Search for “Santa.”

See where Santa is right now.

And now…

Closer!

Wow, getting there:

Santa’s back at home!

*The catch is that this is supposed to be for Rogers customers who subscribe to data plans of 1GB per month or greater.

This is a real boon for those people who are out of range of free wifi sometimes or always, and for those who have iPhones this is a painlessly easy way to get on the net and have a decent speed and amount of surfing.

What happens after May 3rd? Will Rogers have kept enough people from signing on with Bell, Telus or (for those who don’t care about coverage area) Wind? Will there be further or perhaps permanent “extensions?” It’s data you’ve paid for already, so what difference does it make if it’s checking email, streaming radio to your phone, or sucking bandwidth on your computer?

Time will tell. As is usually the case.

The site is overwhelmed at the moment, but the concept is a good one:  a free app every day until Xmas, starting with 33rd division.

Search for 33rd division in the App Store, or click here.

More to come, lots more, one a day so check back often.

And what do your apps say about you?

Here is one take on app-owning, and owning:

iBART, the app developed by Pandav, picked up references for 3,1–the latest iPhone, 3GS, is “2,1.”

Rumours are that Apple commenced tests on iPhone 3GS eight months prior to launch and, at that time, similar usage findings were reported.

So don’t hold your breath just yet, but there may be a faster, increased storage, better camera, better featured iPhone just around the corner–if the corner is half a year into the future, at least.

http://j.mp/7vVjji

No doubt this is a ploy to get you to upgrade your Mac-based application of 1Password, which has just had a major upgrade to 3.0.  Nonetheless, Mac and PC users are using the 1Password app as a standalone on their iPhones, with great success.

Install before December 1st, the 1Password people implore you.

Securely safeguard all your passwords, as well as notes and other information, on your iPhone.  Of course you should also be locking it up with the passcode lock.  But this is a very useful application and certainly, for the next few days, the price is as they say right.

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.