The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sprint Nextel will get iPhone 5 mid-October, the same time TiPb reported AT&T and Verizon would be getting Apple’s next generation handset.

Landing the iPhone is a big win for Sprint, whose results have suffered without being able to sell the iconic device. This February, Verizon Wireless began selling the iPhone 4, while AT&T has relied on versions of the Apple device to drive sales since 2007.

In all likelihood, this will be the same CDMA/GSM dual-mode world phone destind for Verizon’s network. While the WSJ seems shocked and surprised at iPhone 5 coming in October, TiPb readers have known for a while now that Apple has been considering October 7, possibly October 14 as launch dates.

However, with Yukari Iwatani Kane and her excellent track-record contributing to their article, it’s excellent confirmation and Sprint customers should have a lot to look forward to this fall.

Anyone going to line up for Sprint this time instead of AT&T or Verizon?

[WSJ]

TiPb’s developer spotlights are like DVD/iTunes Extras for the App Store — a weekly look behind the scenes at the programers and designers that bring you the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games you love. This week Rene talks with Boyd Timothy of Appigo.

What’s your name? Boyd Timothy

What’s your company’s name? Appigo

Where are you located? About 45 minutes South of Salt Lake City in Orem, Utah

What’s your website address? http://www.appigo.com/

What’s your Twitter name? @appigo

What apps do you make? Todo iPhone [App Store link], Todo iPad [App Store link] and Todo for Mac [App Store link], Corkulous [App Store link], Notebook [App Store link], AccuFuel [App Store link]

What apps, other than your own, are currently among your favorites? Dropbox [App Store link], Pandora [App Store link], iKlondike [App Store link],

How long have you been a developer? Professionally, since 1997.

How long have you been an iOS developer? Since early 2008 when the original iPhone SDK was released.

Do you develop for any other platform in addition to iOS? If so, which one(s)? Prior to Appigo I worked on the Linux Desktop Team at Novell with my focus being on .NET apps using Mono. At Appigo our primary focus is on Mac OS X and iOS although we do have a number of supporting online services we’ve written and also a utility on Windows to sync tasks into Outlook.

What primary computer setup do you use for your iOS development? 15″ MacBook Pro, 8GB RAM, with 27″ Apple LED Cinema Display

What iOS device(s) do you personally use most often? iPhone, by far … it’s with me all the time. My iPad is extremely handy during outdoor music gigs since it stays put in the wind and has a very readable screen.

What mobile devices, other than iOS, do you currently use? None

What’s your favorite thing about developing for iOS? Ideas come to life quickly we get immediate feedback from customers.

What’s your least favorite thing about developing for iOS? The release process … not having full control of releasing apps as soon as they are ready. Fortunately Apple now lets us choose the release date once it’s approved, so that helps with timing releases more appropriately (as opposed to 6 PM on a Friday, which happened frequently in the past).

What feature would you most like Apple to add to the iOS 5 SDK? Voice dictation as an OS feature for all apps that accept text input.

What feature would you most like Apple to add to the App Store? An easy way for developers to respond to specific customer reviews/feedback.

If we were to eavesdrop on you while you were coding, what curse word would we hear you use the most? When I go to debug a problem I think I’ve fixed and it doesn’t work, more times than not, you’d hear me angrily say, “Pieces of crap for breakfast!” (“borrowed” from the movie Happy Gilmore)

What do you do when you’re not coding iOS apps? Play bluegrass music (guitar, mandolin, banjo, etc.), fly fishing, yard work, and hanging out with my family.

What should we look for from you next? We believe it’s important to provide people with different task synchronization options. File-based task sync is not only possible, it’s very stable and working well.

Thanks Boyd!

Online parts supplier TVC Mall claims to have some iPhone 5 replacement parts in stock. If these are the real deal, it gives us a bit more information on the internals of the iPhone 5. Besides the rear camera, TVC has a few other iPhone 5 replacement parts listed – an iPhone 5 replacement battery, audio jack flex cable (pictured above), and the prox sensor flex.

Compared to the iPhone 4, these parts seem like they may be legit. It also wouldn’t be the first time suppliers get their hands on parts before the official release of a device. We also see about 20 fakes for every real leak as well. After repairing several iPhones over the past 2 years, I’d say these parts could maybe be the real deal.

I find myself kind of hoping they’re not as I really wanted to see a dual LED flash on the iPhone 5. Sigh. Here’s to hoping these are maybe just a really good Photoshop mockup of some iPhone 4 parts.

[TVC Mall]

Wondering how to easily and quickly adjust the transparency of your icons or turn off labels? If you Jailbreak, you may want to check out Alphacon. Other apps like Winterboard allow you to do this but if you want something much more simple, Alphacon is it.

Once installed it will appear in your settings. You can choose to turn transparency on and off and further customize what icons you want the settings to apply to (home screen, dock, folders, etc). So if you’d like for your dock icons to not be transparent you can just tick off the transparency option for the dock. Same deal with icon labels. You can choose to turn them all off or just some. I personally still like to see my folder labels so I leave those on but turn off icon labels for everything else.

Alphacon is currently available in Cydia for free.

[Alphacon - Cydia Store Link]

What’s the next iOS device you plan on buying? I’m guessing a lot of the TiPb Nation is waiting for the iPhone 5, but is anyone going to skip it and hold out for the iPhone 6? Maybe you hope that Apple discounts the existing iPhone 4 like usual, or puts out a budget iPhone nano instead?

The iPad 3 sounds like it’s not coming this fall after all, but are you planning to get it shows up this spring? Or does a new iPod touch 5 fit your needs better?

What if Apple finally makes a real iOS powered iPod nano, one that works amazingly well as a watch and shows all your notifications? Anyone else besides me really want one? And if they finally let Apple TV go a full 1080p, would that be on your shopping list?

Let me know what you plan on buying in the poll below, and give me the reasons why — or better yet, why not! — in the comments below!

For today only, the TiPb Store has the Case-Mate Vroom Case for AT&T iPhone 4 on sale for only $5.95 — that’s a whopping 60% off!. The sporty Case-Mate Vroom is 100% silicone for great grip and boasts a unique tire tread pattern so your iPhone looks extra hip. If you want great protection at a great price, get rolling with this case now — before they’re all gone!

Shop Case-Mate Vroom Case for AT&T iPhone 4 now!

Right now iPhone 5, like any dark matter, can only be observed by its effects on others, including the log traces it leaves and the cases manufacturers leak. This time it’s TechCrunch, citing an undisclosed developer who’s iOS app, points to records of a never-before-seen dual-mode GSM/CDMA world phone.

The logs show that the app has been briefly tested by a handful of people using what is almost certainly an iPhone 5, evidently running iOS 5, sporting two distinct sets of mobile network codes (MNC) / mobile country codes (MCC). Those codes can be used to uniquely identify mobile carriers.

Sure enough, some registrations for the app – which the developer also asked not to be named – were logged from a new Apple device, using the MNC/MCC codes from both Verizon and AT&T.

Apple has had theoretical support for a world phone since switching to Qualcomm chips, but previous iPhone 4 models haven’t enabled the feature. Turning it on would likely be bad news for those hoping iPhone 5 would sport LTE (the faster and closest to a “real” next generation wireless technology). HSPA+, a not-quite-as-fast but far more widespread “4G” protocol looks like a safer bet, though it would leave Verizon behind on the same EVDO Rev A speed the current iPhone supports. (See TiPb’s guide to wireless network terminology for more on what this all means.)

In other words, Verizon could advertise a world phone but AT&T could say they have a 4G iPhone.

[TechCrunch]

According to a report from Reuters this morning, Apple has instructed its Asian manufacturers to begin production of a lower priced iPhone 4 with just 8GB of on-board storage. The information comes from "People with knowledge of the matter". The flash drives for the 8GB iPhone 4 will be manufactured by a Korean company according to the same sources but no company name was revealed.

To be clear, this doesn’t sound like the iPhone nano/budget iPhone TiPb previously heard Apple was working on, nor is it the greatest of revelations when you consider previous Apple release patterns — When the iPhone 3GS was launched, the then-current iPhone 3G was offered as a cheaper entry level iPhone with 8GB of storage. Again when the iPhone 4 was launched last year, the iPhone 3GS was offered with 8GB of storage at a much cheaper price.

Having said that, an iPhone 4 with 8GB of storage at a very competitive price would still be a very compelling device for many.

[Reuters]

 

Apple has updated its iTunes software with an incremental update to version 10.4.1. The update is available now for both Mac and PC users. It is mainly a bug fix release with a few performance issues addressed.

• Fixes a problem where the media keys on some third-party keyboards work inconsistently with iTunes
• Addresses issues with adding artwork to songs and videos
• Resolves an issue which may cause iTunes to become unresponsive when purchasing an HD film
• Fixes a problem where iTunes may take longer than expected to open after waking your Mac from sleep
• Addresses issues with VoiceOver support

You can get the update by either firing up iTunes and checking for updates or direct from Apple at the iTunes download page. Once you've installed it let us know if you see anything else new and as always, until its been tested, be careful if you are a jailbreaker!

[iTunes]

 

 

 

 

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Georgia, Seth, Keith, and Rene talk iPod touch 5, iOS 5 beta 6, UDID don’ts, iPad 3 this spring, iPad killing HP consumer hardware, Google’s Moto insurance policy, and the glorious JooJoo2. This is iPad Live!

Hosts

• Georgia @GeorgiaTiPb)
• Rene @reneritchie)
• Seth @sethclifford)
• Keith @TheKeithNewman)

Credits

Thanks to the TiPb iPad Accessory Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Music Hear me Roar by iPad Live theme song contest winner, DieselJesus!