SIM-free iPhone 3GS now available online

TheApple iPhone 3G S is now available online in 16GB and 32GB varieties priced at £799.99 and £899.99 respectively. There's probably not a whole heap of people that don't know the 3G S' vitals by now, but in case you've been in a cave, its particulars include:

• 3.5-inch 320x480 touchscreen
• Video capable 3.15-megapixel camera
• 3G HSDPA connectivity (7.2Mbps)
• WiFi
• Bluetooth v2.1
• A-GPS with Google Maps

Naturally, a large appeal of the iPhone lays in-waiting at the iTunes app store, with thousands of various functional and gaming apps.
With a seriously steep price tag that's roughly equivalent to a decent spec laptop, you're going to have to have a fairly serious phobia of O2 and contracts in general to shell out the reddies for this up-front.
If that sounds like you, then head on over to the Play.com website to peruse its wares.

Would you pay $9.99 a month for AT&T's GPS service iPhone App?

AT&T sent out a message yesterday to its subscribers touting its new voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation service, operated by TeleNav. For "just $9.99 a month," the message said, subscribers can "get there faster, safer and without any hassles."
Turns out the monthly fee is a hassle to some. True, AT&T is simply the conduit for the underlying service from TeleNav in Sunnyvale, Calif. But the carrier still is getting some grief from consumers. One reviewer at ComputerWorld argued that the "free" iPhone app was a "Trojan horse into your wallet." (It's free to install but costs $9.99 a month to use.)
The broader question is whether consumers, who have grown used to free or very inexpensive apps that do a dizzying array of high-tech tasks, will still go for a subscription model. For AT&T and TeleNav, their competitors are TomTom, which showed off its turn-by-turn app last month at the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference but has yet to announce a pricing structure, and Google Maps, which provides directions for free but doesn't have some of the bells and whistles of TeleNav. There are also the traditional GPS devices, which cost as little as $99.99, no monthly fee required.
Tell us where you would turn for directions. Would you pay 10 bucks a month for a service on your iPhone? Or would a frills-free Google Maps app work just as well?

iPhone OS v3.1 Improves iPhone Video Edits, Voice Controls

Apple already is gearing up for a new OS update
It didn't take Apple long after the release of its iPhone OS v3.0 to begin preparing for the first major update to the new OS. Apple has announced the availability of a beta of its OS v3.1 along with a 3.1 version SDK, for its developers.

IPhone OS v3.1 will improve video editing, one of the hot new features on the iPhone 3G S. The 3G S allows users to edit videos by selecting or deselecting series of frames, however, the edits automatically overwrote the original. Now the system prompts the user with the option to save a copy, when saving your editing work.

Arranging icons on the home screen also has had a cool vibration effect added. Another little OS level tweak is the boot time -- the phone now boots considerably faster.

Another nice addition is the inclusion of paste into the dialing screen. Users can now paste phone numbers into the dial box. Alphanumeric numbers, such as 1-800-MY-APPLE, will be properly converted to phone numbers.

MMS functionality is supported in the beta, though it is still not supported on the network by AT&T. The beta's final major addition is the ability to use Voice Control via a Bluetooth headset.

Your dog wants you to download some Free iPhone Apps

Lately, the number of travelers who are accompanied by their canines has increased so dog friendly information has become a hot commodity. In the past there were informative but not necessarily mobile user friendly Dog Lovers Companion guide books, the Dog Friendly website and Bay area’s Dining with Sophie website. More recently, lucky iPhone mobile users have found imper