What you’re looking at below are supposed images of the next iPhone. It’s 1/4 inch taller than previous iPhones, but similar to the original aluminium backed iPhone, the screen is glued to the multi touch screen digitizer. There’s also a tiny reflective surface right above the ear piece, which could be there for video calls, but that’s just my guess, it could be anything.
With the release of the iPad, my admiration for Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s ability to innovate was dramatically reduced, so my expectations are not that high for the next iPhone. That being said, Steve and the rest of the crew have between now and June 28th, the day of the next Worldwide Developers Conference, to come up with something new and exciting. Crossing my fingers that the NFC rumour is true.
When images like these turn up, always take them with a grain of salt.
If you’re thinking about updating your iPhone to the latest iPhone OS 3.1.3 firmware, you might want to note that the update will essentially stop you from unlocking your iPhone for use on GSM networks that aren’t your official iPhone carrier. The iPhone OS 3.1.3 firmware comes bundled with a new baseband firmware version (05.12.01) that makes it impossible to unlock the iPhone to use on, say, the T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) USA network. We’re telling you this because we’re a bit surprised by new stats from Medialets that indicates that 14% of iPhone users have updated their iPhones to the new iPhone OS 3.1.3 since last week.
The baseband modem is the piece of technology that allows your iPhone to communicate with wireless networks like AT&T (NYSE: T) and T-Mobile. It’s this baseband modem’s firmware that controls whether or not you’re allowed to surf multiple GSM networks, or just the one that sold you your iPhone. The thing is, there are hacks out there that will unlock almost all versions of the baseband, but none of them work on this latest version. Even the latest iPhone hacking utility, PwnageTool, won’t be able to hack this new baseband to work with unlocking utilities like blacksn0w or ultrasn0w.
Medialets also mentions that 87% of those that updated to iPhone OS 3.1.3 came from the previous iPhone OS 3.1.2 firmware. The only real benefits of the new iPhone OS are it’s less buggy batter meter and better support for third-party apps that were reportedly crashing with 3.1.2. Considering that most people probably don’t need the iPhone OS 3.1.3, we thought it was only right that we let you know what you’re losing by updating your iPhone.
In the end, if you don’t travel or could care less about using your iPhone on other GSM networks, just ignore this post. This concludes our Public Service Announcement. You’ll now be returned to your regularly scheduled programming.
There are a real mixture of Apps for the iPhone – some useful, some more for fun – I can’t decide which category ‘Slango Urban Dictionary’ falls into, but it certainly brings a smile to my face
Here’s the spiel:
Ever wanted to know what your favorite rappers were talking about when they referenced their “whip” or their “chrome four-fifth”? Ever wanted to know what all the cool kids were saying? Wonder no more with Slango!
Slango is the best Urban Dictionary app in the App Store. With access to over 4,000,000 words and features suchch as Word of the Day, Search, Share, and Bookmarks with offline-viewing support, it’s a no-brainer. Try Slango!
Well I have to say I gave it a go, and it’s very amusing – there’s a wide variety of phrases in there, and some I’d not heard before – but will certainly be going in my ’street lingo’ repository! I’d say if you’re bored and fancy a chuckle, which you can share with others, give it a go!
If I could name one game for the iPhone I’ve been most looking forward to, it has to be PopCap Games’ Plants Vs. Zombies. The game was supposed to be released on the App Store in late January, but was pushed back. It looks like our very short wait is finally over as PopCap Games announced today Plants Vs. Zombies will be making its debut on the iPhone on February 15th.
If you’re a fan of tower defense games, then you’ll certainly enjoy Plants Vs. Zombies as it puts a different spin on the popular game type. Zombies are walking across your lawn and you need to set various plants down in order to defend your home. The zombies players encounter become more difficult over time, equipping various armors and tools in order to invade your home.
It’s only been a handful of days since Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) released their iPhone OS 3.1.3 firmware update through iTunes, and the iPhone Dev Team has already come out with a way to jailbreak the new firmware. The new firmware does little more than fix buggy battery level indicators and Japanese language keyboards, so most of you probably won’t need to install the update. But, there’s invariably going to be a subset of jailbroken iPhone users that can’t resist the urge to update to a brand spankin’ new firmware. For those of you in this group, the iPhone Dev Team has released PwnageTool 3.1.5 to jailbreak iPhone OS 3.1.3!
The PwnageTool utility creates a custom iPhone restore file that you can use to update and jailbreak your iPhone in one felled swoop. PwnageTool 3.1.5 will strip the iPhone OS 3.1.3 update file of its newer baseband modem firmware and replaces it with an older version that can be unlocked with ultrasn0w – this allows you to keep using your iPhone unlocked on any GSM carrier in the world. If you were to update your currently unlocked iPhone 3GS to iPhone OS 3.1.3 without PwnageTool, iTunes will replace your iPhone’s baseband firmware with a new version that cannot be unlocked.
For those of you using a newer iPhone 3GS or had previously updated your firmware to a newer version (05.11.07), you’re going to want to avoid updating to iPhone OS 3.1.3 altogether, if you plan to use your iPhone on unofficial GSM carriers. As long as you stay at iPhone OS 3.1.2, you can jailbreak your iPhone 3GS using blackra1n or PwnageTool and then run GeoHot’s blacksn0w unlock utility to free your iPhone of GSM lockdown.
When it comes to god games for the iPhone, the king at the moment seems to be Bolt Creative’s Pocket God as it not only sells for $.99, but it’s actually a fun game with continued support by Bold Creative by way up regular updates. Ngmoco’s GodFinger, however, might be the game to finally be able to compete with the juggernaut that is Pocket God.
In episode 2-1 of the ngmoshow, GodFinger producer Stephanie Morgan is interviewed to find out what exactly GodFinger is. The developers behind GodFinger have a lot of experience with god games, namely Black & White and the Fable series, which with that info alone is one of the main reasons why GodFinger is on my radar. We also get a quick little demo that shows what exactly we all can expect when GodFinger is released on the App Store ‘Soon’.
Sega will be launching Sonic The Hedgehog 4 this summer across platforms. The upcoming game will initially be available for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and fourth platform, which SonicStadium says is the iPhone. The move makes perfect sense, though we would expect to see the game released for Nintendo DS and PSP, as well.
Anyway, Sonic’s fourth sequel will keep the 2D platform look and feel, boasting enhanced graphics and gameplay. And we have a short demo video to show you what to expect. Here it comes… enjoy!
The iPhone AppStore has and always will be controlled Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s iron-fisted app approval team, which is fine, because that usually means iPhone users can expect reliable and high quality apps. But, when Apple uses its control over the AppStore to censor more than just “adult” content, it starts to feel a little Big Brother-ish. Finding itself directly at odds with Google (NSDQ: GOOG)’s Android platform, Apple has reportedly prohibited an iPhone app from mentioning “Android” in the app’s description. The Flash of Genius iPhone app’s description wasn’t obscene or erotic in any way, it just happened to mention Google’s Android Development Challenge.
Having Apple filter apps through its “decency” screen is one thing, but to censor an app’s description of the word “Android” just rubs us the wrong way. This is the notice that the developer of Flash of Genius, Tim Novikoff, got from Apple:
“During our review of your application, we found that your application contains inappropriate or irrelevant platform information in the Application Description and/or Release Notes sections.
“While your application has not been rejected, it would be appropriate to remove ‘Finalist in Google’s Android Developer’s Challenge!’ from the Application Description.
“Please log into iTunes Connect to make appropriate changes to the Application Description now to avoid an interruption in the availability of Flash of Genius: SAT Vocab 2.2 on the iPhone App Store.”
Now, Apple didn’t come right out and say it, but it’s clear that Apple would drop the Flash of Genius app if the developer didn’t remove its claim to fame in the Android space. The app is live on the AppStore at the time of this writing, sans any references to the mobile operating system that shall not be named.
Is it right? We say no, but you might disagree. Either way, let us know what you think in the comments below!
ContactFlow is one of those iPhone apps that found its way from a jailbreak app to the official Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) AppStore. The idea is simple – to allow users to browse their contacts like they are albums in the iPod app, cover flow style.
The application, as expected, doesn’t stop at simple browsing – you can also use it to call someone, send SMS or an email. An appropriate iPhone app will start depending on the function selected.
And that’s about it. If you like the idea, hop over to this page (iTunes) to download ContactFlow. It costs $1.99 and it will certainly make you take the photos of all (or at least most) of your contacts. Otherwise, you will be browsing blank pages and that’s not fun at all.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that wireless carriers in the US tend to move slow on the innovation and development fronts, and I’m going to use AT&T (NYSE: T)’s recent SlingPlayer Mobile announcement as an example. I’m not even going to mention how the Windows Mobile and BlackBerry versions of the app were happily humming along over 3G for a while now, while the iPhone version got the shaft. Nope, what I’m going to talk about here is how long it took AT&T to simply review and approve the bandwidth optimization feature that has been built into SlingPlayer Mobile since its release last year.
First, background. The blogosphere blew up today, claiming that AT&T lied when they said that they were working with Sling Media to optimize its SlingPlayer Mobile app to stream video over 3G more efficiently. AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega said in a statement that “Sling Media was willing to work with us to revise the app to make it more bandwidth sensitive. They made important changes to more efficiently use 3G network bandwidth and conserve wireless spectrum so that we were able to support the app on our 3G mobile broadband network.”
Sling Media’s John Santoro mentioned to Ars Technica that “AT&T never discussed any specific requirements with us.” This is the statement that got bloggers all riled up today, with many positing that AT&T lied about having worked with Sling Media on their SlingPlayer Mobile app. Turns out, though, AT&T and Sling Media have been working together and that AT&T has “Over the course of the last couple of months, they have been testing the app in their labs,” according to Sling Media’s general manager John Gilmore.
Sling Media says that while AT&T did not specifically request bandwidth optimization code in the mobile app – the app has been able to optimize bandwidth use to minimize its impact on data networks – they have been working with AT&T for months now. AT&T may have overstated their involvement in the development of optimization code in the SlingPlayer Mobile app, but it’s not like they lied straight-out about the two companies’ relationship.
So, the issue isn’t about whether or not AT&T specifically requested 3G bandwidth optimization code in the SlingPlayer Mobile app. The issue is that the app has been capable of streamlining its data use over 3G network since it was launched last year. That means it has taken AT&T several months to approve a feature of the app that has been available for a long time. Should we even be surprised that AT&T needed all this time to review and approve that feature?
Did AT&T drag its feet in approving the app in order to buy time to shore up its 3G network to handle the flood of video-streaming iPhone hitting its airwaves once the 3G feature was rolled out to SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone? Does that mean the 3G network is now robust enough to handle 3G video streaming apps and other data-heavy iPhone and the iPad come this summer? Will AT&T find itself playing having to play catch-up with its data network again?
Time will tell, folks, time will tell. What do you think?
It’s only been a handful of days since Apple (
The iPhone AppStore 
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that wireless carriers in the US tend to move slow on the innovation and development fronts, and I’m going to use AT&T (
