Last month, we reported that Apple would begin expanding into smaller markets by launching “store-within-a-store” outlets at select Target locations in the United States. It appears that Apple is looking to build upon this idea, as the Cupertino-based company is allegedly in contract talks with Sam’s Club, a subsidiary of Walmart, to bring the same mini-stores concept to the wholesale retail chain. If the plan falls through, however, there is a Plan B… Read more …
Today, Apple informed their iPhone developers that the corporation is now requiring them to submit screenshots of their applications at the Retina resolution (960 x 640 pixels) as means of forcing developers to move towards the more HD specifications that the Retina display offers users. Updates to current apps must also include these new enhanced Retina screenshots. So, if you’re a developer then it’s recommended that you optimize your app for the Retina display and update it as soon as possible. You’ll get better ratings and Apple will actually allow you to keep it in the store as well.
Required iPhone & iPod touch Screenshot Upgrade for Retina Display
When you create or update your apps in iTunes Connect, you must upload screenshots that are high-resolution. We require your screenshots as high-resolution images so that your app is optimized for the Retina display.
The requirements for high-resolution images are 960 x 640, 960 x 600, 640 x 960, or 640 x 920 pixels. Images must be at least 72 dpi, in the RGB color space, and the file must be .jpeg, .jpg, .tif, .tiff, or .png. You can update your screenshot files at any time in iTunes Connect.
iFans had an opportunity to sit down with jailbreak developer Filippo Bigarella, an Italian student that has released over a dozen tweaks, mods, and utilities on Cydia. Just last year, Bigarella was involved in Ryan Petrich’s TweakWeek event that required him to develop and release one brand new Cydia tweak per day for one week. Bigarella is perhaps best known for his release of Springtomize, a tweak that lets you customize nearly every aspect of your iOS device. Check out what Bigarella had to say ahead… Read more …
Every Tuesday, iFans picks two controversial topics to debate about in the weekly “Square Off” column. This week, we’re starting off on a grand scheme by setting two major mobile operating systems against each other. Square Off Archives
We recently asked our Facebook followers if they preferred Android or iOS as their mobile operating system of choice. Unsurprisingly, there was no definitive answer and both Android and iOS supporters alike had interesting viewpoints for why they preferred their respective operating system.
To allow for more people to voice their opinion, we have decided to bring the debate to the iFans forum. The question is simple, Android or iOS? We’re talking features, ease of use, the app ecosystem, and everything else under the umbrella. We’re looking forward to hearing your opinions, but please use common sense and remain respectful with your viewpoints. Let the argument begin.
According to sources for the Globe and Mail, Canadian telecom giants Rogers and Bell are looking to become launch partners with Apple for the rumored iTV. One of the main concerns surrounding the TV is whether or not Apple can secure content deals, but if they loosen up just a bit, they should have no problem signing major networks… Read more …
According to a report today by the Wall Street Journal, Motorola last October 17th “demanded” that Apple provide them with a 2.25 percent cut of their iPhone and iPad sales — which would add up to be in the billions of dollars. (FierceWireless notes that the iPhone sales alone would be more than $1 billion.) In other words, Motorola is attempting to obtain a substantial amount of compensation for the patents that Apple infringed. Both Apple and Motorola refused to give a statement on the matter, according to WSJ.
Motorola Mobility was acquired by Google on August 15th of 2011 for $12.5 billion and Google hoped to use them as a “dedicated Android partner” that would receive updates to newer versions of the mobile OS much faster than others, though updates still seem to be taking a while to roll out to popular handsets like the RAZR and Bionic.
Every Monday, iFans is pleased to giveaway Apple-related products and software, ranging from accessories for iOS devices to Mac App Store apps. This week, we’re excited to be giving away “The Callet” and “RingO” accessories for the iPhone and iPad respectively. Giveaway Archives
“The Callet” ($19.99) is a stylish all-in-one smartphone case and wallet for all iPhone models dating back to the iPhone 3G, along with several BlackBerry models. It is made from durable, yet flexible, gel-polymer. The Callet is easily accessible and has ultra-convenient slit pockets to hold your cash and cards. Best of all, it has a bulk-free design in pink, blue, black, or white and is perfect for your pocket.
Vogel’s RingO ($119.99), on the other hand, is an all-in-one tablet case designed for easy mounting wherever you need it. The all-in-one pack includes one tablet holder, one wall mount, one stand, and a car mount. Vogel’s RingO, specifically designed for the iPad and iPad 2, is available through Apple online and in-store. Find out how to win ahead… Read more …
Apple has slowly been sneaking high-dpi features into OS X since the release of Lion, including a hidden “HiDPI” resolution in System Preferences. A post today by Daring Fireball points out the addition of high-dpi cursors in the recent update to Lion, 10.7.3.
As Gruber mentions, the simple answer is that Apple is catering to Universal Access users who frequently zoom in on the desktop, but it is also very possible that the Cupertino engineers are planning Retina-quality displays on the desktop. The change easiest to notice is the updated camera icon when taking screenshots of application windows (cmd + shift + 4, space), but small changes can be found throughout the system. Retina displays are still too cost prohibitive to be feasible on screens much larger than the iPhone’s, but we expect that they will be commonplace a few years down the road.
TinyAssistant is a jailbreak tweak that minimizes the size of the Siri interface, making it equivalent to the space that the multitasking app switcher bar takes up in iOS 4 and beyond. To account for the extra space, the “what can I help you with” slogan is removed from above the Siri activator button.
While some people will probably find this tweak utterly pointless, it’s fair to assume that others will appreciate the functionality and usefulness of this simple modification. TinyAssistant can be downloaded for free from the BigBoss repository in Cydia, and is compatible with the iPhone 4S running iOS 5 or later. Better yet, it also works with jailbroken iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4G models that have a Siri port installed such as Spire or SiriPort.
Jillian Madison, the founder of the comedic website Damn You Autocorrect, has posted a full list of 25 of her favorite auto-correct fails from the website. Keep in mind that many of these screenshots may contain vulgar language or sexual innuendo that might not be suitable for all audiences. Most of the screenshots are definitely NSFW (“not safe for work”). If you’re okay with these terms, however, then check out the complete top twenty-five list of hilarious auto-corrected messages — you’re in for quite a laugh.
[BGR]
iOSOpenDev, a tool that lets you create Cydia tweaks using the Apple SDK environment, had its first public release yesterday and has now been updated to version 1.0.1 with stability improvements and bug fixes. iOSOpenDev is great for both novice and advanced programmers, offering Xcode templates for easier development of jailbreak apps and tweaks. iOSOpenDev is compatible with both OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and OS X 10.7 Lion. The official change log can be found ahead… Read more …
According to the latest data from IDC, Apple reclaimed its title as top smartphone vendor for Q4 2011 of the fiscal year. The launch of the iPhone 4S last October combined with high demand during the holiday season helped Apple to fight off the surging Samsung and hold the top spot. Last quarter, Apple shipped 37 million iPhones for a 23.5% share in the mobile sector.
Year over year, the company has experienced just over 128% in growth. These numbers only prove that, as much of a visionary that Steve Jobs was, the Apple co-founder’s untimely departure from Apple has not been a devastating blow to the Cupertino-based company, as it was projected to be by many critics.
During yesterday’s Super Bowl XLVI game, Samsung aired a $10 million 90-second advertisement for their upcoming Galaxy Note smartphone. The South Korea-based electronics manufacturer hoped to win over customers with what they think will be the greatest feature of any smartphone — wait for it — a stylus. Now, for a main selling point, besides the large 5.3-inch display, this is probably the worst possible thing that anyone could ever use because it’s an item of the past generation.
Touchscreens have been revamped and nobody cares about styli anymore and it is the belief of most — but obviously not Samsung — that the device is better off gone. It makes no sense that Samsung would attempt to use a stylus as their main selling point for a product, though Samsung doesn’t really make any sense anyway. And now, for your viewing pleasure — or lack thereof — we present to you one of the strangest and most controversial advertisements in recent times… Read more …
An anonymous tipster has notified The Verge of a new survey that Best Buy has been sending to customers attempting to bring forth a response on prospective products. Now, the interesting part about this particular survey is that Best Buy asks about the speculated Apple television set that is supposed to be the Cupertino-based corporation’s contender in the HDTV market.
Best Buy wishes to know what you think of this alleged device, which speculatively includes iOS, iCloud support, Bluetooth support for iOS devices as remote controls, and access to Flickr, Netflix, and YouTube on the device. All of this is practically the same thing as what the current Apple TV box provides, except the actual television set includes it and you don’t need to purchase a peripheral device just to obtain the aforementioned features… Read more …
Our forum member Tkf1 has gathered all of the past week’s articles in a nice list. Check it out below and after the break. Also, check in the comments for a poll regarding today’s Super Bowl game.
So, what happened on iFans during the week of January 30th – February 5th 2012?
VentureBeat claims to have learned that Google hired Simon Prakash, one of Apple’s senior directors, to help them on a “top secret project.” Prakash was employed by Apple as their senior director of product integrity, according to his LinkedIn profile. As a senior director of product integrity for Apple, Prakash is responsible for managing product quality on all of Apple’s products — anything from from their mobile iOS devices to Mac computers. His LinkedIn profile also shows that he was once the senior reliability manager for Apple as well. In any case, he has been with the Cupertino-based corporation for over eight years and counting and now VentureBeat is claiming that he is aiding rival Google in a new “top secret project,” as previously mentioned … Read more …
It has stood the test of time and lives on. It is regarded as one of the best, all-time fighting games. It is timeless. This is Soulcalibur. 12 years ago, Namco developed and released the first installment of Soulcalibur as a sequel to Soul Edge to continue the long, ever-lasting story. Since then, the game has received quite a few ports to newer devices including Dreamcast and Xbox. However, it wasn’t until January that it has iOS seen its port. Soulcalibur allows players to relive, once again, the great aspects of the legendary fighting game. Read on for the full review: Read more …
For those that haven’t been following the progress, you’ll be delighted to hear that porting Siri to the iPhone 4 and fourth-generation iPod touch is actually a rather easy process. Siri is a voice recognition tool that allows for you to speak to your Apple handset, making it easier to complete everyday tasks.
With Siri, you can ask your iPhone questions, set timers, dictate text messages, solve math equations, control music playback, check the weather, create notes, and more. Unfortunately, Apple released Siri as a feature exclusive to the iPhone 4S. But, thanks to the work of some Russian developers, Siri has been successfully ported to other iOS devices as well… Read more …
A while back, there were rumors that Apple was designing a MacBook Air powered by the same A-series chip that is found in the iPad and iPhone. But, a recent research note from a Citigroup analyst suggests that Apple’s plans to create this ARM powered MacBook have been scrapped since Tim Cook believes that the iPad fills the need for a low-powered, high-efficiency computer.
Intel is poised to release their next generation Ivy Bridge CPU, which will require even less power than their current line-up, so the advantages of moving to ARM are negligible. Transitioning to ARM would also require a deep OS X overhaul, so it’s not a change that would be taken lightly. It’s more likely that Apple was considering an iOS-powered device in a MacBook body, but decided that such a device would be too niche.
[Cnet]
John Cozen, an AT&T customer who resides in San Diego, reports today that his grandfathered unlimited data plan is being throttled for going over AT&T’s current 2 GB data cap. Apparently Cozen only went over 137.59 MB last month, yet they reduced his data speeds enough to render his smartphone useless. If you’d like to see an example of just how bad AT&T’s throttling is, then please watch the video below.
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