Well Razoria Skins from Razorianfly have got you covered.

I big thanks goes to Arron from Razorianfly.com for sending us a skin to review.

When opening the envelop I detailed to see that the skin was packaged in another plastic see through envelop along with the invoice to stop it from getting wet in the great british weather.

Immediately the colours from the skin popped, being bright and the attention to detail being perfect.

The skins are made from a 3M vinyl offering 3 layers to ensure that your skin stays in get condition until it gets to you and then stays super stunning while it is on your device. The first layer is the backing of the vinyl to make sure the skin stays in place while it is being delivered to you, the second layer is the vinyl adhesive itself, making sure when your sink is applied its not going to move. This adhesive also makes it really easy to remove the skin if needed. The final layer offers the protection. This layer is both anti-UV and anti-Scratch so your skin is not going to fade or get all scratched up.

The skins come in a number of different designs all with complimenting wallpapers that can be downloaded also.

Skins start from just £7 for the iPhone and iPod touch versions going up to £15 for the iPad ones so head over there now to pick up your skin now while they are offering next day delivery.

These skins are simply stunning and there really is no other word to use. If you want to customise your device then this should be the product your looking to buy.

Check out the video review below..

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you have ever been faced with that gut wrenching situation where you have either dropped your beloved device in water or gotten it wet then you will be familiar with the age old solution involving a bowl of rice. While this would normally be the ideal solution as it is found in most peoples cupboards and can be readily bought quickly, is it really helping? In a way, yes, but not as much as you have been led to believe. While it is a good place to start, there is another solution you probably haven’t thought of.

First though, let me give you a recent scenario that I was faced with.

So, I am at work and I get several missed calls from an unknown number, followed by frantic tweets and messages from Facebook that turn out to be from my girlfriend asking me to ring home ASAP. Thinking the worst I immediately stop what I am doing and phone home. On the other end is a distraught and very upset voice trying to hold back the tears as she tells me she has just discovered her iPhone 4s rattling around in the washing machine. Damn, game over, right? Well actually, no. She had been changing the sheets on the bed and hadn’t noticed the iPhone as she wrapped them up and bunged them in the machine. After around 5 minutes she noticed a banging noise coming from inside and suddenly realised what had happened. Thankfully she managed to pry the door open, flooding the kitchen floor (not a priority), and found the phone, still functioning.

I instinctively tell her to dry it off and bury it in rice, which she had already done (I taught her well). I ask if she has turned it off, she tried but a short in the dock connector was causing it to come back to life straight away. This is not good as the longer there is power going through the device the more chance there is of a total short, ideally  the battery should be disconnected which as we all know with Apple devices is not for the feint hearted. Amazingly though, the backlight was still functioning, which in my experience, is usually the first thing to short out. As far as I could make out, the sound was the only thing not working and this was again because of the dock connector, which was assuming that the iPhone was docked which cuts off sound through the speakers and earpiece.

Luckily, it seems, the duvet that it got wrapped in had shielded it from the majority of the water as she managed to get it out of there before it had actually finished filling up.

Ok, so when I got home from work I decided to inspect it a little, not wanting to disturb it too much so as not to let the water spread even further. I decided to try and remove the rear panel which is easier said than done when you don’t have the correct tool (5 point penelope). I managed to get the back off and carefully wiped all the water I could see from the inside of the iPhone. I then placed it back in the rice and sealed the box.

Fearing the worst I contacted a local repair shop for some quotes, to which they replied “between £40 and £130 depending on the extent of the damage”. With both of us finding this a last resort option I told her to calm down and leave it be for a few days.

As I had been at work for a few hours before being able to get home that day I had the time to do a little research, and came across some references to desiccants. These are hygroscopic substances used as a drying agents. In some of the same articles I also discovered that rice does very little as it struggles to draw moisture from the air.

I then set about trying to source some desiccants, and found that I actually come into contact with a form of them every day.

You will recognise these little sachets as those you find in shoe boxes, suitcases, handbags, and most boxed electrical devices. Now, as I work for an electrical retailer I set about collecting as many of these sachets as I could lay my hands on. I was ripping through empty laptop boxes, searching laptop bags and anything else I could think of that was already open.

So, that night I emptied the rice from the box and replaced it with the sachets I had collected and basically covered the device as if building a sand bag wall around it. I then put the sealed box above the boiler. I had read that providing moderate heat would help remove moisture from the air quicker, however providing direct heat like that of a radiator would be harmful, so avoided doing this.

Roll on 3 days later, and after having been hen pecked constantly by the girlfriend, I opened the box to see what the residual damage was. I left the back off for the time being in case I needed to gain access again. It was dead, so I carefully plugged it in to my Macbook as if I was removing the core from a nuclear device, expecting it to go bang the moment I inserted the sync cable. To my relief  it started to charge and a few minutes later it powered on. Amazing! Everything seemed to be working perfectly, even the sound as I unlocked it. I then went through testing the sound, making a call, sending a text and opened a few apps. The look on her face and the relief was worth all I had gone through over the last few days.

Nearly 2 weeks on and still no issues, at all, not one! So if you are unfortunate enough to be faced with a situation like this, you will be better prepared.

While not very much is known about this tweak, Abstergo, John has released the first ever public preview as we mentioned above in the form of a video that was linked to via his Twitter account. The exact tweet is as follows:

Here’s the first ever public video demonstration of Abstergo for iOS 5! (Note: it isn’t done yet, subject to change)gojohnnyboi.com/projects/Abste…

— John Heaton (@Gojohnnyboi) February 2, 2012

Please feel free to shoot @gojohnnyboi a tweet and let him know what you think of the videos, and offer up suggestions, etc. And until then, if you simply just want to view the video, then click here. I know I’ll be keeping on eye on the progress, and so should you. This is going to be a simple yet ridiculously useful one, people. As always, we’ll keep you updated.

This follows on from a previous ruling in Motorola’s favour at the end of last year. The licenses at issue are supposedly FRAND (Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory” patents which are considered to be industry standards. The court order is directed at Apple Sales International in Ireland, which operates the online store of Apple in Europe.

The Mannheim Regional Court found Apple infringed a patent used to synchronise e-mail accounts. The ruling also allows Motorola Mobility to ask Apple for information about past sales and holds Apple liable for damages. Presiding Judge Andreas Voss said in delivering the verdict “The court has come to the conclusion that the wording of the patent does cover functioning that were at issue here,” said Voss, Apple “wasn’t able to convince the court that it isn’t infringing.”

The German courts have also banned a number of Samsung products, including the first Galaxy Tab,  based on previous Apple patent complaints. Soon the only tablet available in Germany will be the Motorola XOOM’s.

Apple’s current flagship device, the iPhone 4[S], remains on sale at the German Online Apple Store. It isn’t certain as to why the 4[S] doesn’t fall into Motorola’s complaint, one possible excuse is that the device simply could be ‘too new’  and wasn’t included as part of the original complaint. Also the iPhone 4[S] and the CMDA versions of the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2 use Qualcomm chips whilst the banned devices all feature Infineon baseband’s, so this could also be a possible reason.

In an emailed statement from Alan Hely, Apples company spokesman, to BusinessWeek he said “Apple believes this old pager patent is invalid and we’re appealing the courts decision,” and Apple also went on to tell Paid Content “While some iPad and iPhone models are not available through Apple’s online store in Germany right now, customers should have no problem finding them at one of our retail stores or an authorized reseller. Apple is appealing this ruling because Motorola repeatedly refuses to license this patent to Apple on reasonable terms, despite having declared it an industry standard patent seven years ago.”

The Zenus Prestige Carbon Leather case has a great price tag of just £19.95 and makes your iPhone 4S super sexy.

The Zenus Carbon case comes in both black and white versions which equally make your device look stunning.

Zenus has paid special attention to detail when making the Prestige Carbon Case with all the ports being exactly where they should and the camera cut out being large enough to stop any flash coming back through the lens.

The inside of the case has a soft leather lining so the back of your device is not going to get all scratched up while removing and putting the case on. The exterior of the Zenus Carbon case has like the product title says has a carbon fibre look to it. The case wraps completely around the back and sides of the device to give some great protection.

Personally I would say that the white version of the case is geared more to the female market with the black towards the male.

The Zenus Carbon Leather Case is one of the most stylish mobile phone covers I have reviewed and even the packaging is super stylish.

The Osun metal dock is made from just one piece of solid metal and costs £24.95 from MobileFun.co.uk.

It product has a great simple design which adds to the stunning look of this dock. The Osun dock wraps round the dock and left hand side of the iPhone, with the brush metal design making it look like something Apple would have created themselves.

The dock has a little party trick up its sleeve, with the charging cable acting like as a balance the dock can be used in both vertical and horizontal positions. The horizontal posistion is perfect for using your iPhone as a bedside alarm clock. The dock can be used for both charging and syncing your device.

The Osun Metal Dock is one of those phone accessories that just works and is super stylish.

Those same sources are now stating that, whilst they believe there still will be an Apple media event held later in February, the subject of this even will be ‘unusual’.

The sources said:

“I reported that Apple was going to hold Special Event in early February according to Asian supplier and source from united states, but this report told a half-side of truth. Apple will hold “Strange” event at February instead of Special Event.”

The source also then went on to retract a previous statement that the event would be based on Apple’s upcoming iPad 3, and instead noted that an announcement for the iPad 3 was likely to be made in March.

It is unclear what the source meant by an ‘unusual’ event regarding Apple’s media event in February but rumours are already starting to circulate that this could relate to the imminent introduction of Apple’s long-rumoured appearance in the television set market.

I have been waiting for MyAssistant to be released for a few days now and jumped straight on it when it got released in Cydia. The tweak is available from the BigBoss repo for just 99c and offers a number of different customisation tools for Siri.

The tweak before release went by the name of MySiri. It offers the ability to build custom questions and answers (up to 10) so that you can have a bit of fun with Siri. Other things on offer are things such as Siri now being able to turn off toggles, launch custom activations and launch apps.

The powerful part of MyAssistant is that the user is able to type their own phrase into the settings, for instance a user could choose to say “Bluetooth on” or “Turn on Bluetooth” and the tweak will do the same thing.

However on using MyAssistant there seems to be some bugs still in it.

When setting your phrase to launch an app or turn on/off a toggle you have to make sure that the correct capitalisation is used e.g. Bluetooth on will turn on Bluetooth while Bluetooth On will not (notice the capital ‘O’ in On)

Another problem that members of the MyGreatiPhone team have noticed is that when trying to launch an App with MyAssistant nothing happens other that the status bar disappears and the springboard freezes. To sort this out you have to lock and then unlock your device, once you have done that the App will then launch.

My opinion on MyAssistant is that it really could be a powerful tweak for Siri, but while these bugs remain it just feels unfinished. For the time being I would wait before you go out and buy it and use AssistantExtensions (free in Cydia) instead.

Check out our vid review below…

Click here to view the embedded video.

The screen shots reveal that there is 2 versions of the iPad 3 too be released, the first being Wi-Fi only and a second device with Wi-Fi and embedded GSM/CDMA/LTE for all carriers. Also the photo’s reveal which processor the iPad 3 will be using, an A6 Quad-Core processor with the model number S5L8945X. The previous versions of the iPad featured different processor model numbers, the A4 model was S5L8930X and the A5 is S5L8940X.

Also the screen shots reveal that the iPad 3 will apparently be a Quad-Core model, which will make the iPad 3 the fastest iOS device to date.

Take a look at the screen shots below:

There has been rumours flying around about the next iPhone device to include NFC technology and, before the iPhone 4[S] was released, the New York Times was quoted as saying that an upcoming iPhone would have NFC. Whilst it turned out that it wasn’t included with the iPhone 4[S], it could be on the next iPhone.

When the developer was questioned about how confident he was that the upcoming iPhone would include NFC he replied with “Enough to bet the App development on.” It has also been rumoured that Apple will be partnering with MasterCard to provide its payment systems following an interview with Ed McLaughlin, MasterCard head of emerging payments.

When McLaughlin was asked about if 2012 would be the year of NFC or contactless technology, he may have dropped a hint about what the future has in store for Apple.

McLaughlin said:

“The timeline is always as rapid as it makes sense for consumers, that’s a combination of having a critical mass of the merchants, which is what you’re seeing right now, and getting devices into the hands of consumers. I don’t know of a handset manufacturer that isn’t in process of making sure their stuff is PayPass ready.”

When asked if this would include Apple he responded with:

“Um, there are…like I say,  I don’t know of any handset maker out there,” McLaughlin says. “Now, when we have discussions with our partners, and they ask us not to disclose them, we don’t.”

We’ll keep you informed of any more developments of the upcoming iPhone 5 but do you think NFC technology would be a welcome addition?

MySiri will cost 0.99c and be available soon from the BigBoss Repo (hopefully the end of the week).

The tweak is a collaboration between Andrea Oliva & Akhil Tolani and offers some great and powerful features.

MySiri will be able to open Apps, perform commands such as locking your device and rebooting, toggling setting switches, allowing you to create your own conversations (this could be really fun) and even use your voice as an Activator to perform certain actions.

Check out the vid by idownloadblog that got an early preview…

Click here to view the embedded video.

If this tweak turns out to be able to do all the things mentioned above I personally can’t wait to spend my 99c to have a play with it. This could be the only Siri tweak that you may ever need.

John Browett

Along with Jonathan Ive the Senior Vice President of Industrial Design it looks like Apple have picked up another Brit to head their retail devision.

John Browett the former CEO for 5 years of UK retailer Dixons will be heading for Cuperinto this April to become Senior Vice President of Retail. John Browett has taken this title from Ron Johnson who left Apple 6 months ago.

Browett has an impressive career in retail and like we mentioned was the CEO of the giant UK retailer Dixons. He has also held executive positions at Tescos.

Tim Cook Apple CEO said that Browett has “incredible retail experience” and commitment to customer service.

Well, while trawling twitter, I came across a tweet linking to a post on macthemes.net that contained an unreleased MobileSubstrate tweak known only as Zeppelin. It had promise I thought, so I downloaded it and fired up iFile to install.

To my amazement it actually worked on my carrier logo, finally! The tweak is basically just a logo picker in the settings app with the ability to enable or disable.

So far there are only a handful of logos to choose from but I have no doubt that more will be added, especially if it hits Cydia.

Here are instructions posted by the developer;

Zeppelin is a MobileSubstrate tweak I made to get easy Carrier Logo switching to iOS. It works on Verizon and other Carriers that don’t naturally have images to replace too (It also works on Carriers that do have files to replace like AT&T).

I’ve tested this on my Verizon iPhone 4, an AT&T iPhone, iPad 3G, iPod 2G.

The experimental iPod build has been tested only on iOS 4 on two iPod 2Gs (legacy). If you have an iDevice (non iPhone) other than that setup please let me know how it works.

I’ve tested it on iOS 4 and iOS 5

Installation:
1. Download the deb
2. SSH the deb file to your iDevice at any location
3. Open iFile on your device and click the file where you SSH’d it.
4. Press install

Alternatively, if you don’t have iFile and if you have a version of MobileTerminal that is iOS4/5 friendly you can type:
Code:

dpkg -i /path/to/deb
Apply Themes/Logos in Settings->Zeppelin.

To install your own logos
1. On your local machine create a folder titled for your theme name.
2. Put images in it titled as follows: silver.png for the silver bar, black.png for the black bar, and etched.png for notification center. Make sure to add @2x to the file name if it is a retina icon.
3. Copy this folder from your computer to /Library/Zeppelin
4. Open Settings->Zeppelin and it should appear in the list
5. PROFIT

Put themes in /Library/Zeppelin after installation. Check the pre-installed ones to see how it is done.

If anyone would like to make an icon for the settings table it is welcome.

Thanks to:
Dustin Howett for making Theos and helping me out with my first tweak
Roshani for Infiniti, Android
TheBaddestiPod for Aperture, Triforce, and Batman
dsg for Pac-man, Superman, Beats
shallowheard for Blue Cloud
Lokheed for Space Invaders (this guy is the man. Buy his theme, Jaku)

Apologies to the above for not requesting permission. I never had planned to release this. If you would like your images removed, PM me.

More credits coming soon

Since iPods now work. I have submitted to ModMyI

Changelog
0.0.2
1. Aligned labels
2. iPod support

You can download the package here

The package has been submitted to ModMyi so should hit Cydia soon.

The guy behind Zeppelin, who goes by the handle jivhg on macthemes, states that he had some help from Dustin Howett, and a few others who’s images he used.

Thanks to @zooropalg for the tip!

Now, 2012, instead of Installer.app we had a new king of the hill, Cydia: a native iOS APT client used for finding and installing software for jailbroken iOS devices. The main reason people jailbreak is because doing so allows them to expand the feature set which has been limited by Apple and it’s App Store. Cydia has become very popular over the years with developers working hard to release new stuff into the jailbreak world such as themes, tweaks, and things that you would not imagine your iDevice was capable of otherwise.

Over the years we have had lots of jailbreak tools to grant us root access our iOS devices such as redsn0w, sn0wbreeze, PwnageTool, blacksn0w, purplera1n, and those are only the ‘popular‘ ones. There are two diffident types of jailbreak: 1) a tethered jailbreak, which requires that the device be connected to a computer each time it needs to be booted, and; 2) an untethered jailbreak, which allows the device to be powered on or rebooted without computer assistance.

Above, was a bit of history about jailbreaking your iOS device. Back on July 26th of 2010, the US government made the act of jailbreaking electronic devices legal by federal law.

Over the years we’ve been enjoying this freedom, tweaks, themes, and just putting the device in your hands and not Apple’s. But according to the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), we could lose that freedom this year if we don’t act now.

The EFF writes:

“Smartphones, tablets, and video game consoles are powerful computers with lots of untapped potential. Yet many of these devices are set up to run only software that’s been approved by the manufacturer. Modifying a device to run independent software – known as jailbreaking – is important to programmers, enthusiasts, and users. But jailbreaking creates legal uncertainty. Some device manufacturers claim that jailbreaking violates Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which carries stiff penalties.”

The ruling handed down by the Copyright Office in 2010 is due to expire this year and the EFF is looking to convince the Office to renew the exemption. Otherwise jailbreaking falls back into a murky semi-illegal state giving device manufacturers the power to pursue legal action against jailbreakers at will.

The EFF provides this link to the Copyright Office’s comment board. The Office needs to hear why folks think that jailbreaking is so important. The EFF wants to hear you and here are a few thing you can say to let the jailbreaking world keep running as it is:

• Which jailbreaking exemption are you supporting—smartphones/tablets, video game consoles, or both?
• What’s your background (are you a developer, hobbyist, user, independent researcher, etc.)?
• What device do you want to ensure you have the legal authority to jailbreak?
• What limitations would you face if you weren’t able to jailbreak?

Comments should be marked as class “5″ and are due by 5 PM ET on February 10. MyGreatiPhone will keep you notified on the EFF’s progress, so keep checking back. Give us your thoughts below? We’d love to hear.

This is a surprising move from T-Mobile as they currently don’t offer the iPhone on any of their packages so it will be available to users who are using an unlocked device. The new “iPhone scope of support” isn’t comprehensive but it does include help on common procedures, information on handset features and specifications along with “other basic device questions.”

At the moment, the current T-Mobile support for iPhone users is very sparse and it mainly focuses on getting users up and running on their network with unlocked devices. This is because T-Mobile isn’t an official partner and operates in a wireless spectrum that isn’t supported by the iPhone.

T-Mobile’s CEO, Phillip Humm, said that the company’s wireless operating frequency was the key reason as to why is doesn’t sell the iPhone. Also since a proposed agreement between AT&T and T-Mobile fell through, AT&T must pay T-Mobile $3 billion to fulfill the deals pre-negotiated terms.

The iPhone is a massive hit for any network which sells the device and the carriers that don’t offer the device have blamed poor customer sign-up rates due to not having access to the device.

The proposed support is due to come into effect on the 30th of January so this seems like a good move for T-Mobile but let us know what you think.

Microsoft stated this project back in December of last year when it introduced the official Xbox LIVE application for the iPhone and iPad. Microsoft has already started to move one game over called kinectimals, which allows you to visit the island of Lemuria where you can “play with, care for and fall in love with your very own cub.” But according to Forbes reports, that was only the beginning…

Quoting a Microsoft Spokesman, Forbes writes:

“While the Xbox Live experiences and games always work best on the Windows platform, we understand that some Xbox fans may be using other types of devices. To satisfy that need, we are working to extend a few of our Xbox experiences and titles to other platforms.”

Are there any Xbox LIVE games you’d like to see come to iOS? If so leave a comment below.

Source;  Forbes.

Yahoo has decided to do some cleaning with their applications in the market (AppStore and Android market place) and has announced that the company is no longer going to support their lesser apps in the market but they will still be there for users to download.

Yahoo has stated that as the mobile space moves at an insane rate, they too must keep up with what users want and are looking for in today’s market. These are the applications that yahoo will no longer support;

• Yahoo! Meme (iPad and iPhone)
• Yahoo! Mim (iPad)
• Yahoo! Answers (Android)
• Yahoo! AppSpot (Android and iPhone)
• Yahoo! Deals (iPhone)
• Yahoo! Finance (BlackBerry)
• Yahoo! Movies (Android)
• Yahoo! News (Android)
• Yahoo! Shopping (iPhone)
• Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search (iPad and iPhone)
• (Via Yahoo)

On first impressions the Steam App seems to be far more functional than Microsoft’s as it allows users to chat to their friends through the Steam Chat feature and you can also get entire access to the Steam store. Similarly to the XBox App users can also browse through their friends to see who is online and playing what.

At the moment the App doesn’t deliver mobile games for iOS, or Android, but by releasing the App over multiple mobile platforms it clears the way for any future additions which Valve decide to make.

At the moment, the App is in a closed BETA stage. This means that only a select lucky few are able to get passed the login screen and the majority of us will get a message saying Valve has “made a note of your account and will be sending out more invites shortly.”

The Steam App is currently available to download, though, and a final release should be heading our way shortly.

Today sees the release of the first plugin called “Lingual”. Developed by the guys over at CodeThemed, Lingual enhances Siri’s ability to translate what you say into another language.

Normally translations are handled by Wolfram Alpha, but with Lingual installed you get the answer directly from Siri, with a great native looking UI too. You simply ask siri “What is (word/sentence/phrase) in (language)” or “Translate (word/sentence/phrase) to (language)”. Lingual boasts the ability to translate to over 30 languages and is completely free from Cydia.

So, to help all of us figure out what tweak is causing the bug, we are listing all of our installed tweaks, and if you are having the same issue, and notice that you have common tweaks installed as well, then let us know!

• Activator (x3)
• AssistantExtensions(x2)
• bitesms(x2)
• Custom Siri Background
• CustomWidgetIcons
• Display Recorder
• FolderEnhancer
• Flowtation
• Gridlock
• iFile (x3)
• InfiniDock
• IntelliScreenX
• LockInfo
• LockScreen Clock Hide(x2)
• Locationholic
• MobileSubstrate (x3)
• SBSettings (x3)
• SiriToggles (x2)
• Springtomize 2 (x2)
• Substrate Safe Mode (x3)
• SlyCam For Notification Centre
• Winterboard (x3)
• WeeKillBackground for Notification Centre
• Wallpaper JPEGifier(x2)
• Yellow Siri Mod

Contact us via Twitter @MyGreatiPhone, @Nazaroth, @d900man, @LVCIFER, @DannyLargan, or you can leave messages for us on our Facebook page. Something important to note: while the suspect is a rogue tweak, it may also be the A5 jailbreak ITSELF. I, LVCIFER, jail broke using Absinthe for the Mac. Please contact us and let us know if you are having the same issues, and let us know what you think the suspected tweak is. Also, feel free to experiment, and add/remove tweaks until the problem stops. Either way, please keep us in the loop so that we can help others and get the word out as well.

Assistant Extensions is designed to make it easy for developers to expand the capabilities of Siri.

The tweak has no settings but does have a couple of teasers already built it such as:

• System Commands: this allows users to launch apps, send tweets and control the brightness.
• Toggles: lets you set the settings toggles plus see a list of toggles and their current states.
• Chat Bot: lets you chat with Siri. To start, just say “Let’s chat” and wait a moment.

According to TechCrunch, Sireet will let you speak your tweet to Siri, where it will then confirm your tweet with you and let you send it using Siri’s characteristic responses. Once the tweet has been sent, your phone will chirp out a notification and Siri will leave you a confirmation. The one downside to this does appear to be that you can not review your tweets before you can send them.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This new free Cydia app has been added to the ModMyi repository and is ready to download now.

The newest iPhone model is said to have several different versions which are currently being tested and at the moment there isn’t an obvious choice as to which one is going to be used. The one thing that each model has in common is the 4-inch display with one of them being made by LG.

Each model is reportedly symmetrical in thickness, which means that they are the same width at the top as they are at the bottom which ends rumours of a new ‘tear-drop’ design. Also, interestingly, each model is either longer and/or wider than the current iPhone 4[S] but no models are final in their build.

The source is also said to be the same source which reported that the iPhone 5 would not be released late last summer and that Apple were instead building the iPhone 4[S], a prediction which turned out to be true. Because of the accurate prediction from before, can we expect the same level of accuracy as before which would mean that we could soon expect to see a bigger iPhone which is still as slender as the current device and without a form-fitting back?

We will keep you updated with any more developments on this story but let us know what you think about this story.

Belfy is a free tweak from Cydia on the BigBoss repo.

Ryan Petrich has managed to pull the Apps from the iPhone package them up and but them on Cydia for an easy install.

The Apps when downloaded will need to be x2 so that they fit the iPad screen but with the help of 2 other tweaks Retina Pad and FullForce they look great.

Installing the tweak from Cydia takes between 2 and around 7 minutes and requires a reboot once complete.

Check out the vid below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So there you have it if you need these apps now there is a nice and easy way to get them.

Many of you might remember Geohot for developing and released the Limera1n jailbreak tool and then being dragged through the courts by Sony for developing and releasing tutorials for a ‘jailbreak’ on the Playstation 3. Once the dust settled around his court case Geohot disappeared from the hacking scene and took a job working for the Facebook social network.

Well now it appears that he has recently quit from his position there and has been reported to be taking part in ‘Hackathon’ at a start up named Backplane, which was rather surprising funded by none other than Lady Gaga.

During the competition, Geohot built an application which showed where your Facebook friends were at any time, on a map, using their check-ins. Working alongside Aviv Ovadya, Hotz concentrated on extracting API information and programming it into location data.

The jailbreak community is brimming with talent, you only need to look at the work done by the Chronic dev team, the iPhone dev team and of course the newly formed A5 ‘dream team’ consisting of members from PlanetBeing but getting Geohot back onto the scene would surely be a welcome addition.

There is no confirmation that Geohot has left Facebook, or he has indeed returned to the iOS scene, but this news is certain to generate a lot of interest amongst the jailbreak community.

As usual we will keep you informed with any more news on this exciting development, keep checking back here.

This years finalist added Siri to the mix for a bit of fun.

The advert as you can see in the vid below doesn’t mention Siri, but it is implied that it is Siri that is making the Doritos, Sumbero the dogs magically appear. It even plays on the joke that Siri doesn’t get everything right all of the time.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Let us know in the comments below what you think if the ad.

The Dev-Team state that just in the last few days that just shy of 1 million devices got the Absinthe treatment.

Here is the breakdown:

● 491,325 new iPhone4,1 devices
● 308,967 new iPad2 devices
● 152,940 previously jailbroken (at 4.x) iPad2 devices

This totals 953,226 now Jailbroken A5 devices.

If you add to this super impressive numbers then check out our Absinthe Jailbreak Vid below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Chinee, a Chinese case manufacturer, have already begun selling cases for a device which has been called the iPad 2[S], a name which obviously gets its origins from the iPhone 4[S], where the ‘S’ stands for an internal specification update rather than a redesign. The case designs seem to indicate that the iPad 3 will be identical to its predecessor but will be slightly thicker.

The manufacturer of these new iPad 2[S] cases have said that the device is 1mm thicker than the iPad 2′s form-factor and they also went on to say that their sources are from within Apple’s supply chain.

These iPad 2S/3 cases are notable because it means that the internal schematics for the new iPad are floating around. It also means that rumours that Apple started its production for the latest iPad in January could actually be correct.

Besides the new design, the iPad 2S/3 is rumoured to have a quad core processor, retina display, Siri dictation support and LTE network capabilities.

Keep checking back here for more updates as they come available.

Now a company called True Knowledge has developed an App called Evi which is designed to go toe-to-toe with Siri. The Evi App is designed for all versions of the iPhone and iPad and is available to download from the App Store for £0.69 ($0.99). Evi is based on the same Nuance voice recognition as found in Siri and the licensing of which accounts for the price tag attached to the App. It also features integration with Yelp and other sources to deliver an array of information so it does seem to compare favourably with Siri.

Below is a list of features that Evi is claimed to be able to deliver on:

• Voice or text input – Chat to Evi in plain English and she will understand
• Local information for UK and USA – Shopping, news, dining and more. Evi knows where you are and gives answers based on your location
• One tap words – Allowing you to build your question super-fast
• Built in browser – No need to swap to a different browser, view web links within Evi’s app
• A learning and adapting intelligence – Rate Evi’s answers to help it learn more about the world
• More than a search engine – Evi takes the searching out of search, able to review and compare nearly a billion facts from her database to give you exactly what you need

But is it really that good to call it a rival to Siri?

One of the big things that makes Evi stand out is that it works in the UK, something that Siri users have been struggling with since it’s release so it will appeal to iOS users outside of the US. Another major point is that Evi will deliver all the information you need inside the App, so, whereas before Siri would ask to perform a web search for you, Evi will produce all the information into the App making it easier for you to get the information you want.

True knowledge have claimed that the App contains “Almost a billion facts” so if you ask Evi a question, such as ‘how do you make apple pie’ it will come back with a list of recipes with relevant links to the information you need to make it within the App and not needing to perform a web search, so it does have speed and ease of use firmly on its side and with the ability to “infer trillions more if necessary” it does seem on first impressions that Evi could be a good rival for Siri.

There are, of course, some things which Evi can’t compete with Siri on, such as the calendar integration and reminders so as a personal assistant Siri still claims the top spot but as an intelligent search engine Evi does seem like a good alternative for those of us who have older iPhone’s and iPad’s without the Siri technology.

One other good thing that could come out of the Evi App is it could spur Apple on to make improvements to the Siri App.

Have you used the Evi App? let us know what you think about it by commenting.

To get this to work you will obviously need a Jailbroken device running iOS 5 (at least) with Activator installed (available from Cydia).

Head over to Settings.app – Activator – Anywhere – Pick a Gesture (personally I have it set to Hold Status Bar) – Scroll down to “Compose Tweet” under the Systems Actions header.

Now you can tweet from anywhere within iOS 5+ other than directly from the lockscreen, and you didn’t given need to buy a tweak from Cydia!

Windows users can now happily release their iPhone 4S’ and iPad 2′s from the chains of Apple.

Go and grab Absinthe for Windows here

For all asking: windows vers WILL have GUI just like OSX vers already released, & “SOON” means i’m working my @$$ off, i hope a few hrs max

— Joshua Hill (@p0sixninja) January 21, 2012

So there you go, Windows users you will soon also be able to get your hands on Absinthe.

If you can’t wait however you can already Jailbreak if your on a Windows machine using the Dev-Teams Command line tool (CLI), just head here for the info.

Thanks to  pod2g, the iPhone dev-team and the Chronic dev-team (Jailbreak “dream team”) an iPhone 4S and iPad 2 A5 untethered Jailbreak is here.

The Chronic Dev-team have but together a tool called Absinthe for your Jailbreak needs and the iPhone Dev-team have but together a command line (CLI) tool that will Jailbreak your device, diagnose issues and repair things if it goes wrong.

The Absinthe Jailbreak will only work on:

• iPhone 4S running iOS 5.0, 5.0.1 (9A405 and 9A406)
• iPad 2 Wifi/GSM/CDMA running iOS 5.0.1

Here is a link to the Mac version on Absinthe: GreenPois0n Absinthe v0.1.2-1

Enjoy the Jailbreak…..

Some say that the biggest thing announced yesterday was the textbook innovations that were introduced, along with iBooks 2.0. I personally feel that iTunes U(niversity), which offers free lectures, tutorials, and classes to anyone online, is an equally important announcement. And let’s not forget the fact that now, Apple has unleashed into the world a dirt-simple application (for the Mac only) to create your own eBooks. Not just textbooks, but actual, interactive eBooks. So yes, in a word, yesterday’s announcement was revolutionary.

Let’s start with iBooks 2.0.

Credit to AllThingsD.com for the image.

It seems that Apple has made a choice, and drawn a line in the sand: they no longer believe that physical text books are the way of the future. They are contending that the way to go is now all digital, and unfortunately, as much as it pains me to say this, I must concede that they are correct. As a writer myself, I can say that I personally completely owe just about my entire education to books, and the worlds of knowledge that are contained within them. To me, there is no greater feeling than cracking open a new book, and taking in a whiff of that “new book smell”. And equally, it is just as important as that great feeling you get when you find a rare, old book, and take a peek inside to be met with that “old book smell”. Most nerds out there will agree with me. It’s a magical thing. However, when on the move, it has become incredibly cumbersome to drag along with you 20 or maybe even 30 pounds of books with you at all times, and this to me is exactly here the convenience lies: on your iPad, you can simply bring that with you, buy a case for it (instead of those God forsaken “book covers”) and there you go, you can literally walk around with thousands of books at your beck and call.

However, besides just the ability to carry with you an entire library, these books are different: they are now interactive, in ways that books of my childhood never were. With iBooks 2, gone are the days when you would have to carry around an accompanying dictionary in the event that you stumbled across a word you were unsure of, because with iBooks 2, you can simply double-tap the word to highlight it, and hit “define”, and voila! Up comes the definition!

Further than that, you can now also use the same double-tap-to-highlight method, and actually highlight the text, so that you can be instantly drawn back to it later, as well as have an instant study-guide created: the infamous index card. Once you do that, a new menu will pop up. The options are “Copy/Define/Highlight”, and for these purposes, you would simply hit the “Highlight” option, where even more options would appear, giving you the choices of the color of highlighter (or just a red underline), to cancel the highlight, and the option to turn it into a “Note”, a/k/a an “index card”. It is here that you would obviously create the index card, but further than that, to view these “Notes”, you would go to the “List Menu” button up top, and choose the “Notes” section, where it will display all of the notes you have chosen to take.

Now, since I myself do not have an iPad, I have mainly been using it on my iPhone 4[s], and for such a small display, I have to mention, that Apple just simply “got it right”, again. I personally have not seen what these textbooks are capable of in regards to the further interaction, but I have seen the power of iBook Author. This application is simply stunning, and powerful, especially to the amateur or self-publisher – and it’s free. On top of that, as part of the announcement, Apple has included the fact that it has partnered with three of the most widely recognized textbook publishers in the world, Pearson, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. These three textbook publishers are responsible for approximately 90% of all textbooks released to educational establishments, period. This could’t have been a more welcomed addition, because what good would all this software be without any actual content? There might not be a stunning amount of content available at the moment, with only about eight (8) books being released, but the content available does give you some insight as to what you can expect in the future.

Below are some photos of the interactivity, but I think that the videos actually do it more justice.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

While those are only some of the videos out there, more and more are popping up every single day, and it is truly mind-blowing. It honestly makes me a bit jealous of today’s youth, as they get to learn up-to-date information in a fun way, while using a device that they will most likely become familiar with for the rest of their lives. And the best part in my opinion is the cost of these textbooks. Ignoring what people have been paying for all these years, they are being sold by Apple for $14.99. And yes, anyone who is familiar with the cost of these books just did a double-take. But, what if you aren’t a student? What if you are an author, or have some other like-minded projects that you’ve been putting on the back burner, like me? What if you want to release your own eBooks? Well, there’s an app for that, literally. We mentioned above that they had something called iBook Author, available for the Mac. And it accomplishes everything that it says it will: it will turn you into an iBook author! If you have ever used a word processing application, such as Microsoft Word, or Apple Pages, then you will instantly feel right at home in this environment. While it may be more in-sync with the Apple iWork apps, it is truly not hard to get the hang of it, and get the hang of it quickly. Just by opening it up, you can see the power of this application. They offer you some simple methods to get complex things done. So, thank you, Apple, for that. It is truly appreciated. You can release/publish your books to the iBookStore, and they are subject to the same review process as all other books. If they are free, they usually seem to get pushed through faster, but if you opt to tack on a fee to them, it can go only as high as $14.99, of which Apple will take a 30% cut from as per their licensing agreement. Something that should be noted though, I have read throughout the internet that books you create in iBooks Author are only available for iPads. If you wish to create your eBook for iPods, and iPhones, then you will have to go about it using all of the previous methods that are already in place. This is kind of a bummer, but ultimately, in my opinion it isn’t a deal-breaker. Plus, for those of you who have an iPad as well, you can literally text out your progress via the iBooks Author app, provided that your iPad is connected via USB. It’s pretty great for instant updates as well, and shouldn’t be taken for granted. Anyway, here are some more screenshots of iBook Author, as well as some videos:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

And finally, iTunes U(niversity). I will be honest with you, there is not much that I know about this service. I know that I wrote an article about it once in the past, announcing that they were offering free courses online which would teach you how to develop applications for iOS iDevices, but further than that, I wasn’t really up-to-speed on what it was about, or how it worked. As it seems, it is currently only available for iOS devices, as I cannot seem to install it on my Mac, however, after trying it out on my iPhone 4[s], I can truly recommend that you see this as a legitimate learning tool. Many courses are available free of charge, and as we all know, knowledge is power. Here are some screenshots.

So as you can see, Apple is serious about it’s stance on revolutionizing the world of education. This is not just for the United States, but globally. Now, if you so desire, you can simply go on a textbook purchasing spree, regardless of whether or not you are a student, and literally expand your horizons for a fraction of what it used to cost. And most importantly, you get to do in on your terms, on devices that you are already familiar with, in ways that you’ve already become accustomed to. Gone are the days where you soak up knowledge from a 15 year old textbook with inaccurate or out-of-date information. Gone are the days of developing slipped discs and hernias because of the weight of the books you carry. And gone are the ways of archaic methods used to teach students who were bored out of their minds. As usual, Apple seems to have truly found yet another market to revolutionize. And in the process, at least as far as I am concerned, they have crossed the gap that has ben an age-old hurdle: how to make learning fun. Keep your eyes peeled, people, as I guarantee you, this is just the start.

Apple has also released an update to iTunes 10.5.3 today, to bring a handful of new features. Here is what came in the description;

“iTunes 10.5.3 allows you to sync interactive iBooks textbooks to your iPad. These Multi-Touch textbooks are available for purchase from the iTunes Store on your Mac or from the iBookstore included with iBooks 2 on your iPad.”

It has not yet been confirmed whether this update is safe for current and would-be jailbreakers so you update at your own risk. You can download iTunes 10.5.3 via Apple’s website or via Software Update on your Mac.

This isn’t good news if it turns out to be more than just a coincidence.

It has also been mentioned that Siri may use FairPlay which we hear DOES have some level of Jb detection.

FairPlay is a digital rights management (DRM) technology created by Apple Inc., based on technology created by the company Veridisc. FairPlay is built into the QuickTime multimedia software and used by the iPhone, iPod, iPad, Apple TV, iTunes, and iTunes Store and the App Store.

Anyone seen any jailbreak detection in Siri? Siri stopped working after a day of running with jailbroken kernel on the iPhone 4S …

— Stefan Esser (@i0n1c) January 19, 2012

** Further information from @i0n1c confirms that after a simple reboot Siri resumed operation as normal. Crisis averted people! **

Apple today has changed the way we learn in our education by Introducing three new applications, iBooks 2.0 (As an update to the existing one), iTunes U with an all new look, and iBooks Author (which is available in the Mac AppStore) which where all shown off in an educational keynote today.

If your not one of the lucky ones that where waiting in the freezing cold to be let into Apple’s Media event in NYC, then this is this good news for you, because after the event Apple posted the entire one hour video online for you to watch.

To watch the entire media event, just head over to this link and play the keynote. Also you will need a browser that is compatible with Quicktime in order to view it.

What do you think? Please leave a comment below.

While iOS 5.1 beta 3 brought with it some new features, such as (in my opinion and through tests) better WiFi signal and battery life, there seems to be a strange bug that has come along with it.

This bug comes in the form of the proximity sensor that is used so that Siri knows when to start when the Raise To Speak option is turned on.

Although this option is turned off in the settings menu the sensor is still active as long as your phone is now asleep.

According to the dev forums, to fix this you need to turn the setting off, then turn the phone off normally (slide to power off). Then turn it back on and the sensor will be off. However as soon as you reboot your device the sensor will start up again and stay on.

While iOS 5.1 is still in beta this isn’t too much of a problem but lets hope they fix it in the final release.

Apple’s interest in expanding Siri to help with online shopping has been revealed this week and it was discovered by AppleInsider. The planned invention, which is being called “Intelligent Automated Assistant” provides a detailed look at not only what Siri is capable of doing at the moment, but also what it can do in the future.

As things stand, Siri for the iPhone 4[s] will not allow users to complete online transactions, instead it will simply reply with “Sorry, I can’t purchase that”. But Apple’s latest patent filing lists e-commerce specifically as a key function of its “Intelligent Automated Assistant”. It also notes that Siri could be used for online purchases such as “books, DVD’s and music.”

With the new e-commerce functionality added to Siri, users would be able to make purchases such as films, songs, albums and even TV episodes through Apple’s own iTunes store. It could also mean that purchases from iBookstore and the App Store are also possible. But the filing also mentions the possibility of purchasing physical items such as DVD’s, CD’s and books, which suggests that Siri will allow users to make purchases from other online retailers.

Last month, users gained the ability to check the availability of an item at Best Buy through Siri, thanks to new capability and the Wolfram Alpha engine Siri utilises. But whilst customers are able to see if an item they would like is in stock, they are unable to purchase them through Siri.

The patent Application lists Amazon’s name specifically as a potential partner for such a system. With an example having Siri telling a user “I can help you find music, movies, books, electronics, toys and more–and buy it from Amazon. What are you looking for?” The proposed invention was made public this week by the U.S Patent and Trademark Office and was first filed in January 2011. In the long list of creditors it lists some of the original employees of Siri, the company which Apple acquired, including Dag Kittlaus, the co-founder of Siri, who left Apple last year after the launch of the iPhone 4[s].

As usual we will keep you posted as more information comes available on this but is the possibility of making online purchases through Siri something which appeals to you?

This sounds far too easy to be true, but AppleGordon claims that when he plugged his brand new iPod Touch into his computer and restored it from a previous iPhone 4[s] back up, Siri was installed and ready to go with the dictation feature working fine although Siri couldn’t process any search features.

Wow I almost didn’t get through writing that without chuckling! This simply isn’t true, kudos for blagging all those blogs though.

Backups made through iTunes and iCloud contain things such as contacts, application settings, icon placements etc. To our knowledge, these backups DO NOT contain UI elements, so to suggest that the Siri UI was magically transferred from one device backup to another is ridiculous!

Click here to view the embedded video.

The video quite clearly shows an iPod calling up Siri, but it is undoubtedly using one of the many Siri ports found in Cydia.

Even well respected iOS developer Steve Troughton-Smith finds this ludicrous.

RT @slashgear Siri on iPod Touch with simple iPhone 4S restore slgr.co/v9n <;- can people stop reporting on this? Doesn't happen

— Steve Troughton-Sm… (@stroughtonsmith) January 18, 2012

Like many the first draft of this article was misinformed but we hope this clears things up for you.

When I first saw this watch I didn’t know whether it would really be a great benefit but after reading some of the plus points one thing stood out to me. I’m quite a forgetful person and quite often I leave the house thinking I’ve forgotten something only to realise later that I’ve left my phone behind. I’ve also done this on wild nights out as well and I’ve had to replace a fair few phones, so after reading that this watch comes with a vibrating alert which lets you know when you get 5 metres away from your phone I thought “fantastic”.

After receiving it and trying it out for a few days though the other features do, actually, come in quite useful. The primary function is that if you get a phone call it will vibrate on your wrist and there is an LCD display which shows you the name and number of the person calling you so you don’t need to keep checking your phone to see if you want to take the call or not. A quick glance at your watch is all it takes.

I know it’s not really a great deal of effort to check your phone’s screen, but the simplicity of just checking your wrist is a nice feature to have, and you can also pretend that you’re James Bond at the same time….awesome! The vibrating alert that it gives out is powerful enough to make you take notice as well, so if you’re dancing in a loud night club you won’t miss a call from your friends asking where you are.

On to the design of the watch, and this is where my main gripe is, being an avid fan of retro clothing (yes I’m an indie boy) the watches futuristic design doesn’t really suit any attire which I decide to throw on. This won’t affect everyone as most will find the futuristic look enticing but for me a simple, old-fashioned watch with this feature would’ve made me look and think “I’ve got to have one of those”. The design is similar to a bangle and is open at one end to make it easier to slip on and the interior rubber grips give it a comfortable feel as well so you won’t keep adjusting it.

This is also a strong plus point for me, again not for everyone, as I have an allergy to certain types of metal so I don’t have to worry about breaking out into a rash which looks rather unsightly so if you’re suffering from a similar allergy to me then you can rest assured that you can wear this in comfort.

To tell the time you need to simply press one of the buttons on the side of the watch and it brings up a digital clock displaying the time in 24 hour format. After a few seconds the time will disappear and it goes back to looking like another wrist band what you’re wearing so it is quite discrete as well (although at roughly 30mm’s wide it’s a rather large wrist band).

To get it to work is relatively simple as well. When you first get the watch it will need charging up, this took me about 30 minutes to give it a charge so it could turn on but to fully charge the battery it can take up to a rather lengthy 3 hours but from this you’ll easily get a day and a half to 2 days of use. The packaging quotes 72 hours of standby time, but once it’s paired and you’re getting a fair few phone calls, you will notice that the battery life will start to drain quicker.

To pair it to your phone you have to hold down the second of the two buttons on the side for around 5 seconds where the display will then show “pairing” and then find it on your phone and enter the password so it’s all pretty simple and easy to set up, it’s just the initial charging that takes the time.

All in all I think the SmartTime is a good idea but not really breath-taking and you can live without one, but for £34.95 I’ve seen watches that are a lot more expensive and they do far less.

Again I’d like to thank Mobile Fun for sending me the SmartTime to sample and review and I’d also like to point out that they do sell a wide range of other accessories, including a nice range of mobile phone covers.

Recently, Apple announced that they will be holding an education based media event in New York for what is rumoured to be an e-Books based event, this Thursday, January 19th, of 2012.

According to sources from Macotakara, the company could be planning/holding another media event to unveil Apple’s third-generation iPad, in early February which ties in with an earlier report from Bloomberg, where they said the iPad 3 will debut in February in time for a March launch.

A new report from Japanese publication Macotakara claimed an iPad 3 launch event would take place in early February. The report cited sources in the U.S. and Asian supply chain and said the new iPad will most likely be released in early March.

The Apple iPad 3 is rumored to have a high-resolution display of 2048×1536, quad-core processor (maybe the A6 chip in it), LTE functionality, improvements with the front camera getting a FaceTime HD camera and the back camera similar to the iPhone 4 or 4[s], as well as a new design with a slight curve to it, and more coming day by day. As usual, keep your eyes peeled here, as we will deliver all breaking news regarding Apple and their iDevices.

(via 9to5Mac)

“Future Shop said scam artists bought Apple’s popular tablet computers with cash, replaced the devices with bags of model clay, resealed the boxes and returned them. The returned fakes were then put back on the shelf and sold to unsuspecting customers. It really saddens Future Shop that people stoop to be this opportunistic and make money is this kind of organized way.”

One customer bought his wife an iPad 2 for Christmas only for her to be shocked when she received a lump of modeling clay inside the box where the iPad 2 should be. To make things worse, when the customer returned the iPad 2 box with the modeling clay inside, he was apparently treated like a criminal by the stores manager.

Thankfully Future Shop has confirmed that it has refunded the customer and given them a free iPad 2 as compensation.

Well with iOS 5.1 beta 3 it seems that Facebook is going to receive some similar integration.

Looking around inside the new developers build of iOS 5.1 iMore discovered that Facebook has its own entry field into in the Contacts.app right below Twitter.

Let us know in the comments if you prefer Facebook to Twitter.

Update….

After more research from our very own Nazaroth it seems that this feature is available on iOS 5.0.1. However it only shows if a Twitter username has been entered into the contact.

After CES it appears the company that is currently leading the race to land a deal with apple is HzO, who are claiming that their WaterBlock Superhydrophobic coating is better than all of the competitions, and it seems that they have managed to get Apple’s attention.

HzO recently told Pocket-lint:

“We showed the Samsung Chairman the technology with a Samsung Galaxy S that we had coated with HZO and he couldn’t believe his eyes,” a representative of the company told us. “Samsung is really excited by the tech.”

The company has told us that they are also talking to Apple as well, hoping to be able to let Apple make the iPhone 5 waterproof.

“We expect HzO to be in next season’s phones,”

Apple did have over 250 employee’s stationed at CES, possibly looking for new technologies to implement on the Apple bandwagon, and it’s possible that one of their employees stopped at the HzO booth and liked what they saw.

It isn’t known if Apple is currently looking to work out a deal with HzO, but we will keep you posted with any further information as it becomes available.

This may seem to be a bit odd and I have to say I have thought to myself how strange it would be to own a mobile phone without a camera but the Singapore carriers have good reason to be offering this.

Following a year-long review, Mindef recently issued guidelines to its servicemen on the use of such smartphones.

It is understood that servicemen with these phones must show a certificate to prove that their handsets were modified by any one of the local telcos.

Last September, Mindef spokesman Desmond Tan told The Straits Times that Mindef and the SAF were ‘exploring ways to allow our personnel to use smartphones while maintaining our current security policy on disallowing personal image-capturing devices to be used on Mindef/SAF premises’

Now there is a catch to this however. These iPhone’s will not come with any Apple warranty as they have not been sanctioned by Apple themselves, it will be the work of the carriers in Singapore that will be stripping the cameras straight out of the devices.

Grooveshark has made it’s way back on to the iPhone and iPad, thanks to an all new mobile-friendly HTML5 Web App that the company has built from scratch, this means that there will be no Adobe flash required, it is just HTML5 and lets you stream music across various platforms.

The mobile-friendly HTML5 Web App supports these platforms, iOS (both iPad and iPhone including iPod touch as well), Android 2.3+, Blackberry Playbook, and the HP TouchPad.

Grooveshark was released into the Apple AppStore back in August 2010, but it didn’t last long, because a few hours later on the same day the Grooveshark team had received a letter from Apple basically saying that they had received a complaint from the Universal Music Group UK, due to that the company decided to remove the app from the ITunes AppStore.

After that, the Grooveshark team decided to release the free-service app into the Jailbreak world without being under Apple’s command and you could have the app on your iPhone by going in to Cydia and downloading it (and you still can) but if you haven’t got a Jailbroken device there was no way you could get it, until now.

Grooveshark is a music streaming service that allows users to search for, stream, and upload music you like that will be played instantly on your device or you could add it in to a playlist, which brings all the music you want to listen to and puts it in to a group of music for you to listen anytime and anywhere. For unlimited access and no ads on mobile, you can get Grooveshark Anywhere for $9 per month.

Grooveshark is one of the many streaming services, like Spotify and Pandora (US only) that allow you to stream music instantly without the need to download it first.

If you check out MyGreatPhone and MyGreatTablet everyday you know that recently Amazon had launched a HTML5 web app for the iPad that allows customers to purchase Kindle ebooks, Apple didn’t let Amazon offer purchase links for ebooks in its native iOS app because it violated the App Store’s guidelines.

You can have access to the HTML5 web app at http://html5.grooveshark.com/ on your mobile device.

Apple has been offering its Recycling programme in the US for iPads and iPhone since August 2011, and now they have opened it up to other countries including the UK, France and Germany.

The programme works by entering the details about your device such as the make, model and the condition and then Apple gives you a price for it.

 Unlike the US programme though where Apple send you a gift card, in the UK, France and Germany once your device has been inspected to make sure its all good and in the condition you said it was they will deposit the money into your bank account.

The programme has 2 different parts to it the first is one is one to recycle your Computer, iPad to iPhone. This is the one that will get money paid into your account, the other option is for Apple to recycle your old iPod or mobile phone.

Recycling your old mobile or iPod can be done in 2 ways: either post it to Apple for them to sort out, or if your heading to the Apple Store anyhow take them with you. Taking your old device to the Apple store will get you 10% off a new iPod.

Now this is one way to get rid of your old tech to make way for the new stuff.

The PopSockets case for the iPhone 4/4S literally makes your iPhone Pop and Lock.

The case is the brain child of David Barnett, a professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado-Boulder. David has spent a year designing the PopSockets Case and after over 60 design cycles he managed to team up with the people over at Speck Designs. Between David and the Speck Design people that have really come up with a case that both serves a purpose and has great design.

The case has 2 sockets in the back that expand allowing the iPhone to stand up and be used in many different ways. Either both of the sockets can be popped out at the same time or you can just pop out one of them.

David only needs $12,000 worth of backers to get the PopSockets case to be manufactured and guess what, because the case is that good with 28 days left the KickStarter Project has already been 111% funded.

The case can be used to hold your earbuds, prop your iPhone in either landscape or portrait mode and can help with holding the device and texting with just one hand.

The cases will come with two solid-colored sockets with the cases themselves looking bright and certainly attracting attention. David has also teamed up with Brainbowinc to offer the sockets in some funky designs.

To help the project out and secure yourself one of the first PopSockets cases then you can back them starting from just $1.

• £1: A link to an uncut version of my Kickstarter video.
• $25: One PopSockets case in the color of your choice… Sockets will be a solid colour.
• $40: One PopSockets case in the color of your choice…. 2 sets of designer sockets.
• $60: Two PopSockets case in the color of your choice…. 2 sets of designer sockets.
• $100: Two PopSockets cases, colors of your choice, plus a link to a dance video tailored to the song of your choice.
• $150: Six PopSockets cases, colors of your choice, with 6 extra pairs of designer sockets, designs of your choice.
• $500: Twenty PopSockets cases, colors of your choice, and David will join your next dance party either in person or by Skype video (depending on location)
• $1000: All of the above and a plus a big than you.

One of the best things about the project is Davids video make sure you check it out right here

Honestly though its nice to see a fresh design in an iPhone case and the PopSockets case is certainly fresh. I personally can’t wait to see the end product.

If your a Facebook fan and you want to keep an eye on the PopSockets Project then head to their fan page.

For iPhone 4[s] users it’s been a long 3 month wait for a jailbreak and for iPad 2 users who updated to iOS 5 it has been a lengthy 7 months but it looks like there is finally light at the end of the tunnel as @pod2g announced this on his blog post…

“Here are some news about the current work on the A5 research. @planetbeing escaped from the sandbox with the help of @saurik. Thanks to their awesome work, there should be nothing left blocking for the A5 jailbreak. Now it should be a matter of days. Still no precise ETA of course. We all want this to be finished ASAP, we’re getting tired!”

This post surely shows that the ‘dream team’ has made huge progress over the last few days. It was recently reported that the hackers had cleared sandbox and resolved all of the major blocking issues but there was still no update as to when we could expect a jailbreak to be released and today @pod2g has stated that it’s only a matter of days although this is an estimate.

The team, who are still working tirelessly to get a jailbreak released, could face a lot more problems between now and a release date but this shows that they are getting ever closer to achieving their goal.

Keep checking back here for more updates as it appears that an A5 jailbreak could literally be here any day.