Apple Publicly Responds to Complaints of Purple Lens Flare on iPhone 5 Photos

Soon after the release of the iPhone 5, some users began noticing a purple flare or halo showing up in photos taken with the device's camera pointed at or near bright light sources. The issue is certainly not unique to the iPhone 5, but it has caused concern for some users.

Last week, Gizmodo reported that Apple had responded to address the issue, with Apple's support staff providing an emailed response to a user inquiring about the purple flare. According to Apple's engineers, the issue is indeed normal and users are advised to point their phones away from bright light sources when taking photos.

Our engineering team just gave me this information and we recommend that you angle the camera away from the bright light source when taking pictures. The purple flare in the image provided is considered normal behavior for iPhone 5's camera.

Following that private email response regarding the issue, Apple has now posted a public support document recommending similar action to minimize the issue.

Most small cameras, including those in every generation of iPhone, may exhibit some form of flare at the edge of the frame when capturing an image with out-of-scene light sources. This can happen when a light source is positioned at an angle (usually just outside the field of view) so that it causes a reflection off the surfaces inside the camera module and onto the camera sensor. Moving the camera slightly to change the position at which the bright light is entering the lens, or shielding the lens with your hand, should minimize or eliminate the effect.

The iPhone 5 uses a similar camera to that found in the iPhone 4S, although Apple reduced the camera's thickness by 20% in order to fit into the thinner body of the iPhone 5. Apple did, however, add a several enhancements to the camera in the iPhone 5, moving to a sapphire lens cover, improved image signal processing and noise reduction, and a new dynamic low-light mode.

Read More ->>

iPad, iPad Mini, and iPhone 5 Cases Compared to an iPhone 4S

MacRumors report Michael Rou has managed to get his hands on both a pre-production iPhone 5 case and a pre-production iPad mini case and posted comparison photos on Flickr. The cases were created by case manufacturers in anticipation of the upcoming models. Designs are based on leaked specs coming out of Foxconn factories.

The photo does a great job showing the relative sizes of the various devices. The largest case in the back shows the size of the current 3rd Generation iPad. That iPad houses a 9.7" diagonal display. The next smaller size case is for the rumored "iPad mini". The smaller iPad is believed to have a 7.85" screen with a smaller surrounding bezel while retaining the same aspect ratio and resolution (1024x768) of the iPad 2. Rou notes that the iPad mini headphone jack is positioned at the top of the case.

Finally, there is the rumored iPhone 5 case. The iPhone 5 is believed to have 4" diagonal screen. The iPhone 5 is expected to be taller but not wider than the current iPhone 4S which is also pictured above.

Apple is expected to launch the new iPhone on September 12th at a media event. The iPad mini is rumored to come at a later date, possibly in October.

Read More ->>

Apple’s iPhone 4S Print Ad Featuring Siri Misidentifies Poison Ivy As Poison Oak

Apple recently took out an ad for iPhone 4S featuring Siri. Unfortunately, Apple's seems to have goofed up, as in the ad that takes up the glossy back page of the July 7-13 issue of The Economist, Siri wrongly identifies poison oak as poison ivy.

Lena Struwe, associate director of botany and director of the Chrysler Herbarium at Rutgers noticed the misidentification while flipping through the magazine.


Apple's new ad for the iPhone 4s, which took up the glossy back page of the July 7-13 issue of The Economist, shows a hiker asking Siri, "What does poison oak look like?" Know-it-all that she is, Siri pulls up a picture of ominous looking vegetation with the retort "This might answer your question."
Except it doesn't...because that's a picture of poison ivy and not poison oak. Silly robot.


To be fair to Siri, maybe it wasn't her/his/its fault. "I can't tell whether it's Apple, or whether it's the ad agency that created the ad," says Struwe. "You'd think they would have run it by a botanist or a naturalist, but they did not."

Siri identifies the poison oak correctly if you ask the question now, so it is not clear if Apple's ad agency goofed up or there was an issue with Wolfram Alpha, which Siri uses to answer such questions.

Read More ->>

How to Install Siri on iPhone 4 without Proxy

Okay, this time it’s no proxy, no routing through various channels or any of that complicated stuff. We’re talking about how to install Siri on iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4G without proxy – with as simple as a jailbreak and a simple change in the Cydia repo. Here’s how to do that:



How to Install Siri on iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4G Without Proxy:

Step 1: Jailbreak your iPhone 4. If you have updated your iPhone with latest iOS 5.1.1, here is how to untethered jailbreak your iPhone.

Step 2: Cydia would have been installed now. Launch it. You will have to add a repo source to the Source on the app. Add http://repo.siriport.ru/ to the Source.

Step 3: Now head over to Search tab and search for “SiriPort”  - install the package. We would recommend to install “SiriPort (Original)”

Step 4: In order to get Siri working, you need to install iPhone 4S certificate. You can get that by pointing your browser to siriport.ru/1.crt. Open siriport.ru/1.crt link on safari, it will bring up a certificate installation window. Tap on install button.

Update: Install certificate by visiting http://siriport.ru/siriport_ru_original.pem in case you have installed SiriPort (Original).



Step 5: Now, just activate Siri. It might get a bit on your nerves here so be patient. Say, ‘Hi Siri’ and wait for a while. About 1-4 minutes.

Now, if Siri hasn’t yet responded, say it again. Wait. If it still doesn’t budge, you will have to reboot the iPhone 4. Try again.

For the moment, as we haven’t yet had the chance to test it, this is all we could get to you. With disclaimers in place, we’d like to tell you that the device on the video seems to have activated Siri perfectly fine. However, we can’t be held responsible for any damage that might occur on your iPhone 4S due to the steps above.

Siri had long been ported to other devices but the problem had been in the certification. In fact, even this iPhone 4S certification is still under questions because it can soon be figured out by Apple. Although Siri ports have been known to work well on iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4G and even iPhone 3GS in a remote case, it looks like only now a publicly accessible and easily configurable Siri port has come to the fore.

Below is a video on how to install Siri on iPhone 4/iPod Touch 4G:

Disclaimer: We have come to know that it does work. Howev

Read More ->>

Make your mark on Google with Handwrite for Mobile and Tablet Search

Google has just added a cool new way to search on mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad.

It has added a handwriting recognition feature to their mobile web app called Handwrite, which allows you to search by just writing letters with your finger anywhere on your iOS device’s screen

You need to enable the Handwrite for web search by tapping on going to Google.com in your iPhone or iPad, tap on “Settings” link at the bottom of the screen and then tap on enable “Handwrite” toggle. Please note that on tablets the Search settings are available when you tap on the gear icon.


Getting started is easy: go to Google.com in your mobile browser, tap on “Settings” at the bottom of the screen and enable “Handwrite.” Note that after you've saved the setting, you may need to refresh the homepage to see the feature.




Getting started is easy: go to Google.com in your mobile browser, tap on “Set

On tablets, the Search settings are available as an option behind the gear icon.



Once the feature is enabled, tap the Handwrite icon on the bottom right corner of your screen to activate the writing surface. Write a few letters and you’ll see autocomplete options appear below the search box. If one of the options is what you’re looking for, just tap it to search. For longer queries, you can continue writing and use the arrows next to the autocompletions to move the right one into the search box. Since you can write anywhere, you don’t have to look back and forth repeatedly from the keyboard to the search box.



For more tips and tricks on how to use Handwrite, see our Help Center article. To make accessing Google.com faster, be sure to bookmark it and add it to your home screen.

We designed Handwrite to complement rather than replace typing: with the feature enabled, you can still use the keyboard at any time by tapping on the search box. Handwrite is experimental, and works better in some browsers than others—on Android devices, it works best in Chrome. For now, we’ve enabled Handwrite for iOS5+ devices, Android 2.3+ phones and Android 4.0+ tablets—in 27 languages.

Read More ->>

iPhone 4S Ad Features Martin Scorsese

Apple is airing a new iPhone 4S commercial titled “Busy Day” that features director Martin Scorsese in a conversation with the voice assistant Siri while riding around in the back of a taxicab.



A transcript of the dialog between Scorsese and Siri is as follows, courtesy of MacRumors:

   

Scorsese: What’s my day look like?

Siri: Another busy day today.

Scorsese: Are you serious?

Siri: Yes, I’m not allowed to be frivolous.

Scorsese: Ah, OK. Move my 4 o’clock today to tomorrow. Change my 11AM to 2.

Siri: OK, Marty. I scheduled it for today.

Scorsese: Is that Rick? Where’s Rick?

Siri: Here’s Rick.

Scorsese: Oh, no that’s not Rick. Now, how’s the traffic headed downtown?

Siri: Here’s the traffic.

Scorsese: Oh, it’s terrible, terrible. Driver, driver, cut across. Cut across. We’ll never make it downtown this way. I like you Siri, you’re going places.

Siri: I’ll try to remember that.

This is the fourth iPhone 4S ad to feature a major celebrity, and the 3rd recent Apple commercial to be aired in general. Last month a new ad for the iPad started airing alongside a spot for the Retina MacBook Pro.

Read More ->>