This week we had a chance to review Say Who, the voice dialing application that will search for contacts in your address book or dial numbers for you. We loved how easy and responsive this application was. It worked just about every time.Recent studies done by SquareTrade show that the iPhone is more reliable than the Blackberry handset line. Over the course of a year only 5.6 percent of iPhones failed, this is pretty good considering Blackberry handsets failed 11.9. For those of you with a jailbroken iPhone you may now download dTunes. This application allows you to do a lot more than the iPod application. Download or stream songs directly to your iPhone without having to connect to your computer.
AT&T has decided to expand their range of Wi-Fi hotspots by purchasing Wayport for $275 million dollars. Wayport has many Wi-Fi hotspots in locations such as, Starbucks, Barnes and Noble bookstores and many major airports. Oakly and Surfline have teamed up to create an all-in-one surfing application for the iPhone. Surf Report gives you real time information on surf conditions, weather, safety notices and reports. You may view weather conditions up to three days in advance.
Good news is being reported, rumors state that the new iPhone firmware 2.2 is going to be released on November 21st. We have all been backing up our iPhones as we eagerly await this update. Business iPhone users who use Calliflower for PC will find the Calliflower interactive conference calling very useful. Now you can use the same services on your iPhone without the need to download a client to your PC. This application will be available for free on January 1st, after which you will be able to purchase it for $9.99.
HangTimer by DropZone is a great application for skiers of all kinds. HangTimer utilizes both the built in accelerometer and technology used by NASA to provide you with run statistics. This application will also give you snow conditions and directions to your local resort. More details have surfaced in regards to the new iPhone tethering plans by AT&T. These plans will cost $30 a month with a 5GB data cap.
iSoft has finally created a landscape virtual keyboard for SMS on the iPhone. The big drawback is that you have to use it as an application, there is no integration in the SMS application at all. Another drawback is that you must have a jailbroken iPhone in order to buy this application. Overall this application shows that it can kind of be done. But who in their right mind would give into the circumstances for such a bad feature.
We found out this week that Microsoft’s web-based Office Suite will work with the iPhone’s mobile Safari web browser. This web-based version will include full versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote. There may be a sneak peak by the end of 2008 but we wouldn’t count on it. Google has set out to deliver the first voice search feature to the iPhone. This application will be free (no surprises there). With this application users will virtually be able to ask their iPhone any question like, “Where is the nearest Starbucks?” or “How old is the oldest man in the world?” Google will not comment on just how often this application works correctly, but they do say that they believe users will be able to get a lot of use out of it.
