All Articles Tagged iPhone

The Jabra SP200 Speakerphone for iPhone 3G/3GS [$59-95 - TiPb Store link] is a great Bluetooth headset alternative that you really have to try yourself to fully appreciate. I can not recommend it enough.

I’ve been using the Jabra SP200 for about a month now and I can honestly say that I’ve stopped using every single Bluetooth headset I own while driving my car. Simply connect the SP200 to your cars visor, flip the power switch and you are good to go. And go you will – Jabra claims the battery life comes in at 10 hours of talk time and 23 days of standby time. I am happy to report that these claims are dead on accurate.

Now to get to the most important part of a Bluetooth device, sound quality. I was pleasantly surprised on how well not only the person I would speak to sounded, but how well I came across to them as well. Volume is definitely not an issue with the SP200 as not once have I had to turn it up to it’s full capability.

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UPDATE: DaringFireball claims a source has confirmed that Apple pulled Google Voice apps at the request of AT&T. GigaOm, by contrast, wonders why AT&T would ban Google Voice (and Skype, and SlingBox) on the iPhone and allow them on BlackBerry, for example. We don’t know of course, but we guess nothing else scares AT&T like the iPhone — it’s the first multi-million selling consumer smartphone success, people actually use its features, and it hits their balsa-wood network like a freight-train. -Rene

ORIGINAL: Apple has systematically removed and/or rejected all Google Voice apps for the iPhone (and iPod touch) from the iTunes App Store, whether by Google themselves or by third party developers.

Rejection is something we’ve all become very familiar with since the inception Apple’s App Store. However, Apple picking off the two Google Voice applications that were already available in the App Store (GV Mobile and Voicecentral) along with flat out rejecting Google’s official application, is something else.

It all started with Sean Kovacs’ GV Mobile client, which originally became available last week (according to Kovacs after being approved by Apple VP Phil Schiller himself), being yanked from the App Store for allegedly duplicating the iPhone’s calling and text messaging features. When Apple contacted Kovacs, no specifics were given on what needs to be changed to get his app back into the store and Kovacs claims Apple refused to send an e-mail to confirm that GV Mobile was yanked. The following is from Kovacs blog:

Richard Chipman from Apple just called – he told me they’re removing GV Mobile from the App Store due to it duplicating features that the iPhone comes with (Dialer, SMS, etc). He didn’t actually specify which features, although I assume the whole app in general. He wouldn’t send a confirmation email either – too scared I would post it. I’ll see what I can do to get it back up there gang…

Voicecentral has since also disappeared from existence within the App Store. They have been less vocal as there is not a single mention of the disappearance on their website.

Is this Apple’s doing or more of a carrier-forced rejection? TiPb thinks the carriers are pulling Apple’s rejection strings on this one as Google Voice has the potential to hit the carriers where it hurts – free SMS messages, cheaper phone calls, etc…

What do you readers think about these rejections?

[Via AppleInsider]

While all of the 2010 Verizon iPhone/Tablet rumors are still in the air, Verizon has seen a very real loss of profit this last quarter. Their total profit was $3.16 billion, which was down from $3.4 billion one year ago. According to Denny Strigl, Verizon’s president, this loss is partly due to AT&T and iPhone 3GS.

“When you think about what Apple has done in bringing the iPhone into the marketplace, it truly has accelerated innovation. And as we talk to all of our manufacturers, everybody has come out with their own iconic device, and I think that this has been very good overall for our customers.”

Verizon is planning to launch a few iPhone competitors in the near future with the Palm Pre and the new BlackBerry Storm 2, along with some Google Android phones. Make no mistake, those are some nice phones, but none of them have an Apple logo on the back side.

2010 should be a very interesting year…

[Via AppleInsider]

Still searching for that perfect online music streaming application for your iPhone? Spotify may be exactly what you are looking for.

Spotify is a online streaming music service that gives you access to over-the-air streaming of their entire music library, as well as playlist access. Where this application has a leg up on the competition is that you’ll be able to cache playlists locally on your iPhone while in WiFi areas so that you’ll be able to play them back at any time without any data connection. Spotify will be available as a free app download but will only be available to premium customers who pay £9.99 a month for the service.

Now comes the disappointing part of the story — Spotify is not available here in the United States or Canada due to licensing restrictions. Sorry folks, we will have to make do with Pandora, Pocket Tunes, etc…

How many of you, our valued readers, think Apple will let this one slip into the App Store? Will it get rejected for “duplicating functionality”? Or will it mysteriously disappear into the abyss like so many applications before it?

[Thanks to icebike & Sam for the tip!]

Speaking at Fortune’s Brainstorm tech conference, AT&T CEO, Randall Stephenson, discussed the iPhone and it’s exclusivity with AT&T.

“There will be a day when you are not exclusive with the iPhone.”

Nothing was discussed regarding any negotiations that may be taking place at this time between the two companies but be assured that AT&T will do everything and anything in it’s power to keep Apple’s device under lock and key for as long as it possibly can.

All good things must come to an end, however. With that being said, AT&T’s exclusitivity deal with Apple’s iPhone is no different. It will eventually end. Sure there are those of you out there that can’t wait until Apple breaks free of it’s chains from AT&T, just don’t count on that happening anytime in the near future.

[Via Engadget Mobile]

It’s that time again where TiPb selects some of the hottest topics on the forums and spotlights them right here. In order for you to reply to any of the following threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is a painless process that will only take a few minutes of your time, so if you haven’t already, head on over and register now.

First thread for today revolves around iPhone hardware and how well it’s held up for you. So how is your iPhone hardware? Did you get a device that is pretty much perfect or are you one of the unlucky people who got a lemon? So far the majority of forum members are very happy with their defect-free iPhones. Cast your vote now!

Next up we have forum member, rrrl17, posing an interesting question – what do you think about Apple adding a extra button on iPhone? My personal opinion is if it is not broke, don’t fix it. What are you thoughts on this one?

So you say the ringtones that comes preloaded on iPhone just don’t cut it for you. Well if you are in need of a certain ringtone and can’t seem to find it – check out the following thread started by Live Free, Ringtone Requests. This is the perfect place to get that hard to find ringtone that you’ve been searching for.

Today’s final thread is very straight forward – what is your favorite Twitter application? You have a ton of them to choose from. Anything from Tweetie, Twitterriffic, Twitbit, Tweetdeck, etc… the list goes on and on. What’s your favorite?

See you on the forums!

As part of the just-completed Q3 2009 conference call, Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook revealed that the iPhone OS, the software behind both the iPhone and iPod touch, now enjoys an install base of over 45 million.

Combined with previous announcements of 65,000 apps, 100,000 registered developers, and 1.5 billion downloads, and it looks like Apple has quite the mobile platform on their hands. Scratch that, they have quite the platform in consumer hands.

According to a tech note, which recently appeared then disappeared from Apple’s website (but can be seen at TUAW), our wait for the iDisk iPhone app may soon be over.

Surely you remember a little iDisk app that Apple promised to all of it’s MobileMe customers back around WWDC 2009? The biggest feature, at least to us here at TiPb, being file sharing. Need to email a large file that is stored on your iDisk but you are away from your computer? No problem, just send it to whomever you’d like via iDisk for iPhone. Not too shabby.

Granted the above linked note does not mention anything in the way of functionality or release date, it is a sign that this app should appear in the very near future. Or we all can at least hope that is the case.

How many of you MobileMe customers out there have been craving to get your hands on this one?

[Via TUAW]

The Wall Street Journal (via MacRumors) published a report stating that while Apple’s iPhone, and RIM’s BlackBerry make up only 3% of mobile phone sales last year, the gobbled up a huge 35% take of the profits. iPhone specifically was pegged at 1% of sales and 20% of profit. Boom! indeed.

Says Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Modoff:

The disparity will become even starker this year when the two will take 5% of the market in unit terms but 58% of total operating profits.

While feature phone maker Nokia can compete due to vast economies of scale, their profits have been declining, as have Sony Ericsson. Palm’s Pre is seen as something of a wildcard, depending on developer support and distribution reach.

For their part, Apple is set to announce Q3 results tomorrow, July 21, at 5pm ET. TiPb will provide our usual coverage of the conference call, especially as results pertain to the iPhone.

In the past 24 hours we have seen major updates to not one but two software unlocks for the iPhone 3GS. Who says competition isn’t a good thing and who doesn’t love a good old fashion hacker fight? Let’s get it on:

In the red corner we have George Hotz along with his fresh version of purplesn0w RC2.

• 3G(the network speed) issues fixed
• Now only patches one file, CommCenter
• Leaves no traces on your baseband after it runs.
• Much more clean and reliable.

In the blue corner we have the iPhone Dev Team. And since Hotz released his source code, his competition used it to create their latest version of ultrasn0w .09.

• Works on both 3G and 3GS
• Doesn’t patch any mach-o binary whatsoever. (Doesn’t require a separate patch as each new firmware comes out).
• Has no race conditions, no popups about “Missing SIM”, no network issues
• Is almost 7000 times smaller than its nearest competition

So there you have it – two software unlocks for your iPhone 3GS and one update for your iPhone 3G unlock. You have to credit George Hotz for stepping his game up when the Dev Team has been dragging their feet. It really seems to have sparked up a good rivalry that we can all benefit from.

There is one major question though, how do you score the match?