May 2008 Archives
Author: Susan Schrank
Sweden's TeliaSonera is the latest mobile operator to brag about its iPhone rights. The company inked a deal with Apple to sell the iPhone in its native Sweden as well as in Norway, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.According to iLounge, TeliaSonera was just as specific as the rest of the new iPhone sellers about price, model specifics and release date, providing no info other than it will start offering the iPhone "later this year."
Another day, another iPhone deal. This one comes from Hutchison's 3 mobile unit, which has landed the contract to bring the Apple delicacy to Hong Kong and Macau. Mainland China, Japan, Russia and South Korea are the only major markets that have yet to confirm an iPhone carrier, Pocket-lint reports.
Post courtesy of MobileContentToday.
Peripheral gives you direct - hands-free - access to your iPhone when you're tooling around on a bicycle or motorcycle.
Want or need to take and, perhaps more importantly, have direct access to your iPhone when riding or traveling on your bicycle or motorcycle? If so, this peripheral is for you. For $14.99 (normally $24.99), you can now pick up an iPhone cradle bundled with an adjustable bicycle/motorcycle handlebar pedestal here.
Official third-party iPhone apps are being announced left and right, especially now that Apple has released its SDK (software development kit) for easier iPhone development. Announcements are different than availabilities, however, and the most appealing software is still in development. Still, the most interesting ones are the unofficial iPhone apps Web sites are creating on their own.
Magazine and news outlets are giving us many different ways to get our info on the road.
Auhtor: Susan Schrank
Japanese video game publisher Hudson Soft has launched a Web site with a bunch of free, downloadable casual games for the iPhone and iPod touch. The 15 freebies range from casino (poker, blackjack) to memory tests and math puzzles, including several that feature characters from other Hudson games.
According to iLounge, although the site is based in Japan, iPhone/iPod touch owners anywhere in the world can download the games. The site, called Do the Hudson, defaults to Japanese, but there is a button to switch it to English.
Post courtesy of MobileContentToday.
Author: Damon Brown
Youngsters are chucking MP3s for vinyl and high-tech timepieces for calculator watches, so why not bring back the rotary dial? Last week Just Another Mobile Phone Blog posted a demo of iDial, which, as you may have guessed, puts a fully-functional rotary dial on your iPhone. The brief video shows someone making a call. Clad with the rotary clinks and the *slow* return to home base after a number dial, we can picture it being on Millennial hipsters phones in no time.
No word on when this demo will be publicly available. Drop a comment if you know.
Author: Damon Brown
Japan is known for its tech advances - I swear I saw iPhone-level phones over in Tokyo circa '03 - so it's not surprising that an Eastern third-party is delivering the killer peripheral Apple should have already done. Brightonnet is now offering an iPhone/iPod Touch pen. As the site exhibits, you tap the screen to touch, hold the pen to push/slide. It reportedly is made of resin, which won't adversely affect the screen of your $500 purchase. The bendable tip may be just for show, but it sure makes it seem harmless.
The Amazon purchase store was down at press time, so no word on price.
Yesterday, we reported on how personal data can remain on an iPhone even after a reset and restore. An officer in Oregon was able to retrieve private information from a refurbished unit. Today, we've got a possible workaround to help iPhone owners keep their data safe when it's time to move on to a new smartphone. Securosis has posted instructions to - in their words - "minimize the chances" of data recovery from an iPhone.
In short, the process leverages large-sized playlists that, when combined, take up all the storage on an iPhone to overwrite all the data (personal and otherwise) on the device. See Securosis for the full instructions on how to perform this hack.
It's worth a try if you're getting ready to auction off that old iPhone model in preparation for a new 3G edition, when they're finally introduced. The latest rumor has Apple launching the new iPhone and the iPhone 2.0 firmware upgrade with the AppStore and everything on June 9th, during its upcoming World Wide Developer Conference.
[via tuaw]
Here's a scary story. According to a story reported on iPhone Atlas, a refurbished iPhone may still contain personal user data. It refers to a refurb iPhone, purchased from Apple and fresh out of the box that contained old e-mails from the previous user.
Apparently the "Reset" command found on the iPhone (Settings->General->Reset) and then choosing any of the 5 reset options, doesn't really wipe off all the data. It is still there on the iPhone. The restore function in iTunes doesn't do the trick either.
This is not such a surprising finding, according to much of the discussion surrounding this report. Old computers, crashed hard disks, even old ordinary mobile phone retain their data. There are only a couple ways to get rid of the old data - use a program that resets all the data to 0's, or completely destroy the hard disk, memory or computer/iPhone.
That Apple would allow iPhones out the door that could compromise the personal data of the previous owner, ones who had to exchange their iPhone for another or simply return it, is disappointing. It could especially be a problem in the near future, as thousands of current iPhone users swap their phones for the anticipated new 3G model.
Let's hope that the next version of iPhone software, called version 2.0, will allow the user to completely erase data and reset the phone.
After all, isn't iPhone 2.0 supposed to make the iPhone more enterprise friendly? So as to allow Apple to compete more effectively against the likes of RIM BlackBerry n the corporate market? This won't be the case if enterprises are going to have to worry about data on obsolete iPhones making its way into unwanted hands because Apple doesn't offer an effective way to completely remove personal or corporate information.
Apple's enterprise and security strategy for the iPhone, includes, 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 is supposed to allay 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. Let's hope it does this at the level needed to make all this personal and enterprise information completely unreadable.
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.
Author: Susan Schrank
The New York Times is reporting that Apple wants to offer ringtones and other mobile music content for the iPhone and is talking to some of the major labels about the prospect.
Citing a label executive, the Times said Apple is looking to announce something in June. It would make sense for such an unveiling to coincide with Apple's developer conference in early June, which is when CEO Steve Jobs is expected to launch the highly anticipated 3G iPhone.
Apple, of course, isn't commenting on the speculation.
Post courtesy of MobileContentToday.
NPR's mobile service, m.npr.org (which you're often routed to if you access www.npr.org from your mobile) lets you listen via live stream on your smartphone or PDA or - even - dial a dedicated line to hear the story of your choice via a phone connection.
Check your data package to see whether radical cost difference might influence your choice. You'll want to have an unlimited plan if you do a lot of streaming.
In addition to the day's top news features, the mobile NPR site offers fun stuff like a Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me news quiz you can take and then send to a friend. Story of the Day and Song of the Day are also accessible from the mobile home page. Just another way to feed the habit-but don't let it sway you from contributing locally at pledge time.
Last week I took my iPhone to Mexico. Wary of running up running up a possible four-figure telephone bill from excessive use of voice and data roaming, before I left I read tips & tricks (date/line?) and did the following:
1. Called AT&T (1-800-331-0500) and asked to have international voice roaming activated.
Since my contract with AT&T had been in effect for less than 90 days, I had to complete what the service representative called a "security" questionnaire.
The first question asked was to list my personal residence addresses for the past 4 residences. Since I've lived at my present address for 32 years, I couldn't recall the exact street addresses of my graduate school and college apartments. I just named city and state - but it turned out that whatever database AT&T was using for security was inaccurate.
It had me listed as living in two states I had never lived in. So I failed this test. According to the AT&T representative I could prove my identity by copying and sending utility bills from my present address to AT&T. Instead of doing this, I decided to wait and call another service representative.
A few days later, I spoke with AT&T and asked again to have international roaming turned on, and it was immediately activated. Why? Because by then, my contract had been in effect for more than 90 days.
2. Decided not to subscribe to an "International Traveler" package.
For a monthly fee of $3.99-5.99, a subscriber can have calling rates overseas for both incoming and outgoing calls about $.40 lower a minute.
Without the package, your phone still has full phone functionality, it's just that calls are more expensive. Depending on how many calls you plan to make/receive, having an international traveler package could result in substantial cost savings.
I planned to be in Mexico only 4 days and did not anticipate making or receiving many calls.
3. Turned off data roaming on my iPhone.
(Settings->General->Network - Data Roaming "OFF"). This prevents your phone from roaming on a network other than AT&T.
If Roaming is ON, your phone will use the network(s) in the country you are visiting. (For practical purposes, Data Roaming can remain in an OFF position all the time when in the U.S. which will force the phone to use only the AT&T Edge Network.)
With the iPhone, data services are used for visual voicemail, web browsing, e-mail, maps, weather, stock reports, and YouTube, unless your phone is working on a Wi-Fi network.
Data roaming and data roaming international plans are available from AT&T, but they are extremely expensive and charged per kilobyte sent and received.
4. Told my family and friends not to call me but to use SMS text messaging if they had an urgent need to contact me.
SMS messages cost $.50 to send and receive, compared to $.99/minute for voice calls.
How Did It Work?
Turns out, my home town was struck by tornadoes while I was in Mexico, and I received several calls from friends concerned about my safety. I told them that I was in Mexico but I had heard from my family - via SMS - that no one was harmed and that my son's house had sustained damage.
At the conference I was attending, there was free Wi-Fi. I joined that network (Settings->WiFi "ON" ->Chose a network) and was able to read the Atlanta newspaper, receive email updates from my family, and even read Press Releases send by the Mayor's Office to reporters to keep up to date with the tornado news.
With careful usage, my monthly bill from AT&T was only $7.96 higher than usual (8 SMS messages sent/received, 4 short calls received). Phone functionality on the free Wi-Fi network was excellent. And, of course, the phone was always there for emergencies, if I needed to use it.
The other day I tried to purchase an album from iTunes through the Wi-Fi Music Store on an iPhone. Unfortunately, the transaction couldn't be completed because there wasn't enough storage space on the device. 8GB isn't what it used to be.
While it's easy enough to delete some photos (but only from the pictures you take on the iPhone itself) and e-mails (one at at time!), like with an iPod you can't delete audio files from an iPhone without connecting to a computer. This is frustrating for those who need to make space quickly, but mostly have music on their device.
But what if you've got some videos (an even bigger memory user than music) on your iPhone? Ah, well, that's a different story altogether. You can actually delete videos with no PC or Mac present.
Here's how to do it:
First, you can remove a video from your iPod after it finishes playing, for example. Simply hit yes when you're asked by a dialog box if you want to remove it.
You can also swipe a finger from left to right over a video title in the iPhone's video list. This will bring up a red Delete button - the same one you see when deleting an e-mail or a picture from the Camera Roll in photos. Tap it to continue deleting. Hit cancel if you've changed your mind.
Should you delete a video from your iPhone to save space, it'll still be in your iTunes library. So, if you want, you can sync it back to your phone again later on.
The latest threat in the plot to kill the iPhone's popularity comes from smartphone leader Research In Motion. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that RIM is planning to unveil a touch-screen BlackBerry model sometime in Q3.
Citing "people familiar with the matter," the Journal says the new iPhone killer will be called the Thunder (guess you have to go pretty strong after introducing the Bold), and will be exclusive to Verizon Wireless in the US and Vodafone in Europe.
RIM has yet to comment on the report.
Post courtesy of MobileContentToday.
Or not.
Apple is officially mum on the topic but tech rumor and gossip sites abound with speculation that Steve Jobs & Company will debut a new 3G (higher speed) version of the iPhone at the event.
What is known is the sold out WWDC, which runs from June 9 to 13, will include, for the first time, a separate track for the iPhone along with one for the Mac and IT-related topics.
Even without a new iPhone, there's plenty to cover. Apple released a beta of its first Software Development Kit (SDK) for the iPhone in March, and the finished version is slated for completion in the next few months if Apple meets its own timetable.
Apple's iPhone software distribution plan lets developers publish and sell (or offer for free) applications via an iTunes-like store, with Apple taking a piece of any sales for hosting and distribution.
Apple also introduced a raft of new tools that let the iPhone communicate better with corporate systems such as Microsoft's Exchange server.
Although it might simply be last minute planning, there are some 13 sessions on the schedule grid currently marked "Session to be Announced," which could also indicate new iPhone-related topics the famously secretive company doesn't want to tip in advance.
WWDC kicks off with a keynote by Jobs on Monday morning June 9. Any major announcements will almost certainly happen then. Traditionally, Apple only admits a limited number of press to the keynote with the rest of the week set aside for developers who've paid to attend.
Click here for rest of this story at internetnews.com
Check Point VPN-1 now supports the Apple iPhone. So the virtual private networking gateway will protect data as it moves between the iPhone and the corporate data network through an encrypted connection.
It works by supporting the embedded iPhone L2TP client. That means iPhoners can receive e-mail and use company resources without installing additional software on their Apple smartphone.
According to Check Point, VPN-1 administrators can take advantage of a shared secret password and certificates for all iPhones on the network with specific login credentials for each end user. The company asserts this feature eliminates the need for IT to create separate gateway authentication keys for each device, therefore easing the deployment of iPhones on the network.
Overall, VPN-1 enables IT to choose from accelerated security, unified threat management security or virtualized security – all with a unified architecture that is managed and maintained from a single console.
You can learn more about learn more about VPN-1 here.
A message on Swisscom Mobile's Web site, confirms the carrier will, eventually, deliver the iPhone in Switzerland. It's not the first mobile operator to announce support for the iPhone over the last week either.
“Swisscom is launching iPhone in Switzerland. The iPhone will be available later this year. We will inform you personally as soon as we have more news,” according to Swisscom, reports iLounge. which, with 5.1 million customers, is the largest mobile operator in Switzerland. You can register with Swisscom to receive more about this as it becomes available.
Earlier this week, Apple picked up four other wireless operators to deliver the iPhone. Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) will ship the iPhone in Singapore, Bhariti Airtel in India, Optus in Australia and Globe in the Philippines later this year.
That news followed an announcement from Vodafone last week that the wireless carrier would be extending the iPhone's reach as well, by ten countries. Vodafone new iPhone markets include Australia and India, and, like Telecom Italia Mobile, which will also carry the iPhone, Italy. Additional Vodafone iPhone carriers include Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa, and Turkey.
All of these agreements will greatly increase the number of markets consumers can officially get and use an iPhone. It is likely all the new iPhone carriers will skip the current EDGE model and go right to the 3G edition that's due to come out this summer.
First, it seemed like it would deliver free Wi-Fi to iPhone owners, then the opposite appeared to be true. Some folks even reported receiving such service last week, only to have it disconnected later on.
Most recently, the carrier said on its Web site it was delivering this type of service with the iPhone. But nothing happened. Then the statement to that affect on AT&T's Web site was removed only hours after it appeared.
Finally, some clarity...sort of:
According to an AT&T spokesperson Fletcher Cook, speaking with The New York Times, the statement on AT&T site was a mistake. However, he added that the country's leading mobile operator would eventually deliver network access at hotspots - it runs over 17,000 of them, including those at Starbucks, Barnes & Noble and at airports - for all the Wi-Fi smartphones it supports.
"Our Wi-Fi network is a great way of differentiating the AT&T network and giving customers another reason to choose us over a competitor,” Cook said to The Times.
Okay. That's great, but when? Cook would say.
In related news, AT&T wireless yesterday unveiled plans to bump up the performance of its 3G cellular-wireless data network, beginning next year. With the deployment of HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) Release 7, AT&T plans to bump performance in excess of an extremely fast 20 megabits per second.
The network upgrade (mostly a software process) is the next step for AT&T on its way to the deployment of 4G performance with the Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology sometime in 2010. LTE promises to boost speeds up to and beyond an astonishing 100 megabits per second.
"LTE will allow for backwards compatibility to GSM and HSPA, which is a great benefit to customers," explained AT&T mobility head Ralph de la Vega at Morgan Stanley's annual Communications Conference, reported AppleInsider. "And our path forward to LTE allows us to get there step-by-step, with interim steps that will deliver more and more speeds everyday."
Sounds good to us.
Some find it annoying that iPhoto on the Mac opens every time they plug in their iPhone to synch it with the computer. iPhoto opens up as soon as the phone is plugged in – even when there are no photos on iPhone’s “Camera Roll.” To stop this from happening, there is a preference in iPhoto that needs to be changed.
Here's what you do:
Open iPhoto->Preferences->General. Change the option “Connecting camera opens” option to “No application”. Close iPhoto.
The next time you plug in your iPhone, iPhoto will not open. To synch photos from the iPhone’s “Camera Roll” change iPhoto’s preferences back so that “Connecting camera opens – iPhoto.”
Author: Damon Brown
We don't know exactly what Electronic Arts, Gameloft and other gaming powerhouses are planning now that Apple has unleashed its iPhone SDK, but a few enterprising folks are giving us an idea of what we *could* be seeing this fall. Tech sites have been drooling over "Raging Thunder," a new, independently made racing game.
More a tech demo than a potentially licensed and sold product, "Raging Thunder" is a traditional arcade racing game - except the car is steered by tilting the iPhone itself. It sounds strange, but, as shown in the video, the controls seem to be intuitive (though we'd have to assume a finished product would use the much easier widescreen mode, not the vertical).
The visuals aren't too shabby, either, which leads us to think that an official version of Need for Speed couldn't look that much different.
"Raging Thunder" Video:
About the Author
Damon Brown wrote the "Pocket Idiot's Guide to the iPhone" (Alpha/Penguin Books). Available on August 7, you can preorder it at Amazon or your favorite online bookstore. Damon also writes for Playboy, SPIN and The New York Post.
Author: Susan Schrank
Rubicon Consulting surveyed 460 US iPhone users and found that, although they are generally "very satisfied" with the iPhone, a third of them carry a second phone. iPhone Matters reports that these folks use the iPhone for "media and e-mail functions" and use another handset for phone calls. The article posits, and we have to agree to some extent, that they might not even know that the iPhone is even a phone.
Half of the respondents got an iPhone to replace a standard cell phone, 40% were replacing a smartphone and 10% have an iPhone as their first cell phone, Rubicon found. E-mail and Web browsing are the most-used functions, and 75% said having an iPhone has encouraged them to spend more time browsing the mobile Web.
Post courtesy of MobileContentToday.
In iPhoto, create a new album called “iPhone photos.” (File->New Album). Then drag and drop selected photos from the iPhoto library on your computer into this album.
Connect your iPhone to the computer and open iTunes. Under the tab “Photos” check the box “Synch photos from iPhoto” and the box “selected albums.” Then scroll down the list of albums and check only the album called “iPhone photos.” Synch your phone.
All the photos on your iPhone will disappear, except for the photos on your “Camera Roll,” and a new album - “iPhone photos” - will be there.
You can add to, delete, or change the photos on your album, just by changing the contents in the iPhone photos album in iPhoto.
Delete e-mail messages without even reading or opening them.
On your iPhone you can delete e-mails without even reading. With the list of e-mail messages on the screen, just stroke your finger across the message you wish to delete. Then tap the red delete button that appears. It is that simple.
Appears to be the latest salvo in feud with Apple--after all, NBC is the network that pulled its shows from iTunes because of pricing differences with media-download leader.
NBC, the network that pulled its shows from iTunes because of difference with Apple, is now streaming two of its shows, 30 Rock and The Office, to the iPhone and iPod touch without ads, for free.
As the streams take up a lot of bandwidth, it requires a Wi-Fi connection. AT&T's 2.5G EDGE data nework won't due. Look for this to change when the iPhone that supports the carrier's 3G network becomes available this summer. That should offer the pipe nessesary to support streaming and downloading such large files.
Head to over to m.nbc.com/iphone/fullepisodes.shtmlfrom within Safari to stream the shows to your iPhone or iPod touch. Keep in mind, should you exit Safari while watching a show, it won't resume where you left off. You'll have to watch the show from the beginning.
In related news, a sketch called iPhone: The Affair on Saturday Night Live featured a real live iPhone. No suprise there. It turns out the iPhone NBC used was jailbroken to run unofficial native applications.
[ via gizmodo]
AT&T's listing a new iPhone model, called the iPhone Black, on its account management site. Could this be the upcoming 3G iPhone we're all expecting Apple to release within the next couple of months? After all, the finish of the rear of that eagerly-awaited smartphone is a glossy black, as rumored leaks and pictures have revealed over the last few weeks.
Whatever the significance of the listing, it can be seen as yet another indication that the days of the creepy crawly EDGE-enabled iPhone will soon come to an end.
Update: According to an AT&T executive who spoke with Gizmodo, the iPhone Black in just a temporary placeholder for a "scheduled catalog update" for a current iPhone model, not for the coming 3G edition. That sounds a little fishy to us.
Meanwhile, Telecom Italia Mobile executive VP Luigi Licciardi's just asserted in an interview that "we will sell the iPhone 3G next month." The very same month of Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference (WWDC), this will take place from June 9th to 13th in San Francisco.
Hmmm. Now that's even less discrete than AT&T presumably's been with the iPhone Black reference. Apple can't be happy about that.