With the expected announcement and launch on Verizon this month, AT&T exclusivity will be over and the iPhone will finally be available on another US carriers — but it will still be locked.

Unlike most other countries where iPhone is available on multiple carriers, you won’t be able to go to an Apple store and pay full price for an unlocked iPhone you can use on any one of them — or any carrier around the world with a simple SIM swap. Verizon, being a CDMA rather than GSM carrier doesn’t use SIMs.

Instead US customers will have the choice between two locked iPhones — locked to AT&T or locked to Verizon, unable to move between the two, and not even able to officially move to the other GSM and CDMA carriers in the US, T-Mobile and Sprint. While we don’t know for certain, in all likelihood you won’t be able to call your carrier and get your iPhone unlocked, you won’t even be able to pay them to unlock it.

That means if you’re currently an AT&T iPhone user and you want to move to Verizon you have to buy a new Verizon iPhone. You can’t take it with you. And if you get a Verizon iPhone and decide life on AT&T really was better, there’s no bringing your new phone back.

Will the ever be a time when an American can walk into an Apple Store and buy an unlocked iPhone, capable of working on any carrier in the US, just like in most of the rest of the world? Because come this time next month the iPhone in the US — land of the free — will still be locked. It’ll just be locked to two carriers instead of one.

iPhone: No longer exclusive, still locked is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

The Wall Street Journal claims, according to a person familiar with the matter, that the Verizon iPhone that’s almost assuredly going to be announced this Tuesday will go on sale “around the end of the month”.

The Verizon phone will be similar to the iPhone 4 but run on the carrier’s CDMA technology, people familiar with the matter have said.

Sounds about right, if you want to leave enough time to build the marketing hype to preface Apple Store lineups and the rest of the fervour typically associated with an iPhone launch.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704030704576070090093187986.html#ixzz1AUWvRieY [ WSJ ]

Verizon iPhone to go on sale late Jan/early Feb is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

It appears Verizon is making some interesting changes to their upgrade and return policies and while that doesn’t effect iPhone owners now, it will effect those hoping to get on the Verizon iPhone bandwagon soon. As it sits now, a lot of customers are eligible to upgrade between months 13-20 on their contracts. How often you’re allowed to upgrade typically depends on a number of factors including bill payment history, monthly bill amount, etc.. If the Verizon training slide from above is correct, customers won’t be able to upgrade until month 20 of their contract. Ouch. So if you’re thinking of sticking with Big Red, you’d better make sure you pick a phone you’re going to be happy with.

Verizon also appears to be planning to shrink the return window to 14 days (it’s currently set at 30 days). If sources are correct, this will go into effect as of January 16th. Verizon recently announced a press event scheduled for January 11th that could potentially be iPhone related (hey, they’re rumors until Steve Jobs says they’re not). Any readers think this has anything to do with preventing a surge of existing customers trying to return phones or upgrade early to obtain a shiny new Verizon iPhone?

Android Central

Verizon makes changes to upgrade eligibility dates and return policies is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

This keyboard bug has the iPhone registering inaccurately the key you have tapped, leading to the wrong letter, number, or symbol showing up on screen. I am sure Steve Jobs is telling me that this is the key I really wanted (coughs) but none the less it is a pretty annoying problem.

To find out more about the issue stay with us after the break!

I have had the iPhone keyboard go through periods of registering the wrong keys a few times and each time it happens I get more annoyed. It is not that the key is giving you random letters, it is always the key that is to the left and diagonally above the key I would like to press.

The issue is easily enough fixed: leave the application and then return. It does not happen often, about every 40 keyboard uses or so. I can only assume that this is a software issue as I never had it happen before I upgraded to 4.1. This is also an issue that I had before I jailbroke (Chad, you can not blame the jailbreak for this bug).

Issue

• Keyboard registers incorrect key
• Happens intermittently, every 40 keyboard uses or so

Causes

• Could be related to iOS 4.1 or later firmware

Fixes

• Leave application and return
• Upgrade to 4.2.1 if you haven’t already
• If already on 4.2.1, wait for next update (sigh)

Have you ever had this issue and on which version of iOS? Have you ever had this happen on your iPad?

iPhone Bug: Keyboard typing the wrong key is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

It’s now officially official, the VLC application for iPhone and iPad has been pulled from the App Store after several months of contention. Some of the contributors to the open-source VLC application believe that Apple’s App Store isn’t compatible with the GPL (GNU Public License) components of the app. Here’s what the most vocal, Rémi Denis-Courmont, had to say:

At last, Apple has removed VLC media player from its application store. Thus the incompatibility between the GNU General Public License and the AppStore terms of use is resolved – the hard way. I am not going to pity the owners of iDevices, and not even the MobileVLC developers who doubtless wasted a lot of their time. This end should not have come to a surprise to anyone.

VLC made it’s way onto the iPad first in September and then hit for the iPhone and iPod Touch in October. It was a good short run for the app and if you are one of the ones who was able to download the app within the past three months enjoy it as no one further will have the ability to get their VLC-on on their iOS devices.

[ Planet VideoLAN, thanks Anthony ]

VLC for iPhone removed from App Store is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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