iPhone Alley - News

Russia got the iPhone 3G on October 3rd under MTS, Vimpelcom, and MegaFon, the country's largest carriers, but they still have a lot of waiting to do before they get access to the iTunes Store. While the agreement between the carriers and Apple was reached, an agreement on App Store access has yet to be reached.

As usual, a great big pile of apps were lowered in price today with the hope of attracting more customers, and it's our job to let you know what they are. Here are today's App Store discounts. (After the break...)

Wondering what the dev team does all day? They posted in their blog again early this morning with some technical information regarding their iPhone 3G unlocking efforts, offering a little peak into what they do. In the process of trying to break in to the baseband of one of the 3G's, one of the members hit a snag. Luckily they found a simple solution. You can check it out at their blog at blog.iphone-dev.org.

Ken Ray and Jeff Gamet join us this week to discuss the iTunes update, Flash for the iPhone, VoIP and much more! Show notes can be found at iPhoneAlley.com/podcast. If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, email us at Podcast[at]iPhoneAlley.com.

Apple, along with Telcel, the official carrier in Mexico, are now offering the iPhone 3G contract-free as of October 3rd. It sports all of the features that were available in the contract version, with the exception of the data plan, which can be optionally purchased for 1, 7, 15, or 30 days at a time. The 8GB $7899MXN and the 16GB is $9199MXN. Users who get this option will also get 500 pesos worth of Air Time and 30 days of unlimited browsing. [via Mundo Mac]

Yet another round of developers are cutting the price of their apps or giving them free for a limited time. This time around it's Amnesia, Space Monkey, Blue Skies and Are you smarter than a 5th grader.

Those of you interested in developing apps of your own may find this interesting. Bing Gordon, frontman for the $100M iFund investment initiative from KPCB, started a blog a while back to share his thoughts and ideas surrounding the iFund and app development. Earlier today he wrote another post with advice to people looking to get into the developing game.

Apple has released update v1.2 for their MobileMe control panel for Windows. The new version "provides better support for syncing a large number of contacts (more than 2,000) and prevents syncing of data between Microsoft Exchange Server and MobileMe, a configuration that is not supported." You can grab the update at Apple.com.
[via TUAW]

Fringland Ltd's highly anticipated application "Fring" has been released on the app store, giving users yet another VoIP solution for use on an iPhone. The application was available earlier this year for those who chose to jailbreak their iPhone and has since seen quite a few improvements in stability and ease of use. The application currently supports calling and instant-messaging from a wide variety of services including Skype, SIP, AIM, MSN Messenger, and Twitter. VoIP calls are only supported while connected via WiFi.

Canadian iPhone carriers Rogers and Fido have announced new plans for the iPhone 3G, bringing to an end their offering of 6GB for $30 CAD. It is instead being replaced with two new subscription plans for $60 and $75 CAD per month.

Apple has released iTunes version 8.0.1 for Mac and PC. The update is the first we've had since iTunes 8.0, and just contains some bug fixes and adds stability. You can get iTunes 8.0.1 by updating iTunes or by downloading it from Apple.com/iTunes/download Check out the list of details after the break.

One of the most wanted features that Apple currently doesn't allow are background processes, or the ability for an app or part of an app to run in the background even after it's been closed or exited. Apple doesn't allow them because they drain battery life, but a lot of cool stuff doesn't work without them. Fortunately, the hacking community has created a temporary solution that could be a great reason to jailbreak that iPhone.

Earlier today, security researcher Aviv Raff publicly revealed two crucial security flaws he had found in the iPhone's software that affect the iPhone's Mail app, both of which pose potential security problems. The first is the obvious fact that the Mail app automatically downloads any images within an email. Doing so refers back to the server it came from when it's downloaded, notifying the sender that it has been opened, proving that the email address is a person that they can send spam to.

To celebrate the lifting of the greater part of Apple's NDA, several developers are offering special deals on their apps. GTS World Racing [App Store] for the iPhone is now just $2.99 until October 19th in the US, and £1.79 until October 17 in the UK. The Wikipedia app Kiwi [App Store] is just $0.99 until October 5th instead of $2.99, and Block Breaker 2 [App Store] was permanently reduced in price to $1.99.
[via 1, 2, 3]

Groundspeak has announced that an official geocaching application has been submitted to the App Store for review. Because the application is being developed by Groundspeak themselves, it should prove to be the best application yet for geocaching. According to the post, the application comes with all of the obvious stuff required for geocaching from your iPhone, including a compass and a "distance to cache" display.

Can't get enough iPhone in your life? Accessorize your beverages with iPhone table coasters from Meninos. They'll turn your table into an iPhone home screen. Better hurry though. The iPhone's icons are Apple's intellectual property, so you can bet they'll come after them for this. It's too bad they don't have the rounded corners though. The full set of 16 coasters will set you back $60. You can check them out at Meninos.com.
[via TUAW]

The iPhone has won numerous awards for it's design and interface, including a National Design Award, a Black Pencil, an MDA, and awards from Stuff Magazine and several others. Most recently, however, it won a cupcake contest. To be specific, it won the Cupcake Decorating Championship hosted by Bre Pettis. Apparently iPhone apps are also delicious. Who knew?
[via Laughing Squid]

It was a long, long wait for an iPhone with 3G data capabilities, but now that it's here, people are starting to look toward what's next. The Long Term Evolution Standard, also known as 4G, is the next generation in cellular data after 3G, but AT&T is says not to hold your breath waiting for it to get to the U.S.

With the appearance of official apps for the iPhone and iPod touch also came the appearance of official app cracking and piracy. Several websites have popped up since then for distributing these apps, but most have managed to stay under Apple's radar, at least until recently.

Now that Apple has lifted the iPhone developer NDA for released applications, developers with apps already in the app store are free to share their developing secrets with the rest of the dev community. AdMob, an iPhone advertising network, is hosting a developer meet-up next week giving new developers the chance to talk with the devs of some successful apps on how to advertise and market them.