Posts tagged with "iPhone"

Instagram 1.1 Released: Now With Hashtags

Popular photo-sharing / mobile social network Instagram has released an update to their iPhone app, which reaches version 1.1 and adds a couple of interesting new features. First off, #hashtags: called “Topics” by the Instagram developers, you can now tag your photos just like you can tag a status update on Twitter, and perform a search for that specific hashtag. Thus, topics can create alternative photo albums that have their own RSS feeds you can subscribe to and to which anyone can contribute by using the same hashtag in other photos. If you’re a Twitter user, you know the drill. As in typical Instagram fashion, it’s all very easy and user-friendly.

Instagram now has a proper comment management system, too. You can manage your own comments on other people’s photos and delete inappropriate ones on yours as well. And if you really don’t like a user, you can now flag him and block him. I guess spammers found their way onto Instagram, and now we can do some cleaning. Personally, this one’s a welcome feature.

Last, the usual bug fixes, more languages and overall improvements. No new filters this time – maybe they will come with version 1.2. Instagram 1.1 is available now in the App Store.

This Copter Is Controlled By An iPhone [Video]

Is there anything the iPhone can’t do these days? People come up with the greatest and, at the same time, weirdest accessories to extend the capabilities of Apple’s shiny smartphone. From the black diamond that brings apps to life or the iPhone-based steering wheel to the 8x optical zoom and heart monitor, you might think “we have seen enough”. Luckily for us, no.

Meet the iPhone-controlled copter by AppToyz. It’s a copter (RC car coming soon) that’s entirely controlled by an iPhone running a special app and plugged into a receiver dongle that fits into the headphone jack and can let the copter communicate with the device. You can fly the copter away, play real sound FX – you can’t shoot.

These toys will be available in April starting at $80. Epic demo video after the break. Read more

AT&T Q4 Earnings: 4.1 Million iPhone Activations and 442,000 iPads & Tablets

US-based carrier AT&T has announced its quarterly results for Q4 2010, and there are some interesting numbers in there worth to be considered. The company reported 4.1 million iPhone activations in Q4, the last quarter as the exclusive iPhone carrier in the United States. On February 10, Verizon Wireless will begin selling a CDMA version of the iPhone 4, with pre-order sales starting February 3rd.

Mentioning “continued expansion in new wireless growth areas”, AT&T also announced they added 1.5 million “connected devices” including 442,000 iPads and Android tablets. AT&T started selling the iPad WiFi + 3G model in its retail stores on October 28th, 2010.

AT&T also reported 9.9% growth in wireless revenues and consolidated revenues of $31.4 billion in the fourth quarter. Full press releases embedded below. Read more

Verizon iPhone Pre-Orders To Start on Feb. 3, AT&T Trade-Ins

According to MacRumors, Verizon Wireless has started sending out emails to corporate customers informing them that “pre-order sales” of the new device will start on February 3rd at 3AM ET, one week before the general public release of the Verizon iPhone:

According to the email we’ve received, Verizon will begin pre-order sales at 3am Eastern on February 3rd.

- Make sure you have your My Verizon self-serve account set-up online. Orders can only be placed through your my Verizon account. You can register/setup your account at… myaccount.verizonwireless.com

- On February 3rd at 3am EST, Verizon Wireless will allow our current customers to order upgrades or new lines to their accounts through your My Verizon online account (make sure you have registered before the 3rd).

MacRumors also reports inventory will be limited and customers who won’t be able to get the iPhone on Feb. 3 will have to wait until the week later. Trade-ins in credit should also be available for existing AT&T customers who want to replace an old iPhone model:

  • iPhone 2G - 16GB: $60
  • iPhone 3G - 16GB: $105
  • iPhone 3Gs 32GB: $160
  • iPhone 4- 16GB: $280
  • iPhone 4 - 32GB: $360

It’s unclear whether corporate accounts will have access to this trade-in program or not.

Where To? for iPhone Gets 3D Augmented Reality

Where To? by Future Tap is one of the most popular apps ever released for the iPhone. In fact, I remember buying the app years ago on my original iPhone, and I still have it. Where To?, like many other alternatives that eventually came out in the App Store, gives you detailed information of nearby points of interest using the iPhone’s built-in GPS technology and Google Maps. It features a popular and unique “click-wheel” interface that Apple even used in patents to describe functionalities of iOS apps and, overall, it’s powered by a great design that’s really a pleasure to look at.

A few minutes ago, Where To? got a major update that introduces a neat 3D Augmented Reality feature I’m just playing around with as we speak. The Future Tap developers added this new option as a $0.99 in-app purchase that’s a no-brainer for as much as it’s well realized and perfectly consistent with the rest of the app. As the app fetches your location and provides you a list of POIs, you can switch to the usual map view and you’ll notice a new “eye” icon in the bottom toolbar that activates Augmented Reality. Unlike other AR software, Where To’s 3D implementation stands out because of the use of OpenGL that brings smooth animations to the reality layer captured by the iPhone’s camera. When pointing the iPhone, the app will create a virtual grid that displays POIs as boxes, all based on the distance between the user and the target. The developers explain:

Our solution: First, results are displayed in a real 3D world and their size and stacking order depends on the distance. Then, you can zoom in and out using the gestures already known from the map: Double-tap to zoom in, two-finger-tap to zoom out, pinch for fine grained zooming. Zooming of course affects the camera picture as well.

Where To? 3.5 also uses the gyroscope for much smoother AR animations and location info. In my initial tests, I’ve found the system to work exactly as the developers described it in the introductory blog post; you can zoom it and pan out with two fingers, tap on a POI’s box to get to the usual portrait view. The UI is gorgeous.

Where To? 3.5 is available here at $2.99. To see the app in action, check out the promo video below. Read more

Glasses-Free 3D Springboard Tweak Coming Soon to Cydia [Video]

The jailbreak community is always working on the “next thing” that will make your friends go “wow” when they see your modded iPhone. Developer Apocalypse is working on a new tweak called 3DBoard that will add a subtle 3D effect to the icons on your Springboard when you tilt your device. There is a demo video embedded below, but I’m not sure how much the effect can be spotted in the video.

Anyway, it will be available soon in Cydia at $4. [Gizmodo via Youtube] Read more

OnCue Brings Great Queue Features To iPod App

OnCue is one of those iPhone apps you don’t know you need until you start playing with it. The concept is simple: Apple’s default iPod app allows you to import playlists from iTunes and customize the way you listen to music by combining different songs and artists in a single list, it lets you shuffle your music, but it’s doesn’t come with any queue functionality.

While you’re listening to music on your iPhone or iPod touch and you’re on the go, it’d be nice to be able to select the songs you want to listen to without having to pull out the device from your pockets every time. Use a playlist, you might suggest. But what if I don’t want to create a playlist for each day? I just want to say “hey, today I want to listen to these songs in this specific order”.  You can’t create a new playlist every day, yet you know what songs you want. You need a queue function. OnCue does just that, and it works with both songs and podcasts. Read more