iOS Devices

The idea is pretty simple.  Change each headphone to mono so that both listeners get the full music.  But man, those are some freaky patent drawing, no?

Some notes (and images!) from today’s AT&T earnings call, especially as they relate to Apple.  Remember how AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson didn’t think there would be much in the way of iPad 3G usage on his network? “They’ll use Wifi!” he said confidentially…A month later AT&T stopped its unlimited data plans.

From Business Insider:

• it activated 400,000 to 500,000 3G iPads during Q2 (Which is in two months since the 3G didn’t ship until April 30th).
• It’s “surprising” how many business customers are approaching AT&T about the iPad. Whereas business customers were famously skeptical and reluctant about the iPhone at first — and have since warmed up to it — they are apparently very eager about the iPad. AT&T said a lot of companies have iPad trials going on, and many see opportunities to use the iPad in their business as a laptop replacement. Look out, Microsoft
• iPad users are using more data per month than the typical iPhone customer, but less than the typical laptop-card customer, which makes sense.
• 75% to 80% of the iPad 3G subscribers are at the more expensive ($25/month) AT&T 3G data plan. Overall monthly bills in the $25-$30 range, including early customers who signed up for the $30/month unlimited plan before it was discontinued.

Gizmodo notes that AT&T has improved call quality in New York and upgrades in San Francisco are on the way.  AT&T has the PowerPoint to prove it.

http://abcnews.go.com/assets/player/walt2.6/flash/SFP_Walt.swf

Get the app.

The creators of FacePlant made something that should have come standard with FaceTime. A way to tell which of your friends is currently on WiFi and ready to FaceTime. Steve Jobs went on record to say that they did not want a buddy list for FaceTime, so FacePlant is basically Job’s enemy in that case. The app uses your contact list to show who’s available, but you can also turn on privacy for yourself if you don’t feel like seeing anyone that day. 

The super-neat thing about the app is the ability to leave them video messages. Instead of leaving standard voice messages you can have some fun and leave them one with video, without killing your MMS charges. How neat! The app’s not available yet and there’s no word on cost or if the app breaks any App Store rules, but we’ll soon find out and we’ll let you know when/if/how it’s available. 

via Gizmodo.

In Apple’s world, innovation comes from looking to what should be done or needs to be done (the need) and tracing it backwards to find out what is required. So how will it make us touch our Macs?

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Apple’s US carrier partner, AT&T, sure has one big smile on its face — it has recorded the highest number of iPhone activations ever and is stealing swathes of cellphone market share from its competitors.

The company’s financial results announced today confirm it activated 3.2 million iPhones in its just gone quarter. (It also made $30.8 billion in revenue in the period).  That comes with much help from the iPhone, which the carrier again stated it was activating new units at a clip of 10 times the iPhone 3GS the previous year.

“On June 24, AT&T began offering iPhone 4, the most powerful iPhone yet. Preorder sales of iPhone 4 were 10 times higher than the first day of preordering for iPhone 3GS a year earlier. For the full second quarter, AT&T iPhone activations totaled 3.2 million, the most quarterly iPhone activations ever. Approximately 27 percent of those activations were for customers who were new to AT&T,” the company said.

The company also delivered substantial year-over-year wireless margin expansion, it said.

The number of 3G postpaid integrated devices on AT&T’s wireless network increased by 2.9 million to 29.7 million, an increase of 98.2 percent year over year and 10.8 percent sequentially.

More here.

CultofMac’s Leander Kahney says that Apple and T-Mobile are in the later stages of an iPhone agreement which would put the iPhone on T-Mobile’s US network by the end of the year.

That makes some sense since  Deutsche Telekom

Today, Skype announced that its iOS application (finally!) has multitasking. (iTunes)  

What’s New In This Version:
? Run Skype in the background with multitasking in iOS4. Receive Skype calls and IM while other apps are running or when your iPhone is locked. You can also continue your call while you switch to another application. Multitasking is available only with iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS.

WhenWillApple notes that Skype no longer plans to charge for 3G calling.

In light of that, we no longer have plans to charge a supplement to make calls over 3G. We