We’ve made our way through a lot of stuff this week. Plenty of reviews, rumors and tips & tricks. If you missed out on anything make sure you get yourself caught up either here on the blogs or in the iMore forums. You can register now to get started today and while you’re at it, check out some of the threads below:

• Cool iPhone 5 Mock-Up
• Music Artwork issues
• Using iPad for music creation
• iCloud and Pages
• Transfer iPhone Music to iTunes Library

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

You come home, tired and frazzled, reach into your mailbox to get the letter you’re expecting or the bills you’re dreading, and all you come out with is a fist-full of… junk mail. Well, PaperKarma is here to put an end to it, an end to the unsolicited promotions clogging your mail and littering your curb. And it’s as simple as taking a photo.

When a piece of unwanted junk mail shows up to your home or office, be it a magazine, coupon book, flyer, credit card book, or phone book, all you have to do is open PaperKarma, snap a photo with the offender’s name clearly visible, and hit send. That’s it. PaperKarma will take care of the rest and submit a request to unsubscribe on your behalf.

It’s like playing whack-a-mole with junk-mail. Click. Done.

Unfortunately, PaperKarma is U.S. only right now, but hopefully it, or similar services, spread internationally. Not only is junk mail annoying and intrusive, it also has a massive negative impact on the environment. Taking a few seconds out of your day for each piece of junk mail you receive will not only help de-clutter your life, but help save the Earth. And PaperKarma makes it fast, easy, and fun to do.

Free – Download Now

If you’re looking to be picking up a new iPhone on AT&T any time soon, you’ll want to note that the upgrade fee will be doubling on February 12. As the folks over at Android Central noted based on the screenshot above, the new fee will be a sizable $36.

On the internal memo, AT&T noted the reason for the price hike was that “overall costs associated with upgrading to a new device have increased,” and that “devices today are more sophisticated than ever.” Their statement to Android Central covered the same talking points:

Wireless devices today are more sophisticated than ever before. And because of that, the costs associated with upgrading to a new device have increased and is reflected in our new upgrade fee. This fee isn't unique to AT&T and this is the first time we're changing it in nearly 10 years.

But what does that even mean? The cost of keeping us as customers, taking our money for a new device, and charging us for ongoing service for many more months to come has… gotten higher?

There’s no “upgrade fee” when we buy new televisions, new toasters, new Wi-Fi routers, new bicycles… should we go on? What beyond the price of the new phone and the monthly fees from the new contract should AT&T really need or be entitled to?

Now, a $0 iPhone 3GS is really $36. A $100 iPhone 4 is really $136.

For some, an $18 increase may not mean a whole lot but considering you’re essentially doing AT&T a favor by upgrading your device and staying with them, any added cost is sure ruffle a few feathers. Now that information is out there, we’ll have to wait and see if AT&T sticks to their guns or cancels their plans.

How do you feel about paying it the next time you upgrade to an iPhone 4S or iPhone 5?

Source – Android Central

While we’re still hearing conflicting rumors about super-fast LTE 4G networking for iPad 3 this spring or iPhone 5 this summer/fall, you’ll be happy to hear that AT&T is preparing to replace their current microSIM card stock with LTE compatible versions.

Now the Andorid-powered Pantech Burst and the Windows Phone Nokia Lumia 900 are the likely targets, but there has been an awful lot of solid-ish talk about the iPad 3 lately, and even if we don’t see an LTE iOS tablet soon, WWDC is looming along with the possibility of an iPhone 5. Whatever comes out next, it’s hard to imagine it not having at least one model with LTE connectivity, and even less likely that they’ll ditch the micro SIMformat.  

Verizon switched to LTE microSIM cards in October for the Samsung Stratosphere, so they’d be all set to go with any new Apple hardware as well. Sprint is still getting its feet wet with LTE through the Galaxy Nexus, so they may be next in line to start offering LTE microSIM cards — we’ll be keeping an eye out.

If there’s no LTE in your area, we can understand if this doesn’t matter very much to you… yet. But when it does come, and you start pulling 20-50mbps of data, you’ll probably start to care a lot more.

Source: PhoneArena

We’re into the second week of Mobile Nations fitness month and it’s time to get more serious about your strength training. If upper body strength is on your want list, Hundred PushUps is the perfect app to help get you results. It’s a six week program whose ultimate goal is to get you to successfully complete 100 consecutive pushups in a row.

Now, as someone who struggles to complete only 10 pushups (where 5 of them are the girly kind!), I understand how you may instantly feel discouraged by this seemingly insurmountable task. But that’s where Hundred Pushups comes in!

With Hundred PushUps’ highly acclaimed plan, you will succeed. All you have to do is not give up, and invest a mere 30 minutes a week.

Giveaway

Since it’s Mobile Nations fitness month and we want you to be as successful as you possibly can be, so we’re gifting away 5 copies of Hundred PushUps to you, our awesome, motivated, and dedicated readers! For a chance to win, just tell us how many pushups you can do now, today. Everyone has to start somewhere! (Must have a US iTunes account to win. Apple’s rule, not ours!)

$1.99 – Download Now

Now that it seems Apple will be holding their iPad event in early March, rumors have turned to Apple working with developers in a frenzied rush to get Retina display iPad apps ready to show off on stage. TheNextWeb reports:

Apple has a long history of hand-picking apps that it thinks are exemplary or really show off the hardware of a device to demonstrate during iPad presentation. The iPad 2 saw demo segments with Apple's own Garage Band, iMovie and Photo Booth apps, while the recent 'Let's Talk' iPhone event saw game title Infinity Blade 2 demoed in order to show off the graphics capabilities of the new iPhone 4S. Apple's pre-event weeks are often spent soliciting demonstrations from many app developers and preparing demonstrations of those apps for the live event. Our sources tell us that this selection process is continuing at an increased rate as Apple looks to finalize the lineup for the iPad 3.

Retina display iPad apps would require 2x, high-definition elements. The iPad 3 — or iPad 2S according to some rumors — is widely expected to have a similar form factor to the currently available iPad 2. The main differences are thought to be on the inside with a faster, possible quad-core processor, improved graphics performance and of course a higher resolution display.

We’re taking a poll of what you expect to see, hardware wise, in the iPad 3 so if you haven’t already, hurry up and vote now.

Source: TheNextWeb

You’ve got yourself an iPhone equipped with arguably the best camera this side of a high-end point-and-shoot. It’s so good there’s a whole movement that’s sprung up around it called “iPhoneography”, or photography with the iPhone. It proves the old saying, “the best camera is the one you have with you”, and in this case, that camera is also pretty darn good. But it takes more than just a great camera or lens to produce great photography. That’s where iMore’s new iPhoneography segment comes in. We’re going to go over all the basics and work together to transform simple snapshots into photographic art.

And if you’re already a seasoned photographer or iPhoneographer, we welcome you to join us. Sit in on the articles and in our new Photography Forum, lend us your eye, and share with us your experiences.

Now on with our first project! One of the most important, yet most difficult, elements in creating beautiful photographs is composition – where your subject is placed and how it’s related to its surroundings. A great starting point for developing this skill is to understand the rule of thirds.

What is the rule of thirds?

Take a close look at the vertical lines in the image above. These two lines divide the image into thirds. Similarly, there are lines that divide the photo horizontally in thirds. Together, these lines form a grid over the photo and divide the image into 9 equal parts. The rule of thirds is simply a guideline that states that a photo is compositionally more interesting if the important elements of the image lie on one of the grid lines or their intersections. In the above photo, I have placed my daughter on the far right vertical line.

Luckily for you, the iPhone has the option to turn on this grid so that you don’t have to estimate where the lines fall while taking your photo. To do so, while taking a photo just tap options and switch the grid to on. Until you feel comfortable with your ability of using the rule of thirds, I recommend leaving the grid turned on.

Landscapes and horizons

When photographing landscapes, it’s important to make sure the horizon is not in the dead center of your photo because it is compositionally boring. Using the rule of thirds on the horizon will instantly improve your results. Make sure the more interesting piece, the sky or earth, is what makes up two thirds of your photo. In the example above, I chose to highlight the sky. Notice that I used the rule of thirds twice, both on the horizon and sun. I decided to change things up a little in this next photo.

After taking a few photos with the horizon on the bottom third of the frame and the sun on the left grid line, I wasn’t too thrilled with the results and felt my pictures were a little bland. The sky wasn’t particularly interesting on this day and there wasn’t anything that made my photos special. So instead of making the predictable decision with the horizon on one of my horizontal lines, I placed the sun on the bottom grid line. In fact, in the above image, the sun lies on the intersection of the bottom and left grid lines. By pure luck, a bird decided to fly into the frame and I waited until he was flying past my right grid line to snap the photo. These two changes suddenly made this photo a lot more interesting.

I made a simliar decision for the following photo.

When taking photos of sunsets, it’s alway more interesting to involve a silhouette, so that’s what I decided to do with this tree. Most of the time, you would want your silhouette to fall on one of the grid lines, but it wasn’t working with this tree — there was something awkward about it. So, instead, I decided to use the rule of thirds on the sun. Again, it’s lying on the intersection of the bottom and left grid lines and the photo came out great.

Portraits

The important element of just about every portrait is your subject’s eyes, so make sure the eyes fall on one or more of the grid lines. When shooting in portrait orientation, you may want to center the subject with the top grid line passing through your subject’s eyes. When shooting in landscape orientation, take advantage of both horizontal and vertical grid lines by placing one of your subjects eyes on the intersection of two grid lines.

Rules are meant to be broken

Keep in mind that this so-called rule is only a guideline and does not need to be followed to a tee. For example, if there is a lot of symmetry in your scene you may want to highlight the symmetry by centering your subject. Or perhaps moving your subject even further off center will have a greater impact and improve your photo. Be creative and don’t limit yourself.

Now go out and shoot!

Now that you know how to use the rule of thirds, here’s your first assignment: go out and practice. Turn on the iPhone camera’s grid and shoot, shoot, and shoot some more. Then head over to the Photography Forums, ask questions if you have them, and share the great shots you got demonstrating the rule of thirds. Go!

We can’t wait to see them!

Foxconn, the Chinese company that manufactures iPhones, iPads, and Macs for Apple, and electronics for many others in the industry, has recently been hacked by a group called Swagg Security. They’re currently sharing the fruits of their labour on The Pirate Bay. In a statement accompanying the leaked files, Swagg Security laid out their intentions (or lack thereof).

“We switched on BBC Radio, the leading source of unbiased material. A short segment on the manufacturer giant Foxconn, came up reporting on the inhuman conditions the workers experience. A few days later an almost viral rumor about an Iphone 5 with a 4-inch screen being manufactured, as claimed by an employee from the infamous Foxconn. Now as a first impression Swagg Security would rather not deceive the public of our intentions. Although we are considerably disappointed of the conditions of Foxconn, we are not hacking a corporation for such a reason and although we are slightly interested in the existence of an Iphone 5, we are not hacking for this reason.”

So Swagg is doing it all “for the lulz”, or just for the fun of it, in typical anonymous hacker fashion. According to their anarchist philosophy, screwing things up for big companies and corporations is a reward in and of itself. After flipping through the files, I didn’t see anything much beyond a few hundred username/password combos which will likely be useless information once Foxconn resets everybody’s credentials. CEO Terry Gou’s e-mail address is in the files, which may have been used among other addresses to place fake orders through services.foxconn.com, but the site has for now been taken down. Beyond that, the only lasting effect I could imagine from the whole affair is improved attention to security on Foxconn’s part.

Despite bruised pride, I see hacking that points out security holes without doing permanent damage to the company as fairly productive, once the victim patches up its system. If those behind the hacking get a good laugh out of it too, all the better. What do you think? Is anarchist hacking good to keep tech companies on their toes, or do these attacks need to be political in nature to be justified? Or is disrupting the operations of companies in any way ethically wrong, no matter how much of a philosophical spin you put on it?

Source: Swagg Security statement via Electronista

For today only, the iMore Store has the OtterBox Defender Series Case for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 on sale for only $28.95! Get them before they’re gone!

Get the OtterBox Defender Series Case for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 now!

The OtterBox Defender Series for the iPhone 4S, AT&T iPhone 4, or Verizon iPhone 4 offers rugged protection for your smartphone. The OtterBox Defender Series case will help keep your phone protected from drops, bumps, dust and shock.

All features, keys and ports are accessible through the case, providing you with a unique, interactive safeguard. Included with this case is a holster style swivel belt clip.

Features:

• Layer 1: Thermal formed protective clear membrane. Protects keypad against scratching, as well as dust intrusion (layer optional depending on the level of protection desired)
• Layer 2: Hi-impact polycarbonate shell for an added guard against drops and shocks
• Layer 3: High quality silicone skin to absorb bump and shock Full access to all keys, ports and functions

Microsoft has rolled out its popular MSN app to the USA and Canada. It was originally launched at the end of January as a UK only release. The MSN app brings you all of the latest news, sports, entertainment and much more form the Microsoft network in a beautiful, magazine style layout on your iPad.

MSN is now available on your iPad – easily swipe to find your favorite news, sports entertainment, autos and money articles & videos in one place. Easily share what you find with your friends on Facebook,Twitter or e-mail a link to the article. Of course you can view articles, photos and videos in either portrait or landscape modes with MSN for iPad. Need to dig deeper on something you just read? We've built Bing right into the top of the app for easy searching.

The app will also let you gain access to your Hotmail accounts and Windows Live Messenger. It is a well laid out application that makes full use of the iPad's screen and touch interface. The screen is split into small rows which you an flick through to find an article of interest. You can even download the whole days news for offline reading later. Microsoft has made a very nice news application for the iPad.

Free – Download Now

 

Have you ever come across a PDF file while surfing the web in Safari and wondered how to save a copy to iBooks for later viewing? Whether you need to save an important forms, an eBook, a user manual, an insurance policy, or something as simple as a nutritional information sheet for your favorite restaurant, your iPhone and iPad have the ability to save to iBooks built right in. And using iBooks to store and manage PDFs is much, much easier than saving tons of bookmarks and waiting for them to re-load each time.

Here’s how to do it.

Note: Make sure you have Apple’s free iBooks app installed on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. If you don’t, you can get it from the App Store.

• Free – Download now

1. launch Safari
2. Go to the PDF link you want to save.
3. Tap the screen once to bring up the overlay menu beneath the address bar.
4. Tap Open in iBooks.
5. iBooks will launch, and in a few moments, it will add the PDF to your collection.

You can find your PDF any time simply by launching iBooks and taping the Library button in the upper left hand corner. Your PDFs will all be on your shelf.

You should be able to do this with any standard PDF you find in Safari and decide to keep.

Bonus Tip: If you have iBooks installed on more than one device, including iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and iTunes on Mac or Windows, and iCloud syncing enabled, all your PDFs will automatically be downloaded to those other devices as well.

Yearly is an iPhone app that pulls the birthday and anniversary information stored in your Contacts and displays them in a nice chronological list so you can keep track of which of these important dates are coming up next. When your friend’s birthday arrives, Yearly will send you a notification and you can quickly text, email, or call from within the app.

Since Apple’s built-in Contacts and Calendar apps support birthdays, you may be wondering the point of an app like Yearly. With the beautiful list that Yearly generates, it’s really easy to keep track of who’s birthday or anniversary is next in line and plan accordingly. You can also set it up to send you a notification 1-14 days before the events so that you are reminded if you want to buy a gift. Yearly has also implemented some nice gestures so that sending a Happy Birthday text is just a quick swipe away.

Tapping on a contact will bring you to a stripped down version of the info you’d find in the Contacts app. In nice big letters, Yearly tells you how old the person will turn on his or her next birthday and you’ll also find any notes you’ve stored for that contact, their phone number and email address. One piece of information that you find in Yearly but not Contacts is your friend’s zodiac sign.

Yearly may be duplicating some functionality of Apple’s built-in apps, but it’s focusing on a single function — keeping track of birthdays and anniversaries — and it does it beautifully. The removal of unrelated information and the gorgeous UI is what makes Yearly a desirable app.

$0.99 – Download Now

“Boycotting Apple because of working conditions in China makes about as much sense as boycotting The New York Times because of journalism conditions in America.”

There are several stories floating around the web this week concerning boycotts planned against Apple, the result of stories floating around the web last week concerning working conditions in China. While in some cases the sentiment is good and the intention noble, in many cases its based on lazy, exploitive journalism and shallow, opportunistic activism, fed by a soundbite- and sensation-seeking readership.

And while Apple and China is just the latest example, it’s also one of the most tragic.

We’ve talked about it for the last couple of weeks during the iPhone & iPad Live podcast, but it’s worth going over again here.

The problems with working conditions are real. Absolutely. Apple’s role in the Chinese manufacturing system is real. Undeniably. But just as absolutely, just as undeniably, the real story here is about China and workers, not about Apple.

The pain isn’t of a situation but of a transition — the pain that come with the slow, steady growth through industrialization and the creation of a middle-class, manufacturing society.

Apple is only one of many, many, many companies that use factories in China to produce their goods. While some few, token others are sometimes briefly listed in one sentence, the title, lede, and every other sentence in a lot of the recent coverage throws the spotlight entirely on Apple.

That misses the industry-wide nature of the issue, and the global economic nature of the issue. While Apple is certainly the most wealthy, influential, and likely powerful company in the industry, and in the world, at the moment, they aren’t the industry and are certainly not the global economy.

If Apple pulled out of China tomorrow, the entire rest of the industry would remain. The rest of the industry that hasn’t posted supplier responsibility reports like Apple has done. HP, Dell, Nokia, Samsung, Lenovo, Motorola, LG, Sony, and everyone else in consumer electronics who aren’t facing any media or pundit pressure to do so anyway.

All the other industries would remain as well, from jeans and shoes to toys and household goods and everything else. The factories would no doubt be hurt by the loss of revenue from Apple, however, as would the workers, who typically earn more from these types of factory jobs than they can otherwise earn in the region. The increase in unemployment following an Apple pullout would probably only make that situation worse. But it would go on.

Once upon a time in the Western world, though not too long ago, we had children working in factories and mines for fractions of pennies. We had had working conditions almost unimaginable even in in China or other, similar, out-sourced locations. We had them until, as a society, they became intolerable to us and we forced the cultural and legal changes necessary to stop them. To say they would no longer be tolerated. (Though sadly, they still persist in some of the darker cracks of our society.).

China will have to face this as well. With or without Apple. With or without the linkbait of major media outlets. With or without the protests of the guilty-of-concience, opportunistic of cause, or patronizing of agenda. With or without the attention of a readership that increasingly only mortgages their attention for linkbait and opportunism.

There’s a real story here. A story about China’s industrialization, of the political pressures within the government, the suicide rates in the country as a whole, the earning potential inside and outside the factory system, the ratio of worker pay verses management profit in the factories, the costs associated and benefits gained through in-sourcing vs. out-sourcing, and how the lives of Chinese workers would be affected now, and in the many potential futures with, without, and beyond the factory system.

But it’s a story that won’t be written, because it won’t get anywhere near the amount of clicks, because absent Apple it won’t get anywhere near the mainstream reaction. It’s a vicious cycle of our own creation.

That’s why boycotting Apple because of working conditions in China makes about as much sense as boycotting The New York Times” because of journalism conditions in America.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will soon be ditching their BlackBerrys in favor of iPhones and iPads. We’ve seen several examples recently of large enterprises, even major multinationals like Halliiburton, going all-in on iOS, and it’s interesting to see the other half of BlackBerry’s traditional base, government, do likewise.

According to Joseph F. Klimavicz, NOAA Chief Information Officer and Director for High Performance Computing and Communications, they will support the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 running iOS 5 and above.

Going forward employees will no longer be supplied with BlackBerrys but iPhones and iPads instead, though it’s not specified when employees would the change over would begin.

Good enough used to be a mantra for both government and enterprise, and it used to mean user experience. Sure, the software wasn’t the best, but it was good enough, cheap enough, and ubiquitous enough that no one would ever get fired for buying more of it. But that’s begun to change, and Apple, with very little in the way of a business sales force, seems to be instigating that change.

I remember a few years back when I was working in a corporate environment that supplied BlackBerry, we weren’t allowed to use our iPhones even if we purchased them ourselves. RIM had a stronghold when it came to corporate clients. Now those same companies are looking for alternatives, testing iOS and Android and more often than not choosing iPhones and iPads.

In part because iOS is a more unified platform than Android, which means Exchange services and general device support are more predictable. While not as secure as BlackBerry, iOS is increasingly becoming secure enough for many aspects of enterprise and government.

Predictability and security are still big for government and enterprise.

Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10 devices will certainly have something to say about that in the future, but with almost all of the Fortune 500 companies already testing or deploying iOS devices in one manner or another, momentum is certainly in Apple’s favor right now.

When you look around the desks and conference tables at your place of business, what devices are you seeing most often?

Source: The Loop