All Things iPhone

The carrier has paid Apple 10 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) for 5 million iPhones, according to International Business Times. An 8GB model of the iPhone is estimated to sell for 2,400 yuan ($350), and a 16GB may be sold at 4,800 yuan ($700), said Yu Zaonan, general manager of the customer development department of China Unicom, in an interview with IBT. The report says China’s iPhones would work with the WCDMA-standard for 3G connectivity.

The report does not clarify whether Unicom would be selling the new iPhone 3GS, or if these are the previous 3G models. However, it’s likely the 8GB model is an iPhone 3G, since there is no 8GB iPhone 3GS.

Shortly after IBT published its report, China Unicom attempted to refute it by claiming IBT’s sources never commented on the iPhone. However, IBT said it had voice records of the interviews.

“The app is pretty much done – we’re just working on translating it into a bunch of languages,” Facebook developer Joe Hewitt wrote tonight on Twitter.

That means that shortly, we’ll have access to the much-improved app which is scheduled to have features such as a News Feed that is more like the one on Facebook’s site, the ability to “like” items and a new customizable home screen. More importantly, it will also have video support for the iPhone 3GS, something which Hewitt threw-in at the last second, unexpectedly. And perhaps best of all, the app will have the ability to manage events, finally.

[via Washington Post]

KTF has confirmed that the iPhone 3G S will indeed be coming to Korea although cutting short of revealing its exact release date and price. Word is that SK Telecom is also negotiating a deal with Apple to get the iPhone on their side as well, but this is yet to be verified and confirmed. Nonetheless, Koreans can rest easy now knowing that the iPhone 3G S will surely be available in their country soon via KTF.

[via PMP Today]

8GB 3GS Coming Soon?

According to a photo at the Boy Genius Report, a service provider in Canada called Rogers has launched the iPhone 3GS in 8GB form. From the looks of things, this appears to be very, very legit and also very, very feasible given the lifespan of the iPhone 3G.

Rogers also goes on to state that they will be reducing their 3G inventory which means that it will eventually be phased out in favor of the 3GS 8GB. Of course there is absolutely no pricing listed in the internal memo which is frustrating to say the least.

[via Examiner]

Google Voice Mobile is now available for free. It used to cost $2.99 on the App Store, the only problem is where and how to install Google Voice Mobile when it is no longer available on the App Store.

The solution? In order to grab GV Mobile, launch Cydia on your jailbroken iPhone and search for GV Mobile. Yes, you need to jail break your iPhone.

Update – Neal from the comments pointed this out:

You can use Google Voice without Jailbreaking – http://www.intoyourheadpodcast.com/blogpressexperiment/?p=478

[via Gecko And Fly]

A file in the latest iPhone OS 3.1 beta refers once again to an unknown product with a new model number, fueling speculation that Apple has a new touchscreen device based on its mobile operating system coming soon.

The reference to a device called “iProd 0,1″ was first discovered in March in the iPhone 3.0 OS beta firmware. The latest beta update also includes a reference to iProd, but this time the USBConfiguration.plist file gives the product the “1,1″ distinction — something Apple typically uses to refer to its first-generation products.

The information, revealed to ArsTechnica by a developer, has led to speculation that a new, unannounced piece of hardware running the iPhone OS could be nearing launch.

The reference to iProd 1,1 has a product ID of 4762, while the original iProd 0,1 was model 4757. The new model also has references to Ethernet configurations, leading the report to suspect the supposed new device could have “gained high-speed networking capabilities” since the 0,1 hardware incarnation.

“What we are willing to bet on is that with a 1,1 moniker the product will see public release soon—perhaps as early as September, when Apple typically unveils new iPods,” the report concludes.

When the original reference to iProd 0,1 was discovered, it was alongside a call to an iPhone 3,1 — a device that turned out to be the new iPhone 3GS. They were discovered alongside iPod 2,2 and iPod 3,1.

Apple always uses the first number in these device identifiers to refer to major revisions, the naming schemes allude to a second major reworking of the iPhone in testing at Apple as well as a minor revision of the current iPod touch and a third-generation overhaul. The original iPhone is seen as iPhone 1,1, while the iPhone 3G appears as iPhone 1,2 — a minor upgrade to an existing design. The first- and second-generation iPod touch show as 1,1 and 2,1 respectively.

[via Apple Insider]

Square

Plugging into the headphone jack of either an iPhone or iPod Touch, the dongle takes a swipe of your card, the seller enters the purchase data and you do your best penless John Hancock on the touchscreen. After that, a receipt is delivered by email and the app retains geotagging data for each transaction. Spiffy, right? Well, there is a surcharge to pay, and it’s still in early alpha testing in New York, but should it prove popular.

[via Engadget]

Apple PR has just announced that Dr. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google and member of the Apple board of directors since August 2006, is resigning that position.

“Eric has been an excellent Board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s Board.”

This comes on the heels of Schmidt announcing he would “talk with Apple people”, and on the controversial rejection of Google Voice and Google Latitude applications from the App Store, both now constrained to WebApp status on the iPhone and iPod touch.

[via The iPhone Blog]

Microsoft’s top devices exec says the upcoming Windows Mobile 6.5 OS will provide a better web browsing experience than iPhone.

The new version of Microsoft’s mobile operating system is due to launch this Autumn, and is likely to co-incide with a rebranding to Windows Phone.

“You will have a very rich browsing experience on 6.5 devices that will give you access to more websites than you will be able to get to on an iPhone that will work actively and work well,” says Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division.

“It really is a much better experience.” He was speaking at Microsoft’s annual financial analyst meeting late last week.

[via Mobile Ent]

Redmond has put together a case study on porting an iPhone App to Windows and are showing it off to other application developers in the hopes of attracting the legions of programmers who have flocked to the iPhone and its development environment.

The application in question is called Amplitude (iTunes link) and is described as:

Amplitude is a fun application that enables users to amplify sound from their surroundings. With real-time graphical representation of sound picked up by the microphone, Amplitude users can adjust the volume/gain on their microphones to amplify sounds, such as animal heartbeats, environmental sounds, distant bird calls, tiny sounds from mechanical devices, and a host of other sounds that might otherwise go unnoticed.

So this App takes sound in from the mic port and puts it though to the headphones with an equalizer.  We’re not professional programmers but that doesn’t sound like rocket science, more like something that would take a professional programmer a few hours to build from scratch.  Porting using this complex process would probably take longer…and since it is so simple (and doesn’t use advanced OpenGL graphics) it sounds like a bad example to follow on more complex apps.

[via 9To5 Mac]