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Your iPhone 6 could be falling victim to 'touch disease'
If you've seen a flickering gray bar at the top of your iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, you may be the victim of a serious problem plaguing your mobile device. According to iFixIt and Forbes, the issue is widespread enough to warrant several pages of complaints via the Apple support forums. The problem is, both the repair techs who continually see the issues coming in and the customers taking to the internet to make their concerns known aren't seeing much done about it.
Send Instagram to Dropbox for a cool Apple TV screen saver
Just recently, I posted about the Instacube, a Kickstarter project that allows you to more easily show off your great (or at least well-filtered) photography work on Instagram. But it turns out you don't need a whole cube to do that. With the proper tweaking of IFTTT (a tool we at TUAW also love), you can set up Instagram images to display on your Apple TV's screensaver, making for a fun party trick or just a cool way to show off the pictures you've been taking. All you need to do is save your Instagram pictures to Dropbox, and then share that folder out to the Apple TV, and boom, instant streaming screensaver. There are a few hitches, unfortunately, and the biggest one is that your Apple TV won't automatically pull in new images, so you'll have to sync folders after you add (or remove) any images yourself to see new pictures. If you want to pull in pictures from more than one Instagram user, you'll also have to set up multiple IFTTT recipes, one for each user you want to watch. But the good news is that you can pull in from any other photo feeds as well -- maybe a better solution, to show off pictures from a party, for example, would be to use a Flickr tag so that anyone can post to it. At any rate, it's cool idea for sure. IFTTT is a really powerful tool, and hookups like this can really give your Apple devices to some new and interesting uses. [via MacStories]
The iPad 2 is highly unpopular... as a camera
Photo sharing site Flickr tracks and publishes the device origin of all the photos that are posted to its site. With over 4.5 million users uploading photos daily, this data set is enormous. Stats from a month ago show the iPhone 4 is at the top of the heap of not just smartphones, but of digital cameras as well. Currently, over 4,000 daily users upload photos taken with their iPhone 4. Over 7 million photos have been uploaded since the iPhone 4 launched last June. Moving to the iPad 2, the stats are pretty abysmal. A month ago, only nine users were uploading iPad 2 photos. Today, that number has climbed to a meager 22. If the camera was a key feature of the tablet, you would expect to see a lot more than 22 people uploading per day, especially with the millions of iPads that are circulating in the wild. I hate to say it, but my own usage reflects this trend. I use my iPhone 4 all the time for taking photos and sharing them with friends. The camera on the iPad 2, though, has not been used once since I bought the tablet a month ago. If you have one or more of these devices, do you use them in the same way? [Via Electricpig]
Some Thunderbolt MacBook Pros causing flicker on Cinema Displays, Apple investigates (updated)
In a world of sophisticated electronics these days, there are always risks to being an early adopter. Alas, it appears that our latest victims are owners of Apple's Thunderbolt-laden MacBook Pros. Since launch, a number of frustrated customers have been reporting that their new unibody laptops -- of all three sizes -- are causing random flicker on both 24-inch and 27-inch Cinema Displays when connected via their Mini DisplayPort / Thunderbolt combo port, and now we have video proof to share the pain. Some also confirmed that even replacement machines from Apple are exhibiting the same behavior, though a source of ours says this doesn't seem to be a widespread issue, and that the company's hardware engineers are already looking into this. Either way, we're likely to see a firmware fix for this bug soon -- it's no good having a large monitor constantly blinking at you. [Thanks, Armando] Update: sja3274, the creator of the original video above, informed us that his Cinema Display actually had a faulty connection anyway, but he still saw flicker on a new display -- much like the behavior shown in the second video. As such, we've replaced our first video embed with our second one. Additionally, sja3274 was originally told to expect a software update last Tuesday or Wednesday, but obviously that didn't happen, so perhaps this is a trickier fix than Apple expected.
Apple TV update reportedly causing screen flicker issues with HDMI to DVI adapters
We've seen reports of strange video behavior with Apple TVs before, and it looks like a new problem has now cropped up with the most recent update. According to a growing number of reports on the Apple support forums, those using an HDMI to DVI adapter to connect the device to their TV seem to have been hit with an annoying issue that causes their screen to flicker every few seconds. That's apparently happening with a wide range of TVs, and at least some are also reporting the same thing happening even if they aren't using an adapter. A few folks have apparently been able to fix things in the interim by simply pulling their HDMI cable and plugging it back in, but most are stuck with the annoying issue -- or worse, a downgraded 480p signal. Having some similar issues? Let us know in comments.
27-inch iMac gets another display firmware update, everyone else gets minor iTunes update
Still plagued by the annoying screen flicker on your precious 27-inch iMac, even after the previous update? Try this second attempt by Apple. While you're at it, there's also a minor update for iTunes which makes sure it actually "remember[s] password for purchases," as well as fixing a few sync and performance issues. Good luck with both and let us know if your iMac nightmare is finally over.
27-inch iMac gets a firmware update to assuage your display issues
Here's something that'll fix a bit of your 27-inch iMac ails. Apple just released a graphics firmware update 1.0. Order of the day? To "address issues that may cause image corruption or display flickering." Download away, and let us know if you troubled souls have seen some relief. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Mega Man 9 getting intentional bugs, flicker
Capcom's going out of its way to make sure its deliciously stale Mega Man 9 offers a true 8-bit experience, bugs and all. The company's Hironobu Takeshita recently told Gamasutra that the download will have the look and feel of a NES-era release, and that things such as sprite flicker have even been included as a -- thankfully optional -- feature. "Yeah, there were some things, like you couldn't have more than three enemies on the screen at once, so we had to make sure that that's how it stayed in our game. In the part with the dragon with the flame, [there should be] flickering, and whatnot," noted the game's producer. "In the options of this game, you can adjust that, unlike the old games. We purposely put some of those old-school bugs into this game, so it does recreate that feel." Now, if only Capcom could emulate blowing into the cartridge we'd be in retro heaven.%Gallery-28279%
Honeywell sues myriad of LCD TV makers for anti-flicker technology
If you think LG has a mess on its hands, it's suddenly not alone, as six other manufacturers touching one point or another in the LCD TV supply chain are now facing a patent lawsuit from Honeywell. In what smells awfully like another patent instance of patent trolling, Honeywell is suing Acer, AU Optronics, BenQ, Chunghwa Picture Tubes, Renesas Technology, and Denmos Technology as it claims that a patented "method of stopping liquid-crystal displays from flickering" has been unrightfully used. The firm has reportedly "sustained damages and will continue to sustain damages in the future," which they feel should translate into receiving incredible amounts of cash in order to resolve the situation. Reportedly, five of the six outfits under the lawsuit said that they "had not been informed" about the issue just yet, but we doubt it'll be too much longer before it floats to their respective legal departments.[Via Inquirer]
