How iTunes Match Works and Whether or Not You Should Subscribe? - Originally published in Top iPhone Resource on 2011/11/14 (RSS)

© shriya for Top iPhone Resource, 2011. | Permalink | Be the first to comment | Find us on Twitter - @TopiPhone and on Follow TiR in Facebook.

So, I started looking at how to easily reset the Apple iPad to factory settings so it is clear of our personal data and media.

How to Reset iPad to Factory Settings?

Settings –> General –> Reset –> Erase All Content and Settings

Since this process may take a while to complete, it is a good idea to start this with a full charge.

Other Resets

Reset just your preferences and reset

Settings –> General –> Reset –> Reset All Settings

Reset just Network Settings

Settings –> General –> Reset –> Reset Network Settings

If you don’t like the keyboard dictionary that auto-prompts,

Settings –> General –> Reset –> Reset Keyboard Dictionary

You can also reset your homescreen layout

Settings –> General –> Reset –> Reset Home Screen Layout

Check out our iPad tips section (eg Top 10 iPad Power User tips) for more tips like this. Have your own tip? Tweet us at @TopiPad or leave a comment here.

How to Reset iPad to Factory Settings? - Originally published in Top iPhone Resource on 2011/10/05 (RSS)

© Karthik for Top iPhone Resource, 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Find us on Twitter - @TopiPhone and on Follow TiR in Facebook.

So, I just wanted to take it in after a backup and update to iOS 4.3 in a non-jailbroken state. However, when iTunes started to update to iOS 4.3, after going through most of the steps at the end it threw the ‘iTunes 1013 error’.

Usually this happens when iTunes can’t verify your device with Apple. Then it clicked.

I had used TinyUmbrella easlier to save my SHSH blobs to Cydia and one of the things it does is to block access to Apple servers. This lets you restore to a lower iOS long after Apple has stopped signing those versions.

In TinyUmbrella, go to Advanced tab and make sure you uncheck “Set Hosts to Cydia on Exit” option.

As a double check, make sure you don’t have an entry in hosts file in your computer for gs.apple.com. If you do, comment it out and try the restore process again.

That did the trick for me and I was able to restore successfully.

How to Fix iTunes Error 1013 While Updating to iOS 4.3 - Originally published in Top iPhone Resource on 2011/08/17 (RSS)

© karthik for Top iPhone Resource, 2011. | Permalink | Be the first to comment | Find us on Twitter - @TopiPhone and on Follow TiR in Facebook.

iTunes 10.3.1 brings iCloud beta. 

What’s new in iTunes 10.3

Introducing iTunes in the Cloud beta. The music you purchase in iTunes appears automatically on all your devices. You can also download your past iTunes purchases. Where you want, when you want.

• Automatic Downloads. Purchase music from any device or computer and automatically download a copy to your Mac and iOS devices.

• Download Previous Purchases. Download your past music purchases again at no additional cost. Your purchases are available in the iTunes Store on your Mac or in the iTunes app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Previous purchases may be unavailable if they are no longer on the iTunes Store.

iTunes 10.3 also adds Books to the iTunes Store, where you can discover and buy your favorite books on your computer and automatically download them to iBooks on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. This version also allows you to use Automatic Downloads with apps and books or download previously purchased apps and books from your computer or iOS device.

Download it and enjoy the precursor to iOS 5 atleast with parts of iCloud right now. 

iTunes 10.3.1 Update Available Now - Originally published in Top iPhone Resource on 2011/06/09 (RSS)

© karthik for Top iPhone Resource, 2011. | Permalink | Be the first to comment | Find us on Twitter - @TopiPhone and on Follow TiR in Facebook.

If you want solid responses for your MobileMe to iCloud transition questions, Apple has created a help page on their support website.

What’s happening to MobileMe?
Effective June 6, 2011, if you had an active MobileMe account, your service has been automatically extended through June 30, 2012, at no additional charge. After this, the MobileMe service will no longer be available.

What will happen to the content I have on MobileMe?
Apple has announced a new service called iCloud which will be available this fall and free for iOS 5 and OS X Lion users. When you sign up for iCloud, you’ll be able to keep your me.com or mac.com email address and move your MobileMe mail, contacts, calendars, and bookmarks to the new service.

When iCloud becomes available this fall, more details and instructions will be provided on how to make the move.

Can I create a new MobileMe account?
You can no longer create a new 60-day trial account or start a new subscription using a code contained in a MobileMe box. However, if you have a Family Pack subscription, you can still create new family member accounts.

Can I upgrade to a Family Pack or purchase additional storage?
Effective June 6, 2011, you can no longer upgrade your Individual account to a Family Pack or purchase additional storage for your MobileMe account.

I purchased a MobileMe box and have not used the activation code inside. Can I get refund for it?
Yes. If you have an unused activation code from a MobileMe box, you can submit a refund request.

You can find it here – http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4597

Apple’s Help Page for MobileMe to iCloud Transition - Originally published in Top iPhone Resource on 2011/06/07 (RSS)

© karthik for Top iPhone Resource, 2011. | Permalink | Be the first to comment | Find us on Twitter - @TopiPhone and on Follow TiR in Facebook.

Update: Go here to see iOS 5 beta 2 download information.

Apple just announced the release of iOS 5 beta for developers in WWDC 2011 keynote.

If you have a Apple developer account, you can get your hands on iOS 5 beta version right now. You can get a developer account for just $99/year if you don’t have one.

The build is iOS 5 beta 9A5520p and the following downloads for the beta are available:

• iPad 2 WiFi
• iPad 2 GSM
• iPad 2 CDMA
• iPad
• iPhone 4 GSM
• iPhone 4 CDMA
• iPhone 3GS
• iPod touch 4th generation
• iPod touch 3rd generation

Just login to your Apple developer account to get your hands on iOS 5 beta right now. You might come across some unscruulous developers selling their beta downloads or find it in bittorrent, buit remember that you could end up bricking your iOS device.

In fact, TUAW is reporting that you may not be able to downgrade to iOS 4.x after upgrading to iOS 5.

Apple iOS 5 Beta Download Links - Originally published in Top iPhone Resource on 2011/06/06 (RSS)

© karthik for Top iPhone Resource, 2011. | Permalink | Be the first to comment | Find us on Twitter - @TopiPhone and on Follow TiR in Facebook.

Here is a quick read of all the things that were announced in the Apple’s WWDC Steve Jobs keynote today.

Mac OS X Lion Features

• Multitouch gestures
• Full screen apps
• Mission Control
• Mac App Store – built-into Lion, built-in sandboxing, faster updates
• LaunchPad – gesture makes icons appear on screen
• Resume – apps go back to the same place you closed in
• Auto Save – automatically saves documents – can revert – can set not to save
• Versions – Version control system on your Mac
• Air Drop – peer to peer file sharing between Macs over WiFi – built into Finder
• Mail 5 – new redesigned mail app
• New File Vault
• Lion Server

Price: $29.99

Available only via Mac App Store

iOS News

• 200 million iOS devices sold
• No. 1 mobile operating system – 44% of market
• 130 million books downloaded via iBookStore!
• 425000 iPhone apps and 90000 iPad apps in App Store!
• 14 billion apps downloaded in less than 3 years
• Apple has paid out $2.5 billion to developers
• 225 million accounts with credit cards

iOS 5 New Features

Over 200 new features

1. Notifications
   - Notification center – swipe down from top to see a list
   - tap on a notification to go to the app
   
2. Newsstand
   All the news papers and magazines will be available there. You can purchase, preview and read papers right inside of the app.
   Supports background downloads.
   iBooks for newspapers and magazines.
   
3. Twitter integration
   Single sign-on – sign in once through settings and use Twitter anywhere like Photos, Youtube, etc. Wonder if it has multi-user support?
4. Safari
   Reader – makes it like you have Readability on iOS mobile Safari
   
   Reading List – Think Instapaper. Will sync with iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Mac Safari
   Tabbed browsing – looks lightning fast!
   
5. Reminders
   Reminder for any dates. Autosyncs over iCal. Also store locations.
   
6. Camera
   Camera icon on the iOS 5 lockscreen.
   Use volume up button to take a photo
   Grid lines (optional)
   AE/AF lock
   
   Pinch to Zoom
   Edit Photo – crop, rotate, reduce red-eye and one click enhance.
7. Mail
   Rich-text formatting
   Control indentation
   Draggable addresses
   
   Support for flagging
   Search entire email content
   iPad: swipe to inbox
   Built-in dictionary
   S/MIME enterprise support
   Keyboard
   Split keyboard – just move it up
8. PC Free
   You don’t need a computer to activate or update!
   
9. Game Center
   Game downloads
   Turn based games
10. iMessage
    Think Blackberry messenger
    Free messaging between iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.
    
    Over 3G and WiFi – sent encrypted.
    Delivery receipts
    Read receipts
    Typing indication
    Pushed to all devices
    Send text, photos, videos, contacts, etc
11. AirPlay Mirroring
    Completely mirror your iPad screen over WiFi to your TV

iOS 5 SDK seeded to developers today. Rest of us to get it in Fall. Supports 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad 1/2 and iPod Touch 3rd Gen or later.

{image credit: Engadget live blog }

iCloud Features

Steve Jobs says iCloud – “it just works”.

• MobileMe features
• 1. Contacts – any changes made on one device is pushed to other devices
• 2. Calendar – same as contacts
• Calendar sharing
• 3. Mail – same as above
• As of today – all these MobileMe features are FREE!
  
• 3 more news apps in iCloud
• App Store in the iCloud – your purchase history is in the cloud
• iBooks – same as App Store – stores your reading page from one device and pushes it down to other devices
• Wireless Backups – once daily – all important contents to the cloud. New device setup- username password – everything comes down to your device.
• Documents in the cloud – forget Google Docs now.
• Photo Stream – You can see all your photos everywhere. On PC it will go to a Pictures folder. It lets you store the last 1000 photos in the cloud in the last 30 days.
  
  You can even see it on AppleTV!
  
• iTunes in the iCloud – anything you bought on iTunes download to any device with no additional charges.

iCloud is all FREE! 5GB storage limit.

One more thing

iTunes Match

Will upgrade your songs to 256 kbps AAC DRM Free and store it in the cloud.

Costs $24.99/year – 5000 songs.

iCloud developer beta today – runs on iOS 4.3.

Sadly, no new iPhone announcements made!

WWDC 2011 Roundup: Mac OS X Lion, iOS 5, iCloud Features and Prices - Originally published in Top iPhone Resource on 2011/06/06 (RSS)

© karthik for Top iPhone Resource, 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Find us on Twitter - @TopiPhone and on Follow TiR in Facebook.

We have seen here on how to create iPhone ringtones using the free utility iRinger. But, you needed to have the music file with you in order to create the ringtone of your choice.

Myxer.com on the other hand has a wide range of popular ringtones of various categories available for download. Mind you, this isn’t really an iPhone oriented site and it seems to be popular for most cell phones. You can pick a ringtone and have it sent to your phone.

For iPhone though, this doesn’t work but there is a workaround. When you are looking at a ringtone in Myxer.com, you will a Download for iPhone link as you see in the picture. You will see that the ringtone you are downloading is in the iTunes friendly .m4r format.

Once you download it, you just need to drag it into iTunes and sync your iPhone! Yes, it’s that simple. And Myxer has a boatload of popular ringtones for you to enjoy. Thanks Cody for the heads up!

[via iPhone download blog]

Simplest Way to Get Popular iPhone Ringtones - Originally published in Top iPhone Resource on 2011/06/05 (RSS)

© shriya for Top iPhone Resource, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Find us on Twitter - @TopiPhone and on Follow TiR in Facebook.

First, AppleInsider has posted a picture from Moscone Center where the WWDC 2011 is set to happen. You can see the brushed metal cloud icon for the new iCloud service.

LA Times is reporting that iCloud is set to cost just $25/year and the service could come free for those who purchase Mac OS X 10.7 – Lion.

They also say that some parts of the service could be made free but the part that comprises of streaming music will probably stay in the paid subscription plan.

Another ineteresting detail is that Apple is set to revenue share 70% of iCloud revenues with music labels, 12% with songwriting rights holders and keep just 18% for themselves.

We will be following the iCloud announcements on Monday closely and reporting back. Stay tuned.

{ image via AppleInsider – h/t to TUAW}

iCloud Icon Revelead, iCloud to Cost $25/year: LA Times - Originally published in Top iPhone Resource on 2011/06/03 (RSS)

© karthik for Top iPhone Resource, 2011. | Permalink | Be the first to comment | Find us on Twitter - @TopiPhone and on Follow TiR in Facebook.

Apple WWDC 2011 - June 6-10 2011

Here is the press release in it’s entirety.

CUPERTINO, California—May 31, 2011—Apple® CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software – Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS® X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch®; and iCloud®, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.

WWDC will feature more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers. Mac® developers will see and learn how to develop world-class Mac OS X Lion applications using its latest technologies and capabilities. Mobile developers will be able to explore the latest innovations and capabilities of iOS and learn how to greatly enhance the functionality, performance and design of their apps. All developers can bring their code to the labs and work with Apple engineers.

For more details, visit the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2011 website at developer.apple.com/wwdc.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

There is no mention of the iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 in the press release. Could that be the famous ‘one more thing’ in the WWDC this year?.

{ via Apple }

Steve Jobs to Unveil iOS 5, iCloud and Mac OS X Lion on June 6 - Originally published in Top iPhone Resource on 2011/05/31 (RSS)

© karthik for Top iPhone Resource, 2011. | Permalink | Be the first to comment | Find us on Twitter - @TopiPhone and on Follow TiR in Facebook.