Eric Zeman of InformationWeek fame posted a quick list of the 6 lamest Apple lawsuits in recent memory, if you’re having trouble keeping track of them. As to why you’d have to keep track fo the various dumb lawsuits that Apple has endured, I don’t know. But I read the list and I’d have to say that it’s accurate.
After a month without the iPhone, it’s good to be back. I got used to a lot of things in the 6 months of use with the iPhone that just aren’t possible with the other devices. In using the iPhone, I got used to having 7GB of music handy. I got used to carrying around headphones so I could slip into the world of music at a moment’s notice. I got used to looking whatever I needed on the real web. I got used to checking voicemails individually whenever I needed. I got used to how I checked email. I got used to threaded SMS. I got used to viewing videos. I got used to not charging my phone religiously every night. I got used to the seamless syncing with iTunes. On my return to the iPhone, I was astounded how quickly I was spoiled with syncing information. It was downright nasty to get all of my information onto a lot of these other devices. After 6 months of using the iPhone, what would have pleased me now frankly shocked me.
That’s not to say that the iPhone is perfect. No, there are a bunch of things that I realized I’d miss once I got back to the iPhone. I’d miss to-do lists, I’d miss installing programs, I’d miss the culture of openness that most of the other smartphones possess. I know that I’ll have some, if not all, of the features I’ve been wanting in a few months once 3rd party applications arrive; I’m sure that others will arrive as carrots in the future whether they come from Apple or whether they come from the hacking community.
The future is really why I went for the iPhone in the first place. I wanted to use a device that has a future, not one that has a past. All of the other smartphones, they come with what is best described as baggage. There’s a history to how they do things, and when they do something that’s probably wrong in terms of how a smartphone ought to work, there’s an excuse for it, or some obscure technical reason that was relevant years ago but isn’t relevant now. They were designed to work around older technology, and all of that cruft builds up, and that cruft takes battery power. Why else would those thicker devices have worse battery life? In a lot of ways, the other smartphones pioneered the way, but it doesn’t seem like they kept up. The iPhone, even with its shortcomings, is a fresher look on what it means to be a smartphone than any of the other devices out there, and I’m pretty sure that it will continue to be that way. Who is going to be able to keep up with what Apple has started?
Holiday wallpapers to deck your iPhone. Download them after the jump. And…you’re welcome. 
Read the rest of this entry »
AT&T begins rebranding Dobson’s CellularOne-branded stores on Sunday, converting them to AT&T stores. That probably means the iPhone finally makes its official way to Alaska soon. So if you’re up in Alaska and close to Fairbanks, Anchorage, or Juneau, it may be worth a stop by once it becomes available. AT&T gains a bunch of other regions besides Alaska, of course — if you want to take a peer at the local coverage, there’s a coverage list available here. Or there’s this picture from an earlier article about the Dobson purchase…
If you make a lot of international calls, the service promoted by Jajah may be of interest to you. You sign up with their service, and when you want to make an international call, you punch the number in on their made-for-iPhone website, and wait for them to call you.
C|Net’s French website is reporting that an upcoming Firmware update, to be released by Apple as early as Saturday, will include two added features that enable the iPhone to act as a USB Flash Drive when docked with a PC or Mac, and includes Voice recorder capability. Which means you’ll be able to throw out all those thumb drives littering you desk, as well as that ridiculously obsolete handheld voice recorder.
Aside: I’d like to know how C|Net France came by this seemingly “insider” information. The whole things seems very dubious, but we’ll see what happens tomorrow.
Ars Technica notes on some details about a patent, filed last year, about gaming on the iPhone. The patent details using a part of the screen to show the game. Another section of the screen functions as an input that can control both the game and other multitasking apps outside of the game, such as the iPod music app. The patent also details using the gaming control app alongside a game scene. The control area controls multiple apps at the same time depending on where you tap and flick? I think that’s the gist of it.
I wouldn’t get my hopes up for Apple releasing a game based on this anytime terribly soon; patents aren’t reliable indicators of when a feature is forthcoming. Indeed, we might never see this, at least, not from Apple. It could also be the basis for multi-tasking on the iPhone when apps become available, you never know.
CNBC reporter Jim Goldman claims that a source close to Apple’s Asian contract manufacturer knows precisely when Apple will launch the long desired 3G iPhone. Clear your calendars for the month of June ‘08, the date of iPhone 3G’s arrival. This news, if you can call it that, comes as little surprise since the existence of a 3G iPhone was confirmed by none other than Apple itself. But this source, if accurate, dashes any hopes such a product will reveal itself at MacWorld in January. Was anyone really expecting Apple to obsolete the current model in under 6 months? Apple churns out new iPhone models like Mocha Lattes at Starbucks, but in a new iPhone release in such a short period isn’t realistic, especially given that iPhone hasn’t fully propagated among international carriers.
W00t! With your help this podcast reached #41 in iTunes gadget podcasts. Thanks to you! We chat a bit about the Smartphone Round Robin, iPhone launches in Europe, unlocked iPhones, supposed spat between AT&T and Apple, rumors of the SDK being seeded, Universal CEO mockery, and the usual looks from our community.
I’d also like to apologize for the lateness of this podcast — we’ve been t roubled with some audio problems since we upgraded to Leopard. Okay, I’ve had some audio problems since we upgraded to Leopard. Dieter has been fine.
ModMyiFone member suavphisticated figured out how to put together an picture messaging (aka MMS) app for hacked iPhones. It’s probably a bit early for general consumption, but if you’re feeling technically apt and are jonesing to prove it, here’s your big chance. It can only send mms messages, as in it is not yet able to receive them, but receiving is apparently part of the long-term plan. Can I get a w00t?
  
|
News Tips Subscribe to our Store Newsletter: |
|||
|
|
||||
|
"
The iPhone Blog merged with the Phone different site in May of 2008. Both sites were founded on a premise that comes one from one of Apple's old slogans: Think different. The iPhone Blog: for people who dare to phone different.
