Fight Crime While Checking Facebook With This Unique iPhone Dock

iPhone docks are usually pretty straight-forward accessories. Some have attached speakers, some have built-in alarm clocks, and some even have external screens to watch videos.

But the BodyGuard by ArmStar, as you can see in the above picture, is anything but usual. This wearable iPhone dock is made from kevlar armor and contains several crime-fighting gadgets…
Although it may look like a prop from the latest Batman movie, the BodyGuard is actually a real iPhone accessory. On top of holding/charging your iPhone or iPod touch, the armored sleeve also contains a flashlight, camera, and — get this — a stun gun.

Here’s how it works:

“The user can deter a person by pressing the pressure button in the palm of the glove, activating the demonstration electrodes which make a loud sparking sound. If aggressor escalates the situation, the officer has the option of placing the stun electrodes in direct contact with the agressor, in which case the pressure button will now activate the stun electrodes and deliver high voltage to the agressor in attempt to bring them into compliance.”

Although this thing looks awesome, don’t expect to see one at your local Radio Shack anytime soon. The target audience of the BodyGuard appears to be members of the military and other law enforcement.

However, if you’re interested in the BodyGuard for personal use, it looks like you can request a quote from the ArmStar’s website. Although we’re still not quite sure what a civilian would do with something like this.

What do you think of the BodyGuard iPhone dock?

Walmart Hosting Last-Minute iTunes Gift Card Sale

Hopefully you’ve already got most of, if not all of, your Christmas shopping done. Especially since the holiday is now less than 48 hours away.

But if you do happen to still be looking for gifts for the iOS device-toting folks in your life, Walmart has you covered. The retailer is hosting a last-minute iTunes gift card sale…
Several sites have noticed that Walmart has its $50 iTunes gift cards on sale right now for just $40. This means that you essentially get a free $10 to spend in the iTunes Store on apps, iBooks, music, or videos.

The best part about the deal is that the gift card is digital. It’s delivered via email so you don’t have to worry about availability or expensive over-night shipping. We aren’t expecting this sale to go on past Christmas day, so make sure to grab one while you can.

Skitch Image Editor Now Available on the iPad

I used Skitch on my Mac about a year ago when it was really popular, but the image editing tool fell off my radar after I started using more robust apps, like Pixelmator. A lot has happened to Skitch in the past year. The app has actually been bought by Evernote.

Skitch has entered the iOS world today with an official iPad app. The tool lets you edit and annotate images on the iPad with your finger.
Skitch is the amazingly fun and surprisingly powerful way to move your ideas and projects forward using fewer words. With Skitch, annotate and draw on just about anything that you see, whether it’s a new or existing photo, a webpage, screenshot, map, or a blank canvas. Then, share your work with friends, colleagues or save it all to Evernote. It couldn’t be simpler.

The iPad app lets you import photos from your Camera Roll or take a new picture to edit. A neat feature is the app’s ability to recognize the most recent screenshot you took on your iPad and import it automatically into the app’s editor from the Screenshot option. Annotation is super easy on the iPad’s big screen.
The app has a built-in web browser that lets you annotate webpages and share them with others. Another neat feature is the Map option. You can annotate a map on your iPad within Skitch. Finally, the app’s Blank option starts you with a blank canvas — perfect for some creative drawing.

You have plenty of drawing tools in Skitch for iPad, and you can save your creations to your Evernote account within the app. Images can also be shared on Twitter, through email, and over AirPlay to an Apple TV.

Overall, Skitch is a good, free app for editing images on the iPad. It’s not the most full-featured app out there, but it will do the job most of the time.
Evernote notes that an iPhone version of Skitch is on the way, but for now you can download the iPad-only version for free in the App Store.

Hot Deals: Free and Discounted Apps for Thursday, Dec 22

You know what we love more than apps at iDB? Apps that are available for a discounted price or even for free in the App Store!

Today, we’ve got a selection of popular applications that are selling for significantly less. Some of them are totally free.

Our advice is to get them while the sales last, because they’re going to be back at their original price soon…
■Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars HD ($5.99, was $9.99)
■Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars ($5.99, was $9.99)
■Splinter Cell Conviction™ HD ($0.99, was $4.99)
■DOOM II RPG ($0.99, was $2.99)
■DOOM Resurrection ($0.99, was $4.99)
■RAGE HD ($0.99, was $1.99)
■The Nightworld ($0.99, was $4.99)
■Pocket Academy ($1.99, was $3.99)
■Ben the Bodyguard ($0.99, was $4.99)
■Photo Manager Pro ($0.99, was $2.99)
■Nightstand Central for iPad ($0.99, was $2.99)
■Tank Riders ($0.99, was $1.99)
■Hex Empire ($0.99, was $2.99)
■Grand Prix Story ($1.99, was $3.99)
■AmpKit+ ($9.99, was $19.99)
■Gesundheit! HD ($1.99, was $2.99)
■Gesundheit! ($0.99, was $1.99)
■Space Miner ($0.99, was $2.99)
■Wolfenstein 3D Classic Platinum ($0.99, was $1.99)
■Shadow Guardian HD ($0.99, was $6.99)
■Real Steel ($0.99, was $2.99)
■Inspire Pro – Paint, Draw & Sketch ($0.99, was $7.99)
■Broken Sword – The Smoking Mirror: Remastered (Free, was $0.99)
■AmbiScience™ • Binaural & Isochronic Ambient Mind Utility (Free, was $1.99)
■Subject 7 ($0.99, was $2.99)
■Tower Bloxx Deluxe 3D ($0.99, was $1.99)
■StarFront: Collision HD ($0.99, was $6.99)
And don’t forget EA and Gameloft are having some massive sales too.

Which one are you going to get?

Apple Working on Smart Kiosks for iOS Devices

The innovative minds of Apple’s R&D (Research and Development) team never cease to amaze us. They’ve come up with all kinds of cool stuff — most of which never makes it into consumer products.

And the latest patent application from the folks in Cupertino is proof of that. Judging by the filing, Apple appears to be experimenting with self-serve “smart kiosks” that can interact with iOS devices…
Patently Apple explains the smart kiosk patent application:

 ”Apple’s in-store kiosk may reside in an Apple Store or another retailer like best Buy. The idea is simple. You have a new iOS device and you want to find the right accessories or apps for it. You wander into a store with an Apple Kiosk and connect your device to the kiosk which uses a new determination server that will check out your device and list recommendations. If you’re searching for something specific you’ll be able to narrow down your search for something like speakers or headsets.”

The site goes on to explain how Apple could sneak Siri into these kiosks to help give the digital assistant more exposure, but we were thinking that another iPhone 4S-exclusive feature could come into play here: Bluetooth 4.0. The new wireless tech is extremely energy efficient, and extends further than previous versions of Bluetooth.

But the real trick of the smart kiosk is product discovery. After the machine scans your iOS device and lists compatible accessories, it could actually point you in the direction of the items that interest you. Interesting.

Of all of the crazy ideas we’ve seen come out of Apple’s R&D lab, this one actually seems quite feasible.

What do you think? Good idea/bad idea?

Hot Deals: Free and Discounted Apps for Monday, Dec 19

You know what we love more than apps at iDB? Apps that are available for a discounted price or even for free in the App Store!

Today, we’ve got a selection of popular applications that are selling for significantly less. Some of them are totally free.

Our advice is to get them while the sales last, because they’re going to be back at their original price soon…
■Sonic CD ($1.99, was $4.99)
■iQuarium HD ($0.99, was $1.99)
■Gears ($0.99, was $2.99)
■1-bit Ninja ($0.99, was $1.99)
■Hero of Sparta II (Free, was $4.99)
■FlashLaunch (Free, was $0.99)
■Farm Frenzy 3 HD ($1.99, was $3.99)
■Ninja Fishing (Free, was $0.99)
■SimplyTweet 3 (Free, was $2.99)
■CrazyRemote Pro ($9.99, was $19.99)
■A Royal Christmas ($1.99, was $4.99)
■Sailboat Championship PRO HD ($0.99, was $4.99)
■Rhythm Studio ($0.99, was $3.99)
■Contacts Journal – Personal CRM ($0.99, was $5.99)
■Shoot The Birds (Free, was $0.99)
■Where’s Waldo?™ The Fantastic Journey ($0.99, was $1.99)
■Pocket RPG iPhone Edition ($0.99, was $2.99)
■Sky Force (Free, was $1.99)
■Sky Force Reloaded (Free, was $1.99)
■ArtStudio for iPad ($0.99, was $2.99)
■BillMinder for iPhone ($0.99, was $1.99)
■Strip Designer ($0.99, was $2.99)
■Brain Challenge 2: Think Again! (Free, was $4.99)
Which one are you going to get?

iOS Developers Have Only 24 Hours to Get Their Apps Ready for Christmas

Christmas is always a busy time of year, but if you are the developer of an iOS app, then Christmas can be the busiest time of the year.

As everyone knows, Apple is very strict about testing out each app before it is given the green light to enter the App Store. Add into the equation all the new iOS device owners that are added each Christmas, and the holidays can either make or break a company’s yearly profits.

To make the season even more stressful on developers, Apple is getting ready to stop taking app submissions, with tomorrow being the cut-off date for the holidays. Submit a new app after Tuesday, and it will not be accepted in time to hit the App Store before the lucrative Christmas timeframe.
If a developer merely wishes to update an existing app, be it to add functionality or to squash bugs, they have until Thursday to submit their app for Apple’s perusal, leading some developers to have their app out early and then get any bugs fixed on the fly due to the extended timescale.

Developers for rival platforms such as Google’s Android need not jump through the same hoops, meaning they can release apps and update others without the need to go through the Android Market’s overseers.

The reason for developers wanting to get their apps out in time for the Christmas gift opening is obvious, and app developer Bryan Duke explained to The New York Times what a difference timing can make.

“One of his apps is an air hockey game that costs 99 cents and usually averages about 300 downloads a day. But on Christmas Day last year there were 1,834. Apple keeps 30 percent of the revenue.”

If you’e an independent developer, that is a potential cash cow you won’t want to miss!

Hacker pod2g Updates iPhone 4S Untethered Jailbreak Status

For those of you waiting for an iPhone 4S untethered jailbreak, we’ve got good news, and bad news.

The good news is that the skilled iPhone hacker is working hard and making definite progress on an iPhone 4S untether.

The bad news is that he’s hit a stumbling block on his way to finding a solution…
Per pod2g’s blog:

The untether fails right now because I’m having processor cache issues.

I’m close, but I can’t figure out what happens. It certainly has something to do with the multicore cache management.

pod2g says he will have an updated status tomorrow, so there’s no doubt that he’s working mighty dilegently to make the 4S untether happen as soon as possible.

As of now, there is no jailbreak — untethered or otherwise — for the iPhone 4S, but we presume it’s only a matter of time before it happens. If you can remember, it took a similar period of months before we had an iPad 2 jailbreak, and this appears to be a similar situation from a time perspective.

Are you optimistic that we could see the iPhone 4S jailbreak before the end of the year?

Apple Ranked Top US Smartphone Manufacturer

Before the iPhone came along, the US smartphone market was dominated by a couple of major players. RIM, Palm, and the few third-party manufacturers that made Windows Mobile handsets kind of ran the show.

But everything has changed over the last few years. Not only has Apple entered the market and overtaken the aforementioned companies, but so have handset-makers sporting Google’s popular Android OS. So who’s the top dog in the US now?
According to a recent report from Nielsen, a highly regarded marketing research firm, Apple is the top smartphone manufacturer in the US.   Its research shows that the iPhone-makers currently have about 28.6% of the smartphone market.
Believe it or not, RIM’s BlackBerry line is still popular enough here in The States to put the Canadian company in second place with 17% marketshare. HTC comes in third place with 15.8% of the smartphone market, and then Motorola and Samsung with just 10%.

Obviously, when it comes to mobile OS marketshare, Android wins hands down. But there are three major (and several minor) Android handset-makers, and Apple is the only company producing iOS hardware, so the above-mentioned statistic is pretty relevant.

Keep in mind, however, that Samsung, Motorola, and Apple have all just released flagship handsets, so these numbers could be completely different in 6 months. If you want to read the rest of Nielson’s report, RedmondPie has a great breakdown.

Hot Deals: Today’s Free and Discounted Apps in the App Store

You know what we love more than apps at iDB? Apps that are available for a discounted price or even for free in the App Store!

Today, we’ve got a selection of popular applications that are selling for significantly less. Some of them are totally free.

Our advice is to get them while the sales last, because they’re going to be back at their original price soon…
■Convert ~ the unit calculator ($0.99, was $2.99)
■Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters ($0.99, was $1.99)
■Scorekeeper XL (Free, was $0.99)
■iYip (Free, was $0.99)
■PixelMe – Pixel Avatar Creator HD (Free, was $1.99)
■PixelMe – Pixel Avatar Creator (Free, was $0.99)
■8mm Vintage Camera ($0.99, was $1.99)
■Splashtop Remote Desktop for iPad ($0.99, was $2.99)
■Hired Gun 3D (Free, was $1.99)
■Sygic Europe: GPS Navigation ($37.99, was $64.99)
■Quick™ Light (Free, was $0.99)
■PhotoForge2 ($0.99, was $1.99)
■Dead Space ($0.99, was $6.99)
■FX Photo Studio ($0.99, was $1.99)
■LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 ($2.99, was $4.99)
Which one are you going to get?