AT&T MicroCell brings more bars, but at a cost

Filed under: iPhone

Sadly, I'm one of the poor souls who has close to zero cell coverage in my house. It's partly the way my home is constructed, and partly because the city fathers in the area I live in are going real slow about approving new cell towers.

The result is that I usually have one bar displayed on my iPhone, but as soon as I try to make a call, that bar disappears and I wind up in cell phone hell.

AT&T has an answer, but it is a bit pricey. It's called the AT&T 3G MicroCell. It's not a cellphone repeater, but instead a device that plugs into your router and then gets you voice and data just as if you have a cell tower in your house. It gives me five bars anywhere in the house and yard, which pretty much completely solves my reception issues. [It may not work for you; TJ points out that AT&T doesn't support the MicroCell over satellite connections. -Ed.]

We had a runthrough of the MicroCell when guest blogger Murphy Mac put it through its paces in 2009; my take on the device follows here. Read on!

Continue reading AT&T MicroCell brings more bars, but at a cost

AT&T MicroCell brings more bars, but at a cost originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 12 May 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

AT&T MicroCell brings more bars, but at a cost originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 12 May 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T Changes Upgrade Eligibility Dates; Hints At Launch Of New iPhone

Give away: Appigo Todo for iPad brings task management to the bigger screen

Appigo has just released Todo for iPad, and like Apple themselves, they’ve used the larger canvas for a more real-world inspired interface. Binders, pages, and pockets, oh my! For fans of Appigo Todo for iPhone, rest assured all your favorite features are here, they’re just bigger than ever before. Appigo Todo for iPad currently on sale for $4.99 so if you’ve been waiting for it, jump on it now. [iTunes link]

All the features come fully loaded:

• Sync with iCal (Wi-Fi required)
• Sync with Outlook (Wi-Fi and Outlook 2003 or newer required)
• Sync with Toodledo.com, RTM Pro
• Task reminder alerts (Wi-Fi or cellular data network required)
• Projects and Checklists (subtasks)
• Full Landscape Support
• Notes on tasks with clickable phone numbers and URLs
• Manage multiple tasks at once with multi-select
• Full Calendar View for choosing Due Dates
• Drag and Drop sorting
• Contact, Email, SMS, Phone integration
• Full Task Searching including notes
• GTD support with Contexts and Tags
• Repeating Tasks
• Quick Add Task Entry
• Task Sharing via Email (Import back into Todo)
• Customizable App Badge
• TextExpander touch snippet expansion support (SmileOnMyMac, LLC)

The great folks at Appigo have also been kind enough to give us a couple promo codes to pass on to you, so if you want in, leave a comment below telling us what’s on top of your iPad to do list. Make sure to use a real email address, it won’t be made public but we’ll need it to send you a promo code. Also, promo codes still require a US iTunes account (Apple’s rules, not ours).

More screenshots after the break!

Give away: Appigo Todo for iPad brings task management to the bigger screen is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

HTC Counter-Sues Apple for Patent Infringement

HTC Corporation today filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) to halt the importation and sale of the iPhone, iPad and iPod in the United States. HTC claims five HTC patents are being...

Apple Mobile Payment System ‘Transaction’ - an iPhone-based eWallet

Patently Apple details a recent Apple patent application that describes a system by which customers can use their iPhone as an electronic wallet and payment system.

Apple's patent is directed to various techniques for conducting peer...

Is my iPhone making me smarter?

Filed under: iPhone

I don't know about you, and I don't know about Chris, but in real life (by which I mean the normal kind of technology non-assisted existence thing that we used to have before the iPhone made its debut), I've let so many opportunities to learn and grow go by. What kind of tree is that over there with the funny leaves? Why is that building being torn down? What are the smallest countries in the world?

They're passing, fleeting thoughts. Little opportunities that leave us almost before they're conceptualized. They may pop up in a conversation, often being pushed there by an inquisitive child. The answer is, too often, "I don't know. What do you want for dinner?"

The iPhone changes that.

It opens a door to finding out answers, looking up facts, and exploring the questions of whimsy. It doesn't take much to pull a phone from your pocket, tap in a few letters, and turn up reasons, explanations, and background.

Our questions no longer have to give way to the exigencies of the moment, like buying fish for dinner, waiting at the bus stop for your sister to arrive, or not being near any computers as we walk through the woods.

When my kids have questions, my iPhone has answers. Those answers often lead to some of our best conversations, too, as we weigh the facts, analyze the data, and further explore our world in ways that could have ended with a simple "I don't know."

Does the iPhone make us smarter?

I think it may.

Is my iPhone making me smarter? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 12 May 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Is my iPhone making me smarter? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 12 May 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panda Hero for iPhone – game review

Panda Hero from Barefoot Explorers LLC is a cute iPhone game with a cuddly eco-friendly message where the objective is to free your animal friends from poachers while you avoid poisonous mushrooms, pits, and other dangers. After you complete a level you also get to have your own virtual panda to take care of and enjoy.

TiPb first took a look at the pre-release Panda Hero at GDC 2010, and the core gameplay here remains the same — using the accelerometer you tilt your iPhone in the direction that you want your panda character to move. In order to jump you lift your iPhone and your character will jump in the air as well. This type of play will satisfy those who enjoy playing any maze-type of game though it is not quite as difficult as something like marble madness.

As with many maze-type games if you have to try to steer your character through many obstacles which includes bridges and labyrinths. You rescue one of your animal friends by going up to the caged animal and touching them. After rescue your animal companion will follow you through the course for a little while before heading back into the forest. The game is quite forgiving as there are no lives so if you die you just return to a close position to continue on.

Your virtual Panda is a lot of fun to interact with, you can use the coins you have gained through the game to purchase the Panda toys, clothing and other fun items.

For adults who enjoy tilt play games and virtual pets, its cute but not deeply strategic. With its bright, beautiful graphics and eco-friendly message, Panda Hero will appeal most to young gamers in their early teens, and that’s who barefoot explorer is targeting. To sweeten the eco-pot, they’re even planting 3 real-world tress for every copy of Panda Hero purchased off the App Store

[$2.99 - [iTunes Link]

Pros

• Cute graphics
• Virtual pet is a fun addition
• Easy controls

Cons

• Simple levels
• Little strategy involved

YouTube link

Panda Hero for iPhone – game review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Steam for Mac Client Available for Download, Service Not Yet Active

Those anxiously awaiting Steam for Mac can get started downloading now. The client download link is now live at the following url:

http://store.steampowered.com/public/client/steam.dmg (direct download)

Unfortu...

iPad Users Interested in Productivity Apps, iPhone and iPod Users in Games

According to data obtained from AppShopper, iPad users are disproportionately interested in productivity apps, while iPhone and iPod Touch users seem to love buying games.

The following graph shows the relative percentages of each ap...

Is my iPhone making me dumber?

Filed under: iPhone

I love my iPhone. It goes with me everywhere. Leaving my house without my iPhone would feel just as unnatural as leaving without my pants (although I'd probably get fewer stares).

There are so many things my iPhone is able to do that it's become an indispensable part of my daily life... and that's actually beginning to worry me. Sometimes I wonder if my iPhone is making me dumber.

This didn't start with my iPhone; it started with my first cell phone (and the only phone I owned before the iPhone), a monstrous Sanyo SCP-7200. Suddenly, once I was able to store all of my friends' and family members' phone numbers in my phone and dial them with just a couple of button presses, I became virtually incapable of remembering their phone numbers on my own.

That was just the beginning of my cognitive downslide, though. Since getting my iPhone, it seems like it's been getting exponentially worse. Read on to find out how the iPhone may be damaging my brain. Hint: it's not the cell phone radiation.

Continue reading Is my iPhone making me dumber?

Is my iPhone making me dumber? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 12 May 2010 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Is my iPhone making me dumber? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 12 May 2010 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Review: Pinball HD for iPad

Pinball HD is simply a game that was just made for the iPad: it has intuitive controls, takes full advantage of the device’s hardware and delivers a truly immersive experience that takes you right back to the golden age of the arcade.

Prototype iPhone Video, A4 Processor, High Resolution Screen?

Tinhte provides more high quality photos as well as a hands on video with the latest leaked next generation iPhone. According to a rough translation, they did try connecting it to a Mac but with no luck getting iTunes to recognize it. <br /...

Another purported iPhone prototype surfaces

Another purported next-generation iPhone unit has surfaced in pictures on a Vietnam-based Apple fan site, and it looks much like what we've already seen.

Verizon and Google working on a tablet

Verizon and Google are working on a tablet computer that will compete with Apple's iPad, Verizon confirmed on Tuesday.

Appigo launches Todo for iPad

There's a new daily planner in town—and it's designed especially for your iPad. Appigo has brought its popular to-do application to Apple's newest device.

TUAW’s Daily App: Umbrella Today

Filed under: iPhone

TUAW's Daily App: Umbrella Today originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 12 May 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW's Daily App: Umbrella Today originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 12 May 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Second iPhone HD/iPhone 4G prototype, A4 chipset show up in pictures, teardown, video

Pictures and video of what appears to be a second “lost” Apple iPhone HD/iPhone prototype, this time including a tear down and A4 chipset

Another iPhone HD/iPhone 4G prototype has shown up on the internet and has been posed, torn-down, and shown off on video. This Taoviet prototype is similar to the Gizmodo prototype seen earlier in most respects, but is clearly labeled when it comes to storage — 16GB — and lacks the two screws on the bottom seen on the previous prototype as well as current iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS models.

Reportedly a Vietnamese businessman bought the 4th gen iPhone in the US for $4000 but how Apple lost control of it remains unknown. The screen looks stuck on a firmware test reading Inferno and calling itself Bonfire!, so no bootable iPhone OS 4 or special feature hints yet (sorry iChat video fans).

Unlike Gizmodo, Taoviet tore their prototype down to the system-on-chip (SoC) and the chipset looks to be an Apple A4 similar to the blazingly fast 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 and PowerVR SGX chip found in the iPad. (We’re still holding some hope for a multicore Cortex A9, but we’re never satisfied).

More pictures and video after the break!

[Taoviet via Macrumors, Engadget]

YouTube link

Second iPhone HD/iPhone 4G prototype, A4 chipset show up in pictures, teardown, video is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Review: Today Todo Pro for iPhone

This good-looking task manager may take some adjustment if you're accustomed to more traditional planning. But if something fresh will help keep you on track, this app may be worth a try.

Another lost iPhone prototype?

Filed under: iPhone

It's looking like another iPhone prototype spontaneously vanished from Cupertino's campus, but this one seems like it may have made it all the way out to Vietnam. A Vietnamese forum has posted several pictures of the next-gen iPhone similar in most details to the prototype that Gizmodo bought. According to MacRumors, a Vietnamese businessman bought the prototype iPhone along with an iPad. It's going to be very interesting to find out the rest of that story over the coming days.

Only minor differences exist between this phone and the iPhone Gizmodo showed off: the screws on the bottom near the dock connector have disappeared, the phone's capacity is listed as 16 GB rather than XX GB like on the Gizmodo iPhone, and the battery has a 5.00 watt-hour capacity compared to the Gizmodo iPhone's 5.25 watt-hour battery. In all other respects, it appears to be the same iPhone, complete with a front-facing camera, a flash for the rear camera, micro-SIM slot on the side, and a metallic midsection with curiously visible seams.

Unlike the iPhone Gizmodo got its hands on, this one appears to be functional. The program running onscreen in the photos appears to be a test program of some kind, possibly one designed to test the iPhone's graphics output. The internal components of the phone appear virtually identical to those in the Gizmodo reveal, so this is almost certainly the real deal and not a knockoff.

The photos of the next-gen iPhone have answered many questions, but they've raised even more. What's the back made out of? What resolution is the screen? What's with those very un-Apple-like seams? Does this phone coming in a 16 GB flavor mean that the next-gen iPhone will top out at 32 GB just like the 3GS before it? And most of all: how do people keep getting ahold of these prototypes from one of the most secretive companies on Earth?

Click "Read More" to see a video of the phone from the same source -- though you're probably not going to gain much new information from it unless you speak Vietnamese.

[Via MacRumors]

Continue reading Another lost iPhone prototype?

Another lost iPhone prototype? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 12 May 2010 06:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Another lost iPhone prototype? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 12 May 2010 06:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fourth generation iPhone teardown reveals A4 microprocessor

var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/apple/iPhone_4G_teardown_reveals_A4_chip'; See the marking on that chip with the Apple logo. No, not the "N90" codename indicating that it's from Apple's next generation GSM iPhone, the other text. If we're not mistaken then we're seeing "339S0084" on that chip from today's fourth-generation iPhone teardown. Guess what? According to Chipworks, that's the Apple A4 microprocessor fabricated by Samsung and the presumed work of Apple's acquired PA Semi and Intrinsity engineers. The "APL0398" text is also the same as that found on the iPad's A4 system-on-chip. The other markings differ however. What that means isn't entirely clear yet but we're digging.

Fourth generation iPhone teardown reveals A4 microprocessor originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 May 2010 06:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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