In a move designed to match Verizon’s recent price drop, AT&T has announced a new $100 unlimited voice/data plan for iPhone users, though it doesn’t cover SMS which is still an extra $20 for unlimited. Here’s the relevant passage from the presser:

• All smartphone customers, including iPhone customers, may now buy unlimited voice and data for $99.99. For smartphone customers with Family Talk plans (prices assume 2 smartphones), unlimited voice and data is now available for $179.99. Texting plans remain unchanged at $20 for unlimited plans for individuals, $30 for Family Talk Plans.

Anyone tempted to grab the new plan?

[via Gizmodo]

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AT&T Offers New $100 Unlimited Voice/Data (Not SMS) Plan for iPhone

BusinessWeek is reporting that, according to the cliched “source familiar with the situation”, Apple CES Steve Jobs thinks “mobile ads suck” in their current form (oh, hai, Google!) and intends to do for them what he did for music with iTunes and mobile with the iPhone — revolutionize it.

The sources did not reveal specific plans at Apple but say there are several possible ad approaches. Apple could employ its user data and geo-location technology to make ads more relevant, so that a user cruising the mobile Web at lunchtime could receive an ad for specials at a nearby restaurant. It could also use the iPhone’s capabilities in creative ways—say, having someone shake the device to win a rebate the same way they do to roll dice in games.

If the present belongs to Google and desktop-based web search advertising, but the future is mobile and it looks like that battle ground is going to be contested, and by Apple of all companies.

Do they have a shot?

[Thanks to the Reptile for the tip!]

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Steve Jobs Thinks “Mobile Ads Suck”, Intends iTunes-style Fix?

UPDATED: TiPb heard back from the developer, and sure enough, it’s their app 4.0, nothing to do with iPhone OS 4.0. Move along. Notiong to see here…

CNET is reporting, and others are picking up, that a developer sent them a note saying:

“Just wanted to give you a heads up that we’ve submitted an updated app for the new iPhone OS 4.0 software.”

Well, TiPb got a note from a developer worded exactly the same way:

I’ve sent you some news about [redacted] before, but just wanted to give you a heads up that we’ve submitted an updated app for the new iPhone OS 4.0 software.

However, we also got a personal note from the developer that read:

We just released [redacted] 4.0 for iPhone.

And if you follow the link to their blog:

[Redacted] 4.0 has been released!

TiPb feels there’s a strong chance we will indeed see the first iPhone 4.0 beta soon, perhaps at Apple’s rumored January 27th event, and while this could be a “leak”, it looks to us like it could just as easily have been a wrongly worded press mailing. It’s not their application for iPhone 4.0, it’s version 4.0 of their application for the current iPhone OS.

What do you think?

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Developer Leaks Imminent iPhone 4.0? Not.

Yesterday NBC Bay Area reported (and Android Central gloated!) that Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, had replaced his iPhone for the big bark and less bite Google/HTC Nexus One. TiPb never believed Woz would ever relinquish his beloved iPhone and, sure enough, NBC Bay Area has now updated their story:

“I have two iPhones, sometimes I wear a Droid on my belt, and also a Nexus One,” said Wozniak. “At any given point, I might have BlackBerrys. My main phone is still an iPhone.”

He sounds like our very own Dieter Bohn just without the BlackBerry. So there you have it folks, Woz has not betrayed us.

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

Apple Co-Founder Woz Did Not Ditch iPhone for Google’s Nexus One

NLU Products, makers of BodyGuardz, were gracious enough to take some time out at CES 2010 and show TiPb their four-way ScreenGuardz Privacy film for iPhone. Four-way means it won’t just shield your iPhone from prying eyes in portrait mode, but horizontal as well. Buh-bye over-the-shoulder airplane movie snooper!

Check out the video, after the break!

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

ScreenGuardz Privacy for iPhone — TiPb @ CES 2010

The Apple patents keep on rolling out and today the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office accepted Apple's filing for a patent that would allow for contact icons to be placed on the home screen, along with the ability to invoke apps, retrieve and display contacts information, or dynamically display related information all tied to an individual contact.

“The icon can also be used to invoke one or more applications that are personalized to the contact. The icon can be modified to display information related to the contact. In one aspect, an icon associated with an entity can be temporarily displayed on the mobile device based on the proximity of the mobile device to the entity.”

This is pure speculation on our part but it’s possible you will see this patent come to life in the upcoming iPhone OS 4.0. Hopefully when January 27th comes we all will see what is in store for the future of the iPhone OS.

Now please excuse me while I go add a few more contacts on the home screen of my Moto Droid, since it’s been doing that for a while.

One more screen shot after the break!

[Via Redmond Pie]

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Apple Exploring Contacts on the Home Screen… for iPhone 4.0? – Apple Patent Watch

Inductive charging is the future, and one of the companies trying to bring it to the iPhone is Powermat. I say trying only because, unlike our friends over at CrackBerry.com, we won’t be able to just swap in an inductive battery and go about our business. To truly bring inductive to the iPhone, Apple will have to build it in the way Palm does with the Pre and Pixi.

But Apple is Apple, so companies like Powermat are working around them with cases. The TiPb Store has the 2009 Powermat models in stock, but coming later in 2010, they’re getting sleeker and adding a second, slightly longer case that includes an extended battery.

Powermat, and others, believe one day inductive charging will just be built into our counters, desks, cars, etc. Hopefully Apple includes it in the 4th generation iPhone. I know I want it.

CES 2010 sneak peak video after the break!

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Powermat Inductive Charging for iPhone — TiPb @ CES 2010

On the last iPhone Live!, Dieter, Phil and I discussed iPhone 4.0 and whether, as rumors suggest, we’d finally see multitasking brought to the platform. That’s when the discussion turned to RAM. The iPhone 2G and iPhone 3G have an anemic 128MB of RAM. The iPhone 3GS has 256MB. That’s the same amount as the original Palm Pre and Motorola Droid, which do multitask but do bog down and sometimes error out while doing it. Just-released phones like the Palm Pre Plus and Google Android Nexus One up the ante to a beefy 512MB of RAM.

What does this have to do with the iPhone and multitasking? We’ve seen time and time again that Apple would rather not offer a feature at all then offer one with a poor user experience. It’s why we waited for copy and paste until iPhone 3.0, and why the iPhone 3GS does 30fps video recording and even though the iPhone 3G could do half that, maybe, Apple won’t enable it.

When Push Notification was announced, head of iPhone software Scott Forstall made fun of Windows Mobile-style task management on a mobile device, and sighted battery drain as the primary reason Apple wasn’t doing it. Let’s assume Apple gets better battery life in the 4th generation iPhone as well, unless they get more RAM, it’s still tough to see them enabling multitasking unless and until they beef up the RAM so that at least a few apps can run in the background with as much smoothness and reliability as Apple demands.

Will iPhone 2G get another free update to iPhone 4.0 when it’s released? Will it get the full update, unlike 3.0 when it didn’t get MMS or A2DP. Will iPhone 3G, when it didn’t get video recording? Will iPhone 3GS?

If RAM is the thing that will dictate iPhone multitasking, 512MB (or more?) might just be the magic number, and potentially the magic cut off (or scale back) as well.

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Is RAM the Thing That Will Dictate iPhone Multitasking?