September 2008: Monthly Archive

Following on the heels of PodcasterGate, another App has been denied entry into Apple’s iTunes App Store: Mailwrangler. The reason, according to Apple (as cited by developer Angelo DiNardi, via Daring Fireball):

… Your application duplicates the functionality of the built-in iPhone application Mail without providing sufficient differentiation or added functionality, which will lead to user confusion. …

And:

… There is also no way to edit an account once it has been added. …

The latter is a gimme, and the developer acknowledges it, though feels is a capricious enforcement. The former?

Many developers are still in an uproar over Apple’s tight-fisted control of the App Store, and others are distracted by counting the huge heaps of money they’re making, and Google’s “open” Android Market looms on the horizon, we’re left to wonder how this will shake out in the ecosystem.

Some have theorized that Apple rejected Podcaster because iTunes is a revenue stream for Apple, and they don’t want any precedence set for bypassing iTunes, even for “free” podcasts. But MobileMail’s Gmail functionality doesn’t generate any revenue, does it? And all the calculator, weather, etc. App’s already duplicate functionality, so what’s going on here?

We’ll take a look, after the jump…

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Big Media, which pretty much makes the loons in Big Music seem reasonable, witnessed NBC have the distributive equivalent of a hissy fit last year when they pulled their content from iTunes. At issue? They wanted more control over pricing. They said they wanted lower prices. Anyone ever seen media lower prices on anything established? No. Us neither.

Apple said NBC wanted to be able to charge up to $4.99 per episode of TV, much of which was 22 min. long and had already aired “for free”, and that they wanted to be able to bundle content together so, for example, if you wanted Hot Show X, you had to take Dud Show Y as well. Anyone ever seen media overcharge, re-release “Special Editions” to double dip, and raise the prices of movie downloads to DVD levels (when it costs them nothing to distribute and includes none of the bonuses typically packaged with a DVD)? Yeah. All the time.

Still want to give NBC the benefit of the doubt? Remember, one of their demands for coming back was that Apple block non-commercial content from iPods and iPhones. I.e., if you can’t prove you bought your show specifically for the iPhone (no content swapping from your PVR! And no home movies!), you’re a de facto pirate.

After trying all sorts of disruptive alternate markets, including giving their content (”their” in that they own it, but typically did not create, direct, produce, star, or otherwise do anything but cull and cancel it), away for free on Hulu (to people in the US, at least) along with a back-door onto the iPhone, and through other online distribution models, at Apple’s September “Let’s Rock” event, it was announced NBC was coming back to iTunes.

The results? Check them out after the break…

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Today on the forums we have a couple of newly started threads that you should enjoy. There has been a lot of talk about jailbreaking lately with the new QuickPwn’s released for both Mac and Windows. Have you given jailbreaking a try? Let us know in this thread.

Most everyone who has a iPhone has it protected in some way, shape or form… Rene wants to know, “To Case or Not to Case?”. What’s your style?

I really like having the auto correction feature on the iPhone. If it tries changing a word you just tap the “x” on that word and it goes away. Tap it 3 times and it will never predict that word again. Simple right? Well someone has started an online petition for Apple to disable auto-correction. Yes, you heard right… check it out.

Last we have a thread that revolves around the 2.1 firmware. The dust has now settled and I know what some of my favorite features are, how about you? Let us know!

As always, you can sign up for our forums here! It’s simple to register and it’s free!

See you on the forums!

Apple Insider in reporting that a new option has popped up in US-based Apple (Retail) Stores: Home. Previously, the only options were Upgrade existing iPhone, New AT&T Single, New AT&T Family, and Additional AT&T Line. They conjecture this may mean a new, contract-free, unlocked take your iPhone 3G home and do what you want with it. They rightly point out that this is already an option in some countries which require unlocked handsets by law, though the price is typically as astronomic as the freedom that comes with it. Will this happen? And will it be “unlocked” meaning it can run on other US carriers only (i.e. T-Mobile), or truly SIM unlocked to run with any card, in any county, around the GSM world? We’d love it, but we’ve been learned not to let our expectations get ahead of corporate avarice before…

Also, they point to a possible capacity bump in time for the holidays. With 8GB supplies running low, they say, 32GB might just be on the horizon. This, of course, would require Apple to switch from the current NAND flash chips they’re using, which max out at 16GB on the iPhone and 32GB on the iPod Touch (which lacks the radios and hence has double the space for the memory). Apple bought tons of the old NAND chips before the 3G slipped, and we haven’t seen any rumblings of them ordering the higher capacity ones yet, but the same thing did happen last year, so…

Who wants an unlocked 32GB iPhone 3G (in Product Red, no doubt!) wrapped up for them this year? And who’s got the probably close to $1K to drop on it?? Let us know!

iTunes 9 Ideas

Yeah, I know, I hear ya. But Kevin Rose did totally nail iTunes 8, so why not listen to what the founder of Digg, Revision 3, and Pownce has to say about the iTunes 9 Social? And hey, if it doesn’t pan out, we can all go back to hating on his predictions, b’okay?

Tops on his “idea of the month” list for iTunes 9?

• Get everyone’s music info into existing Social Networks, then import it into iTunes
• Smart Friends. Example: “Any new artist listened to more than 10x by friend [name]“
• Jukebox Live! All your friends can contribute to and share a common “radio station” on the local network.

You know what? Those aren’t half bad! Listen to the full explanations in the video, and let Kevin (and us!) know what you think!

WebKit, the open source foundation behind Apple’s Safari for Mac and MobileSafari on the iPhone (not to mention Google Chrome, Nokia, and Adobe) introduced the SquirrelFish JavaScript engine a while back, and billed it as the fastest on the planet. Then came Mozilla’s (Firefox) TraceMonkey. Then came Google’s V8. But you just can’t keep a good SquirrelFish down — not when it’s willing to go… Extreme!

Surfin’ Safari, the WebKit blog, made the announcement this week. But what does it mean for iPhone users? Muchfasterwebsiterendering.

As WebApp’s (browser-based productivity tools like Google Docs and MobileMe, or Web 2.0 social sites like Facebook and Twitter) grow not only in popularity but in function, they become heavier to load and slower to run, largely because of all the JavaScript being processed in the background. This is especially true for a mobile device like the iPhone. The ability to tear through those pages — without crashing! — becomes incredibly important in the growing “cloud” based computing world.

In other words, this will make future versions of MobileSafari screaming fast.

Can we have it now please?

(For those interested in how SFX compares with TraceMonkey and V8, check out the stats!)

Ok all of you Windows peeps, this is what you have been waiting for. And no, sorry, still no unlocking for the 3G yet, but you can jailbreak the 2.1 firmware with the freshly released Windows Quickpwn 2.1!

More on Windows QuickPwn 2.1:

Supports 2.1 firmware with the unlocking and jailbreaking of iPhone 1st generation (2G) device. Supports the jailbreaking of iPod Touch 1st generation device and iPhone 3G. Does not support the unlocking of iPhone 3G or jailbreaking of second generation (n72ap based) iPod Touch.

So what are you waiting for Windows jailbreakers?! Head on over and grab Windows Quickpwn 2.1!

As always, TiPb takes no responsibility for any wrong doings to your devices, you dig? Please know what you are doing and have fun!

(Thanks Tommy for sending this in!)

UPDATE: There was a minor uproar in the iPhone developer community (yup, again!) when some felt that this patent “ripped off” Intelliscreen. Ars Technica points out, however, that this patent was originally filed before the iPhone was even jailbroken, and hence before Intelliscreen came out.

ORIGINAL:

We have YAAPA! (Yet Another Apple Patent Application!) This one, brought to us by Apple Insider, outlines Global Preferences Dialogs and Improved Notification of Missed Communications, or what is essentially a Today Screen for the iPhone:

“In response to detecting an interaction by a user with the device, the plurality of icons display notification information for the plurality of communication modalities,” the filing explains. “In response to detecting an unlock interaction by the user with the device, the device is unlocked, and a communication in the plurality of communications is presented that was received while the device was in the locked state, or information about the communication is presented.”

Of course, Windows Mobile has had this for years, and it’s pretty much the only thing I really still miss about that platform (don’t tell Dieter!). Likewise, iPhone Jailbreakers, have been enjoying this for a while now via Intelliscreen.

For the rest of us, all this same information, has been kept each piece in its own separate little world divided by countless taps and swipes. So the idea of an information rich, at-a-glance summation of my most recent communications and upcoming activities? Now please.

About a month ago Dieter reported about a fairly large security flaw in firmware 2.0.2 that gave access to Safari, Email, and a frightening amount of personal data. Apple patched it in 2.1. Or did they?

This could be a flaw, or feature, but it turns out you still have the ability to make a phone call, to any number, while the iPhone is locked with a passcode. Wasn’t the “emergency” call feature meant to call “emergency” numbers such as 911 only?

Apple can you please put this on your “need to fix” list? Thank you!

(Via Macrumors, as discussed way back in 2.0.2 on the forums of iLounge.com)

Adding to MobileMe issues, casing cracks, and 2.0 problems (Apple sure has a lot on their plate), it looks like the ultracompact and ultra-cute USB power adapter is being recalled.

The reason for the recall? Apple is saying that the metal prongs may break off and remain embedded in the power outlet which creates a risk of electrical shock. Apple strongly states that users should stop using these adapters until they are exchanged for the new version. The exchange program starts October 10th so Apple suggests charging via USB on your computer until then.

It hurts to say but it looks like us early adopters for the iPhone 3G got bit hard. Previous Apple products had all these little nuggets that made Apple a breath of fresh air in a stale PC-world. But with the iPhone 3G it seemed like all the adorable qualities that made Apple, Apple, got lost and got worse. Luckily it looks like Apple is tidying the ship on all of these issues.

Click the Read Link to see the full details directly from Apple.

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