iPod blog :: iPodosphere.com

Filed under: Odds and ends, iPhone

I am one of the few people left in the country that owns and uses a rotary-dial telephone. Call me old-fashioned, but I just like the sound of that bell instead of an electronic noise when the phone rings.

Now you can extend part of that experience (at least the labored dialing part) to your iPhone. Minnesota-based CodeMorphic has released RetroPhone, an application that simulates the rotary dial mechanism on the screen of your iPhone.

Their website doesn’t have a whole lot of information yet, but you can watch a video of the software in action at the St. Paul Pioneer Press’s Your Tech Weblog. Of course, RetroPhone doesn’t replicate the satisfying tactile response, but all the joy of spending two hours to dial an international phone number can be entirely yours.

Thanks, Julio.

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Filed under: iTS, iTunes

Portfolio.com is reporting that you might soon be able to find Tony Soprano in the iTunes Store. HBO, the premium cable channel known for its original programming, is in talks with Apple to add HBO programming to the iTunes Store.

This is good news for fans of HBO shows, but the real story here is the deal that HBO has reportedly managed to wrangle out of Apple. Portfolio’s sources say that Apple has agreed to flexible pricing for HBO, which might mean we’ll have to pay more than $1.99 per episode for that content. This is the structure that NBC, and many other studios, would love but Apple has been resistant to it in the past.

Before you go crazy, please note that flexible pricing might mean something other than paying more for the shows: Apple might give HBO a bigger cut of the profits from the flat $1.99. Only time will tell, since HBO insiders say that HBO’s inclusion in the iTunes Store will be announced and launched at the same time.

Note: HBO and TUAW both have the same corporate overlords, but that doesn’t mean we have any inside information.

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Now here’s the latest supposed proof that a 3G Apple iPhone is indeed in the works. According to a third-party iPhone developer, Chronic Productions, they managed to uncover a certain setting embedded in the iPhone 2.0 Beta 5. And yes, the setting has something to do with toggling 3G off and on.

If you’re a bit skeptical, here’s the dev’s challenge in order to prove the claim, assuming that you can perform the task. “If you do not believe me, then decrypt the beta5 rootfs dmg, and see for yourself in /Applications/Preferences.app/Network.plist,” said the developer from Chronic Productions.

But a word of caution: if you did manage to make the 3G option appear on your Apple iPhone, be warned that your EDGE-powered iPhone will crash if you activate 3G. You can try if you have the necessary tools needed to unlock the 3G option, but be careful.

More updates to come!

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Useful homebrewed applications for Apple’s iPhone mobile just keep coming and coming: Homebrew developer Markus Sintonen released iPlot, a graphing calculator that draws mathematical functions, which would prove to be very useful in classes. It can solve and find several factors, such as roots, minimum, and maximum.

This application can also let you do almost everything that is expected of a graphic calculator, including basic ones such as sin(x), ln(x), and even csc(x). As for the actual interface, iPlot proves to be quite versatile with its option to zoom in and out,  and even zoom to any defined region.

Those who are interested in grabbing this application may do so by downloading and installing it directly through the iPhone’s Installer.app. Enjoy!

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Filed under: Software, UNIX / BSD, iPhone

You’ll have to jailbreak your iPhone using ZiPhone, and the actual steps involved seem fairly involved…but hey, if you’re a Linux user, you’re probably cool with both fairly involved technical tweaking and voiding warranties.

Go forth, brave adventurer.

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Filed under: iPhone

While the UK has been reporting a run on current-model iPhones recently, Gizmodo says that the shortage has reached across the pond to New York City. According to an anonymous staffer at the West 14th street Apple Store, “it’s been out of stock all week.” And to think, you were only worried about rice and flour.

If you check out the picture on Gizmodo, you’ll see a line of about 30 people who are waiting for an iPhone at the West 14th street store. These people will probably be very upset in a month or two.

[Via Cult of Mac]

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Filed under: iPhone

In a singularly uninformative press release, SingTel, Singapore’s largest telecommunications company, has announced that it is bringing the iPhone to “Singapore, India, the Philippines and Australia later this year” through several subsidiary carrier brands: SingTel, Bharti Airtel, Globe and Optus.

The latter confirms our earlier post that Aussies won’t be limited to Vodafone for their iPhone needs. Unfortunately no dates or pricing have been announced; it seems safe to assume this will cover the forthcoming 3G iPhone. In any case, this is good news for some of our Asia / Pacific iPhone brethren.

Thanks Peter!

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Can’t decide whether your iPhone could use a virtual guitar, piano, or drum set? There’s an easy answer for that dilemma. Why not get them all with developer MooTheCow’s MooCowMusic: Band? This homebrew app will enable you to play a wide variety of musical instruments from the comfort of your iPhone.

Here’s a sample of some of the features that this application will carry:

• Play and record multiple instruments
• Drums, bass, guitars, keyboards can all be played and recorded into one song from the same application.
• There are no limits on the instrument interface, enabling not only standard instruments but also unusual, outlandish, or completely novel instruments to be created and played.
• MooCowMusic:Band can be expanded with future instrument packs and user-created instruments.
• Multitouch - press up to five keys at once for complex chords.
• Animation shows keys being pressed, strings being struck, etc.
• Advanced audio engine
• Mono or stereo samples. 14.1Khz 16Bit.
• Multisampled instruments, with each key triggering a separate sample.
• Samples stop when you lift your finger, allowing more expression.
• Configurable Attack stage of playback allows samples to fade in gradually.
• Configurable Release stage of playback allows samples to fade out when you release the note.
• Samples can be defined to loop for as long as the key is pressed.
• Each instrument can be indepenently panned and its volume set, to position it in the mix.
• Each instrument can be muted.
• Each instrument can be soloed (mute all other instruments and just allow this one to play).
• Play along to your MP3s.

Keep in mind that MooTheCow is also planning to update this app with more features in the near future. Those interested in picking up this homebrew for their iPhone will want to visit the developer’s site, via the source link below. Before you do set off, you may also want to take a look at this video demonstrating what the app can do. Happy viewing!

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