Theme Of The Week: LiveOS, z | ui, iAluminum HD

LiveOS
bluemetal

LiveOS, an iPhone 4 theme, is designed by bluemetal. This theme is specifically designed with widgets in mind, creating a rather customizable design. The background contains an animated weather image with rain, clouds, snow, a moving sun and moon. 

The theme includes a slick black UI, and Themed Apps such as Safari, Mail, Clock, Camera, Photos, Calendar, Notes, Settings, Ipod, iTunes, Maps, Compass, and the AppStore. Along with many other features. It comes in English, German and French languages. 

Available in Cydia for $2.99

http://modmyi.com/forums/iphone-4-ne...44-liveos.html

z | ui
zausser

Another brilliant piece from zausser. z | ui, touts the phrase "sometimes less is more..." and in the case of this theme, it's true. And best of all, it's free! 

Don't waste any time, head over to the forums now to see the rest of the screenshots! 

http://modmyi.com/forums/iphone-4-ne...less-more.html

iAluminum HD
nerddownthestreet

While rather simplistic, it's a nice refresh on the eye. The theme comes with a template to make your own aluminum icons as well, which should be fairly simple even for a beginner.

The author has said he will soon include an iAcces keyboard, More SBSettings toggles, and of course, More Icons

This theme can be purchased in Cydia for $1.50.

http://modmyi.com/forums/iphone-4-ne...uminum-hd.html

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1 Huron Street
Takapuna, North Shore 0622
Tel: (09) 551-5344, Mob: (021) 117-2222

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Apple: White iPhone 4 More Difficult to Manufacture

According to Apple's prepared statement, the paler shade of the iPhone 4 is proving to be more challenging to manufacture. As such, Apple has pushed back the launch date of the white model to the second half of July though the company did not state what difficulties it had encountered in making the white edition. Apple was keen to point out that the black iPhone model was not affected by the manufacturing process. |
Various retailers have noted that the white model would not be available at launch and when the iPhone 4 was made available for pre-order on June 15th, Apple listed only the black model as available.

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1 Huron Street
Takapuna, North Shore 0622
Tel: (09) 551-5344, Mob: (021) 117-2222

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Chat With Apple's Tim Cook Hints To A Cheaper iPhone And More

Apple's COO Tim Cook, and the Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi, recently sat down for a little one on one, and lots of things were revealed in the conversation. The whole purpose of the interview was to talk about Apple's business strategy, but for some reason Sacconaghi simply couldn't hold it until his interview got published and decided to spill the beans on some interesting things that are going on at Cupertino: 

While Tim stopped short of explicitly stating that Apple would pursue a lower price iPhone, he did state that Apple was working hard to "figure out" the prepaid market and that Apple didn't want its products to be "just for the rich," but "for everyone"; he also stated that Apple "understood price is big factor in the prepaid market" and that the company was "not ceding any market." Cook noted that Apple executives – including himself – had spent "huge energy" in China, noting that it is "a classic prepaid market." He further noted that the handset distribution model was poorly constructed and that Apple would look to "innovate" and do "clever" things in addressing that market. 

Again, the chat isn't really specific, but the whole prepaid market comments are the most interesting. Surely Apple is after making their iPhone fall in the hands of everyone they can in the market through a price drop, but making the full cost of ownership become affordable for people on a pre-paid service is genius. Many third world countries prefer this system because credit approvals stop being a limitation, and cash flows into the business before the user ever spends the services the carriers will provide. Time will tell if this ever holds water for the next generation iPhone launch somewhere in the summer. 

iPad 2 Has 512 MB Memory: Report

Probably the most significant new feature of the iPad 2 (except, I guess, for those planning on carrying it around like a very big camera) is the new A5 processor. Apple's claiming twice the performance and up to nine times the graphics power. As usual, though, they were mum on the details of what's inside the chip. A (so far unsubstantiated) report out today, though, says that not only has Apple included the same 512 MB of memory in the iPad 2 as the iPhone 4, but also that it's faster LPDDR2 RAM.

During the iPad 2 announcement, Apple gave only the vaguest idea of what's under the hood. They did refer to a dual-core 1GHz ARM processor and a faster graphics chip. Apple habitually refrains from publishing specs on iPad and iPhone internals, preferring to focus on performance claims (10 hours of battery life, twice as fast, etc). They've never said how much RAM is in any of their devices: we only find out after a chip has been torn down. In the rumor stream leading up to Wednesday's announcement, it was reported that the iPad 2 would get 512 MB of RAM, like the iPhone 4, and that the memory bus speed would be boosted to 1066 MHz instead of the 800 MHz of the A4.

This report is apparently being bolstered by  a tweet from Korean analyst Kakeun Lee in response to reports that the new tablet has the same amount of RAM as the first-generation iPad. Contradicting an Apple employee at a press demo in London who claimed the iPad 2 has only 256 MB of memory, Lee stated that the A5 has 512MB of LPDDR2 SDRAM. Low power double data rate synchronous DRAM was used in the A4 to lower overall power consumption to deliver more power without sacrificing battery life. The second generation, LPDDR2, runs the memory core and I/O at 1.2 V, a significant savings over the 1.8 V required by the A4's LPDDR1 SDRAM. It also runs at 1066 MHz (properly, 1066 million transfers per second) as opposed the the 800 Mtransfers/sec on the A4, again in line with earlier reports.

We won't know for sure, of course, until the guys at iFixit get their mitts on an iPad 2 in a week's time. However, it'd be very surprising if Apple didn't stay ahead of the curve here. With many smartphones and tablets getting Qualcomm's second-generation Snapdragon SoC with LPDDR2 RAM this year, Apple wouldn't be able to hide behind unpublished specs for long.

Samsung VP Calls Their Own Tablet "Inadequate"

The iPad 2 announcement has met with favorable reviews pretty much across the board, with consumers and tech writers alike finding much to cheer about with the lighter, faster tablet. Praise came from an unfamiliar source on Friday, though, as the vice president of one of Apple's main competitors called his own product "inadequate" in comparison. Samsung VP Lee Don-joo also signaled that they might have to lower the price of the Galaxy Pad 10.1 to compete.

Lee, the executive vice president of Samsung's mobile division, told the Yonhap News Agency in South Korea that they "will have to improve the parts that are inadequate" of its forthcoming Galaxy Tab 10.1, and indicated that they were somewhat surprised that the new iPad had better performance in a new form factor at the same price. "Apple made it very thin," Lee said. 

Samsung has been preparing the Galaxy Tab 10.1 to compete directly with the iPad. The company currently makes the 7-inch Galaxy Tab, which costs as much as $900 US without a contract. The iPad's continued low price creates a real obstacle to acceptance of Samsung's offerings, which is even more the case with the larger Galaxy Tab. "The 10-inch was to be priced higher than the 7-inch," Lee said, "but we will have to think that over." 

The Motorola Xoom, considered by many to be the most serious competitor to the iPad, costs $799 without carrier subsidy, or $599 with a two-year contract. A comparably equipped iPad retails for $729, and pundits have argued that the Motorola tablet's pricing and the lack of an entry-level model "will shoot it in the foot." Samsung may yet have an opportunity to save some toes, but it will need to be a lot more aggressive than it has been on price.

2011: Apple iPad II Review. Dr Mobiles Limited Apple iPhone 4 Repair and unlock, North Shore

One little-noticed upgrade to the AT&T iPad 2's 3G radio will make a big difference to many users outside the US and international travelers: the refreshed tablet now supports quad-band UMTS, like the iPhone 4. The original iPad, as well as the iPhone 3G/3GS, only had tri-band UMTS, omitting support for the 900 MHz band common in Asia and parts of Europe. The Verizon model's CDMA radio, on the other hand, is compatible with very few carriers' networks worldwide, making it a poor choice for globetrotters.
One of the complaints about the iPhone 3G, and its successor the 3GS, was that it supported only AT&T's 850 and 1900 MHz UMTS bands, and the 2100 MHZ band used in Europe and Asia. Many carriers in Australasia, however, use the 900 MHz band, especially in rural areas, and since the European Commission opened up the 900 MHz band in 2009, carriers in Europe expanded their offerings in that frequency range as well. 900 MHz is attractive in less populated areas, because lower frequencies travel further and penetrate buildings more easily than the higher frequencies do, which means carriers don't have to deploy as many base stations. As a result, when the iPhone 4 included support for the UMTS VII operating band, it came as a relief to users in these areas. Previously, the best available to users of these carriers was slow EDGE or even GPRS service.
The GSM iPad's inclusion of 900 MHz support, then, means that the same device can be used with many carriers in Europe, Asia, and the Antipodes, where Vodafone offers rural 3G coverage using 900 MHz in Australia and New Zealand, The Verizon iPad may not be the best choice for international travelers, as its EV-DO Rev. A radio isn't compatible with many systems. However, for people who travel mostly between the US, Canada, and Mexico, the Verizon iPad should work just fine, as CDMA is fairly common in those countries.

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1 Huron Street
Takapuna, North Shore 0622
Tel: (09) 551-5344, Mob: (021) 117-2222

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Twitter app TweetCaster hits the iPhone

iPhone users now have another Twitter app to consider.  Developed by Handmark, TweetCaster offers a free ad-supported version and a non-ad $4.99 professional version. Designed for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users, the app made its debut in the App Store this week following its one-year anniversary in the Android Market.

Opening the app initially displays a screen where you can see the top tweets of the day and categories of suggested Tweeters that you may want to follow. From there, logging into your own account brings up the familiar Twitter timeline.

The interface is nicely designed. It's colorful but clean, with none of the frills or clumsy dialogue balloons found in other Twitter apps.

Tapping the home button on the bottom menu bar displays a timeline of the tweets you follow. Your own tweets are highlighted by a yellowish tint, so you can easily identify them. The menu bar also offers icons to view tweets in which you're mentioned, direct messages, and favorite tweets.

Viewing tweets from your timeline works well. Clicking on a URL within a tweet opens up a browser-type window to let you view the content. You can easily respond to, retweet, or e-mail an existing tweet. There's even an option to "zip" or temporarily mute tweets based on a specific person, trend, or keyword, a handy option if you're getting tired of all those tweets about Charlie Sheen. The one limitation I found here is that the app only works in portrait mode, so there's no way to view tweets or their linked content in landscape.

Posting a new tweet also works cleanly. I liked the way the app gives you access to your followers and followees to let you send direct messages. You can easily attach a photo, either by snapping a new one or grabbing one from your library. You can also attach a link to any piece of music stored on your device. That link then points to that particular music in iTunes in case your followers want to purchase it. This feature only seems to work for music, because when I tried to link to podcasts, it failed to open the right content in iTunes.

TweetCaster can lead you to a variety of useful Twitter features, all from a single window launched from the menu bar. You can view all the tweets that you've retweeted as well as those that your followees have retweeted. You can see all of the Twitter lists that you follow or that follow you. And you can view the latest trending topics.

The app also provides quick access to your followers and followees where you can drill down to see the details and photos for each specific account. And thankfully, TweetCaster provides an accurate number of your tweets and Twitter followers, which some Twitter apps fail to do. You can manage multiple Twitter accounts, always a nice option for these kinds of apps. Ever further, you can tap into your Facebook account to send a Tweet to your Facebook status line.

TweetCaster provides an option to add icons for different features to the menu bar by dragging and dropping them. In my initial testing, this didn't seem to work. But then I discovered that you have to hold your finger on one of the icons for a second in order to activate the feature. You can then move any of your favorite icons directly to the menu bar.

My only real complaint is that the app was slow at times. Scrolling through tweets and lists, loading older tweets, and jumping from one section to another wasn't as quick as I've found in other Twitter apps.

Though I didn't test the free ad-supported version, a Handmark rep told me that it works the same as the paid version except for its display of banner ads. Users can upgrade to the pro version from within the free version through an in-app purchase.

Dr Mobiles Limited

1 Huron Street
Takapuna, North Shore 0622
Tel: (09) 551-5344
Mob: (021) 117-2222

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