A memo has just leaked from AT&T saying that the day the iPhone 3GS launched, it broke almost every record AT&T has ever had. Along with that, the day Micahel Jackson died, AT&T’s network was processing around 65,000 text messages a second. Crazy stuff:
1. Fact of the Week: On June 25, the day Michael Jackson died, text messages sent on our network spiked at 65,000 messages per second — the largest volume ever recorded — surpassing events like American Idol voting and New Year’s Eve, when millions of our customers wish their friends and family a happy new year via text.”
2. “iLaunch day 2009 was one for the record books, as AT&T customers scrambled to get their hands on the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet.
Here’s a look at some of the milestones we achieved:
* Best-ever sales day in our retail stores
* Second-largest traffic day in our retail stores
* Most transactions processed via our IT systems in a single day
* Most upgrade eligibility checks in a single day
* Largest order day in att.com history
* Largest features sales day in att.com history
On this year’s launch day, iPhone sales exceeded sales recorded on 2008’s iPhone launch day, Black Friday 2008 and Dec. 26, 2008 — all heavy-volume sales days. In fact, this year we surpassed 2008’s launch day sales at about noon Central time, and sustained our previous peak hour record, also set in 2008, for 11 straight hours.
Like to take trips to foreign locales, do you? Don’t forget your iPhone! Armed with the right iPhone apps, your iPhone can be an invaluable tool to help you organize your trip and find your way around not-so-familiar terrain. Who better to help you find those iPhone travel apps than the globe-trotters at National Geographic? The renowned travel/exploration publication has posted their Top 20 iPhone Travel Apps for your perusal, and it’s a good’n.
From free iPhone apps like “Room” to paid apps like “Packing,” Nat Geo has all the your travel needs covered. Common travel apps like FlightTrack and Google Earth are staples of any would-be traveler, but less popular apps like Babelingo (300 common phrases in 11 languages), Room (helps you pack for your trip) and Cheap Gas (um, self-explanatory) also deserve a quick mention.
The iPhone OS 3.0 is a bit buggy. With stories of bugs and general instability floating around, the inevitable iPhone OS 3.1 update is looking pretty nice. Thankfully, we may not have to wait too long for Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) to go public with the iPhone OS 3.0 update. Apple has today seeded an iPhone OS 3.1 beta and accompanying SDK to the iPhone dev community!
iPhone developers can get their hands on the first update to the all-new iPhone 3.0 OS, but mere mortals like ourselves will just have to wait for Apple to push the update through iTunes. Bug fixes, here we come!
The dedicated do-it-yourselfers out there will probably have already slapped together an iPhone tripod using some spare toothpicks and a fork, or two. The rest of us haven’t even considered making a DIY iPhone tripod. For those of you in that second category, iPhone-modder Scott Patrick has posted a DIY video that explains how to make an iPhone tripod using a Contour Case and a few hardware knick-knacks.
Contour Case used for this DIY is the most expensive component you’ll need. It’s $30 and you can grab one here.
Say what you will about Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) products being over-hyped hunks of aluminum and silicon. At the end of the day, Apple is laughing all the way to the bank. It seems demand for the latest iPhone, the iPhone 3GS, is still out-pacing supply by a fair margin. The shortage has prompted Apple to bring back their iPhone availability tool, which allows iPhone hopefuls to check iPhone inventories at their local Apple Store before hopping in the car.
iPhone 3GS availability in California
Daily checks on Apple’s iPhone availability tool indicate that iPhone 3GS shipments are indeed coming fast and hard. But, Apple just doesn’t seem to be able to replenish some iPhone 3GS inventories fast enough to keep shelves stocked. The entry-level White 16GB iPhone 3GS is apparently selling out the fastest in many California Apple Stores. The White 32GB iPhone 3GS is also proving to be one hot ticket - there are more White 32GB iPhone 3GS’s with red dots than Black 32GB iPhone 3GS’s. The Apple Store in the Beverly Center, Los Angeles is even showing (at the time of this writing) an across-the-board depletion of iPhone 3GS inventory!
Ye old iPhone 3GS hopefuls, take heed. Check iPhone 3GS availability in your ‘hood before making the trip to your local Apple Store. Lest you get there to find out your iPhone 3GS has been sold-out for a couple days.
Still waiting to jailbreak your iPhone 3GS and enable some cut/pasteMMStethering multi-tasking support? Well, good news! The venerable iPhone Dev Team has a working jailbreak solution for the iPhone OS 3.0-powered iPhone 3GS. The bad news, however, is that the Dev Team has decided to hold off on releasing the jailbreak for a bit longer.
PwnageTool 3.0 already jailbreaks the iPhone and iPhone 3G running the iPhone OS 3.0. In fact, the iPhone Dev Team’s “ultrasn0w” unlock utility is already capable of unlocking the iPhone 3G’s baseband. The iPhone 3GS is another story. The latest iPhone has yet to be jailbroken and unlocked.
Now, before you get all worked up, know that the Dev Team’s decision to keep their iPhone 3GS jailbreak solution on ice so that future generations of iPhone 3GS owners can use the jailbreak. The Team says that releasing the iPhone 3GS jailbreak now would give Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) the opportunity to patch the exploit in future iPhone OS updates. Given iPhone 3.0 OS’s bugginess, an iPhone OS 3.0.1 update is inevitable. If the jailbreak went live now, that would be awesome for current iPhone 3GS owners, but anyone buying an iPhone 3GS after the 3.0.1 update would be out of luck.
We’re going to be patient wait for the 3GS jailbreak to be released after Apple releases the iPhone OS 3.0.1 update. Hopefully Apple gets moving soon!
We have no idea if the video you’re about to see is legit or not, but it sure does get your attention. If real, your iPhone 3GS might just be water-resistant enough to survive a fairly short dip in a pool. We don’t suggest finding out for yourself, but please do report back if you decide to take the plunge.
The video speaks for itself.
Keep it mind that waterproof cases aren’t hard to come by.
One of iPhone OS 3.0s most anticipated features is its support for MMS, sometimes called pictures messages. Unfortunately, the original iPhone crowd was left out of the party. Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) only enabled MMS support for iPhone 3Gs and iPhone 3GSs running the latest iPhone 3.0 OS. Today, a new jailbreak application has been released, allowing the original iPhone (2G) to rock the default MMS service!
The newly released ActivateMMS2G has been published on the Cydia jailbreak applications store. To enable native support for MMS on your iPhone 2G, simply jailbreak and install the ActivateMMS2G app. You need to add “http://cydia.alpden.com/” to your Cydia Sources.
If like me (and the rest of the IntoMobile team) you were all over the iPhone 3GS launch, then you’ll know that there was some mixed reaction about whether Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) did enough with the 3GS to warrant releasing a new device…. well I’d argue yes they did.
Look at it like this - a car manufacturer releases a new model, and realises it’s successful - they then look at possible variants of the model, thinking perhaps something smaller (Nano….) and perhaps something a little more performance-based - like maybe a ‘Sport’ version. Quite often then, you’ll find the ‘Sport’ version of a car with an ‘S’ suffix - et voila - in a similar fashion, Apple do to their 3G model what their counterparts in the car industry do. Check out Audi for example - they even have a specific model (trim) line called ‘S-Line’ - which have uprated performance and internals - just like the 3GS does over the 3G model!
Really the only downsides that I can see for the ‘S’ model are that it comes in at a price premium - but even that is the same for ‘Sports’ models in the car industry. However the upsides are many - new features, new hardware, better performance - and for an incremental upgrade, I’d say it did the job well.
I suppose the only question is now, given that you bought the latest model, what is going to be released next? Will it be something that takes a ‘generation-leap’ and trumps the current model? Well, probably yes. Will it be substantially more expensive if it has uprated hardware? Bet on it. But again when you consider the R&D costs invested in a new hardware platform is it unreasonable? Only your wallet/credit card can answer that one!
Having upgraded the iPhone 3G just around a week ago, I’ve been using the device and noticed a bunch a stuff….
battery consumption seems a bit worse
email client unstable
things generally running a bit more dopey
So what gives?
Well my usage pattern isn’t any different than usual, and yet I seem to sometimes have trouble getting a day’s worth of function out of the device - bearing in mind I have all radios turned off (except Bluetooth), and run my device on 2G only (3G off), that’s a change that I am not enjoying since upgrading the firmware…
Mail, mail, mail - what happened? You and I were once good friends, and yet now your spurn me at every turn! More accurately, you crash regularly, or hang. Oh, mail, you make me sad. Seriously though, whatever happened in the good work Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) did to make Mail incrementally more stable seems to have been undone with 3.0…. crashes are now a sad reality!
OS 3.0 heaps improvements on the operating system - but I wonder if some of these mean we get temporary hangs, and slower running, more often? I say this is the case, but of course everyone has their own experiences…
So what I want to know is: what ailments, if any, have you been suffering from on OS 3.0? Does your iPhone 3G run slow? Let us know!
Like to take trips to foreign locales, do you? Don’t forget your iPhone! Armed with the right iPhone apps, your iPhone can be an invaluable tool to help you organize your trip and find your way around not-so-familiar terrain. Who better to help you find those iPhone travel apps than the globe-trotters at National Geographic? The renowned travel/exploration publication has posted their Top 20 iPhone Travel Apps for your perusal, and it’s a good’n.
The iPhone OS 3.0 is a 
Still waiting to jailbreak your iPhone 3GS and enable some 
If like me (and the rest of the IntoMobile team) you were all over the iPhone 3GS launch, then you’ll know that there was some mixed reaction about whether Apple (
I have.