iOS

A technical Web site posted an article yesterday asserting that Apple will not replace Intel processors with an alternative design anytime in the next two to three years.

This follows a report on a chip rumor site last week that claimed Apple is "dumping" Intel and switching to chips based on the ARM design, the same silicon used in the iPhone and iPad. That report said the transition would happen in that time frame.

While acknowledging Apple's history of transitions to new chip architectures and the ostensible motivations for moving to ARM, Real World Technologies' David Kanter … Read more

While Apple was busy talking to one part of the U.S. government today as part of a congressional hearing, another branch was granting the company a slew of patents, with one of the most interesting ones being a design for an iPad with an additional connector slot on the side of the device.

Readers with sharp memories might remember seeing this same design before, though not in a shipping product. Apple filed an identical ornamental design patent with the Trade Marks and Designs Registration Office of the European Union early last year, which was made public in October. Both … Read more

Frisbee Forever is the fully licensed flying disc app that lets you guide a Frisbee disc through colorful obstacle courses. Against a cartoonlike 3D backdrop, you start by flicking your Frisbee onscreen, then guiding the disc through rings and around obstacles, all the while gathering stars as you go. You have the option to use onscreen control arrows, but I found the tilt controls to be much more fun. If you gather all the stars and make it through all the gates to the finish line, you'll be awarded a gold medal along with experience points and Star Coins. … Read more

Apple recently released iOS update 4.3.3 (4.2.8 for the Verizon iPhone 4) to ease consumers fear that Apple was tracking their every move. Even though Apple has taken steps to encrypt and decrease the size of the location cache, third-party developers still have the potential of accessing your location information. This simple guide will explain how to manage which apps can access your location info on your iPad and iPhone.

… Read more

Google launched its own cloud music service today, Music Beta, allowing users to access and edit their music collections across multiple Android devices and computers without burdening their storage--everything is stored on Google's servers.

Android users can download and install the Music app on their phones immediately, but won't be able to access all the features, including the Music manager desktop app, until Google grants them an invitation.

Now, what about iOS users?

When Amazon launched Cloud Player, iOS users were also ignored, but the interWebs quickly found workaround. In the same spirit, here's how to use Google Music on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

Get a Google Music account: To request an invitation, go to music.google.com/music/.

Open Safari: Point your browser to music.google.com/music/ and enter your Google account information. Interestingly, this page is mobile-friendly.

Navigate as usual: Now the interface can be used in the same manner as the desktop browser version. Tapping play will play the music within the browser. (On Amazon Cloud Player, songs would open in the QuickTime Player.) To play a song, tap it, and press "Play" in the navigation bar at the bottom, or click the triangle to the right of a song name and select "Play Song."

Scrolling. To scroll through your music list, drag up or down with two fingers. Be patient--there's some lag.

… Read more

If you are looking to use your iPad as a blogging tool, WordPress is a likely starting point. After all, it's one of--if not the--most popular blog platform in the world. And the app is free. It's very easy to use, but in large part because it's very limited. In this brief tutorial, I will show you how to use WordPress on the iPad.

The goings-on within Apple's new North Carolina data center remain largely unknown, though a new report suggests Apple is using at least part of the facilities to power an enhanced voice services platform that will be unveiled early next month.

In a report this afternoon, TechCrunch claims that Apple is running voice software, and "possibly" even hardware from communications company Nuance in its data center. The end result is said to be improved voice technologies in the next major version of Apple's iOS, which is expected to be unveiled at next month's Worldwide Developers Conference. … Read more

In its quest to get developers on Apple's iOS platform more friendly with Microsoft technologies Microsoft this morning released a new toolkit that helps developers integrate the company's Azure platform into the guts of iOS applications.

The open-source kit, which Microsoft has posted to Github, helps iOS developers build Windows Azure integration into applications at a very low level. Microsoft says this works on both the iPhone and the iPad, giving applications a way to plug into data and notifications from services running on Azure.

"Today, it's not just about how quickly a developer can create an experience, but how quickly that developer can build apps that work with unique devices across a dozen platforms," wrote Jamin Spitzer, the senior director of platform strategy for Microsoft, in a TechNet post.

Spitzer said that the solution is to use cloud services as the "common back-end" to simplify those efforts.

"Using the toolkits, developers can use the cloud to accelerate the creation of applications on the major mobile platforms. Companies, including Groupon, are taking advantage to create a unified approach to cloud-to-mobile user experience," Spitzer said.

Microsoft has set up the system to let developers plug their Azure account information directly into apps, or run that authentication through a proxy server. That first method is the easier and more self-contained of the two, but hinders access controls and authorizations, the company said. By comparison, the proxy method, which has applications validating access to Azure keeps the username and password information from residing within the app. … Read more

iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users can now access Amazon's new Cloud Player on their mobile gadgets, bypassing the initial lack of support for Apple iDevices. It doesn't work flawlessly, but if you follow the instructions detailed below, you'll be streaming cloud music to your iPhone in no time.

Unveiled late March, Amazon's cloud-based music player lets you play music purchased and downloaded from Amazon or uploaded from your own local music collection, providing a way to retrieve your various music libraries online.

Technically speaking, the Cloud Player is geared toward PC and Mac users as … Read more