White Diamonds makes iPhone 4 and original iPad cases with artistic prints embellished with Swarovski crystals. We first saw them at CES 2011 and when they offered us the chance for a closer look we jumped on it. Frankly, we wanted to see how well these gorgeous cases stood up to daily wear and tear. White Diamonds was kind enough to send us an Angels Calling iPhone 4 case by Vince Fraser, a Rainbow collection iPhone 4 case by Livius Dietzel, and a Nafrotiti iPad case also by Vince Fraser.

[White Diamonds]

White Diamonds cases consist of clear plastic frames with artistic, crystal enhanced back plates. They come in a variety of colors and in several designs. I found them a little difficult to put on and take off but once on they fit well with no looseness or wiggle room. The sides come up slightly higher than the display of the iPhone or iPad which isn’t my personal preference (I like to be able to swipe and select without hitting an edge) but it does let you place your device face down without worrying about the screen if you so wish.

I was initially worried about the crystals falling off during day to day use or when placed down on a table but after several weeks of consistent use they’re all still there and look as good as the day I got them. That’s very impressive. I did drop my iPhone 4 while using the Angels Calling case and though the corner chipped slightly it’s sacrifice was not in vain — it protected my iPhone 4 completely.

If you want to add a splash of style and sparkle to your iPhone 4 or original iPad, check out White Diamonds!

Give away

We’re giving away the black Rainbow Collection iPhone 4 review unit — it’s been tested but is still in near-perfect condition. Just leave a comment below saying which artist you’d like to see get the crystal treatment and you’re automagically entered. (Real email address required. We won’t make it public but will need it to contact you if you win!)

White Diamonds artistic crystal cases for iPhone and iPad [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

Manton has an interesting post up where he theorizes that a lot of the problems we’ve seen in the App Store, from the across the board 30% revenue cut Apple requires for paid apps, to in-app purchases, to iAds, and now subscriptions can all be traced back to Apple’s decision to host free apps for free. In other words, that the cost of approving, hosting, marketing, and delivering free apps is high enough that Apple is struggling and stumbling to make enough off paid apps and content to cover it.

When Steve Jobs said it, offering free apps for so little seemed almost foolish, like Apple was compensating for the high 30% by giving too good a deal to free apps. Why not charge some hosting fee? Or why not give up exclusive distribution and let free apps be installed directly by the user without forcing everything through the App Store? Unlimited bandwidth, promotion in the store, and everything else just for the $99 dev program fee was a pretty good deal. And now I wonder if Apple hasn’t been backpedaling ever since, trying to make up for that mistake.

So in order to run the App Store at just over break-even — as Apple reports they during their financial results — they need to earn enough off paid apps to defray the cost of free apps. They also have to make sure they don’t lose revenue — they can’t let developers offer free apps, shouldered by Apple, with ads that make money for Google or that use subscriptions or other forms of outside payments as a way to circumvent the revenue sharing. (Which is why we said from the beginning Apple couldn’t charge less than 30% for subscriptions or every paid and in-app purchasing app that could would just switch to subscriptions in order to keep more of the revenue.)

Are free apps a burden? Apple doesn’t say so it’s difficult to tell. It’s possible the cost of approving, hosting, marketing, and delivering all those free apps while not insignificant is easily covered by paid app purchase. (I’m not counting profits from hardware sales because Apple is going to want App Store to be profitable, if only barely, on its own.) If it is, then Apple certainly didn’t make a mistake and their platform has benefited tremendously from having free apps in the ecosystem. If free apps are costing Apple significant money and resources, however, and if that cost is increasing as they reach milestones like hundreds of thousands of apps and billions of downloads, then what does Apple do?

Manton’s answer is for Apple to allow side-loading of apps — to allow developers to sell and users to install apps from outside the App Store on iOS the same way they do now on the Mac. That would take the hosting burden away from Apple… but it would create a new burden on consumers.

Sure, it would be a good answer for some developers and power users but certainly not for all of them — even most of them. Many developers value the trust relationship Apple has created for users. Successfully creating a place where users feel safe and secure enough to buy an app and know they won’t get malware or be defrauded, and can delete it easily if they don’t like it is invaluable (even if not always valued.) That simply didn’t exist before the App Store (it certainly wasn’t the case with Palm OS and the Treo, which was side-load heaven and mainstream user hell.)

And not to be too cliched about it but if my mother couldn’t find an app on the App Store she would either simply not realize it existed or bug me to help her side load it. (Or she would call me asking if “Amazon Kandle” was safe to buy via “PayPul”.) That’s not an Apple solution, and it’s a crummy mainstream experience overall.

So what is the answer? Getting rid of free apps and creating a baseline of $0.99, like iTunes music of old, doesn’t seem realistic. The genie is out of the bottle. Given how Apple has added in-app purchases, reversed their policy and allowed in-app purchases in free apps, added iAds, added subscriptions, they certainly don’t seem to have found it yet.

[Manton via Daring Fireball]

Did Apple make a mistake with free apps? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

I’ve come to a realization: I hate my Apple earbuds. They’re more like a medieval torture contraption for my ears than a comfortable manner in which to listen to music. Apple has Jonathan Ive and some of the most sought after designers in the world on staff, taking chunks of glass and metal and molding them into a devices that aren’t just phones or players or tablets but works of art. Yet the standard earbuds that come with these beautiful pieces of art are ungainly, ill-fitting, and just plain annoying to wear for any length of time.

Here’s the the thing — the Apple earbuds are just way to large for a smaller person’s ears. After a few songs, the large round earbuds start causing me a good deal of pain. I end up with the choice of either suffering through the pain or placing them so lightly in my ears that the earbuds are about to fall out (not that they don’t fall out eventually anyway!)

The shape and size of the earbuds for iPod and iPhone has not changed in years. The diameter and roundness of the earbud is not anywhere close to ergonomic. You would think that over the years, and with all the complaints, Apple would have redesigned them into something more inspired. Even the Apple mouse has been shown more love over the years! To add insult to injury you can buy some Apple in-ear headphones for $80, which means that someone at Apple knows that this would be preferable to the circular torture disks that come in the box.

Now it’s not all bad. For a pair of stock headphones I do find that the sound is acceptable and, since the introduction of the iPhone, Apple has added a mic and control button with increasing amounts of functionality. It’s just that they get so much right it’s especially frustrating when they get something wrong for so long.

So am I just being difficult in wanting them to also be comfortable enough to use for more than a few songs? How do you feel about your Apple stock headphones?

Confession: I hate my Apple earbuds is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Interested in how to enable data protection on your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad? The good news is that if you use a passcode, iOS 4 data protections protects the hardware encryption keys on your device, making email, attachments, and 3rd party apps (if they enable it) much more secure. The bad news is, if you updated your iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 3, or original iPad from iOS 3 to iOS 4, data protection might not have been turned on even with the passcode. Not to worry, we’ll walk you through all the possibilities, after the break!

[Apple KB via TidBITS]

How to set a passcode

If you haven’t got a passcode lock set up on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, that’s the place to start.

• How to set up a passcode lock

Bonus Tip: You can set your passcode lock to automatically erase your device after 10 failed attempts. That’s great if you ever lose your device but if you have young children who can get ahold of it, you might find yourself restoring your wiped device with frustrating frequency. Security is constantly at war with convenience, make your choice.

How to set a stronger passcode

With iOS 4 you can switch the passcode from simple 4-digit numeric to full on alphanumeric for seriously stronger protection.

• From the Settings: General: Passcode Lock screen…
• Switch the Simple Passcode toggle to OFF
• Enter your current 4-digit numeric passcode to verify
• Enter a new, strong alphanumeric passcode

A combination of numbers, letters, and symbols is good, pseudorandom is even better but the difficulty in remembering it probably outweighs any benefit.

How to check for data protection

Now that your passcode is enabled, check to make sure you have data protection on. (It should be on by default for all iPhone 4, iPod touch 4, and iPad 2 devices, but if you updated your iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 3, or original iPad from iOS 3 to iOS 4 it might not be.)

• From the Settings: General: Passcode Lock screen…
• Scroll down to the very bottom and look for the text “Data protection is enabled”

If it’s there, you’re good to go. If not, keep reading!

How to enable data protection if it’s not on by default

Remember, this is only for iPhone 3GS (2009), iPod touch 3 (2009), and original iPad (2010) if “Data protection enabled” isn’t showing up on the Settings screen.

• Restore your device from backup

Make sure you backup your device before restoring, then choose restore from backup to get all your data back onto your device. Once it’s done, sync and then check the Setting screen again to make sure data protection is now enabled.

Phew!

If you have any questions or any other data protection tips, leave them in the comments!

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Daily Tip: How to enable data protection on your iPhone, iPad is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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