ios 4.1

In today's news, Rafe is offended by the lazy criminals who just use Facebook to find out when people aren't home. Also, Nokia gets a new CEO who's apparently a "fine steward;" but is he a visionary? Especially with Android coming up fast? Also, Adobe brings back its Flash-to-iPhone app development tool.

As soon as iOS 4.1 was available for download, I, as did many gamers, immediately opened the Game Center App and created an account. Now, Apple has provided us with a dedicated section of the App Store that lists Game Center-compatible Apps.

The social network for games, Game Center gives developers the opportunity to add leader boards and achievements to their titles while providing users a way to connect and share their prowess with friends. Though iOS 4.1 has only been public for a day, several games have already included Game Center connectivity:

Apple's iOS 4.1 update brought many tweaks to the operating system, but none higher-profile than the long-awaited Game Center. Touted as a feature of iOS 4.0, Apple's attempt to create a hub for iOS gaming could be seen as a way to take on Sony and Nintendo, or to demonstrate gaming legitimacy over Android. In reality, it's really an idea born of convenience: there are thousands of games in the App Store, and no great way to tie them all together via a single launch pad.

Does the iPhone even need a Game Center? Not … Read more

News of the inevitable: less than a day after Apple released iOS 4.1 into the wild, hackers have found a way to jailbreak it.

According to The Unofficial Apple Weblog, "Chronic Dev Team member pod2g has discovered yet another bootrom-based exploit that would supposedly work across all iOS devices running the latest firmware."

Although the jailbreak isn't available to the general public just yet, there's little doubt it will be soon. Whether or not it's as simple as the browser-based iPhone 4 jailbreak from earlier this summer remains to be seen.

My question: do … Read more

Look out Dell, Bonnie is not happy. Your Android smartphone, the Aero, recently passed through her hands and all she can say is that it's "unintuitive, slow, and limited in functionality." And don't forget that it only runs on Android 1.5. Fortunately, Samsung fared better with its Fascinate Galaxy S handset for Verizon Wireless, but plenty of people are miffed that Verizon replaced Google's search with Microsoft's Bing.

Outside of reviews, cell phone news is a little slow this week. Apple's iOS 4.1 update went live today, a few Android rumors … Read more

Just as promised, Apple's iOS 4.1 went live today for iPhone and iPod Touch users. As iOS updates go, this one is pretty small, but it offers a new camera feature and it finally brings the promised Game Center feature. I posted my initial take last week shortly after Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the update during Apple's music event, but now that it's live I've had a chance to poke around.

As a review, here are the update's highlights. For a closer look at these additions, check out the slideshow below.

The latest software for the iPhone and iPod Touch is available starting Wednesday for download from Apple.

The company foreshadowed the arrival of iOS 4.1 at its annual fall press event last week and included an overview of the latest features. The download is free via iTunes for iPhone and iPod Touch owners.

Besides upgrades to new features for games, photos, and high-definition videos, Apple is using this software update to zap several bugs at once.

Among the issues Apple CEO Steve Jobs promised would be fixed with the installation of 4.1 are: proximity sensor problems that were … Read more

Though music and entertainment were the of focus of Wednesday's Apple press conference in San Francisco, CEO Steve Jobs devoted a few minutes to the next release of the company's mobile operating system. iOS 4.1 will be available next week for the iPhone and iPod Touch. And in a change from previous OS updates, it will be free for iPod Touch users.

Here's a summary of the new features that Jobs announced. We'll add to this list as we learn of other additions and we'll follow up with a hands-on review after next week'… Read more

Ever since Apple's spring run-down of iOS 4, we've been curious about Game Center, Apple's attempt to add an across-the-board social gaming dashboard for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Apple left it out of iOS 4's release, but it will finally be available for free next week as a download after the release of iOS 4.1, and will appear on iOS 4.2 on the iPad.

Game Center was given a quick demo at today's Apple music event, and it seems to offer some actually useful features. While social multiplayer services such as OpenFeint … Read more