News tagged ‘AT&T’

AT&T, Telefonica, Orange and 9 other world's leading mobile phone operators created an alliance to build an open technology platform that is designed to deliver applications to mobile phone users. The decision will be announced tomorrow at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. There are rumors the presentation is supported by Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG.

According to the Times, Vodafone hasn't yet committed to the new alliance. It is collaborating with Verizon Wireless, Softbank of Japan and China Mobile to create a new common technology standard.

Government officials are worried about iPad’s popularity, as it may prove a threat to national network infrastructure. And we're all informed by Steve Jobs that iPad will be available with AT&T unlimited 3G-internet access for only 30$.  Government warned that the device can bring wireless network to a standstill as new users may overload wireless networks. The director of scenario planning for the federal government’s Omnibus Broadband Initiative Phil Bellaria said that with iPad’s release modern networks will be overburdened by a data flow they were not built to handle.

… We must make sure that network congestion doesn't choke off a service that consumers clearly find so appealing or frustrate mobile broadband’s ability to keep us competitive in the global broadband economy.

In addition to that, analysts predict Apple can sell 2 million to 5 million units in the first year.

Debra Shinder from TechRepublic posted an article about 10 reasons why she won’t buy an iPad. As time passes by her thoughts provoke more and more passionate discussions on this topic. So here are these 10 reasons:

1. There is no physical keyboard (or you need to buy an Apple Bluetooth Keyboard).
2. One size doesn’t fit all (it doesn’t fill the gap between mobiles and netbooks as 9.7” inches is an exact screen size of netbook, and you cannot put it into your pocket).
3. It runs iPhone OS (so there is no multi-tasking).
4. There’s not enough storage (and you cannot expand it via USB-flashdrives).
5. There’s no HDMI output or camera (if you can watch video, why you can’t make videoconferences with your friends?).
6. There are no USB ports (and you would not be able to connect your own web-cam, for example).
7. There is no flash memory slot.
8. The price is not right (it just seems to be illogical to pay 200$ for additional 48 GB )
9. It is locked in. All apps are in AppStore, and good ones cost money.
10. It is all about network (why should people change their internet provider to AT&T just because of purchasing some new device?).

While Debra compares fully-equipped 829$ iPad with a powerful and though compact laptop, it seems like she’s looking for an ability to make use of all its capacities. On the other hand, TUAW critics and Apple fans say that iPad is designed to be an enhanced ebook-reader that makes it easy to handle everyday operations like checking e-mails or surfing the web.

What do you think?

Apple iPad edition with 3G uses Micro-SIM standart. Steve Jobs never said a word about this feature on iPad presentation, which seems pretty strange. Micro-SIM, also known as 3FF or 3^rd generation SIM card, isn’t supported yet by any iPhone or other popular devices.

3FF SIMs were developed to fit into devices that are too small for a regular SIM. Regular SIM-card has a 15 mm x 25 mm size, while Micro-SIM measures 12 mm x 15 mm. It is still not presented in North America, but T-Mobile and AT&T inform that negotiations to get them are on their way since these companies support the iPad with different data plans.

But what is the reason of making Micro-SIM support in iPad? Maybe it is necessitated because of a lack of space in the device that already has a double size of an iPhone? Also it is very likely that Micro-SIM will be integrated into the 4^th generation iPhone, and then what would Apple do with all that extra space?

Apple's finally announced the iPad (Apple Tablet). It is perfect for tasks like browsing, email, photos, e-books and videos. It's a half-inch thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds (680g), with a 9.7-inch capacitive touchscreen IPS LCD display and it's running a custom 1GHz Apple "A4" chip developed by the P.A. Semi team. The 10-hour battery life and a month of standby is quite exciting.

There will be devices with 16, 32 and 64GB. All iPads will get a 30-pin Dock connector, a speaker, a microphone, Bluetooth, 802.11n WiFi and optional 3G, as well as an accelerometer and a compass. There's also a keyboard dock, which connects underneath in the portrait orientation. iPad supports up to 1024x768 VGA out and 480p composite out through dock adapter cables. There is a camera attachment kit that lets you import photos from your camera over USB or directly through an SD reader.

The device is managed by iTunes, just like the iPhone and iPod Touch. iPad can run iPhone apps: either pixel-for-pixel in a window, or pixel-doubled fullscreen. Developers can also target the new screen size using the updated iPhone OS SDK, which is available today.

The 3G version runs on AT&T and comes with new data plans: 250MB for $14.99 and an unlimited plan for $29.99 a month contract-free. Activations are handled on the iPad, so you can activate and cancel whenever you want. Every iPad is unlocked (!) and comes with a GSM "micro-SIM".

The price starts at $499 for 16GB, 32GB for $599, and $699 64GB. Adding 3G costs a $130 per model, so the most expensive model (64GB / 3G) is $829. The WiFi-only model will ship in 60 days, and the 3G models will come in 90.

UPDATE: The 3G version will also have A-GPS.

Here is our live blog from Apple's event:

Read the rest of this entry »

MacWorld compared nine different iPhone GPS Navigation applications:

• AT&T Navigator
• CoPilot Live N.A.
• GoKivo GPS Navigator
• iGo My way 2009 (N.A.)
• Magellan RoadMate 2010 N.A. Ed.
• MobileNavigator N.A.
• MotionX GPS Drive
• Sygic Mobile Maps U.S.
• TomTom U.S. & Canada

Prices ranged from $4/month to $100 to own. Overall the AT&T Navigator ($10/month) and MobileNavigator ($90) received the best ratings.

Here are some results in tables:

Read the rest of this entry »

Apple has just released a new firmware version 3.1.2 for all the iPhones and iPod Touches. Weights around 300 MB. Here is the changelog:

This update contains bug fixes and improvements including the following:

• Resolves sporadic issues that may cause iPhone not to wake from sleep
• Resolves intermittent issue that may interrupt cellular network services until restart
• Fixes bug that could cause occasional crash during video streaming

Also, the iPhone OS 3.1.2 update for iPhone in U.S. is accompanied by an update to AT&T's carrier settings file, which brings the settings to version 5.6.

You can download firmware 3.1.2 here or via iTunes. We strongly recommend users who want jailbreak or unlock NOT to upgrade, just wait for new utilities.

An iPhone 3GS user claims he sent and received 662,258 SMS in 30 days. Now he owns a 13,000 pages bill from AT&T

Assuming that the video is not entirely fake, sending and receiving 22,075 messages per day is certainly not something that could be done manually. Nice job!

via iphoneland

AT&T has issued a press release today announcing that MMS will become active for iPhone users on September 25.

We've been working for the past several months to prepare our systems and network to ensure the best possible experience with MMS when it launches - and that launch date is: September 25 for iPhone 3G and 3GS customers. MMS will be enabled through a software update on that day.

AT&T points to the need for the company to build out its network infrastructure to handle the demands of heavy MMS messaging volumes as the primary reason for the delay in launching the service compared to carriers in other countries that have offered MMS since the launch of iPhone OS 3.0 in June.

As announced in June, MMS messaging will be included at no additional cost to users with an iPhone text messaging plan.

via macrumors

Vontge company is known to it's Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service. Recently Vonage has submitted an iPhone application to Apple. The application's approval has been delayed by minor technical issues with the application.

"They submitted an application for review," said Apple spokesperson Natalie Kerris told Tech Trader Daily. "There are some technical issues [with the code they submitted] that hopefully can be resolved." Kerris did not elaborate on the nature of the issues with Vonage's application.
In an update to the article, Vonage reported that it has fixed the issue and resubmitted the application to Apple for approval.

"We can confirm that one of our prospective applications is for the iPhone. They identified one issue stating that it is 'simple to fix.' The issue is cosmetic and relates to the labeling of an icon. We've made the requested change and resubmitted the application for approval earlier today."

Anyway this app will be restricted to Wi-Fi only for voip phone calls once it appears in the App Store.

via macrumors

Access the Verizon data network on your iPhone using one handy device:

via cnet

Geohot, the creator of purplera1n, has just released his own iPhone 3GS software unlock and named it purplesn0w. Who is purplesn0w for? If you own a jailbroken iPhone 3GS running firmware 3.0 and you want to unlock it to use it with another carrier (T-Mobile only in the USA), then purplesn0w is for you. Are you experiencing wifi/battery/other unlocking problems after using ultrasn0w? Then I highly recommend you try purplesn0w. Geohot says that it’s the best unlock out there.

purplesn0w doesn't run any deamon (resident app) on the iPhone, it just patches three files: CommCenter, lockdownd, and wildcard. You need an activated device in order to use purplesn0w, this is a minus.

Here is how to install purplesn0w:

• Make sure you have an activated iPhone 3GS. If you have T-Mobile make sure you disable 3G in the settings.
• Open Cydia, and add http://apt.geohot.com to your sources
• Install the com.geohot.purplesn0w package
• Watch for the success output in Cydia
• Reboot your iPhone 3GS

Once you have followed the steps above, your iPhone 3GS should be unlocked.

Update: Geohot has also posted technical details of purplesn0w here along with the source code of purplesn0w. He plans to release an updated version of purplesn0w with hactivation support.

via quickpwn

Here's an extremely easy way to enable tethering on your iPhone 3G and 3GS (even on AT&T!) by just visiting a site on your iPhone's Safari. No jailbreaking needed. Here's where you go:

http://help.benm.at/help.php

Then scroll down to the Tethering & Internet Settings, then choosing your country and provider. This works for both AT&T and T-Mobile, and will let you install the appropriate configuration. Just be careful though, that AT&T doesn't officially sponsor this and might charge you extra for using tethering while you're not supposed to.

And if this disables visual voicemail on your phone, just go and reset your network settings, and it should be fixed. If that doesn't work, try updating your phone with an older version of the AT&T carrier settings.

via gizmodo

This is an internal document from the iPhone carrier exposing the Palm phone for what it really is

For example, the iPhone sports a  "Thinner, lighter, bigger screen, metal and glass design" while the Pre is "Available in Black only; plastic casing.". Pre has "Limited free Wi-Fi access" because they don't get to use AT&T Hotpots. And so on