Well, it’s been just over a year now when I bought the Motorola S9-HD Bluetooth Stereo Headset. The sole purpose was to be wireless when out and about to stream audio content from my iPhone 3GS. The catch here was that the iOS did not have the full AVRCP 1.0 built-in, so skipping forward or backward had to be done directly from the 3GS. Since then iPhone and iPod Touch users have waited through various iOS updates which added up to nothing more than teases in various iOS betas, now with iOS 4.1 you can finally keep your iPhone where it belongs… in your pocket.

Last night I downloaded the new iTunes 10 and the iOS 4.1 GM. Installed the new iOS on to my iPhone 4 and tested it out with my S9-HD. In one word… s-w-e-e-t. This is one of those features that either works or it doesn’t and in this case it works. I haven’t tested it outside yet to see if the Bluetooth connection is any better but that’s coming. So for those waiting for the official release of iOS 4.1 just know you should have total control of your media via a bluetooth headset once 4.1 is released to the masses. Just be aware that all headsets don’t always play nice with all devices so make sure your headset firmware is up to date, actually supports AVRCP and restore your iPhone as a new device. This way you leave behind any trace of the older firmware/software that may not be compatible and cause problems.

On my 2nd wedding anniversary Apple decided to give this fanboy a nice gift: the next iPhone hardware announcement. Unfortunately I was at work, so I could only get the little bits from the live blog, but I have since downloaded and watched the keynote. Here is an overview of the noteworthy things I liked:

New Look

I love the sleek new look of the iPhone. The fact that they made it slimmer is amazing and hard to believe, but it’s true, 24% thinner than the previous generation. I still see this thing being easily scratchable, but adding a case or the Apple “bumper” cases should do the trick, although it hides the coolness of the device. Being flat is a nice design evolution. I like the two button volume control rather than the rocker which I often find I hit the wrong direction while the phone is in the case.

I do worry that the Marware case that I have will no longer fit this phone. It’s very loose now with my 3G due to the wear, that means I’ll have to find a replacement. I also purchased the charging doc for my 3G, and it looks like the new form factor will make that device obsolete. I guess it gets passed down to my wife’s 3Gs.

From the pictures the changes are drastic yet similar (depending on the viewing angle) and I’m pretty impressed. Apple loves to change the design to make the old product look old.

New Hardware

Inside Apple has added their new A4 chip that powers the iPad. Not a surprise here. It will be a welcome update for me given that I have the 3G which I find very slow compared to the 3Gs. 802.11N for the new wireless standard was an obvious update too. I was really excited to hear bigger battery. I can get my phone down pretty far without doing a ton of work on it. Now with the new battery you can get up to 10 hours of video, that is like 4 movies! 300 hours of stand by time and 6 hours of browser time is awesome too.

Adding the gyroscope to allow better movement tracking is very “Wii-esque” and should open up some interesting games and map navigation apps.

New Display

It was hard to tell on the downloaded keynote sometimes, but you could see the much more richer display. It’s incredible with the same screen size they were able to get the resolution they did (960 x 480) which has over 70% of the pixels the much larger iPad has. All the icons and pictures taken with the iPhone did look way better. I’m sure this helps too with the new OS feature to have wall paper on the home screen, should make it easier to see the icons and text. I was a bit disappointed because I was thinking iPad since it came out, now it seems likely if I wait a year I’ll get a better display (and maybe a camera!).

New Camera(s)

It’s been long rumoured that Apple would catch up to other phones and add a front facing camera. While I don’t know for sure what pixel quality is on the front, it is exciting that video conference calls through Skype are now possible, although won’t be available at launch. The video that Apple showed of a Dad keeping in touch with his family through the new FaceTime feature is exactly how I picture this feature working. You can quickly hit a button and it will switch to using the rear camera, a neat way to show somebody on a call something really quick. Unfortunately it’s Wi-Fi only which I think will change once the carriers allow it, and the other limitation is that you will have to have an iPhone 4 to make it work. So that means no other iPhone or the iPad can take advantage of it. I would hope that the iMac and Macbooks could through the iSight, but that would likely only mean through something like Skype.

The beefed up 5 megapixel camera on the back with an LED flash is great. My iPhone is pretty much useless in low light situations and offers grainy photos (the 3GS seems much better) but having this kind of quality at your finger tips is amazing. Add a digital zoom and you have everything you need to capture moments when your DSLR is not at hand.

iOS4

At first I groaned at this, but when you see the demos that Steve Jobs did it actually made the idea of an ad being entertaining and informative a reality. Everything goes through Apple, so the iAd program will likely demand a level of quality to them. Apparently there are tons of ads ready to go and the product hasn’t even shipped, so that has to be great news.

Multi-tasking is something I can’t wait to try. I won’t be able to use it on my 3G, but for sure I will on the 3GS. I think Skype is a cool prospect to now be able to receive calls and keep chat windows (I think?) and calls active while I switched in and out of apps. It works as you expect and appears very fluid, but I would like to understand the limits to how many apps you can have open. We will have to wait to see people fully take advantage of the new background API’s, watch out for location based services and apps that update where you are at all times!

Adding folders will be nice so that I can keep most of my frequently used apps on the home page rather than swiping through or using Spotlight all the time. What I think is missing is add contacts to the home screen.

I love that you can add wallpaper to the home screen, but I need to see if they conflict with the icons and text.

A feature I will use all the time is the unified inbox. I have a lot of IMAP email accounts and having one single inbox to check them all will be crucial to saving me time.

I’m interested in iBooks, the e-book store that Apple has created. I’ve heard that it is very limited for the Canadian market but I assume that will change over time. I don’t know if I would use my iPhone for reading very much, I picture the iBook store being best for me like it was intended: on the iPad. I do like that if I had an iPad and ready a few chapters, that (I guess through my Apple ID) my progress would sync to my iPhone and I could pick up where I left off.  Also, if I bought a book on either device I have access to it on both.

Price and Availability

In Canada we have to wait until July before we even have a shot at this phone. All the big carriers are getting the phones. No details yet on upgrade pricing or how someone like me, who has had a 3G for 18 months or so can get an iPhone 4. One interesting way would be from Apple themselves. They announced in Canada that they are selling unlocked iPhones. That is an interesting option given the advantages of having an unlocked phone: no contract, can switch from carrier to carrier, etc. I’ll wait to find out what the pricing is, and if it’s possible to get a micro SIM from Rogers to pop into the iPhone 4.

I suspect the unlocked phone price to be upwards of $700 and the subsidized version similar to the US prices. I’ll wait and see what Rogers has to say in July!

Leave a comment with your thoughts on the next iPhone, would love to read them!

This post originally appeared on DavidRStorms.com on June 17, 2010.

Otterbox’s recent follow up to the Defender line of cases is the Commuter series. Think of it as a scaled down version of the Defender but not as specialized in purpose. It’s more designed for the everyday “commuter” who wants a case that protects their device yet remains understated. If you’ve been looking for something like this for your iPhone 3G/3GS then read on as this just might be the perfect case for you.

In typical Defender series fashion the Commuter case is a 3-part system that acts as one. First, is the included screen protector. A simple plastic film that helps to keep the iPhone’s screen from being scratched and marred. It’s not as high-end as individually purchased screen protectors but it does the job it’s built for. Next, up is the case itself which is divided into two parts. Starting with the rubber casing which doesn’t immediately appear like anything more than a seemingly flimsly rubber case cut to fit the iPhone 3G/3GS. A closer examination though, reveals that the cutouts and molding seem very precise and well made. Once you put it on the iPhone, you begin to see the amount of thought that went into designing this case. Besides the front face there are 4 always open areas for easy access to the ringer switch, speaker, mic, camera, and a cutout to show off that Apple logo. The headphone jack and dock connector are both covered by flaps that are precision cut which fit perfectly into position when closed sealing out dust, dirt and grime. The power and volume buttons are both permenantly protected by well designed moldings that look just like the actual iPhone buttons. The second part is the ridgid plastic shell that fits on top of the rubber casing. Also engineered with precision to fit snuggly into the molded area of the rubber case without adding more bulk to the overall package. Applying the shell takes some manipulation of both pieces as it is an exact fit. But once on, it’s in no danger of accidentally coming off. With all the pieces in place you now have a complete protective system that allows full use of the iPhone while still maintaining a low profile.

I have found no flaws in the design or anything not to like about the Commuter case. It offers protection that is on par to the Defender considering the open face design and thinner form factor. It’s excellently crafted to fit the iPhone 3G/3GS perfectly without developing buldges or gaps around the bezel unlike some rubber cases I’ve used and seen. Although this is an open face design dust protection is still very good. This is in part due to the tight fit and the well crafted protective flaps which stay in place at all times and remaining invisible to the user until needed. The open access points of the case are not over done either. They are designed to be just large enough for easy access and use and nothing more. This reduces the possibility of dirt getting between the the case and the iPhone and reduces the risk of that area being damaged in an accident. This is something very welcome which many case designers still don’t get. Add in the pemenantly covered molded button design which not only protects those moving parts but allows you to forget about the case entirely and use the iPhone as if it wasn’t ina case and you’ve got a excellent user experience.

After several months of use I find myself very impressed with this case. The attention to detail is outstanding and the craftsmanship is exceptional. Everyday use has been fantastic as I don’t even think about the case at all. It feels good in the the hand without restricting one-handed use while still offereing good protection under most circumstances. A big plus to this form fitting case is that it works with my Zagg full-body InvisibleShield without any problems which actually gives this case an even tighter fit. As with most cases some adapters may not work if they are larger than the one that comes with the iPhone. I highly recommend the Commuter case to anyone who wants their iPhone 3G/3GS well protected and still have full access to all it’s functions as if there was not a case on it to begin with. You can get it for $34.95 (direct from Otterbox) which is an excellent value that will do nothing but pay for itself over time.

I’m sure all of you reading this site faithfully love your iPhone and can’t imagine anything better. I find it is definitely integral to my day and I use it for all it can do, from games, remote access, email, calendar, contacts, surfing, GPS, music and podcasts, texting to actually phoning people.

With the 3.0 software and the new hardware, Apple bridged the gulf between other more standard features on competitor phones that they were lacking, such as video, MMS, voice dialing, etc. I think they are going to find it harder to throw more things into this device and keep it slick, simple and easy to use. I do however feel they have a bit of a ways to go before they get there.

Here are 5 features I would like to see up and coming on the future version of the iPhone (in no particular order).

1. Camera on the Front of the iPhone

Type: Hardware and Software

Having a camera on the iPhone is an obvious feature. Having one on the front would enable video calls between camera enabled phones. The first practical use for this would be Skype so that you can [do] video chats. I would see this coming from Apple in an iChat style native app. The burden will be the cell network. Video uses a lot of bandwidth so it would be doubtful with the current infrastructure that cell companies can handle a lot of video calls plus maintain the reliability for phones based apps. Something like this could launch over wi-fi only (like Skype is now) and then expand as the carrier can support it. Probably something like a premium charged service would likely happen. This would be live video chats by the way, not video like messages delivered like voice mail.

2. More Sound Options

Type: Software

I would like to see more native support for changing the ringtones for email especially. I find the dull tone very difficult to hear sometimes and I rely mainly on the vibration to know when I get email. It would be nice if a more audible sound like when you get a text message could be used. On that note, the options for text messages are limited, not sure why.

3. “Single App” Multi-Tasking

Type: Software

How many times have you been playing a game, writing an email or doing something on the phone and get a text message. From a programming point of view, in the iPhone SDK a message is sent to the app that halts it and gives it a chance to do things such as save state or progress so that after leaving the app to answer the text, you can resume from where you left off when you come back in. This is just good design for the iPhone to do this. But often I don’t want to stop to answer the text, I like seeing it but if I hit reply, I have to then go back to where I was, if I hit close I then have to remember to go answer the text, because hitting close removes the “new” and the badge counter on the Messages app. What I would love to see is another option to throw the currently running app into the background. Change the top bar to look the same as it does when you leave a phone call to go to the Home screen. When you do that it flashes green and says “tap to return to the call”. What if something like that can be done for a single app? Apple prohibits background processes because it degrades user experience, but something like this would only allow 1 app to be running. Perhaps it is on a termination timer. But theoretically I could throw the app into the background and launch the Messages app, answer the text, then tap the top bar to jump right back into the app I was running on.

4. Always List the Messages View First When Messaging

Type: Software

I don’t know about you, but how many times have you not noticed the name at the top of the messages app and simply sent something to the wrong person? You can’t blame Apple’s design for this, since it is very clear right up at the top who you are sending the text too, but a lot of the time if you are jumping between messages with different people, or leave the Messages app and go back in, don’t realize the person that is currently selected and send something confusing the wrong person. What I would like is a simple option to always launch Messages in the List view so that you have to pick who you want to type to. If there is only 1 I’m OK with it going to that thread.

5. Recording iPhone Screen Output

Type: Software, Hardware?

We all know Apple can do this because at all the keynotes they demo and have vendors demo their products right up on the big screen. Having the API built to handle this and maybe some kind of hook through iTunes or the Mac OS X itself (or even iTunes) to get video output of the screen would open the door for very high quality product demo videos and tutorials. App reviews will explode and maybe push some more sales. No more would you have to have a dimly lit room and a decent camera focussed on the screen and have to worry about manicures and all of that. There must be some kind of special dev build of the iPhone OS that allows this, making it a core API feature and then providing a product to do this would be a win.

That’s my list for now. I may have more to add later on. I would love to read comments on your thoughts on these features or if you have any yourself.

David Storms is a part time contributor to iPhoneDocked and can be reached at www.davidrstorms.com

In case no one noticed, the battery on the 3G S could be better. While it does seem to be lasting longer for me after a breaking-in period, it still is hard for me to make it through the day without rationing how much I use it or recharging through the day.

I got the Just Mobile Gum Pro from Amazon along with two extra iPhone charging cables for around $75 total with shipping. It retails for about $60.

The packaging was only notable for the picture of this guy. It was really strange and I got a laugh from him.

The battery pack is about the size of a pager or a large pack of chewing gum (think , and relatively heavy. That being said, once you connect it to the phone, you can put it in your pocket and not really notice it. There is an On/Off switch used for switching between the charging of the battery pack and charging of the phone, three LEDs that tell you the approximate charge of the Gum Pro, and two places to plug in various cables. There is the standard female USB port, and a female mini-USB port for charging the unit.

Here are the notes that I took while using the Gum Pro-

First charge of the Gum Pro-
8/10-2.10-4.30 USB from computer
4.40-5.15 charged from Apple wall charger

8/10-10.30 pm plugged phone in with 23% left 12.00am 100% charged
8/12-11.05pm plugged phone in with 29% left
8/13- 3.01am plugged phone in with 29% left

Second Gum Pro Charge-
8/14- 6:50pm plugged phone in with 33% left 100% by 8:30
8/15 1:00am plugged in with 23% left 100% by 3:00am
8/17 2.22pm plugged in with 31% left

So for the first charge, I got about 2.2 full charges from the Gum Pro, while I got about 2.1 full charges. Both times, the battery was drained to under 5% judging by the fact that no LEDs were lit on the battery pack. I should be getting closer to 4 charges, but it is important to remember that modern batteries need a break-in period. Overall, I got 3 extra days of charge of 6 hour/day usage. I didn’t plug the phone into anything except the Gum Pro for a week while charging the battery pack once.

Overall, if you are a heavy user of your phone or just want the extra juice I would recommend this unequivocally. It has a much larger capacity than all battery/case combinations and I have only found one battery pack that stores more than 4400mAh. Personally, I won’t be using it everyday but it will be great for flights, subway trips, and any sort of travel where you can sit down for a while. If you need something to charge on the go I would go with something along the lines of the Mophie Juice Pack Air, because the Gum Pro does not really lend itself to being carried around in the pocket while walking around because of the need for an extra cable. Public transport commuters, frequent fliers, and people who have access to electricity only rarely should pick this up immediately!

I covered in a 2 part series the new MMS and tethering capabilities built into iPhone 3.0. You can find them here:

iPhone 3.0 MMS & Tethering: Part 1

iPhone 3.0 MMS & Tethering: Part 2

In this article I wanted to get more specific and focus on my experience tethering my 3.0 enabled iPhone 3G (note not the 3G S) with my recently purchased iMac (running OS 10 Leopard).

First thing I had to do was turn on Bluetooth on the iPhone. I normally don’t deal with Bluetooth devices so I leave the radio off. Plus it’s a good idea to save on battery life by turning it off. The iMac (which wonderfully has Bluetooth available) wasn’t listed on the devices list, even after I made it discoverable (the iMac that is).

I decided then to go through the device setup wizard available through the Bluetooth configuration icon in the status bar.

On the second page of the wizard there was an option for “Mobile Phone”. I chose that to proceed.

A search page then appeared as it tried to locate (from 2 feet away mind you) my iPhone. It took a moment but it showed up and I was able to select the device to continue. The iMac said that it needed to gather some bits of data about my device (no idea what) but after that I had a code popup on my iPhone which matched a code appearing the iMac screen.

The popup display on the iPhone indicated that a paring was occurring and I had to click OK to permit this. I did. However the pairing came up unsuccessful.

I tried a couple combinations of turning off Bluetooth and back on, switching the discover mode on the iMac to restarting the wizard but I wasn’t having much luck.

I eventually stumbled on the solution (no stopping for directions for this guy!). I had to be on the Bluetooth settings page on the iPhone with it scanning for devices. I then let the wizard attempt to pair with the phone. When the wizard came up with the code, I clicked the OK to permit prompt on the iPhone and then went back to the wizard to click continue.

Success! I could then setup a network connection through the iPhone.

In the Bluetooth settings page (use the Open Bluetooth Preferences from the status bar icon) you will see your paired device and details about it:

All you have to do is click the device and connect! (click the little settings cog wheel next to the minus sign).

So really this is a simple process, and a wireless one at that, much better solution that having to carry around a dock connector.

I did a few connection speed tests to measure the performance (excuse my lousy net speed!)

This is my broadband DSL connection (above)

And here is the tethered test.

About 100 kb/s off on the download, but significantly bad on the download. That is OK with me, since if I was using my iPhone for net access, I would likely really only care about the download speed.

This post originally appeared on DavidRStorms.com on August 10th, 2009

On my last post I talked about the new MMS features with regards to sending pictures in the iPhone 3.0 software update. In this article, I will document my experience trying out the tethering capabilities built right into the iPhone. Now like MMS, tethering technologies have been available on other platforms for years, and without jail-breaking your iPhone, you couldn’t do it previously.

The iPhone is only available on 2 carriers in Canada: Fido and Rogers. I am with Rogers and at launch of the 3.0 update they were one of the carriers that were ready to support tethering. I had to dig a bit to find out what were the conditions of tethering, can I do it now? Will I be charged a ton of money to do it? Do I need some kind of tethering enabled plan?

I managed to find this blurb on the Rogers web site:

So lucky me I already have a 1 GB data plan so I wasn’t worried about incurring charges. And it seems that I have until the end of the year to enjoy this. I haven’t seen anything yet as to what happens in 2010, but I’ll keep digging. A good resource for this is the forums at iphoneincanada.ca where they have a thread on iPhone plans that people can post.

Tethering

This is incredibly easy to do. My first test was with connecting the iPhone to my Windows Vista PC using the dock connector cable that comes with the phone. I made sure wireless was off and the ethernet cable was unplugged and that I had no internet access.

First up is you go to Settings, General and then Network to see this screen:

Click into Internet Tethering to get this screen:

You toggle the ON/OFF and almost immediately are are setup, when you go back to the home screen a nice little blue bar indicates that tethering is enabled:

It’s very similar to when you exit a call to go to the home screen, only not green but blue. When you think about it, it makes sense and is handy to know so that you don’t leave it on and suck up all the bandwidth on your account.

When charging and the phone is locked, you still get the blue indicator:

When I went back to my Vista PC, a new prompt came up:

I choose Home just to get rid of this screen and that was it. I fired up my browser and hit my first web page on tethering:

On the final part I will show the Bluetooth connection with my new iMac and visit a speed testing web site.

Note: this article originally appeared on DavidRStorms.com on August 3rd.

Given the amount of adverse news this week out of the Steve Jobs camp (or in some cases lack of thereof), I wanted to post up a few of my favorite images from around the web in reference to the iPod to “lighten the mood” if you will, remind us all why we purchased this thing because we are sheep.

Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

Apple announced this afternoon the release of iPhone OS 3.0.1, Available for: iPhone OS 1.0 through iPhone OS 3.0

As quoted from their website

Description: A memory corruption issue exists in the decoding of SMS messages. Receiving a maliciously crafted SMS message may lead to an unexpected service interruption or arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issue through improved error handling. Credit to Charlie Miller of Independent Security Evaluators, and Collin Mulliner of Fraunhofer SIT for reporting this issue.

Meaning that an update on our post from yesterday was dead on (kudos to the BBC and Computer World), this patch should be available via iTunes.

One of the exciting additions to the iPhone in the recent firmware update is the ability to send multi-media messages (pictures and video) the same as text messages. This is nothing new to the mobile phone market, as these features have been staples in products for many years. Could be that these things were left off the release table for Apple until now because it was too much work for them to get it in the phone, or they were planning ahead for future firmware releases and didn’t want to use up everything on their feature list!

Regardless, it is here on the iPhone and it is amazing! Also coming along with the update is the Internet tethering capability which had not been available to non jail-broken phones.

MMS

Unfortunately I wish that I had a 3G S phone so that I could test the video side of this, but alas I only have the 3G, so I will only cover my experience with pictures taken by the camera on the phone.

First thing you will see when you open the Messages app (used to be called a speech bubble called SMS but that wouldn’t make sense now would it!) you will notice near the text bar a small camera. Clicking on that little icon will bring up 2 options:

You can click “Take Photo” and jump right into the Camera app, or click “Choose Existing” and head into the Camera Roll and find the picture you want to send.

When you take the picture, you can optionally choose to Retake the photo, or click Use to have it go into your message.

You can type your text right in the speech bubble. I really like how the image is shrunk down and appears with the message. When you click send, it ends up in its own little speech bubble and the text gets separated into its own bubble:

You will notice a nice addition in 3.0 is that the screen isn’t locked with the sending progress bar anymore. The progress shows up at the top so you are free to start typing the next message, or go back and send a message in a different message thread.

I couldn’t make it happen, but when I first started using this feature I would have failed messages. I am with Rogers up here in Canada so shortly after 3.0 came out I imagine they were a bit overloaded with MMS going everywhere. When failures occur, 3.0 now shows them with a red exclamation point beside them. All you have to do is click that and hit the Retry button when it prompts. This is great because it leaves your messages there, so if it was network congestion with Rogers, I can easily leave the Messages app and come back in later and retry them.

You will notice as I did that with the image bubbles, you lose a lot of real estate in landscape mode trying to read other messages:

Of course if someone sends you a picture, it is easy to grab it. Just click on the image (it will appear as a bubble on the left, just like the senders messages) and you will get a full screen preview of the image. In the bottom left is a little icon that lets you easily save that image into your camera roll for safe keeping:

Speaking of camera roll, if you happen to be in there and looking at images and see something you want to share, there is a new option along with the Email to to send via MMS:

In the next part, I will share my experience with the tethering options found in 3.0.

Note: this article originally appeared on DavidRStorms.com on July 26, 2009 and is reprinted here unedited.