Apple’s just announced iOS 4.1 for iPhone and iPod Touch devices, coming up free of charge via iTunes sometimes next week. According to Steve Jobs, the new update is going to fix a few bugs (including Bluetooth, proximity sensor and some iPhone 3G issues) along with some pretty neat add-ons such as High Dynamic Range photos, HD video uploads over WiFi, TV show rentals and the most anticipated Game Center which proved to be very impressive and will match you up with other players on the net.

Next on Apple’s future plans is the iOS 4.2 version, which was specifically designed for iPad devices and is supposed to bring in the entire iOS 4.1 features along with additional dedicated capabilities including the AirPlay feature which lets you stream music and video content over WiFi, or the wireless printing option that enables to remotely manage your entire print jobs. This new iPad iOS edition is claimed to go live somewhere around November.

Android media player – that apparently looks like the latest greatest trend among audio-video gadgets across the pond, and the new joiner within that sphere is Philips and its most awesome GoGear Connect PMP. The slick silver device which you can find listed in online retailer store Argos, priced at €264.99 (about $340), boasts a 3.2-inch 480 x 320 display, running Android 2.1 platform and tucked with 16GB of flash storage, an integrated GPS navigation system, an FM tuner, a microSD, a 3.5mm headphone jack and battery pack delivering up to 25 hours of audio playback and 5 hours of continuous video work. It should already be available throughout the European continent while US release is yet to be determined.

Update: Philips just went official with its brand new 3.2-inch GoGear Connect PMP which apparently supports a very wide range of audio and video formats, including mp3, wma, .m4a (AAC), ogg, and flac audio; wmv, mp4, H264, and avi video; or JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF images. It is also said to have a built in camera inside, paired with microSD slot, android 2.1 for the OS and an integrated GPS platform to navigate your way on the go. Worldwide release (including the US) is scheduled for October of this year, with prices at €249 (about $315) for the 16GB flavor.

[Argos via Engadget]

Hey! What’s this…A new Samsung PMP running Android OS inside? Though not official yet, it still looks and feels like the real thing for us, and judging from the rumors, it’ll probably make an official debut soon – South Korean style. For a nondisclosure price you would get yourself a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, paired with 1GHz processor, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3mp camera and last but not least – Google’s Android OS platform swiftly running inside. The name is YP-MB2, in case you wondered, and y’all should stay tuned  for more juicy details to come.

[via Samsung Hub]

We knew it was just a matter of time before the Dev-Team fellows would eventually catch up with iPhone 4 jailbreaking technology and make it widely open for everyone to use. While not perfect yet (probably due to servers overload), the iphone 4 jailbreaking process has been making some significant strides, and yesterday was a big step, as the team (Comex) has finally released a very handy tool for all iOS devices, including both iPad and iPhone 4 running iOS 4.0 and 4.01 platforms. To get it, just go to www.jailbreakme.modmyi.com (via Safari Mobile) and start the “JailBreakMe 2.0 star” process, at your own risk. One thing’s for sure, it’s already legal to be used, now that a new DMCA exception was approved by the Library of Congress, specifically allowing jailbreaking Stateside.

Update1: Looks like the good guys at 9 To 5 Mac has managed to pull it off, and guess what…it works! Check out the video after the break.

Update2: Already going through the iPhone 4 jailbreaking process? Mind you there might be some issues with FaceTime video calling and MMS messaging, at the end of the road. But fret not, boys and girls, because those cool and very useful features can be easily and quickly restored, thanks to this iPhoneDelivery app which you can find on Cydia, in your phone. According to RedmondPie, it would automatically fix those problems and make them run again in a matter of seconds or just a little bit more.

Update3: And to fulfill completely their commitments to the Apple fanboys community, Dev-Team has just released a new ultrasnow app version that would easily unlock your new magical iPhone 4 device (with 01.59 baseband) or any 3G/3GS mobile phones running 04.26.08, 05.11.07, 05.12.01 and 05.13.04 basebands. To learn more about how to jailbreak and unlock your handhelds (at your own risk) just hit the jump and watch the step-by-step video (the second one).

[Jailbreakme]

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As more and more people keep talking about Cupertino’s iphone 4 mobile device and this all antenna reception issues, it seems that Apple, the mother company, is finally realizing the time has come to start doing something about it – the sooner the better. And one of the steps the company has just taken in order to try and extinguish the flames is the new iOS 4.0.1 that Steve Jobs and the rest of his fellows has officially released to the pond (updating iOS4) and that apparently “improves the formula to determine how many bars of signal strength to display.” The platform itself is already available for a download via iTunes and supports only iPhone 3G, 3GS, and iPhone 4 machines.

Update: So Apple has urgently called a press conference to speak about the “Antennagate” reception issues and the good news is that everyone, I mean EVERYONE is going to get free bumpers (case) when buying a new iphone device. If you already bought one, just go straight into one of Apple stores next to your house and get a full refund. Here’s what Steve Jobs had to say about it:

“You know, we’re not perfect. We know that, you know that. And phones aren’t perfect either.”

Antenna reception problems are well known in the smartphones world and make a “challenge for the entire industry”

“.. the iPhone 4 drops less than one additional call per 100 than the 3GS. Less than one.”

“A free case for every iPhone 4 buyer.”

So now that Apple’s iOS 4 is officially out, it was just a matter of time until Dev Team guys will eventually jailbroken it and make this platform even more available for everyone out there, especially those with iPhone 3G and iPod Touch 2G devices, who generally seem to be left out in Cupertino’s cold (3GS phones are not compatible with this one). At your own risk, simply download redsn0w 0.9.5 beta and start the installation process right away. Once finished, you can finally begin unlocking your mobile handheld, for baseband between 04.26.08 and 05.13.04, using Ultrasn0w 0.9.3 from the Cydia store. Be careful there, eh? If you need more help, just follow these step-by-step instructions on twittown.com.

Update: PwnageTool 4.0 has just been released as well, so you can now jailbreak your iPhone 3GS devices, in case they have the old bootrom installed, along with previous models like iPhone 3G versions and 2nd gen iPod Touch players. Once again, careful there.

You know you want this one, and it’s already been like two and a half months since Apple officially announced it, but today the OS4 (build 8A293) is finally out and you guys can go ahead and start downloading it if you own the following iPhone devices: 3G, 3GS, and soon to come out – iPhone 4. Yes, it’s free of charge ladies and gentleman, with all the new-cool features that Cupertino has stuffed inside, so get it now, it’s surely worth a try. Happy Multitasking, ya all!

Update: Turns out that latest iPod Touch devices are also compatible with Apple’s iOS4

Well, there’s not really that much to say about it, so let’s make it plain and simple: Asus has officially launched an online App Store for netbooks, and as much as we were excited to hear that, there’s still a long way to go. We just wanted to give them as much notice as possible. Stay tuned!

Color us unsurprised, but it’s still notable to hear that Lenovo is stopping investment in its OS capability to support the Skylight smartbook and U1 Hybrid devices, we’ve first seen at CES, and instead seek to replace it (the sluggish Linux Skylight OS) with a far-faster Google Android one. In a written statement, the company says it has shelved the Skylight smartbook for the time being and refers to the U1 hybrid as a concept.  Who said that Apple’s magical iPad is not a game changer, who?

After careful consideration of market conditions and user feedback, Lenovo has decided to focus its resources on building a family of next-generation mobile internet devices based upon open technologies such as (but not limited to) the Android kernel, similar to the Lenovo smartphone, which is available for sale in China now.

As a result of Lenovo’s strategic shift towards open standards such as an Android kernel based environment, the Company has shelved its plans to release the initial version of the Skylight smartbook that featured a proprietary Linux-based OS.

Lenovo remains committed to working with our strategic partners to deliver innovative products in the growing mobile internet space, including the aforementioned smartphones and smartbooks, as well as exploring innovative new concepts that continue to “push-the-envelope” like the U1 hybrid PC.

[via LaptopMag]

With the growing prosperity of netbook devices from one side, and rapid increase in tablet consuming from the other, one should be questioning himself/herself  if there’s enough room for any type of media player to fit today’s market. Korean company Viliv, still thinks positively regarding this matter, and rolls out its latest Prime P3 PMP, which packs a 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen on top, and dual booting platform, running both Android 2.1 and Windows CE 6.0 for the OS. The new player also packs up to 32GB of internal storage, while CPU wise you get the 800 MHz ARM Cortex flavor, capable handling your entire 720p content, stutter free. Other than that, for a non-disclosure price or availability, you get a built-in accelerometer, paired with WiFi connectivity, TV out and microSD slot expansion – all offered in variant of colors to choose from. a quick video demo is right after the break.

[Viliv via I4U News]

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Since its launch two months ago, Apple’s iPad sales has already reached over one million units (in the US alone), with users downloading over 12 million apps from the App Store and over 1.5 million ebooks from the new iBookstore. As of today, there are almost 200,000 apps available on iTunes for all Apple devices, while more than 10,000 apps of them were written or redesigned for the iPad platform itself. Steve Jobs says “Demand continues to exceed supply and we’re working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more customers…” – and he does, as Apple already announced its next stage of global roll out, which is allegedly slated to start on May 28. In this post, we have rounded up 11 great (free/cheap) iPad music apps that will let you feel like a pro DJ when using. You can scratch, create loops, remix your audio files, insert samples, play, produce and record your very own audio stuff on-the-go.  Check out each app, download it and you’ll be off and running with some great DJ tools in no time. Considering some of this apps can cost dozens, if not hundreds of dollars in desktop/laptops markets, paying a few bucks is a sound investment, in our humble opinion.

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Looks like it didn’t take long to turn Apple’s  i – devices jailbreak from a nice video demo into a real tangible hack which can be downloaded right away, no matter if you’re a PC user or a Mac. The untethered jailbreak works pretty well on iPhone, iPad WiFi, iPad 3G + WiFi, and iPod touch devices while jailbreak process is very quick (takes few seconds only), and should apply to activated iPhone/iPad OS devices running 3.1.2, 3.1.3, and 3.2 versions, without including the carrier unlock. Mind you, it’s still in beta mode, so make sure you have everything you need as a backup, before getting it installed. Download is available in here, but regretfully, not all Cydia apps will eventually work.

[Spirit Jailbreak]

Steve Jobs has just posted a defying letter on Apple’s website, where he explicitly explains the reasons why his company has eventually decided to ditch Flash and not to support it on Cupertino devices, such as  iPad, iPhone and the iPod Touch. In general, what Steve Jobs says in here is that the use of Adobe’s most favorable Flash platform is considered in his point of view obsolete and literally belongs to the past. In his words “Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice.” and more about that from Jobs: “the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.”

But that’s just the bottom of the line of Steve Jobs thoughts. If you break them down to very small pieces, they might fall through the grid of pure rational argumentation. In a nutshell, the father of the iPhone claims that Flash technology is not open. In other words, Adobe’s Flash products, even if widely available, are still controlled by Adobe itself and not by any other entities – meaning, Flash is a closed system. As for the lack of “full web” experience allegations in Apple products, says Jobs that the new web is adjusting itself to Apple’s latest standards and for that matter big websites like Youtube, Netflix, Facebook et al already supporting the cause. As for “Reliability, security and performance” Steve thinks that Flash is the main reason for Mac crash and argues that Adobe has never been able to provide good Flash plug-in/add-on for Apple mobile phones. Steve Jobs also refers to the problem of fast battery drain and the pesky multi-tasking issues that Flash can actually cause.

And then there’s “the most important reason” why Apple has given up on Flash. Apparently, Apple doesn’t want letting “a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform”, or in our words, Apple wants to give more freedom and direct access to its unrelenting developers, and willing to do so over Adobe’s personal expenses. So there you go guys, a thorough and sincere letter, containing  Steve Jobs thoughts. Jump straight after the break, read it, and then decide which side to support.

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So here’s the thing guys, you still have a 2G iPhone and finally want to make a change, something new, refreshing that would literally turn your good old stuff into a current, up-to-date smartphone. Up until now it’s been really difficult to carry out, but today, it’s actually possible. To do so, you’ll need to follow very cautiously a 68 step guide that would walk you through the long and tiresome process which includes the use of an iPhone Explorer to initially copy the Android files, then a stage where you have to turn your desktop into an Ubuntu virtual machine to install the OpeniBoot software, that would eventually create a dual-booting iPhone with iPhone OS and Android 1.6 systems hanging around. Definitely exhausting but hey, users are seldom willing to sacrifice well- established standard technology for a new and “more open” one, even if the latter don’t necessarily promise increased functionality, right? If you’re still in for it, you can checkout the video after the break or the entire guideline frame after frame (at your risk!).

Update1: Looks like David Wang, the guy who wrote the code that enables Android installation on first-gen iPhones, has now managed to go even further and make Google’s magical platform work on Apple 3G devices. Checkout his video demo after the break.

Update2: Apparently, the iPhone 3G port of Android is now available to download for your iPhone 3G devices. At your own risk, you can get in here, grab it and install.  Here’s another good guide how to install it, courtesy of PC World.

[via Android A Lot]

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It was just a matter of time before someone would eventually come up with a crazy first-impression shooting game for Zune HD players, and make it live for everyone to snag – especially now, when Microsoft’s iPod killer has been officially hacked and the OpenZDK toolkit that grants access to game developments, has finally become available. Now frankly, what good is a portable gaming console without the option to play Doom with it? The answer to this cardinal question is literally similar to a well known campaign slogan – Yes We Can! At least that’s what ZuneBoards forum member, Netrix, says and you can get the impression yourself in his video, right after the break. You see, It’s very simple to execute, as long as you run those Doom WAD gaming files through the app itself.

[via ZuneBoards]

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Twitter has just launched its latest Anywhere platform which lets developers start developing their own Twitter apps and install them on their websites right away. First introduced at SXSWi, by Twitter’s founder @EV, the new package provides embedding tools and new integration methods, delivered by Twitter itself, that aims to increase its massively growing traffic with more engagement and more users to take part in the service, sign-in, connect, and share their feeds. It’s literally paralleled to Facebook connect, if you still try to figure out what it means – the more you connect, the more active you are the more buzz created and more publishers are getting happy out of this thing.

You get four features in Twitter’s Anywhere package: Hovercards, Connect, Sign-In, and the Tweetbox, with no special need to open new accounts or sign for a different service – simply use your very own Twitter username and password to log. This way, you will help Twitter to increase interaction between websites and tweet messages in a way that eventually would make the service even stronger.

Twitter says that popular websites such as AdAge, Amazon, Bing, Citysearch, Digg, Disqus, eBay, Foursquare, Gawker, Google, Gowalla, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, Hunch, Mashable, Meebo, MSNBC.com, The New York Times, Salesforce.com, WSJ.com, Yahoo!, and YouTube have already pledged to the new service and about to install its tools onboard.

We’ve already installed the HoverCards feature into our website. Just move your mouse over the following names and see how it works (feel free to follow as well): @niron, @EV, @Scobleizer, @Biz, @Anywhere.

Well, well, what do we have in here…Looks like another episode of “It didn’t take long to jailbreak it” has been unofficially demoed by Apple’s fearless nemesis Geohot ans his counterpart fellows from @comex. See that Cydia app on that iPad device, implying a blackra1n jailbreak? No doubt, it happened, but still no downloadable version to ratify that (rest assure it won’t take long, though). Until then, please checkout the iPad-N64 console video after the break.

[Geohot]

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The iPhone OS 4.0 event we’ve all been anxiously awaiting, just ended with Apple delivering some striking news to the world. But before getting to those shocking news we just heard, here’s some other details that might be worth considering: As of today Apple sold about 450,000 iPads throughout the States (along 50M iPhone devices), while users have downloaded about 600,000 books and over 3.5 million apps, thus far. The iPhone OS 4 which suppose to get official release this summer, is said to provide more than 1500 new APIs for developers, who can now actually download the fourth SDK Beta package from the iPhone Dev Center, and start shaping their magical crafts.

Moving the focus point over the main buffet, it’s all about the multitasking (Finally!). Yes, you’ve heard that right folks, Apple’s OS 4 is said to include multitasking (…and I’ll repeat myself again: ‘multitasking’). Of course it will work if you have an iPhone 3GS in your bag. Earlier devices, according to Jobs, amongst you’ll find “The iPhone 3G and iPod touch 2nd generation will run “many things”, but they will not get multitasking”.  In that note, Apple says it’d actually provide seven multitasking services including: background audio streaming like Pandora playing music all day long without the need to be stopped, Voice over IP apps like Skype taking calls even when you browse, background GPS and location apps, push and local notifications, task completion like Flickr image uploaded i background, and last but not least, fast app switching – all to be safely activated without the worry of battery draining.

Next in line is the new form of Folders, which aims to organize, and make sense out of the dispersed field of applications. With iPhone OS 4, users are said to be able to drag and drop apps onto one another to create folders, that from now on can hold up to 2160 apps instead of 180 apps you used to see over 11 pages.

Cupertino is also pushing forward today the Unified Inbox function, which gathers multiple email accounts (like MobileMe, Yahoo, Gmail, etc) into one single box, and thus eliminates the need to jump from one window to another. Apple has also enabled in this session the possibility of getting third-party email attachments straight into your phones – Yay, attachments are on!

iBooks gets to the iPhone OS 4 as well, with Apple taking advantage of recent iPad e-book galore.

Gaming Center. Another big news, especially for the gamer geeks between us. With Apple, building a social iPhone gaming network, which basically allows you to challenge your friends, compare achievements, leaderboards, match making  and more. In other words, it’s like the Xbox Live, but for the iPhones.

iAds. Suddenly everything that starts with the letter “i” is an Apple related product, eh? But seriously now, it was Steve Jobs who was quoted saying that free apps “Developers need to find a way to start making their money”… so far so good, but how? Apparently, Apple will sell interactive in-apps mobile ads, that everyone can create, not only ad agencies but also iPhone app developers that will split revenues with Apple (60/40) in exchange for selling and hosting their ads. Apple is said to use HTML 5 format to create those ads – interesting!

More coming up  features to include: Home screen wallpaper installation, Bluetooth keyboard support, 5x digital zoom, Spell check like in iPads, Playlist creation, Map overlays, Video playback and capture, and more.

So this is it guys, it’s huge and in some parts very surprising. A short multi-tasking OS 4 hands-on video is just after the break and you can also watch the full iPhone OS 4 keynote event on video on Apple’s website right here.

Update: Full PR announcement after the break.

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Well folks, looks like Redmond has just released the latest Zune HD firmware update v4.5 to the pond, which adds some cool features to your portable Microsoft multimedia players, including Smart DJ mix that will let you do exactly what Apple’s iTunes Genius does, personalized recommendations, TV Marketplace support, and more video codec support such as Xvid files and MPEG-4 part 2 format. Like always, plug your Zune HD player to the Zune PC software and get this latest update right away.

Update: Apparently, the Zune HD (and probably previous Zune players as well) just got hacked – for real! So now, you literally have access to Microsoft’s XNA game development platform, which means you can practically load inside everything you’ve ever dreamed about, including games, apps, fun emulators to play with and more. But that’s not all, because according to Zuneboards a group of hackers has just released what they call the OpenZDK toolkit that allegedly, lets you develop lots of stuff for the Zune through their software. In other words, get ready for a whole new range of games and apps withing this exciting sphere.

At last… The new iPad is here, it’s HERE! Steve Jobs calls it ‘magical’; Apple fans report they’re excited, the detractors between us claim it’s just a big iPod player, another wireless digital frame, a toy, a brick, a fancy tray, expensive mirror, babies’ surfboard or electronic sun cover – stop it, STOP IT!

Lets face it guys, If you’re a gamer, not a fake but a REAL gamer, the kind that can seat like 48 hours in front of the tele and burn those long and curvy high speed race tracks all the way to the victory, or feel that you’re the only true mighty fighter on earth that can easily save his planet while busting those mudda fucka ugly aliens that invaded from out of space a few hours ago – if you’re that guy/gal – then you should know. A strong and portable gaming machine, with built in accelerometer that can act as a steering wheel, a shooting gun or anything else that would literally lead your way to the top, in this case the iPad, can definitely be the ultimate machine.

And for portable gaming machine like that, one need games – fun, exciting, sports, or board, shooting or arcade it really doesn’t matter, as long as you can play FOREVE! Check out some of the free games on Apple App Store, available to download right away. But hurry up, because some of them are free for limited time only. Check them out, after the break.

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