Yesterday, Apple released an iPhone update, iPhone Software 3.1.2. No, you didn't miss anything, there was no 3.1.1; the last public release was 3.1 on September 9, 2009. 3.1.2 is a minor release that fixes three bugs: (1) a bug that would sometimes prevent an iPhone from waking from sleep mode, (2) a bug that could interrupt your cellular service until you restarted and (3) a bug that could cause a crash when streaming video. I never experienced any of those problems, but I'm always happy to see bugs fixed before they make their way to my own iPhone. I still hope to see iPhone Software 3.2 with new features before the end of this year. I have no special information that it is coming; this is just my guess based on the release schedule after 2.0 came out last year. Other interesting iPhone news from the last week:
- If your company uses Lotus Notes, you'll be pleased to see this MacNN report that IBM has released version 8.5.1 which now supports the iPhone, including push e-mail and contacts.
Will AT&T limit data use by iPhone users? PC World reports on a speech given this week by AT&T Wireless CEO Ralph de la Vega at the CTIA Conference in San Diego. De la Vega said that just 3% of AT&T's smartphone customers (presumably iPhone users) use 40% of all smartphone data, 13 times the usage of the average smartphone customer, but only represent 1% of AT&T's total postpaid customer base. To remedy this, De la Vega said: “We have to manage the network to make sure that the few cannot crowd out the many." It's not very clear what, if anything, this means, but PC World speculates rationing to limit use by heavy iPhone users. We'll see how this all shakes out.
- Following up on my post from Wednesday about AT&T changing its position and allowing iPhones to use VoIP, yesterday David Pogue of the New York Times provided his analysis on the development.
- There were lots of iPhone-related survey results released this week. Let's start with InfoWorld, which shares some of the highlights from a report on smartphones by CFI Group, a consultancy that helps businesses improve customer satisfaction. Apple has the best customer satisfaction at 83%, followed by Android and Palm Pre at 77%, the Blackberry at 73%, the Palm Treo at 70%, and Symbian and Windows Mobile devices at 66%. Other fun facts: the iPhone scores highest for word-of-mouth recommendations, and people who use other smartphones are most likely to switch to an iPhone if they switch. In the past, smartphones were mostly purchased by businesses, but today CFI says that they are mostly purchased by individuals for personal needs.
InformationWeek reports on a J.D. Power survey of business smartphone users and concludes that iPhone owners are the most satisfied with their smartphones. Blackberry came in second. One interesting statistic is that more than half of the business users surveyed said that they downloaded games for their smartphone, which J.D. Power saw as evidence that "business users are also integrating their devices into their personal lives." Indeed, this is the reason that I encourage so many lawyers to get an iPhone. As I told Alan Cohen who wrote this recent article for AmLaw, if the only thing you want to do with your smartphone is read and respond to e-mail, then the Blackberry does that just fine, but I discourage people from thinking that e-mail is the only reason for a smartphone because you can do so much more. The Blackberry can't touch the iPhone when it comes to web browsing, photos, music, games, maps, the tens of thousands of third-party apps, not to mention other important features like ease of use. As more people, including lawyers, realize all that a smartphone can do, even more people will opt for an iPhone.
- And it's not just the grown-ups who want an iPhone. In a rare example of teenagers lusting after the same thing that their parents desire, Larry Dignan of ZDNet reports on Piper Jaffray's bi-annual survey of teenagers, and the iPhone is what the kids want. Six months ago, 8% of teens had an iPhone. Now, 15% of teens own one, and another 22% expect to buy one soon.
- If you are still hungry for more statistics, Tammy Parker writes an interesting story for telecoms.com following the recent 360iDev Conference. For example, statistics show that the average paid iPhone app has 9,300 downloads, while the average free iPhone app has 71,000 downloads. Another interesting statistic: there are more $4.99 apps sold than any other price point.
- I've previously reviewed the Richard|Solo line of external batteries for the iPhone. You can get a small 1200 mAh version for $40 that will give you almost another full charge on the iPhone, or the 1800 mAh $70 version that will bring you from 0% to 100% with even more charge left to use later. (Disclosure: Richard|Solo gave me free units to review.) Other companies also make iPhone batteries with similar capacities, but if you will find yourself away from an outlet for a really long time and need a lot of extra power, I see that USBFever is now selling the $60 Super Charger for iPhone. It is larger than the Richard|Solo and similar products, but gives you a 3000 mAh battery that the company estimates will extend your talk time or online time 8.5 hours and video playback time 40 hours. Of course, if that's not enough, you can always get the HyperMac external batteries that I mentioned this past May and get 260 extra hours for only $500.
- And finally, some game news for those of you who remember the classic computer games of the past. In April, I mentioned that the groundbreaking game Myst was ported to the iPhone. It is a graphics-rich and time-intensive game and at 533 MB it may well be the largest game you can download from the App Store. TouchArcade reports that if you want to get a feel for the $4.99 game, you can now get Myst Free for, you guessed it, free. It weighs in at 124 MB and has all of the features of the full version, but contains only one island, omitting the five additional "Ages" in the full game. For anyone nostalgic for the great computer games of the past, this one is a must download. Click here to get Myst Free (free):
