Aramation Mobile

Bell has announced this morning that they will be selling Apple’s iPhone 3G and 3GS, ending Rogers’ exclusivity deal. Running on the brand new HSPA network that Bell and Telus jointly built, agreeing Apple to drop the exclusivity is a huge win for Bell. It is rumored that Telus also will be selling iPhones but no announcements have been made. Full (and short) press release:

MONTREAL, ON, Oct. 6 2009 — Bell and Apple have reached an
agreement to bring iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS to Canada this November.
To learn more about Bell’s new 3G network, please visit bell.ca/network
or bell.ca/reseau.

Bell is Canada’s largest communications company, providing consumers and
business with solutions to all their communications needs, including Bell
Mobility wireless, high-speed Bell Internet, Bell TV direct-to-home satellite
television, Bell Home phone local and long distance, and IP-broadband and
information and communications technology (ICT) services. Bell is proud to be
a Premier National Partner and the exclusive Telecommunications Partner to
the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
Bell is wholly owned by BCE Inc. (TSX, NYSE: BCE). For information on
Bell’s products and services, please visit bell.ca. For BCE corporate
information, please visit bce.ca.

Now that I’ve been using the iPhone 3G for a few weeks, I’ve come to grips with its many positives such as large touchscreen, wealth of programs available in one convenient online store, and the best music player in the market. However Apple still does not have a perfect device and these are some of the problems with the phone.

Reliability Issues
It’s a bit odd to hear people claim Apple’s softwares aren’t buggy, unlike Windows counterparts. In my case, iTunes clearly demonstrates Apple has a long way to go to create reliable software on the Windows platform. iTunes itself is bloaded with unappealing visuals yet surprisingly high resource usage. Sometimes it doesn’t even want to start the application.

Coupling iTunes with iPhone 3G, it occasionally causes my Vista computer to display that dreaded blue screen of death (BSOD). For the record, iTunes is the only software I’ve ever used on my computer that crashed the entire OS.

AppStore can’t update apps
This is a peculiar problem I started having after updating to 2.1 firmware. If I access the AppStore on the iPhone 3G and update the applications, it fails giving me an error message that I should connect the phone to a computer and use the AppStore from iTunes. The problem is, iTunes does not recognize that the application is supposed to be installed on the phone. In the alternative, I try to update the applications directly from iTunes, and that fails as well. Installing, updating and uninstalling applications have to be reliable. I’ve had less issues on this front with my previous phone T-Mobile Shadow and that runs on the often-derided Windows Mobile.

General lag
It is frustrating when you try to use the touchscreen (for example to scroll through the contact list) and nothing happens. Contacts and e-mails can get unresponsive every now and then, preventing you from using the phone. Making matters worse is sometimes a lag is present when you try to answer the call. Apple’s design did not afford a hardware button to answer a call, which means a finger swipe is the only way to take the call. I’ve had several calls I intended to take go to voicemail just because the phone doesn’t recognize my finger swipe to answer the call.

Organizing the applications
This isn’t really a bug in the software but it is still very annoying that there is no easy way to organize applications’ order on your home screen. The only method is this primitive icon based approach where if you move one icon, everything gets moved to create space. Windows desktop may not be the most efficient, but it lets me place icons wherever I want to, in whatever order I desire. Even worse, there is no way to create hierarchy (like you can in the menus) so you can’t really put secondary or tertiary applications away from the main home screen.

As Apple continuously puts out iPhone updates, it is only time before these issues are address (maybe with the exception of new home screen).

PageOnce is an incredibly useful aggregator that’s available for free. What it does is it remembers your login information to various websites, ranging from e-mail such as Live Hotmail, utilities such as your cell phone provider and social networks. It can even keep track of pesky information such as your frequent flyer mileage, Starbucks cash card balance and your YouTube profile.

With the launch of the iTunes App Store, PageOnce has released its free application for the iPhone, and it works as intended. Once you set up your information on PageOnce.com, it will be available on your iPhone. Setting up is easy (as all you have to do is enter the PageOnce.com login information), and looking at the data is simplistic. The program feels sluggish when it comes to downloading your account information, but it still beats having to login to every one of those sites individually.

In short, if you’re already using PageOnce, getting your data mobile is an easy step when you have an iPhone or iPod Touch. After all, this mobile version is free as well.

[Read my review of PageOnce.com here | Visit PageOnce.com and create your account]

Today is July 11th 2008, and that means iPhone 3G is finally launching in Canada on Fido and Rogers. Reviews are slowly trickling in and most of it is positive, as the iPhone 3G improves upon the regular iPhone in both hardware and software deparments.

All Things Digital: “If you’ve been waiting to buy an iPhone until it dropped in price, or ran on faster cell networks, you might want to take the plunge”

Engadget: “For our money, you’re going to have a hard time finding a better device for two hundred bucks – or maybe even for any price.”

USA Today: “Still not perfect, but really close”

According to insider rumors, Apple has decided not to carry the iPhone 3G when it launches in just a few days. Instead, people will have to try Rogers and Fido stores if they want it. This is in an apparent spat over Rogers’ exorbitant monthly service fees that require 3 year contract. Apple has also apparently diverted a lot of the stock originally intended for the Canadian market.

Well the rumors were correct after all… Apple just unveiled the updated iPhone to be release on July 11 in 22 markets (including United States, of course). Big news is the price which is $199 for 8GB model, and $299 for the 16GB model. For the first time, there will be a second color available as the 8GB model has black back and 16GB model will have a white back.

Apart from inclusion of 3G network access, it will also feature built in GPS.

Apple just announced and made available 16GB iPhone, doubling the storage of existing model. Priced at $499.00 USD, the new model doesn’t seem to contain any other updates.

Press release after the jump:

Read the rest of this entry »

Apple’s iPhone does a lot of things right, such as introducing a touchscreen interface that works, powerful underlying OS that holds a lot of promises and a sleek device that’s the envy of all other mobiles. But is it worthy of “Invention of the year” title?

I’m not even sure how it qualifies as “Invention” – after all, mobile phones with touchscreens have existed for a long time already. Maybe all Time magazine wants to do is get people to read its articles online or even, gasp, subscribe to the print edition.

[Read Time's justifications for naming iPhone "Invention of the year"]

iPhone isn’t really a smartphone even though Apple seems to think it is better than what’s out there in the marketplace. Instead of providing real apps, iPhone relies on web apps, and Apple just started publishing a list of compatible applications.

There’s even a link for you to suggest your own app, and it does give you general guidelines on what could be considered a web app. Find the list and more here.

Well this had to happen sooner or later… I wish they did it over the weekend when I tried (and failed miserably) to unlock an iPhone! iPhoneSimFree has now released its latest version of paid software which promises to unlock the latest version of iPhone firmware, and even unbrick phones unlocked with other methods!

Read the details and get your unlocking done at iphoneSimFree.com.