Google's Insync Service No Longer in Beta - Good Alternative to Dropbox

Google’s Insync has been in closed beta for the last 15 months while advertising itself as a cheaper Dropbox alternative with a better feature set. The company is now finally ready to launch with a service that tightly integrates into Google Docs. According to their marketing, the service is “8x cheaper” than Dropbox and furthermore, the core service is now free. Customers who previously paid for the service during the beta period will be offered a refund or premium service credit. The only cost for basic membership is the cost of Google storage.

For those of you who didn’t know, Insync brings a number of unique features to the table, which helps differentiate itself from Dropbox’s current service. An example of this would be the ability to share individual files with more granularity, not just as public links, but with the option of specifying read-write or read-only permissions. Furthermore, you can also revoke a sharing link, which isn’t possible on Dropbox unless you move or delete the shared file. You can also nest sharing privileges so people might have access to just part of a folder structure. Users are also given the option to set re-sharing permissions, specifying whether those you share with can re-share that material or not. Recipients aren’t charged against their storage quota either, which is quite useful. Last but not least, the files all live inside your Google Docs account, but that doesn’t mean you’re limited to the supported Google file types; any file can be synced over as long as it is less than 10GB in size.

Verizon Cancels Plans to Institute $2 Fee for Credit/Debit Bill Pay After One Day

Earlier this week Verizon announced they would be instituting a $2 “convenience fee” for customers paying their monthly bills with credit or debit cards via the Internet or telephone.

The backlash was immediate and fierce. How nice of Verizon to allow consumers the convenience of paying online. Verizon listened, and announced today they are dropping plans to institute the fee.

To Verizon's credit they did outline seven different payment options consumers could use that would forgo the $2 charge like auto-pay programs, paying via check, and gift cards at local Verizon stores. According to Verizon the charge was proposed to offset the fees credit card companies demand when processing the orders. Perhaps the backlash highlights the high number of customers paying their bills on a month to month basis. Perhaps it's testament to the current economic climate?

Japanese Author Recounts Steve Jobs' Affection for Japan

Japanese writer Hayashi Nobuyuki has penned an insightful reflection on the life and legacy of Steve Jobs from a most original perspective - the late Apple CEO's fascination with and affinity for Japan and the Japanese culture.

A comprehensive article published today by Japanese news site Nippon.com goes into great detail with regard to how all elements of Japan (from its good people to its finest culinary staples) exerted influence on Jobs' life, both personally and professionally.

Jobs’s exacting craftsmanship, which regarded simplicity as a virtue and insisted on a perfectionist attention to detail, won Apple a particularly enthusiastic following in Japan. And the CEO himself maintained a great fondness for Japan throughout his life.

[How To] Exclude Folders and Hard Drives From Spotlight in Mac OS X

As many of you already probably know, Spotlight is an awesome feature found on the Mac OS X that will help you find files you are looking for. Sometimes you don’t want Spotlight to index everything though. Whether it’s an external backup drive or a private folder with files you don’t want easily found, you can exclude drives and directories from Spotlight very easily. Just follow the steps below:

1. Launch System Preferences from the Apple menu and click on Spotlight
2. Then Click on the Privacy tab
3. Now, drag and drop folders (or drives) that you want excluded from the Spotlight index (alternatively you can click the + icon in the corner to manually select hard drives or directories).

Devs Work to Provide Side-by-Side Apps on Apple TV Tweet

 The popular iOS developer Steven Troughton-Smith has been working with another developer named TheMudKip to add iOS application functionality to the Apple TV. As of right now, the tweak is still in its early stages but the concept of running apps has been proven. To accomplish the task of running iOS applications on the Apple TV, the developers re-wrote the software that powers the app launcher, otherwise known as the iOS Springboard.

Apple's Jonathan Ive Has Been Granted Knighthood

Just when you thought Apple wasn't already a warrior..

In a metaphorical sense, Apple is a warrior; a knight. It's a company that fights fiercely against competition to make the best products and keep their devices looking better than anyone else. But outside of metaphors - Apple employee since 1992, Jonathan Ive, has been awarded knighthood in the United Kingdom. Say 'hi' to the new Sir Jonathan Ive - currently a Knight Commander of the U.K.'s British Empire.

Ive has worked hard at Apple for 19 years as a designer of products. You can see him in the image above at a private Apple milling room where you can see the machines that actually pierce holes through the aluminum blocks that our MacBook Pro/Air computers are made from. We recognize him from the videos that Apple posts on their Web Site after every new product release - he's the guy with the British accent that we recognize every time.

Blatant Siri Ripoffs Emerge in the Android Market Place

 Siri has its detractors, but compared to other voice recognition systems on Android and other platforms, Siri exhibits a clear advantage in terms of usability and polish. Which is why it comes as no surprise that the Android Market Place's Wild West of App development has spawned a few blatant Siri ripoffs.

Perhaps the most obvious is the application “Siri for Android” that popped up on the Android Market Place Wednesday. The app copies Siri’s logo without a single change, and the description even boasts “Siri, now for your Android device!” However, all the app does is act as shortcut to launch Google’s own built-in voice recognition software. The developers named themselves “Official App,” most likely in an effort to appear legitimate despite having “This application is a Siri icon that opens ‘Google’s Voice Actions’ app” in the description.

Apple Issuing Take Down Notices to Major Piracy Sources

Apple is finally attacking their money-making barricades.

Piracy is a large problem in the computer world and one company that's really feeling the pain from it is Apple. As we know Apple takes a thirty percent cut from all App Store sales. This means it makes sense that Apple would want to kill off any iOS piracy firms. One of the large firms can be accessed from iDevices through a Cydia source with their own application. This is one reason why Apple doesn't want us jailbreaking our iDevices. We don't condone piracy and it isn't allowed here. Apple doesn't want it around either.

Cracked iOS applications cost Apple a ton of money. Millions are downloaded each day out of ignorance that people are really hurting the companies. Millions more are downloaded each day on purpose because people want stuff for free and simply don't care that what they're doing is wrong. The after effect of all of these applications not being sold is Apple and the hard-working developers included losing out on billions of dollars.

Leaked Photo Said to Show iPad 3 Retina Display

On Friday, an image surfaced online that shows what is purported to be the next generation iPad's display.

Before going any further, it must be noted that this unverified photo comes from a Korean Apple forum and has since turned up on several Apple news related websites in the United States. As we've seen countless times in the past before new Apple product launches, "leaked photos" are very common. Sometimes they are legit. Often times, they are not.

So this latest leak must, indeed, be taken with a grain of salt, as a great deal of doubt remains about whether the iPad 3 will, in fact, feature Retina Display.

Apple's 1984 Ghostbusters Parody Unearthed

It looks like there was another exceptionally creative commercial devised by Apple in 1984 - the first, of course, being the Big Brother-themed ad that remains one of the most iconic TV commercials in broadcast history.

As it turns out, Apple's stashed documents at Stanford University contain a video that, despite having never been ostensibly hidden from public view, has been viewed by very few people to date. The segment in question was an internal company ad at Apple that presented a once-timely and altogether cheesy spoof of the 1984 classic comedy Ghostbusters.

Called Blue Busters, the parody video paints Apple as the Ghostbusters, who try to suck the "Big Blue" a.k.a. IBM up and liberate the world. Blue Busters was made for a 1984 international sales meeting.

This little gem is just a small piece of the gargantuan collection at Stanford, which is hailed as the largest assembly of Apple historical materials in the world. "Through this one collection you can trace out the evolution of the personal computer," says Stanford historian Leslie Berlin. "These sorts of documents are as close as you get to the unmediated story of what really happened."

[Review] Looking for A Really Good Speaker System for Your Mac?

The Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 Speaker System is one of the best I've heard.

Many professional audio and video editors use a Mac by choice. Macs come with many kinds of editing software from Apple themselves such as Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, and more. Adobe also takes the stand by offering Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Soundbooth, and Adobe Audition which all give you power over video and audio. But what good is having all of that power if you can barely hear everything that's going on in the sound? Sound is easily one the most important parts of any video or audio track. It's one of our five senses that we rely heavily on and with the dinky little speaker inside of your Mac you won't hear any of the really low frequency tones in your sound. You are really missing a lot.

Apple TV 4.4.4 Untethered Jailbreak With Seas0npass Released

 Seas0npass is a jailbreak tool for Apple TV's.

The Apple TV is a device that is capable of bringing Wi-Fi-streamed content to your television set. Not too many people seem to understand what it's capable of - it's really misunderstood. The Apple TV lets you stream iCloud content such as music videos, music, or movies on your Apple TV, as well as use applications like Netflix. It's an entertainment system. Apple TV also supports internet sports channel streaming and even lets you use AirPlay to stream content from your iDevices to your TV. It doesn't replace cable or other television services.

French Reseller Suing Apple Over Unfair Competition

France’s largest Apple reseller, eBizcuss, is suing Apple claiming Apple’s retail stores have unfairly impacted resellers’ sales in the country.

According to the lawsuit Apple unfairly favors their own retail stores over resellers. Apple opened their first French retail store in 2009, and now has 16 stores nationwide. eBizcuss claims sales have fallen 30 percent in the last quarter alone because they were unable to secure enough iPads and Macbook Airs from Apple to meet demand. Perhaps most damning is the fact eBizcuss still has not received the iPhone 4S.

Nintendo Rumored to Launch App Store Next Year

Venerable video game giant Nintendo is reportedly poised to launch its very own branded and fully comprehensive app store next year when the next generation Wii U console reaches the masses.

As Matt Hinkey of The Daily reported this week, Nintendo's forthcoming touchscreen controller is the talk of the video game world - a world that may, indeed, be rocked by Nintendo's rumored plans to implement a full-blown app store for the next system.

It’s unknown whether Nintendo plans to monetize its app store with a points system, which it currently uses for WiiWare and DSiWare, or with a more Apple-like pay-to-play system.

As we all know, Apple gets a little edgy when competing tech rivals introduce any digital storefront called an "app store." Of course, it remains to be seen if Nintendo will do anything to raise Apple's ire the way Amazon apparently did when the online retail giant got into the app store business.

Rare Photo of Steve Jobs Flipping Off IBM Made Public

Yeah, believe it or not, this is the professional Steve Jobs in his prime time.

Steve Jobs, the former CEO of Apple before his unfortunate passing, had a crazy childhood. He was a rebellious hippie that tripped on acid and figured out how the world spun at an early age. Back in the glory days, he wouldn't shower, he would go around barefoot, and create Apple in the process. We know how charismatic Steve Jobs was with Apple because Apple was his passion. With Apple being such a passion of Steve's, it makes a whole lot of sense that he would go to great lengths to make Apple look good and to make other companies look inferior.

Perhaps one photograph that stands out among them all is this rare photograph of Steve Jobs giving the IBM logo on the side of a building the middle finger. It's Steve with all of his rebellious spirit. The photograph was made public today by one of the original Macintosh team members, Andy Hertzfeld, on his Google+ account. The photograph was taken in New York City in the year 1983 by a French man that the team was hanging out with named Jean Pigozzi when the Macintosh team visited the city to have a meeting with Newsweek.

Apple's First iPhone Prototype Circa 1983 Tweet

Apple had an iPhone way back in 1983. It might not have been all that portable, but it still had a touch screen, and reeked of early 1980’s computer design.

The design in question was a prototype by designer Hartmut Esslinger who just so happened to be the same guy who designed the Apple IIc. The design looks like the marriage of a desktop phone and a simple touch screen tablet.

Obviously as a prototype not much is known about the intentions behind the device other than Apple had Esslinger produce it. However, the prototype does appear to be running some sort of digital checkbook program. The hand in questions is about to write in an unknown amount to an unknown recipient.

[Review] Get Yourself A YouTube Application That Is Flawless

 ProTube - the way iOS YouTubing should be done.

YouTubing might not be a word, but it's a verbal concept. iOS users love YouTube; it's a fact! The problem is, iOS doesn't come with a very intuitive YouTube application. To be fair, it's mediocre at best. There have been several attempts to make YouTube an enjoyable experience on iOS but I think that this one absolutely bypasses all of them. It's called ProTube and it has been made to outdo basically every YouTube application that you're ever heard of. ProTube literally has everything that you could possibly find to be a useful function on YouTube crammed into it. It was made by one of our own Modmyi readers, Jonas Gessner.

[Review] Make Reminders to Yourself Based On A Map

This is quite possibly the first and best tweak to enhance the iOS 5 Reminders application.

iOS 5 shipped with a new application on our SpringBoards known as Reminders. Do you remember what Reminders does? Reminders is a new app that functions a lot like notes does. The only thing that is distinctive between Notes and reminders is that while in Notes you can jot things down, Reminders will go beyond that and furthermore send you a notification constructed on what you jot down. For instance, if you want to remind yourself in twenty minutes to take out the trash, then you can input that data into the Reminders app and it will present a push notification in twenty minutes telling you to take out the trash. Reminders works for setting daily reminders too. You can assist in reminding your kids to brush their teeth every night. Moreover, Reminders has a calendar view that lets you set Reminders throughout the entire month. This way you can plan out your doctor’s appointments and prioritize your life.

Gamestop's iOS Device Trade-in Program Enjoys Fast Start

Gamestop’s prowess in the realm of pre-owned games is well-known, but their recent foray into iOS device trade-ins has been a resounding success according to the company.

“The velocity of this trade program has exceeded our expectations stated GameStop. We expect to see strong post-holiday traffic as customers trade in older models that were replaced by gifts.” — GameStop president Tony Bartel

Those looking to utilize Gamestop’s trade in program can receive up to $65 for an iPod Nano, up to $180 for an iPod Touch, up to $300 for an iPhone, and up to $400 for an iPad. The trade in values fluctuate depending on make, model, and the condition of the device. To trade in a iDevice owners must take their old devices to their local Gamstop, and have it “appraised” by a sales associate before collecting store credit or cash.

Gamestop does have a list of iDevices they will not accept:

vWallpaper 2 Updated for iOS 5: Make A Video Your Wallpaper

Remember this OLD tweak?

vWallpaper is one of the older tweaks that was developed in the beginning of jailbreaking that allows you to set a video for a wallpaper in iOS. As we all know, Apple only allows you to keep a static image wallpaper and it wasn't introduced until iOS 4. We relied on WinterBoard just to do that. Today, vWallpaper 2 was released that supports iOS 5 and it works perfectly with the new untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.0.1. It works the same way and looks the same way as the previous version of vWallpaper. Be warned that this particular version is still in Beta.

vWallpaper comes with a small library of options and wallpaper settings that allow you to download more video wallpapers from other sources - but it comes with one default one which is a lightning-like one that moves in a fashion that you would expect electricity to move in. That video is in the screenshot above (which unfortunately doesn't move). It looks pretty nice and to be honest, the moving video behind the application icons seems refreshingly awesome. The only thing you will have to worry about is the considerable battery drain from the processor playing the video.

[Review] Add iPod Controls to Your SpringBoard

 Looking for an exotic way to control your iPod?

Sometimes we need more options for our devices. Even when there are simple ways to do things we look for more simple way to do them. That's where a new tweak in Cydia comes in by PathKiller29 that puts iPod control icons on your home screen. There are volume buttons on the side of your device and iPod controls in the App Switcher and Lock Screen, but what PathKiller29 has done is given you another way to control your iPod music. The idea stemmed from certain themes which can sometimes obstruct the way that we use our lock screen controls.

Tired of Using Touch Screen Controls to Play iOS Games? Try the 60Beat Gamepad!

Make your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch feel like a game console.

So you've decided that you like to play games on iOS, but there are many games out there that have terrible touch controls. You hate those darn touch controls so much that you decided to delete the game that you paid a lot of money for. Well, no more. Now you can play games with bad touch controls easily with the new 60Beat Gamepad which is a portable console-shaped controller which plugs into the headphone jack of your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch and really works as a fully functional game controller. I think it's amazing that it works through the headphone jack with a cable that is four feet long - that makes it unobtrusive so that you can keep charging your device even when gaming. Here is a video demonstration of the device:

Youtube Video

Jailbreak 5.0.1 Untethered (iOS 5) – iPhone 4, 3GS, iPad, iPod Touch 4G, 3G

There are two ways to jailbreak iOS 5.0.1 untethered. If you are already on a tethered jailbreak, you can just download a Cydia package, and if not you will just need to run Redsn0w on your computer.
NOTE: This will not work for the iPhone 4S or iPad 2, although those jailbreaks should be coming soon. Also, this will not work on iOS 5.0, so update to 5.0.1 before you try it.
Option 1: Already Jailbroken Tethered
If you already have a tethered jailbreak, just reload your data in Cydia and search for the package “Corona”. Install it and you jailbreak should now be untethered.
Option 2: Not Jailbroken
This will probably be the case for most people, and means that you have not had any jailbreak applied to your device. If this is so, jsut follow the directions below to jailbreak your device untethered.
Step 1: Download the latest version of Redsn0w (0.9.10 beta 1) from here.
Step 2: Open Redsn0w. You should see this screen:

Email Phishing Scam Targets AppleID Account Information

Phishing scams are nothing new to active Internet dwellers, in fact tips@modmyi.com is frequented by emails from Ukrainian girls who “want to laugh a little together.”

Ugh.

But, a new “well-crafted” phishing scam is targeting Apple users in an effort to get then to provide their AppleID billing information. Intego posted an alert earlier this week about the scam. The phishing emails originate from appleid@id.apple.com and inform the recipient that their billing information is “out of date.”

Apple's Legal Arsenal Grows as the Company is Granted Another Key Multitouch Patent

The United States Patent and Trademark Office recently published that the Cupertino, California company now owns a crucial patent, one which described how touch events are recognized by touchscreen devices. This specific patent was one of the “200+ Patents for new inventions” that Jobs was pushing for when the iPhone first debuted according to a report from Patently Apple. The newly granted patent focuses on the oscillator signal and circuit of a touchscreen-equipped device, an integral invention directly related to how users interact with their multitouch products.

Apple stated the following in their filing:

In general, multi-touch panels may be able to detect multiple touches (touch events or contact points) that occur at or about the same time, and identify and track their locations.

Redsn0w Updated to Version 0.9.10b2

Today, the iPhone-Dev team has rolled out an update to the iOS 5.0.1-untethering redsn0w 0.9.10 that was released yesterday for non-A5 devices only. As you may recall the untether could have been achieved one of three ways - 1. Installing the Corona untether package from Cydia while already being on a tethered jailbreak on iOS 5.0.1; 2. Running the updated redsn0w 0.9.10 over the tethered jailbreak that you had on iOS 5.0.1; 3. Completely updating/restoring your iDevice to iOS 5.0.1 and doing a fresh jailbreak using redsn0w 0.9.10.

As we reported yesterday, Saurik tweeted that he released two consecutive updates to the Corona untether package in Cydia in order to keep Corona from breaking the 'launchctl' dependency for numerous applications. All Corona untether users and redsn0w 0.9.10 jailbreakers included were advised to download and install the new Corona update to fix the launchctl problem that had occurred.

Apple Just Behind Amazon.com For Customer Satisfaction in Recent Survey

Customer satisfaction with Apple’s iPad has already proven to be quite high, but a new survey pegs Apple near the top of online computer and electronics retailers.

ForeSee Results published their results of the holiday edition of the U.S. E-Retail Satisfaction Index earlier today and placed Apple with the second-highest score trailing only Amazon in terms of customer satisfaction. The survey polled over 8,500 customers using the American Customer Satisfaction Index methodology. Amazon’s score of 88 led retailers with Apple’s score of 83 tying for second with a number of other retailers.

Generally a score of 80 or higher is considered “the threshold for excellence,” and Apple managed to score higher than any other electronics e-retailer with Newegg.com trailing by a single point with a score of 82. According to the report Amazon’s score of 88 is the highest score recorded in the seven-year history of the survey.

British Prime Minister to Run The Nation from 'Personalized' iPad App

Now we can really say there's an app for everything.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is more than just an iPad fan. He's among the new breed of statesmen dubbed "iPad leaders" - political figures and heads of state who use Apple's touchscreen tablet to conduct business and direct their respective ships of state.

The British Telegraph reports that David Cameron's "personalized iPad app" will help the Prime Minister more efficiently and accurately do his job. According to the report, the app will "allow the Prime Minister to see the latest NHS waiting-figures, crime statistics, unemployment numbers and a wide variety of other data at a glance."

SiriPrefs - Control Your iPhone Settings With Siri

You will soon be able to control your iPhone's settings through Siri.

If the Spire Siri port and iOS 5.0.1 untethered jailbreak weren't enough for you, then maybe this will come as a cool little surprise for you. While there is no untethered jailbreak for A5 devices yet - it's possible to run Siri on older devices. Israeli developer, Danny Lisiansky, has been working on a cool tweak that lets you navigate straight to iOS settings using a voice command through Siri. He has chosen to name it SiriPrefs. We are expecting the iOS 5.0.1 untethered jailbreak for A5 devices pretty soon and this should prove to be a useful tweak for A5 users too.

[Review] Add More Configurations to Your iOS Email Experience

With Mail Enhancer you can do more with your emails in iOS.

Apple tries hard to make their iOS platform the best that there is, but one place where it is still pretty weak in features is email. iOS has a very clean email interface and it's very pleasant to use, but it lacks to much and that makes many users revert to using third party email clients like Gmail. If you're a heavy email user and you have an iOS device, you should check out a nice tweak in Cydia that has been dubbed Mail Enhancer by the developer Stefan Möllenkamp. I'll be the first to tell you that a lot of time was spent on this tweak and the settings contained within are very useful and enlightening.

Apple Reopens iTunes Connect A Day Early

Apple previously mentioned that iTunes Connect would be shut down from December 22 to December 29, but the website went back up today (a day early). For those of you who don’t already know, iTunes Connect is the portal for Apple iOS and Mac developers where they can upload and submit new application, make changes to their App Store pages, obtain promotional codes, check sales reports, etc.

Apple to Double Battery Capacity in Next iPad

Apple to bring more power to the next iPad's battery?

The iPad 2 has an astounding battery that can last up to a month in standby mode. That's all while maintaining the sub-processes that happen when the iPad 2 is sleeping such as pulling in push notifications and powering the hardware to make that possible. A one-month standby battery was also introduced in the new MacBook Air because it was a great feature. Just when we thought that battery life was getting good, industries surprise us with numbers that double the battery capacity of the current iPad 2 with the next iPad.

The current iPad 2 has a battery capacity of about 6,500mAH whereas we are expecting a a capacity of about 14,000mAH in the upcoming iPad battery. It's just slightly over double what we have now. The two producers of Apple's lithium-ion batteries are Simplo Technology and Dynapack - both of which wouldn't comment on the matter.

Spire - A Simple Siri Installer for iOS 5 Devices

A trio of iOS developers: Grant Paul (Chpwn), Ryan Petrich, and Steven Troughton-Smith have recently released a new Siri port called Spire. This port mirrors all the iPhone 4S Siri functionality and works on the following iDevices: iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch 3G, iPod Touch 4G, and iPad (first generation).

According to a blog post from Chpwn, Spire comes in at around 100mb and the developers recommend connecting to a Wi-Fi network for downloading, not a standard cellular network because of its large file size. As of right now, there have been a few Siri ports which have gone public through Cydia but they were all deemed to be unsafe and illegal by the development community. This was a result of these ports distributing Apple copyrighted materials. According to Chpwn, “Spire uses a new method to obtain the files necessary for Siri, so it doesn’t have the copyright issues encountered by previous attempts.”

[Review] Forward All Your SMS to Email

This new tweak lets you email your SMS to yourself.

Are you worried that someone might be using your iPhone when you're not looking? Then a new jailbreak tweak dubbed iForward might be just what you're looking for. The tweak can be downloaded in Cydia beginning today and it's been brought to the Cydia store by none other than Ryan Conigliaro. iForward is compatible with iOS 4 and iOS 5 and it has some configurable settings that you can change in the Settings application as shown in the image above. You can monitor your SMS or calling through email.

After you link your email to the tweak, you will get an email notification every time an SMS message is sent on your iPhone. You can configure only one email address at a time but it will let you know if someone else is using your iPhone. You can get notifications not only for SMS and calling but also for voice mail. Sometimes we overlook our voice mail and missed calls often, and getting a small notification to remind us that it's there is just what we need to get to it.

Untethered 5.0.1 jailbreak for Non-A5 Devices Released

@pod2g has released the iOS 5.0.1 untethered jailbreak for non-A5 devices.

Let that marinate for a minute. Take a deep breath. Start downloading.

The long awaited untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.0.1 has been highly anticipated and extensively chronicled with every little bit of news making headlines in the Jailbreak community. Recently @pod2g handed off his hard work to both the iPhone devteam and chronic devteam.

“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)” — iPhone devteam

Here’s how to finally get the untethered jailbreak:

Boxee's Mac Media Player Will See It's Last Update - New Focus on Boxee Box and iPads

The Boxee project is one that has come a long way from when it first started as a fork of the Xbox Media Center, bringing easy video playback and a couch-to-screen UI to the Mac, then later to Windows and Ubuntu, and now to the company’s dedicated Boxee Box hardware (which is said to support live broadcast TV soon). There’s a solid ecosystem of app developers making themselves at home with Boxee as of right now too.

Report: iPhone 4S to Arrive in China by Chinese New Year

On December 10th, MMi reported that China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) finally issued the network access permit for the iPhone 4S. This permit was the last obstacle standing in Apple’s way to officially sell the iPhone 4S in China. Subsequently, China Unicom said that it expected to launch the device by the end of the month.

Now as we stand on the precipice of January and the start of a new year, one thing remains the same: no iPhone 4S in China yet. And it won't be there before the end of the month - and year - as originally planned. But there's a new time frame in mind for the popular Apple device's Chinese debut: January 23rd.

Italy Dishes Out Million Dollar Fine to Apple

The boot-shaped European nation is putting its boots to Apple's behind this week. On Tuesday, Italy’s antitrust body slapped Apple, Inc. with a $1.2 million penalty.

I'll pause for a moment while you chuckle at how small of a fine that is to Apple.

Okay, now that we've all had a good laugh, let's look at the reason for the fine. According to Italian authorities, Apple is being punished for its misleading tactics in encouraging customers to buy the AppleCare Protection Plan. The problem, according to published reports out of Italy, is that Apple largely fails to inform consumers that the purchase of an iDevice already comes with a guaranteed and lengthy period of compulsory free customer support from Apple.

iOS and Android Activations Reach An All-Time High on Christmas Day - Up 353%

According to analytics from Flurry, devices running Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android platform ended up seeing a huge spike in activations on Chrismas day, growing 353% from average totals earlier in December. In the first 20 days of December, mobile device activations tracked by analytics firm Flurry were around 1.5 million ech day. On December 25th, the firm identified 6.8 million new iOS and Android activations – representing a 353% growth.

BGR: Rumored Physical Attributes of iPhone 5

On Tuesday, BGR posted the latest rumors and chatter coming from its sources with regard to the iPhone 5 - Apple's next generation iPhone scheduled for launch in 2012.

Despite earlier claims from the likes of prominent Wall Street watchers and analysts like Gene Munster, the iPhone 5 may not turn up in early summer, keeping with the new fall-time iPhone launch tradition apparently set this year.

BGR says the iPhone 5 won't reach consumers until the fall of 2012, a full year after the iPhone 4S dropped to record sales. But consistent with the predictions of Munster and others, new design elements will factor into the picture for Apple's next-gen smartphone.

Cydia Gets Updated to Version 1.1.3

Cydia has been updated with the new jailbreak.

This morning voices around the world cheered as hacker pod2g and the Chronic Dev Team whipped up an untethered jailbreak for all A4 devices and older running iOS 5.0.1. The untethered jailbreak was released in two forms - one of which was the new redsn0w 0.9.10b1 and the other was the Cydia package known as Corona that could be installed while you had the tethered jailbreak to untether your iDevice. As most probably simply restored the device to start fresh with a new jailbreak - you probably noticed something different at the bottom of Cydia, or you may not have, and that would be that it has been updated from version 1.1.1 to version 1.1.3.

Corona Untethered iOS 5.0.1 Jailbreak: Updated to Version 1.0-3

The Corona untether for iOS 5.0.1 gets its first and second updates tonight.

Corona was the name given to the iOS 5.0.1 untethered jailbreak package that was released into Cydia this morning as we covered during its initial release. The untethered jailbreak was possible either through the use of Corona or by the new redsn0w 0.9.10b1. That's just to clarify if you didn't know what Corona was.

Apparently,

[Review] Add Another Row of Customizable Keys to Your iOS Keyboard!

This is an awesome jailbreak tweak at adds a useful row to your keyboard.

Are you one of the people who hates how some companies require that you make passwords with both capital letters and lowercase letters, then they also recommend that you use numbers and symbols to increase your password strength? Then maybe this jailbreak tweak will be one of the best jailbreak tweaks that you've ever used. But, it can be use for so much more than just goofy passwords. The jailbreak tweak has been dubbed iKeywi (pronounced i-Kiwi like the fruit). I thought that was pretty clever. The tweak was created by a developer known as hiraku in Cydia. As you can see from the image above, it adds a fifth row of keys to your keyboard and the best part is, you can customize those keys to have any symbol on them that you want. By default, they use the stock iOS alternative keys that you find when you tap the number and symbol button in the bottom left of the keyboard when looking at the keyboard in QWERTY view.

[Review] Tweet About Applications Right From the App Store

With this tweak you can Tweet to share applications from the App Store.

With iOS 5, one of the new features that we received was Twitter integration. Twitter can be used for a lot of things in iOS such as sharing photos, sharing videos, sharing locations, and more. With jailbreaking, you can do more, like tweeting directly from SpringBoard using an invokable Activator actions which brings up the iOS tweeting window where you can type your message and tweet it. Even with the deep Twitter integration that Apple included in iOS 5, developer r_plus couldn't help but notice that Apple forgot something.

Applications are important little pieces of software that make the iDevice more powerful. How often is it that you tell your friends about a cool application that you found? Now, thanks to a tweak that has been dubbed AppTweeter, you can share the application that you found in the App Store on Twitter via the Tell a Friend button in the App Store that appears under an application that you are viewing as shown in the image above.

Study Shows iPad Customer Satisfaction Extremely High, Unwilling to Share iPad

A new study from the Software Usability Research Laboratory (SURL) shows that nearly 84% of iPad customers claim they are satisfied with their device.

SURL had respondents reply to a number of questions including user-friendliness, what they liked best about the iPad, what they use the device for, and what other devices they use. An interesting testament to the popularity of Amazon’s Kindle: 23% of respondents said they owned or use a Kindle in addition to their iPad.

Respondents were overwhelmingly satisfied with the user-friendliness of the iPad with 62% of respondents rating the iPad's usability as “excellent”, 10% said “Best Imaginable”, 21% said “good”, 4% said fair, and only 2% found the iPad user-friendliness to be “awful.”

Apple Launches iTunes Match Website Complete With FAQ, Video Walkthrough, And More

Apple launched their iTunes Match service late last month in the U.S. and recently launched the service in 17 other countries, but a slew of questions and launch problems (mainly huge demand) created a certain level of uncertainty in users. Apple launched a dedicated iTunes Match site to help alleviate this uncertainty and answer common questions.

The iTunes Match website includes pricing information, an explanation of how the service works, a quick start guide, walkthrough video, and the following FAQ:

Who can use iTunes Match?
Anyone with an Apple ID in the U.S and select other countries can use iTunes Match. You also need iTunes 10.5.1 or later on your Mac or PC and iOS 5.0.1 or later on your iPhone 3GS or later, iPod touch (3rd and 4th generation), or iPad.

iPad 3 Home Button Surfaces

9to5Mac has procured a comparison—pictured above—between the iPad 2 and iPad 3 home button. Let the iPad 3 component speculation continue.

Only so much can be gleaned from a deep, deep inspection of the iPad 3 home button pictured above. But, a few things do jump out. The rounded square glyph plastered in the center of the button is slightly thicker on the iPad 3. The internal structuring on the back of of the iPad 3 is smaller than the connector on the iPad 2. Most importantly, the iPad 3 still has a home button.

iOS 5.0.1 Begins Showing Up In Cydia SHSH List

As you can see, iOS 5.0.1 has begun appearing in the Cydia SHSH list.

Something that we had not expected today was for iOS 5.0.1 to start showing itself in the Cydia SHSH list. This is the first appearance of iOS 5 in Cydia's SHSH list to date. It seems that Cydia has begun showing support for the new firmware and while it is still unconfirmed at this point in time - we might be able to start using Cydia's server for downgrading at some point in time. Before today, Cydia stopped caching firmware SHSH blobs at iOS 4.3.5.

[Review] Never Forget to Charge Your iDevice Again

Never forget to charge again.

Are you the kind of person that let's your iDevice run until it dies? Do you ever regret doing that because you wish that you had charged it? Maybe this tweak is just what you need in order to get your iDevice usage habits in order. The tweak is free in Cydia as of late and has been dubbed DontForget by the developer thekirbylover. The tweak aims to make sure that you plug in your iDevice when the battery gets low and it will make sure that you do it or else it will keep bugging you with an annoying message that won't go away until you plug it in.

iMAME Kicked Out of Apple's App Store

If you are a fan of vintage arcade games then you probably read our previous article about iMAME, the popular emulation tool for MAME (which stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator).

The emulators can be used to recreate the experience of classic coin-op and console videogames on PCs, Macs, and jailbroken iOS devices. The main catch here being that in order to run the old games, you need a copy of the game ROM code. Copies of the code are essentially unavailable via legitimate licensing in most cases. The other catch is that full-scale emulators usually aren’t welcome on the iOS App Store. Those that have made it past the rigorous review process are usually very careful when it comes to locking downt he ability to run arbitrary third-party programs.