MacRumors

Earlier this week, we noted that a new App Store application, Quick Snap - Camera Plus, had appeared on December 15th, allowing users to activate the camera shutter on their iPhone using the hardware volume buttons on the side of the device. The approval of the application was clearly an error by Apple's review staff, as the remapping of hardware buttons from their original purposes is clearly prohibited by Apple's guidelines and several other applications offering similar functionality had been rejected for that reason.

Now that Apple's holiday shutdown has lifted, the company's staff members have moved quickly to yank the application from the App Store. Given that the application's primary marketing advantage lay in its use of the hardware buttons for activating the camera shutter, it is unclear if the developer will attempt to resubmit the application without the functionality.

Developers TapTapTap earlier this year attempted to sneak such functionality by Apple's reviewers by hiding it as an unlockable easter egg in their popular Camera+ application after Apple had rejected the feature when it was included openly in an update for the application submitted for review. TapTapTap succeeded in slipping the easter egg by Apple's reviewers, but Camera+ was quickly pulled once the functionality was publicly disclosed. After four months in the penalty box, Camera+ (without the volume button shutter activation) reappeared in the App Store just before Christmas and saw very solid sales with the holiday push.

Skype unleashed version 3.0 of the Skype App for iOS this evening. The new version brings the long awaited video conferencing for iPhone and iPod Touch.

- Make Skype to Skype video calls on WiFi and 3G*
- Call Skype desktop users (Mac OS X or Windows) and other iPhone users.
- Two-way video calls supported on iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch 4th gen.
- Receive only video supported on iPad and iPod touch 3rd gen, with no camera.
- Make video calls in portrait and landscape.
- Skype video calling requires iOS 4.0 or above.

The new video conferencing feature works between capable iOS devices as well as desktop machines. Skype is a free download on the App Store. [App Store]

Businessweek reports that Apple is planning on introducing the Verizon iPhone sometime after CES 2011, according to a person familiar with Apple's plans. Businessweek speculates the anticipated event could come before Valentines day which falls on February 14th, but there's no clear indication how they came to that date.

The article debates how much of an impact a Verizon iPhone will have on AT&T's bottom line. The hassle of switching carriers as well as high early termination fees are cited as reasons that AT&T may not lose as many customers as some believe. AT&T has been hampered with coverage issues for some of its customers. Verizon is believed to be able to comfortably handle the sudden growth of iPhone users, according to one analyst.

Earlier today we discussed the possibility of hearing about a Verizon iPhone as early as CES next week, but it seems more likely that Apple will keep that announcement for themselves during an early 2011 media event.

Case details continue to leak out of Asia for the next generation iPad. If these latest images from 9to5mac are to be believed, the next generation iPad will adopt tapered edges and a flat back. The source of the design images is said to be an Asian case supplier.

Early case designs have been circulating already with detailed analyses consistent with the above image. Reports have said that the new iPad will adopt a thinner design with a flat back so it can rest on a surface evenly.

These images, however, reveal an extra port not seen on the early case moldings. The extra port appears on the opposite side of the iPads usual volume and mute switches. This could represent the rumored USB port that has been cited in several reports for the iPad 2.

An announcement by Verizon detailing their CES 2011 news conference as a "sneak peek of Android-based 4G LTE" devices has generated speculation that Verizon won't be talking about a Verizon iPhone during this year's CES show.

To be clear, however, Verizon's afternoon news conference has been known as an Android event. It was the Verizon CEO keynote speech scheduled on the morning of Thursday, January 6th that has been seen as a possible announcement venue.

The reason for all the speculation is that the timing of CES corresponds to many of the growing rumors that a Verizon iPhone will finally launch in early 2011. While we've heard these same rumors for years, the reports have been growing louder and more frequent. Most rumors point to the first quarter of 2011 as the launch of the Verizon iPhone. It would be unusual, however, for Apple to allow another company make such a significant announcement. Apple typically holds its own press event in January/February. Last year, Apple introduced the iPad in January. A Verizon iPhone announcement might make more sense alongside the rumored iPad 2, which is also rumored to support Verizon's CDMA network.

CNN has put together its list of the ten biggest tech "fails" of 2010, highlighting the technology and Internet products and features that failed most spectacularly during the year.

In what may be a bit of a surprise considering how little we've heard about it over the last several months, CNN ranked the iPhone 4's antenna issues, known informally as "Antennagate", as the top tech fail of the year. In fact, even CNN acknowledges that "fail" is "a pretty relative term" considering how successful the iPhone 4 was and continues to be.

First Apple said the problem didn't exist. Then they said it was a software issue. Then they kind-of admitted it existed and gave away free cases to help. Then, they said it doesn't really exist anymore and stopped giving away the bumpers.

Months later, the problem is all but forgotten and the phones show no sign of dipping in popularity. So "fail," in this case, is a pretty relative term.

Coming in at the other end of the list at #10 is Ping, Apple's new music-focused social network that rolled out as part of iTunes 10 in early September.

There's a whole social network set up in Apple's iTunes store now.

Didn't know that? Well, there you go.

The report notes that Ping suffers from a shortage of musical artists participating in the network, and the lack of integration with Facebook is seen as a major shortcoming that leads Ping to be merely yet another social network instead of a key component of users' iTunes experience.

Other top tech fails for 2010 include 3D television, Microsoft's Kin handsets, and Google, which matched Apple's presence on the list with two products of its own: its Nexus One smartphone and its Buzz real-time social networking and communication platform.

Yesteday, we reported on a boost in App Store downloads that some third-party developers had seen coinciding with the Christmas holiday. This annual boost in downloads and sales has been documented in previous years and has been attributed to the gifting of new iOS devices and iTunes gift cards for Christmas.

With the iTunes developer portal now back open, developers are finally seeing the sales numbers from Christmas weekend. TapTapTap has provided us with exclusive details of the sales of their Camera+ app [App Store], which re-launched just prior to the holiday and held the #6 ranking on Christmas Day.

Camera+ reached an impressive 78,995 downloads on Christmas Day alone, which represents $54,743 for the developer after Apple's 30% cut. While the sales graph seems to suggest that the sales have returned to pre-Christmas levels, the graph is somewhat misleading, as Camera+ had been ranked as high as #2 in Top Paid Apps before Christmas but today holds a rank of #13. Therefore, it seems that there has been a sustained boost in overall App Store sales since Christmas Day.

The download statistics showed improvement from last year's numbers, which revealed a similar data point of over 79,000 downloads on Christmas Day for the #3 ranked app, compared to Camera+ at #6 this year with a similar number of downloads. Historically, each rank position near the top of the charts represents a large difference in downloads Consequently, this year's #3 ranked app likely sold significantly more than 79,000 units.

Following the holiday shutdown that saw updates to the App Store and developer access to iTunes Connect temporarily halted in order to provide Apple employees with some time off, things are up and running again, with access to iTunes Connect now available for developers. This means that official App Store sales numbers are now available for the lucrative Christmas weekend.

In addition, application changes (version updates and price changes) are moving through the review process once more, as our sister site AppShopper began picking up new and updated applications appearing in the App Store over the past few hours.

Bloomberg reports that Apple and a number of App Store developers have been sued over the sharing of personal information with advertisers working through apps installed on the iPhone and iPad.

The complaint, which seeks class action, or group, status, was filed on Dec. 23 in federal court in San Jose, California. The suit claims Cupertino, California-based Apple's iPhones and iPads are encoded with identifying devices that allow advertising networks to track what applications users download, how frequently they're used and for how long.

"Some apps are also selling additional information to ad networks, including users' location, age, gender, income, ethnicity, sexual orientation and political views," according to the suit.

Along with Apple, developers behind such apps as Pandora Radio, Paper Toss, The Weather Channel, and Dictionary.com have also been targeted with the suit.

In particular, the companies are accused of sharing Unique Device Identifiers (UDIDs) for users' devices. As suggested by their name, these UDIDs are unique to each device, can not be changed, and transmission of them back to Apple or developers can not be blocked by users.

For its part, Apple notes that it screens all App Store applications to make sure that personal information is not transmitted from users' devices without their express permission, although such information may be able to be passed along to ad networks.

It is unclear whether the lawsuit is targeting a legitimate privacy issue or if it's simply objecting to the typical non-identifiable demographic information used by advertisers in targeting their content. While the UDID does not specifically identify any given user, tying any anonymized personal data to that fixed identifier is viewed as a risk by some privacy advocates.

An investigation by The Wall Street Journal published earlier this month hyped the ability of iPhone and Android applications to transmit such personal data, and it is possible that the new lawsuit was inspired by that report.

With the release of an all-new iPod nano in early September that saw the device gain a tiny, iOS-like interface, many have wondered how easy it might be to expand the device's capabilities through some sort of hacking or jailbreaking process. But while the iPod nano's interface appears very much like a scaled-down iOS, Apple has noted that it is not in fact based on iOS and is merely designed to look like the operating system for Apple's popular mobile devices.

As noted by MacStories, however, the first steps toward hacking the new iPod nano have now been taken, and while more work needs to be done before new capabilities can be unlocked or added, the developments do appear promising.

I've successfully done a basic springboard hack, figured out how to bypass the cache comparison and uncovered some interesting stuff as whats to come on the iPod Nano.

The springboard hack is just the removal of a app and creation of a blank space. Not that amazing, but whats important is the bypass of Nano's cache comparison, which compares any modded SB file and reverts it if it doesn't like it, this opens up the possibility of hacking and modding, while not adding bootloaders or any of that fun stuff.

The hacker, James Whelton, also notes that property list files within the device's operating system make reference to a number of currently-unsupported features, including movies, TV shows, apps, games, vCards, calendar events, and passcode locks. A few hints of these sorts of capabilities were also discovered in the days after the device first became available, although it appears that some of them may simply be carryovers from earlier-generation iPod nanos that offered support for video and some other of these features.

Whelton clarifies in a follow-up post that the hack of removing an application is extremely simple and that there is much to be done to truly open up the device, but that progress is being made.

The hack is simple. It may lead to greater things. I just don't want people getting their hopes up that's it's jailbroken just yet or what I have done to be blown out of proportion.

Whelton and others are continuing to press forward with the efforts to jailbreak the new iPod nano and expose some of the hidden features already in the operating system's code.

DigiTimes reports that Apple is expected to release three different versions of the next generation iPad in 2011. These include Wi-Fi, UMTS (3G) and CDMA versions with mass production starting as early as late January.

Apple will ship about 500,000-530,000 units to channels in January with shipment ratio of Wi-Fi, UMTS and CDMA models at 3:4:3, according to industry sources, citing upstream component makers.

Apple presently ships two distinct versions of the iPad in three different storage capacities (16GB, 32GB, and 64GB). The two current versions include a Wi-Fi only version and a 3G version which supports the AT&T network in the U.S.

Adding a CDMA version would allow the iPad to be sold on the Verizon network in the U.S. as well as other CDMA networks around the world. While mass production will begin in late January, the launch of the next iPad is expected "by the end of the first quarter or the beginning of the second" according to DigiTimes' sources.

Just last week, we noted that popular camera app Camera+ had reappeared in the App Store after a four-month hiatus. The temporary disappearance of Camera+ came after an update to the application earlier this year had been rejected after the developers added a feature that remapped the iPhone's hardware volume buttons to activate the camera shutter, a violation of Apple's terms due to the potential for confusing users. After the company squeezed through another update that left the volume button feature hidden as an easter egg, the app was quickly pulled by Apple.

But just as Apple appears to have let Camera+ out of the penalty box and back into the store (without the volume button feature present), another new app has been approved that not only offers this same functionality, but features it prominently in the app's description and screenshots. Quick Snap - Camera Plus ($1.99), released on December 15th, was noted by Wired for its curious offering of the banned feature.

Turn iPhone Volume Button into a Shutter Button? "Quick Snap" is the app for THAT!

Why choose the soft or full screen shutter when you can use VOLUME BUTTON as the hard shutter button on your iPhone? You are now one step close to the real digital camera experience! Isn't that awesome?

The approval of Quick Snap appears to have been an error by an Apple reviewer, as such changes to hardware features of the iPhone remain forbidden under Apple's policies. Consequently, Apple will likely move to take down the application as soon as possible now that that news has been made public, although the ongoing holiday shutdown may slow the company's response time.

Last week, Japanese blog Mac Otakara offered information about the next-generation iPad, claiming that the device will be slightly smaller in all dimensions while offering a flat back and modified speaker compared to the current model.

In a new post, Mac Otakara reveals that it has been able to get its hands on a pair of the cases claimed to be for the next-generation iPad that have surfaced in recent weeks. The blog has conducted a comparison of the cases, which include one hard shell and one soft silicone case, using the existing iPad in order to make additional guesses about what the next-generation version might look like. Among the interesting notes:

- The next-generation iPad appears likely to have tapered sides and a flat back, very similar to the current iPod touch. This contrasts with the current iPad, which offers flat sides and a slightly curved back.

- The tapered sides will require a tweaking of some of the physical features found on the sides of the current iPad. The most visible of these changes is the speaker, whose grille moves to the rear of the device as we've seen in several cases.

- The volume buttons on the side of the next-generation iPad appear to be of the split style with an oblong form factor as seen on the current iPod touch, as opposed to the rocker buttons used on the current iPad and the round split buttons used on the iPhone 4.

- The camera hole in the rear of the cases claimed to be for the next-generation iPad appears to be similar in size to that for the iPhone 4 and larger than that seen with the iPod touch, suggesting that the next-generation iPad could see the higher-resolution rear camera capabilities seen on the iPhone 4.

It's no surprise that Apple's iOS devices are popular holiday gifts, and as one gauge of the popularity of those devices, many turn to information from App Store developers. Business Insider has done just that, checking in with Facebook and Disney-owned Tapulous to discover that both firms have seen significant spikes in user activity coinciding with the holidays.

Facebook, which offers an application formatted for the iPhone and iPod touch but not iPad, has seen a spike of 1.6 million "active" iOS users over the last three days.

Facebook's iPhone app currently has 57.3 million "monthly active users," meaning the number of people who have used the app in the last month. That's up 1.6 million since the morning of Dec. 24, when we checked and it had 55.7 million monthly active users.

Interestingly, Facebook's Android application has seen no specific Christmas spike, despite solid ongoing growth that has seen it approach 21 million users active over the past month. As speculated by Daring Fireball's John Gruber, the difference between the platforms is likely due to the existence of the iPod touch, which as a contract-free device is a more popular holiday gift than smartphones. Evidence of that difference between the iPod touch and iPhone was seen in last year's holiday season.

On a similar note, Tapulous, the firm behind the popular Tap Tap Revenge games and which was acquired by Disney earlier this year, has seen a tremendous increase in app downloads this holiday season compared to last year.

Tapulous tells us that peak Christmas downloads reached 45,000 per hour, and that holiday download traffic is twice the levels of last year.

Tapulous has been riding the momentum of Tap Tap Revenge 4, which debuted in the App Store just before Christmas as a free application with a number of in app purchasing options featuring additional tracks and avatars.

According to All Things Digital, Apple has confirmed that it has surpassed sales of one million units for the new Apple TV, which debuted in late September. The company had put out a press release last week stating that it expected to reach the milestone later that week.

Last Tuesday Apple said it expected sales of its next generation Apple TV to top one million units before Christmas. Today the company confirmed they did just that.

The timing of Apple's "pre-announcement" press release was seen by many as curious, with some speculating that the release was published to counter the previous day's news from competitor Roku that its sales had doubled since the launch of the Apple TV and that it expected to hit the one million milestone by the end of the year.

As noted by setteB.IT, Apple has updated its investor relations page to announce that it will publish its earnings for the first fiscal quarter of 2011 (fourth calendar quarter of 2010) and host a conference call regarding the release on Tuesday, January 18th.

Apple plans to conduct a conference call to discuss financial results of its first fiscal quarter on Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. PT. A link to the conference call webcast will be provided at a later date.

During the company's most recent earnings conference call held in October, Apple CEO Steve Jobs made a rare appearance to discuss Research in Motion, Google, Android, and competition in the tablet market, as well as to answer questions from research analysts. Jobs noted that Apple has passed Research in Motion in smartphone sales and doesn't see the BlackBerry maker catching back up, and also panned the smaller 7-inch tablets that are dominating the announcements of Apple's competitors.

While Apple has expressed interest in near field communications (NFC), the short-range wireless technology used for such applications as "tap and go" credit and debit card payments and public transportation fare payments, the company has obviously yet to deploy the technology in its iPhone line.

But as picked up by Engadget, Japanese carrier Softbank is taking steps to bring limited NFC functionality to the iPhone in the form of NFC "seals" or stickers, satisfying the demands of customers in a country where NFC has seen strong adoption.

Japanese carrier Softbank has responded to complaints about the iPhone 4's NFC deficit -- the FeliCa payment system is pretty popular over in the land of sumo, sushi and sun-rising -- by introducing a new "seal" for the back of Apple's latest and greatest. It sticks on, covering almost the entire rear, but is apparently thin enough not to get in the way of using one of Apple's own Bumpers alongside it.

According to the specifications detailed in the Softbank press release, the sticker is made of polyurethane, weighs 14 grams (0.5 ounces), and covers the entire back of the device with the exception of the camera area. Stickers for three different mobile payment services will be available beginning in February and will be priced at about $36.

As Engadget notes, the sticker doesn't appear to interact with the iPhone in any way, simply acting as a traditional dumb NFC terminal, but will allow users of some of the most common mobile payments solutions in Japan to ensure that they have their payment methods as long as they have their iPhones in their pockets.

DigiTimes reports that Apple has raised their 1st Quarter 2011 iPhone shipment goals from 19 million units to 20-21 million units. This number reportedly includes 5-6 million CDMA iPhones:

The first-quarter shipment goal for WCDMA iPhones has been adjusted from 13 million units to 14-15 million units, the sources said. The shipment goal for CDMA iPhones, which will be launched in North America and Asia Pacific in the first quarter, is set at 5-6 million units, the sources added.

WCDMA refers to the UMTS standard that the current iPhone 4 uses, but the CDMA iPhones will be a separate model that will bring compatibility to Verzion in the U.S. and apparently to other carriers in Asia Pacific.

Verizon has long been rumored to be the next major U.S. carrier to see iPhone compatibility. The Verizon iPhone is believed to be coming to Verizon in the first quarter of 2011. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg will be giving a keynote address at this year's Consumer Electronics Show on January 6th, 2011 at 8:30am.