Verizon Attack Ads — Claim iPhone iDoesn’t do What Android 2.0 Droid Does

Verizon has now aired their first new Android 2.0-centric, anti-iPhone (technically “iDon’t iDevice”) attack ad and placed new website online to go with them. Surprise, surprise — like that leaked BlackBerry Storm2 vs. iPhone 3G(!) chart Verizon put together, the ads are a lie.

At least, they contain blatant inaccuracies (even if typeset in Apple’s typical Myriad Pro):

• iDon’t have a real keyboard: Er, it does. Not to get all Spock, but nothing unreal exists, the iPhone’s keyboard exists, therefore it’s real. Sure, it’s soft/virtual (like the Verizon BlackBerry Storm2’s) rather than hard, but’s certainly not imaginary.
• iDon’t run simultaneous apps: Again, it does. The iPhone can run iPod, Email, Phone, Messages, App Store/iTunes downloads, Quicktime streams, and other functions in the background with full multitasking. Apple restricts two or more 3rd party apps from running at the same time, but that’s obviously too subtle a difference for Verizon.
• iDon’t take night shots: Well, we guess they mean the camera’s ISO doesn’t produce good results in low light. Fair point. Arguably nothing short of a really good DSLR sensor does, tiny LED flash included. Though 5 megapixels is still nice.
• iDon’t allow open development. Really, Verizon, with your history, you want to play that card? Android is an about face for you, not a two-face. We’ll wait and see on this one.
• iDon’t customize. Okay, fair point. One out of how many so far? UPDATE: Shawn Roberts points out it remains to be seen how customizable the Droid is. If it’s just re-arranging icons, the iPhone can do that too.
• iDon’t run widgets. What’s a widget? Arguably iPhone Stocks and Weather are widgets not far removed from Mac OS X’s Dashboard counter-parts. We’re guessing they mean little, persistent on-screen information snippets. We’ll give them a second point for that.
• iDon’t have a removable battery. Third point. Apple’s driven away from that entire concept towards longer life, built-in batteries and external charging packs. If that’s something you can’t stand, fair enough.

Wrap all that up in an Adobe Flash-only site for Verizon’s upcoming Android powered Droid phone, and we’re thinking Verizon better hope that the handset ends up a lot better than the marketing thus far. And, that’s the key point here, as Daring Fireball points out:

“Droid” is going to be a Verizon-owned brand. It’s purportedly a Motorola-manufactured phone, but Verizon is the licensee of the “Droid” trademark. (Which name, by the way, strikes me as the perfect name for an Android OS phone — sort of implicitly establishes it as the Android phone.) That’s the big thing. Verizon doesn’t see itself as a mere carrier for other companies’ phones. It sees itself as being bigger than the phones. It’s Verizon-vs.-Apple in this spot, not Verizon-vs.-AT&T.

It’s exactly the opposite approach, with Apple leading the carriers with iPhone (hopefully hastening them into their “dumb-pipe” future), now Verizon wants to turn back the clock by owning an OS like Android. They want to put carriers at the front again. Is that something that tempts you to switch?

[Video via Engadget]

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

Verizon Attack Ads — Claim iPhone iDoesn’t do What Android 2.0 Droid Does

App Review: iGo My Way 2009 – North America

(iGo My Way 2009 – North America For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!)

iGo My Way [$79.99 - iTunes link] is the fourth turn-by-turn app I have reviewed. As with the other three, I have used the app around town as well as planning for a long trip (the same trip I have taken with the others). It generally suggested very reasonable routes, it had the vast majority of POI’s that I was looking for (in fact, I don’t recall a single instance where I couldn’t find something). So how did it compare in the long distance travel?

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a promo code for this app.

Let me start off by saying that I found the interface a little difficult at time. When you start, there is a screen with three main buttons and a map. Tapping the map at the top brings you to your current route and directions. The other three buttons are destination (to program a route), my route (for details on your current route), and settings. Maybe it is just me, but at times I found the layout a little less that intuitive. If I wanted to alter my route, for example, I kept going into “destination” instead of “my route”. While I am sure I would have eventually learned the different buttons, it didn’t strike me as the most obvious layout.

To program a route, you can go into desintation. From there you can select an address, a point of interest, a location on a map, of a list of favorites. In addition, you have your route history at the bottom of the screen. Unfortunately, there was no contact integration. I did find the interface for choosing a destination based on address to be very straightforward – you choose the state, city, street, etc. At any point you can go back and change any of the options. The POI database was very complete (as complete as any of the other apps I have seen), and choosing a point of interest was another straightforward process.

Once your route is calculated (based on preferences), you can make changes like selecting various route alternative. It includes shortest, economical, easiest, and fastest. One really nice feature is that it shows you the distance and the driving time for each of these, and you can select back and forth to see how they look on the map. I wish the display map had more details instead of just a red line showing your route – city names, highway names, or things like that would be appreciated. One nitpick – I had a default “shortest route” option selected. But when I compared with other routes, sometimes the fastest route was listed as many as 10 miles shorter than the shortest route (see the image below). Ummm…need to work on those routing programs!!

You can also choose to look at places around the destination, where it will give you a list of POI near your planned destination. Lastly, you can change any of your route settings (such as vehicle from car to taxi, bicycle, bus, etc). You can choose different preferences (avoid toll roads, avoid ferries) at this point as well. At any time, you can come back to the “my route” screen to get these options again.

Unfortunately, there were limited options to preview or browse your route. You couldn’t do anything aside from viewing a simple over view map – no listed directions, no detailed summary, nothing like that. There was an option to preview the trip, but it would simply plan an animation of your route – not something you had a lot of control over. You didn’t have any option of travelling “via” a specific road, highway, or city, so you couldn’t plan a multiple itinerary trip.

The settings button allows you to change default settings – sounds and warnings, regional settings, etc. Many of these are things that you only need to access once, but the settings also included the default routing options (route type, avoid/use highways, avoid tolls, etc).

When actually driving, I found the iGo app very good. The maps that are displayed are very detailed, to the point of telling you at times when you may need to switch lanes for an upcoming turn. The app (in general) avoids giving you specific distance estimates, instead telling you that you have “more than 50 miles to go” or “turn in more than 1 mile”. I found this to be beneficial sometimes (like when I am just starting a new leg) but at times I wish they gave me more detailed distance (like when I have five miles or less until a turn). Because there is no way to preview the direction in advance, you also can’t look ahead to see what you will do after the specific leg of the trip. You had limited option for data to display on the map – you could choose from distance left, time left, or ETA (or all three). There was supposed to be an option for an audible speeding warning, but I never heard anything so it was not very effective.

My biggest complaint with the app was starting it up. Multiple times, at least 70% of the time, the app seemed to “freeze” when starting. If I rebooted my iPhone and went right into iGo, I had no problems. But if I ran another app, ANY other app first (voice memo, iPod, anything), the app would freeze and not load about 70% of the time. I don’t know if this is a problem with my iPhone (it is jailbroken) or with the app itself. Right now I don’t seem to be having that issue – but it happened enough times, on multiple days to make it a major concern. I did get around this by installing backgrounder and having the app run in the background. Then, when I wanted to go back into the app, it was already running so I had no problems.

The app also seemed to lose the GPS signal more than any other GPS app I have. It usually found it again within a minute or so, but that didn’t happen to any other GPS app I have tested. The ETA’s seemed to be off for longer distances – at one point it said I had about 70 miles left, and the trip would take about 2.5 hours. Unlike some of the other apps, the screen blank was disabled, meaning the app stayed on even without me doing anything (which I think is good). And like some others, this app could be viewed in landscape mode (a big plus!).

Conclusion

All in all, while I felt the user interface was a little less polished than some others, the quality of the maps, the good POI database, and the options for trip planning were nice pluses for this app. However, the problems with the app starting up prevent me from giving it a high rating. This may be due to my iPhone, and thus may not be an issue everyone else is going to experience, so take that into consideration. But if I can’t even get into an app to run it, pluses (like good maps, nice options) and minuses (no contact integration, shortest route isn’t always the shortest) take a back seat. At $79.99, this is a pricey app, so caution should be used before purchasing (check others to see if they had the same startup issues). As it is, I give it three out of five stars – if I didn’t have the startup problems, I would probably give it three and a half or four stars out of five. (I welcome and will post any comments from the app programmers in response to this review)

Pros

• Very detailed maps
• Great side by side comparison of routing options
• Good POI database

Cons

• No “travel via” option
• Some problems with starting the app
• Route options aren’t logical
• Limited trip overview options

TiPb Review Rating

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

App Review: iGo My Way 2009 – North America

Orbit - Jailbreak App Brings Homescreen Exposé to iPhone

The App Store Price Wars - Will the iPhone App Economy Succumb Under Its Own Weight?

Verizon Set to Unleash New “iDevice iDoesn’t” Attack Ads

Hot on the heels of their spunky new “there’s a map for that” anti-iPhone/AT&T programming, Verizon looks set to unless yet more attack ads. Engadget Mobile says:

We’re hearing that the carrier will be kicking off a major new campaign this evening during the Yankees-Angels game that’ll feature “a very different look and a whole new attitude,” calling out the “iDevice” (their words, not ours) for all the things it can’t do.

Yeah, from the network that famously locked down GPS, wouldn’t allow Wi-Fi, and removed OS-specific application markets for their own bloatware, that’s a lot of nerve. Especially given the lukewarm reception Verizon is already getting for their new BlackBerry Storm2 (never mind their deceptive comparisons…), their Android savior still on the horizon, and hardly exclusive, and they seemingly won’t be landing an iPhone of their own anytime soon.

Still, it should also be a lot of fun! If you catch the new ads, let us know what you think!

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

Verizon Set to Unleash New “iDevice iDoesn’t” Attack Ads

Verizon asks ‘if the iDoesn’t, what does?’

The "there's a map for that" ad was a pretty aggressive way to broadside AT&T and the iPhone, but it looks like Verizon's just getting warmed up. We're hearing that the carrier will be kicking off a major new campaign this evening during the Yankees-Angels game that'll feature "a very different look and a whole new attitude," calling out the "iDevice" (their words, not ours) for all the things it can't do. That's a bold offensive for a carrier that historically has lacked breadth and depth in its smartphone lineup, but with the big new Android releases coming down the pike, this might be perfect timing -- and a strong implication that we can seriously put those endless Verizon iPhone rumors to bed for a little while.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Verizon asks 'if the iDoesn't, what does?' originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s Squirrel project revealed… as the Square iPhone Payment System

Remember the Square iPhone Payment System we told you about back in August? If you'll recall, the device -- which involves an iPhone app and associated dongle -- enables an iPhone or iPod touch to become a kind of mini credit card reader, allowing payments to be taken on the spot, no matter where you are or how big (or small) the transaction may be. When we'd first reported the device, word on the street was that it was only being alpha tested around New York City, and there wasn't much else to say. Now, we may have a little more insight on just where this device is headed, and who's behind the project.

Jack Dorsey, the man who all but built Twitter in a matter of two weeks, has been working on a half-secret start-up project since around May. His new venture -- dubbed, funnily enough, Squirrel -- is based around the concept of using the iPhone as... yep, a portable, personal cash register; essentially the exact device which Square has created. And that's no accident. In the images we ran of the Square system, you can see a domain name on a receipt: squareup.com. Squareup.com is the domain of the Square System (obviously), and a casual investigation into the site's WHOIS profile reveals registrant info that points to an office in San Francisco, and a contact email address which reads... billing@paybysquirrel.com. Square, squirrel, square... are you getting it? So the cat, er, squirrel appears to be out of the bag. Now the question is whether or not Dorsey and co. can turn this fairly obscure piece of tech into the kind of firestorm which Twitter has become -- and who knows, maybe there'll even be a business model this time.

[Thanks, Little Birdie]

Filed under: Cellphones

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's Squirrel project revealed... as the Square iPhone Payment System originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EyeTV app pulled from App Store for ability to stream over 3G

EyeTV featured some test code that enabled users to stream live TV over the cellular network -- a no-no as far as Apple and AT&T are concerned. So the TV streaming app has been removed from the App Store.

Devs quickly move to new models after in-app purchase change

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, Odds and ends, Freeware, Apple, Developer, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

It was just yesterday that Apple announced they would allow free apps to enable in-app purchases, and developers are already jumping on the "get the app for free, buy the content later" business model as quickly as they can. ngmoco came out swinging, as Touch Arcade reports, with both a free intro version of Rolando 2 out for purchase, with later chapters of the game as add-ons. They've also been working on a shooter called Eliminate, and we're now told that title will be free as well, with extra content to buy later.

The creators of Urban Rivals, an app that is based on a virtual trading card game, have let us know that they too plan to go the free-with-microtransactions model as soon as their app is released, and though we haven't actually heard from Tapulous, Andrew Lacy told us outright that the only reason Tap Tap Revenge 3 had a 99 cent price tag on it was because of Apple's limitation, so we'll expect that app to go free as soon as it can.

Clearly, there's a drive for this model on the developer side, but the question will be just how much this echoes with consumers -- certainly the "download a trial, buy more later" model has worked well on other platforms, so we can expect it to work here on the App Store as well. But on the other hand, just as when the App Store first opened for business, it's a very "wild west" moment -- everybody and their brother is offering up in-app transactions, and they're all of varying prices and quality.

My guess is that we'll see a few "hits" -- a few free apps that everybody buys content for (Tap Tap Revenge 3 is a good guess; considering that because you know most of those songs, there's much less guessing on what the quality of the transactions will give you). At the same time, there will likely be apps that everyone agrees aren't worth the in-app purchase (it's the old story of "horse armor" when Xbox Live started doing microtransactions). Until we find a good balance, where quality meets price, odds are that it'll be tough for consumers to know just what's worth it, and thus tough for developers to convince them that their content is.

Devs quickly move to new models after in-app purchase change originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Devs quickly move to new models after in-app purchase change originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EyeTV iPhone App That Allowed Users to Stream TV Live Also Via 3G Removed from the App Store

ATSC Mobile to Bring Digital TV to Your iPhone?

The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) has approved a standard for mobile digital television, which means one day you might be able to watch your local station broadcast directly to your iPhone. In the US, that should include ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC.

Would Apple ever build a TV receiver into the iPhone, given their focus on iTunes digital downloads? If they’re considering an FM Radio, why not? With live-pause and tagging technology, it just becomes a value-added feature for users and another potential gateway to iTunes content.

Plus, sports for the sport fiend!

It would not, however, provide access to cable- or satellite-only content, including premium channels like HBO (mocked up in the image above).

[Macworld via TUAW]

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

ATSC Mobile to Bring Digital TV to Your iPhone?

EyeTV app removed from the App Store over streaming workaround

Filed under: Video, iPhone, App Store

That sure didn't last long. Just shortly after the discovery of an 3G "backdoor" for the EyeTV app, it has been pulled from the App Store.

The workaround let users of the app stream video over a 3G or other cellular network connection, something that AT&T has objected to in the past. Specifically, users can connect to ElGato's My EyeTV service to schedule and stream recordings.

When users try to stream video outside of a Wi-Fi connection, a dialog box appears saying that a Wi-Fi network is required, but streams the video anyway. Elgato says they have just submitted an update to Apple, after Apple removed it from the App Store, removing "test code" that allowed this streaming:

"Some test code that enabled live TV streaming over the cellular network was accidentally left in the the EyeTV App. Apple requested that we remove the code since their agreement with AT&T does not allow redirecting TV signals over the cellular network. The code was removed and a 1.0.1 version of the EyeTV app was submitted," they told TotalApps.

This app rejection is similar to the removal of the Commodore 64 app, that was pulled after hidden access to a BASIC interpreter was discovered. This removal adds just more trouble and frustration to users and developers, especially because of the current state of the Google Voice app.

[Via Total Apps]

EyeTV app removed from the App Store over streaming workaround originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

EyeTV app removed from the App Store over streaming workaround originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looking for cheap alternatives to SMS for the iPhone? There’s an app for that.

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Imagine that you're at home one night and want to send a message to your partner or roommate or someone else, but you really don't want to get out of your chair, and you don't want to yell loudly enough for them to hear you. So pick up your iPhone, but you don't want to send an SMS or call them. Surely there's an app for that...

Actually, there are several; some better than others. Take Texter for example. For 99¢ you can send messages back and forth with other people on the same Wi-Fi network. Sounds promising, right? After all, SMS costs are ridiculously expensive, so why not pay a $1 fee to buy an app to send messages back and forth.

The idea isn't bad, but the implementation is. First of all, Texter only works over Wi-Fi. And not just any Wi-Fi. Both users must be on the same Wi-Fi network. But maybe everyone in your family has an iPhone or iPod touch, so you're still willing to give it a try. Well, don't open your wallet just yet, because there's one more detail that we need to mention -- Texter doesn't support push notifications. Since Apple doesn't allow third party apps to run in the background, the end result is that you can only communicate with other Texter users if they already have the application open on their iPhones.

I can't even imagine a "use case" for this application. Who would sit around with their iPhone on, running an application in the hopes that maybe someone in the same home/office with the same application might want to chat with them. It simply is never going to happen.

If you want to avoid SMS charges, but still want to send quick messages to other iPhone users, why not use AOL's free (ad-supported) AIM iPhone app? It works over EDGE, 3G, or Wi-Fi, supports push notifications, and also allows you to connect with a slew of other people besides iPhone users.

Maybe you don't like AIM or SMS. Maybe you really like the idea of having an iPhone app that is quick and easy and doesn't require any login or giving away your cell phone number (like SMS does). If that's the case, checkout the 99¢ Ping! app for iPhone. It also works over EDGE, 3G, and Wi-Fi and supports push notifications. You'll also have that healthy self-satisfaction of knowing that you are only communicating with other red blooded iPhone/iPod touch users.

I'm sure there are a slew of other alternatives to SMS for the iPhone that work over EDGE/3G or Wi-Fi and support push notifications. Tell me about your favorites in the comments (bonus points for including an App Store link).

Looking for cheap alternatives to SMS for the iPhone? There's an app for that. originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Looking for cheap alternatives to SMS for the iPhone? There's an app for that. originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pachter: iPod touch is “dangerous” for game publishers

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Hardware, Software, Apple, iPhone, Holidays, iPod touch

It's been just over a year since we officially noticed that Apple was pushing towards gaming on the iPod touch, and while their advertising hasn't stopped pushing, the actual push hasn't quite gotten to a shove. If you look at this holiday season, certainly the iPod touch is a popular device, butt kids are still asking for the PSP Go and the Nintendo DSi, handheld units meant specifically for gaming. If Apple wants to trounce gaming the same way they've trounced the smartphone market with the iPhone, they've got a long road to travel.

But don't count them out yet, says analyst Michael Pachter -- he says the iPod touch is the "most dangerous thing that ever happened to the [major video game] publishers, ever." Apple's main handheld gaming device is $200 this Christmas, but he says next year it'll be $149, and the year after that, maybe $129. When, in the future, you can put down $99 and walk away with an iPod touch, says Pachter, then "every nine year old kid is going to have one of those instead of a DS or a PSP, and if you train kids that this is the game that you want to play... How about Tetris? Why would you pay USD 20 for Tetris when you can get it for USD 6.99 or USD 3.99 on iPod touch?"

Interesting point. It's true that console manufacturers have been hesitant to lower prices on their products (in fact, Sony's latest version of the PSP actually had a price increase), while Apple seems committed to pushing the prices on iPods ever cheaper. And yes, as long as companies keep releasing the same games on both devices for $30 on the DS and less than $10 on the App Store (and why shouldn't they -- no packaging, no distribution costs), people will go for the cheaper one. I don't expect to see the iPod touch as a huge winner this year (as a gaming competitor, I mean -- of course it'll sell by the truckloads), but Pachter seems right: wait until the prices drop, and the iPod touch might have traditional gaming devices shaking in their D-pads.

Pachter: iPod touch is "dangerous" for game publishers originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 17 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Pachter: iPod touch is "dangerous" for game publishers originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 17 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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