CardSwitcher Updated To v2.0 With Support For iOS 5 And iPad, New Features, And More

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If you ever decided to take the time to sit and sift through the hundreds and thousands of packages that live within the default repositories in Cydia, I would imagine you would need to set aside a fair portion of your week in order to get through them all. With that said, even if you managed to sort through the packages, you only come out with a handful of tweaks or extensions that would be classed as essential installations for your jailbroken iOS device.

My own personal Cydia account is rammed full of purchases that I have made in the last few years, with the majority of the purchases being small tweaks designed to alter a tiny part of iOS, or something that I just thought looked good at that time. After using the extensions for a few days, the truth is that most of the purchases haven’t been used since and although they are available for me to download; I choose not to as they are what I would class as flash in the pan tweaks. Opinions may differ on this topic, but I tend to find that for my uses, only a handful of Cydia-based packages would fall under the essential category.

A tweak known as CardSwitcher has been around for quite some time, has received a lot of attention and may be familiar to some of you. Due to the fact it kind of offers the same functionality as the Multifl0w tweak, it has previously been overlooked, as people opt for the software associated with Aaron Ash’s name who has gained popularity with his Barrel extension. The developer of CardSwitcher has spent the last few months rewriting and re-imagining his work to bring it up to date and make it fully compatible with devices running iOS 5. Version 2.0 has recently been released onto the BigBoss repository with the following changes:

• Live application views.
• Refined swipe gestures.
• New grid mode, designed primarily for the larger screen of the iPad but still works without issue on the iPhone and iPod touch.
• Vastly improved performance and memory usage.

The latest version brings an impressive array of improvements, but what about the underlying core functionality of CardSwitcher? Well, the tweak itself can essentially be classified as one that reworks the way multitasking is handled on the device, bringing a visual interface very similar to the now defunct webOS. When the multitasking experience is invoked, either through the standard iOS method or by setting your own through Activator, the native switcher tray is replaced by either a tiled or grid view depending on which is active through the tweak’s settings bundle. The new view allows all backgrounded applications to be seamlessly swiped through and either brought to life again, or removed from multitasking altogether by either pressing the familiar red delete option or using a vertical swipe.

One of the most beautiful parts of the tweak is the inclusion of the live app tiles. Unlike other tweaks of a similar nature which simply display a static image, CardSwitcher shows a live view of the application including any outstanding badged notifications if relevant. Although the CardSwitcher tweak has been rewritten for iOS 5 support, it also features backwards compatibility with every firmware version from iOS 4 to the latest, which is 5.1, which should be enough to cater for all jailbreak needs.

For me, the CardSwitcher tweak essentially takes something that wasn’t broke and fixes it. Native iOS multitasking isn’t something that is in dire need of a makeover and it exists for a purpose and serves that purpose quite well. However, CardSwitcher manages to make the whole multitasking experience for a more, intuitive and extremely visually appealing with a set of stunning animations. The tweak is available on the BigBoss repository at a cost of $1.99 and is available for all iOS devices running iOS 4 and above.

Of course, you will need to jailbreak your device to install this tweak. For jailbreaking the latest iOS 5.1 (tethered), follow the instructions posted here to jailbreak using Redsn0w, or here for Sn0wbreeze. For jailbreaking iPhone 4S and iPad 2, you can simply follow our step by step tutorial posted here to jailbreak iOS 5.0.1 using Absinthe on Windows or Mac. Those of you with an iPhone 4, 3GS, iPad 1, and iPod touches can use Redsn0w or Sn0wbreeze to untether jailbreak on iOS 5.0.1.

Be sure to check out our iPhone Apps Gallery and iPad Apps Gallery to explore more apps for your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

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If the Windows 8 Consumer Preview is ‘Feature Complete’ Where are the Missing Features?

When Microsoft released the Windows 8 Consumer preview recently they described it as “feature complete”, which came as no surprise to anyone.  The Windows 7 beta was also feature complete and indeed “feature locked”.  Between the release of the beta in January 2009 and the final product that October absolutely nothing changed.

This won’t be the same for Windows 8 however where several features within the operating system are either unfinished or simply missing completely.  One indication that this might happen was shortly after the Developer Preview was released which was missing Windows Media Centre, a perhaps little used feature that’s crucially important to those people, including myself, who do actually use it.  I for instance have had a Media Centre PC as my main means of receiving and recording live TV in my living room since 2003.

Microsoft had to announce shortly after the DP was released that Media Centre was going to be in the final version of Windows 8, but that it simply wasn’t finished yet.  It is in the Consumer Preview but it’s the earlier Windows 7 version and not a swanky new one.  We know this because it doesn’t have a new Metro interface or the new Windows 8 logo.

Another feature that is missing is Windows To Go.  We can imagine that this feature is actually very difficult to code and, like the Storage Spaces feature might be a bit late.  Storage Spaces has been finished for the Consumer Preview however, primarily I think because it’s loosely based on a similar feature that’s been kicking around Windows Home Server for several years now.  Windows To Go, where you can boot your entire copy of Windows 8 from a USB pen drive on any other computer, is completely absent from the Consumer Preview version however.

Some people have also said that the new Hyper-V virtualisation client in Windows 8 is also missing from the Consumer Preview.  This actually isn’t the case, it is there but it’s just switched off.  If you go into Programs and Features and then select Turn Windows Features on and off you will see it in the list.  Ticking it will activate it though your computer might need to reboot.

What is unclear is if these missing features, and indeed any more that we may not yet know about, will be tricked down through Windows update or separate ISO installation files, or if we won’t get to see them until the RTM (Release to Manufacturing) version of the operating system?

As a Windows author this is personally very frustrating as it’s impossible to write about features that either don’t exist or that there is no information about, let alone the problems associated with getting screen grabs of them.

For everyone else though just these two missing features are ones that have got people very excited, and I’m sure many people hope that Microsoft do release or at least announce something soon.

Windows 8 is very different to the Windows 7 in that is certainly not “feature locked”.  Despite being based on the already very stable Windows 7 code-base it is actually quite unstable at times with certain software elements prone to crashing.  This will no doubt be the fault of the new WinRT run-time engine powering Metro which may also be unfinished.

It will be great to see a final and complete Windows 8 however, especially as an author, and I’m sure the world can’t get access to these features soon enough.  What do you think about the incomplete or missing features in Windows 8?  Why not tell us in the comments below.

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New iPad Third-Gen Announced – Price, Features, Availability – Everything You Need to Know!

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The day has finally come. Apple has finally pulled the curtain on what they are calling as the “new iPad”, and we finally know for certain what the device has in store. Some of the more sensible rumors about the iPad 2's successor – most of which were outlined in an earlier post – have come to fruition, and we have a roundup of everything new in the third-gen iPad as announced at this morning’s San Francisco press event right here.

Price and Features

Price

As many have anticipated, the storage tiers – and their respective cost – remains the same as the previous-generation iPad, even factoring in the new 4G LTE support; basically, there are WiFi models, and there are WiFi + 4G + 3G models. Coming in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB flavors, the new iPad starts at $499 at the base model and goes up to $829 for the 64GB WiFi + 4G + 3G model.

4G LTE

As rumored, the new iPad now has support for 4G LTE. 4G-enabled devices will be available through both AT&T and Verizon in the US. Advantage of LTE? Blazing fast download and upload speeds, therefore you can rest assured that your webpages, tweets, emails etc. will fly off in a snap! It supports HSPA+ for up to 21Mbps, and dual-carrier HSDPA for up to 42Mbps. LTE for max up to 72Mbps.

Form Factor

Third-gen iPad “remains amazingly thin at 9.4mm and light at 1.5 pounds”. The design remains unchanged, and looks exactly like its predecessor which is the iPad 2. Battery life also remains same at 10 hours, and 4G is at 9 hours.

Retina Display

Retina Display – a feature that, to some criticism, was not implemented in the iPad 2 – has made its way into the new iPad. While the screen is still 9.7 inches in size, it certainly packs more pixels than that of its predecessors with a notorious screen resolution of 2048×1536. As everything on the screen will be far more crisp, things such as browsing the web and reading an iBook will be far more pleasant. This will also appease those of us who were spoiled by the Retina Display on the iPhone 4 and 4S; it will be nice to no longer notice the pixels starting at me. We’re guessing that the Retina Display will be an instant hit in high defers who crave for 1080p movies on a tablet.

Quad-Core A5X CPU, Improved Graphics

We’re also seeing improvements being made to the device on the hardware front. As rumors suggested, the device packed a new A5X processor. This new CPU will provide greatly-improved performance over the already-phenomenal A5 chip. The iPad third-gen also offers 4 times the graphical performance of the iPad 2, while still maintaining the same battery life that the iPad is known for. On top of these improvements, the new iPad also likely sports 1GB of RAM, which is double the amount currently inside the iPad 2.

Improved Optics

One flaw with the iPad 2 has been its sub-par camera. The new third-gen iPad now sports an 2MP front-facing camera and a 5MP rear-facing camera, allowing it to take far better pictures than its predecessor, and it also supports 1080p video recording. The iPad 2's lack of a proper camera is something that I didn’t mind as I never use my iPad for photography purposes – holding one up to take a photo in public has been the source of quite a few funny pictures on the Internet – but improvements are welcome nevertheless. The front-facing camera improvement is surely great for users who frequently use FaceTime on their device.

iOS 5.1

An incremental update to iOS, iOS 5.1 will be bringing Siri dictation to the third-gen iPad, among various other improvements. There have been quite a lot of people that have wanted Siri on the iPad, but at the moment, it look like they will have to settle with dictation feature only.

Availability

Pre-Ordering

If you’re itching to get your hands on the new iPad, you better act fast; it’s sure to be extremely difficult to purchase physically, so your best bet is to pre-order. You’ll still have to act fast though; pre-orders are available starting today. If you don’t put in your order early, it’s likely that you’ll have to wait longer for your iPad to ship. However, if you plan to pick your iPad from a physical Apple Store, then the official date given by Apple is March 16th, be sure to be early otherwise you’ll be facing an ultra long wait in line.

For more information on the newly announced iPad, head over to the official iPad page on Apple’s website.

[images credit: GDGT]

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iWork, iMovie And GarageBand All Updated With Retina Display Graphics For iPad And Tons Of New Features

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Tim Cook and his Apple team took to the stage in San Francisco as expected to announce the launch of the new iPad, throwing in a new Apple TV set top box for good measure. The announcement pretty much came as everyone had predicted, with no specifications or inclusions to blind side us. But while there has been plenty of talk about what hardware the company would introduce, little time was spent wondering about the software side of things and what the upgraded device would mean for the applications that we all know and love.

The Apple loving world has been expecting a release of iOS 5.1, which won’t come as much of a shock when it is launched, considering that we have seen multiple beta versions seeded to developers and we have already heard the news that the Golden Master version of the OS has passed through testing. If we take the iPad and iOS out of the equation, we are left with the core Apple applications which have proved to be a huge success on the iPad since launch. Chargeable applications such as GarageBand, iMovie and the iWork suite of apps are all firm favorites with iPad users, something which Apple hasn’t overlooked.

All of the native apps which ship with iOS on the iPad have been updated to work perfectly, and look beautiful on the new Retina, high resolution display that the new iPad features. This includes apps such as iTunes, YouTube, Messages and anything else that is installed when the device ships. Apple have taken it even further by making sure that the above mentioned apps available as additional purchases from the App Store have also been given the iPad Retina treatment.

The iWork suite of applications which includes Keynote, Pages and Numbers have all been worked over to look like they were designed with a Retina-ready iPad in mind. Phil Schiller of Apple confirms that iWork will allow users to produce "stunning" creations, which have never before been possible on a mobile device.

GarageBand is another application which has been hugely successful as a chargeable, App Store download for Apple. The ability to create compelling music using a multitude of different instruments is something which has appealed to consumers. Not only has GarageBand received the Retina makeover, but it also got a feature upgrade with the addition of smart strings, note editor and the option to push through iCloud, which makes GarageBand a lot more beautiful and powerful than before.

Finally, the iMovie application used to edit movie files and create beautiful home made videos has been reworked to be more appealing than ever. The ability to quickly create videos and trailers from home movies will always appeal to people, but being able to do this in Retina quality makes the experience that much better. iMovie will also be pushed with a few feature upgrades, including storyboards and editing chops.

All of the applications will be available on the iPad App Store priced between $4.99 and $9.99 and will be available as free of charge updates for previous buyers.

• Download Pages for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch [iTunes link]
• Download Numbers for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch [iTunes link]
• Download Keynote for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch [iTunes link]
• Download GarageBand for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch [iTunes link]

Be sure to check out our iPhone Apps Gallery and iPad Apps Gallery to explore more apps for your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

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