Bluetooth AD2P has opened up a market of fantastic audio products that allow us to stream high quality stereo audio from our smartphones to speakers, headsets, and to car electronics. SuperTooth is just one of many companies who focus specifically on handsfree, bluetooth accessories for travel that work seamlessly with iPhones (and other smartphones of course). Straying from the tradition of car kits and speakers, SuperTooth has launched into the fray of home and portable audio with the SuperTooth Disco, a 28 Watt RMS Bluetooth AD2P speaker that can blast tunes without the need for an electrical outlet. Our full review past the break!
Posts tagged with "iPhone"
MacStories Product Review: SuperTooth Disco
Echofon Releases Photofon: See Photos From Your Twitter Timeline
Released a few minutes ago in the App Store, Photofon is a new app by Echofon, makers of a popular Twitter client for Mac and iOS devices, that strips away all content from your Twitter timeline to display photos shared by people you follow. More often than not, especially if you follow hundreds of users, there’s a chance photos are skipped when checking out news on Twitter because either a) you don’t care about what people are eating or b) you’re just following that guy for the news he posts, and you don’t want to see his cat. For as much as we like cats (and puppies in general) here at MacStories, I agree that sometimes people I follow share photos I really don’t care about or don’t add anything to the experience of being on Twitter to discover interesting new content, and not kittens. But other times, these people share some beautiful iPhone photography that I don’t want to miss, yet I do because I don’t have a proper client that’s solely focused on media, rather than tweets.
Photofon is a Twitter client built around photos. Whether they’re shared on Instagram, img.ly, the omnipresent Twitpic, Flickr or yfrog (I haven’t been able to test other services), these photos will show up against a minimal dark background that doesn’t distract, and makes colors truly shine on the iPhone 4’s Retina Display. The original tweet is displayed alongside buttons to fave and retweet, so you won’t forget about sharing or saving that photo you really loved. Pinch and zoom gestures allow you to see a photo in greater detail, and pull-to-refresh at the top does just what you expect. I’ve noticed the app loaded around 30 photos from my timeline, and I’d definitely like to see a button to load more, because if I’m going to fire up a client only to see photos, I want to see them all.
Photofon is free and available here. It’s not universal, but it’s a neat way to check out Twitter’s photography on your iPhone without getting lost amidst news and trends.
The i9 - A Hybrid iPhone / Leica Concept
Black Design Associates, LLC, an Los Angeles-based consultancy, revealed a concept for a hybrid iPhone / Leica called the i9. It’s a 12.1 megapixel, 8x zoom, fully featured iPhone 4 accessory. Before you break out your credit card, remember this is only a concept.
The i9 has a camera/iPhone toggle that turns on your camera with an instant start-up time of 0.3sec., while simultaneously loading the Leica app on your iPhone 4. A zoom/volume control adjusts tight and wide when your camera is on, and adjusts volume up and down when your camera is off. Dedicated aperture and shutter dials offer fast and easy options for manual operation. Pass-through and actuators give you full access to your iPhone 4 controls and headphone jack. The flash and light meter offers higher quality photos and videos in low-light conditions.
Google Wallet May Work with Future NFC iPhones
Earlier today Google officially unveiled Google Wallet, the company’s first foray into the near-field communication payment market, based on an app capable of running on the Nexus 4G device and backed by names like Citi, First Data, Sprint and MasterCard. Through the usage of an NFC chip for mobile phones and the Google Wallet app for Android, users will be able to pay with real money from a credit card or “Google Prepaid Card” just by tapping on screen and saving a new transaction. The system is currently being field-tested by Google and will launch publicly this summer in the United States, furthermore it will also support Google’s new Offers platform for special deals and discounts as well as MasterCard’s already deployed PayPass terminals.
Google Wallet has been designed for an open commerce ecosystem. It will eventually hold many if not all of the cards you keep in your leather wallet today. And because Google Wallet is a mobile app, it will be able to do more than a regular wallet ever could, like storing thousands of payment cards and Google Offers but without the bulk. Eventually your loyalty cards, gift cards, receipts, boarding passes, tickets, even your keys will be seamlessly synced to your Google Wallet. And every offer and loyalty point will be redeemed automatically with a single tap via NFC.
As Google is stressing the open nature of its commerce ecosystem, MG Siegler at TechCrunch reports someone at the media event today asked Google’s VP of Commerce Tilenius if the Google Wallet app would eventually run on NFC-enabled iOS, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 devices, getting a surprisingly promising answer:
Today, during their Google Wallet/Offers unveiling at the NYC headquarters, Google touted the openness of their new system. Naturally, someone asked a question about what this meant for other, non-Android phone?
“In terms of iPhone, RIM, Microsoft — we will partner with everyone,” Google VP of Commerce Stephanie Tilenius said. Of course, that depends on two things: 1) the inclusion of NFC chips in their phones. 2) the willingness to work with Google on this system.
Of course, considering all the rumors surrounding Apple’s NFC implementation for future iPhones and iPads, it is very likely that Apple will rely on its own payment system based on iTunes accounts or external collaborations with credit card companies, rather than allowing Google to become the preferred system for NFC payments on the iPhone. So while Google is promising today that their app could run on a variety of devices and that they want to partner with everyone to extend the ecosystem, it remains to be seen whether or not Apple will let them release a Google Wallet app for iOS. TechCrunch also reports Google mentioned a “sticker” that could be attached to any device to enable NFC functionalities, and when tapped on another NFC terminal would allow for payments through Google’s cloud, and the Wallet app. Of course, the app would still need to be approved in the App Store or, perhaps, work as a webapp.
Apple was initially rumored to be implementing NFC in the iPhone 5 set for release this Fall, though more recent reports claim the feature will come in future iPhones, not necessarily the one supposed to ship later this year.
#MacStoriesDeals - Thursday
Here are today’s @MacStoriesDeals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get them before they end!
Get Android’s App Launcher on Your iPhone via Jailbreak
One thing I’ve always liked about the Android operating system, native Cloud Player and Music Beta apps aside, is the possibility to list all your apps and some favorite ones in the app launcher, a vertical window overlaying the “home screen” that can be opened at any time without having to move between pages. iOS allows you to organize apps in different screens and folders, the multitasking tray gives you access to recently used and paused apps, but I’d like to see a way to quickly get ahold of apps that I use a lot, are not on the first home screen, and aren’t suitable for a folder. Similarly, it’d be nice to have a way to see more apps in a single screen, avoiding being forced to constantly switch between pages. Those who decided to jailbreak their 4.3.3 iPhones might find a good solution in AndroidLoader, a $2.99 tweak from ModMyi’s repository that activates and Android-like app launcher window listing all the apps installed on your device. The launcher can display apps in alphabetical order, it can be scrolled vertically and all you have to do to open it is tap on a small icon placed in the middle of the standard iOS dock. The interface looks rather simple and the tweak is said to be very lightweight with minimal memory footprint.
Check out the demo video after the break. AndroidLoader is available now in the Cydia Store at $2.99. [via iSpazio]
Read more
Behind The Scenes of Verizon iPhone: Special PIN Security Protocol, “ACME” Code Name
In a lengthy report published earlier today, TechnoBuffalo shares some of the interesting details behind the launch of the Verizon iPhone 4, which went on sale in the United States in February. In the months leading to the launch of the CDMA device, speculation was running wild on the Internet as to whether Apple was really ending AT&T exclusivity to release an updated version of the iPhone to support Verizon Wireless’ CDMA infrastructure; citing a source “close to the action”, TechnoBuffalo says only top executives at Verizon knew about the device, which internally used to be mentioned as “ACME device” to avoid other employees would hear the “iPhone” name and leak information outside of the company. Public testing of the CDMA iPhone 4 began at Apple Stores (and obviously, Apple’s own campus, where Steve Jobs said they had installed Verizon and AT&T towers) six months ahead of the official launch, meaning in summer 2010 shortly after the release of the AT&T iPhone.
Though key employees and executives were in the loop, everyone else at the carrier knew little more than the rest of the public. And it would seem the higher ups wanted to keep it that way. No one talked about the Apple smartphone externally, and even internally, it was still a hush-hush operation. In fact, says the source, the word “iPhone” was never uttered; only its codename was referenced: It was called the “ACME” device.
Between NDAs to sign, corporate secrets and internal discussions about field-testing and cooperation with Apple, the most interesting tidbit details how, rather than installing geo-location software (like Find my iPhone) on the prototypes to make sure they wouldn’t end up in the wrong hands (as the AT&T iPhone 4 did), Verizon testers were required to text a PIN code every 12 hours as a confirmation the device was being used internally for testing purposes only.
Our source describes a unique protocol requiring staffers to text a secret PIN code to a dedicated phone number every 12 hours. This served as ongoing confirmation that the handset was still in the proper hands. So no PIN code, no functionality.
Unlike the original iPhone 4, Apple managed to keep the Verizon iPhone closely under wraps until the official announcement, not even allowing Verizon to tease anything at CES 2011 in Las Vegas a few weeks before. The security measures taken by Apple to ensure devices were only used internally are particularly interesting, and a sign Apple must have reconsidered its testing process after the AT&T iPhone got leaked to Gizmodo.com in Spring 2010, months before the WWDC announcement.
#MacStoriesDeals - Wednesday
Here are today’s @MacStoriesDeals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get them before they end!
Prototypes Turns Mockups Into Tappable iPhone Demoes
If you’re an iPhone developer, you know how long it takes to turn a mockup realized in Photoshop, Illustrator or Fireworks into a working app that can be tested to see if your idea is actually working on a device’s screen. Whilst an app screen may look good in Photoshop with its fancy graphics and menus you first sketched on your notebook, there’s always the risk that, once running on a real device with an actual multitouch display, your idea will simply suck. Prototypes, a new Mac app released today at $39.99, is a new tool for developers aimed at making the process of converting a mockup into a tappable and shareable application super-simple. Prototypes won’t magically turn your .png’s into Cocoa code, instead it will allow you to display these images on an iPhone or iPod touch screen, and allow users to tap around and get the idea of how an app works.
From Prototypes’ desktop view, developers can import image files and start building a new project. Once all the images are in, Prototypes offers the possibility to create connections and links between objects and pages, add tappable areas and establish dependencies between app menus and sections. What Prototypes basically does is simple: it takes all your app mockups you’ve created in Photoshop, bundles them up in a package, and takes care of including animations, transitions, hotspots, and more to give users the feeling that they’re using a real application while, in fact, they’re just tapping on “smart images” connected by links. It’s genius. Of course you won’t end up using an app on your phone – you’ll simply be running a bookmark saved from the web that’s nothing but a living mockup meant for testing purposes.
Prototypes also offers developers a way to share these mockups with users, their boss, or friends: by hosting a mockup on the free ptyp.es service, devs will be able to easily allow everyone to “install the app” using Mobile Safari and a special PIN code for extra security. You can try one of Prototypes smart mockups by heading over this link with your iPhone, saving the page on your Home screen, and entering 12345678 as PIN.
I think Prototypes is an incredible idea and a great time-saving utility for iOS developers that have been looking for ways to test a mockup without actually writing code. You can get the app here at $39.99.