Hasta La Gadget!

If you have an iPhone 4 and you wish you got a bit more juice from the battery, or you’re one of the people experiencing the now-infamous “death grip” problem, the Exolife rechargeable iPhone 4 battery case may be able to solve both of those problems. Exolife’s external battery case mounts to the back of your iPhone 4 without adding a ton of extra bulk. It completely covers the sides and back, and it has openings cut out for the power button, headphone jack, and volume buttons on the side. There’s also an opening in the back for the camera and flash.

According to Exolife, the case will virtually doubles your iPhone’s battery life with its 1500mAh Lithium-Ion polymer rechargeable battery. The case is designed not to interfere with the signal from your iPhone 4 (although since it covers the sides, it’ll probably help with the iPhone 4’s reported signal issues). The Exolife battery case also turns off automatically when power from the case is not needed, so the extra charge is ready when you need it.

Exolife is taking pre-orders for the black and white versions of the case now. Black versions will ship at the end of July, and white versions will ship at the end of September. Both versions cost $89.95 list. 

The evolution of phones away from physical buttons toward touchscreens is great if you’re into clean, aesthetic design. But, if you’re suffering from limited vision, there are some obvious issues. Thankfully the iPhone 4 at least has support for Braille displays like those Brailliant, as kindly demonstrated by acoustic guitar virtuoso and software guru Victor Tasaran. Using the six buttons on his Brailliant-32 he’s able to navigate across icons, then feel the text beneath each one — or wait for the phone’s hurried text-to-speech to read back to him. It’s an encouraging solution for smartphone accessibility, but does have a rather negative impact on portability — and, we’re sad to say, on cost as well. His 32-character unit will set you back just under $4k, which is many times the cost of the phone itself. But, at least when it’s used like in the video below, sitting on the table, he won’t have to worry about signal issues.

Update: To be clear the text-to-speech is entirely being generated by the phone; it’s a stock feature of iOS 4. The Brailliant is enabling Victor to cycle through icons, make selections, and “read” the on-screen text with his fingers.

Continue reading iPhone 4 plus Brailliant-32 display enables even blind men to experience the magic (video)

iPhone 4 plus Brailliant-32 display enables even blind men to experience the magic (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink textually.org  |  VictorTsaran.net  | Email this | Comments

It looks like Fring’s recent decision to block Skype access to its iPhone 4 video app was the final straw for Skype, who charges that VoIP network was in breach of the Terms of Use and EULA for the Skype API. “Over time,” writes General Counsel Robert Miller, “Fring’s mis-use of our software was increasingly damaging our brand and reputation with our customers.” Although they’ve “been talking with Fring for some time to try to resolve this amicably,” Friday’s action is being called “disappointing [for] our customers, who have high expectations of the Skype experience.” He goes on to say that “Skype will rigorously protect our brand and reputation, and those developers that do not comply with our terms will be subject to legal enforcement.” Meaning, presumably, that in the case of more Fring shenanigans there will be some sort of red-hot legal action. For its part, Fring CEO Avi Shechter had this to say: “We are disappointed that Skype, who once championed the cause of openness, is now attempting to muzzle competition, even to the detriment of its own users.” Which is all well and good, but we can hardly see how Skype is the problem here when you were the ones who locked out its users in the first place.

Skype says Fring violated its Terms of Use, ‘damaging our brand and reputation’ in the process originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Phone Scoop  |  Fring, Skype  | Email this | Comments

Although there’s never been any question that there’s something going on with the iPhone 4’s fancy new antenna system, we really haven’t seen any rigorous testing confirming that the issue is real, severe, and affects every phone. That just changed: Consumer Reports tested three iPhone 4s and several other AT&T phones in their RF isolation chamber that simulates varying levels of signal from every carrier, and found that the iPhone 4 was the only handset to suffer signal-loss issues. What’s more, CR directly says that its findings call Apple’s explanation of a miscalculated signal meter into question since the tests “indicate that AT&T’s network might not be the primary suspect.” CR found that simply putting duct tape over the bottom-left corner is enough to alleviate the issue — we’re guessing that’s Jony Ive’s worst nightmare — and says that while the iPhone 4 has the “sharpest display and best video camera” of any phone it’s tested, it simply can’t recommend the device until Apple comes up with a permanent and free fix to the antenna problem. Ouch.

Of course, we couldn’t sit around waiting for someone else to test the iPhone 4 in a more controlled way, so we actually asked our good friend Erica Sadun from TUAW to write us a bespoke signal strength app for iOS 4. Obviously we couldn’t submit it to the App Store, but we’ve been running it on all of our phones here at Engadget and we can independently confirm Consumer Reports‘ finding that there’s a serious signal attenuation issue with the iPhone 4’s antenna — every phone we’ve tested displays dropped signal when held with the bottom left corner covered. Now, what we don’t know is whether that signal attenuation consistently affects call quality and data rates, which we suspect is more directly related to the network in the area; some of our iPhone 4s drop calls and experience low data rates with alarming frequency, while others — like our review unit — have almost never dropped a call and have had no data problems. However, now that we’ve confirmed and clarified that the antenna issue affects every iPhone 4, we can take on the next step, which is sorting out exactly when and where the issue is most severe. Either that, or Apple can do something to actually fix the issue — we’ll just have to wait and see. For now, check our app in action after the break.

Update: To clarify, “here at Engadget” is a virtual location — our iPhone 4s are actually located across the country in San Francisco, Chicago, and New York, and we saw the app respond that way regardless of location. Dropped calls and other effects weren’t as consistent, however, and we’re still testing to sort out when the effects of the antenna issue are the most severe.

Continue reading Consumer Reports confirms iPhone 4 antenna problems — and so do we

Consumer Reports confirms iPhone 4 antenna problems — and so do we originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Consumer Reports  | Email this | Comments

Critix has been touting its “Nirvana phone” concept — a handheld device that can be paired with a monitor / keyboard for remote desktop use — for quite some time now. Back in February, the minimum hardware specs were nothing to challenging, and as it turns out, Apple’s iPhone 4 pretty much exceeds ’em by a long shot. And it has VGA out capabilities and Bluetooth keyboard support. So, you can imagine where this is going. The company is back in what looks like the same depressing cubicle space to show off what looks to be a mature demo of the Receiver 4.0 virtual desktop client on an iDevice, pushing 1024 x 768 resolution and some gesture integration as a mouse replacement. There’s definitely some noticeable lag, but hey, you gotta start somewhere. Video after the break.

Continue reading Citrix enlists iPhone 4 in its quest for ‘Nirvana phone’ portable desktop client (video)

Citrix enlists iPhone 4 in its quest for ‘Nirvana phone’ portable desktop client (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Jul 2010 08:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments