August 6th, 2009

Microsoft pitches Windows Mobile to iPhone developers

Posted by David Morgenstern @ 2:57 pm

Categories: Chrome, Windows, Windows Mobile, iPhone Diary, iPhone OS 3.0, iPhone SDK

Tags: Apple iPhone, Developer, Microsoft Windows Mobile, Mobile, Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows, Mobile Operating Systems, Operating Systems, Mobile Applications

A recent case study posted in Microsoft’s developer site tells how one programmer ported his iPhone app over to Windows Mobile. It’s the logical next step in the campaign to woo the hearts and minds of mobile developers away from Apple’s iPhone platform. Or more likely, it’s hoped to be the way of getting Windows developers now writing for iPhone to give Windows Mobile another try. “Dude, we’re over here! Remember us?”

Perhaps Redmond can hire sign wavers to stand on the corner with signs shaped like giant hands, the ones that you see pointing to condo developments that aren’t sellin. Microsoft could set up offices in vacant strip malls, so the sign wavers could direct developers to attend seminars on the benefits of Windows Mobile 6.5 and the forthcoming Windows Marketplace, which no doubt will be everything that Apple’s App Store ain’t.

Go for it!

The case study at Windows Mobile Developer Center tells how engineer Luke Thompson at Gripwire.com ported Amplitude to Windows Mobile. According to the report, he was able to get his app to run on a HTC Touch Pro phone with a build of Windows Mobile 6.5.

For the Macphiles and their Windows counterparts [do the latter love Windows or just hate the Mac, I wonder?], the discussion is all about “only” apps, or programs that only run on either iPhone OS or Windows Mobile. This is a very unrealistic and unbusinesslike attitude.

Of course, developers will seek new customers for their products on different platforms. While they will look at the market picture for earch OS and its hardware platforms as well as the business case for the respective stores, developers will have another important question to answer: How many IDEs will they and can they take on to produce small, low cost applications?

Read the rest of this entry »

October 24th, 2007

Gmail goes IMAP; iPhone users rejoice (Updated)

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 5:26 am

Categories: Google, iPhone, iPhone Diary

Tags: Apple iPhone, Google Inc., Google Gmail, News, IMAP, E-mail Providers, E-mail, Internet, Online Communications, Jason D. O'Grady

If you’ve tried using Gmail on an iPhone you’ve probably been frustrated. Copies of sent and received emails end up in your inbox and read emails aren’t synced to the server, so if left unchecked the number of unread emails in the Gmail boxes on your iPhone grows rapidly.

The problems stem from the fact that Gmail has been using the POP (Post Office Protocol) for accessing email outside of their Web client and POP is lame if you check the same email account on multiple devices.

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is the new kid in town and once you’ve mastered it, there’s simply no going back. The great news is that some time last night Google gave some of their Gmail users the ability to access their email via IMAP.

The first thing that you have to do is enable IMAP for your Gmail account(s). Next you have to configure IMAP for your iPhone. Hint: Tap Other when setting up Gmail/IMAP on iPhone. If you tap Gmail, you’ll set up POP rather than IMAP. Google is aware of the issue and is “currently working to make setting up Gmail more intuitive for the iPhone.”

Update: Of the four Gmail accounts that I use regularly none of them allow me to see the IMAP option in settings. Perhaps Google is rolling out the IMAP upgrade in phases?

Update 2: In order to ensure your Trashed, Sent, Drafts, and Junk mail messages are sorted properly between your iPhone, Apple Mail, and Gmail’s webmail interface you should follow the instructions posted on 5thirtyone.com.

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October 22nd, 2007

AppTapp updated to v.3; works with iPhone 1.1.1

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 5:07 am

Categories: Hack, Software, iPhone, iPhone Diary

Tags: Apple iPhone, Firmware, Installer.app, Jason D. O'Grady

If you’re a fan of NullRiver’s AppTapp Installer for iPhone, it may finally be safe to upgrade to iPhone firmware 1.1.1.

Installer.app is a UIKit based package manager for the iPhone. It works by downloading packages over WiFi (wireless networking) or EDGE. It supports installing, updating and uninstalling applications from multiple sources.

Fans of AppTapp have been stuck with iPhone firmware 1.0.2 since the latest version of iPhone firmware (1.1.1) rendered the hack useless.

I’m a huge fan of AppTapp as it allows all kinds of fun UI customization and easily OTA downloads of (mostly simple) applications. I’ve been staying away from firmware 1.1.1 because it breaks AppTapp, in addition to most of the other iPhone hacks out there. AppTapp version 3 fixes this and is “recommended” with firmware 1.1.1.

Some of the new features in AppTapp v.3, according to TechDadBlog, include: Read the rest of this entry »

October 17th, 2007

BREAKING: Third party applications confirmed for iPhone (updated)

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 10:10 am

Categories: Software, iPhone, iPhone Diary

Tags: Apple iPhone, Developer, Phone, SDK, Cyberthreats, Telecom & Utilities, Viruses And Worms, Security, Jason D. O'Grady

That sound you hear is hell freezing over.

Despite saying everything to the contrary and even opening a WebApps portal on their Web site, Steve Jobs today announced that Apple is releasing an iPhone SDK to developers in February so that they can develop “real” iPhone applications.

According to his missive in the Hot News section of Apple’s site:

Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February.

Why February? Steve had this to say about the timing:

It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task. Some claim that viruses and malware are not a problem on mobile phones—this is simply not true. There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network. As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target.

At the end of this post, Steve drops the other shoe: The SDK will also allow developers to create applications for iPod touch. Yummy!

This is big news folks.

UPDATE:

Developers that I hope are paying attention to today’s announcement:

• Filemaker, Inc.–This is a huge opportunity to port the venerable Mac database to the iPhone. It’s one of the applications that I miss the most from my Treo.
• SplashData, Inc.–Their amazing password and PIN manager is also badly needed for iPhone. Although the 1Password beta is getting closer, I need a real password and PIN manager for iPhone.
• Salling Clicker–As I mentioned in my post earlier today, iPhone is just made to be a BT/WiFi remote control and Jonas Salling is just the guy to do it.
• Newsgator–The iPhone needs a monster RSS client. Period. I’ve always been partial to NetNewsWire and it would be a perfect fit for iPhone.
• RogueAmoeba–As I also mentioned today, iPhone needs to be able to stream music to the AirPort Express bas station. If Apple won’t do it, Rogue should port AirFoil to iPhone.

October 17th, 2007

iPhone's untapped potential

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 6:27 am

Categories: iPhone, iPhone Diary

Tags: Apple iPhone, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Wireless LANs, Desktops, Wireless, Hardware, Jason D. O'Grady

Now that iPhone has been out for almost four months, there’s a couple of potential features that Apple is missing the boat on.

For example:

iPhone should stream music via AirTunes to the Airport Express. You could stream your iTunes to any APX-connected speakers. It would be great to mobile DJ at parties, and if several people had iPhones you could trade off songs. It would be a cool way to share music with a group.

iPhone could also be able to be used as a remote control for things like a Mac mini or an Apple TV. If you’ve ever tried to use the horrible Front Row remote with a Mac mini media center, you know what I mean. While iPhone doesn’t have Infrared (IR) built-in, Bluetooth would be more than adequate to control a Mac mini or WiFi an AppleTV. If you’ve ever used the Jonas Salling’s excellent Clicker application for mobile phones, you know what I mean.

While we’re at it, would it kill Apple to allow us to sync iPhones wirelessly? My old Sony Ericsson T610 could sync calendars and addresses over Bluetooth over iSync. And don’t give us that stuff about Bluetooth being too slow - every iPhone has WiFi built-in. C’mon Apple, cables are so 1999.

What features do you think that iPhone needs the most?

October 16th, 2007

Unresponsive iPhone touch screens

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 6:15 am

Categories: iPhone, iPhone Diary

Tags: Touch Screen, Apple iPhone, Problem, IntoMobile.com, Keyboards, Monitors & Displays, Hardware, Peripherals, Components, Jason D. O'Grady

A friend wrote that the whole top section of his iPhone is dead. It doesn’t register any touch at all. Investigating further, it appears that some iPhone touchscreens have started failing. Symptoms begin with lack of touch response in either the top or bottom strip. The problem is being referred to as dead strip.

IntoMobile.com says that Nomura International analyst Richard Windsor released a note to clients indicating that the iPhone’s “dead strip” display problem could become more widespread.

Apple bought the rights to the screen technology used in the iPhone from a Finnish firm. Finnish firm reported that usage led to the same unresponsive display problems after some time. Apparently, 3 to 6 months of “extensive use” would start to degrade the technology and cause a lose of sensitivity to touch-inputs. This suggests that the relatively new iPhone fleet in the US could start to exhibit similar problems with time.

Forum users at Apple Insider and MacRumors are complaining of a “dead strip” starting to plague some iPhones. The “dead strip” on iPhone’s multi-touch display loses sensitivity to all touch-inputs. Explains one forum user,

First the very bottom of the screen went out so I could not hit the space-bar on the keyboard, or change to the number/character screen. Then it got worse a few days later, now I cannot hit any of the main function buttons.

October 9th, 2007

iPhone firmware 1.1.1 succumbs to hackers

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 5:43 am

Categories: Firmware, Hack, iPhone, iPhone Diary

Tags: Apple iPhone, Hacker, Firmware, TUAW, Jason D. O'Grady

Engadget reports that a new iPhone milestone has been reached. iPhone firmware 1.1.1 has been hacked. The amazing iPhone Dev Team have managed to Jailbreak the new iPhone 1.1.1 firmware update.

According to the report third party applications are now working but most will need to be recompiled due to the new frameworks.

Springboard won’t recognize DisplayOrder.plist (included apps now seem to be hard-coded into the Springboard app), you can activate the phone with third-party workarounds, and the Mobile Terminal and BSD suite work, as well as ARM-compiled command-line utilities.

Of particular interest: firmware 1.1.1 references both Nike and a radio.

TUAW adds that it’s not easy getting third-party iPhone apps to show up properly on the home screen. Apparently Apple has added extra protections to SpringBoard and created a list of approved identifiers. Despite all that iPhone hacker asap18 has ported several applications to iPhone 1.1.1. The other limitation is that only 15 icons can be added to iPhone 1.1.1 – Apple appears to have reserved the last spot for the iTunes WiFi Store.

I’m still happy with iPhone firmware 1.0.2 with AppTapp, SummerBoard and Customize, thank you very much.

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October 8th, 2007

Add/edit calendars coming to iPod touch?

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 7:13 am

Categories: Rumor, iPhone, iPhone Diary, iPod

Tags: Game, Apple iPod, Apple iPod Touch, E-mail, Digital Music, Digital Media, Online Communications, Personal Technology, Consumer Electronics, Jason D. O'Grady

If this post on MacRumors forums is to be believed Apple plans to add the ability to add and edit calendars on the iPod touch.

David J. Early sent an email to Steve Jobs complaining about a few features that are missing from the iPod touch (full-resolution photos, disk mode, notes, editing calendar events and game compatibility) and received this response (emphasis mine):

Nothing can be done about the games. The iPod touch is a completely different animal inside than the old iPods and the games just don’t translate. The inability to add or edit calendar events is a bug that will be fixed in a future software update.

Best,
Steve

While it’s easy enough to fake an email like this, it makes sense that Apple would add these features to the iPod touch because they’re already available on the iPhone. Unfortunately he didn’t address three of the five issues in the email, specifically: full-resolution photos, disk mode and notes.

Does anyone believe that Steve answers the sjobs@apple.com email box personally, or is it one of his minions? ‘Steve’ has also been known to answer posts on the Apple Discussion boards too. He recently chimed in on a thread about the new Bluetooth aluminum keyboard’s lack of numeric keypad by saying that third parties offer them.

October 4th, 2007

New iPhone wannabes: LG Voyager and Blackberry 9k

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 7:21 am

Categories: Mobile phone, Smartphone, iPhone, iPhone Diary

Tags: Touch Screen, Apple iPhone, LG Electronics Inc., RIM BlackBerry, Verizon Wireless, Voyager, Keyboard Option, Keyboards, 3G, Monitors & Displays

Have you seen the new crop of iPhone wannabes?

First up is the LG Electronics Voyager which Verizon Wireless Chief Marketing Officer Mike Lanman says “We think it’ll be the best phone … this year. It will kill the iPhone.”

The Voyager, exclusively offered by Verizon Wireless, has a large external touch screen that also slides open sideways for a full QWERTY keypad. This gives users a choice on how they access the phone’s features, Verizon Wireless said.

The keyboard option is one advantage the Voyager could have over the iPhone’s touch-screen-only design, in addition to Verizon Wireless’ fast 3G data network that the Voyager will use to access the mobile Internet.

Verizon Wireless hasn’t said when Voyager will be available for sale, but it is expected to be in stores before Thanksgiving.

The other one is the BlackBerry 9000 which is rumored to be RIM’s first all touch-screen device.

It most certainly will have a 3G radio and we’re not talking about the European bands. (The actual 3G bands are not yet clear, but we can only assume North American 3G is a go.) Second, this isn’t your momma’s 3G, this is going to be HSDPA. Forget the Wi-Fi scam, this is real speed with simultaneous voice and data! That isn’t the best part, though…we’ve been told it will rock a 600MHz processor… RIM is actively looking at integrating a Backup/Restore function to facilitate transferring your entire backup to an on board memory card.

The announcement date of the mythical Blackberry 9xxx is anyone’s guess, but Boy Genius thinks that it’s not going to arrive until 2008. Stay tuned for details on Russell Shaw’s Blackberry Beat blog.

I’ve got to admit that the Voyager’s slide out keyboard is a piece of genius and don’t get me started about missing the Verizon network… What do you think of the new touchscreen-based handys? Is Apple just going to slay them with iPhone 2.0?

October 4th, 2007

AMEX return protection overwhelmed by iPhone customers

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 6:18 am

Categories: AT&T, Apple Retail Store, Retail, iPhone, iPhone Diary

Tags: Apple iPhone, Problem, AMEX, E-mail, Keyboards, E-mail Servers, Sales Channel, Online Communications, Hardware, Peripherals

I posted a story in early September on American Express’ return protection guarantee and how some customers were taking advantage of the offer after Apple’s US$200 iPhone price cut on 06 September.

A colleague who spoke with a representative from AMEX was told that they usually handle 1,000 to 1,500 claims per week for return protection. After the iPhone price cut was announced AMEX’s return protection department fielded over 7,000 claims in two days. You can guess who they were from.

The program works like this, if you try to return an eligible item purchased in the U.S. within 90 days from the date of purchase and the merchant won’t take it back, American Express will refund the purchase price. The problem with AMEX’s return protection program is that there’s a limit of US$300 per item and a maximum of US$1000 annually per credit card account.

Who would return a US$600 (or US$500) iPhone to get a US$300 credit? More people than you’d expect.

According to the AMEX representative a lot of people took the US$300 and ran. People that were disappointed with iPhone’s on-screen keyboard and the lack of support for their corporate email systems (read: Exchange Server) made up the bulk of the returns. The problem is that returning your iPhone to AMEX doesn’t release you from your contract with AT&T, so I wonder what these people purchase instead… A Curve?