iOS

App maker Occipital has provided a working demo of Apple's newly integrated gyroscope support in Mobile Safari using images created by 360 Panorama, Occipital's great panoramic photography App for iOS 4.2.

The site, when visited by an iOS device with a gyroscope and running iOS 4.2.1, allows you to view photographs taken with the 360 Panorama App by simply moving the device. Based on your iPhone's orientation the photograph will follow. I had to keep my iPhone fairly vertical in order for the gyroscope to read properly, but the experience was pretty fun considering … Read more

Apple has posted job listings for engineers specializing in voice technologies such as speech recognition, iOS software development for speech applications, and speech research.

Apple recently filed for patents related to greater integration of voice commands throughout iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch apps, including a customizable API that developers could use to include voice control in their software.

The recent job postings on Apple's Web site suggest that this patent, along with other voice control technologies (such as the purchase of Siri earlier this year), are being taken seriously. Each of the four open positions relate specifically to sectors … Read more

Apple has rolled out a new tool for developers looking to create ads for iAd, the company's mobile-ad platform.

Launched yesterday, the new iAd Producer is designed to help developers create, test, and launch mobile-ad campaigns to run under iAd. Freely available to any paid member of Apple's iOS Developer Program, iAd Producer runs under Mac OS X 10. (No word from Apple on a possible Windows version.)

The software presents a visual design layout in which developers can specify the device they wish to design for and then see how their ad would flow from page to … Read more

When my boss asks me what tablets I expect to see at CES, I have to laugh a little. It's a nervous laugh. Maybe I'm overreacting, but with the iPad's breakout success this year, I'm expecting a tidal wave of tablets at CES 2011.

There are the obvious elephants in the room. RIM will surely be making a fuss about its PlayBook. HP should have a WebOS tablet to show off (or risk humiliation, at this point). And as for Microsoft, if we don't see a branded tablet we should at least see a convincing … Read more

If you like Yelp, but you're after much more granular information on food and drink, then Spork is just what you need to fulfill your craving. This iPhone app (and its companion Web site) lets you simply enter any food or drink item and then populates a list of options nearby, most of them with ratings and comments by other Spork users. In this way, you can determine the best spot for al pastor tacos, cupcakes, dirty martinis, and just about any other tasty treat you're after. In addition, you can rate and recommend dishes yourself as well … Read more

Sony has unveiled a PlayStation app for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and Android-based devices.

The product, appropriately dubbed the Official PlayStation App, will enable people to access the PlayStation Network to see their trophies and check on their friends' status, as well as see news related to Sony's gaming ecosystem. The app will also include a social feature for users to share information on Facebook, Twitter, or through e-mail. There was no mention of gameplay in the announcement, which surfaced on PlayStation's European blog.

The free app will be available to those running iOS 4 or Android 1.… Read more

Apple has released a couple of updates, one being for the AppleTV operating system software that addresses a couple of issues with high-definition output and downloading TV episodes and movies. The second set of updates is a set of printer drivers for use with OS X. The latest updates include drivers from Canon, Lexmark, and FujiXerox.

AppleTV software update

The AppleTV firmware update is for the second-generation AppleTV units and is available only through software update on AppleTV devices. It will bring the installed OS version to 4.2.1 instead of the previous 4.2.0. According to Apple'… Read more

Apple and Android continue to duke it out for the top spot on Millennial Media's ad network.

Each of the two competing platforms captured 38 percent of all smartphone ad impressions (how often an ad appears) in the U.S. for November, according to Millennial Media's "November Mobile Mix Report." That number reflects a 1 percentage point gain in ad impressions for both Apple and Android from October's results following Android's 6 percentage point gain and Apple's 9 percentage point drop from September.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion took third place on Millennial … Read more

After introducing an API that allowed developers to check on an iOS device to see if its operating system had been compromised (read: jailbroken) less than six months ago, Apple has now unexpectedly dropped the functionality from iOS 4.2.1.

The jailbreak detection API was part of the mobile device management (MDM) API which was introduced with iOS 4 in June this year, according to NetworkWorld. Now, device management vendors say Apple has dropped the API while also saying that there are alternatives to checking on whether an iOS device has been jailbroken.

So, it remains a mystery as … Read more