AT&T disputes network criticism

AT&T is disputing a financial analyst's criticism of its wireless capital spending, saying it overlooked some investments.

Review: Monoprice’s iPhone leather-cased battery backup is another great deal

Filed under: Accessories, Hardware, Reviews, iPhone, iPod touch

Continue reading Review: Monoprice's iPhone leather-cased battery backup is another great deal

Review: Monoprice's iPhone leather-cased battery backup is another great deal originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Review: Monoprice's iPhone leather-cased battery backup is another great deal originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple Seeds Mac OS X 10.6.3 Build 10D538 to Developers

AppleInsider reports that Apple has seeded a new version of Mac OS X 10.6.3, termed Build 10D538, to select developers for testing. According to the report, the update addresses issues in several areas, including QuickTime X and Logic Studio.<p clas...

Apple Working On Solar Powered iPhone/iPod?

Review: On the road with the Magellan Premium Car Kit

Filed under: Accessories, Hardware, Reviews, iPhone, iPod touch

Magellan was nice enough to loan me a Premium Car Kit for the iPhone or iPod touch, so I put it in the car and drove around on both city streets and highways to get an idea how it worked, particularly with the excellent Magellan Road Mate software [iTunes link].

The Magellan kit is advertised to work with most other GPS apps, and can be used with many iPhone cases so you don't have to pull your iPhone out of a case to get it into the cradle. Setting up was easy: just plug in the cigarette lighter power adapter, plug the other end of that cable into the cradle, and using the provided suction cup to attach it to your glass windshield. I was able to do that without incident. When the unit powers up, it is automatically in pairing mode, and my iPhone found it quickly and paired.

I have an InCase rubberized case for my phone, and even with the case, my iPhone seemed to fit into the cradle just fine, but more on that in a moment. The Premium Car Kit has a built in GPS receiver, and I found that signal acquisition seemed faster than using the iPhone built-in GPS. The product is advertised as working with any iPod touch (2nd generation or better) but since I don't have one of those laying around, I didn't get a chance to test that claim.

Continue reading Review: On the road with the Magellan Premium Car Kit

Review: On the road with the Magellan Premium Car Kit originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Review: On the road with the Magellan Premium Car Kit originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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duaLink cable charges two iPhones on one USB port, no problem

Continue reading duaLink cable charges two iPhones on one USB port, no problem

duaLink cable charges two iPhones on one USB port, no problem originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dual Version Of Apple Tablet Likely?

What TiPb Really Wants from the iTablet — No More Tech Support Calls from Mom

TiPb’s iTablet hopes and dreams are fairly simple — Apple, please make us a device we can give to our moms and never get another tech support call back from them in our lives.

Okay, maybe never is dreaming in AMOLED color, but we’d settle for seldom at this point. And we don’t mean to pick on mom — feel free to substitute or add dad, siblings, neighbors, and everyone else to the list.

Now, almost no one outside of Steve Jobs knows exactly what Apple will be releasing at “Come see our latest creation“, yet everyone and their blog is speculating, including TiPb. Doing for print media what they did for music? Sure. Great. Nice. Text books, subscription TV, iWork touch? Fine. Fine. Fine. Content and apps you will bring we have no doubt. We expect no less. But we want that one more thing, and we want it pretty much to be what Daring Fireball, Ars, and Marco Armant suggested almost a month ago — a modern, highly abstracted re-conception of the personal computer meant for mainstream users.

Apple helped bring the CLI (command line interface) to the masses with the Apple II, the GUI (graphical user interface) with the Mac, and the multitouch interface with the iPhone and iPod touch. Each has been easier for more people to use than the one before, but the iPhone and iPod touch traded mobility for functionality to the extent that while great devices, they can’t fully replace netbooks or laptops, which is the sweet spot for consumers.

An iTablet could. An iTablet that removes any care or concern about right vs. left mouse clicking, saving files within hierarchical directories, icons disappearing from docks, files littered across the desktop, disk and other maintenance, complex software installations, windows getting lost, drivers causing disasters, and all the headaches that come with a regular person trying to manage a monstrous modern computer system like Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux.

Google is trying to do a lot of that with Chrome OS, but that will still be a WIMP (windows, interface, mouse, pointer) GUI that’s basically a browser and subject to the greatest terrors WebApp interfaces can bring.

If Apple can bring an iPhone level of usability to a tablet sized device and give it just enough productivity to let regular people edit what documents they need to while enjoying incredibly easy access to their magazines, newspapers, books, videos, music, games, and apps… If Apple can make a device that “just works” for 80% of mainstream users… If Apple can make a computing product that I can give to my mom and not have to worry about getting a call saying “where did my internet go?” or “I swear it’s clicking on things by itself”…

If Apple can do for the personal computer once again what they did with the Apple II and Mac — make it more usable for more users — then that’s all TiPb really wants.

Will we get it? Shrug. Apple’s track record is fairly good, and a lot of people smarter than we are seem to think it’s the next logical step, so all that’s left is to cross our fingers, throw away our tech support hotlines, and wait for Wednesday’s “Come see our latest creation”.

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

What TiPb Really Wants from the iTablet — No More Tech Support Calls from Mom

Review: Sherlock Holmes Mysteries for iPhone

In Sherlock Holmes Mysteries, you travel back to 1890s London to solve a mystery. Using a handful of skills and the famed detective's powers of deduction, you question the characters and examine the evidence to reveal the identity of the murderer.

Multi-Touch Trackpad Gaming Demonstrated on MacBook

Illusion Labs, developer of the popular iPhone game Touchgrind, has posted a video demonstrating a Mac version of the game utilizing the multi-touch capabilities of the MacBook's trackpad.


The developer describes it as tech dem...

Apple’s iPhone Ranked #1 in Mobile Web in Americas and Europe

AdMob [Via Electronista] released its latest report and it states the iPhone is the leading smartphone not only in the Americas, but in Europe as well. This news should really come to no surprise to any of our readers, and it’s not the first signs of Apple’s dominance in the smartphone world as we’ve reported its U.S. success of mobile web traffic previously. As you can see, the iPhone is annihilating the competition regarding mobile traffic in some major markets.

“Alongside the iPhone growing to 54 percent of all smartphone Internet traffic in North America, it now makes up more than half of all handheld traffic in Latin America (56 percent) as well as Western and Eastern Europe (78 percent and 51 percent). Apple’s lead is especially high in Oceania, which centers on Australia and New Zealand, as it represents 92 percent of all mobile data.”

Following behind Apple’s footsteps here in the U.S., we have the Motorola Droid coming in 2rd in overall smartphones. Sadly for our good friends over at PreCentral.net, their beloved device only took a lonely 2% of the pie.

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

Apple’s iPhone Ranked #1 in Mobile Web in Americas and Europe

Apple Tablet Likely to Include Front Facing Camera?

Despite conflicting reports, we have reason to believe that the upcoming Apple Tablet will indeed carry a front facing video camera as recently described in the Wall Street Journal:

This person said Apple has experimented with the ab...

iPhone dominating mobile web in Americas and Europe

Filed under: iPhone

The news isn't that terribly shocking. AdMob has released its latest report that the iPhone is not only the leading smartphone in North America, but in other parts of the world as well. We've covered some of their previous reports charting the iPhone's growing dominance. The iPhone is topping smartphone operating system use in the following markets:

• North America: 54 percent
• Latin America: 56 percent
• Western Europe: 78 percent
• Eastern Europe: 51 percent
• Oceania (including Australia and New Zealand): 92 percent

Apple has yet to overcome Symbian loyalty in Asia and Africa, where the platform has been long-established.

The report also shows that even though the iPhone is still the top smartphone in North America, Motorola's Droid is gaining ground. It was the third most commonly used device, just behind the iPhone and iPod Touch, and the second most-used smartphone. The much-hyped Palm Pre barely takes a sliver of the market here.

You can study the entire report over at AdMob's site.

iPhone dominating mobile web in Americas and Europe originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iPhone dominating mobile web in Americas and Europe originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple Tablet rumor roundup: publishers and carriers edition

This day simply wouldn't be a day between January 18, 2010 and January 27, 2010 without a new gaggle of Apple Tablet rumors to sift through, and while we're gritting our teeth as we skim every word, we've the latest and greatest most far-fetched rounded up here for your perusal.

The rumor: The Apple Tablet will "strike a familiar chord with owners of the original iPhone, with similarities in industrial design trickling all the way down to the handset's button and connectivity components."
Our take: Honestly, we can believe this one. Apple has had a great deal of success with the iPhone, and we've already seen the "tablet PC" as it's known today take a nosedive. Apple Insider is saying that the device may look a lot like a "first-generation iPhone that's met its match with a rolling pin," and while we've obviously no inside way to confirm nor deny, we can get why Apple would stick close to a design that it knows will work. Oh, and be sure to peek two more clearly fake mockups after the break.

The rumor: New York Times Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. won't be at Apple keynote next week.
Our take: So? Just because the head honcho from The Times is planning to be in Davos, Switzerland next week while Apple unveils its tablet doesn't mean that Jobs can't showcase the device's ability to video chat across oceans in front of the masses... if Apple even has a deal with any publisher. If Apple really is reaching out to publishers for content deals, you can bet your bottom dollar the NYT is listening. And be honest -- if you had the option of being in Davos or some convention center in San Francisco, which would you pick?

More after the break... if you dare.

Continue reading Apple Tablet rumor roundup: publishers and carriers edition

Apple Tablet rumor roundup: publishers and carriers edition originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 10:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Potential MacBook Air Update Delayed Due to Chip Shortage?

Hardmac reports that new ultra-low voltage Intel chips, introduced earlier this month as part of a major roll-out in conjunction with CES and presumably destined for the next revision to Apple's MacBook Air, are not yet being produced in mass quanti...

Apple and McGraw-Hill Reportedly Collaborating on e-Textbook Tablet Offerings

BusinessWeek reports that Apple has been in talks with the educational arm of publishing giant McGraw-Hill to bring e-textbook content to Apple's tablet device. The discussions also reportedly include portions of McGraw-Hill's Connect online learnin...

Tablet rumors: 3G, dual dock connectors, user interface

Filed under: Rumors, iPhone, iPod touch

Your latest serving of Apple's tablet rumors comes courtesy of iLounge, which is claiming two "double-confirmed" details about the forthcoming device:

1. The tablet will have dual dock connectors: one on the bottom just like the iPhone and iPod touch, and one on the long side so you can charge the device in landscape orientation.

2. Similar to the original iPhone, which had a mostly aluminum back, the tablet has a metal backside with a long, non-metal strip allowing for wireless access. There could be any number of antennae behind that strip, from the 802.11g wireless currently in iPods and iPhones, to 802.11n for faster networking, and even - potentially - a 3G antenna. iLounge goes on to speculate what sort of fees might be involved with the tablet's data services through a provider like Verizon or AT&T; short answer is, based on current rates, it won't be cheap.

In other tablet-related news, Gizmodo has posted a lengthy article proposing that the tablet's interface will basically be a blown-up version of the iPhone OS. After reading Gizmodo's argument, it's hard to disagree with them. While a traditional desktop and folder OS would probably appeal more to the geeks among us, that approach has historically been a failure with Windows-based tablets, and the iPhone interface expanded into a full-sized computer could be exactly what Joe Consumer needs to get over his unease and fear toward computers. The iPhone's interface is much more intuitive than Windows or even the full version of OS X, so running an entire, full-fledged computer off of it seems like exactly the next logical step in the user interface evolution that Gizmodo claims it to be.

What do you think? Is the tablet destined to be just a blown-up iPhone? Let us know in the comments.

Tablet rumors: 3G, dual dock connectors, user interface originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Tablet rumors: 3G, dual dock connectors, user interface originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Review: Live Cams for iPhone

This app does a really nice job of letting you view public webcams -- or even your own security camera -- directly from your iPhone or iPod touch.

RedSn0w 0.9 Beta for Mac and Windows is Released by iPhone Dev-Team

The iPhone Dev-Team is back, this time with the first beta of RedSn0w 0.9 for Mac and Windows. Version 0.9 will allow for jailbreaking, unlocking, and customizing of the iPhone OS 3.0/3.1.2 software. It is important to note that this beta supports every iPhone and iPod touch with the exception of the iPod touch G3. (That will be supported after the beta period is over.)

For quite some time now blackra1n has been the most-used tool to get your jailbreak on but the way this new version of redsn0w works, could that change? You see this software uses the original Pwnage bootrom exploit from iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G, and iPod 1G. What this means is the only way for Apple to combat it is via a hardware change. However, for the iPhone 3GS and iPod 2G running 3.1.2, things are a little different as they still use the USB exploit that is said to be going away with the iPhone 4.0.

Due to some last minute forum software changes, the Dev Team isn’t promoting the release yet, but if you’d like to check it out for yourself, the Mac version can be downloaded here while you can grab the Windows version here. (We’ll update with a link to the Dev Team post when it goes live).

[Via iClarified]

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

RedSn0w 0.9 Beta for Mac and Windows is Released by iPhone Dev-Team

iPhone Keyboard vs. Pen, Laptop, Newton, Palm Graffiti, Treo

Phil Gyford decided to take an old fashioned pen and paper, a MacBook laptop computer, an Apple Newton MessagePad 2100 with handwriting recognition, a Palm Vx with Graffiti input, a Palm 650 with a physical keyboard, and an Apple iPhone 3G with virtual multitouch keyboard and see how long it took him to enter a well-memorized 221 word passage.

The MacBook keyboard won, of course, with the iPhone second and the Treo and pen and paper a close third and fourth. Newton and Graffiti handwriting recognition didn’t fair nearly so well.

It’s not scientific and not presented as such, it’s just one individual’s test to see how well he did with his devices.

For me, my handwriting is near-illegible, I type fairly well on a MacBook (but am not a touch-typist), I never liked Graffiti, and avoided typing on my old Treo 600 and 680 like the plague. The iPhone can’t compete with my MacBook for text entry, but then I can’t easily carry my MacBook in a pocket the way I can my iPhone. Trade offs.

If you have a collection of different devices around as well, and are willing to invest the time, let us know what your results are like.

[Gyford via Gizmodo]

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

iPhone Keyboard vs. Pen, Laptop, Newton, Palm Graffiti, Treo