iOS Artwork - iTem 0240 and Episode Transcript

Hi_Rob,
This is an iPhone 4S screen shot, opened on my iPad from Photo Stream, cropped slightly at the top with the Photo app, and then re-colorized with the ColorSplash app.

Regards,

Gregory

 

 

 

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Episode 240 Transcript

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We talked previously about the UDID's that the hackers stole and posted on line.  And we talked about checking to see if yours was in there.  

We also mentioned - that the hackers claimed they stole it from an FBI computer.  The FBI denied this was the case and that they did not have this info to start with - Apple chimed in and said that Apple had not given said info to the FBI and the FBI had never requested that info.  

Which left us wondering would the nobel Hacker actually lie about where they got the info - Ummmm Yup.

The hacker actually stole it from Bluetoad, Inc.  They are an app development company in Florida that puts together a bunch of cookie cutter apps for the iPad - that are basically magazines and catalogs - Like Snap-on Tools Catalog or Luxury Interiors or The Men's book or one of over 150 others - which are free apps.

So if they are free Apps why do they need your UDID - Advertising of course.  To make sure they taylor ads for your specific device based on all the info they gathered from you based on past ad taps.  

Apple for its part in iOS 6 - is doing away with UDID's for a means of identifying users.  Actually they have already told devs to get those features out of your apps - and very soon apps will be required not to use UDIDs.

In any case if you search for bluetoad one word you can see all their apps. 

So again in this case - Apple and the FBI did nothing wrong - nor did they let anything happen on their watch - this is about a single app developer with lots of Apps - that they pulled together a list of UDID's - actually about 2 million of them according to their own words - which were stollen by the hacker.  Not the 12 Million the Hacker originally claimed.  So this hacker steals 2 million UDID's from a company - and he somehow thinks - well that is not good enough - lets tell everyone it is 12 million UDID's and rather than say he stole them from BlueToad he wants everyone to think he stole them from the FBI.  

Really - I think people would have been impressed with the 2 Million number - now they just think he is kind of sad that he said he stole from the FBI.  

 

 

Hi Rob, 

In the latest episode of Tii, a listener asked about a calculator with an undo function. 

I happen to have made such app. It is called ClaC and it is free on the AppStore until September 21st. 

I first made ClaC for myself as I grew frustrated with the apple built in one. 

Check it out here: http://itun.es/us/uZdIC.i 

Thanks for the great podcast. 
Cheers 


/Amine

PLAY VOICEMAIL FROM DICK - ANSWR_CALCULATOR APP

Some more replies on the calculator apps.

Hi Rob,
I use a calculator app that lets me go back and erase mistakes, it's called calculator+
By xneat
Regards,
David L

Mexico city

I use an app called Paper Calc Office (three words), it keeps a record of your inputs and the totals, like an old paper calculator would do. I like it because I can easily check my work, verify I entered the correct numbers and copy my previous totals if I made a mistake and don't want to have to re-do the entire calculation. 

Regards,

- Jessi D

Rob,
I have found the best suite of calculators is called PowerOne. There are many different types of calculators from finance to medical to anything you need, including custom templates. I am also pretty sure there is a free calculator from PowerOne which also has a history option.
Regards,

"Quintus"

Hi Rob,

Calculator app that you can see prior and make changes. 

Digits

It rocks
Regards,
Michael S. M

Hi Rob,

I use is the app HiCalc Pro (I think there is a free version) and it has a scientific calculator that stores the history of what you've done. It shows all the numbers you added together which can be edited as well. I find this app real useful as an engineer because it is an all-in-one app that has many other functions too.

Regards,

Eric in S

Thanks to all that sent in thoughts on the calc app - so to summarize there are the following apps to choose from.

ClaC - C L A C  created by a fellow Tii Listener.

Calculator+

Paper Calc Office

PowerOne

Digits 

and HiCalc Pro 

Play VoiceMail - Thomas_Answr_Sync_list_anytodo

Hi, 
I use google calendars and toodledo on my pc. These are both free. 
I then use pocket informant on my iPhone and set it up to sync with google calendars and toodledo. 

Pocket informant is a bit pricy but I love it. Anything added to your calendar in the app is automatically added to your iPhone calendar so events appear in your notification centre. I just wish it did it for tasks due that day too. 

The reason I use toodledo and google calendar is that whilst my daughter has an iPhone, my son and husband have android phones and these online tools means that I can have calendars and tasks synced on all our phones. 

Now all I need to do is train my husband and children to do the tasks they are supposed to be doing. 

Regards,

Mandy M

Perth, Scotland

Hi Rob,

I found having a gmail account set up on both iphones

with a password known to both husband and wife Works to automatically
sync to both calendars. Also works with notes and reminders and of course email. I found this helped me and u might wanna try it.
Regards,

Tosin O

Thanks to all that sent in info on sync'g notes.  

Rob, 

In episode 239 listener Peter wanted to know of an app that he could use to manage inventory in a restaurant and use the app to place orders via email etc. 

Mis en Place is just the app he is looking for. 

I am a Pastry Chef in Sacramento California and I use the app Mis en Place. ( French cooking term meaning "things in place" ) The app allows you to set up multiple inventories with multiple purveyors. There's a database in the app for you to create your master order guide. You can also input your own items that are not in the data base.  You can set individual par levels for each item in your order guide. The app will allow you to do your inventory for each purveyor or for each location in your kitchen. You can then generate an order from the par levels that you have established and then email that order to a designated contact.
It's kind of tedious to set up but it does save time in the long run.
Unfortunately it's not available for the iPad. At $10 it's a bit pricey but at this point I can't live without it. 

Regards,

Chris from Sacramento.

Per the caller on the last show mentioning the $250 price adder to the subsidized price for the next iPhone - I  made a call to *639# from my phone and got back the following text from AT&T - That a full discount was not available - which is not surprising since I purchased the iPhone 4S in November - when I was first eligible last year.  And now AT&T is saying to get a new phone - I need to pay the subsidized price sign up for a new two year commit plus pay another $250 for a special fee - plus then a $36  upgrade fee - because you now the $250 upgrade fee on its own was not enough.  But if I want to wait until June 14th 2013 - then I can get the $250 fee waived. 

Again to check that on your iPhone on AT&T dial - *639# on your iPhone - and you should get a text back pretty quickly with your status.  Thanks to all that sent feedback on this one.

Hi Rob, 

I'll be unlocking my iPhone 4 next month. FYI, I came across this AT&T web form to submit the request. 

https://www.att.com/deviceunlock/client/en_US/?

Regards,

Steven (in Houston)

Hi Steven - Thanks for the link.  And it is a link to the Device Unlock Portal on AT&T site - which you can find in the show notes for ep 240 at today in iOS dot com - look for the one titled - AT&T customer device unlock form. 

It is being reported as well - that AT&T is allowing the unlocking of iPhones that are still on contract.  It seems the biggest requirement is that your account must be in good financial standings or no soup for you. 

 

An end to one of the stranger court cases I have heard about regarding an iOS device - is finally at hand.

Seems that a person in Australia had his iPad stollen.  He also had Find my iPhone feature enabled and it said his iPad was at a specific house - He tried getting the police to go around - but could not get them to follow up with out more evidence.  Because you know - the fact his stollen iPad was showing where it was currently located was not somehow proof enough.  

So the victim in this case did what most of us would have done - which I would have done - which I do not recommend by the way - he went to the house in question.  He then used the find my iPhone feature to set off the alarm on his iPad.  which he then was able to hear going off in the garage. He called the police and this time they listened and went to the crooks house and recovered the stolen iPad and a bunch of other stolen property. 

And so far - all sounds pretty normal - except we have lawyers involved - and the one for the crook was like right out of breaking bad.  The Crooks lawyer claimed the victim had actually electronically trespassed by sending out the find my iPhone alarm signal.  

Luckily the judge or actually chief Magistrate in this case - had her BS meter turned on and said - Ummm No.  The judge said the claims were absurd and the victim could have just as likely been calling out to a kidnapped child listening for a reply.  Good for your Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker - for showing common sense does actually exist some times in a court room.

 

There is an article over on Cult of Mac - talking about the difference in iPad sales and Android Tablet Activations.  Or more specifically the very small number of Android activations that are tablets. Right now about 70,000 of 1.3 Million activations daily are for Android tablets. Or less than a 1/3rd of what the iPad does. 

This article tries to say it was because Android was late out the gate with a good OS version for Tablets -and goes on to claim this was because Steve Jobs and Apple kept all info about the iPad away from the thief, double agent and former board member Eric Schmidt. However I disagree.  

 I say the key difference on why iOS is kicking Androids but on the only really level playing field - the unsubsidized world of Tablets.  is Well the reason is simply because iOS is a better UI and OS.  This goes back to my theory that the main reason people buy so many Android phones - is they are cheap and they are just buying a phone to make a phone call and it happens to be Android. Or put another way People by Android phones because they just need a phone - people get iPhones because they need much more than a phone.  And with Tablets you really need much more than a phone.  

 

Hi Rob,

I have a Sprint iPhone 4S. Since I updated to 5.1.1 my visual voicemail no longer works. Sometimes the voicemail will appear but cannot play messages. Other times the messages just vanish. I contacted Sprint and they blamed the issue on Apple software. I next went to the local Apple store. They blamed this on Sprint's network but did a hard reboot and then a restore. This fixed the problem however the following day I started back with same problem.

I was hoping someone in your audience had the same problem and came up with a solution.

Love the show!

Regards,
Mike
Moon Township, PA

Rob

Any chance the 5 in the invite has to do with the height of the new phone (as in inches)?

Woody

Hi Rob,

I would like to know if a black wallpaper saves more power when using a white wallpaper 

Regards,

Trey

Hi Trey,

No - The power draw is from the back light of the screen - which is active regardless of if you have a white wallpaper or a black one.

Want to save power - just put the iPhone to sleep. But the color on your iOS devices wallpaper has no bearing on battery life. 

Regards,

Rob W

Hi Rob,

Back in April of this year, my wife was involved in a bad auto accident that has left her with quadriplegia and to this date, she is still in a rehab hospital. She has limited movement of both arms but no movement of the fingers of either hand.  
Because she cannot move her fingers, she cannot press the home button on either her iPhone or her iPad.  Making a call is impossible for her, again because she can't press and hold the home button which would activate Siri.  I am aware of the Accessibility (Assistive Touch) features of the iPhone, but again, the on screen buttons are too small for her to accurately and consistently hit with her knuckle.  Forget about trying to create and use Custom Gestures under the Assistive Touch heading.  I have been to my local Apple Store and even the Apple employees are baffled by this.
 When my wife needs to call for a nurse in the hospital, she has a special button that she can just hit with her hand.  It is a rubber or plastic disc that is about 3" in diameter and 3/8" thick.  It just plugs into the same jack that the normal call button plugs into.  My thinking is that why can't there be a similar device that can attach to the iPhone/iPad, either blue tooth or cable connection to the headphone jack???  With a device like that, if she wants to make a call, she presses the big button, Siri activates, and she's off and running.  Same thing with an incoming call.  Just hit the big button!!  I have not been able to find such a device.  Again, Apple Store employees have been no help at all.  I'm hoping that you or your listeners know of a company or source for such a device.

Regards,
Mike

West Warwick, RI

Hi Mike - my thoughts are with your wife and you with regards to her recovery.  The best suggestion might just be taking an Apple head phone and splicing together that with the big red button - so that when she hits the red button - it registers as the home button via the head set - As you can use the button on your headphones to trigger siri - and with iOS 6 Siri gets even more features.  Of course if anyone knows of a solution like this pre made - please let us know - 206-666-6364 - that 206-Moon-Dog.  or email to today in iOS at gmail dot com.

 

This next Kickstart project actually comes recommend by Laura in Nashville whom has her own kickstarter project currently looking for funding which is iKid.  But today we are talking about - Everpurse - Which is essentially a purse or a few purses - that have a battery back up in them - that you plug your iPhone into when not using.  But the interesting thing is the purses battery is wirelessly recharged pr inductively charged if you prefer.  So you just lay your purse or your wife's purse on the recharging matt.  They have a goal of $100k - they have raised over $25k and have until October 13th at 10:00 PM ET to hit their goal.  Pricing right now ranges from $99 to $169 for the purse and charging matt.  To find this one search for everpurse - one word at kickstarter.  

And also don't forget about iKid - from Laura you only have until Sep 15th for that project.

 

 

 

Thanks to Michael S for the heads up on this next one - which is that the new YouTube App is out from Google. This replaces the one going away when iOS 6 launches.  To get the app - which of course is free - just search for youtube in the App store.  The App iCon does not look near as good as the original App iCon.  Ok that aside - the app is much different UI than the original - And I know a lot of people complained that the original had not been updated.  I am guessing all those people complained prior to using this new update.  In a nut shell - the new version well it kinda sorta ok - very much sucks.  At least from my perspective having used the old version for the past 5 years - the new version just does not do it for me.  I am going to really miss the original - Now for some reason in iTunes the new version is getting 4 star reviews on average - Ummm Yeah.  Any way - let me know if you prefer the new Youtube app or the old youtube app.  Not that it will matter much - as iOS will nuke the old version - at least until there is a jailbreak - and then you will likely be able to install the old version again.

Oh - I guess there is one advantage of the new version - it can have ads - which is not a real advantage - but it means some videos that are from major media companies - i.e. music vids - these were not in the old Youtube app - but are in the new one - because of the ad support.

 

 

 

Hi Rob,

I'm wondering if you or any of the listeners may know of a way to select all or delete all photos on the camera roll. It can be a jailbroken app or function also.

Typically you could sync to iphoto and delete all which works well on my mac, but on the work computer it is an Windows XP machine and doesn't give this option. So I'm wondering if there is a way to delete the camera roll from the phone and/or quickly select all photos to do so. 

Thanks!

-Nick P

Hi Rob,

   Here's a review of "College Football Radio & Live Scores".  I'm a big UCLA fan, my alma mater, but live in North Carolina and rarely get the opportunity to see them play on TV anymore.  I have typically used the app Sportacular to follow the game remotely, but it doesn't give you any actual game audio, only updates.  Since downloading College Football Radio & Live Scores, I've got my college games back!  It's a simple app that allows you to choose your team, and both listen, and save your favorite radio stations.  It works very quickly getting you the station within a few seconds.  It will list teams based on Top 25 and through conferences, notify you in advance the schedule of who your team is playing, and the time.  There are no additional bells and whistles like social connections to other listeners, rankings within conferences, or detailing the teams wins, losses, or any other additional information.  The app simply, easily, and quickly gets you to the game you want to listen to.  It's certainly worth $0.99 to hear the games.

Thanks,

Brent

Alright almost into the goodness of today's announcements.  To put how much I think about this - I had a dream Monday night I was at the Apple event and prior to the kickoff had a chance to talk to Tim cook - and all he wanted to talk about was the custom back on my current iPhone with the glowing logo and steve jobs in the Apple.  And then afterwards in my dream I called Ken Ray at Mac OS Ken and was telling him how cool it was to meet Tim cook.  Yeah - the build up to these events is taking a toll on me.   

 

 

Hi Rob,

My quick 2 cents on the controversy over what the new iPhone will be called - not a big deal at all. I don't care about it and it won't affect the user experience one bit. If people want to freak out about something, freak out about iOS 6 downgrading to an inferior mapping system. THAT'S something to be concerned about. 

Regards,

Brent

Chicago, IL

Hi Brent - Good point - and on that note - lets get into the September 12th event - Actually a few hours before the event it became apparent the iPhone 2012 - was actually going to be called the iPhone 5 - which is now the official name - this became apparent when searches on Apple.com found reference to the soon to be press release about the iPhone - with the title - or URL - www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/09/12Apple-Introduces-iPhone-5.html

While the link itself did not work - it was pretty clear - the name was going to be iPhone 5 - and When Tim Cook and team took stage - that was confirmed.

Per the event it started out with the typical Rar Rar Go Team type announcements. talking about Apple stores - new ones and new countries.  380 stores over all now in 13 countries.  The obligatory Mac outgrowing PC in sales growth info - Repeat on the iPad sales from Q2. That Tablet share from April to June the iPad had 68% of the market - but the iPad accounted fro 91% of the web traffic - which Tim then said he did not know what these other tablets were doing quote They must be in warehoused or on store shelves or maybe in someone's drawer. unquote.  Then he talked about now over 250,000 iPad Apps.  He mentioned there are over 700k iOS Apps overall and 90% of them get at least one download a month and the average user downloads over 100 apps. 

And then he turned the mic over to Phil Shiller to talk about the new iPhone.  To which he officially announced the iPhone 5.  Uggg - Ok rob get used to the name it is a done deal.  He then showed it and not to anyone surprise it was what had been leaked in the images before.  It is a metal back it is all aluminum and glass.  7.6 mm thin - 18% thinner than the iPhone 4S.  it is 112 grams - 20% lighter.  It has the 4" screen expected as well.  A 1136 x 640 screen resolution.  16:9 aspect ratio.  There is now an extra row of icons - so it is 5 rows of 4 apps - plus the 6th row for the dock.  It does have the rumored in-cell touch sensing tech for the screen - making it even more accurate on touches.  As also expected and needed - it is LTE.  The LTE works in a bunch of countries - in the US with AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.  In Canada - LTE works with Bell, Rogers, Telus, Fido, Virgin and Koodo.  

There are other countries in Europe and Asia with LTE compatibility - more on that in the near future.  

It has a new A6 processor which Apple claims is 2x faster CPU than A5 and 2x faster graphics.  

Battery life is about on par with the 4s - 8 hours of 3g talk time, 8 hours or 3g or LTE browsing, 225 hours of standby.  Again a wash on the battery life vs 4s.  

Per the Camera - it remains an 8MP camera with a 5 element lens as with the 4S - but there are some improvements.  Dynamic low light mode, Preceision lens alignment - hey does that mean the 4S lens was not aligned with precision?  And the 5's camera has a Sapphire crystal - because you know that sounds so cool.  And well because quote Sapphire is renowned for being hard and crystal clear"  Phil also claimed Photo capture is 40% faster - which by the was the 4S capture speed was pretty quick as it was.  

And with the iPhone 5 they added Panorama - which well lets you take panorama photos.  

Overall the improvements in the camera seems minor vs the 4S - not nearly as big a jump as from the 4 to 4S.  But if you are going from the 4 to 5 - you will be really happy. 

Per video recording.  You can now take photos while recording video.  Ok - cool feature.  

And there is improved video stabilization - that unlike the Nokia 920 does not require a guy in a van - just saying.  

FaceTime Camera is now 720P HD - with backside illumination and face detection - so some improvements to the front facing camera.

There are now three mics - Bottom, Front and Back. And the speaker had been improved on the bottom - but still mono speaker.  

And as feared / expected for some time - it is now a 9 pin smaller dock connector - the 30 pin doc connector is gone.  Say hello to Lightning - that is the name of the connector tech - to go along with thunderbolt on the mac - how cute.  It is an all digital reversible connector.  So does not matter how you plug it in.  As also expected they have a 30 pin to 9 pin dongle adapter.  

It will be available in either black or white.  Pricing as expected stays the same - $199 for 16gb, $299 for 32gb and $399 for 64 gb versions.  With a 2 year contract that is.  iPhone 3Gs is dead - gone no more.  iPhone 4 with 8GB is now the free phone and the 4S with 16 gb is the $99 phone.  

Preorders start on September 14th - with launch on September 21st - Available on the 21st in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.  Starts shipping to more countries on Sept 28th and then be december it will be available in over 100 countries on 240 carriers.  

No word yet on where the head phone jack is - but there was one photo showing the power button top side - but no whole for the head phone jack - so it seems that the headphone jack will be on the bottom.  

iOS 6 will be available for download on September 19th.  

Next up with a new iPod Nano - and skip over that as it does not run iOS .

After that they talked about the iPod touch.

The new 5th gen iPod touch is thinner and lighter - just 6.1 mm thick and 88 grams on weight.

It has the same 4" retina screen from the iPhone 5.  It has the A5 processor.  It still has both a front and rear camera and now there is an LED flash.  The camera on the back is a 5 MP camera with Sapphire crystal and 5 element lens.  So essentially the same camera as the back of the iPhone 5 except 5 MP not 8 MP.  

Front camera is 720 HD camera - which is the same as the iPhone 5 front camera.

Same Wifi as with the iPhone 5.

And it has SIRI.  

It has what they are calling the loop.  or iPod touch loop - which is a wrist strap that connects to the back bottom corner.  Good for kids.

And now it comes in multiple colors.  5 different colors to be specific and the loop is color coordinated to match.

The new iPod touch 5th gen - will be available in october starting at $299 for the 32 GB version and $399 for the 64 GB version.  If you want a cheaper iPod touch - the 4th gen iPod touch is sticking around at $249 for the 32 gb version and $199 for the 16 gb version. 

The new iPod nano - it is $149 also available in October.  But we are not talking about it.  

And remember those new rumored ear buds we talked about - yeah well rumored no more - as they turned out to be the real deal - with Apple announcing the new ear buds available today.

So to wrap up looking at the iPhone 2012 bingo card the new iPhone is called the iPhone 5, it has LTE, There are new earbuds, It has a metal back, It is thinner and lighter,  it has the 4" screen, An a6 Processor, HD Video front camera, Has the new 9 pin dock connector - 9 if you count ground - which is now called lightning.  It has the in-cell touch sensing tech.  And the head phone jack is now on the bottom.  It has a sapphire crystal lens cover. 

What we are not sure about yet is How much Ram it will have - But I would say it has to be at least 1GB.   Not sure if it has a nano-sim card.  And not sure if it will be on China Mobile.  Which to me is the biggest news or lack there of for Apple stock that is. 

It does not have a higher res camera and it will not be on T-Mobile - not yet at least.  

Per the bingo card - we did get at least 2 bingos - across the top row and the 2nd column as well.  Still have a chance for two more depending on what we learn about the sim card, ram and china mobile.  

My overall impression - it is a nice upgrade - but not as big an upgrade as say from the iPhone 4 to 4S.  What you say - but Tim Cook and Leo Laporte said it was a bigger increase than the 4S - and Leo Said the 4S was just a minor update.  Umm Yeah - read my post on that from October last year or better yet - read the post I am putting out later today - where I compare all the new specs for the iPhone 4, 4S and 5 when they were announced vs the previous gen and score them.  What I did was say each new feature could have a score of 1, 2 or 3 - 1 being a minor improvement for the end user, 2 being a mid and 3 being a big improvement for the UI of the device.  For example - on the iPhone 4 - the retina display gets a +3, but the 4 element lens a +1 and 720p video recording a +2.  When I did this for the past 3 generations.  The iPhone 4 had a +30 score, the 4S had a +29 score and the new iPhone 5 - it has a score of +25.  And That was with me giving a 0 on the 9 pin dock connector - really if you are going from any previous iPhone to the 5 - the new dock connector should be a minus 2 or 3.  And the headphone jack on the bottom should be another -2 or -3.  So if I did minuses - The iPhone 5 would get a score of about a +20.  Again this just comparing from the last gen to the next gen.  If you currently have an iPhone 4 - yes - the iPhone 5 is a big jump up and going from anything prior to the iPhone 4 or an Android device is the difference between heaven and hades  But going from a 4S to a 5 is a much smaller jump then a year ago when people went from a 4 to the 4S - in my opinion and well per my scoring.  So that is why I will be waiting for the iPhone 2013 before I upgrade from my iPhone 4S.  Let me know your thoughts.  

 

 

Hi Rob,

The new iPod nano is going to be the best thing that ever happened to the pebble. Very let down by this. Guess I'll have to buy that ugly pebble.

Rob
Hebron ky

Hi Rob,

I'm guessing that the Pebble folks are breathing a sigh of relief that the new nanos are not watch shaped. 

Matt S
Winston-Salem NC