News

Apple's gotten some criticism in the US for their slight exaggeration in their iPhone 3G ads, such as their claim that the iPhone 3G is twice as fast as the 2G iPhone, and is even facing a possible class action, but has otherwise garnered no bad consequences. The UK government appears to have taken the matter more seriously and has banned the ads from airing in the country.

The legally binding Non-Disclosure Agreement all iPhone developers are required to agree to forbids the discussion of iPhone app development, and it's hindering the quality of the apps being developed for the iPhone and iPod touch. The restriction is creating some significant problems for many, but some have found a way around the contract.

Those of you who rely on a password to keep others from using your iPhone might want to keep an eye on it for a while. A workaround has just been uncovered that renders the need for a password useless, giving a user full access to Mail, SMS, Contacts, and even Safari without the use of the password.

The Dev Team has released a new version of QuickPwn for Windows that fixes a permissions problem that arises with the iPod touch. They say that they've been having a problem where incorrect permissions are used and subsequently the keychain doesn’t save passwords, so they've updated it to fix the problem.The new version is available here. They also updated the PwnageTool, which is available here.

While some iPhone 3G owners blame faulty hardware or buggy software for their service problems, iPhone customers in France may now have another party to blame for their iPhone 3G woes. According to a report by France Info, Orange France is admittedly setting a speed cap for all iPhone customers. No explanation is given for the imposed limit, although it may help to explain some customers' slow 3G speeds.

The French iPhone carrier plans to increase the speed to 1Mbps on September 15th. Orange France iPhone users will receive the increase as soon as it's put into effect, no user intervention necessary.

Looking for a new way to search Wikipedia? There are several web-apps out there that will make it more manageable from your iPhone, but now there's a native app that brings it down to size and makes moving from section to section easier on your iDevice.

The greatly successful Movies application, written by Jeffrey Grossman, was recently acquired by the movie review giant, Flixster. Flixster redistributed the app to Apple's App Store on August 25, 2008. The latest version includes the ability to search archives of over 50,000 titles including posters, full movie descriptions, and cast/crew listings. The application is now also available in Canada and the UK.

Flixster's Movies application is now available for free via the App Store.

As the iPhone 3G launch grew nearer, people were pointing and shouting and jumping up and down at AT&T's sparse 3G US coverage map, and those Swedish scientists saying that it's not the iPhone 3G's fault has shifted the focus of everyone's attention away from hardware and onto reception. Luckily, AT&T CTO John Donovan knows that now is the time to improve, and shared his plan with Gizmodo's Brian Lam.

Remember the pictures of a factory worker found on an shiny new iPhone 3G. Well, China.org.cn has dug up some more information about the cheerful-looking factory worker in the images on teh device. According to their sources, the pictures were a routine test of the device's camera, and that the images were accidentally never removed.

Despite it's shortcomings, the iPhone 3G is selling like hotcakes, and it's quickly overtaking sales of the first generation device in the short amount of time that it's been open. At the first launch, it took a year just to sell 6 million iPhones, but the iPhone 3G will reach its 6 million mark next week at the latest, and may have already done so.

Merlin Mann, Dave Hamilton, Jeff Gamet, and Adam Christianson join me this week to discuss iPhone 3G reception issues, the iPhone 2.0.2 update, and MobileMe. Show notes can be found at iPhoneAlley.com/podcast. If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, email us at Podcast[at]iPhoneAlley.com.

On August 14th, Wired.com asked iPhone 3G users around the world to test their network speed at their location and submit it so they could document network speeds around the world? Well, since then they've gathered information contributed by over 2,600 participants around the world, and they just finished compiling their findings.

College student Noah Witherspoon recently announced some unfortunate news. His free Tetris-esque game Tris is currently the top most popular free app in the App Store, but it seems it's popularity drew the attention of the Tetris® Company, and they are claiming a "copyright" claim on the game and are forcing him to take it down by Wednesday, August 27th.

The iPhone Dev Team just announced that version 2.0.3 of the PwnageTool is now available as an update through the built-in updater. This version adds support for iPhone/iPod firmware 2.0.2 5C1, contains an updated version of Installer.app beta, and a new .de localization for people in Germany. At the same time, they also announced the update of the Windows version of the QuickPwn 150 beta, which has an improved GUI, has a fix for YouTube, and BootNeuter support for 2G iPhones.

Looking to boost your karma for the day? A new site just launched today with the mission of showcasing apps, and they've started off with six apps they think stand out from the rest, and as a promotional stunt they've convinced all six developers to donate all of their proceedings from opening day (today) to charity.

We all love the iPhone 3G, and Apple's ads do a great job demonstrating all it's wondrous glory to the ignorant masses, but it's still not perfect. Now an internal document from US carrier Verizon Wireless shows that they are preparing to launch a new anti-iPhone campaign that hits the iPhone where it's weakest-- AT&T.

The unusual reception issues with the iPhone 3G have been creating a lot of frustration for those with the issue, causing some pointing fingers to the iPhone 3G's hardware. Apple said they can fix it with software, but it still leaves some wondering if the 3G's hardware really could be defective. To solve the mystery, a Sweedish company called Bluetest decided to test their 3G's antenna.

Digg co-founder and internet star Kevin Rose has a history of sharing rumors about the iPhone and other Apple devices, and now he's back with yet more alleged information about some product revisions and software releases from Apple. Kevin says that Apple will be refreshing their line of iPods in the not-too-distant future to include a redesigned Nano, cheaper iPod touch, iPod touch software 2.1, and the iTunes 8.0 update that will include new features, all in the next 2-3 weeks.

Apple has begun three new iPhone ads, which they have posted on their site. The new ads demondstrate the use of the App Store to download third party applications. This is the first time Apple has advertised the download of third party applications as a feature in their advertising.

Suzanne Choney, a writer for MSNBC publicly pleaded Apple to send text messages to iPhone users to notify them of the recent firmware update, with the hope that it might fix some of the problems people have been having with the 2.0 software since it's launch. Her view was that if the update does help, most people probably won't know about it unless Apple or AT&T tell them about it. While we do know that the 2.0.1 and 2.0.2 updates don't fix the crashes, it looks like the company has decided to take his advice.