When Flipboard hit the App Store last year, the personalized news app for the iPad turned out to be a revelation. There were already plenty of Twitter clients, Facebook apps, and RSS readers available for download—there were even apps that combined those streams of information into one. But none did it quite so elegantly, creating the sensation of effortlessly flipping through the magazine. Overnight, Flipboard reinvented the category.
A year later, Flipboard is still the class of “personalized news” apps—those offerings that take links from the user’s selected social networks and news sources to provide a one-stop-shop of news aggregation. (These apps are different from news discovery apps like Zite, which use your preferences to seek out information from new and unexpected sources.) Because you can view the information sources anywhere, presentation is what really matters when it comes to these personalized news apps.
Little by little, we are slowly putting the pieces of the iPhone 5 puzzle together. On Saturday, Hong Kong-based components supplier SW-Box claimed to have gained possession of a group of new components, including a headphone jack, ear speaker, and a Wi-Fi cable part, which are all allegedly being built for Apple’s sixth-generation iPhone.
If SW-Box’s claims are true, the iPhone 5′s hardware arrangement signifies a major change in the component organization from every previous iPhone model. In the iPhone 4 and 4S, Apple grouped the headphone jack, mute switch, and volume buttons onto a single component; SW-Box’s part pairs the headphone jack with the earpiece speaker into one part — this makes sense, as they generally serve the same function — but attaching the Wi-Fi cable means Apple has likely moved the Wi-Fi components from the back panel to near the call speaker. There was no ruler next to the components, so it’s difficult to estimate the size of these components — are they smaller to fit into a smaller or thinner device? — but hopefully we’ll get an update from SW-Box on the exact specifications.
When you think of alarm clocks, you generally don’t imagine something that brings joy or whimsy to your life. No, an alarm clock is typically something you want to throw against the wall each morning.
But now a company called Habitco has merged traditional alarm clock functionality with the iPhone, and thrown in a bit of toaster action as well. The result is the Day Maker, a piece of hardware we’d never want to slam against our walls.
Pop your iPhone into the top of the Day Maker before you hit the hay. When your alarm goes off the next morning, your iPhone pops back up like a piece of freshly toasted bread. If you want to snooze, just pop your iDevice back into the slot so you can get some extra zzz’s.
There’s a new app from developer Macadamia Apps that solves one of the biggest problems for photo enthusiasts on the iPhone – the inability to pull out a screenshot from a recorded video. Now you don’t have to choose if you want a video or a still photograph.
StillShot lets users select a single frame from a video. In addition, if you’re in video mode and want to simply grab a still shot, you can do that without switching to a different mode. The only drawback is that the resolution, as expected, is not quite as strong as if you take a picture using the standard iPhone camera settings.
Nevertheless, it certainly solves a problem, and that’s all that you can ask for out of a utility app. StillShot is available for 99 cents from the App Store.
AirPlay is a technology that seamlessly moves audio and video from device to device in the Apple ecosystem. It’s built into the iPhone, iPad, and — most importantly — the Apple TV set-top box. Among other things, AirPlay can be used to send video from iPhone apps like YouTube, MLB.tv, or WatchESPN to the AppleTV.
Apple hasn’t advertised AirPlay as strongly as some other features, like the iPhone 4S’s Siri, though it did run a television ad after the iPhone 4 was introduced in 2011. That said, it’s surprising that Glenn A. Britt, the chief executive of Time Warner Cable said he hadn’t heard of the service, according to the New York Times.
“I’m not sure I know what AirPlay is,” he said, though he noted that he was an enthusiastic Apple customer. “Today we want to be on every screen. Today it’s a little bit clunky to get programming from the Internet onto the TV — not so hard to get it on your iPad. What’s hard is the plumbing, what wires do you connect, what device do you use. So the current Apple TV, the little thing, the hockey puck, really doesn’t do anything to help enable you to get Internet material on your TV.”
iCloud currently offers users the capability to store and sync photos to other iOS devices and PCs using Photo Stream. That functionality does not, however, include the capability to share with other users directly.
According to the WSJ sources, users would be able to comment on shared photos, but any further details of the service have yet to be disclosed.
The iCloud update is expected to be officially announced by Apple at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, which begins June 11.
Last week, several sneak peeks at Apple’s plans for its iCloud service made their way to the Internet buzz circles. First, a notification system similar to the drop-down banners found in iOS was spotted, leading many to believe that Apple is planning to introduce synced notifications through iCloud.
Sales of the iPhone in Japan reached 7.25 million units in all of 2011, making Apple the top smartphone vendor in the country.
The data comes from a report issued by MM Research, translated by Macotakara on Thursday, which shows that Apple represented 30 percent of smartphone sales in Japan. Among all cell phones, including “feature” phones,” Apple took 17 percent of the market.
Though Apple was the leading hardware vendor, Google’s Android was the most popular mobile operating system platform among smartphones sold in Japan in 2011. Google’s Android represented 69 percent, meaning that together, Google and Apple controlled a whopping 99 percent of smartphone sales by platform in Japan.
The latest numbers suggest that Apple’s share of the smartphone market in Japan has grown since the end of 2011, when the company held a 26.6 percent share of the market. Apple’s position in the country was dramatically boosted by the launch of the iPhone 4S.
iPhone sales may have received a boost locally after the release of iOS 5.1 in March. That software update brought Japanese-language support to Siri, Apple’s personal assistant application available only on the iPhone 4S.
Tree surgeon Leon Timms says using the software – which imitates bird calls – revived the poorly animal.
Having watched the animal plunge to the ground through his living room window, 37-year-old Timms says he then brought it inside in a bid to revive it.
And as a last ditch resort he decided to turn to his smartphone for help.
He said: “I went to have a look and saw this chaffinch lying dazed on the ground — it must have flown into the solar panels on the roof or one of the upstairs windows,” he said.
“The bird looked like it was about to die any second — it was panting and struggling to breathe.
“I brought the chaffinch inside and starting stroking him on my lap and then I came up with the idea of playing it the sound of another chaffinch on my mobile phone app.
Leon from Marstson, Oxfordshire added: “I popped the app on and almost immediately the bird’s eyes opened and he seemed to become more alert.
“It had looked almost lifeless when I brought it into the house and looked on his last legs but after I played the app it started to show signs of recovery.
“It definitely responded to the sound of another chaffinch — my wife was impressed that I had had the idea of using my mobile.”
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds spokesman Wendy Johnson said: “We haven’t heard of this happening before. It’s a very creative use of an app.
“Our advice if people find birds that have flown into windows is to put them in a quiet, sheltered place to give them a chance to recover.”
Apple‘s (AAPL 0.00%) next iPhone might have a special feature that guarantees it doesn’t need to be replaced the next time you drop it in the toilet.
Believe or not, toilets have eaten a large number of smartphones. And if it isn’t a toilet that destroys your prized device, it could be the bottle of beer that your friend spilled or the pool you dropped it in before taking a swim. Any amount of liquid — water or otherwise — could prove to be detrimental to your phone.
But new technology exists that would allow smartphone makers to waterproof their phones. When Zagg (ZAGG 0.00%) got a peek at it, the company jumped at the chance to acquire it. Zagg already makes protective covers for smartphones and other devices.
The company bought the waterproofing technology about a year ago, co-founder and CEO Robert G. Pedersen II told Benzinga. “We improved the technology and we spun off a separate company called HZO,” he added. “We got outside investors to come in and fund it so we didn’t need to do any kind of raise through Zagg. Zagg still owns 40% of HZO.”
Pedersen said that HZO (the “Z” stands for Zagg) lets mobile devices operate even after they get dropped in the sink or the tub. “I have a picture of someone who took an iPhone scuba diving down 30 meters and it worked great — underwater — for an hour,” he said.
Paying for goods or services at the checkout counter with your phone is the holy grail of mobile payments, something Google, the credit card companies, and the wireless providers are all trying to figure out.
But until that goes mainstream, startup iCache has a pretty novel approach for people who want to leave their wallet at home. The company’s Geode product acts as both an iPhone cover and digital wallet, while packing a single programmable smart card.
It works like this: a user enters in their debit and credit card information through an included mag stripe reader, which attaches to the bottom of the cover. They can also store loyalty cards by taking a photo of the bar code. The cards can be pulled up and selected through a free iPhone app.