Insurance For iPhones

Even though the iPod touch wasn’t designed to make phone calls, it may now be possible. People at Yosion have come up with Apple Peel 520. It’s powered by an Infineon baseband chip, and offers voice calling and text messaging services because it has a slot to fit a SIM card into it.  You’ll probably need to jailbreak your iPod Touch in order to get the necessary applications in.  Not only does the device allow you to make phone calls and send texts, it also doubles as an 800mAh battery that gives your iPod Touch an additional 4 1/2 hours of talk time or 120 hours of standby time.  The Apple Peel 520 should be available sometime this week from $44 to $74.  Some people are still skeptical about its authenticity though because there isn’t an official website or compatibility list released just yet.  Check out a video of the Apple Peel 520 here.

I have an update for you all about the free bumper cases for the iPhone 4 reception problems.  Apple has begun shipping them out as of today.  Customers who placed orders on July 16, the day Apple announced free bumpers, have received emails letting them know that they could get their free cases in the mail as early as August 3.  iPhone 4 owners who purchased their phone before July 23 can order a free case until August 22.  Those who purchased the phone after that date can get a free case until September 30. After September 30, Apple will re-evaluate the program to see if they still need to keep it going.

The iPhone 4 will be available in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland beginning on Friday, July 30.

The iPhone 4 is available now in France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US for $199 USD for the 16GB model and $299 USD for the 32GB model.  The iPhone 4 will go out to many more countries later on this year.  Apple will announce availability and pricing for these additional countries at a later date.

One of the best ways to get a cheap hotel room is Priceline.com.  There’s now a new Priceline.com app for your iPhone and iPad makes getting the hotel easier, since you can name your own price in a few taps with this app.

According to an article, some testers of this app were traveling across the country on what they called the Great American Road Trip and they made a hotel reservation for the first night using the Priceline iPhone app and they got themselves a 3-star hotel for just $45. This was great news because their budget would be more flexible, but they had no idea how much it would help them until they tried to get a hotel room at their final stop near Mount Rushmore.  They tried to use the Priceline.com app to book their last night’s stay, but the only hotel they could find was a king-size jacuzzi room for $250.  

One of the testers said they’d still use the Priceline. com app, even though they had to pay $250 for the last night of their road trip.  If you do use the Priceline.com app for your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, you will get $25 bonus bucks that will add $5 to the bid price of your next bid for up to five nights for the next time you book from the website.

MLB.com has an app called AtBat 2010 that won the Apple Design Award at the iPhone Developer Showcase in 2009.  This app allows you to access one live game each day of the regular season.  Also, anyone with an MLB.TV subscription can view a complete schedule of live games.  AtBat also lets you access gameday audio, pitch by pitch, in-game highlights and more.

AtBat 2010 was recently updated on July 12 and these great features have been added: 

The price seems to be the only thing customers don’t like about the app.  You have to pay a whopping $14.99 for it.  But, if you’re a die-hard fan, you’ll gladly pay that price to always know what’s happening in baseball any given day.

Texting while driving is illegal in over half of the 50 states in the US.  There’s a new app for your iPhone to keep you safe called Text’nDrive.  Although the name seems to make you think that this app will produce SMS messages, it actually composes and reads emails for you.

When you’re using this app, incoming emails get read aloud to you using a synthetic voice.  It reads aloud the sender’s name, the subject of the message, and the message itself. Sent emails are made as an audio recording of your voice which then gets sent through the email provider of your choice.  The application even knows when you’re done recording the email and it auto-forwards the email with the attached voice message.

And, with $20, you can get a version of the app that allows you to send and recieve texts, too. 

Even though this app will be convenient for those of you who are constantly on the go, using a cell phone while you are driving is dangerous.  Always be careful!

Back in April at Apple’s preview event, something called iPod Out was mentioned.  No one really knew what exactly is was or what it was going to be used for until now.  iPod Out is a new iOS 4 API.  API is short for application programming interface, which basically means that it’s a software can interact with other software.  In this case, your iPhone and iPod touch can interact with your car.

From BMW Group’s description, iPod Out will allow car manufacturers to integrate the iPod look and controls into a vehicle’s on-board entertainment system. Owners of future BMW and Mini models will be able to control their iPod touch or iPhone completely from the car’s interface controls.

BMW Group hasn’t outlined any specific timeline for iPod Out, but says that support will be coming to future BMW models using BMW ConnectedDrive and Mini models using Mini Connected. Anyone who wants to use the iPod Out feature in new BMW Group cars need to have an iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 4.0 or later.

Cases for the iPhone 4 are currently not for sale anymore.  Apple has pulled its remaining stock of iPhone 4 Bumper cases from its retail and online stores.  By looking at  Apple’s online store, you can see that it shows that the cases are currently unavailable.  Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced Friday that Apple will be giving away free cases to all current iPhone 4 users and to those who purchase the iPhone 4 by September 30 due to complaints over the iPhone 4’s antenna issues.

As I mentioned yesterday, Apple held a press conference today about the iPhone 4.  It lasted an hour and a half and Steve Jobs and some other Apple employees answered questions and set all the rumors straight about the iPhone.  Steve Jobs started off the Conference with a 15-minute presentation and by saying, “You know, we’re not perfect. We know that, you know that. And phones aren’t perfect either.”

Jobs’ presentation consisted of test results on other smart phones like the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and a Samsung smartphone.  He showed what happened when he held each of the phones with the so called “death grip.”  Both phones did the same thing the iPhone does- they lose bars of service.  By showing everyone this, Jobs lets everyone know that good reception for cell phones is a challenge for not only Apple, but for everyone else in the industry, too.

There are a lot of complaints swirling around the internet ranging from antenna issues to yellow spots on the screen.  But these complaints seem to be blown out of proportion.  An analyst said that a return rate of around 5% would indicate that there are serious flaws to the iPhone.  Only 1.7% of iPhone 4s have been returned.  Also, there’s a service Apple offers called AppleCare.  This is a service that is part of the customer support plan from Apple.  When asked what percentage of all iPhone 4 users have called AppleCare about the antenna or reception, Jobs reported that 0.55% of the calls were about the antenna. One half of one percent.

Apple never announced a software fix for the iPhone antenna problem.  They just explained that the hardware issue would be solved with cases the company would be handing out for free.  Instead of giving more information about the antenna issue, Jobs spent the majority of the press conference explaining that cell phone reception problems are an ongoing issue for the entire industry.

Jobs and two other colleagues then closed the press conference by answering some questions.  Hopefully everything is all figured out now and all the rumors will cease.

Apple has called a press conference for tomorrow, Friday, July 16.  Apple has said that the conference is about the iPhone 4 and all the issues involving the antenna. This issue has escalated since Consumer Reports decided on Monday that it would withhold its recommendation for consumers to buy it because of the antenna. The Consumer Reports magazine said the signal on the iPhone 4 can be lowered just by touching the left hand bottom corner of the iPhone 4. Consumer Reports told Apple that before they it can recommend the iPhone 4 to consumers, Apple needs to provide a free fix.

Apple needs to do something to make customers and Consumers Reports happy.  Analysts have estimated that providing the free bumper cases that fix the anntenna issue would cost $150 million.  A recall, which is unlikely, could cost Apple $1.5 billion.  Whatever they need to do to fix the issue should be done.  Hopefully we’ll find out tomorrow after the conference.  Check back to this website to see what Apple has decided.