Next Angry Birds Update Coming On Valentine’s Day?

By Federico Viticci

First came the iPhone version. Then a bigger iPad one. With the two versions selling like hotcakes in the App Store, Rovio released a Halloween edition. Last week, they updated it to include some Christmas-themed levels and renamed the new version to “Seasons”.

Angry Birds is an unstoppable pop culture phenomenon, something Daring Fireball’s John Gruber calls “today’s Pac Man”. We all know Angry Birds is insanely popular, yet Rovio doesn’t seem to be willing to stop and enjoy the money anytime soon. According to a rumor published by Pocket Gamer, the developers are already eyeing a Valentine’s Day release in February 2011. Read more

Kid Who Sold White iPhone Kits Forced To Shut Down His Website

By Federico Viticci

Remember Fei Lam, the kid who made a small fortune selling white iPhone conversion kits and received a letter from a private investigator on behalf of Apple to end operations? Look at the sidebar here on MacStories, there’s a promo banner for his old website “WhiteiPhone4Now.com”.

Two days ago I noticed the website was down, but I thought Lam was just changing DNS or something. After all, he seemed pretty sure of the fact that he wanted to keep on selling his kits no matter what. Well it turns out, Apple won. In an email to Cult of Mac Lam confirmed he had to shut the website down, “possibly permanently”.

No further details have been provided, but we can only assume the story got serious the moment Lam claimed he wouldn’t stop selling conversion kits and Apple legal was after him. Foxconn also confirmed they didn’t know anything about white iPhone parts being sold to Lam, so it’s very likely that he got them from grey market. Who knows.

We wish the best of luck to Lam for his future efforts, which we’re pretty sure won’t include selling alternative Apple components.

A White iPhone 4 Walks Into An Apple Store…

By Federico Viticci

…and leaves a sign of its appearance on Apple’s promotional material. As noted by a 9to5mac reader, there’s some signage going on at the Apple Stores in the U.S. which seems to confirm a report from Reuters back in October about a delay of the white iPhone 4 until “Spring 2011”.

In October, Reuters reported:

Apple Inc said on Tuesday that it would delay release of the white iPhone yet again, this time until next spring.

“We’re sorry to disappoint customers waiting for the white iPhone again,” Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said. When asked why the white phone would again be delayed, Muller declined to comment.

Of course Apple might delay the white unit again come Spring 2011 to never ship the actual product, but the fact that Apple’s own promo stuff mentions this release date is noteworthy.

And hey, if the white iPhone will never see the light of day – you might just be lucky enough to walk into a bar and find one.

Norman Foster To Design Apple’s New Campus In Cupertino?

By Federico Viticci

According to El Economista, British architect Norman Foster will be the head of operations to design Apple’s new campus in Cupertino. Sources familiar to the matter told El Economista that the new campus – which happens to be HP’s old campus, recently bought by Apple – is one of the company’s most important projects, and will be “revolutionary” in a way that will be built on top of modern “green technologies” and renewable energy resources. Read more

“Steve Wozniak Is A Silicon Valley Treasure”→

Linked By Federico Viticci

“Steve Wozniak Is A Silicon Valley Treasure”

As he took us through the museum, it became apparent how brilliant an engineer he is. He stopped at the Apple-1, the company’s first computer and the machine that first put computers into the grasp of “the rest of us.” His vision for the Apple-1 when it shipped in 1976 was simple – and profound.

He walked over to the Apple II on display nearby.

“This is my real gem,” he said, “the greatest design of my life.” And no one – not a docent, no guard, nobody – said a word when he pulled off the top panel to show the machine’s motherboard. “About half as many chips,” he said.

Great story.

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AirPlay Streaming of Camera Roll Videos with Air Home Video

By Federico Viticci

When iOS 4.2.1 came out on November 22nd, several users were disappointed to find out that there was no AirPlay option in the iPhone’s Camera Roll or Photos app. If you have some videos shot with your iPhone and you want to stream them to the new Apple TV, you’ll have to import them into iTunes on your computer first, then sync them back to the iPhone.

There’s no direct Camera Roll -> Apple TV streaming option, and as Daring Fireball’s John Gruber wrote weeks ago, this might be because of the different bitrate of high-def videos recorded on the iPhone. Read more

Doodle Jump Updated: Game Center Achievements Are A Go

By Federico Viticci

Early in November we reported popular iPhone game Doodle Jump was updated to include Game Center support. Doodle Jump fans around the globe were waiting for a way to compare their scores with their friends but, unfortunately, that was as far as Game Center integration in the app went.

Another updated to Doodle Jump was released a few minutes ago to finally include Game Center achievements. The update is available now in the App Store.

If you’ve been waiting for proper Game Center functionality in your favorite iPhone game ever…well, I guess your life is complete now.

Camera Connection Kit on iOS 4.2 No Longer Powers Some USB Devices - Bug or Feature?

By Federico Viticci

When Apple unveiled the iPad, they also announced they would release a dongle called Camera Connection Kit to allow users to connect digital cameras and SD cards to their iPads. When the Camera Connection Kit became available, users found out that it was possible to plug a series of USB devices, keyboards (even Apple’s ones) and microphones in the iPad. The device running the old iOS 3.2 recognized the peripherals just fine.

As reported by Mark Gurman at 9to5mac last night, though, it seems like there is a bug on the recently released iOS 4.2 that prevents devices requiring more than 20mA of power to be connected to the iPad:

The essence of the issue with the connection kit and iOS 4.2 is that connected devices that require power of more than 20mA will no longer work. That means that many USB keyboards (Apple’s included) will no longer work with the iPad, as well as USB flash drives. When the user connects a device that is not self-powered and requires more than 20mA of power from the iPad they get the following alert: “The connected USB device requires too much power.

EA Gives My Friends One More Reason To Steal My iPad: Monopoly Classic

By Federico Viticci

My closest friends are addicted to two things in this world: Monopoly and my iPad. Either they play the board game, or they grab my beloved tablet to play Fruit Ninja HD. I can tell you this happens every week, on a regular basis, and the only advantage of the iPad is that the battery eventually dies. Otherwise, they would play all night trying to break my girlfriend’s 912 points record at Fruit Ninja’s arcade mode. They’re currently stuck somewhere around 810.

The problem is, anyway, those two addictions will soon merge into one because of Electronic Arts, which is bringing Monopoly to the iPad. The actual Monopoly, the real one – in fact, the game will be released as “Monopoly Classic for iPad” later this month. Just before Christmas. Oh boy. Read more

“Steve Wozniak Is A Silicon Valley Treasure”

“I didn’t design this computer to make a lot of money and start a company,” he said. “I wanted to accelerate the world advancement in the social revolution.” The Apple-1 would be a new way to communicate. A new way for the individual to exercise power.

He walked over to the Apple II on display nearby.

“This is my real gem,” he said, “the greatest design of my life.” And no one – not a docent, no guard, nobody – said a word when he pulled off the top panel to show the machine’s motherboard. “About half as many chips,” he said.