Author: Sajin Seethi

So we all know iPad 2 is coming. We were expecting it to be out around April, but a we have a news from a source that it will be arriving this January. And this time its not Magical, but Mind Blowing. This news as real as it sounds could also be a misleading one, so take it with a pinch of salt. The story comes from the Japanese blog Macotakara, who say they got it from an anonymous source in China. According to them the iPad 2 keeps the same 9.7 inch screen but the bezel gets 3mm smaller. The back will be flat like the iPod touch instead of the curved one we have now, and there will be a wide range speaker covered with metal mesh at the bottom. That matches the cutout on those leaked iPad 2 cases from earlier this month, maybe a bit too nicely!!

Now for the bad news. The same blog says the two cameras rumor (front cam for FaceTime and a rear one for video) is unreliable info. Also the January date is when the factories are supposed to start shipping, so it may still line up with the April launch everyone was talking about. Digitimes had said earlier that Foxconn would ship the first 400,000 to 600,000 units within 100 days. So dont sell your iPad just yet. Watch the video and stay tuned.

Partly reconstructed with AI. This post’s full text was lost when the site went offline. Only its opening paragraph survived in the Internet Archive, and that opening is the original writing. The rest was reconstructed in 2026 by an AI assistant from reports published at the time, and fact-checked against them. Sources used: marketplace.org, engadget.com, techcrunch.com, gizmodo.com, techcrunch.com.

Apple Remote App has been updated to version 2.1 to support Apple’s latest Airplay feature along with some other improvements. The new update brings • AirPlay video support to control iTunes on your computer to stream videos to an Apple TV • Internet radio control to play thousands of internet radio streams in iTunes on your computer • And you can now control iTunes to play movies and TV shows you rented from the iTunes Store. Apple also says its fixed the issues with connecting to an iTunes library or an Apple TV, plus the usual stability and performance improvements.

If you were wondering, Airplay itself came in only a month back with iOS 4.2 and the 4.1 software update for the new Apple TV, both on November 22nd. So this is Apple getting the Remote app caught up with it. What you get now is your phone telling iTunes on the Mac or PC to push a video across to the Apple TV, which sounds like a long way around for one video, but we want to try it before complaining.

The app is free and its a universal one, so the same download works on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. You need iOS 3.1.2 or later. This is the second update in three months for Remote, version 2.0 landed on September 28th with iPad and Retina support. Grab it from the App Store and stay tuned.

Partly reconstructed with AI. This post’s full text was lost when the site went offline. Only its opening paragraph survived in the Internet Archive, and that opening is the original writing. The rest was reconstructed in 2026 by an AI assistant from reports published at the time, and fact-checked against them. Sources used: 9to5mac.com, iclarified.com, appleinsider.com, macworld.com, engadget.com.

A new update for wordpress for iOS is available in the app store. The new version 2.6.3 brings a lot of bug fixes for better functionality. The main fixes include fix for multilogin issue, fixes for several crashes in different circumstances and other improvements.

The announcement went up on the WordPress mobile apps blog on the 20th, where the team calls it a ton of bug and crash fixes plus some performance improvements. The login one is listed as the multisite login issue, so thats for you if you run a network of blogs. Four of the twelve fixes are crashes and we had hit a couple of these ourselves. The app used to die when you deleted a media item, tapped the Pages tab after deleting a draft, opened settings while adding a blog, or replied to a comment.

Self hosted users get something too. The occasional “Communication Error” and NSXMLParserErrorDomain messages on WordPress.org blogs are sorted, XML-RPC handling is improved and HTTP Auth is no longer switched on by default. The rest is a mixed bag. Video uploads to WordPress.com without a VideoPress upgrade now work, and theres a favicon refresh fix and corrected contributor permissions.

Thats the third point release since 2.6 arrived in September. Its still one universal app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The team wants feedback in the forums and on Twitter, so go shout if something is broken.

Partly reconstructed with AI. This post’s full text was lost when the site went offline. Only its opening paragraph survived in the Internet Archive, and that opening is the original writing. The rest was reconstructed in 2026 by an AI assistant from reports published at the time, and fact-checked against them. Sources used: wpmobileapps.wordpress.com, wpmobileapps.wordpress.com, wpmobileapps.wordpress.com, wordpress.org, wpmobileapps.wordpress.com.

Its finally here. Google voice service from a simple HTML5 Web app is now available as a native app for the iPhone. The app features Cheap rates for international calls Free text messaging to U.S. numbers Voicemail transcription Display your Google Voice number as caller ID when making calls In addition to these features, you can turn on push notifications, so the app pings you the moment a new voicemail or text lands, which the web app never did. Calls go out over Direct Access Numbers now, so they dial quicker, and it reads your iPhone contacts so you dont have to type numbers in.

Its free and needs iOS 3.1 or later. Its not VoIP either, when you dial it hands you over to the regular Phone app and the call goes out on your carrier minutes. Bad news for us though. Google Voice is still a US only service, so unless you have a spare US number theres not much here yet.

And the wait?? Google submitted this thing about a year and a half ago and Apple sat on it long enough for the FCC to start asking questions about why it got rejected. Apple loosened its App Store rules in September and the app finally went through. Google says iPad and iPod touch support is coming later, so stay tuned.

Partly reconstructed with AI. This post’s full text was lost when the site went offline. Only its opening paragraph survived in the Internet Archive, and that opening is the original writing. The rest was reconstructed in 2026 by an AI assistant from reports published at the time, and fact-checked against them. Sources used: macrumors.com, googlesystem.blogspot.com, techcrunch.com, venturebeat.com, fortune.com.

A little while ago we told you through twitter that Twitter For iPhone was getting push support for mentions soon. And now we’re glad to tell you the update is here. The new version also supports the forthcoming iOS 4.2 firmware, one touch Geo-Tagging, better display of shortened URLs and also packs the support for reserved Twitter.com paths like twitter.com/newtwitter, which wouldnt load properly earlier. There’s also a fix for that connection error you get when your phones clock is set wrong, plus more retina graphics.

You get notified the moment someone @mentions you or sends you a direct message, and theres a badge on the app icon telling you how many you havent read yet. If you were wondering whether every random mention is going to buzz your phone, no. You can choose to hear only from the people you follow, or from anyone who mentions you. Twitter says they want you to see the important Tweets “even when you’re not looking at Twitter.”

iPad users get their share too: inline media, saved search management and a bunch of UI tweaks. And even if youre not on an iPhone, you can get mention alerts by SMS from twitter.com/devices. Android and Windows Phone 7 users, push is coming there as well, but Twitter didnt say when. The app is at version 3.2 and its free. Go get it !!

Partly reconstructed with AI. This post’s full text was lost when the site went offline. Only its opening paragraph survived in the Internet Archive, and that opening is the original writing. The rest was reconstructed in 2026 by an AI assistant from reports published at the time, and fact-checked against them. Sources used: macstories.net, macrumors.com, techcrunch.com, idownloadblog.com, johnsphones.com.

Last night, Apple approved the latest version of Evernote for iPhone, iPad and iPod (v 3.4) This updates includes some exciting new features and take advantage of the capabilities of the upcoming iOS 4.2. The new operating system adds support for multi-tasking on iPad, which works great in Evernote. Here’s a list of the new features that are available right now. Image multi select is the one I was waiting for. You can pick as many photos as you like from the camera roll at once, and either put them in one note (5 images max) or let Evernote spread them over several notes. One catch, location services has to be on or it wont work.

Audio notes go up to 90 minutes now, and you can play, pause and replay inside the note. No more Quicktime taking over!! Headphones, car kits and the dock player control playback too.

The rest needs 4.2. Evernote registers itself for PDF, TXT, WAV, MP3, HTML and several others, so Safari and Mail show an Open In button on PDFs and text files that drops them into a new note. Third party apps can do the same. Theres a print option in the note’s Send To menu as well, but you need the latest OS X with AirPrint configured and an AirPrint printer on the network. Its still free, and they just passed 5 million users. Stay tuned.

Partly reconstructed with AI. This post’s full text was lost when the site went offline. Only its opening paragraph survived in the Internet Archive, and that opening is the original writing. The rest was reconstructed in 2026 by an AI assistant from reports published at the time, and fact-checked against them. Sources used: web.archive.org, web.archive.org, web.archive.org, adweek.com.

Tata Docomo commenced their 3G services on November 5th. They have been providing free upgrade to existing users and unlimited 3G access to all the new and exisiting subscribers for a week’s time(Nov 5th-Nov 11th). From November 10th onwards, the new tariff will be go live and users can choose suitable tariff for them. So I went through the list and heres what you get. Docomo is the first private operator to do 3G in India, BSNL and MTNL apart, and its live in nine circles including Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra-Goa, on HSPA+ rated upto 21.1Mbps.

Prepaid starts at Rs 350 for 500 minutes and 150MB with 30 day validity, and goes up to Rs 2000 which gives 5000 minutes of voice or video calls with 2GB of data. Postpaid starts at Rs 500 for 750 minutes and 250MB. If you dont want a bundle, theres pay per use data at 1 paisa per KB, which is Rs 10 a MB.

For data alone theres a Rs 200 pack for 200MB and Rs 500 for 650MB, both 30 days, plus a Rs 90 pack with 100MB for a week. Data card users get 15GB for Rs 2000, after which you drop to 256kbps. Recharge before December 31st and theres 100MB extra free every month for the first two months. Were in the Kerala circle so we’ll test it and report back. Stay tuned!!

Partly reconstructed with AI. This post’s full text was lost when the site went offline. Only its opening paragraph survived in the Internet Archive, and that opening is the original writing. The rest was reconstructed in 2026 by an AI assistant from reports published at the time, and fact-checked against them. Sources used: cellpass.wordpress.com, oneindia.com, fonearena.com, lightreading.com, telecomtalk.info.

Google services just keep getting better and better. Today they have redesigned the mobile news page to perfectly fit it into your smartphone(Android, iPhone and Palm Pre) screens. They expanded the story space to make tapping on articles easier and more accurate. Tapping anywhere on an article headline or snippet opens it up, and clicking on a section heading opens up that topic section on your screen. The other change is that stories now come up collapsed by default, so theres a lot less scrolling. If you want to dig into a story just tap on ‘More sources’ and it expands to show related stories from other sources. Google has put screenshots of the collapsed and expanded views up on their mobile blog if you want a look.

If you were wondering, this is a follow up to the makeover Google News got last November for iPhone, Android and Palm Pre, which gave the phone version the same look and personalization as the desktop site. Todays enhancements are rolling out globally and theres nothing to download, just point your phones browser to news.google.com and it should be there.

Already a reader on the Google blog is asking for a proper Google News app for Android, and we wouldnt mind one either!! Do let us know in the comments if the new look has shown up on your phone yet.

Partly reconstructed with AI. This post’s full text was lost when the site went offline. Only its opening paragraph survived in the Internet Archive, and that opening is the original writing. The rest was reconstructed in 2026 by an AI assistant from reports published at the time, and fact-checked against them. Sources used: googlemobile.blogspot.com, googlemobile.blogspot.com, news.googleblog.com, googlemobile.blogspot.com.

Searching with Google on your Windows Phone 7 device just got easier. The Google Search app for Windows Phone 7 provides quick and convenient access to a rich set of search results, allowing you to search the web, images, local, news, and more. This initial release of the Google Search app includes several features to help you search faster: suggestions appear automatically as you type, you can choose to repeat a query from your search history, and your current location is used to provide more relevant results.

The Google Search app is a free download for all Windows Phone 7 devices and languages. Just search the Marketplace for ‘Google Search’, download, pin to Start, and the power of Google Search is only a click away.

Thats the word from Jon Skeet and Nick Radicevic on the Google Mobile team. The app landed yesterday, the same day WP7 phones went on sale in the US on AT&T and T-Mobile, so Google is sitting right there in the Marketplace of a Microsoft phone!! Fortune also notes the suggestions as you type is something Microsofts own Bing app for Android doesnt do. And if you cant find it straight away you are not alone, one commenter on the Google post eventually dug it up under Tools/Free. Let us know how it works for you.

Partly reconstructed with AI. This post’s full text was lost when the site went offline. Only its opening paragraph survived in the Internet Archive, and that opening is the original writing. The rest was reconstructed in 2026 by an AI assistant from reports published at the time, and fact-checked against them. Sources used: googlemobile.blogspot.com, thenextweb.com, fortune.com.