The third Apple TV should remain a digital media receiver

No matter how you look at it, the TV industry is a race to the bottom. Every manufacturer tries to outdo the other by improving capabilities while lowering the price. Just five years ago, I bought a 32-inch 720p LCD TV that I thought was generously priced at $1100. Two years after that, I bought a 46-inch 1080p LCD TV for $50 less than the first. Looking at the current market prices, I could buy a better quality 46-inch 1080p LED TV for $600. That’s a slap in the face. Honestly, I’m willing to bet that most people think 46 inches is the perfect size for a television. Unless you have an unusually large room and sit 25 feet from your TV, there’s no need for something larger. In fact, if you think about bumping to 50, 60 or 70 inches, you’re not getting a better picture… you’re getting the same 1920 by 1080 resolution on a larger screen. That leads to pixelated images and a poorer viewing experience. So let’s assume that 46 inches is the optimal size for a TV. What features are absolutely necessary? I’d start with LED backlighting because it produces a much brighter, cleaner image. [...]

Apple cripples iBooks for jailbreakers – Updated

**** Updated 1/15/12 **** Most of you are coming into this post with the latest 5.0.1 jailbreak because it broke your iBooks app just like the 4.2.1 jailbreak in 2011. Thankfully, there’s a fix for you too. Just today, @saurik put out an update to Corona in Cydia. Version 1.0-4 is the latest edition of Corona and it’s supposed to fix your iBooks issues. Try that and you should be good to go. I just recently updated my iPhone to 4.2.1 thanks to the greenpois0n jailbreak. Yes, I jailbreak… and I’m proud of it. There are many benefits to jailbreaking your iPhone like SBSettings, Activator, Infinifolders, etc. The real reason I jailbreak: because I can. I wouldn’t consider myself a rebel but I do like having the opportunity to install whatever I’d like onto my iPhone. Jailbreaking has received negative feedback from Apple since it gained popularity in 2007. They claim it voids the device’s warranty but anyone can easily restore the device to factory state via iTunes. Up until this point, the game has always been cat and mouse. Hackers exploit code, Apple fixes said code. Today marks a new realization for me as a jailbreaker: Apple deliberately crippled [...]

Apple is slowly alienating its friends

We tried to come up with a movie reference that compares Apple to the popular kid who loses all of his friends due to poor choices but we failed to think of one. Obviously, they have the hottest items on the market, just like the cool kid in high school… but they are making choices that will leave them without any friends. Call it greed, call it obsession — they could end up destroying some important relationships with their recent shenanigans. Sony has been trying to get out of the iTunes Store before they were ever in it. They’re constantly talking about leaving the iTunes Store for an iTunes competitor but it never seems to happen. iTunes is important, especially since nothing has been able to overtake it since it opened in 2003. Even still, a recent event has Sony looking at every option, looking for some way to escape iTunes and break off on their own. Why? Apple denied their Sony Reader application from the App Store. It’s one thing to upset a tiny developer during the review process but Apple just made Sony into an angry lineman looking for a slushy machine. During recent discussions of subscription-based apps, [...]

Apple integrates Rotten Tomatoes into iTunes Movies

Here’s something that no one expected to see: most of the popular movies in iTunes have Rotten Tomatoes reviews integrated directly into the movie’s information page. The picture above comes from the Avatar info page. We found a few movies like Sherlock Holmes (great movie, definitely worth seeing) didn’t have the tomatometer just yet. We expect that it’s still a feature that’s rolling out to all of the movies… we just discovered it today. We’re actually excited about the partnership. We use Rotten Tomatoes all the time to check out what movies are worth seeing. We find ourselves agreeing with the ratings quite often and have begun to trust it for our movie-going experiences. We’re happy to see that Apple included the feature. It may even help them rent more movies. We hate the average iTunes reviewer in the iTunes Store… some we like. Most of them just want to complain about something stupid and don’t leave anything of substance… that’s why we exist. We try and do legitimately helpful reviews and very often work with the developer. We’ve even helped some developers improve their apps before our reviews went live. Like us, Rotten Tomatoes has a tendency to have [...]

Wireless sync coming to the iPhone

… but not from Apple. The video below is a very quick demonstration of wireless sync for the iPhone. It’s so quick that it’s hard to believe. But both Engadget and MacRumors are pointing to this as real software… so we thought we’d at least mention it. We here at CTA have been waiting and waiting for wireless sync capabilities for the iPhone. There’s really no reason it shouldn’t exist already. The developer of this software is actually using a standalone application that he claims will be available on the App Store in the near future. It also requires a separate piece of software available for the Mac and the PC in the near future. To his knowledge, he hasn’t violated any of Apple’s rules or terms of the SDK. We’re a little skeptical but we’d pay a hefty price for the ability to wirelessly sync either way. Apple has been known to reject iPhone Apps because they too closely mirror upcoming features that are currently in development behind Apple’s closed doors. We wish the developer luck… for all of us.

No sex in the champagne room (App Store)

We’re sure that Chris Rock never wanted us to use that joke in reference to the availability of iPhone porn, but we did anyway… sorry. Over the past week, developer after developer has been told by Apple that their applications were too risqué for the App Store. That’s one giant leap backwards for mankind. Please remember that the statements below are generalities (We’re not obsessed with porn nor do we have any opinion on the matter). Since the App Store launched back in 2008, we’ve heard countless stories of “overtly sexual” content being rejected and then approved. Most of this is due to policy changes in the App Store approval process — the policies really haven’t been defined well and seem to change on a daily basis. “Wobble iBoobs” was an app that originally popped up in the App Store quite some time ago and was shortly followed by the real problem apps: all of the stupid “pasties” apps that show everything possible without nudity (no nipples). We’re not sure who turned on the switch for porn, but we do know that the amount of “pasties” apps were getting well into the double digits. Some stupid, new app showed up [...]

Apple Makes Our Work More Difficult… Nearly Impossible

We really hate complaining about Apple but they’ve given us way too much fodder recently. Go ahead, check your computer’s iTunes App Store… You’ll notice that there’s no longer links to the handy dandy “All iPhone Applications,” “All Free iPhone Applications,” “All iPod Touch Applications…” In fact, there’s no way, shape or form that you could see what was just released today, yesterday, or the day before. Apple has completely axed our way of scouring the App Store and looking for new, great applications. If we want to see new apps, we have to click EACH and EVERY friggen CATEGORY to see what could be new. Stupid? More like BullSH*T. That or we could rely on the TOP PAID apps and the TOP FREE apps sections… but how would that help our readers?? If an app is already at the top, there’s a pretty good chance it’s worth downloading. CTA wants to stay current, so help us smack Apple with some constructive/destructive criticism and get the App store back to the way it once was… easy to navigate, easy to see what’s new. Please click here to send some feedback and demand that they allow us to continue the work we do. [...]

Pwnage Tool & QuickPwn Now 2.1 Compatible (Updated!)

***Update*** Looks like the windows version of quickpwn is out. We did it on our brand new iPhone 3G 16 GB… all we can say is nice! Worked like a charm. Let us know your results in the comments! P.S. Anyone who has news about Customize.app — please share. ***End Update*** Remember what we said about iTunes 8 would need a patch to allow pwange? Well, it seems that we — The Dev Team as well — were wrong but thankfully! iTunes 8 no longer requires a hack to install the custom ipsw that you create with the Pwnage Tool. You can now use the newest versions of QuickPwn and Pwnage Tool to their full capacities with iPhone Software 2.1 — note to early adopters: it is still NOT available for iPod Touch 2nd generation. All iPhones and 1st generation iPod Touches can be pwned. Click here for the full release from the Dev Team. The downloads are available via Torrent infrastructure for now. If you don’t know how to use torrents, just hold off for a bit, they’ll have direct links on their website soon. 

Apple’s App Store Policies Sketch? Yep.

Remember Netshare (Now completely banned from the App Store as of Septemer 13th)? How about Box Office (Replaced with “Now Playing”)? Well it appears that there’s a new app that’s been rejected without probable cause: Podcaster. It’s designed to exist as a podcast manager on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Apple explained to the developer that it “assists in the distribution of podcasts, it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes.” Read on for more information about Apple’s sketch policies and how one developer is getting around them…

Can I Haz iTunes 8.1? (Updated)

If you couldn’t tell by the title, we found iTunes 8 to be a little on the, “I’ll wait to upgrade” side of the fence. We’ll definitely say that the new features appear to be promising, but what it took to get there does not. Read more about our love/hate relationship with iTunes 8 after the break…