iPhone - page 429

Given AT&T’s almost universal bad press when it comes to the reliability of their 3G network, you’d think the prospect of a Verizon iPhone would have Ma Bell trembling at the prospect of a mass diaspora of unsatisfied users.

With typical arrogance, though, AT&T head Ralph de la Vega laughed at the idea that AT&T had anything to worry about if the iPhone comes to Verizon at the JPMorgan tech conference.

Of course, Vega’s not banking on AT&T’s excellent service to keep customers around. Instead, de la Vega cited the near impossibility of getting out of AT&T’s contracts as the reason why they had little to fear.

The latest iPhone HD leak comes not from Vietnam, as we’ve come to expect, but good old Taiwan. Ready for a bombshell? Better pop a Lipitor: it looks like the iPhone HD may very well come in white.

We admit, snark aside, that’s not very exciting. iPhones have come in white before. What is interesting here, though, is that these are pictures of a white iPhone front panel. Traditionally, white iPhones are “white” only on the black plastic backing.

Whether these images turn out to be legitimate remains to be seen: the front panel’s a pretty easy thing to fake. Still, given the pedestrian nature of the revelation and Apple’s own history giving a white option on iPhones, don’t be surprised to see a white iPhone floating around at WWDC.

Can’t decide whether to get the iPad with or without 3G? It looks like AT&T will soon be adding tethering, but you can already share your iPhone’s 3G data connection using a $10 app called MyWi.

All you need to do is jailbreak your iPhone — a painless, two-minute process that unlocks the iPhone’s full potential, including turning it into a personal Wi-Fi hotspot using MyWi.

Sennheiser’s long been a name I trust when it comes to piping my iPod’s audio down into my cochleas, but I’ve never tried any of their Bluetooth headsets. That might change, though, with their new EZX 60, a sleek, light-weight Bluetooth headset featuring digital noise and echo cancellation.

I’ve long been frustrated by Bluetooth headsets’ tendency to amplify background noise and echo my voice, due to the close proximity of the microphone to the speaker, and I’ve found competing manufacturers’ echo-cancellation software to be a bit spotty. Sennheiser, though, rarely steers too far off the mark: I think they’ve probably done it right here.

Otherwise, the EZX 60 is a pretty standard headset, albeit more attractive than most. It features one-hand operation, a soft ear hook that flips and rotates for left ear use, up to 7.5 hours of talk and 300 hours of standby time. You can buy it now for just $80.

Soused and slurring, I know I’ve certainly made the regrettable Facebook status update or Tweet on my iPhone in my time, and if the latest Retrevo survey is anything to go by, it looks like I’m not alone: they claim iPhone users are twice as likely to regret making a Facebook status update as people without smartphones.

Even amongst smartphone users, in fact, iPhone users have a slight lead when it comes to the average Blackberry or Android users when it comes to making an unwise post on Facebook.

Unfortunately, these errant status updates aren’t all worth giggling about: an amazing one-third of the people who told Retrevo they regretted a post claimed it either ruined their marriage or caused strife in their home life. I’ve certainly fallen foul of the latter: it turns out girlfriends don’t appreciate it when you publicly broadcast their gastronomic failings and your own resulting gastrointestinal distress.

What about you, oh Cultists of Mac? Surely, some of our droogs must have some darkly humorous iPhone text, Tweet or Facebook mishaps to relate. The comments are as good a place as any for them!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1sdtiwCJ9s

Voters in Santa Clara County can now register via iPhone and iPad for upcoming elections.

An Oakland company called Verafirma has been pushing an app that collects signatures via iPhone, iPad and other touchscreen devices. First touted as a way to sign petitions, Verafirma works much the same way bank technology does to accept digital John Hancocks. It doesn’t store signatures electronically.  Once sent, they are printed out and when the ballot is cast, that paper signature is compared to the electronic one.

Verafirma’s efforts paid off, if just in the nick of time: the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters decided last week that voter signatures collected via electronic devices as well as those on paper are also valid. Voter registration ends May 24 for state primary elections taking place on June 8.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prf5Oy1n7iM

Think you already know all the new iPhone 4G will do?  A tip-o-the-hat to Cult of Mac reader Mario Baluci, who wrote to tell us about this short rendering of the upcoming iPhone (or what it may look like) that he created as a promo for his Make Coffee iPhone app.  Silly, but the video is nicely done.

Perhaps rev2 will control one of the webcam coffee machines still dripping away on the internet…

We here at Cult of Mac receive a ton of email asking “What’s the best _____?” or “I just got a new iP___,  tell me what sweet apps I should purchase!” Though we try to cover the vast realm of the best of Apple products, software, and accessories we know that crowdsourcing it to you guys will give us some interesting results.

We’re posting questions on our Facebook Page or Twitter profile and taking your answers into consideration. Here’s the first question of our Nerd Debates: “What’s the best iPhone case out there and why?”

Our favorite app for the iPhone, Tweetie 2, has made a quick getaway from the App Store. It looks like Tweetie 2’s new owners, Twitter, might be replacing it with it’s Twitter for iPhone app in mere moments (or this week).

The recent update to Tweetie 2 included a slot machine pop-up that would run if you pulled down to refresh. It was pretty cool the first time I experienced it-actually the first two times since you had to pull twice to see the message “Coming Soon: Tweetie will be Twitter for iPhone.”

But soon after I hated everything about it and I never wanted to see the message again. It took me a while but you can actually pull down to refresh gently enough so as not to disturb the slot machine monster that I wish would die.

Twitter for iPhone should be released tomorrow. Keep it here for the details.

Over at 9to5Mac, Jordan Golson put together this simple but illuminating pie chart illustrating Apple’s revenue breakdown by category for Q2 2010.

It really just makes everything immediately clear about Apple’s business, does’t it? The Mac and OS X are also-rans now: Apple’s present and future is the iPhone OS, which accounts for almost as much revenue as Apple’s Mac and iPod units combined. Cupertino’s moving to a mobile future, not one defined by thirty-year old, desktop-oriented expectations.

I can’t wait to see Q3’s numbers. My guess is it’s going to contradict what Apple has been saying in its advertisements all along: the iPad isn’t the future of computing. It’s the present.

Free Radical Software has just released Rhythmic for iPhone and iPod Touch. Rhythmic allows one user to transfer song information, including relevant song data and cover art, from their device to another with the same technology used to transfer contacts in the popular iPhone app Bump.

Once a track is Bumped, the recipient can choose to download the track from iTunes.

I could see this app working well at iPod nights at your local beverage dispensing establishment. Can you think of other instances when this might come in handy? I can’t. I’m also weary of the negative comments in the App Store. Fun idea, though.

If you think Apple’s dogged pursuit via a police raid of blogger Jason Chen’s was a little extreme, you’re in good company.

Uber geek and Mac user Bill Amend’s Fox Trot strip offered one explanation for Apple’s dogged pursuit of the lost iPhone.

In the Sunday strip, 10-year-old Jason Fox gets a fake ID, to use as bait for attracting tech bloggers.

But the joke’s on them and knee-jerk fan-folks, although some of us (and many of you) haven’t defended at least the superficial, brick-like looks of the lost iPhone.

Amend did say, via Twitter, that there was at least one situation where the said 12GV iPhone might come in handy…

It’s common knowledge that plugging a regular SIM into the iPad is as simple as cleaving it down to microSIM dimensions… but what if you want to use the unlimited AT&T iPad data plan on your iPhone? Over at HiJinks Inc, they’ve posted a great guide to doing just that.

At first blush, I absolutely loved this iPhone speaker dock, crafted in the GlaDOS style aesthetic of an old iMac arm. And, undeniably, it looks great.

The problem is, it’s not a speaker, per se. Instead, it uses resonance to transmit the sound from your iPod, iPhone or other MP3 player into the hard surface of the table underneath it. The audio output is rated at 12W, with a built-in amp for a bit of a boost, but the inevitable result here is still going to be terrible sound.

What a pity. I always loved the lamp-style iMac. At $42, though, this is a waste of money as anything besides a conversation piece.

To celebrate their 10th anniversary, Tivoli Audio has introduced an attractive new iPod Dock, the Connector, which allows you to hook your iPhone up to any radio… although the wood panel design of the Connector indicates that it is specifically meant to be paired with Tivoli’s own $199 Model 10 table radio.

A bit rich for our blood at $129, especially when you can hook an iPod fairly easily to any speaker system that accepts audio-in, but technology enthusiasts who have absorbed their sense of design from the aesthetics of Mike Brady’s living room might give the Connector a go.

The iPhone and iPod Touch have the industry’s best touchscreens, but some people still find the lack of true tactile feedback a barrier to adoption. Various companies have been working for a solution to that problem, but Toshiba’s new Senseg E-Sense technology seems ready for prime time now: slapped as a film on top of the display of an iPod Touch radically amplifies the tactility of objects on screen.

The film works by producing weak field changes in the area of the touchscreen touched by a user. This allows, for example, a swipe of the screen to offer the slight feel of resistance, or for an on-screen button to feel like it is actually protruding.

That’s genuinely exciting, and better yet, it’s cheap: Toshiba says that the Senseg E-Sense film, available now, costs as little as $0.11 per unit. Would you be interested in this sort of technology on your iDevice?

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_09mqhMa-g&feature=player_embedded

When Greg Hughes’ first revealed his amazing Wi-Fi Sync app a couple weeks ago, it didn’t take a genius to realize Apple was never going to let it on the App Store. Sure, there was no actual rule preventing it, but Apple has shown time and time again that they don’t want anyone messing around with iTunes sync. Plus, the very existence of the app makes Apple look bad: why the heck don’t we already have this functionality in iTunes? Apple was bound to kill it.

And so they have. Curious about Apple’s reasoning, Hughes’ even called them up, and was told that while the rep he spoke to agreed the app didn’t technically break any rule, it ” encroached upon the boundaries of what they can and cannot allow on their store.” Plus, you know, unnamed security concerns.

Still, not to fret if you’re a jailbreaker. Wi-Fi Sync was also bound to hit Cydia in case of an App Store rejection. And so it has, for a steep $9.99.

What it is: We Rule is an addictive world-building iPhone game that blends Sim City with Facebook’s Farmville. Set in medieval times, you must build a prosperous kingdom by micromanaging the peasants and expanding trade with other online players.

Why it’s good: The game blends the best empire-building aspects of Sim City with the social aspects of Farmville.

As a teenager, I was totally addicted to games like Sid Meier’s Civilization, and Sim City. Even though they had terrible graphics and long load times on my old Pentium 1 PC, the sense of being a ‘god’ and having power over all those little guys made it a deep and immersive experience. Now Ngmoco has brought this gaming experience to the iPhone.

Fruit Ninja is a super fun game from Australian developers Halfbrick Studios that is impossible to put down!

Fruit Ninja incorporates the speed and simplicity of games like Doodle Jump with an innovative control method that makes the game addictive. I love this game. The graphics look like crap but the game proves the old adage — gameplay is king!

One of my must-have apps from the iPhone is not only breaking down barriers between consumer shopping habits and the online marketplace, but also passing milestones left and right.

The top-selling barcode-scanning iPhone app RedLaser has recently passed 2 Million downloads, catered to 950K active users last month, and successfully completed 50 Million scans according to a press release by Occipital CEO Jeff Powers.

The 50 millionth scan was of a Deuter Backpack scanned by a RedLaser user in Germany.

RedLaser now has the ability to locate books at a local library via WorldCat and look up packaged food allergen and nutrition information based on the item’s barcode.

I have a feeling barcode tattoos will be making a comeback in the very near future.

[via MobileCrunch]

That Verizon iPhone we mentioned the other day? According to Digitimes, it’s already in production, with Taiwanese manufacturer Pegatron having been contracted to produce up to 10 million CDMA iPhone units a year.

The Digitimes report seems to confirm the September Verizon launch that we’d previously heard rumor about, as the new CDMA iPhone isn’t expected to contribute to Pegatron’s revenues until August or September, according to sources.

That will likely give AT&T a three month exclusive on the next iPhone. No wonder, then, that they’re pushing up their upgrade eligibility dates to late June to entice existing subscribers to sign a new contract.

Exciting stuff: if the rumors of a CDMA iPhone pan out, American iPhone owners are finally going to be able to choose their network with the same freedom that they chose their smartphone, while Apple’s iPhone profits are going to go through the roof.

[Image via BeGeek.fr]

CBS announced on Friday that they will be going the HTML5 optimized route to bring content to your iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Instead of creating a slick app like ABC’s, CBS thinks the best way to enter the post-flash mobile web is through CBS.com.

CBS Interactive SVP Anthony SooHoo confirmed to NewTeeVee.com that the 2010 Fall line-up will be available to non-flash users. I love how CBS’s move to HTML5 is based solely on the iPad:

Unlike ABC, which built an iPad app to deliver its full-length episodes and promotional clips on the device, CBS decided to focus on delivering video through its website, CBS.com. Since the Apple tablet doesn’t support Adobe Flash, CBS has created a video site for the iPad through HTML5 instead. It’s still early days, but Soohoo expects CBS to deploy more and more video that is iPad-ready, until it reaches content parity with what’s available on the website through a PC.

Interestingly enough, CBS is exploring some unique advertising opportunities to take advantage of the iPad’s multitouch capabilities.

I didn’t think anything could make me happier than Netflix coming to the iPad and soon iPhone, but I was wrong.

It’s just a mere mention, and there’s no promises or commitments, but Boxee has hinted at eventual expansion into Apple’s mobile universe. In Boxee’s post about payment system provider Vindicia, they mentioned their plans to move to the mobile platform:

Vindicia’s flexibility also makes it possible for us to enable payments on our website and across mobile platforms like the iPhone, Android and iPad. Boxee’s eventual expansion to these platforms will pave the way for universally accessible content no matter where a user is (we love this idea!).

A new iPhone app promises to help combat that up-all-night, zombie-by-day havoc jet lag brings.

Jet Lag Fighter, $1.99 on iTunes for the iPhone and iPod Touch, gives you a bunch of tools to shorten your next woozy flight hangover. (We have promo codes to give away, check our Twitter account for details).

The app offers two main strategies to attack jet lag: either sleep adjustment (getting you on schedule for the new time zone before you leave) or light therapy (telling you optimal times get out in the sunshine to lessen the lag time).

During the flight, the also app calculates ideal nap times and lengths; if there’s no light available when you need it or you skip a sleep session, the app adjusts your recovery schedule accordingly.

Hot on the heels of reports that Verizon might very well get a CDMA iPhone by September comes word from Mobilecrunch that AT&T has been tweaking its upgrade eligibility dates for the next iPhone.

Most people who purchased an iPhone 3Gs at launch were due for upgrade eligibility this November 21st, but now AT&T is pushing that date up to June 21st, 2010. Since Jobs is likely to formally announced the new iPhone at WWDC at the beginning of June, AT&T’s revised upgrade eligibility date seems like a pretty good bet for the next-gen iPhone’s official release date.

If Verizon is getting a CDMA iPhone in September, AT&T trying to get as many people to extend their contracts in the three month window after the new iPhone’s June release makes a lot of sense. They want to lock in as many existing customers as possible, before their subscribers actually have a choice. If you’re sick of AT&T’s lackluster service, you might well want to wait on taking them up on their “generous” offer to upgrade you early.

[via TUAW]