Verizon Wireless to offer Apple iPhone in January

Verizon Wireless will start selling Apple's iPhone next year, ending AT&T's U.S. exclusive on the phone, say two people familiar with the plans.

The device will be available to customers in January, according to the people, who declined to be named because the information isn't public. Natalie Kerris, an Apple spokeswoman, and Jeffrey Nelson, a Verizon Wireless spokesman, declined to comment. AT&T also declined to comment. USA TODAY was unable to independently verify the reports.

Speculation on a Verizon iPhone has been rampant in the tech blogosphere. If the reports are true, the iPhone, which has been the sole domain of rival AT&T in the U.S. since June 2007, will give Verizon a boost in its smartphone competition, UBS analyst John Hodulik says. Verizon customers, who numbered 92.8 million at the end of the first quarter, may buy 3 million iPhones a quarter, he says.

"Apple is going to dramatically increase the number of devices it sells in the U.S. when exclusivity at AT&T ends," Hodulik says. "It's hard to ignore the quality issues that AT&T has faced."

Verizon Wireless, which is building a high-speed fourth-generation network, plans to unveil several devices that will run on the new technology in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, CEO Lowell McAdam has said. Verizon's CDMA-based wireless network differs from the GSM technology AT&T's network is based on.

The iPhone has helped AT&T add subscribers even as the U.S. mobile-phone market nears saturation. In the first three months of this year, about a third of AT&T's iPhone activations came from customers new to the carrier. Without those 900,000 new subscribers, AT&T might have posted a loss in contract customers that quarter, analysts say.

AT&T has battled customer complaints about its network and dedicated an extra $2 billion to upgrade it this year.

A Verizon partnership is a victory for Apple over rivals such as Research In Motion and Motorola, whose phones are promoted by the carrier. Motorola makes Droid phones that use Google's Android operating system. RIM makes BlackBerrys. "For Apple, it means a larger addressable market," says Andy Hargreaves, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities. "It's also good news for Apple in that it will spread the load on the wireless data networks."

Apple has sold more than 50 million iPhones since their introduction. The latest version, iPhone 4, sold more than 1.7 million units in the first three days after its June 24 debut.

A release at Verizon in the first quarter would help Apple's sales in the U.S. grow to at least 15 million units next year from 11 million in 2010, Barclays Capital analysts said in a note Tuesday. Apple's suppliers have been ramping up production of components for a phone on Verizon's CDMA network, according to the research report.

© 2010 Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved

iPhone 4 May Got Recall

iPhone Recall?? Sure does, why not!

iPhone 4 Expected to Get a Recall from Apple: iPhone 4 is likely to get a recall from Apple as the owner of Apple posted a message on Twitter as, ‘ We may have to recall the new iPhone. This I did not expect.’ This would be a permanent for the iPhone 4 as the iPhone 4 has been facing the hardware problems and the most serious problem was with the reception as the iPhone 4 was losing the signal when held by the user.

The problem was a bit frustrating and when users contacted Steve Jobs about the same, he replied as ‘ just avoid holding it in that way’. All the angry users facing this problem might have been very frustrated as the iPhone 4 reception problem did not have a fix.

As Steve Jobs mentioned that Apple would recall the iPhone 4 and solve it, users can now step back and relax as Apple would get your iPhone 4 back with the solution for the problem. Stay tuned for more updates on iPhone 4 Recall.

FameFoundry demonstrates the issue:

iPhone 4 Problems Comes Early

Apple’s latest jesus phone, the iPhone 4 was released in the United States today, and already reported problems are starting to pile up.

The biggest reported bug with the iPhone 4 is said to be a reception issue when you hold the phone. Users say that when they touch the phone, the signal drops by anything up to 3 bars, and returns when they take their hands off it.

But what makes this somewhat bizarre is that the problem primarily occurs if you’re left handed. It would appear that the primary antenna in the iPhone 4 is on the left hand side of the phone; a left handed user would place the phone in the palm of their hand with the phone touching on the left side.

The iPhone 4′s new glass is also under fire, with users reporting that it’s too easy to break: I’m sure if you dropped an older model it would break as well, but the word is that the iPhone 4 is far easier to break.

The glass, which also appears for the first time on the back of the phone, is said to scratch far more easily that previous models, although without a test unit we can’t confirm that.

The new “retina display” is reported to be having some problems, with some reports suggesting that users are getting yellow dots and splotches stuck on the screen.

Last but not least, the iPhone 4′s “Facetime” video phone software is under fire from privacy activists because calls made using the app aren’t secure. Video calls made using Facetime could in theory be intercepted if being made over an unsecure WiFi network.

Any new phone Apple has ever released has come in for criticism for some reason or another, so we’re taking the claims so far with a grain of salt, however the number of them might suggest that Apple may, at the very least, have some quality control issues with the phone.

Apparently so.

iPhone 4 users are reporting en masse that their new handsets suffer a significant loss of signal strength when the phone’s antenna is touched with bare skin. Unfortunately, it is pretty much impossible to use a caseless iPhone 4 without touching the antenna, because the steel band that runs around the entire outside of the case is the antenna. To avoid touching it you’d somehow have to pinch the front and back of the phone between two fingers.

The phenomenon is so widespread that it may be nearly universal. Gizmodo has over a dozen videos showing the phenomenon, and tech blogs from Wired to Engadget are up in arms about it.

What’s going on is a bit of a mystery. Surely Apple tested the iPhone 4 before releasing it, and with a problem this serious, testers should have noticed the issue. (Then again, iOS 4 multitasking got out of the door without being fully baked, so who knows.) On the other hand, beta iPhone 4 units were famously kept in a mock iPhone 3GS sleeve, so perhaps only limited testing was done with bare units.

Wired offers a semblance of an explanation as to why this phenomenon is happening: When you touch a TV antenna, the picture changes because, in a nutshell, your body becomes part of the antenna construct. The mystery is that with a TV, touching the antenna usually improves the picture, whereas with the iPhone 4, it makes things worse. My best guess is that the radio frequencies used for TV are more conducive to the human body than a cell phone’s frequencies are.

Apple has also acknowledged some bugs with the way the phone detects and manages signal strength. It says those bugs will be fixed soon, so hopes are high that a firmware update will solve the problem.

Meanwhile, it appears that adding a case to the phone will improve or eliminate the issue, and Lord knows there are plenty of those on the market already.

iPhone 4 Has A Gyroscope Gaming

Apple officially unveiled the iPhone 4, its next smartphone, and while we won't cover the phone as a whole here at Gadget News and Info, the device will be getting a gyroscope.

Apple's iPhone 4

This has some nice implications for gaming as it should allow developers to make better use of the iPhone as a motion and gesture based controller. It should hopefully make the device much more precise.

Apple describes the new sensor on its website:

iPhone 4 is the first phone with a built-in three-axis gyroscope. When paired with the accelerometer, it makes iPhone 4 capable of advanced motion sensing such as user acceleration, angular velocity, and rotation rate. Translation: More motion gestures and greater precision for an even better gaming experience.

Steve Jobs just announced that the new iPhone 4 will include a gyroscope, which should be a great addition for gaming, augmented reality and even 3D apps.

Apparently the iPhone 4 beat this industry insider’s prediction of gyroscopes in a mass market phone by 2 years.

As you can see from the image at right, the gyroscope will allow:

• 3-axis gyro
• Pitch, roll and yaw
• Rotation about gravity
• Gyro + accelerometer provide 6-axis motion sensing
• New CoreMotion APIs

This announcement got a few hearty cheers apparently from the audience at WWDC, and as many iPhone app developers concentrate on the lucrative gaming segment, this isn’t too surprising. Some gaming applications that we can think of right off the bat include flight simulators, better augmented reality apps that take into account elevation/pitch changes, sport games (image iPhone 4 + Wii) and as Jobs demoed, games such as Jenga:

Images: GDGT

iPhone 3.1.3 Firmware Released

Apple releases update that fixes a handful of small issues.

Apple has released a very simplistic firmware update for the iPhone, fixing a number of minor issues with the device. The 3.1.3 update can be downloaded directly from iTunes and is aimed to tackle the accuracy of the iPhone 3GS battery level, the launch consistency of some third-party apps, and fix a bug that caused some apps to crash while using the Japanese Kana keyboard. Wheeee!

Oh, and a quick FYI, this update will nullify your jailbreak, so keep that in mind before you try and solve any life-threatening Japanese Kana dilemmas you may be experiencing.

Verizon is the iPhone's next big feature

There are many things driving the popularity and growth of the Apple's iPhone, but as we enter 2010, one analyst believes the addition of Verizon will be the iPhone's big new feature.

Gene Munster, senior research analyst for investment bank Piper Jaffray, said in a research note to clients 0Wednesday that he believes there is a 70 percent chance that Apple will launch a new iPhone with Verizon in 2010. Munster puts the timing of such a move around the middle of the year.

That makes sense, since Apple has used June and July to launch all three of its iPhone models. The company also used the summer months to debut the App Store in 2008. It seems reasonable to speculate that Apple would continue with its schedule of introducing a new iPhone in mid-2010.

Munster said a move to Verizon would more than double Apple's current potential market by 89 million subscribers, adding to the already 82 million available on AT&T.

Of course, at this point the big problem is Apple's arrangement with AT&T as its exclusive carrier in the U.S. That deal is widely thought to end in 2010, although talks between the two companies are said to be ongoing, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The analyst's report also cites the iPhone's apps as playing a major role in the future growth of the device.

"We have seen a shift in the reason why consumers buy an iPhone. Initially, it was the touch screen and easy access to the Internet" said Munster. "Today, apps are cited as one of the top three reasons consumers buy an iPhone."

Mr. Poncho - iPod case with built in earphone wrap

As seen on the Shark Tank, Mr. Poncho is a pouch case for your iPod. The case includes a built in wrap for your earphones. Each Mr. Poncho design case costs $18.

Order one now HERE

iPhone MMS Release Date

AT&T is on track to flip the switch to enable MMS functionality for U.S. iPhone users this Friday. The wireless carrier said that all users should be able to send and receive MMS messages by Friday afternoon.

Though considered one of the most advanced smartphones to date, the iPhone has been lacking a basic feature (in the U.S.) found on many other handsets -- MMS. But AT&T is finally ready to roll out MMS this Friday, after increasing criticism from unsatisfied iPhone users.

AT&T announced on their Facebook page that late Friday morning Pacific Time, or Friday afternoon for the rest of the country, is the time to fire up iTunes and connect your iPhone. You will have to download an updated carrier profile and sync it to your iPhone in order to have the MMS feature enabled. This will be the only way to enable MMS on your iPhone.

AT&T rushed to beef up their infrastructure over the last few months, in order to support the new MMS feature Apple unveiled in June, and now the wireless carrier is nervous about the launch, according to DSLReports.

The story quotes insiders involved with AT&T saying the early testing of the iPhone MMS feature "has been a little rocky" and a 40 percent increase in network traffic is expected on Friday, as many iPhone users will start toying with the new feature and send pictures and videos to each other.

AT&T's early testing of the MMS feature on the iPhone could also be an explanation of reports last week from a few lucky users that upgraded to the iPhone 3.1 OS and were suddenly able to send and receive MMS messages.

The capability to send and receive photos, videos, audio files, and contact info through the iPhone Messages app was introduced by Apple in June this year via the 3.0 software update. However, AT&T was late in the game at enabling this feature, although most carriers around the world did this throughout the summer.

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