Slacker let us know that they’re pushing out a new version of their iPhone applications, which should hit the App Store any time now [Free - iTunes link]. What so streamers have to look forward to?

Aside from the massive song library and the usual enhancements and interface streamlining, there’s larger album art view, recently played stations folder, an option to disable sleep mode, and for Radio Plus subscribers — song lyrics,

Slacker users, when you grab the update, let us know what you think!

More screenshots after the break!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Quick App: Slacker for iPhone Gets Updated

Microsoft produces Windows, the operating system of choice for most iPhone users, and Exchange ActiveSync, the push data system Apple (and Google!) have licensed for business users. They also make Sync, the integration system found in Ford cars, which has just gotten an update.

TWICE (via CNET) lists all sorts of interesting info on the update, but the really interesting part is what’s revealed about future updates, including support for Pandora streaming internet radio, and… the iPhone:

"We'll be able to link you to your Internet in the car. If you brought an iPhone into the vehicle, you could interact with that through voice. You could then read your email by voice," said Joe Berry, Ford business and product development director for Sync, referring to a future version of Sync.

Good news for Ford owners… eventually.

(Thanks to the Reptile for the tip!)

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Ford Sync to Support iPhone Voice Interaction?

Apple has begun emailing registered developers with the following:

As a developer actively working with iPhone OS 3.0 beta, we would like your help in testing the Apple Push Notification service. We have selected a pre-release version of the Associated Press app for iPhone OS 3.0 to create a high-volume test environment for our servers.

Great move on Apple’s part, provided they recruit enough developers to really test the scaling of their iPhone 3.0 Push Notification system. After last year’s disastrous MobileMe launch, Apple needs to make sure their infrastructure is as bullet-proof as possible before they pull the push lever… even if they are planning some limited multitasking as well…

Full text after the break:

Help test the Apple Push Notification service

Dear [redacted],

As a developer actively working with iPhone OS 3.0 beta, we would like your help in testing the Apple Push Notification service. We have selected a pre-release version of the Associated Press app for iPhone OS 3.0 to create a high-volume test environment for our servers.

To participate, we ask that you follow these steps:

1. Download the pre-release version of the Associated Press app for iPhone OS 3.0 from the iTunes Store via your desktop by entering this unique redemption code in the ‘Redeem’ section of iTunes, found under the ‘Quick Links’ section: [redacted] This unique redemption code and the functionality of the application will expire in seven days.

2. Install the application on a development device running iPhone OS 3.0 beta 5 by synching it to iTunes. Make sure to accept notifications when prompted after installation. This application can only be installed on devices running iPhone OS 3.0 beta 5.

3. When you first run the app, choose U.S. English as your region when prompted. The U.S. English region will receive alerts, the Canadian English region will not. For purposes of the test, AP will be sending a high-volume of real news alerts.

4. If you do not receive notifications from the app within 48 hours after installation, let us know.

We appreciate your assistance,

iPhone Developer Program

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Apple Recruiting Developers to Beta Test Push Notification

AT&T Mouth of Sauron Speaks!

Business Week is warming up the rumor we heard ten days ago about AT&T considering reducing the iPhone data plan from $30 to $20. This time, however, instead of just a price drop, it’s suggested there could be the introduction of a new, limited data option.

So, high end users could get “unlimited” data for $30, and lower end users could get a capped plan for $20.

Business Week’s sources also suggest that a lower price or price tier is part of the ongoing negotiations between Apple and AT&T regarding the extension of AT&T’s US iPhone exclusivity.

Of course, $99 and pre-paid iPhones are also tossed in for good measure. Apple has stated in the past that they wouldn’t leave an umbrella for the competition, so lower-cost — up-front up on plan — iPhones are seen as putting pressure on RIM’s BlackBerry and Palm’s upcoming Pre, and shoring up Apple and AT&T’s market share.

If you don’t use a lot of data, would a tiered option (already available on many international carriers) appeal to you? Would a lower end or pre-paid iPhone?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

AT&T to Offer Data-Capped $20 iPhone Plan? $99 iPhones? Pre-Paid iPhones?

I, Robot. The Butlarian Jihad. Terminator. Cylons. The Matrix. And the endless sci-fi stories that inspired them. All that cultural warning and still, like lemmings, we humans rush towards inventing our replacements.

No one to blame but ourselves now really. And Apple for making our eventual overlords so aesthetically pleasing…

[via TUAW]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Monday Fun Video: Countdown to Skynet - iPod touch Edition

Say you are having a hardware related issue on your iPhone, first place you would think to go is your local Apple store, right? Well not if you’re running iPhone 3.0 Beta it turns out, as MacRumors forums show you will politely get rejected and denied any sort of help.

TiPb has confirmed this is indeed true from speaking with a few Apple employees.

Now where does that leave someone who purchased the beta from a stranger on Graigslist? Not in a good place obviously since to get your issue taken care of or to have your phone replaced you must call a developer-only help line. Now if you are a bit more expierienced with the iPhone you can always try to downgrade back to the 2.2.1 software before going into the Apple Store but say your home button is not working, you are flat out of luck and you are now stuck with a official iPhone paper weight.

So with all that said, TiPb can not stress enough — and we’ve said it many times — do not purchase the 3.0 Beta from anyone.

This late into the beta cycle, in a few short months it will be released to the public anyway.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 3.0 Beta and Hardware Issues Don’t Sit Well With Apple Stores

Now that the dust is starting to settle from all of TiPb’s Birthday Bash giveaways, it’s time for another From the Forums post. For those of you who are new to TiPb this is simply a way for us to point out some of the more popular threads in our forums so that you can join in on the conversation. Before you can reply to any of the following threads you will have to register. It’s free, simple, and will only take a few moments of your time.

With the official news that Phil Schiller will be taking the stage at the WWDC keynote the big question in the forums is, will the next generation of iPhone be announced during this event? TiPb thinks so but what do you think?

This next thread comes to us from forum member mike_kircher, and he asks for opinions on what you think is the best feature available on the iPhone. The possibilities are endless, especially now with iPhone OS 3.0. Landscape keyboard, MMS — yes, we all know most common phones have this feature — Safari, true threaded SMS, etc… So jump in and let Mike know what you think!

There still seems to be people out there, generally using first generation iPhones, that are flying under the radar with non-iPhone data plans. If you haven’t been caught yet by AT&T there is a pretty good chance things will be changing sooner rather than later. Sensitown just purchased an iPhone off of craigslist and is currently on a $10/month data plan and is curious, will AT&T automatically switch it to the correct plan?

This thread was started a while back by SM12 and it is as straight forward as they come, what phone did you have previously to your iPhone? Like I said, this is a old thread but with so many new members hitting the forums it’s interesting to see exactly what devices others have used in the past.

Last but not least, TiPb would like to introduce you to it’s latest forum - iPhone App Annoucments. This forum has been created specifically for all of the developers out there to spread the word on their latest and greatest applications. So swing by, take a look around and let the developers know how much you like, or dislike their application.

See you on the forums!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

From the Forums: Next Gen iPhone Debut at WWDC?, iPhones Best Feature, Still on a Non-iPhone Plan?, Your Previous Phone, App Annoucements

Each week we bring you the Best of SPE and this week is no exception. From Android to Windows Mobile and everything in between, we’ve got your smartphone news fix right here.

Android Central

The waiting game for Android 1.5 on the T-Mobile G1 at least has a rulebook now — or at least the makings of a release schedule. We’re also happy to see new functionality in Google search — barcode scanning, but even with that we still prefer ShopSavvy ourselves. Not shopping? Spend some time watching NBC Shows on your G1 - it’s free, which will help because some T-Mobile customers may be having some rate increases coming soon.

CrackBerry.com

In last week’s Best of SPE, we made note that Jim Balsillie confirmed a “Storm 2″ was in the works. Fast forward just a few days and the first real photos of RIM’s next generation of touchscreen, codenamed “BlackBerry Odin”, leaked on CrackBerry. WES 2009 is now over, but the content still continues to roll in. Worth checking out is Gi & Di’s Mobile Security Card solution and if you have 35 minutes to kill, this panel discussion of bloggers predicting the future of BlackBerry! And if you’re the podcast type, the WES 2009 wrap-up podcast is a must-listen.

Nokia Experts

It was another busy week of AT&T Nokia E71x coverage over on Nokia Experts as we try to assist all the new S60 owners with their sleek, slim devices. The week started with a Q&A roundup since so many questions are pouring in about the E71x. Did you also know you can watch Hulu via Skyfire and listen to your Zune Pass subscription tunes on your Nokia E71x. We aren’t the only ones impressed with the device as other sites are awarding it high marks. We also posted a review of the new Spb Puzzzle game for the Nokia 5800.

PreCentral.net

We had plenty of action in our PreCentral.net Pre Forums, from spotting the Pre at a NASCAR event to spotting it inside Sprint stores, our forums are the #1 place to learn about and talk about the Pre. Meanwhile we’re feeling better about the June 7th release date, liking Google more and more, and checking out all sort of goodies from the Palm Pre box. Add in a contest to win a copy of the Classic PalmOS emulator and you have a pretty full week, though not one without a little venting of frustrations

The iPhone Blog

Apple announced no Steve Jobs at WWDC, but Phil Schiller and crew will rock the iPhone 3.0 stage in his stead. Analysts promptly chicken-little’d that the new iPhone would be delayed, and the web responded with multiple rumors of Apple’s considering limited background multitasking for 3rd party apps. We’ve crossed the crazy rubicon here people!

Meanwhile Apple released Mac OS X 10.5.7 Leopard, re-enabling note sync and fixing the dreaded DFU bug that complicated Jailbreaking. Thank you Apple! And AT&T prevented SlingPlayer Mobile from being released with 3G support. Which sucks. A lot.

TreoCentral

Although all the news has been happening over at our friends at PreCentral.net, we still were happy to see Agendus get an update for Windows Mobile and PalmOS. We also took a peek at the iharmonix Platinus Stereo Earphones. Toss in a new PalmCast Podcast and hopping forums and you’ve got plenty to read through at TreoCentral.

WMExperts

It was a quality week in Windows Mobile land. We started off with Microsoft’s own Loke Uei showing off the snappiness of the HTC Snap. We survived another Zune phone rumor, then saw possible required specs for Windows Mobile 7. We broke the news of what should be the HTC Snap on Sprint. Software keyboards were reviewed. The AT&T Samsung Jack was announced. The Marketplace blacklist was explained. Firefox mobile hit official Alpha, Windows Mobile 7 may feature “non-touch” and Tech-Ed videos take us inside WinMo 6.5.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Best of SPE, 17 May 2009

MYST Forum Review by msbaylor. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

Note: I did not review this quite as in-depth as I normally would as I felt that reviews regarding Myst are all over the place and I would be just be repeating what everyone else says, so I just commented on the port itself.

For those of you that do not know what Myst is, it is a port of the old Myst computer game. Myst is an adventure puzzle game in which you are attempting to find your way off the island, or rather attempt to figure out how all the things around you work.

Having played the original Myst, the iPhone version is just like it. It consists of multiple 3D still images that fade from one to another depending on the area of the screen you touch.

Controls

Controls are very simple here. You tap in the direction that you want to go or you tap on objects to interact with them.

Graphics

Like I said before, the game is like a 3D image slide show. However, many of the objects that you will interact with do not act as a slide show, but rather as animations. Also there is video in different parts of the game, such as in the books.

Sound:

I was very impressed by the way the game handled sound. As you continue through your adventures throughout the ages, the audio is constantly changing, not just when you are interacting with objects, but also the ambient noise.

The game is quite large in file size about 720MB and is like the original, in its full scale. This is not a game that you pick up walk around a bit then come back to later, rather it is a game that you will want to sit down with and actually play for a significant amount of time. I suppose you could sit down with it for a short time, but at times the games is very complex in which you might want to take notes, so you might want pen & paper nearby.

Besides all the "usual" game properties, there is also an Options screen. The options screen allows you to "bookmark" or in other words save your game in 4 different slots. You simply drag the current screen (the largest of the boxes to one of the four smaller boxes to save the point in the game you are at. To restore a point, you simply drag in the other direction. There are also sliders that control the speed of the transitions and the volume of the sound. You also have the ability to drop a page if you have one in hand (in order to grab a different one.) Or you you can tap on the Help or Hints buttons. These two buttons will take you out of the game and into the Safari browser. The website it takes you to is formatted for the iPhone, so you should not have any issues viewing the web page. There is also a "back" button which literally takes you right back into the game. I thought the "back" to the game button was a really nice touch to have.

I was curious about what Cyan Worlds had planed for Myst, so I emailed Mark at Cyan Worlds and asked him if there would be any updates for Myst in the future. He replied stating that they would be fixing some minor items, adding an in-game browser for looking up hints "and a few other surprises" Well I can honestly say I’ll be looking forward to what is coming from Cyan Worlds.

Overall

I really enjoyed playing this port of Myst. I highly recommend this game to an Myst fan and for anyone that like puzzles or adventure-puzzles for that matter. However if you are the type of person that just wants to quickly play part of this game to kill time, then this is not the game for you.

Pros:

• Full game, simply a port
• Save up to 4 different instances
• Interacting objects on screen as well as navigating by tapping in the direction you want to go

Cons:

• No in-game browser for hints (feature coming soon)
• Not a "tome-waster" (could be a "pro" as well)
• slide show movement

TiPb Review Rating

Myst is available for $5.99 from the iTunes App Store.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

App Review: MYST for iPhone