iPhone Cruncher

Apple could well surprise everyone and release an iPhone 5 smartphone with a bigger screen; and to support this rumour, the photo of what seems to be an iPhone 5 digitizer panel has surfaced online.

Ideas china published published a single photo which shows the component; it appears to stick to the design on the iPhone 4 but the bezel around the right and left of the screen panel appears to be extremely thin while the top and bottom are smaller than usual.

This could mean that the iPhone 5 will have a four-inch screen and potentially the first HD ready screen amongst the superphones on the market, should Apple decide to stick to the Retina Display technology.

Reports of a 4-inch iPhone 5 emerged two weeks ago and we then suggested that a HD-ready screen might mean the death of the home button.

However, the cutout on the digitizer shows a home button; some however have noted that the edge of the screens appear to be slanted with one person pointing to the fact that the image has been retouched using Adobe CS2.

An iPhone 5 with a 4-inch touchscreen sure sounds interesting although we doubt it will be done without a corresponding jump in screen resolution.

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For the second time in about seven months, Consumer Reports has taken a swipe at the iPhone 4′s antenna flaw.

The non-profit organization’s review of the Verizon iPhone 4 which appears free on its site (not all CR reviews are available online to non-subscribers) points out that like the ATT version of the iPhone 4, the Verizon model “has a problem that could cause the phone to drop calls, or be unable to place calls, in weak signal conditions.” In testing, the researchers at CR found that “covering tiny gaps in the metal band that runs around the skinny edge of the Verizon iPhone caused “meaningful decline in performance.”

The flaw only manifests itself in areas of marginal reception and — as the magazine points out — can be completely avoided by not touching that part of the phone or by placing a rubber bumper around the case to prevent such contact.

As a result of this flaw, the magazine has proclaimed that “we are not including the Verizon iPhone 4 in our list of recommended smart phones, despite its high ranking in our Ratings.

In general I’m a fan of Consumer Reports — I like that they are not beholden to advertisers and that they purchase the products they review. And I’m far from an Apple fan-boy. I don’t even own an iPhone — I’m an Android user.

But that doesn’t mean that Consumer Reports is right. While in the best of all worlds it would have been good if Apple had fixed the antenna flaw before issuing the new Verizon phone, the flaw is hardly a reason to avoid getting an iPhone. I’ve seen iPhone compatible bumpers on sale for as little as $8. Or you could learn to avoid placing your hand over that little gap.

If you are inclined to get an iPhone — whether through Verizon or ATT — its good to know that this is a small problem, but it’s a very small problem compared to

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We already know for a fact that Apple will unveil the second-generation iPad next week, on March 2. What remains unclear is when the iPad 2 will actually be available to consumers. Reports have indicated that hangups in the device’s production could cause some delay in the actual release of the new iPad. But Apple Insider sources say the tablet may arrive much faster than anyone expected.

According to “people familiar with the matter,” Apple has begun making preparations for a “large-scale, consumer-oriented product roll out” for the second half of next week. Considering March 2 lands on a Wednesday, that would mean the iPad 2 could be made available to the public almost immediately after it’s official announcement.

As anyone who follows the ebb and flow of tech news knows, this information should be considered rumor until Apple gives its word on the matter. That said, Apple Insider stands by the accuracy of their sources, saying that the people who provided the iPad 2 release information “have consistently provided accurate information regarding Apple’s future product plans and the timing related to those plans.â€

The possibility remains, of course, that iPad 2s won’t ship until the end of March, or sometime soon thereafter, as other reports have indicated. But at this point, rumors of a near-immediate release have just as much validity as rumors of a not-so-quick launch.

From what we know so far, the iPad 2 is expected to be slightly slimmer than the first-generation iPad, with a display panel that is 30-35 percent thinner. The displays are said to have the same 1024×768 resolution as the first iPad, but will have a “anti-reflection” technology to reduce glare in high sunlight, and increase the viewing angle. The iPad 2 will also be faster, with twice the on-board RAM (512MB) as the original iPad. It is also expected to have two cameras, one front-facing for FaceTime-run video calls.

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As Apple amps up the
iPad to makes its performance more MacBook-Air-like, an old nemesis persists. That would be Adobe Flash.

The iPad experience would improve with native Flash support.

(Credit:
Adobe)

The Apple propaganda machine and the cadre of zealots who fiercely defend anything Apple undertakes would lead you to believe that you don’t need Flash video. I still don’t buy it.

First, a confession. Every personal computing device I use on a daily basis is an Apple product. An
iPhone, iPad, and a couple of MacBook Airs. And I have been using the iPad every day since the 3G version came out. And have, more than once, sung its praises.

However, the lack of native support for Adobe Flash rears its ugly, practicality-subverting head way too often. Of course, this is just a personal opinion. But that doesn’t mean I’m alone.

I’m not going to list all of the things I do that require Flash. Suffice to say when I surf the Web, Flash always seems to be hiding in some uncharted but necessary nook or cranny. Small business sites use Flash, a lot of hobbyist Web sites still require Flash, and entertainment sites use Flash. But I really don’t think I need to explain this, it’s readily apparent to almost anyone.

In other words, the burden is not on me to list all of the sites out there that use Flash. The burden is on Apple to convince me that it’s right to refuse to support a standard that’s baked into the Web.

Yeah, yeah, I know the argument about how Flash is a power hog, unstable, and performance-challenged. And Apple has a point. But that choice should be up to the user, i.e., use Flash at your own risk.

I find that I need Flash typically only briefly but very necessarily. What workarounds exist? Well, Hulu has

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Consumers Reports said Friday that the iPhone 4 that works on Verizon Wireless’ network has a similar problem to the original: Holding the phone in a certain way can cause dropped calls or problems dialing out.

In a blog post, Consumer Reports said it put the Verizon iPhone 4 through the same battery of tests it uses with all smart phones, plus some extra ones it used when the original iPhone 4 for ATT Inc.’s network drew masses of complaints about poor reception.

The researchers again found that covering tiny gaps in the metal band that runs around the skinny edge of the Verizon iPhone caused “meaningful decline in performance.” In conditions where cell signal was weak, the Verizon iPhone 4 dropped calls when the user covered the gaps by holding the phone in a specific — but natural — way.

The results were similar to what Consumer Reports found in its original iPhone 4 tests last year. Apple had changed the way it designed the smart phone’s antenna starting with the iPhone 4, incorporating it into that band on the phone’s outer edges. User complaints and Consumer Reports’ tests showed that holding the phone in a way that covered up a spot on the antenna would cause the number of “bars” shown on the display to fall.

Apple denied problems with its antenna, instead blaming the way the phone’s display calculates how many bars of service are available. But the company still gave out free cases last year to mitigate the problem.

When the iPhone 4 for Verizon was announced, Apple specifically noted its work on the antenna. On Friday, Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris reiterated Apple’s claim.

“The iPhone 4 has a great antenna that allows it to have an amazingly thin design, great battery life and reception,” Kerris said. “We designed the iPhone 4

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Patrick Stewart as Macbeth? Indeed. I have to say, though, that half the time I was watching the movie, I thought I was viewing a holodeck sequence.

(Credit:
Eric Franklin/CNET)

One of the most exciting advantages the
Verizon
iPhone 4 has over its ATT counterpart is its ability to become a mobile hot spot. A mobile hot spot allows several devices to connect to it via Wi-Fi and then uses a cellular signal to connect those devices to the Internet. Essentially the hot spot becomes a wireless router.

I was curious about the strain something like this would have on the iPhone 4′s battery, so I decided to run a little test. I turned on the iPhone 4′s hot spot and then connected a Wi-Fi-only
iPad to its network. I then streamed a movie through Netflix (“Macbeth”; the Patrick Stewart version, which is surprisingly ambitious, by the way), until the battery on the iPhone 4 died. The movie is only about 2.5 hours, so periodically I’d have to scrub it back toward the beginning.

For comparison, I used the T-Mobile MyTouch 4G, as it was the only hot-spot-capable phone available for testing at the time. I used the same methodology to kill the MyTouch 4G’s battery life.

To provide context, I’m also including how long each phone’s battery took to die while playing a movie. The movie, “Toy Story 3,” on the iPhone 4 was optimized for iPhone 4, whereas “Toy Story 3″ on the MyTouch 4G was encoded at 720p.

While each phone lasted a bit over 5 hours as hot spots, as video players, things were a little different. The iPhone 4 lasted more than 10 hours, whereas the MyTouch 4G lasted only 6.6 hours. This is an interesting difference that could have to do with the type of videos used by each phone.

I simply felt that each phone should be tested with the best quality video it’s capable of displaying. Each test was run up to three times, with the final results an average

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Textastic 2.1 for iPad adds SFTP support and more FTP options

Bad Kissingen,  DE   Feb 27, 2011 in Productivity

[prMac.com] Bad Kissingen, Germany – Independent developer Alexander Blach today is pleased to announce Textastic 2.1 for iPad, an update to his plain text editor for developers and webmasters featuring syntax highlighting. Textastic for iPad 2.1 introduces support for SFTP (SSH) and FTPS (FTP over SSL), more FTP settings, plus an enhanced choice of special characters on the additional keyboard row. The app is compatible with more than 80 programming and markup languages, including HTML, CSS, XML, Objective-C, C#, PHP, Perl, Python, SQL, JavaScript, Tex, Pascal, Ruby, Scala, VB, shell scripts, etc.

The already impressive list of Textastic network connectivity options is now extended with SFTP and FTPS support. The new SFTP client supports user/password as well as public key authentication. It allows network administrators, developers and other IT people to connect to any FTP/FTPS or SFTP/SSH enabled web server, download and upload their files and edit them conveniently in an iPad app rivaling the performance and comfort of similar desktop applications.

This version also allows you to choose between active and passive FTP connection mode and lets you specify the connection’s character encoding. The additional row of keys above the standard virtual keyboard now includes even more special characters often used for programming and is now scrollable horizontally.

New features:
* SFTP (SSH connection) support with user/password and public key authentication
* FTPS (FTP over SSL) support
* New settings for FTP: connection mode (active or passive) and encoding
* More keys in the additional row above the standard keyboard (the row is now scrollable)

Feature Highlights:
* Syntax highlighting of more than 80 different types of files while typing: HTML, XML, Objective-C, C#, PHP, Perl, Python, SQL, JavaScript, CSS, shell scripts, etc.
* Full on-screen virtual keyboard, keyboard dock and Bluetooth keyboard support
* Displays scrollable additional row of keys over the on-screen virtual keyboard, making it easy to type characters often used for programming
* Supports most encodings, including UTF-8, ISO-8859-1,

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iPad and iPhone App’s Give You VIP Access for Tonight’s 83rd Annual Academy Awards

Movies, celebrity’s, fashion, jewelry, the iPad Tablet and the iPhone, put them all together and tonight you will have the with The most interactive Academy Awards show in history!    
Award shows and technology have come a long way. In this, the “Year of the Tablet” multiple app’s have been developed to bring you as close as possible to the Oscar’s with out actually being there.

Check out the app’s below that will allow you behind the scenes V.I.P. access to the exciting events that bring the 83rd annual Academy Awards to you where ever you are.  From the history of the Oscars to the red carpet arrivals, live backstage cams and famous Oscars Governors ball after party the app’s below put everything “Oscars” right at your fingertips.

E! Live From the Red Carpet: The fashion! The stars! The glitz! The winners!
It’s all here in this unparalleled, high-class and FREE app from E!, the leader in red carpet entertainment.This Live From the Red Carpet app lets you experience total VIP access to Hollywood’s hottest events, right at your fingertips.

This app brings you celeb news, A-list fashion photos and interview videos from awards season’s marquee events. (And on the iPad, you can zoom in and check out every fab fashion detail in stunning high-res galleries.)

Get up-close celebrity interviews with our livestreams and massive video coverage, and dive into the GlamCam 360, our futuristic Matrix-like fashion cam!

You’ll have instant access to hundreds of E! articles, breaking down everything from the winners and upsets to the shows’

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George Harrison famously said, “I think people who can truly live a life in music are telling the world, ‘You can have my love, you can have my smiles. Forget the bad parts, you don’t need them. Just take the music, the goodness, because it’s the very best, and it’s the part I give.’” Replace music creation with product development and in a sense this could also describe Apple [AAPL] CEO Steve Jobs, who makes his personal expression in the products he helps create.

Apple’s approach to product design sets it apart. The focus isn’t just marketshare and profit, though its margins show it knows how to make both. Apple’s product design aims are more akin to artistic expression. It makes money, sure, but it does so through the vehicle of delivering great products. A motivation so many large corporations just can’t seem to emulate.

ABOVE: Steve Jobs tells us how phone phreaking taught him the value of ideas]

Looking to the iPad 2.0 I’ve seen reports claiming the next Apple tablet will be an incremental upgrade, rather than a ‘revolutionary’ re-work. But with a grip on 93 percent of the tablet market and Mac sales blazing while the PC industry fades, perhaps the revolution in technology already happened.

Talking ‘Bout a Revolution

[This story is from Computerworld's Apple Holic blog. Follow on Twitter or subscribe via RSS to make sure you don't miss a beat.]

In any case, perhaps it is time to stop using the word ‘revolution’ in association with consumer electronics. Look to current events around the Mediterranean basin for confirmation that ‘revolution’ at times demands that unarmed protesters stand up for what they believe in while being shot at by unfriendly military forces using anti-aircraft guns. I’m minded to think it might be time to offer the word ‘revolution’ the respect it deserves.

Apple is ascendant. It

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Belmont 88, Kennesaw State 41

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KENNESAW, Ga. — Kerron Johnson had a Belmont record nine steals as the Bruins tied a school-record with 18 in an 88-41 rout of Kennesaw State on Saturday night.

The Bruins (27-4, 19-1 Atlantic Sun Conference) forced 23 turnovers while holding the Owls (8-22, 6-14) to 32.6-percent shooting (14 of 43).

Scott Saunders paced the Bruins with 19 points, making 11 of 12 free throws. Ian Clark added 14 points, Mick Hedgepeth finished with 11 and Blake Jenkins 10 for Belmont, which won by its largest margin since Dec. 2007.

The Bruins trailed 9-8 with 11:20 left in the first half before going on a 27-2 run over the next 10 minutes to break it open.

The Bruins, who tied Kansas for most victories in Division I, held Kennesaw State to 5-of-20 shooting to lead 39-16 at halftime.

Thirteen players saw action for the Owls with Markeith Cummings and Aaron Anderson scoring eight each.

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