Appletell

Just as rumored, Apple has released the 2.2 firmware update to the iPhone. The update includes all of the rumored features and more.

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Apple seems to love touting the fact that there are so many useful applications for the iPhone. Now, Apple is bringing that same attitude to a new website they have created called iPhone Your Life.  Calling the iPhone “a way of life,“ this website collects the iPhone apps into various groups, selects an app of the week (which happens to be Air Sharing this week), and also provides some tips and tricks. First impressions are key, and this site definitely looks like one I will keep coming back to. It’s well organized and full of useful and interesting information.

It’s great to see this type of stuff for Apple. Not only does it help them to help their customers, it also shows the outstanding support they have for their third party developers who are spending time and money developing for the iPhone. By creating sites like this, Apple is helping to give those developers more customers, which, in turn, drives even more development of their apps, and, eventually, new apps. Not only that, but it brings Apple money when iPhone users purchase third party apps, which I’m sure is another motive behind this site.

Be sure to check it out; it’s well worth your time.

Via [iPhone Your Life]

• Swedish iPhone users get MMS, what about everyone else?
• Wrap your iPhone in bacon
• Who’s On Crack in tech: 11.21.08 edition

According to a recent patent filing from Apple, it appears as if Apple wants to incorporate some sort of dual backlight system into their devices like the iPhone and iPod Touch in order to show the user the status of their phone without killing battery life. The technology would consist of a secondary lower power backlight behind the primary backlight system that would be able to project through one or more layers of transparent material. This material would be able to change its shape and size in order to create the appropriate alert. And not only would this dimmer light technology save on battery, it could incorporate color and a blinking effect into it to alert users of new texts, low battery, or anything. With this, instead of having to turn the whole LCD on to see an alert, the user could simply look at it and see the alert at all times.

This sounds like a pretty interesting idea to me. If it can be done cheaply and efficiently, I don’t see why Apple wouldn’t incorporate this into the next version of the iPhone. With battery issues being one of the main concerns with the iPhone, this could drastically improve the life of the phone. Not only that, but it would make it easier for users to check their alerts without having to turn on the entire, bright LCD screen.

Via [AppleInsider]

• Get more juice out of your iPhone battery with FastMac’s battery extender
• iPhone twice as reliable as Blackberries?
• Another iPhone battery/case combo for this holiday season from Incase

Macintosh and iPhone software updates and announcements for November 20, 2008:

• Silly My Apple Space users, hurling your bodies out into The New Blog. If you had any inkling of the true nature of the blogosphere, any at all, you would’ve hidden from it in terror.
• I wonder if the fellows at publicspace.net have considered making Gene Gene the Dancing Machine the spokesman for The Big Mean Folder Machine.
• Speck announces SeeThru Satin for the MacBook. I think that may be naughty.
• The Big Concept and Alphabet Art, my two favorite PBS shows, are now also Logo Design Studio Pro expansion packs.
• Freeway has been updated. Three cheers for the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956!
• Use StoryMill to write your story, so long as it’s not The Mill On the Floss, because that’s already been written.
• Headphone companies need to quit giving their headphones helicopter names. I mean, HFI-15G is really the best you can do?
• VelaClock brings world clock capabilities and a bunch of moon phases to the iPhone and iPod touch. So…okay. Good.
• It’s about time someone revolutionized the way I view media with my iPhone and iPod touch.

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iPhone users in Sweden now have another reason to avoid jailbreaking their phone. One of the largest complaints about the iPhone worldwide is its lack of MMS, a feature that almost every phone has had for years. In Sweden, that complaint will be nonexistent within two months, according to Ben Olsson, a spokesperson for Telia, the Swedish iPhone carrier. According to him, Telia is currently in the works of launching an application that will allow their customers to send multimedia messages such as pictures, audio, and video over their wireless network.

Although the iPhone has a great and simple-to-use interface for sending images and other media through e-mail, the phone currently only supports SMS, or text messages. Being that it is such an advanced phone (dare I say, smartphone), it has come as quite a shock to most of its users that Apple has left out MMS. We’re happy that Sweden will have it soon, but we can’t wait for Apple to release this for other parts of the world, as well. It sure would come as a nice surprise in the iPhone 2.2 software update.

Via [MacWorld Sweden (Translated)]

• Apple launches new iPhone Your Life site
• iPhone updated to Firmware 2.2 right on schedule
• Wrap your iPhone in bacon

iPod Touch Hacks may be a site focusing on jailbreaking, but they’ve just compiled a list of built-in tricks of which any iPod touch/iPhone user can take advantage.

Some examples:

• On Safari, while scrolling through a long page, tap the bar at the top of your screen containing the time and battery and Safari will automatically scroll up to the top of the page.
• Double clicking the home button in any application, or with the screen off will bring up the music controls.
• To completely exit an application to save battery power. Press and holding the home button for approximately 5-8 seconds. This will help boost battery life if you run lots of different apps regularly.

My favorite of the bunch is that pressing and holding certain letters in the keyboard will bring up the diacriticals associated with that letter (alas, there is no option for the heavy metal umlaut.

Via [iPod Touch Hacks]

It’s a given fact that everyone—everyone—loves bacon. From your basic breakfast to an apple pie, it simply makes everything better. And now even the wildly popular iPhone is about to be improved through the magic of this wondrous meat, because you can now wrap your iPhone in bacon.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Wrapping my expensive electronic device in a piece of greasy pork fat? That’s insane! Clearly I’d try to eat it!“ Well, that bug has been fixed already; this iPhone carrying case is made of felt that simply looks like bacon!

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As previously speculated, Walmart will soon be selling the Apple iPhone. Surprisingly, though, not for the holidays. The launch will happen on December 28th, and select Sam’s Club stores will also be included.

Boy Genius has managed to get an internal Walmart correspondence that sums up most of the details.

We are pleased to announce that Wal-Mart has reached agreement with Apple to offer iPhone 3G in Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart-managed Sam’s Club* Connection Centers nationwide beginning December 28, 2008.  AT&T will support Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club with the activation process for iPhone 3G, and we need all National Retail employees engaged to ensure a successful launch.

*NOTE: This product launch DOES NOT apply to SC Kiosks within Sam’s Club managed by Radio Shack.

Wal-Mart has communicated the following launch plans and execution timeline to their employees:

iPhone 3G will be available in-store only beginning 12/28/08
New and existing customers in good standing can purchase iPhone 3G with a 2 year contract
iPhone 3G transactions only will be processed through POS.com, not the kiosk

I find it quite interesting that Apple has decided to make the move to Walmart. After the launch, there will be about 2,500 stores carrying the iPhone 3G.

The pricing of the iPhone 3G that will be sold at Walmart is currently unknown.

Via [Boy Genius]

• Apple launches new iPhone Your Life site
• Who’s On Crack in tech: 11.21.08 edition
• Swedish iPhone users get MMS, what about everyone else?

As you’ve no doubt noticed, we here at Appletell are big fans of the Ocarina for iPhone, produced by Smule. But we’re not the only ones: the app is, as of this writing, currently the #1 paid application in the iTunes Store.

But can it hold on to this spot, now that it is (gasp) no longer the only Ocarina app available? That’s right, kids, the moment we’ve all been waiting for is now upon us:

Ocarina Wars!

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Today is a great day for iPhone gamers with the release of Cube on the App Store. Cube is a first person shooter for desktops, and now it’s been ported to the iPhone. The best news of all is that it drops at a very attractive price…free.

But, as you might suspect, it’s not perfect. This version of the game has frame rate, texture and memory issues. But, it’s still free.

Cube is actually a rather ambitious project. Porting an entire 3D desktop game is no trivial matter…

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