New iPod Nano 5th Gen With VGA Video

iPod Nano 5th GenAt Apple’s ‘It’s only rock and roll’ event today they announced the latest update to the iPod selection, the new iPod Nano.

Not much has changed in the way of the appearance, it’s still the curved slim candybar type of design however now it has a video camera. Now you might think that the Nano is such a small device that the quality of the video would be terrible, but as many people forget the Nano has the same processor as the iPhone and so is capable of VGA H.264 at 30fps.

To enhance the video the new Nano comes with an array of built in effects: Sepia, Black and White, X-Ray, Film Grain, Thermal, Security Cam, Cyborg, Bulge, Kaleido, Motion Blur, Mirror, Light Tunnel, Dent, Stretch and Twirl.

It’s still comes in 8GB and 16GB models and in the usual array of colours. It has a larger 2.2 inch screen and comes with a microphone and speaker.  And now has the VoiceOver feature like the shuffle does. It has a FM radio tuner now also built in and a voice recording app, exactly like the iPhone’s.

8GB – £115 / $149
16GB – £135 / $179

How To: Disguise An App

So let’s say you have an App on your phone that you really need, but other people would keep going on it and you don’tDisguise App really want them using it or seeing what it is. Well there is a simple way to disguise an app on your iPhone as anything you want.

Let’s say the app we want to hide is Cycorder.

Getting Started

First of all you have to SSH into your device and go to your Applications folder and open the relevant folder, in this case being Cycorder.app.

Once this is opened you will see the following files:
Cycorder
icon.png
info.plist
loading.png

Note: these will vary on application, but the files needed will remain the same.

Now copy the files icon.png and info.plist to your computer.

Before editing either it’s a good idea to backup the files just in case you go wrong.

Editing The Icon

People using the iPhone will most likely use icons to refer to an app, so changing the icon of the app you wish to hide is the first thing to do.

First you need to get the icon from another app or you could make one yourself. Simply pressing the Home button and Sleep/Wake button will capture a screen shot of your home screen and you edit the icon to the correct size etc.

Note: Always save the icon as a png image and make sure it’s transparent.

Downloading a free app off the App Store would maybe be a better idea for this as it gives you a quick and disposable way to disguise an app. However think about if people are likely to click on it, so find something boring.

Once you’ve edited and saved your new icon, save it as a png and copy it back to the app folder on the iPhone, replacing the original.

Changing The Name

The second way people will know which app is which, is via the name underneath the icon (which by now you will have changed).

To change the name simply open the plist either using a text editor or a dedicated plist editor such as iPodRobot’s plist editor.

Look at the plist and find the tag called
<key>CFBundleDisplayName</key>

and change the value below it what you wish the app to appear as on the home screen.

Once this is done, save the plist and copy it back to your device, overwriting the old one.

Now re-spring or re-boot your device and the application will now be disguised.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Coming To iPhone

Rockstar Games have announced that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, from Rockstar Leeds, is coming to iPhone Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars iPhoneand 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’s September 9th Event Confirmed

Apple Setember 9th Event

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.

Custom Home Screens Based Upon User Location

A recent patent filing made by Apple suggests that the iPhone could provide a customized home screen depending on the current user location.

Custom iPhone Home Screen

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.”

iPod Classic (7th Generation) To Get Camera?

As the rumors of the upcoming camera equipped model continue to appear, a recent report by Digitimes claims that Apple iPod ClassicOmnivision, 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.

Quote:
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.

iPhone 3GS Capable Of HD (720p/1080i) Video

In April it was rumoured that the iPhone 3GS would be able to play 720p and 1080i HD video via the Apple AV Cables. Apple LogoWhen 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 Patent Details File-Transfer in Call

iPhone File Transfer

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.

Quote:
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.

iPhone File Transfer 2

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.