iPhone

Solution for a stolen iPhone and iMessage

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Lex Friedman discovers a solution for a problem discovered by Ars earlier this week that would allow iMessages to be sent to your iPhone even after it had been wiped:

Macworld can confirm that perhaps the easiest way to ensure that a stolen phone stops receiving iMessages is to remotely wipe the phone, and then call your carrier and instruct them to deactivate your old SIM. The third and final step? Activate a new SIM in your new phone.Completing those three steps—wiping, deactivating your old SIM, and then activating a new one—ensures that your iMessages will get sent only to you and your iOS devices, and not anywhere else.

AppDesigner: An app maker for non-coders

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A friend of mine called me today and asked about an app to help him make an app. I recommended AppDesigner, a Mac app made by a good friend of mine. He was so impressed with the app, I figured I’d mention it in case anyone else is looking for a way to make an iPhone app.

Stolen iPhones and iMessage

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Jacqui Cheng:

Those who have had a phone lost or stolen are familiar with the horrors that follow: the thief (or the person he sold your phone to) starts to send texts as you to your family and friends, leaving you scrambling to de-activate the device as soon as possible. For modern iPhone owners, though, such a phenomenon should be in the distant past thanks to the advent of remote wipe capabilities, right?

Oh, this is not good.

Microsoft and Nokia look at buying RIM

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Networkworld:

The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that Microsoft and Nokia have toyed with the idea of making a bid for RIM, whose stock has plummeted (from about $59 to start the year to about $14 in mid-December) and whose management team has been under fire from investors. The Journal reports that the status of any talks between Microsoft, Nokia and RIM are unclear. Other scuttlebutt is that RIM executives have hit up Samsung and HTC about possible licensing deals.

I may buy RIM with the spare change in my car.

Apple sues Samsung over iPhone, iPad cases

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Apple issued the notice of infringement to Samsung in Australia over the cases, and will file a statement of claim, Apple’s lawyer Stephen Burley said at a hearing in Sydney today. Samsung’s lawyer Katrina Howard said at the same hearing the company was served with the notice that the cases infringe at least 10 patents.

If you’re going to copy the device, why not copy the case too.

Apple’s patent win against HTC

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Florian Mueller:

So what Apple has won is a formal import ban scheduled to commence on April 19, 2012, but relating only to HTC Android phones implementing one of two claims of a “data tapping patent”: a patent on an invention that marks up phone numbers and other types of formatted data in an unstructured document, such as an email, in order to enable users to bring up other programs (such as a dialer app) that process such data.

Florian is the best at explaining the ramifications of patent wins and loses.

BlackBerry party fail

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Apparently RIM organized a party in Sydney, Australia where BlackBerry users could share songs with their friends. Judging from the turnout, I guess they were too embarrassed to show up.

RIM worth less than Apple’s App Store

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Katie Marsal for AppleInsider:

Research in Motion’s struggles in the smartphone market have driven its stock price so low that the company is worth less than the estimated value of just Apple’s App Store.

Clearly RIM’s co-CEOs were right. The iPhone will have no effect on the BlackBerry at all.

RIM’s burning platform moment

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Matt Hartley:

After much consideration, he concluded that his company’s only hope was to abandon its long-held strategy, to acknowledge its shortcomings and embark on a radical new strategy. He ditched the company’s sputtering software business. He put teams to work developing new devices and he cut a billion-dollar software deal with one of the most powerful technology companies on the planet.Unfortunately for the shareholders of Research In Motion Ltd., the Canadian smartphone executive’s name was not Jim Balsillie or Mike Lazaridis. It was Stephen Elop, the Hamilton-born chief executive of Finnish mobile giant Nokia Corp.

I don’t think RIM can do it. They need to fire the co-CEOs and bring in someone with some imagination to clean house and get the company back on track.

Monkeybin apologizes for app marketing foul-up

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Credit where it’s due: the CEO of iOS game developer Monkeybin Studios has publicly apologized for a marketing foul-up that left a foul taste in some reviewer’s mouths. The company recently released a side-scrolling shooter called Jumpship Thrust Control 2. … Continued

‘Writing checks his words can’t cash’

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MG Siegler responding to Josh Topolsky: I don’t know about you, but when I read my favorite technology writers, I want an opinion. Is the iPhone 4S the best smartphone, or is it the Galaxy Nexus? I need to buy … Continued

RIM co-CEOs cut salary to $1

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Globe and Mail: Research In Motion Ltd.’s top executives cut their salaries to $1 as they delivered yet more dismal news to investors, telling the world the product that was supposed to save the company will come out almost a … Continued

Teens triple data usage

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Nielsen: Teens have officially joined the mobile Data Tsunami, more than tripling mobile data consumption in the past year while maintaining their stronghold as the leading message senders. Using recent data from monthly cell phone bills of 65,000+ mobile subscribers … Continued

Robbers demand iPhones; BlackBerry and Droids given back

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Katy Tur for NBC New York:

Twice at 526 114th St., and once at 556 114th St., the suspects demanded the victims hand over their iPhones, police said.The first victim complied, but the second only had a Droid, according to police. The thieves apparently didn’t want a Droid — so they took cash instead.

Another victim said she was insulted the robbers didn’t want her BlackBerry. Sad that the criminals have better taste then they do.

Horseshit

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Joshua Topolsky talking about MG Siegler and John Gruber’s comments about the Galaxy Nexus:

This doesn’t get under my skin because I have some kind of allegiance to one brand or another. It doesn’t get under my skin because I fundamentally disagree that Android 4.0 lacks the polish of iOS.It gets under my skin because it is a pompous, privileged, insulting, and myopic viewpoint which reeks of class warfare — and it is indicative of a growing sentiment I see amongst people in the tech community.

Popcorn.

Nokia, T-Mobile talk Windows Phone

Written by

Brian X. Chen

Both companies have challenges ahead. Nokia is trying to regain relevance in the mobile market, hence the partnership with Microsoft. And T-Mobile USA has been positioning itself to be acquired by AT&T. The two men were asked how their companies were going to help each other during this transition period.

SportsPicker Mobile helps sports junkies make picks

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OHK Labs has announced the release of SportsPicker Mobile for iOS. The software is available for free download from the App Store. SportsPicker takes a page from fantasy sports leagues and online sports betting systems, giving your interest in sports … Continued

Android fans lineup for Galaxy Nexus

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Zach Epstein:

The turnout isn’t quite what Samsung’s stiffest competitor draws when it releases a new iPhone, but we rarely see lines form for smartphone launches so this could indicate healthy demand for the world’s first 4G LTE-enabled Ice Cream Sandwich phone.

Okay, lineup is a relative term. I’ve seen this many people queue for a coffee.

GuitarToolkit 2.0 for iPhone and iPad

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GuitarToolkit 2.0 is a huge new release of one of the App Store’s top-rated apps for guitar players. GuitarToolkit 2.0 features an all-new iPad version that is free for existing customers, and GuitarToolkit+, an amazing new in-app purchase that adds interactive Chord Sheets, Custom Instruments, and Advanced Metronome with a powerful drum machine. Advanced Metronome is available now for iPad and coming soon to iPhone and iPod touch.GuitarToolkit is a collection of essential guitar tools, including an extremely accurate tuner, a precision metronome and a massive library of chords, scales and arpeggios – all on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch.

This app is made by Agile Partners, the same people that make AmpKit+, TabToolkit and other music apps. When it comes to music apps for the iOS, I love what these guys do. I own every app they make.

Dave Mustaine: Guitar Prodigy for iOS

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Want to shred like Megadeth? Never thought you could? Guess again. This is the app for that. The Dave Mustaine: Guitar Prodigy interactive App gets you — whether beginner or expert — playing the right notes at the right times within minutes — on your guitar.

I’ll definitely be giving this a try.

Microsoft offers SkyDrive cloud storage for iOS

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In addition to an Xbox Live application and its Kinectimals game, Microsoft also recently began offering another software app for iOS – SkyDrive for iOS. The free app provides access to Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud-based storage system. SkyDrive requires you to … Continued

Microsoft: A platform company

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When Google released its iOS Gmail app, I argued that it was a woefully missed opportunity for the software giant. With Gmail for iOS, Google had a unique chance to impress iOS users with a well-designed app for a widely used service. Instead, as we all know, Google released a pathetic implementation reliant on UIWebView, and squandered a phenomenal Trojan Horse moment.

In stark contrast to Google’s well-publicized folly, Microsoft is doing everything it can to impress iOS users.

iOS App Store downloads are unique too

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Matthew Panzarino for TNW:

So we contacted Apple and it has confirmed to us that the numbers released about the iOS App Store, currently at 18 billion downloads, with 1 billion downloads a month, are uniques.

Yesterday I contacted Apple and confirmed that the 100 million Mac App Store downloads were unique and did not include Lion, updates or downloads to other Macs. Panzarino took it a step further and confirmed the same for the iOS App Store.