Is The iPhone Coming To Verizon In 2010?

by Sebastien on Dec 22, 2009

AT&T has been under fire lately for many reasons, but mostly because their network can’t really handle the data monster that is the iPhone. A couple weeks ago, AT&T even went as far as mentioning that it may charge iPhone users on a per-byte basis in the near future. I predict that this will happen sooner than later.

In the meantime, Verizon seems to prepping up its network for the iPhone. According to BusinessWeek:

Verizon Wireless has even made upgrades that would make its network more capable of handling extra traffic that would be generated by the iPhone, Verizon Wireless Chief Technology Officer Anthony Melone says in an interview.

“We have put things in place already,” Melone tells Bloomberg BusinessWeek. “We are prepared to support that traffic.”

It’s interesting to note that a few weeks ago, Verizon ridiculized AT&T andApple’s iPhone with their ad campaign called “there’s a map for that”, but now they expect to get the iPhone…

Even though Verizon appears to be a more reliable network than AT&T, I really doubt the iPhone will go to them next year. The main reason is that Verizon is a CDMA network while pretty much the rest of the world operates on the GSM network. This is just a hardware issue but I don’t think Apple will make the necessary changes just to catter to Verizon specifications.

Besides, Apple has a 5 year exclusive agreement with AT&T and this contract is supposed to expire in 2012. Now of course they could cancel this agreement but I believe it would cost Apple lots of this money it makes from the iPhone.

If anything, I think the iPhone would go to T-Mobile, but this is pure speculation and I don’t have any proof to back this up. It’s just a gut feeling.

Do you think the iPhone will go to Verizon next year? Would you make the switch from AT&T to Verizon if that was the case?

Image: Momentum Of Failure

 

iPhone In-App Purchase: You Are the Big Loser

by Sebastien on Oct 19, 2009

Last week Apple started authorizing in-app purchase for free iPhone apps. This move was very well welcome by developers who see in this a better way to fight app piracy. I personally don’t think in-app purchase will change much to app piracy, but I might be wrong.

I am sure of one thing though: you, the buyer will ultimately be the big loser in this game. Let’s take the example of an iPhone game. Before in-app purchase, you would buy the game for let’s say $2.99. You own the game and the 40 levels it includes. If there are new updates to the game (ie. new levels), you get them for free. It’s all good.

Now with in-app purchase, most developers will give you the same game for free, except it only has 2 levels. If you want 10 more levels, it will cost you $0.99. Another 10 more levels is another $0.99. Another 10 more levels is another $0.99, etc…

So instead of paying $2.99 for the full game, you now have to pay $0.99 at a time to get the upgrades or newer levels. In the end, the full game will end up costing you more than you would have paid if you had purchased the game in one shot.

I understand not all developers will go that way but I’m pretty sure a lot of them will.

What do you think about in-app purchase? Do you think that ultimately, the buyer will benefit from this? I look forward to hearing your thoughts…

 

Action Menu Considerably Improves Your iPhone Copy/Paste Experience

by Sebastien on Oct 7, 2009

Action Menu is one of those mods that once you try it, you simply can’t live without it anymore. I’ve had the opportunity to use Action Menu for about a month now, and it has quickly become my favorite Cydia app. So what does Action Menu does?

Action Menu takes a stab at enhancing the copy/paste function of your iPhone by adding a bunch of add-ons to it. The lite version is free but for $2.99, you can get the full-featured app, which I think is well worth the money (even though I have to admit I didn’t pay for it since the dev gave me a promo code).

In addition to the stock cut/copy/paste functionality, the app has many features that are very useful, such as:

  • Select all – select all the text at once
  • Dial – dials any number that you select
  • To top – scroll all the way up the page
  • To bottom – scroll all the way down the page

Very helpful but not “ground breaking” features, right? Well, this is just the tip of the iceberg because Action Menu also comes with some very useful features that I use every day:

  • History – all your copied or cut text is saved to a clipboard for easy access. You can edit the clipboard to delete them and move them up and down the list, just like hClipBoard and Clippy used to do.
  • Favorites – this is my top fav of them all. If there is text that you have to paste on a regular basis, just add it to your favorites for quick and easy access. That favorite text could be an email signature for example, a phone number, a website URL, etc… I currently have 6 favorites. I use this all the time.
  • Lookup – don’t know what this word means? Want to know how to translate this word in French? Just select a word or sentence and hit the “lookup” button. You will have the ability to search this word in Google, Wikipedia, dictionary, or even translate it in the language of your choice. Very handy, especially for a Frenchman like me…
  • Tweet – Select some text and hit the “Tweet” button. It will open your favorite Twitter app and copy the text into it.

Action Menu is available from Cydia and if your iPhone is jailbroken, I really suggest you at least try the free version. I bet you won’t be able to live without it anymore after trying it.

I also bet you that Apple noticed this application and they will implement these features in the next 4.0 OS next year. Take that as a prediction.

What are you still doing here reading this? Launch Cydia and download Action Menu now! Then come back here and tell us what you think about this application :)

 

Prediction: MMS Coming to the iPhone Within Two Weeks

by Sebastien on Aug 26, 2009

I am no psychic but if you read this blog on a daily basis, you should know that I am usually right when it comes to making predictions on future events or features coming to the iPhone.

My latest prediction is that within 2 weeks, Apple will release firmware 3.1. This is actually pretty obvious as they are about to unveil a new line of iPod Touch at an Apple even on September 7.

I also predict that this new 3.1 firmware will come with some type of carrier update that will allow AT&T users to finally be able to send and receive MMS through their iPhones.

As usual, as a measure of precaution, I want to say that I might be completely wrong and that Apple won’t unveil a new iPod Touch, and that there won’t be any 3.1 firmware or MMS for a while, but someone something tells me otherwise ;)

 
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