iPhone Atlas

A few days ago, the unofficial iPhone Dev Team released an unlock for the iPhone 3G dubbed "yellowsn0w." The team subsequently released a 0.9.5 beta of the unlock app, which fixes several bugs in the initial iteration. However, many users are still experiencing issues, as noted in this initial report.

Solutions for problems related to or caused by the update are beginning to materialize. A poster named "IphoneEntusiast" has published a step-by-step process for using yellowsn0w, from jailbreak through unlock. His process involves verifying that the Carrier field displays (null)(null) after QuickPwn is used, resetting network settings after installation of yellowsn0w and more. See the thread here.

Meanwhile, the Dev Team notes "there is a known issue with SIM cards that have STK (SIM Toolkit) application menus. These menus are usually items such as 'top up' 'get credit' 'lotto numbers' etc. These menu items confuse the application sometimes."

Feedback? http://www.iphoneatlas.com/contact.

Upon restoring iPhones and iPod touches, some users have experienced a problem where the device will not startup past the Apple logo.

Apple Discussions poster Solivern writes:

"Hi all, I was trying to restore the iPod's os because I'm selling it and wanted to clean it up, and the iPod just froze with the apple logo on the screen. If I restart, it just goes back to the apple logo and freezes there. The problem is now I can't even get iTunes to recognise it, so I can't even re-restore it."

For some users, the device will freeze at the Apple logo, but for others it will reset repeatedly after displaying the logo. One option recommended by Apple is to put the iPod into recovery mode and then have iTunes restore the iPod's software. Apply the following procedure:

1. Ensure the latest version of iTunes is installed, and launch the application.
2. Unplug the iPod Touch/iPhone from the computer and press and hold the Sleep/Wake button for a few seconds until the red slider appears. Slide the slider and wait for the device to turn off.
3. Then press and hold the Home button, and reattach it to the computer with the home button still held down.
4. The device should power on, and may display a "Charging" message. If so, allow the device to charge for 10-15 minutes before trying this procedure again. If not, the device should start up and display the apple logo.
5. After a few minutes the device should display a "Connect to iTunes" message. At this point the Home button can be released and iTunes should display a message detecting the device and prompting for a software restore.

This process may need to be repeated if the "Connect to iTunes" message does not display.

Gadget blogs on New Year's Day were aflutter with word that an application called Yellowsn0w was available for those who want to unlock the iPhone 3G.

The iPhone - who wants in?

(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)

CrunchGear, for one, posted a graphically enhanced, QuickPwn-focused spin on jailbreaking the iPhone and making use of the Yellowsn0w instructions from the Dev-Team Blog. Way at the bottom, though, it points out that "this is all in beta and there is no guarantee of success." It follows with this note:

UPDATE - I haven't been able to get it to work on two iPhone 3Gs, both with fresh 2.2 firmware and baseband. I've heard plenty of people HAVE had luck, however, so it seems to be an either/or thing. I suspect some cells aren't accepting the iPhones as valid equipment.

Gizmodo, meanwhile, reports that while Yellowsn0w is "very easy to install," alas "it doesn't work right," and takes the Dev-Team folks to task:

Even while this is labeled as a beta, it saddens me that the iPhone Dev Team has embraced the damn beta culture just to make the release on a cute date. It looks like the old days of solid versions are long gone by.

The Gizmodo account also cites a poll of 67 people who'd tried out Yellowsn0w, with "it doesn't work" outdoing "it worked" by a ratio of about 2 to 1.

Over at The Boy Genius Report, things seem to have worked out more favorably. Says Boy Genius, "It's not without a few hiccups but it definitely works and it works well."

Owing to, as Tom Lehrer would say, nepotism and intrigue, I found myself in the small town of Brenham, Texas, this Sunday on the very day that Apple's iPhone was to go on sale at the Wal-Mart megachain (an outfit that I, as a native New Yorker, have had very little experience with).

Popping in to check out the action and snag some photos, I found a single iPhone display--it would be generous to call it a kiosk--with an activated iPhone and a handful of brochures. The price tags on display gave both the new customer/upgrade price, as well as the full retail price. A small paper sign taped to the wall announced that iPhone sales would commence at 9 a.m., and that customers should line up for access to limited stock.

I asked a sales clerk about first-day sales, and she said as far as she knew they hadn't sold a single unit so far, "but maybe if they had started selling it before Christmas..." There was, however, a steady stream of gawkers checking out the display unit in the 10 or so minutes I spent in the electronics department.

Herewith some photos of the in-store Wal-Mart display: ... Read more

This post was updated at 9:41 a.m. PST with more details from Wal-Mart.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)

Wal-Mart on Friday confirmed that it will be selling Apple's iPhone 3G, beginning Sunday at about 2,500 stores. The price, with a new two-year service agreement with AT&T (or qualified upgrade), is $197 for the black 8GB model and $297 for the black or white 16GB version.

"We are delighted to bring customers this ground-breaking mobile technology," Gary Severson, Wal-Mart senior vice president of entertainment, said in a statement. "Our electronics associates have been preparing for many weeks for the arrival of iPhone 3G."

And some of them let the cat out of the bag a little early, as CNET News' Marguerite Reardon noted several weeks ago.

The popular smartphones are currently available at Apple retail stores, AT&T stores, and at Best Buy, where the 8GB phone is sold for $199 and 16GB phones are sold for $299.

Wal-Mart's iPhone offering amounts to two dollars in savings and negates, for now anyway, the rumored 4GB model that some had speculated Wal-Mart would sell for $99.

Wal-Mart will be staffing Apple iPhone 3G kiosks located in the Wal-Mart Connection Center in the store's home entertainment department.

Several iPhone users have experienced problems wherein their phones will display an error claiming repair is needed on the device, disallowing use.

Apple Discussions poster Xraycovert writes:

"Abruptly, my new iPhone began, and continues to flash, a REPAIR NEEDED message on the screen. I can only access an SOS."

While for the most part this error does indicate a problem with the phone will need to be fixed, in some instances this error message is being shown erroneously. There are several things users can do to try to fix the problem before contacting Apple support or taking the phone in for servicing. If these fixes do not work, users can contact Apple at 1-800-MY-APPLE or go to a local Apple store.

Potential Fixes

Reset the phone Press the Sleep/Wake button for several seconds until the red slider appears, and then slide it to turn the phone off. Then press the Sleep/Wake button again to restart the phone. The Apple logo will appear when the phone starts up.

Charge the phone This may be due to the batteries not being charged enough, and it is recommended to turn the phone completely off and plug it in to charge it for at least 30 minutes. Then try starting the phone up again by pressing the Sleep/Wake button.

Restore iPhone software This procedure will erase the iPhone contents, so be sure everything is backed up before proceeding (even though there is an option to do this before the restore begins). To restore the iPhone software, first connect the iPhone to your computer and then in iTunes select the device and select the "Summary" tab. Then click the "Restore" option and in the dialogue box choose "Back Up" to ensure the data is safe. Then click "Restore" in the next window and the phone should automatically reset. Finally, when the phone is working again, it will require activation where the phone's data and settings can optionally be applied from the backup made before the restore.

The iPhone has risen to prominence on Flickr, rivaling most SLRs in popularity. These statistics from Yahoo cover the last 12 months.

(Credit: Yahoo)

The iPhone is the mobile device of choice these days for doing most things that need a network. So it shouldn't be a surprise that the phone has carved out a prominent place on Yahoo's photo-sharing site, Flickr.

The Flickr Camera Finder, Yahoo's statistical counter of camera use among its members, shows that since the arrival of the iPhone 3G model earlier this year, the phone has vaulted not only over all other camera phones, trouncing the Nokia N95 in second place, but also almost all ordinary cameras.

That's a notable accomplishment. I've been watching the Flickr Camera Finder for two years, and that's the first time I recall a camera phone placing so highly. The top ranks have been dominated by SLRs, the camera of choice for many of Flickr's heaviest users.

With the debut of the 3G model, Apple's iPhone surged to a commanding lead among camera phones used at Flickr. These statistics from Yahoo cover the last 12 months.

(Credit: Yahoo)

Right now the iPhone is in a virtual tie with Canon's Rebel XT and Nikon's D80, two SLRs whose popularity is waning with the arrival of newer models from the dominant makers of such cameras. Only Canon's newer Rebel XTi outranks the iPhone.

Though the trajectory is clear, there are caveats. First, Flickr measures popularity on the basis of the number of users who've uploaded a photo on a given day. In other words, the camera used by a person who uploads one photo a day will fare better than one who uploads 100 pictures one day a month. Second, many camera phones don't identify themselves to Flickr, so their use isn't logged. Last, these statistics fluctuate daily, and who knows what kind of anomalous behavior is going on during the holidays.

The total number of photos uploaded from the Rebel XTi is about 51 million, compared with 5.8 million for the iPhone. However, there are nearly 3,000 people uploading daily from their iPhone compared with about 6,500 for the XTi.

My guess is the iPhone's better-than-average network abilities are responsible for the prominence. For the same reason, iPhone users also use Google Maps and other online services more than most mobile device users. The BlackBerry is good at e-mail, but the Internet has other attractions.

What's more interesting is extrapolating from the trend. Certainly the iPhone's image quality doesn't hold a candle to even old point-and-shoots, much less new SLRs, but the phone taps straight into the social features of Flickr--the ability to photographically share with friends and family what's going on in your life, for example. There are innumerable expert photographers at Flickr, but it looks like the yet larger herd of ordinary snapshooters are going to leave them in the dust once liberated with the ability to post pictures at will.

I sent my iPhone photos to Flickr using the site's upload-by-e-mail service (see Yahoo's instructions), but there are several iPhone applications that will do it for you if you prefer. Apple's photo e-mailing software scales photos to 640x480, but I don't mind, given feeble image quality and the unlikelihood that these shots will ever make their way beyond a computer screen.

With Macworld coming up in just two weeks, the parade of Apple-flavored rumors, wishes, and murmurings continues.

Guess which one is the rumored iPhone Nano?

(Credit: MacRumors.com)

The latest to surface--or resurface--involves a purported concept photo of what's said to be an "iPhone Nano," a more or less three-quarter-size version of the Apple iPhone. Even as it presents the photo, MacRumors.com also invokes a healthy dose of skepticism:

We have some serious doubts about the likelihood of such a device. These doubts are based both in the quality of the sources as well as the practicality of introducing a new form factor to the iPhone/iPod Touch platform.

Those cautionary words echo the historical perspective offered by CNET News' Tom Krazit, writing a week ago on the occasion of some earlier Nano-esque reports:

iPhone Nano rumors date back to the launch of the original iPhone, when a financial analyst predicted that Apple would have a slimmed-down version of the iPhone out for the 2007 holiday season. That obviously didn't happen, and other reports this summer and more recent speculation about a $99 4GB iPhone to be sold at Wal-Mart have kept the rumor alive.

And Monday, Tom took stock of a potential clue in this story: "iPhone Nano cases appear online."

See also:
•: No Jobs means no Macworld splash
•: Apple's blind-side hit on IDG
•: Rumor has Apple updating Mac Mini
•: Analyst predicts Apple will unveil Netbook
•: 'MacHeads' film to debut at MacWorld

(Credit: iBreviary)

Doing any last-minute holiday shopping for that religious yet tech-savvy someone in your life?

On Monday, the Vatican formally endorsed an iPhone application that allows users to load the Breviary prayer book, prayers for saying a Catholic Mass, and other prayers.

The application, called iBreviary, was created by Rev. Paolo Padrini and Web designer Dimitri Giani. It's available for purchase in Europe, and in the U.S. at Apple's App Store for 99 cents with free upgrades planned. Languages included in the U.S. version are Italian and English.

The Catholic Church is "learning to use the new technologies primarily as a tool or as a mean of evangelizing, as a way of being able to share its own message with the world," Monsignor Paul Tighe, secretary of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social Communications, told the Associated Press.

If you read Italian (or are handy with translation software) you can read more about the iBreviary application on Dimitri Giani's Web site.

While the Catholic Church may still be lagging behind on several social and political issues, Pope Benedict XVI's attempts to modernize his organization's communications and reach out to youth through technology are widely known.

Last December the Vatican issued 10 driving commandments which ruffled some feathers at Ferrari.

The Pope is even down with using acronyms in his text messages, famously signing a mobile text sent to gatherers at last year's Catholic youth day rally in Sydney, Australia with "BXVI."

(Credit: CNET Networks)

If you've read my iPhone Apps of the Week posts, you know that I mostly download games and entertainment applications. I also like to check out music apps, because I play a few instruments and am continually interested in what developers are able to come up with musically for the iPhone. Since my coworker, Jessica Dolcourt, wrote the iPhone Starter Kit based around must-have apps of the practical variety, I can really get down to business--the business of fun iPhone apps!

So, what makes a great game or music app? Certainly graphics and sound are important for games, but with a platform as unique as the iPhone or iPod Touch, it's important to consider how it utilizes the accelerometer, touch screen, and other aspects of the device. For musical instruments and drum machines, it's important to note whether the sounds are realistic and how intuitive it is to play the instrument. Finally, it's important to note whether a game or instrument is a good fit for the medium. You probably wouldn't want to spend hours playing an MMO on a tiny device that needs recharging, and, similarly, you're probably not going to be writing concertos on your iPhone. The point is that it should be a good app by itself in addition to being a good app for the iPhone.

Some of the apps I'm including for this end-of-the-year roundup have been in previous posts, but several are new apps to my iPhone. I'm including both free apps and apps for purchase, and sometimes I have a good free version of a genre you can try if you don't want to spend the money. Without further ado, read on to see my favorite fun apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch.