iPhone 4 reviews are beginning to go live around the internet and impressions so far are resoundingly positive, though as usual AT&T takes some heat.

Josh Topolsky of Engadget says iPhone 4 is the “best smartphone on the market right now”:

We’re not going to beat around the bush — in our approximation, the iPhone 4 is the best smartphone on the market right now. The combination of gorgeous new hardware, that amazing display, upgraded cameras, and major improvements to the operating system make this an extremely formidable package. Yes, there are still pain points that we want to see Apple fix, and yes, there are some amazing alternatives to the iPhone 4 out there. But when it comes to the total package — fit and finish in both software and hardware, performance, app selection, and all of the little details that make a device like this what it is — we think it’s the cream of the current crop. [link]

More early looks after the break.

Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal thinks “the new iPhone keeps Apple at the top of the class”, even while wishing it wasn’t bound to AT&T:

Just as with its predecessors, I can't recommend this new iPhone for voice calling for people who experience poor AT&T reception, unless they are willing to carry a second phone on a network that works better for them.

For everyone else, however, I'd say that Apple has built a beautiful smartphone that works well, adds impressive new features and is still, overall, the best device in its class. [Link]

David Pogue of The New York Times starts off by saying “new iPhone arrives; rivals beware”, though he thinks the technically inclined might prefer them anyway:

[Android devices are] more complicated, and their app store not as good, but they're loaded with droolworthy features like turn-by-turn GPS instructions, speech recognition that saves you typing, removable batteries and a choice of cell networks.

If what you care about, however, is size and shape, beauty and battery life, polish and pleasure, then the iPhone 4 is calling your name. [Link]

Ed Baig of USA Today says iPhone 4 lives up to the hype, especially FaceTime:

As with previous iPhones, the latest model breaks new ground. FaceTime video calling on the iPhone 4 is one of those cool “seeing is believing” features, and it arrives on top of several across-the-board enhancements. And iOS 4 is a mostly terrific software upgrade.

Cutting through the hype, Apple has given longtime diehards, and first-time iPhone owners, plenty to cheer about. [Link]

Boy Genius goes for first impressions in point form, among them:

-The size and weight just feel right. - [The screen] is stunning - The industrial design is really solid, you feel like you are holding a luxury item. - Speed. Oh it's fast. [Link]

Xeni Jardin of Boing Boing says she would buy it:

The fourth incarnation of Apple’s iPhone is an incrementally improved, familiar device—not a new kind of device, as was the case with the recent introduction of iPad. Yes, the notable features with iPhone 4—both the device and the iOS4, which came out yesterday in advance of the iPhone itself—are mostly tweaks. But what tweaks they are: Apple’s focus on improvement is as much key to the quality of its products as innovation. But there’s one flaw it can’t completely eliminate: the unreliable quality of calls placed over AT&T, which remains the iPhone’s only U.S. carrier. [Link]

There you have it, the mainstream take on Apple’s new iPhone 4. If you got an early iPhone 4 delivery of your own — or when you do — let us know your take as well.

iPhone 4 reviews – what they’re saying is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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How to make the switch from Palm webOS to Apple iPhone 4

iPhone 4 with its 960×640 retina display, easy-peasy FaceTime video calling, high quality 5 megapixel, back-illuminated camera that shoots 720p 30fps video, and the silky smoothness of iOS 4 convincing you to switch from Palm’s Pre or Pixi to Apple’s newest handset? Worried about moving over your personal data like contacts, finding apps, getting used to the differences? Wondering where to get help?

Relax. You’re in the the right place. Follow along after the break for everything you need to know (more properly, everything the TiPb iPhone Forums have taught us) about switching from Android to iPhone 4 and iOS 4.

(And yes, we’ve already done Android, and we’ll have BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile switcher guides up later this week as well).

webOS to iPhone – home coming

When half of Apple’s original iPhone team left for Palm to make the webOS, maybe you went with them? Or maybe you’re a loyalist who went from Treo to Centro to Pixi and never even considered an iPhone until now? No worries. That was then and this is now — iPhone 4 and iOs 4 now. Getting you up to speed and ready to go now.

Moving over contacts, calendars, and email

Hopefully if you’re using something called webOS your personal info is all store up in the cloud. If so, you should have no trouble getting it onto your iPhone. Just the pioneering Pre, iOS 4 can handle multiple ActiveSync accounts, including Exchange proper and Google Sync’s implementation. Just tap the Settings icon on the Home Screen, tap Mail, Contacts, and Calendars, choose Exchange, and enter your credentials.

If ActiveSync isn’t to your fancy, you can tap Other and set up pretty much any POP3 or IMAP account you have in your collection, and MobileMe, Yahoo!, AOL, Hotmail, and anything else you can think of.

You can also load up any webmail account you like in the Safari web browser, including gmail.com, if that’s how you want to roll.

And you can access all of it in the new iOS 4 unified inbox and threaded email client. It’s not full on Synergy, but…

What about Synergy and Cards

There’s nothing as stupendous as Synergy built into iOS 4, though the previously mention Exchange, Google, and MobileMe contacts, calendars, and email can live together in quasi-synergistic fashion. If you install the Facebook app [iTunes link] you can get some contact mojo going on there as well. Other apps, like Orbit [iTunes link] can pull together your Facebook, Twitter, SMS, email, etc. contacts and let you assign different “volumes” to them so you can manage the level of interruption.

iOS 4 introduces a highly abstracted version of multitasking that, for mainstream users, would be indistinguishable from the real thing were it not for the great battery life and overall snappiness. Rather than Cards, you double click the Home button and the fast app switcher UI appears so you can quickly get to other apps (which can now save state so you go back to where you left them). But hey, if you find yourself missing Cards, just launch the Safari browser and hit the icon for Page view. It’s visually almost identical, though it lacks the ability to flick a page away to remove it.

And yes, in iOS 4, navigation, VoIP, and streaming music Pandora or Slacker-style can all multitask away blissfully in the background.

Finding other apps (and games)

Palm is the most developer friendly platform in the business bar none. They make Google seem closed and stodgy by comparison. But what Apple lacks in free-as-in-speech open App Store gates, they make up for in sheer tonnage of free-as-in-beer App Store goodness. And $0.99 goodness. And pretty much goodness at every level. Sure, there’s a lot of CrApps in with those apps, but at 200,000 and growing there’s also a huge amount of incredibly good, incredibly native, apps and games.

As Steve Jobs himself will tell you, Apple also supports HTML5 as a second, completely open platform. With local caching now available, HTML5 web apps can look and act far more like native apps. If you can’t find something in the App Store, chances are you can find it as a web app for the iPhone.

When it comes to apps of all kinds, TiPb reviews several a week and we’ve got a whole iPhone Apps and Games Forum ready to help you out as well.

Root meet Jailbreak

Again, Palm is so open and community friendly they make the Symbian foundation blush. There’s no manufacturer supported rooting on iPhone, and no ultra-cool Konami code to enter developer mode, and no encouraged patching of any kind. (Apple says “stop it” and would give the EFF noogies if they could.)

If you want to get into the root jail of your iPhone, you need to break it — hence, Jailbreak. If you want to side load apps outside the iTunes app store, you need to use the Jailbreak app store, Cydia (or Rock). Now, if you don’t understand what any of this means, just skip along to the next section, we’ll be there waiting. If you’re a diehard themer and patcher, you’ll want to keep your eyes peeled to our Jailbreak coverage, and more importantly — our Jailbreak Help Forum, and Jailbreak Apps, Games, and Themes Forum.

No. More. Keyboard.

You won’t be able to shave or cut cheese with the iPhone keyboard — because it’s virtual. If you believe the urban legend, current Palm CEO, Jon Rubenstein, back when he was still a VP at Apple, vigorously disagreed with Steve Jobs about the iPhone not having a physical keyboard. Hence, the Pre and Pixi both have physical keyboards.

And that’s okay. Just not on the iPhone. Apple likes their keys virtual so they go away when you don’t need them (without creaking, oreo’ing, popping batteries, or coming to the rescue when virtual keyboards just won’t do). On the plus side, if you’re multilingual or international, the iPhone keyboard can easily be switched to any alphabet, script, stroke, or pictographic symbol you want to use. It can also become optimized for numbers, games, or pretty much anything you (technically, a developer) can think of.

Best of all, if you really miss your physical keyboard, with iOS 4, you can tether up a Bluetooth one and knock email — and yourself — out.

Welcome back, iTunes

Remember Palm trying and ultimately failing to hack the Pre into iTunes? With iPhone, you’re a first (and only) class citizen with full keys to Apple’s media kingdom. Enjoy.

So long, OTA updates

And you’ll need that iTunes because while you can do a lot of things OTA (over the air), including syncing all your personal data via ActiveSync (including Google Sync) or MobileMe, download apps, and buy or rent iTunes music, TV shows, movies, podcasts, etc. (20MB or under over 3G, any size over Wi-Fi), updating the OS ain’t on. (Backing up ain’t two.)

Likewise, you can find apps that let you access your Google Docs, DropBox, Box.net, and other online storage. You can even convert and stream content on the fly with apps like AirSharing [iTunes]. But at some point, be it to install a software update like iOS 4.1 (probably due this fall) or backup your data, you’re going to need to plug in to iTunes. So 2007, we know. If it’s any consolation, Apple should release iTunes.com at some point…

Say WTH to interruptive notifications

Palm rules the roost with their elegant, non-interuptive, notification system. Compared to that utopia, iOS 4 notifications are some bizarre UI hell we’ll likely be immolating in until the next major OS update.

Here’s the condemnation – you get one notification popup at a time that you have to view or close before you can resume what you were doing (or about to do) and once you close it — or another notification pops up on top of it — it’s gone forever.

More webOS to iPhone help and information

If you haven’t already, check out our complete iOS 4 feature walkthrough. There’s an incredible amount of stuff in iOS 4 and you can save yourself some serious time cribbing off of us.

If you need help, or have a story to share, check out TiPb’s iPhone forum — we’ve got a special switching from webOS to iPhone 4 thread going just for you!

And if we forgot anything or just plain got something wrong, let us know and we’ll add it or fix it.

Switching from webOS to iPhone 4? Here’s what you need to know! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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You want your iPhone 4 unboxing gadget pr0n early? Well, thanks to YouTube and a couple premature deliveries, it’s here. Now, reportedly Apple’s activation servers aren’t up and running yet, so unboxing is about all that can be done with iPhone 4 for the moment, but who are we to deny even that simple pleasure?

Video after the break!

UPDATE: More videos below, keep sending them in!

[Thanks @bgkid15 for the tip!]

iPhone 4 unboxing is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Just heard from one of the folks we know who updated his iPhone 3GS to iOS 4 yesterday only to lose his AT&T data connection completely. Today, when he could no longer even place calls, he contacted AT&T who, after several escalations, informed him there are isolated incidents of iPhone 3GS on iOS 4 with unlimited data plans no longer being able to connect to the network.

They told him they’re working with Apple to fix it, and put him name on a contact list so they could let him know when it was resolved.

Our question is — how isolated is isolated? How’s your AT&T unlimited data post iOS 4 update?

iPhone 3GS on iOS 4 with AT&T unlimited data plan, experiencing loss of data? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Sorry everyone who didn’t — or couldn’t – pre-order and iPhone 4 from AT&T last week, there’ll be no extra stock in stores and so AT&T won’t have any to sell you until June 29. Here’s the salient bit:

iPhone 4 pre-order sales on June 15 were 10-times higher than the first day of pre-ordering for the iPhone 3GS last year. Demand is simply unprecedented. We’re thrilled to see the excitement around iPhone 4 and are committed to helping as many customers as quickly as we can. As we said last week, we’re committed to fulfilling preorders first – and are on track to do so. Here is an update that we just posted:

AT&T is on-track to deliver iPhone 4 to customers who preordered the device on June 15. We look forward to offering iPhone 4 to all other customers beginning Tuesday, June 29, when it goes on sale in all AT&T sales channels.

Just to torment you further, they’ll be posting helpful videos of what you might not be able to get on their Facebook page. Fiends.

Were you planning to camp out in front of an AT&T store Wednesday night? What are you going to do now?

[Engadget]

AT&T: No pre-order, no iPhone 4 until June 29 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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If you’re in the United States of America and have been waiting on a Google Voice invite, wait no longer — Google has just opened up the service to everyone! (They’ve even got the nifty infographic above to show you how happy they are about it).

If you’re not in the US, yeah, sorry, sux0rs for you. Like Google Navigation, they’ll probably start rolling it out, slowly, to a few places, one day, maybe. (Not that anyone is bitter).

If you’re a long time user or just signed up, let us know what you think of the Google Voice service — even if you’re limited to the Google web app (or Black Swan) on the iPhone.

Video after the break.

[Google Voice blog]

Google Voice now open to everyone (in the US) is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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The Griffin Jumper [$27.95] is a nice neoprene case for the iPad. If you’re in the market for a sleeve for transporting your iPad, this case may be what you’re looking for.

The neoprene material of the is excellent because it doesn’t need to be very thick to provide protection. It is also very stretchy so that there is a snug fit around your iPad. In fact, the Jumper was almost too snug when I first received it; but after a few uses, the neoprene stretched out just enough to be snug but not a challenge to use.

The inside of the Griffin Jumper is lined with a very soft fleece-like material. There will be no concern of your iPad receiving scratches when sliding it in and out of the sleeve. In fact, a few of the fingerprints on your iPad likely get wiped off when removing it from the Griffin Jumper.

The Griffin Jumper offers full protection of the iPad except at the corners of the flap. Many times there is a very small part of the iPad exposed at one or both of the corners. This may be cause for concern for some, but I don’t see it as a huge problem. Something would have to poke into the spot in order to make contact with the iPad.

I have been very pleased with the Griffin Jumper. The nice slim design, soft interior, and tough neoprene exterior make this an excellent sleeve case for the iPad.

Video and photos after the break!

Pros

• Made from protective neoprene
• Slim design
• Snug fit

Cons

• Exposes a small part of iPad at the corners of flap

Griffin Jumper case for iPad – accessory review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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In lieu of iOS4 and iPhone 4 next week, we know a lot of you will be upgrading to either a new OS or new hardware altogether.  Those of you that jailbreak may find backing up your jailbroken apps a lot easier than reinstalling everything once you re-jailbreak.  Now keep in mind, I wouldn’t suggest upgrading if you’re unlocked as unlocks are never a sure thing until they’re released.  But if you’re just jailbreaking, we’re already aware of a working jailbreak that’s ready for iOS4.  Given nothing changes, this should ease your transition.

Before we proceed, one more warning; as with any OS upgrade on iDevices, not all apps will be compatible immediately.  We saw this with 3.0 with things such as custom keyboards not working.  This may very well be the case again, so if you have jailbreak apps you just can’t live without, make SURE they’ll be compatible with iOS4 before you upgrade. Now hit the jump for Cydia and Rock back-up walkthroughs!

Cydia

Now Cydia is a little bit more complicated than Rock, but a lot of users much prefer Cydia, so we’ll cover this one first. It’s still a pretty easy process. To backup your jailbroken apps via Cydia, you’ll need to download a free app called Aptbackup.

Once you’ve got Aptbackup installed, you’ll see this icon on your homescreen:

Tap that icon and you’ll see 2 buttons, backup and restore. Before you upgrade or do anything, click backup.

After you do this, you’ll need to sync with iTunes. This will allow Aptbackup to sync your jailbroken apps to your PC/Mac. After you’ve done this you are okay to go ahead and install iOS4. After your install is finished, go ahead and sync/backup with iTunes.

Once you’ve restored from your backup in iTunes, go ahead and re-jailbreak. Then go into Cydia and re-download Aptbackup. This time you’ll click the restore button. This will restore all your jailbreak apps. Easy enough, right? Now lets cover Rock users…

Rock

Rock’s process is dead simple. Every Rock user should already have a Rock ID, if you don’t, you’ll need to get one in order to save backups to it, so that after a new OS install or restore, you can just sign into your ID and have your backups waiting.  After you’ve saved everything to your Rock ID, you can do your restore.  After you re-jailbreak and install Rock, you’ll just sign in and click on your settings tab like below:

You’re going to want to click Settings and scroll down a ways. You’ll see app backup options.  Now before you start installing a new OS, you need to make sure Rock is actually making backups for you. The option to save packages to your Rock ID should always be checked. If it isn’t, check it and make SURE you have a backup if you’re using Rock.

All you’re going to do here is choose “Restore from Backup” – you’ll then be presented with however many backups you have saved to your Rock ID. I normally choose the most recent under most circumstances.

That’s pretty much it! Rock will do the rest for you. It may take a bit depending on how many packages you have installed, so if need be, turn your auto-lock to never and plug your phone in, leave Rock open, and let it do its thing!

Now you’re all ready for a new jailbreak on iOS4! Questions, comments? Leave ‘em below!

Jailbreak How-To: Back Up Apps in Rock and Cydia is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Our tip lines, and all of Twitter it seems, is afire in claims that some iPhone 4 are already on delivery trucks and even in users’ hands. Hey, crazy things happen in crazy times but we’ll believe it when we see it (in non-blurry cam pics, in your real-life full-framed hands, okay?)

Given those Apple emails about iPhone 4 pre-orders arriving a day early, FedEx confusion could see them moving around already. Or some people with nothing better to do could be using that uncertainty to play internet pranks just for the lulz.

UPDATE: Looks like, indeed, some deliveries have gone out early. Picture above is courtesy of a Twitter DM. Check out the TiPb iPhone Forum for more pics, and if you get one early, post your own ASAP and tell us what you think!

Updated: iPhone 4 already on delivery trucks, in hands! [Sticky] is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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iOS 4 Jailbreak and unlock has been released by the iPhone Dev-Team — but read this before upgrading!

Alright kiddies, you’ve been asking for it, so here it is.  The Dev Team has officially announced their jailbreak and unlock for iOS4.

There’s a few caveats though, you must:

• Own a Mac (if you’re a 3GS user, there is a windows solution for 3G users)
• NOT have jailbroken previously with Spirit
• Have a previously jailbroken device

If you have never jailbroken before and have upgraded to iOS4, you’re out of luck (for now).  If you’re currently still jailbroken on 3.1.2 (haven’t used Spirit on 3.1.3), you’re good to go. Most of the reason is that the exploit Spirit used on 3.1.3 has been patched. This will also leave out 3GS users with newer basebands that came stock on 3.1.3.  If you’re an unlocker, once you are jailbroken on iOS4, you can proceed to using ultrasn0w in order to unlock your baseband.  It will work on ALL versions of basebands, not just old.

Questions about upgrading or whether your device is okay? Check out the Dev Team’s blog before doing anything! And if you’re wary, we’d recommend staying away. I’d assume a PC version will follow.  When that will happen is anyone’s guess.  Have questions or concerns? Leave them below.

[via Dev Team]

iOS4 Jailbreak and unlock now live (with caveats) is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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