Cody Fink

1547 posts on MacStories since January 2010

Former MacStories contributor.

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iPhone 4 Camera and Video Quality Sampled in Prague, Czech Republic

This morning, sample iPhone 4 pictures and video arrive courtesy of the Czech Republic, which look absolutely fantastic for a smartphone. According to AppleInsider, the iPhone 4’s new camera is, “Orders of magnitude more sophisticated than anything previously attempted in a smartphone.”

The tipster who went hands on with Apple’s latest and greatest also noted the potential of the stainless steel band to become scuffed over time, and complimented the iPhone’s impressive battery life; during an hour of heavy use, the iPhone’s battery only dwindled by 10%.

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HD Radio May Come to Future iOS Devices

Apple hasn’t included any form of HD Radio radio in their ever expanded line of iPods and iPhones, but that could soon change. For those familiar with HD Radio, one of the main benefits is Music Tagging, which allows currently playing songs to be reviewed later and purchased through iTunes. Taking advantage of this capability, Apple may implement HD Radio to open a new market for iTunes Store purchases, according to a recent patent.

While iPod Nanos currently implement iTunes Tagging via FM Radio, HD Radio would provide listeners with higher quality broadcasts and access to exclusive HD stations if they exist in the local area.

[AppleInsider via TUAW]


OS X 10.6.4 Updates Anti-Malware

Apple has been known to push various security patches for OS X quite often, and 10.6.4 specifically prevents the installation of a dangerous trojan which can be used by hackers to capture data from the target machine. With an ever vigilant stance on security, Sophos noticed an update to a file called XProtect.plist which points to the new threat, codenamed “HellRTS” by Apple. Sophos officially names HellRTS the OSX/Pinhead-B Trojan, which was distributed through a disguised download of iPhoto.

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Reddit Gets Web App, Goes Open-Source

Reddit fans rejoice: on the 9th you guys got a wonderful new web app that plays well with mobile devices. Today, Reddit announced that they’re making their App Store application open-source.

From Reddit’s blog,

“We’re deprecating the advertising-supported free version in favour of making the next version that you help create free. However none of us are iPhone developers, so for this to happen we’re depending on the help of those that are. This is in the community’s hands now!”

Quite so. You can see Reddit’s original post here and TechCrunch’s coverage of the web app here.



iPhone 4 has 512 MB of RAM

If you were curious about just how much RAM is under the hood of the new iPhone 4, there’s 512 MB of the speedy stuff – twice as much as the iPhone 3GS and iPad.

The extra RAM can be taken advantage of by the iPhone 4’s new 720p video editing capabilities, and will make the iOS 4 experience as snappy as ever. Game developers must be cheering as well, which should further improve the quality of titles available from companies like Gameloft and EA on the App Store.

UPDATE: A small bit of proof from a WWDC session on Advanced Performance Optimization.

WWDC iPhone 4 Specs

WWDC iPhone 4 Specs

[via MacRumors]


CBS Preparing to Deliver HTML5 Content for iPad

Consuming media is incredibly important when staying mobile, whether it be news or entertainment. CBS is rumored to be testing iPad-friendly HTML5 content, removing the need for Flash videos on their network. Ultimately this will be great for consumers as it will broaden access to millions of iOS and Android devices.

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Remember Quark? They want to take on Adobe.

Quark isn’t a name I’ve heard recently, but 9 to 5 Mac reports that they’re ready to take on the war against Adobe. Specifically, Quark feels open-web standards will ultimately prevail over Adobe’s creative technologies in the publishing arena.

“You could reflect that one person’s challenge is another chap’s chance, so Quark has stepped out of the shadows to pitch in with its new vision of digital publishing, promising to deliver a new “publishing revolution” in which content publishers will be able to publish to multiple platforms all from one standards-based creative suite (which isn’t Adobe Creative Suite).”

Quark is careful to admit, however, that they’re willing to work with any formats publishers wish to implement. So while you could publish a great HTML5 magazine, they’re not tied to it, able to deliver Silverlight and Flash content as well. Calling their strategy, “Digital Publishing 2.0,” Quark wants to help publishers deliver automated content to any platform.

[via 9 to 5 Mac]


“Release the Fail Whale” Animates Twitter’s Fail Whale

Alright Twitter, I have a bone to pick with you. If your Twitter service is going to go down every two days, I don’t just want to see a Fail Whale: I want to see an animated Fail Whale! So leave it to a Safari Extension called Release the Fail Whale to make my silly dreams come true. Delivering the Fail Whale in high-def CSS3, never before has such fail warmed my Twitter heart.

Check out Release the Fail Whale on Rawksome’s excellent page and test bench.