The iPhone Blog |
- Daily Tip: How to track Santa on your iPhone or iPad
- $100 giveaway: Vote now for the 2011 TiPb Readers Choice Awards!
- TiPb Picks of the Week for December 24, 2011
- Forums: Custom backplate giveaway, iPhone 4S insurance, wallpaper challenge, guitar interfaces, holiday recipes
- iPhone 4 32GB goes BOGO at Best Buy, today only
- Action Movie FX brings Hollywood style special effects to your home videos
- iMame arcade emulator yanked from the App Store
- Daily Tip: How to set up a PIN code on your iPhone SIM
- Holiday App Sales
| Daily Tip: How to track Santa on your iPhone or iPad Posted: 24 Dec 2011 02:50 PM PST
Little ones trying to figure out just how exactly they can track Santa on their iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad this year? Well, Google Maps and NORAD to the rescue! They’ve got Dasher and Dancer, Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid, Donner and Blitzen — and Rudolf! — of course, on high density, broad-spectrum satellite surveillance and they’re tracking him down to the striped wrapping paper in his sleigh bag. So if you want to know where Santa is just this very second, here’s all you have to do:
Bonus Tip: If you click no the blue arrow at the location and click on the link, you will see a photo of the location. That’s it! The jolly old elf is now in your scopes! So get the cookies and milk ready and make sure you’re tucked in before the chimney starts rocking,because Santa Clause is coming to town! Source; NORAD 
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| $100 giveaway: Vote now for the 2011 TiPb Readers Choice Awards! Posted: 24 Dec 2011 12:17 PM PST
Have you voted in the 2011 TiPb Readers Choice Awards yet? They’re your awards, after all, your chance to pick the very best iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Apple TV stories, devices, features, apps, and accessories of the year. If by some chance you haven’t, if you were previously frozen in cabronite or had to cross the candy cane forest and make your way through the Lincoln Tunnel, then here’s your chance to make it right. Vote in the polls below, and then tell us your absolute favorite iOS happenings of 2011 in the comments. $100 iTunes Gift Card giveawayAs a way to say thanks to you, the TiPb Nation, for being our absolute favorite thing about 2011, we’re going to pick one of you from the comments and give you a $100 iTunes Gift Card. That’s cold, hard, digital Apple media cash money, people. And it could be yours. How better to top off the holidays, and the awards? So get voting and get commenting. Like, NOW!
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| TiPb Picks of the Week for December 24, 2011 Posted: 24 Dec 2011 11:37 AM PST
Every week a few of us from team TiPb will bring you our current favorite, most fun and useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they're iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch related, they're fair game. To see what we picked, and to tell us your pick, follow on after the break!
SlingPlayer for iPad – @chrisoldroyd
Sling released its iPad app earlier this year and if I said it was a disgrace I wouldn’t be exaggerating one bit. I paid quite a lot for it and it just did not deliver any sort of good experience for watching your SlingBox on the iPad. It was jerky and unwatchable. For the past few months, I have been using the SlingPlayer for iPhone app on my iPad in 2X mode and that delivered a way superior viewing experience for me in comparison. Thankfully though Sling has seen fit to update its iPad offering and this time they have got it right. It works, its very sharp, its smooth, I love it. Its only taken them about six months which is a little long to have to wait but at least its working now. I watched a full soccer match on it last night and it didn’t drop a frame, perfect!
Skitch for iPad – @Alli_Flowers
The only thing missing from Evernote was the ability to add in drawings. And while it would be better if this were simply a tab inside the Evernote app, Skitch is a great start. Skitch reminds me a little of early versions of Corel Draw. It gives you free-style drawing, basic shapes, text, and the ability to move what you’ve done. Not much editing, but I’m willing to let it go since this is a first release. You can create a “skitch” from scratch, or you can notate on top of a photo from your album, a new photo taken directly from your camera, a web page, or a map from Google maps. Using your Evernote account allows you to save your Skitch note right to your account. Or you can tweet your creation, email it, or just save it to your camera role. The possibilities are endless.
Die Hard (and other holiday classics) – @reneritchie
If there’s one thing the holidays are for, beyond time with family and friends, beyond turkey and latkas and gelt and eggnog, beyond presents and general debauched merriment, it’s movies. No, not the sanitized, commercial cut, pre-programmed network fare traditional TV foists on us, but the originals, in as good a quality as possible, presented on demand, where we want them and when. With the iPhone or iPod touch, that can be on the go, in interstitial moments. With iPad, that can be curled up in almost any corner. With Apple TV, that can be in your living room or bedroom, up on the big screen. Whether it’s courtesy of iTunes or Netflix or Air Video any of a handful of other apps, if escapist action, if seasonal romance, if holiday fable, if festive laughs, if decades of stories well told are what you’re looking for, grab your iOS device of choice and tap play — you’ve hit the Santa-sacked gold mine. I started last night with Elf. Next up is my favorite Christmas classic of all — Die Hard. “Now I have a machine gun. Ho. Ho. Ho.” Launch Center – @sethclifford
Since my original pick this week was unceremoniously pulled from the App Store (as I expected, but I had hoped to at least get the pick out beforehand), my follow-up pick has been moved up by a week. Launch Center is the latest in a series of very useful little apps by App Cubby, makers of Tweet Speaker and Gas Cubby among others. Its premise is pretty simple. Hit the icon, see a list of quick actions you can perform and jump right to them. With the addition of Siri to the iPhone 4S, a lot of these kinds of things are taken care of, however I still believe that apps like this are very useful, simply because I can’t always talk to Siri when I would need to do something. You can configure a few useful shortcuts like email, speed dial, message, tweet, post to Facebook and launch URL, and there’s a few other tools thrown in (activate flashlight and google clipboard contents). Naturally, as with all App Cubby apps, the design is clean and lovely, and it’s easy to configure and use. Despite rumors of Apple removing the ability to configure URL schemes to launch apps in the next OS update, this is still a nice little addition to your home screen, and it’d be cool to see shortcuts added in the future if functions become available.
RadioAlarm – @andrewwray
Need to find a good app for helping you wake up at a decent hour on Christmas morning? Maybe you want to get up so early that you might get lucky enough get to catch Santa in the act? I’ve recently set a goal of waking up a couple of hours earlier than normal each morning to help get more things done before the day actually begins, and RadioAlarm is truly a godsend in that respect. With RadioAlarm you have the options of waking up to the sound of your favorite songs from the iPod music library, soothing or motivational music from a long list of online radio stations and even ambient nature sounds for a more natural escalation to consciousness from a deep sleep. In addition, the app comes with a unique feature called “Shake to Wake Up”, so you’ll be wide awake in no-time from having to shake your iPhone before the alarm shuts off. A sleep timer also helps for those who have trouble getting to sleep but also enjoy listening to music in bed before they fall into a deep slumber, and the sleep timer helps make it so you won’t wake up in the middle of the night if a harder or louder song happens to be next in line on your favorite online radio station. It’s a really great tool at a really great price, and I highly recommend it to anyone who hates waking up to jarring alarm sounds like the ones used by the built-in Clock app in iOS. Trust me, you’ll never wake up grumpy again with RadioAlarm!
Find My Friends – @llofte
My family and I just spent the last few days moving from Denver, CO to the central coast of CA. Well, what I actually mean is that my daughter and I hopped on a plane while my husband and brother-in-law drove halfway across the country. I always get nervous when someone I love is driving long distances. I get even more nervous when there are winter weather advisories for all the areas that said loved ones will be driving through. Find My Friends helped put my mind at ease. It was so awesome to be able to check my husband’s location whenever I wanted – which was every couple of hours. It was also awesome for when he was almost home, because I was able to get some beers chilled for the boys in time for their arrival. Not to mention, if I didn’t have Find My Friends, I would’ve been calling my husband every few hours, instead: “where are you?” It was a win-win solution for both of us.
Your pick?You're part of the team as well, so we will be choosing one reader to make a submission each week! Just look for the announcement on twitter or our Facebook page each weekend for a chance to be picked! In the meantime, jump into the comments and let us know your pick of the week! 
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| Posted: 24 Dec 2011 08:03 AM PST
It’s the holidays and the forums are bursting at the seems with cheer… and more! If you happened to miss out on any of today’s or this weekends events make sure you get caught up either here on the blogs or in the TiPb forums — and stay tuned for what the rest of this week will bring. You can register now to get started today:
If you’re not already a member of the TiPb Forums, register now! 
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| iPhone 4 32GB goes BOGO at Best Buy, today only Posted: 24 Dec 2011 06:35 AM PST
For today only, and in store only, Best Buy is offering qualified buyers last year’s iPhone 4 at 32 GB capacity on BOGO (buy one, get one free) on either the Verizon or AT&T networks.
If you can live without Siri, the improved camera, and the better antenna, head on over to the big blue box and bring ‘em home. 
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| Action Movie FX brings Hollywood style special effects to your home videos Posted: 24 Dec 2011 01:06 AM PST Action Movie FX is a new app that lets you add special effects to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch videos. When we say special effects, we don't mean boring old effects, we mean Hollywood spectacular explosions, missile attacks and car smashes.
Action Movie FX is free in the App Store and comes with two special effects built in. There is also the option to add two more effects bundles which you can get via in-app purchase. The Chopper Down and Tornado Action bundle and an Airstrike and Fire Fights Attack bundle; each at a cost of $0.99. Action Movie FX supports the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and iPod touch 4th Generation only.
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.
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| iMame arcade emulator yanked from the App Store Posted: 23 Dec 2011 11:41 PM PST
iMame has been taken out of the App Store by Apple as fast and stealthily as it originally appeared. The app first made its official appearance earlier this week and we thought then that it could be leading a bit of a charmed life. Mame is a hugely popular app on other platforms as it is an emulator for retro arcade cabinet games from the early 1980's. The App Store version was a more locked down app that came with a number of built in games but no official way to get more games into the app. This we assume is how the developer managed to gain Apple’s approval. On other platforms, Mame is all about downloading ROM images of old arcade games of which the legality is highly questionable. The iOS version was not advertised as having this ability to accept ROMS from outside sources; but it didn't take users long to discover how to do just that. We assume that this may well be the reason that Apple has decided to pull the app! Source: iTunes 
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| Daily Tip: How to set up a PIN code on your iPhone SIM Posted: 23 Dec 2011 09:34 PM PST Curious how to set up a PIN code on your iPhone’s SIM card to prevent things like the recent issue with iMessage not de-activating on stolen iPhones? If you’re concerned about security, it’s probably something you want to do sooner rather than later.
That’s it! Now, if your iPhone gets lost or stolen, your SIM card will remain safe and secure and the new “owner” will have zero ability to send or receive iMessages, or do anything else nefarious with your number. NOTE: If your iPhone does get lost or stolen, PIN code lock or not, call your carrier immediately to report it stolen and get it deactivated. The PIN code is the temporary solution. The carrier raining down deactivation on their pilfering heads is the permanent one. 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. 
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| Posted: 23 Dec 2011 07:29 PM PST
The Holidays are right around the corner, which means Apple has shut down iTunes Connect until December 29 and many developers have put their apps on sale for the week. We know how much you love sales, so follow along for a round-up of some of our favorites:
This is just a small list of all the iPhone and iPad apps and games on sale this Holiday season. If you come across any other good ones, let us know and we’ll add them to the list! 
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