StevenTroughton-smith
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Apple TV 4K will have as much power as the iPad Pro
Apple just can't seem to keep leaks from outing all of its new hardware. After a few new iPhone details dropped over the weekend, now we're hearing about the Apple TV 4K, the next version of its streaming video box. It'll be powered by the three-core A10X Fusion CPU -- the same chip at the heart of the most recent iPad Pros -- as well as 3GB of RAM, according to developer Steve Stroughton-Smith. The details come from a leaked version of the iOS 11 GM release, which makes it fairly trustworthy.
What picture-in-picture on the new Apple TV would look like
A subscription TV service isn't the only add-on we could envision for the new Apple TV. Developer Steven Troughton-Smith -- who gave us a peek at iPad split-screen multitasking well before Apple started offering it -- whipped up an app for the device with picture-in-picture support that looks right at home on tvOS. Support for the feature isn't built into the box yet, but we can't imagine official support for this will be too many software revisions away. Older smart TV platforms like Google TV and Yahoo Widgets! handled some form of multitasking, and if the future of TV is apps like Apple says, they'll need to figure this out along the way.
Alternate iOS 9 keyboard hints at larger iPad
Whenever someone talks about the 12.9-inch iPad, we pull the same nervous, hopeful gaze that we do when Half-life 2: Episode Three is mentioned. Deep down, we know in our hearts that neither are very likely to happen, but no matter what, they'll never be able to take the hope from us. Now, iOS expert and friend of the site Steve Troughton-Smith believes he's found a nugget of proof that the iPad "Pro" exists. Oh, put your tongues in your cheek and grab a handful of salt, because we're venturing into tangent territory, here.
Spire installer brings Siri to any jailbroken iOS 5 device, legally -- proxy still required
A few months of work by iOS hackers Grant Paul (aka chpwn), Steven Troughton-Smith and Ryan Petrich has culminated in the release of Spire, a new installer that will easily set up Siri on your jailbroken iOS 5 device. While Apple has kept its little helper exclusively constrained to the iPhone 4S, it now runs on iPads, iPhone 4, iPod touches and the iPhone 3GS, and while that's been done before they claim the other new trick is that it's legal, avoiding the copyright infringement inherent in previous hacks. When installed it will initiate a 100MB download of Siri directly from Apple so watch your bandwidth limits, and also be prepared to set up your own proxy server with donated info from an iPhone 4S to hold the line between Apple's backend and yourself. It's available on Cydia now so if you've been waiting for a way to get this feature for yourself it's not far away, however Troughton-Smith tells 9to5 Mac that the next major step may not come until the iPhone 4S is jailbroken and they can avoid the proxy server issues altogether.
Growing Up Geek: Steven Troughton-Smith
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, an ongoing feature where we take a look back at our youth and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. Today, we have a special guest: programmer, app designer, artist and geek, Steven Troughton-Smith. I was born to be an artist. I was always the kind of kid that doodled when bored in class; I used to spend hours creating the most intricate symmetrical robots or plotting maps for world domination. Somewhere along the way I realized that the thing I really wanted to design was software, and I'd really have to learn to start programming to be able to make what I saw in my head exist. As a child of four I was exposed for the first time to a computer -- a Macintosh IIsi. When I wasn't playing SimCity 2000 or Spelunx, I was dabbling in Photoshop 3.0. I was fascinated by the Mac and would spend hours learning all the intricacies of how it worked. I discovered an Amstrad 286 in our attic at some stage -- my mom's old work computer -- and set to work trying to figure out the arcane incantations to show something more interesting than a DOS prompt onscreen. (Eventually I found some Windows 2.03 floppy disks about the house and forcibly upgraded it -- it wasn't much better off for my efforts). Then, in 1998, I met RealBASIC.
Siri ported to an iPhone 4, old phone learns a new trick (Update: Better performance!)
Apple's iPhone 4 may not have the fancy dual core CPU of its successor, but thanks to the efforts of developer Steven Troughton-Smith and the folks at 9to5 Mac, it may soon have Siri. The port of the sultry voice assistant was accomplished by using the 4S Siri and Springboard files, and some serious elbow grease, no doubt. As you can see in the video below, it's far from perfect, but it can recognize spoken commands without issue. Currently, the hack is missing an iPhone 4 GPU driver that keeps things running buttery smooth on the elder phone, and Cupertino won't authenticate Siri's commands coming from it either. So, it isn't quite ready for primetime, but it should only be a matter of time before all you iPhone 4 owners can tell Siri what to do, too. Update: And in the space of just a few hours, Mr. Troughton-Smith has already managed to improve performance of the app on the iPhone 4 significantly, although Apple's servers are still unreachable. Check out a newer YouTube video showing off some seriously smooth scrolling action after the break. [Thanks, Ramzi]
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me find iPad apps for my cousin
Dear Aunt TUAW, My cousin recently had emergency brain surgery. She's 10 years old, but she can't speak, and she doesn't have very good motor control. She is expected to recover fully, but in the meantime, she can't really do much. She got an iPad from another relative, and I'm in charge of finding apps for her new toy. Do you or your nieces or nephews have any suggestions? She can read and write, and laugh at funny things still, but she might not be able to draw lines in Spy Mouse or react quickly like in Doodle Jump. Any suggestions would help! Your loving nephew, James Dear James, Auntie is sure lots and lots of her nieces and nephews are going to jump in in the comments with some terrific suggestions. To get things started, she turned to iOS developer Steven Troughton-Smith, who has worked on a language assistance project for the autistic. He has promised to get you set up with an ad-hoc version of Grace, which normally sells for €29.99 (about $40). Please contact Auntie through the normal TUAW tip form, and we'll put you in touch with him. (Speaking of the tip form, it's sheer luck that Auntie found your comment. Please nephews and nieces, use the tip form to contact Auntie -- don't leave questions or requests in post comments.) Grace is an app that allows people to build sentences from a vocabulary of cards; over 120 are preloaded. Troughton-Smith noted that you can add photos to the app with the camera or from the photo library to create your own items of vocabulary. "It's easy to use and fast, as we spent a lot of time making sure that the UI wouldn't frustrate kids who needed to use it to communicate." You can read more about Grace here. TUAW reader mdw also had some suggestions for your cousin. He writes, "Have a look at the hacking autism site. Although it is for children with autism, you'll find for example that BlockCad is freeware for children with limited motor skills. You might also find AAC apps useful." We all wish your cousin a speedy recovery and hope that she continues to regain health over time. Got more suggestions for James? Leave them in the comments! Hugs, Auntie T.
Nexus S receives MeeGo and Ubuntu ports, makes our nerd senses tingle (video)
You've got to hand it to the Nexus S. In spite of being a souped-up smartphone, it's still unpretentious enough to accept power from a BlackBerry microUSB cable and easy enough to hack that it's just received not one, but two OS ports. MeeGo, in its very raw and unfinished form, has been dropped onto the phone's internal memory without the need for any flashing, and the method has also been successfully used to install Ubuntu on the current Google flagship. There's very little that's actually functional about the MeeGo install at the moment, but the ball has begun rolling and there's a resulting question that's occupying our minds right now -- will the Nexus S have a perfectly hacked copy of MeeGo before or after Nokia releases its device for the platform? Answers on a postcard. [Thanks, Michelle and Brad]
Discovering iPod nano recovery mode
Steven Troughton-Smith writes on his personal weblog that he may have discovered a way to put his iPod nano into some kind of DFU-like recovery mode. By holding down the restart buttons through two reboots, iTunes will see the device and alert the user. Entering DFU/Recovery mode allows hackers to submit customized software to iOS devices, and doing so with the nano offers the promise of adding modified software. Troughton-Smith tells TUAW that, now, he "can push firmware files to the device and have them execute." From there, he can boot disk mode or the OS using those firmware files. Check out the video on the next page for a screencast of the process in action.
hacksugar: Install the 3.1 Clock on your 3.2 iPad
Do you like the iPhone clock? Do you miss the iPhone clock? Do you wish the iPhone clock would install and work on your 3.2 iPad? Developer Steven Troughton-Smith has posted some handy how-to instructions on his personal blog. The secret lies in getting hold of a 3.1 compiled build (normally via jailbreak and sftp), editing its Info.plist file, and re-signing the app so it can be installed via Xcode. This is a developers-only solution, and not for the faint of heart. The application can be signed and installed only onto those iPads that have been registered with Apple at the developer portal. You'll need to be comfortable editing Info.plist files (using a property list editor or text editor), and installing apps using the Xcode organizer window. Although I confirmed that the install process works (it did not, by the way for Weather or Stocks), I have not been able to test the actual alarm features because, well, I don't actually see an alarm interface when I run the app. But it's still early days as far as this hack goes, and maybe I missed a step somewhere. Stroughton-Smith reports that many features work fine in the sandbox and can still set system alarms. That's a pretty handy feature for anyone who wants the iPad to wake them in the morning -- even if I still can't quite figure out how to do it. I had no problem using World Clock. The Stopwatch worked fine. But, along with the alarm, I couldn't get the Timer to work. If you have some work-arounds for those features, jump in into the comments.
Found Footage: Expose-esque UI for iPhone app management
Oh, so tempting. Engadget and Slashgear link to this video from our friend Steven Troughton-Smith: Exposé-style app management running on a jailbroken iPhone. No, you can't download it anywhere yet; no, we don't know when it will be ready for prime time and available on the Cydia repo; no, we don't expect Apple to have anything similar in the pipeline for vanilla iPhone use. But wouldn't it be nice?
Found Footage: More new Stack features for jailbreak iPhones
Looks like Stack for Jailbreak has some new improvements. For those of you unfamiliar with the application, Stack adds a quick-launch menu directly to your iPhone dock, letting you expand your dock space to hold all your favorite apps. With it you can add 16 items (using grid view) or 5 items (in fan view) for easy access in each stack. And stacks are not just limited to the dock. You can add stacks anywhere in the home screen as well. As this video shows, you can now rename your stacks as well as use drag and drop editing. So you can create a 'Games' stack, an 'Internet' stack, and so forth. Removing items from a stack is just as easy as adding them. Just drag them out from the stack for an Apple-standard "puff of smoke" animation. Stack, which is developed by iPhone expert Steven Troughton-Smith is donor-ware. Although not ready for public release, he has regularly been seeding early alpha builds to people who have donated to the project. But as you can see, it's making great progress. Stack is a jailbreak-only product as Apple does not permit this kind of OS-based enhancement in App Store. That's a pity, because the relative difficulty and fear of jailbreaking keeps this kind of groundbreaking software away from the general public. It's an enhancement that Apple really should have built into the iPhone -- and hopefully someday will.
