SISAREA

Well, it’s about time. Touted back in March as one of the pillar apps to benefit from the new multitasking API, Skype has finally been updated to iOS 4 compatibility. We’re seeing crisper, more retina display-friendly graphics and, more importantly, background VoIP (not for iPhone 3G, naturally). A notification window will pop up when you’re called or messaged, and you can use other apps while on the line chatting to international friends at reduced rates. Even on the lock screen, if you receive a call, sliding to unlock will take you immediately into the call. Video chat still isn’t here — a darn shame given the lack of other options now — but now you’ve got even more of a reason to rack up those rollover minutes on AT&T’s voice plan. Download away!

Update: Remember when Skype was talking about charging extra for calls over 3G starting this month? Straight from the horse’s mouth: “we no longer have plans to charge a supplement to make calls over 3G.”

[Thanks, Tyler C]

Skype updated for iOS 4, background VoIP is a go (update: no plans to charge for 3G use) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple hasn’t been shy about dropping support for older hardware and software in recent years, and it looks like the iPhone and iPod touch are no exception: according to a short note on the iPhone developer site encouraging devs to get ready for iOS 4, the App Store will no longer affect apps that target iOS 2. That doesn’t really mean much right now — apart from a few iPod touch owners who didn’t pay the $10 iOS 3 upgrade fee, we doubt there are many people out there still running iOS 2 — but we can see Apple dropping support for iOS 3 apps next year when iOS 5 and a new iPhone are announced, and that’ll effectively be the end of the original iPhone and touch, which can’t be upgraded to iOS 4. That’s a four-year shelf life, which isn’t too bad considering the insane pace of mobile development, but we can still shed a tear — especially since we paid $599 for the damn thing on contract way back when.

iPhone OS 2 apps no longer welcome on the App Store originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 12:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/iMovie_for_iPhone_hacked_for_jailbroken_3GS_runs_perfectly’; Not feeling hot about the trouble-prone iPhone 4, but still tempted by its optional iMovie app? Now you have a choice! Turns out to run said app on other devices (including iPod touch, supposedly) running iOS 3.0 and above, all you need are a jailbroken iOS device, iMovie for iPhone from the App Store, and two quick edits in the app’s info.plist file — change minimum system version to “3.0.0″ and front-facing-camera to “false.” Sounds easy enough, although we’ve yet to see the hacked app actually running on devices other than the 3GS demoed in the video after the break. And sorry, Redmond Pie’s already confirmed that this sucker doesn’t work on the iPad… yet.

Continue reading iMovie for iPhone gets a cheeky hack for jailbroken 3GS, runs well-oiled

iMovie for iPhone gets a cheeky hack for jailbroken 3GS, runs well-oiled originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 12:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/iMovie_for_iPhone_hacked_for_jailbroken_3GS_runs_perfectly’; Not feeling hot about the trouble-prone iPhone 4, but still tempted by its optional iMovie app? Now you have a choice! Turns out to run said app on other devices (including iPod touch, supposedly) running iOS 3.0 and above, all you need are a jailbroken iOS device, iMovie for iPhone from the App Store, and two quick edits in the app’s info.plist file — change minimum system version to “3.0.0″ and front-facing-camera to “false.” Sounds easy enough, although we’ve yet to see the hacked app actually running on devices other than the 3GS demoed in the video after the break. And sorry, Redmond Pie’s already confirmed that this sucker doesn’t work on the iPad… yet.

Continue reading iMovie for iPhone gets a cheeky hack for jailbroken 3GS, runs well-oiled

iMovie for iPhone gets a cheeky hack for jailbroken 3GS, runs well-oiled originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 12:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Although we’ve been running iPhone OS 4 — now known as iOS 4 — since it was first announced in April, we actually haven’t been able to try out any of the fancy new multitasking features, since no third party apps have been released with support yet. That’s all about to change: as of today, Apple is accepting iOS 4 apps, which means we should see quite a few apps that take advantage of multitasking on the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, as well as make use of the 1500 other new APIs in the system when it launches on June 21.

That’s definitely good news, but we’ve got a feeling Apple’s unique take on iPhone multitasking will take a few people by surprise, as only certain tasks are allowed in the background — and apps that need to run persistently, like IRC and IM clients, still won’t really work at all. In fact, there’s already some rumblings by devs that they need additional backgrounding tools in order to provide features that users are asking for; Instapaper’s Marco Ament has proposed a network polling API that would allow his app to update content in the background, for example. We’ll see how quickly Apple responds to these requests, but for right now we’re just happy we’ll finally be able to switch away from a Skype call or GPS app while using our iPhones.

[Thanks, Oliver]

Apple now accepting iOS 4 apps, multitasking ahoy originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Jun 2010 15:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Want to get your hands on an iOS 4-equipped device now without being a registered Apple developer? As a number of readers have pointed out, it seems yesterday’s gold build release works on any applicable iPhone / iPod touch whether or not its UDID has been sent to the dev center. Now that the previous restraint has been lifted, the only requirement now is a copy of iTunes 9.2 — currently for Macs only and still blocked by the developer gate, but once you manage to obtain the appropriate files, the only thing in your path is time itself. Sure enough, we just got through installing the build on an unregistered iPhone without a hitch. Details available via Gumball Tech, and please, don’t forget to back up your data ahead of time.

In less rule-abiding news, the not-quite-surgical hand of the jailbreak community has taken a gander at the gold. A developer known as msft.guy, whose previous credentials includes recently-released binary “which enabled blacksn0w unlock port for iPhone 3GS on iOS 4 Beta 4″ according to Redmond Pie, has updated PwnageTool for yesterday’s update. As always, proceed with that one at your own risk, and if you’re curious but hesitant, the ever-reliable iPhone Dev Team promise a full jailbreak / unlock suite later this month. Either way, video proof is available after the break.

Update: Just to clarify, iOS 4 now works with any iPhone / iPod touch that’s already been proven compatible — the trick here is that you now don’t need to register with Apple before trying.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading iOS 4 gold works with any compatible iPhone / iPod touch via iTunes 9.2, jailbreak also updated

iOS 4 gold works with any compatible iPhone / iPod touch via iTunes 9.2, jailbreak also updated originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’ve got to wait a couple weeks to get this if you’re the run-of-the-mill iPhone type — but if you’ve ponied up the Benjamin for an iPhone Developer Program membership (who’s probably suffered through a handful of iPhone OS 4 beta builds over the last few months), you’re now able to download the Gold Master seed of iOS 4 directly from Apple’s site. Let us know if you manage to sprout a front-facing cam on your 3GS to test FaceTime or anything cool like that, alright?

Update: We just updated to iOS 4 GM and haven’t noticed anything particularly new or crazy yet. The install requires a beta of iTunes 9.2 to be installed as well, which adds in support for app folders and backups, but otherwise life is proceeding just like it did when we had beta 3 installed. We’ll let you know if we spot anything as we go.

Continue reading iOS 4 gold build now available to iPhone Developer Program members

iOS 4 gold build now available to iPhone Developer Program members originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We knew it had to happen eventually — iPhone OS has been renamed to iOS with the bump to version 4. Some 1500 new features are coming along with the name change, including biggies like multitasking, a unified inbox, app folders, and data detectors. Although Apple is encouraging devs to tweak their apps for the iPhone 4’s new Retina Display, iOS4 will also automatically redraw text and controls for existing apps to make them play nice with the new higher pixel density. Bing search integration has also been added to iOS 4 in addition to Google and Yahoo — Google is still the default, though. The golden master is available to devs today, and Steve says the 100 millionth iOS device — that’s iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad — will be sold sometime this month. That’s a lot of devices! We found out about most of the features of iOS 4 at the SDK event, so check here for the full rundown.

Apple says iOS 4 will arrive for the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and the iPod touch on June 21 — and it’ll be free to iPod touch owners for the first time, which is nice. Not all features will be supported across all devices: the first-gen touch is left out entirely, and the 3G won’t do multitasking, as we heard at the SDK event. We’ll see if there are any other limitations and let you know.

Amusingly, an iOS trademark is currently owned by Cisco — just like the original iPhone trademark — so we’ll see if Apple’s lawyers actually called ahead this time around or if they’ll have to fake-tussle and make nice again.

Check out more from WWDC 2010 in our liveblog!

iPhone OS 4 renamed iOS 4, launching June 21 with 1500 new features originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It all starts today at the times below!

07:00AM – Hawaii
10:00AM – Pacific
11:00AM – Mountain
12:00PM – Central
01:00PM – Eastern
06:00PM – London
07:00PM – Paris
09:00PM – Moscow
02:00AM – Tokyo (June 8th)

Continue reading Steve Jobs live from WWDC 2010

Steve Jobs live from WWDC 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Jun 2010 12:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/gadgets/iPhone_vs_Android_report_finds_Apple_has_three_times_Googl’; It’s oftentimes easy for us to get swept up in Android mania and forget that Google’s mobile platform is still in its infancy. Then we get cold hard numbers like these — showing iPhone OS owning 28 percent of the US smartphone market and closing in on RIM’s leading 35 percent — and we face up to the realization that Android handsets still account for less than one in every ten smartphones owned by Americans today. In spite of collecting 28 percent of all consumer smartphone purchases in the first quarter of 2010 (according to NPD), Google’s OS was only able to climb up a couple of percentage points in terms of total market share, showing just how long a road lies ahead of its world-conquering plans. Guess that now explains why Apple’s response to the earlier numbers was so nonchalant.

Other intriguing figures include a high rate of loyalty among iPhone OS and Android users, with 80 percent of the former and 70 percent of the latter expressing a preference for the same OS in their next phone — both rather shaming Microsoft and RIM’s numbers, which were a mediocre 34 and 47 percent, respectively. Funnily enough, despite its inflammatory title, this report finds Android and iPhone users are more similar to each other than anyone else — an uncomfortable fact for both parties to deal with, we’re sure. The source link contains some more demographic comparisons, so why not go check them out and drop some sage analysis for us in the comments?

‘iPhone vs Android’ report finds Apple has three times Google’s market share originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Jun 2010 15:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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