Hasta La Gadget!

While the larger display on the iPhone 5 is a welcome change, one of the problems it has created is that there are apps out there who have yet to be updated to fit the iPhone 5’s 4” display. Apple tried to remedy this by installing black bars at the top and bottom of non-optimized apps, which on the black iPhone 5 kind of gives it the illusion that it’s still full screen. On the white iPhone 5 however, this doesn’t work out so well. Now the good news is that if you have jailbroken your iPhone 5, you might be interested in this tweak called FullForce which is developed by famed iOS developer, Ryan Petrich.

In case the screenshot above hasn’t clued you in, what FullForce does is that it takes apps that have yet to be optimized for the iPhone 5, and stretches them to fill up the display. According to the app, upon installation, launching apps that aren’t optimized for the iPhone 5’s display will prompt you and ask if you would like to enable FullForce to help stretch it out. This can be enabled and disabled as we’re sure that there are some apps that don’t look good when stretched, but if you want to check it out, the tweak can be downloaded via the BigBoss repository for $0.99. If you have installed it let us know in the comments below on how it is treating you!

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: The Vyne iPhone Stand Is Pretty Unique, Official Tamagotchi App Will Make Its Way Onto iOS And Android Soon,

We’re nearly at the 5-month mark from when the iPhone 5 officially launched in the U.S. this past September, and with it, the release of a completely new dock connector. The Lightning connector made the dock connector for the iPhone 5 and future iOS devices much smaller, but it also made the majority of our third-party accessories obsolete. There have yet to be as many battery packs or battery cases as there were for iOS devices below the iPhone 5, but Mophie is announcing a new battery case that brings its Juice Pack series of cases to the iPhone 5.

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By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Apple Loses iPhone Trademark In Brazil, Neo N003 Phablet Comes With HD Display,

It may pain you to add girth to the iPhone 5’s slender frame, but when a little more junk in your iPhone’s trunk means double the battery life, it’s hard to say no. The new Mophie Juice Pack Helium case promises to do just that and be about 13% lighter than the iPhone 4’s Air version. More »

Mophie is one of the most trusted names in iPhone and mobile backup batteries, and the company has finally debuted its battery case for iPhone 5. The Mophie Juice Pack Helium is around 13 percent thinner than the Air version released for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 (get it? Helium is lighter than air), and retails for $79.95 right now direct from the Mophie store. The cases should ship in time for Valentine’s Day, the company says.

The new Mophie boasts a 1500 mAh battery, which keen readers will notice is technically enough to double the 1,440 mAh power station inside the iPhone 5. That’s enough to boost your device’s talk time life by up to 6 hours on 3G, or provide another 6 hours of cellular browsing, 7 hours of WiFi browsing, 30 hours of audio playback or 7 hours of movie watching, according to Mophie.

The new slim down design is offered in both dark metallic and metallic silver colors, with the dark scheme shipping first, and it has the same LED power indicator and forward-facing speaker ports that have made the Mophie line a winner for the past few years. Of course the things can also stand to shed some weight and girth, so this new thinner design is very welcome, but the fact is that when you need juice and you’re without any kind of outlet, having one of these on hand can really save the day, and they take up less space than something like an external charger.

One final advantage of the Juice Pack Helium is that it has a micro USB port to take the place of the Lightning connector, which handles pass-through charging and data syncing just fine. That’s good news if you’ve already got a ton of micro USB cables (one is also included) lying around from other devices and don’t want to invest heavily in replacing all those 3o-pin Apple chargers from your past iOS devices. This may be one of those cases where a blogger’s needs may not reflect the larger community’s, but I’m definitely a believer given Mophie’s track record, and for sure picking one of these up.

This week there appears to be some confusion in the press about what a newly-granted Apple patent covers, the general consensus at the moment being that they’re seeing a fully-plastic iPhone for a cheap future. This patent can be found under US Patent Office number 8,364,032 and goes by the name “Light Isolating Protective Cover for Small Form Factor Electronic Device.” If that weren’t enough proof for you that this patent is for a phone cover, not a phone, you’ll have only to look to the first page where the first “Other Publications” list begins with none other than a “Front and Back Screen Protector for iPhone 4″ – and that’s just it.

The patent is being called by several publications right this minute a “Plastic iPhone Without Home Button” when on essentially every page of the patent you’ll find the word “case” or a description so clear, it’s difficult to follow how it could be mistaken for anything other than what it actually is: “A protective cover for a small form factor electronic is described.” Instead of publishing a story about how Apple has put a patent on an accessory with “light isolating” abilities, many press sources have chosen to hold up the Plastic iPhone banner that’s been so very popular over the past few weeks.

This plastic iPhone has been tipped as a budget offering from Apple that would be delivered inside the next few years with a cost that sits between the iPod touch and the iPhone lineup. There’s an idea out there that a cheap plastic iPhone exists regardless of the fact that Apple’s current model for iPhone sales has carriers subsidizing legacy models to the point where they’re able to be attained for free (with a 2-year contract). The plastic iPhone has also been tipped to be coming in a variety of colors, similar to the iPod touch in its current form.

The patent that’s being spoken about today instead speaks about an iPhone case that will be able to fit closely around the device and work in a way that will not affect the quality of the photos taken with the back-facing camera. This patent describes an opening on the back of the case that will allow light from the camera’s flash to hit the subject it’s aimed at (the subject you’re photographing), and bounce back uninhibited to the camera lens the same as it would regardless of the case.

Have a peek at the timeline below for more recent explosive findings in the iPhone universe and keep your tinfoil hats on tight – you never know what might pop up next!

[via Tom’s Hardware]

PSA: That’s no plastic iPhone, it’s just an iPhone case is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
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