Technology News

You know what it is like, you go to another country for a holiday or business and you have to make an important call on your iPhone. Things all seem fine at first, until you get home and are hit with a huge phone bill. Well Truphone have a great new app that will offer Low-priced international calling for the iPhone.

Designed to provide cheap international calls for Apple®
iPhone users, the Truphone iPhone app hit iTune’s new App Store today.
James Tagg, Truphone’s CEO, said: “What Truphone for the iPhone does is really
simple but absolutely sensational: it gives people low-priced international calls,
whether they want to phone someone abroad or avoid roaming charges when
making calls from abroad.

“With just a few clicks to download and install Truphone, anyone can afford to take
their iPhone on holiday this summer – or call their friends and family abroad,” he
added.

Truphone enables an iPhone to make cheap calls to any number over the internet
instead of over GSM, at Truphone’s fabulous internet rates. The rates are especially
competitive for international calls, including landlines in 40 countries at GBP0.03
[USD0.06] per minute and mobiles at just GBP0.15 [USD0.30] per minute. To
Canada, the USA and China, even calls to mobiles are just GBP0.03 [USD0.06] per
minute.

Making a call using Truphone is exactly like making any other call on the iPhone: a
single touch to bring the dialler up on the touch screen, touch-dial the number or
choose from the iPhone’s own address book, and a touch to start the call.
[Visit www.truphone.com/iphone to see a preview video of Truphone on the iPhone.]
Truphone for the iPhone is available to download from Apple’s new App Store for
free. There are no monthly subscriptions or other charges. Visit
www.truphone.com/iphone for more information.

The new version of PwnageTool is now available; 2.0.3 jailbreak software for the iPhone supports the new version of iPhone and iPod firmware 2.0.2 5C1. The latest jailbreak software updates the installer.app to Beta 6; this update also includes localization for Germany.

DevTeam have been hard at work, not only have they launched the new PwnageTool 2.0.3, but also the ‘150’ beta update to the Windows QuickPwn application. This update improves the user interface as well as fixing a number of bugs for YouTube.

There is also support for BootNeuter, so that you can unlock 2G iPhones. DevTeam have issued a warning that the new PwnageTool 2.0.3 must only be downloaded as a .tbz file from their servers. They should not decompress it by using The Unarchiver application.

DevTeam advise that you should use the standard OS X Archive Utilityin in order to decompress the download; this should avoid breaking permissions within PwnageTool.

Source

Other iPhone news

Today Motorola announce the next generation Push-To-Talk over Cellular, which leverages EVDO Rev A to improve call setup performance for discriminating users. You can get the full details in the press release below.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill., Aug. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) today announced that it has released its next generation Push-To- Talk over Cellular (PoC) solution, optimized for CDMA 1x networks equipped with EVDO Rev A data capability. This solution leverages the improved performance capabilities provided by the CDMA 1x EVDO Rev A standard including higher speed data rates, low call set-up time latency and quality of service (QoS).

Motorola’s end-to-end Push-To-Talk over Cellular solution provides walkie- talkie like capability to mobile devices equipped with special PoC client software, connecting people to those they communicate with most. With the push of a button on their PoC-enabled handsets, both enterprise and personal users can connect directly with individuals or groups and quickly share information.

In today’s time-pressed world, instant access to people at the push of a button can quickly translate to a signed deal for a small company or a fun- filled night on the town with college friends. Market research shows that customers would appreciate access to Push-To-Talk on a variety of mobile devices for use both at work and at play.

Motorola’s next generation PoC solution provides competitive call set-up time performance with other PoC and proprietary solutions, “buddy list” availability, an open ecosystem to support a wide variety of mobile devices from multiple manufacturers equipped with the PoC client and access to the Internet to enable “push-to-X” features and services to complement basic PoC.

“Motorola’s latest Push-To-Talk over Cellular release demonstrates our commitment to delivering innovative and relevant applications that enable service providers to offer both enterprises and consumers a truly competitive communications experience,” said Mark Poulin, senior director, Push-To-Talk product management, Motorola.

For business users, this next generation Push-To-Talk system paves the way for new enterprise applications such as Push-To-Productivity and encrypted, PC-based dispatching, which will enable companies to enhance communication among employees, customers and suppliers.

Source: Motorola, Inc.

There will be a new Alltel TV spot that will begin airing tomorrow. The spot shows that even as children, Chad and the “Sales Guys” couldn’t agree about sharing.

Alltel Wireless, America’s largest network, is reliving those first encounters with the debut of “Lemonade Stand,” a new television spot that shows the “Sales Guys” when they were kids, questioning a young Chad about sharing lemonade. The spot, developed by Campbell-Ewald Detroit, is airing on national cable networks and on local stations throughout Alltel’s footprint.

“Lemonade Stand” features the iconic characters as children disagreeing about sharing, as they have set up rival neighboring stands. Young Chad feels that you should be able to share lemonade with the whole family, while the kid “Sales Guys” protest. As the spot flash-forwards to present day, the “Guys” are still bitter at Chad – this time for being proud that Alltel’s “My Circle” calling feature allows customers to share minutes with the whole family. Customers can add lines to their “My Circle” plan for only $9.99 per month.

Featuring five child actors that bear amazing resemblances to their adult counterparts, “Lemonade Stand,” continues the “Sales Guy” advertising campaign that began in September 2006.

Alltel recently introduced new “My Circle” Family Choice Plus plans. For $84.99 per month, customers will receive two lines with 1,000 shared minutes and the ability to call any 10 numbers on any network. Also, customers can receive two lines with 2,000 shared minutes and unlimited calling within their “Circle” of 20 numbers for $114.99. In addition to the unlimited calling within their “Circle,” Family Choice plan customers will receive unlimited mobile-to-mobile calls and unlimited nights and weekends. Customers will also have the ability to choose either free evening calls starting at 7PM or 1,000 text/picture/video messages. The plans include unlimited texting to their “Circle of Friends” and other Alltel customers.

Within the last few hours at the at SpeechTEK 2008 conference in New York, Openstream announced the Cue-me Multimodal browser that’s designed for mobile phones.

Openstream are a leading player in the Multimodal Technology and solutions market, and their Cue-me mobile browser will work on BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Mobile phones.

Apple iPhone owners will also benefit from the Cue-me Multimodal browser in the near future.

“For a person on the move, getting the information quickly without cumbersome key-presses would be very important,” says Raj Tumuluri, President & CEO of Openstream Inc.

Openstream has contributed to some pioneering work at the WorldWideWeb Consortium, and this has led to a new “paradigm of interaction for mobile users that combines voice, touch and key-presses”.

The Cue-me multimodal browser defines the next leap in mobile interaction, and because it’s built on open standards, development will be easy for all the popular phone platforms. You can view a flash demo of the service here.

You can read the full Press Release here or view other cell phone news.

Apple created a buzz not so long back with the launch of the new iPhone 3G, but that soon turned to disappointment once they got their hands on these handsets. iPhone 3G users have been experiencing a number of problems; these include slow websurfing speeds, dropped calls and weak signals.

Apple have introduced a number of software updates to try and solve this issue, 2.0.2 software update is just the latest firmware update that Apple hoped to help solve these issues.

There have been reports that iPhone 3G users are still reporting problems after they have updated to firmware 2.0.2 software update. For those who were hoping that the new update would help solve these issues have been left disappointed.

There are reports circulating that Steve Jobs issued an internal memo saying “It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store.” He also said “We all had more than enough to do, and MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence.”

Read the full story here

Apple is trying hard to win back support after the problems that plagued the launch of MobileMe in July. Apple has said that they will extend users accounts by another 60 days for free, that is on top of the 30-day free extension.

Apple has admitted that the service needs more work, although they have said that they have made a number of improvements to MobileMe. They still have a number of things they wish to improve; they are working hard to make MobileMe a service that they can be proud of.

Apple has said “We know that MobileMe’s launch has not been our finest hour, and we truly appreciate your patience as we turn this around.”

When MobileMe was first launched in July 10 it had a number of problems, these included a number of subscribers have trouble accessing the site. Some users lost e-mails as well as having problems accessing calendars and contact information.

Source

Nice to know that Apple has owned up to their mistakes and that they are trying to solve the problem.

It was once known to the world as The Googlephone and only a rumor, but today we are hearing things have been made even more official thanks to the FCC approving The HTC Dream phone.

Now that HTC Dream has received FCC approval, we can confirm that much of the rumor is more real now, although specs are still uncertain.

What we know is the handset is listed with a model of “DREA100” and the type is called “Dream”. Other confirmation comes in the form of a WiFi Interoperability Certificate; this shows the same model with 802.11b/g WiFi.

While its still a rumor that the Dream is indeed a Google Android phone, if this becomes true then HTC and T-Mobile are clear for a October launch as planned.

Other features are said to be a jogball and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR. You can read the source of these details at FCC WiFi Bluetooth, FCC Cell Radios and HTC Dream WiFi Certification (PDF doc).

Via Engadget | Read other news about Google Android

It was just under two weeks ago when we asked the question “Are T-Mobile planning HTC Google Android handset release at end of year?” and today we can confirm that T-Mobile will be the first carrier to offer a phone with Google Android.

We have posted many times about both the Android software and Open Source platforms; we are a big fan of Open Source and how it will help the consumer thanks to the whole community being involved.

NYT is reporting that HTC will make a phone based on Android that T-Mobile will carry, and this phone should go on sale before Christmas 2008. We are hearing that it may be released as early as October 2008.

The HTC “Dream” phone is rumored to feature similar capabilities to the iPhone and other high-end phones made by Nokia, Research in Motion and other brands.

Another feature of the phone is said to be a touch screen that slides out to expose a full five-row keyboard, and users will be able to download applications to customize their phones, similar to the iPhones platform.

The main thing that can hold up the release of this Android phone is certification from the Federal Communications Commission. You can read more information on NYT or read other Android news here.

We will update you as soon as we get a release date for an Android phone on T-Mobile.

We reported yesterday about the Apple iPhone 3G-reception problem being blamed on an Infineon chip, although Claes Beckman has another view.

The professor of microwave technology at the University of Gälve believes poor signal sensitivity is the route of iPhone 3G problems. Swedish tech site, Ny Teknik was informed about this study made by the professor.

The measurements show that iPhones sensitivity to 3G networks signals - “nominal sensitivity” - is well below the value specified in the 3G standard, which in Europe defined by the organization ETSI. The result is that it easier than other mobiles to lose contact with the 3G network, and a lower data rates once connected.

Since this value is one of the most important when you check that your mobile phone meets ETSI requirements - a prerequisite for the CE mark - it’s impossible to have been wrong in the first ready-made sheets. The error must have occurred in volume production.

While these findings have not been confirmed in the United States, if they were, it would not be good news for iPhone 3G owners.

Source: Hot Hardware | Read more iPhone 3G news.