Apple released iOS 6.1.3 a few days ago. Those who have been faithfully upgrading their iOS for every release will probably be fuming away during the holidays.

There were a handful of reports of battery drain with the new OS version.  Some other problems also surfaced. For example, app installation takes longer than before to complete.

According to some posts on Apple communities, they suggested turning off the cloud services. It seemed to have some success in reducing the battery drain.

If nothing really works, the best way is to have a backup of the files and do a clean restore of the OS and restore back the data.

So, are you facing any issues with your iDevice ? Share by commenting below :

M1 will launch their 4G service plans on 15 September 2012. On the same day, M1 will also obsolete the old Surf plans – ValueSurf, Lite Surf and ExtremeSurf plans. These 3 plans are rather popular because it gives users a 12GB data bundle and 500 SMS.

M1 will replace it with the new ValueSurf+, LiteSurf+,ExtremeSurf+ and MaxSurf+ plans. The noticeable change is the data bundle for the various plans. From the usual 12GB, it is reduced to 2GB, 3GB, 5GB. MaxSurf+ is at 12GB.

The upgraded ValueSurf+ is still at S$39 bundles in 600 free SMS instead of 500. LiteSurf+ is at S$59 , S$4 more than it’s original plan. Instead of it’s 250mins outgoing calls, M1 throws in 300 mins and 800 free SMS. The ExtremeSurf+ is priced at S$98, $3 more than the original plan. Instead of 600 mins outgoing calls, M1 throws in another 100 mins making it 700 mins and 1000 Free SMS but the unlimited free data is removed and is now capped at 5GB. A new plan MaxSurf+ at S$198 is introduced which has unlimited voice call minutes,2000 SMS and 12 GB data.

The new Surf plans is also available for 4G value added service at S$10.70/mth.

For those who re-contract, an extra 1GB will be added on to the free bundle. Effectively from 15 September, those who are on the old plans will have their data bundle dropped from 12GB to 2+1 GB (ValueSurf+ plan).

Looks like the good old days of unlimited or 12GB abundance of data bundle is history. In fact, if we calculate it this way, we should be paying lesser as most telcos charges S$5.35/GB when the subscriber exceeds the data limit. In this case, A 12GB to 2GB reduction is 10GB, based on the calculation, the plan should be S$50 cheaper.

I do know of people who abuse the data by torrenting. This greatly affects the data performance of others. In fact, the reduction and cap on the limit will smoother give mobile users a better internet experience.

Below are the charts comparing the old and new plans.

* so far, the iPhone plans remains the same with 12GB data.

M1 old plan

M1 New Plans

Apple just release it’s iOS 5.0.1 to fix the power drain issue. This firmware can be downloaded automatically over WIFI saving you the trouble of updating it through itunes with USB cable.

It is 38.9MB in size and it does the following :

- it fixes bugs affecting battery life
- Resolves bugs with Documents in the Cloud
- Improves voice recognition for Austrailan users using dictation

From now onwards, you can view OCWORKBENCH NEWS on your mobile phone. Be it a Nokia, Android, iPhone, it will have that streamline view. If you have a larger screen that renders html, you can choose to view it in web view.

Just point your phone’s browser to http://en.ocworkbench.com and the system will take care of it. Here is how it looks like :

What’s Spirit?
•Spirit is an untethered jailbreak for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch on the latest firmwares.
•Spirit is not a carrier unlock.
•If you currently are using a tethered jailbreak, you have to restore to use Spirit. Do not upgrade if you use an unlock on an iPhone 3G or 3GS. (You can, however, restore to 3.1.2 if you have SHSH blobs for that version.)
Requirements
•Any iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch on firmware 3.1.2, 3.1.3, or 3.2.
•An activated device: one not stuck on the Connect to iTunes or Emergency Call screen.
•Any version of iTunes 9 (including 9.1.1).
•Syncing with iTunes before trying this highly recommended.
Note: On iPad, all this is still sort of beta. Some packages in Cydia, not designed for iPad, might screw up your system and require you to restore. Be careful. (And no, Cydia’s appearance is not final.)
Download for Windows http://spiritjb.com/win (run in Win98/ME compatibility mode)
Download for MAC http://www.spiritjb.com/mac

You may download and try it at your own risk. We are not responsible for any misadventures. Do let us know in our forums of your experience at http://forums.ocworkbench.com/showthread.php?t=98615

– GIGABYTE First With iPhone On/Off Charge from 40 Motherboard Models –

– GIGABYTE On/Off Charge Technology Enables iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch Quick Charge While PC is On or Off –

Taipei, Taiwan, April 23, 2010 – GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co., Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards and computing hardware solutions demonstrated their continued industry leadership today with the official release of GIGABYTE On/Off Charge technology that enables faster iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch charging. A derivative of GIGABYTE’s highly acclaimed 3x USB Power feature, On/Off Charge technology allows iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices to draw more current from GIGABYTE motherboard USB ports than standard USB ports allow, with the added benefit that the PC can be on, in standby mode or even off.

Many mobile devices can be charged via a desktop PC’s USB ports as long as the system is connected to an active power source, however this is not the case with the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Even when the PC is being used and charging is enabled, these devices usually only draw a mere 0.5A for a trickle charge that can take 3 hours or more to fully charge the device. The benefits of GIGABYTE On/Off Charge are that users can reduce their charge time by around 40% while also acting responsibly and shutting down their PC system while it is not in use, e.g. while they sleep.

“We aim to offer our customers the best possible user experience through innovation and superior quality products, and we believe that On/Off Charge will benefit millions of Apple mobile device users around the world,” commented Tim Handley, Deputy Director of Motherboard Marketing at GIGABYTE Technology Co. Ltd. “At GIGABYTE, we are big believers in the convenience and usefulness of USB ports, and that’s why we put so many resources into innovations such as GIGABYTE 3x USB power. Look for more USB innovations from GIGABYTE in the near future!”

GIGABYTE On/Off Charge comes in two flavors: a backwards compatible On/Off Charge driver* that was made available on March 10^th, 2010, from the official GIGABYTE utility web page, and an On/Off Charge front panel connector that will be available on selected soon-to-be-released GIGABYTE motherboards. The On/Off Charge front panel connector features a special controller combined with the On/Off Charge driver that allows the computer to detect the current required by iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch products. The device dictates the current it draws, so there is no threat of overcharging from GIGABYTE 3x USB Power technology. Tests conducted in the GIGABYTE labs have shown various charging speeds with an average charging time saving of around 40%.

GIGABYTE Motherboards Supporting ON/OFF Charge

GIGABYTE will hold a brief technology demo on Tuesday April 27^th at their head office in Taipei to demonstrate On/Off Charge from the On/Off Charge driver and also the On/Off Charge USB port connector. A demonstration video will be available from: http://www.youtube.com/user/MoboTV2010.

The On/Off Charge video as below, please release or share this video, thank you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN3uVeNIts4

Yes, you read the title correct the first working jailbreak tool Redsn0w 0.9.5 to jailbreak iPhone OS 4.0 Beta 1 has been released by iPhone Dev team. However Redsn0w 0.9.5 is targeted at developers of jailbroken apps. It uses the same pwnage2 DFU-mode exploit that we’ve been using since the 2.x days.

After iPhone OS 4.0 announcement and number of iPhone hackers iPhone Dev Team, Geohotz, Comex, ih8sn0w etc has come up with proof video of successfully jailbreaking iPhone OS 4.0 but none of them provided ETA. There were number of guess that this jailbreak tool won’t come out until iPhone OS 4.0 is released.
But it looks iPhone Dev team has something different in their mind. We feel that, they might have one more exploit which can be used if Apple fixes this pwnage2 DFU-mode exploit in final iPhone OS 4.0 release. Till that time here is your chance to jailbreak iPhone 3G
 4.0 with Redsn0w 0.9.5.

By no means users should attempt to install iPhone OS 4.0 considering Redsn0w 0.9.5 jailbreak tool is out. Since you’ll need a properly-registered developer UDID with Apple to get past the activation screen. For similar reasons, there is no Windows version of this beta redsn0w.

Redsn0w 0.9.5 is supports
1. iPhone 3G only (for now)

2. Mac OSX only (for now)

3. iPhone 4.0 beta 1 firmware only (for now)

Download Redsn0w 0.9.5 for Mac OS X.
http://iphwn.org/rs/redsn0w_mac_0.9.5.zip

Source

Ever thought of streaming youtube videos in your web browser on iPhone  ? Looks like this application on the App Store might be able to help.

Cloud Browse

By AlwaysOnGames

View More By This Developer

Open iTunes to buy and download apps.

Description

Can’t see Flash videos or use Java applications in MobileSafari? You can do so through Cloud Browse.

Go beyond the limitations of a mobile browser, and control a full Firefox desktop browser.

Worried about privacy or security? Cloud Browse runs the browser on a separate machine and not on your iPhone, so no need to worry about websites grabbing your private information or hacking into your phone.

…MoreAlwaysOnGames Web Site Cloud Browse Support

What’s New in Version 1.1.3

- Fixed keyboard not inputting any characters
- Fixed crash when there are a lot of data in paste buffer
- Fixed crashes when server returns invalid response

iPhone Screenshots

The long awaited Opera Mini is now available for download at the Apple App Store. We took a quick look at it and found out that the Opera mini has a weird pinch and zoom function. You can double tap the screen to zoom in and zoom out of the page.

Watch the video to see the weird zoom feature. See video below.

I know most of us are excited with new iPhone OS. Who doesn’t. In fact, I managed to borrowed a Macbook and got my iPhone “updated” to 4.0 to test out the features.

Although I like the enhancements like multiple inbox, multitasking and folders, there are bound to be software bugs in any software releases.

As the keynote speech used SKYPE to demonstrate, we installed SKYPE over APP Store and found  an error message saying that this application will not run correctly under iPhone OS 4.0. It still runs but if we double press the home button and goes to another application and switch back, it will restart the SKYPE. The same situation happens to FRING. Looks like the applications are not ready for multitasking.

If you use the folders for your applications, you will probably trying hard to find a solution why the phone couldn’t do a backup and sync properly. Just unfolder your applications and everything should be back to normal on your itunes 9.1

Intensified relations between Apple and Google gave more credibility to the rumor that Bing is going to replace Google as a default search engine in mobile Safari on iPhone. Here comes a new evidence found in the iPhone OS 4.0 where Apple has replaced the “Google” branding from the Safari Search keyboard and replaced it with “Search”.

In iPhone OS 3.1.3, the button is still branded with Google when you type something in the search field of iPhone Safari. Screenshots from both 3.1.3 and 4.0 firmware after the jump…

…

Source

After much fanfare, the iPhone OS 4 beta gets out to developers ready to test out the new OS on their iPhone. Unfortunately, it seems that there are some problems with the firmware or the server at the back end.

Forums are filled with posts describing the errors they faced with new OS. One such developer express disgrunt that his multiple attempts to update to 4.0 weren’t successful. The itunes software always return error code 13 (which usually indicates bad USB cable or USB ports).

While some had success updating the firmware using the Mac, the PC users are left in the dark with strange upgrading issues.

Are you facing the same problems ? Post your comments here.

apple iphone is 4 mulitasking video http://bit.ly/9Ukui5

LIVE coverage in real time on iPhone OS 4.0 (highlights from mobilecrunch and engadget)

In about 3 hrs time, Apple will soon unveil the next operating system for the iPhone. OCWorkbench will have a live twitter and facebook update on this next iPhone OS 4.0 on 9 Apr 2010 1am HKT/SGT, catch out real time coverage on twitter and facebook

Before it is unveiled, here are some possible improvements on the new OS.

Multitasking – At present, the third party apps either run or stop. We expect this to be improved on the OS 4 enabling us to surf, read email and twitter at the same time. We also look forward to some sort of a task manager where you can kill tasks.

Bluetooth keyboard support hopefully will be made available just like the iPad. There is much talk about direct printing from your iPhone.

Will Apple dump Google and replace its search engine with Bing. Will iPhone finally get the Opera Mini in OS 4? All these remains to be seen. So stay tuned at 1am HKT/SGT, 2am JPT, 1pm EST.

Stay tuned, follow us on twitter and join our fan page at Facebook now.

LIVE

12:39am At the iPhone OS4 preview press conference, everyone seems changing dongles to ensure updates can go online in realtime.

12:40am iPhones, iPads everywhere.

12:49am Pictures not allowed inside due to space constraints.

12:52am 8 more minutes to go.

1:00am Press Event started

1:04: We’ve got something to share today that we’re very excited about. That’s iPhone OS 4. But before that: something we just shipped recently: the iPad.

1:06 3,500 iPad apps in the App Store

1:06: They sold 350,000 iPads on launch day, and 450,000 total so far

1:07  250,000 iBooks on day one. 600,000 iBooks downloaded since. 3.5 million apps downloaded so far

1:11 We’ve sold over 50m iPhones to date, and if you add the touch, over 85m iPhones and iPod touches. If you’re a dev, that’s a plum market to go after.”

1:12 “So today we are giving a dev preview of iPhone OS 4. We’ve been working on this for a while, it’s pretty great — we’re going to ship this summer and release a dev preview today.”

1:14 iphone 4 adds thousands of new APIs. Over 2000 “Accelerate” APIs alone, providing hardware acceleration to developers

1:15 Finally Multitasking!!

1:16 It’s really easy to implement multitasking in a way that kills battery life. It’s also really easy to do it in a way that reduces performance. If you don’t do it just right, your phone will feel sluggish and battery life will go down”

1:17 He just showed home screen with wallpaper

1:18  It’s really easy to implement multitasking in a way that kills battery life. It’s also really easy to do it in a way that reduces performance. If you don’t do it just right, your phone will feel sluggish and battery life will go down”

1:19 Double click the home button to bring up all running apps

1:19 All the apps running are shown at the bottom, and you can scroll through them

1:19 Scott Forstall explains how they do multitasking but conserve battery life.

1:20 We looked at the 10s of thousands of services that the iPhone apps need, and we’ve distilled those services that developers need in the background
. Seven services (APIs) will be able to function i nthe background. The first of these is Background Audio; forstall goes on to discuss Pandora, and its popularity.

“With iphone OS 4, Pandora can continue to play in the background, and you can use the pop up iPod controls to control it.”

1:22 Tim Westergren of Pandora has taken the stage, and is discussing the implications of the iPhone

1:23 “With the launch of the iPhone, our growth rate doubled almost over night. When Scott offered to bring us here today, we jumped at the chance.”

“Our growth rate doubled over night. We add 30,000 new listeners a day on the iPhone.”

1:24 Multi tasking works because Apple picked 7 APIs to allow to run in the background, chosen because they’re the most popular uses

1:25 Next API: Voice over IP in the background! The problem is: Up until now, if you close the app, the call ends. With iphone os 4, that all changes. You can switch, and the call continues.”

1:26 “Until today, navigating away from the Skype app meant I went offline. With iPhone OS 4, when I leave the app, I can still receive calls.”

1:27 Demo Hey Aaron are you there?” “Yeah you want to go to dinner tonight?” “Yeah, let me go into other apps to find a restaurant.” And… it’s multitasking

1:28 Next API: Background Location service

1:29 Demo He’s listening to music while getting turn by turn directions

1:30 “We’ve figured out a great way to allow these apps to work without draining the battery: Cell towers”

1:31 “With these location apps, we take privacy very, very seriously” “We’re taking security several steps further with iPhone os 4″

1:31 “We take privacy very seriously. We’re taking it further in iPhone OS 4. We’re adding an indicator on the status bar to see if something is asking for your location. Next we’re asking fine grain settings you can enable or disable per application. And if any of them have asked for your location in 24 hours, we’ll show you.”

1:32 Next big update: Push notifications. Apple pushed 10 BILLION notifications since launching them 9 months ago. New addition to push: Local notifications. No server necessary. This is for things like TV Guides; things that need pop up alarms

1:33 Next Change : Task Completion -  uploading to flickr. If the app is in the middle of uploading something, saving, etc, it can continue to do so

1:34 “Fast app switching”. “This is what allows apps to be store its state and put in the background, so it’s not using any cpu at all”

1:35 End of Multitasking updates

1:35 Now about Folders – Users can now put folders on homescreens.. Just like android widgets, you can hold a app , it will “move” drag one app onto another, folder is created. The folder will be named by the category of the application and can be renamed.

1:38am Wall Paper of the home screen can be changed. You used to be able to see 180 apps on your phone, now it’s over 2000.” using Drag and drop UI and intelligent naming.

1:39 You can now have enhanced mailbox. One mailbox for all your accounts. a Unified mailbox for multiple email addresses.

1:40 You can also now open attachments in third-party apps in mail.

1:41 we’re adding iBooks for iPhone OS 4 with same interface and same store

1:42 “We think customers will really enjoy this. It’s a delightful ebook reader. You can buy your books once and read them anywhere.” Even Steve doesn’t seem that excited about this.

1:43 iBook store, buy once read anywhere, Sync pages and bookmarks between devices. Oh, and free copy of Winnie the Pooh

1:44 Enterprise features Starting with even better data protection

1:45 mobile device management, wireless application distribution

1:46 Fourth: “As steve mentioned, multiple exchange accounts, along with Exchange 2010 and SSL VPN”

1:46 Tentpole 6: Game Center  This is a dev preview for OS 4. Gaming is extremely popular on the iPhone and iPod touch. We have 50,000 games. Let’s compare that to the competition… the PSP and DS… we blow them out of the water.” “We want to make gaming even better on the iPhone — so we added a social gaming network.”

1:47 Wow. So Apple’s got their Xbox Live. This is kind of huge. Achievements, leaderboards, match making.

1:48 Apple is announcing their advertising platform! So our seventh tent pole is called… iAd. It’s mobile advertising. Now, what’s this about?”

1:48 Developers [of free apps] need to find a way to start making their money. A lot of developers turn to advertising – and we think these current advertisements really suck.” “If you look at advertisements on a phone, it’s not like on a desktop. On a desktop, its about search. On mobile, search hasnt happened. People aren’t searching on their phones. People are spending their time in apps”

1:50 The average user spends 30 minutes a day in apps. If we put an add up every 3 minutes, that’s 10 ads per day.Throughout the iPhone community, that’s 1 billion ad impressions per day. We’ve all seen interactive ads on the web. We want to deliver interaction – but also emotion.

1:51 “You know the ads on the web — they’re eye catching and interactive, but they don’t deliver emotion. What we want to do with iAds is deliver interaction and emotion.” “We have figured out how to do interactive and video content without ever taking you out of the app”

1:52 Apple will sell and host the ads, and give 60% of ad revenue to developers

1:54 While showing the ad: “Oh, by the way, all of this is done in HTML 5.” (no Flash required)

1:57  Now Steve is showing an Air Jordan ad with an embedded video. This is kind of cool — the ad has a “history of the Air Jordan” app/ad.

1:59 Animation are interactive, and crazy smooth.

2:00 Summary  ”These are just 7 of the thousands of new features”

2:01 Multitasking, folders, enhanced mail, iBooks, enterprise, Game Kit, and iAd. And these are just seven of the 100 new user features. Now we are releasing a dev preview today.

2:02 They’re releasing it for iPhone 3gs and iPod touch 3rd gen this summer – those devices will do everything. iPhone 3G and iPod touch 2nd gen will not get multitasking. And, we’re bringing OS 4 to the iPad this Fall. There is no mentioning of iPad multitasking.

Q&A

Susan from IBC: I’m wondering that, given multitasking will increase data usage, how will AT&T compensate?

Jobs: I’m not sure that’s an accurate assumption. Remember: Data usage requires attention. We’re not multiplying the # of minutes users will give to their phone.

“The wireless app distribution. You described that as an enterprise feature, but I wonder if that opens a door for downloading apps without the app store”

Jobs: No. Forstall: Apps must still be signed via Apple.

“Given the huge demand in the US of ipad, will that impact international launch?”

Jobs: No. We said it’ll be near the end of April, and it’ll be near the end of april.

“Will the social gaming network supplant the openfeint, NGmcoo plus+ networks already available?”

Forstall: The problem was that thereare so many networks. When you play a game, you want your friends to be on that network. Jobs: There’s no money to be gained by having your own social gaming network.

Jobs: There’s no money to be gained by having your own social gaming network.

April 2nd, 2010 – SPB Software, a leading mobile applications and games developer announces the release of SPB TV for iPhone which is becoming SPB Software’s flagship application for this enormously popular mobile platform. SPB TV for iPhone is a freeware mobile IPTV viewer with TV-like usability, created for tuning in to publicly available digital TV channels from all over the world.

SPB TV for iPhone presents exclusive and patent-pending usability innovations and gives the mobile subscribers easy access to over a hundred and twenty of TV channels in more than 20 languages, directly from their phones. The application supports must-have TV features, such as a TV browser with quick channel previews, an instantly accessible TV guide for all offered channels, quick channel switching and more.

It’s worth noting that a TV application developed by SPB Software has been available to the Singaporean market via mobile operator StarHub (http://spb.com/oems/casestudies/starhub-tv.html) with a different pack of channels for about a week now, and since its launch has reached number one most downloaded app in “Free apps” category. SPB Software believes this achievement reflects the true potential of SPB TV for iPhone.

With the arrival of SPB TV for iPhone, SPB Software expands the list of supported platforms (including also Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian), at the same time starting a new line of TV 2.0 apps – free-of-charge, no-subscription-fee programs supported with advertising revenues. Ads in SPB TV 2.0 are still and unobtrusive, lasting only the amount of time necessary to buffer the stream when starting a channel

SPB TV for iPhone Main Features:
•Quick channel preview (picture-in-picture)
•Integrated TV guide
•Video-on-demand
•A wide selection of public TV channels
•Adaptive network bandwidth control
Pricing and Availability
SPB TV for iPhone is compatible with Apple iPhone, Apple iPod touch and Apple iPad devices with firmware version 3.0 and above. The application can be downloaded from AppStore for free, there is also no monthly subscription fee. The application is ad-supported: an advertisement is shown while the stream is buffering when user opens a channel.