iPhone - page 468

Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s CEO, has been calling on Apple to see about extending the carrier’s deal as the exclusive US service provider for the iPhone, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Having already received a one-year extension of its original two year deal, with its current exclusivity protection set to expire sometime in 2010, AT&T is reportedly seeking to sweeten the pot somehow to keep Apple’s revolutionary mobile device out of competitors’ hands for another year.

Well, of course. AT&T added 4.3 million iPhone subscribers in the second half of 2008 alone — about 40% of whom were new customers, according to the company. In an era when landline customers are dwindling rapidly, anything that brings in new wireless subscribers is a good thing for the phone company.

But is the AT&T exclusivity deal good for anyone other than AT&T?

From Apple’s perspective it’s likely good insofar as it keeps things simple, having only one behemoth service provider to potentially screw up the tightly controlled customer experience around which much of Apple’s mystique has been been built. And to be fair, AT&T appears to have done a reasonably good job of deploying iPhones in the field. As the Apple spokeswoman in the WSJ article was quoted, “We have a great relationship with AT&T.”

But how about the consumer? Even if technical issues cannot be overcome that prevent iPhones, as they are currently manufactured, from working with Sprint and Verizon’s CDMA-based services — and surely they could be overcome in this day and age — having a choice between AT&T and T-Mobile is better than having a choice between AT&T and not using an iPhone at all.

Many people howled furiously about AT&T being the exclusive US provider when the iPhone was introduced in the summer of 2007. Looking back, it’s now easy to see how revolutionary and wildly transformative the device was; it was likely a good strategy for Apple to reduce its integration bandwidth to a single carrier in each market where it deployed the phone because it could have turned out to be more problematic a transformation than it actually was.

But now Apple has many millions of happy iPhone users the world over and it knows how its device performs in the field. It’s time for Apple to reclaim dominion over the user experience with its mobile communication device. And the single biggest change that would add to customer happiness (other than video recording capability and Flash functionality) would be to open it up up and let customers choose whatever service provider they can stand.

Apple has released new lists of the “all time” Top 20 paid and free iPhone and iPod Touch applications, as the iTunes AppStore plows on toward 1 billion total downloads.

The “all-time” designation is kind of interesting, given the AppStore has only been open less than a year, but some of the numbers coming out make an impressive case for yet another ding in the universe attributable to Steve Jobs and his little niche computer company.

The number two paid app, the lovely, meditative Koi Pond has been downloaded 900,000 times at 99¢ apiece, according to one report, certainly a nice year’s work for its developers, The Blimp Pilots.

But how about the number one paid app, the game Crash Bandicoot? Its total downloads are unreported, but one could assume a figure somewhat north of Koi Pond’s 900K — at $5.99 per copy, Crash Bandicoot must have Vivendi Games Mobile wondering how much richer they might have become had the world economy not suffered a total melt-down in the past year.

On the free side of the ledger Facebook and Google Earth run one-two, which is no surprise at all, given the worldwide popularity of those two web properties.

Apple has a giveaway contest going in conjunction with the countdown to one billion downloads, with winners slated to get a fully loaded MacBook Pro, a 32GB iPod Touch, a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card and a Time Capsule wireless hard drive.

Here’s just one of a number of interesting handmade iPhone and iPod cozys and cases from Vintage Coquette, a woman named Elizabeth, who describes herself as “a lover of all things cute and/or vintage.”

Check out her shop on Etsy – she is definitely channeling that special brand of cute with its roots in Hello Kitty and Japanese gadget-fu.

Getting physical with your iPhone may cause a short circuit from sweat. At least that’s what a couple of iPhone users in Houston complained about to “Ask Amy,” a consumer advocate segment of local news station KPRC Channel 2. (Story here.)

“I never would’ve bought a phone if I knew it would ruin the first time I got it out at the gym,” Stacie Keneker complained.

“They sell all these accessories that you are supposed to be able to use at the gym to make it convenient,” Lee Pittman, described as “peeved at Apple” said.

The news story goes on to say that  Keneker and Pittman use their iPhones at the gym to listen to music or use the calorie-counting fitness applications that come with the phone. They said Apple employees told them their sweaty palms are the likely culprit here. So far none of these consumers has gotten any relief from Apple — moisture is considered an accident, so not covered by warranty.

CNET looked further into the perspiration problem:

“On most cell phones, the sensors are located underneath a removable battery and enclosed by the cover that usually locked the battery into place. In comparison, Apple’s sensor (at the bottom of the iPhone) could easily be set off by sweat from your hands. You can see the sensor locations for a iPhone 3G in the photo above and a Nokia cell phone below for comparison.”

The easiest way to avoid the problem may be using a case that covers both the headphone jack and the docking/sync connector.

Anyone provoked a sweat-related short circuit?

Via Cnet

What they are: Utilities for iPhone. Weightbot is a weight tracker that enables you to input your weight (in US, UK or SI units), whereupon it reveals your BMI and also tracks your weight over time, automatically graphing it. Convertbot is a conversion tool for things like speed, currency and length.

Why they’re good: Neither of these apps is unique in its field, but what Tapbots have done is create utilities that make the mundane a little bit fun. Suitably mechanical sound effects pepper the apps as tasks are done, and the interfaces are beautiful and tactile. Also, in taking a unique path regarding UI, these apps are more usable than most. Weightbot is a shining example of an interface suited to iPhone—it’s perfectly intuitive, making fine use of the touchscreen and accelerometer (for example, turn your iPhone sideways to see graphs). Both apps are also stable and affordable.

Where to get them: Both apps are available from the App Store (Weightbot, Convertbot). At the time of writing, Weightbot is priced at $1.99 and Convertbot is $0.99.

U2’s lead singer Bono recently revealed in an interview with a DJ in Toronto that his ego knows no bounds. The band’s quiet break-up with Apple in favor of first Palm and now RIM? Well, it’s all because Steve Jobs wouldn’t let him help out with the hardware and software design of the U2-branded iPod.

“[RIM] is going to give us what Apple wouldn’t — access to their labs and their people so we can do something really spectacular,” Bono told Alan Cross.

Hmm. While I’ve always been impressed with U2’s ability to design an experience, ala ZooTV and the PopMart Tour, I can’t say that I have any confidence that U2’s input could have in any way, shape, or form improved the iPod. I’ll trust Apple’s creatives more than U2’s…singer.

This collaboration has fail written all over it.

Globe and Mail via Electronista via Digg

Sean Kovacs brings word of GV Mobile, his new iPhone and iPod Touch client for the Google Mobile service, which should be available early next week. Google Voice is a remarkable service built on an old start-up called GrandCentral that Le Goog acquired a few years back. Basically, it allows you to consolidate all of your phone numbers to a single number, control who can call you, screen calls, listen in to voice mail as it records, send free text messages, and transcribe your voicemail. It can even allow people to dial your phone by clicking on a link on a web page. And since it initiates calls, not just placing them, iPod touch users can create a phone call to a different device!
And GV Mobile packs most of that into a handy-dandy iPhone OS app. The video’s pretty slick, and it seems to carry over most of what makes Google Voice so much fun. For now, it’s available only to those who had GrandCentral accounts and those who know folks at Google, but this should be a great companionreplacement to the main iPhone dialer once the service goes more mainstream. Now, if only the free SMS was two-way… no one would ever pay for AT&T’s overpriced SMS plans again…
9to5Mac via Gizmodo

Well, who doesn’t like a little Michael Jackson, dancing babies and quick, snappy edits in a smartphone commercial?

But does anyone think Apple’s legal department won’t soon notice the uncanny similarities between the UI for LG’s Arena and Apple’s own iPhone?

It’s no secret that Apple loves LG displays, but whether that love extends to a willingness to overlook LG’s ripping-off the iPhone’s UI remains to be seen. On the other hand, it’s possible LG licensed the UI. Neither Apple nor LG representatives were available for comment at press time.

Text strings in the latest beta release of iPhone 3.0 software indicate support for the 802.11n wireless standard, according to several reports over the weekend.

In addition to representing an upgrade to the WiFi capabilities of yet-to-be released versions of iPhone and iPod Touch, support for Broadcom BCM4329 chips — through which 802.11n would be accessed — could improve battery life on Apple’s mobile devices. iThe iPhone and iPod Touch currently only support slower 802.11b/g networks.

Perhaps the more interesting implication of details emerging in the 3.0 beta is the promise of video recording and upload capability, a feature some have derided the iPhone for lacking in its initial releases. A recently discovered video upload screen indicates a new version of the iPhone is meant to be able to upload video to MobileMe accounts, which would no doubt come as a welcome feature upgrade for users of Apple’s web services product.

It’s possible video uploading would be supported to any server, and that Apple will also be releasing iPhone software to edit video on the fly, but even if official support for video is limited, whole new avenues for 3rd party development will open up as a result of video on the iPhone.

As others in the smartphone market struggle to catch up to Apple’s product and services offerings, it appears Steve Jobs may have been right when he said his company is already years ahead of the competition.

Sony has added what the company calls “USB 1-wire” connectivity to select models of its 2009 car audio line up, enabling direct digital connectivity for USB powered audio devices such as iPods and iPhones, as well as other MP3 players and even USB thumb drives.

If you’ve ever been frustrated by the sketchy signal provided by radio frequency car adapters such as iTrip, or been dissatisfied by the sound quality of AUX in connectivity trying to get your iPod playing in the car, Sony’s Xplod line of head units is well worth a look and listen.

“We’ve needed to do this as an industry for some time,” explained Mike Kahn, Sony director of marketing for mobile electronics at a media meet and greet in San Francisco Wednesday night. Direct digital connection of the external device to the auto sound system is quickly becoming a standard feature for manufacturers such as Sony, Alpine and Pioneer, which is no surprise given the boost in sound quality over cobbled together analog connectivity solutions of the recent past.

Sony’s gear is very price competitive with its major rivals and its USB 1-wire technology doesn’t require any special cabling – you can use your standard iPod USB cable to plug right into the head unit, browse the device’s library and select songs right from the auto unit’s controls.

USA Today ran an article Wednesday saying the Skype for iPhone app is “raising concern among public-policymakers and consumer advocates,” who are irked that Skype calls are limited to WiFi and not permitted to access cellular or 3G networks.

I’m reminded of nothing so much as Lewis CK’s appearance on Conan O’Brien’s show, in which he pointed out how amazing things are in today’s world, and yet no one is happy.

Are Apple and AT&T actually “trying to handicap” Skype, as implied by Chris Murray, senior counsel to Consumers Union? Is there an “urgent need” for Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to revisit the rules and regulations for wireless voice services?

I’m no fan of Apple’s “walled garden” approach to the AppStore, nor do I love the fact that AT&T is my only service provider option for using iPhone in the US.

But in just over 24 hours of playing with Skype on my iPhone, I feel confident in saying Skype doesn’t need congress’ help in its competition with AT&T. If people will have a little bit of patience, Skype and other VoIP service providers will soon be providing them with communications services and calling options they couldn’t have imagined just months ago.

The cat is really out of the bag now, so just find a good WiFi connection and enjoy your free Skype calling. It’s only going to get better from here on out.

It might have helped a few folks if Debt Snowball Pro, a new app coming to the iTunes app store, had been released sooner, but who can really argue with the timeliness of a tool to help eliminate debt using the “debt snowball” method endorsed by finance guru Dave Ramsey and other professionals?

You can choose to pay off debts with higher interest rates first (to save money), or those with the lowest balances (for small, motivating successes along the way). Debt Snowball Pro shows you just how much money you’ll save by choosing these methods over making minimum payments. And it keeps you up do date on how much interest you’ve saved, when your payoff dates are, and when you’ll be debt-free.

Due to be priced at $2.99, Debt Snowball Pro is similar to the Parallel Focus app Pay Off Debt (opens iTunes), which it follows into the AppStore by just two weeks.

What it is: A simplified air-traffic control game. You drag paths for aircraft to direct them to designated landing zones. The number of aircraft on-screen rapidly increases, making it harder to avoid a collision. One collision and the game ends.

Why it’s good: It’s an original concept, perfectly suited to the iPhone touchscreen, and utterly compelling. At first, it seems like the game will be a breeze, but the difficulty curve is steep, and after only 20 or so landings, you’ll find the screen full of aircraft to deal with. The game also has a great sense of humor in its presentation (including twee aircraft ‘muzak’), and, for those moments where it all gets a bit much, a handy pause button. Like Tetris, it’s a simple game that you’ll return to regularly.

Where to get it: Flight Control’s available on the App Store, and is at the time of writing on sale for $0.99. More information about the game can be found on the Flight Control website.

Here’s another next-gen iPhone concept worth pondering: Can Apple pull off adding features and functionality to the iPhone while making it even slimmer and sexier than it is today?

We’ll know soon enough, as anticipation for a June or July release event continues to build. More concepts ought to be popping up like spring flowers, too and the big design question seems to be whether any changes will be subtle, or will they push the device in an entirely new direction?

Let us know where you think Apple’s headed in comments.

[SlipperyBrick]

If you travel frequently in the US and need to book a cab, an iPhone app may be a piece of wizardry worth downloading.

Called “Taxi Magic” the app from RideCharge Inc. allows travelers to book and pay for cabs via the iPhone.

The “magic?” While a number of apps will help you find a cab telephone numbers, this one connects to taxi computer dispatch systems directly, without making a phone call, and gives you live updates on the arrival of your cab. Plus you can pay with a credit card input on the system.

The hat trick is probably most impressive for business travelers, though. While the app is free on iTunes, the service charge by operating company RideCharge is $1.50 per booking if  you pay via credit card.

Currently available for: Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Nashville, Orange Co., Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Francisco, San Jose/Silicon Valley, Seattle, St. Louis, Washington DC Area.

Via Chicago Sun-Times

Skype for iPhone is due to be announced at CTIA 2009 on Tuesday morning.

The world’s busiest long distance service provider and its new partner Apple helpfully made the free Skype for iPhone app available for download via the iTunes AppStore (opens iTunes) Monday night, and a quick lap around the track implies quite an upgrade to iPhone’s voice functionality.

Simply logging in with a user’s current Skype username and password automatically populates the mobile apps’ database with contacts, recent call history, and account information including avatar image, profile information, Skype Credit account balances, Online number information and voicemail history.

Making a call to a Skype friend is as easy and intuitive as it is from the familiar PC interface, and the sound quality on a connected call is equal to that using a headset on a PC, especially when using a headset with mic attached to the iPhone or iPod Touch.

It should be noted that Skype voice calls are dependent on the initiating caller having a strong and stable WiFi connection to place and maintain the call. Weak or intermittent WiFi connectivity will downgrade call quality and easily lead to dropped calls, and Skype will not in any way access or rely on the cell network to complete or maintain voice calls.

Another issue some may have yet to consider in championing the arrival of Skype as a watershed in mobile VoIP calling is the limitation imposed by Apple’s mobile OS that prevents more than one app from running at a time.

Should an iPhone user be engaged in a Skype call when a normal cell phone call comes in, the WiFi connection will be broken, and the Skype call automatically dropped as the cell call rings in. Absent the ability to place an iPhone in “Do Not Disturb” mode, this will remain a persistent potential problem for those relying on the iPhone’s ability to deliver voice over WiFi.

Otherwise, at first blush, Skype appears to have delivered a seamless integration of its PC-based application for making calls over IP networks.

More details will come to light as hundreds of millions of Skype users begin to make and receive calls using iPhone and iPod Touch.

It will be interesting, as well, to see how the introduction of iPhone 3.0 operating software, due this coming summer with its promise of push notification may affect Skype for iPhone’s usability.

Skype’s much-anticipated VoIP application for iPhone and iPod Touch will launch in the iTunes AppStore on Tuesday, according to a report at Cnet, which published Sunday evening a pre-launch review.

Set to go live in the AppStore in concert with its introduction at CTIA 2009, Skype’s Apple product is said to leverage a couple of nice iPhone-centric features such as being able to take a photo from within Skype to serve as your avatar image, or pulling a picture in from the camera roll — and the look and feel is less heavy on Skype branding, more attuned to other apps for Apple’s mobile platform.

The Cnet review found lack of SMS, file transfer and conference calling set-up disappointing but those features may well be forthcoming in a post iPhone 3.0 update.

The big question is whether Skype will get the VoIP ball rolling on iPhone and iPod Touch, where other apps such as Truphone, Fring and Nimbuzz, which have offered different levels of VoIP capability on the iPhone for a while already, but have yet to take off.

Muadib hasn’t posted a lot of stuff at Vimeo, but this mock-up ad for the new iPhone that you just know is coming has design sense and a bit of welcome humor, too.

How far off do you suppose the neural interface revolution is? Because you just know it’s coming.

Skype for iPhone could appear in Apple’s iTunes AppStore as soon as next week, according to a report Thursday at GigaOm.

Citing a “very reliable” source, the report says an iPhone app for Skype could launch next week at the CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas. The report notes there have been other clues suggesting such a launch, such as other VoIP services changing potential launches of their own. Which makes sense, because when it hits, Skype will immediately become the big dog in the yard with its 400+ million users world wide.

Other VoIP services, such as TruePhone and Fring already have iPhone applications but have yet to catch on as methods for bypassing the cell network to make and receive phone calls. Other applications, such as web-based RF.com are also known to be working on providing native options for VoIP calling on the iPhone.

Skype has grown to become the most well-known and widely used VoIP provider in the world and its appearance on the iPhone would impact the development of mobile VoIP as well as the business fortunes of Apple and AT&T.

[Venture Beat]

Proctor & Gamble is now behind (pardon pun) global public bathroom finder app “Sit or Squat.”  Below the list of facilities in the area, a Charmin logo appears with the phrase “Gotta Go?  Relax. We got your back.”

The app, offered gratis on iTunes, has info on where to find bathrooms, changing tables, handicap access and other amenities. Users can add new content to the service and rate featured toilets.

“Our goal is to connect Charmin with innovative conversations and solutions as a brand that understands the importance of bringing the best bathroom experience to consumers, even when they’re away from home,” explained Jacques Hagopian, Brand Manager for Charmin in the press release. “Helping people find a bathroom that is clean and comfortable is exactly what the SitOrSquat project is all about.”

So far, SitOrSquat has compiled information on more than 52,000 toilets in 10 countries worldwide. Some  1,600 users have downloaded the app, although complaints about the user interface and slow loading times are frequent.

Still, as far as corporate-sponsored apps go, it’s much better than Coke’s “spin the bottle” app or Target’s virtual snow ball.

Via textually

Apple must have the sweetest distribution deal in the entire retail universe, if a report published Wednesday at TechCrunch is to be believed.

The AppStore refund policy allows purchasers a full refund up to 90 days from the date of download of any application purchased in the iTunes AppStore. Which seems questionable enough in the light of, say, the Android Market’s 24 hour return policy.

But a clause in the developer’s contract all iPhone developers must sign in order to have their apps sold in the AppStore indicates that in addition to a three month return policy, “Apple will have the right to retain its commission on the sale of that Licensed Application, notwithstanding the refund of the price to the end user.”

In effect this means Apple will charge 100% of the sale price to a developer for every refund given, even though the developer only got 70% of the price of the sale in the first place.

Many iPhone app developers are on the record as having no problem with Apple’s 30% sales commission for applications sold through the iTunes AppStore. The thinking goes that independent developers gain access to many more potential customers by having their products in the widely visited venue, save tons of money on marketing and transaction costs and generally benefit from being associated with the legitimacy of the Apple brand.

When consumers get wind of this policy, which may be a new development, according to the TechCrunch report, developers of some widely purchased though basically useless apps could be in for a rude awakening.

UPDATE: No developer is likely to go bankrupt in the real world, according to a level-headed explanation posted Thursday by Erica Sadun, a developer/blogger for ArsTechnica.

The reason, which makes perfect sense when you think about it, is that Apple never gives refunds, except in extreme circumstances and then, only after causing the customer many headaches.

All the Fart app people can rest easy now.

There have been a number of stories recently about doctors armed with iPhones, using the device to save time and start making the almost extinct house call come back.

Business Week got on the case with a long feature about “Dr. iPhone,” calling it a “critical tool for saving time and improving the quality of the care” provided by the doc profiled, Dan Diamond, a family practitioner who works at the Doctors Clinic in Silverdale, Washington.

“If I leave my iPhone at home, I will turn around and go back for it,” he says. “It’s that important.”

Of 22 applications Diamond has installed on his iPhone, 10 are health related. The most important, he says, is Epocrates Essentials, which lets him quickly check for drug interactions, look up disease symptoms and find out what lab tests he might need to order. “I don’t have everything I need to know memorized,” Diamond says. “This makes me look like I do.”

Interesting that traditional media is looking into how smart phones change the medical profession — just like they are changing police work and other sectors  —  but how many docs use them?

Photo credit: Lezlie Sterling [email protected]

The subtle humor of New Yorker Cartoons are now available in an iPhone app in animated form. Michael Fry and long-time feature animation writer and producer Jim Cox bring the strips as films, one a day, offered on iTunes gratis at this writing.

Via Textually

UPDATE: This post corrects a post written and originally published on 4/18 that contained incorrectly attributed information.

The single most talked about and demonstrated feature of iPhone 3.0 software at Tuesday’s launch event — push notification — remains absent from the beta release distributed to developers, with no indication thus far forthcoming from Apple when it will become available.

Scott Forstall, Apple’s Senior VP for iPhone software spent over half an hour Tuesday extolling the virtues of push notification and explaining why — although promised by the company over a year ago — it has taken so long to roll out. Developer “demand we didn’t anticipate” caused Apple to “completely re-architect the server infrastructure for push notification,” he said.

Developer representatives from a half dozen companies were trotted out for a dog and pony show to demonstrate how amazing push notification is going to be in the next version of iPhone software, and yet, despite distributing documentation of how the service is intended to work, Apple has yet to provide developers a method for implementing and testing push notification in their apps.

Forstall spoke plainly in his presentation Tuesday (see 26:45 into the video) “It is now really scalable, and we’re ready to go.”

Apparently not.

Calls to Apple for explanation were not returned as of press time, but we’ll be sure to keep readers apprised as this story develops.

Hey, “festering dumpster biscuit,” I’m talking to you. Or at least I would be, if I’d shelled out $.99 for the Mud Slinger app.

Mud Slinger puts over a million different combos of contemptuous rudeness at your fingertips. Some are funny, none are really obscene and most would be challenging to  shout at the guy who just cut you off in traffic.

A few results from the “Unspeakably Foul Insult Generator”:
* Mutant rump worm penetrator
* Closeted dingle berry strainer
* Cretinous bubble jam
* Leaking member fondler
* Pulsating dill-knob fluid

Via TMC net