Thursday 9 February 2012

Apple Releases Two New iPhone 4S Ads: "Road Trip" and "Rock God"

Apple posted two new iPhone 4S television ads to its YouTube account this evening, "Road Trip" and "Rock God". Both ads showcase the various ways to use the iPhone 4S's Siri functionality to find directions, locate a restaurant, or send text messages. 



There have been several other iPhone 4S ads previously. In December, Apple released an iPhone 4S ad featuring Santa Claus using his iPhone 4S to check the weather and his "schedule" as he delivered toys around the world. In October, just after the iPhone 4S went on sale, Apple aired an ad called "Assistant" which also featured Siri extensively.

Tuesday 24 January 2012

UpNext Releases Impressive 3D Mapping App for iPad



Mapping company UpNext has released a new iPad app with its 3D mapping technology. The app shows uses points of interest and friends Foursquare check-ins to help users navigate on a 3D representation of close to 50 cities. TechCrunch, writing about the app, says: 
I am seriously impressed. The resolution is great and the onscreen update speed is amazing. It offers the best of services like Google Maps alongside real city imagery, allowing you to use the map to orient yourself in 3D space. A blinking dot on a 2D street-scape works, but a 3D dot in a 3D city works even better.

The app boasts what UpNext calls "enhanced 3D" for 22 cities, with rich building and road detail: 
Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Honolulu, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Paul, Washington DC
UpNext HD Maps for iPad is available free on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Tuesday 27 December 2011

6 iPhone Keyboard Tricks You Should Know


One of the gambles Apple took with with the iPhone was doing away with a physical keyboard and instead featuring a full QWERTY soft keyboard. 
Some still find it to be a deal breaker but long time iPhone users will vouch for the way their iDevice has helped them enhance their productivity. 
If you've just started using an iDevice then you may have still not exploited the complete functionality that the iPhone keyboard offers.
Here are a few useful iPhone keyboard tricks:
Add An International Keyboard
If you need to communicate with your colleagues and family in different languages, the iPhone offers a one-tap solution to toggle between the different keyboards. To get started, navigate from the Home Screen to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> International Keyboardsto add a new language to your active keyboards list. Once done, you simply have to tap on the globe icon beside the space bar on the keyboard to switch to another language.
iPhone keyboard tricks
Add Special Symbol
Can't find the € symbol on your iPhone keyboard? To insert this symbol, you simply have to tap and hold the $ key. You will be shown a list of alternate currency symbols, including  €, to pick from. You can use the same trick to insert many other symbols like an inverted exclamation, longer hyphens,etc by tapping and holding the corresponding keys.
iPhone keyboard tricks
iPhone keyboard tricks
Quick Way To Start A New Sentence
This is a very popular trick although a few of us may still not be aware of. The iPhone keyboard lets you add a period and start a new sentence by simply double-tapping the space bar. This trick is particularly useful while you type long paragraphs of text. In case this feature is not enabled by default on your iPhone, go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> "." Shortcut and turn the feature on.
iPhone keyboard tricks
Quickly Insert Punctuation
This is another trick that is commonly missed. Many users tend to tap on the "123" key to view the list of numbers and symbols to pick. Once done, they tap on the "ABC" key to revert back to the alphabet keyboard. You can avoid this by instead tapping and holding the "123" key. This will show the symbols keyboard from where you may pick the punctuation mark you need. Once you select the symbol that you want to add and release your finger, the iPhone will automatically revert back to the alphabet keyboard.
Quickly Change Domain Name Extension
The Mobile Safari browser comes with a handy .com key for users to easily suffix the domain nameextension to the URL in the address bar. You can also use this key to add other extensions like .ORG or .NET. To do this, tap and hold the .COM key to view the alternate extensions to pick from. Interestingly, this list will also include specific country-code extensions if you have the corresponding languages added to your International keyboard list.
iPhone keyboard tricks
Delete Text Using Gestures
The iPhone offers a pretty interesting way to delete text. Instead of holding the delete key to remove the typed text, you may simply shake the iPhone (once to your left and back). This will prompt you with an option to 'Undo Typing'. Tapping this button will automatically delete your recently typed text.
iPhone keyboard tricks

How To Unlock iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS Without Jailbreaking [Updated]


It looks like a bug in iOS 5 allows you to unlock iPhone 4S without the need to jailbreak it or using hardware methods such as GEVEY SIM.
The bug was discovered by Michael Capozzi. He managed to unlock his iPhone 4S to use it on T-Mobile USA's network but according to him the method should also work with any GSM carrier.
He has been kind enough to also give the following step-by-step guide to unlock iPhone 4S using the bug in iOS 5 to work on T-Mobile USA:
Note: You will need to cut the T-Mobile SIM to micro-SIM size for it to fit iPhone 4S's SIM tray.
  1. Insert original carrier AT&T SIM card
  2. Dial 611 for AT&T customer service hotline and drop the call
  3. Turn on Airplane Mode
  4. Take out AT&T SIM card
  5. Insert T-Mobile SIM card
  6. Make sure WiFi is off ( also tap on ‘Forget this Network” to make sure it doesn’t connect automatically later)
  7. Switch off Airplane Mode and iPhone will search for network. This is followed by the Apple splash screen appearing.
  8. Activation Required will be displayed on the screen
  9. EDGE network will activate automatically – notice the ‘E’ on the top left corner of the screen
  10. Wait for about 20-30 seconds and turn off the phone
  11. Turn on iPhone and the same Activation Required screen will be displayed
  12. When you see one signal bar, tap on Use Cellular Connection
  13. Eject SIM card
  14. Activation Required screen will be displayed the second time
  15. Insert SIM card
  16. Unlocked!

Monday 26 December 2011

Vocal Offers Mac Voice Control via iPhone 4S

When the original iPhone was released, it had no third-party apps, no voice control, no games, and no to-do list -- among many other things. But it was still revolutionary, completely different than what came before, and over time many of its shortcomings were addressed by hardware and software updates. 

The same is true of Siri now. It has very little in the way of third-party integration, and there are many things that it cannot do -- but there is much promise. One piece of evidence to this future potential is Vocal, a new app that allows voice control of a Mac from a Siri-equipped iPhone 4S. 

Vocal works by pairing a free application that installs on the Mac with a $1.99 app that is downloaded from the App Store. It allows the user to send commands and dictate text straight to the Mac, using the voice recognition feature on the iPhone 4S. 

Lex Friedman at Macworld used his copy of Vocal to "control iTunes; send emails and tweets; look up definitions; select, copy, and paste text; search Amazon and Google; print; and create new documents." He reports that some commands are more successful than others, but on the whole: 
Vocal is definitely cool. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a cheaper way to get your Mac to take dictation. Its support for other actions is a mixed bag; some work well, some don’t. If nothing else, Vocal proves that Siri—natively—on the Mac could be nothing short of remarkable.

The app updates its library of commands over the air, making updates and new feature additions easy for Vocal's creator, Matthew Roberts. He explained the thinking behind the software to The Next Web: 
Vocal came essentially from playing with Siri on my new 4S as a sort of “novelty” as I just acquired the device, and since I use my Mac so much I wanted to see if I could write a Siri-like app for it. After looking around the only main competitor was the software from Nuance, but it was over 1GB to download and cost upwards of $50. Considering the 4S can already dictate text, I thought I could make a super simple app “for the masses”, I guess you could say.
Vocal is available for the iPhone 4S on the App Store for $1.99 [Direct Link] and the free companion app for the Mac is available directly from Vocal's website.

Siri Plays a Grand Piano With Some Help From AirPlay and Yamaha

Yamaha used some technological trickery to enable Siri to play a concerto on a Yamaha Disklavier Grand Piano. 

By converting a MIDI songfile into an audio file that the iPhone can play and connecting the audio output of an Airport Express to the analog input of a MIDI-enabled Disklavier piano, the iPhone can "play" the MIDI file via AirPlay and control the multi-thousand dollar piano. 

As explained to The Loop's Jim Dalrymple: 
Then, you simply ask Siri to play your favorite song from your iTunes library, and Siri responds immediately, by making the Disklavier’s keys and pedal move up and down, recreating the performance, including full orchestration.

Friday 23 December 2011

Apple's Revamped Plans for 'Spaceship' Campus Revealed


Apple submitted updated plans to the Cupertino City Council last month regarding its planned, spaceship-esque campus, and those plans have now been made public.
Spotted by the iPhoneinCanada blog Tuesday, the updated plans published by the City of Cupertino include a site plan and landscaping detailsfloor plans, and artist renderings of the future home to as many as 13,000 Apple employees.
The massive new campus will be built in Cupertino on land Apple purchased from Hewlett-Packard in 2010.
The late Steve Jobs made one of his last public appearances in June when he appeared before the Cupertino City Councilto outline plans for what was dubbed Apple's "spaceship" campus. Apple had outgrown its headquarters at 1 Infinite Loop, Jobs said at the time.
Apple's current campus holds between 2,600 and 2,800 people, but has been forced in recent years to rent buildings throughout Cupertino for an additional 12,000 employees. The main building at Apple's future digs will be "an integrated 21st century campus" that occupies 2.8 million square feet over four stories, according to Apple's proposal. The company will retain 1 Infinite Loop after the second campus is built.
Though the new campus will accommodate about five times the number of employees as Apple's current campus, the project will actually create far more green space than is currently on the land the company purchased from HP, as seen in the before and after illustration shown below:
Apple Campus Before and After
Apple's updated plans for the campus also include a satellite view of the project's contours, as well as several artist renderings of the main "spaceship" building, below:
Apple Campus Satellite View
Apple Campus 1
Apple Campus 2
Apple Campus 3
Apple Campus 4
Apple Campus 5
Gizmodo and iPhoneinCanada have pulled several more blueprints and renderings from Apple's plans that show a giant underground auditorium, company spa, and more.