You may remember the Aliph Jawbone as the slick Bluetooth headset that seemed a natural fit to the iPhone. Not satisfied with sitting on their laurels, Aliph’s launched the new Jawbone 2, updating the original Jawbone’s design and improving the unit’s much touted features.
Not only is the new headset 50% smaller than the original Jawbone, but it also features a leather-covered ear hook instead of the first version’s rubberized one. And they’ve even managed to improve the most impressive feature of the last version, its military-grade noise canceling functionality. From what we’ve heard, the new system, dubbed “NoiseAssassin” assassinates noise. Kills it dead.
The headset has four hours of talk time and 80 hours of standby. If you want it now, you’ll have to go for it in black, though later on it will be available in silver and “rose gold” (which looks an awful lot like “gold” to me). You’ll also have to fork over your $130 on either Jawbone’s own website or at an AT&T store.
[via Macworld]
If you’re a road warrior who relies on having a phone/email device on you at all times, then you know there’s nothing worse than a dead battery, especially on the iPhone, where you can’t swap it out for a fresh one. There have been plenty of top-up solutions that use the 30-pin dock-connector port on the the iPhone, but many of those were originally designed for use with the iPod, and they offer only limited charging capability.
Mophie has released the first battery extender to garner “Works with iPhone” certification from Apple. The Juice Pack contains a rechargeable lithium polymer battery that will boost your iPhone’s battery life by up to 250 hours of standby, 8 hours of talk, 6 hours of Internet access, 7 hours of video playback, or 24 hours of audio playback. Or some really obscure number of hours of those features combined. Also keep in mind that it will add some extra bulk and heft to your slim iPhone, and you won’t be able to use it with most cases.
The device also has four LEDs on the back that tell you how much of the Juice Pack’s capacity is left, and a 30-pin dock-connector port on the bottom that lets you still sync the iPhone without having to take it out of the sled. It’ll cost you about $100 from Mophie’s online store or at retail locations.
I ask you this: why can't I watch TV on my iPhone? Seems like it can do everything else. Packet Video's matchbox-sized Mobile Broadcast Receiver, demoed earlier this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, aims to fill that niche. The device basically acts as a go-between for television and your iPhone (or other Wi-Fi compatible device) by receiving a digital broadcast signal, decoding it, and sending it to your device over Wi-Fi. The MBR is even smart enough to detect what kind of device you're using and send video in an appropriate format, using QuickTime for the iPhone for example.
On the downside, Packet Video's products don't usually get marketed directly to consumers, but rather to mobile operators. The device is compatible with a number of wireless signals, like DVB-H, MediaFlo, and Wi-Max. No word on whether it works with ATSC, the digital TV format that'll primarily be used in the US.
[via Gizmodo]
Thanks to legal wranglings between rival German mobile operators Vodafone and T-Mobile, the iPhone is available as an unlocked option, albeit a rather expensive one. But just how is such unlocking accomplished? Word on the virtual street is that it all stems from iTunes, naturally. But here's the catch: the phone that you walk into the store and buy is no different from any other iPhone.
Instead, you spend the extra money (remember, these units command the princely sum of €999), and then, when you get home, you use iTunes to unlock your phone, just as you'd normally use iTunes to activate phone service. Since unlocking relies on the fact that Apple has whitelisted your phone's IMEI number (a unique identifier), there's a lag of 24 hours before unlocking can proceed. Also, given the whitelist method, you can't really trick T-Mobile into giving you an unlocked iPhone for the price of a normal iPhone, alas.
[via Gizmodo]
If you've watched the Discovery Channel for more than a few minutes, chances are you've come across the show MythBusters. In at, special-effects gurus Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman -- previously seen pimping Intel's Santa Rosa chipset at an event in San Francisco in May -- test popular myths and urban legends (and, in the process, shoot and explode things on a regular basis).
Macs have made several cameos on the show in the past. But in a recent episode called "Trail Blazers", Adam whips out an iPhone (complete with what appears to be Incase's Leather Fitted Sleeve) and uses the Stopwatch function of the Clock app to time how long it takes for a 7-foot trail of gasoline to burn from one end to the other. That's much cooler than my last use for the Stopwatch -- figuring out how long it took me to walk home.
The iPhone and iPod touch are definitely the best video-watching portable devices that Apple—possibly anybody—has ever created, but they still have their shortcomings. For example, while the touch ships with a plastic stand that lets you prop up the iPod for longterm watching, poor iPhone users are condemned to a life of hand cramps from holding their iPhone on that transatlantic flight.
The PED3 rotating stand is here to save you that trouble. It can hold the iPhone vertically or horizontally, and rotate three hundred sixty degrees so that you have your choice of viewing angles. And should you want to connect the iPhone to your computer or a power source while watching, the PED3 also helps control cable clutter.
Sure, you could make your own stand out of a spare business card, but come on: if you've already spent the hundreds of dollars on a portable video player, you can probably afford $40 more for the quality of plastic steel, right?
[via Gizmodo]
Every time I listen to something on my iPhone, I have to decide whether to use Apple's stock headphones (which include a microphone and track controls but make music almost inaudible when I'm walking down the street or on the train) or my fancy, custom-molded ear pieces (which seal out background noise and sound great, but don't give me any control over the iPhone -- and require an adapter to even work with the iPhone's recessed jack to boot).
So I was excited to see that Fastmac today announced its Universal Headphone Adapter for the iPhone. The adapter lets you use any 3.5 mm headphones, and comes in three models: an in-line audio adapter with flexible cable & gold plated connector port ($5); one that adds a shirt clip, built-in microphone and a music playback and phone control button ($10); and finally one that adds to that an adjustable volume slider and noise suppression microphone ($20).
Now I'm not sure how the volume slider will work (can you even control the volume through the headphone port?), but that top-of-the-line adapter is half the price of Shure's $40 Music Phone Adapter, so I'm definitely going to give it a try.
Arguably the most requested feature for the next version of the iPhone is 3G, or third-generation, networking. 3G promises large speed increases for both uploading and downloading, giving mobile users quick network access even when not on a Wi-Fi hot spot.
When Steve Jobs announced the iPhone in January, he cited power consumption, cost, and the lack of widespread availability of 3G networks in the US. Some suggested that Europe would be more likely to see a 3G version of the phone, since the technology is more prevalent there, but that didn't materialize either.
According to our buddy Glenn Fleishman over at TidBITS, some of those obstacles may be overcome by a new 3G chip produced by Broadcom, which is among the most power-efficient of its ilk to date. Even if this particular chip is not the one that Apple is looking for, it's very appearance suggests that within months, this technology will be easily available.
No one really doubts that Apple will make a 3G version of the iPhone at some point. It's merely a question of when. And, inevitably, that answer is going to get closer and closer to "soon" as time goes on.
So I spent much of last night and today trying to turn my bricked iPhone into something other than an emergency cell phone. I went through the various methods outlined on the Web for downgrading the firmware from 1.1.1 to 1.0.2 (knowing full well that having run a software SIM unlock in the past, the best outcome I could hope for was a fancy iPod touch).
On my Mac Pro, I downloaded the old firmware, forced the iPhone into recovery mode, and told iTunes to restore from the 1.0.2 software. That failed several times. I then tried the same process with Parallels Desktop running Windows XP with similar lack of results. I then tried reverting to iTunes 7.3.2 on Windows (as written about on the same Web page) and restoring 1.0.2, which worked.
After that, I spent a while trying to reinstall AppTapp as directed. It failed several times on both OS X and Windows, but finally worked (can't remember which OS won in the end).
I then tried to run iNdependence in order to fake an activation of my phone without much luck. But when I brought the iPhone to someone else's Mac, it worked (he might have had a newer version of the software). When we finished, I was holding a previously dead iPhone that could now be used as an iPod, Web browser, Mail client, and various other things -- but not a phone. The hacks I subjected it to both pre- and post-bricking did damage to the cellular radio. Hopefully someone will come up with a way to fix that.
In the meantime, I'm using a brand new iPhone.
I guess Apple was telling the truth.
I decided to try the 1.1.1 iPhone update on my unlocked and hacked phone. The process went along just fine until the iPhone restarted. Then I got a message on the screen that I had an incorrect SIM. I took the SIM out of the iPhone and put it in my old Treo, and it worked--I called my phone and it rang as expected.
Guess I'll be headed to an AT&T store soon to try and get a new SIM card...
[Update]
Walked (well, more like ran) over to the nearest AT&T store. I told them my iPhone stopped working and that iTunes told me I needed a new SIM card (both true). The guy said no problem, and handed me a new SIM. He told me to install it, connect to iTunes, and activate the SIM with my existing account. Just got back, popped in the SIM, and no luck--getting the same errors.
[Update x2]
I went to an Apple Store this morning and had to wait a long time for a genius, so I made an appointment for the afternoon. Went in, showed them my phone, and the guy said "it appears that someone tampered with the software on this phone" and said there's nothing he could do. I asked him to restore it, and he said he tried, but nothing changed. He then pointed to the notice in the store that says not to hack the phone, and told me the only thing I could do was buy a new one.
I asked if the store's policy was that they can't fix it and won't replace it, and he said "yes." While I was there, I fixed another woman's nano who was waiting... oh, the irony. So I bought a new phone.
Bottom line, Apple appears to be adamant that you're screwed if you've messed with your phone in any way.
