News from Apple, news about Apple and its products, fun things to do on your Apple product, and cartoons that make fun of Apple … all in this week’s exciting edition of In the News:
Apple updated the iOS to fix some bugs. The new version is 4.3.2 — unless you are using a Verizon iPhone, in which case the new version is 4.2.7. I presume that Apple will soon have a single update for the AT&T and Verizon iPhone 4, but they are not there yet. Lex Friedman of Macworld has more details on this update, but it is basically just a bunch of bug fixes with no new features added.
When the iPhone 4 was announced last summer, it was supposed to be available in either a black or white model. Apple had problems making the white model and I assumed that we would never see one, but according to Ian Sherr of the Wall Street Journal, Apple has confirmed that we will see a white iPhone 4 in the spring (which ends on June 20).
Spencer Morgan of The Atlantic wrote an article about actor Paul Marcarelli, the Verizon “Can you hear me now?” guy. Marcarelli’s full time contract with Verizon ended last September, but he still does some things with Verizon, such as the recent commercial that aired when Verizon got the iPhone.
Sam Glover of The Lawyerist explains why the iPad is an indispensable tool for lawyers.
If you try to access a site with Flash video on an iPhone or iPad, you cannot view the video (unless you use the Skyfire alternative browser, which does not always work). However, Bryan Wolfe of AppAdvice reports on an Adobe announcement that the new Flash Media Server will allow websites to provide an iOS-compatible stream when a site is visited by an iPhone or iPad. I look forward to seeing this in the future. All we need next is for someone to tell all of the restaurants in this country that there is no law that requires them to use Flash on their sites.
Now here is some news that is sort of the reverse of the last item: Alexia Tsotsis of TechCrunch reports that a company called Pieceable can take an iPhone app and turn it into a web page that runs a fully functional version of the app, using Flash. (via Dan Saavedra)
New York attorney Nicole Black recommends iPad apps for lawyers.
Art of the iPhone has a good list of the 50 best games for the iPad.
Speaking of games, if you enjoyed playing the fun computer trivia game You Don’t Know Jack in the 1990s, you’ll be glad to learn that the game is back and available for the iPhone and iPad. (If you don’t know the game, it is a fun and irreverent trivia game with a smart alec host and lots of creative graphics.) There is a free version for both platforms with two “episodes” or you can get the full version which contains 20 “episodes” (which are different from the free ones, so you might as well get the free app first). The gameplay is identical on the iPhone and iPad, you just get a bigger screen for the iPad version — which is nice, but I can’t decide if it is worth the extra $2. Unfortunately, one of the best parts of the original trivia game was that it was fun to play with other people, and this game only works with a single player. Especially with the iPad, this could make a great multi-player game. Perhaps that will come in the future; the developer does promise episode and feature updates. Click here for the free version for iPhone and iPad and click here for the full version or iPhone ($2.99) and iPad ($4.99) . There is not much replay version once you have played an episode, but if you tell yourself you are paying a quarter per episode (less on the iPhone) with future updates coming, I suppose the price is fair. The game is fun.
Jonathan Geller writes for BGR about why he switched from an AT&T to a Verizon iPhone and then decided to switch back to AT&T.
Amanda Robert of Chicago Lawyer Magazine writes about law firms using iPhone apps as marketing vehicles.
This week, Cisco killed off the Flip video camera, only two years after the company spent $590 million to buy Flip. I thought that the primary reason had to be a realization that people were going to be using the cameras in their iPhones and other smartphones instead of a Flip, but David Pogue of the New York Times did some digging and reports that isn’t the full explanation.
If you (or someone you know) recently purchased an iPad, Macworld has a great, and free, book in the iBookstore called the iPad 2 Starter Guide. You can get it here:
There is a great series of “It gets better” videos on You Tube, videos with LGBT adults sharing their experiences to give courage to gay teens who are the victims of discrimination and abuse, discouraging them from horrible alternatives such as suicide. Some LGBT employees at Apple came up with this video, and like any video that comes out of Apple, it is very compelling. The one that the folks at Pixar made is also very powerful.
If you want to make your iPhone look like the cell phone you used in the 1980s, check out this article by Gregory Schmidt of the New York Times.
And finally, the clever folks at College Humor wondered what would happen if you combined Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Apple? The result is the video Charlie and the Apple Factory. They turned off embedding for the video, so click here (or click the below picture) to watch it on YouTube:
