iTunes 10.3 Beta Available For Download

Automatic downloads and access to your purchase history is limited to iOS 4.3.3 users on the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 (GSM only, sorry Verizon subscribers), and 3rd and 4th generation iPod touch devices, the iTunes in the Cloud beta promises to keep all of your newly purchased iTunes music in sync between devices while giving you the choice to download previously purchased tracks whenever you want at no additional cost. he new iTunes also includes the iBookstore for Mac and PC for an unabridged browsing and shopping experience.

Apple has finally released iTunes 10.3 after some delay, which brings iTunes in the Cloud beta to Mac and PC, brings the Automatic Downloads and Purchase history features that were rolled out for iOS devices few hours back to Mac and PC. It also adds Books to iTunes Store. iTunes 10.3 is 75MB in size for Mac OS X and 77MB for Windows. According to the release notes it includes the following new features:

• Automatic Downloads. Purchase music from any device or computer and automatically download a copy to your Mac and iOS devices.
• Download Previous Purchases. Download your past music purchases again at no additional cost. Your purchases are available in the iTunes Store on your Mac or in the iTunes app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Previous purchases may be unavailable if they are no longer on the iTunes Store.
• iTunes 10.3 also adds Books to the iTunes Store, where you can discover and buy your favorite books on your computer and automatically download them to iBooks on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
• This version also allows you to use Automatic Downloads with apps and books or download previously purchased apps and books from your computer or iOS device.

Download iTunes 10.3 Beta:

Download iTunes 10.3 for Windows

Download iTunes 10.3 for Mac OS

 

Twitter Integration For iOS

Apple announced that it’s bringing deep Twitter integration to all of its iOS-based devices and to many of its own apps, including Camera, Photos, Safari and Maps. That integration also extends to Contacts, where you’ll be able to link your contacts to their Twitter handle and keep their information updated.

Apple brings deep Twitter integration to iOS, which allowing users to easily tweet and share their photos, locations or even bookmarks from Safari. iOS 5 will also now sync your contacts with their respective Twitter profiles automatically. Selecting this option will allow you to do three things; install the official Twitter application, enter your own Twitter credentials to enable integration, and finally synchronise Twitter handles with contacts on your phone. Twitter is enabled in Safari, Photos, Camera, YouTube, or Maps – you won’t need a separate client if you want to tweet your location, share a photo, video or a webpage. In each of the applications, hitting the share button will instantly reveal a “Tweet” button, which will load the editor displayed in the screenshots above. When you are finished editing the tweet and hit Send, you will hear a audible ping, letting you know that your message was sent successfully. Earlier we showed you that Apple provides the option for you to install the official Twitter application. Once you have done so, authenticated within the app (we were hoping it would utilise the details we had already entered) and enabled Push Notifications, you will be updated each time you receive a new Tweet, as you would an email or text message. decision to partner with Twitter is a logical one. The implementation is basic but it works and doesn’t take away from third-party applications that are able to deliver more in terms of functionality.

 

Apple To Unveil iCloud And iOS 5 On Monday

Apple has confirmed that it will be announcing iCloud on June 6th and indeed Apple’s event notice indicates that the big highlights will be Mac OS X Lion and the next version of its mobile operating system, iOS 5. This is a decidedly non-Apple way to announce something big like iCloud and making us wonder what other surprises Steve Jobs will have for us at the event.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software – Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch; and iCloud, Apple‘s upcoming cloud services offering. WWDC will feature more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers. Mac developers will see and learn how to develop world-class Mac OS X Lion applications using its latest technologies and capabilities. Mobile developers will be able to explore the latest innovations and capabilities of iOS and learn how to greatly enhance the functionality, performance and design of their apps. All developers can bring their code to the labs and work with Apple engineers. For more details, visit the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2011 website at developer.apple.com/wwdc.

 

Apple Sued Over iPad and iPhone Location Tracking

A lawsuit has been filed against Apple in the ongoing dust-up over its alleged tracking of the whereabouts of users of iPhones and iPads. According to report by Bloomberg two iPhone customers from Tampa, Florida has filled lawsuit against Apple.

While the location tracking file was discovered some time ago, it didn’t get much coverage until the Guardian published a piece about it last week. For some unknown reason, GPS-enabled iOS devices such as 3G iPad 1/2 and iPhone save the location of their owner on a regular basis, in a file stored on the device, and saved by iTunes each time the device is plugged into a Mac or a PC.

Earlier today, Steve Jobs responded to a customer’s email saying Apple doesn’t track anyone, but Google’s Android system does.

Q: Steve,
Could you please explain the necessity of the passive location-tracking tool embedded in my iPhone? It’s kind of unnerving knowing that my exact location is being recorded at all times. Maybe you could shed some light on this for me before I switch to a Droid. They don’t track me.

A: Oh yes they do. We don’t track anyone. The info circulating around is false.
Sent from my iPhone

Unfortunately this is the kind of madness that lawyers like to get behind, and it’s only a matter of time before a jobs-worth politician joins in.

Steve Jobs has said the company’s software doesn’t keep track of your recent locations, however.

 

Apple To Release iOS 4.3.3 / 4.4 To Fix iPhone Location Tracking Bug

Apple released iOS 4.3.2 a week ago which was supposed to solve the bugs seen in the iDevice especially ipad with the wi-fi issues. The famed Apple critic John Gruber of Daring Fireball believes that the much talked about tracking down of user’s location data on the iPhone is likely an oversight or a bug, which is mostly likely going to be fixed in the next iOS 4.3.3 / 4.4 update.

Here is the quote by the john,

The big question of course, is why Apple is storing this information. I don’t have a definitive answer, but my little-birdie-informed understanding is that consolidated.db acts as a cache for location data, and that historical data should be getting culled but isn’t, either due to a bug or, more likely, an oversight. I.e. someone wrote the code to cache location data but never wrote code to cull non-recent entries from the cache, so that a database that’s meant to serve as a cache of your recent location data is instead a persistent log of your location history. I’d wager this gets fixed in the next iOS update.

In case you don’t already know, Security researchers have revealed that iPhone tracks user’s location and stores it in a secret hidden file which is replicated to the computer once it’s synchronized with the device.

The file contains data about your latitude and longitude along with the timestamp. This information can be easily accessed by jailbreaking the phone, unfortunately, on the computer even without that. Moreover, the file is not encrypted and can be read by just anyone using a simple app.

Apple has not come with any answer for it at the moment but is this is a bug that was seen in their iOS then this should be solved soon and very soon indeed else we might see some strong news coming up regarding it so lets see what will be the update regarding it in the up coming weeks.

 

BeBook Live Tablet

BeBook Live tablet delivers the goods for Froyo diehards and has a seven-inch multitouch color screen, a 2MP front facing camera, 1080p HDMI out, Flash support, and 4GB of built-in memory. Powered by Android 2.2, which will no doubt feel downright antiquated when it launches in June for $279.

Bebook who is well known for producing e-ink based e-readers such as the Bebook Neo and Bebook One is going to be releasing a new Android Tablet June 21st 2011, new 7 inch device will simply be known as the Bebook Tablet. The demand for tablets is much higher than for readers, so landfill Endless Ideas is also on the tablet market.The BeBook Live is a small, bright 7-inch tablet that still works with the Android 2.2, but also very attractive price: 279 euros. This tablet is much handier than 10 inches as the iPad tablet. It is immediately apparent when you hold it: it works fine with one hand. With the right thumb, the three standard Android buttons (home, back, menu) to also be handy. The buttons take care of a large border around the screen, which is also a milli meter towers over the edge. BeBook Live is not the most stylish tablets with plastic shell. The tablet itself is quite thin (11 mm), but the iPad is thinner. His window looks at a comparative test with the iPad two slightly less bright and sharp. BeBook Live has only wifi, no 3G and GPS.

Furthermore, a 1 Ghz chip manufacture Samsung (not dual core), 4 GB of internal memory and SD card inputs for HDMI and a front camera. A camera on the back, according BeBook unnecessary, because photographing what is around you the tablet is not the most appropriate device. For lack of backup cameras miss you the possibility to use augmented reality apps. The 1-GHz chip performs smoothly and BeBook claims that the rapper would go something video processing than the iPad. The first tablets of the brand-new Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) appear correctly in the coming weeks from brands like Acer, Asus and LG. As a smaller manufacturer is not as fast Endless Ideas were provided with Honeycomb and larger brands. The company must also have a few months waiting for certification by Google. Android 3.0 at the start are also some shortcomings, which Google updates will be eliminated. Endless Ideas from September promises Android upgrade to 3.0, which is pretty late. The company also could opt for the newer 2.3, recently available, but support for that version was not on time.

There are more small tablets that are not Android Honeycomb use. This is how HTC’s Flyer, a 7-inch tablet with Android 2.3. An advantage is that almost all existing screen Android apps work on this tablet. The screen resolution of 800×600 BeBook Live is supported by most of the nearly 150 000 Android applications. The tablet simply offers access to Android Market, which is more competitive budget for Archos tablets did not apply.Additional connectivity options abound. BeBook Live provides USB, an SD slot and a mini-HDMI port, so the images on his tablet TVs can display. It supports full HD output. There are also some accessories like a Bluetooth keyboard available. When purchasing supplies BeBook for several apps, including the game Tank Racer and an app for file management and read e-books.BeBook Live is perhaps not the most handsome of the Android tablets, but he offers a reasonable hardware for its low retail price (279 euros). The tablet seems particularly interesting for those already on its Android mobile device and now a cheap tablet with the familiar version of Android wants to buy. And preferably a manageable 7 inch model. For that group BeBook Live entry level tablet attractive than the lower performers and ViewSonic Archos tablets.

Specifications:

• OS: Android 2.2 Froyo OS
• Display: 7.0 Inch (Diagonal) TFT-LCD Display, 800 x 600 Display Resolution
• Touch: Capacitive Multi Touch Screen
• Processor: 1 GHz CPU “model unknown”
• Storage: 4GB built-in and a MicroSD card slot for expansion up to 32GB
• Sensors: G-Sensor
• Cameras: 2MP Camera Resolution Front Facing Camera
• Wireless Connectivity: Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n), Bluetooth
• Ports: USB 2.0, HDMI, Audio Jack 3.5mm
• Sound: Speaker, Audio Jack 3.5mm, Microphone
• Dimensions: 140 x 202 x 11 mm
• Weight: 426 grams

 

Real Racing 2 HD 1080p Update is Live

The highly anticipated update, to probably the best looking game for the iPad 2, has finally arrived.  Firemint has just released version 1.10 of Real Racing 2 HD, which adds full 1080p HD output to users that own Apple’s Digital A/V Adapter.  The developers didn’t just stop there with simple display mirroring.  Users now have the ability to play and view the game in full HD, while essentially using your iPad as the controller.

The gameplay is very fluid, its just like you’re using your Xbox or PS3 controller.  Firemint has done a great job with this update.  The 1080p output is exceptional.  There are no black bars, just pure HD enjoyment.  Users will have no problem using the iPad strictly as a controller.  While connected to HD display, the iPad will display a map of the track and some your car’s telemetry, along with acting as the controller.

It’s a great breakthrough for iOS gaming.  I’m sure we will be seeing future developers taking advantage of iPad 2′s mirroring capabilities, along with the great graphics that iPad 2 offers.  This is probably the first in a long line of great iOS games to come.

In the meantime the Real Racing 2 HD update is free to all existing owners, but if you’ve been holding out for this particular update, you are still going to have to shell out $9.99 at the iTunes App Store.

What’s New in Version 1.10

* Full HD 1080p TV-out and dual screen gaming support on iPad 2. Experience Real Racing 2 HD like never before in stunning, true 1080p while real-time racing telemetry is displayed on iPad 2
* Enhanced visuals for Alkeisha Island and San Arcana tracks on iPad 2
* Memory optimizations to minimize crashes
* Various minor improvements and fixes

Via iTunes App Store