There will always come a point when hardware limitations prevent previous-generation iPhone and iPod touch models from receiving the latest version of iOS. The issue is more prominently discussed in the Android community due to the frequency of updates and the time-consuming process vendors face when making customized software elements available on a new Android build. But owners of older versions of Apple’s mobile devices also know the pain of seeing features added to iOS that they will never get to enjoy until they purchase a more modern device — until now.

A group of independent iOS developers have taken it upon themselves to bring a number of the great features iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS owners enjoy to the first and second-generation iPhone and iPod touch. Using a custom iOS build called Whited00r, popular iOS 5 features including enhanced mutitasking support, reminders, home screen folders, video recording and even Newsstand are made available on older iPhone and iPod touch devices.

Released earlier this week, Whited00r 5.1 is a custom version of Apple’s iOS 3.1.3 software. While the software affords a number of great iOS 5 features, some of the most sought-after elements newer iOS builds including Notification Center and App Store access are not available in Whited00r. Other features such as iCloud have been recreated to an extent — iCloud support in this custom iOS build uses Dropbox as a back end.

Owners of Apple’s iPhone, iPhone 3G or first and second-generation iPod touch obviously don’t have to worry about voiding any warranties by installing Whited00r since their warranties have long since expired, but things can always go awry when working with unauthorized software. Many users report success with Whited00r, however, and the software’s developers have a forum in place to help users who run into trouble.

Whited00r 5.1 is available for free and can be installed using Apple’s iTunes software on a Mac or a Windows PC. The team behind Whited00r recommends that users set up their devices as new rather than restoring from a backup after installing the customer software.

A personal travel blog titled BirdAbroad recently published a story and photos detailing fake Apple Stores that have started to pop up in China. A few such stores exist in Kunming, the largest city in the Yunnan Province, and employees have faked the real Apple Store atmosphere so well that a number of Chinese residents believe the stores are legitimate outlets. Several of the customers are now furious after hearing the truth. “When I heard the news I rushed here immediately to get the receipt, I am so upset,” a near teary-eyed customer surnamed Wang told Reuters. “With a store this big, it looks so believable who would have thought it was fake?” Wang reportedly bought an iPhone 3G and a 13-inch MacBook Pro last month for a total of $2,170, but was not issued a receipt. “Where’s my receipt, you promised me my receipt last month!” Wang yelled at the store’s employees, before “being whisked away to an upstairs room,” Reuters said. Members of the staff, who are outfitted with blue shirts and Apple name tags, believe that they are real Apple employees. The Wall Street Journal was able to reach one Kungming staff member by phone. “It doesn’t make much of a difference for us whether we’re authorized or not,” the staffer said. “I just care that what I sell every day are authentic Apple products, and that our customers don’t come back to me to complain about the quality of the products.” Apple has yet to respond to the reports. Read on for a few more images of the fake Kunming store taken by BirdAbroad.

[Via Reuters]

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Apple finally approved the official Google+ application for iOS on Tuesday. Google took the wraps off of Google+, its new social network, on June 28th and immediately made an Android application available to its users. Thankfully, it didn’t take long for Apple to approve the iPhone version. Google+ for iOS is supported on the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 4, provided that the device is running iOS 3.1 or later. There’s no word if a dedicated iPad version is in the works. Read

Following the “Antennagate” scandal that cost Apple zero sales last year, a new “Locationgate” scandal took the media by storm earlier this year that ultimately cost Apple zero sales. It was discovered in late April that the iPhone and 3G-equipped iPads were secretly tracking and storing users’ locations. Apple issued a statement seven days later, claiming the culprit was a bug that would be addressed as soon as possible. Apple also said that it does not track its users or their locations. Some people tend to take things more personally than others — or perhaps they’re out for a quick buck — so lawsuits were inevitable. Thus far, just one single complaint related to Locationgate has resulted in a payout from Apple, and it was awarded to South Korean man Kim Hyung-suk this past May, Reuters reports. What was the damage? 1 million won, which translates to a whopping $945. Kim, a lawyer, said Apple sent the payment last month.

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T-Mobile USA has gone on record in stating that its network is now home to more than 1 million unlocked Apple iPhones. While the figure is not incredibly surprising considering the massive popularity of Apple’s smartphone line, it certainly reaffirms the fact that T-Mobile subscribers are itching for an iOS option. Though the overwhelming bulk of iPhones being used on T-Mobile’s network are 3G and 3GS models, unnamed T-Mobile spokespeople also confirmed that the carrier has micro-SIMs in development. For the time being, iPhone 4 owners who want to use their devices on T-Mobile’s network have to perform a bit of surgery on their T-Mobile SIM cards. Of course, we doubt the carrier would adopt micro-SIM cards without actually selling a device that can make use of them, so this little snippet may add a bit more credence to rumors of a T-Mobile-ready iPhone 5 that may launch in August or September.

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The Nielsen Company on Friday released its latest findings regarding smartphone data usage and as expected, data consumption continued to increase at an explosive pace in the first quarter of 2011. In the same quarter last year, the average smartphone user consumed 230MB of data on their device each month. Last quarter, that number shot up 89% to 435MB. The heaviest data users are responsible for the bulk of the growth, with average data usage among the top 10% of smartphone owners having grown 155% from 1.8GB to 4.6GB on average each month. Lucky for them, the average cost per megabyte of smartphone data has dropped 46% over the same period, from $0.14 in the first quarter of 2010 to $0.08 last quarter. Android users remain the most data hungry, averaging 582MB each month, and iPhone users followed closely behind last quarter, using 492MB of data each month on average. Windows Phone 7, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry users round out the top-5, consuming 317MB, 174MB and 127MB on average each month, respectively. Some additional data from Nielsen’s report can be seen after the break.

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If you had asked me a few weeks ago, I would have insisted that no ear buds in the sub-$1,000 price range sound better than my trusty Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10vi headset. I would have been wrong. I still insist that no buds I’ve tried sound better than my 10vi buds — and I have tried many, many pairs — but now I add the caveat, “when coupled with the iWOW 3D.”

I recently mentioned SRS in passing within my review of the HTC Arrive, and I’m certainly glad I did because the team at SRS saw my review and reached out to chat. They also decided to send me an iWOW 3D to play with, and to be frank, I was skeptical at best. Sound is a funny thing. Just about everyone fancies him or herself an expert when it comes to sound, it seems, and while I would deny it if you asked me on the street, I’m the same way. Deep down, I think of myself as a sophisticated audiophile with a discerning ear that can rival even the most experienced sound hounds. The truth is that I do have formal training as an audio engineer, but that hardly qualifies me as an expert. The sound quality of recorded music and the quality of headphones delivering said music, like so many other things in life, is largely a matter of opinion and personal preference. But it’s also science.

There are many factors that might make one pair of headphones better than another. The materials used, the components used, the shape, the fit and countless other factors combine to reproduce sound in a very unique way. While this topic is of considerable interest to me, it is also far too complex to cover here. What matters is that in the end, those of us who might refer to ourselves as audiophiles have put a great deal of time and effort into finding headphones that suit our particular taste. Once said headphones have been identified, we will almost certainly swear up and down that they’re “the best.”

I landed on the Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10vi headphones — at least where ear buds are concerned. For my taste, it doesn’t get any better unless you’re willing to part with an obscene amount of cash for custom buds (and I’m not). The unique shape fits perfectly in my ears and in my opinion, they reproduce music from a wide range of genres better than any other buds I’ve tried. With one or two exceptions, I find the difference between the 10vi buds and competitive offerings to be fairly substantial. As such, you can imagine my surprise when I discovered that a tiny $60 accessory could have such a dramatic impact on the sound delivered by my precious 10vi buds.

SRS describes the iWOW 3D as follows:

The iWOW 3D is a premium plug-and-play audio enhancement accessory for iPad, iPhone and iPod, designed to retrieve and restore audio cues that are buried within the original source audio, to provide an immersive three-dimensional sound stage with renewed depth and clarity, as well as improve bass response for any speaker configuration.

I describe the iWOW 3D as a swift kick in the buds.

Forgetting all the jargon, here’s what you need to know: the iWOW 3D lumps its magic into three realms of signal processing. The first is “wide surround.” This does exactly what it sounds like it should do — it effectively spreads out the sound and creates a wider audio image that is truly impressive. Think of it as the difference between a two-speaker sound bar and a real surround sound setup.

The second thing it does is fix bass frequencies and delivery. You might not have known the bass was broken on your current headphones, but it is. Apple offers some great EQ settings in iOS that help in some respects, but the results are often muddy and they never sound quite right with each different genre of music. The iWOW 3D’s bass enhancer makes bass sound massive, but not to the point where your speakers will be crackling. It seems like the perfect bass tweak and if you crank the volume up to about 75%, your head very well may explode — but in a good way.

Finally, the iWOW 3D finesses the high and mid-range frequencies to compensate for all that new-found bass. The result, when all three effects are combined, is sound more impressive than I ever thought I would hear coming out of a cell phone. It’s pretty remarkable. There’s a free companion app that allows users do enable and disable each of the three effects individually, but I could easily live without it. All three effects are on by default and that’s the way it should stay.

While there’s plenty to love about the iWOW 3D, there are also a few problems of varying degrees that I have with the gadget. First, there is a big white indicator light on the front of the unit that lets you know when it is enabled. Indicator lights are great, but this one is huge and annoying. A tiny white LED on the side would have been sufficient.

Slightly more important is the hiss. Like many powered audio devices, the iWOW 3D emits a low-level hiss when connected and turned on. It’s faint and you can’t hear it at all when music is playing, but it’s annoying at first during parts of a track that are silent or very quiet. It’s also annoying at first while watching movies or TV shows. I say “at first” because after a while, it gets to a point where you adjust to the sound and forget about it unless you intentionally concentrate on it.

Last but certainly not least is an Apple-imposed limitation: while connected through the iWOW 3D, in-line remotes and microphones will not work. This means you can’t pause or skip backward or forward with button clicks on your headset’s remote, and you can’t talk on the phone until you unplug the device. This is Apple’s fault, as the 30-pin dock connector does not make these functions available, but it’s a pretty big limitation nonetheless.

Those qualms aside, I’ve really enjoyed the iWOW 3D in the couple of weeks I have been using it. So far I’ve had three other people check out the device as well, and the results have been the same in each case. Eyes widen, jaws drop ever so slightly, and the listener is wowed.

But hearing is believing. The SRS iWOW 3D can be ordered from SRS’s online shop for $59.99.

Apple’s media event has kicked off as planned, and the company announced that it has shipped over 100 million iPhones. CEO Steve Jobs also noted that the company has shipped over 15 million iPad tablets — more than every other consumer tablet combined, ever. Apple’s iPhone, which launched in 2007, was the company’s first iOS device. Since its launch, devices like the iPhone 4, iPad and iPod touch have made the platform one of the most popular mobile OSes in the world.

Earlier this month, we exclusively reported that Apple’s new Personal Hotspot feature is coming to all iPhones with iOS 4.3. The feature, which was popularized by Android phones like the HTC EVO 4G, will allow devices to share an iPhone’s 3G data connection via Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, more cautious carriers like AT&T are likely to take their sweet time enabling the service for subscribers. Jailbreakers can purchase one of several apps that enable Wi-Fi tethering, but not everyone wants to bother with the cat and mouse game that inevitably arrives with each subsequent iOS update. But patience is a virtue not everyone possesses, and some of you might not feel like sitting around while AT&T puts the new mobile hotspot feature through its paces. Well, you’re in luck.

Taiwan-based AXIM Communications, or AXIMCom for short, reached out to us not long ago and told us about a nifty little product it launched last year. Dubbed MR-102N, the device is a powerful mobile router that can perform a variety of functions. For the purpose of this piece, we’ll focus on one of them: the MR-102N can turn your iPhone or Android handset into a personal Wi-Fi 802.11n hotspot compatible with HSPA+ networks up to 42Mbps.

Put simply, it’s better than integrated mobile hotspot solutions and it’s better than the dedicated “MiFi” portable hotspot devices carriers are selling these days.

First of all, AXIMCom’s box works with a huge range of networks and devices. The MR-102N works with HSDPA, HSUPA, EV-DO, UMTS, GPRS or any other type of connectivity thrown its way, so users won’t have to worry about switching devices if they choose to change carriers. If you own a carrier-branded mobile hotspot or aUSB modem, you’ll need to make a new purchase and sign a new contract in order to switch carriers.

Another huge benefit of the MR-102N is battery life. Whereas integrated portable hotspot functionality will tear through a smartphone’s battery in no time, this device will actually charge your phone’s battery while it’s connected. It packs a 1700 mAh battery that we found lasts for several hours of usage.

Perhaps the most important advantage over other solutions is the fact that AXIMCom’s MR-102N is cheaper than other portable hotspots. Purchase a MiFi from a carrier and you’re looking at spending $35, $50, $60 or even $80 each month on top of your cell phone’s data plan. With the MR-102N, however, you can simply add tethering to your current smartphone. On the iPhone, for example, tethering runs an extra $20 each month, though it is worth noting that subscribers with grandfathered unlimited plans will not be able to add tethering without downgrading to a capped data plan. AT&T ‘s 2GB data plan costs $25 each month ($45 with the $20 tethering add-on) and overages will run $10 per gigabyte. AT&T iPhone owners who want to keep their unlimited data plans while tethering will need to jailbreak their devices.

We tested the MR-102N AXIMCom gave us with an iPhone 4, an iPhone 3GS and an HTC Hero, and it worked perfectly in each instance. With regards to speed, we regularly saw between 4 and 5Mbps when connected via the iPhone 4, and around 4Mbps when connected via the iPhone 3GS. Since the device is capable of theoretical speeds up to 42Mbps, no modern 3G network will ever come close to pushing this box’s limits.

The MR-102N setup requires you to connect the box to a PC or Mac to configure the device, though it’s relatively straightforward and painless thanks to AXIMCom’s “iShare” feature. You’ll definitely want to download the english documentation from AXIMCom’s site, however. Also of note, the device is compatible with several phones as well as a huge range of USB modems.

The AXIMCom MR-102N is available immediately direct from the manufacturer for $129, which includes shipping to the U.S.

Microsoft on Tuesday launched a new version of its OneNote mobile application for Apple’s iOS platform. Compatibile with the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, OneNote allows iPhone users to create, edit and sync notes using Microsoft’s popular cloud-based note-taking solution. OneNote is part of Microsoft’s famed Office suite of products, and is the first Office application to be built by Microsoft for the iOS platform. Microsoft, which has launched several other apps for iOS in the past, has not specifically stated whether or not it intends to launch additional apps for iOS. Instead, a company executive said only that Microsoft would continue to expand Office across several platforms. Hit the break for a link to the Microsoft’s OneNote app in iTunes, which is available for free, though only for a limited time.

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Smartphone users dig apps. Mobile developers dig Apple. Those two truths add up to a whole lot of app downloads from Apple’s iOS App Store. There are currently about iOS 340,000 apps available in the App Store according to Apple’s feeds. Collectively, they will soon have been downloaded a total of 10 billion times. Apple put up a new page to celebrate the imminent milestone, and it is offering a $10,000 iTunes gift card to the iPhone, iPod touch or iPad user who downloads the 10-billionth app. Apple launched the App Store on July 11th, 2008 to coincide with the release of its second-generation iPhone, the iPhone 3G. The App Store hit the 1 billion-download mark on April 23rd, 2009, and it reached 5 billion downloads 410 days later on June 7th, 2010.

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Throwback Thursday was yesterday, but we thought it would be nice to spend a few minutes this Christmas Eve Day looking back on some of the events leading up to the introduction of the iPhone. The iPhone is, after all, a device that served as a catalyst in the mobile industry over the past few years — love it or hate it. It pushed the industry in new directions, causing competitors to approach hardware and user experience design in a whole new way. It even forced Google to rethink the BlackBerry-like OS it was developing, which resulted in the wildly successful Android platform we see today.

In August of 2002, nearly five years before the world would get its first glimpse of Apple’s smartphone, there were already rumblings that Apple was developing an “iPhone” behind closed doors. It would be a product that combined Apple’s industrial design prowess, the best of its software platform, several elements from popular Personal Digital Assistants like the Palm Pilot, and a cell phone. Of course nothing was confirmed at that point in time, but everyone was reading between the lines and coming up the same story. Firm rumors suggested that Apple tried to acquire Palm for $1 billion shortly after Jobs’ return to the company, and Jobs was becoming increasingly vocal about the impending death of PDA devices. ”We decided that between now and next year, the PDA is going to be subsumed by the telephone,” Jobs told The New York Times in an interview. ”We think the PDA is going away.”

The Apple CEO insisted that PDA devices of that era were too difficult to use, offering very little in the way of real utility. Jobs believed that combining a cell phone with the core functions of a PDA, however, would result in a truly useful device. Of course this was hardly a revelation — Microsoft’s Pocket PC platform was already powering smartphones at this point, and the Nokia’s Communicator devices were six years old. Jobs had a different vision, however, but of course he would admit nothing at that point in time.

It has been alleged on numerous occasions that Jobs takes his time with Apple products, and will force projects to change directions dramatically when something isn’t moving in what he believes to be the right direction. With that it mind, and being able to say in hindsight that platforms like Windows Mobile and Symbian were anything but intuitive, it’s easy to see why it took several years before Apple had a product Jobs was willing to take to market. But even in 2002, it was very evident that Jobs was envisioning a smartphone he believed would revolutionize the industry.

All Mr. Jobs would say on the matter was that the cellphone computers already on the market fall far short, and that some of the user-interface and industrial design touches already evident in the iPod would be perfect for an improved, consumer-friendly version of such a product.

The writing, as they say, was on the wall.

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image source: Blake Patterson

It came a bit later than we expected — reportedly due to a last minute Wi-Fi bug on the iPad — but Apple fans can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Apple has pushed out its iOS 4.2.1 update for the iPad, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G and iPod touch. The most notable changes will come for iPad users, who have been anxiously awaiting iOS 4 for what seems like an eternity. They will now be able to enjoy Apple’s multitasking workaround for third-party apps, folders, AirPrint capabilities, a unified inbox and plenty more. Version 4.2.1 should also bring about some much needed performance improvements for iPhone 3G users. The update will be available today so fire up iTunes and slam those servers.

Also of note, Apple has made Find My iPhone free for all users. The feature, which allows GPS-enabled iOS devices to be located from within a Web interface, had previously been part of Apple’s $100-per-year MobileMe service.

Hit the jump for the full press release.

Apple’s iOS 4.2 Available Today for iPad, iPhone & iPod touch

Major Software Update Brings Multitasking, Folders, Unified Inbox, Game Center, AirPlay & AirPrint to iPad

CUPERTINO, California—November 22, 2010—Apple® today announced that iOS 4.2, the latest version of the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, is available today for download for iPad™, iPhone® and iPod touch®. iOS 4.2 brings over 100 new features from iOS 4.0, 4.1 and 4.2 to iPad including Multitasking, Folders, Unified Inbox, Game Center, AirPlay® and AirPrint.

“iOS 4.2 makes the iPad a completely new product, just in time for the holiday season,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Once again, the iPad with iOS 4.2 will define the target that other tablets will aspire to, but very few, if any, will ever be able to hit.”

iPad users can now run their favorite apps and switch between them instantly, while preserving iPad’s legendary battery life. Users can organize their apps with drag-and-drop simplicity using Folders, and Mail now features a Unified Inbox, fast inbox switching and a threaded message view.

Game Center allows iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users to challenge and play friends or be matched automatically with new opponents, showcase their scores and achievements, and discover new games their friends are playing.

AirPlay is a new feature for streaming music, video and photos wirelessly from iPad, iPhone and iPod touch to Apple TV®, transforming Apple TV into a great accessory for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. iOS users also will be able to use AirPort Express® and AirPlay to stream wirelessly to any stereo or powered speakers, or directly to AirPlay-enabled speakers coming to market in the months ahead.

AirPrint is a next-generation Wi-Fi print architecture that dramatically simplifies printing by completely eliminating printer drivers. A selection of AirPrint enabled printers including the HP Photosmart, HP LaserJet Pro and HP Officejet will be the first to support printing direct from iOS devices. iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users can simply tap to print their documents or photos wirelessly to any printer that supports AirPrint.

The Find My iPhone (or iPad or iPod touch) feature is now free to use without a MobileMe℠ subscription and helps you locate your missing device.* The Find My iPhone app is a free download on the App Store℠ and lets users easily locate a missing device on a map and have it display a message or play a sound. Users can even remotely lock or wipe data from a lost device to protect privacy.

Other new features that iOS 4.2 brings to the iPad include: the ability to rent TV episodes directly to iPad using the iTunes® App with a 30 day viewing window and a 48 hour session window once playback is started; the ability to easily find and highlight specific words and phrases on web pages in Safari®; enhanced enterprise support so businesses can take advantage of stronger security features, new device management capabilities and improved enterprise integration; industry-leading accessibility enhancements; and support for 25 additional languages, including Korean, Portuguese and Traditional Chinese.

The revolutionary iPad allows users to connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before. You can browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch HD videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more, using the innovative Multi-Touch™ user interface. iPad weighs just 1.5 pounds, making it easy to carry and use anywhere.

Today, customers have downloaded more than seven billion apps from the groundbreaking App Store and more than 300,000 apps are available to consumers in 90 countries, with more than 40,000 native iPad apps. Over 125 million iOS users around the world can choose from an incredible range of apps in 20 categories, including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel.

Availability
The iOS 4.2 update is available today to download to iPad, iPhone and iPod touch by syncing the device with iTunes 10.1. iOS 4.2 is compatible with iPad, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, second and third generation iPod touch (late 2009 models with 32GB or 64GB) and new iPod touch. Some features may not be available on all products. For example, Multitasking requires iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, third generation iPod touch (late 2009 models with 32GB or 64GB) or later.

*The free Find My iPhone feature is available for iPhone 4, iPad or new iPod touch (4th generation).

If rumors circulating today are to be believed, Apple is set to have a pretty big week in terms of software updates. It’s no mystery that Apple has several new software builds in the works but as always, the company has not announced specific release dates. A new report claims to peg dates for three major upcoming releases, however, and they’re all due this week. First up, OS X 10.6.5 and iTunes 10.1 are both said to be slated for release tomorrow, November 10th. The report also states that iOS 4.2 will become available to users on Friday, November 12th, at 1:00PM Eastern Time. iOS 4.2 will bring with it Apple’s much awaited AirPlay and AirPrint functionality, which are dependent on iTunes 10.1 and OS X 10.6.5 to function.

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iPhone 3G owners have had a rough time lately. First, they missed out on some of the best new features iOS 4 had to offer. Then, the watered down version of iOS 4 they finally got their hands on slowed performance to a near-crawl in most cases. But don’t worry, iPhone 3G owners, some long overdue good news is finally coming your way… iOS 4.2 will bring much needed performance improvements when it finally reaches consumers. Using the Gold Master build of the software, TiPb was nice enough to give us all an early taste of the new OS version on video. As you can see very clearly, the phone shows marked improvements compared to the latest public OS build. In fact, it’s almost on par with iOS 3 on the iPhone 3G. Hit the jump for the full video and if you’re an iPhone 3G owner, get ready to breathe a sigh of relief.

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