A new charging cable for the iPhone and iPad has launched. This one is a little different as it uses light within the cable to indicate how much a device is charged. The light, blue in colour despite the Green name,
has a moving effect that speeds up or slows down depending upon how much your device is charged. The more empty the battery, the faster the light moves in the cable.
Search: ipod+touch
It was a big day for Apple yesterday and certainly a day where an industry is shaken up a little. As well as launching iBooks 2 with Textbooks and iBooks Author for the Mac, Apple also launched iTunes U for the iPhone and iPad. The app follows along with iTunes U that has been available in iTunes on the Mac or PC for a while, but allows you to sync your notes, courses and content between devices so that you can study whilst on the move.
Apple has launched iBooks 2. The new app comes as a free update to the original iBooks app and is compatible with the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
Several new features have landed in version 2 which includes multi-touch textbooks that bring diagrams, photos and videos to the user. 3D objects can now be found in books as well as videos and other interactive content.
A new tweak called Overflow is now available for iOS devices that have been jailbroke. Overflow is a Cover Flow style tweak to the dock of an iPad or an iPhone as pictured below.
If you are running a version of iOS from a couple of years back, ie: version 3.1.3 then this could be of interest to you. This is particular interesting for those stuck on iOS 3.1.3 due to owning older iPhone hardware. What we are talking about is a custom firmware for the older iPhone and iPod touch devices that cannot be upgraded. What it does is brings some iOS 5 features to the older operating system in a firmware that contains a jailbreak, unlock and apps such as Cydia.
Now that iOS 5.1 Beta 3 has been seeded to developers, we are now seeing reports and hints at what could be included in future updates. One of the first discoveries is that the iPad and perhaps the iPod touch could be getting some form of Siri.
New patents published in the US hint that iOS devices could be getting a Thunderbolt port. One of the patents says “a connection may be provided between a portable media player and a display, a computer and a portable media player, or between other types of devices.” which has led a number of people to believe that this will include iOS devices.
60beat has launched a new games controller for iOS devices. The controller is called GamePad and is unique in that it uses the headphone port of any iOS device to function. As it uses a 3.5mm jack, all power is provided by the iPhone, iPad or iPod touch meaning that no charging/batteries are needed.
You might remember that Apple [AAPL] has recalled a number of first generation iPod nano units. These were the ones build in September 2005. We are now seeing evidence that Apple has replaced some 1st gen units with the latest 6th gen models.
Update: It appears that this was a bug and that 3.1.3 devices are now once again able to access the App Store direct on their iOS device.
iPhone and iPod touch users still running iOS 3.1.3 are now (as of the 16th December 2011) unable to directly download apps from the App Store. Instead, new updates and apps will need to be downloaded in iTunes and then synced to the iPhone or iPod.
Apple could be planning to launch a smaller iPad in time for Christmas 2012. This new iPad would follow along from the iPad 3 that is expected in April. The difference will be the screensize of 7.85 inches as opposed to the regular 9.7 inch iPad screen we see on the yearly generation changes.
Microsoft [MSFT] has launched an update for OneNote on iOS devices. Before the latest update (version 1.3) the app had been restricted for use on the iPhone and iPod touch. The new update now brings OneNote to the iPad although the app isn't universal which means you'll need to install the iPad version for the iPad, rather than the same version for both devices.
