iPhone

Apple's iOS 4 was released today ahead of the launch of the iPhone 4, which becomes available June 24. iPhone users can update to the latest OS via iTunes, but some features will not be available for the iPhone 3G and the update is not available at all for the original iPhone. iOS 4 will not be available on the iPad until this fall.

Apple says there are more than 100 new features in iOS 4, but the most notable tweaks include multitasking, with handy controls for switching apps; home screen folders that you can name by category for … Read more

Well, Apple never did make MobileMe free, despite the rumors. However, at least you don't have to pay the usual $99 for a year of service.

That's because Amazon currently has MobileMe Individual for $66.98 shipped. (Yep, that's the boxed, CD-ROM version of the software and service.)

As you probably know, MobileMe keeps your data (e-mail, contacts, appointments, etc.) in sync among your devices, your PCs, and the Web. It also provides the potentially invaluable Find My iPhone and Remote Wipe features (the former was just updated to include its own app).

Speaking of updates, be … Read more

With the iPhone 4 due out this week, Apple has confirmed that one of its most anticipated new features, FaceTime video calls, will not use minutes from users' wireless plans.

Citing an unnamed Apple rep, Business Insider reported Sunday that people don't need to worry about using voice minutes, even though FaceTime video chats are initiated from a voice call.

"The voice call ends as soon as the FaceTime call connects," the Apple rep told the online business publication. "The FaceTime call is over Wi-Fi so does not use carrier minutes."

To be clear, voice … Read more

When an employee at AIM Media lost his iPhone containing company e-mails and other sensitive data last year, there was nothing to be done except hope that whoever found it didn't care to snoop.

Now, if that happens again AIM Media IT Director Nelson Saenz can just remotely wipe the data.

"Apple made it possible for the iPhone to work with Microsoft Exchange," he said. "But from an IT standpoint what was missing was centralized administration and security."

Since January, AIM Media has been using Good for Enterprise, software and service from Good Technology that … Read more

You may have heard there's a new iPhone hitting stores this week. If you're planning on buying one and still have your old iPhone, why not sell it?

There's a good chance you can recoup much of what you originally paid and put it toward the new iPhone 4. Individuals, resellers, and retailers are willing to pay for old iPhones, you just need to know where to look. 

The gadget resale market, especially for the iPhone, is hotter than ever right now. Consumer electronics reseller Gazelle.com said last week that 10,000 iPhones were sold to the site in the week following the iPhone 4's introduction on June 7--and that was 10 times the number of old iPhones sold to the site following the iPhone 3GS announcement a year ago.

Your best options for making money off your iPhone include the obvious places like eBay and Craigslist, but if you don't feel like doing the work yourself, gadget resellers will do most of it for you: they'll buy your phone from you and handle the reselling themselves. And this year, iPhone retailer RadioShack is offering an incentive to sell back your old phone.

Though most places will take any model iPhone with normal wear and tear, the later the model of iPhone you're selling, and the better the condition it is in will increase the resale value. And, of course, before you part with your phone, remember to wipe it of all your personal data.

Here are some of your best options:

Gazelle.com Gazelle will buy your old iPhone and pay you depending on the condition. It'll wipe the data for you as part of the service (though you should probably do it yourself just for peace of mind). You just answer a few questions about your phone's condition and which accessories you have, and it'll spit out a price and send you a box for shipping your phone. Last week a 32GB iPhone 3GS in good condition with normal wear and tear was worth $198.

NextWorth.com Like Gazelle, it'll buy your old iPhone provided it's in decent working shape. If it's close to new, with everything in working order, a 32GB iPhone 3GS will fetch as much as $300. For an iPhone 3G in good condition, NextWorth is offering more than $100.

RadioShack The consumer electronics retailer is offering perhaps the most efficient way of reselling your old iPhone and getting a new iPhone 4. For the first time, RadioShack has been included as one of the first retail outlets to get the iPhone on launch day. And it's sweetened the deal for potential customers by adding an extra incentive.

RadioShack will let you turn in your old iPhone for store credit toward the new one. The retailer says it will pay "up to $200" for an iPhone 3GS. Just bring it into the store and an employee will plug the device's specs and condition into their system and pay based on that recommendation. That value can be put toward a new iPhone 4 the same day or kept on a RadioShack gift card for future use.… Read more

The Apple iPhone 4 packs a lot of cutting-edge tech--one of the reasons preorders for the iPhone sold out immediately. Here's a second look at three standout specs that elevate the iPhone 4 above its predecessor.

Gyroscope: Apple is leading smartphone rivals with this feature, according to market researcher iSuppli. When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone 4's gyroscope at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (see video below), he was signaling a new wave of gyroscope-equipped smartphones, as "a flood of competitors vie to emulate the feature," Jeremie Bouchaud, an iSuppli analyst, wrote earlier this month. "Mobile handset makers until recently have shown little interest in gyroscopes. However, the success of the Nintendo Wii Motion Plus video game console demonstrated the consumer appeal of gyroscopes for game playing."

What does the gyroscope bring to games? The iPhone 4's gyroscope, like those used in aircraft, measures pitch, roll, and yaw, among other capabilities. And used in tandem with the accelerometer (already integrated into the current iPhone), it achieves six-axis motion sensing. What Apple describes as "user acceleration, full 3D attitude, and rotation rate."

All of this is tied to new APIs, or application programming interfaces, "that give you extremely precise position information," Jobs said.

Retina display yields: Probably the most talked-about feature of the iPhone 4 is the high-density 940x640-pixel retina display.… Read more

It's like the first flower of spring. The first beer of the ball game. The first hair that grows beneath your shirt.

Yes, a man has already pitched a tent outside an Apple store in Dallas in the hope of being the first to get his tired, moist hands on the new iPhone 4, which launches June 24.

The Dallas Morning News appears to have been the first to espy the intrepid Justin Waggoner, who hitched his wagon to the sidewalk last Wednesday.

Is he a serial queuer? But of course. He told the Morning News he's camped … Read more

Recording with your iPhone's built-in microphone is a quick and easy way for musicians to sketch out song ideas. But if you're really bent on transforming your iPhone or iPod Touch into a mobile, multitrack recording studio, you'll need to drop some money on a quality recording app, and some kind of adapter for connecting instruments or mixers.

Professional, affordable apps such as FourTrack and FiRe recorder solve the first half of the equation, but shrinking a professional audio interface down to a pocketable iPhone adapter is a tall order.

Fortunately, the folks at Sonoma Wire Works are working on one of the best solutions we've seen yet. The GuitarJack ($199) is due out this fall, and offers a 1/4-inch instrument input, stereo line input, and headphone output, all in an adapter that fits in you palm. More importantly, the line and instrument inputs offer selectable gain pads, 60dB of continuous analog level control, and can be separately assigned for simultaneous dual-mono recording.… Read more