iOS 6.1.2 to launch next week and fix bugs, report says

The next version of Apple's mobile operating system could launch next week, according to a report, and will fix the bugs found in iOS 6.1.1.

German blog iFun cites checks with different mobile networks as evidence iOS 6.1.2 will touch down before Wednesday. That might not be concrete proof, but 9to5Mac says the same site nailed the launch of iOS 6.1.1 using info from these sources. The PS4, HTC One, and iOS 6.1.2 all in the same two days? I can think of worse weeks.

The next version of Apple's mobile OS promises to fix a couple of flaws found in 6.1.1. Namely the fact that iOS devices won't sync with Microsoft Exchange servers, as well as the fact anyone can bypass the iPhone's passcode with a few simple steps, letting them use the phone and listen to your voicemails. Apple has said it's aware of both and is working on a fix.

iOS 6.1.1 launched this week to fix the bugs in 6.1 (which is only a couple of weeks old). Here in the UK, Vodafone warned customers using an iPhone 4S not to upgrade to 6.1, due to 3G performance issues. Then it went ahead and gave it the green light to 6.1.1. But not all was fixed, as this upgrade proves. Many complained that 6.1.1 drained the battery on their iPhone 4S much faster than previous versions. Seriously, it's like whack-a-mole, fixing these bugs.

Our very own Richard Trenholm opined on the matter at this time last year, lamenting how nowadays phones seem to be sold in an unfinished state. So what if it doesn't work? There's an update coming that'll sort all that out. I'd feel more than a little annoyed if I downloaded the latest update only to find it screwed my phone's battery life. I thought updates were supposed to improve performance, not hinder it.

[Source: CNET]

Skype testing video messaging service in iOS and Mac apps

Hot on the heels of recent additions to its apps including automatic reconnects for dropped calls and e-gifting, Microsoft-owned Skype is rolling out a short-form video messaging service within its iOS and Mac clients. The new feature allows users to send each other video messages up to three minutes in length, which can be sent to other users even when they aren't online.

Since this is a beta of the feature, it's not available to all users. If you're one of the lucky few, the video messaging option will appear in your app without requiring an update. You just need to make sure you're running the most recent version of the iPhone, iPad or Mac app in order to receive it. Skype says it'll be rolling the feature out to more users soon, so if you don't see it yet, sit tight.

[Source: TUAW]

Bump Update for iOS and Android Lets Users Share Files Between Their Phone and Computer

Bump on Thursday introduced an update to its iOS and Android apps, allowing users to easily send content from their phone to a computer. Everything on Bump’s end seems good to go—you’ll need to go to the company’s website for this to work, where you’ll be able to send just about any file imaginable up to 20MB in size.

Bump previously allowed users to hock files from phone to phone, and this is obviously a natural extension in functionality. Additionally, files from a computer can also be shared to a phone, meaning it’s a two-way highway; files you do wind up sending from your computer to Bump are stored in the app itself.

If you’ve been frustrated with getting files from your device to your computer, Bump might be a nice option. Of course, you can always just use something like Dropbox, which is just as easy.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Quickly sketch out class or meeting schedules with Weekly Schedule for iPad

With so many ways to share calendars and schedules, sometimes it's nice to go a little bit old-school with a blank sheet of paper, a Magic Marker and a little bit of time. Mobile Simplified's $0.99 Weekly Schedule app, just released to the US App Store for iPad, delivers some of that hands-on feeling as it lets you create sharable weekly agendas, monthly calendars and task lists.

Weekly Schedule inherits most of its features from the $1.99 iTeach Pad, which also includes student management and lesson plan options; both apps share a UI aesthetic with a more "classroom" feel than most iOS offerings.

The core schedule features are simple: on a time grid for the week, you add your event blocks and build out your schedule. If you want a specific event to repeat all week long (a morning meeting, for instance) just tap and hold to duplicate it.

Blocks get a specific duration, color and name when you create them, and they hold onto that indefinitely. (You can also edit the names of the days, and it's easy to accidentally edit Friday when trying to tap the "add event" button.) The quick drag-and-drop rearrangement of the blocks -- almost as if you had paper cutouts on a cardboard schedule -- makes it easy to fit all the necessary schedule elements into your week, and know that you're not skipping anything.

In the monthly calendar mode, you're actually getting an alternate view of your iPad calendar data one month at a time. It's not as flexible as dedicated apps like Agenda or Readdle's Calendars, but it's a nice overview. The Lists view gives you a basic task manager, with folders to group lists of individual to-dos. Each task can be checked off with a single tap.

Sharing and exporting is an interesting -- and very constrained -- feature in Weekly Schedule. Nothing is cloud synced, dynamic or remotely editable (except events in the Calendar view, if your native calendars are shared); it's all local data, all on your iPad. For the weekly view and the calendar view, there's one way to get your work out to your colleagues -- you email an image of the schedule or calendar. Yep, that's it. For task lists, the email is text instead of an image, which is appropriate for that data type.

I'd love to see some next-gen features (AirPrint, flexible export options) make it into Weekly Schedule down the road. In the meantime, though, if you have a weekly planner to make and only your iPad handy, it's a solid tool.

[Source: TUAW]

Apple Working on iOS Watch, Says Report

Rumors are circulating once again that Apple is looking into the possibility of launching an iOS-based wristwatch.

Citing anonymous sources at Apple’s offices in Cupertino, The New York Times reports that Apple is experimenting with a wrist watch that would be powered by iOS. This potential move by the company has been rumored ever since wristwatch bands appeared for the last generation of the iPod Nano, and occasionally word leaks out that Apple is playing around with the concept. Apple of course declines to comment on the rumors, but it does appear the technology is there and that it could fill in some holes in Apple’s technology.

“You can certainly make it wrap around a cylindrical object and that could be someone’s wrist,” Pete Bocko, the chief technology officer for Corning Glass Technologies, said for the report. “Right now, if I tried to make something that looked like a watch, that could be done using this flexible glass.” However, Bocko isn’t saying it would be easy. “The human body moves in unpredictable ways,it’s one of the toughest mechanical challenges.”

Bruce Tognazzini, founder of Apple’s Human Interface Group, is no longer with the company, but you have to throw a suspicious eye his way that he may know something. Just last week he published a lengthy post on his blog about what an iWatch could mean for the company and consumers. He sees it as filling an important gap in Apple’s ecosystem that would allow consumers to control all of their other devices purchased from the company right on their wrist. And, enticingly, he also speculated on how Apple could integrate NFC and Passbook into the watch, something that was also mentioned in the report from the Times.

Apple hasn’t introduced an entirely new product since the iPad in 2010, could wearable technology be where Apple is casting its research and development next?

The evidence certainly seems to be there that Apple is at least exploring the possibility of wearable technology, but that doesn’t always mean it will definitely hit retail shelves. From the sounds of it, though, an iWatch would definitely fill in some gaps in the overall Apple product line.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Is The 128GB iPad Really Necessary?

Apple recently released an iPad with 128GB of storage onboard. However, is this really necessary? Have Apple gone overboard, and added another chapter into their iBook of failures?

The new 128GB iPad is identical to the fourth-generation iPad. That's the one they released this year with the Retina Display. Except that it has double the storage. You can buy a Wi-Fi version of the monster tablet today directly from Apple at a price of £639.99. The 64GB tablet, is £559.00. That's a £80.00 price difference for double the storage. Furthermore, for the Wi-Fi and Cellular version, you are going to be a whopping £729.00. And £659.00 for the 64GB. Again, with a £80.00 price difference between the two.

For starters I can see plenty of positives for owning a 128GB iPad. Who needs one? Doctors as they have a great deal of charts and reference material that they would use. I can see architects & photographers using it too, as they have very large files, that they use everyday for work. Thus, having a device with a large amount of storage is a requirement for them.

Does that mean that we will see a 128GB version iPad mini in the next refresh? Let us know your thoughts by leaving them in the comments below.

Wunderlist 2 task app hits Android tablets, comes to iPad soon

How quickly they grow up: 6Wunderkinder's near-ubiquitous Wunderlist 2 only just reached native app status as 2012 wound to a close, and it's already being optimized for Android tablets. The task management app should now offer its to-do lists and reminders on Google-powered slates of any size, with new layouts and artwork just for the bigger screen. Every Android user gets a handful of meaningful upgrades in the process, including list sharing between apps, the ability to save links and test as well as automatic syncing. Android fans wanting to get things done can hit the Google Play link to get the new version today, but they won't be the only ones getting the larger experience -- the developer is teasing an iPad equivalent in the near future.

[Source: Engadget]

PressReader will bring you the news on your iOS device

PressReader has a unique take on the news. They've partnered with thousands of newspapers to bring you daily newspapers in a format the mimics the dead-tree version of the publications.

It also adds some neat features, such as translating any newspaper into other languages, printing articles, and letting a computer voice read the news to you. A SmartFlow feature lets you follow the story that improves on just the plain newspaper layout. Fonts can be resized and the typestyle can be changed to taste.

While the app is free, downloading any particular newspaper will cost US $0.99, or you can subscribe to everything for $33.99 monthly. That's not a bad deal considering the amount of news you can take in.

My only gripe about this app is that it is very newspaper centric. By that, I mean the layouts try to preserve the look and feel of a daily paper. In this electronic age, I'd like to see the news formatted for the device, rather than trying to bend the device around to the old newspaper style. There is a lot of flipping and tapping to get through an article, and I just don't think it is necessary. Some people will like the preservation of newspaper design, and I must say it is very complete. You can even read the classifieds or the obituaries. but there is no search facility, which in some ways makes this app not much better than the daily paper you hold in your hand. Even on a fast connection, the app is slower than I would like, but I understand there is a lot of rendering going on.

The app gets generally good reviews, and it is a nice piece of software if you buy the premise of wanting to duplicate the newspaper on an electronic device, along with all the ads.

[Source: TUAW]

Apple Seeds First Beta of iOS 6.1.1 to Developers

A little over a week after the public release of iOS 6.1, Apple today seeded the first beta version of iOS 6.1.1 to developers. The beta arrives as build 10B311.

The new version also arrives just two days after the Evasi0n jailbreak for iOS 6.x devices went live, although it is so far unknown if iOS 6.1.1 patches any of the bugs exploited by the software. 

Update: 9toMac has release notes listing major improvements to Maps for Japanese users.

iOS 6.1.1 beta 1 includes the following improvements to Maps for Japan: 

- Improved pronunciation of roads during turn-by-turn navigation 
- Optimized directions to more strongly prefer highways over narrower roads 
- Now indicates upcoming toll roads during turn-by-turn navigation 
- Added labels for junctions, interchanges, on-ramps, off-ramps, and intersections 
- Added indicators for transit station buildings, subway lines, and traffic lights 
- Updated freeway color to green 
- Updated icons for some location categories including fire stations, hospitals, and post offices Added 3D buildings including Tokyo Station, Japan Imperial Palace, and Tokyo Tower

[Source: MacRumors]

Apple shares Valentine's Day gift guide

Perhaps you haven't glanced at your calendar lately, but it's February 5 -- and Valentine's Day is just around the corner. Apple has created a Valentine's Day Gift Guide in the iTunes App Store to help you find the perfect gift for that certain someone in your life.

The gift guide is full of categories to make searching easy. Is your honey a photographer? There's a special category for that. Have a hankering for a certain hardcore gamer? No problem; there's a huge section for that, too.

The App Store curators also provide a quick tip at the top of the guide on how to send an app as a gift, so if you really want to make that someone special happy, you'll start gifting them with apps today...

Just don't forget the chocolate. Apps are no substitute for chocolate.

[Source: TUAW]

Tweetbot 2.7 for iPhone adds Vine, Flickr previews

The awesome Twitter client from Tapbots has just been updated.Tweetbot 2.7 for iPhone(US$2.99) adds some welcome additions that make it easier to take advantage of some video and photo sharing services.

If you've downloaded and installed the Vine app for sharing video clips with others, you're going to love Tweetbot 2.7. The update now provides inline viewing support for Vine and photo sharing app Flickr.

Some of us don't use Safari on our iOS devices, preferring the Google Chrome browser instead. Now Tweetbot settings provides a way to select your favorite browser to open links in. Finally, users can tap and hold a link and select "Open in Chrome". The release notes also state that there's an ability to open links in 1Password, although that's only true for versions 4.0 and later of the secure password keeper app.

The update is available for immediate download for existing users of the app.

[Source: TUAW]

iOS 6.1 Released for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

Apple just released iOS 6.1 for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The release says it includes:

• LTE support for more carriers (complete list of supported carriers at www.apple.com/iPhone/LTE/)
• Purchase movie tickets through Fandango with Siri (USA only)
• iTunes Match subscribers can now download individual songs from iCloud
• New button to reset the advertising identifier.

The update is available now, simply navigate to settings on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]