Are you still on the hunt for the right GPS navigation application? Sygic Mobile Maps [$59.00 - US iTunes Link] has just gotten a much needed update and we are happy to report is has polished this GPS app nicely. Gone is the lag we experienced along with the addition of some other much anticipated features.

• Now with text-to-speech – voice guidance announcing the name of the next street or road
• Choose addresses straight from your iPhone contacts and navigate to.
• Music playback fades out smoothly so you can better hear the voice instructions.
• Improved GPS lock, now faster than ever.
• Smoother position display as you follow your route.
• Increased font size of street names and information bars for improved readability.
• No disclaimer warning message after completion of phone call.

So if you currently have this application, update now! If not and you’re still on the lookout for a good GPS app, Sygic Mobile Maps is definitely worth a look.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Quick App Update: Sygic Mobile Maps for iPhone

The much-discussed SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone application is once again back in the news again. The Boy Genius is reporting Sling Media has submitted a fairly significant SlingPlayer update to Apple. Version 1.1 will Include the following:

• True 16×9 wide-screen support
• Improved remote control interface
• Faster speeds all around including channel changing, initial connection, and remote control response

Sling Media also let BGR know that a completely separate application has been submitted for outside of the USA that contains all of the above along with 3G support. Your guess is as good as ours as to whether or not Apple will let this update into the App Store. Without AT&T pulling Apple’s strings it is a possibility everyone outside of the good old USA will enjoy 3G Sling streaming.

So what do you think, will the 3G version make it through to any non-AT&T customers?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

SlingPlayer Mobile iPhone App Update Submitted to Apple

UPDATE: Gizmodo received a statement from Apple regarding the 3.0.1 software update:

We appreciate the information provided to us about SMS vulnerabilities which affect several mobile phone platforms. This morning, less than 24 hours after a demonstration of this exploit, we’ve issued a free software update that eliminates the vulnerability from the iPhone. Contrary to what’s been reported, no one has been able to take control of the iPhone to gain access to personal information using this exploit.

ORIGINAL: Apple just went ahead and dropped the iPhone OS 3.0.1 software update for all users to grab directly from iTunes. Still no mention on Apple’s site of what exactly this update includes besides the patching of the recently discovered SMS vulnerability – just don’t expect much of anything else except for the possibility of some potential bug fixes.

Updated yet? Notice anything new? Not going to update? Let us know in the comments below!

As with any update from Apple, if you are currently running the 3.0 software jailbroken, do not update if you wish to keep your device in it’s current state. Updating will break your jailbreak.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

UPDATED: iPhone OS 3.0.1 Now Available Via iTunes

Apple has stealthily updated their premium in-ear headset with remote and mic. What exactly did they update? Well nothing major but it’s an update regardless – they replaced the soft rubber 3.5 mm headphone plug casing with a hard plastic one. So now instead of the soft rubber falling off we will now start to see the hard plastic replacement crack.

All joking aside, Apple really got these headphones almost perfect. And as a bonus they are now fully compatible with iPhone 3GS. Sorry first generation and 3G owners, you are still missing out on the control features.

Be sure to check out Rene’s full review from this past January.

[Via AppleInsider]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Apple Stealth-Updates Premium In-Ear Headset for iPhone 3GS

We covered some new finds in iPhone 3.0 over the weekend, including MobileMe data merge and commercial Wi-Fi auto-join, but we’ve also updated our complete iPhone 3.0 walkthrough with all that and more, so if you haven’t checked it out lately, go take a look.

It’s still months from Apple’s nebulous ‘”summer” release date, so more will change, and maybe even a bit more will be added before it drops, let us know if there’s anything specific you’re looking for, from Apple, or from us!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 3.0 Walkthrough Now Updated to Beta 3

Owner of a previous generation Airport Extreme or Time Capsule WiFi router and jealous of the newer versions Apple dropped this week? Well, while you can’t shove the drool-inducing, iPhone-friendly dual-radios into the older tech, you can now upgrade them to firmware 7.4.1 which includes the new MobileMe / Back to My Mac sharing feature for AirDisks.

Fire up Software Update and go get it!

(Via @TUAW)

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Airport Extreme and Time Capsule Update 7.4.1 Available Now

So today I had a bit of a scare. I went to sync my iPhone 3G with my Macbook and noticed when I’d plug in the phone it would say it is syncing while iTunes simply showed nothing — no kind of response whatsoever. Yes, everything is up to date on my Macbook so that was not the problem. After a few reboots of the Macbook and iPhone the same behavior still continued like clockwork.

Next step was to do some research online and send off an email to Rene for some more ideas. To our surprise this seems to be a bigger than we thought with many people seeing the same issue. I decided it could not hurt to give Apple a call about this and as I was on hold I figured I’d try one more time and shockingly it worked. I had to do a double take at my screens but it worked. To make sure it was not a fluke I unplugged everything and rebooted both Macbook and iPhone, still worked!

This issue seems to be completely random and Apple claims to be looking into it. So, if this happens to you, keep trying to sync, chances are you may get lucky. I’d say avoid doing a complete restore to your phone because if it does lock up during the restore you will be left with a empty iPhone. That’s not good.

Hope Apple updates iTunes fast to prevent this from happening to any of our readers. In the meantime, have any of you had this misfortune?

Let us know!

[Thanks to @Rene for the backup!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iTunes Crashing After iPhone 2.2.1 Update?

What has the MobileMe team gone and gotten us for the holidays? Why, a slew of pre-New Year updates! Specific to the iPhone:

• Resolved an issue that could cause some contacts to temporarily disappear on iPhone or iPod touch when syncing with MobileMe over an intermittent network connection; iPhone Software 2.2 is required to take full advantage of this
• Improves reliability of new email notifications on an iPhone/iPod touch
• Messages just deleted on iPhone, iPod touch, or a desktop mail application now update more quickly on webmail

And, most importantly to Mac users who previously saw the “push” and “Exchange for the rest of us” labels vanish in a cloud of, er… more like 15 min…

• Contacts, calendars, and bookmarks on a Mac sync automatically within a minute of the change being made on the computer, another device, or the web at www.me.com; Mac OS X 10.5.6 is required

Well, they had me at “Back to My Mac” and “Sync”, but if you’re a MobileMe user, is this enough to get you to renew? If you’re not, is it enough to get you to sign up?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

MobileMe Updated in Time for the Holidays

Ars Technica’s David Chartier has sleuthed out a support document that reveals all sorts of updates to Apple’s MobileMe “push” service on the web side.

Many of the WebApp updates are resolutions to previous smaller problems, like keyboard shortcut behavior, compatibility with Internet Explorer 7, and the experience when viewing photo galleries on the iPhone or iPod Touch.

Ars rightly points out that it’s nice that Apple not only published the article, but actually detailed what they more often than not sweep under the rug of “this update includes bug fixes and improved compatibility”. We likes the info. However, it would have been nice to push out word of the update via Apple’s MobileMe News “blog”, as RSS notification beats digging through knowledge base articles any day.

If you’re a MobileMe user, let us know if any of this makes your life easier!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Apple Updates MobileMe WebApps

With the Apple’s release today of the iPhone 2.1 firmware update, that’s the exact question many people will be asking. Hey, we at TiPb asked it ourselves — for all of about 0.1 seconds before diving headlong into iTunes, for the good of our readers, of course.

So what’s new in iPhone 2.1, is it compelling enough for you to update, and who should avoid it at all costs?

Answers after the jump!

What’s in the 2.1 Update

According to Apple, iPhone version 2.1 contains many bug fixes and improvements, including the following: 

• decrease in call set-up failures and call drops 
• significantly improved battery life for most users 
• dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes 
• improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts 
• faster installation of 3rd party applications 
• fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes if you have lots of 3rd party applications 
• improved performance in text messaging 
• faster loading and searching of contacts 
• improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display 
• repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages 
• option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts 
• Genius playlist creation 

Who Should Update?

While some may feel, especially given recent history, that best practices are to wait a few days for the guinea pigs… er… early adopters to kick the tires and discover any deal-breaking bugs, if you’re already suffering from any of the problems listed above, especially 3G connection issues, dropped called, frequent crashes, or severely long backups, or if the latest security fixes are a must, then bite the bullet and update asap. There’s always a risk something might go wrong, but you’re likely suffering immense frustration already, and the benefits in that case clearly outweigh theoretical drawbacks.

Who Shouldn’t Update?

First and foremost: those of you who have jailbroken your iPhone 3G or 2G, or unlocked your 2G. While the 133t hax0rs over at iPhone DevTeam are Scotty-class miracle workers, they will always lag behind Apple and it might take them a few days, or even weeks, to crack whatever Apple’s cooked into the latest/greatest firmware. (Like the iTunes 8 patch they’ve already let loose). If you’re rolling with a jailbroken or unlocked iPhone, stay clear until you’re given the all-clear. We’ll always let you know right quick when/if there are any developments in that area.

Likewise, if you’re one of the 98% Apple claims already has a rock-solid 2.0.x iPhone, and won’t absolutely die if you don’t get Genius Playlist functionality, like, immediately, then you have nothing to lose by hanging back and waiting a few days to make sure 2.1 doesn’t blow up in anyone’s faces. Keep reading TiPb, and in a week or so, when confidence levels are high, you can take the plunge — if you feel like it.

Also, Vista users who haven’t yet fixed their iTunes 8 problems are encouraged to do that first, before chancing even greater BSOD wrath with 2.1.

Conclusion

Bottom line, if you’re happy with your 2.x (or even 1.x!) iPhone right now, save yourself the potential pain frustration and wait to update until there’s a compelling reason to update.

If, on the other hand, 2.x is giving you nothing but headaches, or the 2.1 features are must-haves, go ahead and update now. Things can’t get any worse, can they? And ZOMG! you can has Genius Playlists in ur iPhone like nowz!

Whatever you do, let us know. And if you do run into problems, be sure to head on over to our forums and harness a little crowd-sourced help!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Should I Upgrade to iPhone 2.1?