Stanford’s free iPhone coding class passes 1 million downloads

About a month ago, Wired.com gave you a glimpse into the iPhone application programming course at Stanford University. We also noted the lectures were being videotaped and distributed free on the iTunes U educational channel. We’re delighted to see Stanford’s announcement that the video podcast has surpassed 1 million downloads — the fastest this milestone has ever been reached in the history of iTunes U, according to Stanford. Way to go, Stanford! The next army of iPhone developers salutes you.

See Also:

• Apple Launches iPhone University Program
• Nine-Year-Old Prodigy Writes iPhone App
• Hard Times? Not for iPhone Developers
• Texas University Hands Out Free iPods, iPhones
• Stanford Offers iPhone 101: App Developing Workshop
• Coder’s Half-Million-Dollar Baby Proves iPhone Gold Rush Is Still on
  
• Apple Promotes All-Time Top iPhone Apps
• iPhone Developers Go From Rags to Riches

[via Wired]

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Apple Promotes All-Time Top iPhone Apps

Apple has posted the top-20 paid and free iPhone apps that netted the most downloads since the App Store's launch in July.

The list includes games, social networking tools, everyday utilities (e.g. weather and movie listings), novelty apps and musical instruments.

A combination of luck and clever marketing enabled developers to climb to the top. Among the top free apps is Tap Tap Revenge, a rhythm game that has singlehandedly created a new distribution channel for music, enabling artists to promote their tunes and gain exposure.

Another game, iShoot, sits on the list of top paid apps. The game earned its developer Ethan Nicholas $600,000 in a single month. Recently, Nicholas told Wired.com he has surpassed the $800,000 mark. To boost sales, Nicholas developed a free version of the game — iShoot Lite — and used it to promote the paid version. The strategy worked: In January, users downloaded the free version 2.4 million times, which led 320,000 satisfied iShoot Lite players to pay for iShoot.

Continue reading @ Wired

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iPhone 3.0 Wish List: Accessory-Powered Apps We Want

Forget copy-and-paste. The real seed of innovation planted in the upcoming iPhone 3.0 upgrade is the OS's ability to interact with special accessories via Bluetooth and the dock connector.

Here's why you should care: There are endless possibilities for app-accessory combos — so many, in fact, that we're going out on a limb and coining a phrase to describe the field: dongleware.

Here's a good example from Apple's recent iPhone 3.0 event: an insulin meter that communicates with a diabetes application for the iPhone. Now, with an iPhone in her pocket hooked to the meter, a diabetes patient can check her glucose levels and plan out her meals and insulin injections using live data. Tell us that isn't intriguing — and that's just scratching the surface.

With the App Store burgeoning into a billion-dollar industry, and the iPod and iPhone accessory market also surpassing a billion dollars a year, you can be assured iPhone developers will leap on this opportunity to push innovation to new heights. IPhone 3.0 could open doors to significant advancements in home entertainment, the medical field and even the military.

IPhone 3.0's huge potential fired up our imaginations, dreaming up a list of accessory-powered apps we'd like to see. It's not long, as we'd like you readers to submit and vote on suggestions, too. What better way to tell developers which apps will help them strike it rich in the App Store?

Read the whole article @ Wired

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Gigotron's iPhone App Pulls Great Gigs From the Sky

AUSTIN, Texas -- Music junkies are crazy about their iPhones, and for good reason. Not only is it a phone and an iPod all in one, but several iPhone apps make it easy to find music clubs, hook up with friends at concerts and change plans on the fly.

One such app is Gigotron, a free iPhone download that lets music lovers search for nearby shows in their area. Concert listings large and small, aggregated from several public databases, are displayed in an elegant interface that's easy to browse.

Right now, Gigotron only has gig listings for a few cities (New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco) but the company is releasing an update this week that will provide info for shows all over the United States -- including Austin.

Gigotron picked up the best mobile app award here at the South by Southwest Interactive Web Awards here Sunday night. Wired.com caught up with founder and CEO Benjamin Satterfield and CTO Tristan Kosmynka to chat about what's next for Gigotron, what it feels like to win and how the company is coping with AT&T's shaky-flaky signal at SXSW.

Read the whole article @ Wired

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Free iPhones Almost Everywhere, Except the US

Much fuss has been made in the last day about the Japanese iPhone, now available free. It might be true that the Japanese hate the iPhone, but this news is being treated as some kind of big deal.

In fact, a cheap iPhone seems to be a US obsession. A Google search for $99 iPhone brings 3,260,000 results. But the fact is, the $99 iPhone is already here, along with the free iPhone -- you just have to look outside North America to get it. I whipped up the table above to show just how widespread is the free handset. These are the countries I have lived in, but there are plenty more.

Sure, you have to pick a hefty contract to get the handset for nothing, but the US already sucked that one in last year with the debut of the iPhone 3G and its carrier subsidies. Quit whining, already.

However, if you read the little blurb below, you CAN get a free iphone in the US and in Canada and you don't even need a contract or pay ANY additional junk fees.

Read the whole article @ Wired

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Why the Japanese Hate the Free iPhone

Apple's iPhone has wowed most of the globe — but not Japan, where the handset is selling so poorly it's being offered for free.

What's wrong with the iPhone, from a Japanese perspective? Almost everything: the high monthly data plans that go with it, its paucity of features, the low-quality camera, the unfashionable design and the fact that it's not Japanese.

In an effort to boost business, Japanese carrier SoftBank this week launched the "iPhone for Everybody" campaign, which gives away the 8-GB model of the iPhone 3G if customers agree to a two-year contract.

"The pricing has been completely out of whack with market reality," said Global Crown Research analyst Tero Kuittinen in regard to Apple's iPhone prices internationally. "I think they [Apple and its partners overseas] are in the process of adjusting to local conditions."

Read the whole article @ Wired

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Shake my Hand for a Free iPhone

You're at some dull tech conference and somebody want to give you yet another business card. Only this time, you actually want to keep their details and you know that if you accept the dead-tree token it'll end up in your wallet, only to be seen again when you're sitting at a particularly wobbly restaurant table.

But if you have Handshake, a new, free iPhone application, you can quickly and easily swap your contact details with them. Like any app of this type, it needs both parties to be running it, but with that caveat, Handshake looks like a very easy way to network:

The iPhones don't connect directly to each other -- instead the connection goes via Handshake's server, so unless you have good Wi-Fi then this is pretty useless for the iPod Touch (although it will run).

Read the whole article @ Wired

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Unlocked iPhone 3G Available in Hong Kong

Hong Kong, the place where you can buy anything (or have someone make a copy of anything) now has unlocked iPhones for sale. As you can see from the screenshot, these are official, direct from the Apple Store itself.

Read the whole article @ Wired

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IPhone 2.2: Safari Redesign, Possible Cut and Paste

With the iPhone v2.1 software out of the door, Apple is hard at work on v2.2. From this first glimpse it looks like Apple, now that the major bugs have been squashed, is adding some new features.

The screenshot, unearthed by iPhone Atlas, shows a new Safari interface. Above you see a shot from my iPod Touch (left) next to a picture of the new v2.2 Safari. In the new browser, Google gets its own search bar (instead of popping up when you hit the regular URL bar) and the reload button has been moved the address bar, a purely aesthetic change which helps the text-entry areas to look bigger.

Of course, there's still no mention of copy and paste, a seemingly ridiculous omission from such a powerful device. But I have a theory: Apple won't ever put it in, at least not in the form we currently know. The iPhone model is quite different from that of a proper computer. In a Mac or PC, you use the operating system to act on files, be they pictures, e-mails or text documents.

Read the whole article @ Wired

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Secret URL May Allow Apple to Delete Your iPhone Apps Remotely

It's supposed to be your "life in your pocket," not Apple's. But a piece of code discovered in the iPhone operating system might keep you under Apple's control.

Jonathan Zdrianski, author of the book iPhone Open Application Development, discovered a URL hidden in iPhone's CoreLocation that he believes the iPhone uses to check whether any apps on your phone match with those listed in a database of blacklisted applications. Presumably, that would allow Apple to remotely de-authorize those apps, or perhaps even delete them.

"This suggests that the iPhone calls home once in a while to find out what applications it should turn off," Zdrianski wrote. "At the moment, no apps have been blacklisted, but by all appearances, this has been added to disable applications that the user has already downloaded and paid for, if Apple so chooses to shut it down."

Hum. So then all of those who got away with NetShare before it disappeared from the App Store aren't so safe/lucky after all.

Now, if Apple were more organized with regard to what appears and disappears from the App Store, they probably wouldn't need this emergency procedure. What's the point of an approval process if the useless, $1,000 "I Am Rich" app is going to make it out the door, only to be yanked immediately afterward?

(Photo credit: Fr3d.org/Flickr)

Read the whole article @ Wired

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IPhone 3G Users Heated Over Network Issues

People aren't done complaining about the iPhone 3G. This time, it's the 3-G network that's grinding people's gears.

Hundreds of peeved iPhone users in Apple's support forums say they're experiencing problems with the 3-G network. Some Gadget Lab readers have written in echoing similar concerns. And CNET editors say they're receiving e-mails about 3-G issues, too.

The problems vary. A few readers said they can only stay on 3-G for a few minutes before their iPhone switches over to the slower EDGE network -- even in areas with rich 3-G coverage. Some forum users said they're getting poor reception (e.g. two bars) everywhere they go.

It's unclear as to whether it's a network or hardware issue. But a Gadget Lab reader said AT&T assured him it was a problem with the phone.

"I work in Midtown Manhattan, probably the most 3-G-covered area, and indeed I get five full glorious bars of broadband goodness at my desk -- for two minutes," the reader wrote in an e-mail. "Then iPhone switches to EDGE, still full bars mind you, and back to 3-G for a hot second. All day. Apart from draining my battery, this make me type this very e-mail on EDGE when I just racked up 550 bucks for the phone (since I was not eligible for an upgrade). Called AT&T. They told me my phone was defective and that of course it was not the network. Bad 3-G software ? Bad chip?"

AT&T spokesperson Brad Mays said iPhone 3G is "performing great."

Read the whole article @ Wired

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Free iPhone App Turns Your Friends into Joker

Waiting in line for the Dark Knight? Here's something to help pass the time if you have an iPhone: The free HaHaHa app.

Snap a photo of your friend and you can smear Joker makeup all over his face. Hahaha -- sucker.

What'll really pass the time is the sheer difficulty of using this app: Mess up applying Joker makeup once and you have to start all over again. The e-mailing portion of the app isn't integrated with iPhone's Mail, and it's a real pain to use (requiring you to fill out your name and e-mail address as well as your friends').

I'm not sure how much Heath Ledger fans will appreciate this app. I guess this is Warner Bros' way of cherishing his memory.

Read the article @ Wired

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How To Unbrick an iPhone For Free

Hackers have published a 19-step recovery method for those who applied Apple's 1.1.1 firmware update to their unlocked iPhones.

Free of charge (unlike the recently-issued fix for those who paid $100 for iPhoneSimFree), the plan rolls an iBrick back to the old 1.0.2 firmware in its pristine, unlocked state. There is, however, one problem: as can be seen at the linked instructions below, it's a complicated and technical procedure.

I'd offer the standard "At Your Own Risk" disclaimer, but screw it: you've already wrecked your iPhone ten ways from Sunday fooling around with this stuff, so what more can another run through the wringer do?

UNBRICKING 1.1.1 UPGRADE [iPhone Elite]

Read the whole article @ Wired

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iPhone Delayed in Canada Due To Existing Canadian iPhone

In the U.S., the iPhone trademark is owned by Cisco. Apple chose to damn the legal torpedoes here, but knew it would ultimately get a deal out of the Routermakers General. Apple did manage to get the trademark elsewhere, with filings in Singapore and Australia bearing fruit. In Canada, however, the mark has long been owned by Comwave, a telecoms company in Ontario. Apple tried and failed to register the name there—but Comwave, unlike Cisco, won't play ball on sharing the name.

“The force they put into marketing would quickly make the brand Apple’s and not ours,” Comwave president Yuval Barzakay told the CBC, adding that it would effectively be hijacked by any such agreement. "Co-existence is not possible."

What he's saying, of course, is that is that everything has its price, but only if you want to buy it. And he's right: can you see Apple renaming the iPhone, or missing out on a market the size of California?

Read the whole article @ Wired

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Access Gained to iPhone 1.1.1 Files!!!

Hackers have gained access to the upgraded iPhone's file system. This feat, if reliably repeatable, marks a major step toward cracking Apple's 1.1.1 update. The Unofficial Apple Weblog is liveblogging its attempts to apply the method, which involves using symbolic links (Unix's equivalent to shortcuts) to confuse the iPhone during upgrade.

Here's the basic outline of the proposed hack:

1. Using ssh: cd /var/root

2. mv Media backup

3. ln -s / Media

4. Upgrade to 1.1.1

5. Upse iphuc to access the changes and hopefully get execute access.

As of 10:30 a.m., however, Erica Sadun is reporting problems getting her SIM card (a "proper" AT&T one) recognized.

UPDATE: She's in! Erica reports gaining full access. Bear in mind that this doesn't unlock the iPhone, allow third-party apps or any other end-user useful thing — but it does lay bare the system for close inspection and manipulation.

Read the whole article @ Wired

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Intel Inside iPhone

Digitimes is reporting that Jobs and company may be seriously considering using a new Intel-based processor for future iterations of the iPhone. While the Cupertino company currently uses an ARM-based processor and a custom mainboard, part makers are now suggesting that Intel's new mobile internet device architecture, dubbed Moorestown, may in fact be a perfect fit for the iPhone…and presumably the iPod touch as well.

Intel revealed a Moorestown-based MID product with functions similar to Apple's iPhone at the recent Intel Developer Forum (IDF) [in] San Francisco. The Moorestown platform is expected to launch in 2009 and Apple is considering developing an iPhone based on it, stated the sources.

Because Moorestown will be based on Intel's much-hyped 45nn manufacturing process, that could mean your future iPhone will see an exponential boost in power-efficiency (both in active and idle modes) and performance. Good news considering Moorestown will also likely support 3G (HSDPA), Wi-Fi, and WiMax.

Electronista also notes that the processor change would also bring the iPhone's software closer in step with that of the company's Mac computer range.

Read the whole article @ Wired

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iPhone Bricked Despite Not Being Hacked?

Given Apple's track record of seamless engineering and just-works interfacing, you would think that only the hackers would end up with bricked iPhones. You would be wrong.

If the 1.1.1 update turned your pristine AT&T-locked handset into a roundrect skipping stone, unable to complete a restore operation, make sure you have the dock plugged into a bare-metal USB 2.0 port on your machine. Macjournals anecdotally reports that USB hubs, including Apple keyboards, may cause updating errors that result in the phone being more or less inoperable after completion.

Read the whole article @ Wired

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Hacked 1.0 iPhone Firmware vs. Official 1.1.1

9to5Mac has gone to the trouble of enumerating the myriad differences between using the hacked 1.0.2 iTunes software and the newly-released official 1.1.1 setup. It went into the details of the new updates and offered a nice chart. It's too complicated for me, though, so here's an "at a glace" graphic.

Yes, we're being a bit mean. But we do it only because we know that, in the end, Apple can still make everything alright, even if it comes well-after the iPhone makes its triple salto into mass-market orbit this holiday season. There's a lot a computer can do beyond make phone calls and surf the web, and chaining this little powerhouse down is a damned shame of PSP-like proportions.

In the meantime, the only thing for it is to get a knitted iPhone, which offers something neither of these rivals can boast: cuddliness.

Read the whole article @ Wired

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IPhone Boosts Google Maps Usage

It would appear Google owes Steve Jobs a round of beers. According to GigaOm, the iPhone has boosted the popularity of Google Maps like never before.

While she didn't give specific numbers, Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products, told Om that the company saw a significant uptick in Google Maps usage shortly after the iPhone release in July. That trend has continued for the past two months, Mayer said, and "maps usage hasn’t stopped rising."

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for YouTube, another iPhone feature Apple has promoted heavily. Meyer says that the phone's YouTube functionality has not caused any major upsurge in video viewing. Of course, that may be attributable to YouTube's already gigantic user base, but AT&T's slow-as-molasses EDGE network certainly isn't helping matters.

Read the whole article @ Wired

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New Hack Allows you to Re-Lock Your IPhone

Forget unlocking your iPhone. With Apple announcing today a forthcoming update that will supposedly break all software unlocks as well as plans to void the warranties on previously hacked or unlocked iPhones, a new option to re-lock your phone has just emerged on MacNN.

The process, as outlined by one MacNN reader, promises to restore your iPhone to its natural unsullied state -- thus rendering it impervious to Apple's forthcoming firmware update. But don't get too excited. This hack is by no means for the faint of heart. Nor is it a guarantee your iPhone will survive the update. Even the author reminds users that his instructions "are still in flux."

It is believed the above procedure will relock your iPhone and prevent it from being made permanently unusable by the upcoming firmware update. There is no gaurantee [sic], however, and I take no responsibility for your iPhone if the above procedures do not work for you and your iPhone gets hosed.

There you have it. So for all you unlockers out there, it sounds like waiting for this relocking business to get smoothed out is probably your best bet...that, and avoiding iTunes like the plague this week.

Read the whole article @ Wired

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