Use Google’s Chrome browser on your Mac or Windows PC and wish you could easily transfer data on to your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad? Well thanks to a Chrome Extension you can and we’ll show you how after the break!

Chrome to iPhone is a little extension that sits in the upper right hand corner, and sends the page you are currently looking at to your iPhone.

• Download the Chrome Extension, Chrome to iPhone
• Install the plugin onto Chrome.
• The options page should automatically open (if not right click the “iPhone” next to your address bar and select options)

• Copy the link onto your iPhone (this is the one bit of manual typing you’ll have to do)
• Follow the instructions on your iPhone to add the extension to your iPhone home screen.
• Once you’ve done this you are ready to start using “Chrome for iPhone”

When you are viewing an ordinary website, press the extension on your Chrome browser and open the home screen icon on your iOS device, it will redirect you to the same website you were looking at on your browser.

If you are viewing a YouTube video, when you press the extension, it will open the YouTube application and play the same video you were watching.

Unfortunately due to Google’s Maps restriction, there is an extra step to get this working with Google Maps, however it still works great if you need “directions” on your phone.

After setting your route, be sure to click “Link” located on the right hand side of the map, and copy that back into your address bar before pressing the extension.

Finally if you highlight any piece of text, you can right click and copy the text straight to your iPhone. This will open a “clipboard” with the text there ready to be used.

A great thing about this extension is that it works over 3G so your iPhone doesn’t even have to be connected to the same Wifi as the Mac/PC.

If you give it a try let us know how it works for you and if you have any questions, fire away in the comments!

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…)

Daily tip: How to send data from your desktop with Chrome to iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

According to Reuters Apple and Google might be in a battle for the once mighty Nortel Networks patent portfolio, an acquisition that could help either of the two companies gain an edge in the mobile industry.

Nortel filed bankruptcy back in January of 2009 and the vast majority of their business has been sold off with the exception of their large number of patents that could aide in the improvements of mobile communications. There is said to be over 4,000 patents with a suspected value of around $1 billion and sources are saying Apple and Google both want a piece of these patents to protect themselves from giants such as Nokia in the courtroom.

There has been one round of bidding on those patents, this has been completed, said one source, who declined to be identified because the process is private. And what Nortel has done is divide the patents up into different lots covering different kinds of technologies.

The big draw for Apple and Google mainly seems to lie with Nortel’s patents on third and fourth generation wireless technology which include the coveted LTE (Long Term Evolution). Other patents that would greatly aide in either companys future include patents for wireless handsets and infrastructure, as well as optical and data networking, Internet, Internet advertising, voice and personal computers.

It is certainly a very significant stockpile of potent weaponry, and whoever lays their hands on it is going to gain significant advantage, said Alexander Poltorak, chief executive of General Patent Corp, which advises companies on intellectual property strategy and valuation but is not advising anyone involved in the Nortel patent auction.

Bids for these patents are due within the next few weeks and it will be interesting to see if either one of these giants companies ends up walking away with these patents in their hands. Can either company afford to allow the other to gain all of these seemingly important patents or might they both wind up maybe splitting some of the patents? We will have to wait and see what unfolds and hopefully whoever wins these patents will make good use of them and improve devices and operating systems for all of us consumers to enjoy.

[ Reuters via MacRumors ]

Are Apple and Google battling for Nortel patents? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Google Latitude just landed on iPhone and as with any location-based app, it’s always good to know how to turn it off and maintain your privacy when you so choose. This one can be a little trickier than most since it looks like even quitting the app and rebooting doesn’t turn off Latitude tracking.

We don’t know if this is some bad coding on Google’s part, whether Apple’s background location API is supposed to be allowed to do this or not, or if this is just the way Latitude is designed to work (scrary if so!) but it just seems to stay on. In order to turn Latitude’s tracking off this is what you need to do:

• Tap Settings
• Tap General
• Tap Location Services
• Scroll down to Latitude
• Flip the switch to off

You should see the little arrow icon in the status bar up top disappear and then you’ll know Google is no longer following your every move. To turn it on again just flip the switch back.

UPDATE: Yes you can go into Latitude: Settings and turn off Background Updating. That works too. Whether you wish to turn it off in Google’s app or Apple’s settings is up to you. If you want to be really sure maybe do both.

Are you sensitive about your location and does Latitude raise any alarms for you if so? Let us know in the comments!

[Thanks @bengillam]

How to stop Google Latitude from tracking you is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Toshiba Corp is said to be building a large factory in Ishikawa Japan to supply Apple with LCD panels for their popular iPhone, according to Reuters:

Toshiba Corp will spend about 100 billion yen ($1.19 billion) to build a factory for making small LCD panels, mainly to supply to Apple Inc’s iPhones, the Nikkei business daily said.

Construction of the plant will begin in early 2011, with LCD production set to begin in the second half of the year. The plant will reportedly churn out around 17 million LCD panels for Apple. Given the timeline, it may not be ready to handle a June iPhone 5 release but will almost certainly be ready to mass produce iPhone 6 in 2012. Hopefully that will help avoid production shortages for Apple (like the iPad experienced with LG panels).

And yes, it does say LCD and not S/AMOLED, so that may also indicate no screen technology changes for the next few years either.

[Reuters]

Toshiba to build LCD factory for future iPhone production is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Screens from Edovia is a new, gorgeously designed, super simple VNC client that brings your Windows, Mac, or Linux desktop to your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. I had the good fortune to test drive it through the beta cycle and it really is the closest thing to a Back to my Mac-style, “it just works” experience on iOS. Features include:

• Universal – Screens will run on both iPhone and iPad – one app for both devices.
• Easy to Use – Screens is the easiest, most user friendly VNC client for iOS.
• Secure – Screens can connect to your computer through a SSH Tunnel so your session is encrypted and safe.
• Pull-to-Dock – Your Dock is hidden? No problem! Screens can make it appear with a simple flick!
• Multi-Touch – Screens supports many multi-touch features your already use on your trackpad.
• Screens Connect – Make your computer available from anywhere. Easy as flicking a switch! No messy router setup. (Requires OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard)

It’s on introductory sale right now so if you act fast, you can save $10 off the regular price.

Screenshots after the break. If you want to run your desktop — or server room — from your lounge chair, and do it in pixel-perfect style, check out Screens. And after you do, come back and tell me what you think.

[$14.99 on sale - iTunes link]

Screens VNC client for iPad, iPhone now in App Store is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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‘Tis the season for silly rumors and while it’s always unpossible (Google it) to rule out everything, the latest “Verizon is getting an LTE iPhone 4G right after Christmas” round seems a lot more naughty than nice.

The reasonable parts are reasonable enough: Verizon has been training for the iPhone launch, there’ll be an announcement after Christmas so as not to ruin AT&T’s last big holiday season hurrah, the Verizon iPhone is “100% cooked”, and… that’s where it seems to fall off the rails.

According a single “source familiar with the matter” (not Phil Schiller’s Twitter account, obviously), MacDailyNews reports:

• The Verizon iPhone will be LTE and exclusively so
• Verizon management already has it in their hands
• It’ll also be CDMA compatible, since LTE is limited
• iPhone 5 this summer is supposed to be LTE for everyone
• Steve Jobs is “pissed” carriers can’t “get their LTE $#1t together
• Apple is helping carriers build out their LTE more quickly by giving them cash

Apple spending money on carrier networks strikes me as a special kind of funny, but the thing all these rumors keep coming back to for me is technology. LTE is just starting to go live in only a few major markets. Apple waited an extra year before going to 3G. LTE is by no means international so that’s even fewer markets for a company that usually targets most of the world. First generation LTE radios are also going to be big and power hungry, and currently the hand off between LTE and CDMA is anything but elegant (you want to wait 2 minutes to get your fast signal back on the road?). There aren’t even any Android LTE phones on Verizon yet, and they’re typically riding the bleeding edge on WiMax and HSPA+.

Apple is all about user experience. I could well be wrong, but nothing in the LTE parts of this rumor sound like they’ll help user experience in any way.

There’s simply no compelling reason for Apple to launch an LTE iPhone 4G on Verizon — or anywhere — right now. And that’s usually the first sign Apple won’t do it.

[MacDailyNews, thanks Glenn!]

Regarding LTE Verizon iPhone 4G coming after Christmas is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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The Nite Ize Crocs o-dial Case for iPhone is the case for Croc-lovers and if that’s you it just might be the best thing you’ve ever seen. If you are way past the Croc wave, however, then this may look more like an accessory abortion. Either way, pro or con, this case is going to be so divisive that I just had to review — and see it in person. Epic or train wreck? Follow on after the break to find out!

The Nite Ize Crocs o-dial case for iPhone looks like small replicas of Crocs, the foam clogs originally designed for the Quebec spa scene but that have since become popular worldwide. They look so much like the shoes I wonder if they are just small child’s Crocs that someone added a belt clip to.

They come with a lanyard and a accessory sleeve so you can put some cash in with your iPhone. What they don’t come with is anything is the way of port or button cutouts aside from the patterned “croc” holes. That means you have to treat the Crocs o-dial like a pouch and take your iPhone out if you want to use it for anything.

The Nite Ize Crocs o-dial Case for iPhone is available now from the TiPb iPhone accessory store.

Contest

This seems to be the perfect novelty/gag gift for the tech geek or croc lover in your life. If you have a friend who loves their iPhone get them this case and then take a picture or video of them opening the gift. I would love to see someones reaction to this case! You may make — or lose — a friend for life. Either way it’ll be funny.

Post a link to the picture or video in the comments below and we’ll pick a winner and send them the case of their choice from the TiPb iPhone accessory store.

Pros

• Fun colors
• Looks just like a Croc
• Comes with a accessory sleeve
• Belt clip
• Great novelty gift

Cons

• Looks just like a Croc =)
• No access to ports
• Hard to get phone in and out
• Not very functional

Rating

Gallery

Nite Ize Crocs o-dial Case for iPhone – accessory review [Contest] is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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iPhone has decimated Verizon’s growth, Google is uncertain ally, and Android is simply not competitive with iPhone to the degree Verizon may have had to give in to Apple’s demands in order to launch a Verizon iPhone is 2011. That according to Horace Dediu of asymco who breaks down the numbers Matthew Goodman, a research analyst at ITG Investment, claims may represent Verizon’s monthly sales figures by device.

If the data is accurate (big if), Dediu says RIM’s BlackBerry and Palm’s webOS fell considerably and Android manufacturers hit a wall in August following the wide spread availability of iPhone 4.

I wrote this up as a lack of competitiveness. It may seem provocative, but I define competitiveness narrowly: the competition is for a purchase decision on equal terms. These purchase decisions are fiendishly complex to predict, but the data speaks: whether it's due to brand, visibility or performance and in spite of "antennagate" the iPhone is cleaning up.

While Android didn’t rescue Verizon, it did put them in bed with Google, a capricious evil compared to Apple’s more predictable evil, currently in service of AT&T. That’s why the same August period might also explain the uptick in iPhone on Verizon rumors. What of BlackBerry, Android, et. al when (if) Verizon turns to iPhone?

BlackBerry and Droid have been reliant on Verizon’s promotion, not as much RIM or Motorola/HTC generated marketing. If those marketing dollars shift to iPhone and if Verizon’s customers shift to iPhone, what does that do for the competitive market?

my conclusion remains that iPhone will find at least 8 million new users with Verizon. The analysis above give me confidence to increase the upper bound to possibly 12 million.

[aymco via @Lessien]

Why Verizon needs iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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After a slight case of premature app-storification, Google Latitude for iPhone is now officially and properly available for download. Those features again:

• See your friends on a map – find out who's nearby and meet up.
• Share your location continuously with whomever you choose – help friends and family stay in touch with you, even when you can't take out your phone.
• Control your privacy – share only city-level location, hide your location, or turn off background updating at any time.

Did you get it? If so, let us know what you think, and let us know what you want next, official Gmail app? Google Navigation? Wave 2?

[Free - iTunes link]

Google Latitude for iPhone now in App Store is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Best of Smartphone Experts, 12 Dec 2010 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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