Smooth Blog

According to AppleInsider, the next version of the iPhone OS, 4.0, will support multitasking, allowing users to switch back and forth between third party applications.  The inside source said they have provided a “full-on solution” to multitasking.  The much anticipated feature will put the iPhone and iPod touch in-line or even above other mobile phones in terms of features.

The issue of supporting multitasking on the iPhone has always been battery life and resources on the phone.  However, the iPhone always technically supports multitasking, if you count being able to make phone calls and use an application such as mail, text messaging or any other third party application at the same time.  The iPhone always has the phone application running in the background, so users can receive phone calls at any time.

This isn’t true multitasking as users have always wanted, where consumers are looking for the Palm Pre, Android or even the Windows Mobile multitasking experience, being able to switch between any applications they want, having it run in the background.

Users that jailbreak their devices can even multitask by installing an application called “backgrounder”, which gives the user the ability to run multiple third party applications at the same time.  Further tweaks can support switching between these background apps just like the Palm Pre can.

The development for iPhone OS 4.0 still has a long way to go, but nevertheless, it will bring multitasking.  There wasn’t any mention if this will support earlier versions of the iPhone and iPod touch.

Apple added to the iPad hype on Sunday as it unveiled a new TV commercial during the Oscars awards.

The commercial demonstrates most of what we have already seen and know about the iPad. It finishes by signing the advert off with “April 3″, the date of the U.S. launch for the iPad.

The iPad will be available on April 3 for the WiFi only version and a month later for the WiFi and 3G version. Pricing of the devices will be:

• 16GB WiFi only $499, WiFi + 3G $629
• 32GB WiFi only $599, WiFi + 3G $729
• 64GB WiFi only $699, WiFi + 3G $829

The iPad also has the following specs:

• 0.5″ thin
• Weighs 1.5 pounds
• 9.7″ IPS display
• 1GHz Apple A4 processor
• 16, 32, or 64GB of flash storage
• 802.11n, WiFi, and Bluetooth 2.1
• 10 hours battery life

Dont trust not-known methods of jailbreaking, always read either good tutorials from reputable websites or even from the source, but dont fall into the trap of trying new jailbreak programs like gull1hack, spartanbr3ak, br0k3n_appl3 are some of the fake jailbreaks out there, watch out as they might end up bricking your phone.

Cult of Mac is reporting that Apple has created a new “Explicit” category for app submissions. The category shows up when someone tries adding a new app to iTunesConnect. Could it be that Apple never intended to permanently ban all boob boucing and sexually related apps? It will be interesting to see what becomes of this new category. So far, nothing “Explicit” has shown up in the App Store since it appeared.

The developer adds: “It’s available for selection when adding a new app to iTunesConnect although I can’t see any sign of it in the actual App Store yet.”

Update: We’ve since been contacted by two sources that state the category is gone. However, the information we posted earlier was independently verified by a number of other sources, some of which supplied other images, for example: Recombu, 9to5Mac and MacRumors. Either Apple removed the category after it got widely reported after we broke the story or it’s only visible to some developers.

If you’be been waiting to secure your slot on getting the Apple iPad when it goes out later in March, prepare yourself and your credit cards and watch out for that pre-order button to appear on the Apple online store. Yes, rumor has it that Apple might actually start accepting pre-orders on the 25th. But I think it should read – Apple “should” actually start accepting pre-orders on the 25th.

According to AddAdvice, a reliable source has tipped them that Apple will start pre-selling the iPad on the said day. But if ever this is true, pre-selling will apply only to the Wi-Fi version of the iPad. And if Apple holds true to their promise, if you pre-order on Feb 25, you should be getting your iPAd 30 days after.

Apple may have just made a major change to the App Store that could render many developers’ applications worthless. We’ve just heard from Jon Atherton, the developer behind Wobble iBoobs, who says that he just received an Email from Apple indicating that his application was being removed from the App Store because of a new policy change: Apple has apparently decided “to remove any overtly sexual content from the App Store.” Here’s the letter Atherton says he received:

The App Store continues to evolve, and as such, we are constantly refining our guidelines. Your application, Wobble iBoobs (Premium Uncensored), contains content that we had originally believed to be suitable for distribution. However, we have recently received numerous complaints from our customers about this type of content, and have changed our guidelines appropriately.

We have decided to remove any overtly sexual content from the App Store, which includes your application.

Thank you for your understanding in this matter. If you believe you can make the necessary changes so that Wobble iBoobs (Premium Uncensored) complies with our recent changes, we encourage you to do so and resubmit for review.

Sincerely,
iPhone App Review

From what I can tell, this isn’t an isolated incident. I’ve tried to download apps called “Exotic Positions” and “Sexy Women”, and both of them gave me errors indicating that the applications were no longer available. However, some applications with similar themes (“Beautiful Boobs”, “Sexy Girls Uncovered”, and “Sex Strip”) worked. All of these applications came with Apple’s “objectionable material” warning that requires you to affirm that you’re over the age of 17. This may be a case of Apple picking and choosing which apps are too sexual, or they may still be figuring out which apps to pull (or the changes may not have propagated to all of Apple’s servers). There are reports on Twitter of other developers having their applications pulled as well.

Of course, many of these “sexy” applications have been on the App Store for many months. Wobble, which lets you add “jiggle points” to any photo (use your imagination) hasn’t released a change in functionality for 6-8 months, and has been installed 970,000 times — none of these were flying under Apple’s radar.

We’ve reached out to Apple for more information.

Update: Apple has given us this response. See this post for more.

“Whenever we receive customer complaints about objectionable content we review them. If we find apps that contain inappropriate material we remove them from the App Store and request the developer to make any necessary changes to their apps in order to be distributed by Apple.”

Source

According to a recent report from Redmond Pie, it looks like Apple may be taking a slightly more aggressive approach. If someone jailbreaks, they’ll just disable their Apple ID, essentially crippling them from enjoying the pleasures of the App Store. Sherif Hashim, a developer that found a baseband exploit in the latest version of the iPhone OS (3.1.3), recently got a message on his phone stating “This Apple ID has been disabled for security reasons.” In addition, iH8sn0w, the hacker behind the PwnageTool alternative, Sn0wbreeze, also had his account disabled.

It doesn’t seem like Apple is targeting John Doe jailbreakers. The people mentioned above are pretty heavy hitters. However, that doesn’t mean Apple isn’t planning to make this a more widespread solution. Perhaps this is just a test phase. Sadly though, this will not stop people from jailbreaking. If anything, it could result in the exact opposite–more illegal app downloading. Should jailbreakers not be allowed to purchase anything from the App Store, it’s possible that they’d begin downloading illegal content (stuff they’d otherwise pay for) through various repositories in Cydia, Icy, or wherever. Either way, a punch has been thrown. The jailbreaking community is sure to issue a response.

iPhone 4G Parts are Here…

And they have a couple of interesting features.

1) The LCD appears to be factory glued to the digitizer which is more similar to the first generation iPhones than the iPhone 3G and 3GS. The digitizer can be separated from the LCD on the 3G and 3GS models, which should be interesting to all, but for the repair folks like us–this means that the 4G screen repair price will be higher since both parts will have to be replaced at once.

2) The iPhone 4G front panel seems to be about 1/4″ longer than its predecessors.

3) There is an interesting reflective, mirror-like surface directly above the speaker. This is likely a spot for the proximity sensor. If that’s what it is, it’s in a different location than previous models.

UPDATE: There are a lot of skeptics out there and rightly so. There have been a lot of “leaked” photos from various Apple products in the past that have turned out to be parts for another product. Here are the things that we know: a) The phone has not been released yet. Until it is, Apple could change the product design or the parts we have acquired could be prototypes. Since we don’t have an actual fourth-generation iPhone in our hands, we have no way to know for sure. b) We obtained this part as a sample from a reputable source. They have been reputable up to this point, and have provided genuine parts for us in the past.

We are a repair company and it’s in our best interest to get samples of these new parts as they become available to us. Of course it is possible that these are not the final design or these are parts for another product completely, but that is not how they have been demonstrated to us. If these parts are not for the fourth generation iPhone, we will obviously not be using them for future repairs when the new iPhones do come out.

Here are the photos:

Source

The night before Steve Jobs introduced the world to the iPad, Engadget scored pictures of the device — but did they score a picture of the 4th generation iPhone as well? That’s what AppleInsider claims:

People with an impeccable track record in matters such as these say the iPhone in below photo, published by gadget blog Engadget in the hours leading up to Apple’s iPad announcement last Wednesday, is a prototype of one of the handsets due to hit the market in roughly five months.

Let the speculation about bezels and cameras/smudges begin! After all, it’s just under 5 months until WWDC 2010, the likely venue for the next iPhone unveiling!