iPhone Alley - News

Bengt Olsson, a spokesman for Swedish wireless phone carrier TeliaSonera, announced that the company is working on alternative MMS messages for the iPhone for sending photos and videos on their network, and at least part of it will be ready for release within the next two months.

Some very good news from the Dev Team earlier today: they now have persistent nucleus tasks running on an iPhone 3G. What does this mean, you ask? Well, if you're looking for a technical explanation, it means they can now spawn background tasks. If you're a normal person, you just need to know that this means they are very, very close to a software unlock for the iPhone 3G. They no longer have any foreseeable obstacles. Very good news indeed. Video after the break.

Now that people in several locations have had a chance to test it's speech-to-text abilities, a few interesting and unusual trends are being found. For example, the Google app has a North American accent bias. Users in the UK have been noticing that the app has a difficult time understanding their accents.

Developers are continuing to offer apps at limited-time discounts or giving them away for free to boost their numbers. Arnold Kim, founder of MacRumors, created a great new way of looking for iPhone apps online called AppShopper.com, which was used to compile this list. Today's list includes TKO Marbles, TKO Numbers, TransMate, XpenseTracker, World Countries, American Dominoes and BrainHack.

Boy Genius Report has gotten information from several sources fleshing out the details of the rumored WalMart iPhone launch. According to the anonymous tipsters, the iPhone will launch on December 28 in 2,500 locations. Some stores will also be getting display units like Best Buy.

MarketWatch reports that negotiations between Apple and China Mobile, the nation's largest carrier, are making progress toward an iPhone 3G launch in the country with 600 million subscribers. While China Mobile's CEO, Wang Jianzhou, was legally unable to speak about the contents of the talks, he did say they are still interested in getting the iPhone on their network.

As cold weather approaches in some parts of the world, we are reminded once again of the endless frustration of how useless our gloves are on the iPhone's capitative touch screen. You could go the stylus route, but if a stylus isn't what you're looking for, you might consider a set of technology-friendly gloves like the new Etre Touchy gloves.

Earlier this month developer Return7 reported that Apple had rejected an update to their iPhone app CastCatcher [App Store, $3.99] from being posted in the App Store on the grounds of excessive bandwidth usage. The explanation didn't seem to fit since its bandwidth usage hadn't changed in the update, and the app still used much less than some apps. Fortunately, Apple has since come to their senses and approved the update. The reason for the sudden change is unknown.
[via MacRumors]

Apple and AT&T are facing yet another lawsuit against them for the performance of the iPhone 3G on AT&T's network. This one says their data speeds are much lower than advertised, much like a previous lawsuit claimed as well. This one also accuses them of ignoring the hairline cracks developing in the plastic back plate of iPhone 3Gs.

The guys from Brightkite join us to discuss the location-based social network and their plans for the feature. Also, Jeff Gamet and Adam Christianson join me to discuss the iPhone ads, iPhone in the enterprise, and AT&T's tethering plan. Show notes can be found at iPhoneAlley.com/podcast. If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, email us at Podcast[at]iPhoneAlley.com.

Google has released the highly anticipated update of their Google Mobile App that includes the ability to search Google by talking your search into your iPhone. It also adds location-aware results for searching for things like movie show times. The update is available as a free update in the App Store. Video after the break.

For you diehard jailbreakers, iRealSMS 2.0 has been released in Cydia for the iPhone 2.x software. iRealSMS serves as a paid replacement for the standard SMS app on jailbroken devices. It offers a few advantages over Apple's app, like landscape mode for everything in the app, the ability to organize messages into folders, save drafts, search messages by the sender's name and more.

You may know Steve Demeter as the developer of the hit App Store game Trism, but lately he's been working on something a lot cooler that could be a game changer in the ever-growing iPhone game industry. It's called Onyx Online, and it's an a score keeping service that lets users keep an online profile with their scores in different iPhone games, as well as track of their scores of their friends.

Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan's biggest mobile phone carrier, is scheduled to launch the iPhone 3G on their network in December. They announced the deal with Apple last weekend. They say that the launch will be part Apple's third major wave of rollouts in their worldwide iPhone 3G launch effort that, according to rumors, will include China as well.

Adobe and ARM have both announced that they will be working together to optimize Adobe Flash Player 10 and Adobe AIR to work on ARM-powered devices. The optimization specifically focuses on the ARM11 family, which just so happens to be what powers our iPhones.

Google's planned launch of their voice search app for the iPhone this weekend didn't happen as promised, causing speculation that Apple may have put a stop to it themselves. We waited all weekend to see it, but it was a no-show. Google even took down the demo video from YouTube.

The iPhone Dev Team has updated their blog concerning the predicted 2.2 software update for the iPhone and iPod touch, reminding everyone that if you're concerned about being able to jailbreak, and especially unlock, your iPhone, then it is strongly suggested that you hold off on installing the update until they give the all clear.

What would you do if someone tried to take your iPhone? Gene Wood, operations manager at Ask.com, had to answer that question. While riding the San Francisco subway and watching a movie, someone grabbed his iPhone from behind him and took off. So, naturally, he did what any gadget-loving iPhone owner would do given the chance: wrestle the thief to the ground. He got it back, undamaged, with just a small head wound. Check out the harrowing story at his blog.
[via Valleywag]

Even most vegetarians I know agree that there are few things that can't be improved by wrapping them in bacon, but what about your iPhone? Now you don't have to get your phone all greasy to find out. A new case from Germany is made to look like your iDevice is wrapped in a slice of delicious bacon. Pictures after the break.

Apple Insider has stumbled on a job description on Apple's website (removed?) that may hint at an impending iPhone 3G launch in China. The position is for an iPhone quality assurance engineer in Beijing. Speculation is that this means the iPhone will be launching there soon, but the description is vague enough that it may just be related to product development.