Google Voice Finally Comes to iPhone But as an iPhone Web App

iPhone Might be Coming to Verizon In June

Last Minute Leaked Photos of Apple Tablet? [Updated]

Engadget posts a possible image of what appears to be the Apple Tablet.

Okay, we obviously can't confirm this, but we just got two very interesting images of what certainly looks like a prototype Apple tablet, or what could ...

Last Minute Leaked Photos of Apple Tablet?

Engadget posts a possible image of what appears to be the Apple Tablet.

Okay, we obviously can't confirm this, but we just got two very interesting images of what certainly looks like a prototype Apple tablet, or what could ...

iPhone Developer Program License Leaks! “Need to update this for the 27th Launch”

First it was McGraw-Hill on CNBC, and now it’s Apple’s own iPhone Developer Program leaking iPhone-relevance about tomorrow’s “Come see our latest creation” event with the text “Place holder Agreement — Need to update this for the 27th launch”

Will the iPhone agreement cover an iTablet/iSlate/iPad SDK as well? Will the iTablet be running the iPhone OS as rumored? Will iPhone 3.2 or iPhone 4.0 (or both) be announced for developer beta? Will there be no end to pre-event leaks?!

[via Engadget]

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

iPhone Developer Program License Leaks! “Need to update this for the 27th Launch”

20 Things We Already Know About Apple’s iTablet

Here I was dreading getting ready to write an article about how the January 2010 iTablet/iSlate/iPad release was poised to replicate the January 2007 iPhone release — a completely unannounced yet still massively hyped product that everyone thinks will be a minor iteration on the previous big-hit product, with all the surrounding cheers and jeers to go with it — when the saintly folks over at DOGHOUSE [via Giz] went and did it for all of us in tidy, 20 point form.

It’s often said truth lies in comedy and in that regard, the list in hilarious.

Just over 12 hours to go!

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

20 Things We Already Know About Apple’s iTablet

How Does Google Voice WebApp on iPhone Compare to Native Android App?

Earlier today Google unveiled their new Google Voice WebApp for iPhone. Sure you can place calls, send text messages, get your voice mail, and access all of your account settings but TiPb was curious how it would stack up to the real-deal native app on Google’s own Android platform.

For the full scoop and screenshots, follow me after the break!

If you are a Google Voice user, the first thing you will want to do is add Google’s crafty little icons for each part of Google Voice directly to your iPhone Home Screen. Doing so gives you quick access to contacts, the dialer, the voicemail/SMS inbox, and create new SMS pages. Once you select the icon of your choice, Safari pulls up the iPhone optimized WebApp and you’re good to go. So, for example, tapping the Google Voice icon will bring you straight to the dialer just as you’d expect — fast and simple.

Next up we have contacts and that too is laid out very nicely. You get your top called or messaged contacts along with your complete contact list and a search button to search through your contacts. It is important to note you must have your contacts in your Gmail account to access them as this WebApp can not access the contacts stored on your phone.

Going into the inbox you will see not only your SMS messages but your voice mail as well. When you select a voice mail it shows a transcript of the message that was left for you (or I should say it tries it’s best to do so). You have three choices for voice mail — have a transcript sent to via email, via SMS, or open it directly in the WebApp.

So what we have here is a very good effort on Google’s part to work with their hands tied behind their back due to Apple rejecting the Google Voice App Store application. Is it as good as the native Android Google Voice app? Not even close.

At the end of the day even though it is a great WebApp, it’s still just a WebApp. It can’t access your local iPhone contacts, only your online Google Contacts. The bigger issue, however — and one even a native App Store Google Voice app would suffer from — is that’s it is not integrated into the OS the way it is on Android.

If it was, you could receive calls and SMS from your Google Voice number right on your iPhone. On Android, your Google Voice number can become your phone number. No WebApp, or iPhone app, can currently provide that level of integration and there’s no sign Apple has any interest in ever allowing one to.

So, on the bright side, the Google Voice WebApp is close to as good as an App Store app could be.

Below are some screen shots of the native Android Google Voice application.

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

How Does Google Voice WebApp on iPhone Compare to Native Android App?

Apple shifts focus from sales to quality in China

Filed under: Apple Corporate, iPhone

There was quite a bit of discussion from Apple yesterday about their sales in China (you can see that in our liveblog from yesterday afternoon), and AppleInsider points out that Apple is changing priorities over there, from straight up sales to brand quality.

Tim Cook said yesterday that Apple has activated more than 200,000 iPhones since the release in China last year, and only in relation to the iPhone can anyone think that number could have been better. Apple is behind the pack in China -- there are a significant number of competitors over there, and unlike the market in the West, multifunctional smartphones have been popular for a long time already. But Apple recognizes the potential overseas, and Cook says the company does "...realize we must do well in these markets to continue to grow."

What changes can they make? Price for one -- Apple says that as a premium brand, they're going to have to tweak a little bit to fit into the lower-income middle class in China while still competing on user experience. Apple didn't say that they weren't happy with what's happening in China, but compared to other countries in Asia (Japan came out of last quarter with a 400% year-over-year growth), Apple has a little more work to do there.

Apple shifts focus from sales to quality in China originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple shifts focus from sales to quality in China originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s iPhone dev program whoopsie: ‘Need to update this for the 27th launch’

We're sure everyone in Cupertino is ordering Chinese to the office this evening; it's going to be a late night. I's to dot, T's to cross, as they say, in preparation for what's undoubtedly going to be a big day tomorrow. Of course, consistently burning the candle at both ends leads to mistakes -- mistakes like this, for example: a placeholder on the signup form for Apple's iPhone Developer Program (that we've been able to confirm) reading "Need to update this for the 27th launch." 27th launch, indeed -- so what does this mean? If we had to guess, devs are going to get first crack at an updated iPhone OS -- something the company has done before -- which is suddenly going to make the $99 sign-up fee for the program sound a whole lot more reasonable for the impatient among us, isn't it?

Apple's iPhone dev program whoopsie: 'Need to update this for the 27th launch' originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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McGraw-Hill CEO: Apple Tablet is Based on iPhone OS; Going to be “Really Terrific”

McGraw-Hill CEO Outs iTablet Before Apple — Runs iPhone OS!

McGraw-Hill’s CEO has outed the iTablet before Apple’s “Come see our latest creation” event, scheduled for tomorrow, revealed it runs the iPhone OS, and undoubtedly has just earned himself a “bag of hurt” at the hands of one Steve Jobs. At 2:50 seconds in, Terry McGraw tells CNBC:

“Yeah, Very exciting. Yes, they’ll make their announcement tomorrow on this one. We have worked with Apple for quite a while. And the Tablet is going to be based on the iPhone operating system and so it will be transferable. So what you are going to be able to do now — we have a consortium of e-books. And we have 95% of all our materials that are in e-book format on that one. So now with the tablet you’re going to open up the higher education market, the professional market. The tablet is going to be just really terrific.”

Yeah. Oops! (But at least we appreciate the news!)

[via McRumors]

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

McGraw-Hill CEO Outs iTablet Before Apple — Runs iPhone OS!

Review: Dark Horse Comics’ “The Goon: Chinatown and The Mystery of Mr. Wicker”

Filed under: Multimedia, Software, Odds and ends, Reviews, iPhone, App Store

I used to collect comics pretty religiously when I was a kid (after all, there was a comic book store right across the street from the church my parents always took me to), and lately I've been thinking of getting back into the hobby -- there's something really magical about sequential art and word balloons. And while, if the rumors are true, the new product coming from Apple will probably offer up a better way to do it, I was pretty impressed with my first experience reading the funny pages on the iPhone, in Dark Horse's "The Goon: Chinatown and The Mystery of Mr. Wicker" [iTunes link]. For just a fraction of the price of the actual TPB (trade paperback), you get to flip through a nice set of story and art pages, formatted (pretty) coherently for the iPhone.

There's not a lot of flash in the options -- the comic consists of about 420 "pages," which are basically screen-sized panels that tell the story of Eric Powell's hero The Goon, a broad-shouldered fella with ugly mug in the vein of Sin City's Marv, who mixes it up with the bad guys, gets beat up pretty often, and chases after a dame or two. You can either flip through the screens yourself (which I preferred, soaking in the art and pacing), or have them flip after a delay of your choosing. Unfortunately, the art is sometimes cropped a little closely, and the iPhone's small screen doesn't always let epic scenes play out in their original scale (again, something a tablet would be better at). But for $2 for a readthrough, I enjoyed the book a lot. Dark Horse has a nice series of comics available on the iPhone already (including a free sample), and if you're in the mood for a cheap read on your iPhone, they're worth a look.

TUAW is commonly provided with not-for-resale licenses or promo codes to permit product evaluations and reviews. For more details, see our policy page.

Review: Dark Horse Comics' "The Goon: Chinatown and The Mystery of Mr. Wicker" originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Review: Dark Horse Comics' "The Goon: Chinatown and The Mystery of Mr. Wicker" originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T proposes settlement for early termination fee suit

AT&T has proposed an $18 million settlement for a New Jersey class action lawsuit claiming that its flat-rate ETF is unlawful.

Glu readies 1000 for iPhone and iPod touch

Glu shows off its upcoming iPhone game, 1000: Find 'em All, which uses the location features on your iPhone.

Evidence of Apple iPad Found on Apple’s Website?

Review: BirdsEye for iPhone

This simple and useful birding application leverages the power of eBird, a centralized birdwatching site where The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Audubon Society collect bird sitings from birdwatchers all over the world to help you find sightings in your area.

McGraw-Hill CEO Confirms Apple Tablet, iPhone OS Based, Going to Be “Terrific”

In an interview with CNBC, McGraw-Hill's CEO confirms that their textbooks will be on the Apple Tablet and it will be an iPhone OS based machine. When as...

Apple iPad Will go on Sale From March 1 For $600?

Apple’s Cook embraces AT&T, defends App Store

Monday's conference call featuring Apple executives touched on two issues of interest to iPhone users and developers -- AT&T's coverage and the approval process for iPhone and iPod touch apps. And it provided a rare look at what Apple's top executives think about those issues.

AT&T: Wi-Fi use soaring

Wi-Fi connections via AT&T more than quadrupled last year, hitting 85.5 million connections mostly made via smartphones from 20,000 hot spots.