As we noted earlier, next week is all about CES 2012 and we’ll be there gathering the best content we can find for you all. It’s sure to be a great time so make sure you follow along here on the blogs and especially in the forums. The forums are a great spot to discuss all things Apple in a better way then what the comments section can offer and we’ve got a spot just for you, you can register now to get started today and check out some of the threads below, today:

• iPhone 4S Forum: What job do you have, that you use your iPhone 4S?
• iPhone 4 Forum: Excessive data usage, any help is appreciated
• iCloud Forum Unable to restore app data after reinstalling app
• iPad 2 Forum Can you lock out certain apps?
• Jailbreak and Unlock Forum How do I remove my Jailbreak?

If you’re not already a member of the TiPb Forums, register now!

Georgia, Rene, and special guest Phil Nickinson of Android Central talk tech for business travelers. Whether you’re a road warrior or frequent flyer, a little planning and a lot of good apps and accessories can make your trips less stressful and far more successful. This is ZENandTECH!

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Hosts

• @GeorgiaTiPb (Georgia)
• @reneritchie (Rene)

Contact

You can reach all of us @ZENandTECH, via email at podcast@zenandtech.tv, or leave a comment below!

Thanks everyone, you’re the best community on the web and we love having you with us!

Disclaimer

While Georgia is a therapist, she’s not YOUR therapist. Everything said or implied on this show is for informational and entertainment purposes only. And shouldn’t be taken in any way as a replacement for proper, professional care.

Credits

Music is Peace on Earth by wellman.

Zepi:Classic HD: Do you want to prove that your fingers are the fastest in the world and your reflexes are the quickest in the universe? Welcome to try out Zepi – a fun exciting brain game for players of any age.

• $0.99 for iPad – App Store link

Diet Cakes Weight Loss: Rather than a boring book that you might flick through and never look at again, Diet Cakes gives you the pleasure of clearing an entire tray of cakes or donuts or ice-cream cones and getting benefit from it. Inside each cake, donut, and ice-cream cone is a Diet Cake Motivational Cookie – these 36 fortune-style type cookies contain ideas and questions designed to inspire your weight loss.

• $1.99 for iPhone and iPad – App Store link

AppStart: A fun, interactive magazine about your iPhone & apps! And it’s oh so pretty!

• Free for iPhone – App Store link

Onibi: A kinetic puzzler where the player is a forest spirit who must wind paths that awaken the other voices of the forest. Keep your flow and other spirits will follow you. The result is a symphony of motion and sound that is different every time.

• $1.99 for iPhone and iPad – App Store link

Super Crate Box:

• $0.99 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 iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

AllThingsD reports that Netflix (and Blockbuster) will be required to wait twice as long, or a full 56 days after DVDs hit retail shelves, before offering Warner Brothers content under a new distribution agreement.

The move is part of Hollywood's ongoing campaign to bolster flagging DVD sales, and sources tell me the new deal is supposed to be announced at next week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Warner Brothers executives have already talked publicly about extending the current window.

Redbox was also included in the initial report, however their parent company Coinstar has made a statement indicating they haven’t yet entered into a new contract with Warner Brothers. They are, however, set to renegotiate their contract at the end of January, but have publicly stated they’d look for “workarounds” if studios attempt to double the time window.

While studios may think this type of dumbassery forces people to buy more DVDs, it only forces them to hate the circumvent the customer-hostile studios. Hollywood is once again on the wrong side of history and common sense. Rapid availability and fair pricing is what boosts sales. iTunes taught that to music studios ravaged by Napster and the like a decade ago. Steve Jobs told them at the time their competition was free-as-in-file-sharing. Is Hollywood really this intent on making the recording labels seem like geniuses by comparison?

Here’s once again hoping the old-guard gets replaced soon.

Source: All Things Digital

iMore is heading over to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next week, likely to look at more iPhone and iPad accessories — and the occasional app — than any group of humans ought ever look at a single place and time. We’ll be bring the very best to you in video and post form, so if there’s something you want to see, something you want to show off, or if you just want to say hello, let us know!

You can follow all the action via iMore.com/tag/ces2012.

Team iMore will be represented by yours truly, Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie), Leanna Lofte (@llofte), and Ally Kazmucha (@imuggle). We’ll also have the full Mobile Nations crew with us, including Phil Nickinson (@philnickinson) and the Android Central army, Kevin Michaluk (@crackberrykevin) and the CrackBerry.com crew, Derek Kessler (@dkdsgn) and webOS Nation, and Daniel Rubino (@malatesta77) and the WPCentral.com clique, as well as cross-site collaborator jared DiPane (@jdipane) and our brand new editor-at-very-large, Simon Sage (@simonsage).

Keep your browsers locked on iMore and Mobile Nations for all the news, and follow us crazy kids for the behind the scenes shenanigans. (There tends to be lots f both!)

After Dow Jones misconstrued some comments by Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, Sprint has come out with an official statement saying they do not throttle regular subscribers under their unlimited data plans.

Reports that Sprint throttles the top one percent of data users are false. Here are the facts:

• Sprint does not throttle any postpaid phone data users for on-network or off-network usage. Sprint is the only national carrier offering smartphone users truly unlimited data with no throttling, metering or overages while on the Sprint network.

• Sprint does have terms and conditions which prohibit certain types of data use that may impair other customers’ usage or harm or interfere with the network. At yesterday's investor conference, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse was referring to Sprint's right to terminate service of data abusers who violate Sprint's terms and conditions. Customers who abuse our network by violating the terms and conditions will be contacted by Sprint in an effort to have the customer change their usage to comply with their subscriber agreement. Customers who do not change their usage and remain in violation of the terms and conditions may be subject to actions reserved by Sprint, including but not limited to termination. Consistent with our advertising, engaging in such uses will not result in throttling for customers on unlimited data-included plans for phones.

So, there you have it. Sprint doesn’t throttle regular paying subscribers under their unlimited plan, including those with the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. They do, however, throttle the top 1 percent of heavy data users under their roaming agreements with carrier partners (such as Verizon).

Source: Sprint

Randomly accurate rumor site Digitimes suggests that, according to industry sources out of Taiwan, Apple will release a Retina display iPad 3 in March, then turn around and ship a more significant iPad 4 in October.

The 9.7-inch iPad 4 is expected to come with much upgraded hardware specifications and integrated applications so as to compete with an array of Android-, Wintel- or WoA (Windows on ARM)-based tablet PCs to be released in the fourth quarter, said the sources.

They also reaffirm the rumor that Apple will keep the iPad 2 on sale at a lower $399 price.

This is an almost identical rumor to one that made the rounds last year, with numerous sources — including iMore — hearing that Apple was at least toying with the idea of releasing iPad 3 in October of 2011. Whether those rumors were ultimate inaccurate, or display constraints required Apple change plans and revert to a spring 2012 release is unknown.

Likewise, whether or not there’s any substance to these rumor rehashes, or an attempt to suppress iPad 3 sales with early chatter of an iPad 4 is impossible to say at this point. It does seem unlikely that Apple would release two iPads in the same retail year, given the enormous success of their current strategy.

Source: Digitimes

Mark Gurman over at 9to5 Mac has discovered some code buried deep within the iOS 5.1 beta which might suggest Apple is prepping a quad-core chip to power future iPhone and iPad devices.

The references to quad-core iPhone and iPad chips come by way of a hidden panel that describes cores that are supported by iOS device hardware. The updated core management software includes an option of "/cores/core.3," and this represents a fourth available processing core…

Gurman explains that people who work closely with iOS code advised the core count begins at 0, so a dual-core processor would be labeled as core.1 for its second core, and as such, a quad-core processor would carry a core.3 label for its fourth core.

Whether we’ll see this in the Apple A6 chipset — which is expected to power the iPad 3 and next-gen iPhone — is another story. Although Apple doesn’t like to tout specs as a selling point, they need great hardware to drive great software.

Source: 9to5Mac

For today only, the TiPb Store has the BodyGuardz Armor Carbon Fiber for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 on sale for only $12.95!. Get them before they’re gone!

Get the BodyGuardz Armor Carbon Fiber for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 now!

According a report by network metrics firm Arieso, iPhone 4S users are consuming twice the amount of data than users of earlier iPhone models, and the reason is Siri. Siri is getting the blame for the huge increase in data consumption as it communicates with Apple's servers to provide its personal assistant features.

“Voice is the ultimate human interface," Arieso Chief Technology Officer Michael Flanagan said in an interview in London. "As you lower the barriers," consumers will use their smartphones' functions even more often, he said. Arieso, based in Atlanta, advises clients such as Vodafone Group Plc (VOD), Telefonica SA (TEF) and Nokia Siemens Networks Oy on how to manage wireless networks.

Data consumption remains a concern for those on restricted plans and on networks like AT&T that have historically suffered connectivity problems due to excessive load. Arieso claims to have measured one million subscribers across a single European network in both urban and rural areas to come up with its findings about Siri. We can understand a small increase in data with the additional functionality that Siri brings, however, it shouldn’t be forgotten that iOS 5 was also released for other devices at the same time as the iPhone 4S was launched with Siri. iOS 5 brought a little extra service called iCloud too. We are sure a lot of this additional data usage could be explained by over the air updates, iTunes in the Cloud, Photo Stream and many other data intensive tasks available for iPads and earlier iPhone models and not just Siri on the iPhone 4S.

And if Siri is responsible for the spike, it will be interesting to see what if any decline results when the novelty wears off. How many times can you really ask how to hide a body, or have the pod bay doors opened?

Source: Bloomberg

An iPad has survived a massive 100,000 foot fall in the latest publicity stunt for case manufacturer G-Form. The iPad was solely clad in a G-Form 6oz Extreme Edge case and taken into space on a weather balloon.

The company released a stunning hi-def video Thursday where the nearly naked iPad is shown hanging above the Earth in the blackness of space. In the video, the iPad is lifted to over 100,000 feet by a weather balloon which bursts at altitude, then releasing the iPad to free-fall to Earth where it crash lands on a rocky hillside in the Nevada countryside. Perhaps even more remarkable than the dramatic hi-def footage itself is the fact that the iPad survives the adventure, remaining fully functional.

The video is really impressive on its own, without taking into account the magnitude of the fall or the fact that it is an iPad. It's not something I would be willing to try with my iPad 2 but it is definitely a great way to show some faith in your cases!

Source: YouTube

iHome is working on bringing three new iPhone docks to its already large portfolio of accessories. The new docks are set to be revealed at CES 2012 which starts next week. Three models will be introduced in total; one will even include AirPlay.

• iW4 AirPlay Wireless 20 Watts Bedside Speaker System for iPad/iPhone/iPod: making its alarm clock speaker system debut, AirPlay utilizes the home WiFi network to deliver more flexibility than ever before. Easily stream your entire iTunes library over the network to listen, sleep or wake to your favorite tunes. The iW4 is expected to retail for $269.99.
• iP18 LED Color Changing Dual Alarm Clock Speaker System for iPhone and iPod: a little bit of color goes a long way with this ultra-modern and stylish alarm clock speaker solution. Now with a smaller footprint and new cube design, this app-friendly Glowtunes offering has big features including four color-changing modes, Reson8 speaker chamber technology, one-touch clock sync and more. The iP18 is expected to retail for $69.99.
• iD50 App-Enhanced Bluetooth Alarm Clock Radio Speakerphone for iPad/iPhone/iPod with AM/FM Presets: the alarm clock you'd expect to see on James Bond's nightstand, but with a price tag that makes it realistic for non secret agents to own. The iD50 is strong in the features department and has a smooth finish that will stir you to wake rather than shake you. The iD50 is expected to retail for $169.99.

The bad news is that these new docks will not be available to buy until later in the year. That's as good as it gets on the release information for now. We will let you know as soon as we find out anymore.

Source: Business Wire

Instagram has made a change that shares your photos to your Facebook albums instead of just sticking a link on your wall. Now when you select Facebook as an option when uploading a photo to Instagram, the image will be uploaded full-sized into a Facebook album named “Instagram Photos”, along with your caption. As a result, your Instagram photos will appear nice and large on your timeline and it will be easy for your friends to browse past Instagram photos.

Previously, only the instagr.am link was shared to your wall and your friends needed to visit that link in order to view your photo. Additionally, you couldn’t tag people in the photos and ‘likes’ and comments were technically made to the shared link, not the photo.

I was very excited when I noticed this change as I have been wanting Instagram to work like this for a very long time. I believe my Instagram photos will now receive more comments and ‘likes’ and I’m glad I’ll be able to click through my friends’ Instagram albums, since I know I miss many of their shared photos.

This change is only for photos uploaded to Instagram from now on. If you want to add previous photos to your Facebook album, you’ll need to share it again from within the Instagram app.

Source: Instagram

TidyTilt is a new Kickstarter project with a multi-functioning, innovative case/cover that aims to keep your iPhone earbuds in check.

TidyTilt is an earbud cord wrap, multi-position kickstand, and mount for iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. TidyTilt takes up less space than any one of these devices – yet does all three things – without adding something extra to carry.

With TidyTilt, you can wrap your earbud cords the same way you normally do, while also keeping everything nicely organized and always within reach. The case takes cues from Apple’s own Smart Cover for the iPad 2, only instead of on the front, it protects the rear glass of the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

You can even apply it to existing cases you already use, then turn around and mount it to a magnetic strip if you’re so inclined.

Their goal has already been met and exceeded at nearly $37,000 from a $10,000 initial funding requirement, and you can have your very own by pledging as little as $19.

Source: TidyTilt via Kickstarter

Jeremy Horwitz from iLounge has posted rumors about the iPad 3 and what his sources say we should expect.

Some of the changes included were upgraded front and rear cameras with HD FaceTime on the front and an 8MP sensor on the rear. His sources believe the rear camera may in fact be the same as the iPhone 4S.

Horwitz, who has had good information in the past, also dispels rumors of the next iPad hitting in January or February, and instead suggested it will follow the same March/April release cycle the iPad has been on since it debuted in 2010, and that the iPad 2 will stick around at an entry-level price of $399.

Source: iLounge via @horwitz

Race Against Time: Collect colour CHROMOs, defeat ever-changing enemies and get really, really good at jumping between platforms as you speed through twelve unique, gorgeous and challenging levels.

• Free for iPhone – App Store link

Movies HD: Movies HD is a movie and TV series catalog application with stunning graphics. It allows you to quickly add, find and view movies in your library (with the ability to add new movies by seeking by title using lots of data sources – so all movie details are filled in for you!). It also allows to lend movies to friends, so you can easily keep track of who you gave that copy of “Quantum of Solace” to.

• $3.99 for iPad – App Store link

Prizma: This time around our little spherical friends need to send colored light beams across obstacle filled paths to reach their buddies. But the poor things aren’t very clever. They don’t know where to stand, which direction to face or even whom to send the light to! It’s up to you to lend them a hand and save the day!

• $0.99 for iPhone – App Store link

MAGapp Pro: An interactive e-magazine reader that incorporates video, social media and web features into its varied publications. MAGapp's range of e-magazines and e-books are exclusively published using this e-reader to make the most of its entertaining, interactive features. MAGapp takes mobile reading to a new level, don't just read content, experience it!

• Free for iPad – App Store link

Pigeonholes: Unlike other content management and syncing apps, Pigeonholes is licensed with real-person help desk and email support and is supplied with a training session so you are assured that your administrator will understand how to use and maximize the app.

• Free for iPad – App Store link

Any other big app or game releases or updates today?

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

It didn’t take long, but according to The Telegraph, Apple has sicked their lawyers on In Icon, the company behind the life-like Steve Jobs action figure we reported on earlier this week.

But ‘their efforts have reportedly met with’ a legal challenge with Apple allegedly threatening to sue the toy maker unless they cease trading. The legal wrangle is over the likeness of the doll to the late Apple founder, the rights of which the company claims it owns.

This wouldn’t be the first time Apple put a stop to unapproved production of related goods. Late last year, M.I.C Gadget in Hong Kong put out a similar molded figurine of Steve Jobs, which was subsequently halted at the behest of Apple.

If you were planning on getting one of these ultra-realistic action figures from In Icon, you better hurry quick before it’s no longer available.

Source: The Telegraph