Apple iPhone 5

What Will iPhone 5 Offer?

The tech world is abuzz with rumors about Apple’s upcoming iPhone 5, most likely the next in its famous line of smartphones. The exact release date and specs of the iPhone 5 are still not certain, but a number of persistent rumors point to some highly probable details of the much anticipated device.

A New Look?

Until recently, the closest anyone outside of Apple could get to knowing the appearance and form of the iPhone 5 was through countless mockups by designers with no connection to Apple, faint rumors, and other near-fantasy. However, Apple may have recently revealed the iPhone 5′s new look on accident.

The beta of their new Photo Stream program shows an icon of an iPhone-like device, but there is no precedent for its details. It has a rounded rectangular Home button, in contrast to the circular button seen on all previous iOS devices. This button has been vertically truncated to compensate for the new screen size; the screen stretches to cover nearly the entire front surface of the device, with the camera and speaker pushed up to the very top to compensate. Mockups created with this icon as a blueprint indicate that the body of the iPhone 5 is smaller than the iPhone 4, but that the screen is larger, perhaps 4 inches.

Still the Best Screen with Maybe the Best Camera

Even though it has a larger screen, the iPhone 5 is unlikely to have a higher screen resolution than the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4′s infamous 960×640 “Retina” screen is still unparalleled among smartphones in terms of dots per inch, and even if this resolution is spread out from 3.5 inches to 4 inches it will still rank among the densest displays in the touchscreen smartphone world. Another popular rumor is that the iPhone 5 will improve on the iPhone 4′s 4-megapixel camera, doubling its resolution to 8 megapixels, which is the latest standard for high-end smartphones.

Worldwide Compatibility but No LTE

The iPhone 5 is almost guaranteed to be a “world phone,” capable of receiving calls from both CDMA and GSM networks. Verizon’s CFO has hinted at this dual network functionality. Also, a popular app developer who logs use of his apps has reported detecting iOS devices sporting two distinct sets of mobile network codes (MNC) / mobile country codes (MCC) for Verizon and AT&T. The iPhone’s ability to receive signals from the two most popular network styles will make traveling around the world while receiving calls with an iPhone much easier. However, there is no indication that the iPhone 5 will support LTE, and therefore will not have the potential connection speed of 4G devices.

Processing Power

Just as the iPhone 4 inherited the original iPad’s single-core A4 processor, it is likely the iPhone 5 will contain the iPad 2′s dual-core A5 processor. Older apps won’t directly take advantage of the dual-core, although they won’t be so easily hamstrung by background tasks. Benefits will be most noticeable for new apps that feature both complex rendering and complex processing, like games and media production apps.

SIM Only plans may be available for the iPhone 5. AT&T, the iPhone’s longest-standing carrier in the United States, has been offering these plans for several years. This will allow users with existing SIM Only plans to trade up to the iPhone 5 on their own terms, or to easily replace the iPhone 5 with an even more advanced phone sometime in the future. Such plans also tend to have cheaper rates and are not bound by contracts.

The iPhone 5 is heavily rumored for a mid-October release. This will coincide with Sprint’s adoption of iPhones and the finished production of ad agency TBWAChiatDay’s iPhone apps.

Blake Sanders is a tech writer at broadband comparison site Broadband Expert where he specializes in writing on mobile broadband, sim only plans, and the latest in internet service provider news and information.

Note: Photo courtesy of dpolicarpo via FlickR Creative Commons.

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Trent iCruiser IMP1000 External Battery Pack iPad 2

Is 12 hour battery life not long enough for your iPad 2? then you need to get the Trent iCruiser IMP1000 External Battery Pack for iPad 2, iPad, iPhone 4 4G 3Gs 3G (AT&T and verizon) , iPod Touch (1G 2G 3G 4G), HTC Android EVO, Blackberry, Kindle DX, Samsung Galaxy S, Droid, Nintendo, Sony PSP and much more.

Never let your smart phones or tablet PCs run out of battery with this extra battery pack.

The design is compact and portable for the long-lasting backup battery for you to carry whatever you need to go. It can get you an extra 50 hours of iPhone 4 usage and 17 hours of iPad 2 movie time.   This backup battery pack will work with almost every device in the market, such as your iPhone 4 4G 3Gs 3G (Verizon and AT&T), and 1G 2G 3G 4G iPod Touch, Motorola Droid, HTC Android EVO phones and Amazon Kindle DX, Samsung galaxy. IMP1000 can also power Sony PSP and Nintendo DS lite, DSi and Gameboy with additional adapters.  Includes 6 month product warranty.

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How To Convert iPod Touch to iPhone

The Apple Peel 520 allows you to convert your iPod Touch to an iPhone by installing an add on SIM chip.  The Apple Peel 520 is planning to come the US.   It will convert your favorite portable music device into a fully function iPhone without paying for 3G. You will still have use of WiFi

The Apple Peel 520 is designed like a protective case and comes complete with a dock connector, battery and SIM card. It will provide five hours of talk time and 120 hours of standby use.

The Apple Peel 520 is easy to use after installing the required software. There are two apps that appear on the iPod Touch home screen: Yosian and YsSMS, which provide voice and text support. When the communication module is switched on, a signal bar and a battery icon will appear in the middle of the iPod Touch’s status bar. To make a call, users simply tap the Yosian app icon which loads the numpad screen

The device is currently available in China for 520 Yuan but North American distributor, GoSolar USA said that the first demonstrations of the Apple Peel 520 are expected to arrive in America sometime next week.

“We’re obviously very confident that consumer demand is high for the Apple Peel 520, and we’re looking forward to getting our hands on the first batch,” said GSLO President and CEO Tyson Rohde.

“As soon as they arrive, we’ll begin distributing demonstration models to retail buyers across the country. The amount of interest in this product that we’ve received from distributors has been staggering.”

GoSolar are looking to sell the peripheral in Radio Shack, Best Buy, Walmart and Fry’s Electronics but no details regarding its retail price in the USA have been released as of yet.

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Top 5 Useful and Free iPhone Apps

There are thousands of apps available to use on your iPhone, iPod and now your iPad as well and, surprisingly, many of the best are free to download.

The following list shows 5 of the very best free apps that also happen to be extremely useful as well.  There are loads of apps out there that can help make your life that bit easier so it’s well worth going through them to find the ones that will apply to you and your life.

Here are a few of the best useful apps out there that are well-worth a look.

Thetrainline – For those of you who commute to work by train, Thetrainline is a free transport app that outshines all of the others – and it’s free. The app can help you to plan your journey, obtain offline results and timetables and also has a location-aware ‘next train home’ option.  All of these features are available on Thetrianline’s clear and streamlined interface. There are of course other train apps available but many will cost you upwards of £5 and when you can get this one for free and it does the job – why look elsewhere?

Skype – This is a great money-saving app and allows you and your friends to chat to each other for free via your Skype app. The interface is simple and usable, enabling anyone with a Skype account to make free calls to other Skype users and also offers you the ability to make cheap calls to anywhere in the world. Pay as you Go users will find this app particularly useful but so will iPod touch owners as this app also allows them to make calls to other Skype users.

Dropbox – There are many apps out there that transfer content between your computer and your device but this one is free and actually a lot easier to use than many of the paid ones out there.  Any files you want to sync up – just drop them in to a folder on your computer and Dropbox will enable you to access them.

Around Me – Around Me is a great app for when you’re out and about.  It works out where you are and then shows you all the local banks, bars, petrol stations and restaurants etc that are in your vicinity.  The app is really useful when you happen to be in unfamiliar surroundings and the ‘augmented reality’ landscape mode is great for getting to know the area, just be aware that this new technology isn’t completely there yet so expect that you may come across a few little errors.

Moneysupermarket.com Voucher App – No matter what you’re looking for, moneysupermarket.com will no doubt have a voucher for it that will help make savings on your purchases. There are thousands of free discount codes and vouchers on this iPhone app that can help all UK shoppers save money on whatever they want to buy.

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Apple iTunes Cloud Lala Very Cloudy

Many people expected that Apple would offer your iTunes music and movies over the cloud after it acquired Lala.com last December. That is of course after Apple obtained the appropriate music licenses to do so. Lala, the music serviced, shut down after being acquired by Apple this past May.

The Lala team leadership that went to Apple after the acquisition seems to leaving. Bill Nguyen, Lala’s founder, is known to be press friendly and against Apple’s culture of secrecy. Another founding member has left the company leaving Apple’s media cloud plans in a haze.

Google, on the other hand, hired Elizabeth Moody, an attorney with deep experience negotiating digital-music deals. Record executives expect Moody will help cut the first cloud music licensing agreement. Google has told label managers that it wants to launch a music service this year.

Apple is not worried though since it is still the #1 online and offline music store and jukebox.

However, in this fast pacing media game, tables can turn very quickly.

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After years of rumors, Apple will finally open an Apple Store in Philadelphia on Walnut Street! I walk by here almost every day. It’s amazing how Apple can keep its store openings and product releases so secret.

Apple will hold the grand opening celebration for Apple Store Walnut Street in Philadelphia on Friday, July 30, 2010 at 5pm ED

Address: Apple Store Walnut Street
1607 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103

The Apple Store Walnut Street is the best place to learn about all the latest products from Apple, including the new iPhone 4 featuring FaceTime, which makes the dream of video calling a reality, and Apple’s stunning new Retina display, the highest resolution display ever built into a phone. Customers can experience Apple’s entire product line hands-on including the magical new iPad that lets users browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more. Visitors to the store can also try the updated MacBook and MacBook Pro with the NVIDIA processor for up to 80 percent faster graphics, and the incredibly popular iPod touch with access to more than 225,000 apps offered on the revolutionary App Store.

Every Apple Retail Store offers a range of free services designed to help customers get the most out of their Apple products, including face-to-face support and advice at the Genius Bar, hands-on workshops and special programs for kids. Customers who buy a Mac®at the Apple Retail Store or Apple’s Online Store can also join the popular One to One program. For just $99, owners of a new Mac get Personal Setup to customize their computer and transfer files from their old Mac or PC, plus a year of Personal Training sessions and Personal Project support on a wide range of topics, from getting started on a Mac to advancing their digital photography or moviemaking skills.

UPDATE BY JAY: Here are some more pictures I took when the family and I stopped by after dinner on Friday night.  As you can see, quite the mad press!

And the requisite panoramic view!

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On Protection.

Over the long weekend, I did a bunch of tech stuff I’d been meaning to do for some time. Most importantly, I installed a clear protector onto our new iPhones. For the first time, I used the BodyGuardz line of protective sheets rather than the InvisibleShield line. The BodyGuardz are a much better value. For $25 you get two sets of protective sheets that fully cover the iPhone’s front, back, and sides. Installing them was relatively straightforward but it conclusively proved why I would never be a surgeon.

There is a level of mental comfort in having these shields on our phones. But to cover up that amazing screen with anything is just a darn shame. No film application is ever perfect, and any bubbles are incredibly annoying. The liquid applicator they provide does create a thin glaze under the film which detracts from the beauty of the iPhone’s screen when it’s off. On the plus side, it does give a little bit more tactile grip to the iPhone. I also think it helps a bit with the attenuation issues people have been suffering when they touch the sides. The side films seem designed to exactly fit the phone but it is exceedingly difficult to apply them so that they run the full length properly. I ended up overlapping the antenna gaps just slightly, which seemed to act as a non-conductive layer between my fingers and the band. I don’t know if this is an intended benefit or not, but it’s relatively cheap to try out if you’re having major issues. I personally haven’t noticed a huge problem with attenuation or service interruption but that could just be me.

For now, I’m planning to keep these on the phone, at least until the cases I ordered come in. This phone is never going to be outside a case anyways so I may decide to remove the front film to let the gorgeous screen shine through.

And if anyone has a good case recommendation for the iPad, could they please contact me?  All the cases I’ve tried out so far suck.  I don’t want a sleeve and I don’t want a backside-only protector.  I need something that I can use on a desk as well as on the sofa, and it needs to support the iPad in portrait and landscape modes.  I like the Apple case, but it’s just a little too cheap-looking for me and I’d ideally love a case that has a latchable/securable front protector.

UPDATE (7/14/2010): I’ve had the Bodyguardz film on the iPhone for about a week now, and the glaze underneath has vanished completely.  The screen protector is still visible (you can see where the cutouts are for the speaker and the front facing camera) and it feels like there is more “depth” when hitting the Home button.  I gotta say that I am really liking the Bodyguardz.  I no longer think they interfere with the Retina Display and for all intents and purposes, they’ve disappeared from my perception, which is kind of the point of these things.  I’ve definitely noticed a decline in the number of dropped calls as well, though that needs to be heavily caveated.  First off, I don’t make a ton of calls so I’m not a great sample.  Second, since the issue has been covered to death in every tech blog and news rag, I’ve been more aware of how I hold the phone.  Finally, I could never consistently reproduce the issue, so I may not have been impacted.  Having said all that, I routinely hold the iPhone 4 in my left hand with the antenna gap perilously close to be covered by the base of my thumb and I’m sure I’ve covered that gap on calls, both before and after the film application.  Since I’ve applied the Bodyguardz, I have not had a single dropped call.  Period.  So perhaps the combination of the side protection plus my clumsy application have created a nice little insulated zone around the antenna openings that is helping my calling?  In any case, I’ve become a big fan of these things, and their customer service can’t be beat.  They were prompt to answer my emails about returning my extra films, and they were prompt about issuing me a refund.  Good on ya, guys – keep up the great work.  I am seriously considering buying a set of the iPad 3G protection skins to replace my InvisibleShield cover.  The InvisibleShield just seems to attract more dirt, though that could just be due to the increased surface area.  But definitely something I’m considering in the longer term…

iPad vs. iPhone

I’m fairly sure that if I had gotten the iPhone 4 before my iPad, I would have skipped the first gen iPad in hopes that the second gen would come with a Retina Display. Apple probably knew this, which is why they didn’t pull out the iPad as a “One More Thing” during the iPhone launch.  I still love my iPad but the iPhone is proving good enough for almost everything I need to do when I’m mobile.  I have used the iPhone for navigation, for checking newsfeeds, and for recipes.  It’s perfectly fine as a quick reference device, especially since the Retina Display makes it so much easier to read despite its small screen real estate.  But for consuming books and video, for gaming, and for productivity, the iPad is still the superior device.  Am I glad I have both?  Yes.  Should I have gotten the unlimited data plan for both?  Probably not.  I’m spending $60/mo on data access for the i-Devices, which is a bit much.  I’m seriously considering dropping my unlimited plan on the iPad, except that I’d still like roaming access, so I’d only be saving $5/mo (I refuse to pay for tethering, which is just AT&T saying “please bend over” while holding a very thick broom).  I’m really annoyed that Apple didn’t put a decent GPS chip inside the Wi-Fi only version, since that’s the main reason I went with the 3G iPad.

iPhone Antenna Issues

One of my best friends is a bigshot at M&M/Mars.  He was once asked to participate on a panel discussion at a telecom conference.  The audience consisted of telecom providers who wanted to know how to best sell into the large enterprise market, especially because things like data and messaging were just starting to become popular.  One of the audience members stood up and asked him what he looks for in a mobile phone.  In response, my friend pulled out his Nokia phone (which was at least 2 generations out of date) and said “I’d like it to work as a phone.”  Tech companies really seem to forget this basic concept – it’s a smart phone.  If it can’t make calls, it’s not a phone, it’s a mobile device.  Apple is being disingenuous when they blame the iPhone‘s attenuation problems on their inability to do math.  Too many people are complaining about a problem making calls, which is humorous if you’re not the one suffering from the problem.  But when you’re trying to call 911 late at night after you’ve witnessed a crime or been in an accident, it’s really not funny.  The bad thing is that I can’t rely on the iPhone as an emergency contact device, issues with AT&T service aside.  When I’m trying to call for an ambulance, I really don’t want to worry about whether I’m levitating the phone correctly to maximize signal strength.

It also means that every time I see one of those Apple videos featuring their internal designers talking earnestly about how hard they tried to create beauty and how magical the i-Device is, I’m going to just laugh and blow them off (even more so than I already do) as self-loving nerds.  No matter how good they think they are and no matter how pretty their end result, I know they failed.  Gizmodo had a great post about just how huge a failure this is on Apple’s part – they’ve fallen so in love with themselves that they are ignoring the fact that good industrial design means that it works, not just that it’s pretty.  If I have to think about how to use a product, something’s wrong, and Apple has only themselves to blame.  They’ve been promoting that mode of thought ever since they released the first iPhone.  Yet now here they are saying, basically, “yes always think about how you’re using your iPhone to make sure you’re not using it wrong”.

Luckily, phone calls are rare and far between in my household, and 90% of my calls are to my fiancée, who is also on AT&T, so those minutes buckets are pretty much unlimited.  I really hope, though, that she’s never stuck late at night on a bus coming home from work and trying to reach me.

iPad’s Video and iPod apps

These apps suck.  Suck suck suck suck suck.  No other way to put it.  Why they are split into two apps rather than the single iPod app that’s provided on the iPhone is beyond me.  There is obviously some higher design principle at work that I am too pedestrian to understand.  But when I can’t skip through a list of video podcasts using the CONTROLS PROVIDED FOR THEM, I consider that a pretty major design flaw.  The only way I can move from one video to the next without picking and choosing each one is if I create a playlist.  That’s just stupid, Apple.  Why should I create a playlist of video podcasts when the Videos app has a podcast section?  And is there any reason why you decided that TV shows don’t need to have any identifying information aside from a still image from the show itself?  Maybe I’d like to, oh I don’t know, see the SHOW’S NAMES?!?!?  You guys are starting to approach Microsoft levels of stupidity with these issues, and I sincerely hope that you fix them in the next version by providing an iPod app, rather than this craptastic Video/Music split function junk.

On the plus side, you seem to have fixed the issue with Smart Playlists not being synced when Live Updating is checked.  I think it’s only been about a year now since that issue’s been reported?  So I guess I should expect an iPod app on the iPad when you release iPad 3.0?

UPDATE (7/14/2010) – Yea, Apple, your Video app sucks hairy moose testicles.  What is the sense in showing one sequence of videos on the iPad and a completely different sequence in iTunes?  This weekend I was playing through some TV shows I’d ripped and I realized they were completely out of order on the iPad.  Since I’m a metadata FREAK, I quick checked the iTunes versions to see what I’d screwed up.  Lo and behold, the iTunes list was in correct order.  After much trial and error, I realized that the iPad sorts TV shows using the Track Number while iTunes uses Season and Episode Number.  Can someone tell me how the team that created the Video app thought this was a good idea?  It’s like they decided to remove the Video functionality in the iPod app but just do a half-assed job of it so that they could piss off as many people as possible.  So for those of you trying to figure out why the hell the iPad isn’t sequencing your shows correctly – either fill in both Track Number and Episode Number fields for each show, or just rely on Track Number to do your sorting.  Of course, if you choose the latter, I fully expect that one day Apple will fix this stupidity and then you’ll have to go back and re-enter the Episode Number data so you might as well do both now.

iPad memory issues

I’m running a jailbroken iPad, primarily because I can.  Now I understand that jailbreak tech is really young on the iPad and developers are still trying to figure out how to do it right.  But I’m seriously concerned about the iPad’s lack of RAM.  I think Apple made a bad choice when they went with 256MB in the iPad vs the 512MB in the iPhone 4, because when multitasking comes along, apps are going to be seriously memory constrained.  Apple’s limited implementation of multi-tasking in iOS (a name I predicted here on this blog well before His Jobs-ness announced it) is a lot more memory-efficient than traditional multitaskers a la Backgrounder.  But still  - I see memory leaks all the time running apps like Reeder and TweetDeck under the jailbroken iOS 3.2.  And I’m pretty sure that it’s not due to leaks in the jailbreak code.  TweetDeck reboots itself regularly on the half-hour, even when it’s the only app running on the iPad.  Running it on an unjailbroken iPad, the reboot periods are longer but I know they still were happening.

My guess is that iPad iOS 4.0 is going to be based a lot on iPhone iOS 4.0.  It’s a little aggressive to have the entire code base made common between the two platforms, but it’s inevitable that that will happen.  My guess is iOS 5.0 next year will be the first true common iOS base for all Apple platforms.  They can’t keep doing this multi-version iOS thing forever, especially if they release an iOS for AppleTV and for the Mac.  That would be four different fragments of the same base, which would make Android look like a bamboo shoot in terms of variety.

Multiple users on the iPad

The iPhone is intended to be a single-user device.  No bigs – it’s (marginally) a phone, it’s small, it’s got a fixed identifier (the phone number) attached to it – it’s very personal.  The iPad, for all its “magic”, is a multi-user device.  I’d like to share my iPad with my fiancée and a regular basis and my son has basically adopted the iPad as his own when he’s with us.  I’m totally cool with that, but it means that I’ve removed all my email accounts from the iPad.  I’d like some way to have user profiles and app sharing rules set up so that I can control what others accessing my iPad have access to.  I know user accounts are a big OS overhead issue, and there would be all kinds of complaints that Apple didn’t allow fast switching etc etc.  But basic user-level customization would go a long way to making the iPad a viable family device.  There’s no way I’m buying iPads for every member of the family and it’s stupid for Apple to think that people actually will do this.

And while we’re on the subject, Apple’s lack of controls on their Safari browser means that there is no way to control/limit kids’ access to the Internet.  Apple only allows binary control – either Safari is on or it’s off.  There’s no way to firewall or block access to non-approved sites.  Tools like OpenDNS’s Family Shield are a good start, but it’s relatively easy to circumvent.

So what do you guys think?  Am I way off base?  Spot on?  Comment up any of your complaints or compliments!

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(I’m really sorry about the video quality – I was fully intending to take some decent video of the problem under good lighting but by the time I got home to get my car to get to my Genius Bar appointment, I had run out of time.  So the above was grabbed using my fiancee’s iPhone 4 while we were waiting at the Apple Store in Ardmore.  The lights there are like being under interrogation and the reflection off the shiny screen of the iPhone makes it incredibly difficult to capture what’s happening on the screen properly).

If you watch the above video enough, you’ll see that my screen has basically washed out – I had maybe 4 colors (if that) on the screen.  Furthermore, on the left hand side you can see vertical scrolling reminiscent of VHF reception issues on early television screens.  I had not dropped the phone and it had spent its entire two days previously either living inside my pocket (with nothing else in there) or on a flat desk surface.  You’re talking to a guy who has never dropped an electronic device and went through 2 years with his iPhone 3G having never suffered a scratch.  Suffice it to say I’m careful with my tech.  So you can imagine just how freaked out I was by this.

I have to say that I was very pleased with both AT&T and Apple’s response to this issue.  Since I’d ordered the phone from AT&T, I took it first to my local AT&T store.  The rep there was pretty impressed with the problem but they had zero spares on hand to do a swapout.  He recommended I go to the Apple Store to resolve my issue.  The Apple Store was able to give me a Genius Bar appointment the same day and they swapped out the phone without any problems.  The Apple rep was also pretty impressed by the error, having never seen anything like it before on any iPhone.  I walked out of there relieved and clutching a new Precious.  It was going to be a good day after all.  And I was able to use the Precious to do this:

If you want the full story on that, you’ll have to check out my personal blog!

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iPhone 4

Steve Jobs says the new iPhone is beyond any consumer product that’s ever been seen, only 9.3mm thick and 24 percent thinner than the iPhone 3GS, making it the “thinnest smartphone on the planet.”

Availability
The new iPhone 4 arrives on June 24, while preorders begin on June 15. It is available in the same prices and capacities as last year’s model: $199 for 16GB, and $299 for 32GB. The iPhone 3GS will be available for $99.

Internals
The new hardware also has a larger battery that offers longer uptime, including 7 hours of talk time 3G, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of Wi-Fi browsing, 10 hours of video, 40 hours of music, and 300 hours of standby.

Dual cameras
The iPhone 4 also includes a whole-new camera system that includes LED flash with a 5 megapixel lens that records HD video. The new rear camera will record 720p video at 30 frames per second. Users can also use built-in video editing to trim their HD clips right on the phone.

The handset’s forward facing camera can be used for video chat with the application FaceTime, allowing users to see someone using another iPhone 4 as they talk to them. Videos can also be edited using the new iMovie application, which will cost $4.99 on the App Store.

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Then come back and comment on what Steve Jobs is going to do to the poor SOB who lost it in the first place.  He’s probably run off to the same island that Lost takes place on.  Or hoping, anyways.

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In Philadelphia, sections of the city have city-owned pots of land that residents can rent out for a year.  On those plots of land, folks have planted vegetable and flower gardens.  The gardens are secured by fences and locks, but each resident doesn’t get individual access to their plots – they have to share the lock code with each other because there’s only one lock.  The rules are relatively simple and the renters tend to watch out for each other because they tend to be long-time renters, paying the nominal fee every year.  Importantly, they tend to follow the rules and they act to ensure that others follow the rules.  Every so often, the rules change and some people stop renting space because of those rules.  But that frees up a plot for someone new to come in, and they come in knowing the new rules and agreeing to honor them.

What Adobe is trying to do is pay the fee to access the garden and then passing out the combination to the garden’s lock to anyone who wants to pay.  In their best case scenario, they don’t even have to pay the fee for access – they just start selling the key and let the community sort out who’s supposed to be there or not.  Sorry, it doesn’t work that way.  For good or bad, Apple’s ecosystem is THEIRS.  They didn’t set out to build something on top of an already existing platform (like Google), nor did they try to make their ecosystem the biggest in the world by making development as easy as possible to as many as possible (like Microsoft).  Apple started out with a simple idea – let’s sell music.  Maybe they had this end state in mind all the time, maybe they didn’t.  Doesn’t matter.  It’s all theirs.  And because it’s theirs, they get to make the rules, and even change those rules, whenever they want.

Note that this viewpoint is not necessarily a conflict with the fact that I am using a jailbroken iPhone.  Since I’ve bought the device and own it, I think I should be able to do whatever the heck I want with it.   To not have that right is like buying a piece of produce from the community garden but being told that I can only use it in stir fry or fruit salad.  It’s stupid to even think that that sort of thing is possible, and just because it’s tech vs. produce doesn’t make it any less so.  However, once I change the parameters of the agreement of sale, I don’t have the right to request Apple’s support to fix my problems.  To extend the produce analogy even further, that’s like my buying a bell pepper, agreeing to use it only in stir fry, then putting it in fruit salad and complaining when people don’t like it.  I know and accept the risks of jailbreaking but by that same token, Apple shouldn’t be going out of their way to stop me.  Would I like Apple to be less restrictive in terms of what they do or don’t allow in the App Store?  Absolutely.  The main reason I jailbreak is to skin my phone and to get access to two apps that Apple won’t sell.  But those are the risks I’ve accepted because I’m choosing to go around the ecosystem.

Back to the topic at hand though – Adobe vs. Apple.  Whether or not Apple is right or wrong ethically is not the issue.  Apple is doing what it feels it needs to do to protect their investment in the iOS infrastructure.  Adobe is trying to grow their produce in the Apple garden and calling foul because they got caught.  Sorry, Adobe – you didn’t pay for the garden and you don’t get to access the garden and set your rules in the garden just because you pout about unfairness.  You want to build out your Flash platform, then you go out and build your own damn garden.  Otherwise, be happy with the pervasiveness you have on the Internet and pray that you can find a workaround to making money once HTML5 begins supplanting your fancy animations.

Related posts:

1. AT&T, Google, & Apple respond to the FCC
2. Flash For iPhone Coming
3. FCC Steps Into Apple and AT&T for Google Voice Removal

iPhone 4 (currently called iPhone HD)

• I predict that the hardware itself will probably not get an incredible form factor change. It will not have a slide out keyboard, nor will it transform into a little robot complete with rocket launcher. Apple has a great design – why mess with it? I recently took my iPhone out of its protective shell (first time in over a year) and the experience of holding the thing is just incredible, even though it’s two years old. No need to mess with great. Plus if it got any bigger, people would skip the iPad for the iPhone and Apple does not want that to be a possibility.
• I am in firm agreement with the rumors that indicate the screen will be exactly half the resolution of an iPad. Makes sense. Also makes sense that the OS will have hooks to auto-detect and auto-size apps (I believe Android has this already). Anything Apple can do to simplify development for third parties it will do. Plus it allows Apple to run a single code base for their entire iOS line. iOS – I think I’m going to trademark that.
• I would rate the chances of a Verizon enabled iPhone at 75% within the next year. I say this because Apple is starting to reach the limits of conversion. Just about everyone who wants an iPhone has switched to AT&T, and the universe of new cell users is not growing all that fast. If Apple wants to sell millions of these puppies, they’re going to have to expand the platform. Adding Verizon will immediately give Apple access to millions of new customers. The loss of AT&T subscribers is not a big deal because they’ll still be iPhone users. Maybe they don’t make as much money per sub on Verizon, but at this point it becomes more of a numbers game and making up the profits through volume. This theory is further confirmed by the fact that there were two iPhone models mentioned in the iPad’s guts.
• Front-facing camera? Maybe. Who cares? Are you really going to videoconference with this thing? I guess the market for amateur porn would skyrocket, and Chatroulette could have more interesting backgrounds. I’d rather hold out for a front facing camera on the iPad v2.
• I originally thought that it would feature a faster chip with more RAM. Required to support multitasking in iOS4 (see below). However, given that the iPad is apparently running with the same RAM as the iPhone 3GS and is performing faster, maybe all they need is a faster chip. I don’t think Apple’s going to go nuts trying to slot things into the iPhone that they can’t fit into the iPad with its much bigger size.
• The iPhone’s camera will get an upgrade, most likely to 5MP and add a flash. The motion capture rate will increase, mostly due to the faster processor. No front-facing camera, especially if that YouTube video of the supposedly new replacement screen is to be believed.

UPDATED 4/8/10 after the iPhone OS4 Release – I’ve updated the below predictions to reflect the announcements today.

iOS 4.0 (my new trademark!)

• Multitasking will be in iOS 4. It has to be for Apple to remain a credible contender. Android is barking up their heels in certain respects, and AT&T’s slow embrace of Android phones means that Android will be able to do simultaneous voice and 3G data (who the heck thought this was not a good thing for CDMA networks to be able to do? They should be hung in effigy. I didn’t even realize this wasn’t ubiquitous. And Verizon charges you more for this crapservice? Unbelievable.) I think most everyone agrees this is coming.  OK so multitasking wasn’t announced but what was announced is the next best thing, and quite honestly a heck of a lot more sensible for a mobile OS.  Most people don’t need true multitasking, and Apple again proves that they can think outside the box.  I love this implementation of multitasking, and I hope that it’s as flexible and as powerful as I think it will be.  Will it do everything the techies might want?  No, but it will do what 99% of what the rest of the people need.
• As much as possible, Apple is going to try to remove the hassles of having a single OS for three different multi-touch devices. The resolution change, the multitasking, the single inbox – all of these will make the iOS a seamless experience across the platforms.  Hard to tell, but I find it interesting that iPad won’t be getting OS4 until the fall.  My guess is that OS4 gets released with iPhone HD, and OS4.1 gets released in the fall to iPhone, iPad, and iTouch.
• Enhancements to the video management features of iPad (and probably iPhone). Why Apple thinks it’s not a good idea to have video playlists in the Video app on the iPad is beyond me, but fix it dammit. I figured out that the iPad video app is the same as the iTouch’s video app, and that the core behavior of videos on the iPad/iTouch is different than on the iPhone. This is rather annoying, especially for folks who have both an iPad and an iPhone. Consistency should be the watchword for Apple now that there are three different platforms with basically the same OS. As the iPhone’s capacity increases, the ability to store more video is going to mean that it should start to match the capabilities of the iPad/iTouch.  Can’t tell yet.  Though the mention of “create playlists” says to me that some sort of change to the media management feature is coming.
• Universal inbox and possibly multiple Exchange account support. Jobs has committed to a universal inbox, but allowing multiple Exchange connections support would allow folks to get push email from more than one source. Right now, I have three different Google Apps domains I maintain/participate in. I’d love to get all my Google Apps ID’s connected to a single inbox with push mail.  I was spot on with this.  And as far as I know, the idea of multiple Exchange boxes wasn’t really mentioned in other tech blogs so I give myself a big thumbs up here.  This will be awesome, and if they increase security, then the iPad/iPhone becomes a much more credible enterprise platform.
• Increased security. If Apple really wants to compete against RIM, they need to make the iPad/iPhone a much more secure device. I think the iPhone was hacked in under 2 minutes at the last hacker convention? That’s just sad. Say what you will about RIM but until Apple gets a credible security model and platform, they will never be taken seriously as an enterprise platform. With the iPad, they have a real chance to break into the enterprise, but not if every noob hacker can cut their teeth screwing with their neighbor’s iPad.  Still TBD, though I’m hopeful.
• New collapsible calendar view. Ok this is my own personal wish list, but why can’t Apple can’t do something like Palm’s “shrink non-allotted time” view of a day?  Can’t tell yet.  Might be saving this for iPhone HD announcement.
• Overall, my guess is that iOS 4 is a refinement rather than a radical advance. There’s just not a whole lot that it’s missing once you add in the multitasking. It won’t stop the hackers from jailbreaking the devices, but it will give a lot of people like myself a lot less reason to jailbreak.  It was a pretty big step forward overall, both fine-tuning the existing platform, while significantly expanding its capabilities.  I think iOS now resumes its place at the top of the mobile smartphone pecking order, and I’m really looking forward to iPhone HD.  I will also most likely not need to jailbreak my future iPhone, since this version has just about everything I might need.  Sure, skins aren’t there, but I can live without skins.
• Overall, I give myself a B+.  What do you guys think?

Future Apple Devices

• iPad 3.0 will have a front facing camera. It would be inefficent for Apple to put in a front and rear facing camera, and why the heck would you even try to take a picture/video with the thing? A front facing camera will allow web conferencing. I predict that in order for this to be a possibility for iPad 2.0, Apple would have to release a version customized to AT&T and Verizon because otherwise, the load on AT&T’s network will just slam them back to square one again like the early iPhone days.
• The iPhone will not get significantly smaller. Much smaller and it would require a customized screen resolution that wouldn’t play nice with the 2:1 scale iPhone HD is supposed to bring. Much larger and it becomes a miniPad and a lot less portable. (This is why I think Dell will fail utterly with their impending product whose name I totally forget with the 5″ screen, continuing Dell’s long chain of mobile failures.)
• The iPod classic is going to go away by this time 2011. SSD prices keep dropping and Apple buys in such quantity that they get incredible discounts. I could see a 128GB iTouch to top out the storage line from the current 64GB. This would make sense if Apple continues to increase the iPhone’s storage capabilities and offers up an iPhone with 64GB of storage. Quite frankly, though, I think the storage is getting way past what most people need. I’m having a ton of trouble filling my iPad now and that’s after I transferred over a ton of video content. Why would I carry around a 64GB iPhone when I have a bigger counterpart to watch videos with? Music doesn’t take up that much room for most folks unless they’re storing uncompressed files. I would top out at 64GB for the iPhone and just concentrate on keeping the prices the same or lower.
• Apple TV will be integrated into a 40″ Apple TV panel. I think they learned a lot from the 27″ iMac production process and that’s the last piece of the entertainment puzzle for Apple. I could picture a simplified iOS for a TV with just a few standard icons (or heck, they could put the whole iOS on a TV – the only issue would be mimicking touch and finger movement).

How about you guys? Think I’m crazy? Let’s hear it!

Related posts:

1. Apple Unveils iPhone 4
2. iPhone 4G With Front Camera Multi-Way Video
3. iPhone 3GS Running on iOS 5

Now go and check out all the other fun stuff you can do with conductive threads, you crafty DIY nerds you!

Also, if you don’t want to order a whole spool of thread, you can order just a few feet of it from here

Via Coolest Gadgets

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2. Apple MacBook Touch Tablet Report by Oppenheimer
3. How To Convert iPod Touch to iPhone

When you work it out, however, if there are 28K developers making $175M, that works out to just $6.2K per developer.  Not bad, but don’t quit your day job.

Related posts:

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2. Apple Store Unveils “Flying Apps”
3. REVIEW: Pocket Informant lets you chuck iPhone’s Calendar and To Do apps

The basic concept of ProSwitcher is to replicate on the iPhone an interface similar to that of the Palm Pre.  It is a front end to Backgrounder, an app that allows you to set certain apps to run in the background.  Backgrounder is a must-have app for jailbroken iPhones but it has a distinctly minimalist interface, plus switching among the various running apps requires the standard interface actions so it’s hard to keep track of what’s running in the background.

When installed, ProSwitcher creates an icon plus a Settings entry.  You never need to touch the ProSwitcher app itself – everything is handled through its Settings.

The settings primarily revolve around how ProSwitcher is activated, though there are a number of other parameters that can be set using the interface.

The activation options are many and varied, and you should play around with them to figure out which method works for you.  When activated, ProSwitcher cards look very Pre-like.

There are a small set of dots underneath the application title – these describe the number of running apps.  To switch between the apps, just flick the cards left or right.  To close a running app, just hit the “X” button in the top left corner.  You can activate any of the dock icons directly as well as flicking between the active apps.  And that’s pretty much it.

The main issue I had with ProSwitcher was that I didn’t have an iPhone 3GS.  On the faster processor with the larger free memory, I’m sure this app would have been really amazing.  But on a 3G, the lack of RAM plus the slow processor makes this app worthless for running more than three or four apps at the same time, and since two of those slots are typically taken up by the Mail and Phone apps, and since I use my iPod app more than just about any other app on my phone, I was pretty much only single-tasking anyways.  But if you’ve got a jailbroken 3GS, definitely check out ProSwitcher.  I think it’s a great little app, and the fact that it’s (currently) freeware is even more amazing.  I was going to buy MultiFl0w, the other highly rated multitasking manager, but I’m glad I tried ProSwitcher first.  Not because it’s necessarily better, but because it showed me that I really don’t multitask very much.

ProSwitcher is available via Cydia.

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2. NetFlix Streaming iPhone App Rumor
3. Top 5 Useful and Free iPhone Apps

Captured at 1/1 11:11

Happy New Year to everyone from the folks at GadgetMETER. GadgetMETER is now officially 1 year old and I am proud of what we’ve accomplished in that time.

One of my New Years resolution consists of simplifying my online and offline lifestyle.

• Get rid of junk in my house I haven’t used in years
• Eat less or no meat.
• Reduced the number of RSS subscriptions.
• Deactivated my Facebook account. (I’ll talk more about this later).
• Discovered http://mnmlist.com and http://minimalmac.com. These are two great websites if you feel you are too distracted with todays bombardment of information.
• Run a 10k
• Enrolled at UPenn for Graduate School.
• De clutter my MacBook desktop and menu bar

Now, if you are wondering how this screenshot is appropriate for this post. Well, I just happen to look at my iPhone at exactly 1/1 11:11pm so I quickly captured it. The background is a picture of Monica Belluci on my jail broken iPhone. Pretty cool huh? It must be a sign because I see it as a way to reset our tech lifestyle and look back at what’s really important: family, friend (true friends, not the persons you don’t know on your Facebook), health, and the environment. Today, we have way too many distractions in our life that really clouds our judgetment on what’s really important. Let’s take time to get rid of online and offline baggage and welcome the New Year!

So I propose this New Years Challenge for you.

• Go take a walk.
• Meet with a friend for coffee.
• Enough with Twitter already. It’s really just for celebrities!
• Delete contacts on Facebook you don’t ever engage with. Heck, deactivate your Facebook account like I did!
• Delete LinkedIn. Who really uses this anyway?
• Stop texting while having lunch or dinner with someone. Enjoy the moment.
• Volunteer at a community center or shelter.
• Donate to a charity: time, money, clothes, food. It can be anything.
• Read a long form book.
• Go camping or hiking.
• Call up a friend. No texting!

Related posts:

1. Screenshot: Facebook 3.0 iPhone App
2. Screenshot – Google Phone Confirmed
3. Dropbox Online Storage and iPhone App

Google Phone

The rumors of the upcoming Google Phone has been laid to rest. Here is a screenshot of the Google Phone running Android 2.1 operating system. It is a Google branded phone but built by HTC. It is expected to be available as unlocked GSM in early 2010 on both AT&T and T-Mobile. Google apparently had a lot of influence on how the phone should be designed and operate since it is essentially their brand.

This comes only a few months after Verizon’s successful launch of their iPhone competitor Droid which also runs Android but version 2.0. Seems like iPhone competitors are coming out before the release of the next generation iPhone 4G which will be a bloodbath.

Via TechCrunch

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1. Google Phone Coming To Verizon
2. Google Sync Synchronizes Calendars and Contacts on Your Mobile Phone
3. Screenshot – Why Google Needs To Become An ISP

MacBook Touch iTablet

Oppenheimer released their report on the rumored Apple Tablet predicting the size and functionality of the potential game changer. It also suggested the pricing and sales structure for publishers and the app store.

You can download it here (right click save as).

Thank you Kevin Rose for this.

Related posts:

1. Apple Introduces The New MacBook Wheel
2. Yep, Apple Apps bring in the bucks
3. My Experience In a Fake Apple Store in China

First, the Macally ECOFAN Bamboo Laptop Stand with Fan from Amazon.com ($36.69).

I’m on my laptop a good portion of every day and yes, it does get hot, even with the Lap Desk I currently use. Not only is the bamboo laptop stand stylish, but it has a built in fan to keep my laptop cool.
Strangely the Pro version, which features three height adjustable levels, is actually cheaper. But I still haven’t found one I can comfortably put on my lap (my preferred modus operandi).

Keeping in the sustainable and stylish spirit of bamboo, next is the VerseAudio iPhone Bamboo Hard Case.

$39.99 from Vers Audio. It’s beautiful, practical, sustainable, and not too expensive. Except that I’d also have to get an iPhone for x-mas (hint hint). Excellent dual gift, imo.

Finally, if I do get said iPhone for x-mas, well then it would only make sense to get the first Apple-licensed iPhone solar charger to go along with it.

The Surge for iPhone, $70 from SolarArcadia. Two hours of direct solar exposure provides 30 minutes of talk time on a 3G network, or 60 minutes of talk time on a 2G network.
It also includes a USB port so you can charge or sync with your computer without taking it out of the case.
My preferred color is green, btw.

Related posts:

1. 12 things x-mas list, part 3
2. 12 things x-mas list, part 4
3. 12 Things Xmas list, fin

Seven 2.75-inch lithium-ion batteries are linked inside a foam sleeve that can slip into the back of your jacket (the one pictured here is from Mountain Hardware but this power pack will work on any jacket wired for heat). The battery pack holds enough power to drive heat-creating yarn and send current to a USB cord in a jacket pocket. And it’s light enough and flexible enough that you probably won’t even notice you are wearing it.
You can get about 9 hours of heat or about 11 iPhone charges before you have to plug the battery pack back in.

The Ardica Moshi Power System is $145 (adapters are an additional $50).

Via Popular Science Gadgets

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Google Voice Quick Reference

Google Voice is really quite an amazing service with a lot of features – for free. Granted if you have a smart phone with browser or near a computer to manage your calls. For those of you still sticking to your dinosaur phone lacking an Internet browser, this Google Voice Quick Reference is for you. Just print it out and put it into your pocket. I didn’t even know some of these features were available such as conversation recording. Managing Google Voice features is now whole lot faster.

Via TechCrunch

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2. Make Free Calls to Canada with Google Voice
3. Transfer Your Mobile Number to Google Voice

This is huge, and puts a lot of pressure on the nav manufacturers to come up with compelling reasons to buy a standalone device to do turn-by-turn navigation, especially at high end price points. I give them maybe another year (two at most) to find a way to justify their existence or they’re toast. In two years, smartphone OS’s and processors will be powerful enough to allow both phone calls and navigation simultaneously while playing back music. Too bad the Nuviphone didn’t come out two years ago. It would have given the nav companies a fighting chance to develop their technology to a point where they could have competed. (Of course, hooking their star onto Microsoft was probably a boneheaded move too but there really weren’t many choices at the time so I’ll forgive them that.)

This move puts even more pressure on Apple. The Google Maps app on the iPhone is probably one of the most heavily used (it vies with email in terms of use for me personally). Now Apple’s faced with having a high-use mapping application that is a generation behind what’s available on Android. It’s quite possible that iPhone OS4 will remove the Google Maps app with an Apple-built alternative but that will be a version 1.0, and will probably not be as fully fleshed out as GMaps. And the expectation will be that Apple will provide an app that is at least as good as Google’s as part of the OS because, let’s face it, if I gotta pay $200 for an iPhone on contract, and then another $100 for TomTom’s nav app, I’d rather give my $200 to Verizon and Droid. Apple needs to lose the anti-multitasking religion right quick and figure out a way to do it efficiently and soon.

I highly recommend checking out the Engadget site to see the video and the press pics. The video demo of the alternative UI that pops up when the device is docked, plus the voice recognition capability, is pretty damned impressive.

Update:

If you’re TomTom or Garmin?  I hope you sold your stock before today.

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3. Make Free Calls to Canada with Google Voice

And I gotta say that I’m liking what I’m seeing. Oh please dear lord don’t let me be disappointed yet again. I gotta renew my two year ball-and-chain with the iPhone in July 2010, and it’s probably going to come down to a choice between iPhone 4G running OS4.x and an Android phone running Cupcake Eclaire 2.x. And I really really really wanna choose the Android OS because I’m getting pretty sick of the Apple monolith.

I think I’ve downloaded roughly 200 apps since I’ve owned the iPhone. I’ve paid for probably 40%-50% of those, maybe more, I’m not sure cause the App Store makes it so easy to buy junk you don’t need. Of those apps, I use maybe 10 on a regular basis. Maybe. Might be as few as 5, depending on how you define regular use. So it makes absolutely no difference to me that Apple has 100K apps in the store. I’m never going to know about 99% of those apps, and of the ones I do know about, I’ll want to try maybe 5% of them. And here’s where the sheer inertia of Apple’s store comes into play. Too many choices that people will never ever find out about. It’s like going to the local convenience store and standing in front of the drinks fridges. You have 50 kinds of ice tea, 90 kinds of soda, 30 different bottled waters – how many of those choices do you actually consider or even know about?

Related posts:

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3. Google Wave Already Works With iPhone

Transfer Your Mobile Number to Google Voice

I’ve been using Google Voice since it was owned by Grand Central. It is a great platform for managing free calls, SMS, and contacts with intelligence. Now Google Voice lets you port your mobile number from your carrier to Google as well. This way, your voicemail is accessible from the cloud. By allowing Google Voice to manage my voicemail, it solves my issue with AT&T which prevents me from receiving voicemail notifications. Once you receive a voicemail, you can be alerted a number of ways by transcribed email or SMS text messages.

Google Voice can let you have a single phone number that automatically rings to your mobile, work, home and other phones based on rules and settings. For example, calls from your kids will ring all numbers while office related contacts only ring your work number.

The process to move your carrier number to Google Voice requires a few steps. However, it is very worth it in the end.

Via TechCrunch

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If that should come to pass, it would be interesting to see how many net adds T-Mobile gains vs. jumpers from AT&T.  I’d especially be interested in seeing how many folks would be willing to jump from AT&T to T-Mobile with their existing iPhone.  That would be a pretty damning indictment of AT&T’s network.

Of course, this probably also means that Verizon will not be getting an iTablet next year either.  I can’t imagine Jobs would be willing to let his new baby play on a network that was abusive towards his old baby.

Related posts:

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Google Wave iPhone App

Google Wave has been making headlines in the tech world. Not many people know this since not everyone received the official invite yet but it already works in the iPhone. It looks quite fantastic.  You can simply go to wave.google.com in mobile Safari on your iPhone and wil be prompted that you are using a browser not supported during the preview, however, once you click through, it actually works well.

You can save a bookmark on your Home screen and it creates a little icon like other Web pages on the iPhone. However, Google Wave is a bit different. Once you launch it it removes the Safari wrapper which allows you to nagivate to another page or search the Web. It actually looks like a regular native iPhone app.

The screen shot on the right is what Google Wave looks like on the iPhone launched from the Home screen bookmark. The screen shot at the bottom is what it looks like from within Safari.

Via TechCrunch

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2. Screenshot Google Wave
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Dropbox Online Storage and iPhone App

Dropbox is an easy to use online file storage that syncs your files across all your computers. I installed it recently and must say it is very intuitive, easy, and fast! You simply go to their website, create and account, and then install on your computer (both Windows and Mac compatible). You can then select your drop box folder to by synced. Files or folders that are in your Dropbox folder are then synchronized online. The performance is great. When you make a change, Dropbox sends the “delta” only to the server thus making the change very quickly. You can also access your files through the website.

The free version begins with 2 Gig of storage space with an additional 1 Gig by referring friends. There is also premium paid version which offers much more.

Dropbox recently released an iPhone application to make it even easier to access your files anywhere in the world. This new iPhone app will let you get access to all your Dropbox documents, PDF’s, pictures, videos and much more. Dropbox also introduced offline viewing in the iPhone app, with “Favorites.” If you add a file to your ‘Favorites’, they’ll be accessible at any time. To do so, just hit the star at the bottom of any file, and it’ll be added. Otherwise, your files stay in the cloud. This is great for people who complain that the iPhone does not offer local file storage. Dropbox offers this and more with automatic sync with their cloud!

Dropbox can also let you share files and folders to anyone in the cloud. The iPhone app also lets you upload pictures and video (with iPhone 3GS).

In just a few days, Dropbox reached over 2 million users. Impressive.

When is Google’s rumored GDrive coming? Google???

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AT&T Introduces A-List for Free Unlimited Calling

AT&T’s recently announced A-List plans on September 20, 2009. This calling feature lets customers talk with up to five people on any network for free, including landlines. The service is very similar to T-Mobile myFaves, which provides free and unlimited calling to customers’ five favorite people. The A-List feature is available on individual Nation plans that cost $59.99 or more. FamilyTalk customers with plans costing $89.99 or more can choose up to 10 people to talk with free of charge.

Want even more free calls beyond what AT&T offers? Add your Google Voice number to your A-list so now you can talk to anyone in North America without using your minutes. Google Voice acts like a conference call with the number you want to talk to (incoming or outgoing). The call with Google Voice is free which connects you to the number you want to talk to. When someone outside your network calls your Google Voice number, your Google Voice then redirects that call to you. So now the conversation is between your AT&T number and Google Voice. If you want to make a call outside your network, call your own Google number and sign into the Google voicemail system, you’ll have the option to place a call. Just press 2 and enter the number. You can also visit Google Voice mobile on your phone.

So what are you waiting for? Log into www.att.com/alist now and add your out of network numbers for free unlimited calls.

Related posts:

1. Make Free Calls to Canada with Google Voice
2. Google Voice Quick Reference
3. Transfer Your Mobile Number to Google Voice

Google Push Email and Calender Sync

Dammit.  I just spent $2.99 on an app to give me push Gmail on my iPhone and then Google goes and adds that capability through Google Sync.  Damn you Google, for making what used to cost money free.  Details at the Google Mobile blog.  Thanks to TechCrunch for alerting me.

If you have GSync already set up on your iPhone, all you have to do is go to the Exchange entry and activate the Mail option.  Simple!

Warning – the Google mobile blog servers are apparently mobbed right now, cause performance is slow slow slow.

UPDATE: In the 20 minutes since I activated this service, I’ve noticed three things.

• You don’t get a popup alert on your screen when new emails come in.  This could be a good or bad thing, depending on your point of view.  You will get  a buzz indicating new mail (if your iPhone is set up for that).
• There is a definite lag between receipt of email and Google pushing it to your iPhone.  It’s not huge but it can be a couple minutes.  I’m curious as to if this is due to the newness of the service or if it’s normal lag due to using Exchange.  It’s no different than what sometimes happens with the Blackberry, so unless you’re OCD about your email you probably won’t notice it.
• My Yahoo push email has apparently never worked properly and for whatever reason I do not get my Yahoo mails pushed to my iPhone.  I only noticed this because of how Google’s push works.  Luckily I don’t care about my Yahoo accounts, since they serve as repositories of spam and junk emails for various signup lists.  Plus all my porn user names and passwords.

Related posts:

1. Google Voice Now Fowards SMS To Email
2. Google Wave Already Works With iPhone
3. GPush Notifications for Gmail on iPhone

iPhone Visual Voicemail Notification Fix

One of the most frustrating and surprisingly under reported issues is with AT&T and iPhone Visual Voicemail notifications. When you receive a voicemail on your iPhone, an alert appears and you can play your voicemail as if its a song. There is now a solution!

Since the iPhone 3GS was released, some customers experienced lack of alerts for voicemail (me being one of them). I recently found a fix for it while I was researching tethering for 3GS. Apparently, tethering your iPhone may cause this issue.

So here’s the fix. Navigate to Settings → General → Network → Cellular Data Network and within the Visual Voicemail section add “acds.voicemail” into the APN field. Your visual voicemail will now work once again.

CAUTION: This fix does break the tethering. You can’t have voicemail notifications and Internet tethering work at the same time.

Via Apple Blog

Related posts:

1. AT&T Killed Visual Voicemail and That’s NOT the Worst Part!
2. iPhone Update 3.0.1 Does Not Disable Tether Hack
3. GPush Notifications for Gmail on iPhone

Steve Ballmer grabs Apple iPhone from Microsoft employee and ‘stomps’ it into ground

Microsoft is having a tough time these days with its image. Google forced Microsoft to to launch the free vaporware Office Online to compete with Google Docs. The Zune player which was meant to compete with the iPod is a dud. The Zune’s slogan “Welcome to the Social” has got to be one of the worst in history. You kind of need a crowd to market with that slogan first don’t you think?  Let’s not even talk about the horrible name of Zune itself.

Now it looks like Microsoft has another publicity stunt they have to dampen.  Microsoft Steve Ballmer, at a conference to showcase Bing 2.0 and a new Windows 7 commercial, saw an employee take pictures with his iPhone. He then grabbed the iPhone, threw it to the ground, and pretend to stomp on it after much booing from the audience.

The good news is that no one threw eggs at Ballmer this time. If Ballmer spent the same energy trashing the iPhone, Microsoft might have some relevancy left in the mobile market. Otherwise, Ballmer should just c:\>format himself

Via TechFlash

Related posts:

1. Docs by Microsoft and Facebook
2. Apple Unveils iPhone 4
3. Google Wave Already Works With iPhone

Google Voice Now Fowards SMS To Email

One of the most popular feature requested from Google Voice was the obvious forward inbound text messages to email. You can now receive incoming text messages to your email. Furthermore, you can even reply from email as well. Users previously could respond to the Google Voice text message on their phone but email forwarding was previously not an option.

Now, once we can have Gmail push to our iPhones then I can cancel the ridiculously priced text messaging plan from AT&T.

Via TechCrunch

Related posts:

1. Make Free Calls to Canada with Google Voice
2. Google Voice Quick Reference
3. Google Push Email for iPhone Now Available

Twitscoop iPhone App

Have you ever wondered what people are talking about in the cyberspace cloud in real time? Well, now you can with the iPhone App Twitscoop.

Twitscoop allows visualization of real time trends and discussions on Twitter straight from your iPhone. The tag cloud grows and shrinks in real-time depending on the popularity of the topic.  The app has a trend algorithm that pulls buzz words, breaking news, and content such as pictures, links, and videos.

Strangely, the key feature lacking in Twitscoop is the lack of ability to tweet from within the app. It is such an obvious feature that they should include it in future updates.

Twitscoop is available for $0.99 on the iTunes App Store.

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2. New iTunes 9 App Management Concept
3. NetFlix Streaming iPhone App Rumor

Mac OS X Snow Leopard

The price is only $29 for an upgrade? Much more reasonable than the headaches and price you get from Microsoft Upgrades.

Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard

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Make Free Calls to Canada with Google Voice

Google Voice now allows you to make free calls to Canada from within the continental US. Previously, you can only make free calls within the US with your Google Voice number.

You can make the call by logging into mobile apps , or by dialing your own Google Voice number from one of your phones and selecting option 2 to place a call. You can also install GV Mobile for a jailbroken iPhone from the Cydia store. GV is now free and can utilize your phone’s Contacts.

Related posts:

1. AT&T Introduces A-List for Free Unlimited Calling
2. Transfer Your Mobile Number to Google Voice
3. Google Voice Quick Reference

GPush Gmail Push Notifications

There is finally a simple iPhone app to allow Gmail push notifications. Can’t wait every 15 minutes for your iPhone to automatically check your email? This app is for you and the reviews have been pretty good. Push notifications allow you to receive a new email rather than having your mail application check (or pull) for new email. Simply turn on the app, enter your Gmail username and password (running over encrypted SSL) and you can get push notifications with From and Subject fields. It supports a variety of alerts such as sounds, badge, or vibrate.

A neat trick is to setup Google Calender notifications to push to a different email that you setup on GPush. You will still get alerts but they won’t come into your main inbox. This reduces SMS alerts which costs you less money as well. Every now and then you will just have to push your email for “junk” or notifications.

It only costs $1 at the App Store and may go up to $2 eventually.

Related posts:

1. Google Push Email for iPhone Now Available
2. Google Wave Already Works With iPhone
3. How To Fix AT&T iPhone Visual Voicemail Notification Alerts

Facebook 3.0 iPhone App

Facebook App v 3.0 is in the approval process for the App Store. Already Joe Hewitt (app developer) is working on v 3.1. Here is the a screen shot of the new version the Facebook app.

It looks like the this version comes with much needed improvements most notably video uploads with the iPhone 3GS. It will also come with a better News feed much like the Facebook site with the ability to “like” items.

Apple shouldn’t have a problem approving this app since there isn’t really much that AT&T would object to that would compete with their business. Version 3.1 is expected to support push notifications as a lot of users are hoping Facebook will become the unified communication platform.

Related posts:

1. iPhone App: Twitscoop Real Time Twitter Trends
2. New iTunes 9 App Management Concept
3. NetFlix Streaming iPhone App Rumor

The YouTube video below is a concept on how it would work.

Furthermore, iTunes 9 is rumored to feature Blu-ray support and more integration with Twiter, Facebook, and possibly Last.fm. The integration can involve status updates to the respective social networks on what songs you are playing on your iPhone/iPod Touch. Facebook has worked with Apple before on integrating the iPhone camera to upload to Facebook so this collaboration rumor is not so far fetch.

Related posts:

1. NetFlix Streaming iPhone App Rumor
2. iPhone App: Twitscoop Real Time Twitter Trends
3. Screenshot: Facebook 3.0 iPhone App

Apple To Stream First Live Concert on iPhone Tonight with Underworld

This break through event coincides with Apple’s release of its own HTTP streaming protocol that uses adaptive bitrates to deliver continuous and smooth stream in various network congestion. Tonight’s concert will test.

Underworld - Born Slippy

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlLWFa1b1Bc

Underworld’s bandmembers Karl Hyde and Rick Smith are huge Apple fans and recently released their entire catalog on iTunes. Apple is using partners at Inlet Technologies and Akamai to power tonight’s show.

Related posts:

1. NetFlix Streaming iPhone App Rumor
2. New Apple iPhone 4G with OLED
3. Apple iPhone 3GS

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2. My Experience In a Fake Apple Store in China
3. Philadelphia Apple Store Grand Opening on Walnut Street Friday, July 30

NetFlix Streaming iPhone App

Let’s talk about an amazing brand called Netflix. It has been able to stay relevant being a completely online movie delivery service even while Blockbuster has the straddle strategy (online and brick and morter). We think that Netflix’s success has a lot to do with the abundant LongTail collection of niche films as well as popular ones. In addition, they were really the first company to deliver movies through the mail and online.

A search for Blockbuster’s iPhone app yielded no results on the iTunes App Store at the moment.

There is now a rumor that Netflix Watch Instantly streaming service would be available on Apple’s App Store as well as available on the Nintendo Wii.

This is something I’m sure a lot of Netflix subscribers would love to have. The biggest question is if AT&T would allow such bandwidth utilization of streaming video on their 3G network. Afterall, they seem to have an unofficial hand in dictacting Apple approval of iPhone apps that competes with their core business like Google Voice. Ironically though, AT&T and Apple do allow the MLB At Bat app to stream video over the network. Let’s not forget the iPhone also comes with a YouTube player that can stream both on 3G and Wi-Fi.  According to AT&T, it doesn’t want all this video streaming to further clog its pipes, which could be the reason why the rumored Hulu app is not released yet.

The next question would be if Apple themselves would allow such a service to compete with its movie downloads. Then again, Apple does offer radio streaming apps like Last.FM and Pandora which theoretically competes with its iTunes Music Downloads. Apple’s app approval still seems unpredictable despite its disclosure.

Via TechCrunch

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2. Dropbox Online Storage and iPhone App
3. New iTunes 9 App Management Concept

The FCC recently sent AT&T, Apple and Google a letter of questions in regards to the removal of Google Voice App for the iPhone. AT&T has kept quiet until recently and now showing it’s true selfish colors but blaming publicly that it is all on Apple

AT&T Is the Death Star

“AT&T does not manage or approve applications for the App Store. We have received the letter and will, of course, respond to it.”

Now, it doesn’t take a genius to know that AT&T more than likely do not have paper trails that could hold them liable for anti-competitive behavior. Nope, a phone call to Steve Jobs to have him authorize the removal of Google Voice app will do just fine. Google Voice iPhone App can offer free SMS messaging which competes with AT&T and other telecom companies highly lucrative paid SMS service. Typically, you are paying for both incoming and outgoing text message. This isn’t true when it comes to receiving an international phone call. Only the person making the call has to pay. The recipient does not.

It will be very interesting to hear the responses from Apple and AT&T for the FCC inquiry in the coming days.

Related posts:

1. AT&T, Google, & Apple respond to the FCC
2. Google Voice Now Fowards SMS To Email
3. AT&T Introduces A-List for Free Unlimited Calling

Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Google CEO Eric Schmidt

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has resigned from sitting on Apple’s Board of Directors after nearly 3 years. It was a wonderful partnership at the start. Apple would create the fan boy devices while Google concentrated on dominating online services. However, as Google moves toward the telecom space with Google Voice, the mobile phone, its own browser, and creating its own operating system Chrome for both mobile and desktops, conflict of interests undoubtly arise with Schmidt sitting on the board.

Eric Schmidt’s resignation comes only a few days after the FCC sent letters to Google, Apple and AT&T on why Apple denied Google Voice from the iPhone App Store.

Apple released a statement on the matter

Apple today announced that Dr. Eric Schmidt, chief executive officer of Google, is resigning from Apple’s Board of Directors, a position he has held since August 2006.

“Eric has been an excellent Board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s Board.”

Image Courtesy of Technologizer

Related posts:

1. Make Free Calls to Canada with Google Voice
2. Apple Finally Approves Google Voice App
3. Apple rejects Google applications for iPhone

iPhone Tethering

In the past week, a malicious SMS virus had the potential to take over the iPhone via a text message. Apple responded by releasing the iPhone Update 3.0.1.

We tested this update and it does not disable Internet Tethering. So go ahead, download, and install the 3.0.1 Update to protect your iPhone.

Related posts:

1. How To Tether iPhone 3.0 for AT&T
2. How To Fix AT&T iPhone Visual Voicemail Notification Alerts
3. Apple iPhone 3GS

FCC is now investigating the removal of the iPhone app Google Voice by Apple. Apple’s vague reasoning for the removal is that it “duplicates existing features”. We all suspect however, that AT&T is threatened by Google Voice free SMS messages and voicemail competing with AT&T’s pricing and thus “suggested” to Apple to remove it.

FCC Letter to Apple

July 31, 2009

Catherine A. Novelli, Vice President
Worldwide Government Affairs
Apple Inc.
901 15th Street, NW, Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20005

RE: Google Voice and related iPhone applications

Dear Ms. Novelli:

Recent press reports indicate that Apple has declined to approve the Google Voice application for the iPhone and has removed related (and previously approved) third-party applications from the iPhone App Store. In light of pending FCC proceedings regarding wireless open access (RM-11361) and handset exclusivity (RM-11497), we are interested in a more complete understanding of this situation.

To that end, please provide answers to the following questions by close of business on Friday, August 21, 2009.

1. Why did Apple reject the Google Voice application for iPhone and remove related third-party applications from its App Store? In addition to Google Voice, which related third-party applications were removed or have been rejected? Please provide the specific name of each application and the contact information for the developer.
2. Did Apple act alone, or in consultation with AT&T, in deciding to reject the Google Voice application and related applications? If the latter, please describe the communications between Apple and AT&T in connection with the decision to reject Google Voice. Are there any contractual conditions or non-contractual understandings with AT&T that affected Apple’s decision in this matter?
3. Does AT&T have any role in the approval of iPhone applications generally (or in certain cases)? If so, under what circumstances, and what role does it play? What roles are specified in the contractual provisions between Apple and AT&T (or any non-contractual understandings) regarding the consideration of particular iPhone applications?
4. Please explain any differences between the Google Voice iPhone application and any Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications that Apple has approved for the iPhone. Are any of the approved VoIP applications allowed to operate on AT&T’s 3G network?
5. What other applications have been rejected for use on the iPhone and for what reasons? Is there a list of prohibited applications or of categories of applications that is provided to potential vendors/developers? If so, is this posted on the iTunes website or otherwise disclosed to consumers?
6. What are the standards for considering and approving iPhone applications? What is the approval process for such applications (timing, reasons for rejection, appeal process, etc.)? What is the percentage of applications that are rejected? What are the major reasons for rejecting an application?

Request for Confidential Treatment. If Apple requests that any information or documents responsive to this letter be treated in a confidential manner, it shall submit, along with all responsive information and documents, a statement in accordance with section 0.459 of the Commission’s rules. 47 C.F.R. § 0.459. Requests for confidential treatment must comply with the requirements of section 0.459, including the standards of specificity mandated by section 0.459(b). Accordingly, “blanket” requests for confidentiality of a large set of documents are unacceptable. Pursuant to section 0.459(c), the Bureau will not consider requests that do not comply with the requirements of section 0.459.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation.

Sincerely,

James D. Schlichting
Acting Chief
Wireless Telecommunications Bureau
Federal Communications Commission

FCC Letter to Google

July 31, 2009

Richard S. Whitt, Esq.
Washington Telecom and Media Counsel
Google Inc.
1101 New York Avenue, NW, Second Floor
Washington, DC 20005

RE: Apple’s Rejection of the Google Voice for iPhone Application

Dear Mr. Whitt:

Recent press reports indicate that Apple has declined to approve the Google Voice application for the iPhone and has removed related (and previously approved) third-party applications from the iPhone App Store. In light of pending FCC proceedings regarding wireless open access (RM-11361) and handset exclusivity (RM-11497), we are interested in a more complete understanding of this situation.

To that end, please provide answers to the following questions by close of business on Friday, August 21, 2009.

1. Please provide a description of the proposed Google Voice application for iPhone. What are the key features, and how does it operate (over a voice or data network, etc.)?
2. What explanation was given (if any) for Apple’s rejection of the Google Voice application (and for any other Google applications for iPhone that have been rejected, such as Google Latitude)? Please describe any communications between Google and AT&T or Apple on this topic and a summary of any meetings or discussion.
3. Has Apple approved any Google applications for the Apple App Store? If so, what services do they provide, and, in Google’s opinion, are they similar to any Apple/AT&T-provided applications?
4. Does Google have any other proposed applications pending with Apple, and if so, what services do they provide?
5. Are there other mechanisms by which an iPhone user will be able to access either some or all of the features of Google Voice? If so, please explain how and to what extent iPhone users can utilize Google Voice despite the fact that it is not available through Apple’s App Store.
6. Please provide a description of the standards for considering and approving applications with respect to Google’s Android platform. What is the approval process for such applications (timing, reasons for rejection, appeal process, etc.)? What is the percentage of applications that are rejected? What are the major reasons for rejecting an application?

Request for Confidential Treatment. If Google requests that any information or documents responsive to this letter be treated in a confidential manner, it shall submit, along with all responsive information and documents, a statement in accordance with section 0.459 of the Commission’s rules. 47 C.F.R. § 0.459. Requests for confidential treatment must comply with the requirements of section 0.459, including the standards of specificity mandated by section 0.459(b). Accordingly, “blanket” requests for confidentiality of a large set of documents are unacceptable. Pursuant to section 0.459(c), the Bureau will not consider requests that do not comply with the requirements of section 0.459.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation.

Sincerely,

James D. Schlichting
Acting Chief
Wireless Telecommunications Bureau
Federal Communications Commission

FCC Letter to AT&T

July 31, 2009

James W. Cicconi
Senior Executive Vice President-External and Legislative Affairs
AT&T Services, Inc.
1120 20th Street, NW, Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20036

RE: Apple’s Rejection of the Google Voice for iPhone Application

Dear Mr. Cicconi:

Recent press reports indicate that Apple has declined to approve the Google Voice application for the iPhone and has removed related (and previously approved) third-party applications from the iPhone App Store. In light of pending FCC proceedings regarding wireless open access (RM-11361) and handset exclusivity (RM-11497), we are interested in a more complete understanding of this situation.

To that end, please provide answers to the following questions by close of business on Friday, August 21, 2009.

1. What role, if any, did AT&T play in Apple’s consideration of the Google Voice and related applications? What role, if any, does AT&T play in consideration of iPhone applications generally? What roles are specified in the contractual provisions between Apple and AT&T (or in any non-contractual understanding between the companies) regarding the consideration of particular iPhone applications?
2. Did Apple consult with AT&T in the process of deciding to reject the Google Voice application? If so, please describe any communications between AT&T and Apple or Google on this topic, including the parties involved and a summary of any meetings or discussions.
3. Please explain AT&T’s understanding of any differences between the Google Voice iPhone application and any Voice over Internet Protocol applications that are currently used on the AT&T network, either via the iPhone or via handsets other than the iPhone.
4. To AT&T’s knowledge, what other applications have been rejected for use on the iPhone? Which of these applications were designed to operate on AT&T’s 3G network? What was AT&T’s role in considering whether such applications would be approved or rejected?
5. Please detail any conditions included in AT&T’s agreements or contracts with Apple for the iPhone related to the certification of applications or any particular application’s ability to use AT&T’s 3G network.
6. Are there any terms in AT&T’s customer agreements that limit customer usage of certain third-party applications? If so, please indicate how consumers are informed of such limitations and whether such limitations are posted on the iTunes website as well. In general, what is AT&T’s role in certifying applications on devices that run over AT&T’s 3G network? What, if any, applications require AT&T’s approval to be added to a device? Are there any differences between AT&T’s treatment of the iPhone and other devices used on its 3G network?
7. Please list the services/applications that AT&T provides for the iPhone, and whether there any similar, competing iPhone applications offered by other providers in Apple’s App Store.
8. Do any devices that operate on AT&T’s network allow use of the Google Voice application? Do any devices that operate on AT&T’s network allow use of other applications that have been rejected for the iPhone?
9. Please explain whether, on AT&T’s network, consumers’ access to and usage of Google Voice is disabled on the iPhone but permitted on other handsets, including Research in Motion’s BlackBerry devices.

Request for Confidential Treatment. If AT&T requests that any information or documents responsive to this letter be treated in a confidential manner, it shall submit, along with all responsive information and documents, a statement in accordance with section 0.459 of the Commission’s rules. 47 C.F.R. § 0.459. Requests for confidential treatment must comply with the requirements of section 0.459, including the standards of specificity mandated by section 0.459(b). Accordingly, “blanket” requests for confidentiality of a large set of documents are unacceptable. Pursuant to section 0.459(c), the Bureau will not consider requests that do not comply with the requirements of section 0.459.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation.

Sincerely,

James D. Schlichting
Acting Chief
Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Federal Communications Commission

Via TechCrunch

Related posts:

1. AT&T, Google, & Apple respond to the FCC
2. Apple Finally Approves Google Voice App
3. Apple rejects Google applications for iPhone

The virus will appear as an SMS message with a single square. The exploit reportedly makes your phone to be inoperable and also  be remotely controlled.

Via Mashable

Related posts:

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It is likely not Apple’s fault but more than likely reflects the will of AT&T.  AT&T can threaten to revoke Apple’s iPhone subsidy if Apple doesn’t adhere to its wishes.  The  Google Voice app on the iPhone would have enabled customers to send and receive free SMS and access visual voicemail while bypassing AT&T’s voice network and associated fees.  Within a matter of months or weeks, AT&T’s SMS (short text messages) cash cow could have taken a serious hit.  The Google voice app could have also become a compelling remedy to the  Visual Voicemail issues that AT&T has been experiencing.

Question: Why does it cost so much to send text messages which employ a single “one way” communication mechanism, uses little network bandwidth —  yet it’s free to download a full HD movie on a Wi-Fi Network? It is certainly not a technological issue but rather  one of convenience. SMS is much more convenient, has less friction and is often a more efficient way to communicate instead of using voice.  Like Twitter and e-mail, it’s asynchronous yet these services are free!

For now, you can still access Google Voice services on your iPhone by going http://voice.google.com. You can send FREE SMS messages, but since web pages don’t support push notification you’ll have to refresh to see new in-coming messages.    I will anticipate that Google will eventually use some of their AJAX mojo to enable auto-refresh for receiving SMS messages.

Related posts:

1. Apple Finally Approves Google Voice App
2. AT&T Plays the Blame Game Card on Apple
3. Google Voice Now Fowards SMS To Email

AT&T Reveals Its New Service the Death Star

This leads to my rant on why the Visual Voicemail issue isn’t even the worst part. What really bothered me was AT&T’s lack of responsibility to notifying and informing their customers of this issue so people could manually check their voicemail until this issue has been resolved. AT&T is aware of this problem and has been supposedly working on a fix for several weeks now. Therefore, it is absolutely inexcusable for AT&T not to publicize this failure. Voicemail is an integral to our lives as email.

I contacted AT&T Tech Support twice and both customer service representatives were not aware of this problem. How can a system wide issue not be communicated to even their own support staff?

My real estate agent was also missing my voicemail until I told her about this issue. She’s had several dozen messages that were missed.  Another friend of mine missed over 40 messages. How much loss in business do you think could have been prevented if AT&T advised their customers to check their voicemail manually? What has changed? There were not any new features in Visual Voicemail that could have broken it!

Our GadgetMETER writer, Jay Chang, made a wonderful suggestion: switch to Google Voice. Which is exactly what HE did.

Here is our laundry list of complaints with the Death Star known as AT&T….and yes, I cannot wait for the Class Action Lawsuit. Maybe George Lucas will make another Star Wars Trilogy.

• AT&T did not notify customers about a known issue with visual voicemail causing loss of business and life disruptions.
• Poor 3G service in New York City and San Fransisco. Would you bother upgrading to 3GS knowing you would get shady service in these cities?
• Long term contracts. I get it. The contracts help subsidize the iPhone purchase. However, AT&T has taken advantage of this by overcharging because Verizon is not in the iPhone game. Once Verizon is, I’m giving AT&T a two fingered salute goodbye!
• Still no official 3G tethering. I’ve heard they are planning to charge more. Why does AT&T plan to rape their customers? We already paid for the data plan, it shouldn’t matter what devices use it. Comcast Internet doesn’t charge me extra for additional devices I use on my Wi-Fi connection at home. If you want to do a simple hack to tether the iPhone 3.0, check out our post here.
• Telecom companies have never been known to innovate and move technology forward. It’s always been Silicon Valley. Once we move to Wi-Max and Google offers its own low cost or free universal Internet Access, I would excpect to see low cost data and voice plans.

If you are having iPhone visual voicemail problems, try these steps from CNET. It didn’t work for me but apparently it worked for others.

I cannot imagine all the problems in people’s lives this has caused. Share your stories with us.

Related posts:

1. How To Fix AT&T iPhone Visual Voicemail Notification Alerts
2. Apple rejects Google applications for iPhone
3. AT&T Plays the Blame Game Card on Apple

Related posts:

1. How To Fix AT&T iPhone Visual Voicemail Notification Alerts
2. AT&T Killed Visual Voicemail and That’s NOT the Worst Part!
3. If you are an iPhone user, please read this.

CoolIris isn’t just for Mac users though, it works on Windows XP, Vista and Linux (!!!) too. The folks at CoolIris want to bring this experience to everyone! And it truly is a beautiful experience.

A simple image search on Google

CoolIris was previously PicLens. So some of you may already be familiar with previous incarnations of CoolIris (even though I am not).

So what is it, exactly? Well, it is a plug-in that gives you a new way to navigate, find and share images and videos “using the rich media that is now dominating the web” says partner Randy Komisar.

Learn about the CoolIris vision here!

It basically transforms your viewing experience into a cinematic 3D wall. You can do Google searches, YouTube, Flickr, Hulu, Facebook and many many more. It frees you from the confines of your browser, which I didn’t know was confining until I tried CoolIris, strangely enough.

Image search zoomed out

It also works in your Finder. Search all images and videos within your Finder with speed and style. CoolIris transforms your screen into the ultimate 3D viewing experience! The best word I can find for it is elegant. Really. It’s like Cover-Flow’s debonair cousin or something.

Using it is simple enough.  Just install and then the CoolIris icon will appear on images when you mouse over them in your browser, or you can launch CoolIris from the icon that appears at the top right of your browser window.  Of course you can launch from your Applications folder as well.  From within CoolIris you can zoom out (as seen to the right) or go full screen with any image.  And that is just the tip of the CoolIris iceberg.

It’s even gotten me excited for the day that those oh-so-awesome fictional GUIs that you always see in the movies may actually become something of a reality.

There is a version for the iPhone as well that looks pretty awesome, though since I still have yet to get one I haven’t been able to test it out yet.

Check out the CoolIris website and then get ready to change the way you see the virtual world.

CoolIris Overview
CoolIris Features

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3. Google Custom Search