Join Dieter, Chad, Rene and special guest, the Cellphone Junkie Mickey Papillion tonight for all the week’s news, views, and rants. If you have any questions, leave a comment below, hit us up on Twitter @theiphoneblog, or better still — join us live in the chat room via http://www.tipb.com/live

Chat with you soon!

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iPhone Live! Tonight at 8pm ET/5pm PT

Last month at CTIA, AT&T proudly announced that they would now permit VOIP over 3G on the iPhone, and Apple promptly told TiPb (and others) that they were updating their SDK agreement and wanted VOIP over 3G apps in the App Store as quickly as possible, and Skype was all up in the happy as well. And now…

[cricket chirps]

Yeah, we’re still waiting. We asked Apple for an update but haven’t heard back yet. Hopefully, very soon, we’ll be awash in them. In the meantime, let’s keep the spotlight shining, and feel free to let Apple, AT&T, Skype, and all the other providers know you want your VoIP over 3G!

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

So Where are All the VoIP over 3G iPhone Apps?

Do you use a Bluetooth headset while driving? A lot of us do. How would you like to do the same thing, but hands free with nothing in your ear? Now you can! The Blueant S1 stereo Bluetooth headset is awesome for the iPhone! you can get it in the TiPb accessory store for $59.95. Now, why would you want to do that? Because this hands-free headset rocks!

I have been using the Blueant S1 for a while now and I have to tell you it is great for so many reasons. First of all the speaker is really lightweight and small. It has a detachable clip that allows you to slip it on to a window visor in your car. if you don’t want the clip, it easily pops right off. There are only three buttons on the Blueant S1; Green for power on/off as well as activating the iPhone’s Voice Control. Green also answers your calls. Red ends a call and if you hold it down, it will dial the last phone number from the phone app.

Using Voice Control with the iPhone could not be simpler; press the green button and wait for the Voice Control prompt from the iPhone. this works like a charm. You can call anyone or play music all from the press of the green button.

Speaking of music, you can use the Blueant S1 as a standalone speaker in your car. You can use the Blueant S1 for making calla but plug in your iPhone to your csr stereo and enjoy the freedom of Apple’s Voice Control.

Outside of using the Blueant S1 as a car-based hands-free device, you can also just slip it in your bag and use it as a desktop Bluetooth speaker, or as I have, use it as a portable speakerphone! During the last month I have been away from my desk at work and have been working in random meeting rooms across campus. Not all of these rooms had phones and some of the rooms were quite large. As an iPhone owner we all know our speaker phones are not very loud, problem solved with the Blueant S1! This little guy came in handy in many of my meetings!

Personally I could not be happier with the Blueant S1. The only improvement I could suggest is a more robust speaker. The audio when playing music is tinty, but sounds great with spoken words. This device has come in handy on many occasions and I know it will for you too!

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

Blueant S1 Sun Visor Bluetooth Car Kit for iPhone 3GS- Reality Review

Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata loves his MacBook and his iPhone, and firmly believes Nintendo and Apple aren’t competitors (they appeal to different customers), and any talk of it makes him uncomfortable.

Yet Apple is most assuredly aiming at gaming (even if John Carmack thinks it’s between clenched teeth), especially with the funner iPod touch ever, and its game-heavy marketing.

With Nintendo profits down 52% for the first half of the year, and Apple selling record numbers of iPhones and reporting 100,000 apps and 2,000,000,000 downloads (with games weighed heavily among them).

Even with a dedicated gaming device like the DS (and perhaps a new platform on the way next year?), and a high-profile set of first-party properties like Mario, Metroid, Zelda, Pokémon, etc. those are tough numbers to look at. And Nintendo isn’t kidding themselves about that:

“If we can’t make clear why customers pay a lot of money to play games on Nintendo hardware and Nintendo software and differentiate ourselves from games on the mobile phone or iPhone, then our future is dark.”

Still, there are no plans for a WiiPhone (no matter how cool that might sound to us!), though an Amazon Kindle-like model, where the end-user doesn’t see any of the cell network bills, does appeal to Iwata.

Likewise, we can’t hold our breath for even older 1st party GameBoy titles to show up on the iPhone either. At least not anytime soon.

[Wall Street Journal -- thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

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

Nintendo Sees no Rivalry with iPhone, but “Future is Dark” if They Can’t Differentiate

Sky Mobile TV News and Sports [Free + £6 a month subscription - iTunes link] for iPhone and iPod touch is now available in the UK App Store, and is Wi-Fi only at the moment (so AT&T isn’t the only one unhappy with TV over 3G, eh?)

The app itself is free, though the programming will set you back £6 a month — unless you’re an O2 customer, in which case they’ll foot the bill for your first three months. Nothing like a competitive market, is there?

If you live in the UK and want all the news, football (soccer to you North Americans), golf, and cricket you can shake an iPhone at, and you check out the app, let us know what you think.

If you live in the US, how would the idea of CNN/ESPN or FoxNews/Sports apps grab you?

[Telegraph via Engadget Mobile]

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

Sky Mobile TV News and Sports for iPhone Launches in UK App Store

It seems as if AT&T is gearing up to launch their HSPA 7.2 in the Dallas area, making good on their promise of having it rolled out in 6 major cities 1 major city in the US. (If anyone in Charlotte, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, or Miami is seeing signs of the boost yet, let us know).

This is indeed the right time for AT&T to give their network a boost, especially with image the latest Verizon “map for that” commercials portray.

With these upgrades, you should have a better wireless experience with more capacity on our network and improved coverage inside your home and other buildings throughout the DFW area. Look for improved coverage in area communities like Allen, Arlington, Carrollton, Colleyville, Dallas, Denton, Ft. Worth, Frisco, Garland, Grapevine, Grand Prairie, Irving, Keller, Mesquite, McKinney, Lewisville, Plano, Richardson, Rockwall, Southlake and more. We updated nearly 1,000 cell sites in these areas! The fastest gets faster! AT&T has the fastest network in Dallas/Ft. Worth* and we're excited to announce that Dallas will be among the first 6 major U.S. cities in which AT&T plans to upgrade its existing 3G technology to HSPA 7.2.** This new upgrade will provide considerably faster mobile broadband speeds, and we plan to make it available by the end of the year.

AT&T claims to have spent 50 million to improve their 850 mhz network in Dallas alone. That should mean pristine service for those enough luck enough to be a resident of the Dallas area. At least you that’s what one would hope…

[Thanks to David for the tip!]

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

AT&T Ready to Rollout HSPA 7.2 in Dallas

When Google opens their wallet, big buyouts follow, and this time it’s iPhone/mobile advertising company AdMob for $750 million, and VoIP startup Gizmo5 for about $30 million.

AdMob is an obvious choice for Google, as it’s built mobile and in-app advertising (especially on the iPhone) into a $100 million a year business, enough to get Brin and Page personally involved in the courtship. Says TechCrunch:

Google is gunning hard to dominate mobile Web advertising and AdMob has an early foothold in the display side. [...] Google's purchase price tells us it thinks the opportunity for mobile display ads is in the billions of dollars, at the very least.

Gizmo5, rather than advertising, could help round out Google’s services portfolio. Again, TechCrunch has the details:

Google Talk allows voice calls between users but has no PSTN link to allow incoming or outbound calls to real phones. Gizmo5 does this well already. [...] And Google Voice is a great VoIP and phone identity service, but they have no endpoint for calls. Gizmo5, which by the way already integrates with Google Voice, is a soft phone end point for Google phone users.

Of course, Apple will have to stop considering/reverse the rejection of Google Voice, or Google will have to deliver that killer web app version, before iPhone users benefit from that…

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

Google Buys AdMob and Gizmo5

Apple’s iTunes has just made a ton more movies available for purchase in 720p HD for both Mac and Windows, bringing the total to just over 285. We assume they’ll play on the 720p capable Apple TV as well, since HD rentals have been available for a while, but it’s not expressly listed — and it’s still US-only so I can’t test it up here in Canadaland…

No mention of the iPhone yet either. So what, some of you may flame, the iPhone’s screen is only 320p, who needs 720?! Well, one day hopefully a mythic iPhone HD or iTablet will, but in the meantime we’d still settle for a 720p HDMI cable output option that we could plug into a TV, since the 3GS is already capable of it and the Zune HD has had that feature since launch.

Boy, country and platform bitterness, all in one post. Sigh.

If you try out the new HD purchases, let us know what you think of the sound and image quality.

[via TechCrunch]

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

Apple Greatly Expands For-Sale HD Movies for Mac and Windows — But What About iPhone?