1.) a flashlight
2.) wood (for the superstitious to knock on)
3.) a mirror
4.) handcuffs
5.) a coin toss
6.) a fake caller
7.) a gun
8.) fireworks
9.) a hypnotist
10.) your wedding ring
11.) a champagne bottle (to pop for celebrations of course!)
12.) a vacuum cleaner
13.) a zipper
14.) a metal detector
15.) a flip phone

Any other “uses” for your iPhone? Comment about it!

According to Czech iPhone developer, PoweryBase , Apple seems to be “blocking” push notifications on iPhones that have been unlocked for use with unauthorized wireless carriers. PoweryBase is probably best known for its app called NotifyMe, an app that utilizes push notifications to provide its users with helpful reminders throughout the day (for example: “Clean the Kitchen.”) [App Store: Paid ($3.99) , Free ]

“We’ve received hundreds of support request in the last few days since NotifyMe appeared on the App Store. Unfortunately, about 80% of them are from the users with unlocked iPhones. They’ve bought the application and are mostly angry, sad or hopeless and the worst part is that we can’t really help them. Push simply does not work reliably or does not work at all on any unlocked device, no matter what Push application is used. We understand that unlocked iPhones break Apple’s and carriers’ bussiness and there isn’t really a way to fight against it.”

To those of you with unlocked iPhones: all is not lost! The iPhone Dev Team has spent quite some time devising a fix for this issue [link ] and is currently in the process of perfecting it.

In a recent article published by the Washington Examiner, D.C. police chief Cathy Lanier provided her somewhat biased opinions regarding iPhone applications that allow the user to circumvent police speed traps as well as sobriety checkpoints.

“I think that’s the whole point of this [iPhone] program,” she told The Examiner. “It’s designed to circumvent law enforcement — law enforcement that is designed specifically to save lives.”

Lanier then stated that the use of this technology for such purposes is a “cowardly tactic” and “people who overly rely on it and break the law anyway are going to get caught.”
While I can certainly see Lanier’s point of view, I do strongly believe that the point of a speed trap is to deter unsafe driving, not to provide the city with another source of revenue. Sobriety checkpoints are a whole different story, there is absolutely no excuse for driving drunk and blatantly endangering those around you.

Apple has rejected updates to two more applications—FastFinder from Bananas Design and Chirp! Bird Songs from Spiny Software—due to what the company considers to be an inappropriate rating based on the apps’ ability to connect to the Internet.

FastFinder allows users to quickly query a variety of search engines and other services such as IMDB, Amazon.com, Facebook, and more, while Chirp! Bird Songs helps users to listen to, identify, and learn about different bird songs. In the former case, Apple argued that FastFinder “allows unfiltered access to the Internet, where content with mature or suggestive themes can be accessed;” it used the same argument to reject the Chirp! update due to its ability to connect to Wikipedia, according to an email from the developer.

In both cases Apple said “[a]pplications must be rated accordingly for the highest level of content that the user is able to access,” suggesting the company may continue to reject applications offering Internet access until they raise their ratings. Both FastFinder and Chirp! Bird Songs had previously been accepted into the App Store with a 4+ rating, and are available in their current versions for $2 and $3, respectively.

When it comes to Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch devices, marketers may think a one-size-fits-all approach is good enough. New research from AdMob indicates that this approach is wrong because there are specific difference in each set of users which could hinder a single campaign, but could enhance a dual campaign.

According to the research, the main differences are in demographics. First, the similarities. According to the report half (5 in 10) iPhone and iPod Touch users access the mobile web more often than they read newspapers and 40% report accessing the mobile web more often than they access the Internet from a computer. For any demographic, most i-users are male (70%).

However, the iPhone appeals to older consumers. For the iPod Touch, 69% of the audience are 13 to 24 years of age but only 26% of iPhone users are in the same demographic. Meanwhile nearly one-third (31%) of iPhone users are 35 to 49 years of age while only 12% of iPod Touch users are in that demographic.

iPhone users also have higher incomes (shouldn’t be a shock really) with 78% having a household income of at least $25,000 and are more likely to have children living at home.

One other non-surprise, sorta: Only 28% of iPod Touch users are children, so it definitely isn’t a “toy”.

You can save $20 on the $99 8GB iPhone 3G if you’re willing to forego factory freshness—refurbed models are $79 with free shipping from AT&T.

They don’t have refurbed data plans for discount, do they; that’s what we really need.

It seems the discount on previous models of the iPhone is on, and AT&T is looking to clear out all of the previous incarnation of the iPhone from their inventories. This is good for the consumer, but might it also lead to a flood of requests on AT&T’s already strained network from new customers, who previously couldn’t afford the phone?

Hopefully, AT&T is getting their network prepared, and we won’t see a huge slowdown for existing customers.

The site doesn’t say whether this is a temporary sale or not (it probably is permanent, more than likely), but those that don’t think the new 3GS is all that should go check this out ASAP.

German GPS firm Navigon has begun branching out into North America with its release of MobileNavigator North America Lite, available for free.

Readers should note that the free lite version does NOT offer the active route guidance most users are looking for in a GPS mapping application, although it can display a user’s position on its map and locate nearby points of interest. Full turn-by-turn functionality will be available in a future paid version.

Navigon released the full

version of MobileNavigator Europe at an introductory price of $94.99 in late June, but the application is currently priced at $139.99. Navigon is one of the larger players bringing turn-by-turn GPS solutions to the iPhone, with AT&T opting for the same subscription service used on other platforms and TomTom embracing a forthcoming hardware/software combination solution also competing for users’ attention.

It seems GPS companies love the iPhone suddenly, and plan to embrace the platform in many future software releases.

Brando’s claiming 10x better audio reception on this external, swivelable iPhone microphone.

Even if it doesn’t get 10x better reception, it should get perhaps 2x better reception, which is worth $14 for most people.

Here’s more detail from their website:

“Voice and video recording on iPhone 3.0 brings iPhone owners to the new mobile multimedia era. Yet, sound quality is not the best. Try out the NEW Flexible mini capsule microphone which is especially designed for new iPhone 3.0. It enables you to record better sound quality. Instead of receiving sound from the iPhone speaker at the bottom, your iPhone can receive sound from any direction. It is especially useful while shooting video as the microphone and the camera can be pointed to the same direction. Bend and turn the microphone to the desired direction to focus sound source. Flexible mini capsule microphone gains 25+ dB, sound clarity increases as well as sound quality improves. It works on iPhone 3G S, iPhone 3G, iPhone 2G and iPod Nano 4G.”

Feel free to check them out. These sound very cool, if they actually work.

Brando Workshop Flexible Mini Capsule Microphone for iPhone 3G S