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| Wednesday, 17 June 2009 09:40 |
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applesinsider
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| By Aidan Malley Published: 05:40 PM EST Having already promised to open its retail stores early, Apple now says that all its available stores will start selling the iPhone 3G S even earlier than expected. Also, the Mac maker has released Safari 4.0.1 and Bluetooth Firmware Update 2.0. Apple to sell new iPhone in stores at 7.a.m Friday Not to be outdone by AT&T's 7 a.m. pre-order pickup on the iPhone 3G S launch day, Apple on Wednesday moved its doors-open time to 7 a.m., an hour ahead of the previous schedule. Unlike AT&T, Apple isn't saving the early line for those already committed to an iPhone and will let on-the-spot purchasers buy an iPhone at that time in addition to those who already signed up for service at home. Apple also expects this timeframe to hold across all countries rather than just the US, which should lead to some of the countries in the first wave of the iPhone launch receiving their units before those in North America have fallen asleep. In the US, six Apple retail stores will be closed for remodeling at the time of the launch. Apple releases Safari 4.0.1 Just a week after the introduction of Safari 4 itself, Apple has patched it with Safari 4.0.1 (web link not yet available). The update mends compatibility problems between the new Safari and certain iPhoto '09 features, particularly integration with Places and publishing photos directly to Facebook. Other bug fixes havent' been mentioned. As of this writing, 4.0.1 is only available through Software Update. Apple posts Bluetooth Firmware Update 2.0 A lower-key update has come Wednesday evening in the form of Bluetooth Firmware Update 2.0 ( 1.8MB ). Upgrading provides various bug fixes but is targeted at compatibility between certain Macs and both the Wireless Mighty Mouse as well as the Wireless Keyboard. Only Macs with a Broadcom-made Bluetooth chipset will see the update. Installing requires Mac OS X 10.5.7 or later. |
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| Wednesday, 17 June 2009 08:00 |
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applesinsider
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| By Prince McLean Published: 04:00 PM EST Announced at WWDC, Apple's new Find My iPhone and Remote Wipe services went online today with the warning that high traffic to the site might slow or prevent access for users trying it out on launch day. The site appears to be up intermittently and yet not actually functional yet. Accessible to MobileMe subscribers under the Account icon, and therefore within the portion of MobileMe that is SSL encrypted, the Find My iPhone and Remote Wipe page was intermittently unavailable to some users today, who temporarily received the notice "MobileMe Account is currently unavailable. We apologize for this service interruption and are working hard to resolve the problem." Subsequent attempts to access the new site were successful by late morning however. Last year, Apple rolled out an ambitious suite of web apps and push messaging features while rechristening its .Mac service as MobileMe in conjunction with the iPhone 2.0 launch. The result was a black eye for the new service, as users experienced delays and problems significant enough for Apple CEO Steve Jobs to offer apologies and free subscription extensions for members. Since then, the MobileMe service has steadily improved, still lacking in some areas such as SSL encryption for all messaging features, but in many respects leading the industry in cloud services and push messaging. Apple is the only company with a significant paid subscriber base among consumers, with Microsoft and others struggling to float free-for-now services that offer much less. This year, the standout features added to MobileMe have the potential to dramatically boost the reputation of the service and polish the iPhone with further differentiation, as long as the company can roll them out without the outages and problems of the previous launch. Find My iPhone Using the new MobileMe features requires activating the service on an iPhone running the new iPhone 3.0 software. Because the service is based on Apple's standards-based XMPP/PubSub Push Notification Server, the push messages it uses work as instant messaging pings rather than SMS messages. This allows it to work on both iPhones and the iPod touch when connected to WiFi access; it uses but does not require mobile phone service. To obtain the iPhone's location, the MobileMe site sends a push notification alert to the iPhone or iPod touch. The device then obtains its current coordinates from Location Services using GPS, cell tower, and/or WiFi base station triangulation and reports this to MobileMe, which presents the location on a map to authenticated subscribers. After activating the Find My iPhone feature from the MobileMe push settings (shown below) buried on under Settings / Mail, Contacts, Calendars as an account configuration, a visit to the MobileMe site still maintained that the location of the phone was not available. "Your iPhone is not connected to a data network, or does not have Push enabled," the site reported confidently. The Update Location button used to send an update... |
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| Wednesday, 17 June 2009 05:40 |
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applesinsider
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| By Katie Marsal Published: 01:40 PM EST Related AppleInsider articles: iPhone 3G users to pay $200 premium for early... AT&T stores now offering early upgrade pricing... O2 promises iPhones for all UK customers by... Piper Jaffray says iPhone 3G's real cost to... AT&T announces iPhone 3G plans, 8 a.m. launch... AT&T on Wednesday published an open letter to customers on its iPhone 3G S upgrade eligibility program in which it announced that, for a limited time, it will offer early iPhone 3G adopters the opportunity to purchase an iPhone 3G S at the same $199 and $299 price points as new customers. The exclusive U.S. iPhone carrier said that generally speaking, the more a customer spends with AT&T, the quicker they become eligible for a price break on a new device. For example, iPhone customers who spend more than $99 a month per line are generally eligible for an upgrade between 12 and 18 months into their contract. However, with iPhone 3G having launched last July and the new iPhone 3G coming out this June, no iPhone 3G users are eligible to upgrade to the iPhone 3G S at the advertised $199 and $299 price points under AT&T's standard policy because 12 months have yet to pass. Instead, AT&T said iPhone 3G owners could upgrade to a 16GB or 32GB iPhone 3G S for $399 or $499, respectively, if they wished to do so before they became eligible for upgrade pricing either 12 or 18 months into their iPhone 3G contract. This led to widespread criticism of the carrier by loyal customers who felt they were getting the shaft for being amongst the quickest to plunk down the cash for last year's iPhone. In its letter Wednesday, AT&T says it hears its customers loud and clear, and concedes it made a mistake. "Since many of our iPhone 3G customers are early adopters and literally weeks shy of being upgrade eligible due to iPhone 3G S launching 11 months after iPhone 3G, were extending the window of upgrade eligibility for a limited time," the carrier said in a statement that was also accompanied by the YouTube video, below. Specifically, AT&T said it will offer iPhone 3G customers who are upgrade eligible in July, August or September 2009 its best upgrade pricing, beginning Thursday, June 18. Affected customers who've already preordered from an AT&T store will see the cost of the device adjusted when they come to pick it up. If you pre-ordered from AT&T online, AT&T says it will send you an e-mail and issue a credit. For customers who pre-ordered an iPhone 3G S through Apples online store, your upgrade eligibility will be reassessed based on AT&T's new upgrade policy for iPhone 3G owners. If you are eligible for the lower price, Apple will issue you a credit for the difference as applicable. "Weve listened to our customers and hope our response helps answer some of your ... |
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| Wednesday, 17 June 2009 05:00 |
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applesinsider
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| By AppleInsider Staff Published: 01:00 PM EST Related AppleInsider articles: Apple unveils new iPhone 3.0 features, sets... iPhone OS 3.0 first impressions and photos... Watch the QuickTime stream of Apple's iPhone... iPhone 3.0 adds Copy & Paste, MMS, global... Apple releases iPhone Software v2.2.1 Apple on Wednesday afternoon formally rolled out iPhone Software 3.0 for existing iPhone and iPod touch customers, delivering some long-requested features such as copy & paste. Features In total, iPhone Software 3.0 delivers over 100 new features when compared to the previous version (2.2.1). Some of the more prominent enhancements include: Cut, Copy & Paste: Quickly cut, copy, and paste text from application to application. Select entire blocks of web text with a tap. Copy and paste images from the web, too. Landscape Keyboard: Rotate iPhone to landscape to use a larger keyboard in Mail, Messages, Notes, and Safari. MMS: Send MMS messages and include video, photos, audio, and contact info. Even tap to snap a picture or shoot a video right inside Messages. MMS support for U.S.-based AT&T customers won't be available until late summer. Spotlight Search: Find what youre looking for across your iPhone, all from one place. Spotlight searches all of your contacts, email, calendars, and notes, as well as everything in your iPod. Voice Memos: Capture a memo, a meeting, or any audio recording on the go. Voice Memos works with the built-in iPhone microphone or with the mic on your headset. Improved Calendar: Create meetings via Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and subscribe to calendars with new CalDAV support. Buy Movies, TV Shows, and Audiobooks: Download movies, TV shows, music videos, and audiobooks from the iTunes Store on your iPhone. Safari Improvements: Enjoy faster performance, autofill user names and passwords, and more. Internet Tethering: Share your Internet connection with your laptop with Internet tethering via Bluetooth or USB. Tethering is not currently offered in the U.S. and some other countries. Stereo Bluetooth: Connect compatible Bluetooth stereo headphones, car kits, or other accessories. Automatic Wi-Fi Login: Log in to a Wi-Fi hotspot and iPhone automatically logs you in when you connect again. Sync Notes: Never leave a note behind. Now you can sync all the notes you write on your iPhone back to your Mac or PC. Parental Controls: Decide what music, videos, and apps your kids can access. iTunes Store Account: Create and log in to one or more iTunes Store accounts directly from your iPhone. YouTube Login: Log in to your YouTube account to save and sync bookmarks and rate favorites. Shake to Shuffle: Give iPhone a shake and it shuffles to a different song in your music library. New Languages: iPhone supports 30 languages and more than 40 keyboard layouts. MobileMe Find My iPhone and Remote Wipe: Find your iPhone if you lose it and protect your privacy with Remote Wipe. Run the Latest Apps: Run the next generation of iPhone apps, like peer-to-peer games and more. Availability iPhone and iPhone 3G customers can download the new iPhone OS 3.0 software ... |
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