iOS 4.2 bringing speed improvements to iPhone 3G?

The recent iOS updates have mostly been welcome improvements for iPhone 4 and 3GS users, but it’s been a decidedly different story for folks sticking to their venerable iPhone 3G. Not only have they been left out of some of the fun, but they were dealt a serious performance hit with iOS 4.0 that was only somewhat corrected by IOS 4.1. Could iOS 4.2 finally bring things back up to speed? According to the folks at TiPb, it just might — they’ve now tested the iOS 4.2 gold master on an iPhone 3G and found that performance was noticeably improved across the board. Head on past the break to check out their results for yourself, and keep your fingers crossed that you’ll actually see a similar improvement when the official update finally hits your 3G.

Android Notifier sends notifications to your desktop

If you’ve ever used Android for any period of time, you know that the notification system can be both a blessing and a curse — it’s one of the most powerful, useful, and flexible approaches out there, but if you don’t keep up, your menu bar can stack up into a mess of cryptic numbered icons. So we were really hoping Android Notifier could help us with that — it pipes notifications to your OS X desktop over WiFi or Bluetooth. (Linux support is coming soon, and the project is looking for a Windows volunteer.) While it works as described — we had it up and running with Growl on our iMac in just a few moments — it’s also unfortunately a little limited: only phone, SMS, MMS, and voicemail notifications are sent, and clearing them on the computer doesn’t clear them on the phone, which sort of misses the point. We can’t knock it too hard, since it’s free, it works, and we’re sure the developers will extend it soon enough, but until then our quest for the perfect continuous client… continues.

Geek.com

Android Notifier

Fully-functional Android port for N900 threatens to beat N9 to market

The NITDroid project has been slogging along this year in an effort to get Android fully ported to Nokia’s N900, and the progress has been promising so far — but wouldn’t it be nice if you could, you know, make calls? Looks like these guys are making some solid progress there with a new video showing both incoming and outgoing calls doing… well, something or another on the N900 side. Cellular data’s coming along nicely, too, as you can see on the video after the break — so here’s the million-dollar question: when this is rock-solid and ready for prime time, are you jumping ship or sticking with Maemo?

NITDroid

Flash ported to iPhone 4, available for download

Cydia is a great place to hang out, and we’re sure unlocking is pretty swell, but it’s quite possible you and your freshly-rooted iPhone 4 have already run out of fun things to do. In that case, might we suggest giving Frash a try? That’s right, Comex’s Strong Bad-inspired port of Adobe Flash 10.1 has been compiled once again, and though it’s still an alpha build there’s nothing keeping you from experiencing the joys of animated advertising on your iOS 4 device. Instructions are exactly the same as in our Flash how-to for iPad — jailbreak, download the .deb, upload it to a folder deep inside your phone via SSH, restart and you’re done — but if that sounds like too much work or you’re worried about your phone asploding prematurely, you can watch from a safe distance as Homestar Runner struts his stuff. You’ll find that and more in a video after the break, and a pre-compiled alpha build is available at our source link.

Disney converting Droid Eris into GPS tour guide

If you shed a tear when Verizon put the Droid Eris out to pasture, it’s time to dry your eyes; it seems the handset’s found greener fields in Florida, at Epcot Center to be precise. That’s right, Walt Disney World is reportedly testing out Verizon’s HTC Hero as a GPS navigator and tour guide for the entire park, complete with shopping discounts, special bonuses and up-to-the-minute wait times for rides. How or when you’ll get your hands on one is presently up in the air, though the man who snapped these shots told Mickey Updates the phones may be an inexpensive addition to your vacation — perhaps like the $10 BREW-based Mobile Magic application Verizon and Disney introduced last year. Here’s hoping that chunky case includes an extended battery — there’s no way a stock Eris could last as long as Nintendo’s guide.

Validas study finds Verizon smartphones consuming more data than iPhones

You know how we’ve good reason to believe that Verizon Wireless is at least mulling the switch to capped / tiered data plans? Yeah. An independent Validas research report has found that, between January and May of this year (pre-AT&T caps), Verizon’s stable of smartphones collectively averaged more data consumption per month that Apple’s iPhone. Of course, this quite literally compares an Apple to every smartphone on Verizon save for BlackBerries, but given how much squalling we’ve heard from Ma Bell about this rampant iPhone data usage, we’re pleased to see a few facts that spin things the other way. The company’s full report is due out in September, but investigation of over 20,000 wireless bills found that VZW smartphones “are consuming more wireless data than AT&T iPhones by a ratio of roughly 1.25:1,” with the average Verizon user eating up 421MB per month and the average iPhone user consuming 338MB per month. It also points out that “nearly twice as many Verizon Wireless smartphone users are consuming 500MB to 1GB per month compared to AT&T iPhone users.” You learn something new everyday, right?

iPod touch becomes iPhone using Yosion’s Apple Peel 520?

Oh sure, VoIP on the iPod touch is hardly breaking news these days, but what if you could actually slap on a regular SIM card and make calls on said device? That’s what Yosion’s appropriately named Apple Peel 520 claims to do. Powered by an Infineon baseband chip, this adapter not only offers voice calling and text messaging (presumably requiring a jailbroken iPod touch for the apps; GPRS not possible yet), but it also doubles up as an 800mAh battery and provides 4.5 hours of call time or 120 hours of standby juice. We’re told this cheeky hack’s coming out in China as early as this week for somewhere between ¥300 ($44) and ¥500 ($74), although the lack of an official website, full spec sheet or compatibility list means we’ll have to remain skeptical with this potentially vaporware company.

Mongoose Studio’s dozen iPod cluster display is an expensive way to watch Tron

Most of us would be happy to get a single video to play on our PMP without having to run it through some sort of transcoder first, but the folks at Mongoose Studio needed something more complex. They’ve released a video of a project that’s been in the works for some time, clustering 12 iPod touches into a sort of bezel-riffic widescreen display. All are controlled by a master, 13th iPod that can cause them to display a clock in the interest of verifying synchronization (which is far from perfect, as you’ll see in the embed below), or to trigger the playing of a movie. We’re guessing that the footage must be manually split into appropriate files for each device, and we’re also guessing that horrible things would happen should someone come along and re-shuffle them. But, if you have a lot of friends with iPhones and a lot of free time to prep the film, this could make for a rather interesting movie night — until someone gets a call, that is.

HTC EVO 4G meets magnetic macro lens, shoots gorgeous closeups

As phone accessories go, protruding lens attachments are rarely top of our wishlist, but this one here might just alter our perspective a little bit. Good and EVO have gone to the trouble of obtaining a magnetically mountable macro lens to test out how well the EVO 4G’s camera performs with a little more optical prowess. The answer is that in spite of the inevitably goofy appearance, the jumbo Android handset delivered some highly impressive imagery, getting really up close and personal with its subjects and picking out exquisitely tiny details. The results are certainly of a caliber unobtainable with the default optics and well worth checking out.

source Good and EVO

PhotoFast makes iPad work with a Microsoft webcam, cats and dogs live together

We’re still thinking there’s an integrated camera coming for the iPad, but there’s one company out there who must surely be hoping that’s not the case. That company would be PhotoFast, flash storage gurus turned to iPad video chat enablers. The company’s early prototype is simply a Microsoft LifeCam bodged into the dock port, but when it releases toward the end of the year will be a fully custom two megapixel webcam that manages VGA video and, supposedly, will be compatible with at least some IM apps. PhotoFast is also working on an iPad TV tuner and a dock that reads flash memory, which will also be made available for the iPhone/iPod whenever it is released. As for the cats and dogs thing, no firm date was given there, either.