MacRumors

Forum user villanova329 posted a large collection of unboxing photos as well as a brief review of the Apple Bluetooth Headset which has just started shipping.

villanova329's first impressions are as follows:

QUICK REVIEW

- I re-did my voicemail using the earpiece, and the playback quality was great
- The foam earbud covers are back, the set comes with two
- It uses the standard "0000" code to pair
- Volume is controlled via the iPhone or handset used
- First call made: Friend told me he did not know I was using an earpiece, did hear some background, but said it sound just like how I usually sound without using an earpiece
- I shook my head from side to side (almost felt like passing out), and it stayed put. It moved around but it still stayed in my ear. To further test it, I did one set of skipping a rope (my favorite cardio workout) while wearing it, and it stayed in my ear. So far, impressed with the fit, but this thing is too light, I might forget I even have it on.
- The fit feels just like the stock headphones, and a little smoother than the old generation iPod headphones
- The magsafe feature is not as strong as you would expect from the MacBook/MBP kind. Rather you just feel a tiny pull but its not strong enough to yank it from your hand like the original magsafe
- I'm wishing Apple would have included an optional earloop to add more security to your ear, but hey we can't have everything we want.
- This thing is tiny
- I love now having 3 charging methods for my iPhone: standard cable, travel cable, and now iPhone/earpiece dock
- I have a pretty chubby face, and that is an obstacle for a lot of earpieces I've tried because it increases the distance. This earpiece catches my voice despite the distance from my mouth and the earpiece
- I did not have to raise my voice to be heard
- When receiving a call, the ringtone inside the earpiece is just some funky digital sound ring, like your typical bluetooth earpiece ringtone, nothing fancy

COMPARED TO THE JAWBONE

- Feels much lighter, almost to the point you'll forget its there
- What I hear sounds pretty much the same
- Of course, Jawbone has noise cancelling feature, this does not
- Made two calls, so far my friends can't even tell I'm on an earpiece; sounds just like I'm just using the handset
- Apple one cost $10 more
- Jawbone automatically sets volume, but you can also change it through the handset. With Apple earpiece, no mix up... all volume is controlled through the handset/iPhone

Apple has posted some information and tips about optimizing the battery life on your iPhone.

Paying attention to just a few commonsense pointers will pay off with a longer battery lifespan and battery life for your iPhone. The most important thing is to keep your iPhone out of the sun or a hot car (even the glove box). Heat will degrade your batterys performance the most.

Apple indicates that their engineers are finding new ways to optimize your battery, so make sure you have the latest software updates. Other common sense tips include

- Use Phone regularly. Go through at least one "charge cycle" per month.
- Lock/Sleep your phone when not in use
- Turn off Wifi to save power
- Turn off Bluetooth to save power
- Turning on Auto-Brightness
- Turn off the Equalizer (iPod setting) if you don't use it

Following the original 23 Step Ringtone installation tutorial, are a couple of applications which claim to provide a friendly interface to accomplish the same task.

Please remember that all these iPhone software modifications have some risk of turning your iPhone into a $600 paperweight, so proceed at your own risk -- but early reports have shown success.

For Windows users, Efksoft has released an application called iPhoneRingToneMaker which is a $9.95 application that allows you to create ringtones from MP3 files and transfer them to your iPhone. It requires Windows 2000, XP or Vista. A trial version is available, and according to some reports it seems to work.

A free Mac application called iFuntastic (via MyiTablet) also claims to provide a step by step interface but early reports appear some mixed results. The requirements are an Intel Mac.

After his iPhone's metal trim became scratched, forum user MeekB2G gave his iPhone's trim a brushed metal look with a scotch brite sponge and some electrical tape (how to).

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!

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.

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.

It's just calming, I suppose.

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.