MacRumors

Gizmodo reports that one of its readers recently visited the Genius Bar at the SoHo Apple retail store in New York City complaining that 30% of his attempted calls were being dropped, and was informed after testing that such performance was considered normal by AT&T's standards for the area. The reader provided Gizmodo with a copy of the Genius Bar work authorization form noting the technician's assessment of the situation.

Issue Description: dropped calls, poor signal
Steps to Reproduce: plugged into behavior scan, report concludes that phone has dropped over 22 percent of the phone calls made. customer states that the percentage is a bit higher but does not register to the phone due to the fact that when a call begins to fail he manually disconnects the call.
Issue Verified: Yes
Proposed Resolution: this is a basic trouble shooting case so that the customer may report back to ATT to show that the phone is fully functional and the problem is consistent with the service provided by ATT

AT&T has acknowledged that it has struggled with service performance in areas of high iPhone density such as the New York City and San Francisco Bay areas, and has recently taken steps to enhance 3G service in those and other markets.

App features:

* Access your Dropbox on the go
* View your files
* Download files for offline viewing
* Take photos and videos and sync them to your Dropbox
* Share links to files in your Dropbox
* Photo galleries
* Sync downloaded files so they're up-to-date

Dropbox offers three levels of service with varying amounts of storage space: Basic (2 GB, Free), Pro 50 (50 GB, $9.99/month), and Pro 100 (100 GB, $19.99/month).

Elgato Systems, the maker of TV software and tuners for the Mac, has announced that its EyeTV app is now available in the App Store. The app is made to work in conjunction with a Mac running the EyeTV software and its features are as follows:

- Watch live TV and change channels anywhere (Wi-Fi connection required)
- Watch your EyeTV recordings
- Browse the comprehensive Program Guide
- Start recordings back home on your Mac immediately or schedule them for later.
- View and edit your recording schedules

The companion Mac used with the app must be running the EyeTV software, version 3.2 - which was just released today - or higher and it must have a compatible TV tuner connected to it. In order to view streaming live TV on an iPhone with the EyeTV app, the companion Mac must have an Intel Core 2 Duo processor or better.

The EyeTV app costs $4.99 and can be found in the App Store here (link opens iTunes).

"AP Stylebook fans have been asking for a mobile application so they can have style guidance wherever they go," said Colleen Newvine, who manages the AP Stylebook product group. "Journalists never know when they will need to run out the door to chase a story, so as long as they have an iPhone in their pockets when they go, the Stylebook can go with them."

The 2009 AP Stylebook app features searchable listings for the main, sports, business and punctuation sections, along with the ability to add custom entries and personalized notes on AP listings. Stylebook app users are able to mark any entry as a favorite for easy access.

The iPhone version of the Stylebook will be updated on an annual basis coordinated with updates to the print version, which typically occur in June of each year. iPhone and iPod touch users who purchase the 2009 edition will receive a free update to the 2010 version when it is released next year.

Maximizing the revolutionary features of iPhone OS 3.1, the new CNN App showcases news of the day through text, video and photos. It also features live breaking news video, push notification, localization and personalization tools, user-generated content capture and upload functionality through iReport, and more.

"The CNN App has what we think is one of the best user experiences around, and will quickly become an essential daily news source for many iPhone and iPod touch users,"said Louis Gump, vice president of CNN Mobile. "We tailored the best of CNN specifically for them, whether they check in from the beach, the airport or the ballpark."

The video streaming feature of CNN Mobile offers pre-recorded clips, but also allows CNN to send news alerts and provide live coverage when breaking news strikes. Personalization allows users to customize their application to deliver local news, weather, and traffic alongside world and national news, and the application also allows users to save text articles for offline viewing.

Integration with iReport allows users to not only browse user-generated content, but also to submit photos and video directly to the service. And finally, users are able to easily share stories with others via e-mail, SMS, Twitter and Facebook integration.

TechCrunch reports that mSpot, a company that provides ringtones, music, and video for mobile devices in the U.S. and Canada, is now offering streaming movie rentals that are viewable on the iPhone and other mobile devices. Movies are accessed via mSpot's mobile site and payment can be made via credit card to rent movies individually or sign up for a monthly subscription plan. At launch, mSpot offers 350 movies for streaming from major production companies including Paramount and Universal.

Individual movie rentals cost $4.99 and rental periods vary from movie to movie, though they are at least 24 hours and movies can be watched an unlimited number of times within the rental period. While browsing available movies, trailers can be viewed easily. A rental savings Club is available that offers a variety of monthly subscription levels, starting at $9.99 per month for 20 credits, which will purchase 4 movie rentals, up to $15.99 per month for 40 credits, which will purchase 8 movie rentals. Not all movies currently available can be rented through a Club subscription - these can only be rented la carte. mSpot is currently offering a special of 15 free extra credits in the first month of Club membership. Credits expire if they are unused one month after purchase and there is no cancellation fee to leave the Club.

mSpot recommends that users have an unlimited data plan with their cellular service provider given the large amount of data required to stream a full-length movie. Movies are viewed using the iPhone's native video player, which is launched automatically from Safari and the current connection type (3G or Wi-Fi) can be selected before viewing a movie to provide the appropriate level of buffering. Movie rentals are only available to iPhone and other mobile device users in the United States. mSpot has beat Netflix, who has stated that it will offer its services directly on the iPhone "eventually," to the market in providing this service to iPhone users in the U.S.

Viewing a streaming movie rental

Since Apple's privacy policy would preclude Apple from providing such information, Mac4Ever dug into the issue and discovered that an iPhone application is capable of accessing a device's mobile telephone number with just a single line of code and can then send that information back to the developer without notifying the user that their personal information has been obtained. Mac4Ever confirmed this ability by creating its own proof-of-concept iPhone application and obtaining the phone number of one of its editors' iPhones.

From a client's side, Apple is the unique entiy you can deal with (except for the support). For a developer, it's quite the same : you can only deal with Apple, who never give you an access to the client's information. But it appears that this behaviour is available since firmware 2.1! So, how can't Cupertino be aware of such a thing? And how many apps are involved?

We contacted Apple about this issue and we will keep you posted as soon as we'll receive a complete answer.

It remains unclear whether other iPhone developers beyond those behind the application cited in the report have resorted to such tactics.

Image from iLounge

When connecting such an accessory to an iPhone or iPod touch for the first time, an alert box labeled "Application Not Installed" appears, informing users that the accessory requires an application which is not currently installed, and asking if they would like to install the application from the App Store. Upon acceptance, the iPhone or iPod touch then takes users to a new "For This Accessory" page on the App Store, with a direct link to the necessary app's listing, from which they can download and install the application.

iLounge notes that the feature was most likely introduced as part of iPhone OS 3.0 earlier this year, but accessories supporting it appear to just now be coming available.