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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Bugs/Recalls, Bad Apple, iPhone

In the last week, we have had a constant barrage of iPhone issues break through the lines… so much so that we feel it is our duty to inform the two of you who haven’t updated what you could experience by updating to version 3.1 of the iPhone OS. This is no small problem, as you can read from the discussions on Apple’s website here, here, here, and here.

The first two links are where we’re getting the majority of our tips — random shutdowns and very poor battery life. The second two, bricked phones and general slownes,s are still worth a mention — even prompting our own Erica Sadun to do a live walk-through for debrickifying iPhones. We received a lot of praise for her help in that session and we’d encourage you to go back and read through the chat if you’re experiencing trouble with a bricked iPhone.

I’ve spent quite some time reading the hundreds of posts about the “mysterious random shutdowns” and have determined that it really is what it is. As of this writing, there have been 409 posts and 28 pages in that discussion — I’ve seen very little repeats and no real solutions. Some people have said that they’ve gone to Apple and received replacement phones because of this issue but for those of us who have out-of-warranty phones, Apple has merely said “It’s $199 for a replacement.” I have to agree with our tipsters — this needs to be addressed. These people simply did not break their phones, it’s a well-documented issue which we, as consumers, shouldn’t have to pay to fix.

Battery life is a completely different debacle. I cannot seem to find a trend in the discussions at all. Some people claim to have removed certain apps, some claim that MobileMe sync is the culprit — all of them agree that there is an issue with 3.1 and that battery life shouldn’t dramatically decrease overnight. I’d really love to get into one of these phones and replace the battery to see what happens because the hardware guy in me says that it’s not impossible. However, deductive reasoning says that there’s something in the software. Whether there’s a memory leak in 3.1 itself, or some apps that we’re running aren’t as “compatible” as they should be… we need to see another update soon to help alleviate the issues with version 3.1 of the iPhone OS.

Please feel free to use our comment system to express your concern, anger, resentment… whatever. Try to be helpful if you’ve come across a solution and be nice if you’re not having these problems. Until Apple issues a fix or acknowledges the problem at all, just hope that you’re still in-warranty.

TUAWiPhone 3.1 problems flood our tip box originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Originally posted 2009-09-15 18:25:53. Republished by Old Post Promoter

It’s the battle of the touchscreen heavyweights: The Apple iphone 3G takes on the first touchscreen blackberry, the Storm. In part one, Noah compares the devices’ form factor and phone calling abilities. More on Storm @ www.phonedog.com More on iphone 3G @ www.phonedog.com

It’s the battle of the touchscreen heavyweights: The Apple iphone 3G takes on the first touchscreen blackberry, the Storm. In part two, Noah looks at messaging on both phones, including two very different touchscreen keyboards. More on iphone 3G @ www.phonedog.com

• Connects your headset or headphones to your Apple iPhone
• 3.5mm plug designed to fit the recessed iPhone socket
• Four contacts at both ends for standard stereo headphones or a microphone-including headset

Product Description
Use your favorite headset or headphones with your Apple iPhone. The 3.5mm plug–smaller in width than typical stereo plugs–is designed to fit the recessed iPhone socket. It has four contacts at both ends so you can use … More >>

Audio Adapter For Iphone, Black

Filed under: Apple, iPhone, App Store, SDK, iPod touch

After all of the kerfuffle earlier this week about Apple shutting down racy apps in the App Store, it appears that the company might be creating a special place for all of that suggestive and sexy content.

We received a tip and a screenshot (seen above) from a developer who pointed out the new “Explicit” category in the tool used to submit apps into the store.

While TUAW has not yet been able to confirm this, The new category could be the first sign that Apple may provide enhanced parental controls or even a separate “adult” App Store. This would not only maintain the revenue stream from these apps for both Apple and the developers, but would stifle comments that Apple is being too strict with providers of adult content.

We will update this story as it develops.

Update: The new category is corroborated by Cult of Mac and MacRumors as well.

Update #2: Cult of Mac reports the category appears to have gone missing, although we’ve heard that when it was available earlier choosing the category wouldn’t stick — so perhaps we’re seeing some iPhone OS 4 action here?

TUAWApple creating “explicit” category for App Store originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Apple, iPhone, SDK

The new beta version of the 3.2 SDK (beta 3, for those of you keeping track) is now available for download. The Apple developer site will likely be getting slammed over the next hour or two, so plan your downloads accordingly. The beta is available to all paid members of the iPhone developer program, with at least the $99/year membership. You will need your credentials to sign in and download the new SDK.

As usual, the new beta SDK is under NDA, so please go check out the details for yourself to get further information about the changes between this beta and the last. Good luck, and happy programming!

Update: Here then gone? Readers report that Apple seems to have pulled Beta 3 for the moment and when I returned to Apple’s iPhone developer site, I saw the same. Watch this space. We’ll update as we find out more.

Update: This was not an accidental upload, per Michael Jurewitz, the Mac and IPhone Applications Frameworks and Developer Tools Evangelist:

TUAWiPhone SDK 3.2 Beta 3 available now originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Apple, iPhone, App Store

Although Apple’s just-released iTunes Connect guide for App Store developers (version 5.3) reminds them that over-the-air downloads for app purchases are still limited to 10MB, users are reporting that Apple may have quietly changed this policy. As the screen shot here (sourced from Italian website AllMobileWorld) shows, the standard 10MB complaint appears to be updated to a 20MB limit.

This is, as yet, the first TUAW has heard (or, more literally, seen) of the matter, but the screen shot does not appear faked. Given that Apple updated the iTunes Connect material on Tuesday, this could have simply been an oversight in the developer documentation that does not reflect the new policy.

Have you seen this dialog? Does it say 10MB or 20MB for you? Let us know in the comments, and do mention which carrier you are using in case it is an European-only phenomenon.

Update: We have now confirmed the change with carriers in multiple countries. One report from Denmark indicates that users there remain at at 10MB limit.

Thanks, everyone who tipped us about this

TUAWConfirmed: Apple upped its App Store over-the-air download limits originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Multimedia, Retail, Software, iTunes, Apple, iPhone, App Store

You readers were skeptical that BarMax, the iPhone app that offered up a full law prep system for $1000, would make too big a splash in the law prep community. But apparently that’s exactly what happened — three weeks later, BarBri, one of the more traditional competitors to the new app, has made significant changes to their pricing and service that appear to be aimed at keeping law students away from BarMax. First, they’ve decided to offer complete online access for free to every student that takes their courses (we don’t know how much they charged previously, but it used to be an additional cost). Second, in direct opposition to BarMax’s “buy once, use forever” deal, they’ve allowed students to save at least $2000 every time they retake the test courses, by offering retakes for free as well.

That’s pretty incredible. Just by offering up one much cheaper alternative through Apple’s iPhone platform, BarMax has already started to revamp the entire business. Of course, I couldn’t tell you anything about the quality of these two programs (and whether either BarMax or BarBri is worth using at all), but clearly BarBri smells danger in the wind. It’s just not possible to publish content the old way when even one competitor has an alternative through cheaper channels, and the App Store model is as cheap a channel as you can get.

Just imagine what’s going to happen when the iPad opens up iBooks and launches the revolution in education publishing that everyone’s talking about. The next twelve months are going to be very interesting for textbook customers and/or publishers.

TUAW$1000 iPhone law exam review app sends traditional publisher running for cover originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Apple Corporate, Hardware, Apple Financial, Apple, iPhone

Apple has expanded its trademark on “iPhone” with the inclusion of the US Patent and Trade Office’s (USPTO) “category 28,” which reads as “handheld unit for playing electronic games.” Other USPTO categories included in the trademark are number 9 (mobile phone and digital audio player) and number 38 (electronic data-transmitting device). Note that Apple filed to include category 28 way back in December of 2007, so don’t take it as a sign that the next gen iPhone will be a gaming monster.

This news is no great shakes, but an example of Apple covering its bases. For example, back in 2002, Apple applied to register the iPhone trademark in China, but that application was limited to computer hardware and software, not mobile phones. Earlier this year, Apple took control of the “i-phone” trademark in China (yes, “i-phone”) from manufacturer Hanwang Technology, who briefly sold a device with that name in 2003 (three years before the iPhone’s introduction).

[Via Engadget]

TUAWApple secures iPhone trademark originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Apple, iPhone, App Store

If you’ve ever had a need to create or edit Microsoft Office documents on your iPhone or any other mobile device, you’re probably familiar with Quickoffice. It’s a solid app that provides a way to transfer documents to your iPhone, open them, make changes, and then save them back to the device. At Macworld 2010, Quickoffice announced some changes to their iPhone product line.

The app now comes in two flavors — Quickoffice Connect [Free, iTunes Link], which is a document viewer, and the full Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite [US$9.99 sale price]. Both apps now have a feature that should make almost everyone happy — integrated access to multiple cloud services including MobileMe, Dropbox, Box.net, and Google Docs.

TUAW editor Steve Sande visited the Quickoffice booth at Macworld Expo 2010 yesterday and was treated to a full demo of the the Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite. We’ve got video, so see how Quickoffice can help you keep those docs in order by clicking the Read More link below.

TUAWMacworld 2010: Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite demonstration originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 13 Feb 2010 15:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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