Are you ready for another edition of iPhone Live? You better be because we’re coming your way at 6pm PT, 9pm ET, 2am GMT.

http://live.tipb.com/live/

And yes, we might just have some promo codes to give away!

If you have any questions for the show tweet them to @TiPb, email them to podcast@tipb.com, or leave them in the comments below!

Bring it!

iPhone Live! podcast tonight! Come chat! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Ever hated an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad app icon and wondered how you could change it, or gotten tired of a low-res icon on your gorgeous Retina Display and wished you could set up something custom? Well if you’re jailbroken and running Winterboard, you can. We’ll show you how after the break!

Winterboard lets you customize many aspects of your iPhone and iPad’s appearance, including custom icons. Custom icons will not replace the actual image files and can be turned on and off through Winterboard. As icons are usually part of a theme, you should know that only icons for apps purchased through the App Store are automatically skinned by most themes. iOS apps such as Photos, Compass, Settings, etc. will not be automatically skinned and must be specially done for each theme. All jailbreak apps (apps from Cydia) will likewise not not be auto-skinned and must be made to fit your theme if that is what you are trying to accomplish.

Before we get started you will need to SSH into your phone and have Winterboard installed. SBSettings and iFile are greatly recommended but not absolutely necessary.

Creating Your Theme

• Go to: /private/var/stash/Themes
• Create a Folder labeled “Custom Icons.theme”

• Inside that folder, create a folder labeled “Bundles” – All your icons will be put into this folder which will direct winterboard to skin them accordingly.

Finding Icons to Skin

There are online databases for this information, but since icons and apps are often updated, this method will show you how to find them on your own.

The best method is to use SBSettings and click the “More” icon.

• Scroll to the bottom and click on “App Folders”
• Click on the app you are looking to skin, and mark down the folder name.

• Use iFile or your SSH browser and go to the location you marked down.
• Inside that folder there will be another folder, usually the name of the app with “.app” after it. Open that folder.

• Find Info.plist and open it. You will be looking for a line labeled “CFBundleIdentifier” and the string directly below it. Mark down the name of the bundle listed in the string, it will look something like “com.company.appname” This will be the name of your bundle folder that you will be making.

• In the same folder where you found Info.plist, find the icon you wish to replace. This step is often tricky, and might require trial and error until the correct file name is found. Usually the icon will be labled Icon.png or Icon@2x.png if it is a retina quality icon. Remember this file name is case sensitive.

• Go back into your Custom Icons.theme/Bundles folder and make a new folder labeled with what you found to be the CFBundleIdentifier (i.e. “com.company.appname”). Your Icon will go here. Now that you have both the icon name and the bundle name, its time to make an icon.

Making Icons

• If you are making icons for a device with a Retina display you can make them 118×120. If on a non-retina display, they should be 59×60. I use Adobe Photoshop to make my icons from pictures I find on the web. It does not matter what size the original icon is. Only what device you are currently on. You can skin a non-retina quality (59×60) icon with a retina quality (118×120) icon.

• Once you have your icon, you need to label it exactly like the icon you are skinning, again it must be case sensitive.

• Place the icon in your newly created bundle folder.

Using Winterboard to Implement Theme

• Open Winterboard and make sure the Custom Icons Theme is checked and above any other theme, as themes will override each other depending on which theme is listed above the other.

• Your device will respring and your icon should now appear. If it did not appear, double check the icon and bundle name to make sure they are exactly the same as the ones you have created.

I hope you found this tutorial helpful and remember to have fun! If you have any questions ask in comments or get expert help in our Jailbreak Theme Forum!

Tips of the day will 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. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward.)

Daily Tip: How to set custom app icons on iPhone or iPad [Jailbreak] is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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The Apple Remote for iPhone app has just been updated to include support for Airplay and Internet radio control. It also extends the ability to control iTunes.

• AirPlay video support to control iTunes on your computer to stream videos to an Apple TV
• Internet radio control to play thousands of internet radio streams in iTunes on your computer
• The ability to control iTunes on your computer to play Movies and TV shows that are rented from the iTunes Store
• Addresses issues connecting to an iTunes library or Apple TV
• Includes stability and performance improvements

If you pick this up, let us know how it works for you!

Apple Remote for iPhone updated to include Airplay support is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

FaceTime isn’t the first video calling implementation on a smartphone but it’s the first one that’s easy to use and has a common and widespread install base, and that brings with it some interesting and decidedly futuristic advantages. Take this, which happened to a friend of mine today:

Our primary network administrator was off-site today and our backup admin was unexpectedly sick. So of course one of our business-critical machines decided to go down. I don’t work in IT but I have a technical background and know my way around Windows so I was drafted to go in and try to “fix it”. Needless to say one look at the Linux error screen and I knew I was in way over my head. Remote login wasn’t working either. Luckily I have an iPhone 4 and so does our network admin so we jumped on a FaceTime call. I flipped the camera around, showed him the error screen, and for the next 10 to 15 minutes he talked me past them, got me to reboot the machine, restart the proper services, and relaunch the web apps our impatient users were clamoring for. It was a win all around. Never mind Santa. Apple should make that a commercial.

Apple ads have shown a lot of emotional, familial, even romantic connections over FaceTime but they haven’t (yet) highlighted potential business uses. Information technologies is interesting. Medical and educational even more so. If FaceTime ever gets going over 3G (sans Jailbreak) and If Apple lives up to their statement that FaceTime will be released as an open standard, and other devices implement it as well, video calling could really become ubiquitous and it could be a great tool for any type of remote knowledge transfer.

Have you used FaceTime on the job? Let us know how it worked for you!

No network admin? No problem if you have an iPhone and FaceTime! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

NoseDial for iPhone does just what the name suggests — lets you dial your iPhone with your nose. Sound strange? What else do you do when it's freezing outside and you need to make a couple of calls on your iPhone? You first have to remove your gloves and risk those cold temperatures, unless of course you have a special pair of gloves that work with capacitive touch screens.

NoseDial shows your contacts in a large button grid with pictures; if you have them assigned to your contacts. To scroll through the list you can just tilt your iPhone  or swipe (with your nose), find the contact you want then touch it again with your nose to dial, simple.

NoseDial needs to be started before you put on your gloves because it has its own standby mode. This prevents the normal Apple Slide To Unlock screen activating after periods of inactivity, this would make life very difficult for nose use. Instead you can wake the phone and get straight back into NoseDial just by double clicking your screen obviously with your nose.

The app is very customizable, allowing you to change the number of contacts shown per page, background images, sorting of contacts and many other things. Unfortunately this only works for phone calls and doesn't help with email and SMS messages. Also it could all be a bit messy if you have a bad cold which is common place this time of the year!

Can you see yourself using an app like this?

[iTunes Link]

NoseDial brings easy nose dialing to iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

If you were in the UK today and happened to wander through St Pancras International train station in London, you may have seen a huge iPhone 4 sitting on the concourse. Ok it's not actually a real iPhone 4; but that only makes this more interesting. The huge iPhone 4 is actually made from fifty six iPads all set in a lookalike iPhone 4 case.

Each of the iPads made up a 56th part of a huge video screen which was running a looped video promoting the just released Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light game.  Some lucky commuters even managed to pick up a free iPad as part of the promotion. Any of our UK readers see this, or even manage to get a free iPad?

If you were not one of the lucky few to walk away with an iPad, don't forget you still have time to enter our competition where you can win a 32GB WiFi + 3G iPad, all the details can be found right here.

[Electric Pig]

Huge iPhone 4 made from fifty six iPads is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

We knew Apple had added accelerometer and gyroscope support to iOS 4.2.1 for iPhone, but leave it to Occipital, the company who brought us 360 Panorama, to show it off in full, Augmented Reality mode.

What they’ve done is created an Augmented Reality type experience for viewing panoramic photos all through the Safari Mobile browser. As far as we know no other mobile browser is equipped to be able to make use of this… yet. To sample this simply visit http://occip.it/pt3dmqna on your mobile Safari browser and you will see a Gyro On notice show up. Once that appears move your iPhone/iPod touch around and check out the panoramic picture they use as an example. (iPad won’t work — no gyroscope.)

If you have 360 Panorama, once you complete an upload of a panoramic photo you captured, you can use the URL to view it in Safari Mobile or send the link to others for them to check out what you captured.

This feature could be used for other things such as web apps and can only help using Safari Mobile become even better. Try this out on your iPhone 4 or iPod Touch and let us know how you like it. Also if you upload some cool panoramic shots leave the URL in the comments section so we can all experience what you experienced!

For more, see our iOS 4.2 walkthrough for iPhone and iPod touch.

[ The Next Web ]

iOS 4.2 features: Augmented Reality in iPhone Safari browser is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

iTunes Connect is closing for the holidays tomorrow — from Thursday, December 23 to Tuesday, December 28 to be exact — and that means there won’t be any new iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad apps, games, or updates next week.

iTunes Connect is the portal developers use to submit and manage their apps. So the shutdown might be just to give Apple’s review team a holiday of their own or it could give Apple time to do some system maintenance and improvements behind the scenes. Either way come tomorrow all the apps and games in the store will be locked down until just before New Year.

(Yes, that’s also why so many apps and games are on sale now — they can’t change prices until after iTunes Connects opens again, and they’re hoping a sale bumps them up in the rankings for all those new iPhone and iPads under the tree!)

We here at TiPb are used to getting a steady stream of new apps and games to keep us busy so I’m not even going to lie, it’s going to be hard week. How about you? Is it going to feel strange going to the App Store and seeing nothing changed and nothing new?

Reminder: Why there won’t be any new or updated iPhone or iPad apps or games this week is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Last night I quoted Marco Armant asking if Android phones would ever achieve iPhone-level polish and usability and a lot of Android enthusiasts fired back that they could do things on Android that they couldn’t do on iPhone, so Android was more usable.

Well, no.

That’s not usability, that’s functionality. Those two can be as diametrically opposed as simplicity and complexity…

Copy and paste on iPhone is broadly consistent system-wide. On Android, even Gingerbread, there are at least three or four different ways of doing copy and paste in different apps, including Google’s own Gmail. They’re both functional but iPhone is more usable. FaceTime on iPhone 4 is locked to Wi-Fi but works the same way as placing a phone call. Android (and before them, Nokia) devices had front-facing cameras first but relied on 3rd party apps to handle the video call, even over 3G, but with decidedly mixed results. Android is more functional, iPhone is more usable.

I’ve mentioned other things before as well. Memory management on iPhone is invisible to the end user, they’re never supposed to see an “out of memory” error. Multitasking on iPhone, via the Fast App Switcher, is all but invisible as well unless you hit the Home Button twice in rapid succession. It’s literally behind the scenes and can be easily ignored. The App Store, thanks to iTunes, just works in over 90 countries around the world, even though it doesn’t have some categories of programs, and doesn’t allow for themes and skins. All of those might prove less functional to a hardcore user but it’s more usable to the mainstream majority.

Even notifications on iPhone, one of the nastiest thorns iOS users still have to deal with and something most of us are begging Apple to fix in iOS 5, are so singular and modal as to be extremely usable (you just click and they go away or you go to the app) to a non-tech savvy user. (Something a few very well known, very push-notification heavy app developers have said they fear losing if Apple goes to a more Android- or webOS-style notification system).

A stock iPhone is inarguably far less functional than a high end Android device, but its consistency, attention to interface and experience detail, and level of fit and finish make it just as inarguably more usable.

My 2 year old godson can use iPhone well. He can turn it on. He can find and launch his apps. He can play his games and read along with Dr. Seuss and Disney. About all my 2 year old can do with my Android 2.1 Nexus One is throw it.

That doesn’t indicate the iPhone is a “toy” for children, it indicates the level of usability Apple has achieved, and is something Android enthusiasts should be angry that Google doesn’t seem intent on matching, just as iOS users are upset when they see that cool new feature Apple seemingly has no interest in.

And yes, you can Jailbreak an iPhone to make it far more functional but that increases complexity and lowers usability, bringing it more in line with the Android model. (I’m currently Jailbroken via redsn0w, though ironically my Nexus One isn’t rooted. Go figure.)

None of this takes into account Apple’s industry leading accessibility features either, which make iPhone usable to those with low or no vision. Nor does it reflect how carriers often mutilate Android by locking it down, or locking out or stripping functionality entirely. (Even Google with 720p video recording on the Nexus S.)

So if experts want to argue Android is more functional than iPhone, go ahead. Nokia enthusiasts can argue the same and probably from way before Android came around. However, since the day it was released in 2007 nothing is yet as usable for as many people as iPhone.

iPhone, Android, and the difference between usability and functionality is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Handwriting recognition by way of PhatPad and form filling by way of PDF Expert are two great productivity boons to hit the iPad this week.

PhatPad by PhatWare is the iPhone version of their PhatNotes app and brings with it a ton of functionality:

• Type or scribble notes using a smooth-flowing digital ink technology.
• Combine drawing, handwritten text, images, and digital text on the same document page to create media-rich content.
• Convert handwritten notes into text with PhatPad's powerful handwriting recognition software.
• Synchronize PhatPad documents with the desktop computer via iTunes or Dropbox.
• Share documents between two or more devices on a local WiFi network, or email them to anyone from within PhatPad.
• Send documents to a printer on your wireless network via AirPrint.
• Export PhatPad documents as a PDF.
• Use standard editing commands such as Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, and Paste.

[$4.99 - iTunes link]

PDF Expert by Readdle for iPad has been updated to not only let you annotate PDFs but also:

• Fill PDF forms! PDF Expert allows you to fill PDF Forms with full compliance with PDF specification. Text fields, radio buttons, dropdown lists and calculated fields are supported, as well as many other fileds.
• Two-Way Sync with Dropbox, iDisk, other storages. Sync your Dropbox folder to local directory. Changes made on the either side can be synced back via one tap.

[$9.99 - iTunes link]

Video and screenshots after the break. If you try either of them out, let us know how they work for you!

PhatPad brings handwriting recognition, PDF Expert brings form filling to iPad is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog