New Year’s – Apple iPhone Review

iTunes Gift Card Drawing: Winners Revealed!

Apr 14, 2011Jan 4, 2010 by Chris Galloway

iTunes gift card drawing

Congrats to the 10 winners of the iTunes gift card giveaway! I asked my readers, Twitter followers and YouTube subscribers to enter the drawing by telling me what one iPhone feature they would most like to see in 2010.

Find out who the winners are and what they had to say:

What one iPhone feature would you like to see in 2010?

The Winners:

Paula said:

I really need a way to lock up instant messages so no one else can see them when they are using my iPhone.
Tammii92 (via YouTube) said:

A feature id like would be, if you would have skype or something like that, u could video chat? with them instead of just talking like you would on a phone.
Nick Rangel said:

I think that apple should add a video camera to the iphone,Also i think that they should add a feature where you can change your backgrounds and app logos without having to jailbreak it.
Mohamed said:

I would like my contact folder to be linked to the Calender so I can set up meetings with my contacts without re entering the contact information.
TheJunkMonger said:

The thing I woukd really like my iPhone to be is an open platform and better battery life.
birdman9564 (via YouTube) said:

the feature i’d want on the iphone is for it to be faster..
Joe Fishman said:

I would like to be able to sort contacts by various groups or sub groups and have it be user defined.
Pat Wolverton said:

I want more frequent updates for the 3g,,, I know apple can do that, I want them to free up more apps,,, haven’t we proven our loyalty?
BG said:

I wish that I could have a custom background without having to jailbreak my phone.
Jeffrey Hagedon said:

iPhone needs a folder system for organizing and storing apps. I have over 300 apps and many can only be accessed using the finder. You need a very good memory to know what you’re looking for.

Thanks to everyone who participated and congrats to the winners!

Check out my top 10 iPhone wishes for 2010. What are yours?

Video: My Top 10 iPhone Wishes for 2010

May 21, 2010Dec 30, 2009 by Chris Galloway

iPhone wishes for 2010

I’ve asked my readers what one iPhone feature they would like to see in 2010, and the responses have been trickling in.

Here are my top 10 feature wishes, including some that my readers have mentioned:

Increased SMS privacy. For a long time, Apple caused humiliating situations for many iPhone owners because of its SMS Preview feature, which interrupts you to display an excerpt of the content of an incoming text message on your screen. You couldn’t turn off SMS Preview, so an inconvenient or naughty text message would pop up on your screen for anyone to see. Read: How Has iPhone’s SMS Preview Gotten You Into Trouble? Apple fixed the problem, but I would like them to take it one step further and allow me to turn off all notifications for text messages.
Locking native apps like Messages, Email and Calendar. I don’t want to Passcode Lock my entire iPhone, I just want to lock certain apps. Let me put a password on my text messages, emails, and any app I want.
Delete native app icons from the home screens. No longer are the Weather, YouTube and Stocks apps the highlight of iPhone’s magnificence. I use more apps from the App Store than I use the native, rudimentary ones. Let me delete native apps from my home screen, they are wasted space.

Ritchie Champagne says:

I want to delete the stock and weak weather apps that came with the phone.
Multitasking. I want a Google Latitude app that broadcasts my location to friends even when the app is closed. I want music from Pandora to play while I browse the web on Safari. I want multitasking on my iPhone.
Better battery life. No doubt the main reason Apple has not enabled multitasking on iPhone is that it would be a battery drain. For that reason, I hope to see a better battery on new iPhones in 2010.

Laura T. Rush says:

Better/longer battery life
Removable battery. The iPhone’s lithium ion battery will weaken over time, and you will have to replace your entire iPhone, instead of just the battery. Also, if your iPhone battery drains on any given day when you are away from an outlet, you’ll have to own a backup battery add-on if you want to add battery life to your iPhone. What if I could just pop in another battery instead. iPhone’s fixed battery is inconvenient, and an unfair way of forcing you into buying another iPhone. This is the reason some people don’t buy the iPhone, including my step-grandfather Virgil, who is interested in one but does not like the idea of not being able to remove the battery.
A hardware switch for custom uses. I would like a switch to turn off WiFi, or to launch the camera or any other app. Essentially, I would like a switch that I can use for whatever I want… a Settings Switch?

Itasara says:

A custom button to add your own text sound alerts.
Allow media downloads. If you can download songs, movies and applications from whatever sources to your Macbook, why then does your iPhone forbid you from downloading media to your device? Apple has too much control over my iPhone. I demand the right to download whatever media I want to my iPhone.
An open platform. I don’t expect Apple to go ahead and reveal all the source code for the iPhone platform, but I would like the iPhone platform to be more accessible to developers so that they could be free to build apps that interact with native iPhone features. For example, an app that accomplishes functions like hiding text messages or putting your calendar as your wallpaper. A more open platform for iPhone would be very appealing.

TheJunkMonger says:

The thing I would really like my iPhone to be is an open platform…
No more carrier exclusivity in the US. You don’t need me to tell you AT&T has made a lot of iPhone users very angry, most notably for dropped calls and weak 3G coverage. I would like to see Apple drop the US exclusivity deal with AT&T, and allow me to use my iPhone on any carrier.

iTunes Giftcard Giveaway

Let me know your iPhone wish for 2010 and I’ll enter you in a drawing to win one of ten $15 iTunes gift cards. Tell me if you agree with any of my iPhone wishes, or if you have an iPhone wish of your own. To enter, go here: 10 iTunes Gift Cards for 2010! [Comment to Win] Update: The giveaway is now over. Happy New Year and thanks for playing!

What is your #1 iPhone wish for 2010?

10 iTunes Gift Cards for 2010! [Comment to Win]

May 20, 2010Dec 29, 2009 by Chris Galloway

iTunes Gift Card Giveaway

Update: Comments are now closed. Winners will be announced this weekend.

Celebrate the New Year with a bundle of apps, songs, or a couple of movies from the iTunes Store, my treat to you.

I’ve gone out to the local Apple Store and purchased TEN $15 iTunes gift cards to give away to my readers on January 1. Just tell me your most wanted iPhone feature for 2010, and I’ll enter you in the drawing for an iTunes gift card.

I will personally ship the iTunes gift cards to ten lucky winners. Comment below, retweet this post, or reply to my YouTube video to win!

My most wanted iPhone feature for 2010: Multitasking (i.e. let App Store apps run in the background) — and better battery life to support it. What about you?

Comments close January 1, 2010 at 11:59 PM EST. Good luck & Happy New Year!

Chris

P.S. Check out: The Most Memorable iPhone Moments of 2009

The Most Memorable iPhone Moments of 2009

May 21, 2010Dec 29, 2009 by Chris Galloway

iPhone 2009

A lot happened with the world’s most revolutionary mobile device in 2009. Here is my attempt to sum it all up.

A timeline of the most notable iPhone events of the year:

January 2009

January 14: Following a year of unprecedented success for iPhone and Apple, CEO Steve Jobs announces he will take a six-month leave of absence from Apple to focus on his health. Much speculation ensues over Jobs’ health and how his absence will affect the future of the company.
January 15: A plane crashes on the Hudson River. The first photo of the incident is captured not by the mainstream media, but by a citizen with an iPhone who posts the picture on Twitter.

February 2009

February 16: Six months after the launch of the iPhone App Store, Microsoft announces a new strategy that includes launching a Windows Marketplace for Windows Mobile phones. Once the dominant player in the PC and mobile spaces, Microsoft is now lagging behind Apple in the race for smartphone marketshare.
February 27: iPhone reaches 1 million sales in the UK.

March 2009

March 1: A report by web metrics firm Net Applications reveals that Apple dominates mobile search, with a “commanding lead” over other mobile devices.
March 17: Apple announces iPhone 3.0, a much-awaited software update that finally adds copy and paste, push notifications, Spotlight Search and other features to the iPhone.

April 2009

April 10: Apple celebrates 1 billion downloads in the iPhone App Store.
April 20: AT&T doubles the downlink capacity of its 3G network in the US, in response to complaints of sluggish speeds on the network. The iPhone’s heavy data diet is to blame.
April 23: Bolstered by a wildly successful iPhone, Apple reports a 15 percent profit surge despite a weak economy.

May 2009

May 7: Nine Inch Nails has its app rejected from the App Store because of obscenities in a podcast linked to in the app. The incident marks the beginning of a series of high-profile App Store rejections by Apple.

June 2009

June 8: Girls from the adult site iPorn crash Apple’s WWDC conference, determined to convince Apple execs to end the moratorium on adult iPhone apps in the App Store.
June 19: Apple starts selling the iPhone 3GS, the fastest, most powerful iPhone to date.
June 29: Steve Jobs returns to work at Apple two years after the launch of the first iPhone.

July 2009

July 3: The University of Florida announces it will require its pharmacy students to purchase iPhones or iPod Touches for use in the curriculum. The new policy highlights iPhone’s growing ubiquity in the United States.
July 22: Foxconn worker Sun Danyong in China commits suicide after a secret iPhone prototype goes missing. One blogger said the story illustrates “how Apple’s secretive ways send extreme pressure all the way down the company’s international supply chain.”
July 28: Google Voice is rejected from the App Store. The move sparks an uproar about Apple’s App Store approval process.

August 2009

August 18: iPhone becomes the most popular camera on Flickr. Apple’s device has surpassed the Canon Digital Rebel XTI on the photo sharing site, which is home to a range of iPhone photos (some quite stunning).

September 2009

September 9: Apple releases the iPhone 3.1 update, which adds a Genius-like recommendation system for iPhone apps.
September 25: AT&T finally enables the much-awaited multimedia messaging service (MMS) for iPhone, a feature available on even the most rudimentary phones which lets users send photos and/or videos via text message.

October 2009

October 3: Augmented reality iPhone apps begin trickling into the App Store after the feature, which allows applications to impose a virtual data layer over a camera view of the real world, was enabled in iPhone 3.1. The technology promises to unveil a plethora of new possibilities for iPhone apps.
October 19: Apple reports soaring iPhone sales, 7.4 million in the previous quarter.
October 23: Nokia sues Apple, claiming the iPhone maker has infringed on no fewer than 10 Nokia patents “relating to GSM, UMTS and WLAN technologies.”

November 2009

November 4: Apple announces 100,000 apps, 2 billion downloads in the App Store.
November 6: Verizon launches the Droid phone, which is powered by Google’s Android mobile operating system. The phone enjoys strong sales. Droid, along with other Android phones (some yet to arrive), contributes to the “Android Army” phenomenon that promises to steal marketshare from iPhone.
November 8: The first ever iPhone worm begins to spread across iPhones. Although not malicious, the virus “rickrolls” iPhones that have undergone a Jailbreak by plastering a photo of 80s pop singer Rick Astley on iPhone wallpapers. The virus raises questions about the security of Jailbreak, an unauthorized hack that enables a slew of custom iPhone modifications.
November 12: Facebook iPhone app developer Joe Hewitt quits the iPhone project, citing his concerns over an overly-stringent App Store approval process.

December 2009

December 1: A reference to the next-gen iPhone is spotted in usage logs by an iPhone app developer, suggesting that a new iPhone prototype is already in use by the folks at Apple.
December 11: Following Nokia’s suit against Apple in October, Apple files a countersuit against Nokia, alleging the company infringed on 13 of its iPhone patents.
December 12: Google sources say the search giant is working on a mobile phone of its own, dubbed the Nexus One, which will run on the Android operating system and be sold online. Time will tell whether the official Google phone will emerge as a strong competitor to the iPhone.
December 14: To promote an anti-AT&T action dubbed “Operation Chokehold,” Newsweek blogger Dan Lyons (aka Fake Steve Jobs) circulates a memo encouraging US iPhone owners to simultaneously run data-heavy apps for one hour in order to cripple AT&T’s network and draw attention to much-needed infrastructure improvements. AT&T responds, calling the move “irresponsible.”
December 18: No doubt influenced by the success of the iPhone App Store, Ford announces it will launch an automotive app store for its vehicles.

It has been a busy year for Apple’s iPhone team, and for the mobile sphere in general. While iPhone held the spotlight in 2008, Android emerged in ’09 as a serious competitor. Nevertheless, the iPhone App Store remains firmly in the lead.

In two and a half years, the iPhone has changed how we organize our lives, how we communicate, and literally — with augmented reality — how we view the world. I can’t wait to see what comes next.

What do you think?

Which were the most memorable iPhone moments of 2009? Have I left any out? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.