I recently got an email from a friend of mine with a tale of iPhone woe. My buddy Ken (not the podcaster) has a car charger which was made for use with iPods and so he assumed an iPhone would work just as well. As it turns out, not every iPod charger will play nicely with an iPhone. Frankly, I’ve been known to tell people that iPod chargers will work the same. After hearing Ken’s story, my tip to you all is to be sure that your car chargers are made to work with the iPhone. Ken’s story follows the break.

I attached the car charger cord to my iPhone on Saturday. It rebooted, asked for my password and went black, to never power on again.

Drove to [the Apple Store in] Woodfield yesterday and the Genius took more time trying to power it on, than he did to exchange it for a new one.

Of course, they won’t give you a 16 gig for equal or $100 more, but I have a new iPhone with no dog teeth marks on it, now.

I thought when they first came out there was concern for car chargers, but once I asked a salesman at the store and they said no. Just wanted to give you a heads up.
Thankfully Ken’s story has a happy ending. After experiencing a similar issue with a defective FM Transmitter from USB Fever, I recommend that everyone takes care to only use chargers specifically made for the iPhone.

via http://www.iphonealley.com/tips-and-tricks/keep-away-chargers-not-approved-iphone-use

Posted on June 25th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Tips | No Comments »

Unconfirmed reports claim that the U.S. iPhone launch will take place starting at 8am, July 11th at AT&T stores nationwide. A screenshot posted to our forums claims to depict the actual email sent to AT&T managers. Even if you accept the letter as true, it’s not entirely certain that the 8am time was sanctioned by Apple. When the iPhone first launched in 2007, there were multiple reports of AT&T stores planning on opening first thing in the morning, only later to find out the actual launch time was 6pm.

Apple’s own retail stores have not yet been briefed on the exact launch time of the iPhone 3G, though it had been previously suggested that it would again happen at 6pm. Apple has confirmed that the iPhone 3G will launch on July 11th, 2008, but the exact time of day has not been announced.

Apple is expected to brief their retail stores on July 6th regarding both the iPhone 3G and MobileMe, so more details should be available after that time.

via http://www.macrumors.com/2008/06/25/time-of-iphone-3g-launch-remains-unclear/

Posted on June 25th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: 3G iPhone | No Comments »

As the days continue to crawl by on the way to the opening of the iPhone App Store (on July 11th or just maybe sometime before that), I’ve been finding plenty of time to lust over a lot of hot-looking programs that have been announced as coming to the store.  I’ve also been spending some time thinking on what sort of apps I really hope we’ll see in the App Store once it is active - and figure I’ll share some of those while we’re all waiting round.

One I’d definitely like to see is a good voice notes program - especially as I’ve been spoiled for choice in using two and a half quite good ones in the jailbreak environment.  Those would be:

VNotes - the first voice notes app for the iPhone and still probably the cleanest and easiest to work with.

iPhone Recorder - from Dream Catcher (makers of the leading iPhone video recording app as well) - probably has the most complete set of options and features for any iPhone voice notes app.

moleskine - the ‘half’ entry here, as this is a very feature-rich general note-taking application, that happens to include a good voice notes capability as well.

via http://justanotheriphoneblog.com/wordpress/2008/06/23/iphone-app-store-wanted-apps-voice-notes/

Posted on June 24th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iphone applications | No Comments »

A recent article by Time magazine gained popularity by talking about the newest in technology, aka the iPhone, and porn sites being integrated easier into Safari on the iPhone. Currently Pornography websites have been integrating downloadable files into there database making it easy to copy onto your iPhone and watch on the go.

“It’s by far the porn-friendliest phone,” says Devan Cypher, representative for San Francisco–based Sin City Entertainment. As evidence of the gadget’s rocketing popularity in California’s capital, the San Fernando Valley, numerous iPhone-specific porn sites have been launched in recent months. “There are a few hundred iPhone porn sites now in use,” says Farley Cahen, vice president of business development for AVN Media Network, the adult industry’s trade body.

As the 3G release nears the adult entertainment industries prepare to launch sites that will be able to be accessed by the iPhone. With the overwhelming popularity of the iPhone this industry has seen an opportunity and gone after it with full force.

“Three out of four iPhone users are men with above-average incomes, and iPhone users spend heavily on entertainment. More than a third of iPhone users shell out more than $100 on phone and data charges every month, as compared with just one-fifth of other cell-phone users.”

One feature that will be included in the 2.0 release is the ability to set Parental Controls, disabling ever ‘accidentally’ stumbling accross a naughty site or two, or three, or four…

Posted on June 24th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: 3G iPhone | No Comments »

According to the blog iPhone in Japan, Softbank will be offering the iPhone 3G to its customers starting at ¥23,040 (≈$214) for the 8GB model. The 16GB model will cost ¥34,560 (≈$321).Service for the iPhone will be offered under Softbank’s White Plan, but will be available under Blue and Orange plans as well. Users will be required to sign a two-year contract, and the cost of the handset will be spread out over the 24-month period.

You can read Softbank’s press release (in Japanese) on their site.

Posted on June 24th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iPhone News | No Comments »

Apple’s new iPhone promises to be 4.7 ounces of awesome.

It will do everything the iPhone does well–surfing the Web, serving up music and movies, and letting you flick through your voicemail messages with a fingertip–only faster and cheaper.

Yet imperfections still lurk, in spite of Chairman Steve Jobs’ maniacal attention to detail. Even before its release, there are some niggling issues–some minor, others major–that make the iPhone a mere gadget, just like any other. Just ask those pesky bloggers:

The Cost
Those crafty phone companies! Yes, at $199, the new iPhone is cheaper up-front than the original, which first went on sale starting at $499 last year. It is not, however, less expensive to own. Do the math and you find out the iPhone will cost $160 more over two years than the original iPhone because AT&T (nyse: T - news - people ) put together a pricier data plan for the phone to help it subsidize the up-front cost of the handset. The gadget fiends at Gizmodo called that “a small price to play,” but Bits, the technology blog at The New York Times, called it “a step backwards for consumers.”

No Flash
The iPhone is a surprisingly capable Web browser. Its wide, high-resolution screen and the ability to bop around the Web by tapping links with a fingertip has turned mobile Web surfing from a chore into a pleasure. The biggest hitch: the iPhone still doesn’t support Adobe’s (nasdaq: ADBE - news - people ) Flash technology, which means many multimedia-rich sites remain off limits. While Adobe is working hard to make its technology iPhone-friendly, don’t hold your breath.

No Replaceable Batteries
Hardcore road warriors don’t have time to stop and recharge their phones. Instead they carry their batteries with them, clicking them into their BlackBerrys in the backs of cabs, or, if they’re lucky, in a coffee shop. By contrast, there’s no easy way to crack open the new iPhone’s sleek case to pop in a battery, disappointing bloggers. And while kits are available for do-it-yourselfers, we wouldn’t recommend trying it in between bites of your bagel.

Video Recording
Apple’s (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) computers come preloaded with iMovie, a slick little application that makes video editing easy and fun. Apple’s iPods, with the exception of the Shuffle, have evolved into snappy little video viewing machines. But if you want to record video, you’d better talk to Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ). Despite its built-in two-megapixel camera, Apple isn’t building the ability to take video into its new phone, a feature even many low-end so-called “feature phones” include.

No Cut-And-Paste
The inability to copy a chunk of text and paste it into another application has baffled geeks since the iPhone’s introduction last year. It’s a simple tool that would make blogging and zapping bits of text to friends via e-mail a breeze. And, yes, it can be done without screwing up the phone’s interface.

No Multimedia Messaging Service
This might be the most interesting example of what makes the iPhone quirky: There are some things dirt-cheap phones cranked out by the tens of millions can do that the vaunted iPhone cannot. Forbes.com’s David Ewalt sees the lack of support for Multimedia Messaging Service as one of the most maddening. Want to open an image sent to you via MMS by a friend from her (dirt-cheap) mobile phone? No dice.

Bonus: No Voice Dialing
No blogger we’ve seen has complained about this yet. Maybe that’s because all the geeks who might whine about how tough it is to dial the iPhone died in fiery auto wrecks first, seeing as the iPhone doesn’t have the voice-recognition smarts to let users dial verbally–the one feature makes the BlackBerry, with its nubby little plastic keyboard, usable on the road.

via http://www.forbes.com/personaltech/2008/06/20/iphone-disappointment-features-tech-wireless08-cx_bc_0620iphone.html?feed=rss_popstories

Posted on June 23rd, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Fun | No Comments »

Hitherto demonstrated native iPhone applications will provide functional augmentation to the the device and branch into areas untapped by Apple’s included software: gaming, instant messaging, image manipulation, and more. So far, however, we haven’t seen any planned applications that directly compete with or replicate the functionality of Apple’s bundled applications. Since the iPhone is now a true software platform with a rapidly growing installed base, hungry third-party developers are bound to seek pieces of Apple’s turf in spite of potentially mitigating verbiage in the iPhone SDK agreement. The first software category in which developers are likely to make a move: Web browsers. Firms like Mozilla and Opera aim to sink their hooks in any and all popular platforms, not excepting the iPhone.

Third-party browsers could bring a wealth of feature distinction to the iPhone. Mozilla’s recently debuted Firefox 3.0 differs significantly in form and function from Apple’s Safari for Mac OS X and Windows. A different rendering engine and fresh take on a browser’s touchscreen-optimized interface might be preferable to to some iPhone users. A third-party browser could — were it not for one nagging section of Apple’s SDK agreement — also incorporate one of the most requested features currently non-existent on the iPhone: an accessible third-party plug-in architecture that would allow the inclusion of Adobe Flash, RealPlayer and more.

The section of Apple’s iPhone SDK agreement that seemingly negates the possibility of a third-party Web browser with plug-in support:

“No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s) […] An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise.”

There exists considerable debate over what the aforementioned statement actually means, but one interpretation is that the agreement would not only prevent third-party applications’ usage plug-in implementations, but also disallow the use of HTML/JavaScript renderers that are not WebKit-based. That would make Firefox’s Gecko-based rendering engine a no-go.

Whether or not that interpretation is correct, it’s the basis of Mozilla’s current development tack. We spoke with company representatives who said that, based on their understanding, the iPhone SDK agreement excludes Firefox from running on the device. Hence, there are no immediate plans to bring the popular browser to the platform.

Regardless, Mozilla has posted a concept video ,which shows a Firefox mobile concept that would appear to work well on the iPhone. Some interesting touchscreen-optimized features are shown, including pull-to-reveal navigation controls, and the ability to see all open tabs simultaneously — a feature absent from MobileSafari. Features from Firefox 3.0, like the “Awesome Bar,” are also incorporated. The video’s narrator, Mozilla Labs’ head of user experience, Aza Raskin, notes that the concept is for touch interfaces, “not MultiTouch.”

If Mozilla’s conceptual designs reveal that the company has guarded optimism about the prospect of Firefox on the iPhone, the same can be said for competing browser developer Opera. An Opera representative told iPhone Atlas:

“Our goal is to make the Opera browser available on as many devices and platforms as possible. So while we can’t currently confirm that we’ll make an Opera version for the iPhone, it’s certainly something we have the opportunity to do in the future.”

Opera has already developed and shipped a version of its browser for other touchscreen-based mobile devices, including HTC’s Touch Diamond.

The distribution terms of Apple’s iPhone AppStore present intriguing complications for the prospect of sanctioned third-party browsers. Presumably, third-party iPhone browsers would be free, and Apple has promised to host and distribute approved free applications in the AppStore at no cost to the developer (Apple will yield a 30 percent cut of for-profit applications). As such, were, say, Firefox to make its way to the AppStore, Apple would essentially be hosting, promoting, and distributing a competitor’s product for nothing in return.

Firefox and Opera aren’t the only developers with a potential interest in bringing browsers to the iPhone.

Adobe has made it clear that it wants to see Flash on Apple’s mobile platform, and claims to already have Flash working in an iPhone emulator. The firm could, at least in theory, develop a browser based on Apple’s included WebKit API that features built-in Flash playback capabilities without a genuine plug-in architecture. Whether or not Apple would allow such a beast, however, remains to be determined.

via http://www.iphoneatlas.com/2008/06/20/third-party-iphone-web-browsers-mozilla-opera-plot/#more-764

Posted on June 23rd, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iphone applications | No Comments »

There has been much speculation as to just how much money Apple is getting from AT&T this time around. According to Yair Reiner at Oppenhiemer, they should be getting roughly the same amount of money from the carrier. The only difference is that they’re getting most of their money up-front this time.

Reiner suggests that AT&T is paying roughly $325 in subsidies on every new iPhone sold. What’s more is that he also believes that Apple is receiving a $100 bonus for every new customer that signs up at one of their stores. It sounds like Apple might have thought things through a little more this time around. Now they’re selling a phone that’s cheaper than the original (and will thus likely sell even better) and they’re getting their money up-front from AT&T. Well played.

Posted on June 23rd, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iPhone News, 3G iPhone | No Comments »

Posted on June 20th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Videos, iPhone Fun | No Comments »

Reports from users in possession of the latest iPhone 3G firmware indicate that the device will have support for both FM radio and FOTA (firmware over the air).

FM radio support means that the iPhone 3G may be able to make use of devices like Apple’s own “iPod Radio Remote,” which includes an FM tuner and allows users to listen to FM radio stations. Current iPhone and iPod touch models are incompatible with the radio remote.

Firmware over the air support means that Apple will theoretically be able to deliver software and firmware updates over the iPhone’s cellular network connection, potentially allowing re-locking of unlocked devices and feature enhancements that do not require connection to a host computer

via http://www.iphoneatlas.com/2008/06/19/iphone-3g-firmware-has-fm-radio-support-fota/

Posted on June 20th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iPhone News | No Comments »