The original announcement of the iPod Touch 2G jailbreak mentions that this could be an untethered break which does not require users to connect their iPhone to a computer to run the jailbreak. Noice.

First, we present Fracture. You tap the iPhone to “crack” the screen and then you tap again to cause the apps to explode, triggering the rest of the apps to explode in rapid succession. Next, we find SkyFart. You press a little man and he farts. Then you press him again and he farts and again and flies into space. Then you press him again and he farts and flies. Then you press him again…

So which app was accepted by the App store with open and which one was rejected?


This is a symbolic representation of the two apps fighting the app store.

The logical thing to say, based on the common understanding that the expression of gas and fecal matter as a mode of transport is considered by some to be offensive, is that SkyFart would be rejected out of hand. This is not true.

I’ve been hanging out with the lads from VisuaMobile, the creators of both apps and got to see firsthand some of the odd reasons given by the iPhone gatekeepers. For example, read this email exchange.

> Please include the line below in follow-up emails for this request.
>
> Follow-up: XXXX
>
> Dear Visuamobile Developer,
>
> Thank you for submitting your application to Apple’s App Store. Unfortunately, your application, Fracture, still cannot be added to the App Store because it uses standard iPhone screen images in a non-standard way, potentially resulting in user confusion. Changing the behavior of standard iPhone graphics, actions, and images, or simulating failures of those graphics, actions, or images is a violation of the iPhone Developer Program agreement which requires applications to abide by the Human Interface Guidelines.
>
> If you would like to share this app with friends and family, we recommend you review the Ad Hoc method on the Distribution tab of the iPhone Developer Portal for details. This will allow you to distribute your application to a small group of people of your choosing.
>
> Regards,
>
> iPhone Developer Program
>

Fair enough: they are using the iPhone home screen in a manner unbefitting of an iPhone home screen. It could potentially confuse and vex the mentally deficient to the point of tears. It dilutes the brand by allowing the user to feel that he or she has power over the home screen. It uses Apple IP in a way that is detrimental to good will.

But what about the fake calls app. This app simulates a call coming in, allowing the user to escape from dullards with ease. It uses the iPhone’s dialing screen and even shows you getting a call from Steve Jobs, not something I’d want folks to simulate if I were a member of the marketing or legal teams at Apple. They definitely don’t want some moron like me pretending to get calls from Steve. It dilutes the brand.

It’s not so much that Apple censors apps as it is that the situation is paternalistic and self-serving. Obviously VisuaMobile makes their money on iPhone apps and this is a brave new business model that, in a sense, uses Apple’s good will and popularity to boost the bottom lines of a number of successful programmers. As MG wrote, it’s not clear there’s a rhyme or reason to many of these gnomic responses that are essentially the result of a Kabbalahic and arbitrary reading of the terms of service.

Are VisuaMobile upset? A little, but they understand. Luc Veuillet, VisuaMobile’s marketing man, even notes there are no hard feelings. “It’s a business. We love them,” he said.

But when will devs say ‘Enough is enough?’ Ever? I doubt it.

Apple released the iPhone 3G S on Friday (here’s our review), and the world is much better off because of it. What didn’t sit well with me is this CNBC segment that aired on Friday. It shows a several people clamoring over the device, saying how great it is, why they want it, etc. But fast-forward to 1:03 and you’ll see Prime Time Sam Roberts from the Opie and Anthony show. Here’s where the trouble starts.

In the CNBC-aired version of the interview, embedded here, Mr. Roberts is portrayed as someone who’s gushing over the iPhone 3G S—“BlackBerry is yesterday, the iPhone is now!”

Only that’s now what he said at all.

The entire interview aired live on the Opie and Anthony show on Friday. (Anthony had sent an intern, whom Mr. Roberts accompanied, to the Fifth Avenue Apple Store to buy an iPhone first thing in the morning. The intern was unsuccessful, as he usually is.) This is the audio, as aired on Special Delivery with Sam and Dave on Saturday night (you can also download the audio here):

Download audio file (CNBC.mp3)

Never mind that the CNBC reporter gets her facts completely wrong (“But BlackBerry is coming out with their touchscreen pretty soon…” Yeah, it’s out already. It’s called the Storm. It stinks, but it’s available, and has been for several months now.), but that Mr. Roberts is portrayed as being just another rabid iPhone 3G S fan is disingenuous at best, dishonest at worst. He obviously alludes to the fact that MMS won’t work right out of the box (“picture messaging, soon”); that AT&T service in New York is atrocious (switching from the BlackBerry to the iPhone because he’s “tired of all [his] calls going through”); mocks the Apple-consumer culture (“hopefully we’ll spend $500 to $700 today… on just Apple products”). And so on.

Now, if you’re just a regular CNBC viewer, you’d be under the impression that Mr. Roberts is nothing but a wooly-haired iPhone 3G S mark. I think it’s safe to say that’s not accurate.

Does any of this matter in the grand scheme of things? Of course not. But if CNBC is editing Mr. Roberts’ interview to fit some sort of pre-determined angle (“go interview crazy iPhone fans”), then it does make you wonder what other type of creative editing is going on over there.

Photo Credit: Jae Won Joh

The sun cracked over the horizon, and off we went. Like any good Apple fan boys bloggers, we camped out (in multiple places around the country, even) to pick up our iPhone 3G S. We’ll have our final, non-rushed review up sometime in the next few days – in the mean while, it’s time for you to voice up.

We’ve got our opinions, forged from the steels of writing about and playing with too many cell phones. We want to hear what you think, dear iPhone owner. Whether that new iPhone 3G S is your first stab at this whole Apple-made cell phone nonsense or you’ve been rockin’ the fruitphone since the EDGE-only days of yester-yesteryear, we want your insight.

Love it? Hate it? Share your wisdom in the comments below.

Everything on this phone is snappier – Maps especially – and the auto-focus and video uploads passed the wife test who said that this is what she’s been looking for from the iPhone from the beginning. Looks like someone is going to have to upgrade someone.

Overall, this is a good, evolutionary upgrade. As we said at WWDC, this is about getting the iPhone up to speed and making it the de facto way to share video. The Pre is dead in the water compared to this release. I’m sorry. Video will be the next killer app and look for YouTube to groan under the weight of new videos and users.

One other great feature is the compass. This doesn’t make sense at first but if you’ve ever tried to follow iPhone walking directions in a strange city it makes perfect sense. In Maps, the iPhone shows where you’re headed instead of just a little dot. This added bit of information ensures you don’t walk the wrong way before you even start your trip. I can just imagine tourists – and me – popping up from the subway in New York and consulting their iPhone compass programs like Lewis and Clark in Tevas and cargo shorts.

Interestingly, the trade dress is completely the same. I mean to the point of confusion. Do you have an S? A regular one? I’m going to be digging around and pulling some Kremlinology on this because quiet clearly this means something – they didn’t make it look EXACTLY like the 3G for reasons of economy. Something is up.

Otherwise, we’re going to put this through its paces this weekend and we’ll have a full review after that.

Interesting note: We’re in the car right now and I’m tethered via the iPhone using our magical tethering tricks. They work and this is probably the fastest I’ve seen the MacBook Air load web pages in all the time I’ve had it.

UPDATE – This is hilarious. I have had this Air for months now and the Wi-Fi has sucked consistently. Tethered to 3G it’s as fast as any other laptop when it comes to browsing.

Here are some comments from iFixIt’s tear down of the 3G S. Theirs also included a girl.

* Thankfully, opening the iPhone 3G S is as simple as the 3G. After
removing two Phillips screws, the two halves of the phone are separated
easily using a suction cup.

* The iPhone is differentiated externally only by a new model number,
A1303. The lettering on the back is now shiny, like the Apple logo.

* The internal physical design is virtually identical to the iPhone 3G.
A random passerby on the street would not know the difference. Heck,
even we were struggling to differentiate the two.

* The new graphics core should drastically improve performance, meaning
Apple’s serious about the handheld gaming market.

* There’s still a “Do not remove” sticker above the logic board.
Naturally, we removed it.

* Nearly all components have been relocated to the front side of the
main PCB, including the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Flash memory chips.

* The battery is 4.51 Watt-hours, or 1219 mAh. That’s about 6% larger
than the iPhone 3G’s battery. Hopefully the hardware runs more
efficiently, since increased battery life will not come from the battery
itself.

* There is an additional antenna connection near the dock connector.
We’re not sure what for just yet. However, we do love exploring these
teasers… Stay tuned!

* For those who are wondering about the fingerprint-resistant coating on
their iPhone 3G S screen: The oleophobic, or oil-proof, technology
evolved from waterproofing. Oil-proof technology is harder to achieve as
oil has a much lower surface tension than water, so it spreads out
easier and thus is harder to get rid off. MIT’s solution was to create a
coating material which creates a layer of micro fibers, but with a much
larger contact angle between the oil droplets and the fibers.

Some comments on usability of the 3G S:

* Camera quality is much improved from the 3G. Close-up shots were
possible down to about 5 cm, and the brightness adjusted well when
picking a focus area.

* The oleophobic screen does seem to clean slightly easier than the 3G’s
normal screen.

* Google Earth (duration of the spinning load wheel) (over Wi-Fi): 3G
S: 4.9 sec; 3G: 22.2 sec. A bit faster than Apple’s claim of 2X speed
improvement — although we know that one simple test of one application
means little in the real world.

Excuse PHa’s anger.

These instructions are pretty weird, but here goes. Bing has a 35% off offer for AT&T and to get it you need to go to the AT&T site and register under the “premier” moniker. Then go to Bing and search for ATT wireless. Notice the 35% off ad at the top.

Get a Cashback account, go back to AT&T, login to the Premiere service, and pick up your 35% off. This is only for new contracts. If you’re not a new customer, just do all that but don’t worry about the Premiere stuff.

Apparently it’s best done in IE. Let me know if it works.

You did know that Apple announced a new iPhone right? Yeah, it’s called the iPhone 3G S, where the S stands for Speed. So are you going to get it? There have been pics filtering in from tipsters all morning showing fanboys lined-up, waiting for their chance to get the latest and greatest from Apple. But are you one of them? Or are you avoiding Apple, and AT&T, as you would a coughing pig?

Happy iPhone 3G S Day! We’ve got the tear down of the latest iPhone here so you don’t have to spend all day sitting and staring at your new phone, wondering how it ticks. Oh, and there is a small, and geeky, surprise hidden within the iPhone 3G S that might reveal upcoming features.

It seems that the Samsung SoC S5PC100 and ARM Cortex A8 has enough juice to support 720p video recording verse the VGA that’s currently implemented on the iPhone 3G S. Plus, there might be enough power to even do video conferencing.

But there must be a reason why Apple didn’t enable these features from the start. Perhaps the extra features degrades the performance back down to the standard iPhone 3G level. Maybe 720p video recording will be activated later. Who knows.

It’s not here. We’re not big enough to get one in the first wave of releases and we clearly haven’t “gone native” with the PR persons involved. We’ll have a thorough and intelligent review up after the weekend. Until then, enjoy the above video of Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton.

For a great examination of this situation by a site that we should all respect and read, pop over to iLounge.

T-Mobile.nl has a detailed spec list for the new iPhone 3G S and shows that it has 256 MB RAM – up from 128 MB – and 600 MHz, up from 412 MHz. As GadgetLab notes, OS X loves memory more than clock speed.

Specificaties
3.0 megapixelcamera met autofocus 256 RAM
Videocamera 600 MHZ-processor
Kompas-functionaliteit HSDPA 7.2 MBit/s
32 GB opslagcapaciteit Wi-Fi
Multi-touch-breedbeelddisplay Bluetooth

So, if you need to kill some serious time, head on over to the FCC and browse through the pages and pages of patent documentation. There is everything in there except for external photos and the retail manual for both the 16GB and 32GB iPhone 3G S. Enjoy!