iLounge

Speaking in an interview with Now Gamer, id Software co-founder John Carmack made several statements on the development of games for iPhone vs. Android. When asked, “With Rage HD on iOS do you see yourself ever working on Android?,” Carmack responded, “Every six months I’d take a look at the scope of the Android, and decide if it was time to start really looking at it.” He continued, “At the last Quakecon I took a show of hands poll, and it was interesting to see how almost as many people there had an Android device as an iOS device. But when I asked how many people had spent 20 bucks on a game in the Android store, there was a big difference. You’re just not making money in the Android space as you are in the iOS space.”

He added, “We made more money than people may expect on the Doom RPG stuff. It’s just fun to develop on iOS. We’d show people what we were working on and they’d go ‘Oh, when are you going to ship that? And I’d say “next month” and they’d go ‘Aww, I wanna work on an iPhone title.’ It’s hard to make a rational business decision to say I want to take resources from something else and put them on this. We did actually hire a person to be our Android guy, but it looks like he’s going to get stuck on iOS development!” Id has released several games for iOS devices, including ports of its classic titles Wolfenstein 3D and DOOM, as well as the aforementioned Rage HD.

Developer James Laird has reverse engineered Apple’s private AirPlay key, opening the door to third-party AirPlay-enabled AirPort Express emulators. In a blog post announcing the release of ShairPort, an open-source AirPort Express emulator, Laird explains that Apple used a public-key crypto scheme in the AirPort Express, hiding a private key inside. Laird ended up opening the AirPort Express, dumping the ROM, and reverse engineering the keys out of it to achieve his goal. As noted by Mac Rumors, third-party apps allowing users to stream audio to an AirPort Express or other AirPlay devices have previously been available, but none were able to accept incoming audio streams. In addition, it seems unlikely that hardware manufacturers would want to use the key, as it is possible to become an officially licensed AirPlay partner instead.

Nearly two out of every ten U.S. teens now owns an iPhone, according to the results of the latest Piper Jaffray bi-annual teen survey. Fortune reports that 17 percent of teens said they own an iPhone, up from 14 percent in the October 2010 survey. Perhaps more importantly, 37 percent said they plan on purchasing—or having their parents purchase for them—an iPhone in the next sixth months, up from 33 percent in the prior survey. 22 percent said they either owned a tablet or had one in their household, 20 percent expect said they expected to purchase one in the next sixth months, and 86 percent said they owned an iPod, up from 78 percent in the October survey. The survey was based on responses from 4,500 U.S. teenagers.

Apple has quietly dropped prices across its iPod lines in Australia. The iPod shuffle has dropped $4 to $65, the 8GB iPod nano has dropped $20, to $179, while the 16GB model has seen a $10 price reduction, to $219. Finally, the iPod touch has seen a $30 price decrease on the 8GB model, a $29 decrease on 32GB units, and a $50 decrease on the 64GB model, bringing the prices to $259, $349, and $449, respectively. All prices mentioned above are in Australian dollars.

Update: SetteB.IT notes that Apple has also dropped the price of the iPod classic, from AUD$329 to AUD$299.

Apple has released iOS 4.3.1 for the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad, iPad 2, third-, and fourth-generation iPod touch. According to Apple’s release notes, the update fixes an occasional graphics glitch on the fourth-generation iPod touch, resolves bugs related to activating and connecting to some cellular networks, fixes an image flicker issue when using the Apple Digital AV Adapter with some TVs, and resolves an issue authenticating with some enterprise web services, among other big fixes and improvements. iOS 4.3.1 is available now via the Update feature in iTunes.

Apple has met with Taiwan-based touch panel manufacturers, discussing the possibility of price hikes in order to secure sufficient supply of the sought after components, according to a new report. Citing the panel manufacturers themselves, DigiTimes reports that should Apple agree to the price hikes, it would greatly help the overall supply chain, even if for the short term, and would also put increased pressure on other tablet and smartphone manufacturers. In addition, the report claims that in order to hit its internal shipment goal of 40 million iPads in 2011, Apple has booked over 60 percent of global touch panel capacity, and that despite the supply concerns caused by the devastating earthquake in Japan, Apple’s should have an easier time garnering supply than its rivals.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been ordered by a federal magistrate judge to answer questions in an antitrust dispute dating back to 2005. Bloomberg reports that the case revolves around RealNetworks’ Harmony technology, which promised to allow copy-protected music sold on its online store to be played on iPods. The technology was introduced in July 2004, and Apple took just five days to announce software updates to render the technology inoperable, saying its was “stunned” that Real had “adopted the tactics and ethics of a hacker to break into the iPod.” According to U.S. Magistrate Judge Howard R. Lloyd in San Jose, California, Jobs has been ordered to speak because “The court finds that Jobs has unique, non-repetitive, firsthand knowledge about the issues at the center of the dispute over RealNetworks software.”

Some iPhone 3GS/4 and iPod touch 4G owners are complaining of severe battery drain under iOS 4.3. Multiple Apple Support Discussion threads (one, two, three, four) have been dedicated to the subject, with most users reporting that turning off push services, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Location Services does not help the problem. One thread in particular tells of users whose iPhones have not auto-locked, and sat idle with the screen on for minutes or hours at a time. Notably, several iLounge editors have also noticed severe battery drain, although the problem is not present on all our phones. The problem appears to affect both iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 units, as well as the iPod touch 4G, and several users have reported that they were able to eradicate the issue by performing a restore and re-populating the phone manually file by file instead of from a backup.

Apple has released iOS 4.3 for the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, third- and fourth-generation iPod touch, and iPad ahead of its scheduled date of March 11. The update includes a number of new features, such as improved Safari performance, improved support for AirPlay video and audio from third-party apps and Safari, the ability to customize the iPad switch for mute or orientation lock, Personal Hotspot cellular data sharing for the GSM iPhone 4, and iTunes Home Sharing, which allows users to wirelessly stream content from iTunes to an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch over their home network. iOS 4.3 is available now via the Update feature in iTunes.

A new report suggests that Apple plans to release iOS 4.3 around 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time/1:00 p.m. Eastern Time today. Citing an anonymous source, BGR reports that the update for the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, third- and fourth-generation iPod touch, and iPad will be released later today, and that the new Personal Hotspot feature will be, by default, limited to three wireless connections, but can be expanded to five devices if requested by the carrier. Apple’s iOS 4.3 page notes that the Personal Hotspot feature “requires a supporting hotspot tethering plan from your carrier and works with up to three devices over Wi-Fi, three devices over Bluetooth, and one device over USB,” while being limited to five total connections spread over the three options. For instance, a user could have three devices connected via Wi-Fi, plus two over Bluetooth, or one over Bluetooth and one over USB, or three over Bluetooth and two over Wi-Fi, and so on.

Update: An anonymous source has informed iLounge that in the latest developer release of iOS 4.3, nearly all the carrier plist files have been set to five connections, including AT&T. The only ones that are set to something other than five are O2 Prepaid, O2 Tesco, and Personal_ar, which are all set to one. Notably, the source said that regardless of this setting, the maximum number of Wi-Fi connections is still three.

Update x2: The Loop reports that iOS 4.3 will be released tomorrow, a claim potentially corroborated by a Mac Rumors reader report.

Following its official announcement at the iPad 2 media event yesterday, Apple has released a pre-release version of the Gold Master of iOS 4.3 for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad to members of the iOS developer program. This likely represents the last developer-only release prior to the final public release of iOS 4.3 which has been scheduled for March 11th. It is currently unknown what specific changes have been made in this latest version, although Apple highlighted some of the new features in iOS 4.3 during yesterday’s media event and some previews have been seen from prior beta releases. Apple’s iOS 4.3 GM seeds for the iPad, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and third- and fourth-generation iPod touch are available now to paid iOS developers from the iOS Dev Center. Notably, although developers were previously provided with a beta version of iOS 4.3 for the Apple TV, a GM seed of the Apple TV iOS has not yet been made available.

A new report claims that Apple and Samsung are negotiating a component contract that would see the iPhone maker purchase $7.8 billion in parts from Samsung this year. Citing industry sources, the Korea Economic Daily, via the Wall Street Journal, reports that the massive contract would include LCD displays, mobile application processors, and NAND flash memory chips used in the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. The report notes that should the contract push through, Apple would become Samsung’s largest customer.

A number of major retailers are reporting short supplies of the iPod classic, leading some to speculate that the aging iPod model may finally see a refresh—or else be discontinued. iPodnn reports that estimated shipping times for the silver iPod classic have slipped from 24 hours to 1-3 business days on the Apple Online Store, while Best Buy’s website claims the player is backordered for 1-2 weeks, and Target has it listed as backordered for 2-4 weeks. Although the original report states that the supply issues are limited to the silver model of the iPod classic, Apple reseller J&R lists both the silver and black models as out of stock, and Amazon.com’s shipping times for the silver model are 1-3 weeks, compared to 2-4 weeks for the black model. The iPod classic was last updated in September 2009 with a modest capacity bump from 120GB to 160GB and was not mentioned at Apple’s annual iPod event for 2010, however, Toshiba recently announced a new line of hard drives in capacities up to 220GB that could be used in a next-generation model. Whether this shortage is temporary, a sign of an impending update, or a sign that Apple is discontinuing the model entirely is currently unknown.

More than $10 million in counterfeit iPods, iPhones, and other electronics have been seized in downtown Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times reports that the items were taken from a downtown warehouse operation as part of a theft case started by the Los Angeles Port Police. “This was a well-funded operation, and the counterfeits looked very authentic,” said Ron Boyd, chief of the L.A. Port Police force, who added that a buyer might not have noticed anything was amiss until he or she got home and tried to hook up with iTunes. Some of the products, which were shipped from Asia, were designed to resemble older Apple products such as non-touchscreen iPod nanos. Boyd said the case highlighted the lengths counterfeiters go to in hiding their activities, as the fakes arrived as parts meant to be reassembled and labeled before being sold. “Our layered, multi-agency approach to security and theft investigations led to success,” Boyd said. “We’re proud of the teamwork that happens on a continuous basis to thwart consumer fraud, keep our port safe and enable our agencies to pursue cases to fruition and criminal prosecution.”

Apple has added the ability for iPhone and iPod touch users to view iTunes Store Genius recommendations directly on their devices. The new option can be found inside the iTunes Store app under “More” and then “Genius.” Recommendations are available for music, movies, and TV shows, and of course require that you have Genius turned on for your iTunes account. Users are able to rate individual recommendations by swiping across them and tapping on either a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” icon.

Apple has released the third beta version of iOS 4.3 to its paid developers. Listed as build number 8F5166b, it is unclear what has changed in the new version from prior betas, which included the new Personal Hotspot Wi-Fi sharing feature and enhanced AirPlay support for Safari and third-party apps. In addition, the release is once again accompanied by a new preview build of Apple TV Software 4.3. Separate versions of iOS 4.3 beta 2 for the iPad, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, third-, and fourth-generation iPod touch are available as downloads for paid iOS developers from Apple’s iOS Dev Center.

For more information on iOS 4.3, see our Full Breakdown article.

Toshiba, a known supplier of hard drives for the iPod classic, has announced two new drives that could be used to bump the capacity of the iPod classic. The current iPod classic—which hasn’t seen an update since September of 2009, and even then only saw a capacity bump from 120GB to 160GB—uses a 5mm thick, 160GB drive. Toshiba’s new drives are also 5mm in thickness, but offer capacities up to 220GB in a single-platter design with a 16MB buffer for improved performance and the smallest power consumption levels of any SATA drive. According to the release (PDF Link), samples of the drives will be available for customers in February. Apple traditionally updates its iPod lineup once a year in September, but as noted by Mac Rumors, the abnormally long time period between updates for the iPod classic could lead the company to consider a mid-cycle update.

Liv Games has released Legendary Wars, a new hybrid fantasy game for the iPhone and iPod touch. A blend of traditional real-time strategy, RPG and castle defense play, Legendary Wars takes the player through five mystical and tumultuous zones of Lengendaria as they set out to unravel the secrets surrounding the mysterious Sunstones. The game provides a varied set of arcade mini-games, three unlockable game modes and an immersive storyline set in a vibrant, lighthearted fantasy world. An assortment of playable characters range from Elven Archers to Magical Unicorns and each unit has upgradable stats and unique combat abilities that players use against hordes or Netherworld creates and bosses to lead their army to victory. Players can choose from a variety of gameplay styles such as castle defense, castle siege, ambush and free build and must mine resources and recruit units to send into battle, direct units to perform special attack or defensive moves and collect gems in battle to fority defenses, improve resource production and upgrade units. Legendary Wars requires iOS 3.1.3 or later and is available from the App Store for $3.

Google has announced that it has launched a beta version of its Google Cloud Print service for mobile documents and Gmail for mobile. The feature will allow users to print documents from Google Docs, or emails and attachments from Gmail, directly from their browser. The service will require users to connect their printers to Google Cloud Print—something which currently requires a Windows PC—and will be rolling out today and tomorrow for English speaking users in the US. According to Google, the new mobile Cloud Print feature will work on most phones that support HTML5, including devices running iOS 3.0 or later.

The second beta version of iOS 4.3 has been shown to offer further evidence of a camera-equipped iPad, as well as hints of a new cloud-based media sharing and syncing service, a new app, and Push Notifications for an existing service. Mac Rumors reports that the new beta includes an image of an iPad home screen with icons for FaceTime, Camera, and Photo Booth pictured, offering further evidence that the next iPad will include at least one camera. According to the report, the image is used to show a preview of the user’s wallpaper selection; it also suggests Apple is porting its standard Mac OS X Photo Booth app to its portable devices.

Also found in iOS 4.3 beta 2 and reported by AppleInsider is a mention of a new Photo Stream image sync feature, which appears to make MobileMe Gallery sharing automatic, which was found inside a “Media Stream” folder. “Photo Stream uploads and stores the last thirty days of your photos on MobileMe and downloads them to all of your devices,” reads the text found in the beta. Finally, 9 to 5 Mac reports that Ping has received the ability to send Push Notifications under iOS 4.3 beta 2. Apple has yet to set a public release date for iOS 4.3, and as with all betas, features are subject to changes and/or removal prior to the official release.