As we bring you the best of SPE for the past week, don’t forget that starting Monday, we’ll be starting the Smartphone Round Robin in earnest – with new hands-on videos on six sites. If you haven’t already, go ahead a take a listen to our kick-off podcast hosted by The Cell Phone Junkie and take a tour of the Smartphone Round Robin website, where you can learn how to enter to win one of six smartphones we’re giving away!

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

Best of Smartphone Experts, 13 Dec 2009

Boy Genius took a look at his server logs and found somethings (plural!) very interesting — entries for both iPhone 3.1.3 and… iPhone 4.0!

iPhone 3.1.3 would denote a minor fix to iPhone 3.1 (currently at iPhone 3.1.2), and could drop any time. iPhone 4.0, if Apple keeps to their previous schedule, would get a Sneak Peak event in March, followed by a beta period for developers, and a public release in June or July to coincide with 4th generation iPhone hardware (also already caught in server logs).

No signs, of course, of the still missing-in-action iPhone 3.2. (Where are you?)

(Thanks Dylan for the tip!)

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

iPhone 3.1.3 and iPhone 4.0 Discovered in Server Logs

One of Phil Schiller’s favorite iPhone apps, ESPN ScoreCenter, [iTunes Link] just got that much better with the addition of push notifications. Even better you get the ESPN SportsCenter jingle as your notification sound.

With ESPN ScoreCenter you get real-time scores, live game details, game summaries and stats for 9 major sports including the following: MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, Soccer, NCAA Football and Basketball, NASCAR, Golf, and Tennis.

The only major sport that I wish was included is MMA (mixed martial arts) coverage. That would make this app absolutely unreal. Life goes on and at the end of the day, with push notifications, this is the best sports app to get your up to the minute sports information and best yet, it’s free!

One more image after the break!

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

Quick App: ESPN ScoreCenter with Push Notifications for iPhone

There appears to be a bug on Apple’s iTunes App Store that’s causing apps to show up as having updates available even after they’ve been downloaded over and over again. We’ve gotten quiet a few readers writing in about it now, and there’s the usual huge thread up on Apple’s discussion boards.

Here’s what it looks like — the App Store on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iTunes on your PC tells you you have an update for an app. You tap or click to update, enter your iTunes password, and the app downloads — but it still shows the app in the update list. You tap or click update again, it downloads again, but again still shows the app in the update list. Or worse (as happened to me a few weeks ago), iTunes pops up a Checking for Available Downloads dialog then proceeds to try, over and over again, for days, to download 1.3GB of turn-by-turn navigation app update.

Of course, the problem seems intermittent and random — different users experiencing the it with different apps at different times. It’s also unclear if everyone is having the same problem. For some, Apple’s iTunes app servers may not be properly providing the updated app file and so the new version is not successfully getting installed on the device. For others, the file might be getting installed but iTunes doesn’t recognize or register it so keeps offering the same update.

Possible solutions include rebooting your iPhone or restarting iTunes on your PC, or just waiting and trying again in a day or so. On rare occasions it looks like it takes a few days to sort itself out, which for small apps isn’t a show-stopper for those 1GB apps (or large games), it can be untenable, especially for people in countries with tight data caps on their home internet.

Some developers are hearing enough feedback on this that they’re contacting Apple in hopes of some server-side fixing (see image of Twitter conversation above). We’re hoping for some as well.

If you’re having this problem, let us know in the comments, and let us know what (if anything) is fixing it for you.

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

App Store Bugs: App Updates Downloading Over and Over and Over Again

Maybe it’s me; maybe it’s a fanboy thing; maybe it’s my desire to impose yet more text on screen about this, but when I say people calling an HTC HD2/Dragon/Passion device absent HTC branding “THE Google Phone” (now officially caught on camera, see above), but I can’t help but think that if we go back to 2007 and Steve Jobs had taken the stage at Macworld and pulled out an HTC Excalibur with Apple branding on, even if it had an Apple OS, it wouldn’t have been “THE iPhone” and it certainly isn’t what Apple did or what we as consumers got.

“This changes everything” say many blogs. Certainly, for Google’s Android partners, competing against the Google brand, and bank, and engineering team changes a lot. And if they sell it unlocked (assuming they put a radio in it that can support all 4 US carriers, including both AT&T and T-Mobile 3G, and Verizon and Sprint EVDO) it will change things for the carriers, and for users who are accustomed to paying subsidized prices.

Before Apple released the original iPhone in 2007 there was talk (read: hope) of Apple releasing it unlocked, and talk (read: more hope) again with the iPhone 3G. (TiPb even predicted that as WWDC 2008’s “one more thing” — and boy were we wrong). It sounds great and we gadget geeks love it, but the truth is unlocked devices coast $700+, as anyone currently trying to import an HTC HD2 or Xperia X10 are no doubt aware.

The iPhone became a phenomenon when it hit $199 and a bigger one when it hit $99 through heavy carrier subsidies. Next June/July when another iPhone comes along, current owners will again be livid if AT&T doesn’t cut them a break on costs, even if they haven’ fulfilled their own end of the 2 year contract again. Google could possibly try to self-subsidize with the intent on making back the money via advertising (or online services, though they traditionally give those away for free in exchange for the aforementioned ad revenue), and that really would “change everything” if it worked. (Hey, TiPb’s joked Google should just give free cell service to everyone in the US. Then it’s game over.)

This might be a great phone. It might be the best smartphone to date. But for an end user, how will it be different than if HTC simply released the Dragon/Passion/HD2 running Android 2.1? It’s even identifying itself as Nexus One for Blade Runner’s sake.

So, unless the above is just an HTC shell for as-yet-unrevealed and totally redesigned-by-Google hardware (or Google just buys HTC like they’re buying everything else), it might well be a Google-branded phone, but it’s not “THE Google Phone”, at least not in the way the iPhone was and is Apple’s.

[Clarification: I'm not commenting on Google or their phone initiative here, I'm commenting on the coverage. Google hasn't announced a Google Phone. As their blog (which we linked to previously) plainly says, they're running tests with a partner, aka HTC, device. It's the coverage that's dubbing it Google Phone and a game changer. At this point, based on the image, it looks like an HTC device -- like an HD2/Passion/Dragon in Hero wrapping. And that's fine. That's great. If it's sold unlocked and runs on standard GSM 3G, I'd probably even buy one just to have fun with, sans contract. Analogies to the iPhone and Foxconn are completely off base, however. Foxconn isn't selling dozens of other devices, and certainly isn't selling other devices running iPhone OS X. Apple produces "THE iPhone". So far, this is a really interesting Android phone packaged by Google (instead of HTC or Verizon). But it's not "THE Google Phone". I suspect that one, running Chrome OS and using only Google Voice and VoIP, is still pending, and that well could be the next game changer.]

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

So in 2007 if Apple Slapped a Logo on an HTC Excalibur, Would That Have Been “the iPhone”?

Is AT&T to blame for the poor iPhone experience in cities like San Francisco and New York, where calls drop, data fails, and bars depict signal strength with no real connection behind them? And if so, what can they do about it — build more network infrastructure, create tiered pricing, or maybe just give up on exclusivity?

Dan Lyons, writing under his nom-de-guerre Fake Steve Jobs recently posted a curse-filled parody, describing an entirely fictional, frighteningly plausible conversation between his character and an equally fake AT&T CEO, Randall Stephenson. It’s climax:

And now here we are. Right here in your own backyard, an American company creates a brilliant phone, and that company hands it to you, and gives you an exclusive deal to carry it — and all you guys can do is complain about how much people want to use it. You, Randall Stephenson, and your lazy stupid company — you are the problem. You are what's wrong with this country.

I stopped, then. There was nothing on the line. Silence. I said, Randall? He goes, Yeah, I'm here. I said, Does any of that make sense? He says, Yeah, but we're still not going to do it. See, when you run the numbers what you find is that we're actually better off running a shitty network than making the investment to build a good one. It's just numbers, Steve. You can't charge enough to get a return on the investment.

AT&T has made billions in profit off of its user base (and off the iPhone!) and many of those users think it would behoove AT&T to take a large portion of those profits and re-invest them in expanding and improving their network. AT&T claims they’re doing just that, especially in high iPhone-density cities like San Francisco (now getting the 850Mhz band) and Dallas (upgrade to 7.2Mb HSPA). And as Fake Steve so deliciously skewered, AT&T Mobile CEO, Ralph de la Vaga has unfathomably discussed stopping users from using their devices under the “unlimited” data plans AT&T markets to them.

But is the problem really AT&T?

The New York Times recently ran an article claiming AT&T had a great network despite consumer dissatisfaction… a great network for every other phone other than the iPhone. Of course, few other data-centric phones are as numerous as the iPhone, and none are as easy to use, or have as many users using as many data-centric features. Not to mention other carriers, such as Rogers in Canada and GSM networks across Europe don’t seem to report the sheer number of problems AT&T users do. (We also remember with horror what happened when CrackBerry.com’s Kevin took his just-release Rogers BlackBerry Bold to New York.) Perhaps it’s the unique combination of AT&T’s specific network setup and Apple’s iPhone radios.

Either way, the perception problem is entirely AT&Ts at the moment and even with new customer-facing strategies like “Mark the Spot“, an app that lets iPhone users report problem areas, it’s not likely to change any time soon.

So let’s say AT&T does invest billions in infrastructure — more fast 3G HSPA bars in more places. It’s the right and logical things to do, and the thing Fake Steve absolutely nails AT&T for being too greedy to go about doing. The end result of that could be higher user satisfaction — and where do that lead?

Many suffer poor AT&T service just to own an iPhone. If they didn’t have to suffer any more, if AT&T’s network was considered as vast and solid as Verizon’s, how many more might jump on it? Could even a greatly enhanced and expanded AT&T handle 10 million more people getting iPhones and using even more data, requiring billions more to keep up, and who knows how much to actually get ahead of demand?

AT&T’s stick to go along with their network expansion carrot is, of course, capped data and tiered pricing. 3% of users “watching video” (or unofficially tethering, perhaps), using 40% of network resources. (And again, AT&T sold their bill of goods as “unlimited” so it’s hard to sympathize). But even capping, throttling, and/or tiering those 3%-ers won’t stop the millions of other hitting AT&T’s towers over and over again like high volume machine-gun fire. It’s not tenable. (Unless they’re willing to accept their destiny and become “dumb pipes“, then we’ll talk).

So that leaves moving the iPhone out of AT&T exclusivity and onto other US networks. It’s happened in the UK and Canada.

AT&T acknowledges it will happen eventually. The date is unknown to anyone outside the contract-signers, but exclusivity is generally pegged to end in 2010 — perhaps the end of 2010.

It won’t be an easy transition — T-Mobile uses a different frequency for their 3G bands and Verzion and Sprint use an entirely different radio technology. (Yes, even if Apple sold the iPhone 3GS unlocked, for use on any carrier, the only US carrier that whose 3G network is compatible right now is AT&T). That means, even with Verizon being interested, Apple would have to add T-Mobile’s bands, perhaps switch to an entirely new, GSM/CDMA hybrid radio so that it can reach America’s three other networks. A non-trivial solution to say the least, but perhaps a necessary one now.

If volumes keeps growing, even Verizon couldn’t handle the iPhone by itself either. Just like new highways ease traffic congestion, letting the iPhone speed along several carriers might just make it better for everyone involved — including AT&T.

If anyone can do it, Apple can. If not, Google might just be waiting in the wings…

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

Is AT&T to Blame for Poor iPhone Experience and Is Non-Exclusivity the Answer?