Apple iPhone - Official Tethering Will Happen

Once upon a time, you could purchase a tethering app from Apple’s App Store. Netshare allowed iPhone 3G owners to tether their iPhones with their laptops, through a WiFi connection. Tethering allows you to use your iPhone as a mobile broadband connection for your laptop. AT&T did not want this to happen, since you would normally pay extra every month to tether other phones. The reason for the extra charge - you could use up a lot more bandwidth in a shorter amount of time than what you could do with your iPhone by itself. People even wrote Steve Jobs about it, and he agreed and said it was being discussed with AT&T.

Now those talks are coming to fruition - MobileCrunch mentions that an interview with AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph De La Vega during this week’s Web 2.0 Summit revealed that AT&T has plans for an official plan “soon”. No idea on pricing or availability or bandwidth caps. People can use work arounds to unofficially tether their iPhones and notebooks, but an official version would be welcome.

Read:
- MobileCrunch

ThinkFree Office Suite for Netbooks

If you are a netbook owner, you may be looking around for an office suite that is more suited to the small form factor displays we are seeing with the 7″, 9″, and 10″ displays and their non-standard resolutions (such as 1024×600 or 800×480).

Look no further than ThinkFree. They have announced the “ThinkFree Netbook solution”, which is geared towards smaller displays, as well as online collaboration. It handles word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations and is compatible with Microsoft Office 2007.

It runs on Windows XP, Vista, Linux, and Mac OS X, and the documents can be viewed on some mobile devices, including the iPhone.

You can download a trial at http://product.thinkfree.com/mobile. After you fill out a survey between now and October 31, you can receive a free license key. If you check out the ThinkFree blog, you can see videos of the suite in action on netbooks. No word on final pricing.

Read: CNET
via: jkOnTheRun

Apple, Steve Jobs on Netbooks, Finances

AppleInsider has several articles up about Apple’s fourth quarter conference call today. Included among them, Steve Jobs’ comments on netbooks. Jobs commented on netbooks recently when Apple’s latest MacBook was launched, saying that they felt the market was just getting started.

Based on today’s financial discussions, Apple is only getting stronger, and clearly has the cash to do what they want to do. They now have $24.5 billion in the bank, with no debt. That’s some pretty hefty financial resources.

The iPhone App Store is doing extremely well as well - Jobs commented that “we’ve never seen anything like this in our careers” and by this time tomorrow, the 200 millionth app should be sold.
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Apple iPhone 3G - USB Power Adapters Recalled

Apple is replacing the “ultracompact Apple USB power adapter” for iPhone 3Gs sold in certain countries - apparently there is a problem with the adapters, such that under certain conditions the new ultracompact Apple USB power adapter’s metal prongs can break off and remain in a power outlet, creating a risk of electric shock.

The affected adapters came with every iPhone 3G sold in these countries:
The ultracompact USB power adapters were supplied with every iPhone 3G sold in the following countries, and may also have been purchased separately as an accessory:

* US
* Japan
* Canada
* Mexico
* Several Latin American countries (detailed list of countries)

It may have also been purchased separately. It does not affect original iPhones or iPhone 3Gs sold in other countries or the fold-up Apple USB power adapters. If you recently acquired your adapter and it has a green dot on the plug side, you already have the new plug and don’t need a replacement. Otherwise, starting October 10, you can receive an exchanged adapter through the web or visit an Apple Retail Store. You will need to provide Apple with the affected plug for a new one.

Apple recommends you stop using them and charge your iPhone through your computer cable.

Read: Apple

Apple’s September 9 Event

Yesterday’s Apple event didn’t hold too many surprises (many had been leaked ahead of time by various rumor sites), but it provided fairly solid updates to Apple’s iPod lineup, as well some interesting information.

In the humor department, Jobs jokes that “reports of my death are greatly exaggerated” (complete with a slide saying that)

- iTunes now offers HD TV shows
- A “Genius” capability was added to iTunes which creates playlists from your existing library as well as recommendations from the iTunes store
- iTunes 8.0 made available
- iPod Classic drops 160GB model, upgrades 80GB to 120GB
- iPod Nano redesigned - thinner, accelerometer
- iPod Touch slightly redesigned - thinner, stainless steel, controls added, Nike+ iPod receiver built in.

The thing I was interested in was the iPhone 2.1 firmware / upgrade. It’ll be available this week, and among the fixes/updates:
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Apple Event Tomorrow (Sep 9, 2008)

There probably won’t be a replacement announced for the 13.3″ Apple MacBook at tomorrow’s Apple event / announcement, but there will be quite a few other things (it was speculated that some Macs would receive updates, and MacBooks are definitely reaching an age where they are due for a new design).

Based on the invitations, it’s going to primarily be an iPod / iPhone event.

Apple Insider is claiming that among the announcements, iTunes 8, which could include HD content for TV shows (and possibly movies).

The thing I’m interested in, the iPhone 2.1 firmware could be released. It’s expected to add background push notifications for events to third-party applications as well as full directional GPS.

Read: Apple Insider

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