Archive for August, 2008
Incipio Bond Street Leather Case for iPhone 3G
The Bond Street Leather belt clip case by Incipio is the classic case. The premium leather case gives users quick and easy access to the iPhone 3G with strategically placed openings and a magnetic flip closure. Textured material and modern lines give this favorite a fresh look.
iPhone-tuned edition of TUAW
Filed under: TUAW Business, iPhone
Got an iPhone or iPod Touch but having trouble with the full-size version of TUAW? Try i.tuaw.com, our mobile Safari-tuned experience. Smaller, faster, lighter and unlike our m.tuaw.com pages (which work great on BlackBerry), you can add comments to posts. We realize it took a while, but we think you’ll enjoy the experience of not watching Safari crash or lag horribly. Fun fact: nearly all of our mobile traffic comes from iPhones — who knew?
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iPhone-free feed of TUAW
Filed under: TUAW Business, iPhone
So let’s say you can’t stand the iPhone. “I can’t stand the iPhone!” we hear you shout, repeatedly. Fair enough, Apple’s “third platform” can certainly take over the news at times, and the plucky little touchscreen-that-could definitely generates strong opinions.
As a gift to those of you tired of everything iPhone, we cooked up an iPhone-free RSS feed for you. Never again will your eyes burn with the news of yet another dice-rolling app, or wacky accessory. One caveat: older iPhone posts might still show up (we’re going back in time to fix those as we can), and once in a blue moon an iPhone post might accidentally appear. We apologize in advance for the quasi-cognitive dissonance.
UPDATE: For those of you who want an iPhone-only page, or any other category-specific page, please check out the long list of categories on the right. All those links under “Mac News” on down are category pages. Enjoy!
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Preview: GTS World Racing for iPhone and iPod Touch
Astraware’s GTS World Racing for the iPhone and iPod Touch should go live in the App Store over the next 24 hours or so, according to one of my industry contacts. As the name suggests, GTS World Racing is a driving game in which you race a coupe, sports car, or Formula One car around a variety of international tracks using the built-in accelerometer to control the car. I’ve been playing with a pre-release version of the game for a couple of hours, and it’s a slick application with lots of potential. Though I love the genre, I’m not a driving game fanatic, and so it’s difficult for me to compare it to some of the other big names in racing. I found the cars pretty easy to control from the start, as using the accelerometer (just as in Monkey Ball Island) is intuitive…
Last call for submissions
Think you have what it takes to be selected as one of the top emerging photographers of the year? If so, you have only one day left to submit your work for consideration in American Photo’s 2008 Emerging Photographers project. All you need is ten outstanding images, Aperture 2, and the free Portfolio Review export plug-in that you’ll find — along with complete details — on American Photo’s website.
Comments are off for this postSeen the latest TV ads?
We think you’ll really enjoy Off the Air, Pizza Box, Throne, and Calming Teas, the four latest TV ads now playing on the Get a Mac site. While you’re visiting, you may also want to watch the long version of Sad Song. It’s a classic. Maybe your friends would like to see them, too.
Comments are off for this postNoise.io: first iPhone sound synthesiser launching 25th August
Amidio has announced that its iPhone sound synthesiser will be available to download from the App Store from 25th August. Claiming it to be the first official sound synthesiser for the phone, it uses ESFM (Enhanced Subspace Frequency Modulation) synthesis that is capable of producing all kinds of noises and sound effects…
Shock: MobileMe “not up to Apple’s standards”
According to the head man himself, Mr Steve Jobs, MobileMe should not have been released when it was, and was “not up to Apple’s standards”. Not that the public has officially been told that, just Apple’s staff. MobileMe needed more testing to iron out the flaws, and it should have been rolled out slowly — as in adding new features over time. “It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store,” he says. “We all had more than enough to do, and MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence.”…
Apple releases bug-fixing iPhone firmware version 2.0.1
In the past day, Apple has rolled out a presumably minor iPhone firmware upgrade via iTunes. I say minor because the version has moved from 2.0.0 to 2.0.1, which generally isn’t considered a major release. The official word from Apple is that this contains “bug fixes” — and that’s about it…
Japanese Gov’t: iPod nano batteries caused fires
Filed under: iPod Family
A brief report from Reuters this morning said Japan’s trade ministry claimed three fires had been caused by defectively hot iPod nano batteries.
Nobody was injured in the fires.
The government said in a statement that Apple had two other reported cases where people were burned by their iPod nanos. The defective nanos, they said, were sold between September 2005 and September 2006.
Japan’s quasi-governmental product safety commission will investigate the incidents with Apple’s cooperation, the trade ministry said.
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Sysadmin 101: Securing Leopard
Filed under: Security, Mac 101
Security researchers at Corsaire have published a PDF whitepaper discussing best practices for securing Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard in a networked environment. The whitepaper is free.
“While the default installation provides a relatively secure system, it may not always meet organizational security requirements. This guide is aimed at users in environments requiring stronger security controls in their operating system, making full use of the protection features offered by Mac OS X 10.5,” the whitepaper says in its introduction.
“It may also be of use to System Administrators wishing to enforce an organization-wide desktop security policy.”
The guide also discusses key security differences between Leopard and Tiger, and builds upon previous guides for those operating systems.
A direct link to the PDF is available here.
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Griffin PowerBlock for iPhone 3G, iPhone, iPod touch
Power and charge almost any iPod (or iPhone) from almost any wall outlet.
iPhone tethering app: surprised it made it into the App Store for even an hour
Tethering your laptop and mobile phone together so that you can use the Internet over a 3G connection when you’re too cheap to buy a dedicated data card is nothing new, but for iPhone 3G users it’s a near impossibility. Unless you want to jailbreak your iPhone and use a hacker-friendly application, there’s been no way to pair the iPhone and laptop, until late last week an application called Netshare made it into the App Store — yes, Apple’s official iPhone App Store. Then it disappeared. And reappeared. And… disappeared again. It’s currently unavailable. No-one has made an official statement as to why the application has been practising its teleportation skills. Perhaps it spends most of its life as an application for jailbroken iPhones, and ten percent of it as an official app?…
iPhone Nano rumours kick off Internet storm, but c’mon it’s the Daily Mail
There’s a storm brewing about sourceless rumours (aren’t they always?) from the Daily Mail, claiming that Apple will launch an iPhone Nano in time for this year’s Christmas rush. Speculation over an iPhone Nano is nothing new, but the real problem some have is that it came from the Daily Mail and not an established technology site…
Television Broadcasts Limited: Highlights from Beijing
While athletes set new world records in the pool and on the track, the 200-person team of editors, reporters, camera operators, and engineers that Television Broadcasts Limited sent to cover the Summer Games has been setting performance records of their own. Aided by their Macs and Final Cut Studio, they’re capturing, editing, and transmitting terabytes of data to audiences eager for Olympics coverage.
Comments are off for this postQuick Tip of the Week: Easy Photo Edits
You may depend on Preview to read and annotate PDFs. But did you know that you can use Preview to crop, rotate, and resize photos? Using tools available in Preview, you can also adjust exposure, saturation, and sharpness. Or make Auto Levels adjustments. Preview even lets you remove backgrounds. To find out how to make easy photo edits in Preview, watch the latest Quick Tip of the Week.
Comments are off for this postBack to School: StoryMill is $20 off today
Filed under: Software
TUAW’s going Back to School! We’ll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings in September. Read on for a deal for high school & college English students.
More from the bargain bin, for those aspiring authors of fiction (or simply those who have chosen to take a course in the subject): Mariner Software’s StoryMill is $20US off today (8/18) only, taking it from the usual price of $49.95 down to $29.95. Owners of the older Avenir app can upgrade for $14.95.
StoryMill offers features designed to ease the creative process of novel-writing past the “stare at a blank piece of paper until drops of blood appear on your forehead” stage; character and scene tracking tools, a 30,000-foot overview mode, and ‘distraction free’ writing view (like WriteRoom) are all in the kit bag. You can download a demo version from Mariner’s site.
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Glowing Apple logo mod for your iPhone?
iPhones.ru posted a video (with dialogue in Russian, I think) showing a first-generation iPhone that’s been modified to light up the Apple logo on the back of the device when it’s turned on.
Sadly, it doesn’t show how exactly the modification was made, though I conjecture it uses light from the main display somehow, perhaps with optical fiber. Maybe the presenter is discussing it, but I don’t speak Russian, so it’s hard to say.
It looks pretty cool. I’m old enough to remember when people were doing this to their PowerBooks, so who knows? This might just be a built-in feature of some future iPhone.
[Via Saiko Land and Engadget]
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Mobi Products Cradle for iPhone 3G
Charge your iPhone 3G with this attractive USB cradle.
Are you a fan of iPhone-optimised web sites?
eBay is the latest web site to announce an optimised web site for the iPhone. In fact, it’s created two mobile versions — one for “the rest” and one for the iPhone. That’s great in theory, but what I don’t like is being forced to use the mobile version of the site when I want to use the full version. Granted, I may be taking my life in my hands using the “grown up” version of a web site, but given that I can’t run Flash or Java on my iPhone anyway, I’m not likely to come to a grinding halt…
Apple tops customer satisfaction survey
“The latest rankings from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) show that Apple has dramatically outpaced its rival computer makers in the hearts of U.S. consumers,†reports Asher Hawkins (forbes.com). The ACSI survey “ranks Apple at 85†out of 100, “11 points above the computer-maker industry average.†In fact, “Apple’s rating is also an all-time high for the computer industry.â€
Comments are off for this postiPhone coming to Turkey later in the year
Turkey is already on the list of iPhone “coming soon” countries, so a deal between Apple and an operator must have already been in the pipeline. Leading mobile telco Turkcell has announced that it will bring the iPhone to Turkey later this year. No specific dates or prices have been given for the launch, but that’s not particularly surprising as consumers in other countries were also left in the dark until very close to launch date…
Palringo for iPhone gets voice instant messaging functionality
iPhone-friendly instant messaging application Palringo has just gained “Push to Talk” functionality which effectively allows users to send voice instant messages. The advantages of Palringo are fairly clear. Unlike phone operators that may offer these kinds of services, but with tie-ins or only on specific handsets, iPhone users can use the same service that countless others use on a huge variety of handsets and with any operator…
Ben Horton: Photos from the Edge
Pro photographer Ben Horton may depend on his unique vision to capture compelling images, but he relies on his Macs and Aperture 2 to process, perfect and present his photos to the world. “The whole app feels right,†he says. “It’s easy to maneuver and all the editing tools are in one place. I don’t like to spend a lot of time figuring out how to use a program, and with Aperture, I don’t have to.â€
Comments are off for this postApp Store Pick of the Week: 2 Across
Do you crossword? Then you’re gonna love 2 Across. Eliza Block’s stellar crossword puzzle game for iPhone and iPod touch lets you download puzzles from a variety of sources — including the Times, Washington Post, and The Onion — and solve them on the go. 2 Across gets rave reviews from puzzle fans, and Block has even made a new Lite Edition available for the thriftiest puzzlers.
Comments are off for this postCelebrating the 85th Anniversary of the Warner Brothers Studio
How better to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the legendary Warner Brothers Studio than by watching some of the great films they’ve produced over the years? And that’s just what we’re doing at iTunes, making it easy for you to find such box-office hits as Matrix Reloaded, Goodfellas, Risky Business, Blade Runner, and eighty-one other classic Warner Brothers films, many newly restored for the occasion.
Comments are off for this post2% of iPhone 3G users could be experiencing network problems
It’s hard to trust Apple rumours, but one iPhone 3G user claims to have received a one-line email from Steve Jobs suggesting that two per cent of iPhone 3G users are experiencing some kind of hardware problem preventing them from getting a reliable network connection. Today’s software update, taking the iPhone firmware from 2.0.1 to 2.0.2, has supposedly improved network connectivity and speed for some users, while others claim no improvement. One in fifty users with problems: some may say that’s a relatively small number, but one in fifty is fairly sizeable in my opinion…
Back to School: collecting and organizing information
Filed under: Software, Education, Reviews
TUAW’s going Back to School! We’ll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings in September. Read on for high school & college-level help.
I covered a few good research tools for students in my last post. Before I dive into some of the excellent writing tools and packages available, we’re going to take a look at some methods and applications for putting thoughts, notes and references together in a format that makes the actual writing part much easier.
Whether you’re taking notes as you research, collecting documents or actually mapping out the first draft, these tools can be vital for organizing research, overcoming writer’s block and making sure that things flow smoothly once writing begins.
Continue reading Back to School: collecting and organizing information
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Reminder: Talkcast tonight, 10 pm ET
Filed under: TUAW Business, Podcasts
Last week’s talkcast featured the hosting debut of Robert Palmer along with contributions from me, Dave Caolo and Mike Rose (and some Skype drop-off moments) over the course of the hour. Download the show directly or from Talkshoe, or pick it up on iTunes.
Join us again tonight for host Mike Schramm and panelists Robert P. and yours truly as we cover the week’s top stories — and we might even find time for some trivia and giveaways! We’ll also be talking back-to-school with our picks for hardware and software for students.
You can join the conversation on TalkShoe by using the shiny browser-only client; you can also use the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client that we all know and love. For the web UI, just click the “TalkShoe Web” button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. You can also listen in on the Talkshoe page or call in on regular phone or VOIP lines: dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077.
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Mac-based startup brings new ideas to customer service
“When you’re starting a small company,†explains Lane Becker, “every minute and every dollar counts.†That’s why he and co-founders Thor and Amy Muller chose an all-Apple infrastructure for Get Satisfaction, the startup they launched to bring peer-to-peer customer assistance to corporate customer service.
Comments are off for this postWhen your finger just won’t cut it, the iPhone Touch Stylus
Filed under: Accessories, iPod Family, iPhone
Although the iPhone and iPod touch were designed with your finger in mind, for those who have trouble controlling the screen (or who have long, styled fingernails), there is the iPhone Japanese Touch Stylus.
The stylus has a flexible tip that mimics your finger’s capacitive ability to control the objects on the screen. The tip is flexible, allowing for easy dragging without gouging your screen. It also includes a handy SIM eject tool.
The stylus is imported from Japan, and is available in silver or black. Both colors are $14.99 from ThinkGeek.
[Via iPhoneIndia]
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Ambrosia releases WireTap Anywhere audio capture tool
Filed under: Audio, Software, Podcasting

In the Mac audio software market, Ambrosia’s WireTap Studio made a splash last year when it launched, offering lossless capture and audio editing with a fresh interface (and competing with incumbent heavyweight Audio Hijack Pro from Rogue Amoeba). Although it aimed at being an end-to-end solution for basic podcasting and audio production needs, the limitations of the built-in editor meant that high-end and pro users still needed to export from WTS to complete a project elsewhere. Since most pros end up in another editing environment anyway, why not have the underlying capture engine from WTS available to any recording application, and turn your Mac into a virtual patch bay?
That’s the concept behind Ambrosia’s new pro-level (and pro-priced at $129US) capture tool, WireTap Anywhere. Rather than the two-channel recording options of WTS, with the WireTap Anywhere preference pane you can route and mix multiple audio sources and deliver them to the recording application of your choice. Want Skype, iTunes and QuickTime sources all to end up in Peak or GarageBand? WTA has your back. You can check out several demo movies at Ambrosia’s site or download the 13MB demo.
I’ve experimented with several combinations of recording software and application audio capture tools (Soundflower, Übercaster, Call Recorder, Audacity and AHP among them) and I’ve yet to find the perfect setup that allows me to combine live audio chat from Skype with music or sound effects played in QuickTime or iTunes, all audible to the remote call participants while being recorded cleanly and latency-free on my end; Übercaster comes awfully close, but the current 1.5.5 version still has issues with Skype dropouts. I’m looking forward to giving WTA a test run to see if it can meet the challenge.
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iPhone Video Review: GTS World Racing
Last week I previewed GTS World Racing for the iPhone, and now here’s a video demo of the game in all its glory. You might not believe it, but I’ve been playing the game for over a week. Look out for a few nifty manoeuvres, surrounded by a lot of dirt eating.
Wii Transfer updated for Mii capture

Making cartoon avatars of yourself is hard work, and nobody wants to redo all that tweaking when you’ve got a perfectly good doppelganger sitting right there on your Wii console… with no good way to get it off the TV and onto your Mac. What a drag! Good thing there’s the new version 2.6 of Wii Transfer, the Swiss Army Knife of Mac-Wii connection tools, to the rescue.
Aside from the headline feature of copying your Miis to your Mac as JPEG images (which requires a bit of fancy dancing with Bluetooth and the Wii controller, but it’s doable), the new version adds support for most popular movie formats, improved movie playback with random timeline access, selection of specific iTunes playlists for streaming access, and more. For $19, you can get a long way towards turning your Wii into a low-budget Apple TV.
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Back to School: Canvastic v3.5
Filed under: Multimedia, Software, Education, Odds and ends, Graphic Design
TUAW’s going Back to School! We’ll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings in September. Read on cool software for K-8 classrooms.
Canvastic LLC has announced a new version of the Canvastic graphics, writing, and publishing tool. Canvastic is designed to be used in K-8 classrooms, and is fun and productive for students.
Canvastic 3.5 is designed for use on both PPC and Intel Macs (which is great, as many American schools still use older Macs). The student publishing tool includes drawing, text and presentation tools, plus an Audio Tool for voice recording, insertion of sounds and integration with iTunes. Audio tracks can be played in documents or presentations.
Other new features include:
- Transparency and color tones in graphics and text
- Teachers can enable or disable spell checking, and also keep students from “customizing” the dictionary
- New brush shapes
- The ability to import digital photographs
- Additional templates, backgrounds, and art
As before, Canvastic presents a customized user interface depending on the grade level of the student. Canvastic 3.5 is a free upgrade for all registered users, and those with free site licenses can upgrade for 50% of the posted educational prices. Pricing ranges from US$39 for one user to US$949 for an unlimited school building license. Schools can do an unlimited pilot of Canvastic for up to 60 days, and many school districts qualify for a free site license for half of their schools.
Click here to download the free trial.
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Dear Auntie TUAW: Did I overstep my data limits?
Filed under: iPhone

Cara Tia TUAW,
I need your help please. I am in Mexico and have an iPhone with a 150 MB data plan and 300 minutes. My carrier says that I have passed my data limit and owe them around $150 usd. According to the Cellular Network Data on my iPhone, I have used 35MB and 83 minutes (Settings > General > Usage). My question is, is this information technically good enough to fight back these charges? I think it must be, but I have to be sure. Can you help me, please?
Love, Joe P
p.s. Why I don’t have an unlimited data plan? because it costs around $110 usd a month, that’s why. My current data plan costs about $55 a month. Thank you!
Dear Joe P,
Auntie wishes she had better news for you, but the usage meter on the phone is notoriously unreliable. If you’ve restored or updated your iPhone in the last month (2.0.1 anyone?), you may have accidentally reset those values. Personally, we at TUAW can sneeze through 150 MB just by loading our own home page (or maybe it just seems that way).
Of course, feel free to contact customer service — but relying on the onboard usage stats isn’t going to take you very far.
Sorry for the bad news, caro.
Love,
Auntie TUAW
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Simplify Media for iPhone
Filed under: iPhone, App Store
The Simplify Media iPhone application (iTunes link) v1.1 has hit the App Store. As you can see from the video above, with Simplify Media installed on your Mac and on your iPhone or iPod touch, you can stream your home iTunes library to your mobile device wherever you may be. It will supposedly work over EDGE, 3G, or WiFi and promises what might be the holy grail for mobile audio devices — practically unlimited storage.
To get started you’ll need to download the Simplify Media Mac client as well as register for a free account. Then install the iPhone client on your mobile device and your home Mac should show up as a streaming source. In addition to your home machine, you can connect to up to 30 friends also running the cross-platform software.
Simplify Media for Mac is a free download. Only the first 100,000 copies of the iPhone version are free to download, after that it will be $3.99.
[via Gizmodo]
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AppleInsider: Mac OS X 10.5.5 hits 9F13
AppleInsider reports that the Mac OS X team is squashing ever more bugs, and has released version 10.5.5 build 9F13 to developers. Unlike prior builds, Apple released it without any known issues.
The article notes that Apple has made 115 corrections to Mac OS X code as a part of the 10.5.5 update. Improvements to power management, mail sync, preferences sync, networking, firewall, kernel, file system, and the Mobile Me preferences pane are all expected to be included.
AppleInsider expected that the update would be released to the public in “the coming weeks.”
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Speck Products SeeThru for iPhone 3G
Coming Attractions: Hamlet 2
On August 27, you can meet actor Steve Coogan as he visits the Apple Retail Store, SoHo to discuss his new movie, Hamlet 2. The hilarious (and irreverent) comedy, which was the comedy smash of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, arrives in theaters next Friday, August 22. In addition to Coogan, the movie stars Catherine Keener, Amy Poehler, David Arquette, and Elisabeth Shue. And be sure to watch the Hamlet 2 trailer.
Comments are off for this postHSBC could boost iPhone’s business credentials, but what of employees in Taiwan?
BlackBerry trying to become more “consumer” and iPhone trying to become more “corporate” — it’s an interesting battle that I didn’t expect to see when the iPhone was launched last year, and one that could be set to intensify if HSBC follows through on the rumours. Yes, the world’s fourth largest bank could be about to kit out two-thirds of its worldwide workforce with iPhones, ditching the BlackBerrys they currently use. That’s around 200,000 of the handsets, and would be a major result for Apple, and a blow to RIM. Is it likely to happen? CIO of HSBC Australia/NZ, Brenton Hush, said that “it’s definitely something we are considering from a HSBC Group perspective. We always explore the potential application of new technologies and this is no different.” I’m not convinced, though, and here’s why…
Get sociable with iPhonic.tv: new on Facebook
Regular readers will have noticed that we’ve been bereft of comments for quite some time now, and though we’re working at bringing them back as soon as we can, I’m feeling deprived of getting feedback from you all. Of course, I could just leave you my email address so you can praise or rant at me, but that might get a bit much. So, instead, via the wonder that is Facebook (yeah, I know, yawn), iPhonic.tv now has a group…
Carriers blaming Apple for iPhone 3G slowness
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone
As we’ve noted before, the iPhone 3G isn’t as speedy as we’d like and sometimes has connections problems. Some folks have been blaming the carriers, like AT&T here in the States, but evidence is mounting that the problem may lie with the iPhone itself. GigaOm quotes an analyst at Nomura Securities who put the blame on “…an immature chipset and radio protocol stack” from maker Infineon.
Meanwhile, CNET is reporting that T-Mobile in the Netherlands has a blog post (original Dutch) suggesting that the problem is “...a hardware / software specific issue of the iPhone itself,” while a Vodafone spokeswoman in Australia told the Sydney Morning Herald that the problems were specific to the iPhone and not their network. Apparently, the problem was compounded by Apple’s famous secrecy, with the iPhone 3G only released to some carriers for testing a day before it was released.
It’s not that surprising that a new product would have growing pains. At the same time, it’s hardly the case that the networks are as fast and extensive as we would hope. Hopefully, future firmware updates will improve the situation (if it’s primarily a software issue). Otherwise, Apple may have to change the radio chip supplier for future iPhones to bring performance in line with other 3G smartphones.
[via Gizmodo]
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CSS trick mimics sideways-flicking behavior in MobileSafari
Filed under: iPod Family, Tips and tricks, Developer, iPhone
Ajaxian has posted a ridiculously simple way to enable web apps to mimic the iPhone’s side-to-side flicking behavior using custom CSS supported by MobileSafari. If you’re creating a web app specifically for iPhone and iPod touch users, you can get a similar feel to a native application with MobileSafari.
MobileSafari includes some CSS 3 support, including advanced DOM selectors and support for animations and transitions. Chances are, other browsers will have limited support for CSS 3 draft standards, and whatever you write probably will only work in MobileSafari and Safari 3 on the desktop.
The test application in this movie shows how it tracks finger movements across the screen, and performs actions based on the distance “swiped.” Very nifty.
[Via Cameron.io.]
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Swedes point to defective iPhone hardware causing 3G dropouts
As I’ve already reported, a number of users are having significant problems with maintaining a 3G connection on their iPhone. Now, Sweden’s premier engineering publication “Ny Teknik” has got hold of a test report from “experts” which suggests that the iPhone could be among a handful of mobile handsets that fall short of the International Telecommunication Union’s standards…
Maperture brings geotagging to Aperture
Filed under: Freeware

Maperture is a nifty little plugin for Aperture that lets you geotag photos in your library. We’ve covered quite a few different geotagging apps for the Mac, but this is the first one that works so well with Aperture as a plugin.
Basically, Maperture integrates an interface to Google Maps which allows you to easily place your pictures on a map, saving the location information as metadata in the photos. Since it’s a front end for Google Maps, you get its built-in features like the satellite and hybrid views, etc. In addition, Maperture will automatically place images already containing location information on the map for you. Now the only problem is remembering exactly where you were when you took the picture!
Maperture is a free download from Übermind and requires Aperture 2.
[via Macworld]
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KavaMovies keeps tabs on your flicks habit
Filed under: Software, Internet Tools, Leopard, Beta Beat

KavaMovies is an interesting database application aimed squarely at all the movie fanatics out there. It allows you to catalog all the movies you have seen, own, hope to see or want to buy. It connects to online sources like the IMDB and Amazon to download cover art and other information.
Once you’ve entered your selections, KavaMovies offers recommendations based on your collection. Finally, it also keeps track of video files already on your Mac and facilitates downloading from iTunes or via bittorrent.
KavaMovies is $35US and requires Mac OS X Leopard. It’s presently in beta and a demo is available for download.
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