We know how it is, you want to be a hotshot developer, but all that coding sounds like daunting work. Never mind, Apple’s got your back with its new iAds producer, which automates all the HTML5 and CSS3 stuff into the background and leaves you to focus on the crucial task of picking out templates and components for your perfect iAd. To be fair to this new dev tool, it does more than merely dumb down the design process. It also includes “sophisticated” JavaScript editing and debugging, a built-in simulator for testing your creation, and a project validator that checks your code for common errors. Hit the source link to give it a try.

Apple iAds Producer helps you produce iAds for iOS devices originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Dec 2010 06:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s no shortage of iPhone navigation apps out there, but we can’t say we’ve seen too many that come with 1.6GB of offline map data — especially for free. That’s the hook for NavFree USA, which just went live in the App Store — sure, it also has some interesting social features like crowdsourced map updates and navigating to friends, and you can buy add-ons like traffic and speed camera info, but we think most people will use the free turn-by-turn and call it a day. That is, until Apple builds navigation directly into the OS. PR after the break.

Update: Commenter marklarson just pointed out the hilariously misguided compass icon in the upper left there, and now we are downloading this app just to look at it whenever we need to be cheered up.

Continue reading NavFree launches free US iPhone navigation app with offline map data

NavFree launches free US iPhone navigation app with offline map data originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Dec 2010 18:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Radio Shack’s $149 price for the 16GB iPhone 4 just got undercut by a whole two bucks. We’ve been tipped off to Sam’s Club now offering the AT&T-locked device for a $147 fee, subject to the usual two-year agreement. This offer will run all the way until Christmas day, so if you have to have the cheapest possible fourth-gen iPhone, this’ll probably be it. The 3GS is also up for grabs at a thrifty $47, emulating its younger sibling’s $52 price cut. Is there anyone left who isn’t discounting smartphones this month?

iPhone 4 hits new low of $147 on contract at Sam’s Club this week originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Dec 2010 04:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft rolls out updated Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 14:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s practicing its self-imposed rule of supplier polygamy this week and Japan’s Nikkei is telling us all about it. It started off on Monday, when we learned that Toshiba’s throwing down some cash to build a new smartphone display production plant, with Apple as the key investor and subsequent consumer, and today we’re hearing pretty much the same story, only with Sharp playing the role of Japanese producer to Apple’s hardware whims. A “large portion” of the $1.2 billion cost — identical to what Toshiba’s said to be spending — of expanding Sharp’s Kameyama factory is expected to be shouldered by Jobs’ cash-rich crew, a postulation also confirmed by Reuters, who’s managed to dig up a pair of sources agreeing with the Nikkei. Our Japanese team reports that Sharp has made its expansion plans official, but obviously there’s nary a peep about any Apple connection, while DigiTimes says Toshiba has outright denied any involvement with Cupertino. Guess we’ll just have to wait for the iPhone 7 teardowns to find out.

Sharp investing $1.2b in expanding smartphone LCD production, Apple fingered as the major client originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 08:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know that killer new app you just got for your iPhone? Could you beam us a copy to try? Of course you can’t — it doesn’t work that way — but someday soon it might. The fine folks at Patently Apple recently unearthed an Apple patent app that describes a way to transfer apps over peer-to-peer Bluetooth or shiny, star-filled WiFi. The idea goes that if a company wants to spread a program by word of mouth, it might as well make it shareable too, and so the owner of an app could transfer an “application seed” to friends and associates with a similar device. You’d pick from a menu of apps to beam over, where only those greenlit by their developer would be available to send, and your recipient would receive a trial version — or somewhat less excitingly, a link to the App Store — over the air. The patent app suggests that recipients could even share the demo in turn, generating generation after generation of word-of-mouth sales, and that companies might even reward particularly influential sharers in some way. What’s that rumbling we hear? Just the gears turning in the minds of men plotting the next great pyramid scheme.

Apple looking to patent sharable apps, considers calling them ‘seeds’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 21:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlackBerry Desktop Software 2.0 for Mac OS brings WiFi music sync, broader iPhoto / iTunes support originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 03:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bringing this up with your local AT&T rep is liable to get you laughed out of the store, but things are a little different up in Canada where one of the major carriers is now offering an unlock service — for a fee. If you’re on Rogers (or its budget subsidiary, Fido) and you’re a customer in good standing with an iPhone that you’ve previously purchased from them and you’re not currently in a contract, you can pay $50 Canadian — that’s $50 US, for those of you not up to speed on current conversion rates — to have Rogers’ customer service reps flip a switch that’ll cause the phone to magically unlock the next time you restore it while connected to iTunes. Considering the restrictions, they should probably be offering the service for free, but it’s a start.

Rogers, Fido offering iPhone unlocks for $50 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 19:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We don’t normally cover the “business crime” beat, but there’s a pretty interesting gadget angle here. As part of a larger crack down on insider trading, three technology executives and a “salesman for an ‘expert network’” have been arrested for leaking confidential tips to hedge funds. What sort of secrets, you ask? A certain executive for Flextronics, Walter Shimoon, happened to pass on information concerning an iPhone update and the iPad well before they became official (Flextronics supplied Apple parts). “At Apple you can get fired for saying K48 … outside of a, you know, outside of a meeting that doesn’t have K48 people in it. That’s how crazy they are about it,” he said during an October 2009 phone call intercepted by authorities, where K48 wass the codename for the iPad, which didn’t see the light of day until 2010 (we’re assuming here that’s not all he said). The others arrested hail from AMD (leaking financial details) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, and a fifth person already plead guilty (a former Dell global supply manager). Remember, kids, crime doesn’t pay.

Apple secrets leaked early by inside traders, arrests reveal originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 18:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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“The Nokia inventions protected by these patents include several which enable compelling user experiences. For example, using a wiping gesture on a touch screen to navigate content, or enabling access to constantly changing services with an on-device app store, both filed more than ten years before the launch of the iPhone.”

The new Nokia patent claims are wide ranging covering user interface, on-device app stores, antenna structures, signal noise suppression, messaging functionality, chipsets, caller ID, display illumination, integration of multiple radios, and data card functionality. Click through for the full press release.

Continue reading Nokia ups the ante on Apple, adds 13 more patents to the 24 already asserted

Nokia ups the ante on Apple, adds 13 more patents to the 24 already asserted originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 08:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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