Today when logging into my Apple Developer account I noticed a nice little surprise. A new iPhone OS beta was available for download via Apple Developer connection. I have yet to download the beta considering many people are having issues with the network connectivity and such however I did want to point out some interesting modifications in the new firmware.
After reading the Developer Forums it seems as if apple has re-enabled the MMS feature but currently MMS is not working. I still believe AT&T needs to enable the MMS feature on their end but it does seem that MMS will be enabled when the iPhone OS 3.1 is publicly released.
For all you iPhone 3GS users it seems you get a great new feature to go along with the your excellent video recorder (Can you tell I have not upgraded yet?) Apple has added the ability to copy video clips in the editor. I am still unsure where we can paste the clips but I think it will be used mainly to allow us to “splice” two video clips together.
Smaller changes include:
- Modem firmware upgrade bringing the carrier software version from 4.0 to 4.2.
- Adding feature to when the phone is put into “move mode” (when you can move apps) the device vibrates.
- Fixed issue with Voice Command and Bluetooth.
- Phone Keypad now allows you to copy and paste.
Most issues with the beta seem to be with the network connectivity and the iPod app. Some users are stating that the iPod app will not even open. As of now I am going to stay away from the 3.1 beta OS until said issues are resolved and I strongly suggest anyone considering updating to the beta do the same. I will keep you posted when I get more news.
Got questions or your own comments? Leave them below!
The Podium Revolution! The only desktop stand for your iPhone/iPod Touch you will ever need. Alright, sorry for the infomercial type intro but the Podium Revolution is one of the best iPhone/iPod Touch stand on the market. The stand itself comes in both white and silver both built with perfection in mind. A great finish for a great iPhone/iPod Touch Stand.
The Podium Revolution is great for just about anything you can do on your iPhone. Everything from turning your iPhone into a digital alarm clock while you are in bed. To helping you become more organized at your desk. I have noticed myself using the stand to help me keep track of daily tasks and events. Using to turn my iPhone into a digital calendar that updates automatically. If money were no object I would buy an iPod Touch and this stand just for iCal 
but that is a story for another day.
I highly recommend anyone interested in a great iPhone stand to click the animated image above. Overall the Podium Revolution is a great stand and great choice for anyone looking for an iPhone stand.
Updated way to enable tethering:
Simple! Just go to this website on your phone. http://help.benm.at/help.php
- Click on mobileconfigs.
- Select your Country.
- Select your carrier.
- It will ask you if you want to install.
- Click install.
- Enjoy your tethering via Settings > General > Network > Internet Tethering
Old way to enable tethering:
iPhone 3.0 is live! So I am going to repost the tethering tutorial. Now there is no need to download anything (aside from the carrier file). Seems you can just run a little command in terminal (Make sure you are on OS 3.0 on a 3G iPhone and iTunes 8.2):
So open up terminal and type:
defaults write com.apple.iTunes carrier-testing -bool TRUE
After that, the steps become a lot more simple.
1. Download this file (for AT&T) and mount the disk image (thanks Gizmodo) for other carriers, try here.
2. Option-click on “restore” in your iTunes with your iPhone attached. Browse to the opened disk image file and hit OK. It will update phone settings for a few seconds.
3. You have tethering. Now go into your iPhone/settings/general/network/Internet Tethering and turn it on.
Boom – 3 steps to tethering…
As a side note is highly recommended that you not use this as your primary internet service. Please if anything try to stay under 5GB’s of transfer per month to avoid service termination.
Hi there. I thought I might give you a little background on myself before I wrote this blog entry. My name is Cody “Belthesar” Wilson, and I’m one of the lesser known members of the Geekologist team. Typically, I sit in the background and am here to give guidance and direction on the way this site moves forward, either technical or otherwise. You probably won’t see a lot of blog posts from me, but when you do, it’s because, well, I just gotta share something with everyone.
I was raised for the most part in the Windows world (unless you count when I was mucking around in DOS 5 and 6, and my Apple II years, but we won’t bother with those for now.) 4 years ago, I decided I wanted to give Apple a shot and bought a friends Powerbook G4. I was hooked from there, and became a Mac zealot of sorts. I did my fair share of Microsoft bashing while as a Windows user, but it certainly increased when I saw “the light”. So when I tell you that Windows 7, even in its release candidate stage, is the first Microsoft OS I feel not only comfortable, but welcome and enjoy using since I made the switch to OS X, I want you to know exactly what I mean.
Being the Apple fan I am, not only in OS but in hardware, I decided that I would bite the bullet and nuke my XP Boot Camp partition in favor of installing the Windows 7 release candidate (RC). Given that I have a new Unibody Macbook Pro, I thought I’d give the x64 release aside, as I was tired of not being able to address all of the RAM when I was in the Windows side of things. The install process worked without a hitch. After installing the Boot Camp 2.1 drivers for x64 Vista (which also work without any fuss) I had a fully functional Boot Camp compliant Windows 7 install. This meant it was time to play.
My first impression was the new Taskbar system, which now very much so replicates and expands upon OS X’s Dock. You can pin applications to the Taskbar and launch them from there, as well as access any running application from it. Instead of having a text description, the Taskbar now only has the application icon. It’s important to note that since they have done this, they have removed the “Quick Launch” toolbar for the Taskbar. Not a problem as this would have been redundant anyway, and the new system works great. The Taskbar groups windows by application, and hovering over the application’s icon allows you to select which window you want from a labeled preview icon. All in all, a very comfortable and familiar experience, especially coming from being an OS X user. The Taskbar has two other really nice features, one of which is the movement and expansion on the “Show Desktop” button. Formerly located in the Quick Launch toolbar, the “Show Desktop” button now resides on the far right of the Taskbar. Clicking it has the same functionality as before, but hovering over it fades each visible window into an Aero transparent window pane, allowing you to see your desktop as well as the outline of each open window. I found it interesting to find that at one point there was a dialog box that had gotten buried in my persistent clicking about and was able to address it in this manner. Lastly on the Taskbar, the new System Tray is fantastic. You can now not only choose what icons appear in the tray, but how their notification behavior works. Also, instead of expanding the System Tray, it brings up another small window like when hovering over application icons on the Taskbar which allows you to select the other hidden System Tray icons. All in all, easy to use, easy to manage. Many welcome changes from not only Vista, but from XP, and given that many users are still staunchly avoiding Vista like the plague, I have a feeling this new interface will be different, but welcome to the users that have avoided the switch to Microsoft’s current desktop OS.
Secondly, the modifications to the Vista-introduced “User Account Control” system have made a very annoying and ridiculed feature much less of an annoyance while maintaining the security benefit of user-granted process elevation. UAC now has a slider that controls just how in depth it’s requests for attention are. Its default setting seems to be very sufficient by being present, but not unobtrusive. UAC offers a hyper-paranoid setting for users questioning if they have viruses, or just really like knowing whenever any system change is trying to be made, a little more relaxed setting which still brings up a dialog window whenever a system change is being made but does not lock out or dim the screen (also an added feature for older systems and I’m sure netbooks, who have trouble with the DirectX transparency overlay taking a long time to load), and finally an option to disable UAC completely. Not being unfamiliar with having to elevate to perform certain tasks since my experience with UAC, I have left it at its default setting. UAC also learns what tasks you seem to perform on an elevated level and will learn to automatically elevate certain tasks. These tasks still have the “elevated shield badge” on them in the Taskbar, but have a opposing pattern blue and gold shield coloring versus the Windows patterned shield for elevated processes.
The last feature I’m going to talk about in this article is the Theme system. Present since Windows 95’s PLUS! Pack, Windows Themes allow you to style your computer’s interface to your liking. Sorta. They can change your desktop icons, your border colors, your wallpaper, and your sound set. And they still do now. But making and changing themes to suit your style is easier, more intuitive, and more powerful than ever. Desktop backgrounds no longer require a third-party application to be rotated. I use the same folder I do in OS X for my backgrounds in Windows 7. A nicer set of default sound sets are included, so if for some reason Vista’s sounds make you cringe, then there are several other themes you can choose from. The Aero and Taskbar colors can also be modified. All things that you could do before, but now have a way of doing them simpler and easier.
All in all, the Windows 7 experience is something I’m truly excited about. I finally feel that Microsoft has a true contender in the OS market again, and it’s now Apple’s turn to start looking at what Microsoft is doing and learning on how to improve upon it. While I’m not about to say that Windows 7 is fantastic and I’m a switcher, I now have no problem booting into Windows and feeling like I’m using an alien or antiquated operating system. For basic users, it’s newly simplified and streamlined interface will be a breath of fresh air. For power users, those advanced features and organization systems are easily within your grasp.
So alright, Apple. Microsoft has finally stepped up their game, and they have an OS to rival yours. Time to step up the Apple experience once again and keep this rivalry going. Because there’s finally some competition in the desktop OS market again and it’s time to see where innovation takes us next.
Todays iPhone and iPod Touch application review is going to be on an accelerometer based game called, Hydro Tilt. Hydro Tilt is a puzzle type game that is a lot like Super Monkey Ball, but with better controls. In Hydro Tilt you play as a tiny water droplet and you slide around the map in search of the ice cube. Once you find the ice cube you will freeze into a ball of ice. After becoming a ball of ice you have to make your way back to the metal bowl that will end the level. Overall it’s a fun game that has many puzzles you have to solve to get to that ice cube. Even though the price is a bit steep, it has many levels and is a game you can play for hours. Hydro Tilt is available in the App Store for $4.99.
Sorry to all you Windows Mobile fans but if you have had a bad day then what I am about to tell you is going to make it slightly worse. According to tips given to CNET by Microsoft the release date of windows mobile 7 has been pushed back once again.
This defiantly spells disaster for the Windows Mobile platform. With the android platform finally out and the iPhone taking most of the market windows mobile is really going to have to kick it into gear to compete.
Among some of the features that are highly expected to be part of the release is advanced gesture recognition, using technology similar to the iPhone and possibly using the camera as means for reading gestures. Better speech input and enhanced active sync features are also expected for this new version of the windows mobile software.
With Windows Mobile 6.1 just hitting the streets I think Microsoft is really going to have to rethink the Mobile platform and bring something more than just enhanced features. I wish I have more on this topic but seeing as Microsoft has said little to nothing about Windows Mobile 7 I am left with little to tell.
Our fantastic friend google android is out and so far is not impressing me one bit. Don’t get me wrong the software is great but from my perspective doing research on both the hardware and the network that google choose to release this phone I am really disappointed. The G1 is one of T-Mobiles first 3G phones and the reason behind it is because that T-Mobile has an extremely small 3G data network. (Currently only in 13 Markets and by the end of 2008 only in 27 Markets). To put that into perspective AT&T’s 3G covers 350 US Markets.
You might think what does this mean in terms of the G1 and the services that google is offering. Rumors have it that google and T-Mobile are going to allow you to get googles services without the need for a data plan. If you have looked into what is google is offering this is ALOT I mean ALOT. Google is going to sync everything on the phone over the web. So if you add a contact, start a convo in gTalk, delete or send an email it will all be synced back to your google/gmail account over the air. However my question to google is how long is this going to take on T-Mobile’s EDGE network? With only 27 Markets on their 3G network and the average person not being in those Markets most people are going to suffer with EDGE speeds. So let’s say you have 100MB’s of email 10MB’s of contacts, cal events and tasks, and another 10MB’s of gTalk convos. If you loose your phone and need to replace it it would take around 45 minutes to re-sync all that back to your phone. Needless to say T-Mobile needs to get a faster data network soon or google needs to find a faster carrier.
The issues with this phone don’t end with T-Mobile. HTC is the maker of the G1 and so far I have seems some setbacks for this phone. First and foremost is going to be the 256MB of ROM on the phone. For all you music guru’s out looking for a cheap alternative for the iPhone this is not what you a looking for. 256MB = little to no music. Before you say I am crazy yes the phone does have an optional MicroSD slot that can support up to 8GB’s but who wants to manage where they store their programs and data? I sure don’t and would like to see google take an approach more along the lines of the iPhone with the built in flash memory.
Lastly I would like to let all you know that I am very disappointed in the overall marketing and overall execution of the G1. In my opinion the software has a great potential being an open source platform that many developers are going to jump all over. I currently have no issues with the software and will keep you updated on my progress as I am currently looking into learning more about the SDK and developer tools that google offers. In the end I will keep an eye on the G1 but have no intentions of running out to get one.
SO AT&T has some really cool phones that are going to make AT&T an even better choice for all the consumers out in the world looking to get a new cell.
One of the more notable devices coming to AT&T’s line up is the HTC Fuze. This is the “replacement” phone for the AT&T Tilt and not only that has features that kick any other smart phone in the rear end.
Bellow are the launch dates for future AT&T devices:
Notice: The date’s above have not been confirmed but we highly suspect that the are close to the actual launch date’s.
This is sweet! On September 7th all Best Buy stores or stand alone Best Buy Mobile stores will carry the 8GB and 16GB iphone. Hurray you may say? Well it may not be as much of a glorious moment as you think. Best Buy is doing in store activations just like any other place you can get these phones. Not only that but Best Buy is taking it to the next level by offering an in store warranty or protection plan that will automatically deduct a certain amount each month so that if something were to happen to your iphone Best Buy would replace it free of charge. Is this a deal? Well I think so. You are getting the phone replaced. You will not have to send it off you will not have to wait for a referb you get a brand new. If you have any questions about this please email at support@bluephoenix.tv
Just a little video on the wireless tech of the future…