There’s more good news for app junkies out there. UStream is now officially available in the App Store, allowing users to stream video content over 3G and Wi-Fi connections. It’s a big step for the app approval process and more like a leap off a cliff for AT&T’s network.

UStream isn’t the first app to offer streaming. That distinction goes to Knocking, another app that paved the way for UStream, proving that both Apple and AT&T would allow such a demanding application to break through the notoriously awful approval process. Of course, it remains to be seen whether the network can actually handle that sort of strain. In fact, AT&T has said several times that high data traffic causes most of the network issues. These apps definitely won’t help that situation.

It’s nice to see developers continue to push AT&T to provide some of the cool options the iPhone has available. Let’s hope AT&T will come around to the idea…right.

Today Apple announced that the App Store has breached the 100,000 mark. That’s right, more than 100,000 apps are available for your iPhone or iPod Touch. A solid 50% of those apps are strictly for replicating flatulence and then auto-tuning it to your favorite T-Pain beat.

In all seriousness, it’s another great milestone, and another great reason to reorganize the whole damn thing. This is probably the last time you’ll hear an app count out of me until the 500,000, at which point the numbers won’t even matter because of the hellacious mess the App Store will be in. It’s not that I can find something when I’m explicitly looking for it, but that it’s difficult to get the new and unmentioned stuff, the apps that don’t make the blog circuit. Those are the things I still want access to. Appoftheday made a decent start, but app organization needs more than just a community vote.

If you’ve been thinking about making the switch to a smartphone or considering an iPhone, now’s about as good a time as any. AT&T enabled MMS on the iPhone today, which brings it up to speed with candybar phones of nearly a decade ago. The wireless provider also just found some old iPhone 3G models lying around that it will sell for a paltry $50.

Now, if I were you, I would splurge for the 3GS. It’s faster, has a better camera, and records video, which makes it much more than a cell phone. If you don’t want to drop $199 on a phone right now, though, the $50 3G will do just fine. It’s not that much slower, and you could probably live without the extra camera features.

There’s still one big reason to stay away: AT&T. Their service sucks and 3G coverage away from major cities is spotty at best. Also, you might be able to get Apple’s baby on a different network before your contract is up.

The good news is you’ll be just fine in either case. If you buy, you’re getting a great phone fairly cheap. If you don’t, you’re avoiding all the headaches that come with being tethered to AT&T. That is all.

They’ve been made in China, they’ve been counterfeited in China, and now they can finally be bought in China. Apple and Chinese cell carrier China Unicom have reportedly reached a deal to bring the iPhone to the East.

According to the International Business Times, China Unicom threw down cash on 5 million phones. The carrier plans to sell an 8GB model for 2,400 yuan, which is a about $350, and a 16GB model for 4,800 yuan, which you could probably guess is around $700.

Though the article didn’t mention, I would assume Apple is selling China Unicom the iPhone 3G. Though there’s been some speculation about an 8GB 3GS, there still isn’t one made, and it’s certainly not like Apple to announce one by simply mailing it overseas.

What is clear is that Apple is planning on China becoming a huge market for their flagship device. Another 5 million phones in circulation is more than 10% growth over total figures, and that’s on the low end. It could be as high as 15-18%.

About a month ago I wrote a review on Oasys Mobile’s iPhone application, iShot Machine. At the time the app was ridden with more than a few bugs, but boasted a decent shot library that excelled in recipe quality. Oasys just released an update for the app that includes a few fixes and a much-needed update to their randomizer.

As far as I can tell, they’ve fixed all the bugs I was able to find in my test run. There’s no more crash to springboard and the shot expansion works as it’s supposed to. The randomizer also seems to be truly random at this point. I haven’t been able to duplicate a string of random shots yet.

The update does mention “improved search functionality,” though on testing it, it doesn’t seem the search function is working at all. Searching by name, again for ‘Lemon Drop,’ now yields zero results. The same is true for ‘drop’ and ‘wild,’ both of which are used in a wide variety of shots.

My guess is the search thing is just a missing bit of code somewhere, either left out or left in by mistake during debugging. As for the rest of the update, it’s a major improvement on an already decent app. Watch for a search update soon.

The first iPhone app showing any sort of nudity debuted today and has since been pulled from the app store.

The app, called Hottest Girls, has been around longer than the parental controls that could supposedly allow explicit content to be viewed within an app on Apple’s iPhone. Previous to today’s update, the application simply showed pictures of girls (mostly asian) in various types of scanty clothing. The app was supposed to be the first to feature adult content.

There’s been no word concerning the removal of the app from the app store yet. I’ll be surprised to see Apple try to keep the pics from returning. It’s not particularly hard to find porn on the phone, considering it has a nearly fully featured browser. You can imagine, though, the massive influx of applications we’ll see if porn apps get the official sanction.

For now, looks like you’ll have to stick to Safari to get your mobile porn on.

Yesterday, AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel told Gearlog that his company is upgrading their 3G services to include the 850MHz spectrum. As it stands, most 3G services run at 1900MHz and the spectrum is getting congested. The upgrades should alleviate some of that congestion.

This is good news for all of the new 3GS owners this week, but particularly those in cities like New York and San Francisco, where iPhone saturation is highest, along with network strain. The 850MHz frequency is a lower band, allowing it to travel further and penetrate walls more easily than 1900MHz.

Along with a more reliable signal in cities, AT&T customers could see 3G hitting previously EDGE-only service areas, though it probably won’t extend service areas by much. AT&T is also starting to upgrade to HSDPA, which is supposed to double the download speeds of their current network.

It’s nice to see AT&T trying to keep up with the influx of iPhone traffic, but it still feels like just that. Keeping up. And barely. Hopefully these changes will add enough stability to keep people happy until HSDPA provides a stronger backbone for the nation’s only iPhone provider.

One of the more gimmicky advantages (unless, of course, you build it into your BMW) of the Palm Pre over the iPhone is wireless charging via Palm’s Touchstone dock. Just slap your Pre on there and by magnetic magic (and a whole lot of heat) you get a fresh battery.

WildCharge wants to give iPhone users that same functionality with their WildCharger iPhone Skin. You may remember the WildCharger from days gone by, when the Motorola RAZR was the phone to have. On phones (like the RAZR) that allow you to remove the battery, it’s kinda cool. There are no funky connections required.

But the iPhone has a built-in battery, one that can’t be removed or replaced with third party units. In order for the WildCharger to work, you need the WildCharge iPhone Skin, a $34.99 silicone sleeve that adds one big pimple to the ass end of your sleek little phone. The full kit (skin + charge pad) will run you $79.99.

The WildCharger isn’t a bad idea if you’ve got multiple supported devices. For me, it would only support my iPhone, and frankly I don’t mind plugging it (the iPhone) in all that much. I certainly don’t $80 mind it, and if it means a little tip hanging off the end of my phone you likely won’t see me trying one. Not even for a minute. Not even just to see how it feels.

After having a liver transplant Steve Jobs is reported to have an “excellent prognosis” by the medical institute responsible for the operation. Nice to hear some good news surrounding a pancreatic cancer survivor, even if he is one with the means to pay for the very best in medical care.

The Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute also issued a statement with the prognosis claiming Jobs received his liver because he was “the sickest patient on the waiting list at the time a donor organ became available.” This was no doubt released to allay concerns that Jobs may have seen special treatment because of status.

Good news for Jobs means good news for Apple, whose stock dropped some 10 points when the CEO announced his leave of absence in January. There had been speculation about his health leading up to the announcement, though Jobs claimed it was a hormone imbalance until he finally had to leave.

Despite his absence, Apple stock has continued to blow up, surging 60% this year alone. Hopefully we’ll see Jobs taunting handicapped grandmothers in his Cupertino parking lot soon.

The only way I can think of AT&T making the wait for MMS worse would be charging customers extra for the service when it finally goes live. Luckily, it doesn’t seem like they’ll be doing that…to everyone.

In the AT&T iPhone 3GS FAQ PDF the company states in plain language that MMS is coming soon “at no extra cost to customers with a text messaging bundle.”

That plain language leaves some room for interpretation, though. AT&T says they won’t charge you extra for the service, as in no extra fee for sending the messages. But how will they count against your SMS bundle count? If, say, you have the 200 messages plan, which costs $5 under AT&T, will each MMS count as one message, or will they dock your total more for sending videos of your son barfing on the dog?

For now I’ll hope they don’t turn their MMS policy into a “credit” system, whereby they can alter how many credits you get charged per message. We already know that texting plans are a racket. Going to credits could send furious texters into a frenzy.

It’s getting hard to quantify success of Apple’s iPhone. The iPhone 3GS was the quietest launch of the product line so far, yet they managed to go through a million phones in the first weekend alone, and without too many hangups.

There were some, though, and affected users are likely less than happy. Several new customers saw delayed activation, which may still take some time. Apple hopes to assuage their pain with $30 iTunes gift cards.

Apple’s sales statement included words from Steve Jobs, who’s made headlines recently for his struggle with pancreatic cancer and a recent liver transplant. “Customers are voting, and the iPhone is winning,” Jobs said. “With over 50,000 applications available from Apple’s revolutionary App store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever.”

Jobs couldn’t be more right, though that could mean trouble for AT&T. Complaints about poor service due to network overload come in the thousands for the iPhone’s sole US carrier. The FCC also recently launched investigations into exclusivity contracts in the wireless market. There’s been no word from the Senate committee.

Oasys Mobile, the developers behind the Uno-styled card game app “Oh No!” and Hooters Crazy Eights, just released a new application for the drinker in you: iShot Machine.

Like many other shot/cocktail applications, iShot Machine aims to bring as many recipes as possible to your iPhone, making it easy to find that recipe you’ve drunkenly forgotten, all from within a sleek, slot-machine-like interface. Unfortunately, several of the iShot Machine’s features are plagued by bugs or hampered by an awkward search function. Despite its bugs, iShot Machine delivers a decent recipe count in a clean interface that allows you to store your favorites for quick access.

The Good:
First, iShot Machine has more than 3,000 recipes in the paid version, giving you access to a whole load of shots should you need them. That recipe count is just shots, mind you, so if you’re looking for a full cocktail app, you’ll have to look elsewhere. Granted, some of the shots are repeats, like the ‘Vulcan Mind Meld’ and the ‘Vulcan Mind-Probe,’ but with 3,000 options you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding something new.

I’m also a fan of the ‘Favorites’ feature within the app. This makes it easy to find the shots you like best when you’re a bit intoxicated. It’s easy to remember the recipe for a grape bomb, but some of the more complicated drinks may elude you at the bar. Use the favorites feature to keep them close.

Probably the best feature of iShot Machine is simply the quality of the recipes. I frequently spend my weekends bartending, and since the iPhone came out, I have at least one group of people a weekend using applications like this to find their next drink. Most of them are terrible – proportions are off, mixtures curdle like a Cement Mixer, or the product tastes like piss (when it wasn’t meant to). From the couple hundred shots I’ve looked through so far, most of them look legit, and I’m interested to try a few myself.

Lastly, the controls are clean, with options to view shots in full screen or the smaller slot-machine screen below. It’s easy to favorite and rate shots, and wouldn’t be too much trouble to press the right item, even if you were a little drunk.

The Bad:
Read the rest of this entry »

As we learned at the Palm Pre launch, it takes almost no time for fanatical repair geeks/technoporn freaks to strip a gadget down to its bare bones for exhibition. The guys (and probably gals) at Rapid Repair have done just that with the 3GS, showing off her pretty insides to the rest of the world (that felt creepy to write – is this how you felt, Anthony Hopkins?).

Of particular interest are the processor stats and a closer look at the camera. For the processor, the 3GS is running on an underclocked 833MHz CPU. Yes, underclocked. My guess is they’ve done that for heat’s sake, and likely also because there may not yet be a need for that sort of power. Granted, some people will want to pull as much as they can get from the phone, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few performance hacks in the near future.

Rapid Repair also reports the camera as capable of 720p recording. Could this be a possible feature in a future OS? Though the new video recording is nice, a quality upgrade would take the phone to a new level as a media device.

Like many new devices, it will probably be a bit before we see the full potential of the 3GS hardware. Rapid Repair calls the CPU running the new iPhone truly cutting-edge, giving unprecedented processing power. I can’t wait to see what that means.

We already posted a how-to for enabling tethering on your shiny new OS 3.0. While awesome, it is clunky, slow, requires a mac… yada, yada, yada.

Leave it to iClarified to give us a handy and simple way to enable tethering right from the phone. All you have to do is use Safari from the phone and navigate to a specific website. Click a link here, say yes there, and next thing you know, tethering is enabled on your iPhone.

I know someone, who knows someone, who did it (wink, wink) and it was as easy as pie. Click through and try it for yourself. Let’s just say I know it works.

On Monday, senators implored the chairman of the FCC, Michael Copps, to take a closer look at exclusivity contracts between wireless carriers and phone manufacturers. The senators are concerned about the effect those contracts have on competition and innovation in the market place.

“We ask that you examine this issue carefully and act expeditiously should you find that exclusivity agreements unfairly restrict consumer choice or adversely impact competition in the commercial wireless marketplace,” said the letter, which was signed by former presidential candidate John Kerry, among others. I’d say it’s highly improbable that our good senators are concerned about anything other than the AT&T/Apple relationship. Several news sources have cited the LG/Verizon relationship where the Voyager is concerned, but that hardly seems as volatile to the market.

It’s fairly clear that exclusivity, at least in the case of the iPhone, limits consumer choice in a big way. Plenty of people don’t want to be on AT&T, but Apple has said several times that Verizon’s network won’t perform at standards required for millions of iPhones. As far as competition goes, it’s probably safe to say that the iPhone has discouraged innovation and encouraged emulation. The Palm Pre may be the sole example of a phone that took the touchscreen concept and improved on it, allowing multitasking, gesture controls, and adding a physical keyboard.

The senators agreed to meet Wednesday to discuss their concerns and determine whether legislative action was necessary. As of yet, there’s no word from Washington.

Most of the bad news coming with the iPhone OS 3.0 release is from AT&T, the iPhone’s sole US carrier. Despite most every other iPhone carrier in the world enabling tethering and MMS today, AT&T did not, much to her users’ chagrin.

The software is there, though, and it’s taken less than a day for someone to figure out a hack (for tethering that is – MMS has been around since the first jailbreak). The guys at MacMegasite have a quick and dirty tutorial to get the thing running. In short, all it requires is that you download a carrier settings file and perform a defaults write command in a Mac terminal. Restore your phone while holding option down and you can add the carrier settings update without messing with the rest of your phone. Head to “Network” under your general settings and you should see tethering, with options for USB and Bluetooth functionality.

Early reports suggest things are a little slow, and I have yet to read of a successful PC mod for this. Still, good work from everyone involved with this (seems like MacMegasite, Gizmodo, and AppleNova for some quick credits). Have you tried this yet? Did it work for you?

Full tutorial here.

Apple’s new iPhone didn’t get the aesthetic overhaul some people were looking for, which is a big win for third party manufacturers. Forget clearance prices; accessories like the Juice Pack Air carry over seamlessly, and in the case of Mophie’s gadget, actually improve.

According to Mophie, the Juice Pack Air, a combination protective case and battery life extender, nearly doubles the battery life of an iPhone 3GS. The company cites the following specs for their battery:

* Standby Time: Up to 270 hours
* Talk Time: Up to 4.5 hours (3G) Up to 10 hours (2G)
* Internet Use: Up to 4.5 hours (3G) Up to 8 Hours (Wi-Fi)
* Audio Playback: Up to 27 hours
* Video Playback: Up to 9 hours

For $80 the Juice Pack Air is tough to beat. You can have one in purple, black, or white.

We’ve all been waiting for it. We’ve all seen the rumors. Some of us have even spent loads of time in photoshop doing some mythbusting. Plenty of us have held off on buying a new phone for just this announcement. Well wait no more, fanboys and girls; the new iPhone is here!

Set to be available on June 19th (just two days after 3.0 drops), the 3GS matches up to many speculations we’ve seen over the past few months. For starters, adding the S to the nomenclature stands for speed, because it’s the fastest iPhone ever made at an average of 2X the power (they didn’t release hardware specs). There is, of course, the much needed camera upgrade, lifting your picture-snapping from an abysmal 2 megapixels to an improved 3MP with autofocus and autoexposure. It won’t be replacing your point and shoot anytime soon, but the hardware upgrade was a must, and autoexposure is a great feature for a mobile phone. Simply tap the area on the photo you want exposed and the software adjusts accordingly.

Also included in the update is the much rumored (and nearly confirmed a while back) magnetometer, turning your iPhone into an accurate compass. This one should be a nice little boon for those GPS software developers, giving more accurate turning information. What else will developers do with a compass? At least one mindless “point to this direction” game I’m sure.

As for the things we didn’t fully expect, the 3GS will support 7.2 HSDPA, which is great news as more carriers (including AT&T) update their networks. There is also Nike+ support and voice control for added accessibility and hands-free operation. They’ve also added VoiceOver support that will read what you touch on screen.

Also, instead of releasing multiple new phones, the iPhone 3GS comes in black or white, both at the 16GB ($199) and 32GB ($299) levels, adding up to the 4 phones that were predicted. That rumored $99 device? That’s the new price for the iPhone 3G.

Did they do enough to bring the iPhone up to “real smartphone” speeds? Let us know in the comments.

Probably a lot more than you or I, to be frank. Mossberg, famed author of the weekly WSJ column Personal Technology, has recently put together a review of the Palm Pre, shedding some of his tech angel dust on what could be a lackluster launch.

Mossberg seems to truly like the Pre, like most of the of the other reviews we’ve seen. And why not? The phone is solid, if a bit small, and the OS is robust. Give developers a few months and the Pre could become a very handy device, if it can sell enough units to remain afloat. But there is some thinly veiled (sometimes just plain direct) iPhone news within Mossberg’s review.

“Unfortunately for Palm, Apple has both a new iPhone operating system and new iPhone hardware coming, likely available within a month, that could obviate [copy and paste, MMS, universal search],” writes Mossberg. I hate to say this man’s word is law, but if there’s anyone mainlining tech news, it’s Walt. Mossberg has historically let little things like release dates slip, always without enough specificity to say he’s violated his press embargoes. If Walt’s right, Monday could bring the announcement we’ve all been waiting for, with hands-on access to the next-gen iPhone in just a few weeks.

On first sight, just about everyone thinks this iPhone screenie is a fake. As it turns out, the pic is totally legit.

User “Jeff” (not me) over at the iPhone blog submitted the pic after he received the message. He had been sitting next to a pool in Scotsdale, AZ when the doom and gloom message popped up. His solution: “I put the iPhone between two cold beers and it worked!” Well played, sir. Well played.

According to Apple Support, using or leaving your iPhone in direct sunlight can result in this same message. They also say your phone “may still be able to make emergency calls.” May? Is that just some corporate ass-covering in the event of a nuclear fallout?

Source: Gizmodo