Nowadays, with the plethora of information on how to live a healthier life, live longer, eat better etc, we often forget and ignore the importance of exercising the brain. With this in mind, lumosity.com has released the first brain training iPhone application – Speed Brain which helps you to sharpen your mind wherever you are.

This app is intended to take your mind out of its typical thought patterns and enhance your brain activity. In spite of the simple interface, some pretty complex science went into designing the app. The fundamental idea behind this brain game is to improve your processing speed and reaction time.

It tasks your ability to quickly and accurately determine whether a symbol matches the last one that you saw. Accuracy and speed will produce a higher score, which will be saved to monitor your progress. The score is compared with your friends who are also using Speed Brain. As the images flash in front of you, all you need to do is select “No Match” or “Match” as quickly as you can. You receive instant feedback when a selection is correct or incorrect, and the goal, of course, is to get as many correct as possible using the least amount of time you can to react and tap.

You can download Speed Brain from the App Store for only .99 cents. It is a fun way to go if you want to keep your brain in tip-top shape and improve your time and accuracy which will ultimately reflect on your decision making.

If you are always on the move and you own an iPhone, well, you could surely use the new application HearPlanet which literally transforms your iPhone into a talking tour guide. Released on Christmas Eve in Apple’s iTunes App Store, HearPlanet quickly climbed into the top ten on Apple’s list of paid Travel applications and is available for $3.99.

According to HearPlanet, the application with the same name contains audio tours of over 230,000 locations. HearPlanet uses your iPhone’s location awareness to find places of interest near you. If you select a city, for example, HearPlanet will tell you about the museums, stadiums, zoos, and other landmarks or popular attractions that are around you.

If you are wondering where all the information is coming from, well most of the entries match the information in Wikipedia. So, when you choose a topic, HearPlanet loads a screen with both text and audio of the Wikipedia article in question.

HearPlanet also offers a search option in which you can enter a search topic and location. Another interesting feature is that when you tap the play button HearPlanet switches to speaker mode enabling you to share the information you’re getting.

Integration with maps and phone numbers would definitely be a great addition in time. The company promises that new cool features are being continually added. Naturally, if you get the app now, future updates will be available to you for free.

This year, Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing delivered the keynote address at Macworld 2009. Surprisingly, there was very little news on the iPhone front with no new iPhone announcements contrary to speculations prior to the event.

SwitchEasy has released RebelSerpent, the latest case for iPhone 3G. The new iPhone case is based on the company’s well-known CapsuleRebel case.  

It is a hybrid case featuring a inner layer made of Adaptive Dynamic Soft Polymer (ADSP) and a Lexan polycarbonate “UltraFrame” that attaches to the outside of the ADSP shell. But unlike the smooth surface of CapsuleRebel’s shell the RebelSerpent’s offers a faceted, diamond-shaped texture for added grip.  

It also features tactile covers for the device’s buttons, and comes with  

- Two anti-static screen guards,

- A microfiber cleaning wipe,

- A Universal Dock Adapter,

- A video dock stand,

- A Dock Connector protector.  

The SwitchEasy RebelSerpent for iPhone 3G is available now and sells for $27.

So the music industry is rapidly changing. No more lawsuits for kids steeling copyrighted music. The RIAA will now simply notify the users ISP that they are sharing this music. Does this seem like the RIAA is becoming more lenient to people who steal music & movies using the new napster like p2p networks? I see this as the RIAA giving up or throwing in the towel to speak. There are millions of songs being downloaded everyday by people who did not pay for them. Are they just giving up?

I think there must be a change in the way music is created and sold on the internet for this generation. Apple started the iTuens / iPod movement and it’s been very successful ever since.

An interesting iLounge article below:

The Recording Industry Association of America has announced that it is planning to end its tactics of suing individual users who are caught sharing music online. According to the Wall Street journal, the RIAA has opened legal proceedings against roughly 35,000 people since 2003, which has done little to stop the illegal downloading of music over the Internet. Instead of lawsuits, the group has instead made preliminary agreements with major ISPs under which users caught uploading music illegally will receive emails from the service provider asking them to stop, possibly accompanied by a degradation in connection speed. Should the user continue to illegally upload music, the ISP could eventually decide to cut off their access altogether. The ISPs with which the RIAA has already reached agreements have not yet been named.

Well it is now official, the Dev-Team has updated their blog today to let you all know when the iPhone 3G software unlock will be released. Seems as if New Years eve is what they are aiming for.

• The target release date for the unlock is New Year’s Eve 2008.
• This unlock method is available to iPhone 3Gs that have 2.11.07 baseband or earlier, we did warn you.
• The unlock requires a jailbroken 3G iPhone.

It’s Official from the iPhone Dev Team

3G Unlock

We have been working hard on a few other things. The main one being the 3G unlock codenamed “yellowsn0w”. This is now completed and is currently being packaged into a user-friendly application with the simplicity that you see in QuickPwn or BootNeuter.

• * The target release date for the unlock is New Year’s Eve 2008. * This unlock method is available to iPhone 3Gs that have 2.11.07 baseband or earlier, we did warn you. * You can tell what version baseband you have by going to Settings->General->About->Modem Firmware * The unlock requires a jailbroken 3G iPhone. It’ll be installable via Cydia and so it doesn’t matter if you have a Mac or PC. * Please refrain from updating your baseband, regardless of what version you’re at. We’ll have complete directions on New Year’s Eve. * We’ll stream a live demo of the unlock before Christmas (see the update at the end of this post)

DFU Issues in OS X 10.5.6

Lots of users have been experiencing problems with the use of DFU mode after applying yesterday’s 10.5.6 system update.

We believe this behavior is due to a kernel bug not a specific countermeasure by Apple. Possible fixes are (try at your own risk!) -

1. Replace the following plugin kexts from within IOUSBFamily.kext with the ones from 10.5.5 and then rebuild kextcache (if you don’t understand this, then you shouldn’t attempt it!)

/System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBHub.kext

/System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOUSBCompositeDriver.kext

1. Use a USB hub in-between the DFU device and the Mac and insert/reinsert the iPhone’s USB cable.

2. Use a PwnageTool created .ipsw on Windows! Oh the irony!

I Love my iPhone but as we all know there are numerous things that annoy every iphone user about their new iPhone. Some of these items should have been fixed a while back even on the first generation iPhone.
Here is a list of someone’s top 25 problems with the iPhone

I love my iPhone, but it does lack some important features and functionality. That’s why I’ve put together this list of 25 fixes Apple should make to the iPhone.

Apple, if you read this, please consider these suggestions the next time you issue an iPhone update.25 things wrong with the iPhone:

1. Can’t copy & paste text.

2. Except for the first and last SMS messages in a session, iPhone text messages lack timestamps.

3. iPhone’s Safari browser does not support Java or Flash, so you can’t watch videos (except for YouTube ones) or see parts of certain websites.

4. The on-screen keyboard can’t be used in landscape mode in applications other than Safari.

5. Vibrate mode for incoming text messages is weak.

6. Incoming text messages appear word-for-word on the screen upon receiving them, which may be a privacy issue for some.

7. No Undo function for when you’ve accidentally erased or mistyped text.

8. Scroll bars don’t appear in some text fields in the browser, and there are no arrow keys to maneuver through text.

9. Can’t save usernames and passwords in Safari.

10. The YouTube app does not allow you to view or post comments on videos.

11. Can’t download or save Word documents, PDF files, or any other file for that matter. Why not add a My Documents folder?

12. No spell check feature for web forms.

13. Can’t send more than one image in an email.

14. Except for in the Camera Roll, photos can’t be edited or removed directly from the iPhone. You have to edit them on your computer and then re-sync them.

15. The iPhone lacks a Find function for sorting through contacts, e-mails, calendar appointments, notes, etc.

16. Can’t update your Facebook status via iPhone’s Safari browser. Facebook is a fast-growing social network, so iPhone should support it. (Update: Facebook now has an iPhone version of the site, located at iphone.facebook.com)

17. No mass edit feature for handling calendar items, notes and e-mails.

18. Can’t search within web pages in the browser.

19. Its 3-day, expensive battery replacement plans.

20. Can’t highlight text.

21. Limited ringtones. Can’t set songs as ringtones. (Update: Apple now lets you convert some songs into ringtones via iTunes for $0.99 each.)

22. Difficult to rewind and fast-forward through long audio and video files (like audiobooks and TV shows or movies).

23. No AIM or iChat application.

24. One too many steps to dial a contact. (Update: In a software update, Apple added a feature that lets you double tap the home button to access your Favorites list of contacts.)

25. Because it is recessed, the headphone jack is incompatible with non-Apple headphones. Griffin’s headphone adapter can solve this problem.

*Bonus* - MORE things wrong with the iPhone

Here are a few more things wrong with the iPhone, as readers have pointed out in the comments below.

26. iPhone’s camera is archaic (no zoom, poor image stabilization, poor quality in low-lit areas).

27. No speed dial or voice dial functionality.

28. Cannot add attachments to emails.

29. Can’t use iPhone as a hard drive storage device, unlike the iPod.

30. Can’t change the sound notifications for email, voicemail, etc.

31. Can’t delete individual entries from the recent calls list without deleting them all, a potential privacy issue.

32. No 3G data speeds. EDGE is slow at times.

33. Cannot send photos via text messages.

34. Cannot send mass text messages. (Update: Apple added mass text messaging to the iPhone via firmware update 1.1.3)

35. iPhone lacks a video camera.

36. No tasks or To-Do widgets.

37. No support for games.

38. Can’t disable auto-correct on the keyboard. Every time it makes a suggestion you don’t want, you have to tap X to cancel it, which can slow down typing a lot.

39. iPhone’s calculator lacks a backspace, so you have to clear the entire process if you accidentally touch an unintended digit.

After all the rumors and speculations, its finally official, Apple has announced a 16GB iPhone thus doubling the storage capacity. Along with the 16GB iPhone, Apple has also announced a 32GB iPod Touch.

Lets face when Apple launched the 16 GB iPod Touch it was quite imminent that we would soon have a 16 GB iPhone. The 16GB iPhone is priced at $499, in addition to the 8GB iPhone for $399. The 32GB iPod Touch is priced at $499, in addition to the 16GB iPod Touch for $399 and the 8GB iPod Touch for $299.

Though there are no additional features in these models, I hear they will come pre-loaded with firmware v1.1.3, and the good news is that the 32GB iPod Touch will include the $20 software upgrade which adds Mail, Maps, Stocks, Weather and Notes which was announced in Steve Jobs Keynote Address.

If you are interested in upgrading from your 4GB or 8GB iPhone then more details are available after the jump.

Here are some more details which you might find useful in case you want to upgrade to the 16GB iPhone:

* If you have recently bought an iPhone (14 or fewer days ago) then you can return it in exchange for a 16GB model for $100 more.

* In case you have opened the iPhone, then you will be charged an additional 10 percent as restocking fee (common practice followed by Apple).

* You do not need to sign a new contract, apparently all you need to do is use the SIM card with the current contract from your previous iPhone and activate it for free from iTunes.

read more at iPhone hacks

I think that Apple will obviously be releasing a 32GB version of the iphone very soon since they just made a 32GB ipod touch. Apple wants everyone to buy these handsets first before they make the higher capacity ones with the 3G chip. I myself would like a 32GB iPhone. I have two 30 GB ipods and i could put almost all my music on the phone and take it with me. By that time they will release the iPhone 2 totally redesigned phone with al the missing features I’m sure.

Supposedly i heard that these new iPhones come with different hardware that is much harder to jailbreak so before buying one make sure you can use it with your SIM card of course.