AT&T Offering “Loans” not “Subsidies”?

Interesting take from the Macalope this week with regards to the ongoing confusion and resentment surrounding current iPhone 3G owners and the price they’ll likely have to pay when upgrading to the iPhone 3G S on AT&T. Hit the Jump for more Details...


See, the Macalope believes both sides of the debate have it wrong:

[AT&T fronting part of the hardware costs to Apple] isn’t a “subsidy” by the traditional definition. It’s a loan. AT&T is loaning you the money to buy an iPhone and you’re signing a contract to pay it off over the next 18 months. If you decide you want out of your loan, you have to pay a buyout. [...] See, AT&T gets its money one way or the other. Nobody’s “subsidizing” anything.

Even if it is more of a “loan” than a “subsidy”, though, does that make understanding the pricing model easier?

Also worth reading, In typical fashion, the Macalope thoroughly gores PCMag over their WWDC take-away — using ponies, and their reaction to today’s Safari 4 download numbers.











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Improved iGoogle for Android

We're not big users of iGoogle personally but we can definitely see the appeal. Google calls iGoogle on mobile devices 'info snacks': you can read the news, check the weather, glance at finance, and so on--iGoogle allows you to keep track of what's going on without having to commit a lot of time. In a sense, it's perfect for the mobile space. Hit the Jump for more Details...


So Google has just updated iGoogle for Android, optimizing it so that it's faster and easier to use, supports your favorite gadgets (flash gadgets won't work), and supports tabs. You can re-arrange the order of your gadgets and make changes wherever you see fit (it won't affect your desktop layout, so don't worry).

To try it out head to igoogle.com on your Android browser and tap 'Try the new MObile iGoogle'.










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UPDATE: iPhone 3.0 On-Device App Re-Downloading Redux

UPDATE: AppAdvice spoke to an Apple dev at WWDC and found out:

all of this was just a simple bug in the system. We decided to not just take their word for it, we tested all the possible scenerios we could think of and in all cases we were presented with the pleasant “You have already purchased this item. To download it again for free, select OK” message. We can confirm that repurchase option no longer appears in any instance.

Hit the Jump for more Details...



Um, yeah, no. Although it’s great that the restriction on re-downloading directly to the iPhone appears to be completely removed from iPhone 3.0 GM, the mere presence of the new dialog disallows anyone from playing the “bug” card. In any event, end users are now saved a good deal of confusion, so kudos.

Just over a week ago, TiPb reported that Apple had made a change to their re-download policy for iPhone 3.0 Beta 5. Previously, if you’d already bought a paid app, going to the App Store and hitting the Buy button again popped up a text alert saying you could download it for free.

With iPhone 3.0 Beta 5, which allowed for multiple iTunes account login, that message changed to “You can redownload it for free on your computer, or tap Buy to buy it again.”

We guessed this was to prevent app-sharing. If you logged in to 2 or more accounts, Apple didn’t want you to be able to download your buddies apps free of charge as well. Not the best trade-off, but understandable.

Now AppAdvice has figured out more of what’s going on:

In the final release of iTunes 8.2 last week, Apple included some logic that tells a device what iTunes accounts are authorized on the computer. Many users that were using the beta releases of iTunes were not prompted with an available update and found no reason to upgrade. Those users’ devices were never getting the authorization information to pass on to the App Store when they tried re-downloading apps.

So bottom line: if you have more than one legit iTunes account, authorize them all on iTunes 8.2 on your computer, then sync with your iPhone (running 3.0) and you should be good to go.

SInce we here at TiPb expect our buddies to buy their own apps anyway (and support developers so we get even more great apps!), that’s just dandy with us.










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Watch Videos of Google I/O Online

Google I/O was a pretty big deal and we're sad that we missed it this year (for more reasons than free phones). Luckily, if you're still interested in what happened in Google's largest developer gathering, you can catch up with all the happenings online.

Hit the Jump for more Details...



There were a lot of big products like Google Wave, Google Web Elements, more technical sessions to showcase some applications that developers built, and of course, Android. Leave it to Google to even build an interactive map to mimic the showroom floor. It's like you were there!



Check out all Google I/O content here.








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e Score Mobile Launches In App World

This should make some sports fans out there happy. The Score has launched their latest mobile application in BlackBerry App Word, so if you are in need of catching up on sports scores, this application should help you out. Hit the Jump for more Details...


With scores, player stats, access to live blog information and detailed recaps, The Score mobile is a "must have" for sports fans out there. Currently supported sports include MLB, NHL, NBA, and PGA, but The Score has promised more will be added soon. Best of all it comes at no charge and is supported by all current devices including the BlackBerry Storm.


For More Information And Downloads Head To The Score's Website








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T-Mobile's Samsung Bigfoot Coming Soon

Official news of the T-Mobile Bigfoot has been pretty hard to track down. We first assumed it was an HTC-built device, than heard it was Motorola made, and the latest reports pegged it as a Samsung Android Phone. Well, BGR has cleared it up for us--the T-Mobile Bigfoot will be made by Samsung and it'll be releasing soon, as in this summer soon.

Hit the Jump for more Details...



The rumored specs are nice: 3 inch capacitive AMOLED screen, 3 megapixel camera, HSDPA. It obviously lacks the hardware buttons (call, end, menu, home) that Android seems to be known for, so we'll keep an eye out for more information.










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