iLounge

Verizon to end grandfathered unlimited plans with LTE switch

• May 16, 2012
• iPhone

Speaking at the J.P. Morgan Technology, Media and Telecom conference, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said that the company plans to phase customers out of grandfathered-in unlimited data plans as they migrate to LTE. “Everyone will be on data share,” Shammo said, clarifying that, “a lot of our 3G base is on unlimited… [and] when they migrate off 3G they will have to go to data share.” Verizon plans to introduce new shared family data plans in the middle of the year.

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Focal offers Spirit One over-ear headphones

• May 16, 2012
• iPod Accessories, iPad Accessories, iPhone Accessories

Focal is now offering its Spirit One over-ear headphones. Built around an aluminum frame, the Spirit One features 40mm drivers, an adjustable headband, passive sound isolation, articulating ear cup joints, a detachable cable, and an in-line three-button remote and microphone that’s compatible with the iPhone, iPad, and iPod. It also includes a jack adapter cord, an airline adapter, a soft travel bag, and a hard storage case. Focal’s Spirit One over-ear headphones are available now on Amazon and sell for $279.

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WSJ: Next iPhone will have at least 4-inch screen

• May 16, 2012
• iPhone

Apple has placed orders for screens that measure at least 4 inches diagonally for use in the next iPhone, according to a new report. Citing people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reports that production on the screens is set to begin next month in Asia. The report does not offer any other information as to possible features of the new phone, nor does it offer any further information on the screen itself, such as aspect ratio or resolution. Earlier this month, iLounge reported that the next iPhone is slated to have a screen that’s roughly 4-inches diagonally, and that’s taller than prior screens, allowing Apple to increase the screen size without needing to widen the device itself.

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New HTC handsets face import delay due to Apple

• May 16, 2012
• Apple, Digital Media

HTC’s new One X and Evo 4G LTE handsets face an indefinite import delay at U.S. Customs due to a prior International Trade Commission (ITC) ruling in Apple’s favor. The Verge reports that both handsets are delayed while Customs investigates whether they infringe upon a specific Apple patent for which Apple won a ban on HTC’s Android devices at the ITC last year. The ban involves a patent covering so-called “data tapping”, or the automatic conversion of chunks of text such as dates, phone numbers, and email addresses into tappable items. According to the report, the ban was delayed so HTC could engineer around Apple’s patent, but went into effect on April 19.

“The US availability of the HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE has been delayed due to a standard U.S. Customs review of shipments that is required after an ITC exclusion order,” HTC said in a statement. “We believe we are in compliance with the ruling and HTC is working closely with Customs to secure approval.”

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Adobe brings Collage and Proto to the iPad

• May 15, 2012
• iPad, Apps + Games

Adobe Systems has released two new creative apps for the iPad as part of its Adobe Touch Apps suite announced last fall. Adobe Collage and Adobe Proto are the latest two Adobe Touch Apps to be brought to the iPad, joining Adobe Photoshop Touch released in February.

Adobe Collage ($10) allows users to build creative “moodboards” that combine images, drawings, video and text as well as files from other Adobe Creative Suite applications to help brainstorm and illustrate ideas and concepts. Collage supports importing PDF, PSD and Adobe Illustrator files as well as directly searching for and importing content from Google, Flickr and YouTube. Variable canvas sizes are supported as well as multiple pen types and text fonts. Users can access their existing content library via Adobe Creative Cloud and export their finished mood boards to their Adobe Creative Cloud account for sharing with others. Adobe Collage is an iPad app and requires iOS 4.3 or later.

Adobe Proto ($10) is a prototyping app for websites and mobile apps that allows users to create wireframe layouts using simple touchscreen gestures. A component toolbox provides interactive wireframe components such as menus, tabs, accordions and more and users can utilize well-known CSS grid systems for building wireframes. A built-in WebKit preview with jQuery support allows users to quickly preview their designs directly within the app and the resulting work can be synced to Adobe Creative Cloud to continue work using Adobe Dreamweaver CS6. Adobe Proto requires iOS 4.2 or later and an iPad.

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iLounge’s New iPad Buyers’ Guide is coming, submit your photos!

• May 15, 2012
• Site News

For eight years running, iLounge has published fantastic Buyers’ Guides for Apple’s digital media products—now the latest and greatest is just around the corner! Later this month, we’ll release a special edition focused on the iPad, and we’d love to include reader contributions from our famous Around the World photo gallery section.

If you have a picture of your iPad being used anywhere in the world, preferably in front of an identifiable local or national landmark, we’d love to consider it for the Guide. We’ll be fielding new submissions over the next week, so use this link to submit your images to the iPads Around the World gallery.

Past images submitted to our iPods, iPhones, and iPads Around the World galleries have been spectacular, and you can see examples of them here. If you have any questions regarding other Buyers’ Guide submissions, e-mail Dennis Lloyd. We look forward to seeing your images, and sharing the new Guide with you very soon!

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ESPN in talks with Apple to bring content to Apple TV

• May 15, 2012
• Apple TV

ESPN is in talks with Apple regarding the former’s WatchESPN app being included on the Apple TV. Bloomberg reports that a deal between the two companies is not imminent, but notes that a similar deal has already been worked out between the sports network and Microsoft, which offers WatchESPN access via the Xbox 360. “We’re a platform-agnostic content company,” said Sean Bratches, ESPN’s executive vice president of affiliate and advertising sales. “To the extent that in the future there’s an opportunity with Apple to authenticate through the pay-TV food chain as we’re doing with Microsoft, that’s something that we will participate in.” The network currently offers the WatchESPN app—which requires a subscription to the traditional cable channel through a participating operator—as a free Universal download for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

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iPhone tops ACSI smartphone satisfaction ratings

• May 15, 2012
• iPhone

Apple dominates all other cell phone manufacturers when it comes to customer satisfaction, according to a new report from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). According to the report, Apple’s iPhone earned the company an 83 out of 100 customer satisfaction, the first time a cell phone company has ever broken into the 80s. Its nearest competitors were Nokia, LG, and HTC, all three of which scored a 75. The ACSI’s scores are based on data from interviews with roughly 70,000 U.S. customers. [via TUAW]

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Apple product placement up in 2011

• May 15, 2012
• iPad, iPhone, iPod

Mentions and appearances of Apple products on TV were up in 2011, according to a new report. Citing numbers from researcher Nielsen, Apple products were discussed or shown 891 times on TV in 2011, up from 613 in 2009. In addition, the company’s iDevices (iPhones, iPads, and iPods) appeared in more than 40 percent of weekly box office-topping films—nearly twice as often as the next most common brands, according to Brandchannel. Unlike most companies, Apple refuses to pay for product placement in movies or TV shows, although it has been known to hand out freebies. “Apple won’t pay to have their products featured, but they are more than willing to hand out an endless amount of computers, iPads, and iPhones,” said Curb Your Enthusiasm producer Gavin Polone. “It’s kind of a graft situation.”

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Apple to add photo-sharing features to iCloud

• May 14, 2012
• iCloud

Apple is preparing to add new photo-sharing features to its iCloud service, according to a new report. Citing people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reports that the new features will allow iCloud users to share sets of photos with other iCloud users and comment on photos. The report goes on to say that Apple is also working on a feature that would allow iCloud users to sync videos via iCloud. Apple is expected to announce the iCloud upgrade alongside iOS 6 at next month’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

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Report: Siri APIs, Siri for iPad coming in iOS 6?

• May 14, 2012
• iPad, iCloud, iPhone, iPod, iTunes

Apple may launch both developer-accessible Siri APIs and Siri for iPad with the release of iOS 6, according to a new report. Citing an anonymous source, TechCrunch reports that the software, codenamed “Sundance”, will indeed feature a new, Apple-based replacement for Google Maps in the Maps application, and while the 3D mapping feature is said to be neat, it is also unlikely to be used very often. The report goes on to state that there have been “whispers” backing up the idea that Apple might announce a set of developer-accessible APIs for Siri, which would also make its debut on the iPad in iOS 6. Regarding the latter, the report claims that the difficulty with Siri on the iPad has been in designing a UI for the larger screen, rather than any technical challenge.

Finally, the report claims that new iCloud functionality and deep ties to OS X Mountain Lion will also be key parts of the software, which it claims may arrive at the same time as a completely revamped version of iTunes, and potentially even a “full-on Spotify competitor.” Apple is expected to unveil iOS 6 at its Worldwide Developers Conference next month.

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Apple rebrands third-gen iPad with Wi-Fi + 4G

• May 14, 2012
• Apple, iPad

Apple over the weekend quietly went about changing the official name of its third-generation iPad with cellular data capabilities. Previously known as the Wi-Fi + 4G model, it is now referred to on Apple’s website and in its retail locations as the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. It “connects to the Internet over Wi-Fi and fast mobile data networks,” reads the description on Apple’s UK online store. Apple had been facing scrutiny from regulators in several countries, which claimed that the “4G” moniker was misleading as the device didn’t support 4G LTE networks anywhere but in the US and Canada. [via 9to5Mac]

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iHome unveils iP76 Color Changing Speaker Tower

• May 14, 2012

iHome has unveiled its new iP76 Color Changing Speaker Tower. Measuring three-feet tall, the iP76 is designed to be a focal point of whatever room it is in, thanks to 16 multi-color LED clusters that allow it to perform a variety of lighting effects, including fading from one color to another, pulsing to the music, or producing a strobe-like effect. The tower also features four speakers, Reson8 speaker technology, Bluetooth for wireless audio streaming, an iPod/iPhone dock on the top, and component video outputs. iHome’s iP76 Color Changing Speaker Tower will be available in June and is priced at $200.

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iLounge Weekly coming Monday, giveaway reminder

• May 11, 2012
• Site News

The latest edition of iLounge Weekly, our weekly newsletter covering all things iLounge, will be arriving in subscribers’ inboxes early next week. iLounge Weekly is a summary of the week’s best news, reviews, and feature articles we’ve published, and it also features giveaways and accessory discount offers from various companies. There’s still plenty of time to sign up and receive this week’s edition — just use the simple form below to submit your email address, if you haven’t done so already.

IMPORTANT: Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Earthlink and others, make sure we don’t end up in your spam box. Please accept emails from iLounge.com. Thank you.

Also, don’t forget to enter our iBattz Bundle Giveaway. In our Giveaway of the Month for May, iLounge and iBattz are giving away 10 bundles consisting of a Mojo Removable Power Card Wallet II and an iBattz Mojo Treble Keychain Cable. To enter, simply fill out and submit the form on the giveaway page—the giveaway will end on May 31, 2012 at 11:59PM Pacific Time. Good luck!

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iCloud.com beta site reveals Notes, Reminders access

• May 11, 2012
• Apple, iCloud

A beta version of Apple’s iCloud.com online tools has revealed that the company plans to add Notes and Reminders access to the site. Developer Steve Troughton-Smith discovered the beta.icloud.com site by accident this morning, and posted a screenshot showing a beta message that read “The beta version of iCloud.com requires a developer account and setting up your Apple ID with latest iOS or OS X.” Behind the pop-up were the icons for Mail, Contacts, Calendars, a missing image marker that was later discovered to be the iWork icon, and two new icons for Notes and Reminders. Further investigation of the site by 9to5Mac discovered that the code for the site made references to iOS 6, specifically, “To use beta.icloud.com, first sign in to iCloud with the iOS 6 Beta.” Apple has since pulled the website, but it appears likely that Apple will officially open the site alongside the release of a beta version of iOS 6.

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Adobe Photoshop Touch increases maximum photo resolution

• May 11, 2012
• iPad, Apps + Games, Photo & Video

Adobe has updated Photoshop Touch for the iPad increasing the maximum supported resolution and adding new synchronization and export features. Adobe Photoshop Touch 1.2 now allows users to work with 2048x2048 resolution photos with up to 10 layers, although the default remains at 1600x1600 with 16 layers; users can choose the higher resolution in the application’s Preferences. In addition, Photoshop Touch can now automatically synchronize with Adobe’s Creative Cloud and users can export images to PSD or PNG via the iOS Camera Roll, e-mail and iTunes File Sharing. The updated version also improves workflows for rotating and flipping images, adds two new tutorials and four new effects and is now available in English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish and Italian. Adobe Photoshop Touch requires an iPad 2 or third-generation iPad with iOS 5.0 or later and is available from the App Store for $10.

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Foxconn making preparations for Apple HDTV

• May 11, 2012
• Apple TV

Foxconn is making preparations for production of Apple’s long-rumored HDTV set, according to a new report. Speaking at a news conference in Shanghai, Foxconn chief Terry Gou said that the company is making preparations for iTV, the rumored name for Apple’s upcoming high-definition TV set. China Daily claims that the set reportedly features aluminum construction, Siri, and FaceTime video calling. Gou added that Foxconn’s recent 50-50 joint venture factory with Sharp is one of the preparations made for the device, although he said that neither development or manufacturing has yet to begin.

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Apple to drop Google Maps in iOS 6

• May 11, 2012
• iPad, iPhone, iPod

Apple will drop Google Maps as the backend to its built-in Maps application for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, according to a new report. Citing trusted sources, 9to5Mac reports that Apple will make the move in iOS 6, and will replace Google’s mapping solution with an in-house mapping service built upon technology from acquisitions Placebase, C3 Technologies, and Poly9. The report claims that the application design is “fairly similar” to the current Maps app, but is described as a much cleaner, faster, and more reliable experience. The new app will also feature a new 3D mode built upon technology from C3 Technolgies, and, according to the report, and the change will be signified with a redrawn icon. The report claims that iOS 6 is likely to appear at Apple’s WWDC conference in June.

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