Posts Tagged ‘iPhone’

So you started drinking early and put some regrettable images up on Facebook, or really spoke your mind on Twitter.  You could just bury your head in the sand and avoid all those people you said nasty things about, or you can make them appear as if it never occurred with “Last night never happened“.

This “morning after” iPhone app will automatically scrub your Facebook and Twitter account, removing pictures and posts for the time period you specify. It won’t completely save you from your drunken rantings, but it’s a good start.

[via Gizmodo]

[Re-posted with permission from Marissa's Dad]

We’ve got various iDevices in the house.  An iPad.  Iphones.  We’re Apple junkies, regardless of the effect it has sometimes on the wallet.  All told, the tech has been pretty good to me, I’m sure I’ve made more money supporting it out in town than it’s cost me overall.  My inner cheapness prevents me from buying the whammerdyne max-capacity iPhones, and making do with old tech long after the rest of the world has moved on.

Our video library is hosted on an older machine crammed full of relatively ancient hard drives, honestly, well in excess of what the laws of physics should allow.  I’m fairly sure I can cook a turkey with the waste heat coming off that

The landscape folder view.

machine.  As a result, the DVD rips we store on the iTunes running on that machine for the AppleTVs in the house far exceed the capacity of any given portable iDevice we may have.  The existing iTunes covers streaming to the AppleTV units, but not streaming to the portables.

I did some research, tried some free alternatives, then I found Stream to Me.  Stream to Me, by Matt Gallagher’s Projects With Love, is a combination application for your Mac or PC, and an iDevice (iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch).  The Serve To Me part of the application is free for download- it’s the iDevice app that’s very inexpensive.  Given my limited budget, Isplurged for it anyway when an iPad ostensibly to be used for Marissa and the Brother arrived in the house.

Landscape view of a movie playing.

It’s an amazing, seamless solution for streaming entire libraries over a LAN to an iDevice.  The server application runs quietly and with very little footprint on our streaming computer running OSX Leopard.  The Serve to Me part of the application has transcoded on the fly many different containers, I’ve used MP4 H.264, AVI, and MKV files, all in 720p resolution and streamed them to the iPhone/iPad application with minimal pre-processing delay and no hiccuping in the video waiting for the 802.11g stream to catch up.

Before you freak out on me, and say I’m pushing all this on you just because the developer gave me the app for free- he didn’t.  I purchased the app in the beginning of April after I thought it would be best for my problem.  It’s streamed the Brother’s baby signs DVDs as well as some Baby Einstein for Marissa.  It’s an awesome solution for a portable video player for us inside our network.

BoyGenius is reporting that there is code deep within iOS 4 that suggests the CDMA version of the iPhone and iPad is ready to be tested by carriers very soon.

This code allows certain units to bypass otherwise mandatory activation steps, allowing the use of the phone by partners and carriers for testing purposes without any hassles. The source cited in the article states that this sort of code always precedes the release of a new product and is promptly removed just before launch.

It should be noted that this is not a guarantee that this is the long-awaited Verizon iPhone, as Sprint’s network is also based on CDMA technology. Then again, who are we kidding?

Let’s just hope that this time around, Apple has a tighter grip on their testing units, so we don’t have a leak like the last time around…

[via BoyGeniusReport]

I am typically not one for conspiracy theories.

I don’t think 9/11 was an inside job. I think Bigfoot is probably a grizzly bear with a bad case of mange. In my mind, crop circles are the work of a few drunken Brits with a couple of 2x4s and a little too much time on their hands.

That said, when it comes to the iPhone 4′s antenna issues, I think Apple knew about it all along.

We’ve seen their anechoic testing facilities, which are quite a feat of engineering, not to mention a huge investment. We know how closely they guard their demo handsets, remotely killing them within hours of being lost. Would it be reasonable at all to assume that not a single Apple employee or test user held the phone in their left hand like any regular person might? I don’t think so.

Wild speculation about Apple’s testing procedures aside, the one item that causes me to believe Apple was well aware of the antenna’s shortcomings is this:

Continue reading “Why I Think Apple Knew About the Antenna Problem” »

In a huge victory for fair-use, the EFF and other assorted organizations won several exemptions from the U.S. Copyright Office covering acts that were previously considered violations of the DMCA.

The new ruling allows users to “jailbreak” any mobile device in order to install and manage software of their choosing.  This includes installation of any legally-obtained applications or the uninstallation of  bloatware and other software they do not want on the phone.

This could result in a significant hit to Apple’s iPhone app store, but it’s a long shot:

Now that it is legal, I can imagine more individuals will jailbreak their phones.  How many more is anyone’s guess.   Apple claims this will still void the warranty, but I would not be surprised if someone (or several individuals) tried to sue in order to preserve the warranty on a jailbroken phone.  If there is indeed an influx of new jailbroken phone users,  I would think that other “open” app stores will surface aside from the well-known Cydia since the stigma and risk surrounding jailbreaking  has the potential to quickly vanish.

Secondly, I can see app developers jumping ship from Apple’s store in order to seek out better payment structures or a more relaxed approval process, providing someone can force Apple to keep the warranty intact on a hacked phone.

The ruling also made legal the sampling/ripping/copying small portions of DVDs for non-commercial derivative works such  as remixes, commentary, etc.,  especially in the pursuit of educational goals.   As far as I have seen however, the ruling does not specify what a “small portion” consists of, so that may come into question sometime soon as well.

The final exemption handed down in this ruling is not a new rule, but an extension of an old one.  Previously, the EFF had successfully petitioned the Copyright Office to allow for unlocking of used mobile phones.  This ruling has been extended as a result of the most recent actions of the EFF.

That said, what are you waiting for?  Jailbreak your phone!

[EFF via boingboing]