06/15/12 | GoneTechno.com

Is Apple looking into changeable camera parts for the iPhone?

Apple has received a patent for a removable panel that allows for camera configuration for a device that looks like an iPhone.

When you hear "Vizio," you probably don't think computers. But the Irvine, Calif.-based company, which ranks as America's top LCD HDTV maker, is hoping to change that.

Campaigners have warned of fresh efforts by the Ethiopian government to clamp down on certain types of internet use in the country.

Mr Taylor said he was sad to be leaving but excited by his new venture

Facebook's chief technology officer Bret Taylor has announced he is leaving the social network site in the coming weeks to start up a new company.

Last month, Facebook floated part of the company on the Nasdaq stock exchange, making many of its employees millionaires overnight.

Observers speculated at the time that some would move on to other things.

Facebook shares have fallen sharply since the flotation to $30, 21% down on the launch price of $38.

The company is also being sued by disgruntled shareholders, who allege that Facebook's revised growth figures were not disclosed to all investors prior to the flotation.

Morgan Stanley, the lead underwriter on the share sale, said it had fully complied with the rules.

'Grateful'

Mr Taylor said he was "sad to be leaving, but I'm excited to be starting a [new] company".

"While a transition like this is never easy, I'm extremely confident in the teams and leadership we have in place."

He said he was proud of the site's recent developments, including its Facebook Camera and integration with Apple products.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said he had enjoyed working with Mr Taylor and was "grateful for all he has done for Facebook and proud of what he and his teams have built."

How did Samsung keep Galaxy S III a secret?

Locked boxes and no photos helped the handset maker keep details of the highly anticipated smartphone shrouded in mystery.

It’s time for Sony’s one-of-a-kind tablet with two independent displays to get the Android 4.0 update treatment. The unique dual-sceen Sony Tablet P is getting the Ice Cream Sandwich treatment. The latest version of Android, version 4.0 also known as Ice Cream Sandwich, is getting well underway. As the new platform starts becoming more commonplace, phones and tablets running ICS are less special, but the Tablet P is a bit of a different story.

The tablet has a unique dual-screen display that looks like a Nintendo DS, and as such it no doubt faced more difficulty in getting Ice Cream Sandwich-optimized. Nevertheless, it is getting the update in selected markets, according to Sony. Sony’s Tablet S began receiving the latest Android update in April and the company is committed to offering more ICS tablets down the road.

Ice Cream Sandwich is one of the biggest updates to Android yet, and includes such features as scanning your face to unlock the phone, a much more robust speech-to-text software program, and an entire platform of data sharing that focuses on Near Field Communication (NFC). Several other manufacturers have pledged support for the new update, and a bunch of phones currently running an older version of Android.

Apple 1 computer and Steve Jobs Atari memo sold at auction

The Apple 1 was sold as an exposed motherboard

A rare functioning Apple 1 computer - the company's first product - has been sold at an auction for $374,500 (£240,929).

Steven Sinofsky at an event in February. The longtime Microsoft executive is leading the company's tablet effort.

For decades, Microsoft has made the software that runs a majority of the world’s personal computers, leaving a gang of outside hardware companies to design the machines. Apple, its rival, makes it all.

Motorola has announced a new version of the RAZR exclusively for the Chinese market. This version is called the RAZR V XT998 and has a completely new design compared to the current RAZR.

The front side gets new thin, long grilles on the top and bottom with the 4.3-inch display (probably the same unit as on the current RAZR) placed in between. You will also notice no physical keys on the front because the RAZR V XT889 runs on Android 4.0 and also uses the on-screen keys like the Galaxy Nexus.

On the back is the Kevlar coating that curves upward near the top where lies the 8 megapixel camera sensor with LED flash and the loudspeaker.

Underneath this phone is identical to the current RAZR, except for the CDMA/GSM dual-mode connectivity.

The RAZR V XT889 will go on sale in China on June 15.

GSMArena.com turns 12 today, happy birthday!

GSMArena.com turns 12 today and your greetings are more than welcome as we all celebrate.

As GSMArena.com is getting older, and hopefully more mature, we can't help but turn our eyes back at the year that passed. Usually, you fall in this mood around Christmas when the warm wine and the smell of cinnamon softens you, but each birthday of the website is a milestone that we pride ourselves on. So there's nothing wrong about having a look at all the exciting projects that we worked on. The memories are certainly sweet.

Document management is big business for the likes of IBM and Siemens, but those companies charge a pretty penny for heavyweight systems meant for large enterprises. Thing is, many normal people and smaller companies could use a way to organize their documents in a searchable way too.

Enter doo.net, a German company that has just thrown its cloud-based service into open beta — but only for Mac OS X users and the handful of people running the yet-to-be-released Windows 8 in Metro mode.

Battery life is probably one thing you won’t brag about if you have a brand new smartphone - no wonder, those huge screens eat a lot of power, and if you have a battery hog app to run in the background, you’re destined to have your phone die on you before the day is over. If you happen to see that you’re running out of battery, though, and you really need the phone to last as long as possible, a new app, Carat, on both the iPhone and Android, brings an elegant way to do so.

If you’ve looked up battery saving apps, you probably already know that the majority of them are a waste of time and space on your phone - you’re either stuck with a very advanced task manager and tons of apps you can kill with no known outcome, or a too simplistic non-functional battery report.

What makes Carat different is that it strips off the layer of sophistication, analyzes your phone and the apps you use, and shows you just which apps are the battery hogs and - here’s the best function - how much battery life you’d gain if you kill one particular app.

If you still don’t trust Carat, let us just mention that this piece of software is developed by MS and PhD scientists from the University of California Berkeley’s Algorithms, Machines, and People Laboratory. It’s not an app designed to make their creators rich - it’s a free app using latest research in battery and is used as a means for the team to collect data that won’t infringe your privacy for research purposes.

Download Carat for Android [Google Play link]
Download Carat for iOS on the App Store [iTunes link]

Apple steps up app security in iOS 6

Apple is one company that throughout the years have build an image of taking security and privacy really seriously - Macs were said to have no viruses, and iOS was said to be extremely safe with its walled app garden. Late last year and in 2012 however this image started breaking with a widespread virus on Macs, and a huge security fiasco with apps after it turned out that Appe is allowing all kinds of applications full access to your contacts and all other private data. Some of the apps like the social network Path chose to use this data and upload it to their servers, and so the ball started rolling with more and more experts pin-pointing all the dangers that were hidden or just went unnoticed in iOS.

Well, with iOS 6, Apple is patching a lot of those holes. The new version of Apple’s mobile operating system will now ask you explicitly to permit an app to access your information. The chnage in app permissions is noted in the “Data Privacy” section of the release note for the new version of the platform.

In iOS 6 users will have to explicitly allow apps to access their location, calendar, contacts, reminders and photo library. What’s more - apps should be prepared to function properly even when a user denies them those permissions.

This is a much needed move by Apple after the embarassingly weak app security controls. Apple was then taken to court over the matter, so this should save Cupertino both some money and contribute to higher overall user satisfaction.

How to install iOS 6 Beta on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch

Apple's iOS 6 will work on the company's newer mobile devices, like the iPhone 3GS/4/4S, the iPad 2, the new iPad and the iPod touch 4th generation.

Cupertino released a Beta version of it that is meant for developers only, but if you are curious to test drive the new functions, which are still a work in progress, you can check it out anyway. Apple says you can't return to your stable iOS version, but it still signs iOS 5.1.1, so a rollback is confirmed working, but if you are not the tinkering type, you might want to sit tight until the final iOS 6 release in the fall.

This iOS 6 Beta is in an early stage, so it might lag, crash and freeze on you, and some users report better experience with it than others. If you have an unlocked handset, installing the Beta will end the joyride, so that's one more thing to have in mind.

I. The best way to install iOS 6 Beta is, of course, via a $99 Individual Developer Account with Apple, where you can register your device's UDID, download the Beta and install it via iTunes or Xcode. If you are plunking down $99 a year for a Developer License you more than likely know what to do.

II. Alternatively, you can register your iPhone or iPad UDID via the IMZDL service in the source link for $8 - if you don't know the UDID, you can have it emailed to you by the free UDID Sender application in the App Store. The IMZDL servers are under intense pressure these days, so you might need to refresh a few times:

1. Apply to register the UDID number on the IMZDL service and start downloading the iOS 6 Beta for your respective iPhone, iPad or iPod touch version from IMZDL. iPhone downloads are north of 800MB, and it's more than a gig for the iPad, so it will take some time, especially if the servers are busy;

2. Backup your device's state with iTunes, upgrade to iTunes 10.6.3 if needed, then backup again, just to be safe;

3. You start the upgrade process by choosing Restore after clicking on the device name, but be sure to hold Shift when you click "Restore" if you are on Windows, or alt/option if on a Mac;

4. Point the prompt windows that pops up to the .ipsw file you downloaded from IMZDL, and when installation is over (10-15 minutes), re-install your contacts, messages and apps from the last backup you did on iTunes. Below is one of the good instructional videos on the whole process.

III. There is a workaround to install iOS Beta for free which will most likely be plugged with the second beta version, so it's probably not really worth the risk, but we'll list it for the sake of thoroughness:

1. Backup your device's state with iTunes, upgrade to iTunes 10.6.3 if needed, then backup again, just to be safe;

2. Download the respective iOS 5.1.1 firmware for your iDevice from the source link at the end, and Restore your device to it through iTunes, again by holding the Shift key while clicking "Restore" in Windows, or alt/option on a Mac, then choosing the iOS 5.1.1 firmware file you downloaded;

3. Choose Check for Updates, again holding the Shift key for Windows or alt/option for Mac, and point the prompt that opens to the .ipsw file with your iOS 6 Beta firmware downloaded from IMDZL.

Apple AirPort Express Base Station

At WWDC 2012, Apple announced a refresh of its supercompact Wi-Fi router, the AirPort Express Base Station. Though it has had firmware updates, the hardware has not been updated since 2008 when Apple added 802.11n support.

Apple’s decision to switch from Google Maps to its own homegrown mapping service in iOS 6 is a significant change not just for iOS, but for Apple. It’s rare for the company to suddenly move away from something that’s working purely for the sake of change. Google Maps is a fine product (even if the iOS version lacked some of the Android version’s bells and whistles) and one that millions of Apple customers are familiar with. Yet Apple apparently wants to move as far away from the clutches of Google as it can, and replacing Google’s perfectly functional Maps app sends a strong message to that effect.

A new app, available now in the Mac App Store, brings live wallpapers to Apple’s desktop and notebook computers.

If you’re an Android smartphone user then there is every possibility that you are already very aware of live wallpapers. Standard, static wallpapers are all well and good, but live wallpapers feature moving images, animated to offer something rather different and much more entertaining to look at than a boring photo of a sunset. After all, we spend a lot of our time staring at our smartphones. We also spend an awful amount of time looking at our computer desktops, too, and this new app aims to brighten the experience with a spot of motion.

Costing just $0.99, Live Wallpapers does exactly what that name suggests. Installing the app on your Mac will give you the ability to have a live wallpaper grace your desktop, replacing the images that you’re probably already sick of looking at. We know we are.

He may be one of Apple’s co-founders alongside Steve Jobs, but Steve Wozniak has never been shy of telling it like it is. He’s been known to speak his mind on plenty of Apple’s product lines, and not always showing them in the best light.

The latest Apple product to be on the receiving end of Woz’s fire is one that was actually bought in from outside the company. Siri, Apple’s digital assistant and current iPhone 4S star feature, is the software that allows users to interact with the iPhone using natural speech. Ask Siri a question, and the software does its best to answer, all using real language.

One thing that has consistently managed to baffle and bamboozle users since the launch of the iPhone is the lack of the ability to mass delete messages and mails from the device. When sending and receiving texts or iMessages, it isn’t long before the Messages app inbox has a seemingly endless list of conversations, enough to drive me crazy.

Researchers at the University of Utah are helping lay the groundwork for a new high-speed Internet upgrade. The White House today announced the launch of US Ignite, an initiative in which the U is a major participant.

US Ignite is a national innovation platform for developing and deploying software applications and services on ultrafast networks. This initiative makes use of important contributions from researchers across the nation who have participated in the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Global Environment for Networking Innovation (GENI).

CoffeeTable, the free iPad app for catalog shopping, added a Father’s Day category as a new way to filter the hundreds of retail catalogs it offers.

If you thought that the iPad would be the king of tablets in business for some time to come, then think again, because a new report suggests Android tablets are gaining traction.

PlayBook UI designer Teknision has re-started Kickstarter funding for Chameleon, its revolutionary app for allowing users to pull together their favorite content on their Android tablets.

Time Inc, the largest magazine publisher in the United States, has set aside any misgivings about Apple policy by revealing that 20 of its digital magazines are now be available via the Apple Newsstand.

Banish unwanted email subscriptions from your Gmail inbox with Unroll.me.

How much time do spend each week wading through email? Chances are, it's too much. Unroll.me is the latest attempt to tame your overflowing inbox, and it aims to cut down on the newsletters, announcements, and daily deals that clog up your email box and keep you from more productive things.

Apple's iPad is forecast to take market share from Android tablets going forward

Tablet demand isn’t showing any signs of slowing down, with market researcher IDC today upwards revising its forecast for 107.4 million tablets to be sold in 2012, before more than doubling to 222.1 million units by 2016.

Low-cost online movie and television services from the likes of Netflix and Hulu are slowly drawing customers away from cable's ever-more-expensive bundles of channel

Rapid technological advances have helped cable TV operators become the country's leading providers of broadband Internet connections. Yet "cable modem" service poses an existential threat to the pay-TV business that has been cable's bread and butter since its inception. Low-cost online movie and television services from the likes of Netflix and Hulu are slowly drawing customers away from cable's ever-more-expensive bundles of channels. So when leading cable TV operators started penalizing customers who downloaded unusually large amounts of data — a practice that seemed to target the heaviest users of online video services such as Netflix — it raised a troubling question: Are the penalties a legitimate effort to reduce congestion and offer a better online experience for most cable modem customers, or just a pretext to hamper cable's online rivals?

Customers enter the Apple flagship retail store to purchase the new iPad in San Francisco, California March 16, 2012.

Apple Inc must defend against a lawsuit accusing it of letting advertisers secretly track the activity of millions of mobile device users, a federal judge ruled, but Google Inc and several other defendants were dismissed from the case.

Desperately trying to stay relevant in an industry that is doing its best to leave them behind, Microsoft is set to hold an event on June 18th for what is being called a ‘major new announcement’ from the company.

Currently fighting Apple and Google on the smartphone front and missing completely in the tablet market, Microsoft is still the biggest name in home computing as well as the enterprise, but it is the mobile arena that the Redmond outfit is desperately trying to crack. With Windows 8 due to be both mobile and desktop-bound, the belief amongst the sources speaking to AllThingsD is that the announcement will center around Microsoft’s Windows RT, which is the ARM-powered version of Microsoft’s next operating system.

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