The iPhone Blog |
- Forums: DFU Mode, Wet iPhone, Orientation stuck
- Bento 4 for iPad review
- iOS claims 65% of mobile web, Android 20%
- How to purchase and access your music from anywhere with iTunes in the Cloud
- Brandnew Boy review for iPhone and iPad
- Michael Jurewitz leaves Apple's Worldwide Developer relations team to join Black Pixel
- Monday Brief: Google I/O Recap, RIM's Rough Week, $600 iMore Giveaway, and more!
- Qmadix Tempered Tech-Armor for iPhone 4S or iPhone 4 only $23.95! [Daily deal]
- How to edit portraits with iPhoto for iPhone and iPad
- Apple to pay Proview $60 million for iPad trademark in China
- Editor's desk: Google I/O, Twitter-pocalypse III, 300 + 1, and more!
- Contest winners: iQuick Tweet for iPhone and iTunes gift cards!
Forums: DFU Mode, Wet iPhone, Orientation stuck Posted: 02 Jul 2012 04:32 PM PDT Found an interesting article you want to share with iMore? Have a burning question about that feature you just can't figure out? There is ALWAYS more happening just a click away in the forums. You can always head over and join in the conversation, search for answers, or lend your expertise to other members of our community. You check out some of the threads below:
If you're not already a member of the iMore Forums, register now! | ||||||
Posted: 02 Jul 2012 03:29 PM PDT Bento is a personal, mainstream, family friendly database that makes it easy to manage all your data in one place, to stay productive and stay organized. Bento is made by Apple's subsidiary, FileMaker, so you can even think of it as the missing iWork app for databases. The original mobile version of Bento launched in 2010, but Bento 4 brings new features and improvements that make an already great database app even better. When you launch Bento on the iPad, you're presented with a ton of database templates to choose from. Bento supports everything from contacts, events, expenses, inventory, time billing, and more. If you don't see exactly what you're looking for you can choose Bento's library of templates by tapping More Templates in the upper right hand corner. To start building a database of information just choose the type of template you'd like to build in and you'll be taken into the data entry portion. Depending on the type of database you chose you'll see a list of pre-populated fields to start you off. Once you have entered information you can toggle form and sheet view by tapping the icon in the upper left of the sheet that looks like a form. If you're in form view it will show up as a sheet. Some types of databases can pull information you've already got loaded into your iPad. The main example would be contacts. If you're choosing to build a contact database inside of Bento it will ask if you'd like it to pull in your existing contacts. I did notice that it wasn't very efficient at matching fields and migrating them over. A lot of phone numbers or e-mails were missing or in the wrong fields entirely so I'd be careful with migrating contacts and check for accuracy before relying on them from within Bento. If you plan on building personal databases involving expenses or inventory you can also split them into collections for better organization. Everything will still show up under the parent library but you can view just certain collections beneath that if you'd like. You can then e-mail any of your databases in a .csv attachment directly from the app. If you've got the Mac version of Bento you can also sync your data between the two. The only down side I've found to syncing is that you'll need to be on the same Wi-Fi network in order to do so. If you don't take your iPad with you to work this may be a problem. Using iCloud sync would have been a much more desirable option. The good
The bad
The conclusionWhether you're a student who needs to organize class notes and schedules or a professional that wants an easier way to keep track of all your data without having to use multiple apps, Bento will get the job done. For business users that need to tie into other software programs such as Quickbooks or other inventory systems it may not be the all-in-one option you need but it can certainly keep other aspects of your business or personal life in order. If you're already a Bento for Mac user you'll find the iPad app to be a great companion for when you're on the go. Even though it can only sync over Wi-Fi for now, it's still one of the best personal database solutions available. While there are other apps out there that provide a simliar feature set, Bento seems to do it in a much easier to use package. Bento is currently on sale. Regular price is $9.99. | ||||||
iOS claims 65% of mobile web, Android 20% Posted: 02 Jul 2012 01:01 PM PDT iOS users are the most active on the web, claiming 65.27% of the total market share compared to Android, in distant second with 19.73%, and Java ME further behind still with 10.22%. BlackBerry trailed with 1.87%, though even a year ago it was only around 3%. Google still rocks the mobile search engine chart, accounting for 91% of all searches from a tablet or smartphone. Out of all web traffic monitored, mobile account for 8.2% of activity, which is up from around 6% last year. All of this, according to metrics company NetMarketShare's most recent web analytics survey. While it's easy to correlate device market share with mobile web usage, it's clear from these figures that iOS users are still more hungry for web content. Even with comparable web performance on either platform and greater device market share for Android, iOS is winning out. This is thanks in no small part to the fact that Apple has managed to create a great web experience without the now-defunct Flash support. iOS 6 promises a few more features which should make the mobile web on the iPhone and iPad even more compelling. How have you enjoyed simply browsing the web on iOS compared to other platforms, mobile or otherwise? Is there anything in particular you'd like to see in the next version of Safari to keep the experience up to snuff? Source: AppleInsider | ||||||
How to purchase and access your music from anywhere with iTunes in the Cloud Posted: 02 Jul 2012 12:19 PM PDT iTunes in the Cloud is part of Apple's iCloud services. It allows you to re-download and enjoy your iTunes content on an iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Apple TV, or Windows or Mac version of iTunes logged into your account. Up to 10 devices can be enabled at once, and in addition to movies and TV shows, you can use it for every iTunes music, which means every song and album you've ever bought. How to purchase music from iTunes on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPadIf you're new to iTunes or iOS, purchasing music is really easy and you can do it from iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, and even your Mac or Windows PC. How to automatically download music on your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad with iTunes in the CloudiTunes in the Cloud let's you automatically download any music you buy on any device, on all of your devices. For example, if you buy a song on your iPhone, it can automatically download onto your iPad. If you buy an album on iTunes on your Mac or Windows PC, it can automatically download all the music onto your iPod touch.
How to manually re-download music to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iTunes in the CloudIf you'd rather not enable automatic downloads, or if you've deleted music from one of your devices in order to save space, you can always download any song, at anytime using the Purchased feature in iTunes.
How to stream music to your Apple TVUnfortunately, you can't directly play iTunes in the Cloud music on your Apple TV. If you've got music on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, however, there are a few other ways to get it to your Apple TV. How to stream music from your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad to your Apple TV using AirPlay
How to stream music from iTunes or Windows or Mac to your Apple TVIf your music is on iTunes on your Mac or Windows PC, you can also stream from their to your Apple TV
How to stream music from iTunes Match to your Apple TVIf you have Apple's $24.99 a year iTunes Match service, you can also use that to stream music directly from iCloud to your Apple TV. How to get more help with iCloudIf you still need help with re-downloading apps, games, iBooks, music, TV shows, or music to your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, or any other iCloud feature, head on over to our iCloud Forum and ask away!
Rene Ritchie contributed sections of this guide. | ||||||
Brandnew Boy review for iPhone and iPad Posted: 02 Jul 2012 12:10 PM PDT Brandnew Boy launched on iOS not too long ago, offering up a unique mix of 3D hand-to-hand combat, colorful anime graphics, and a soundtrack that sounds like it's straight out of Kill Bill. The iPhone and iPad game had a big content update last week, went on sale, and now they're hosting a giveaway in our forums for ten $10 iTunes Gift Cards and 10 promo codes for Brandnew Boy. Brandnew Boy puts you in control of a kid that has had his memory wiped, and the only one that is able to help him piece together his identity is a sassy little robot named Onaona that speaks in TV sound bytes. The kid, appropriately named Rookie, quickly finds out that he can still fight with panache, and liberally dishes out the whoop-ass to anyone standing between him and his memories. If you're just interested in action, the latest update includes a new endless-wave mode, which is also available as a stand-alone free game. Though the Infinity mode has entirely separate character progression, some rewards transfer over, depending on the power-ups you pick after levelling up. Every wave has a few bonus objectives, such as beating enemies without dodging, which provide bonus rewards. The gameplay is very unique for the genre. Instead of the usual dual-stick layout which consists of pounding buttons to execute attacks, Brandnew Boy relies on a vaguely rhythm-based mechanic. A cursor slides up a target bar below Rookie, and as it approaches the target area, you have to tap the screen. The closer to the target when tapping, the more powerful the attack. The unfortunate side-effect of this mechanic is that attention is directed pretty much exclusively on that little bar, not on the rich 3D mayhem. After awhile, you can start learning the animations of Rookie's attacks to time your taps, but that method is much less precise than relying on the target bar. Every once in awhile action is mixed up with special attacks which are activated from a button bar along the bottom-left, and if things get really hairy, Rookie can dodge with swipe gestures. These secondary actions are really important to staying interested in the action, since the "tap when the thingie hits the thingie" mechanic can get really boring really quickly. Regardless, I could see there being a lot of room for the devs to play around with the idea - multiple target zones, different fighting styles with varied target shapes and attack rhythms, and syncing attacks with music, for example. The game progresses in a standard RPG format: defeating enemies through a linear story arc allows you to level up and increase stats like strength, dexterity and vitality as you see fit. New abilities are unlocked from defeating bosses, but can also be improved as you level up. Defeating bosses allows you to summon them to your aid Pokemon-style, though only for a brief time, and requiring a fairly lengthy cooldown period. There's a wealth of gear to buy with the coins you earn through gameplay, though you can speed up the process with in-app purchases. There are quite a few vanity costumes which range from svelte to ridiculous, and thanks to the recent update, you can play as a Brandnew Girl too. Various power-ups and potions can keep Rookie on his A-game. Brandnew Boy's style is steeped in classic anime, including tons of exclamation points in dialogue, giant eyes for everybody, bizarrely-shaped enemies, and cutesy animal references. Generally that kind of stuff really turns me off, but the rockin' soundtrack and edgy, modern costumes are enough of a juxtaposition to keep me interested. The kind of over-the-top, unapologetically unrealistic violence reminded me a lot of No More Heroes, an action game on Wii with a similar east-meets-west theme. Even outside of gameplay, the menus are bold, bright, and a joy to navigate. The combat animations are smooth and colorful, though the pixellation along the edges of 3D models can sometimes get a bit distracting. Brandnew Boy is universal, so your achievements and scores will be carried over to Game Center, but I wasn't able to get games to sync across iPad and iPhone. The one-touch control makes Brandnew Boy entirely viable to play on the iPhone, but it's much easier to soak in the excellent graphics on an iPad. The good
The bad
The conclusionBrandnew Boy is a decidedly different kind of action RPG with a truly unique style. While there are some things I would change about the gameplay, namely how much attention you have to pay to the moving attack bar, the core mechanic is a refreshing change of pace. The writing, art style, and animation are all very unique among the usual crop of iOS fighting games, and even as someone who generally isn't into anime, Brandnew Boy adds enough of a twist to make the experience enjoyable.Here's the download link, but don't forget, you could win a copy in our forum giveaway! | ||||||
Michael Jurewitz leaves Apple's Worldwide Developer relations team to join Black Pixel Posted: 02 Jul 2012 10:32 AM PDT Michael Jurewitz, a member of Apple's Worldwide Developer relations team, is leaving his current position in order to join Black Pixel, one of the top iOS and OS X development firms. Michael will join the team at a director level position focusing on client and internal software projects. Michael has worked with Apple for the last seven years and says the best parts of his career have been the interaction with developers such as answering technical questions and helping independent developer teams create amazing applications for iOS and OS X.
Black Pixel has worked with several Fortune 100 companies as well as working on their own in-house apps such as NetNewsWire, Kaleidoscope, and Versions. Daniel Pasco of Black Pixel has also posted an entry on Black Pixel's blog welcoming Michael to the team and explaining some of what his roles will be after joining them. Congratulations to both Black Pixel and Michael. We can't wait to see what you guys do together. Source: Black Pixel, Michael Jurewitz | ||||||
Monday Brief: Google I/O Recap, RIM's Rough Week, $600 iMore Giveaway, and more! Posted: 02 Jul 2012 08:40 AM PDT
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Qmadix Tempered Tech-Armor for iPhone 4S or iPhone 4 only $23.95! [Daily deal] Posted: 02 Jul 2012 06:34 AM PDT For today only the iMore iPhone Accessory Store has the Qmadix Tempered Tech-Armor for iPhone 4S or iPhone 4 on sale for only $23.95! That's a big 40% off! Get yours before they're gone! Qmadix Tempered Tech-Armor is the ultimate defense shield for your iPhone 4S, AT&T iPhone 4, or Verizon iPhone 4. Utilizing triplex technology, a new innovation in tempered glass, which yields a breaking threshold greater than 9 times of conventional glass. This ultra thin screen protector is just 0.3mm thick and is almost undetectable once installed. Tech-Armor is clear tempered glass and will not cause any loss of screen sensitivity or degrade the resolution of the display. Features:
Includes:
Shop Qmadix Tempered Tech-Armor for iPhone 4S or iPhone 4 now! | ||||||
How to edit portraits with iPhoto for iPhone and iPad Posted: 01 Jul 2012 11:30 PM PDT Portraits are one of the most popular genres of photography and likely to be one of the most common types of iPhoneography you'll want to share from Camera Roll. Of course, whether its family or friends, or even your own self-portrait destined for your social profile, everyone always wants to look as good as possible -- better than reality even. Cousin Judy may untag herself if she sees even one unsightly blemish on her skin. Tim from across the street may complain endlessly if he thinks he looks too pale. And if there's so much as a wrinkle around your own eyes... The good news is that in just a matter of minutes, you can turn those not-so-hot photos into portraits you can't wait to show off! To do so, we're going to use Apple's iPhoto photo editing app for iPhone and iPad. I will be using the iPad version for the purpose of this tutorial, but you should be able to easily follow along with the iPhone version as well. We're going to edit the following photo that my husband took of me. Feel free to save a larger version from here and follow along with the edits. Before we jump into the actual editing, let's discuss why this photo needs editing. You never want to jump blindly into an editing session. It's much better to know what needs to be changed and what you don't like about the original so that you end up with a photo that looks natural and not over-processed. As the subject of this photo, I hate it and would never share it as is, if it wasn't for this tutorial. You can see wrinkles under my eyes, I have blemishes on my face and the color of my skin is far from flattering. In general, there is way too much detail in my face and it makes me feel self-consious. Granted, as the subject, I'm going to be much more critical, but you should approach every portrait as if you are the subject because the person who is the subject will be very critical and possibly hate it if you share a "bad" photo of them on Facebook or Twitter. ExposureOk, now that we know what's wrong with the photo, let's start editing it. First, let's adjust the exposure and contrast. Personally, I like portraits to be on the lighter side as it generally has a forgiving impact on skin. It also makes the photo look brighter and happier. For this photo, I increased the exposure slightly and followed up by increasing the contrast a little as well. White balance and skin toneWhat I really like about iPhoto is that it has a white balance tool that lets you adjust the colors for skin tones. To access it, tap the button next to the Settings button in the lower right. It will likely look like a lens and say WB. The 2nd to last icon (the one with a figure of a headshot) is the tool you need to adjust by skin tone. When you select it, a loupe will appear on the the screen. Drag this to an area of the photo that has skin. Experiment and try different locations and choose the change that you like best. For this photo, this tool added a lot of much-needed warmth to the photograph. After using the WB skin tone tool, adjust the last slider (the brown one with a head). This lets you fine tune the skin tones in your image. You can also hold down your finger on an area of the photo that has skin and swipe left or right. Going right makes the skins tones warmer, and going left makes them cooler. I'm a fan of warm photos, so I adjusted a little to the right. In addition to improving the color of my skin, this step also made my hair look better. Remove blemishesNow it's time to tackle those blemishes. Choose the Brushes tab in iPhoto and select the first brush called Repair. This awesome little tool will make pimples and blemishes disappear! The trick is to zoom in as much as you can since the brush size will always be the size of your finger. Find the blemish and simply touch it -- iPhoto will clean it right off! On this photo, I cleaned up that spot below my nose that you see in the screenshot, a few areas of my chin, the scar between my eyes and the two freckles on my lips that I hate (don't judge!). Soften skinThe next adjustment we're going to make is to soften all of my skin. In my opinion, this is where the magic happens. The soften brush is the last brush in the Brushes menu. The trick to using these types of brushes is to make sure your strokes are visible. To do so, tap the Setting button and toggle Show Strokes to ON. What this does is display all your strokes in red so that you know exactly where you applied the brush and at what opacity. For portraits, you want to hit all areas of skin while avoiding boundaries and edges. The Soften tool is essentially adding a blur to your photo, so if you aren't careful, you can make the person's face look blurry. This is not the effect we're going for -- we want soft, silky skin! Take your time when doing this step. Zoom in nice and close at edges. Here's a screenshot that's zoomed in on my face so you can better see which areas to avoid. It's also important to note that you need to get all the skin in the photo, not just the face. If arms or other areas of the body are showing, make sure you apply the Soften brush to these areas as well. It looks unnatural to only have a face with soft skin. Once you think you're done, turn off your strokes and take a look at the results. I recommend first setting the strength to High so that you can get a good idea of how well of job you did with the application of the brush. If some areas look missed or blotchy, then turn the strokes back on and fix it. Once you're certain that your brush application is perfect, I recommend ultimately switching the strength to Low. Remember, the goal is to make skin look soft, not fake. Here's the result of the Soften brush. Sharpen eyesThe final edit we're going to make is to my eyes. Specifically, we're going to sharpen them. In every portrait, the most important aspect is they eyes. Notice the catchlights in my eyes -- this is extremely desirable and you should check out my article on how to take great portraits for tips on getting catchlights. Because the eyes are such an important element, it looks great when they are the sharpest part of the photo and really helps those catchlights stand out. The brush next to the soften brush is the Sharpen brush. Select it. We're going to use the Sharpen brush exactly like the Soften one. Turn on brush strokes and zoom in on the eyes. Apply the brush to the entire eye while layering it on as thick as possible on the iris and pupil. For the Sharpen brush, I've learned to set the strength to High for best results. Final imageHere's the final result! To really get a feel for how much work we did, let's take a look at the before and after, side by side. What a huge difference! Now that's a portrait of myself that I wouldn't mind sharing and possibly using as a profile picture on one of my social networks. It's amazing what you can do to a portrait when you know what you're doing, isn't it? Now go out, shoot, edit, and share!Now that you've learned how to turn those snapshots into beautiful portraits, it's time to put your skills to the test! Make sure you check out our tips for taking great portraits, then use the techniques demonstrated in this tutorial to edit your photographs into perfection. Once you're done, please share your work with us in the Photography forums. And as always... have fun! | ||||||
Apple to pay Proview $60 million for iPad trademark in China Posted: 01 Jul 2012 08:42 PM PDT Apple has agreed to pay $60 million dollars to Proview Technology, the Chinese company with which they've had a longstanding dispute over the iPad trademark, ending litigate before the Guangdong High People's Court court. Apple has maintained they bought all legal rights to the iPad name in a previous, global transaction back in 2009, but the Proview disagreed, saying the Chinese rights were never transferred. Back in December, the Chinese court sided with Proview on that point. Proview initially sought $2 billion in damages.
This is still probably $60 million more than Apple wanted to pay, but it will grant them unobstructed entry to the Chinese market. Apple's second largest after the US. Source: Associated Press | ||||||
Editor's desk: Google I/O, Twitter-pocalypse III, 300 + 1, and more! Posted: 01 Jul 2012 07:16 PM PDT It's July 1 and that means it's Canada Day here in the great white north -- or The Wall, as HBO fans would now better understand it. Canada Day, for those unfamiliar, celebrates the 1867 signing of the British North America Act, which united Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Upper and Lower Canada (Ontario and Quebec). Suffice it to day, there's been barbecue and parades already, and there'll be fireworks soon, so for the second week in a row I'm going to Nickinson this and keep it brief-y. Google I/OSpeaking of Phil, he and Jerry and Alex (and Kevin!) covered the hell out of Google I/O this week. While I have no actual proof they were the ones sky diving out of the planes with Project Glass strapped to their skulls, I do know they brought back all the news worth knowing. I already shared my own quick take on the announcements during the day one keynote, but I'll say it again --Android 4.1 looks great. My biggest wish for Jelly Bean was for Google to slow down and fix their interface rendering and their physics, and they seem to have done just that. I ordered a Nexus 7 and look forward to seeing if it really is the "Butter" Google claimed. (If it's "I can't believe it's not butter", someone's gonna get hurt real bad...) I've got a longer editorial coming on the Nexus 7 tomorrow or the next day, and what it may or may not mean for Apple's rumored 7-inch iPad, so I won't say much more about it here. I'll just leave you with this little sneak preview of Google I/O 2017... Apple has made their own operating systems. They've made their own cloud services system. They haven't made their own social system. Sure, they've done Game Center and the soon-to-be-late-and-unlementaed Ping, but when it comes to hardcore, pervasive social services they've been content to outsource it to Twitter in iOS 5 and Facebook in iOS 6. Apple doesn't get social and now they seem to get that they don't get social. More than that, they seem to get that social itself is nowhere near as persistent as local operating systems and cloud services systems. Just ask Friendster. Or MySpace. Apple rose, so did DOS and Windows, so did Nokia Palm and RIM, so have iOS and Android. Platforms evolve and change over time, but social is human. It's tribal. It's migratory. And Twitter would do well to remember that. As Twitter's userbase has transformed from technology geeks who are active, who follow and are followed by dozens or hundreds or thousands of peers, who direct message, who make apps -- who help build and shape the service they love. It's transformed into a more passive, mainstream audience that doesn't DM, doesn't have many followers, but follows hundreds of celebrities. It's why Twitter for iPhone went from Loren Brichter's brilliant Tweetie to very differently focused new Twitter for iPhone. That's a huge amount of pressure, and it looks like Twitter's floundering under the change, and the growth. They're still groping their way towards a revenue model. Rather then simply offering pro accounts or including simple in-stream ads, they're moving ahead with befuddling promoted tweets and who knows what else. And they're still confounding developers with cryptic, borderline antagonistic proclamations about what types of apps they will and won't tolerate long term. Rather than simply telling developers of alternate client apps that ads belong to Twitter and all clients have monetize through paid apps, they're dangling the API version of the sword of Damocles over their heads to chilling effect. They're not keeping it simple, and that's a far bigger risk than alternate clients could ever be. I wondered out-loud -- on Twitter, poetically -- how many Twitter app developers it would take to spin up their own micro-blogging platform. To end users, the interface is the app. Changing the pipes in the back, as long as functionality and service levels remain acceptable, is always an option. A difficult, maybe even arduous option, but an option. (See iOS 6 Maps.) Developer Brent Simmons had similar thoughts, riffing off Matthew Panzarino's developer survey, went into detail about how an RSS-centric alternative could be realized. The point is, platforms may rise and fall but social is far more fluid, and far more subject to the movements of key influencers. And Twitter would do well to remember that. 300 + 1This week was the blockbuster 300th episode of the iMore show. If you can get through the first 5 minutes without a huge hit of nostalgia to the face than you simply haven't been listening to mobile podcasts enough. We have clips from the very first show and all the debuts since. Voices from the past include Dieter Bohn and Mike Overbo, Chad Garrett and Mickey Papillon, and lots more you truly have to see (or hear) to believe. If you haven't already, give it a watch now. And while you're watching, don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and leave a comment on the video. That'll enter you into our just-announced iOS Dream Device Giveaway, and you really don't want to miss that. Speaking of things not to be missed, Leo Laporte and Andy Ihnatko were gracious enough to invite me to join them and Mac OS Ken on MacBreak Weekly 305. Features
Recommended reading
And now, the fireworksLiterally. They just started going off outside, so I'm outta here. | ||||||
Contest winners: iQuick Tweet for iPhone and iTunes gift cards! Posted: 01 Jul 2012 10:33 AM PDT If there's one thing iMore loves even more than iPhones and iPads, it's giving cool iPhone and iPad accessories and apps to our awesome readers. This week we have... $15 iTunes gift cards from R-Tap!
iQuick Tweet codes
Congratulations! You'll be contacted during the week with information on claiming your prize. |
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