iPhone gets Singapore, Philippines deal and second carrier in Australia, India
If you’ve started to get sick of all the iPhone carrier deal announcements, well, that’s probably because you either don’t live in any of the countries already named, or you do and have an unlocked phone. Either way, try to keep in mind those less fortunate than yourself. Adding to…
Spotting celebs with the iPhone
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Humor, Odds and ends, Apple, iPhone
Obama and Lindsay Lohan are far from the only people rocking the iPhone lately — a new site called “Coolspotters” claims to track brands and the celebrities that use them, and the iPhone is pretty cool lately. 32 celebrities have been spotted — everyone from Mike Tyson to Heidi Klum to Rose McGowan (pictured, though that really could be anyone, couldn’t it?). In fact, the Apple iPhone is actually the most popular product on the site right now — one spot above something called the Omnipeace t-shirt (yes, but does it have a multitouch screen?), and two spots above the MacBook Air.
Because everyone knows you need a site to tell you that what you own is cool, right? Of course, they are cheating a little bit — I don’t think the fact that Steve Jobs is using something necessarily makes it cool. Otherwise, we’d all have seen celebs toting around Newtons.
Still, if seeing celebs use the same product you have is your thing, the iPhone’s got you covered there, too. Can’t say it influenced my purchase much, but good to see that the rich and famous are catching on to what’s been TUAW’s favorite tech-cessory for a while.
[via Kottke]
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Review: Sketches, Native App-a-Week
Can t wait any longer for Native Apps? Me neither. (Late) June seems too far away? I m with you. So why wait, when you can jailbreak! Over the next couple months before 2.0 is released, I ll give you guys a glimpse into the jailbroken world of native apps every week. Plus: let’s face it, Jailbreaking isn’t […]
Mac OS X 10.5.3 moving along, on course with iPhone 2.0?
Apple continues to plug away at the next maintenance and service update to Mac OS X Leopard, which may be on track for a release around the same time as the company’s iPhone software v2.0, according to one tipster. People familiar with ongoing tes…
Phone different 99 Cent iPhone Case Sale!
The Phone different iPhone Accessories Store is running a special to congratulate us on the big ol merger between the old PD blog and the iPhone Blog. They are marking down 5 different types of cases to 99 cents apiece! Here’s what’s on sale while supplies last: Marware Sidewinder Holster for iPhone The sleek […]
AdBlock
AdBlock is an extension to iPhone and iPod touch’s Safari web browser that filters out advertisements when you are surfing the Web. It is a for-pay app which runs ~$10US. Available via Installer (add http://i.cocoamug.com as a source) | Discuss | Developer’s Website
Intel: Apple tablet comment simply untrue
Intel Corp. today is scurrying to clean up a mess made by Germany’s ZDNet on Wednesday when it reported that an Intel exec had confirmed the ongoing development of a iPhone-like tablet at Apple, a report which the chipmaker now claims is patently fal…
Sprint Spending $100 Million to Kick iPhone in the Nuts (iPhone Wearing Cup)
Starting May 9th, Sprint will begin a massive, $100 million marketing campaign aimed straight at the iPhone’s nether regions. Stacking its 3G Instinct against the iPhone, Sprint hopes to show that EVDO and GPS make their product way better than anything coming out of Cupertino.
The problem isn’t that the Instinct is necessarily a bad phone, or that Sprint is a worse service than AT&T. It’s that Sprint’s series of commercials will cost the company $100 million to promote a message that will most probably be a moot point in one month if/when Apple announces their 3G iPhone. Here’s their second commercial:
Also, in a more general suggestion to the advertisers of the world, never put a your device side by side against a competitor if the competitor has a higher screen to case ratio. We’ll probably be posting the other three spots as they come in…but even if we don’t, expect to see the series all over the television soon.
Oh, and to put $100 million into some perspective, that’s more money than it would cost to run a 2009 Super Bowl commercial every day for a month. [via Kansas City Star]
UPDATE: Sprint wrote us to clarify that prior to what we’d heard earlier (from an unofficial source within the company), these spots will only be seen online. The major televised marketing campaign will begin in June and Sprint does “not have a final total” for the device’s marketing budget.
SIMable May Be Easiest Way to Unlock 3G GSM Phones
A company called SIMable has produced a little chip that they call the “10-second solution” for unlocking carrier-tethered GSM handsets. The gimmick is that, instead of unlocking the phone itself—and risking invalidation of your warranty— the chip works on the SIM card, provided you punch a hole in the SIM.
Yes, I said “punch a hole.” The SIMable card lies flat against the SIM, and you first have to perform the following surgical procedure. At least the hole-puncher comes free with the 16.99 chip:
For certain 3G phones including the 8GB Nokia N95, Nokia E51, Sony Ericsson W200 and others to maintain “full 3G functionality,” you will have to make an addition cut to the card itself:
It’s not clear if SIMable is shipping to the US, though there’s no reason to believe it wouldn’t work here. There’s also no mention of Apple’s iPhone on the site, although the Inquirer mentions it in the first paragraph of their own writeup. Hopefully SIMable is just getting around to that, after testing on 70 or so other, more popular phones.
Update: Corrections were made to the post following some clarifying comments (thanks!). As far as this being a copy of other products, that may very well be the case, although SIMable maintains that it is not:
NOTE - SIMable is not linked in any way to other similar products and enables full 3G functionality. We include a free customised cutting press ruling out any messing around with scissors.
[SIMable via The Inquirer]
Ownersite Mobile
Ownersite is a web-based tool that simplifies the logging and sharing of vehicle maintenance, fuel usage and expenses. It features: - Track fuel usage and fuel economy details - Compare fuel economy to EPA estimates and other Ownersite users - Increase resale value by documenting and sharing vehicle maintenance history and receipts - Receive recall notifications when they are […]
NBC Streaming Full Episodes of 30 Rock and the Office to iPhones (for Free, No Ads!)
Even though there’s no love lost between NBC and iTunes, that doesn’t mean NBC doesn’t love you! At least if you’ve got an iPhone or iPod touch. They’re streaming full episodes of 30 Rock and The Office to iPhones (and touches) in QuickTime, for free, with NO ads. They work, nicely, but the major catch is that if you exit Safari, you’ve gotta re-DL all over again, and the files are huge, so is this Wi-Fi only, really. This looks weird for NBC, but it’s really not.
They’re putting their shows out online in a million different ways (you can even download 30 Rock, The Office, Conan and Leno direct to your desktop now) and more than happy to pipe ‘em to you, as long as it’s in a controlled sandbox of some sort. NBC Direct requires a walled-garden player install with loads of DRM, and they wanted copyright controls from Apple and Microsoft to give just two examples, not to mention Hulu. It’s sorta surprising that the QuickTime feed for iPhone is unprotected, but theoretically it’s restricted to two devices. You know, if they’d just relax a bit, overall, they’d be in a good place online. [Silicon Alley Insider, Thanks Peter!]
Italy’s iPhone to Have Two Carriers: The End of Exclusivity?
Following Vodafone’s announcement that it would be bringing the iPhone to ten more countries, including Italy, Telecom Italia issued its own short and sweet press release: “Telecom Italia announced today it has signed a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Italy later this year.” So that’s two separate companies laying claim to the Italian release of the iPhone, which sounds like the end of Apple’s exclusivity deal to us. There are even rumors that a third Italian carrier is thinking about it: “evaluating the market opportunity,” as Wind’s website puts it. Dare we hope that this news also implies unlocked iPhones? [Gadget Lab]
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone
Now that it’s more or less a given that a 3G model is on its way — very shortly if rumors are to believed — let’s have a little fun speccing the thing out. Sure there’s absolutely no data so let your imagination guide you.
What’s the price of this baby going to be? How much memory will be onboard and what will its battery life work out to? Better onboard camera? With Video? And how about “Back to My Mac”/”Back to My iPhone” features? What are you willing to pay per month for the glory of all that is new, shiny and iPhone? Let us know in the comments about your dream 3G iPhone.
smartRSS
smartRSS is a great RSS aggregator with some nifty animations. Available in English and French. Available via Installer on the ModMyiFone source| Discuss
iPhone Stocks Being Replenished, Not Sold Out, Say UK Retailers
Despite the rumors of iPhones being out of stock in the UK, it’s not really true—according to the retailers themselves. Reghardware has spoken to both O2 and Carphone Warehouse, and both say they’re just tackling getting more 16GB iPhones for their online departments. Apple themselves have stock and O2 and Carphone Warehouse have iPhones available in their high street stores. Does this info mean they won’t be getting any more 8GB versions, though? Well, we can speculate that, but we don’t know. It also leaves us wondering what this news does to the iPhone 2.0 rumors. [Reghardware]
Starting May 9th, Sprint will begin a massive, $100 million marketing campaign aimed straight at the iPhone’s nether regions. Stacking its 3G Instinct against the iPhone, Sprint hopes to show that EVDO and GPS make their product way better than anything coming out of Cupertino.
Also, in a more general suggestion to the advertisers of the world, never put a your device side by side against a competitor if the competitor has a higher screen to case ratio. We’ll probably be posting the other three spots as they come in…but even if we don’t, expect to see the series all over the television soon.