Hasta La Gadget!

While iOS 4 is delivering on every promise for the iPhone 3GS users out there, as we were all told up front, the iPhone 3G would be missing some of those touted new features. Granted, we knew such disparities would exist but were never given the finer details. Now that the final build is percolating through the internet, we decided to take a look at what features are and aren’t working on the earlier year’s model.

What’s there

• Folders
• Threaded mail
• iTunes playlist creation / editing
• 5x digital zoom: just tap on the display near the capture button, but be warned, it doesn’t paint a pretty picture
• iBooks: we were having issues with the earlier build, but it seems to be running fine after today’s official download — PDFs work, too.
• Photos: you can now sort by albums, events, faces, and places
• Game Center: the icon is present, but as of this writing we’re unable to connect to the servers. (Update: a number of readers saying it didn’t come with today’s download. We nabbed ours as a gold build, which might explain the discrepancy despite still being considered “up to date” by iTunes.)
• Spell check has been updated
• Spotlight search: you can search the web and Wikipedia from the home screen search bar. That said, not all our queries — “Engadget,” for example — weren’t offering the option. [Thanks, jkane08]

What isn’t

• Multitasking: this is the big one. Double-tapping the home button doesn’t give you the handy menu, there’s no fast app switching, and background use is missing in action.
• Screen lock: normally in the multitasking menu (which isn’t available on 3G), it’s nowhere to be found, even under Settings. Bummer.
• Home screen wallpaper: you’d think this simple addition would make the cut, but sadly no. The dock has been given a visual upgrade, though.
• Bluetooth Keyboard support: we haven’t tried this ourselves, but an influx of reports from Twitter suggest this is also a no-go.
  

We’ll keep testing, but be sure to let us know your own discoveries below!

iPhone 3G, iOS 4, and you — what’s missing (spoiler: multitasking) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 19:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Right on time, Apple has unleashed iOS 4 for owners of the iPhone product codes 1,2, 2,1, and 3,1 — in other words, the 3G, 3GS, and yet-unreleased iPhone 4. Owners of more recent iPod touches are also in luck. Interestingly, the build is 8A293 — the exact same that was released to developers before as a GM seed — so Apple apparently found no showstoppers pressing enough to necessitate a new build before pushing it to the public at large. It’s coming up in iTunes now, so go on — what are you waiting for?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

iOS 4 now available for your iPhone 3G, 3GS, newer-generation iPod touches originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You may not think to look at ASRock when considering a new pre-fabricated HTPC, but the company had two new SFF boxes at Computex that could certainly suffice. The Vision 3D (available in black / silver and with or without a Blu-ray drive) was the sleeker of the two, with a minuscule form factor that could easily be tucked beneath your cable box and a Core i5-520M CPU at the helm. Other specs include NVIDIA GeForce 300 / 400 series graphics, 4GB of DDR3 memory, a 2.5-inch 500GB hard drive, slot-loading optical drive, 7.1-channel audio (with a fancy THX certification logo, to boot), gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n WiFi and a bundled remote. The other guy (Core 100 / 200 series) looks an awful lot like the S330 that we spotted at CeBIT last year, offering a Core i3-330M CPU, integrated Intel graphics, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a Blu-ray combo drive and the same general port arrangement as the Vision 3D. Both units will ship with Windows 7 Home Premium, though no pricing or release date information was available.

In related news, the company was also showing off its newly released AIWI solution, which consists of an iPod touch / iPhone app and a lightweight application that runs on ASRock motherboards in order to allow for motion control gaming with an iDevice you already own. The demo that we saw here in Taiwan was perfectly seamless, and the responsiveness was on par with Nintendo’s Wiimote. Apparently this is designed to be used exclusively with ASRock mobos (whereas similar alternatives from Sixense can work with any setup), but it’s still a solid addition for those who tend to end up with ASRock-labeled gear. Enough yappin’ — head on past the break to catch the action yourself.

Continue reading ASRock AIWI turns your iPhone / iPod touch into HTPC motion controller (video)

ASRock AIWI turns your iPhone / iPod touch into HTPC motion controller (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Jun 2010 01:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We know that this next bit of information will most likely shock and upset you, but it has to be told: the current Engadget editor doesn’t own an iPod dock. In fact, he doesn’t even own an alarm clock. Of course, it would be nice to listen to Pandora or the BBC’s Desert Island Disks without switching on the computer during those rare times when we weren’t working — but it was never a priority. Not a priority, that is, until we laid eyes on that cute Alarm Clock app (or, at least, a cardboard simulation thereof) at CES. Now that we have had the iLuv App Station in our hot little hands (and on our bedside table) for a week, the jury is in. Is iLuv’s App Station all that it’s cracked up to be? Read on, dear readers, to find out.

Continue reading iLuv App Station Review

iLuv App Station Review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 May 2010 12:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wi-Fi Sync is quite the gem (at least we think so) but it had some limitations — namely, it only worked on OS X for desktop, and only with iPhone / iPod touch. Developer Greg Hughes pinged us earlier today to let us know he’s thrown the gates off such restrictions. The jailbroken app now works for both iPads and Windows — XP, Vista, and 7. The desktop client is free to download but it still cost just a hair under $10 for the appropriate mobile device. Worth the price of breaking free from wires? Your call.

Wi-Fi Sync now compatible with Windows and iPad originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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