Peon's Place

And better yet, it’s on sale! Again!

Apple’s manufacturing partners are expected to build 2 million iPhone 3GS handsets in the fourth quarter this year. Last week marked exactly two and a half years since Apple unveiled the iPhone 3GS during its Worldwide Developer Conference in June 2009. Citing industry sources within Apple’s supply chain, DigiTimes on Friday reported that production of Apple’s iPhone 3GS has continued at high volumes that should hit 2 million units in the December quarter. In the first quarter of 2012, production of the iPhone 3GS will reportedly slow to between 1.4 million and 1.6 million units. The same report also suggests that production of Apple’s CDMA iPhone 4 could top 1 million units in the fourth quarter this year, slowing to between 500,000 and 600,000 units in the first quarter next year. In the United States, Apple’s iPhone 3GS is available for free on contract from AT&T while the CDMA iPhone 4 is sold by both Verizon Wireless and Sprint.

I still have my iPhone 3GS, and upgrading to a new phone leaves me with the feeling of “Oh look, I no longer have the latest and greatest” 3-6 months after doing so.  At least when i purchased this iPhone, that feeling stayed for over a year.  Read the rest of this entry » Two and a half year iPhon...

Get ready, because in October when the iPhone 5 comes out, it’s being packed with Sprint’s amazing 4G speeds as well!

Well. Almost. Actually word around the Cupertino campus is that the iPhone 5 will be only 3g, making Apple substantially behind the competition.

But hey, at least Sprint will be the only carrier to offer unlimited data plans, now that AT&T and Verizon have cut users off from unlimited freedom and enjoyment! Actually, wrong again. Sprint plans to end, or at the very least throttle, data plans on the iPhone.

So much for excitement, right? Maybe you can go to T-Mobile, the only major carrier now without an Apple device.

Are you paying $30 per month for your Verizon unlimited data smartphone plan? Well it’s unlimited no more. Starting July 7, you’ll no longer be able to purchase an unlimited data plan through Verizon, which is moving instead to a “usage-based” model. This isn’t the first such move as AT&T dropped its unlimited data plan last summer, but it does seem to represent a tipping point for the industry.

Mobile phone companies have been ditching their unlimited data plans (which encompass streaming video and music, Internet use and e-mail) for a few reasons, but primarily because the amount of Internet traffic from phones has surged over the last few years, and will continue to do so in the years ahead. According to Cisco, mobile traffic will grow 26-fold by 2015, and total mobile video traffic will expand to 197 million gigabytes over the next four years. That’s the equivalent of roughly 13 billion YouTube videos. In a letter to Verizon’s employees, the carrier’s higher-ups said that data usage had more than doubled in the past three years.

Read the rest of this entry » Verizon charges you the s...

With Verizon taking the iPhone 4 (still on 3G network) next month, I have my predictions. And that is to say, reception will be no better than it is with AT&T. Apple really is to blame for many of the shoddy reception issues, blatantly dropped calls, etc. Not AT&T.

However, The Daily Show had a long piece regarding the inception of the iPhone into Verizon’s lineup of phones, and here is the video with Jon Stewart!

I love how they even threw Stephen Colbert in there.

BGR posted this morning that the new Apple iOS update to 4.3 will include the ability to turn the iPhone into a mobile hotspot, notably important for Laptop, iPad, etc owners without non-WiFi options available. You could always do this once jailbreaking your phone, but now it’ll be allowed the correct way.

Verizon iPhones will be shipped with this update already in place, and AT&T users will see the feature enabled some time in the future.

The country’s fastest growing and top-rated TV service is coming to more devices nationwide. Using the power of its AT&T U-verse^® IPTV platform, AT&T is quickly making content and features available across more screens and devices, and today announced two innovative ways to watch hit TV shows.

AT&T and Microsoft today announced the Oct. 15 launch of U-verse TV on Xbox 360 for U-verse customers, which lets you enjoy the U-verse TV experience on your existing Xbox 360 device, replacing the need for an extra receiver in your home. AT&T is the first TV provider in the U.S. to offer live TV service through an Xbox 360.

Read the rest of this entry » Live TV through your Xbox...

Regardless of what you think about the whole iPhone 4 antenna debate, there’s no denying that it’s fueling a massive amount of creativity on the Internet.

My three favorite lines from this video:

• “Are you seriously defending the new phone by saying that it almost performs as well as the old phone? Is that what the plan is?”
• “Ha ha, and get what, the EVO? I mean those poor saps are having light leaks and their screens peeling off after a couple of days.”
• “And don’t even get me started on the Droid X. Uh, let’s see, you take the original phone, remove the physical keyboard, make it as big as a toaster, and still don’t add a front-facing camera? Yeah, that’s progress.”

Yet another blow to AT&T while also hurting Verizon, is the iPhone crossing over to T-mobile before other carriers. Granted, the hardware is very similar to AT&T’s hardware, and only a slight frequency change must be made. But yeah. Verizon? So sorry.

It looks like it will all take place in the third quarter of this year… which is sooner than you think.

Read the rest of this entry » iPhone coming to T-Mobile...

The Associated Press reports that a California federal judge has given the go-ahead to a monopoly class action lawsuit, against both Apple and AT&T, over several aspects of the iPhone. The suit claims that Apple, in making AT&T its exclusive partner, drove up prices and stifled competition in the smartphone market. The suit seeks to, “keep Apple from selling locked iPhones in the U.S. and from determining what iPhone programs people can install.” Naturally, the suit also seeks “damages to cover legal fees and other costs.”

Apple has yet to release in an official statement in regards to the suit, but did say that it had not hurt competition. Unlocked iPhones and the ability to install applications from third party sources sounds pretty good to me, however I know iTunes is going to take a huge hit in sales if this eventually went through.

You can more here. Apple has sold over 50 million iPhones since they first came around in 2007 – I’m glad I never had one back then, they’re much sweeter now! You know, outside of reception issues..

An official court document that details the first class action lawsuits that Apple and AT&T will be dealing with in regards to the iPhone 4. Some of the claims made in the Maryland based suit include:

• General Negligence (APPLE and AT&T)
• Defect in Design, Manufacture, and Assembly (APPLE)
• Breach of Express Warranty (APPLE)
• Breach of Implied Warranty for Merchantability (APPLE and AT&T)
• Breach of Implied Warranty of Fitness for a Particular Purpose (APPLE and AT&T)
• Deceptive Trade Practices (APPLE and AT&T)
• Intentional Misrepresentation (APPLE and AT&T)
• Negligent Misrepresentation (APPLE and AT&T), Fraud by Concealment (APPLE and AT&T)

A copy of the complains can be found here.