The following devices are supported (Pretty much every iPad, 3G+ iPod and 2G+ iPhone):

• iPad: 1,1 – 2,1 – 2,2 – 2,3 – 3,1 – 3,2 – 3,3
  (Support for iPad2,4 will be added at a later date)

• iPod: 3,1 – 4,1

• iPhone: 2,1 – 3,1 – 3,3 – 4,1

Download Absinthe 2.0: Download Absinthe 2.0 – greenpois0n

Via: @Chronic

A recent tweet from the @HITBsecConf twitter account for said conference says that on Friday, May 25th, pod2g and friends will be showing off a live demonstration of the new jailbreak, with a public release hitting the interwebs (reportedly) shortly thereafter. The event is kicking off at 11:30am CET (5:30am EST) and will begin with a few discussions and other demos before the real meat of the day, Absinthe 2.0, is shown off.

Needless to say, a lot of iOS users will be hunched over their keyboards tomorrow, anxiously awaiting a download link for the new jailbreak — it’s been a longtime coming.

Source: conference.hitb.org | Via: ModMyi, @MrRobinson

A new report by the WSJ claims CEO Thorsten Heins has pretty much killed the project that would see RIM release iOS and Android compatible version of BlackBerry Messenger. The original goal to opening up BlackBerry Messenger was to have it compete with the flood of other device and non-device specific chat apps like iMessage, Kik, WhatsApp, etc.

On top of that, the WSJ report also says the same sources claim that previous talk of licensing the BlackBerry OS to 3rd parties has also been effectively quashed (or more accurately, “put on the backburner”).

RIM’s entire future rests on how well BlackBerry 10 does in the marketplace, and said OS isn’t slated to ship until late this year, after Apple ships iOS 6 and a new iPhone and very possibly after Google unveils their next major OS, too. Still, what we’ve seen so far from the small number of public showings and leaked images suggests RIM does have a potential winner on their hands. As always, however, the statement “too little too late keeps coming to mind”. All that said, we’re pulling for RIM and hope they can get all of their ducks in a row and release something truly unique.

Source: WSJ | Via: ElectricPig

As the concept depicted, the tweak itself is pretty basic; you unlock your screen by sliding across as normal. Though, instead the usual sliding button at the bottom, the screen folds in on itself into a series of several uniform folds.

Naturally, one might assume that the left-to-right swiping gesture for Unfold to Unlock might interfere with other onscreen gestures. Not so. According to iDownloadblog, several big name jailbreak tweaks such as LockInfo, Camera Grabber, Bulletin, IntelliscreenX and even the iOS passcode screen all work with Unfold to Unlock, not to mention many others.

The app is available for free, however, we wouldn’t hesitate to chip the developer a couple bucks for his efforts. These talented people often work for the community, for free, and put aside other work to do so.

Let us know what you think!

Via: iDownloadblog

That said, we’ve come to be quite the battery case aficionados here at Gadgetsteria, building an ever-growing database of iPhone battery case reviews/data over the last 12-18 months. Looking back at it all, it’s become apparent that some type of round-up is needed so you the reader can more quickly compare and contrast the various cases we’ve spent some time with. So, here it goes…

Powerskin 2000

As one of our earlier case reviews, the (at the time) massively large 2,000 mAh battery was a worthy talking point. It was, and still is, on the high side as far as battery cases go. Charge times (both charging the phone and charging the case) are “average” in our book, taking roughly two and a half hours for the phone and two and a half to three hours for the case.

Oddly enough, while the Powerskin’s 2,000 mAh battery is considerably larger than the iPhone 4S’ 1,420 mAh internal pack, it rarely gets our phone higher than 90-95% — something to consider.

Performance is the Powerskin 2000′s claim to fame, design and feeling-in-the-hand are not. For starters, the Powerskin is very brickish in shape with lightly contoured edges that really do make it feel pretty large. More annoying, however, is the ultra-soft rubber finish. It’s too sticky in our opinion, meaning pocket lint and other dirt/dust will adhere to the case easily. Weekly cleaning is something you’re going to want to think about.

$79.99 is a tad much in our book considering it doesn’t come with any extras. Still, it’s a decent battery case.

More: Powerskin full review

Incipio offGRID

Switching gears from the larger-than-life Powerskin above, Incipio’s offGRID feels downright tiny in comparison. Instead of going for a full 0-100% goal, Incipio instead chose to cater more towards providing an extra bump in daily battery life while still keeping the case relatively thin and lightweight. Spoiler: They succeeded.

The offGRID is by far one of the thinnest battery cases on the market. Not only that, it is also one of the most comfortable to hold and use in our book. In fact, in many instances we’d say the offGRID makes our iPhone more comfortable to hold/use for extended periods. Whereas Powerskin took a soft touch, rubber-ish approach, Incipio instead choose to leave the offGRID’s plastic exposed, albeit painted over (obviously) to look better to the users’ eye.

The 1,450 mAh battery is just barely bigger than the iPhone 4S’ 1,420 mAh internal battery, and as such, will only recharge your phone in the range of ~50-70%. Considering the much smaller footprint, we think Incipio did a damn fine job with the offGRID in both design and functionality. Re-charge time for the offGRID itself is between two and two and a half hours.

The only gripe we have with the offGRID is the price — $69.99. In this instance you’re not paying solely for battery power (as it is lower than its competitors). You’re paying for a modest bump in battery life along with a well designed and more pocket-friendly case.

More: Incipio offGRID full review

Incipio offGRID Pro

At CES 2012 we stumbled into Incipio’s booth and were ecstatic (really) to find a new offGRID Pro prototype floating around. At the time it was confined to a glass box, unable to be poked or prodded. But our waiting (and persistance) finally paid off this spring when a shiny, new offGRID Pro showed up at our doorstep. So what has Incipio done to make it better?

Design wise the offGRID Pro looks very similar to the original offGRID with the exception of how the case is actually held together. Whereas the original offGRID was a slider type case, the offGRID Pro features a more unique two-piece bumper + slider design. Slide your phone into the bottom/back piece of the phone and then wrap the bumper piece aground the phone and bottom/back piece of case to hold it all together. Are only gripe with this design is it is a bit difficult to get a part, though, nothing a sharp object can’t help.

But there similarities end there. For starters, the internal battery is larger — 1,600 mAh instead of 1,450 mAh. But Incipio went above and beyond by including a second 1,600 mAh battery as the batteries are now easily removable. On top of that, Incipio included a standalone micro-USB battery charger to keep the second battery charged at all times for quick, hot-swapping action.

Performance from the 1,600 mAh battery is a bit better than the offGRID’s smaller 1,450 mAh battery; we have seen 1% recharges go as high as 75%. (In the original review we noted ~71% as the max. Additional usage/testing has netted a few extra percentage points.) But again, while the offGRID Pro isn’t the runtime-doubling, ultra marathon case we were hoping an offGRID successor would be, we are completely head over heels for this case.

The batteries, when inside the case or via external charger, take about two and a half hours to re-charge. (See a pattern here…?)

While we had some reservations about Incipio’s pricing of the original offGRID, we really aren’t too surprised or discouraged by the offGRID Pro’s higher $100 price tag. When you look at everything you get — the case, 2x 1,600 mAh batteries and stand alone charger for the second battery — the
value is made readily apparent.

Despite all of the changes in design and mAh capacity, Incipio still managed to keep the case pretty much identical in size (read: it’s still, in our opinion, the best combination of mAh power and size/comfort) as the original offGRID. Job well done we say.

More: Incipio offGRID Pro full review

BoostCase

The BoostCase is another CES contestant. Before CES: Unveiled, we hadn’t heard of BoostCase. But after spotting a few on display, we immediately knew we had to try them out. The overall design which incorporated additional colors besides your typical black/white case colors was a very welcome change, as was the slide-and-twist nature of the two-piece case design. (This design, mind you, also allows swapping of case colors for customization’s sake.)

The 1,900 mAh battery inside the BoostCase got us back up to 75%-85% with our max test netting an 88% charge when charged from a save-me-now (says the battery) 1% charge. The BoostCase itself, like most other cases, takes about two and a half hours to fully recharge itself. Also, while the 1,900 mAh battery is on the large side, the BoostCase engineers did a pretty good job of making it not feel like a brick. Kudos.

One thing we noticed with the BoostCase in particular is that the charging LED lights on the back of the case could be a bit sporadic. Sometimes as soon as 20 minutes after turning on a fully charged case we’d see the 4 LEDs decrease to 2, and then ~15 minutes later drop to 1. That 1 LED would then stay lit for the next hour and a half while the case completely discharged. Our iPhone would still get a full (as much as the case would provide) charge. It’s just that the case was not properly registering its own charge.

$79.95 is a pretty fair price in our book for the fresh design and swappable color plates, not to mention the upper-tier 1,900 mAh battery.

More: BoostCase full review

Phonesuit Elite

The Phonesuit Elite is a self-proclaimed “fastest” charging iPhone battery case. And in our hands-on testing we found that statement to generally hold true. Average 1-95/97% charge times were as low as one hour and 27 minutes. Getting the additional few percentage points up to 100% could take up to an additional 20-40 minutes, however. Still, the Phonesuit Elite’s 2,100 mAh, class-leading battery is one of the few that can actually get your iPhone to 100%. In fact, the Phonesuit Elite can actually take you back up to 100% and then dump another ~10-30% charge back into your phone.

The class-leading mAh rating means a bigger battery which in turn means a
thicker case. Despite being 100 mAh larger than the Powerskin case above,
we actually found the Phonesuit Elite felt (and looked) smaller thanks to more contoured edges. Bonus: Powerskin made the soft touch coating far less sticky than Powerskin did meaning no pocket fuzzies mucking up your phone.

At $79.99, those looking for purely the best performance money can by will be surprised to find it priced at only $79.99. If size/weight isn’t as big of a concern for you, this is the case to look at.

More: Phonesuit Elite full review

Spyder i4

The newest addition to our battery case collection is Spyder’s i4 2,000 mAh case. Physically it isn’t all that impressive. Though, we do like the two-piece slider design and included second top piece. It makes loosing the
slide-off top piece less of a concern. We also really like the re-charge performance of ~90%. However, the real talking point with the i4 is the included, matching dock covered in the same matte black, soft touch finish. The dock is pretty basic — you plug it into a micro-USB cable and then sit your phone inside the dock. But we love being able to pop our phone on and off the dock exponentially more than fumbling around with USB cables any day of the week.

Like the Phonesuit Elite, the soft touch finish is not sticky at all, and should combat fuzz/dust rather well in the long run. Also (like the Phonesuit Elite), the designers of the Spyder i4 took comfort and usability into consideration as the sides and overall case shape are contoured enough to mask the case’s true size and and weight. It too escapes feeling like a simple battery brick like the Powerskin.

$89.99 for near-100% re-charges and a sweet included dock make the i4 a top
contender in our book.

More: Spyder i4 full review

The Wrap-up

While we highly suggest you check out each review above to find out more
about each respective case, we can pretty easily narrow the results above
down into three solid choices (though all of them are worthy).

• Small yet powerful: Incipio offGRID/Pro (either
  are a good choice considering the size)

• Ultimate runtime: Phonesuit Elite

• Added functionality: Spyder i4

We’ve been fortunate enough to handle and use a pretty good assortment of iPhone 4/4S battery cases over the last year including the BoostCase, Powerskin 2000, Incipio offGRID and offGRID Pro and Phonesuit Elite and more. Needless to say, we’ve built up a fairly extensive amount of knowledge regarding iPhone battery cases. And today we’re adding to that knowledge base with Spyder’s PowerShadow i4 2,000 mAh iPhone 4/4S battery case. Let’s see how it fares.

Design

Covered in a matte black, soft touch finish, the Spyder i4 mimics several other iPhone battery cases. This isn’t a bad thing though as we think the non-shiny, non-slip color/texture is a perfect combination. Another thing we like, and something that has seemingly become the norm, is the two-piece slider design. The top third of the i4 pops off the top allowing you to slide your iPhone in and out of the case. (We feel this is a better solution than some cases with you have to literally wrap the case around your phone – more secure and less prone to loosening with age.

As far as access goes, the entire screen of your iPhone is exposed. Ditto for the buttons and switches. Instead of button covers, the i4 has simple cutouts that allow easy access to all of your buttons. The only gripe we have (and it’s common with battery cases) is that the headphone cutout is too small. Anyone with a thicker 3.5mm headphone jack for mid- to higher-end headphones/earphones is going to need a small adapter to make everything play nice. Not a deal breaker per say, but something you have to consider (carrying around an adapter or removing the top piece every time you want to use headphones with a thick jack).

On the bottom of the case you’ll find a micro-USB port off to the far right, and a handful of metal contacts for the included dock (more on that in a minute) in the center.

If we are to be super picky, we’ll note that the addition of metal contacts to the bottom of the case make the bottom portion of the i4 ever so slightly thicker (~1-2mm) than your typical iPhone 4/4S battery case that uses just micro-USB. To some it’s an annoyance. Others, meanwhile, won’t notice it.

i4 Dock

We mentioned differentiation above and how battery cases are becoming a dime a dozen. While iPhone battery case manufacturers haven’t gotten too crazy yet with experimenting with different features, hardware designs, etc., i4 has found a way to make us raise an eyebrow – a stand alone dock. Most battery cases are very basic when it comes to charging — you use a micro-USB to plug it into a USB port or wall jack and away you go. The i4 in comparison can either charge by micro-USB or by way of the included dock. The dock, mind you, features the same matte black, soft touch coating that the case is covered in — very nice.

Besides the physical appearance, we have to comment on Spyder’s attention to small details, particularly the weight of the dock. At first, we saw the dock on the cover of the box and worried that it would simply be a cheap, plastic shell that weighed about as much as a feather. Thankfully, however, Spyder built a hearty dock. It’s not a gigantic paper weight, though it is definitely not going to fly around your desk or shuffle around.

Performance

Design and included perks/accessories are always nice. But the #1 purpose behind a battery case is to recharge your phone’s battery. So how does the i4 fare?

Wonderfully. The 2,000 mAh battery inside the i4 was able to get our phone right up to 95-100% almost every time, taking roughly two and a half hours. Longer stints of inactivity (on our part on the phone) saw enough power to take it to 100% plus another ~10%. Your mileage will vary, of course, if you are watching a movie/twittering away for hours on end while the case is charging your phone.

Changing pace and charging the case is a slightly longer affair of two and a half to three hours from dead to 5 full LEDs indicating a 100% charge.

Quite simply, you can bet on getting twice the battery life you do sans i4. For a lot of people, battery life isn’t a big deal as there are ample outlets/USB ports. For road warriors, however, this doubling of off-the-wall runtime is a lifesaver.

Buy or Pass?

Spyder has priced the i4 at $89.99. It’s not the cheapest battery case on the market and it’s certainly not the most expensive. We actually think it’s quite fair. For starters, the i4 comes with two removable top pieces (probably in case you lose one). It’s really not needed as the top piece is snug enough it’s not going to accidentally slide off, and there isn’t any reason to use the i4 without said piece installed. More importantly, however, the i4 comes with its own handy dock that makes charging your phone quick and easy without having to fumble with wires all the time. The dock alone could be a $20-$30 addition.

At the end of the day, the only negatives we can find with the i4 revolve around the headphone cutout that’s too small. We don’t consider thickness a “con”, really, as cramming a 2,000 mAh battery is going to understandably add some size and weight. Given that, we’d have to say the Spyder i4 is worth a serious look (we’d say put it at the top of your list) if iPhone battery cases are on your radar. It has one of the most capacious batteries on the market, includes its own dock, is contoured enough to hide some of its size and is priced decently. What’s not to like?

More: Spyder i4 Product Page

Gadgetsteria’s Rating: 8.5

Gallery

According to a new post by 9to5 Mac citing there all-knowing sources, Apple will release a new iPhone this fall with a 3.95″ (diagonal), 640 x 1136 display.

The aspect ratio of the resolution above will give the new iPhone a near-16:9 aspect ratio meaning almost no black bars on widescreen content should be seen.

According to the same source(s), Apple is currently flogging two prototype next-gen iPhones (N41A/5,1 and N42AP/5,2) internally in ultra-thick cases designed to conceal the true form and design from the public.

Other tidbits to take away from 9to5′s info dump include:

• New iPhone will allow for 5th row of icons on homescreen

• Home button is still very much there

• Dock connector is a new, smaller evolution of Apple’s connector. “Not exactly pill shaped” and “somewhere between the size of a micro-USB and mini-USB connector”.

9to5 promises “much more” is “to come”. Excited? We are.

Via: 9to5Mac

As it works now, SMS/iMessage previews show a simple 1-line preview in dropdown banner when in app, and a multi-line preview when on the lockscreen. After a few seconds, the alert goes away and is replaced by a line of text from said message on the lockscreen Notification Center. With Reveal, a new tweak on Cydia created by Conrad Kramer and Joshua Tucker, the top header banner and alert pop up can be configured to display the full message.

At first, that sounds like major pain but in reality, the scrolling functionality actually looks and feels pretty stock. In the header banner, you can scroll horizontally to read the full message while the alert pop-up can be scrolled vertically.

We tend to get a lot of messages. Cydia tweaks like TwitkaFly and BiteSMS make responding to tweets/iMessages within any app incredibly fast and easy for us. And now, the first step of conversing with others (reading their messages) is just as easy, too. Now we don’t have to leave our app or unlock our phone to read a full message.

Reveal is now available on Cydia for $1.99 from the BigBoss repo.

Update: Reveal actually works with all types of messaging apps/alerts, not just SMS/iMessage.

Via: RedmondPie

The 2,100 mAh mini power plant crammed inside the Phonesuit Elite’s casing is the biggest we’ve seen inside an iPhone case to date. That said, can it actually perform, too? Raw specs aren’t everything. We’ve seen lower mAh-rated batteries/cases perform better than higher-mAh rated ones before.

Can Phonesuit fix your iPhone 4/4S battery woes? Gadgetsteria investigates…

Design

Most battery cases are pretty brickish in style and shape, especially the higher mAh rated ones like the PhoneSuit and its 2,100 mAh energy source. But true to their claims, Phonesuit has managed to pull of some magic as the 2,100 mAh case is actually quite thin and relatively light (all things considered of course).

On the back and bottom of the device you’ll find your standard power/charge checking button as well as 4 blue LEDs that indicate said charge. Rotating slightly, the actual bottom edge of the case features the micro-USB charging/syncing port as well as the switch to push electrons from outlet to case or outlet to phone (more on this later). Finally, all buttons feature simple cutouts. The headphone port in particular is too small for our liking. Users of higher-end earphones or headphones that make use of thicker, beefier 3.5mm plugs will either need to take their iPhone out of the Phonesuit or use a small 3.5mm male-to-female extender.

Performance

Initially, we were kind of disappointed with the performance of the Phonesuit’s 2,100 mAh battery. Even considering inefficiencies and the typical electron loss you have when recharging batteries, the initial re-charge of our phone saw the Phonesuit barely able to get us from 1%-100%. Speaking of which, Phonesuit claims 2 hours or less for a full charge. We noticed an average 1-100% recharge time of ~1:30-1:50.

After a first, initially disappointing experience in which the Phonesuit Elite barely made it to 100% after 2:25, subsequent testing (and charging) quickly reassured us that this is a beast of a battery case. After doing a complete 1-100% recharge in ~1:50, we let our phone drain down to 75% and flipped the case back on. The reward: ~20% additional recharge power left. So, in essence, the Phonesuit has the ability to completely charge your iPhone from start to finish and then some.

Recharging the phone is a pretty great experience but what about the case? Having a case that takes 5 hours to recharge itself kind of defeats the purpose of living a mobile lifestyle in the first place. Thankfully, the Phonesuit Elite is a brisk recharger itself, taking about two and a half to three hours.

Choose Your Source

Phonesuit bucked the trend as far as battery cases go. Instead of making it so the phone is charged first, and then afterwards filling the case back up. The tried and true pattern makes sense to us, and apparently many other manufacturers too as it is pretty much the go-to standard way of doing things. Phonesuit on the other hand implemented a switch on the bottom of the case that allows the user to immediately charge the phone or the case. This is both bad and good.

The plus to being able to choose your charging destination is that you have control over where the power goes. While their are certain instances where we can see charging the case before the phone would be warranted, we think such scenarios are a pretty rare occurrence.

The negative, and it’s a biggie, is that there is no automatic overflow to the Phonesuit’s built-in battery. Once your phone is full, it will continue to trickle charge for as long as it’s connected to the charging source while a potential dead Phonesuit battery will sit there…all types of dead…not getting charged at all. While the option and unique twist on the charging cycle is a note worthy positive feature, the inability for the case to automatically and smartly handle charging two batteries is a huge negative in our book. We don’t want to have to babysit our charging phone for the right moment to manually change charging from the Phone to the case (or vice versa).

***Update: We regret to admit that we made an error in the charging section. Above, we mentioned that the Phonesuit Elite would only charge the itself or the iPhone depending on the switch’s position on the bottom of the phone. This is not the case. When switched on, the iPhone is charged first and then the Phonesuit Elite battery case. When the case is switched off, only the case charges.

Somehow we missed the rollover charging working in our testing. We’d like to apologize to Phonesuit and you, our readers.

We have also updated the rating based on our error to an 8.5. In our opinion, the issue now cleared makes this an even more compelling case.

Verdict

There’s a lot to like about the Phonesuit Elite. It’s cheaper than most competing battery cases while also packing in the largest battery available in said cases and on top of it all, keeping a svelte waistline that challenges small mAh rated cases that should be thinner.

The Phonesuit Elite might not be for you, however, if you’re constantly using higher-end headphones with thick connector plugs (and don’t have/want an extender). or hate the idea of babysitting your phone to manually alternate between phone/case charging.

For us, we can overlook the inconveniences given all the checkmarks in the “Pro” category.

Phonesuit Elite: $79.99

Gadgetsteria’s Rating: 8.5/10

Gallery

Good news. We’ve found a way through for iPod 3G and iPhone 3Gs users. Upcoming jailbreak will be compatible.

— pod2g (@pod2g) May 18, 2012

A few days ago we reported that infamous jailbreak hacker, pod2g, had found a way to jailbreak the latest versions of iOS (5.1.1) on pretty much all devices. The only devices that weren’t working at the time included the Apple TV 3, 3rd-gen iPod Touch and iPhone 3GS.

Today we can thankfully scratch the latter two off the list. A tweet made earlier today by pod2g reveals that the iOS hacker has found a method to get the 3rd-gen iPod Touch and iPhone 3GS jailbreak compatible on iOS 5.1.1. This should make a lot of people who either purposefully or accidentally updated their devices and whom don’t want to have to downgrade to re-live the jailbreak experience.

All that said, the Apple TV 3 is still on the “not supported” list. Hopefully pod2g’s recent success can translate to cracking the final holdout in Apple’s iOS lineup so that everyone can jailbreak on the latest and greatest OS.

(Oh, and you can stop asking for ETAs. It’ll be done when it’s done. Give the guy a break.)

According to The Next Web, Rovio Mobile will be launching another specially themed Angry Birds game dubbed “Angry Birds Heikki”. The only thing we know at this point is that there is an (obvious) heavy emphasis on racing as well as some kind of partnership with Formula 1 racer Heikki Kovalainen. Other content/features/sponsorships are unknown at this point.

The webgame, which will feature fun Angry Birds game levels with a racing theme in addition to other bespoke content, launching later in the summer.

In true Rovio Mobile fashion, a href="http://heikki.angrybirds.com/">website for Angry Birds Heikki is already live with a simple teaser shot encouraging visitors to share the word.

Look for the latest Angry Birds action to drop on June 18th, when racing enthusiasts and Angry Birds aficionados alike can blow through hours of daylight slaughtering more birds and pigs.

Source: Heikkikovalainen.com | Via: TNW

For Apple, tapping into China Mobile’s vast user base is a cash cow of epic proportions that could easily push their share price hundreds of dollars higher and result in tens of billions in additional sales/profit.

Currently, there are a small, diehard following of iPhone users already running on China Mobile but in EDGE-only mode. It is, in our eyes, a sub-par experience. But the reason for the delay is not your typical spat that sees two companies’ egos dueling back and forth. The lack of an iPhone on China Mobile is completely legitimate. You see, China Mobile uses an odd form of 3G/4G network technology, TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE. Thus far, most global handsets sold do not support the TD-SCDMA standard unless specifically made for the Chinese market. But a new Qualcomm chip could remedy this situation and allow the upcoming iPhone (rumored to be released later this year in October-ish) to run on China Mobile’s network.

For China Mobile users at least, the above news is a huge reason to get excited. For all of us, however, an even bigger reason to perk up comes from a new WSJ article this morning. Specifically, the news outfit states that the upcoming iPhone will feature “at least” a 4″ (diagonal) display, citing several suppliers ordering larger displays for alleged future Apple devices.

The issue of screensize comes up in talk between tech pundits continuously, with both camps (smaller/bigger screens) being pretty evenly divided. Regardless if Apple keeps the screensize the same or expands it a bit, someone will be upset and dissatisfied. But as the WSJ states in their article, the screensize on an iPhone isn’t a defining feature, really. Instead, it is but one small piece of the overall puzzle; the various hardware features and numerous software + vast media/content tie-ins create that highly sought after ecosystem that so many yearn to replicate but often fail to do.

It goes without saying, this fall’s new iPhone will once again set a new bar for Apple and for smartphones in general.

Via: 9to5 Mac, Bloomberg, WSJ

Our obsession with battery cases exists for many reasons. But the reason that takes the cake is the ability to truly remove the fear of running out of battery life while on the go. With the new Incipio offGRID Pro by Incipio, the ability to ignore the battery meter for days on end is now easier than ever, because instead of just a simple battery case with a big, built-in battery, Incipio has made the offGRID Pro a true professional device and included a second, removable battery and spare charger. The additional hardware/battery life doesn’t come cheap, however. While the original offGRID retailed in the neighborhood of $70, the offGRID Pro hits the wallet a bit harder at $99.

Is it all worth it? Continue on…

Design

We’ll be honest with you. The Incipio offGRID Pro is perhaps the best looking and most comfortable design hands down. But since one sentence alone doesn’t do it justice…

The Incipio offGRID Pro utilizes a different design than most battery cases. Instead of having a top and bottom piece that slides together, Incipio designed the offGRID Pro with a back piece that has a bumper-style piece that slides on top of and around the back piece. We actually like this design quite a lot and give Incipio props for thinking outside of the box.

Because of how the offGRID Pro is designed, gaps might come to mind as one concern. But we’re happy to report Incipio did an awesome job engineering this case. Gaps are nowhere to be found, and the offGRID Pro is very tight and well put together.

On the bottom of the case are two cut outs — one for the speaker and one for the mic — as well as the micro-USB charging port. The silent/sound switch is exposed in a simple cutout. So far it’s going pretty great. Unfortunately, Incipio slipped up with part of the offGRID Pro’s design. If there is one thing we must fault this case for, it is the buttons/button tabs. Where everything else about the case and presentation looks and feels very high quality, the button covers on top of the volume buttons and power/lock button look/feel incredibly cheap and junky. It’s actually quite frustrating. He we have this almost — So close! — perfect battery case and it’s overall beauty is marred by some buttons that look like it came off of a $5 Chinese knock-off case.

Looking past the buttons, we really like what Incipio has done with the offGRID Pro in terms of design/construction. However, if we would alter one thing it would be how to open the offGRID Pro. The way it’s designed as of writing requires a very thin, sharp tool to actually get the case apart. And even then it is a bit difficult. People with longer nails might not have any problem. For a large number of nail biters, though, a separate tool is going to be needed/required to take your iPhone out of the offGRID Pro. Perhaps a small problem that really isn’t if you’re the type that’s going to leave the iPhone inside of the offGRID Pro at all times. Considering a lot of iPhone users have dock-connecting accessories means such always-on scenarios aren’t as cut and dry as it might initially seem.

Performance

The double 1,600 mAh batteries is, as we’ve said before, an awesome perk to the offGRID Pro that easily makes it one of the longest running iPhone battery cases (provided you keep both batteries charged and with you). As far as single-battery performance goes, we’d say it’s slightly under our expectations. Taking our phone all the way down to a a 1% charge, activating the offGRID Pro quickly tossed a solid ~60% battery charge back onto our phone. Repeated tests saw re-charge percentages as low as 45% and as high as 71%. Sadly, we never saw the highly sought after 90+ percent re-charge we were looking for. That said, let us remind you that battery charging is a tricky, (very) inefficient process. Not to mention, mobile devices like smartphones are constantly pulling in data from all kinds of internet sources, silently eating data (and battery power) under the radar.

We’re beginning to wonder if the iPhone 4S is to blame for poorer-than-average battery case results. The Phonesuit Elite we also have in-house features a 2,100 mAh battery, and even factoring in battery charging inefficiencies and electrical losses should easily be able to charge our iPhone at least one time through. But it doesn’t> (Look for that review in a couple days.) In the case of the Incipio offGRID Pro, we’re finding the 1,600 mAh battery unable to completely charge our iPhone either.

While we’re trying to leave our phone alone as much as possible as to not place too much strain on the processor and in turn the battery, it’s becoming clear that something is just odd. We’re really not sure what’s going on. The consistently mediocre results across different brands and battery cases, however, signal that it isn’t necessarily a problem/fault with any one case; perhaps our iPhone is faulty.

We’ll note that thus far we’ve only talked about battery life pertaining to full-on charging. That is, we let the phone drain to single-digit battery percentages and then activate the battery and let it run until it’s dead. Another method one can use is to simply leave the case always on and simply top up the iPhone’s battery as needed. In our experience with various battery cases, this “top off” method is less efficient still. With that said, it’s not our preferred method. Still, even the hardest core, “heavy” users can easily expect a solid 18-24 hours of run time.

Switching gears, charging the offGRID Pro by way of the bottom-mounted micro-USB port is a relatively quick experience in and of itself. Typically, plugged into our laptop requires roughly ~2-1/2 to 3 hours to get a full charge put back into the case.

Should You Buy It

At $100 the offGRID Pro is definitely one of the most expensive battery cases to ever be released for Apple’s iPhone. But this time, we actually understand (and partially agree) with said pricing. For starters, the offGRID Pro is easily one of, if not the best looking iPhone battery case. It’s also (still) incredibly thin and well contoured making it’s added girth almost disappear, seemingly becoming a “natural” feeling in your hand. Also, the addition of a second 1600 mAh battery and stand-alone USB battery charger is a huge perk that no one else is currently offering. Two batteries + another battery charger simply cannot be beat for true power users and mobile warriors.

Our only reservations:

• offGRID Pro is rather difficult to remove without a sharp tool of some sort (or long, strong fingernails)

• The entire design oozes high quality and sophistication – except the button covers. Incipio appears to have failed to complete the last quarter mile of the race and simply sourced some cheap plastic tabs to cover some of the most used pieces of the iPhone.

• The offGRID Pro is not the easiest case to remove. It will almost certainly require a sharp tool to pry apart.

• Price. As awesome as the included features and hardware are, $100 is a lot of money for a case. Period.

Incipio’s original offGRID featured a 1,450 mAh battery and nothing more. The increased price and inclusion of a second battery as well as a design that is 98% as good as the original are all impressive things to highlight in our book, and reason enough to buy the case. The only thing you’ll have to determine is if the $5 knockoff case buttons and high price of admission can be overlooked. In the end, we say you must. The performance and utility benefits are simply too much to ignore.

Gadgetsteria’s Rating: 8.5/10

Gallery

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple will unveil new photo sharing features within iCloud at WWDC in June. The service, as the WSJ describes it, will allow sharing to other users (services unknown) and also allow said users to comment on shared photos.

If Apple is looking to expand on iCloud/social sharing of pictures, it will be yet again another attempt by Apple to get hot and heavy into the social arena. If you look back just a couple years ago, Apple unveiled “Ping” in iTunes, a service that was supposed to make finding and sharing music with friends on iTunes a lot more social and fun. Labels/artists were also supposed to be heavily benefit from increased sales due to more exposure as well as creating a much closer relationship with fans. So far Ping has been a non-story. No one cares about it and even fewer use it.

In the mobile social/photo market, Instagram is as we said above, a huge player despite the company’s tiny size. If Apple can finally get their foot in the door, it will open up an entirely new avenue for Apple to tap into for both new products and revenue.

9to5Mac speculates that the WSJ’s story could possibly tie in with Apple’s Phil Schiller recently leaving Instagram. When questioned on his departure, Schiller simply stated he left Instagram because it had “jumped the shark”, an obvious hit at the company’s embracing of Android by releasing a new Android app. In actuality, it very well could simply be a matter of removing himself from the competition in preparation for his company’s own in-house solution.

It goes without saying that this years WWDC is looking like the biggest one yet.

Source: WSJ | Via: 9to5 Mac
Image Source: Pocket-Lint

]]> http://gadgetsteria.com/2012/05/14/rumor-apple-preparing-in-house-photo-sharing-service-for-wwdc-reveal/feed/ 0 http://gadgetsteria.com/2012/05/14/pod2gs-ongoing-untether-exploit-doesnt-work-on-3rd-gen-ipod-touch-iphone-3gs/ http://gadgetsteria.com/2012/05/14/pod2gs-ongoing-untether-exploit-doesnt-work-on-3rd-gen-ipod-touch-iphone-3gs/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 12:58:40 +0000 Mike Norris http://gadgetsteria.com/?p=81452

Sad news. Just tested the untether on an iPod 3G. The kernel vulnerability don’t happen on this one. I think iPhone 3Gs is out too.

— pod2g (@pod2g) May 14, 2012

According to a tweet by infamous iOS hacker/jailbreaker, pod2g, the latest untether exploit he’s working on for an eventual (assumed) iOS 5.1(.x) jailbreak does not work on the 3rd-gen iPod Touch. He also speculates that the iPhone 3GS could be out too.

A post-iOS 5.1 untether jailbreak (more-so A5 devices like the iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and iPad 3) is being anxiously awaited upon by a vast number of iOS users who either accidentally or purposefully updated to the latest iOS 5.1/5.1.1 on their devices. Over the last week pod2g has tweeted several things pointing to a possible untether jailbreak release in the not too distant future (“a few weeks”).

pod2g’s latest tweet signals that users of now-legacy iOS hardware may find their once grand dreams of jailbreak freedom shattered. That said, there still may be hope. If a downgrade solution is found (such as with redsn0w) to allow someone to downgrade to an older, jailbreak-able version of iOS, things won’t be quite as bad.

On top of the 3rd-gen iPod Touch and iPhone 3GS woes, it was also previously revealed that the Apple TV3 was also immune to the latest jailbreak attempts.

More on pod2g’s current progress: pod2g-ios.blogspot