News

iPhone owners are a coveted market. Usually youngish and stocked with disposable cash they are the people every advertiser except the makers of Oops! I Crapped my Pants want to reach. If companies want to reach the iPhone enabled out there then the companies that sell ads want to give those advertisers a way to get their ads in front of iPhone users.

Predictably companies are optimizing ads for the iPhone. one of the first out of the gate? AOL. Platform-A will detect if you’re using an iphone and then serve you up so delicious iPhone only advertising. But AOL isn’t going to stop there, the optimized ads will then (hopefully only if you want to go) redirect your iPhone to sites specifically coded for the iPhone by the marketers.

It all sounds innocuous enough but when I’m using my iPhone I want regular version of the pages, not iPhone specific pages (I’m looking at you Amazon). It is easy to imagine this kind of thing getting out of hand and ruining the web for the iPhone. I haven’t tested it yet but I bet you can get the same experience on your Mac by… more...

If you want to get your hands on an iPhone and you live in China you can either get a job building the things or pay top dollar for an unlocked iPhone. AFP reports that that is about to change. Sources tell AFP that Apple is in the final stages of talks with China’s largest telecom provider China Mobile. According to AFP the holdup was over Apple’s revenue sharing demands. Apple wants a big slice of the iPhone pie? Is such a thing even possible?

China has a population of 1.3 billion and 608 million current cell phone users,so the opportunity is huge. If Apple can make the iPhone cool in China expect big sales and the goal of 10 million iPhones sold in 2008 to seem quaint.

I’ve spoken highly of MotionX Poker and MotionX Dive but there is a new kid on the block that may send MotionX Dice on a run for their money.

One common request was the ability to to roll different types of dice.

Developer Mach Kobayashi has stepped up to fulfill this need with his new application MachDice. The $0.99 application provides a realistic dice simulation that can be trigged by button or by shaking your iPhone.

Unique to MachDice is the ability to roll an arbitrary number of arbitrarily sided dice. Take a look:

I knew it would happen eventually. It’s a lawsuit-filled world out there. Someone’s got to do it.

Some users have been experiencing some problems with the 3G on their iPhone 3G, and one new owner has decided to try to get her money’s worth.

A women in Alabama by the name of Jessica Alena Smith has filed a lawsuit against Apple for selling her a device that didn’t meet all the hype in the advertisements.

Smith purchased the device in response to Apple’s very convincing advertising. “One could barely turn on the television without hearing that the new iPhone 3G was ‘twice as fast for half the price,’” reads the complaint.

However, from day one her device’s data connection, e-mail, SMS, and other communications were slower than she had expected them to be.

Of course, she’s far from alone in her frustration, so many users are probably cheering her on. That is also why she asked for a class-action case.

Do you think she’ll be successful?

Via: Ars Technica
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Good news folks. Facebook’s native application is due to get an upgrade in September.

The upgrade should actually make the app reach some sort of feature parity with the web-app version of Facebook, which right now is far superior to the native app.

New features include a revamped profiles view, viewing all notifications in the home tab, friend search and approval, the ability to view your full inbox, and more.

This will probably make the Facebook app even more poular than it is now. Stay tuned…

We’ve all known that Nike+ was supposed to come to the iPhone, we’ve just been waiting a bit longer than expected. So what is in store for us? Nike+iPhone=Awesome!

Or a lot of great features and smart implementation, Nike+ definitely uses the iPhone’s technology to its advantage to create a better user experience and offer a better feature set.

Because of the capabilities of the iPhone, a lot of the stuff that Nike+ used to run on the Mac and on the Web are now being run on the iPhone itself.

You’re able to keep track of all the classic stats and maybe even map out your route with GPS. So the iPhone’s sensors and chips are going to be well used by this app.

Looks very promising…

Via: Gizmodo

{UPDATE}
So it turns out that the supposed screenshots that were leaked to iPhone.fr were in fact faked. AppleInsider noticed that the app showed someone using it to listen to a Coldplay song, but Apple doesn’t offer developers a way to play music on the… more...

Though I’ve seen astronomical prices on Ebay, it is more startling that an actually service provider will offer the iPhone at $700!

Word has it that Vodafone will be offering up Apple’s latest 8GB handset for a mind-boggling Rs 31,000 ($712), or Rs 36,100 ($830) for the 16GB iPhone. Why??

Vodafone nor Airtel will subsidize the phone. To add insult to injury, there’s not even a 3G network running in India..

Via: Cellpassion

If you have been keeping up with the news, or happen to witness the $999.99 app in the iTunes App Store, then you may know about Apple pulling it a day after it was released. Although the release of the app sparks some questions on Apple’s behalf, what is even more troubling is that 8 people actually purchased this app.

Dubbed “I Am Rich,” this app simply displayed a a red jewel on your iPhone screen. Nothing more, nothing less. But if you happen to glance a little to the right of the “I Am Rich” info screen, you would notice the $999.99 price tag. Ouch!

I wouldn’t have expected for anyone to purchase this app, but I was overwhelmed by the 8 individuals that purchased the app - accidently of course.

One gentleman explains that he was simply clicking the “buy” button to see if it was some kind of practicle joke. He found out otherwise when he noticed the $1000 charge on his credit card and promptly posted the review in the App Store:

THIS IS NO JOKE. “DO NOT BUY THIS… more...

I was in the land of 3G for the first time and in the process of being on 3G and running the maps application trying to figure out where I was, my phone began to get extremely hot. I’ve never noticed this before with in an Edge network running the maps application. However, I’m thinking it probably would have gotten a lot hotter if I kept the maps application running.

iPhones have always had a tendency to get a little on the warm side when they’re working hard or trying to get a signal, but can they actually hurt you?

According to one iPhone 3G owner on the MacRumors forums, yes it can. He says that he fell asleep with his 3G in his pocket, and woke up to a sharp pain on his leg. When he pulled his iPhone 3G out of his pocket, it was burning hot, and had burned his leg. It had even melted the back plastic, and had even damaged the dock connector port!

Fortunately he called Apple support and they will be replacing it for him. I have never… more...

I was rather upset when I opened (actually AT&T representatives) my iPhone 3G and there was not a dock included. I figured, ok, my old iPhone dock will work… Not so much.

If you look closely, it is even more upsetting that the iPhone 3G is just shy of fitting in the dock which made me think about manipulating the old dock in a way that the iPhone 3G could fit.

Stephen Beals of iPhoneFreak read my thoughts.

He lists four steps that could turn that old dock of yours into a nice iPhone 3G-welcoming dock using three simple tools no more that $5.00 tops:

-Clear packing tape Sharp tool or a pocket knife
-A small flathead screwdriver
-100 Grit Aluminum Oxide sandpaper “(found in the Paint isle of any home improvement store for about $2.50)”

I’m a little reluctant to try it seeing as how I don’t have much faith in myself to make it look as good as his. I may end up creating something that I brought home to mother when I… more...