MacRumors iPhone and iPad Blog: Apps, News, and Rumors

AT&T today announced that it has dropped prices on its stocks of refurbished iPhone 3G models while supplies last. Pricing is now set at $49 for 8 GB models and $99 for 16 GB models in both black and white. New pricing available in AT&T stores for iPhone 3G refurb devices! $49 for 8GB, available in black, and $99 for 16GB, available in black and white. Available in our stores while supplies last. ...

GPSTracklog reports that TomTom has released a brief statement noting that the GPS car kit for the iPhone will be priced at $119.95 in the U.S. when it launches next month and will be compatible with all iPhone models. The press release reportedly reads: TomTom announces today that the TomTom car kit for the iPhone will have a recommended retail price of EUR 99.99 or USD 119.95. The TomTom car ...

Mobile ad firm AdMob today released a bit of data that provides an interesting glimpse into operating system versions being used on the iPhone and iPod touch. According to a survey of ad requests received during the week of September 15th-22nd, just after Apple's release of iPhone OS 3.1, 23% of aggregate users of the iPhone OS had already updated to iPhone OS 3.1. An additional 51% of users...

NewsGator, the developer of social networking and widget services for businesses and consumers, now has an updated version of its iPhone RSS app, NetNewsWire, available in the App Store today. Additionally, a beta version of its desktop RSS reader for the Mac is also currently available. These latest versions of its widely-used RSS reader applications now sync with Google Reader instead of...

Two Starbucks apps made an entrance into the App Store early this morning, one - myStarbucks - offering store location capabilities and menu browsing while the other, the Starbucks Mobile Card app, provides a variety of features to manage and reload Starbucks cards as well as a unique payment system that's being piloted in a handful of stores. The myStarbucks app takes advantage of the...

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has received governmental approval to sell the iPhone in South Korea. The move appears to mark a substantial opening of one of the most closed mobile phone markets in the world. The commission's action comes after months of consumer pressure. For much of this year, the commission's reason for blocking the iPhone was that its built-in mapping capabilities ...

Unwired View reports on news from China Business Times [Google translation] that China Unicom is internally targeting a launch date of October 15th for the iPhone. Pricing will reportedly be set at 1,999 yuan (US$293) for the 8 GB model and 2,999 yuan (US$439) for the 16 GB model. Both models will require two-year contracts with pricing beginning at 186 yuan (US$27) per month. We still don't...

Several AT&T iPhone users have reported today receiving text messages from the wireless carrier informing them that the company's View My Message workaround for receiving multimedia messages will be deactivated as accounts are prepared for MMS activation on September 25th. AT&T Free Msg: Picture & video messaging (MMS) will be available for iPhone on 9/25. While we prepare your account for MMS...

Apple today released three new iPhone commercials, airing them on U.S. prime time television and posting them to the company's iPhone ad gallery. The ads mark a departure from the company's recent theme of highlighting three App Store applications per commercial and instead feature six applications per ad. All three commercials also mention that there are now 75,000 applications available in...

In a Q&A with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Reuters reveals that the company does not have any "short term" plans to bring video viewing and/or streaming to the iPhone and iPod touch. Netflix is instead continuing to focus its efforts on its core TV-based business and consumer electronics such as Blu-ray players and video game systems associated with that medium. Reuters: Any plans to work in...

AppShopper notes that Apple approved nearly 1400 iPhone and iPod touch applications last Friday, by far the largest number approved in a single day in the past few months. Over 300 of the approved applications were games, creating a host of new selections for consumers to choose from and continuing to feed Apple's emphasis on gaming for its mobile devices. At the end of last week we saw a...

The Register

The Wall Street Journal today announced that it will begin charging for mobile access to its news content as of October 24th. While mobile applications such as the WSJ's iPhone application [App Store] will remain free of charge and will offer free access to selected content, full access will require a weekly subscription fee. Beginning Oct. 24, the WSJ Mobile Reader application, currently...

CNET reports that GPS firm Navigon will be releasing a new feature for its MobileNavigator North America [App Store, $89.99] iPhone application that will add live traffic data to assist users in plotting routes. The add-on will be available beginning next month as a one-time $24.99 in-app purchase, although it will be discounted to $19.99 for the first four weeks of availability. According to...

The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou has confirmed that the company is still involved in talks with Apple to bring the iPhone to the carrier's network. The iPhone would have to be modified in order to operate on China Mobile's proprietary 3G network, or would be relegated to the company's slower 2G network. A stumbling block, however,...

Gioga23 notes [Google translation] that the iPhone 3G and iPod touch, despite not having built-in video cameras, are able to utilizing the iPhone 3GS video trimming feature when running iPhone OS 3.1. E-mailed videos can be saved to the user's Photos application, where they can then be opened, trimmed, and saved as edited copies. While the feature's utility is somewhat limited due to the...

Last week, some questions were raised about apparent inconsistencies in the way that Safari on the iPhone and iPod touch was employing a new anti-phishing feature added in iPhone OS 3.1. The Loop spoke with Apple about the issue, and learned that the anti-phishing database is updated on a user's iPhone via the charging/syncing process in order to preserve battery performance and prevent hidden ...

An alleged photo of Ballmer taken with the borrowed iPhone, courtesy of Engadget Techflash reports that Steve Ballmer playfully took an iPhone from an employee at a company meeting in Seattle yesterday and then pretended to destroy it: As the story goes, it happened when Ballmer was making his big entrance -- slapping hands, running around, and generally whooping things up, as is his tradition ...