Like every crappy excuse-making CEO before him, the leader of Shazam, long our favourite free iPhone app, if not the favourite free app of all time, has now decided to charge $5 for the privilege of unlimited song recognition.  When recognizable.

Current users don’t fret!  You’ll be able to keep listening and not having to tax your brain too much:  Shazam will continue to work in an unlimited way for current users.

But the free version for those downloading it now will only offer 5 song recognitions a month!  The $5 version will be unlimited, and include song charts and more information about artists, i.e., all kinds of stuff you don’t care about, since all you want to do is identify that song that’s in the background right now.

Shazam has had 10 million downloads in its free capacity.  Will people really pay $5, as cool and wonderful as it is?  How many of the new users do you think will pay?  Aren’t you glad you went on that frenzy of downloading tons of free stuff recently?  Then again, if you have an iPhone you probably already have Shazam–and probably use it a lot.  It is after all The Killer iPhone App.  And this, ehPhone.ca readers is the crux, what identifies this as the willing call that the powers that be at Shazam are placing:  that enough of the next 10 million will pay to justify the $5 fee. And how many new users will download the free version, and find they have more than 5 songs they want to identify each month?  More than 10 or 20 songs?  Thousands of users instead of millions?  Still worth it, Shazam honchos?

Would it be many more-fold if the app was $0.99 instead of $5.00?

Oh, and all figures are in US funds.  And just a reminder:  don’t use this app without a data plan unless you’re on wifi.  Just don’t.

Will it work? No reason not to believe him, his last unlock sure worked.

Will it be available when he says? Why wouldn’t it?

Here is his latest blog post. By all means visit his site directly as well, please:

http://iphonejtag.blogspot.com/

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2009

An Information Campaign
I have an unlock for 05.11.07. I will be releasing on 11/04/09, for $0.00

First off, Jody Sanders, I am declining your $10,000. Why? Because you, and the rest of the iPhone unlock sites out there are scum. You make money selling freeware; that’s not cool, and I am in no way going to legitimize it.

Seriously, the people who really lose here are the customers. These sites are full of blatant lies, claiming to have unlocks for 05.11.07 People buy them, and are told the unlock is in development, and the release date is unknown. Imagine you bought a cup of coffee and were told it’s in development? Recently, many of these sites sent out e-mails saying they made major breakthroughs and the unlock will be ready 11/04/09. Coincidence that that’s the release date of blacksn0w?

I’m not going to post all these scam sites here, as I don’t want to give them the pagerank boost. Rather I’ll give you a whitelist, two people make unlocks, me and the dev team. Every iPhone unlock site you see out there is selling our stuff, repackaged in some form or another. Same goes for jailbreaks, although ih8sn0w and chronicdev are legit. Notice what all the legit ones have in common? They are free.

Now despite rumors of the ferocity of my legal team, they actually are pretty poor lawyers. And the scum who run these websites are the type who get off on legal battles. So we have to fight them in another way, and I’m asking for everyones help on this. Our weapon is information. Get the truth out, that all iPhone unlocks and jailbreaks are free, and if you are buying something, you aren’t getting anything a simple google search couldn’t get you, and are probably funding someones crack habit.
This is the first time I have tried to make something simple for the end users, and it enrages me to see people selling it. Let’s shut all these assholes down, and tell the iPhone owning world all they need is at blackra1n.com, including blacksn0w instructions on it’s release date, 11/04/09(yes, will support hacktivation). You do your part, and I’ll do mine making things as simple, reliable, and straightforward as possible.

You have 4 days.
POSTED BY GEORGE HOTZ AT 2:13 AM 332 COMMENTS

Of course my question is:  what do you charge per month?  And what do you get for that?

Reason being of course is that whatever they charge per month, and the services they actually provide, are the killer:  you sign a three year contract and get a $200 or $300 phone.  It makes a difference if you even pay a dollar or two more each month.  And what do you get for it?  Visual voicemail? Call display?  Call forwarding? Texting, and how much?

The biggest monthly killer will be the data cost, perhaps:  I snagged the $30/6GB per month data plan with Rogers when it was available.  That gives me virtually unlimited surfing.

Also, in January Rogers may start charging for tethering, connecting your laptop to your iPhone and using their data network to go on the web.  No one knows yet how much that will cost, with any of the wireless carriers offering the iPhone.

Time will tell.  You know they say the devil is in the details, and we have yet to see the devil’s face yet.  Let’s hope it’s a little friendly–like ‘the future.’  Which is now, or very soon at least.

The Nokia press release follows below.

For now, let’s expect that Apple’s ingenious team of legal experts will be fighting this for a long time. Here’s hoping they don’t run out of steam (having to recharge their batteries every day) before Nokia’s antiquated team of ancient solicitors falls asleep from the boredom that comes with defending their “new” obviously steal-worthy “technology.”

I love Jon Gruber’s total assessment of this lawsuit: “If you can’t beat ’em, sue ’em.”

Of course, while I was waiting for Apple to replace my iPhone 3GS yesterday, I had time to surf and search and call on my trusty Nokia E71 smartphone, which has a $7 unlimited data plan with Rogers, and has needed to be restarted a grand total of never. Its battery lasts nearly a week. That said, there are no interesting apps to install that don’t require the Nokia to be hacked out of wanting to “sign” them, and I’m talking about legal, functional apps from Nokia’s own sad version of the app store.

So take that, Apple!

Nokia sues Apple in Delaware District Court for infringement of Nokia GSM, UMTS and WLAN patents
October 22, 2009

Espoo, Finland - Nokia announced that it has today filed a complaint against Apple with the Federal District Court in Delaware, alleging that Apple’s iPhone infringes Nokia patents for GSM, UMTS and wireless LAN (WLAN) standards.

As a leading innovator in wireless communications, Nokia has created one of the strongest and broadest patent portfolios in the industry, investing more than EUR 40 billion in R&D during the last two decades. Much of this intellectual property, including the patents in suit, has been declared essential to industry standards. Nokia has already successfully entered into license agreements including these patents with approximately 40 companies, including virtually all the leading mobile device vendors, allowing the industry to benefit from Nokia’s innovation.

The ten patents in suit relate to technologies fundamental to making devices which are compatible with one or more of the GSM, UMTS (3G WCDMA) and wireless LAN standards. The patents cover wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption and are infringed by all Apple iPhone models shipped since the iPhone was introduced in 2007.

“The basic principle in the mobile industry is that those companies who contribute in technology development to establish standards create intellectual property, which others then need to compensate for,” said Ilkka Rahnasto, Vice President, Legal & Intellectual Property at Nokia. “Apple is also expected to follow this principle. By refusing to agree appropriate terms for Nokia’s intellectual property, Apple is attempting to get a free ride on the back of Nokia’s innovation.”

During the last two decades, Nokia has invested approximately EUR 40 billion in research and development and built one of the wireless industry’s strongest and broadest IPR portfolios, with over 10,000 patent families. Nokia is a world leader in the development of GSM technologies and its evolution to UMTS / 3G WCDMA as well as wireless LAN, which is also demonstrated by Nokia’s strong patent position in these technologies.

It was an odd electrical show: white streaks back and forth over black–never colour–and then a long, boring restart that couldn’t be shortened with a power button-home button reset. It was draining! It started being a repeatable, consistent failure, so a few days ago I visited the Apple store at Yorkdale. According to their diagnostics, the issue happened mostly during the use of several key apps–my favourites of course. The iPhone was not working when it was supposed to be doing teh things I want it to do. The genius showed me the diagnostic: not as many failures indicated as I experienced, so it didn’t pick up all of them; a bunch of hard resets, showing some user frustration. They recommended resetting all settings having learned that my restore from backup didn’t correct the issue, and then if that didn’t work suggested a restore as new. I tried that and things got worse today, so back to the Apple store I went.

You know how you’re at the store wanting to show them a repeatable consistent problem, and it doesn’t show up at all? That didn’t happen! I had experienced the problem most during spotlight searches: home-home, type a few letters, blammo! The genius tried that, nothing. I said, try that again: and off went my iPhone 3GS into its little coma dance. A long, long, long restart. As soon as it danced electric, she said, “I’m glad it did that in front of me. Let’s replace it.”

As an aside, the replacement of my black iPhone 3GS 32GB was with a *new* black iPhone 3GS 32GB. It was not a refurb. It came in a new black box, and my genius stated: “This is *not* a refurb. Yes, the box is different, but the phone is new.” Makes sense; how many refurb 3GS’ would there even be right now?

Sadly, I lost my Case-Mate Stealth backing. I also had to buy a replacement Power Support antiglare film. But fortunately, when I asked if someone could install the film for me, she found another genius who was an expert. I bowed the Wayne’s World-Alice Cooper “not worthy” sign to him after he replaced the antiglare shield in seconds. That alone made up for having to replace the screen protection.

So my pristine iPhone 3GS was replaced with a brand new iPhone 3GS. (When I called it “pristine” the genius joked, “Everybody says that!” and examined it closely, found no scratches or marks, and we joked about fingerprints meaning it wasn’t “pristine.”)

So the usual fantastic customer service at Yorkdale continues. Perhaps it shouldn’t have taken two visits, with the first one suggesting this problem was software-related, but it makes sense that Apple will want to investigate all avenues before replacing an $800 phone.

You’ll want to understand and follow their instructions as detailed at http://blog.iphone-dev.org/ . And take care. Lots of care.

The Dev Team has offered the most popular hacks for iPhones since there have been unlocks and jailbreaks, but they have some ‘competition’ from geohack and purplera1n these days.

We’re looking for reports from ehPhone.ca readers on which jailbreak and unlock they try and prefer, to comment away below.

SUMMARY:

The iPhone 3GS is now supported out of the box in PwnageTool 3.1.4 (or if you have upgraded to 3.1.x in iTunes)
The iPod 2G is still supported in PwnageTool 3.1.4 but you must already be jailbroken (we’ll update this if there’s a big demand from non-jailbroken ipt2G owners)
The iPod touch 3G is NOT supported

Note for 3GS users not already jailbroken and stuck at 3.1.x: this version of PwnageTool has a side feature to jailbreak your 3GS. It uses a simple implementation of the usb control msg hole found by chronicdev, geohot, and our very own gray. Now that the hole is public and in use, we expect Apple to close it by the next major firmware update. That’s why 3GS users need to get their ECID hashes for 3.1.x now, and need to stay onboard the “jailbreak train” in all future updates. For more details on what this means, please see our earlier posts or ask in our comments section (moderated by the always helpful @angie and @confucious!).

Apple recommends that you download this update now.

It’s a pretty hefty update, but early reports indicate that it’s already working for those who had problems with their iPhones not waking from sleep.

iPhone and iPod touch: Unable to wake from sleep
Last Modified: October 08, 2009
Article: TS3054
Symptoms
Some iPhone and iPod touch devices using iPhone OS 3.1 sporadically may not wake from sleep. Symptoms include:

Device does not wake from sleep when pushing Sleep/Wake or Home button.
Device takes several minutes to wake from sleep, or requires multiple presses of Sleep/Wake or Home button.
Device requires a reset to wake from sleep.
Products Affected
iPhone, iPod touch
Resolution
Use iTunes to update your iPhone or iPod touch to iPhone OS 3.1.2 or later.

Open Maps, which is really Google Maps.  Click bottom right while in search mode, and drop a pin.  On the pin bar, there is now a circle with person at left, click on that et voila! Street view.  Have fun, roam around and bask in the awesomeness that is 2009:  view streets in seconds, in all their lusciousness.

Need more information?  Apple tells you how!

From:  http://www.apple.com/iphone/how-to/#maps.finding-and-viewing-locations

Finding and Viewing Locations

For important information about driving and navigating safely, see the Important Product Information Guide.Maps provides street maps, satellite photos, a hybrid view, and street views of locations in many of the world’s countries. You can get detailed driving, public transit, or walking directions and traffic information. Find and track your current (approximate) location, and use your current location to get driving directions to or from another place. The built-in digital compass lets you see which way you’re facing. (iPhone 3GS only).

IMPORTANT: Maps, digital compass (iPhone 3GS only), directions, and location-based applications provided by Apple depend on data collected and services provided by third parties. These data services are subject to change and may not be available in all geographic areas, resulting in maps, compass headings, directions, or location-based information that may be unavailable, inaccurate, or incomplete. Compare the information provided on iPhone to your surroundings and defer to posted signs to resolve any discrepancies. In order to provide your location, data is collected in a form that doesn’t personally identify you. If you don’t want such data collected, don’t use the feature. Not using this feature won’t impact the non–location-based functionality of your iPhone.

Find a location and see a map:

1. Tap the search field to bring up the keyboard.
2. Type an address, intersection, area, landmark, bookmark, contact, or zip code.
3. Tap Search.

   A pin marks the location. Tap the pin to see the name or description of the location.

Locations can include places of interest added by Google My Maps users (“User-created content”), and sponsored links that appear as special icons (for example, ).

Zoom in to a part of a map:

Pinch the map with two fingers. Or double-tap the part you want to zoom in on. Double-tap again to zoom in even closer.

Zoom out:

Pinch the map. Or tap the map with two fingers. Tap with two fingers again to zoom out further.

Pan or scroll to another part of the map:

Drag up, down, left, or right.

Find your current location and turn tracking mode on:

Tap .

Your current (approximate) location is indicated by a blue marker. If your location can’t be determined precisely, a blue circle also appears around the marker. The size of the circle depends on how precisely your location can be determined—the smaller the circle, the greater the precision.

As you move around, iPhone updates your location, adjusting the map so that the location indicator remains in the center of the screen. If you tap  again or drag the map, iPhone continues to update your location but stops centering it, so the location information may move off the screen.

iPhone uses Location Services to determine your location. Location Services uses available information from cellular network data, local Wi-Fi networks (if you have Wi-Fi turned on), and GPS ( iPhone 3G or later; GPS not available in all locations). This feature isn’t available in all areas.

If Location Services is turned off, you’ll be prompted to turn it on. You can’t find and track your current location if Location Services is turned off. See Location Services.

To conserve battery life, turn Location Services off when you’re not using it. In Settings, choose General > Location Services.

Get information about your current location:

Tap the blue marker, then tap . iPhone displays the address of your current location, if available. You can use this information to:

• Get directions
• Add the location to contacts
• Send the address via email or MMS (iPhone 3G or later)
• Bookmark the location

Show which way you’re facing (iPhone 3GS only):

Tap  again. (The icon changes to .) Maps uses the built-in compass to determine which way you’re facing. The angle shows the accuracy of the compass reading—the smaller the angle, the greater the accuracy.

Maps uses true north to determine your heading, even if you have magnetic north set in Compass. If the compass needs calibrating, iPhone asks you to wave the phone in a figure eight. If there’s interference, you may be asked to move from the source of interference. SeeCompass.

Use the dropped pin:

Tap , then tap Drop Pin.

A pin drops down on the map, which you can then drag to any location you choose.

Replace the pin:

Tap , then tap Replace Pin. iPhone drops the pin in the area you’re currently viewing.

See a satellite or hybrid view:

Tap , then tap Satellite or Hybrid to see just a satellite view or a combined street map and satellite view.

To return to map view, tap Map.

See the Google Street View of a location:

Tap . Flick left or right to pan through the 360° panoramic view. (The inset shows your current view.) Tap an arrow to move down the street.

To return to map view, tap the map inset in the lower-right corner. Street View isn’t available in all areas.

See the location of someone’s address in your contacts list:

Tap  in the search field, then tap Contacts and choose a contact.

To locate an address in this way, the contact must include at least one address. If the contact has more than one address, choose the one you want to locate. You can also find the location of an address by tapping the address directly in Contacts.

Add a location to your contacts list:

Find a location, tap the pin that points to it, tap  next to the name or description, tap “Add to Contacts,” then tap “Create New Contact” or “Add to Existing Contact.”

Email a link to a Google Maps location:

Find a location, tap the pin that points to it, tap  next to the name or description, then tap Share Location and tap Email.

Send a link via MMS to a Google Maps location:

Find a location, tap the pin that points to it, tap  next to the name or description, then tap Share Location and tap MMS (iPhone 3G or later).

http://ctv2.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20091005.wiphone1005/business/Business/businessBN/ctv-business

Reporting a CTV story:

BCE Inc.’s Bell Canada and Telus Corp. will begin selling the iPhone next month, breaking the stranglehold on the device that their rival Rogers Communications Inc. has held for more than a year.

Both carriers hope the addition of Apple Inc.’s groundbreaking smart phone to their lineups will help them sign up higher-value customers and shift the balance of power in Canada’s mobile market.

Bell announced on Monday that it will launch in November, months ahead of schedule, the next-generation wireless network it has been building with Telus. The build-out extends the companies’ existing 3G (third generation) network to include the same technology standard employed by Rogers, the nation’s largest cellphone company.

Telus has yet to give an indication of when it will begin offering service on the new network.

Until now, Rogers has enjoyed a Canadian monopoly on that standard, known as high-speed packet access (HSPA), as well as its precursor GSM, and with it, one of the hottest products of the IT age. The iPhone, which is a GSM-based device, has helped drive the company’s wireless growth through the recession by 7 per cent this year. Rogers has said its iPhone customers spend 1 1/2 more than their average wireless subscriber.

Neither Bell nor Telus would confirm that they would add the iPhone to their lineups. Apple also declined to comment. But people familiar with the matter said the two carriers will announce a working partnership with Apple as early as Tuesday or Wednesday and begin selling the device in time for the launch of their new network next month.

Apple demands strict terms from phone companies carrying the iPhone, which limit the carriers’ ability to cut prices or differentiate their subscription plans significantly. But for consumers, the news will mean at the very least greater supply of the device as well as more choice in service providers and bundled offers for other services, such as home phone, Internet or television connections.

The iPhone has proved a double-edged sword for Rogers and other wireless operators around the world carrying the device. The smart phone attracts more customers, and specifically users who spend more money that the average mobile phone client. But it requires a heavy subsidy from the carriers, which eats into their profitability.

For example, Rogers’ revenue from wireless data increased 40 per cent in the first six months of the year to $611-million. But the company’s profitability has been squeezed by the cost of subsidizing the iPhone and other smart phones. Rogers spent $479-million on handset subsidies in the first six months, an increase of 59 per cent.

Apple’s fortunes have soared with the iPhone. But the phone companies are realizing that they have to balance the cost of their subsidies with the value of the customers the device brings in.

For Bell, which has managed to cut its wireless customer acquisition costs recently, the iPhone should help spur much-needed growth. The company added only 45,000 new mobile phone customers, compared with 142,000 for Rogers and 111,000 for Telus.

For Telus, Apple’s smart phone should help it bolster its average revenue per user, which declined nearly 7 per cent in the second quarter.

Bell and Telus have rushed to get their new network in place before the holiday shopping season. Bell argues that its version is more advanced than Rogers’ because it uses the latest version of the standard, called HSPA+, which is capable of download speeds of up to 21 megabits per second. Rogers, which has used GSM technology since 2001, is still in the process of converting its entire national network to the HSPA+ standard. Last month it said the new technology is in place in five cities: Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.

Bell and Telus announced a year ago that they would put aside their historic rivalries to build the HSPA network together. They said the partnership would allow them to split the approximate $1-billion cost and to get to market sooner.

Enjoy!

******************
THIS APPLICATION IS FREE UNTIL OCTOBER 20TH
SO ENJOY IT WHILE YOU CAN !!!
******************

IMotion is a simple and intuitive animation and stopmotion software, using the camera of your iPhone.
It allows you to capture manually and automatically up to 500 pictures and to generate an animation out of this pictures.
Each animation created can be saved, sent via email, and exported in the Photo library of your iPhone.

Features :
-automatic capture mode with definable timer parametrable up to 500 photos
-automatic generation of an animation with parametering of the number of images per second
-recording and charging of created animations
-sending animation in animated .gif via email
-photo export of an animation in the photo library of your iPhone
-onion skin mode with parametering of transparency level
-manual capture mode
-the current capture is resume after interruption stop (iphone low battery shutdown and income refused call)

The frame by frame animation is a technique used in many animated movies such as The Nightmare Before Christmas, Wallace & Gromit or Chicken Run. It can also be used to film scenes in accelerated mode according to the stopmotion principle (sunset, crowd movement…).

Imotion requires the OS iPhone 3.1 version in order to function and is optimized for 3GS.

For any question or suggestion, do not hesite to contact me : iphone@febo.fr