Hidden 'Radio' Buttons Discovered In Apple's iOS 6.1 101
tad001 writes "CNET is reporting 'Discovered last night within a freshly jailbroken iPad: a set of buttons and code references for "radio," a feature found in iTunes on Macs and PCs, but not on the iPad or iPhone.' ... 'The buttons hint at Apple's much-rumored radio service, a product that will let people stream music much like they do on the popular Pandora service, but with deep ties to Apple's iTunes library.' ... 'The discovery follows a high-profile jailbreak of iOS 6.1, the updated system software Apple released just last week. A team of developers came up with a tool that gives users deep system-level access to do things like install applications from third-party app stores, change the look and feel of iOS, and add new software features.'"
I predict the imminent retun of Slashdot Radio. (Score:5, Funny)
Because there are clearly radio buttons on the Slasdot poll.
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Re:I predict the imminent retun of Slashdot Radio. (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe YOU don't...
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That's because you don't get karma for funny posts.
That's what "Underrated" is for - not "Insightful".
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Check the FAQ, they changed it. You didn't use to, but you do now.
Now, on to the actual topic: Why? There is already a free app out there for both iPhone/iPad and Android that will let you stream almost any radio station in the world; they advertise it daily on KSHE. My guess is that they were originally going to put some sort of radio feature in, it got half finished and everyone was using the free app so they shelved it.
Meanwhile, five years ago someone I know had a dumb phone that had an AM-FM radio buil
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Depends on your market. For example, Japan has had android devices (tablets included) with both radio and TV for sometime (albeit one-seg crap for tv, really lousy rez) .
Too bad the drivers for these tend to be proprietary.
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That's because you don't get karma for funny posts.
Is there anyone left on slashdot that didn't max their karma out decades ago?
Re:I predict the imminent retun of Slashdot Radio. (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a thing on slashdot now, some newbies rate insightful instead of funny because they've heard that funny doesn't give karma.
I infer that they are newbies from the fact that they want to give karma to me. It's really, really not hard to max out on karma on slashdot.
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UIRadioButton, for when UISegmentedControl is not enough !
Radio buttons, for that vintage look (Score:2)
Radio buttons are the new swipe gestures
Re:Radio buttons, for that vintage look (Score:4, Funny)
So you mean Apple will try to get a design patent on radio buttons?
No they won't I've already patented concentric circles.
Re:Radio buttons, for that vintage look (Score:5, Funny)
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They're buttons with a radio antenna on them, not "radio buttons" as in "buttons that only let you select one thing at once".
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You only really need a number of sides exceeding that which you can easily perceive to be considered a circle.
Another revenue stream for Apple's iAd Network? (Score:4, Interesting)
These buy buttons seem like the obvious tie-in with iTunes to buy a song as it is streaming. This falls in with Apple's announcement that they will start separating software revenue from hardware revenue in quarterly reports. I guess they won't be propping up iPod revenue with iTunes anymore (since music players don't affect the stock any more).
Apple's software is getting stickier. [slashdot.org]
Re:Another revenue stream for Apple's iAd Network? (Score:4, Interesting)
Interestingly enough, iTunes runs at around break-even, with Apple using it largley as a way of getting people to buy iDevices by ensuring there is content available for them. I wonder if this means that the market has shifted and it now has to pull its own weight as a profit-making part of the business.
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Re:Another revenue stream for Apple's iAd Network? (Score:5, Informative)
In 2008, iTunes had "margins that are better than the best e-commerce companies around; no marketing costs and a built in audience; Sales of nearly $3 billion a year in its existing business; and a new $1 billion business on the way."
In 2013, we now know the sales projections were conservative, and with a need to show revenue growth to investors, I'm sure Tim Cook would not announce that Apple would begin quarterly reports of software revenue (e.g. iTunes) without being certain he can produce big numbers.
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"I'm sure Tim Cook would not announce that Apple would begin quarterly reports of software revenue (e.g. iTunes) without being certain he can produce big numbers."
Are you sure? This is the same guy who's overseen $280bn wiped off the market cap of the company in under 6 months, sacked some of the people who were important to the companies growth in the first place after allowing an abysmal mapping application to go live, and has pursued a regime of court cases where they've lost or partially lost just about
Re:Another revenue stream for Apple's iAd Network? (Score:4, Funny)
Mr. Ballmer, this really comes across as sour grapes, don't you think?
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iTunes sales numbers are right there in their financials. It's marked as "online services" or somesuch, and it earns a few billion dollars in revenue annually (note timespan).
Of course, those numbers pale compared to even Mac revenue numbe
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Well, it was for the whole store, but it was for 2010 and I'm having a real problem pinning down the relevant quote to the conference call it supposedly came from.
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Have you seen the licensing costs for Apple Server software? iTunes may barely break even, but their Enterprise Software division is doing great!
Only half joking; that sort of accounting trick is common as muck, as long as there's an incentive for it. Not sure what that incentive would be in this case, but 5p on the side says that it begins with "T" and ends with "X", without much in the middle. See Starbucks and their "loss making UK division", with a surprisingly high, and highly circuitous, payment to li
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The real question is whether Apple will ban other internet streaming apps from the app store once they release their service.
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Arg, I meant music streaming apps.
And I can't even blame this on it being late at night (or early in the morning for that matter).
What will they come up with next?! (Score:2)
What is this new thing called 'radio'?
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It's kind of an analog wifi. I'm surprised they managed to make it work so soon, if you know how many engineers broke their teeth on analog computers. Probably not really analog then but with a digital machinery under the hood..
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Radio is so old it predates Analog, and even Astounding and Amazing Stories...
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On the other hand Astounding Stories predated Scifi radio shows by a few years.
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You joke, but my fairly recent Nokia N8 could both receive and transmit Analogue FM between around 88MHz and 104MHZ. I often wondered if I couldn't hack it into a smart tuner...
Analogue radio is still around in many parts of the world and isn't going anywhere. However TFA is referring to the use of Wifi or (3rd gen) GSM radio to stream audio from a internet source...
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That will be something like the Radio service I get on my Android, or something similar to the live streaming of broadcast audio I can also get on the same device ...
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Conan O'Brien once quipped about TV : "You can watch videos, just like on your computer or phone, but in the comfort of your own living room!"
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Try living in Africa. We got the iTunes music store late last year, by which time I'd already chucked the only idevice I ever had the misfortune to own. Can't even buy from amazon....
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1) Setup a postal address in the EU, with forwarding to your address in Africa.
2) Use a proxy to order from Amazon.
3)?
4) Profit!
(And yes, this works, my aunt and cousin had to do exactly this when they were in Africa for two months.)
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2.5 Get rejected because your credit card isn't in the EU.... I think they sell a T-shirt for this...
It is honestly so stupid (also another reason I quit apple).
Me:"I want to buy x, y, z. Here take my money. Heck, I'll even pay your ridiculous price."
Apple/Amazon/Pandora/etc: "STFU. This stuff isn't available in your region."
Me: "And I shouldn't pirate because....?"
At least steam works fine. Why can't everyone else that?
How games differ from music, movies, and TV (Score:3)
At least steam works fine. Why can't everyone else that?
Steam is a service for distribution of video games. The time between the invention of video games and the Internet was much shorter than for music, movies, or TV shows. Because distribution was so difficult in the pre-Internet era, long-term exclusive contracts with a distributor that specializes in each territory became the norm. PC games, on the other hand, had demos spread through dial-up BBSes even before the Internet was opened to the public in the mid-1990s.
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PC games, on the other hand, had demos spread through dial-up BBSes
Demos, hell, whole games available for downloading. And way before the word a "torrent" had anything to do with digital distribution.
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Do any of the other services you list have algorithms that match music you like similar to Pandora? My Pandora station has 15-20 artists across a wide variety of music genres, so the resulting stream is an interesting mix. If the services you listed do something similar, great. Otherwise, you don't know what you're missing.
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Pandora outside US its irrelevant, can not legally access from outside ;)
Blame Canada! (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not Pandora's fault. It's Canada's fault. Stop being a worthless internet crybaby and go get your local laws fixed so that Pandora can offer you service, and not be locked out by the local copyright monopolies.
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How did this get modded up? In Canada we have cancon restrictions for a very good reason and a lot of Canadians support that. If someone wants to be a player in our media, they need to support Canadian artists. When you live next to an Imperialistic entity like the USA, if you don't protect your culture, you will lose it.
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As a canadian, I detest that the government attempts to force feed me "Canadian" content. I like what I like. Some of it may be of Canadian origin, and some may not. I don't need some government bureaucracy trying to tell me what music I should listen to, or video I should watch.
Stop being scared of the Americans. It makes you look pathetic.
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Except that it has nothing to do with "CanCon" restrictions and everything to do with the stupidity of copyright laws and licensing.
Also, the person I was responding to doesn't seem to give a flip about "protecting Canadian culture". I bet most other Canadians don't, either.
Possibly ... (Score:2)
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Baby steps (Score:3)
Woah, there, buckaroo. That's the kind of thing that will be rolled out over the next decade. Everyone else will have it first, but I promise you that when Apple releases (ahem, allows) it, it will be like a breath of fresh air and TV will not just be TV - it will be wonderful again.
You'll have to excuse me. I need to go watch some youtube videos which are nothing but a fake staticy screen with the message that the content owner hasn't approved the viewing of the material on my device.
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Mortal man was not supposed to meddle with the font in the messages app.
This is ludicrous! (Score:4, Insightful)
Ok Jailbreaking iPhones is news i guess - although why someone would buy an iPhone in the first place with the intent on jailbreaking it is a mystery to me - surely thats an admission that the phone doesnt check all your boxes. irritation aside ....
they found some icons that arent currently in use by any apps. big f***king woop. Im sure you could find a bunch of unused icons on any windows , linux, amigaOS.
Just because its Apple - this is some sort of game changing discovery that merits a wordy article on cnet - only to appear on slashdot hours later.
Come on now are the moderators that bloody nerdy now that a glimpse of a new icon gives them a semi ?
N.
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what features? hidden buttons?
there are dozens of radio apps for ios. apple just wants their own
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Yeah, it's not like Apple's decision to release a firstparty app for a popular service has ever had any newsworthy consequences.
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Im sure you could find a bunch of unused icons on any windows , linux, amigaOS.
So? There aren't many - or any - unused graphical resources in iOS. Each time Apple has added something and not immediately used it (such as double-resolution textures for the iBooks app) it has subsequently become part of an actual software release (iBooks on the iPhone 4).
Re:This is ludicrous! (Score:4, Insightful)
why someone would buy an iPhone in the first place with the intent on jailbreaking it is a mystery to me
That's called expectations clash with real life. Other examples:
Why would you buy an Android phone with the intention of installing cyanogen on it ?
Why would you buy a Windows computer with the intention of installing Linux ?
Why would you get your internet connection from an ISP and access content from censured source using VPN ?
Why would you buy a flat with the intention of refurbishing it ?
Why would you vote for a politician and then lobby to get some of his decisions overturned ?
Re:This is ludicrous! (Score:5, Insightful)
> why someone would buy an iPhone in the first place with the
> intent on jailbreaking it is a mystery to me - surely thats an
> admission that the phone doesnt check all your boxes
I can't believe you got a +5 for that. You're not very imaginative, are you? Here's a possibility: maybe NO phone "checks all your boxes" but the iPhone comes closest? Maybe you like a competing phone a lot, but a jailbroken iPhone is even better?!? Maybe you like iPhones just fine, and jailbreaking them makes them even more fantastic?
Have you ever in your life bought something and then changed it to make it suit you more? OH MY GOD!
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I think you've got them confused with Google.
Dev work done before a business deal (Score:3)
Amazing that apple would develop a potential service to be ready to go the day a business deal is signed. And keep the code hidden until a deal is signed
Simply amazing
What are the first three words? (Score:3, Funny)
"CNET is reporting..........."
Radio buttons....really? CNET is like that retarded cousin who plays console videogames all day long, chats in Yahoo, and he thinks that makes him a computer haxor.
CNET owns GameFAQs (Score:3)
CNET is like that retarded cousin who plays console videogames all day long
Like? You mean it is. CNET owns GameFAQs, and it bought Giant Bomb, which began as a purportedly more ethical competitor to CNET's GameSpot.
Stay tuned for news of Apple's foray into B&D (Score:1)
discovered by researchers who found repeated references to "Submit" in Apple script.
If I were Apple... (Score:4, Interesting)
... I'd dedicate one measly megabyte of iOS to random icons and product ID strings just to fuck with people. Seriously, it'd be fun. For every one feature accurately hinted at there would be ten bogus ones.
Radio button confusion. (Score:1)
First thing I thought after reading the header : "What ?! Didn't iOS already have radio buttons (the GUI element) ?".
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Yep, that was my thought. "How is it news that someone discovered iOS had a couple hidden UI elements? They must toggle on some pretty spectacular option...
It doesn't (Score:2)
Actually you don't have the Radio Button UI Element in IOS. You have to use third party ones like the ones from mobisoftinfotech.
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Well, the segmented control, and the tab bar control are both types of radio button.
iOS just doesn't have the vertically stacked circular radio button style.
Internet radio ? No thanks (Score:3)
On the other side, my Sony shortwave receiver needs 4 AA cells every two weeks, and can pick up plenty of stations. Unfortunately BBC, Voice of America and other broadcasters are shutting down their shortwave facilities, since they claim that internet is the future...sigh.
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I tried it on my car: I don't have a iPhone but an android smartphone, but I guess the results shouldn't be that different.
Consumption of bandwidth is huge and reception is crappy, since on my commuting path I don't have a reliable UMTS/GSM data coverage. Furthermore one hour of reception drains about 50% of the battery.
On the other side, my Sony shortwave receiver needs 4 AA cells every two weeks, and can pick up plenty of stations. Unfortunately BBC, Voice of America and other broadcasters are shutting down their shortwave facilities, since they claim that internet is the future...sigh.
It' amazing how few people in target BBC areas have radios now, compared with access to smartphones and the internet.
BBC R&D did a fair bit of work on DRM, which was obviously doomed to failure. All the downsides of shortwave, coupled with the fact noone has a receiver. And it's French.
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Big Deal (Score:2)
Here's a tutorial on how to create radio buttons on IOS. You can create as many as you want - and you don't need to jail break anything - http://www.mobisoftinfotech.com/blog/iphone/iphone-uibutton-tutorial-radio-buttons/ [mobisoftinfotech.com]
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Well I was confused, as a non iphone user. I was thinking "how the hell can someone overlook a button, it's right there on the device that any fool can see". Had to read some confusing sites full of apple-speak before I realized that "button" meant "graphical icon". And the whole story is nothing more than "hey, some old cruft was left around in flash instead of being removed, news at 11!"
So...more like iHeartRadio? (Score:1)
'The buttons hint at Apple's much-rumored radio service, a product that will let people stream music much like they do on the popular Pandora service, but with deep ties to Apple's iTunes library.'
So, it's not really like Pandora at all, and more like Google Play Music, which lets you keep your music in Google's cloud and stream it to your mobile device?
Or are we talking something similar to an actual radio's function on your phone, letting you select your station and everything, like iHeartRadio does?