All Articles in Wait-a-Thon

What? Oh, sorry… You though we…? Nope. Dunno. Haven’t the foggiest. Maybe you could tell us? When Steve Jobs pulls out the updated version of his little pocket universe dent’er, what’s he going to call it?

• iPhone 3G
• iPhone Black
• iPhone: The Next Generation
• iPhone Nano
• iPhone Pro
• i2
• iPhone BOLDEST
• iPhone X 2.0 “Lynx”
• iPhone M6524X2519 (oops, Nokia’s already TM’d that…)
• iPhone Me
• iPhone Take 2
• iPhone Release II: Attack of the iClones
• iPhone Air
• iPhone Vista

No? None of the above? Well then, what do you think the next generation iPhone will be called?

And remember, this is a Wait-A-Thon post! Comment on this post — or comment on 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!

Our iPhone App Wait-a-Thon has been a smashing success (once we get around to announcing the winners, that is. See the latest batch below). What’s that, you ask? Any time you see a post tagged “Wait-a-Thon,” any comment (with a legit email) is entered into that week’s drawing for a $100 iTunes Gift Certificate. We’re doing it to ease the pain of having to wait for Native Apps on the iPhone 2.0 software update. Go check out the full rules of the App Wait-a-Thon here, and you can always find the latest Wait-a-Thon opportunity here.

Of course, at the time we were expecting that the iPhone 3G would come much later. However, as recent rumors seem to show, it’s likely going to be coming much sooner than we expected. So here’s the deal: in addition to the weekly iTunes giveaway, we are going to give away an iPhone 3G once it’s available!

After the break - the details on how to enter to win the iPhone 3G and winners of a bunch of App Wait-a-Thon contests. Read on!

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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]

Read on for the rest of the article!

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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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What happens when your Sister Site, CrackBerry.com, manages to score a BlackBerry Bold on eBay? What happens after they do their hands-on images, videos, and walkthroughs, that is? What happens is they start sending the beast around the the office. So here we have a full gallery comparing the iPhone and the BlackBerry Bold. Head to head images comparing size, UI, web browser (though that one’s not quite fair since the Bold’s web browser ain’t anywhere near complete yet), and of course media capabilities.

Also after the break, a video walkthrough of the two devices. We’ve made fun of RIM’s claim that the Bold isn’t an iClone and now that I’m looking at the two devices side by side on my desk, that fun-making is half-true. Yes, they’re different, but the metallic bezel around the edge of a glossy black face sure says “iPhone” to me.

More thoughts and comparisons after the break. What are you waiting for? Read on!

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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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Mike Overbo is back this week for the 18th installment of our [insert preferred name here] Podcast! We discuss the continuing rumors of the iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0, and more. Definitely worth a listen.

We’re also doubling up the Wait-a-Thon today. If you haven’t already commented on How to get your content into iTunes, go do that. Then come back here for another chance to win a $100 iTunes gift certificate. The question we need answered: What should we call the podcast? “The Phone different Podcast?” … “The iPhone Blog Podcast?” … something else?

(One last bit — we’re going to be moving our podcasts over to another server in the near future — all of ‘em. Should add some reliability in the podcast. If your version stops halfway through, just delete and re-subscribe in iTunes and it’ll download properly.)

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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!]

More and more people are switching to the iPhone. They’re switching from Palm and Windows Mobile and even Blackberry (looking at you, Barack Obama!) smartphones to the iPhone. They’re switching carriers to get the iPhone. They’re switching off the carrier-locks just to be able to switch to the iPhone in their own, currently unsupported countries. And now that the next-gen iPhone 3G is all but upon us, and more and more regions are announcing deals to offer it, the switching is only going to get faster and more furious.

To celebrate the switchers, those who dare to phone different, the iPhone Blog wants to help you get your content off your old, perhaps restrictive and outdates systems, and onto iTunes, ready to sync to your new iPhone.

Read on to find out how!

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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!]

Usually we wait for This Week in Smartphone Schadenfreude to mock review the competition (such as it is), but if they bring the hype, we’ll bring the satire, special-edition style.

Samsung, Nokia (yeah, I’d forgotten about them as well…), and RIM (and RIM) have already sent in their iClones, and now it’s HTCs turn to make mid-2008 look like early 2007 all over again… Ludites and gentlemen, the HTC Touch Diamond.

(At least I think it’s the Diamond, they’ve pre-announced like 100 different Touch trademarks lately, so it could be the Pro or the Cruise or even the Cubic Zirconium for all I can tell…)

Speaking of 2007, as we all know when Steve Jobs took the stage at Macworld and pulled the iPhone from his pocket, it’s form factor was exactly like every other Palm, RIM, and WinMob device out there, with a tiny screen, application independent tic-tactile keyboard, always unstylish stylus, and and OS and interface straight out of 2001.

Wait, no it wasn’t. El Jobso unveiled a revolutionary new device with a giant, hi-res screen, multi-touch input, and an interface the likes of which the industry had never seen before. But they (and we) have certainly seen it since — reflected funhouse mirror-like in almost every signature device from every company released post-iPhone.

Read on!

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