Hasta La Gadget!

Sweet Jesus, AT&T just told us that MMS for iPhone launches September 25. Which is emphatically not summer. It’ll be coming via software update for iPhone 3G and 3GS (remember, old iPhones are getting left out).

AT&T admits they’re late, saying “it was important to give our customers a positive experience from day one” so they needed the extra to “to make sure our network is ready to handle what we expect will be a record volume of MMS traffic.” Which I think means if MMS doesn’t work, everybody can ream the shit out of them for it. At least it’s free.

The wait for tethering continues though, with “no set date.” They simply “expect to offer it in the future.” Again, ’cause the network isn’t ready: “This function could exponentially increase traffic on the network, and we need to ensure that some of our current upgrades are in place before we can deliver the expanded functionality with the excellent performance that customers expect.”

One out of two ain’t bad, right?

An Update on iPhone MMS for our Mobility Customers

We know many of our iPhone customers are eager for an update on our rollout schedule for Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). 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.

We know that iPhone users will embrace MMS. The unique capabilities and high usage of the iPhone’s multimedia capabilities required us to work on our network MMS architecture to carry the expected record volumes of MMS traffic and ensure an excellent experience from Day One. We appreciate your patience as we work toward that end.

We’re riding the leading edge of smartphone growth that’s resulted in an explosion of traffic over the AT&T network. Wireless use on our network has grown an average of 350 percent year-over-year for the past two years, and is projected to continue at a rapid pace in 2009 and beyond. The volume of smartphone data traffic the AT&T network is handling is unmatched in the wireless industry. We want you to know that we’re working relentlessly to innovate and invest in our network to anticipate this growth in usage and to stay ahead of the anticipated growth in data demand, new devices and applications for years to come.

We thank you for your business and look forward to keeping you updated on our initiatives.

Reports of iPhones exploding, starting fires and killing people in cold blood have been around since the inception of the handset. They’ve also been relatively sporadic, seemingly short on evidence, and Apple hasn’t given complaints much credence or response. So when we heard a story from France the other day about a security guard’s iPhone “exploding” and sending a shard of glass into his eye (though apparently not serious enough to warrant a hospital visit), it was a little hard to believe, but with a few other stories of cracking screens due to overheating cropping up in Europe over the past couple weeks, French authorities have taken an interest in the story. Anecdotally, a teen says his phone “imploded” in Belgium and gave him a headache, a woman’s phone cracked without warning, and ten or so victims in France have come forward to complain of similar problems, picking up the interest of a French consumer watchdog group. Apple is naturally not new to the concept of overheating in its battery-powered devices — in fact, it’s just entered into its first full-on iPod nano recall in Korea of the 1st-gen players after numerous reports of battery faultiness worldwide — but with 26 million iPhones out and about, and the iPhone 3GS tending to run a bit hotter than its siblings, a systemic problem with one or all models of the handsets isn’t something consumers or Apple would take lightly.

Herve Novelli, France’s top trade official, met with Apple France’s Michel Coulomb today to discuss the problem, and so far Apple is sticking to its guns: it claims that reported incidents are in the single digits, and that all cases it’s investigated fully so far have turned out to be blamed on “external force” to the screen. Herve and Michel seem to have parted on friendly terms, promising to keep in touch over the issue, and the EU’s alert system for dangerous consumer products (inexplicably dubbed RAPEX) is staying in the loop as well, asking the 27 member nations to keep tabs on the situation. Novelli says it’s “too early to blame anyone,” and we’d have to agree, but we hope Apple keeps up the (freshly) open communication about this issue going forward.

Read – French minister meets Apple exec over iPhone problems
Read – Apple denies ‘exploding’ iPhones
Read – Apple denies battery problem with exploding iPhones
Read – Belgian teenager latest victim of exploding iPhone phenomenon

Filed under: Cellphones

Overheating iPhone reports ‘exploding’ all over France, Apple responds originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

True, it’s not the first app offering turn-by-turn driving instructions for the iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS — but it is from TomTom, an industry heavy-weight that is finally delivering on years of rumor and speculation. After starting with New Zealand a few hours ago, the iTunes App Store is now populated with region specific TomTom apps for NZ ($95), Australia ($80), US and Canada ($100), and Western Europe ($140). If that sounds expensive… it is; dedicated TomTom navigators start at $120. In other words, this isn’t one of those knee-jerk 99 cent App Store purchases. Naturally, that price does not include the announced TomTom iPhone car kit (rumored to cost £113.85 (about $194) with bundled mapping software) that mounts and charges your iPhone 3G or 3GS while enhancing its GPS performance, speaker, and microphone. Our advice: wait for the reviews before dedicating your non multi-tasking iPhone to the dashboard for navigation duties.

Update: Recombu took the software for a spin and seem duly impressed by their ability to navigate streets with an iPhone taped to the dash (not a joke). They say that when a call comes in, the TomTom app “turns off but restarts as soon as you finish the call.” Lame. See the video overview after the break.

Update 2: TomTom says the upcoming car kit dock / windshield mount will also work with the iPod touch and third-party apps — it contains a faster, more accurate GPS chip than the one in the iPhone. Check a video of it after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read [Warning: iTunes link]

Continue reading TomTom navigation for iPhone 3G and 3GS arrives (update: Video!)

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS

TomTom navigation for iPhone 3G and 3GS arrives (update: Video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Aug 2009 11:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

We’d still venture to say that all signs are pointing toward an iPhone launch on China Unicom before too long, but one key element of the launch — Unicom’s upfront buy — is now in question. A spokesman for China’s third-largest carrier (which is an amazingly low rank considering they’ve got about as many subscribers as Verizon and AT&T combined) has denied earlier reports that they’ve stockpiled five million handsets in preparation for launch, saying that negotiations with Apple are still ongoing. We imagine that when you’re dealing with a nine-figure subscriber count, any hardware negotiation is complex, tense, and filled with counteroffers, so there’s no telling how much longer this process could take.

[Via Unwired View]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

China Unicom denies having bought 5M iPhones originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

As history tells us time and time again, iPhone apps / updates submitted to Apple aren’t a sure deal for approval. Still, we can’t help but like where SlingPlayer Mobile is going with the recently-submitted version 1.1. In addition to providing true 16:9 widescreen support that stretches across the whole screen, Slingbox owners with DISH Network can now navigate using a touch-supported native browser, instead of pushing through the TV-standard browsing screen being streamed in. That last bit’s great for US customers, but it’s what the rest of the world might get that has our interests very piqued. The company’s submitted a version for use outside of AT&T’s homeland that would finally allow for streaming over a 3G connection — again, not a certainty for approval, but we’ll be most interested to see if that one makes its way through the system.

Filed under: Cellphones, HDTV

SlingPlayer 1.1 for iPhone promises DISH integration for US, 3G streaming elsewhere (maybe) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments