With the release of the iPhone and growing activity in our forums, I thought I'd remind users of these helpful areas of the site that may make browsing MacRumors more enjoyable:
iPhone
MacRumors/iPhone - we separated additional tips and stories of interest to iPhone owners onto a separate page. "Significant" iPhone related stories will still be cross-posted to the main site.
For those yearning for Mac related news, per Engadget, Apple appears to have redesigned their 85W MagSafe Power Adapter for the MacBook Pro. The new design is smaller and similar to the current 60W MagSafe for the MacBook.
iPhoneDevCamp ended a while ago, and ever since, Ive been playing with all the apps pretty much non-stop. All of them are so neat and useful, but there are a few that I especially love.Gas App
Gas App will lead you to the cheapest, closest gas station. The thing I love most about this is Google maps integration.
This app is another reason I wish the iPhone had GPS. The only situation I can see myself using this in is if I'm sitting at home and decide that I need to go buy gas. If I'm out, I probably don't know what zip code I'm in, so this app would be of little-to-no help. Maybe Houston just needs "Entering 77005" signs...
City Explorer
The next one I really like is City Explorer. Even though I've lived in Houston my whole life, I can miss out on awesome restaurants because they're off my beaten path or brand new.
Put in a city, then choose from a tag. A list of places will be brought up, click on one, and BAM!
yeah, and Niko Nikos? So unbelivably good. Get some.
Google Maps intgeration! While the lack of GPS bothers me in relation to the gas app, this one doesn't bother me so much. It's pointing me to a destination, and so long as I can get myself to a freeway, I'm OK. 610, 59, 45, I-10: The loves of my life. (Not so much 290. He's too far away. There's a great little manicure place right off 290 near 610, so I see him sometimes.)
Fluther
I absolutely love Fluther. It's so fun! iPhone-based questions, advice, and curiosity. You submit a question and other users answer it for you. I don't know why, but I'm so beyond in love with this app. It's got to be my favourite, by far.
I picked a question I thought the MR community would most benefit from.
It looks as great in portrait mode as it does in landscape, and look at how cute the little octopus/jellyfish nerd is.
The Pool
And the last app, The Pool is strangely fascinating. It's like putting your fingers in a pool, causing ripples. Sometimes there's a cute little fishie to catch. When I'm stuck in a doctor's office waiting room, I will fire this up and click away. This app makes me very happy.
Earlier this week, a story came out that Duke university was having major wireless network issues and blamed the Apple iPhone.
Several parts of the story didn't quite add up, and as it turns out in a statement today, that this issue was in fact a Cisco issue:
Cisco worked closely with Duke and Apple to identify the source of this problem, which was caused by a Cisco-based network issue. Cisco has provided a fix that has been applied to Duke's network and there have been no recurrences of the problem since. We are working diligently to fully characterize the issue and will have additional information as soon as possible. Earlier reports that this was a problem with the iPhone in particular have proved to be inaccurate.
Tracy Futhey, Dukes chief information officer, reassures the Duke community that the Duke wireless network is now fully functional and the iPhone is fully operable within their environment.
If you thought polka dots were a thing of the 80's, you were mistaken.
Some iPhone users have had the fortune of receiving units that have a screen issue that manifests itself with little white dots in a checkered pattern over the screen.
Forum users have identified that affected units have display model number 7455232, although not all models with this screen are affected. The issue appears during boot process, which may suggest a software driver issue.
Though not all 7-series display models have the issue, it has also been noticed that the models have more contrast and less brightness than 5-series display models. A comparison picture from our forums is given below (7-series on left, 5-series on right).
Colorware has announced that it is offering iPhones in 29 different colors in both 4GB and 8GB models.
You can supply your own iPhone for modification or buy a pre-modified one from them. The color customization adds a $149 premium to the price of the iPhone.
iPhone hacking efforts have been ongoing, but early efforts have provided only a few practical uses (custom ringtones), but one big news item from the community is the first proof-of-concept "Hello World" application has been compiled and launched on the iPhone.
After many, many hours of intense work from "Nightwatch", the first independent "Hello World"* application has been compiled and launched on the iPhone. This was made possible using the "ARM/Mach-O Toolchain", Nightwatch's "special project", that he has been working on so carefully over the past few weeks. Certain parts of the toolchain (such as the assembler) are being refined and tested and these will be released as soon as possible.
No sample code or development tools are yet available, but this may pave the way to future 3rd party iPhone applications. There has been some hope/rumors that Apple may eventually launch their own official SDK, but for now, Apple is sticking to the Web 2.0 development plan and hosting iPhone Tech Talks in major cities to help developers with their iPhone web-applications.
Citing their own "extremely reputable" sources, AppleInsider claims that development of the second iPhone model was practically concurrent with the first iPhone, with it emerging from engineering labs just as the first iPhone was heading to production.
The second model may indeed fit a "Nano" moniker, as it is said to hold a smaller form factor and simply marry iPod functionality with basic cellular functionality.
Interestingly, it would appear that Apple will stick with its venerable click-wheel interface (perhaps due to the model's size), a proposition that CEO Steve Jobs had mocked when initially introducing the iPhone at Macworld in January. To dial, AppleInsider suggests Apple will use a rotary-dial click wheel patent that Apple recently applied for (via MacNN).
While pricing details are not yet known, the site expects the phone to be much cheaper than the current iteration, but still more expensive than the iPod Nano to resist cannibalization of sales.
A report by the DramExchange.com indicates that Apple's iPod and iPhone could use up to 25% of the world's production of NAND Flash chips this quarter.
This, along with production delays amongst NAND Flash manufacturers could contribute to shortages and rising prices.
NAND Flash supplies and pricing could also affect rumored plans for a NAND-flash based subnotebook from Apple - which was last pinpointed for release in late 2007/early 2008.
A new patent application describes the possibility of the use of an iPod or iPhone as a media remote control for a home entertainment system.
A portable multimedia player (such as the iPod. manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.) is used to wirelessly access and control a media server (such as a personal computer running iTunes software) that is streaming digital media by way of a wireless interface to a media unit (such as a stereo/speakers in the case of streaming digital audio).
Unique to the devices would be the ability to transfer digital media file metadata - such as song title, author, etc. associated with the music or video.
The patent application was filed in 2005, so represents technology that Apple was working on a couple of years ago.
Gene Munster estimates the AT&T/Apple iPhone revenue sharing at "$3 per month (over the life of the 24 month contract) for every iPhone customer already with AT&T and $11 per month for every new subscriber."
Apple has been rumored to get some form of monthly revenue sharing from AT&T for iPhone customers.
Forum user, hexproject, spent three hours replacing the back casing of his iPhone with a replacement black metal cover ($48.99).
The actual replacement process appears to be very involved, requiring you to disassemble your iPhone, but the results look nice. More photos in the comments.
Last week, Apple released a sample Web 2.0 game for the iPhone called Puzzler.
"Puzzler" is a fun and interactive game that illustrates the use of web standards and JavaScript for the iPhone.
This application makes advanced usage of mouse-handlers for user-input.
To play the game simply double-click or double-tap on any set of 2 or more balls of the same color that are touching. The balls will disappear and any balls above or to the left of the balls you just eliminated will shift into new positions. The goal is to clear all the balls from the screen.
According to AppleInsider, a supply shortage of the LED-backlit displays powering Apple's latest MacBook Pros are the cause of continuing shipping delays. In addition, the site reports that third party retailers have seen virtually non-existent stock of the units.
Some high-volume Apple dealers tell AppleInsider that thousand of units have remained on backorder since early June, while others claim they've yet to receive a single shipment of the new notebooks. In speaking to these dealers, Apple representatives have reportedly identified the new 15-inch LED backlit display panels as the root of the problem.
Apple has not specified whether quality-assurance related yield issues are to blame, or rather it is simply a case of production not being fully ramped up for a relatively new technology.
Currently, Apple's U.S. Online Store cites a 7-10 day ship time for 15" base configurations.
Apple is hosting iPhone Tech Talks for web developers interested in optimizing their Web 2.0 applications for the Apple iPhone.
Bring your notebook, your code, and your iPhone
After a morning of in-depth presentations and demonstrations, you'll work with the experts to design, code, debug and test your solutions on iPhone. Access to your code is required.
The day-long event is free for ADC members and is presently scheduled for the following cities and dates:
Los Angeles, CA 08/02 San Francisco, CA 08/24 Chicago, IL 08/28 New York, NY 08/30 New York, NY 08/31
According to a report by statesman.com, Apple is expanding its Austin, TX facilities to include a new 80,000 square foot facility at 12565 Riata Vista Circle in North Austin. The company also reportedly renewed its lease on existing properties in the area which house support personnel.
The efforts continue Apple's attempts to consolidate staff in more centralized, adequate facilities as it continues to expand. Last year, Apple announced plans to build a new 50-acre campus in Cupertino.
Biggest design overhaul since iOS 7 with Liquid Glass, plus new Apple Intelligence features and improvements to Messages, Phone, Safari, Shortcuts, and more. Developer beta available now ahead of public beta in July.
Biggest design overhaul since iOS 7 with Liquid Glass, plus new Apple Intelligence features and improvements to Messages, Phone, Safari, Shortcuts, and more. Developer beta available now ahead of public beta in July.
