iPhone. News and Tips

A rumors about coming iTunes 8 appeared on TUAW portal.

They say, that the list of improvements will not consist only from “interactive albums made available” stroke. There will be also new visualization engine Magnetosphere enabled, that was designed by The Barbarian Group. Even in this pre-release version the plugin looks really amazing.

So, let’s wait for new iTunes to come. We’ve collected a lot of rumors and are as excited as it never could happen.

P.S. While you wait for iTunes 8 to be released, you can download the previous plugin version, made for Mac OS X. Here’s a link on Rapidshare. Just download it and copy to \User\Library\iTunes\iTunes Plug-ins\.

At the beginning of the week our bloggers found two theme iPhone fakes.

The first one is never existed Belkin JoyPod.

The one web-site gave a green light to this gossip, and now all the gaming world thinks, that Belking is going to present an iPhony joystic, that should be much better than iControlPad. Why do we know, that this is not real prototype? Just look at the design, it’s control buttons are completely puzzling, and the manner of advertisement also differs from original Belkin’s PR.

The second fake is a mythical Gorenje fridge with iPhone dock station integrated.

The link was sent by our blogger euGeniy. That looks like a Christmas tale – who can believe that Gorenje company is going to integrate iPhone support into every kitchen device it makes?

In the nearest future the App Store will get a sexy arcade from famous Astraware – Golden Skull.

You’ll be acting as an adventurer called Sahid, travelling to the Maya’s ruins in order to find the “golden scull”

Price: € 2.39 / $ 2.99

As was recently revealed, the new firmware has a big security issue.

Let’s protect our iPhone with a password. Now in the “Home” button options let’s set it on “Favourites”. Let’s switch to stand-by mode, then turn iPhone on, but instead of typing the password in, we switch to the “emergency call”. We click the “home” button twice and we get to our “Favorites”.

Nice password-protection, isn’t it? From favorites we can get to the email, simply by clicking the desired contact’s name. Or write and sms. Or, if the contact has an URL assigned, we can get into Safari.

Now we can try setting the “home” button to iPod, and after the same routine we will get into our player.

Here is a full how-to video:

Eddie Irish has revealed the information that made me feel pretty sceptic at first, and I’ve moved the letter to the trash bin. But then I thought, why not? That’s what he says, acting as an Apple employee:

Soon our company will release iPhone 3G with 32 Gb. I send a screenshot for iPhones.ru revealing the 2.1 firmware, which is currently being tested by the developers. The model will be running this firmware. On Friday Steve [Jobes] talked to us about the release and asked the tech department to order the NEW CPUs.

As can be seen from he screenshot, the 2.1 firmware has 6F3 index and differs from SDK 5F90 index. Besides, the CPU switch is to be expected, since the Infineon chips often cause the unstable functioning of iPhones 3G. That’s why the new updates and patches are released far too often.

Recently I had read some strange comments to the news about games. I wonder, don’t you like playing games on your favourite device that much? Or you want something more significant? I like gaming. I play PC games as well as iPhone. I spend a lot of time playing games in the subway, at home, on vacation. Actually anywhere, anytime, whenever it’s possible.

Currently AppStore has some 510 games (by the time I am writing this article). Nearly half of them aren’t even worth mentioning (you can easily pick up examples of them yourself). But those that have entered the Top-100 Paid and Free are indeed interesting.

But that’s not what I am talking about right now. I’d like to know: What games would you like to play on iPhone?

PocketGamer site had recently run a poll and presented top 10 of most desirable games and genres. To be or not to be – we are not to decide that.

1. Of course, first person shooters. The Internet is full of rumours of the upcoming Quake, Wolfenstein and Doom ports for iPhone. But those are just rumours. Some people even say that we’ll have RPG instead of shooters. So far we could only “enjoy” the Quake port.

2. Brain enhancers. One of such can be found on the AppStore. It costs $9.99 and is called Brain Challenge by GameLoft. It is ranked 35th in Top Paid Apps.

3. It can sound weirdly, but people would like to have the port of Phoenix Wright by Capcom. Honestly, I have learned about this game only by the time I have begun working on this article. But now I too hold with those who wish there were an iPhone port. Originally, a Nintendo DS game, it’s a mix of a detective story and a puzzle game. Interesting.

4. Football management. Two years ago I was into this kind of games, but since then I became bored of them. However, there are still many fans of this genre out there.

5. More Sudoku games. Who needs more Sudokus, anyways?! AppStore has over 3 dozens.

6. Space sims. Unlimited opportunities for creativity. We already have seen a game of this genre – Solar Quest. What if we go more creative? A vast universe for ultimate on-line gaming experience. Sounds interesting, isn’t it?

7. Reset Generation. Yes, people request this N-Gage best-seller to be ported to their iPhones. I don’t expect any problems with that, since we already have many Nintendo DS and Nokia N-Gage ports.

8. Hidden object. That’s an exact definition of a genre popular among housewives. Simple and disposable.

9. Scrabble – same as no. 5.

10. And finally, the SimCity and Civilization clones. That’s a real classic in game industry. Each platform needs this kind of game, simply out of respect.

I would add this list by my personal request. I would like to see some nice old-school RPGs like Fallout or Diablo. Until then all we can do is dreaming…

The first Myst game appeared in 1995. All critics considered it as the best adventure game ever made. Encouraged by the game success , developers – Cyan and SunSoft companies, tried to make a little bit more money on making sequels, but Myst 2 and 3 were not as good as original game. The last try to improve the popularity of Myst series was the start of Myst Online project, but it didn’t succeeded.

Recently, in information about developing new game in series – iMyst, became available on official game forum. It’s not clear at the moment, will it be a brand new game or just a port to iPhone platform. According to available screenshots from Nintendo DS game version, the second opinion is more probable.

According to the Russian Vedomosti newspaper, Apple plans to start a massive assault on Russia’s mobile phone market and sets very strict conditions for the Big Three operators – Megafon, Beeline and MTS. Apple wants every operator to buy from 1 to 1,5 million iPhone 3G. If American company will successfully strike that bargain then 4,5 million iPhones will be simultaneously flushed into the Russian mobile market, that makes approximately 12 percent of overall yearly sales.

But most of the analytics think, that it’s impossible to sell more than 600,000 iPhones a year in Russia. If Apple wants to release 4 million iPhones it should discount it’s 3G mobile to $250, that sounds more than fantastic.

There have been a lot of rumours in the Internet about the fact that Nike and Apple Inc are making a joint product for people who do sports.

And today the rumours have been confirmed. On the French site iPhon.fr the first real screenshots of Nike+ have appeared.

Nike+ is intended for people who enjoy an active lifestyle and are engaged in sports.

Special sensors which are embedded into your trainers will literally write down all your movements. The application will write down your speed, achievements for a particular period of time, the amount of burned calories, it will show your location on the map. You will be able to set goals, support export to your computer and play the music from your iPhone etc.

Well. I hope it’s not just a dream…

The guys from Open Clip are going to release Copy&Paste on our favourite device soon.

The thing is that OpenClip framework which allows to copy and to paste text including in HTML is attached to applications . The list of applications supporting this function can be found on the site of the project (http://openclip.org/)

You can watch the video here.

Cut and Paste for iPhone from Cali Lewis on Vimeo.

Well, that’s interesting. The idea is good but all the creators will have to embed OpenClip framework in their products and that is a big obstacle. So let’s wait and see what come of it….

There are rumors about iPhone Nano since the iPhone first generation annonce. And up until now Nano remains a rumor and a myth.

Many analytics doubt that there will ever be such a device. But the fans don’t give and continue to believe. So do we…

The strip was done with the help of some forum users. Thanks.

via gizmodo.

Update by SeaBreeze: Gazeta.ru thinks otherwise and publishes an extract from the speech of Eldar Murtazin:

“The new iPhone nano will be presented to the audience on November 17, in December it will be possible to buy it, – Eldar Murtazin, the lead analytic of Mobile Research group, told Gazeta.ru. According to him, the new model will be more about music and calling. “It will have a screen, but not as large as the one iPhone has, – he said.

A classmate of Eldar is the head of Apple rep in Russia (not IMC Russia), so he apparently knows all rumors. Blah-blah-blah…

Last week, NetShare application allowing the iPhone to be used as a modem (millions of people’s dream!) appeared at AppStore. Couple hours after it was gone. In an hour it was back again. 24 hours later it disappeared permanently. There was no explanation from Apple.

The developer, NullRiver company, is still confused. They wrote on their official website that Apple really put them in a dead-end situation. Unfortunately, neither of us had time to make a review of NetShare, but you can see the detailed description here.

Today, BoxOffice (a program that tells about show times in the nearest cinemas) application disappeared the same way.

Perhaps, NetShare was deleted because of AT&T’s request. They don’t need clients using special internet-tariffs to run off. Nullriver could also be punished for “old sins”: Installer and Summerboad.

Update by SeaBreeze: here is a video showing demo of BoxOffice. I wrote to the developers and got a reply that this e-mail does not exist. I got curious, and went to company’s website. Wow, the hoster has blocked the site. What if Apple started to receive complaints about the developers not answering support letters and hid the program from the list? User support is vital and Apple knows that. But how is Nullriver connected then?

As you all know, the 2.1 software will be here soon.

But only a few know that this software update is hiding the information about another update of iPod Touch.

A few lines containing “iPod 2.1” were found in the code.

Do you know why this tell us about a new iPod generation?

Here’s the answer. The current generation of iPod Touch is referred to as “iPod 1.1″. The first gen of iPhones was called “iPhone 1.1″ and the one is “iPhone 1.2″. See?

When the developers of this program learned that 2.1 software will have the copy-paste feature, they got nervous. It’s understandable: they’ve been working on MagicPad for a long time, and wanted to make some money with it. But now the time is running out, and they are in a hurry to show their application:

First Look — MagicPad from Apple iPhone Apps on Vimeo.

You can see a fast talking guy change font size, color and style (i2Reader can do that fine). And then he demonstrates the “sensational” copy-paste.

And now why don’t you try to paste the fragment to e-mail body or notepad? Instead, we are shown how to send a note from MagicPad. Before you can press “Send” you need to enter the CAPTCHA code.

I think the programmers most certainly use Windows and don’t get the main idea of Apple – the less the better. At the moment this program is being certified by AppStore. I wouldn’t use it even if it was free.

Let me guess how the copy and send process works:
1. The text is highlighted;
2. The fragment is copied to some HTML-file (pseudo buffer);
3. When you send the message, the HTML-file is being sent as the message body, its contents will be later easily read by any e-mail client.
Any other ideas?

all pictures clickable

A lady bought herself an iPhone, came home, poured some coffee and began activating her iPhone via computer. When the process was over, she decided to change the wallpaper. She looked in the pictures folder and found these three mysterious pictures that she didn’t take (read more…)

Those who haven’t watched Dexter missed a lot. This is not an ordinary drama. It’s an exciting thriller about the serial killer (who is a medical expert at daytime).

There was a rumor that a game based on these series is being developed. According to this source it will soon appear at App Store. We will control Dexter with the accelerometer, kill with multi-touch and hide the clues.

I think the annonce of this game is connected to the release of 3rd season (September 28 in USA). And you called GTA IV a killing simulator!!

I’m eagerly waiting for the third season. And now for the game, too.

via gizmodo.com

The developers barely looked at the new 2.1 software, and the guys from Hackintosh have already taken it into pieces.

And here is what they’ve found:

clickable

Copy-paste and plugins in WebKit?

No, I’m not going to review this game once again. There’s another thing I want to tell you about.

Some blog says that Aurora Feint copies all your contacts (e-mails and phone numbers) to a hidden folder on your iPhone. And then sends them to game’s server.

I don’t like this. There’s one conclusion we can make – this game is a real trojan! The question is: how did it pass the required check to get into AppStore? Is this Apple’s trickery?

The source

Update by zerto: The game is now out of AppStore. Interesting, are the authors going to pay any fine?

Apple suprised us again. There are rumors about the 2.0.1 being tested at Cupertino even before the 3G sales start. The data was received by scanning web-server’s logs.

As you can see, we are dealing with 5B101 (iPhone) and 5B103 (iPhone 3G) builds.

via iclarified.com

clickable

As we all know, GeoHot has announced the release of their YiPhone couple of days ago, and has put a counter on their website. According to the counter, the release will happen at 20.00 Moscow time.

At the same time, Dev Team opened a website that contained only one picture. So what do we see there? Steve Voznyak at the table – the savior himself. The GeoHot is in Judas’ place. Many, many iPhones, including disassembled and golden one. Even Google is in the picture. And now look closely at Voznyak…

All in all, this looks like another assault of YiPhone.

Because of Zibri’s refusal to continue the development of ZiPhone, all our attention is drawn to Dev Team and their PWNAGE tool. But they aren’t too hasty with its release. So there’s hope that GeoHot will release the unlock first.

Also, there’s another counter in the bottom part of the page. Vlade and I tried to figure it out.
The answer is below. (read more…)