Hasta La Gadget!

The iPhone 4 may be launching on all the major Canadian carriers tomorrow, but we’re only just now starting to get the actual details on what they’ll be offering. Rogers is the first out of the gate and, for a change, it looks like folks in the US may just be a tad jealous of their northern neighbors. It’s not only offering the iPhone 4 for a further discounted price — $159 for the 16GB and $269 for the 32GB on a three-year contract (for both new and existing customers eligible for a hardware upgrade) — but it’s bringing back its 6GB data plan for $30 a month as well. On top of that, Rogers is also offering a new iPad sharing plan that will let you share those 6GB between the two devices for an extra $20 a month. Still no official word from the other carriers, but MobileSyrup has turned up a leak that suggests Bell will be offering 6GB for $30 as well, and iPad sharing for just $10 a month — although that’s yet to be confirmed. We’ll keep you posted as more plans are announced.

Update: Bell just flipped the switch, and their numbers are largely the same with one notable exception — iPad data sharing is an additional $10 a month instead of $20, just as had been rumored. Thanks, everyone!

Canadian iPhone 4 launch details emerge: Rogers offers 6GB for $30, iPad sharing for $20 (update: Bell’s iPad deal cheaper) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re an iPhone user, the only privacy notice you’ll see from an app regards your current location — as much a warning about the associated battery hit from the GPS pinging as anything. If you’re an Android user, however, things are different, with a tap-through dialog showing you exactly what each app will access on your phone. But, do you read them? You should, with Lookout running a sort of survey across 300,000 apps on those two platforms, finding that many access personal information even though they seemingly don’t need to. One particularly scary instance, an app called Jackeey Wallpaper on Android, aggregates your browsing history, text messages, could get your voicemail password, and even your SIM ID and beams it all to a server in China. That this app has been downloaded millions thousands of times is a little disconcerting, but it’s not just Android users that have to fear, as even more iPhone than Android apps take a look through your contact infos. What to do? Well, be careful what you download to start, on Android read those privacy warnings… and we’re sure Lookout wouldn’t mind if you took this opportunity to download its security app.

Update: We received a note from Jussi Nieminen, who indicated the data fields being retrieved, as reported by VentureBeat, are incorrect. Texting and browser history are apparently not retrieved, but your phone number, phone ID, and voicemail fields are. And, since it’s not unheard of for voicemail entries to include a password when setup on a phone, it’s possible they could wind up with that too. Also, the popularity of the app was apparently misstated, with actual downloads somewhere south of 250,000.

Update 2: Kevin, one of the Black Hat speakers from Lookout, wrote us to let us know that the full details on the wallpaper apps have been posted here, if you’d like to read. Meanwhile, estimations of just how many people have downloaded this particular wallpaper app are all over the place, ranging from as low as 50,000 to over four million.

Lookout’s App Genome Project warns about sketchy apps you may have already downloaded originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some Apple 3G phone owners who upgraded to the new iOS4 operating system are facing buyer’s remorse. The upgrade has left their devices slow and struggling for breath, according to complaints on Apple’s users forum.

“My iPhone 8Gb 3G is soooo slow after ‘upgrading’ to OS4,” says a user registered as George Stark on the Apple forum. “Unlocking the phone sometimes takes 5-10 seconds and the home screen icons literally stop converging halfway through and then 2 seconds later, finish off. Other things are ridiculously slow, such as opening and replying to texts. Good one Apple, maybe you want us all to upgrade to the iPhone 4 so that OS4 actually runs at a manageable speed?”

Apple is looking into the complaints.

“We are aware of these reports and we are investigating,” a company spokeswoman told Wired.com

Apple rolled out iOS4 in June as a new version of the operating system that would introduce features such as multitasking, a unified inbox for e-mail and the ability to group apps into folders. iPhone users who had bough their devices in 2007, when the phone was first introduced, cannot run iOS 4 at all. But iPhone 3G users can upgrade to iOS4 though multitasking is not supported for these devices. iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 are completely compatible with iOS 4.

But Apple’s decision to make older iPhone models seems to have backfired. When Apple moved from iPhone 3G to iPhone 3GS, it introduced a faster processor in the latter. Remember all those company statement saying the ‘S’ in the 3GS stands for ’speed.’

The iPhone 3G has a 412 MHz ARM 11 chip, while the 3GS model uses a 600MHz ARM 11 processor. Clearly, the difference computing power seems to have an impact on how well the device can handle iOS4. The thread relating to iPhone 3G’s slow performance on the iOS4 is 38 pages now and has more than 560 messages.

Those stuck with iPhone 3Gs running at glacial speeds, downgrading the OS to the iOS 3.1.3 may be an option. But as this tutorial shows it’s not an easy process. The alternative is to do a factory reset on the device.

For Apple, the iOS4 woes on the iPhone 3G comes on the heel of ‘Antennagate‘–a widely publicized problem with the iPhone 4. Many iPhone 4 users have noticed that the device loses signal strength when gripped at a specific spot at the bottom left of the phone.  Apple has responded to those complaints by offering its iPhone 4 users a free case.

See Also:

• Apple Launches iOS 4 for iPhone, iPod Touch
• Apple iOS 4 vs. Google Android 2.2: How Do They Stack Up?
• Apple Unveils High-Resolution, Videoconferencing iPhone 4
• Finger Fail: Why Most Touchscreens Miss the Point

Photo: (twenty5pics/Flickr)

Maywa Denki’s fun musical toy, the Otamatone, has now got its own iPhone app!

Just like the regular toy there are two versions, black and white, both available for iPhone and iPod touch.

Touch the Otamatone’s mouth to make music, tilting your phone to change the pitch. The Otamatone app can also “follow” your sounds and you can record your efforts too. As the video below declares, “Let’s Performance!”

The app costs ¥350, $2.99 (US/CA) or €2.39, and can be downloaded from the iTunes Store.

[Via Tokyo Mango]

Before you start: yes, the idea of connecting Apple’s Magic Trackpad to an iPhone or iPad is kind of stupid, because these devices already have touch screens. But various people have been asking about whether Apple’s new Bluetooth gadget works with iOS devices anyway, so we decided to try it.