Tips on what to do in prep for iPhone OS 3.0 update — whenever it arrives.
Sync & back-up: Make sure to sync your iPhone before updating the software. This way, if there are any problems during the update your computer will have a recent back-up of your iPhone (photos, recent calls and voicemails, text messages, game scores, settings, etc.). Remember that to back-up your photos, you’ll need to open iPhoto while syncing your iPhone and then choose (once it opens) for the program to copy all of your iPhone photos. Here’s Apple’s guide for backing up, restoring and updating your iPhone. (Note, yes iTunes does a an update of your iPhone while installing the new OS — but one time that update did not save properly and I was forced to reinstall from a much earlier backup — not fun at all. Better to be safe than sorry, IMHO.)
Update apps: Make sure before updating to install any updates for your apps. Apple announced a few weeks ago that all apps must be compatible with the new operating system. Be sure to update so all your apps will work with the new system.
Update iTunes: iTunes version 8.2 (that includes OS 3.0 support) came out a week ago. Make sure to update to the latest version of iTunes so you can take full advantage of OS 3.0 straight away. There will likely be high demand for downloading from Apple when OS 3.0 is available, so updating iTunes before that day will mean you can get right down to updating your iPhone.
Save space: This is more of a just-in-case, rather than a have-to. Still, I’d suggest that, if possible, iPhone owners free up about 1.5 gigs of space on the phone just to make sure there is free space for updating the operating system. This will also help as there will likely be new cool apps you’ll want to download that take advantage of OS 3.0.
Save money: The new operating system is sure to be followed by plenty of cool new apps. Sure some will be free, but those apps truly taking advantage of OS 3.0 will mean more development time and, therefore, paid apps. Keep those iTunes gift cards at-the-ready for OS 3.0 day.
Posted
on June 5, 2009, 5:01 pm,
by sonyanews,
under
News.
Facebook for BlackBerry v1.6 launching tonight (via mobilecrunch) — includes improvements to views of status updates, walls and photos.
Facebook application now available on Nokia Ovi store (via Go Mo News) — only works for Symbian S60 touchscreen devices.
Posted
on June 4, 2009, 2:45 pm,
by sonyanews,
under
Uncategorized.
In four years 30 percent of smartphones will include app stores, estimates research firm In-Stat in a report released this week.
The report also found that:
- iPhone users are by far the most active Apps store users, significantly outpacing users of Blackberry, Palm OS or Windows Mobile phones.
- Smartphone users overall are significantly more likely than feature phone users to leverage advanced mobile services, such as Internet access, music downloads, Instant Messaging, Email and Multimedia Messaging (MMS).
- 32 percent of survey respondents anticipated their next handset purchase would be a smart phone.
Headlines today are touting that Opera has passed up iPhone’s built-in browser for mobile web browsers worldwide, based on StatCounter’s report released today. What those posts don’t say is that it all depends on the country.
Worldwide Opera is No. 1 with iPhone behind. In the United States and United Kingdom iPhone is No. 1 with iPod Touch second. China has Nokia No. 1 (way ahead of the others) followed by Opera, Sony and iPhone. And, to throw in a really strange stat, in South Korea — 91 percent of mobile web browser use went through iPod Touch, with all the others muddled together in the single digit percentage range.
Sprint announces a developer outreach effort with an emphasis on location-based apps.
The company made the announcement today during the JavaOne conference in Kansas.
“We want developers to have the tools they need to create useful, engaging and exciting applications for our customers,” said Kevin Packingham, senior vice president of Product and Technology Development for Sprint.
The effort includes a developer sandbox open to all Sprint registered developers that includes Sprint network, handset and product capabilities. The sandbox is listed as for creating apps such as location-based services, messaging applications and others. Also, location aggregation providers, Alcatel-Lucent, LOC-AID and Useful Networks, are said to be on board to help developers make location-based apps.
Also, Sprint is opening its ninth annual Sprint Application Developer Conference, Oct. 26-28, to all developers for the first time.
Here’s the Sprint developer site for more information. Here’s the press release.
