Every WWDC keynote we’ve joked that Mike Lazaridis from BlackBerry maker RIM would surprise everyone by joining Steve Jobs on stage to announce BlackBerry Connect and BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) for iPhone. Then we laugh and marvel out our new copy and paste, multitasking, or whatever Apple chooses to invent that year.

Our sibling site CrackBerry.com has put the whole BBM on iOS (and every other platform) issue right back on their front page, however, with Kevin asking the question:

So should RIM do it? Personally, I think they should. I get the reasons why they wouldn’t. RIM makes money from selling smartphones, and right now BlackBerry Messenger is one of those hooks that keeps people on BlackBerry and actually attracts some people to BlackBerry (I’ve heard stories from carrier reps where individuals walk into the store and ask for the phone that does BBM). But I don’t think this reasoning holds up long-term. As soon as a cross-platform BBM-style client emerges in the smartphone space and attains critical mass (ie. Kik or another), even if not as fully-featured as BlackBerry Messenger the hook of BBM starts to diminish. If it’s inevitable that a cross-platform BBM alternative is going to emerge down the road, is it not better for RIM to be the ones who put it out? There are some iPhone owners out there who no matter what are never going to own a BlackBerry (Apple fanboys!), but I bet those same people would rock BlackBerry Messenger on their iPhone.

I agree with Kevin. Look at what licensing ActiveSync has done for Microsoft. I’d prefer to a non-proprietary protocol — I like that I can switch from iPhone to Android, Windows to Mac, Outlook to Mail.app and my email stays my email — but I use Twitter and that’s the same model BBM could take.

What do you think? Should BBM be available on iPhone? Head on over to CrackBerry.com’s poll and let your vote be heard, then come back here and tell us why or why not.

Do you want BBM on your iPhone? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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With Apple only giving us a very limited version of AirPlay video streaming, the Jailbreak community has picked up the slack with AirVideoEnabler, a simple tweak that brings AirPlay video to all apps.

After Erica Sadun and Steven Troughton-Smith showed what was required to add AirPlay capability to 3rd party apps, a developer going by Zone-MR has created a Jailbreak hack which is available now on Cydia. While only available on a private repo (http://cydia.zone-mr.net) it will not be long before it is available on other repos as well.

Video after the break. Is the jailbreak community making it difficult for you to stay pure? Leave us a comment below!

AirVideoEnabler brings Airplay to ALL apps! [Jailbreak] is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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We told you last week that Orange and T-Mobile in the UK were set to offer subsidized iPad prices. Well today Orange has announced details on the pricing model for the 3G version of the iPad. Orange will offer the 16 GB model at a cost of £199.0 ($312), the 32 GB model for £249.00 ($390) and the 64 GB model at £349.00 ($546).

Now obviously the prices are subject to you signing a 24 month contract for data. Orange has two on offer here; one for existing Orange customers which is offered at £25.00 ($39) a month, this provides 1GB of anytime data as well as a further 1GB of quiet time data (Midnight – 4pm). WiFi access is also provided through BT Openzone.  Orange say WiFi is unlimited; however it does carry a fair usage limit, capped at 3GB. New Orange customers will get the same allowances, but will have to pay an additional £2.00 ($3.13) for the privilege.

Pre-Orders will be available  from November 27th.

This move will likely lead to similar offers from other UK networks, the question is, will it spread worldwide and is the pricing reasonable? Let us know what you think in the comments!

[Orange] Thanks to Simon for the tip.

Orange subsidized iPad pricing revealed is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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While AirPrint and AirPlay integration, and Find in Page are the big user-facing features new to iOS 4.2 Safari, MobileXWeb points out that Apple also snuck in a few improvements under the hood:

• Accelerometer & Gyroscope support through the DeviceOrientation API
• WebSockets API from HTML5
• Updated HTML 5 Form Support
• Partial XHR-2 Support
• New JavaScript data types
• New DOM events
• Enhanced SVG and Canvas support

If you are a developer let us know how useful these additions will be to your Web Apps. If you’re not a developer that might look like mumbo jumbo to you but rest assured it means more better web applications could be coming your way soon, and since Apple uses Safari’s WebKit to render everything from iTunes to App Store or iAd to Apple.com, and Google uses it Gmail and pretty much all their sites, there’s potential for a lot more, lot better content coming our way.

Video after the break!

[MobileXWeb]

iOS 4.2 features: Improved Safari web browser is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Interested in making one of those custom website icons that show up on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad when you hit “Add to Homescreen”? A cool icon will make visitors want to add a WebClip of your site to their home screens. They’ll show it to their friends, their friends will also add WebClips of your site, and your site will zoom up the Google Page ranks. (Hey, every little bit helps!). Thanks to SockRolid from the forums, we’ll show you how after the break!

It’s actually quite easy, though thanks to Apple adding iPad and now Retina Display resolutions to the lineup this year, you do have to take the larger size into account:

• First, create a relatively small, square PNG file. 120×120 is the way to go if you want it to look good on iPad and crisp on iPhone 4.
• Don’t worry about rounding the corners, Apple will do that automatically and even add the “shiny” treatment as well.

This is what the TiPb WebClip icon looks like:

• After you’ve created the ultimate icon, name it “apple-touch-icon.png”
• Now upload it in your website’s root directory (typically via FTP). For example, http://www.yoursite.com/apple-touch-icon.png

That’s it, you’re done. What could be easier?

Now when visitors are browsing your site on an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, they can just hit the “action” button (on iOS 4.2, the “+” button or earlier versions of iOS) and tap “Add to Home Screen”. That’s will create a WebClip right alongside their apps. They get instant one-touch access to your site, and your site get more traffic. Never underestimate the power of simplicity. Especially when it’s also cool and shiny.

Bonus tip: If you don’t create a custom icon for your site, Apple will create one for you based on a tiny screenshot of whatever random page, at whatever random zoom-level, your visitor happened to be on when they tapped “Add to Home Screen.” Image may not be everything, but as we all know it’s crucially important. Don’t leave it to chance. Manage your site’s image.

UPDATE: Marc Edwards was nice enough to point us towards Jesse Dodd’s article from Campaign Monitor on how to take your web icons to the next level.

I put together three simple snippets of code which target each individual iOS device according to their pixel densities. 163dpi for the iPhone 3G/3GS and iPod Touch, 132dpi for the iPad and a whopping 326dpi for the iPhone4.

<link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" media="screen and (resolution: 163dpi)" href="/link/to/iOS-57px.png" />

<link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" media="screen and (resolution: 132dpi)" href="/link/to/iOS-72px.png" />

<link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" media="screen and (resolution: 326dpi)" href="/link/to/iOS-114px.png" />

If you notice in the above code I have used apple-touch-icon-precomposed. The addition of -precomposed stops iOS from automatically rendering gloss atop my icon and rounding it's corners. If you do want iOS to auto-apply the gloss and rounded corners automatically (so you can supply a flat, square image), simply use rel="apple-touch-icon".

Read the entire article for the details.

So did you get it to work? If you have questions, let us know in the comments. If your site has a great new icon, drop us a link to it as well so we can check it out!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you'd like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it's especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we'll even give ya a reward…)

Ninja tip: How to create a custom iPhone/iPad home screen icon for your website is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Did you update your Apple TV to iOS 4.2 (yeah, it says 4.1 sometimes, 4.2 others, let’s consider it both) this week only to find you still had HDCP (high definition copy protection) problems, or worse, only to find you now had HDCP problems, maybe with Netflix in specific? Georgia’s experiencing that today, and so are some members of our Apple TV Forum. Well, we’ll try to help you out after the break

First a rant by way of explanation: HDCP is a horrible plague visited on paying customers by movie and television studios that consider us all criminals out to steal their content. They think it stops piracy but — irony of ironies — real pirates know how to get around all types of copy protection and it’s usually only real customers who suffer from schemes like HDCP. Basically it enforces a secure HDMI connection from content box (Apple TV, Blu-Ray player, etc.) through intermediaries (like a receiver) to output (TV). Every link along the chain has to be secured with HDCP in order for your video to play.

This is why your Apple TV (or other video equipment) might occasionally barf up a “not HDCP compliant” warning and refuse to play the Netflix you subscribe to, the content you rented or bought from iTunes, or other DRM (digital rights management) inflicted video.

Here’s what you can try to do to work around it in general, in order of severity and annoyance.

• Check your HDMI cables and make sure they’re securely plugged into your Apple TV, receiver if you have one, and TV.
• Turn everything off and turn it back on. Start with your Apple TV but if that’s not enough, try your TV and receiver as well if you have to.
• Unplug everything, wait 20 seconds, plug it back in. Again, start with the Apple TV but try TV, receiver, etc. as well if you have to.
• Restore your Apple TV to factory settings. It’s amazing how many problems a clean re-install can solve.
• Swap HDMI cables. You could have a bad connection between the Apple TV and the TV. Try a different cable. (Don’t get expensive big box cables, it’s digital, it works or it doesn’t work. Try MonoPrice.com for reasonable cables).

You’ll still have the nuclear option of taking your Apple TV to an Apple Store and maybe even swapping it out for a non-inflicted unit but start with the above and let us know if it works for you. If you have any other trouble shooting tips, let us know about those as well, and make sure you check out our Apple TV Forum for more expert help and advice.

Having Netflix or HDCP problems with Apple TV? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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YouTube Link

Note & Share is a note taking app with support for iPhone and iPad. It is a universal binary so you won’t have to purchase them separately. Note & Share also offers integration with several different services. Dropbox, Twitter, Evernote, Google Docs, and Mail are a few popular ones that Note & Share easily integrates with.

Note & Share also supports markdown as well. I recently wrote a review on Markdown Mail, so I was eager to see how Note & Share stacked up against it. I’d say it fairs pretty well. Setting up your services is easy enough and sharing to them is even easier.

When you launch the app, you’ll be presented with a text entry box. You can simply start typing your content and then choose how you want to share it. Or you can optionally just save it as a note locally to your phone with a simple tap. You can also clear the entire text entry field with one tap, which is a nice feature.

Note & Share also supports image upload as well. You can choose your media and it will shorten the URL and insert it into your note.

When it comes to exporting to Evernote or any service that supports hashtags, it will recognize those as tags and import accordingly. Your first line of text will also be used as the note title, similar to the way Markdown Mail will title notes.

The interface is not as simple as Markdown Mail’s but its still extremely easy to use. I expected the interface to be a bit advanced considering it supports many more features than Markdown Mail does.

If you’re looking for a note taking app that allows synchronization and upload with several services, Note & Share is probably the way to go. If you’re just looking for an app that allows markdown conversion and offers a way to send HTML rich e-mail, you may want to give Markdown Mail a look. Both apps are extremely good at what they do and neither is a bad choice. As of right now, Markdown Mail is $1 more than Note & Share. I’d say for the extra features, spring for Note & Share.

The developers of Note & Share were also nice enough to give us some promo codes to give away to you guys. Wanna win one? Leave a comment below using a valid e-mail address. That’s it, you’re entered! We’ll pick 2 of you to win free copies of Note & Share! (Reminder: Promo codes only work in the US App Store — Apple’s rule, not ours!)

Pros

• Integrates seamlessly with several services
• One tap delete is a nice feature
• Hashtag support for tags in Evernote works great
• Markdown conversion is extremely simple

Cons

• Text entry field is small on iPhone version and scrolling can be daunting when working with long notes

Note & Share for iPhone/iPad – app review [give away!] is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Did you just get a new iPhone, iPod touch, iPad or even Apple TV on Black Friday? We’re guessing some of you took advantage of the once a year sale, or simply the excuse to be in the store, and picked up a special treat for yourself or a loved one. Either way, once you’re powered up and ready to go you might just be wondering what to do next? Don’t worry TiPb’s got your back!

• Get updated: Chances are your new iPhone or iPod touch came with iOS 4.1 and your iPad came with iOS 3.2 out of the box which means the minute you plug it into iTunes you’ll see there’s an iOS 4.2 software update just waiting for you. Download it and let iTunes do its thing. If you’re upgrading from a previous generation iPhone or iPod touch you can restore your data and apps once you’ve updated. If you’re setting up an iPad we don’t recommend using an iPhone or iPod backup as it can make things glitchy. Set it up as new now and save yourself some headaches later. (And hey, if you like tips like this, check out our tips section for more!)

• Get up to speed. If you’re brand new to iPhone or iPod touch take a moment and check out our iOS 4 walkthrough. It covers all the basics about multitasking, folders, etc. If you’re upgrading, check out our iOS 4.2 walkthrough for highlights of what’s new in the latest software. For new iPad owners, our iOS 4.2 for iPad walkthrough is a must-read. If you’re in a rush and just want to get started now, now, now, each walkthrough begins with an “everything you need to know in 10 minutes video” so click, watch, and get going!

• Get apps and games. There are hundreds of thousands of iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps in the iTunes App Store and more and more of them have now been updated to really show off things like the new Retina Display graphics, iPad screen size, and multitasking. We’re keeping track of them in our Apps section which is full of the latest news and reviews.

• Get accessories. Every Apple device looks the same and every Apple Store sells the same stuff. If you’re wanting something different — a splash of color, a bit of style, a new look, check out the TiPb iPhone + iPad accessory store, and regardless of where you shop, check out our accessory reviews for all the pros, cons, and ratings.

• Get talking. If you just want to talk about your new iPhone 4, iPod touch, iPad, or Apple TV and all those apps and accessories, or if you need help getting started (or to trouble-shoot bugs), or advice and recommendations, we have the best community on the web waiting for you (yes, you!): TiPb Forums. We’ve even got a Jailbreak Forum if you’re curious and want to more about taking your iPhone into expert mode.

Still not enough? Check out the other posts. We’ve got contests and give-aways, polls and award votes, bug fixes and how tos, and much, much more. Bookmark TiPb now and come back often, we want to hear from you!

Just get a new iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad on Black Friday? Here’s what you need next! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Pretty much every apps and game you can imagine is on Thanksgiving/Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale in the iTunes App Store. Everything from the biggest gaming companies to the coolest indie developers is heavily discounted and priced to go.

If you want a list the folks at 148apps have done a bang up job pulling the latest discounts so check it out.

Have you bought any great apps at great prices today? Let us know what app and game deals you’ve pounced on!

Black Friday sales have started, what apps and games did you get? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

A Chinese newspaper is claiming, based on “industry sources”, that five new features will be coming with the next generation iPad 2, including video phone, new display technology, 3-axis gyroscope, “better mobility”, and USB.

We have previously told you that sources claimed the iPad 2 is rumored to be coming equipped with two cameras for FaceTime and this list seems to repeat that rumor.

The new display technology is said to “enhance image and color output performance” so could this mean iPad 2 will be getting its own version of the Retina Display featured on the iPhone 4.

The 3-axis gyroscope would also make perfect sense to keep it on the same level as the iPhone 4 game wise. This has been a great feature of the iPhone 4 allowing for game players to utilize full motion in playing of games to help make them more realistic and bring gaming to a whole new level.

Better mobility could indicate that Apple will be utilizing a design similar to their unibody MacBook lineup. We told you about this when we posted Apple’s supposed plan to create a world iPad utilizing a CDMA/GSM chipset. This would be a great reason to make the iPad 2 even more portable than the iPad is in its current state.

Probably one of the most welcomed new features would be the addition of a micro-USB port vice the standard Apple 30-pin dock connector. Europe is working on making the USB standard a legal requirement so that could be a motivator.

Most of these rumors aren’t surprising and seem like the logical improvements Apple makes from one generation product to the next. Hopefully processor (Cortex A9-based?) and RAM (512 or better yet 1GB) are on the agenda as well. Are there any other features you would like to see in the next generation iPad? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.

[ ComputerWorld]

Rumor: iPad 2 to sport FaceTime, gyroscope, Retina Display, USB? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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