Orange Romania, part of France’s mobile telephony operator Orange, on Wednesday said the new iPhone 3G handset, to be launched in Romania on August 22, will sell for prices ranging between EUR179 and EUR489, based on the type of model and subscription.
Orange is the only mobile telecom operator to sell the iPhone 3G terminal in Romania, following a deal France’s Orange signed with U.S. Apple Inc. in May to sell its iPhone in several European countries, including Romania.
Apart from Romania, Orange said it will sell the iPhone in Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Switzerland and its African markets later this year.
Apple launched the iPhone in the U.S. in June last year. The handset combines the features of a mobile phone, web browser and audio and video players.
Orange Romania is the top operator on the local mobile telephony market, with 10.01 million customers reported end June.
The company reported a 9% hike in its first half revenues to EUR628 million.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Orange Romania will sell iPhone 3G on 22 August
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Orange will bring iPhone 3G to Romania on August 22
Bucharest - August 6, 2008. Orange Romania today announced it will bring iPhone 3G to Romania on August 22. iPhone 3G combines all the revolutionary features of iPhone plus 3G networking that is twice as fast*, built-in GPS for expanded location-based mobile services, and iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs hundreds of third party applications available through the new App Store.
"We are excited to be the only network provider to offer iPhone 3G in Romania from August 22. With our 3G/HSDPA capabilities and widespread broadband coverage, Orange customers in Romania will be able to enjoy the full iPhone 3G experience,” said Richard Moat, CEO Orange Romania.
Orange customers are welcomed to attend the official launch of iPhone 3G at midnight on August 22. The doors of six Orange shops across the country will open simultaneously: Orange concept store in Bucharest and the Orange shops in Iasi (Anastasie Panu Blvd.), Cluj (21 Decembrie Blvd.), Brasov (Muresenilor St.), Timisoara (Republicii Blvd.) and Constanta (St. Stefan cel Mare).
Starting August 7, customers can register online their pre-order at www.orange.ro/iphone.
The combination of widespread EDGE, Wi-Fi, 3G and HSDPA networks mean customers can fully enjoy the mobile Internet almost wherever they go. In addition, Orange will offer a range of new tariffs plans and benefits for iPhone 3G customers. Details of pricing and availability will be announced soon.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
3G iPhone
The iPhone 3G will come with a 3.5-inch screen and have better battery life, with talk time of five hours, stand-by time of 300 hours, six hours of high-speed browsing time, 20 hours of audio and seven hours of video, Jobs said. Some who had previously bought iPhones complained about its battery life and that was a problem that Apple needed to solve with the new iPhone, Jobs said. While Jobs said the phone is "even thinner at the edges," it is just a hair thicker than its predecessor. The 3G iPhone is 0.48 inch, or 12.3 mm, thick, while the previous version is 0.46 inch, or 11.6 mm, deep. Quicker data downloads and lower prices are key to greater adoption of iPhones worldwide, Jobs said. Apple has cut the price by half to make the new iPhone more affordable for users, so that the 8GB model will sell for $199 (£101) and the 16GB model for $299. The company found that 56 percent of people surveyed wouldn't buy the earlier iPhone because they found it expensive. The phone will ship on 11 July in North America and will eventually be rolled out in 70 countries, including India, China, Singapore and Australia, Jobs said. iPhone and 3G iPhone will be available at Orange locations across Romania soon. More details here Here is a hands-on review of the new iPhone
Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone 3G to an appreciative audience during the opening keynote speech at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday.
The new iPhone, sporting a thinner and sleeker look, will support faster 3G (third-generation) broadband wireless networks and come with built-in GPS (Global Positioning System) capabilities, Jobs said. Support for 3G networks will enable the new iPhone to download data up to 2.8 times faster than the earlier model, Jobs said. Built-in GPS will make it easier for users to navigate roads.
Here are some videos with Steve Jobs at WWDC08 presenting the new iPhone:
Here is the ad for the new iPhone:
Monday, June 9, 2008
WWDC08
The groundbreaking innovations of Mac OS X Leopard and iPhone OS offer two revolutionary development platforms for developers and IT professionals. Immerse yourself with information-rich sessions where Apple engineers go in-depth on the innovative technologies that power the features of these sophisticated platforms. Bring your code to the Labs and work one-to-one with Apple engineers, applying development methods and best-practices you gain from sessions to enhance your application. Apple is likely to release its new 3G iPhone and announce a new software platform for the phone when CEO Steve Jobs takes the stage at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday. The new iPhone will feature GPS (Global Positioning System) services and a thinner form factor, according to Shaw Wu, an analyst at American Technology Research. The new iPhone will also have thinner casing and an improved virtual keyboard with like multi-touch technology, Wu wrote. Pricing for the 3G iPhone may be £25 to £50 cheaper than the current iPhone, Wu wrote.
From June 9 - 13, WWDC will host the best of the Apple developer universe — with attendees representing all corners of the globe. Take advantage of this unique opportunity to experience a community atmosphere filled with your industry peers.
Apple confirmed that its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), held 9-13 June 2008 in San Francisco, has sold out for the first time in the history of the event.
3G iPhone will be launched at WWDC08 after several months of secrecy.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
iPhone boosts data traffic in Germany
Speaking at Deutsche Telekom's AGM, the CEO, Rene Obermann, let slip that the iPhone had done wonders to T-Mobile Germany's data traffic. Obermann revealed that German iPhone customers use mobile internet services thirty times more than other cell phone subscribers, while one third of all T-Mobile iPhone customers have chosen the most expensive plan.
This level of success perhaps prompted T-Mobile's CEO, Hamid Akhavan, to state that the company expected to remain the sole seller of the handset in Germany. "We have a very good relationship with Apple... at least in Germany it is exclusive, and we expect it to remain as such," he said. 'If and when there is a 3G iPhone we expect to have it exclusively in Germany as well," he added.
While T-Mobile is reported to have sold over 100,000 iPhones since last November, Apple has recently started to make deals with more than one operator in all the major European countries, with the exception of Germany.
Source FierceWireless
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Orange brings iPhone in Romania this year
„We believe the Romanian market is offering a real potential for the adoption of the latest communication novelties, and Orange is the leader of this market with over 10 million customers. We are glad we will be able to offer this year the iPhone device to our customers”, stated Vanina Ungureanu, Product Division Manager at Orange Romania.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
iPhone in Asia
Singapore Telecoms announced that it has signed a deal with Apple to carry its iPhone on its networks in Singapore, India, Phillipines and Australia some time later this year. Singapore Telecoms owns SingTel, Bharti Airtel, Globe and Optus in each of the respective markets.
The telecom did not disclose other information about the deal.
iPhone stats
Avaible in:
USA (AT&T)
UK (Telefonica O2)
Ireland (Telefonica O2)
Germany (T-Mobile)
Austria (T-Mobile)
France (Orange)
Planned in:
Singapore (Singtel)
India (Bharti Airtel & Vodafone)
Philippines (Globe)
Australia (Optus & Vodafone)
Italy (TIM & Vodafone)
Czech Republic (Vodafone)
Egypt (Vodafone)
Greece (Vodafone)
Portugal (Vodafone)
New Zealand (Vodafone)
South Africa (Vodacom)
Turkey (Vodafone)
Canada (Rogers)
Latin America (unspecified but America Movil has the rights)
Thursday, March 13, 2008
100,000 Apple iPhone SDKs Downloaded So Far
Apple says that over 100,000 iPhone software development kits have been downloaded since March 6, not even a week ago. The announcement below is atypical of Apple: following the standard chest-puffing from execs such as worldwide marketing SVP Phil Schiller, you'll find exec quotes from Namco, NetSuite, PopCap, Rocket Mobile, Six Apart and THQ...
read more | digg story
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Apple iPhone SDK
Apple launched iPhone SDK. The iPhone Developer Program provides a complete and integrated process for developing, debugging, and distributing your free, commercial, or in-house applications for iPhone and iPod touch. Complete with development resources, real-world testing on iPhone, and distribution on the App Store, you have everything you need to go from code to customer.
To access the SDK you need to register. There are 2 versions of SDK: a free one and a professional one.
Though Apple states that the iPhone software development kit requires an “Intel processor-based Mac running Mac OS X Leopard,” developers have found that — with a little leg-work — the SDK also runs on PowerPC-based Macs.
By default, the iPhone SDK package available free from Apple’s site will run on a PowerPC-based Mac but omit the iPhone SDK-related files, installing only Xcode 3.1 beta and a series of other files. This routine is easily circumvented via the shareware tool Pacifist, which can be used to force an installation of the entire SDK package on PowerPC-based Macs.
The iPhone SDK includes a new version of Dashcode (v. 2.0 Beta) that allows creation of Web apps for the iPhone. When you click run, these Web apps launch in the Aspen Simulator. The tool also has support for bundling home icon images into the deployed Web app.
Preset styles include the standard sliding-style “Browser” interface. Code snippets include gauges, indicators, forward and back buttons, form elements and more.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Sun: We'll put Java on the iPhone
Sun is developing a Java Virtual Machine for Apple's iPhone enabling Java applications to run on the popular mobile device. The company plans to release the JVM some time after June.
The JVM is to be based on the Java Micro Edition (ME) version of Java, said Eric Klein, vice president of Java marketing at Sun. Apple had not shown interest in enabling Java to run on the iPhone, but Sun plans to step in and do the job itself.
"Now, the iPhone is open" as a target platform, Klein said. The free JVM would be made available via Apple's AppStore marketplace for third-party applications.
"We're going to make sure that the JVM offers the Java applications as much access to the native functionality of the iPhone as possible," he said.
Besides Java games, developers could bring over enterprise applications such as ERP or CRM to the iPhone, said Klein. Apple's iTouch, which features iPhone capabilities minus telephony, also will be supported by the JVM.
"Once our JVM is on the phone, we anticipate that a large number of Java applications would run on the phone," Klein said.
"We're going to work to make sure that the JVM offers the Java applications as much access to the native functionality of the iPhone as possible," said Klein.
By bringing the JVM to the iPhone, Java capabilities in area such as SSL security could be brought to Apple's platform, said analyst Chris Silva of Forrester Research.
"I think going forward, with the SDK, it takes out of Apple's control which applications are 'right' for the iPhone," Silva said.
Sun came to the conclusion it could make a JVM work on the iPhone after taking 24 hours to look at information on Apple's SDK. Sun saw nothing in the public statements preventing the JVM from being one of the applications enabled on the iPhone, said Klein. Apple released the SDK in conjunction with the beta release if its iPhone 2.0 software; the general release of iPhone 2.0 is scheduled for June.
Future plans could include extending more sophisticated Java Standard Edition (SE) and JavaFX technologies to the iPhone, Klein said.
"It's a new platform for us. We might be able to bring additional technologies onto the iPhone and the iTouch," Klein said.
Developers, Klein said, have built great applications, and until now they have been unable to get them running on the iPhone. Sun previously has expressed its desire that Java be supported on the iPhone.
See more on Sun.com
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Telekinesis: Free iPhone Remote
Telekinesis is an open-source application from Google, that will allow you to do just this. Install the software on your Mac, connect to it with your iPhone, and perform some or all of these functions:
- Stream music and videos from your computer
- Screen capture with mouse click and basic typing support
- Simple iTunes Remote control
- Browse your files
- Run applescript remotely
- iSight image capture
- Basic Spotlight search
- Easily create and add more applications
- Run iPhone Remote (Requires OS X 10.4)
- Choose a web login/password
- Open to https://
:5010 from your iPhone. If you want to access your computer from outside of your local network, you may need to configure your router or firewall to support it.
To control your computer with your iPod touch there is also UltraVNA.
You can find it here: UVNC
Watch these videos first:
Friday, February 8, 2008
Apple Takes Third of Global Mobile Market
In less than half a year, Apple, Inc. has become the world's number-three seller of smart mobile devices, as Apple's iPhone took off. But Apple's exclusive carrier arrangements for the iPhone show signs of strain with users unlocking Apple's iPhone. Analysts say Apple needs to work on its smartphone to catch up to the Blackberry and Nokia.
Apple bested Motorola to grab third place in global fourth-quarter sales of smart mobile devices, according to market researcher Canalys.
With 2.3 million iPhones sold in the quarter, Apple has a 6.5 percent global market share of smart devices, still substantially behind BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, with 4 million units sold and a 11.5 percent market share, and global leader Nokia with 18.8 million unit sales and a 53 percent market share. In the U.S., the iPhone accounted for 28 percent of the market, advancing on RIM with 41 percent and blowing past Palm with only 9 percent.
"When you consider that it launched part way through the year, with limited operator and country coverage, and essentially just one product, Apple has shown very clearly that it can make a difference and has sent a wake-up call to the market leaders," said Pete Cunningham, Canalys senior analyst.
iPhone vs Nokia
Meanwhile, Apple on Tuesday doubled the storage capacity of the iPhone to 16GB and the iPod Touch to 32GB. Apple originally offered 4GB and 8GB versions of the iPhone. The beefed-up devices come with software previewed at Macworld last month, which among other things allows them to identity the user's location.
Can Apple build on its success to seriously compete with Nokia for dominance of the smartphone space? To do so, it will have to expand its coverage and build out its product portfolio, Cunningham said. "A broad, continually refreshed portfolio is needed to retain and grow share in this dynamic market," he said.
Apple will be a strong contender for the crown over the next several years, said Tim Bajarin, principal analyst with Creative Strategies, in an e-mail. "While Nokia is a key player, Apple is clearly going down a path to challenge them and all the other players in the area of smartphones," he said.
In addition, the iPod Touch is "one of Apple's major strategic advantages over their competitors in the smartphone and MP3 music-player markets," Bajarin said. "I expect Apple to extend this multi-touch user interface to even more Apple-created products in the future."
Gray Market in Asia
Of concern is Apple's strategy of exclusive relationships with wirless carriers. "It will also need to ensure that the exclusive relationships that got it so far so quickly do not prove to be a limit on what it can achieve," Cunningham said.
Reports of a huge gap between iPhone sales and service subscriptions with AT&T, Apple's exclusive carrier in the U.S., have raised concerns that consumers are revolting against Apple's restraints. Apple reported selling 3.7 million iPhones, but AT&T said it had only received 2 million sign-ups. If a third of all iPhones were sold to consumers who unlocked them for use on other carriers, that would indicate a fundamental flaw in Apple's business model.
But Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray told The New York Times last week that his contacts had discovered that 40 percent of people buying iPhones at Apple Stores were buying more than one at a time. "The majority of the people who were buying more than one phone were Asian, and they were bringing small buses of people who all buy more than one phone," Munster said. He speculated that the phones are being sold in Asia, where it is much harder to purchase an iPhone, since Apple has yet to launch a carrier deal there.
"I don't know how many iPhones are really missing, but I do know many of them were bought with the intention of breaking them so they can be used on other carriers' networks, especially in Asia and Europe," Bajarin agreed. "But don't expect Apple to change their carrier-based revenue-sharing model any time soon. They will just make it harder to break the iPhone over time."
Apple Patches iPhone Security Vulnerability
Following news that Apple's latest firmware update for the iPhone breaks the "jailbreak" software that many users had installed to run third-party applications or use a carrier other than AT&T, nCircle's Andrew Storms said that, with the iPhone SDK on its way, it's best to take advantage of the security patch and sit tight for a few months.
Apple has pushed out its 1.1.2 firmware update for the iPhone and iPod touch, which fixes a bug in rendering TIFF images. The bug has been used by several groups to create software hacks for unlocking the phone and for "jailbreaking" the phone to run third-party applications. It also made the iPhone extremely vulnerable to malicious exploits.
Previous versions of Apple's firmware used a version of the libtiff library that was susceptible to buffer overflow attacks. "By enticing a user to view a maliciously crafted TIFF image, an attacker may cause an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution," Apple's update page explained.
While the upgrade fixes a serious security Relevant Products/Services hole, it also breaks the "jailbreak" software many users have installed to run third-party applications or use the phone with a different carrier.
But hackers have already come up with a way around the update. Users can run software called Oktoprep before upgrading to 1.1.2. An outfit called Conceited Software now offers a jailbreak program to keep the phone open for third-party apps.
Hacks Not Worth the Risk
To get the benefits of the 1.1.2 upgrade without losing functionality, users can install Oktoprep on a phone running the 1.1.1 firmware. Once installed, it's safe to upgrade to 1.1.2. But users who have unlocked their devices might wind up with an iBrick if they upgrade without installing the latest hacks.
Apple has announced that it will release a software development kit for the iPhone in February, but until then the company appears locked in a cat and mouse game with the unlockers.
"For the mass majority of consumers, there is no high value to gain in risking another iPhone brick," Andrew Storms, director of security operations for nCircle, said in an e-mail. "With the SDK on its way, it's best to upgrade, take advantage of the security patch, and sit tight for a few months."
Even with the TIFF bug fix, enterprises should remain wary of the iPhone, Storms said. "Until Apple puts forth centralized configuration, compliance, and auditing mechanisms for the iPhone, it will just be a great gadget that every executive wishes their I.T. security staff would endorse," he said.
Besides fixing the TIFF hole, the latest upgrade offers a few new features. They include support for more languages, a battery indicator in iTunes, and a custom option for ringtones.
China Mobile in Talks for iPhone
In other iPhone news, Apple is in preliminary negotiations with China Mobile to sell the iPhone in China, Wang Jianzhou, China Mobile's CEO, announced at an industry conference on Tuesday. "Our customers like this kind of fashionable product," he said.
Another China Mobile executive, Huang Haibo, told Agence France-Press, "Of course, we hope to bring the iPhone to China, but for the time being we're only in preliminary contact with Apple, and we have not made any concrete progress yet."
But Wang also said he finds the revenue-sharing model that Apple has won with carriers in the U.S. and Europe less than fashionable. "We still think we can maintain the operator-centric model because we have the customers, the end users," he said.
China Mobile is the world's largest carrier with 350 million subscribers, so it would be an excellent partner for Apple in China. But, as Wang said, that many subscribers also gives the company substantial bargaining power with Apple.
Apple is expected to launch the iPhone in Asia in 2008 and is in negotiations with several carriers across the region. Apple plans to launch its first Apple Store in China soon.
Apple Cuts iPhone, iPod Touch Production
Mac sales appear to be rising, but Craig Berger of FBR Research says Apple, Inc. has reduced orders for iPhones and iPods for the second time in two months. Apple's iPod Touch may have the weakest sales since it is less than an Apple iPhone. Another report finds that Apple iPhone calls are coming from countries without Apple contracts.
Are Apple sales in trouble? Two research analysts have reported in recent days that Apple is aggressively cutting back production on iPods and iPhones, while increasing production on Mac computers.
Craig Berger, an analyst with FBR Research, told clients in a research note this week that Apple has reduced orders for iPhones and iPods for the second time in two months. Berger concludes that Apple is experiencing weak sell-through in the fourth calendar quarter of 2007 or in the early going this year.
"For both iPods and iPhones, we believe Apple was previously targeting a roughly 50 percent quarter-over-quarter decline for first quarter units, whereas we now think the firm is targeting a 60 percent quarter-over-quarter unit decline for first-quarter units," he wrote.
iPod Touch Weakness
It seems that the iPod Touch may have seen the weakest sales. Berger reported production orders for the Touch have fallen the most. The device may suffer from being less than an iPhone, since it has no phone capabilities but is substantially more expensive than Apple's music-playing iPhones. The touch relies on Wi-Fi for connectivity, so users who aren't in range of a Wi-Fi connection simply can't get online.
Berger also said MacBook chip orders in the first quarter look to be down 50 percent compared with the fourth quarter of 2007. But iMac orders are up 35 percent compared with previous checks.
Apple just announced new, higher-capacity versions of both the iPhone and iPod Touch, so the production cutbacks may have been in preparation for the new models. Another possibility, more remote, is that Apple is scaling down production of the current iPhone in preparation for a 3G version. AT&T, Apple's exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the U.S., announced it is building out its 3G network to more locations around the country.
Mac Production Up
Meanwhile, Banc of America said its checks of Asian production facilities indicate that production is going up for Macs, down for iPods, and the iPhone situation is volatile.
For MacBooks and iMacs, production has moved up more than 20 percent so far this quarter, Banc of America said, which indicates Apple is replenishing inventory and seeing solid demand. Banc of America predicts continued growth through March.
But Banc of America agrees with FBR that iPod production has been cut some 10 percent to 20 percent since January and 30 percent since December. Where the firm had been predicting 5 percent year-over-year growth, it now looks like Apple will see as much as a 10 percent decline in iPod sales.
iPhone Usage Is Global
After severe production cuts in December and early January, production is now up for iPhones. Banc of America expressed concern that production and demand for the innovative phone remain lackluster.
Meanwhile, Net Applications released new numbers on its operating-system statistics, which revealed that Macs accounted for the largest percentage of Internet traffic ever -- 7.57 percent. iPhone-based traffic nudged up from 0.12 percent in December to 0.13 percent in January. More importantly, Net Applications' numbers show that iPhone traffic is coming from many more countries than have official wireless carriers for the phones, indicating substantial gray-market sales.
"We've heard the rumours that many iPhones are being used outside the officially sanctioned countries. So we decided to check it out and surprise, surprise, it's true. The iPhone has a presence in almost every country on Earth," Net Applications wrote in its report.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
iPhone is bad for health and environment
According to a Yahoo News report, a group of scientists working with Greenpeace International have performed a study, which concluded the presence of harmful materials in Apple's latest iPhone.
Titled "Missed call: the iPhone's Hazardous Chemicals", the findings of the report suggest that the device contains "toxic brominated compounds (indicating the presence of brominated flame retardants -- so-called BFRs) and hazardous PVC plastics." The chemicals are said to have a negative effect on sexual and reproductive health in mammals and are therefore banned from toys and other commonly used products in Europe.
"Two of the phthalate plasticisers found at high levels in the headphone cable are toxic to reproduction," said Dr. David Santillo, senior scientist at the Greenpeace Research Laboratories, adding that brominated compounds have also been found in half the samples, including the phone's antenna.
While environmentally perilous, non-degradable PVC plastics and BFRs have been confirmed in Apple's iPhone, cellular phones made by other electronics companies like Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson contain no such substances. There also appears to be no conflict of interests between Greenpeace International and Apple, since "thousands of consumers took part in Greenpeace's "Green My Apple" campaign" at the time when iPhone was first introduced to the market.
Macbook Air ends the war between Apple and Greenpeace
|
Only a few months ago the relationship between Greenpeace and Apple was a frosty one. The leading environmental watchdog even commissioned a study that slammed the faddish iPhone for its high count of harmful PVC and BFRs. But now the tune seems to be changing as Greenpeace washes away the bad blood with its positive reception of the eco-friendly MacBook Air laptop. According to Endgadget, here is what Greenpeace had to say about Apple's new notebook. "The MacBook Air is a strong entry in the race to build a green PC. As a mercury and arsenic free laptop it exceeds European Standards (RoHS directive exemptions) and raises the bar for the rest of the industry." |
How to control your computer with your iPhone
It's a phone, it's an iPod, it surfs the web, and it finds the closest restaurant serving fried calamari. If you hack it, you can install killer third-party applications. But in addition to all of that, the iPhone is also a killer remote control. You could spend hundreds of dollars on a multimedia remote with a touchscreen interface, glorious album art, and all of the fixings, but if you've already got an iPhone, you really don't need to. Today I'll show you a number of ways you can use the iPhone to remote control everything from iTunes playback to your Windows or Mac desktops.
Control iTunes Playback
Probably the most practical and generally useful application of the iPhone-as-remote, there are a handful of tools that let you remotely control iTunes playback with your iPhone available for both Windows and Mac PCs. The one thing they have in common: They all work inside the iPhone's Safari browser.
Remote Control iTunes with Signal (Windows/Mac)
Signal is a shareware Windows and Mac application. Not only is Signal the most attractive iTunes remote solution, but it's also the easiest to set up (with the exception of Telekinesis, which—although it's not as attractive or feature-rich—is extremely simple to set up). To get started, just point your browser to the Signal homepage and grab the free demo. Once installed, point your iPhone's browser (or any browser, for that matter) to http://yourlocalIPaddress:3569 to get started.
The demo isn't that crippled, especially considering you still get nearly as much and sometimes more functionality with the demo version as you do with the full versions of the other freeware solutions for iTunes remote control. When you're searching your library, it displays "Please Register to View" for every third item. That means you can get a good look at what the application can do and can decide whether or not you're interested in purchasing a license for a somewhat steep $29.95. I'm not sure it's worth all that, but it really is chock-full of impressive AJAX-y goodness and uses virtually the same interface as the iPod's Now Playing screen.
Remote Control iTunes with iPhone iTunes Remote (Mac):
If you prefer to go the open source route, iTunes iPhone Remote is a Mac application written in Python and AppleScript that runs a simple web server (like the rest). To install it, you need to install the AppleScript Python module from SourceForge and then download and extract the latest release (linked at the bottom of the page). Unzip the folder, then navigate to it in Terminal and type python run.py. Then just point your browser to http://yourlocalIPaddress:8000. From here you can navigate your library, play and pause music, and adjust the volume.
It's still a little barebones and not everything works perfectly (it's not as polished as Signal), but it works pretty well and it's free. Additionally, the developer says a new version is in the works to be released in about a month, so it could improve dramatically.
Remote Control iTunes with the PSP Remote App (Windows):
If you want to go open source for Windows, you can try something like this previously mentioned iTunes PSP remote control hack, which is just running a web server and optimizing the display for a small screen—which means it could be ideal for your iPhone. To use it, you'll first need to set up a personal web server (or install the server in the linked howto). Then, after copying the appropriate files to the appropriate directories, you'll point your iPhone browser to http://yourlocalIPaddress:81/iTunesRemote.php.
The problem with this one is that it's really not optimized for iPhone display, but it's also open source, meaning that if you want to roll up your sleeves and dive into the HTML template and CSS file, you could potentially get a pretty good layout worked out.
Remote Control iTunes, Launch Applications, Browse Your Files, Snag iSight Shots, and More with Telekinesis (Mac)
Aside from iTunes remote control capabilities (which are currently limited to play/pause, track seeking, and volume adjustments), the open source application Telekinesis can launch applications and files or serve them up to your iPhone—once again, though Safari.
After you install it, you can access Telekinesis at http://yourlocalIPaddress:5010. You'll see the launch page, from which you can browse and launch applications (apps will launch remotely on your computer), snap a shot with your iSight camera, browse and launch files from your documents folder (actually, you can easily browse to any folder on your hard drive and launch pretty much any document), and even serve files that your iPhone can handle—like images—directly to the phone.
Remote Control Your Desktop with VNSea
Last, if you've followed along with our instructions for installing third-party iPhone applications, you can use Installer.app to install a VNC client called VNSea. If you've set up a VNC server on your home computer, you should be able to use VNSea to connect to and control your home computer just like (or at least sort of like) you're sitting in front of it. Keep in mind, though, that VNSea is currently in very early stages of development, and it froze up on me a lot when I was testing it out. In a bit more time, though, it's sure to be an excellent remote desktop solution.
How to Install Third-Party Apps on Your New iPhone or iPod Touch
If a new iPhone or iPod touch found its way under your tree and you just can't wait until Apple officially supports third-party application development to extend its functionality (who can wait until February?), it's time you jailbreak your favorite new portable device. We've covered two methods for doing so already, but that feisty Apple keeps on changing things up, and the latest firmware (which all of you new owners are likely running) requires a bit more finesse before you gain access to the throng of great apps that have already been developed for the iPhone. So today we're jailbreaking that iPhone or iTouch of yours to open it up to the wonderful world of third-party software.
NOTE: I've only tested these instructions on my iPhone using a Mac, so I can't absolutely guarantee the same level of success on the iPod touch or Windows computers. However, the software was made to jailbreak either the iPod touch or the iPhone on either Windows or Macs, so it should work fine on either. That said, I'll be referring to the iPhone through the rest of these instructions. If you're looking to install apps without activating your iPhone with AT&T, our pals over at Gizmodo have covered that.
UPDATE: It seems that there have been mixed results for some users attempting to downgrade from the 1.1.2 firmware. The downgrade appears to be working for some, not for others. If you have trouble downgrading to 1.1.1, you can simply restore the current 1.1.2 firmware and everything should be back to normal, but unfortunately you won't be able to install any third-party apps. I'm very curious to hear what kind of luck others are having with this, so if you give it a try, let's hear your experience in the comments.
UPDATE 2: Since this article published, the 1.1.3 firmware has been released and jailbroken. Here's how it works.
Check Your Firmware Version
First thing's first: Dock your iPhone, open up iTunes, and find out what version of the iPhone firmware you're running by clicking on the Summary tab when your device is docked and seeing what it says after Software Version. If for some reason you're running one of the early 1.0 firmwares (1.0.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.2), we've already covered how to jailbreak those phones here. Instead, though, I'd recommend jailbreaking your phone using the following method, since you'll get new and improved features from the newer firmware. If you're currently running the 1.1.1 firmware, skip straight to the Jailbreak Your 1.1.1 iPhone or iPod touch section. Downgrade or Upgrade to the 1.1.1 Firmware
Whether you're running 1.1.2 (the latest firmware) or one of the early 1.0 versions, you want to install the 1.1.1 firmware on your iPhone if it's not the firmware you're currently running. The reason is that the 1.1.1 firmware features a one-click jailbreak through mobile Safari, which makes the process incredibly simple and is a necessary step in jailbreaking the latest 1.1.2 version. So how do you successfully downgrade/upgrade to 1.1.1 since it's not the latest firmware?
_Restore.ipsw, which it should by default. While it's downloading, go ahead and reboot your iPhone into recovery mode. To do so, plug in your iPhone, hold down the power and home buttons at the same time until your iPhone restarts (don't slide to power off), and then release the power button. Continue holding the home button until your device enters recovery mode (as indicated in the screenshot).
Since your firmware is probably still downloading, go ahead and download the 1.1.2 jailbreak files here and unzip the contents on your desktop.
When the firmware completes downloading (which—at a whopping 152 MB—can take a little time), make sure you know where you've saved it and fire up iTunes if it isn't already open. Again go to the same Summary tab where you found your current firmware version. This time, though, you're going to restore the firmware to the 1.1.1 version you just downloaded. To do this, Shift-Click the Restore button in Windows or Option-Click on a Mac and browse to where you saved the 1.1.1 firmware, select it, and restore. When the restore process completes, it will end with an error. Don't worry if this happens, as the jailbreak software is made to overcome the error.
Once you get to this point, close out of iTunes completely and then run either the windows.bat file if you're a Windows user or the jailbreak.jar user if you're on a Mac to get your phone past this error and booting into the 1.1.1 firmware. If you're running jailbreak.jar, all you need to do is click the Boot from Recovery button.
Jailbreak Your 1.1.1 iPhone or iPod touch
Now it's time to perform the first portion of the jailbreak with the 1.1.1 firmware, which—as I said above—is extremely easy. We've covered this in detail before, but here's a quick refresher:
Jailbreak and Upgrade to 1.1.2
At this point you could just rest comfortably in the knowledge that you're running nearly the latest firmware and it really doesn't have that many differences from the latest version, but if you want to take advantage of the latest ringtone improvements and you want to be sure you've got all the latest and greatest bug fixes and features available, you may want to upgrade to 1.1.2. I did, and here's how it works.
Now you just upgrade your iPhone the normal way—by connecting your device to iTunes and selecting Update from the Summary tab. iTunes will go through the long download and upgrade process and when it's done, you'll be updated to 1.1.2 but not jailbroken. To complete the jailbreak, close iTunes, make sure your device is connected, then head back to the 1.1.2-jailbreak Folder you downloaded earlier and re-run either windows.bat (if you're a Windows user) or jailbreak.jar (if you're on a Mac).
Follow the instructions each app offers, and when they finish, you should see Installer.app on your home screen and be completely updated to the latest firmware and jailbroken. That means it's time to start installing those apps!
My current favorites—for those of you new to third-party iPhone or iPod touch apps—include:
- iFlix, and incredible Netflix account management tool
- iMapIdle, an app that works in conjunction with IMAP email (including Gmail) to enable real-time, push-like email notification
- iPhoneHome, an app that lets you change the default double-click behavior for the home button
- Navizon, a pseudo-GPS locator that determines your location in Google Maps using cell towers your phone communicates with (iPhone only, obviously)
- Apollo, the native IM app
- MobileScrobbler, which uploads everything you play on your iPod to your Last.fm account
- WebSearch, a web search tool for quickly performing a search on any web site without going through the rigmarole of loading a site, finding the search box, and then entering your search terms
- HuaRongDao and iSolitaire, a couple of really nice looking and addictive games for your device.
Finally, if you're looking for more to do with your iPhone, here's how you can:
- Use Your iPhone's Internet Connection On Your Laptop
- Stream Music from Your iPod touch or iPhone to Any iTunes Library
- Set Up Gmail with IMAP
- Remote Control Your Computer with Your iPhone
