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Is Apple planning a quiet iPhone update? That's what The BGR has heard, with two AT&T sources suggesting that the iPhone 3G 8GB will be replaced with an 8GB entry-level iPhone 3GS in time for Christmas. The move is apparently intended, one of those sources claims, to better battle the DROID army from Verizon.
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Last month it was two billion downloads; this month it's over 100,000 applications available: is the Apple App Store really just a headline generator? No, obviously not, it's a software marketplace for the iPhone and iPod touch, but as the figures show it's certainly the most popular mobile apps store out there right now.
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While the competition for iPhone carriers is hotting up in Europe, the smartphone has only just gone on sale in China. Unfortunately, sales success hasn't followed the Apple device over to China Unicom's new 3G network; only 5,000 iPhone handsets were sold in China over the first weekend, according to the carrier, despite over a million new subscribers to that network in the same period.
iPhone 3.1.2 unlock tool blacksn0w has been released, a day ahead of the promised schedule. Available as a free download from blackra1n.com, the software allows the latest version of Apple’s iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS firmware to be carrier-unlocked, freeing you from the tyranny of whichever network you bought it from. According to creator George Hotz, the unlock is also faster than before, by around 15 seconds in fact.
Continued »Apple and carrier Orange have announced that their exclusivity agreement in France has ended prematurely, after telecoms regulators decided the deal was "a new rigidity factor in a sector that already suffers from lack of competition." The news comes after a temporary injunction filed back in December 2008 - and later upheld in a review in February - following complaints from network rivals Bouygues Telecom and SFR.
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Color us confused again. While Orange claimed that in offering the iPhone 3GS in the UK in opposition to hitherto-exclusive rival O2 they'd "increase value" to buyers, some bizarre limitations in the terms & conditions have us wondering whether life really was better with O2. As we pointed out earlier this week, Orange define "unlimited data" as 750MB; however there's also a potentially more limiting cap on what streaming and IM services - such as internet radio and Facebook messaging - can be used.
Been waiting for an unlock for your iPhone 3GS? Thanks to George Hotz, who goes by the handle of Geohot and offers the blackra1n unlock tool, a new version – blacksn0w – capable of unlocking iPhone OS 3.1.2 will be launched on November 4th. According to Hotz, one unlocking company has gone as far as to offer him $10,000 for the necessary code; however the good news is that the blacksn0w unlock will remain free.
Problem is, that won’t stop various less-than-honest unlock merchants from “borrowing” blacksn0w and charging iPhone owners for what they could readily do themselves for free. Hotz is asking people to share the information about his – and the iPhone Dev Team’s – offerings, to try to reduce the number of people conned into paying unnecessarily.
Video demo of the unlock after the cut
While we already knew that November 10th was the magic day when UK would-be Apple iPhone 3GS buyers would have a choice of not just O2 but also Orange as their network, until today we didn’t know exactly what they’d have to pay. Now Orange have revealed iPhone 3GS pricing details, including a free 3GS on 24-month contracts of £45 ($74) upward, or a free 3G 8GB on a £30 ($49) 24-month contract.
Pay as you go details after the cut
TomTom have confirmed that their Car Kit – the optional accessory to accompany the TomTom iPhone app – will only fully work with the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, thanks to a limitation in the TomTom application. The app’s limitation means that owners of the first-gen iPhone, together with iPod touch users, won’t be able to take advantage of the Car Kit’s integrated GPS receiver and speakerphone.
Apple have tweaked their App Store policies to allow for in-app purchases in free applications [iPhone developer link]. Contrary to initial rules that only paid applications could offer users paid content, subscriptions and digital services within the software, the change now means that developers can release, say, a free “Lite” version with an option to upgrade, within the app, to the full title.
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