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How to Prepare Your Hand-Me-Down iPhone 4 via lifehacker.com

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Congratulations on your upgrade to an iPhone 4S! What are you going to do with your old iPhone 4? If you're like me, you want to give it to a spouse, partner, child or friend, because they've got an older, lousier phone. But is it possible? Doesn't the iPhone 4 have a weird micro-SIM? Here's how.

First, let's wipe your old phone. We're going to assume that you've already backed up your phone and transferred the data to your new iPhone 4S. If not, do that first in iTunes by right clicking on your iPhone icon in the left column and hitting Back Up.

The easiest way to erase the phone of all your data and personal info is to go to the Settings app on the phone itself. Then go to General -> Reset (all the way at the bottom) -> Erase All Content and Settings. Then tap Erase iPhone to confirm. This takes a few minutes to a few hours, depending on the state of your phone.

If your recipient is upgrading from an old iPhone, make sure to back up that phone as well, so you can restore it later. You can do this while you're waiting for your iPhone 4 to wipe. Multitask!

Verizon Users

Luckily for you, Verizon users have it extremely easy, because they don't have any SIM cards to deal with. All you need to do is activate the phone on thew recipient's account, and you can do it either on the phone or online. Here's what Verizon recommends.

When you are ready, please dial *228 and SEND from the iPhone and press option 1 to activate. Then follow the prompts to complete the activation.

You can also make this change online. Below I have provided you with the steps:

1. Sign in to My Verizon Express at http://www.vzw.com.
2. Under the Device column, select Activate a Device.
3. Select which device to change, if a multi-line account.
4. Enter the ESN/MEID of the new device in the appropriate field.
5. Select Next. The Review Your Changes screen displays.
6. Select Next. The Plan Feature Changes Required screen displays if any current features are incompatible with the new device.
7. Select Continue.
8. Select the features for the new device by selecting the drop down arrows to view the options.
9. Select Next. The Review Your Changes screen displays.
10. Select Submit.

Note: The customer must dial *228/option 1 to complete the activation.

AT&T Users

Because the iPhone 4 is the only phone on AT&T to use a micro-SIM, your recipient is almost certainly using a phone with a regular SIM. What you need to do is to shrink down a regular SIM to a micro-SIM.

I used this micro SIM cutter, which worked fantastic on the first try. (Good, because you only get one try.)

To eject the micro-SIM tray, just use a very thin paper clip, or a sewing needle, and push down into the micro-SIM ejector hole. You'll need to use a little bit of force, but not so much that you're trying to punish your phone.

Now, take your regular-sized SIM and slot it into the cutter, then take the original micro-SIM from your iPhone 4 and visually line the two up. You want to adjust the SIM in the cutter so that there is enough margin on all four sides so the metal contact area doesn't push up against the edge. A good guideline is to make it look as similar to your old micro-SIM as possible.

Line the SIM up and clamp the cutter down hard enough so the SIM remains in place and doesn't slide around, but not too hard so you actually start punching out the SIM. Practice what carpenters and mohels preach: Measure twice, cut once. Ensure your SIM is lined up, then push down HARD and FAST to get a clean punch.

All that's left is putting the newly-cut SIM into the micro-SIM slot and inserting it back into the iPhone 4. If you're confused which end is which, the ejection hole faces toward the bottom of the phone (the speaker or Home button).

Then, connect your phone to iTunes to activate, and you're done. If the lucky new owner of your iPhone 4 had an iTunes backup of their own phone, you can restore it by right clicking on the iPhone in the left hand side of iTunes, and clicking Restore From Backup.

That's it! Now both of you have iPhones, and you can iMessage and FaceTime each other until one of you gets bored or annoyed.

Turning a micro-SIM back into a SIM

If you ever want to use that micro-SIM in a normal phone (like an Android phone, for example) that takes a regular SIM, you'll need to use an adapter. The micro-SIM cutter we recommended above comes with two micro-SIM adapters in order to use that micro-SIM in a normal, non-iPhone 4 phone. They're "good enough" but not great. You can get this adapter for $1, which has better reviews.

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Hotspot Shield VPN for iPhone Offers Secure Browsing and Email on the Go via lifehacker.com

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iOS: Previously mentioned VPN service Hotspot Shield can already encrypt your browsing and keep you safe when using public Wi-Fi on your computer, but this morning the service announced a new mobile app for private and secure internet use wherever you use your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

Hotspot Shield for iPhone runs in the background at all times when the app is running, encrypting everything from SMS messages to emails and Twitter updates. The app also forces Safari to load sites as HTTPS when available, and protects all applications that use data, even those also running in the background. That protection comes with a price tag however. Hotspot Shield is free for 7 days, so you can try it and see if it works for you. After that, you'll have to sign up for a $0.99/month or $9.99/year subscription. If you're concerned about threats like Firesheep or you know how easy it is to sniff out passwords and cookies, you may want to give the app a try.

Hotspot Shield VPN | iTunes App Store

You can reach Alan Henry, the author of this post, at alan@lifehacker.com, or better yet, follow him on Twitter or Google+.

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The Best Text Messaging Replacement for iPhone

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Text messaging is pretty expensive, but fortunately there are a number of great alternatives for your iPhone that will provide the service for free. Of all the options, our favorite is Google Voice thanks to its cross-platform and web syncing plus full control over how you get your messages and who can send them.

Google Voice

Platform: iPhone (and nearly everything else)
Price: Free
Download Page

• Send free text messages directly from your iPhone
• Integrates with iPhone contacts
• Swipe down to check for new messages
• Push notifications
• Check your texts online, from any browser, when you're away from your phone
• Syncs with Google Voice on a variety of other platforms
• Forward messages to phones or email addresses
• Block unwanted senders

Note: These features only pertain to text messages. For the full feature set check out the official Google Voice page.

The Google Voice app is made great because of the Google Voice service. The app itself is just okay, even though it has some nice touches like swiping down to reload your messages. What's great is that you get your own phone number, you can use that number to replace your existing mobile number, and if you don't like either of those options you can port your mobile number to Google Voice. From there you can text for free, as much as you want, and it works about as well as your paid SMS text messaging service. What really sets it over the top, however, is that you can get a Google Voice app for practically any operating system. Some are official, some are not, but there's almost always an app that will let you text from any other mobile device or computer. All your texts are synchronized so you can respond wherever you want.

Google Voice doesn't have the world's best interface. When you're checking your messages it's actually really nice because you just pull down to reload, but when you're sending messages you have to go to the dialer and then tap the people button just to bring up your contacts. While remembering your phone numbers can be a good thing, realistically it is not your brain's default setting—especially when using an iPhone. Chances are you're going to be browsing through your contacts before you'll be tapping in a number from memory.

What's significantly more annoying, however, is that when you receive a text message notification the app won't be up-to-date. You'll know you have a new message but the app will not, so you'll have to reload your messages and wait for the app to figure it out. If you text infrequently this isn't that important. If you text multiple times per day, or to an excess, this can get a little frustrating. If they need to fix one thing, it's that.

TextFree (Free-ish) is likely the most obvious free text messaging option, and it's also one of the best. Like Google Voice you get a free phone number and can send and receive messages free of charge. You can also send picture messages, which is something Google Voice doesn't really support. Your messages are available online and from any other iPhone or Android device with the app installed. What it can't do is forward your messages to other numbers and email addresses, block unwanted senders, and offer native desktop apps for your computer. Also, it comes with ads which cost $6 per year to remove.

Line2 ($10/month) is designed to provide a phone alternative, which costs a monthly fee, but provides free text messaging. The app is really great and the call quality is excellent, so if you're looking to replace your phone service or turn your iPod touch into an iPhone, it'll come with free text messages too. You can try it free for a month and refusing to subscribe afterwards will often net you a discount.

BiteSMS (Free-ish) is a free app for jailbroken iPhones and it's designed to make your texting experience better. It comes with a lot of nice features, like being able to reply directly from a message notification (without the need to go into the app). It's free to use, but you'll have ads. To remove ads you have to pay $10. If you don't want to use your iPhone's text messaging plan, you can use BiteSMS' service. The cost per message is about 12 cents each and it gets cheaper if you buy additional credits (e.g. $120 gets you 1200 credits). These credits work with local, national, and international numbers alike.

Infinite SMS (Free or $5) is just an interface for Google Voice's text messaging service. If you'd prefer to use it only for texting and don't mind ads (or paying $5 to remove them) then give it a look.

There are plenty of other text messaging replacements for the iPhone, so if you've got a favorite we didn't highlight be sure to share it in the comments.

Lifehacker's App Directory is a new and growing directory of recommendations for the best applications and tools in a number of given categories.

You can follow Adam Dachis, the author of this post, on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook.  Twitter's the best way to contact him, too.

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Adobe Reader for iOS Now Available via lifehacker.com

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iOS: Adobe has released an iOS version of its popular PDF reader for iOS as a universal app for both iPad and iPhone.

Like the desktop version, you can't edit files, but you can access encrypted ones, as well as search, bookmark and copy text to the clipboard. It also lets you share PDF files with other applications, email, and print via AirPrint. It's a free download.

Adobe Reader | iTunes App Store

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How to Jailbreak iOS 4.3.2 Untehered

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iPhone 4 + Personal Hotspot + Wi-Fi-only iPad: Possible, but with drawbacks

Once Apple announced Personal Hotspot, the new iPhone 4-only feature, a lot of potential iPad buyers started asking the same question. "Can I use this feature with a Wi-Fi-only iPad and avoid paying extra for a 3G-enabled iPad, plus another monthly data plan for it?"

Indeed you can. With Personal Hotspot activated on an iPhone 4, any Mac or iOS device will treat the iPhone 4's Wi-Fi broadcast like it's a standalone base station. This means if you have an iPhone 4 and a Wi-Fi-only iPad, you can "tether" your iPad to your iPhone's 3G data connection for the first time.

"Awesome! So this means if I have an iPhone 4, there's no reason to get an iPad with built-in 3G, right?" Well, no, that's not necessarily true. I can think of three things you lose if you go Wi-Fi-only with your iPad and keep it tethered to your iPhone 4.

1. GPS. Only the 3G models of iPad have built-in GPS functionality. The Wi-Fi models can approximate your position using Wi-Fi, but it's almost never as accurate as with GPS. "Well, so what," you might say. "If I've got my iPhone right there, what do I need GPS on my iPad for?" That depends on how important GPS functions are to you. If you hardly ever use apps that depend on location-based services, you probably won't be missing out on much. If you're like me and you use location-based apps all the time, having to sacrifice GPS functionality on one of your iOS devices might be more trouble than it's worth.

2. Longevity, by which I mean the amount of time you can use the iPad in a single session. The 3G version of the iPad 2 is rated for nine hours of battery life when surfing over 3G. When using your iPhone 4 as a Personal Hotspot, you can expect the iPhone 4's battery to last for only about five hours before it needs to be charged. Granted, you can bring along the iPhone 4's charger, plug it in, and use Personal Hotspot as long as you like. However, the charger and cable are just two more things to carry, finding an unused outlet isn't always easy when you're on the go, and having your iPhone plugged into the wall quite literally tethers you to one spot. That leads into the third thing you give up if you go the Personal Hotspot + Wi-Fi iPad route...

3. Flexibility. If your iPad doesn't have its own 3G capability, it's totally dependent on your iPhone's Personal Hotspot unless you can find another Wi-Fi source. If your iPhone's battery dies, or if you forget your iPhone in a bar and some unscrupulous wag pockets it, your iPad loses all of the versatility it gained through Personal Hotspot.

The iPhone's data plans aren't anywhere near as flexible as those on the iPad, either. For one thing, in most countries the iPhone is locked to whatever carrier you buy it from; the iPad has no carrier locks whatsoever, and you can roam between carriers (or between countries) at a whim. Not only that, in several countries (most notably the US) you'll pay an extra monthly fee to enable Personal Hotspot on your iPhone 4. In the States this comes to $20 per month, which gives you an extra 2 GB of monthly data, for a total of 4 GB per month on your iPhone's plan.

On a US iPad plan, you'll get 2 GB of data for $25. That's $5 per month more expensive than enabling Personal Hotspot on the iPhone, but you can manage the iPad's data plan on a month-to-month basis -- no contracts to sign, and no obligations to any carrier. Most carriers also offer cheaper iPad plans with lower monthly bandwidth caps, which should satisfy most users' data needs.

Personally, I'm still getting a 3G-enabled iPad 2. I may never actually use its independent 3G capabilities since the iPhone 4's Personal Hotspot costs nothing extra through my wireless provider, but I'd rather know that I could use the iPad's own 3G if I needed to.

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How to Connect To An Exchange Account From Your iPhone via Make Tech Easier

If you are working with a company or organization that runs Microsoft Exchange, you’ll almost certainly want to connect your iPad and iPhone to Exchange to make all the emails you are expecting everyday handy. Fortunately, there are various ways on connecting your device to Exchange. Today, we’ll focus on adding an Exchange account with the use of a Configuration Profile.

Adding an Exchange Account Using a Configuration Profile

Perhaps, the easiest way to set up Exchange ActiveSync on your iPad or iPhone is by creating a payload in a configuration profile that you will use to load into your device. You can apply the configuration profile by using either a USB cable with the help of iPhone Configuration Utility or by distributing it to other users, for example, sending it via your email account which is already configured on the iPhone or by posting it to your website for everyone to access.

Creating an Exchange ActiveSync Payload for a Configuration Profile

You can follow these steps to create an Exchange ActiveSync payload that you can load into your iPhone or iPad.

Step 1: Launch “iPhone Configuration Utility” from the Dock or the Utilities folder on your Mac or from the Start Menu on Windows.

Step 2: Click the ‘Configuration Profiles‘ item in the Source list to display the list of all configuration profiles.

Step 3: You may choose and click the profile that you want to add the Exchange ActiveSync payload.

Step 4: In the Payloads list, click on the ‘Exchange ActiveSync‘ item to open the ‘Configure Exchange ActiveSync‘ pane.

Step 5: Now, click on the ‘Configure‘ button to display ‘Exchange ActiveSync‘ pane.

Now, let’s try to have a closer look on each field so that you’ll be able to understand it better.

Account Name - enter a descriptive name that best describes the account.

Exchange ActiveSync Host – usually, hostname is used in this field but you can also use the IP address of the Exchange server.

Use SSL – you can check this box to make the communications with Secure Sockets Layer more secure. This is recommended but not required.

Domain & User text boxes – you can leave these fields blank as the iPhone or iPad will prompt the user to enter the information during the installation of profile in the device. However, if you are setting up a specific account then enter the appropriate information.

Email Address & Password - you can leave these fields blank so that each user has to enter his/her address and password every time.

Step 6: To add a certificate to securely identify the user, click on the [+] button just beneath ‘Authentication Credential‘ text box. This will display the ‘Windows Security‘ dialog box wherein you can choose an identity you can use. Click on ‘OK‘ button if you have selected a certificate.

After creating an Exchange ActiveSync profile, you can deploy it to your devices, i.e. iPhone and iPad.

Step 7: Click on the device you want the profile deployed located in the left pane. Select on the profile and simply click on ‘Install‘ button.

Step 8: You will also be prompted by your iPhone about the profile installation together with other information that go with the profile. Tap on ‘Install‘ button to proceed, and tap ‘Done‘ when finished.

As far as installation of configuration profile is concerned, that’s how you do it.

Setting Up a Connection to an Exchange Server Manually

As much as others find it easier to use configuration profiles to setup Exchange ActiveSync, there will be others who prefer to set things up through their iPhone. Now, let’s try to quickly go through the steps on how to manually setup Exchange Server through your iPhone.

Step 1: Launch ‘Settings‘ app from the Springboard and choose ‘Mail, Contacts, Calendars‘.

Step 2: Tap on ‘Add Account‘, then choose ‘Microsoft Exchange‘.

Step 3: On the next screen, you will be prompted to enter your Email, Domain (optional), Username, Password, and Description. If you don’t know much about these information, you can ask your company’s Exchange Server administrator.

Step 4: Your iPhone will automatically locate and authenticate the Exchange settings with the use of Microsoft’s Autodiscovery service. Should it fails to locate the server, you will be brought to the same window with ‘Server‘ field added to the previous fields. And therein, you have to enter the complete address of your Exchange server; again, you can ask your server administrators for it.

Once your iPhone has successfully made a connection with your company’s Exchange server, you will be prompted to change your device’s passcode to match with all the policies set on Exchange server.

That’s it! You must be able to Send, Receive and Read your emails from your iPhone/iPad. There shouldn’t be any problem connecting your iDevices with your company’s Exchange server as long as you are allowed to. And if that’s the case, you or other employees should have been given the server settings and other information you need to connect, or you will be advised that you can ask your system administrators for it.

Well, I hope this tutorial would be a great resource for you. Don’t hesitate to leave comments, suggestions or reactions in the boxes provided below.

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Verizon iPhone 4 jailbroken with greenpois0n moments after release

Verizon iPhone 4 jailbroken with greenpois0n moments after release

by Samuel Gibbs on February 8, 2011 at 04:20 AM

FILED UNDER: apps, cellphones, apple,

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Well that didn't take long: the Verizon iPhone has been jailbroken. After a little hiccup requiring a quick fix, greenpois0n RC5.4 is now capable of jailbreaking your shiny new CDMA iPhone running iOS 4.2.6. Available for both Windows and Mac OS X, greenpois0n from the Chronic Dev Team, allows you to break free from Apple's draconian vice-like grip and embrace the goods and evils of the jailbreak underworld: Cydia.

It's a pretty straightforward affair like most other iPhone jailbreaks, but if you need a helping hand, BlogsDNA has a nice little tutorial you can turn to. Time to unshackle your Verizon iPhone and embrace the warranty-breaking, yet apparently legal, jailbreaking scene.

Tags: Apple, apps, cellphones, greenpois0n, iOS, iPhone, jailbreak, OS X, OsX, utilities, Verizon iPhone, VerizonIphone, Windows

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• source: greenpois0n

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MobileMe Freebie: Find My iPhone Walkthrough with Screenshots

Apple recently announced the availability of its Find My iPhone service for those who upgrade to iOS 4.2 but do not have a MobileMe account. That’s right. No more $99 annual charge if you want to keep a close watch on your iPhone, iPod touch (4th generation), or iPad’s location. This feature has been particularly interesting to me since I was once mugged in San Francisco (surprisingly good timing considering the 3GS became available a month later). And, now that the Find My iPhone service is free from its MobileMe subscription-based clutches, I thought I’d walk you through the ins and outs of locating, locking, and wiping your iPhone from the comfort of your couch.

After upgrading my iPhone 4 to iOS 4.2, I followed Apple’s simple instructions to set up Find My iPhone. Two minutes later I was all set up and ready to start tracking my iPhone on a convenient Google Maps-based map.

If this is your first experience with MobileMe then the above map is what you see after signing in. After selecting your device you have the following options:

• display a message over your current task
• play a sound
• lock the device with a 4 digit code
• wipe (erase) everything on the phone

Below is an example of displaying a message that gets displayed on your iPhone’s display:

Once Apple has confirmed that the message was delivered, a confirmation email is sent to your MobileMe account’s email address. Note: The screenshot below is from a hot new email application named Sparrow.

If you’d rather take things one step further, you can lock your iPhone and prevent unauthorized access.

Remotely locking your iOS device is easy. Just tell Find My iPhone that you’d like to “Lock” your phone. After entering a pin code twice the device locks within seconds. A confirmation email also arrives similar to sending a message.

In addition to the Map view you can also choose Satellite and Hybrid views just like Google Maps.

So, there you have it. The above walkthrough should give you a good idea of what to expect when you fire up the Find My iPhone feature for the first time on your desktop or laptop computer. If you’ve been thinking about buying an iPhone for yourself, you’ll be happy to know that you now get all these phone-tracking features for free.

I presume Apple is trying a new strategy to persuade people to sign up for the full MobileMe service. Releasing the Find My iPhone feature for free should get new visitors to me.com and, in theory, more paying customers. As soon as you begin typing your username and password on me.com, a large set of icons appear for email, address book, calendar, photos, iDisk, and Find My iPhone. It feels like a tease. After signing in you only have one of those features. This will leave newcomers asking the question, “What are those other icons for?”

It also makes sense that Apple make this iPhone-tracking service free, as Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 handsets and select HTC-made Android phones offer similar services for free.

So, we want to know. Does the free Find My iPhone service make you more likely to pick up an iPhone this holiday shopping season? Sound off in the comments below!

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Find My iPhone: 5 Real-Use Cases - Thieves Beware - iSmashPhone iPhone Blog

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Now that Find my iPhone is free for users with iOS 4.2, why there is little reason not to sign up. The service allows you to locate your device, send it messages, lock it or totally wipe the memory if it happens to get lost or stolen. It's much like HTC's HTCSense.com service.

There have been quite a few stories in the past of people finding their devices by using Find my iPad or Find my iPhone. Let's have a look at some of those fortunate individuals who have been able to track down their devices and been spared the hassle of having to buy a new handset or iPad:

1) Justice Served

About a year ago 15-year-old Dustin Simantob of Colorado was able to recover his and his father's iPhones using the service. On top of that, the police were able to capture the criminals that did it. Apparently, they had been trying for some time, but until then didn't have enough on them to make an arrest. 

“so, my dad and I went on a 3 day father and son river trip and parked the car where we get out of the river to leave, so we get up to the cars and all 4 cars had one window broken and all the valuables taken from the car, so we ended up submitting our case to the near by cop and started on our 5 hour journey home, when we got back i remembered that i had set up the “track my iphone” on the mobileme site and immediately got on and tracked it.

it ended up being at a house near by where it was stolen, so i called up the cop that had taken our case and told him where it was located. as soon as i told him the address, he started to laugh, apparently the family had done a few things like this before and the local police had been trying to catch and arrest them but could never get proof that they had been the culprits.

now they had proof. so 4 police showed up at the door of this house and ended up getting mine and my dads iphones back along with my wallet and the Garmen GPS, they also were able to recover the two phones and wallet that was taken from the other car that was broken into. so thanks to mobileme we will all be getting our belongings back and a family of criminals will be put in jail.”

Source 

 

2) Stop my if you've heard this one: someone loses an iPhone in a bar...

A fellow named Kevin and two of his buddies went to a Lego convention. At the end of the day, they hit up a dive bar to grab a bite to eat. Then it happened, he left his iPhone on the table and had forgotten about it when he left. On his way out, he remembered that he had left the handset on the table and returned to the bar to pick it up. Unfortunately, it was nowhere to be found.

Luckily, he had recently activated his MobileMe account along with Find My iPhone. They began the search, and at first it seemed hopeless. The next day, they were led around town by the tracking service and they eventually found it at a bus stop. One of the bar's employees had found it and said he was planning to return it. Of course that's what he said when caught with it.

Source 

Image Credit: She Knows.com

3) Mom busts the bad guys

This one happened when a Mom was at the store. She placed the phone down while being attending to her kids, and totally forgot about it, leaving the handset on a store counter.

She and her husband decided to track their iPhone using the service. The were able to pinpoint it down to an apartment complex and called the police. They found the culprit and said that if the thief agreed to give up the handset within five minutes, no charges would be pressed. Needless to say, she got her phone back.

Furthermore, the officer said that he had already found five phones in the exact same manner. In fact, he said that Apple works closely with law enforcement to improve the GPS abilities on the device.

Source

4) Getting even

In Shadyside, a man was attacked by two robbers. They stole his phone and his wallet, asking for his pin number. After a game of cat and mouse, he and the authorities were able to track the thieves, three men with all the stolen property. They were all charged for the crimes, with the two assailants receiving additional charges for the robbery.

Source

5) Amusement Park Idiot

A mom and her daughter were vacationing at a Busch Gardens amusement park. Before boarding one of the roller coasters, they put their belongings in a storage bin meant to safely store items while attendees ride. Unfortunately, someone decided he would run for the woman's purse while no one was watching.

The daughter bumped herself cutting her lip open on the ride. The injury was nothing serious, but in the confusion, someone swooped in and grabbed Mom's purse. The purse was found in the men's restroom, but their phones were gone.

Then, the daughter remembered her MobileMe account. She had the Find My iPhone service activated. Authorities were able to locate the phone, and the culprit and the dirtbag was put in jail. 

 Source

Thieves Watch Out

Now that everyone on iOS 4.2 can use the Find My iPhone service (even with an older iOS device, if you use a workaround) everyone can locate their lost iOS device. We suggest signing up. After all, it's free.

Isn't technology wonderful?

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Google Voice app for iOS available now

Filed under: Google, VoIP, iPhone, Mobile

Google Voice app for iOS available now

by Vlad Bobleanta (RSS feed) Nov 16th 2010 at 2:40PM

The official Google Voice application for the iPhone has finally arrived in the iTunes App Store. After more than a year from Apple's rejection of Google's first Voice app for the iPhone, almost ten months since Google responded with an HTML5-based mobile Web app, and about 6 weeks since it was reportedly approved by Apple, it's here.

The app has all the features you'd expect, including getting cheap rates for international calls, free texts to US numbers, voicemail transcription, and displaying your Google Voice number as your caller ID when making calls. It also has support for push notifications, to instantly alert you when you receive a new voicemail or text message. Google says that 'most' of the calls made through this app will be placed via Direct Access Numbers -- Google assigns a unique phone number to each person you call, which results in the app not needing to connect to the internet every time you place a call, thus making the whole calling experience much faster.

To use the new app, a Google Voice account and an iPhone with iOS 3.1 or newer are required.

Download Google Voice for iPhone from the iTunes App Store

Tags: google, google voice, google voice client, GoogleVoice, GoogleVoiceClient, iphone, iphone app, iPhone Application, iPhone Applications, iPhone Apps, IphoneApp, IphoneApplication, IphoneApplications, IphoneApps, mobile, mobile app, mobile application, mobile apps, MobileApp, MobileApplication, MobileApps, voip, voip calling, VoipCalling

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Google Voice for iPhone is finally out on the App Store

Google Voice for iPhone is finally out on the App Store

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Nov 16th 2010 at 2:17PM

Turns out, when Apple announced it was a day you'd never forget, maybe it wasn't talking about The Beatles. Last we heard, Google Voice was expected on the App Store "soon" ... and now here it is. Apple has relented in the battle to allow Google Voice functionality on the iPhone, leaving Google open to release its own official app for the service.

It looks just as good as you'd expect -- you can sign into the service from anywhere, access your voicemail or even send text messages or Google Voice calls, and get push notifications when you've got a new message incoming.

Obviously, you'll need a Google Voice account to use the app, but those are free and easy enough to set up. The app is only available in the United States, according to its description, so those of you outside the country are out of luck (for now). It's also probably not compatible with the iPad -- the listing only says it's available for the iPhone so far.

Our own Mike Rose & TJ Luoma [TJ comments below that he objects to the iPhone-only restriction on the app, as he would like to use it to send and receive SMS on the iPad or iPod touch] are jumping for joy on this one -- we've got a lot of TUAW Google Voice fans, and having this functionality available on the iPhone is a very nice bonus even with the third-party apps already on the market. What are you waiting for? It's here -- go download!

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16 Months Later, Say Hello To Google Voice For The iPhone. It Was Worth The Wait.

Over the past few years, there has been no shortage of developers complaining about how long Apple has taken to approve their iPhone applications. But few have waited as long as Google for the Google Voice application. But today brings great news: the wait is over.

Yes, the app is real, it’s approved, and it should be live at this link. The official Google Voice for the iPhone is here. And it’s wonderful. Yes, it was even worth that insane wait.

As you’re probably well aware, this app has had quite the contentious history. Google originally submitted it to the App Store about a year and a half ago. But 16 months ago, Apple decided they weren’t going to accept it. Not only that, other third-party apps with Google Voice functionality were pulled from the App Store as well.

While Apple and Google were both silent on the issue at first, the government got involved and both sides were made to disclose at least part of their stance on the app, their relationships with carriers, and the relationship with each other.

Apple’s stated stance was that they didn’t like the Google Voice app because it was too similar to the functionality of their own built-in calling system on the iPhone. They also said that they hadn’t rejected the app, just that they were still considering it for approval.

BS or not, Apple controlled their own App Store, and there was little Google could do. The decided to build a web app for Google Voice instead.

But this past September, Apple, perhaps pushed by the governmental inquiries, decided to ease up on many of their strict App Store rules. This led to third-party Google Voice apps being allowed back into the App Store.

And while it took a little longer than expected, now we have the official app as well. Unlike the third-party versions, Google’s app is free. It’s also quite a bit faster thanks to APIs that Google hasn’t made publicly available just yet. The result is a great app that is likely to be many user’s go-to dialing and message management service on the iPhone.

If you’ve used Google Voice on your computer or other devices, the iPhone version should be familiar to you. However, unlike the Android version, Google Voice cannot totally take over the calling capabilities on the iPhone. All that means is that you have to open the app instead of your regular iPhone Phone app to use it.

But you can make calls right from the app. You dial a number and it automatically takes you to the iPhone’s Phone app where it places the call from your Google Voice number by way of Google’s backend system.

When you receive a call to your Google Voice number, it will come in to your regular Phone app as well, just as happens now with call forwarding.

You can also send and receive texts from the app. And you can listen to your Google Voice voicemails — and yes, all of them are transcribed for you to read in the app. And all of this works with the iPhone’s Push Notification system.

And unlike the HTML5 version, the native app can access your phone’s contact list. This make it easy to place calls and set up Quick Dial Contacts.

Google Voice remains U.S.-only for now, but the team says it will roll-out internationally in 2011. It is also iPhone-only for now. Though Google envisions both iPad and iPod touch support in the future. That said, Google Voice is still not a VoIP service, so you won’t be able to make calls without service. The app requires iOS 3.1 or later.

Again, you can find the app in the App Store here. It’s a free download.

Update: And now you can read more about it on Google’s blog.

CrunchBase Information

Google Voice

iPhone 4

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Skyfire for iPhone Approved, Flash Videos Coming

We got a look at Skyfire for iPhone last week and the promise of getting Adobe Flash videos onto our Apple devices was exciting. As expected, though still surprisingly, the app has been approved for the iOS devices by Apple. The Skyfire web browser will go for $2.99 in the app store and will be available some time Thursday morning. We got to play with a preview of the app, and came away impressed. See our Skyfire for iPhone hands-on review here.

How did the company manage to get around Apple’s loathing of Flash? CNN reports:

To get around Apple’s restriction, Skyfire came up with an innovative solution: When users click on a page that contains Flash video, Skyfire’s servers download, render and translate the video into HTML5, which is a Web standard that iOS devices support. Skyfire then displays a thumbnail that users can click on to stream the video from its servers.

Here’s what we said earlier last week about how this works:

Skyfire plays nice with Flash videos and websites (most of them, at least) because it uses a server-assisted browsing experience. Basically, the browser uses big, powerful servers to process all the Flash content on a website and then pushes that data to your phone. This means your phone doesn’t have to be super powerful and also reduces the amount of data that you’re pulling down on your smartphone data plan.

So, technically, your iPhone or iPad won’t be playing straight Flash as videos are converted so that they can be played on your iOS device, but at least this limits your restrictions when viewing the web.

But all is not perfect in Skyfire land. Determining which videos and content are in Flash and encoding it all is a huge task, and some sites have just blocked the browser completely. Hulu, which is huge for Flash lovers wanting videos on their phones, banned Skyfire from encoding its content. Additionally, Flash-based video games and non-video content will not be supported, so it’s not without some major limitations.

At any rate, it’s nice to know that when you browse the web with Skyfire, you’re less likely to see that little blue sorry-no-Flash-here icon.

[Update]
The information from CNN is slightly off-base, as we’ve just learned that Skyfire will be launching on the iPhone AppStore sooner than you think (before Thursday). Keep your eyes on IntoMobile for more info.

In the meantime, why don’t you check out our Skyfire for iPhone hands-on video here?

via intomobile.com

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Watch Almost Any Video File Type with VLC for iPod and iPhone

VLC is a geek’s favorite media player, and now it’s available for the iPod Touch and iPhone. Here we take a look at how to use it and what you can expect with the new app.

VLC has been available for the iPad for several weeks now, and has finally come to the iPod Touch & iPhone.

Download VLC for iPhone & iPod Touch

Download the VLC Media Player like you would any app either from the iTunes App Store or directly on your device.

Using VLC for iPhone & iPod Touch

When you first launch it, you’ll be prompted with a message explaining how to get video in your VLC library.

Plug in your iPod Touch or iPhone, launch iTunes, and click on the device. Select Apps and scroll down to File Sharing. Click on VLC and add videos under VLC Documents.

Or you can do a simple drag and drop of the files as well.

After you add video files they are synced to your device right away without having to use the Sync feature in iTunes.

Just tap on the video you wan to watch. One thing we noticed is the playback controls don’t disappear after a few seconds as they normally do while watching a video.

Just tap anywhere on the video screen and they will be hidden. Then tap it again to bring them back.

Here is an example of a video we downloaded from YouTube. Like the desktop app, VLC for the iPhone & iPod Touch will play virtually any file you throw at it.

It also allows you to delete video files directly from the device without the need to connect it to iTunes first. Just tap Edit in the upper right corner and tap the delete button.

The VLC app is free and allows you to watch file formats not supported natively. With VLC for an iOS device, it makes it easier to watch various video formats without having to convert them first.

VLC Media Player iTunes Preview

via howtogeek.com

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