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

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

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

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

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

In an update to his LinkedIn profile, Microsoft Marketing Manager for Xbox UK, Robin Burrowes, let the world know that he’s been hired by Apple to push iPhone and iPad gaming even further.

Burrowes tenure at Microsoft saw him work on Xbox for roughly seven years, where he was most recently responsible for all product, business and marketing management of Xbox LIVE in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. For Apple, he’s the latest in a series of high-profile British gaming recruits, following the hire of Nintendo’s public relation’s chief Robert Saunders last year, as well as Nick Grange — who also at one point ran public relations for Xbox, as well as for gaming heavyweights Activision and Electronics Arts.

Microsoft came out of nowhere with the Xbox to take a significant share of the console gaming market, especially when it comes to hardcore gamers and multiplayer gaming with services like Xbox Live. Apple has seen enormous success in the mobile gaming sector after creating the App Store for iOS 2 and the iPhone 3G in 2008. Now they, along with Google’s Android platform, have overtaken the likes of Sony and Nintendo when it comes to U.S. portable game software by revenue.

With Apple’s last count of 550,000 apps in the App Store, and around 20% of those being games, it’s not hard to see why Apple considers it important enough to hire a key gaming manager like Burrowes.

iPhones and iPads are increasingly this generations’ portable gaming platforms of choice.

Source: Robin Burrowes via 148apps.biz via AppleInsider

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

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

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.

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!

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

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.

Apple has just announced another record breaking quarter, coming off the holidays with $46.33 billion in revenue, $13.06 billion in net profit, and a whopping 37.04 million iPhones, 15.43 million iPads, and 15.4 million iPods sold.

“We’re thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline.”

“We are very happy to have generated over $17.5 billion in cash flow from operations during the December quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2012, which will span 13 weeks, we expect revenue of about $32.5 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $8.50.”

Apple’s live conference call starts in about 10 minutes and we’ll be doing play by play right here on iMore. Full PR after the break.

Conference call: apple.com

Apple Reports First Quarter Results

Highest Quarterly Revenue and Earnings Ever

All-Time Record iPhone, iPad and Mac Sales

CUPERTINO, California—January 24, 2012—Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2012 first quarter which spanned 14 weeks and ended December 31, 2011. The Company posted record quarterly revenue of $46.33 billion and record quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion, or $13.87 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $26.74 billion and net quarterly profit of $6 billion, or $6.43 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 44.7 percent compared to 38.5 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 58 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

The Company sold 37.04 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 128 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 15.43 million iPads during the quarter, a 111 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 5.2 million Macs during the quarter, a 26 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 15.4 million iPods, a 21 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

“We’re thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline.”

“We are very happy to have generated over $17.5 billion in cash flow from operations during the December quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2012, which will span 13 weeks, we expect revenue of about $32.5 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $8.50.”

Apple will provide live streaming of its Q1 2012 financial results conference call beginning at 2:00 p.m. PST on January 24, 2012 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq112. This webcast will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.

This press release contains forward-looking statements including without limitation those about the Company’s estimated revenue and earnings per share. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ. Risks and uncertainties include without limitation the effect of competitive and economic factors, and the Company’s reaction to those factors, on consumer and business buying decisions with respect to the Company’s products; continued competitive pressures in the marketplace; the ability of the Company to deliver to the marketplace and stimulate customer demand for new programs, products, and technological innovations on a timely basis; the effect that product introductions and transitions, changes in product pricing or mix, and/or increases in component costs could have on the Company’s gross margin; the inventory risk associated with the Company’s need to order or commit to order product components in advance of customer orders; the continued availability on acceptable terms, or at all, of certain components and services essential to the Company’s business currently obtained by the Company from sole or limited sources; the effect that the Company’s dependency on manufacturing and logistics services provided by third parties may have on the quality, quantity or cost of products manufactured or services rendered; risks associated with the Company’s international operations; the Company’s reliance on third-party intellectual property and digital content; the potential impact of a finding that the Company has infringed on the intellectual property rights of others; the Company’s dependency on the performance of distributors, carriers and other resellers of the Company’s products; the effect that product and service quality problems could have on the Company’s sales and operating profits; the continued service and availability of key executives and employees; war, terrorism, public health issues, natural disasters, and other circumstances that could disrupt supply, delivery, or demand of products; and unfavorable results of other legal proceedings. More information on potential factors that could affect the Company’s financial results is included from time to time in the “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections of the Company’s public reports filed with the SEC, including the Company’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 24, 2011 and its Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2011 to be filed with the SEC. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information, which speak as of their respective dates.

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.

A is for AirPlay, a way to share everything from your music and movies to apps and games from your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad to your Apple TV

If you’re new to iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad and are wondering just what exactly AirPlay is and what it means to you, worry not — iMore has you covered. AirPlay is Apple’s term for their audio and video streaming technology. It’s what lets your iOS 5 device, or iTunes on Mac or Windows, beam videos over Wi-Fi to your Apple TV so you can watch movies and play games on your big screen TV, or music to your AirPort Express router, so you can listen on your higher quality speakers.

AirPlay Mirroring is a more recent addition to iOS that works with iPad 2 or iPhone 4S and lets you not only beam music or video, but entire iPhone or iPad apps. Anything from Facebook to your favorite crosswords, racing, or fighting game can be sent via Apple TV to your HDTV, with your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad remaining active as the controller. Some games, like [Real Racing 2](http://www.imore.com/tag/real-racing 2) even let you participate in multiplayer games using AirPlay, with each person using their own device to control their own car, all displayed together on the big screen TV.

AirPlay is proprietary and not an open standard, which means Apple gets to control who uses it. Several other companies have licensed AirPlay, however, and you can find a growing range of AirPlay-compatible audio equipment. There’s also some software out there that can run on your computer and tie into AirPlay, like BananaTV that lets you beam to your Mac instead of a TV.

Your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or computer running iTunes needs to be on the same Wi-Fi network as your Apple TV, Airport Express, or other hardware for AirPlay to work, but because Wi-Fi has high bandwidth it usually makes for a solid, stable connection. It’s real time. It’s encrypted. And most of the time, it “just works”

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!

• Apple TV – Amazon link
• AirPlay compatible speakers – Amazon link

Reckless Racing 2 is expected to have many new features including a full single player campaign, longer and more dangerous tracks, better graphics and new car models. No news on pricing or if this will be a universal app for all platforms. We will let you know as soon as we find out anymore.

Source: Pocket Gamer

Time Warner has just updated its TWC TV app and it is now fully compatible with the iPhone and iPod touch. Since its launch back in March 2011, it has been an iPad only app, but not any longer. If you are a Time Warner Cable subscriber, you can now watch live TV, manage your DVR and change channels on your set-top box on your iPhone and iPod touch.

If you are a Time Warner Cable video subscriber, the FREE TWC TV app turns your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch into another TV screen and lets you watch selected live cable channels while in your home, through your wireless home network. Watch Bravo from your bedroom, take Food Network with you to the kitchen or catch up on CNBC news from the breakfast table.

• Interactive program guide (IPG) – up to 7 days of listings. View detailed show descriptions including box art. Option to display “HD only” or “favorites only” by creating a favorite channel list.
• Search – search for programming by title or episode name and filter results by genre
• Set-top box tuning – tap on a network logo or “watch on TV” button within the program description to tune compatible set-top boxes directly to the channel
• DVR management – schedule one-time and series recordings on compatible DVRs directly from the IPG. Tap on the “DVR” button to see a list of all upcoming recordings and make changes or cancel recordings

Wondering how to save time and effort entering common information like your name, email address, or phone number? The good news is iOS 5 has a special feature called “Shortcuts” that lets you define a word or phrase to a key combination. Follow along and we will show you how easy it is to setup and how it can save you a lot of time too:-

• Go to Settings

• Click on General

• Click on Keyboard

• You will now see a predefined shortcut which is triggered by typing omw
• Click on Add New Shortcut

• Type in a username, email address or phrase you use a lot
• Now choose a letter combination to trigger the shortcut

• Hit Save and that’s stored for future use
• Add as many as you like

• When you are finished you will see a list of your shortcuts under General>Keyboard
• Now open up an app that you can type into, we will use Notes
• Type in the shortcut for one of your phrases, you will see the whole phrase open up in a bubble below

• Hit the Space Bar and the whole phrase appears

A hack called Whited00r allows iOS 5 features to be installed on the original iPhone and iPhone 3G devices, as well as the early iPod touch models.

Whited00r will automatically jailbreak your device, and the latest version of Cydia, 1.1.3, will be installed on it. The biggest advantage of the tool, is that you will get true multitasking, and apps will keep in running state in the background.

It’s as simple as running a manual IPSW install via iTunes before Whited00r takes over and installs a custom iOS firmware package. Apparently you’ll be running a heavily modified iOS 3.1.3 IPSW, which is required on older iOS devices. As such, this version of iOS comes with a custom iCloud setup, and also doesn’t include the new Notification Center included in iOS 5.

Source: Whited00r via AddictiveTips

According to a report by Ars Technica, Apple is going to announce a GarageBand type tool to aid in the creation of e-books at its New York education event this Thursday. The new tools will assist in the creation of interactive e-books especially in the education sector.

At the same time, however, authoring standards-compliant e-books (despite some promises to the contrary) is not as simple as running a Word document of a manuscript through a filter. The current state of software tools continues to frustrate authors and publishers alike, with several authors telling Ars that they wish Apple or some other vendor would make a simple app that makes the process as easy as creating a song in GarageBand. Our sources say Apple will announce such a tool on Thursday.

Source: Ars Technica

“Mujjo capacitive touchscreen gloves are amust-have for any serious iPhone or iPad user caught in a cold, wintery climate.”

Why have I instantly fallen in love with Mujjo’s capacitive touchscreen gloves for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad? It’s simple, really. I live in Canada where it’s routinely been -20 celsius for the last couple of weeks — so cold that when you go outside your face freezes and the last thing you want to do is pull off your nice warm gloves just to use your iPhone while out and about. You’d rather miss a call, wait to answer a text, or forget about looking something up on the web than risk the frostbite inducing winds and bone chilling snow. But with Mujjo, I don’t have to give up my multitouch just to stay warm — thanks to the capacitive carry-through, I can slide to unlock and tap away all from within the comfort of my gloves.

Unlike some iPhone-friendly gloves, Mujjo doesn’t just weave capacitive thread into the thumb and forefinger, but they’re made of high-quality silver-coated nylon fibers knitted into the fabric of the glove. The entire gloves! You can tap away with any finger you like. You can tap away with your knuckles, palm, ridge of your hand — literally any part of the glove. That makes it so much easier to use in the cold weather and is a huge advantage over other gloves. The only downside is that they made two-sizes fits all, and I have fairly small hands so even the smaller size is a little loose on me, and I need to push a little harder to make the capacitive connection than I expect someone with larger hands might.

Wearing the Mujjo, I could do everything I needed to do with my iPhone, including making and answering phone calls, texting, and surfing the web at about 80% of my normal speed.

The giveaway

Leave a comment below to enter to win one of 10 free pairs of Mujjo capacitive touchscreen gloves for iPhone and iPad!

Namco Bandai has announced that it will be bringing its weapons based fighting game Soul Calibur to the App Store this week. Soul Calibur was originally launched in arcades back in 1998 and has also been available for the Sega Dreamcast and more recently the Xbox 360.

The iOS port of the classic arcade and Dreamcast fighting game features all 19 fighters and a mode list that includes arcade battle, time attack, survival, extra survival, practice and museum modes. Of these, time attack, survival and extra survival are compatible with Game Center’s Leader Boards.

Source: Andriasang

Mole Kart has arrived in the App Store and if you are looking for a game that resembles the original Nintendo Mario Kart, you need look no further. After Nintendo sees how this game looks and plays, we are sure it will be talking with its legal team.

Your favorite Mole characters come together to battle it out in an adrenaline-fueled race to the finish line. They are zooming on to your iPhone and iPad for party racing showdown.Test your skills across different landscapes and unique tracks, ranging from freezing glaciers, cliffhanging mountains, waterfalls and even Mole’s World. Experience new challenges, all kinds of monsters, extraordinary gameplay and much more! Challenge up to four friends over WiFi or Bluetooth.

• Choose from 7 unique tracks, set in Mole Pasture,X.Mushroom,Sky Remnant, Mole’s Garden and other fantasy environments.
• Go through completing challenges and watch out for outrageous monsters that may await you at any turn!
• 6 iconic Mole characters, each has a custom built vehicle with special abilities to match against tough terrains and all racing conditions.
• Whether racing around an obstacle-filled track or battling in an arena, drifting and tossing items are the keys to Mole Kart success. You can toss a prop to temporarily boost their speed or create an explosion to block competitors. 19 super cool power-ups to outwit your opponents and enhance your racing experience!
• Manual or automatic modes! Experience the ultimate drifting by tilting the device or controlling the virtual stick.
• Local Multiplayer Mode: Battle up to four friends online either on WiFi or Bluetooth.
• Excellent graphic and 3D experience, feel the thrill of racing like never before!

• App Store link

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Sony is bringing its Music Unlimited service to the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch later this year. Music Unlimited is Sony’s subscription based streaming music service and will be available as an app for all iOS devices.

Sony’s decision to offer the service, touted as the Japanese company’s answer to Apple’s iTunes, on iOS devices speaks to Apple’s presence in the all-important smartphone and tablet markets as well as Sony’s willingness to do whatever it takes to expand the reach of its content services.The Music Unlimited service, along with Sony’s video and videogame offerings, functions as the glue holding together the links between the Japanese conglomerate’s entertainment businesses and electronics products.

Source: WSJ

The TomTom App for iPhone and iPad will be the first to use social networks as a source for turn-by-turn navigation. It can automatically plan routes based on information from Facebook events, places and friends. Drivers can also use the App to share their destination and arrival time on Twitter, Facebook, by email and SMS text.

Source: TomTom PR

Shazam has launched a new app called Shazam Player which can be used as an alternative to the inbuilt Music app on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Shazam Player lets you stream lyrics for supported tunes as well as view a huge store of information on the band or artist you are currently listening to.

Switch to a music player with a difference – Shazam Player™ the NEW app from Shazam! Why just listen to your music when you can now see streaming lyrics, watch YouTube videos and read reviews of your favorite tracks and artists! Get to know your music with Shazam Player. It’s your music. Shazam Player lets you do more with it.

• Bring your music to life with LyricPlay. See streaming lyrics in time to the music – you’ll always have the words to your favorite songs with you
• Share the soundtrack of your day on Facebook and Twitter
• Watch YouTube videos and concert clips
• Find tour dates for the bands and artists you’re into
• Manage your music – see your iTunes playlists and create new playlists on the fly
• Select your favorite tracks and hide ones you don’t want to hear
• Add to your music – buy new tracks on iTunes from within the app
• View music by artist/album/title and use the Track Tray to see all the great Shazam features available for each song
• Top tracks – a changing list of LyricPlay tracks – buy them straight from the app if you don’t already own them
• Identify new music you’re hearing by instantly launching the Shazam App

iCade by Ion, which made the Bluetooth arcade cabinet case for iPad a reality last year, has come back with three new versions for CES 2012, the iCade Core, iCade Mobile, and iCade Jr.

• iCade Core strips away the cabinet to give you just the controls — joystick and buttons — you need to get your iPad game on.
• iCade Mobile turns your iPhone or iPod touch into a full PSP-style handheld gaming console fit for any button masher
• iCade Jr. brings the traditional iCade look and feel — only smaller and cuter — to the iPhone and iPod touch.

Coming this spring, for $89, $79, and $49 respectively.

Amazon has launched a new web based Kindle Store designed specifically for the iPad. The new site looks and feels like an actual app rather than a web page however you don’t need to install anything to use the store.

Books are laid out in a cover flow arrangement and you can swipe through the books, click on the covers to see more information, read reviews and of course buy a book. If you do make a purchase, the book is automatically sent to your designated reading device. If you can’t wait that long, you can even read it within the new Kindle Store web page because Amazon has now made its Cloud Reader compatible with the iPad too. If you have your iPad handy, simply visit  http://www.amazon.com/iPadKindleStore to take a look at the new layout.

Consisting of two initial products, the WeMo Home Control Switch and the WeMo Motion Sensor, WeMo is a customizable, accessible home automation solution designed to simplify home maintenance and bring peace of mind to busy families and individuals on the go. WeMo works with a home’s existing electrical system and requires only a Wi-Fi network and free smartphone app to set up and control. Simply plug the WeMo Home Control Switch into any electrical outlet and then plug in any device, such as a lamp, into the WeMo Home Control Switch. Through the free smartphone app, the item then can be turned on or off remotely or scheduled to turn on and off at set times. The second product in the line is the WeMo Motion Sensor, which works with the WeMo Home Control Switch to make your device react to motion. Used together, WeMo can create a home environment that can turn a light on when someone walks in a room, or off when no one is present.

Source: Belkin PR

iRig MIC Cast provides a pocket-sized voice recording solution with crystal-clear audio quality. It features a tight unidirectional pickup pattern that minimizes background noise, making it ideal for single-source audio recording.

• Features a stereo mini-jack headphone output which enables real-time monitoring of what is being recorded using headphones or speakers.
• Offers a mini-switch that provides two different sensitivity settings to record close-up or distant sources.
• Includes an adjustable desktop stand for convenient iPhone/iPod touch positioning during recording.
• Has a bumper-friendly mini-jack connector that fits the majority of iPhone/iPod touch cases.
• Has an ultra-compact profile that can be carried anywhere with ease.
• Like other IK Multimedia microphones, it includes 2 free apps: iRig Recorder, an easy-to-use voice recording/editing app, and VocaLive, a multi-effects processing app for singers.
• Works with all regular phone calls and any Voice-Over-IP app.
• Is compatible with iPhone/iPod touch/iPad.

Source: IK Multimedia

OnLive, better known for its online gaming service has just announced that it will be launching a cloud based Windows 7 experience for iPad users. The OnLive Desktop app will give users access to a Windows desktop experience without the need for any VNC or remote desktop connections. It is all stored in the cloud and accessible from your iPad or a desktop machine.

OnLive has just re-imagined what’s possible on iPad with the OnLive Desktop app, available Thursday in the iTunes App Store. Launching a brand-new chapter for OnLive (and everyone), OnLive Desktop gives users instant access to a seamless Windows desktop experience, with full-featured Microsoft Office applications and 2 GB of free cloud storage for secure file access anywhere. Need to edit a Word doc with redlines and comments? No problem. Need to give some oomph to that PowerPoint deck for your meeting? Go for it: present animations and slide transitions, edit diagrams and embed videos. Desperate for a pivot table in Excel? Pivot away … Anything you can do on your office desktop, you will be able to do on your iPad—at home, in your hotel, anywhere.

OnLive also plan on offering some more advanced versions of the app too. OnLive Desktop Pro will offer up to 50GB of storage, priority access to apps, full-featured cloud-accelerated browsing and additional PC applications for a subscription of $9.99 a month. OnLive Enterprise will allow complete customization for business and organizations and OnLive collaborative services will offer thousands of users to simultaneously view, control and discuss a shared desktop via voice chat.

Source: OnLive

Running low on iCloud storage and wondering how to delete old backups to reclaim some space? iCloud offers iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users a fantastic way to secure your personal data in the cloud. It makes everything a breeze if you have to restore a device or set up a new one. Just type in your iCloud details and everything magically appears just how it was before you had the problem. Of course you only get 5GB of free storage, if you need more, you have to pay each month. Whilst this is not a problem for most, if you have multiple devices linked to one iCloud account and no longer use one or more of them, the iCloud backup may be taking up valuable space. Well there is a way to delete individual device backups in iCloud all from your iOS device. Read on and we will show you how.

• Open Settings

• Scroll down to iCloud and tap on it
• Scroll down to the bottom and tap on Storage and Backup

• Here you can see the storage being used and what is available

• Click on Manage Storage

• Here you will see a list of backups being held in iCloud, as you can see I have two iPhones. I had one replaced at the Apple Store last week so no longer need this backup.
• Click on the one you want to remove from iCloud

• Click on Delete Backup

• Click on Turn Off and Delete
• That’s it, that backup has now been removed and the space reclaimed in iCloud

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@tipb.com.

Ion, the guys who brought us the magnificent iCade iPad arcade gaming cabinet have now announced some new gaming accessories for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices. There are three new accessories in total to compliment the original iCade and they all look awesome. The iCade mobile is a handheld gaming system for your iPhone or iPod touch. The iCade Core is similar to the original iCade but doesn’t include the cabinet surround. Finally the iCade Jr is a version of the original iCade designed specifically for the iPhone and iPod touch.

iCade Mobile

Gamers of all ages will love iCade Mobile’s classic controller configuration, designed to play modern and retro games the way they were meant to be played. iCade Mobile’s four-way directional pad, four front-facing action buttons and four shoulder buttons are designed to withstand even the most fierce button mashing. iCade Mobilegets your fingers out of the way and gives you a full view of the action with a specially designed cradle that ensures safe loading and unloading of your iPhone or iPod touch, while also providing a solid, secure fit even during the most intense game-play sessions.

iCade Core

iCade Core’s specially designed cradle ensures safe loading and unloading of a user’s iPad, while also providing a solid, secure fit for even the most intense gameplay sessions. Beneath the cradle is a custom-designed pass-thru slot, which allows users to charge the iPad with their standard 30-pin cable. The cradle also swivels to allow either portrait or landscape so that orientation is never a problem. iCade Core’s top-quality arcade controls quickly connect to the iPad using Bluetooth wireless technology. Once the iPad is in place, simply launch any compatible app and it’s game-on.

iCade Jr

A sequel to the smash hit ION iCade controller for iPad, iCade Jr. brings the arcade excitment to your iPhone or iPod touch. Game-on with great iPhone and iPod touch games with this pint-sized arcade powerhouse. iCade Jr. gives you a joystick and four front buttons, plus four rear trigger buttons for ultimate control over tons of iPhone and iPod touch games. This mini-arcade cabinet will give you a novelty gaming experience like no other!

Source: Ion

Photography app specialists Interealtime has just released an update to its highly acclaimed True NightVison app. The app uses special light capture techniques which allow much darker photographs to be taken using the iPhone camera.

Looking for powerful light amplification tech that fits in your pocket? You came to the right place. True NightVision features advanced image enhancement AND unique light gathering modes. Combined, they make this the most potent night vision app available on the App Store. How does it work? It uses a live camera view and special photo enhancement techniques capable of producing a decent image at high speed (we’re talking fluid 30fps action here!) even where it’s way too dark for the iPhone’s camera app.

• Speed: For full motion, 30fps action use
• High: Balances speed and light enhancement, good for regular use
• Still: High level light enhancement, but requires a steady hand
• Max: Ultimate light enhancement for stationary use
• Improved zoom: Up to 8x zoom on iPhone 4/4S, up to 4x on 3GS
• Enhancement is now set to 50% initially
• Speed fix for iPhone 4s

• App Store link

The Griffin Twenty is the easiest, best-sounding solution for consumers who have speakers that are not AirPlay-enabled but still want to stream high-fidelity audio wirelessly,” said Mark Rowan, President of Griffin Technology. “Not only can users stream from their iTunes library, they can easily connect with any AirPlay-enabled iOS device.”

Source: Griffin

The Woogie by Griffin is a soft, plush, huggable, toy that doubles as an iPhone or iPod touch case. It’s meant for children, to give them something to hold up their iPod touch for easy game playing or video watching, or to protect your iPhone if you’re letting them use it.

With big round body and five legs, the Woogie is easy to position whether it’s on the floor, a table, in a car, or on a lap. It comes in either pink or blue and the big round body is soft and fuzzy/furry to the touch. Even on its own could be a fun toy for a young child but what makes it even better is the clear, capacitive window in the front that holds an iPod touch or iPhone. Kids can cuddle the toy and play with the device right through the window, and if they drop it or knock it or kick it, the plushie offers a lot of protection.

The good

• Soft, cute, and cuddly
• Weighted feet so stays in place
• Makes an iPhone or iPod touch harder to lose
• Hold up to the bumps and drops kids are likely to put it through.

The bad

• Larger to pack and carry than a regular case
• Would be nice to have strap/backpack option
• Don’t feed it after midnight.

The conclusion

The Woogie is great for young children, wether around the house or to take on a trip. It’s huggable, luggable, and colorful for them, and easy to find and safer to keep an iPhone or iPod touch in for you. That’s a really smart combination.

The giveaway

Leave a comment below telling us why you’d like a Woogie of you very own. Only one comment per person, please! Make sure you leave a real email address. We won’t share it but we’ll need it to contact you if you win! Contest starts now and ends Friday, January 13 at 12pm PT. Now hurry up and enter!

Source: Griffin

• Spark Digital: The world’s first studio-grade condenser microphone to offer both USB and iPad connectivity, featuring Focus Control, adjustable desk stand, built-in shockmount, and y-cables with an attached, extended female headphone jack for each platform.
• Mikey Digital: The perfect tool for mobile recording with iOS devices features two custom-tuned Blue capsules for stereo recording, a line-input, USB pass through and a stylish 230-degree rotating design.

Source: Blue

ChatON is an instant messaging app that supports multi-platform chat across iOS, Android and Samsung Bada platform. Soon the app will also be available for BlackBerry and Windows Phone as well, so it will cover most platforms. What makes it really interesting is… the app was made by Apple largest Android rival — Samsung.

ChatON is a Global Mobile Communication Service that enables you to have better relationships with your buddies or groups. ChatON brings together all of these methods of communication, expression, and sharing in one place.

• ChatON supports multi platforms and devices. Users can chat freely through ChatON.
• Currently, ChatON supports iOS, Android, Bada, Samsung Feature and will support Blackberry, Window mobile, web soon.
• ChatON provides multi ways to make your communication richer.
• 1:1 Chat, Group Chat, Broadcast, Drawing Message, Picture, Video, Voice, Location, Contact, Calendar.
• Using ChatON, create your own unique drawing message by hand drawing etc.
• ChatON provides group management feature for easy group chat
• ChatON provides Interaction rank which informs you how often you chat with your buddies.
• For every chat room, you can easily see all sent images and videos in a Trunk.
• Something to say for your buddies? Use ‘Buddies Say’!

• App Store link

About a year ago I wrote a post explaining why you don’t have to kill multitasking apps in iOS. iOS 4 had been introduced, bringing multitasking to iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, and because Apple added the ability to jiggle and close them in the fast app switcher, some users decided to do just that. All. The. Time.

We’re on to iOS 5 now, we have some new players like Newsstand in the multitasking equation, and apparently the community is just as deeply divided as ever on the issue, even developers, even Apple Geniuses. So Frasier Speirs has put together a post of his own on the subject of iOS multitasking misconceptions, and while he ultimately proffers the same thesis as yours truly — you really don’t need to manually manage apps in iOS — he goes into far more detail about the whys and wherefores.

Regardless of how you feel, whether you think you should leave absolutely all task killing safely to Apple, whether you think you should purge every app, every time, or whether you’re still on the fence, take a read of Speirs’ article and give it some consideration.

Source: speirs.org

iHome is working on bringing three new iPhone docks to its already large portfolio of accessories. The new docks are set to be revealed at CES 2012 which starts next week. Three models will be introduced in total; one will even include AirPlay.

• iW4 AirPlay Wireless 20 Watts Bedside Speaker System for iPad/iPhone/iPod: making its alarm clock speaker system debut, AirPlay utilizes the home WiFi network to deliver more flexibility than ever before. Easily stream your entire iTunes library over the network to listen, sleep or wake to your favorite tunes. The iW4 is expected to retail for $269.99.
• iP18 LED Color Changing Dual Alarm Clock Speaker System for iPhone and iPod: a little bit of color goes a long way with this ultra-modern and stylish alarm clock speaker solution. Now with a smaller footprint and new cube design, this app-friendly Glowtunes offering has big features including four color-changing modes, Reson8 speaker chamber technology, one-touch clock sync and more. The iP18 is expected to retail for $69.99.
• iD50 App-Enhanced Bluetooth Alarm Clock Radio Speakerphone for iPad/iPhone/iPod with AM/FM Presets: the alarm clock you’d expect to see on James Bond’s nightstand, but with a price tag that makes it realistic for non secret agents to own. The iD50 is strong in the features department and has a smooth finish that will stir you to wake rather than shake you. The iD50 is expected to retail for $169.99.

The bad news is that these new docks will not be available to buy until later in the year. That’s as good as it gets on the release information for now. We will let you know as soon as we find out anymore.

Source: Business Wire

If you are a user of iTunes in the Cloud and only keep part of your music collection on your iOS device and all of your collection in iCloud, you may want to retrieve some extra music from iCloud or even delete some music on your device. It is all very simple to do, keep on reading and we will show you how.

How to Download Music from iCloud

• Open up your Music app

• You will see the complete list of music that is available in iCloud. If the track or album shows a cloud icon next to it, this means it is not on your device but is on iCloud
• To download the music from iCloud, select one of the tracks or albums with the iCloud icon

• You will now see the tracks with individual iCloud download labels, clicking on one will download just that track to your device

• If you want to download a whole album, scroll down and you will see a Download All button. Click on that and all the tracks will download to your device

• When it’s finished downloading, you will see that track or album no longer has the cloud icon as it is now on your device and it can be played instantly

How to delete music from device and leave it on iCloud

• Open up your Music app

• You will see the complete list of music that is available in iCloud. If the track or album shows a cloud icon next to it, this means it is not on your device but is on iCloud

• If it doesn’t have a cloud icon, it means the track is stored on your device
• To remove the track or album from your device and leave it in iCloud simply swipe right to left along the album or track

• A delete box will appear, click on it and you will see the cloud icon immediatey appear next to the track or album

• This means the album is no longer stored on your device but is available to download again from iCloud.

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@tipb.com.

According to an article in British newspaper The Daily Mail, Apple is considering throwing its hat into the bidding ring for the rights to broadcast English Premier League soccer games. The deal is open for a new round of bidding before the end of this season in May.

The Premier League is seen as the type of premium content that will help establish Apple TV in the UK and boost iPad sales, while the iTunes subscription service infrastructure is already in place.

Apple will face some huge competition if it is to get its hands on some form of TV rights for these games. Sky, who currently owns most of the rights for live games, had to pay around £1.6 billion ($2.5 billion) for the privilege. Competition is also likely to come in from Google, ESPN and Middle East Network Al Jezeera.

If Apple did manage to secure some of the rights to live EPL games, it would then have to force consumers to buy an Apple TV if they wanted to see the content on their big screen televisions. This does not appear to make a great deal of sense for the consumer unless of course the deal is just to sell the games through iTunes; in a similar way to its TV episodes.

Source: The Daily Mail

A couple of quick updates for those still waiting on Apple A5 device jailbreaks — namely iPhone 4S and iPad 2 — as well as an iOS 5.1 jailbreak.

For iPhone 4S and iPad 2 devices, @pod2g just tweeted the following:

made a step today for the A5. With some luck we could expect a release in a week.

As to iOS 5.1, @i0n1c seems to have something in the pipeline, so 2012 could get off to a strong start for team Jailbreak.

For more discussion and help, head on over to our Jailbreak Forums.

Source: @pod2g

I tend to go through phases where I can continually change the apps I have on my home page, and the apps I use the most. There are however five apps that will never leave their prime positions. These are my most-used apps, the ones I can’t function without, the ones I use everyday, over and over again.

Tweetbot

I love Twitter, it has opened up a whole new world for me, I have friends on Twitter from all over the planet that share my interests. Tweetbot is in my opinion the most elegant and user friendly of all the Twitter apps available on the App Store. Every time I open it, it makes me smile, the subtle sound effects and smooth sliding animations are really well done. It may lack a few features compared with other apps but I would rather give them up just to use this app, it is that good!

$2.99 –  App Store link

HulloMail

One of the frustrations of moving your iPhone from the O2 network in the UK, is that it is currently the only network to support Visual Voicemail. Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange and 3 all skipped this really nice feature. So what are your options? Well HulloMail does a really good job of filling the gap. It is basically Visual Voicemail with loads more additional features.

The HulloMail iPhone app offers an easy way to manage your voicemails visually, send, receive and share voicemails, instant voice messaging to mobile and email, no matter which operator you use. There are two versions of HulloMail, a free version which is ad supported and a paid version which costs $8.99 a year via in-app subscription. The subscription version gives you some extra features like an ad-free service for a year, individual greetings, longer voicemails of up to 5 minutes and priority access to more features in the coming months.

If your network does not support visual voicemail, give HulloMail a try, it is an excellent voicemail management tool.

• Free –  App Store link

Reeder

Being a news editor for TiPb means I have to keep on top of the news at all times. I use Google Reader on my notebook but when I am mobile, I use Reeder. It is super clean, super fast and really easy to use. Of course it syncs with Google Reader too so I never have to read anything twice. I use it on my iPhone 4S as well as  Reeder for iPad on my iPad 2. Both work equally well with speed being the key ingredient.

• $4.99 – iPad App Store Link
• $2.99 – iPhone App Store Link

Air Video

Air Video is a fantastic app that can transcode and stream video content from your Windows PC or Mac straight to your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. It now includes AirPlay support so you can beam all your content onto the big screen too.

Your Windows PC or Mac needs a small piece of software installed to communicate with your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad but once setup you can stream native iOS video content (MP4 and M4V) instantly to your device (rather than having to sync it over first via iTunes). Air Video will also convert non-supported video formats (AVI, MKV, etc) and either store them for later viewing or stream them on the fly so you can watch now rather than having to wait.

Air Video is an excellent app that gives me instant access to over 2TB of media on my networked drives. There are two versions, a free version which limits the number of displayed items in each folder and the paid version which removes those limits. Both versions are universal apps; so work great on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

• Free – App Store Link
• $2.99 – App Store Link

LiveScore

LiveScore is a fantastic free app that provides real time scores from many sporting events around the world; with a particular emphasis on soccer scores. Every match in the UK league is covered along with most other countries. With this app you will know about goals, yellow cards, red cards, substitutions, you name it, seconds after they happen.

The application comes directly from LiveScore Ltd., the inventors of real-time delivery of live sport data and owners of the no.1 ranked football / soccer web site globally. No country restrictions either,  fast access to scores and it is a universal binary too.

• Free –  App Store link

60beat has just launched its GamePad controller which it hopes will make gaming on an iOS device much closer to a dedicated console experience. The game content available to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices is now huge however the use of on-screen touch controls remains a major problem for many gamers.

With proprietary technology that uses the headphone jack as the interface, the 60beat GamePad significantly improves the iOS gaming experience by moving the controls from the screen to a fully-featured hand-held game controller. Developed to look, feel and operate like widely-used external controllers, GamePad easily and instantly transforms an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch into a game console. The ergonomic design delivers superior comfort and control. Buttons and joysticks are engineered to deliver precise response and the tactile sensations gamers expect.

The controller which is available to order now will cost $49.99; so it is not a cheap option. The biggest stumbling block with all of these type of accessories, is getting developer support. So far, the 60beat GamePad has only managed to garner support for two games.

Source: 60beat

If you want to celebrate the beginning of the New Year, Times Square is an awesome place to do it. Unfortunately for most, it is not possible to be there but at least there is an app that will let you see what’s going on and even get you and your family’s picture on the huge Toshiba Vision screen.

Join millions of revelers around the world to celebrate New Year’s Eve LIVE. The Official Times Square Ball App is your exclusive access to be part of the activities in Times Square as you watch the LIVE co-hosted official show featuring opening ceremonies, musical performances, celebrity appearances, hourly countdowns and the midnight Ball Drop!

• Participate in the celebration by submitting your New Year’s photo for friends, family and other revelers to vote on their favorites and possibly be selected to be seen on the Toshiba Vision screen atop One Times Square directly beneath the Waterford Crystal New Year’s Eve Ball on December 31st! The selected photos will also be featured on the LIVE Show.
• Discover everything you need to know about the Times Square New Year’s Eve Celebration including the history, news, weather, photos, map and event schedule.
• Send New Year’s Eve ecards and share photos with friends and family.
• Watch live streaming of the events in Times Square leading up to New Year’s Eve throughout December as well as the highlight promo and other exclusive video content.
• Customize your Toshiba Countdown Clock with your personal photo and time zone.
• Check-in via Facebook, Four Square, and Twitter to find out how far away you are from Times Square and get directions to special places at the Crossroads of the World.
• Put your face on Toshiba Vision with 5 new ways to upload
• New always-on webcam + livestream of countdown event
• Updated cards to send to friends and family
• Updated design for 2012

• App Store link

If you ever wondered how to share your current location or any particular location you fancy when using the Maps app, it is very easy to do. It can also be a very powerful way to help your friends find you or find a location that interests them that you want to share.

• Open the Maps app
• Let it locate you or if you want to share a different location, search for it in the top right corner search box
• Once your location is shown on the map, click on the push pin

• A box should open with a red circle on the left and a blue arrow on the right
• The circle on the left is for street view; the arrow on the right is for more information
• Click the arrow on the right, it will open an information page on the location selected

• You now have a few options, Directions to Here, Directions from Here, Add to Contacts, Share Location and Add to Bookmarks
• We want Share Location

• You then have three options, Email, Message, Tweet
• Select whichever method you want to send the location by, in this example we are using Email
• This opens up the email send box, you will see an attachment already there ending in .vcf.

• Fill in the recipients address and that’s it
• When the recipient receives the file, they can open it on their iOS device and it will show them the same info page

• The link to the map will show the exact location and from there, you can get navigation details from your current location.

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com.

Heard about the untethered jailbreak for the original iPad, iPhone 4, iPod touch 4, and older models running iOS 5.0.1 and curious how to use it on your own device?. This jailbreak won’t yet work with newer, Apple A5 chipset-powered devices, namely the iPhone 4S or iPad 2, but if you own anything earlier, you’re in luck.

Supported devices

• iPhone 4 (GSM & CDMA)
• iPod touch 4th generation
• iPad (orignal model)
• iPhone 3GS

What you need

• A supported device – please note this will not work for iPhone 4S or iPad 2
• A Mac or PC
• redsn0w 0.9.10b1 – Mac, Windows

Untether via the Corona Cydia package

If you’re already tethered jailbroken on iOS 5.0.1, you can untether your jailbreak using the Corona package in Cydia.

Untether via redsn0w

If for some reason you’d prefer using redsn0w to untether, you may do so. Just run the version of redsn0w linked above over your existing jailbreak. When prompted what you want to do, just uncheck Install Cydia since you already have it installed. Let redsn0w do its thing and you should be untethered when it completes.

Jailbreak your device

If you’re not jailbroken at all, perform the following steps –

1. First Launch redsn0w

2. This version and other newer versions of redsn0w should automatically detect what version of iOS you are running. No need to manually browse to a firmware file this time. Just click Jailbreak and follow the prompts.

3. Next redsn0w will prompt you to only continue when your device is powered off. If it isn’t already, power your device off while it’s connected to the computer.

4. Next you will be guided through putting your device into DFU mode. Follow the steps and redsn0w will take care of the rest.
5. After redsn0w finishes doing it’s thing, you’re done!

Common issues and how to solve them

Stuck on Apple logo or in recovery mode

Some users seem to be experiencing this issue. Performing a clean restore in iTunes and then attempting to jailbreak after a clean install should alleviate this issue.

redsn0w fails

First attempt to select a custom IPSW under Extras in redsn0w and navigate to the iOS 5.0.1 IPSW to see if this fixes the issue. If it still fails, try a clean restore in iTunes and then attempt to jailbreak again.

If you’re running into other issues, make sure to check out our jailbreak and unlock forums for further help troubleshooting common and not so common jailbreak issues.

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@tipb.com.

Thanks to pod2g and all his hard work, an untethered jailbreak is now available for the original iPad, iPhone 4, iPod touch 4, and older models. Both redsn0w and Corona have been updated to support the new, untethered jailbreak.

A few days ago, @pod2g gave the untether to both the iPhone devteam and the chronic devteam. We’ve put it into redsn0w 0.9.10 and PwnageTool, and the chronic devteam put it into a Cydia package (the same set of exploits is in all three).

Unfortunately, Apple A5 chipset-powered devices, namely iPhone 4S and iPad 2, are still in jailbreak limbo.

Because those devices cannot use geohot’s limera1n exploit to inject the untether, they require exploits above and beyond those used for this release. Keep following pod2g on twitter or his blog for any progress reports!

Hit the source links below to start jailbreaking iOS 5.0.1 untethered, and if you need any help jump on into our jailbreak forums.

Source: Dev-Team Blog/redsn0w, Chronic Dev-Team/Corona, donate to @pod2g

If you want to become a master of Infinity Blade II, its developers have shared a number of great tips to get you on your way. Infinity Blade II is the sequel to the hugely successful original infinity Blade and it makes full use of the iPhone and iPad’s gaming capabilities to deliver stunning visuals and game play. There are a total of sixteen tips which we have listed below.

• Parry an enemy weapon by either swiping in the same direction as the enemy weapon strike or by swiping in the opposite direction.
• Pay attention to gem modifiers and equip them to get more gems or more gold.
• Save super moves and magic for the battles when you are really going to need them.
• Equip a Gold+ gem to earn more money quickly.
• Use a Health Regen potion before a difficult Titan to constantly heal throughout the battle.
• Keep an eye out for hidden keys. They are small and difficult to see, but they can open great treasures.
• When playing the Heavy class, doing a successful parry will also give you a block charge back.
• A successful parry will open up a Titan to more combo hits than a dodge or block.
• Perfect blocks prevent elemental damage from a Titan attack even if you don’t have the right elemental defense; it also reduces the block damage.
• Perfect parries increase the hit window on a Titan.
• To maximize damage with Heavy weapons make sure you plan to do the combo hit at the natural end of the hit window, as the slash attack always ends the hit window.
• To pull off an ultra combo with dual weapons you need to do left/right/up (or some rotated version) attacks when you are in the combo hit mode.
• Titans will tend to have the same elemental attack as each other during a Rebirth, equipping the right gems/equipment to defend against them is worth it.
• Titans are weak to the opposite elemental of their attack. If a Titan has a fire attack he will take double damage from ice elemental and ice magic.
• Using dual weapons allows you to do multiple combos, one after the other.
• Learn which moves cannot be blocked or parried, then dodge these moves.

• App Store – link

Source: Epic Games

Apple has launched its 12 Days of Christmas app for the third year running. The app offers free content from iTunes for twelve days between December 26^th and January 6^th. Today you can access three live audio tracks and three live videos from Coldplay’s recent appearance at the iTunes Festival in London earlier this year.

Each day between now and January 6^th, when you open the app, new content will be available for free. Last year this included music, movies, books and apps. It is offered by Apple as an introduction for new iOS users to get to know how iTunes works and also as a thank you for existing users too.

Apple’s 12 Days of Christmas is only available in Canada and most parts of Europe; strangely the United States is not part of the promotion. The app is compatible with the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad.

• App Store – link

Were your stockings stuffed with iPhones and iPods? Did Santa leave an iPad or Apple TV beneath the tree? Well, once you’ve ripped off the wrapping paper, torn open the boxes, and powered everything up… you may be wondering just what to do next?!

Don’t worry, TiPb’s here to help! And hey, if you already know everything you need to know, just forward this link to that friend or family member who’s about to ask your help. We’ll take care of them so you can get on with your own holiday merriment.

• iPhone and iPod touch new users guide
• Top 10 apps for new iPhone and iPod touch users
• iPad new users guide
• Top 10 apps for new iPad users
• Everything Apple TV coverage
• Jailbreak starters guide
• Holiday wallpapers, music, movies, apps, and games

Need more help? Jump into the TiPb Forums for expert help and the best conversation on the ‘net! A

• iPhone and iPad Forums

Little ones trying to figure out just how exactly they can track Santa on their iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad this year? Well, Google Maps and NORAD to the rescue! They’ve got Dasher and Dancer, Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid, Donner and Blitzen — and Rudolf! — of course, on high density, broad-spectrum satellite surveillance and they’re tracking him down to the striped wrapping paper in his sleigh bag.

So if you want to know where Santa is just this very second, here’s all you have to do:

• Launch Google Maps
• Tap the Search box
• Type in Santa

Bonus Tip: If you click no the blue arrow at the location and click on the link, you will see a photo of the location.

That’s it! The jolly old elf is now in your scopes! So get the cookies and milk ready and make sure you’re tucked in before the chimney starts rocking,because Santa Clause is coming to town!

Source; NORAD

Action Movie FX is a new app that lets you add special effects to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch videos. When we say special effects, we don’t mean boring old effects, we mean Hollywood spectacular explosions, missile attacks and car smashes.

Action Movie FX lets you add Hollywood FX using your iPhone’s video camera! You direct the action! and free for a limited time – 2 Movie FX packs!! Select a Scene like “Missile Attack,” film a target and Action Movie FX adds an incoming missile and its explosion right into your movie!

• 2 FREE Big-Budget FX! MISSILE ATTACK & CAR SMASH!
• Sound Design By Skywalker Sound!
• Fast, Automated Video Tracking!
• Music, Sound FX and Lens Flares!
• Post to Facebook or Email to friends!

Action Movie FX is free in the App Store and comes with two special effects built in. There is also the option to add two more effects bundles which you can get via in-app purchase. The Chopper Down and Tornado Action bundle and an Airstrike and Fire Fights Attack bundle; each at a cost of $0.99.

Action Movie FX supports the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and iPod touch 4^th Generation only.

• Free – App Store link

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

iMame has been taken out of the App Store by Apple as fast and stealthily as it originally appeared. The app first made its official appearance earlier this week and we thought then that it could be leading a bit of a charmed life.

Mame is a hugely popular app on other platforms as it is an emulator for retro arcade cabinet games from the early 1980’s. The App Store version was a more locked down app that came with a number of built in games but no official way to get more games into the app. This we assume is how the developer managed to gain Apple’s approval.

On other platforms, Mame is all about downloading ROM images of old arcade games of which the legality is highly questionable. The iOS version was not advertised as having this ability to accept ROMS from outside sources; but it didn’t take users long to discover how to do just that. We assume that this may well be the reason that Apple has decided to pull the app!

Source: iTunes

In case you hadn’t heard — and really, there’s no helping you at this point! — TiPb wants to give you the iOS device — or devices! — of your dreams. That’s right, a brand new iPhone 4S, iPad 2, iPod touch, or Apple TV, or even iPad 3 in 2012, could be yours!

And this is week 4 so you now have a third chance to win!

The Prize: A $600 Apple gift certificate to put towards the iOS device — or devices — of your dreams. An iPhone or iPad for you or your special someone, a couple of iPod touches for the kids, a handful of Apple TVs for the whole family — you could even save it for an iPad 3 when Apple releases it! — whatever you choose!

How to enter: Each week we’ll have a special thread in a different TiPb iOS device forum. Just leave one (1) reply in each thread telling us why you’d love to have that week’s device. You can enter once per week, each week, for a total of four (4) chances to enter over the course of the contest.

The contest is on now and the winner will be announced on the iPhone Live podcast on December 28, 2011.

So what are you waiting for? Enter already!

• TiPb iOS Dream Device Giveaway: Week 4 thread!

Apple has posted a support article to back up its recent, silent roll out of iTunes Match content internationally. iTunes Match has been available in the United States since November but last week some other international countries started to see it appear too.

The support article confirms that iTunes Match is now available across seventeen countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. The article also goes on to confirm what content is available through Apple’s iTunes in the Cloud service. Interestingly, it forgets to include Brazil, which is the only additional country for which Apple issued an official press release. (Some of the images also show as not found, which is rather un-Apple-like.) Curious.

iTunes in the Cloud allows users to download content they have already purchased through iTunes onto different devices over the air. It covers content such as Music, Music Videos, TV Shows and Books. There is a well laid out table to confirm exactly what is available based on your location.

Source: Apple Support Article, thanks @setteB.IT!

iMame has just appeared in the App Store, it is a hugely popular app on other platforms as it is an emulator for retro arcade cabinet games from the early 1980’s. The official version comes with a set of seven games pre-installed with no official way to add any more games.

iMAME is an application designed to recreate the hardware of arcade game systems in software on modern personal computers and other platforms. The intention is to preserve gaming history by preventing vintage games from being lost or forgotten.

• Circus
• Crash
• Fire One
• Hard Hat
• Robot Bowl
• Side Track
• Spectar
• Star Fire
• Targ

If it is easy to add other game ROMS without the need to jailbreak, the app will probably have a short life in the App Store. We recommend you grab this one as soon as you can. iMame is a universal app and also includes support for the iCade.

• Free – App Store Link

Kindle has updated their iPhone and iPad app to version 2.9, which now includes support for newspapers, magazines and textbooks. Here’s the full update log:

iPad:

• New Design for Magazines: Kindle for iPad customers now have access to the huge selection of over 400 magazines and newspapers that are available on Kindle Fire. Magazines such as Martha Stewart Living, Food Network Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health, Popular Science and many more are displayed in rich full-color pages. Customers can buy a single issue or subscribe to popular magazines and leading newspapers and have them wirelessly delivered to the Kindle for iPad app.
• Read print replica textbooks including rich formatting and layout of the print editions and support for notes and highlights, zoom and pan, and linked table of contents.

iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch: – Email documents to your new Send-to-Kindle e-mail address and we deliver them to your device. The documents are automatically archived in the Amazon Cloud and available for re-download on your iOS or supported Kindle devices. – Open PDFs from Mail or Safari, by transferring them from iTunes, or by sending them to your Send-to-Kindle email address. The Kindle PDF reader supports PDF table of contents and thumbnail navigation for quickly jumping through the document. – New library organization allows you to view your Kindle Books, Newsstand, and Docs.

Kindle for iOS is one of the better eBook reading apps out there, which even rivals Apple’s own iBooks in a lot of respects. I, for one, personally prefer iBooks, but this update may give reason for those in similar opinion to make the jump into the Kindle eBook ecosystem.

• Free – App Store Link

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

The Apple Store is looking to help you out with any last minute holiday shopping by offering free next day delivery on a huge range of products. Some of the items covered are the iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Apple TV and some Mac models. Unfortunately the iPhone 4S is not included.

In order to qualify for free next day shipping, you must have your order completed by today, December 21, and not request any custom configurations or engraving; it’s now too late for that!

Not sure what to get? Check out our 2011 holiday gift guides for loads of ideas.

Source: Apple Store

The NFL has announced that this year will be the first year that the Super Bowl and the Pro Bowl will be streamed live across the internet. What’s more, iPhone and iPad users will be able to view the games on their devices too.

The NFL stream will be available to view on its own site and the NBC channel. If you want to view it on your iPhone or iPad or iPod touch, you will need to pick up the Verizon NFL Mobile app. The app is free in the App Store but unfortunately it will only work for Verizon Wireless customers.

The whole Super Bowl experience should be greatly enhanced next year with the promise of multiple camera angles, highlights and live stats, right in the palm of your hand.

Source: Electronista

If you are like me and spent hours ensuring your album and track artwork is all in order in iTunes only to find that when you subscribed to iTunes Match it all went haywire, you are not alone. I signed up for iTunes Match last week when the international launch went live. I uploaded all of my music only to find that the album artwork showed up fine in album view but only the first track of each album showed any artwork, all of the other tracks had missing artwork.

Well the good news is that there is a very easy way to get it back. It can be a little time consuming but it’s worth it if you just hate to see that musical note and grey background instead of your artwork. A word of warning, this can take a while if you have a lot of content.

• Open up your music application
• Select the Album you want to recover the artwork for

• Click on the first song, it should start to play and if it’s like mine the first track will have artwork

• Click on the next track button on the bottom right and it will skip to the next track
• Here you will see the problem with no artwork shown

• When this track starts to play, you will notice that the receiving data spinning wheel will appear next to your carrier name and 3G or WiFi icon. This tells you that the it is receiving data and that just happens to be the album artwork.
• It doesn’t appear while the track is playing,  you have to skip forward then back, then you will see that the second track now has album artwork
• The best way to make sure all the tracks on that album get artwork is to just skip through each of the tracks. When the spinning wheel disappears, you should now have artwork for all the tracks in that album.

Every one of my albums was like this after uploading to iTunes Match, I did this for them all and now my artwork is perfect. It definitely is a pain and takes a long time to do but worth it if you must have your artwork all in order. Hopefully Apple will address this issue in a future update but until then, give this a try and let us know if it works for you.

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com.

According to a report by Ynetnews, Apple is looking to open a research and development center in Israel. A delegation of Apple representatives headed by VP Ed Frank is currently in the country meeting with high tech companies such as Intel. The new R&D operation will apparently be lead by Aharon Aharon, the former head of Zoran Corporation’s R&D center.

Calcalist has also learned that a delegation headed by Apple VP Ed Frank is currently visiting Israel to meet with several high-tech companies. Frank took a tour of Haifa and visited Intel’s headquarters in the city’s Scientific Industries Center (MATAM). He is examining the north park of the center as a possible location for Apple’s center, Calcalist learned.

Source: Ynetnews via Jeff

Going on vacation or just to someplace new and curious how to print out Maps driving directions so you can keep a hard copy handy? While the built-in iOS Maps app lacks turn by turn navigation, it does give you a visual map of your route and a list of directions. If you’re driving through an area with dodgy data service, or you’re just old school and want a physical copy, it’s easy to print out that list of directions. They can then be handed to your passenger without the need for them to have your iPhone in their hand and it saves your battery life too.

• First of all, you must have a printer that supports AirPrint
• Open your Maps application and enter your start and end positions

• Press the Route button
• The route will then be calculated and displayed graphically

• Tap on the curled up map options icon in the bottom right corner of the screen

• Select Print

• Select your printer
• Select the number of copies you want

• Hit Print

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com.

In case you hadn’t heard — and really, ask somebody next time! — TiPb wants to give you the iOS device — or devices! — of your dreams. That’s right, a brand new iPhone 4S, iPad 2, iPod touch, or Apple TV, or even iPad 3 in 2012, could be yours!

And this is week 3 so you now have a third chance to win!

The Prize: A $600 Apple gift certificate to put towards the iOS device — or devices — of your dreams. An iPhone or iPad for you or your special someone, a couple of iPod touches for the kids, a handful of Apple TVs for the whole family — you could even save it for an iPad 3 when Apple releases it! — whatever you choose!

How to enter: Each week we’ll have a special thread in a different TiPb iOS device forum. Just leave one (1) reply in each thread telling us why you’d love to have that week’s device. You can enter once per week, each week, for a total of four (4) chances to enter over the course of the contest.

The contest is on now and the winner will be announced on the iPhone Live podcast on December 28, 2011.

So what are you waiting for? Enter already!

• TiPb iOS Dream Device Giveaway: Week 3 thread!

Apple’s revised iOS 5.0.1 update seems to have come with decrypted ramdisks, something which could make the port of Siri to other iOS devices legally possible. Before today’s firmware update, important files to get Siri working on other devices were encrypted in Apple’s file system. Decrypting them would be illegal and infringe on copyright and that is the main reason for it not being made available.

According to MuscleNerd, a prominent figure in the jailbreaking community, the release of the revised iOS 5.0.1 update means that it is now possible to extract the relevant Siri files without infringing on Apple’s copyright. It will now be interesting to see if those involved in porting Siri to other iOS devices see this as the green light and release it. We will let you know as soon as we hear anymore information.

Source: MuscleNerd

We’ve reached mid-week here at TiPb and in case you happened to miss out on anything from this week thus far — now is a good time to skip on back and get caught up before tonight’s iPhone Live!  You can also take a stroll though the TiPb forums or start your own thread today — just make sure you come on back before we get started. You can register now to get started today and make sure you check out some of threads below:

• iOS 5 Forum: What does your iPhone do that irritates you?
• iPhone 4S Forum: Has Siri been censored?
• iCloud Forum iTunes 10.5.2 (Match Update)
• iPod Touch 4 Forum Gaming on an iPod?
• Photography and Videography Forum: iMovie Trailers – Share yours!

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

Famous Chronic Dev-Team member, pod2g, has confirmed that his untethered jailbreak is working on pretty much all devices with an Apple A4 system-on-a-chip running iOS 5.0.1. On top of A4 devices, he’s also got an untethered Jailbreak for iOS 4.3.3 on the AppleTV 2 working.

Just to be clear, these are the devices:

• iPad (original)
• iPhone 3GS
• iPod Touch 4G, 3G
• iPhone 4

Just like many of you, I’m hoping the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 are added to this list sooner rather than later. There’s been no mention yet of any exploit supporting A5 devices nor a release date for a jailbreak tool for A4 devices. We will update as soon as we hear something.

Source: pod2g

The second part to the hugely popular Mac gaming trilogy Marathon is set to hit the App Store on Thursday December 16. The original Marathon title was released back in July to great acclaim and better still it was free. The creators, Bungie, later went on to make Halo for the Xbox.

Marathon 2: Durandal will be arriving on December 16 according to touchArcade. Amazingly, it will not only support Retina display devices but it will also come as a universal binary. Throw in Game Center support, enhancements to use with the Fling joystick and an all new menu interface and it all adds up to a really exciting game release.

The app will apparently launch for free but again offer in-app purchases for enhanced graphics, cheat options and custom packs. We will let you know as soon as it appears!

Source: touchArcade

Path also released a new version with a bold, breathtaking new user experience and slightly more picturesque and timeline based focus. Apple added yet another separate social network to their portfolio, this time Find my Friends which offers very fine grained privacy control wrapped it more stitched leather than a puffy couch. And Google got into the game in a huge way with Google+.

Twitter for iPhone shed it’s Tweetie heritage and while power users howled, it just might have become more usable for the mainstream. Luckily power users had plenty of places to turn with Tweetbot offering an entirely different take, with that trademark Tapbots look and increasingly deep functionality, and Twittelator Neue offering eye-popping animation and amped up interactions.

Verbs also did the remarkable by showing how simply and elegantly instant messages could be handled on mobile.

Incredibly different, incredibly rich, it’s hard to pick just nine, never mind one — but that’s your job. Vote up top and tell us why you voted they way you did in the comments! These are your awards, so get to it!

The LunaTik Touch Pen is currently seeking Kickstarter funding and before you assume that it is just another stylus, it does offer something quite unique. The stylus is actually a rollerball pen but with a click of a button, the ink point disappears and it becomes a capacitive stylus for your iPad.

Paper and pen will never be replaced. However, more and more people are embracing their iPads and tablets to take notes and capture ideas in a new hybrid analog-digital workflow. These users continuously switch between paper and touch screen during the day. This means they require both a traditional ink pen and a digital stylus.

Source: Kickstarter

In the latest iOS 5.1 Beta 2 it looks like Apple has taken steps to start hiding future iPhone, iPad and other iOS device model references from the bloggers and deep code divers who have previously delighted in finding and exposing them.

Mark Gurman of 9to5 Mac first noted the new, obviously obfuscating entries on Twitter, and now it seems that in the USBDeviceConfiguration.plist, Apple has thrown in over 100 entries have been added for everything from iPad10,1 to AppleTV9,2, and so on.

Interesting new move in the cat and mouse game, to say the least.

Source: Mark Gurman

Apple has just made iOS 5.1 beta 2 available to developers to test out on iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Apple TV. No word yet on what changes, if any are included, but a beta 2 means we’re still waiting on a GM, and then waiting some more on a public release, so we wouldn’t go expecting this to go wide for a while still.

Xcode 4.3 Developer Preview 2 is also available now.

Anyone notices anything special, let us know.

Source: developer.apple.com

To celebrate Angry Birds’ second birthday, Rovio has updated its ever popular game to version 2.0. Angry Birds was originally released back in December 2009 and has become a huge franchise.

Fans everywhere can enjoy a new “Happy Birdday” update for Angry Birds, which features 15 delectable new birthday cake levels, spiffy new menus and graphics, and special birthday achievements. As a birthday gift to our fans, all episodes are now unlocked!

• iPhone App Store link

• App Store – link iPad

Apple has posted a 360 degree panoramic view of its latest Apple Store which can be found at the famous Grand Central Station in New York. What is so special about this particular photograph is that it is only visible on an iOS device and you can look right around it using your devices built in gyroscope.

To see the picture, you will need to visit the Grand Central Apple’s store page from your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Select view more photographs and you will see a list of pictures on the right, at the very bottom is one marked 360. Click on it and the picture will open and you will then be able to look around by holding your device and turning around as if you where actually standing on the spot.

To see the picture in all its glory using the gyroscope features, you must have an iPhone 4, 4S, iPad 2 or iPod touch 4^th Generation; as these are the only models with the gyroscope hardware. This is the first time that Apple has used this type of image on its store pages; it will be interesting to see if it adds similar images to its other stores too.

Source: TNW

Have a loved one on your holiday shopping list who’s going to take their iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad on a special trip? Not sure exactly what to gift them? Not a problem, TiPb has you covered! From the traveler off to fun in the sun, to the family going home for the holidays, to the couple going out on the town, here are some of our favorite device, accessory, and app picks for the business user in your life!

Don’t need anything for a travel? Check out the recommendations anyway, something great might still catch your eye. If not, no worries, check out one of our other 2011 holiday gift guides!

Dream hardware for dream getaways

The perfect gift can make for the perfect trip. traveling can be stressful enough, but if your traveler has the right stuff, it can make not only the destination that much more enjoyable, but the journey as well.

iOS devices

An iPad to plan and book their excursions from the couch, and iPhone to manage their lists and flights on the go, iPod touches to keep the kids busy in the backseat, an Apple TV to hook up at the cabin, an iPod nano to rock out on the slopes. No matter where you’re going or what you’re going to do, there’s an iOS device that can make it more fun and more enjoyable for your traveler.

Not sure which one you should get? Not a problem! Start here:

• iOS device gift guide

Chargers

While there are more places to charge up and top off than ever, from coffee shops to airports, the truth is your traveler will be busy, stressed, and the last thing they need is to run out of power when they need it most. Whether it’s the kids in the carseats or spouses on the plane, every trip is better with a spare charger.

• Qmadix Dual Mobile Charging Kit for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch lets you charge two iOS devices — even the power-hungry iPad! — at the same time. If you’re going on a long family trip, or even an extended drive for the holidays, this can make all the difference between peacefully playing children and happily tapping significant others, and the agony and pain of bored passengers with dead devices turning their angry gazes in your direction.
• mophie juicepack offers the lighter, more colorful “air” model or the heftier but more powerful “plus” model. The air will recharge your iPhone to roughly 70%, the plus to almost full. Whether your business user values light weight portability or big battery power, the mophie juice pack is a must-have for anyone who is away from a wall outlet for long periods of time.
• Keychain Charge and Sync Cable for iPod & iPhone is perfect for those who need to travel ultralight but still want a backup to keep themselves charged when they get there. Let’s face it, away from home is the last place you want to be caught without a cable.

Cases

No matter where they’re going or what they’re doing there’s no such things as too much protection for their iPhone or iPad.

• Overboard for iPhone or iPad are waterproof cases perfect for everything from the beach to the slopes to the white waters to the hot tubs. Whether they’ll need to keep their devices safe from snow, sand, or suds, give them one of these.
• Otterbox for iPhone or iPad is for those who need superior protection, be it light but still sturdy or total armor. To survive a hike or to survive the kids, Otterbox is the way to go.
• iPhone wallet cases are a great idea for travelers who want to travel light. They let you keep your iPhone safe and take a few bills or credit cards along for the ride. There are also a wide variety of looks, from old fashioned to modern, guys to girls.

Extras

• Headsets will be worth their weight in gold if you’re traveler wants their music with them on the slopes or on the beach, or if the kids will be gaming on the plane or in the back seats.
• Car kits if you’re traveler’s are hitting the road, there’s nothing better than a good car mount and a great speakerphone.
• SCOTTEVEST has pockets and more pockets for all their documents, gear, electronics, and accessories. It’s like having an extra travel bag that keeps them warm at the same time!

Terrific apps for travelers

While wrapping paper is nice, nothing is faster to buy or easier to ship than software. Whether you load it up for them on their brand new device, or send it half way across the world, it’ll always get there on time and ready to use.

• How to gift iPhone and iPad apps

Travel games: Uno

Uno is the classic Italian card game all dressed up for the iPhone. You can play on your own, with your family — which is especially great on your TV via AirPlay! — or online against players of similar skill level. It’s everything you love about the original, all packaged up for your iPhone.

• $0.99 – App Store link

Also check out:

• Catan is a great version of a great strategy game. $4.99 – App Store link
• Words with Friends isn’t Scrabble but it is an all out, all online spelling war. $0.99 – App Store link
• Carcassone is a beautiful rendition of the medieval strategy game. $9.99 – App Store link
• Poker by Zynga let’s you get your Texus Hold’em on your iPhone. Free – App Store link

Location apps: NAVIGON

If your traveler is taking the long road to their holiday getaway, give them full fledged turn-by-turn driving directions on their iPhone so you can keep your eyes where they belong — on the road. NAVIGON provides on-board maps which means it keeps working in areas where there’s no data coverage. You can buy regional, country, or continents at a time, and there are also options for live traffic updates, parking directions, and enhanced panoramic views of the surroundings.

• Varies – App Store link

Also check out:

• Foursquare lets you “check in” to locations, keep track of your and your friends’ locations, and earn points for being there. Free – App Store link
• Yelp provides restaurant, gas station, bar, and pretty much any type of business location and recommendations. Free – App Store link
• Find my iPhone is Apple’s way for iCloud to help you locate, lock, and even wipe a missing or stolen iPhone. Free – App Store link
• Waze is a free, crowd-sourced, and highly social travel and nav app. Free – App Store link

Photo apps: Instagram

Instagram is the current king of iPhone photography apps, and it took the crown through a brilliant combination of easy-to-apply filters and super simple social sharing. The latest version not only adds even more filters, but all tilt-shift effects. Whether your traveler wants to quickly share great looking snap shots to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Foursquare, or Posterous, Instagram has them covered. In style.

• Free – App Store link

Also check out:

• Photogene2 is a photography powerhouse, with full featured editing, sharing, and much more. $1.99 – App Store link
• Camera+ is jam packed with features and filters to make their photos shine. $0.99 – App Store link
• Hipstamatic to bring that terrific toy camera look to their shots. [$0.99 - App Store link]
• Flickr for iPhone lets them store and share all the shots you take. [Free - App Store link]

Your picks?

You’re a part of Team TiPb too! Have any accessories you think business users would love to get for the holidays? Make sure to let us know what your picks are as well!

This year they didn’t introduce a new iPod touch — though they did add white — or Apple TV — at least not yet. They also kept the same design for the iPhone 4S, but did make the iPad 2 thinner, lighter, and faster.

In addition to the new casing, iPad 2 got two new cameras (low-end as they may be), and was first to get the new, dual-core, Apple A5 system-on-a-chip.

iPhone 4S also got the powerful A5 SoC, a new, intelligently switching antenna, and a much better rear camera at 8mp and 1080p.

While visions of Retina display tablets, 4-inch phones, and full on televisions, this year you need to choose from what we got.

• iPhone 4S
• iPad 2
• iPod touch (white)

Vote up top and tell us why you voted they way you did in the comments! These are your awards, so get to it!

Kenu Highline is a unique accessory that looks to provide an element of safety when using your iPhone or iPod touch in extreme situations. If you are not adverse to taking your iPhone out with you when doing extreme sports such as climbing mountains or even bungee jumping then one of these could make everything that much safer.

Highline is a custom-engineered iPhone and iPod leash designed to let you capture that epic shot, stay connected with friends, and listen to tunes without worry of dropping your mobile device in extreme situations. Naturally, Highline is ideal for those absent-minded moments or a case of the butter fingers.

If you are into extreme sports or just want that extra bit of insurance while using your device outdoors, this could be a very useful accessory. The Kenu Highline costs $19.95.

• Get a Kenu Highline from Amazon.com

In case you hadn’t heard — blame your friends! — TiPb wants to give you the iOS device — or devices! — of your dreams. That’s right, a brand new iPhone 4S, iPad 2, iPod touch, or Apple TV, or even iPad 3 in 2012, could be yours!

And this is week 2 so you now have a second chance to win!

The Prize: A $600 Apple gift certificate to put towards the iOS device — or devices — of your dreams. An iPhone or iPad for you or your special someone, a couple of iPod touches for the kids, a handful of Apple TVs for the whole family — you could even save it for an iPad 3 when Apple releases it! — whatever you choose!

How to enter: Each week we’ll have a special thread in a different TiPb iOS device forum. Just leave one (1) reply in each thread telling us why you’d love to have that week’s device. You can enter once per week, each week, for a total of four (4) chances to enter over the course of the contest.

The contest is on now and the winner will be announced on the iPhone Live podcast on December 28, 2011.

So what are you waiting for? Enter already!

• TiPb iOS Dream Device Giveaway: Week 2 thread!

Coming to us from Subafilms Ltd. is The Beatles Yellow Submarine book which is now available through iBooks for download. The beautifully illustrated book has iTunes exclusive clips from the movie as well as interactive animations, sounds and music clips.

If you fancy yourself a Beatles fan then you are no doubt are familiar with Yellow Submarine. That said; if you’re looking to add a little something nice to your digital Beatles collection then you’ll want to check this out.

You can grab the Yellow Submarine interactive books as a free download for your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch — keep in mind iOS 5 is needed in order for it to work properly.

• Download Yellow Submarine – iTunes Bookstore Link

BEHRINGER sent us a release about their latest creation — the world’s biggest and most powerful iPhone dock. The dock, which it has appropriately named iNuke stands at over eight feet wide, four feet tall and weighs in at a massive 700 pounds. The sound output from this beast is said to be around 10,000 watts.

It has been purpose built for BEHRINGER stand at CES 2012 at a staggering cost of $30,000. Yes, that makes it a publicity stunt, and yes it seems to have worked. Unfortunately, that also means the iNuke will not be available for sale.

So, if you want to see it in the flesh, make sure you visit BEHRINGER stand. If you just want to hear it, it probably won’t matter where you are; especially if it goes to 11.

OnLive, the cloud-based videogame streaming company that lets you play console-quality games on devices that would otherwise slow to a crawl under such pressure, has finally introduced the service to the iPad.

OnLive, Inc., the pioneer of cloud gaming, announced that it is bringing console-class gaming to tablets and phones with the revolutionary OnLive app for tablet and mobile platforms. The latest, top-tier, high-performance games-previously limited to only consoles and computers-will be available for instant play via the free OnLive app on over 500 million mobile devices over Wi-Fi or mobile networks in the US and UK.

OnLive will also be bringing the service to Android tablets and other devices like the Kindle Fire so gamers can play in tablet form no matter which platform they prefer. The service is rather groundbreaking and will come with more than 25 titles that support touchscreen-based controls including L.A. Noire from Rockstar, with an additional 150 games to play when paired with their universal wireless controller which sells for $49.99.

With OnLive coming to tablets, this makes gaming much more accessible for those who don’t have consoles like the Playstation 3 or Xbox360 and other high-end computer setups. OnLive launched the OnLive Viewer app for the iPad around this time last year before showing off full gameplay on the iPad at E3. It’s good to see they’ve come through on their promise.

With HD console-quality gaming now available on the iPhone and iPad, it makes you wonder if this will have any direct impact on console sales given the fact that over 250 million iOS devices are currently floating around out there. What do you think?

The App currently works on the iPad, with support for the iPhone said to be coming in the near future. OnLive is expected to hit the App Store shortly and we’ll update with a link once it does!

Source: WSJ

Alec Baldwin was removed from an American Airlines flight after refusing to turn off his iPad because of a particular intense game of Words with Friends. The flight which was bound for New York from LAX was idling at the gate when Baldwin apparently ignored request by cabin crew to turn his device off.

The “30 Rock” actor was playing a game called “Words with Friends” while the plane idled at a gate Tuesday, said Baldwin’s spokesman, Matthew Hiltzik. ”He loves `Words with Friends’ so much that he was willing to leave a plane for it,” said Hiltzik, who added that Baldwin boarded another American Airlines flight to New York.

Source: Associated Press

On December 8, the BBC iPlayer app for iPad is expanding to add support for the whole iOS family, including the iPhone and iPod touch.

This platform extension shows how Global iPlayer isn’t just about moving TV to tablet devices, it’s also about a mobile strategy – about truly getting TV everywhere in a way that it hasn’t been before. We also want the global BBC iPlayer to be truly representative of the whole gamut of British creative output, to represent everything that is great about British content – not just the Best of British TV but the Best of British Culture.

Bringing both current and classic content to iOS devices, the BBC iPlayer application is currently available in 16 countries for a flat subscription fee.

Source: The Next Web

According to iPhoneiTalia, Facebook is working on an update to its Messenger app that will deliver Facebook video calls across multiple platforms. Facebook currently offers a video calling service between users on desktop web browsers using its agreement with Skype. According to sources, the update to the Facebook messenger app is already being tested in the wild and should be revealed in the not too distant future.

This update appears to be a natural progression for the Facebook Messenger app. The idea of being able to video chat with another Facebook user on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch would be extremely appealing to many. The app should be compatible with any iOS device with a front facing camera. We will let you know as soon as we hear any more information!

Source: iPhoneItalia via Cult of Mac

Annoyed that, by default, Notification Center seems to display alerts by some sort of weird app association method and wondering how to get them to follow a more sensible order? If you want to change this to sort your notifications by time of arrival, then there is a very easy way to do it.

• Swipe down on your home screen and take a look at how your notifications look now

• You can see that the times are all over the place and not in any sort of order
• To change the sort order by time descending, first go to Settings
• Tap on Notifications
• Tap on By Time under the Sort Apps heading

• That’s it, all your notifications will now be in order of the time they came in, with the latest at the top of he list!

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@tipb.com.

Infinity Blade II has received an update that looks to address the issues that a lot of users have been experiencing. The details are a little scarce on what exactly the update address specifically. We can only assume it will fix the start up crashes that a lot of disappointed gamers have been experiencing.

What’s New in Version 1.0.1, Balance tweaks, optimizations, and bug fixes.

[App Store - link]

Italian design company en&is has manufactured a ceramic passive megaphone to use with your iPhone to amplify its sound. If you want to avoid the raft of powered iPhone speaker docks and are looking for something just that little bit different, this could be for you.

The horn like design sits on a thin wooden frame which allows it to float off the table to optimize the sound experience. The iPhone slips into the top of the horn and all you need to do is press play. The megaphone will then passively amplify the sound into the room. It can also be used as a speakerphone if you so wish.

The Megaphone is available in three colors, black, white and gold. The black and white models cost €399 ($540) and the gold comes in at a whopping €599 ($810). It works with every iPhone available and also with the iPod touch if you have it in a case.

There is no doubting that this would make a beautiful addition to your living room. Unfortunately with no way to control the volume or actually charge your device, it is a little limiting.

Source: en&is via TUAW

While Android‘s dessert-derived code-names like Cupcake and Ice Cream Sandwich are publicly pitched by Google and used by media, Apple’s iOS code-names don’t get anywhere nearly as much attention. Developer Steve Troughton-Smith, however, gave them some Twitter love this morning.

• 1.0: Alpine (1.0.0 – 1.0.2: Heavenly)
• 1.1: Little Bear (1.1.1: Snowbird, 1.1.2: Oktoberfest)
• 2.0: Big Bear
• 2.1: Sugarbowl
• 2.2: Timberline
• 3.0: Kirkwood
• 3.1: Northstar
• 3.2: Wildcat (iPad only)
• 4.0: Apex
• 4.1: Baker
• 4.2: Jasper (4.2.5 – 4.2.10: Phoenix)
• 4.3: Durango
• 5.0: Telluride
• 5.1: Hoodoo

Nowhere near as sweet as Google’s, or even the big cats Apple uses, very publicly for OS X releases, including the latest 10.7 Lion. Maybe they could spice things up a little. What do you think, Star Wars planets? Pasta shapes? Tasty caffeinated beverages?

Source: @stroughtonsmith, iOS Forensic Analysis

An Australian indie-pop band has created a music video for their latest track and the theme of the video is iPhone gaming. In the video the band created real-life versions of hugely successful iPhone games like Angry Birds, Flight Control, Fruit Ninja, Cut the Rope and Plants vs. Zombies.

The band is called Hey Geronimo and after watching the video, it is obvious that they not only have a passion for music but iOS gaming too. The amount of work that appears to have gone into recreating these games into a real-life environment is very impressive.

David Barnard of App Cubby has a great post up, sharing his thoughts on how to responsibly handle things like GPS geo-location information in photos, to protect his children’s privacy while not giving into technophobia or paranoia.

What’s even more alarming is that most of my photos are taken with an iPhone, which means they have GPS data embedded. I’ve always been leery of the cost and security implications of backing up photos online, so short of my computer having been hacked none of those photos have ever been exposed online. But now with iCloud and other automatic backup solutions, any photo I take is uploaded almost instantly.

We’ve posted a tip on how to disable geo-location from the Camera app and strip GPS data from old photos, if that’s what you choose to do. Give David’s post a good read before you make up your mind though.

Source: App Cubby

Curious how to turn-off the GPS geo-location information your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad can store in the photos you take? Geo-location can be a handy feature to keep track of where you took travel photos, but it can also raise privacy concerns, especially if you ever lose your iOS device, or someone decides to start tracking you — or your child — via pictures posted online.

iOS will ask you to opt-in to the location for the Camera app the first time you launch it, but if you later change your mind, it’s simple to opt-out of and turn off.

1. Launch Settings
2. Tap Location services
3. Toggle Camera to OFF

If you’ve already taken photos with your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad and want to share them but are worried that they might contain location information, you can quickly and easily wipe them clean before posting.

1. Launch Photos
2. Find the picture you want to share
3. Take a screen shot of the photo (here’s how).
4. Go to the screen shot
5. Share the screen shot instead.

Screen shots on an iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and iPod touch 4 are 960×480, and on iPad are 1024×768, plenty big enough for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Path, or whatever social network you’re using. That way, when and if you choose to share the image, you’re not also sharing the GPS coordinates of where you — and your family — are.

There’s no reason to be paranoid, but there’s no reason to be reckless either. Information is power and with power comes responsibility. (For more on why, see this excellent article by David Barnard of App Cubby.(

Surf safe.

Some original iPad and fourth-gen iPod touch users have reportedly been met with immediate crashing issues after launching Infinity Blade 2, which launched to wide success yesterday.

For some users Infinity Blade II seems to be running out of memory on their heavily laden iPad1 and iPod Touch devices.

The problem stems from how iOS handles icon caching on your iPhone home screen, where older iOS devices with a large number of apps installed create memory constraints resulting in a force-quit upon launching. The Epic team has let everyone know they’re working hard on a fix and will push an update to the App Store as soon as they can, and in the meantime they’ve updated the App Store description to let users know the problem exists.

Any readers using older iOS hardware running into this?

Source: Epic Games via The Verge

Have you been dreaming of a free iPhone 4S for the holidays? Wishing for an iPad 2 with your name on it? Hoping for iPod touches or Apple TVs for the whole house? Already saving for an iPad 3 in 2012?

Well you’re in luck! The TiPb Nation is by far the best community on the ‘net and we want to say thank you — and spread a little holiday cheer! — by giving you the iOS device of your dreams!

The Prize: A $600 Apple gift certificate to put towards the iOS device — or devices — of your dreams. An iPhone or iPad for you or your special someone, a couple of iPod touches for the kids, a handful of Apple TVs for the whole family — you could even save it for an iPad 3 when Apple releases it! — whatever you choose!

How to enter: Each week we’ll have a special thread in a different TiPb iOS device forum. Just leave one (1) reply in each thread telling us why you’d love to have that week’s device. You can enter once per week, each week, for a total of four (4) chances to enter over the course of the contest.

The giveaway starts now and the winner will be announced on the iPhone Live podcast on December 28, 2011.

So what are you waiting for? Enter already!

• TiPb iOS Dream Device Giveaway: Week 1 thread!

iOS 5 on the iPhone has Carrier IQ-style diagnostic information sharing turned off by default, but as part of the on-device setup process, asks you if you’d be willing to opt-in and share the data with Apple. If you did that, or aren’t sure what you did, but now want to make sure you’re opted out of anything even remotely Carrier IQ-esque, here’s how to do that.

1. Launch Settings
2. Tap General
3. Tap About
4. Scroll down and tap on Diagnostics & Usage
5. Tap Don’t Send

That’s it, you’re done. If you’re curious what kind of data is being stored locally on your device, whether or not you choose to share it with Apple, tap on Diagnostic & Usage Data.

Mine contains a bunch of crash logs from AirVideo, a ton of low memory reports, some weirdness from Messages, Mail, and Twitter, and some games.

Either way, while it currently looks like Apple does include Carrier IQ in iOS, it seems they aren’t polling very deeply, and what data they are collecting is opt-in instead of opt-out (which is great) and can easily be turned off entirely via the steps above.

If you have any other privacy, security, or tips in general, let us now!

If you’re currently running iOS 5.0.1, you can jailbreak via RedSn0w 0.9.9b8. This one is also tethered like the previous beta versions of RedSn0w for iOS 5. It’s also worth noting that unlockers should stay away from this one unless they’re okay with being tethered. iPhone 4 users should stay away from any newer stock iOS firmware versions altogether in order to preserve their baseband.

Be advised that not all jailbreak apps and tweaks have been updated to support iOS 5 yet. If you’re alright with running tethered and don’t mind a few bugs here and there, follow along for a quick walkthrough.

If you’ve used RedSn0w before, you’ll be right at home. It’s not too much different than jailbreaking any other firmware version you may have used it for previously.

Devices Supported

• iPod touch 3G
• iPod touch 4G
• iPad 1
• iPhone3GS
• iPhone 4 (GSM)
• iPhone 4 (CDMA)

And I can’t say this enough times, if your device is not listed above, please do not attempt to jailbreak any device but the ones listed above. iPad 2 and iPhone 4S users will have to sit this one out.

What you need

• iOS 5.0.1 installed on your device
• RedSn0w 0.9.9b8 – Mac Link, Windows Link

1. First Launch RedSn0w

2. This version and other newer versions of RedSn0w should automatically detect what version of iOS you are running. No need to manually browse to a firmware file this time. Just click Jailbreak and follow the prompts.

3. Next RedSn0w will prompt you to only continue when your device is powered off. If it isn’t already, power your device off while it’s connected to the computer.

4. Next you will be guided through putting your device into DFU mode. Follow the steps and RedSn0w will take care of the rest.
5. If you’re on 5.0.1, you will need to manually navigate to an iOS 5.0 firmware file (not 5.0.1). RedSn0w will fail to identify the build on iOS 5.0.1. So do this when RedSn0w fails just like you had to with all other previous versions that didn’t automatically detect an IPSW. Just navigate to an iOS 5.0 file for your device instead of 5.0.1.
   Update: You can use redsn0w 0.9.9b9b for native iOS 5.0.1 support now and not have to point to a 5.0 IPSW. Download links for the newer version of redsn0w are here: Mac, Windows
6. After RedSn0w finishes doing it’s thing, you’re done!

7. Next you may need to perform a tethered boot. If you do, simply open RedSn0w again and click Extras and then Just Boot
8. Your phone will perform a tethered boot and you should be good to go!

RedSn0w has also thrown in a little bonus for Windows users. You can copy the redsnow.exe file to your desktop or anywhere you like and rename it something like justboot.exe. As long as you have the word “boot” in the file name you can just double click that file to perform a quick tethered boot with RedSn0w.

That’s it boys and girls. If you need any help, be sure to check out our TiPb jailbreak forums. Until next time, happy jailbreaking!

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