Apple is reporting that Steve Jobs has passed away today.

CUPERTINO, Calif., Oct 05, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today.

Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.

His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.

Apple has posted a page containing the following message:

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

If you would like to share your thoughts, memories, and condolences, please email rememberingsteve@apple.com

Steve Jobs’ family has issued the following statement:

Steve died peacefully today surrounded by his family.

In his public life, Steve was known as a visionary; in his private life, he cherished his family. We are thankful to the many people who have shared their wishes and prayers during the last year of Steve's illness; a website will be provided for those who wish to offer tributes and memories.

We are grateful for the support and kindness of those who share our feelings for Steve. We know many of you will mourn with us, and we ask that you respect our privacy during our time of grief.

Tim Cook has sent out the following email to Apple employees:

Team,

I have some very sad news to share with all of you. Steve passed away earlier today.

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

We are planning a celebration of Steve's extraordinary life for Apple employees that will take place soon. If you would like to share your thoughts, memories and condolences in the interim, you can simply email rememberingsteve@apple.com.

No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve's death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much.

Tim

We have no words, other than to express our deepest gratitude for everything he gave us, and our deepest sympathies to his family, friends, and colleagues.

Phone Scoop was able to confirm that Sprint, as rumored, will be offering iPhone customers unlimited data plans starting at $69.99.

Sprint today confirmed to Phone Scoop via telephone that the Apple iPhone 4S will have access to all the same voice and data plans (at the same rates) that Sprint’s current smartphones do — including unlimited 3G data and the 5GB mobile hotspot cap.

Both AT&T and Verizon have switched to tiered pricing and no longer offer unlimited data plans for new customers (unless you’ve been grandfathered in, you’re out of luck). With Sprint taking on a $20 billion gamble with the iPhone, something like this to help differentiate themselves from the competition could really go a long way in securing new subscribers.

The iPhone 4S is scheduled to be released on Sprint, AT&T and Verizon on October 14th in the US, with pre-orders starting this Friday. Will this news have any impact on which carrier you’ll go with?

Source: Phone Scoop

If you’re a jailbreaker you’re probably wondering what the iPhone 4S and iOS 5 GM mean for you. And if you plan on upgrading, will you be able to jailbreak? As with any new software or hardware release, we can’t be too sure of what this means for jailbreak but here is what we do know:

• The iOS 5 GM can be jailbroken via Redsn0w 0.9.9b3a, but it will be tethered (unless you have an older boot rom)
• We will most likely have to wait for a tool to be updated to support new hardware
• If you jailbreak, you’ll miss out on the OTA updates that come with iOS 5
• A jailbreak for the new hardware will most likely be tethered at first just like recent beta jailbreaks for iOS 5

After iOS 4 dropped we saw an untethered jailbreak but we waited quite a while for another untethered solution on iPhone 4 under iOS 4.2.1. As with any new software and hardware, we’ll really have to wait for the jailbreak community to get their hands on the new stuff before we know anything for sure.

What I can say is if you rely on an unlock, you’ll probably want to wait to upgrade until a software unlock is released. You can always turn to options like Gevey if those tools are updated. But those are somewhat illegal and, ya know, frowned upon.

The Let’s Talk iPhone event is now over and we officially have the iPhone 4S, Siri, iOS 5, iCloud, and several other cool new features to be excited about.

But what about what we didn’t get?

What about all those iPhone 5 cases we saw mysteriously pop up over the past several months? While Apple announced a good amount of hardware improvements to the iPhone 4S, the update still left a lot of people underwhelmed. In some ways, this is understandable given Apple had more time than ever between launches to come out with a new device.

A lot of people were still holding out for a new design. Apple also seems to be attempting to deter cries of antenna-gate this time around with a newly designed antenna system with a technology known as “intelligence switching”.

Likewise, there was no LTE radio for faster internet speeds, not even real HSPA+ at 21mbps or 42mbps. The proper LTE chips that Apple would need to keep battery life and thinness won’t be ready until 2012, but why no HSPA+ at this point?

Many people also wanted an alternative to the glass back of iPhone 4. Aluminum, like the iPad, was a frequent rumor. So whether you love the all glass front and back design or not, you’re stuck with it for at least one more year.

While I didn’t mind the general design staying the same I really was holding out hope for a larger screen. With a flooded market of Android phones boasting screens of 4″ or more, I really would have liked to see the new iPhone step up to compete with that. While the screen on the iPhone 4 and 4S are gorgeous, they really are on the smaller side when you look at the competition. I’m expecting at least 4″ next year.

We also heard rumors of Apple implementing NFC into the next generation iPhone. Yet there was no mention of NFC and as far as we know, the iPhone 4S won’t be supporting it. Given this would be a pretty cool feature, I don’t really think it was a deal breaker for a lot of folks just yet.

iOS 5 announcement was clearly Apple’s flagship announcement this year. Features like iCloud, iTunes Match, OTA backups, and others will come to the older devices, but Siri will be iPhone 4S exclusive.

That, Cards, and Find my Friends were the only new software announced alongside iPhone 4S, however. While we can’t expect another 200 new features, was Cards really the best use of Apple’s time? Sure they can use it to sell some prints but what about an Airport Utility app? A Files app that does for documents what Photos does for images? An improvement for the Maps app, perhaps? What about FaceTime over 3G? Panoramic photos?

Add to the list no Steve Jobs appearance, no “One more thing…” and there’s lots to gripe about. Don’t get me wrong, Apple certainly brought a lot to the table yesterday, but they left a lot off as well. Were there any killer features you really wanted that you didn’t get?

It hasn’t even been a full day since Apple seeded iOS 5 GM to developers, but the iPhone Dev-Team has already updated Redsn0w to fully support the gold-master release.

redsn0w has been updated to 0.9.9b3 to auto-detect iOS5 GM firmware. Remember: it's still tethered for all devices except for iPhone 3GS with old bootrom. If you don't use redsn0w to "Just boot" at power up, all jailbreak apps (and even some native ones like MobileSafari) will fail to launch.

If you already jailbroke the GM by pointing an older redsn0w at the beta7 IPSW, there's no need to re-run the full jailbreak step again…just use this newer one to make the tethered boot easier

The following devices are supported under Redsn0w 0.9.9b3a.

• iPod touch 3G
• iPod touch 4G
• iPad 1
• iPhone3GS
• iPhone4 (GSM)
• iPhone4 (CDMA)

It’s important to note that this does not support unlocking your iPhone, and those requiring an unlock should stay away from iOS 5 completely until an unlock is available. Additionally, this is still a tethered jailbreak (unless you’re on an older bootrom) which means you’ll have to plug it into your computer each time a reboot is needed.

We’ll have a full how-to up shortly to help you through the steps of jailbreaking under iOS 5 GM.

Source: iPhone Dev-Team

If you bought a new iPod nano in 2010, don’t worry, Apple has already pushed out an update to bring you all the new features, including big icons and 12 new watch faces — today! That’s right, just plug into iTunes, hit update, and you’ll be ready to rock everything from a classic timepiece to Mickey Mouse and… wait for it… ANIMAL!

What’s really super sweet is that the watch faces know what color nano you have an match themselves accordingly. So if you have a golden nano, they’ll be colored differently than if you have a silver one, for example.

It’s great that Apple pays such attention to detail. Now hurry up and update your nano and let me know which watch face you choose to rock!

Just a day after Apple announced the iPhone 4S, Samsung has filed two separate motions for preliminary injunctions to block sales of the iPhone 4S in Paris, France and Milan, Italy.

Apple has continued to flagrantly violate our intellectual property rights and free ride on our technology. We believe it is now necessary to take legal action to protect our innovation.

This move is an expected one, however, as Samsung has been holding their finger on the lawsuit button just waiting for the announcement.

What makes this one so interesting is that Samsung’s patents are FRAND, which means they’re licensed under fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms. That means Apple should simply be able to pay the same bill any other manufacturer has paid for their use. It’s also different from the design infringement and non-FRAND patents Apple is already suing Samsung over.

Source: Samsung

Usually I get the one word editorials around here, but this time it’s my podcast co-host, Seth Clifford who’s grown tired of miss-set expectations, of media hype and backlash, and for the reality distortion field that no longer comes from Apple, but is all too often directed at Apple.

On the heels of what many are describing as the cataclysmically disappointing iPhone 4S announcement yesterday, the internet is rife with tales of Apple’s inevitable post-Steve descent into oblivion. Why, the mere suggestion that Tim Cook has bungled his first big show is enough to send bloggers the web over into paroxysms of glee, breathlessly recounting every misstep, every missed opportunity, and every underwhelming demonstration onstage at that emotionally vacant press event.

But today, after the smoke’s cleared, I’m just tired. I’m tired of the outlandish expectations the media creates. I’m tired of contrarian backlash, built on incorrect assumptions about how an extremely successful company needs to operate to continue on the path to further success. There simply isn’t any way to even view Apple announcements through any lens of reality anymore, and it’s tiring.

Now go read the rest of it.

Source: Seth Clifford

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!

• Meteoric Download Manager (giveaway): If you wish you had a good means of download files of all kinds to your iPhone, problem solved. [$1.99 for iPhone - App Store link]

• Tab Pro: Combines all the benefits of tried-and-true musical tablature with the most advanced interactive technology. Who says that a music education has to be boring? Tab Pro allows you to play along with your favorite song as you learn, ensuring that you are truly keeping perfect time. [$3.99 for iPhone - App Store link]

• Swarovski Refract: Create unique audio visual compositions that you can share, edit and play live. [Free for iPhone and iPad - App Store link]

• Bubble Birds HD 2.0: Match three or more birds of the same color to remove them from the field and score as many points as possible. Now with a new design, levels and characters will make the game more fun and cool. [Free for iPhone and iPad - App Store link]

• Professional Darts Championship: Create your own darts player and take on the world in both single player and multiplayer. Compete in tournaments, take on the challenge mode or simply play a one off match. [$1.99 for iPhone and iPad - App Store link]

Giveaway

The good folks at Digital Poke have given us 5 promo codes for Meteoric Download Manager to giveaway! For a chance to win, just leave a comment below!

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.

Following Apple’s Let’s Talk iPhone event, several members of the media were able to do brief initial hands-on reviews of the new iPhone 4S. Here’s what they had to say:

Overall, the power of the iPhone 4S is impressive. Being able to use apps like Siri will be fun, but we'll have to wait to see what coverage and call quality are like. – Jim Dalrymple of The Loop

Apple’s new smartphone has a dual-core A5 CPU, an 8-megapixel still camera, a 1080p video camera, and of course, iOS 5. What does all this mean to the average user? We will have to get it into PC Labs before we issue a judgment, but in the short time I spent with the iPhone 4S, it seems like an improved version of an already very solid smartphone. – Dan Costa of PC Mag

Much in the same way that the 3GS improved the overall experience of the 3G, the 4S does likewise compared to the existing 4. The dual-core A5 chip is a laudatory improvement, and whisking about pages, loading the camera application and launching — well, just about everything — just feels zippier. As it should. The other major change, the antennas, weren’t readily different at a glance, but as Mr. Cook stated, you’d have to be iFixit to notice (and we’re sure they will). – Darren Murph of Engadget

In the hand it may feel like the same device, but in practice the "S" in 4S could easily stand for "Speed." Now with the dual-core 1GHz Apple A5 inside, with what is claimed to be 2x the performance and 7x the graphics speed of the iPhone 4, it's all round a faster phone. Navigating between apps has never been slow, but there's literally no lag to be found. Webpages rendered instantly, while pinch-zooming was silky smooth. – Vincent Nguyen of SlashGear

The story with the iPhone 4S is obviously all about the software, and while you might be bummed about not seeing a major external hardware revision, you should know that Apple has introduced some serious new features into the language of the iPhone. – Joshua Topolsky of This is my next/The Verge

In aggregate, the casing is the same, the new A5 processor is fast, the camera is great, and Siri is very impressive.