Apple today released iPhone OS 3.1.3 for iPhone and iPod touch which contians bug fixes and improvements, including the following:

• Improves accuracy of reported battery level on iPhone 3GS
• Resolves issue where third-party apps would not launch in some instances
• Fixes bug that may cause an app to crash when using the Japanese Kana keyboard

Products compatible with this software update:
• iPhone (all models)
• iPod touch (all models)

To update, select your device in iTunes and choose “Update” within the “Summary” tab.

A YouTube video and an unrelated tip have converged to spell out “iOS.”

According to our tipster, Apple will rename iPhone OS to “iOS” in order to “better reflect the diversity of devices that will run the operating system: iPhone, iPod touch, and future devices to be announced.”

A YouTube video, not from our tipster, from “artmach1″ shows “iOS” on a background that seems to closely match Apple’s special event invitation (see below) along with the text description: shaky cam grab out of some apple tablet presentation rehearsal for tomorrows brand new thing—I think any way. might have been enhanced from a pen cam or something. or hidden in a backpack or a box of equipment.

Direct link via YouTube here.

Source: MacDailyNews

“Yesterday we reported that Google’s long awaited own-brand phone, the Google Nexus One, hadn’t enjoyed the best start in life, having only sold 20,000 units in its first week in the US,” Adam Bunker reports for T3.

The Nexus One “has just had its price slashed,” Bunker reports.

“Up until today, anyone in the US who’d wanted to upgrade to the Nexus One on T-Mobile had to pay out $379,” Bunker reports. “With the price cut in effect, this figure stands at $279… Not only that, but anyone who’s already upgraded receive a $100 refund.”

Full article here.

Source: MacDailyNews

It’s no secret that Apple doesn’t like Flash. It won’t allow Flash apps to run on the iPhone or iPod Touch despite all of Adobe’s cajoling and pleading, and despite the fact that it’s long been working in the labs. The iPhone’s lack of support for Flash is a major inconvenience for both consumers and developers, and is a gaping hole in the iPhone’s arsenal.

But all of that is about to change because Adobe is going to bring its 2 million Flash developers to the iPhone, with or without Apple’s blessing. As it announced in October, the next version of its Flash developer tools, Creative Suite 5 (currently in private beta), will include a “Packager for iPhone” apps which will automatically convert any Flash app into an iPhone app. So while Flash apps won’t run on the iPhone, any Flash app can easily be converted into an iPhone app. (Microsoft is taking a similar approach with Silverlight). This is a bigger deal than many people appreciate.

Much of the focus in the Flash iPhone debate centers around the fact that Flash is the de facto video standard on the Web. For instance, whenever you encounter a Web page in your iPhone browser with a Flash video, instead of seeing it right there in the browser, the phone must open up a separate Quicktime player. Most video on the Web, including everything on YouTube, is displayed through a Flash player, so this gets to be tedious. Apple has always cited technical reasons for why it doesn’t support Flash. It’s a battery hog, it’s too slow for mobile phones, not capable enough, etc. Some of these issues are valid and Adobe has been addressing them to the point that Flash now works fine on Android.

[Read more →]

“Apple’s iPhone user base is now the second-largest in the U.S. smartphone market, passing Windows Mobile-based models to slip into the spot behind Research In Motion’s BlackBerry, research firm comScore said today,” Gregg Keizer reports for Computerworld.

“In the three months ending in October, Apple’s iPhone was used by nearly 9 million Americans as their primary phone, said Mark Donovan, senior analyst with Virginia-based comScore,” Keizer reports. “That compared with the almost 15 million who identified RIM as the maker of their primary smartphone in the monthly surveys comScore conducts of U.S. mobile subscribers over the age of 13. Phones powered by Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, meanwhile, were used by an estimated 7.1 million people during the same period.”

Keizer reports, “According to comScore, approximately 36 million Americans own a smartphone, while around 196 million rely on a traditional cell phone.”

Full article here.

Source: MacDailyNews