iPhone

In a crazy world, Apple would announce a "we-are-so-sorry" iPhone swap today: All first generation iPhone owners and all new iPhone 3G owners would be given a new free iPhone Plutonium, which, of course, has endless battery life. Perhaps this massive reset could be founded by the liquidation of Halliburton or perhaps as part of a massive government effort to promote consumer-spending, oh wait, that was Fannie May and Freddie Mac....

Stranger things have happened. What's the line? We can only hope for change?

But seriously folks, the biggest complaint I've seen (and experienced) is dismal … Read more

Electronic Arts is bringing its new creature feature to the iPhone and iPod Touch.

The game giant's EA Mobile unit announced Friday that it will offer Spore Origins for Apple's gadgets, starting later this month. The variation on EA's new Spore game is designed to take advantage of the motion-sensing technology in the iPhone and the iPod Touch so that players can tilt and angle their way through a digital take on evolution.

The full-fledged Spore goes on sale Sunday in North America. Players get to design their own creatures before beginning on an evolutionary quest through … Read more

Apple apparently doesn't think fart jokes are very funny.

The developer of Pull My Finger, an iPhone application, told MacRumors that Apple decided to reject his application from the App Store because it was "of limited utility to the broad iPhone and iPod touch user community." Pull My Finger does pretty much what you would expect it to do, generating about five or six different sounds of flatulence from your iPhone depending on your preference.

Regardless of whether you think fart jokes are the linchpin of comedy (we're running roughly half and half right now in … Read more

Apple may be thinking about adding new ways to improve the multitouch interface work that is central to the company's plan for the future.

Unwired View unearthed a patent application filed by Apple (thanks, Gizmodo) containing ideas for a user interface system that builds on the multitouch input used on the iPhone by adding technology for voice recognition and even facial recognition.

Wayne Westerman and John Elias, the brains behind a multitouch interface company called Fingerworks, acquired by Apple in 2005, are listed as inventors on the patent application, as they have been for several other multitouch patents coming … Read more

AT&T on Wednesday said that it has fixed a problem that caused many iPhone users in the Northeastern U.S. to complain that they couldn't access the mobile Web.

The company told newswire Reuters that the problem, which caused some users to not be able to surf the Web on their phones, was fixed just before noon on Wednesday. The problem did not affect phone calls, text messages or mobile e-mail from devices such as Research In Motion's BlackBerry.

A company spokesman told the news service that it was a "routing issue" that affected … Read more

Apple and AT&T are facing another lawsuit over the iPhone 3G.

This time, William Gillis of San Diego is suing the two companies, claiming that they "have misrepresented the speed, strength, and performance of the 3G bandwidth network," according to freelance journalist Justin McLachlan. Apple has acknowledged the complaints over the iPhone 3G's reception and has promised to fix the issues via a software update.

Apple was sued in August over the iPhone 3G by an Alabama woman who claimed that the company deceived consumers by promising that the iPhone 3G would be "twice … Read more

Since the launch of Apple's App Store, a steady stream of business-oriented applications has flooded in for iPhone users. Most of the developers are independent third-party start-ups, but big-name software vendors are now clamoring for a piece of the pie.

Names such as Oracle, SAP, and Sybase have released iPhone versions of applications that allow users to tap some of the functionality afforded with the traditional desktop versions.

Most of the applications can be found on the App Store, Apple's online market--which opened in July--where iPhone users can browse and download applications built for their devices.

Fresh off … Read more

FM transmitters that connect an MP3 player to a car stereo are notoriously unreliable, subject to lots of interference in urban areas and sub-FM-quality sound. My own experience with these devices was so bad, I paid about $200 to get an FM modulator hooked into the internal FM receiver in my car stereo. That means I can hook any MP3 player's headphone output directly into an FM frequency on my car stereo. (I couldn't just buy a new car stereo with a direct input because I drive a 2006 Subaru Outback...more on this issue here.)

So when … Read more

Apple is still dancing around an iPhone deal with perhaps the biggest prize remaining in the iPhone universe: China.

We've been down this road before with China Mobile and Apple, but IDG News Service managed to corner China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou on Tuesday, who said that "(Apple CEO) Steve Jobs and I hope the iPhone will enter China as soon as possible." Still, there's no agreement to officially get the iPhone 3G onto the largest mobile network in the world.

There are plenty of iPhones in China, but they didn't come in through the … Read more