TechCrunch has an article looking at an iOS hacking project that has the potential to be rather interesting. Whited00r is a custom version of OS 3.1.3, hacked to include features such as app folders and multitasking from later versions of the OS. It’s meant for older-generation iPhones and iPod Touches. Of course, it’s a jailbreak, which means losing access to some official Apple stuff such as the App Store and notifications. It looks like it might be fun to try out, but I don’t think it will fix one of my biggest annoyances with having a 1st-generation iPod...

From iTunes: Shakespeare™ is a free app with the complete works of Shakespeare (41 plays, 154 sonnets and 6 poems, including doubtful works) and a searchable concordance to find the exact word or phrase you’re looking for (with “relaxed” searching to find words close to your search term).Even though it’s free, Shakespeare for the iPad/iPhone/iPod is packed with these impressive features:• CUSTOMIZE YOUR READING EXPERIENCE by choosing from a variety of color combinations, change the font family and size, and jump around to different scenes.• QUALITY TEXTS are a top priority and our team spent...

Kindle for the iPhone/iPod and iPad has been updated: ...

On the New York Times Bits Blog, Nick Bilton suggests that both Apple and Google are engaged in (separate) projects to turn smartphones into more wearable devices. Apple has already been wearable in some respects—you could clip the iPod Shuffle to your clothing, or attach the iPod Nano to a wrist strap to make it impersonate an oversized watch. Now it seems like Apple wants to make it so people can wear their iPhone on their wrist, and perhaps interact with it with Siri. And Google may be working on something similar. This all might lead, in the...

A couple of popular British novel series, one for children and one decidedly not, are coming to e-books, The Bookseller reported last week. The children’s series is Paddington Bear, the adventures of a small, talking bear named for the London railway station where he was found. The series already has a £3.99 (US $6.23) multimedia iPad/iPhone app, which among other things will let parents record video readings of the story, and children take photos of themselves “with” Paddington to send to family and friends. HCB said the digital adaptation had been done "carefully" to...

From the App Store: iBooks 1.5 adds the following new features as well as some stability and performance improvements:• Nighttime reading theme makes reading books in the dark easier on the eyes.• Full-screen layout lets you focus on the words without distraction.• iBooks now features an improved selection of fonts, including Athelas, Charter, Iowan, and Seravek.• Beautiful new classic covers for public domain books.• A redesigned annotation palette makes it easier to choose a color for your highlighted text. ...

Tate Guide to Modern Art Terms from Tate on Vimeo. From the press release:   Tate Guide to Modern Art Terms, produced by Aimer Media, is an art dictionary for iPad or iPhone. Over 300 terms are defined with clarity and precision, putting themes, movements, media and art practices at your fingertips.   The first modern art app to be released by Tate Publishing , one of the world’s leading art publishers, this guide aims to become a staple for gallery goers the world over. "How many times have you read the caption next to a work of art or a review of a contemporary art...

From Paid Content: Digital subscriptions hit 250,000 by the end of September (up 30 percent in the last 12 months), while freely registered users grew by 40 percent, owner Pearson (NYSE: PSO) reported on Thursday. The publisher stopped offering its iPad and iPhone apps for download on August 30 after failing to gain an agreement from Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) which would have meant the FT could continue to process its own customers’ data and transactions. This update therefore includes only one month of post-iTunes numbers. The majority of the gain was experienced since the FT’s previous update in July. Now the FT is claiming...

CNet has an interesting, fairly long interview with Josh Quittner, who was formerly the director of Time Inc.’s digital magazine strategy as well as Time.com’s editorial chief before quitting to take a job as editorial director for Flipboard. Quittner is a veteran tech journalist and editor, which makes it all the more fascinating he would take a position at such a young startup. Quittner explains that he was drawn to Flipboard by the changes that are taking place in the context of magazines. Flipboard represents a chance to break out of the traditional one-size-fits-all template magazines have used...

It's now at version 2.8.5.  According to iTunes the update includes: Improved page turn animation on iPad and new book-style page turn animation on iPhone.  Enable this in application settings. Adjust brightness while reading on iPhone - tap the Aa button to change screen brightness Simplified feedback and customer service contact - please continue to sending us your feedback! Localaized app language in French, Spanish, Italian and Brazilian Portuguese. ...

Ten years ago, the original iPod came out, changing Apple inexorably from a snooty little computer company whose best days were seemingly long behind it to one of the greatest powerhouses of the consumer electronics industry. Today it seems likely Apple is going to kill off the last vestige of that original hard-drive-and-music-player-only device. Yesterday Gizmodo took a look at some of the complaints and erroneous predictions of low sales surrounding the original device, and pointed out a CNet review by Elliot Van Buskirk predicting that descendants of the iPod might replace the PC. The funny thing is,...

The next Apple event is set to take place on October 4th, and the invitation going out to journalists is captioned, “Let’s talk iPhone”. This caption has led to speculation on the part of tech journalists that the new iPhone will include advanced voice-recognition features that have been in the offing since Apple bought Siri 18 months ago. They also speculate that Apple will just be introducing only one new phone—and not the rumored “low-end iPhone” that some investors have been expecting. Rather than a new low-end model, Apple can just continue to keep last year’s iPhone around as...