iPhone Hill

The US Senate’s Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation is studying deals like AT&T’s exclusivity for the iPhone, and how that balances business freedoms, technology innovation, consumer competition, and the effects on smaller, rural carriers.

In response to AT&T retail sales and services president, Paul Roth’s assertion that exclusivity provides more innovation, lower cost, and more choice, PC World quotes Senator John Kerry’s response:

“I accept the benefits you articulated but I’m having a difficult time trying to envision why an innovator, given the size of the market and the number of outlets, is not going to innovate to produce a product that is equally competitive [to an exclusive phone] … because it wants to appeal across different providers,”

This exchange followed on the heels of the committee sending a joint letter to the FCC, which according to InformationWeek asked for a determination as to whether “exclusivity agreements are restricting consumer choice”.

We know a lot of you want your iPhone on Verizon already, but should Apple and AT&T be allowed to come to whatever agreements each sees fit, or is there a roll for government to limit that for the good of consumers who’s interests may diverge at times from corporations?

[Thanks to Icebike for the repeated heads up]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

US Government Looking Into AT&T iPhone Exclusivity

DOOOOOOOOOM! [$9.99 - iTunes link] That’s right, the mother of all Martian first person shooters (FPS) is in the App Store now:

-Advanced graphics engine designed from the ground up to take full advantage of the power found in Apple’s mobile devices
-Wield an arsenal of heavy-hitting weapons to defeat a variety of hideous monsters and bosses
-Innovative controls for fast-paced and accessible first-person action
-An all-new chapter of the DOOM saga that new players and long-time DOOM fans can enjoy

How does a golden oldie translate to the newest, greatest mobile platform? If you try it out, and live to tell the tale, let us know what you think!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Quick App: DOOM Resurrection for iPhone

Birdfeed [$4.99 - iTunes link] bills itself as “A very nice Twitter client for your iPhone”. That’s pretty much spot on. It doesn’t try to razzle-dazzle, or focus exclusively on one element or another, but what it does do is provide a quick, clean, interface to manage your Twitter account (or accounts).

Highlighted features include the simple design, local caching of already-loaded tweets so you can keep reading when/if offline, SMS-style handling of direct messages (DMs) to help keep the conversation flow, unread @mentions (replies) and DM counters, and time stamps to indicate where you last read up to should new tweets have since been loaded.

To answer the immediate question, no support for iPhone 3.0 push notification yet. Birdfeed’s Twitter account says that feature is likely, but there’s no time-frame yet.

TwitPic and yfrong are available for image posting and tr.im for URL shortening. (Where’s the bit.ly love, and tinyurl for retro chic?) Instapaper is supported, though you have to exit the app and go to the iPhone’s Settings app to find and set it up. This makes sense given Apple’s preference for keeping Settings in Settings, and also because it’s unlikely you’ll have to do it more than once.

Great from a user experience perspective, when you get to the end of currently loaded tweets, Birdfeed automatically starts loading older ones. That’s right, no button tap required. (The default is 20 but you can change that in Settings). To get newer tweets, however, there is the perfunctory big honking — yet tastefully rendered — button at the top of the tweet list.

For users who put capital letters in their Twitter account names, there’s currently a bug those accounts to go missing from the app, but it’s known and a fix is on the way.

All in all, Birdfeed is exactly as presented — a clear, consistent, and enjoyable general purpose Twitter client with some great new ideas in a even greater UI.

More screenshots after the break!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Quick App: Birdfeed Twitter Client for iPhone

Inspired by Gruber, who was rocking the Nokia freebiephone, on the eve of the original iPhone’s 2nd birthday, we want to know:

What were you using before the iPhone?

(I was on a Treo 680 that crashed almost as often as it successfully made or received calls).

Update: Jeremy reminds me we have a huge thread on the TiPb Forums about this as well. Love. Up.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

What Were You Using Before the iPhone?

With the return of Steve Jobs to Apple comes the return of Fake Steve to the interwebs. Fake Steve also returns to being bitingly satirical, something that had been lacking before its own hiatus. Recent gems include the excoriation of the New York Times, and lambasting Palm (twice) for focusing on Apple rather than the Pre in their own advertisements:

Do you remember what the ads for the original iPhone looked like? You remember seeing anything in those ads about the BlackBerry or the Treo? No. It was a whole new thing — sui generis, as the French say. It had to be. If all we could do was to make a slightly less s****y BlackBerry, and offer it for a few bucks less than what RIM was charging, we would not have bothered to make the product.

(Though he may be reaching in his claims of just how far Jon Rubinstein will go to be like “him”.)

If you’re easily offended, stay clear. Otherwise, enjoy it while it lasts…

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Fake Steve Also Returns

I recently tried out a friend’s battery charger case and my iPhone 3GS began to buzz and flash between locked, wallpaper, and temperature warning screens.

Not to be all Wall Street Journal about it, but according to sources in a position to know, this is not an uncommon problem and Apple is set to address it in the next firmware update, which should be coming soon — 3.1.

3.1 you ask? It’s what we asked as well, and were told the iPhone 3GS is already running what’s considered 3.0.1 and the next update would likely be 3.1 (though 3.0.2 or an “official” cross device 3.0.1 still sounds more like as a bug fix release to us).

Consider it a rumor for now, but at the very least, if your charging case is giving you headaches, rest assured help is on the way.

(And it’s recommended you don’t use it until the problem is addressed).

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Rumor: iPhone 3.0.1 Already on iPhone 3GS. iPhone 3.1 to Fix Bugs, Battery Charger Problems?

Welcome back.

“Steve Jobs is back to work. He is at Apple a few days a week and working from home the other days,” Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said. “We’re glad to have him back.”

[via CNN]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Steve Jobs Returns

Google says that mobile uploads to YouTube have increased by 400% just in a week, thanks to iPhone 3GS’ technology. Looks like mostly iPhone 3GS users are also the big fans of the video-sharing site.

Google has announced that uploads from mobile phones to YouTube have increased by 400% since last Friday, when Apple’s new iPhone 3GS went on sale. The handset lets users shoot video clips and upload them directly to the video-sharing site.

In the last six months, uploads from mobile phones to YouTube have jumped 1,700%; just since last Friday, when the iPhone 3GS came out, uploads have increased by 400%.

[via Music Ally]

Apple released its new iPhone 3GS in Japan on Friday. According to the Asahi Shimbun, more than 200 people lined up at Softbank Mobile Corp.’s Omotesando store in Tokyo.

The Japan’s launch is a week after Apple introduced the new iPhone in the United States and Europe.  It’s reported more than 1 million units have been sold in three days.  Softbank, the country’s third largest wireless carrier, is the country’s sole distributor for iPhone.

The new model also went on sale in the same day in Austria, Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands.

[via MacDailyNews]

UPDATE: Engadget is reporting micro-USB vs. the BBC’s mini-USB. Also, that Apple, among others, is backing the standard.

ORIGINAL: We’ve discussed this before, but now it looks like Europe has gone ahead and done it. Mini-USB is going to be the “one size fits all” universal charging standard for phones. The caveat:

The deal isn’t legally binding though and, at this stage, is only voluntary.

Translation: Apple’s 30-pin dock connector likely isn’t going any place, any time soon.

Are we happy about this? Are we wondering why it wasn’t micro-USB? Or do we really not care one way or another about it at this point?

[via the BBC, thanks sambell for the tip!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

UPDATED: European Union: One Phone Charger Shall Rule them All