Via TUAW, the 2010 edition of the MLB At Bat iPhone app will allow you to stream audio in the background while you accomplish other tasks on your iPhone.

While Apple doesn’t allow 3rd party apps to run in the background on the iPhone or iPod touch,* Silicon Alley Insider notes that you can listen to audio in Mobile Safari while using other applications. It’s this trick that MLB exploited with At Bat 2010. With the tap of a button, At Bat will push an audio stream to Mobile Safari.

Note that MLB didn’t come up with this trick, nor is their app the first to exploit it. ESPN Radio does it, as well as Scanner911 and FlyCast. Still, it’s nice that MLB’s devs acknowledged that some users might want to check email or hop onto Twitter while listening to game, and made it easy to do so.

Dear Apple: please make this available sans-jailbreak and sans-hack.  Thank you.

The iPhone Blog reports at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) they’ve discovered a cool new iPhone app for the upcoming Chevy Volt.  This app will let owners check their car’s stats, like battery charge and mileage, as well as lock, unlock, remote start, and heat and cool the car—all from their iPhones!

If this is an upcoming trend for car manufacturers, I say please and thank you!

Something very rare occurred today:

There are no badges on any icons on myPhone’s homescreen. Almost always, I have a badge on Mail and Todo, and often on Messages and Phone. Today, though, none! Closing out the year with a clean slate!

UPDATE: the clean slate only lasted a few hours. I have a badge again:

Need an iPhone case but are a bit short on cash?  iPhone case maker Case-Mate has a solution: the iPhone 3G / 3GS Recession Case.

It’s made of cardboard, costs 99¢, and Case-Mate offers free shipping:

Tough times call for tough cases and that’s where the recession case comes in! The recession case lets you keep cash in your pocket without sacrificing on unique design for your beloved iPhone!

And if you need an iPhone dock, you can make one for virtually-free!  Out of paper, too!

Just print-out the template and follow the instructions!

(Nod: What’s on iPhone and The Dieline, respectively)

I’ve been lax lately on continuing my “Tales from myPhone” series where I document situations where my iPhone (myPhone) has proven very useful.  So to jump-start the series, here’s Episode 4.

Over the Labor Day weekend, I was in New York City (photos forthcoming) with some friends from graduate school.  One of the mornings, we were walking around, and I said, “I wonder where the United Nations building is.”  One of my friends said, “Ooo yeah!” so I launched the Maps app and searched.  As you can see below, we actually weren’t that far away and were headed in that direction anyway.  Had we just kept walking east on 42nd Street, we would have eventually ran right into it.

From and back to Connecticut, I took the Metro-North train to NYC.  On my return day, I wanted to make sure I knew when a train left Grand Central, so I checked the PDF schedule on the Metro-North website.  Because I’m not aware of a method on myPhone to save a PDF file from a website, I took a screenshot of the schedule, thus giving me the ability to check the schedule in myPhone’s camera roll instead of having to reload the website and PDF every time.

Finally, myPhone came in service when I had no service: on the subway.  There are two free NYC subway apps which are just simple, scrollable maps of the subway system—but are much better than pulling out a folded, paper hey-I’m-a-tourist map (although the camera around my neck took care of that one).

Now THIS is good news!  The much-anticipated and much-needed Facebook 3.0 iPhone app has been submitted to Apple by developer Joe Hewitt.  TechCrunch notes:

Facebook has submitted v. 3.0 of their iPhone application to Apple, Joe Hewitt says via Twitter: “Just uploaded Facebook for iPhone 3.0 to the App Store for review. :)”

Hewitt also says he’ll post screen shots and more detais on this Facebook page for the iPhone app next week, and that he’s looking forward to getting started on v. 3.1 tomorrow.

Previously, TechCrunch reported Hewitt posted this list of new features:

1. The “new” News Feed
2. Like
3. Events (including the ability to RSVP)
4. Notes
5. Pages
6. Create new photo albums
7. Upload photos to any album
8. Zoom into photos
9. Easier photo tagging
10. Profile Pictures albums
11. A new home screen for easy access to all your stuff, search, and notifications
12. Add your favorite profiles and pages to the home screen
13. Better Notifications (they link to the comments so you can reply)
14. Quickly call or text people right from the Friends page
15. Messages you are typing will be restored if you quit or are interrupted by a phone call

For avid users of Facebook (Joe = guilty), having features currently available on the web-version of the site soon-to-be-available on the iPhone-version of the site is a huge victory for usability and consistency.  Woo!

(Nod: Just Another iPhone Blog)

Often, I’ll flag a story for discussion or posting and then forget about the article.  Here’s such an article.  A couple months ago, The Unofficial Apple Weblog published a very interesting story detailing the timeline of the iPhone:

The only applications loaded in by default were SMS, Calendar, Photos, Camera, Calculator, Stocks, Maps, Weather, Notes, Clock, Phone, Email, Safari, iPod and Settings. While the list may seem impressive typed out, there weren’t even enough applications to fill the whole screen. There certainly weren’t the 50,000 applications that are available today.

Steve Jobs and company told us from the beginning there wouldn’t be an SDK. Instead developers were encouraged to write web apps, taking advantage of the iPhone’s great mobile browser. Obviously people weren’t happy with this arrangement, and jailbreakers (including our own Erica Sadun) got to work shoehorning in native applications with no help or documentation from Apple.

I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us iPhone geeks next summer!

Pizza Hut recently launched a free iPhone app.  A really cool iPhone app:

I downloaded it and, after I had to sign up for an account on PIzzaHut.com, played around with the app.  Very impressive and fun to use.  The ad says the app is a “revolution in mobile ordering.”  I agree, and I’d love to see more of this.

(Nod: Lifehacker)

Gizmodo this weekend linked to a survey of Palm Pre users that shows they want a feature of the iPhone that perhaps drove many of them away from the iPhone:

Smartphone users just don’t know what they want. One of the biggest, loudest complaints about all-touchscreen phones like the iPhone is its lack of a hardware keyboard, and now a survey shows Pre users most want a soft keyboard.

The lack The beauty of not having a hardware keyboard on the iPhone is that it’s there when you need it and gone when you don’t—without you needing to physically alter the device to get the keyboard as the OS on the iPhone hides and reveals the keyboard for you.  No pesky sliding that you may or may not be able to do with one hand, no worries about switching the language on your device should you need to and not having the proper keyboard to match, no reason to manufacture separate devices with keyboards for specific languages, etc.

(Nod: Just Another iPhone Blog)

iPhone OS 3.0 is finally here today. Sometime today, that is. I feel like a little kid on Christmas morning whose parents told him he has to wait until after church to open his presents–the presents are there, I know they’re there, but I can’t have them yet. We know the upgrade happens today, but we have to wait until Apple deems us worthy. Ahh! The suspense!

MG Siegler at TechCrunch argued this weekend for a Genius feature for the iTunes App Store, similar to how the Genius feature for music and movies already works.

The problem is that while early on, it was pretty easy for small-time developers to make an app and get it noticed in the store, now with 50,000 apps, we’re getting to the point where you need to do something else to promote your apps. That’s good news for big time development studios like EA, which can throw marketing money at the problem. But for some smaller developers—some of which are just one person—that’s simply not an option. But there is one potential solution, and it’s one Apple already has built-in to iTunes: Genius recommendations.

So, like the music and movies Genius feature, the App Store Genius would give recommendations for other apps you might be interested in based on what you have as compared to other similar users.

What a terrific idea, and I find it hard to believe a) Apple hasn’t already thought of this or b) this isn’t in the works already if the Genius feature, originally only for the music store, was recently extended to the movie store.  iPhone and iPod touch users knowing what other apps they might also like could open an additional stream of revenue, no?  Hard to argue against instating a feature to bring more cash in.

I know I would find this helpful.  I used to subscribe to a couple RSS feeds that listed new apps, but I quickly found I couldn’t keep up with the volume of new apps that came in.  That volume is great for Apple, but bad for users who can’t keep track of the apps and bad for small-time developers who can’t get their apps noticed.

With a Genius feature, more apps will be exposed to more users, resulting in a win for users, a win for developers, and a win for Apple.  Perhaps there’ll soon be an app for that, too.

(Nod: Just Another iPhone Blog)

As expected, today Apple announced a new iPhone, one that boasts faster operation and data speeds, a built-in compass, voice activation, a 3-megapixel camera with auto focus, and video recording and editing capabilities.

Since the rumor mill was churning out its speculations, I speculated on whether or not I would pony up the cash for a new model even though I purchased myPhone 3G in February.  Based on what I saw on the features list, I’m definitely interested in an upgrade.  For as much as I use the iPhone camera, a better camera with focusing and white balance abilities is a huge plus.  And who doesn’t like a faster device?

But then I heard about the fine print: there is a set of prices for new AT&T customers and a set of prices for existing AT&T iPhone 3G customers.  Those of us already in contracts with the carrier would have to pay $200 more for the particular model of iPhone we would purchase.  The same 16 GB iPhone 3GS that would cost a new customer $199 would cost me $399.

Any chance of Apple or AT&T getting me to fork over more cash for a new iPhone are nil now.  What percentage of existing iPhone 3G customers does Apple and AT&T expect to pay twice the retail price of the phone to upgrade?  I assume this decision is that of AT&T.  I’m not a business major, but this decision seems like it is slamming the door on a potentially huge stream of additional revenue for both Apple and AT&T if many existing iPhone 3G customers like me are unwilling to pay the doubled price for the new phone.  Instead of forcing us to pay the additional price, which will likely be unlikely for many or most iPhone 3G owners, why not extend our contracts two years from whatever point we are in our contract and allow us to pay the normal price for the phone?  We’re still locked into a contract, but now the contract is even longer, so that’s additional monthly revenue for AT&T, no?

I imagine there will be a significant amount of pushback from iPhone 3G owners.  As a result, perhaps this policy will fall.

Furthermore, what’s with AT&T not offering MMS (multimedia messaging) until late summer and no date for tethering ability?

Those small digs at AT&T from Apple today during the keynote were well deserved.  What a spectacular fail for AT&T today.

The latest cover for The New Yorker magazine wasn’t designed in Photoshop, and it wasn’t created with paper and drawing materials; it was created with an iPhone.  Jorge Colombo used the app Brushes to create the cover:

Said Colombo:

I got a phone in the beginning of February, and I immediately got the program so I could entertain myself.

Thanks for entertaining the rest of us, too.  The best part, though, is that the app records your brushstrokes.  Watch Colombo create the cover:

(Nod: TUAW)

On the Bristol ESPN campus, there’s a flagpole outside the cafe that normally flies a red ESPN flag.  On certain occasions, the pole flies a special flag; for instance, when Disney President Bob Iger recently visited, a Disney flag flew.  Well, for an unknown reason today, four alphabet signal flags were flying.  I assumed they spelled out ESPN, but I had to verify.  Enter myPhone and the app Wikipanion, a mobile-formatted version of The Wiki.  From the international maritime signal flags page, I confirmed the flags spelled ESPN.  Not sure why, though.  I don’t think Captain Jack Sparrow was sailing with the Black Pearl through Bristol today.

For the iPhone enthusiasts, an iPhone doormat:

Can this mat really unlock your door?  Perhaps there’s an app for that.

This mat will go along with your other Apple novelties.

(Nod: Just Another iPhone Blog)

I saw this Business Insider article linked by The Unofficial Apple Weblog: “MLB Nearing $1 Million In iPhone Revenue.”

[Major League Baseball] tells us it’s sold 130,000 copies of the $10 app so far this year. That translates to about $1.3 million in gross revenue. After Apple’s 30% cut, MLB’s take is about $910,000 so far—with five months left in the season.

The app is a bit pricey, but if you’re a baseball fan, the app is definitely worth it. I’m not much of a sports fan (even though I work at the worldwide leader in sports), but I grew up watching, listening to, and attending Cleveland Indians baseball games. After not following the team for the last few years, I decided this year, I would. In order to stay in touch with their games, I decided to invest in the MLB At Bat app (iTunes link) for my iPhone.

For a baseball fan, this app has a large amount of stats and other information. For instance, you see a lineup of the games being played for any given day.

For any in-play game, you can see detailed information about the game, like pitch-by-pitch recaps:

Or on-field lineups:

You can also see the box score of the game:

And view video highlights of the game:

Finally, you can see stats for a particular player:

And view standings:

None of these features, however, were the selling point for me. Instead, my selling point was the ability to listen to a live radio broadcast of either the home or away team for any game. When I learned I could listen to Indians radio broadcaster Tom Hamilton via my iPhone, I had to have this app (if you’re from Cleveland and know Tom’s talent for calling a game and his animated excitement on those long fly balls, you’ll understand my nostalgia for listening to him on the radio).

Again, solid app, and definitely worth the purchase if you’re a baseball fan. If you’re like me, though, perhaps being able to listen to your hometown radio broadcaster is worth the purchase. In fact, as I write this, I’m listening to Tom Hamilton call the Red-Sox/Indians game live. Terrific!

(Image from Griffin)

I recently purchased an iPhone case after I decided I didn’t want my iPhone encased. But the selling point on the case I bought wasn’t the case itself; rather, a unique feature of the case sold me. The case I purchased was the Griffin Clarifi, and what is unique about the case is it includes a tiny lens on the back of the case that slides over the camera to improve close-up shots.

Because the iPhone camera doesn’t offer any focus controls (or the camera hardware itself is incapable of changing its focus), close-up shots taken with the camera often are blurry and any text is illegible. Enter Clarifi. From the Griffin website:

Slide the Clarifi lens into place over the built-in lens of your iPhone. Your macro and close-up shots are instantly finer in detail, more accurate in color. With Clarifi’s lens, your iPhone can image an entire business card with astounding clarity. Slide the lens aside for normal photography. WIthout Clarifi, iPhone requires about 18 inches to focus properly. Slide Clarifi’s lens into place and you can move in to 4 inches for crisp detail and great pictures.

The important thing to remember is for non-close-up shots, slide the lens off the camera or your photos will be blurry.

As I said, I bought the case for the lens, but the case itself is solid and sturdy, and it keeps my iPhone from sliding around when I lay it down on a surface and try to type on it.

Photo of text without using Clarifi:

With Clarifi:

Photo of my computer screen without Clarifi:

With Clarifi:

The case retails for $35, but I found it on Amazon for $15 plus shipping. If you’re like me and don’t care if your device is in a case or not but are interested in crisper close-up photos, I highly recommend purchasing the Griffin Clarifi case. The clarity of your close-up shots will amaze you.

As I previously mentioned, I’ve made it a point since moving to Connecticut to take a road trip every month.  Last month I went to Old Saybrook, and this month I went to Essex.  Having my iPhone come along for the journey was helpful and allowed me to enhance my experience on the trip in ways not possible without it.

First, my iPhone was helpful in finding a place to eat.  In Old Saybrook, for restaurant advice called a coworker of mine who has been to the town, but he was unavailable at the time.  Since I needed to eat, I had to find a restaurant on my own.  In Essex, I didn’t know anyone who had been there, so I just needed to find some place.  For both situations, I used the app Yelp (iTunes link) to see what restaurants were in my immediate vicinity and to read reviews of the restaurants.  From there, then, I was able to pick good places both times.

Second, my iPhone proved useful in navigating both towns since, beside my phone, I don’t have a GPS device for my car.  In Old Saybrook, I wanted to find the shore, so via Maps and the built-in GPS support, I navigated my way to the coast.  In Essex, I used my phone to find a back-roads route home instead of taking the highway.  If I didn’t have an iPhone, I would have had to plan this route before I left my apartment, but with my iPhone in hand, I could travel along unknown roads with confidence knowing I wouldn’t get lost.  The scenic route gave me an opportunity to do more exploration and find different sites I wouldn’t have found via the highway.

Knowing where I was in Essex:

Knowing where I was while taking the scenic route home:

A find on the scenic route: the schoolhouse Nathan Hale taught at in East Haddam, CT:

This will be an ongoing serial, dedicated to highlighting personal situations where having an iPhone proved to be highly useful.

For starters, yesterday at work, my manager was installing software, developed by people in Germany and Austria, on a coworker’s computer.  During the installation process, an error message appeared—in German.  My manager called me over to see it, but since none of us speak German, we had no idea what it said.  Excitedly, I said to my manager and coworker, “Hang on a minute.”

So, I pulled out my iPhone, went to the App Store, and searched for “German Translator.”  In the search results was the app “Free Translator,” so I downloaded it over the 3G network.  When the app was finished installing, I launched it, selected my source and target languages, typed the German error message, and hit the “Translate” button.  Boom, now we could read the error message.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog, amongst others, reports on this coming Tuesday, 17 March, Apple will hold a media event to preview iPhone OS 3.0 software. Speculation has abounded as to what 3.0 might include. Here’s what’s on my wish list:

• copy and paste: seriously, STILL not having this ability is both ridiculous and embarassing
• background app support: some ability to run apps in the background; I hate using a radio app and then having to open my calendar or to-do list only to have the radio app close
• Flash
• turn-by-turn GPS directions
• landscape Mail: viewing wide emails in portrait mode is painful; who likes to horizontally scroll?
• more camera controls: how about focus modes (auto, distance, macro), white balance settings, exposure settings
• consistent playlist-creation menus: when adding songs to a genius playlist, the alphabet scroll list is present on the right side of the screen (the list that enables you to touch a letter to jump to songs or albums beginning with that letter); when adding songs to an on-the-go playlist, the alphabet scroll list is not available, so trying to get to the end of the list is a pain
• better way to organize apps: something like this
• ability to change ALL the sounds on the iPhone: why can I change my ringtone and the new text message sound but not the new voicemail, new mail, etc. sounds?
• ability to edit, delete, and save new playlists: this ability is available for genius and only the current on-the-go playlist; why not make it available to any playlist?
• ability to change calendar colors: I liked the default iCal colors, but to keep consistent with the for-whatever-reason different calendar colors on the iPhone and iPod Touch, I changed my iCal colors to match
• MMS: I’d like the built-in ability to send a picture to someone’s phone
• animated scroll on super-long song titles: other iPods auto scroll the song title when it gets clipped because the title is too long to display in the space allotted; why not the iPhone, too?
• video recording
• search Mail
• native dictionary/thesaurus: Mac OS comes with one; port it please

That all isn’t too much to ask, right?! :-)

Last month, I finally caved and purchased an iPhone.  The device is everything I was hoping for and even more.

When the iPod Touches were launched in October 2007, I was quick to snatch one up.  I was in awe at the iPhone but was still in a Verizon contract.  Over the next year, many separate functions or utilities of mine merged with my iPod Touch.  For instance, carrying around my Touch meant I had my address book, calendar, note pad, grocery list, checking account register, unit converter, English dictionary, and Spanish dictionary/conjugator.  When I was in a wifi zone, I had The Google, The Facebook, The Wiki, and The Internets at my fingertips.

But even with these features, I still craved an iPhone for a couple reasons.  First, it was time for a new phone, and if I stayed with Verizon and bought some iPhone-wannabe, I knew I would be sadly disappointed and would constantly compare the phone with my iPod Touch and by extension the iPhone.  I knew another phone manufacturer couldn’t match the level of usability afforded in the iPhone and iPod Touch’s menus and interface.  Second, I wanted to rid myself of a device.  In my pockets everyday everywhere I went were my phone and my iPod Touch.  If I were to get an iPhone, I knew I would then only have to carry one device (and not have to keep two separate address books, too).  Finally, being a fan of gadgets and touchscreen technology, I think the iPhone is an uber-cool device not currently matched by any other similar device.

With all these thoughts in mind, I made the jump to AT&T and purchased an iPhone—and I don’t regret a thing.

Now, not only do I have all the capabilities of my iPod Touch, I have so much more.  If I want to look something up on The Wiki, I can without having to find a wifi spot.  If I want to take a picture of something and upload it to Facebook, I can.  If I want to check the directions to my destination while I’m in the car, I can.

I thought with the constant connection to The Internets I might find myself distracted often, but I haven’t been distracted at the level I thought I might be.  But having that constant connection for when I have a random question (like how long does a pace maker last) satiates my incessant thirst for answers.

Another aspect of switching to an iPhone I worried about was having to reenter or lose data saved in apps on my iPod Touch, information such as my favorited and custom grocery items, my checking account register entries, and Safari bookmarks.  When I was moving through the setup process in iTunes, however, I had the option to restore my iPhone from an iPod Touch backup, so all of the app data saved on my iPod Touch was transferred to my iPhone.  Genius!

Overall, I am delightfully pleased with my purchase.  My iPhone is easily one of if not the best thing I’ve ever bought.

If you can’t afford to convert your home to use all solar power but want to, perhaps you can at least power your iPhone with solar power.  TUAW writes:

The case is essentially a lithium ion battery pack with a solar panel that doubles as a flip cover for the iPhone. The construction is said to be leather, however I cannot imagine this being very kind to Mother Nature. There is also an LED status indicator that informs you of the capacity of the case’s battery pack when charging and discharging.

The instruction manual notes that an empty iPhone battery can be re-charged in 3 hours when the included Li-Ion battery pack is full. When the battery pack is empty you can set the case to direct charge mode and get your iPhone recharge on straight from the power of the Sun itself!

If you’re searching for the perfect gift for the Mac lover in your life (or yourself), how about the Mac dock throw pillows?

Or how about the iPhone icon coasters?

(Nod: TUAW and Fumin)

ChannelWeb reports on the possibility of iPhone firmware 2.2 including something that has eluded iPhone and iPod touch users thus far:

Apple is set to release version 2.2 of the iPhone operating system on Nov. 21, according to a Greek language post in enthusiast blog iPhone Hellas.

In addition to a redesigned MobileSafari interface, the iPhone 2.2 update will reportedly add Google Street View, transit route information, walking directions and over-the-air podcast downloads, according to Gizmodo, which described iPhone Hellas as “consistently reliable.”

Gizmodo noted that because the 2.2 feature list hasn’t changed from previous beta versions, it’s possible that Apple could decide to sneak copy/paste into the 2.2 update, a development that could lead to a collective outcry of joy from iPhone users who’ve long been clamoring for this basic functionality.

If I only had copy and paste on my iPod touch, I could have written this post on my iPod with the copied and pasted quote from the article.  Sigh.  Seriously, though, how much longer do we have to wait?

(Nod: Patrick)

The Obama campaign has released an app for iPhone and iPod touch. Talk about a candidate who a) is in tune with the times and b) embraces today’s technologies.

(Nod: Ben Smith)