Iphone

Apple doubles iPhone sales in 1Q

2012-01-28T13:13:00.000-08:00

For the first time, the device that changed how people use mobile phones, accounts for more than half of the behemoth company's sales.

Apple Inc. on Tuesday said it sold 37 million iPhones in the last three months of 2011, vastly exceeding analyst estimates and propelling the company to record quarterly results.
The phone accounted for 53 percent of Apple's revenue in the quarter. Though it has other hit products, like MacBooks and the iPad, they can't keep up with the iPhone, whose sales more than doubled over last year from an already high level.
The sales mean Apple is set to regain the position it briefly held earlier last year of being the world's largest maker of smartphones. Nokia Corp., the earlier No. 1, in transition to a new generation of smartphones, and more recent competitor Samsung Electronics Co. has announced preliminary figure of 35 million smartphones sold in the October to December period.
October saw Apple launching the iPhone 4S in the U.S. and some other countries. The phone was delayed for a few months, which meant that Apple's results for the July to September quarter were uncharacteristically tepid.
It came back with a vengeance in the holiday season. On Tuesday, Apple said net income in the fiscal first quarter, which ended Dec. 31, was $13.06 billion, or $13.87 per share. That was up 118 percent from $6 billion, or $6.43 per share, a year ago.
Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting earnings of $10.04 per share for the latest quarter, Apple's fiscal first.
Revenue was $46.33 billion, up 73 percent from a year ago. Analysts were expecting $38.9 billion.
"It was a pristine quarter," said ISI Group analyst Brian Marshall. "The investment community has never seen a company like this, inside or outside technology."
The stellar performance could re-establish Apple as the world's most valuable company, again toppling Exxon Mobil Corp. Apple first unseated Exxon last summer, and the two have been trading places since then.
Apple shares rose $30.67, or 7.3 percent, to $451.08 in extended trading, after the company released its results. If that rally sticks in Wednesday's regular trading sessions, Apple's market value will be hovering around $420 billion. Exxon's market value stood at $417.9 billion Tuesday, while Apple's was $391.9 billion at the end of regular trading.
Apple shipped 15.4 million iPads in the quarter, again more than doubling sales over the same quarter last year. The November launch of Amazon.com Inc.'s $199 Kindle Fire tablet didn't appear to put much of a dent in the iPad's sales, as some analysts predicted it would.
Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said the company expects earnings of $8.50 per share in the current quarter, and sales of $32.5 billion. Both figures are above the average estimate of analysts polled by FactSet, even though Apple usually low-balls its estimates.
The Cupertino, California company ended the quarter with a cash balance of a staggering $97.6 billion. That's more than enough to buy Citigroup Inc. outright, or issue a special dividend of $100 per Apple share.
For years, investors have been frustrated with Apple's unwillingness to put the cash to use, but complaints have been muted as Apple continues to generate record-breaking results and as the stock price keeps rising. Apple executives have said the cash hoard gives the company flexibility to make acquisitions and long-term supply deals.
Apple's results lifted shares of smaller companies that supply chips for the iPhone, like TriQuint Semiconductor, up 7.7 percent, Cirrus Logic Inc., up 6.8 percent, Broadcom Corp., up 4.2 percent, and Skyworks Solutions Inc., up 3.7 percent.
Apple co-founder and longtime CEO Steve Jobs died Oct. 5, just as the record-breaking quarter started.

No exploding iPhone in Singapore: SingTel

2012-01-28T13:12:00.000-08:00

Local telco SingTel said Friday that it was unaware of any iPhones exploding in Singapore.
Last week, 35-year-old Mr Z.M. Ong had told the media that his father's iPhone 4 had sparks and smoke coming out of it while it was being charged.

The phone reportedly gave out a loud exploding sound before blacking out, Mr Ong said. He also told Today newspaper that the one-year-old phone was replaced by SingTel for for free.
However, SingTel told The Straits Times that it was unaware of the case.
A SingTel spokesperson told the English daily that SingTel does not have a record of the incident or the handset exchange that was reported in the media.
The other two local telcos, StarHub and M1, also said they had not received reports of sparks coming from iPhones.
Industry professionals who deal in third-party iPhone repair services told the English daily that iPhone users should not worry about their devices blowing up as they had not encountered such cases in Singapore
Last year, two cases of exploding iPhones were reported in the international media - one in Brazil and the other in Australia. Both iPhone had emitted smoke before exploding while being charged on flights.
One problem the industry professionals did face was batteries which became burnt or bloated while being charged.
This could be due to users charging iPhones with chargers or cables not licensed by Apple, water damage, or overcharging, these industry professionals told The Straits Times.

Resetting Your iPhone

2012-01-19T19:01:00.000-08:00

Sometimes we need to take our devices and for whatever reason, give them a new life. The best way to do this is to take your iPhone back to the original or factory settings. When you take them back to the factory setting, you are actually taking them to the default settings. This makes it appear fresh and new. If you plan on selling your iPhone, this is something that you must do.

One of the most important steps in resetting your iPhone to the factory settings is to backup your data. You want to make sure that you backup all of your important data. This data would or should such things as your contacts or address book, your photos, your videos and then any important documents that you might have on there. You can upload this data to the iCloud.

So now that we know what we must do, let's take a look at how you should do this. The first step that you want to take is to tap on “Settings” and then tap on “General”. Scroll down to the bottom and tap on “Reset”. The next thing that you should do is to tap on “Erase all content and settings”. Next you should enter the passcode of your device and then tap on “Erase iPhone”. That is all there is to it.

Again the most important step to take is to backup your important data first. The majority of iPhone models will only take a few minutes, but in some instances it might take an hour. Just take your time and be sure to get run the backup and then you can give your iPhone a new life. You will be glad that you gave your iPhone a new and fresh start. If you are not sure of what you are doing, go ahead and then feel free to get someone to help you.

The Water Charger

2012-01-19T18:20:00.000-08:00

Would you ever consider charging your iPhone with water instead of electricity? Well believe it not, this is something that you can now do. There is a company in Sweden that has created a charger called PowerTrekk. This is a small and portable charger that you can take with you wherever you go.

The charger consists of an eye glass case and a water tray. And the charger is actually a fuel cell. The fuel cell uses water as power. This is a fantastic charger and is useful if you are camping over the weekend and is especially useful for hunters or for people that spend a lot of their time outdoors. If you are away from a power outlet, then this is the specific charger to use. It can offer you the power that you need to charge up your electronic equipment that might include your smartphone, your digital camera and your GPS device.

Once you purchase the charger, you need to understand how to set it up. This is an easy process, so here is how you do this. Put water in the water tray and then connect your iPhone or electronic devise to the charger using a USB cable. This is one of the best features about this device is that fact that you can connect the charger to any device by using a USB cable.

You may be wondering how power is generated. The charger is contained in what is known as a Powepukk. This case is lined with sodium silicide which when combined with water produces hydrogen gas. This gas is used to help generate power. This unit will be available in either May or June and will have a price of around $200-$250. You can replace the tray if you have to for around $4.

Can Siri Sit on an Older Device?

2012-01-19T13:03:00.000-08:00

Have you met the latest personal assistant? If not, let me introduce you to Siri. She is the newest digital assistant that was introduced by Apple. People are intrigued with her ability to answer your questions. She has been all over the Internet and she is the force behind many jailbreak tweaks. The big thing right now is that people want to be able to use Siri on their older Apple devices.

There are all types of developers out in the developer world that are trying to get Siri to work on these older devices. Some of the attempts have been fruitless, while other attempts have just recently become somewhat successful. The attempts have even tried to make that occur on non-Apple devices such as on Android devices. So is there a way to get Siri on your older Apple devices?

Actually, the answer is yes, however, you must be careful. There is a Twitter user who has been able to do this. He took a brand new iPod Touch and restored the iPod from the previously backed up data of an iPhone 4S. Once the restore was completed, Siri was found on the device. Now it is extremely important to note that there were a lot of bugs and the device crashed a lot and he had to restart it each time that it crashed.

When you do the backup, there is a problem because the device is unable to connect to Apple’s server so most of the most important features do not function. However, the interface is actually there. Our Twitter experimenter also ran the restore on his Verizon iPhone 4. He had the same results. He had a Siri interface that crashed quite a bit. He did get a lot of flawless dictation support.

Since it is possible to take the restore this far, it might only be a matter of time before a developer takes it the rest of the way. Even though it can be done, you must remember that it is really a non-functioning Siri at this point.

The New Android Wikipedia App

2012-01-19T08:21:00.000-08:00

When I was going to school, if I had to do some research, then I would go to the bookshelves in my home or go to the library and pull out the encyclopedia. Today, I’m not even sure if kids know what an encyclopedia is. The research tool that they use is on the computer and is called Wikipedia.

Well, now you don’t have to get on the computer to view it. If you are an Android user, there is now an official Wikipedia app. It is free and offers quite a few features. Some of these features include the ability to save an article for viewing later on offline, searching for articles that are nearby, sharing articles with friends and reading articles in different languages. If you are trying to search for a particular article, you can do that in a full –screen format.

This application if out there for those of you who want to get more information or for those of you that are just trying to get an education. If you are wondering what people seem to be thinking about this app, you can relax, because early comments appear very positive about this brand new application. For those of you who couldn’t reach it yesterday due to the blackout, it appears as if those that had this application on their Android phones were still able to search for articles yesterday.

For those not sure what I was talking about, yesterday in an effort to block a bill that was being considered in Congress, the Wikipedia site was down all of yesterday. It is evident that these efforts were successful as many sponsors of the bill quickly dropped their sponsorship. This bill would have affected everyone that even ventures onto the Internet as well as having repercussions to those that may not even use the Internet or may not use it very much. It was rather refreshing to see how people globally came together.

Post Your Video to Google+

2012-01-19T06:47:00.000-08:00

As Google works on updating the Google+ product, we are going to look at a new feature that they have recently added. This new feature is a video sharing feature that has been added to this new social network. What is going to be interesting to see about this new feature is what kind of effect this will have on Google’s YouTube product. Potentially, this could take away some of the traffic that is currently going to YouTube.

With the new feature, Google+ users can share video updates with those are in their circle. Prior to this feature, a lot of people have been doing this with YouTube. The thought is that if you no longer need to visit a particular video sharing site to post videos so that a certain audience can view it, then why would users do that?

If you want to share a video on Google+, all you have to do is to click a button to record the video and when you are done, the video will be pushed into the user’s video stream. So what does YouTube offer that will keep users using this product. One advantage that is currently available is the fact that with YouTube, you can monetize your video. However, if you are not trying to monetize your videos, then you can use Google+ to get your video out there to your social network.

Though it is still new and in the building stage, Google+ may someday give Facebook a run for its money in the social network arena. Most of those that use Google+ are not your family and friends. You have a better chance of seeing your business associates on there. There are still families that are trying to the grandparents onto Facebook. It will be difficult to switch them especially if they are new to the whole social networking concept.

2D or 3D Printing app by Sculpteo

2012-01-17T21:15:00.000-08:00

There are two types of printing. What we are used to is 2D printing. A new rage to hit the printing scene is what is known as 3D printing. It has made a hit in designer shops and it actually offers a lot of advantages over the more traditional methods of production. This is especially true for concept modeling. This type of printing program has now come to the iPhone.

A company from France called Sculpteo has created this iOS app. With this app, you can select an object that you would like to print. You can then make quick projects like mugs, vases, iPhone case, etc. Once you have created the model, your project goes to Sculpteo, the French company. Once they receive it, they will print it for you. It will cost you about $30 - $40 to have your object printed in 3D.

Now you might find along the way that you might want to make some changes or modifications as you are working on the project. That is possible and is to be expected. It is important to remember that not all objects that are virtually-created can be created the same way in the real world. It is definitely something that could be fun to play with and actually test drive the whole idea.

So definitely, printing has come a long way. If you are into designing or would like to make some of your own projects, then you should definitely look into this app. Have some fun or get real serious about your printing projects. This is one app that you will want to check out to see really what neat objects that you can create. So why not give it a try and see what you can create and then print either in 2B or 3D.

The QuasiDisk Application

2012-01-17T20:30:00.000-08:00

IOS 5 was released in October of this past year. As part of this release came the opportunity for developers to start working with iCloud storage, Twitter and a new Game Center. Icloud gives applications the ability to store documents and key value data in the cloud. The service will also automatically push data and content to users' devices and also automatically update them.

An application has been developed by the name of QuasiDisk. This can be found in the iTunes App Store. It is found in the utilities section. It can be used on all iPhones and iPod Touches that can run the iOS 5. Basically, this app is a file manager and lets users user whatever files, photos or documents that are desired and these can be used on the go.

User’s files can be added to QuasiDisk several different ways. They can be added using USB iTunes file sharing, through WiFi over the integrated FTP server or by syncing files with an iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or Mac over the iCloud service. You'll find that the QuasiDisk is easy to use and that it is clean, fast and user friendly.

The application can support a variety of file types. These include Apple's pages documents, keynotes presentations, spreadsheets, .pdf, .doc, .xls, PowerPoint formats, .txt, .rtf, .html, various video types and various audio types. If there is a file type that is not supported, there is a fall back that has been built into the application that will allow the file to open in an application that does support that file type.

We spoke earlier about the fact that the interface was very user friendly. It is simple and easy to use. It in inexpensive at a price of only $1.99 and is well worth trying it out as well as giving you an opportunity to try out the iCloud.

The WritePad Application

2012-01-17T12:32:00.000-08:00

In our discussion we are going to discuss a piece of software that is available for the iPad. The name of the software is WritePad and it has been developed by PhatWare. It has recently been upgraded to version 6.0 and has a new multilingual handwriting recognition engine. This new engine supports English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.

The software allows the user to take notes in their own handwriting. They can use the iPad stylus pen or they can even write with their own finger. This software will adapt to and learn the user’s style of writing. The software also recognizes simple gestures to do such things as select text, cut, and copy or paste text and also insert special characters.

Here are some of the other features that you will find in this software. You can email, tweet, print, or post Facebook updates directly from WritePad. You can synchronize WritePad documents with Dropbox, Evernote and iTunes. You can also upload documents to Google Docs. You can use the Bing Translator and translate documents to the supported languages. You can change the way WritePad looks by manipulating the text, the page, and the ink colors using the customizable Styles feature.

This software will improve your productivity as it can use inline gestures, a spell checker, a content analyzer and shorthand features. The statistical analyzer that is built into the software will help you improve your overall handwriting recognition quality by addressing common recognition errors. As we already mentioned, the WritePad can also learn the handwriting style of the user. This software will definitely help you as you create and edit your text documents and use the handwriting recognition engine or the iPad keyboard for entry of your text in landscape or portrait mode. Give this software a try and see how it can improve your writing.

The Quck Contacts Application

2012-01-17T12:06:00.000-08:00

With the global use of smartphones, users have eagerly either looked for or developed their own tweaks that would make their device experience easier. The idea of these apps is to save time by automating particular tasks or giving shortcuts to some of the most often used settings. One of these tweaks is known as SBSettings and it gives users access to a variety of the most used settings on the device.

The most recent tweak is the one called Quick Contact. This is a web based service that brings Android type contact shortcuts to your hands. Created by Jeff Broderick, this service gives users the ability to set up Springboard shortcuts to quick dial, or compose a quick text message to any user of your choice. These quick shortcuts are displayed as icons on the Springboard of the device. The icon image is set from a list of defaults inside of the app, and the name is defined by the user.

Currently in Quick Contacts there are fifteen options that you can choose from as far as the icon artwork is concerned. You can however, upload your own icon artwork if you have some of your own that you would prefer to work with.

After taking a closer look at this service, you can definitely say that it provides a great function. The question remains however if the function is really that useful. It seems as if there are a lot of developers that are using URL schemes to offer user shortcuts.

Now shortcuts can be very useful, but one can always wonder if it is quicker than just going in and adding a contact to the favorites list of the phone application. If you use Quick Contacts, the app still has to start Safari and then launch the phone app.

Enable iMessage to Automatically Sync

2012-01-17T08:20:00.000-08:00

Is it possible to take one item at one of your devices and then reach it on another device? The answer to that is yes. One of the features of iOS 5 is what is known as automatic Sync. An example of this is if you have a picture on your iPhone then it will be automatically reached on your iPad.

There is an iMessage app that Apple introduced. This works on the iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad. The only thing unique about this is that it does not sync between the various devices. After further investigation into this, it appears as if the iPhone 4S uses the Phone number in iMessage instead of the email address. This is why there is not an automatic sync between the devices.

However, do not despair. You can enable the iMessage app to sync between all of your devices. The first step is to go into your setting and open up Message. The next step is to click on the “receive at section”. After that, you want to click on the Caller Id. Next you want to make sure that you click on the Email Address and make sure that there is a check mark next to it.

These steps will enable iMessage to sync between iPhone, iPod Touch and your iPad. A neat feature with this is that you can start to chat on one device and end the chat on another device. All of your message will automatically sync between your various devices.

If you find that it doesn’t seem to work right away, just go ahead and send a message to the same person from each device. You will soon find that it works fine. This is a really neat app and one that will make your chatting and messaging experience really exciting.

The GroupShot Application

2012-01-16T20:14:00.000-08:00

There are a variety of photo editing programs available on the market. These are other than the two main applications which are Photoshop and Gimp. Now thanks to the Apple App store and the Android Market, these additional photo editing programs are found in these places.

Some of these apps do some really wild things and offer some crazy effect. There were some apps that let you make people look fat, old or bald. There were apps that let you use face detection technology. These apps allowed you to for example do some blending of various facial features. A lot of these have not been available on the mobile devices. There is however a brand new app called GroupShot.

GroupShot allows photos to be fused together in order to get rid of imperfections in your photo albums. You can pick multiple photos from a variety of sources and touch the problem area and the app will replace the bad smile or imperfection with a greater more photogenic version that will come from the collection that you initially picked.

So actually you can take the bad photo and turn in into the perfect group picture. This app only costs you .99. This is really one of the best apps out there for touching up your photos. So if you want to perfect your photos, then this is the app that you must get.

The company itself has great financial support. For the user this is great because you can purchase this app with a good feeling that the company won't be going under anytime soon. Their future plans are to launch more apps related to the photo industry. With GroupShot out there it will be interesting to see what else they will be coming up with in the next several months.

The SessionFiend Application

2012-01-16T19:06:00.000-08:00

Jailbreaking is something that is very popular for those that have idevices. There are many reasons that that people want to go through the jailbreaking process with their devices. A few reasons include options for additional features, getting past Apple's hold over the idevices and adding modifications to the device.

If you have an iPhone or an Apple device a benefit is that you have access to the Internet. The safari browser does prove a great surfing experience. The version on the mobile phones is not a full version like the desktop version, as some of the main functions are missing on the iOS versions.

If you have a device that is jailbroken, you also have a device that offers you a lot of freedom. You are now able to enhance some of the applications that exist because you can download tweaks and releases that are in the Cydia store.

There is a new tweak that is available that tries to increase and enhance the user experience of the mobile Safari browser. This tweak is known as the SessionFiend and it brings session management functions to the mobile Safari browser.

With this tweak, you can save a group of tabs for reading and looking at a later time along with the ability to open up a group of tabs at a certain time. If you use this browser on a desktop, you can set a number of websites to open up in tabs when the browser is started. Before SessionFiend, this was not available on the mobile version. Thanks to SessionFiend it is now available on the mobile version.

Available to users at a price of $1.00, with it soon to be going to $1.50, users can find this in the BigBoss repository. It is compatible with iOS 5 and works on the iPhone and iPad. It will only work on a jailbroken device. This tweak will also fit quite well into the browser's bookmark list. It gives it a native look and feel. The different options and sessions can be configured from the application' bookmarks panel.

The AirForShare Application

2012-01-16T17:53:00.000-08:00

It's another new application that might be something that might catch your interest. This application was developed by the BirdsCorp. It allows multiple iOS devices to wirelessly share text, links and files between each other and OS X but also between Windows computers and Windows Phone devices. Basically, it is a service that offers easy sharing between devices that normally are incompatible devices.

It is not a difficult process, but there are a couple of steps that must be taken. Files must first be uploaded to the AirForShare web server and then files must be downloaded by anyone that is connected to the same WLAN. The application is free application and offers a free service. A great feature is the fact that there are no advertisements showing up anywhere.

Now there are some things that you should be aware of if you are planning on or even considering downloading this app. The files that are uploaded have to be no larger than 5MB. What this means is that you can't share any large audio or video files. Something else to remember is that these files will only remain on the server for half an hour. This is not a long-term file storage option. There are plenty of other places to store your files.

Something important to remember is that only compatible files can be opened after you have downloaded the files. Some examples of the files that can be opened include .pdf files, .jpg files, text files, .gif files and Mp3 files. Again, this application is free and can be downloaded from the App Store. This is a great application for those users that are interested in sharing their files between various devices. So if this appears or seems to be an application that might interest you, then you should go ahead and download it. This is free so why not go ahead and try it.

The iEagleEye App

2012-01-16T14:54:00.000-08:00

A new tweak created by Nikos Lykousas is one that provides users with different options that many users have asked for. It is in the area of image selection areas of Safari and the Mail apps. If you tap and hold an image, this tweak will give the user an additional set of options in the user interface action sheet.

I’m sure that you are wondering what options this new tweak gives to users. This new tweak offers users the ability to find the original source of an image, find duplicates of images or similar images that are out on the Internet, see the EXIF/XMP metadata of the image, do a Google search by an image, do a reverse image search using TinEye, use Jeffrey’s Exif viewer if the image has EXIF/XMP data, image operation meta tool.

For all of these options, the users always have the option of either enabling or disabling the newly created settings entry on the device. iEagleEye also gives users the ability to copy the image URL and open the image in a new tab if the user wants to.

The tweak costs $.99 and is available for download from the BigBoss repository in the Cydia store. If you are an iOS user who has to deal with media related attachments or downloads quite a bit, then this tweak is just for you.

This tweak solves an area which a lot of users have had issues with. The issues have occurred in the native Mail and Safari applications when users have tried to save images from the web or from an email that they have received. Generally, this only gives users the option to save the image to the Camera Roll. For many users this is just fine. However, those that want to get a little fancier were unable to do this until this new iEagleEye tweak came to the forefront.

How to Change Your Fonts

2012-01-16T13:50:00.000-08:00

If you are an owner of an iPhone, iPad or the iPod Touch, you may want to change the font on some of your documents. Thanks to the Cydia store, you are now able to do that with the application known as BytaFont. This application will help you to change the fonts in your iDevice. It is not hard to use and there are a lot of fonts that are compatible with this application. You must install Cydia on your device as well as make sure that your device is jailbroken. Another great part about this application is that it won’t cost you anything to get as it is free.

To obtain this application, go ahead and open up Cydia. Do a search for BytaFont. Once you find it go ahead and click on the app and then install it on your selected device. After you install the application, the next step is to install the fonts. There are a couple of ways that you can install the fonts. You can do a search for fonts in Cydia by going to the search tab and typing in fonts, or you can go to the packages and scroll down to the fonts packages to get the fonts that you want. Once you install the fonts that you want, you can open up BytaFont from the home screen and then click on the downloaded button to set as a new font. Once you restart your device, the new fonts will show up on your device.

There is another utility that will help you change your fonts. This is called Fontswap. It will also allow users to change fonts on their lockscreen, notes and email application. It also is found in the BigBoss repository and is also free of charge. You can find over 500 fonts for this app.

The Unlock FX Tweak

2012-01-15T19:13:00.000-08:00

There is a new tweak available in the Cydia Store. Just think, when you take advantage of the Cydia tweaks, you also increase the usage of your iDevice. These tweaks can add an amazing effect to your device and it can be shown to a lot a lot of people and it will also impress a lot of people. The new tweak available is called Unlock FX. It will add custom animation effects to your lockscreen.

This tweak was developed by a developer named Filippo Bigarella. He has developed and created a lot of famous tweaks. A couple of these tweaks are called Slideaway and Springtomizer2. This Springtomizer2 tweak lets the user change every effect found on your iPhone. This developer also created tweakweek. This is a Cydia tweak in which each developer involved with the development developed a Cydia tweak per day for 7 days.

The tweak that we are discussing, UnlockFX adds amazing effects for the unlock animation. There are more than 30 effects in the settings and they can be set for the Unlock Screen. Some are directional effects and some are for more complicated. The directional effects include Rotate Clockwise and AntiClockwise. Some of the more complicated effects are slide away, rotate and zoom out.

You can also set up a custom image. You can change the speed of the effect. This tweak is available for the iPhone, the iPad and the iPod Touch. Your device must be on iOS 5. This tweak is not free. It is available from the Cydia Store, and it is $1.99. So go ahead and get this even though it is not free. With the number of effects that are available, this is one that will be a lot of fun to get and play with. You will be pleased with the results that you get with this tweak.

Call of Duty Elite

2012-01-15T18:34:00.000-08:00

When I received some Christmas gifts lists from the grandchildren this year, one of the games that was requested was the Call of Duty. This game is considered to be of the top First Person Shooting games that has been released. The game started as a game on the PC and then it was expanded to various game consoles. It is now thanks to Activision also available to iOS devices. You can download this app from the Apple's App store.

In Call of Duty Elite, it is almost a social network. You can do all sorts of stat tracking and load out adjusting power in the palm of your hand. This was launched along with the Call of duty Modern Warfare 3. The Elite version is kind of like fantasy football. The players form groups with other playersand they can keep a track of their performance in MW4 in a variety of ways.

The app lets users see their profiles, view kill/death ratios, adjust their custom classes, meet and converse with other group members, see their recent match history as well as track their challenges progress and much more on their iOS devices. These services are available to both free and premium members of the Call of Duty Elite. Prior to this time, players of this had to sit in front of their PC or in front of their game consoles to handle all of this. Now it is possible for users to handle this on their smartphone and take it anywhere that they want to.

The app allows users to be able to see their profiles, look at kill/death ratios, adjust their custom classes, interact with clan members, view their recent match history, and track their challenges progress and much more on their iOS devices. These services will be available to both free and premium members of the Call of duty Elite.
Until now the players had to sit in front of a pc or a console to manage all this but now they can manage all that with the help of your smartphone easily and conveniently anywhere you want.

The LasApp Application

2012-01-15T17:46:00.000-08:00

If you are a developer, you probably fall into one of two categories. You are either one that everyone knows about or you are one of the developers that sits in the background and no one really knows about you. There is a developer who has kind of created his own category. This is Lance Fetters or ashikase as many people known him by. He is the developer that created the Folder Enhance tweak. This is the tweak that replaces the native iOS folder and integrates some other options such as pages inside of folders and the ability to scroll either horizontally or vertically.

The tweak that we want to take a look at today however is the LastApp. This has just been updated for iOS 5 and it lets the users have the ability to switch back to the last active application by way of the use of a customer defined gesture. The LastApp uses the activator to let users select the gesture they want for the LastApp to work. If the users have backgrounder installed, they can optionally set the current application to

background once they switch. With these option, users can either enable or disable additional setting that is included after the install of the LastApp extension.

The LastApp is free and can be found in the Big Boss repository. It works with various jailbroken devices that are running iOS 3.0 and higher. This app is similar from a functional point of view to the app Zephyr that was recently released by Grant Paul. With Zephyr, users can swipe between all applications in a multi-task switcher. If you are looking for an application that will let you use the functions of LastApp, then this is the application that you should look into purchasing. Again since this is a free application, it won't hurt you to get it and try it. See how it will help you in your computer experience. `

The ProTube Application

2012-01-15T12:33:00.000-08:00

When the first iPhone came out in 2007there was a native YouTube application that came with the iPhone OS. It was really convenient to have it on a device that I could carry with me wherever I went. Today that application is still available and there are still some shortcomings with this application.

A developer has stepped in and created an app that is available in the Cydia store and it is specifically for devices that have been jailbroken. The application is known as ProTube. What this application does is to bundle all of the features of the native application along with some other implementations and give added depth to the user experience. ProTube gives the user the regular browsing and commenting options as well as allowing the user to view videos in either standard or high definition. The users can also manage their own account if they are registered users and they can also store an unlimited number of videos on the device so that they can watch them off online.

Another feature that this app allows the users to do is to only save the audio of a particular video into an MP3 format. These MP3 files can be displayed in an easily managed format with additional options for the users to use regular gestures to delete and rename the file. The users can also add the video to a camera roll or email the video through the native email application.

If you are a user that dislikes advertisements, the app has ad blockers built into the application that will get rid of those advertisements. This is a great application that will allow you to stream videos straight to your TV. This application can be found in the Big Boss repository and will cost you $1.49. It is compatible with iOS4 and above phones.

The iRig Mix Device

2012-01-15T08:15:00.000-08:00

Does music rule your life? Are you unhappy with the music that you've been hearing up until this moment? So you really want to create your own music and really listen to your own music? Do you want to mix and produce your own music? There is now a device out on the market that will let you do just that. It is the first mobile mixer and it is available for your iPad, iPod Touch and your iPhone. Created by IK Multimedia, it is called iRig MIX.

It is must like a professional DJ mixer and has effects like EQ and Volume controls as well as cross fader cues. It is portable and you can use it with many of the DJ mixing apps that are available on the internet. You can use it with two devices and each device can be plugged into each of the independent channels. If you have only one device, then you can set that up also. You can use it to mix any type of audio source such as an MP3 player or a CD player.

If you are ready to be a DJ or you just want to mix and produce your own music, iRig MIX is for you. You can create beats, or create the kind of music that you've always wanted to hear. You can let your friends and family hear the mixes that you have created at a party or at your home. You have regular RCA connectors so that you can plug and connect anywhere and just start your mixing. You get 4 free apps with this rig. These apps are DJ Rig, AmpliTube, VocaLive and GrooveMaker. So if you are ready to create your own music, there is nothing stopping you from doing just that. Time to get busy and make your own music.

The Windows 7APL

2012-01-15T07:32:00.000-08:00

I love to find new applications that will make my life on the computer much easier. As I was reading about some new applications, I came across this one that definitely can save some work on my Windows 7 PC. The app is known as the Windows 7APL or the Windows 7 Application Launcher.

If you are an Outlook user, or you want to jump in and out of Facebook or any number of other applications, it can be a task that takes a lot of time. Either that or you have a lot of other windows open. Now there is always the option of opening your desired applications when the computer starts up. This however may not be what you are looking to do.

Windows 7APL to the rescue. This app lets users open certain applications or groups of applications with just one click. You can group the applications together based on the function and then launch them with just one click of your mouse. If you would rather use your keyboard to work certain keyboard shortcuts, you can set particular keystrokes to help you launch your set of application batches.

Let me give you some examples of how this app works. You could create social media group that might include your Facebook app, your Twitter app and maybe your Flickr app. You might create a Microsoft group that might include your Word and Excel programs. Another group could include your Browser apps such as Chrome and Internet Explorer. Remember once you create your group, everything in that group is opened up with a single click of your mouse.

This app is found in a zip file so that all you have to do is to extract it. There is a tutorial available on how to set this up at How to Geek. So if you want to make your computer experience a little easier, go ahead and get Windows 7APL.

Enhance Spotlight with CommandSpot

2012-01-14T20:50:00.000-08:00

There is a new app that combines with the search feature Spotlight that accepts users commands to perform certain system actions as well as launching native applications. The Spotlight search feature is found on the iPhone, the iPad and the iPod Touch. This features lets users quickly search contacts, mail metadata, calendars, media and other installed applications. This feature has been available on the Mac since 2005. The feature on the iOS version does not offer all of the functions that you will find on the desktop, but it still works as a functional search feature.

As developers are known to do, there was one that decided to increase the functions that Spotlight could offer to users by developing a new tweak which connects directly with Spotlight. The ideas was to add full speed and enhanced functionality with additional support for native application launches.

This tweak does come with some predetermined commands which limit what the user can and cannot do with the tweak. There are 14 of these commands and they are listed as follows.

Respring – automatically resprings the device Springboard.
Reboot – automatically reboots the device.
Turn off – powers down the device.
Settings – launches the settings application.
Wifi – launches the wireless internet settings.
Sms – launch and compose a new SMS.
Google – launch Safari and load Google homepage.
Yahoo – launch Safari and load Yahoo.
CNN – launch Safari and load CNN.
Bing – launch Safari and load Bing.
Fb – launch the Facebook application
FB profile – Launch Facebook application directly to your profile page.
Tw – launch official Twitter application.
Tw [user] – launch Twitter application and display a specific users profile.

From this list, you can see that this tweak provides a lot of options that are really standard. You can also see what can be done through this tweak by using cmd with spotlight and in Safari will show you a list of possible options. It is free of charge and you can get it in the ModMyi repository and you must have a jailbroken device.

Apple Stores in Target Retail Establishments

2012-01-14T19:39:00.000-08:00

If you are looking for a place to purchase an Apple device, you typically have to count on going to an Apple store. May 19^th, 2001 was the first time that this type of store appeared in the United States. These stores were started in Virginia. This was a different way of doing business as it was also the first time that a company showed their own products in their own store. Prior to this date, you could find their products in either electronic stores or in the big box computer stores.

At the time that they entered into the retail business, a lot of people were questioning this move and the decision that the company had made. They however had to come up with a way to combat the poor marketing of their products as well as the fact that they were losing their share in the computer industry. What they felt was that if they were to open their own store, then they would have complete control over how they would handle their products when it came to marketing them.

So what Apple has done in the way of stores is rather interesting. There are 361 retail stores. These stores bring in around $4032 per square foot which is extremely successful. To put this in perspective, stores like Best Buy usually bring in around $900 per square foot. Apple also have official resellers that try to mimic the Apple experience. There are also some stores that have a mini Apple store inside of a big store. Best Buy is an example of a store that does this as they has some smaller Apple stores set up inside of their stores.

Target has just announced that they are going to go the mini Apple store route. They are going to put an apple mini store in 25 of their retail stores. Now many of us have seen the McDonalds that appear in some of the Wal-Marts. This is not what Apple is going to be doing. It will actually give Apple products an extended area on the floor while still showing that you are in a Target store. Thought that has been announced, at this time the location and the time frame of when this would actually start has not yet been released.