iPhone, News/Rumors

Patent: ‘social camera flash’ connects multiple devices to light a scene

A new Apple patent describes a system which allows an iOS device remotely controls multiple secondary devices. The patent called as an “Illumination system” allows Apple’s mobile products to function as remotely-controlled lights for a primary camera. It should be noted that such a primary unit can be either a dedicated camera or a handset with image capture capabilities, while the secondary device can be any other device. The principle it works is the following: the primary unit sets up a connection with the one or more secondary devices. After taking a test image to determine the illumination requirements of a scene, it provides the secondary devices with a signal.

“As one example, a display associated with (or incorporated into) a secondary device may display text instructing a person holding that device to move in a particular direction, for a particular distance, to angle or move the device in a certain manner, and so forth,»-the patent stated.

That means that the primary unit can send instructions remorely to the person holding the secondary device. By the way, with a graphical interface a user can preview a test shot and offer control over the secondary devices acting as slave flashes. It’s also possible for the primary device to display scene options which automatically change slave units’ flash fire intensity or send instructions for repositioning.

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It was not the one person who’s responsible for the idea connecting multiple iOS devices, so the patent can be supposed to be “social camera flash” system. It also should be mentioned that Apple’s remote flash patent application was first filed in November 2011.

iPhone, News/Rumors

Apple iPhone could cause 2011 incident

A 2011 incident is just one of the occasions where operating electronics is supposed to be the reason for the airplane system problems.

There are still debates over use of electronic devices during takeoff and landing. Meanwhile, iPhone is suspected to be responsible for a 2011 incident, as it may have caused interference with the flight equipment on a regional airliner. One of the pilots suspected the iPhone caused interference with the plane’s systems. The matter is that the time of the iPhone turning off and stabilization of the navigational issues coincided.

According to the Bloomberg’s report, there were problems with compasses on the flight, but the system was stabilized after a passenger was asked to turn off the iPhone. In spite of the incident there are some carriers, which still support the relaxing of rules on use of electronic devices under 10,000 feet. Already existing rules prohibit the use of most electronic devices — Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iPods — while the plane is at such height.

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Being under the pressure of passengers, who require to relax the rules, the Federal Aviation Administration had to assure that rule changes would be announced soon. The problem connects with different understanding of the term “airplane mode”, which originally featured to turn off all of the wireless radios. But today variety of devices complicates the way of adopting one standard for all units.

 

iPhone, News/Rumors

Faulty iPhone 4 power button caused new class action lawsuit

According to the U.S. Disctrict Court for the Northern District of California, the suit claims Apple’s iPhone 4 has a defective power button. The matter is that the device’s power button fails shortly after the one year warranty expires. Moreover, thousands of iPhone 4 users have suffered from the issue that Apple knew about the failing component before manufacturing and selling the device. The lawsuit claims that a defective flex cable is usually  the reason for the on/off switch to fail soon after the device’s one year warranty has ended, rendering much of the iPhone 4 useless. Thus, the defect in the power button prevented users from restarting the phone or being able to turn it on and off. The fact is that If the problem came up after the 1-year warranty ended, users had to pay a $149.99 replacement fee.

The complaint cites said that “hundreds” of customers complained of the problem. Though the issue hasn’t been previously covered in media,  it was noted that there were over 800K views on Apple’s website since first appearing in January 2011. Of course, Apple doesn’t stop selling the iPhone 4 through a number of its carrier partners.

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Debra Hilton filed the lawsuit in San Jose, Calif., is seeking $5 million in damages for iPhone 4 owner who bought the devices from Apple or AT&T and stop sales of the defective unites.

The class action suit is filed under the RICO statute, which is a federal racketeering law.

iPhone, News/Rumors

Rumor:iPhone 5S to feature sapphire crystal touch home button

The iPhone 5S is rumored to appear with a capacitive touch-sensitive button covered by scratch-resistant sapphire crystal glass that incorporates a new fingerprint sensor. The news came from Taiwan’s Technews.tw. That means that Apple’ll do away with the traditional physical home button and utilize crystal glass because of its compatibility with optic sensors. By using sapphire crystal, which is only less harder than diamond, will protect the button from getting scratched and ruining the fingerprint sensor. It should be noted Appel has already used sapphire crystal in an iPhone 5′s camera. The report noted that Apple is going to chose the same material for the iPhone 5S’s home button, as the physical home button on early iPhone models has been problematic.

Accordint to the rumors the company isn’t planing to offer a physical button like existing iOS devices, it would probably eliminate one of the most unreliable components in an iOS device. By using sapphire crystal glass, Apple plans to prevent scratches on the surface, which could ruin the fingerprint sensing capabilities expected to appear in the “iPhone 5S.”

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For many months there were rumors that Apple will use fingerprint technology in the iPhone 5S, so it may come not only with a capacitive touch button, but a fingerprint sensor as well?

Accessories, News/Rumors

Powerful Goal Zero Switch 8 Solar Charger

If you’re an eager beaver of traveling, The Goal Zero Switch 8 kit is a great charging solution. It’s an easy-to-carry pack with two panels and zipped mesh beg for battery packaging and USB converter sit. Why The Goal Zero Switch 8? Well, this thing is small, light and easy to use. Its folding design allows you to prop it up like a book, if you have nothing to hang it. The most important component of the system is the Switch 8 recharger, a cylindrical multifunction thing that stores enough power to charge an iPhone 5 to 90 percent. It’s made of lightweight aluminum.

GOAL ZERO has said that it’s planing to release two tips in the coming months, one being an LED flashlight, and another that cleans water using ultraviolet light. When those products releases, the Switch 8 will be more multifeature than most comparable products on the market. Its concept is really easy. Power is sent to a tiny converter, which have the size like DSLR battery and the double zippers allow you to charge even big devices. With USB port it’s possible to plug the battery pack in and loop the cable. Some blue LEDs will inform you about charging status and how much the battery remains. There’s also a key unsunned feature. The end caps allows you to add different modules.

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GOAL ZERO did a great job developing such a compact unit but with maximum functionality!

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iPhone, News/Rumors

Patent: Invisiable button for iPhone

Apple has been granted a new patent titled-”Disappearing button or slider” by USPTO. According to the patent, Apple can produce devices with invisible buttons and slider controls. That means, that iPhone can be provided with buttons and controls which are responsible for their invisibility.

As the Patent states: “an input device includes a deflection based capacitive sensing input. Deflection of a metal fame of the input device causes a change in capacitance that is used to control a function of an electrical device.”

A button is supposed to be made of the same material as the housing of the phone, so it would be coherent whole. Its location could be pointed thanks to the backlit through small holes. The user could also activate it by tapping the button. Basically, it would respond to any motion of a finger and even sound.

According to the Patent report: “Apple’s visible controls may be a contextual control, meaning that the function of control is dependent upon an operating state of the device such as when iTunes is active so as to control iTunes functions. In other implementations, invisible contextual controls (not shown) can be used to deactivate a camera, eject a disk or USB stick, or to illuminate the keyboard depending on the state of the MacBook. Even the entire keyboard of the MacBook can be replaced with an array of invisible buttons. In fact, all of the conventional keys, buttons, track pads, etc. on a MacBook or other electronic device can be replaced by invisible inputs according to the present invention.»apple-patent

Hopefully the patent isn’t just to be, this will open new horizons and provide Apple’s devices with new features.

 

 

iPhone, News/Rumors

T-Mobile: 500K iPhone sales in less than one month

According to the financial report for the first quarter of 2013 published on Tuesday, T-Mobile’s earnings dipped from the year ago period.
Thus, T-Mobile announced a 7.1 percent year-over-year decline in its revenues for the first quarter of 2013. T-Mobile started selling the iPhone only one month ago, so Apple’s device debuted on April 12, on the “Un-Carrier’s” network, where it is sold for a $99 upfront fee, offering later payment during the following 20 months.
And as T-Mobile’s President & CEO, John Legere said: “Our first quarter operating metrics and financial results are showing positive impact from the changes we began making in the fourth quarter” . “We ended the quarter with strong operational momentum, which is continuing into the second quarter, driven by the successful launch of our Un-carrier “Simple Choice” service plan and the introduction of the iPhone into our device line-up.”

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As a result, branded customer net additions stood at 3,000 customers at the end of quarter one, with the sector producing good growth since 2009. The fact is that the improvement in postpaid net losses were of 61 percent from 2012 and about 202,000 customers were hit by the prepaid net additions. The result is 34 million customers in the first quarter, that is more from the end of the fourth quarter 2012.
It should be mentioned that The Un-Carrier was the last of the big-four U.S. telecoms to deal with Apple to provide the customers with the iPhone. By the way, quarter-on-quarter figures were up, while there was a year-to-year financial dip. Well, I suppose, that’s a promising sign for the company.

Jailbreak, News/Rumors

Velox changes the way you use your jailbroken iPhone

Velox, a greatly awaited jailbreak tweak is finally here. With Velox, the user needn’t open apps from the Home screen to view their notifications. They can be seen from the panel. And it’s possible to do on any iOS app that is capable of interacting with Notification Center.Velox offers you to do more with the app icons and they will never be the same now. It also can change the way you use your jailbroken iPhone.

The most perfect in Velox is its options that are baked into Apple’s native iPhone apps. Now, swiping on the Messages icon, you can creat a new message and reply to unread messages without entering the app itself. Your unread emails will be shown on the Home screen. All you need is to swipe right to quickly reply.

 Velox provides you with more opportunities for Apple’s Photos and Camera apps. Quickly take any picture by swiping on the Camera icon, wich reveals options to post your photos to Twitter, Facebook, email, or Messages. Upcoming events and missed calls can be easily displayed with Velox. You can even take a note from the Home screen with the Notes app.

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What about music? Well, the Music works really well with Velox. Swiping on the Music app’s icon, you see a nice mini-player. And one more advantage. Now you can control the process of downloading on your iPhone, swiping on the icon to see its results.

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Velox cooperates perfectly with most of the other jailbreak tweaks, like Auxo, Zephyr, Abstergo, Infinifolders, biteSMS, and Springtomize. Sure, you like Velox, as it has a lot of potential.

 

 

iPhone, News/Rumors

Rumor: KDDI document hints at iPhone 5S in June

Apple indirectly tells us, «Do not wait for surprises until the fall.» But leaked to Web documents hint that the surprise is still possible, and it is in the announcement of iPhone 5S, which will be released in June. The document looks to be meant for sales floor staff and carries pricing information as well as some details regarding the iPhone 5S. The laminated paper is very similar to the current product referred to by many cell phone dealers in Japan. However, that the cards can easily be printed from a PDF file, with the only feature being a company logo. The information for the iPhone 5S written in red is like a pre-sale announcement date of June 20 and sales in July. If the released data is actual, there is a possibility for main feature changes, waited by everyone in the new iPhone: a fingerprint reader, 13-megapixel camera and iOS 7.

This date, however, does not seem strange though, because a few days before the new generation device release, a traditional conference for developers called WWDC 2013 (10-14 June) are held. Well, the gardget is supposed to be presented there. Thus if the iPhone 5S is to be announced that time, it would be one week prior to the June 20 pre-sale date referred to in the supposed KDDI document.13.04.29-iPhone_5S_KDDI

iPhone, News/Rumors

Your life in iPhone camera

Sometimes it seems to me that people are obsessed with iPhone: they wave their iPhones about everywhere they go, in a desperate need to record every moment of their lives. True to say, some of my friends are among them. There’s a very good chance you might also be an iPhone-fan, if Apple’s new iPhone ad is to be believed.

For, in an attempt to re-pluck your emotive twang-elements, the company says that daily more people take pictures with an iPhone than with any other camera.
In the ad below you can enjoy a beautiful solo piano piece playing over images of people backpacking, skate boarding, running, window shopping, beach combing, travelling, and in the rain taking pictures of cityscapes, concert, crowds, dessert, dinner, gymnastics, goofing off, landscapes, jellyfish, and tourists in cars, in houses, out in nature, and from above and under beds. It ends with a cute little kid in a pink dinosaur footie pajamas giggling at a photo on an iPhone.