Posted on Thursday, Jul 16, 2009 by Rene Ritchie
File Under:News, Web Apps; Tags: 3.0, geolocation, Google, iphone 3.0, iphone OS 3.0, location based search, mobile safari, Safari

Google Blogs (via Gizmodo) has announced that the long-rumored Geo-Location based services in Mobile Safari are indeed included in iPhone 3.0 and being put to use in “My Location” searches by Google.com on the iPhone.
As of today, when you visit www.google.com from Safari on your iPhone 3.0, you can choose to turn on My Location by tapping on the link on the homepage. When you tap on the “update” link, your location will be updated and displayed right there on the homepage. Whenever you want to refresh your location, just tap the “update” link. Testing this in New York, my search for “jazz clubs” returned a handful of places within walking distance. I picked one, tapped the phone number, made a reservation, and we were set for the night.
As to privacy concerns, Google stresses the service is opt-in and can be turned off via the Preferences link at the bottom of the page. Also, it currently only works in English in the US and UK, though other languages and regions are said to be coming soon.
Good news for those looking for a local burger joint, bad news for those hoping Latitude wouldn’t be stuck in the browser…

Back when Apple re-introduced Push Notification at the iPhone 3.0 Sneak Preview Event, Scott Forstall claimed that, unlike background multitasking that could cause an 80% drop in battery life, Push Notification would only cause a 20% drop. While some debated the truth (or truthiness) of his claims, it did set the expectation that users running Push Notification-enabled apps would see lower battery life, and gave an indicator of just how much less.
So, while it too a while, now that we finally have Push Notification, and some of the more popular messengers and games are implemented it, how’s your battery life doing?
Are you seeing a hit compared to your pre-Push Notification days, and if so, is it in the 20% range? Let us know which iPhone you have, how often you’re getting Push Notifications, and how your battery is holding up!
Posted on Thursday, Jul 2, 2009 by Rene Ritchie
File Under:News; Tags: 3.0, commercials, iphone 3.0, iphone 3G S, iphone 3gs, iphone OS 3.0, video editing, video recording, video sharing

Looks like Apple wasn’t quite done unveiling new iPhone 3GS commercials, as a a third one began airing last night focused on video recording, editing, and sharing.
Like the previous two, which highlighted copy and paste and Voice Control, Apple’s keeping them all about the new features — and the ease of use of the new features.
So that means compass and landscape keyboard are next, right?
[Apple.com]

Two new iPhone 3GS commercials are now being aired by Apple, the first one focusing on cut, copy, and paste and the second on Voice Control.
While it’s interesting that the original iPhone 2G commercials were targeted at “the internet in your pocket” and the iPhone 3G commercials at “there’s an app for that”, new features aside, we’re not sure what overarching theme Apple’s going for this time — if any.
Some internet coverage has been less than kind about the new direction, however, welcoming Apple to cut, copy, and paste about a decade too late. That’s a little “inside baseball”, however. While many tech-savvy users — and bloggers — upgraded to the iPhone from Treos, BlackBerrys, or other smartphones, arguably most of the iPhone’s growth has come from consumer adaption — people who upgraded from Motorola RAZRs.
For them, and many of the close to 20 million iPhone users (2G, 3G, and 3GS alike) now able to run iPhone 3.0, copy, cut, and paste will be a decidedly new experience and one whose ease-of-use they’ll likely enjoy.
[Via Apple.com]

Sebastiaan de With — aside from gritting his teeth and almost blinding himself in one eye while reproducing the incomprehensibly pin-striped logo above — has bent his design-focus and Cocoia blog towards an analysis of Apple’s new iPhone 3.0 user interface:
Sometimes, I’m considering if other companies in the cellphone / personal media player market have caught up to Apple’s care to details and design sensibilities, but then things like these make the reality very obvious to me:
Apple’s still the leader of the pack by several tail lengths.
If you’re into the details of user interface and design, give it a read and let us know what you think about the look and feel of iPhone 3.0.

Paul Haddad from Tapbots let us know just how fast he’s seeing users update to iPhone 3.0. Based on the headers included when their app Convertbot checks with its servers to get the latest currency information, Paul figures:
The data seems pretty clear. Prior to June 8th we have a fairly low adoption rate of ~3%. Starting on June 9 this jumps up to 6-8%, which can be directly tracked to the developer release at WWDC. Starting on June 17th we get a huge jump as all the non devs start upgrading. We’re currently running at an overall 75% upgrade rate which is pretty insane considering the number of devices and the fact that its only been 5 days.
Outside enthusiasts who regularly follow the news, users are only alerted to updates when they tether their iPhone to iTunes to sync. Looks like a lot of people are either enthusiastic enough to know about the update and want it, or fairly regular about syncing with iTunes.
Either way, these uptake levels are amazing.
Posted on Wednesday, Jun 24, 2009 by Rene Ritchie
File Under:Tips and How-To, iPhone 101; Tags: 3.0, calendar, how to 3.0, how-to, iPhone 101, iphone 3.0, iphone OS 3.0, shared calendar, subscription calendar

iPhone 3.0 features Calendar Subscriptions, where you can enter the URL for a shared calendar and near-instantly add it to your iPhone.
That’s all well and good to share a family or business calendar, but what about more wide-ranging ones? What about national holidays, religious events, movie release dates, sports team schedules? Luckily, Apple’s already made this simple for Mac OS X iCal users, and even more luckily it works just as simply for iPhone 3.0 users as well.
We’ll share how, after the break…
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Someone in iPhone documentation has been busy lately. Not only did Apple post an iPhone guide for Enterprise today, but now here’s the iPhone User Guide for iPhone OS 3.0 Software PDF (via iLounge).
Some 200+ pages long, you can read it while waiting in line for your shiny iPhone 3G S tomorrow, or roll it up into a cudgel-like wad and use it to fend off any would-be line-jumpers. Either way, this is the grand-daddy of iPhone references for this year!

If you’re anything like us, the moment iPhone 3.0 hit iTunes, you hit the update button. For many, it was smooth sailing from that point on. For others…?
Not so much. We’re hearing about several issues, from disconnecting Wi-Fi in 2nd Gen iPod touches (hello BT radio!) to missing apps, to sync issues, to push problems, to seach nulls, to my own little bizarre issue:
All my media is fine on my iPhone, but when I plug it in to iTunes, it’s read as gigabytes of “other” data and I get a helpful message saying my iPhone is already full.
Of course, the nu-cu-lar option is always a clean restore, but if you want to troubleshoot first, check out TiPb’s iPhone Forums. Our users are among the smartest in iPhone — and iPod touch –space, and with our cracker-jack mod team in place, we can all help each other to… help each other.

Waiting to download iPhone 3.0? Trying to figure out exactly what’s included in the new OS? Wondering what’s changed since iPhone 2.2.1? Need a handy link to send your friends who may have questions? TiPb’s got your back with our complete iPhone 3.0 Software Walkthrough.
Previously, we took you through all five beta versions, now we’ll take you through the final GM (gold master) seed. (And when it goes live on iTunes for one and all, we’ll update any changes we find as well, so consider this your one-stop-shop for everything iPhone 3.0).
And we’ll get started, right after the break.
Read the rest of this entry »