iPhone

Apple, AT&T speed up iPhone 3G buying over Web

Apple has figured out a way to let prospective iPhone 3G buyers get a few of the steps out of the way at home.

The activation process is still not quite as smooth as the one that greeted new owners of the original iPhone, but Apple and AT&T seem to have figured out a way to make things a little easier while keeping the unlockers at bay as much as possible. A visit to an Apple or AT&T store is still required, but some of the preliminary details can now be completed via the Internet.

For … Read more

Piper: Apple sold 5 million iPhone 3Gs in quarter

One Apple follower is putting a guess on the number of iPhone 3Gs Apple will have sold during the current quarter: 5 million.

We already know that Apple sold 1 million iPhone 3Gs in the first weekend it went on sale around the world, and Piper Jaffray believes the company has added another 4 million units to that total since then, according to a research note released Monday. Apple will reveal the formal totals in about a month when it reports earnings for its fourth fiscal quarter.

Despite several launch day glitches and widespread bugs in the iPhone's 2.0 software, … Read more

Apple recalling iPhone 3G power adapters

Apple is recalling the USB power adapters sold with the iPhone 3G in North America and Japan amid concerns they are prone to breaking.

The company announced the Apple Ultracompact USB Power Adapter Exchange Program Friday, which applies to iPhone 3G owners who bought the device in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Japan, and selected countries in South America. Apple included a USB power block, shown at right, inside the box for the iPhone 3G in these countries, and the company has received reports that the prongs on that power block can break off and remain inside your wall socket, … Read more

Apple patent could improve iPhone alerts

Apple may be planning to add a little more information to the unlocked home screen of an iPhone.

AppleInsider found a patent application that indicates Apple is working on ways to add notification data--such as missed calls or recent e-mails--to an iPhone's display just after it is unlocked. That way, you wouldn't have to unlock the screen, pull up the home page, and see who sent you a text message.

The iPhone currently shows you that kind of information--such as a recent text or missed call--on the display while the iPhone is locked, but you have to unlock … Read more

Apple engineers working on ARM-based CPUs for iPhone

The magic of social networking has confirmed that Apple plans to make its own ARM-based processors for future versions of the iPhone.

The New York Times spotted the LinkedIn profile of Wei-han Lien, Apple's senior manager of CPU development, over the weekend. Lien's job description, according to his profile, involves managing the ARM CPU design team for Apple, an extension of his previous work at P.A. Semi.

It's been pretty clear for a while that Apple bought P.A. Semi earlier this year to work on developing its own chips for the iPhone, but as the … Read more

Apple to Podcaster: No App Store for you

Apple's App Store policies are really starting to frustrate application developers.

Over the weekend, a good old-fashioned Internet-style kerfuffle arose over Apple's decision to reject Podcaster--an iPhone application that lets people download podcasts directly to their devices without going through iTunes--from the App Store. The developer of the application said that Apple told him the application "duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes," apparently making it unfit for the App Store.

This has been a persistent question hanging over Apple's decision to vet every single iPhone and iPod Touch application sold through the … Read more

Will 2.1 be what 2.0 was supposed to be?

As per usual, at the most inopportune time when I was already running late, I decided to sync my iPhone as I was getting ready to leave home today. Like clockwork, iTunes asks me if I'd like to update to Firmware 2.1. Would I? Unlike last time, I actually downloaded the update and took off to make my a Saturday class.

During a break, my fellow iPhone-laden class attendees got out their iPhones to check email, text messages and voicemail and the discussion turned to Firmware 2.1.

"Did you get it?" one fellow classmate asked … Read more

Apple stomps bugs with iPhone 2.1 software release

Apple has released version 2.1 of its iPhone software, promising a wealth of bug fixes for a pioneering device that suffered a number of problems.

Chief Executive Steve Jobs had promised the iPhone update in a speech Tuesday during a launch event for next-generation iPod music players, saying, "This is a big update, and it fixes lots of bugs."

The company's software update page shows just how big:

Decrease in call setup failures and dropped calls Significantly better battery life for most users Dramatically reduced time to back up to iTunes Improved e-mail reliability, notably fetching … Read more

Genius makes iTunes 8 a worthy upgrade

Although I was expecting more from Apple's latest announcements, I've had a few days to play with the Genius feature introduced in iTunes 8 and I'm quite impressed. Pick any song, and it builds a playlist of other songs that fit well with that one. It's a fun and useful feature for those of us too lazy to build playlists by hand, and bored with the auto-playlists (such as by genre, song length, or date added) and the random shuffle feature.

I was worried that the feature would be too obvious--for example, that it would just … Read more