As we nudge closer to WWDC 2011, Apple has reportedly started to field-test iOS 5. This is based on crashlog reports received by iPhone app developer FutureTap. The crashlog didn’t mention if the device was an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch but did show a device running iPhone OS 5.0, or what Apple has publicly refers to now as iOS 5.

Just received the first iOS 5.0 crash report. MKUserLocationBreadCrumb sounds interesting.

It looks like Apple has made a few changes to the location and mapping APIs used by Where To, the app FutureTap received the crashlog from. The log didn’t reveal very much information outside of the unreleased OS, but it’s good to see they’re working hard in the background as we get closer to a summer release.

What new and exciting things are you hoping we’ll see in iOS 5? Let us know in the comments below!

[@futuretap via 9to5Mac]

Apple field-testing iOS 5? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

iPhone Live, the biggest, baddest, iPhone podcast in the ‘verse is back and tonight I reckon we’re aiming to misbehave. So grab yourself some snacks and a beverage or two and join us in the chat!

Time: 6pm PT, 9pm ET, 2am BST!

Place: http://live.tipb.com/live/

(You can watch from iPhone via Ustream Viewer app (here’s how) and iPad (we recommend Duet Browser.)

If you have any questions or stuff you want us to make sure we cover tweet them to @TiPb, email them to podcast@tipb.com, or leave them in the comments below!

Be there!

iPhone Live podcast tonight at 9pm EDT, come chat! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

TiPb checks out the best, most must-have Fitness apps to load up on your iPhone.

Summer is almost upon us and it is always a great time to get outside and do some exercise. With the help of your iPhone, you can make that experience so much better and more rewarding. We look at our top 5 Fitness apps to help you reach your goals! Check them out after the break!

RunKeeper

RunKeeper uses your iPhones built in GPS technology to track your fitness adventures. It has a very easy to use interface and you can use it to monitor running, walking, cycling and many other activities too. You can also enter activities manually; if you do your exercise on your treadmill, RunKeeper still has you covered.

RunKeeper syncs up to its own web portal where you can view your history and stats in more detail. Integration with Facebook and Twitter is also included so you can show off your fitness prowess to your friends!

[Free - iTunes link]

Nike+ GPS

Nike+ used to require special hardware to work. Now all you need is an iPhone with GPS and your all set. Nike+ again maps your run, records pace, distance and works inside and outside. The Nike+ app is packed with motivational features, including voice feedback, messages from Nike's top athletes and even mid run messages from friends who comment on your run status.

An additional feature is the Nike+ Tag. This allows you to run against friends in a virtual Tag type game. Outrun your friends to win. The Nike+ website stores all your stats and you can also post to Twitter and Facebook all without leaving the app.

[$1.99 - iTunes link]

Full Fitness

Full Fitness is a personal trainer type app that offers over 300 exercises all explained in detail with pictures, videos and written instructions. The exercises are sorted by body region, muscle target and the equipment needed.

You can easily create your own exercise program or use one of the 20 built in programs to help you reach your goals. Full Fitness can also be used to track your food intake and body weight as well as schedule your workouts.

Full Fitness allows you to log your exercises, view progress graphs, and email or backup the results online.

[$0.99 - iTunes link]

Edomondo Sports Tracker

Endomondo Sports Tracker is another GPS enabled app to track all sorts of sports such as running, cycling, hiking skiing and even kayaking! Again you can get audio feedback during your activity as well as the option of allowing friends to see your live activity. They can then send you comments in real time.

The app allows you to track distance, duration, speed and calories burned as well as monitoring of your heart rate if you have the necessary add on. All the data is again synced online where you can share information to Facebook and Twitter as well as other members of the Endomondo community.

[Free - iTunes link]

Cyclemeter GPS Bike Computer for Road & Mountain Biking

Cyclemeter is not just for cycling however it is aimed squarely at that market. Cyclemeter is an app that tracks your rides, recording time, location, distance, elevation and speed. Your progress is announced to you via 25 configurable announcements including distance travelled, time taken, current speed and elevation.

You can set up your next ride against a previous ride of the same route. This is like a race mode and enables you to try and beat your previous best times. If you have friends that use the app, you can import their routes and times into the app and use this to race against too.

Twitter and Facebook sharing are all catered for and you can also get text to speech; although this is via an in-app purchase.

[$4.99 - iTunes link]

Your top apps?

So there you have them, our top 5 best iPhone Fitness apps to get you going. Be sure to check out our Picks of the Week and iPhone App and Games Forum for more recommendations, and if we missed any of your favorites, leave them in the comments below!

Top 5 iPhone Fitness apps is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

While speaking to Mobilizer about location data, Apple CEO Steve Jobs and SVP of Marketing, Phil Schiller, explained the 10 month delay in launching the white iPhone 4.

"It was challenging. It's not as simple as making something white. There's a lot more that goes into both the material science of it–how it holds up over time…but also in how it all works with the sensors."

“We thought we were there a year ago, or less than that, when we launched the iPhone 4, and we weren't.”

As previously rumored, the white finish caused complications with the internal components (like the proximity sensor, perhaps the camera and flash?) and was also subject to discoloration from UV rays.

Steve Jobs added that solving the problem allowed Apple to launch a white iPad, so it benefitted Apple in the long run.

So, is it better Apple took their time to get it right? We’ll see once we get our hands on one!

[Mobilizer]

Steve Jobs and Phil Schiller on why it took 10 months to launch the white iPhone 4 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Did Apple just let an iOS 5 (or iOS 6) feature out of the bag during their location data Q&A? It sure looks like it if you examine the answer below:

Apple is now collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database with the goal of providing iPhone users an improved traffic service in the next couple of years.

Steve Jobs added more during his interview with Mobilized:

We mention the traffic service and I think that is all we are going to mention at this point in time before we have something to announce. [...] We are building a crowdsourced database based on traffic and that is what we are saying.

Apple is collecting location data for Wi-Fi routers an using that to build out their home-grown replacement for Skyhook. Was Apple referring to a network traffic database? If so, what for?

It’s possible “traffic” could mean road traffic, which would imply improvements to the Maps app, possibly including turn-by-turn navigation. Apple built their own Maps app wrapper for Google maps way back in iOS 1 (iPhone OS 1) and while they’ve added Street View and a few other features over the years, they haven’t really kept pace with Google’s own maps app on Android, especially Google Maps Navigation. They have, however, rolled their own location database, and bought map companies PlaceBase and Poly9, and have been rumored to be updating iOS Maps for a while now.

Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long to find out!

Update: Per comments below, it does make more sense as a network traffic optimization feature. Drat. There goes my turn by turn! [Thanks Ren!]

Updated: Apple building traffic database system is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Following up on Apple’s location data Q&A, posted earlier today, Mobilizer spoke with CEO Steve Jobs and other members of the executive team.

"We haven't been tracking anyone," Jobs said in a telephone interview with Mobilized on Wednesday. "The files they found on these phones, as we explained, it turned out were basically files we have built through anonymous, crowdsourced information that we collect from the tens of millions of iPhones out there."

As to why Apple seems to get singled out in media and investigations, Jobs said he’ll be looking to see coverage of their competitors.

"Some of them don't do what we do," Jobs said. "That's for sure."

UPDATE: The full transcript of the interview with Steve Jobs, Scott Forstall, and Phil Schiller is now online. The explanation of why it took so long is similar to the one given during the iPhone 4 antenna press conference. [Mobilizer]

We're an engineering-driven company. When people accuse us of things, the first thing we want to do is find out the truth. That took a certain amount of time to track all of these things down. And the accusations were coming day by day. By the time we had figured this all out, it took a few days. Then writing it up and trying to make it intelligible when this is a very high-tech topic took a few days. And here we are less than a week later.

[Mobilizer]

Steve Jobs comments on location data [Updated] is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Apple has just announced the white iPhone 4 and it goes on sale tomorrow — but should you get one now or wait and get an iPhone 5 this fall?

The white iPhone 4 was originally announced alongside the black one back at WWDC 2010 last June but for a variety of production related reasons, has taken 10 long months for Apple to ship. That means, when it finally arrives tomorrow, it will essentially be the same device that’s been on sale in black form for almost a year. Now don’t get me wrong, the fact that iPhone 4 is still a top of the line phone this long after its launch is a testament to the quality of Apple’s hardware and the frequency of their software updates. Still, it’s not a new iPhone, it’s just a new color.

The iPhone 5 was expected to launch in June, just a couple of months from now, because for the last 4 years that’s exactly when new iPhones have launched. This year, however, everything we’ve heard, and everything a lot of respected sites have heard, pegs the release date as fall 2011 — September or October. That’s 3 or 4 months later than usual and 5-6 months from now. And until Apple introduces it, likely at their annual iTunes and iPod event, we have no idea how big an update it will be. It could be an iPhone 3GS style incremental update, with the same case but a new A5 processor and maybe an improved camera, or it could be the total redesign I’ve been hoping for and others keep teasing. There’s just no way to know.

So we go back to our usual advice on these things — if you absolute have to buy a new iPhone tomorrow or in the next couple of months, and white is the color you want or have been waiting for, then get it. Get it and be proud. It’s a great device that will easily carry you another year or two, especially with iOS 5 this year, and future updates to come.

If you can wait, however, if you don’t need a new iPhone but just want one, if it’s a nice to have but not a must have, then wait. Wait until iPhone 5 if you can. Wait until you can’t wait any more. Then buy and be happy with what you bought!

(Check out our iPhone buyers guide for more, including help with deciding between AT&T and Verizon, and the different storage sizes.)

Anyone trying to make up their minds? Let us know which way you’re leaning!

Should you get a white iPhone 4 or wait for iPhone 5? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Every day, TiPb gets flooded with announcements for new and updated iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games. So every day we pick just a few of the most interesting, the most notable, and simply the most awesome to share with you!

• Telsa Wars: A fun and unique tower defense game. Now with 3 new specials, user profiles, Game Center support, and Facebook & Twitter integration. [Free, iPhone - iTunes link] [Free, iPad - iTunes link]

• ClubWorld: Now you can design and operate your own nightclub in our all new real-time simulation game! Now with updated graphics and stability fixes. [Free - iTunes link]

• fone: Make free VoIP calls with your Facebook friends wherever they are – iPhone, iPod Touch or web. [Free - iTunes link]

• TomTom: Now with a Homer Simpson voice option via a $5.99 in-app purchase. [prices vary - iTunes link]

• FavFriends: Pick your favorite people from your Facebook Friends list. Whenever your favorite friend posts a new status or checks-in a Place, you get a push notification in real-time. [$0.99 - iTunes link]

Any other big apps or game releases or updates today? If you pick any of these up, let us know what you think!

New and updated iPhone and iPad apps for Wednesday, April 27 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

As part of their location data Q&A, Apple today revealed that an iOS update — iOS 4.3.3? — would be arriving “Sometime in the next few weeks”. So far, Apple has only revealed that the update will:

• reduces the size of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database cached on the iPhone,
• ceases backing up this cache, and
• deletes this cache entirely when Location Services is turned off.

In the next major iOS software release the cache will also be encrypted on the iPhone.

While there probably won’t be any feature enhancements until iOS 5 — or possibly a interim iOS 4.4 — update, it’s possible Apple will use the update to fix other bugs as well.

We’ll keep an eye out for it mid-May. Any software glitches in particularly you’d like Apple to fix?

iOS 4.3.3 coming soon? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Following the media circus/storm last week involving location data, how it’s collected and where it’s stored, Apple has decided to post an online Q&A to address the issues.

1. Why is Apple tracking the location of my iPhone?
   Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone. Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so.
2. Then why is everyone so concerned about this?
   Providing mobile users with fast and accurate location information while preserving their security and privacy has raised some very complex technical issues which are hard to communicate in a soundbite. Users are confused, partly because the creators of this new technology (including Apple) have not provided enough education about these issues to date.


Read on for more…

[Apple PR]


3. Why is my iPhone logging my location?
   The iPhone is not logging your location. Rather, it's maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location, some of which may be located more than one hundred miles away from your iPhone, to help your iPhone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested. Calculating a phone's location using just GPS satellite data can take up to several minutes. iPhone can reduce this time to just a few seconds by using Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data to quickly find GPS satellites, and even triangulate its location using just Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data when GPS is not available (such as indoors or in basements). These calculations are performed live on the iPhone using a crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data that is generated by tens of millions of iPhones sending the geo-tagged locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple.
4. Is this crowd-sourced database stored on the iPhone?
   The entire crowd-sourced database is too big to store on an iPhone, so we download an appropriate subset (cache) onto each iPhone. This cache is protected but not encrypted, and is backed up in iTunes whenever you back up your iPhone. The backup is encrypted or not, depending on the user settings in iTunes. The location data that researchers are seeing on the iPhone is not the past or present location of the iPhone, but rather the locations of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers surrounding the iPhone's location, which can be more than one hundred miles away from the iPhone. We plan to cease backing up this cache in a software update coming soon (see Software Update section below).
5. Can Apple locate me based on my geo-tagged Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data?
   No. This data is sent to Apple in an anonymous and encrypted form. Apple cannot identify the source of this data.
6. People have identified up to a year's worth of location data being stored on the iPhone. Why does my iPhone need so much data in order to assist it in finding my location today?
   This data is not the iPhone's location data—it is a subset (cache) of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database which is downloaded from Apple into the iPhone to assist the iPhone in rapidly and accurately calculating location. The reason the iPhone stores so much data is a bug we uncovered and plan to fix shortly (see Software Update section below). We don't think the iPhone needs to store more than seven days of this data.
7. When I turn off Location Services, why does my iPhone sometimes continue updating its Wi-Fi and cell tower data from Apple's crowd-sourced database?
   It shouldn't. This is a bug, which we plan to fix shortly (see Software Update section below).
8. What other location data is Apple collecting from the iPhone besides crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data?
   Apple is now collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database with the goal of providing iPhone users an improved traffic service in the next couple of years.
9. Does Apple currently provide any data collected from iPhones to third parties?
   We provide anonymous crash logs from users that have opted in to third-party developers to help them debug their apps. Our iAds advertising system can use location as a factor in targeting ads. Location is not shared with any third party or ad unless the user explicitly approves giving the current location to the current ad (for example, to request the ad locate the Target store nearest them).
10. Does Apple believe that personal information security and privacy are important?
    Yes, we strongly do. For example, iPhone was the first to ask users to give their permission for each and every app that wanted to use location. Apple will continue to be one of the leaders in strengthening personal information security and privacy.

Software Update

Sometime in the next few weeks Apple will release a free iOS software update that:

• reduces the size of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database cached on the iPhone,
• ceases backing up this cache, and
• deletes this cache entirely when Location Services is turned off.

In the next major iOS software release the cache will also be encrypted on the iPhone.

So there you have it, Apple’s reply. Any questions they still haven’t answered to your satisfaction?

Apple posts Q&A on Location Data is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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