We have some good news for those of you who are AT&T customers as it appears the carrier is rolling back upgrade eligibility dates for early adopters of last years iPhone 3GS. I have been keeping an eye on my upgrade date online for the past two weeks waiting for it to change from 11/20 with no luck just yet but a MobileCrunch reader has noticed a change to their account.

“Not sure if anyone [..] has noticed this same thing, but my Upgrade Eligibility date on my AT&T account switched from 11/21 to 6/21 in the last day or so. I bought a 3GS on launch day last year, and my upgrade date read 11/21 since then. A few other folks in my office have noticed the same changes happening to their accounts as well.”

Could Monday June 21st be the actual release date of the next iPhone? We are leaning towards no considering his original update was 11/21 while mine is 11/20 and based off that assumption, my upgrade date should change to 6/20 which falls on a Sunday. All of the speculation will come to an end at WWDC in the beginning of June. Until then, check your accounts to see if any changes have been made and let us know in the comments below!

[MobileCrunch]

AT&T rolling back upgrade eligibility dates for next iPhone? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Gowalla for iPhone is a social app from some fine folks in Austin, TX that allows you to check-in to locations, see where your friends are checking-in, collect items and complete trips. For those of you not familiar with the whole “check-in” craze, the idea is you travel around town, land at a “spot” such as the movie theater, gas station or restaurant, and then tap the Check-in button. When you do this a couple things happen:

You can…

• Post to Twitter and Facebook
• Add a photo
• Add a quick post
• Leave an item

There are some great social aspects to Gowalla, but let’s first talk about items. After installing Gowalla on the iPhone, you receive three items. You can keep and cheris these items in a vault, never to be used, or you can swap for other items at Spots when you check in. You are also randomly given items when you check into locations. I found myself without an item for a few weeks, but fear not, I received two items randomly twice in a day! Other then exchanging an item at a Spot, you can leave an item at that location if now one has. This will give you “founder” status.

What I particularly love about Gowalla compared to it’s competition, is that it is not focused on mayorships or point leaderboards. I tend to think I go a out a fair amount and explore the city with my family, but there are some people that go out even more than I do and I will never catch up to them in points. Gowalla’s main attraction for me is the item collection feature.

For those adventurous types, there are trips. Trips are not built into the iPhone but are on the website. When you follow these trips, you earn a special badge. For example, I will be visiting Chicago and I am going to try to complete the Chicago trip.

To find friends to share with, Gowalla gives you some tools to can scan your address book, Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail, and you can always find by name.

All of this is rendered with beautiful icons and graphics that really allows you to enjoy the experience of the application. The only major detractor for me is that the application is still a little slow, but boy is it pretty…

Gowalla is available now in the App Store for free [Free- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Wonderful artistry
• Check-in
• Trips
• View leaderboard
• Directions
• Save items to your vault

Cons

• Cannot edit Spots on the iPhone
• Slow loading

Gowalla for iPhone – App Review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

In stock: Griffin A-Frame for iPad

More than a place for your iPad to call home, Griffin’s A-Frame for iPad [$49.99 - TiPb iPad accessory store link] is a simple, beautiful tool that helps you get the most use out of your iPad wherever you use it.

The heavy aluminum stand swings open to hold your iPad upright, in either portrait or landscape view … perfect for watching video, or viewing pictures. Or close the legs and lay the stand down to hold your iPad at the perfect angle to use it for desk- or table-top surfing, reading or gaming. Soft silicone cradles your iPad and accommodates the iPad’s dock/sync cable. Designed to accommodate most hard-shell cases and many others.

Features:

• Simple, beautiful table and desktop stand for iPad
• Holds iPad upright in landscape and portrait views or at a lower, wrist friendly angle for surfing, reading and more.
• Stable aluminum A-Frame design
• Non-slip rubber cradle accommodates most cases
• Allows easy access to dock connector for charging and syncing

Order your Griffin A-Frame stand for iPad now…

In stock: Griffin A-Frame for iPad is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

According to NPD, more smartphones were sold in the US that run Android than smartphones than run iPhone OS in Q1 2010. BlackBerry remains in the number one spot. According to NPD. Apple isn’t a fan of the metrics being used:

"This is a very limited report on 150,000 US consumers responding to an online survey and does not account for the more than 85 million iPhone and iPod touch customers worldwide," Apple spokesperson Natalie Harrison, told The Loop. "IDC figures show that iPhone has 16.1 percent of the smartphone market and growing, far outselling Android on a worldwide basis. We had a record quarter with iPhone sales growing by 131 percent and with our new iPhone OS 4.0 software coming this summer, we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon."

Since Android can be found in a variety of form factors on all four US carriers, and since Verizon offers it as part of their BOGO (buy one, get one free) promotions, just like the BlackBerry, even if the NPD numbers hold up they’re not surprising.

That the iPhone’s market share is so high in the US, given they’re on one carrier with one form factor, is actually more surprising — only that it happens so often now we’ve stopped being surprised, especially after Apple’s last financial results statement.

And yes, we’re tired of beating that old horse as much as you’re tired of watching it get beaten, but Apple cares only about market share as much as it amplifies profit share. Google isn’t making direct money off of Android (though they do off monetizing services like search, which they also monetize on the iPhone) and on the low-margin, BOGO devices that give BlackBerry its lead, they’re not making Apple-sized margins either (they likely do better on Bold-class devices).

Needless to say, Apple’s not letting AT&T do BOGO for iPhone. For Apple, the iPhone is a premium product and they’d much rather maintain their huge lead in profit share than line discount bins for the sake of per-unit OS market share.

[Android Central, the Loop]

Regarding Android vs. iPhone market share is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

The original iPhone exclusivity agreement between Apple and AT&T was for a 5-year period running from 2007 to 2012. Confirmation of this comes by way of court documents from 2008, however, and 2 years is an eternity in corporate contract-dom.

In other words, anything from AT&T’s service levels (or lack thereof in New York and San Francisco) to their deal for iPad 3G data plans could have led to renegotiations, extensions, or new contracts entirely since then.

So file this away under iPhone trivia unless and until a Verizon iPhone shows up… sometime.

[Engadget]

Original AT&T iPhone exclusivity was a 5 year deal is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Apple has updated the support document that details iPad Wi_fi connection issues, adding that a software fix is indeed in the works. Two of the main Wi-Fi issues include a weak signal and forgotten passwords.

While waiting for Apple, if you happen to be part of the “very small number” of iPad users suffering from these iPad Wi-Fi issues, you can try some of the following workarounds:

• Update your Wi-Fi router firmware
• Use WPA or WPA2 for your wireless security
• Adjusting screen brightness
• Renew your IP address

Any of these solutions work for you? Still having issues? Let us know in the comments below!

[Apple via Mac Rumors]

Apple addressing iPad Wi-Fi issues in software update is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

There’s a rumor making the rounds that Apple’s MobileMe service could be going free “sooner than later… depends on certain facilities going operational.” (Perhaps a reference to the massive server facility Apple’s building in North Carolina.)

Introduced alongside iPhone 2.0 at WWDC 2008 to replace the previous .Mac, the current price tag is $99 for a single user and provides push email, calendar, contacts, iDisk, Galleries, and Find my iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad for mobile users along with Back to my Mac remote file access and screen sharing, iChat accounts, and a host of sync services for Mac users. It’s enjoyed almost entirely incremental updates since then.

Competitors ranging from Google and Microsoft down to DropBox and Box.net offer similar services in whole or in part, and are either free or have basic levels that are free with optional payments for more storage or other premium services. And it’s very hard to compete with free.

It makes a lot of sense — from where we’re sitting at least — for Apple to adopt the same model. Give everyone the basic email, calendar, contacts, iDisk (though we’d prefer you just rip and replace it with DropBox), etc. for free, give the option to pay for advanced/high capacity services for those who want them.

And, hey, if that iPhone HD/iPhone 4G just happens to ship with a front-facing camera, and the new free version of MobileMe just happens to come with Mobile iChat video accounts, maybe iPhone owners will finally have something that makes BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) users jealous…

Again, just a rumor so keep renewing your MobileMe until Steve Jobs or Phil Schiller tells you it’s going free and Apple sends you a credit.

[MacDailyNews via TUAW]

Could Apple’s MobileMe be going free? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Not only is Steve Jobs back at Apple, but he’s back to being the Steve Jobs at Apple — as if there was any doubt following the 1 million-selling iPad debuting, Flash-smashing letter writing, sent from my iPad/iPhone customer service satisfying, tear he’s been on lately.

Still, Businessweek assures us:

"Except for the fact that he's lost a lot of weight, he's the Steve Jobs of old," said Tim Bajarin, who has followed Apple for more than two decades as founder of technology consulting firm Creative Strategies in Campbell, California. "At the visionary level, technology and design level, he seems to be working at the same level as he was before he was sick. If I was an investor, I'd be thrilled."

Forget that — as technologists and futurists, we should all be thrilled. The man jumpstarted the smartphone industry, took a break to see to his health, then came back and made the tablet category viable. Oh, and that was after the Apple II, Mac, iTunes, iPod, Pixar, Apple Retail, etc.

"People like Steve Jobs have a different operating system from you and me," said Guy Kawasaki, a former Apple employee who helped promote the Mac when it was released in 1984. "In his eyes, I don't think anything is impossible."

Good thing too. We can’t wait to see what’s next.

[Businessweek via 9to5Mac, thanks Robert for the tip]

Steve Jobs back in full swing at Apple — one year later is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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From the Forums is a great way to see all of the current hot topics within our forums are. In order to create any new threads of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is a simple process that will only take a few minutes out of your day, so if you have not already already done so, head on over and register now!

• iPad Wi-Fi issues – There is no denying there is something going on with Wi-Fi on the iPad so whether you do or do not have issues staying connected to your Wi-Fi, let us know.

• What do you use to protect your iPad? Screen protector? Hard case? Flip case? We want to hear what protective measure you are taking!

• What are your thoughts on the next generation iPhone leak? Was it legal? Illegal? Vote in this poll that is split 50/50 at the moment.

• Words with Friends ID – Share your ID with the latest gaming craze on the iPhone and iPad.

• iPhone Jailbreak and Unlock – for all of your jailbreaking and unlocking needs visit our dedicated forum on the topics.

See you in the forums!

iPad Wi-Fi issues, iPad cases, iPhone leak, Words with Friends, Jailbreak and unlock – From the Forums is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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