Report: Google, Not Apple Poses Biggest Threat to Amazon's Kindle Fire

Despite anticipated holiday sales numbers indicative of the iPad losing some traction to the upstart Amazon Kindle Fire, a new report indicates that the tablet landscape could look much different from its present form by the middle part of this year. And that could change who Amazon perceives to be its chief competitor.

According to the latest buzz engendered by Digitimes, Google's widely expected mid-2012 tablet offering will take square aim at the Kindle Fire's market segment - not the iPad's. Although, on the surface, it appears that all tablets are competitors, that isn't the case in today's market.

A primary reason the Kindle Fire proved so popular over the holidays is because of its lower price. While promising high-end functionality at a lower cost, the Kindle Fire is believed to have poached somewhere between 1 and 2 million iPad sales from Apple over the holiday quarter.

Pod2g Updates Blog With A5 Jailbreak FAQ Explaining Why it is Not Currently Possible

A4 iDevice users have been enjoying the labor of love that is the iOS 5.0.1 untethered jailbreak for over a week now. However, A5 device owners (iPhone 4S and iPad 2) still live in a jailbreakless world, and apparently many have expressed their displeasure to pod2g.

This displeasure resulted in pod2g posting the following FAQ on his blog this morning. It explains, in brief, why an A5 jailbreak is currently not possible.

Originally Posted by :
How could pod2g have an untethered 4S and dev teams still haven't released tools to achieve this at home ?

The exploit I used to inject the untethering files to the 4S relies on having a developer account, and can't be released publicly.
It's the same reason why @MuscleNerd has an iPad 2 tethered jailbreak but couldn't distribute it.

So, we need to find a distributable exploit to remount the system partition read/write and to set Corona files at the correct places.

Verizon: 4.2 Million iPhones Sold During Holiday Quarter

Oops. It looks as though Verizon's chief financial officer Fran Shammo prematurely spilled the beans on a major fact of business for the nation's largest wireless carrier.

The revelation came at the Citi Global Entertainment Media & Communications Conference on Wednesday where Shammo was speaking.

It isn't clear exactly why the Verizon executive opted to reveal this information only a few weeks before Apple is set to report earnings for the holiday sales quarter, but one thing is for sure: Verizon apparently sold a whole bunch of iPhones.

As the numbers indicate, for the final three months of 2011, Verizon logged twice the number of iPhones it sold during the third quarter of last year. By comparison, AT&T sold 2.7 million iPhones in the third quarter. And it now appears that both carriers may be neck-and-neck in terms of Q4 iPhone sales.

TidyTilt: Smart Cover for iPhone 4/iPhone 4S

Want a Smart Cover for your iPhone 4/iPhone 4S?

Please view the video content on a computer.

There have been several attempts to make a Smart Cover for the iPhone, but here's a cool one. It's called the TidyTilt and it's expected to be launched by January 29th of this year. The designers behind the product are two design students from Chicago named, Derek Tarnow and Zahra Tashakorinia. The design is nearly similar to that of the Smart Cover for the iPad 2, except there's one major difference, the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S don't have that magnet engineering that the iPad 2 does. To make the iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S work with this cover, there is actually a mount that has to be placed on the back of the iPhone. It is a stainless steel band that is stuck to the iPhone's rear end with sticky adhesive. The colored TidyTilt is magnet-integrated, so it clings to that stainless steel band that you put on the rear end.

Apple Claims GameStore App Released Prematurely - Issues Refunds

We previously reported about an application that prematurely made its way into the iPhone App Store called “GameStore.” It was deemed an Apple internal testing tool for their iOS in-app-purchase system. The June 2009 date, which is the month of the event in which the in-app purchase was formally announced, on the application store page seems to confirm that. Apple recently sent out an email that informed everyone that the app was pulled from the App Store:

You recently purchase the GameStore app. The app was made available for sale prematurely. We apologize for the problem and have refunded the purchase amount back to your account. These funds will be applied to your original payment method within 5 business days.

The iMac Accounts for 33% of All-In-One PC Sales

As portable computers continue to gain attention and sales, all-in-one PCs have become a increasingly popular in the market and the iMac seems to account for nearly a third of all sales for the market. The all-in-one desktop computer sales have grown 39% in 2010 and have reached 14.5 million units according to research firm DisplaySearch’s report revealed to Bloomberg. Out of all the desktop sales, Apple accounts for 32.9% making it the single largest all-in-one PC maker in the world.

More news that isn’t much of a surprise would be that the iMac is Apple’s all-in-one system and the company’s strongest selling desktop, coming ahead of the Mac mini and Mac Pro. Last quarter, Macs the MacBook lineups represented 75% of the Mac sales but desktop stales were still able to hit a new record for Apple. It is likely that this trend will continue in the upcoming quarterly report as well.

The Secret Whereabouts of Apple's 50-inch TV

According to Apple sources speaking in confidence with USA Today, the first known 50-inch Apple "iTV" may already exist.

The latest clues out of Cupertino suggest that the hottest prototype in tech is likely residing in a very secure location - the California studio of Apple's well known design guru Jonathan Ive.

The report reiterates the now longstanding rumor that Apple will mass produce a 42-inch or larger LCD TV with built-in Wi-Fi and Siri-control features. But the juiciest element of the article came in the form of an Apple insider's revelation that a "slick" prototype of a 50-inch "iTV" is presently in Ive's possession.

Although certain aspects of the product design and its corresponding functionalities may not yet be known by all, it will come as no surprise to anyone - not even Woz himself - when Apple finally raises the curtain on this product.

[Review] Add A Variety of Unlock Animations to Your iDevice With UnlockFX

Wouldn't it be awesome if you could have a cool animation effect when you unlock your iPhone instead of just the plain old going from locked to the home screen effect? Now you can. The tweak has been dubbed UnlockFX by its developer Filippo Bigarella (icon by iSurenix), the creator of the famous Springtomize 2 jailbreak application. In the video above, you can see all of the different kinds of effects that you can activate for when you unlock your iPhone. UnlockFX is completely compatible with iOS 5 and doesn't add any icons to your home screen, just a settings cell in your Settings application.

Unlock effects offers two categories of effects; simple and complex. Obviously, as indicated by the names of the categories, one holds effects which are more in the simple range (2D), and the other holds effects which are a little more complex (3D) and use more GPU (graphics processing unit) power. Depending on your device type, the animations can be laggy; we recommend using at least an A4 device with this tweak. Within the settings you can choose between these effects, change the effect duration, or choose an image for the custom image animation.

ABI Research: iPad App Store Tops 3 Billion Downloads

The last eighteen months have been very good to the iPad App Store.

On Wednesday, prominent research firm ABI Research announced that ​iPad users are "estimated" to have cumulatively downloaded three billion applications so far.

According to ABI, this massive chunk of downloads represents 19% of all cumulative downloads by Apple users. It should be noted, however, that the iPhone didn't top three billion downloads until the App Store was two years old.

Taking a factual jab at Android, the report notes that Android tablets only have seen 440 million downloads to date.

“Discounting all those apps that were originally developed for Android smartphones, Android still trails greatly behind the iPad in terms of its tablet app offerings,” says ABI's Lim Shiyang. “Many Android tablets in the market are still using older versions of Android, which disadvantages users from enjoying the better effects of apps produced from more advanced software development kits.”

Apple Reportedly Bidding on English Premier League Broadcasting Rights

Missed this interesting tidbit of news last night, but Apple is apparently bidding on the rights to stream English Premier League football (soccer) to its customers.

The Daily Mail (who is notorious for stirring up rumors without sources) claims that both Apple and Google are looking to secure streaming rights to the EPL. The deal presents a lucrative business opportunity for the company who eventually does secure the rights granted the EPL’s popularity in the U.K.

The current deal with Sky Sports will terminate at the end of this season with ESPN, and Al Jazeera already expressing interesting in securing the rights for their own channels. Securing the rights will no doubt be expensive as Sky Sports current deal cost the company roughly $2.5 billion. Apple currently streams (via subscription) NBA, NHL and MLB games for U.S. owners. Securing a deal with the EPL would give Apple a massive marketing tool to increase interest in Apple TV in the U.K.

Apple's 4Q Earnings Report Coming January 24th During 1Q Earnings Call

Apple updates its investor page notifying investors the company would be announcing their fourth quarter earnings report on Tuesday, January 24th.

Interested parties can listen to Apple’s live audio stream of the earnings conference call and hear CEO Tim Cook reveal the financial results from the 4Q. Cook will also field questions from investors about the company. Expect a slew of questions about rumored Apple products followed by a bunch of non-answers.

The first quarter conference call informing investors of Apple’s 4Q results will set the stage for Apple in the new year as the company is expected to report record-breaking sales once again. A number of investment analysts have predicted Apple’s stock price rising above $450 in 2012.

Apple Confirms January 13th iPhone 4S Launch in China

Following more than eight weeks of rampant speculation, Apple today confirmed that the iPhone 4S will arrive in China, the world's most populous nation and the largest mobile community on earth, next Friday, January 13th.

“Customer response to our products in China has been off the charts,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in Wednesday morning's formal announcement to the press. “With the launch in China next week, iPhone 4S will be available in over 90 countries making this our fastest iPhone rollout ever.”

Although the Chinese market is the main focus for Apple in next week's launch, China is just one of nearly two dozen additional countries to get the new iPhone this month. The others include: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Cameroon, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, China, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Grenada, Guam, Guinea Conakry, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Niger, Senegal, St. Vincent and The Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos and Uganda.

[Review] Change the Color Profile of Your iDevice Display

With this tweak you can change the color profile of your screen.

Are you unsatisfied with the color scheme of your display? Maybe the colors seem a bit off to you? Well if you didn't know, you can adjust that. You can change the color profile of your iDevice screen the same way that you can with your Mac using one of Ryan Petrich's jailbreak tweaks which has been dubbed Color Profiles. It certainly isn't new, but it's something that seems to have been forgotten in the jailbreak community. With it, you can change the color profile of your screen using either the manual sliders or by selecting a pre-installed color profile. Are the pre-installed color profiles not enough for you? No problem! You can download more in Cydia.

You'll notice that when you install Color Profiles, you are given a new settings cell in the Settings application that lets you change the color profile settings. You will see two sliders, and a button. The button brings you to the menu of pre-installed color profiles that you can toggle for your iDevice. When you download any new color profiles from Cydia, they will also appear in this menu. You can see what the menu looks like in the image below:

Nokia X7

Experience all the thrills of high-definition gaming on the massive 4” touch screen. Enjoy the very best HD games from leading publishers – all available at Ovi Store. And when it comes to music, Nokia X7 has it all. Scroll smoothly through album art and control your tracks right from the home screen with one touch of the music app.

How to Make Blogging a Pleasurable and Profitable Hobby

Blogging can be a fun and enjoyable activity in our pastime.  Millions of people who have discovered the wonders of blogs and have utilized this platform as an enjoyable way to spend pleasurable moments working at the computer and sharing ideas, experiences and express their own views and opinions on current events. Certainly there is much fun to be derived from this favorite pastime of many.  But how do we make this pleasurable hobby profitable as well?

There are many ways you can make profits money from blogging.  A blog can be the platform for you to share your own special expertise with the rest of the world.  It really doesn’t matter what your passion may be there are people who would be interested in your talents and interests and blogs can be a very good way to gain exposure.

The first thing to do when you first start out blogging is to deliver string, passionate posts.  This means that you should have enough material to blog on or write about and do it passionately with feeling and enthusiasm.  People can easily distinguish between random ramblings of a half-baked blogger who is doing it for the purpose of getting words to pages and one who is absolutely passionate about his writings. 

TinyUmbrella Updated to Work With iOS 5.0.1 (Build 9A406) for iPhone 4S

TinyUmbrella is an SHSH solution for iOS.

TinyUmbrella, the tool that we've used to save our SHSH blobs since the days of Christopher Columbus, has bee updated to work with the second release of iOS 5.0.1 for the iPhone 4S (Build 9A406) which was released in order to fix the iPhone 4S not detecting the SIM card. Right now, using TinyUmbrella to save your SHSH blobs is a good idea, especially with the news that we reported on today with pod2g confirming that it could be just a week until we see the iPhone 4S jailbreak.

[Review] Enable Text Formatting In iOS Emails

Rich Text for Mail allows you to format text in an iOS email.

The iOS Mail application is a great email viewer, but it really isn't that great of an email composer. It lacks a feature that many of us use in email every day - text formatting. Because of this, iOS developer Ryan Petrich found it necessary to create a jailbreak tweak known as Rich Text for Mail that allows you to change the formatting of your boring text in iOS Mail email composition. It's not a new tweak, but it's one that should be brought into the light if you've never heard of it. Since it lets you format your emails to make them more lively, you'll never have to worry about sending an email where you can't emphasize your important points with bold or italic letters ever again.

Rich Text for Mail gives you a whole lot of options. It gives you the option to:

• Make something bold
• Make something italic
• Add a strike-through
• Add an underline
• Change text fonts
• Change text colors
• Change text sizes
• Insert images
• Insert links

[Review] Listen to Your iPhone Music Even In An Old Cassette-Playing Car Radio

In some cases, our vehicles are still older than our iDevices.

If you have an older vehicle, like my 1999 Jeep Cherokee Limited, then you might find that you have a cassette player instead of an MP3-supported stereo system. If you want to be able to listen to your iDevice's music without paying a ton for a new stereo, this is a viable option that will only cost you $9.99 out of pocket, and gives you cassette-quality music right from your iDevice, without needing to pay an arm and a leg for a brand new up-to-date stereo system. This device is called the Motor Trend Cassette Adapter and it really is as easy to use as it looks.

The Cassette end is inserted into the vehicle's Cassette player and the wire with the 3.5mm headphone jack will stick out. The wire is approximately two feet long and is good enough to let your iPhone or iPod to sit in a cup holder while it's plugged in. The sound quality is no better than a cassette player, but it works. If you have great quality music on your iDevice and you play it with this cassette adapter, you will notice the difference in sound quality which is slightly boiled down because you won't get your digital sound. When you're using it you'll see how the wire sticks out of the Cassette port; it looks like this:

Developer Builds A Virtual iPhone: Pure CSS3, No Images Whatsoever

Here's something you don't see every day.

It's one thing when you have an iPhone 4 image and you make it animated on a Web Site with JavaScript, Flash, HTML5 or some other kind of animating code. But it's a whole new ball park when you actually make the iPhone 4 from scratch with no pictures, no templates, no canvases, but pure CSS3 code. That's right folks, take a good look at the screenshot above - there isn't a single image in it. It's pure CSS3 code.

Technically speaking, the screenshot above is a picture - the real deal can be seen on this Web Site. It's composed of 3,395 lines of CSS code and 335 lines of JavaScript code that can be viewed by seeing the page source through your Web Browser application. The project was built by Vasiliy Zubach, who is better known as TjRus all across the Internet. The best part about being made out of code instead of images is that it can load zippier, and also be scaled more effectively.

Hacker Pod2g Says iPhone 4S Jailbreak Possible Within A Week

Something that we've all been waiting for...

The iPhone 4S holds Apple's newest A5 dual core processing unit which has yet to exploited using a bootrom exploit. The iPad 2, which also holds the A5 dual core processing unit was able to be jailbroken untethered on iOS 4.3.3 back in the days of this past Summer with Comex's Jailbreakme.com stunt. Aside from that, no other untethered jailbreak has ever been released for any A5 devices, which is why we so eagerly await an untethered jailbreak for the iPhone 4S and iPad 2. At this point in time, we know that hacker pod2g has been hard at work on creating one, and that he just recently released the untethered jailbreak for A4 devices such as the iPhone 4, iPod touch 4G, and iPad.

For something new, we find that pod2g Tweeted earlier on Twitter that the iPhone 4S jailbreak (or A5 jailbreak to be more specific) should be released within only a week's time with some luck. He made mention that he has made a step in the process, which means that he is ever so closer to being able to finally complete one for the public. With all of the negativity that struck pod2g on his blog this past week because of angry iPhone 4S users not having a jailbreak, I admire his efforts to continue to work on it through the harsh words he endured. The Tweet that he posted earlier today on Twitter can be viewed from this link or from the image below:

Apple's January Media Event May Take Us Back to School

As MMi reported Monday, Apple is rumored to be planning one of its always-eventful media events to take place near the end of January in New York City.

According to the initial buzz, there were few clues with regard to the nature of Apple's event. Unfortunately, there was no indication that Apple would be raising the curtain on a new or refreshed product. All signs, in fact, now point to Apple's event (and announcement) being education-based.

According to Fox News journalist Clayton Morris, should an Apple event ultimately unfold in the Big Apple, it will likely be centered around iTunes U and new developments with regard to education and digital textbook publishing.

"The event will be in New York rather than in the Silicon Valley," Morris says, "because New York is more centrally located for textbook and publishing."

Apple Remains Top Stock Pick for 2012, Says Leading Analyst

On Tuesday, the first official full day of trading on Wall Street for 2012, shares of AAPL surged more than $6 to hover above $411 per share, rapidly approaching the stock's all-time high following a few rough months for NASDAQ and the tech sector as a whole.

Not surprisingly, this week many Wall Street analysts are making their top picks for stocks to watch in 2012. And despite some initial concerns in late 2011 - like the death of Steve Jobs - Apple was once again named the top stock to watch and invest in during the new year.

This is according to Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White, who said Tuesday that he is all bulled up about the iPhone maker.

Apple Believed to Have Lost 1 to 2 Million Holiday iPad Sales to Kindle Fire

It's a reality - not a mere rumor - that Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet is taking a sizable chunk out of Apple's still-gargantuan share of the tablet market. And according to the latest insight from Wall Street watchers and industry analysts, Amazon's hot new device may have cost Apple a pretty penny over the holidays.

Notwithstanding the foregone conclusion that Apple will all but certainly report record sales for the fourth quarter of 2011, investment research firm Morgan Keenan speculated Tuesday that the Kindle Fire's popularity may have resulted in between 1 and 2 million fewer iPad sales for Apple over the 2011 holiday shopping season.

"Based on data from Amazon, we believe the Amazon Fire likely sold 4-5 million units this holiday season," Morgan Keenan analyst Travis McCourt said in a note to investors Tuesday, "which probably means maybe 1-2 million cannibalized iPad sales at most."

iOS, Android Devs at The Heart of New Industry Association

Next week, a longstanding hope of many mobile app developers will finally materialize.

At the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Application Developers Alliance will officially launch as the first professional industry association for mobile application developers.

Led by former Digital Media Association executive director Jon Potter, the new organization exists chiefly to promote "the best interests" of mobile APP developers. That means everything from facilitating education opportunities to spearheading government lobbying efforts.

Not surprisingly, the Application Developers Alliance will focus heavily on iOS and Android, although other mobile app and web developers are also welcome.

Google Adsense - Make More From Adsense Now!

Make More Money From Adsense Now!

Google Adsense is a really great way to generate money online, and more people are starting to realize that.

It is a simple as putting ads on a website and driving traffic to it, right?

Well, some people make thousands of dollars a month and some people make about thirty cents a day. Probably more people are closer to the thirty cents mark. These people are left wondering how to make more money from Adsense.

Well wonder no longer because I am hear to help with the most crucial facts about Adsense to help make more money from Adsense now.

 

How To Find A Profitable Niche!

Lots of $$$ per click!

 

Competition is what drives advertising costs up. If your niche is changing spark plugs on a 1989 ford truck, your clicks would come with a very low payout. This is because nobody is bidding high on that niche because there is little (if any) competition.

Apple's iPhone 4 and 4S Deemed Faster Than Nokia's Lumia 800 in Browser Benchmarks

A recent unofficial benchmarking video shows that Microsoft’s native Windows Phone 7.5 Mango browser lags behind Apple’s Safari for iOS in various speed tests. What is more surprising is that Nokia’s latest Windows Phone offering, the Lumia 800 is even outperformed by an iPhone 4 running iOS 4.3. The information comes from a YouTube user by the name of “359gsm” found on a Nokia blog named My Nokia Blog.

The video shows the new Windows Phone 7 based Nokia Lumia 800 coming in dead last against two iPhones in a battery of speed tests, where its best performance was a second place finish in HTML 5 “speed reading.” According to the complete scores, the 800 MHz dual-core iPhone 4S running Apple’s latest version of iOS 5 easily took the top spot in all five of the browser benchmarks performed, being more than twice as fast as the single core 1.4 GHz Nokia Lumia in most metrics. The results from the JavaScript-heavy Sunspider benchmark marked the greatest disparity between the two platforms, where the 4S saw more than triple the speed of its Windows Phone rival.

Samsung Releases then Pulls Ad with iPhone Ad Actress

Samsung recently released a Samsung ad that seems to be heavily influenced by the many Apple commercials before it. It isn’t only the overall look and feel which Samsung seemed to have copied this time though. The company ended up removing the ad after Google+ user Cheryl Lindo Jones discovered that the ad uses the same actress as an iPhone 4S advertisement. You can take a look at the two commercials below and get a feel for the similarities that are apparent.

Apple Event Rumored for End of January in New York

According to All Things D, Apple is planning an event scheduled to take place near the end of January in New York.

Citing sources close to the event, All Things D claims Apple will not be announcing a new product, but will use the event for an advertising or publishing announcement.

While specific services were not mentioned, the chance the iPad 3, an Apple TV, or some other mystery product would be the subject of the event were not entertained by the source.

Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, is rumored to have a role in the upcoming announcement fueling the speculation that an advertising or publishing announcement will be made. The last event Cue attended in New York was last year's debut of News Corp's “The Daily” iPad newspaper.

Elevation Dock - World's Best iPhone Dock?

This dock is supposedly the best dock for your iPhone.

Please view this content on a computer.

Today, tipped by iOS developer Ori Kadosh, we found a cool new docking concept that is expected to be launched in April of this year. It is a 'perfect' docking solution that isn't so tight that you cannot get your iPhone out of the dock with one hand, and it's not so loose that you can knock it over with a touch. It's right in between. The Elevation Dock is milled out of pure aluminum, the same metal and same milling process that makes MacBook Pro and MacBook Air unibodies and also the bodies for the iMac, Mac Mini, and Apple TV remote. The process of milling is extremely precise - down to the thousands of an inch, meaning that you get high quality with the Elevation Dock for iPhone.

[Review] Applocker 2 Going Live In Cydia Tonight!

Applocker 2 is an iOS security system for your applications and much more.

Are you one who loves keeping your iDevice so airtight that not even some of the best iPhone tinkerers can figure out how to get into your stuff? The iOS pass code is a great way to secure your iPhone, but it doesn't exactly offer pristine protection all across your device and figuring a four digit pass code isn't particularly hard to do. If you use the complex option, all someone needs to do is look over your shoulder and they know how to get full access to your iPhone. So, why not add some protective measures even beyond the pass code? Today we will be looking at Applocker 2, the replacement for Applocker which we reviewed at this link.

Applocker 2 is a free update for all Applocker owners, but if you didn't buy Applocker then unfortunately you'll need to pay full price for Applocker 2. Applocker 2 is made by a great iOS developer known as Ori Kadosh. This application is extensive and offers you security protection from unwanted hands all across the seams of iOS. It can provide security for your applications, folders, and much more. But, as we all like to hear, Applocker 2 actually adds security for even more places than Applocker did. You can take a look at the image above to see what has changed in Applocker 2 from Applocker.

PostSecret Creator Removes iOS App In Response to Unrelenting Trolls

PostSecret founder Frank Warren announced today that after three months he is pulling the popular iOS app.

“Bad content caused users to complain to me, Apple and the FBI. I was contacted by law enforcement about bad content on the App. Threats were made against users, moderators and my family. As much as we tried, we were unable to maintain a bully-free environment. Weeks ago I had to remove the App from my daughter’s phone,” — Warren in a blog post today.

PostSecret has become an international phenomenon and the dedicated fan-base and user-base followed the blog to the iOS platform posting nearly 2 million secrets during the apps 3-month life cycle. The $1.99 app even enjoyed a nice stay as the top selling app in the App Store. However, the anonymity and ease of posting via iOS and the ability to comment on and react to posted secrets created a safe haven for a small number of vicious trolls.

Eerily Real Steve Jobs Action Figure Available for Pre-Order Now

Christmas morning came and went, but a gaping hole remained in my heart. I experienced the usual joy of receiving and the gratification of giving, but still there it was, an emotional vacuum located somewhere between fulfilled and disappointed.

I found what was missing. The Steve Jobs action figure above, complete with its own reality distortion field.

The 12” Steve Jobs action figure from toy company In Icons is set to be released in February for $99. Hopefully a Cupertino Town Hall model surfaces soon so owners can stage the oft talked about berating of the MobileMe Team.

Honestly, the attention to detail found on this figurine is insane. Textured hair, creases in lips. glasses, eye color, and the patented Jobs stare are all included. Even more, a full line of accessories will be availabled including a “one more thing” stage backdrop, keynote stool, interchangeable hands for varied gestures, apples, iPhones, iPads, the Apple I, and even Jobs' famous New Balance sneakers.

iPad Becoming Leading Choice for Hospital Kiosks

Already deployed everywhere from airplane cockpits to British grocery store shopping carts, hospitals stand poised as the next frontier for iPads to conquer.

As it turns out, hospitals - which are always in search of ways to slash costs while improving efficiency - are beginning to use iPads as lobby kiosks. With little more than a floor-mounted stand to prop it up, the iPad is being used as a highly effective, time-saving, and cost reducing method to facilitate patient check-ins.

Activator Updated to Version 1.6, Adds Blacklist Feature

I'm blacklisting you, and you, and you. Oh and especially you...


Ryan Petrich released an update to Activator today adding a ton of new features to the popular gesture, button, and shortcut management system.

Here’s a quick list of whats new in version (1.6):

● New slide gestures
● Add blacklist feature
● Add "Virtual Assistant" action
● Rotate menu actions and slide events with the screen orientation
● Reduced in-app startup time and memory footprint
● Add Recents and Voicemail Phone actions back on iOS5.0
● Support shutter button in fake lock screen camera app on iOS5.0
● Improved Settings performance
● Abort volume repeat when short hold gesture succeeds
● Only send activator:didChangeToEventMode: callback if event mode actually changed
● Improve wording of safe mode warning message
● Fix missing icons and startup image on retina devices on iOS5.0
● Use retina images for SBSettings toggles
● Support silencing alarms via volume down button on iOS5.0
● Support MobileVolumeSound
● Send volume press events to alerts on iOS5.0

Did Apple Inadvertently Launch Internal 'GameStore' iOS App Today?

Following a number of reader tips and subsequent blogosphere chatter, it appears that an internal testing application for iPhone in-app purchases called "GameStore" made its way to the App Store today.

The $0.99 app, however, doesn't do anything. That is, there's no apparent functionality to the app that some believe was accidentally leaked and pushed to the App Store on Monday.

What doesn't make sense, naturally, is why the app - which clearly lists Apple as the publisher - is still available.

Curiously enough, "GameStore" has a release date of 12/31/2011 and offers in-app purchase options for a number of racing-themed game (but the app doesn't allow you to actually purchase the games).

Apple New Years Alarm Bug Affecting Those Who Haven't Upgraded to iOS 5

It's your own fault if you didn't wake up this year.

Yesterday marked the new year, and with it a few iOS users may have found themselves waking up later than planned, and not because of their excessively inebriated state the night before.

Last year on the first and second of January a number of iOS users were afflicted by a bug that prevented their set alarms from actually working. For users who needed to catch flights, get to work, or clean up the house before the parents got home, this created some apparent problems. The bug affected single-use alarms set on the January 1st and 2nd. Alarms that were scheduled to repeat at least once throughout the week were not affected. Apple claimed to have fixed this in iOS 5.

iOS Ends Year With 52% Share of Mobile Web Browsing

2011 ended on a high note for Apple in no shortage of ways. But in terms of the company's iOS, there were many reasons for celebration, not the least of which is the dominant market share of mobile web browsing Apple's operating system now controls.

As of December 2011, Apple enjoyed a 52.1 percent share of all mobile devices browsing the web. Despite several mobile categories in which Apple lags behind rival Android, Google's mobile operating system trails iOS when it comes to devices browsing the mobile web.

iPhone 4S and iPad 2 Jailbreakers Advised To Update To 5.0.1

P0sixninja from the chronic dev team just tweeted out to update to 5.0.1 while you still can. As you all know the last jailbreak release did not come with support for A5 devices (iPhone 4S and iPad 2) and may be having an update soon to include them.

[Review] 'Pull' the Keyboard Out of Your Way

This tweak will let you move the keyboard out of your way by swiping down.

Are you one of those people who gets annoyed when the iOS keyboard pops up when you're trying to read something and it won't go away? It takes up about half of the small three-and-a-half-inch screen and simply sits there obstructing your view. This can be more than frustrating if you're the kind of person who likes to read over your text messages in your Messages application after typing, or reading notes in the Notes application after writing one. If so, then this new, free, jailbreak tweak might just be what you've been looking for - it works like a charm.

The tweak is called Pull to Dismiss, named by its developer Ryan Petrich who is responsible for applications like Activator, Action Menu, and DietBar. We always find quality jailbreak tweaks when we consult with Ryan, he had helped to make the recent Spire Siri port for older jailbroken iDevices. Pull to Dismiss allows you to simply pull down the keyboard to get it out of your way with one finger. The action is demonstrated in the image above where you can see the keyboard sliding downwards while I dragged it with one finger.

Source Claims Sixty-Six Percent of Phones Sold at AT&T Stores in December Were iPhones

AT&T sold the iPhone exclusively for over three years, and according to a recent survey, the carrier’s reliance on iPhone sales hasn't diminished.

Mac Observer, citing an inside source at AT&T, claims the iPhone made up 66% of phone sales at AT&T corporate retail stores during the month of December, while Android accounted for 8.5%. AT&T’s stores sold 981,000 iPhones between December 1 and December 27. During the same period AT&T’s stores sold 126,000 Android devices.

Basic feature phones managed to sell more than Android devices with 128,000 units moved. RIM’s Blackberry devices continued their decline managing to sell 74,0000 units and Windows Phone 7 devices did even worse.

iOS Developers Continue to Battle Patent Troll Lodsys

There hasn’t been much news regarding the legal battles between the patent troll Lodsys and the developer community but this doesn’t mean that Lodsys has disappeared. The folks over at Ars Technica recently interviewed iOS developer Mike Lee, who is the founder of the Appsterdam Legal Defense Team, which plans to fight Lodsys’ shaking down of developers. As of right now, it looks like the battle will continue well into 2012.

For those of you who didn’t already know, Lodsys is a company which has gained a well-deserved reputation for patent trolling this past year. Despite Apple licensing the company’s in-app purchasing patents and allowing third-party developers to use Apple’s own in-app purchasing APIs in their apps, Lodsys has decided to go after several developers that use this API in their apps in an attempt to shake them down for additional licensing fees. Smaller third party developers lack the legal resources of a large corporation the size of Apple, so Lodsys probably counted on developers simply rolling over and forking the money without a fight.

App Developers Try to Elude Apple's 100-Device Testing Limit

The folks over at the Wall Street Journal are reporting that some big iOS developers are having issues with Apple’s limit on testing devices. According to the App Store rules, developers are restricted to testing on 100 devices via ad-hoc distribution. Your first thought may be that it sounds like a lot (and it likely is for small or individual developers) but it makes large-scale tests of beta iterations or preview applications very difficult to conduct. An example of this would be Instagram, where it should be noted that the company bumped up against the limit so often that they ended up buying a separate developer account just for another 100 devices to be able to test on. Not all companies are in a position to just go ahead and purchase multiple developer accounts.

[Review] Looking for A Reliable External Hard Drive for Your Mac?

 The Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex External Hard Drive is a good option for anyone looking for an affordable external hard drive.

Something that many computer users can all agree on is that you can never have enough storage. Sometimes you need storage that can move on the go - sometimes an eight gigabyte flash drive isn't enough. For those difficult times, we've found an external hard drive that will meet all of your needs. It's called the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex external hard drive. It comes in four tastes; 320GB ($69.99), 500GB ($99.99), 750GB ($99.99), 1TB ($138.87) so that you'll always have enough storage for your needs. The 750GB model is currently on sale. It's an ultra-portable case that's not too much larger than the hard disk drive itself at 4.4 x 3.2 x 0.6 inches and weighing in at only 5.3 ounces.

The First All-Touch Phone Was Created By IBM, Not Apple

1992 was an eventful year. Gas was a paltry $1.05 a gallon. John Gotti got life in Prison. Bill Clinton became president. The Rodney King Riots overtook L.A.

Oh, and IBM invented the first all-touch phone: The Simon.

Simon was a gigantic device complete with a touch-based interface via a monochrome screen of touchy goodness. The screen even adapted to a given application albeit in a limited fashion. What else did a person need to do other than make phone calls, check a calendar or receive a fax in the early 90s?

iOS Applications Running At 720p On Apple TV

Developers are getting closer to letting you use iOS applications on Apple TV.

Yesterday, we reported on how developers Steve Troughton-Smith and TheMudKip were joining forces to bring iOS application functionality to the Apple TV - a Wi-Fi entertainment system for your television set by Apple that can now be jailbroken untethered with the new seas0npass. The project was to let you use iOS applications natively on the Apple TV like they were meant to be there in the first place and to try and spike Apple's interest into making an App Store for the Apple TV. As you can see from our last article, the mirroring appearance was a little sketchy.

[Review] Skullcandy Titan Series Headphones

The Skullcandy Titan in-ear headphones.

In-ear headphones are hit or miss headphones. Either they're comfortable or they're not. Either they have good bass or they don't. They can also be quite expensive for what they do. You'll also find that sometimes a cheaper pair could be better than a more expensive pair. It all depends on your ear-size, iPod equalizer settings, and hearing abilities. No pair of headphones is the same for everyone - everyone hears differently. Today we will be taking a look at the Skullcandy Titan headphones which will compete head on with the Klipsch Image S4 headphones that we reviewed closer to Christmas.

[Review] Haven't You Always Wanted to Make Your Application Icons Do Bizarre Things?

 This new tweak animates your SpringBoard.

Sometimes the stock iOS look is too professional and we need to do some fun things to make it feel more personalized. One way that we can do this is with a new jailbreak tweak that has been dubbed Motion by its developers J. Corbett and J. Einbinder. Motion will let you bring your dead and motionless SpringBoard to life. Usually your icons just sit there and are free of any animations except for inertial paged scrolling which technically isn't even an animation, but instead a response to touch. Motion comes with many settings that can make your SpringBoard application icons dance around all over the place as shown above in the screenshot.

2011 iPad App of The Year Snapseed Available For Free Till Midnight

As part of Apple's 12 Days of Christmas promotion Snapseed, the iTunes Rewind 2011 Best iPad App of the Year, is available for free until midnight tonight. I reside in the U.S. and was able to download the App for free despite the 12 Days of Christmas app being available exclusively in the U.K. and Canada.

Snapseed, developed by Nik Software, normally retails for $4.99 and is an incredibly powerful mobile photo editor especially when used on an iPad. Users can perform a ton of simple photo adjustments like tweaking exposure, saturation levels, and utilize built-in filters. But, on the iPad the the application has the potential to be an extremely powerful editing tool in the right hands.