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]
If you need to add an accent mark to your text message, email, or note - he’s a slick feature. Just type the relevant letter and hold that key down – a selection of accented letters will pop up. Chose the accent you want. And voilá, you’re good to go.
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
Apple may license haptic technology, called VibeTonz, from Immersion Corporation, according to an anonymous tipster - reported to be an Apple employee - who spoke with Palluxo. This would allow Apple to include vibration-based feedback in future versions of the iPhone.
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.
Even the most mobile 21st century professional can't take everything on the road every time. Whether you work at a coffee shop to escape your home office or you travel the world and return to your company's headquarters a few times a month, you no doubt have some devices that sit on your desk. USB devices such as hard drives, keyboards, mice, cameras and music players can quickly fill the ports on many laptops and desktops. When you're ready to upload your day's notes and appointments from your PDA, smartphone or iPhone wouldn't it be nice to have a free port?
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.
Back in December, Forrester Research listed the top 10 reasons why IT departments shouldn't support the iPhone. Did Apple sufficiently address these concerns at its special event early last month?
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 O2 has sliced 100 pounds off the price of the iPhone. According to the UK's Times Online, the price cut will stay in place until June 1. The move comes after a similar deal from T-Mobile in Germany.
There's an interesting difference of opinion about the reason behind the price cuts, with one camp saying there's limited stock and the carriers want to sell as many as possible before the 3G version comes out while the opposing camp says the lower prices merely show a drop in demand for the iPhone.
So, where besides India is in line for the iPhone? According to iPhone Matters, "a leaked copy" of the latest iPhone 2.0 firmware shows support for a number of input languages including Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Polish, Korean and Brazilian Portuguese.
Courtesey of MobileContentToday.
The iPhone (and iPod touch) is supposed to deliver the real Web to users' hands, but that hasn't stopped the likes of Yahoo, Google and Ask.com from creating optimized mobile versions of their sites and services to run in the iPhone's Safari Web browser. The latest portal to join these ranks is AOL.
Currently in beta, the Google-run AOL Mobile Search for iPhone portal, accessible at search.aol.com" from Safari mobile, makes use of Apple's multi-touch interface using AJAX technology. It pulls results from across the Web through traditional searches and from AOL properties like Moviefone, MapQuest, and CityGuide.
AOL's posted a video of AOL Mobile Search for iPhone in action on its blog. Check it out.
The specter of the iPhone hung over the 2007 spring CTIA Wireless show, casting a dark shadow of uncertainty over the whole event. Fast forward a year to this year's conference. How things do and, to some extent, do not remain the same.
As expected, the iPhone's been a huge hit, turning Apple not just into a huge smartphone player, but a significant force in the mobile phone industry period, all from scratch. And while, like last year, Apple did not have a booth, the iPhone's impact on the wireless world reverberated throughout the show floor.
Unlike 2007, where trepidation over the iPhone's impact seemed to rule the day, 2008 saw a significant shift in attitude regarding the iPhone. This year, we gathered from our time at the show that the iPhone is now seen by a significant portion of the cell phone industry as representing not just a threat but an opportunity.
Click here for the full story at SmartPhoneToday.
FlyTunes, a service that delivers Internet radio content to cell phones and media players, including the iPhone and iPod touch, is partnering with AccuRadio to bring that company's 320+ channels of audio content to the iPhone and iPod touch through a new mobile radio portal. According to the companies, this portal sports a "mobile-friendly user interface, targeted ad delivery and enhanced QoS (Quality of Service) streaming."
AccuRadio's channels cover a range of musical interests, including rock, pop, jazz, country, classical music, and Broadway. The new mobile radio service is available now to iPhone and iPod touch users here.
"Today's announcement...proves that mobile Internet radio is now ready for prime time," said FlyTunes CEO Sam Abadir in a statement. 5
50 million Americans per month listen to Internet radio already, noted AccuRadio CEO and publisher of the "RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter Kurt Hanson, who added, "that "number is about to grow significantly, as Internet radio makes the leap onto mobile devices and into automobiles,"
Overall, FlyTunes mobile Internet radio network delivers over 450 channels of broadcast audio and video content to cell phones, smartphones and portable media players.
[via MobileContentToday]
Support for 3G cellular-wireless and - possibly - more advanced multimedia discovered by the folks who brought you the ZiPhone unlocking utility.
According to the developers who created the ZiPhone unlocking utility, the latest iPhone SDK beta reveals Infineon Technologies' S-Gold 3 chip set has headed to the iPhone. This chip supports WCDMA co-processors for bringing 3G cellular-wireless technology to the iPhone—a feature long-expected in the next-gen iPhone model. The S-Gold 3 also supports up to 5-megapixel cameras (the iPhone today tops out at 2 megapixels) and other advanced multimedia functions. "Even the most performance-greedy applications such as video telephony and 3D graphics can easily be handled without additional hardware," according an Infineon data sheet about the S-Gold 3 chip set, cited in article by ComputerWorld. Technology Business Research analyst Ezra Gottheil believes Apple's gearing up to push its upcoming 3G iPhone , possibly arriving this summer, hard. A much rumored 10 million 3G-iPhone order makes perfect sense to him.
[via ComputerWorld]
As is often pointed out, the iPhone sure does a lot, but not nearly all it is capable of. Case in point: Wouldn't it be nice if you could save an image your viewing in Safari directly to the iPhone? Well, when Apple finally gets around to releasing the massive iPhone 2.0 (sometimes referred to 1.2.0) firmware upgrade in June, there's a good chance you will.
That feature's apparently been added to the most recent beta-edition of that firmware upgrade, available in the latest version (the third beta release) of the iPhone software development kit (SDK), which is being used by developers to create official native applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. The App Store to deliver that software is coming in June.
All you'll need to do to download an image is touch a picture in Safari for a little bit with your finger. This pulls up a dialog box with options to Save Photo, Go To URL or Cancel.
Not a spectacular addition to the iPhone, and one that should have been there in the first place, but welcome nonetheless.
[via Gizmodo]
The Nike+ Sport Kit monitor is one of the coolest things you can buy for your iPod if you're a runner or, simply, into fitness. Thanks to the release of the iPhone SDK that kit may soon become available for the iPhone and iPod touch.
Consisting of an accelerometer-based pedometer/sensor, which you attach to your sneaker, and wireless receiver that plugs into your iPod, the kit monitors distance, time, pace, and calories burned. Better yet, it displays that information on your iPod's screen and delivers real-time audible feedback through your headphones to keep you informed and help get you motivated.
Whereas current Nike+ users must dock their iPods to upload workout data to their computer, the iPhone/iPod touch version of the kit may take advantage of Wi-Fi—and, you'd think, 3G in the next-gen iPhone—to seamlessly update training logs wirelessly, on the fly.
This would certainly make the system more convienient for those of us who are forgetful but still want to use Nike+ to track their fitness over time.
Perhaps the update to Nike+ will even take advantage of Nike's new Nike+ Coach training system. Already available for the Nike+ SportBand (basically the Nike+ system without the iPod), Nike+ Coach is a motivational system, including Web site) that provides beginning and intermediate runners with access to existing programs to train for a 5k, 10k, half-marathon or full marathon.
No matter what personal coaching program users choose, runners can choose to automatically track and share their results.
[via Stuff.tv]
Author: Kenneth Corbin
A new report from research firm In-Stat predicts that online music sales will account for 40 percent of all music sold by 2012.
For perspective, digital music was 6 percent of the world wide market in 2006, and just 10 percent in last year. So per In-Stat's estimate, the proportional market will increase 30 percentage points in five years.
A dramatic illustration of this trend can be found in the industry's shifting leader board. NPD Group recently reported that Apple has eclipsed Wal-Mart as the nation's leading music retailer.
In explaining the dramatic growth In-Stat is projecting, the analysts cited the sustained demand for downloads of individual songs, increasing broadband uptake, and the expanding inventory available in online catalogs.
Of course, the record labels are still struggling with ways to regain control of the digital music business from Apple, so you see them striking deals with MySpace and Amazon to offer their content free of digital rights management (DRM) software, a concession most of them have not yet made with Apple. In-Stat cited lingering DRM restrictions as a drag on the rise of digital music, but the overwhelming popularity of iTunes suggests that it might not be so big of a consumer issue after all. At the very least, it seems unlikely to serve as the differentiator that the labels hope it will be as they cast around for an iTunes killer.
In-Stat identified the single biggest anchor on the digital music industry as piracy, also noting that the subscription-based services are still relatively unpopular.
Post courtesy of internetnews.com The Blog
Author: Philip L. Graitcer
One of Apple's recent software revisions (1.1.3 from January 2008) allows you to add a clip in the form of an icon of your favorite Web site to your iPhone’s Home Screen. Simply tap the thumbnail to launch Safari and be lead to the page you’ve saved.
Here's how save a Web Clip:
(To remove the icon, touch any thumbnail or icon on the Home Screen until all of the thumbnails begin to "wiggle." Then tap the red "X" at the top left corner of the thumbnail and hit the Home button.)
GyPSii, a mobile geo-location and social networking service, has been optimized for the iPhone. It had already been available for the BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Mobile and Windows Mobile platforms.
The new web-based iPhone application, accessible here www.gypsii.com/m through the Apple smartphone's Safari browser, integrates its multiple services into a single interface. It is there that iPhone users can create and share experiences, including photos, videos, audio and other content in real-time with friends, family and other network members.
Members can also search and locate people and places, as well access directions, maps and information on Points-of-Interest.
GyPSii, the company, plans to produce a “native” version of its application using Apple’s Software Developer Kit (SDK), which is scheduled to be introduced, if not launched, later today.
Orange France is the sole provider if the iPhone to the French people. It has, according to the carrier, moved over 96,000 of these smartphones since launching the iPhone last November, reports Pocket-lint.co.uk.
14 percent of this total were unlocked, meaning they weren't setup for use on Orange's network and with one of the carrier's iPhone data and voice plans. Due to French law, Orange had to give consumers the option of buying the iPhone unlocked—almost anywhere else the iPhone must be hacked to become unlocked.
Freedom has a price, however; an unlocked iPhone costs considerably more than the one that's tied to Orange's network.
Orange sold about 70,000 iPhones during its first month of availability. Meaning it has sold less than 30,000 since. If Orange is going to meet its goal of selling 400,000 to 500,000 iPhones this year, sales have got to pick up considerably.
Perhaps the release of a 3G iPhone is just what Orange needs to pick things up. After all, slow EDGE cellular-wireless technology may be good enough for many iPhone users in the U.S., where Wi-Fi hotspots are common, but it is ancient technology in Europe, where 3G wireless is far more established and Wi-Fi outside the home is not nearly as ubiquitous has in this country.
Or, Orange may want to take a tact similar to that purveyor of the iPhone in Germany, T-Mobile: drop the price of the drastically. You can now get the 8GB iPhone for only €99 - equivalent to about $155 - with a contract from T-Mobile.
That's way down from the previous asking price of €399 and, it has been speculated, a possible indication of a 3G iPhone on the near horizon. The 16GB iPhone still goes for €499, however.
Last month, O2 asserted the iPhone was the "company's fastest selling device it has ever had in the UK." No details were given, though.
An analysis of Apple and AT&T's sales numbers last year revealed that the companies could not account for more than 1 in 4 iPhones. That's a little more than a million of the 4 million iPhones Apple shipped in 2007.
Apple has often stated it would like to ship 10 million iPhones in 2008.
Author: Susan Schrank
FriendFeed, a service meant to help its users keep up on what Web pages, photos, videos and music that their friends and family are sharing, is coming out with a version for the iPhone. That's according to Mashable blogger Stan Schroeder, who describes the service as "the new Twitter." Schroeder anticipates that the FriendFeed for iPhone will also be a lot prettier than the current version, which is "a bit too ugly in appearance" for him. Once the new version is finished, users will be able to see their personal feed as well as the public feed and their friends' feeds and - possibly - the ability to post content directly from the iPhone to FriendFeed.
Courtesy of MobileContentToday
The iPhone’s all-metal casing isn't always a good match for its much vaunted all-glass display. We recently found this out the hard way.
Since we obtained an iPhone last summer, we've sometimes found it difficult to maintain a good grip on it. In fact, our iPhone recently slipped out of our hands (not for the first time, of course) recently, only to unfortunately land on concrete. Although it was the iPhone’s back that hit the ground—a safe area for the screen, it would seem—its display became heavily cracked anyway.
Turns out, not surprisingly, Apple's warranty doesn't cover accidental damage, even to the display, which, as all of you know, is made of glass. Granted, the iPhone's screen is tough, but it is glass, nonetheless.
So you'd think Apple could be a little more accommodating to those who've had their iPhone's screens become damaged due to an accident. The genius we met with at the Apple Store's Genius bar gave us two not very attractive options: turn in our broken iPhone and pay $250 to receive a refurbished unit as a replacement or buy a brand new iPhone outright. Why not have an option to pay a lower fee to just fix the screen?
At CTIA last week, another smartphone vendor we spoke to (one of Apple competitors, mind you) speculated our screen may have became damaged because of the iPhone's non-removable battery. They asserted a drop like the one that broke our iPhone to one of their phones would have caused the battery to pop out, dissipating much of the force from the impact away from the screen.
Since the iPhone's battery had nowhere to go, the full brunt of the impact may have been transmitted from the back of the iPhone all the way up to its display, resulting in the large amount of damage it received. 
One positive thing that came out of this ordeal: We were on vacation when the iPhone became damaged and had fly out to CTIA the day after getting back. For two weeks now, the iPhone with the broken screen has continued to work flawlessly.
How many iPhones have broken because they accidentally slipped out of their owners' hands? I don't know what the figures are, but it certainly would be interesting to find out.
Author: Joe Pawlikowsk
Last year, right around the iPhone's release, people were wondering aloud whether the iPhone would kill the BlackBerry. This notion I never understood.
As originally constituted, the iPhone was a pure consumer phone. One of my good friends, who works for Accenture, said that his division wouldn't even consider the iPhone because of its poor security standards. "You can't even wipe it remotely," he complained...before adding many other security concerns, most of which I didn't understand.
So the delineation was made. BlackBerry for business and iPhone for consumer.
However, in recent months we've seen both companies infringe on the other's territory. With BlackBerry, it has been the releases of the Pearl and Curve. Both devices existed prior to the iPhone, but only for GSM networks—AT&T and T-Mobile in the U.S.
But Research In Motion (RIM) upped the ante by releasing the Pearl on CDMA networks, which cover Verizon, Sprint, Alltel, and U.S. Cellular, among others. They're also ready to release the Curve on CDMA networks, further spreading their most consumer-focused devices.
We've also seen the iPhone seep into the business market. Earlier this year, Apple announced Exchange support for the iPhone. This has lead to many people talking about the iPhone and BlackBerry like it's a two-horse race. This is a fundamental error, in my opinion.
See the full story after the break.
Soccer (football anywhere outside the U.S., of course) superstar David Beckham, the much heralded midfielder for the L.A. Galaxy, recently returned to his native England to play with the national squad once again.
To celebrate Beckham's return, in a friendly match against France in Paris, and mark his 100th appearance with team England—enabling him to join the exclusive 100-cap club—his teammates scraped up some cash to present him with a specially engraved, 24-carat gold-plated iPod touch.
Not just any iPod touch, mind you, but the 32GB edition of Apple's iPhone without, well, the phone part of the equation. How much did the fancy gift set team back? Supposedly, the special iPod touch cost £600, which is equivalent to around $1,188.
Not bad considering that's a little less than twice what a standard 32GB iPod touch sells for in England. It normally goes for £329, about $651.
Just because most Chinese know about the iPhone, it doesn't mean they'll necessarily buy one should it finally become available in that country officially.
68 percent of those sampled in recent study of China report having heard of the iPhone, according to PearlResearch.
That's an impressive number considering Apple's yet to bring its smartphone to the world's most populous country, with a mobile phone market composed of 565-million users. And it can only help Apple when it finally does strike a deal with a carrier to take the iPhone to China.
Of those respondents interested in purchasing an iPhone, more females cited "trendiness" and "design" and males "utility" as the chief reason for wanting to do so. Another positive for Apple is the foothold it’s gained in China through the large number of iPod owners, 88 percent of whom would consider buying an iPhone.
Apple's challenge, according to PearlResearch, is getting beyond this core group of consumers, which may be tough. The iPhone's high-price tag of $500 and Apple's newness to the mobile phone market are the two most cited reasons for a lack of interest the iPhone on the part of the Chinese public.
And, in a market where most tend not to use their mobile handsets for surfing the Web because of the high cost of doing so, the iPhone's Internet capabilities - an important selling point elsewhere - isn't that important to Chinese consumers.
Most of those iPhones were likely unlocked to work on carrier networks, either one at a time by individuals for personal use or in large quanteties for shippment overseas—mostly to markets (all of Asia, for instance) where the iPhone isn't available yet.
An analysis of Apple and AT&T's sales numbers for last year revealed that the companies coul not account for more than 1 in 4 iPhones. That's a million units out of the 4 million Apple shipped in 2007.
In February, The New York Times reported on how thousands of iPhones, built and shipped out of China in the first place, have been smuggled back into the country and onto the grey marktet by the thousands—for the most part by Chinese flight attendants and members of tourist groups who get about $30 per iPhone successfully delivered.
Early in 2008, talks between Apple and China Mobile, the larest mobile operator in the world, to carry the iPhone reportedly broke down due to Apple's request for a piece the service revenue pie.
Until the iPhone becomes officially available in areas like China, expect it to continue to find a home in those markets unofficially.
The Wall Street Journal's tech guru Walt Mossberg, speaking at the Beet.TV conference in Washington, D.C. recently, indicated Apple may release a 3G-enabled iPhone sooner than expected, in what now amounts to less than two months.
During a talk where he lamented the state of American broadband networks, both wireless and wired, Mossberg predicted the iPhone "will be 3G in 60 days." The statement can be found late in a 7 minute video - at about the 6:50 mark - Mossberg posted to his blog a few days ago.
If Mossberg’s accurate, then it’ll still be springtime when the new iPhone ships. Most others envisaged a 3G iPhone release sometime this summer.
It is also shortly before Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference takes place, which starts on June 9th, and around the time when Apple plans to roll out iPhone 2.0—a firmware upgrade to bring native applications, more comprehensive enterprise support, and more to the smartphone. In other words, Mossberg’s possible timing for an announcement, let alone a release, of the next-generation iPhone couldn't be better.
So does Mossberg know something everyone else doesn't? It's possible.
After all, he is often one of the first people to get a look at new Apple products. This included early access to the original iPhone model weeks before it shipped late last June.
Perhaps Mossberg's got a 3G iPhone on hand already? You never know.
At this point, you may be asking yourself: What's the big deal about a 3G iPhone? Well, cellular-wireless 3G technology delivers data transfer speeds far greater than the EDGE network the iPhone currently supports.
That means 3G would give the iPhone a huge, very noticeable, boost in performance for sending and receiving e-mail and text messages, using the miniature version of Safari to access the Web, and downloading third-party applications directly onto the iPhone (a capability coming with iPhone 2.0), for example, when a Wi-Fi isn't present.
Also, today Apple's iPhone iTunes Store only supports buying and downloading music over a Wi-Fi connection, likely due to the limited bandwidth of EDGE. I wouldn't be surprised if this changes when 3G iPhones become available.
Griffin Technology is now offering a protective polycarbote hard shell case with built-in antenna for the iPhone that it claims will not only protect but boost reception as well. Called ClearBoost, the case works by capturing more of the available wireless signals and passing it to the internal iPhone antenna, the company said; thereby giving iPhone users a more dependable signal and fewer service fluctuations. "We built an antenna into ClearBoost's enclosure that's specifically designed to improve signal strength for calls, e-mail, and web browsing wherever iPhone users go," according to Griffin Technology president Paul Griffin. Clearboost sells for $34.99 and is on sale now for $29.99 here.
Ringbacks—snippets of tracks others hear when calling you—even more than ringtones to play significant roll in growing mobile entertainment into a $40-billion industry over the next few years, report says. While the iPhone supports ringtone downloads through iTunes today, ringbacks are another matter. It's only a matter of time before the country's leading music retailer, having just taken the number one position from Wall Mart, sells ringtones as well. Why wouldn't it want to play in such a potentially lucrative market? AT&T surely must want to.
In all likelihood you know what a ringtone is and that you purchase and install new ones on your cell phone or smartphone, if not regularly, then occasionally. Do you know what a ringback tone is, though, let alone that you can buy and load new ones to further personalize your mobile phone? Although you're far from alone if you don't, ringbacks are growing in popularity and are become increasingly important to the music industry.
For instance, at CTIA last week, the RCA Music Group announced Alica Key's hit single "No One" recently became the first ever Gold-selling ringback. This means sales of snippets of the song to be used as a ringback exceeded 500,000 copies; the same number you'd have to move to achieve Gold status in the album, single and - yes - ringtone charts.
So what exactly are ringbacks? Here's the short course:
While a ringtone is the sound you hear when someone calls you, a ringback is the sound - usually ringing - you hear when calling someone else. While ringtones, often in the form of a song clip, are among the most popular content purchases for cell phones and smartphones, you can also alter the ringbacks people hear when calling you.
That way when folks call, they'll be treated to something different than the usual ring ring ring ring before you answer or your voice mail picks up. So, for example, if your sweetheart calls, you can set the ringback to allow her to hear your and her favorite song together.
For the music industry, ringtones and ringbacks fall into a larger category called mastertones, combining sales of both types of downloads. Key’s "No One" has reached Double Platinum in the mastertone category by surpassing 2 million in sales.
In a report last month, reported on by BetaNews, IDC predicted ringback sales would overtake ringtones by 2010 to become the largest source of mobile entertainment revenue.
IDC projects wireless service revenues to hit an amazing $800 billion by 2011. $40 billion, or 5.1 percent of that, will involve mobile entertainment.
As the article points out, you can choose a different song or clip for every caller and change them often. And, like with ringtones, it's not just about songs, but comedy and celebrity voice content as well, for example.
It comes as a pleasant surprise that the iPodObserver's posted what it asserts is an image of the next-generation iPhone model. Not the front of that device, mind you, but of the back. Better than nothing, right?
If the new picture is the real thing, while it doesn't seem to reveal much, it does appear to show an iPhone that uses a different material for its casing—plastic instead today's metal. That could be an advantage to iPhone users for a couple of reasons.
First, as Brighthand points out, pastic may be a better material to support the upcoming iPhone's added wireless features (3G and GPS) than metal.
Also, if the plastic is finished the right way, it could make the iPhone far less slippery than it is today. (See previous post below for a brief summary of our recent experience having the iPhone slippage.) 
The picture also reveals an iPhone that's offers 8GB of storage. Let's that's the minimum amount and Apple is also planning on introducing a 16GB (today's high) and - maybe even - a 32GB 3G/GPS-enabled edition as well.
Back in February, Apple rolled out a new version of the iPhone. Unfortunately, all it offered over the current model was more memory, 16GB instead of 8GB—alas, no 3G.
The new edition of the iPhone with that cellular-wireless data networking capability and - some say - GPS, among other new features, is still a ways off. Rumors place its release as coming as early as June—when Apple releases the iPhone 2.0 software upgrade—and as late as the fall.
Samsung's new Instinct, a Sprint exclusive, was one of the most talked about mobile phones at this week's CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas. Why? Because Instinct is the latest touch screen phone to have Apple's iPhone in its sights.Sprint and Samsung get a lot of things right with the new touch-interface cell phone. It is something of a different animal, targeted at a different type of user, than the iPhone, however.
Author: Andy Patrizio
There have been anecdotal stories about iPhone users making heavy use of the non-phone elements of the device, but now comes the first research to quantify it. iSuppli has just released a report that shows that talking doesn't constitute the majority of iPhone users time.
iSuppli's ConsumerTrak survey of U.S. residents showed that owners of the iPhone spent just 46.5 percent of their time making voice phone calls with an iPhone. Those figures are quite a change from traditional mobile users who iSuppli said use their phone for voice calls 71.7 percent of the time. (The survey didn't break out smart phones versus less-featured mobile phones).
Greg Sheppard, chief development officer for iSuppli and author of the study, wasn't surprised at the figures. "It's more the fact that (iPhone respresents) a converging of all this technology on one device," he told InternetNews.com. "That's always been the holy grail [for consumer electronics], convergence devices, and Apple is coming closer than anyone."
The iPhone is being used for other tasks that mobile phones can handle, but traditionally have not done very well. For example, iPhone users spent 12.1 percent time accessing the Internet compared with just 2.4 percent for all U.S. mobile phone users.
What's next for the iPhone?
Sheppard expects Apple to continue to roll out its iPhone worldwide and bring in more services, but it won't ever be a free phone with service like the cheap models are. "People are going beyond just getting the free phones and thinking more about feature phones and what they can do with it," he said.
Creative Strategies President Tim Bajarin said the iPhone is the next wave of mobile computing. "In many ways, you have to think about the iPhone the way John Doerr put it at the SDK launch, that in many ways this is the next PC platform," he said. "There's no question its primary purpose is still that it's a phone. What people realize quickly is that it's more than a phone, that it delivers so many other features."
Bajarin believes the next generation of apps will drive the iPhone into businesses, but Sheppard thinks it will largely be a consumer and SMB-level phone that only a few "renegades" use and try to convince IT or management to adopt.
Courtesy of internetnews.com
Last month Apple released the iPhone SDK (software development kit) to much fanfare and relief. Up until then, the iPhone was a black box, a powerful handheld computer and smartphone that had its internal workings figuratively welded shut.
The SDK, a group of computer routines that tap into the inner workings of the iPhone, will allow skilled programmers to legitimately get inside the iPhone and write specific applications for it. I say legitimately because many have already been creating unofficial native programs (e.g. not approved by Apple) through what’s called jailbreaks, a system that cropped up shortly after the iPhone’s release last June
Developer are very excited about the SDK, already about 100,000 have downloaded it, because they'll finally be able to develop programs for the iPhone without having to be concerned about Apple plugging up their access, as it does every now and then to the unofficial jailbreak system.
iPhone 2.0
Sometime in June, Apple will introduce a new software update for your iPhone that you'll download and install through iTunes during synching, just like you've done before with other firmware upgrades.
Apple will also launch the iPhone App Store, a Web-based application on the iPhone where you'll be able to purchase and download newly developed programs for the iPhone. The App Store will be the only source where you can purchase Apple-approved programs for the iPhone. 
Until the App Store comes online, web applications are the one way you can get new programs, at least officially, to use with your iPhone. These so-called Web 2.0 applications don't do anything to the internal software of your iPhone; they're Web sites that work interactively with your phone.
On your iPhone Safari Browser, just type in the URL of the application and it downloads. From there follow the instructions for each individual program
Where Do I Find Web Applications?
You'll find the most comprehensive list of Web 2.0 apps at www.apple.com/webapps. Right now there are more than 1,300 applications that you can play with.
There are games, productivity, social networking, sports, news, and almost a dozen other categories of applications. Check 'em out!
For starters, I suggest you try a typing tutor application located at iphone.typingtutor.com or you may want to head ver to iphone.toughturtle.com to give a few other Web apps (StockWatch, Pinpoint, uWhere? and iSlide) a go. 
Rubicon Consulting's just published a report called "The Apple iPhone: Successes and Challenges for the Mobile Industry," based on a survey of 460 iPhone users. According to the research firm, the majority of iPhone owners are young, are loyal to Apple, having previously used Apple product, and are happy with their purchase.
Interestingly, while e-mail is the number one data function for the iPhone, it is mostly for reading not writing messages. So a third of iPhone users carry a second phone, usually a BlackBerry, either for basic voice calling or for other functions like…composing e-mail.
AT&T's benefited greatly by iPhone. The iPhone has increased its users’ monthly mobile phone bills by an average of 24 percent, or $228 extra per year. Half of all users switched to AT&T from another carrier just to use the iPhone. And, Overall, Rubicon estimates the iPhone has probably increased AT&T’s gross service revenue by about $2 billion per year.
