Well that was short lived. The liberating HTC Sync desktop app that dropped a few days ago, allowing the side-loading of Android apps by bypassing AT&T’s restriction, is no more. HTC has yanked the application and pinning the snafu on a good ‘ol fashioned mix-up. It’s disappointing to say the least. But given Ma Bell’s track record, would you expect anything less?
RIM isn’t the only game in town gunning for the consumers’ dollar. While their BlackBerry Protect (Enterprise for the consumer) suite is promising all of the great enterprise features that signify BlackBerry for all consumers, Microsoft has something of their own to dish out — a Windows Phone Live website. Much like RIM’s offering, Windows Phone Live online will allow customers to sync just about any type of data you can think of, be it notes, contacts, emails, etc., between cloud and device. On top of that, lost and stolen devices will also get geo-location and remote wipe capabilities.
It’s nice to see RIM and Microsoft mobile devices getting some pretty serious software features in the upcoming new releases. Now it’s time for Google to give us something. And no, a hodge podge of 3rd part apps and work arounds doesn’t cut it. We want an honest to goodness Android solution. Google, are you listening?
Even though AT&T’s rationalization as to why they don’t allow non-Android Market apps on their Android devices is somewhat believable, the fact of the matter still stands — people want to do what they want, when they want, and how they want on their hardware. Thankfully, HTC’s own HTCSync desktop software goes around AT&T’s software nanny and brings back some freedom to Android. Namely, side-loading Android apps is a simple drag-n-drop affair. But given that AT&T has turned into a controlling bitch of a mother, I wouldn’t wait too long before getting HTCSync for yourselves. Me thinks that the next time we see a worthy HTCSync update, a few “critical features” will come up missing in the name of security control.
Reach back in the depths of your cranial cortex to April 26th. It was then that we talked about an upcoming app by developer “Greg”, that allowed you to sync your iPhone/iPod Touch over WiFi. Obviously, a bunch of criticism and shifty eyes followed as such functionality is just so terrible for the App Store.
And as we thought, Greg has come forward today to announce that while Apple did reject his extremely useful app (that adds functionality we’ve only been asking for over the course of many years), it all ends well. Wi-Fi Sync can officially be picked up in Cydia for $9.99 Apple be dammed.
iPhone docks and cases are a dime a dozen. It takes an increasing amount of creativity and uniqueness to even get me to notice a “new” case/dock these days. The iRetrophone Dock is one such dock.
One of the Zune’s more prominent boasting points over the iPod is it’s WiFi-syncing ability — cutting the cords and making life easier. With each revision of the iPod hardware and firmware, I’ve seen plenty of consumers cry out for such a feature from Apple. But alas, here we are in 2010 without WiFi-syncing anywhere in sight.
Well, it wasn’t in sight until developer “Greg” whipped up a simple app that allows your iPod/iPhone wireless connect and sync with iTunes. Awesome! Welcome to the 90′s!
Apple’s event for “exciting new devices” is just around the corner. While pretty much everyone is laser focused on any and all information pertaining to an “iTablet”, let us not forget that January is also the time in which we get to see up and coming info on new iPhone developments. A few of BGR’s ever impressive ninjas have done it again with iPhone OS 4.0. So what’s in store that we can now sorta kinda claim?
Some pretty exciting stuff in deed. If this “new and exciting” way to run applications is nothing more than background permissions for all apps I’d be a happy camper. Even though my iPhone has been relegated to glorified iPod, I wouldn’t hesitate to slap 4.0 on it.
And I’ll admit, a small piece of me is hoping a CDMA iPhone variant is revealed/announced in the near future. Maybe now will be the time to dual wield a DROID/iPhone combo hmmm?
Ben and Jerry was one of my favorite cartoons growing up. For me, it was the whole stereotypical cat vs. mouse thing that always had me hooked. Now that I’m a big boy, (some may dispute that) I still watch cat and mouse drama every day. Except now it isn’t a cartoon. It’s a bit more “real”. Ladies and gents, I introduce to you Apple (cat) and Palm (mouse).
The round ‘n round battle that these two tech giants this one tech giant, and second, not so giant tech giant (figure it out, it isn’t hard) have been battling is quite amusing if a little old now. At first, it was a sort of “yay for Palm those sly devils” but has since become “good god again? When will they learn?” Palm has been relentlessly trying every trick in the book for disguising USB identifiers in order to get access to the wondrous world of native iTunes syncing. Eventually they will run out of tricks (or get sued) and then where will they be? Back with their god awful software. What exactly is there backup software?
I’m all for stickin’ it to the oppressive man which in this case is Apple. Will having the Pre sync with iTunes cause iPod and iPhone sales to catastrophically spiral downward? No. Apple’s just doing it because they can. After the first touché by Apple, you’d think Palm would have figured out that Apple had no interest in being their friend. All of this time, energy, and money Palm has been wasting engineering a way to break into Apple’s little world is the biggest waste. It would have been much more beneficial to direct those resources at developing their own software.
You’re turn Palm.
**Note for Palm: You may want to think about developing your own damn software now ok guys…
Understandably so, racking up data charges when you don’t have a data plan or don’t have a say isn’t a very friendly way to treat your customers. However, in the case of the 3.1 iPhone OS and iPhones in general, everyone already pays for a data plan and the anti-phishing feature was one of the highlights of the otherwise lackluster update. So why is such a feature “disabled” by default? According to Apple spokesman Bill Davis:
Safari’s anti-phishing database is downloaded while the user charges their phone in order to protect battery life and ensure there aren’t any additional data fees
Ok, I would understand the data fee argument if users had a choice to purchase an iPhone with or without one, but they don’t. Maybe I’m slow, but I just can’t see the point of this argument. Even users on limited data plans shouldn’t be that harmed. A list of sites which is noting but text can’t possibly take up that much room or use that much data can it?
The other argument, that it’s “disabled” or more correctly relegated to only update when syncing/charging to preserve battery life, is a tad more understandable. Because of this, one can assume that the list of known phishing sites is stored locally on the iPhone itself and if only updated when syncing or charing opens up a wide door for attacks as it is not a continuous or “live” process. Better than nothing perhaps but still far from perfect. Apple recommends connecting to a WiFi network and then charging the iPhone with the screen off to get the full benefit of the new feature. Is this really the right way to go about it?
Source: iPhone Alley, Loop Insight, Image Source
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