Google Latitude Comes to the App Store

December 15, 2010


posted by Eric Slivka on Monday December 13, 2010 10:17 AM on MacRumours

Google today officially debuted its Google Latitude application on the App Store, bringing a native iOS app experience to users of the company’s location-sharing service for the first time.

With Google Latitude, see where your friends are right now. Latitude lets you stay in touch with your friends and family by making it easy to share where you are and see each other on a map.

With Latitude, you can:
- See your friends on a map – find out who’s nearby and meet up.
- Share your location continuously with whomever you choose – help friends and family stay in touch with you, even when you can’t take out your phone.
- Control your privacy – share only city-level location, hide your location, or turn off background updating at any time.

The application briefly went live in some countries last week, but was quickly pulled for unknown reasons. That version was labeled 1.0.0, while today’s version is labeled 2.0.0.346, so perhaps a significant issue with the initial release was discovered as it was being rolled out.

Google Latitude launched in February 2009, but did not initially offer support for iPhone users. The company rolled out a web app version of Google Latitude for iPhone users in July 2009, noting that Apple had requested that Google utilize a web app rather than a native App Store app over fears that users might confuse a Google Latitude app with the built-in Maps app on iOS.

Back in September, Apple published its App Store review guidelines for the first time, increasing transparency and relaxing some of the earlier restrictions on App Store content.

Filed under Apple, Apple iPhone

Toshiba and Apple to Invest $1.2 Billion in Factory to Produce iPhone LCDs

December 15, 2010


posted by Eric Slivka on Monday December 13, 2010 02:02 PM on MacRumours


Reuters reports on an article in Japan’s Nikkei newspaper revealing that Toshiba is planning to invest nearly $1.2 billion in a new factory to make small LCD panels, with the plant being targeted primarily to supply Apple with displays for its small iOS devices like the iPhone. Apple is also said to be investing money in the new facility.

The company’s wholly owned unit, Toshiba Mobile Display Co, will construct the facility in Ishikawa prefecture and the plant will churn out low-temperature polysilicon LCD panels, which allow for high-resolution images, the paper said.

Work on the plant will start by early next year, with the production due to begin in the second half of 2011, Nikkei said.

The forthcoming facility is said to allow Toshiba to more than double its existing capacity of about 8.5 million units per month.

Toshiba has been reported as one of the suppliers of the LCD panel for the iPhone 3GS, and is thought by some to also be involved with the Retina display of the iPhone 4, although the individual parts carry only Apple branding.

Update: In an updated version of the article, Reuters notes that a Toshiba spokesman has denied that such a commitment has been made.

A Toshiba spokesman said the report was untrue and nothing had been decided regarding a new plant to build LCD panels for Apple.

Filed under Apple, Mobiles

Apple Pulls Jailbreak Detection API From iOS

December 15, 2010


posted by Eric Slivka on Monday December 13, 2010 04:18 PM on MacRumours


Late last week, Network World reported that Apple has quietly removed from iOS an application programming interface (API) that could detect jailbroken devices. The API had been used by several mobile device management applications to help corporate system administrators determine whether jailbroken devices that could pose a risk due to malware installation were running on their networks.

The new API was part of a bundle of mobile device management (MDM) APIs released in June with iOS 4.0. These APIs were available to third-party MDM applications, such as AirWatch or Sybase’s Afaria. With the new APIs, these servers could access directly a range of features and information in iOS or on the device. But in the recently-released 4.2 version, the API intended for detecting jailbreaks has been either removed or disabled.

The report notes that jailbreaking is a constant cat-and-mouse game that could have seen procedures developed to defeat Apple’s API, and thus the addition may have been of limited utility. It remains unknown, however, why Apple chose to disable it in iOS 4.2.

Jailbreaking is commonly employed to allow users to install unauthorized third-party applications to their devices or to make tweaks to their iOS systems. Due to the ability for jailbroken devices to have security features built into iOS circumvented, many corporate customers have been interested in keeping tabs on their employees’ devices in order to ensure the integrity of their computing infrastructure. While third-party vendors have employed other means of working to detect jailbroken devices, Apple’s removal of the dedicated API for revealing such information leaves questions about why the company has made such access more difficult.

Filed under Apple, Apple iPhone, Internet, Mobiles

The US Army Wants To Give Smartphones To Every Soldier

December 15, 2010


By Adrian Covert on December 14, 2010 at 6:00 PM on Gizmodo

With the billions of dollars the US Army spends in state-of-the-art technology, they’re now looking for a battlefield advantage from a more common device: the smartphone. And they want to give one to every soldier enlisted. It’s like extreme Oprah.

Though it’s still in the early stages of planning, USA Today says the Army would like to give an iPhone or an Android-based handset to every soldier, plus pay for the bill. They believe the versitile nature of these devices – with their ability to display maps, intelligence, translate and allow battlefield communication – will make troops more effective in action. They’d even like phones to collect biometric data from enemies.

But it doesn’t stop there: they’d also like to incorporate such devices as iPads, Kindles, Nooks and other “connected” mobile devices of the like.

Currently, they’re distributing smartphones to soldiers in specialised training programs and plan to begin field testing with smartphones in February. Besides the gathering and distribution of these devices, other challenges include ruggedising the devices and providing secure networks for soldiers to use. But if all goes well, widespread use of these phones could happen as early as next year. [USA Today]

Photo Credit: Annie Gammell, Army Times

Filed under Android, Apple iPhone, Mobiles

iPad Tops Business Insider’s “Biggest Tech Winner” List for 2010

December 15, 2010


by Alex Jordan on December 14th, 2010 on iSource

Screen shot 2010-12-14 at 9.09.38 PM.png

Business Insider has released their “Biggest Tech Winners of 2010“, and guess who’s at the top- iPad. Not to be forgotten, iPhone 4 made it to number 10 on the list.

Also worth noting, several other winners on the list would not exist if the iPad or the iPhone didn’t. For instance, Flipboard made #15 on the list, or the Kleiner Perkins’ iFund at #8, or, of course, Angry Birds made it to #3.

Everything on the list are good picks. Everything from the Motorola Droid, to the Amazon Kindle, to the Microsoft Kinect- all are really great products.

Filed under Apple, Apple iPad

Apple Pushes Out iOS 4.2.1 Software Update for Apple TV

December 15, 2010


by Alex Jordan on December 14th, 2010 on iSource

162257-apple_tv_black.jpg

Apple has released iOS 4.2.1 for the new Apple TV. This build (8C154) is currently showing up for some Apple TV users, but not all. Apple’s support document has a summary of what is included in the update. Specifically, fixes for a problem with HD TVs that incorrectly display at 480p, and an issue that causes movies or TV shows to re-downloaded.

This update comes less than a month after Apple pushed iOS 4.2 to Apple TV users on November 22nd.

To download the update, navigate to Settings > Genera > Update Software.

Filed under Apple

Funny pic of the day…

December 15, 2010


My boss sent this to me this morning, I needed a laugh!


Filed under Internet, Uncategorized, Weird Shite

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