Information Security, Apple, Film, Gaming & All Things Technology.
Over the last few weeks there have been plenty of images and video leaking out of new a new iPod Touch and a new iPod Nano and possibly iPod Classic? Well if all that wasn’t enough to convince you some pictures of cases made by Hama, have shown up online taken at IFA.
Rockstar Games have announced that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, from Rockstar Leeds, is coming to iPhone 
and iPod Touch later this year. The award winning game is making it’s way from the Nintendo DS to the PSP platform and now the iPhone & iPod Touch.
“Chinatown Wars is a perfect match for the iPhone and iPod touch,” said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. “We are very excited to bring this incredibly ambitious version of Liberty City, with this level of detail and immersive gameplay on Apple’s new gaming platforms.”
The game follows the story of Huang Lee, a young Triad who travels to Liberty City after the mysterious death of his father. Players will navigate their way through the streets as they uncover the truth behind an epic tale of crime and corruption within the Triad crime syndicate, delivering the unprecedented amount of depth that has become a true trademark of the Grand Theft Auto franchise.
Apple has sent out invitations to their annual music event on September 9th, with the tag line “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it”. The rumours of the past few months have been centered around this event as this is when usually the iPod’s are refreshed.
We can tell from the image that it’s based around the iPod refresh as the silhouette dancer is holding an iPod. The event is to take place at Yerba Buena Center for Arts Theatre, San Francisco at 10AM PST. There is no confirmation on who will be holding the keynote, maybe Steve Jobs?
There are so many rumors for this upcoming event at least some must be true. We have rumors of a camera enabled iPod Touch and iPod Nano and possibly iPod Classic. Some believe that an Apple Tablet will be released or at least announced however this seems a bit less likely.
A recent patent filing made by Apple suggests that the iPhone could provide a customized home screen depending on the current user location.
The filing was revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office this week. The filing was dated February 21st 2008 for “Transitional Data Set”, it describes an invention that would display specific applications populated based on dynamic factors such as location.
“The user can create a set of location-aware applications that can be populated by transitional data sets,” the filing reads. “A transitional data set is a data set that can change based on the current location of the mobile device… as determined by a positioning technology (e.g., GPS, cell tower triangulation, Wi-Fi).”
“If the user’s home is in New York, then the user may configure a “weather” widget to display the weather in New York as a default,” the filing reads, “and such default information can be persistent. If the user travels to San Francisco, the user can touch the “Here” button… and the “weather” widget will automatically display the weather for San Francisco… Thus each time the user travels to San Francisco, the location-aware mobile device… can automatically populate the “weather widget with transitional data associated with San Francisco.”
As the rumors of the upcoming camera equipped model continue to appear, a recent report by Digitimes claims that 
Omnivision, one of the suppliers for the CMOS sensors in the iPhone 3GS, will be supplying new 3.2 megapixel CMOS image sensors for the new iPod line-up as well.
This seems to validate prior rumors of the a camera equipped iPod Touch and iPod Nano.
| OmniVision will be the sole supplier of 3.2-megapixel CIS products for new iPod nano, iPod classic and iPod Touch models which will be launched in September, the sources indicated. |
This rumor seems quite legitimate as we’ve seen photos and even video of the iPod Touch with a camera.
In April it was rumoured that the iPhone 3GS would be able to play 720p and 1080i HD video via the Apple AV Cables. 
When the device was finally released it was found that the video still played like its predecessors only supporting SD 2.5Mbps MPEG 4 or H264 video. But this turned out to a set limit by Apple, possibly to save the battery life of the device or to keep the old iPhone videos working on the new 3GS model.
A user of the Chinese website WeiPhone did a lot of testing with the iPhone 3GS and they discovered that it can in fact smoothly play HD video at 30Mbps at a 1080i (1980×1080) resolution. This was achieved by uploading various HD movies to the iPhone 3GS using the program FileAid and then running them via the iPhones built-in video player.
Playing back HD video on a iPhone is very useful on the small screen and the battery usage would drain a lot quicker. However is you used Apple’s Component AV Cables and it would be possible to run HD video from the iPhone.
Apple has a new patent titled “Auto Messaging to Currently Connected Caller.” This patent focuses around the idea of sending documents, emails, text messagess, files, etc. to the person who you are calling.
| While a user of a mobile device is using telephony services, the user may want to send a message or a file to another part . . . To send this information, the user may have to disconnect the call, and then perform a lookup of the caller’s contact information prior to being able to send the message or file. This multi-step process can be tedious for the user. |
The data could be sent through various network types like GSM, GPRS, Edge, Wi-Fi, WiMax and Bluetooth. Apple’s interface would provide users with a way to access all the file sharing features while on call the system would be capable to directing the various types of data correctly all at once.
Apple is doing a lot of looking into file sharing technology for it mobiles. A similar patent that AppleInsider discovered in June details how an iPhone could share media like music, video, podcasts, images, voice mails with other iPhone users.
An online survey from the Borders Bookstore a reference to the Apple iPAD, this presumably being the tablet device which if in fact is used as a book reader could challenge the Kindle.
If what is shown is in fact true then the Apple iPAD must be released this year to fit in with the reference from the survey. This further backs up the fact that an Apple Tablet is imminent.
Yet more pictures of Apple’s rumoured tablet have appear online, once again they look quite convincing but you can never really tell these days. But using video as they did to try and prove the new 3rd generation iPod Touch is a good way to prove it.
The second picture shows a phone to show both the size comparison and to try and prove its authenticity. It certainly fits the idea of an Apple tablet, with only one button, but we will have to see what else appears.
Apple has filed a few changes to the SMS messaging interface. The first, called Multiple Recipient Messaging Service for Mobile Device (# 20090176517), allows sending a message to multiple recipients at once (as shown above), this could be helpful for sending texts to maybe a team of people. Apple suggest that the app to check the status of the messages after a certain interval of time to see if they were received. If some of the messages weren’t received, it offers an interface in which the sender could easily resend the message to those who didn’t receive it, and also giving the user the option to send it through a different medium such as email.
The other patent application, called Systems, methods and apparatus for providing unread message alerts (# 20090177617), suggests way that make it easier for the user to read unread messages. For example, it suggests checking to see if someone you are about to contact has sent you a message you haven’t, it gives the user a way of viewing the message before contracting them. It would cross-check unread emails, SMS messages, voicemails etc. for that contact.
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