The Steve Jobs Movie, Coming Soon to a Theater Near You

The day after Steve Jobs passed away, I thought to myself that there had to be some movie studios who’d want to make a movie out of the amazing story of his life. And it seems I was right.

According to Deadline, Sony Pictures is set to acquire the rights to Walter Isaacson’s upcoming biography of Steve Jobs, and make a movie out of it…
I’ve just learned that Sony Pictures is making a hefty deal to acquire feature rights to Steve Jobs, the upcoming authorized biography by former CNN chairman and Time Magazine managing editor Walter Isaacson. I’m hearing the deal is $1 million against $3 million and that Mark Gordon will be the biopic’s producer. [...]

The studio seems a good fit for the book, having boiled business books into compelling dramas with both the Oscar-nominated The Social Network and Moneyball.

I already pre-ordered a copy of Steve Jobs’ biography. Now I can’t wait for this movie to come out.

What about you?

JailbreakMe is Safe Again

Yesterday the news broke that JailbreakMe.com had been sold to an unknown person, creating a bit of panic in the jailbreak community after a few prominent iOS hackers had suggested not to use the site anymore for security reasons.

As it turns out, JailbreakMe.com is now a safe place again, thanks to saurik, who apparently purchased the domain name from the previous owner…
In a series of tweets, Saurik explains:

Yesterday, we learned that jailbreakme.com was sold in July; today, I talked with the new owner: he is actually very likable and awesome. ;P

…and tonight, jailbreakme.com was transferred to me (convenient, as I host the site ;P); so, going forward, we no longer need to worry! 

Everything is back to normal. It is completely safe to use JailbreakMe to jailbreak your iPhone or iPad on iOS 4.3.3.

Now we’re just hoping for a userland exploit for iOS 5!

Status Update on iPhone 4S Availability

Early yesterday morning, Apple and its carrier partners around the world started taking preorders for the iPhone 4S. The Cupertino company unveiled the smartphone last week to mixed reactions from pundits and fans.

But the fact that Apple didn’t change the handset’s outward appearance doesn’t seem to have derailed customers from snatching up the device. The iPhone 4S appears to be selling as fast, if not faster, than its predecessors…
Late yesterday afternoon, Reuters reported that AT&T had sold 200,000 iPhone 4S in its first 12 hours of availability. Then came word that Apple was pushing shipping dates out 1-2 weeks for the device, both internationally and stateside.

Now we have confirmation that US carriers are seeing the same level of demand. AT&T has all three models of the iPhone 4S shipping within 14-21 days, and Verizon only has 32GB and 64GB versions left for October 14th delivery.

Sprint, who is offering Apple’s smartphone for the first time, is completely sold out of the 16GB model. According to its website, if you want the entry level iPhone 4S, you’ll have to visit your local Sprint store on launch day.

So it sounds like if you’re after a 32GB or 64GB iPhone, you shouldn’t have any problems (yet) preordering the device. But those looking to snag a 16GB model by October 14th will likely have to head to their local retail stores next week.

And from what we’ve heard, there are already people lining up.

US iPhone 4S Preorder Shipping Now Showing 1-2 Weeks

Hot on the heels of AT&T’s announcement earlier today that it has been seeing enormous demand for the iPhone 4S, Apple itself now seems to be feeling the pressure.

Earlier today we reported that the Cupertino company was forced to push back international shipping dates for the iPhone 4S, and now the delay has spilled over into the US…
9to5Mac sounded the alarm this evening, pointing out that Apple appears to have sold through its initial preorder allotment. The company’s website now shows an estimated iPhone 4S shipping time of 1-2 weeks.

If you haven’t ordered the new handset yet, but are planning on it, we recommend that you get moving. At the time of this writing, you can still purchase the iPhone 4S on Apple.com, you just won’t get it by October 14.

Steve Jobs Biography Set to Release A Month Early

Originally scheduled for November, the official Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson, will launch a month early, on October 24. Just like we had reported back in June, this biography will cover the details of his resignation and get Steve’s insights both before and after that day.

Pre-orders for the biography have skyrocketed by some 40,000%+ since yesterday and the book is now one of the top sellers on both Amazon and iTunes…
You can pre-order your copy today for $17.88.

Apple Stock on the Rise Despite the Terrible News

Just like it did when Steve Jobs resigned from his CEO duties in August, Apple stock is slightly up this morning, despite the terrible news. With the death of the company’s visionary, I expected the stock to be down a bit, but not at all.

In his resignation letter, Steve wrote “I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it.” Investors seem to agree…
Steve has undoubtedly left his mark at Apple. The culture for beautiful and innovative products he created will definitely live on for years.

Apple Clearing Out Current iPhone 4 Inventory With Reduced Prices

Apple announced the 8GB iPhone 4 alongside the iPhone 4S yesterday, and the company is clearing out current iPhone 4 inventory while supplies last.

Customers that are content with purchasing the iPhone 4 can buy the device from Apple for a reduced $149 price point for the 16GB capacity, and $199 for the 32GB capacity. The iPhone 4S retails for the same $199 (16GB) and $299 (32GB) price points that the iPhone 4 was previously priced at…
Like usual, you will have to buy the iPhone 4 with a two-year contract to get the $50/$100 discount. After supplies of the regular capacity iPhone 4 models are gone, Apple will only sell the 8GB iPhone 4 capacity for $99 moving forward.

The iPhone 4S packs a faster processor, better camera, and Siri voice technology features that differentiate it from the iPhone 4. Pre-orders for the 4S start on Friday.

iPhone 4S Pre-Orders Start on Friday at Exactly 12:01 Pacific Time

Today, Apple announced that the iPhone 4S would go on sale October 14th. However, you can pre-order on October 7th starting at exactly 12:01 A.M Pacific Time. On the 14th, customers will be able to purchase the phone in the US, Australia, France, Canada, Germany, Japan and the UK.
The iPhone 4S will be on sale worldwide in 22 more countries by the end of October, including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Who’s pre-ordering the iPhone 4S? We at iDB sure are!

Apple Unveils New Micro-USB Adapter for European iPhones

Apple has been rumored to be working on a micro-USB cable for quite some time now. Last year, the Cupertino company agreed to comply with a European campaign to standardize cell phone chargers, but it has yet to ante up.

Well amongst the onslaught of announcements today, Apple made good on its promise. The company quietly rolled out a micro-USB adapter for its standard 30-pin dock connector, which enables the two interfaces to work together…
9to5Mac points to the new Apple-branded accessory that just popped up on Apple’s online store in the U.K.

“The Apple iPhone Micro USB Adapter allows you to use third-party micro USB cables and chargers to sync or charge your iPhone. Simply connect your iphone to the Micro USB Adapter, then connect a micro USB cable or charger to the Micro USB Adapter.”

With this adapter, Apple is able to fully comply with the European Union, without compromising its products’ designs. It’ll be interesting to see if they start offering it here in the states, where the micro-USB charger has also become quite common.

iPhone 4S to Launch Today, No iPhone 5 This Year?

Only hours before Apple’s actual announcement, the folks over at The Next Web just dropped the bomb on what Apple has planned for the iPhone today.

According to the site’s trusted sources inside Apple, the iPhone 4S will be launched today with a 8 megapixel camera, A5 processor, 1 GB of RAM, “improved optics,” and a “more accurate differential GPS stage.” The iPhone 5 ‘teardrop’ design that Apple was rumored to unveil won’t be released this year.
Matt Brian of The Next Web:

“Sources familiar with Apple’s plans have revealed to us that Apple will indeed debut the new iPhone 4S today, featuring an 8-megapixel camera with “improved optics” and a “more accurate differential GPS stage” thanks to Apple’s new Qualcomm chipset.

Our sources tell us the iPhone 4S “is much more powerful than an iPhone 4″ and “feels like the high-end device”, all but confirming that the device will feature Apple’s new A5 processor and include 1GB RAM, as tipped in previous reports, noting that the device will retain the same dimensions and design as the iPhone 4.”

The 8 megapixel camera will come courtesy of Sony, as was previously reported.

The iPhone 5 rumor that was started back in April has also been squashed:

“We were also told that the iPhone 5, which is rumored to sport a teardrop design and aluminium unibody, is merely an Apple prototype for a future iPhone 5 “which won’t be available any time soon”, as the “iPhone 4S will have the same dimensions.”

The iPhone 4S was directly named by Apple in iTunes beta code, and the image associated with the name was of a CDMA iPhone 4. The two devices have been rumored to be nearly identical in physical design, with improved internals and iOS 5′s Assistant feature separating the 4S from its predecessor.

Are you upset that there won’t be an iPhone 5 today? Or will the 4S be enough?

Read the iDB team’s predictions for today’s event for more information on what to expect.

[That was our very last iPhone 4S rumor that will ever be published on iDB. Yay!]

London’s Covent Garden Apple Store Gets Transformed for Today’s iPhone Event

The world’s biggest Apple store in London has been transformed into a live streaming hall for the UK press to watch Apple’s iPhone event today. Apple announced yesterday that it will not be streaming its event for the public, but a private video feed of today’s event will be streamed to press members across the pond that are gathered in the Covent Garden retail store.
Journalists in London will be packed into the Covent Garden store to watch the event at 6pm GMT today. The feed will be sent via satellite from Apple’s campus auditorium in Cupertino, California.
Demo units of the new hardware Apple announces today should be available for UK press to look at in the store after the event.

We’ll be covering today’s event in detail, so stay tuned for more.

We’ll Be Covering Today’s “Let’s Talk iPhone” Event

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that Apple is holding its “Let’s Talk iPhone” event today. Tim Cook and the Apple executive team will be unveiling iCloud, iOS 5, and a new iPhone. We’ll probably also see updated iPod hardware, and perhaps another surprise.

Apple announced that it won’t be streaming the event today, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t stay on top of everything that’s happening. We at iDB will be brining you breaking news on the event as it happens.
Stay tuned to the frontpage of iDB for news on what Apple announces today. The event starts at 10am PT, or 1pm ET in the US. To see when it starts in your country, click here.

Read our predictions for today’s event while you’re waiting for the keynote to start.

It’s a big day, folks. We’re very excited!

How Far We’ve Come: The Original iPhone Commercial

Apple is set to unveil its next iPhone tomorrow, and there’s been unending speculation and rumors about what the folks in Cupertino have up their sleeves for the iPhone in 2011.

What about how far we’ve come? Let’s take a look at the first ever iPhone commercial.
This is how it all started: “Hello?” That’s how Apple ushered in a new era of mobile computing. It’s almost poetic.

This particular ad was aired on Oscars night in February of 2007. Apple aired this teaser four months before the iPhone’s original release on June 29, 2007. Steve Jobs had already unveiled the iPhone to the public on January 9, 2007 at Macworld.

Customers lined up outside of Apple stores everywhere to get their hands on the coveted smartphone. The media even called it the “Jesus phone” originally.

Things have changed a lot since then. (Not the lines part, obviously.)

We had the iPhone 3G in 2008, 3GS in 2009, and 4 in 2010. 2011 will be the year of either the 4S or the 5 (depending on who you ask).

Now, we’ve got the possibility of an iPhone with a dual-core A5 processor, 1 GB of RAM, and a 8 megapixel camera. Apple is also expected to introduce a technology called “Assistant” that will forever change the way we interact with our iPhones.

We’ve come a long way.

Apple Hangs “Let’s Talk iPhone” Banner at Campus Auditorium

Today Apple put up the banner for the “Let’s Talk iPhone” event. The banner shows the same exact icons that were on the invitations sent out a couple of days ago.

The banner was put up outside of Apple’s campus auditorium in Cupertino, California. Apple’s event is scheduled to take place this Tuesday.
Who’s excited? We sure are!

How to Add Basic Photo Edit Options to the Stock Photos App

Wishing for a quick and simple way to perform basic photo editing tasks without the use of external app?

True, such a feature is baked directly into iOS 5, but that’s still a few days away. What about now?

Jailbreak connoisseur Filippo Bigarella’s got you back, with the recent release of PhotoEdit, a jailbreak tweak that brings a few basic photo editing options to us iOS 4 users.
PhotoEdit isn’t the most robust tool in the shed, but it does bring three handy editing options to the stock Photos app.

With PhotoEdit you can rotate your photos, and adjust the color by adding grayscale or sepia filters.

The nice thing about PhotoEdit, is that it doesn’t alter your original image; it’s smart enough to create a brand new image every time you save changes.

Best of all, it’s built right into the stock Photos app, and accessing it is simple by means of the share button in the bottom left-hand corner.

For those of us still on iOS 4, then PhotoEdit is a quick and easy tweak that can hold us over until iOS 5 is released; presumably, sometime next week.

What do you think?

UnlockBright: An Eccentric Brightness Tweak for Your Lock Screen

Feeling eccentric? If so, then why not add some interesting brightness controlling functionality to your iPhone’s slide-to-unlock bar, by means of UnlockBright?

UnlockBright is an interesting jailbreak tweak, because it combines the slide-to-unlock bar with your iPhone’s brightness settings. The weird thing is, that these settings aren’t permanent, they only take effect as you’re unlocking your phone.
I can already hear the shouts of “useless” from the iDB faithful, but seriously, hear me out.

UnlockBright could prove to be useful for those of you who like to check the time in the middle of the night, but often find the iPhone’s brightness settings to be utterly blinding.

With this tweak, you could theoretically set your iPhone’s brightness to absolute minimun, and crank up the brightness setting in UnlockBright.

That way, when you go to check the time during the night, a subtle slide of the unlock bar will provide you with enough light so you can see, but not enough where it makes your eyes hurt from the brightness.

I know, I’m kind of reaching for usage possibilities, but that’s just one that I thought of off the top of my head.

Head over to Cydia’s ModMyi repo to snag UnlockBright for free. If you have any interesting usage ideas, by all means, share below!

How Did this “Ninja Turtles” Game Make it Into the App Store?

Everyone knows that Apple’s app-approval process is one of the most stringent in the business. The Cupertino company has denied software for several different reasons, which has frequently sparked controversy in the iOS community.

But their strict approval methods have insured that its mobile platform has remained safe from malware and other malicious software. However, the process still can’t seem to filter out the scammers…
Remember Flash Video Expose? The iOS web browser initially appeared to play Adobe Flash content, but developers quickly changed its App Store description after receiving several comments from upset customers who felt ripped off.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball points to another sketchy application that has made its way into the App Store. The title of the game is Ninja Turtles, and it seems legit by the familiar TMNT logo. But this game wasn’t made by Kanomi.

From the Customer Reviews:

“I bought this game for my grandson, he loves the TMNT!! This game has no directions we can’t figure out how to play or even how to restart the game. There aren’t any turtles in the game. A total waste of $5″

The other commenters seem to concur that the game is a scam. Between the app’s misleading description, and the almost certain illegal use of the TMNT brand, how did this title get approved for the App Store. And better yet, how is it still there?

Pictures of a Cheaper iPhone Based on the iPhone 4 Surface, Two iPhones Coming Tuesday After All

Gizmodo has done it again. The same site that got its hands on the iPhone 4 before it was released has also procured images of what is assumedly a new iPhone to be announced on Tuesday.

The device, codenamed ‘N90A’, is not the iPhone 4S (codenamed ‘N94). That device is still coming, but this photo is of the cheaper 8GB iPhone 4 that will be launched next week, too.
Gizmodo reports:

“Our Brazilian brothers, Gizmodo.com.br, got their hot little hands on a few photos of one a new iPhone, to be announced next week. How? Well, there’s a Foxconn factory in Brazil, and Pedro & co got one of their men inside.

Inside, they found a new-SKU iPhone that looks just like the old iPhone 4.

Most of these photos don’t look like anything special—just snapshots of a familiar face. But when you get to the last one, a picture of a Foxconn Brazil quality control form, you’ll notice something strange: a different model number, N90A.”

Gizmodo notes that these specific devices in the picture above won’t be hitting shelves anytime soon, due to a problem with the camera lenses. The design itself is very real, and this is the closest thing to a confirmation that Apple will unveil a cheaper iPhone 4 alongside the 4S on Tuesday.

As you can see, this cheaper iPhone 4 features the exact same design as the current iPhone, but the device will have less onboard storage and reportedly rely heavily on iCloud. The iPhone 4S is rumored to come in a 64GB flavor and feature Apple’s secret “Assistant” feature in iOS 5. This cheaper iPhone 4 will probably replace the 3GS and serve as Apple’s entry-level device.

A more affordable iPhone will open the flood gates to many more potential customers for Apple. The device has been rumored to start at $50 once it’s made available to the public.

The Reason We Still Don’t Have a Facebook iPad App

Mashable posted an article yesterday that tells an interesting story about the relationship between Apple and Facebook. Although the two companies are expected to make a joint announcement next Tuesday, things haven’t always been peachy.

This is perhaps most obvious in the noticeable absence of a native Facebook app for Apple’s tablet. Facebook’s iPad app has reportedly been ready for several months, but we’ve yet to see an official release. Before his retirement, Steve Jobs was personally involved in negotiations with Facebook…
The issues between Apple and Facebook date all the way back to iOS 4.0. Apple was planning for system-wide Facebook integration in iOS 5, but the two companies got in an argument over the implementation.

The hard feelings were still evident as Jobs himself visited Facebook headquarters to hash out details on its iPad app:

“Roughly three months ago, Steve Jobs — then the Apple CEO — paid a visit to Facebook to discuss a Facebook for iPad application with CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg promised Jobs that the social network would release its first ever tablet application for iPad. Jobs, however, learned during his visit that HP was about to release a native webOS Facebook application for the TouchPad.”

According to the report, Jobs hit the roof when he heard that the company was nearly finished with a webOS app. It was apparent that Facebook was playing both sides, in order to receive maximum exposure on both platforms.

In fear of ruining the relationship with Apple for good, Zuckerberg vowed to get the webOS app pulled. But Jon Rubinstein of HP refused to halt its release. This broke down talks of an iPad app and likely contributed to its ongoing delay.

But now that webOS has been discontinued, and Facebook has an iPad app ready to go, sources indicate that “this is the closest Apple and Facebook have been to creating something meaningful together.” Tune in Tuesday to find out more.

Adobe to Hold Special Event During Apple’s iPhone Keynote on Tuesday

Are you going to be following Tuesday’s special event? I’m not talking about the upcoming iPhone announcement – who cares about that? I’m talking about the other special event. The one held by Adobe at 10am, where the company is supposed to announce new user experiences both in the browser and in apps.

It is unclear who chose the date and time first, but one thing is sure: I doubt many people will be following Adobe’s announcement while Apple is unveiling its next iPhone…
In Adobe’s defense, this event is part of the week-long annual Adobe Max conference, and chances are that this was scheduled months in advance. It probably just happened to be an unfortunate coincidence.

At least Adobe’s event will be streamed live, which is probably not going to be the case for Apple’s event.