Android 4.0 ICS Face Unlock System Ported To iPhone

Probably one of the most talked about features on the latest iteration of the Android operating system is the facial recognition unlock software that comes bundled with it. The ability to use your own face to unlock your mobile telephone or tablet is one of the coolest new updates we have seen implemented into a mobile operating system in recent times, but questions will always surround how secure this actually is.

Various reports and experiments have spread around the world wide web since the release of Ice Cream Sandwich which show that the facial unlock system can be bypassed using only a photograph of the owner which does pose certain security risks. However, with this being the first time that this type of technology has been integrated into a mobile operating system there it can be treated as novelty item while the bugs are being worked out.
The exciting thing is, that when the bugs and inefficiencies are removed, I can see this being an extremely exciting technology and feature which has plenty of innovative applications built around it. It could certainly prove to be the future of mobile device security, just as biometric retina and fingerprint scanners are becoming the norm for door access systems across the world.
In the early part of 2011, I can remember hearing murmurings around the iOS jailbreak community about a developer who was attempting to produce a tweak which used the front facing camera of the iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4th generation to scan a users face and grant access to the device based on the scan. This tweak was eventually given the name ‘RecognizeMe’ and released onto the Cydia store to mixed reviews. The tweak revolved around training the device to recognize your face using a training application, but essentially offered the same core functionality that the facial recognition software in ICS does.
However, it seems now that the ability to use your face a device unlock tool may be about to gain some legitimacy by making its way onto the iOS App Store. Various sites are reporting that a new application is in development which aims to duplicate the features within Ice Cream Sandwich. The video below shows the application in operation, including approval and rejection recognition attempts. I am pretty sure that this application would prove immediately successful in the App Store should it manage to get passed the strict guidelines and testing engineers at Apple.

Watch The Video at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFLuZkXf6-A&feature=player_embedded

Nokia Lumia 900 Announced: Specs, Pricing & Availability – Everything You Need To Know

Nokia is going big with the whole Windows Phone thing, which is probably something to do with that infamous deal it struck with Microsoft last year. As part of the Finnish firm’s newfound love for all things Windows Phone, Nokia has now announced its first WP7 handset to be made available in the United States.

If the specification list is anything to go by, the new Nokia Lumia 900 is a beauty, and could well be the handset that the Windows Phone 7 fans have been waiting for.

Specs
Packing a 1.4GHz CPU, and support for AT&T’s LTE network the Lumia 900 has just about everything it needs in the speed department, especially when you remember how slick Windows Phone 7 is in its Mango guise.
All that power will be pushing pixels around the new 4.3-inch AMOLED display, which is a decent jump up from its little brother – the Lumia 800 sports a 3.7-inch LCD screen.
The two cameras are as we expected, with the rear-facing affair being the same 8-megapixel shooter that is inside the Lumia 800, and the front-facing part being there mainly for video conferencing duties rather than providing top-notch shots.
Data is taken care of by the built-in 16GB of storage, and the 512MB of RAM will see Windows Phone 7 remain nice and zippy no matter how many apps you throw at it.

Pricing & Availability
Nokia Lumia 900 will be exclusively available on AT&T in US in the next couple of months, with March 18th being tipped as the expected launch date by well known Microsoft enthusiast Mary Jo Foley. No official word on pricing or International availability yet.
This coming year is a big one for both Microsoft and Nokia. The two joined forces during 2011 with the aim of a mutually beneficial partnership. Microsoft needed a hardware partner it could push around, and Nokia needed a current mobile OS to adorn its impressive hardware. Just how that will pan out through the next twelve months could well prove to be very important for both parties.

We are expecting great things to come of the Windows Phone 7 platform though 2012, and we certainly hope Microsoft can give Apple and Google a run for their money in the smartphone arena. More competition helps all of us, and with RIM fading away, Microsoft needs to take up the reigns and keep the two runaway leaders honest.
The Lumia 900 looks like a pretty decent start!

You Can Watch This video in following Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=k3Nfh9bl0Z8

OnLive To Now Stream Windows 7 To iPad, Android Devices, And More

In a move that came a little out of the blue for us, OnLive has announced that it will be launching a new app for the iPad which will allow users to stream an entire Windows 7 desktop experience to their tablet.Set to be made available on Thursday the 12th, OnLive Desktop will offer a desktop experience on an iPad, with Android and Windows/Mac clients also in the works for release at a later date.

OnLive Desktop will use the same streaming technology and server farms that the company’s current gaming service uses, with the huge amount of computing power involved rarely fully utilized for gaming. With so much spare power, OnLive sees offering this new desktop streaming services almost as a way of getting its money’s worth out of all that equipment!
The new OnLive Desktop comes in various flavors, with a free version being available for those who don’t need a premium service. Users of the free version will receive 2GB of online cloud storage, with a limited suite of office applications available to them.
Those wishing to pay will also be given the option, with a $10 a month subscription getting them 50GB of storage, priority server access (during peak times users of the free service may find themselves waiting for a slot) and addition applications.

A third option dubbed "OnLive Enterprise" will allow companies to build their own package, allowing available application to be taylor made for their individual requirements. Perfect if your company has a unique set of applications that it needs access to, for example.
When running, the iPad almost appears to be running Windows 7, with the Start Menu, Recycle Bin and all the usual Windows bits and pieces in attendance. From the videos we’ve seen, responsiveness looks to be on a par with OnLive’s gaming services, which is to say it is more than good enough assuming you have a decent internet connection behind you.

Apple’s Tablet Plan For 2012: iPad 3 With Retina Display In March, iPad 4 In October?

The iPad 3 rumors and reports are coming in thick and fast just now, with the latest trying hard to re-ignite the notion that Apple will indeed launch two new tablet devices in this calendar year.

Apparently, the third iPad will launch in March – a full calendar year after the current iPad 2, whilst an iPad 4 will arrive around October. Having got wind of some inside info via Taiwanese component makers, DigiTimes also reckon Apple’s third tablet installment will feature a that crisp Retina display we’ve been holding a vigil for, whilst the fourth iPad will be more of a significant improvement – launching in October with, and I quote, "killer applications."
What on earth ‘killer applications’ are, we’ll leave to your imaginations. Given Apple’s past release patterns, it would seem somewhat unlikely the fruit company would release two new tablets scarcely six months apart, although DigiTimes suggests the iPad 4 is releasing so soon thereafter to fend off a possible Google-branded tablet as well as any devices running Microsoft’s keenly-anticipated Windows 8. Reports to the contrary – a notion to which our better judgment forces us to subscribe, cast the iPad 4 rumors off as "completely made-up nonsense."
Daring Fireball’s John Gruber really went to town on the Digitimes report: "Wait a minute. What’s going on here?" he responded, "A DigiTimes report about Apple and the iPad that’s completely accurate? No completely made-up nonsense? Is something wrong with me?"
As much of a stitch Gruber is, it’s actually rather disappointing to see the likes of DigiTimes producing reports so overtly unrealistic. The trend of citing “sources familar” has certainly increased during the post-iPhone era, and although some find rather interesting scoops often bearing fruit, it does seem as though it’s being used as a cover for certain sites to produce whatever they like.

Gruber reckons if Apple were to release to new iPads, one would be an entry-level model sporting the 1024-by 768-pixel screen seen in the current iPad 2, whilst the high-end model would have the Retina display
Until something a little more concrete arises, we’ll go with the more likely eventuality of a new iPad 3 in March, leaving the $399 iPad 2 to play the role of noble steed

MathAlarm Plus For iPhone Requires You To Solve Math Problems To Disable Or Snooze Alarm

If you are anything like me and millions of others around the world, then you without any doubt made a ridiculous New Years resolution, which if history is anything to go by you have no hope whatsoever of keeping. For those keen to know, my particular resolution this year is to release an iPhone game which actually sounds somewhat achievable, but time will tell.

For those who have yet to make a resolution, or who wish to change across to one that may actually prove to be feasible, then why not opt to improve your arithmetic skills? Bear with me, there is some method to my madness. If you are an iPhone owner the the chances are you use it day in and day out. Chances are also pretty high that you use the device’s alarm clock function to wake you from your sleepy slumber each morning. It just so happens that prominent iOS developer Ryan Petrich has you covered.
As part of the Daily Tweak Week challenge, Ryan released a small tweak known as ‘MathAlarm Plus’ which does exactly what it says on the tin and integrates mathematics with the alarm clock feature of the device. The tweak itself is very simple with no additional icons or settings entries being added to the device, instead it hooks directly into the existing clock application to alter the behavior of the alarm clock.

When a set alarm is triggered, instead of having the previous options of ‘Snooze’ or ‘OK’ to disable the alarm, MathAlarm Plus provides a familiar UIAlertView; prompting you to solve an arithmetical problem before you can dismiss the unwelcome morning wake up. The questions range in complexity and will get your day off to a fabulous start by requiring some mental input.
MathAlarm is available on Cydia now through the Big Boss repository. This premium version of MathAlarm costs $2.99 for the configurable options it offers.

You will obviously need to have jailbroken device to run it.

ShakeToUnlock Lets You Unlock Your iPhone By Shaking Gestures – Updated To Work With iOS 5

Regardless of you opinion on whether or not people should jailbreak their devices, one thing I’m sure we can all agree on is that we have seen the rise of some great development talent due to the community that has been created around the art of jailbreaking. The innovation, creativity and dedication that goes into producing some of the finest tools and utilities that exist within Cydia is commendable, even more so when you consider that a good proportion of them are available free of charge.

As with most walks of life, the individuals who are prepared to invest the time, effort and dedication to make something great are the ones who generally take the headlines. The same applies to the jailbreaking community, even though hundreds, if not thousands, of developers release work into the Cydia store, if I asked you to name a handful, the chances are people would produce the same names. One of those developers for me, is Yllier, who people may know from his release of Firewall iP and ScreenDimmer. Firewall iP blocks outgoing connections from the device, protecting apps, data and privacy and is billed as the only firewall available for the iPhone. ScreenDimmer, perhaps predictably, allows users to preserve battery life by automatically dimming the devices screen after a user defined set of time.
One of Yllier’s other tweaks that exists within Cydia is known as ‘Shake To Unlock’ and once again, no prizes for guessing what this tweak offers. With the recent release of version 1.09 the developer has extended the scope of this tweak to work with all devices running iOS 3.2 and above, which includes iOS 5. Shake To Unlock may seem like another simplistic tweak which has been thrown together, but upon closer inspection it actually has a very good feature set, making it a very accomplished and useful tool:

• Unlock device using shake gestures (one or two shakes, even directional shakes are supported).
• Unlock all of the time – stays alive even when the screen turns off.
• Has a low battery consumption
• Override the passcode if you desire.
• Undim the device without unlocking – this is particularly useful for users of LockInfo or IntelliScreenX.
• 5 settings for shake sensitivity.
• An included toggle for SBSettings.

As you can see from the feature list above, the tweak contains a substantial array of possibilities, all of which can be configured from within the Preferences application on the device. One thing which caught my eye is the declaration that Shake To Unlock has a low battery consumption. One thing which always concerns me with certain tweaks is the additional drain they place upon the devices battery. The release notes within Cydia claim that Shake To Unlock requires approximately 20 – 25% of the devices battery per day to function. To me that seems like a quite a severe drain, especially considering the battery issues reported in iOS 5.
Shake To Unlock is available as a free of charge download through the Big Boss repository within Cydia.
You will obviously need to have jailbroken device to run it.

Untouched Camera Pictures from iPhone 4S 8 Megapixel Shooter; This May Just Be The Best Mobile Phone Camera Ever! [PHOTOS]

Sample shots taken using the iPhone 4S’ powerful camera have emerged online today and they look absolutely stunning. You can view them after the jump!

 The sample photos come straight from the iPhone 4S page on Apple’s official website.
After months of speculation and rumors, Apple finally announced the iPhone 4S yesterday at their Let’s Talk iPhone media event which was held at Apple Town Hall inside the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. Besides packing a powerful processor and an interesting voice recognition technology, the iPhone 4S packs an 8 megapixel camera which Apple believes is good enough to replace dedicated point-and-shoot cameras.
From Apple:

With 8 megapixels and all-new optics, this just might be the best camera ever on a mobile phone. It just might be the only camera you’ll ever need. And if you think that’s amazing, wait until you see your photos.

We really find it hard to refute Apple’s claims. If the sample shots are anything to go by, the iPhone 4S’ camera may just become the best mobile phone camera when it releases on October 14th. Megapixel-wise, the iPhone 4S’ camera is on par with offerings from Motorola and Samsung but megapixel-count isn’t the only thing that matters.

Apple has taken special care in ensuring that the differences between the iPhone 4’s and iPhone 4S’ camera isn’t just 3 megapixels, but also how much light the sensor can take and just how good a photograph it can take at the end of the day. iPhone 4S’ camera, according to Apple’s own claims, takes in 73% more light than the iPhone 4 thanks to the next-generation backside illuminated sensor and the wider aperture. There is also the Hybrid IR filter which apparently gives more accurate and uniform colors. All these features add up to a camera that, we think, will give the camera on Samsung’s Galaxy S II a run for its money.

Anyway, let’s see the photos themselves: