Apple has restored the ability to test the quality of your phone’s signal reception when it released iOS 4.1. The feature was omitted from Apple devices after the whole “Antennagate” scandal regarding poor signal reception when holding the iPhone 4 a certain way.

The iPhone 4 consists of two antennas, both are stainless steel bands that run around the base of the phone. One is for cellular voice and data, and the other band is for Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth service.

When those two bands were connected via user’s conductive finger tips, signal strength dropped significantly. After this malfunction was noticed by the masses, Apple nixed Field Test mode from the operating system. But Apple finally reinstated the ability.

Users can access Field Test mode on any iPhone running 4.1 by calling *3001#12345#*. Once called, the Field Test window will open and the iPhone’s signal bars will be replaced with a precise decibel readout. To exit the window, just press the Home button.

The lower the number the better; a typical measurement should look like “-92″. When iWinUX asked our readers what kind of readout our users were receiving, we got answers ranging from -95 to -9000.

What does your’s read? [Thanks WilliamTM]

Apple has released the latest firmware update for its iOS mobile operating system, version 4.1. The new firmware fixes the performance issues for the iPhone 3G as well as adding new features for the iPod Touch, iPhone 3GS, and the iPhone 4.

Besides fixing the 3G performance issues, the biggest reason to update is to check out Apple’s all new Game Center. The new gaming service allows users to send and receive friend requests, play online multiplayer with your friends and other Game Center users, and the ability to view Leaderboards and Achievements among some other cool features.

Game Center is currently only available for the iPod Touch, iPhone 3GS, and the iPhone 4.

Other performance upgrades and bug fixes include: Nike+iPhone performance issues, improvements for better BlueTooth compatibility, and performance boosts for the iPhone 4′s proximity sensor. Apple also updated its security for FaceTime, ImageIO, and WebKit.

Remember, if your device is jailbroken and you update to 4.1, your device will no longer be jailbroken.

According to statistics firm Quantcast, Android devices now account for 25 percent of North America’s mobile Internet traffic. Traffic for Google’s Android OS increased 2 percent, while the market share for Apple’s iOS 4 and other mobile operating systems decreased.

In a previous post on its blog, Quantcast noted that web traffic for the iPad is not included in the figures for Apple’s iOS, which could significantly raise Apple’s market share if included. Quantcast did not specify if the iPad’s figures were included with the firm’s latest statistics.

Within the past year, Apple has lost 11 percent of its web market share to other operating systems, while Google has gained 17 percent. Steve Jobs & Co. still hold the most market share with 56 percent of all mobile Internet traffic coming from iOS 4.

AppleInsider points out that if Google can “maintain another year of comparable growth, Android will be nearly neck-and-neck with iOS.” Research in Motion, the makers of the BlackBerry devices, are steadily losing ground as its market share slips to 9 percent.

Earlier today, Apple announced, via press release, that its social network Ping had reached 1 million users in the first 24 hours. This comes to a surprise for most technology enthusiasts, as most Apple products and services break the 1 million user threshold in 24 hours or less.

“One-third of the people who have downloaded iTunes 10 have joined Ping,” said Eddy Cue, the Vice President for Apple’s Internet Services division. “As many more people download iTunes 10 in the coming weeks, we expect the Ping community to continue growing.”

Probably the biggest reason that it is a surprise that it took two days for Ping to reach a million users is due to the fact that the service is provided through iTunes, an Apple product that currently has 160 million users worldwide.

Ping is a music-based social networking service that Apple announced and released Wednesday, alongside revamped iPods and its Apple TV set-top box. The service allows you to follow friends, bands, and other artists, and broadcasts those user’s streams in a feed much like Facebook or Twitter.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced iTunes 10 during his keynote at an event earlier this week, but perhaps the best kept secret about the event was that Apple was planning on introducing a new iTunes icon to the world.

That icon, which you can see above, throws away almost 10 years worth of product recognition, a move that is risky for any popular product or service. The move stems from the fact that music has entered the digital age, and compact disc sales are declining; therefore, the new logo, a blue orb with a music note floating on it, makes more sense than having an icon with a music note on-top of a CD.

Jobs has responded to an email that Joshua Kopac sent him regarding the new icon:

Steve,

Enjoyed the presentation today. But … this new iTunes logo really sucks. You’re taking 10+ years of instant product recognition and replacing it with an unknown. Let’s both cross our fingers on this…

Jobs responded short as usual:

We disagree.

Sent from my iPhone

The icon has been subject of a lot of media attention, with even a parody Twitter account dedicated to it. What do you think of the new icon?

Since the launch of Apple’s music-based social network yesterday, Cupertino has had some problems with Facebook and vice-versa. The New York Times is reporting that the two have become “frenemies“, since the two could not reach an agreement with Ping being based on services on top of Facebook.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs called the deal’s stipulations “onerous”, and that Apple’s original idea was to build Ping off of Facebook. But that deal, obviously, did not work out, and we now have Ping. However, Apple still left some connectivity to Facebook, so you could add your Facebook friends to Ping.

But once the service went live, Facebook pulled the plug on Ping’s API. Sources for NY Times said that that the Apple service, which is included inside iTunes 10, had the “potential to send so much traffic Facebook’s way and cause ‘site stability’ and ‘infrastructure’ problems”.

“We’re working with Apple to resolve this issue. We’ve worked together successfully in the past, and we look forward to doing so in the future,” Facebook said in a statement. The social network did not specifically say what the “issue” was.

Throughout the disagreements, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has created his own account on Apple’s social network. He is connected to another Facebook exec, Bret Taylor, and is the only “Mark Zuckerberg” account to be connected to another Facebook executive. So the likelihood of the account actually belonging to Zuck is high.

Apple, of course, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

During the event earlier today, CEO Steve Jobs also announced the release of iTunes 10 in his keynote address, the latest version of Apple’s music software. The segment wasn’t just about iTunes itself, the about one specific feature included in the latest version — Ping: a music-based social network.

Jobs described the social network as “Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes” but he pointed out that “it’s not Facebook, it’s not Twitter.”

The userbase is already quite large thanks to iTunes 160 million users (in 23 different countries). No doubt that Apple is planning on launching the service in other markets as well. Ping is also available on the iPhone and iPod Touch via the App Store.

The service features 17,00 concert listings in its database, with the ability to write comments about artists and songs. Other abilities include: the ability to follow “friends” and artists and custom song and album charts.

Apple also made a couple other changes and additions to iTunes, the biggest being the new logo. The Cupertino-based company dropped the CD for a blue orb with a music note in the center.

So far, reaction to the new logo has been mixed: every other person either loves it or hates it. Jobs said the reason behind nixing the CD was due to the fact that most users buy their music digitally, and not so much physical CDs anymore.

iTunes 10 will be available for download shortly.

At the Apple event this morning, CEO Steve Jobs unveiled a new redesigned Apple TV, a service that was first launched in 2006.

The new Apple TV set-top box is 1/4 the size of the original set-top box, and the device comes loaded with iOS 4.2, which is being released alongside Apple TV in November. Features include Wi-Fi support, HDMI capabilities, an Ethernet port, and optical audio.

The device is also seeing a dramatic price-change to $99 from the original $299. The reason for this is to appeal to a broader audience by having a price-tag that everyone can work with.

Users of the new Apple TV will also not have to worry about managing the hard drive, as the device is going to a rental model, and everything will be streamed in 720p HD.

Currently, BBC America, Disney, Fox, and ABC are the only partners on board with Apple, and you can rent television shows from the mentioned studios for only 99 cents per episode. Users can also stream right from their Netflix queue, as well as use MobileMe and Flickr.

Other companies are looking to bring broadband service to television screens as well, rival Google is set to launch Google TV with several partners later this year.

Images courtesy of Engadget

The Financial Times is reporting that Google is currently in negotiations with major Hollywood movie studios to launch a streaming pay-per-view service on YouTube by the end of the year. Google is pitching the idea of the on-demand service being intertwined with existing Google products.

Sources close to FT say that the service will more-than-likely launch in the United States first, with other countries “added over time”. The search company is looking to its search engine and YouTube to market the new service.

The movie rental service has been in beta testing since January, claimed one source, and has been in discussion for months. Competition from Netflix’s streaming service and Hulu have created a deeper interest and a greater urgency from movie studios and Google.

Apple is also set to unveil its new Apple TV and a $99 version of its set-top box at an event this week, which will connect TV sets to the Internet, and users being able to download apps — like on an iPad — and purchase/rent movies straight from the studio.

Google has been searching for YouTube’s next big thing since the search conglomerate acquired the video sharing website in 2006.

Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft in 1975 with Bill Gates, has filed suit against 12 major corporations over technology he claims to have patented.

The companies: Google, Facebook, eBay, Apple, Yahoo Inc., AOL Inc., Netflix, Office Depot Inc., OfficeMax Inc., Staples Inc. and YouTube, a subsidiary of Google.

All four patents are for technology innovated more than 10 years ago by a software company that Allen owned. Interval Research Corp was financed for about $100 million by Allen during the Dot Com bubble, and was shut down soon after.

The second patent,which allows a website to offer suggestions related to items that the user is viewing, is a feature on Amazon, but Amazon has not been listed. (Maybe for being Seattle-based?) Microsoft, the company that Allen co-founded with Bill Gates, is also missing from the list of companies being filed upon.

The other patents are for technology that enables ads and stock quotes (among other things) to flash on screen, and provides links of related news stories for readers who are viewing a topic.

No doubt that the reason Allen and his firm, Interval Licensing LLC, are suing is from the success of NTP Inc, who won the suits it had with Apple, BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion Ltd, and Microsoft in 2006.

One result was RIM settling out of court with NTP at the price of $612.5 million. So maybe Allen has a chance?