gHacks technology news » apple iphone

Apple iPhone 3GS

Orrett Morgan — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:05:13 +0000

The iPhone 3GS! By now you’re probably familiar with the device and the name, (S stands for SPEED!). But in case you had a few questions regarding OS 3.0 or the new device I’ve got it covered.

The biggest question on most peoples mind is what the major differences are. First of all it should be pointed out that the latest update to the hardware is under the hood. The only difference in terms of visual design between the iPhone 3G and the 3GS is the name on the back of the device. But under the hood is where the real work has been done. Instead of reinventing the most popular smartphone on the market, Apple has decided to do the subtle thing and improve it. These improvements come in the form of a better processor (up from 412MHz to a rumored 600MHz). The camera has been bumped up a megapixel to 3.0 and comes with video recording and auto focus, although there still is no flash option. A hardware compass has also been included.

On the software front, OS 3.0 now comes with push notification, better MMS, tethering, the long awaited cut and paste as well as a proper GPS navigation solution. Spotlight has finally made its way to the iPhone which promises to allow users to do system wide searches. Rounding up the major features for OS 3.0 is Voice Control and stereo Bluetooth options.

So now that you get an idea of the major updates to not only the software but the phone its time to answer a few FAQ’s.

Q: Is there a big performance difference between the 3G and 3GS?

A: While the performance is noticeable, it is not one that is huge. Unless you’re running games such as Resident Evil etc. you will notice load times of one to two seconds faster but that is about it. On the other hand if gaming is a requirement for your iPhone then you definitely want to look into the 3GS as the gaming performance (including frame rate) are mark improvements over the 3G.
In terms of internet speed etc. this remains the same as the 3GS has the same wireless chip as its predecessor and AT&T is not rolling out 4G until another year or two.

Q: How useful is cut and paste?

A: There is no doubt that cut and paste is a standard feature of any smartphone, but one question everyone has on their lips is if cut and paste on the iPhone is comparable to that on other devices such as the Blackberry and Palm Pre.

First of all, Apple has decided to go with a predictive selection technology that tries and figures out how much of the text you want selected to cut, copy or paste. It’s pretty accurate and if it fails to give you what you want, you can always use the little nubs at the begging and end of the selection to increase or decrease your selection, something that is lacking in all other smartphones I’ve tested. Was it worth the wait, probably not, but at least it brings something new to the game.

Q: Is the Compass and Voice Control useful?

A: A compass in a cell phone wasn’t something most industry analysts were expecting. But Apple decided to shock us with a full working hardware compass in the 3GS iPhone. As to whether it is useful or not is yet to be determined. I will say that if you are planning to upgrade to the new 3GS, the compass should not be on your list of reasons. While it works perfectly, it’s yet to be proven how it is more useful then the built in GPS with Google maps. Had the phone been lacking GPS options then maybe, but honestly I am yet to see a real use for the compass except for hikers lost in Wyoming. It still is nice to play around with though.

Voice control is another new feature that I’m not quite getting. Yes it’s awesome to be able to tell your phone what to do instead of making it do it. But I just wish the voice control features were a little easier to operate. For one it requires you to hold down the home button for every use, and since multi tasking still hasn’t made it to the iPhone, once the Voice Control app is exited, you have to do the process all over again. However it is nice if you want to keep your eyes on the road instead of on your phone.

Q: What’s up with Tethering and MMS?

A: If you live in the U.S, I’m sad to say that AT&T sees no reason in bringing tethering (or MMS) to the iPhone3GS at launch (June 19th). While they have said that MMS will be available later on this summer, there is no word on when the tethering option will be available.

That said for those in other countries that will offer the tethering option, you should find it to work just fine. Unfortunately since I’m based in the U.S the option to try out both the MMS and tethering features were unavailable. Hacking could have gotten the job done though, but that would be too much trouble and more importantly would not make sense for this review.

Q: Should I upgrade/switch carries for the 3GS?

A: This is the biggest question on everyone’s lips. The question has so many factors so unfortunately the answer will depend on a few things. If you still have the original iPhone (not the 3G), the answer is obvious. You were due for an upgrade like yesterday, and I’m almost sure that most people who have the original iPhone have finished their contracts or about to finish them. So the answer is a no brainer, upgrade!

On the other hand, ff you are a 3G owner you should consider your options before upgrading. If you are still stuck in a contract it might be in your best bet to just get the software upgrade and live happily ever after. The only major difference in the 3G and the 3GS is the speed and unless you are a heavy iPhone gamer, you probably won’t notice the one to two second difference in app load time. However I understand that AT&T is allowing existing customers to get a 3GS at the subsidized price, based on credit, contract length and a few other factors. This is individually based so your best bet would be to contact AT&T. As for other countries such as England (Vodofone), I have no idea.

If you are with another carrier this is even a tougher decision. If you happen to have Sprint and due for an upgrade in the near future, I would advise that you check out the Pre before jumping ship. It rivals the iPhone in many areas and beats it in some (namely multitasking). On the other hand if you are tied to T-Mobile, Verizon etc, and your contract is either expired or about to expire, you cannot go wrong with the new 3GS.

It should be noted that the 3G will still be available for purchase ($99 on contract). I would not advise trying to save an extra Benjamin in this area though as the performance boost and other hardware upgrades are well worth the extra $100.

Conclusion:

So there you have it. The major questions about the iPhone answered. For those with the iPhone 3G you can download OS 3.0 right now. If you’re holding off for the 3GS however, that one is set to release this Friday (June 19, 2009).

Tags: apple, apple iphone, apple iphone 3gs, cell-phone, iPhone, iphone 3gs, mobile phone

Pod To PC Transfers Data From iPods And iPhone To PC

Martin — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 10:38:46 +0000

Pod To PC is a free software program to transfer data from any kind of iPod or iPhone to a computer. It supports all generations of the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPod Video, iPod Nano, iPod and iPod Shuffle making it an universal tool to transfer data from those mobile devices to a PC.

The software will run on any PC with Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista installed. The only other requirement is an installation of Apple’s iTunes software. Pod To PC can copy music, videos and playlists from a supported device to the computer. Music and videos can be previewed and filtered on the iPod or iPhone prior to transferring them.

One interesting option is to automatically transfer all music and video files to the computer that are not already available in the local installation of iTunes. This makes it ideal to sync music and video collections. Could also be handy if you had to reinstall the operating system or iTunes on a computer after a crash to transfer all the music and videos back to the computer from the iPod or iPhone.

Duplicate tracks will not be copied. It is furthermore possible to copy full or partial playlists. All the related meta information such as ratings will also be transferred and preserved.

Pod To PC is an interesting software program for Windows users looking for a software to transfer data from an iPod or iPhone to the PC.

Tags: apple iphone, apple ipod, iPhone, iphone transfer, iPod, ipod transfer, pod to pc, software program, transfer iphone data, transfer ipod music

Send MMS With The iPhone

Martin — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:51:02 +0000

The designers and developers of the Apple iPhone must somehow have missed the popularity of MMS, the Multimedia Messaging Service, which is basically a service to send multimedia messages to contacts. This is one of the criticisms that iPhone users and reviewers had when using and reviewing the iPhone. The iPhone is capable of sending SMS so why the exclusion of MMS in first place? This would make perfect sense considering that the iPhone could make use of the phone’s inbuilt camera and the Internet as a picture source.

Flutter, a free application for the iPhone, adds MMS functionality to the iPhone. The application is available at the Apple iPhone store from where it can be downloaded and installed.

There are a few fundamental differences between the usual MMS service that cell phone providers offer and Flutter. On the positive side Flutter users can use the geotagging features of the iPhone and include those information in their message. That can be nice for sending holiday pictures where the recipient can look the location up on a map to know where the sender is currently located.

Unlike usual MMS services though the picture is not transferred directly. The recipient receives a link to the picture and the location on his iPhone which he has to open to view the information. That’s not a huge problem but an option to display the picture instantly would have been nice.

Still, Flutter offers a free service. Everyone with an iPhone can use it to send as many picture messages as he wants to his contacts. That alone and the fact that there are no alternatives makes it an interesting application for the iPhone.

Tags: apple, apple iphone, iPhone, iphone apps, iphone mms, iphone picture messages, iphone software

The iPhone Home Button Is A Security Risk

Martin — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 19:49:11 +0000

Now that makes for an interesting opening. When a user presses the iPhone’s home button it shrinks and disappears which is a nice looking effect. The problem is that the iPhone is taking a screenshot of the screen contents to create that effect. The screenshot can be of anything including emails, sms, notes, contacts or websites.

The screenshots get deleted after the application is closed and most users would think that this is the end of the story but there is a twist according to security researcher Jonathan Zdziarski who was able to recover deleted screenshots that would show him exactly what a user was doing at a given time.

This however is not the only privacy risk. Everything that gets at least temporarily stored on the could be recoverable including keyboard and Safari cache, deleted emails and pictures.

Someone does need physical access to the device to be able to recover data but it is possible. Will probably be only a matter of time before someone creates or edits a disk eraser so that it can wipe the unused space of the iPhone regularly.

Tags: apple iphone, iPhone, iphone data, iphone privacy, iphone security, Jonathan Zdziarski

Utilize iPhone As A Modem

Martin — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 07:49:49 +0000

Mac only. The iPhone can be used to browse the Internet, write emails and do pretty much everything that one can do on the Internet. It is great for those quick activities that require little user input but writing articles for websites takes some time due to the character input method.

Many users prefer a keyboard anytime over the way the iPhone handles text input because that is what they are used to. The software iPhoneModem utilizes the iPhone as a modem for a computer so that the computer can go online.

There are several scenarios besides having to type more than a few paragraphs like running a software that is not available on the iPhone itself. iPhoneModem works with all jail broken iPhones 2G and 3G over EDGE and UMTS and Mac OS X 10.5.0 or higher with Mac OS X 10.5.4 recommended.

Installing iPhone Modem on a Mac:

Download iPhoneModem and copy it to your application folder
Make sure that the network environment automatic exists
Start iPhoneModem.app and iPhoneModem Setup.

Setup the iPhone for iPhoneModem:

Install with Cydia OpenSSH
Install Insomnia with Cydia
Install BossPrefs for starting and stopping the SSH server
Change pass word for the SSH server

Using iPhoneModem:

1. Click on Start Connection

2. Activate the iPhone’s WLan as soon as the message Connect with iPhone WLan..
appears.

3. Start the SSH Server on the iPhone if it is not running already.

4. A message should appear telling you that your iPhone is now connected. Start Insomnia on the Iphone. Happy surfing!

Please note that this are screenshots from the German version but it seems that en English language version is available as well. It the application turns out to be popular it could very well be ported to Windows. No Windows version as of now.

Tags: apple, apple iphone, internet, iPhone, iphone modem, mac

Apple Can Remove Apps From iPhones

Martin — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:38:58 +0000

The public outcry would be loud and clear if someone would have discovered that Microsoft was able to remove installed applications from a Windows operating system. But it is Apple this time who is able to remove applications that have already been installed on an iPhone according to the website Macrumors.

How is that working? Apple is managing a page with blacklisted applications. Researcher Jonathan Zdziarski has a theory that the iPhone is calling home once in a while to check the installed applications against the Apple maintained blacklist.

This could mean that Apple could deauthorize commercial applications that the user paid for. This could ensure the security and safety of their users but it is more a question of how strict they will use the blacklist. Putting a safe application on that list could have serious consequences for the users and Apple.

Tags: apple, apple iphone, iPhone, iphone blacklist, macrumors

First iPhone App Pulled from Apple App Store

Martin — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 07:48:56 +0000

It was just a matter of time until the news would break that an application that has been offered on the Apple App Store was raising security or privacy concerns. Even Mozilla with their high quality controls let some bad apples slip through so it was just a matter of time.

The time has come apparently because the iPhone game Aurora Feint has been pulled from the Apple store due to privacy and security reasons. Here is why..

The developers of the game thought that it would be a cool feature to transfer his complete contact list to the game server to find out if any of his friends are playing the game itself. The contact list was transferred unencrypted (of course) and anyone with a little bit of knowledge could have gained those information easily.

The developers responded to that by claiming that they never stored the contact list on their servers and that they stopped saving (and erased) personal information that was recorded previously on July, 18th.

A real interesting aspect as the story unfolds is that the Apple SDK is apparently giving developers access to the user’s contact list. Apple should make sure that personal data never gets transferred unless the user authorizes the transfer before.

Tags: apple apps, apple iphone, apple store, iPhone, iphone privacy, iphone security

iPhone Jailbreaking For Windows

Martin — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:27:14 +0000

The so called PwnageTool for Apple Macintosh computers was released a while ago that could be used to jailbreak the Apple iPhone which makes it possible to install third party applications on the iPhone. Users should not confuse jailbreaking with unlocking the iPhone. Unlocking would mean that it would be possible to use another phone provider with the iPhone.

The WinPwn software is compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista 32/64 bit and users have to make sure to uninstall any previous version of the software and that a compatible version of iTunes, that is iTunes 7.7, is installed on the system.

The Apple iPhone Apps website published a detailed walkthrough of the process that it takes to jailbreak the iPhone under Windows and it is probably a good idea to use it for guidance.

Tags: apple iphone, iPhone, jailbreak iphone, unlock iphone

Wordpress For iPhone Is Not A Killer App

Martin — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:37:55 +0000

Everyone on the Internet got really excited about the recent Wordpress release for iPhone users that lets iPhone users create and edit Wordpress posts with their iPhone. I’m probably the only one not falling for the hype right now, let me tell you why.

The iPhone has not ordinary keyboard. That’s the reason. There, I said it. It might be a fine solution for photo bloggers or bloggers who like to write a sentence or two but imagine someone typing a thousand words with the iPhone.

On the other hand some teens, especially female ones, got really good at typing in sentences with their mobile phone which also does not come with a full keyboard. Still, my point is that most bloggers would need a real keyboard to be productive with the iPhone.

It might be nice for editing a post, adding a comment or managing the comments but it’s definitely not nice to use the iPhone to type in whole articles. Feeling a bit lonely right now, anyone who actually uses the iPhone and Wordpress who would like to comment on the usability and his experience ? Feel welcome

Tags: apple iphone, iPhone, iphone application, iphone blogging, wordpress

Apple and AT&T Will Learn that User Agents are no good for access control

Martin — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:48:20 +0000

Apple iPhone users can access the Internet free of charge through AT&T hotspots, that’s what Macrumors is reporting. That’s a great additional feature for iPhone users and apparently for everyone else as well. The way of determining if a device is eligible for free access is by checking the User Agent of the device. We all know what it is very easy to spoof the User Agent of any browser. All that needs to be done now is to change the User Agent of the browser to the User Agent of the iPhone’s browser.

The User Agent of the iPhone browser is Mobile Safari 1.1.3 – iPhone. A user with Firefox or Opera could now easily change his User Agent to the one used by the iPhone to access the Internet without costs at every AT&T hotspot. One possible add-on that can be used for Firefox would be the User Agent Switcher.

User Agents are definitely not a secure way to protect a network or website from unauthorized access. The same can be said for referrer checks which are as insecure. It probably will only be a matter of time when AT&T decided to change the way the free access is granted to the iPhones only. Probably through a small application that is run on the iPhone instead.

Tags: apple, apple iphone, att, hotspots, iPhone

Firefox Iphone Emulator

Martin — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:26:44 +0000

I’m sometimes amazed by new Firefox extensions that get developed. One of those that surely has its uses is the Firefox iPhone Emulator extension which is currently an experimental build. Don’t expect to control the Apple iPhone with all its features in Firefox. It currently offers the iPhone interface and the ability to navigate websites. While this does not sound like much it could provide to be very useful for webmasters.

If you ever wanted to know how your website looks like when opened from someone using an iPhone or mobile phone then this iPhone emulator will deliver that right in Firefox. No other emulator or experiments are needed to achieve this.

The display of my own website is definitely not optimal. I never gave much thought to it before but I think it is a good idea to search for solutions on how to provide users with these devices a better experience on my website.

Just install the extension as usual and start it from Tools > Launch Iphone Emulator.

Tags: apple iphone, firefox, firefox-extensions, iPhone, iphone emulator

uTorrent and Last.fm iPhone applications

Martin — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:33:12 +0000

You can think whatever you want about the Apple iPhone but it surely gets more developer love than most other phones currently on the market. I spotted two incredible applications for the iPhone which might appeal to a lot of iPhone owners. The first software is called Mobile Scrobbler which connects the iPhone and iPod Touch with Last.fm.

While I’m not a heavy Last.fm user I tend to use it when I quickly want to listen to a new band I heard about or find out about similar artists of a band that I do like. Mobile Scrobbler sends data of the music that you are listening to to Last.fm which uses this information to suggest new artists and songs.

What I really like is that the developer is currently working on a function that streams Last.fm radio streams to the Iphone or iPod Touch. The announcement was made today and it could be that this feature will already be implemented in the coming days. The artists and track infos that are displayed will also be soon available in the software for the iPhone.

Usage Instructions for Mobile Scrobbler:

Enter your Last.fm username and password
Tap “Start Scrobbling”
MobileScrobbler will login to the Last.fm site, and display a music note icon in the status bar letting you know the application is still running in the background.
After logging in, press the Home button on your device and tap the iPod icon and listen to music. Any tracks you play should automatically show up on your Last.fm profile page after you’ve listened to more than half of the track.
To stop submitting tracks, open MobileScrobbler from your home screen and tap “Stop Scrobbling”. The music note in the status bar will disappear and you will be logged out of Last.fm.
To see how many tracks have been scrobbled or queued for this session, as well as the most recent status message from AudioScrobbler, click the “Session Statistics” button.

uTorrent application for iPhone:

The uTorrent webui software for the Apple iPhone makes it possible to start, stop and add torrents using the uTorrent web interface which has to be installed on the local computer that is running uTorrent. What I like is that you can access the web ui to get a quick overview of the current download and seeding status of your torrent files as well as a way to control any torrents through the iPhone.

This is in my opinion far better and secure than using a public computer to access the uTorrent web interface.

Tags: apple, apple iphone, iPhone, ipod touch

Apple iPhone commercials

Martin — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 04:44:53 +0000

I did not pay much attention to the Apple iPhone hype until now but today the newest commercial for the iPhone caught my attention on Youtube. The first thing that struck my mind was that the navigation was blazing fast. As you might know a multi-touchscreen is being used for writing and navigating through menus.

It looks more like a multimedia gadget with phone capabilities than the other way round which I personally do not like that much. I like slim, fast gadgets that are not that bloated than the iPhone. I would never for instance watch Youtube videos on such a Gadget, does not make sense to me.

I know that some users will like the feature and Apple does everything it can to tell everyone that the iPhone has Youtube support. So, maybe I’m the only person on the world but I do not want the iPhone. Nevertheless, here are some of the available commercials.

Tags: apple iphone, iPhone, iphone commercials

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