iPhone’s augmented reality apps coming with September OS 3.1 launch?

Looking to enjoy all those fancy augmented reality apps on your iPhone, like for finding nearby stores or subway stops? Apparently what’s standing in your way from enjoying a life more akin to “gargoyles” from Snow Crash is Apple’s next update to its touchscreen devices, OS 3.1, and according to Nearest Tube developer Acrossair, that’ll be arriving sometime in September. Something we heard whispered at the time of the beta 2 release. We wouldn’t be surprised to see that release window fluctuate, but if that’s our estimate, there’s still plenty of time for someone to prep an AR zombie shooter.

[Thanks, Peter S]

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iPhone’s augmented reality apps coming with September OS 3.1 launch? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Jul 2009 21:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hackers scoffing at iPhone 3GS’ hardware encryption

There were other features taking higher billing in the iPhone 3GS’ announcement than its hardware-level encryption — hell, even the magnetic compass was getting more play — but it’s there, and Apple’s actively marketing the bit-scrambling capability to enterprise clients. Problem is, hackers are apparently having a field day with it, rendering it useless in all but name. One iPhone dev (who teaches courses on pulling data off iPhones, coincidentally) goes so far to say that he doesn’t “think any of us have ever seen encryption implemented so poorly before,” noting that it’s no more difficult for him to pull data off a 3GS than it is off an encryption-free 3G. He goes on to point out that RIM — which has far more experience dealing with enterprise-class mobile fleets than Apple does — offers a far more robust remote wipe solution that doesn’t necessarily need to rely on an active wireless connection to clear a phone. The lesson? As overwhelmingly popular as the iPhone may be across every market segment, these guys are still the new kids on the enterprise block — and RIM (and heck, Microsoft, too) would be wise to stand their ground here.

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Hackers scoffing at iPhone 3GS’ hardware encryption originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Switched On: The last smartphone OS

Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Palm’s webOS certainly faces strong competition as it vies for attention from manufacturers, carriers, developers and consumers. But Palm was able to knock out at least one ailing offering by making webOS the replacement for the old Palm OS. For others it may not be so easy. In fact, with the barriers to entry now so high and the commitment to existing operating systems so great, webOS may be the last major smartphone operating system launched for the foreseeable future.

With webOS taking the baton from Palm OS, the number of major smartphone operating systems has stayed fixed at six. Three of them — Symbian S60, Windows Mobile and Android — are intended to be used by handset makers from multiple manufacturers, whereas iPhone OS, BlackBerry OS and webOS are used only on the handsets offered by their developer. Of course, even these “purebred” operating systems owe much to older platform technologies, with Android and webOS being built atop a Linux kernel, iPhone OS having its distant roots in FreeBSD, and BlackBerry and Android building on Java. The race to attract software to these platforms has ignited an arms race of development funds to both prime the supply pump and the promotion of app stores to lead the horses to he touch-sensitive virtual koi ponds..

Developing and maintaining a smartphone operating system is a serious and expensive undertaking that can consume a company. Producing the original iPhone caused Apple to miss the self-imposed ship date of Leopard, and third-party app support did not come until much later. Whatever Microsoft is planning in a major overhaul for Windows Mobile 7 has taken long enough to warrant the release of the interim 6.5 release that still leaves the company far behind the state of the art. WebOS development clearly took up a significant portion of the $425 million investment from Elevation Partners in Palm. And finishing a 1.0 release is just the beginning.

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Switched On: The last smartphone OS originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone 3GS prototype scooped up at airport, now on eBay

Seriously folks, what’s up with these prototype iPhones falling out of nondescript white vans and ending up on eBay in the shadiest of manners? Just months after we saw an original iPhone prototype (ancient OS included) pop up on The ‘Bay, now we’ve got one of the world’s first iPhone 3GSs on there as well. According to the highly ranked eBay seller, the “guy” he “got it from” actually stumbled upon it at an airport, and rather than doing the nonsensical thing of hitting up lost and found, he decided to make the most of the sudden opportunity. According to the new owner, an Apple Genius has confirmed that it is an iPhone 3GS, but due to its prototype nature, they can’t help him get past the “Connect to iTunes” screen. In other words, it’s an incredibly rare brick. If that sounds like just the thing to complete your collection, you can visit the road to overpaying through the read link below.

[Via ElectricPig]

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iPhone 3GS prototype scooped up at airport, now on eBay originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple patching nasty iPhone SMS vulnerability

Given the hype surrounding Apple’s iPhone, we’re actually surprised that we haven’t seen more holes to plug over the years. In fact, the last major iPhone exploit to take the world by storm happened right around this time two years ago, and now — thanks to OS X security expert Charlie Miller — we’re seeing yet another come to light. Over at the SyScan conference in Singapore, Mr. Miller disclosed a hole that would let attackers “run software code on the phone that is sent by SMS over a mobile operator’s network in order to monitor the location of the phone using GPS, turn on the phone’s microphone to eavesdrop on conversations, or make the phone join a distributed denial of service attack or a botnet.” Charlie’s planning to detail the vulnerability in full at the upcoming Black Hat conference, but Apple’s hoping to have it all patched up by the end of this month.

[Via HotHardware]

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Apple patching nasty iPhone SMS vulnerability originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone OS 3.1 beta now available for developer community

Your fancy new iPhone OS 3.0 starting to look a bit long in the tooth? Heads up, Apple’s now sending out the beta OS 3.1 and its SDK to the developer community to finagle with. We’re still looking to see what’s been changed here, so for now, if you’re someone who needs the Latest and Greatest and happens to have the right access, download away!

Update: Still tinkering, but we’ve seen a new “Save a Copy” option for 3G S video editing that lets you retain the original film while saving an edited clip (picture after the break, thanks Kevin), as well as some reports of MMS being activated, but it seems to stall before actually being sent out over AT&T’s network.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Continue reading iPhone OS 3.1 beta now available for developer community

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iPhone OS 3.1 beta now available for developer community originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How’s the iPhone OS 3.0 upgrade going for you?

So now that the iPhone 3.0 launch is in full swing, we’re wondering how it’s going out there. Team Engadget appears to have made it through without any problems, but we’re hearing sporadic reports of Apple’s iTunes activation servers being slammed and potentially some kind of IE security certificate problem on Windows, which is leaving a few people with unusable phones while things get sorted out. Everything work out okay for you?

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How’s the iPhone OS 3.0 upgrade going for you? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Palm Prefection iPhone theme lets you have the best of both worlds, kinda

So you’re an iPhone owner with a massive case of Pre jealousy, but you’ve got another year left on your AT&T contract. We know you’re out there, and we know you’re struggling — you’re feeling totally alone and misunderstood, like a lone voice struggling to be heard amongst the din of a thousand push notifications. A gadget nerd without a clan.

You don’t have to live this way. You don’t have to be trapped into a single touch interface aesthetic by the fear of early-termination fees and loss of Tap Tap Revenge compatibility. You have a choice — you can jailbreak your phone and install the Palm Prefection theme. You can show the world you’re not afraid to mix it up. Sure, you won’t be able to multitask for real and no amount of fevered prayer will ever bring a gesture area to your iPhone, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be taking a stand. Fly high, butterfly. Video after the break.

[Thanks, Dave]

Continue reading Palm Prefection iPhone theme lets you have the best of both worlds, kinda

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Palm Prefection iPhone theme lets you have the best of both worlds, kinda originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Push notifications go live on iPhone courtesy of Tap Tap Revenge

iPhone OS 3.0 may not be available to the masses for a couple days yet, but that’s not stopping Tapulous (nor Apple’s App Store overlords, apparently) from rolling out a new version of its ridiculously popular Tap Tap Revenge that’s fully ready to take advantage of push notifications right here and right now. We’ve taken the new build for a spin, and in brief, it works as designed — notification times ranged from near instantaneous to just under a minute. One of our editors here was testing on a cellular connection and the other was on a SIM-less iPhone 3G running just WiFi, so it looks like this setup will work pretty seamlessly regardless of what kind of connection you happen to be enjoying / tolerating / loathing at the moment. Follow the break for a quick video demo.

[Thanks, Brandon]

Continue reading Push notifications go live on iPhone courtesy of Tap Tap Revenge

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Push notifications go live on iPhone courtesy of Tap Tap Revenge originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Probably-fake video roundup: 24-inch iPhone OS, PS1 emulation on the Pre

This video of iPhone OS 2.x running on a 24-inch multitouch monitor from Swedish design firm Dreamfield is almost certainly fake, but hey — it’s Sunday night, nothing’s going on, and we were thinking about how well touch-specific systems would work on a larger screen after seeing those CrunchPad videos anyway, so we thought we’d get some conversation going. We’d be willing to bet that a future Apple tablet has more in common with the experience shown in this video than with what we currently think of as OS X, but we’re not so certain we’re seeing anything here that makes us want to throw our mouse or keyboard away — or spend the entire day with gorilla arm. So — artfully mocked-up glimpse of the future, or just a pipe dream?

Keeping with the likely-fake theme, there’s also a probably-fake video of SNES and PS1 emulators running on the Pre, controlled by a Bluetooth gamepad. Yes, it’s incredibly awesome — and undoubtedly possible — but until we see some evidence of how things are loaded up and connected with the gamepad we’re sticking it in the fake category as well.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Probably-fake video roundup: 24-inch iPhone OS, PS1 emulation on the Pre

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Probably-fake video roundup: 24-inch iPhone OS, PS1 emulation on the Pre originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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