Unofficial iPhone Blog

So you’re sticking with your 2G iPhone, eh? Well now there’s no reason to miss out on GPS, just because you’re smitten with its aluminium shell. The iGPS360 add-on dongle just went on sale.

Designed to plug into a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch, it’ll cost you $75 (£43), but will add satnav skills to Apple’s original handset.

Manufacturers Orange Gadgets says it’ll only be making a thousand units to begin with, so if you’re keen to get navigating on your old iPhone 2G, get ordering sharpish!

Stability, performance have improved thanks to updates

When the App Store opened its virtual doors in July, Tetris was one of EA Mobile’s first iPhone-geared efforts—and it showed. My review of Tetris suggested that iPhone users should probably take a pass on the iPhone version of the classic puzzle game.

In the ensuing three months, we’ve seen some updates to both the game itself as well as the iPhone software. And now that I’ve had the chance to try Tetris again under these newly optimal circumstances, I’m happy to report a very different experience with the game.

First off, the game will cost you less if you held off on buying it. Tetris now sells for $8, down $2 from the $10 price tag of the game I reviewed in July. At $8, it’s still no bargain, but EA has adjusted the price to reflect the going rate for other “premium” games from major publishers at the App Store. I’d still like to see the price drop a bit—perhaps to $5, which is what Tetris for color-screen iPods costs.

The App Store lists the current version number as 1.0.86, meaning EA Mobile hasn’t messed with Tetris too much. By their own admission however, the company has improved game stability and sound quality, among other things.

That claim was definitely borne out by my tests. I originally said that Tetris was “one of my most trouble-prone iPhone gaming experiences.” I admit (and said at the time) that Apple’s iPhone 2.0 software update was plagued with similar problems, but Tetris was more prone to exhibiting those problems than other apps I downloaded, and it looks like I was right: EA Mobile updated the app to fix that problem. Sound cut out on me when I originally looked at the game, but that doesn’t appear to be an issue anymore: sound effects and music were just fine in this release.

EA Mobile’s Web site for support remains a bit of a mess. You have to register to ask a question, unless one of the canned FAQss posted to the site. But I’m happy to see the company update it site to take the iPhone into account—it wasn’t that way when I first checked back in July.

Tetris is compatible with any iPhone or iPod touch running the iPhone 2.x software update.

It allows supporters stay connected, get campaign updates

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s campaign team has released an application (iTunes required to download) specifically for iPhone users to help supporters of the candidate connect with others and get involved, stay up to date on breaking issues and track local campaign events.

The free application — available for download through the App Store — is compatible with the iPhone and iPod Touch. It will organize a user’s contacts by key battleground states and offers statistics to measure how a person is doing in terms of calling friends in those states.

Obama ‘08 also provides users with information about the campaign via text messages and e-mail, offers coverage of national and local campaign news, details local events, shares the information by e-mail, and delivers maps and directions to events. The app can also be used to browse videos and photos from the campaign.

Presidential election season is always contentious, but increasingly tech-savvy pundits, campaigners and others have turned to new ways to get political news out. Blogs have played a role for years, but with the advent of the App Store, more developers have turned to the iPhone as a way of energizing the voter base.

The Obama campaign is wading into areas not yet plumbed by the campaign of Republican Sen. John McCain, it seems. Although a Web app — John McCain campaign news — is available, there’s no similar McCain-centric app available for the iPhone. But there are plenty of politically oriented applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch available for download from the App Store.

Campaign, for example, provides a customized news feed from various sources specifically related to Democratic and Republican news coverage. Congress+ provides users with a detailed list of U.S. Congress members, including contact information, biographical data, campaign and opponent information, and more. Elections lets users browse and assess information not only about the presidential candidates, but those running for Congress, state legislatures and gubernatorial seats. ElectionMap lets users view current trends and poll predictions, while Days to Election Day details how soon voters can cast ballots. And Poll Tracker uses data from Pollster.com to track McCain’s and Obama’s polling numbers.

Those App Store applications can be downloaded directly through a person’s iPhone or through iTunes.

Atari has released two new iPhone games that might, with legal aid, displace some imitators. Missile Command and Super Breakout are two popular classics, now available for sale in the iTunes App Store for $4.99 each. According to Atari’s blurb in the iTunes App Store descriptions, these games are “true evolutions of the original hits. ” Read more… »

Have you heard this story?

One day, Bill Gates was standing on a street corner, watching the clouds roll by. Absentmindedly, he dropped a US$1,000 bill out of his pocket. A bystander noticed and said, “Are you going to pick that up?”

“No, why would I do that?” Gates responded gruffly, and walked away.

OK, fact or fiction?

While my version adds a little color, it’s still just a fable.

You can mix and match the details, but the essence of the myth — which I’ll define as anything grossly inaccurate yet widely regarded as true — is still there.

It’s part fantasy, part fabrication, but wholly inaccurate.

Tech myths come in all shapes and sizes: Some contain a morsel of truth, but many of them are so wildly preposterous that it’s hard to imagine anyone taking them seriously.

“A myth generally exists to explain the worldview of a group of people,” says Rob Enderle, a consumer analyst. “This means its intent is to convey an idea but not necessarily the whole truth, and given it’s conveyed largely from person to person, the initial story can change a great deal.”

At the risk of perpetuating Internet-sized myths even more, here are some of the most famous examples of myths, along with some debunking and comments from those in the know.

Bill Gates dropped a $1,000 bill and didn’t bother to pick it up

There’s really no factual evidence for this one. If it happened, there’s no way to prove it. Given the fact that the U.S. Treasury stopped producing $1,000 bills during World War II and stopped distributing them in 1969, it seems very unlikely Gates would carry one around. Yet, this and many other myths about Bill Gates — many of them related to e-mail scams — seem to become memes faster than other mean-spirited tech gossip.

Apparently, Gates is just an easy target who represents how an average guy (albeit one who is obviously very intelligent) can attain fame and fortune in the tech industry. Those who perpetuate the rumors are probably a little jealous. For its part, Microsoft told me that, officially, it doesn’t comment on Bill Gates’ personal life.

Another Gates myth is that he said “640k ought to be enough for anybody” when talking about an IBM PC’s memory in 1981.

The iPhone 3G has a kill switch that Apple can use to disable the device……….read more

There she is. Sitting there at the bar. Time to make your move. But what do you say? You start to get a little nervous. Then you remember. “Oh yeah. I have a new iphone. And some oh so witty pick up lines.” You relax. You walk up to her casually and say:

I’m no Fred Flintstone, but I can make your bed rock. Plus I have an iphone!

If I could rearrange the alphabet, I’d put u and iphone together.

Hey baby. iphone you tomorrow?

Hi. My friend over there bet you wouldn’t let me google you on our first date. So what do you say? I’ll buy you a drink. You can even google me back. My iphone battery is big and strong and fully charged up, so we could google all night.

Did you know my iphone is also a remote control? Let’s go somewhere remote and you can have control.

Hi there angel. Did it hurt when you fell from heav- oh, sorry, I’m getting a call on my new iphone…. Oh, it was Saint Peter. He said have a great time on your trip to Earth, and don’t worry about being good- they won’t keep score up there while you are on leave.

I AM happy to see you but that’s just an ipod in my pocket.

Hi there. Wanna use your fingers to enlarge my pixel size?

Is your dad a thief? Because if he is, I’ll keep my new ipod hidden when you introduce him to me next Saturday.

I think I need to call Heaven- on my new iphone- because they lost one of their angels.

I forgot my phone number. Can I have yours? I’ll store it in my new iphone.

Excuse me- I’m new in town. Could you give me directions to your place? Let me just open up Google maps in my iphone.

How much does my new iphone weigh? Enough to break the ice. Can I enter in your phone number?

You know, inheriting 50 million dollars doesn’t mean much when you have a weak heart, even if you have a four houses, two islands and a brand new iphone like this one.

Excuse me, did you just call me on my iphone? Then I guess it wasn’t my phone that was vibrating in my pocket.

Source: InnocentEnglish