AT&T has announced that they’ve put in place an official policy for unlocking off-contract iPhones. This comes after the office of Apple CEO Tim Cook intervened several times to get AT&T to unlock off-contract iPhones, and iMore among others wondered very loudly why this couldn’t simply be their default practice. 9to5Mac has the official statement:

Beginning Sunday, April 8, we will offer qualifying customers the ability to unlock their AT&T iPhones. The only requirements are that a customer's account must be in good standing, their device cannot be associated with a current and active term commitment on an AT&T customer account, and they need to have fulfilled their contract term, upgraded under one of our upgrade policies or paid an early termination fee."

Kudos to AT&T for listening and doing what’s in the best interests of their customers. We’re quick to pile upon the backs of the carriers all our frustration and all anger, and would that glares were lasers we’d likely fry them. So when they do good, they deserve an equal amount of encouragement and support.

Cheers, AT&T!

So who’s unlocking come April 8?

The classic PC game Max Payne is set to arrive on the iOS platform next week, April 12^th to be exact. Rockstar has announced that it will have the original version of Max Payne ready for iOS next week and it will be called Max Payne Mobile.

Max Payne is a third-person shooter in which the player assumes the role of its titular character, Max Payne. Almost all the gameplay involves bullet time-based gun-fights and levels are generally straightforward, occasionally incorporating platforming and puzzle-solving elements. The game’s storyline is advanced by the player following Max’s internal monologue as the character determines what his next steps should be. Several of the game’s levels involve surrealistic nightmares and drug-related hallucinations of Payne.

Rockstar has an excellent reputation for releasing superb iOS ports of games. Last year it released the highly anticipated port of GTA III. The release certainly did not disappoint either in game play or with value for money. We expect the same for Max Payne and those of us who played the original game on PC or later on Xbox, PS2 and Mac can look forward to another great title coming to the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch; roll on April 12th!

Source: The Verge, Wikipedia

For today only, the iMore iPhone case store has the OtterBox Camo Defender Series Case for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 on sale for only $38.95! Get it before it’s gone!

Shop OtterBox Camo Defender Series Case for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 now!

The OtterBox Camo Defender Series Case for the iPhone 4S, AT&T iPhone 4, or Verizon iPhone 4 offers rugged protection for your smartphone. The 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
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• Full access to all keys, ports and functions

The late Steve Jobs referenced the quote “good artists borrow; great artists steal” and since then it’s been weaponized and used to both condemn Apple for a perceived lack of creativity, or to excuse or justify competitors feeding off Apple’s creativity, or both.

There was Xerox PARC before the Mac, critics say. There were Palm Treos or LG Pradas before the iPhone. There were Tablet PCs before the iPad. Nobody copied Apple and if they did, Apple copied other people first! Great artists steal!

Except that’s not what the quote means, and it’s not at all what Apple does.

Great artists steal inspiration not implementation.

Therein lies a monumental, industry defining difference. Apple, namely Steve Jobs, saw a mouse and graphical UI, but he didn’t make a copy of Xerox’s STAR, he made the Mac. He didn’t look at it and see what it was and then copy it — he looked at it and saw what it could become and then created that.

The Mac was inspired by the same fundamental user interface concepts as the STAR but it implemented those concepts in a far more consumer-friendly way.

Same goes for the iPhone, which was certainly inspired by the ideas of the Palm Treo — a connected, multifunctional device with a touch screen — but once again implemented those ideas in a way far more accessible for far more people.

I wrote about this yesterday in the comments to the post about Larry Page dismissing Steve Jobs’ anger towards Google and Android as “a show”.

Apple's singular talent is taking existing technologies, putting them together in ways that are elegant and sensible, well packaged and integrated, and making them mainstream.

Henry Ford didn't invent the car, he invented a way to make the car for everyone. Apple didn't invent the elements that went into the iPhone, but they absolutely invented it. They invented how it looked and felt, how it was manufactured and how it worked in relation to the carriers. As the sum total of its bits and atoms, they invented the iPhone.

And not just the iPhone.

Again, it’s why Apple made the Apple II and not IBM, why Apple made the Mac and not Xerox, why Apple made the iPod and not Sony, why Apple made the iPhone and not Palm, why Apple made the MacBook Air and not HP, why Apple made the iPad and not Microsoft.

Any one of those would have been an achievement. All of those together, from one company, over the span of one lifetime, is something much more.

It’s great art.

Google’s Project Glass, the concept video where they show wearable eyeglasses hooked up to a Siri-like voice control system and powerful communications network, has naturally become a source of controversy on the internet already. Some call it vaporware of Microsoftian proportions, others an unprecedented way for Google to record, aggregate, and monetize everything we do, and basically our entire lives. Whatever. The future is never easy and never comes without a cost. When it’s here, each of us will determine what we’re willing to pay and to sacrifice to use it, or not.

Meantime, some folks are just having fun with it — riffing on the idea of how distracting it might be to have heads-up-display in real life, and what it might look like if Google ads are delivered to our glasses the same way they’re delivered to our devices.

Whether you like the idea of Project Glass or not, or an Apple variation thereof or not, these are worth a watch and a laugh. (Second one is NSFW-L)

Back in the day it was all about the ICQ or AIM or BlackBerry PIN swap, but it’s a bold new era of mobile and there are more ways then ever to keep connected and stay in touch. If you’re new to iMore or if you’ve been here from the beginning, now’s the time to clean out your community contacts and follow, friend, and plus up each other anew.

To find other great members of the iMore Nation to chat with, game with, and otherwise get social with, just visit one of these handy forum threads. Leave your contact info and grab everyone else’s. Couldn’t be easier!

To help get things going, here’s mine, make sure to say hello!: iMore Forums, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Game Center: Rene Ritchie, Ping

• Add your Facebook page here!

• Add your Twitter name here!

• Add your Google+ account here!

• Add your iMessage handle here!

• Add your Game Center tag here!

• Add your Ping ID here!

All done? Cool. Game (or chat) on!

I’m not going to lie, settling on one single app to label as “the best” weather app for iPad wasn’t easy. On one hand I had a collection of feature-packed apps that provided every little detail about the weather, including videos and interactive forecasts. On the other hand, I had a group of apps that didn’t necessarily have as many features, but were beautiful, easy to use, and fit the needs of most people. Reminding myself that I was looking for best, not most feature-filled, it was easy for me to give Living Earth for iPad the title.

Living earth is a simple yet gorgeous weather app. In the background, you’ll see the earth. If you wish, you can have it spin slowly around its axis with the tap of the button. You can also pinch to zoom in and out of the globe and swipe to rotate it. As the earth rotates, you’ll discover that Living Earth shades the half of the earth that is not currently being hit by sun. You can also center the globe on your current location.

In the upper righthand corner, you’ll see an icon that represents the current conditions and the current temperature, the high and low for the day, and sunset and sunrise times. If you tap this area of the screen, a new section will pop up below it and give you some more details about the weather, and a 10 day forecast.

The info at the top of this section includes the humidity percentage and wind speed. Tapping any of the days in the 10-day forecast Will break down the forecast into 2-hour intervals.

In the upper righthand corner you’ll find the time and date. Tapping it will make it bigger.

In the bottom right corner, you’ll see the name of the city you are currently viewing information about. Tapping on the name will pop up a list of big cities in the world that you can switch to. This list is customizable.

In the lower lefthand corner, you’ll find five, dimly lit buttons: location, settings, camera, rotation, and alarm. The settings will be where you go to choose units of measure and toggles for live clouds, sunrise times, bright night clouds, gestures and more.

The camera button is essentially a way to share a screenshot of your current screen with Facebook, Twitter, or your Camera Roll.

The alarm clock is what makes Living Earth more than just a weather app. You can also use it to wake you up in the morning! Even though it’s not Living Earth’s primary function, it is still a great alarm clock. You can have set up custom interval times (much like Apple’s Clock app for iPhone), choose between 7 different piano and harp sounds, or even wake up to your own music. The snooze intervals are between 2-30 minutes. The only really disadvantage to this alarm clock, is that you can not set up multiple alarm. Just one.

The Good

• Gorgeous
• 10 day forecast with 2-hour interval breakdowns
• Alarm clock
• Interactive earth
• Fahrenheit and Celsius

The Bad

• Can only set one alarm

The Conclusion

Living Earth for iPad is a stunning weather and clock app for the iPad. It may not have be jam packed with ever feature imaginable, but it does its intended job both flawlessly and beautifully.

$1.99 – Download Now