Do you know when it becomes inappropriate to use your iPhone while with your significant other? If not, if you're not sure, Shane Snow created this flowchart to help you figure it out.
I first spotted this on Gizmodo and thought it was really worth posting in here.
Does any of that seem like deja vu?
Following an article I wrote about a month ago about my experience finding a carrier for my iPhone while traveling through Australia, I wanted to write a quick post about my experience in New Zealand.
As I said in a post earlier last week, internet in Australia sucks big time, which makes me miss AT&T and I was wondering what kind of pay-as-you-go iPhone plan I could get in New Zealand. Prior to flying there, I contacted Chris Rawson, a writer at TUAW who recently moved to New Zealand to ask him what carrier he would recommend.
Chris suggested I go with Vodafone, who apparently is the largest carrier in NZ. Great, I thought. Now I just have to find a Vodafone store when we get in Auckland.
We flew from Sydney to Auckland. We went through the customs without much problems and as we were walking out, I noticed a Vodafone kiosk right in the airport, next to the car rentals offices. Perfect! I walked there, inquired about prices and in just minutes minutes, I had a fully activated SIM card as well as 100MB of data, which is what I need the most.
I also charged the SIM card with $50 which gives me $20 worth of talk time and an extra 500MB of data to satisfy by internet addiction. It took about 10 minutes from the time I started talking to the Vodafone guy to the time I walked away.
The 3G coverage in Auckland and in major cities is good, but as soon as you drive in the country, which is pretty much 95% of the country, you have to rely on GPRS or in some cases, don't get any signal at all.
Dealing with Vodafone was a pleasant experience. Even though the coverage is not great in NZ, it's better than nothing, and it allows me to write this post, while tethering my iPhone from Otorohanga.
We will be in NZ for a few more days, then we will return to Australia where we will stay in Melbourne for a few days before driving all the way west to Perth. I can see much more tethering in my future ;)
This is a summary of all the articles posted on the blog this past week.
Top 5 gay apps for iPhone - There are some good and some bad ones but a few stand out from the crowd so here are the top 5 Gay related iPhone apps you may want to take a look at.
iPhone 4G rumors - Rumors of a new iPhone are already going around.
AT&T ain't that bad after all - I miss AT&T. This is why.
A developer insight on the App Store - Help a developer and enter for a chance to win an iPod Touch.
Turn your iPhone into a remote control - A cool but pricey solution to use your iPhone as a remote control.
Are web apps the future of apps? - I think so. What do you think?
GeoHot working on untethered jailbreak? - GeoHot mentionned that he might be working on an untethered jailbreak for BlackRa1n.
Is GeoHot really going to work on an untethered jailbreak for the iPhone 3GS? That's what he mentioned in a tweet yesterday.
As usual, in order to get him motivated, you have to do something in exchange. He wants you to make #dudeitsaballoon a trending topic on Twitter. I haven't really looked into it as I don't have much time while traveling, but it has something to do with red balloons in the sky.
Some of you may be interested in this untethered jailbreak as it is a pain the the butt to always have to plug your iPhone every time you want to reboot.
So, what are these red balloons about?
John Gruber wrote an interesting article on Daring Fireball last week about iPhone web apps as an alternative to the App Store. Gruber starts by quoting Peter-Paul Koch who thinks that developers should just bypass the App Store by creating web apps instead of native apps:
In order to release an iPhone application without having to submit it to Apple’s insane App Store process, developers could just use Web technologies and create Web apps instead of native apps.
The main benefit of creating a web app is that you don't have to deal with Apple and you can make your app do whatever you want. The main downside though is that a web app doesn't have access to core functionalities of the iPhone. For example, the mobile version of Flickr can't access your photo library, making it impossible to upload images to the site.
It's funny because when the iPhone came out, Apple had a directory of web apps on its site. It seemed at the time that Apple saw web apps as a great addition to the iPhone experience. Then the jailbreakers came in and started creating third-party applications, which changed the game forever.
That's at this time that Apple realized that they should allow developers to create native apps. I can't find the article but I clearly remember reading something quoting Steve Jobs or Phil Schiller saying that the App Store was kind of an accident, that Apple never really intended to let developers create apps for the iPhone.
When they saw how successful the jailbreak community was, Apple quickly woke up, worked on an official SDK and created the business model that is the App Store we know today.
Along the way, Apple quietly ended the promotion of web apps because they figured that web apps don't make money, and that they'd be better off selling apps and getting a cut of each sale rather than not getting anything at all.
Google's take on it is simple: web apps are the future of applications! You can tell that Google put much effort into web apps and deliberately left native apps aside. For example, there is no native Gmail app. However, the Gmail web app for iPhone is nothing short of amazing. Same for the Google Voice web app.
I do believe that web apps are the future of applications for most mobile platforms out there. Unfortunately, I also believe that Apple will not let that happen on its turf. They have too much to lose. The App Store machine is on a roll and nothing can really stop it now.
While Google embraces openness, Apple cherishes its closed platform. Both companies have different objectives and it's fine because there is plenty of room for multiple players out there.
Ever wanted to use your iPhone as a remote control for your TV, DVD player, and more? Well, I have! A few months ago I was really excited to write about UiRemote, an app + hardware solution to control your home electronics. At the time, the devs even offered to send me a beta version so I can try it out for myself. I'm still waiting for the product to be mailed, and quite honestly, I think their project died along the way.
RedEye on the other hand is not a beta and it is currently available to anyone willing to put the price into it. RedEye [iTunes Link] is a universal remote control solution that turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into a remote for any IR-equipped device in your home. In other words, it's an iPhone remote control for your TV, DVR, cable, home stereo, etc...
Engadget explains how it works:
The app itself is completely free to download, though it's the $188 base station that really makes the magic happen; your handheld talks to said dock via wifi, and if you've got an AV device, home automation system or pretty much anything that responds to IR signals, your iPhone can now control it.
Check out this video for a quick demo (2 more vids here and here).
This is a great idea even though it's not really new as Palm has been doing this for years without any extra hardware.
Everything about this sounds great, except maybe the price, which might be a deal breaker for most of us, especially since you can get a universal remote control from Best Buy for a fraction of this price. I also wonder why they had to make the dock so clunky. Adding an IR dongle to the iPhone seems it would have been a better solution.
All in all, I think it is a great piece of technology and even though I will definitely not buy a RedEye, I'm really glad that there are companies out there putting the effort into such developments. Now I wouldn't be surprised if Apple added an IR port to the iPhone in the future and sold the app at an hefty price...
What do you think about the RedEye iPhone remote control? Are you willing to pay nearly $200 for it or are you just gonna stick to your current set up?
This is a sponsored post by the developers of Star Walk, an amazing iPhone app that I completely endorse and recommend. Star Walk devs are looking for some feedback and I encourage you to help them out because they really deserve it.
We are all immersed, surrounded, bombarded by everything that involves Apple, iTunes, the App Store, the iPhone and the iPod Touch. 2009 has seen the App Store phenomenon growing exponentially and people are confident enough to say that it will never stop, or at least not for a long time. But what kind of year has it been for the developers of the 100,000+ iPhone apps that are available in the App Store?
Today on the iPhone Download Blog we are writing an open letter as developers to tell you about our experience dealing with the App Store: the highs and lows, the great achievements but also some disappointments and problems encountered, things that are still unknown and that we are trying to get our head around.
A little more than a year ago we decided to start the iPhone adventure. We worked hard on an idea and submitted it to Apple with some hopes, fears, and a lot of expectations. How is it going to be received? Will people like it? Those are the main questions for every developer. It is still a new world, which is fast and sometimes harsh. If people don't like what you have worked on for months, you will soon find out that you have worked for nothing, and nothing will hurt more than not appearing at least in the top 100 apps of the category you are in.
Our idea was based on our passions, astronomy and stargazing. We are lucky enough to live close to the forest and have a lot of clear skies that allow us to admire the sky in all its beauty, and so Star Walk was born following our own inclination. But how many people have the same passion as us? Well, it was soon the be found out...
It turns out that apart from the passion for the Apple world, iPhone and iPod Touch users need beauty, smoothness, intuitive features, and only if your app has those features, people will get closer to it. So we discovered that the customers out there, you guys, are passionate as much as we are about astronomy.
It seems like Star Walk has pretty much all of those characteristics and as our first app, it has been so far (for the whole year) very successful, never leaving the top 10 in the Education Category.
Now comes the difficult part... What's next? What would people like from us? Are they waiting for something more from us? Do we already have a fan base? Are we still an anonymous company in the crowded App Store? Is following our passion the key to success? It seems like it is not so easy to find out answers to those questions. We tried! In fact, we have now 4 more apps in the App Store but only Star Walk has reached the top.
Obviously we are not doing everything right but it isn't really easy to understand what's right and what's wrong. Therefore we started some small marketing research to become more knowledgeable about the App Store world and to make more successful apps.
We are convinced that in the near future this market will become more and more sophisticated, demanding and targeted. We know where we want to be, we are good at Education (we hope) and we want to stay there and for this, every feedback helps.
To do this properly we need your help.
It would be great if you could answer a few questions for us to help us understand you more! Click here, take our little survey (it is only 5 questions) tell us you have taken the survey on our twitter page and a random selected group from those who have answered will win Star Walk promo codes, iTunes gift cards, and an iPod Touch! Winners will be announced on Twitter @StarWalk on January 5th. Thanks a lot for your time and for making us one of the best educational application in the App Store.
I was with T-Mobile before getting an iPhone and I was very satisfied. I've never really complained about AT&T. The only problem I have with them is the cost of the service.
I pay roughly $80/month including $30/month for unlimited data. Until now I was really pissed about the $30 which I thought were a complete rip off.
Things have changed since I started traveling overseas... Here in Australia, I pay $50 for 250 minutes of communication and 500MB of data with Optus, and that is where it hurts.
3G in Australia sucks! Internet in general sucks in Australia but 3G is worth than you might even expect. First it is not cheap, but I'm ok with it. It's pre-paid so I don't expect a cheap price. What I'm really disappointed in is the slow 3G network. I feel like I'm back on Edge.
I was able to try it in several places in Eastern Australia, including larger cities like Brisbane and Sydney, but no matter where I am, it still is painfully slow.
Yesterday night, as I was refreshing my email inbox, I started feeling nostalgic of the good old AT&T network. Sure I had a few dropped calls here and there but the 3G coverage is pretty good and most importantly, it is pretty fast.
I miss you AT&T! I miss how fast you can update Twitter. I miss how quickly you load my news feed on Facebook. I miss how fast you download email attachments. Most importantly, I miss the safety of unlimited data download and upload.
You may have read that Pandav, iPhone dev of the iBart application has found tracks of a new iPhone in the usage records of his iPhone app.
According to TUAW:
Pandav noticed an identifier for "iPhone3,1" in their logs. The iPhone 3GS hardware identifier is "iPhone2,1", which means the next generation iPhone is already being tested.
I'm pretty sure this is only the beginning and we'll be seeing more of these reports in the coming weeks/months.
Like every year since the launch of the iPhone, rumors are gonna go wild. Here is my list of rumored features I am expecting to see in the next iPhone:
5 MP camera Front facing camera Multitasking Washer/Drier Dishwasher Microwave oven Air Bag Taser Water purifierI know these features are kind of a stretch, but one can dream, right?
What are the features you want to see in the next iPhone? Don't be scared to go crazy