Tag: ipad

Jailbreaking an iOS Device

I’ve jailbroken my iPhone once before, during a podcast no less, but quickly went back to stock iOS as it felt a bit immature and a couple of app’s crashed which I hadn’t seen before. Almost a year on, and prompted by Shakeel doing it and with a certain amount of boredom with iOS it was time to jailbreak again and see what I was missing.

I also thought it would make a good blog post, capturing the step’s I did and my findings. Before you read on, a health warning. You can break your iOS device so follow the step’s carefully. You will also have to wait a few days after each iOS version is released before you can upgrade. With those out-of-the-way, let’s jailbreak.

Instead of repeating the jailbreak steps, visit iClarified.com. Click on the Jailbreak link at the top of the page and then select your device and platform. You will then be taken through the steps to jailbreak your iOS device. I used Pwnage tool and it worked without issue. It takes about 20-25 mins to jailbreak your device but then iTunes will restore your app’s and media which can take 20-40 mins depending on your device. After an hour I had a jailbroken iPhone, the only evidence being a Cydia icon in among my application icons.

Firstly I reset the root password on the iPhone to minimise the risk of anyone logging into my phone at a later date. I then connected to the iPhone from the Mac using Transmit (if you don’t have Trasmit then the free app Cyberduck will work just as well) and was able to browse the iPhone like any traditional computing device. Now what?

Well there’s a whole new world of app’s and customisation that now awaits. The first app I installed was SBSettings. This is a free app and once installed via Cydia it gives you a quick list of settings and toggles by swiping the iPhone toolbar. You can quickly enable and disable bluetooth, wifi etc far more quickly than opening settings and drilling into a variety of menu’s. You also get stats like current IP address which is a quick way of finding your IP and accessing your iPhone from your Mac or PC. You can also add widgets to SBSettings like a calculator and skin it so you can make it look as nice (or ugly) as you want. Speaking of skins, Winterboard is another app that is a must install. This will allow you to install themes and hacks to totally change the look and feel of iOS.

In this screen the icons are smaller and there are five columns of icons rather than four. The theme being used is Matte Nano HD but if you look around there are hundreds to choose from. Like all theme’s some theme, like the one linked above, are great and others – not so much. I actually found the theming to be a bit of a pain as once you change the look and feel, especially reducing the size of icons, you are then on a constant hunt to change the individual app icons that the theme doesn’t cover. However Shakeel has done almost everything on his phone (screenshots are from his phone) and it looks amazing.

What’s not apparent from the screenshot are the live notifications. The weather icon is live rather than a graphic and will show current temperature and weather. In the title bar you get have notifications for e-mail, messages etc which makes for a much more informative iOS environment. You can even change the search screen and make it not only informative but like an Android or Windows phone.

Jailbreaking also allows for app’s that are currently prohibited in the App store – emulators for example. There’s a great SNES emulator and SNES games play well as long as you put up with the virtual controller that you need to use. You can also enable tethering so that other devices can take advantage of your mobile data without having to enable it with your mobile phone provider.

The seedier side of jailbreaking is piracy. There are many repositories setup purely to allow you to download cracked versions of iOS applications. What I find most incredible is that for many of the pirated app’s, users are saving only £0.59. Are people really that tight that this is the only way to get app’s for their mobile devices?

I’d been running my iPhone jailbroken for a few days when I started to become frustrated with it. There were slight pauses during operation that I didn’t get using vanilla iOS. Worse, I suffered a couple of major crashes that required a reboot of the device. The crashes weren’t during the install of app’s – the last one was when taking a photo and it took around 15 minutes before the device switched back on. Not good. One thing I value is stability and that last crash was a crash too far. That night I restored the phone back to vanilla iOS and restored from a backup. I missed the visual flair and the handy little hacks I’d installed but it was noticeably snappier and I’ve not had a crash since.

One interesting point on crashes. Apple released Keynote, Numbers and Pages for iPhones this week. Shakeel on his jailbroken iPhone has seen a number of crashes. I’ve had none. Gut feel is that the extra utilities running in the background coupled with running a heavy app is pushing the iPhone in ways it wasn’t designed to be.

So if you are bored with the look of iOS, or dream of carrying a SNES in your pocket then jailbreaking is for you. Good luck! I’ll stick with vanilla iOS and look forward to what iOS 5 brings our way.

DigitalOutbox Episode 81

DigitalOutbox Episode 81
In this episode the team discuss the iPad 2 Launch, Samsung and RIM Tablets and the Amazon Appstore.

Playback
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Shownotes
0:48 – iPad 2 UK Launch
– This time round, the basic, Wi-Fi only model with 16GB of storage will retail for £399, down from £429.
– The 32GB version will cost £479, the 64GB £559. Chuck in 3G connectivity and GPS, and you’ll pay an extra £100, as before.
– Dollar has weakened against pound in last 12 months though so Apple make more from this price point in the UK
– Massive queues in the UK – 600 at Glasgow store yesterday
– Very busy today – still selling iPad’s, only the red and orange cover out of stock
6:30 – Samsungs Revised Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9
– reworked Galaxy Tab rocking a slightly larger touchscreen over the iPad 2, higher resolution, a 1GHz dual core processor and lighter 595g weight compared with the 601g of the iPad 2 Wi-Fi. But the most important number of all is its price. Unlike Samsung’s overpriced predecessor, the 16 GB Wi-Fi Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 will cost exactly the same as the iPad 2 Wi-Fi 16 GB: $499.
– this thinner, redesigned model reportedly felt much better in all respects, it’s still missing one key number, and that is the hoard of software Apple offers for the iPad 2, more than 60,000 apps specifically created for the platform. But that impressive number also includes the fart apps, too. Even so, Apple has a huge head start.
– Meanwhile, Samsung introduced another contender it calls the Galaxy Tab 8.9, a little more than an inch smaller than its big brother. It includes the same 1GHz dual-core processor, and looks just about the same as the 10.1-inch model, as you’ll see in the gallery below.
– Both of Samsung’s new tabs beat the iPad 2 easily in the camera spec department, with a 3-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel up front, both shooting 1080p video. In what could be the clincher for many users, the Samsung tablets boast another capability lacking in the iPad 2: Adobe Flash playback.
– Want to try one? You’ll have to wait until June 8 for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 Wi-Fi, priced at $499 for the 16 GB version and $599 for 32 gigs. Samsung was not as specific with the release date for the Galaxy Tab 8.9 Wi-Fi, which it said would be available in “early summer” at $469 for 16 GB and $569 for 32 gigs.
– Best bit – photo of the iPad 2 next to the new thinner 10.1 shows the ipad was thinner – couldn’t be explained at the demo
11:17 – RIM Playbook
– RIM playbook launches April 19th in US – a few months later in UK
– It will ship with 2 app players that will run Android and Blackberry java applications
– Sounds…confusing
– Only supports Android 2.4 OS app’s i.e. app’s built for the phone, not tablet
13:05 – Amazon launches their Android Appstore
– Launched Tuesday 22nd for USA customers
– Android only
– Can Test Drive most app’s from your web browser. Click Test Drive and Amazon will launch an emmulated instance of Android on its EC2 cloud, which you’ll be able to control directly from your browser (it uses Flash).
– Free app of the day – Every day, Amazon will be choosing a premium application and making it free to consumers, giving people a reason to check in on the store on a frequent basis. This is made possible by the fact that Amazon, not developers, sets the pricing of each application.
– Amazon retains full control over how it wants to price your application. The setup is a bit confusing: upon submitting your application, you can set a ‘List Price’, which is the price you’d normally sell it at. Amazon will use a variety of market factors to determine what price it wants to use, and you get a 70% cut of the proceeds of each sale (which is the industry standard). In the event that Amazon steeply discounts your application, or offers it for free, you’re guaranteed to get 20% of the List Price.
– Angry Birds Rio is first free app
– Amazon will be undercutting Google’s own prices
– 8 easy steps to install the Amazon Appstore – http://carpeaqua.com/2011/03/22/8-easy-steps/
– Apple sues Amazon over use of the name App Store
– http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/22/apple_sues_amazon_over_app_store_name/
21:52 – Lendle
– had their Amazon API access revoked.
– Back up and running now.
– In business – need to be in control of key data.
– http://lendle.me/amazon-api-revocation/
– (Lendle is unfortnately US only for now.)
28:07 – iOS 4.3 Battery Issues
– Ian sees sub par battery performance on iPhone 4
– Others have too
– Disabled ping to see if that helps as it’s been tipped as an issue in various forums
– iOS 4.3.1 is now out – rumoured to address battery issues as well as publicised bugs
30:56 – UK 4G Auction Next Year
– New ‘4G’ network auction next year announced by Ofcom
– 4G refers to the next generation of mobile networks, which promise faster speeds, in particular for data.
– The sale, which Ofcom hopes will happen early next year, will involve two blocks of spectrum which should fulfil two purposes – making mobile internet coverage both wider and faster.
– The first block, the higher frequency 2.6gGHz band, should make all those smartphone users who are trying to watch video or play games online just a bit happier. It’s suited to providing large amounts of capacity over a compact area, so should help ease the congestion on city centre networks.
– The second block, the 800MHz band, is currently used for analogue television and becomes available next year once the digital switchover is complete. It is suitable for bringing mobile data services over wide areas, so it could mean that people in rural areas will find mobile broadband a better option than the fixed line variety.
– 3G auction raised billions, and this is 80% more spectrum – expectation is around £4 billion though
– UK falling behind – Yes, if we’re comparing the UK with Germany, the USA and Sweden, which have already started to roll out 4G networks. Ofcom admits that things haven’t moved quite as rapidly here as it might have hoped, but says it’s full speed ahead now. But even if everything goes to plan, consumers won’t see any 4G services before 2013.
34:43 – Wife says no, Apple says yes
– [Apple’s] focus this week has been to troubleshoot all the iPad 2s that customers are returning to the stores. One iPad came back with a post it note on it that said “Wife said no.” It was escalated as something funny, and two of the VPs got wind of it. They sent the guy an iPad 2 with a note on it that said “Apple said yes.”

Picks
Ian
Sky News iPad App
– Very ambitious app from Sky
– Free at the moment, will remain free for Sky customers but paid for everyone else
– Heavily focused on video which is very good quality and quick to stream
– Can browse a timeline of todays events
– Can also swipe for more detail – lose video but still here it – articles, photo’s, charts, graphics are then displayed
– Very impressed – excellent app
Henry
Wunderlist
– cross platform list app a la RTM.
– Andriod, iOS.
– Recent update has got rid of a few bugs.
– Email list items.
– Free (made with Titanium- javascript)

DigitalOutbox Episode 79

DigitalOutbox Episode 79
In this episode the team discuss the iPad 2 announcement.

Playback
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Shownotes
1:39 – Google Tweaking Search Algorithm
– in the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking—a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries—and we wanted to let people know what’s going on. This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.
– We can’t make a major improvement without affecting rankings for many sites. It has to be that some sites will go up and some will go down. Google depends on the high-quality content created by wonderful websites around the world, and we do have a responsibility to encourage a healthy web ecosystem. Therefore, it is important for high-quality sites to be rewarded, and that’s exactly what this change does.
– Doesn’t use Personal Blocklist chrome extension I picked last week
– If it reduces the content farms and spam sites it will be a welcome update
4:37 – GMail Outage
– Thousands lose all their e-mail
– Affected 0.02% of users but GMail has a LOT of users
– a storage software update that introduced the unexpected bug, which caused 0.02% of Gmail users to temporarily lose access to their email. When we discovered the problem, we immediately stopped the deployment of the new software and reverted to the old version.
– Google had to go to backup tapes to get the e-mail back
– Lesson – backup your data, even if it is on the cloud
– Have another way if accessing your mail – IMAP, forward mail onto another provider – dual access
6:18 – Google Uses Kill Switch on Android devices
– 58 malicious apps downloaded to 260,000 Android smartphones
– late Saturday night, Google remotely turned on its kill switch, which is able to remove those errant applications from the phones.
– The kill switch is actually software that’s downloaded onto an Android smartphone and installed automatically, removing the apps in question with no user action required
9:46 – Ofcom challenging broadband speeds
– Data released by Ofcom, the communications watchdog, shows that the average broadband speed is still less than half of the average advertised speed.
– The report, published on Wednesday, says that Britons get an average broadband speed of 6.2 megabits per second (Mbps) – less than half the average advertised speed of 13.8Mb.
– Ofcom is pushing for a change in the way internet providers, including BT, Sky and O2, advertise “up to” broadband speeds, which most customers are unable to receive.
– The only ISP delivering close to the maximum speed advertised, according to Ofcom, was Virgin Media, with the advantage of a relatively new cable network in many urban areas.
– The typical broadband speed received by customers was much closer to the advertised speed with fibre-optic cable packages, such as the those delivered by Virgin Media and BT’s Infinity package. However, only 22% of Britons have fibre-optic connections, with 77% of the population using copper-based DSL phone lines.
13:07 – Harper Collins introduces Library re-buy fee
– After 26 checkouts from libraries of an e-book, Harper Collins is forcing libraries to rebuy the e-book
– Their rational – physical books wear out and have to be rebought so that should apply to e-books as well…even though they don’t wear out or cost money to repair
– Oklahoma’s Pioneer Library system posted a video showing that for 5 random books that haven’t required a repair or replacement they would be forced to re-buy the e-book 12 times to cover the amount of loans
– Old media strikes again
18:56 – Ford Sync coming to UK in 2012
– Sync finally coming to UK next year
– Ford sync is Fords in car entertainment system that takes advantage of your smart phone
– Hands free calling (Neuance voice recognition)
– Audible text messages
– Playback music, podcasts etc
– Traffic, maps etc
20:48 – IE6 countdown
– IE6 is still prevalent around the world especially in large companies
– MS have refused to target IE6 and actively help to kill it…until now
– Friends don’t let friends use Internet Explorer 6. And neither should acquaintances. Educate others about moving off of Internet Explorer 6
22:56 – Macbook Pro Updates
– Sandy Bridge, AMD Graphics and Thunderbolt
– Same design, lots of drive options
– Fast – outperforming last years Mac Pros
– Thunderbolt
– http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/24/intel-thunderbolt-a-closer-look/
– Thunderbolt’s a familiar-looking port, a brand-new chip, and a cord, which allows devices to pipe two data streams simultaneously — in both directions — over a single cable at up to 10 gigabits per second to start, primarily using PCI Express x4 for data and DisplayPort for video
– Will charge and daisy chain
– Lacie and Western Digital on board – Lacie drive later this summer
– 4 ½ gb – less than 15 seconds to copy file over Thunderbolt
– Playing 4 1080p streams at the one time
– Not an Apple exclusive but they have a headstart
27:47 – OS X Lion Preview
– Newest version of OS X, Lion will debut this summer but Apple on Feb 24th released a developer preview
– Released via App Store – sign of things to come?
– New details released – Auto Save, Versions, Resume, Mail version 5 (with a new threading feature called “Conversations”), AirDrop, and Lion Server (which itself has its own features).
– This is bringing the iOS features back to the mac – looking a good update
– http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/28/mac-os-x-lion-hands-on-preview/
– What happened to NDA?
35:08 – iPad 2
– Steve Jobs presents – a big FU to National Enquirer
– We’ve been working on this project for a while, and I just didn’t want to miss this
– Thinner, faster, camera’s, same battery life, same price, white or black
– A5 chip – dual core – Performance twice as fast, graphics 9 times as fast
– Front and read camera’s – Touch not iPhone equivalent
– HDMI dongle – 1080p output, all apps, mirroring – very nice
– Enlarged speaker grille
– 33% thinner – thinner than iPhone 4, and a bit lighter
– Smart cover
– Multiple covers
– Plastic or leather
– attach to the iPad with a self-aligning magnetic hinge and can also be folded into a triangle and used as a stand
– they’ll automatically wake or put your iPad to sleep when you open or close the cover, and they even pack a microfiber lining that cleans your screen each time you flip it open
– iMovie and Garageband for iPad – both $4.99
– iMovie – precision editor, multitrack audio recording, new themes, Airplay support
– Garageband – touch instruments, guitar amps and effects, 8-track recording/mixing, 250 loops, compatible with Mac version
– March 11th US, March 25th UK
– £100 off current gen iPad – there goes the eBay prices 🙂
– First video’s – really fast now compared to iPad 1
– iOS 4.3 out March 11th
– Faster javascript engine
– iTunes Home Sharing – play content from desktop iTunes over wifi
– Airplay – Apps now support video
– Pick rotation lock or mute for side switch
– Personal hotspot
– Facetime and Photobooth
– Steve Jobs – This is worth repeating. It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology is not enough. It’s tech married with the liberal arts and the humanities. Nowhere is that more true than in the post-PC products. Our competitors are looking at this like it’s the next PC market. That is not the right approach to this. These are post-PC devices that need to be easier to use than a PC. More intuitive.
– Post pc products…that need a pc to work
58:27 – Xoom UK Pricing
– £500, out April 9th – Pc World – may have to take a trip in to test it
– £600 for 3G version form carphone version – available now, shipping 1st week April!?
1:00:30 – Galaxy Tab Rethink
– We will have to improve the parts that are inadequate,” Lee Don-joo, executive vice president of Samsung’s mobile division, told Yonhap News Agency. “Apple made it very thin.”
– pricing is cause for concern when Samsung releases a larger screen model.
“The 10-inch (tablet) was to be priced higher than the 7-inch (tablet) but we will have to think that over,” said Lee.
1:01:44 – Microsoft Tablet Strategy
– Windows 8 will be the platform
– Testing end of this year
– Release mid to end 2012
– 18 months to go

Picks
Ian
Damn You Auto Correct
– Very funny examples of auto correct letting it’s users down
Full Text RSS Feed
– A very handy tool for converting headline only or restricted feeds to full fat
– I do wish people would use full feeds, but this is great for when they don’t
Tiny Wings
– My current most played game on the iPhone
– Lovely graphics, simple gameplay mechanism but very addictive

iOS 4.3 Preview

A quick post with some news on iOS 4.3, recently released to developers and coming soon for all iOS users which came out while we were recording our latest podcast. Usually the NDA’s surrounding these releases mean information is thin on the ground but more and more we are seeing the details posted within hours of the developer releases. Looking at this Ars Technica post, the main new features are:

  • Airplay API – devlopers can now utilise API instead of the few Apple app’s that feature AirPlay support
  • Personal Hotspot – Launching with the Verizon iphone but coming soon to an iPhone near you turn your iPhone into a wifi hotspot, supporting up to five devices for 30 minutes tops unless there’s a power supply near you as well. Big question – will your telco support it and if so how much?
  • Choice. Honest. You too will be able to specify what your iPad’s hardware button can do. Prior to 4.2 it was an much loved by many orientation lock. 4.2 swapped it to a mute button and hid the orientation lock in with the multi tasking/playback controls. Many hated this and 4.3 allows the user to choose which of these two options are controlled via the hardware button. I am amazed – just not like Apple.
  • New gestures which look very handy. *groan* Four and five finger gestures, specifically pinch to return to the home screen and swipe to move between app’s. This is the biggest change for me and I’m surprised we’re seeing this in an OS point update rather than with iOS 5 or new hardware. Many are saying that this is the end of the home button but I can’t see it myself. The home button is important for one handed operation and a few other system related features which I don’t think will be replaced by gestures. The few saying this is really Boy Genius Report. The same people that have predicted Blu-Ray on the Mac. Video embed below shows the gestures in action. Nice.

Of course, I say all iOS users will be enjoying these features but this release drops support for iPhone 3G users and iPod Touch 2nd Gen. Performance of the hardware just not up to the latest features or Apple applying chinese burns to users to encourage hardware upgrades? Despite that negative, this update has some welcome new features. I just hope they are still featured when the final release is made available.

DigitalOutbox Episode 70

DigitalOutbox Episode 70
In this episode the team discuss iOS 4.2, Cheaper iPads, Amazon Woes and the Jolibook.

Playback
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Shownotes
5:29 – iOS 4.2 Released
– Released on Monday 2nd November
– Finally brings unified inbox, multitasking and folder support to iPad
– Also brings AirPrint
– And AirPlay – send movies from iPad, iPhone to Apple TV
– Find my iPhone/iPad now free for devices that support iOS 4.2
– Start of the move to making MobileMe a freemium product?
9:58 – Apples Embedded SIM Plan
– Major European operators will refuse to subsidize Apple’s iPhone if the handset firm launches devices with an embedded SIM.
– Vodafone, France Telecom and Telefonica have privately expressed concerns over Apple’s rumored efforts to develop an integrated smart SIM for iPhone, which would allow buyers to choose a carrier when activating the device, FT.com reported.
– One senior executive said Apple risked a “war” in Europe over the new activation model, which analysts estimate could cut global iPhone sales by 12%, the news site said.
– Operators fear the move would prompt a spike in customer churn as it eases the process of migration, and would lead to a decline in the duration of telecom contracts.
– Such a model would even allow Apple to enter markets as a connection services reseller with an inbuilt competitive advantage, the sources said.
– This comes on the back of rumours that Apple and Gemalto (sim card maker) are building an embedded sim – http://www.telecomasia.net/content/apple-bypass-carriers-iphone-sim
– A real threat? Where Apple went with the iPhone design others have followed…pretty closely
– Telegraph – Apple ditch plans due to threats – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/8148898/Apples-iPhone-SIM-card-plan-thwarted.html
– But will allegedly include it in iPads…soon
12:03 – The Daily
– Rupert Murdoch, head of the media giant News Corp, and Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, are preparing to unveil a new digital “newspaper” called the Daily at the end of this month, according to reports in the US media.
– According to reports, there will be no “print edition” or “web edition”; the central innovation, developed with assistance from Apple engineers, will be to dispatch the publication automatically to an iPad or any of the growing number of similar devices.
– With no printing or distribution costs, the US-focused Daily will cost 99 cents (62p) a week.
– iOS 4.3 update in December for this
– Richard Branson to unveil iPad magazine next week too
15:50 – Subsidised iPads coming to the UK
– Three too
– Will soon launch a subsidised iPad
– 18 to 24 month contracts
– Rumours of price dropping by £200
– Will it entice others to sign up?
17:53 – MS Trivia
– 25 years since the first version of Windows was released
– 5 years since the Xbox 360 was released
20:12 – 20 Things I Learned
– Web based book from Google Chrome team that tells you everything you need to know about browsres, cookies etc
– 20 things, 60 odd pages
– Lovely animations and illustrations
– Some clever behind the scenes javascript to mask loading
– Built using HTML5 only
– Thanks Google
21:35 – Spotify Woes
– Revenue of £11.32 million
– Costs of sales and distribution and expenses led to a net loss of 16.66 million
– Surely not sustainable…or means even more advertising on the way
– American launch even more crucial
– Reading complaints from users of how certain tracks are removed from albums after release – almost deliberate spoiling from music firms?
24:09 – Amazon Woes
– Amazons black friday deals look great on paper
– In practice, you’ve got about a second to buy the deal, if your lucky, before they are sold out
– Some look genuinely great – others are ok reductions on items that are maybe not top of your wishlist
– Very clever – create a competitive element, spread the deals via Facebook and twitter and whip up the crowd
– Some people very unhappy – claiming they are being misled and are taking their business elsewhere – get a grip. it’s a sale, some prices are great
– As a test I tried to buy a casserole dish…and did so at a £60 saving. Also tried a set of books – failed miserably 🙂
28:35 – Google Cloud Connect
– A new plugin for Microsoft Office called Cloud Connect, which will tie Google Docs directly into the ubiquitous productivity suite, free of charge. Editing a document in Word? It’ll automatically sync to your Google Docs account each time you hit ‘Save’. Want to share a preview of your document without worrying about what file format your coworkers can open? Just send them a link to the Google Docs file. The plugin supports Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel
– Multiple people can edit the same document and have their changes synced with each save (hooray for the cloud). But because these changes aren’t reflected in real-time, there’s the potential for conflicts — I could edit a PowerPoint slide to say one thing, and my coworker could put something else on the same slide. Google deals with these conflicts by presenting users with an alert prompting them to choose which version they’d like to save; if they want to go back and switch again later, they can using the document’s version history.
– Going live for apps and business users via preview program – others soon
– Windows only, 2003, 2007 and 2010
31:38 – Jolibook
– Now on sale in the Uk for £279
– Specs – Intel Atom N550 processor (1.5 GHz, dual-core), 250GB hard drive, 10.1″ screen, Memory: 1GB, Three USB 2.0 ports, Jacks for mic, headphones, LAN and an external monitor, 3-in-1 card reader
– But it’s Jolicloud 1.1, the cloud based OS thats more interesting
– Based on Ubunto, Chromium and utilising a lot of cloud based services
– Fast and OS is available for downloading and using on any hardware
– Why do you need 250Gb hard drive for cloud based OS?
– Great price compared to a Macbook Air but it has a 1-3 month shipping window!

Picks
Chris
SugarSync
– Dropbox – but with the added bonus of ability to store files and folder outside of the main “magic briefcase”.

Ian
Notifo
– Far more reliable notifications – better than boxcar which doesn’t always work

Devour

YouTube is great as is Vimeo and all the other video sites on the web, but finding the good stuff in amongst the dross isn’t easy. For example, 25 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute so what chance have you got? That’s where Devour steps in. They hand pick what they class as the best videos of the day and link to them from their site.

The site is simple to use – visit, click on a screenshot and watch the video. Customisation is limited in that you can change the background although in future you can tweak the layout to support lists or a full screen grid. All video’s selected are in HD too. This was an instant bookmark for me, not only on my desktop, but on the iPad and iPhone as all video’s work on iOS devices too. Awesome.

DigitalOutbox Episode 53

DigitalOutbox Episode 53
In this episode the team discuss the iPhone 4 – don’t hold it that way.

Playback
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Shownotes
0:53 – Google Investigated by UK Police
– UK’s Metropolitan Police is to investigate Google over its capture of data from unsecured wi-fi networks, following a complaint from human rights group Privacy International.
– The data, scooped up by Google’s Street View cars, may put the firm in breach of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa).
– It is likely that the police will interview Google staff in the UK.
– Joins German, French and USA authorities in investigating breach
– Surely stuff and nonsense – won’t come to anything
3:03 – Police don’t need a law to stop a photographer
– Two police officers stopped a teenage photographer from taking pictures of an Armed Forces Day parade – and then claimed they did not need a law to detain him.
– photographing police cadets on Saturday when he was ordered to stop and give his personal details by an adult cadet officer who claimed he needed parental permission to capture images of the cadets.
– After arguing his rights in a series of protracted legal debates with officers, the sixth former says he was pushed down a set of stairs and detained for breaching the peace until the parade passed.
http://www.met.police.uk/about/photography.htm
6:31 – Flickr Refresh
– Photo’s bigger, page cleaner and wider
– More info about photo – location, dates, camera
– Navigation controls better
– Actions menu – less distraction on the screen
– Lightbox – nice black background for viewing
– Favourites now integrated with comments
8:23 – British IP Streaming Record
– Breaking – BBC streams of England match peaked at 800,000 – breaks previous record of 350,000 set yesterday with budget,world cup, wimbledon
– 800,000 concurrent viewers is a pretty massive figure for online streaming.
– The difference between broadcast and IP is that if two people watch on their laptop in my home network, then that means my network has to cope with two sets of 896kbps streams. If four people watch, that’s four sets of 896kbps streams, or 3.5 meg. And if all 800,000 viewers were given the same bitrate, that meant a total of 716,800Mbps – or 716.8Gbps if you like it better that way.
15:06 – Virgin to launch 400Mbps
– Virgin already offer 50meg broadband and they will be upgrading this to 100meg broadband by the end of the year, speeds which already offer some of the fastest in the UK.
– Virgin aren’t standing still though, they are preparing their network to launch 400Mbps broadband with modems and routers which support this available at the end of the year, although no launch date for products of these speeds is in sight.
– Do gen public need that speed?
– Would increased upload speeds make a difference?
– What about focusing on latency, lag and reducing the throttling rather than casing speed headlines
18:28 – XXX Domain Name Approved
– The .xxx domain name has been approved
– Split opinions on whether this is a good thing or bad
– Easier to identify porn – filter it out etc
– But porn companies don’t want to use it for those reasons…
19:53 – Apple Storing and Sharing Location Info
– Apple’s new privacy policy contains a small new paragraph of big importance: it gives the company license to store “the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device” and share it with “partners and licensees.”
– there seems to be no effective method of opting out of the data storage and sharing, as you’ll need to agree to the new terms and conditions before downloading new apps or any media from the iTunes store.
– However you can opt out of iAd’s
– http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20100621/apple-heres-how-to-opt-out-of-our-targeted-ads-but-not-our-location-tracking/
– Apple and its partners use cookies and other technologies in mobile advertising services to control the number of times you see a given ad, deliver ads that relate to your interests, and measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns. If you do not want to receive ads with this level of relevance on your mobile device, you can opt out by accessing the following link on your device: http://oo.apple.com. If you opt out, you will continue to receive the same number of mobile ads, but they may be less relevant because they will not be based on your interests. You may still see ads related to the content on a web page or in an application or based on other non-personal information. This opt-out applies only to Apple advertising services and does not affect interest-based advertising from other advertising networks.
– Google and Yahoo also allow you to opt out of ad’s. Facebook doesn’t.
24:22 – Bing for iPhone Updated
– Visual Scanning – like Google goggles
– lets you scan barcodes and cover art on the fly using your iPhone camera. Users can thus scan the barcode of any product or the cover art of books, CDs, DVDs, or video games, after which they will see descriptions and occasionally also reviews, prices and links to merchant websites.
– You can now connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts and see combined status updates from your friends from within the Bing app. For any type of search from the free Bing app for iPhone and iPod touch, you will also be able to see both Web results and relevant results from your contacts across social networks.
– Only available, for free, in US store
– Just like BBC app, paid for by UK licence fee payers, but only available in US store
28:07 – iPad Sales
– 1 million in 24
– 2 million in 60
– Now 3 million in 80
– 11,000 iPad app’s, over 225,000 apps in total
– Magical
34:16 – iPhone 4
– 1.7 million sold in three days
– http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/06/28iphone.html
– How many are still waiting, how many were turned away
– Queue
– Costs
– Death grip!
– http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/24/apple-responds-over-iphone-4-reception-issues-youre-holding-th/
– http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/25/hey-apple-youre-holding-it-wrong/
– http://mashable.com/2010/06/25/apple-iphone-4
– All phone’s have antenna at bottom – regulatory requirements
– http://twitpic.com/1zwoun – Nokia 6126 manual advises not to hold at bottom
– Tape fix – http://www.marco.org/733115343
– Connection and network better, quality better
– Screen – incredible
– Camera
– Performance – so fast
– Battery life
– Facetime
– Anything else? Grr…bumper
1:04:02 – Daily Mail Makes Stuff Up
– Quotes a fake twitter account @ceostevejobs
– Says Steve Jobs reveals that iPhone 4 may be recalled
– Lazy journalism but how many will know it’s wrong?
– Story now removed

Picks
Ian
Live Train Map for London Underground
– http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/jun/22/underground-live-map-possibilities
– Built by Matthew Somerville of MySociety at Science Hack Day over the weekend
– uses the new Transport for London API
– Somerville has also built a similar live-updating map for network trains from all the major termini (it defaults to Birmingham New Street, but there’s a menu offering all the choices). Again, splendid stuff, using data pulled – scraped, actually – from the National Rail website. (National Rail doesn’t offer an API.)
– http://traintimes.org.uk/map/
also

iPad Wallpaper

One of the easiest ways to customise your iPad is to change the background wallpaper. It comes with a number of wallpapers but you really want to add your own. Already there’s a few sites that have sprung up that makes it easy to find and download great walls sized perfectly for the iPad.

InterfaceLIFT

InterfaceLIFT has offered great wallpapers for years so it’s no surprise that they have stepped up and built a category specifically for iPad. Already offering more than 250 walls there’s a great variety on offer.

iPad Walls

A new site, iPad Walls offer a large number of perfectly sized walls that are split into a number of categories.

iPad Wallpapers That Don’t Suck

This site is probably my favourite of the three as it pulls together the best of the walls out there on a great tumblr site.

So there you have it – three sites with more than enough walls to suit everyone’s tastes.

iPad – Future of Digital Magazines?

The iPad will save journalism, the newspaper and magazine industry. That’s been the cry since before the iPad was announced but now that the iPad is out, is the hyperbole justified?

The magazine that got the most attention prior to iPad launch was Wired. They had partnered with Adobe and developed a Adobe Air based magazine format that could be exported and ran on the iPad. Apple’s developer rule changes in April that banned cross-compilers from being used to create app’s meant that a rethink on that approach had to be done. Wired still made the iPad launch and there’s no doubting it’s an impressive app but is it the future of publishing?

When the iPad app store opened this was my first download. It was also one of the longest – just one issue of Wired is over 500mb in size. Wow. That helped me make the jump from an iPad of 32GB to 64GB. I’ll cover more of why the app is so large later on. The app launches quickly and takes you straight to the cover page of Wired. One of the main advantages of the digital edition is the addition of audio, video, photo’s and other interactive elements. Take the cover – How Pixar Works which is an article on Toy Story 3. The bottom left of the cover has a little black button which once pressed launches a clip from Toy Story 3 – very nice. Not obvious at first but the story headings on the right hand side of the cover jump to the article in the magazine. The jump is quick and the page renders smoothly. Great – I want to jump back. Grrrrr – no back button. If Wired learn one thing, please add a back button as it really hampers navigation.
Continue reading iPad – Future of Digital Magazines?

Recommended iPad App’s

It’s only been out in the UK for a few days but there is already a great range of software available for the iPad. Here’s our top picks from the app store.

Air Video

Air Video is an app for viewing video content stored on your local Mac. Once the helper app is installed on your Mac you setup shares to your video folders, in my case movies and tv. Via the iPad app you can then browse to the folder and select a video to watch. Playback is crisp and it makes for a great viewing platform. The real magic is that Air Display will do queued conversions of video files including mkv’s. If that wasn’t enough it also does live conversions. Pick an mkv, wait a few seconds and playback begins. The quality is excellent and again playback is smooth. If you have any video content stored on a Mac this really is an essential iPad app especially considering the price is £1.59. Bargain.
Continue reading Recommended iPad App’s