Interesting iPhone News
A collection of interesting news about the iPhone and iPod touch we have read around the web. Subscribe to our feed to get these and original Touchtip articles on your reader.
- Future iPhones May Have Always-On Display
Apple has patented a new display technology that will allow their iPhones to have always-on displays with almost no battery cost whatsoever. This doesn't mean the whole display would be lit at all times. In reality, only part of it would be activated using a secondary backlight system located under the main one. According to Apple, the objective is to give feedback to the user at all times, even when the main display is turned off. - The Future Of iPhone Games: Apple's San Francisco Showcase
With the success of the iPhone (and the iPod Touch, which can also access the App Store), there has been a huge influx of games to the platform, which is currently the best-selling U.S. consumer mobile phone. At a recent San Francisco briefing, Apple's senior director of marketing for iPhone, Bob Borchers, showcased a range of upcoming iPhone game titles, and laid out his company's vision of why the uptake has been so swift. - Make Your Site An iPhone App
You can get most of the benefits of an iPhone application without writing a single line of Objective C. An open source project called PhoneGap lets your wrap your website in iPhone App goodness. And you can even charge for your creation. Even more exciting than being able to easily create an app is getting access to some native iPhone APIs. Currently PhoneGap supports JavaScript access to the user’s location and the device accelerometer. Camera and vibration are still in the works. - iPhone MMS: Coming to a Carrier Near You?
Mobispine, the mobile services developer already responsible for introducing a $1.99 self-titled iPhone application for RSS news junkies, has debuted a white-label option for wireless carriers to deliver to subscribers seeking classic MMS utility from their devices. Just short of an extension of the iPhone’s standard SMS software, Mobispine’s offering is something that just might fly. - iPhone sex: Google application baffled by British accents
A new voice-recognition search tool for the iPhone has problems understanding British accents, leading to some bizarre answers to spoken queries, a newspaper report and users said Wednesday. The free application, which allows iPhone owners to use the Google search engine with their voice, mistook the word "iPhone" variously for "sex," "Einstein" and "kitchen sink," said the Daily Telegraph. - Why Apple Won't Allow Adobe Flash on iPhone
Allowing Flash — which is a development platform of its own — would just be too dangerous for Apple, a company that enjoys exerting total dominance over its hardware and the software that runs on it. Flash has evolved from being a mere animation player into a multimedia platform capable of running applications of its own. That means Flash would open a new door for application developers to get their software onto the iPhone: Just code them in Flash and put them on a web page. In so doing, Flash would divert business from the App Store, as well as enable publishers to distribute music, videos and movies that could compete with the iTunes Store. - Apple sued for hairline cracks in the iPhone
A lawsuit filed against Apple and AT&T on November 4, 2008 charging misrepresentation of the 3G speed of the iPhone on AT&T’s network, has been amended with an additional charge. The new charge claims the iPhone develops hairline cracks in the housing. - San Francisco man risks life for iPhone
Gene Wood, an operations manager at Ask.com, the Barry Diller-owned search engine beloved by Midwestern moms, wrestled a mugger to the ground rather than lose his iPhone, for which he paid $499. - BREAKING: Google. iPhone. Voice search. Awesome. (If it works.)
As soon as tomorrow there may be a cool new application in Apple’s App Store from Google: Voice search. The app will apparently allow users to speak commands such as “Where’s the nearest Starbucks” into the iPhone and it will be sent to Google’s servers and come back with a search result, according to The New York Times. - Rumor: iPhone 2.2 Release Just 10 Days Away
According to the consistently reliable iPhone Hellas, the iPhone OS 2.2 update will appear even sooner than we all expected. Barring any sudden plan changes, the iPhone Hellas people are saying the upgrade will be available on November 21. - iPhone is the Top Selling Consumer Phone in the U.S.
The third calendar quarter of 2008 (Apple F4Q08) was a record for iPhone sales. 6.9 million iPhones were sold from July through September, more than the 6.1 million iPhones sold in prior quarters combined. Steve Jobs mentioned during Apple's most recent quarterly earnings call (transcript) that the company had even beat out Research in Motion (RIM), which sold 6.1 million BlackBerry devices during the same period. iPhone 3G was launched in 21 countries on July 11th and is now for sale in 62 countries, with 18 more planned in the coming months. - iPhone surpasses RAZR as top selling handset
Apple’s iPhone surpassed the Motorola RAZR as the leading handset purchased by U.S.-based adults in the third-quarter, according to a new study by market research firm The NPD Group. “The displacement of the RAZR by the iPhone 3G represents a watershed shift in handset design from fashion to fashionable functionality,” said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for NPD. “Four of the five best-selling handsets in the third quarter were optimized for messaging and other advanced Internet features.” - Study: iPhones Twice As Reliable As BlackBerries
The iPhone is twice as reliable as the Blackberry after one year of ownership, a new study by SquareTrade finds. SquareTrade, which sells extra warranties for cell phones and other devices, looked at the failure rates of 15,000 phones covered under its plans. The malfunction rate for iPhones after one year is 5.6 percent, compared to 11.2 percent for the Blackberry and 16.2 percent for the Treo. - Product Review: Flying Saucer Speaker Dock Conjures Great Sound
JBL must have sprinkled pixie dust on this flying saucer of a media player dock, conjuring great sound separation and the strongest output of any portable speaker dock we tested. - 20,000 Wi-Fi Hotspots free for iPhone Users
This deal is of course great news for iPhone users as AT&T announced last week that iPhone users would be able to access AT&T WiFi hotspots free of charge. This move will be welcomed with open arms from iPhone users who can’t get to their news fast enough. Interestingly, as WiFi hotspots become more ubiquitious, iPhone users will invetiably start relying on AT&T’s 3G network less and less, which, ironically, might end up improving 3G speeds overall. A win win all around.