Category Archives: iOS 5

08.10.12
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Download This iPhone Tethering App Before It Gets Pulled from the App Store

Found this online. Enjoy!!

If you want an iPhone tethering app, go download DiscoRecorder, a $2 ‘voice recorder’ app that 9to5Mac says comes with a hidden tethering feature. Yep, that means you can get your computer onto the Internet with your iPhone’s data connection. Sweet.

The video above explains how to set up the tethered connection but basically you’re making a computer-to-computer network, connecting your iPhone, digging up an IP address and sharing a connection over a web proxy. To enable the tethering, it takes some careful tweaking, like renaming a recorded message “PearSauce269.aac” but hey it gets you online and makes you feel like a spy. Worth it! Act fast cause the app is probably going to get pulled soon.

 

Video demo

Source: Gizmodo

04.23.12
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Apple’s additional security steps

As we’ve been hearing, Apple is rolling out some “additional security” for App Store customers. When you go to purchase an app, as I just did (it was the free Pocket app, incidentally), you may be prompted to answer three security questions and provide a second email address in case your primary account is compromised. Unfortunately, this 20th century form-based method of enhanced security is just poorly done. Apple, an innovator in so many ways, can do better.

I knew it was coming but I wasn’t quite prepared for the stupidity of the questions. “What was your first car?” is a good example. This weekend I was getting an app for my 8 year-old son and had to answer this. I guess I should have said “Hot Wheels”? “Who was your first teacher?” is a question I simply couldn’t remember for me or for my son (are we talking preschool or what?). “Where was your first kiss?” — really? You mean we might have to be able to accurately type in “In the back seat of a smelly 1990′s muscle car”? Possibly on an iOS device? You’re kidding us, right Apple?

Again, while I appreciate the effort, this seems like a stopgap measure and it has been confusing quite a few customers — we have received a few confused emails asking if it was some attempt at phishing. Sigh. Apple has our emails, our account info, access to iOS in ways no other developer can access… Surely this could have been done better.

Instead, we pick three fake answers and had to write them down so we’ll remember them. Great security, not. Plus, now we have to remember whether we capitalized our answers, and we have to deal with natural typos, and of course our recovery email is already being used for our alternative Apple ID. Did I mention that all humans must now have two email addresses? Yep, that’s a thing now. Tell your kids.
I inadvertently used my @me address when I answered these questions for my son, who, at the time, only had one email account. Where do I change this? You’ll have to go to your Apple ID account page here. It baffles me that Apple would manage security this way, however. The business lately hasn’t been so much “Think Different” but “target people who are not tech-savvy at all.” Guess what? People who don’t like technology tend to have ONE email address. Probably one they set up over a decade ago! Now you’re asking them to hunt around for another service, or magically suss out that they can create one using iCloud potentially weeks or months after purchasing their iOS device.


We’ve got another layer of fail slathered over iTunes now, and the chances of our accounts being compromised haven’t necessarily been lessened. Instead, our chances of recovering our accounts after they’re compromised just got worse.

Here’s some free ideas for you, Apple. How about three or four images (like the stock images for accounts on a Mac), asking someone their favorite? Or, by using the technology of touchscreens, have someone draw a simple geometric shape like a parallelogram. There’s a microphone and camera on most iOS devices, perhaps something utilizing these technological marvels?

Are Apple’s additional security steps frustrating to you, or are you enjoying the feeling of enhanced security?

Source: TUAW

03.21.12
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Use you iOS Devices as Flashdrives! ($1 limited of time)

Found this online. Enjoy!

This app does cost $1

Download AirDisk Pro for iPhone and iPad [iTunes link]With phones now sporting up to 64GB of storage, such a feature is more useful than you may think. Need to get a large video file to a friend’s house and don’t want to wait hours for it to upload over the internet? Need to get business files to work quickly and easily but don’t have a USB drive to hand? That’s where you smartphone could prove invaluable.
While the iPhone doesn’t offer such functionality out of the box, there are apps that try to fill the void left by Apple’s reluctance to give users access to their iPhone’s storage, and one such app is AirDisk Pro.Retailing for less than a dollar in Apple’s App Store, AirDisk Pro allows users to keep files on their iPhones and then pull them off using just a web browser. Granted the iPhone needs to be on the same Wi-Fi network as the computer, but that’s better than nothing, and you could always turn your iPhone into its own Wi-Fi router with Personal Hotspot!

The app itself works by turning your iPhone into a file server which can be accessed via a computer and a web browser. Point the browser at your iPhone’s IP address and Robert’s your Father’s brother. You can upload and download files on a whim, and all for less than a buck.

AirDisk Pro also supports unzipping files, as well as viewing documents and playing multimedia in-app. Support for text editing is also there, along with the option to password protect the whole shebang should you be the cautious type.

AirDisk Pro fills a void left by Apple and, should you have a need for it, is a real bargain at the price. If you’ve ever found yourself wishing you had a thumb drive in your pocket for transferring files then this may well be the app for you.


Source: Redmondpie
02.26.12
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Readability: Coming to an iOS device near you on March 1

Found this online. Enjoy!

Do you like reading articles on the web, but hate all of the cruft that ends up making posts hard to read? Relax. Readability is going to be available for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch for free on March 1, 2012.

Readability is somewhat akin to Reader in Safari on the Mac, only much better. Both provide the capability to read web pages sans ads in an very text-centric format, but the similarity ends there. Readability adds extra functionality, including the ability to change text size to accommodate aging or tired eyes, swap fonts, tweet links to posts to your followers, and easily browse a pre-saved reading list.

Users of the popular Tweetbot apps for iPhone and iPad know just how handy Readability can be. The Twitter client includes a way to switch linked web pages to a Readability format for easy reading — I’ve found that it’s my preferred way to view websites on an iPhone.

For a tantalizing glimpse of Readability for iPad, be sure to watch the video below.

Video

Source: TUAW

02.17.12
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Get OS X Mountain Lion Style AirPlay Mirroring On OS X Lion With AirParrot

Found this online. Enjoy!

Like AirPlay? Now you can use the technology to mirror your entire Mac display onto a television’s screen using an Apple TV!

We are huge fans of Apple’s implementation of AirPlay with the Apple TV. For those not familiar with the technology, AirPlay allows anyone with an iOS device and an Apple TV to send video, audio or both over the Wi-Fi network and onto a big screen via the little black box of awesome.

This feature is absolutely fantastic for sending music from something like Spotify straight over the network to your home entertainment system, for example. Watching videos from on an iPad and then flicking a switch to throw the video onto a flat panel display will never grow old also.

A recent innovation, AirPlay Mirroring allows whatever is on-screen to be sent from an iPhone or iPad and onto an Apple TV too, meaning menus and the home screen can be viewed in the big screen. This is perfect should you wish to show a slideshow in an app that doesn’t natively support AirPlay, for example. And just recently, Apple released the first ever developer preview of OS X Mountain Lion, which on the hand, allows you to mirror your screen using your Apple TV on your big screen TV. Lion users were left in the dust regarding this feature.

Now, a new app allows you do do the same thing, but on OS X Lion, and it’s called AirParrot.

Costing $9.99 and available for Lion or Snow Leopard versions of OS X, the app is still in its infancy. That said, the core functionality is there – users can send their whole Mac screen over the network and onto a television via an Apple TV – though there are some early bugs still to be ironed out. If you can cope with such bugs for now, the app will fill a hole should your require.

The app itself has a couple of important options. The first allows the selection different levels of compression which comes in handy on a slow Wi-Fi network, and the second allows the alteration of the amount of under scan transmitted. If you’ve ever had a video who’s sides have been chopped off on an Apple TV, then this is for you.

Obviously super high resolution iMacs and MacBook Pros may suffer from some issues with regards to final quality and lag, but for an initial attempt AirParrot has a lot of promise. If you can forgive the lack of polish right now, the ten dollar app could turn into a valuable tool further down the line.

For more details about AirParrot, you can simply head over to their website and know all about it, including the different prices they are offering for it along with download options.

(via TheVerge)

02.16.12
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A new contact app for iPhones. (Free)

Found this online. Enjoy!

With many of us running multiple e-mail and social networking accounts – as well as the bread and butter address book – keeping track of it all can often leave our heads spinning in confusion.

Smartr Contacts, an app developed by Xobni specifically for iPhone users, aims to keep every person you communicate within one, easily navigated archive. Like most apps nowadays, it does the work you cannot be bothered to do – trawling through the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, automatically adding a customizable profile for those you’ve spoken to in the past.

 

Obviously, you wouldn’t necessarily want or need every single person you’ve connected with in the last several years, thus Smartr has a handy ‘hide’ feature allowing you to remove them from your list without hassle. Indeed, if you frequently correspond with companies regarding warranty or complaints, for example, you’ll undoubtedly discover many irrelevant e-mail accounts you’ve accumulated, most of which you’ll likely want to sweep out of sight.

You’ll surely be surprised (as I was) to see just how many contacts end up on the list. Having merely added a Twitter account and an e-mail address, there were over 2000 sourced in total – way too many for me to even begin tidying up with uniform formatting and pretty little profile pictures.

 

Nevertheless, it’s great if you urgently need to get into contact with somebody you’ve spoken to in the past. All you need to do is open the app, search for the name, and the contact details will be ready and waiting.

It’s free, which is a rarity in an era where many useless apps are simply put out there for minimum price to generate some easy revenue. It’s advertised as iPhone-only, but works on the iPod touch as well as the iPad – although you’ll either need to squint, persevere with the pixelated visuals in x2 mode, or download RetinaPad from the BigBoss repository – that is, of course, if you’re jailbroken.

 

Download it, give it a whirl, and let us know what you think of it via the usual mediums below.

Download Smartr Contacts for iPhone [iTunes Link]

 
02.16.12
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OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 (coming soon)

Found this online. Enjoy!

Just 7 months after releasing OS X 10.7 Lion, Apple has formally announced OS X  10.8 Mountain Lion. It’s a big step ahead in the “iOS-ification” of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system and we’ve got all the details you need after the jump!

 

When you open up Apple.com/MacOSX today, you’ll find a very interesting line that reads: Inspired by iPad. Re-imagined for Mac. This essentially summarizes what users can expect from the OS: tighter iCloud integration, Messages, Reminders, Notes, Notifications Center, Twitter integration and more for a total for ten major new features!

From Apple:

You’re about to use your Mac in all-new ways with OS X Mountain Lion. Because it’s designed with innovations from iPad and it works even better with iCloud. And that makes everything you do on the Mac smarter, easier, and even more fun.

Let’s get right into it:

iCloud

 

After successful launch of iCloud for use in backing up iOS devices, the cloud-powered backup and syncing service is coming in a big way to the Mac! Once you sign in with your Apple ID, iCloud starts working immediately: syncing your photos, emails, calendar, contacts and documents. Whenever you edit an item on one OS X/iOS device, the change appears on the others.

Messages

 

iChat is being replaced with Messages. It has the same features as its predecessor, plus integration with iMessages on iOS so you can send messages, photos, videos, contacts, documents and more for free to iOS devices running iOS 5 and up. Your messages are always in sync, so you can start a conversation on your iPad and continue it on a Mac.

Reminders And Notes

 

 

Two of iOS’ most used apps are coming to OS X. Reminders is a to-do list app and Notes is a, well, a notes-taking app. Both sync with iCloud so your items show up on other connected devices.

Notifications Center

I am a big fan of the notification systems on Android (and its shameless rip-off on iOS 5) and have been waiting for a long, long time for them to appear on the desktop because they make staying up to speed so, so much easier! Notifications Center works just like it does on iOS and it can be brought up with a simple swipe to the left.

Share and Twitter Sheets

Most of OS X Mountain’s built-in apps will come with the ability to directly share items to varioussocial networks. You can send links to Twitter from Safari, share links via Mail, upload photos to Flickr and more!

After the success of iOS 5’s deep integration with Twitter, the feature is coming over to OS X! In Mountain Lion, you will be able to tweet links, photos, videos from Safari, iPhoto etc. from the Tweet sheet. You can also tweet from anywhere within the OS and receive notifications for mentions and DMs.

And the last three relatively less major features include:

  • Gatekeeper: a security app (Apple is careful not to call it an anti-virus) which maximizes your Mac’s security by giving you controls over which apps are installed only from Mac App Store or recognized developers (or both!)
  • AirPlay Mirroring: Just like the iPad, you can mirror everything on your Mac to an HDTV connected to an Apple TV.
  • Game Center: Sign in with an Apple ID and start playing against friends on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Find new games, enjoy multiplayer gaming and more!

Apple will be releasing OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion sometime this summer at an expected price of $29.99 via the Mac App Store. Folks with a developer account can download a Preview Release from the link embedded below.

Download OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. (must have a developer account to use)

 

Source:http://www.redmondpie.com/download-os-x-mountain-lion-10.8-developer-preview/

02.16.12
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iMessages on Mac! Beta

Found this online. Enjoy!

One of the built-in features of OS X Lion, and previous versions is the chat application known asiChat which has always been billed as a fully featured instant messaging application which combines text, video and voice chat into one app. iChat has always been a very versatile application offering powerful features supported by the fact that it works with a number of services such as Yahoo and the largest instant messaging community in the United States, AIM.

As we all know, however, every piece of software has its shelf life and it seems as though that time has come for the popular iChat application. Apple have today released a beta version of the new ‘Messages’ application which will ship with the revamped Mac OS X Mountain Lion in the Summer. Messages is available to download today and totally replaces any existing installation of iChat on a user’s Mac, giving a taste of what is to come with the release of Mountain Lion. Worry not, if you are a regular user of the iChat service it will still continue to work in the new Messages app, but along with additional built-in features.

The release of iOS 5 saw Apple’s iMessage service come to life, with the ability to send free of charge messages to other iOS 5 users across a number of supported iOS devices by either using their mobile number or a registered Apple ID or email address. The new Mac Messages Beta application adds additional scope to the iMessage service by now allowing users to send messages directly to a recipient using a Mac via either a telephone number or an email address. The Messages app will bring the following features:

  • Unlimited messages to any Mac, iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.
  • Start a conversation on your Mac and continue on any other device as it syncs between them all.
  • The ability to send photos, videos and voice attachments between devices.
  • Invoke a Facetime call from within the Messages application.
  • Continue to use additional services such as AIM, Yahoo and Google as they are all built in to Messages.

The messages application for Mac was obviously the next step in the iMessage revolution, just as we seen with the FaceTime for Mac application which shows Apple are committed to having maximum, cross device compatibility where possible and is further evidence of Mac OS X and iOS fusing together to form a unified OS.

The Messages app is currently in beta and can be downloaded from the official Apple website free of charge.

Source:http://www.redmondpie.com/download-imessage-app-messages-beta-for-os-x/