Rogers Wireless Web Page Appears to Confirm 8 GB iPhone 3GS [Updated]

A Rogers Wireless web page appears to confirm last week's alleged screenshots of the company's internal retail software revealing a forthcoming 8 GB iPhone 3GS model. The "iPhone Comparison" tab on Rogers' iPhone 3GS page contains a chart listing th...

Rogers Wireless Web Page Appears to Confirm 8 GB iPhone 3GS

A Rogers Wireless web page appears to confirm last week's alleged screenshots of the company's internal retail software revealing a forthcoming 8 GB iPhone 3GS model. The "iPhone Comparison" tab on Rogers' iPhone 3GS page contains a chart listing th...

Best of Smartphone Experts, 9 August 2009

Who says August is a slow news month?

Visual Voicemail Available in Android Market HTC Hero coming to Sprint MyTouch 3G for T-Mobile Now Available	T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve 8520 First Impressions BlackBerry Holds Is the #1 Selling Smartphone in the US in Q2 CrackBerry Podcast Episode 039 - the three Crackateers are Back!
Hands-On with AT&T Social Net on the E71x Nokia Rover Appears on FCC with T-Mobile Support Gravity Adds Facebook, Continues to Rock!	New Homebrew App Gallery for the Palm Pre! How to install Homebrew Apps on the Palm Pre The Team Behind the Creep Palm Pre Ads Responds
iTunes 9 to Add iPhone App Organizer, Blu-Ray? App Store Cracks Down on Copyright, Ejects 900+ Aggregator Apps, Rejects E-Books Apple VP Phil Schiller Responds to Ninjawords iPhone App Store Incident	Exclusive pics and specs of the Verizon Touch Diamond 2/Whitestone. Verizon Touch Pro 2 confirmed with 3.5mm headphone jack. Google Voice: GVDialer vs. iDial.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Best of Smartphone Experts, 9 August 2009

Photos Disappearing due to a Bug in iPhone OS 3.0?

New and Improved iPhone Remote App is Brilliant

FreeAppAlert lets you know when paid apps suddenly become free

There are thousands and thousands of iPhone applications, but you hardly have time to keep up with their pricing changes, let alone new releases. The FreeAppAlert web service will keep you updated when formerly paid apps switch to being free, taking away all that searching. You can set up FreeAppAlert’s site to notify you via email, [...]

App Review: Navigon MobileNavigator North America for iPhone

(Navigon Mobile Navigator for iPhone Forum Review by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!)

MobileNavigator North America [$69.99 - iTunes link], by Navigon, is the second GPS TBT app I examined. This one requires you to download all the maps in advance (1.5 GB for the US version, 1.67 for the European version) so make sure you have space on your iPhone. The advantage of this is that you can get GPS directions even if you do not have an AT&T signal. In addition, the actual “routing” process seems a little faster since it is not downloading directions OTA.

The map interface is very clean and flows very well, clearly showing direction and the upcoming street name. Unfortunately since the app doesn’t read the street name, you need to continually look at the app to see where to turn in areas when there are lots of streets next to each other. One nice feature is you can see POI on the map itself – not just a little dot or something, but an actual icon for the POI. When driving by a McDonalds, you can see the golden arches on the map. If the POI doesn’t have an logo, it just shows a general icon (gas station, food, etc).

To create a route, you can choose a variety of options in the route profile. These include fastest route, optimum (I believe for driving in cities), shortest, and scenic. You can also choose type of vehicle (including pedestrial), allow/avoid highways, toll roads, ferries, resident only streets, and HOV lates. I like the inclusion of a scenic route, although I am not sure the parameters. Will it take you ½ hour out of the way to see a nice waterfall? What about an hour?

Creating a route is very easy. The app has large buttons to press, and takes you through the step by step process (first state, then city, then street, etc). You can also choose to “take me home” where it will take you to your programmed home destination. At the bottom you can choose to select recent location, search your contacts, or select a favorite location.

Unfortunately you can’t specify roads that you prefer or want to avoid (like if you want to go a specific route, or travel by a specific town). In addition, sometimes the route choices seem…well…preposterous. When driving home yesterday, at one point the optimum route told me a certain way to go and get home by 8:07pm. The “shortest” route told me a similar route and got home by 8:08pm. The “fastest route” had me going to Corpus Christi, back down on a highway, and then backtracking – and getting home at 8:56pm. It made absolutely no sense what so ever.

When starting on the trip, I found the ETA to be generally reasonably accurate. An 11 hour, 630 mile trip was predicted initially as 12 hours. When looking at the map, you can tap the screen to see an overhead view, and also get a map summary. Unfortunately, there is no way to get a turn by turn summary of the whole trip.

Within the trip you have a lot of options. You have a speed option. The app comes with speed limits built in, which were accurate at least 90% of the time. You can program if you want the app to warn you if you are speeding (5 mph over, 10mph over, etc). Obviously you can’t rely on it, but it is a nice feature to have. In addition, you have the option of creating interim destination – basically a multi stop trip. This is one way to finagle choosing a specific route – just choose a city as an interim destination that is on the road you want to take! The app then tracks both trips, in terms of ETA and miles to go. You can also add a POI along the route (although I am not sure how far “off route” it searches – ½ mile? 1 mile?). You have a night map option and can also change your route profile (fastest to scenic, for example).

Searching for POIs is easy as well. First choose the location (nearby, a specific city, or statewide). You can preprogram three “auto” categories for quick searches as well – I chose gas, hotels, and food. Like other apps, you can’t define your search radius for “nearby”, but it looks to be about 5 miles or so. The POI library is somewhat lacking, however. While I can understand it for some out of the way hotels, there were some times that a McDonalds (or something similar) was mislabeled on the maps or couldn’t be found with a POI.

All in all, I found this to be a solid app, with lots of nice features added in. While the route choice was at times baffling, for the most part I had little to quibble about. The built in speeding warning is a nice feature to have, although you can’t rely on it because it is not always 100% accurate. The POI library was lacking somewhat, and I wasn’t really sure if I was missing some possible POIs along the way because of that. At $69 (on sale, normally $99) the app is not expensive, but still cheaper in the long run than a monthly fee system. Four out of five stars.

Pros:

• Easy POI lookup
• Maps on device
• Nice graphics and interface
• Lots of options for customizing
• Speed limit warnings!

Cons:

• POI database is lacking
• Doesn’t read street names
• Some routes are wildly inaccurate

TiPb Review Rating

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

App Review: Navigon MobileNavigator North America for iPhone

Five Apps for movie nuts

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, App Review

Just a few years ago, lovers of movies had one option of finding out where and when a film was playing: the newspaper. Remember them? They came sometime after scrolls and before Pong.

Next came Mr. Moviefone. Who of you cannot hear a certain voice in your head as you read: 'Hello and welcome to Moviefone'? The voice has been doing it since 1989, and has recorded over three million voice prompts. Moviefone represents many theater chains including: some AMC screens, Cineplex Odeon, Clearview Cinemas, Galaxy Cinemas, and National Amusements theaters depending upon location.

And then came the Internet.

Some years later, in 2000 Fandango emerged to create some competition. Using a ton of funny commercials and movie trailers featuring paper bag puppets, they gave Moviefone a run for their money representing such chains as: some AMC screens, Carmike Cinema, Century Theaters, CineArts, Cinemark, Edwards, Regal, United Artists, and others depending upon location.

Both have Internet sites where, for a service charge ranging from $.75 to $2.00, tickets could be bought online to make sure you wouldn't be shut out of that midnight showing of Transformers 2.

Then came the iPhone/iPod Touch and things got considerably easier, although there is no clear demarcation of what service sells what, or where. I want to give you two alternatives, each using one of the two competing services.

Now Playing - Free
This is one of the nicest apps going. It uses Fandango for purchasing tickets, but it does a whole lot more. In fact, it has the fullest feature set of any movie app I've come across. Here are some of the things it can do:

Netflix management: Many options found on the Netflix site are available here but I found them a bit harder to get to than on the web site. Queues can be re-ordered, add to or deleted from. When adding you have the option of moving your choice to the top of your queue. If you're not sure if you want it, you can be transferred to Amazon, IMDb, Wikipedia or even the Netflix site via Safari for more information. I should note that when using any of the Netflix oriented functions, the app takes quite a while to download all your Netflix account information.

Movie searching by theater: Choose a theater and get show times and the option of playing a trailer. A website button brings you to all of the sites mentioned plus the Metacritic review site, or you can read the first paragraph of a number of reviews from top critics. You are also alerted if the movie is already in your Netflix Queue and given the Netflix star rating.

Movie schedules can be emailed. A full list of upcoming movies along with DVD release dates can be found along with the ability of saving any upcoming title to your Netflix queue to receive it after it's released.

It doesn't have the nicest interface out there, but it's jammed with functionality and the price is certainly right.

Note: Fandango service charges a 'convenience fee' ranging from $.75 to $2.00 depending upon venue and location.

Continue reading Five Apps for movie nuts

Five Apps for movie nuts originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 09 Aug 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Five Apps for movie nuts originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 09 Aug 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TiPb Back-to-School Picks - GPA+, EleMints, Wikipanion, Appigo Todo, Cocktails+, ACT MATH Foundation, iHomework, GRE Connect, iStudiez Pro, QuickOffice, reQall

Every week a few of us from team TiPb, bloggers and forum crew alike, will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone (or iPod touch) related, they’re fair game.

So who’s on deck this week and what are our picks? Find out after the break!

Chris’ Pick: GPA+

While still lacking some features (as of our review) this app offers a wide variety of options and settings for tracking courses, assignments, and GPA over the school year. You can add courses and individual assignments, you can track your semester or cumulative GPA, and it provides tools to determine how well you need to do to improve or maintain your GPA. While a little buggy at times, and limited in some cases to the type of data you can enter, it provides an all-in-one solution for any student who wants to track their semester in one iPhone application. Some of our concerns in the review were addressed with various updates that have been provided. [$1.99 - iTunes link]

EleMints - A full featured periodic table of elements, with enough data and versatility for most students. A little more expensive, but the features should wow any potential chemistry student (plus with the updates I have read about, it should address some of the issues I had in the review). [$4.99 - iTunes link]

Wikipanion - While Wikipedia should never, NEVER be used as a reference in a paper, it can be used to get some general information about a topic. Wikipanion is a great iPhone app that interfaces with Wikipedia. Students can use it as a source of general information to look up a variety of topics for just about any class they may take. [Free - iTunes link]

James’ Pick: Appigo’s Todo

Back in May, I selected Appigo’s Todo as my pick of the week.  While I use it more as a business app, this does not exclude its ability to be a robust app for students as well (students have things to do as well, no?).  Todo offers students the ability to create projects with different sub-tasks and prioritize them accordingly.  Don’t take my word for it…TiPB’s Matt Sawyers (aka msbaylor on the forums) reviewed Todo in his Round Robin. [$9.99 - iTunes link]

Justin’s Pick: Cocktails+

I guess I’ve been out of school too long and haven’t used any apps I think are “Back to Schoolish”. Unless it’s back to party school college! then I guess I would say Cocktails+ [$2.99 - iTunes link] and a very good free one called 5800+ Drink & Cocktail Recipes Free [Free - iTunes link]

Leanna’s Pick: ACT MATH Foundation

f you’re in high school and thinking about college, then the ACT exam is likely in your future. Since studying is high on your priority list, you could go to your local bookstore and purchase a heavy review book, or pick up ACT MATH Foundation from the App Store. This app reviews 361 topics that are covered by the ACT Math exam and has practice tests with instant detailed score results. Indriam Inc. also offers similar apps for the GED, GRE, SAT, and GMAT. Studying has never been so fun! [$1.99 on sale - iTunes link]

Matt’s Pick: iHomework

After coming from a palm pilot, I used DueYesterday and missed it very much. Having said that, there are several options out there, but iHomework seems to be the best assignment & grade tracker (and the closest to what I used to use). The application can easily track multiple classes and multiple assignments in each class. One of the really neat things about the app is its grade tracking. It has the ability to do simple grade tracking and more advanced tracking (weighted assignments). With these two types of systems, this makes it a perfect solution for both high school and college students. [$0.99 - iTunes link]

GRE Connect - Recently I have been preparing for the GRE and I scouted out a number of different apps. So far GRE Connect seems to be the best. It not only has a wealth of information - explanations, questions & answers, but it also has some very nifty progress tracking, diagnostic test and quizzes to prepare you for the GRE. Further more if you buy their Desktop application, you can sync with it and keep everything up to date. This, however, will set you back an additional $20, but you are still able to backup for free. [$9.99 - iTunes Link]

iStudiez Pro - iStudiez Pro has the best graphical interface for tracking assignments, but lacks any type of grade tracking. If all you want to do it track assignments, then this has a very nice calendar-view feature. [$1.99 - iTunes Link]

Rene’s Pick: QuickOffice

Though higher education and I agreed to cease hostilities and go our separate ways many moons ago, based on my dim and distant memories there was some need to write and perhaps calculate… stuff. Kidding aside, if you need any type of document editing capability, QuickOffice will help you get your learn on. [$12.99 on sale - iTunes link]

reQall - reQall for iPhone is a client for reQall’s web service (free or pro for $30 a year). David Pogue shows it off with typical… Poguiness on YouTube but the quick version is reQuall lets you capture and organize ideas and tasks in a variety of easy and efficient ways. [Free - iTunes link]

Your Pick?

You’re part of team TiPb too, so what’s your pick? What app was your absolute fav last week? Let us — and everyone — know in the comments!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb Back-to-School Picks - GPA+, EleMints, Wikipanion, Appigo Todo, Cocktails+, ACT MATH Foundation, iHomework, GRE Connect, iStudiez Pro, QuickOffice, reQall

Google releases update to Google Mobile - Fixes Voice search for OS 3.0

Google has updated it’s popular Google Mobile iPhone App that fixes the issues of OS 3.0 affecting the voice search feature. When you installed the iPhone 3.0 operating system, you would have noticed that lifting the receiver to your ear and speaking your command would no longer function. Google admittedly broke Apple’s rules by releasing such a [...]

iTunes 9 to Add iPhone App Organizer, Blu-Ray?

BGR reports a source saying Apple is readying iTunes 9, which will include support for visually organizing apps on the iPhone, and for playing back Blu-Ray media.

iPhone 1.1.3 introduced the ability to add icons (limited to WebClips at the time, expanded to native apps with iPhone 2.0), and to move them around by tapping and holding until they began to jiggle. While this works well enough for a few icons once and a while, it makes totally re-arranging the 11 home screens made available in iPhone 3.0 a tad laborious. Suggestions for, even concept videos of, adding a more robust solution via iTunes have been floating around the web for a while now and would be a welcome addition indeed.

Steve Jobs had famously called Blu-Ray a “bag of hurt” due to licensing, but changes in those licenses and perhaps Apple’s priorities — which previously seemed to want to promote their own download service over physical media — could make it happen. Unless there’s more expansive and integrated support for the “digital copy” feature as well — where an iPhone/iPod version of the movie is included on the disk — it’s not really an iPhone friendly addition.

Also rumored were some kind of Twitter/Facebook/Last.fm social features.

Last year Apple debuted iTunes 8 at their annual iTunes and iPod music event in September (after it was heavily leaked by Kevin Rose). If there is an iTunes 9 on the roadmap, makes sense we’d see it this September along with the rumored iPod touch 3,1.

Anyone more interested in it now?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iTunes 9 to Add iPhone App Organizer, Blu-Ray?

Best iPhone cellular plan… ever?

Filed under: iPhone, Jailbreak/pwnage

I like to joke that "Iowa is a great place to live, but I wouldn't want to visit." Residents often complain that there's nothing to do (other than milk cows and shuck corn). One can only stand so much antiquing.

But we do have a few things going for us: clean air, relatively light traffic, lots of space, and perhaps the best cell phone plan for the iPhone.

Recently, reader PC Drew, a US Marine living in Japan, sent us a note to let us know about the challenge he had in finding an iPhone plan while visiting his wife's family. A contract plan was out of the question, of course, because of his length of stay and the fact that he's still under a two-year Softbank agreement in Japan. And due to AT&T's, shall we say, "perplexing" lack of a prepaid plan for the iPhone, the official carrier in the States wouldn't help him.

He could have stopped by a Best Buy and picked up an O2 Universal SIM Card for less than $10. That would have provided the ironically-named PC with $0.17 per minute calls but that's it -- no data, no included text messages, and no tethering ability.

After searching a bit for a prepaid solution, he stumbled across the MEGAtalk Nationwide plan from regional GSM carrier, i wireless. This no-contract, no-credit-check offering gives the customer 30 days of unlimited calling, with roaming and long distance, for $49 plus taxes.

But wait, there's more! Not only did PC get unlimited voice minutes, but he also had unlimited SMS texting and, here's the kicker, unlimited data usage. And, with the proper hack, i wireless customers can tether their iPhones for free. Yes, you read that right... free tethering on an unlimited data plan!

Of course, getting a service plan from an unofficial carrier (read: non-AT&T, at least in the United States) requires your iPhone to be SIM-unlocked. This has become much easier over the past two years and most cell phone shops can perform the procedure if you're too nervous. PC had already performed the necessary steps, as he often finds himself in areas that aren't exactly covered by his Softbank contract.

Okay, now for the downer. Because it's a T-Mobile affiliate, i wireless doesn't offer iPhone-compatible 3G service. In fact, they only offer EDGE speeds in their Iowa-based footprint, unless you're traveling to an area with T-Mobile 3G. As a result, that unlimited data is a bit crippled speed-wise, but it's still a heck of a deal.

So, if you're planning on traveling to Iowa -- say, to Fort Madison for the 62nd Annual Tri-State Rodeo in September -- or if you're "lucky" enough to be stuck living here, you might want to take advantage of what's probably the most economical cell phone service plan available for the iPhone anywhere in the USA.

DISCLAIMER: I own a computer and cell phone store that sells this particular prepaid plan. But the above story is absolutely true; PC Drew did contact TUAW to brag about his bargain find, without knowing me or my connection to the product.

Best iPhone cellular plan... ever? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 09 Aug 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Best iPhone cellular plan... ever? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 09 Aug 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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