October 2008: Monthly Archive

Did you think we forgot all of you on 1st generation iPhones? Well we here at TiPb have not forgotten any of you! If you have been craving true GPS for you iPhone well here is your chance to grab it while you can.

OrangeGadgets is on the brink of releasing an add on GPS module for the iPhone, the iGPS360. This is excellent news for all of you with 1st generation iPhones… what’s the catch you ask? I’m glad you asked… you have to jailbreak your device for it to work. The reason for this is that Apple has not allowed any 3rd party access to the operating system via the dock connector. So jailbreaking is the only way.

The iGPS360 is now available to order for $75.00. For that price you will also receive a 6ft USB-A to micro USB-B cable for on-the-go or at home charging. According to their website the module begins shipping today. Keep in mind, they are only producing 1000 of these units so if you want GPS, act fast!

[Via Buymeaniphone.com]

(Image via TUAW)

Hot on the heels of all the iPhone 2.2 firmware Beta 2 goodness from Google, which included Street-View, Transit and Walking Directions, and Location Sharing, comes word on a couple more features for us to rumor over. TUAW says:

A tipster shared with us some screenshots of the new firmware, including what appears to be the ability to download podcasts directly to your iPhone (and presumably your iPod touch)

TUAW says this could explain Apple’s rejection of PodCaster, but an explanation still does not a justification make. Still, this would be awesome functionality for those who don’t always have a chance to tether and sync for their podcasts. We’re guessing it will still be limited to WiFi only, however, like the iTunes store, to limit carrier data load for 50MB+ sound files — and even them will the (typically much larger) video podcasts be enabled?

MacRumors (via iPhoneHellas), meanwhile, shows off a new alert box that asks users deleting an application to rate it prior to deletion. Valuable metrics, or Just Another Annoying Pop-up?

The iPhone Blog Podcast is about to go weekly… and go LIVE!

Mike and Dieter knock it out of the park with phone different, giving you your twice-monthly fix all things iPhone — news, views, and community. We love it, and we aren’t messing with it. What we are doing, however, is adding to it!

Every other week (i.e. in between Phone Different episodes), we’ll be coming at you live and in video via http://www.theiphoneblog.com/live

The first part of each iPhone Live!-Cast will focus on a specific issue concerning the iPhone community, in depth and — literally — in your face. Anchored by the voice of Smartphone Experts, Dieter Bohn, starring a round-table of your favorite TiPb writers including Casey, Chad, Brian, Jeremy (and editor emeritus, Mike when his schedule allows), and moderated by yours truly.

And the second part? Well, that’s where you — our readers — come in. The second part is pure interaction. Send us your comments and questions, either beforehand via email (podcast at tipb dot com) or Twitter (@theiphoneblog), or live during the show via the chat window (no need to sign up for an account, just enter a screen name and start typing!)

So join us Wednesday Oct. 29, 8pm EDT for the debut episode of iPhone Live!

And if you can’t make it, no worries. The show will be recorded and added in to the phone different podcast feed.

Like we said, we’re going weekly!

Sometimes just having the default sync cable is not enough. If you use an iPhone 3G, that sucker’s battery dies very fast and waiting till you get home/work to charge it just doesn’t cut it in certain situations. So, I have been on a quest, a quest to find a great car charger that can double as a general charging/syncing cable. Well, I think I have found it, the Griffin PowerDuo [available now in TiPb Store!] 

Read on for the full review!

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According to BGR, Rogers Wireless (and subsidiary, Fido) has announced:

A decision by the Rogers finance department to cut sales commission by as much as 50% has seriously irked the sales staff who played an integral role in the approximate 30% increase in sales since the beginning of 2008.

I was first in line at my local Rogers store (corporate owned) on iPhone launch day, when the entire Rogers sales central went down and the management and employees handled the situation with grace and particular care for all the customers stuck waiting… and waiting… and waiting…

They handled all the cross and miscommunication from Rogers HQ, the lack of sufficient training for the iPhone, the plans that changed day by day and hour by hour before launch, the BS about charging customers for WiFi data, and the long — long — lines of people frustrated by years and years of Rogers greed and mismanagement (pre iPhone 3G data rates anyone?)

This must be especially galling then, to face cuts in their compensation when Rogers is growing business by 30%. Think they’ll have as much time to see to customers’ needs when they have to see more to keep their same base pay?

BGR further suggests a course of action, if Canadian customers feel so inclined:

The cut to commissions will impact each and every customer of Rogers and Fido in one way or another. If you’re the type of person who feels this is wrong, you can call Rogers or Fido toll-free within Canada at 1-888-764-3771 and 1-888-945-3436 respectively.

[The Lightning Reviews are over, but from their ashes rise... the Forum Reviews! TiPb has assembled a crack team of App-aficionados, and every week we'll be bringing you a few of their very best reviews right here on the blog. And be sure to check out TiPb's iPhone App Store Forum for even more!]

Line Rider Forum Review by cjvitek

The Line Rider concept game is a simple one. You draw a line. A sled travel down the line as if it is a hill.

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Back in August AT&T sent out a customer satisfaction survey to all iPhone owners. Well now it seems a new survey is being sent out to all of us on the AT&T network asking how the 2.1 firmware is working for us and what we want to see next on your iPhone 3G.

Now don’t get too excited yet! Just because they are asking what we want does not necessarily mean we will get it. Keep in mind Apple has stated before that certain features such as copy/paste and directional GPS take a back seat to other issues that need addressing so on and so forth. But it is better than AT&T and Apple flat out ignoring us right? So at least it is a start.

Apple Insider states:

The questionnaire asks owners to pick the top five hardware or software add-ons they’d like to see and include many of the most prominent requests made in the community, including cutting and pasting text, built-in instant messaging, Flash/Java support and MMS messaging.

So when and if you get this survey, be sure to speak your mind and let AT&T what know what you want. This is our chance… they seem to be listening. (Or at least they are pretending to be!)

[Via Appleinsider]

James Thomson is the acclaimed developer behind DragThing for Mac OS X and PCalc RPN Calculator for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Following up on his recent blog postings about the challenges involved navigating the still-nascent App Store business model for developers, and TiPb’s own look at whether or not there’s a “long tail” potential for the market, James was gracious enough to sit down (virtually) and share his thoughts with us about the issues facing 3rd party iPhone developers going forward.

TiPb: James, you recently blogged about PCalc in the context of a “postmortem”. What was the reaction like to that article, and did it bring about any changes in your current thinking or how you plan to proceed with PCalc going forward?

James Thomson: Reaction was interesting. Many iPhone developers contacted me privately, and via the blog, to say they had encountered similar problems with sales after the recent changes to the App Store.
Some pointed out the “Availability Trick” to change the App Store release date for your software when you do an update, to make it sort higher up in the listings. I talked about that a bit in a follow-up post here. It’s unclear whether it really is a trick, or just what you are supposed to do, but it does seem to work.

I’ve also tried a few other suggestions, like renaming the app to “PCalc RPN Calculator” to make sure it appears during searches for the word “calculator” which it didn’t before. So far, there has been a relatively small boost to sales, but I’m not sure how much of that is due to my changes, and how much is just down to the overall publicity that the article generated.

I’m working on a small 1.1.1 update at the moment to fix a few things, and I’ll likely add some more layouts and themes. The real question is what will happen to sales then. If they remain flat, with all the other changes, then I’m going to have to try some more traditional marketing beyond the Google AdWords adverts we are already running. To a certain extent, the blog itself /is/ a form of marketing – I don’t think I can really deny that, given it is raising the profile of our software.

Read the rest of the interview after the jump…

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UPDATE: Zippo and Moderati respond.

This seems to be a new trend going on in Apple’s App Store as of late. A few weeks back TiPb mentioned how Coors was being sued for 12 million dollars by a small time iPhone developer of a small gimmicky app, iBeer. Well yesterday we received a news tip telling us the story of how Zippo has allegedly stole the idea of the small developer regarding their app store application, iLighter. [iTunes link] I say “allegedly” because I want to fair to both parties and we only have one side of the story here. We did contact Zippo and Moderati to get a response to the accusations, we’ll let you know if they have any official comments they can make.

You can read the developers full story at www.zippostolemyapp.com. Be warned, it is a bit lengthy but I can give you a quick overview. An iPhone developer claims to have brought the idea of iLighter to Zippo. Zippo seemed to be interested in working together to get the app to the App Store. Communication was then ended abruptly by Zippo when they sent a letter demanding to remove their name from the app. A few months later, surprise, Zippo had a lighter app available on the App Store – Virtual Zippo Lighter. [iTunes Link]

If this is indeed all true that is a hit below the belt from Zippo. Especially for such a large company, very poor move on their part. On the other hand, there were a few other lighter apps in the App Store before either iLighter or Virtual Zippo Lighter ever appeared. So what is your take on all of this? Sound off in the comments!

[Thanks for the tip, dummaloop]

Every week I will be bringing you what I think are the week’s biggest stories and articles. Let’s get started, after the break!

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