and NOTAMs
• Dynamic weather overlays with your route displayed on map
• AOPA Airport Directory
• Flight plan filing via DUAT(s)
• Comprehensive weather data direct from the National Weather Service and Environment Canada

Once the 30 day free trial expires, Garmin Pilot My-Cast Aviation Weather and Flight Planning requires a $9.99 monthly subscription.

• App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

With their new UltraFit line of sports headphones for iPhone, iPad, iPod and other devices, Polk Audio is really putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to their SecureFit, “stays in place” promise. Rather, they’re putting Olympic-calibur athletes on a trampoline smack-dab in the middle of Macworld 2012. There are several different sport-optimized headsets in Polk Audio’s UltraFit line. All of them share iPhone, iPad, and iPod compatible 3.5mm connectors, tangle-free, planar audio cables, and Strainguard moisture shields, along with 41-inch cables for those who want to keep their device on a belt, in a pocket or otherwise further away, and 14-inch cables for those who want them on an armband, or clipped or stowed closer to the collar. Here’s the breakdown:

• UltraFit 500 are in-ear, lower end headsets in black/red, black/gold, white/gray, and white/orange with 3 pairs of StayFit tips. They go for $49.95.

• UltraFit 1000 are in-ear, mid range headsets in black/red and white/gray, with the iPod-style remote control and three pair of StayFit silicone tips. They go for $69.95

• UltraFit 2000 are on-ear, mid range headsets in black/red or white/orange, with the iPod-style remote control, two pairs of foam ear pads, and one pair of cold-weather pads. They also go for $69.95.

• Ultrafit 3000 are in-ear, high range headsets black/red, white/gray and white/orange, with iPod-style remote control and 2 pairs of StayFit, 3-flange silicone tips, and three pairs of memory foam tips. They go for $99.95.

If the trampoline demos at Macworld were any indication, where the athletes jumped, flipped, spun, and otherwise shot themselves across the sky — with and without snowboards — are any indication, when Polk Audio says these new UltraFit headsets stay in place, they mean just exactly that.

As someone whose ears have been mangled by years of grappling, and whose standard headsets continuously fail to stay in place, I’ll definitely be checking them out.

• $49.95 – $99.95 – Amazon link

Polk Audio's new UltraFit athletic headsets will make you jump

While checking out the showroom floor at Macworld 2012, we encountered this cute little game called Bag It! The goal is to efficiently bag your groceries while optimizing space and not crushing items by, say, putting a watermelon on top of the bread.

These aren’t normal groceries, either. Each item is actually a character that has a personality. Bagging characters next to each other that get along well will help you achieve higher scores. For example, Sunshine the OJ and Spilt the Milk are sweethearts and bagging them next to each other awards an additional 300 points.

If organization isn’t your style or you need to blow off some steam, Bag It! also has a Rampage mode where your goal is to actually destroy as much groceries as possible.

Heavy, sturdy items on the bottom, light and fragile items on the top – seems simple, right? Think again!

• 50+ unique levels!
• Standard, Rampage, and Puzzle modes!
• Try to get 3 stars and both medals for each level! Master them all!
• 3 unique Endless Modes!
• Unique grocery combos – try to find them all!
• Custom tailored translations in 7 languages
• Game Center with Leaderboards

Bag It! is available on the iPhone and iPad for $2.99 or just the iPhone for $0.99.

• $0.99 for iPhone – App Store link
• $2.99 for iPhone and iPad – App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

A Police officer in New York used his own iPhone to catch a thief and retrieve a victim’s iPhone after she was robbed in a handbag store on Thursday night. A man walked into the store brandishing a black handgun and took the woman’s iPhone.

After a fruitless canvass of the area, one officer, Robert Garland, tried another tack. Using the 24-year-old victim’s iTunes account information and the iCloud feature on his own phone, Mr. Garland was able to track the victim’s iPhone. Officers then followed the cyber-scent to the area near 49th Street and Eighth Avenue. As they searched the area, the suspect, who the police said had placed the phone in his boot, walked past the officers. The victim’s phone began to beep. And, soon, the suspect was placed under arrest.

Source: The New York Times

Launch Center, a new shortcuts app for iPhone, aims to make everything from sending messages and mail to posting on Facebook and Twitter, to turning on your LED flashlight, faster and easier via an extremely clever, borderline audacious use of URL schemes and iOS 5′s Notification Center.

Produced by David Barnard of App Cubby fame, it boasts an absolutely gorgeous user interface that lets you easily set up which actions you want to appear in your Notification Center from a robust set of shortcut that include Phone, SMS/iMessage, Email, Twitter, Facebook, Flashlight, Google search, and Custom URL schemes. (That last one, for more advanced users especially, should make Launch Center an instant buy.)

Live from Macworld|iWorld 2012, David showed off some of the new features in the recent Launch Center 1.1 update, including scheduled launch actions — for example if you know you need to SMS your wife every morning or email your boss the report every friday at noon.

David’s keeping Launch Center in his dock now, since using Launch Center to quickly call a favorite or send a message is faster than tapping and pecking through screens of apps and layers of menus.

Hopefully Apple finds a way to balance security and accessibility in the next version of iOS so apps like Launch Center can start to do even more fantastic, time saving things.

• $0.99 – App Store link

Yahoo has announced that they’re canceling some of their mobile apps in an effort to — wait for it — keep moving and keep innovating. Some of the apps that will be discontinued include:

• Yahoo! Meme (iPad and iPhone)
• Yahoo! Mim (iPad)
• Yahoo! Answers (Android)
• Yahoo! AppSpot (Android and iPhone)
• Yahoo! Deals (iPhone)
• Yahoo! Finance (BlackBerry)
• Yahoo! Movies (Android)
• Yahoo! News (Android)
• Yahoo! Shopping (iPhone)
• Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search (iPad and iPhone)

Yahoo has been in the mobile space for quite some time and managed to amass a good amount of apps so looking to cut some of their weight and move on isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The decommissioning of these apps, as Yahoo noted, will allow them to put more effort into creating other applications, like LiveStand in the mobile space. Of course, the apps that Yahoo! cut weren’t really up there in terms of usage and it’s hard to imagine anyone will be sad to see any of them go.

Source: Yahoo via: Android Central

In the latest episode of CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory” titled “Beta Test Initiation”, Raj Koothrappali starts a relationship with a well-known woman – Siri.

After buying an iPhone 4S, Raj starts building a creepy relationship with Siri – taking her out for coffee, inviting her on double dates, and even dressing her, in “a nice black case”.

If you are a fan of the show, you’ll know that one of Raj’s personality traits is that he has difficulty talking to women, so when Siri makes a human appearance, hilarity ensues.

You can check out the clip of humanised Siri below, but be sure to watch the full episode on CBS.

“The iFixit Thirsty Bag can be a life-saver when it comes to salvaging water-damaged iPhones and iPads… if you happen to have one around when an accident happens.”

The iFixit Thirsty Bag is for those who worry about dropping their precious iPhones, iPod touches, or iPads in water. Whether you reach down to pick up something and your Phone slips out of your pocket and into the river or lake, or you turn too quickly and knock your iPod touch off the counter and into the toilet, a time may come when all that stands between you and a replacement is quick action, moisture absorbing materials like the Thirty Bag, and prayers to whichever Apple god you so choose to believe in.

iFixit's Thirsty Bag needs to be bought ahead of time and stored... just in case of water damage to your iPhone or iPad.

When your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad splashes down, and the waves of water crest over it just as the waves of panic crest over you, there are several important things to remember. First, retrieve your device as quickly as possible. Second, dry it off fast so as to minimize exposure time. Third, put it somewhere with highly moisture absorbing material to dry it out. In a pinch, if you have no other option, dry rice is the DIY option. If you’ve thought ahead, however, you can use materials specifically designed for moisture absorbing. The iFixit Thirsty Bag contains just such a material.

Inside the iFixit Thirsty Bag you’ll find two “molecular sieve packets”. Each of these contains powerful liquid absorption material that, according to iFixit, can reduce the atmospheric humidity to 1% RH and suck up pretty much all liquid inside your device over night. They don’t say exactly what the liquid absorbing material is, so I don’t know if it’s the same as the silica gel packets that sometimes ship with electronics to keep them dry, but they work in a similar fashion.

You can use the iFixit Thirsty Bag to remove potentially damaging water from and iPhone or something as large as an iPad, though for larger devices they recommend placing everything in a sealed, ziplock-type bag.

Need help figuring out what the best apps and tweaks are for your newly jailbroken iPhone? Cydia can be overwhelming if you’re not sure where to start. Whether you’re jailbreaking to theme or add more functionality, we’ll have you on your way to becoming a jailbreak ninja in no time.

Quick toggles and gestures

Utilities like Activator and SBSettings should be at the very top of any jailbreaker’s list. Who likes to tap all the way into Settings to disable Wifi or 3G? I know I don’t when I can just use SBSettings to disable it with two taps from virtually anywhere on my iPhone.

SBSettings has a limitless amount of toggles available in Cydia and can be customized and tweaked until your heart’s content. If you want a quick toggle to turn off SMS alerts, you’ve got it. It also allows you to monitor free memory and clear it out. All with a simple swipe on your status bar.

Activator is also a staple in the jailbreak world when it comes to accessing information and applications quickly. You may already have it and not know it. A lot of jailbreak applications and utilities require it. The main function of Activator is to allow you to set gestures for different functions. For example, I double tap on my status bar and a quick reply window for BiteSMS pops up. I can set virtually any gesture I want for any application that supports Activator gestures (a lot of the popular ones do).

SBSettings and Activator are must have utilities for any jailbreaker. They’re typically the very first items I install on my jailbroken devices.

SBSettings – Free – Cydia Search Link

Activator – Free – Cydia Search Link

Notification enhancement applications

While iOS 5 added a ton of enhancements to the way notifications are handled and presented, Apple still left a lot of room for improvement. This is where apps like LockInfo and IntelliscreenX step in to give you even more control over how notifications are handled.

I’ve never been a fan of how iOS 5 discards notifications from the lockscreen immediately after unlocking. I like them to stay there until I dismiss them myself. LockInfo and IntelliscreenX both allow this behavior. You also have the ability to add widgets and other information to your lockscreen and notification center (called Infoshade in LockInfo). IntelliscreenX takes it one step further and adds a “top shelf” that allows you to add quick toggles you can access with a quick swipe down on notification center. This is a convenient place to stick SBSettings.

LockInfo also allows you to access your favorite contacts directly from the Infoshade or lockscreen. Both apps are great notification enhancers but they differ in some areas and feature sets. Choose the one that’s personally right for you. To help you decide which one may appeal to you more, you can check out our LockInfo vs IntelliscreenX comparison.

LockInfo – $7.99 w/ free trial – Cydia Search Link

IntelliscreenX – $9.99 w/ free trial – Cydia Search Link

Text message enhancements

While multitasking in iOS 4 made switching between applications a lot easier, you still have to completely exit whatever you’re doing to reply to a text message. Apps like BiteSMS and Messages+ aim to close that gap with quick reply functionality. Instead of having to exit out of an app a quick reply keyboard pops up, you type your message, away it goes, and you’re back to whatever you were doing before without interruption.

If you’ve purchased IntelliscreenX, you also get a license for Messages+ as well. While there are other quick messaging applications available in Cydia, BiteSMS and Messages+ are the best of the best. BiteSMS allows you to purchase credits as well if you don’t want to pay text messaging fees. It can add up to be a lot cheaper than text messaging plans.

BiteSMS – Free or $9.99 (ad free) – Cydia Search Link

Messages+ – $7.99 (free w/ IntelliscreenX purchase) – Cydia Search Link

Theming your iPhone

If you want to customize the look and feel of your iPhone, there are thousands of free and paid themes in Cydia. You can also choose from a few different utilities to theme. Some themes may require Winterboard while others will require Dreamboard. There are also applications like Theme It available in Cydia that aim to bring the best of the best themes straight to your iPhone all in one place.

If you don’t necessarily want an all in one theme but still want to customize to your liking, you can check out Springtomize 2. Springtomize 2 allows you to customize individual aspects of your iPhone’s overall appearance. There are tons of add-ons and built-in options to choose from. If you tend to be more picky, Springtomize 2 is probably a better bet as it offers far more control.

Winterboard – Free – Cydia Search Link

Dreamboard – Free – Cydia Search Link

Springtomize 2 (iOS 5+) – $2.99 – Cydia Search Link

Extras

If you’re looking for tweaks that just make your iPhone that much cooler when jailbroken, here’s some extra tweaks we’ve found that are just cool in general.

Cyntact

Adds contact pictures to your address book next to each contact.

$0.99 – Cydia Search Link

BlurriedNCBackground

Blurs the background of notification center. Nothing to configure and doesn’t add any additional icons.

Free – Cydia Search Link

Shrink

Change the default size of icons in your dock and on your homescreen. I find this particularly useful if you have a background you’d like to see without huge icons being in your way.

$1.49 – Cydia Search Link

Barrel

Add cool transitions when tabbing through pages on your springboard. Make your icons roll, fall away, and more.

$2.99 – Cydia Search Link

If you’ve got any cool tweaks or utilities you think beginner’s would benefit from be sure to let us know! This is just the beginning of what you can do with a jailbroken iPhone.

Additional resources:

• How-to jailbreak guides
• Jailbreak apps, hacks, and themes forum
• General jailbreak and unlock forum
• Cydia repositories list
• iMore downloads section
• Jailbreak troubleshooting guide

Acoording to a report by Reuters, Apple’s generous customer service may be causing huge problems for victims of iPhone theft. The warranty plan is tied to the iPhone and not the person who owns the phone; this means anyone can take an iPhone to an Apple Store for service or replacement.

The ease of trading in stolen iPhones and selling their replacements makes them nearly as tempting as grabbing cash. In cities from coast-to-coast, reports of iPhone thefts are common. While some thieves sell the phones through the traditional channels of fencing stolen goods, examples abound of stolen iPhones being brought back to Apple, as if broken, for either replacement or a discount on a new unit. ”Apple seems to have not considered stolen devices and instead is relying on the honor system,” says Robert Siciliano, a consultant for Intel Corp’s technology security unit McAfee and an identity theft expert. “The honor system is devised with the mindset that we are all sheep and there are no wolves.” Siciliano says he has known of this problem for a while, but doesn’t see any immediate solution. “Until consumers scream loud enough about this issue, Apple probably won’t do anything about it.”

Apple has yet to comment on the findings within the report but let’s hope a simple solution can be found that will not cause pain for the honest amongst us. The last thing we need is for Apple to change its policies and make life more difficult when it comes to iPhone service and replacement.

Source: Reuters, Image Wikipedia

Apple CEO Tim Cook has followed up on the New York Times story about the human cost of manufacturing iPhones, iPads, and Macs in China with an email to Apple internal employee. In short, he takes issue with the Times.

As a company and as individuals, we are defined by our values. Unfortunately some people are questioning Apple’s values today, and I’d like to address this with you directly. We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain. Any accident is deeply troubling, and any issue with working conditions is cause for concern. Any suggestion that we don’t care is patently false and offensive to us. As you know better than anyone, accusations like these are contrary to our values. It’s not who we are. For the many hundreds of you who are based at our suppliers’ manufacturing sites around the world, or spend long stretches working there away from your families, I know you are as outraged by this as I am. For the people who aren’t as close to the supply chain, you have a right to know the facts.

Cook went on to note that Apple wants to educate workers about their rights. Apple wants to empower them to speak up when they are unfairly or mistreated. Cook claims more than a million people have already been trained under Apple’s program. Cook was also sure to mention that it’s his belief that no other company has taken more or better steps than Apple has with their workplace efforts.

The employee emails were semi-frequent under the late Steve Jobs and they’ve been regular under Tim Cook as well. Jobs was also fond of the open letter. Perhaps we’ll start to see those from Cook as well, and this incredibly important issue will get the attention and publicity it deserves.

You can read Tim Cook’s full email sent out to Apple employee’s via the link below.

Source: 9to5Mac

Team,

Tired of filling out one tedious web form after another, and wondering how to get Safari on iPhone and iPad to automatically fill them out for you? Luckily, deep within the settings of Safari there is a way to setup AutoFill, something which allows you to automatically input your personal data on sites that permit its use.

• If you haven’t already, create a contact for yourself in the Contacts app.
• Open up the Contacts app
• Select the plus sign in the top right corner

• Add in your personal information

• Hit Done
• Open up your settings app

• Tap on Safari

• Tap on AutoFill
• Toggle “Use Contact Info” to on

• Tap on My Info and select the contact you just created or the one you already had
• Now when you visit a site that needs your information, as soon as you select the first text box your keyboard will pop up and there will be an option called AutoFill

• Tap on AutoFill and Bob’s your Uncle, all your details will be automatically filled in for you

Daily Tips 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@imore.com.

Valve has released Steam Mobile for iPhone and iPod touch into the App Store. Sort of. It is available to download and install on your iOS device, but unfortunately you need to be part of a limited beta to actually begin to use it. We are sure this will change fairly soon but it is very frustrating for those gamers that use Steam and want to use the app now.

With the free Steam app for iOS, you can participate in the Steam community wherever you go. Chat with your Steam friends, browse community groups and user profiles, read the latest gaming news and stay up to date on unbeatable Steam sales.

• Connect with friends:  Steam on your mobile phone is the easiest way to keep up with your Steam friends while on the go.
• Steam Chat: Now you can take your Steam chats away from your computer with Steam for iOS and Android.
• Shop Steam: Browse the extensive Steam library of Windows and Mac titles from your phone. Find out about Steam sales wherever you are.

The Steam Mobile app is available for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad. It is not a universal binary so you are looking at 2x mode on your iPad. Hopefully Valve will rectify that soon as well.

• App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Distimo released an interesting report today that examined the overall effects of different app promotions across the iPhone and iPad App Store, as well as the Android Market. One of the most striking stats from the report was that “44% of the iPhone applications that have been on sale lost revenue during the sale, and 23% saw a decline in revenue by more than 20%”.

Distimo factored in how much of a price cut each app received, and put it into the above graph. As you might expect, the sharper the price cut, the greater the revenue. The graph shows that, among those that cut their price by 80%,  just as many apps lost 20% or more revenue as gained more than 100% revenue.  On the whole, putting apps on sale is still a good thing, though; the average iPhone app increased revenue by 22%, iPad apps increased by 19%, and Android app revenue went up by 29%. As you might expect, all three categories see a significant spike on the first day.

The report also examined the effects of having apps being featured. As it turns out, Android apps see a much higher boost in rank from being feature than on the iPhone or iPad. On average, an iPhone app has its rank bumped up 15 spots in the first three days of being featured, while iPad apps go up 27. Android apps? They climb 42 spots, on average. Only 11% of featured iPhone apps climbed more than 50 ranks, compared to 26% of featured Android apps.

Any app developers in the house reconsidering putting their app on sale now? I’m definitely more inclined to do my app shopping when cuts are down at the $0.99 range, but what about you guys?

Source: Distimo

The New York Times is reporting on the human cost of manufacturing iPhones, iPads, and other electronics in China. While Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Motorola, Nokia, Sony, Toshiba and others are also mentioned, Apple gets most of the focus, no doubt because they have the highest profile. The article details how suppliers approach Apple and what Apple requires of them to produce the devices we all use on a daily basis — the cost of parts, salaries, and more importantly, the impact on human lives.

“The only way you make money working for Apple is figuring out how to do things more efficiently or cheaper,”

“And then they’ll come back the next year, and force a 10 percent price cut.”

Many of these cuts come at not only the expense of their workers but to their safety as well. A former Apple executive familiar with the supply process agrees that safety and cutting margins has long been an ongoing issue in China -

“You can set all the rules you want, but they’re meaningless if you don’t give suppliers enough profit to treat workers well,”

“If you squeeze margins, you’re forcing them to cut safety.”

A recent explosion in an iPad 2 facility resulted in 2 fatalities with many more injured. The advocacy group Sacom in Hong Kong also published a report warning of unsafe conditions, issues with aluminum dust, and poor ventilation. Debby Chan Sze Wan of Sacom says a copy of the report was sent to Apple. After receiving no response, she flew to Cupertino.

“A few months later I went to Cupertino, and went into the Apple lobby, but no one would meet with me. I’ve never heard from anyone from Apple at all.”

Apple has been making moves to address some of the concerns, including publishing a Supplier Responsibility Progress Report that lists several companies that have continually been found in violation of safety regulations every year since 2007. The problem doesn’t just lie with Apple but with many technology companies that continuously pressure suppliers to cut their margins. It’s worth pointing out that Apple is the only company that’s releasing a supplier list and providing transparency. We’re still waiting on other companies to do the same.

And the countries themselves can’t be let off the hook either. They want the jobs and money Apple and other manufacturers are creating and providing, and have not yet put in place regulations to safeguard their citizens and workplaces. Perhaps they fear if they do, Apple and other companies will just go elsewhere. But that’s a reason, not an excuse.

Source: The New York Times

“iFixit’s iPhone transparent rear panel mod let’s you give your iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S an amazingly distinctive look in a world where tens of millions of them are otherwise all but indistinguishable.”

I ordered iFixit’s transparent rear panel mod kit + bonus iPhone liberation kit during their Black Friday sale last year because I absolutely adore Ally’s weekly iPhone mod columns and I’ve been dying to try it out for myself. Though the glowing Apple logo mod is my holy grail, this clear back-panel looked great and seemed like an easier mod to start with.

In addition to the rear panel, you'll need Pentalobe screws -- the Liberation kit works wonders here.

Now I need to preface this review by saying I’ve heard conflicting reports about wether or not swapping out the back plate on your iPhone voids your warranty. Obviously you should swap back to the original rear panel if you ever need to take your iPhone back to Apple for service, but I’d caution anyone who’s overly worried or concerned to think twice before doing any mods, especially if AppleCare still has you covered.

Onward. The special deal I got included both the see-through backing for the iPhone (iPhone 4 GMS/AT&T in my case, though they provide versions to fit the Verizon iPhone and iPhone 4S as well), and well as regular and Apple’s own Pentalobular-style screw drivers. If iFixit doesn’t have the special package deal when you order, get the Liberation kit anyway. It’s well worth it, especially considering Pentalobe screws are pretty much impossible to remove without the proper tools.

Once unscrewed, the iPhone back plate is easy to remove

Since Pentalobe screws aren’t designed for repeated use, the first thing I did was replace them with the ones iFixit includes in the kit. Removing the screws with the proper screwdriver was simple and fairly easy. Once the screws are removed, the iPhone back plate just pops out of place. It is a little bit tricky to get the transparent rear replacement panel properly aligned, however, so you’ll want to practice a few times.

I did have some trouble getting the replacement screws to fit all the way back in. I did make sure to order the proper back plate for the AT&T/GSM iPhone 4, but the screws still stuck out a little. I could have received some ornery parts, and the feedback to iFixit is pretty positive so it doesn’t sound like a widespread problem, but it’s something to keep in mind. Worst case you swap the original panel and screws back in and contact iFixit for a replacement.

And once your transparent rear panel is installed, your iPhone will really stand out from the crowd

Once the clear back plate is in place it looks spectacular. You can see the inner workings of your iPhone just like you could the inner workings of the original iMac. In other words — awesome.

I didn’t leave it on long — I’m testing some other parts now as well — so I can’t comment on longterm durability yet, but with a process this simple, if you have any interest in modding at all, it’s certainly worth a try.

AT&T has reported sales of 7.6 million iPhone units totaling 80 percent of their overall smartphone sales in Q4 2011.

The iPhone 4S no doubt helped boost iPhone numbers after Apple reported sales of 37.04 million iPhones for Q1 2012 — their biggest quarter ever. Out of the 9.4 million smartphone sales in total for the quarter, 80 percent of them were the iPhone.

• 9.4 million smartphone sales, best-ever quarter and 50 percent more than previous quarterly record and nearly double 3Q11 sales; 82 percent of postpaid sales were smartphones
• Best-ever quarter for Android and Apple smartphones, including 7.6 million iPhone activations
• 571,000 branded computing device (tablets, aircards, etc.) sales, best-ever quarter to reach 5.1 million total subscribers; up almost 70 percent from a year ago
• 12th consecutive quarter with a year-over-year increase in postpaid wireless subscriber ARPU (average monthly revenues per subscriber), up 1.4 percent to $63.76 — more than $6 higher than nearest competitor’s ARPU
• 10.0 percent growth in wireless revenues
• 19.4 percent growth in wireless data revenues, up $956 million versus the year-earlier quarter

In addition to stellar iPhone numbers, AT&T was able to add a large number of data subscribers, including those using the iPad 3G and other data-enabled tablet devices. Revenue for the quarter reached $32.5 billion, a full $1.1 billion more than last year.

We’re looking forward to seeing how Sprint made out for Q4 2011 and, as always, will bring you the numbers on February 8th during their quarterly earnings call!

Source: AT&T

GelaSkins has been quietly selling some funky iPhone skins for a few years now, but they’ve recently made the big jump to hard cases. You’ll find all of the same high-quality art on their new line of cases for the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 3G. If you’ve got your own images you’d like to use, GelaSkins also has a web tool for putting your own graphics on the some accessories.

This is a sensible move to make, considering the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S is more in need of impact protection than scratch resistance. but of course, you have to be willing to give up some of that slimness and unified design whenever slapping on a hard case. It’s a tough balance to strike, and one I still haven’t settled on personally.

They’re a tad on the pricey side, but damn are they stylish.

• $35.95 – iPhone 4S/iPhone 4/a>
• $29.95 – iPhone 3GS/iPhone 3G.

Smash Cops is an iPhone and iPad game where you get to be the police in wild car chases. You may be weaving through traffic going after runaway felons or even fleeing from a felon attack until backup arrives. The city you work is huge with just as huge graphics and includes over 20 missions and 5 vehicles.

Smash Cops is this week’s Games of the Week in the App Store.

PURSUE

• Take down runaway felons whilst avoiding civilian traffic and buddy police as you chase and weave through traffic.

ESCAPE

• Escape under time pressure from felon attack and get to a call out location as quickly as possible.

CHALLENGE

• 4 different mini games: smash a load of cars illegally parked in a car park, weave through a course laid out by cones, dodge traffic on a highway and collect evidence throughout the city.

GROUND BREAKING CONTROLS

• By placing your finger behind the car you can steer, weave, defend and attack runaway felons with full control of your vehicle, never before used in touch racing games.

LARGE DRIVABLE CITY

• Huge city with high quality visuals creates a fun and rich environment for different attack and escape routes spread over 20 missions and 5 vehicles.

CHAOS AND MAYHEM

-Smash, crush and flip felon vehicles. Obliterate the street scenery.

Smash Cops is available on the iPhone and iPad for $2.99.

• App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Zombie : The Rescue: Get hooked by the dozens of challenging stages, each offering you the chance to be a hero! You’re not just here to blast these baddies into oblivion—you’ve got helpless civilians to rescue. Don’t worry, though, you’ll have plenty of chances to reduce the shambling hordes to quivering sludge, too.

• $0.99 for iPhone – App Store link

The Adventures of Robin Hood: Dive into the story of Robin Hood, Maid Marion and the Sheriff of Nottingham with full screen cartoons, karaoke-style reading, sound effects and mini-games that stimulate the imagination.

• $0.99 for iPhone – App Store link
• $3.99 for iPhone and iPad – App Store link

PicYou: With a simple photo you can connect with others from around the world and explore new things to do or see. See a sweet shot? Snap it with your iPhone and let PicYou do the rest with its awesome filters and frames.

• Free for iPhone – App Store link

NewsFlash: One tap is all it takes to see what just happened… NewsFlash brings you all the latest news, as it breaks, from the major news sources in your country.

• Free for iPhone and iPad App Store link

Spirit of Wandering – The Legend: Sail the seas with a pirate captain in search of her missing love in this adventurous, hidden-object quest! After an attack by the Flying Dutchman, the crew of the Spirit of Wandering and captain’s companion, Jack, were imprisoned in the spirit world. Use powerful tools such as the Crystal Orb, a trusty compass and the help of fellow prisoners to find hidden objects that are drifting between the two worlds. Remove the lingering curse and save those stuck in the spirit world!

• Free for iPhone – App Store link
• Free for iPad – App Store link

Any other big app or game releases or updates today?

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Rene, Georgia, and Seth talk Apple’s massive Q1 2012 financial results, go over the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 Absinthe jailbreak, and discuss the latest iPhone 5 and iPad 3 rumors. This is iPhone & iPad Live!

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• Show notes

Hosts

• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie)
• Leanna Lofte (@llofte)
• Seth Clifford (@sethclifford)

Credits

You can reach all of us on Twitter @iMore, or you can email us at podcast@imore.com, or leave a comment on the website when the show goes live.

We’re here every Wednesday night at 6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern, 2am GMT, and our new companion show, Apps and Accessories Live is on Sundays, same Bat Time, same Bat Channel — at www.imore.com/live

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Thanks to the iMore iPhone and iPad Accessory Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Prezo is an iPhone photography app that lets you and your friends contribute to shared photo albums. This is perfect for groups of people that are at the same party, event or vacation.

If I wasn’t already married, I’d totally encourage my guests to use this app during my wedding reception and have the photos displayed in real time on a projector.

Prezo, urban slang for “Presentation”, is a social photo sharing app that allows multiple people to contribute to the same shared photo albums. Users create photo albums, called Prezos, and share them via Facebook, Twitter, Email or SMS. Other users can view and/or edit Prezos based on permissions set by the Prezo owner. Prezo owners and contributors are notified via push notifications when Prezos are changed. Prezos can also be viewed as slide presentations at www.myprezo.com.

Imagine…

• Being at a social or corporate event where users can contribute to a shared Prezo for the event while the Prezo is being shown in real time on a large projection screen.
• Being on a vacation where all photos taken by anyone in your party are automatically shared with everyone else in your party. At the same time, people not on the trip can see your pictures in real time as they are taken by viewing the shared Prezo at www.myprezo.com.
• Creating a mobile portfolio or mobile sales presentation that can be viewed by customers and prospects.

…Prezo makes this all simple!

Prezo is available on the iPhone for free.

• App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

iPad Live has merged Transformers-style with iPhone Live and our newer, better, badasser all news, all how-tos iPhone and iPad Live combined podcast can is coming to you tonight at 6pm PT, 9pm ET, 2am GMT.

If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to discuss, just leave them in the comments then come be part of the show!

Want to watch via iPhone or iPad? Grab the Ustream app and search for “mobilenations”!

Microsoft is planning to bring more Xbox Live gaming to Apple’s iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, as well as Google’s Android platform.

“While the Xbox Live experiences and games always work best on the Windows platform, we understand that some Xbox fans may be using other types of devices. To satisfy that need, we are working to extend a few of our Xbox experiences and titles to other platforms.”

All of Microsoft’s current XBox efforts have done well on iOS and Microsoft isn’t exactly a company to leave to money on the table or avoid recognition, it’s another avenue for both of those things if Microsoft puts the effort into it. No mention was made of when we could expect to see these efforts put into to place but if we had to wager a guess, we’d bet it’s not all that far off.

Given that Microsoft’s Windows Phone is still — as some would say — ‘ramping up’, it only seems logical that Microsoft would target iOS and Android users as well, especially considering the market share Apple and Google have in the mobile space.

Microsoft has already made a small foray on iOS with the release of My XBox Live and Kinectimals, but who knows what could be next. Halo, anyone?

• Source: Forbes

“Classic arcade fighting game SoulCalibur has hacked and slashed its way onto the iPhone, with all of the vibrant characters and flashy moves you remember, but there are still a few gaps to fill.”

SoulCalibur recently launched for both iPhone and iPad, calling upon many nostalgic gamers to dive back into the classic 3D fighting title. The screenshots show many of the characters players will readily recognize, like the gruff samurai, Mitsurugi, the eccentric and mysterious Voldo, and the enlightened Kilik. There are 10 characters available from the get-go, with another 9 available through unlocks. All of ‘em have alternative costumes too, for those that are sensitive to combat fashion.

There are a ton of game modes, like the classic arcade style, where you plow through challengers one-by-one until reaching the final boss, a time trial where you try to get through them all as quickly as possible, and survival mode, to see how long you can play before being defeated. Practice mode is an essential and welcome addition for those that want to learn every little nuance of their favourite characters. Namco Bandai promises that even more game modes are on the way.

Unfortunately, SoulCalibur’s asking price at launch was a little on the high end: $12, and that’s with a 20%-off launch discount. That’s a hard pill to swallow when the game doesn’t offer multiplayer support, and sound quality is a little on the sketchy side…

SoulCalibur for iPhone has the traditional look, but with multitouch controls superimposed on top of the screen.

For the most part, the gameplay is fantastic and classic. You have an overlay of a joystick, and the four standard buttons – vertical attack, horizontal attack, kick, and guard. Control options let you customize button placement and opacity, as well as add a multi-button of your choice. This is particularly important, since a lot of SoulCalibur moves require you to hit two buttons at once, which is only really possible otherwise if you lay your device flat on a surface, so you’re playing with your fingers instead of thumbs. The extra button is helpful in that regard, but since you can only add one, a character’s full arsenal won’t be available to you when thumbing it out.

SoulCalibur's animations have been faithfully, beautifully reproduced

The animation is altogether great, and having played SoulCalibur plenty on the Xbox 360, I can say that all of the moves and animations have been faithfully recreated. The models themselves can be a little jagged at times, but given the speed and complexity of many of the animations, I’m happy enough that everything runs smoothly. Although the menus are laid out clearly, I occasionally had issues getting presses to register. Bigger buttons for each option would be really helpful.

Menu options are clearly laid out, though tap targets are small and can be hard to hit.

The one downer for SoulCalibur on the iPhone was the audio. The music was tinny and MIDI-style, the announcer’s audio files seemed low-quality compared to everything else, and the character taunts before and after each round are still in Japanese (even though the announcer and UI is in English). These are all things that could be fixed in a future patch, though, so I’m holding out for Namco Bandai to update the game sooner rather than later.

The lack of multiplayer is a a bit of a kick in the teeth, seeing as my favourite part of SoulCalibur, and really any fighting game, is beating the snot out of your buddies. There is Game Center support though, so at least your high scores are posted where your friends can see them and feel inadequate.

SoulCalibur supports Game Center leaderboards, but NOT multiplayer.

While SoulCalibur has buckets of nostalgia going for it, $11.99 is a lot to ask. While you won’t have as easy of a time playing on your iPhone or iPad as you would with a real console controller, you learn quickly and before long you’ll find your ass-kicking stride. There are some significant feature gaps, namely multiplayer support, but if Namco Bandai follows up with significant patches, SoulCalibur may very well merit this hefty pricetag.

SoulCalibur
$11.99 Buy now		The Good Combat animations recreated faithfully Gameplay and controls familiar and responsive Plenty of characters to unlock Universal app, works on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad The Bad Currently too expensive No multiplayer Voiceovers need improved quality and translation The Conclusion While SoulCalibur has buckets of nostalgia going for it, $11.99 is a lot to ask (and that’s the 20%-off release sale price). While you won’t have as easy of a time playing on your iPhone or iPad as you would with a real console controller, you learn quickly and before long you’ll find your ass-kicking stride. There are some significant feature gaps, namely multiplayer support, but if Namco Bandai follows up with significant patches, SoulCalibur may very well merit this hefty pricetag.

Earlier today, we posted a report from TNW that showed UK carrier O2, had been transmitting phone numbers to every website visited via their 2G or 3G network.

After the backlash on Twitter, O2 acknowledged and fixed the issue at 2pm GMT today, followed by an apology on their blog, including a Q&A to explain exactly what happened and who was affected.

We have seen the report published this morning suggesting the potential for disclosure of customers’ mobile phone numbers to website owners. We investigated, identified and fixed it this afternoon. We would like to apologise for the concern we have caused.

The issue occurred after a routine maintenance update on January 10th, that accidentally sent user phone numbers to website hosts, along with the standard log of technical information required from the device.

Q: Why did this happen? A: Technical changes we implemented as part of routine maintenance had the unintended effect of making it possible in certain circumstances for website owners to see the mobile numbers of those browsing their site.

Technical information is normally sent to websites so that servers can deliver a ‘device-optimised’ experience. Carriers add your phone number to this information, when sending data to ‘trusted partners’, to enable services that require; age verification, premium-content billing, and carrier specific services.

It seems that O2 have fixed the problem now, but after 15 days… is it too little, too late?

Source: O2 Blog

“The ability to use the Case-Mate Pop! Case for iPhone in both portrait and landscape modes, at multiple angles, and without worrying about it slipping is simply brilliant.”

The Case-Mate Pop! Cases with Stand for the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 is exceptionally protective without being overly bulky. It’s one piece which means you don’t get multi-layer protection but it also means it’s easier to put on and take off. Available in an array of bright, bold colors including pink and white, purple and black, yellow and gray, dark and light turquoise, and black on black, it manages to strike a good balance between functionality and stylish good looks.

This Case-Mate case for iPhone isn't just about good looks, it has a little secret...

The Case-Mate Pop! Case with Stand for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 shows a lot of nice attention to detail. The cutouts around the camera are big enough to ensure there’s no problem taking pictures, and no chance of flash-back glare. The mute button is easy enough to access and the volume and sleep/wake buttons are covered but pass-through pressure well enough. The dock cutout, however, while fine with most cables, might give you issues with the chunkier media and car adapters.

Most of the cutouts are wide and the material is soft and protective

Because the case comes up a bit above the front of the iPhone bezel, it also means you can place it face-down on a table and not worry about scratches. Textured sides add to the design but also make it easier to hold onto the Case-Mate Pop! Case.

The kickstand not only supports multiple angles and portrait display...

The kickstand is the big story here. Just as the name describes, the Case-Mate stand pops out from the lower bottom of the back plate, but unlike some others it works in both landscape and portrait more. You can choose two different angles and the slightly rubberized finish prevents it from sliding away and leaving your iPhone to tumble. Well done.

... But can also go landscape, and the rubberized edge stops it from slipping!

Note: Currently on sale in the iMore Canada Store for only Can$27.95!

Seth Weintraub from 9to5Mac has a source within Foxconn that claims Apple is readying the iPhone 5 — as it’s apparently being called — for production in time for a summer release. The leak also claims:

• 4+ inch display (made by LG on at least one of them)
• No teardrop-shaped devices as were rumored in the lead up to the iPhone 4S. Samples so far have been >- symmetrical in thickness. Also longer/wider.
• None of the sample devices have the iPhone 4/4S form factor
• None of the devices are final versions

Given Apple has already re-used the iPhone 4 form factor for the iPhone 4S, it makes sense they wouldn’t revisit it again for the iPhone 5. Likewise, the oft-rumored teardrop form-factor, while seen in other devices, doesn’t really seem to fit within Apple’s existing iOS device design language.

Again, no word on 4G LTE network connectivity, which while increasingly common in the U.S. still isn’t widespread internationally.

However, since none of these devices were considered the final version, and since Apple can and will make changes well into the production cycle, it’s best to take everything with a 4-inch grain of salt.

We’ll find out for sure when Phil Schiller holds it up on stage. Or someone leaves it in a bar…

Source: 9to5 Mac

The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) is asking for your help to tell the U.S. Copyright Office that jailbreaking does not violate the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), and its exemption should be continued and expanded.

In 2010, the Copyright Office said jailbreaking smartphones doesn’t violate the DMCA. This year, we’re asking them to renew that exemption (otherwise it will expire) and expand it to cover tablets. We’re also asking for a new exemption to allow jailbreaking of video game consoles.

The Library of Congress added the exception for jailbreak to the DMCA in July of 2010. Specifically:

Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications, when they have been lawfully obtained, with computer programs on the telephone handset.

However, jailbreak was declared as an exclusion from the DMCA, and protection wasn’t actually hard coded into the act. That means the declaration could ultimately expire and leave jailbreakers subject to legal penalties.

If you’d like to help ensure this never happens, the EFF has advised you submit your opinion in comment form to the Copyright Office, and even offer a submission template with comment suggestions for your convenience. Comments are due by February 10th at 5PM, so make sure you submit your comments soon!

Souce: EFF

The gorgeous twitter client, Twittelator Neue for iPhone, now offers notifications as an in-app purchase. For $1.99/year, you get native push alerts for mentions, direct messages, new followers, retweets, and being added to a list (or any so desired combination). This update also introduces Timeline Galleries so that you can quickly browse through photos that have been tweeted.

I have always been a fan of Twittelator Neue’s gorgeous timeline, design, and photo integration, but have always strayed from using it as my primary Twitter client due to lack of native push. Now, Twittelator Neue will likely become my Twitter client of choice. I will admit, however, that I’m not a big fan of the little icon included in each popup notification.

In the excitement of push notifications, I almost forgot about the Timeline Galleries! This is such a fantastic new feature and is just another example of what sets Twittelator Neue apart from other Twitter clients, making it truly unique.

In celebration of this update, Twittelator is on sale for $0.99 for today only.

• App Store link

Here’s the update notes:

• Neue Notifications Available as In-App Purchase
• Timeline Galleries
• Recent User Photos
• Tweet Replies & Conversations

Anyone else picking up Twittelator Neue? What are you thoughts on the subscription model for push notifications?

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Breakout Boost: This arcade classic is now enhanced with improved graphics and deeper gameplay features such as power ups, unique brick types, and Boost Control! The faster your ball goes, the more points you’ll get!

• Free for iPhone and iPad – App Store link

Worldictionary – Instant Translation & Search: Point your iPhone’s camera at any word and Worldictionary will instantly define and translate it. No need to manually type words or take pictures. This app will be your indispensable travel tool primed to give you translation on-the-go.

• $7.99 for iPhone – App Store link

Jump Out!: From now on, when you earn an achievement, you do not just get a medal and points – you also unlock a new game level with unique game mechanics that correspond to the achievement you received. Each bonus level lets you sacrifice everything to get a trophy. Therefore, from that point on, unlocking each new achievement becomes a key to getting even more fun from the game.

• $0.99 for iPhone – App Store link

Peak Meetings HD: A powerful tool for capturing and organizing your thinking, and making meetings more efficient and effective. Update includes even more productivity enhancements including agenda view, copy, and actions.

• $12.99 for iPhone and iPad – App Store link

The Wiggles’ Alphabet Adventure:

• $2.99 for iPad – App Store link

Any other big app or game releases or updates today?

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

UK network O2 appears to be submitting your telephone number to any website you visit whilst using the data connection on your phone. According to report from TNW, the information is transmitted when a user asks for a webpage view.

The issue was brought to our attention to Lewis Peckover, who created a simple webpage to check the information that a mobile browser would send to a website when it requested data. Whilst most of the data was to be expected, including the Host, User Agent, Referrer and Encoding, there was also another field in the results — x-up-calling-line-id. What is x-up-calling-line-id? Your mobile phone number.

We’re investigating this with our internal teams, and will come back with more as soon as we can

Source: TNW

Adam Lashinsky’s Inside Apple, wish purports to go behind the scenes of Apple’s magic as the world’s biggest start up, and lay bare the secrets of their success, is now available for purchase and, if you go the electronic route, immediate download.

You can pick it up via the links below, or if you’re feeling especially lucky, go enter our Inside Apple contest — we have three (3) copies to give away, and one might just have your name on it. Regardless of how you get it, get it, and then hop on over to the iMore book club and let the discussion begin!

• $12.99 – iBooks link
• $12.99 and up – Amazon link

iMore’s developer spotlights are like DVD/iTunes Extras for the App Store — a weekly look behind the scenes at the programers and designers that bring you the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games you love. This week Leanna talks with David Ashman from mSeven Software.

What’s your name? Ray Marshall

What’s your company’s name? mSeven Software

Where are you located? Portland, OR

What’s your website address? http://msevensoftware.com

What’s your Twitter name? @msevensoftware

What apps do you make? mSecure for iOS, Android, MacOS and Windows, and mGifts for iOS

What apps, other than your own, are currently among your favorites? Flixster, Weatherbug, Dropbox, Pandora, Shazam, TED, Cut the Rope

How long have you been a developer? 27 years

How long have you been an iOS developer? 3.5 years (since the very beginning!)

Do you develop for any other platform in addition to iOS? If so, which one(s)? Mac OS, Windows, Android, Palm (in past)

What primary computer setup do you use for your iOS development? 27″ iMac

What iOS device(s) do you personally use most often? iPhone 4S, iPad 2

What mobile devices, other than iOS, do you currently use? Kindle

What’s your favorite thing about developing for iOS? Great development tools, stable environment

What’s your least favorite thing about developing for iOS? Nothing. iOS is a joy to program for. (Although, haven’t warmed to xcode 4 yet)

What feature would you most like Apple to add to the iOS 5 SDK? Ability to integrate with Siri.

What feature would you most like Apple to add to the App Store? Support for software upgrades

If we were to eavesdrop on you while you were coding, what curse word would we hear you use the most? Argh is about as foul as I get.

1What do you do when you’re not coding iOS apps? Attending my kids’ events with my wife, Guitar, Piano

What should we look for from you next? The world is not organized enough. We have some great new productivity apps made simple in the works!

Thanks Ray!

Appigo’s Notebook app for iPhone and iPad has gone 2.0 and is now a universal app for iPhone and iPad with Dropbox support to keep your notes synced across all your devices, including your Mac or PC.

Notebook focuses on simple functionality for creating, sharing, and editing your notes. Notebook 2 now gives you an easy and convenient way to share your notes from anywhere with Dropbox sync — collaborate with friends, keep your notes on all your iOS devices, and even add, edit, and modify them on your Mac and PC.

KEY FEATURES

• Access your notes quickly
• Organize with multiple notebooks (folders)
• Share notes with all your iOS devices, your Mac, your PC, and your friends in standard text files (.TXT) with Dropbox
• Search and quickly find your notes in any notebook
• Protect your notes from others by setting an app-wide passcode

EXTRAS

• Bulleted Lists: Create simple lists using a dash, bullet, number, or letter
• Data Detection: Automatic links for phone numbers, websites, email addresses, and calendar events
• Fonts: Display notes using a wide variety of fonts and sizes
• Todo Support: Export notes as tasks into Appigo Todo (http://www.appigo.com/todo)
• TextExpander® Support (SmileOnMyMac, LLC): Set up keyboard shortcuts for rapid entry of common phrases
• Toodledo.com notes synchronization

Notebook is available on the iPhone and iPad for $4.99.

• App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

iOS devices combined — including iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch — may have outsold Android devices combined — including Android phones and tablets — by a narrow margin last quarter. During the Q1 2012 Apple conference call today, Tim Cook pegged the iOS device number at 62 million. Android numbers are harder to come by, but last month Andy Rubin said 700,000 were now being activated a day. Given the prior two months were likely less, the following month perhaps more, it probably works out to 60 or 61 million.

During the same call, Tim Cook also revealed that the Amazon Kindle Fire had no affect on iPad sales, far he can tell. Sprint ultimately paid dearly to get the iPhone on their network in order to remain competitive. Verizon announced their results today, and revealed that slightly more than half of their smartphone sales were iPhones.

Apple has long dominated their competitors in terms of smartphone profit share but recently Android was assumed to have a big lead in market share. I’ve long discounted that, saying it’s irrelevant.

And nothing that was announced today changes that.

Apple released the iPhone 4S last quarter, almost 3 months later than many people anticipated. There was massive pent up demand for the iPhone 4S and it sold gangbusters. But Apple probably isn’t releasing another new iPhone this quarter. Or next. Or the one after that. But there will be new Android phones. Maybe not next quarter, but certainly the one after, running Android 4.0 and likely once again upping the spec fight.

Carriers, who can control Android in ways Apple will never allow them to control iPhones, will push these new devices heavily — like they did the original Droid and a plethora of devices since — and many buyers, geek tweakers and feature-phone replacers alike, will buy them.

The market share trends and figures will change and likely change again.

But they’ll constantly be irrelevant. Because they ultimately don’t matter.

Earlier this month I walked into an Apple Store with scratches on my iPhone 4S screen and walked out 30 min. later with a new iPhone 4S and a stern lecture about taking better care of my gear. And without paying a dime.

Last week Apple released iBooks 2, iBooks Author, and iTunes U, taking the first steps towards mainstreaming digital education.

Just this week, as is almost always the case, I downloaded apps with UI so well designed, UX so thoughtful, they made me smile and delight in using my iPhone and iPad again.

The best devices, the best software, the best service. That’s relevant. As a consumer, that’s what matters. Not Apple’s numbers. Not Google’s numbers. That’s what all companies should be fiercely fighting over. Delighting us. That’s the metric they should all be measured by.

That should be the competition.

WorldCard Mobile and WorldCard HD are iPhone and iPad apps that allows you to automatically add information on business cards to your Contacts by simply taking a photo. It has recently been updated with iCloud storage and syncing support.

Now excuse me, I have a pile of business cards from CES 2012 to start going scanning.

WorldCard Mobile, the leading business card scanning application for iPhone, uses OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology to instantly transfer information from business cards to the user’s native contacts. With a simple click of the camera, you no longer have to manually input contact info from business cards or email signatures.

• Superior text recognition
• High-speed scanning & update
• Card Holder function to view & manage contact info
• Create groups of contacts with Card Holder for easier navigation & organization (school, work, etc.)
• Cover flow and List style view for contacts
• Automatic camera shake reduction
• Email signature capture
• Automatic sorting of contact data
• Merge new data into existing contacts
• Auto-image rotation when scanned sideways
• Manual cropping by finger when recognition happens partially
• Ability to differentiate business cards from saved images
• Add Social Network Function.
• Image Distortion and Enhance.
• Export card information to Excel/CSV/Gmail file.
• Batch scan and recognize.
• Support camera flash(iphone 4).
• Support data exchange with WorldCard desktop software(Open In/ import /Export / iTunes File Sharing)
• Recognition of 7 languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch. You can switch from one language to another just like that!
• Integrated w/ WorldCard Contacts (sold separately) to make a call, text, email or browse the company website directly from business card images

WorldCard Mobile is available on the iPhone for $6.99 and WorldCard HD on the iPad for $14.99.

• iPhone – App Store link
• iPad – App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.