iPhone on DiggFiled under: Desktops, Laptops
As teased, Verizon made its official internal announcement of the touchscreen BlackBerry Storm today, and CrackBerry has gotten ahold of the clip. If you look past the video's asstastic quality, you can see the Storm is way more polished than the various leaks lead us to believe. It really looks like a flagship phone now, actually worthy of gadget lust. Update: Crackberry just put out some fresh flamebait for you, Verizon's table comparing the Storm to the iPhone 3G. Check it out:
Poor Wei-han Lien is probably dead right now after posting a description of his current duties—managing the ARM CPU architecutre team for the iPhone—on LinkedIn. As you know, Apple keeps all its future plans secret so Jobs doesn't stroll out on stage and announce something everyone's known for about months (oops). In Lien's case, the fact that he's managing the ARM CPU team means that Apple's acquisition of P.A. Semi back in April was for a good reason: to build optimized processors in-house for the iPhone instead of purchasing them from Samsung, like the company does now.
Former CEO of AMD says the company could get fancy and "put software accelerators on there or maybe do something like a graphics engine." We understand what he means, but the way he said it makes us think of a kid who's making his dream car. "Put some wings and a jet engine and some flames and some missiles pew pew!" [NY Times via TUAW via Crunchgear]
Mac OS X 10.5.5 update just hit Software Update, and has a laundry list of fixes for not just the OS core (like improved Spotlight indexing), but apps like iCal and Mail, as well as the MobileMe and Time Machine services. TUAW got a heads-up from its readers, and shortly after, it popped up in our Software Update. Check out the update list below. [Apple via TUAW]
What's included?
General
* Includes recent Apple security updates.
* Addresses stability issues with video playback, processor core idling, and remote disc sharing for MacBook Air.
* Addresses an issue in which some Macs could unexpectedly power on at the same time each day.
* Resolves a stability issue in TextEdit that could be found when accessing the color palette.
* Improves Spotlight indexing performance.
* Fixes an issue in which contacts might not sync properly with PalmOS-based devices.
* Improves iPhone sync reliability with iCal and Address Book.
* Includes improvements to Active Directory (see this article for more information).
* Improves Speech Dictionary.
* Fixes Kerberos authentication issues for Mac OS X 10.5 clients that connect to certain Samba servers, such as Mac OS X Server version 10.4.
* Includes extensive graphics enhancements.Address Book
* Addresses stability issues that may occur when creating a Smart Group.
* Resolves a printing issue with address cards containing information that spans more than one page.Disk Utility and Directory Utility
* Improves reliability when rebuilding a software mirror RAID volume in Disk Utility.
* Improves reliability of server status displayed in Directory Utility.iCal
* Updates iCal to more accurately handle repeating events.
* Improves performance when choosing meeting attendees.
* Resolves an issue in which the "Refresh All" option may be dimmed ("grayed out") in the contextual menu for certain calendars.
* Fixes issues with read-only calendars.
* Addresses an issue that prevents an invitee from moving an event to a different calendar.
* Resolves an issue with syncing published calendars.* Addresses performance issues related to displaying IMAP messages.
* Resolves an issue with SMTP settings for AIM, Compuserve, Hanmail, Yahoo!, and Time Warner Road Runner email accounts.
* Addresses stability issues that may occur when dragging a file to the Mail icon in the Dock.
* Addresses an issue with the "Organized by Thread" view in which the date does not appear when the thread is collapsed.
* Resolves an issue in which RSS feeds could temporarily disappear from the sidebar.
* Improves Mail robustness when sending messages.
* Improves reliability when saving drafts that have attachments.MobileMe
* Improves overall sync reliability.
* Improves Back to My Mac reliability.Time Machine
* Improves Time Machine reliability with Time Capsule.
* Addresses performance issues that may affect initial and in-progress backups.
* Fixes an issue in which an incorrect alert message could appear stating that a backup volume does not have enough free space.
* Time Machine can now back up iPhone backups that are on your Mac, as well as other items in (~/Library/Application Support).
iPhone's 2.1 update last Friday was supposed to fix a whole dump truck-load of issues people have been having with the iPhone 3G. If the update did succeed in getting rid of dropped calls, improving battery life, dramatically speeding up backup times, improving application install speeds, more accurately displaying 3G signal strength display and eliminating keyboard lag, we could finally recommend the iPhone 3G to our friends without looking like asses. Did the 2.1 firmware do everything it promised? Oh yes.
Reception: This is the biggest improvement, at least on the surface. I'm now getting 4-5 bars in my office where I used to get between 1-2 (see photo above). Does displayed reception actually correlate correctly to actual reception? The hardware is the same, and one of the bug fix list has "improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display" as one of its items, so is this just a placebo designed only to make you think that your reception is improved? No, it's actually improved.
Calls from my office used to get periodic drop-outs and injected silence, but I have not heard this once since I made the upgrade to 2.1. Brian, with his black hole of cellphone coverage that he calls his apartment, actually made a 12 minute conversation without disconnecting. What's the deal? How is the new software improving reception so much when the hardware is the same? Is it a new stack to handle transmission between the phone and the tower better? We have no idea, although recent reports have said that problems with the phone are caused by an immature chipset, and could be fixed via software, so this is somewehat likely.
It's too bad that Apple disabled the "Cell Information" screen in the iPhone Field Test Mode, which we used to test this ClearBoost case from Griffin, or else we could have used actual power readings from nearby towers to determine whether or not the signal has really been improved. What we can see in the Field Test Mode is that the dBm reading in the top left (where the reception bars were) show very similar numbers, flutuating on both phones between -97 and -103 from in the office. Sometimes one is higher than the other, but there's no consistency.
Verdict: Win.
Battery Life: Improved, but not dramatically. We did see an improvement in battery life this weekend when our phones lasted about 2 days on regular use. It previously only made it to somewhere around 1.5 to 1.75 days. Nothing dramatic, but noticeable.
Verdict: Slight win.
Reduced Backup Time: We definitely saw no more 20-40 minute backups with the 2.1 firmware, but the best indicator for this quirk being fixed would be the guy with an 8-hour iPhone sync. He reported back and told us that the same set of apps now give him a 14 minute sync time. Check this fix off as a winner.
Verdict: Win
3G Browsing Speed: This is an awkward one. The browsing speed wasn't actually noted as being one of the things fixed, but we decided to test it anyway because of the supposedly improved reception. For browsing, the same page loaded about 1.5 seconds faster on the OLD firmware (2.0.2) compared to the new one. On other sites, like Apple.com, the old firmware actually loaded the page a whole 5 seconds faster than the new firmware. Strange.
We then used the Speedtest app in the iPhone App store to see if it was data transfer that was holding up page loads. On the 2.0.2 firmware we had download speed of 913Kb/sec, 581 Kb/s and 1048Kb/s. On the 2.1 firmware we had a 420Kb/s, 518Kb/s and a 718Kb/s. On the whole the new firmware seems to be slower in terms of data transfer, which leads to slightly slower page loads.
Verdict: Lose
Application Install: The same app (Speedtest) installed 15 seconds faster on the new firmware than on the old one. We downloaded this on the phone itself using the same Wi-Fi router for both. The downloading was just about simultaneous, but the install portion was much faster.
Verdict: Win
Crashing and hanging: It's only been about three days since we updated, but we haven't run into any crashes or hangs yet. 77% of you agreed with us on Friday.
Verdict: Probably win
Text messaging: Didn't see any keyboard lag here. Adam Frucci, the king of iPhone keyboard lag, claims that everything is fixed on this front.
Verdict: I guess a win?
Overall: Apple's really fixed the glaring reception, crashing and backup problems everyone's been seeing. Not only is everyone getting more bars than they were before, they're getting actual results. Brian's notoriously horrible AT&T reception at his apartment in SF is just bearably horrible now, kicking him down to EDGE from 3G where he can actually make phone calls that don't cut off after a few seconds. If you own an iPhone, you need to upgrade to 2.1—slower browsing be damned. Apple has finally put most of the iPhone 3G launch problems behind it, allowing the phone part of the device to be brought back up to par with the original 2G iPhone. [iPhone]
We got hands on time with the HTC Touch 3G, Touch Viva and most importantly, the Touch HD last week at CTIA. Although we didn't get to delve deep into its Windows Mobile guts, we did spend enough time fiddling with the TouchFLO interface up top that we know how it'll feel for you on a day-to-day basis. You'll be pleased.
The Touch HD has a 3.8-inch, 480x800 screen, plus other fancy pantsy specs like a 5-megapixel camera, 288MB RAM and a Quallcomm MSM7201a 825MHz processor. All this hardware comes together to bring a REALLY smooth feel to TouchFLO that's faster than the Touch Diamond, Touch Pro and even the Touch 3G. No glitches or holdups when scrolling horizontally through the menus here; it's the best TouchFLO interface we've seen yet. Typing with the onscreen keyboard wasn't as good as the iPhone's, but was doable with your fingertips because of the huge screen.
That 3.8-inch screen is gorgeous, and should be pretty amazing to watch movies on (we didn't have the chance to). It's also not too heavy and not too wide in terms of weight and size, but will most likely be pretty heavy on the price side. The HD will be a pretty good competitor to full screen touchscreen phones like the Instinct and Sony Ericsson Experia.
HTC's Touch 3G, on the other hand, doesn't look to revolutionize the lineup like the Touch HD, but works at improving the original Touch in every way. The form factor is almost exactly the same, but feels taller and thinner. The TouchFLO present on this device is also fairly fast—though not as fast as on the HD—and works well. If you enjoyed the original last year and just want a 3G upgrade, this is the phone for you.
The Touch Viva, which is for developing markets, is also pretty cool. The guts are exactly the same as on the Touch last year, but they've changed stuff like the screen (no longer hard glass, but the standard plastic film you see on other HTC phones) in order to make the price more affordable. It runs a 2D version of TouchFLO that's super fast, but keeps all the functionality intact. You most likely won't be buying or seeing this unless you live in a developing market, but it is a pretty neat smartphone that hasn't been gimped for the lower end. [HTC]
Unlike Merill Lynch and Lehman Brothers, Gizmodo still exists today, and that means there's a weekend roundup to be read—by you! Here it is, in easy to digest bullet point format:
• Dutch designers put a loop in the middle of a freeway. With Photoshop, relax.
• His Steveness doesn't believe in license plates.
• Lego makes it cooler: Dr. Manhattan gets the block treatment.
• Is Woodward just trying to sell books, or is there really a super secret killing program going down in Iraq?
• A new iPhone app promises 10 second tethering.
• Chen got his hands on the Rock Band 2 hardware and they were never the same again.
• Speaking of reviews, we also gave the Nike+ iPod Touch workout app a run for its money. Run... get it?!
• A rather pricey iPhone app brings you the XBMC interface, and it works with Mac, Windows and Linux.
• The shiny, glossy Sprint HTC Touch Diamond is now available and ready for fingerprints.
• The Dream Car 123 is ugly as sin, but it's hard not to like the 250 mile range off a single charge.
Now, begone! Go forth to the Gizmodo home page and click away at the best gadget news ever created by homo sapiens sapiens.
Unlike the old iPhone, the iPhone 3G works without a contract for both voice and data, completely unmodified. No jailbreaking or unlocking required: use any AT&T Pay As You Go SIM card with a data plan and it will work. The process is quite simple, just replace the SIM card with the Pay As You Go card and you'll be doing calls and accessing the internet instantly. The question is: Why?
Would this work for international trips with other Pay As You Go cards? That's the only scenario that seems logical to me, because at this point, you can't buy an iPhone 3G without a contract with AT&T. Being able to use a Pay As You Go card defeats the purpose, as far as I can see. Since you have to pay the monthly rate anyway, why use Pay As You Go?
In any case, if you can think into any useful thing to do with this, Erica at TUAW details how to attach an unlimited 5GB plan to a SIM:
• Call 611
• Select "Buy Features"
• Select "Media Net"
• Select "Unlimited"
• Select "Buy It"
[TUAW]
Check this out this morning. This new iPhone app from the App Store, called XBMC Remote, does just that—it lets you control your XBMC from an iPhone or iPod Touch. The app is pretty open-minded, too. It allows for XBMC control on Windows, Mac and Linux machines. It's yours, if you want it, for $5 (?!) and 0.8MB. [App Store Apps]
Despite looking forward to the iPod Touch/iPhone integration of the Nike+ running dongle for over a year now, we can't help but feel slightly disappointed at the way this app is executed on the latest iPod Touch. The Nike + iPod software itself looks great—the red and white UI design matches up perfectly with nike's own workout site—but there's just something missing. First, where's the grandfathered support for iPhone, iPhone 3G and first-gen iPod Touch? More importantly, where are the expanded features that makes great use of the Touch's accelerometer, touch screen or internet connection? Nowhere.
The app itself works perfectly. As a long time sporadic Nike + iPod user on the old iPod Nano, we can say that all those features we expect to be there are ported over with the right amount of care for the larger screen. But there's nothing really all that revolutionary. Custom workouts, where you can pre-set options for time, distance or playlist are a nice addition, and it's nice to look at your workout history in a clearer fashion, but how come we couldn't get charts and graphs like on the Nike site? Something like the chart below, fetched from our own online history, would have been an easy addition to the feature set. And where, my fit readers, is the communication between your iPod touch and your online Nike account?
Our other complaint is that you're forced to buy the 2nd generation iPod Touch in order to take advantage of the app. Plugging in the dongle to your iPhone, iPhone 3G or 1st generation Touch isn't even an option. Even with firmware 2.1, you still get the "This accessory is not supported by iPhone" error. Why? The dongle solution works fine on iPod nanos, why couldn't Apple copy over the Nike + app and make use of the transmitter?
Despite our gripes about the lack of device support and lack of new features, we still love the app. It's much prettier and readable when running than the version on even the iPod nano 4G (which have the equivalent red and white larger icons), and if you're already a serious Nike + iPod user, the touch is a slightly better way to do what you're already doing. It's not quite good enough for you to upgrade from your current device, but think of it as an added bonus if you were thinking about getting an iPod touch for yourself so you can pass off your old iPod nano to your spouse so he or she can get into shape too. [Amazon]
iPhone Merchandise
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