The most significant update highlighted by the company is Social Guides. This new feature is made up of a list of 60 cities to start with and 100 more are coming soon. Deriving data from local updates by users, recommendations from experts, and several other inputs, this feature will act as a guide to the particular place. Also, as a result of strategic collaborations with Disney, National Geographic, the Austin American-Statesman and more, Gowalla will also add 20 exclusive places to the catalog of Social Guides.

The new Love button is no less than the ‘Like’ option which is popular these days. The company has attempted at expressing their passion by renaming it. Other new inclusions, rather makeovers, comprise Lists and improvements in Highlights. Lists, which was earlier known as Trips, will now be more accommodating while Highlights are made more easier to access. The checking in concept has also been widened, henceforth to be known as stories. The arrangement of befriending users has also evolved, putting forth the option of ‘Following’ each other.

The upgraded Gowalla app for the iPhone and Android devices is now available for download. And for existing clients, they might have to bear some bumps as the process of enhancement formulates entirely over the next few weeks.

[Thanks: http://www.mobiletor.com]

For example, we don’t know if app developers will be able to make apps that put widgets in the notification bar so that you can pull down and see the information you need most. Right now, the only widgets are for stocks and weather, but we hope that Apple allows third-party developers to place widgets in the notification area without forcing users to jailbreak their devices.

Here’s a look at some cool features we might see in iOS 5, or more likely in iOS 6, when Apple gives developers the access to these areas.

I’m not a fan of all of these ideas, but I love the home screen widgets, live icons, call widget in the notification drop down and the ability to collapse notifications.

Other features shown off in the video include;

• Call notifications as pop over
• Persistent notifications
• Additional gestures
• Widgets in Spotlight
• Changing app icons

What do you think about this vision for iOS 5? It isn’t anything official from Apple, but as an Android user who has thought about switching on more than one occasion, this version of iOS 5 would make it a much harder decision when I went to purchase my next phone.

[Thanks: http://www.gottabemobile.com]

Aside from electric touthbrushes, inductive charging is perhaps best known through the good services of the HP (née Palm) Pre’s TouchStone charger, and is also available for the iPhone though third-party devices. Simply put, inductive charging involves electromagnetically inducing a current in a coil, with that current then used to charge a battery, with no direct – conductive – electrical connection required.

In Apple’s patent filing – entitled, straighforwardly enough, “Using an audio cable as an inductive charging coil” – the inducing device is a rather large ferromagnetic core that’s electromagnetically excited by a coil connected to AC current from a standard wall plug. Around that vertical core, a user would wrap their device’s earbud cords to form a receiving coil.

If #108 is an iPod touch, that’s one hefty charging pole

Apple explains its brainstorm to use earbud cords as the inductive charger’s receiving coil by saying that doing so saves space in the electronic device being charged, “or alternatively incorporating the larger receiving coil into a bulky attachment to the portable electronic device.”

In Apple’s vision, the charging circuit could be completed by having a contact on one of the earbuds hook up with another contact on the body of the device being charged. Another possibility would be to have the entire body of the device be a contact, so that you could place the earbud anywhere on it.

Alternatively, the mesh covering protecting the earbud driver could be conductive, so that no external contact on the earbud would be needed – you’d simply need to place the earbud mesh-down onto the device being charged. The beauty part of this idea, the filing contends, is that “This type of electrical contact (through the earphone mesh) can also be used to receive current for a conventional non-inductive charging system.”

The filing extends this conductive-mesh concept further, envisioning a music player in which all the tune-producing electronics are in the earbuds themeselves. To charge this device inductively, you’d wrap the cable around that big ol’ charging tower, then connect the two earbuds together to complete the charging circuit.

Obama-sized ears might be required for this media player

“Note that using metal mesh screens … as electrical contacts saves space because no additional connectors or contacts need to be provided,” the filing helpfully reminds us.

Finally, as the 13-page patent filing comes to a close, it makes brief mention of “an alternative charging system”. This alternative dispenses with the earbuds’ audio cable entirely.

Instead, this “embodiment” – in patentese – envisions an acoustic charger inside of which is housed a speaker driver, much like the one in an earbud. An earbud attached using its audio cord to the device to be charged is then placed into a suitable port in the acoustic charger. “This recess can be lined with a rubber gasket to achieve a tighter fit,” the filing suggests.

The driver inside the acoustic charger then emits a tone, to which the driver in the earbud responds, sympathetically. The resulting movement of the earbud’s driver induces a current in that driver’s coil, which is then used to recharge the battery of the device to which it is connected.

Skip the charging pole entirely, and merely play your earbuds an electrifying tune

“Note that the vibrations can be generated in a non-audible frequency range (less than 20 Hz or greater than 20K Hz) to prevent users from hearing the acoustic charging signal,” the filing says, answering the question that we’re sure was on your worried mind.

Presumably, the acoustic charger could be constructed in such a way as to allow both earbuds to be placed in it, thus doubling the amount of current induced. That said, it seems hard to imagine a significant amount of charging current being induced in this way.

And, for that matter, it seems equally hard to imagine that phallic charging towers will soon be erected on iPhone or iPod users’ desks any time soon.

[Thanks: http://www.theregister.co.uk]

One of the best things about smartphones is their ability to help you get things done. The more useful apps you add to your device, the better the gadget becomes. But a new iPhone app from Clever Sense uses artificial intelligence technology to take service apps to a  whole new level of awesome.

Dubbed “Alfred,” the app is marketed as a “personal concierge” that can predict what you’re looking for, even if you aren’t sure yourself. It does so by analyzing the vast amounts of data already available online. And it improves its results by “learning” what you like and don’t like from the choices it gives you, similar to the way the Music Genome Project that powers Pandora radio learns which types of songs you prefer and plays those.

For now, the predictive capabilities of Alfred are limited to four areas: restaurants, bars, nightclubs and coffee shops. But Clever Sense has plans to expand the technology to include a wide variety of other categories, according to a report from Business Insider.

At the heart of Alfred is Clever Sense’s Serendipity Engine, which crawls the Web for data that it can use to fine-tune its search results. This includes things like reviews on Yelp. The Serendipity Engine also harnesses data from social interactions, such as Foursquare check-ins, Facebook “Likes,” and other social data, to further personalize which venues it recommends for each user.

Right now, all the data input into Alfred is anonymous. But the app allows integration with Facebook and Twitter, which may be used to better the results. So if, say, your friends are saying something positive about a particular bar, Alfred will weigh this data heavily in determining which search results it delivers.

Alfred is currently available for free on iTunes. Click here (iTunes link) to get give it a try, and let us know what you think!

[Thanks: http://www.digitaltrends.com]

Here’s a look at what Google must do next to plus things up and turn Google+ into a true Facebook rival and not merely a niche-y Facebook alternative for geeks.

Google Plus Games: Facebook games are the scourge of the social network for those who don’t play them, as invites run amok for social games like Farmville and Zombies reached spam proportions before they were finally brought somewhat under control. But games are an essential part of Facebook in the eyes of many of its users, and if Google wants the mainstream, it’ll need to add games to Google+ in such a way as to not sully up those users who don’t want gaming spam. Sidling up to Zynga or Angry Birds maker Rovio might not be a bad first step.

Google+ iPhone app: Google made a tactical error by not ensuring it had a Google+ iPhone app approved in Apple’s App Store from the day Google+ launched. Either Google has been slow in getting the app going, or bitter smartphone rival Apple is stonewalling the approval process, or Google thinks limiting Google+ to strictly having an Android app is a good idea. None of those three scenarios look promising, as the hundred million plus iPhone and iPad users are going to be far less interested in switching over to Google+ if they have to rely on the web app. Web apps, by definition, are lame.

Google Plus Adsense: Even a wealthy company like Google needs each of its products to produce revenue eventually in order to remain viable. Unlike Facebook, which had to build its ad network from scratch, Google has its Adsense ads ready to go in Google+ any time it wants to fire them up. But can they be implemented in such a manner as to not chase away early Google+ adopters, or does Google need to wait until well after it’s been opened to the mainstream?

Google+ custom URL: We haven’t yet been able to confirm whether the “Lady GaGa” account in Google+ is really her or an impostor, but it doesn’t much matter until a URL like plus.google.com/ladygaga actually points to her page. Facebook implemented this way too late for musicians, and it was one of the reasons MySpace was able to hold onto the musician crowd even as the rest of its user base was fleeing to Facebook. Google will need to implement custom URLs in such a manner as to make celebrities’ time worthwhile, as in fans being able to find them without having to search and wade through the impostors. And it goes well beyond celebrities, as everyone wants a custom URL instead of having to point people to an address like plus.google.com/113305033825535522724

The mainstream: It doesn’t take much more than quick lookaround to see that the existing ten million users on Google+ consist mostly of Google-worshipping geeks. That must change before long if Google wants Plus to be a mainstream service to rival Facebook instead of merely a non-mainstream refuge for the geekiest one percent of the population who are looking to converse without their old high school classmates looking in. In other words, even if Google’s engineers aren’t thrilled with the idea, the invite system must fade soon and the front doors be thrown open so that the mainstream can actually begin kicking the tires. Until then, Google+ is merely Google Wave or Google Buzz with a higher success rate among the geeks. Here’s how to get invited into Google+.

[Thanks: http://www.beatweek.com]

The flaws, exploited by the Jailbreakme.com
project, essentially allowed remote code execution attacks via
specially rigged fonts and escalation of privileges to escape the iOS
sandbox.  The Jailbreakme.com project used rigged PDF files to deliver
the malformed fonts.

Here’s the skinny on the three vulnerabilities patched by Apple with the iOS 4.3.4 software update:

• CoreGraphics (CVE-2010-3855) – Viewing a
  maliciously crafted PDF file may lead to an unexpected application
  termination or arbitrary code execution Description:  A buffer overflow
  exists in FreeType’s handling of TrueType fonts.
• CoreGraphics (CVE-2011-0226) – Viewing a
  maliciously crafted PDF file may lead to an unexpected application
  termination or arbitrary code execution Description:  A signedness issue
  exists in FreeType’s handling of Type 1 fonts.
• IOMobileFrameBuffer (CVE-2011-0227) – Malicious
  code running as the user may gain system privileges. An invalid type
  conversion issue exists in the use of IOMobileFrameBuffer queueing
  primitives, which may allow malicious code running as the user to gain
  system privileges.

The iOs 4.3.4 update is available for iOS 3.0 through 4.3.3 for
iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 (GSM); iOS 3.1 through 4.3.3 for iPod touch (3rd
generation) and later; and iOS 3.2 through 4.3.3 for iPad.

[Thanks: http://www.zdnet.com]

Apple’s filing with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office is entitled “Image capture device having tilt and/or perspective correction” and describes an invention that would measure distortion using a combination of an orientation measurement, accelerometer data and a “distance measurement device,” such as an ultrasonic device. Corrections would occur on-the-fly, or measurements could be stored along with the photo for later correction.

“In some embodiments, the method may include reading an orientation measurement associated with a relative position of an image capture device with respect to an object, determining if the orientation measurement is less than a threshold, and in the event that the orientation measurement is less than the threshold, correcting an image obtained by the image capture device,” the application read.

Apple sees the invention as useful because users often find it difficult to steady mobile devices when taking a picture. The filing notes that post-processing is able to correct distortion, but adds that it often requires “sophisticated image processing software and/or a substantial involvement by the user.”

The measurements would be stored in the header of the image data for later adjustment. The camera application would display “dynamic crop lines” to allow a user to adjust the distortion. In addition to the use of an ultrasonic device, the application describes the use of GPS data and AF measurements to determine the distance of a photograph’s subject.

Apple notes that the patent has “broad applications” and could apply to desktops and “wristwatches with integrated cameras,” in addition to portable electronic devices such as cameras or cell phones. The filing also extends the invention to apply to moving images and/or video, though the bulk of the invention’s description relates to still images.

Apple first filed for the patent on Dec. 22, 2009. The invention is credited to Jason Chen, Brandon Slack and David Simon.

Earlier this year, the USPTO revealed a patent application that detailed a 3D picture taking system utilizing multiple rear-facing cameras on a device like an iPhone.

Apple’s iPhone 4 recently surpassed popular digital SLR models from Nikon and Canon to become the most popular camera on the Flickr photo sharing service. Actually, the iPhone likely passed up other cameras months ago, as Flickr has admitted that it is unable to accurately label all iPhone photos, especially ones submitted by third-party services such as Instagram.

The growing popularity of the iPhone camera has attracted the attention of giants in the photography and camera industry. Kodak sued Apple and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion last year over a patent for previewing images.

The U.S. International Trade Commission was scheduled to rule on the Kodak and Apple case on Friday, but the federal agency has postponed the decision until next week. Kodak has said the royalties from a ruling in its favor could amount to more than $1 billion.

[Thanks: http://www.appleinsider.com]

“Survey data indicates Apple may sign up 150 million iCloud and up to 150 million iMessage users. Proprietary RBC survey data (1,500 respondents, June 7-14) shows 76 percent of iPhone users intend to use Apple’s iCloud service, unveiled at WWDC. This high response rate affirms the growing interest in storing, syncing and sharing music, photos, documents across multiple devices (e.g. Smartphones, Tablets, PCs, TVs, etc),” said Mike Abramsky, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets.

Abramsky said Apple, based off the survey data, could sign up estimated 150 million iCloud users, moving into the scope of leading of online user bases (Facebook (700 million), Microsoft/Skype (700 million), Twitter (300 million), Yahoo! (300 million), and Google/Gmail (200 million)).

Abramsky said 30 percent of surveyed iPhone users are very/somewhat likely to spend $24.99 per year for iTunes Match to host their non-Apple music libraries in iCloud. (This equates to a nominal $1.5 billion per year revenue for Apple (1 percent of annual revenue) with nominal EPS impact (assumes iTunes Match gross margins are 10 percent, inline with iTunes content sales).

Abramsky said Apple may plan to launch additional services over time on iCloud. Examples may include audio and video streaming, photo and video sharing, hosted Time Machine backups, document management and storage and others. Apple is likely to build iCloud service into all iOS devices, possibly including even entry-level products like the iPod Nano and Shuffle.

Abramsky said 73 percent of iPhone users intend to use iMessage, equating to up to about 150 million iMessage users. iMessage thus has the potential to strengthen loyalty among existing iPhone users, as well as incent 60 millino-plus iPod Touch users to favour iPhone over other smartphones (e.g. Android) if they upgrade.

“As it stores user data, iCloud, along with iTunes is expected to enhance loyalty and stickiness of Apple’s customers, helping defend against threats from Android, helping grow a defensible install base of users who continually upgrade to next generation Macs, iPhones, iPads, and iPods,” said Abramsky.

The brokerage maintained its “outperform with above average risk” rating on shares of Apple, while reiterating its price target of $450.

Abramsky said impediments to his price target include: unknown market acceptance of new products, new product launch delays, stronger than expected competitive response to iPhone, slower than expected international expansion, greater than expected iPod cannibalization, slower than expected Macintosh market share gains, channel conflicts or execution, and key executives or staff departures.

“We see Apple’s valuation multiple as vulnerable should market sentiment continue to deteriorate and it could compress further on unexpected competitive developments, execution stumbles, unexpectedly slowing growth, declining margins, PC market concerns, or decline in overall market or technology market valuations,” said Abramsky.

Apple stock rose 1.68 percent to $320.62 on the NASDAQ Stock Market at 10:16 am EDT.

[Thanks: http://www.ibtimes.com]

According to Gartner research, Google’s Android operating system accounted for 36.2 million smartphones sold worldwide in Q1 2011 giving Android a market share of 36 percent compared to with 27.4 percent from Nokia Symbian. And Symbian was replaced by Android as the world’s leading smartphone platform during the last quarter of 2010.

Meanwhile, Apple’s iOS came in third with 16.8 percent of the market share and iOS sold 16.8 million iPhones, according to Q1 2011 report from Gartner.

So here is a look at 10 reasons why Android-powered smartphones may displace iPhone 5 in days to come.

Innovation:

Even before Google Android platform came into existence, Apple with its brand name was considered to be the most innovative company in the industry. But after the release of Android-powered smartphones, Google has been following the path which Apple has set like coming up with something new and fresh that appealed to consumers in the form of iPhone. The Android-based smartphones’ innovative approach has attracted more consumers to their shores helping them match Apple’s iPhone.

Increased Fan Base:

The recent sales figures show how people weigh the Android-powered smartphones. In fact, iPhone is still an iPhone as it only gets upgraded and added with new features. Although, iPhone continues to sell well, the “wow factor” that once pulled consumers is giving way. The excitement from the original iPhone is slowly fading away. Recent rumors suggest that iPhone 5 will be another revolutionary upgrade. And as the iPhone 4 proved, delivering major upgrades takes time. With no alternatives in the block, more and more people are shifting to Android-based smartphones as it blends in with many different varied smartphone makers helping consumers to choose from lot of available options. The Android developers understand the need of the customers and provide the compatibility that OS needs with different devices. Also most consumers are happy to see the increased availability of different apps and modifications that can be done in Android smartphones compared to iPhone.

Speed:

There is no word on whether Apple is planning to integrate the 4G technology in the upcoming iPhone 5. Even if Apple brings out the 4G technology, it is still new in the block compared to Android-powered smartphones (like HTC Thunderbolt) which are receiving rave reviews for the technology. Moreover, Android powered smartphones come with increased RAM memory compared to the latest version of iPhone to give that added advantage in terms of speed.

Pricing:

The price factor is very important as most users tend to change their smartphone as it ages and the availability of cheaper and more sophisticated Android phones (Motorola Atrix is now priced at $99) at a cheaper price making it more viable than others. Moreover, Apple maintains high prices for the iPhone. And surely Apple will plan to keep that momentum with iPhone 5.

Different Designs:

The Android smartphones come in different shapes and sizes compared to Apple iPhone. The manufacturers like HTC, Motorola, and Samsung give Android smartphone user the options and tastes they want. They give different user interface, better cameras and different display size jelling well Android operating system.

Brands Involved:

Apple is well-respected brand, hence, iPhone 5 will gets all the adoration. But one cannot forget the brains behind the entire Android operation, the Google. And Google teaming up with different carriers along with different manufactures has increased the credibility of Android devices. Google along with HTC, Motorola and Samsung has same track record as Apple, enjoys a similar standing in the market and is generally liked by the mainstream.

Open Source:

Anyone can get access to the source of Android to better the system. This is also a double-edged sword, in the sense, it allows those will less-than-ideal intentions to discover any weakness of the phone. But that can be seen as an indirect plus because when weaknesses are found in the open source community, they are quickly fixed. The same thing cannot be expected in iPhone 5.

Flash:

Flash has become a major setback in iPhone. Android phone supports flash that even Apple iPhone 5 will not support.

Handsets:

There are more than 100 Android varieties and still counting but iPhone 5 will just be an upgrade. Android has choice of feature, features you want, features you don’t, choice of removable battery and memory expansion slot.

Carriers:

Apple iPhone is generally available with limited number of carriers, hence, iPhone 5’s appeal, but Android is available with almost all the carriers and offers plans suiting to each and everyone’s individual needs.

Meanwhile, iPhone 5 rumors show that the device is expected to come pre-loaded with:

• iOS 5 enriched by 200 new features
• Edge-to-edge display
• Speech recognition capabilities
• Improved flash unit for camera
• Strong gaming capabilities supported by multi-core A5 processor and Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR Series6 mobile graphics processing architecture
• 8-megapixel camera
• 1080p Full HD videos
• Panoramic photo capabilities
• Bigger screen between 4 and 5-inches
• New design
• White model
• Just like the iPad 2, sixty percent possibility that the iPhone 5 dock connector could be used, using an adapter, HDMI output with 1080p HD support
• With the new iOS 5, the existing voice controls could be enhanced and new ones added
• Higher capacity battery than present Li-Po 1420mAh to support iOS 5
• NFC technology
• Apple increased the RAM memory to 512 MB RAM in iPhone 4 from iPhone 3GS which had 256 MB eDRAM, also iPhone 3G had 128 MB eDRAM before iPhone 3GS came out. Hence, speculation of a 1 GB RAM is a possibility to counter Android smartphones.
• As iPhone 4 is already featured in Verizon network, possibility of 4G LTE support cannot be counted out
• Facebook app is expected to come to iPad, and iPhone 5 is expected to feature iPad’s OS.
• The iPhone 5 may be launched in the first week of September, and few websites predicted the release date to be September 7.

[Thanks: http://www.ibtimes.com]

Later on June the 15th, Comex, memeber of iPhone Dev Team, answered an iPad user who asked him about the jailbreak with ‘It’s almost ready.’ But no words from Comex have been heard since then.

Today Joshua Hill of the Chronic Dev Team has once again given an update on the state of iPad 2 jailbreak by posting a tweet on his Twitter account:

We don’t know what exactly are the “lots of other exciting projects” that Joshua Hill has tweeted about, but what interests us is the fact that the Chronic Dev Team is working very hard on the iPad 2 jailbreak and will most probably release it in the very near future.

Previously, it has been confirmed that Greenpois0n is not going to jailbreak iPad 2, rather the Chronic Dev Team is going to make an entirely new program for jailbreaking the iPad 2. It is possible that development of this new program has caused some delays in the iPad 2 jailbreak release. Stay tuned.

[Thanks: http://technorati.com]