Posts Tagged ‘iPhone’

Photoshop.com Mobile app for iPhone and iPod touch is now available in the iTunes app store for free. The Photoshop.com Mobile app allows you to edit and share photos directly from your iPod touch or iPhone. It connects to your online Photoshop.com account if you have one, or you can use it to edit the photos stored directly on your device. If you don’t already have a Photoshop.com membership, the free basic plan will give you 2GB of online storage. A Plus membership is $50 per year and gives you 20GB of storage.

I don’t have an iPhone, but I have been playing with the app on my iPod touch and I think Adobe did a really nice job with this app. I can access all the photos synced to Photoshop.com from Photoshop Elements, as well as the photos I have synced to the iPod’s storage. You can also upload photos from your device to your Photoshop.com account–a useful feature for those who have an iPhone with built-in camera. (more…)

Apple is allegedly building a new app for its iPhone and iPod Touch that will bring FM radio to the devices, according to a report on 9 to 5 Mac.

Citing anonymous sources, the Apple news site says the functionality of the application will be similar to what Apple built into the iPod Nano. That includes the ability to pause live FM transmissions and fast-forward when you resume playing.

According to 9 to 5 Mac, the delay in getting the app to market is Apple’s decision to integrate it with the iTunes Store, which is built into the devices. With this integration, people will be able to tap on a song they hear on the radio and buy it through iTunes.

Of course, Apple wouldn’t be the first company to offer some type of FM functionality on the iPhone. Applications like Wunder Radio have been around for over a year and enable people to stream Internet radio to their iPhone and iPod Touch.

The big advantage Apple would have is linking its application to the iTunes Store, which creates the potential for more

Source:

• Cnet

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that AT&T is still working to fine tune its network before allowing iPhone customers to tether computers to their mobile device.

“Whenever we offer new features, we want to offer the best possible customer experience,” an AT&T spokesperson told the publication. “For tethering, we need to do some additional fine tuning to our systems and networks so that we do deliver a great experience.”

Earlier this week AT&T announced that it will support voice applications using the iPhone’s 3G network connection. Applications like Skype and Google Voice were previously barred restricted to using only WiFi connections, as we reported this summer.

AT&T did not announce a time frame when customers would be able to use the iPhone’s tethering feature.

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• Mobile Burn

With its large subsidies to Apple, AT&T doesn’t break even on iPhone accounts with high data-usage until the 17th month of a 24-month contract, according to a new report from Yankee Group.

The report, titled “The Golden Subsidy Egg’s Goose is Cooked: Welcome to the Brave New Subsidy-Free World,” looks at the downside of subsidies paid to manufacturers by cell phone carriers. The report cites AT&T’s iPhone contract with Apple as a prime example.

Subsidies have typically helped mobile carriers offer customers free or low-cost devices in order to lure them into buying long-term service contracts. Smartphone owners are happy because they’re getting the latest devices at rock-bottom prices. But the surge in data use and the rising cost of grabbing new customers are cutting profit margins for providers, says Yankee Group.

With the mid-2008 launch of the iPhone 3G, AT&T struck a subsidy deal with Apple that slashed the price to consumers to $199 for the low-end version but forced the carrier to bear the upfont costs of each unit. Several published reports have estimated that AT&T’s subsidy is at least $300 per phone. (Neither AT&T nor Apple responded to requests for confirmation.)

At the time, AT&T acknowledged that the new deal would impact profit margins and dilute earnings. The company’s second-quarter results did show a dip in both revenue and earnings.

AT&T went along with the subsidy because it felt that lower iPhone prices would bring in more customers. But in a catch-22, more customers have also put a strain on the carrier’s network, both for voice and data. Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, said in August that AT&T’s wireless data usage jumped almost 5,000 percent from 2006 to 2009.

That strain has made for some unhappy iPhone users and has forced AT&T to scramble in order to beef up its wireless infrastructure.

Removing the subsidy for AT&T would win the company a total return of 33 percent over a two-year contract and reduce the break-even point to eight months, Yankee Group said.

Moreover, unless mobile carriers in general can cut their reliance on subsidies, Yankee Group noted, they may see profit margins fall even further.

“Until now, North American operators have been kings of the devices market, controlling distribution and bearing many of the risks,” Andy Castonguay, Yankee Group director and author of the report, said Thursday in a statement. “Rising customer acquisition costs, exclusivity fees and flat-rate pricing are squeezing margins for coveted smartphone users. To reverse this trend, operators must spread the control and risks across OEMs and retailers to offer more affordable options and establish greater levels of clarity and trust with consumers.”

Source:

Cnet Reviews

While AT&T and Apple have remained silent on the absence of tethering and MMS with the iPhone, a new report provides insight on the effect an influx of bandwidth-heavy mobile users have had on the wireless network.

Digging into customer dissatisfaction with the AT&T network, The New York Times revealed that the carrier has struggled to keep up with demand as iPhone owners use more and more bandwidth. The report suggests that AT&T’s reputation could be tarnished because, for some users, its network is unable to keep up with demand. The bandwidth issues have led to delays of tethering and multimedia messaging, much-anticipated features for iPhone users.

“The result is dropped calls, spotty service, delayed text and voice messages and glacial download speeds as AT&T’s cellular network strains to meet the demand,” the report, which compared the device to a gas-guzzling Hummer, states. “Another result is outraged customers.”

The average iPhone user reportedly consumes 10 times the bandwidth of a typical smartphone user, but that is expected to change in the near future. The growth of the iPhone and its impact on the AT&T network has even led to lawsuits. As other mobile devices emulate the iPhone and also use more network capacity, the problem is expected to grow on all networks, not just AT&T.

Even John Donovan, chief technology officer for AT&T, admitted his company’s struggles. “It’s been a challenging year for us,” he told the Times.

But in the face of demand, AT&T plans to spend $18 billion this year to upgrade and expand its 3G network. And the company has no plans to cap data use, whether solely through the phone or via tethering with a computer.

AT&T announced Wednesday that it had improved its 3G coverage in metro New York and New Jersey. The company expects to roll out nationwide improvements with HSPA 7.2 technology, with the upgrade to be completed in 2011. And 1,900 new cell towers are planned for construction in the U.S. this year as well. But expansion isn’t so simple.

“As fast as AT&T wants to go, many cities require lengthy filing processes to erect new cell towers,” the report states. “Even after towers are installed, it can take several months for software upgrades to begin operating at faster speeds.”

Many analysts believe that when Apple’s exclusive contract with AT&T expires in 2010, the handset maker will offer the iPhone on other carriers. The most obvious jump would be to Verizon, the largest carrier in the U.S., ahead of No. 2 AT&T.

Source:

• Apple Insider

It was only a matter of time: the iPhone swine-flu app.

Researchers in Boston released a new application yesterday that lets users track and report outbreaks of swine flu and other infectious diseases in their areas.

Dubbed “Outbreaks Near Me,” the free app uses the Global Positioning System and maps to pinpoint illnesses in an area and keep people informed about how diseases spread.

Users can set alerts to be notified of new outbreaks nearby – and even if someone with the app who is sick enters their area. They can also submit photos of sick people and at-risk locations.

“We aim to empower citizens in the cause of public health, not only by providing ready access to real-time information, but also by encouraging them to contribute their own knowledge, expertise and observations,” said HealthMap co-founder Clark Freifeld, a Ph.D. student at the MIT Media Lab.

MIT partnered with Boston Children’s Hospital to design the new application.

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• NY Daily News

“A lot of people have come to us with questions, and one of the most common is this: what do I do with my old iPhone when I buy a brand spanking new iPhone 3G?

Well, how about a free iPod touch—how would you feel about that? Because as far as I can tell, that’s what you get when you set up a new iPhone 3G to replace your existing original iPhone. After the Apple Store’s Mac specialist did whatever mojo he needed to do to get me up and running, I walked out of the store with a fully functional iPhone 3G.

But what of my poor, lonely original iPhone? Waiting in line for six hours turned out to not be the best thing for its battery, so I had to plug it in to recharge it (using the brand new teeny-tiny iPhone power adapter). As it juiced up, I turned it on to see what was still working—would I get an activation required screen? Would any of my data be accessible?

Imagine my surprise then, when I found everything still working as expected. Sure, there’s no cell phone signal, but Wi-Fi appears to work, and so do all my applications—including the ones I installed on the new 2.0 software yesterday. That left me with a pretty darn functional iPod touch—albeit one with a recessed headphone jack, and a non-functional EDGE antenna (which, I’ll point out, thanks to the newly refined airplane mode, you can turn off without deactivating Wi-Fi).

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. I had envisioned far worse, anyway—Apple bricking the old iPhones, or crippling them in some way. But a free iPod touch might be just the thing for a friend or family member. And remember—you can also turn it into a perfectly functional phone again, just by signing up for an AT&T plan.”

Source: Mac World