iCustom from Russia have done various modifications to the iPhone and iPods in the past. From what we can gather through its website, these include artwork, case colouring and ‘crystalising’ – Swarovski style. But none as radical as this, though the amount of information I was able to find with the help of Google translation was limited, you can clearly see from the picture that once you have this clear case replacement, there is no turning back.
While we were lazying our way through the Christmas break, it seems the U.S. Patent Office were doing quite the opposite. They revealed this interesting new patent application from Apple called Swipe Gestures for Touch Screen Keyboards. Apple suggests the use of swipe gestures to be used on top of the iPhone’s on screen keyboard in order to provide the user with quick access to common keys.
Here’s a quoted example of how this new patent will be used practically…
For example, erasing and basic punctuation insertion, directional swipes (also referred to herein as “swipe gestures”) over the alphabetic keys can be used as an alternative to striking certain keys. Because the Space and Backspace keys are quite frequently used, they are logical candidates for the rightward and leftward swipes, respectively. Leftward and rightward swipes intuitively match the cursor travel caused by these symbols. Following this cursor movement analogy, the Enter/Return may be invoked by a downward swipe, and a Shift/Caps may be invoked by an upward swipe. Alternatively, as the Enter and Shift functions may be less frequently invoked, these may be substituted for other functions as well. One alternative mapping for the upward swipe, for example, could be to activate an alternative numeric and punctuation keypad or a particular punctuation symbol like an apostrophe or period.
While no actual realistic product has actually come up, you will probably be able to imagine that it’s much like Apple’s latest multi touch enabled MacBooks but I would say it sounds more suited for the advanced users and also those who will appreciate quick access shortcuts. Let’s face it, you’re not going to find an old granny that will remember precisely which combination of strokes to go for to launch certain application.
If you asked me what the iPhone’s camera is missing, one of the major problem apart from just having a 2-megapixel camera is that there is no flash! The patent-pending Xenon attachment from Snapture, for iPhone produces an instantaneous flash more than 100 times brighter than any conventional LED flash accessory, it is like a case for the iPhone with the flash situated at the back just like what you would normally expect from a cameraphone. Now you can take pictures properly with your iPhone at night, even in total darkness!
As expected from the news we heard via the iPhone Dev Team’s blog last week, one of the team member MuscleNerd demonstrated live today their iPhone 3G unlock tool ‘yellowsn0w’. MuscleNerd first showed that his iPhone 3G was running AT&T, then after running the tool, his iPhone was able to recognise and get a signal through his T-Mobile sim.
[via iPhone Dev]
Let’s face it, we knew this was coming but didn’t realise the iPhone Dev Team would have been able to wave their magic wand this soon.
The hack, code-named yellowsn0w, is currently being packaged into a user-friendly application with the simplicity provided by similar tools such as the PwnageTool jailbreaking assistant and BootNeuter baseband unlocker.
A public release is slated for December 31st, New Year’s Eve, just in time to celebrate the New Year with an unlocked iPhone 3G!
iPhone jailbreakers who have been following us will have read from our firmware 2.2 jailbreak summary that the 3G unlock will require a jailbroken iPhone 3G that’s running baseband version 2.11.07 or earlier. To ensure that an iPhone preserves an unlockable version of the baseband, the Dev Team recommends that users refrain from using the QuickPwn tool or applying any of Apple’s iPhone software updates that aren’t already supported by the PwnageTool jailbreaking app (which is currently only on Mac).
[via iPhone Dev]
If you’ve been following us, you will know copy and paste is now finally available to us iPhone users, well sort of in a way… PasteBud‘s website is now open for access and if you’re looking to find out how it works and how to get it going, the video below will do the trick for you. It’s not difficult at all, complete within five minutes, completely free but you will need to be using either IE or Safari.
Do you have children who prefer to have night lights on but you never bought them one because you felt it was odd? Scosche’s latest iPhone gadget reviveLITE could be your chance satisfy those needs in addition to making an excuse to buying something for your iPhone.
The reviveLITE will certainly make you feel confident enough to sleep with your foot out of the covers and danging over the edge of the bed. It’s developed by Scosche Industries and will charge any and all iPods
and iPhones. All you have to do is plug it into a wall outlet and you are safe. The darkness coming from your open closet is a whole other story.
You can get the reviveLITE in black and white models for $39.99.
[via GearLog]
