If you’re a fan of the glass bead-blasted aluminum look of Apple’s MacBook line and wished you could have an iPhone dock with the same level of elegant sophistication and industrial beauty, you’re in luck — head on over to Kickstarter and back the Elevation Dock now.

Simple to use, quick undocking, and it works with or without a case. We didn’t stop there – It’s beautifully precision machined from solid aluminum and it comes in a gorgeous set of surface finishes, setting a new bar for quality and something that looks really good on your desk. It complements the high-level craftsmanship of the iPhone like no other.

Can’t wait for mine to get here. Kickstarter is costing me some money.

Source: Kickstarter

Magic Guitar is Smule’s newest music app, similar to Magic Piano. To play the guitar, hold your iPhone like it’s the neck of a guitar, and tap or slide the beams of light that pass across the screen. Just as with Magic Piano, you can listen live to others around the world while they play their music. The song selection includes many legendary artists including The Rolling Stones, Nirvana, Tom Petty, and Lynard Skynyrd.

• Free – App Store link

Check out Smule’s cofounder Ge Wang playing Scarborough Fair with Magic Guitar in the video below!

Get ready to rock! Unleash your inner rocker with Magic Guitar, and you'll be shredding like a legend in no time. Simply hold your phone like a guitar neck, and beams of light help you play the greatest guitar songs your own way. You control the notes, speed, guitar type, pitch and vibrato. Play it once, play it a hundred times, each time is a unique experience that won't get old.

• Simply touch the lights to play all styles of music, from soulful jams to scorching shred.
• Express your creativity and shake your phone to create vibrato, or drag your fingers to bend the pitch.
• Choose from different guitar sounds and speeds to make each song your own.

Magic Guitar's songbook includes a huge catalog of legendary artists including:

• The Rolling Stones
• KISS
• Daughtry
• Nirvana
• Sublime
• Bruno Mars
• Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
• Goo Goo Dolls
• Incubus
• Coldplay
• Lynard Skynyrd
• Evanescence
• Styx
• Poison
• Credence Clearwater Revival
• Blue Oyster Cult
• Jason Mraz
• Santana
• …and many more!

Magic Guitar is available on the iPhone for free.

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.

RIM announced their Q3 2011 results today, including the bloodbath that is PlayBook sales, and clusterfrak that is BlackBerry 10 superphones not being available until late 2012.

RIM needs to either get it together and become the competition we sorely need, or hope their stock drops low enough that CrackBerry Kevin can buy them with left over watch money and turn them around himself.

Either way, it deeply angers me to have to say, I told you thusly.

iTunes Match seems to be going live internationally right now — and for real this time, not like yesterday. International iTunes users are now once again getting the sign up page for the iTunes Match. Folks in Canada, Ireland, Mexico, Australia, France, New Zealand and various other regions are reporting successful signs ups for the service.

Not everyone has been successful though. If you’re having trouble:

1. Make sure you’ve updated to iTunes 10.5.2
2. Restart iTunes
3. Haven’t already activated 10 devices (PCs and/or iOS) on the same iTunes in the Cloud account.
4. Jump into our iTunes Match Forum for trouble-shooting help.

It does seem as though the system is a little bit overloaded right now. But let us know when — and where — you successfully get yourself up and running, and how long iTunes Match says it’s going to take to process your library.

Consume 2 is a Bjango’s big update to their excellent account and usage tracking app for iPhone, and this time around it adds universal binary support for iPad as well. Consume is designed to help you keep track of your usage for mobile phone, broadband, packages, toll and reward cards, and more. It features a gorgeous UI with graphs and bars as a way to visually explain your usage.

• $2.99 – App Store link

Keep track of your usage for your mobile phone, broadband, packages, toll cards, rewards cards and more with the best usage app on the app store. Consume features a stunning interface plus more than 250 providers from 18 countries, Including AT&T, Orange, O2, Fido, Rogers, Telstra, Optus, Vodafone, Virgin, 3 and many more.

For those in the US, here’s what you can track:

• Mobile Phone — GoPhone (Pick Your Plan), GoPhone (Pay As You Go), T-Mobile (Prepaid)
• Broadband — Comcast (Portland only), Transport, American Airlines, Amtrak Guest Rewards, Delta, ORCA Card, Sunpass
• Clubs — Hilton HHonors, Scooter's Coffeehouse
• Package Tracking — DHL (USA), FedEx, UPS, USPS
• Gaming — Club Nintendo

Consume is available on the iPhone and iPad for $2.99.

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.

If you live in Canada then you’ll know of Tim Hortons. You really cannot travel to far without seeing a Tim Hortons in any portion of Canada and while the franchise is slowly making its way across the US  — it keeps maintains it dominance over other franchises such as Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts in the great white north.

And now — Tim Hortons has upped their game quite a bit releasing a new version of their TimmyMe application. The previous version lacked some polish but the latest release has received a UI makeover and more importantly — now has some freshly added features:

Restaurant Finder

• Find the 10 closest Tim Hortons restaurants to your current location using your built-in GPS or search for restaurants by typing in a location
• View restaurant details including amenities (drive thru, accepts Tim Card®, in-restaurant seating, etc.) and filter search results by amenities
• Get driving directions to Tim Hortons locations

Tim Card® Balance Check

• Check the balance of your Tim Card®
• Nickname and save up to 5 cards in the app for easy access

Nutrition Info

• Get all the nutritional information for any Tim Hortons menu item
• Connect with Tims
• Stay connected with Tim Hortons through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

Order Notepad

• Keep track of your family and friends’ favourite orders

This is a pretty excellent makeover. Whether you need to look up where in the city a Tim Hortons location is or you’re just looking to keep track of your Tim Hortons card balance, the TimmyMe app is now worth keeping around. It’s available now for free in iTunes.

• Free – App Store link

Apple has updated the 2nd-generation Apple TV software to version 4.4.4, which includes general performances and stability improvements and a fix related to an issue that displayed an error when attempting to play certain types of video content.

The new software update comes just a month after their 4.4.3 update, which added support for Netflix streaming in Mexico as well as addressing an audio problem when playing sound through the optical port when your television set is turned off, and carries a new build number (9A406a).

You can grab the update from the Apple TV Update Software option in the device's General Settings menu.

Source: Apple

Roku users rejoice! An app to control your Roku streaming player has been released. With it, you can launch or rate any channel, browse the Roku Channel Store, and control multiple Roku players.

Turn your iOS device into a control center for your Roku streaming player. Launch channels, use your phone as a remote and find new channels to watch.

• Launch or rate any channel with a tap of your finger.
• Use a simple touch and swipe based remote control. Includes instant replay, back and options buttons.
• Easily browse hundreds of channels in the Roku Channel Store.
• Quickly add and remove channels to/from your Roku player.
• Control and switch between multiple Roku players.

Roku is available on the iPhone for free.

• 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.

GoodReader for iPad: Now with AFP connections + AFP Auto Sync to connect to shared folders on a Mac, to Apple Time Capsule, and to other AFP-enabled NAS drives.

• $4.99 for iPad – App Store link

Wind-up Knight: Guide your Wind-up Knight through devilish levels–over 50 in all–to rescue the Princess from the clutches of the evil Black Knight. Run, jump, roll, and slash your way to victory. Wind-up Knight is the type of challenging game you have been waiting for.

• $0.99 for iPhone and iPad – App Store link

Hugo Retro Mania: Hugo is on the mission of his life. He is out to find gold, diamonds and rubies whilst battling the evil witch Scylla, the dangerous crocodile Don Croco and huge nasty spiders. With your help Hugo must avoid discarded dynamite, running into errant mine wagons, getting caught by sudden rock falls, and avoid falling into dangerous pits and other surprises.

• $0.99 for iPhone – App Store link

TapShot: Tap anywhere and shoot a photo! Or let TapShot detect a face and shoot the picture for you! That’s all you really need to know about TapShot to start taking better photos, but there is much, much more.

• $0.99 for iPhone – App Store link

mGifts – Gift List Manager: Helps you to plan and track your gift giving needs for any holiday or special event.

• $2.99 for iPhone and iPad – 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.

Rene, Seth, and Jon Fingas of Electronista talk iPhone 4S 2 months later, Galaxy Nexus competition, Nokia hipsters, iOS 5.1 beta 2, PhotoStream, fake iPhone strings, Netflix, Microsoft apps, newnew Twitter, UI, and more. This is iPhone Live!

• Subscribe via iTunes: Audio | Video
• Subscribe via RSS: Audio | Video
• Download directly: Audio | Video
• Show notes

Hosts

Hosts

• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie)
• Seth Clifford (@sethclifford)

Special Guest

• Jon Fingas of Electronista

Credits

You can reach all of us on Twitter @TiPb, or you can email us at podcast@tipb.com, or leave a comment on the website when the show goes live.

We’re here every Wednesday night at 6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern, 2am GMT, and our companion show — iPad Live! — is at the same time, on the same channel, on Sunday nights. www.TiPb.com/live

For all our podcasts — audio and video — including iPhone and iPad Live, ZENandTECH and Superfunctional, Iterate and Girls Gone Gadget and more… see MobileNations.com/shows

If you haven’t already please subscribe to all our shows in iTunes and leave a rating. It helps people find the show and means a lot to us!

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

Hipstamatic Disposable is Synthetic Corp’s new photography app that brings a new twist to the idea of a social photography. With Hipstamatic Disposable, you take pictures as if you have a roll of film and you can’t see the photos until the film gets “developed”. However, you can share this roll of film with your friends so that they can contribute to the photos taken on the film. Once the film is used up, it gets developed and all the contributors have access to all the photos. Oh, and did I mention that the photos get processed with filters that Synthetic Corp is famous for?

I both love and hate this app. I love the concept – absolutely love it. It’s going to be fun to share rolls of film on Christmas since about 8 of us have an iPhone or iPod touch and can contribute to taking pictures. But I hate how much of the screen is taken up by the graphics of a camera. It’s kind of cool, but not practical. I need a bigger viewfinder, not a shutter button that takes up half the screen! I also hate the in-app purchase system. I am more than happy to purchase new cameras that use different filters, but Synthetic Corp requires that you buy rolls of film so that you have to continue making purchases if you want to take more pictures. It’s $0.99 for a 9 pack, $1.99 for a 36 pack, and $4.99 for a 99 pack.

The new Hipstamatic Disposable-series camera makes it a snap to create and share a camera with your friends. From the first snap to the last, everyone shoots to one album, and at the end photos are magically exchanged to all of the camera’s contributors. You’ll never have to swap doubles or email from your friend’s phone again. Sharing a roll of film has never been this much fun.

• Design amazing disposable cameras to share with your friends
• Instantly see everyones shots when the roll is complete
• Share the entire album or individual prints to Facebook, Twitter, and Email
• Get awesome new cameras from the in-app HipstaMart

Hipstamatic Disposable is available on the iPhone for free.

• 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.

We’ve launched the Mobile Nations network brand, we’ve launched great new shows like Girls Gone Gadgets and Stock Talk, and while you’d think we’d be happy enough now to take some time off for holiday cheer, we figured we’d throw out just a few more things to celebrate in 2011.

Mobile Nations has partnered with iTunes to provide you an all new, all beautiful Mobile Nations artist page where you can find all our latest shows, but our essential audio shows and video shows as well. We’ve also done a series of Holiday Gift Guide specials, where your favorite editors and hosts share with you their favorite holiday gadgets and gifts. You can find them all at our Mobile Nations Gift Guide page on iTunes.

If you haven’t already, please take a moment to subscribe to all the shows you enjoy and leave a rating or review, it really helps us out with iTunes! Also, please take a moment to subscribe to our new YouTube channel so you don’t miss any of the new shows. Speaking of which…

We’re launching another new show — Mobile Nations Enterprise with Craig Johnston and Isaac Kendall. It’s everything you love about our existing Mobile Nations shows, but targeted specifically at smartphones and tablets in business. From BES to BYOD, massive BlackBerry fleets to iPad deployments, from privacy and security concerns to balancing work and personal usage, this will be your go-to show.

Mobile Nations Enterprise launches tomorrow at 8am ET at http://www.mobilenations.com/live and we’ll have YouTube, RSS, and iTunes links available as soon as possible.

So sit back, relax, get your favorite podcatcher warmed up, and get ready for even more amazing Mobile Nations content in 2012!

For today only, the TiPb Store has the Ballistic Shell Gel (SG) Series Case for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 on sale for only $19.95!. Get them before they’re gone!

Get the Case-Mate Barely There Brushed Aluminum Case for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 now!

Last week an iTunes TV show menu suddenly started showing up on international Apple TVs, didn’t work, and subsequently disappeared. This week iTunes Match suddenly started showing up for international iTunes users, didn’t work, and Apple subsequently offered refunds to those who’d tried to purchase it.

So, we’d suggest waiting until a) Apple makes an official announcement about iTunes Match in your country, or b) significant reports come in of it actually working, before c) you give them any money for it.

Whether or not Apple is planning to officially launch iTunes TV shows and iTunes Match in more regions and someone accidentally lent on the big red “launch” lever at iCloud central a tad early — twice — or there’s some stranger problem going on is uncertain.

International licensing agreements are complex. Cloud services are complex. But false starts and pull backs seem decidedly un-Apple-like.

Here’s hoping iTunes gets their international launches back in order, and officially out the door, asap. If you saw either the here-today-gone-tomorrow TV show menu on Apple TV, or tried and failed to buy iTunes Match outside the US and Brazil, let us know in the comments below.

Forbes has published an interesting account involving the famous 1997 Think Different ad campaign, “Here’s To The Crazy Ones”, from Rob Siltanen, one of the advertising executives who helped put it all together. According to Stiltanen, Jobs was originally opposed to the TV spot.

CEO of TBWA/Chiat/Day Advertising, Lee Clow and I flew to Cupertino to play the spot in person to Jobs. Only the three of us were in the room. We played the spot once, and when it finished, Jobs said, "It sucks! I hate it! It's advertising agency s–t! I thought you were going to write something like 'Dead Poets Society!' This is crap!"

At the end of the day, Steve Jobs ran with the campaign after Lee brought in Ken Segall — someone whom Jobs had previously worked with — to make a few minor adjustments to the spot.



Source: Forbes

TV Anytime is an iPhone and iPad app that lets you record streaming TV to your device for later viewing. The recording must be done on your computer, then synced over to your iPhone or iPad via Wi-Fi or USB. Once the content has been stored to your iPhone or iPad, you can watch it whenever you like without the need for an internet connection.

Unfortunately, you need a Windows 7 PC with at least a dual core 1.5GHz processor to use TV Anytime – it is currently not available for Mac.

TV Anytime records streaming TV and Movies for playback on your PC, iPhone or iPod touch. It automatically records and syncs the content that you request to your iPhone or iPod touch via Wifi or USB.

TV Anytime is absolutely free to use for the top25 TV Shows and Movies; users who sign up before the end of 2011 will get a year of premium catalog access for free.

You can purchase access to the premium catalog of thousands of TV Shows and Movies in-app.

TV Anytime Phone and TV Anytime Tablet are available on the iPhone and iPad for free.

• Free for iPhone App Store link
• Free for iPad 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.

If redsn0w isn’t doing it for you, and you’re a Mac user, you may be wondering how to Jailbreak iOS 5.0 and iOS 5.0.1 using Ac1dSn0w. Ac1dSn0w is a newly released jailbreak tool that’ll allow you to tethered Jailbreak most iOS devices (unfortunately, still not iPhone 4S or iPad 2). It’s also a fairly straight forward process.

Currently supported devices

• iPhone 3G/3GS
• iPhone 4
• iPod Touch 4th generation
• iPad 1

What you need

• One of the supported devices listed above
• A Mac running either OS X Lion or OS X Snow Leopard
• Ac1dSn0w – Download here

Jailbreak your device

1. Once you’ve downloaded Ac1dSn0w, open it.
2. Next connect your device to your Mac and power it off.

3. If you’ve already gotten your device in DFU (device firmware update) mode, just click Jailbreak. If you don’t, tick the checkmark box that says Show Assistant and a prompt will come up that will help walk you through putting your device in DFU mode.
4. Once your device is in DFU mode, hit the Jailbreak button on the main screen of Ac1dSn0w.
5. Let Ac1dSn0w do its thing.

Perform a tethered boot

1. After you jailbreak the phone will reboot which will require you to perform a tethered boot. Use the assistant in Ac1dSn0w to put your phone back in DFU mode.
2. This time instead of clicking Jailbreak, you’ll click on Tethered Boot.

You’ll need to perform a tethered boot anytime your phone is completely turned off. You can still install applications that require the springboard to restart as that won’t require a tethered boot. The only time you’ll need to tethered boot is if your phone dies completely or you turn it off.

While this program will do the same thing as programs like RedSn0w, feel free to use whatever program you find the easiest. If you do happen to try out Ac1dSn0w, let us know how it went. And if you run into issues or have questions, check out our TiPb jailbreak and unlock forums.

Grand Theft Auto III: 10th Anniversary Edition has hit the App Store. Aside from the menus and loading screens, that have been updated for the ’10th Anniversary’, the game stays very true to the original. Its a must buy for anyone who wants some good nostalgia.

• Visually stunning updated graphics, character and vehicle models
• HD quality resolution
• Gameplay optimized for touch screen devices
• Custom controls for the mobile platform
• Countless hours of gameplay

It’s also a universal app, so it plays well on both iPhone and iPoud touch, as well as iPad.

• $4.99 – iTunes Link

IgnitedUSA has posted a rather entertaining video to their YouTube channel featuring all kinds of iMonsters, Santas, and characters from popular iOS apps. The video features them singing their own version of Deck the Halls from their own respective iPhone. It’s a pretty good laugh to get you through the work day. And don’t worry, totally safe for playing at work.

Source: IgnitedUSA