Apple Delivers iPhone software update 1.1.3

Apple today announced a free software update for its iPhone that allows users to automatically find their location using the redesigned Maps application; text message multiple people in one message; create Web Clips for their favorite websites; customize their home screen; and watch movies rented from the new iTunes Movie Rentals right on their iPhone.

New iPhone products shipping from the factory will include the software update and existing iPhone customers will automatically get the update for free when they sync their iPhone with iTunes (http://www.itunes.com/).


Maps, one of the most popular and helpful applications on iPhone, has a new interface that is simpler and easier to use and adds incredible new features such as the ability to find your location automatically. With just the tap of a button, iPhone can now triangulate your position using nearby Wi-Fi base stations or cellular towers. You can use this as a starting or ending point for directions or to find local points of interest. The new hybrid map view combines map view and satellite view so you can see major street names overlaid on satellite imagery.

Users can now create Web Clips - icons on the home screen that take you directly to your favorite websites, including to the exact spot you have zoomed into. Web Clips are a great way to easily track websites that you frequently check such as news, blogs, sports sites and movie listings. In addition, users can now customize their home screen by repositioning any of the icons, and even create up to nine different home screens that they can easily flick between.

iPhone’s new software update also adds the ability to send the same SMS text message to multiple people, and iPhone saves a history of your text messages, so with one tap you can send a new message to the same group.

With Apple's new iTunes Movie Rentals, movie fans can rent movies on their computer, easily and quickly transfer them to their iPhone, and watch them anywhere on iPhone's gorgeous 3.5 inch screen. Users can also now navigate forward or backward through their movies by chapters, select alternate language tracks and view subtitles, if available.

The iPhone software update 1.1.3 is available immediately for free via iTunes 7.5 or later for all existing iPhone customers in the US, UK, Germany and France.

Source: Slashphone

Nokia Asks Jobs If iTunes Can Come Out and Play

Does Nokia's multimedia guru Anssi Vanjoki read Gizmodo? A few months back, when Nokia launched its Ovi mobile media portal, our own personal Jesus ridiculed its use of Windows Mobile content as not being able to keep up with iTunes. Well, right or wrong, Nokia got the message, and Vanjoki is now inviting Steve Jobs by name to let iTunes appear in Ovi's "open door" of goods and services. Besides the fact that the only answer I can imagine Steve uttering has a few f-bombs in it, how would that even work? Wouldn't Nokia phones and other Ovi-friendly devices need the coveted iTunes DRM? Or would it be for unlocked AAC iTunes Plus content only? [Press Release]

[via Gizmodo]

T-Mobile unlocks German iPhones through iTunes - official iPhone unlocking hack on the way?

We all know by now that T-Mobile Germany has been forced to offer carrier-unlocked iPhones to its customers.
But, until now, we had no idea how Apple and T-Mobile would go about unlocking those 999 Euro (about $1,500 USD) iPhones. Well, thanks to well-heeled iPhone hopefuls with the bankroll and desire to own an iPhone that can work on any GSM network in the world, we now know just how Apple will go about unlocking said iPhones.

It seems that Apple’s own iTunes activation-setup has been modified to unlock those premium iPhones upon approval from Cupertino. Anyone looking to purchase an uber-expensive, unlocked iPhone from T-Mobile Germany will be given a run-of-the-mill, locked iPhone. The IMEI number is sent to Apple for remote-unlocking approval. Within 24 hours, Apple will send the unlocked iPhone owner an email confirming their unlocked status. Then, a simple iTunes-sync will result in a SIM-unlocked iPhone with the v1.1.2 firmware.

Pretty simple, eh? We think so too. And, with an Apple-sanctioned unlock method for the iPhone (one that doesn’t risk bricking your iPhone with every firmware update), we figure the iPhone Dev Team is hard at work trying to reverse-engineer the Apple unlock process. If Apple was fool-hardy enough to hide some iPhone-unlocking code into iTunes, the iPhone community could have an official, non-bricking iPhone unlock solution in the near future. We’ll be keeping our ears to the ground on this one, folks.

[Via: MacRumors]

Nokia Online Music Store Aims to Dethrone Apple iTunes

There are rumblings over at Fortune that Nokia is planning on creating a new online music service on the 29th of this month and it will be attacking the exact same market as iTunes. To be launched in London, the yet unnamed Nokia online music store will allow customers to "purchase music songs from the Nokia website and also transfer the music to the mobile phone.

"You'd assume that this would come with some sort of integrated software, much like Apple's iTunes, which brings the online store and your physical music-playing device together. Nokia doesn't produce standalone music players, so this store is catering more toward owners of say a Nokia N91, 5300, or N73 Music Edition.

Accompanying the launch of the new online service, Nokia is also said to be revealing new music phones at the same event. The most likely additions will be the Nokia N81 or Nokia N82, either of which could come with WiFi, 8GB internal memory, and HSDPA.

Melodeo to Take iTunes Playlists Mobile

By Geoff Duncan

Melodeo plans to let mobile phone users tap into their iTunes libraries by streaming their playlists directly to their handsets.

Digital music service Melodeo has said it plans to launch a service which will let iTunes users stream music in playlists in their personal music libraries to their mobile phones. The service would also enable iTunes users to tap into their music libraries from more than one computer.

The announcement comes just weeks before the launch of Apple's intensively-watched iPhone, which combines a mobile phone with PIM applications, Internet access, and (as Mr. Jobs would put it) a widescreen iPod. The idea behind Melodeo's service is to let users access their iTunes libraries from their cell phones, without having to by Apple's much-hyped (and very expensive) new mobile device.

To use the service, users would upload their playlists to Melodeo; when they want to play their music, they would be able to choose from titles in their pre-defined playlists. Melodeo isn't actually reconnecting to a user's computer, downloading the selected song, and then streaming that data to the end user; instead, the company is merely playing songs based on the data in the iTunes playlist. Melodeo believes that it only has to pay usage fees associated with a Web-based radio service—although those fees are currently the subject of much gnashing-of-teeth. Melodeo understands that there's nothing guaranteeing users actually own the songs included in the playlists, and sees that as an asset: users may create playlists to introduce music to friends, and folks may find it easier to subscribe to Melodeo's service than to buy and download music on their own.

Of course, if music in a playlist isn't available to Melodeo, users who want to stream it to their phones will be out of luck—a limitation which may be particularly galling to fans of indie music, rarities, or local acts.

Melodeo says the service is in testing now, and Melodeo's vice president of music services has told Reuters the company hopes to launch the service in the next six to twelve weeks in partnership with a mobile carrier. Melodeo would earn money based on either a subscription fee to use the service, data download fees, or embedded advertisements. Melodeo already delivers Web-based audio to cell phones, concentrating on podcasts.