woikr » iPhone

Four generations of iPhone compared

Setu — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:23:07 +0000

Here is a video of the four generations of iPhone doing the exact same things simultaneously.

The iPhone 4 came top in most of the cases, loosing out only in shutdown time to original iPhone and startup time to the 3GS.

Four Generations of the iPhone from Chris Pinnock on Vimeo.

[via TUAW & Geeky Gadgets]

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White iPhone 4 delayed further to “later this year”

Setu — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:12:36 +0000

Bad news for people who are waiting for the white iPhone 4. Apparently, Apple is facing some manufacturing challenges in producing the white model. In a press statement released today, Apple has told that the white iPhone 4 will not be available until later this year.

Here is the full statement:

White models of Apple’s new iPhone® 4 have continued to be more challenging to manufacture than we originally expected, and as a result they will not be available until later this year. The availability of the more popular iPhone 4 black models is not affected.

[via PR News]

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iPhone 4 coming to India through Vodafone

Swaroop — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 11:14:22 +0000

Now that the much awaited iPhone 4 is announced. The iPhone lovers (read “Apple fans”) in India are craving to get a hands on this baby. (Count me in there)

Vodafone has confirmed that it’s going to bring this amazing gadget to India in the coming months. Hope that’s soon.

We at woikr surely won’t wait for a year to own this (Call your friends in the US/UK/Europe to get you one). Start saving for this folks. It’s well worth it.

[via Pluggd.in]

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iPhone 4 is here, feature roundup

Swaroop — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 11:56:11 +0000

The iPhone 4 and iOS4 got announced on June 7th, 2010. It’s pretty close (read as “same”) to the leaked iPhone prototype that Gizmodo “found in a bar”.

As Steve Jobs said in the keynote, this is the “biggest leap since the original iPhone”. It indeed is, read further to know why

The core features of this iPhone 4 are

Retina Display brings 4times more pixels – Sending the resolution of the iPhone to 960×640.
IPS Display – Better Wide-Angle viewing (like the iPad)
Contrast Ratio of 800:1 which is 4 times better than iPhone 3G(S)
HD Video recording – Records videos at 720p (it’s HD)
Frontal camera for Video chat – We’ve had this for ages, but without proper network support. Finally we have it. FaceTime any one?
New Apple A4 processor – Developed by Apple’s own team. Supposedly manages power better.
Better battery life – More calls, more surfing. Yay!
Gyro + Accelerometer – 6 Axis motion detection – Awesome games to come up using this.
5MP Camera with LED Flash and 5x Digital Zoom
802.11n – Yes WiFi ‘n’ ready.
Dual Mike for Noise cancellation – Yes, now you don’t have to push your phone into your ear and talk less louder.. will ya.
New Stainless steel body to make it studier in case of accidental fall.
24% thinner than iPhone 3GS – Surely gonna fit well in my pocket.
New glass material used in aircrafts and high speed trains which is 12 times harder than plastic. I am sure there’ll be a group of users who’ll still manage to break it.

The iOS4.0 as earlier announced provides

The OS can now support Multi tasking applications. So you can now listen to music, surf the web and tweet at the same time.. Aah paradise.
Has Video chat as earlier discovered by curious developers for the folks who wish to get “closer”.
Unified Inbox – Much awaited, helps manage multiple email boxes (I’ve got 5) and threaded conversations to make life easier.
iBooks – For the book worms in iPhone users
Folders – so that you can manage/group/categorize your apps together.
Home screen wallpaper
Tap to focus in Video
Spell checker

And tens of other features (100 new features).

The new iPhone is to be released in 5 countries on June 24th (pre orders starting from June 15th 2010) at a price tag of 199$ for the 16GB iPhone and 299$ for 32GB iPhone. You can bid the 2 year old iPhone 3G good bye like how iPhone 2G was killed off with the release of iPhone 3G(S).

Check out some other pictures of the iPhone are below

Go to Apple’s iPhone4 Gallery to catch up more. So what are you waiting for, Go and watch the Apple WWDC 2010 Keynote.

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iPhone OS 4 will bring Orientation lock, File sharing & iPod controls

Setu — Thu, 06 May 2010 06:13:33 +0000

As developers start using Apple’s latest iPhone OS 4 beta 3, they find hidden/updated features. BGR has revealed a few features which everyone always wanted:

File Sharing
You will now be able to transfer files between your iPhone and you computer. There will be a new “Apps” tab in iTunes where all the user modifiable files for a given app will be available for downloading to your computer. You will also be able to upload files to your iPhone using this screen.
Orientation Lock
This is something that I have always wanted. Currently I have to use the jailbroken app “Rotation Inhibitor” for this. It will be great to have an inbuilt support for this. Using this feature, you can lock the screen in portrait mode so that it does not rotate to landscape when you tilt the device. This is particularly useful when you want to read something while laying down. To enable orientation lock, you simply have to fire up the multitasking interface, swipe to the left and click the Portrait Lock icon.
New Media Player controls
The multitasking dock now offers iPod controls. To access them, just swipe left.
Faster way to close apps
To close apps running in background, now you just have to press and hold the icon of one of the applications currently running, and you’ll be given the option to close them.

[BGR via iPhoneIndia]

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Wanna eat iPhone apps?

Setu — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 06:28:07 +0000

Just stumbled upon these amazing iPhone app icon chocolates:

They are called iChocolates and available to order at etsy.

[via This is awesome]

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iPhone 4G – Leaked

Swaroop — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 04:04:51 +0000

So, it just happened to be a regular day when an Apple Employee (I hope still) Gray Powell had too much to drink and left behind a well confiscated iPhone next generation phone (or its near production prototype) in a bar.

It’s a real deal for sure. The phone was working for a day before Apple remotely wiped it out. But it was too late, much before one of “the other drunk” guy in the bar opened the Facebook application and logged into as Gray.

The Gizmodo folks acquired the phone and ripped the phone apart to find out the parts neatly fitted and this doesn’t look like a prank/spoof phone, which does imply that this could be the model which is due to be released by Apple in June 2010.

The new things noticed were

A frontal camera – Glad we can finally video conference, Girls *Ahem* can use it as a makeup mirror too.
New phone design – the back of the phone is flat and no longer curvy.
Separate volume buttons instead of a single button as earlier – some say this could be used for a hard button for clicking pictures on the camera application.
Better battery life (5.25 WHr at 3.7V) – The one in iPhone 3GS was 4.51 WHr at 3.7V.
Fits well in your pant pockets and purses & possible doesn’t rotate on vibrate
Really unstable version of iPhone OS 4.0 – The camera app seems to have crashed a couple of times.
A mini printer – Okay I admit – I made up the last one.

There are several arguments that this could be a controlled leak to suppress the “possible” attention that HTC Incredible (Android based) might be getting.

We at woikr are happy if Apple finally treats “Android” as a pure competition. After all, competition is good.
Remember the old days when people used Windows mobile “not-so-smart phones” and said “wow” – You’d laugh at them now – won’t ya?

Although this sounds something which can happen to your neighborhood friend, this doesn’t happen very frequently with Apple – what with all the “secrecy” surrounding their product announcements. They’re really careful. Most employees aren’t even allowed to blog publicly. We just hope Gray gets to keep his job.

He doesn’t want to come under the fury of Steve Jobs.

Thanks Gizmodo & the “random beer drinking”, “latest iPhone finding” guy for ruining the “summer” surprise and possibly ruining the career of an innocent beer drinking, base band engineer. And don’t be surprised if you’re not invited to the Apple Events ever again .

We just hope some day Steve gets you. If I were you – I’d change my name and settle in .

We’ll just wait till summer to upgrade our iPhone(s) as it doesn’t matter – we’ll buy it anyway – It’ll just be better .

[Via Gizmodo. Thanks & RadiPad for the angry Steve Jobs pic]

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Video Chat on the next iPhone [Rumors]

Chirag — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 11:39:08 +0000

While digging through the iPhone OS 4.0 files, 9to5Mac came across multiple strings and files that hint the inclusion of video chat on the next iPhone model. The content found indicates the presence of iChat like sound files and one-to-one as well as multiple client video conferencing features.

I personally never cared about iChat/IM apps on the iPhone since it just isn’t convenient enough. SMS is always better because it gives you time to type comfortably while the reply is coming but that could just be me.

Anyhow, the ability to video chat straight from your iPhone sounds amazing! Imagine going to a cricket match and getting your face painted and calling all your friends and family to show how you look. Or going to a Radiohead concert and showing it live to your friends. I know this can be done with Qik too but it’s just one-way. You can’t look at the smile on the faces when you show them amazing stuff. Or calling up your parents from your new apartment and showing them the view from the balcony. The possibilities are endless.

If it wasn’t Apple I’d probably wish for a standard IM protocol like Jabber so anyone with a device that has a Jabber client (most computers and smartphones do) can video chat with people having iPhones. But I know it isn’t happening. All I wish for is that they allow calls between iChat on iPhone and iChat on the computer. And they should launch an iChat for Windows and Linux. With the sheer number of people that own iPhones nowadays, It’d be a killer app.

This rumor gives me (and many iPhone 2G owners) a good enough reason to wait for the next iPhone. I just can’t wait for the Keynote where Steve Jobs announces this. Just imagine the kind of adjectives he will use.

[via MobileCrunch and 9to5Mac]

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Apple announces iPhone OS 4 with multitasking

Setu — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 05:43:32 +0000

Alas. Our prayers have been answered. Apple announced the next iteration of its iPhone OS – version 4 yesterday. And finally, succumbing to criticism around the lack of multitasking, they have added the feature in this version.

First, here is a full list of features in the next version:

Multitasking – Run multiple apps simultaneously.
App folders – To arrange apps in folders on the home screen.
Game Center – An online gaming network like Xbox live.
iBooks– The iPad app ported to the iPhone.
Custom backgrounds – Yes, you can now have a wallpaper even on the home screen.
Unified Mail – See emails from multiple account in one unified Inbox.
iAd – Apple’s mobile advertising platform for the iPhone OS.
5x digital zoom
Bluetooth keyboard support

That is a neat set of features. According to Apple, their approach to multitasking is way more efficient and smarter than traditional ones. In the iPhone OS, when an app is running in background, it will only be allowed to carry out a few tasks. These tasks, according to Apple, cover all that most background apps need to do. This saves battery life and memory as the app is not running in its full fraternity. The allowed tasks are:

Audio
VoIP
Location
Push notifications
Local notifications – Apps can notify other apps when then need focus.
Task completion – To complete an ongoing task such as upload a bunch of photos.
Fast app switching – Something to make switching to any of the running apps really fast.

The new OS will be available to iPhone and iPod Touch users this summer (June-July). Here is the compatibility list:

iPhone 3GS & iPod Touch 3rd gen – Full support.
iPhone 3G & iPod Touch 2G – Partial support. No multitasking. Yes .
iPhone 2G & iPod Touch 1G – No support (Time to upgrade!)

Not supporting the original iPhone and the iPod Touch is understandable as they are really very old devices and probably do not have the necessary hardware. However, iPhone 3G is currently being sold by Apple and there might be people who have bought it in the recent past. They are going to be furious over the lack of multitasking. Apple’s stand on this is – ‘the iPhone 3G and iPod Touch 2G both have only 128 MB of RAM which is not enough to support multitasking smoothly’. Can’t blame them for ensuring that their customers have a smooth OS, but if this is the case, they should’ve really stopped selling iPhone 3G a few months back.

The iPad will support all the above mentioned features. However, the update won’t be available until Fall 2010 for iPad. This is probably because the iPhone OS is built for the iPhone and then customized for other devices which takes some time.

No word on pricing, but analysts are expecting the same pricing model – free for iPhone and 10$ for iPod Touch for this one as well. The update for iPad should ideally be free as well.

You can watch the event here and get a sneak peak here. Here are some screenshots of the latest OS from TUAW:

Head on to TUAW for more.

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Airtel launches iPhone 3GS in India, no surprises

Setu — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 07:19:04 +0000

Looks like iPhone 3GS is finally hitting the Indian shores on 26 March 2010. Bharti Airtel announced the availability of the iPhone 3GS on its network in a press release on 24 March 2010.

As expected, the price of the phone is absurdly high. Here is a run down:

Model	Price (INR)
iPhone 3GS 16GB	35,500
iPhone 3GS 32GB	41,500

As you can see both Bharti Airtel and Apple executives in India have gone out of their mind. Selling a phone which is available at $299 in the US at $780 in India is not only foolish, but a bad business move. Whatever happened to Apple’s goal to put iPhone in as many hands as possible? Indian consumers are probably the most cost-conscious buyers in the world, and doing this will only hurt Apple’s business here as it is anyways touted as an “expensive” brand here.

Airtel is throwing in 500 MB of free data every month for the first year for iPhone 3GS buyers in India. Apparently, they fail to understand that someone who would buy a phone priced at > 30k in India probably won’t mind paying 100 rupees per month for a GPRS plan.

It is clearly evident that Apple is planning to launch the next version of the iPhone in the US this summer and wants to get rid of the existing stock of iPhone 3GS and 3G by selling them in the third world countries at high prices. To put salt on the wounds, they have decreased the price of iPhone 3G 8GB model by 1500 INR to 29,500. Yeah. Thanks and fuck you.

What’s next? An iPad priced at 50k? And they wonder why people buy stuff from US when its also available in India.

[via airtel.in]

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iPhone 3GS finally coming to India on 15th March? [Rumors]

Setu — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:51:44 +0000

There are rumors that iPhone 3GS may finally be hitting Indian shores officially as soon (late?) as Monday 15th March 2010.

Apparently, the phone will be available from 4 operators – Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel & Reliance and will be locked to the respective networks for 1 or 2 years.

Based on past experience, it can be easily said that the phone will be priced absurdly high. We will not be surprised if the 16GB model is priced at around 30k and the 32GB one at around 6 – 7k more than that. For those who think the price is reasonable as there is no contract, note that that phone will still be locked to the network of the operator you buy it from. You just have the choice to select whatever plan you might feel like.

I believe this is Apple’s strategy to quickly get rid of whatever extra inventory they might have before the next version is launched in June. This is what all companies usually do – Sell surplus inventory to 3rd world countries. Been to music stores lately? Seen the buttload of international DVDs on the shelves? Its all part of the strategy to clear the DVDs stock to make room for the Blu Ray discs in the “developed” countries.

Lets see how many iPhone 3GS Apple manages to sell in India after their pathetic experience with iPhone 3G sales here.

[via Fonearena]

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A free iPhone app everyday

Chirag — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:34:51 +0000

Just like at Christmas, some good people are giving away 1 iPhone app free everyday. Today’s app (Reign of Swords) is apparently the winner of Spike TV’s Video Game Awards “Best Hardcore Mobile Game” of 2008.

It does take some time visiting the website everyday but heck, I can do that for a free, potentially good game

Free App A Day

[via - Gizmodo]

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The $1000 iPhone app

Chirag — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 06:29:57 +0000

We finally have a proper iPhone app that costs more than a frickin MacBook! Yes, we remember the “I am Rich” app but let’s face it, it was only meant for show-off and lasted only a few days before Apple pulled it out.

BarMax was designed by Harvard lawyers to help law students pass the Bar exam. It consists of a full 2 month course including audio lectures, practice tests and more. As of now, it’s meant only for the California Bar exam but BarBri plans to launch the app for other popular states by the end of this year. In case you want to try before spending that hard earned money (duh!) there is a free trial version of the app.

And just FYI, the second most expensive app isn’t too far off. It’s a video surveillance app called iRa Pro and will cost you $899.99!

[via - Gizmodo]

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How to upgrade and unlock your iPhone using blackra1n

Swaroop — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:36:41 +0000

Update 1 (23rd March 2010) – Avoid iPhone firmware 3.1.3

This time, the unlock is best said – “short and sweet”. For this you need little or no technical expertise and works out of the box.
I know we’re late at posting this info, but better late than never. For the regular readers, here you go.

To upgrade all you need is

Your iPhone – Hope that’s still in one piece.
iPhone Firmware 3.1.2 – (2G | 3G | 3GS) – Choose the right firmware according to your model.
blackra1n unlocking software.

The upgrade process is the similar as explained in our earlier articles, but I am putting that here anyway.

Step 0. Backup your iPhone (skip this if its a new iPhone/or you wish to setup a new iPhone i.e loose your previous settings/mail configurations ..yada…yada)

Step 1. Restore your iPhone to the latest firmware 3.1.2 using iTunes. On the summary tab, hold shift (OPTION key for Mac) and click on Restore. Browse and select the iPhone firmware 3.0 file downloaded above. iTunes will restore the phone using this firmware. This step will take approx 10 – 15 minutes.

Step 2. Execute the blackra1n software

Step 3. Click on ‘make it ra1n’ and that’s it.

That’s all you need to unlock the iPhone (for 2G version, for 3G and 3GS – read till last step). You don’t have to worry about DFU mode/boot rooms etc.
After the process ends the phone will reboot.

Step 4. Restore from backup or Setup a new iPhone.

Connect to iTunes and you’ll be presented with a restore from backup screen. Use it to restore from backup.

Step 5. Installing Cydia or Rock from the blackra1n application.

For those who were wondering that Cydia was missing – Cydia has to be explicitly installed by launching the blackra1n application on the iPhone (Check for the application with a black rain drop icon). There’s also a new installer named ‘Rock’ along with Cydia. Try it out and let us know.

Tip: You can use Apt-Backup to backup the list of Jailbroken applications and reinstall them after the upgrade.

Step 6. If you’re using an iPhone 2G. You’re already done. If you’re using iPhone 3G or 3GS. Proceed with this step

Open the blackra1n application and install “Snow”. That should unlock your iPhone 3G and 3Gs. More details here.

UPDATE1 (23rd March 2010) – The latest firmware i.e 3.1.3 doesn’t have any feature updates – If you have an iPhone and wish to jailbreak and unlock it (now or in the near future) – Avoid it if at all possible. Also beware of the scam sites promising a paid unlock.

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The missing iPhone key

Chirag — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:11:40 +0000

A friend just made me realize that the iPhone (and iPod Touch) keyboard does not show a backtick (`) key on it’s keyboard when you are typing into text boxes. I tried every possible combination but no, it just wasn’t there. And to tease us mortals, it appears automagically in the email keyboard. Imagine the fate of those (like my sad friend) who have backticks in their passwords.

Now seriously, what is stopping them from doing this apart from being a snob. For fuck’s sake they have keys like (¿) and (¡) on the iPhone keyboard!