April 2008 Archives
Author: Damon Brown
Apple has updated the iPhone's Maps system, the Apple Music Store and so on, but it hasn't made any noticeable changes to its smartphone's picture mode.
While this may change a little with the iPhone 2.0 firmware update due for release in June, the camera, the photo libraries and related elements have remained the same since the beginning. This may be for the best, at least for now, as the picture setup can be a little complicated to the uninitiated.
In this article, we explain everything you'll need to know to get the most out of your iPhone's camera and photo management system—from taking, e-mailing, and syncing pictures to setting a image as wallpaper, associating a photo with a contact and more.
Get the full lowdown on the iPhone photos after the jump.
Author: Susan Schrank
iPhone owners who are easily bored by hearing the same old ringtones, take heart. For only $1.98 a month or $19.98 a year you can, as The Unofficial Apple Weblog suggests, "fulfill your ringtone lust" with the help of RingtoneFeeder. The new subscription site lets users download song snippets and other audio files that can be used as iPhone ringtones. Subscribers will automatically receive a new ringtone every week.
Post Courtesy of MobileContentToday.
No doubt about it. The iPhone's been a major success for Apple, in spite of its steep price tag. If recent reports are correct, however, the upcoming next-generation 3G iPhone may cost AT&T customers less than half of the original.
Today, you must pay full price for an iPhone, as AT&T does not subsidize the purchase of the device, as it does with many of its other smartphones. That's $400 for the 8GB model and $500 for an iPhone with 16GB of storage.
The 3G iPhone, with much faster cellular-wireless data networking, is due to ship this summer for the same prices and storage capacities as today's models. However, according to Fortune, the carrier plans to subsidize the cost of buying the new and improved iPhone considerably
Sign on the dotted line for two years of service and you'll be able to get an 8GB 3G iPhone for only $200 and a 16GB edition for $300.
At those prices, the iPhone should do even better than it has already, as those who've held off from getting one because of the steep price tag may finally take the plunge and buy one.
Fortune also reports that the new iPhone should integrate GPS to better support location-based services than today's iPhone's cell-phone-tower triangulation method. And, in spite of the addition of 3G and GPS, the new iPhone models will be a little thinner than the original, dropping to only 9.2mm thick from 11.7mm.
Not bad.
Yesterday, rumor had it Rogers Wireless of Canada would soon pick up the iPhone. Earlier today, Rogers confirmed that speculation with a brief announcement. Unfortunately, the Canadian carrier just may not start offering the iPhone as soon as the (already) patient citizens of Canada would like.
"We're thrilled to announce that we have a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada later this year," Rogers president & CEO Ted Rogers said in a statement, according The Star. "We can't tell you any more about it right now, but stay tuned."
While folks in Canada must surely be happy by today's news, let's hope for their sakes "later this year" doesn't mean the fourth quarter. They've already waited long enough.
As the only major GSM operator in Canada, Rogers is the only real carrier candidate that to offer the iPhone in the country. The other major Canadian operators use the same CDMA standard as Sprint, Verizon Wireless and Alltel do in the U.S.
Rogers had been in talks with Apple to offer the iPhone for almost year, but couldn't come to an agreement to do so until now.
[via tuaw]
Author: Susan Schrank
AfterDawn reports on a Toronto Star story that Canadian cellco Rogers will be offering the iPhone north of the border before everyone takes off for summer vacation. Citing "industry contacts," the report says that Rogers is targeting a late May-early June touchscreen phone campaign and wants to include the iPhone. If the newspaper is correct on the timing, it couldn't work out much better for Rogers; Apple is widely believed to be planning to unveil the 3G iPhone at its Worldwide Developer Conference in June.
Post Courtesy of MobileContentToday
Reportedly, Apple and Immersion held talks regarding a possible deal a couple of times last week.
Matters should be helped along by the appointment of former Apple exec Clent Richardson as the new president and CEO of Immersion. Richardson spent five years at Apple, where he was VP of worldwide developer relations & worldwide solutions marketing as well as the senior manager of evangelism.
Immersion's VibeTonz technology extends tactile feedback way beyond the capabilities of your typical vibrating cell phone. With it, an application developer can independently control both vibration strength and frequency for what Immersion calls high-fidelity touch sensations.
So, with VibeTonz, mobile games can deliver orchestrated touch feedback to enhance the gameplay experience, for example.
It can also be used to provide tactile cues for touch-screen interfaces...
Apple has posted a series of tips to help you manage Wi-Fi connections with an iPhone or iPod Touch, which is essentially the same as the former, but without phone features and some other functions.
The first tip offers advice on what to do when you’re having trouble connecting with a wireless connection to a paid commercial hotspot, such as the ones available at Borders and Starbucks. It suggests renewing the hotspots DHCP lease. To do that:
1. Tap Settings > Wi-Fi Networks, then pick the network you are trying to connect to.
2. In the DHCP panel, select the Renew Lease button. 
Picture From Apple Web Site
If that doesn't work, see iPhone Basic Troubleshooting or iPod touch: Basic Troubleshooting.
It then leads into a couple of tips that involve the iPhone's cellular-data EDGE capability.
For example, Apple explains what to do if your Wi-Fi connection keeps reverting to EDGE. That's when your iPhone looks like it is connected to the Internet over Wi-Fi, but goes to EDGE when you try to access a Web page.
This can happen when the wireless router is using MAC Address Filtering and the iPhone's MAC address hasn't been entered into the filter list or when you've entered a WEP password wrong.
Here's what Apple suggests:
If MAC Address Filtering is enabled on the wireless router, make sure iPhone's Wi-Fi address (in Settings > General > About) is entered into the router's filter. See the documentation that came with your wireless router for additional information.
If you experience this and use a WEP Password, on the iPhone tap Settings > Wi-Fi. Then tap More Info ( > ) next to the Wi-Fi network name and tap Forget this Network. Then try accessing the Wi-Fi network again. Alternatively, turn off WEP encryption on the wireless router.
Additional tips include what to do if there's a weak iPhone Wi-Fi signal, you recieve the "unable to join Network Failure (error -3)," and when there's no Internet access when switching networks. Click on the Get the Full Story link below for these tips. +
Author: Philip L. Graitcer
Sometimes the iPhone just gets stuck - it won't respond to finger taps, responds slowly, or just doesn't work like it did a few days ago. There's may be nothing wrong with your phone, it just needs to be restarted.Here are a few things to try:
1. Restart phone - Try restarting the phone - press the Sleep/Wake button on the top of the phone until the red slider appears. Slide your finger across the slider to turn off iPhone. To turn iPhone on, press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the Apple logo appears. (I turn my phone off and restart it once a day.) 
2. Restart application - press the Home button for 6 seconds until the application closes. Start the application again.
3. Reset phone. Press the sleep/wake button and the home buttons at the same time, until the phone turns off. 
4. Remove Content - Sometimes content from calendars, contacts, songs, photos, videos and podcasts may cause your phone to freeze. Try removing the content, one type of item at a time. Attach your phone by the USB cable to your computer, and in iTunes change the synch settings to selectively remove content for one item. For instance, click on the podcast tab, and uncheck the "Synch" box. Then synch your phone.
5. Reset phone settings - From home screen - Settings > General > Reset All Settings. This will reset all settings but data and media will remain unchanged. If this does not solve your issue, try erasing al settings. Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Contents and Settings. This will delete data and media. All setting will be reset.
6. Restore - Attach the phone to iTunes and click Restore in the Summary tab. This weill delete and media. Before doing this make sure you synch your iPhone with iTunes so that these data and settings can be transferred back to your phone later.
Since the iPhone's only shipped in a few areas so far, it makes sense that Apple's only provided keyboard dictionaries for the languages used in those countries. These dictionaries prevent and correct mistakes that pop up when you're typing on the iPhone's virtual keyboard. If you'd prefer or, as is likelier the case, need to type in a language other than one Apple supports (for instance, you're using an unlocked iPhone in Finland), a keyboard hack available at iPhoneDict just might be for you. At the site, you'll find iPhone keyboard dictionaries in Danish, Dutch, Finnish or Portuguese, languages currently not supported by Apple. These dictionaries only work with those iPhones that have been jailbreaked to run unofficial native iPhone software, however. The site provides directions on how to download and install them.
During its earnings call yesterday, Apple announced Mac sales grew by 51 percent and iPod sales remained strong last quarter, leading to $7.5 billion in revenues on earnings of $1.16 per share for Apple.
Apple also shipped 1.7 million iPhones last quarter and asserts it is still on track to reach its goal of selling 10 million units in 2008. The company extended the iPhone's reach to Austria and Ireland during that time period as well.
Over 200,000 developers have downloaded the Software Developer Kit (SDK) for creating applications for the iPhone and iPod touch so far, according to Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer. It launched the SDK to much fanfare early in March, hitting the 100,000 milestone less than a week a later.
Those creating iPhone software include over 400 higher-education institutions and a third of the Fortune 500, Oppenheimer added.
Meanwhile, Apple just released latest version of the iPhone SDK, beta 4. The Apple developer site says the new edition of the SDK adds Xcode IDE, iPhone simulator with Open GL ES support, Interface Builder, Instruments, frameworks and samples, compilers, and the Shark analysis tool.
Author: Damon Brown
Gaming site Kotaku reports D3 Publishing is recruiting beta testers for the next Puzzle Quest game. (The application process just ended here in LA.) As Kotaku notes, D3 wasn't clear on what platform the uber-addictive puzzler would be tested on. What is clear is that we'll be iPhone gaming, natively and officially, this summer.
Electronic Arts has more than a dozen games planned, as does top-notch cell phone game publisher Gameloft, and Sega has already announced Super Monkey Ball, a marble game that is virtually *made* for touch sensitivity.
I don't recall D3 doing public beta testing before, so this may be its cautious move into unknown territory - perhaps iPhone territory.
Industry faces a lot of challenges, including the lack of a standard platform, going forward.
Author: David Needle
Apple's iPhone is rightly credited as a breakthrough mobile device, but experts in mobile technology at the Mobile Future conference (taking place in Santa Clara, Calif.) say the industry is only starting to innovate.
Clicke here for the full story at internetnews.com.
I love the alarm on the iPhone. It has a nice snooze feature, and you can set several different alarms - one for each day of the week - to help you wake up to that day's routine. I've gotten into the habit of plugging my iPhone into a charger right next to my bed. The next morning the phone wakes me, and it's fully charged.
Here's how to use the alarm:
First go to the alarm (Clock > tap Alarm).
Tap the "+" at the top right of the screen. Set the alarm up:
Click Save in the upper right corner
On the main alarm page, you can turn an alarm off or on.
On the main alarm page, you can also tap the Edit button to edit or delete and alarm.
NOTE: The alarms only work when the iPhone is turned on. If you turn off your iPhone at night, the alarms will not work.
Enter the USB hub.
For instance, Kensington offers two seven-port models that we recently checke out. The devices allow you to plug all those stationary devices into a hub that then only uses one USB port on your machine. Now you can keep another port always available for your mobile device. Plus, if you're using a laptop, the hub means you have just one cable to unplug to set your laptop free.
A Dome model (see top image) from Kensington, $49.95, comes with a tiny light that can plug into one port but what really distinguishes it from the cheaper, $39.95, version is the weighted base that holds it in place. On the other hand, the PocketHub comes with a carrying case that fits the hub, its AC connector and a USB cable.
Then again, who has room to carry seven USB devices?
The U.S. Patent the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) recently published a patent application, filed on the part of Apple last summer, to bring native instant messaging to the iPhone. A feature common to nearly all high-end feature phones and smartphones that's been lacking in the iPhone from the beginning. Whether it is a patentable feature is open to question.
Be that a sit may, the filing - entitled Portable Electronic Device for Instant Messaging, describes a system similar to the iPhone's SMS bubble-chat interface with dedicated text field for entering new messages, as Apple Insider points out, but with some important differences (see picture).
As you can see, the application makes no mention of SMS in the drawings; although it does so in the text of the filing. Rather, IM is written in the images instead. The system described in the patent application may be able to be used for sending and receiving MMS (Multimedia Message Service) messages, which are those that feature pictures or video. That's another feature, like IM, lacking in today's iPhone.
Current SMS app setup on left, Possible future IM app setup on right
Here's the patent filing's abstract:
A portable electronic device for instant messaging is disclosed. One aspect of the invention involves a graphical user interface (GUI) on a portable electronic device with a touch screen display. The GUI has a set of messages exchanged between a user of the device and another person. The set of messages are displayed in a chronological order. In response to detecting a scrolling gesture comprising a substantially vertical movement of a user contact with the touch screen display, the display of messages are scrolled in accordance with a direction of the scrolling gesture. The detecting of the scrolling gesture is substantially independent of a horizontal position of the user contact with the touch screen display.
Since Apple's iPhone SDK for developing third-party software doesn't allow for developers to create applications that run in the background, which is essential for a native Instant Messaging program to do its job, it is important that Apple bring this service to the iPhone itself. If this just posted patent application is accurate, then that may be exactly what Apple has planned.
Author: Susan Schrank
Telecom Italia mobile is rumored to be getting the 3G iPhone "in a matter of weeks," according to an Apple Insider post. The really intriguing part of the deal is the talk that Apple might let the Italian cellco sell the iPhone unlocked and without a contract. According to the article, which cites a report in Italian newspaper Repubblica, Telecom Italia will reportedly have a few months as the exclusive retailer of the 3G iPhone and be able to sell the new device without a contract or other restrictions, but at a higher price, of course.
Post Courtesy of MobileContentToday.
Yes and no. It depends who you ask.
At the event, Apple revealed its enterprise and security strategy for the iPhone. These include, among other things, adding support for Microsoft Exchange. This will enable the iPhone to support push mob-e-mail, calendaring, and contacts, as well as global address lists and remote wipe—the last one addresses security concerns by allowing IT to remotely erase all data on a misplaced or stolen iPhone, so corporate secrets don’t get into the wrong hands.
Additional security feature will come to the iPhone in the form of support for the Cisco IPsec VPN, two factor authentication and enterprise-class Wi-Fi through support of the WPA2/802.1x standard.
According to the Forrester’s Simon Yates, Apple "tackled the thorniest monsters" towards getting the iPhone in the enterprise with these additions, reports The Wall Street Journal's Business Technology blog.
A CIO The Journal spoke to is a bit more wary, however: “I see enterprise on the map, but how far down that road is Apple willing to go?” (See the placement of "Enterprise" on the picture signifying Apple's iPhone SDK roadmap above.)
Potential problems that may remain for some businesses include the lack of support for IBM’s Lotus Notes or GroupWise from Novell—two major groupware and e-mail systems not covered in yesterday's news. Out of the gate, iPhone update 2.0 will only bring support for Microsoft Exchange to the iPhone.
Also, the iPhone is offered by only carrier in the U.S., AT&T. Some companies won’t be so fond of the idea of switching from their current mobile operator to another one just to start using the iPhone. Or, they simply may not even like AT&T and the service it provides..
And while in-house developers will be able to develop custom applications for their companies, the programs will only be available through "a secure, private page on the App Store accessible only by their employees,” according to an Apple press release.
That's not as flexible as most mobile application development systems and, you would think, a number of companies wouldn't want their homemade enterprise applications uploaded to an offsite location, no matter how secure Apple asserts the iPhone App Store is.
Then there's the matter of the huge investment companies have made in other types of smartphones and mobile devices as well as mob-e-mail systems, particularly RIM's BlackBerry solutions—the enterprise leader in such matters and Apple's main target. Also, even if the iPhone/Exchange combo is to manage and more stable than other solutions, as Apple claims, how many companies would be willing to throw all they’ve invested (in equipment and man hours) away to start over from scratch?
And sure, the iPhone's virtual keyboard is as good as most of those come, but it's no match for most hardware-based QWERTYs, especially the one used in the BlackBerry. You can't type on the iPhone keyboard nearly as fast or with your eyes looking at something else like you can with a BlackBerry keyboard.
It's not for nothing the overuse injury some folks engender from overusing their smartphone's hard keyboard is often called BlackBerry-thumb. These keyboards are addictive because they are so easy to use. It is also what makes using them so productive. The limitations inherent to the iPhone's on-screen keyboard makes it far from addictive and, hence, as productive as a hardware-based QWERTY.
Perhaps, third-parties will jump in and fill the void with a hardware keyboard attachment for the iPhone? And, you never know, if enterprises want it enough, maybe a future iPhone will include one.
One last thing, while the iPhone’s Mail application is great to look at easy to use, it is missing some features, such as the ability to mass delete selected messages, common to other mob-e-mail applications. Maybe Apple will upgrade the Mail application when firmware 2.0, to be released to all iPhone users in June, brings the new enterprise capabilities outline yesterday to the iPhone. Let’s hope so.
[read]
PodWorks integrates with iTunes
The latest version of PodWorks, version 2.9.3, adds a number of new features and improvements, of which you can learn more about - not to mention PodWorks itself - in general here. There you'll also be able to download a free trial version of the software and buy it for $8. If you're a current PodWorks user, the 2.9.3 upgrade won't cost you a dime.
Author: Philip L. Graitcer
Remember that old yellow pages add? It went like this: By searching the phone book, moving your index finger up and down the columns, you could find everything you need - eliminating the need to go store to store. You use your fingers to get around the iPhone too. Here are a couple of tricks to help you become even better at it.
Sometimes Bigger Is Better
Unlike the Yellow Pages, you can make iPhone type size larger. Almost every iPhone user knows that by moving your two fingers apart you can enlarge the text, but here's an even faster way. When browsing in Safari, two taps with a finger instantly enlarges the web page to fill the screen. This works when your iPhone is either vertical or horizontal. And it works in reverse too: a double tap will shrink the page on your screen.
Getting to the top
Suppose you are reading a rather long article on your iPhone, and you want to get back to the top of the story to reread or refresh it, or to enter another URL. You could scroll up by dragging your finger up the screen. But you can get there more quickly by tapping your finger at the top of the screen - where the time is. You'll be at the top in an instant. You can refresh, or if you tap again, you'll get the Google search screen.
Touch Typing Tutor
Although the touch keypad is intuitive and easy to use, picking up typing speed requires practice. A typing tutor for the iPhone is available as a free web application. Just go typingweb.com. There's an option to login as an anonymous user or you can sign up and typing tutor will track your progress. There are beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels with plenty of opportunities to practice capitalizing letters and typing punctuation. 
Author: Susan Schrank
The music industry in the UK wants to make up some of the money it's losing from lower CD sales by taxing iPod sales, Pocket-lint reports.
The Music Business Group, which represents music managers, songwriters, publishers and performers, sees its proposed tax as a compensation for consumers being able to rip music from their own CDs to play on their iPods.
Apparently, even this fair use right is "not technically allowed under UK law," according to the article. So, even though music fans already spent their hard-earned cash on a CD, they're expected to shell out even more to get the music they already own on a portable device.
Wonder if they want to put an extra tax on the iPhone, too.
Courtesey of MobileContentToday.
Are you an iPhone user who longs fpr good old Palm-style Graffiti input? If so, then a new iPhone keyboard plug-in might be for you. Called HWPen, the native application—so jailbroken iPhones need apply—is the first software to bring handwriting recognition to the iPhone.
Created by Chinese developer iPhone Cake, HWPen adds a button to the iPhone keyboard that, when tapped, allows you to use your finger to write letters and words on the screen. For those of us with fat fingers, an alternative option is to get one of the specially-designed Pogo or TapRight styli that, unlike traditional styli, is compatible with the iPhone display.
Because HWPen becomes standard part of the keyboard, one it's been installed, you're free to use your fingers anytime text input is called for. HWPen, it appears, leverages the iPhone's auto-complete feature as well.
The software is still very much in beta. Some of the folks who've tried it have run into problems, such their iPhone's screens becoming frozen. And HWPen doesn't appear in Mail.app or work when the iPhone is turned into a landscape orientation, for instance.
You can load HWPen with the Installer.app jailbreak by adding http://iphonecake.com/src/new as a new source and restarting your iPhone. HWPen supports Latin, which includes English, and Chinese characters.
[via ModMyiPhone]
With the software, currently in pre-release, users can interact with other fring users, get VoIP phone service through Skype-based and IM-style live chat with others through MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, Twitter, Yahoo! & AIM. The service works no matter if their buddies are on a mobile phone or PC at the other end of the connection.
During login, fring automatically creates a single, integrated contact list, combining contacts from all of the users’ selected internet communities. Because fring is always on, it offers real-time, PC-style “presence” indicators that continually display whether contacts are online, away, offline, in a call, on their phones or in front of their PCs, according to the company. 
The company developed the iPhone fring application with the Holon Institute of Technology academic research labs in Israel. It is available here.
Fring users can be found in over 180 countries, with the service experiencing an average growth rate of about 100,000 new users a month. It is free and there are no subscription costs.
In addition to the iPhone, fring is available for Symbian (Nokia S60 and Sony Ericsson UIQ) and windows Mobile smartphones. (See video of fring in action after break.)
Author: Susan Schrank
iPhone Matters reports that India is near the head of the line of countries to get the iPhone. If Apple is able to work out a carrier deal with Vodafone, mobile consumers in India might see the 8GB iPhone as early as September.
That might turn out to be sooner than folks in China are able to (legally) get their hands on the coveted handset. Despite initial talks going as far back as last year, China Mobile is saying that it is not yet in formal discussions with Apple about offering the iPhone in China. According to ChannelWeb, issues surrounding business models (Apple's idea of revenue sharing) and commercialization are to blame for the delay.
Anticipating the yet-to-be-announced 3G iPhone that seemingly everyone expects to surface this summer, British carrier