iCall, Fring — VoIP over 3G Apps Begin to Arrive for iPhone!

VoIP over 3G apps for iPhone are now beginning to show up in the iTunes App Store. After AT&T said they would allow VoIP over 3G, all that remained was for Apple to follow through with an amended SDK, and that happened with iPhone 3.2 SDK for iPad.

So far iCall Free VoIP [Free - iTunes link] and Fring [Free - iTunes link]

We’re not seeing the new version of Fring in our update queue yet, so it might be taking a while to propagate. We’re also not seeing the monster in the space, Skype over 3G yet, but we’re willing to bet that’s incoming.

We’re also happy to see that the iPad is indeed pushing things along for the iPhone as well, and we’re wondering if this means we’ll have VoIP over 3G to go along with those new AT&T iPad data plans they announced yesterday?

If you try out VoIP over 3G on your iPhone let us know how it works for you!

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

iCall, Fring — VoIP over 3G Apps Begin to Arrive for iPhone!

VoIP Over 3G Comes to iPhone; Apple Finally Lifts Restrictions

McGraw-Hill Tossed From iPad Media Event After Premature Confirmation? [Updated]

On Tuesday, less than 24 hours before Apple's media event to introduce the iPad, publishing giant McGraw-Hill's CEO Terry McGraw confirmed that Apple would be introducing a tablet at the event. McGraw also confirmed earlier reports that Apple and Mc...

AT&T activated 3.1 million iPhones last quarter, 1 million non-phones

While Verizon suffers a bit on paper, primarily thanks to a spendy Alltel merger, AT&T has some pretty good news to report on the "money" front. AT&T's $3 billion in earnings are up 26% over the year ago quarter, and particularly hot on the wireless front with 3.1 million iPhone activations, 2.7 million new wireless customers, and 1 million non-phone devices like e-book readers. While the 2.7 million bests the 2.2 million newbies at Verizon Wireless, AT&T gained less customers on contract thanks to its any-device-goes ways, so it's hard to say who's really in the best position here. Still, with devices like the Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader and now iPad in its fold, AT&T is clearly the go-to for getting your not-a-phone onto the internet. Now if only it could do it, um, well.

AT&T activated 3.1 million iPhones last quarter, 1 million non-phones originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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3.1 Million iPhone’s Activated — AT&T Q4 2009 Results

Hot on the heels of Apple’s explosive Q1 2010 results come AT&T’s Q4 2009 financials, and once again the iPhone helped its exclusive US carrier paint a rosy picture that includes 3.1 million new activations.

AT&T’s fourth-quarter integrated-device growth included 3.1 million iPhone activations, the second highest quarterly total to date, with more than a third of the activations for customers who were new to AT&T. The average ARPU for integrated devices on AT&T’s network continues to be 1.8 times that of the company’s nonintegrated-device base.

ARPU (average revenue per user), as Dieter keeps telling us, is the magic number for AT&T, and despite complaints about service in cities like New York and San Francisco, iPhone users continue to use — and pay for — a lot of data.

And with Apple still in their corner, and the iPad plans so far exclusively on AT&T as well, that may not be changing soon…

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

3.1 Million iPhone’s Activated — AT&T Q4 2009 Results

AT&T Reports 3.1 Million iPhone Activations in 4Q 2009

AT&T today released its earnings report for the fourth quarter of 2009, revealing that the company activated 3.1 million iPhones on its network during the quarter, just shy of the record 3.2 million iPhone activated in the previous quarter. The iPho...

AT&T posts $3 billion net income

AT&T, Apple's iPhone partner, saw a 26 percent increase in net income for the fourth quarter.

iPad Simulator in New SDK Hints at Possible But Unlikely Camera Support

One of the major surprises for many people with yesterday's iPad launch was the lack of a camera anywhere on the device. As noted by CrunchGear, however, the iPad simulator included as part of the newly-released iPhone SDK 3.2 contains refer...

From the Forums: To Buy or Not to Buy, iPad Jailbreak, Network Stress for AT&T, iPhone or iPad?

Yesterday we were flooded with Apple’s iPad news so today we have a special edition of From the Forums that is jam packed with good discussions about the iPad. To get in on the action all you need to do is register, it’s free and will only take a moment of your time!

• First up for today we have a poll for you: Will you be getting the iPad? So far from the looks of it, it seems like many of our forum members seem to like it but will not be making the purchase.
• Since the iPad is run off of the iPhone OS the question remains, can it and when will it be jailbroken?
• Some of you were shocked to find out that Verizon has been left out of the mix leaving AT&T to be the only US carrier you can get data from for the iPad. Will this create much stress on the network or will AT&T be better prepared this time around?
• If you own a iPhone is there much need for an iPad? We understand that we will get various answers depending on the persons needs and wants but what do you think? Chime in and let us know!

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: To Buy or Not to Buy, iPad Jailbreak, Network Stress for AT&T, iPhone or iPad?

Review: Need for Speed Shift for iPhone

Need For Speed Shift, EA's $7 sequel to Need For Speed Undercover, is one heck of a racing game. Most impressively, it's not just an awesome street racing game for iPhone—it's an awesome street racing game period.

iPad Coverage Round-up — Everything You Need to Know About Apple’s New Tablet!

With the iPad, Apple introduced its fourth business, TiPb welcomed its newest, biggest sibling to the iPhone family, and we worked our apps off to cover it right. To make sure you didn’t miss anything in the deluges of news, views, and posts, here’s a handy reference to the story so far:

Big Picture

• TiPb Presents: iPhone Live! #85 — Enter the iPad!
• What Do You Think of the iPad? TiPb Wants Your Take on Apple’s Latest Creation
• Apple iPad Tablet — the Complete Specs and TiPb’s Take on Them
• iPad — What We Didn’t Get: Multitasking, Notifications, TV Subscriptions, Camera, Tethering, Textbooks, iTunes.com
• iPhone 3.2 SDK for iPad – VoIP, External Displays, Shared File Directory
• Apple: We’re #1 Mobile Devices Company in World, Bigger than Sony, Samsung, Nokia
• Apple Introduces iPad Tablet!
• Now Streaming and in iTunes — Apple Posts “Come see our latest creation” Keynote Video
• iPad Hands-on Round Up — Who’s touched where and what they think!
• Live Meta-Blog! “Come see our latest creation” Apple iTablet Event

What iPad means for iPhone

• No iPhone at Apple iPad Event. Start Rumors for iPhone 4.0, Verizon in March?
• Did the iPad Look Unfinished Because Apple is Hiding iPhone 4.0 Features?
• What iPhone 3.2 for iPad has, and TiPb wants for iPhone Actual ASAP!
• iPad Compatible with “Almost All” iPhone Apps
• Google Makes it onto iPad, Everything “Stable” for iPhone too?

Drilling into the Details

• iPad Pricing — Wifi Only $499, $599, $699, 3G $629, $729, $829
• iPad 3G, GSM Unlocked, No Contract AT&T Pricing $15 for 256MB, $30 Unlimited
• iPad 4:3 Screen – Bad for Movies, Good for Books and Web?
• iPad Also Debuts Apple A4 Custom-built System-on-a-Chip
• Apple iPad Accessories and Pricing: Keyboard Dock, BT Keyboard, Camera Kit, Standard Dock, Case, Projector Cable
• Apple Introduces iBooks Apps — Stands on Amazon’s Shoulders!
• Apple Introduces All-New iWork for iPad

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

iPad Coverage Round-up — Everything You Need to Know About Apple’s New Tablet!

New iPad means iPhone developers need to think different

Developers are gearing up for the new possibilities in the iPad, but they may have to move beyond their iPhone roots

Apple Launches iBooks - The App Store For eBooks

TiPb Presents: iPhone Live! #85 — Enter the iPad!

• Our podcast feed
• Download Directly
• Subscribe via iTunes

Join Rene, Dieter, The Cell Phone Junkie Mickey, and Chad for complete coverage of Apple’s iPad introduction, the highlights, what we didn’t get, and what it all means for the iPhone. Listen in!

Credits

Thanks to the the iPhone Blog Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Our music comes from the following sources:

• I Called You — iPhone Remix by Pete Leidy
via Sneakmove iPhone Ringtone Challenge

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

TiPb Presents: iPhone Live! #85 — Enter the iPad!

Google Makes it onto iPad, Everything “Stable” for iPhone too?

When Steve Jobs introduced the iPad, he showed off the Apple designed but Google fed Maps application, and the Google-ownd YouTube app. He even named Google during the Maps demo. Much has been made about a falling out between Google and Apple, how Steve Jobs dislikes Eric Schmidt, and how the iPhone would turn to Microsoft’s Bing for default search and maps going forward.

if the iPad, running iPhone 3.2, is any indication, nothing much has changed yet. Of course, Eric Schmidt said during the Google conference call that their relationship with Apple was “stable“, and Apple COO, Tim Cook said during Apple’s call that while they compete in some areas, they partner in others.

So everything quiet on the Apple/Google front, or just quiet before the storm?

Of course, there was no sign of Google Voice integration, but we’re sure they’ll figure out an up-scaled WebApp in no time…

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

Google Makes it onto iPad, Everything “Stable” for iPhone too?

iPad 4:3 Screen – Bad for Movies, Good for Books and Web?

When Steve Jobs whipped out the iPad, the first thing I did was do a double-take on the screen’s 4:3 aspect ratio. At 1024×763 it’s what I used to have on my 2005 Windows XP CRT screen. It’s wide. It’s iPod “phatty” nano G3 [Wikipedia link] wide and that design only lasted 1 generation before Apple back-peddled to the long and slim. Apple used to default to 16:10, and the new iMac is 16:9, which is modern HDTV aspect ratio. (The iPhone and iPod touch are 3×2)

At 4×3 the iPad will require the same monstrous letterboxing on videos that old SD TVs required. (TUAW has a great post up on this). So what’s the deal?

First, unlike a TV where you sit across the room and the screen fills a relatively small part of your field of vision, like the iPhone, the iPad will be held much closer. Even with monstrous letterboxing, the video will still fill a large part of your field of vision.

Of course, the iPad isn’t only a video player. There are other forms of content to consume. For web browsing, even 16:10 sometimes feels too “short”, and you need to scroll more than you like. For books, a narrow page may not be ideal, and with a two-page spread, those pages will seem squat, squarish.

Now don’t get us wrong, if Apple added pixels and made it 16:10 (1280×800), TiPb wouldn’t complain (they could pillarbox the books!). If they took pixels away to make it 16:9 (1024×576), it might lose part of that “big screen iPod touch” infamy. And it might lose functionality for anything other than video.

It’s definitely a compromise, but is it a good one?

[Thanks Antony for bringing the counter-argument to our attention!]

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

iPad 4:3 Screen – Bad for Movies, Good for Books and Web?

iPad: Perfect for digital comics?

Jason Snell is excited about the iPad being a platform for digital comics.