Entries tagged with “iPhone” from WIRELESS AND MOBILE NEWS

Attention football fans, before you head out for Thanksgiving you must be sure that your can get the latest football news on your BlackBerry (Pearl, Curve, Storm, Bold), iPhone, or Android/Droid. National Football Post (NFP) will drop-kick you through the holidays with their new free NFP Mobile app for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. NFP Mobile that delivers instant, real-time access to NFP sports content, news and information.

NFP Mobile for Android, BlackBerry and iPhone features all of NFP's popular online content with easy-to-navigate tabs, including:

• Hot News and Rumors.
• Columns from NFP Experts (Matt Bowen, Jack Bechta, Robert Boland and Andrew Brandt).
• Notes from Lombardi.
• Fantasy Football News.
• Scouting Department.
• Daily Jolt.
• Team News - featuring a customizable tab that lets users get up-to-the-minute news on all their favorite teams.

Live Internet video platform, Livestream today announced the immediate availability of its free service for streaming live to the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Using Livestream Procaster, users can stream live from their webcam, video camera or even broadcast their PC or Mac desktop. Livestream producers can start streaming live to the addressable iPhone and iPod Touch audience over 3G or Wi-Fi connections, with less than five minutes of setup.

Livestream is the first to offer a turn-key streaming service that uses the new H.264 HTTP live streaming functionality included in the native QuickTime player that Apple has pre-installed on the iPhone. This means that Livestream producers do not need to obtain iPhone App Store approval to launch their own iPhone live streaming channel, nor do their viewers need to install any application. Streams are viewed using the iPhone's Safari browser.

Livestream has also provided a simple Representational State Transfer (REST) API for developers to integrate live streaming into their own iPhone websites or their own iPhone applications. Livestream Procaster includes a free streaming encoder, which means that no third party application or license needs to be purchased in order to stream live to the iPhone using Livestream.

Apple is now the world's most profitable handset vendor in Q3 2009. Nokia dropped to second  as margins have been hit hard by both the economic downturn and a stagnant presence in the United States, according to the latest research from Strategy Analytics.

Global Handset Operating Profits in Q3 2009

Global Handset Operating Profits (US$ Billions)	Q3 '09
Apple	1.6
Nokia	1.1

Source: Strategy Analytics

Alex Spektor, Analyst at Strategy Analytics, said, "We estimate Apple's operating profit for its iPhone handset division stood at $1.6 billion in the third quarter of 2009. Apple overtook Nokia for the first time, which recorded a lower $1.1 billion of operating profit. With strong volumes, high wholesale prices and tight cost controls, the PC vendor has successfully broken into the mobile phone market in just two years."

UPS now has an iPhone app for shipping tracking and find UPS locations. UPS announced a new application for iPhone and iPod touch users that not only ships and tracks packages but also uses built-in GPS features to find the nearest UPS location.

Available at the  App store the new UPS Mobile App for the iPhone enables users to track shipments, create shipments using the My UPS address book, calculate shipping rates and time-in-transit and then find the nearest UPS location.

The free shipping app joins other UPS-enabled solutions for Apple users. NRG Software, LLC., a UPS Read strategic provider, recently added NRGship Mac to its shipping software lineup as a native Mac application.

"Apple users are an innovative group of customers who appreciate the capabilities that make the most of their devices. These new solutions help them take full advantage of the world's largest package delivery company," said Jordan Colletta, vice president of customer technology marketing at UPS.

Disney announced a new free Disney iPhone appp with Disney content including areas dedicated to Characters, Music, Video and Games. Content in the app will be updated regularly, providing kids and families with instant access to the latest Disney news and entertainment.  

Features off the new Disney App include:

• Disney at your fingertips - instant access to the latest Disney news and entertainment.
• Characters - interact with hundreds of Disney's most popular characters through customizable photo frames and audio greetings that can be customized by users.
• Music - listen to Radio Disney live, play "Name that Song," watch music videos and purchase the latest Disney music from the iTunes Store.
• Videos - watch new featured and original videos each week including Disney.com's "Backstage Pass" and "Spotlight" segments.
• Games and My Disney Apps- download and manage free and paid Disney games and other apps.

Due to pressure from offended women, Pepsi has taken the "Amped" score with more women app off the iTunes shelves.

The "AMP UP Before You Score" a free application promoting PepsiCo's Amp Energy drink and was dubbed a "road map to success with your favorite kinds of women." The portrayal of women was sexist and included stereotypes.

In a statement, the Pepsi said removing the iPhone app was the "most appropriate course of action" after listening to "a variety of audiences."

It divided women into 24 categories. When the user identified the kind of woman he was trying to score, the app provided "a cheatsheet on the stuff she's into, with lists, links and some surefire opening lines."

What's even worse if the user got lucky, the app let him keep a "Brag List," with names, dates and other details and then suggested users to "flaunt it," by sharing the lucky women list with friends via e-mail, Facebook and Twitter.

This shouldn't be confused with another Score Mobile app sponsored by Budweiser, that show sports scores.

DFC Intelligence predicts the worldwide market for portable and mobile games is expected to grow to $11.7 billion by 2014. The primary driver of this growth is expected to be the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch systems.

By 2014, sales for games on the iPhone/iPod Touch are expected to account for about 24% of total portable game software sales.

"The dedicated portable game systems from companies like Nintendo and Sony are still expected to lead the market, but it appears growth for these devices has peaked. The platforms from Apple are expected to be responsible for the bulk of market growth over the next few years," says DFC analyst David Cole.

DFC also released some results from a study on the mobile game habits of over 8,000 game players in North America and Europe. 54% of respondents in North America and 69% of respondents in Europe had played a game on their mobile phone in the past year.

Apple released the latest update to the iPhone and iPod operating system version to 3.1.2, less than month after the release of OS 3..

Previously, some iPhone and iPod touch devices using iPhone OS 3.1 sporadically may not wake from sleep. Symptoms include:

• Device does not wake from sleep when pushing Sleep/Wake or Home button.
• Device takes several minutes to wake from sleep, or requires multiple presses of Sleep/Wake or Home button.
• Device requires a reset to wake from sleep.

Updating to iPhone OS 3.1.2 fixes the issue as well as streaming video crashing problems.  You update the iPhone OS through iTunes.  It was previously reported that this version of the iPhone OS could not be jail-broken.   This week it was hacked.  The new version of PwnageTool 3.1.4 lets iPhones to work outside of Apple's cell carrier agreements still make and receive calls, but it doesn't unlock phones that are still bound to official service providers.

There is now CBS News application for the iPhone and iPod touch. The free application delivers breaking news, video, and instant access to Twitter feeds on hot topics from CBS reporters, as well as users from around the globe. The new app also offers dedicated sections for each of CBS News' award-winning shows, featuring full-length episodes on-demand and access to CBSNews.com original programming. The application is available now from the App Store.

BRIDES magazine launched BRIDES Dressing Room, the first ever wedding dress locator of its kind on a mobile device. The current version if for the iPhone.

In the BRIDES Dressing Room, users will browse a variety of wedding and bridesmaid dresses, and sort by silhouette, designer or price -- then check availability, and schedule an appointment with a local bridal shop for consultations and fittings. Users of the BRIDES iPhone app can also email a photo of a wedding gown or bridesmaid dress to friends to get their feedback. BRIDES is the first magazine in its category to launch a mobile application.

Functions of the BRIDES iPhone app include:

• Search by style.
• Location awareness within 50 miles.
• Concierge calls to stores for appointments.
• Maps to nearby stores.

Adobe introduced Photoshop.com Mobile for iPhone app. It gives iPhone users the ability to fix/edit photos, adjust color, make special effects as well as 2 gigabytes of photo storage which can store up to 1,500 photos.

Photoshop.com Mobile provides consumers a convenient way to edit photos, apply effects and share images instantly with friends - all with the flick of a finger. Seamless integration with users' free Photoshop.com accounts enables photo sharing and data back-up, saving them valuable space on their iPhones. The application is available free of charge at Apple's App Store.

Photoshop.com Mobile for iPhone provides a way to view photos with full-screen previews and edit images with gesture-based editing. Users can transform their photos with essential edits like crop, rotate and flip. Users can correct and play with color by adjusting the saturation and tint, enhancing the exposure and vibrancy and converting images to black and white.

CNN News doesn't always practice what it preaches which Jon Stewart pointed out on the Daily Show.

He starts the introduction with a "he-he-he-he-he."

Yes,  texting while driving is dangerous reported CNN. But CNN also showed off the latest CNN iPhone app for traffic updates while using an iPhone in traffic.

Jon Stewart does an eye-opening rendition of what could happen with the CNN iPhone app while driving.

The "Texting While Driving Dangerous" story was reported on CNN a day after the show, showing off the iPhone CNN app with traffic updates.

Consumer-oriented functionality smartphones score best according to The CFI Group Smartphone Satisfaction Study, Smartphones, Providers, and the Customers Who Love (and Loathe) Them. The study found little relationship between smartphone satisfaction and satisfaction with the provider while the iPhone bested other smartphones for customer satisfaction while Android smartphone user were the heaviest web surfers.

Using the methodology of the American Customer Satisfaction Index to compare smartphone platforms:

1. The iPhone is the undisputed leader in customer satisfaction, scoring 83 on a 100-point scale, 8% higher than its nearest competitors.
2. Android and the Palm Pre (77) came in second in satisfaction.
   
3.  Research In Motion's BlackBerry (73) was third.
   
4.  Palm's Treo (70) came in forth.
   
5. others" category, which includes Symbian and Windows Mobile, scored 66.

Among smartphone providers:

1. Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile tie in overall provider satisfaction, scoring 79.
   
2. Sprint scores 74.
   
3. AT&T's non-iPhone smartphone customers score 73,.
   
4. AT&T iPhone users rate AT&T 69.

On the heels of mixed-messages with the release of the MMS update for the iPhone on AT&T, Apple reported that more than two billion apps have been downloaded from its App Store.

 "The App Store has reinvented what you can do with a mobile handheld device, and our users are clearly loving it," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO.

There are now more than 85,000 apps available to the more than 50 million iPhone and iPod touch customers worldwide and over 125,000 developers in Apple's iPhone Developer Program.

iPhone and iPod touch customers in 77 countries worldwide can choose from an range of apps in 20 categories, including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel.

With the recently introduced iTunes 9, it's now easier than ever to organize and sync your apps right in iTunes and they will automatically appear on your iPhone or iPod touch with the same layout.

Starting Friday, iPhone 3G and 3GS users were able to download the MMS update from iTunes to be able to send and receive MMS messages from their iPhones. Reports of problems and glitches of the MMS update appeared over this weekend.

Ubergizmo reported, "a lot of iPhone users are reporting that the service is not available for them. AT&T has confirmed this issue, and it seems that there are MMS latency issues across all states."

The glitches with iPhone MMS update appear to be battery drain from using MMS, delayed messages (up to two-day), the operating system has to be updated to OS 3.1 first, and problems with video clarity/audio.

We scanned Twitter for iPhone MMS update Tweets and we found many mixed MMS mesages:

• IPhone owners with hacked or jailbroken iPhones have had problems with MMS. They loose their tethering hack because they have to upgrade to 3.1 that jailbreaks the jailbreak.
  
• An MMS sent to a boyfriend's Android phone took 48 hours to get to him.
• Expletives: I'm excited!, Awesome. Sooooo nice!!!, WhoHOO! YAY?
  
• "I got my first MMS today. It took 2 years to ever get a single one (on iPhone).
• MMS drains battery. Battery life took a nose dive. Update is killing my battery.
  
• "still can't get my iphone to send mms messages... way to suck, AT&T..."
• You have to reboot your iPhone to get MMS to get it to work properly.
  
• Video received by friend didn't have audio (multiple reports.)
  
• Still no MMS for some.
• YFrog will Tweet MMS.
• Works flawlessly in Las Vegas.

The delay of MMS for iPhone  which was available in the release of 3.1 update but delayed by AT&T until this month, according to Seth the spokesblogger for AT&T was bacause AT&T wanted to ensure that the network was ready for the onslaught of data and bandwidth.

Today is the start date for MMS for for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS users, but not for original iPhone users on the AT&T network. MMS or Multimedia Messaging Service enables users to send video an photos via SMS.



Here's how to do it:

The USB Implementers Forum sided with  Apple for modifying its iTunes USB sync so that the Palm Pre work-around wouldn't work.

Apple changed the latest update iTunes software to block access by Palm's smartphone.

Palm voiced their complaint to the group in July for Apple's improper use its USB vendor code to block competitors. The forum disagreed in a letter sent to both companies on Tuesday. They also warned that if Palm changes the Pre's software to include Apple's vendor code, it would violate the forum's rules.

The USB-IF  Letter states:

Your letter also states that:

"Palm will shortly issue an update of its WebOS operating system that uses Apple's Vendor ID number for the sole purpose of restoring the Palm media sync functionality."

I attach for your information the USB-IF's adopted and published policy regarding Vendor Identification Numbers (VIDs). Under the Policy, Palm may only use the single Vendor ID issued to Palm for Palm's usage. Usage of any other company's Vendor ID is specifically precluded. Palm's expressed intent to use Apple's VID appears to violate the attached policy.

Please clarify Palm's intent and respond to this potential violation within seven days."

Palm's first letter stated

"We engaged with the USB-IF because we believe consumers should have freedom and choice in how and where they use the non-rights managed media they already own. We are reviewing the letter from the USB-IF and will respond as appropriate."

Intelius launched its Date Check mobile application today at DEMOfall 09. Now you can perform instant background checks on potential dates directly on an iPhone. Their moto is “Look-up before your hook-up.”

With only a name or cell phone number, the Date Check mobile application searches publicly available information to instantly provide an on-the-go background profile of new acquaintances.

Besides basic information like name, age and address, Date Check can be used to check popular social networking sites like LinkedIn for data on employment history and education records. The Sleaze Detector feature scans criminal records to determine if anyone matching that name has been charged with offenses such as drug possession, assault and battery, sex crimes and DUI, among others. The Net Worth function gives users information about assets that include property value, as well as ownership and home details.

ESPN launched their ESPN Radio app. It gives millions of ESPN Radio listeners access to live, crystal clear radio streams, fan favorite shows, the latest SportsCenter updates every 20 minutes, popular podcasts, play-by-play broadcasts, live scores, newsfeeds and text messaging and call-in capabilities directly to ESPN Radio and ESPN affiliate stations.

Apple introduced the App Store Resource Center, a single destination designed to make it easier for developers to find details on distributing apps on the App Store as well as how to prepare for app submission and managing apps once it's been posted.

The News and Announcements section of the iPhone Dev Center shows  tips on submitting apps to the App Store, turnaround time for app review, new program features, and guidance on everything from development and testing to distribution and marketing.

In order to see the App Store Resource Center, you must be an Apple developer with access to the app developer community.