Quote :

"do i go for incase clear or the belkin clear??"

^ I'm debating the same thing between the incase and Belkin.

Anyone have experience with these cases and what is the best one?

[Edited on July 23, 2010 at 9:54 AM. Reason : .]

7/23/2010 9:53:28 AM

I got a belkin case at bestbuy and immediatly returned it because it was really really hard to press any of the buttons. I consider my hands to be pretty strong but this was just ridiculous. Why I like to test out the cases before I buy them.

7/23/2010 9:55:11 AM

That settles it...going incase. I guess the bumper is a choice as well, do those seem like they will protect very well against drops?

7/23/2010 10:12:46 AM

Still waiting on my case:

http://www.ivyskin.com/iphone-4-case/iphone-4-reception-case.html

Think it finally shipped this week.

7/23/2010 10:17:35 AM

lol

what a solution to a fundamental design flaw

gotta love Apple's arrogance

7/23/2010 10:20:49 AM

haha yeah i love how it's called the reception case.

7/23/2010 10:27:45 AM

thoroughly enjoy my outterbox

7/23/2010 10:28:19 AM

i have 2 incase (the feather ones) cases for my 3gs and i love them. they're super duper thin and much more durable and look better made than other ones kinda like it. i'm not too impressed w/ the belkin stuffs. incipio ones are nice too

7/23/2010 11:57:20 AM

I'm gonna get this for mine,

http://www.gelaskins.com/store/skins/phones/iPhone_4/Skynet

Turns it white and supposedly fixes the antenna issue since it covers the sides as well!

7/23/2010 12:10:19 PM

but it says skynet on the back?

7/23/2010 2:41:49 PM

Yeah well, maybe the font will make people think it's a droid

7/23/2010 3:19:25 PM

So I'm crazy-late to the party, but I'm ready for the Dev-Team to release their latest tools so I can hacktivate / jailbreak / unlock my iPhone real quick. Living in Hungary on a Vodaphone Nokia is driving me nuts.

7/23/2010 3:42:10 PM

http://appsfire.com

7/23/2010 4:40:27 PM

Picking mine up from the store in Ala Moana Shopping Center (Oahu) today!

7/25/2010 1:32:51 PM

This is what it looks like when my family goes on vacation.

7/25/2010 5:14:19 PM

^ Cool story bro

7/25/2010 8:03:29 PM

I am wondering what are the pro's and con's of jail breaking my 3GS Iphone. I've had it a little over a year and about to go to work in Iraq again. I've heard my phone will work with another Sims card over there if i jail break it. Thanks for your input.

7/26/2010 12:47:30 AM

Quote :

"lol what a solution to a fundamental design flaw gotta love Apple's arrogance"

did anyone watch Jobs' conference? Every smart phone has this problem. Apple is just making it visible. I have friends with the Evo4G on sprint, blackberrys on verizon, the htc whatever on verizon. All of them have this issue. Apple just gets hit hard bc they are the antagonist in the digital world.

7/26/2010 8:28:15 AM

Um...no, not every smartphone has this problem. I've never lost a call because I touched my Droid the wrong way.

7/26/2010 8:38:42 AM

^^ it is gospel because Steve Jobs says so right? I mean did you consider the source? Of course he is going to say that and there was a big backlash by other companies for him saying that.

I'm not an apple hater or anything (my ipod goes with me everywhere), but apple's continual response of "it happens to every phone" is just stupid.

7/26/2010 8:49:31 AM

^^^Drink it down.

[Edited on July 26, 2010 at 9:18 AM. Reason : .]

7/26/2010 9:17:56 AM

isn't the issue that the iphone 4's dead spot is in a prominent place? It seems like the only time you have dropped call issues with other phones is when you hold it in a weird way (as opposed to simply left or right handed)

7/26/2010 9:24:27 AM

^ yeah, gorilla gripping any phone will cause signal degradation/attenuation.

The problem with the iphone 4 is that the antennas are external, and the points of separation are where one would normally hold it, creating a circuit between the antennas, and severely degrading signal.

there are myriad ways that apple could have addressed this in design, manufacturing, or even after the fact. The free case is a nice thing to do, but just a workaround. you shouldn't _have_ to have a case just to use your phone normally.

7/26/2010 9:32:05 AM

^what bobby said.

7/26/2010 9:39:47 AM

Quote :

"Living in Hungary on a Vodaphone Nokia is driving me nuts."

on the other hand, you live in budapest, you lucky bastard

if i could live there i'd be so happy that i'd be fine with a motorola startac

in iphone news, i got this lenntek case for the iphone 4 and am happy with it. the material feels kind of like the top case of a t-series thinkpad, only maybe a little more slick.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?prodid=11543788&whse=bc&topnav=&cat=21240&hierPath=79*87116*21240*&lang=en-US

[Edited on July 26, 2010 at 9:42 PM. Reason : -]

7/26/2010 9:38:22 PM

Any recommendations on pay-as-you-go service for Canada? I used Aerobile's site to get an AT&T sim card (but using it with AirVoice; at the time, AT&T refused to activate the sim card since they knew from my IMEI that I had an iPhone) when I visited the U.S. with my new iPhone back in January (sue me, they had just recently arrived in Korea).

Will be popping up to Canada, and thinking about getting a Fido sim and seeing about their service. Anyone have some ideas?

(btw I am reminded I need to call AirVoice to see why I'm not able to send txt messages. )

[Edited on July 27, 2010 at 12:07 AM. Reason : typography]

7/27/2010 12:04:49 AM

Quote :

"`Jailbreaking' of IPhones to Add Apps Backed by U.S. By Todd Shields and Adam Satariano - Jul 26, 2010 Owners of Apple Inc.’s iPhone can unlock the device to use applications not authorized by the company, the U.S. Library of Congress said. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington added the practice, described in the ruling as “jailbreaking,” to a list of actions that don’t violate copyright protections. The decision affecting iPhones and other smartphones was posted today on the agency’s website. The library acted as part of a periodic review by its copyright office, called for under a 1998 law, into whether legal uses of technology were being blocked. The ruling was a victory for Apple critics led by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based privacy-rights group that petitioned the library. “Now people can go ahead and fix their phones and jailbreak them so they can run all sorts of different applications,” Corynne McSherry, the group’s senior staff attorney, said in an interview. “They can make full use of the phone they bought without some kind of legal liability hanging over their head.” Apple has sold almost 60 million iPhones since its 2007 debut. The company’s App Store has more than 225,000 applications available for download. The process for inclusion in the App Store has drawn criticism from some developers whose material was rejected by the company. The company based in Cupertino, California, says it typically withholds approval of applications because they have technical bugs or contain material such as pornography that the company considers inappropriate. ‘Great Experience’ “Apple’s goal has always been to ensure that our customers have a great experience with their iPhone and we know that jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience,” Natalie Harrison, an Apple spokeswoman, said today in an interview. “As we’ve said before, the vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones as this can violate the warranty and can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably.” The Library of Congress also said in the filing posted today that people don’t violate the law when they circumvent copy protection on DVDs and extract short excerpts to create new, noncommercial works. The decision “unnecessarily blurs the bright line established” in copyright law against circumventing technical protection measures, said Elizabeth Kaltman, a vice president with the Motion Picture Association of America, in an e-mailed statement. The Washington-based organization represents film studios. ‘Means Nothing’ The ruling affecting iPhones “absolutely means nothing as a practical business matter” in part because it doesn’t require any action by handset makers such as Apple, Motorola Inc. and Nokia Corp., Daniel Ernst, an analyst at Hudson Square Research in New York who doesn’t own Apple shares, said in an interview. The Library of Congress findings don’t affect AT&T Inc., the iPhone’s U.S. carrier, Ernst said. Apple can update the iPhone’s systems to make it harder for unauthorized applications to work on the device, Ernst said. Apple may also use other laws to keep iPhones from being modified, said Jason Schultz, co-director of the Samuelson Law Technology and Public Policy Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley. “Having the copyright office side with the jailbreakers doesn’t look good in court for Apple,” Schultz said in an interview. “They will have to explain why the copyright office is wrong.” Making Margaritas Jonathan Handel, an attorney for TroyGould in Los Angeles specializing in entertainment and technology, said the decision could open Apple to lawsuits against its practice of preventing the use of certain software on its devices. “When someone buys a kitchen blender, they don’t expect it to refuse to make a margarita,” Handel said in an interview. “And when they buy an iPhone, they don’t expect it to not run reasonable software.” In a filing with the Library of Congress during consideration of the issue, Apple said exempting jailbreaking would “destroy the technological protection of Apple’s key copyrighted computer programs in the iPhone device itself and of copyrighted content owned by Apple that plays on the iPhone.” Apple fell 66 cents to $259.28 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. To contact the reporters on this story: Todd Shields in Washington at tshields3@bloomberg.net; Adam Satariano in San Francisco at asatariano1@bloomberg.net"

Quote :

"iPhone jailbreaking (and all cell phone unlocking) made legal Mon Jul 26, 3:08 pm ET While the courts have been busy making decisions about digital rights, Washington has also been having its say on copyright law, at least as it relates to the iPhone and other handsets. Key new rules arrived Monday morning. Most notably, the FCC has made the controversial practice of “jailbreaking” your iPhone — or any other cell phone — legal. Jailbreaking — the practice of unlocking a phone (and particularly an iPhone) so it can be used on another network and/or run other applications than those approved by Apple — has technically been illegal for years. However, no one has been sued or prosecuted for the practice. (Apple does seriously frown on the practice, and jailbreaking your phone will still void your warranty.) It’s estimated that more than a million iPhone owners have jailbroken their handsets. Apple fought hard against the legalization, arguing that jailbreaking was a form of copyright violation. The FCC disagreed, saying that jailbreaking merely enhanced the inter-operability of the phone, and was thus legitimate under fair-use rules. The upshot is that now anyone can jailbreak or otherwise unlock any cell phone without fear of legal penalties, whether you want to install unsupported applications or switch to another cellular carrier. Cell phone companies are of course still free to make it difficult for you to do this — and your warranty will probably still be voided if you do — but at least you won’t be fined or imprisoned if you jailbreak a handset. In addition to the jailbreaking exemption, the FCC announced a few oth er rules that have less sweeping applicability but are still significant: • Professors, students and documentary filmmakers are now allowed, for “noncommercial” purposes, to break the copy protection measures on DVDs to be used in classroom or other not-for-profit environments. This doesn’t quite go so far as to grant you and me the right to copy a DVD so we can watch it in two rooms of the house, but it’s now only one step away. • As was the topic in the GE ruling I wrote about, the FCC allows computer owners to bypass dongles if they are no longer in operation and can’t be replaced. Dongles are rarities in consumer technology products now, but industrial users are probably thrilled about this, as many go missing and are now impossible to obtain. • Finally, people are now free to circumvent protection measures on video games — but, strangely, only to investigate and correct security flaws in those games. (Another oddity: Other computer software is not part of this ruling, just video games.) — Christopher Null is a technology writer for Yahoo! News. "

7/27/2010 1:27:54 AM

Apple's official PR response:
http://www.cultofmac.com/apples-official-response-to-dmca-jailbreak-exemption-it-voids-your-warranty/52463

Quote :

"Apple’s goal has always been to insure that our customers have a great experience with their iPhone and we know that jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience. As we’ve said before, the vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones as this can violate the warranty and can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably."

What a joke ... saying that most people don't do it because it will void the warranty AND cause it to become unstable and unreliable ... most people don't do it because they thought it was illegal ... and it's not, surprise, surprise.

Oh, and it doesn't make the phone unreliable, I love their doomsday screaming.

[Edited on July 27, 2010 at 9:45 AM. Reason : .]

7/27/2010 9:43:19 AM

my jailbroken iphone is perfectly stable and reliable. surprise!

7/27/2010 10:23:12 AM

I got shipping confirmation from Apple today that my free bumper has shipped. word up.

7/27/2010 3:17:59 PM

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/07/27/verizon-wireless-customers-top-the-charts-in-smartphone-data-usage/

Quote :

"Verizon Wireless customers top the charts in smartphone data usage by Kelly Hodgkins on July 27th, 2010 at 5:00pm Filed under: AT&T, Verizon 19 Comments Wireless billing vendor Validas analyzed the billing records of 20,000 wireless customers from January to May 2010 and discovered that Verizon Wireless customers top the charts in smartphone data usage. According to the compiled data, Verizon Wireless smartphone users consume 421MB per month, a figure that surprisingly tops iPhone users on AT&T who consume an average of 338MB of data per month. Despite the popularity of the iPhone — and its perception as a data-hungry device — Verizon Wireless also saw the largest increase in data usage per user, jumping from 48.2MB to 147.2MB per month. Verizon Wireless customers also topped AT&T amongst heavy data users with 4% of customers using 2GB or more per month as compared to 1.6% on AT&T. Not surprisingly, only 1/5th of 1% of Verizon and AT&T customers consumed more than 5GB per month, presumably due to usage caps imposed on some data plans. Wonder how those tiered data plans already in effect on AT&T (and rumored to be coming to VZW) will effect these numbers in the second half of the year? "

ha. Didn't AT&T say that most of their users would fall under the 200MB limit?

7/27/2010 6:08:51 PM

^ Average != Median

^^^^ You're both wrong. Most people don't do it because they have no idea how, remember 90 some percent of iPhone users can't trouble shoot a PC let alone jailbreak (or even know why they would want to) an iPhone.

Also, jailbreaking absolutely can make the phone unstable or unreliable. It doesn't in the majority of cases, but it certainly can, especially if combined with an unlock.

7/27/2010 7:41:05 PM

Which is still not a reason for Apple to outright ban the practice by voiding warranties.



[Edited on July 27, 2010 at 7:46 PM. Reason : .]

7/27/2010 7:46:06 PM

Quote :

"ha. Didn't AT&T say that most of their users would fall under the 200MB limit?"

no. they said something like 98% would fall under 2 gigabytes

[Edited on July 27, 2010 at 8:30 PM. Reason : *]

7/27/2010 8:29:29 PM

^^ Unauthorized modification of locked firmware has always been grounds for voiding your warranty, for every electronics manufacturer.

And to be honest, if you do jailbreak your phone, and are dumb enough that you can't undo it enough to get warranty service, you kind of deserve it.

7/27/2010 8:33:32 PM

^ good point. Anybody who can unlock surely knows how to "re-lock" their phone.

If not, well, they can easily browse the web to find out, so, nothing to see here...

7/27/2010 9:44:44 PM

Quote :

"ha. Didn't AT&T say that most of their users would fall under the 200MB limit?"

how the fuck did you get out of college? that is the most ignorant thing I've heard a college graduate say today.


also, a well written response to apple's response critics

Quote :

"I wouldn’t expect Apple’s response to be any different. The likelihood that they would have ever gone after individual users for jailbreaking their devices was slim even before the DMCA provision, but it doesn’t change the fact that Apple is never going to condone this or even begin to suggest that it’s acceptable from their point of view. In short, the iOS hardware and software are an integral part of the same package and Apple wants to preserve the user experience and maintain a supported configuration for warranty purposes. Users with enough tech savvy to jailbreak their devices will likely never have a problem with this policy, and if there are any warranty issues they should be smart enough to restore to a “stock” firmware before visiting the Genius Bar. Tech-savvy folks are also smart enough to know what they’re getting into and won’t blame Apple or badmouth the device to all their friends if they’re getting poorer battery life and/or stability problems due to playing around with unofficial third-party apps, extensions and hacks. On the other hand, the “gloom and doom” proclamations scare away people who may jailbreak without realizing what they’re getting into and then suddenly show up at an Apple Store looking to have a jailbroken device “fixed” because some dodgy system enhancement app that they never should have installed in the first place has messed it up. Usually a clean “restore” will completely fix such problems, but I can appreciate why Apple wouldn’t want their Genius Bar employees to be spending time dealing with these sorts of issues. Even worse are those jailbreaking “evangelists” who go around JBing iPhones for friends and family without really explaining what they’re doing, just because JBing is the “cool” thing to do. Then these users have problems and assume that it’s Apple or the iPhone that are the problem rather than the fact that they’re running software that was never properly designed to run on the device in the first place. Don’t get me wrong: Jailbreaking is a great way to hack and play around for those who are tech savvy and experienced enough to understand what they’re doing and live with the risks. It’s still not for the average user, however, no matter how simple and easily available the tools now are. Posted by Jesse David Hollington in Toronto on July 27, 2010 at 7:00 AM (PDT)"

from http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/apple-issues-official-response-on-jailbreak-ruling/

[Edited on July 27, 2010 at 11:39 PM. Reason : damn tags]

7/27/2010 11:38:38 PM

OH SNAP.

Motorola takes gloves off with new 'No Jacket Required' ad
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/07/28/motorola-takes-gloves-off-with-new-no-jacket-required-ad/

Quote :

"At Motorola, we believe a customer shouldn't have to dress up their phone for it to work properly. That's why the DROID X comes with a dual antenna design. The kind that allows you to hold the phone any way you like to make crystal clear calls without a bulky phone jacket. For us it's just one of those things that comes as a given when you've been making mobile phones for over 30 years."

7/28/2010 12:12:54 PM

making mobile phones for 30 years? please, as if anything other than maybe the last 10 are relevant

[Edited on July 28, 2010 at 12:36 PM. Reason : .]

7/28/2010 12:36:28 PM

Yep, every marketing department has it's hype



[Edited on July 28, 2010 at 12:48 PM. Reason : .]

7/28/2010 12:47:54 PM

anyone using screen protectors on their 4? and recommendations?

7/28/2010 1:49:43 PM

Has anyone tried this? Apparently Best Buy is installing free Zagg invisibleShields (the portion of it that covers the sides and fixes the reception problem) for anyone that comes in with an iPhone 4, it supposedly doesn't matter if you bought the phone at Best Buy or not.

http://gizmodo.com/5598715/best-buy-giving-free-invisibleshields-to-unhappy-iphone-4-owners

7/28/2010 3:32:21 PM

i had to get printer ink in a pinch so I stopped by best buy and tried this. I signed for reward zone thinking that's all i'd need to do and they couldn't get the discount to show. They finally realized I needed to buy the iphone there AND be a reward zone member. But they had already opened it so they gave it to me to install myself.

I installed it on the left side...does nothing for the antenna. Plus I got the wrong ink cartridge. Fail.

7/28/2010 5:08:49 PM

^^^^^^

and taking the gloves off is not a new trend either (re: Verizon vs. AT&T ads for the last umpteen years)

[Edited on July 28, 2010 at 10:16 PM. Reason : re:]

7/28/2010 10:16:01 PM

For those of you that upgraded your 3G to iOS4, here's your fix for the slowness you may be experiencing:

http://lifehacker.com/5599406/disable-spotlight-searches-to-improve-iphone-3g-performance-on-ios-4

Quote :

" Go to Settings- General -Home - Search Results, and shut off everything you don't need (I disabled Music, Podcasts, Video and Audiobooks; leaving Contacts, apps, Notes, Mail and Calendar checked). Made my phone a lot quicker, more like it was with v2 (I'm still running v3.1.2, jailbroken). Before, there was a good 2-4 second lag when exiting or loading an app. Now it's back to it's old speediness. Someone on the WSJ forum mentioned a bug in spotlight, but didn't say how to disable spotlight search. I don't see an option to disable it entirely. "

YMMV.

7/29/2010 10:35:00 AM

i'll try it. i never use search.

my guess to disable it is just to uncheck everything...

7/29/2010 10:38:26 AM

could anyone recommend any good topo/trail maps with gps? Figured it's easier than printing out a bunch of maps. Plus the battery would last all day if i put it in airplane mode and just use it to look at maps and GPS every now and then if i'm completely lost.

7/30/2010 10:50:36 AM

i'm pretty sure gps doesn't work in airplane mode. might want to check. i could be wrong.

Quote :

"While airplane mode is on, appears in the status bar at the top of the screen. No phone, radio, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth signals are emitted from iPhone and Global Positioning System (GPS) reception is turned off, disabling many of iPhone’s features."

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1355

i used my iphone over 4 days on the AT, didn't keep it on the whole time. ONLY when i needed to know where i was. i turned off 3g also, not that i would have it 3g out there. i also had a battery backup pack, but didn't need to use it. i got off the trail with 35% charge left.

i prefer & use accuterra ($2.99). all the maps are free (they used to make you purchase individual maps) although you need to download them ahead of time. they have different levels of detail you can dl. they have too many maps to put them all on your phone. covers the whole US. the maps are saved to your phone (obviously), so you're not relying on google. i used this on our recent AT trip and it worked like a champ.

i've used GPS kit ($9.99) & park maps. gps kit was okay, although all it does is track you and it relies on google's maps. waste of money imo. park maps ($0.99) is just that; state/national park maps. like carrying paper maps, no tracking.

i vote accuterra 100000000000000000000000000%

[Edited on July 30, 2010 at 11:09 AM. Reason : ]

7/30/2010 11:02:14 AM

Quote :

"i'm pretty sure gps doesn't work in airplane mode. might want to check. i could be wrong."

It does. My friend didn't think it did because he didn't understand what an aGPS was. Basically when you have the cell phone on it uses the towers to speed up the GPS process. If you notice how it does the general location THEN does the accurate one.

If you turn on airplane mode it just takes a little longer to find your exact position because it's relying solely on the GPS and not the aid of the towers. I tested this a bunch using the Navigon app which works perfectly in airplane mode.

Quote :

"i prefer & use accuterra ($2.99)."

Just downloaded that one. Doesn't look like it's updated for the iPhone 4. I'll check it out. Are the topo maps good? I also noticed there's a "Topo Maps" app for $7.99.

7/30/2010 11:09:44 AM

the maps are topo maps. they're easier to read imo than the topo maps one, just judging on the screenshots.

i have a 3gs. does it not work w/ the 4??

[Edited on July 30, 2010 at 11:15 AM. Reason : ]

7/30/2010 11:12:16 AM