Hasta La Gadget!

Looks like Apple will be adding a new “Find My Friends” feature to its MobileMe service in the not too distant future. The settings pictured above were unearthed in the latest iOS 4.3 developer build that’s already yielding a healthy list of new devices and functionality including in-app AirPlay video support, a carrier-dependent personal WiFi hotspot, the return of the physical orientation lock switch, and a host of new multitouch gestures. Presumably Find My Friends will offer functionality akin to the free Google Latitude app doing little to justify Apple’s $99 MobileMe annual cost.

Update: Remember Apple’s iGroups location-based social networking patent application? We just did.

‘Find my Friends’ MobileMe feature revealed in iOS 4.3 developer build originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 03:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  MacRumors  | Email this | Comments

Want some help with your newfound choice of iPhone carrier? Let T-Mobile break it down for you in an entirely unbiased and dispassionate fashion. The pink carrier’s latest hit piece commercial highlights the fact that, whether on Verizon or AT&T, the iPhone only has recourse to 3G connectivity, painting the two carriers as a pair of grey suits distinguishable only by the color of their ties. It’s a cute way to promote your own 4G network, sure, but it conveniently disregards the fact that Verizon’s enriching its LTE (Lightning! Thunder! Electric!) network with some true superphones while AT&T is similarly committed to a 2011 LTE rollout. So, really, the only thing under critique here is Apple’s rapidly aging 3G wonder. Skip the break to see the video ad.

Continue reading AT&T and Verizon are the same bag of 3G hurt for iPhone owners, says T-Mobile (video)

AT&T and Verizon are the same bag of 3G hurt for iPhone owners, says T-Mobile (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

So far, iPad keyboard cases seem to follow two schools of thought — the folio and the mini-clamshell — and while both have their merits, neither do the job quite as well as the set of chiclets on your standard netbook. Best Buy’s in-house Rocketfish label has a different idea: forget about making it svelte, and just hand you a full-size Bluetooth laptop keyboard that holds your iPad as well. It’s called the iCapsule, and as you can probably tell it can accommodate your slate in both portrait and landscape modes, and when you’re done it folds up into a hardshell case with an integrated carrying handle. The unit takes two AA batteries — rather than a rechargeable Li-ion cell — and costs $100 to own, though it’s presently both on sale for $80 and unfortunately out of stock. We’ll let you know if we get the chance to try it for ourselves. Two more pics at our source link, if it has piqued your curiosity by now.

[Thanks, Yeti]

Rocketfish iCapsule keyboard case looks ugly but exceedingly useful originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 19:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Best Buy  | Email this | Comments

The iPad’s screen-lock switch, previously removed in a software update, will be back soon by popular demand.

Apple moments ago released a beta version of iOS 4.3, the next version of its mobile operating system. Some beta testers have noticed that a menu option allows iPad customers to set the physical switch to lock the screen to stay in landscape or portrait mode.

The iPad already used to do this in older versions of iOS. However, in iOS 4.2 Apple turned the switch into a mute button.

Several iPad customers polled by Wired.com found that modification to be extremely annoying: Many use Apple’s tablet for reading and watching video (rather than listening to music), so a screen-lock switch was far more useful than a mute switch.

Now, thanks to many vocal nerds who complained about the change, iOS 4.3 appears to allow iPad customers to set the switch’s functionality to locking the screen or muting the volume. The screenshot above comes from a beta version of iOS 4.3, which means it will likely make it to the final version of the software update.

Hurray — yours truly along with Wired.com’s Charlie Sorrel will be glad whenever iOS 4.3 officially ships. This is even better news to us than the earlier discovery of a wireless hotspot feature in iOS 4.3 for iPhones.

See Also:

• Steve Jobs: iPad Screen-Lock Switch Is Gone for Good
• IOS 4.2 Changes iPad Screen-Lock Switch to Mute Button
• iPad Gets New Button: Screen Rotation Lock

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

We weren’t happy when Apple changed the iPad’s side switch from an orientation lock into a mute switch, but thanks to iOS 4.3 we can calm down: Now there’s finally a setting allowing us to choose what the switch does. More »