The iPhone Blog

8 People Bought ‘I Am Rich’, the $999.99 app

Casey Chan — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:53:41 +0000

You see that picture? That’s the $999.99 app that we’ve already warned you about. So please, if you’re interested in that red ruby of a status symbol, simply save that image to your iPhone and use it as a wallpaper or something. Don’t go buying this completely featureless program for $999.99 !! But sadly, it’s too late for 8 people who have already purchased the app. According to the developer there is even more waiting for it to come back to the app store.

“I am sure a lot more people would like to buy it — but currently can’t do so,” Heinrich said. “The App is a work of Art and included a ’secret mantra’ — that’s all.”

How on Earth does this happen? Maybe because it’s the start of the Olympics on 8/8/08 that 8 people decided to bandy up and go in together. Or maybe they’re all filthy rich people who would rather spend money on a digital ruby than a real one. Who knows. Hopefully this won’t spurn a bunch of copycat apps and turn the App Store into a complete dump.

Actually, I have a request for any sane and capable developer. Make the same exact program. Call it “I Am Richer’ and give it away for free. How’s that for ya?

ReadVia

The Great App Blacklist Debate

Rene Ritchie — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:02:11 +0000

Jonathan Zdziarski has found what he believes to be a “call home” URL that the blogsphere has been reporting could/will be used to tell iPhone’s (and related Mobile OS X devices) to revoke the certificate of an application, blacklisting — effectively killing — it even if it has already been bought and paid for by the end user.

Huhbuwhathe#$%? Zdziarkski explains what he found during a forensic analysis of an iPhone 3G, specifically CoreLocation.

Read about that, the replies, and the whole sordid after the jump!

[https://iphone-services.apple.com/clbl/unauthorizedApps] suggests that the iPhone calls home once in a while to find out what applications it should turn off. At the moment, no apps have been blacklisted, but by all appearances, this has been added to disable applications that the user has already downloaded and paid for, if Apple so chooses to shut them down.

Gruber rightly points out that this is more likely a way to block applications from using CoreLocation (i.e. from knowing where you are via GPS tracking), rather than to disable them entirely. Location Services come bundled with all manner of privacy concerns and therefore SDK limitations.

However, the discussion about total revocation is certainly understandable, as it’s been widely known since the SDK launch that Apple would be using signing certificates in order to hold developers responsible for their code and to lock down their system against, for example, the malware threats that exist on desktop environments.

Many people — developers and end users included — have an intense, almost visceral reaction to this amount of power and control, especially when it feels so intrusive and appears not only to be unchecked by any independent and accountable source, but when the very terms and conditions of its deployment remain — in typical Apple fashion — completely opaque to everyone outside the gates of Cupertino.

Apple will kill a virus. Great. But would they secretly kill a iPod-competing music app? A carrier frowned-upon NetShare?

With NetShare as a current example, Apple has removed it from the App Store, but people who have already bought it can (and presumably will) still use it. What if Apple had iPhone’s “phone home” and remotely disable NetShare because it violates their carrier partners’ anti-tethering policies?

Certainly, Apple built the platform and the store, just like with game consoles/appliances like the Wii or PS3, they are perfectly within their rights to sell — or not sell — any application they wish. In the real world, for example, a t-shirt store can choose to stock — or not stock — any t-shirt they like. And if, for example, it was later found that a particular t-shirt manufacturer had put toxic substances in the material, the t-shirt store could announce some kind of recall. But what if the t-shirt store could come find you, wherever you are, and snatch the t-shirt back even while you were still wearing it? Maybe that would be a good thing, since the t-shirt was toxic. They would be protecting their customers.

Likewise, if the iPhone becomes as beset by the spyware, viruses, trojans, bots, sniffers, etc. that earlier versions of Windows have suffered, what with carrying all our personal information and — in the case of the iPhone 3G — knowing not only who we are but where we are thanks to the built-in GPS, well — Apple being able to revoke a rogue application would benefit users.

But, going back to the t-shirt analogy, what if the store came and repossessed your t-shirt just because they didn’t like the logo anymore, or the color was now being used by a competitor? Or what if they snatched your t-shirt back without even giving you any reason at all?

And here we return to the almost cliched security vs. liberty vs. convenience debate. The tighter the platform is locked down, the less freedom users have to use it as they wish, but perhaps most interestingly, many users won’t know or even care as long as they aren’t inconvenienced by either security or freedom. Make it more annoying (i.e. Vista’s UAC, which is a security boon for that platform), and users will gripe. Make it harder to set up (i.e. source-code you build yourself, any way you like) and users will stay away from it. Apple’s implementation is so particularly frightening because they are masters of making security invisible and setup almost instinctive. With this types of convenience, users really might not know and really not care.

Until they’re told about it, that is.

See, that’s the thing. When Microsoft pushed undisclosed changes down for Windows Update, there was an uproar, as there was to a lesser extent when they forcibly removed their own Java VM after a rights dispute with Sun. When Apple obscured Safari into the Software Update for the Windows version of iTunes, the blogsphere erupted, as some did as well when they added a MobileMe pane to Control Panel. When MSN and Yahoo! Music, and MLB, and Google Video, announced their intentions to change or shut down their DRM authentication servers — abandoning users who legally bought and paid for music — protests were loud enough to get the mega-corps offering replacements, extensions, and even refunds. Further evidence? Real Media. Who? Exactly.

And that’s the ultimate check and balance. Any company — Apple included — enjoys only a finite amount of consumer and media goodwill and confidence. Abuse up to 100% of it at your peril. Abuse 101% of it at your detriment. Terminal detriment.

Not sure? The MobileMe debacle got Apple to blog. Apple. Consumer outcry got Rogers in Canada to release something approaching fair and reasonable data rates. The above mentioned dirty deeds were discovered, discussed, and in many cases, derailed through the combination of media scrutiny and public outrage.

Apple has every right to legally control their platform, and even remove it from the market entirely if they choose. And the media and consumers have every right to protest it, demand change, and as a final resort, vote with our wallets and not give them our money if their products and policies don’t measure up to our standards.

So, am I worried about the blacklist? Not yet. I’ll give Apple the benefit of the doubt. I’ll believe — for now — that they’d only use it to revoke malware that somehow became “zero day” in the “wild” through the App Store. But I reserve the right to jump all up and down on them if they abuse that trust. And in the end, not even Steve Jobs will ever be able to revoke my ability to throw my iPhone into the river if it ever comes to that.

PhoneSaber Pulled, but will (ahem) Return

Dieter Bohn — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:00:10 +0000

MacBox, the developer of PhoneSaber, has given word that they’ve had to pull the app from iTunes after a request from THQ wireless. The chat: friendly. The news: THQ has the rights to Star Wars IP on mobiles. The result: MacBox had to pull the app.

That’s the bad news. Here’s the awesome news. THQ is going to work with MacBox to make PhoneSaber not only official, but better with actual ‘canon’ sound effects. MacBox is hoping the app will remain free, perhaps in a promotional capacity for the actual THQ game, The Force Unleashed.

via MacRumors, Thanks to Bad Ash for the tip!

Phone different Podcast 24

Dieter Bohn — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:09:06 +0000

In this week’s (late, but here!) podcast, Mike and Dieter discuss iPhone 2.01, Apps, Jobs, and Mobile Me. Listen in!

News

Firmware
Cracked Casings?
Apps
- [Mike's Apps]
- NetShare, But perhaps coming back
- Magic Pad
Rumors
Fail Me
Microsoft feels the fear, like, seriously

How To

Killing Backups - beyond the “x” button. Also notable - your ‘other’ data can get all screwy

The iPhone Blog Store

Store

Dieter: Intro Store Spot. 866 757 7752

New 3G cases coming on board, including:

Community

Credits

Thanks to the the iPhone Blog Store for sponsoring the podcast.

Our music comes from the following sources:

I Called You — iPhone Remix by Pete Leidy

Sneakmove iPhone Ringtone Challenge

Review: Griffin Nu Form for iPhone 3G

Casey Chan — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:03:01 +0000

Unlike the original iPhone which withstood the rigorous tests of sweaty palms, fingerpints, keys, and just daily life with relative ease, the iPhone 3G has some quality and durability concerns that the original iPhone never had. Insert the need for a case. The Griffin Nu Form Case for iPhone 3G ($24.95) is a stylish solution that hopes to offer better grip and protection from the elements while still looking good. How does it perform?

Read on for the rest of the review!

Design

The Nu Form is designed as a 2-piece polycarbonate shell with a smooth upper and grippy bottom exterior. The case is connected together by sliding the top portion (about 3/5th the iPhone length) with the bottom portion (2/5th). There is no snap mechanism or enclosure to click, the case just slides into one another, connecting in a sure grip of the iPhone. The benefit of creating a 3/5th design is to allow the iPhone 3G the freedom to dock, but given that Apple excluded the dock as a standard accessory, there is less need for such a design.

Also included in the box is a front screen protector that seems a tad bit too thick and clunky. Using a clear, thick plastic screen instead of a film solution leaves room for air bubbles and adversely affects the touchscreen, I would recommend searching for another solution from the likes of Bodyguardz or Invisibleshield or doing away with the included screen protector entirely.

Usability

The Nu Form case itself allows for easy access to all buttons and doesn’t inhibit any controls. Though some may complain that the openings in the case allows for easy damage to the controls, I would much rather have easy access to the iPhone than a diminished user experience. The protection that the Nu Form offers is more than adequate and is similar to competitive products.

What makes the Nu Form stand out from being just an average case is its stylish design. The smooth white upper includes a box graphic that added a bit of character to the case. The bottom portion of the case differs from the top in that its exterior materials provide for more grip and texture. Overall, the look and feel of the Nu Form is great. This case is a joy to use.

The case adds minimal thickness to the iPhone 3G and from my testing seemed pretty good to hold in hand. Having the Nu Form case on the iPhone 3G seemed like a much better solution that constantly wiping away all the fingerprint buildup on your glossy iPhone 3G.

One potential issue that I do see with this case is its inner design. I would have been happier if Griffin included some felt lining in the interior because plastic on plastic typically leads to scratches. But in slipping the case in and out multiple times, there seems to not be an issue. So I presume adding a felt lining would only serve for my peace of mind.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I can recommend this case to anyone looking for a stylish solution that doesn’t strip away all the unique character from the iPhone 3G. It offers adequate protection and is one of the better looking cases available for the iPhone 3G. However, I would recommend doing away with the included plastic screen protector and instead choose a solution from Bodyguardz or Invisibleshield. It comes in either White/Light Grey or Dark Grey/Black Combinations available at the iPhone blog store now!

PROS

Stylish Design
Easy Access to buttons
Easy Removal for Docking Purposes
Adds Minimal Thickness

CONS

Plastic Screen Protector Diminishes Sensitivity
Styling Might Not Be For Everyone

Final Rating: 4.6/5

iPhone 3G International: 21 Countries Launching on Aug. 22

Rene Ritchie — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 11:55:57 +0000

20 countries launched the iPhone 3G back on July 11 (okay, zut, France straggled a bit), and Apple hopes to launch some 21 more just 6 short weeks later — only minus some iTunes authentication failures and supply shortages, no doubt.

From iLounge, we learn who’s next:

Romania, India, the Philippines, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay, four additional countries will see launches. Latvia and Lithuania will see the device launched on TeliaSonera’s LMT and Omnitel services, respectively, while T-Mobile and Orange will launch the iPhone in Slovakia, and SingTel will begin offering the device in Singapore.

This will bring the grand total to some 43, with almost 30 more still slated by close of year, 2008. Looks like Apple may need those 40 million units after all, doesn’t it?

Tip o’ the Week: Buh-bye, Felty!

Brian Hart — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:48:41 +0000

Ahhhh, the good ‘ol Felt Marker font of the iPhone Notes app. If it wasn’t bad enough that you can’t beam a Note or easily transfer Notes from one iPhone to another (to my 3G upgrade horror), to add insult to injury, we’re stuck with the Felt Marker font. Or are we?

Brett Terpstra of TUAW fame has posted a tip here that offers a step-by-step procedure for… sitting down? … a way to CHANGE the felt marker into something a bit more professional and readable. Read on for the step-by-step and check out Brett’s article as well!

If you wish to dispense with the Felt Marker font and go with something more professional-looking and easier to read, the power to do so rests in your hands, no Jailbreaking or hacking required. This method, by the way, will also change existing Felt Marker Notes that you’ve created, but requires that you enter each Note and follow the steps.

First, go into Settings on your iPhone, select General, then Keyboard. Select International Keyboards, then scroll down to Chinese and select either Chinese keyboard (Simplified or Traditional). Then, activate Pinyin and you are ready to go.

Next, hit your Home button and open up your Notes app. Tap on the screen to pull up the keyboard. You should now be presented with a small “world” icon just to the left of the “space bar.” Tapping the “world” key will switch your keyboard to the Chinese one, then tap a letter and you will see the font has changed. Tap the “world” button again and your keyboard returns to English. Now, anything you type on the particular Note you opened will be in the new font. If you open an existing Note and change the keyboard, the entire text of the Note will change to the new font.

Each time you start a new Note, you will need to tap the “world” key to switch keyboards, tap a letter, then switch back and the font will be changed. To avoid this step each time you need to quickly enter a new Note, you might consider making several Notes in advance, titled with a number or letter.

That’s it for this week’s Tip. Thanks again to Brett Terpstra at TUAW.com for finding this little gem. If you have a tip of your own that you would like to share with the rest of us, please leave a Comment or you can email me at: brian.hart@tipb.com.

Disclaimer: Tip o’ the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (and who came up with the Felt Marker font as the standard in the first place?? Felt tips are so 1975).

Blog vs. Blog: Chuq Sheds Light on Daring Fireball/GigaOm MobileMe-nia

Rene Ritchie — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:44:59 +0000

C’mon. A day without a MobileMe post is like a day without rain. Or something. So after yesterday’s John Gruber vs. Om Malik showdown, former Apple insider Chuq Von Rospach has strapped on the gloves and joined the fray — in impressive fashion.

Says Chuq, after joking that Jobs is likely walking the MobileMe halls with a flame thrower round about now:

Gruber nails this (see below). MobileMe is a tiny thing compared to iTunes. Apple gets it, and executes it amazingly well. That this release was botched isn’t about Apple not having a clue, but about the MobileMe people either blowing it (I can think of any number of scenarios — scaling it hard). The ultimate failure seemed to be more capacity planning mistakes than anything else, if I’m guessing right. but the ultimate failure was not being willing to tell Steve “we aren’t ready” and taking that heat. They thought they could release and make it work, and guessed very wrong (or thought they were in good shape, which is worse).

The entire post is a fascinating read — chock full of insights, especially about new Apple VP of Internet Services (iTunes + MobileMe + App Store) Eddy Cue, whom comes off looking like a boss just a little to the right of Darkseid…

Regarding that ‘I Am Rich’ App - Use a Credit Card instead of a Debit Card on your Account

Dieter Bohn — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:13:25 +0000

Our beloved series of tubes has been going crazy over the “I Am Rich” application from the App store. It’s a $999 application that does nothing but prove you’ve got $999 to blow on an application which displays a red diamond. It’s a little funny, as Kottke points out, as a commentary on the iPhone as status symbol.

The question, though, is whether or not Apple should have let it up in the first place and whether they (or the original developer) should have taken it down. Kottke notes that Apple really shouldn’t be in the business of pulling apps based on bad taste and we’re inclined to agree. Both in our podcast and here and there throughout the aftermath of the 2.0 software announcement, we expressed concern that Apple’s total control of what goes up on the App store has the potential to be abused.

On the other side of things, however, is the concern that Apps — especially useless, thousand-dollar apps — are a little too easy to purchase. Gizmodo reports that there was a review up on the app (pictured at right) that detailed one user’s sorry tale of accidental purchase.

We’re going ot go ahead and express two opinions here. One: buyer beware. We don’t want any added complication in purchasing apps (though we could compromise and say any app over $50 would require another approval step). We’ll also add that, like the consumerist always tells us, we recommend that you attach a credit card to your iTunes account instead of a debit card that’s attached directly to your checking. That way if something goes wrong, it’s not your money that’s missing while you work fixing your purchasing snafu.

The second opinion we’ll express a little more provisionally. Given that we’d rather have Apple include crappy apps than have them censor, it’s not going to be too long before it starts to feel like the iTunes Store is going to need better ways to discover and evaluate apps. We don’t know if trial software is in the cards, so in the meantime keep an eye on our review section and our iPhone Software forum — both are good resources to get other users’ opinions before you buy.

App Review + Q&A: FileMagnet WiFi File Transfer and iPhone Viewer

Rene Ritchie — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:55:24 +0000

I originally bought my first Palm V so I could take some writing with me on the road. I “upgraded” later to a WinMob device in hopes Pocket Office would be a more robust solution, and then again to a Palm Treo, trying a couple high profile “Office” apps out. Confession: none of them really worked. They stripped out style sheets. They converted files to HTML and mangled format, and the feature sets just were never there. I abandoned them shortly after they abandoned me. Mobile editing just isn’t there yet.

While I wait for a next generation document editor to (hope beyond hope) prove me wrong, FileMagnet from Magnatism is proving to me the value of the iPhone’s built in, format-respectful, Quickview and Quicktime viewers, and added the previously missing — and tremendously useful — ability to transfer supported files effortlessly via WiFi, straight from your Mac (with Windows support already in development).

How does this wireless drive-mode, doc viewer hybrid work out? Read on!

Setup

FileMagnet is a good looking app. Devs-come-lately take note (and by the looks of some of the stuff passing for UI in the App Store these days, take careful note!). This UI is crisp and clean and — very smartly — they pay special attention to the setup. The app seems to automatically detect where you are in the setup and tell you what you need to know to get to the next step, be it enabling the WiFi connection or where to find and how to download the desktop companion app.

Likewise, the desktop companion app has just as big, every bit as bold, instructions — state aware, thank you! — on what to do to get your files sent over to your iphone.

This all combines to get you up and transferring very quickly.

Transfer and Management

FileMagnet uses the iPhone’s built-in 802.11g WiFi radio and Apple’s zero-config Bonjour protocol to do the heavy lifting. Performance was snappy, even for files several megabytes in size. (Note: your Mac and iPhone have to be on the same WiFi network, and security permissions — like firewall settings — have to allow the transfer. See the iPhone Remote app review comments for tips and trouble-shooting on these types of connections).

For fun, I tried a large file (167MB iTunes video file), but cancelled it almost right away. I thought FileMagnet might hang, but after 10 seconds or so, the progress bar disappeared, with no partial file left in the app (and hopefully no fragments eating space on the iPhone). (Since the video was wrapped up in FairPlay DRM, I’m fairly sure it wouldn’t have been usable outside the iPod app anyway).

If you transfer a file over and later don’t want it anymore, you can swipe to pop up a delete button, or give a quick tap to the edit button to turn on old school MobileMail 1.x style deletion. You can also remove files via the desktop app, or choose to download them to the Mac (presumably moving them over).

Note: I made sure to add an delete a few large files several times, and sync with iTunes between each state, and it seemed to accurately reflect the amount of Other data, which greatly increases my faith in clean file management, without any pesky remnants eating up my storage.

File Viewing

If you’ve ever Quickview’ed an Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel), iWork (Pages, Keynote, Numbers), or PDF file in MobileMail, or streamed Quicktime video or audio in MobileSafari, you’ll be immediately familiar with how FileMagnet displays your stuff. In fact, it’s impossible to review FileMagnet without also reviewing the iPhone’s built in file viewers, which is unfortunate because some negative criticism about how long it takes files to open, and how some files don’t display properly are being misdirected at FileMagnet when they’re clearly limitations on Apple’s implementation. But then, this is what FileMagnet chose to work with. Let’s see how the combo holds up.

I’ve had problems before with large files on the iPhone, so I immediately transferred over a 750KB text-only Word doc and tried to open it. Sadly, an alert popped up saying my 16GB iPhone 3G was running low on memory (sand box issue?). Checking FileMagnet’s FAQ showed they were aware of the large file issue and were working on it for a future update (if they can pull it off, hopefully they’ll share their secret back with Cupertino).

A 125KB text-only Word doc opened in 13 seconds, however, and was highly legible. Since FileMagnet supports both portrait and landscape display, a quick iPhone rotation let’s you maximize either size or line count, and all the usual multi-touch double-tap and spread/pinch zoom in/out are likewise supported.

I test everything dept: A very old XLS file with embedded graphics and macros opened in a non-usable state (logo was blown up over the cells), but Quickview on the Mac renders it exactly as badly, so again its clearly a limitation of the OS. A CSV file (which I don’t believe is listed as compatible) strangely showed up in icon form, but didn’t have the option to open.

A 5MB graphic and animation heavy PowerPoint took 25 seconds to load, froze, unfroze, and ultimately crashed the app. Not to beat a dead horse into some sham of movement, but I’ve had the same problem in MobileMail.

A 32 page, 1MB PDF with text and graphics displayed beautifully and scrolled smoothly. I would have liked to have tested some ebooks, but didn’t have any available at the time. I’ll definitely be trying that out at a later date.

Next up was an a 3.5MB MP3. Started up in the Quicktime viewer almost immediately. Since the Quicktime viewer doesn’t support album art or metadata, never mind play lists, it’s not quite as enjoyable as using the iPod app proper, but the ability to move an MP3 (for example, something you created yourself in Garageband and have every right to do with as you wish) around outside the RIAA mandated iTunes single supported computer can be invaluable at times.

A 15.5MB MP4 file came up with sound but not video in the Quicktime viewer, and spawned another out of memory warning, but again consulting the FileMagnet FAQ led me to doing an iPhone restart, and following that the video played properly.

Quibbles

In the age old battle between ease of use and security, the same UI that allows for such simple setup sacrifices Remote or 1Password style PIN codes for a simpler “Always Allow”, “Allow Once”, “Cancel” single button-click authorization. Many users will likely appreciate this, and if you’ve got a strong WPA password on your WiFi router (and you do, don’t you?), both computer and iPhone will have to have been given the key to be on the same network, but even so the lack of PIN or app-specific password will no doubt make the security conscious bristle.

As mentioned above, support for larger files types is currently lacking. Nothing new there, as MobileMail and MobileSafari have the same problem, but given that the iPod app can handle large media at least, this might just be an issue of how much memory the SDK grants app developers, but it’s good to hear FileMagnet is working on it none the less. (Hopefully Apple is as well).

Preservation of state, where after viewing a file you can close it, open it again, and be right back exactly where you last had it open (be it the same page in a PDF or same time code in media) would be much appreciated. For hardcore ebook readers, bookmarking would be essential in the future.

The desktop companion app shows the size of the file under the file name. The iPhone app only shows the file type (MP3 Media, Word Document, etc.), which the desktop app doesn’t show. Both are useful, but given the size and complexity limitations of Quicklook and Quicktime, I’d personally prefer to have the file size on the iPhone (almost as a warning!).

Also previously mentioned, FileMagnet is currently Mac only, which makes some sense given how iPhone development significantly overlaps with Mac development, but Windows still owns the marketplace, even for iPhone users. The developers tell TiPb that Windows support is already “being polished in the lab” it isn’t yet available at the time of this review, so Windows users will want to hold off until it’s released.

Direct iPhone-to-iPhone WiFi transfer would also be interesting, but as I would mostly use that to send docs to co-workers, simply being able to email them would likely serve me just as well. (Though either would be welcome).

Q&A

Glen Aspeslagh from Ecamm/Magnetism was kind enough to arrange for a brief Q&A with FileMagnet developer Joshua Keay.

What prompted your original concept, or what was your inspiration for FileMagnet?

We made FileMagnet because we wanted to use it ourselves. We’re based in New York City and spend a good amount of time on the subway. It’s great to be able to read a book, look over a document or quickly scan through some images when you’re on the go. It’s pretty basic functionality, though the iPhone doesn’t have it built in. So we developed it for ourselves and quickly realized that it’d be useful for a lot of other people as well.

Any special challenges you faced in realizing the concept?

One of the big challenges we faced in developing the Application is coming up with an elegant interface for actually getting files onto your iPhone. There are a lot of different techniques that people have tried, including passcodes and synced folders, though many of them can quickly become confusing. We wanted a process that was very easy to understand and that could be accomplished without reading a manual. We’re quite happy with what we’ve come up with, in terms of balancing set up time and ease of use.

Any high-demanded or personal favorite features still pending?

[W]e’re working on some new importing options to enable users to add files to FileMagnet from all different sources rather than just your Mac. This new functionality will allow FileMagnet to integrate with a number of different usage scenarios, and we’re pretty excited to be developing them.

Thanks Joshua!

Conclusion

If you want to edit your documents on your iPhone, well, I reckon you still have a while to wait. If you want an elegant way to move Quickview or Quicktime compatible files to and from your iPhone, FileMagnet is worth checking out. While I see myself sticking with the iPod App for media in all but rare emergency transport situations, FileMagnet is definitely and improvement over uploading and linking to, or emailing documents, and I think I’ll be giving the PDF viewer a good workout in the weeks ahead.

Pricing and Availability

FileMagnet is currently priced at $4.99 and is available — where else — via the App Store. (iTunes link)

Pros

Superb user interface
Easy setup
Effortless document and media transfer
Excellent integration with iPhone Quickview and Quicktime

Cons

Currently Mac only (PC version in development)
Easy setup comes at the expense of security
Lack of “bookmarking” reduces user experience
Inherits limitations of Quickview and Quicktime, especially with regards to file size

Rating

4/5 for Mac users
(Not available for Windows at this time)

Calvin and Jobs

Rene Ritchie — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:55:52 +0000

Calvin and Hobbes ties with Bloom County as my all-time favorite strip cartoon. Two Xmas’ ago, my friends bought me the fancy collected edition and I spent a week pouring over it. Killer imagination. Killer.

And while notorious recluse and rights reserver Bill Watterson would probably unleash all kinds of fury at the Apple-based, real-world intruding, Silicon Valley send-up, Calvin and Jobs, for those who follow the tech industry, it’s unique combination of nostalgia and “inside baseball” humor is compelling.

(Via Gizmodo)

PwnageTool 2.0.2 to be Released Today

Casey Chan — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:00:43 +0000

This is fun. It’s like a game of cat and mouse between Apple firmware and the jailbreaking community, Apple launches an update and the iPhone-dev team works feverishly to jailbreak said update. This time, they are said to be putting the finishing touches on PwnageTool 2.0.2 which will be able to jailbreak the “snappier” 2.0.1.

Excited much? Well, there still won’t be Installer.app because Installer 4 isn’t ready for the primetime yet but a new version of Cydia will be there so you can still get some apps. There still is a lot of catching up to do on developing jailbroken apps and it still won’t unlock the iPhone 3G, but all in due time. We’ll follow up with a link to PwnageTool 2.0.2 when it is released.

ReadVia

iPhone 2.0.1: What’s Changed, Vodafone Woes, and Watch out for Airplane Mode!

Rene Ritchie — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:18:34 +0000

We told you when iPhone 2.0.1 dropped, we asked you how 2.0.1 was doing for you? And we warned iPwners to stay away. Turns out people running on Vodafone (in the 10 countries they currently supply) might want to consider staying away for now as well. TUAW reports on the problems:

Specifically, users who paid to have their 3G iPhones unlocked by Vodafone* are unable to re-connect to the service following the update, and instead receive a “0xE8000001″ error message. How helpful. It seems to happen on both Windows and Mac OS X.

Another problem, via iPhoneAtlas, occurs when users try to upgrade when in the radio-silent Airplane Mode:

Having Airplane mode turned on can result in a non-functional phone when the update is applied. You may receive the error message: “Information for activation cannot be obtained from the iPhone” Fortunately, you can disable Airplane mode from the emergency screen if your iPhone is put into an inactivated state by a problematic update.

If you do get 2.0.1 installed (and I confess, mine installed quickly and flawlessly), what will you find under the hood?

Apple said “bug fixes”, which seems to include fixes to sluggish interface animations/transitions and app launches in general (especially Contacts and SMS). Some are claiming faster backups, more stable App Store app behavior, and better or more accurate cell strength and GPS placement. And others have even joked that, like a placebo, we’ll see any update as a general purpose cure-all for what’s been aggravating us.

Have you noticed any specific, repeatable improvements? Keep pounding away and let us know what you find!

Blog vs. Blog: Daring Fireball/GigaOm MobileMe-nia!

Rene Ritchie — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:55:57 +0000

Om Malik says Apple is clueless about scaling MobileMe:

There is no-unified IT plan vis-a-vis applications; each has their own set of servers, IT practices and release scenarios. Developers do testing, load testing and infrastructure planning, all of which is implemented by someone else. There’s no unified monitoring system. They use Oracle on Sun servers for the databases and everything has its own SAN storage. They do not use active Oracle RAC; it is all single-instance, on one box, with a secondary failover. Apparently they are putting web servers and app servers on the same machines, which causes performance problems.

John Gruber retorts, with the US’ #1 online music retailer firmly in his corner:

But the iTunes Store does gangbuster traffic and has a terrific track record for uptime. The message I read from yesterday’s reorg that put MobileMe under Eddy Cue (Apple’s VP for iTunes) is that MobileMe could and should be as responsive and reliable as the iTunes Store.

The crazy thing is, MobileMe should have been an iTunes-learned breeze for Apple in terms of meeting service levels, given their pedigree. But then iTunes uses WebObjects (which I believe is old school Java-based) and MobileMe uses SproutCore (which is all dressed up in Ajax-y 2.0 objectivity), and the pretty much disastrous July 11th launch, which took down both iTunes iPhone activation, and slammed the MobileMe servers into weeks of problems, show something clearly is different with the new kit on the block.

Hopefully Cue will bring some of the iTunes luster to MobileMe, but only time will tell. What do you think? Which blog wins this round?

iPhone App Development: It’s a Living

Dieter Bohn — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:54:02 +0000

As Rene just mentioned in the previous post, we’re getting sales numbers for various iPhone apps and these sales numbers are very, very promising. John Casasanta of development house Tap Tap Tap hit us up on our tip line about his article on the sales figures at the App Store.

Early on, folks in the Blogosphere were able to get a handle on sales figures simply by checking the download count at the bottom of each page. Apple apparently decided that developers might just want to keep some of that info private, so that was taken down around the same time that Apple started actually delivering real sales numbers to developers. Many of these developers, as Rene mentioned, are just going ahead and publishing these sales numbers despite, as Casasanta says, traditional business instincts to hide exact numbers because they don’t want to seem to be bragging or (if things aren’t going well), failing.

But these numbers are news because of their sheer size — it’s almost as if developers are compelled to share in the same way we might if we’d, say, won the lottery. “Look, I know it’s not nice to brag, but Holy Crap Look At This.”

Tap Tap Tap’s “Where To?” (App Store Link) has sold over 3,000 in a week. Eliza Block’s 2 Across (seriously, it’s the best crossword app out there — App Store Link) is selling hundreds a day. Pandora (free and awesome) had 350,000 installs. Facebook’s over a million. We could go on.

We can’t say this information dump from developers is going to last forever, though we sort of hope it does. It’s not just that we’re interested in seeing who’s doing well, it’s that we’re excited for the platform and word needs to be spread now and into the future: there’s money in them thar iTunes pages. What remains to be seen is whether this gold rush will mature into a stable economy/ecosystem/platform. Right now, we think it’s pretty safe to say it will.

If there was ever any question that you could make a living developing iPhone applications, the answer right now is hell yes. After the gold rush (cue Neil Young), there’s a good chance that the iPhone platform will be the Smartphone Economy equivalent of the California Economy — big enough to register as its own national economy if you wanted to measure it that way, an essential part of the actual national economy; the free-wheeling, 3-hours-behind-but-5-years-ahead center of innovation. Phone different, indeed.

Overstatement? Maybe, but with numbers like these it’s tough to avoid.

State of the Apps: Revenue Numbers, Paid and Switch, and the [Redacted] NDA

Rene Ritchie — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:55:39 +0000

The iPhone App Store Avalanche continues, with seemingly dozens of new Apps popping up every day (though no word yet on NetShare or Box Office!), but as busy as things look out front, they’re just as busy behind the scenes.

So what’s going on? Business. It’s booming. (At least if your customers aren’t getting error codes -4 or 5002 when trying to access iTunes!) Apple began to report download stats to developers, and some developers have begun to share those stats with the blogsphere.

What do they say? Read on to find out!

Eliza Block, developer of the popular $5.99 2across is hitting $2000 a day — and growing — and she was only at #39! Meanwhile, the free game Tap Tap Revenge has already surpassed to 1 million download mark, with 2.5 million in indie song downloads to go with it, which made developer John Casasanta, who also announced $9,547 and $349 for Where To and Tipulator, think there may be some future in iPhone Apps. (Though there’s no word yet on how that $999 “I Am Rich” (Cr)App is doing..)

Others, while not sharing numbers, aren’t so shy about sharing expectations. Sega thinks they’ll hit 1 million with Super Monkey Ball. At $9.99 a pop, that’s almost $10 million. For a mobile game. That’s enough to get developers Other Ocean talking about creating a specialized iPhone division to crank out more cash… er… games.

All the competition has gotten some apps to lower their price, a prime example being Cro Mag Rally going from $9.99 to $5.99.

On the flip side, some free apps have switched to paid apps, taking advantage of what seems to be a flaw in the system that keeps their free popularity stat in the App Store when they switch, leading to an instant spotlight in the top paid apps list. Looking at you, Unit Converter… For users, TiPb Forum moderator Bad Ash recommends — and I heartily agree — that “it’s good idea to stock up on all the free apps while they are ‘free’ “.

Of course, all’s not rosy in App Store land, as developers are still bound by the [redacted] NDA, which many feel is simply a hinderance to quality apps in a post beta world, and others think may just be protecting Apple from competitors peeking into their tech. Likewise, Apple traditionally acts like its under a permanent NDA all its own, with developers constantly in the dark about when their apps — and updates to apps — may (or may not) appear in the App Store.

With the App Store, along with Mobile Me, recently being re-organized under VP of Internet Services, Eddy Cue, who will report directly to Steve Jobs, hopefully some of the old iTunes Store quality will rub off on it.

TiPb Faithful: How’s 2.0.1 Treating You?

Casey Chan — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 23:35:35 +0000

So it’s been a day since 2.0.1 was made available and we at TiPb would like to know how it’s been running on your iPhone. Did this bug-fixer of an update actually fix any bugs? Or are we all getting suckered into believing that the update has made things snappier? Pains in the update process? Backups faster? Apps Crashing? Or are things just less sucky? Maybe you completely avoided the update..anything and everything, we want to know!

Personally, things have “felt” a little bit smoother. Contacts load noticeably quicker but my SMS is still a good couple of seconds too long. No crashes to report yet but I did have one ginormously big hiccup after updating: the mail app crashed on launch. I had to completely restore and set up my iPhone as a new iPhone which was more than mildly annoying, to put it lightly. So other than that, YAY 2.0.1. Woot.

So TiPb faithful, how is 2.0.1 treating you?

Steve Jobs on MobileMe: Full Email

Rene Ritchie — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 19:30:56 +0000

Ars Technica’s crack ninja infiltration squad somehow snuck into the Jobspod and snatched up a copy of the full email his Steveness sent out to Apple last night.

Head on over to read the full text, meanwhile we’ll just note the concluding paragraph:

The MobileMe launch clearly demonstrates that we have more to learn about Internet services. And learn we will. The vision of MobileMe is both exciting and ambitious, and we will press on to make it a service we are all proud of by the end of this year.

That’s not a timeline that makes us happy, but the fact that it’s at least a bit more realistic does inspire some confidence.