Find your iPad/iPhone/iPod for free (if you have the latest version)

File this under "it should have been free all along." Apple's "Find my iPhone" feature, previously a feature of the subscription-based MobileMe service, is now free--with a catch: it's only free for users of the iPhone 4, iPad, or newest fourth-generation iPod Touch.

That means that while many iDevices--be they iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch--can be updated to iOS 4.2, only the most recent versions of each will get the free "Find my iPhone" functionality.

The service finds your iPhone, if by "find" you mean "get a rough GPS estimate of the location." Still, the service has had its success stories.

Its two best features are, undoubtedly, its ability to remote-wipe all data if necessary, and its triggering of a played-back sound even if the device in question is set to silent. The latter has actually saved my apartment sanity on several occasions.

Even though "Find my iPhone" requires certain settings to be activated on the iDevice in question, and can be relatively easily thwarted by thieves, consider this: you need not fear losing your iPhone 4 under a sofa ever again.

iOS 4.2 will be live later today

34% of non-AT&T smartphone buyers wish they could buy Apple's iPhone

A new survey has found that more than a third of U.S. smartphone buyers on carriers other than AT&T wish they could have bought the iPhone, expressing buyer's remorse.

ChangeWave on Friday released the results of a new survey which polled consumers on their new smartphone purchase. As has been shown numerous times before, customers who bought Apple's iPhone were happier than those who invested in handsets from any other manufacturer, with 77 percent of all iPhone buyers in the last six months saying they are "very satisfied."

The 1,212 U.S. respondents were also asked what phone they would have bought if it was available from their wireless carrier. 46 percent said they would have stuck with their current smartphone, but a whopping 34 percent of those surveyed who aren't on AT&T said they would have bought an iPhone.

The survey also found that Motorola fares the worst on this question, as 39 percent of Motorola smartphone buyers would stick with their new purchase, and a very close 37 percent would have preferred an iPhone.

The survey also reiterated the fact that customers are even happier with the iPhone 4 than they were with the iPhone 3GS. A total of 84 percent of those who bought the 32GB iPhone 4 said they were "very satisfied," while 78 percent of those who bought the 16GB model chose the same.

For comparison, the recently released Samsung Galaxy S, an Android-based handset available on all four major U.S. carriers, has a "very satisfied" rating of 55 percent. That's still better than the 28 percent "very satisfied" rating given by customers of all other Samsung models.

Earlier this month, ChangeWave found that netbook interest is waning as more customers are eyeing Apple's iPad. Among those who said they are looking to buy a tablet, 80 percent said they are most likely to purchase an iPad.

In September, ChangeWave also revealed that the total sum of handsets running Google Android were just as popular with consumers as the iPhone. Of 4,000 respondents polled, 37 percent said they would prefer an Android phone, while 38 percent chose the iPhone.

Android sweeps Apple, BlackBerry in U.S. smart phone market

There is more bad news for BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) as its smart phone sales have slipped to the third position in the U.S. market.

According to the latest data by the NPD Group, the U.S.-based smart phone market tracking company, the BlackBerry’s share of the US market in the third quarter fell to 22 per cent from 28 per cent in the second quarter.

On the other hand, the sales of Apple’s devices rose marginally to 23 per cent from 22 per cent in the second quarter, pushing the BlackBerry maker to the third spot in the U.S. smart phone market.

The steep fall in sales of the BlackBerry maker, which until recently dominated the US market, came despite the high-profile launch of the BlackBerry Torch 9800 in August.

But it was not Apple, but the surge in the popularity of Google’s Android operating system (OS) which did the most damage to RIM in the US market.

The sales of Google Android devices jumped as much as 11 per cent from the second quarter to account for 44 per cent of all smart phones purchased in the third quarter.

“Much of Android’s quarterly share growth came at the expense of RIM, rather than Apple,” Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis at the NPD Group, said.

“The HTC EVO 4G, Motorola Droid X, and other new high-end Android devices have been gaining momentum at carriers that traditionally have been strong RIM distributors, and the recent introduction of the BlackBerry Torch has done little to stem the tide,” he said.

According to the data, Android’s operating system has made such an impact on the market that the share of RIM OS has declined by 53 per cent, and that of Apple iOS has fallen by 21 per cent since 2009.

Because of this onslaught from Android OS, “Apple faces challenges in further expanding its domestic market share, while still retaining exclusivity,” said Rubin.

Just two weeks ago, Apple CEO Steve JObs had taunted RIM, saying,”we have now passed RIM, and I don’t see them catching up with us in the foreseeable feature.”

But it is Android OS that is becoming the major worry for him and BlackBerry bosses.

Skyfire Brings Flash Video to iPhone

Skyfire, which is already available for Android OS smartphones, is coming to the iPhone on Thursday and bringing with it the ability to play Flash video content. Apple doesn’t support Flash content on its iOS devices, which will make Skyfire a welcome addition for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users that need to play Flash-based video on their handheld devices.

Instead of displaying Flash videos on iOS devices, Skyfre intercepts and converts them to HTML 5, then streams them to back out to users. The process works around the inability to play Flash content natively on iOS devices, and it took about two months of work with Apple to get Skyfire approved for distribution through the App Store, according to CNN.

Skyfire users hoping to work around Hulu’s paid-only model for viewing shows on mobile devices, however, are in for a disappointment. Hulu is actively blocking Skyfire from downloading and converting shows, which means users will still have to pay a monthly subscription fee to watch content on the go.

Skyfire will be available on Thursday, November 5, for US$2.99 and is available at Apple’s iTunes-based App Store.

Easy Agenda for iPad

Simplicity is often a desirable attribute for iPhone and iPad apps. The entire App Store and app experience seems to lend itself to allowing users to find good apps and get things done with them with a minimum of muss and fuss. The release of the iPad, with its relatively vast screen real estate, was accompanied by some apps that were more sophisticated than ones designed to accomplish similar tasks on the iPhone. But for the most part, users can get up and running and doing things with apps within a few minutes.

Sometimes, however, ease-of-use and simplicity can be taken too far, and this is the case with Easy Agenda, a personal scheduling app from Diego Chiodini. Easy Agenda's main screen consists of a page that contains the day and date in the upper-right-hand corner and a line for each hour from 6 a.m. to midnight. For each hour, you can type one line (which can go on well past the edge of the screen) of information. But still, you are restricted to one line only. Hours cannot be divided into segments. Agenda items cannot be created as repeating appointments.

Easy Agenda also enables you to draw (with one line thickness in one color) on a separate page, and you can combine material you type into a free-form text box with your drawing. As with the calendar page, text can be entered only in a single font in a single size and style. You can e-mail both drawing pages and daily agenda pages from within the app.

The developer has also included a six-month calendar, which allows you to easily tap on a date and enter an appointment or task or note. However, the app does not include "reminder" capabilities; when you get to that day, you'll see what you have to do. The calendar, unfortunately, provides only a six-month view, divided into the year's first six months and its last six months. If it is June, the last six months of the year cannot be accessed in the calendar view; you can only enter an item for a date past July 1 by flipping through daily pages one at a time until you arrive at the correct date.

Easy Agenda is clearly designed for those that have, well, a very easy agenda. Many simple "sticky note" apps would serve such users just as well.

Verizon iPhone will get internal antenna, source says

More than half of all Verizon subscribers would likely buy an iPhone if Apple's device was supported by their current provider, a recent survey of U.S. consumers claimed.

According to Michigan-based market research firm Morpace, 51 per cent of current Verizon subscribers said they were either "somewhat likely" or "very likely" to purchase an iPhone if Verizon offered Apple 's smartphone . The results were based on a poll of 1,000 American consumers conducted from July 15 to July 20.

Morpace's results were nearly identical to those collected last May by ChangeWave, a research company that specializes in forecasting future spending trends. ChangeWave's poll of more than 4,000 U.S. consumers found that 53 per cent of Verizon subscribers were somewhat or very likely to purchase an iPhone if the carrier obtained rights to the device.

AT&T, which has been Apple's exclusive iPhone partner for three years, remains the device's only sanctioned mobile service provider in the U.S.

Morpace's figures -- and its implicit confirmation of ChangeWave's earlier estimate -- comes hard on the heels of yet more Internet buzz that Apple will soon release an iPhone that works on Verizon's CDMA network.

The newest speculation was sparked by the Daring Fireball blog, which last week pegged a January 2011 launch for a Verizon iPhone, two months earlier than forecasts by some Wall Street analysts, who have bet on a March debut.

Morpace's poll also revealed that nearly a quarter of current AT&T subscribers said that they would probably switch to Verizon if the latter offered the iPhone. Morpace attributed the strong showing -- AT&T customers were more likely to drop their current provider for Verizon than subscribers to either Sprint or T-Mobile -- to the persistent undercurrent of complaints about AT&T's network performance.

Those complaints started almost immediately after the iPhone's launch three years ago, and periodically rise and fall in volume and intensity. Apple has regularly defended its U.S. partner.

However, AT&T seems to be laying the groundwork for an end to the deal. In its latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the telecomm giant said that the loss of any exclusivity arrangement would "not ... have a material negative impact" on revenues.

But Morpace's poll hinted at different results if Verizon gets the iPhone.

More than a third of current iPhone owners told the research firm that they have put off upgrading to the newest iPhone 4 because they're waiting for the smartphone to become available on a rival carrier.

Some believe that Apple would greatly benefit by adding Verizon to the iPhone's stable. Brian Marshall, an analyst with Gleacher & Co., has estimated that Verizon could sell up to 11 million iPhones in 2011.

The move might also put Apple in a better position in U.S. smartphone sales, where it now lags both Google 's Android and Research in Motion's BlackBerry operating systems for market share.

Online dating service finds iPhone owners have more sex partners

Owners of Apple's iPhone on average have more sex partners by age 30 than those who own other handsets, and the iPhone takes more attractive photos than competing smartphones, a survey of users of an online dating service has found.

This week, OK Cupid published the results of a wide-reaching poll of photos taken from the online dating service. As part of the survey, the site determined users' sexual activity by smartphone brand, based on the results of 9,785 people.

With a snapshot of 30-year-olds, male iPhone owners have an average of 10 sexual partners, while women reported an average of 12.3. That's well ahead of BlackBerry owners (8.1 partners for men, 8.8 for women) and devices that run Google's Android mobile operating system (6 partners for men, 6.1 for women).

Going beyond just a single age, the study found that iPhone users at any age between 18 and 40 have more sexual partners than Android or BlackBerry users.

The site also found that the type of camera used to take a user's picture helped to gauge their "attractiveness," as determined by users of the site. Most smartphone cameras had a negative effect on the attractiveness of the phone, but Apple's iPhone was one of the few smartphones found to produce more attractive photos.

For comparison, the Palm Pre, Android handsets, BlackBerrys, Windows Mobile Devices, and handsets from Samsung, LG, Motorola and Nokia all decreased photo attractiveness.

Last year, a study found that iPhone users were richer, younger, and perhaps even more productive at work than users of other smartphones. Compiled from 32,228 working U.S. adults in 2008, the survey found that iPhone users are more educated and affluent than users of other smartphones.

How to make a free custom ringtone for your iPhone 4

No matter how tired we get of listening to the custom ringtones of others, sometimes we absolutely have to have a custom ringtone of our own. Here’s how to make a ringtone and put it on your iPhone for free.

Maybe there is a song that you think defines you, or some music that you just love. Or you know of a song that would make a perfect ringtone for a friend. But all those commercial ringtone places are a drag, besides being worried about downloading malware with your ringtone. The solution that you are looking for is a way to make ringtones out of music that you already own.

On the iPhone under iOS4 that is a fairly simple process. First, you need to pick a song. Then you need to cut a short clip out of it. Then you need to move it to the phone and finally select it as a ring tone. Selecting the song is the most fun part of the project, and the only part that will cost you money if you don’t already own the music. Regardless if the ringtone is for your iPhone default or a special one for one of your contacts, all the first step needs is some inspiration.

Cutting the song down to a shorter size requires some work and a piece of software known as an audio editor. There is one very good audio editor that is available for most popular operating systems: Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. The name of that software is Audacity and it is available here. Audacity is fairly intuitive and has good instructions, so you’ll be able to figure it out fairly easily.

Basically, what you want to do is load your song into the editor, select a 10-30 second selection, and then save it in a specific format for use as an iPhone ringtone. If you’re especially clever, you will be able to find a usable “loop” that does not sound unnatural if it repeats as your phone rings. When you have used Audacity to make a short audio clip for use as your ringtone, you will need to make sure to save it an mp4 or m4a file. After you have saved it, find it and edit the file extension to “m4r” which is what the iPhone uses for ringtones. Use a name you’ll easily remember for the first part of the file name.

Then you need to add your ringtone to iTunes. To do this, just open iTunes and drag your m4r file into the “Ringtones” folder in the itunes library. Then sync your phone to your computer and iTunes will automatically move the new ringtone to your telephone. In order to select that item as either the default iPhone ringtone, or as a special ringtone for a contact, see our column titled “How do I change the ringtone on my iPhone.” When you get to the list of ringtones on your iPhone, you will see the special ringtone you just made in the list. Just select it as you would any other ringtone.

'I'm shattered': cracks emerge in iPhone 4

Apple is supposed to work on a technology that could make the displays thinner and brighter than the current iPhone models. In a recently published patent, Apple has highlighted the development of pixels that can display images and a touch of log entries. Today, touch sensors are provided in the pixel transparent image that allows to achieve the touch input functionality without interfering with the display of images. However, Apple says it has some potential disadvantages, such as weight and thickness to add to the screen. With the touch input overlap, the brightness of images were also reduced. To remedy this, Apple has developed a dual role that capacitive element pixels to display images, but also let them register touch input. In his patent, the inventors write:

"[T crown] double capacitive elements form part of the display systems that generate an image on screen and also part of a touch detection system that detects events on or near the touch screen. Capacitive elements can be, for example, capacitors pixel LCD screen that is configured to operate individually, each

JailbreakMe: Apple iPhone 4 hack released

The iPhone Dev Team has released a legal hack for the Apple iPhone 4. The JailbreakMe tool can be accessed through the iPhone’s Safari web browser, and enables users to download and install a variety of software and programs on their handset that have not been officially approved by Apple.

Last week, the US Copyright Office ruled that it was legal to “hack” a mobile phone in the US in order to run applications or to use a different mobile phone network. However, Apple warned that hacking an iPhone, a process known as “jailbreaking”, would void the device’s warranty.

The JailbreakMe hack works on iPhones, iPads and iPod touches running iOS 4 and iOS 4.0.1, but is not compatible with devices running the iOS 4.1 beta. There have been reports from some uses that the hack causes problems with FaceTime, Apple’s video-calling program, and the multimedia messaging functionality of the phone.

Indeed, the hack is proving so popular that some users have reported problems downloading the jailbreak, because the iPhone Dev Team’s servers have been overwhelmed by the number of visitors.

Apple has played down the significance of the hack’s release, and of the US Copyright Office’s ruling.

“The vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones,” said Apple in a statement. “This can violate the warranty, and can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably.”

iPhone 'faces rising challenge' from Android handsets

Apple's iPhone will likely dominate the high-end smartphone market in the next five years but faces strong competition from handsets using Google's Android platform, a research firm said.

By 2015, total mobile application downloads in the Asia-Pacific are forecast to reach 5.30 billion, of which 597.15 million, or about 11 per cent, will be for the iPhone, technology industry consultancy Ovum said.

Downloads of iPhone applications are estimated at 62.16 million in 2010, rising to 597 million downloads in 2015, Ovum said in an analysis released just days before the launch of the new-generation iPhone 4 in another 17 countries and cities worldwide on Friday.

The iPhone 4 is expected "to face much stiffer competition than its predecessors", Ovum principal analyst Adam Leach said in a statement.

"The rise of Google Android over the last two years has been phenomenal and is allowing manufacturers to create appealing alternatives to the iPhone, critically at cheaper prices," Leach said.

Handsets using the Android operating platform are more than just clones of the iconic iPhone, he said.

"The risk to Apple is that these devices offer greater freedom with available content and may prove more appealing, if it offers the right user and developer experience, than a device with Apple-approved content only," said Leach.

"This may ultimately be what puts the brakes on unlimited iPhone growth."

From July 30, customers can purchase the iPhone 4 in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

It will be available for purchase through Apple's online store.

Apple Announces Availability Of iPhone 4 In 17 Other Countries

The iPhone 4 will go on sale in 17 more countries by the end of the week according to a statement issued by Apple today, a step that marks the second step in the company's plans to get the phone in as many hands as possible.

The phone is currently available in only five countries - France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US - with the phone being SIM Free only in the UK and France from the start.

Apple said that the phone will be on sale in Apple's retail and online stores as well as Apple authorised resellers. We're not sure whether this means that mobile phone operators who already have an exclusivity agreement with Apple will stock the iPhone 4.

Interestingly, Apple considers Hong Kong to be a country when technically, it is a Chinese territory, which means that the iPhone 4 is likely to flood the Chinese market pretty soon.

The iPhone 4 is expected to go on sale in 87 countries by the end of September with the ability to produce the device fast enough being the only major concern facing the Cupertino-based company.

iPhone 4 outright pricing to start from $859

Apple Australia tags the 16GB iPhone 4 at $859 outright, with the new entry-level 8GB iPhone 3GS landing at $719.
With the iPhone 4's local debut just four days away – and even less if you count the midnight launch being touted by Optus (a strategy other carriers are almost certain to follow) – we're finally starting to see some prices for Apple's slick new smartphone.

The first comes from Apple Australia, which has announced that the 16GB version of the iPhone 4 will sell outright for $859. There's no word on the price for the 32GB model, but this could nudge into four-digit territory.

Apple will also introduce the new entry-level 8GB version of the iPhone 3GS for $719. This will come loaded with iOS 4.0.

On the carrier front, Vodafone is tipped to release its pricing this Wednesday – we're sure that Optus and Telstra will either be soon to follow, or eager to beat them to the punch. Speculation is that Optus will include an unlimited data deal as an incentive to convince existing iPhone customers to sign up for another two year contract.