Is This the Back of the 3G, Next-Gen iPhone?
Take this rumor with a grain of salt the size of your fist, but this is what some people are claiming is the back of the upcoming next-gen iPhone. It could very easily be a fake, but then again, you never know. What do you guys think? Do you like the glossy black or do you missed the two-tone design of the current model and the classy brushed metal? [iPod Observer via Boy Genius Report]
Found footage: Quake 3 multiplayer on iPod touch
Filed under: Gaming, iPod Family, Found Footage, iPhone
Despite getting punk’d on the Mortal Kombat for iPhone April Fool’s joke, we’re still innocent and trusting enough to buy into this video demo of Quake 3 running — in multiplayer, accelerometer-enabled fragging glory — on a pair of iPod touch handhelds. Is it real? Is it coming soon to a jailbroken device near you? Can you even stand the suspense until June when the SDK-based games start shipping? Yep, us neither.
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IBM launches internal pilot program to test migration to Macs
Long-time Microsoft Windows supporter IBM has recently initiated an internal pilot program to study the possibility of moving a significant number of its employees to Apple’s Mac platform, leaked company documents show. The documents, obtained by …
Review: Griffin’s iPhone Reception Boosting ClearBoost Case
The Gadget: Griffin’s ClearBoost iPhone Case that not only protects the iPhone from drops and scratches (with its included screen protector), but claims to boost the reception as well.
The Price: $29.99
The Verdict: It works, but only under specific conditions. Here’s what the numbers mean (highlighted lower numbers closer to 0 are better). When you’re talking with the phone up to your face, having the ClearBoost on it increases the signal quite noticeably. An increase of 3 dBm doubles the amount of “RF energy reaching the iPhone’s built-in antenna,” which means that in the better reception spot, the case increased that energy by a little over four times. In the slightly worse spot, it increased it about four times.
We saw the opposite effect when we placed the case on a desk and didn’t touch it. A real world scenario is if you’re talking on a Bluetooth headset but not holding your phone. In the better reception area, the case just barely degraded the signal, and was close enough to call a statistical tie. In the slightly worse reception area, it actually degraded signal by four times when placed onto a desk.
Here’s why we think the ClearBoost works. When you’re talking on your iPhone with the phone held up to your face normally, your hand is covering up the antenna on the phone—which is inconveniently designed by Apple to be located on the bottom, behind the black plastic area. The Clearboost helps eliminate that problem by essentially “moving” the antenna to the top where your hand isn’t. When the phone is on a desk and your hand isn’t covering the standard iPhone antenna, at best there’s no benefit, but at worst it actually degrades your reception.
In the interest of completeness, we wanted to see how the reception was if we held the phone up to our face without the case, but holding the phone gingerly at the top, trying not to cover up the antenna. As we thought, reception was better there than when we held it “normally”, but slightly worse than when we were using the case. It’s super inconvenient to hold a phone like this, however, and isn’t really feasible to do much of the time.
The Aesthetics: It’s a decent enough hard plastic case that doesn’t add too much bulk to your phone. The antenna on top may be a little protrud-y, but it’s necessary for obvious reasons. All the buttons and ports are accessible, and you can dock your phone in most docks without much problem.
The Notes: One thing to note is Griffin explicitly states that the ClearBoost only works if you have your phone on the AT&T network, which uses the 850 MHz band. If you’re on T-Mobile, which primarily uses the 1900 MHz band but roams occasionally onto 850 MHz depending on where you are, you’ll get less benefit. We tested this on AT&T. Richard from Wireless Info also notes that the signal/noise ratio is important, and that more dBm might not mean better sound quality.
The Testing Procedure: We didn’t test with how many bars the phone gets, because how many bars it gets is only a rough display and doesn’t go up or down completely based on the “signal”. Testing using the iPhone’s Field Test app shows how strong the actual signal is in dBm, which measures in terms of amount of “RF energy reaching the iPhone’s built-in antenna.” Each number in the chart is an average of five to seven samples.
The Bottom Line: If your reception’s no good and you often talk with your phone up to your face, the Griffin ClearBoost will give you a bump in signal. If you talk with a Bluetooth headset more often than not, you might want to skip this. At $30, it’s probably too cheap to pass up. [Griffin]
Fruit Wars: RIM and Apple to Go Head to Head in Corporate Messaging
Apple and RIM are on a collision course as the two companies go toe to toe vying for enterprise messaging market share. RIM has long held the corporate high ground with its dominant BlackBerry Enterprise Server technology and ubiquitous handsets. But Apple is sending iPhone to business school, adopting Microsoft Exchange support that is certain […]
AT&T to Offer Unlimited Calling Plan for iPhone. More Dropped Calls in More Places
Unlimited calling plans seem to be all the rage these days, with every carrier provision subscribers with “all you can speak” plans. Now even iPhone users will soon be able to gab all they want, and not pay dearly for it in the next billing cycle. According to Engadget, AT&T will be soon offer a […]
iPhone vs. gravity is no contest
Filed under: Flickr Find, iPhone
Apple’s MagSafe power cords have probably saved thousands of laptops from untimely impacts — too bad there’s no such insurance policy for the iPhone. Brett Peters’ phone had an unfortunate encounter with his young son and moments later, with the floor, and the result is as you see above. While the screen glass is shattered, Brett was able to lay a piece of clear packing tape on top of the phone and keep all the shards in place. You can see all the photos on Brett’s blog and here on Flickr.
Believe it or not, the phone is still functional; more surprisingly, except for the most seriously damaged spots, the touchscreen still works. Brett is considering a screen replacement via this procedure, but in the meantime I’m sure he’s having a heart-to-heart with his son about the facts of physics. 9.8m/s^2 — it’s not just a good idea, it’s the law.
[via Twitter]
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WildEyes!
WildEyes is a native iPhone app which lets you view many types of files (HTML, PDF, DOC, XLS, TXT) on your iPhone using Safari. You browse the iPhone via WildEyes!, and press any icon/file to launch it in Safari. Available via the MMi Installer/Cydia Source | Developer’s Site
Blocked Calls: Adobe Building Flash Support for iPhone? For Real this Time. Honest. We Swear. Cross Our Hearts
The Flash drama continues, with more twists and turns than a California highway. It looks as though iPhone may be getting native Flash support after all, if dragged kicking and screaming. Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen spoke to reporters during a conference call… “Well, you really believe that Flash is synonymous with the Internet, and frankly, […]
Found footage: Quake 3 multiplayer on iPod touch
Filed under: Gaming, iPod Family, Found Footage, iPhone
Despite getting punk’d on the Mortal Kombat for iPhone April Fool’s joke, we’re still innocent and trusting enough to buy into this video demo of Quake 3 running — in multiplayer, accelerometer-enabled fragging glory — on a pair of iPod touch handhelds. Is it real? Is it coming soon to a jailbroken device near you? Can you even stand the suspense until June when the SDK-based games start shipping? Yep, us neither.
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iPhone and iPod Touch Actually Support 720×576 Video Resolution
Officially, the iPhone and iPod touch support 640 by 480-pixel video running at up to 30 frames per second. But Ars Technica is reporting that it’ll actually take 720×576-resy video churning at 25fps, which is the same resolution and frame rate that PAL (mostly Euro) DVDs run at. Obviously not all that useful if you’re just catching flicks on your iPhone, but if you watch them on your computer too (like a rental), the higher res means less squinting on your big boy monitor. [Ars Technica]
NBC Wants iTunes to Block Pirated Content from iPods
NBC Universal Chief Digital Officer George Kliavkoff: “We’d love to be on iTunes. It has a great customer experience. We’d love to figure out a way to distribute our content on iTunes.” Obviously NBC did, until they walked out. In order for them to come back, they want more money per show (still) to “reflect the full value of the product.” And for iTunes to block you from loading pirated content onto your iPod. Sounds insane right?
“If you look at studies about MP3 players, especially leading MP3 players and what portion of that content is pirated, and think about how that content gets onto that device, it has to go through a gatekeeping piece of software, which would be a convenient place to put some antipiracy measures. We are financially harmed every day by piracy. It results in us not being able to invest as much money in the next generation of film and TV products.”
What does that have to do with NBC selling shows through iTunes that would be appropriately locked down with DRM—thereby making money on those next-gen products? Ummm… we’re not sure. Just don’t count on seeing NBC Universal-produced TV shows back on iTunes for a while, since Apple’s probably not gonna cave on pricing and definitely won’t turn iTunes in a content filter/gatekeeper, ’cause that would kill the iPod. [Cnet via NewTeeVee]
Report waves caution at shadiness of would-be Mac clone maker [u x2]
A brief investigation into Psystar Corporation reveals the self-proclaimed Mac cloner maker to have no operating history prior to this week, and further suggests the company may be little more than one-man basement operation. Given the company’s c…
Apple Virtual Operator Patent Opens Way to Free Carrier Selection
Remember the rumors about Apple becoming a Mobile Virtual Network Operator, which were constantly buzzing before the announcement of their exclusive deal with the Death Star? Well, the usual USPTO archeologists have discovered a patent showing their system to dynamically select carriers using an iTunes MVNO ID:
The patent was filed on October 2006, so clearly Apple was toying with the idea while they were negotiating with carriers. Does this mean they will go the MVNO way anytime soon? Given the support and conditions that the different carriers through the world are providing, I doubt it. But it definitely means that they have it in mind, perhaps as plan B.
[USPTO via Unwired Review]
Vegas Hearts
The card game of hearts, for your iPhone or iPod touch.http://www.tictacwhoa.com/hearts.html
