Apple has concluded that the iPhone 4 antenna problem is not much of a problem at all, so it’s discontinuing its automatic free-case option as of the end of the month. Consumer Reports isn’t pleased.
Tag Archives | Apple. iPhone
Good Signs for Google Voice on iPhone?
TechCrunch’s Jason Kincaid reports on some potential great news: Apple’s new App Store acceptance guide may help Google Voice (or at least third-party Google Voice apps) get into the store.
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Apple's Encouraging/Discouraging iPhone App Policy Revisions
Apple’s iPhone App Store acceptance process–at its worst, anyhow–has always reminded me of dealing with the great and powerful Wizard of Oz. For developers, it can feel scary, mysterious, and arbitrary. And even though companies that sell software through the App Store are in business with Apple, that hasn’t meant that they’ve had much clarity into what was going on, and why.
But today, Apple is opening the curtain, at least a little. It’s instituting some changes and clarifications to App Store approval policies and amending the documentation it provides to developers. Engadget’s Nilay Patel has a good summary.
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iOS Game Center is a Lifeless App Out of the Gate
When the iOS 4.1 update went live a couple hours ago, I fully intended to tinker with Game Center and to post some impressions here. But so far, my only impression of the social gaming hub for iPhone and iPod Touch is that it wasn’t fully-baked at launch.
Since installing Game Center before lunch, I’ve accumulated a few friends, and we’re all wondering the same thing: Now what? Aside from adding friends and altering a status message, there isn’t anything to do in Game Center. The app doesn’t tell you what games are supported or provide links to the App Store. A button for “Find Game Center Games” boots the player out Apple’s Game Center web page, which is basically an advertisement with no resources for people who are already using the service. Apparently, Ms. Pac-Man is one of the first games to support Game Center, but there’s no way to figure that out from within the app.
I’ve had high hopes for Game Center since Apple announced it alongside iOS 4 in April. The concept is a lot like Xbox Live — you can invite friends to games, rack up achievements and get paired with strangers of similar skill in multiplayer — but it’s still a novel idea for smartphones and handheld game consoles. This was a clever move by Apple, adding a social layer to its App Store games to keep people hooked.
So I was thinking today’s launch would be a grand occasion, with iPhone and iPod Touch gamers — there are apparently so many of them — buzzing about with challenges and friend requests. Instead, Game Center’s launch day is a bust. As soon as Apple adds some actual things to do, I’ll post some real impressions. In the meantime, look for me under the nickname ThePimpOfSound.
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A Clamshellized iPhone
I’ve often said that if Apple made an iPhone with a physical keyboard, I’d probably choose it over the all-touchscreen version. So I’m sorry I missed this upcoming product at IFA: An iPhone case with a built-in keyboard. (I assume we’ll see iPad cases based on the same principle, too.)
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MobileCrunch: Skyfire to Submit iPhone Version Soon
Is the Skyfire browser being submitted to Apple’s App Store soon? If so, does the iPhone version include Skyfire’s trademark support for (some) Flash videos? And if it does, is there any chance in heck that Apple will approve it? Inquiring minds want to know…
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Netflix Arrives on the iPhone: Watch Instantly, Watch Anywhere
Netflix Watch Instantly, which was one of the iPad’s launch apps back in April, is now on the iPhone (and iPod Touch), too. There isn’t much to say other than that it’s just about everything that makes Watch Instantly such a delight and such a deal, in handy pocketable form. Pay Netflix for a red-envelopes-in-the-mail plan starting at $8.99, and you get unlimited access to on-demand movies and TV shows. Recent releases are still absent, but the selection continues to improve and now includes some high-profile titles from 2009, such as Up.
The service works with both Wi-Fi and 3G connections. I was impressed by the quality in both forms, and the 3G option is yet another reason I’m glad I clutched onto my grandfathered unlimited AT&T data plan for now.
I do miss one feature that’s present in most other incarnations of Watch Instantly: The thumbnail previews that pop up when you skim forward in a video.
After the jump, a few images.
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Clicker Hits the iPhone
Clicker, the cool site for TV watchers that’s part Google, part TV Guide, and part virtual TiVo, is launching an iPhone app today. The company’s CEO, Jim Lanzone, told me that it brings much of the features of the site to the small screen, but it’s meant as a companion–there’s a lot less TV available on the iPhone than on the PC-based Web, especially since neither Hulu Plus nor Netflix have launched yet.
As with the site, the Clicker app lets you search for TV shows and get information about where they can be watched on the Web or on the iPhone (both for free and for pay); add shows to a playlist that alerts you when new episodes are available (and which you can get access to in your browser where everything’s available); and check out what your friends are watching.
After the jump, a few screens.
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Chomp's iPhone App Search Engine: Neat, But Not Yet the Google of Apps
The single best thing about the iPhone is that there are a quarter-million applications for it. And one of the single most frustrating things about the iPhone is how difficult it is to find anything other than the apps that make it to the front page of Apple’s App Store.
Enter Chomp, a startup that aims to do more than Apple has to date to help you find cool software for your device–the iPhone for now, and other platforms over time. The company’s ambitious goal is to be the Google.com of app search. They’ve done a number of things right, but I’ve been puzzled by some of the results I’ve gotten as I’ve played around with the app tonight.
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Apple's Google Voice Pondering Goes on. And on.
TechCrunch’s Jason Kincaid notes that it’s now been a year since Apple told the FCC that it hadn’t rejected Google’s Google Voice app–it was just concerned about Google Voice bypassing the iPhone’s own Phone interface, and “pondering” how to respond.
Twelve months later, Apple is still pondering–which is confusing, because it’s also approved Line 2, Skype, and other apps which let you make phone calls without using the iPhone’s phone features. Meanwhile, Google ended up releasing a Web-based version of Voice for iPhone users–not bad, but nowhere near as seamless as the native one for Android and BlackBerry. And most of the other interesting things that Google has done for iPhone users in the past year have come in the form of Web apps, not local ones. I don’t think Google is boycotting the iPhone, but it sure would be understandable if it preferred not to invest a lot of time in apps that Apple might decide to “ponder” indefinitely rather than approve.
If there’s any explanation for Apple’s permanent pondering of Google Voice at the same time that it approves other phone apps that doesn’t involve its rivalry with Google, I’d love to know what it is. And I’d love to know the FCC’s take on Apple’s explanation. Maybe it’s still pondering it.
Meanwhile, Kincaid notes at the end of his story that he, like TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, is one of the few folks who have been permitted to port their existing phone number to Google Voice, making it possible to make that number reach them on any phone. He says Google plans to roll out the feature to everyone “soon.”