iPhone Lover

Wish you had a dock for that iPhone 3G but not willing to dish out the $29 for a piece of white plastic? Flickr user mdrengl decided he didn’t want to either. Instead, he modified his old iPhone dock to work with the 3G. If you don’t mind carving into your dock with a knife, then check out the instructions after the break.

There are two ways to go about it. Either use a very sharp knife, or use a Dremel tool. The sharp knife will work well enough if you’re just looking for function, but the Dremel tool will give you a more professional look. Remember: if you use the knife, it’s not difficult to cut yourself. Also, there’s a good chance that doing this might accidentally ruin something, which we take no responsibility for. Proceed at your own risk, blah blah blah.

Materials:

• iPhone (first-generation) dock
• clear packing tape
• sharp knife
• small flathead screwdriver
• 100 grit aluminum oxide sandpaper

Step 1: Cover the male connector (inside the dock) and the female connector (on the back of the dock) with the clear tape so no bits of plastic get inside and ruin your connectors.

Step 2: carve at the inner sides of the dock with the sharp tool of your choice. Carve for 5 minutes at a time, making sure to stop every so often to remove the tape on the male connector (use the screwdriver) and check to see if your iPhone 3G fits correctly yet. Don’t forget to re-cover the connector if you start carving again.

Step 3: Once the dock is carved enough to fit the connector, test the connection to make sure your iPhone syncs through it (remove tape from both connectors, plug the iPhone in, and connect it to iTunes)

Step 4: Reapply the tape to both connectors.

Step 5: Use the sand paper (or smoothing tool of your choice) to sand down your carving work to make it nice and smooth. Be warned that this is pretty messy, so you may want to do this over the trash and wear safety glasses.

Results will most definitely vary depending on your skill with a carving tool and the amount of time you put into this project, but the results posted on Flickr by the person who came up with this look pretty darn good.

Speaking to Bloomberg on Tuesday, Apple retail chief Ron Johnson offered some clarity on how his retail staffers will service droves of queued iPhone 3G hopefuls this Friday, how long each activation will take, and what kind of supply stores will have on hand.

A list of data points from Johnson’s interview follow:

• Apple Specialists should be able to activate customer accounts with AT&T within 15 minutes. “Our expectation is that in 10 to 15 minutes, you’ll be set up and ready to go,” Johnson said.
• Each of Apple’s 185 US-based retail stores aim to handle about 100 customers an hour.
• Apple Specialists will take 30 customers at a time from the line, bring them inside the store, activate their iPhones, then repeat.
• While Apple aims to make sure the activation process is a quick and painless process, it will also take care not to rush customers during their buying experience. “We’ll spend as long as it takes with our customers to make sure they’re happy with the phone,” Johnson said.
• On the issue of supply, Johnson said: “[There’s] pent-up demand because we haven’t had phones for a while. Our goal is to always have enough supply for every customer.” Readers can read into that what they will…
• “To make sure customers aren’t buying handsets to resell overseas or modify them for use on unauthorized wireless networks, Apple will require customers to pay with a credit card and supply a Social Security number so the device is activated immediately.”
• Apple has no current plans to offer the iPhone 3G through its online store, Johnson said

via http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/07/08/apple_retail_chief_on_what_to_expect_at_apple_stores_on_friday.html

Let’s face it - my development skills suck like an out-of-the-box Dyson vacuum! Back in prehistoric times when I was a Newton developer, I started by using the standard Newton dev tools but quickly learned that my programming skills were stuck in BASIC and Fortran 77. Pathetic, huh?

Fortunately, a small Canadian firm called NS Basic came out with a development kit based on BASIC that was easy to understand and use. Since then, George Henne and the NS Basic crew have kept up with the handheld world by creating dev tools for Palm OS, Windows Mobile, and (soon) Symbian, as well as providing the only remaining Newton development tool.

So what does this have to do with iPhone? NSBasic let us know about a video on their website that shows a small “Hello, World!” app and a stock quote application running on an iPhone. They’re using NS Basic/Palm to write the applications, then running them in the experimental StyleTap Platform for iPhone and iPod Touch. While the apps look frighteningly like Palm OS apps, it’s cool to see an easy and powerful set of dev tools that even beginners could use to write iPhone apps.

NS Basic is quick to point out that this is not a shipping product, nor do they have plans to port NS Basic to iPhone. Of course, perhaps a lot of interest in the video will convince them of the viability of the iPhone / iPod Touch market…

via  http://www.tuaw.com/2008/06/02/found-footage-nsbasic-on-an-iphone/

Singapore Airlines has announced the integration of iPod and iPhone connectivity starting today on its newly reconfigured, all-Business Class Airbus A340-500 flights between New York and Singapore, and between Los Angeles and Singapore from August. The mechanism projects iPhone or iPod-stored content onto the in-seat 15.4-inch widescreen LCD via the standard 30-pin connector, which also supplies power and audio connectivity.

A press release states:

“iPod and iPhone will still allow for the announcements and instructions made by Singapore Airlines cabin crew and pilots to be heard even while content is being played. Customers can take advantage of iPhone’s airplane mode to safely use the iPhone through the integrated system. iPod and iPhone integration will commence with Singapore Airlines’ A345 non-stop flights from Newark - Singapore on May 15, and on the carrier’s Los Angeles - Singapore non-stops from August.”

via http://www.iphoneatlas.com/2008/05/15/singapore-airlines-offers-in-flight-iphone-connectivity/

A much publicized patent application published in December 2007 revealed that Apple had explored allowing handheld owners (such as the iPhone) to place orders from local stores. The system would, for example, allow customers to order a drink with the press of a button on their iPhone which would then notify them when their order was ready.

A new patent application today expands that concept to different types of local content, including events, movies, concerts and could even present you with general information and reviews about local restaurants. This location-based content could also include ordering food as detailed in the previous patent application, but also movie tickets and music purchasing.

Beyond this, it appears local content could be customized, with businesses publishing content themselves to be distributed to passers by. A particularly useful example would be at an Airport where flight schedules, maps, weather, and city information could be offered. Presumably, those with a properly equipped iPhones (or other devices) would be able to access this content simply by connecting to their local Wifi network

via http://www.macrumors.com/2008/05/15/apple-explores-delivering-location-based-content-to-iphone-users/

What a number! In the second fiscal quarter of this year, Apple was able to push a little over 1.7 million iPhones out the door. This is the overall theme of the Apple earnings report, with Apple announcing a whopping $1.05 billion in profit. Since there is not last year comparison of iPhone sales, their is no growth estimate, but they are no doubt selling plenty of them.

The iPhone may be selling great, but there is quite a bit more exciting news for Apple than the iPhone. The amount of Macs sold is up 51%, and the amount of profit from them is 54%, over last year. This is of course in line with the exploding popularity of Macs lately. Apple is not longer a US only affair, as 44% of Apple’s revenue came from international sales.

iPod sales are still high, but seem to be pretty flat. No real growth there. 1% growth in sales, and 8% growth in revenue. Any growth is good though, so it is not like the iPod division is not performing well or anything. The iPod still carries 73% of the MP3 player market.

via apple

On the heels of T-Mobile’s discounting of the 8GB iPhone, the UK carrier O2 is also cutting prices on the lower-capacity model by a full £100, dropping the base price of the handheld (with plan) to 169 pounds — deal good through June 1.

More portents of 3G iPhones on the way? Or just a clearing of slow-moving stock on the entry level phone? Either way, if you’re a Brit with a yearning for an iPhone, the cost of entry just got lowered.

via http://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/16/02-offers-iphone-savings/

New data from M:Metrics for the month of January confirms that folks who own an iPhone tend to do more entertaining things on their devices — such as watch video and visit social networks — than those who own smartphones. However February data from mobile ad network AdMob points out that iPhone users are still a relatively small part of the overall mobile phone market in the U.S. Good thing, otherwise we’d never get anything done.

via http://gigaom.com/2008/03/18/iphone-users-are-having-more-fun/

Apparently in China they have gotten fed up with waiting around on Apple to finally release the iPhone to them. After the iPhones leave the Chinese factory and get shipped off smugglers are snagging them and bringing them right back to China.

The smugglers are getting paid $30 per iPhone delivered. This is being done by Chinese tourists as well as flight attendants. Once there to add and unlock the Chinese language software costs the buyer about $25.

The handsets themselves range from $400-$600. Which happens to be the same or cheaper than the official 8GB iPhone in Europe.

via wired

If you happen to live in a very cold area within the United States, don’t bother using the weather application on your iPhone. The weather application does not display negative Fahrenheit temperatures and just replaces them with 0F. If you’re using Celsius, the application for some reason displays negative temperatures. This was pointed out by a person in Alaska who posted on the Apple discussion boards.

I live in Alaska. The temps here have all been below zero F or more than -18C but the weather reported on the iPhone never goes below zero F. right now it is -13F and going to Yahoo says this but the iPhone shows 0F.

Currently in Nome, Alaska it’s a chilling -18F, yet the iPhone displays 0F. Hopefully Apple fixes this bug in the next update as it’s getting pretty darn cold here.