It’s not simply a missed call, text message, or voicemail. It’s a lost opportunity to meet up with a friend for lunch, coffee, or cocktails; to hear back from someone about a job opportunity; to hear from a parent, and to let him/her know you’re OK; to be told “I love you” from a partner who isn’t sleeping next to you.

At first I ignored it, brushed it off as a minor technical glitch. But it’s now happening all the time, especially when I’m inside my home (it’s a good thing I have a secondary phone line). I see full bars on my signal strength, so why does it seem like my whole apartment is one big cellular dead zone. I’m not a big phone talker, and I usually don’t mind ignoring most calls. But the important ones are slipping through, and that’s no longer cool.

I have been with you for a very long time, when you were first called Pacific Bell Wireless. I have no desire to switch to another carrier, and I like my iPhone. I can’t imagine using another smartphone on another carrier. But I will dumb down to a regular cell phone for voice and text with a better provider if necessary, because being able to reach someone is far more important than checking the weather, stock quotes, music that’s playing overhead, or Facebook.

P.S. I still like your old name better, Cingular.

Scott Moritz, at TheStreet.com:

Um, read the story, and you’ll find it presents no evidence that Apple is contemplating a T-Mobile deal. All you get is an analyst speculating that Verizon isn’t going to get the iPhone soon, and speculating that if Apple wants to end AT&T’s iPhone exclusivity it might logically cut a deal with T-Mobile. But it’s all guesswork.

The analyst says that he expects that a Verizon iPhone will appear only in 2011, and that it’ll use a 4G LTE data connection rather than Verizon’s current EVDO network. Sounds logical enough. If you assume that Verizon’s current spree of iPhone bashing means it’s not going to announce an Apple deal immediately, it feels more and more likely that Apple and Verizon will skip the dead-end technology an EVDO iPhone would bring and jump directly to an LTE model. And it’s going to be 2011 before an LTE iPhone makes sense.

Or so I think. I cheerfully concede that I could be wrong. Which is why this post isn’t titled “No Verizon iPhone Until 2011…”

UK rag The Sun has shocked the world today by actually doing something original and well though out.
In a radical move away from it’s daily regime of utter shitness The Sun has produced an excellent little viral advert poking fun at the Apple iPhone and “interactive” content.
Kinda goofy but does actually make some great points. No idea if this will air on television, we can only hope so. Just a shame it’s for one of the worlds most shitest papers.

A British company has  reportedly unveiled the world’s most expensive mobile phone – a gold iPhone encrusted with nearly 200 diamonds that retails at a hefty 1.92 million pounds.

The phone, designed by Stuart Hughes for the Liverpool-based Goldstriker International, is made from 22-carat gold.

It has 136 diamonds in the front bezel and an Apple logo made out of no fewer than 53 diamonds. The phone’s front navigation button comprises a rare diamond of 7.1 carats.

The phone, which took over ten months to make, ships with a seven kg chest crafted from a single block of granite, offset with Kashmir gold and lined with Nubuck leather on the inside.

Called the iPhone 3G Supreme, it was reportedly commissioned by an anonymous Australian businessman – IANS

Our friends over at FoneArena have reported the leak of Apple’s next generation iPhone ie the Apple iPhone 3.1.

iPhone developer Pandav has informed MacRumors that they have spotted usage records for an unreleased iPhone in their app’s analytics. The app used was iBART, a public transportation guide for the San Francisco train system.

They say that we can expect the Apple iPhone 3.1 to be announced in around 6 months. The date cannot be confirmed however, news of a new iPhone makes us happy.

Source

Technology has grown over and over for years to come, and the future of this world would be much faster than ever it was before. It will be quite awesome when we imagine the world that relies on fast and innovative inventions like TV, IPod, mobile phones, laptops, and soon, every property you handle will be high-tech.

And that,  what Apple, one of the largest computer companies ever, which introduced the first ever iPhone, which more and more customers have already owned this device, because of its amazing features compared to regular mobile phones, iPhone can be used for SMS, camera, music, entertainment, games and most especially, the internet. Now, another model of iPhone has finally arrived, which once again, customers might attract to this one, no matter how expensive it was, for sure they will buy it, as Apple introduced the new and revolutionized iPhone 3G S.

iPhone 3G S is much more faster than the original iPhone. You know why? We could take a closer look on how this amazing iPhone launch applications quickly than any other models, and 3G graphics were totally original and awesome, as well as its performance. If we browse web pages like Google, Yahoo, Friendster and other popular websites, it is twice faster than the original iPhone. It’s revolutionized 3G feature may experience for the gamers to play enhanced quality games which it would be incredible for them. iPhone 3G S has also a feature of a 3MP camera, which will guarantee them great quality photos to capture, which of course, has a built-in focus and a new feature that lets the display be tapped to focus anything what we want by hand. iPhone 3G S lets you shoot and record videos more convenient than ever, with high definition feature. You can shoot, edit and share it to other iPhone users as well. They have a high quality VGA feature that lets you shoot either on portrait or landscape.

Another great thing for iPhone 3G S is that, they have an amazing cut, copy and paste feature, in which any application with content can be copy-pasted in your PC or in your iPhone application. It also has an amazing landscape keyboarding, which lets the user to type his or her message to another user in a landscape type, if not comfortable using portrait. iPhone 3G S also have a voice control feature, which allows the user to recognize the names of its contacts by knowing their music in iPod. All we have to do is ask, if we want to place a call or play a song for them. iPhone 3G S also has a built-in digital compass, which allows the user to match the direction he faces with the auto-reorient map feature, that will lead them the way they want easily, and there’s so much more like faster SMS, accessibility, internet tethering, search menu, stocks, voice memos, Youtube and Nike + iPod. If you think that you deserve this amazing iPhone 3G S, better own it and show the world what you have.

With the new GPS receiver and 3G radio sucking the life out of your iPhone 3G’s battery like there’s no tomorrow, you’ll likely have noticed shorter battery life compared with the first-generation iPhone. If the iPhone 3G is your first foray in to the world of Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) phoning, then just accept that whatever battery life you manage to get is normal.

But, just because you have faster data speeds (enabling faster web-surfing) and real-deal GPS hardware tucked inside that glossy-backed iPhone 3G of yours, doesn’t mean you have to live with shortened battery uptime. There are a few things you can do to try and increase the time between battery charges.

You can disable your 3G data radio. That means you get slower web-surfing and data-speeds. You’ll be limited to EDGE data access. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean your web-surfing times will suffer all that much. iPhone 2.0 OS boasts improved Webkit performance that helps load websites faster than with previous versions of the iPhone Mac OS. You’ll be surfing at slower speeds than if you had the 3G radio enabled, but you’ll still be surfing at faster speeds than the original iPhone running iPhone 1.1.4 OS.

• Navigate to Settings>General>Network>Enable 3G and toggle “OFF’

You can try to force-quit iPhone applications that may be running in the background and sucking precious electrons from your battery pack. Once started, most iPhone applications will continue to persist in an inactive state in the background. They wait for you to return to them, starting up lickity-quick in the same state that you left it in. Note: I should clarify that only Apple’s own default iPhone applications (the applications that came out-of-the-box with your iPhone) run in the background. And, with the iPhone 3G jailbreak now live, jailbreak applications can run in the background as well. Use this method for official iPhone applications and jailbreak applications.

• Open up suspect applications (anything that you don’t want persisting in the background) and hold down the “Home” (the only button on the iPhone’s face) until the application quits. It takes a while, be patient.

Try resetting the iPhone. As with any computer, a quick system restart can solve most problems faster and easier than tracking down the specific issue.

• Hold down the Power/Sleep button located along the top-edge of the iPhone until you see the “Slide to Power OFF” prompt.
• Flick the slider to the right and let the iPhone shutdown.
• Press the Power button to turn on the iPhone

Turn off your iPhone 3G or iPhone’s WiFi radio. If you have the iPhone 3G, you’re not hurting for super-fast data speeds anyway. If you have an iPhone with iPhone 2.0 OS, you’ll notice faster web-surfing on EDGE as well. WiFi can suck battery life like nothing else. Try disabling this to get more uptime from your iPhone batter.

• Navigate to Settings>WiFi and toggle to “OFF”

Change your fetch data settings. Your iPhone can automatically check various email accounts at preset intervals. Depending on the interval and how many emails accounts you have setup on your iPhone, checking mail can drain your battery faster than you’d like. Try turning off automatic email fetching (if email isn’t that important to you) or increasing the fetch-interval.

• Navigate to Settings>Fetch New Data and set your interval to “30 Minutes,” “1 Hour,” Or Manual
  • Setting the “Fetch New Data” option to “Manual” will require you to update your iPhone Email client in order to receive new emails.

Turn off location-services. As cool as it is to see yourself located on Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Maps and have photos geo-tagged with your location, it can be a tax on your battery to constantly update your iPhone’s position. Try turning off the Location Services option.

• Navigate to Settings>General and toggle “Location Services” to “OFF”

Lastly, you can try to reset your network settings. This can also resolve any signal strength issues, but will also wipe any stored WiFi passwords and settings. Use this as a last resort – not because its dangerous, but because it can be a hassle to re-enter all your WiFi passwords.

• Navigate to Settings>General>Reset and hit “Reset Network Settings”

Good luck, and don’t forget to leave a comment down below!

Read more: http://www.intomobile.com/2008/07/23/extend-your-iphone-3gs-battery-life.html#ixzz0YEzCUKgG

Backspace only

I’ve had an iPod touch for a few months now and I’m a little frustrated by one of the keyboard elements.  The keyboard has a backspace key but has no delete key -  i.e. you can delete characters to the left of the cursor,  but not to the right.

It would be nice to get a tweak in the firmware to convert the backspace key to a delete key.  Whilst initially pressing shift and backspace might seem like the obvious choice this would mean two key presses every time you wanted to delete a character.  Instead of that it would be better to ‘change the mode’ and so perhaps using caps lock to change the backspace key into a delete key would be a more viable option?

So come on Apple … just one little tweak.

By KELLY OLSEN, AP Business Writer

SEOUL, South Korea – Tech-savvy South Koreans began getting their coveted iPhones on Saturday amid fanfare and expectations the communication and entertainment device will shake up a local mobile market dominated by domestic giants Samsung and LG.

Hundreds of customers lined up to get their pre-ordered iPhones at an official launch event in Seoul, some waiting overnight. A 25-year-old university student was the first to get one, as music blared and strobe lights flashed.

“I’m so happy,” said Huh Jin-seok, the first recipient, who waited in line more than 26 hours and admitted to being “a little bit tired.”

A band played loud rockabilly music outside the venue near a clock that counted down the time until the launch. Those receiving their phones were among about 65,000 people who placed orders since Nov. 22.

South Korean mobile carrier KT Corp., Apple Inc.’s local partner, said about 850 people picked up iPhones at the event. Others were receiving them via delivery at their homes or offices.

“We’re hoping that this iPhone will be a trigger point for the smartphone market in Korea,” said Yang Hyun-mi, KT’s chief strategy officer, who said smartphones make up just 1 percent of all cell phones in the country. Smartphones are advanced cell phones with computer-like capabilities.

She declined to offer a sales forecast, but said the company was optimistic given higher-than-expected advance orders.

“We just think it will be really huge,” she said.

Lee Bo-ra, who designs beauty tools such as nail clippers and trimmers, said she plans to use her iPhone mostly to access maps and play “Guitar Hero,” the popular game in which users simulate playing rock and roll hits.

“Very,” she said when asked if she was satisfied with her iPhone so far.

The iPhone’s arrival after a long delay has generated excitement among South Korean consumers and industry analysts, who say it is likely to expand the domestic smartphone market and pose a challenge to local manufacturers Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc.

The sleek smartphone, which has grabbed headlines around the world and solidified Apple’s status as a purveyor of cutting-edge consumer electronics, was already available in many other Asian countries including Japan, where it launched last year. It made its official debut in China last month.

Click here to read more of this story!

One of the least talked about feature deficiencies of Apple iPhone SDK Font Handling is the inability to underline text.

You know – like you see in every web link on every web page on the internet.

Yeah.  That.

For me, where I need this the most is when I’m trying to create a link on one of my text sections or display elements, that will invoke a web URI and go off to do some work.

There isn’t a way to style underline fonts included with the iPhone, and Apple doesn’t make it easy at all to include custom fonts without a great deal of pain and gnashing of teeth.

What is one to do?

Well, I don’t know what the rest of you guys do, but this is what I did.

I created a button class (UnderlineButton) that subclasses UIButton and implemented my own drawRect function to draw the underline myself.

This isn’t rocket science, but works quite nicely.  The button should probably have a number of init functions to do things like set underline stroke width and color, but I needed a quick and dirty solution and had about 30 minutes to write, test, and deliver.

The code below is what I wound up with (UnderlineButton.m follows; UnderlineButton.h is simply a stub class that contains only @interface UnderlineButton : UIButton {}).

//
//  UnderlineButton.m
//
//  Created by David Hinson on 11/24/09.
//  Copyright 2009 Sumner Systems Management, Inc.. All rights reserved.
//

#import "UnderlineButton.h"
@implementation UnderlineButton

- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame {
  if (self = [super initWithFrame:frame]) {
    // Initialization code
    }
  return self;
}
- (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect {
  [super drawRect:rect];
  CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();

  CGContextSetRGBStrokeColor(context, 62.0/255.0, 62.0/255.0, 62.0/255.0, 1.0);

  // Draw them with a 1.0 stroke width.
  CGContextSetLineWidth(context, 1.0);

  // Draw a single line from left to right
  CGContextMoveToPoint(context, 0, rect.size.height);
  CGContextAddLineToPoint(context, rect.size.width, rect.size.height);
  CGContextStrokePath(context);
}

- (void)dealloc {
  [super dealloc];
}

@end

To use the button in an actual application, you would do something like the following:

  CGSize constraintSize, offset1;
  constraintSize.width  = 300.0f;
  constraintSize.height = MAXFLOAT;

  NSString * btnText = @"My Button Text";

  UnderlineButton * myButton = [[UnderlineButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom] retain];
  offset1                    = [btnText sizeWithFont:[UIFont systemFontOfSize:16]
                                constrainedToSize:constraintSize
                                lineBreakMode:UILineBreakModeTailTruncation];
  myButton.frame = CGRectMake(20, 164, offset1.width, offset1.height);
  [myButton setTitle:btnText forState:UIControlStateNormal];

  [myButton setTitleColor:[UIColor darkTextColor] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
  [myButton setFont:[UIFont systemFontOfSize:16]];
  [myButton addTarget:self action:@selector(doButtonTouch:)
            forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];

  [cell myButton];
  [myButton release];

The doButtonTouch method will perform whatever it is you want to do; in my case this invoking another method to slide in a UIWebView to show drill down content.

Summary: Underline Text. Nothing there to make it natively easy, but workable solutions can be cobbled together.

But I will be the very first to say “it shouldn’t be this hard.“

The biggest change is on the back of the iPhone 3G, which is now made of smooth but durable black plastic instead of the aluminum back found on the first iPhone. Apple iPhone 3G Black is an update to the popular iPhone 3G, itself an update of the original iPhone. The third generation smartphone is available in 16GB and 32GB varieties, both of which can be had in black or white.

The iPhone 2megapixel camera appears to be identical in quality to the original, which is to say pretty good outdoors and somewhat iffier indoors.

On top of the application store support and enterprise features, the iPhone 2.0 software also includes several new end user features as well. Very handy tools like contact search, and full work support complements the already available Microsoft Office file format support, with the phone also being able to open PowerPoint presentations. With iPhone 2.0 you can also bulk delete messages from apps like Mail, and parental controls have been added to control the spending and viewing habits of the younger audience.

Second, the iPhone 3G feels better in the hand and is less slippery. The only downside is that the glossy back, like the front, picks up fingerprints quickly. The updated email client works with IMAP and POP3 accounts and has presets for Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, and Apple, but the big story is Microsoft Exchange support, making the iPhone a viable business phone. MS Exchange ActiveSync also lets you wirelessly sync contacts and calendars, and you can receive email on the phone as soon as it hits the server.

Another new feature is the built in GPS module, which adds real time position tracking to the Google Maps application. Lastly, the new iPhone has a non recessed 3.5mm headphone, so no adapter is required to use non Apple headsets. From the hardware perspective, one of the most anticipated enhancements to the platform is 3G data access, which gives the new iPhone its name simply the iPhone 3G. Despite the higher drain of 3G data, the battery life of the iPhone 3G remains solid up to 5 hours of 3G talk time and 300 hours standby is achievable. On GSM networks the iPhone 3G is rated for 10 hours of talk time. For more details: http://www.phoneandbeyond.com

Mobile phone maker Emblaze Mobile, an Israeli start-up, unveiled their contender for the smartphone market yesterday, the First Else. Featuring a brand new Linux-based operating system called Else Intuition, which they developed jointly with ACCESS; the handset aims to put applications on the centre-stage rather than the phone itself.

The video above provides an overview of the look and feel of the new handset and some of the applications which all looks extremely impressive, but I also feel this may prove to be the Achilles heel of this handset.

Two years ago, the Apple iPhone first hit our shelves and has since revolutionised the way people use their mobile handsets. Despite its hi-tech prowess however, the winning formula of the phone has relied heavily on Apple’s iTunes store that offered a range of third-party content, most importantly applications.

Despite a range of native applications already available on Else Intuition and the established ACCESS developer network, will third parties be tempted to invest time, money and marketing budgets on this unknown platform? The level of investment may also be a barrier to entry for some developers, with first looks at the operating system signalling significant levels of design and integration required.

Also, how will the handset itself meet the demands of developers looking to maximise market penetration with only a handful of applications compared to the tens of thousands on the Android, Symbian and Apple operating systems. With operators also looking to boost their developer friendly credentials, such as Orange with the launch of a new forum, Emblaze Mobile faces a challenge if they truly want to change the way we think about smartphones.

I wish them the best of luck in solving this and can’t wait to get my hands on the handset.

A new Long Deep Breathing Application for the Apple iPhone is available from Khalsa Integrative Medicine.

Dr. Darshan S. Khalsa, who focuses on treating allergy-related conditions, immune dysfunction, digestive and endocrine disorders, uses enzyme supplements in his practice.

According to Khalsa’s blog, “… people who practice Long Deep Breathing for 5 minutes, three times daily, will experience major health improvements!”

Click here for more information on the iPhone app.

The title of this article reflects what the banner ads proclaim. In the sense that "arrived" means the Droid is available, yes, definitely, they are available. In the sense that "arrived" means the Droid is coming into its own? Perhaps … if you can tell a Droid from an Android from a Chrome.

Droid, as you are probably aware, is simply one piece of hardware put out by Verizon that is running Google’s Android OS, an open-source mobile operating system. So, Droid runs Android just like other phones out there, but it also has competitive features. It even has some features that are better than the iPhone, like turn-by-turn voice directions and a camera flash. These are important, since parity, in this game, does not a winner make.

Mike Elgan makes a very well-reasoned analysis, however, that shows Android phones are behind on brand appeal and purchase-decision simplicity – two of the three factors that he believes decide success in the smartphone business.

But wait there’s more! Google is also working on the “gPhone,” a Google-branded phone that may share similarities to Android but will be its own Google-branded experience. Phones running Android will compete with the gPhone. Now how is your brand appeal? And purchase-decision simplicity? Out the window, clearly.

If that wrinkle is not enough, Google co-founder Sergey Brin is now saying that Chrome OS (a cloud-based thin computer OS) and Android OS will eventually merge into one, according to Brit tech site Electricpig.co.uk.

Confused yet? Me too. It’s a shame Google didn’t just use its exceedingly-recognizable brand for everything. If the platform (whatever it’s called) is solid, and the features are available, Google’s mobile tech will play a huge role in the future of smart phones.

Here are the current global standings, by market share, as of Q3 2009 (according to a Gartner study):

1. Symbian: 44.6%
2. RIM (BlackBerry): 20.8%
3. Apple iPhone: 17.1%
4. Windows Mobile: 7.9%
5. Android: 3.5%

My prediction? In one year’s time the iPhone and Android will be engaged in a battle for third globally, and second fiddle to Blackberry in the United States.

Apple has the opportunity to fast track submissions from its iPhone App store development partners. Partners that follow best practices should be given the benefit of the doubt to accelerate the screening process.

Earlier today, my colleague Harry McCracken wrote about a BusinessWeek interview with Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice-president for worldwide product marketing concerning its App Store vetting process.

The gist of it is that Apple views itself as a retailer stocking its shelves with quality goods. It still needs to work on its vendor relations.

Schiller said that there are now over 100,000 applications in the App Store, and Apple is receiving over 10,000 submissions a week. Roughly 90% of the submissions that it rejects are simply buggy; the remaining 10% are “inappropriate” — containing malware, objectionable content, or are intended to help users break the law.

Apple believes that developers are happy about its “safety net,” and that may be true, but there have been very vocal exceptions. Facebook developer Joe Hewitt famously protested against the control Apple is exerting over its hardware, and argued that Apple is setting a “horrible precedent.”

However, the end result is that people trust the applications that they purchase in the App Store. That is an important part of the iPhone user experience. But Apple should give trusted developers more leeway — they make the App Store what it is. Apple needs their products.

I am reminded of the old Saturday Night Live sketch with Dan Aykroyd touting dangerous children’s toys such as “Johnny Switchblade,” “Bag O’ Glass,” and the “Chainsaw Bear.” It was hyperbole to the max. By Apple’s own omission, the vast majority (>90%) of developers are good partners that wouldn’t make disreputable apps, and they shouldn’t be treated as such.

My family owns a manufacturing business, and sells products that have International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approvals. ISO sets manufacturing standards, and audits the plants to guarantee that those standards are being met. Apple could do the same by outlining the best practices and tests that its developers should follow when they make software.

More transparency and partnership would go a long way. It is a huge disincentive to invest in the development of an app only to see it be rejected. Apple can be a better partner, and still protect the sanctity of its “shelves.”

If you have been keeping up with the latest trends and developments in cellular technology, you’ve certainly heard of the new phone from Apple, the Apple iPhone. Although the cell phone market is new territory for Apple, they have released a very impressive product with the Apple iPhone carrying 8GB of memory.

Apple has certainly put a smart strategy in place with the launch of it’s Apple iPhone smartphone. With close integration to its Safari Internet browser, Apple looks set to create another innovative user experience for Apple fans worldwide.

Most companies understand that no matter how hard they try, it is impossible to make everybody happy, but with the Apple iPhone, the company tried to do just that. Possibly one of the most controversial issues with the new device is that it only works on the AT&T network, formerly Cingular, a reality that many former Cingular customers are not excited about.

The Apple iPhone was unleashed with great fanfare but initial silence by Apple about the coming technology seemed to fuel the hype behind the phone. The concept is a simple one: having every communications device known to man all in one handheld unit.

The iPhone’s touch screen LCD display is 3.5 inches and can be used using a person’s fingers. The iPhone has predictive text input, spell check capabilities and even a dictionary for a quick consultation. The iPhone also has a music library which is more user friendly than earlier iPods. The iPhone can also play videos and TV on its wide LCD screen.

Talking about its looks and specifications, Apple iPhone is able to impress the user to a great extent. The most interesting feature of this device is its all touch screen interface, plus it supports features as multi-touch input method, accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate and proximity sensor for auto turn-off in its TFT screen that emits a spectrum of 16 million colours through it.

The pre-sales media coverage was full strength with Apple pulling out all stops. According to JupiterResearch in New York Apple may have spent almost $ 100 million on the introduction campaigns for iPhone. The strategy was to tease out or titillate customers and market watchers. Beginning with a simple hello during the Academy Awards, the initial buzz was word of mouth.

Great looks and ergonomic design would attract you to the Apple iPhone in the beginning. You could be tempted to hold the gadget in your hand and explore the features and functionalities that it has to offer. And chances are quite high that you would not be disappointed with what you find.

Instead of cryptic commands to perform complex operations, the Apple iPhone has incorporated several ’smart’ features, such as the ability to magnify and reduce screen images by “pinching” or “squeezing” the iPhone’s display screen. It incorporates an ambient light sensor which automatically adjusts lighting levels in response to the lighting around, preserving battery life and making the screen easy to view.

Read about dirt bike game. Also read about nikon coolpix s220 and flu remedies

Mobile devices aren’t usually the first targets you might think of when it comes to viruses, worms and Trojans. In fact, you could probably be forgiven for not knowing they exist at all. But I think that the recent popularity of smart phones with the consumer market may bring with it an interest in programming malware for those devices, as well.

And for a hacker who wants to make his or her mark on the consumer smart phone world, what better place to start than with the little machine that helped start the whole craze? Though certainly not the first smart phone, Apple’s iPhone was arguably the first smart phone that people found a reason to embrace for their personal use. And it’s sold millions for Apple.

Chet Wisniewski of security provider Sophos posted Saturday about a new worm that affects the iPhone. An Internet service provider in the Netherlands identified the malware. The worm executes itself when you turn on your device, and it also takes data from the iPhone or iPod and sends it to a server in Lithuania.  It only affects those iPod Touches and iPhones that have been jailbroken, or unlocked to allow non-Apple-approved software on them. Attacks have been detected on ISPs around the world, including T-Mobile in many countries, UPC in the Netherlands and Optus in Australia.

The malware assigns each iPod or iPhone a unique number so the hackers who wrote the software can control it as they would with a zombie computer. It also looks for SMS-based authentication systems, the type used by financial institutions for mobile banking purposes. From what Wisniewski said, the worm operates faster on a WiFi network than it does on the 3G network; if your device is infected, you’re likely to see the battery run down more quickly than usual, due to its high network traffic.

If you’ve got a jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch and suspect that something’s awry, Wisniewski said the best solution at this time would be to revert to an earlier Apple firmware, which will un-jailbreak the device. But it will also prevent the worm from running.

Will mobile malware become a normal happenstance? Will other operating systems, such as Google’s Android, have to fend off similar problems? Time will tell. In the meantime, take a look at these articles for more on these and other related topics:

How Hackers Work
How Cell-phone Viruses Work
How Zombie Computers Work

Nobody likes being compared to a misfit toy. So it’s not surprising that a couple of new iPhone ads feel like indirect responses to Verizon’s recent iPhone/AT&T attack ads (here they are in a John Paczkowski post at All Things Digital).

Unlike Verizon and AT&T’s own salvos so far, Apple’s are snark-free. (I’m not sure if there’s any secret explanation, but Apple’s Mac ads are about 90% snark and its iPhone ones are relentlessly upbeat.) The new iPhone spots just point out an excellent feature of the AT&T network that’s easy to miss unless you know it’s there: You can make a call and use the Internet at the same time. Which I do frequently, and which I’d miss if I switched to Verizon…

BusinessWeek’s Arik Hesseldahl scored an interview with Apple marketing honcho Phil Schiller, focused on the wildly popular, ever-controversial iPhones App Store. It’s a good read and I’m glad Schiller feels the need to address the topic in public. It’s completely true that Apple’s hardcore approach to app approval isn’t without its upsides–there are certainly fewer insanely buggy iPhone apps than there would be if iPhone app distribution was a free-for-all, and owners of non-jailbroken iPhones don’t have to worry much about stuff like this. Schiller also hints that Apple may reconsider its silly refusal to approve apps that depict the iPhone or other Apple products to help consumers figure out how to use them.

But this metaphor that Schiller used didn’t comfort me much:

Schiller compares Apple’s role to that of a retailer determining which products line store shelves. “Whatever your favorite retailer is, of course they care about the quality of products they offer,” he says. “We review the applications to make sure they work as the customers expect them to work when they download them.”

Of course, Apple has every right to decide which apps are available on its own App Store. But Apple’s role is really that of a monopolistic distributor , not a retailer. If the company permitted true competition–Cydia is too arcane and sketchy to count–the controversy would end in a nanosecond.

I keep coming back to Steve Jobs’ explanation of the approval process during the Stevenote in which the App Store was unveiled.

Sounded good to me then; still sounds good to me today….

Here it is, Thanksgiving, and it is time to reflect on what we are thankful for this past year.  I could share with you how my heart is full of love for my family and friends, because it is.  But it is more appropriate for me to share with you what I give thanks for on a professional level.   This year I want to reflect on how truly thankful I am for the web evolution and revolution.

I am thankful that there are groups on Twitter and on LinkedIn that connect me with like-minded professionals, asking and answering questions that help me grow.  I am thankful that subject matter experts are providing free webinars to share knowledge on social media, marketing, and networks that increase my ability to benefit from Web 2.0 and that allows me to share this new knowledge with clients; we play it forward and that is a really great gift.  I am thankful that conversations happen constantly on web sites and I can make better product choices prior to a purchase.  And I am thankful that restaurant reviews can make my dining experience more tasteful than tacky.

Yes, the new web works for me.  I am in touch with family and friends far and near through Facebook, I am up to date in real-time on what’s happening around the globe through Twitter and based on my research, it is only going to get better.

Open sourcing is allowing companies like Google to improve new products before they come to market.  Just visit the next evolution of Internet interaction at Google, entitled “Wave.” 

And I am thankful for competition and how it drives innovation.  Today Apple’s iPhone is the benchmark for smartphones, and all hand-held technology.  According to PC World, Apple has approved over 100,000 apps and I am thankful that almost 20,000 of them are free.  But wait, there’s more.  We are the recipient of better products because competition is healthy, and Joe Wilcox, from Betanews is predicting that Google’s Android will take the top stop in mobile devices in 2012. Imagine that!

How many of us could have predicted we would be in virtual conversations and in virtual communities 10 years ago?  I am thankful for creativity and thankful for progress.

Here are just some of my favorite sites and sources (in alpha order) of which I am thankful.

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Mashables
• Social Media Today
• Tweetstats
• Twitter

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?  Share your thoughts and hopes for social media’s future and what you appreciate about it today. Share your thoughts and thanks by leaving a comment. And thank you for reading my blogs.

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Eileen Weisman is a communication strategist, an on-going student of social media, a good listener, a walker, a recycling expert, a dog lover, and a mother of the bride (read previous posts to learn more). Contact The W Group to discuss opportunities for improving the listening environment within your company or organization.

Bueno, para comenzar este blog hacemos referencia al iPhone.

El Iphone es un celular ideal para hacer compañía en cualquier lugar y momento, adaptable a cualquier situación. Tiene un modelo cómodo y fácil de usar, no requiere de experiencia para aprender a utilizarlo. Es un compañero simple, que cuenta con varias prestaciones útiles. iPhone 3GS incluye grabación de video, Control por Voz, hasta 32 GB de almacenamiento y mucho más.

Lo primero que notarás del iPhone 3GS es lo rápido que se inician las aplicaciones. Las páginas web se cargan al instante y puedes ver los archivos adjuntos más rápidamente. Su mejor desempeño y los gráficos 3D optimizados también brindan una increíble experiencia de juego. De hecho, todo lo que hagas con iPhone 3GS es hasta el doble de rápido y más fluido comparado con iPhone 3G.

Características:

Video: Ahora, puedes grabar videos, editarlos y compartirlos en tu iPhone 3GS. Graba videos VGA de alta calidad en formato vertical u horizontal. Edita tu material ajustando los puntos de inicio y finalización. Luego, puedes compartir tu video en un correo electrónico, publicarlo en tu galería de MobileMe o en YouTube, o sincronizarlo en tu Mac o PC usando iTunes

Cámara: La nueva cámara de 3 megapíxeles también toma fotos increíbles, gracias a su autofoco incorporado y a una nueva y útil funcionalidad que te permite tocar la pantalla para hacer foco en cualquier punto que desees.

Control Por Voz: El Control por Voz reconoce los nombres de tus Contactos, así como la música de tu iPod. Por eso, si quieres hacer una llamada o reproducir una canción, todo lo que tienes que hacer es decirlo.

Brújula: Gracias a su brújula digital incorporada, iPhone 3GS puede marcar tu camino.

Cortar, Copiar y Pegar: Corta, copia y pega palabras y fotos, incluso entre aplicaciones. También, puedes copiar y pegar imágenes y contenidos desde la Web.

Teclado Apaisado: ¿Quieres más espacio para escribir sobre el teclado de software inteligente? Pon el iPhone en posición horizontal para usar un teclado más grande en Mail, Mensajes, Notas y Safari.

Mensajes: Envía mensajes con texto, videos, fotos, audio, ubicaciones e información de contacto. Incluso puedes enviar uno o más mensajes a otras personas

Búsqueda: Encuentra lo que estás buscando en tu iPhone, todo desde un único lugar. Spotlight busca todos tus contactos, correos electrónicos, calendarios y notas, así como el contenido de tu iPod.

Accesibilidad: iPhone 3GS ofrece funcionalidades de accesibilidad que ayudan a los usuarios con discapacidades visuales o auditivas. Estas funcionalidades incluyen un lector de pantalla VoiceOver, Zoom, opciones de pantalla Blanco sobre Negro, Audio Mono y mucho más.

Función de Modem: Navega la Web desde prácticamente cualquier lugar. Ahora, puedes compartir la conexión 3G de tu iPhone con tu portátil Mac o PC.

Notas de Voz: Captura y comparte una idea, un recordatorio, una reunión o cualquier grabación de audio al instante con la nueva aplicación Notas de Voz.

Youtube: Mira tus videos de YouTube dondequiera que estés. Ingresa en tu cuenta de YouTube para guardar, sincronizar y poner un puntaje a tus favoritos.

Si te interesa y deseas mas información específica entra a iPhone Apple

I’ve been playing with Flook, a clever new program that’s now available on Apple’s iPhone App Store. Conceptually, it’s very, very simple: You use it to capture images with your phone and attach brief titles and captions to them. Flook then turns the image, title and caption into a full-screen combo it calls a card, uploads them to its servers, geotags them, and lets other Flook users browse through them.

The most obvious way to browse through Flook cards is to peruse ones that are near your location, in case they give you an idea of something nearby to see or do. But you can also view ones from people you follow, or new ones, or the whole shebango of cards from around the world. Flook also creates some local-information cards of its own, by sucking in content from sources such as Upcoming.org and formatting it. Zipping your way though cards is easy, fun, and addictive–the experience has a StumbleUpon-feel of serendipity to it.

Even more than just browsing other folks’ cards, I like the idea of using Flook for tiny acts of photojournalism. The service can can automatically send out tweets about your new cards. Which means that I can consider using it to tell the world about quirky stuff I run across and photograph as I travel around town, throughout the country, and around the world. (Up until now I’ve just been uploading my pictures to TwitPic.)

Flook (which is also available in a traditional Web-based version for PCs and Macs) is free, and currently free of ads. Like every other company involved in geographically-aware apps, the one behind Flook thinks there’s lots of potential in eventually targeting its users with ads that know where they are. In the case of Flook, one of the company’s founders told, those ads might be in the form of sponsored cards that tell you about things like discounts at stores you’re near.

This service could use something like Facebook Connect integration to help you find friends who are already using it. But it’s entertaining as is–and easier to show than explain. After the jump, some images from the iPhone app.

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Well.

I finally got “bit” by the current Apple mania for ferreting out private API calls in App Store iPhone Applications.

You’d think with all my video game experience that I’d be more prepared for this (props to Toy Story 2).

Anywho, these are the two lines of code that got my submission smacked out of the park:

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] terminate];

and

[NSHost currentHost];

Doesn’t look like much, does it?

Still, verboten all the same.

In the case of the terminate function call, all I’m trying to do gracefully end the application in the event that network connectivity is not available.  There is a simple workaround here, and that is to instead use the C Language exit(0) call.  Easy-peazy, lemon-sqeazy.

The second “offending” call, [NSHost currentHost], is simply a call to get the iPhone’s current IP address.  The workaround here is to do something else, like this.

In any event, both of these changes were minor.

But frustrating.

Was I in the “wrong” for using them?  In the view of Apple, absolutely.  And in view of what I agreed to as an iPhone Developer publishing apps on the App Store, again, absolutely.

But, believe it or not, I don’t memorize every API call and know right off the top of my head whether it’s official or not.  Shocking, I know.

And, since the app that was being submitted has been in the App Store for over a year (as have these forbidden calls), it wasn’t like I was trying to sneak in some neato feature available only to Apple by using private calls.

Long story longer, I can easily correct these transgressions – and have done so – in about 15 minutes time.

The bad news is that the app sat in the approval queue for ten (10) days just to be rejected.  An app that has passed numerous times before.  And now must be resubmitted and waited upon.  Again.

Another seven-to-fourteen visit to the purgatory of App Store Approval.

If you think you’re gonna sneak some hidden feature in, reconsider.

Unless, of course, you have all the time in the world to resubmit offending apps.

O Site Gizmodo publicou uma lista dos 10 melhores aplicativos para iPhone da atualidade.Não concordo nem um pouco com a lista mas Confira:

1. Layar: aplicativo de navegação com funções de Augmented Reality.

2. SuperGlued: Muitos aplicativos o ajudam a encontrar bons shows, mas o Superglued não para por aí. Você pode enviar Tweets para outros membros (os bilhetes são vendidos para fora da porta? O local é ruim? Onde você está? Etc), postar imagens ao vivo do show, e acompanhar os eventos que seus amigos planejam ir.

3. Proactive Sleep: Existe algo como um treinador de dormir? Vamos supor que existe! Em poucas palavras, é o objetivo deste aplicativo. Trata-se de um despertador que acorda com a música de sua escolha, então o desafia para um jogo, ou oferece-lhe um diário de sonhos. Ela vai também seguir seus padrões de sono e avisá-lo quando você estiver abaixo da média.

4. Canon: Você tem uma impressora Canon PIXMA? Então instale este iPhone app da Canon, que permite imprimir via Wi-Fi.

5. Blastination: Este jogo se parece com uma dor de cabeça instantânea, e leva alguns minutos para se acostumar com tal caos. A idéia, porém, é vencedora: Seu objetivo é coletar formas com o seu personagem, que você pilota saltando de barreiras que você tenha desenhado em tempo real.

6. Heart Rate Monitor: Este monitor de freqüência cardíaca transmite sua frequência cardíaca através da sua rede social de escolha. Sua finalidade é médica, mas a tecnologia poderia ser facilmente usada para se divertir também. Se a Nintendo também já está trabalhando nesta idéia, por que não?

7. Bailout War$: Tower Defense + fúria populista + gameplay genuinamente satisfatória = um sugador de tempo livre. Os gráficos poderiam ser melhores, e a sátira mais sutil, mas este jogo vale seu preço.

8. CBS News: Este novo aplicativo da CBS é um exemplo de um aplicativo de notíciasdedicado feito de forma correta e eficiente. O conteúdo do vídeo é abundante, o conteúdo da notícia é bem organizado, e a integração com o Twitter é mais que simbólica. E é grátis.

9. Viper: Este aplicativo precisa precisa estar ligado a um sistema de ignição remoto, e não te poupa nenhum tempo, mas se classifica pela inovação e idéia cool. Quero dizer, você pode ligar o seu carro com o seu iPhone! Uau!

10. USA Today Autopilot: Melhor que a maioria dos aplicativos de viagem, porque não é exclusivamente destinada a vender-lhe coisas, este é um planejador de viagem e itinerário completo. È vinculado ao serviço de planejador TripIt, que mantém controle dos seus voos, hotéis e em miscellanea viagem. Grátis.

Fonte: Gizmodo.