Archive for September, 2007

In case the completely obvious wasn’t all that obvious, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster released a report to clients that Apple was still selling iPhones at a higher-than-expected level, following the September 5 price cuts. The 33% price cut heard ’round the world was followed by a 300% increase in iPhone sales, but it seems to have died down to around a 70%-100% increase, compared to the pre-price-drop demand. Analysts had predicted that increased demand would stabilize to a sustained 50% increase over previous demand. Munster expects Apple to sell 1.05 million iPhones by the end of September.

Is it really surprising that cutting the price of the (arguably) most desirable phone to launch in the US was followed by feverish sales? Considering the spend-happy culture that is American society, we think it makes a lot of sense. Afterall, the iPhone is going to be a staple of many Christmas wishlists this year.

[Via: MacDailyNews]

And they just keep coming in. The latest iPhone-related lawsuit is aimed not only at the iPhone maker, but at the exclusive iPhone carrier (AT&T), as well as Mr. Steve Jobs himself. The suit was filed on September 24 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Queens. The plaintiff, Dongmei Li, alleges that the iPhone “trio” is guilty of price discrimination, underselling, discrimination in rebates, and deceptive actions in the recent iPhone price cuts that left early iPhone adopters feeling the pain of the $200 hit.

What motivated Li to pursue legal action? Well, first she waited in the launch-day line for the iPhone. Then she found that the store only had 4GB iPhones in stock, so she bought one - which isn’t exactly a horrible story. But then Apple slashed the price of the 8GB iPhone and discontinued the 4GB model - leaving Li with an unsellable, discontinued iPhone model.

The complaint mentions that discrimination comes into play because Li was only offered the $100 store credit while those that had purchased their iPhones two-weeks prior to the price cut were refunded $200 in cash. Furthermore, historical analysis of Apple’s stock price (which Li provided in the 8-page complaint) outlined Apple’s incredible stock-market gains in the time period preceding the price cut. Apple had no financial reason to cut prices, and Li reasoned that the price drop amounted to nothing more than “underselling.”

If Ms. Li is to win her $1 million (in compensatory damages) case against Apple, Steve Jobs, and AT&T, she definitely won’t have to worry about buying another 8GB iPhone (or a dozen) at the new price. This lawsuit seems to be the most legit case that anyone has filed against Apple. We’re not sure if “underselling” is a prosecutable offense, but Li and her attorney sure do make a good case. It’s too bad she didn’t opt to go the class-action lawsuit-route - so that we could all benefit, should she win.

[Via: Apple Insider]

We’ve already posted that the latest iPhone firmware version (1.1.1) is now live and that you can update your beloved handset at any time you want. On one side you’ll get an access to the WiFi iTunes Music store, improved security and louder volume; while on the other, you’ll lose all your favorite native third party applications, hence limiting the iPhone to Web 2.0 apps and services. Is it worth it? I don’t think so, and so does Gizmodo which prepared some very neat illustrations. From there you’ll see why you shouldn’t go the route of the latest firmware update — or, that’s at least we don’t see this firmware hacked as well…

[Via: Gizmodo]

Roughly a week ago, we spotted first screenshots of the Meizu’s MiniOne M8 user interface. As you’re about to see, the screenshots looks kinda familiar. Forget that, they look so iPhone-ish that I’m sure Apple’s lawyers are rejoicing as we speak for the additional cash they’re about to make. Truth to be said, there are some differences, but most of them are so minor that this will most likely be one of the Apple’s cleanest cases. I just don’t understand Meizu where they think this leads…

Make sure to check more images on Engadget.

Wait, didn’t Orange and Apple just announce their partnership to bring the Apple iPhone to France? In fact, they did - just last week. But, according to Reuters, the two companies are still struggling to come to agreeable terms in the revenue sharing model that Apple is demanding from all potential iPhone carriers. With T-Mobile Germany rumored to be giving 30% of revenues, and O2 UK reported to be giving up a massive 40% of their iPhone revenue to Apple, we imagine Orange is under some heavy pressure to agree to considerable kick-backs.

For Orange and French iPhone fans’ sake, these negotiations had better wrap up pretty damn quickly. The holiday shopping season is almost upon us and it would be a shame for the French to have to resort to buying unlocked iPhones on eBay (pre-v1.1.1-update iPhones, that is).

[Via: Reuters]

Just as we expected, Apple has opened the flood gates on the newest iPhone update (barely getting it in before the week’s end). We’re now in the world of the iPhone version 1.1.1 and it’s looking better than ever. Tipping the scales at a massive 153MB download (via iTunes), the new iPhone v1.1.1 firmware brings the highly anticipated WiFi iTunes Music Store application, enhanced security (which means all current unlocking solution are effectively dead), and increased volume (yes!).

We’re still going to advise all you iPhone unlockers out there to wait on installing this update, as you run the considerable risk of bricking your iPhone. It looks like Apple wasn’t fibbing when they said that applying this update to an unlocked iPhone would cause irreparable damage. Many unlocked iPhone users out there are reporting that, even though the update process itself went smoothly, the iPhone threw an error message upon rebooting. It’s up to you, but if it were us, we’d wait on the iPhone Dev Team to release their unlock-reversing software sometime next week.

And all you third-party app fans with Installer.app installed, take heed - the iPhone v1.1.1 update will wipe out all natively installed applications. Having Installer.app and any third-party apps installed on your iPhone doesn’t seem to affect the update process - you won’t have to remove them prior to updating, but any non-Apple components will be wiped from existence. If you like all those cool little applications on your iPhone, don’t update until the boys at Nullriver have figured out how to make everything play nicely with v1.1.1 (if it’s even possible).

There are also mixed reports of the new update disabling Ambrosia Software’s iToner ringtone-making software. So take that for what it’s worth.

Here’s a quick rundown of new features in the iPhone v1.1.1 update:

• iTunes Wi-Fi music store
• Louder speakerphone and receiver volume
• Home button double-click shortcut to phone favorites or music controls
• Space bar double-tap shortcut to intelligently insert period and space
• Mail attachments are viewable in portrait and landscape
• Stocks and cities in Stocks and Weather can be re-ordered
• Apple Bluetooth Headset battery status in the Status Bar
• Support for TV Out
• Preference to turn off EDGE/GPRS when roaming internationally
• New passcode lock time intervals
• Adjustable alert volume

Again, if you’ve unlocked your iPhone for use on non-AT&T networks, DO NOT UPDATE. It will brick your iPhone. Wait until the iPhone Dev Team figures things out.

But, if you want to try out the WiFi iTunes Music Store, louder speakerphone and receiver volume, TV-out, and the nifty double-tap shortcut feature, go ahead and update your iPhone. Just to be safe, uninstall those third-party apps - better safe than sorry, we always say.

TruPhone's recent announcement of their alpha version of the iPhone VoIP solution really had us excited about saving tons of wireless minutes by using a SIP-compatible VoIP client on our iPhones.

Well, now we have a video demonstrating how the TruPhone iPhone VoIP will work. You just dial a number through the iPhone's keypad dialer and the TruPhone software will route the call through the iPhone's SIP stack and through the VoIP network when you're within range of a WiFi network - with seamless, automatic switching back to using the SIM card when you're out of WiFi range.

[Via: VoIPWatch]

Rumors are flying around the various internets that Apple is working on a Tablet computer. We're hearing everything from Apple working on reviving the Newton PDA to reports that Apple is working on a full-fledged Tablet computer endowed with the multi-touch and Mac OS X goodness that only Apple can bring us. With Apple's success on the multi-touch enabled iPhone and iPod Touch, it would be easy for the Cupertino company to make the jump to a larger screen.

Now, this is firmly still within the realm of rumor and hearsay, but if these rumors pan out, we could see an Apple Tablet computer by 2008. Full-screen multi-touch on a Mac OS X computer with integrated HSDPA? Be still our hearts.

Apple has most likely been working on something like this for quite some time now (there have been rumors of an Apple Tablet for years). The question remains, will Apple get this thing out of the lab and onto the market? We can only hope.

[Via: Apple Insider]

If you’re an iPhone-owning Google Calendar/Reader/Mail addict, then you’ll be glad to hear that Google has tweaked their Calendar, Reader and Mail web-applications to work more nicely with the iPhone’s Safari browser.

The new Mobile Gmail interface has lost a bit of weight and now loads pretty quickly. Google Reader has also dropped some weight to work speedily with the iPhone (even over EDGE, and it’s blazing over WiFi). And Google Calendar shows you all you calendar events as color-coded entries to make it easier to see what’s on your agenda with a quick glance.

Google sure is working hand-in-hand with Apple. They’ve got the entire gamut of productivity services locked-down on the iPhone, even if Google Calendar and Google Mail are a bit redundant with the iPhone’s own apps.

[Via: iPhone Central]

The iPhone-optimized Facebook site works incredibly well on the iPhone (as it should), but the developers missed one little thing - a feature to upload images to your profile. Well the good guys at pxPipe.com has released an iPhone service that will upload photos to your Facebook account.

Head on over to pxPipe.com and create an account. You'll be given a special email address (youremail@pxPipe.com). Any photos emailed to that account will be forwarded and posted on your Facebook account.

It might be good idea to add that new pxPipe.com email to your contacts list so that you can easily send pictures to that email address by hitting the "Share" button from your Camera or Photo Album app.

If you're experiencing problems getting your iPhone to sync with your Microsoft Outlook data, Apple's got a Knowledge Base article that might fix the problem.

Try opening up the Outlook application prior to sync. If you haven't already done so, you'll want fire up the setup wizard to get your Outlook Profile squared away. Once that's done, go ahead and plug in your iPhone to sync with Outlook via iTunes.

Here's the text from Apple:

“After creating the profile, then perform another sync. The contacts and/or calendar events from the iPhone should now appear in Outlook. This occurs because Microsoft Outlook does not create a file for contacts or calendar events until after it has been opened. Until the database file has been created, there’s no place for iPhone contacts and/or calendar events to sync to.”

Hope this helps some of you out there struggling with Outloook synchronization!

Apple has made it abundantly clear that they don't want iPhone owners to unlock their iPhones or install third-party applications. They've gone so far as to suggest that the upcoming iPhone update will turn your iPhone into a $400 (or $600, depending on when you bought it) paper-weight if you've previously unlocked your iPhone.

With the new update slated to enable the WiFi iTunes Music Store feature later this week, iPhone owners will undoubtedly be eager to install the new update. However, that leaves all those unlocked iPhone fans out in the cold. What's an iPhone-rebel to do? Forego the update and sacrifice added features and safety for an unlocked GSM radio? Well, the iPhone Dev Team (the guys responsible for the free iPhone software unlock solution) has announced that, not only will they be releasing an iPhone re-lock (to reverse the unlock process), but they'll be hard at work to find a new way to crack the baseband radio.

Here's the post on the iPhone Dev Team wiki:

“When the 1.1.1 firmware detects that the modem baseband has been modified it will may turn the Iphone into a Ibrick and it will may not be able to make calls (according to Apple). Users who have unlocked they’re phones should not update (their) firmware when it comes up later this week (Within the next few days). This will also restrict the Jailbreak method. (Which will probably take a few days to find a work around). To the DEV team: Please start the AnySim 1.0.2 PXL package for the new firmware. Apple Iphone users around the world NEED YOU!”

Fear not, iPhone-rebel, the iPhone Dev Team's got your back. Just hold off on that update until you can revert your iPhone back to its virgin state. Unless you want to try that iPhone re-lock hack that we mentioned yesterday.

We love Alyssa Milano, she’s hot. And she’s rockin’ an iPhone in this picture - that makes us love her even more. That’s all we got, enjoy.

[Via: Macenstein]

Getting SIP-compatible VoIP to work seamlessly on the iPhone is about to become a reality. Blognation got a chance to play with a barely-alpha release of TruPhone’s VoIP application for the iPhone, and it looks quite promising.

TruPhone envisions a world where mobile phone users will be able to seamlessly switch between VoIP and SIM-based calls on a whim (WiFi connection required, of course), and the company is hard at work developing their beta solution for the iPhone. As of now, the TruPhone VoIP solution requires the use of Terminal commands via the iPhone to use the iPhone’s SIP-stack to make phone calls through WiFi rather than the SIM card - but we’re hoping that future version will make the whole process a little more user-friendly.

SIM-unlocking the iPhone is not required to use TruPhone’s VoIP solution, and the company says they plan to release a beta in 4 weeks. We’re expecting the beta application to simplify the activation process and support seamless switching between WiFi and SIM.

Bring it on, TruPhone! We can’t wait to save our wireless minutes at home or near a WiFi hotspot - watch out T-Mobile.

[Via: Blognation]

If you've the need to do a full restore on your iPhone (which you'll want to do prior to taking it in for service at an Apple Store), you'll need to come to terms with losing all those SMS text messages. Likewise, if you've hit the 1000 SMS text message limit on the iPhone, you'll find yourself needing to delete some messages to make room for new messages. That is, unless you use the MobileSyncBrowser to save all those precious text messages.

You see, every time you sync your iPhone with your computer, iTunes creates a backup of all the SMS text messages, call history, and notes on your iPhone. What MobileSyncBrowser does is allows you to view these iTunes-backups and export them to an archive folder on your Mac laptop or desktop.

Nice and easy. Now you don't have to worry about hitting the SMS text message capacity or taking the iPhone in for service. Just run MobileSyncBrowser and your back up and running in no time.

Check out MobileSyncBrowser here.