The strangest thing happened to me last night. I was out with a few friends having a couple ‘thank god it’s the end of the week’ beers, when I decided to ’show off’ a few of the newer iPhone games I had installed. Being in Canada, a few of my buddy’s actually hadn’t seen an iPhone in person, so it was making its rounds around the table for sure.

I decided to open up ‘Raging Thunder‘, a really good racing game that allows you to steer your race car by tilting the device to your left or right. Overall it’s a pretty darn good game and I thought my buddies would enjoy. So, I opened up the app, but just as soon as I opened it I decided to close ‘er down as I could hear someone else talking to me. That’s when all heck broke loose.

The iPhone crashed, or something along those lines. The screen was still on, plain black, but with a slight glow to it. After about 3 or 4 minutes I could see the round ‘I’m working’ graphic on the screen, but even that wasn’t moving smoothly. Another 5 or so minutes later the iPhone had restarted and everything was back to normal, or so I thought.

A phone call came in. Cool.. Picked up the phone and started talking… the other end could hear me, but I couldn’t hear them! I knew someone was on the other end but I could hear absolutely nothing. Lets restart the phone I thought… this is strange.

Restarted the phone and this time our table set out to test what was going on. Sure enough, any incoming audio would not play out on the devices handset speaker, but all outgoing audio would transmit fine. All volume settings were fine, everything was as it should have been. A few more restarts and a few more tries, and still no dice.

I left the phone as it was for the evening, but upon returning home I set out to fix the problem. ‘Hope this will be easy’ I thought… and it was, thankfully. Docked the iPhone, opened iTunes and restored the unit. I did a fresh install of 1.1.4 and after that was done, restored settings from a recent backup of the phone. From there, I downloaded and ran the latest version of ZiPhone, and I was back in business. Tested out the phone again, and bingo bongo it was working like butter again. Ordeal over.

So what can we learn from this? Be cautious about third party apps…and backup your iPhone often! I’m not going to discourage you from using or installing anything (go for it!) But I think we all have to realize that 3rd party apps can and sometimes do funny things to the iPhone. In my case incoming audio stopped working for some unknown reason, triggered by a 3rd party app crash. Install 3rd party apps at your own risk, and accept the consequences. That’s the best way to look at it.

On the way home last night I had set myself up for the worst, ‘Well, looks like I might have a brick on my hands…’ Thankfully that wasn’t the case.

Anyone else out there experienced similar problems!? Would love to hear your strange and kooky iPhone horror stories!

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: iPhone, Raging Thunder, ZiPhone

iPhysics has been available for quite some time now for the iPhone. It’s a handy little 3rd party game engine developed by r4m0n. With it you can install quite a few games that have incredibly accurate and lifelike physics… Cool beans!

At last count there was roughly 50 or so different packages/games/level packs available within the iPhysics folder in installer.app. So there are lots of titles to choose from for sure.

I’ve only recently re-installed iPhysics, as I had issues with it running on 1.1.1 and 1.1.2. Currently I’m on a jailbroken and unlocked iPhone running 1.1.3 and it works beautifully. I’ve got 3 games installed in iPhysics (Crayon Physics, Sandbox, and iPinball), and I have to say I’m enjoying them. iPinball is pretty darn cool as you can see from the video below. Does have a few bugs, whenever I try to turn up or turn down the volume, the screen flickers like mad… But other than that, all good. r4m0n appears to be working on the flicker problems, as you can see at his Wiki here.

If you can’t find iPhysics in installer.app, try the following steps:

1. Start Installer.app
2. Click on Sources
3. Click on Edit button, then Add button
4. Enter this URL: http://iphone.r4m0n.net/repos
5. iPhysics should now appear in Installer.app

My iPhysics appears in its own category as ‘iPhysics’. If you’re having trouble locating it, or making it available in your installer.app, let me know and I’ll be glad to help.

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: installer.app, iPhone Software, iPhysics, iPinball

It would seem that all signs are pointing to a large international roll-out of the much ballyhooed iPhone 2.0. Why? Let me give you the skinny.

Vodafone confirmed yesterday that it has secured distribution rights for the iPhone in 10 countries… Yes, 10 countries. The countries are: India, Australia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey. I’m particularly happy for the folks in Greece… as one of my digg fans recently pointed me towards this site: www.wewantapplegreece.com. Greece is clearly ‘jonesing’ for the iPhone, as is a large majority of the world.

T-Mobile has recently confirmed that it will introduce the iPhone in Austria, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia and Latin America.

Rogers Communications in Canada also recently confirmed their intent to launch the iPhone in Canada during the 2008 calendar year. Canadians, can I get a w00t!? (pray for reasonably priced data plans)

See how everything appears to be lining up for a huge international launch? I’m glad I’m not in charge of co-ordinating such a thing. However I would think that getting carriers on board in the above countries would not be such a hard task… at least not compared to China.

*smooth segue*

China would be the next monster to tackle. According to our friends at MacRumors and AppleInsider, the latest version of iPhone Software 2.0 has handwriting recognition for Chinese.

Exciting stuff indeed. 2008 is looking more and more to be the year of iPhone Proliferation… er, the year of the International iPhone… um… well you know what I mean.

[via MacWorld UK]

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: iPhone, iPhone 2.0, Rogers Communications, T-Mobile, Vodafone

With the rumored release of the new 3G iPhone upon us (all signals are pointing to a June release), it raises the question of how much will it cost? Price rumors have been floating around lately, and in an article last week at Fortune, writer Scott Moritz reported some tasty little tidbits. He noted:

“AT&T is preparing to subsidize $200 of the cost of a new iPhone, bringing the price down to $199 for customers who sign two-year contracts, the source says. Apple is expected to have two versions of the new iPhone, an 8-gigabyte-memory and a 16-gigabyte-memory model with price tags widely expected to be $399 and $499…The $200 rebate or subsidy would be limited to AT&T customers and not available through Apple’s stores. The new iPhone sold by AT&T will likely be locked or programmed so buyers can’t take the cheaper iPhone to another phone service.”

At that price point, the iPhone would be well within reach of a much larger market. The aim here of course is to get the iPhone into as many hands as possible. Without a doubt the $200 price tag is much more attractive, affordable, and reasonable.

Bringing the cost of the device is one of the most important next-steps in the proliferation of the iPhone in my opinion. iPhone is now charging on the enterprise scene, and with a more affordable 3G up for offer, I think we’ll see it in the hands of much more diverse group of social, business and casual users in mid 2008.

The question remains… What would you pay for the 3G iPhone? Is $199 a fair pricetag?

[via Fortune]

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: 3G iPhone, AT&T, iPhone

As you might have seen or heard, more so-called images of the 3G iPhone have been leaked all over the Apple blogosphere. While they do look real, there is no confirmation from Apple… and lets face it, Photoshop can do wonders as we are all well aware.

Take a look at the side-by-side image I’ve prepared above. As you’ll notice, the supposed snap of the 3G iPhone bears a striking resemblance to the LG Vu in size and shape. It would be awfully easy to photoshop on the home button and anything else you wanted on there. Also note that the angle of the snaps you’ve seen elsewhere have the phone on an angle as such that you can only see the bezel of one side of the phone. This also happens to be the side on the LG Vu where no buttons are located. Hmmmmm… For real or do we just have another case of handy photoshop work at play here? I’m sure by now you can guess my opinion… what do you think? See the comparison pic above.

[via Engadget]

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: 3G iPhone, LG Vu

Say that title 10 times fast… I dare you… iPhone Ranked First For Flickr Photogs, iPhone Ranked First For Flickr Photogs… Ok, ok, I’ll shut up!

The built-in camera on the iPhone could use a lot of things. One thing I’d love to see personally is a zoom lens… And while I’m at it I’d like to see more megapixels jammed in there as well, but I’m not too picky. For me, and my needs it serves me just fine. Flickr thinks the iPhone camera is just fine and dandy as well.

Recent Flickr data (chart above, via Flickr’s Camera Finder) shows that the iPhone is now the number one cameraphone used on the site.

So how does Flickr know what cameraphones are being used? They analyze the metadata attached to each photo as they are being uploaded to the site. Until now, the Nokia N95 had been the cameraphone of choice.

The iPhone does make it really easy to share photos via Flickr. If you search through installer.app you’ll find a program called ‘iFlickr‘. With it, you can easily upload your iPhone photos directly to your Flickr account. It’s quick, handy, and best of all it’s darn easy. You will of course need a Flickr account (free), but if you don’t have one, iFlickr will direct you to Flickr where you can create one right from your iPhone.

[via arstechnica]

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: Cameraphone, Flickr, iFlickr, iPhone