Dec 20

Protect yourself from iPad and iPhone germs

By Brian How To 1 Comment »

It’s that time of year — well, yes, it’s almost Christmas, but it’s that OTHER time of year… the time of year when it’s cold, snowy (depending on where you live), and germs run rampant as adults and kids alike have the sniffles. Personally, I’ve dealt with at least two colds and a bout of the flu. It seems like just when I was getting over one contagion, another would come along and smack me upside the head. This, of course, got me thinking very carefully about how to better protect myself from germs and further illness. In addition to doorknobs, restrooms, computer keyboards, etc., there’s the obvious culprit that most of us use frequently in our daily lives — our touch iOS devices!

I use my iPhone 4 constantly and my iPad 2 almost constantly, with plenty of tapping and swiping. I have protective screen covers on both, but the fingerprints and smudges are clear evidence of the constant touching those devices receive on a daily basis. How many germs are we transferring from other places and people onto the touch screens of our iOS devices each day? If you’re like me, you handle your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch without a second thought about the possibility that your touch screen is a Petri dish full of nasty critters.

What’s the solution for reducing the germs on our touch devices? There are numerous cleaning products out there marketed directly at touch device owners, and I won’t go into a discussion on the many products out there, but if we all simply apply a little common sense, we can greatly reduce the germs and risk of infection and illness. We should all wash our hands often with soap and water, use hand sanitizer when available, avoid touching our faces with our hands, and it’s a good idea to *carefully* clean and disinfect our iPad, iPod touch, and iPhone touch screens on a regular and frequent basis. You might simply apply some disinfectant to a microfiber cloth and carefully wipe away the smudges, fingerprints and germs from your iOS devices.

Speak up if you have additional ideas on keeping your iOS devices clean and germ-free!

 

 

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Dec 12

Apple’s App Store passes 500,000 apps, 18 billion downloads

By Brian Announcements, News No Comments »

According to an Apple press release today, Apple’s App Store has now over 500,000 apps and customers have downloaded over 18 billion (yep, billion with a “B”) apps to their iOS-powered iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches. Apps are currently being downloaded at a rate of 1 billion per month.

Having been a smartphone user for many years now, it’s simply incredible to me to see how Apple has revolutionized the mobile app market. The sheer numbers of apps available and the number being downloaded is mind-boggling. Clearly, if you are submitting a new app to the App Store, it will be a tremendous challenge to get noticed. Even if you have an app of the likes that no one has seen before, it will take some marketing savvy above and beyond the basic submission to the App Store to get your app noticed by the teeming iOS-using masses out there.

Are there any app developers out there with a thought or two about the current state of app development and marketing?

[Apple Press Info, photo from Tech Ticker]

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Oct 25

Waiting for iOS 5 untethered jailbreak?

By Brian Jailbreak, News 3 Comments »

If you have updated to iOS 5 on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch, or if you’ve picked up a shiny new iPhone 4S, then congratulations. There is no doubt that iOS 5 brings lots of goodies to the functionality of all iOS devices. If you’re one of the jailbreaking community, maybe you held off on the iOS 5 update? Currently, with the exception of the iPhone 4S, iOS devices running iOS 5 can be jailbroken with a tethered solution, but those wanting the additional flexibility of an untethered jailbreak, the wait continues.
What is the difference between a tethered and untethered jailbreak? To put it in the simplest terms, it’s the difference of having to connect your iOS device to your computer each time your device reboots, whether it’s an intentional reboot or an accidental one (i.e., your device crashes or freezes and required a reboot). With a tethered jailbreak, you risk having a dead device while away from your computer in the event of a reboot, with the only way of restoring functionality by plugging in to your computer to jailbreak again. The highly-anticipated untethered solution requires no plugging in — you can reboot your iOS device into a jailbroken state.
Why am I holding off on iOS 5 for an untethered jailbreak? It’s definitely a personal decision, but I will settle for no less than an untethered jailbreak and iOS 5, with all of its extra features, does not give me everything I require and enjoy on my iPhone 4 and iPad 2. Namely, I use a few jailbreak apps that I consider invaluable for my iOS devices — MyWi for creating a mobile “WiFi” hotspot, My3G to dupe my device into thinking it’s on a WiFi network for purposes of downloading apps and using FaceTime on a 3G network, and LockInfo for giving me a quick look at all the necessary information from my unlock screen. To keep informed about the status of the iOS 5 untethered jailbreak, check back here or check out the Dev-Team Blog.
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Oct 12

iOS 5 now available for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch

By Brian News 5 Comments »

Finally! We have all waited these many long months (for some features, even years) for iOS 5 to go public, and now the time has come. If you’re the proud owner of an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you can now upgrade to iOS 5 and enjoy over 200 new features for your iOS device. There are step-by-step posts aplenty across the width and breadth of the internet, but to keep it uber-simple, just remember to first back up your device in iTunes first, then check for updates in iTunes and iOS 5 should be available for downloading and updating. Also, be sure you have the most recent iTunes update.

What does iOS 5 bring to the table? It’s an epic update — iCloud integration, iMessage, Notification Center, Reminders, Twitter integration, AirPlay Mirroring, and much, much more. Plug in your iOS device, dig in and enjoy!

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Jul 21

Apple’s OS X Lion now available, sports some iOS features

By Brian News 1 Comment »

In case you haven’t heard, Apple just released their OS X Lion upgrade for their desktop and notebook products, available to download through the App Store for $29.99. Before diving in head first, we recommend backing up your computer on your existing OS to make sure you don’t lose any important files during the upgrade process. Personally, my backing up process was so slow and painful that I decided there couldn’t be anything on my MacBook Pro that was worth the hassle, but to each his/her own.
What’s great about OS X Lion? According to Apple, there are over 250 new features — Multi-Touch gestures, Mission Control, full-screen apps, and Launchpad, to name a few. Using Launchpad, OS X Lion has the look and feel of using iOS on the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. So far, I’m liking it, except for some app compatibility issues. It looks like I’ll need to upgrade a few apps. Also, make sure you have a 2007 or newer computer with at least the Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM, Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later with the Mac App Store installed, and at least 4GB of additional hard disk space for the download.
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Jun 09

App review: Super 8 for iPhone, iPod touch

By Brian Apps 4 Comments »

Promoting a movie or other event with an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad app is nothing new, but it seems like downloading one of these apps and enjoying some serious functionality, usefulness and longevity is a rare thing. I learned of the Super 8 app while it was being offered free, but I can assure you that the paltry $.99 for this app is worth every penny and then some. Also, it IS one of those aforementioned rare apps — it’s very functional, useful and long-lasting for your iOS device!

Maybe you are old enough to remember making and watching old super 8 movies or maybe you aren’t — either way, this app is fantastic and a lot of fun to use on your iPhone or new camera-equipped iPod touch. From the nostalgic look of an old super 8 camera to developing your film and pulling the screen down to watch your movie creation complete with the clickity-click sound of the “projector”, this app is great fun. Give it a try and check out the different filter and lens effects. There’s nothing like taking a little trip down memory lane by being able to make your own super 8 movies on your iPhone or iPod touch with Super 8!

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Apr 20

How-To: Free up disk space by deleting iPad/iPhone backups

By Brian How To, News 5 Comments »

Recently my good ‘ol reliable Apple MacBook Pro alerted me that I was running very slim on hard disk space. Yikes! Less than 1GB to go — that simply won’t do. Trying to get creative with freeing up more disk space, I did a little bit of online research and learned that one of the easiest and quickest ways I could free up several gigabytes of space was to look no further than iTunes.

If you open up iTunes, click on “Preferences” in the iTunes menu bar, then select your “Devices” tab, you’ll likely see several backups for your “i” devices, whether you’ve been syncing an iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, or all the above. Chances are, you have more than one backup, eating up precious gigabytes of space on your hard drive. Unless you really need those older backups, you may want to consider keeping just the most recent backups and deleting the rest. With just a few clicks, I was able to free up enough hard disk space that I went from a skimpy 792MB to just over 17GB!  Now, I have quite a bit of breathing room and I don’t have to rush off and spend $$ upgrade my hard drive.

If you’re more tech-savvy, you can also delve into your file system and find your backups and delete them there, but iTunes is a simple, straight-forward and safer way to do it. If you decide to delete some of your backups, how much space did you free up?

 

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Apr 04

Dev-Team releases untethered 4.3.1 jailbreak redsn0w

By Brian Jailbreak, News No Comments »

For those of you who jailbreak or want to take the plunge for the first time, the Dev-Team has released the untethered redsn0w jailbreak for Apple’s current 4.3.1 firmware. Just head over to the Dev-Team site for either the Windows or OS X download and make sure you browse the site for important how-to links.

Jailbreaking is not for everyone and there is always the risk of bricking your device. So, unless you want a really expensive and cool paperweight for your desk that looks identical to your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad (because it is), be sure you read and follow the jailbreaking instructions and then have at it. Also, if you’re a proud new iPad 2 owner, this jailbreak is NOT for you. I’m sure an appropriate jailbreak update is in the works for the iPad 2, but until it’s ready, steer clear of this jailbreak version until it’s ready.

With all of that said, who’s going to jailbreak 4.3.1?

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Feb 10

Simple tip: save important info with a screenshot

By Brian How To 6 Comments »

Have you ever taken a screenshot on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch? Have you found something online that you wanted to immediately write down and save? Although an extremely simple, obvious function of iOS devices and perhaps a very obvious way to save information, I’ve done a little retraining of my brain when I find something while surfing the net on my iPad or iPhone and want to remember the data. Yes, you can simply bookmark the page and head back to it later when you need to recall the information. If it’s just a quick bit of information — like a telephone number, address, name of a particular product, book, or new band you want to check out — then maybe the quickest way to save those bits and bytes is a simple screenshot, sending the pic to your camera roll for easy retrieval later.

Yes, there are apps that store the bits and pieces you want to remember in life, like Evernote and even the Notes app that comes with your iOS device. If you’re really looking to keep it simple, though, then just grab a screenshot. If you need to remember the information written on a Post-it note or file away a receipt or information on a sign, just snap a pic with your iPhone camera (assuming you have an iPhone). Then, just like a screenshot, the photo is saved to your camera roll and you can look up the info later, then delete when no longer needed.

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Dec 09

Infinity Blade in App Store and it rocks!

By Brian Apps, Games, News 1 Comment »

The first mobile game powered by Epic’s cutting-edge Unreal Engine 3 technology, Infinity Blade ($5.99), is now available in the App Store for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. The graphics in this game are amazing — I have been able to spend a few minutes playing and I can already proclaim that this title is well worth the meager price of $5.99.

In the game, you have the chance to develop your character as you fight your way through a visually-stunning 3D environment. You control your character with tap-to-move controls to explore the castle realm and search for collectible items like treasure, swords, shields, armor, and other magical items to enhance your character and better prepare you for each battle that proves to be more and more difficult as you progress. During combat, you tap and swipe on your screen to attack, dodge, block, and cast spells — definitely a game that requires skill as well as luck.

I’m looking forward to delving into this game further when I have more time. As I said, the graphics are stunning and look absolutely amazing on my iPhone 4′s retina display. It’s an excellent effort from ChAIR Entertainment and they promise to bring more in the future, like new areas to conquer, multiplayer (!), and new equipment and enemies for your character. If you pick up Infinity Blade for your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch, let us know what you think of the game!

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