All Articles in Editorial

What’s going to power the next generation iPhone 3G? Infineon again? Insider Intel? A curveball from PA Semi? And more importantly — when are we getting our hands on one?! What do YOU think?

To give you some help, here’s a HUGE roundup of all the iPhone 3G chipset and ship date rumors. Epic-style. Because let’s face it, roughly 0.01 seconds after Steve Jobs pulled the first iPhone from his pocket back at Macworld 2007, and someone, somewhere, put aside their childlike sense of wonder long enough think: “Nice! What’s the next gen going to be like?”

Complementary, contradictory, obvious, confusing, all but confirmed or from left field via outer space, the rumors have flooded the internet ever since. It’s become almost impossible to keep track of them all. But we’re going to try!

One week from today Steve Jobs takes Moscone Center stage for the sold-out WWDC keynote, and according to everyone and their newsfeed, announces the iPhone 3G. In eager anticipation, every day this week, TiPb wil be rounding up a different set of next generation rumors, from 3G to GPS, release dates to price points, colors to casings, 2.0 software to .Mac .Me services, and this weekend we’ll wrap it all up with a look into the WWDC/iPhone 3G Crystal Balland a roundup of the very best of YOUR predictions.

So come on, let’s get in on!

[Digg it!]

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Back in our PhoneDifferent days (seems so long ago, no?) all of our sister websites (Crackberry.com, WMExperts, & TreoCentral) did a trial run of each Smartphone and offered thoughts and opinions about each one. It was an interesting experiment because each handheld got a unique look from the different smartphone userbases. Going along with our theme of “How to Fix the iPhone”, we’ve decided to bring back the Round Robin Links for you guys to see what Blackberry, Palm, and Windows Mobile users thought of our beloved device.

Long Live the King

Before we get started with the other folk’s take on the iPhone, it’s good to remember why the iPhone is the best device out there. Mike Overbo, Editor Emeritus, realizes that the iPhone isn’t perfect but has come to believe that the iPhone’s future is the biggest reason he switched. In this article, he takes a look at each device that participated in the Round Robin (Blackberry Curve, AT&T Tilt, and Treo 680) and gives an in-depth look at what’s good, bad, and where the iPhone can learn.

Read on for the rest of the links!

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[Note: Official $50 Phone Different Store gift card says our readers can pick a better name than "Mobile Me". See below for details!]

If you hear the steady sound of thumping, as though something were continuously bumping, that’s not the GPS industry going into cardiac arrest at the mere thought of the iPhone 3G’s specs, that’s tiPb’s collective heads as we knock them against our glass screened, glossy facaded, aluminum cased displays in abject terror of what Apple may be choosing to rename our loved-to-hated old .Mac service:

Mobile Me

Sadly, no. (And we thought Back-to-My-Mac was awkward…)

Dear Apple,

We, your loyal iPhone users, realize .Mac was fine for a label pre-.com bubble burst, and has desperately needed a fresh coat of paint ever since. We understand that you need to provide not only ActiveSync for business users, but similar email, contacts, and events “push”-style for consumers as well. We get that the service (perhaps) formerly-known as .Mac is an ideal launching pad for these features. And Jobs-knows that Windows users, your largest install base for iTunes, iPods, and iPhones, would be confused to the point of BSOD by something called .Mac.

But “Mobile Me”. Seriously?

Sure, iSync is taken by local sync features, and Microsoft using ActiveSync for both local and Exchange services is confusing to say the least, but what about Apple Sync? Worked for Apple TV, didn’t it? Okay, Gruber doesn’t like iMobile, but I’d humbly suggest it kicks the sync out of the horribly precious “Mobile Me”.

Please tell Steve that “Mobile Me” just isn’t Zen enough. Tell him it’s already something planned for the “Zune Social”. Or Nokia’s “Comes With Muzak”. Whatever. Anything. Because let’s face it, the line of better names than “Mobile Me” stretches around an Apple Flagship Store sized block a few times.

P.S. I bet the iPhone Blog readers could pick a better name (if not a couple hundred dozen better names). In fact, Dieter’s so sure he’ll pony up a $50 Phone Different Store gift card to the reader who picks the best alternative to “Mobile Me” (to be judged by the blog’s staff).

Readers, have at it,

Apple, warmest namastes,

“Concerned Me”

If you hadn’t noticed, TiPb’s theme of the week is currently “Fixing the iPhone”. Rene offered you an extremely thoughtful and well-researched look into what the iPhone can learn from the competition. I reviewed a native app that added a much needed ‘Today’ Screen. And I’m back again giving you 10 Things Apple Should Fix in the iPhone. We don’t always crack jokes about Crackberry and mock iClones here do we?

Okay, to provide a quick disclaimer for this list: Understand that I’m completely ignoring the issues that are ‘mainstream problems’ with the iPhone. I’m not going to go off on the lack of a physical keyboard. I’m not worrying about 3G & GPS. Copy & Paste is a well-known pitfall of the iPhone. Natively saving images, likewise. Removable Battery? Recessed headphone jack? Push E-Mail? MMS? (Wow, that’s a lot)

As big a concern those previously mentioned issues are—many of them will likely become a moot point once the 3G iPhone comes out (Now somebody go tell Sprint that). This list suggests minor tweaks and fixes in the iPhone that may have been swept under the rug or just plain old forgotten. But fear not, I will happily remind Apple of the iPhone’s shortcomings and offer a solution on how to fix them. As great as the iPhone is, it isn’t without its faults.

[Comment on this Wait-a-Thon post to qualify to win a $100 iTunes Gift Card]

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[Updated following Phone Different Podcast #19, see below!]

Way back in February, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook said:

“We’re not married to any business model.”

At the time — and it’s scary how long ago it seems already — the iPhone was only available in the US, UK, Germany, and France, with rumors of Ireland and Austria waiting in the wings. What’s more, these were all exclusive deals, with Apple doing their best to lock the iPhone down to single carriers in each territory in exchange for lucrative — and unprecedented — revenue-sharing deals that some have estimated could be netting Apple up to $15 per month, per subscriber.

So, with a potential billion dollars on the table, while they weren’t married to it, they no doubt felt more than a little lusty.

But in true Apple fashion, invoking perhaps the pirate mantra of old, and embracing the same mindset that has them run iTunes as a near-loss leader, price-cut the iPhone a scant few months in, and offer cheap family upgrade options on their OS and iApps, it looks like Tim Cook was serious.

Read on to find out just how serious he was…

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[Note: This a a Wait-A-Thon post! Comment on this post -- or any post tagged "Wait-a-Thon" -- for your chance to win a $100 iTunes Gift Card! Note that you must post with a valid and real email address so we can send you your prize -- no switching!]

No need for double-takes. You didn’t click the wrong link. Just breath, dig deeply, and stick with me for a moment. Yes, you really are still reading the iPhone blog.

For a 1.0 device, the iPhone knocked the ball — if not out of the park — soundly into the fence, and sent a complacent industry fumbling and flurrying to catch it. But no device, not even from Apple, could get everything perfect the first time at bat. Now, I’ve pretty much staked my turf here by playfully poking a little bit of fun at the competition but, truth be known, when they’re not wasting their time on iClones every platform and handset has some great — even killer — features to recommend it. In that spirit, here’s my top 5 list of what Apple should seriously consider stealing… er… learning from the competition if they want to hit a home run with 2.0 and beyond…

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Going along with our own Blackberry vs iPhone comparison and Crackberry’s 10 Reasons Why the iPhone is NO Blackberry , we realized we should cover some basic reasons why people should ‘switch’ over to TiPb’s favorite toy. With Palm fading into obscurity and Windows Mobile feature strapped and overextended, RIM and Apple have become perhaps the two most relevant phone makers today. Which begs the question, which one should you pick?

I’ll offer you ten reasons why you should leave your Blackberry behind and choose to phone different*

*In this article, I am using the Curve as the measuring stick for all things ‘Blackberry’

Read on for the rest of the article!

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We’re running a new series here at TiPb (Titanium Powerbook? No, The iPhone Blog!) that brings older but still relevant/interesting/noteworthy articles, reviews, and blog posts back into the forefront of the discussion. Hopefully, we’ll be able to uncover some great articles that you might have missed and offer further insight on everyone’s favorite toy.

Also, it’ll help transition our still new merger, PhoneDifferent fans will get a taste of TiPb writing and TiPb readers will catch up with what has happened in the PhoneDifferent world! Think of it as a blog within a blog or for the metaphorically inclined, dinnertime stories at a big happy family reunion..

Today, we’ll bring back the topic of Bookmarklets. Mike Overbo, our Editor Emeritus, found that Bookmarklets extend the reach and capabilities of the iPhone’s Safari browser. Essentially, Bookmarklets are small computer applications stored as a URL on your bookmarks bar. Examples would include a Find feature, IMDB search, eBay search, etc.

To use these Bookmarklets, simply store them to your iPhone’s bookmarks and when you are in need of, say a quick Wikipedia search, open that particular Bookmarklet and it’ll prompt you with a direct search screen rather than waiting for the page to open up. I use Bookmarklets everyday to quicken my online searching (darn that EDGE), take a look and see if there is anything you can use!

Read On For The Rest of the Links!

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A lot of people look at the iPhone, in its current iteration, and complain that while it looks good, it lacks customization and is in dire need of native applications. And there’s a lot of truth to that, Apple has restricted much of the features on the iPhone and has limited what you can and cannot do. As much as it falls in line with keeping the user interface clear and intuitive, making users become passive to development prevents Apple from fully realizing the iPhone’s potential.

You want to run 3^rd party apps? Safari and Web Apps is the only ‘official’ way. Granted that Web Apps have come a long way, it doesn’t give justice to the true power of the iPhone as much as it shows off the versatility of Safari.

Currently, the only answer to this dilemma is jailbreaking. After having mulled the jailbreaking option a few times before, I made the switch only a couple months ago. And my, if you want to get a true glimpse of what the iPhone can do, Jailbreaking is currently the only way to go. In this article, I’ll show you why you should strongly consider jailbreaking and what it offers for iPhone users.

Read On For The Reasons to Jailbreak!

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figure 1: Munir Kotadia of ZDNet Australia.

The good folks of MYiTablet found an article from ZDNet Australia where Munir Kotadia lambasts “greedy Apple users” for trusting anyone.

“There is no evidence to suggest that this particular jailbreak utility is at all malicious but how long will it be before copycat sites appear that have less honourable intentions?”

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