ios

iPad 3 battery pointing to thinner, lighter tablet?

The battery in the iPad 3 will reportedly be thinner and lighter than the one in the iPad 2, according to a report in Taiwan Economic News, suggesting that the new tablet may also see a thinner, lighter design or other improvements.

Citing "institutional investors" as its sources, the Taiwanese news site reported yesterday that the new battery will not only be thinner and lighter but offer a longer life than the iPad 2's battery. The new battery will also need to meet higher standards for quality and reliability, which means that Apple's cost for it … Read more

Five SMS alternatives for smartphones

Short messaging services (SMS) are very popular, but can end up costing you a lot if you don't have an unlimited plan for your smartphone. All the apps in this collection offer more features than standard SMS clients, and can often be more fun to use. For instance, some send pictures, show you when a message is read by the recipient, or send videos and voice clips. There's even an app that lets people without smartphones reply to you from a user-selected phone number.

Kik

Kik is a simple yet functional messenger app. No other service can match … Read more

Apple reportedly testing 4G LTE in iOS 5 beta builds

Apple's latest developer builds for iOS 5 contain a snippet of code that mentions LTE, according to enthusiast site MacRumors, prompting speculation that the company may be testing 4G internally.

Peeking into the iOS 5 firmware for a couple of developer builds, MacRumors found a property list (.plist file) that points to LTE, or Long Term Evolution. Uncovered only in builds for the GSM iPhone 4 and CDMA iPad 2, the LTE.plist file was found to be related to an application that Apple uses for field testing.

The apparent discovery follows reports from Boy Genius Report a week … Read more

Windows Phone 7 Challenge: Week 1

Everything was fine in Android-land until the Gingerbread update. Well, then again, "fine" might be a little strong.

I'd been through an original Motorola Droid, which was a nice little keyboard wrapped in a seriously slow-performing phone with a terrible camera and no end of software update woes.

I went from that to the Samsung Fascinate, wooed by its sleek looks, great camera, and big, beautiful screen. Sadly, the Fascinate was loaded down with carrier crapware, including the staggering inclusion of Bing instead of Google as the default system search. It was so crippled you couldn't … Read more

Developers get iOS 5 beta 5 for weekend fun

Apple released a fifth beta version of iOS 5 to developers today, a change from its usual habit of delivering such betas during the work week.

According to MacRumors, the release notes include some fixes but no major additions, save for a Hearing Aid Mode designed to improve compatibility between iOS devices and hearing aids.

The MacRumors item also says that like the beta 4 release, beta 5 is available as an over-the-air download but that users must first erase all content and settings. Apple suggests, also, that before installing beta 5, users back up devices with iTunes 10.5 … Read more

Mirror iPad 2 on your TV with iOS 5, AirPlay

In our never-ending quest to prep our faithful readers for iOS 5 we cover an amazing new iPad 2-specific feature in iOS 5: mirroring. Mirroring via AirPlay and an Apple TV (which will also have to be running iOS 5) will allow you to display your iPad 2 screen on any TV with an HDMI port.

Sending your iPad 2's screen to your TV is as easy as:

Entering the fast app switcher dockSwiping left-to-rightPressing the AirPlay iconSelect AppleTV and toggle the Mirror switch

What do you think? Is this something you will use on a regular basis? Or, … Read more

Review: Mac OS X Lion

The bottom line: Mac OS X Lion is definitely a worthy upgrade for all Intel Mac users. Featuring several interface enhancements and useful new features across all the core apps, Mac OS X Lion is an excellent update for the price.

Review: When Apple showed off Mac OS X Lion at the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote speech earlier this year, it was clear the company had paid attention to its successes with the popular iOS devices, and was now beginning to include successful iOS features in its flagship OS. Also, with Apple laptops and tablets now far outpacing desktop sales, … Read more

iOS 5 How To roundup

iOS 5 is packed full of new features that iOS users are sure to love. While most consumers will have to wait to get their hands on it until it's officially released this fall, we have been able to get our hands on a developer preview. So, we're bringing you How To blog posts to give you a preview of new features, and how they work.… Read more

Control location access by system services on iOS 5

Locationgate was a good wake-up call for consumers who weren't aware that smartphones were accessing their locations for various reasons. Apple rolled out an OS update that took care of the location cache the iPhone was storing, and assured users that it was never accessing users' locations; the location was being stored only to improve the user experience.

Whether you believe that or not, Apple has stepped up its effort to help ease consumer fear concerning location information. In iOS 5, users can now decide whether or not to allow system service access to their location.

To access the … Read more

Spotify Mobile reviewed

The bottom line: A great perk for Spotify devotees with Premium accounts, Spotify Mobile allows mobile streaming and offline playback of your favorite music.

Review:

Installation Spotify's free mobile app is a cinch to set up. Provided you're signed up for a Spotify Premium account ($10 a month), all you need to do is type in your log-in and password, and your favorite music and playlists automatically populate the screen. Spotify users without Premium accounts may log in to the app and look around, but are prevented from streaming or syncing music.

Interface Spotify Mobile's user interface … Read more