June 2008 Archives

Getting ready for the July 11 launch of the iPhone 3G in Canada, the country's exclusive iPhone service provider, Rogers Wireless, has announced its voice and data pricing plans for the new handset. Both Rogers and its subsidiary brand Fido will offer the same plans, prices, and three-year contract requirement.

The most basic plan costs CDN$60 a month for 150 minutes of voice service plus up to 400MB of data and 75 outgoing text messages. Unlimited evening and weekend minutes, incoming text messages, and visual voicemail are included with every plan.

A $75 package offers 300 voice minutes, 100 text messages, and 750MB of data -- enough, the carrier says, for up to 380,000 text e-mails or 5,900 Web pages or 2,560 photo attachments. Stepping up to $100/month buys 600 daytime minutes, 200 text messages, and 1GB of data.

The topmost deal provides 800 minutes, 300 text messages, and 2GB of data -- which Rogers rates as 1.048 million e-mails or 16,000 Web pages or 7,000 photos -- for $115 per month.

G comes before I, but today's Wall Street Journal reports that the much-awaited "gPhone" won't come in time to challenge Apple's iPhone 3G. Handsets using Google's open-source Android mobile software platform, originally promised for the second half of this year, won't show up until the fourth quarter -- and while that's the target date for T-Mobile USA's Android phone, others from Sprint Nextel and China Mobile are unlikely to ship until 2009.

Mobile software developers are said to be grappling with Android's still-a-work-in-progress status while trying to develop applications and services other than the built-in features Google will offer. Meanwhile, the Journal's Jessica E. Vascellaro and Amol Sharma report, Samsung and other smartphone makers are running late in integrating and testing Android on their hardware. One source at Sprint hints that the carrier may scrap plans to offer a 3G gPhone in favor of one configured for its faster, future 4G network.

Click here for the full story.

Author: Susan Schrank

With all the anticipation built up around the July 11 availability of the 3G iPhone, InformationWeek took some time to find out what types of hoops AT&T customers will have to jump through in order to get one of the sleek and shiny handsets at the new subsidized rates.

AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel told the publication that folks who already have an iPhone can upgrade to the 3G model at the low, subsidized price of $199 for the 8GB handset and $299 for the 16GB one. Of course, taking advantage of the offer requires signing a new two-year contract. AT&T customers who bought their iPhone after May 26 who choose to go 3G will be refunded the difference between what they paid and the subsidized price of the new version, but they will have to pay a 10% restocking fee.

According to the article, qualifying for the subsidized price on a 3G iPhone if you're not upgrading from the prior model is a whole lot more complicated. Siegel declined to tell the magazine the specifics of how AT&T plans to qualify new iPhone purchasers. "There's a whole lot of variables, and I would hate to give specific criteria," he said. "It's not a one-size-fits-all approach."

Post courtesy of MobileContentToday.

Author: Philip L. Graitcer

Time to shed that heavy and hot leather iPhone case and holster and go light or even naked. Case-Mate (see video below) has come out with a terrific see-through acrylic case for the iPhone. The Wave Case from Griffin (see top image) is another another cool iPhone case that won't weigh you down.

Case-Mate
This case completely covers the entire iPhone - front and back, including the screen. There are cut-outs for the mute, volume, power switch, headphone jack, speakers and synch/charger cable. It protects the phone and since the acrylic contains an electrostatic membrane - you can use the touch screen with the case on. No more plastic films on your touch screen.

Since the acrylic is clear, your phone keeps its cool look. It looks like it isn't in a case at all. I haven't tried dropping the phone in the case, but my guess is that the naked case will offer some protection to both the phone and the glass touch screen.

Video of the Naked Case

I've had one issue with the case. When I first put my iPhone in it, a greasy-watery spot appeared between the touch screen and the inside of the case. The spot changed shape, variously looking like Italy or Florida (see photo) when I used the touch screen.

Author: Kenneth Corbin

Apple has hit a pretty big milestone, announcing today that it's now sold more than 5 billion songs through its iTunes store.

Research from NPD Group has already crowned iTunes the No. 1 U.S. music retailer, eclipsing WalMart in the early months of the year.

Apple also said that iTunes is renting or selling movies on the order of 50,000 a day, declaring itself the world's most popular online video store.

So Apple's got music, it's got movies and it's got the support of the major movie studios (New Line, Universal, Warner Bros., Sony, MGM, Lionsgate).

So what's missing? How about the music labels? For all the talk you hear about how the music industry has learned from its chronic missteps from the early days of Napster, their persistent refusal to deal with Apple makes you wonder how much they've really wised up. (...that and how they're still suing their customers.)

To date, EMI is the only of the big four records labels to license its collection to Apple stripped of digital rights management protection. Sony, Universal and Warner have been unwilling to do so. Instead, they have cast their lot in with Amazon, hoping to break Apple's stranglehold on the market.

To no avail. Five billion and counting.

Post courtesy of internetnews.com The Blog.

Financial services firm Morgan Stanley raised its price target on Apple shares to $210 from $185, saying it expects the company's iPhone unit sales to double in 2009 at the new $199 price point.

"We believe the market generally expects a doubling of iPhone units with the lower price point ($199) and we believe this is realistic, if not conservative," the investment bank said in a note.

Morgan Stanley expects 27 million iPhones to be sold in calendar year 2009 with an average revenue of $550 per unit.

Click here for the full story at internetnews.com.

A new version of iZoho, the mobile version of the browser-based Zoho office productivity suite, is now available. It is supposed to make it easier for business people to work via their iPhone.

An updated design introduces a tabbed interface for navigation between Zoho Apps. Currently, Zoho Writer, Sheet, Show & Creator are supported in this new interface. The company plans to add more apps and more functionality to this new version in the future.

You can try the Web 2.0 app out at mobile.zoho.com (or iZoho.com) from your iPhone. Once you login, you’ll be able to view your personal and shared documents under the respective application tabs. The Zoho tab shows the five most recent documents from each Zoho app.

Griffin Technology is planning to roll out a series of protective cases for Apple's new iPhone 3G. These include next-gen iPhone versions of its Wave, Nu Form, and Elan Clip cases for $24.99 each and the Elan Form model for $29.99. All these cases should become available online by the end of this month and at retail when the iPhone ships on July 11.

The company says it is working to ensure that their current catalog of products for iPhone, including the iTrip family of FM transmitters, and their entire lineup of power solutions, all maintain Apple certification for iPhone 3G.

Author: Sean Michael Kerner

AT&T is driving global prosperity. At least, that's the thinking of Randall Stephenson, chairman and CEO of the country's No. 1 wireless carrier, during his opening keynote here at the NXTcomm conference in Las Vegas.

Stephenson, no stranger to NXTcomm after kicking off the show in Chicago last year, delivered a message today detailing the industry's incredible growth potential and the opportunity for fixed and mobile networks to dramatically improve people's lives.

But that sentiment comes against a backdrop of macroeconomic malaise in the United States, a rapidly changing telecom landscape thanks to growing demand for wireless data and furious competition among the country's major wireless carriers.

Click here for full story at internetnews.com.

Now when you're waiting to find out if you've bought an item on auction at eBay, you can be out and about with your phone and receive text updates on the sale. E-mail updates have long existed, but the text option may be preferable if you don't have an Internet-enabled phone, you're already paying for flat-rate texting, or you just find it simpler to read a text than an e-mail on your device.

When you click on the link to receive notices via SMS (text message), you'll be asked to identify your carrier and then put in your phone number: There is a 25-cent fee for up to 10 notices per item. You can set whether you want to receive messages every time there is an alert or only between certain hours.

Once you sign up, eBay will send a text message asking you to reply to confirm your registration. A few more messages will arrive and then you can monitor your bids on the go. When you want to stop receiving the messages, you can simply text "STOP" or go to the Personal Information page within My Account on eBay. Under "Email and Contact Information" unsubscribe from the "Mobile phone number for SMS alerts" option.

 

For most people, entering text on an iPhone isn't going to be as fast as when using a hardware keyboard. Take it from me, though, you can get close(r) with practice. This is where a Web-based program, TypingWeb for the iPhone, from FTW Innovations can help.

With this free typing tutor, you can get your iPhone typing skills up to speed faster. And, if you want, put your thumbs or index finger to the test to find out just how good you are at entering words and numbers on your iPhone..

Using TypingWeb is simple.

Author: Mike Elgan

Every week, it seems, the press labels some new phone the latest "iPhone Killer."

This week, of course, the first-ever true "iPhone Killer" -- the new iPhone -- was announced. The "3Gesus Phone" adds me-too, "catch-up" features that competitive phones have offered for quite a while, such as 3G and GPS.

I’m pretty sure that Steve Jobs could pull a napkin out of his pocket with the word “Apple” written on it, and people would want to know when it went on sale.

Author: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

As I listened to, and then later watched, Steve Jobs’ keynote speech at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference 2008, I must have been caught up in the reality distortion field that Jobs is so expert at projecting. Within a matter of minutes, I went from feeling somewhat ambivalent about the iPhone 3G, Apple’s next-generation iPhone, to feeling as if this must be the apotheosis of handsets and I just had to have one.

So, am I going to be queuing up to buy an iPhone 3G on the day of the launch? No. So what was it that made me change my mind a second time? Simple, I extracted my head out of the distortion field and started to think clearly once again.

See, the thing about Steve Jobs is that he is different from most tech geeks, in that the guy oozes style, charisma and charm. And nowhere is Jobs more effective than onstage in front of thousands of hardcore Mac fans. I’m pretty sure that Steve could pull a napkin out of his pocket with the word “Apple” written on it, and people would want to know when it went on sale. What’s it down to? Hypnosis? New-age techno-religious fervor? Charm? I don’t know, all I know is that it works.

So, when I look at the iPhone 3G from outside of the reality distortion field, what do I see?

Author: Philip L. Graitcer

The iPhone keyboard has been billed as the smartest keyboard in the world, but it takes knowing a couple of tricks to take advantage of its braininess. The clearest way the keyboard shows off its smartness is by anticipating the word you are typing and spelling it out on the screen.

 Begin typing a word with the keyboard. You could be taking a note, writing a text message or an e-mail. The keyboard works the same.

 After typing a few letters, the iPhone suggests a word; if it is the correct one, you stop typing and touch the "space" key. The word will be inserted in your email.

 If the iPhone hasn't suggested the right word, continue typing. The iPhone will offer another suggestion. When the suggestion is correct, touch the "space" key. The word will be inserted.

 If the suggestion is way off the mark, there's a little "x" at the end of the suggestion. Touch the "x" and the suggestion will disappear.

The keyboard gets smarter the more you use it. It "learns" words and abbreviations you type and the next time you type them, it will offer them up as suggestions, complete with capitalization. And it already knows how to add punctuation to common contractions like "I've" and "they'll."

Messaging vendor MailSite has answered the demand for mobile collaboration with MailSite Fusion 9, a platform that lets enterprises provide mobile communications features to users no matter what smartphone is tied to the network.

A low-cost alternative to Microsoft Exchange Server and RIM's BlackBerry server, Fusion 9 is aimed at the e-mail hosting industry.

It's compatible with the Apple iPhone 2.0, Windows Mobile devices, smartphones connected to Microsoft Exchange 2007 ActiveSync and even Research In Motion's BlackBerry devices.

Click here for full story at internetnews.com.

A couple of days ago, it appeared Apple would launch the highly-anticipated iPhone 2.0 firmware update early in July, about the same time AT&T and many other carriers around the world roll out the new 3G iPhone. A curious statement on Apple's Australian iPod touch page indicated the major software update would arrive sooner.

It said, "Shop for hundreds of applications made for iPod touch. Available June 27." Along with the text, there was a line up of icons - one each for three different applications and another for the iPhone/iPod touch App Store. The application store and availability of official third-party software is one of the major enhancements set to come about through the iPhone 2.0 firmware.

Unfortunately, the assertion of a July 27 launch's since been removed from the site.

So, we're left wondering whether it was an out and out mistake3and iPhone 2.0 will arrive in July as previously thought3or it was accurate, but someone jumped the gun and posted the information to soon.

Whatever the case may be, we'll find out soon enough, in only a couple of weeks.

Also, with the current iPhone model the iTunes store on the device only works over Wi-Fi and not over AT&T's bandwidth-constricted EDGE network. Even though the operator's 3G network delivers more than enough bandwidth to allow for fast song downloads, it doesn't appear this long sort-after capability will be made available to the new iPhone either.

Rumor has it, the fault isn't Apple's, however, but rather that of greedy record labels who want Apple to charge more for over-the-air mobile downloads.

Why should it matter to the labels if a track is bought and delivered to an iPhone through side-loading Wi-Fi, or over a cellular network? It shouldn't. Either way, Apple and the labels both benefit from the selling of more songs, right?

Another possible reason for the lack of over-the-air song downloads is Apple's refusal to give into AT&T's request for a piece of the iTunes sales pie.

[via engadget]

As with the original iPhone, AT&T will be the only provider of the 3G model—introduced to much fanfare by Steve Jobs and company the other day—in the United States. While the new iPhone delivers considerably more features for less cash up front ($199 with a two-year contract for the 8GB edition, $299 for 16GB), it'll cost more to use on a monthly basis.

So instead of $20 per month for Internet access on AT&T's pokey EDGE data network, you'll need to pay $30 a month with a voice plan of $39.99 or higher to access the carrier's much faster 3G data network.

That's not the only change in the way AT&T plans to handle the iPhone with the new model either.

With the 3G iPhone, there's doesn't appear to be a pay-as-go option, apparently making the two-year sign up a prerequisite for use. Also, you'll no longer be able to activate your iPhone at home through iTunes. Rather, you'll have to have this done for you while you're in the store.

In addition to altering the way it does business with customers, AT&T and Apple have changed the way they do business with each other. Their new agreement is closer in spirit to the partnerships AT&T enjoys with its other cell phone and smartphone partners.

So, the companies have eliminated the revenue-sharing model of the original iPhone, under which AT&T shared a portion of monthly service revenue with Apple. Rather, with the 3G iPhone, Apple gets its cash from the sale of the device itself.

Apparently, this new agreement is the reason why AT&T can afford to subsidize the cost of the new iPhone to the point where it goes for hundreds of dollars less than the original model did when it first went on sale last June. AT&T anticipates the ability to subsidize the iPhone will help drive increased sales volumes and revenues.

Today, less than 20 percent of AT&T's postpaid subscribers have integrated devices capable of voice, Web and data applications. Based on the carrier's experience, average monthly revenues per (ARPU) for iPhone subscribers is nearly twice that of the company's overall subscriber base.

So, by getting more people to buy an iPhone by making it more attractive and cost effective to consumers, AT&T should be able to get more folks using its data services, therefore growing overall ARPU and growing revenue in the long run.

Author: Damon Brown

I joined a few thousand developers in San Francisco for Steve Jobs highly-anticipated keynote at Apple's World Wide Developer Conference today. From the new iPhone to new software, it was well worth the trip.

The iPhone 3G hits stores on July 11: an ultra-cheap $199 for 8 GB and $299 for 16 GB. The new model is slightly thicker with smaller, more ergonomic buttons and a flush headphone jack hole. Scrapping the silver metal, the basic model has a black plastic casing (the 16 GB is also available in the traditional Mac white).

The two big internal changes are built-in GPS and 3G. Jobs demonstrated its "live tracking," which follows your location with a live blue visual beep. He said Apple was encouraging developers to take advantage of contextual searching based on location. For the 3G, an Apple video showed difference between AT&T's spotty EDGE network and the new 3G network, and on average it was three times as fast - and only slightly slower than iPhone Wi-Fi. Ditto for an e-mail download, which, in the Apple demo, 3G was about four times slower.

The iPhone 3G will have decent battery life. It has 300 hours of standby time, five hours of 3G talk time, up to six hours of browsing, seven hours of video and 24 hours of music. Jobs also cryptically noted that the iPhone 3G will have "improved sound," which probably means an upgrade to the iPhone's tiny, low-grade speakers.

Regular as well as new iPhones will be getting a 2.0 software upgrade. The bevy of new accoutrements include full iWork and MS Office support - for readable PowerPoint presentation and such - bulk delete and move, and parental controls. It also has an automatic fill-in for searching phone/email contacts and a full scientific calculator whenever you turn the calculator horizontal.

The launch of the 3G iPhone wasn't the only news Apple made today. It, among other things, announced when the highly-anticipated iPhone 2.0 firmware would be made available. You can expect Apple to distribute the major software update, which includes the iTunes App store, early in July, around the time the next-gen iPhone ships.

As expected, while the iPhone 2.0 software will be free to iPhone users, iPod touch users will have to shell out $9.95 for the update.

Steve Jobs and company introduced iPhone 2.0 at a special event March, when it also launched the iPhone software development kit (SDK) - downloaded over 250,000 since - to allow third parties to create 'official' software for the iPhone and iPod touch.

Apple will be the exclusive distributor of iPhone software, wirelessly (over Wi-Fi and 3G) through the iPhone App Store for applications under 10MB and iTunes for larger-sized programs.

The firmware update also adds support for Microsoft Exchange and the Cisco IPsec VPN, two factor authentication and enterprise-class Wi-Fi using WPA2/802.1x. Apple has licensed Exchange ActiveSync from Microsoft. This enables the iPhone to support push mob-e-mail, calendaring, and contacts, as well as global address lists and remote wipe in an enterprise environment.

In related news, Apple's posted the latest beta of the SDK, 7, on its site.

And, rumor has it, the NDA (non-disclosure agreement) for the SDK won't expire until Apple distributes the iPhone 2.0 firmware in July. So don't expect to hear of any developers openly talking about what's inside the SDK for at least another month

It should come as a surprise to absolutely nobody that during his keynote at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference today, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that the company is coming out with a new iPhone model that runs on 3G networks.

In addition to faster Web surfing and downloads because it works over faster networks, key details of the next iPhone are:

- A much lower price. The 8GB model will sell for $199 and the 16GB will retail for $299.

- Built-in GPS functions for location-based services.

- A longer battery life and sleeker design.

- Metal buttons.

- Headphone jack compatible with third-party headphones.

- 5 hours talk time.

- Available in white and black

The new iPhone will go on sale July 11 and will cost the same in all countries.

Look for iPhoneGuide's comprehensive overview of today's annoucement shortly.

Adapted from MobileContentToday.

Author: Susan Schrank

Market leader Nokia, relative newcomer Apple and Research in Motion, the company behind the venerable BlackBerry, are the first handset vendors to recognize the importance of data services as a key revenue stream, says to a new report from Strategy Analytics.

According to a Telecoms.com post on the report, although revenue from their various service strategies are still modest, they are growing. These include music from Apple, push e-mail and other business apps from RIM and GPS navigation and its Ovi platform from Nokia.

Nokia, for example, will see as much as 5% of its revenue coming from its value-added services by 2012, up from less than 1% in 2007, Strategy Analytics estimates.

Post courtesy of MobileContentToday.

Author: Damon Brown

Every summer Apple traditionally offers great education discounts to students, faculty or staff, but take advantage of it between now and September 15, 2008, and you'll get a rebate up to $299 towards an 8 GB iPod touch or Nano. It's not as tasty as getting an iPhone discount, but what is the Touch but an iPhone without the phone?

See here for more information.

Author: Damon Brown

Gizmodo has a small item on the latest Mac OS X Leopard update. The included wireless sync program, called Bonjour, now has icons for both the iPod Touch and iPhone, which means we can expect wireless updates for the next-generation systems. The fact that new iPod and iPhone models are expected to be announced at today's Worldwide Developer's Conference makes the wireless upgrade all the more likely.

Coffee junkies have a new reason to fuel up at Starbucks. The coffee giant and AT&T have announced a new program giving free Wi-Fi access customers… but only if they refill a Starbucks gift card twice a month. When you register your Starbucks card, you can get up to two hours of free Wi-Fi a day at Starbucks, courtesy of AT&T.

 

 

Your Wi-Fi access can be used at any US Starbucks shop that offers Wi-Fi. It's a slight departure from the fee-based T-Mobile hotspots long associated with Starbucks (though T-Mobile subscribers can still use the T-Mobile hot spots without charge). The only catch is that you must use your Starbucks card at least once a month and agree to receive quarterly e-mails from AT&T.

Author: Philip L. Graitcer

We're in the midst of summer. What are the possibilities of a little rain, or maybe even a cold spell, be great? Take out the trusty iPhone, tap on the Weather icon (it is always sunny and 73 degrees on the icon) and take a look.

What? The weather is set for Cupertino? What's going on here?

Tap on the "i" at the bottom right of the page and you'll get to the edit page. Tap on the "-" and you can get rid of the Cupertino. Then tap on the "+" and type in a few letters of the name of your city and tap "Search."

 

In a few seconds, you'll get back a list. Select the correct city. You'll be back on the edit page. Tap "Done" and you'll get that city's weather. Each city has its own page. To scroll through the different cities, drag your finger across the touch screen in either direction.

 

The iPhone can be set up to check Yahoo weather forecasts in most major cities in the world…. a nice feature when you want to gloat or be jealous about the weather.

This week's developer conference expected to be launch venue for new iPhone.

Author: David Needle

Apple will unveil a new iPhone at its sold-out developers conference today in San Francisco; at least that's the consensus among the numerous rumor sites, developers and media outlets speculating in the days leading up to the event. Once again, Apple's done an exceptional job of building expectations for an announcement it's never publicly confirmed.

Author: Naomi Graychase

JetBlue Airways announced last Wednesday it is expanding its in-flight Wi-Fi service to include a “search and discover option” from Amazon.com, as well as an e-mail and messaging platform open to both Microsoft Exchange corporate e-mail accounts and leading Web mail providers such as Gmail, AOL Mail, Hotmail, and Windows Live Mail. All of the access is provided free of charge.

Currently, JetBlue has one Wi-Fi-equipped aircraft, an A320 dubbed “BetaBlue,” which made its maiden voyage in December 2007. Customers traveling onboard BetaBlue can use their Wi-Fi enabled devices to transfer messages using free services from Yahoo! and RIM. The newly expanded services will be provided over LiveTV's basic connectivity network platform called, “Kiteline.”

In addition to its in-flight Wi-Fi on BetaBlue, JetBlue also offers customers free high-speed wireless Internet access in Terminal 6 at New York City's JFK International Airport, as well as at JetBlue’s Long Beach, California terminal.

Other in-flight multimedia options for JetBlue customers include 36 channels of free live, DIRECTV programming and a selection of FOX InFlight movies on a pay-for basis available on all flights. On JetBlue's EMBRAER 190 planes and on its upgraded aircraft in its A320 fleet, passengers can listen to more than 100 channels of free XM Satellite Radio, as well.

For more in in-flight Wi-Fi, read “2008: The Year of In-Flight Wi-Fi?, " In-Flight, Online,"and " In-Flight Wi-Fi: On and Off."

Post courtesy of Wi-Fi Planet.

Author: Philip L. Graitcer

In these troubled financial times, having quick access to stock quotes is useful. The iPhone has a native application - Stocks- that can keep you in touch with the market, with quotes delayed by only 20 minutes. With it, you customize your stock watch list in just a few easy steps:

Tap the Stocks icon - that's the one that looks like a graph on the home page. You'll see the default stock page listing the Dow Jones Industrial average, and stock prices for Apple, Google, and Yahoo. Gains and losses can be tracked in dollars and cents and by percent change.

>

You can track other stocks: Tap on the "I" at the bottom right corner of the page, you'll get the edit page. To delete a stock, just tap the "-" and tap delete. To add, tap "+" - then type in the name of the stock or the stock symbol, then tap "Search". Tap on the correct company name, you'll get back to the edit page, then tap "Done" in the upper right hand corner. Your new stock will be listed.

Give the iPhone a few seconds to update the stock quotes, and you're ready to go.

Author: Philip L. Graitcer

 

One of my favorite built-in programs on the iPhone is the Notes application. I use Notes to jot down ideas or to help my memory - like the names of books or CDs that I want to get. No more post-it notes or paper to-do lists in your wallet. Keep your notes on your iPhone.

On the home screen, you'll see an icon that looks like a lawyer's legal pad. Tap on the icon, and then tap on "+" in the upper right hand corner. Your note pad is ready to take notes - tap on the pad and the keyboard will appear. Tap "Done" in the upper right hand corner. Each note page is saved with the time and date stamped on it.

At the bottom of the notepad screen are four icons: a back arrow, an envelope, a trash can, and a forward arrow. Tap on the envelope to email the note to some, forward and backward arrows scroll through the notes, and the trash can discards the note.

Author: Susan Schrank

When Apple's 3G iPhone finally makes its appearance, word is that it will sell for as little as 100 pounds ($197) in the UK, Pocket-lint reports. O2 has exclusive rights to sell the iPhone in the UK.

In a move that's as unlike Apple as, well, allowing multiple operators in the same country to sell the iPhone, it might allow O2 to subsidize the new model.

A rumor trail that leads back to "a source close to the deal" has the 3G iPhone hitting the street in the UK in July, soon after its US debut.

In related news: Remember back last month when the lack of iPhones in the UK was making headlines all over the place? Well, it looks like some enterprising employees at UK mobile operator O2 might know something about where a few of those handsets have gone - they put 'em up for sale on eBay.

Cellular-news is reporting that O2 has already fired at least six staffers and is investigating 20 more who allegedly used their employee discount to buy up a bunch of iPhones only to resell them on eBay for a nice profit.

All the staffers involved reportedly work in London stores and purchased enough iPhones with their 20% discounts to make O2's corporate office take notice and start an investigation.

Post courtesy of MobileContentToday.

Author: Philip L. Graitcer

The iPhone is a great phone - just as it is. But what if you wanted to use it on another mobile network, where the signal might be stronger or the per minute rates a little lower…. Well, unfortunately, you can't. Unless you "unlock" it.

An unlocked phone can run on another network - all that's necessary is taking out the ATT SIM card and inserting one from another mobile network. (A SIM card - Subscriber Information Module - is a little circuit board that contains information about you - your phone number and your mobile network).

Unlocking a phone voids your Apple and your AT&T warranties. If something happens to your iPhone, you're on your own. Apple and ATT won't help you figure it out.

There are at least two ways to unlock your phone - a hardware modification - which means opening up your phone and making some changes to the circuitry. This is technically difficult to do and should only be undertaken by experts. The other way is to run a software program that will do the work for you.

A friend gave me an iPhone that had a cracked screen, since he didn't need it and I had my own already, we wouldn't be in trouble if the unlock procedure didn't work. I decided to use the software method.

There are many free programs widely available on the internet to unlock your iPhone - I tried two: Ziphone and iLibertyX.

Both programs are easy to download and their operation is self explanatory. But on my iPhone, Ziphone didn't work. It unlocked the iPhone, but I was unable to get YouTube working again and occasionally my iPhone locked up allowing me to make only emergency calls and Ziphone gave me a message telling me to restore it using iTunes.

I wound up restoring the iPhone back to its factory settings (using iTunes) and then running iLibertyX. iLibertyX worked like a charm and within a few minutes the iPhone was unlocked. I put in a SIM card from T-mobile and could make and receive calls, email, and use all the other built-in programs on the iPhone.

Another feature of iLibertyX is that it also "jailbreaks" the iPhone. That means I can download 3rd party programs on to my iPhone. More about that soon.

Will allow iPhone and iPod touch users to run Palm OS applications on the devices.

A few months ago, StyleTap indicated it was working on an "experimental version" of its Palm OS emulator for the iPhone. Already available for Windows Mobile - and soon Symbian - StyleTap allows users to run Palm OS applications on the their PDAs and smartphones.

Well, it appears the experiment's been successful, as the company's just announced plans to make the software available for Apple's smartphone. When released, StyleTap will allow iPhone and iPod touch owners to run over 20,000 Palm OS applications.

In February, Styletap released a video showing off StyleTap's Palm-platform emulator running on an iPod touch. It has been viewed more than 800,000 times and the company received many e-mails from both end-users and application developers expressing great interest in having such a product available.

Here's the video:

Author: Susan Schrank

Forbes is reporting that Apple CEO Steve Jobs has managed to sneak "millions of units of a mysterious new product - almost certainly the new iPhone - in key markets since March." Whether or not this highly protected new product is indeed the next-gen iPhone is unknown, as is pretty much everything else about the much-anticipated device.

The article goes on to detail a number of "clues" that led to the assumption that millions of the new iPhones are secreted away in preparation for the official announcement, which many expect to come from Jobs at the Apple developer conference on June 9.

Read the full text of "The New iPhone Is Already Here" and let us know if you agree.

Post courtesy of MobileContentToday.