Tag Archives | iPhone 4

SK Telecom to Carry CDMA iPhone

Korean wireless carrier SK Telecom said Tuesday that it would carry the CDMA version of the iPhone 4 beginning on March 18, according to a press release. The announcement puts the device in front of another 24+ million customers across Korea.

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Mophie's iPhone 4 Case Adds Suprisingly Little Bulk

Mophie has built a name for itself with its line of external battery cases for the iPhone and iPod. There’s always been a real problem with these (at least for me), and that was the sheer amount of bulk they add. It appears the company may have finally figured out how to combat this problem from the case I saw in New York City on Wednesday.

Actually, the battery pack looks all but like an typical hard case, but a little thicker. As you can see, the case itself mimics the actual design of the phone itself, so from a distance you may not even notice it.

While I love my Mophie and think that a battery extender is almost a necessity for any heavy smartphone user, the bulk it adds is cumbersome and sometimes slightly annoying. The fact that the company has been able to shrink down the case to eliminate a large chunk of that bulk is very impressive.

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The N92 is the Verizon iPhone

The Verizon iPhone drumbeat continues as Daring Fireball’s John Gruber says that Apple is indeed working on a CDMA variant of the iPhone 4, dubbed internally the “N92.” While the device is not in device testing yet — that’s the level where engineers like Gray Powell take them out into the wild — it is at engineering-level testing right now.

Gruber speculates this is where the phone would need to be in order to make it to a January 2011 release, which seems to be the date many are fixated on for its release. He cautions however that the news does not necessarily mean Verizon’s getting it: there are other CDMA carriers after all.

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iPhone 4 Unlocked

Just two days after it had brought back Jailbreakme.com from the dead, the iPhone Dev Team said Wednesday that it had completed an unlock that is compatible with the iPhone 4. As before, the phone must be jailbroken before it is able to be unlocked.

The unlock, called “ultrasn0w,” works with iPhone 4 baseband 01.59 and iPhone 3G/3GS basebands 04.26.08, 05.11.07, 05.12.01 and 05.13.04. The download is now available in the Cydia app store which is installed upon jailbreaking the phone.

Specifics of how the Dev Team unlocked the iPhone 4 were not given, unlike the Jailbreakme.com hack on Monday. That flaw, which has to do with how the iPhone displays PDF files, has triggered Apple to look into the problem although its unknown at this time whether or not the company plans to act.

I’d guess they probably will, considering this is how hackers are able to jailbreak the device, something which is now legal according to the US government, but still frowned upon by Apple.

So now that it’s unlocked, I’m curious: does it work on T-Mobile US’ 3G network? Maybe that’s our first clue that the rumors might be true!

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It's Skype vs. Fring in VoIP War of the Words

Looks like Fring made too many waves by updating its iPhone app to support two-way video chat. After a short time when iPhone 4 owners could use Fring to video chat with desktop PCs using Skype, Fring pulled all Skype support, at first temporarily, but now for good.

Both sides of this relationship gone sour tell different stories. Fring says it was blocked by Skype in an “anti-competitive ambush.” Skype says that’s not true, but claims Fring violated terms of use for its API, and was damaging the Skype brand by temporarily pulling support. No matter who’s telling the truth, iPhone 4 owners can’t make video calls to PCs anymore.

As long as Skype and Fring are slinging mud at each other, let’s look at some other iPhone-to-PC video calling scenarios that would render this break-up obsolete:

It’s possible that other platforms will adopt Apple’s Facetime, which is an open standard. Facetime desktop software seems like a no-brainer, but it needs to allow PC-to-PC calling or it’ll never get the widespread adoption Skype currently enjoys.

Google Talk is in the opposite position. It’s all over PCs through an optional plug-in for Gmail, iGoogle and Orkut, but lacks two-way video support on phones. Still, adding support could cause more friction with Apple and with Sprint, which uses Qik for video chat on the HTC Evo 4G.

Skype could theoretically support video chat for iPhone 4 some day, but the company has dragged its feet on several iPhone features, including 3G calling, which finally arrived in May, and iOS4 multitasking, which is still missing. The company gave Gizmodo a murky answer on video calling for mobile phones, which read, in part, “We’re betting big on video, and we intend to set the bar on mobile video calling.” Whatever that means.

Then there’s Fring. Like Facetime, Fring desperately needs a desktop application, I’d say even more so than Facetime because the software already supports Android and Symbian video calling as well. The Skype fiasco proves that Fring can’t lean too heavily on third-parties, so if Fring really wants the spotlight — and to swing at Skype — it needs to move onto the one platform Skype has dominated, the PC.

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iSuppli Says iPhone 4 Cost Apple $187.51

Apple is making a decent profit on the iPhone 4 after the fees AT&T likely pays for each sale of the iPhone 4 ar added on, the most recent teardown by research firm iSuppli indicates. Each device costs about $187.51 to produce, with the new “retina display” being the most expensive component. iSuppli believes it to be manufactured by LG at a cost about $28.50 per unit.

Researcher Kevin Keller told BusinessWeek that Apple has seemed to generally spend about $170 to $180 to produce iPhones, from the original model in 2007 to today’s iPhone 4.

The iPhone 3Gs initially cost about $179 to produce, although that price has since dropped to about $134. That means Apple likely now only breaks even or makes a very small profit as it sells for $99 from AT&T.

Inside, iSuppli found that the device uses a similar A4 chip that is also seen in the iPad, and confirmed the antenna is in the metal strip around the phone. As you’ve seen here on Technologizer, that’s been a potential problem for Apple, although iSuppli makes no reference of it in its report.

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The iPhone 4 Makes its REAL Debut

Just as expected, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone 4 at WWDC. Not surprisingly, the phone looks much like the prototype that Gizmodo acquired, with a steel frame, glass accents, front facing camera, and a camera with included flash on the back. The device comes in at 9.3mm, about 24% thinner than the iPhone 3GS, and what Jobs called “the thinnest smartphone on the planet.”

Another major feature is the “Retina display,” Apple’s upgraded screen for the iPhone 4. The resolution comes in at 326dpi, which along with some software magic makes for clear, smooth fonts and more vivid images. Jobs said the resolution is actually higher than the human eye can see (exaggeration, perhaps?). Either way, Apple expects it to be “years” before anybody matches this display.

The Apple A4 chip will power the device and is much smaller than the chips that have powered previous devices. But that’s because the device needs a bigger battery for all these new features: 40% more talk time, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of Wi-Fi browsing ,10 hours of video, 40 hours of music, 300 hours of standby.

A new gyroscope feature along with new core motion APIs will enable all different types of motion in games. The upgraded camera now takes 5 megapixel pictures, and will take HD video at 720p at 30 frames per second. With this new camera, it’s time for a new standard app, and that’s iMovie for iPhone.

It essentially works like iMovie for the Mac OS Desktop, allowing the user to add transitions, titles and effects to videos captured on the device. Geolocation functionality would also allow the video to be geotagged. Apple will make iMovie available on the App Store for $4.99, jokingly adding “if we approve it.”

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