You just knew that when antenna problems showed up for the iPhone 4, there would be refurbished devices for sale soon. Heck, I went through 2 spare models and am on my 3rd iPhone 4.
9 to 5 Mac reports that AT&T is now selling the refurbished devices for $150 for 16GB or $250 for the 32GB. For those under a rock that's $50 cheaper than normal..
ModMyI reports that SaurikIT LLC just acquired Rock Your Phone Inc. In other words, Cydia bought Rock. Cydia has always been the installer of choice for most of us, but Rock was slowly getting traction, especially for some of its advanced features like the ability to back up your packages.
If you didn't think the jailbreak community was a big business on its own, then it's time to think again. Just like in the App Store, there is a lot of money to be made from applications, especially for those offering a marketplace like the App Store and Cydia.
I can't imagine owning an iPhone or other Apple handheld without the addition of the App Store. I've said before that I believe it to be the greatest asset to the iOS platform. So what's the problem?
Apple Investor outlines the possibility that a vague module and a totalitarian controlled acceptance process has caused developers to walk on egg shells thus stunting their creativity. Some say the terms of service are often inconsistent, but as with any report like this, there are two lines of thought to be heard...
Have you ever wondered why Google allowed the iPhone and other iOS devices to use their maps? It turns out that allowing the iPhone to run their location based service is about to become extremely profitable.
CNN has a piece of what Google blogged regarding the advertising it plans on facilitating in the map application:
On launch day of the iPhone 4 I was 26th in line at the Mall of America. I arrived at 2 in the morning and by the time Apple opened their doors there were easily over 300 people waiting behind me. I know that everyone in line that day didn't go home with the new iPhone. It was blissfully maddening.
The latest shortage reports are coming out of Australia where TUAW shows the country's carriers are feeling the heat from a high demand, low supply market. With cell carriers down under getting new shipments each week, and the Apple stores in the US each day, I feel like the company purposely shorthands their retailers and inadvertently causes chaos...
The iPhone App Store has had over 300,000 entries accepted in its short lived history while almost 250,000 are currently available for download. I often find myself asking how I can find an obscure application or when a popular entry might go on sale. Enter AppShopper.
Gizmodo recently reported that the popular website now has a native app for the iPhone that will track when apps go on sale and announce the arrival of recently added entries. Certainly this beats Apple's featured apps tab and the best part about it is, you guessed it, it's free...
When the iPhone was introduced back in 2007 Steve Jobs made it known that he thought the phone's best feature was the ability to browse the internet in its entirety. To his credit it was the first device to even come close. As Jobs' idol, Bob Dylan sang, "The times they are a changing".
The Bango Blog offers some insight regarding their newest web browsing statistics that show a decline in web traffic as it relates to content viewed from the iPhone. Should the decline be attributed to the influx in platforms that offer the same style of browsing? Some would argue that systems like Android offer a more comprehensive experience strictly due to their support of Flash...
If you check out the Apple iPhone Dev Center you will see an encouraging vow to developers stating that they can expect to see quicker, more consistent payments in the future.
As it reads on the website there is a new payment and financial report module in place. Here is an excerpt from the site:
One of my pet peeves is the current state of how apps in the App Store get their review grades. As you probably know the system as it stands is simply set up to allow anyone to write about and rank an application as many times as they like. Nothing had been done to prevent fraud in the sense of app developers writing multiple high ball reviews, until now, kind of.
The Federal Trade Commissions office has satisfied a complaint against a California based PR group called Reverb Communications. It turns out that the company who have worked with several developers were having their employees posing as actual users, and having them write up glorified reviews of different applications...
We reported earlier in the month about AT&T downplaying and avoiding questions about the effects it will suffer if and when their iPhone exclusivity runs out. The tune is staying the same from the telephone provider but now they are citing tablets such as the iPad as their future lifeline.
Without getting specific about the rumors of a Verizon iPhone, Glen Lurie (AT&T emerging devices president) says that the company plans to keep "plugging along" at the same rate of success they are now. Yeah, right...
If you were asked how much you paid for your iPhone, I suspect the common answer, (contract free phones aside), would be either $200-300 plus tax, depending on the capacity you opted to purchase. After politely hanging up on Best Buy today after I was told I would have to pay $13 to have an already $30 InvisibleShield "installed", I started thinking. About what you ask? I got to thinking how much cash has just my current iPhone 4 cost me, in the 6 weeks or so I've owned it.
I went with the 32GB model for the logic stemming from the "it's better to have unused space than too little space" module. So let us take a quick tally type glance at how much my iPhone 4 has really cost me, so far:
iPhone 4 + tax+ upgrade fee - $330 Applications/Music since launch day - $125 Belkin Vue Grip Case - $25 2 generic cases from Hong Kong - $8 Car charger + cable to plug into the Mazda 3 - $40 2 months worth of data (petty, but real) - $60Total: $588
Now, I didn't include my monthly AT&T bill simply because I would have a phone of some sort, even if it wasn't an iPhone. This comes to an average of $100 per week thus far! Don't worry, I know there are readers here who paid more than just to walk out of the store with their current iPhone. However just like it is with them, it's all personal choice. No one, (that I'm aware of) has ever been "forced" at gunpoint to buy an iPhone and its accessories. That would be a pretty far-out stick-up though.
So, how much as your current iPhone cost you since you bought it? Obviously if I went off the numbers of my 3GS, the number would be much steeper (& painful). Nevertheless, post your numbers in the comment box if you dare see what your precious piece of history has cost you.