We’ve known for a while now that iPhone 5 won’t be coming out this month, as it has for the last four years, but this fall, when iOS 5 is also scheduled to ship. Whether one delayed the other, or Verizon contracts, component shortages, engineering hours, a deliberate decision to change the launch schedule, or some combination of factors caused the delay, we may never know, but now rumors suggest new Macs are similarly on hold, this time waiting on OS X Lion before they ship.

Steve Jobs has always stressed that Apple is a software company, and has several times quoted Alan Kay’s “People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware”. They make beautiful boxes out of glass and aluminum and stainless steel and plastic, but as recently as WWDC 2011, Jobs called software their “soul”.

iPhone has always been tied to major new releases of iOS (previously iPhone OS), the two launching together with precise regularity. (iPod touch has almost always coincided with an iOS x.1 release, and iPad launched with the unique-to-iPad iOS 3.2, and iPad 2 came with the more modest iOS 4.3).

New Macs, however, were seldom if ever tied to new OS X releases. Users who bought new Macs on or around OS X launches would get a free upgrade offer or a DVD in the box, or something… less than coordinated.

But MacBook Airs with ThunderBolt ports and Sandy Bridge processors might just be on hold for Lion now.

Apple hasn’t always had luck with big, coordinated releases. They — and their servers — struggled under the same-day iPhone 3G, iOS 2, MobileMe, and App Store release back in 2008. But they have kept their mobile releases in a row.

There was little chance we’d see iPhone 5 announced with WWDC as shipping in June with iOS 4.3, upgradable to iOS 5 in the fall, and if rumors of Macs waiting on Lion pan out, could Apple be moving to an even more tightly integrated hardware/software model? Could we see a day where OS X and iOS releases are coordinated so features that bridge both, like iCloud, “just work” as desktop and mobile both come on line?

[Apple Insider]

Are Apple’s hardware releases increasingly tied to software? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Disney has released their newest interactive iPhone and iPad book, Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue – A Magical Adventure. In the story, Tinker Bell is trapped on the mainland and depending on her fairy friends to help her out. The reader can contribute to and control the magic by blowing in the speaker to spread fairy dust.

• Blow into your mobile device's speaker to spread fairy dust throughout the adventure.
• Tap on characters and objects to see them come to life!
• Experience beautiful story illustrations, professional narration, and enchanting Disney Fairies music.

If you pick this one up, let us know what you, or your child, thinks! Screenshots after the break.

[$3.99 - iTunes link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue interactive book for iPhone and iPad now available is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

iOS 5‘s new Music app — that’s right, iPod.app on iPhone is dead, long live Music and Video apps like iPad! — has a nice new info popup feature that makes it much easier to make sure you pick just exactly the track you want to play.

On previous versions of iOS, long names were cut off. That meant, for example, if you wanted to find one of a dozen or more chapters in an audio book, it was a guessing game. (Tap. No, not 9-16. Tap. No, not 20-22. Where’s 25, dagnabit!) Now you just tap and hold and the full information pops up, making it easy to pick the right one.

It works for most fields, track name, artist name, album name, etc. Again, a small addition but a helpful one.

[Thanks A!]

iOS 5 features: Info popups in Music is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

A few interesting patent applications from Apple have recently surfaced, showing they have some bold ideas surrounding Find My iPhone, social-matching, and a way to lock the camera so we can’t make bootleg concert recordings and plaster them on YouTube (?!).

Reminder: Apple, like any big company, routinely patents just about anything and everything they dream up, and there’s no way to know when, or if, they’ll use any them in actual, shipping products. Still, it’s interesting to see what they’re working on deep inside the secret Cupertino labs…

Follow on after the break for the roundup!

Find My iPhone

First off, Apple has applied for a patent describing a much more control-oriented Find My iPhone feature with additional security and deeper system integration. Find My iPhone currently lets users remotely lock their iPhone, wipe their data, locate the iPhone on a map or send a personalized message to the device.

This is all nice, but Apple may decide to up the ante and provide much deeper control for the corporate and enterprise environment and better assistance for recovering a lost iPhone.

• Selective data scrambling and wiping lets users define whether to scramble certain data or to wipe specific data instead of clearing the entire device. Users can avoid wiping all data by scrambling emails, contacts etc making the data unusable, or selectively wiping only sensitive data while keeping other data intact.
• Unauthorized user detection is a method of detecting when someone other than yourself has tried to access your iPhone after a certain number of incorrect passcodes have been entered. Once the threshold has been met, the iPhone puts itself into a higher security mode with surveillance options for transmitting audio and video from the front-facing camera, thus giving the owner a higher probability of recovering the lost iPhone.
• Limited functionality allows for locking down an iPhone by turning off certain features, letting an unauthorized user perform tasks with limited capability and functions. The owner can the device to disable cellular data, phone, SMS and other capabilities as to not incur charges on their monthly phone bill. It also offers a function to disable VPN capabilities for better protection of corporate data if the device is lost or stolen.

Making friends just got easier

A second new patent application reveals that Apple has some ambitious ideas to make the process of finding friends with similar interests a lot easier. Tapping into location data, interests, books and other data stored on the iPhone will help match you up with other iPhone users with similar interests.

Social networks are a well known phenomenon, and various electronic systems to support social networking are known. Growing a social network can mean that a person needs to discover like-minded or compatible people who have similar interests or experiences to him or her. Identifying like-minded people, however, often requires a substantial amount of and time and effort because identifying new persons with common interests for friendships is difficult. For example, when two strangers meet, it may take a long and awkward conversation to discover their common interests or experiences.

Common interests and experiences of two or more users located close to each other can be identified from content, including automatically created usage data of the mobile devices. Usage data of a mobile device can be created based on activities performed on the mobile device (e.g., songs downloaded), a trajectory of the mobile device (e.g., places traveled), or other public data available from the mobile device (e.g., pictures shared).

All of this would be opt-in to help avoid privacy concerns, but the location-based services are quite interesting to say the least. As an example, if you tend to visit a specific coffee shop in your town, your iPhone could match you up with another iPhone user who also frequents that location. The idea is to make it easier to discover like-minded people and help spark up friendships that wouldn’t otherwise be as easy to start.

Recording at concerts is a no-no

Lastly, Apple plans to build a system that will determine when users are trying to record or stream live video at concerts and events, and subsequently turn off camera functionality on the device. It works by using infrared sensors that can tell when people in the crowd are recording and sends a signal to the device to disable the camera. Users would still be able to send and receive text messages, calls, data etc.

That… seem a little “Big Brother” to anyone else?

[Patently Apple, MacRumors, The Sun, thanks Steven!]

iPhone patent applications reveal better Find My iPhone, social matching, and a way to stop users from recording concerts(?!) [Patent Roundup] is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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At WWDC 2011 Apple once again “borrowed” a lot of great ideas from the Jailbreak community and gave them to iOS 5, including lock screen info, notifications, WiFi sync, volume buttons to take pictures, and a lot more. That’s not a bad thing — I even asked them to do exactly that this year. Whether you jailbreak or not, whether you realize it or not, the jailbreak community benefits all iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users — pure and jailbreak alike.

Follow along to find out why.

For years, the common argument against Jailbreak (aside from the DMCA, from which Jailbreak was granted an exception last year) was stability — it could make your iPhone buggier, slower, or crash more. The jailbreak argument is typically functionality — it could let your iPhone do far more than Apple does out of the box. The great news, and the real secret here is, everyone benefits from Jailbreak.

Jailbreak to iOS

Over the years, several jailbreak applications and tweaks have slowly trickled down the pipe and found themselves becoming a core function of iOS at some point or another. For old school jailbreakers, they’ll remember Installer fondly. Installer just recently made its way back to iOS as well. It truly was the first official App Store. I remember downloading games and programs to my iPhone first gen through installer on iOS 1.x via Installer and AppTap. Then Apple came along with iOS 2.x and the official App Store. Installer even had page dots when you accumulated more than one page of apps. This was an idea that went straight to iOS 2.0. It wasn’t a similar concept, it simply appeared in iOS 2.x with the exact same functionality.

While Apple practices a pretty rigorous app approval process, the jailbreak app stores continues to allow developers to submit applications that Apple would not allow in the official App Store. A lot of would be rejects seem to find their way into iOS as core features later on.

Prime examples of this are jailbreak apps such as MobileNotifier, which looks strikingly like the notification system Apple showed off at WWDC 2011. Coincidentally, Apple recently hired Peter Hajas as an iOS and frameworks employee.

Other developers such as Greg Hughes, the creator of Wifi Sync, have also seen their applications later crop up in iOS. His iteration of Wifi Sync is very simliar to Apple’s newly announced iCloud wireless sync and backup feature that’s slated to appear this Fall in iOS 5. His version of the app was rejected by Apple previously.

Creativity and innovation

Since the release of the first generation iPhone, the mobile industry has come a long way. A huge part of that was due to the fact that the first generation iPhone was not like anything currently on the market. It lit a fire underneath other manufacturers such as Palm and RIM (ok, maybe not RIM so much). We also got Android out of Google which has become one of the hottest smartphone platforms on the market.

The jailbreak community is full of young and talented developers that more often than not, land jobs at these companies or create programs and tweaks that eventually become the heart and soul of each respective platform. Whether Apple gives it to us or not, the jailbreak community always seems to find a way to make it possible. I have yet to see a company produce a device that meets every consumer’s wants and needs. Some may argue that’s why we have choice. While that’s very true, we still crave a mobile OS that will fill our every need. While that may not yet be possible, independent developers strive to innovate and provide unique solutions through other channels. These innovations eventually crop up in official releases which are then built upon even further.

Jailbreak developers have the ability to create individual solutions. Apple has the ability to refine those even further and produce a product that benefits mainstream users in a way that even the most novice user can understand. So while jailbreak may not be for everyone, a lot of the innovation and creativity is already done by the time Apple decides to refine it and slap an “i” in front of it.

And the cycle continues…

Even if iOS 5 has everything you could possibly want in a mobile OS, next year Steve Jobs will walk on stage again and unveil that “next great thing”, and you’ll want it. Odds are, the jailbreakers out there already have it in their hands. We are, in some ways, beta testers. David Ashman, creator of LockInfo, has already stated he’ll be back next year with an even greater version of LockInfo. Independent developers won’t take it lying down. They’ll simply bow and accept the challenge laid in front of them with more excitement and motivation than the last time around.

So whether or not you plan to jailbreak the next iteration of iOS, you can rest assured Steve Jobs and all the folks up at Cupertino already have.

Jailbreak innovation: still the future of iOS is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Since Apple is going to introduce a built in Reminders app with iOS 5 it’s a good time to pause and take stock and ask you, the TiPb nation, how you’re handling tasks and todos on your iPhone today? Do you just dump everything into the built in Notes app? Do you use a simple list making and reminder app like Rene’s favorites, SimpleNote and Due? Are you an Evernote nerd like Seth and Chad? Or do you use a full on getting things done app like Appigo Todo or OmniFocus?

Do you sync your tasks between iPhone and desktop? iPhone and the cloud? iPhone and other iOS devices like iPad? If you have an iPad as well, do you use a different system or different apps on it than you do on iPhone?

Do you keep every little thing in your todo list, just the big things, or just things you’re particularly bad about remembers (i.e. don’t want to do?) Do you (or will you) use location-based reminders? Once you’ve set up your perfect task management system, do you find you actually use it?

And no matter what you do now, do you see yourself switching to Apple’s built-in Reminders when it comes out this fall?

Let me know — how do you keep track of tasks on your iPhone?

TiPb Asks: How do you keep track of tasks on your 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 one of our many readers waiting for Apple’s annual educational promotion to kick off so you could grab a new MacBook or iMac and get a free iPod touch along with it, you’re in for some disappointment. Instead of a free iPod touch like last year, this year Apple is offering a $100 iTunes gift certificate to cap off your educational purchase.

Sure, that means you can give it right back to Apple when you buy things from the iOS App Store, Mac App Store, iTunes Music (and media) Store, and iBookstore, and get some great stuff to put on your shiny new machine, but we can’t help but be a little sad that iPod touch isn’t getting in on the big promo this year.

Any of you taking advantage of the Back to School event anyway?

[Apple Online Store]

Apple launches annual education promotion, doesn’t include free iPod touch is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Reportage was WhereCloud’s insanely creative iPhone Twitter app that let users “tune in” to other users’ timeline — like a radio station for tweets. I say was because Twitter’s swerve away from the developer friendliness that helped them build their platform and their rapid acceleration into ownership plays that may — or may not — help them ensure its future has led WhereCloud to stop development.

Martin Dufort, who TiPb interviewed as part of our Developer Spotlight series two weeks ago, explains it was the the culmination of 4 changes by Twitter that led to his company’s decision:

1. Twitter stopped allowing modifications to the timeline, so ads couldn’t be inserted, and more importantly in Reportages case, their re-ordering to present individual timeline “broadcasts” could be seen as a violation.

2. Twitter’s switch to OAuth and XAuth took considerable time and resources to implement. WhereCloud went with xAuth for the better user experience. (It doesn’t force users to go to a browser to grant permission, then come back to the app.)

3. Twitter’s subsequent switch to only allowing direct message (DM) access via OAuth meant WhereCloud then had to consider redoing authentication yet again, because Twitter clients require access to DMs. Twitter’s timeline for the switch was also originally very, very tight. At the same time, Twitter for iPhone (made by Twitter) wouldn’t be subject to the same terms, making it harder to compete.

4. Twitter’s Director of 3rd Party apps, Ryan Sarver, came straight out and said developers shouldn’t be building their own 3rd party Twitter clients.

Taken together, these are all Good Things for Twitter — they get to control their brand, user experience, and user base, but Bad Things for developers who for years have offered alternatives that arguably helped Twitter grow. It’s a Mixed Bag of Things for users who may get a more consistent set of official clients to use, but will lose out on the creativity and innovation that helped make the now official clients great, and could make the next generation of clients even better.

All of this has led to WhereCloud pulling the plug.

We at WhereCloud, innovated with our own Twitter Radio Tuner: @reportage. To this day, this iOS application is still unique and a very good complement to other timeline-based clients. This last requirement to move from xAuth to oAuth will force us to update @reportage again but at what cost given the iceberg will surely hit again.

You win Twitter, your strategy of squeezing 3rd party developers is working with us. We will not update @reportage to support oAuth. We have no choice but to remove it from sale from the AppStore on June 25th.

Stranger still, iOS 5 will include built-in Twitter integration and authentication, so presumably next fall Twitter developers will no longer need to use OAuth on iOS but the new iOS Twitter auth system. Does that mean they’ll have to change from xAuth to OAuth now, then to the iOS auth before submitting iOS 5 binaries in 3 months or so? Does it mean cross-platform client makers will have seamless auth in iOS but have ugly OAuth on Android?

And which other clients might call it quits while we’re waiting to find out?

[WhereCloud]

Twitter loses Reportage for iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Every day, TiPb gets flooded with announcements for new and updated iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games. So every day we pick just a few of the most interesting, the most notable, and simply the most awesome to share with you!

• Snowboard Hero: The ultimate snowboard experience with wicked tricks, insane air time, and super fast downhill speed. Now with 2 new characters, 2 new tracks, and 24 new events! [$4.99 - iTunes link]

• Smurfs’ Village: Now you can customize your Smurfs with 13 new Smurfy hats from Tailor Smurf! [Free - iTunes link]

• Due: Update brings new tweeks and fixes such as the ability to edit overdo reminders. [$4.99 - iTunes link]

• Cat Physics: What are cats up to at dawn, when nobody’s around? Update brings 10 new levels, retina display support, and is now a universal app for iPhone and iPad! [$0.99 - iTunes link]

• Shazam Encore: Now with LyricPlay: see synced lyrics as the music plays! [$5.99 - iTunes link]

Any other big apps or game releases or updates today? If you pick any of these up, let us know what you think!

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

New and updated iPhone and iPad apps for Thursday, June 16 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Even with the introduction of Angry Birds Rio, the original Angry Birds continues to receive updates. Today’s update brings 15 new levels and allows unlimited use of the Mighty Eagle after a single purchase.

• Mine and Dine: a new cave themed episode begins with 15 new levels!
• Find all the collectible jewels!
• Use hanging stalactites to pop those pesky burrowing piggies!
• Any particular levels stonewalling your progress? We tweaked a couple of them to spare you a few gray hairs!
• Mighty Eagle still in business: Buy once, unlimited use!

If you pick this one up, let us know what you think!

[$0.99 for iPhone - iTunes link] [$4.99 for iPad - iTunes link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Angry Birds updated with 15 new levels is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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