All Articles Tagged iphone 3gs

With Apple consolidating its Apple TV offerings this morning down to a single 160GB SKU at a lower $229 price point, we’re once again split between Apple axing their “hobby” or giving it a much-needed refresh.

If Apple does axe the Apple TV, however, something would need to take its place in the living room. Could that something be the iPhone 3GS and iPod touch G3 and the still-mythic iTablet? Dock them properly to an HD TV, and could you have a solution with one heck of a built in controller?

We know the iPhone (and likely new iPod touch) can support 720p and 1080p out. We even hoped Apple would flip the switch on that feature last week in order to better position themselves competitively against the about-to-ship Zune HD. They could still flip it at some point, however, along with introducing new HDMI-based video output cables.

This would go a long way towards showing iPhone and iPod touch content on the big screen, but right now one of the Apple TV’s strengths is streaming rather than just storing and showing. You can attach an Apple TV to your HD TV and, without any local content, stream all the iTunes media you have on your Mac or Windows PC, and the potentially 2TB drives that can now attach to those (or more with RAID, Drobo, etc.)

Neither iPhone nor iPod have ethernet, and both are stuck on the older, slower 802.11g Wi-Fi standard (though the iPod touch G3 might be updatable to 802.11n).

That’s where an iTablet, presumably with much beefier internals and faster Wi-Fi (though we still doubt ethernet) comes in. Apple could position it as a dock-at-home, take it with you on-the-go solution.

Of course, whether you’d want to lock your iTablet to a TV rather than using it to surf and chat while watching TV is debatable, and could be a deal-breaker for many. Though better that than just trying to up-sell everyone to a Mac Mini…

Looking at it this way, it seems that even in an iPhone, iPod touch, and perhaps iTablet world, there’s still a place for an Apple TV in the lineup. If only for now.

The RexRegina Hamilton Case [$44.95 - TiPb Store link] is hands down one of the finest crafted leather pouches I have used to date. While this particular type of case may only appeal to a certain crowd, I can not recommend it highly enough for those of you who are fans of the pouch case. For the full run-down read on after the break! Read the rest of this entry »

According to market research company Gfk and their recent survey, it seems like Japan has fallen in love with the iPhone 3GS. So much so that in the month of July, the good people there have made Apple’s 32GB iPhone 3GS the most popular cell phone in all of Japan.

Here is how the rest of the top 10 shakes out.

• Apple iPhone 3GS 32 GB
• Sharp SH-06A
• Panasonic 830P
• Sharp SH-05A
• NEC N-08A
• Sony Ericsson Walkman Phone Premier3
• Sharp SH-02A
• Casio W63CA
• Apple iPhone 3GS 16 GB
• Sharp SH001

It must be those Emoji icons…

[Via MobileCrunch]

With 82% of iPhone 3GS users claiming they’re “very satisfied” and 17% claiming they’re “somewhat” satisfied, we don’t need Leanna to do the math — that’s 99% pure satisfaction according to RBC/IQ and Changewave (via Macrumors).

Apple sold 5.2 million iPhones last quarter, many of which were likely iPhone 3GS — that’s a spectacular satisfaction rating for a spectacularly successful launch.

Given that rival handset makers aren’t (yet?) hitting either those per-product sales or satisfaction levels (and even passionate iPhone boycotters are lamenting the alternatives), we’re wondering if the gap isn’t widening?

(Of course, AT&T satisfaction levels were somewhat less impressive, to put it kindly…)

Does the iPhone 3GS camera constantly buffer live video data, in effect pre-caching the images you want before you take them? Birdhouse developer Adam Lisagore thinks so, and says so via his Lonely Sandwich blog:

from the moment you launch the Camera app, data is not only streaming to the viewer, but being cached to memory at full resolution, much like a TiVo with a live broadcast. Where there’s been latency in previous versions of the iPhone hardware/software due to processing limitations, those limitations have been overcome in the iPhone 3GS, closing the gap between intention and result by processing the streaming input from a microsecond before the shutter was released. In essence, the iPhone is constantly storing the picture you want before you even take it.

Daring Fireball confirms this, and after-the-fact, it lines up with a lot of our experiences here at TiPb as well.

Clever indeed, Apple…

Once again Canada’s Rogers looks to be the source of a leak surrounding an upcoming 8GB iPhone 3GS, which — if true — would bring Apple’s latest hardware down to the budget smartphone price point of $99.

MacRumors caught the story, though their take is that the price point is uncertain, and whether or not Apple will release the low-storage iPhone 3GS option in all geographies (i.e. in the US) is unknown.

True leak or cascading data error? We’ll find out soon enough.

Blue Skies [iTunes Link] is one of the first notable iPhone 3GS-specific applications to hit Apple’s App Store, and at a great low introductory price of $0.99.

A helicopter shooter that was orginally introduced one year ago by RockingPocketGames, this version of Blue Skies is identical to the original version in terms of gameplay, but as would be expected with the beefier processing power in the iPhone 3GS, the graphics have gotten a nice overhaul.

The 3GS enhanced version makes use of the pixel shaders that are ONLY found in the new iPhone 3GS. It has per pixel bump mapping and amazing dynamic animated water that demonstrates the true power of the new iPhone 3GS!

If you currently have the original version along with an iPhone 3GS, is it worth your $0.99 to update? Depends on much you value better graphics in your games. Now if you have never played this shooter and have a 3GS, for $0.99 you are getting a good deal for your money. To see the graphical improvements firsthand, be sure to download Blue Skies Lite [iTunes link].

The big question remains, do you appreciate an iPhone 3GS specific version, or do you think it’s finally breaking the platform compatibility?

Sound off in the comments!

[Via Touch Arcade]

Boy Genius is reporting several tips on this, so it looks likely that Rogers in Canada is getting ready to launch an 8GB iPhone 3GS. Why? They proffer:

Maybe the iPhone 3G stock is finally sold out and Apple will quietly (or not quietly) replace the $99 model iPhone with an 8GB 3GS?

This appeal to anyone? How about to anyone who jumped on the $99 16GB iPhone 3G already?

Buy.com is offering the iPhone 3GS at 32GB “Never-Locked LEGALLY Unlocked” for $999. You can also get the iPhone 3G at 16GB for $849.

While seller DB Electronics doesn’t source the gear, we can only guess they’re picking them up somewhere Apple sells unlocked iPhones (like Hong Kong) and reselling them here (if someone knows better, drop us a correction in the comments).

What that means for manufacturers warranties and/or Apple Care, well, we don’t fancy the plane ride. If you don’t either, make sure you establish how the reseller will be covering exchanges/repairs for you.

So, any world-travelers going to take the plunge at 1K?

Can’t believe we missed this iPhone 3GS headed robot! (Don’t tell Dieter). Which exact ancestor of our future robotic iPhone overlords we don’t know, but we figure when the day does come, if they’re rocking iPhone heads, at least Apple might still reject “wipe out humanity” or somesuch from their overlord App Store… (insert your own duplicates functionality joke here!)

[via Engadget via Gearfuse]