Review: A.D.D. for iPhone

A.D.D. (Addictive Dumb Distractions), the long awaited release from Iugo Mobile Entertainment, Inc., is chock full of enough gross-out humor and witty cultural jabs to keep you laughing and/or grimacing until you can’t take it anymore.

Gifts for the iPhone lover

Looking for the perfect gift for the iPhone user in your life? Allow us to offer some suggestions.

Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 Ported to iPod Touch and iPhone 3GS

Anandtech spent some time with Epic Games' Mark Rein last week and was shown a demo of the Unreal Engine 3 running on a 3rd Generation iPod Touch. The demo included a flythrough as well as a playable level from Unreal Tournament.<p class="qu...

TiPb/TeleNav Giveaway — One Year of AT&T Navigator, Accessories, TiPb Store Gift Certificate and More!

The holidays are upon us soon the new year will be here, and to celebrate TiPb is teaming up with TeleNav to offer TiPb’s TeleNav AT&T Navigator Give Away! And since we’re already running the huge Round Robin contest in the forums, we figured this one would be perfect for the social networks.

How can you win?

1. Follow both @theiphoneblog and @telenav on Twitter
2. Become a fan of both theiPhoneblog and TeleNav on Facebook
3. Tweet from your Twitter account: “I want to win @theiPhoneBlog’s Ultimate @TeleNav Travel Pack! http://bit.ly/8gan2b”

What can you win?

1. Grand prize: The first place winner will receive one grand prize consisting of the “Ultimate Car Pack” which includes one year of AT&T Navigator (Approximate Retail Value (“ARV”): $69.99), a dashboard mount for a cell phone (ARV: $25), a mobile phone charger (ARV: $20), a $100 gift certificate to the iPhone Blog iPhone Store, and a $100 donation in their name to Toys for Tots. – (Total ARV of grand prize: $214.99)
2. Second prizes: Two second place winners will receive a one-year subscription to AT&T Navigator. (ARV: $69.99 each) All prizes will be awarded.

It’s US only (AT&T Navigator requires AT&T after all!) but you only need to enter once, and winners will be announced on January 2, 2010 — so what are you waiting for? Ready, set, follow, fan, and tweet!

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

TiPb/TeleNav Giveaway — One Year of AT&T Navigator, Accessories, TiPb Store Gift Certificate and More!

More Evidence of iPhone OS 4.0 Already in Testing

Last week we saw the first evidence that iPhone 4.0 was in testing with reports that it was already being spotted in web site logs. We pointed out at the time that while interesting, such user agent logs could easily be faked. This week, we've re...

Epic shows off Unreal Engine 3 running on iPhone / iPod touch

Continue reading Epic shows off Unreal Engine 3 running on iPhone / iPod touch

Epic shows off Unreal Engine 3 running on iPhone / iPod touch originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Judge Dismisses Class Action Lawsuit Over iMac Screen Issues

TechCrunch reports that a U.S. federal court judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit brought against Apple for reported failure to disclose manufacturing defects present in the company's iMac models.

The lawsuit stated that unwante...

AT&T Is Indeed The Nation’s Fastest 3G Network!

O2 network issues hinder iPhone users

Filed under: Internet Tools, iPhone

iPhone customers using O2 in the UK are three days into connectivity issues, according to Sky News. Many have been seeing the error message, "could not activate cellular data network." It's bound to happen once and a while, but such widespread outages ... and for so long ... have users rather cranky.

Today it seems that O2 has identified the issue and is working on a fix: "We are aware of an issue currently impacting data access for some of our customers," they told Sky News Online. "We have identified a fault with the allocation of IP addresses and are working to resolve this as quickly as possible. We apologise to any affected customers."

Some Twitter users have noted a return of service, while others wait. We've got our fingers crossed for you all. Good luck!

[Via MacDailyNews]

O2 network issues hinder iPhone users originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

O2 network issues hinder iPhone users originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T Again Moves to Downplay Reports of Imminent Tiered Data Pricing for iPhone

In a lengthy BusinessWeek article, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega again attempts to clarify the company's plans for dealing with high-usage iPhone data customers by emphasizing incentives for shifting traffic off of its network rather than implem...

Tuesday Fun Video: 3D Head-Tracking Demo

[YouTube video link]

Remember that Apple patent for hyper-reality 3D displays that tracked user’s head location and automagically rotated objects? The folks over at Construction Software Advice sure do, and they’ve whipped up a little demo they’re calling Apple 3D Head-Tracking – The Ultimate Display for Construction.

Will we see this live on our iPhone or Mac any time soon? Who knows, but the future is coming and concept previews help make the wait just a tad easier. (Seriously, future, get here now!)

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

Tuesday Fun Video: 3D Head-Tracking Demo

2007 iPhone 2G is on iPhone 3.1, 2009 Android Dream/Magic Stuck on 1.5 Forever

So the oldest 2007 iPhone 2G can easily download and run (most of) iPhone OS 3.1 while the current 2009 crop of HTC Dream and Magic devices on Rogers will officially be stuck on Android 1.5 forever? According to sibling site AndroidCentral.com:

“HTC is not currently planning any Android 1.6 upgrades for Rogers Dream or Magic. Android 1.6 was only made available for “Google”-branded devices such as the G1. It is not available for HTC-branded products such as the Dream or Magic, which use Android 1.5. We believe that Android 1.5 is a stable and reliable software platform that delivers a terrific user experience.”

Google explains this is a consequence of being not evil “open”, again via AndroidCentral.com:

When we open source our code we use standard, open Apache 2.0 licensing, which means we don’t control the code. Others can take our open source code, modify it, close it up and ship it as their own. Android is a classic example of this, as several OEMs have already taken the code and done great things with it. There are risks to this approach, however, as the software can fragment into different branches which don’t work well together (remember how Unix for workstations devolved into various flavors — Apollo, Sun, HP, etc.). This is something we are working hard to avoid with Android.

Working well together isn’t the problem. Rogers, HTC, and Google abandoning an entire country full of early adopters — the very users that help drive a platform — is the problem. How many Dream and Magic owners, likely geeks who form the loving core of Google and Android’s user base, will be happy to here they’re “stable* with 1.5 and don’t need and won’t be getting 2.x while seeing the Motorola Droid and upcoming Hero updates, never mind Nexus One, splashed all over their interwebs.

There are pros and cons to both the integrated hardware/software/benevolent dictatorship model of Apple and the licensed hardware/software/wild west model of Google, to be sure. Buyers should beware of Apple control over the App Store and ecosystem, but they should also beware of hardware abandonment from the hands’-off overlords.

Sure, one day Apple will kill backwards compatibility as well, iPhone 2G first, then subsequent devices over time. If you’d bought an iPhone 3G earlier this year, however, how happy would you be if Apple and Rogers announced 2.x was “stable” and that you don’t need and won’t be getting iPhone 3.x? Would you be enjoying all the iPhone 3GS cut and paste and video commercials then? How happy would you were told your brand new iPhone 3GS wouldn’t be getting 4.0 next year?

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

2007 iPhone 2G is on iPhone 3.1, 2009 Android Dream/Magic Stuck on 1.5 Forever

Study: Texting drivers are more dangerous than talkers

A new study by University of Utah researchers finds that texting is even more dangerous than talking on a cell phone while driving.

AT&T Wins Gizmodo’s 12 City 3G Data Test

Look what we have here — some great news for AT&T as it snags first place in Gizmodo’s 12 city 3G data test. (Just like their latest commercial claims.) The 12 cities are as follows: Maui, Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, and Tampa.

When it comes to being number 1, AT&T hasn’t always been this lucky (remember a little something called customer satisfaction?) Perhaps this is a sign of good things to come and maybe, just maybe, some of that anger and hatred AT&T has gotten in the past will turn into a positive vibe.

“It was measurably faster, however, download-wise, in 6 of the 12 markets where we tested, and held a significantly higher national average than the other carriers. Only Verizon came close, winning 4 of the 12 markets. For downloads, AT&T and Verizon came in first or second in nine markets, and in whatever location we tested, both AT&T and Verizon 3G were consistently present. If you’re wondering about upload speeds, AT&T swept the contest, winning 12 for 12.”

Personally, I’ve tested speeds with my AT&T and Verizon lines respectively and get the same results here in Chicago. AT&T’s 3G data speeds always come out on top in both uploading and downloading.

Love AT&T or hate them, these results are somewhat impressive.

[Via Gizmodo]

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

AT&T Wins Gizmodo’s 12 City 3G Data Test

From the Forums: Help Phil from WMExperts, Free Space, New Apps, Anything but iPhone

From the Forums is a great way to see what all of the current hot topics are on the TiPb forums. In order to create any new threads of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is a simple process that will only take a few minutes out of your day, so if you have not already already done so, head on over and register now.

• It’s week 2 of the Smartphone Round Robin and that means Phil from WMExperts is a guest in our forums, go easy on him and help him out with all of his questions he has regarding the iPhone!
• Whether you have a 4 GB, 8 GB, 16 GB, or 32 GB iPhone – how much free space do you currently have?
• Wondering what the latest and greatest iPhone apps are in the App Store today? We have a forum for that. Visit our iPhone App Announcement forum.
• Think of a world where the iPhone simply does not exist (I know it’s painful but try…) What phone would you choose to be your daily driver?

See you on the forums!

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

From the Forums: Help Phil from WMExperts, Free Space, New Apps, Anything but iPhone

Review: WxFix Standard for iPhone

Some of its features fall short and the interface can take some getting used to, but overall, this app packs an impressive amount of information into the features you'd depend on for a weather app.

NES emulator on the App Store? Not anymore.

Filed under: Gaming, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, Jailbreak/pwnage

Tonight I settled in to write a post about how exciting it was that you could play old school public-domain and freeware Nintendo games on your iPhone now, thanks to Jonathan Zdziarski and Nescaline, the app he built to do just that. Ah, Kid Icarus and Ninja Gaiden and Zelda and Mario, all my old friends back again (if I had legal licenses to the ROM images, of course). I was excited to relive my pixelated past, but it was not to be. Jason updated his site this evening saying Nescaline had been pulled:

Nescaline was removed from the AppStore by Apple at 22:19 PST tonight. I haven't received anything from Apple as to why. I predict they've either proven to be a pushover to Nintendo, who has no valid claim against Nescaline, or decided they really didn't want the ability to play NES games in the AppStore. NESv3 continues to be available in Cydia. Apple's draconian and anti-competitive AppStore practices is [sic] sadly why jailbreaking will always remain a necessity.

I was all set to be indignant about this, but then I read the update again. Is it possible that Apple yanked it simply for being available on Cydia? Not being the person at my house who runs a jailbroken iPhone, I don't have any experience with anything being available through Cydia that is also available on the App Store. I know there are those who have been pulled from the App Store for one reason or another and made their way to Cydia, but I can't find any apps that seem to be available in both places.

I would like to think this is the issue Apple saw with Nescaline and that's why it vanished, since the "Nintendo's knickers are in a twist" reason seems more heavy-handed. Then again, there's also the "no un-vetted code running in emulation" rule that the C64 emulator ran afoul of previously, which might well be the issue.

Either way I'm disappointed: since my phone is not jailbroken I can't just get it from Cydia now that it's gone from the App Store. I do have a couple of long weekends coming though, and Google says it's pretty easy...

NES emulator on the App Store? Not anymore. originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

NES emulator on the App Store? Not anymore. originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tethering for the holiday traveler

Filed under: Hacks, How-tos, Internet, iPhone, Jailbreak/pwnage

I know that many of our readers will be traveling during the holiday season, so I wanted to share a walk-through that will help keep your MacBook of choice connected on the go. This is an article intended for those using iPhones on carriers that do not officially support tethering. TUAW would like to remind you that this is unsupported and is enabled at the user's own risk. This does require jailbreaking your iPhone, so the unadventurous in the audience may want to pass this up. If you're not already jailbroken, you can download the necessary software, like blackra1n from George Hotz or Pwnage from the iPhone Dev Team.

Once you've jailbroken your iPhone, install or open Cydia and navigate to the "Featured Packages" section. Find and install the package named "Modem." That's it on the iPhone side of things, on your computer, navigate to iphonemodem.com and download the helper application or register the application for $9.99 to disable the registration reminder in the iPhone app (As far as we know, the free version is fully functional). Drag iPhoneModem to your Applications folder.

The setup is really that simple. Now all you have to do is open the application on your computer, click connect, then launch the companion app on your iPhone. The iPhone application will find the network your computer creates and share the Wi-Fi connection between the two devices so you can use your iPhone data plan on your laptop for better browsing. Here's how the developers say it works:

On the computer, the helper application creates a new computer-to-computer (or ad-hoc) Wi-Fi network and configures the system preferences to use the iPhone as an Internet gateway and proxy. On the iPhone, the application opens a routing engine, DHCP, DNS, HTTP, HTTPS and SOCKS proxies and connects to the helper on the computer.

I've had pretty good success with this application in my time with it. I've been using it on and off for over a year -- it's been a great app in clutch situations. I'd recommend it as a virtual stocking stuffer if you have a friend or family member who's jailbroken their iPhone. Let us know your thoughts or your experiences with the app in the comments.

Tethering for the holiday traveler originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Tethering for the holiday traveler originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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