iOS Devices

AT&T’s iPhone tethering is something near and dear to my heart.  In fact, I may or may not be writing this tethered to my iPhone on a train to New York City right now.  We know tethering works on AT&T’s network because frankly, we’ve been doing it using only Apple’s software since the iPhone 3.0 betas have been out (and before using PDAnet).  To keep tethering possible, all we’ve had to do is not update to 3.1 – which isn’t that easy.

Tethering is really handy when travelling, or as a home back-up Internet connection when the cable/DSL is out. It works well on USB and slightly less well over Bluetooth, so long as AT&T has service in the area – which isn’t always.

But AT&T, while encouraging tethering usage on Blackberries and other smartphones has delayed enabling it on the iPhone.  We believed it was coming later this year, until we got a note from an AT&T spokeman. He told us to correct a post that said AT&T will be delivering tethering in 2009.  Specifically, he said (his font color, not ours):

Just reading again – where did anyone promise tethering by EOY?  Where did you see that?  We promised MMS by end of summer and ended up being a few days late for that…

We don’t have much to add, nor did he follow up on that statement, but by the look of it, we’d say those who hoped tethering may be enabled by Christmas might be getting some coal in their stockings.  We could have sworn we’d heard AT&T Wireless CEO, Ralph de la Vega, promise it by year end.  Here’s why:

In August 2008, S.Jobs sent a note to a inquisitive customer saying [regarding tethering on the iPhone being important]:

We agree, and are discussing it with ATT.

Steve

Sent from my iPhone

CNET reported in November 2008 that:

AT&T Mobility chief Ralph de la Vega confirmed on Thursday that iPhone 3G users will be able to use their phones as wireless modems at some point next year. [this being 2008] De la Vega made the comments during a conversation with TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington at the Web 2.0 Summit on Thursday….It’s not clear when AT&T will roll out the tethering service; some point in 2009 appears to be the only stated time frame

That TechCrunch story was a little more vague:

In an interview with Michael Arrington at the Web 2.0 Summit, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph De La Vega let it be known that an official, AT&T sanctioned method of using the iPhone as a 3G modem for a laptop is on the way “soon”.

The real issue is semantics and the definition of the word "soon".  CNET took "soon" to mean "within a year".  Perhaps AT&T’s wireless CEO meant soon, as in "Haley’s Comet last came in 1988, it is due again soon".

Regardless, we’d love to be proven wrong on this one.  What do you say AT&T?  Can we all tether now?

Barnes and Noble is set to introduce their Kindle-fighting eBook reader next week, but Gizmodo (on a tablet roll lately) beat them to it.  Hardware-wise it is an interesting concoction. It is Amazon Kindle-like eInk on top, iPhone like multi-touch color on the bottom.   The mullet of tablets or multi-sport star?

The question is: is having it both ways better?  You can read in sunlight but navigation is difficult.  You can see color multi-media below, but the space is small.  Books will have to cater towards this specific interface.

And that’s the kicker. The interface will tell the tale – and for that, we’ll probably have to wait until October 20th.  We have to say, however, that we like that Barnes and Noble is breaking this out rather than trying to ride its traditional business into the ground.

more picts at Gizmodo

So, anyone who doesn’t yet believe Apple intends shoving a camera inside a future iteration of the iPod touch really should chase across to Apple’s tech support pages, where a recently modified document seems to suggest Mac OS X thinks it does.

The document, “iPhone and iPod touch: Disabling digital camera notification in Mac OS X”, seems an anomaly. After all, we all know the iPhone hosts a camera, but the iPod touch doesn’t, does it? That’s certainly set us thinking and conjecturing and speculating.

“When the iPhone or iPod touch is connected to Mac OS X, a dialog is presented with choices for connecting as a digital camera and working with the digital pictures stored on the iPhone or iPod touch,” the document informs.

“This is the default behavior under Mac OS X for digital imaging devices. Mac OS X provides a way to disable this notification,” it adds, moving on to tell you how to disable that there notification those Apple’s is tellin’ us about.

So, just why is the iPod touch showing up as an imaging device when it doesn’t have a camera? Well, it didn’t last time we looked, so we checked and it still doesn’t. Sure, it can carry images, but why then does it show as a camera? Perhaps it’s only in order to invoke iPhoto so you can select images to store on it, but we don’t think so….

We think it’s a pretty solid hint that a camera will be put inside the iPod touch pretty soon.

It looks like the cat and mouse game continues.  According to MuscleNerd and the iPhone Dev Crew, a new BootROM called iBoot-359.3.2, is appearing in new iPhone 3GS units that is resistant to the 24kpwn exploit used by the Dev-Team and others to jailbreak the iPhone.  At this point, and in the immediate future, there doesn’t look to be a jailbreak for this ROM.

But, you know how this works.  Give it a month or so and we’ll probably be back to jailbreaking again.  In the meantime, refurbished iPhone 3GSes are going to be the hot item.

iClarified via BGR

iMovie 8.0.5 is out with a surprising new video format twist:

Dubbed iFrame, the new video format is based on industry standard technologies like H.264 video and AAC audio. As expected with H.264, iFrame produces much smaller file sizes than traditional video formats, while maintaining its high-quality video. Of course, the smaller file size increases import speed and helps with editing video files.

The first cameras  that support this new format are the high-end Dual Cameras, the $550 VPC-HD2000A and the $499 VPC-FH1A from Sanyo.

Update: Apple produces a KB article on the format

iMovie 8.0.5 also has the following improvements:

• Improved compatibility with importing video captured on the iPod nano
• Fixed problems with resizing the iMovie window during playback
• The update is recommended for all users of iMovie ’09.

We’ve just received a tip that an iPhone radio.app is being developed in-house by Apple for use on the iPhone and iPod touch.  From what we know, the app will be allowed to operate in the background like iPod.app and will offer the same functionality as the FM radio in the new iPod Nanos.  The source mentioned that this application could also be incorporated into the iPod.app before release.

The holdup on this app is that Apple is trying to integrate the Mobile iTunes Store purchases into the functionality of the program.  For instance, if you like a song you are listening to on the radio (and that station supports tagging and you are in the US), you will be able to push a button and see the song (and all of the information around it) in the iTunes Mobile store.  With another click, you’ll be able to make a purchase.  This is an extension of the Song Tagging feature used in the iPod Nanos.  Perhaps they could even add some Shazam technology to help with those stations that don’t support tagging.

Though it wasn’t specified, the app will likely have the same Live Pause functionality that the Nanos currently enjoy.

Apple’s iPods and iPhones have been able to receive FM radio signals for some time now.  The latest generation of iPhone and iPod touch can even broadcast FM signal, for instance to a car stereo.  The ability of the iPhone and iPod touch to receive FM signals has been used solely in the implementation of the Nike+ ecosystem to this point.

This wouldn’t be the first time Apple awoke sleeping hardware functionality from its mobile products.  Apple sometimes chooses to leave hardware features dormant in their products until they feel the time is right.  For instance, Apple didn’t enable Bluetooth in its 2nd generation iPod touch until 9 months after it was released.  Apple also hasn’t enabled the 802.11N +5GHZ wireless networking (which we also hope to see updated shortly) in its latest iPhone and iPods.

The addition of an FM radio would eliminate that advantage from the ZuneHD over Apple’s line of Touch OSX products.

(alright…if you can’t tell by my shitty cut/paste, that’s a poor mockup up there)

For those Canadians who aren’t huge fans of Rogers, Bell has some good news for you today.  They’ve put up an iPhone landing page for the upcoming launch.  You can sign up to get more information when it is available.  We’re trying to imagine a Tmobile/Verizon site like this down here. via BGR

Phones 4U this morning confirmed it will join Carphone Warehouse in selling iPhones on the high street for Apple’s now two iPhone carriers, Orange and O2. This suggests models from Vodafone may also be made available when the device also reaches that network next year.

In related news, Orange this morning confirmed it’s engaged in a massive upgrade push to support the iPhone on its network when it ships. "We have been really busy getting ready for this," said UK vice president of sales and loyalty Guillaume van Gaver told Mobile News.

Orange has 93 percent UK coverage on its UK 3G network, and the company is investing heavily in the network to provide support for the iPhone.

An interesting nugget from the Mobile News report: “Van Gaver explained Apple iPhone applications require "short, sharp bursts" of data usage, unlike the kind of web browsing most other mobile phones have traditionally been utilised for, which require a sustained data stream. Orange has worked to make its network run better for these bursts of data traffic, he said.”

The carrier is engaged in extensive consultation with engineers in territories it already carries the iPhone in, has begun training staff for iPhone sales and is preparing a “third-party training programme” to support the device.

Meanwhile, Phones 4U this morning issued the following statement on the affair, “Phones 4u is pleased to announce that it will be selling the Apple iPhone range with Orange and O2. Contracts will be available to Phones 4u customers in store and online.”

Brendan Sweeney, Phones 4u Managing Director said: "We are very pleased to be partnering with both Orange and O2 to sell the iPhone. Recognised for our in depth understanding of the youth market and their needs, our knowledgeable and skilled staff are in a strong position to introduce the Apple iPhone to our Phones 4u customer base.

“Phones 4u believes that the role of the independent mobile retailer is to provide consumers with choice across networks and handsets. The iPhone will complement Phones 4u’s market leading product range and offer greater choice to our customers."

However, hopes for a price war between the operators were dashed in a later statement from Orange’s van Gaver, who said: "We are aiming at being price competitive, but we are not going to start a price war over this device. We want to be competitive and we are fine tuning our offer."

There’s a certain romanticism to watching the leaves turn from green, or new buds appear on those trees as we head to different seasons, albeit in different time zones. A time to reflect, and remember – so spare a thought today to October 12, 2005, when Apple introduced iTunes 6, confirming months of speculation with the introduction of short movies from Pixar, TV shows from Disney and a hand-picked selection of 2,000 music videos.

It happened today four years ago, and now of course Apple’s media management and acquisition software is an industry leader in most markets in which it operates, and alternatives including the BBC’s iPlayer and NBC’s Hulu are prevalent. Indeed, so part of life has online video now become that YouTube last week confirmed it’s showing one billion clips each and every day.

Think back, won’t you, to Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ 2005 statement that, “We’re doing for video what we’ve done for music—we’re making it easy and affordable to purchase and download, play on your computer, and take with you on your iPod.”

“Apple is giving music fans a great way to own their favorite music videos,” said Jimmy Iovine, Chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M. “The people at Apple fully understand the interaction between musicians and their audience.”

It took a while for Apple to negotiate rights and expand its available movie catalogue, indeed, video services are still being introduced in some iTunes territories.

And, like the impact of digital on the music industry, the evolution of digital content is beginning to impact Hollywood, as movie studios attempt to evolve a suitable business plan for the digital age.

“In the space of a few weeks, Disney has shown the door to its respected and long-serving chairman Dick Cook while Universal wielded the axe on co-chairmen Marc Shmuger and David Linde on Monday,” reports AFP.

The movie industry has reached a transition point between old business models and future-focused attempts designed to create sustainable opportunity in the new media age.

And, meanwhile, DVD sales fell 13.5 percent in the first six months of 2009. With its existing relationships with TV and movie studios worldwide, can it be long until Apple evolves its Apple TV to take a slot in the emerging new media and TV paradigm?

Microsoft, after over a week of data outage and admission that they’ve lost all of their customers’ data, might have just killed the Sidekick.  That’s a shame because, before the iPhone, the Sidekick was the most revolutionary smartphone platform out there.

We’ve been playing with Tweetie 2 for the iPhone for a bit and have to say really makes Twittering easy.  Somehow atebits has added a lot of features without taking away the simplicity of the original app.  

One small catch: If you’ve already downloaded Tweetie, you’ll have to buy it again. (It is worth the upgrade) Get Tweetie 2 here -$2.99 (App Store Link).  

BTW, follow 9to5mac on Twitter here.

Photoshop.com, the online, Flash-based version of Photoshop has made its way to the iPhone.  Of course the iPhone version doesn’t use Flash and isn’t quite as robust as the desktop or web counterparts.  That being said, it does offer some nice touches including:

• Basics: Crop, Rotate, and Flip
• Color: Exposure, Saturation, Tint, Black and White
• Filters: Sketch, Soft Focus
• Effects: Vibrant, Pop, Border, Vignette Blur, Warm Vintage, Rainbow, White Glow, Soft Black and White

I’ve installed the application and it performs fairly well.  Strangely, it doesn’t appear that you can edit your online photos from the app.  You can edit photos in your library and upload them to your account but not the reverse.  Once it is uploaded, you’ll need to go to the Flash based Photoshop.com to continue to edit.

Also, I would have like to have seen some Level/Auto-level options.  Otherwise, great product!

Get the iPhone app here (App Store link) free.  More info from Adobe and screenshots below.

Photoshop.com Mobile for iPhone: Edit and share from anywhere

Photoshop.com Mobile for iPhone lets you quickly and easily edit and share your photos with simple gestures directly on your iPhone. Photoshop.com Mobile is like having your entire photo library in your pocket without wasting your phone’s valuable storage space.

Photoshop.com Mobile is your iPhone companion to Photoshop.com, your online photo sharing, editing and hosting resource. Create a free Photoshop.com account to upload and store 2GB of photos online.

MORE FUN ON THE RUN
It’s now easy to improve photos on your iPhone. Choose between a variety of one-touch Effects, or simply drag your finger across the screen to quickly crop, rotate, or adjust a photo’s color. Get artistic by applying Filters like Soft Focus or Sketch. Never fear. Photoshop.com Mobile lets you undo and redo changes until you get just the picture you want, and we always save a copy of your original photo.

Top edit features
• Basics: Crop, Rotate, and Flip
• Color: Exposure, Saturation, Tint, Black and White
• Filters: Sketch, Soft Focus
• Effects: Vibrant, Pop, Border, Vignette Blur, Warm Vintage, Rainbow, White Glow, Soft Black and White

SHOW ON THE GO
Photoshop.com for iPhone gives you complete access to your entire online photo library directly from your Photoshop.com account. Relive the memories and laughter with your friends and family anytime, anywhere. Show off all of your favorite photos with instant slideshows. It’s like keeping thousands of photos right in your pocket!

Apple’s iPhone has won the accolade of ‘Dream Phone” in the Mobile Choice Consumer Awards in the UK, while on another matter China Unicom today confirmed itself to be in talks with a view to offering WiFi-enabled iPhone models in China.

Mobile Choice says of the iPhone 3GS, “No phone in the history of mobiles has demanded more headlines and column inches than the iPhone.” Perhaps that’s why readers voted for Apple’s product, while the mag’s editorial staff named LG its ‘Manufacturer of the Year’.

Apple’s smartphone’s closest competitors in this category (which made the shortlist) included nothing from RIM or Palm, they were:

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
Nokia N97
Samsung i8910 HD
HTC Hero

Meanwhile, news emerged from China this morning that China Unicom is currently negotiating a deal with Apple under which the computer company would potentially manufacture iPhones that are compatible both with WiFi and the Chinese-made WAPI (wireless) standard.

China Unicom subsidiary manager, Yu Yingtao, confirmed the news, warning WiFi iPhones won’t be available until the end of the year. Bear in mind, local telecom law forbids iPhones using WiFi in China, suggesting this rule may be subject to change.

Apple’s having a stellar year with JD Power surveys. The iPhone took the crown in both the consumer and business categories again in their bi-annual survery (though the battery didn’t fare well).  From JDPower (via PED) 

• Apple ranks highest among manufacturers of smartphones used primarily for personal reasons, with a score of 811, and performs particularly well in ease of operation, operating system, features and physical design. LG (776) and RIM BlackBerry (759) follow Apple in the rankings.
• Among customers who use their smartphones primarily for business purposes, Apple ranks highest with a score of 803, followed by RIM BlackBerry (724)."

iPhone update 3.1.2 (241.7MB) is out today with the following fixes:

• Resolves sporadic issue that may cause iPhone to not wake from sleep
• Resolves intermittent issue that may interrupt cellular network services until restart
• Fixes bug that could cause occasional crash during video streaming

You’ll get a carrier file update after the initial installation.  Also, if you are AT&T tethering or Jailbroken, you might want to hold off.  The update is also available for the iPod Touch.

EA Mobile has confirmed a version of its extremely popular Rock Band game for the iPhone and iPod touch.The news first emerged during an Electronic Arts presentation at the CTIA mobile trade show yesterday. Just like its console siblings, the iPhone version will offer downloadable tracks, alongside Bluetooth multi-player features designed to support up to four players.

TechCrunch informs that on the iPhone game play seems set to reflect that of its console kin, the notes flow down the fretboard in the same way, with guitar pick-shaped buttons presumably there to play notes.

“We’ve seen it in action and can confirm that is the real deal, with gameplay almost identical to the console version including the ability to play with up to three additional players via Bluetooth,” reports Mashable.

The game matches everything you’d expect from the console version, including graphics and terrible howling mistakes…only difference is you aren’t using any instrument other than your iPhone (or voice).

The app comes with 15 songs – familiar tracks from past and present – with 5 additional songs that you can unlock as you complete the World Tour, as well as options to buy more.

Mashable informs you’ll get:
-Single player
– Multi Player over Bluetooth
and Facebook Connect integration.

Here’s another – larger – image, then pop over to Mashable to take a closer look. We think it looks pretty good…

From earlier story
We’ll update this story later on when we learn more about the iPhone game, pausing only to reflect the last time Rock Band made it big on the Apple users agenda was on release of The Beatles Rock Band game.

With claim and counter-claim then speculating music from the band would be made available through iTunes at the time, former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney said: “We were having problems with iTunes – well not iTunes, EMI was the problem – with downloading, which we’d like to do because that’s how a lot of people get their music.

“We’ve kind of bypassed that [download problems] because now you can do it in ‘Rock Band’," he added. "I always liked that, when you’re told you can’t do something and suddenly there’s a little route round the back."

We’re not expecting The Beatles to be part of the iPhone version – at least not in this iteration, but interesting to reflect, nevertheless.

MacRumors caught TomTom’s car kit showing up again in Apple’s European online stores today.  This time, it no longer includes the $99 App but is still priced around 99 Euros/Pounds.  The car kit works with the iPhone 3GS or 3G and enhances your iPhone’s GPS performance with an additional GPS chip, speaker and antenna. 

If you ask us, $100 for a glorified car mount + another $100 for the app seems a bit steep, considering you can pick up a full, standalone TomTom for around $50.

Full information below.

NVIDIA has fallen on hard times it seems both due to licensing issues with Intel and manufacturing issues with their integrated chipsets.  ZDNet is reporting today that Intel has forced NVIDIA to halt development of its future chipsets for Intel processors, specifically Core and Nehalem series – which Apple use.  We reported on this back in August.

In a somewhat related note, NVidia has stopped making chipsets for AMD because in-house ATI has been taking all of that business. 

The spat with Intel isn’t a done deal but it is considered a big enough risk that NVIDIA is halting Nforce integrated chip investment until the issue is dragged through the courts in 2010.

Intel claims that its four-year-old chipset license with NVIDIA doesn’t cover the Nehalem or Core series of CPUs. NVIDIA naturally disagrees with this and as a result is that both parties will fight it out in court sometime in 2010.

Almost all of Apple’s low to mid-range product line use NVIDIA chipsets but recent issues mentioned above had the long term relationship in question. 

 Intel will likely be the big winner in this one as they make competing chipsets that will likely find their way into future Macs and PCs.

Google Street View is now available to iPhone users in Canada, using the Maps application.

The service should now be available in Greater Toronto, Montréal, Metro Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary and other major Canadian cities. The data should be available in both the iPhone browser and the Maps application, starting from today.

The company has also made a few tweaks in the overal usability of Street View, including inclusion of a “report a problem” link, through which users can report mistakes and inaccuracies, for example when a building has been knocked down or a name has changed. The company hopes to resolve each such edit within a month.

The company is also expanding Maps data, including work to introduce directions for cyclists.

Street View provides users 360° horizontal and 290° vertical panoramic street level views within Google Maps. Google collects these images using special cameras and equipment that capture and match images to a specific location using GPS devices. Faces and license plates are blurred before the panorama images are served and become viewable in Google Maps.

If you are an electonics company and you don’t have an Android phone coming in the next few quarters, you might want to check yourself.  It seems just about everyone is jumping on the Andorid bandwagon, including Dell.  The WSJ has this one:

The Dell phone uses Google Inc.’s Android mobile-operating system, said the people briefed on the matter.  The phone, like Apple Inc.’s iPhone, has a touch screen instead of a keypad as well as a tiny camera, these people said. Dell’s AT&T phone is similar to a device Dell showed in China in August, but has some different features, they said. The phone for AT&T’s network would be Dell’s first dive into the competitive U.S. cellphone market. Dell is also in discussions about offering the Android device on other U.S. carriers, said the people briefed on the plans.

While it is hard to get excited about the prospect of a Dell phone, those following the mobile phone industry have to see the Android platform as a big trend and something that Apple will have to contend with. 

Gartner sees it passing the iPhone in the next two years, even as iPhone market share grows.  While the OS is certainly less polished, the many different configurations and carrier agnosticism are certainly plusses.  It is hard not to ask: Is Android the new Windows?

Perhaps it is time Apple starts talking with other carriers?