iPhone4idiots » iPad

Free Live TV on Your iPhone iPad or iPod

hirtme — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 02:18:06 +0000

UPDATE 5/2/2012 Website is now just a landing page for ads. These things never last long.

I know things have been depressing ever since the USA shutdown MegaUpload. Well here is something I hope cheers you up. Open Safari on your iPhone, iPod or iPad and goto iOSLiveTV. There is no jailbreak required. The home screen gives you seven choices (United States, United Kingdom, Deutschland, France, Italia, PoccNR and XXX). The channel selection is massive. I haven’t looked through them all, but the United States includes (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, Syfy, USA, A&E, Showtime, Cinemax, FX, ESPN, ESPN 2, Fox Soccer, TNT, History, MTV, Food Network, Discovery, CNN, Spike, truTV, Speed and more). The network stations include a East and West feed and there is even a channel guide showing what comes on next.
I’ve spent a few hours streaming over 3G and the quality is really great. There are a few adds, but nothing intrusive once you start streaming. The few times it stopped all I had to do was tap the play button again and it picked right back up. The stream is about 40 seconds behind the cable feed. Watching over 3G will eat through your data plan fast so you probably want to stick to wifi. Websites like this have popped up in the past, but they never last long. I’m sure you’ll be reading more about iOSLiveTV’s legal troubles soon.

Countries to Choose TV From

Channel Guide Showing What Comes on Next

Live Stream of ESPN

iPad Mini Coming in Fall?

hirtme — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 04:02:44 +0000

Here we go again. CNet reported that Apple will release an iPad Mini this Fall. Speficially, that six million units are being prepared that will sell for $249 to $299. I still say not going to happen for the reasons I mentioned back in February. I keep reading that the Kindle Fire sold so well that Apple is going after that market. Really, how many has Amazon sold? Amazon seems quiet on that number. Are they over 10 million yet? I kind of hope it does happen even though that would make me wrong. How would it look. No way it could have a retina display at that price. What would be the quality of the cameras? Yeah, I really just don’t see it happening.

New iPad Complaints

hirtme — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:26:42 +0000

It’s hard not to laugh at all the articles that pop up after a new iOS product launches claiming a fatal flaw. Antennagate with the iPhone 4 is to blame I guess. Anyway, there have been a few complaints making the rounds on blogs regarding the new iPad. First is TooHotGate. The new iPad has a bigger battery (about 70% bigger than the iPad 2) so if it runs for awhile it gets hotter than the iPad 2 which has a smaller battery. This is common sense. Those claiming it is too hot to hold and can burn someone are crazy. Not to say Apple won’t get hit with a product liability lawsuit. I’m pretty sure they will. I can see it now. Some guy fell asleep watching TV with the iPad in his lap and when he woke up his pants were on fire. It’s only like 5 degrees more and certainly is less hot than my old Macbook Pro. Thank God for aluminum backing. BTW, in winter I find a warm iPad in my lap better than a blanket. It’s not a problem. As pathetic as TooHotGate sounds there are other big ones even more ludacris.

I”m consuming way more data on my LTE iPad. No kidding, I’ve mentioned this for over a year. Give me more speed, I’ll consume more data. Blasting through your data plan? Then get an unlimited one or start using wifi more often.

Why does the new iPad take so long to charge? For me about 6:30 hours for the new iPad compared to just under 5 for the iPad 2. Mind you I’ve only ran this test three times. Why? Oh yeah, the battery is 70% bigger. Also, there are reports that when the new iPad battery shows 100% charged it really isn’t. It can actually continue to charge for over an hour. Just a minor software adjustment I’m sure Apple will make with the next iOS update.

The new iPad’s run time is about 20% less if run at full brightness. Wait. What? I thought you said the new iPad had a bigger battery? The key part here is “run at full 100% brightness”. You know the best way to conserve battery is to keep your brightness down as low as you can. But at times (like watching a dark video) I bump it up to 100%. If you have your brightness at 100% the new iPad display uses so much more juice that even the bigger battery won’t last as long as iPad 2. Yes, there are that many more lights and pixels for the new iPad. Why do you think the display looks so good.

Honestly, I think these complaints have to be coming from people that don’t own the new iPad.

iPhoto App Review

hirtme — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 02:58:43 +0000

iPhoto is an awesome $4.99 app for your iPad. It only comes for iOS 5.1, but you can see how to install it on 5.0.1 here. Editing your camera roll on the new iPad is a delight. Pictures look great. Rotation and cropping are likely the two features you’ll use most, but making journals is great for a lot of the mom’s out there. Here’s my full review.

New iPad 3 Jailbreak Update

hirtme — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:59:09 +0000

Good news on those wanting an untethered jailbreak for the new iPad 3. It won’t take nearly as long as the iPad 2. @i0n1c @chpwn @phoenixdev all showed pictures and/or video of a jailbroken new iPad 3 (5.1 firmware). It still might be over a month before there is a public release, but with progress made by so many and even using different methods I’m betting it isn’t much more than a month. Heck, Geohot could get back into the game as well. You never know.

iPad 3 Camera Makes Me Want iPhone 5

hirtme — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:43:09 +0000

OK, first off I still say you look ridiculous using your iPad to take photos or film video. There are cases where it makes sense, but for the most part the iPad camera is silly (I’ll use my iPhone). The new iPad 3 has the same VGA front camera as the iPad 2. This is mainly used for FaceTime. They bumped the rear camera upto 5 megapixels and gave it the name iSight camera. Now the video quality compared to the iPad 2 is shockingly better. Why this has me excited is the iPhone 5 will surely have not only LTE support but the iSight camera with I’ll say ten megapixels. I’m never buying another digital camera again. One tip when filming hold your iPad in landscape viewing position. The clip will import into iMovie in better dimensions for editing.

New iPad 3 vs iPad 2

hirtme — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:52:06 +0000

Yes, I’m calling it the iPad 3 for now as that makes the most sense. I’d love to do an LTE speedtest, but as you know I continue to say wifi only iPad is the way to go. Second, I’m not sure Verizon or AT&T has their LTE network up and running in Nashville yet. So i picked up a new 16GB iPad at Walmart last night. When asked for color I said, “surprise me” and ended up with black. As expected, the biggest difference without question is the retina display. It’s a big difference. Like put a iPhone 3S next to an iPhone 4. I also like Siri dictation and the video camera quality is better than the iPad 2 for sure even though I still feel like a moron using it that way. Watch this 30 second video comparing the video quality of the rear camera of the iPad 3 vs. iPad 2. It is almost shockingly noticeable. Then click continue reading to see the main differences and why you should buy the iPad 3.

So is the iPad 3 worth it. Well here are the differences.

Display – Both are 9.7′ LED Backlit LCD, but the new iPad 3 has a much higher resolution and it’s noticeable. The iPad 2 is 1024×768 (132ppi) compared to the new iPad 3 2048×1536 (264ppi).

Processor – The iPad 2 has the 1GHz A5 chip while the new iPad 3 has the A5x. It’s similar other than it has a quad core graphics card.

RAM – The new iPad 3 has twice the RAM compared to the iPad 2. 1GB as opposed to 512MB. You might not notice it today, but that extra RAM will come in handy if you are playing games or have lots of apps running in the background.

Rear Camera – The iPad 2 can take 720p video while the new iPad 3 can capture 1080p video. I was surprised how noticeable the difference was. The real question is will you use the rear camera?

LTE vs 3G – I say get wifi only, but if you are getting a data plan, the new iPad 3 has LTE which is way faster than 3G. Just make sure you can get it in you area.

So is it worth it? For the extra $100 I say yes.

Install iPhoto on 5.0.1

hirtme — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 14:56:16 +0000

iPhoto is a really cool app that I’ll review in a post shortly. While you can only download it if you are on 5.1 firmware, there is a simple work around to install it on a 5.0.1. It’s working great on my iPhone 4 and iPad 2. Here are the steps which I show in the video.
To install iPhoto on your jailbroken 5.0.1 iPhone 4 or iPad 2
1) Open iFile and goto System-Library-CoreServices and tap on SystemVersion.plist. Tap Property List Viewer and then change ProductVersion from 5.1 to 5.0.1. Respring.
2) Download iPhoto from Installous. You can get it from the App Store ($4.99) but I recommend against it. There are many reports of people having problems doing this. Use Installous.
3) Go back into iFile and change back to iOS 5.0.1 and respring again. Don’t skip this step. If you do iTunes and Cydia will remove any apps not compatible with 5.1 which it thinks you are on.
4) Open Cydia and install iPhoto501Fix package from BigBoss. That’s it. Works for iPhone 4 and iPad 2 on 5.0.1 jailbroken with Absinthe for sure.

Which iPad Should You Buy?

hirtme — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:40:50 +0000

So which iPad should you buy when it goes on sale Friday March 16? There are lots of choices and decisions to be made. I won’t go into all of them like black versus white as that is just a personal preference. However, I do have thoughts about wifi versus 4G and also about how the discounted iPad 2 might be the way to go. Of course a lot of this depends on how you use your iPad. Do you take it out of the house? Do you mainly read on it or watch videos? First, understand how you will use the iPad then decide which is right for you. That said, If you don’t own an iPad or own the original iPad the answer is yes buy one now. If you own an iPad 2, the decision comes down to how important the higher resolution display is to you. You might want to compare reading on them first. For the other choices

First all models of the iPad 3 (yes, that’s what I’m calling it for now) are the exact same other than storage size (16GB, 32GB or 64GB) and whether it is wifi only or wifi + LTE. As for storage size I still say 16GB is plenty. Unless you need to store a ton of music or videos on the device it will be enough. Most apps don’t use that much space. With iCloud you shouldn’t need to keep hundreds or thousands of photos on the device either. Even on trips there really isn’t much point to storing more than 10 hours of video since the battery will die before you can watch it all. Ten hours is about 4GB. So you really should save the money and get the 16GB version.

Wifi or LTE? To me it’s the same as the iPad 2. Why do you want to pay for another data plan when you can tether your iPhone (or other smartphone) when you need internet access and can’t get wifi. Not to mention that the LTE iPads cost more and wifi is pretty much everywhere these days. While LTE speeds are nice they may not be available in your area. Just wait and get the new iPhone with LTE this Fall. If you have to get an LTE iPad for some reason then the choice is AT&T or Verizon. I don’t have much of an opinion on this as I have no idea who has a better network where you live. I would say don’t get the cheapest AT&T 250 MB plan. You will certainly go over that and if you don’t you aren’t using your iPad enough.

What about the $399 iPad 2? I’ll do you one better, goto the Apple online store and find a $349 refurbished iPad 2. They are just like new. At that price I can’t fault anyone who chooses this option. Yes, the display isn’t as good and it has less RAM but other than that it’s just as good as the new iPad. It all depends how much you have to spend. That said, don’t be a fool and buy a Kindle Fire or Nook to try and save $150. Get the iPad 2.

I’ll be in line Friday and will Ebay my iPad 2 as soon as the new iPad has a jailbreak

Retina Display iPad 3 On Sale March 16

hirtme — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 19:32:46 +0000

Apple announced the iPad 3 at an event in San Francisco today. I’m updating for two reasons – the retina display and better performance the A5X chip and 1GB RAM will provide. This iPad will truly fly and the display is insane, but I’ll get into that in a minute. I’m a little dissapointed it doesn’t have Siri, but it will have a Siri button that will do voice dictation. Of course it’s coming in a 4G LTE model, but I could care less about that. Also, they upgraded the rear camera to 5 megapixels, but left the Facetime camera that I actually use the same. iOS 5.1 is now out, but don’t upgrade. There is nothing new and you’ll lose your jailbreak or option to jailbreak. They also annouced a new Apple TV, but that’s still a “hobby” for Apple and if you’ve ever owned an Apple TV you wouldn’t buy another one. So nothing earth shattering, but by maintaining the $499 price for a 16GB model I’ll happily buy one and Ebay my iPad 2. Speaking of the iPad 2, the price just dropped to $399 for the 16GB model. Why would anyone buy a Kindle Fire? For all the details

The iPad 3 will go on sale March 16 and keep the same price structure – $499 for the 16GB model. The iPad 3 will be 9.4 mm think and weigh 1.4 pounds (slightly more than the iPad 2). It will also support hotspot tethering for up to five devices if you carrier will allow it. I’ll stick to PdaNet which my carrier has never seemed to notice.

Retina Display – I’m a sucker for higher resolution. My entire family watches video on the iPad 2 so it will be better for their eyes right? Well, at least me and Kenny Powers (Eastbound and Down reference) think so. The iPad 3 9.7 inch diplay will have 2048×1536 pixels. That is 3.1 million pixels or over a million more than HDTV! It’s crazy. To be honest, I never really noticed any pixels on my iPad 2, but movies, videos and games are gonna look amazing. My five year old’s addiciton is going to get even bigger.

Much Faster – The other reason I’ll upgrade is for the speed. The iPad 3 will have a A5X chip which has a quad core graphics card and 1 GB RAM. This should make it run significantly faster than the iPad 2. I’m not geeky enough to know exactly how much, but given how quickly apps are becoming more demanding let alone the extra resources the retina display will use this should come in handy.

4G LTE - This is a huge deal for many, but not me. I have an iPhone and with tethering felt there was no point to having a 3G iPad 2. So I got the wifi only iPad 2 to save some money. That said, many did buy a 3G iPad 2 and for those upgrading a LTE iPad 3 is a no brainer. The data speeds will be at least twice as fast (assuming you can get LTE where you live). LTE will be available on Verizon, Rogers, Bell, Telus and AT&T. Again, make sure you can actually get LTE in your area first. Apple had to make two differnet models cause AT&T’s LTE technology is different that Verizons. Watching video and data consumption is really going to take off as 4G LTE devices hit the market. By far the number one thing on my iPhone 5 wish list is LTE.

Better Rear Camera – Don’t really care as I never use the rear facing camera, but it will be updated to 5 megapixels. It supposedly will have the ability to take 1080p video. However, if you are holding your iPad up to take pictures or video, I’m gonna use the superior camera on my iPhone to take a picture of how ridiculous you look and tweet it out to make fun of you. Sorry. The front facing camera remains unchanged. Bad if you are using FaceTime with Kate Upton. Maybe not so bad if you are using FaceTime at 6:00 AM with your mom.

Battery Life – One of the best things about all iOS devices is battery life. The new iPad will keep the same 10 hours of battery life (9 hours for the 4G LTE models).

iPhoto – Apple has also released a new photo editing app for $4.99. Sorry Adobe, but you are yesterday’s news.

What’s it called? Interestingly, they kept referring to it as the new iPad. Not iPad 3 or iPad HD. I guess they are trying to get away from the numbers? I mean it’s not Macbook Pro 22. It doesn’t really matter, but for now I’ll call it iPad 3 cause if you say iPad people are gonna thing your mean the orginal iPad 1.

So whose buying one??