iphonePOV

Augmented Reality Is A Reality

2009-10-14T16:03:00.000-07:00

Layar, the first camera-based AR app to really blow us (or anyone) away, has quietly slipped into the App Store. As with the Android version, the app overlays all kinds of information onto a live view of the world around you.

Since OS 3.1 dropped, giving devs (almost) open access to the iPhone's camera we've seen a minor avalanche of augmented reality apps hit the store; some have been interesting, like Yelp's, but most feel a little bit like tech demos. Layar, for what it's worth, has grown up since we last saw it: now you can overlay all kinds of data, from geotagged Wikipedia entries to Flickr photos to local Tweets.

You can get Layar here (and it's free!)

Apple Adding FM Radio to iPhone 3G(s)

2009-10-14T10:51:00.000-07:00

Apple is building a new app for its iPhone and iPod Touch that will bring FM radio to the devices.

Our guess is that the functionality of the application will be similar to what Apple built into the iPod Nano. That includes the ability to pause live FM transmissions and fast-forward when you resume playing. The delay in getting the app to market is Apple's decision to integrate it with the iTunes Store. With this integration, people will be able to tap on a song they hear on the radio and buy it through iTunes. Whoptee-doo.

This app is made possible by the Broadcom chip that runs the iPhone 3G(s) which already contains an FM Tuner. So Apple is basically just adding a program to access a feature which should have been available on day 1.

We're filing this one in the "This Would Be Great If It Was 1998" pile. FM Radio? Really? Didn't we buy iPods so we didn't have to listen to all those commercials?

Who knows, if you're into corporate rock, this will bring a rainbow of joy to your ears.

PS What about AM? That's where all the action is? With just FM, Republicans won't be buying this app any time soon (and will probably complain that it's a left-wing plot to squelch wind-bag conservative talk show hosts. On second thought, we hope it is. Good Job Apple.)

What's New In iPhone 3.0

2009-06-18T12:09:00.001-07:00

We've had the 3.0 software for a couple of hours now and have compiled a list of what's new. Exciting stuff:

• Previously, if you launched the Notes App and you had no notes saved, the app would automatically open a new note and the keyboard would pop up. It no longer does that. If you have no saved note, it just says No Notes.

• In Maps, directions are smoother. The next direction slides in nicely and has the distance to the next action PLUS that action on the same screen, as shown below. Previously it would've said on action 6 "Drive 63.3 Miles"...action 7, "Continue on I-91 N...."

• Playlists starting with spaces and/or dashes no longer appear at the top of the list in Music.

• Any favorites you may have in the old YouTube app can be merged into your YouTube account when you sign in to the new YouTube app.

• For Exchange the old "Passcode Lock" feature (required by some IT departments) had delay times of up to 15 minutes where you would not need your password to get to your phone. There is now a 1-Hour option and a message about longer times being less secure.

• when you enter safari and you reconnect to wifi the screen grays out and says "Connecting..."

• you can now download apps redeemed from promo codes on the device. previously you could only redeem them and had to download them in iTunes

• If you had a Safari Bookmark on the home screen, and the website didn't have it's own icon when you made the bookmark, if the website ever does get an icon, it will auto update on the home screen

• in Stocks if you "swipe" the mini-graph left, then a more detailed stock quote will show up with Open/High/Low/Volume/PE/Mkt Cap/52w High/52w Low/Avg Volume/Yield...and if you swipe another time to the left then news for that stock comes up and the news is scrollable in the vertical direction.

• when exiting an app, the minimize effect now has shading to make it seem more like it's disappearing into the distance.

• when call forwarding is activated there is now an icons next the the carrier name

• in Stocks the right side of a stock quote, when tapped, used to toggle between value change and percent change. Now it also includes market cap.

• in Messages, the "Send" button is now grayed out until you start typing

• The keyboard letter keys are a few pixels narrower than in the last OS, and the spaces between the keys slightly wider

• Mail preview loading is much faster

• You can now share a contact

•You can now add 20 places to weather

• Messages, Phone, and iPod have a new icons

• Unknown incoming calls show the location of the call

• if you start a movie/tv show on wifi. and go off the wifi network. itll finish over 3g.

• You can send as many pictures as you want in Mail. usually you can only "share" 5. this still holds true but with copy and paste you can copy as many photos as you want into the mail app.

• photos no longer turn upside down

• Podcasts are now sorted in ascending order by date/time stamp.

• When you attach a photo in mail, you can magnify it like you would text. Just tap and hold on the image.

• In one of the last iPhone OS updates Google Maps changed by default from Miles to Km in the UK and the only way to change it back was to change your region. This has now been fixed.

• When logging on to a secure website the Name of the site turns green and has a lock on it.

• messages now has its own tab in the settings along with store.

• you can close apps while they're opening. previously you had to wait until the app was fully loaded until it would close

• when apps that play audio are closed, the audio now fades out instead of abruptly quitting.

• international keyboards are now more accurate

• Time elapsed and time remaining in songs, podcasts, etc. are now always displayed in double digits. For example it will display -02:45 instead of -2:45.

• At the end of one video podcast episode it will now play in the next episode available in the videos section of the iPod app.

• The iPod app "scrubber" now is outlined and glows when selected with little directions under it that explain what to do.

• when you bring up playback controls and hit play when nothing is playing, it will automatically shuffle your songs. previously it played them in alphabetical order.

• When the is iPhone vertical, videos played through the iPod app will fit to screen. In 2.X they always played as if the iPhone was horizontal.

• you can zoom further into photos in the Camera Roll then you could with 2.0.

• iPhone 2.2 would search your Exchange global addressbook, if you started typing a name into an email's To: field, but now you can search the global Address book directly from your Contacts app, and get telephone numbers too!

• You can now select which folders to push from MS Exchange so you can have folders other than inbox synced

• Previously TV episodes within a season were listed on the iPod in reverse sequence (eg. ep3, ep2, ep1) - but now they are listed in the more usual ascending sequence (ep1, ep2, ep3, etc).

• TV Show seasons are now grouped together into one group.

• when using the camera, if you tap on the previous photo (bottom left) and go to the flimstrip, you can select "Done" to go back to the camera.

• The App Store now shows your current account on the bottom of each search page. Clicking on it will allow you to sign out or login to view/edit account information.

• When you buy something from the iTunes App, the purchase now goes into your general iTunes purchases list, instead of a specific "iPhone purchases" list.

• 3.0 has LDAP Directory support. It now searches through my company directory as I'm typing a name or email address.

• You can now type a second SMS message while the first is in the process of sending.

• when typing lol auto correct no longer makes it LOL

• You have the option to forward a contact on to someone now when you view their contact details.

• on previous versions, whenever you restored from a back up, the original apple applications would go back to the position they were at before the restore but the app store applications wouldn't. now, app store applications go back to their position from before the restore

• applications no longer install on the first page, even if you have an open space. it automatically goes to the next open space after the first page

• when moving icons on the home screen and you move an app to a different page, if you keep the icon to the edge of the page it will go on to the next page. previously you had to move the icon away from the edge before you could keep moving it to other pages.

• in music if you go to Artist->Album, then the back button on the top left displays the artist's name, rather than just "albums"

• it shows which phone (mobile, home) or location (Orlando, FL, etc) you dialed under the number or name in Recents

• Recents now also display whether or not the call was incoming or outgoing in the list

• Voicemail also displays what phone the voicemail is from (mobile, home, etc) or the location (city, state)

• Clicking an iCal link (subscription calendar link) will ask you if you want to subscribe to that calendar

• you can control the speed that thing rewind and fast forward by moving your finger vertically along the screen while scrubbing horizontally. different heights on the screen are different speeds

• Safari now has a phishing warning

• In Settings-Phone you can edit 'My Number' so it displays at the top of your contacts list

• You can send pictures to emails using the Messages application, just type in the email, input a message (if you want) and attach a picture

• There is a new iPhone setting under phone numbers in the contacts. It still has home, mobile, work, etc, but also now has iPhone

• now there is a different way to force quit apps. now you have to hold the sleep/wake button until the red slider appears, then you hold down the home button to quit the app

• the push notification settings for mail have been moved to the mail, contacts, and calendars menu in settings instead of being on the main settings menu

• you can now have 11 home screen pages instead of nine

• when a text message is recieved and you do not "Slide to view" but want to look at it later, when you open the messages app it will open up to the latest received message

• shake to shuffle is now on the iPhone/iPod Touch
• in the calendar app there is now an availability field. you can chose from busy, free, tentative, or out of office

• When using edit to delete new mail, the new message blue dot appears on the left as well as the delete dot, so you can see what's unread
• curse words are no longer auto-corrected

• when listening to a podcast, you now have the options to email the link, rewind 30 seconds, or chose the playback speed (1/2x, 1x or 2x)

• when listening to an audiobook, you now have the options to rewind 30 seconds and chose the playback speed (1/2x, 1x or 2x)

• when typing a long text message, it enlarges the text box you are typing in to all the way to the top of the screen rather than limiting it to like 4 lines

• when you engage airplane mode you can no longer enter phone preferences and it says airplane mode next to it

• when you create a new calendar event and add a number in the notes field, you now have the option to call that number when viewing the event

• when a ringtone has a long name and is assigned to a contact instead of cutting off the name of the ringtone it just makes the text smaller

• you can now type all emoji icons when in landscape. previously, the landscape keyboard would cut some of the icons off.

• when making a genius playlist, it has little dots instead of letters for every second letter

• smart playlist now update on the device. previously they wouldn't update until the next time you synced it with iTunes. this means that if you have a smart playlist to include all songs with a rating of 5 stars, whenever you rat a song on the device, it automatically moves to the playlist.

• you can now delete notes using the swipe method as you've been able to do in mail

• you can now turn off the second SMS message alert

• when a call has failed, you can slide to call back

• you can now edit contact info from the message app

• when a phone call interrupts you, after the phone call you are taken back to the app you were in before you were interrupted

• when one tab is left in Safari, you can now "close" that tab. when you tap the red X on the last tab, it opens up a blank page

• in previous versions, when you switched to the 123 keyboard and hit space before you typed anything, it would automatically go back to the ABC keyboard. now it won't automatically go back to the ABC keyboard unless you typed at least one thing with the 123 keyboard. (i tried to not make this sound confusing, lol)

• more keys on the keyboard now have more options when holding them down. "." now has "...", "-" now has a longer dash, quotations and apostrophes can now be curved, quotations also has the option for "<<" and ">>"

• when charging and playing a song, the album art comes up. previously it showed the battery icon

• you can now switch iTunes account straight from the device. you can do this in Settings, iTunes Store, and the App Store

• images taken with the camera are now more crisp

• you can now share, copy, and delete multiple images. just press the icons in the lower left corner and start selecting pictures. you can only share up to 5 pictures and you can only delete pictures taken with the camera an screenshots

• the iPod App now reconizes Japanese hiragana and lists it in the right order if you insert the spelling into iTunes. previously this only worked in the contacts app

• there is now more information displayed for phone calls

• viewing music videos in the iPod/Music app now play in portrait mode rather than showing an image of the video

• the badge for the App Store telling you that you have and update now goes away when you start updating the app. previously it stayed there until it was done updating

• if you play a podcast that has notes included, the notes are now displayed as soon as the podcast starts

• App store reviews no longer default to 1-star ratings - they now default to no rating and require you to choose one

• previously if you device was in a dock and playing music while in other applications, whenever you skipped tracks it would take you too the iPod Application. it no longer does this

• Google Sync allows 25 synced calendars to your iPhone now. previously they only allowed 5

• you can now sync calendar subscribed calendars from iCal

• instead of using spotlight to search the whole in the whole device, most applications now have a search bar at the very top (slide the menu down for it to appear). these only search within that application.

• if you add an address under the "Notes" field in a calendar event or in the notes app, tapping the address brings it up in maps

• you can now agree to the iTunes terms and conditions straight from the device

• instead of swiping to get to spotlight you can also hit the home button from the first home screen page

• text messages seem to be clearer as in easier to read than before

• in the app store, screenshots of the app are now displayed differently. they no longer pop up but instead you just slide through them.

• when no headphones are inserted or if the device is in a dock, the volume scrubber goes away

• street view and the ability to change the transportation method is now on the iPod Touch. this was previously only on the iPhone

• you can now edit double-click home button preferences on the iPod Touch

• On the App Store, instead of having an updates tab its labeled as "more" where you can check updates or redeem codes. the iTunes is also the same way

•In maps tapping on the blue dot will display the approximate current address. Also, the dot appears to be larger overall

• On the stop watch app, when you hit lap, instead of the timer starting at 0 it keeps going but has a second timer in the top right hand corner

• In the camera app in the lower left hand corner where you would click to go to the Camera Roll instead of a generic logo it shows you a small preview of last photo in the roll

• Taping and holding a link in Safari now brings up a menu with "Open" "Open in new window" and "Copy" which copies the link location

• Notes now has data detectors. Links are clickable, phone numbers are callable, email address are emailable, and address are locatable (using Maps)

• you can now encrypt your iPod/iPhone backups in iTunes

• the device now remembers whether or not you had the video playback controls up the last time you exited a video. it you did have them up, the video starts with them up. if you didn't have them up, the video starts with them not up

• you can now view .gif images

• when you are in voice recorder and you 'tap' the mic image on screen the VU meter pulses (as if you are tapping a real mic)

• you can now add invitees to calendar events

• when bringing up the playback controls on the lock screen it now shows song title, artist, and album. previously it only showed the song title. the font is also smaller

• there is a new UI for using the camera and importing images in 3rd party apps.

• In the settings -> general -> home button you can now set the double click to the new search feature or the camera

• Number of installed applications now shows under Settings->General->About
• There is an edit button when your inside a conversation and you can now delete/forward each line in a text just like you would in mail

• you can shake to undo typing

• there is no limit to the number of apps that can be installed (beside storage space). once you reach the home screen limit, apps installed after that are installed without an icon but can be accessed in spotlight. below 67 of the 203 apps are not shown on the home screen. you can also use this to hide any apple application (i.e. weather and stocks)

• in messages, the sending bar now replaces the name at the top instead of being imposed over the message history

Pre-order iPhone 3Gs

2009-06-08T12:56:00.000-07:00

It's hear and it rocks. The iPhone 3Gs is faster, smarter and will lead to world peace. You know you want one, and even if you don't, you're gonna get one. Fortunately, this time, you don't even have to wait in line to get the latest awesomeness-ness from mighty Steve.

If you pre-order from the apple website, it will arrive on June 19th. Sweet. Right now the website is a little slow, but if you're persistant, you'll get through.

Here's the iPhone Pre-order link.

32 Gb iPhone Imminent

2009-05-22T10:24:00.000-07:00

It's coming... Tmobile's Austrian website briefly displayed a placeholder for a 32GB iPhone. Tmobile is the official iPhone carrier in Austria

Nice. (Though, our 16 Gb is rarely full, so we're not exactly sure why we're so excited about this--honestly, we won't start curling our toes until they announce a 100 Gb version, which is years off.)

iPhone 3.0 - AKA iPhone HD (details and release date)

2009-05-21T09:04:00.000-07:00

Our crafty spies have uncovered the skinny on the new iPhone, which we have good reason to believe will be called the iPhone HD.

32GB and 16GB to replace current capacities
$199 and $299 price-points to be maintained
3.2 Megapixel camera
Video recording & editing capabilities
Ability to send a picture & video via MMS
Discontinuation of the metal band surrounding the edge of the device
OLED screen
1.5X The battery life
Double the RAM and processing power
Built-in FM transmitter
Apple logo on the back to light up
Rubber-tread backing
Sleeker design
Built-in compass
Revolutionary combination of the camera, GPS, compass, and Google maps to identify photo and inform about photo locations.
Turn by turn directions

July 17th, 2009 release date

Next Gen iPhone (4g?) Announced

2009-01-29T11:19:00.000-08:00

Sort of.

Turns out the latest iPhone upgrade includes a couple of (oops, we forgot to delete) code strings which indicate a new version of the iPhone is in the works (or already working!)

These strings indicate that this new iPhone is different than the current 3G version and not just a memory upgrade.

Expect an announcement from Apple in early April with a June delivery (just in time for Steve's healthy return.)

We've already got a couple of our interns waiting in line at the Honolulu Apple store.

Iphone 2.2.1 Firmware Available

2009-01-27T10:49:00.000-08:00

Fire up your iTunes and download the latest and greatest for your super-phone.

2.2.1 promises various bug fixes and increased stability. Does this mean Safari will stop crashing? We'll believe it when we see it.

Unfortunately, the paltry list of additions accompanying this update do not include any new interface tweaks, which means it'll still be a pain in the ass to find a contact that isn't in your favorites list.

Apple, please add voice dialing!

iPhone 2.2 Available

2008-11-21T11:15:00.000-08:00

We sat up all night writing a review of the iPhone's new 2.2 firmware... then we read what David Chartier wrote for arstechnica.com and decided to scrap our story and run his.

Here it is:

After what were surely a few extra pots of coffee last night, Apple released iPhone OS 2.2, the latest update to its operating system for the iPhone and iPod touch. As with the 2.1 update just over two months ago, Apple administered a healthy dose of new features and fixes throughout the OS and a handful of applications, many of which we saw previewed over the last couplemonths. Let's take a look at the most significant changes, some appreciated polish, and recap what's still missing.

Google Maps

As one of the iPhone's most frequently touted applications by Apple, Google Maps received the most attention in iPhone 2.2. At the top of the list is Google Street View, which the Android T-Mobile G1 was first to market with. In order to use Street View on the iPhone, you'll need to either drop a pin manually on the map or search for a specific address or store. Tapping a pin will reveal a subtle new orange icon to the right of the address or business name displayed in the popup tooltip, and clicking that icon invokes a fluid animation of zooming into the map as Street View is activated.

Apple: We don't need no stinkin' labels on our compass
The iPhone's accelerometer is not used for Street View navigation, however, so you can't impress your friends by tilting and turning your iPhone here. You have to use your finger to flick around on the street (complete with the iPhone's trademark smooth deceleration), and an unlabeled compass in the lower right serves as both a guide and your ticket back to the regular map view. Tap it, and the animated zoom whisks you back to your previous birds-eye map view of the area.

Also new for Google Maps is the addition of walking and public transit directions. When searching for directions from point A to B, new icons at the top of the directions interface allow for huffing the route on foot or adding bus, train, and subway routes from any of the cities that Google Transit supports. These new features are very appreciated by those of us living in Chicago, though the transit functionality does not quite match the features of Google Maps' desktop counterpart. For example, when viewing L train routes for Chicago, IL in Google Maps on the desktop, you can click on any stop to view a list of routes, their next scheduled stops at that station, and a link to the Transit Authority's web site. Google Maps for iPhone doesn't provide that depth of access, as you cannot yet tap on stops to reveal any of this information. Still, it's great to see these public transit routes now factored into Google Maps directions.

Other new Google Maps features include a tweaked UI of pin tooltips to display the address, as well as a new "share location via e-mail" feature that creates a new e-mail with a Google Maps link inserted. Unfortunately, Arsians are reporting on our announcement post that the iPod touch and first-generation iPhone did not receive most of these key new Google Maps features that the iPhone 3G did. We aren't sure why Apple excluded the first-gen iPhone, but it's arguable that most of these features will typically require on-the-go network access that the iPod touch (which only has WiFi) cannot provide much of the time. Still, since bringing the iPod touch in software feature parity with the iPhone via a commercial upgrade in January 2008, this is the first time we remember seeing Apple split the device back off again.

Of podcasts and anti-competition

iPhone OS 2.2 also brought a major new feature to both the iTunes Store application that users have been requesting for quite some time: on-the-go downloading of podcast episodes. Users can either start up the iPod app and tap "Get more episodes" to launch the iTunes Store on the iPhone, or simply go straight to the new Podcasts category in the store manually. Both video and audio episodes can be downloaded over WiFi or (surprisingly) the cellular network.

The feature is useful, but has its limits. First, podcasts cannot be subscribed to on the iPhone; you can manually download individual episodes to get a quick fix, but you can't create a new subscription or batch download 20 episodes and start binging. Second, the 10MB cap already in place for songs and applications is in effect, which means you'll have to connect to WiFi if you want to download anything larger.

Apple caused a bit of a controversy back in September for denying Podcaster from the iTunes App Store. Podcaster was a third-party application designed to browse and download podcasts on the fly, and Apple's rejection letter cited that Podcaster duplicates iTunes functionality. At the time, debate raged about the anticompetitive nature of this denial, but also about the simple fact that, at the time, neither the iTunes Store nor iPod applications built into iPhone OS offered these features.

App Store experience

The next tangible area of polish in iPhone OS 2.2 is in the App Store application, as Apple has brought a few features and tweaked UI elements to provide a more pleasant and thorough experience. New sorting options of "Top Paid," "Top Free," and "Release Date" when browsing categories like "Games" or "Productivity" allow for more granular control over what you see. A large icon taken from a popular application is now also displayed next to each category name to help identify it. Plus, when viewing a specific application's details, all screenshots for the application are now accessible on the iPhone via a convenient, finger-flicking slide show.

The choice between productivity and
funny cats is always tough to make
Outside the store, iPhone OS 2.2 also now encourages users to rate applications when removing them from an iPhone. Tapping and holding an icon still invokes the icon "jiggle," informing the user that the management UI is now in effect. After confirming that you want to delete an application, though, a dialog prompts you to rate the it, but offers an opt-out if you are worried about anonymously hurting the developer's feelings.

Everything else

Plenty of other useful new features and changes have been added throughout iPhone OS 2.2, including a new preference to turn on/off auto-correction in keyboard settings, a new trick where pressing the Home button when viewing any Home screen application page will bring you to the first page, support for Japanese Emoji icons, and more reliable performance for Safari, phone calls, and visual voicemail. Problems with Mail's fetching schedules have been resolved, and it also has improved formatting of wide HTML e-mail.

As with each of these major iPhone OS updates, the overall OS feels a lot more responsive as well. There is always the possibility of a placebo effect at play, but nearly every application we have tried, even those from third parties, launches and responds faster. Google Maps seems to pinpoint our location faster, and Safari does indeed seem both more responsive and less inclined to throw out cached pages when switching between applications.

Still on the to-do list

A number of significant features are still missing from iPhone OS 2.2, including some long-standing requests from users and one that was promised and later pulled by Apple. Copy-and-paste is still missing (but confirmed to be on its way sooner or later), as is even a simple to-do list, let alone one that integrates with iCal or Outlook. We also haven't seen much improvement on any of our major complaints about the iPhone's Exchange experience that we noted in our original review of the iPhone 3G and iPhone OS 2.0.

Perhaps most notably still missing, though, is the push alert system Apple showed off at WWDC 2008. Since the iPhone doesn't allow background processes beyond those from a handful of Apple's own blessed applications (specifically: Mail, iPod, SMS, and Clock), Apple proposed a compromise that took a "single background process to rule them all" approach. This process could be a sort of middleman, watching for things like new IM messages or task alarms from third-party applications or services, then presenting those alarms in the way that SMS alarms are displayed now. Users could choose to act on the alarm and open its corresponding application, or dismiss it and continue in the current application (or doing nothing).

This system even made its debut in early developer builds of the iPhone OS 2.1 update that was eventually released in September. In mid-August, however, the push alerts feature was pulledfrom these test builds, and Apple has not mentioned it since.

Feature requests and vaporware aside, though, iPhone OS 2.2 is a strong update that fleshes out a maturing OS. Once again, there is something for almost everyone here, whether it be more flexible podcast downloading, better traveling directions, or a more thorough on-the-go App Store experience. The update weighs in at the average size of 246MB (each iPhone OS update is the entire OS, ensuring a clean install), and can be downloaded by plugging your iPhone or iPod touch into iTunes and using the "Check for Updates" feature.

Yummy Applications (For Your Mouth!)

2008-11-14T07:33:00.000-08:00

These two applications are so yummy, they taste like Christmas.

If you are a faithful reader, you might remember that we predicted the iPhone would soon have applications which would offer voice control for dialing contacts and more... well, that day has come.

Currently, there are a number of applications available at the iTunes store which promise varying degrees of voice control. Most of them don't work. But, there are a couple that do work and they will rock your socks.

Say Who! is a free program which allows you to say any name in your contact list and it will automatically (or not if you choose) dial that number. You can also just say a number, and it will dial that! On top of that, you can add words to the "nickname" column in contacts and Say Who! will recognize those names. It takes a moment for this puppy to load the first time you use it (like 7 seconds) but after that, it works quickly and is very accurate. As an added bonus, if you turn off the phone while you are in the application, the next time you turn on the phone, you don't have to wait 7 seconds to start speaking, your iPhone will still be ready to accept your voice commands.

Say Where! is also free and we think it's even yummier. This app, made by the same geniuses that gave us Say Who!, allows you to search for addresses with only your voice, anywhere in the world (or maybe just America--the testers in our Danish office are still sleeping, so we can't yet verify world-wide addresses...) If you have the 3G iPhone (and you should by now!) it will also use the GPS chip to nail down your location before finding the address you requested and opening it up in Google Maps. By default, it opens Google maps with directions from your current location to your spoken address. On top of all that vocal goodness, Say Where! features a couple of other types of searches. Using only your voice, you can search "Yelp" "Yellow Pages" "Traffic.com" and best of all, "Google Maps for Business." With a Google Maps for business search, you can speak, "Apple Store" into your iPhone and Google maps will open up and show you pins for all the nearby Apple Stores. Because it's Google, you can say almost anything associated with a business... like "Dentist" and Google Maps will open and display pins for nearby dentists. If we could wrap this up in paper and give it as a gift, we would!

To make this announcement even juicer, it has just come to our attention that Google has announced a new iPhone application called "voice search" which is set to hit the iPhone store today! (yes, today!) This bad-boy will let you search for anything on Google with only your voice. Amazing. It's a brave new world, people. And we're not afraid to say it!

iPhone 2.2 Firmware Goodies

2008-10-30T12:31:00.000-07:00

It's coming, and while it won't rock our world, it will bring some neat improvements. We'd list them all here, but Wired.com has already done a great job of it for us!

Here's the cheat sheet:

Streetview in Google Maps
Direct Podcast Downloads
Application Rating
Emoji Icons :0)
Location Sharing
And some Safari tweaks.

We feel most of these are ho-hum additions to the already stellar iPhone software. However, we are really hoping (actually, praying) that this update greatly increases the stability of Safari. If you've got over 30 applications on your iPhone, like everyone at iPhonePOV does, Safari crashes all the time. It's poopy.

Get Google Earth

2008-10-28T10:07:00.000-07:00

Google has taken one step further on their total conquest for control of all things digital by releasing a great program called Google Earth for iPhone.

It's the same as their desktop based Google Earth, except it's on the iphone and it can use the iPhone 3G's GPS circuitry to pinpoint your exact location.

What makes it better than its desktop sibling is that it works decently with a 3G connection and you can change the perspective of your view by tilting the iPhone forward and back.

It's a great program and it's free. Go get it.

Interesting fact: If the Earth was as small as a pinball, it would also be smoother than a pinball.

App Sale!

2008-09-30T10:16:00.000-07:00

As you well know, many companies have started enticing users to try out their new iPhone Applications by offering them at an introductory price. Well, we just discovered a doozey that's on sale for 90% off. If you're interested in a $10.00 game for only 99¢, check out The Stone of Destiny, but hurry, because this sale is only going on for 1 day (September 30th, 2008).

We've played the game a bit and it's pretty fun, certainly worth a buck! Full review to come.

Stop iPhone Backups

2008-08-19T13:33:00.000-07:00

If you've updated your iPhone to system 2, you've been wasting lots of time playing games on your iPhone and, unfortunately, wasting even more time waiting for your iPhone to "backup" each time you sync. We don't know what this is all about, but it stinks. This backup starts off every sync and is so slow that syncing has become a real pain in the ass.

Yes, we know you can wait for the backup to start and then click the little "X" to cancel the backup, but, what we didn't know until recently, was that when you click that little "X" and stop the backup, your are actually corrupting the backup file. Which means, if you restore your iPhone from that backup, your iPhone will have mucho problemos.

So, we did some digging and figured out how to tell iTunes to STOP backing up your iPhone. Remember, backing up is different than syncing--backing up only saves your favorites, your preference settings and the current state of your applications (like your notes and your high-scores...) Well, we don't think this stuff is all that important, and we certainly don't think it's worth waiting four or five hours to back up (that's how long it's taking for our iPhones to complete this part of the sync.) So we turned "backup" off and haven't looked back since.

To turn it off, you have to go into the terminal and type 1 command. We know a lot of your are saying, but I don't like to type things into the terminal, I'm worried it's gonna screw up my computer. Well, you're right, it can screw up your computer, but so can a lot of things. In this case, we think the benefit far outweighs the downside, so grow some stones and cut and paste one line into the terminal.

Here's the nitty-gritty:

QUIT itunes.
Open the terminal (Applications--->Utilities--->Terminal)
cut and past this exact line of text into the terminal:

defaults write com.apple.itunes DeviceBackupsDisabled -bool YES

push "return" and quit the terminal.

When you next sync, iTunes will not back up your iPhone.

If you want iTunes to return to backing up your iPhone, QUIT iTunes and type the same line into the terminal, except, change the YES to NO. In this manner you can go to and from backing up at your convenience.

We think it's a good idea to have 1 backup of your iPhone, and then turn this feature off. That way you will have a backup in an emergency (although in most iPhone emergencies it is recommended that you not restore your iPhone from a backup, so we're not sure it's worth even keeping one.) Either way, the choice is yours.

DFU Mode -- AKA "Don't F*ck Up" Mode

2008-08-19T13:05:00.000-07:00

Just the other day, our assistant comptroller was downloading Circulate (on his iPhone) and all of a sudden the App Store crashed and the white Apple Logo appeared. No big deal, right? This happens all the time (which is another story altogether) so he sat and waited, and waited and waited... but the white logo never went away. He tried to turn his phone off--no luck. He tried a hard reset (holding down the power button and home button until the white logo appears) and although the screen went black for a second, when the logo reappeared, it never went away. By never, we mean that he could not turn off his phone... eventually, the battery died, and the white logo was replaced by the red empty battery logo.

Being an industrious employee of iPhonePOV.com, he decided to plug his iPhone into his computer and have iTunes fix things. That didn't work either. Although iTunes could see his iPhone, he could not sync and the white logo remained. Double-hmmm. Having no other recourse, he decided it was time to "restore" his iphone to its virgin state. So he pushed the "restore" button in iTunes and after a few moments was greeted with a error message "Cannot restore this iPhone (error 1621)" After a long Google session, he realized that there is no information on the Internet about iPhones that will not shut off and receive error 1621 when restoring. This left only one option... the Genius Bar at his local Apple Store. So, he made an appointment, brought in his iPhone and told them the story of his troubles. And that's when the told him about the top-secret DFU mode.

Turns out his is not the only iPhone to exhibit this behavior. It happens all the time, but, there's a secret DFU mode that will save the phone and a trip to the Genius bar. Here's what you do.

Plug in your iPhone with the USB cable and open iTunes. Then, hold down the power button and the home button... when the iphone resets (after 5 to 10 seconds...) let go of the power button (the one on the top edge) and continue holding done the home button. Keep holding the home button and eventually iTunes will ask you if you want to restore your phone. Say yes.

Turns out this DFU mode restore is different than a normal restore... it's a low-level firmware restore, which can fix many problems that can't be fixed by a run-of-the-mill restore.

The "Genius" also suggested his iPhone crash may have been caused by a bit of corruption in a specific application's DRM. His suggestion was to re-download all of his applications (through iTunes) and then re-sync the newly downloaded applications onto the iPhone. This is a time consuming endeavor, but if you're having lots of iPhone crashes and/or your phone keeps resetting, it might be worth trying.

Chopper Review

2008-07-23T21:23:00.000-07:00

In an effort to cover all things iPhone, iPhonePOV inc., has purchased a new building in Boulder, Colorado which will serve as our review headquarters. This facility will be staffed by dozens of iPhonePOVers who will play all the latest games and fret out the good ones so you don't have to waste your time playing the bad ones.

Which brings us to our first review: Chopper

In a word, this game rocks. It's everything the classic game Choplifter was (if you owned a computer before 1995, you've played Choplifter) and so much more.

Gameplay is simple. You fly a helicopter (using a very well-calibrated tilt system) across various terrains and shoot bad guys while occasionally landing to pick up the good guys. When you've got all the good guys, you have to fly back to your home base and drop them off.

The first four or five levels are very easy and provide a good grasp of the game's mechanics. When you get to the higher levels, the game becomes much harder, which is when the fun really starts. Killing bad guys can be accomplished with bombs or an on board machine gun (both of which never run out of bullets) and flying is so well calibrated that you can hold the phone in a normal viewing position (unlike Monkey Ball) the entire time you're playing. Chopper also features a six slot save system that is fast, easy to use, and mandatory if you want to get past level 10. Although it can be a frustrating game, it's the good kind of frustrating, the kind that keeps you playing until you get the dreaded 10% battery warning.

At $7.99 it's a little more expensive than some games, but it is vastly better than 99% of the $10 games listed at the iTunes Store, so you get your money's worth.

Here's the overall rating (out of six triangles--because the five star systems are so 2007)

Gamplay: ∆∆∆∆∆
Stability: ∆∆∆∆
Graphics: ∆∆∆∆
Sound: ∆∆∆
Controls: ∆∆∆∆∆
Value: ∆∆∆∆

It's a good one. Highly recommended.

Free Nationwide WiFi (For iPhones)

2008-07-18T08:24:00.000-07:00

ATT has finally opened up it's 17,000 WiFi spots for free use by all iPhone users. While there are gazoodles of these spots, almost all of them are in cities. The bigger the city, the more likely you'll bump into them. Most locations are hosted by a place where you're bound to spend money--which means the WiFi is only free if you have some self-control. If you're in need of speedy browsing, you can get your freeness on at most: Starbucks, McDonalds, Barnes & Nobles, Coffee Bean, and airports. To find specific locations, check out ATT's locater page.

Here's a hint, if you're stumble onto one of these locations, remember that the SSID password is: attwifi

iPhone 3G IS HERE

2008-07-16T10:30:00.000-07:00

It's taken us a couple of days to post anything about the new iPhone because it took us a couple of days to get one.

Unlike the first iPhone, buying the iPhone 3G is a pain in the ass. First you wait in line for like way too many hours, then you wait outside the store, then you wait inside the store and then you finally get to sit down with a sales guy. He asks a couple of questions and clicks some info into a wireless computer that looks about as far away from an Apple computer as you can get, and then you wait some more. And then you wait some more. ATT and Apple are pointing fingers at each other's servers... but the whole thing is ugly when compared to the awesome simpleness of the previous iPhone's acquisition process.

After you get home, you've got to hook the thing up to iTunes and wait some more. Finally after like 30 hours of waiting and waiting, you're ready to play.

Was it worth the wait. Yes. And No.

Here's the good:

FEELS GOOD. Right off the bat, like every other website is saying, the new iPhone is very comfy in your hand. The new plastic back is also slightly tacky and as such almost grips your hand. It's not so tacky that it will attract lint in your pocket, but it does feel less likely to slip out of your hand.

MOBILE ME. This new service works pretty well, but it only pushes email from a .me/.mac account, so it's falls quite short of Blackberry's universal push features. That being said, it's pretty cool to send an email from your iPhone and see it in your "send" folder on your desktop a second later.

HEADPHONES. The input jack is no longer recessed, so you can use any earphones you like. This is not so much a good as it is a correction of a "BAD" from the previous model. Every headphone-capable device in the world (except the first iPhone) has this feature. Regarding the headphones themselves, the audio quality is the same, but it appears that Apple has changed the rubber that coats them. For lack of a better term, we would say the iPhone 3G headphones are more "Sproingy." Meaning the rubber the surrounds them is just a tad more resilient to bending. We think their new rubber-sproingy nature reduces headphone-pocket-tangle, which is a good thing.

APPLICATION STORE. This is great. You don't need the iPhone 3G for this, but it's still great. Tons and tons of cool applications and many of them are free. As is the case with almost everything in the world, you get what you pay for, so don't expect awesome games for free. That being said, there are some neat little diddies that are free and for five bucks you can get some pretty decent gaming in your pocket. We're particularly partial to Apple's 4.99 Texas Hold'em poker game. In the near future, we will start reviewing games and utilities that cost less then 5 dollars so you can be cheap and have fun too.

3G. Unlike EDGE, this actually works. When you are outside of WiFi you can reliably use the Internet. This is the biggest upgrade in our book. EDGE never worked in our Alaskan headquarters or our Miami distribution center, so the addition of 3G is nice. Also 3G calls (usually) sound much better than off the shelf GSM calls. That's good too.

GPS. Well, we're not so sure about this one. Yes, it's in there and yes, it works, but we don't see how it's all that much better than the Google Maps positioning that was in the previous model. We've tried out a couple of the Geo-tagging applications and can't see how they would be much use unless you were in Vegas for a bachelor party with 10 guys who all had iPhone 3Gs. We suspect there will be a killer app for this in the future which will change our opinion.

Here's the bad:

THE SCREEN IS YELLOW. Apple calls it warmer, which is a technological term for yellow. If you've been using the old iPhone for the last year, this "warmer" screen feels weird. That being said, it's not that big a deal. Everything that isn't white looks the same.

BATTERY. This thing is not as good as the first model. We don't really care if it's 3G or the GPS, the battery on this thing is almost unacceptable. Yes, we suppose it's possible to achieve all the long test times you've read about on various websites, but all of those tests are made with specific parameters in place. When you're just using the phone (like you will be) you're gonna find it runs out of batteries before it should--before the end of a normal day of sporadic use. That's too soon. Since we're not about to close down this website (and put 46 people out on the streets) we're keeping our iPhone 3Gs, but we're going to add some charging cradles in the rest-rooms. We'll keep you posted on our struggles with the battery and let you know if we find any solutions which significantly improve performance.

APPLICATION STORE. As great as the application store is, it's still seems a little buggy to us. A fair percentage of the applications are prone to crashing and sometimes a crashing application will initiate a 4 minute iPhone reboot. Four minutes is a really long time for a phone to reboot. Needless to say, if you're waiting on a very important call, we'd recommend not using a new application.

3G. Yes, it's better, but we think this puppy is guilty of using too much battery and we have noticed an alarming number (roughly 10%) of our 3G calls have a very short echo. Sometimes the caller can hear it and sometimes the callee can hear it. Never both. It's kinda like a satellite echo, but quicker. While it's not the kinda thing that you'll call back for... if your call is over a couple of minutes, you'll starting thinking... "I can't believe I waited in line for this..."

All You Hackers In Da Houz!

2008-07-10T08:10:00.000-07:00

Say Yeah!

Some bozo broke about fifty laws (by digging through Apple's XML code on their servers) and found the unreleased iPhone 2.0 system software. If you're industrious, you can download the update, then open iTunes, hold down option and select the downloaded file. (If the file downloads as a .zip, be sure to change to the letters ".zip" to ".ipsw" (ditch the quotation marks.)

Be sure to back your iPhone up and don't come crying to us if it screws up your iPhone. This is a do it at your own risk kinda thing. But if you can pull it off, you can be able have much of what the 3G iPhone has to offer 23 hours before anyone else.

To Jott or Nott?

2008-07-09T23:06:00.000-07:00

We know you're all consumed with getting your hands on a new 3G iPhone... but we thought we'd steer the boat in a different direction and throw a bone to current iPhone owners. (Yes, you'll be able to eat this bone with a 3G iPhone, but it won't taste any better.)

Which brings us to Jott.com

Jott is a simple little service (yes, you have to sign up, but it's free and they only want an email address and a password--if you're not into sharing your email, you could use one from temporaryinbox.com) which lets you take notes, send emails and texts, set reminders and schedule calendar events (in Google Calendar and iCal) with your voice. Just your voice. That's it.

Here's how it works, You dial a toll-free number, speak your note or whatever, and a few minutes later Jott will translate your words into whatever you requested. If it is a reminder, fifteen minutes before the event, Jott will send you an email and a text with an exact transcription of the words you spoke. Utilizing their link to Google Calendar allows you to say "Meeting with Steve on Tuesday from 4:00 to 6:00" and a few minutes later, your Google Calendar will have a meeting blocked out on Tuesday from four to six (you can subscribe to this calendar with iCal.) This method is two times faster than finger-flipping through the spinwheels of iPhone's iCal.

You must check it.

--"Tennessee Jimmy B" contributed to this story.

iPhone 3G Cometh

2008-07-08T21:54:00.000-07:00

Only a couple of days left until everyone trashes their perfectly good original iPhone and buys a slightly better one. The only thing left to decide is which color. (Oddly enough, most of our 23 staff members are leaning toward white, if only so we don't accidentally pick up our old black one when we're rushing out the door in the morning.)

Regarding the process of buying a new iPhone, expect the whole shabang to be a lot slower than last time. Current iPhone buyers will zip through the line fast enough, but you can count on oodles of late-adopters slowing down the process with mandatory credit checks and in-store activation. Oh yeah, if you're planning to buy an iPhone that will be billed to a corporate account, you can ONLY do that at an ATT store.

Here's the word straight from Apple's mouth:

If you buy at an Apple Store, look for a "Conciege" who will be wearing an Orange shirt, (we suspect 80% of the Apple Store employees will be wearing orange....) and be ready to share your:

• Credit card
• Social security number
• Valid, government-issued photo ID
• Your current wireless account number and password or PIN (If you're the kind of loser who isn't already with ATT)

Oh yeah, we'd also recommend staying away form the NYC Apple store. There is already a line there, which we think is really dumb, because there is no shortage of 3G iPhones, but based on the early cue, we'd think it's a good bet that place will be bogged down with all kinds of crazy people.

ATT has published their price plans and it looks like 3G is gonna cost about ten dollars more per month. Not that big a deal, but if they do that every year (which is a reasonable expectation for iPhone releases) our monthly iPhone bills are gonna be bigger than our social security checks (if and when we ever collect.)

The first reviews are out and everyone is saying it's good. Not great. But good. The biggest improvement appears to be the audio quality--specifically the speakerphone and the microphone. While we're sure that's true, no matter how you slice it, cellphones (especially static-prone GSM phones) are never gonna sound as good a landline. One reviewer received his iPhone with Steve Jobs direct line programmed into his favorites. He called the big-guy and asked him "why no turn-by-turn GPS?" Steve said the iPhone 3G's antennae is too weak to provide accurate turn-by-turn guidance. We think that's just like the the 3G battery lie that was spoon-fed to the public when the first iPhone was released. Along those lines, we'd be willing to bet the next iPhone will have the same 3G chip but will suddenly be able to perform turn-by-turn guidance.

Apple and ATT have both posted videos showing all the new iPhone 3G goodness. (Only one of the videos will play on an iPhone... can you guess which company posted that video?) If you're reading this page, you've already read about 99.99% of this goodness, but there's definitely something about hearing it again from the creepy big-headed guy who dresses just like Steve Jobs and won our hearts in this early demo of a potential cut-and-paste feature which has yet to come to fruition.

See you in line.

All Your iPhone 3G Answers

2008-06-14T08:44:00.000-07:00

Gizmodo.com has a great FAQ that pretty much covers all the questions you might have about the 3G iPhone. We'd spell it all out here, but we gave our proof-readers the day off to plant trees for Arbor Day, so for the time being you'll have to read what we would normally print here at the original source.

One interesting tid-bit we feel compelled to reprint (without proof-reading) is that there is growing speculation that the 3G iPhone might still have a front-facing camera. Or, that Phil Schiller used a prototype iPhone which had a front camera during his WWDC demonstration. The jury is out, and you're on it. Time to vote.

Oh yeah, because MobileMe is a big part of the 3G iPhone, we thought we'd also provide a link from Apple which explains what is going to happen to .Mac when MobileMe goes active on July 11th. (Basically, nothing. All .Mac emails and websites will still exist and new versions of all emails and pages will be created with the @me.com extension. Pretty cool.)

iPhone Tablet On Monday?

2008-06-05T22:12:00.000-07:00

Monday is the big day.

Big Steve will announce the 3G iPhone and possibly some new products.

The only new iPhone rumor we've heard in the last few days suggests the 3G iPhone might have a better camera with a high-tech liquid lens which uses the process of "electrowetting" for faster focus and faster exposure. We suppose it's possible, but it seems unlikely.

Since there aren't any other iPhone rumors, we thought we'd point out a couple of interesting tid-bits that are based, not on rumors, but actual photographic evidence.

As is the case with every Apple event, some industrious tourist managed to snap a blurry photo of the banners already in place at the doors of the mighty shrine where Monday's big announcement will occur. At first glance, the picture is rather innocuous... Apple products and software icons plastered on giant posters. If you've ever been to a convention, you know this kind of signage is commonplace... but, if you look closer, you'll notice the proportions of the products shown in the signage are way off... which can mean only 2 things: The printer made a mistake (in which case Apple is due for a refund) or, the proportions are correct, and the banners are actually showing us new products that have different proportions than the products they appear to resemble.

On the off chance you checked out the the snapshot above and missed the obvious, the iPhonePOV art department spent the day creating original artwork which details the discrepancies.

1) The are 2 Macbook Airs shown on separate banners. The screen bezels are noticeably different. The screen in the background has a large bezel at the bottom... we think this might be a new Macbook Air with a 14 inch screen. Thin and big. Hmmm.

2) The iPhone picture at the center of the photo is much fatter than the current iPhone. This could mean the 3G iPhone is fatter, or, there is a new iPhone-like device that will be announced. If you leap a bit further and consider that maybe the "fat iPhone" is represented in true scale with the Macbook Air behind it, then we might be looking at a new Apple tablet computer that is between the size of the iPhone and the Macbook. We don't think there's a market for this device, but we don't run a billion dollar technology powerhouse. (Yet.)

3) The normal (non-fat) iPhone at the right of the photo is holding hands with an icon we've never seen. Perhaps this is the GPS icon... or maybe it's something so cool we can't even guess.

That should be enought to chew on for the weekend. If you see anything we've missed, please let us know.

Voice Dialing and So Much More

2008-05-28T15:44:00.001-07:00

Those of you who were using a smart phone before the iPhone may know that a certain previously popular smart phone (cough, cough, Treo, cough) has great voice control features that were created by a company called Voicesignal.

We can tell you from first hand experience that their voice software is simply fantastic. No training is necessary and you can do almost anything you can do with your hands by just talking. For example, using only your voice, you can call contacts at specific numbers (i.e. car, home, mobile, office), initiate an email to a specific contact at a specific email address, launch any application, etc.

Needless to say, this type of control is something the iPhone is sorely lacking. (Allow us to reiterate again, Voicesignal products work without any training, the first time you launch the software, you can say the name of any contact and 99% of the time it will find the contact. It's that good)

Well, the folks at Voicesignal were shrewd enough to also notice that the iPhone doesn't have any voice control and they have already written some iPhone software which will solve this problem. The Video below contains 2 demonstrations of the super-powers this software will have. The video will play on all computers, even iPhone's surfing with EDGE.

Click To Play
Just in case you're too lazy to watch, we'll sum up the video. In the first demo, the user says the name of a band and the Phone starts playing their music. In the second demo, the user says a state and city and asks for hotels, at which point the iPhone launches Google maps and returns the appropriate search results.

Unfortunately, this software is not yet available, but you can bet your bippy it will be when the iPhone Applications store opens this June.

Recent iPhone News

2008-05-28T15:21:00.001-07:00

Every other website in the world is now regularly reporting the same iPhone rumors.

Basically, we've got pictures of the 3g iPhone case which show that the new iPhone is indeed fatter the the previous one. It also suggests that there will be a white iPhone to go along with the recently discovered black iPhone. We think this is very likely. Apple has had great success with the white/black products as evidenced by the iPod and Macbook. If it is true, the black version will definitely be more expensive.

The latest iPhone SDK has shown us a new button that allows you to turn off 3g features, supposedly to save battery.

We've got countries all over the world who are preparing to launch the new iPhone, which will expand Apple's mobile phone market to 140 million potential new customers. (This could keep Apple stock going up and up for a long time...)

We've also seen a few industrious snoops track Apple shipping containers as the left China and entered America. The containers apparently contained a device called "electronic computer" which is different nomenclature than Apple has used in the past. Some are speculating that this "electronic computer" is a new tablet device that Apple will soon release. Think Giant iPhone. Allow us to be the first to say that this rumor is all fooey. Apple will not release a tablet computer because tablets don't sell. Yes, they could make one, but it wouldn't sell, so they won't.