$1.99 app sneaks into the App Store, allows tethering via Proxy

QuasiDisk, $1.99 AppStore app, has a hidden feature, you can tether 3G internet with it!!. Simply start QuasiDisk's FTP server on port 5100, connect it adhoc to mac or PC, and add SOCKS and HTTP proxy settings to the computer on ports 5050 for SOCKS and 6666 for HTTP proxy. Another tethering app snuck into the App Store. QuasiDisk ($1.99) purports to be a file manager for the iPhone, but it appears that in the most recent update over the weekend, it stealthily got the ability to tether via proxy. Apple is usually pretty quick to pull these, so you might want to jump on this app if you want some tethering without a carrier plan.

Backbreaker 2 Vengeance for BlackBerry PlayBook

For iOS users without Siri, there is Evi

Available on the App Store for 99 cents and free to Android users on the Android Market, Evi is the work of True Knowledge and its “core semantic search technology” better known as The True Knowledge Answer Engine. The 99-cent price tag on iOS is apparently to cover the cost of using Nuance voice recognition (the same voice recognition tech as Siri), which is not used in the Android version.

A5 jailbreak ‘Absinthe installed almost 1M times over the last 3 days

On Friday, the Chronic-Dev team (along with a few other contributors) released “Absinthe,” the long-awaited free unteathered jailbreak tool for the iPhone 4S and iPad 2. Today, the team updated us with a few interesting statistics. The shocker is that 1 million people jailbroke their A5 device in under three days.

‘Highlight’ app gives a name to the stranger nearby, brings social network to life

“Highlight” is a free social network app for iOS devices that can now let you creep the world within your vicinity. Facebook helps users to organize online relationships while exploring professional networks, but it cannot help them interact with those in the “real” world. Whether social networkers are in a –well– coffee shop, or even a restaurant, clothing store, entertainment event or conference, strangers constantly surround them. Anyone is connectable through shared interests or mutual friends, but it is difficult to know who is nearby.

Apple posts record-breaking results for holiday quarter: 37.04 million iPhones, 15.43 million iPads, 5.2 million Macs 15.4 million iPods

Apple had another blowout quarter this holiday, setting records across the board. iPhones, which many estimated optimistically at 30 million, lept to over 37 million, by far the biggest quarter ever. iPads crossed 15 million for the first time ever and even Apple’s venerable Mac line crossed 5 million units for the first time, likely helped by the popular MacBook Air lineup. iPods, if you needed a downside, were off by 20% – not terrible since Apple didn’t upgrade most of the iPods available last Christmas.

Apple recorded revenues of $46.33 billion and record quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion, or $13.87 per diluted share.

“We’re thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline.”

“We are very happy to have generated over $17.5 billion in cash flow from operations during the December quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2012, which will span 13 weeks, we expect revenue of about $32.5 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $8.50.”

iBooks Textbooks downloaded 350,000 times in three days

According to Global Equities Research (via AllThingsD), the new inexpensive digital textbooksApple launched last Thursday at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City was downloaded over 350,000 times in just three days. iBooks Author, a new free of charge Mac tool to author iBooks Textbooks, saw 90,000 downloads in the same period. This data is not official and is derived from the investment firm’s proprietary tracking system that monitors Apple’s iBook sales.

Sony ST25i ‘Kumquat’ shown in leaked photo?

A photo of what is thought to be the Sony ST25i ‘Kumquat’ has shown up on the web. Obtained byXperia Blog, the leaked picture shows a handset fairly similar to the Xperia S or LT22i Nypon we’ve seen before, however, shows a slightly different placement of the forward-facing camera than those models, indicating it is likely a different handset.


Leaks indicate the ST25i Kumquat will have a 3.5” display, 1GHz dual-core processor, and a 5-megapixel camera. Sony is expected to announce the phone (along with a few others) next month at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Absinthe A5 arrives: Untethered jailbreak for iPhone 4S and iPad 2

According to hacker p0sixninja, the jailbreak community just posted an untethered jailbreak solution for A5-driven devices running iOS 5.0 or iOS 5.0.1. The software is a long expected follow-up to an untethered iOS 5.0.1 exploit for non-A5 devices, released last December. According to ablog post, the new jailbreak is called “Absinthe A5,” and it was not exactly a walk in the park.

The updated greenpois0n tool is now available for download here. It’s Mac-only, but Windows version is “coming soon”. The application lets iPad 2 and iPhone 4S owners finally jailbreak their device without the need to tether it to a computer upon each reboot. This jailbreak can be used with both iPhone 4S running iOS 5.0 build 9A334 and iOS 5.0.1 (builds 9A405 and 9A406) and iPad 2 running iOS 5.0.1 build 9A405.

UpNext HD Maps: Explore gorgeous 3D maps of US cities on your iPad

Although Apple and Google signed a deal to extend the use of Google Maps in iOS, the Cupertino, Calif.-headquartered Company has not overhauled the iOS mapping experience (yet). For those who grew tired of waiting, a company called UpNext partnered with Verizon Wireless on a cool mapping project that brings 3D awesomeness to your iPad and Android tablets. The app is called ‘UpNext HD Maps” and it covers the entire United States, sporting over 20 enhanced 3D cities

Samsunged: TV advert slams Apple’s iPhone over lack of stock turn-by-turn navigation software

Samsung is continuing its anti-Apple rant with a new television commercial titled “Samsunged.” Once more, the South Korean conglomerate laughs off those who would wait in line for a new iPhone. The commercial opens with the familiar scene as line waiters get a visit from their Galaxy SII-toting friend, and they promptly feel envious over his phone’s turn-by-turn navigation capabilities.

Apple’s new iBook textbooks launch at $14.99

Apple officially unveiled its entrance into textbooks with the new “iBooks 2″ app and “iBooks Author” e-book authoring tool. If you are wondering just how much the textbooks are going to cost you, Apple announced that initially high school textbooks through partners Pearson, McGraw Hill, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will be available through the new iBookstore textbooks category for $14.99 or less. Compare that figure to textbooks from publishers like McGraw Hill that can sell for as high as $75. Apple noted that the three partners announced today currently produce 90 percent of the textbooks available.

Apple launches iTunes U, free iOS app for educators to take courses anywhere

Apple’s education event is underway at New York City’s Guggenheim Museum, where Eddy Cue, the company’s vice president of Internet Software and Services, told the audience how Apple is“going to help teachers reinvent the curriculum.” Noting that Apple has seen 700 million downloads from iTunes U, Cue took the wraps off a brand new free software for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Aptly named iTunes U, the app makes it “simple for anyone to take courses anywhere.”

Indeed, adorned with the beautiful mahogany bookshelf graphics, the app is akin to iBooks in many respects. It is aimed at teachers and supports many interesting features, including the ability to customize topics, provide students with office hours, post messages to the class and give assignments. With this app, content can be downloaded for later consumption or streamed directly to students on-demand. More information is available after the break and at Apple’s freshly updated 

Here’s the heartwarming clip played at Apple’s education event in NYC

With Apple’s education event now behind us, there is a lot to digest here. In addition, today has brought us three interesting software releases: “iBooks 2” and ”iTunes U“ apps for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, and the “iBooks Author“ program for the Mac. If you missed our live coverage and have been wondering why all the fuss, a clip Apple played at the presser should get you up to speed

Google launches Orkut for iPhone

Nevertheless, Orkut is still popular in India and Brazil, where more than 80 percent of its 66 million active users come from, as of October 2011. Today, the search company released a native Orkut client for iPhone. It is available free of charge on the App Store and comes with the usual assortment of features, ranging from updating your status and checking your scraps and messages to browsing your friends’ profiles and uploading photographs. It is interesting that Google chose to release the app just as Facebook has finally managed to beat Orkut in Brazil, 

Whited00r brings newer features to legacy iOS devices

Whited00r added features like multitasking, app folders, reminders, improved home screen, video recording, and faster speed. What about iCloud? Whited00r used Dropbox syncing throughout the operating system to sync files with other devices. Whited00r also used a custom Newsstand to deliver news. (via TechCrunch)

The install process is very straightforward:


Download the Software Update for your device from the download page. Read carefully informations about package to choose the right one for you! You will find the whited00r Software Update (.ipsw) decompressing the zip folder (use 7-Zip on Windows or TheUnharchiver on MacOS). We suggest using Google Chrome or a download manager for the download.

Open iTunes on the screen about your device. Click on Restore holding ALT (MacOS) or SHIFT (Windows) at the same time and select the whited00r Software Update (.ipsw) from you computer.

Bring Cover Flow to your iPhone and iPad’s dock with Overflow jailbreak tweak

The jailbreak-only tweak brings the Cover Flow effect (like swiping through album covers when you rotate your iPhone) to the iOS home screen’s application dock. As you can see in the video after the break, it works great with Chpwn’s Infinidock tweak; an alteration to iOS that allows users to store an infinite amount of apps in the dock. Bell’s tweak costs $0.99 in the Cydia store, works on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Neat App Store app puts calling, texting, emailing, web, tweeting, Facebook, and more shortcuts in Notification Center

A new iOS application called Quickpick hit the App Store (no jailbreak!), and it fills a void that many feel Apple left in their implementation of the iOS 5 Notification Center.

For those unfamiliar, Notification Center is a place on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch where a user can view their device notifications along with weather and stocks widgets (iPhone and iPod touch only). Many hoped Apple would add a universal launching feature within the Notification Center, but the company did not do so. Until the time comes (if it ever does), Quickpick fills the void.

Quickpick uses the iOS web-based shortcuts feature to initiate phone calls, text messages, website launching, emailing, and more from the Notification Center.

Apple reportedly announcing ‘GarageBand for E-books’ on Thursday

Backing up rumors that have surfaced over the past couple weeks regarding Apple’s media event on Thursday, ArsTechnica brings more wood to the fire and claimed Apple will announce a “GarageBand for E-books” on Thursday. Apple already dropped a few hints, such as “Join us for an education announcement,” when it sent out invites last week. Wall Street Journal also announced that Apple has reportedly been working with publisher McGraw-Hill since June.

Report: iPad event just weeks away

With a recent report from Bloomberg claiming next-generation iPad production has officially kicked off with a high-resolution display, quad-core processor, and LTE functionality, a new report from Japanese publication Macotakara claimed an iPad 3 launch event would take place in early February. The report cited sources in the U.S. and Asian supply chain and said the new iPad will most likely be released in early March. The report from Bloomberg backed up the launch date by claiming production will reach “full volumes by February.

10: Blueprint 3d

9:Flip it

8:Run

7:zombie hwy

6:skateboard

5stunt biker

4:super save

3:line runner

2:light bike

1 world builder

Samsung: Apple Television is old news. Smart TV is the future and already here

When Steve Jobs told his biographer Walter Isaacson that he finally “cracked the code” to building an integrated television set that is user-friendly and seamlessly syncs with all of your devices, Samsung Australia’s Director of Audiovisual Philip Newton told the Sydney Morning Heraldthat Jobs’ was talking about connectivity.

OnLive Desktop hits App Store, letting you stream Microsoft Office onto iPad

It is a free download. All the talk about Microsoft bringing its Office suite to the iPad has thus far failed to develop into a tangible product—at least as native apps. In the meantime, many virtualization apps cropped up on the App Store, allowing you to share a desktop virtual machine with your tablet. OnLive today jumped on the bandwagon with an interesting cloud-based solution stemming from their expertise as a provider of streaming gaming experience through their OnLive cloud gaming platform.

The OnLive Desktop app provides access to a seamless Windows desktop experience sporting Microsoft Office applications and 2GB of free cloud storage. It leverages OnLive’s video compression technology to run the Office suite in the cloud and stream rendered video onto your iPad. This is the same technology used by OnLive’s cloud-gaming platform, meaning your experience may wary depending on your broadband Internet speed, congestion and other factors affecting video streaming.

Bloomberg: iPad 3 production starts for March launch, packs Retina Display, LTE, quad-core chip

Bloomberg reported that the iPad 3 entered production and is tracking a March launch. The report also claimed the new iPad will feature a higher-resolution display, Retina probably, and a quad-core processor. It will also connect to LTE networks.

Apple posts iOS 5.1 Beta 3: Enable 3G toggle is back

This update does kill jailbreak. Apple just released a third beta version of the upcoming iOS 5.1 firmware (Build 9B5141a). The software is available as an over-the-air update for existing iOS 5.1 beta users, but is not yet available (update: now available) as a standalone download through Apple’s developer portal.

Report: Apple to launch ‘full HD’ iPad 3 in March, followed by iPad 4 in October

A new report today claimed Apple is gearing up to release a next-generation “iPad 3″ with a “full HD display” in March, followed by an “iPad 4″ in October. The report came from Asian supply chain watcher DigiTimes who cited Taiwanese industry sources again. Digitimes’ record has been more than a little shaky, especially of late, so approach with caution…

According to the report, iPad 3 will sport a QXGA display (1,536 x 2,048 pixel) and improved battery life, but otherwise hardware specifications will remain largely unchanged. The launch of iPad 3 in March will apparently see the current generation iPad 2 receive a price cut to $399: 

iOS 5.1 beta reveals Apple’s plan to soon ship iPads, iPhones with quad-core chips

Speed increases are an expected part of Apple’s iOS device hardware upgrades, but what Apple has up their sleeves for speed enhancements is typically up for debate. The first-generation iPad clocked around 1GHz with the single core A4 processor, and —a year later—Apple bumped the iPad’s chip to dual-core-speed with the A5 processor. While not quite confirming that a quad-core processor will power Apple’s third-generation iPad, we have obtained evidence that suggests Apple is currently working on quad-core iOS devices.

China Unicom offers free iPhone 4S on multiyear agreements

China Unicom, the second-largest wireless carrier in China and currently Apple’s sole carrier of the iPhone in country, announced a new promotion that would provide customers with a free iPhone 4S when signing up for a multiyear commitment. The carrier announced on its website (via Bloomberg) that a 16GB iPhone 4S will be available free on a two-year contract starting Jan. 13, while the 32GB model will be free on a three-year agreement.

A sequence of copyright available by the United States Patent and brand Office today (viaPatentlyApple) suggested Apple is attempting to own as many Thunderbolt related trademarks and patents as possible. This is despite most being under the impression the technology is an open collaboration between Intel and Apple.

iPad survives fall from ‘space’ with G-Form case

Siri alternatives also land in Windows Phone Marketplace

A copy of Siri just landed in Windows Phone. The App is called “Ask Ziggy” from developer Shai Leib and it is not exactly a rip-off like the Android Siri alternatives. It does not borrow Apple’s icons, but has an overall similar feel to Siri. The app apparently utilizes Nuance voice-recognition (same as Siri), but the developers handled everything else themselves. It is available for free now, and the updated version seen in the video should be landing soon.

Samsung steals iPhone ad actress for Galaxy Tab commercial

Samsung Galaxy Tab ad .The design of the iPad itself does not appear to be the only Apple invention Samsung intends on “slavishly” stealing. Samsung’s latest ad released last week came under scrutiny for its obvious inspiration taken from Apple commercials that came before it. However, it is not just the overall look and feel that was copied. Samsung now removed the ad after Google+ user Cheryl Lindo Jones (via TNW) discovered the ad uses the same actress as an iPhone 4S ad.