Feature: 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.
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.
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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.
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.
