App Review: Peeps
I’m a fan of Coverflow – I really like navigating my stuff by flicking through pictures. Admittedly, it’s not ideal for every situation, and it some it slows things down. In May, I wrote in “Embracing Coverflow” about the suitability of Coverflow-style browsing for Contacts – pictures are how you recognise people, so in this case I think it’s a natural fit.
Now, Plausible Labs has released Peeps, which embodies many of the ideas I wrote about. After a bit of initial confusion with Apple (over the perceived use of the private Coverflow API), the app was finally published to the App Store in late December. Peeps is able to talk to your built-in Contacts list, so there’s no maintaining another list of people. It pulls in all the photos on first launch, and keeps them updated.
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MMS native app storms the App Store
I’ve been meaning to write about the options for picture messaging on the iPhone for a while, but that’s pointless now . A proper native MMS application was released on January 5th, and – unsurprisingly – it’s already the third most downloaded free app on the UK App Store.
I wrote in August that MMS sending was coming to your O2 iPhone. Ross McKillop wrote a web app (iPhoneMMS.net) that interfaced with O2; originally this just allowed viewing of messages, but was later expanded to include sending. He has now teamed up with Ed Lea, who wrote the highly-regarded TV Plus, to create a native version of the web app. And it’s superb.
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How mainstream is Cydia?
Here’s something I found a bit curious. Cydia is the unofficial twin of the App Store, where users with jailbroken phones can go to get software. Since the App Store debuted, several applications have made the transition away from it – unofficial apps have become official and available for download on the App Store. It’s also the case that some apps, e.g. PDANet and Podcaster, have appeared on Cydia following rejection from the App Store by Apple. But I haven’t seen this before.
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2009 – The Year Of Touchscreen
If the iPhone came of age in 2008, then’s what’s in store for 2009?
In line with releases so far, the successor to the iPhone 3G is likely to be available in the middle of the year. I see more storage on the horizon, with probably a better camera (maybe with a flash), possibly 802.11n wireless. But I’m not going to try and predict any more beyond that. People can judge for themselves whether the hardware specifications of the new iPhone match their personal expectations and requirements, as compared to other devices available on the market.
The real change for the iPhone is that touchscreen phones will go large in 2009. Apple’s flagship device is increasingly going to be one of many shiny touchscreen devices on offer to the mobile customer.
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The iTunes Store – now available everywhere
Macworld has just finished and to be honest, the keynote was a bit underwhelming. The BBC has declared that Apple fizzled out, iPhone Central believes iPhone news was a no-show for Expo keynote, and our own Steve Litchfield thinks that the iPhone is in stasis.
While there may have been no new hardware announcements (where art thou, iPhone Nano?), the iPhone isn’t really about the hardware. Its main pull is the software, and the ecosystem in which it operates.
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Carnival of the Mobilists 155
The first Carnival of the new year takes us to the realm of Helen the technokitten, and it’s a bumper edition. There’s a contribution from AAi, reviews of the past year (lots of iPhone mentions), and predictions for 2009.
The posts of the week are two of those predictions, from Chetan Sharma and Rudy De Waele. Both are well worth digesting. I’ll have my own “what’s coming in 2009” post up later this week – it’s been in draft for a couple of weeks, but what with all the Xmas cheer… 
Head on over to Carnival at the link below to read all the posts:
http://technokitten.blogspot.com/2009/01/carnival-of-mobilists-155.html
Happy New Unlock!
Happy New Year from everyone at All About iPhone!
The big news this morning is that the iPhone 3G software unlock has been released via Cydia. So if you have a jailbroken iPhone and want to be able to use a different SIM, the unlock will be in the repository shortly.
More information is available on the iPhone Dev-Team blog.
Best wishes for 2009.
How to download BBC iPlayer shows on your iPhone
The BBC recently announced that iPlayer Desktop is available for Mac and Linux. This allows downloading of shows, rather than just streaming. The BBC is broadening its distribution to more platforms, as a publicly-funded body should. This is great, whatever your thoughts on DRM.
But what about the iPhone? Certain Nokia N-Series phones have a client that enables streaming and downloading. The iPhone-specific iPlayer website is superb, but it only allows streaming. What if you’re out and about, haven’t had time to use Beeb Downloader to grab a show? You can’t stream programmes over 3G.
How secure is your iPhone?
Since I bought my first smartphone – the Nokia 7650 – it has become my key digital device. I store absolutely everything I can on it – who I know, all the details about them, and all the other information that enables me to run my life. This dependency has increased alongside the expanding capacities of the iPhone, supplanting even my computer. So it’s fair to say that my phone contains a lot of information that I consider quite sensitive.
But what happens if someone steals my iPhone? How easy is it for that person to get access to the phone? And even if they do, how can I prevent them finding out the most sensitive information?
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Mac Users: OS X 10.5.6 update prevents jailbreaking
I don’t usually repost news that’s covered elsewhere, but I thought I should let people know. Specifically this applies to Mac users with jailbroken iPhones. The latest OS X upgrade (10.5.6) does not recognise DFU mode on the iPhone.
What’s DFU? Device Firmware Upgrade is the iPhone’s “last resort” restore mode. It also means you can put the phone into DFU mode, then use a tool such as Pwnage to load custom firmware. End result? A jailbroken iPhone.
But not if you’re running the newest update from Apple.
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