TheApple iPhone 3G S is now available online in 16GB and 32GB varieties priced at £799.99 and £899.99 respectively. There's probably not a whole heap of people that don't know the 3G S' vitals by now, but in case you've been in a cave, its particulars include:
Naturally, a large appeal of the iPhone lays in-waiting at the iTunes app store, with thousands of various functional and gaming apps.
With a seriously steep price tag that's roughly equivalent to a decent spec laptop, you're going to have to have a fairly serious phobia of O2 and contracts in general to shell out the reddies for this up-front.
If that sounds like you, then head on over to the Play.com website to peruse its wares.
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Turns out the monthly fee is a hassle to some. True, AT&T is simply the conduit for the underlying service from TeleNav in Sunnyvale, Calif. But the carrier still is getting some grief from consumers. One reviewer at ComputerWorld argued that the "free" iPhone app was a "Trojan horse into your wallet." (It's free to install but costs $9.99 a month to use.)
The broader question is whether consumers, who have grown used to free or very inexpensive apps that do a dizzying array of high-tech tasks, will still go for a subscription model. For AT&T and TeleNav, their competitors are TomTom, which showed off its turn-by-turn app last month at the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference but has yet to announce a pricing structure, and Google Maps, which provides directions for free but doesn't have some of the bells and whistles of TeleNav. There are also the traditional GPS devices, which cost as little as $99.99, no monthly fee required.
Tell us where you would turn for directions. Would you pay 10 bucks a month for a service on your iPhone? Or would a frills-free Google Maps app work just as well?
Apple already is gearing up for a new OS updateIt didn't take Apple long after the release of its iPhone OS v3.0 to begin preparing for the first major update to the new OS. Apple has announced the availability of a beta of its OS v3.1 along with a 3.1 version SDK, for its developers.
IPhone OS v3.1 will improve video editing, one of the hot new features on the iPhone 3G S. The 3G S allows users to edit videos by selecting or deselecting series of frames, however, the edits automatically overwrote the original. Now the system prompts the user with the option to save a copy, when saving your editing work.
Arranging icons on the home screen also has had a cool vibration effect added. Another little OS level tweak is the boot time -- the phone now boots considerably faster.
Another nice addition is the inclusion of paste into the dialing screen. Users can now paste phone numbers into the dial box. Alphanumeric numbers, such as 1-800-MY-APPLE, will be properly converted to phone numbers.
MMS functionality is supported in the beta, though it is still not supported on the network by AT&T. The beta's final major addition is the ability to use Voice Control via a Bluetooth headset.
Lately, the number of travelers who are accompanied by their canines has increased so dog friendly information has become a hot commodity. In the past there were informative but not necessarily mobile user friendly Dog Lovers Companion guide books, the Dog Friendly website and Bay area’s Dining with Sophie website. More recently, lucky iPhone mobile users have found imper
iPhone SMS vulnerability could allow malicious users to install and execute malware.Recently, Apple has struggled with the security ramifications of a higher commercial profile, and seeing an increasing number of OS X malware. Now another security flaw has been found, this time in the iPhone OS. The flaw allows attackers to gain root access to the iPhone's underlying OS, allowing them to install and execute malicious programs at will.
The iPhone apparently automatically executes binary code sent in SMS messages. Messages are limited to 140 bytes, but this is little deterrence as longer programs can be broken up into several messages, which the phone automatically reassembles. While other applications such as the Safari browser on the phone only enjoy access to their sandbox, the SMS system is automatically granted root access, and SMS commands execute as root.
Charlie Miller, during a presentation at the SyScan conference in Singapore on Thursday introduced the vulnerability to the public. He declined to go into specific details or offer his proof-of-concept code to the public, as he has entered under an agreement with Apple. Mr. Miller did state, "SMS is a great vector to attack the iPhone."
Apple finally responds to reports about its heat issuesApple has been having plenty of headaches lately with its MacBook Pro displays failing and experiencing distortion. Worse yet is the iPhone 3G S's quality problems, which include reported overheating and signal issues.
The overheating was first noted in Apple support forums. Soon, though, writers at several tech publications -- PC World, Wired, Le Journal Du Geek and The Telegraph -- began to notice the problems on their own phones. The Le Journal Du Geek writer posted pictures of a white phone and noticed that the overheating was so severe that it colorized the plastic. The heat tended to turn the case pink or brown.
Now, Apple has at last issued a response and it is assigning the blame for the problem on its users' behavior, sunlight, and on the seasons. Apple says that leaving the device in a car on a hot day is one possible culprit causing its phone to overheat. Apparently, like a vampire the phone is no friend of the sun -- Apple states that "leaving it in direct sunlight for extended amounts of time" may cause it to overheat
One of the most popular desktop Twitter clients now has a little brother. The free iPhone version of TweetDeck will no doubt be greeted with open arms by users of its older sibling, but I'm not convinced it's the best iPhone Twitter client. Though it looks great, it lacks some cool features found in TwitterFon and Twitterrific, which were designed from the ground up for Apple's mobile phone. But I do like TweetDeck's support for multiple accounts, as well as the clever, if gimmicky, shake-to-update feature.
The iPhone is hot, and not just because it's overheating -- its also hot because it has some of the best handheld games on the market. In this first edition of our iPhone gaming update we look at what's new on the App store scene and what games are selling the best.This week's top 15 paid apps are:
- Hero of Sparta (Gameloft)
- Sally's Spa (Games Cafe Inc.)
- Flight Control (Firemint)
- StoneLoops! of Jurassica (PlayCreek)
- Real Soccer 2009 (Gameloft)
- Fast & Furious The Game (I-Play)
- Bejeweled 2 (PopCap Games, Inc.)
- Doom Resurrection (id Software)
- Bloons (Digital Goldfish Ltd.)
- Knights Onrush (Chillingo Ltd.)
Honorable Mentions:
Tetris (17), Sally's Salon (13), The Sims 3 (20), and F.A.S.T. Fleet Air Superiority Training (11)
Connect your iPhone normally. Click “make it ra1n”. Wait. On bootup, run Freeze, the purplera1n installer app.
The iPhone 3G S was one of the biggest gadget launches of the year when it hit store shelves last month. Other notable launches during the month included the Palm Pre, hyped as one of the best competitors to the iPhone.
Consumer Reports has released its top smartphone rankings reports InformationWeek and the ever popular iPhone 3G S has taken the top spot in the rankings. Consumer Reports does point out that while the iPhone 3G S has taken the top spot; the rankings were very close with the Palm Pre and the Blackberry Storm on its heels.
Consumer Reports ranks the iPhone 3GS tops based on what it calls "top-notch" multimedia navigation, web browsing, and battery life. The publication also reports that the 3G S excels in display quality. The Pre on the other hand was bolstered in the rankings with superior multitasking, while the Storm bested the iPhone in messaging.
Consumer Reports also changed its ranking criteria with the new smartphone rankings release. The change in scoring means that some smartphones like the Blackjack II from Samsung and the Pearl Flip from Blackberry dropped in ranking while the iPhone 3G rose in the ranks.
If you are the owner of an iPhone or iPod touch and would like to download an app or two onto your device today, but don’t know which one, maybe we can help. We’ve picked out three of the most recent apps added to the iTunes App Store. They’re all free to download and install, as long as you have an iTunes account.Sirius XM
Confirmed as downloaded over a million times, Sirius XM lets you listen to exclusive music with dedicated artist channels, live performances, and music covering every genre right on your device, anywhere you are. As a Sirius or XM subscriber, streaming to your iPhone and iPod touch is free with your Premium Sirius Internet Radio or Premium XM Radio Online subscription.
To start listening, simply type your Premium Online Username and Password into the application. Although the application is free to download and install on your device, Sirius XM does require a paid subscription.
Download Sirius XM via iTunes (Free)
Vlingo
Using innovative speech-recognition technology, Vlingo lets iPhone users dial their contacts, search the Web, look up numbers and maps for local listings, and send status updates for Facebook and Twitter – all with the power of voice, according to the developer with the same name. Users do not need to change how they speak, or to memorize a list of commands, as the application captures the results word for word. With more features to be added in the following months, Vlingo currently offers the following benefits:
- Initiate calls to anyone in one's address book.
- Search for anything through Yahoo! or Google.
- Look up and map local listings.
- Update one's Facebook and Twitter status updates without typing.
Download Vlingo via iTunes (Free)
Travel Diary
Travel Diary works to your benefit, as it allows you to take a picture and immediately save it with details including location, the time it was taken and even comments. Instead of using the iPhone's camera application, simply fire up Travel Diary and take your pictures.
The app also allows you to browse through your pictures either from an interactive list or in full-screen mode. Since it uses your device’s camera, the app is not supported on the iPod touch.
An update version of iPhone 3.0 graphic user interface (GUI) in Photoshop PSD format is released along with Apple’s official release of the new iPhone 3.0 software as new soft came with a number of new graphic elements. It’s all still fully editable. Download from here.
Some of the changes and additions in the 3.0 PSD include:
• Map and map elements including curl
• Copy and paste elements
• Timeline bar editor
• Horizontal iPhone
• Horizontal Panels bars and keyboards
If you plan to use advertising to promote your iPhone app, don't expect to break the top 100 without paying a pretty penny.
To do so, it will cost $1,875 a day, according to Adwhirl, which aggregates a handful of ad networks to help publishers monetize their apps on the iPhone. (If you remember, Adwhirl recently got attention for sparing with AdMob about its policies on aggregators).
Since paying that big sum is not practical, Adwhirl has another suggestion: develop a free iPhone app that will generate a large user base, and then leverage those users it to drive traffic to your paid app. The idea is not super original. Game companies commonly offer free versions to get people hooked in hopes of converting them over to paying customers. However, Adwhirl does a good job of explaining why. More on that after the jump....
Adwhirl writes in its blog that this approach works because it takes about only 2,500 downloads a day to become one of the most downloaded free apps for a particular category-which is more attainable than becoming a top paid app. "For us, the solution was simply to release a few free apps, which quickly gain many ?throwaway? users and offer an effective channel to advertise the apps that were important to us." But why are free apps easier to get users for? Because right now, only a quarter of all apps are free, even though they generate 95 percent of all downloads.
The iPhone 3G S has enjoyed tremendous popularity thanks to its powerful hardware, slick (and abundant) applications, and new features. However, it has also had its problems with overheating and signal strength. Now a new problem has been rearing its ugly head -- poor battery life.For a mobile gadget, especially cell phones, battery life is critical. And when it comes to battery life, many are finding the iPhone to come up unexpectedly short. Apple's support forums are seeing a large volume of battery-related gripes. Writes one user, npshenoy2, "My charge did not last from morning to evening with a very moderate usage of checking mails just 5 times in a day and 10 minutes of YouTube video. All this was on Wi-Fi with 3G turned off."
Theories about the cause are becoming abundant as well. Brian X. Chen of Wired.com believes that the problem is caused by a defective batch of hardware. Meanwhile, The Examiner's Daniel Nations blames the iPhone OS v3.0 update for the problems. He based this theory on the fact that the first reports surfaced after the update.
There's only one Twitter, and there's only one iPhone OS, but for some reason there are more iPhone Twitter apps than you can shake a stick at. We took a look at the best free ones, and discovered that you can get quite a lot for your lack of money—as long as you don't mind an occasional banner ad or prompt to upgrade to a paid version.
Twitter may be simple—posting 140-character messages and reading them from your contacts isn't very involved—but you'll still need to ask a lot of questions to find the mobile app that's right you. Can it display hot trending topics? Does it let you follow and unfollow others? Does it have an integrated Web browser? Can it shorten your tweets? Does it let you easily post a Web address you saw in Safari? Does it allow multiple accounts and UI themes?
Some iPhone apps even let you do things you can't when tweeting from your PC. Most can display "nearby" tweets, even letting you decide how near or far their maximum distance should be. You can include your exact location with your tweets; some apps, such as the excellent Twitterrific, also let you include a map link.
These apps also let you tweet a photo taken on the spot with your iPhone, but none of the free ones lets you post video from your 3GS —currently only the exorbitant ($5) Twittelator Pro lets you do that. We'll be posting an in-depth review of that as well as of another paid app, the crowd-pleaser Tweetie, in the near future. But as you'll see in the reviews below, there's a free Twitter client that will please all but the most demanding tweeps.
The newest version of the iPhone was just released and over 1 million units have already been snatched up. Besides the games your kids will probably load on it for you, a ton of valuable apps will make your life easier. Here’s 3 more automotive iPhone apps everyone should add to their phone. These applications help you shop for used cars, help reduce the stress of an accident and help locate the lowest gas prices in your area. And the best part, they’re all free.Web2Carz
Browse used cars with this simple, yet detailed search application. Enter the desired make/model and the distance to search based on your current location; sort the results by price, year or mileage for quick organization. Add additional filters based on your maximum price or maximum mileage.
For some, even the newly expanded 11 Home Screen, 180 (including 4 fixed dock) app slots under iPhone 3.0 isn’t enough. It’s not about need — it’s about want. Luckily, iPhone 3.0 offers another handy, theoretically unlimited way to access apps: Spotlight. According to David Pogue:
You can install UNLIMITED APPS! Only 180 show up as icons—but Spotlight can find and open all of them! (And yes, we tried. Stopped at 250!)So, check off every single one of your 56,000 (maybe?!) apps and sync them over. Then, instead of swiping right through 11 pages only to find the excess unaccessible, swipe LEFT to go to the Spotlight Search screen (or just press the home button again to get there super quick)
Did you know that owning an iPhone makes you a better person? It’s true. The Department of Made-up Statistics and Lies (DMSL) recently published a study, which claims that male iPhone users who identify with the “gamer lifestyle” are happier, healthier, and have slightly larger penises than their non-iPhone-owning counterparts. Surprised? We are. Because even though we’ve been spending more time gaming on our iPhone, our penises never felt smaller.
Another more concerning problem: most of the Lite demos and free game apps we’ve come across are just too miserly with the amount of content they give you. There’s something about getting slapped in the face with an advertisement to upgrade after we’ve only played for a few minutes that makes us want to delete the app and forget that we ever downloaded it in the first place. Plus, we’re broke from buying an iPhone in the first place! That’s why we sorted through all the free apps we could find to bring you the real gems that are actually worth downloading.
The following are the top 148 free games in all sub categories in the iTunes App Store based on downloads over the past 24 hours by iPhone users in the United States. An RSS Feed is also available.Wooden Labyrinth 3D Free
Price: $0.00
Released: 2009-02-21 in the Games category
Rope'n'Fly Lite
Price: $0.00
Released: 2009-07-07 in the Games category
Assassin’s Creed Altaïr’s Chronicles Free!
Price: $0.00
Released: 2009-06-22 in the Games category
Its easy to forget sometimes that the iPhone is also an iPod, but with the ever growing collection of music applications, you can get yourself an endless supply of music for “the best iPod yet” (as Steve Jobs like to say).The iPod Touch and iPhone can give you as much free music as you can handle with the following 40 applications we’ve gathered up for you. We also included a few free ones that can help you figure out the lyrics are to your favorite songs, or even help you identify a song you hear on the radio. Why not turn your iPhone into the ultimate music machine?
Please note that all of these links go directly to the page in the iTunes store so clicking them will launch iTunes.
iPhone International Music Applications
95.8 Capital Radio: A top radio station from London, England.Classical Philippines Radio: Plays a selection of classic Philippines musical styles
iBZH: Five radio stations serving all of the Brittany territory and surrounding area featuring a mixture of music and news.
Life Radio: Life Radio is the number one radio station is Austria, and this application features multiple streams from the popular station including 1980’s, love songs and more.
Mx3.ch Mobile: An app featuring streaming music from Swiss musical acts and information on upcoming gigs around based on your iPhone’s GPS location.
RadyoD: A privately owned radio station in Turkey streaming music and news from the country 24/7.
RMC2: Radio Monte Carlo comes out of Italy and features portions of the programming in English and Italian.
Rock Antenne: Broadcasting out of Germany, Rock Antenne broadcats in English, German, Italian and
Spanish.
SlowTurk: A Turkish station broadcasting nothing but love songs.
iPhone Lyrics Applications
Lyrical: Lyrical will automatically find the lyrics for the song you are listening to as soon as you launch it. The app will also let you search for lyrics for songs not in your library by entering the artist, song title or even just a few words from the song.LyricMate: Powered by LyricWiki, LyricMate will show you lyrics for a song you are listening to, cache lyrics for offline reading and more.