iPhone News Updated

iPhone 5 concept incorporates squeezing gestures

Apple’s next-generation iPhone is expected to see a refresh later this year, so while details and rumors are still scarce at this point, this has not stopped fans from releasing concept designs of what they think Apple’s next iPhone should look like and how it should perform.

This particular concept design is by Kris Groen and seems to feature some new “squeezing” gestures that we have to admit is interesting, although we can’t really speak on its practicality.
Read the rest of this entry »

PostSecret iPhone app shut down due to ‘threatening’ and ‘pornographic’ content

Nearly four months after founder of the PostSecret blog Frank Warren launched an iPhone app to allow users to anonymously post and peruse secrets on their phones, he has shut the app down. Warren cites the submission of “content that was not just pornographic but also gruesome and at times threatening.”

In a blog post, Warren explains that anonymity on the app made it “very challenging” for volunteers to “remove determined users with malicious intent,” even if they accounted for only 1 percent of the submissions.

Internet trolls, or people who use an online identity for specific abusive purposes, have long stirred up trouble on message boards and discussion groups, but this may be the first time they’ve brought down an iPhone app.

Controlling bullying online has long been a battleground for Web site administrators and, increasingly, for authorities offline. In September, a young man in Britain who targeted Facebook tribute pages to taunt the dead victims and their families was jailed, the Guardian reports.

At the time, the Guardian reported, the chief detective working on the case, James Hahn, of Thames Valley police, called this kind of malicious communication on social networks a “new phenomenon,” but said their investigation showed that “offenders cannot hide behind their computer screens.”

The problem may prove to be more difficult on iPhone apps moderated by volunteers and depending on the submissions of a crowd. The PostSecret app received some 30,000 submissions a day, or more than 2 million in just four months.

Read the rest of this entry »