Articles by Rene Ritchie
Starting with the cryptic announcement “We love Sundays. We think you will too”, the iphone-dev-team followed up quickly with the words many (including all those with unsupported countries and carriers) have been waiting clamoring for:
We’ll be releasing a more official announcement soon, but we wanted to get the tool out there. We sincerely hope you enjoy using it as much as we enjoyed making it
Of course, the site’s being hit so hard right now the links are down, if pwnage is what you seek, and you want to jailbreak and unlock 2.0 on your original iPhone 2G, or jailbreak your iPhone 3G (I don’t believe unlock is supported yet on the 3G but will be following soon), new mirrors, seeds, rapidshares, etc. should be popping up.
JAR!
Proving once again that nothing enables crooks more than the internet, Gizmodo is warning iPhone app-seekers to steer clear of scams:
If you Google “iPhone apps,” the first thing that comes up is iPhoneApps.org, a site selling a bundle of “top 10″ iPhone applications for $25 using “safe PayPal.” Friends, there’s nothing safe about this site. It’s a scam. The iTunes App Store is the exclusive distributor of official iPhone apps, period. Don’t get your apps anywhere else. Tell your friends and family. If you’re savvy enough to use Installer.app, this PSA is not for you, obviously. [Thanks Blake!]
Remember, if something looks fishy, it probably is; seems too good to be true, is too good to be true; doesn’t come from Apple’s built-in-to-iPhone-and-iTunes App Store, is a big honking SCAM!
Not evil twin to theiPhoneBlog.com Week in Review, not an invasion by Fake Steve, This Week in Smart Phone Schadenfreude brings you all the feel-better news you need about the smartphone world outside Apple’s current media dominator. (Who knew there was such a world? We were just as surprised! Inelegant, interface challenged, keyboardy, crashy, single-touchy place — best not to linger…). Join us as we mock review the big news from last week at our sister sites. Everybody loves sibling rivalry!
This week: Blackberry device outages, Android SDK, Palm launches Treo 700 v3
MobileMe: We’ve already told you about the less than silky smooth launch, the about-face on “push”, the exorcising of the “Exchange for the Rest of Us” slogan, and the apology letter from Apple that saw everyone — even people on the 2 month free trial — get a FREE month of service tacked on for good measure. What more could go wrong?
How about botching the credit card authorization process and having to issue a second apology letter and offer an additional FREE month?
Yup. Scaling any business, even one as tightly run and usually incredibly well managed as Apple is a nightmare, and it looks like what with simultaneous iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0, App Store, and MobileMe launches in up to 20+ countries at the same time is causing some cracks in Apple’s traditionally glossy shell.
Temporary bump or signs of things to come on the road to 10 Million iPhones and ever-growing Mac sales?
Full text of Apple’s second apology letter after the break!
Thanks to Ryan for sending it in!
Confession: I use 1Password on the Mac a lot. I just used it to login so I could write this preview. I use it (synced via keychain) to my desktop at home, and I’ve used the various incarnations of the 1Password javascript bookmarklet on the original iPhone 2G. But now they’ve gone native, baby!
Internet security is a a huge concern, and with mobile internet security we ain’t seen nothing yet. Browsers the caliber of MobileSafari make it possible to do our transactions on the go, be it logging into our favorite social network, or doing some emergency banking on the road. But what if we get out of the cab and leave our iPhone behind? If it gets snatched? What if someone else takes possession of the tiny little device with all our precious logins on it?
Read on to find out!
This time last week Dieter was holding the line in Rhode Island, Chad was laying the video smack down in Ohio, Brian was too busy getting him some apps to even say where he was, and Casey was waiting for the lines to die down (good luck with that!)
Now it’s one week later and what’s going on? Well, thanks to Cherryhead25 (via Engadget) we know that the up-again/down-again FREE iPhone 3G AT&T WiFI access is currently up again.
That is, if you can find an iPhone 3G to buy! Seems Apple Insider has found yet another leaked AT&T memo that hints at major supply shortages in the US (welcome to the rest of the world!), leading to back-orders of 10 to 14 days.
Frequent Apple analyst Gene Munster, told Computerworld (via Ars Technica) the shortages might last a month!
“I bet we’ll see these problems for another two to four weeks. Early demand has been more than they expected [because] they knocked it out of the park on the first weekend. “There were outages last year, but not to this extent. This is a more sustained outage [than last year's], and the demand seems to be sustained.”
So the continued line ups would have us believe. And the hardest to find model? Nope, not the white one sported by Dieter or Chad! The 16GB iPhone Black… Wonder who got me one of those?
Surprise, surprise, the Free Software Foundation doesn’t want you to use an iPhone 3G. Less surprisingly, they don’t want to provide anything more than hyper-sensational, factually challenged reasons why you shouldn’t buy it:
Phone completely blocks free software. iPhone endorses and supports Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) technology. iPhone exposes your whereabouts and provides ways for others to track you without your knowledge. iPhone won’t play patent- and DRM-free formats like Ogg Vorbis and Theora. iPhone is not the only option.
Sigh. Why is it those who demand freedom the most are usually the same ones who respect freedom of choice the least?
They go on to call Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, a snake-oil salesman who uses good design to pied-piper the dull mundane consumers into buying his shiny little toy, thus abandoning themselves drone-like to his evil, conspiratorial prison. Patronizing? Hypocritical? Black and white just one option too many for the FSF?
DaringFireball gives it a sentence. Allow me to give it a retort! (After the break)
We’ve been all over the jailbreak/unlock situation for both the iPhone 3G and the original iPhone 2G updated to 2.0, and here’s the latest.
The iphone-dev team’s pwnage hasn’t been released yet, but will be soon. According to their blog, Apple’s firmware update slowed them down a little, as has the 3G baseband, so what you’ll get short term is:
iPhone (1st Gen) with 2.0 - Activated, Unlocked & Jailbroken, (with support for third party applications). iPod Touch with 2.0 - Activated & Jailbroken, (with support for third party applications). iPhone (3G) with 2.0 - Activated, Jailbroken (with support for third party applications).
Can’t wait? Willing to risk mail order? Engadget Mobile says you can order a $1000 worth of unlocked iPhone 3G now:
According to the [Alibaba.com] wholesale goods supply site, you can just order up the “original” Apple device direct from a company called Union Camera and have them sent to whatever poorly lit dock, abandoned warehouse, or suburban safe-house you desire. The best part? They’re network unlocked.
Dunno if I’d risk it yet. How about you?
While noted Windows pundit Paul Thurrott might be an out-of-the-closet iPhone lover, it seems his experiences with, and feelings for, MobileMe have been more towards the negative.
There have certainly been problems with MobileMe, and Apple has reached out to users as Casey posted yesterday. Now Thurrott has a leaked Apple sales note, reportedly sent out to redefine their language in light of these problems:
MobileMe Messaging Update MobileMe messaging is being updated effective immediately. In order to set appropriate expectations with our customers, focus your sales discussion on “automatic sync” rather than “push.” Additionally, we will no longer describe MobileMe as “Exchange for the rest of us.” When discussing the sync features of MobileMe, you may tell a customer that: Updates between me.com and iPhone or iPod touch will occur in a matter of seconds. Updates between me.com and Macs running Mac OS X Leopard and Windows PCs may take up to 15 minutes when MobileMe is set to sync automatically (Macs running Mac OS X Tiger may experience longer sync times).
Ouch! Want some double-ouch with a hefty side dish of rant? Check out Thurrott’s complete post where he focuses on lack of IE7 and Firefox support and, in part, takes David Pogue’s iPhone 3G review out for a ride…
Is Thurrott justified given Apple’s painful and still botched MobileMe roll-out? Or is he upset the mass-media is still dissing on Vista and wants to throw some fire Apple’s way? Little of both?
Thanks to Will for the video!
I got to my local Rogers (corporate owned) store way early, and was immediately nervous upon seeing tons of cars. They were filled with senior citizens — strange iPhone demographic, I thought. When the doors to the mall opened at 7am, the seniors raced in. Near jog, no joke. I thought I’d end up behind a ton of angry, eager iPhone golden oldies, but a funny thing happened: they raced right on past Rogers. Turns out they jog/power walk/amble about there every morning. Who knew?
One week later, and how are things now? I just got my first bill (wow, that was faster than 3G!). $30/6GB data, $35 Mega My 5, $15 Visual Voice Mail Value Pack, $35 activation fee, plus crazy Canadian taxes. $124. (Plus the initial $299 for the 16GB handset…)
But what else is going on in my home and native land? Read on to find out!
Following up our Exchange Activesync for the iPhone 2.0 walkthrough, and some FREE/cheap Hosted Exchange solutions for users without Megacorps, here’s an official “welcome!” from biggest Megacorp of them all, Microsoft. More specifically, from the Microsoft Exchange Team Blog:
If you’ve not heard; Apple released iPhone 2.0 today which includes a software update to the existing iPhones in the market (yes, we mentioned it when it was announced as well). We’re thrilled to add them to the family of Exchange ActiveSync licensees that enable all sorts of devices to connect to Exchange Server. For those of you that manage Exchange Servers this means you may see some new devices connecting and we wanted to give you a few notes about what to expect.Following their welcome are some nifty pointers (with screenshots) of what the iPhone looks like to an Exchange Admin, and a couple of related FAQs. If you’re just that kind of ITer, give them a look-see…
Hmm. Megan Fox in retro Star Wars chic, hawt she is. But iPhone 3G with latest CGI, rocks it does!
Okay, while I may personally still be waiting for my Battlefront Touch, and accelerometer X-Wing dogfights, Star Wars: the Force Unleashed from THQ brings plenty of lightsaber and force-powered goodness:
the battles can grow enjoyably hectic as you block fire and toss your enemies aside. And it’s all promised to be backed by the same soundtrack we’ll hear in the Xbox/PS3 versions of the Force Unleashed (we just heard placeholder music during our hands-on). Oh, and something really cool. You can rotate the game between portrait and landscape mode. Neither gave the characters the stretched look.
Available September it will be. Check Gizmodo for the screenshots… you must.
A few posts back we got into a few App Store early growing pains/gripes, including that some less-scrupulous — or more marketing-savvy, depending on your point of view — developers were prepending spaces and symbols to their App names in order to get them to sort higher in the alphabetical listings. Well according to MacUser (via Ars), seems like Apple called shenanigans on that one and has put an end to the practice.
Visiting the App Store now, I see that Jirbo’s titles, as well as quite a few others, still have a space in front of them, but are simply alphabetized by the following letter.
Nicely done. Would that all App Store problems were so easily solved…
You’ve got your uber-cool new iPhone 3G or you’re rocking the new 2.0 update on your iPhone 2G or iPod Touch, and you want to try out this Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync all the kids suits are yabbering about. One problem — you don’t have an Exchange server. You’re not part of some big megacorp with a massive IT department, you’re not a developer with MSDC licenses for the “testing”, and you’re not even small-business’y enough to pick up a cheap (for Microsoft!) ActionPack with a couple of licenses (or even if you did, you don’t have the geek in you to set ‘em up and administer the high-maintenance little beasties).
What to do, what to do?
Hosted Exchange.
Yup, just like ISP’s offer regular old email, and we services offer Yahoo!, Hotmail, Gmail, etc. for POP and IMAP mail, some companies will provide you with similar email accounts hosted on Exchange, ready for to get your ActiveSync iPhone nirvana on. Ranging in price, some even do it cheaply and some… for FREE!
The inimitable Lifehacker points us towards Mail2Web, which offers a FREE Microsoft Exchange based email solution, and provides handy-dandy setup and usage tips (though it looks like you might need the $4.45 a month version if you want to use it directly with Outlook on the PC).
TiPb’s own cross-platformer-in-chief also points us towards some for-pay, but potentially better fitting solutions from some users, with Sherweb at the top of his list, 1and1 hitting okay, and 4smartphone serving up equal parts popularity and unreliability (lately).
Of course, Microsoft itself is also entering the subscription space, for anyone who might want an ActiveSync addy straight out of Redmond…
Any options we’re missing?
![iPhone 3G Not Plastic: Survives \"Will it Blend?\"](http://www.theiphoneblog.com/images/stories/2008/07/blend_iphone2.jpg "iPhone 3G Not Plastic: Survives \\"Will it Blend?\\"")
“Will it Blend?” — harmless fun, senseless gadget murder, or… educational science experiment?
While the original iPhone 2G’s shiny metallic backing was powdered by the uber-chopper, the iPhone 3G’s plasticky backing, counter-intuitively, survived pretty much in one piece (one really thrashed piece, granted).
Macenstein claims their birdy pointed out “Apple never said it was plastic.”
However, Steve Jobs said just that during the WWDC 2008 Keynote (at roughly the 1:26:20 mark in the podcast version): “It’s got a full plastic back.”
Sure, that might have been a simplification (after all, it looks like plastic), and surviving a blend and being remarkably tough and (hopefully) scratch resistant does raise some questions. So what are the the answers? Macenstein’s source theorizes that:
About 2 years ago apple had a patent for an indestructible ceramic housing for handheld devices that block no wireless frequencies.” That patent is patent #20060268528, and describes a zirconia/Yttrium hybrid that may have an additional silicon coating applied “on the exterior surface to prevent cracking and protect the ceramic shell from undesirable forces as for example when the ceramic shell is dropped.”
Either way, Apple VP of Design, Jonathan Ive is known for prototyping like a madman, and really revolutionizing materials (titanium Powerbooks and dual-injected iPods anyone?), so whether its a plastic-based hybrid or not, there’s probably a little magic in there somewhere.
(Just nothing fingerprint resistant… yet.)
