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Microsoft Office For iPad Reportedly In The Works

2011-12-01T19:41:00.000+13:00

Microsoft is reportedly working on bringing a version of its hugely successful Office suite to apple’s iPad, according to The Daily. Set to go head to head with Apple’s own iWork suite of productivity apps, Office would bring Microsoft’s Word, Excel and PowerPoint to the tablet that is undoubtedly number one in its field.

Currently, the only tablets that can even think about running Microsoft Office are Windows tablets and until Windows 8 launches, the less said about those the better.

Bringing the world’s favorite suite of productivity apps to iOS would also coincide with a set of updated apps built for Mac OS X Lion as well, according to the report. The Windows version of Office is also due a refresh.

The apps would retail for around $10 each according to The Daily’s sources, which would bring them in line with similar Office-like apps on the App Store which come from Apple themselves in the form of the iWork suite. Microsoft already has apps on Apple’s online software store, so getting the apps into the hands of the public wouldn’t be a difficult job.

According to The Daily’s report; Microsoft’s Office is the company’s second highest generator of revenue behind only Windows, making it patently obvious why bringing the collection of applications to the iOS platforms would make a great deal of sense.

If Microsoft does bring Office to iOS then it will once again open the debate whether the iPad is a viable machine for creating content on. With its on-screen touch-based keyboard; the iPad has proven to be an adequate machine for editing files on the fly, but we’re not sure we would want to write a whole article on one unless absolutely pushed to do so. With that in mind, we probably wouldn’t get much use out of Microsoft Office, either.

Another iPhone 4 Catches Fire In Brazil

2011-12-01T19:12:00.000+13:00

Fire can be a wonderful thing, you just ask the cavemen! Those flickering orange flames aren’t so great when they’re emitting from your smartphone, though.

That’s even more true when those flames begin to engulf an iPhone that is plugged into an electrical source.

Unfortunately, it appears that our recent report of an iPhone catching fire on an internal Australian flight may not be an isolated incident, with news that a similar iPhone 4 also set itself alight when on charge overnight at a Brazilian residence.
The iPhone in question was on charge just a foot from its owner’s face when it apparently began to smoulder, a sure sign that something isn’t right if you ask us!

This isn’t the first time an iPhone has found itself a little warmer than Apple intended. Earlier this week we told you about an iPhone 4 reportedly emitting black smoke during a flight in Australia. With the plane safely on the ground safety officers are now trying to work out what the catalyst could be for an expensive, premium smartphone spontaneously self-combusting.

Apple has not yet commented either the incident in Australia, or the one in Brazil which happened when the handset was on charge. With millions of iPhones being left plugged into the wall overnight, let’s hope that charging is not a catalyst for the overheating that apparently caused these two fires.

At the moment all possibilities are merely speculative, but the finger is being squarely pointed at the batteries used in Apple’s iPhones. If you own an iPhone and charge it regularly, chances are you’ve noticed yourself how toasty your handset can get. The iPhone 4S even gets quite warm during seemingly trivial tasks, and we’re blaming iOS 5. Whether the two troublesome handsets to be set alight were running iOS 5, we’re not sure, but an increase in heat would match the decrease in battery life that many are experiencing.

Geohot Works For Facebook [Confirmed]

2011-06-28T01:40:00.002+12:00

Are you surprised? Yes that's right we have got some news that the most-famous hacker Geohot behind LimeRa1n jailbreak tool which still used till our day to jailbreak iOS devices. Anyway he dissapeard for some time but today we found that George Hotz (aka Geohot) is actually working for Facebook since May, but why do you think Geohot is working for Facebook? Check Geohot Facebook profile below:

The come-back of Geohot to Facebook amazed all the Dev-Team members and especially P0sixninja who made a video talking about the come-back of Geohot again. Surprisingly, you can't add Geohot on Facebook as there's no "Add as a Friend" button. Interesting, isn't it?

Now give us your thoughts about what kind of work is he doing for Facebook?

[via iDB]

Apple VS Microsoft - The History Of Computing (Infographic)

2011-06-28T01:39:00.001+12:00

99% of Computer users either use Apple's Mac OS X or Microsoft's Windows but let's see which is older and which is better. The below infographic by Manolution shows you the history of Computing in the last 30 years and shows a great time-fighting between Apple and Microsoft. Have fun.

[via RedmondPie]

Now Wi-Fi Sync Is Available With iOS 5 Beta 2

2011-06-26T18:11:00.000+12:00

Apple has dropped iOS 5 beta 2 yesterday and here comes some new changes in it. This feautre is most exciting one in iOS 5 beta 2... Wi-Fi sync with iTunes (on Mac OS X) is now working.

To enable iOS 5 beta 2, you must install iOS 5 beta 2, iTunes 10.5 beta and a Wi-Fi connection. Then follow the steps below as on iDB:

1: Install iOS 5 beta 2 on your iOS device.
2: Install iTunes 10.5 beta on your computer.
3: Plug your device into your computer and open iTunes.
4: In iTunes under the summary tab for your device, enable “Sync over Wi-Fi connection” and sync your device via the usb connection.
5: Untether your device from USB, and your device will still be recognized by iTunes!
6: Drag and drop files from iTunes to your device, and wipe the tears from your eyes as you watch Wi-Fi sync work for the first time.

Here's a video in action:

[via iDB]

iPhone 6 With A6 Chip Coming In 2012

2011-06-26T18:09:00.001+12:00

iPhone 5 hasn't been released yet, but look what at what this Chinese newspaper claims. Commercial Times reports that Apple is currently working on a new iPhone 6 with what it calls A6 Chip. The report says that the A6 chips will not be manfauctured by Samsung, but by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).

In another report from Digitimes, Apple would manufacture 15 million iPhone 5s will be available in the first 4 weeks from its relase in August or September.

Keep in touch and we'll be covering any more news.

JailbreakMe 3.0 Release Date, not for iPad 2

2011-06-26T18:07:00.000+12:00

HOW MUCH WILL WE WAIT FOR THE iPAD 2 JAILBREAK? A question lots of people have been asking to me and to the hackers are promising to jailbreak the iPad 2. Everyone is now waiting for the well-popular iPhone hacker Comex to release his magic jailbreak tool, JailbreakMe 3.0, for iPad 2. Comex is now giving all his efforts to finish this userland jailbreak and draw the happiness on people's face.

According to some tweets from Comex, he's trying to fix any problems with the unionfs in the upcoming few hours. Ladies and gentlemen, we're about to see iPad 2 jailbreak in less than few days. May be now or may be tomorrow. OH, or may be this weekend, remember? Sunday is a Fun-day, Dev-Team's logo.

We'll be here anytime it's released. We'll show the important guides to jailbreak iPad 2 whenever the tools are available for download.

Smaller iPhone, iPhone 5, And iPad 3 Emerge [Hot News!!]

2011-06-23T03:25:00.001+12:00

According to a report published today, the release of the next-generation iPhone has been pushed back to September, in order to release it simultaneously with iOS 5. According to people familiar to the matter, we might also see a cheaper scaled-down version of the iPhone, similar to the iPhone 4, targeted for developing countries.

Just yesterday, the whole iPhone community was on fire when news broke that the next-generation iPhone would be released in August. That even prompted Joshua Hill, developer of jailbreaking GreenPois0n, to promise a jailbreak for that next-generation iPhone in September, if we indeed saw an iPhone 5 the month before.

However, according to two people familiar with the matter, the next iPhone will indeed not be a significant upgrade, expected to include a dual-core A5 and an 8-megapixel camera, which is consistent with previous rumors. Indeed, we’re unlikely to see any major upgrade in features or the casing, which are both expected to be identical to the current iPhone. The next-generation iPhone will come out at the same time as iOS 5, according to this report.

Maybe more importantly, we’re now learning that Apple might be in the process of finalizing a cheaper iPhone, aimed to attract customers in developing countries. While details are still scarce, the source points out that such a cheaper model would be identical to the 1-year-old iPhone 4. While there’s no indication whether we’ll see this smaller model in September or sometime next year, this continues a long chain of rumors that started back in 2007 which suggested that Apple could be working on an "iPhone nano".

Lastly, it was also revealed that the future iPad, likely to come out next year, will feature a higher-resolution screen, about one-third higher than the one found on the iPad 2, as well as more responsive multitouch. The iPhone 4 included a much-increased resolution, marketed as "Retina Display", although it was left out of the iPad 2, likely due to its larger screen size.

In the world of never-ending rumors, sometimes "confirmed" reports aren’t necessarily true. Yesterday’s rumor that we’d see an iPhone redesign was quickly squashed, leaving us to what we suspected before: a smaller iPhone upgrade with improved hardware but no new features. What we’re sure about, however, is that Apple is starting to wind down manufacturing of the current iPhone, which is a pretty accurate indication that a new one is coming.

(via Bloomberg)

Apple’s 2011 ‘Back To School’ Promotion Launches In US & Europe; Buy A Mac, Get $100 Gift Card For App Store

2011-06-17T11:57:00.000+12:00

Apple has started offering $100/€75 gift card for free for those people who buy a Mac. This is a part of their annual Back to School promotion and it starts today in both US and European countries.

Yesterday, a number of sites received a tip which indicated that this year’s Back to Schoolpromotion will offer a $100/€75 gift card which can be used in the Mac App Store, iTunes Store, iOS App Store and for purchasing ebooks from the iBook store.

Apple today has finally made things official. Here’s the deal:

When you buy a new qualifying Mac with Apple education pricing* from June 16, 2011, through September 20, 2011, you’ll get a $100 Back to School Card to use on the Mac App Store, the App Store, the iTunes Store, and the iBookstore.

Previous promotions offered a $199 iPod Touch instead of a gift card, so it is a bit of a disappointment that the promotion has been, well, dumbed down. Response to this decision isn’t much positive either.

However, this decision may be justified; the iPod Touch is an immensely popular product and Apple, keeping this in mind, has decided to push apps and other media (music, movies, eBooks) instead of an already popular product.

$100 for the abovementioned stores isn’t bad at all, actually. You can gets dozens of apps from the iOS App Store or a handful from the Mac App Store. If apps aren’t your thing, you can always purchase about 100 songs or about a ten or so books from the iBookstore.

This year’s Back to School promotion is set to last from June 16th until September 20th, 2011.

More Details About Facebook’s New iPhone App Surfaces [Screenshots]

2011-06-17T11:49:00.000+12:00

Just hours ago, we reported on a leak that revealed a new photo sharing app Facebook has been working on. We’re now getting our hands on even more screenshots showcasing other features, such as commenting features built right in, as well photo capturing (although that wasn’t all that surprising).

Instead of nagging you with boring details, we’re cutting it straight to the chase: below are some of the features we found the most compelling from the mockups.

Photo capturing and sharing built right in:

As expected, this new app seems to allow users to capture pictures straight from the camera App. The capturing feature looks and feels very similar to the native iOS camera app, as you can tell from the pictures below:

Once users are done taking pictures, they can choose whether to share them or not. From the sharing screen, users can also insert tags if they’d like. Users apparently won’t be forced to share pictures right away either:

Single Shot and Multi-Shot Modes:

More interesting, this app seems to have two modes: single shot and multi-shot. While the former seems to be meant to be a quick way to take a photo, tag it, assign it to a place (yes, you can do that) and submit it; multi-shot lets you do the same thing, only with many pictures, presumably for big events, such as parties:

"Likes" and Comments:

This app will also be able to display likes and comments, as expected. Although the mockups below don’t look anywhere near finished, they hint at a possible slide-up function in order to unveil comments on any picture. We’ll have to see where this goes:

As you might expect, these mockups should look like early iterations of what the final app might look like. Some of the features, such as comments, look like they were taken straight from the the standard Facebook App (already available) without any kind of tweaking, or even retrofitting. Comments and location features will likely share the app’s overall dark and crisp look and feel, unless it gets scrapped when the final version comes out.

It’s also possible that all these features simply get folded into the standard Facebook app, although the company might be looking to do otherwise.

Google Can Track Your PC, iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android Phone And Other Devices

2011-06-17T11:34:00.000+12:00

If you’re obsessed about privacy, this should be a bad day for you: according to a research done over at CNET, Google is tracking users through their individual device addresses and making them searchable. How does it work? We’ll explain.

Most companies that own any kind of location services, such as Google, Microsoft or Apple, track the location of every device’s individual address as long as its connected to a Wi-Fi network. Those "individual addresses" are known as MAC addresses and are different for every device that’s able to connect to a network, much like fingerprints, and unlike IP addresses, these are embedded to the hardware itself.Android locates all visible MAC addresses on wireless networks nearby and sends the data back to Google.

While that alone might be enough to upset a few users, it now turns out that Google has made those MAC addresses fully searchable on its Maps service, theoretically allowing the location of users to be searched. That could be particularly creepy, or even dangerous, if criminals manage to get their hands on the MAC addresses of their victims, which can be easy if they have access to the hardware.

The situation might not be as bleak as it’s being made out to be, however. Google said in a statement that the MAC addresses of mobile devices are discarded:

We collect the publicly broadcast MAC addresses of Wi-Fi access points. If a user has enabled wireless tethering on a mobile device, that device becomes a Wi-Fi access point, so the MAC address of such an access point may also be included in the database. Wi-Fi access points that move frequently are not useful for our location database, and we take various step to try to discard them.

Still, some mobile addresses might sneak by, leading to the dangerous scenario we mentioned above. Even if mobile devices aren’t tracked at all, having all remaining MAC addresses searchable could still pose a risk, since it could reveal a user’s home address to someone ill-intentioned.

It’s important to keep in mind that it’s fairly difficult to obtain a MAC address remotely, which will likely keep pranksters from setting off a smelly bomb at your doorstep. However, users should somehow have the right to opt-out of being tracked entirely, if they so wish.

(via CNET)

Tracks Your iPhone’s Data Usage with DataMan, Helps Avoid Nasty Bills

2011-06-15T15:51:00.000+12:00

Our iPhones have become the home of our digital lives over the last few years. If you’re anything like me, then the chances are you spend more time fiddling around on your iPhone than you do using an actual computer these days. One of the main draws of smartphones is their ‘always-on’ nature – if you’re not sat at home connected to a WiFi network then there’s always the 3G signal when you’re out and about. The problem is 3G isn’t cheap, and with unlimited data plans fast becoming a thing of the past we all need a proper way of monitoring the amount of data we’re using, and the measuring built into iOS just won’t cut it.

This is where Dataman (or DataMan Pro, should you wish) comes in. By running in the background, DataMan is able to accurately track just how much data you are using and it can then present the information back in a graph.

The most powerful and precise weapon against data overage charges just got better! DataMan Pro monitors and manages your data usage in real time, closely tracking your data activities every 10 minutes. No other apps come close to DataMan for its precision. The advanced technologies and features in DataMan help you make smarter decisions to manage consumption, stop overage charges and save money.

DataMan can also use your location information to tell you where you use the most data – be it at the shops, at work or anywhere else for that matter. The time and date is also kept record of.

What makes DataMan the ultimate ‘huge overage bill avoider’ is its ability to let you know when you’re getting close to, or exceeding, pre-set thresholds. That way, after telling the app when your billing cycle begins, DataMan can let you know how much data you have used and more importantly, how much data you have left before your next bill is generated. Thresholds can be set on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

All this data can be exported using the iTunes file-sharing feature too, should you be the kind of person that likes to keep hold of information for later use.

DataMan is available in the Apple App Store for $1.99 (Pro version, price for a limited time) or free (standard version, doesn’t include GPS location data, threshold warnings and more) right now. We would heartily recommend the Pro version.

Top 10 Most Common iPhone Passcodes - avoid them

2011-06-15T15:47:00.000+12:00

Daniel Amitay has developed an iPhone security App known as Big Brother Camera Security, which relies on the simple concept of capturing a picture of anyone who enters the wrong passcode when unlocking the device. Weirdly enough, the app also tracks passcodes (on an anonymous basis of course) for statistical purposes, which led Amitay to write a rather amusing blog post with the top 10 most used passcodes. And yes, the most used one is 1234, how did you guess?

As you can tell from the graphic above, the two most common passcodes are 1234, followed by 0000, at least out of all camera Security users. Security Savvy users should definitely know better, since the first codes any th*ef will likely try will be exactly those two, and therefore defeat the point of the Camera Security app altogether. Another popular pattern seems to be dates, such as 1998 and 1989, which are likely associated with birth and graduation dates, which is another big no-no if the th*ef happens to know a little about you (or takes the time to take a look at any ID you might have in your wallet). This also points to this app’s young user base, as its author concluded, which should definitely be more security-aware:

, any passcode between 1930 and 2020 has a much higher likelihood versus the average (represented by ****): at minimum a 50% gain, at maximum a 2570% gain. This data implies a heavy age range of 11 – 21 year olds.

15% of Camera Security users are using one of the codes listed above. If you’re using one of those, I’d recommend you change it quickly to something more unique: I tend to come up with two two-digit numbers that make sense to me and combine then – despite being fairly low-tech, that an effective and secure method.

This can appear rather shocking, but in fact it’s just a reflection of how little we really care about security. This applies to website passwords too, where 1234, birth dates and dictionary words are among the most popular. It’s a known fact that we only perceive threats when they’ve hit us in some way, it’s human nature. Until the time when we in fact do get hit and our personal data falls on the wrong hands.

Food for thought.

(For more tidbits, you can read Daniel’s full blog post here)

Redsn0w 0.9.8 iOS 5 Jailbreak Released For Windows

2011-06-14T14:21:00.001+12:00

Last Friday, we reported on Redsn0w 0.9.8, a new version of the well-known jailbreaking tool that supports iOS 5. Now, there’s a Windows version too!

As detailed by the iPhone Dev-Team in blog post, the Windows version of Redsn0w, just like the Mac version, will overwrite unlockable basebands, which can be a problem if your phone is unlocked:

UNLOCKERS AND THOSE PRESERVING THEIR UNLOCKABLE BASEBANDS SHOULD STAY FAR AWAY FROM THIS! You will very likely lose your unlockable baseband if you try to install iOS 5.

The developers also stressed that this tool is only meant for developers due to the bugs it’s currently plagued with:

THIS JAILBREAK IS INTENDED ONLY FOR DEVELOPERS OF JAILBROKEN APPS! There are just too many broken components (Apple’s official apps, 3rd-party App Store apps, Cydia apps, MobileSubstrate apps, etc) for this to be useful to anyone but those truly looking to fix bugs in their iOS 5 jailbroken apps. (Seriously!)

If you don’t have an Apple Developer account, Redsn0w will not force an activation either. Your device must already be activated:

THIS REDSN0W WILL NOT HACTIVATE 5.0b1! You need to be an iOS developer with a registered UDID to get past all the new activation screens. PLEASE DON’T PIRATE APPLE SOFTWARE! Only registered devs with Macs can develop iOS applications,

If you device isn’t currently activated, there’s a workaround, although it’s not legal. If you want to legally have access to iOS 5, you must purchase an Apple developer account for $99 per year.

Just like the Mac version, this is an tethered jailbreak, which means that you’ll have to run Redsn0w and plug your handset into your computer whenever you power your device on in order to boot into a jailbroken state. If a well-known iPhone developer is to be believed, an untethered jailbreak won’t be available anytime soon, due to changes made in iOS 5.

If you know how to apply Redsn0w on a Mac, you’ll feel right at home since the steps are the same.

Despite the "this is only for developers" warnings, many enthusiasts have probably been running iOS 5 for days. If you know were able to set up iOS 5, you’ll also likely be able to apply this jailbreak.

Happy hacking!

Download Redsn0w 0.9.8b1 for Windows

(via The iPhone Dev-Team)

How To Jailbreak iOS 5 Beta On Windows Using Sn0wbreeze 2.8 [Tutorial]

2011-06-14T14:14:00.003+12:00

Sn0wbreeze, a well-known jailbreaking tool for Windows, now has support for iOS 5 Beta, which was jailbroken recently using Redsn0w for Mac. As of yet, only tethered jailbreak is possible, meaning that you have to connect the device to a computer when powering it on, in order to boot it into a jailbroken state.

Supports the following Devices: –
iPhone 3GS
iPhone 4 [GSM]
iPhone 4 [CDMA]
iPod Touch 3G
iPod Touch 4
iPad 1G
* THIS IS INTENDED FOR DEVELOPERS ONLY!!!
* This sn0wbreeze does NOT add afc2 or Hacktivate to prevent users from removing the UDID check after jailbreak.
* UNLOCKERS SHOULD STAY AWAY!!!
* This is a /TETHERED/ jailbreak via iBooty.

The reason why you would want to use Sn0wbreeze is that it is currently the only jailbreak tool for iOS 5 Beta which is available for Windows users, and secondly, it will preserve your old baseband so that you can unlock your phone in future using Ultrasn0w.

It is important to note that the current version of Ultrasn0w unlock tool isn’t compatible with iOS 5 yet.
Creating Patched iOS 5 Firmware
1) Get all the software required in this tutorial: Download Sn0wbreeze 2.8b1 for Windows. You also need the full iOS 5 Beta firmware and iTunes 10.5, which can only be legally obtained if you’re a registered Apple developer

2) Run Sn0wbreeze and click the blue-colored arrow

3) At this point, Sn0wbreeze asks you to browse for the .ipsw firmware file. Locate the iOS 5 firmware you downloaded in step 1

4) Once Sn0wbreeze recognizes the firmware file, which can take a little while, you will be greeted with another screen. Please hit "next".

5) Now, out of all the options you should get, choose "Expert Mode" to apply standard jailbreak with Cydia installed. Then click "Build IPSW".

If everything has gone as expected, Sn0wbreeze should now be building your custom firmware. This process should require no interaction, so kick back and watch your favorite YouTube video or play the Pac-Man game when Sn0wbreeze offers. Whatever you do, do notcancel the process.

6) Now, you’ll have to enter DFU mode, which can be done easily

Loading iOS 5 Onto Your Device Using iTunes
7) After opening up iTunes 10.5 Beta, select your iOS device by clicking on its icon on the iTunes sidebar.

Press and hold Left “Shift” button on the keyboard and click on “Restore” button (see the screenshot below), and point the program to the custom firmware you’ve just created. Don’t click "Update", “Restore” or "Check for Update" options.

Wait until iTunes finishes installing iOS 5 onto your device. This process can take a few minutes, so please be patient. A clear done message will be displayed once it’s done.
Booting Into Tethered Mode

Since this is an tethered jailbreak, the device will have to remain plugged in on every reboot, in order to boot into a jailbroken state. You need to carry out these steps whenever you power on, or reboot your device.
In order to do that, we’ll use iBooty.

9) Start iBooty from your desktop, run it and select the device you’ve just jailbroken

10) Hit "Start" and follow the on-screen instructions, including entering DFU mode (again). Once that’s done, iBooty will automatically perform the necessary steps to boot your device into a clean jailbroken state.

That’s it! You should now be able to enjoy jailbroken iOS 5 beta on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

iCloud Uses Windows Azure Services For Hosting Data

2011-06-14T14:09:00.000+12:00

The wizards at InfiniteApple, a recently-established Apple-related blog have found out that Apple’s iCloud online services actually use third-party services, namely Amazon Cloud Services and Windows Azure.

It turns out that iCloud seems to use Windows Azure and Amazon Cloud Services for storage, as shown by a packet dump. Below we’re quoting some of the juicy parts:

PUT https://mssat000001.blob.core.windows.net:443/cnt/1234.5678 HTTP/1.1
Host: mssat000001.blob.core.windows.net:443
HTTP/1.1 201 Created
Content-MD5: [redacted]
Last-Modified: [redacted]
ETag: [redacted]
Server: Windows-Azure-Blob/1.0 Microsoft-HTTPAPI/2.0
x-ms-request-id: [redacted]
x-ms-version: 2009-09-19
Date: [redacted]
Connection: close
Content-Length: 0

While we’re no network experts, it’s pretty easy to infer that iCloud is using third-parties to store most data, including images, as explained by InfiniteApple. The dump above only shows references to Windows Azure, although the service contacts Amazon Cloud Services in a number of instances.

Yesterday, I went at great lengths to explain why I believe iCloud will have a great shot at realizing Microsoft’s original "software plus services" vision, since it does a lot to keep all devices owned by the same user in sync. While it’s rather funny that Apple has made a brand-new product that has technology made by one of its longtime rivals at its heart, I believe that’s not necessarily a downside: by outsourcing its storage and server management to an outside company, Apple can now spend more energy on making sure the product itself works.

Microsoft and Apple have worked together in the past. Back in 1997, when Steve Jobs returned to the then-struggling company, he struck a deal with Microsoft for the Redmond company to develop software for the Mac platform, in order to revive it. Back in 2008, Apple worked with Microsoft again to bring Exchange, a centralized e-mail and contacts service used by many companies, to the iPhone , in order to appeal to business customers, which were lacking at the time.

Having such a reputable company as a customer was probably one of Microsoft’s dreams when it created Azure. With data centers all over the world, Microsoft will now have the opportunity to power a service like iCloud and pride itself in the technological advancements of Azure; while Apple can proud itself in the user base iCloud might one day get. I believe it’s a win-win for both companies.

It’s important to note that this is merely related to iCloud’s back end and it’s unlikely that Microsoft had any major involvement in developing iCloud.

(via InfiniteApple)

[Turning Off] Facebook Changes Privacy Settings, Enables Facial Recognition For Tagging Photos By Default.

2011-06-10T03:53:00.002+12:00

Facebook always seems to be in the middle of a debilitating privacy row, and as Mashable reports the social networking site could be steaming headlong into another with its new facial recognition system.

The new system, which set alarm bells ringing for many privacy-conscious people when it was fist mooted back in December, offers people’s photos and suggests the names of friends they should be tagged as.

The feature basically means that whenever you’re offered the chance to tag groups of your friends in an album, Facebook will use its facial recognition technology to group similar faces together and automatically suggest the friend you should tag them with.

Facebook’s facial recognition feature has been rolling out across Europe for the last few months with the default setting being for the controversial system to be turned on.

Despite all Facebook’s privacy snafus, the company does at least offer an option to turn off settings should users feel their privacy is being compromised, and facial recognition is no different.

So how do you turn facial recognition off? Thankfully, it’s all rather simple which hasn’t always been the case.

Head on over to your Facebook account’s privacy settings
Select ‘Customize’.
Scroll down to ‘Things others share’.
Look for the ‘Suggest photos of me to friends’ area and edit it accordingly.

While we can’t deny that the option to disable facial recognition is a welcome one, we can’t help but wonder why Facebook keeps finding itself in these situations with regards to privacy though we also wonder if people don’t have something of an axe to grind when it comes to Mark Zuckerberg and Co.

The European Union’s data-protection regulators are already looking into the privacy ramifications of Facebook’s latest move to catalogue us all.

iOS 5 On iPhone 4 vs. iOS 5 On iPhone 3GS [VIDEO]

2011-06-10T03:45:00.002+12:00

iPhone 3GS and 3rd-gen iPod touch users around the world were relieved when Apple confirmed that the recently-announced iOS 5 would support the aging handset, after a reputable analyst took the time to state publicly that there would be a slim chance that the 3GS would work with iOS 5. Yes, iOS 5 will almost work perfectly (and fast) on Apple’s 2009 phone, but with a few limitations of its own.

AppleRumors. It, an Italy-based iOS-related website, has posted a video of a side-by-side comparison between iOS running on an iPhone 4 and the same system running on an iPhone 3GS.

As you can tell from the video above, the operating system works just as smoothly on both phones, which is quite surprising, and both run all of iOS 5′s new features, such as Reminders, Twitter integration and more. That said, there are 3 features, according to reports, that aren’t present on the older device:

Shooting of HDR pictures, which wasn’t present on earlier firmwares on the 3GS either.
Picture editing capabilities, such as red eye removal and cropping are nowhere to be found.
Reader in Safari, which displays web pages in a clean easy-to-read view, seems to be unavailable.

If you’re a regular iPhone user, chances are you won’t even notice that these features are missing, since they’re so minor. Apple is known to slightly cripple newer versions of iOS on older devices, presumably due to hardware constraints: iOS 3, for example, ran on the first-generation iPhone and iPod touch, although without MMS support, which is now commonplace, but was a great deal at the time. That was one year before support for the now-ancient device was fully cut off with iOS 4.

If you’re an Apple enthusiast, however, you should keep in mind that the 3rd-generation iPod touch, as well as the iPhone 3GS, are likely next on Apple’s chopping block to have their support cut off. That means no additional updates, not even security updates or critical bug fixes, which will be pretty frustrating for any user. If you’re thinking of buying new hardware, however, you should hold off until the next-generation iPhone comes out, which according to reports, will be this fall. That will give you access to the latest iOS way into the future (even if that only means a few months).

RIM Declines as Analysts See Apple’s IMessage as New Threat

2011-06-08T11:22:00.000+12:00

Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM), maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, fell to a 26-month low on the Nasdaq after Morgan Keegan & Co. downgraded the stock, citing a new threat from Apple Inc. (AAPL) to RIM’s instant-messaging service.

Morgan Keegan’s Tavis McCourt, who had had an “outperform” rating on RIM since September 2008, cut his rating to “market perform” and lowered his price target to $49 from $71.

Apple’s iMessage service unveiled yesterday is “a major shot across the bow of RIM,” Nashville, Tennessee-based McCourt said today in a note. BlackBerry Messenger, or BBM as it’s known, “has over 40 million users globally and is one of the keys to RIM’s success outside the U.S.,” he said.

RIM fell $1.09, or 2.8 percent, to $37.82 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading at 4 p.m. New York time, the lowest since March 2009. Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM’s shares have lost 35 percent this year, while the Nasdaq 100 Stock Index gained 2.3 percent.

RIM is counting on sales growth in Latin America and East Asia, where lower-priced models such as the BlackBerry Curve with free, built-in BBM have gained popularity. Apple’s iMessage function neutralizes BBM’s strengths, McCourt said.

“Apple has knocked down all of RIM’s advantages with iMessage,” he said. While iMessage probably won’t be released for a few months and is still untested by consumers, “given Apple’s history, we suspect it would not be launching unless it had a competitive delivery time and overall performance.”

Battle for Teenagers

The large base of customers with Apple devices and its youth brand loyalty will be a test to BBM’s own popularity with teenagers, said RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky.

The arrival of iMessage may only raise investors’ “uncertainty regarding RIM’s long-term competitive position for BBM,” said Abramsky, who cut his rating on the stock to “sector perform” in April.

Apple didn’t say yesterday how much customers will have to pay, if anything, to use iMessage. RIM’s BBM costs users nothing as the messages are carried over its own server computers.

RIM’s share of U.S. smartphone subscribers dropped 4.7 percentage points to 25.7 percent in April from three months earlier, according to ComScore Inc. Apple gained 1.3 percentage points to 26 percent and devices using Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android software advanced 5.2 percentage points to 36.4 percent.

Outside the U.S.

Revenue growth in markets such as Latin America may also be threatened as Android catches on outside the U.S., UBS AG analysts said last week as they lowered their price target on RIM to $45 from $60.

Apple’s tendency to trigger technology copycats poses a further threat to BBM given Android’s surging growth, said McCourt. Google will need to begin working on a similar instant messaging type solution for Android, he wrote.

“We would be shocked if Android ultimately did not attempt to replicate iMessage/BBM, which ultimately would be a much greater threat to RIM’s long term success than iPhone specifically,” McCourt said.

Separately, RIM said today that it bought Scoreloop, a Munich-based company that makes software for mobile-game developers. No price was given for the purchase of Scoreloop, which was founded in 2008 and also has offices in the U.S. and Asia.

RIM plans to tap Scoreloop’s expertise in creating software that developers use to build social and collaborative games such as “Greedy Pigs” and “Hungry Shark,” Tyler Lessard, RIM’s vice president of global alliances and developer relations, said in a blog post.

[ via Bloomberg ]

Fake Mail For iPhone Lets You Send Email Messages Using A Fake Email Address [Cydia App]

2011-06-06T05:19:00.000+12:00

Fake Mail or ‘FakeMail’ is a Cydia App that lets users send anonymous email, or more specifically, email from inexistent email addresses. Useful if you want to pull a prank on your friends or just don’t want to be identified on a particular email you’re sending.

By entering your desired email address (yes, you can use any email address, even if it doesn’t exist), name and the address of the person you’re trying to send it to, you can then type up the email you want to send. Then you can just hit "Send" and your message will reach its destination. On the other end, users won’t be able to tell that the sender address is faked, since it will appear like a real address. It’s that good!

This is possible thanks to the structure of email itself. Every email message has a header, where information about the sender (including their email address), recipient and the message’s subject are stored. Since the sender information isn’t verified on the server end in any way, it’s possible to just insert anything into the header. You can try this for yourself by opening any email message on a standard word processor, even Notepad.

The major caveat is the inability to receive replies, since there isn’t a real inbox to reply to. If you’re expecting to do an anonymous exchange, there just is no way to do that using this app.

You can get Fake Mail today from Cydia’s BigBoss repository.

Last but not least, it’s important to note that this app will requires you to jailbreak your phone first, since, just like anything outside the official Apple Store, it’s not approved by Apple. It’s recommended that you have basic skills on how to restore your device, in case something goes wrong.

Fix / Solution for Angry Birds PC Errors [1024x1024]

2011-06-05T10:59:00.000+12:00

Some of the people who have downloaded Angry Birds PC version from our website faced following errors while opening the game. We have sorted out possible solutions for the errors.

Errors:
1. Texture is too large: 2048 x 2048, maximum supported size: 1024 x 1024

Fix / Solution: Try installing the latest drivers for your Video Graphic Adapter. (This worked for me personally)

2. This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling theapplication may fix the problem

Fix / Solution: Download iTunes or PC and install it to get rid of this error. (Tested on Windows XP SP 3)

Download iTunes Link 1
Download iTunes Link 2

Angry Birds For Windows Now Available For Download

2011-06-04T17:53:00.003+12:00

Angry Birds is fast becoming the one game every platform needs in order to be taken seriously. First released for iOS devices, Android and web-based versions have been equally as popular as well as numerous game sequels and add-ons. It seems we just can’t get enough of those little pigs. In an effort to bring Angry Birds to the few people who aren’t already addicted, the game’s creators Rovio have released a native Windows version for just $5.

Featuring over 240 levels, this particular version of Angry Birds boasts a couple of improvements over its recently released Flash based brother – the biggest of which being the removal of the need to be connected to the internet. Some may argue that the biggest improvement is the lack of Flash, but we’ll leave that particular argument for another day. The Windows version can also be played full screen or indeed windowed should that float your particular boat.

Unsurprisingly you won’t be needing a beast of a computer to play Angry Birds, with a 1GHz CPU and 512MB being the only requirements as long as your operating system of choice is Windows XP SP2 or newer.

While the full version of the game (both Angry Birds and Angry Birds Rio) is available for $5, there is also a free demo version for those not sure they’ll enjoy hurling comical birds at equally humorous pigs. If that sounds like you, take our word for it, you’ll love it!

Alternatively, you can also give the free WebGL based Chrome version of Angry Birds a try.

Angry Birds for Windows can be downloaded from the official website here.

iAndroid For iPhone Brings Android Simulation Experience To iOS [Cydia App]

2011-06-04T17:52:00.001+12:00

iAndroid is a new iOS application for jailbroken devices that simulates the Android operating system experience on the iPhone or iPod touch. While it’s still very far from completion, the project is taking shape.

This App can be launched from the home screen, just like any other iOS application. The application will display a Google logo, followed by an Android-like screen that takes cues from HTC Sense user interface. The big large digital clock is easily recognizable from Sense, while the bottom slider is similar to the one found on Android’s default interface. There are a few default "Apps" built into the simulator, such as a web browser, a finger-doodling application and even a number pad, although it’s not that clear whether it makes real calls or not.

Unlike what it may look like at first, this doesn’t emulate Android in any way, shape or form. It simply replicates Android’s user experience inside a standard iOS application. That’s easy to tell, since there’s no access to Google’s Market, and in fact, doesn’t allow Apps to be installed altogether. If you want to run the real Android OS on your iPhone, we have previously covered an early method which could work for you.

This application was created by fr0st, who has authored apps such as “OS Faker", which simulates both the Android the the Windows Phone 7 user interfaces on iOS. The developer has also announced a few other simulators on his website, including a PS3 simulator and even a Windows XP simulator, even though they’re all allegedly "Coming Soon" at the moment.

If you’re an iOS 4.x user and want to try this simulator for yourself, you can get it from on Cydia. Sadly, iAndroid is not available for iOS 3.x users, in order to make sure that the appworks as well as it possibly can on newer versions of iOS. [via Redmondpie]

Apple To launch New MacBook Air In June Or July

2011-05-25T03:56:00.002+12:00

According to Digitimes that Apple will begin shipments of new 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch MacBook Air models that features Sandy Bridge platform and Thunderbolt interface for launch in June / July.

Main supply chain makers for the new models remain about the same as for the existing MacBook Air, with Quanta Computer solely responsible for assembly, Catcher Technology supplying casings, Auras Technology a main supplier of thermal modules, Shin Zu Shing supplying hinges, and Simplo Technology and Dynapack supplying batteries, the sources pointed out. However, none of the makers have confirmed their participation in making new MacBook Airs.

Protect your iPhone from Nosy People with 'Privacy Display' Patent

2011-05-25T03:53:00.002+12:00

Isn't it kind of funny that the lack of angle independence was present for over 10 years on flat screens? Screens used by Apple are almost perfect. Even if you are looking under extreme high angle the view is just perfect. This is a proof of the quality Apple is always talking about but in some situations it is just annoying.

Supposedly Apple is working on a screen called 'Privacy Display' for upcoming iDevices. This displays wont allow others to read the display under extreme angles. The best thing about this new display will be that the sensitivity is changeable.

Apple logged-on the patent that new elements in the screen should make it possible for the owner to change the angle sensitivity.

[via Stereopoly]