Use Your iPhone As An Electronic “iKey”

The Daily Telegraph reports that a new Apple patent has surfaced which could potentially allow the iPhone, or another Apple portable, to act as a sort of electronic key. The potential applications are as limitless as the number of things locked by old-school metal keys. It could be used for cars, offices, homes, or lockers. Basically, anything that could have an electronic receiver mounted to it in place of a metal tumbler-style lock could then use an iPhone as a key. While Ars Technica notes that "the patent application itself merely describes a unique way of using motion detection to generate an input, such as turning a virtual combination lock-style dial," the patent itself, as reported by the Telegraph, says that the device could be "any suitable electronic device such as a portable media player, personal data assistant or electronic lock" that could open up any number of physical lock types just by communicating wirelessly. Electronic key fobs already exist for certain models of cars, most notably the Toyota Prius, which not only allow keyless entry but also allow you to start the car without a traditional metal key. If Apple actually implements this patent and allows iPhones and iPods to act as an "iKey," carrying a ring of metal keys and fobs around in your pocket could eventually seem as passé as a pocketwatch or pager seems today. While the patent notes that the device would have to be paired with the locks in order to work, and that all communications would be encrypted, people are naturally going to be skeptical about the security of an iKey compared to a traditional metal key. I can see some other potential pitfalls: losing your iPhone, or having it stolen suddenly, means not having access to your car, your house, or anything else accessed with your iKey. Plus, if you're dumb enough to store your access code on your iPhone in a place where a thief can find it easily, it also means that, immediately after finding your home address in Contacts, the thief could gain entry to your house with next to no effort. Or how about this: you come home after a night of carousing at the bar, power up your iPhone to gain access to your front door, but then find a blank screen staring back at you from your iPhone because your battery died. While the idea sounds great on paper and certainly stokes my science-fiction geek fires, the practical application of the iKey sounds like a giant headache.

by Ljrit

At&t Tops 3g Wireless Performance Study

PCWorld reports on the results of its recent 13-city performance tests of wireless carriers in the United States, and Apple's iPhone partner AT&T came out well ahead of the pack in both upload and download speeds while also faring well in reliability. In looking specifically at the iPhone, AT&T again fared well compared to flagship handsets on other carriers, offering significantly higher download and upload speeds with 91% reliability, only marginally lower than the G1 on T-Mobile and the HTC Hero on Sprint. Posted Image AT&T's efforts to address performance issues in the New York City and San Francisco markets also appear to be paying off, with PCWorld's testing revealing average download speeds tripling over a previous survey in New York City and jumping 40% in San Francisco. Overall reliability also improved for AT&T, with successful connections achieved on 94% of attempts, up from only 68% on the previous survey and on par with results for Sprint and ahead of T-Mobile and Verizon on an overall basis. PCWorld's testing did, however, reveal significant reliability weaknesses in San Francisco, with only 55% of connections being successful in its smartphone testing. Complete data and analysis is available in the article, which covers results from twenty locations in each of thirteen cities: Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New Orleans, New York City, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle.

by Ljrit

Apple Planning To Open 25 Retail Stores In China

Apple is currently conducting its annual shareholders meeting on the company's campus in Cupertino, California, and while attendees were not permitted to bring communication devices into the meeting, Fortune is gathering reports from those in attendance who were able to get details out. Apple CEO Steve Jobs is in attendance and reportedly answering the majority of questions from shareholders after missing last year's meeting due to health issues related to a liver transplant. In addition to expected agenda items such as re-election of members of Apple's Board of Directors and discussion of environmental and sustainability issues that have become a staple of Apple shareholder meetings, one brief item of interest coming out of the meeting is that Apple senior vice president of retail Ron Johnson noted that company is planning to open 25 retail stores in China. The timeframe for the store opening of these stores is currently unknown, although more details may be forthcoming. Apple opened its first Chinese retail store in Beijing in July 2008 ahead of the Olympic Games, and Johnson noted at the time that it was the "first of many" stores the company was planning to open there. A year and half later, however, that location remains Apple's sole Chinese retail store. Plans for a second store in Beijing surfaced in mid-2009, but the project has been put on hold, although Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook briefly noted during his comments at a Goldman Sachs conference earlier this week that a store will be opening in Shanghai by this summer.

by Ljrit

Apple iPad To Go On Sale Friday March 26th?

iPhone line photo by goodrob13 While Apple announced that the iPad would go on sale at the end of March, we've yet to hear official details about the actual sale date and procedure. We have heard whispers the Apple is planning on launching the iPad at retail stores on Friday, March 26th at 6 p.m. in similar fashion to the original iPhone launch. A [url="http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-11295-LA-Gadgets-Examiner%7Ey2010m3d2-iPad-Apple-store-employees-will-experience-device-on-March-10"]blog post from the Examiner now makes similar claims of a March 26th launch date with Apple store employees getting training on the device starting on March 10th. The author also claims that the commercials will start beginning on March 15th. Finally, those who camp out for the iPad will receive a "special gift". The 3G enabled version of the iPad will follow the Wi-Fi iPad launch by about 30 days, according to Apple.

by Ljrit

Lovely iPhone Rumor Of The Day: Multitasking In Os 4.0

Outside of notifications, there are other features related to multitasking that iPad users may want to see addressed. One is local background services such as Pandora radio. Apple's forthcoming iPhone OS 4.0 is anticipated to either allow users to select specific apps to run in the background, or roll those services into the system, or to enable specific background tasks. That's an excerpt from an article over at Apple Insider today, mostly talking about the multitasking possibilities on the iPad – but including that lovely tidbit on what iPhone OS 4.0 may bring. I have been feeling more and more optimistic lately that we will see some level of multitasking built into iPhone OS 4.0. It just feels like one of those 'Apple is not stupid' moments. They know what other mobile platforms are doing, they must know users are clamoring for this, and they of course know that the iPhone 3GS in particular is more than ready to handle some multitasking and rapid app switching. I'd honestly be shocked if we don't see something like this in OS 4.0. Of course the devil is in the details and we'll need to see how good the execution is – but reports like these are still very encouraging. What do you all think? Will Apple give us some level of multitasking in iPhone OS 4.0?

by Ljrit

Lakers, Magic Finals Rematch

This was a Finals rematch unlike many other first meetings since a June showdown, slipped into the schedule as the last stop on a tailspin of a four-game Western swing for Orlando and just before L.A. heads out for a monster eight-gamer, on a Monday night, with neither team playing particularly well, on a holiday with the league driving attention to Atlanta and Memphis for Martin Luther King Day. It wasn't like the buildup for Lakers-Celtics a season ago or even Lakers-Cavaliers a few weeks ago on Christmas that didn't have the benefit of the playoff storyline. Everyone -- the NBA, the networks, Nike and its merry band of puppeteers -- cranked the volume for the Cleveland game. But the first reunion since last year's Finals, a pretty competitive championship series at that despite lasting only five games, just sort of happened, a strange development in the hype-machine world. Or as they may have called it around the Lakers: Game 41. "You know, they've got so many games on today that I guess this one kind of got under the radar," coach Phil Jackson said, looking into the thick mass of media during his regular pre-game press gaggle. "I don't know. A lot of guys here, though. Twenty people standing here listening to me, so something's going on." Except that was only a few guys more than normal. There is always press coverage at a Lakers game, as anything the team does counts as news in a city where there's no such thing as too much coverage of the defending champions. But for some reason, this game didn't seem to register as special. Then again, these weren't exactly the Magic and Lakers circa June. It's not just the roster changes either, with Vince Carter in for Hedo Turkoglu for the Eastern Conference champions and Ron Artest replacing Trevor Ariza here. L.A. has misfired lately, relatively speaking, having lost three of the previous six to keep the race for No. 1 in the West just interesting enough that now it may take all the way until the All-Star break for the rest of the conference to deliver concession speeches. Orlando, meanwhile, had dropped six of eight before Monday. And not just typical slump defeats. The string of four consecutive setbacks would have been bad enough, but they were magnified by the list of the opponents: the Bulls, Pacers, Raptors and Wizards. Then, when the losses were to a better quality of opponents, (the Trail Blazers and Nuggets on the road), the unwanted reality check for the Magic was that the margins were 15 against Portland and 18 against Denver. The lead in the Southeast Division was gone and, just as certain, 2009 was done too. "We looked back to review how we played and everything else, but I didn't go back and watch all five games," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy of skipping the trip down memory lane to watch the Finals again. "We know how we played in that series. We took a look at that, and we'll go from there." Jackson, never noted for his diplomacy anyway, said in reference to the Magic losing their way amid injuries and the early Rashard Lewis suspension that "I just don't know what happened to that team in the process." That team being the one that reached the championship series and opened 17-4 this season. That team or this team or whatever they are, they had enough to respond to the moment by turning a 13-point deficit midway through the second quarter into a nine-point lead with three minutes to play in the third. The Magic just didn't have enough to close the deal, getting outscored 15-0 to begin the final period and losing 98-92 in a failure to capitalize on Kobe Bryant missing 15 of 19 shots amid continuing problems with a fractured right index finger. "We understood what type of approach that they might want to take, as far as them still having a bad or bitter taste in their mouth from what happened because they've got a lot of their same guys back," Shannon Brown said after his team-high 22 points. "They were up nine, so we had to fight back. But every game for us is a big game." Cleveland a few weeks ago. Cleveland, Boston and the Madison Square Garden stage coming up. Orlando on Monday in the Finals rematch unlike many others, mostly because it was like so many others around here. Game 41. Next.

by Ljrit

Internet Relay Chat Is Live iModZone IRC

We here at iModZone are pleased to announce we now have IRC. Here are some of the benefits of IRC. 1 You get messages almost instantly. 2 You can be informed with sound of new messages or new people joining. 3 You can chat with an individual person privately. 4 You can start a room for a meeting if you ever need to talk over an application idea to a group of people. 5 You can access it when iModZone's server is down. 6 You don't have to use the web to talk on it. 7 You know who's on the room instead of you going and asking, "Anyone here?" How can you access it? Here are the different ways. Web Clients 1 You can use the preview box on the index of the forums. 2 You can use the iModZone IRC Client, formatted for the iPhone. Please note that this doesn't get your information from iModZone, if you don't have an account on IRC don't enter a password. 3 You can use mibbit. iPhone Clients 1 Colloquy. 2 FlowChat. 3 LimeChat. 4 When I get time, our free one. Mac Clients 1 Colloquy. 2 Adium. Windows Clients 1 mirc. 2 xChat. 3 Pidgin. Linux Clients 1 xChat. 2 Pidgin. Of course there are a lot more IRC clients out there, so just search around and you'll find them. To join our IRC Channel on any IRC Client. The server is IRC.iModZone.net, the port is 6667, and the channel is #iModZone.

by Ljrit