iPhone Daily News Digest

Feel like your broadband’s not living up to how they’re advertised? Here’s your chance to prove it: the FCC’s introduced a Consumer Broadband Test that’ll let you know exactly how good a connection you’ve got.

The test is in beta, but can be used for both fixed and mobile broadband, and there are already iPhone and Android apps available for download. You can already figure out your broadband speed with YouTube, but the info the FCC collects will be used by the agency to determine the state of broadband in the US. Hopefully it’ll also be ammo to help reconcile the difference between hyperspeed ISP claims and your pokey broadband reality. [Broadband Task Force via Boing Boing]

9to5mac.com has just posted a interesting little iPad tidbit — it seems as if Apple’s latest creation has the ability to make emergency calls.

The image above is a screen shot taken from within the iPad SDK emulator. To get to the emergency call screen the developer simply enabled the passcode lock and entered in the wrong password five times.

So why would Apple include this within the iPad? Is it a FCC thing because the iPad is a wireless device on a cellular network? Perhaps it’s something left over from the iPhone and will be removed before launch? Our take is that if the iPad can make emergency calls, it can make regular calls and maybe not out of the box but with a little hackery.

Do you think it’s possible we will see some sort of call feature when the iPad drops at the end of this month?

[Via 9to5mac.com]

iPad to Make Emergency Phone Calls? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

In his post “Message from the iPad: Heavy Traffic Ahead” on FCC’s Broadband.gov blog, Phil Bellaria is sharing with us this week his concern about the launch of the iPad.

As you know, the iPad’s 3G data consumption might have some nasty impacts on American wireless network, which are:

overburdened by a data flow they were not built to handle.

[...] With the iPad pointing to even greater demand for mobile broadband on the horizon, we must ensure that network congestion doesn’t choke off a service that consumers clearly find so appealing or frustrate mobile broadband’s ability to keep us competitive in the global broadband economy

While the issue is probably nothing new to most of you, Obama’s administration official concern is alarming. It is indeed not hard to imagine how all those iPads streaming HD Youtube content could choke(hold) the network.

Unless AT&T steps up soon, we’ll all be back in 1997 before we know it.

[Broadband.gov]

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ABC News

As 'Operation Chokehold' approaches, readers sound off on AT&T service BetaNews By the way, please do stop and take Betanews poll: "Would wireless carrier quality kill the iPhone?" With that, here are some of your comments about AT&T … Operation Chokehold: AT&T, FCC condemn Fake Steve Jobs planChristian Science Monitor Disgruntled iPhone users planning to crash AT&T network, federal regulators …WHAS 11.com (subscription) iPhone Users Take on AT&T?ABC News iPhone Buzz (blog) -PC World -The Inquisitr all 157 news articles »

Fake Steve Jobs, the nom de guerre of Newsweek’s Dan Lyons, got a ton of attention for his Operation Chokehold campaign to effectively DDoS the AT&T data network, including from AT&T itself and the FCC, not to mention pretty much every commenter on the interwebs who, while they might have applauded the cause, didn’t much appreciate the method.

Along with a quick follow up conversation with Fake AT&T CEO Randall Stevenson, where Fake Steve again absolutely excoriates the iPhone’s lone US carrier for making billions in profit on iPhone data plans while apparently cutting investments in the very network infrastructure on which the iPhone is supposed to use that data, he first tried to back track a tad, and then just went… a little nuts.

As has happened in the past, Fake Steve is taking the criticisms and spinning it into a farce including hooks into the Tiger woods scandal, historic figures of social conscious, terrorists, former and current heads of state, and now pretty much everything short of a kitchen sink app for iPhone.

In the end, we can’t help but think his original point — that AT&T isn’t investing in a network to support the iPhone and future mobile computing platforms even though they have the resources to do so, and are maximizing short-term shareholder profits over long-term share-holder and customer value — has gotten lost in the gimmick.

And that’s a shame, because AT&T really needs to invest in their network and give iPhone users the infrastructure they’re paying for.

[Thanks to everyone who sent in many and wonderful variants of all this!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Are AT&T’s Problems Getting Lost in the Fake Steve Backtracks, Backtalks, and Crazy Backflips?

Magellan recently announced they are releasing a GPS car kit of their own and it already has hit the FCC. Like the much anticipated TomTom car kit, the Magellan will give the iPod touch and first generation iPhone GPS capabilities as long as you are using the Magellan GPS application. [iTunes Link] This particular car kit is crammed with some nice features:

• Fully adjustable mount that works with any skin or case
• Rotates for both portrait and landscape use
• Enhances signal with built-in GPS receiver
• Noise-canceling speakerphone
• Bluetooth hands-free calling
• Amplified speaker for clear, powerful sound
• Works with any GPS application (Unless you are using a iPod touch or first generation iPhone – you then must use the Magellan application)

Currently no price has been announced but you can expect the Magellan car kit to hit stores before the end of the year. Those of you in the market for a GPS car kit now have one more option available to you. Decisions decisions…

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Magellan GPS Car Kit for iPhone/iPod touch Coming Soon

In a talk with Businessweek this Friday, the Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski expressed a new problem concerning the incredible grow of the iPhone and similar devices on the market. The available spectrum for mobile communication is starting to be seriously eaten up by the increased data usage on carrier networks. Here is the problem in his own words :

The demands that are being created by the iPhone and other mobile broadband technologies threaten to outstrip the amount of spectrum that’s available for commercial mobile, and it’s important for the country that we get long-term planning right here because it takes time to identify spectrum and put it on the market. We’re looking at potential innovations in spectrum policy, like secondary licensing for spectrum, and other more creative ideas for unlicensed spectrum.

Businessweek also discovered that he is actually an iPhone user himself (his favorite app would be Star Walk).

There you have a new reason to worry that the world as we know it going down…

[via Businessweek]

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Original story by AppAdvice.com | FCC Chairman Worries About iPhone Spectrum Demands

Gizmodo is reporting that AT&T sent out a letter to employees encouraging them, along with their families, to protest the FCC’s net neutrality rules. It was said the letter even encouraged the use of the employees private email instead of their company email. For them to stoop this low makes it pretty obvious they are not hip to the idea of net neutrality. Gizmodo later updated their post with the following:

AT&T says that the letter was sent to “U.S. managers only” and that they “were providing important information to our employees, and it was up to them to respond personally. If they use their company email that is fine, too.”

Their reply is pretty laughable as if sending this letter to “U.S. managers only” makes it any better. While I don’t have issues here in Chicago with AT&T’s service, some of their antics really are mind boggling.

Have thoughts regarding this news? Please share in the comments below!

[Via Gizmodo]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

AT&T Encourages Employees to Cry About Net Neutrality to FCC

Gizmodo is reporting that AT&T sent out a letter to employees encouraging them, along with their families, to protest the FCC’s net neutrality rules. It was said the letter even encouraged the use of the employees private email instead of their company email. For them to stoop this low makes it pretty obvious they are not hip to the idea of net neutrality. Gizmodo later updated their post with the following:

AT&T says that the letter was sent to “U.S. managers only” and that they “were providing important information to our employees, and it was up to them to respond personally. If they use their company email that is fine, too.”

Their reply is pretty laughable as if sending this letter to “U.S. managers only” makes it any better. While I don’t have issues here in Chicago with AT&T’s service, some of their antics really are mind boggling.

Have thoughts regarding this news? Please share in the comments below!

[Via Gizmodo]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

AT&T Encourages Employees to Cry About Net Neutrality to FCC

The governing body for television standards in the US is the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), an international, non-profit organization developing voluntary standards for digital television. On Friday, the ATSC approved a policy that would allow TV stations to “provide new compelling services to consumers utilizing a wide array of wireless receiving devices including mobile phones, small handheld DTVs, laptop computers and in-vehicle entertainment systems,” most of important of which is the live streaming of shows.

The policy, A/ 153 ATSC Mobile DTV Standard, could open up the existing airwaves for local TV stations to broadcast directly to mobile devices — including the iPhone, sans third-party apps . As of now, live TV streaming on the iPhone is limited - strictly - to Wi-Fi connections, and even that is a bit iffy these days.

Rob Pegoraro, of the Washington Post,  attended a demonstration of “mobile ATSC” and said that “mobile digital-TV broadcasting [is] something you should see in products sometime next year.”

With the FCC Chairman shaking things up and standards like this being set, things are looking good for the once notoriously restrictive Apple iPhone.

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Original story by AppAdvice.com | iPhone TV Without Streaming Apps

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