Hacked iPhones Confirmed As Bricking With Latest Update

From Slashdot -

The latest Software Update for the iPhone has been confirmed to brick hacked units.

The BBC reported that Apple's warning has now proved correct as many owners are reporting their phones no longer work following installation of the update. Apple requires iPhone owners to take out a lengthy contract with AT&T in the US but there are a number of programs on the net that unlock the device for use with other networks.

The only remedy is to do undo the hack.

iPhone Human Interface Guidelines

Apple has posted guidelines for developing the UI for iPhone applications here.

Apple voiding warranties, blacklisting hacked iPhones?

From Engadget -


According to a recent report, an iPhone running third-party apps and operating on T-Mobile was flat out rejected when it entered an Apple store for service. The employee reportedly said that "the warranty was voided," and added that the mobile was "blacklisted" against future service or return. The owner did manage to coerce the Apple store manager to allow a return (albeit with a 10-percent restocking fee added on), but it's highly recommended reverting your iPhone to AT&T mode before returning it for service.

Forget iPhone, the Gphone is here

From Rediff August 24, 2007 01:53 IST

Google is believed to be a fortnight away from the worldwide launch of its much-awaited Google Phone (Gphone) and has started talks with service providers in India for an exclusive launch on one of their networks.

Talks are believed to be taking place with Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar, respectively India's first and third largest mobile telephony operators, and state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam.

Sources close to the development said a simultaneous launch across the US and Europe is expected, and announcements would be sent to media firms in India and other parts of the world. US regulatory approval, which is expected soon, is the only hurdle that Google is waiting to cross, they added. Google plans to invest USD7-8 billion for its global telephony foray.

In India, it is also believed to be in talks with Indian providers to offer data and content and platforms including Instant Messaging (IM) and Search functions. However, these could not be confirmed.

Reports of Google getting into handset manufacturing as an answer to Apple's iPhone has been doing rounds in cyberspace and international media for some time. These reports suggest that Google has developed a prototype that will hit the markets in a year's time. The US-based company has neither confirmed nor denied these reports. The Wall Street Journal too had reported that Google had invested "hundreds of millions of dollars" in the project and was involved in discussions with US-based T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless.

Globally, Google is likely to participate in the upcoming auction for 700 MHz spectrum for which it is prepared to spend up to $4.6 billion. The firm is also introducing ads to YouTube videos which could be replicated on mobile phones. Ironically, Google recently partnered Apple to produce services such as e-mail and maps for its iPhone handset. And Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, said recently that more Google services for the iPhone would be rolled out.

More at Rediff.

Breaking: iPhone 100% Unlocked Using Turbo SIM Card

From Gizmodo - Now you can 100%-unlock the iPhone using a Turbo SIM card, without depending on the version of your current carrier card. The SIM card will give you full calling, SMS and GPRS data capabilities with any network. You won't need extra hardware, since it only requires you to modify the $80 blank SIM using your own iPhone.

The hackers are claiming that this method doesn't use card readers and it doesn't depend on your previous card version either, so it doesn't matter if it is a V1, V2 or V3. All of them will work fine. While the Turbo SIM-based method is not software-only, it seems simple and cheap enough for anyone to follow.

Nine Hacks That Will Make You the Master of Your IPhone

07.25.07 | 2:00 AM -

Only a few days after the iPhone went on sale, hackers were already kicking the wheels and checking under the hood to see if they could pimp out Apple's locked-down smartphone. After a month, they've made surprising progress. Wired has detailed some of the milestone hacks for what has been called "the most significant consumer electronics product ever."

Most of the hacks that have been publicized so far are aimed at controlling or enhancing your own iPhone, but a darker side has emerged too. A security firm announced a possible Wi-Fi-based browser exploit, which could give hackers access to an iPhone's microphone, surfing history and contact information -- and possibly website and e-mail passwords stored on the phone, too. Make no mistake: The iPhone is a magnet for hackers, both good and bad.

The hacks run the gamut from easy hacks almost anyone can do to advanced mods that require serious hardware and software skills.

Details at Wired.

iPhone Firmware Hints at New Apps, Widgets

July 30th, 2007 - The guys at iPhoneology has discovered several applications listed in the iPhone's firmware but are missing from the phone itself.



The ones found were:

* com.apple.unitconverter
* com.apple.widget.phonebook
* com.apple.widget.translation
* com.apple.widget.worldclock (potentially different from the Clock application)
* com.apple.mobile.radio

While all of these have lots of potential, most seem like they could just be direct ports from the Tiger Dashboard equivalents. The most exciting of these seems to be the mobile.radio, as it suggests the possibility that Apple may be looking forward to supporting streaming radio or hopefully, an FM tuner on the device.

Full details at iPhoneology.

Exploiting the iPhone

A group of security researchers at Security Evaluators have developed a toolchain for working with the iPhone's architecture (which also includes some tools from the #iphone-dev community), and created a proof-of-concept exploit capable of delivering files from the user's iPhone to a remote attacker. They have notified Apple of the vulnerability and proposed a patch.

A member of the team, Dr. Charlie Miller, will be presenting the full details of discovering the vulnerability and creating the exploit at BlackHat on August 2nd. Their site will be updated to reflect those details. In the meantime they have decided only to release general information about exploiting the iPhone.

Details at their Security Evaluators site.

How I put my old Cingular SIM in my iPhone and made it work.

For those who don't want to use AT&T to make voice calls on their phones, the HacktheiPhone site has step-by-step instructions on how to use an old Cingular SIM on the iPhone.

iPhone Calculator and BRAUN ET66 Similarities

Side-by-Side Comparison of iPhone Calculator and BRAUN ET66 (circa 1970s)

As shown in the photo above, the iPhone's UI is a definitive tribute to Dieter Rams and Lubs Dietrich circa 1977 Braun ET44 and ET66 (ET stands for “electronic calculator” or “elektronischer Taschenrechner” in German).

From Oyayubizoku.

iPhone v1.0 Bugs

Applehound has compiled a lengthy list of 68 software bugs they have discovered on the iPhone. The bugs range from minor display issues to application crashes and are reproducible by every iPhone users.

Complete list at Applehound.

Apple plans cheaper, Nano-based phone: JP Morgan

Mon Jul 9, 2007 6:01PM EDT -

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple plans to launch a cheaper version of the iPhone in the fourth quarter that could be based on the ultra-slim iPod Nano music player, according to a JP Morgan report.

Kevin Chang, a JP Morgan analyst based in Taiwan, cited people in the supply channel he did not name and an application with the U.S Patent and Trademark office for his report dated July 8.

Apple filed a patent application document dated July 5 that refers to a multifunctional handheld device with a circular touch pad control, similar to the Nano's scroll wheel.

Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris declined comment.

Full details at Reuters.

Inside the iPhone field test mode

From Wirelessinfo -

Want to take a look at what's going on inside your iPhone? Dial *3001#12345#* and hit Call and you'll get access to the special field test mode of the iPhone. This mode is designed to allow technicians and Apple reps to get information on the inner workings of the iPhone and the cell phone network it talks to.

NOTE: Although it seems that most of the information is read-only (so you can't change anything), field modes like this have the potential to damage your phone and possibly interfere with the phone network. We are providing this information as-is; we cannot be held responsible if anything you do in this field mode damages your phone or the phone network.

Main Screen

The first screen that you see is the main menu for the field mode. This presents you with the following choices: Network Information, Cell Information, GPRS Information, PDP information, Call Information and Versions. The article explores these info further.

iPhone File System Hacked, Custom Ringtones to Come Soon

From Gizmodo 11:22 AM ON TUE JUL 10 2007 -



The iPhone's file system has been compromised and you can access it using iPhoneInterface. Full access to the file system means custom ringtones and all kinds of fun stuff.

One them you can see in the image: They moved the Safari application from the dashboard to the iPhone space. This also opens the door to running custom applications as soon as someone figures out how to program without an SDK or adapt normal Cocoa apps to the iPhone. And the unlocking feels so close now that you can almost touch it.

The version of the tool has not been posted yet but, according to the iPhone wizards at IRC channel #iPhone, it will be out soon.

SoonR Talk Brings VoIP to the iPhone

For those worried about no Skype support on the iPhone, SoonR has created an AJAX application that enables Skype usage on mobile devices. By installing their application on your computer and logging into the SoonR site with thier iPhones, users have a VoIP-capable device that helps cut down on monthly minutes. While not the most convenient way to make VoIP calls (it also uses SkypeOut credits), it's a nice addition until a true Skype iPhone app arrives.

More details at Gizmodo.

Meet Joe Hewitt, iPhone Web App Interface Guru

From Wired Blog - July 07, 2007 | 5:00:45 PM



Many of the developers I'm talking to at today's iPhoneDevCamp keep dropping the same name: Joe Hewitt who has also hacked together a set of templates that greatly improves the presentation and usability of any iPhone web application.

Joe's template set, which he has just posted to his site, includes a native-looking iPhone skin -- a set of PNG files and some stylesheets to give pages the "iPhone chrome" look and feel. There's also a JavaScript component that iPhonifies the navigation. It gets rid of the Safari toolbar, forces the pages to flip like a native app and adjusts the page elements to look consistent when the phone is spun between the portrait and landscape modes. You can read more about Joe's templates at Ajaxian. A good number of developers have adopted Joe's skin, so it's well on its way to becoming the "default" look for iPhone web apps.

The disappearing toolbar makes perfect sense -- when loading pages into the iPhone's Safari browser, the toolbar takes up a large chunk of real estate at the top of the screen. By inserting one line of JavaScript, you can force the browser to automatically scroll just beyond the bottom of the toolbar, letting your app take over the entire screen. Joe has posted details about this simple hack on his blog.

iPhoneInterface starts to crack open iPhone

From Tuaw -

iPhone enthusiasts over at the #iphone-talk and #iphone-mac channels on irc.osx86.hu have developed iPhoneInterface, a new Windows and Mac tool that allows you to manipulate the iPhone's state, launch services, and interact with the iPhone filesystem.

With it, you'll be able to scan the iPhone file structure, create and remove folders, start iPhone services, and more. It's still in its early days so don't expect too much from this first release. A public subversion server should be up overnight. Pop over to the irc channel for more information.

The iPhone Period Trick

From Gizmodo -



Some iPhone users have been complaining about the period key not being available on the main keyoard lay-out, making it a pain to access it in the numbers and symbols lay-out. W

There is actuall a quick and easy way to get around that. All you have to do is press and hold the numbers key, and without lifting your finger slide it over to the period (or any other punctuation mark) and let go. Ba-da-bing you've got yourself a period and the keyboard has automatically switched back to letters again.

iPhone's Missing Killer App - Social Networking

In his blog Peter S. Magnusson, gives a long and interesting analysis on Apple's iPhone. In particular he touches on its missing feature - social networking. Summary follows:

Steve Jobs is positioning the iPhone as the third leg of their strategy chair. He is saying that the iPhone will reinvent the notion of a cell phone in the way that the Mac reinvented the notion of a computer. I disagree. I don’t think the iPhone fundamentally innovates over and above the existing offerings, in the manner that the iPod, the Macintosh, and the Apple II all did in their day.

The iPhone is AWESOME

Before I start slamming the iPhone, let me make one thing clear up front. It is a fantastic device. I am in love with it. And as far as I’m concerned, I love it. I’m already buying more music and videos. And I’m busy discovering all sort of nifty things. The YouTube integration is excellent. It’s an excellent night digital book reader. Web pages that are specially designed for the iPhone are popping up all over. The web browser works great; I can actually read news extensively on this device. The photo album function is the first one in a portable device that I have used to show other people pictures of my kids. The battery behavior is incredible - I can watch hours of video and the battery is still over half full.

I even did a few hours of “operate with one hand while driving” testing. With a little practice it was straight forward to bring up Google Maps to where I was, enter a search for some nearby business keyword, select a business, and hit the “dial” button on the contact info. All with one hand, and all while at the same time the iPod part was dishing out great music.

Apple Doesn’t Get Social Networking

But here’s my theory. Apple can only do really interesting products if Steve Jobs understands the end user. And Jobs does not understand the 21st century computer usage paradigm. In this century, people don’t send memos to each other. And that’s what email is - electronic memos.

Today, people chat; they blog; they share multimedia like pictures, video, and audio; they flame each other on forums; they link with each other in intricate webs; they swap effortlessly between different electronic personae and avatars; they listen to internet radio; they vote on this that and the other; they argue on wiki discussion groups.

At its heart, the iPhone is a projection of the original vision of bringing clunky desktop applications like email, contact databases, to-do lists, telephones, note taking, and web browsing to the palm of your hand. Because that is essentially Steve Job’s generation - transitioning from the mainframe office environment to the PC-based office. Jobs can’t quite get rid of the notion that a mobile device is nothing but a really small personal computer.

For example, there is an ENTIRE distinct widget (or whatever it’s called) for tracking stocks! The internet generation really spend a lot of time checking their stocks.

Meanwhile, outside Apple’s reality distortion field …

There are a couple of Big New Things going on in the tech space that Apple (and Microsoft and many others for that matter) have by and large not understood. First there’s grid computing and related things like virtualization. Then there’s this whole web 2.0 thing. Then there’s mobile platforms. And lastly there’s the whole digital entertainment thing, which is sort of half old news and half new news.

Now, Apple seems to be getting it mostly right only in the digital entertainment side. They’re leveraging the Web 2.0 thing mostly as a side effect of simply having the best unix-like development platform. They didn’t plan that, it just sort of happened that way since Apple failed at one attempt after another to do their own OS and finally decided to do yet another Unix. The grid computing side they’ve missed entirely since they insist on being vertically integrated.

The iPhone, of course, is intended as their mobile platform play, leveraging off their strengths on the desktop and in digital entertainment. As quoted above, the “third leg” in their strategy.

The iPod

The original iPod had a couple of key things going for it. Everybody emphasizes “ease of use” to explain the iPod success, but that’s a cop-out. It was more subtle than that. I bought the very first iPod and remember clearly the key technology strengths at the time, namely:

1. It was hard-drive based, 5G, allowing a significant number of songs (on the order of 1000). iPod wasn’t first with a hard drive, but the alternatives were really clunky. At the time, the best flash-best players had 128M. That’s a big difference.
2. The interface was Firewire and not USB. Remember, this was way before USB 2.0. Thanks to Intel and others not wanting to pay Apple $1 in royalties for Firewire, the users were doomed to slow serial interfaces for many years. Firewire was standard on Macs, and FW400 (as it’s now referred to) is MUCH faster than USB 1.x.
3. The software on the “server” side (laptop/desktop) was excellent. Other consumer players like Sony simply did not know how to write software. There was nothing remotely like the rip/mix/burn paradigm as clearly evident in any other app.
4. The iPod had a small number of useful productivity applications as part of it’s OS - a clock, some games, and some other tools; these quickly fleshed out to include contacts and calendar support. Not to mention early FAT32 support. This distinctly added to the value.
5. Yes, a very easy-to-use interface. Most importantly, it was responsive, and was designed to actually help you deal with the notion of 1000 or more songs on your device.
6. Shuffle.

There were all sorts of other aspects as well that helped Apple. For example, Intel was actually one of the strongest contenders for the mp3 market at the time, with products like the Intel Pocket Concert. But the usual corporate screw-ups at always-asleep-at-the-wheel Intel decided around then that that was a good time to shut down the home electronics division.

Plus Apple did lots of small, but important stuff, right, like supporting a wide range of audio formats; and they were reasonably quick with supporting PCs.

And of course, their next big strategic step, the iTunes Store, was very well executed.

The point is, these were Really Significant Advancements. Apple invented the space of the premium portable music playing device. I could do a similar analysis for the Macintosh and, before that, the Apple II.

Social Networking and the Mobile Platform

What struck me already from the early reviews was that Apple seems to fundamentally not understand social networking, and the potential that a brand new mobile platform could have for that.

Unless you’ve been spending time with all the new communication flavors out there - stuff like Flickr, Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, last.fm, the RSS universe, etc etc - you won’t notice the egregious strategic blunder that Apple is in the midst of making. The mainstream reviewers certainly haven’t picked up on it.

The thing is, the use of mobile devices for social networking is something that has been forced into the current platforms out there. There are all sorts of obscure ways to leverage text messaging infrastructure to support higher semantic notions like chat rooms, instant messaging, bulletin boards, classifieds, etc.

The new generation doesn’t use the phone. They don’t call somebody to discuss a document. They just change the wiki entry and they know any subscribers to changes will be notified. They chat. They update their emo trackers with mood and location like “wd market, nw” [walking down market, nice weather]; and so forth.

Yeah, they got youtube. But only because Google had bought them. And you can’t post to youtube from the iPhone. Even if you could post, you can’t actually make a video with the iPhone.

You can’t even leave a friggin comment on the youtube service.

So why was the iPod different? Very simple: Steve Jobs actually understands music and related technologies. He’s an artsy guy. He’s even known to have a real good musical ear. That’s why the iPod was awesome. Jobs actually understood the target customer.

What the iPhone would have looked like if I was Steve Jobs

Social networking would have been front and center. It would have been a social networking device from the ground up. One that - can also be used as a “telephone” or a “web browser." And of course as an iPod and a video player etc.

It would have supported dozens of social networking concepts from the get-go. iTunes would have been expanded to take your user name and passwords for major social networking services, and then it would just suck down all the meta data it needs for the corresponding functions to work on your device.

Or, perhaps even better, Apple would roll out its own Web 2.0 alternatives, ones that are fully coordinated with the Mac, with iTunes, with iPods, and with the iPhone.

Photos would automatically sync with your selected photo sharing device. Instant messaging would manage multiple groups and friend lists on top of SMS, hiding control data in SMS messages from you and just showing the socially relevant data.

Location-aware signaling would be built it. The phone would sense if you were in your favorite coffee shop and flag that to friends.

The wifi software would support peer-to-peer; it would let you know what people in your vicinity are listening to; it would include a bunch of multiplayer games that you can play right away with friends (or strangers!) in your vicinity. Or anywhere! In fact, it might include traditional games like chess with direct support for a global iPhone chess ranking.

Calendar would sync with online services, not wait to be connected with a big, ugly PC. It would be extended to support stuff like movies, shows, bands, local events, etc.

Video, of course, with automatic syncing with my own location on the web for storing and editing them.

Messaging would be integrated into a single view, with iconic/font/color indicators to separate news items, blog entries, text messages, chats, etc. You have full control to organize all the streaming sources into one or more distinct “pages”.

Personal podcasting would be seamless. Group (buddy) audio conferencing would be easy, and would be separate from the notion of “calling a phone number”.

There would be an official Apple iPhone wiki that all iPhone owners are immediately subscribed to for communal sorting-out of issues.

There would be official Apple iPhone support forums that are directly accessible from the phone.

The Google Maps function would plot all the iPhone owners with a little red dot; you can click on the dot to send a message to them. Or click on yourself to make a “talk” comment that nearby iPhone owners can “hear”. Or click twice on “yourself” to “shout” to iPhone owners that are within a few miles. A simple “ignore” function would allow you to silence pesky shouters.

Summary

All of the crazy and not-so-crazy ideas above would not make sense to have in a single device; or at least it wouldn’t be practical to figure out how to integrate everything in time for a 1.0 release.

Now, with lots of enterprising people out there, it’s possible the iPhone will be pushed in the right direction. It’s not as if the other cell phone manufacturers are ahead of Apple. At this point, the iPhone is simply an (excellent) embodiment of the desktop computing paradigm, adjusted as well as can be expected to a 3.5 inch touch-sensitive screen with no keyboard.

But, as opposed to iPod, Macintosh, and the Apple II, at this juncture the iPhone is not a vision of the future for mobile devices.

iPhone Adobe Flash Support Coming

According Gizmodo, reviewer Walter Mossberg, Adobe Flash is rumored to be coming to the iPhone. So was the original exclusion a technical decision or a business decision?

Apple had originally announced YouTube support but then suggested that only those videos that had been rolled over to the Apple-favored H.264 codec. While arguably a technical hurdle, the iPhone's ARM processor has sufficient power to use the approach taken by Archos' demonstrated Wi-Fi media player that could easily browse YouTube, and queue up any video on the site, using an Opera browser with Flash plug-in.

Or was a Flash-friendly iPhone not sufficient leverage to convince Google to adopt the codec crucial to the YouTubin' success of the browserless Apple TV platform. By giving YouTube special favoritism in the iPhone launch, Apple got Google to do its codec swaperoo. But users (and developers) have demanded more, because this isn't just about YouTube. People want Flash for non video stuff, too, such as site menus and games.

Often-Asked iPhone Questions

From The New York Times - a useful list of FAQs on the iPhone's features and functionalities.

Unconfirmed: Activate the iPhone with Extra iPhone

From Gizmodo -



The iPhone is essentially a brick without a contract and activation. But a lot of the phone's features don't require phone service at all, like WiFi and music playback. If you have two iPhones handy, here's how to do activate an iPhone using another iPhone:

Procedure:

1.) Obtain 2 iPhones

2.) Plug in iPhone #1 In iTunes select "I am a new AT&T Wireless Customer" and "Activate 2 or more phones on an individual or FamilyTalk Plan."

3.) Follow the steps for the FamilyTalk plan and enter "Cell Number X" to port a number over from another provider (e.g. Sprint)

4.) When the you receive the "Activation Complete" e-mail, plug in iPhone #2.

5.) Select the option "I am an existing AT&T (Cingular) wireless customer" and "Replace a phone on my account with this iPhone"

6.) Fill in the information re-using "Cell Number X." Allow the iPhone #2 to activate using this number. This number will be legit.

7.) Plug in iPhone #2, it will unlock the phone for use, but without a cell phone number assigned or account from AT&T.

Gizmodo has not yet tested the procedure but believes it make sense specially since
Apple is unlikely to de-activate iPhones given the potential risks. But if you're wary, let other people try the procedure first.

Unlocking iPhone Services

Companies have started to offer their iPhone unlocking services. One site, iPhoneunlocking, claims to have unlocked 3459 iPhones at the time of this post. (Click on image to enlarge it.)

Yet Another Site Disassembles the iPhone

What is with all these sites disassembling their iPhones? A third site, ifixit, has upload photos of its own disassembly process.

iPhone's User Guide

Apple has posted the iPhone's 124 page PDF user guide on its website.

Think Secret Disassembles the iPhone, too

The Apple-centric Think Secret site has posted a photo gallery of a completely dissembled new iPhone. It is the second site to do so, Powerbookmedic being the other one. However, I am not sure which site put up their gallery first. Think Secret's gallery, though, shows a more completely disassembly.

Guess that voids the warranty.

Why iPhone Won’t Redefine SMS Texting

For all its innovations, Apple’s iPhone has slim chances of making an impact on the way mobile phone users around the world do SMS texting. In two words: QWERTY keyboard. Here’s why:

First of all, even if the Apple goes on to sell 10 million iPhones in the first year as Steve Jobs has predicted, that is just roughly 1% of the nearly 1 billion phones sold annually. You simply can’t redefine a market with such a miniscule share.

Secondly, most of the new market gains are entry level phones sold in third world countries. This implies that most buyers are first time users who in most likelihood have never used a computer before, or if ever, sparingly. Thus, for a lot of them, the mobile phone keypad has become their first exposure to typing. For the younger generation, it is their de facto standard. In fact, a lot has mastered the art of touch-typing on phone keypads. They can enter SMS messages one-handed rapidly into the phone without ever looking at the keypad or the LCD. Somehow I simply can’t imagine them doing the same with the iPhone’s on-screen QWERTY keyboard. The Apple design lends itself to two thumb typing, which is definitely far from the current single thumb texting experience.

Yes, Apple will most likely go on and sell millions of the iPhone as it has previously succeeded with the iPod. But until it adds a physical mobile phone keypad, it most likely will remain a niche play. And when it does add a keypad, it will no longer be redefining the SMS experience but merely improving it.

iPhone Disassembled!

Powerbookmedic has a detailed step-by-step photo gallery of a brand new iPhone being taken apart.

Not sure if I should include a graphic warning for the squeamish iPhone fanatic (j/k) but photos are actually very informative.

Top 10 iPhone applications

From Lifehacker, a list of available applications for the iPhone -

• 10. 101 Cookbooks
• 9. goMovies
• 8. iPhlickr


• 7. iPhoneDigg


• 6. iActu


• 5. Gas.app


• 4. iZoho
• 3. Google Reader


• 2. iPhoneChat


• 1. OneTrip Shopping Li

An effective finger-based keyboard for the iPhone

From MobiCommIT, June 27, 2007 post -

Found this at Take a Bite -

It would[n't] be fair to just say that the iPhone is unsuited for use while driving due to the lack of a keypad without mentioning why it'll be quite comparable to typing on a physical keyboard for sighted people.



From left to right:

1. a finger hovers over the letter 'u' (another is over the letter 's')
2. the finger touches the screen, prompting visual feedback before the input is actually registered
3. on release, the letter us is registered and appears in the text input field. Until the release, you get the chance to correctively reposition your finger in the event that 'u' was not your intended keystroke.

The visual feedback you get from letter magnification combined with 'on release' behavior instead of 'on click' behavior suggest that typing will be a breeze on the iPhone. Multi-touch, or the ability to touch different parts of the display at the same time, means fast two (or more) fingered typing.

----------

I guess the operative word is "sighted" as most teenaged mobile phone users I know these days (except perhaps the ones in the USA) compose SMS text messages without sight - meaning they touch type on the phone's keypad. The phone can very well be in their pocket or their bag. They can even be talking to you, looking at you straight in the eye while their fingers are busy clicking away.

I just don't see how the QWERTY keyboard, on top of the touch feedback, will allow them to replicate the texting experience on the iPhone

What is Missing from the iPhone

From MobiCommIT, June 27, 2007 post -

From Engadget, here is a partial list of what is missing from the iPhone -

• There's no way to cut, copy, or paste text! WHOA! Big, big mistake.
• No A2DP support. That, friends, is such a huge bummer right there.
• Sorry, music can't be used as a ringtone -- even if it's just a raw MP3. No additional ringtones will be sold at launch.
  
• It supports Exchange in some capacity only.
  
• Document file reading only -- but not editing -- for PDF, Word, and Excel (only).
• Adobe Flash support is officially out. It's just not in the browser. Neither is there any other kind of embedded video support.
  
• It will take snaps, but won't record video.
  
• No MMS.
  
• No voice dialing, either.
• Contact groups can't be emailed as contact lists.
  
• iPhone battery capacity maxes out at 300-400 charges -- you'll send it in and get the cell replaced for a fee.
  
• Voice quality is said to be good -- not great.

SMS the iPhone Way

Originally posted at MobileCommIT June 27, 2007 -

With the iPhone getting well over 69 million hits in Google, it is surprising that there is very little discussion on how it deals with SMS texting. Surprising because the iPhone is well a mobile phone. It also does not have a physical keypad. And just as importantly, it processes and presents messages that can be considered a radical departure from the familiar sequential listings in the Inbox, Sent, Log screens established by Nokia.

The iPhone designers are obviously aware that many users often go into texting conversations on the phone, kinda similar to IM chats. So they decided to organize these texting conversations into speech bubbles that can be scrolled back for reference instead of the usual separate Inbox and Sent listings. In addition, mutiple text chats can be stored (by contact name) so that you resume a chain.

This UI will definitely help avid PC IM users transition into text chat on the phone, rather on the iPhone. The question though is just how good is the QWERTY virtual keyboard? I haven't had the chance to do a hands-on but I doubt very much if it can provide a tactile feedback that is often required by users. Personally I feel the keyboard issue will either make or break the iPhone as a mobile phone.

The Hype in iPhone and the Real Test

Originally posted on MobileCommIT June 27, 2007

Give it to Apple to maximize the appeal of its brand cachet. I can’t think of any other tech company which can drum up the media into such a feverish pitch, the New York Times is reporting the iPhone has been the subject of 11,000 print articles and has about 69 million hits in Google. All before its June 29 launch.

It has been hailed both as revolutionary and flawed with both rave reviews and criticisms justified. It does things no phone has ever done before but it also lacks features found even on the most basic phones. Yet Wall Street analysts expect Apple to sell about three million phones within the first weeks. If it does so, that is already 30% of the 10 million Steve Jobs has predicted for first year sales.

Simply amazing.

But of course the real test comes after the first 3 million or so buyers – the bleeding edge junkies of your usual geeks and nerds and, in Apple’s case, the fashionistas who have to have the latest and fanciest fashion accessory (yup, iPhone’s sleek looks qualify it as such) – have sat down, played, and used their iPhones.

Their collective experience will determine whether the next wave of buyers, conservative consumers who rely on peer reviews and experiences to make purchasing decisions, will join the frenzy.

The Hype in iPhone and the Real Test

>Give it to Apple to maximize the appeal of its brand cachet. I can’t think of any other tech company which can drum up the media into such a feverish pitch, the New York Times is reporting the iPhone has been the subject of 11,000 print articles and has about 69 million hits in Google. All before its June 29 launch.

It has been hailed both as revolutionary and flawed with both rave reviews and criticisms justified. It does things no phone has ever done before but it also lacks features found even on the most basic phones. Yet Wall Street analysts expect Apple to sell about three million phones within the first weeks. If it does so, that is already 30% of the 10 million Steve Jobs has predicted for first year sales.

Simply amazing.

But of course the real test comes after the first 3 million or so buyers – the bleeding edge junkies of your usual geeks and nerds and, in Apple’s case, the fashionistas who have to have the latest and fanciest fashion accessory (yup, iPhone’s sleek looks qualify it as such) – have sat down, played, and used their iPhones.

Their collective experience will determine whether the next wave of buyers, conservative consumers who rely on peer reviews and experiences to make purchasing decisions, will join the frenzy.

Some S60 Nokia Phones Can Run iPhone Safari Web Apps

Originally posted in MobileCommIT June 27, 2007 -

iFoNfo has reported that some Series 60 Nokia phones with the Safari-based browser can run Web Apps intended for the iPhone. These include the N75, N95 and a Samsung model, the SGH-i520.

But unlike the iPhone, the S60 phones are not limited to web-based applications as these support J2ME and Flash.

Future iPhone apps that are based on the Safar UI will likely work with the S60 phones provided the difference in the UI is taken into consideration. The N95 has a 240 x 320 screen compared to the iPhone's 320 x 480.

The iPhone’s touch interface also looks nicer than the typical S60 phone’s method of moving a cursor with a directional pad, but it works well enough for pointing and clicking. Still, it is simply cool to know the phones can run iPhone apps.

5 ways iPhone will change the wireless biz

From MobileCommIT, orginally posted June 13, 2007 -

It appears Steve Jobs' WWDC keynote speech in which he revealed his game plan to irreversibly change the wireless world impressed both Om Malik and his co-author Tom T. Ahonen.

For his part, Ahonen believes the mobile telecoms world will now count its time in two Eras - the Era BI: time Before the iPhone, and the ERA AI: time After the iPhone. He also believes that even media business should be very very worried about iPhone.

While no one knows for sure how many million units of the iPhone Apple will sell – 5 or 10M in the first year, an insignificant number when compared to over 950M phones shipped worldwide every year, it will challenge some of the conventional notions of the wireless business, take the hidebound industry by the scruff of the neck and give it a good shake. Nokia will join Microsoft and Dell in experiencing Apple envy.

Om Malik is predicting the following for the iPhone:

A true web applications platform for the mobile

“We have been trying to come up with a solution to expand the capabilities of the iPhone so developers can write great apps for it, but keep the iPhone secure,” he said. “… And we’ve come up with a very innovative new way to create applications for mobile devices… it’s all based on the fact that we have the full Safari engine in the iPhone. And so you can write amazing Web 2.0 and AJAX apps that look and behave exactly like apps on the iPhone, and these apps can integrate perfectly with iPhone services.” (Steve Jobs keynote at WWDC via Engadget.)

Charles Ying thinks that Apple just reinvented the mobile applications platform. “This isn’t mobile Flash, mobile Java, or even the mobile Web. It’s the real Web, the real deal,” he writes. (True web should also mean 3G and not pokey EDGE connections that the device currently offers, one major Achilles heel of this device.) The ease, with which developers can develop and deploy apps on both web and the phones, will put pressure on other companies (and OS vendors) to play catch-up or lose developer attention.

Break the Wireless Walled Gardens

iPhone is a fully functional iPod, with full tracks of music. Do you need to download ring tones for $2.99 a pop, when you get a full song for a third of that price? Ditto for Wallpapers, and themes, and everything else that is being sold on the carrier deck.

Shift of control to the customers

If the embedded (Safari) browser performs the way as hyped, it will give us the choice-control we have on the web. Search engines to web sites – nothing will be determined by the wireless carriers who have thus far done nothing but create barriers between what we want, and giving us what they want to sell.

Slow demise of subsidized, boring phones filled with bloat ware

The introduction of the unlocked iPhone will do two things – it would basically get US buyers savvy to the idea of buying full priced unlocked phones. Secondly, it is going to cause a behavior change - of buying phones instead of freebies. (Will iPhone save the handset business?)

Keep it simple or else

One of the lasting changes that iPhone will bring to the mobile market is simplification. Their new UI is going to make complex mobile services relatively simple, and can have the same impact as Blackberry had on the corporate market.

No iPhone SDK Means No Killer iPhone Apps

Still from MobileCommIT -

Edited commentary by Fast and Furious of Gizmodo -

According to Apple, no software developer kit is required for the iPhone. However, the truth is that the lack of an SDK means that there won't be any killer app the iPhone. It also means the iPhone's potential as an amazing computing and communication platform will never be realized.

Steve Jobs initially sold the iPhone as the Next Big Thing from Apple, just like the Mac was. The Mac really broke the mold. While not as groundbreaking, the iPhone is an intelligent and clean implementation of existing things. Really intelligent, really clean, like the Mac. Unlike the original Mac, however, developers won't have full access to its core features. Without them there won't be the equivalent of PageMaker, Photoshop, Word or Premiere in the iPhone, powerful applications taking full advantage of the unique capabilities of the hardware, the operating system and its frameworks.

Those applications spawned two revolutions: desktop publishing (including photo editing) and desktop video. It was the Mac and its third-party apps that brought radical changes that have deeply affected us, not the Mac alone.

On the iPhone, however, developers will be limited to developing Web applications based on AJAX, a set of Internet standards that make software like GMail, Google Maps or FaceBook possible. The iPhone is the real thing, a complete UNIX-to-go with stunning graphic classes, and developers will be limited to do stuff like this.

Mind you, AJAX is great for what it does on the Web today, but is limited.

Developers can create Web 2.0 applications which look and behave just like the applications built into iPhone, and which can seamlessly access iPhone's services, including making a phone call, sending an email and displaying a location in Google Maps.

This is nothing new, however. We knew this from the very beginning because iPhone's Safari was already doing it. It's called auto-detection of phone numbers and addresses: you click on a phone or address in your web page and it gets passed by Safari to the operating system, which calls the number or shows the address in the Google Maps app. In other words, they are trying to sell us the same thing we already had when the iPhone was introduced and the same thing we already have in Mac OS X's Safari.

So unless they show something boomtastic in the sessions, this will not change. To see how powerful AJAX applications on the iPhone could be, a million questions will have to be answered this week. Questions like:

- Would I be able to access the iPhone databases from Safari and query them from my AJAX application? Looking at Jobs' stress on security, it doesn't look like this will be possible.

- Would I be able store data locally beyond cookies? Probably the same answer.

- How will these application perform over limited EDGE connections? Will I have to do a painful download for the whole app, instead of just the data?

- How will the connection limit the interactive possibilities?

- How is the access to iPhone's hardware? Would I be able to access iPhone's hardware to connect to an infrared scanner via Bluetooth and create an amazing sales or logistics application? How about Multitouch?

If AJAX is that good and the developers don't need an SDK, why has Apple built a dedicated Mail application or Google Maps software into the iPhone? Why not just reformat the CSS on the Web and open a special view to .Mac mail, Gmail or Google Maps made just for iPhone Safari users ?

Maybe because to do the cool stuff that iPhone's Maps do, you need to access all the cool Mac OS X classes that iPhones have.

Now, I'm sure that there will be great AJAX applications created for the iPhone, specially at the corporate level. But what is important here is that we won't have sexy apps. This is what Apple needs to make the iPhone not just great, but huge. A true revolutionary product. Otherwise, we will keep asking where are we going to find the killer apps that made the Mac what is today; where is the next Delicious Library-equivalent for the iPhone; where are the games. Just think about those, as Apple stresses its relationship with EA and id software. There's a great potential for games in the iPhone, which with multi-touch could be a Nintendo DS 2.0 in the making. As Nintendo fans will tell you, a Flash game (which provides with even better flexibility than AJAX) is not a substitute for a real Wii game. And the next big games never come from the established big developers who may, at the end, be the only ones with access to the secret iPhone SDK at use in Apple.

So no SDK means no access to iPhone's cool frameworks which means no revolutionary apps, no real new concepts coming from third-parties, no eye candy available for anyone but Apple and no possibility for some really crazy games that will fully exploit the graphic and multi-touch power of the iPhone.

----------

Guess we will have to make do with Flash Lite games and Safari plug-ins.

iPhone Details from AT&T's Sales Training Workbook

Again, an earlier entry from MobileCommIT -

From MacRumors -

The guide presents iPhone features and benefits, tips, comparisons, qualifying questions, and objections. Among those listed are:

Revolutionary Mobile Phone

- Dial any telephone number with the touch of a finger
- Create and manage a list of telephone numbers you call most
- If you choose to answer the call, the video will pause and resume once the call ends
- iPhone syncs contact information from the computer to iPhone (from Address Book on a Mac or Outlook or Outlook Express on a Windows PC).
- Built-in speakerphone
- iPhone lets you carry on a phone conversation while you simultaneously browse the Internet or send an email.
- There is a vibrate mode.

Photos

- Sync photos from Mac or PC

SMS Text Messaging

- SMS text message button shows how many new messages are waiting
- Threaded conversations
- Hear an audio alert for new messages
- Error correction and prevention in the keyboard. Only displayed when you need it.
- iPhone users will not be able to conduct IM conversations with instant messaging users
- Does not support MMS messaging for photos or videos

Music and Video

- All videos play in landscape mode
- If you prefer your widescreen content to take up the entire screen, you can double tap the video and iPhone will automatically scale the video to take up the entire screen
- Sync music with iTunes just like any other iPod
- Select how to display music: by playlist, artist, songs or more.
- Media Net, MobiTV, or Cellular Video are not available on iPhone

Email

- Rich formatting
- Support for IMAP and POP3
- Yahoo! Push Mail
- Automatic address completion

Safari

- Double tap an object to make it fill the screen, and double tap to zoom out
- Can have multiple websites open at once and switch between them
- Websites you have bookmarked on your computer will be transfered to your iPhone from your Mac or PC

Google Maps

- iPhone will not support the TeleNav solutions currently offered by other AT&T devices
- GPS is not part of the iPhone feature set.

Apple announces 3rd party software details for iPhone

Decided to copy some previous entries from MobileCommIT so as to consolidate the info.

From Engadgetmobile -



Apple used WWDC as the stage to announce a third-party development solution for the iPhone, putting to rest concerns that the handset would be a closed platform. Calling it a "sweet solution" for developers to get their wares onto iPhones across the globe without sacrificing stability or security, Apple is using its full Safari-based browser to let folks code up true, Web 2.0-compatible apps that can be accessed and updated on developers' own servers. Though any apps that third-party developers put together will run under Safari, they'll be totally customizable and maintain the platform's unique look and feel. Better yet, they won't require any special SDK -- Jobs claims that a working knowledge of modern web standards is all we'll need to code up custom iPhone goodies to our hearts' content.

Hello World

Decided on making a separate blog for the iPhone as it seems, judging on the media and on-line coverage, including in-depth reviews, to be well on its way to becoming a category by itself in the converging worlds of gadgets, computers, electronics, and mobile phones.

Disclaimer - this blog is intended to be a convenient on-line reference and discussion forum for my development team (involved in mobile communications and software development). By making it publicly accessible, we hope to share with others our experience and knowledge. If, in return, we get additional insight from comments, then it becomes a win-win situation for everyone.