GEVEY has recently made a hardware-based unlock solution for the iPhone 4S – GEVY Ultra S – available to preorder online, and should ship in early March.

In the past, GEVEY’s products have allowed users to unlock iPhone handsets quickly and easily, without having to jailbreak. The process, not to be confused with the iPhone Dev-Team’s software-based ultrasn0w unlock solution, involves using a SIM interposer with an iPhone handset which has the ability to “trick” the smart phone and remove its carrier-lock.

The iPhone Dev-Team has announced that it’s found a possible unlock for the iPhone 4S, though no potential release schedule has been published. It took a long time to develop a jailbreak solution for the iPhone 4S, and an unlock solution could take even longer – which is why for so many, GEVEY’s paid, hardware-based solution seems so appealing.

Before preordering, do be aware that Apple can block GEVEY’s products in future versions of the iOS (but, then again, GEVEY can release modified interposers). The upcoming SIM unlock is compatible with the iPhone 4S running the following basebands: 1.0.11, 1.013, 1.0.14.

Features include:

• GEVEY™ True Plug-and-Play Unlocking SIM Interposer
• No Need to Dial International Emergency Number 112
• Untethered Unlock with no Jailbreak Required
• Compatible with all GSM iPhone 4S SIM Cards
• Complete Unlock with all 2G and 3G data services
• No SIM Card Cutting or Physical Modification
• Works on iOS 5.0, 5.0.1
• Works on Baseband 1.0.11, 1.013, 1.0.14
• Guaranteed Better Reception than Previous
• Decreased Power Consumption

For more information, be sure to head over to GEVEY’s website. As mentioned, the upcoming unlock solution can be preordered for just under $55. Below, we’ve included a video which outlines how the process works.

[via iJailbreak]

Everyone’s favorite iOS character – Om-Nom – has just appeared in the Mac App Store!

That’s right – the popular iOS app has made the move to Mac. Though a HTML5 version of the application was announced back at CES, a native Mac app has us all the more excited. Features of the game, as outlined in the app’s release notes, include:

• 250 levels, 10 level boxes
• Innovative gameplay mechanics
• Realistic physics
• Cute character
• Outstanding graphics
• Achievements and leaderboards
• Constant free updates with new levels

You can grab Cut the Rope in the Mac App Store for $4.99 – it weighs-in at 133 megabytes.

A brand-new jailbreak tweak called iOS 86 allows jailbreakers to give their iOS device a retro, pixilated 1980s makeover.

As you can see in the lead image (which shows my iPhone running iOS 86), the package can make your iPhone’s display look like one of those first-gen, brick-sized Game Boys.

To enable the theme on your iOS device, here’s what you need to do.

First, head on over to Cydia and download Jay Freeman’s WinterBoard package (if you haven’t already). This is a free jailbreak app, and can be used to handle, enable and disable multiple themes quickly and easily. You can find it via Cydia’s default repositories by searching for “WinterBoard.”

Next, in the Cydia app, add the below source (you can do this by going to “Manage” > “Sources” > “Edit” > “Add”).

http://repo.ithemes.it

The Cydia app will warn you that the above repository has been reported for reproducing copyrighted materials – it’s currently the only place to get the iOS 86 package, so we would recommend users download the iOS 86 package only and nothing else via this repository.

Now, in Cydia you should be able to find and download iOS 86. Do this, then head out of the Cydia app and launch WinterBoard. Enable the iOS 86 theme, respring your iPhone handset and the new, retro theme should be enabled.

There are, admittedly, a few shortcomings – for example, the theme doesn’t support every icon out there (not even Game Center, we’re disappointed to report), and doesn’t support open applications, either. This means the theme will only really look good if your iPhone is unlocked, at its first screen, and the Game Center app has been moved somewhere else.

However, we can’t complain too much, because the tweak (like WinterBoard) is available for free. Hopefully iOS 86′s developer will add support for additional app icons in the near future – we’ll be sure to let you know if this happens.

[via iSpazio]

I wasn’t always the best at paying attention during important functions. I was especially bad at paying attention during things like weddings, graduation ceremonies or the funerals of obscure relatives. I was a horrible child. To entertain myself, I would play the dots game with my brothers and sisters. It was a lot less morbid than playing Hangman in a church. Pirate Dots is a fun reminder of the evil eye my mom would give us if we got carried away and yelled out, “Bazinga!”

The goal of the game of dots is to make a square on a field of dots. Each person takes turns drawing a straight line up, down, left or right. Eventually, the board becomes filled with lines, and you start making squares from them. Whoever makes the most squares wins the game. Pirate Dots is a two-player game that uses pirate characters to help keep track of who is who. The app also keeps track of squares that get filled in so that you don’t forget any. I always forgot to close off a square, and then my opponent would jump on it once it was their turn.

The app marks whose square is whose with the pirate character that the players chose in the beginning. There are also three different levels of difficulty to choose from. You can keep track of your high scores on each level of difficulty in the high scores option. I use this option as a gloating mechanism when I need to feel good about something.

Pirate Dots is a universal app available in the App Store for the awesome price of FREE!

• Pirate Dots!

Color Splash for iPad ($0.99) has just received a welcome update. Version 1.8 brings deeper Facebook integration (you can now browse and download photos from Facebook to edit), the option to have real postcards made and mailed anywhere in the world, and more. For those unfamiliar with the app, Color Splash gained its popularity by allowing you to convert specific areas of a photo to black and white, while leaving the rest in color. With these effects, it’s easy to add some fun to your photos.

From the app’s release notes, here’s what’s new in version 1.8 of Color Splash for iPad:

• Browse and download Facebook photos for editing.
• You can now add captions to images you share on Facebook.
• Create beautiful physical postcards and have them sent to your friends anywhere in the world (powered by Sincerely).
• Take photos with your iPad 2 camera without leaving the app.
• Load images from the clipboard.
• A great new interface for browsing your iPad photo library (requires location permission)
• Reorganized and more attractive menus

With the original Color Splash released back in 2009, it’s great to see the developers still providing updates for a great app.

Color Splash for iPad is available for $0.99 in the App Store.

• Color Splash for iPad

While officials in Prinevlle, Ore. worked hard to convince Apple to build a data center in the town, they also had help from a little company called Facebook.

Yesterday Apple confirmed plans to build a data center in the town after purchasing a 160-acre plot of land from Crook County for a cool $5.6 million.

And, in an interview with a local TV station, Crook County Judge Mike McCabe said that Facebook, who has a data center near the purchased property, helped lobby Apple:

“Facebook kind of helped recruit (Apple), saying, ‘You’ve got to come up and look at this community.’”

Speaking to the TV station, Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet was only able to confirm the company purchased land for a data center.

The announcement comes after legislation passed by both the Oregon House and Senate that assures data centers in enterprise zones would not be assessed state property taxes.

When the Oregon data center is complete, it will join Apple’s data center (pictured above) in Maiden, North Carolina. That center went live in mid-2011 and currently supports services like iCloud, which is currently used by more than 100 million users on the iPhone, iPad and Mac.

The North Carolina center is also notable because of the green technology used in the building. According to Apple, the center has earned coveted LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council and uses the largest end-user owned solar array in the country. Also in the works are plans to build the largest non-utility fuel cell installation in the United States.

With iCloud playing a larger part in the next version of OS X, Mountain Lion, and possibly in the mythical Apple TV/iTV that is rumored to be introduced in 2012, the new data center may be Apple’s continuing way of saying that the future is in the cloud, and the data centers that power it.

The New York Times is reporting (via its Bits blog) that California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris has reached an agreement with tech heavyweights Amazon, Apple, Google, HP, Microsoft, and RIM to step up their collective privacy efforts. The measure, while basic in scope and simple (if inconvenient) to implement, comes with severe penalties for the aforementioned companies and third-party app developers should they fail to adhere to the rules in good faith. Says Bits,

The agreement will force developers to post conspicuous privacy policies detailing what personal information they plan to obtain and how they will use it. It also compels app store providers like Apple and Google to offer ways for users to report apps that do not comply. In a statement, the attorney general’s office said developers who did not abide by their own privacy policies would face prosecution under California’s Unfair Competition Law and False Advertising Law.

Of course, it’s important to note that these guidelines are only enforceable in California. Still, it should offer a quick, easy rubric for other states to follow, and we expect that to indeed be the case. In the meantime, Path’s misstep will continue making its way through the court of public opinion, while Google’s faux pas has landed it in the regular kind.

Sometimes, I really think Biggy was onto something with that whole “mo money, mo problems” bit. Fame certainly makes for a nice, big target, and once again, the scavenging trolls are hobbling out to feast on Apple’s overwhelming success.

Following in the footsteps of last year’s Lodsys unpleasantness, Brandywine Communications Technologies has filed a claim in Florida court seeking compensation for Apple’s unauthorized use of the firm’s visual voicemail patents. Numbered 5719922 and 6236717, the patents — both very similar in scope — are officially described thus (via GigaOM):

A simultaneous voice and data modem [that] coordinates the storage of voice messages and data messages on an audio answering machine and a personal computer, respectively. This allows the called party to subsequently retrieve, via the simultaneous voice and data modem, both a voice message and an associated data message, i.e., a multimedia message, where the called party listens to the voice message while viewing the data message. The called party can retrieve the multimedia message either locally or from a remote location.

The patents seem to describe in loose terms part of what iOS’ voicemail implementation actually does, but there are several question marks going forward. The usual ones, like “prior art” and inequitable conduct, will certainly be considered, and Apple may also attempt to differentiate its iPhone from the “personal computer” designation used (or implied) in Brandywine’s filings. (After all, there is plenty of argument over whether or not the iPad’s a PC, much less its smaller, more portable sibling.)

It’ll be interesting to see how this case plays out, but, in all likelihood, Brandywine will simply keep up the patent troll status quo: They’ll make headlines for a week or two, file a few lawsuits, get held up for months or years in the courts, and we won’t hear about them again for a nice long while.

Nose Invaders ($0.99) by Dear Future Astronaut AB is a new physics-based puzzle adventure game released for the iPhone yesterday.

Flu viruses invade every year and cause misery to millions of people. Now is the time to take a stand against the pesky flu virus. Players take control of a small green flu-fighting creature to combat the flu viruses. Because the nose is the body’s the last line of defense, this is where the battle takes place.

The nose complicates matters as one might imagine. Since the green creatures are fighting in living animals, the noses are fully functional. So the creatures must eliminate the flu viruses and time their attacks while the nose is inhaling and exhaling. These green creatures cannot survive anywhere else besides the nose, so make sure they are not inhaled into the body.

To navigate around the nose, players touch the screen and drag the arrow in the direction they want the creature to go. The longer the arrow, the more force behind the creature. Navigating is not difficult, the real challenge is timing the movements as the nose inhales and exhales.

Each level of Nose Invaders has three flu viruses to eliminate. However, players only need to eliminate one to advance to the next level. Currently the game has three level packs (kid nose, cow nose, and elephant nose) each with 20 levels.

Players are awarded a coin for each virus eliminated. These are used to unlock future nose packs. Of course, if you must open the next nose pack you can unlock them all for $0.99.

As players progress throughout the levels more obstacles appear. The first few levels are very easy, designed so players can get a feel for the game. After these, challenges are thrown in. Some noses have teleport holes, creature eating traps, pimples and more elements that complicate the game.

Nose Invaders has Game Center support with leaderboards and over 15 achievements.

Overall, Nose Invaders is a fun and challenging puzzle game for the iPhone. Players will be delighted with the ease of controls, fun graphics, and challenging gameplay. Nose Invaders is suitable for all ages and promises hours of fun.

• Nose Invaders

Connecting via Wi-Fi is the top technical problem facing iPad 2 owners, according to a study by technical support help website FixYa.com.

Approximately 35 percent of iPad 2 owners in the study have issues with the tablet’s Wi-Fi. The top fix for the issue is to just turn the device’s Wi-Fi off and on. Another possible fix for the issue is to renew your DHCP lease, which can be done by choosing the “Renew Lease” button after selecting your network in the Wi-Fi settings menu.

Going down the troubleshooting list, users can then “Forget this Network” in the Wi-Fi settings. And as a last resort, the site says you can attempt to reset all of your network settings.

Backlight bleeding was reported by 15 percent of users. The only fix for that issue is to turn down the brightness button.

The third most prevalent issue, according to the study, is a computer not recognizing the iPad 2. After updating iTunes to the most recent version, users can try another USB connection and then hard reset the device and restart the computer.

While Apple’s tablet may have some issues, according to the study, the second most popular tablet in the fourth quarter, the Kindle Fire, has one-upped the iPad 2 in the technical problems category.

The Fire does suffer from some of the same Wi-Fi connection issues facing the iPad 2, but FixYa faults the one-click purchase ability of the Fire as a major issue. The report further stated that not having to enter a password for every purchase, like on the iPad 2, means Fire owners have to deal with the possibility of theft and accidental purchases putting a dent in their credit cards.

Other issues reported by Fire owners include the lack of parental settings and the computer’s inability to recognize the device.

What do you think about the stats from FixYa? Are the widespread reported Wi-Fi issues on iPad 2 really that prevalent?