Samsung doesn’t copy Apple. Except for in-store iconography. And USB power adapters. And packaging. And dock connectors. And voice recording apps. And so on…

Source: Reddit via Daring Fireball

iPhone Live, the live recording of the best dang iPhone and iPod touch podcast on the net, hits the air again tonight. Join us!

Follow along with our show notes!

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.)

Look for Mobile Nations in Ustream after 9pm EDT!

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!

Missed a compelling piece of iPhone news, a great review, or a killer how-to? We’re not collecting absolutely everything in iPhone here — you can hit up TiPb.com/iPhone for that! — but we’re carefully picking what we think is the best of the last 7 days and presenting it here for your review.

And hey! — these double as show notes for our iPhone Live! podcast tonight at 9pm Eastern. So join us at TiPb.com/live and follow along!

Meta

• Iterate 7: App Cubby
• ZENandTECH 17: Positive counterstatements

Let’s talk iPhone event

• Apple "Let's talk iPhone" event set for Oct. 4
• iPhone 5 going dual-core, 1GB of RAM, with advanced Assistant feature?
• What if Apple called it iPhone 4GS?
• New iPhone and iPod touch SKUs show up in Apple's inventory system
• Lost iPhone 5 prototype source of case leaks?
• T-Mobile addresses the iPhone (or lack thereof) to customers

News

• Apple working on curved-glass display for the iPhone 6 in 2012?
• Apple's request for trademark on multi-touch denied
• iPhone holds highest retention rate over competing smartphone makers

The competition

• iPhone 4 vs. Samsung Galaxy S II: Which should you get?
• Windows Phone goes 7.5 Mango
• webOS Pre3 gets reviewed

Apps

• Picks of the Week

Tips

• Daily Tip: How to regain access to a passcode disabled iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

According to 9to5Mac‘s source, two new iPhone and three new iPod touch SKUs are now appearing in Apple’s inventory system. The new iPod touch models most likely represent the rumored white iPod Touch in 8, 32, and 64GB flavors just like its current black counterpart. The current iPod touch has the internal codename N81. These new SKUs are labeled as part number N81A which probably indicates an incremental update, or more likely, white iPod touch models.

The new iPhone SKUs appearing are labeled under the N90A codename. The current iPhone 4 is known internally as the N90 so this would most likely point to a minimally updated device. It may even indicate an 8GB version which is what Apple did when they knocked down the price of the iPhone 3GS last year. The N94 codename has appeared in the iOS SDK quite a few times and is probably the major iPhone upgrade we should hear about during the October 4th event Apple has scheduled. According to rumors, the iPhone 5 should bring with it some significant internal hardware changes so we doubt the N90A is the device we’ll see on Tuesday.

What do you think we’ll see come Tuesday? Just a new iPhone or white iPod Touch models as well?

Source: 9to5Mac

Did someone get ahold of your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad and try to guess your Passcode Lock one (or a thousand!) times too many, and now you’re wondering how to regain access to it yourself in this lifetime? The screenshot above was sent to us by a baffled reader who’s small child got ahold of their iPhone. But don’t worry if you’ve actively been creating backups of your iOS device, you can still regain access — without having to wait 6 million minutes first.

To regain control of your iPhone, you’ll simply need to restore your device in iTunes.

1. First put your phone in either DFU mode or recovery mode. Either will work in this scenario. Most people will prefer recovery mode as DFU can be a bit trickier. If recovery mode doesn’t work, then backtrack and try DFU mode.

2. iTunes will prompt you that a device in recovery mode has been detected and that you’ll have to restore before using it. 3. Now go ahead and click Restore.

4. iTunes will do its thing and when it’s done it will prompt you to either Set up as a new iPhone or Restore from a backup. Choose whatever option you’d like and let iTunes restore your device.

You’re done and you didn’t have to wait six million minutes! Thanks to reader Tom for the tip idea and we hope this helps you get into your iPhone well before that timer runs out!

Daily Tips 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…)

Amazon has announced their iPad competitor and as rumor had it, it’s called the Kindle Fire. The biggest news is the price — only $199 for a 14.6 ounce, 7-in IPS 1024×600 169dpi display. It’s dual core, Wi-Fi only, and has only 8GB of storage (plus free Amazon cloud) but again — $199.

If you’re looking for something that resembles the BlackBerry PlayBook, is running a fork of Android OS, and comes with all the content Amazon is happy to sell you, this could be a very compelling product. But if $199 is still too much for you to spend on a Kindle, just wait — there’s more! They’ve also announced an ultra-cheap classic-style Kindle for just $79, and a new Kindle Touch at $99 for Wi-Fi only and $149 for 3G. Those are the prices with ad-subsidized “special offers”, however. They’ll cost you $30-$40 more or so if you want them clean and ad-free.

Also, Amazon remains focused mainly on the US market and its international content offerings don’t look to be improving just yet (though I’ll continue to hold to hope given all the money Apple is making outside the US.)

Kudos to Amazon, though, for doing what Apple so far hasn’t done — release the iPad shuffle and iPad nano tablet price-points into the US market.

And hey, if you’re thinking about pre-ordering, here are some handy links that let you test out the non-Apple waters, but still support your favorite Mobile Nations sites at the same time. Win. Win.

• $199 Kindle Fire
• $149 Kindle Touch 3G
• $99 Kindle Touch Wi-Fi
• $79 Kindle

For more on the Kindle Fire, jump over to Android Central‘s new Kindle Fire Forums, then jump back here and tell us what you think — did Amazon just announce the first viable iPad competitor?

MacPhun LLC has updated their popular iPad photography app, FX Photo Studio HD. It now has 7 new effects and the Masking Studio that they recently introduced to the iPhone version of FX Photo Studio.

The new Masking Studio is such an awesome addition to FX Photo Studio. I thought it was great on the iPhone, but on the iPad’s big screen, the Masking Studio is amazing! You can zoom in real close to make sure you don’t miss any details, and while painting (or erasing) the mask, a little box pops up in the corner so you can see precisely where your finger is placed on the photo. Very cool.

Powerful, creative and intuitive application to keep everyone amazed with your photography.

• 194 photo effects and filters: lomo, vintage, art, tilt-shift, 3-D, textures, blurs, graffitti, pixelate, 3-D, etc
• Masking – paint with effects
• Color Splash Tool
• Import from Facebook
• Share to Instagram and other popular social networks

The update includes:

• Masking Studio: apply effects to any part of the image
• Color splash tool: apply selective colors to the image
• 7 new effects, including 3-D filter
• Performance improvements – with some filters 2X faster processing
• Improved editing tools: gamma, saturation, hues, etc
• Improved in-app camera
• Possibility to import images from Facebook
• Instagram sharing
• Centering for Tilt Shift, Radial Blur effects
• Printing via Air Print
• Square crop option
• Enhanced user interface
• Restore in-app purchases from inside the app

Giveaway

The good folks at MacPhun LLC have given us 5 promo codes for FX Photo Studio to give away to you, our awesome readers! For a chance to win, just let us know how many photos are sitting in your photo library waiting to be edited with FX Photo Studio in the comments below!

FX Photo Studio is available on the iPad with a promotional price of $1.99.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

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!

• Cortado Workplace: Have access to your documents and files anytime, anywhere and thanks to integrated desktop features, you can work just like at your desk. E.g. documents can be displayed, managed, opened in other applications, or even printed with your iOS device. [Free for iPhone and iPad - App Store link]

• Kept: Part photo-sharing app, part game. You want to upload and collect the most interesting and/or awesome photos you can. Easy as that. Your score is based on two things – how well your photos are judged and collected by the other players – and how awesome your personal collection of photos is, again, as judged by the other players. [Free for iPhone - App Store link]

• Twitterrific for Twitter: Now you can increase the number of tweets fetched on refresh. [Free for iPhone and iPad - App Store link]

• AquaPilot: If you've just gotten a pet fish, or are thinking of getting an aquarium, or ever thought about getting one but you were unsure of how to do it, AquaPilot is the app you've got to have- it takes the guesswork out and guides you every step of the way. [$1.99 for iPhone - App Store link]

• iGibbets: An easy, entertaining and exciting game. You'll have to make a small effort to save a lot of people's lives. All you need for that is already at your fingertips: accuracy, attention and logic. [Free for iPhone - App Store link]

Any other big app or game releases or updates today?

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

For today only, the TiPb Store has the Body Glove Fringe Snap-On Case for AT&T iPhone 4 is non-slip scratch protection for only $6.95 — Get it before it's gone!

Shop Body Glove Fringe Snap-On Case for AT&T iPhone 4 now!

Derek Kessler over at PreCentral.net has reviewed the hell out of the webOS Pre3, the no-longer-going-to-be-released iPhone competitor that HP bought from Palm only to leave broken and strewn across a mountain of mismanagement and corporate incompetence.

This could have been the great hurrah for webOS smartphones. The Pre3 could actually have stood a chance against the might of the iPhone and Android behemoths. Instead, it's not even made it into the arena, let alone the ring. It demonstrates what the Palm team was truly capableof building a great smartphone with the right resources at their backs. Too bad the support wasn't there too.

Shame on HP.

Source: PreCentral.net