UPDATED with new Apps and notes:

So I’ve updated my first gen iPhone using the “not-quite-officially-released” iPhone Firmware 2.0 and have downloaded my first batch of apps. Here’s my list so far:

• Apple Remote - iTunes and AppleTV Remote
• AIM - AOL Instant Messenger
• NetNewsWire - My preferred syncing RSS Reading system
• Tipulator - Easy to use Tip Calculator (with Rounding and Splitting functions)
• Urbanspoon - Random Restaurant finder based on location (Magic 8 Ball style shaking)
• Twitterific - My preferred Twitter app
• midomi - Music Recognition App (whistle, hum, sing, or type music and it will tell you name, artist, iTunes link, YouTube link, and other info)
• Bloomberg - Basically a mini free Bloomberg Terminal on the iPhone (We at CNBC haven’t made an iPhone app, YET)
• Mobile News - Associated Press News App
• WeatherBug - Weather Alerts, Radar, Camera’s based on 3 set locations.
• SmugShot - Take Location Tagged photos and upload to SmugMug
• Facebook - Facebook on the go (don’t really know what this has over Mobile Facebook)
• eReader - Buy and read eReader and FictionWise books

Games:

• SuperMonkeyBall - Game - just what the title says
• Enigmo - Game - Nice little liquid based puzzler
• Aurora Feint - Role Playing meets Puzzle Gaming (FREE!!!)
• MotionX Poker - Accelerator enhanced 3D Dice & Poker game
• Tap Tap Revenge - Think Guitar Hero with a little Dance Dance Rev thrown in.
• AquaForest - Physics based accelerator casual game/toy.
• PhoneSaber - Lightsaber sounds and accelerator motion detection... nuff said.

My first thoughts on these and the iPhone 2.0 firmware:

• I needed to do a little tweaking/setup to get the MobileMe syncing over-the-air on my iPhone. Not hard, but not automatic either.
• I did the update from my Macbook Air since I wasn’t home. Usually I sync my phone with my MacPro. Even though I did a pre-update sync, it didn’t ask me to backup my data so I (temporarily) lost all my photos, wallpapers, ringtones, music, and videos. When I get home and resync it with my desktop, all should be well, but for now I have a pretty “bare” iPhone. Update - Syncing with the MacPro went without a hitch...everything’s back!
• New Contact Icon from home screen. I don’t have to dig into the Phone App to get to my contacts anymore.
• Twitterific supports photos, location tagging, and some other nice features, but as far as I can tell you can’t set it to view only people you follow (unlike the Mac version). Update - after reloading my apps from iTunes on my MacPro I can view just who I follow now. Weird it didn’t work like that before (I was getting both followed and Public timelines all at once before).
• Can’t tell if Bloomberg has Real-Time-Quotes. Will have to wait until market opens tomorrow to test that out.
• NetNewsWire looks “ok” but seems slower to update than the iPhone Web version. The web version seems to also have a few features that the App doesn’t. Hope they update this soon.
• I “thought/heard” that the Associated Press MobileNews App would allow citizen reporters to send in photos and reports from “on-the-scene.” I can’t find that feature anywhere in the actual app, it’s just an offline reader/aggregator. So either I imagined it (most likely case) or this is a “future feature.” Update- There IS a way to have “citizen reporting” in MobileNews. When you read a story, you can comment and send in Photos from the field associated with the story. With the photo you give your info so that they can attribute the photo to you if they use it for future updates to their stories. This is a KILLER FEATURE!!!
• Aurora Feint is the BEST free game so far on the Appstore.
• MotionX Poker has great reviews, haven’t really played much yet but it seems really polished.

Read More...

Tags: iphone, ipod, apple

Now that the announcement is over and you can read all about what the new iPhone3G has at tons of sites (like Gizmodo, Engadget, MacRumors or ArsTechnica), the specs of what it DOESN’T have is what sticks in my mind.

• No second forward facing camera
• No native Video Conferencing over iChat or 3G phone-to-phone
• No A2DP Stereo Bluetooth Support (at least not yet)
• No Copy and Paste (at least not yet)
• No MMS (at least not yet)
• No iChat (at least not yet)
• No tethering to Laptops or other devices (use like a broadband modem)
• No upgrade pricing/deals from AT&T (at least not yet) for us iPhone early adopters

We’ll see how this pans out, especially the last bulleted item, when it becomes available on July 11.

UPDATE: Prices for upgrading to the new 3G iPhone? $199 for 8GB and $299 for 16GB with reset 2Yr contract. Yes, that’s the SAME price as it is for new iPhone buyers. I was hoping it would be the same as some European providors who are offering free/cheap upgrades, but I guess AT&T isn’t going that route. *sigh*
Info comes from CrunchGear. Read More...

Tags: iphone, apple, osx, mac, att

Is this the new iPhone 2? The photos look like they portray iPhones in Black and (RED) for the fight against AIDS. It also shows Video iChat over WiFi & video-chat phone2phone over 3G (and the pre-requisite forward facing camera), Macbook Air style nods, and stereo speakers in the rear. No word on any Cease and Desist Takedown notices yet, but if notices do go out, it’s just as good as Steve coming out and saying they’re real.

Photos were sent to MacRumors, CrunchGear, and AppleInsider (haven’t seen it posted there yet).

UPDATE: Engadget is already calling these fake.... we’ll see. If I remember correctly people were calling the “phatty” ipod Nano fake too, until it actually came out.
UPDATE 2: FAKE FAKE FAKE... now we know.



More photos after the break.
Read More...

Tags: iphone, ipod, mac, att, macbook air, osx

Well, we're back from our vacation on Aruba. It was very relaxing and I would definitely like to go back.



While there I was able to test out the international roaming and wifi features of our new iPhones. After a few international calls to AT&T on the first day in Aruba, I was able to clear up some Roaming Activation issues. Call quality was still good over international calls and they were about a dollar cheaper per minute vs. the hotel phone. Wifi was pretty ubiquitous in Aruba with various pay and free hotspots available. The only Wifi snag was thick walls in our hotel room that didn't allow the hotel's open area wifi signal in. The rooms did have built-in ethernet ports, but that hardly did me any good with the iPhone. The only other problem we had was the odd necessity of resetting both our Voicemail systems when we got back to the USA (probably had something to do to the changeover to unlimited SMS Text msging plans while we were in Aruba). SMS Texting worked flawlessly even on the beach under a palapa (thatched umbrellas with small wood tables). I was even able to txt family members while under the caribbean moon lounging on the sand with my wife. She was checking mail on her iPhone at the time. Yes, we're nerds.

I have over 1,800+ images I have to weed through and edit from our trip. I'll hopefully be able to upload them to my photo site by the end of the week.
Read More...

Tags: iphone, apple, att, beach, vacation, aruba, cingular

After a day of shopping for our Aruba trip and seeing the iPhone lines at the Apple Store in the mall (oddly enough we didn't see a line at all at the AT&T store in the mall even though there were two security guards waiting there for one), we headed over to the local AT&T store for a few hours of line-sitting. I took a few shots to commemorate the frenzy. Contacts at other lines text-messaged me throughout and told me that it sold out at the locations they were at. Some jumped to multiple locations to find available iPhones. It amazed me that so many locations had short supplies (some under 40 units) while ours seemed fully stocked and ready to meet demand. In fact our location's manager announced that the only limitation was the closing time of 10pm, but that there would be plenty more available of both SKU's (8GB and 4GB) tomorrow morning. Luckily we were in first 40 in line and had about 80 behind us. Unlike some AT&T stores that let in 5 at a time, our store took groups of 20. So now Gene and I are proud owners of two 8GB iPhones. Adding to our luck was the fact that it didn't rain during our time in line.



There are scattered reports of problems activating via iTunes, but both Gene and I were able to transfer our old numbers into a Family Plan fairly quickly. We even activated via 2 macs so that our individual iTunes libraries would sync correctly. All-in-All it was a good experience moving to AT&T's service and activating the iPhone for us. The two things missing that I wish it had: GPS linked to the Google Maps app and iChat/AIM functionality. The first could possibly be added as an accessory later, but could prove bulky. The second could easily be added via a Software Update. Many bemoan the fact that this is a 2.5G phone on the EDGE network rather than the much speedier HSPDA 3G network. I've been surfing on my HTC based WinMobile smartphone over EDGE for a long time and can attest to its slowness at times, but the iPhone is definitely smoother and more tolerable on EDGE than any other EDGE phone I've tried. The seemless WiFi switchover also makes this less of an issue for me as long as there is a nearby hotspot (and there are many around the metro-NY/NJ area).

We still have to set them up to connect to both our car's built-in Bluetooth Handsfree and respective audio connections, but hopefully those will go smoothly as well.




Read More...

Tags: iphone, apple, att, itunes, cingular