Friday, July 11, 2008
Phones
Apple and AT&T Stores Having Difficulty Activating iPhones (UPDATE: It’s the iPocalypse)
11:47PM Mark Wilson | We’ve heard four many accounts now from varying Apple store and AT&T locations that employees are having problems while trying to activate phones through iTunes. From Atlanta, one camper reports: More »
Networks
AT&T 3G Coverage Maps Updated, Now With More 3G
11:00PM Matt Buchanan | AT&T’s 3G footprint does not blanket the entire country–about the top 300 markets, expanding to 350 by the end of the year (and it’s faster in some places than others). But the 3G coverage map that was on AT&T’s site (neatly stitched together at Alley Insider) until this morning was from March (AT&T spokesman says he was mistaken, last update was in May). It just got updated with the actual current coverage zones (the blue splotches). Check it to see if the 3G fairy flew over your neighbourhood since then. [AT&T] More »
Software
iPhone 2.0 Software Review: Forget 3G, It’s Code That Counts
9:54PM Jason Chen | The iPhone 3G may be here, but what we’re really excited about is the iPhone 2.0 software update. Only some people really need faster browsing and slightly better location services, but everyone can use the new features in the OS. Now that we’ve gotten chance to go through all that updated functionality–as well as a good chunk of apps, MobileMe and Exchange–we’ve only got one question left. Is iPhone 2.0 so good that you don’t even need to upgrade to an iPhone 3G? It depends. But if I was forced to choose between an iPhone 3G barren of apps and the slower original with them, I’d go for the apps.
Software
iPod Touch 2.0 Firmware: It’s Official
9:46PM Kit Eaton | The iPod touch 2.0 firmware is now available from Apple for US$9.95, officially. In reality, Apple’s having a busy day, so they’re not quite firing on all cylinders yet. It should be up any minute, we expect. [Apple] More »
Phones
LG Chocolate 3 Gets Release Date Moved up
9:40PM Kit Eaton | Last week we told you that the upcoming LG Chocolate 3 was going to be available July 14th: Verizon have just come up with the news that it’ll be available a day earlier, July 13. They’re pretty proud of the candybar phone’s Verizon Rhapsody interlink, and the “all-in-one” nature of the gizmo as a PMP, mobile phone, GPS navigator, camera and car-stereo FM source. It’ll be available in black or light blue, for US$129.99 after a US$50 mail-in rebate at Verizon Communications Stores (including Circuit City branches.) Press release below. More »
Phones
iPhone 3G: It’s Here
9:31PM Matt Buchanan | We’ve got the iPhone 3G. Expect a lot more to come. [Gizmodo iPhone 3G Coverage] More »
Software
iPhone 2.0 Firmware Now Available Through iTunes
8:57PM Kit Eaton | For a day now you’ve been able to manually update your iPhone firmware to version 2.0, by grabbing a download source and doing it yourself. Now you don’t have to: It’s available through iTunes 7.7. More »
Science
Scientists Invent Tech for Cost-Effective Solar Power from Windows
8:35PM Kit Eaton | Solar power is everywhere at the mo, maybe because it sounds more sci-fi than wind: which is the case with this new technology that turns windows into power sources. Clever bods at MIT have worked out how to use organic dye solar-concentrator coatings to collect light over a whole sheet of glass and “concentrate” it at the edges. This lets you have a much smaller (and hence cheaper) solar-electric cell mounted in the side of a window, more easily achieved than typical mirror-based concentrators. And by tuning the dyes (originally designed for lasers and OLEDs) to different wavelengths, and stacking them up, you get an even bigger power output. Clever stuff. [Physorg] More »
Online
MobileMe Website is Up, One Day of Awkwardness Late
7:31PM Kit Eaton | So we showed it to you briefly yesterday, but then MobileMe turned around and seemed to bite the Apple that made it, and has been unavailable until just now. Can we assume more technical hitches than its developers had anticipated? Yes, I think we can, particularly given Apple’s “it’s taking longer than expected” error message. But now it’s up, and since the iPhone has already been on sale in some places for nearly a whole day, that can only be good news. Update: There’s a getting started tour, which didn’t appear to be there yesterday. Everything else works as anticipated. [Me.com] More »
Software
