There’s a lot to be happy about in iPhone OS 4. Like multitasking, and threaded inboxes. So why doesn’t it feel right? More »
And here you were, stylin’ in your Juice Pack Air, thinking you were the king of the charging iPhone case hill with the sleekest hardware money can buy… but guess what? Life isn’t fair, and MiLi intends to prove it by undercutting Mophie’s solution by right around a twentieth of an inch of thickness. It’s still packing 1200mAh of power — the same that the Juice Pack Air offers — which MiLi claims should be enough to just about double your run time. It’s available now in a choice of eight scintillating color combos for £47.99 (about $74).
MiLi’s Powerskin claims coveted ‘thinnest iPhone battery case’ title originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 09:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Hacker Planetbeing has managed to modify the first generation iPhone to boot Google’s Android OS. Not only that, it is a dual-boot solution, so you can simply restart the iPhone and pick which OS you’d like to use.
As Planetbeing notes in the video, it’s not really production quality, more alpha quality, but “everything works.” Well, everything almost works. The extremely long boot time is due to the OS loading all the drivers it needs to work with the iPhone hardware, but it is still a little wonky (connecting to Wi-Fi is something of a lottery, it appears).
That said, getting Android up and running on Apple’s hardware is a pretty impressive feat, and that it works as well as it does is a pleasant surprise. The hack also shows up Android’s reliance on buttons, of which there is a distinct lack on the iPhone. To work around this, Planetbeing repurposed the volume rocker for navigation purposes.
The Android iPhone makes calls, receives SMS messages, plays music and browses the web. The demo video takes a while, but it shows you most of what you need to know. Best of all, this isn’t some proof-of-concept demo. You can download pre-built images and install them, along with the source code.
Android running on iPhone [Linux on iPhone via Mac OSx86]
If you’re a diehard iPhone user waiting for a similarly-gorgeous Android phone before you jump ship, you could spend time pining for a new HTC or Dell. Then again, the Droid you’ve been looking for might be right under your nose. Intrepid Linux fan planetbeing claims to have ported a debug version of Android to the iPhone itself, drivers and all, and you’ll find a thoroughly convincing demonstration of his bona fide dual-booting Apple device taking calls, playing music and even surfing the web after the break. While the iPhone isn’t the speediest Google phone around, it’s not all that sluggish, either, and with the iPhone’s hardware buttons remapped to Android controls, planetbeing seems to get along just fine. Now, let’s see him work on some pinch-to-zoom, eh? Video after the break.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Continue reading Android ported to iPhone?
Android ported to iPhone? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Apr 2010 22:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Adobe will no longer pursue its plans to bring Flash to Apple’s iPhone and the iPad.
Adobe on Tuesday evening said it is ceasing investment in a software tool that enables Flash developers to port software into native iPhone and iPad apps, according to Mike Chambers, Adobe’s principal product manager for Flash developer relations.
“The primary goal of Flash has always been to enable cross-browser, platform and device development,” Chambers wrote in a blog post. “This is the exact opposite of what Apple wants. They want to tie developers down to their platform, and restrict their options to make it difficult for developers to target other platforms.”
Adobe is reacting to a new rule in the iPhone developer agreement, which stipulates that iPhone and iPad apps must be coded with Apple-approved programming languages, such as C++ or Objective C. If enforced, the rule would effectively ban any apps coded with Adobe’s Packager for iPhone, a tool enabling Flash-coded software to be easily converted into native iPhone apps, released last week with Adobe CS5.
Faced with Apple’s new rule, Adobe pulled the plug on Packager for iPhone. That ends, for now, any hope that Flash apps (or apps that incorporate Flash) will ever be able to run on the iPad or iPhone.
Apple’s new app policy has been met with furious debate. Critics say Apple is depriving consumers of choice, because Flash apps that could have been on the iPhone will never see the light of day. Supporters of Apple’s decision, including Steve Jobs, say the move was necessary to retain quality of apps in the App Store and nimbleness of updating the platform.
Apple has been steadfast with its lack of support for Flash on the iPhone OS. Some customers have complained that without Flash, iPhone and iPad users are missing out on a big chunk of the internet. Jobs said during a staff meeting that Flash was not supported because it is “buggy” and frequently causes crashes on the Mac OS, according to a secondhand account first reported by Wired.com.
Rather than supporting Flash, Apple has reportedly pushed website creators to use alternative web standards, including HTML5, CSS and JavaScript, which are all supported by the iPhone and iPad browser.
Apple said Adobe was incorrect to accuse Apple of locking in developers by not supporting Flash.
“Someone has it backwards — it is HTML5, CSS, JavaScript and H.264 (all supported by the iPhone and iPad) that are open and standard, while Adobe’s Flash is closed and proprietary,” an Apple representative said in a statement provided to CNET.
However, as simple as it may sound for web developers to switch to different standards, Wired.com’s Webmonkey editor Mike Calore said the transition to HTML5 for video playback would be complex. He explained that there’s no agreed upon video format for HTML5, and support varies greatly from browser to browser.
“Not to be overly critical of Apple — anyone pushing for open web standards deserves kudos — but the company seems more deeply concerned with digging Flash’s grave than it does with promoting semantic markup,” Calore wrote.
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A month ago, the world saw Apple as equal parts North Pole and KGB—unpredictably innovative and notoriously secretive, they were a force wielded by nothing less than magic. Then, an elf got loose. More »
We took apart the next iPhone.
There are a number of interesting facts gained from the dissection, the most important of which is more concrete confirmation (as if we needed any more) that this phone is from Apple. There are three separate places, inside the case, where “APPLE” is written prominently.
Upon unscrewing the bottom two screws — just like with the 3GS — you can use a suction cup and pry off the back portion of the phone, not the front like on iFixit’s 3GS teardown. Once open, you’ll notice that the battery takes up around 50 percent of the phone, give or take. Very impressive.
Diving deeper becomes much trickier. There are a total of around 40 to 50 screws inside the phone, positioned at various angles that are almost frustratingly impossible to get to. Components can be removed and detached from other components. There are a handful of pieces like this, but you don’t know which ones are meant to detach, because you don’t have the manual. Once you get all the screws off and pry off the pieces that connect the micro-SIM, the camera, the on/off switch and volume buttons, you’re ready to access the brains.
With the iPhone (actually, with all current Apple products), we have swapped the removable battery for the exo-battery, an add-on dongle or case that gives a power boost. The advantage is that these are bigger than a simple swap-in replacement and can hold more juice. The disadvantage is that they are bigger than the iPhone, causing unsightly pocket bulges.
MiLi’s Powerskin fixes this, squeezing an extra battery into a case barely bigger than an iPhone case alone. The 1,200mAH lithium polymer battery will double battery life, and you can plug in to charge and/or dock the iPhone while it is still in the case.
The kit also comes with MiLi’s PocketPal, a tiny plastic chunk of charger which is about the same size as the little iPhone USB charging brick, only it also has retractable prongs to save space. The kit, which comes in a candy-store of colors, will cost you $60, around the same as most other chargers of this type. Available now.
Powerskin [MiLi. Thanks, Brad!]
It’s a little past January, but it’s not like you’ve had too much trouble burning through your credit limit these past few months anyway, right? VeriFone — that company responsible for the other iPhone credit card accessory — has just announced that its slip-up case is now available in Apple retail stores. For those unaware, this card reader works on all iPhone 3G and 3GS handsets, and there’s a built-in stylus for capturing signatures from those arguably shady street-corner transactions that you’ll be engaging in. Best of all, the device and app are totally free assuming you agree to a 2-year service contract and a $49 “activation fee,” but we’d caution you to read through the fine print under “merchant fees” before tossing away too much of that profit margin.
Continue reading VeriFone Payware Mobile iPhone now available in Apple retail outlets, your CC weeps
VeriFone Payware Mobile iPhone now available in Apple retail outlets, your CC weeps originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Apr 2010 06:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Color us unsurprised, but it’s still notable to hear that Adobe is stopping investment in its software’s capability to port content over to iPhone OS. The company’s great hope on this front, Packager for iPhone, will still ship as part of Flash CS5 as planned, but beyond that Adobe is essentially giving up on Apple’s mobile OS until further notice. In spite of being repeatedly rebuffed by Jobs and company before, the Flash maker had kept up hope that it could sway (or nag) Apple into validating its wares, but the final straw in this relationship seems to have been Apple’s dev tool lockdown. So what will Adobe do now? Principal Product Manager Mike Chambers tells us that Android is doing kind of okay and his company will shift its attentions to it and other mobile platforms. Of course, we’re just giving you the cleaned up version — for the full finger-pointing diatribe against Apple, you’ll have to hit the source link.
Update: Right on cue, here’s Apple’s terse response: “Someone has it backwards–it is HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and H.264 (all supported by the iPhone and iPad) that are open and standard, while Adobe’s Flash is closed and proprietary.”
Adobe halts investment in iPhone-specific Flash dev tools, has another dig at Apple (update: Apple responds) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Apr 2010 03:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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