What Does a Verizon iPhone Mean to an AT&T customer?

After an incredible amount of speculation, the rumors are over. The Verizon iPhone is out and people are flocking to the new carrier. Some people are wildly excited while others are disappointed; expecting more. At first sight, it’s the same iPhone 4 we all know and love. However, the differences are in the software and in the inside of the device.

 

Because of the nature of Verizon’s network (CDMA) you cannot do some things such as use internet of any kind while on a call or go to other countries and use it there. Before I get any trolls I would like to point out you can, in theory, go to other countries and use it; provided they have a CDMA network of course. The problem lies in CDMA's adoption. Very few carriers use it. AT&T's network on the other hand is a GSM network. This does not have any of the limitations of CDMA that I have described. You can use data and be on a phone call at the same time. You can also use your phone in other countries confidently knowing they are very, very likely to have a GSM network.

 

 

Despite the disadvantages, there is a key advantage to a Verizon iPhone. And quite frankly, this is huge for travelers. First, you can use your iPhone as a portable hotspot. Yes, the feature on Android that so many people went nuts for is now on the Verizon iPhone.

 

It’s also important to point out that a Verizon iPhone will likely cause Verizon’s network to flounder; especially since they are offering mobile hotspot functionality. Since Verizon is much better a voice than at data, it will be interesting to see how Verizon’s network reacts to this sudden load.

Baby Steps to an iPod Nano Jailbreak

The iPod Nano touch 6th generation (the touch screen one) has recently been hacked. It allows for blank springboard icons, similar to iBlank on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Although this is very minor it is actually a big leap forward knowing that the iPod can be bypassed. Somepeople have began to call it jailbreaking or saying that a jailbreak can't be far behind. If it is indeed jailbroken it will allow for some wanted features such as changing the wallpaper. However, the iPod nano's screen size and lack of Wi-Fi will make it very complicated to do things that are worthwhile. Regardless of how and if the iPod nano will be jailbroken here is the progress so far:

FCC says u get 2 txt 911 [21st century 911]

On Tuesday November 23, an FCC chairman announced their plans to revoloutionize the nation-wide emergency response, 911. Their plans include broadband, being able to text 911, and MMS 911, and devices being able to dispatch emergency services.

Why Texting?

Texting 911 can prove to be a life-saving option. If you are in a position were talking can jeopardize your well-being, such as hiding in a hostile situation, sending a text message can be the most helpful option. Also, this can help the deaf or hard-of-hearing in requesting emergency assistance. 

Why MMS?

MMS will a great tool that can help law enforcements "catch the bad guys". If there was a robbery you can take a picture of it and send it to 911. You might even be able to record suspicious activity and send it to a dispatcher.

Greenpois0n iOS 4.2.1 jailbreak coming your way...

The Tweet

A tweet by @p0sixninja says that the Greenpois0n will be updated to jailbreak iOS 4.2.1 within the next couple of days. Sadly, this is not going to be an untethered jailbreak. The good news is it will be a tethered or semi tethered jailbreak. Semi-tethered should be enough to entice those discouraged by a tethered jailbreak. 

What is a Semi-Tethered jailbreak?

Contrary to an untethered jailbreak that you can turn your phone on and off without any problems a semi-tethered jailbreak will allow you turn your phone on but you will not be able to use or launch any jailbreak tweaks, themes or applications.  This is also contrasted to a tethered jailbreak that will not allow you to use your device at all until you rerun the jailbreaking software on your computer if you reboot.

 

The Tweaks your App Switcher Has Been Begging For

There are many tweaks for the iPhone's App Switcher such as remove recent. However, 2 tweaks can prove to be especially useful; app switcher brightness, and app switcher rotator. The latter has proved to be something that iOS 4 should have had from the beginning.

App Switcher Rotator
This is a particularly useful tweak when you are in landscape mode. When you are in landscape mode the icons rotate to be easily readable in landscape orientation. The great thing is, it rotates the icons only and the icon drawer changing very little. Also it provides a bit an animation when the order of items in the drawer changes. After which the icons slide back into their new places.

App Switcher Brightness
This is a useful app similar to App Switcher Volume. Beneath the play, pause, next, and previous buttons it displays a slider that controls your screens brightness. This is a nice way to do so in an integrated way as opposed to  SB Settings that requires: activation, entering a sub-menu, and then changing the brightness. It is important to not that this will conflict with App Switcher Volume. Right now, App Switcher Volume seems obsolete unless you have broken volume buttons.

Whatsapp Update

The Update

The crossplatform messaging app for iPhone, Blackberry, and Nokia phones. You wont see a huge UI change but it comes with numerous improvements and features. Many you wont be able to notice immediatley such as the new message tone not playing while on a call. Some features, such as searching your messages and being able to edit and trim videos that are too large to send can prove to be very useful.

To see Whatsapp's description of everything new about the upgrade, scroll down.

What's New In This Version:
- message history search: you can now search you previous conversation history based on keywords
- copy image from buffer into conversation
- scroll bounce inside of the text input. also fixes text input issues for asian languages
- allow in-app video editing for videos which are too large to send
- generate and display thumbnails when sending video
- dismiss camera when application is moved into background
- tap and hold on "arrow up" icon
- tap and hold on individual conversation message to Delete or Forward that message
- accept audio/video media from Email and possibly other external apps (tap and hold on video or audio file in the Email app)
- generate high-res thumbnails when sending maps and pictures from iPhone 4
- don't play new message tone when phone call is in progress
- handle "low disk space" issues when trying to use Camera
- full localization updates
- index bar should now work with any alphabet
- voice notes recorder localization fixes and retina display updates
- you can now cancel multimedia download and upload in progress by tapping on the X icon in the progress bar
- network connection fixes and improvements
- add Dutch translation
- remove Facebook support
- preview picture before sending

You can purchase WhatsApp Messenger from the App Store for $0.99.

Bump now updated for sharing Music!

The popular iPhone and iPod Touch application, Bump, for sharing photos and contact contact information has been upgraded to share music. Yeah, it's easy-to-use: simply select what you want to share and bump phones with who you want to share it with. Apart from sharing music you can perform other actions such as: becoming instant Facebook friends, transferring money via PayPal and follow each other on Twitter.
Take all of these great features into account combined with what is cross platform capabilities and what do you get? A revolutionary service for sharing information that could be quickly become a standard on all smart phones.