Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has started testing advanced features in the iTunes movie versions of Salt, The Other Guys and Resident Evil: Afterlife, including search in script/scene, social sharing, and song playlists.

Buy the Will Ferrell comedy The Other Guys and you’ll notice three extras that can’t be found on DVD or any other digital platform. A search button allows you to input a word, and any mention of it in the script will be retrieved along with a link to the exact moment in the movie in which the line was uttered. A “clip & share” function lets the viewer take select scenes and post them to social networks. There’s also a playlist with songs from the film, which are linked to to places on iTunes where those songs can be purchased.

Those sound like some pretty cool features, with hopefully more to come from further testing and with additional studios getting involved. One thing to note, however, is that Apple still hasn’t extended support for iTunes Extras to devices like the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. Even the new Apple TV doesn’t support the feature, but our hopes are for Apple to pick up the pace and rollout full integration of the service soon if they expect iTunes Extras to actually be a success.

So what do you think of Sony testing out these new features, will it be enough of an added value to help movie sales in iTunes reach their full potential? Let us know in the comments!

[PaidContent via MacRumors]

Sony adding search, sharing, playlists as iTunes Extras movie features is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

My New Year’s resolution for TiPb is to be nicer to Google in 2011. Last year was an amazing year for the world’s largest, most powerful internet company. Thanks to relentless software improvement, Verizon’s Droid marketing, and top-of-the-line hardware like the Galaxy S, Google’s Android OS became the fastest accelerating platform in the mobile space. They also unleashed improvements to Gmail, Google Maps, Google Docs, YouTube, and so many other already excellent services at a speed and quality level that, frankly, no other company could have matched.

But it was a tough year as well. They were hurt by their handling of China, by the privacy-shredding launch of Buzz and the aborted Wave. They raised privacy and legal concerns by collecting Wi-Fi data, and they left a segment of their userbase feeling betrayed by throwing in with the devil Verizon and abandoning key parts of their previously staunch net neutrality support, and by letting carriers frak up key parts of the Android user experience just to gain market traction.

The whole “don’t be evil” thing took a huge ding in 2010. However, while Google is certainly responsible for their own actions, we users are responsible for our expectation. There’s no such thing as a free lunch, or free internet services. We pay with cash or we pay with our personal data. And the truth is Google is a for-profit corporation and not a person. It lacks the agency to be either good or evil. I’ve joked about this riff on Arthur C. Clack before but I continually find it to be more and more true — any corporation sufficiently large is indistinguishable from evil. As they seek to grow shareholder value and increase future business their goals will always come into conflict with some portion or another of their user base. (See a counternotions for an excellent summary of how and why Apple and Google differ in their evil.)

As impossible as it may be to believe, some of us here on TiPb get accused of bashing Google and their Android OS. Truth be told, most of us are huge Google users. While Apple is our hardware, Google is our service. We couldn’t run TiPb without Google. We’re almost as deeply invested in it as Android Central, we just run it on iPhones, iPod touch, and iPads instead of Motorolas, Samsungs, and HTCs. We don’t run Android but we sure run Gmail, Google Maps, Google Voice, Google Calendar, YouTube, and all the rest.

When Apple disappoints us with their own China factory scandals, antenna problems, or the inability to produce white phones, with disallowing apps we want or not providing functionality as fast as we want it, they make us just as sad as Google does when we face the issues mentioned above. (And yeah, we get accused of hating on Apple almost as much as Google.)

But it’s because we’ve come to expect a lot from these companies. Maybe too much at times.

We’ll still be covering the competitive aspects of Google and Android, Microsoft and Windows Phone, RIM and BlackBerry, HP/Palm and webOS, and Nokia and Symbia/MeeGo here on TiPb, sometimes with appreciation, sometimes in jealously, often with humor and touch of sarcasm. It’s impossible to avoid. Google is just getting into so many of what are Apple’s key businesses, from phones to tablets to operating systems to music services to set top boxes and the list goes on and on (and is growing all the time!). But we’ll aim to be nicer about it. Especially Google (cause they’re reading our email and will know if we aren’t!)

(That last part was a joke.)

New Year’s resolution: be nicer to Google in 2011 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

I should have bought at Scully…

Apple market cap $300 billion, now higher than Mount Doom is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Well it’s January 3 and some iPhone alarms are still not going off at their correct times. We first told you about the alarm bug on Friday as Australia hit the new year and started noticing the issue. Apple promised us over the weekend that on January 3rd things would fix themselves and users would wake up on time.

Well it appears as if this did not happen for everyone as complaints have been going wild on the internet that users were woken up late for their first day back to school or work after their holiday vacations. Personally my iPhone 4 woke me up right on time this morning but it sounds like I got lucky. How about you? Did your alarm wake you up on time or after the last alarm bug did you lose faith in the native alarm and use a different alarm for waking yourself up?

[ Engadget ]

iPhone bugs: Alarms still not working properly for some users is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Giving away, returning, or just lending your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad and need to know how to clear off any porn — er, adult content — that might have somehow made its way onto your device? We may not have had the fun with this issue that our Android Central friends did over the holidays, but we can share their cautionary advice… after the break!

Steve Jobs might say Android is for porn and iPhone is not (never mind the numbers…), but iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad have Safari, the best web browser in the mobile business, and as everyone but Apple’s CEO apparently knows — the web, it has porn. More than that, your texts might be sexts, your email extreme, your photos more than flirty, and while your App Store apps can’t be rated XXX, they still could be rated R. How do you tidy things up before giving away or lending your device? Here are some options

Total Wipe

If you’re just returning your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad to Apple, Best Buy, or another retailer your best option is to nuke it completely, i.e. “Erase all content and settings.”

• How to erase all personal data from your iPhone

The instructions are pretty much the same for iPod touch and iPad, and you’ll be left with a device almost in factory fresh condition.

Selective Wipe

If you just want to lend your device, or want to sell it while maintaining a Jailbreak on older firmware, you’ll need to be more selective.

Deleting Text/SMS Messages

1. Launch the Messages app
2. Tap Edit
3. Tap the red – icon on the left
4. Tap the red Delete button to confirm
5. Repeat for any and all conversations you want to delete

Deleting Photos

You can only delete Photos that are in the Camera Roll. If you want to delete a synced album you have to connect to iTunes and deselect the photos so they don’t sync any more. To delete from the Camera Roll:

1. Launch Photos
2. Follow the directions for selecting multiple Photos (There’s no limit to the amount of photos you can select for deletion.)
3. Choose Delete instead of Share… carefully!

Clearing Mail

Just remove the email account. You can always add it back later, especially if it’s a server-side IMAP or ActiveSync account like MobileMe, Gmail, Exchange, etc.

1. Launch Settings
2. Scroll down to Mail, Contacts, Calendars
3. Tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars
4. Tap the account you want to delete
5. Scroll to the bottom
6. Tap Delete

If you really only want to delete individual email threads:

1. Launch Mail
2. Follow the same instructions as for Messages, as described above.

Clearing Safari

Streaming might be safer than storing on-device, but web sites, especially advertising heavy web sites, especially porn sites, love to keep track of you. While there’s no “private browsing mode” for iOS Safari like there is for Mac Safari, you can still manually clear it out:

1. Launch Settings
2. Scroll down to Safari
3. Tap Safari
4. Scroll down to the bottom
5. Tap (and confirm) Clear History.
6. Tap (and confirm) Clear Cookies.
7. Tap (and confirm) Clear Cache.

Deleting Apps

Deleting apps, or Home Screen clipped web site, is easy:

1. Touch and hold your finger down on the app until it goes into “Jiggly Mode” (starts to dance around).
2. Look for the small X badge at the top left of the app you want to delete
3. Tap the small X badge
4. A dialog box will pop up identifying the name of the app you’re about to delete and warning you that you’ll delete all the data in the app as well (your account login, game progress, etc.)
5. If you’re sure, tap Delete (if you’re not, tap Cancel)
6. If you decide not to delete an app, tap the Home Button to exit Jiggly Mode

Deleting Movies

If you have synced any movies over, they’re simple to delete as well:

1. Launch iPod
2. Tap Movies
3. Swipe from left to right over the movie
4. Tap the Delete button

Deny, deny, deny

Again, the “Erase all content and settings” is your first, best option if you’re really getting rid of your device. With everything else, your being human, you’ll eventually mess up. If you do, just remember what every celebrity and politician on every talk/news show in America has taught us — deny, deny, deny!

(Or if you have any better ideas, leave them in comments!)

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 clear porn off your iPad or iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

TiPb will be at CES 2011 this week! I arrive Tuesday night and will be covering all the iPhone and iPad news, apps, and accessories I can find until Friday. If you’re at CES and want to show off a killer app or awesome accessory, or just say hellow, let me know via @reneritchie on Twitter or rene@tipb.com.

I’ll be joined by the rest of the SPE family, including Kevin from CrackBerry.com, Phil from AndroidCentral.com, and our EiC, Dieter for PreCentral.net, so keep your eyes peeled on the whole network. It’s going to be a heck of a week!

If you’re joining us from home, let us know what you want to see the most!

TiPb at CES 2011 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

What would you like to see more of (or less of) on TiPb.com in 2011? iOS news/rumors? Jailbreak coverage? Editorials/opinion pieces? iPhone/iPad vs. competing device reviews? App/game/accessory reviews? App/game/accessory comparisons? Tips/how-tos/guides? iPhone Live!/iPad Live!?, TiPb TV? Anything we’re not covering that you really want us to start?

We are here for you, so let us know what would make your TiPb experience better in 2011!

TiPb asks: What would you like to see more of on TiPb.com in 2011? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Facepad for iPad is a a brand new Facebook application that just recently hit the app store. It may be the Facebook app most iPad users have been longing for. Facebook has made it apparent they don’t think an iPad specific app is necessary. I strongly disagree. Browsing Facebook through Safari isn’t painful but how do I upload photos or videos? I can’t. Apps like Friendly for Facebook step in to fill this gap but they aren’t perfect.

Facepad is definitely a step in the right direction but it still leaves room for improvement. As of now there isn’t currently a way to upload photos and video. Friendly for Facebook does offer this. The reason I say I think this app may be the one iPad users are drawn to is the interface. It’s absolutely gorgeous. It reminds me a lot of a default iOS app or Twitter for iPad.

For a 1.0 release, you can already tell it has potential. I did experience a bug when viewing photos. Sometimes while scrolling through pictures, the photo window would just disappear and I’d have to reload it. Hopefully this will be something that’s fixed in an update. I’m excited to see what the developers can do with this app. Facebook hasn’t been too great at supporting their own native iPhone app so I’m definitely willing to see if someone else can do better. What about you guys? What features would you like to see implemented in an update?

Hit the jump for a couple more images!

via TechCrunch

Facepad for iPad may be just what Facebook users are looking for is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Samsung Nexus S review HTC Thunderbolt, Samsung SCH-i520 LTE phone show in Verizon’s system Explaining the Android SMS bug, and more as new reports roll in	Most Viewed CrackBerry Reviews, News and Videos in 2010 New device? Here are some essentials to get you started RIM Official Statement Regarding Battery Life on the BlackBerry PlayBook
SPB TV released for Nokia N900 and Maemo 5	2010: The year in review Verizon Pre 2 (finally) pops up in Best Buy systems Casting Call: “young fun people” with “good hands” for Palm commercials; Updated: More Codenames
iPad 2 news and rumors Top 5 big name apps and top 8 Jailbreak hacks we want for iPhone and iPad in 2011 Skype for iPhone hits 3.0, adds video calling over Wi-Fi and 3G	Windows Phone Marketplace app-security cracked: Proof-of-concept [Video] Windows Phone 7 Marketplace hits 5,000 apps – shows no signs of slowing Samsung Focus makes #4 spot on Wired’s Most Significant Gadgets of 2010

Best of Smartphone Experts, 2 Jan 2011 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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