Apple Will Use Solar Power To Charge iPhone

Posted on May 26, 2008
Filed Under iPhone Accessories, iPhone General | Leave a Comment

Apple have signed a patent, according to which solar cells will be integrated into portable devices. The cells will be placed beneath the layers of a touch-sensitive display.

Solar power is believed to make devices really portable, with no need for wires to connect to a power supply.

The large panels are required for generating electricity from solar panels. “Solar cells on portable devices” patent claims, that only a little space is left for solar cells after allowing area for buttons and screens. The way out suggested is to stack a display, touch-sensitive layer and a solar panel on top of one another. That can make Apple’s iPhone touch be pretty good for this power supply, as the screen makes almost the entire face.

The idea of solar powered charging in iPhone and iPod touch is starting to be popular. When Vodafone planned in April to cut down on its emissions of CO2 greenhouse gase by 50 percent by 2020, it also planned to introduce solar-powered and universal phone chargers for Vodafone-branded handsets.

The technique described by Apple is obviousely interesting. The solar panel will absorb ambient light through the display of the device. And if that would come to life, Apple’s iPhone will require no global changes in design to get some solar power wireless.

But this patent does not mean that Apple will actually develop the trend. That’s good for the way they are looking at innovative development for future products, but not yet realizable.

Solar charge development of itself was a major step in science and technology, and now it is possible to to plan the future of portable iPhones and iPods to solarcharge them without any separate accessories or a bulk.

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New File Sharing Application For iPhone

Posted on May 23, 2008
Filed Under iPhone Hacks, iPhone Software | Leave a Comment

Finally iPhone users can enjoy a file sharing application, the celestial jukebox for the iPhone and iPod touch. Now available via P2P.

iSlsk offers owners of jailbroken iPhones to share music at high speed on the Soulseek network. As soon as songs are downloaded, the application imports them right into the iPhone’s song library to playback easily.

iSlsk’s launch is a matter of minutes. There is no account required, just enter a log name and a password, and an account is created for you immediately. WiFi Download speed is around 20 Kbps, while other networks like AT&T’s, deliver songs from Soulseek at 10 Kbps.

Yet an early beta mode of the iSlsk application is avaliable, and the developers are still working out some kinks. There is an error message some people have encountered: the FireWire GUID can’t be recognized and music importing is not available. But again, this is only early beta software version, so install it at your own risk. Soon there will be issued fixed versions to offer increased stability.

iSlsk developer Eric Castro says he set up the development in February to enable people and himself to download from Soulseek on theiPhone. He saw the various capabilities the iPhone had and then thought that lots of new applications were added every day and that making a good one for the iPhone shouldn’t be so difficult. He thought it would be useful to have a P2P client, so he started learning and developing.

That sounds interesting enough to try it out for free. But you need to have an unlocked iPhone or iPod touch to get iSlsk started.

Download iSlsk

Download Soulseek (this is the original PC version and not required to use iSlsk)

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Buy 3G iPhone On 9 June

Posted on May 22, 2008
Filed Under iPhone General | Leave a Comment

A June 9 launch date for the new 3G iPhone is a fact now. The launch will be announced at the WWDC Keynote. The Second Coming will definitely become a worldwide event!

For instance, in Spain the 3G iPhone will come out for sale at the 18th grand opening of an Apple shop in Madrid’s Gran Vía – the new Telefonica’s megastore - with after-the-launch immediate availability the next day or even after a few hours. The similar launch schedules are planned in other European countries with iPhone nationwide release.

It is said that the current fixed pricing model will be replaced with a more Euro-friendly flexible price to shift subject to the markets.

In spite of the odd delay, Apple’s hardware ships everywhere immediately upon launch. There have been a lot of press releases concerning iPhone carriers’ deals with Apple and at the same time the iPhone drought in Germany, the UK, and even in the online Apple store. And Apple has been very quiet for so long!

There are over 40 countries with iPhone deals, where multiple carriers are about to offer the new iPhone. So it looks like Apple is going to quickly conquer the world with the iPhone. The potential market for the iPhone is calculated to get the number of 575 million. In case Apple keeps its existing 3 percent market penetration, it could sell 17.25 million items. And it is quite possible for Apple to shift 45 million iPhones by the end of 2009.

After all that predictions, rumors and leaked facts that disturbed people around the globe, it looks like another Apple’s clever policy to guarantee pre-release popularity and high sales.

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How To Make Vista PC-Like Themes On iPhone, Free Download

Posted on May 20, 2008
Filed Under iPhone Software, iPhone Tips, iPhone Wallpaper | Leave a Comment

It’s not a secret that many people don’t approve of Vista and sometimes don’t even want to hear anything concerned it. This time you shouldn’t. The new VistaPerfection 2.0 iPhone theme will impress you greatly.

VistaPerfection is a Summerboard compatible theme and it makes iPhone look a PC-like station with beautiful design and a complete set of customization elements:

Boot and restore images
Over 90 icons
WiFi icon
Edge icon
Dock
Sliders
Vista login/logoff sound scheme

If you have an upgrade version of Firmware 1.1.1, you need to complete the installation of SummerBoard manually. Just read and follow the instructions included in the INSTALL file. So here is the link (Download SummerBoard Alpha for Firmware 1.1.1), and this file is the latest alpha release. The Summerboard Alpha works both on iPhone and iPod Touch.

SummerBoard is totally free. All users who wish to donate are encouraged.

All SummerBoard themes are very easy to make. They are stored up in this folder: /var/root/Library/SummerBoard/Themes/

Every theme has a folder in there, structured this way:

ThemeName/StatusBar.png – that is optional status bar image with 320×20 PNG, alpha

Theme Name/Wallpaper.png – that is the wallpaper with 320×480 PNG, no alpha

Theme Name/Dock.png – That is the large dock image with 320×91 PNG, alpha

All your icons go in ThemeName/Icons/ (optional, 59×60 PNG, alpha)

Also when you save your graphic files it’s better to use save for Web command in Adobe Photoshop to reduce icon sizes and optimize your graphics. It saves server bandwidth, time and space on your iPhone.

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Apple Admits Not Much iPhone music

Posted on May 19, 2008
Filed Under iPhone General | Leave a Comment

Apple has approached some major music labels trying to improve the future 3G iPhone by expanding the range of ringtones and other musical content available on it. The negotiations are very active at the moment and a final deal has yet to be set. A deal may come after June 9, a logical date for the introduction, but the company’s plans are not given publicity to.

Ringtones are profitable part of music business these days, because the price for a short piece of a tune is higher than for the full one. Now Apple offers 99-cent upgrade ringtones, the same as to its regular 99-cent songs, but Apple is looking to expand its inventory, as not all tracks can be converted into ringtones.

Apple is going to add answer (ringback) tones (songs a caller hears while waiting for answer. These command is even higher in price than ringtones.

Also Apple discusses whether it can sell songs from iTunes store right to the iPhone via the cell-phone network, as the next generation of phone is expected to have much faster 3G technology. To add more, music labels argue that they are not enough paid for an over-the-air download, contrasting a standard track bought over the internet with the wholesale price of 70 cents.

Expectations are high, as Apple is known as the successful dominant player in digital music. Apple has arranged deals with most carriers of the world. (575 million cellphone users estimated, as well as more than 153 million potential customers from the six countries where the iPhone is nowavaliable).

But the wireless market is growing and developing, and everyone is trying to add more music features to their devices. So Apple should count with other labels in order not to lose music market. In Europe the positions of Nokia and Sony Ericsson are strong and the cold reaction to the iPhone is evident.

Read press release

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