Macworld 2009 will mark the iPhone’s second birthday but just like any toddler, the parental nature of Apple is always looking forward. Sure, Steve Jobs doesn’t have to be burdened with diaper changing and whatnot (disgruntled interns take up that responsibility) but he does baby the iPhone too much and there will be a day when the App Store will be outside of Apple’s parental supervision.
Within days of arriving in the hands of iPhone and iPod Touch owners everywhere, Firmware 2.2 has been quickly dissected and reviewed. Thanks to a prolonged testing period, the iPhone Dev Team was able to perform a Jailbreak on the still in development Firmware and perfect it once Apple made it available for download. While available for all generations of iPhone and iPod Touch, there are some key differences between the two such as the lack of Google Street View on the later and lack of Emojicon support on non Japanese iPhones. With a simple hack and a quick Jailbreak, all of this can be remedied.
Written by Tanner Godarzi on November 24th, 2008
Posted in: News, iPhone, iPod Touch
Introduced at this year’s “Let’s Rock” media event hosted by Apple, all range of iPods were updated and much to the glee of sloganeers, the iPod Touch was befitted with a new design and heralded as the frontman of the portable family. If the “Funnest iPod Ever” wasn’t enough to motivate you to get your game freaking on, then you’ll be absolutely enthralled to know that the latest generation iPod Touch sports a higher clocked CPU and beats out the iPhone 3G for gaming.
Touch Arcade, a Blog dedicated to iPhone and iPod Touch gaming reported the speed advantages of the 2G touch when Thomas Fessler, CEO of Handheld Game Corp noticed the rendering capabilities of the latest touch and how drastic it was when compared to the iPhone. Handheld’s 3D intensive game, TouchSports Tennis, renders differently on the iPod Touch 2G smoothly pushing 1,500 Polygons in a single character but when the same scenario is used on an older Touch, it lags and crashes, the iPhone 3G barely passes.
“Where we can easily display two 1500 polygon tennis players with 32 bones each on the iPod touch 2G and maintain fast and fluid game play, the original iPod touch just chokes, and in some instances so do the iPhones. To speed up the touch, we reduced the players to 800 polygons in farther away moments of gameplay, and are now using 1000 polygon models for close ups, bringing the original iPod touch game play performance level close to that of the iPhone 3G.”
The newest generation iPod Touch’s CPU clocks at 532 MHz up from the 412 MHz clock of the iPhone and iPod Touch but still down from the ARM 1176 CPU’s native 620 MHz speed. However, the 2G iPod Touch could also contain a newer GPU but that has yet to be revealed. A side by side comparison video on YouTube clearly shows the impressive load times of the 2G Touch and in terms of load times, it ranks the highest followed by the iPhone 3G, original iPhone and original iPod Touch.
Via: Macworld
Written by Tanner Godarzi on November 24th, 2008
Posted in: iPhone, iPod Touch
Apple has been busy streamlining the iPhone interface and improving the underlying OS through many Firmware upgrades available for current and previous generation models. The continuation of those efforts have materialized in the much awaited iPhone 2.2 Firmware update bringing various improvements and features to Maps, iTunes and Safari plus other minor interface tweaks. In addition, Apple has recently pushed out a minor update to iTunes bringing it up to version 8.0.2 and including Voice Over support amongst bug fixes.
Rumors are starting to point towards Apple releasing Firmware 2.2, the latest revision of the iPhone Operating System in the next ten days, which would make it available for download November 21st. Features have been worked in and heavy development has taken place since the first screenshots and demos seeds for 2.2 have surfaced a while back. In addition to the plethora of new additions to an already much anticipated release, Apple has baked in over the air Podcast downloading.
Written by Tanner Godarzi on November 11th, 2008
Posted in: iPhone
Usually phone tethering has long been a marketing point for floor salesmen to push, extending the mantra of having the Internet in your pants to what’s on your lap but that’s all been thrown out the window with the iPhone. Beyond the multi touch gestures, next generation operating system and whatever talking points easily memorized by a sales clerk, having the Internet extend to something, a little bigger, was always a sore spot with AT&T and Apple. No more says Ralph De La Vega, CEO of AT&T as iPhone tethering is coming “Soon.”
Written by Tanner Godarzi on November 10th, 2008
Posted in: iPhone
One universal trend of gaming handhelds is the lack of oodly appendages, extruding limbs and knobs in all the wrong places which results in a smooth slice of portable console gaming. The iPhone, like most other devices, followed this trend of sleek lines and an easy to hold shape but Marware thinks different. What happened during the thought process of “how do we transform the iPhone into a gaming controller” to the final result was probably filled with a drug induce daze that produced the hideous attachment waiting to disrupt hand held gaming everywhere; the Marware Gaming Controller.
As put so bluntly by Gizmodo, it is basically two pieces of foam bolted to the end of an iPhone that probably malfunctioned in a past life which would be the only reason to slip such a travesty onto it. The alternative uses I can think of with no real world practicality are an idiot’s take on a Batterang, a much undersized steering wheel or a feeble and overpriced attempt at a child’s play toy.
50 bucks will net you these foam protrusions of hell but hey, it’s covered in Marware’s typical colors of blue and grey. It’s very odd to see such a product surface outside of water cooler meetings parodying the company’s design team and actually escape the reject bin.
If you’re truly interested and have already convinced yourself this accessory will improve your gaming ability without lowering your social status, please direct your browser here and consequently far away from any dignity you may have had.
Via: Gizmodo
Written by Tanner Godarzi on November 3rd, 2008
Posted in: iPhone
Many things are better abroad in foreign countries such as food, tourist attractions, women and of course cellular technology. The sad state of cellular tech in comparison to many other hardware savvy nations leaves much to be desired in the states, namely phone tethering. Overpriced plans and highly limited data usage make for a poor buy but at least some phones give the option. The iPhone however, has been met with setbacks in the US and the cat has been let out of the bag as to why: they’re is just too many of them.
Typically having sold so many iPhones would be a good thing to some people but not so much to AT&T. They’ve been plagued with network related problems since the handset took off on the popularity charts. Dropped 3G connections and class action lawsuits are the forefront of these problems which put tethering into the backseat of priorities.
Sources point the blame to AT&T’s still developing 3G network that has delayed sweet Internet sharing from an iPhone to a computer. As bitter sweet as it may sound, rushing this feature before its ready will be sure to yield disastrous results as we’ve seen Apple do in the past with activating new iPhones. However, it will be a long while before we see this really materialize outside of AT&T’s development labs. Network upgrades aren’t an overnight upgrade, selling hundreds of thousands of iPhones in the same time could soon be a promotion away.
Via: Mac Life
Written by Tanner Godarzi on October 26th, 2008
Posted in: iPhone
As reported in previous postings, Street View was rumored to come with the latest iPhone release and has finally materialized. Along side the much anticipated feature comes new ways to map directions such as making your transit by bus or walking instead of being limited to driving directions. In addition, your current location can be emailed to any recipient which will automatically open in Google Maps when the sent link is clicked.
New Ways To Find New Things
One of the biggest hassles for the gas conscious, bike riding or just walk everywhere iPhone user was Map’s output of directions that was convenient for those who owned some mode of transportation with more two or more wheels and could be branded by the DMV. Needless to say it gets be an inconvenience when “Cross onto major Freeway for 10 miles” becomes a constant step in getting to your destination when a pair of roller blades and an 80’s themed playlist on your Walkman is whats at your disposal.
Found in Seed 2 of the latest Firmware 2.2 Beta is a more urban approach to navigating through massive concrete jungles. If the Subway or bus is a component in reaching point B from point A and maybe an additional stop at Point C for movies and some dinner, you’ll be absolutely thrilled to know that Maps now acknowledges both as a viable means of transportation. Taking this a step further is departure times for either modes of moving which should streamline the process of going about. To further enhance our daily navigations, Maps has so kindly included markers showing where a bus or subway stop resides with you guessed it, a bus or a subway icon.
Taking the quickest route may not be in your bag and why should it, that new pair of sneakers is just begging for a thorough workout along the scenic routes of town. Walking directions are no2 made available thanks to Apple further leveraging the Google Maps API but also made friendly through the same process by including Street View.
Always Remind Yourself Where You Are
Bearing an iPhone around friends mounts a massive burden upon your shoulders as the go to guy for finding movie times, researching inane television trivia and of course having knowledge of the hottest events in town. Well your social involvement is about to be broadened as Apple has so generously incorporated Street View within the latest Beta release of Firmware 2.2. Sure the GPS within the iPhone 3G ensured you’d never get lost unless you were totally incapable of determining what landmarks look like. If that problem afflicts you, fret not, you’ll be able to further refine your conclusion of exactly where you are by panning around the block to make sure that Joe’s Deli really is just a dozen yards away.
Street View pops up from a tool tip menu on a dropped pin and retains Map’s useful street labeling imaging if it’s enabled. Panning and zooming works much the same way it does on the big boy version of Google Maps but to make things a tad easier, the lower right hand corner displays a zoomed in location of where you dropped your pin.
A collection of screenies from the latest Beta can be found at iPhone Yap
Via: Apple Insider
Written by Tanner Godarzi on October 26th, 2008
Posted in: iPhone
AT&T has been one of the most successful carriers when it comes to marketing Apple’s iPhone raking in bigger profits than other carriers across the globe. That doesn’t appear to have changed as AT&T is boasting record numbers thanks to the iPhone. During the latest quarter, AT&T claimed 2.4 Million activations and an increase in profits.
Of those 2.4 Million activations, 40% were new subscribers adding 960,000 new customers to AT&T’s cellular division. The news of record iPhone sales for AT&T comes after Apple’s quarter earnings report that revealed 6.9 Million iPhones had been sold.
However, by subsidizing the iPhone at such huge cuts, cost AT&T $900 Million during the latest quarter. AT&T is expected to make up the losses over an iPhone’s 2 year contract.
Via: Gizmodo
Written by Tanner Godarzi on October 22nd, 2008
Posted in: Uncategorized, iPhone